Developing a Culture of Peace in School Setting
The 21st Century Educational Challenges
Sunaryo Kartadinata
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi No. 229, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Peace, Peaceful School, Pedagogy of Peace Education.
Abstract: In the context of the global life, there have been shifts of the role and aims of education. Education is not
confined to building a solid nationalism but also to build transnationalism in a peaceful life within the
universal ethics. It must grow ranging from individual to structural life, and is eventually manifested in the
diversity and meaningfulness of gratitude to the Almighty God. The described culture of life reflects a
quality human life and education is the process of facilitating people to become peaceful individuals. It
means that quality human life as described would have to be a dimension of goals of education that must be
achieved by individuals in accordance with their potential in their lifelong development. Peace is not only
perceived as the absence of war, conflict, riots, violence, and conflict resolution, but also as mindset of
peace and life skills for sustainable peace. Peaceful school culture should be created to learners’ mindset of
peace and peaceful life. This paper presents a philosophical view of peace and intervention strategies to
develop the learners’ mindset of peace in school setting.
1 INTRODUCTION
A research finding in the last three years
(Kartadinata, 2015-2017) has strengthened a need
for the development of peace education pedagogy in
order to bring about the culture of peaceful
schooling in an effort to educate individuals as
national and global citizens in diversity.
Incheon Declaration of World Education Forum
2015 singled out an educational vision of 2030:
“towards inclusive and equitable quality education
and lifelong learning for all”, along with its
corresponding: “education is essential for peace,
tolerance, human fulfilment and sustainable
development…. will focus our efforts on access,
equity and inclusion, quality and learning outcomes,
within a lifelong learning approach”. The so-called
corresponding targets mean that education is
responsible for creating peace and peaceful life and
keeping its sustainability. It is understood that peace
is not just about the living conditions that are away
from war, riots or violence but rather the conditions
of life that is built on the mindset, the ways of
thinking, and values of peace. Peace concerning all
aspects of human life, physical and non-physical,
which will bring people to live in state of well-
being. Peace and well-being are like two sides of a
coin that cannot be separated from each other.
The history of human life and the phenomena of
life today is never vanished from physical and non-
physical violence. This suggests that human life is
never peaceful. In line with the idea of the human
existential condition as described, peace should be
the content of goals of education. Peace is not just
the living conditions that are free from war, riots or
violence but rather the conditions of life that is built
on the mindset and values of peace. Peace
concerning all aspects of human life, physical and
non-physical, which will bring people life into the
state of wellbeing. Individual countries have
different experiences and burning issues that become
the framework of peace and peace education.
As we are all aware, Finland is among the top ten
peaceful countries in the world. Finland
(Kartadinata, 2016) “…is a small country that had
been in the grip of Sweden and the Soviet Union that
this country has a long history of bitter in the
colonial period. This history has encouraged them to
utilized and appreciate the independence such that
they continue to be a peaceful nation in Europe.
Currently Finland is one of the most peaceful
countries in the world, and often encourages its
leaders to be mediators of peace in various conflicts
418
Kartadinata, S.
Developing a Culture of Peace in School Setting - The 21st Century Educational Challenges.
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2017) - Volume 2, pages 418-424
ISBN: 978-989-758-314-8
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

around the world, including peace process between
the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh
Movement in 2005. In this report, the values of
peace developed in Finland originated from various
social practices carried out in schools.”
The traumatic experience of the Japanese people
over the atomic bombing of Hiroshima 73 years ago,
had encouraged the Japanese to prevent the
reoccurrence of similar events for mankind on this
earth. It is manifested the Japanese people’
commitment to organizing peace education from an
early age to college. Peace is taught and brought into
the classroom not as subjects, but it is embedded in
the classroom learning process and school
atmosphere and culture. In this case, teachers should
therefore cultivate virtues and thereby peace within
themselves, and with others. Self-cultivation is a
crucial aspect of peace education; as true peace is
created from within. An important virtue in peace
education is respect. When we relate to others in a
non-conflicting way, we will treat them with respect
and look for their good qualities (virtues). Ikeda
(2014) suggested that respecting others is equivalent
to respecting ourselves. Mutual respect will break
down divisive walls supported by social class, race,
gender, cultural background, or political ambitions.
In the case of Germany, peace education has
been organized on the basis of guiding principles of
interest in and recognition of different cultures and
lifestyles in global society. The German school
situation reflects the German society today, which is
made up of population coming from many different
cultures. Therefore, school children should be
equipped with meta knowledge of migratory flows
and their impact on education, social and
intercultural skills such as mindfulness, flexibility
and empathy to keep peaceful life.
As a multi-ethnic country, Indonesian has built
the nationalism on ethnic diversity unified by a
national spirit. This is a challenge that Indonesia
deals with to sustainably develop and maintain the
national unity. Conflict vulnerability easily takes
place when the national spirit is not sustainably
maintained and inherited by the next generation. It is
therefore crucial to provide Nationalism Education
and put it into Indonesian curriculum, from
elementary school to university. Potential conflicts
in our community should not be resolved in a
repressive way, but in a persuasive way. In the long-
term, they should be resolved by an educative and
welfare approach, rather than a security focused
approach. For Indonesia, developing a lifelong
national peace in cultural and ethnic diversity
certainty requires systematic and continuous efforts.
Developing a peace culture and peace education for
all has become a need and a must in order to
sustainably bring about and keep national unity.
Education is a matter related to the nature and
purpose of human life. It means that education must
start from deep understanding and solid
philosophical foundations of the nature and purpose
of human life. Teleological perspectives of bringing
people from what they are into what they should be
(Kartadinata, 2017) through education efforts have
to be answered and be formulated as the basic
framework of philosophy of education. A
philosophically thought of education is not static but
rather contextual, culturally bound, rooted to beliefs
systems, and across generations and diverse
societies.
What is the top of human development and
universal goal that people have to achieve through
education? When we see man is born into the
world in his position as the representative of God on
the earth, but God also warned that the people who
will do mischief on the earth. It is an existential
human condition, which is the awareness and sense
of human mind should be encourage to fight to resist
committing the damage. Should the existential
human condition be an integral part of goals of
education and focus of educational interventions? In
Islamic perspective, for example, the plenary human
development is the state of quite soul (mitoma'inah),
and God called upon it to go to heaven. It can be
meant that the state of peaceful souls is all making it
a nice, peaceful living in the horizontal and vertical
relationships. Should education create optimum
conditions to facilitate human development to
achieve a life of quite soul?
Should the existential human condition be an
integral part of goals of education and focus of
educational interventions? The answer is yes,
because the quiet soul reflects a life that is
autonomous, realistic and not excessive, not greedy
and consumeristic, surrenders to the Creator but to
work hard to reach a self- realization, have adequate
adaptability based on an understanding of the values
in the contextual life, and aware of assuming
responsibility to the whole of thought and action.
Meanwhile, reality presents much violence to human
life. The gap between ideal and actual conditions is a
strong reason for putting peace as the destination
aspect of quality education, and constitutes an aspect
of human development to be achieved in a form of
self-realization.
The basic concept of this discussion is the
positive view of peace. Webel and Galtung (2007)
classify peace into two categories: positive and
Developing a Culture of Peace in School Setting - The 21st Century Educational Challenges
419

negative peace. Positive peace is a state that is
simultaneously present in everyday life in society,
such as harmony, justice, and equality, while
negative peace is a situation where there is no more
war and a variety of violent acts and conflicts.
(Kartadinata: 2016). Peace and peace education in
positive perspective focuses on nurturing the
mindset of peace and peaceful life as the process of
lifelong human development. Peace (peacefulness)
can be integrated into sustainable development of
educational goals.
The most significant strategy to promote the
culture of peace is through peace education (Castro
and Galace, 2010). It is not simply confined to the
conflicts and peaceful conflict resolution, and it will
be more effective when adjusted to the social
context, culture, needs, and aspiration of a country.
Peace education should be reinforced by cultural,
religious, and human values and can even be seen as
the “essence of a new humanity”. (Kartadinata,
2016)
Various cultural values and beliefs prevailing in
all nations are believed to carry and teach peace. It is
only human beings who are not peaceful. A study by
Kartadinata (2016) in the Sundanese community
(who was considered to represent Indonesia for the
purpose of the study) and Finnish society proved the
existence of similar values of peace in their
respective cultures. Similarities and differences
could be seen in their ways of inheriting peace
values to the young generation. “The basis of the
Sundanese culture is a triadic relationship between
God, human beings, and nature and the core of
peaceful life can be located in this relationship”.
(Kartadinata, 2016). Major local values of peaceful
life in Sundanese, and in Indonesia in general,
identified in the values of “… religiosity,
spirituality, tolerance, empathy, respect, and
collaboration (Kartadinata, 2016).
In Sundanese culture “There are various
strategies of transformation values are used, among
others, through literature kakawihan, babasan,
traditional games, the lexicon of botany, architecture
and papagon hirup dan pikukuh (life guidance and
advises), dance, through the ritual of eating, even
religious tourism. Teaching the values of local
wisdom cannot be forced, there is no penalty and
reward, but allowing people to choose imaginative
and take lessons from around the events of the story.
This confirms that the Sundanese have a strong
sense of the domain, so the sense of an entrance to
the collective consciousness” (Kartadinata, 2016).
Meanwhile, values of peace in Finland originally
developed from various social practices carried out
in schools. “… they help students develop the
following values: achievement without competition,
confidence, responsibility, tolerance and trust,
independence and freedom, and democracy”.
(Kartadinata, 2016). In Japan, peace education is
organized from an early age to college. Peace is
taught and brought into the classroom not as
subjects, but it is embedded in the classroom
learning process and school atmosphere and culture.
Instructional processes put the teaching materials as
media to foster the classroom atmosphere that
supports peaceful mind and behavior.
In the context of formal education, the above
described framework and research findings imply
that the mindset of peace could be developed
through the creation of peaceful school culture as
human development ecology. The peaceful
classroom atmosphere is not void of competition. It
is an instrument to achieve successful and high-
quality learning results, which involve standardized
competition rather than interpersonal competition. In
this case, “a peaceable classroom is one in which
students and teachers use the processes and the
philosophical principles to create a classroom in
which learning is maximized and students can
achieve high standards.’ (Faour. et.al. nd. ppt)
2 METHODS
This current research adopted a descriptive method
as it particularly analysed tacit information that can
be useful to the construction of a new concept of
model. In this study, the researcher is a “key
instrument” because only human who can
understand the meaning of human interaction and
the values that live in the cultural and social
background. Data were collected by interview and
observation in the context of Indonesian, Japanese
and Finnish schools. Because this study can include
an interpretive synthesis of qualitative information,
the research data collection can also rely on the
secondary data sources from the previous studies in
which the primary data collection is a study protocol
document. For the purposes of triangulation of data
from interviews and observation, interviews were
conducted in the form of one on one interview and
focus group interviews for 45-50 minutes in
duration, using a model of open-ended and informal
conversational style model to explore models of safe
and peaceful school. To document the whole
interview process in order to maintain the
information, a tape recorder was used as an assisting
tool. Observations was also made non-participatory
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with the help of field notes and video cameras to
understand the strategy of preservation of school
values in the development of school safety and
peace.
In particular, this study was particularly
conducted in cooperation with Finnish and Japanese
counterparts to scrutinize the processes of peace
education at school level. Actually, this research
consisted of four steps, namely the identification,
selection, abstraction, observation, and analysis. A
brief description of each step is presented as follows.
Identification step, at this stage be tracking
all the results of research related to the peace
education and school safety and peace. In particular,
a theoretical and empirical analysis will mainly be
done the University of Sydney library because this
institution has an institution that focuses on peace
and conflict studies.
Selection step, based on the eligibility criteria
will be selected some research that are relevant to
the context of the planned research. The criteria to
be used in selecting the type of research is the result
of research, source of the documents, the study
period, the accuracy and completeness of the
research, and the ease in obtaining relevant research
documents. Abstraction step, an activity suggested
“meaning in context” to all relevant research,
including the social and theoretical context. This
abstraction process is still a new take on the essence
of the relevant research based on common research
focus. Included in this abstraction step is grouping
the results of similar studies based on processes,
events, and activities. This abstraction process is
informative and indicative containing information
briefly on objectives, methods, and results of
relevant research.
Observation step, a field activity to collect
data on school circumstance and behaviors that
characterize the school community’s commitment to
build school safety and peace. The observation will
focus on verbal and physical traits of the behaviors
presented during school interaction and
communication.
Analysis step, this stage is a process of
interpretation that is both interactive and
simultaneously in order to find “meaning in
context”. The analysis will use a thematic technique
and content analysis and will come to an end if it
discovered patterns or trends that persist or some
sort of theoretical saturation. The analysis focused
on a common theme and the theme is unexpected
theme of any research results, both in the context of
Indonesia, Japan and Germany.
To arrive at the final conclusion, the research
data were analyzed and interpreted on the basis of
personal reflection and review of the literature. This
step is intended to reduce the subjectivity so that the
validity and credibility results of this study can
justified. Interpretation process will use a variety of
strategies, such as metaphor-analogy, multi-
perspective, the theme of different equation and
testimonials.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Building a culture of peace in school life is an
educational action and process for the long-term
development of peaceful behavior. The research
findings in the last three years (Kartadinata, 2015-
2017) on Peace Education reinforce the need for the
development of Pedagogy of Peace Education
(PPE). It can be implemented in a variety of
activities, among others: class-based and embedded
activities, guidance and counseling services,
classroom management, extra-curricular programs,
and collaborative activities with the community. The
implementation models reviewed in this study are
classroom-based models with subject lessons and
counseling and guidance services.
The research findings in the last three years can
be identified in the following issues.
Firstly, why should this way of thinking about
peace be developed and become the main focus of
peace pedagogy intervention? A research by
Kartadinata (2016) on cognitive style and violent
behavior trends among 4-5 grade children show:
 The cognitive styles of 4-5 grade children tend
to be undifferentiated styles that describe
linear, dichotomous, and more lefty
hemispheric thinking processes.
 There is a normative belief in child cognition
that violence is justified to be reciprocated.
 Behavioral patterns or retaliatory actions tend
to be done by reaction of aggression and
physical action.
Although this study might not yet be conclusive,
it could provide little insight into the reasons why
there were often violent acts that were fatal to school
children. There have been many violent acts,
radicalism, and conflict that often occur in the
community and various parts of the world that might
be based on the way of thinking as described, even
the thought could be the policy and political
decisions of a country or nation.
Developing a Culture of Peace in School Setting - The 21st Century Educational Challenges
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Considering the context of nation and state life as
well as international harmony, the thinking
predisposition as described above is very dangerous
for national unity and the life of mankind. The data
illustrated indicate that trends in violent behavior,
radicalism, and conflict can be prevented through
interdependent development of nonviolent thinking
through educational efforts since early childhood.
Education plays the roles and responsibilities to
develop a human, harmonious, respectful, and
peaceful way of thinking in personal, structural, and
horizontal dimensions that penetrate national
boundaries and infiltrate the global realm.
Secondly, the Indonesian students' peace
behavioral predisposition that is categorized into the
intra and interpersonal dimensions of behavior is
shown in table 1 (Kartadinata, 2017).
Table 1: Indonesian students’ peace predisposition.
Grade Dimension Mean score Standard
deviation
Junior High
School
Intrapersonal 4.63 0.49
Interpersonal 4.59 0.90
Senior High
School
Intrapersonal 4.72 0.63
Interpersonal 4.83 0.86
Islamic High
School
Intrapersonal 5.10 0.42
Interpersonal 5.47 1.15
Vocational
High School
Intrapersonal 4.60 0.58
Interpersonal 5.18 0.90
In the other hand, Finnish students’ peace
predisposition is presented in table 2 (Kartadinata,
2017).
Table 2: Finnish students’ peace predisposition.
Grade Dimension Mean score Standard Deviation
8 Intrapersonal 5.35 0.52
Interpersonal 4.96 0.79
9 Intrapersonal 5.19 0.65
Interpersonal 5.28 0.55
10 Intrapersonal 5.07 0.41
Interpersonal 4.94 0.55
In spite of the absence of a statistical significance
test, the trend seemingly showed that Finland's
predisposition of peace predisposition was more
adequate than Indonesian students. The Indonesian
students’ predisposition is indicated by the highest
indicator in behavior that has not yet become the
predisposition to adequate peace, such as “I am well
known for fighting misbehavior”, “I am angry with
people who broke in the que”, “I keep my mouth
shut not to make my teacher angry”, “I call my
friends foolish when they disagree with me”, “I hit
people who humiliate me in front of my friends”
(Kartadinata, 2017).
Thirdly, a study by Kartadinata (2016) showed
that the classroom learning atmosphere reflects the
peace exemplified in the verbal and nonverbal
behaviors of the students at the rate of 56%. This
means that in the learning environment, there still
appears violent behavior among students.
Meanwhile the teacher's efforts to create a peaceful
class atmosphere are at 65.76%, which means that
the teacher's behaviors still contain actions that do
not support the realization of an atmosphere of
peaceful class optimally.
The series of research findings described as
being the starting point of PPE development based
on the principle of teaching learners to think about
peace and peaceful behavior; build an understanding
and experience of peace in the atmosphere of verbal
and nonverbal communication and class
collaboration. Development of a culture of peaceful
living can be developed and taught in school
learning, not in the form of subjects but rather in the
process of subject learning, counselling and
guidance services, or other activities.
Peace education cannot stand alone, so we need
the media to implement it, namely peace pedagogy.
It is not only-and not limited-to the education of
conflict resolution, but includes mindset and the
formation of mindsight about how differences must
be resolved and conflict must be brought together so
as not to generate social turbulences (Kartadinata,
2014).
The key principles that need to be addressed in
the development of peace pedagogy are:
(Kartadinata et al., 2016).
Holistic, oriented towards cognitive
development, affective and peaceful behavior as a
whole. The cognitive dimension is concerned with
the knowledge of the roots of peace, the affective
dimension relates to the development of values and
aims for empathy, compassion, social expectations
and responsibility, and how to embody the mind-set
of peace in real life in the form of real behavior.
Participatory, giving space for students to
explore, share and cooperate so that classroom or
school atmosphere becomes more dialogical. The
expansion of students' perspective on peace requires
a teacher figure who acts as a facilitator rather than a
power holder. With a participatory principle, the
implementation of peace education pedagogy is
protected the students from indoctrination efforts
because it encourages the development of student
perspectives on issues of peace.
Co-operative, giving students space to study and
cooperate, rather than to compete. With a
cooperative attitude, students are encouraged to
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learn to improve relationships with fellow students,
reduce individualism, defensive attitude and feelings
of prejudice. In a growing class of cooperative
attitudes, students learn to lean on one another and
in the long run cooperative experience can be
transformed into a wider circle of interactions.
Experiential, learning with direct experience in
the class so that lectures can be minimized. Students
are encouraged to build ideas or concepts about
peace through classroom activities. On the basis of a
constructive approach, it will encourage the
development of a new paradigm of students about
peace because teachers are more flexible and
process-oriented. With this principle, the classroom
atmosphere becomes more humanistic as it
emphasizes the growth of the personal, social, and
affective domains of the students as a result of the
empathic, affirmative, caring empathic teacher
behavior. Hence, the teacher has personally become
a peaceful person first.
4 CONCLUSIONS
The development of a culture in school setting is
manifested in the form of a peaceful class. The
development of a peaceful class can be seen from
the classroom behaviour that appears in the student's
individual behaviour and skills: listening when
people speak, accepting others, speaking well,
saying only good words, and respecting others. A
research finding shows that the application of peace
pedagogy model has encouraged female students of
vocational school to respect other people more than
usual. However, the PEP model was not effective in
enhancing other behavioural characteristics as it
takes a further development, and its effectiveness
will be dependent on peaceful mind of the teachers
and structural leadership that supports the creation of
peace culture at school. It is not easy and takes
enough time to make qualified teachers able to
develop a classroom atmosphere into a peaceful
living environment for learners. Research findings
provide support and reinforcement to the feasibility
of developing pedagogy of peace education.
Conceptualization of school learning by applying
peace education pedagogy puts teaching as an
education effort that has theological aspect and
provides atmosphere that facilitates the achievement
of the long-term goals. Peacefulness as an aspect of
the educational goal constitutes a long-term behavior
shaped in an educative learning climate. The
conception of peace as an aspect of educational goal
and quality education should be thoroughly
understood and seen as an inspiring source for
teachers to set up their instructional mission.
Teachers are present in the midst of learners with
their mission as the long-term goal. Learning
materials taught are not only for the learners to learn
well as knowledge and skills, but serve a function of
developing the long-term behavior that flourishes in
the instructional atmosphere. Teachers are aware of
their classroom mission, and help their students
accomplish the mission by learning the substance of
scientific knowledge under a learning circumstance
that supports behavioral development in accordance
with the mission to accomplish. Learning substance,
mission related behavior, and life values are solvent
and simultaneously learned in the learning process
and atmosphere.
Considering those above-mentioned issues,
teachers assume a heavy burden and complex
responsibility. Preparing individuals for future life
should be a sustainable process from early childhood
education to higher education. Teachers do not teach
accumulative knowledge anymore, but they teach
them to learn about the future, including to create
culture of peaceful life, without forgetting the past.
A historical perspective should be appropriately
taken, and the future is learned through self-
transformation. Today’s learning is no longer at
learning curve 1.0 that focuses on accumulative
knowledge), but at learning 2.0, namely, learning
about the future (GFF, 2013).
Teaching should put an emphasis on deep
learning that develops high order thinking and
learner’s autonomy and responsibility. Responsible
learning fosters hard skills and soft skills as a cycle
of thinking development, as described by Gardner
(2008) in his theory of “Five Minds for the Future”.
Learning processes range from contextually
cognitive development to beyond self-interest
process that will generate awareness of universal
ethics. Teacher’s duty is not only classroom
delivery, but creating a learning atmosphere as an
ecology of learner development. In this perspective,
education cannot be dominated by school, so family
should take an effective part and collaborative
responsibility along with the school in the
thoroughly educational processes.
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Urbain, Edition.
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