Among other projects, we have been researching trends in peace education across different sectors and settings. You can read more about our research here.
Despite the enormous benefits of supporting young people to learn and think critically about peace and peace-building, many students still spend more time studying war than peace. We hope to help change this for the future, by supporting educators to deliver innovative and inclusive peace education in different settings.
We have been surveying teachers, pupils and curriculum designers to find out more about current practice and future potential in subjects like history, English literature, art, drama, philosophy, religious studies, human geography, and sustainable development. We have also been exploring the role of educational experiences such as debating clubs, remembrance events, mindfulness training and peer mentoring in developing young people’s understanding of peace and peace-building.
Based on our findings, we have been developing some pilot workshops and teaching resources, to explore different methods and media for integrating critical peace studies into different educational settings. As well as supporting teachers to engage with relevant peace pedagogies in their subject areas, we are interested in helping education planners (in schools, museums, NGOs, etc) to connect different aspects of peace education – from teaching techniques to enhance inner peace to lessons on geopolitical peace-building.
As they become ready, we will release our pilot teaching resources below, for educators to download and try out. We have also included some reflections on them in our virtual Museum of Peace, here and here. Among the teaching resources, you will find some material to help teachers develop their own approaches to peace education.
We would be very grateful if you could send us your feedback so that we can continue to refine and develop them. Thank you!