Peace Education

Abstract

Peace education can be most simply thought of as educating students to create a more peaceful world. However, just as peace needs to be thought of as more than merely the absence of war, so too peace education needs to be thought of as being more than educating students to understand the importance of avoiding war. Peace is related to the presence of justice, and thus a fuller definition of peace education is educating students to create a more just and harmonious world. Peace education also may be thought of as having an international dimension, that is, educating for peace and social justice between nation-states; as having a domestic dimension, that is, educating for peace and social justice within societies, groups, and families; and as having a personal dimension, that is, educating for peace and justice in our individual personal relationships and educating for inner peace. Moreover, many writers now also see peace education as encompassing our interrelationship with our natural environment. All these dimensions of peace education can be seen to be interrelated.