Looking for Peace in the Australian National Curricula

Education can be a source of cultural attitudes—a transmission belt—a cultural institution that can dispense communal values and cultural ideals in both teaching and curriculum. This empirical mixed-methods study utilizes the methodologies of directive (qualitative) and summative (quantitative) content analysis to analyse the national curricular statements of Australia (Early Learning, Foundation to 10 and, Senior 11-12) to determine if three elements common in peace education programs appear: recognition of violence (direct, structural or cultural); addressing conflict nonviolently; and, creating the conditions of positive peace. It finds that despite a copious amount of violent content, overall, the curricula does not recognize such deeds as deliberate acts of harm, that the curricula encompasses limited content regarding transforming conflict nonviolently and that aspects that contribute to positive peace are infrequent and largely lack the intention of creating equanamous space

Looking for Peace in the National Curricula of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

What values do national curricular statements communicate related to peace, conflict, violence and nonviolence? Schools are places that teach morals and mind-sets—transmission belts—cultural establishments that can contribute to how a student learns (pedagogy) and what a student learns (curriculum). Informed by Curriculum Theory and Peace Education Theory this mixed-method study utilizes directive and summative content analysis to inspect the General Statement, Teachers Guide and Shari’a national curricular statements at the elementary and preparatory level (mandatory education) for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). It examines each document for three elements found routinely in peace education (PE): recognition of violence; addressing conflict nonviolently; and, creating the conditions of positive peace. Elementary and preparatory education is compulsory in the KSA and this study found the mandatory education of the KSA has variable content that relates to the three PE elements and that the KSA mandatory curricula only minimally teaches peace

Gendering the Pandemic in the United States

Psychologist Eric Miller of Kent State University has termed COVID-19 ‘the loss and Trauma Event of Our Time.’ In this paper, I would like to problematize the public health response to the virus outbreak in light of two consequential and preventable traumas that shadow the COVID-19 calamity: femicide and suicide. As public health reaction to the pandemic is seen to negatively increase rates of domestic violence and suicidality this research accessed rapidly available data using Google Date Range analysis. To unearth empirical evidence of the impact of the Coronavirus on existential confidence this research utilized queries from pre and post pandemic comprising the months of March-August in the years 2019 and 2020. The aim of this rapid-response research is to glimpse the possible presence of psychological stress in online searches that relate to debilitation in the four foundational strata of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human needs (basic and psychological needs). To search basic needs related to COVID-19 the following categories were utilized in online search phrases in Google (US): precarity and insecurity. To search basic and psychological needs related to suicide the following categories were utilized in online search phrases in Google (US): despondency and helplessness. Finally, to search basic and psychological needs related to femicide the following categories were utilized in online search phrases in Google (US): indicative male violence and intentional male violence. Results show an overwhelming upsurge from all six categories from 31% to 106%

Defining the Platform of Positive Peace

After a brief introduction of typical notions of peace, this chapter ventures to trace the idea of positive peace in recent scholarship to establish how the term is utilized in the PACS world. It then endeavors to introduce each editorial domain within this handbook including a synopsis of each form of intervention theoretically followed immediately by a summary of the chapters that inhabit the PALGRAVE Handbook of Positive Peace.N/