Much to recommend: James Nelson, an advisor to the project, on a UNESCO education revision

‘This was my first experience of a UNESCO inter-governmental negotiation.’

Nearly fifty years ago, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) wrote an influential ‘Recommendation’ on education for peace and human rights. This month, the forty-second General Assembly has ratified a new version. With wars raging in Ukraine, Israel-Palestine, and elsewhere, it seems especially significant that member states have achieved agreement around such a document. It promotes: education for peace and human rights; international understanding; cooperation; fundamental freedoms; global citizenship; and sustainable development. I want to look at what is new in this Recommendation, and to draw attention to some additions of particular interest to Quakers.

At a time of heightened conflict, we might naturally look to education to provide a response. In the UK and Ireland, for example, teachers may be responding to contemporary events by exploring issues of war and peace with children and young people. Indeed, it has been reported that there is particular interest in the peace resources provided by Quakers in Britain. Yet we might also ask what teachers alone can achieve in the face of such global forces.

In countries experiencing conflict, it can be hard to even think about the day-to-day work of peacebuilding through education. One might wonder if our conflict-ridden world is indicative of education’s inability to create peaceful societies. Are not some of the most highly-educated societies also among the most violent? These challenging questions highlight the need to see education as both part of the problem and part of the solution.

Children can be educated into bias or dehumanising views of others. They can have their experience of different groups limited by learning a culturally-narrow curriculum, or they can be subject to approaches that restrict their agency, or their capacity to cooperate and engage respectfully with their peers. In other words, we cannot assume that education will cultivate learners who are tolerant and peaceful by default. For these reasons, states must prioritise approaches to education that have positive effects on intercultural understanding, cooperation and peace, whether through curriculum, teaching methods or assessment. This is a priority that UNESCO has recognised since its inception, and continues to promote.

The potential for education to build peace is made clear in the opening paragraph of the UNESCO constitution. This attests that: ‘Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed’. It further states that ‘ignorance … suspicion and mistrust’ are what fuels conflict, but education can build mutual understanding through ‘the unrestricted pursuit of objective truth, and in the free exchange of ideas and knowledge’.

This fundamental belief in the power of education to cultivate values of peace and tolerance continues to inspire educators. But it also needs to be elaborated in ways that make sense in contemporary contexts.

The original UNESCO ‘Recommendation concerning education for international understanding, co-operation and peace and education relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms’ was written in 1974, almost thirty years after the establishment of UNESCO. At that point, a new generation wanted to create a global vision, and a set of standards for education, in relation to peace, human rights and international understanding. It was hoped that these standards would apply the lessons learned from the bloody wars of the twentieth century, and guard against the escalation of current threats, not least the cold war. In 2021, member states decided it was time to revisit these standards, and refresh them for the twenty-first century. This process was completed when the General Assembly ratified the Recommendation on 9 November.

So, what’s new about the 2023 Recommendation, and what is of particular interest to Quakers?

The Recommendation takes up some major themes developed through UNESCO’s work in education over the last decade. These include: the quality of education; transformative education; education for sustainable development; and global citizenship education. Peace is framed as fundamentally connected to issues of justice, equality, dignity and respect. Humans are understood as inherently interdependent within and across national boundaries, and deeply connected to ‘natural resources and ecosystems’. Further, there is a recognition that peace education involves core skills, including the ability to: think critically; adopt a multi-perspective approach; act collaboratively; engage in intercultural dialogue; practise empathy and reciprocity; resolve conflicts; and strive for collective good. Those Friends familiar with the Britain Yearly Meeting report Peace at the Heart: A relational approach to education in British schools will be particularly interested to know that a relational approach is visible in the UNESCO Recommendation, including the aims ‘to know, value and be at peace with oneself’ and ‘to deal with and contribute to the prevention, mediation and resolution of conflicts in a peaceful, constructive and negotiated manner.’

Unusually for a UNESCO document, there is also a reference to religious education through a recognition that ‘understanding and valuing of diverse perspectives, ways of life, worldviews, religions, beliefs and philosophies of life… has the potential to reduce conflicts that are based on a lack of understanding’.

Naturally, there are things that could have been done better. For example, despite a wide range of categories being included in relation to educational inclusion and equality, sexual orientation is not one of them. Also, the Recommendation is not legally binding on states, although they must provide reports on its implementation at regular intervals.

This was my first experience of a UNESCO inter-governmental negotiation. It was a privilege to be involved. During the event it felt as though we were engaged in a cross-generational dialogue with educators of the past and of the future. In reviewing and dissecting the text of the 1974 document it was possible to feel a connection with the struggles and hopes of that time, including the burden of the twentieth century wars that still weighed on those participants who were involved in drafting the text. I pondered what educators in 2072 might say about what is stated in the 2023 document, and I continue to reflect on what current governments will say and do with what they have agreed. No document can provide a simple blueprint for how to make the world a peaceful place, but this Recommendation places responsibility on states to do more to promote peace, human rights, global citizenship and sustainable development in education. It also provides a source of much-needed hope for educators, who may not be able to change the world alone, but can feel part of a wider movement of people who are working to actively develop transformative education aimed at peace, sustainability and human rights.

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