Dear Listserv members, How practical is it to introduce education for 'learning to live together' as a distinct curriculum element? What are the requirements for a durable impact? I examined these questions in a recently published monograph 'Learning to Live Together: Building Skills, Values and Attitudes for the Twenty-First Century' (UNESCO, 2004). The study demonstrates the extensive overlap between the educational objectives of education for peace, tolerance, mutual understanding, human rights, civic participation etc, and suggests that educators concerned with these themes should work together to develop a shared curriculum framework or at least a shared discourse. The core education objectives include the development of skills and values such as understanding similarities and differences, empathy, active listening, cooperation, avoiding bias/prejudice, win-win creative solutions to social problems, conflict resolution through negotiation and mediation etc. Both child development theory and field experience show that learning and internalizing such skills and attitudes and their applications benefit from a special curriculum strand continuing throughout the years of schooling. The principle of the 'cyclic curriculum' enables the skills and values to be revisited in greater depth each year, with practice in their application to different age-appropriate 'life' themes including resolving conflicts in the home and community, resistance to peer and gender-based pressures (anti-bullying, protection from HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence, resisting substance abuse), inclusion, human rights, citizenship roles etc. The study draws on a range of case studies, mostly from post-conflict and transitional situations, which illustrate the difficulties of 'infusing' the teaching of higher order behavioural skills and values into ordinary teaching. Experiential approaches are needed, together with facilitated class discussion of appropriate behaviours, and for this, specially trained teachers, using special curriculum materials, in a special curriculum time slot, were found to yield the best results. An example is the Peace Education/Life Skills Programme (initiated by the author), developed by Pamela Baxter of UNHCR and UNESCO in the refugee camps of Kenya and in post-conflict communities (available from the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies as a complete INEE manual for school and non-formal classes on www.ineesite.org ; -search for 'Technical Kit'). The experiential activities in this programme are oriented to the general concept of peace, but can be focused by experienced teachers on issues of immediate concern to the learners, whether human rights, anti-bullying, non-pressured risk-avoiding adolescent or adult relationships, gender equality, community- or nation-building. I hope we can move towards international, national and school level dialogue and cooperation between educators working in the component aspects of learning to live together, since education systems cannot cope with too many separate initiatives. The study was published in late 2004 by UNESCO (see www.ibe.unesco.org) or order from b.deluermoz@ibe.unesco.org. Key chapters are available online (see Core Reference Materials section of www.ineesite.org). Please feel free to contact me, as well. Margaret Sinclair ma.sinclair@gmail.org ======== Global Human Rights Education listserv ======== Send mail intended for the list to <hr-education@hrea.org>. Archives of the list can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-education/markup/maillist.php If you have problems (un)subscribing, contact <owner-hr-education@hrea.org>. **You are welcome to reprint, copy, archive, quote or re-post this item, but please retain the original and listserv source.
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