PEACE
EDUCATION
GEE 4: Lesson 4
Photo credits: https://www.amnesty.org.ph/2020/09/violence-between-state-forces-and-the-npa-puts-indigenous-peoples-lives-at-risk/
PEACE
Building lasting peace is complex, requiring a
comprehensive and holistic vision of peace that
includes several dimensions.
Peace is not just about state security. It also
calls for human security.
HUMAN SECURITY
Human security is a people-centered view that
“complements state security, enhances human
rights and strengthens human development.
It seeks to protect people against a broad range
of threats to individuals and communities and,
further, to empower them to act on their own
behalf.”
PEACE
Peace is therefore not just the absence of war
and direct violence (“negative peace”). It involves
resolving the underlying causes of conflict that
can lead to violence and war (“positive peace”).
It is a dynamic process that requires the active
engagement of people and communities, and
the establishment of norms and institutions
that allow human well-being to flourish.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
PEACE
VIOLENCE
Violence refers to the intentional or
unintentional use of force whether physical or
psychological, threatened or actual, against an
individual, oneself, or against a group of people,
a community, or a government.
VIOLENCE
Violence can either be targeted or indiscriminate,
motivated by certain aims, including political,
religious, social, economic, ethnic, racial, or
gender-based, or unintentional and can be
initiated with the aim to directly or indirectly
inflict harm, injury or death (Krug et al., 2002).
FORMS OF VIOLENCE
Warfare, as a direct form of violence, is visible and
easy to recognize.
Examples: physical or behavioural violence such as
war, bullying, domestic violence, exclusion or
torture
DIRECT
deny people certain basic rights or prevent them from
accessing resources equitably; systemic and
institutionalized
Examples: poverty and deprivation of basic resources and
access to rights; oppressive systems that enslave,
intimidate, and abuse dissenters as well as the poor,
powerless and marginalised
INDIRECT/
STRUCTURAL
FORMS OF VIOLENCE
complements the structural, although it is more symbolic,
rooted in social and political assumptions, attitudes and
beliefs that are typically culturally produced
For example, the belief that Africans are primitive and
intellectually inferior to Caucasians
CULTURAL
the imposition of a dominant worldview on the other,
accompanied by the invalidation and voiding of indigenous and
minority systems of knowledge, beliefs, traditions, languages and
ways of being
Examples: the destruction of Indigenous spirituality, the loss of
native languages, the disuse of certain productive or food
processes and the replacement of Indigenous forms of
governance and natural resource tenure
EPISTEMIC
learning both about and for peace
promotes knowledge about the “requirements of, the
obstacles to, and the possibilities for achieving and
maintaining peace”
supports the development of skills, capacities, attitudes
and values necessary to prevent violence, to resolve and
transform conflict, and to “create the conditions
PEACE
conducive to peace, whether at an intrapersonal,
interpersonal, intergroup, national or international level”
EDUCATION
The early origins of peace education were connected to
informal, cultural practices and community-based
education strategies and the influence of activist
movements.
Throughout most of the 20th century, peace education
was viewed as a response to global issues, particularly
violent conflicts and wars, bringing attention to the
achievement of negative peace.
It incorporated a critical and gendered analysis that led
researchers to probe the possibilities of peace education
PEACE
contributing to positive peace with an emphasis on
addressing structural and cultural violence.
EDUCATION
Peace education is also transformative and futures
oriented: it seeks to nurture attitudes and capacities for
pursuing peace personally, interpersonally, socially and
politically.
References
Epistemic violence against Indigenous Peoples. (2020, November 25). IWGIA - IWGIA - International
Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. https://iwgia.org/en/guatemala/3915-epistemic-violence-against-
indigenous-peoples.html
Peace and violence. (n.d.). Manual for Human Rights Education with Young people.
https://www.coe.int/en/web/compass/peace-and-violence
Peace and violence. (n.d.). Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School.
https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/what-we-do/our-approach/peace-violence
Peace education in the 21st century: an essential strategy for building lasting peace. (2024). UNESCO.
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000388385
Violence. (n.d.). UNDRR. https://www.undrr.org/understanding-disaster-
risk/terminology/hips/so0006#:~:text=Violence%20refers%20to%20the%20intentional,a%20communit
y%2C%20or%20a%20government
Wijaya, H. (2019). Redefining the success of education: Where Indonesia has excelled and where it has
not. Jurnal Humaniora, 31(2), 118. https://doi.org/10.22146/jh.36532
