May 3, 2019 – Last month, the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative (WPDI) held a training on conflict resolution education for 43 teachers from the Panyadoli Self-Help Secondary School in the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement. The workshop focused on strengthening the teachers’ abilities to constructively manage and resolve conflicts at their school and within their communities. The training was a request of the school managers and the teachers, who had witnessed first-hand the incredible power of the conflict resolution training we had provided to their students.
The initiative was rooted in our peace education and conflict resolution program, an initiative we implement in Mexico, South Sudan, Uganda, and the United States. We offer training sessions on these subjects to young people, including our youth leaders, as well as community leaders and local residents. As we know that values conducive to building peace and promoting reconciliation must be learned at the earliest possible age, it is vitally important that conflict resolution education be taught directly in primary and secondary school classrooms, providing children and youth with tools that will shape their values, attitudes, and behaviors for the years and decades to come. At the Panyadoli Self-Help Secondary School in the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement, our approach had been to create a peace club, inviting participants to apply their teaching among their peers. However, when our Founder/CEO visited the school last March, school managers and teachers had an additional request: they asked us to train their teachers too so that they could better teach their students and promote peace.
This was a request that we could not ignore. In a matter of weeks, we managed to set up a training workshop and gather 43 teachers – most of the school’s faculty. The training workshop lasted three days, with topics covered in the training including conflict and its sources, communication and active listening, mediation, and power dynamics. In addition to educating the teachers about concepts and best practices concerning conflict resolution, it sought to help them better manage their day-to-day responses to situations at the school.
The workshop was very well-received by the teachers. As Judith noted, “I usually apply traditional ways of resolving conflicts in school. Now, I have new skills to approach conflicts and effectively communicate. I will put these skills into practice in my classes!”. Another teacher, Eluk, mentioned that “My university training was essential but these conflict resolution training has bridged the gap in my knowledge. I particularly loved the peacebuilding training.” At the close of the training, the school’s headteacher Yasir declared “I am very pleased that 43 teachers have benefitted from this training and will be able to resolve conflict and build peace. We look forward to working together with WPDI for the benefit of this school.”