Developing Activities for Peace Education

Who can register for this course?

The course is designed for all those working in the realm of peacebuilding and conflict transformation who are already active in or want to expand their work to include peace education. Basic working knowledge and skills in conflict analysis and conflict transformation activities are a prerequisite for joining this course.

Depending on methods and topic of the training, we limit the number of available spaces to a manageable size (a maximum of 20 participants). Register early to reserve your place! 

Content

This course will equip those working in the field of peacebuilding and conflict transformation with the necessary knowledge, skills and tools to work on peace education projects with children, youth and/or young adults. In highly interactive online sessions followed by self-paced learning and activities in small groups, participants will work on developing their own material and activities to engage young people in the nonviolent transformation of conflicts. The working groups will be formed according to the age group participants want to engage in their work.

Jointly, we will explore how to adjust basic conflict transformation methodology and material for a younger audience. Examples will be provided and applied by during the course in learning by doing style. These examples can then either be built upon, adapted and expanded, or simply used as guidance for the development of own material and exercises for a peace education project.

Objectives

• Critically examining the role and impact of (having undergone) ‘conventional’ education in children, youth and young adults’ attitudes even after they have left school, university or other forms of education
• Planning for peace education activities in schools, youth groups, universities, or the like:
  • Developing material for conflict transformation suitable for children, youth and/or young adults
  • Developing action plans for delivering a workshop/implementing a project in peace education
• Exploring how to connect peace education with wider communal practices to transform conflict on a societal level

Key Concepts

Understanding and practicing the development of material, activities and action plans for peace education activities with young people:

• Exploring how attitudes are formed and how to form attitudes that are conducive to building healthy, accepting, respectful long-term relationships with others
• Understanding why we are in conflict (conflict analysis as a first step towards transformation)
• Approaches to resolve conflict nonviolently – a 5-step model
• Conflict transformation on a wider societal level
• How to integrate new or revised approaches learnt through peace education activities into the wider community in a mindful, respectful, (conflict) sensitive manner

Methodology

The training will be practical, participatory and experience-based; the insights, existing skills and knowledge of both the facilitator and the participants will form an integral part of the process. It will be grounded in the principles of adult learning. The tools and methodologies used in the workshop will be practiced and applied to conflict contexts the participants suggest and are familiar with (or that are their own contexts).

In the course, participants use a variety of tools, including a digital learning platform, a video conferencing tool, and an online whiteboard. Participants should therefore have a good internet connection (1 Mbit down/upload or better). A headset is highly recommended.

Workload

Deliverables:

• Development of material and an action plan for implementing peace education activities/projects with young people (this could either be in the context of a school, university, youth organisation, youth group or the like)
• Active participation in the design and delivery/facilitation of an online educational session in the last live session of the course to practice the implementation of some of the newly developed material/activities

After a successful participation, participants receive a certificate and become part of our alumni network.

Total expected weekly hours: 6 to 8 hours per week

Schedule

Technical Introduction on 20 October 2023 from 10:00 to 11:00 CEST
Online Live Sessions from 25 October 2023 to 6 December 2023, every Wednesday from 10:00 to 12:00 CEST/CET. Please note: The last session on Wednesday, 6 December 2023 will be from 10:00 to 13:00 CET.