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Principles and practices of peace education
Principles and practices of peace education

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3.2 Recognising needs

At the heart of most conflicts are unmet needs (Cartwright, 2019). Being able to regulate one’s emotions in challenging situations of conflict can support the practical work of managing conflict, but peace building in the longer term involves more than this. For example, managing the strong emotions and distress caused by bullying may help those affected cope with the situation in which they find themselves, but this should not detract from work to ensure bullying is addressed and educational communities meet each member’s need to feel safe and valued. Working with a greater sense of deeply felt needs connects individual peace and wellbeing to the wider community, as it can help people recognise and address the roots of conflict.

Long-term conflict resolution involves peeling back layers to reach an understanding of the unmet needs that deeply affect the wellbeing of conflict participants. Figure 4 was developed by Quaker Peace Education. It uses the metaphor of layers of an onion to help individuals think through the layers of a conflict to the unmet needs that can lie at its source.

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Figure 4 Onion diagram illustrating layers of conflict

Peace educator Isabel Cartwright uses this metaphor to offer an example of how an unmet need can be at the heart of a conflict:

…the argument started when I pushed her work off the desk’ (ACTION); ‘I was thinking that she deserved it’ (THOUGHT); ‘I felt hurt and angry that she’d laughed at my ideas’ (FEELING); ‘I need to be listened to’ (NEED).

(Cartwright, 2019, p. 20)

Needs might be anything from the desires for fairness and equality discussed in Session 1 of this course, to the practicalities of food, water and shelter, or the need for self-fulfilment, recognition, and love. For school communities to build strong peaceful relationships, each member can learn to understand their own and others’ needs, enabling them to maintain their wellbeing and build peace in their community.