The Awareness Level of Teachers and Students about Peace Education in Pakistan

Abstract

Peace is a fundamental need of humanity. Hence, its need is felt in every walk of life. The very establishment of United Nations is evidence in this respect. The UN has asked all its member states to educate their respective citizens for peaceful co-existence. Peace education is the formal way to do this job. In this perspective, among all educational institutions, universities are the high seats of learning where from leadership emerge. This paper explores the awareness level of respondents (both teachers and students) in the universities of Pakistan. The research questions were: i, what is the awareness level of university teachers and students about peace education; ii, what is the comparative level of awareness of male and female respondents about peace education; iii, what is the comparative level of awareness of teachers and students about peace education? Two questionnaires covering the aspect of Awareness level of the respondents were prepared to collect data from the respondents. The tools’ validity and reliability concerns were duly addressed. In this respect Cronbach’s Alpha was also administered which was .94. The research tool was administered to 770 respondents. The data analysis was carried out through SPSS (version 16). after analysis and interpretation, the findings were drawn which revealed that majority of the respondents stood at a higher awareness level regarding peace education. However, male respondents were relatively more aware as compared to their female counterparts. Furthermore, teachers stood at a relatively high level in comparison to students. From this study the following recommendations flow such as carrying out awareness campaigns about peace and peace education in Pakistan for curriculum developers, educationists, those sitting in the policy making corridors, and researchers.

Keywords: peace, Peace Education, awareness level, co-existence, global citizenship