A PORTFOLIO IN PEACE AND PEACE EDUCATION
A PORTFOLIO IN PEACE AND PEACE EDUCATION
Presented to the
College of Education and Liberal Arts
Davao Central College
In partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements in
Ed. Sem. Subject
Submitted
to:
Warlita C. Canque,
Ed. D.
Submitted
by:
CATEGORY B
October 29, 2013
SUMMARY
A. Peace and Peace Education
What did Jimi Hendrix said, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power the
world will know peace.” Peace is never achieved in fights or wars, nor unsettled
matters that needs to be settled. Being afraid is neither at peace nor being
afraid to death. Peace is not felt nor found when one is dead it is actually
found within us, how we make our life simple but happy because we made God as
the center of our lives there is great peace in that situation.
That is why the region XI formulated 6’S values that would
sum up the whole point of view about peace education. Educating toward a
culture of peace cultivates and promotes values, action and practices for
building individuals, families, communities, societies, world committed to
cultivating inner peace, living with compassion and justice, dismantling the
culture war, promoting human rights and responsibilities, living in harmony
with the earth ad intercultural respect, reconciliation and solidarity.
The 6 S are the
spirituality, social justice, supporting nonviolence, strengthening human
rights, sustainable development and sensitivity. All of these 6 S are vital in
understanding the realm of peace and teaching peace among students and even to
other people.
Peace education is not a
hard subject; it mainly refers to the aspect of how peace can be attained and
formulates guided solutions to some problems that have possible solutions.
B. Spirituality
Inculcating nonviolence in schools calls of the
development of inner peace and spirituality among individuals. There is need for learners to assess their
physical, emotional, mental and spiritual states as well as the interplay
between personal and societal conflicts. Cultivating spiritual and inner peace
in the context of holistic peace education framework does not only encourage
individuals to be contented in the attainment of personal peace but also in
being able to contribute to the transformation of structures of injustice and
in addressing societal issues.
Spirituality is the main purpose why there is peace.
Because peace is the effect of a pure positive soul that means if you
experience peace within you worry no more because God’s spirit is in you and is
with you all the time.
As peace educators, the learners will also be encouraged
to understand the cycle of alienation, and how it might be broken in order to
strengthen good relationships with others. They will also be challenged to
examine the causes of personal alienation and reveal themselves to their
classmates through the activity and in discussions. Through this lesson, it is
hoped that students will enhance their sense of self-worth and encourage them
to engage or nurture positive relationships.
As future peace educators, the lesson will also help
learners understand that’s schools should provide a positive learning
environment by celebrating diversity, developing critical thinking, creativity
and cooperative learning among students, rather than fueling excessive
competitive to promoting fairness, excellence and peace. Thus through the
activities and discussion, the lesson will also enhance students’ developed
universal values such as compassion, forgiveness, reconciliation and respect.
C.
Social Justice
The word social justice is not a mere catchy slogan to
express the plight or the poor and downtrodden. Rather, it is designated by our
Constitution as a must.
Peace is not being objectively studied and understood
because one of the fundamental aspects of educating for peace is the need for
students to actualize their learning.
Here, in social justice it deals to structural violence as one of the
forms of violence brought about by the unequal and unfair distribution of
resources which restrains human potential caused by economic, social, and
political structures. Students will be guided to analyze situations of
structural violence in Mindanao, focusing on why it remains marginalized
politically, socially and economically. Learners will also be encouraged to
contribute ideas on how issues on social injustices among the marginalized
groups in Mindanao be addressed. As students analyze situations of structural
violence in Mindanao, it is hoped that they can enhance their values of empathy
and compassion among marginalized sectors, and develop passion to pursue
justice for them.
It is necessary for learners to be engaged in analyzing
the effects of transnational corporations or TNC on the environment, heath, and
on the economy. As guided, learner will examine current efforts of intuitions
to address the issues caused by the presence of TNCs.
The relevance of TNCs for peace education is evident. Not
only is the continued practice of minimal wages in combination with
exploitative working conditions as a social justice and a form of structural
violence. Moreover, there are very concrete manifestations of conflict around
TNCs. An example is the context in Mindanao is the armed opposition of the New
People’s Army (NPA) against the presence of the large scale mining companies,
themselves TNCs, in the country. In the northeast Mindanao, this has escalated
in late 2011. In simultaneous attacked of the NPA against three mining
companies in Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur, destroying some 11.5M $ of
equipment.
D.
Supporting Nonviolence
Various social networking
sites like Facebook, twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn and other social networks that
is rapidly increasing. Reports show that
the Philippines is now the social networking capital of the world according to
the Global Affairs 2011. Social networking sites are used by people from all
walks of life with a broad range of users in terms of age, occupation and
social status. Proponents of social networking sites argue that these online
communities promote increased communication with friends and family,
familiarize people with valuable computer skills, and allow contact with people
from around the world. But opponents argue that social networking sites expose
children and adults to cyber criminality viruses, lower work productivity and
promote vanity and short attention spans among their users.
While social networking
connects people, brings people together and make the word within reach by
everyone, it can also create conflict and violence if it is used in malign
ways. To prevent this, people must be aware and be educated about it. Students
especially, need to analyze the positive and negative effect of social
networking and the internet as a whole.
Conflict and violence are
the end results from misunderstanding, misuse and misconception. Conflict is natural and necessary part of our
lives. Conflict occurs when one’s actions or information, or when people focus
into their own interest, values and needs. On the other hand violence consist
of actions, words, attitudes, structures or systems that cause physical,
psychological, social or environmental damage and/or prevent people from
reaching their full human potential.
In summary, the paradox of
conflict is that it is both the force that can tear relationships apart and the
force that can bind them together and strengthen them. Conflicts can be managed
and resolved constructively. They can be seen by parties as opportunities to
improve their relationships. Moreover, they are motors of social change and
addressing injustices. Social movements advancing social justice issues are
surfacing social conflicts in a nonviolent way, ultimately contributing to
social progress and addressing social injustice and structural violence.
E. Strengthening Human Rights
Strengthening human rights
education plays a crucial role in the process of peace education, of life will
be respected. Unfortunately, violations of women’s and children right are
observed worldwide. Indeed, Human Rights watch (2003) revealed that millions of
women are still excluded from political participation and public life, become
victims of human trafficking, domestic abuse, rape and forced labor are being
denied equal marriage, divorce or inheritance rights, and are assaulted for not
conforming to gender norms. Unfair treatment of women is aggravated culturally
in patriarchal societies. As a result, many women are treated as second class
citizens, inferior beings, and possessions of men useable only for mere
reproduction.
In the context o Region XI,
a notable case has been reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer on June 1,
2012, reporting the arrest of the former police chief of Davao del Sur who had
gone into hiding after he was charged with rape and sexual harassment by six
women, four of whom being police officers. In a context where women in uniforms
are raped and sexually harassed, one can only begin to imagine the number of
unreported cases of domestic violence, discrimination and sexual harassment
against women who are marginalized and not empowered to speak out their rights.
On the other side aside that
teachers should know about what are rights of human, in the school system,
there are many instances where teachers have used corporal punishment as a
technique in disciplining pupils or students deemed to behave inappropriately.
Examples of such situations are teacher throwing an eraser at noisy students;
letting pupils carry heavy materials, placing pupils inside the cabinet;
putting papers inside pupils’ mouths, or beating them in any part of their
body.
Nowadays, these practices in
schools are criticized due to a growing awareness of children’s right to be
protected from cruel acts or exploitation. Various researches show that
corporal punishment is still being used in disciplining children of all ages
and often leads to anger, resentment and low self-esteem on children.
As teachers who will be
exposed with the challenges of dealing with varied personalities of students,
there is a need to be aware of the causes and effects of corporal punishment.
This helps them to prepare themselves how to both inculcate learning and handle
difficult situations in the classrooms nonviolently.
F. Sustainable Development
Our country is said to be
abundant of so many resources of minerals, and natural resources. That is the
reason why many of the countries are fighting for the ownership and power of
this country but nobody did claimed and owned this beautiful land. Now, the
question is how is Philippines today?
As stated the Philippines is
at the forefront of the countries that will suffer from the climate change.
Natural disasters—from stronger storms, more rainfall, more intense droughts,
and many more are now commonly experienced. Occurrence of public health
epidemics, such as dengue is increasing. Agriculture and food security are
threatened. Risks to human habitations in coastal areas and in geologically
sensitive places are increasing. Reports show that in 2012, the Philippines
were considered to be the most disaster-affected country in the world in terms of
mortality rate.
If we continue to demand and
use more than the Earth can support, diverse ecosystems will continue to lose
species, which will negatively impact our world. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “there
is enough for everyone’s nee but not for everyone’s greed”. It is imperative to
educate people on the need to reflect on individual lifestyles and consumption
patterns and their contributions to the gradual diminishing of the resources
that sustain our existence. There is also a need to advocate related policy
changes to address the impacts of scarcity, such as rational and sustainable
and resource management policies.
In the Philippines, resource
exploitation or exploitation of natural resources has long been documented. It
has been and is still a source of conflict, for different reasons. For
instance, forest covers have been plundered due to legal and illegal logging,
without considering the adverse effects to other people and the environment.
Even with the Government’s reforestation program, it has not helped
sufficiently in recovering from denudation.
That is why as future
teachers it is vital and truly essential to impart to our students and to the
people around us that what we do in our environment reflects who we are and
what we do for it, and to God. Making them realize and understand in some sense
will change the course of the world of development to a better life after.
G. Sensitivity
Talking about sensitivity is
a sensitive word itself. It has a large sense of scope in terms of various
comparisons within individuals. Remembering a quote that, “Before you speak or
utter a word think critically and emotionally for once spit can never be changed”,
truly it was a striking saying from the internet.
Sensitivity is the
understanding the values of inter-cultural respect and non-discrimination on
the basis of ethnicity, beliefs and cultural backgrounds. The development of
these values is imperative especially in the context of Mindanao where a long
history of conflict has been fueled by prejudices, biases and discrimination
passed on from generation to generation since colonial times.
Mindanao has been a melting
pot of different cultures because of the influx of migration from Luzon and the
Visayas to Mindanao. This had led to competition over resources and territories
that resulting in changing political and geographical landscapes and the
marginalization of the indigenous peoples of Mindanao. But differences in
cultural background are only one side of the conflict. Rather, there is a need
to look at historical injustices as the underlying causes of such conflicts.
Most conflicts in Mindanao
have been associated with the pursuit of their own expression of ideals. It is
the struggle of the Lumads or indigenous peoples for the recognition of their
ancestral domain. It is the Moro’s assertion of their right to
self-determination or self-rule against colonial domination since Spanish rule.
While the settlers also claim their right for land ownership through the
government land reform programs. Thus, Mindanao now is shared territory.
Over the past few decades,
concern and action for solidarity has been expressed in a number of forums.
After all there should be respect and understanding for peace can only attained
if there is understanding and appreciation or it is an integral dimension for
building a more humane, just and peaceful world.
H. Teaching Peace
To teach peace education is
not as easy someone thinks. One should be trained well and has undergone into various
experiences in order to cope with the real and present situation facing in the
real world. Aside from trainings and other experiences, a teacher must be
equipped and capable most especially in using media; one should be literate
about it.
A peace educator is a
well-mannered and has a good formation of character but of course there is no
perfect person in the world we know that but even though that the fact speaks
still it is part to adapt of the demands in this fast-paced world. One should
learn to put things into action.
A Taoist saying stated, “To
act what you learn is all that matters.” Truly, the significant factor of
living in this world is to spread what you have learned and put it in your day
to day actions. In some way it would be a holistic framework showing how
learning should be practiced.
Modernization must not be a
hindrance in becoming the best person you can be. Everything changes that real
but the real deal is how you cope up to spread love, kindness and prosperity to
everyone on the walk of your life.
REFERENCE
Balili,
Lorenzo, Jr., et.al. Integrating peace education in teacher education:
teaching guide. 2013. Forum ZFD and
Commission on Higher Education.
Davao City.
October 23, 2013.
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