Transcript Peace in the view of youngsters Turkey

Peace topic in the view of
youngsters
Asist Prof Dr Ahmet Kılınç
This presentation would include six main
parts:
*Conflict contexts
*General points
*The role of cognitive development
*Gender
*Drawings of children
*Peace education
Conflict contexts
Investigators of children’s understanding
of peace, war, and violence have focused
on children in three different conflict
contexts:
*in the presence of violent conflict
*in the aftermath of violent conflict
*in the absence of violent conflict
Sample for first group:
Punamaki (1999), as cited in Souza et al
(2006), argued that concept formation is
emotionally intense process for children
personally suffering from violent political
conflict.
Samples for second group:
• Hakvoort (1996) showed that concepts seemed form
long a developmental trajectory and that concept of war
seemed to develop before the concept of peace. Even
young children from 6 to 8 years old are able to describe
war.
• Miljevic-Ridjicki and Lugomer-Armano (1994), as cited in
Walker et al (2008) asked two groups of preschoolers
(refuges and non-refugee children) about the war in
Croatia. The non-refugee children described war more
generally, and like older children of numerous other
studies, they primarily identified the objects and
activities of war. The refugee children described war in
more personal terms, mentioning their experience of war
(e.g., destruction of their homes).
Sample for third group:
Covell (1995) , as cited in Souza et al (2006),
studied the influence of cultural ideology on
political socialization and concepts of war among
US and Canadian children. She concluded that,
in the absence of direct experience with war,
political socialization, education, media, and
gender role expectations had the greatest
impact on children cultural and moral values
related to war, peace and violence.
General points
• Across many different cultural settings, children
base their views of peace on three thematic
components, for example, positive emotions at
an individual level as expressed by social
activities such as positive interpersonal
interaction and relationships; the negation of war
activities at the macro level (absence of war, war
activities, and hostility, quietness, stillness) and
the negation of war at a micro level (absence of
quarrels, absence of quarrel activities) (Walker
et al, 2008)
• Galtung (1969, 1985) described the two latter
themes, based on the absence of war, as
‘negative peace’. By contrast, ‘positive peace’
was more of dynamic process of reconciliation
aimed at the integration of and collaboration
between groups and nations. Oppenheimer
(1995) attributed the degree of violence that was
acceptable in a society as influential in leading
children to understand peace as dependent on
the existence or non-existence of war.
The role of cognitive
development
Children form a concept of war prior to forming
one of peace, and early ideas about peace are
that it is negation of war (Hakvoort, 1996).
Children’s concept of peace develop around the
age of 7 years onwards. Similarly, Rodd (1985)
found that the majority of the Australian
preshoolers in her study ‘could not give any
definition’ of war.
Young children emphasize concrete ideas, like weapons
and tanks, older children highlight negative aspects and
consequences of war, such as torture, destruction
(Hakvoort, 1996), human attitudes, conflicting interests,
verbal aggression (Souza et al, 2006). This corresponds
to cognitive developments, moving from concrete mental
operations to abstract reasoning in Piagetian sense. In
Piagetian perspective, it was expected that as children
matured, systematic qualitatitve changes would take
place in children’s thinking resulting in the development
of more abstract concepts of peace that referred to
human attitudes and democratic process.
Gender
Girls mention more negative emotions and
themes from personal life related to concepts of
war, while boys stress conflicts in distant nations
(Hakvoort, 1996).
Boys highlight concrete aspects when they
talked about war and use more technical
categories, such as war activities, weapons and
soldiers. Girls gave more answers focus on
human well-being (Souza et al, 2006).
Young boys, but not young girls, also focus a great
extent on guns, weapons, and soldiers. Toy guns and
battle games far more common among boys than girls,
which account for the gender difference in this category.
Australian boys’ attitudes are more militaristic, while
girls’ attitudes more pacific, and acceptance of war is
greater among children attending single-sex boys’ and
Private Protestant schools (Hall, 1993).
More boys tend to be pro-war than girls (Garatti and
Rudnitski, 2007).
Drawings of children
Walker et al (2003) expressed that children
included significantly more objects and more
figures in their war drawings than in their peace
drawings. On the other hand, most of the
drawings include the theme of fantasy. This
situation stem from relying less on imagination
and more on exposure to film and video games.
McLernon and Cairns (2001) noted that themes
of nature and religion within children images of
peace, and concrete objects and activities in
their images of war.
Peace education
• According to Johnson and Johnson, peace education is a
key for establishing a consensual peace and maintaining
it over time. In their opinion, there are 5 essential
elements in building a lasting peace through education.
First, a public education system must be established that
has compulsory attendance for all children and youth,
integrated so students from previously conflicting groups
interact with one another and have the opportunity to
build positive relationships with each other. Second, a
sense of mutuality and common fate needs to be
established that highlights mutual goals, the just
distribution of benefits from achieving the goals, and a
common identity. In schools, this is primarily done
through the use of cooperative learning.
Third, students must be taught the constructive
controversy procedure to ensure they know how
to make difficult decisions and engage in
political discourse. Fourth, students must be
taught how to engage in integrative negotiations
and peer mediation to resolve their conflicts with
each other constructively. Finally, civic values
must be inculcated that focus students on the
long-term common good of society.
On the other hand, Turkish student
teachers also lay emphasis on the
necessity of peace education in primary
schools. They stated that peace education
is significant since it encourages values,
such as social harmony, tolerance, global
thinking, and individual development
(Deveci et al, 2008).
Thank you