Human resource: Isabel Cartwright on Teach Peace Secondary

‘We found new heart in these stories of peacebuilding.’

Teach Peace Secondary is a new education resource published by Britain Yearly Meeting, featuring lessons from across the Peace Education Network. A sequel to the award-winning pack for primary schools, it is an example of the breadth of peace education in Britain today.

The woman on the cover (left) is an Afghan called Zarghuna. ‘Enough!’ is aimed at the forces that have brought decades of violence to Afghanistan. Zarghuna and the Afghan Peace Volunteers, young people from different ethnicities, feature in the pack because of their work educating street children, supporting refugee families, and setting up solar energy. ‘Afghanistan – behind the news’ is one of more than fifty downloadable lessons, from organisations including Amnesty International, the Peace Pledge Union, Corrymeela, the Civil Mediation Council, Values Based Education, War Child, and more. We’ve organised the lessons by ‘inner peace’, ‘interpersonal’ or ‘global peace’, with curriculum links for England, Scotland and Wales.

The inspiration for the original Teach Peace came from Celia Davis, a Quaker grandmother who was worried that war commemorations were leaving no room for peace at her granddaughter’s school. It’s had multiple print runs, being used for peace-themed weeks in schools across Britain. We hope this is similarly shared and enjoyed.

Each lesson can stand alone. But some – like ‘Women versus nukes’, which I wrote with Greenham Women Everywhere – act as a gateway for teachers and learners to explore more on a particular theme. Topics include: challenging antisemitism and Islamophobia; conflict transformation; action for climate justice; religion and peace; the human rights effects of the arms trade; and lots more. Peace education can feel like a countercultural, uphill journey, but we found new heart in these stories of peacebuilding. In one lesson students discover the story of the nonviolent direct action taken by the Mirrar people, against the Jabiluka uranium mine. In another, Giles Duley’s photographs document survivors of war and help students consider the power of sensitive images.

Tragedies suffered by people in places like Afghanistan, Palestine and Israel, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Sudan and Yemen, as well as the injustice of growing inequality in the UK, and the urgency of issues around climate justice, the proliferation of nuclear weapons and drone warfare, show us that peace education is as important as ever. ‘Enough!’

‘As we explore peace in the classroom, we need to remember that young people are often navigating unpeaceful situations and so as educators we need to develop brave and honest learning spaces where they can really think critically about peace and how they can develop it in their circumstances.’ So says Hans Svennevig of the Institute of Education in the resource’s foreword. His powerful call to action frames peace education as a pursuit for us all. Please help us spread the word and get more secondary schools teaching peace.

Isabel is the peace education programme manager at BYM. Get the pack at www.peace-education.org.uk/teach-peace.

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