Research Project: Evaluation of Peace and Conflict Education Programs
Dear HumanDHS network friends
Please find below details of a research project being undertaken by Karen Ross and a call for input and assistance.
Kind regards
Brian Ward
Subject: Evaluations of Peace Education/Conflict Resolution Education programs sought
From: Karen Ross
I am currently a consultant on a project initiated by the Global
Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) Peace
Education Reference Group. The purpose of this project is to identify
and clarify the current state of evaluation and research on the
effectiveness and impact of peace education and conflict resolution
education (PE/CRE) around the world. Specifically, this project seeks
to identify what evidence exists about the impact and effectiveness of
PE/CRE, what methodologies and approaches are most robust for
generating this evidence, and what gaps exist in research and evaluation.
The first phase of this project focuses on collecting and making
available evaluations and research on PE/CRE; thus, I am writing to
seek existing evaluations that your organization may have undertaken,
or evaluations that you are otherwise aware of. At this stage we aim
to collect as broad a scope of materials as possible (with particular
interest in programs outside the US/Canadian context). We welcome
contributions evaluating programs that encompass formal and non-formal
education, conflict and non-conflict contexts, children and adults,
values- and skills-based interventions, and so forth. Evaluations may
be summative or formative in nature; the main consideration is that
they reflect work conducted in the fields of PE/CRE.
> I look forward to hearing from you. Please send any information,
> including evaluations, to: karnula@gmail.com
>
> Thank you in advance,
> Karen Ross
>
> P.S. Broad definitions of both Peace Education and Conflict Resolution
> Education are included below to provide some guidance as to
> appropriate programs, though these are by no means comprehensive:
>
> CRE definition: Conflict Resolution Education “models and teaches, in
> culturally meaningful ways, a variety of processes, practices and
> skills that help address individual, interpersonal, and institutional
> conflicts, and create safe and welcoming communities. These processes,
> practices and skills help individuals understand conflict processes
> and empower them to use communication and creative thinking to build
> relationships and manage and resolve conflicts fairly and peacefully”
> (Association for Conflict Resolution, 2002). CRE programs include a
> variety of efforts that share various emphases:
> – An understanding of conflict
> – Social, emotional and cognitive processes related to constructive
> conflict management
> – principles of conflict resolution
> – process steps in problem solving
> – skills required to use each of the steps effectively
>
> PE definition: Peace Education is “the process of promoting the
> knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to bring about behavior
> changes that will enable children, youth and adults to prevent
> conflict and violence; both overt and structural; to resolve conflict
> peacefully; and to create the conditions conducive to peace whether at
> an intrapersonal, interpersonal, inter-group, national or
> international level” (Peace Education Working Group –UNICEF). The
> goals of peace education include (Harris and Morrison, 2003):
> – to appreciate the richness of the concept of peace
> – to address fears
> – to provide information about security
> – to understand war behavior
> – to develop intercultural understanding
> – to provide a “futures” orientation
> – to teach peace as a process
> – to promote a concept of peace accompanied by social justice
> – to stimulate a respect for life
> – to manage conflicts nonviolently
>