Reflection Journal:Peace Education in Primary and Secondary Schools

“Those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war.”-  Martin Luther King Jr

Reflection on the Ugandan Experience

What would Ugandan lives be like collectively if peace education was infused into our education curriculum from pre-school to secondary schools? What it would be like if we made humans, girls, and women’s abuses and rights visible earlier on in our academic spaces? What if teachers learned about “positive discipline” earlier on in their everyday life experiences in their homes; would that have an impact on how they interact with and discipline students in their teaching journey? Also, what if we learned about equality of all kinds in primary and secondary schools; would that not only shape higher education learning experiences, and eventually have a significant impact on the leaders we get to govern in our society? Would it not guarantee the protection of victims of different indignities, accountability of perpetrators, and equal participation in decision-making processes that define not just the wellbeing but also the un-wellbeing of Ugandans? And would it not impact our current government authoritative tendencies towards citizens?

And, what about learning about the role of civil society in creating a culture of peace and peacebuilding in general? What if this language was introduced to us earlier on in our classroom spaces, what impact would it have on the country’s culture of violence? I think the impact would be tremendously positive.

I have been thinking about these questions and many others as I was working on availing the peace education curriculums for students in primary and secondary schools in Africa on Learning for Humanity’s e-learning system, Tusitawi. I was particularly thinking about how my life would be like if I had been socialized to a culture of peace earlier on. And if I had not learned earlier on how to act from a flight or fight mode whenever I felt that my life, dignity, and existence was attacked or in danger.  I have also thought about how my life would be like if I engaged in spaces that could help me acknowledge and heal my trauma; the trauma that I believe puts me in the “flight or fight” mode. As I was thinking about all of these, I observed that this experience is not mine alone; it is almost the experience of every Ugandan I know (of).

I think in general, there is no denial of the existence of a culture of violence in my home country, Uganda. Different forms of violence can be identified in our everyday experiences at home with domestic abuses that are embedded in parent-child or husband-wife power dynamics; at school with physical and sexual violence embedded in teacher-student power relations; in political, social, and economic institutions/systems that abuse and marginalize the powerless and ethnic minority groups; and in our violent relationship with the natural environment. Some of these forms of violence are overt and direct towards people and our environment. Others are passive and indirect in every societal space. All these manifestations of violence have created a vicious cycle of violence, passed onto every single generation knowingly and unknowingly. Humanly, the result of it is largely unrecognized and unhealed generational trauma. Thus, the overarching question for me is, can peace education in primary and secondary schools be part of the solution to this complex problem?

Reflection on Internship Activities with Learning for Humanity

In the 7th and 8th weeks as a Peace and Conflict Researcher/Intern with Learning for Humanity (L4H), I continued to conduct secondary peace education research on teacher and student resources for students in all grades. Although this time, I focused on resources addressing peace education in an African context such as Uganda, Kenya, Liberia, Ethiopia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe where L4H is working.

I found the teacher resources for primary and secondary schools in Uganda from Global Peace Hut Director, Margaret Huber,  to be particularly fitting for children of all ages in primary and secondary schools in Uganda. While the Global Peace Hut as an established peace education organization is no longer existent, the peace curriculums developed for schools in Uganda are still as relevant as they were at the time of on-going direct violence between the state and the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels in Northern Uganda. And I think the need for these curriculums in the absence of war goes on to prove why Ugandans need to confront and engage with the ongoing negative peace, which sustains the presence of political violence, and systematic violence in every sphere of our society.

As a nation, we need to aspire for a positive and just peace so that every act and culture of violence can be rooted out in our communities. And I observed that the peace education curriculums from Global Peace Hut are instructive in how teachers and students can be part of both the solution to the 0n-going negative peace and of processes that would lead us to unlearn the culture of violence. This was specifically indicated in how the curriculums are prioritizing endogenous and/or traditional practices and knowledge of peacemaking such as the use of folk tales, skits and drama, traditional music and images, and storytelling for teachers and students to elucidate concepts of peace, and non-violent direct actions in their learning processes. While the curriculums do not necessarily avoid including Western knowledge or interpretations of peacebuilding/peacemaking and/or conflict resolutions, I think by largely centering endogenous/traditional pieces of knowledge of peacemaking and co-existence rooted in the Bantu African concept of Ubuntu, that affirms the humanity of us all, and the balance of relationships, the curriculum has the ability to confront and challenge the widely implemented neoliberal-top-down peace-making strategies and skills taught in higher learning institutions in Uganda. 

Beyond the affirmation of endogenous pieces of knowledge on peace values and peacemaking, I found that the curriculums are also rooted in the preventative holistic approaches and tools for building a culture of peace in Uganda as opposed to the neoliberal responsive approaches that largely focus on the existence and aftereffects of a direct conflict (often an armed conflict). These preventative approaches include teachers, children, parent tools that not only reduce negative behaviors such as bullying in schools but also increase positive behaviors such as positive discipline on the part of teachers and parents; and anger acknowledgment, communication of negative and positive feelings, consideration of feelings of self and others, positive dialogue and active listening skills on the part of students. They also include the value of a collective positive relationship with each other, God, parents, teachers, and the natural environment from school to home/community spaces. In short, students learn about respect for self, others, of differences, of the environment, and respect of the supernatural being(s) behind all creation. 

At national and international levels, the curriculums include lessons on how to articulate collective peace, love, respect for human rights, honesty, humility, cooperation, individual and social responsibility, tolerance, just freedom, happiness, and unity. Of course some of these disciplines I and other Ugandans have learned in primary and secondary curriculums on social studies, geography, or religious education, but they were not articulated within the language and framework of peace education, which I find useful in undoing and unlearning the culture of violence. In short, the secondary research I have found on peace education in primary and secondary schools seems to cast the possibility of undoing a culture of violence in Uganda if we as a nation prioritized peace education in all of our academic spaces not just in higher education institutions like Makerere University. However, we should not make peace education as yet another resource or discipline that can only be accessed by rich kids who can make it to higher learning institutions. Rather, we should aim to make peace education accessible from below, that is, from primary through secondary education, such that when some kids are not able to make it to the top (because not all of us are going to have access to university education), they too have had a chance to be accustomed to values and impact of peace education.

In Uganda, I would like to think that the oppressive political actors are fully aware of this power and possibility of peace education, and that they may be intentional in not making peace education a priority in our education system. I wonder though if our political leaders have got to this level of socio-political consciousness to intentionally limit peace education in my country. My role is to keep pushing the conversation in that direction until peace education materializes in all communities in Uganda. In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, “those who love peace must learn to organize as effectively as those who love war”. In Uganda, I think this can be done if we prioritize re-organizing our education system so that it centers and ends with peace education because our collective healing depends on it. And this can be done if the means and the goals of each primary and secondary subject/curriculum are peace education and positive peace respectively.

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About the Author: Ndagire Brendah is currently a graduate student of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Waterloo’s  Conrad Grebel  University College, focusing primarily on the reality and/or role of women at the grassroots level in peacebuilding. Previously, she lived and served with Mennonite Central Committee Colombia, for two years in Chocó, Colombia, where she accompanied women and small-scale farmers in peacebuilding processes lead by the local Mennonite Brethren Church.