Historians often ignore the day-to-day struggles of ordinary people to improve their lives. They tend to focus on the accomplishments of illustrious leaders. Peace Education from the Grassroots tells the stories of concerned citizens, teachers, and grassroots peace activists who have struggled to counteract high levels of violence by teaching about the sources for violence and strategies for peace. The stories told here come from the grass roots meaning the educators are close to the forms of violence they are addressing. This collection of essays tells how citizens at the grassroots level developed peace education initiatives in thirteen different nations (Belgium, Canada, El Salvador, Germany, India, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, South Korea, Spain, Uganda, and the United States). A fourteenth article describes the efforts of the International Red Cross to implement a human rights curriculum to teachers on the ground in the Balkans, Iran, Senegal, and the United Sates. These chapters describe a variety of schools, colleges, peace movement organizations, community-based organizations, and international nongovernmental organizations engaged in peace education.

From the John Holmes Library collection.

Peace Education: * presents views on the nature of peace education, its history, and relationships to neighboring fields; * examines relevant psychological and pedagogical principles, such as the contact experience, conciliation through personal story telling, reckoning with traumatic memories, body-work, and the socio-emotional aspects of reconciliation; and * introduces an array of international examples from countries, such as Croatia, Northern Ireland, Israel, South Africa, Rwanda, and the United States in order to generalize lessons learned. A "must have" for all those thinking, planning, conducting, and studying peace education programs, it is intended for scholars, students, and researchers interested in peace and conflict resolution in higher education and volunteer and public organizations. Its cross disciplinary approach will appeal to those in social and political psychology, communication, education, religion, political science, sociology, and philosophy.

Now in its third edition, Peace Education provides a comprehensive approach to educating for a just and sustainable future. It begins with religious and historical trends that have molded our understanding of "peace" and then presents a variety of ways to practice peace education in schools and communities, and explains how it can motivate students. The teaching and practice of peace education provides a basis of valuable knowledge about resolving conflicts and transforming violence without the use of force. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

In 1999 the UN instituted the Program of Action on a Culture of Peace, leading to the Declaration of the International Decade for the Promotion of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World 2001-2010. This represented a paradigm shift away from the prevailing conceptualization of peace as ‘the absence of war’ to one of ‘creating cultures of peace’, and indicated a significant opening for peace educators and the expansion of their mission and field in peace research and scholarship. This book seeks to address several questions about the emergence, present state, and future of the field of peace education, and to ground the definition of the discipline in its origins – origins deeply set in informal grassroots movements of concerned citizens, faith-based communities, and professional organizations who work for peace, as well as those working in formal institutions. These origins are vital in imparting identity, and in nurturing the current growing collective consciousness that combines the academic discipline and the worldwide peace movement – a collective that can unify, fuel, and inspire dialogue among scholars, researchers, activists, educators, government leaders, and the myriad of individuals committed to creating cultures of peace throughout the world. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Peace Education.

Over the past five decades, both peace education and human rights education have emerged distinctly and separately as global fields of scholarship and practice. Promoted through multiple efforts (the United Nations, civil society, grassroots educators), both of these fields consider content, processes, and educational structures that seek to dismantle various forms of violence, as well as move towards cultures of peace, justice and human rights. Educating for Peace and Human Rights Education introduces students and educators to the challenges and possibilities of implementing peace and human rights education in diverse global sites. The book untangles the core concepts that define both fields, unpacking their histories and conceptual foundations, and presents models and key research findings to help consider their intersections, convergences, and divergences. Including an annotated bibliography, the book sets forth a comprehensive research agenda, allowing emerging and seasoned scholars the opportunity to situate their research in conversation with the global fields of peace and human rights education.

The growing literature on Peace Education reflects a dynamic filed. Since the early decades of the 20th century, “Peace Education” programmes around the world have represented a number of focal themes, including anti-nuclearism, environmental responsibility, international understanding, communication skills, non-violence, human right awareness, democracy, conflict resolution techniques, tolerance of diversity, co-existence and gender equality among others. Peace Education includes cultivation of peacebuilding skills, e.g. dialogue, mediation, artistic endeavors. Peace educators, then teach the value of respect, understanding and nonviolence, present skills for analyzing international conflict, educate for alternative security systems and use a pedagogy that is democratic and particular. Thus, peace education as a practice and philosophy refers to matching complementary element between education and society, where the social purpose (i.e. why teach), educative process are conducive to fostering peace. Accordingly, peace education is dialogical experience conducted through participatory learning, where learners communally and co-operatively grapple with contemporary issues (i.e., talking points) related to local and global contexts (Akaamaa, 2013).