Peacebuilding in Pakistan through Peace Education

Author : Afshan Huma

Abstract : In the post war era during 1940s until the end of 20th century, various scholars and researchers worked on development of models of peace education. Education has always been seen as a social process that modifies and transforms people's thoughts to enable them to live in harmony and peace with their society. For this reason, incorporating peace education into the school curriculum remained the most common strategy to achieve the desired outcomes. In Pakistan, for many years, peace as a phenomenon and peace education as a subject of study were not even introduced, but peace themes were introduced in curriculum at elementary school level. (Huma, 2024; Ashraf & Huma, 2019). Yet it was found that neither the teachers knew where the peace message is infused in the text books nor they acquired the pedagogical knowledge to unpack these messages in classrooms (Ashraf & Huma, 2020). Curriculum and teacher education reforms one after another have also aimed to prepare teachers and include peace themes for inculcating peace values in education, but these initiatives are not built upon each other and contain a disconnect within the classroom learning materials and teachers’ guides (Huma, Rizwan, Naseem, 2025). This study aimed to assess the levels of intrapersonal and interpersonal peace among elementary school teachers, identify any aggressive and violent practices witnessed in schools, and explore teachers’ and teacher educators’ perspectives on the pedagogical content and approaches needed for professional development of elementary school teachers. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was employed to assess the current situation and to explore what teacher educators and peace educators propose to include in training modules of peace education through peace pedagogy.

Keywords : Peace Education, Peace Pedagogy, Professional Development, Intrapersonal Peace, Interpersonal Peace Practices

Conference Name : International Conference on Peace Agreements and Conflict Resolution (ICPACR-26)

Conference Place : Birmingham, UK

Conference Date : 21st May 2026