Peace education with refugees: case studies

Abstract

The authors suggest the possibility of using concepts and practices drawn from peace education to assist in the treatment and education of refugees suffering from post-traumatic stress. They introduce four basic principles of peace education, which permit students/clients to work through memory and present conflicts, and calls on therapists/teachers to be flexible in their approaches. Three case studies are offered: Bosnian youth in a community center in Chicago, adult male Bosnian refugees in Berlin participating in a social integration project and recently arrived Syrian and Afghani youth living in a transitional setting in Leipzig. There is potential for work undertaken with refugees using principles of peace education to resolve ongoing internal conflicts, while helping to prevent the creation of new social conflicts in the process of integration.

Keywords:

• Refugees
• peace education
• PTSD

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Hristo Kyuchukov is a visiting professor at Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany. He is a professor of General Linguistics. His research interests are Romani and Turkish spoken in the Balkans, psycholinguistics, bilingualism and bilingual education, Roma and minority children education in Europe.

William New is a professor of Education and Youth Studies at Beloit College, in Beloit, WI, USA. His research interests include Roma education policy and history, philosophies of multicultural education, minority and migrant youth, and qualitative research methodology.