Task #1:
Watch this short video as Umubano Academy’s head teacher, Jean de Dieu, welcomes you to his school and invites you to join us on our Education for Positive Peace journey.
Think about what the terms “peace” and “values” mean to you. At the end of the course, we will return to these questions. Reflect on the following questions and share with your WhatsApp group:
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What does the word peace mean to you?
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What does the word values mean to you?
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What is important to you about peace in the classroom when you are teaching?
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What is important to you about values in the classroom when you are teaching?
The Peace and Values crosscutting theme in the Rwandan Ministry of Education’s (MINEDUC) Competence Based Curriculum (CBC) (https://reb.rw/fileadmin/competence_based_curriculum/index0.html) suggests that we integrate key aspects of peace and values, such as responsibility, trust, empathy, active listening, and critical thinking, into everything we do in school.
Umubano Academy has tried to find ways to put this into our everyday practice, so that it is not only what we teach (the curriculum content) but also how we do it (pedagogy, attitude, and behaviour) that combine to provide a positive model for our learners. Importantly, as a staff team, UA continually discusses and reflects on what works, what the outcomes are for the learners, and what still needs to be improved.
Three key concepts in Positive Peace are: well-being, inclusion, and citizenship. The course will always have these three concepts in mind. We understand these concepts to mean:
Well-being: The importance of creating learning conditions for physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being, so that teachers and learners can thrive as lifelong learners in an atmosphere of safety and trust.
Inclusion: Recognition that we are all human, we are all different and everyone is welcome.
Citizenship: An emphasis on active listening, reflecting, being prepared to open our hearts and change our minds, and to act with integrity for the good of all.
A school is like a village, where everyone has a role to play in raising the children in a safe environment. We believe that education for positive peace is most effective when parents and teachers support each other to always put the best interests of children first. Each child will know that they belong, are loved, and supported. Children learn by the example of the adults around them - they learn how to behave well for the good of others at school and in the community. From this safe place, children can grow, blossom, and go out into the world, equipped with the best skills to contribute to a better future for all.
This course is intended to be a whole-school development programme. It starts with the leadership of the school, but it concerns everyone in the school. We hope you will enjoy working together on this course, listening to each other, learning from each other, and understanding how whole-school development is a rewarding process for everyone – school leaders, teachers, learners, parents, and school support staff.