Peace Education Conference –
Prepared by Amy Braunstein
Hague Appeal for Peace
Coordinator, Global Campaign for Peace Education
- Introduction by Bob Stewart
- Focus on the role of Canada/Canadians
o As Canadians
o As Peace Educators
- Importance of transnational cooperation
- This is the beginning of something “sustainable” or “hearty”
-
Meg feels accountable as a
- The Global Campaign for Peace Education’s goal is to integrate peace education in all the communities of the world
- We have incredible resources; we must work to combine our efforts
- We can teach children for, thru, and about peace
- Materials, methods, strategies, and policies have been developed; we must build on them
- Challenge: some children do not have adequate schooling (due to conflict, poverty, alienation)
- Education is powerful
o The Global Campaign for Peace Education (a result of the 1999 Hague Conference)
§ Peace and education go together
§ “Education is peace-building by another name” – quote
o Learning is integral to human development
§ Sometimes people put too much emphasis on peace and not enough on education (ie. too much emphasis on political goals, not enough on pedagogical goals)
- The Global Campaign for Peace Education is a tool to implement the documents and methods that have been developed
o Advocate for infusion of Peace Education into all schools worldwide
o Prepare teachers to teach Peace Education
o Share/Generate resources
o Network (must be sustainable)
- Meg notes the absence of a Canadian representative (in the campaign?)
-
o Question arose: how do you teach history in a concentrated way?
§ Meg believes that instead of focusing on knowledge, we must focus on “why?”
- Attempt to influence the UN
o
For Example, the Study for Disarmament Education is important
connection between
- Need to share and cooperate
Questions & Comments:
- Penny Sanger, Educating for Peace
o Most participants have been working within their communities
o Need to address the gap between the peace education campaign (ex: UNESCO, The Global Campaign for Peace Education) and what actually happens in the classroom
- Meg
o Advocacy (lobbying ministers…) is very important
§
Should use the many globally ratified documents that stress the
need for peace education (ex: UNESCO, the UDHR)
- Katherine Covell
o Importance of lobbying the right people
- Meg
o
Notes the importance of youth – the Global Campaign for Peace
Education’s youth movement is an example of how youth can have an influence
-
Burt,
o
Maybe there is a need to emphasize peace education in the
- Meg
o
3 of the Global Campaign for Peace Education advisors are working
within the
§ ex: Betty Reardon, Columbia University Teacher’s College
§
also:
-
Joy Warner,
o Where do you get your funding?
- Meg
o Funding is a daunting problem, half of her job revolves around funding
o Ford Foundation has provided some funding
o
Plans to use the internet as a less expensive, democratizing force
- Katherine Covell
o
o Holistic approach to peace
o
School boards may give funding
- David Adams
o Cultivating peace vs. building peace
- Meg
o Agrees that cultivating peace is a better term - building peace is temporary, cultivating peace is ongoing, nurturing…
o It’s important to ask ourselves whether we are “walking our talk”
o
Cultivating peace revolves around relationships ®
it’s more humanizing
-
Shirley Farlinger, United Church
o Notes many resources are available:
§ Video, UN Year in Review
§
UN TV channel (
o Importance of using these resources
- Another audience member remarked that free access to videos is available at UNICEF offices
- Meg
o Need to envision and plan for peace education
o
We may disagree but if we can’t move forward…
- Hannah
o How do you respond to criticism that peace education is idealistic and indoctrinating?
- Meg
o Education is always based on values
o We need to be transparent about what these values are
o Don’t teach children what to think but how to think
notes provided by Eleanor Alexander:
Sunday
November 10 Morning Session: “Who is a Peace Educator?”
•Bob Stewart introduced Meg
Gardinier, the Co-ordinator, Global Campaign for Peace Education
•Ms. Gardinier opened by
congratulating organizers of the conference for their work, and expressing
interest in learning about the work going on in Canada•
•Gardinier shared her
struggle with her identity as a U.S. citizen, given her country’s foreign
policy
•Gardinier identified the
overarching Mission of Global Campaign for Peace Education as ensuring that all
schools internationally are educating for peace
•She noted that the success
of a conference can be seen when people leave with new ideas, and new contacts
or resources which might play a role in their future work
•Gardinier also shared her
belief that peace education is feasible, with curricula to integrate peace into
math, economics, etc., and teachers instilling the values such as empathy,
critical thinking and co-operation.
•Gardinier noted that we
need to acknowledge successes and build upon them; but also, we need to
recognize that, internationally, many children are excluded or alienated from
formal education
•Gardinier shared one of
her core beliefs, “I believe education is powerful. It can change individuals,
and communities.”
•She then elaborated on the
origins of the Global Campaign for Peace Education, in the Hague Appeal
Conference of 1999. She echoed the words of the UN Secretary of State for
Disarmament, that “education is peace-building by another name”.
Furthering this, Gardinier expressed concern that peace educators
sometimes put more emphasis on “peace” than on “education”, especially
in the NGO world. Gardinier would like to see a balance between social and
pedagogical goals. The campaign’s mandate is to implement the document coming
out of the Hague Conference. In doing so, one method is to remind states party
to the UN Declaration of Human Rights that, under Article 26, they are obliged
to educate people, and that parents have the right to choose the type of
education their children receive
•The
specific work of the campaign includes:
•Advocacy and dialogue for inclusion
•Preparing teachers to teach peace
•Generating & compiling resources
•Providing a network,
recognizing the importance of infusing efforts into the core processes of
society, so that these efforts are sustaining
•Gardinier differentiated
between the Campaign’s work locally in New York, and through the United
Nations. She acknowledged that they are not necessarily committed to national
initiatives, but rather, small-scale projects. One such project involves work
with the Dwight School, a private school which has recently committed to peace
education. Much of Meg’s work with the school has been encouraging
administrators to focus on the processes of education, rather than the
knowledge. The Campaign’s work also involves efforts to build more connections
between disarmament work and peace education, and to develop national committees
to link people internationally. (Gardinier later added a mention of the Youth
Initiative, led by dynamic organizer Olivia).
Question
Session with Meg Gardinier:
•Peggy Sanger of Educators
for Peace emphasized the gaps between the normative vision of peace education
implied by the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights
of the Child, and the reality in classrooms. Gardinier noted that the Campaign
is addressing exactly this ambiguous vacuum, and that the role of the Advisory
Committees is to do advocacy work with the ministers of education in their
regions.
•Sue McGregor of Mount
Saint Vincent University highlighted the importance of lobbying the right person
in government
•Burt Wreford of Hamilton
Culture of Peace pointed out the importance of focussing on U.S. gun culture,
with its tremendous desire to use violence to solve problems. Meg Gardinier
reiterated that the campaign has not focussed specifically on the U.S., but does
have resources in the U.S., with three American Advisory Board members, work at
teachers’ colleges, demand for curriculum development around a Masters’
Program in Peace Education, and a very active Peace and Social Justice
Coalition, co-ordinated by Linda Landieri
•Joy Warner of the Culture
of Peace in Hamilton posed a query about the sources of funding for Peace
Education Advocacy
•Sue McGregor suggested the
model used in Halifax, where teachers can apply for funding to their local
school board for peace education training, circumventing the problem of applying
for funding through the higher level of government.
•Meg Gardinier acknowledged
Joy Warner’s concern in noting that half of her work involves fundraising for
her own salary, and for resource development. Gardinier would like to do more
fundraising through the web, and use the web as a clearing house for resources,
because it is a relatively inexpensive method of sharing information, in
comparison to expensive international conferences. Gardinier also noted that the
question of funding is challenging, because it can set up a dynamic of
competition between NGOs. Gardinier encourages collaboration whenever possible.
•Gardinier responded to a
concern that the notion of building peace did not seem to make sense in
the South, with a suggestion of external imposition of ideas. Meg suggested the
use of the word “cultivate”, because it highlights the ongoing,
collaborative process of creating peace. Gardinier highlighted the critical role
of relationships in peace education, and education’s potential as a humanizing
process.
•Shirley Farlinger of the
United Church Toronto Conference raised the idea that peace educators could make
better use of the U.N.’s great
volume of resources, such as videos, which appeal to children
•Meg Hurst of UNICEF
suggested that UNICEF offices across Canada also have videos that teachers can
borrow
•Hannah Newcombe of the
Peace Research Institute posed the question of how to people who say that peace
education is about indoctrinating kids into a value system, and Meg Gardinier
replied that she points out the importance of recognizing that there are values
intrinsic in any learning process, and that peace eduction is not about telling
people what to think, but teaching them how to think
•Bob
Stewart closed the session by thanking Meg Gardinier for speaking