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The day was intended to support teachers and those who work with young people and to explore creative approaches to teaching and learning about global citizenship, human rights, and non-violent responses to conflict and war. It included the use of literature, music and art; and it looked at the issues from a cross-cultural perspective. Participants came from a wide range of backgrounds and ages and they express what was important for them: ‘Just meeting lots of people involved in all kinds of work and realising what strength there is in this’; ‘Creative ways of putting across difficult issues’; ‘The video which the young people made and the arts workshop. They gave me new ideas on how to make people involved through arts.’

Balbir Sohal and Sandra Shipton, both of whom spoke at the first plenary, made clear why Coventry is an excellent place for an education conference. Ms Sohal (DfES Regional Director for Citizenship) set PEN within the global perspective using Friedman’s example of international trade and interdependence: these only exist if there is stability and peace. She drew this example into the teaching of Citizenship in the national curriculum and the place of Peace Education, even as an exam subject.

Ms Shipton reminded us that among other distinctions Coventry is the City of Peace and Reconciliation. In schools it is represented by the national Healthy Schools Programme, Playground Pals who are peer mediators, it organizes Pupil Conferences and a Peace Month and contributes to Research. This last reminds us that Coventry is a multi-racial city. Her audience laughed in sympathy as she described making 1,000 Sadako paper cranes with primary schools.

The plenary concluded with Joel Venet of Pilton Video introducing the film Edinburgh Youth Against the War (www.piltonvideo.org). It has had great success at festivals around the world; and it was the weariness of success as well as exam fever which prevented the young directors from coming to Coventry. Mr Venet described the independence of these school students and their organizing ability which was shown vividly in the video itself.

In her plenary, Julia Jarman described the origin of Peace Weavers: how she had chanced on an archaeological dig in Suffolk which included the skeleton of a tall woman from the continent; how she had researched the weaving of peace recognized in the women of the sixth century; and how her novel had grown from this. She offered us a number of novels, including others of her own, which can lead us to the world we want and which children enjoy. ‘Sow seeds for change’ is her theme. (www.juliajarman.mcmail.com)

Workshops

Art: a Resource for Reconciliation Over the World

David Oddie from ARROW www.marjon.ac.uk/arrow led his workshop through the methods which the arts, particularly drama, use to achieve change. Several times he quoted John Paul Lederach as a means of learning the journey towards peace. He stressed the power of the arts to give form to feelings and to hopes, communicating across barriers, truth-telling, celebrating diversity and the understanding of one’s own culture. Games and rehearsal promote empathy and healing.

ARROW itself has used these methods in arts links between youth in Palestine, Kosovo and South Africa. A journal, Arts for Reconciliation, will be available.

Human Rights and Global Education

Margot Brown, National Coordinator of the Centre for Global Education, York, led on a workshop. The aims were to extend the understanding of human rights and to explore the relationship between global citizenship and rights.

There were two main activities, both of which were great fun and also excellent learning experiences. The first involved exchanging information about human rights with as many members of the workshop as possible. The audience were very mixed and from several age groups. The feedback on the activity was interesting and some relevant facts and recent developments in the human rights field emerged. The second activity was based on groups of four or five and involved the analysis of a lively visual image of a street in the East End of London. This was paired with a summary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so that scenes from the image could be matched to the numbered Articles.

Reflection at the end was very interesting and approached issues such as interpretation of situations, individual’s choice and the spiral of loss of rights.

At the end of the workshop, Margot Brown introduced a brief discussion on values. She indicated that ‘big’ values are often debated and prioritized but others are taken for granted. For instance, in the 2004 Olympic medals table, the USA came top; but if the size of the population is taken into account, Bahamas is top; and if GDP/per capita income is taken, Cuba is top. One participant commented: ‘The best part was that it highlighted my ignorance and made me realize that I need to update and improve my knowledge and understanding before trying to teach it. (Alice Meager)

Geography, War & Peace

Oliver Haslam, Peace Pledge Union’s Education Officer, led a workshop in which participants were first asked to highlight on a world map regions affected by war and to note down a topic one may expect to be addressed in a school geography lesson. It soon became clear that all regions of the world are affected, directly or indirectly, by war and military activity.

After briefly discussing why war is so rarely discussed in geography lessons – its controversial nature, lack of suitable resources - Oliver outlined the school geography curriculum. All parts of the geography curriculum can be easily related to issues of war and peace and geography is the ideal subject, possibly the only subject, in which to tackle important topics such as global trade and industry (in arms), population change and migration (related to violent conflict), climate change (military carbon emissions), hunger and famine (as a weapon and consequence of war), natural resource use (causing/exacerbating conflict), and many more examples.

Two ‘educations’ – Education for Global Citizenship and Education for Sustainable Development – were seen to be popular amongst geographers and to be similar in content and approach to Education for Peace. All three ‘educations’ emphasise working co-operatively, care and concern for the environment, and addressing violent conflict. (Those interested in addressing war in geography lessons could do so under the banner of sustainable development or global citizenship if ‘peace education’ is deemed too controversial or political.) Using a ‘futures perspective’ students are encouraged to explore a preferred future, as opposed to a predicted future. By examining how to move from the present to a preferred future a positive agenda for change is created which can guide students’ actions and shift the emphasis from war to peace.

One member of the workshop spoke for others: ‘It was a most interesting topic and I felt that teaching war/conflict in geography is a most practical way of spreading peace education.’

Music for Peace

Sue Gilmurray and Tony Kempster brought both instruments and record/playing equipment (with CDs) to Music and Peace. They performed or played a selection of modern peace and justice songs which can be used to stimulate student discussion and class work. Their list of songs is organized into ten sections from which teachers can select according to the occasion and the needs of students, though most are suited to KS 3 and 4.

The sections range from War and Its Causes, The Impact on Ordinary People’s Lives, via Conscientious Objectors, to Reconciliation after Conflict. And performers include famous singers like Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan or John Lennon to those less well known. Sue and Tony talked us through the planning and performance of a day in a school, telling their experience of how particular songs impact on listeners; and also on performers when a school has collaborated.

Their list of songs and their guidelines for workshops are available from www.abolishwar.freeuk.com

Global Citizenship

Penny Walker and Sarah Bhayat: the workshop on the John Gulson experience of running a global citizenship project in school with the help of local parents was well attended. The project arose out of increased racial tension following September llth 2001 and is now in its fourth year of working for a week with Year 6. Most of the input was from two of the local parents (one of whom is leading the project this year) who explained the importance of the mix of Asian and non-Asian people working together on the project. Having heard about the project and listened to a sample song, participants were invited to discuss how they might use those ideas in their neighbourhood.

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