Proceedings of the 6th International Academic Conference on Education, Teaching and Learning
Year: 2023
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/6th.iacetl.2023.10.121
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Challenges and Problems of Peace Education in Kyrgyzstan
Cholpon Chotaeva
ABSTRACT:
Many people in Kyrgyzstan are not aware about peace education and therefore confuse peace and conflict studies with international relations. They do not really know that peace and conflict studies is a very broad interdisciplinary field, and peace education includes a variety of topics related not only to peace building and conflict resolution but also to citizenship, democracy, intercultural communication, nationalism and others. Kyrgyzstan is a multicultural country facing many challenges since independence such as interethnic conflicts, tribalism, religious tensions, border clashes, color revolutions. All those challenges raise the problem of training new professionals who can promote intercommunal peace and tolerance, resolve interpersonal and intergroup conflicts, prevent violence and discrimination. The paper is based on the findings of semi-structured interviews conducted among the professors and experts of peace education in Kyrgyzstan and personal observation. The findings will discuss the understanding of peace education by professionals, the courses, trainings and topics of peace education offered to students and trainees, the methods and techniques used by professors in their sessions, the effects of peace education on students and trainees, and the challenges and problems that peace education faces in Kyrgyzstan.
keywords: peace studies; interdisciplinary; peace building; conflict resolution; human rights