Having the privilege of being a teacher
for the last twenty years, and to work as a facilitator in mediation and
restorative justice in criminal cases in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila
for the last seven, has given me the opportunity to make two worlds meet,
integrating one restorative practice, circle process, into classroom work for
different educational purposes.
This entry, on the one hand, aims to explain
what peace education is, what circle process are, and how the later can be integrated
into classroom work so that the reader can better understand of the utility and
flexibility of this practice which can help teachers build trust and community
among their students, whilst developing skills such as decision making, emphatic
listening, and positive conflict resolution, and promoting the values of
empathy and understanding.
On the other, this entry seeks to show
how circle processes, also known as peace circles, are useful in creating a
better classroom and school environment, to help teachers understand their
students’ values, principles, and needs, to better facilitate learning
processes in different school levels.
Keywords: circle process, peace education, teaching,
method.
UNESCO and peace education
As stated by Vinyamata (2004) conflicts
are present in every moment of life, they are consubstantial to human beings,
and because of this, skills and behaviors to deal with disputes positively are
necessary if we are to avoid the negative outcomes of confrontation, whether it
is between two spouses or two nations.
Reimer (2015) points out that conflicts among nation-states contain many
of the same trends and elements as simpler disputes between neighbors or family
members, so if a couple does not solve their divorce peacefully their
children will suffer the consequences of their parents’ lack of understanding, and
likewise if two nations fail to diplomatically resolve a ideological differences
war would be suffered by their citizens.
Although, according to Tinker (2016) peace education is
as old as war itself, World War II marked the beginning of a movement that
would promote peace education to help humanity avoid a third armed conflict.
Indeed, it was during this terrible time in history that the seed was planted
for what would latter become the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization.
In 1942 the European States that were
fighting Germany and it allies, held a meeting, the Conference of Allied
Ministers of Education (UNESCO, 2017) to discuss how they would rebuild their
educational systems once the war was over, however by 1945 this initiative had evolved
into UNESCO, and the goal had been broadened, the new teleology was not just to
rebuild the educational systems of the war-torn countries, but to build peace
through international cooperation in Education, the Sciences and Culture (UNESCO,
2018).
On a particular worrisome note the UNESCO
has just recently lost two state members Israel and the US (U.S. Department of
State, 2017), this is a grave loss in a time of aggressive nationalism, racism,
and xenophobia, attitudes and behaviors that threaten peace in the local[1],
national, and international levels.
What is peace education
According to UNESCO (2005) peace education is a remedial measure to protect children from
falling into the ways of violence in society. It aims at the total development
of the child. It tries to inculcate higher human and social values in the mind
of the child. In essence, it attempts to develop a set of behavioral skills
necessary for peaceful living and peace building from which the whole of
humanity will benefit.
But what are those behavioral skills and
those higher human and social values that need to be taught and developed in
individuals in order to be able to live peacefully even in the presence of
conflict?
The
skills: Skills are the ability to do
something well, an expertise, a particular ability (Oxford, 2018), and for Sánchez
(2015) peace education aspires not only
to inform people about the diverse aspects of human conflict, but to teach
conflict resolution abilities such as negotiation techniques and adequate
communication tools.
Additionally, in the 2005 Peace Education,
Framework for Teacher Education Manual, UNESCO proposes that peace education
involves skills such as, affirmation,
positive thinking, empathetic listening and communication, assertive behavior,
decision-making and critical thinking.
The
values: The Oxford dictionary
explains that values are principles or standards of behavior, one’s regard of
what is important in life, and some of the standards of behavior we need to
teach and develop when educating for peace are understanding and empathy according
to Martínez (2012) quoting Stanford and Roarkel,
In
short, peace education seeks to develop skills and values that will help the
learner live peacefully and deal positively with conflicts though co-operation,
empathy and understanding, and the effective use of empathetic listening and
other communication tools, Quezada and Romo (2004) citing Harris propose that
its ultimate goal is to promote peacekeeping,
peacemaking, and peacebuilding. Now that we have reviewed some ideas that
explain what peace education mean, we need to ask ourselves how we can
integrate such learning objectives into our curriculum?
Curriculum and peace education.
For Grossi and Do Santos (2012) one way
to introduce peace education is the
implementation of restorative circles in
the school setting, in our classrooms, although their research only deals
with their effect to counter bullying in schools in Brazil, they recognize they
do promote a peace culture among students.
Peace education does not require the development of
an independent subject but rather its integration to regular ones, and this
integration can be done though six main means (UNESCO, 2005), namely subject
context, subject perspectives, teaching methods, co-curricular activities,
staff development, and classroom and school management.
In
accordance with this last view, I propose that peace education can be
integrated into our curriculum if we see circle processes as an education
method, and in order to do that we need to review some ideas that explain what
an educational method is.
Educational method
Ramírez (2013) considers that a teaching
method is a set of decisions made by teachers to communicate their knowledge to
promote the learnings they have visualized as important and, to configure the
most adequate learning situations suitable for the learning setting.
Furthermore, López-Barajas (as cited by
Ramírez, 2013) assets that didactic methodologies aim to create processes to
promote the transmission and transference of declarative (subjects, contents),
procedural (processes, abilities) and attitudinal contents (values, stances) to
generate learnings.
If we are to promote skills and values
that will help our students to coexist more peacefully even in the presence of
conflict we need to help them develop their capacities in the zone of proximal development through the use of
appropriate teaching methods that incorporate active, experiential
and group-based learning-situated activities with an adult or more capable peer
(Zenda, 2017), and that method can very well be the circle process, as we
will see next.
What are circle processes
There is no general consensus on the
creation of circle processes however, according to Paulette & Rickard
(2003) the Woodland tribes in the Midwest
of the United States have been credited as being the first communities to use
talking circles as a form of decision making procedure. Pranis (2014) does not credit any specific
tribe with the creation of circles but rather points out they were common among
the indigenous people of north America. In Mexico circle processes are being
mainly used as a way to achieve restorative results in criminal justice
proceedings both for adults and for adolescents, however circle processes,
along with other restorative practices, can also be used to build and heal
communities (Zehr, 2015).
Indeed,
in aboriginal cultures, talking circles are
a traditional way of bringing people together with the intent of sharing
knowledge, experiences, and values in a respectful and orderly social context
according to Running Wolf & Rickard (as cited in Blodgett et al, 2003), they
allow participants to have very significant conversations, these conversations
can be over how to be together in a better way, how to build a stronger
community, how to solve a conflict, for decision making, to take care of the
needs and responsibilities emanated from harm or offence, among many other
uses.
The
way this process works, as the name suggests, is that all the participants will
sit in a circle of chairs (although they could sit on cushions or beanbags),
without tables or desks, there is often
a central piece which will be the focal point for the group, then there is the
talking piece, the most important element of the circle, which is an object
that has a special meaning for the group, it will be passed around the circle,
from hand to hand, and if one is holding it that means that one is allowed to
speak, and that the rest of the participants are to listen, or as Tremblay et
all (2018) put it, circles encourage story-telling and collective listening.
The
talking piece allows participants to express themselves, to take the time to
find the words to say, as no one else is allowed to speak they will be focusing
in listening more empathically and actively than they usually do. If a
participant does not wish to talk when they receive the talking piece they do
not have to, they can pass it without speaking, but if they do, they will be
able to express themselves without being interrupted.
Pranis (2014) explains that the physical
format of the circle symbolizes shared
leadership, equality, connection, and inclusion. It also promotes focus,
accountability, and participation, sitting in circle creates an ideal
atmosphere for dialogue that allows the group to obtain very honest and deep
conversations in a respectful and confidential setting.
Circle processes in school
Circle processes are a form of restorative
practice and research has found that restorative practices are increasingly
being used in schools (Hopkins, 2015), circle processes aim to promote personal
and collective reflection thought a dialog in which students have the chance to
speak and be listened to, so that they might learn from each other and strengthen
their bonds, according to Arias (2012) circles enable different ways to approach
a specific topic, through signification and search for meaning, helping build
knowledge, and the development of socializing abilities and attitudes.
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Stages of circle processes
Circle
processes are known to be used around Mexico in school settings and for
learning purposes, and still there is little literature on the matter, however Arias
assets that circles should comprise the following four stages:
1. Discernment. During this stage the convenience of the
circle is determined though gathering information about the interests and needs
of our students, we will choose topics and define objectives for our circle.
2. Preparation. This means the teacher will inform and
prepare their students, it also means preparing logistic aspects, in my
experience this involves aspects such as choosing the types of chairs, deciding
the suitability of the classroom, choosing a talking piece, deciding on a
central piece, et cetera.
3. Materialization. Martinez proposes that he actual
circle should take place through four stages too, they are: Trust building;
Relationship building; Topic discussion, and; Final reflections.
4. Follow-up. The
objective of this stage is to promote changes and improvements in our
educational practice by picking up the essence of the experience (Martínez,
2010, as cited by Arias, 2012).
Pranis asserts that
there are nine main types of circles, or purposes for circles, these are: Talking,
understanding, healing, sentencing, support, community-building, conflict resolution,
reintegration, and celebration. In Mexico I have used them in two settings for
criminal conflict resolution, and as a teaching method, in this setting I have
used most except for sentencing, healing, and reintegration.
Although Brachner (cited by Ferrão et al,
2016) and other authors propose other denominations or variations of types of
circles, such as restorative dialogues and family circles, having been trained
by Pranis (once in Oaxaca, Mexico back in May 2016, and once more in my home
city, Saltillo, November 2017), her proposals make more logic to me, so I will
use her view to explain the use of circles in the classroom.
Circles in the classroom
Talking circles are useful for examining
specific or general topics from different view points, this type of circle does
not aim at reaching a consensus on the matter being discussed, they aim at
getting participants to share their opinions and reflect on those of their
peers, one way I have used this type of circle is to explore the viewpoints of our
students on what they think conflict means, what their idea is of justice, or
what they think makes a good student/teacher.
Understanding circles, are very similar to
talking circles in that they do not seek to reach consensus, but they are meant
to take the conversation to a deeper stage, to get more insight on a more
specific matter or idea, Pranis purposes that they are meant to be a way to
explore a specific aspect of a given conflict or difficult situation, but in
our experience they can be useful for discussing certain subtopics of class.
I have used support circles only once,
during a summer course at Universidad Autónoma del Noreste in Saltillo, Mexico,
back in 2016, there was a student (18 years old) who just recently had lost a
parent, they still were coming to class but seemed to be off and distant, since
we had already had talking circles some of their friends asked if we could hold
a circle to let them know they were there, that they cared. I talked to the
student and they accepted the proposal. Support circles are meant to help a
person get through a difficult moment in life, and they could reach a consensus
that would outline a plan of support.
I have facilitated Community-building
circles in my classes as a way to build or strengthen the relationships of my
students, so that they get to know me and each other, and learn to trust one
another, getting to know each other better and value those things that we have
in common whilst respecting our differences.
Conflict resolution circles make
conversation happen between parties at conflict, and through the respectful
exchange of ideas they aim to reach a solution of the dispute, they are not
meant to find out who is guilty and innocent but rather to talk about the
situation, how it made people feel, how it affected them, and then finding out
what has to be done to take care of the needs of those affected by the
situation, and to prevent it from happening again. I have used this type of
circle so solve conflicts between my students on several occasions during the
last four years.
Sometimes there are students that
overcome a difficult health issue, or that win a medal in a sports competition,
or get the whole classroom did excellently well on a very difficult test or assignment,
and to honor or celebrate them I have used celebration circles that according
to Pranis are meant to share joy and sense of accomplishment, and indeed they
do.
Conclusion
Although there are several definitions of
what we must understand when we speak of peace education it is easily understandable
that its teleology aims at the development of skills and values necessary for
peaceful living and peace building, and a teacher that wants to incorporate
peace education into their curriculum needs not create an specific topic to do
so rather will have to choose one or several ways (subject context, subject
perspectives, teaching methods, co-curricular activities, staff development, and
classroom and school management.) to incorporate the development of said
principles and abilities throughout an existing subject.
Circle processes can be used as a teaching
method to do exactly that, since they can be a conduct to help students attain
the declarative, procedural and attitudinal contents of the existing subject and
those of peace education though individual and collective reflection enabled by
the circles.
We are living in a world that has an
increasing number of challenges, from climate change to war, and during the
last decade or so, we have witnessed a rise in aggressive nationalisms, racism,
and xenophobia in developed western countries, and else where, it is a time to
reflect how we as teachers might contribute to form world citizens that will
reject violence and intolerance and will choose peaceful ways of coexisting,
incorporating circle processes as a teaching method is one way to go about it.
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[1]
Think local not only as your town or city, it also means sour classrooms and
schools, our neighborhoods and buildings.
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