The Peacebuilding Toolkit for Educators is intended to assist educators in their work as peacebuilders. We believe that young people, both individually and collectively, have a remarkable capacity to learn about and contribute to international conflict resolution, and that educators can channel students’ energy and excitement positively. Additionally, we intend to provide information and materials on the complicated nature of peacebuilding. We developed this toolkit and dedicated a section of our Global Peacebuilding Center website to providing materials and lessons for middle school and high school students, as well as interactive exercises and a discussion forum for you to solicit feedback on difficult classroom issues.
This toolkit is focused on peacebuilding because we recognize that peacebuilding must be established, nurtured, and sustained. Our mission is to assist young people in developing as peacebuilders and to increase awareness of positive examples of nonviolent conflict resolution. The objective of this toolkit is not to teach students what to think; rather, we want to encourage them to think critically about their environment and their place in it. We believe that the peacebuilding skills outlined in this toolkit are useful on a variety of levels. Peer mediators employ a variety of tactics in middle school and high school conflict resolution programs that are comparable to those used by diplomats and leaders of state during international peace discussions. While international conflicts are frequently significantly more complicated, the fundamental skills of active listening, connection building, and cooperative problem solving apply at all levels.