Children’s conceptions of peace in two Ugandan primary schools: Insights for peace curriculum

Abstract

Oppenheimer urged communities all over the world to study how children come to understand peace, conflict, and war. Set in various countries, their review of studies, as well as more recent examinations reveal trends in how children view these phenomena, often differing by gender, age, and extent to which they were exposed to highly dangerous and traumatizing situations, like being forced to be child soldiers or sex slaves. No such research has been published in the contemporary post-war Uganda context. Using focus group methodology, we asked: How might Ugandan primary school children's stories about peace (traditional and otherwise) help them navigate conflict? What sorts of conflicts do these children observe in their home, school, and community, and how do they describe peace as being resolved by themselves or others? The purpose of our study was to contribute to the knowledge base on peace education in Uganda and to ultimately develop written materials that students can use as part of their learning in their respective schools. Local studies like this one are relevant to the global situation because racial and economic conditions are global phenomena. The local manifestations can speak to those racial and 2 economic conditions as perspectives not often used to put the global situation in relief. This paper explores the findings related to the children's overarching conceptions of peace and their ideas of peacebuilding, including activities that both hinder and encourage peace. The voices of the children speak strongly of the connection between peace and access to basic necessities in the community.

Focus Group Interviews in Child, Youth, and Parent Research: An Integrative Literature Review

“…To assess content validity, a second analysis could be conducted and comparison with other literature that show similar findings increase the confidence in the validity of findings and constructs (Kidd & Parshall, 2000). Another possibility is to present the analyzed findings to the original groups to ensure that their views were captured correctly (Kagaari et al, 2017;Parker et al, 2012;Ronen, Rosenbaum, Law, & Streiner, 2001).…”

A study of Ugandan children’s perspectives on peace, conflict, and peace-building: A liberation psychology approach.

“…In regard to wasted food as an outcome of anger, the children spoke of the “pouring,” when their mothers would experience anger toward the father for a range of issues, including violence against the mothers, by discarding or pouring out the family meal. As Kagaari et al (2017) related, The way it [peace] was expressed by the children, indicates an awareness in social justice and equity as a primary aspect of peace. For example a girl said from Pere Pere said that a peaceful village is one where “ there is always food ” enough for everyone.…”

“…A central point of our approach was to make use of our data to help inform an ongoing collaboration with students, teachers, and school leaders that would unfold into peace practices capable of disrupting metacolonialism in both the school and surrounding community settings. Details of this study are presented in Kagaari et al (2017), which we summarize below. In this article, we dedicate attention to the relevance of the findings to the integration of liberationist and Africanist traditions to inform an emerging Ugandan psychology.…”

“…In regard to wasted food as an outcome of anger, the children spoke of the "pouring," when their mothers would experience anger toward the father for a range of issues, including violence against the mothers, by discarding or pouring out the family meal. As Kagaari et al (2017)…”

Media Wayang Golek untuk Menumbuhkan Kesadaran Menyelesaikan Konflik secara Konstruktif bagi Siswa SMP

“…Untuk menciptakan pendidikan damai, Kartadinata (2015) menyatakan asumsi dasar mengembangkan pendidikan damai yaitu dengan cara membiasakan pikiran untuk mengontrol keinginan, mencocokan antara yang pantas diterima dan yang diinginkan, mengembangkan keikhlasan dan rasa hormat terhadap perbedaan, peduli, serta bergerak maju dari permusuhan menuju kolaborasi. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian tentang pendidikan damai oleh (Kagaari et al, 2017) menyatakan pendidikan damai yaitu memikirkan dan menyediakan layanan yang berorientasi pada pemenuhan kebutuhan dasar di rumah dan di sekolah. Dengan demikian, mengajarkan pendidikan damai di rumah dan sekolah adalah cara paling efektif.…”