Class action: Gill Alcock and John Babb report from the launch of Peace at the Heart

‘When young people are supported to relate empathically, they become less vulnerable to politics of hatred and exclusion.’

Quakers have been pioneering and supporting peace education for many years. So the launch of a major report this month, Peace at the Heart, attracted national and international attention. Over 200 teachers, educationalists, policymakers, peace education practitioners, parents, students and Quakers joined the online launch. The ninety-minute session packed in a rich mix of contributions, giving glimpses of inspiring peace education practice in schools today. Together with the report’s analysis and findings, this demonstrated the potential of peace education to deliver better school experiences for teachers and learners alike, ‘including the fuller development of young people, a more effective learning environment in school, and emerging citizens who are more conscientiously involved in their society’.

The report was set in motion by Isabel Cartwright and Ellis Brooks, the Peace Education team in Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW), to encourage and inspire policymakers, teachers and others to focus on fostering healthy relationships, using peace education approaches, within educational settings. ‘Conscious of disaffection in the classroom, bullying in the playground, and a troubled society, peace education asks what better relationships mean and how students and staff can cultivate them – with themselves, each other, and their wider world.’ 

Currently, access to peace education is largely a postcode lottery. There are some outstanding schools, and a small number of, often Quaker-connected, voluntary projects in Wales, Sheffield, Cornwall, Cheshire, Malvern and more, as well as organisations such as Peacemakers covering the West Midlands. The report argues the case for this to be systematically widened.

‘Coming out of this pandemic with a war on our doorstep and dire warnings about missing our climate targets… We cannot wait for our young people to grow up and to start constructing the society we want and need…this report shows us how to begin doing the work that’s needed now,’ said Paul Parker, recording clerk.

David Gee, the report author, explained the beneficial impacts of good practice on bullying, exclusions, mental health, self-belief and critical thinking skills through an approach incorporating four complementary strands:

• individual wellbeing and development (‘peace with myself’)
• convivial peer relations (‘peace between us’)
• inclusive school community (‘peace among us’)
• the integrity of society and the earth (‘peace in the world’).

‘When young people are supported to relate empathically and critically, they become less vulnerable to politics that trade on hatred and exclusion’, said David.

We heard contributions from a range of practitioners, who gave us an insight into some of the current practice.

Jackie Zammit, from Peacemakers, argued that embracing peace means that ‘There’s a really deep care for every single child, every single member of staff and every single parent… and that’s seen through the quality of the relationships, from the way people speak to each other and the way people behave with each other’. Those involved show curiosity, so that when something goes wrong they will be able to ask questions such as ‘Can you tell us what is happening with you?’ This investment in relationships enables the school to have confidence in how they do things, and enables children and adults to flourish.

Hamidah Siddqua, from Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Secondary School in London, spoke about their workshops on identity and conflict, and how controversial issues can be approached with ‘principled impartiality’, as she learnt from the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. ‘Teachers are supposed to be politically neutral, but at the same time, when it comes to issues of human rights abuses, we can’t be neutral on that.’

Tom Shaw teaches at Carr Manor Secondary School in Leeds. He told us about their ‘whole school restorative approach’. ‘Working in a relational, or restorative way, for us is about making sure that everything we do is filtered through our core values, which means we can then have more confidence that we are genuinely building peace and not just trying to keep the peace.’ This requires the creation of conditions that allow the building of positive relationships, in which every child is listened to. Time is set aside several times a week for adults, and children, to engage in small groups. Value-driven principles involve everyone, both children and adults and run through every activity in the school. The principles include knowing the children well, the building of trusting relationships and the need for communications that ‘engage’, ‘explain’ and ‘expect’. This restorative approach would not work without a great investment of time. The approach does not just involve interactions when things are broken but is built into the whole range of activities in the school. Tom admitted the challenging nature of their restorative project and acknowledged there are times when they do have to ‘keep the peace’.

Jane Harries, a Quaker who works for the Welsh Centre for International Affairs, runs a network of over forty peace schools across Wales. ‘From the start of the peace school scheme, we’ve always emphasised that the young people should be consulted.’ Schools can decide how to develop peace activities within a framework including developing a peaceful ethos, learning and the curriculum, behaviour management, learners as peacemakers and peace as a sustainable development goal. The young people themselves are involved in the planning of these activities.

Some schools have chosen to explore conscientious objection. This has involved consideration of the moral dilemmas and human consequences of war. Such issues need to be discussed in a balanced and open way, looking at conflict from different perspectives and developing critical thinking.

The contributions gave us a rich insight into some of the ways in which peace education can be approached in schools, revealing the benefits for children and the wider community. They also made us aware of some of the challenges, notably the time and resources required. The Peace Education team has produced short videos of inspiring practice in these schools and more, to accompany the report. All are available at: www.quaker.org.uk/peace-education-case.

For more children to benefit from such peaceful approaches, we hope that the case made in Peace at the Heart will be taken up by politicians, school governors and academy managers. Recommendations in the report include a clearer government mandate to educate for peace, and the inclusion of peace education within teacher training. Encouragingly, the report is already being used in discussions with policymakers in Wales and Scotland, where there are devolved educational systems.

It has been a joy and a privilege to accompany and undertake Quaker discernment for BYM peace education work, and we wish the team well, trusting that the Peace at the Heart report will be a strong tool for the future. The peace education we have long worked for has improved the lives of young people, schools and even society; but the report also provokes us to persist.

Gill and John are clerks to the QPSW Peace Education, Campaigning and Networking Sub-Committee, until June, when most QPSW sub-committees will be laid down.

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