Education for Peace

Dr. Danesh is the author of the Education for Peace Program and the Founder and President of the International Education for Peace Institute (EFP-International) and its affiliates. The following document and article provide a brief overview of the Education for Peace and its conceptual foundations. More informational is available at: www.efpinternational.org

EFP
International Education for Peace Institute

Towards a Civilization of Peace

Vision

The greatest challenges before humanity at the start of the 21st century are conflict, violence, and war along with their terrible consequences of poverty, disease, despair, and poor leadership. Paradoxically, our greatest opportunity at this time in history is to create a civilization of peace — united and diverse, equal and just, prosperous and benevolent, scientifically progressive and spiritually enlightened, technologically advanced and environmentally healthy.

While considerable resources have always been and still are spent to offset the costly ravages of conflict, violence, and war and to pay for the high price of military defense and security measures, there are relatively few programs dedicated to a systematic, sustained plan of action to educate children and youth, their parents/guardians, teachers and leaders in the principles of peace. Consequently, every new generation repeats the mistakes of former generations, and conflict and violence become permanent facets of human societies.

To adequately respond to these monumental challenges and opportunities, we need to lay the foundations of a sustainable and universal civilization of peace by better understanding the nature and dynamics of peace at all levels of human experience — intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergroup, international, and global. For this purpose at least three synergistic and essential tasks must be pursued locally, nationally, and globally:

  • Peace Education: To educate every new generation of the world’s children and youth—with the help of their parents/guardians and teachers—to become peacemakers;
  • Peaceful Governance: To create forums for the leaders of the world at local, regional, national, international, and global levels to study and implement the principles of peaceful governance in their respective communities and institutions; and
  • Peaceful Conflict Resolution: To offer training opportunities in the principles and skills of conflict prevention and peaceful conflict resolution for citizens and leaders at local, regional, national, international, and global levels.

The programs of the International Education for Peace Institute are designed to specifically address these three fundamental requisites of a civilization of peace. 

History

The International Education for Peace Institute (EFP-International) is a research, training, development, and service institution dedicated to the cause of peace. EFP-International began its work in June 2000 by launching a two-year pilot project of Education for Peace in three primary and three secondary schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), with the participation of more than 400 teachers and school staff, 6,000 students and their parents/guardians.

The project had the support of education ministries, municipal leaders, and international authorities. The primary aim of the project was to create a culture of peace, a culture of healing, and a culture of excellence within and among the participating school communities representing the three main ethnic populations — Bosniak (Muslim), Croat (Catholic), and Serb (Orthodox Christianity) — in the highly conflicted post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The pilot program yielded significant positive results and gained the recognition and endorsement of all participating school communities, the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs, all thirteen Ministries of Education and eight Pedagogical Institutes, as well as the International Community in BiH, including the Office of the High Representative and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The BiH government subsequently invited EFP to create a strategy for introduction of the program in all schools in the country.

As of 2006, The EFP Program has been implemented in some 112 schools with approximately 80,000 students; 5,000 teachers, school staff, and administrators; and thousands of parents/guardians. Currently (2006), plans are underway to incorporate the EFP Curriculum into the BiH education reform process, thus involving all 2200+ schools with about 1.5 million students and 110,000 teachers and school staff in the study of all subjects from grades 1–12 within the parameters of peace.

As this process evolves, the government and peoples of BiH will set a historic example by adopting the goal of educating all their children and youth, in every new generation, within the framework of the universal principles of peace, so that, as adults, they become peacemakers, both as citizens and leaders.

The Education for Peace Integrative Curriculum used in BiH comprises the three major areas of focus necessary for the creation of a civilization of Peace—peace education, peaceful leadership, and peace-based conflict resolution. Simultaneous with the comprehensive introduction of the EFP Program in BiH, EFP-International has presented its integrative approach for peaceful governance (Leadership for Peace [LFP]) and peaceful conflict resolution (Conflict-Free Conflict Resolution [CFCR])  to governmental and nongovernmental groups in countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America.

In 2005, EFP-International, in partnership with the UNDP/SACI Program in Southern Africa, held a number of Executive Leadership Training workshops in Malawi. Plans are now in progress for introduction of these programs in a number of other countries. 

Programs

The International Education for Peace Institute develops and offers effective, context-specific, peace-based programs specifically designed to address the requirements of a civilization of peace wherever these programs are applied. Among these programs are:

Education for Peace (EFP): The main objective of this program is to create — with the help of teachers, parents/guardians, and students — unique school communities characterized by a culture of peace, a culture of healing, and a culture of excellence.

A culture of peace refers to an environment characterized by mutual trust, unity in diversity, practice of the principles of human rights and democracy, as well as the ability to prevent violence and resolve all conflicts in a creative and peaceful manner.

A culture of healing refers to an environment that enables all members of the school community — students, parents/guardians, teachers, administrators, and support staff—to overcome the trauma they have suffered, individually and/or collectively as a result of their experience of conflict, violence, or war.

A culture of excellence is an environment in which pursuit of personal and group excellence in all domains of life — intellectual, emotional, social, moral, and spiritual—is actively pursued, encouraged, and realized.

These three cultures — peace, healing, and excellence — together comprise the foundations of a civilization of peace. Addressing each of these areas in a systematic manner is one of the unique elements of the EFP Program, and a reason why it is suitable for all societies — those that have experienced the traumas of conflict, violence, and war and those that wish to prevent such trauma in their respective communities.

Leadership for Peace (LFP) is a program offered to national, municipal, and civic leaders—governmental agencies and department, community organizations, members of the media, religious organizations, etc. The art, science, and skills of leadership are all in a state of change. Leaders in various segments of human society find themselves greatly burdened by social, economic, and political problems, and interpersonal/intergroup conflicts, grievances, and rivalries that challenge their efforts to meet the responsibilities of leadership entrusted to them.
The task of leadership is further made difficult because existing models of leadership do not match the emerging challenges of the administration of human affairs. It is increasingly evident that new types of leadership are required if we are to equally match the skills of leadership and governance with the needs and demands of ever more informed and disaffected citizenry.

The Leadership for Peace (LFP) Program is developed in response to these realities and offers empirically based peace-oriented models for effecting leadership transformation at both individual and institutional levels. Enlightened, progressive, and effective leadership is only possible within a certain type of worldview and institutional culture that is capable of integrating manifold and seemingly conflicting demands of contemporary leadership. 

LFP is designed to be especially suitable for senior members of the Public Service, civic leaders, and the elected government representatives at local and national levels. LFP complements and reinforces the efforts of school communities that are engaged in the Education for Peace Program.

Youth Peacebuilders Network (YPN) is a component of the EFP Program. It is an emerging network of youth mobilized as leaders for their peers with the goal of creating violence-free, peaceful schools, neighborhoods, and communities. Trained in cutting-edge concepts of peacemaking, conflict transformation, and violence prevention, YPN participants lead their peers in exploring the fundamental ideas, worldviews, and actions that characterize a culture of peace.

YPN originated in a few schools in North America. The current plan is to systematically create YPN groups in many more communities, both in North America and around the world. Once formed, local and national YPN groups can be empowered to undertake a wide range of activities, including:

  • Organizing and conducting peer workshops on the worldviews, attitudes, and skills of peacebuilding;
  • Undertaking peace-building and conflict resolution projects within their communities and schools, and among schools in their respective communities;
  • Undertaking peace-building activities within and among communities in regions near and far;
  • Forming and training other YPN groups; and
  • Communicating and presenting their Youth Peacebuilders Network activities to the members of a Global Youth Peacebuilders Network, which is now being considered.

 

Conflict-Free Conflict Resolution (CFCR) is an integrative approach to the prevention and resolution of conflict and violence, where the focus is on unity as both a method and an outcome. It is based on the principles of equality, justice, unity, and peace. The theory and models employed in CFCR encourage proactive, educative, and unity-centered conflict resolution in personal, interpersonal, institutional, community and regional contexts, involving both intractable and tractable conflicts.

CFCR is a dynamic process that attempts to encourage participants toward new thinking and understanding of conflict resolution, along with actions and efforts taken to resolve conflict. CFCR, LFP, EFP, and YPN share fundamental conceptual principles and implementation methodologies. 

Most current conflict-resolution approaches ultimately result in the creation of new conflicts. Conflict-Free Conflict Resolution (CFCR) is a peace-based, non-adversarial, consultative process of decision-making that moves beyond traditional methods of conflict resolution by fixing unity as its goal.

CFCR provides the participants with new insights and tools that can facilitate peace-oriented decision-making processes and help them to create a unified perspective on the issues they face. Conflict-Free Conflict Resolution synthesizes the principles of a peace-based worldview into a mature process of communication and decision-making aimed at developing new approaches to the administration of human affairs.

International Education for Peace Institute

The International Education for Peace Institute was founded in 2000 by Dr. H.B. Danesh, author of the Education for Peace Program and professor of peace education, conflict resolution, and psychiatry. The institute has been directed by Dr. Danesh since its inception. The institute is an independent, not-for-profit, association under Swiss Law without any religious or political affiliation. EFP-International draws upon the expertise of an international faculty specialized in the fields of curriculum development, peace education, conflict resolution, political science, sociology, religious studies, law, and psychology. The faculty works closely with local educators, pedagogues, counselors, psychologists, and administrators to develop and implement context-appropriate EFP Programs in their respective schools and institutions in various cultural contexts. A network of like-minded organizations — EFP-International (Switzerland), EFP–Balkans (Sarajevo), EFP-International (Vancouver), EFP–Canada (Vancouver), and EFP–America (Seattle) — collaborate on research, training, community development, and consultancy work.