Peacebuilding &conflict transformation A ... - Peaceworkafrica

The following is dedicated to the main tasks and aims of peace education, which canbe structured into three core elements, all of which are closely related.Communicating the capacity for peaceThis means understanding interrelationships, classifying developments and developingindependent analyses and strategies to confront violence (& war). Peace educationis carried out by people and is therefore a matter of personal capacity thatinvolves awareness and knowledge concerning:▶ individual requirements for peace skills,▶ the individual’s potential and capabilities,▶ the causes of force and war, and▶ the social and international determining factors relating to these.It is not possible to do responsible peace education work without these capacities. Atthe same time, acquiring these personal capacities is not sufficient, but furtherknowledge and skills must be attained.Mastering the art of peaceThe most difficult task of peace education is to provide palpable and easily understandableinstructions for personal capacity building. It requires the development ofself‐awareness and civil courage to master the art of peace. The most important preconditionis to know and understand oneself, one’s personal potentials and abilities.This encompasses a variety of issues:▶ The skill of self‐reflection is an important item for mastering the art of peace.It includes gaining a wide‐ranging and deep knowledge of oneself and a betterunderstanding of one’s own reactions. The ability for self‐reflection is alsonecessary to recognize problem areas and obstacles as and when they occur.Another aim of honest self‐reflection is to change one’s own image of being avictim, and thereby gain self‐respect as a political subject.▶ The ability to identify and correct one’s own prejudices. This means having aknowledge of the individual prejudices and understanding them as a pre-conceivedopinion about something, someone or a group. This also covers beingaware of how these prejudices developed and being open and ready to correctthem.▶ The moral standards required for personal action need to be valued higherthan an opportunistic ‘moving with the masses’. This might require learninghow to put distance between oneself and the pressure to conform to the existingstandards. Or it could require developing intolerance towards violence ona personal, social and cultural level.▶ Becoming aware of one’s personal fears. This covers not only the awarenessof personal fears, but also finding ways to deal with them. This might include40 I . P E A C E