Cooperative learning: a dialogic approach to constructing a locally relevant peace education programme for Bougainville

Bougainville is a post-conflict society where armed violence ceased in 2001. For Bougainville to sustain a peaceful future, its development must be based upon politically, economically, socially and ecologically just practices. A peace education curriculum is one way through which this goal could be achieved. Consequently this paper describes how local education stakeholders were involved in a dialogic process of curriculum development with peace academics from Australia. This collaborative process was facilitated by the adoption of active, cooperative learning strategies to develop a locally relevant peace curriculum, which could be integrated into the school curriculum and used by civil society organisations. This paper reports on the first and second phases (in more detail) of a three-phase project where a workshop of community stakeholders produced themes that they viewed as important for peace in Bougainville. The first phase of the project considered the 'what' and 'why' aspects of a peace education curriculum and these themes were developed and prioritised by community stakeholders, thus facilitating the identification of relevant content, skills and values for the peace education project. Phase 2 progressed on to examine 'how' to approach the teaching of peace, which entailed an exploration of cooperative learning structures and processes used to enhance discussion and collaborative decision-making among participants. Process, an equally important facet of curriculum development, has been addressed explicitly. Ultimately, it is argued that a locally generated peace curriculum will prove more sustainable as educators and community members will have ownership of it due to their active participation in its design.