Peace education aims at educating for a holistic conception of peace and for this to be effectively achieved, peace education must distinguish between the various concepts of peace, and promote an understanding of each defined concept. this will enable the peace educator achieve a clarified view of what peace education is all about. It is only through such a clarified knowledge that a Peace educator can accurately define the true reality of a situation and upon proper reflection, fashion out the most probable action for effecting transformation.
Peace education aims at transforming the orientation of the society towards peace and as rightly noted by Freire, effective transformation can only be achieved through critical examination of reality combined with deep reflection on the perceived information before effective action could be taken.
Galtung's concepts of positive peace, negative peace and Structural violence offers Peace education a model for distinguishing between diverse realities and using the understanding and elighten thus acquired, to initiate appropriate steps to effective positive transformation.
Dear Ibrahim,
ReplyDeleteI remember when I first learned of Galtung's theory of negative and positive peace. I thought it was so insightful. I had always thought of peace as the absence of conflict but his theory of positive peace is so very important. I wish his ideas would begin to be heard in mainstream society as that is the only way, in my opinion, we will ever really have peace in the world. Citizens need to look at what leads to conflict and begin to institute policies that work for everyone.
Best regards,
Gwen