A Peace Education Curriculum for Bougainville

Abstract

A key strength of this curriculum resource book is its being rooted to the local context so that the authors, although not being indigenous Bougainville people themselves, are not mechanistically importing a foreign 'expert' model of education. Akin to the dialogical processes promoted by the Brazilian critical educator, Paulo Freire, the twelve core themes underpinning this Bougainville peace education curriculum and the teaching-learning or pedagogical strategies were generated through workshops involving diverse Bougainville stakeholders. The participants included members of communities, school inspectors and community trainers or facilitators. The authors want to emphasize that the Bougainville Peace Curriculum as "a curriculum for critical literacy" requires "cooperation, critical reasoning and creativity (CCC) to work well". In terms of level, the resource book is oriented for Years 8 and 9 in the Bougainville school system, especially in the learning areas of Social Studies and in Society and the Environment.