Service Centre Peace Education Baden-Württemberg

Violence, war and terrorism evoke a massive fear of the future in children and youth. Global, cross-border phenomena such as climate change, migration and pandemics increase the uncertainty, while simultaneously young people are becoming increasingly politically active to find solutions to these global problems. School is a central place for dealing with the resulting questions. This includes the sensitive handling of pupils' concerns as well as the dealing with current issues. One of these topics is the evaluation of current security and peace political developments including the German foreign policy. The utmost concern of peace education at schools is to encourage a joint reflection on peaceful coexistence in schools, in the own society and in the whole world.

The Service Centre is a nationwide unique undertaking for the promotion of peace education at schools. The Service Centre is based a joint declaration, signed by the Ministry of Education youth and sports Baden-Württemberg, 17 peace organisations and the Trade Union for Education and Science. In this declaration, the Ministry commits itself to establishing structural conditions for peace building in Baden-Württemberg. As a result of intensive and constructive discussions between the three actors involved, the Ministry, the State Agency for Civic Education Baden-Württemberg and the Berghof Foundation have signed a treaty on the establishment of the Service Centre in April 2015.

The treaty establishing the Service Centre states: "The Service Centre supports schools in Baden-Württemberg in their work concerning peace education. Hereto, the Service Centre aims at providing suitable print and online materials, trainings and further education for young adults in peace education at schools, and at networking of activities of the joint declaration's signatories and the State Agency for Civic Education Baden-Württemberg. Acknowledged principles of political educational work are considered."

The Service Centre offers advanced trainings for teachers in cooperation with Governmental Organisations and qualifies young adults as teamers for school projects. With several model schools for peace education in Baden-Württemberg, activities and projects in the field of peace education in schools are initiated and expanded. Examples are project days and workshops, peer mediation programs or trainings.

The Service Centre with its offers addresses teaching staff of schools in Baden-Württemberg. By doing workshops and supporting projects pupils are also reached. Finally, the cross-linking with NGOs and peace organisations facilitates the opening of schools.

The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports Baden-Württemberg and the State Agency for Civic Education Baden-Württemberg are partners of the project and support the Service Agency.

WORKSHOPS IN SCHOOLS

The Service Agency currently organises more than 75 workshops in schools every year. The workshops cover a wide range of topics, including civil peace engagement in connection with the exhibition "Peace Counts", constructive conflict resolution and democratic decision-making. The Service Agency responds to the specific needs of students, such as reliable and comprehensible information on the background of ongoing wars. It also offers methods for dealing with one's own concerns and fears and shows ways to get involved in peace. In addition to a scenario workshop on the future of Ukraine, the Service Agency has developed its own model for conflict analysis with a focus on peace in order to meet these needs. The model can be used by teachers themselves in the classroom with accompanying materials or can also be booked as a workshop. In response to the escalation of the Middle East conflict in October 2023, the service centre has also developed a dialogue-oriented workshop format that addresses the emotions associated with war.

The service centre works with freelance staff to run the school workshops and offers them regular training in peacebuilding methods.

TEACHER TRAININGS

Twice a year, the Service Centre offers further training for teachers on the topic of peace education at the Centre for School Quality and Teacher Training (ZSL) in Comburg. In cooperation with universities and teacher training seminars, further training on peace education for students and trainee teachers also takes place on a regular basis. A forum called "Teachers for Peace Education" brings together teachers who are committed to peace and peace education and who want to promote these in their lessons and in everyday school life.

LEARNING MEDIA AND PUBLICATIONS

The Service Centre is constantly developing new learning materials for use in classrooms and in extracurricular activities for different age groups. These include exhibitions, picture sets, games and handouts. All publications can be found on the Service Centre website. A regular publication is "Friedensbildung AKTUELL", a digital handout for teachers on topics relevant to peace education, including teaching materials. Latest topics were “gender equality and peace” and “remembrance culture and colonialism” (in German).

The exhibition “Peace Counts – successful examples of peacebuilding worldwide” is touring in Baden-Württemberg and will be shown in schools, libraries and other educational institutions. A virtual version of the exhibition is also available.

MODEL SCHOOLS FOR PEACE EDUCATION

In 2023, the first three schools were officially certified as model schools for peace education by the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sport. Documentation of the activities during the pilot phase until the end of 2021 can be found here. The new application phase started in the same year. Interested schools can find a guide with all the important information about the application and certification process.

NETWORKS AND ADVOCACY

Regular meetings take place of the Steering Committee of the Service Centre (every two months) and the Advisory Board (twice a year), which includes 18 civil society organizations from the field of peace education and peacebuilding. They advocate for the development of peace education infrastructures in the region.