2.1 Is it peace for everybody?

Where there are power imbalances, such as those between adults and children and young people in schools, peace educators need to be careful of imposing a peace that is not understood or welcomed by the people they work with. Philippine researcher Cristina J. Montiel discusses issues around peace and power imbalances that she has explored in her research on global peace. She examined instances where more powerful countries negotiate peace with those less powerful, as in instances of colonialism. She argues that in such situations, the powerful coloniser focuses peace negotiations on the cessation of violence. But the less powerful group are often seeking justice and their needs are not met. Whilst the visible violence might be reduced, the underlying causes of that violence are not addressed (Montiel, 2022).

You might think about this in relation to the quotation from Martin Luther King Jr in Activity 1, about peace being more than the absence of tension, or the children and young people who are no longer able to play football in school in Activity 3.

Pause for a moment to consider the extent to which school policies and practices can impose a particular notion of peace on their students (and perhaps their wider communities) without first building relationships that foster shared perspectives and understanding.