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Iram, Yaacov. (Ed.) (2006). Educating Toward a Culture of Peace. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing Inc.
Pp. 380
$69.95 (hardcover) ISBN 1593114842
$34.95 (papercover) ISBN 1593114834Reviewed by Brian J. Trautman
Fielding Graduate University
December 6, 2006
How can a culture of peace be attained within a society and between societies? What is involved in “educating” toward a culture of peace? What is contemporary “peace education,” and in what ways can peace education be used as a tool for enhancing the capacity of peace? What educational strategies can be employed to foster intercultural and interreligious dialogue on tolerance and peace? Why is peace education as a means of peace building and dialogue of particular importance in the era of globalization? These questions, among others, are examined in the timely volume, Educating Toward a Culture of Peace, edited by Yaacov Iram.
This book draws together lectures (revised and updated) presented by prominent international scholars and educationalists in the field of peace studies at the global conference, “Education Toward a Culture of Peace,” convened in December 2003 at Bar Ilan University, Israel. This volume examines contemporary peace education theory, research, and practice, and outlines the complex strategies and practical implications of educating toward a culture of peace.
The author's main contentions are that to move toward the complex and challenging task of achieving a culture of peace, societies must first establish “positive values.” Positive values in the context of societies include beliefs and actions which support and uphold tolerance and pluralism. Positive values “enable different cultures and nations to coexist harmoniously” (p. ix). Positive values are important to establishing a pluralistic society. Pluralistic societies provide the environment for nonviolent conflict resolution. Constructing a pluralistic society, Iram argues, requires a profound understanding of both the collective and individual values held by different people and cultures—an understanding of diversity. It also requires an understanding of tolerance, human rights, and multiculturalism. “Educating Toward a Culture of Peace” reveals education research and theoretical and analytical peace building frameworks focused on ending the ongoing intercultural and interreligious conflict and violence in the Middle East, particularly among Israelis and Palestinians. The text offers strategies for education for peace, tolerance, and pluralism.
Yaacov Iram “Educating Toward a Culture of Peace” consists of an introduction and five sections: “Peace Education Paradigms,” Globalization and Peace,” “Culture of Peace Perceptions,” “Religiosity and Culture of Peace,” and “Peace Education Initiatives.” Each of the essays and case studies offered over the text’s five sections are designed to help readers develop a more cultivated understanding of contemporary peace education theory, research, and practice. The purpose of this volume is to enhance the reader’s knowledge about, and appreciation of, peace education initiatives, the dynamics affecting peace education, and the tools and strategies for peace building within and between societies.
The Introduction to this text, authored by Yaacov Iram, provides a summary of what the reader can expect in the book’s several sections. The three historically significant theoretical examples of how to achieve peace are presented and demarcated: “peacekeeping, “peacemaking,” and “peace building,” with the latter credited as being the most important result of educating toward peace. Iram emphasizes that contemporary peace education initiatives and strategies are intended for the purposes of peace building. This book, therefore, is primarily concerned with peace building initiatives, including the tools and strategies for educating toward a peaceful coexistence within and between societies.
The first section of the book, “Peace Education Paradigms,” contains four essays. The first essay, “Culture of Peace: Definition, Scope, and Application,” is written by the editor, Yaacov Iram. Iram emphasizes three terms—referred to as the “prerequisites”—for peace education: tolerance, pluralism, and peace. Iram presents a formal definition of a culture of peace. The scope and application of peace education are described in this opening section. In citing a teacher education program developed by “Education for Europe as Peace Education” (EURED) from 2002, Iram explains that “peace education,” broadly speaking, is about “promoting knowledge, values, attitudes, and skills conducive to peace and non-violence, and to an active commitment to the building of a cooperative and caring democratic society” (p. 7). According to Iram, “the overarching aim of peace education is to help a new generation build a tolerant society by respecting the rights of individuals and groups, and thus contributing to the greater good of all” (p. 10). This essay set the tone for the book.
In the book’s second section, “Globalization and Peace,” four essays focus on the issue of globalization and its potential impact on peace education. The second essay, “Echoes from the Periphery: Challenges to Building a Culture of Peace Through Education in Marginalized Communities,” written by Erwin H. Epstein, discusses the impact and implications of the resocialization of children in schools through education efforts not focused on reality but rather wrought with teachings about cultural and societal myths: “Myth teaching, however necessary to promote national unity, is an education of deception” (p. 88). Children are often indoctrinated to embrace their own culture without question, place their own culture at the center, and repudiate other cultures or place them at the periphery. Globalization and peace building require children to become more conscious of the true nature of their reality, as well as the reality of others. Epstein emphasizes the importance of myth deconstruction about one’s own history and contemporary policies and national behavior as key in this process of building a framework by which a multicultural education and awareness can spur and profoundly impact intercultural and interreligious communication. Epstein’s contentions speak to the pedagogical methods for peace building. This essay is important because it addresses the need for children to receive an education based on knowledge inquiry and truth seeking outside the dominant, mainstream center, particularly on displaced and marginalized indigenous cultures, worldviews, and practices. A culture of peace can not be achieved through education based on nationalistic propaganda, ethnocentric myth teaching, and the filtering of information as part of a broader plan of national isolationism.
The book’s third section, “Culture of Peace Perceptions,” contains five essays, each of which examines peace perceptions as they relate to the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. This section is very timely in terms of addressing possible resolutions based on peace education for the highly visible and tragic Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. The fifth essay, “The Role of Emotions in Peace-Building Activities,” authored by Yaacov B. Yablon, speaks to the role human emotions play in conflict. Yablon investigates the relationship between positive and negative emotions and individuals and intergroup behavior. Some of these emotions involve perceptions about other groups. Yablon calls for more emphasis to be placed on the varied emotive aspects of peace relations as compared to the cognitive aspects. The findings of this study reveal that “emotions have positive effects on the willingness to interact with members of a conflict group” (p. 217), and contribute to the development of positive attitudes about another group. The results of this study also suggest that “emotions should be seen as a core component and a main strategy of peace intervention programs” (p. 218). This is an important essay because it offers a different framework from which to cultivate a culture of peace—from strictly focusing on the underlying cognitive processes of conflict and conflict resolution toward understanding and focusing on the emotive factors which trigger, and which can ameliorate, conflict.
The fourth section of the book is entitled “Religiosity and Culture of Peace.” The general theme of each the three essays offered here is the positive and negative implications of religion and religiosity within the context of peace education. The second essay, “Arab and Jewish Women’s Interreligious Dialogue Evaluated,” written by Ben Mollov and Chaim Lavie, takes a mixed methods approach to researching the impact of religiosity and interreligious dialogue on the dynamics of conflict and on peace building between the diverse citizenry of the State of Israel: Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs and Jews. A gender analysis of attitudinal beliefs and trends is an important aspect of this study. Among the several conclusions reached in this study, it was found that interreligious encounters can produce positive contributions toward moderating Arab-Jewish tensions. The findings also reveal that, contrary to prevalent assumptions, the introduction and analysis of different religious beliefs and traditions into conflict management and resolution dialogues does not always result in an escalation of interethnic tensions. This essay contributes to the text because it adds to the book’s diversity with regard to suggesting different approaches to peace building through communication and education.
In the book’s fifth and concluding section, “Peace Education Initiatives,” a collection of four case studies are offered to demonstrate the complexities of applying peace initiatives. This section provides a window into the different challenges faced by peace educators and offers several conceptual frameworks that have been put into practice within the context of peace education to facilitate change. The second essay, “Tolerance Education and Human Rights Education in Times of Fear: A Comparative Perspective,” written by K. Peter Fritzsche, dissects and reports on a series of case studies resulting from the project “Tolerance Matters” (1998-2003). There is also a discussion offered on how education can be used to promote tolerance, human rights, democracy, and a peaceful coexistence. Fritzsche reports that information and the effort of educating toward peace is a function of the social, political, and economic processes of a society. The following excerpt is a good example of the significance of this essay and of the important contribution it makes to the theme of this text: “Tolerance and human rights are not only a consequence of individual competencies, but also a result of social and political molding of the political, social, and religious culture of a society” (p. 306).
An assessment of the book's major strengths and weaknesses reveals that the overall strengths of this text include its tackling of contemporary global issues related to intercultural and interreligious conflict, particularly the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts in the Middle East. The book addresses these issues by presenting different peace education strategies, which the book argues might help current and future generations develop a values-based “knowledge of the common and understanding of the differences” (p. 10). For individuals new to the concept of peace education, the text’s first chapter outlines and explains the fundamental concepts of peace education. The definitions and background provided in this chapter make it a piece worth reading and reflecting on several times over. My one criticism of the text is that it might have benefited from the addition of a piece devoted to debate on the influence U.S. foreign policy has on peace education efforts in the Middle East and elsewhere. An in-depth analysis and critique of the different historical and contemporary U.S. foreign policy decisions in the Middle East would have contributed to the scope of this text. I would have liked to see at least one essay, if not one section, devoted to the positive and negative implications of U.S. foreign policy on the peace process.
Research on the book's place in the literature reveals that “Educating Toward a Culture of Peace” contributes significantly to the recently published literature on the subject of peace education and peace studies. Included among the previously published texts on the subject are, “Peace education,” (2003) written by Ian M. Harris and Mary Lee Morrison, “Education of Minorities and Peace Education in Pluralistic Societies,” (2003) edited by Yaacov Iram, and “Peace Education: The Concept, Principles, and Practices Around the World,” (2002) edited by Gavriel Salomon and Baruch Nevo.
“Educating Toward a Culture of Peace” achieves its goal of showcasing comprehensive practitioner-based research on the different educational strategies which foster a culture of peace within a society and between societies. The book provides an effective tool for engendering social and political change. This text is an appropriate resource for anyone who wants to develop a better understanding of the ideology and practice of peace building through peace education, particularly as it regards and applies to the conflict in the Middle East.
In conclusion, “Educating Toward a Culture of Peace” is a timely and deeply insightful and absorbing text. Through its analysis of the inherent causes of intercultural and interreligious animosity and conflict, this text puts forward different practical and contemporary educational tools for ending the violence. This volume is an excellent guide for discerning different education strategies for increasing dialogue on intergroup conflict. The book offers numerous ideas and solutions for the effective undertaking and facilitation of nonviolent peace negotiations. It clearly addresses the critical need for tolerance, pluralism, and peace as prerequisites for peace education. “Educating Toward a Culture of Peace” identifies and explains why it is the responsibility of individuals and groups to understand and embrace these concepts for a long-term culture of peace to exist within a society and between societies.
Brian J. Trautman About the Reviewer
Brian is a doctoral student and student leader in the Educational Leadership and Change (ELC) program at Fielding Graduate University. Brian’s academic expertise and areas of interest include leadership of higher education systems, critical and feminist pedagogy, structural inequality and diversity, cultural studies, and Indigenous knowledge systems and practices. Brian's professional experience includes student services administration and adjunct teaching.
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