Empathy for Interpersonal Peace: Effects of Peace Education on Empathy Skills.

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of Peace Education Program on the sixth grade elementary students' empathy levels. The research was carried out using pretest - posttest control group quasi-experimental design. While Peace Education Program was applied on experiment group; control group has not been provided any treatment. The study group included 281 students; 158 (56.23%; girls n= 84, 53.17%; boys n= 74, 46.83%) in the experiment and 123 (43.77%; girls n= 57, 46.35%; boys n= 66, 53.65%) in the control group. In the research, Index of Empathy for Children and Personal Information Form were used as measuring instruments. Research was conducted on sixth grade classes of two different elementary schools which are located in Menemen town of Izmir in 2010 - 2011 academic year. Research results indicated that Peace Education Program implemented on experiment group was effective in increasing students' empathy levels. Compared to experiment and control groups in terms of gender, both girl and boy students' empathy levels increased in favor of experiment group. Key Words Peace, Peace Education, Conflict Resolution, Negotiation Skills, and Empathy. Violent acts between people are gradually increasing in social life. Based on news from the printed and visual press along with research data (Deveci, Karadag, & Yilmaz, 2008; Dilekmen, Ada, & Alver, 2011; Turnuklu & Sahin, 2004; Uz Bas & Topcu Kabasakal, 2010), it can be stated that violent acts between students at schools have also increased in recent years in parallel with the social life. In recent years, has started to attract the attention of researchers carrying out studies to prevent student violence at schools. Following the statement of the theoretical foundations of peace education by prominent theorists such as Harris (1988), Reardon (1988), Brocke-Utne (1989), and Galtung (1996), efforts to establish inner peace as well as interpersonal, intergroup and international peace have increased. Bar-Tal and Rosen (2009) have stated that the focal point of peace education should be schools and have grouped the reasons for this statement under four main headings: (i) the obligation to continue school ensures that all of society is reached; (ii) schools have the required environment and resources to carry out peace education; (iii) younger children are open to new information and ideas and (iv) information given in schools are trusted. Whereas cognitive gains are given particular importance in formal education; peace education is necessary in schools due to the fact that values such as democracy, human rights and critical awareness are not sufficiently dealt with (Harber & Sakade, 2009). Similarly, Johnson and Johnson (2005a) also emphasize that in order to build and maintain sustainable peace, children should acquire various skills and values at schools starting from early ages. In order to understand the objective, content, scope and principles of peace education, it is primarily required that one knows how the concept of peace is handled. Galtung (1969, 1996) has defined the concept of peace in two dimensions as positive peace and negative peace. Negative peace means absence of violence whereas positive peace reflects the social justice condition in which conflicts have been transformed creatively without resorting to violence. Similar to Galtung's definition, it is seen that many researchers today (e.g., Harris, 2002; Harris & Morrison, 2003; Johnson & Johnson, 2005b, 2010; Opotow, Gerson, & Woodside, 2005; Perkins, 2002; Reardon, 1988) consider peace not only as the prevention of violence but also as remission, respect, cooperation, tolerance to the beliefs, skin colors, ethnic and national identities of others, justice, harmony and equality. Hence, the topic that peace education emphasizes today is not only the attainment of negative peace but also the attainment of positive peace as well. …