CREATING THE CONDITIONS OF LEARNING FOR CONSTRUCTIVE INTERACTION WITH CONFLICT

1. CREATING THE CONDITIONS OF LEARNING FOR CONSTRUCTIVE INTERACTION WITH CONFLICT Learning Development Institute (LDI) WWW.LEARNDEV.ORG UNESCO - Learning Without Frontiers (LWF) WWW.UNESCO.ORG/EDUCATION/LWF Jan Visser jvisser@learndev.org AERA 2000: Creating Knowledge in the 21st Century

2. Two background papers • War, Peace, and the Minds of Men • AERA 2000 • Rethinking Learning • In special issue of Vimukt Shiksha on “Unfolding Learning Societies: Challenges and Opportunities” (April 2000) www.learndev.org AERA 2000: Creating Knowledge in the 21st Century

3. Symposium theme:Multiple Perspectives of International Peace Education and Peace Studies My perspectives: • learning beyond education • peace education vs. learning to interact constructively with conflict • learning as a lifelong disposition • the learning environment as an integrated whole • multiplicity of spatio-temporal reference frames AERA 2000: Creating Knowledge in the 21st Century

4. Perspective 1Learning beyond education • Eductation  Learning • Learning ecology • Role of school in learning ecology • Learning • not only consequence of instruction • not only cognitive, also emotive • not only individual, but at different levels of organizational complexity AERA 2000: Creating Knowledge in the 21st Century

5. Perspective 2Constructive interaction with conflict • Conflict, a natural condition. • Related to the world we live in. • Has everything to do with diversity. • Diversity essential requirement for growth/life. • Learning for peace means: Learning to interact constructively with conflict. (The politics of power provides generally poor examples of our capacity to do so in an international context.) AERA 2000: Creating Knowledge in the 21st Century

6. Perspective 3Learning, a lifelong disposition • The emphasis is on disposition. • Two dimensions of disposition: • emotive disposition (attitude of openness) • meta-cognitive/emotive disposition (set of skills or ability to learn) (Saying that learning is lifelong - in the above sense, i.e. as a disposition - is simply stating the obvious.) AERA 2000: Creating Knowledge in the 21st Century

7. Perspective 4Learning environment as integrated whole • Different sub-environments organically part of the whole and interrelated with each other (Bronfenbrenner [1994] develops the bioecological paradigm in a more restricted sense with particular reference to the family environment in relation to the wider world, emphasizing the importance of proximal processes in human development.) • Learning ecology based on organic integration of different levels of complex organization to constitute complete and comprehensive whole. AERA 2000: Creating Knowledge in the 21st Century

8. Perspective 5Multiple spatio-temporal reference frames • The school-based frames of reference are limited by the typical architectural design and timeframes of 50 minutes, several months and several years. • The issues at stake in learning for peace require more open, more dynamic, and longer-term perspectives. AERA 2000: Creating Knowledge in the 21st Century

9. Examples in UNESCO context • Culture of Peace News Network (part of Culture of Peace Program) • Global Youth Dialogue (part of Learning Without Frontiers) • Associated Schools program (part of Education for Peace and International Understanding). AERA 2000: Creating Knowledge in the 21st Century