Myanmar Pre-Service Teachers’ Awareness on the Role of Teachers as Leaders of Peace Education

Peace education is the teaching of values, attitudes and competencies which are needed for resolving conflicts without violence and maintaining harmonious relationships. These skills are very essential for the citizens of Myanmar which is a diverse and multi-ethnic society in order to live harmoniously and peacefully. Since after getting independence in 1948, Myanmar has been experiencing ethnic conflicts for 70 years which are yet unresolved. Although education is not an explicit component of the National Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) between the government and many ethnic armed groups, it can be seen as an important aspect in peacebuilding. A new curriculum which includes the lessons about peace education is currently being implemented in Basic Education. Whereas, the role of the teachers become important as leaders of implementing peace education. The personal qualities, knowledge and skills of teachers are very important for determining the success of the implementation process. This study mainly focused on the views of Myanmar pre-service teachers in order to explore how they define peace education, and their awareness on the attitudes, knowledge and skills of a teacher who will implement Peace Education. A descriptive study and open-ended question survey method was used to collect data and thematic analysis was used for analyzing, coding and interpretation. 290 pre-service teachers of two Education Degree Colleges of Myanmar participated in the study. Data analysis was done by thematic analysis. The results of the study showed that pre-service teachers defined peace education in terms of three main themes based on peaceful learning environment, harmony among diversity and conflict resolution. Pre-service teachers viewed that a teacher should have knowledge about peace and conflict resolution, 21st century peacebuilding skills, and the attitudes which support peacebuilding process. Most of them also thought that the peace related lessons in the new curriculum would be effective for encouraging the children to value peace and promote peace education. By doing this study, it is hoped to promote Teacher Education Sector of Myanmar by encouraging pre-service teachers to have an awareness of the importance of teachers’ qualities for implementing peace education successfully.