Leading Schools for Peace and Social Justice: Learning from the Peace Education Short Training (PEST)

In a time where violence is rife and there is frequently a lack of acknowledgment of diversity, and the existence of drug abuse, gangsterism, and bullying, schools struggle to achieve success. Conscientious and transformative leaders as well as their followers strive for progress undergirded by peace and social justice. The question of how members in organizations actively entrench ethical policies has become crucial in organizations that seek peace and social justice. Using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) the participants used their experiences to make meaning out of the Peace Education Short Training (PEST) model. Eight participants were purposely selected in an urban setting. Six of these were school principals in historically black schools. Their schools were beset with challenges of poor achievement and violent behavior from learners. Two of the eight participants were district directors from two district offices. The facilitators and the participants unpacked the PEST model to understand how they could tap into their experiences to make use of the model to entrench peace and social justice. The findings demonstrate that any useful model will elicit critical thinking among group members to reveal strategies amenable to building peace and social justice. The findings imply that if institutions seek to witness peace and social justice, they will need to be undergirded by liberatory, critical, and transformative thinking. The application of models that provoke creativity and innovation will need to make sense for their institutions.