Youth leadership and global citizenship: alternatives for peacebuilding in Brazilian public schools

Abstract

Peace is a social construct that demands a process of individual and collective awareness and commitment for the construction of a fairer and more inclusive world. The University and the school, as formal educational spaces, have a great potential as peacebuilders. This article discusses these two arguments from fragments of an experience held in two public schools from Distrito Federal. It was conducted by the Unesco Chair on Youth, Education, and Society (Catholic University of Brasília – UCB) from 2015 to the present. The first part discusses the current context of young people from the theoretical lens of global citizenship and the centrality of youth leadership and empowerment in the process of peace building. The second part emphasizes the role of the university and the public school in the construction of networks that act proactively in the citizenship education of young people, preparing them for facing situations of violence and intolerance. The final part of the article looks at the experiences of the last three years, examples of successful educational practices that have the potential to act in the prevention of school violence and in the construction of an inclusive and emancipatory global citizenship. The study shows that Unesco’s principles of education for peace and global citizenship are important alternatives for the promotion and building of peace.