Virginia F.

Cawagas
Cultivating Wisdom, Harvesting Peace: Educating for a Culture of Peace
through Values, Virtues, and Spirituality of Diverse Cultures, Faiths and Civilizations
299
Pedagogical Principles in
Educating for a Culture of Peace


Virginia F. Cawagas
School of Education and Professional Studies
Griffith University
Australia






May I begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of this land on which we
are gathered.

Two Stories: Two Contexts

Soldiers Learning for Peace?

At the height of an attempted military coup in the Philippines in 1989, fellow peace
educators and I, assisted by our graduate students at Notre Dame University,
Cotabato City, conducted a three-day workshop in peace education for soldiers.
These soldiers belonged to an infantry brigade of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines in Southern Philippines. Faced with uniformed men, clutching their
armalites with several rounds of ammunitions wrapped around their waists, we
engaged these battle-hardened men, in a dialogical educational process to reflect on
peace issues and problems.
On the first day of the workshop, as the national television unfolded the
shootings and relentless attack on the Presidential Palace in Manila, soldiers
thousands of kilometres away, came to the workshop fully armed with M16
armalites, We had to begin by gently persuading them to put their weapons by the
side to avoid accidental discharging during our participatory activities.
This experience demonstrated that battle-weary foot soldiers are human beings
capable of appreciating the realities of peacelessness and are equally open to
peaceful pedagogy.
Through role playing, drama, artwork, singing and poetry writing, they were able
to look at root causes of external armed conflict in which they were life and death
participants. They understood that structural violence exists in their communities
whether induced by the countrys political and economic institutions or powerful
external forces. They had witnessed environmental destruction caused by legal or
illegal logging, mining, or fishing. They could feel empathy for the marginalized
indigenous peoples.
Pedagogical Principles in Educating for a Culture of Peace
Cultivating Wisdom, Harvesting Peace: Educating for a Culture of Peace
through Values, Virtues, and Spirituality of Diverse Cultures, Faiths and Civilizations
300
Not surprisingly however, in terms of solutions, they had been indoctrinated into
a paradigm which identified any resistance, even non-violent action, as communist
or Marxist to be repressed by military might. However, as we facilitated their
critical learning experience, we were able to at least explore with them alternatives
for Philippine societal development towards more justice, seeking to end internal
wars, and prevent further environmental destruction.
My most memorable learning from this experience as a peace educator is
witnessing the transformation in the countenance of the soldiers, from sombre and
angry to relaxed, warm, and cheerful on the last day. The saddest part of this
experience is to hear from all soldiers, young and old, that the meaning of inner
peace is to be able to leave the barracks and be with their families forever.
This experience heightened our hope that educating for peace is possible and
urgent even for battlehardened and scarred military men.

A Caregiver Needing Care?

From 1993-2003, we taught peace education as a core subject in the MA/PhD
program in Global and International Education at the University of Alberta, Canada.
We always had a good mix of local and international students coming from various
undergraduate backgrounds.
One afternoon we received an urgent call from one of our NGO network group
asking assistance for Leticia, a Filipino live-in caregiver, who was going to be
deported at 10 oclock the following morning. Leticia had lived in Canada for two
years and by Canadian Law she was qualified to apply for an open visa from within
Canada. After talking to Leticia and assessing her case and the options available, we
called on some of our students and before midnight, Leticia was safely sheltered in a
sanctuary at the basement of a Catholic Church nearest the university.
For six months our students, NGOs, churches, media, and a few politicians
lobbied the Canadian government to reconsider the deportation order for Leticia.
She was being deported for a violation of the Canadian live-in caregiver program,
which was not of her own doing but ironically by her own Canadian employer. In
order to do all these coordinated mass actions and individual lobbying, all those
involved understood the cause, the meaning, and importance of the struggle and the
risks involved, and were willing to commit themselves to such a cause.
We did not succeed in stopping the deportation, for Leticia had to go back to the
Philippines after six months in sanctuary. But we managed to get a commitment
from responsible officials of the Ministry of Immigration to allow Leticia to return
to Canada and apply for a permanent resident status. As soon as Leticia landed at the
Philippine International Airport, she was brought by our network contact to the
Canadian Immigration in the Philippines where she applied for re-entry to Canada. It
did not take long before Leticia returned to Canada under the same Live-in
Caregiver Program. When we left Canada two years ago, her family has been
reunited with her and they are now living constructive lives in Edmonton, Alberta.
There were many valuable lessons from this experience but most of all, it
demonstrated the many interrelated issues of working for a culture of peace and the
many pedagogical principles consistent with a culture of peace.
Virginia F. Cawagas
Cultivating Wisdom, Harvesting Peace: Educating for a Culture of Peace
through Values, Virtues, and Spirituality of Diverse Cultures, Faiths and Civilizations
301
The story of Leticia is the story of millions of migrant workers in the Middle
East, Europe, the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia. There is now
a wealth of evidence showing that many migrant workers are exploited and even
physically abused ranging from physical assault to sexual violence.
We need to ask: what are the faith/religious organizations in these countries
doing for and about migrant workers? or do they even know about these stories?
While there are solidarity campaigns in some countries to protect migrant workers
rights, in which faith institutions (churches, etc.) play an active role, much more
need to be done. If faiths/religions claim that values of justice, compassion, love,
and kindness are central to their teachings, why are migrant workers so badly treated
in countries and regions where religions play a central role in their societies?

Educating for a Culture of Peace

My teaching-learning experiences with soldiers and caregivers have reinforced my
commitment to the pedagogical principles that have guided our educational efforts
for a culture of peace (Cawagas & Toh, 2003; Toh & Cawagas, 1987; Toh, 2004).
We have long recognised that it is not only what is taught and learned that is
important, but we also need to be most sensitive to the processes of educating for
peace. In the framework that has evolved, based on our Philippine experience and
later shared in many countries in both North and South contexts, we feel that four
pedagogical principles are crucial namely: holism, values formation, dialogue and
critical empowerment.

Holism

Educating for a culture of peace encompasses many issues. Many educational
experiences have demonstrated that a fragmented understanding of conflict and
violence is inadequate and ineffective. Many lessons in the past have shown that to
be effective, resolutions for peace need to take into account the dynamic
relationships, which connect various levels and kinds of experiences and multiple
layers of meanings and contexts.
Hunger and poverty are caused not merely by unjust economic structures but are
usually linked to militarisation since very unequal societies are maintained by
coercion and repression. Over consumption of the earths resources by a minority
has accelerated environmental decay. Micro level conflicts, like crimes affecting
peace and order, and personal alienation, like apathy and hopelessness, may be
rooted in macro level problems of poverty. When economic and political injustices
lie at the base of interethnic conflict, trust and goodwill alone will not suffice. Trust
will eventually turn to disillusionment unless structural reforms in local and national
development policies and practices that genuinely benefit disadvantaged and
dominated communities are implemented.


Pedagogical Principles in Educating for a Culture of Peace
Cultivating Wisdom, Harvesting Peace: Educating for a Culture of Peace
through Values, Virtues, and Spirituality of Diverse Cultures, Faiths and Civilizations
302
PEDAGOGICAL PRINCIPLES OF PEACE EDUCATION
All issues --------------------All levels ----------------All sectors
Inter-related of Education school & society
HOLISM
Respectful Mind, Heart
Listening & Spirit
DIALOGUE CRITICAL
EMPOWERMENT
Open to new ideas Commitment
participatory & personal & social
democratic action &
teaching-learning transformation
Personal VALUES FORMATION STRUCTURAL
Cultural Universal
Roots Consensus

Figure 1. Pedagogical principles of peace education

Thus in educating for a culture of peace, the multiple dimensions of conflict and
violence need to be viewed with a holistic vision. Dismantling the culture of war,
transforming local and global injustices, promoting human rights, enhancing
sustainable futures, weaving cultural harmony, and nurturing inner peace are all
interrelated. Analysing each one as a specific issue is necessary but constitutes a
fragmented approach unless the interconnectedness and interdependence of causes
and effects is fully explored, analysed, and understood.
Hence when we apply holism to the curriculum (both formal and nonformal), in
peace education, we can map with more subject area or across different subjects and
levels how all the various themes and issues of peacelessness are interconnected and
integrated in the learning experiences.

Values Formation

Values formation is crucial in educating for a culture of peace. Realizing that all
knowledge is never free of values, educating for a culture of peace needs to be
explicit about its preferred values such as compassion, justice, equity, gender-
fairness, caring for life, sharing, reconciliation, integrity, hope and non-violence.
As this symposium has shown, diverse faiths and spirituality traditions are deep
resources for cultivating values, principles and virtues for building a culture of
peace. We need to remember that cultures provide helpful values and ethical
guidelines for conducting relationships with others in our earth community.
Virginia F. Cawagas
Cultivating Wisdom, Harvesting Peace: Educating for a Culture of Peace
through Values, Virtues, and Spirituality of Diverse Cultures, Faiths and Civilizations
303
Thus in secular or non-sectarian school systems, even if religious education
is not accessible, values education needs to be emphasized. However, while values
education is already happening worldwide, it is important to be cautious about some
models or approaches. It is possible for values education to be conducted in a
socially conservative or narrow way, which can promote self-centeredness.
Sometimes values education can be de-conceptualised where core values like
love, justice and compassion are taught in an abstract fashion. If values are not
conceptualised socially, economically, and politically, learners will know values
but may not necessarily know what it means to live them.

Dialogue

As Paulo Freire (1973), has pointed out, many past and contemporary educational
systems have emphasized a banking approach in education where teachers are
experts and learners are passive recipients of knowledge. Such mode of teaching
and learning contradicts the principle of transformative education. On the other
hand, a dialogical approach cultivates a more horizontal teacher-learner relationship
in which both dialogically educate and learn from each other. According to Toh
(2004: 28), this approach optimises cooperative opportunities for learners to first
talk about their realities, experiences, understandings, biases, commitments, hopes,
despairs and dreams, which are then facilitated by the teachers to critically engage
with a range of alternative perspectives on the issues under consideration.
Education as dialogue requires closer linkages between learning institutions, the
wider community and other living faiths and spirituality. Learners are challenged to
see how their knowledge gained in formal classroom learning can be applied to
community problems. Teachers should therefore arrange for exposure or
opportunities for learning from traditional or folk wisdom, or street-wise
experiences in coping with daily problems. Formally certified teachers need the
humility to appreciate that non-formally credentialed adults also possess knowledge
that may be valuable and relevant to people-centred social development and human
survival.
For example, at Notre Dame University, we invited street children to a graduate
class in peace education to dialogue with the graduate students about their life
situation, experiences, and hopes in life. The educational impact of that experience
on the graduate student is something they still talk about 10 years after they have
been granted their MA/PhD in peace and development education. Because the street
children served as the teacher for a one-hour graduate class, we arranged to give
them an honorarium equivalent to that of a university lecturer.
We have also invited Indigenous Elders to dialogue with students on Indigenous
cultural traditions and practices, their problems and visions for their future. Learners
can be spiritually enriched from exposure to traditional or folk wisdom in coping
with daily problems.
Other teaching-learning approaches include among others, web charting, role-
play, simulation, singing, painting, poetry, and small group discussion. Teaching and
learning based on dialogue does not imply, however, that lectures and talks
presented by teachers and other resource persons do not have a place in
Pedagogical Principles in Educating for a Culture of Peace
Cultivating Wisdom, Harvesting Peace: Educating for a Culture of Peace
through Values, Virtues, and Spirituality of Diverse Cultures, Faiths and Civilizations
304
transformative education. Critical awareness and knowledge can be deepened
through a good lecture especially when there are opportunities for an open dialogue
after the lecture.
A culture of peace flourishes best in classrooms and other educational
environments where creative, active learning is fostered, it is unsound to stifle the
learning initiative by excessive examinations, or by spoon feeding of truths and facts
dispensed by teacher, experts, and other authority figure.
In many contemporary societies, much curriculum tends to be purely academic
and most of the time detached from local, social, economic, and cultural realities.
Peace education as dialogue criticizes the elitist arrogance practiced by technocrats,
and experts. Dialogue entails much closer linkages between learning institutions, the
wider community, and other living faiths and belief systems.

Critical Empowerment

The understanding of empowerment rests on our understanding of power. Power can
be interpreted and exercised in many ways. The most commonly understood and
practiced view is power over exemplified in traditional hierarchical relationships
of one dominating the other as between parents and children, employer and
employee, landlord and tenant, commander and foot soldier, teacher and student,
men and women. This vision of power is also translated in the win-lose approach in
settling conflicts either on a micro or macro level. Here, the dominant strategy is for
one party to negotiate aggressively to gain more power than the other party, which
over the long haul can only lead to a zero-sum conclusion.
This exercise of power has been challenged by many political and social
scientists, educators involved in transformative education, peace education and
critical pedagogy. Paulo Freire (1971, 1995), argued that the poor and dispossessed
can initiate social change when they develop a critical awareness of the root causes
of their marginalisation and organize people-centred movements for justice and
societal transformation.
Feminists discourses have also urged the consideration of other types of power,
including: power to (productive power which creates new possibilities without
domination); power with (the ability of a collective or group working to achieve a
goal that would be impossible for individuals); or power from within (the
uniqueness or strength within each person) (Rowlands, 1997).
Viewed from these concepts of power, empowerment is a process of challenging
existing power relations and being able to participate in the reconstruction of a
system that allows for more equitable access to and exercise of power. When
individually empowered individuals use their confidence and dignity to bring about
positive changes not only for their personal benefit but also for the larger
community, then they are also empowered in a relational and collective way.
In critical empowerment, learners engage in a personal struggle to develop a
critical consciousness that actively seeks to transform the realities of a culture of war
and violence into a culture of peace and non-violence. Learners go beyond
describing symptoms of conflicts and violence in their immediate contexts. Whether
it is about poverty, malnutrition, or infant mortality; civil wars, torture,
Virginia F. Cawagas
Cultivating Wisdom, Harvesting Peace: Educating for a Culture of Peace
through Values, Virtues, and Spirituality of Diverse Cultures, Faiths and Civilizations
305
disappearances and other violations of human rights; the plight of street children; or
the destruction of the environment the awakening of learners to why these
dehumanising realities abound should be accompanied by critical empowerment.
The process of critical empowerment requires that words are translated into
action. This pedagogical principle in peace education draws inspiration from critical
social theory and the universal call in all worldviews, to bridge theory and practice,
reflection and action. Education does not merely promote objective understanding of
social issues and problems. Most crucially, it should lead learners to act creatively
and non-violently to humanize their social, economic, cultural and political
environments (Toh, 2004). Paradoxically, instead of contributing to social
transformation, education which is generally accomplished through formal
schooling, has been a major contributory factor to the reproduction and legitimation
of a society entrenched in very unequal social, economic and political structures.
The significance and value of a curriculum for peace education rest not on
current criteria such as high achievement scores or the ability to repeat theoretical
knowledge about violence and peacelessness. While adequate information and sound
theory are essential, a more peaceful world cannot be achieved unless those who
understand are willing to take responsibility for changing the world.
Educational activities need to be accompanied with campaigns to stop
deforestation and unregulated pollution of economic activities. Part of this campaign
is to persuade governments and politicians to enact and enforce policies for saving
the rapidly disintegrating environment. Teachers and students can complement the
efforts of environmental activists working in remote missions to reforest bare
mountains, by courageously challenging powerful loggers backed by local officials
and military forces, and calling for a new theology which cares for the earth.
Teachers and students can join the churches ecumenical campaign to relieve the
poor indebted countries of the burden of paying odious debts. Forums, publications,
television talk shows are appropriate educational activities for teachers and students
to express solidarity for a nuclear-free and demilitarised state. Popular educational
methods for learners empowerment include group analysis, theatre, role-playing,
poster-design, song-composition, simulation, town hall forums, video presentation
and analysis, etc.
These methods expose the learners to a range of alternative worldviews on any
issue so that they can develop a critical consciousness and come to their own
conclusions and commitments. Students can learn to overcome years of uncritical
acceptance of "top-down" and "authority-based" knowledge as they ask questions
about the root causes of problems that impact on their quality of life and their social,
economic, political and natural environments.

Concluding Reflection

In conclusion, I would like to re-iterate the role of teachers, teacher education,
curricula, and textbooks in educating for a culture of peace. Relative to other
professions, the teachers are the most marginalized. In some countries, a teacher is
not even considered a professional.
Pedagogical Principles in Educating for a Culture of Peace
Cultivating Wisdom, Harvesting Peace: Educating for a Culture of Peace
through Values, Virtues, and Spirituality of Diverse Cultures, Faiths and Civilizations
306
But we are all teachers here, and as teachers, we need to draw upon our inner
strengths and convictions, traditions, faiths, spiritually, which need nurturing
through continuous contemplation and self-interrogation of our personal values and
motivations.
At the end of the day, we can only ask ourselves what have I done and what
must I do tomorrow!

References

Cawagas, Virginia & Toh Swee-Hin (2003). A journey towards peace across the
mountains of Ichon. SangSaeng, September 2003.
Freire, Paulo (1995). Pedagogy of hope: Reviving pedagogy of the oppressed. Trans.
Robert R. Barr. New York: Continuum. 1995.
Freire, Paulo (1973). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Trans. Myra Bergman Ramos. Rev. ed.
New York: Continuum. 1994.
Rowlands, J o (1997). Questioning empowerment: Working with women in Honduras.
Oxford: Oxfam.
Toh, Swee-Hin (2004). Education for international understanding toward a culture of
peace. A conceptual framework. In V. F. Cawagas (Ed.). Learning to live together. A teachers
resource book in education for international understanding. (pp. 13-31). Seoul: Asia Pacific
Centre of Education for International Understanding.
Toh Swee-Hin & Cawagas, Virginia (1987). Peace education. A framework for the
Philippines. Quezon City: Phoenix Publishing House.











Virginia F. Cawagas

Virginia Cawagas is an Adjunct Associate Professor of the School of Education &
Professional Studies and Hon. Research Fellow, School of Environmental Studies,
Griffith University, and Adjunct Associate Professor in Educational Policy Studies
at the University of Alberta, Canada She has been Visiting Professor in Peace
Education at the UN University for Peace, Costa Rica since 2004, and editor of the
International Journal of Curriculum & Instruction since 1998. Dr. Cawagas has
conducted courses and workshops in global/peace education, human rights
education, values education, and multicultural education in various countries
including the Philippines, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Fiji, US, and Australia.