FOSTERING PEACE CULTURE IN THE ESL CLASSROOM

Rosana Ixchel Casas G.

Publicado en Capital Letter No. 4

Noviembre de 2003

   Nowadays, not only in Colombia but throughout the planet we all seem to have the word peace at the tip of the tongue. The key question is perhaps, how we understand and actually live peace in the different settings we move. As Gandhi once said; “There is not a way to peace, peace itself is the way ". In other words, peace is something that we all have to build up together as any other kind of cultural construction.

   Everyday, we teachers are part of one of the most important cultural constructions, that is: knowledge production. When we conceive knowledge construction as a collective product that is constantly being modified and not simply as a set of rules that have to be applied or conveyed without any critical position, it is impossible not to mention negotiation; dialogue opens disposition; respect to different and contradictory opinions and cosmovisions and, reconciliation as indispensable elements of any teaching-learning context and in daily life as well.

   Now, let us analyze briefly the other side of the coin. If the above mentioned indispensable elements are not somehow present or are difficult to "see" in our classes, it is due to the fact that we consciously or unconsciously are generating opposite situations that have to do with exclusion and imposition. These can easily lead to authoritarian interaction or any other attitude that is against peaceful and harmonic interaction. We could anticipate that if we ask teachers about their position for of against peace, their answer would be for it hundred percent. So, the question here is: Are teachers being consistent with their ideas or better, are they aware of the "hidden messages" they are transmitting through their pedagogical practice?

   An important implication then is that, when we want to make peace or promote peace culture, we have to be ready to change, but in order to change, we have to do first lots of reflection and this is only possible through research. The kind of research proposed here originates from pure and simple but critical observation of what we do in our classes every day. After doing that, we could discover up to which extent we, as teachers, are peace builders of violence reproducers.