Co-created and moderated by Pavel Luksha, Founder and Director of Global Education Futures, the Cultivating the Next Generation of Young Peacebuilders session explores how to enhance and scale education for peace by fostering synergies between institutions, researchers, educators, on-the-ground practitioners, and youth peacebuilders, ensuring its transformative impact reaches every corner of society.
Rethinking Education for Peace
Hilary Cremin, Professor at the University of Cambridge, Faculty of Education, sets the tone with a provocative reflection:
So many schools around the world are modelled around the military with uniforms, standing in line, unquestioningly obeying authority, and the curriculum that valorises war and conflict and doesn’t talk sufficiently about the great peacemakers and peace builders throughout history.
Prof. Cremin stresses the need to move from “peacekeeping” to “peacemaking and peacebuilding” in schools. She advocates for restorative techniques and peer mediation to empower young people to resolve their own conflicts. These methodologies, she explains, allow students to be agents of peace as they “carry conflict resolution skills forward into their homes, workplaces, and communities, becoming lifelong peacebuilders”.
As part of her forthcoming book Rewilding Education: Rethinking the Place of Schools Now and in the Future, Prof. Cremin formulates her urgent call for systemic change:
If we continue to educate as we have done for the past 50 years, we will face collapse on multiple levels—climate, conflict, inequality. Education must become a space for renewal, where young people develop the courage and tools to transform the world.
Developing on this call for change, she also advocates for creating lifelong learning hubs, emphasising that “education should not be confined to the classroom or specific ages. We must think about learning as a lifelong, community-driven process.”
Youth as Catalysts for Peacebuilding
Echoing Prof. Cremin’s peace imperative and emphasising the need for co-creation in education, Ilgin Pasli-Brombach, a young peacebuilder and founder and Executive Director of planIMPACT, highlights the importance of holistic, learner-centred methodologies and meaningful youth participation in designing and implementing peace education.
Peace is more than the absence of violence. It is about transforming the conditions that create conflict. Education should be a tool that equips us not just with knowledge, but with the skills, values, and attitudes to act as agents of change.
Ilgin’s powerful message underlines the importance of empowering youth, not as passive learners, but as active designers: “Young people are not just leaders of tomorrow; they are leaders of today. We must equip them with the tools and spaces to shape peace on their own terms.”
Her experience in youth-led peace education initiatives demonstrates the transformative potential of non-formal education and the value of integrating social-emotional learning into peace curricula. Ilgin also shares valuable resources from the Youth Peace Ambassadors Network, including the Book of Peace Design and the Peace Fellowship Toolkit, which are available here.
A Personal Story of Reconciliation and Forgiveness
Candice Mama is globally known as an independent author, one of the Top-20 African Women named by the African Union and United Nations, and among Vogue Magazine’s Top-33 most inspiring women in the world. She brings a deeply personal dimension to the peace discussion. Sharing her story of meeting Eugene de Kock, the man who murdered her father among countless others during South Africa’s apartheid, Candice speaks about the journey from pain to reconciliation and the role of education in shaping narratives.
Our children spend so much time in the schooling system where they are taught their own history in a way that can be very challenging, and I would say sometimes very violent.
Her encounter with apartheid’s infamous ‘number one assassin’ not only transformed her personal journey but also led Candice to dedicate her life to advocating for peace and reconciliation globally. She has since worked with Indigenous communities, victims of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland, and marginalised groups around the world.
Holding onto anger and resentment is like drinking poison, hoping to kill those who have harmed us; but if it festers, it destroys ourselves.
Candice’s message is evident: education for peace must include emotional literacy, storytelling, and healing practices. These tools help individuals and communities to rebuild trust and find paths toward reconciliation.
Systemic Change and the Role of Institutions
Rina Alluri, Assistant Professor at the University of Innsbruck, UNESCO Chairholder of Peace Studies, a peace researcher and educator with extensive experience in conflict-affected regions, brought a deeply reflective and critical perspective to the session. Offering insights on decolonising education and integrating experiential learning into peacebuilding efforts, she highlights the need for a systemic shift in how we approach education and emphasises collaboration between academia, grassroots peacebuilders, and communities affected by conflict.
As educators, scholars, activists, and practitioners, we need to actually unlearn the violence and impression that we have been told … whether that has been in our schools, our families, and our societies.
Rina also points out that in conflict-affected regions, education takes on a dual role: it becomes both a tool for survival and a site of resistance.
“In zones affected by colonialism or conflict, classrooms are not always safe or brave spaces. Therefore, it becomes crucial to find pockets of peace that exist in areas with freedom to speak, engage, and heal.”
She describes how social-emotional learning and experiential learning—through art, poetry, and storytelling—can provide students with the tools to process their experiences and envision peaceful futures.
Rina highlights examples from Salzburg Global’s Asia Peace Innovators Forum, where educators are integrating social and emotional learning (SEL) into both formal and informal education settings. From Kenya to Myanmar, these initiatives offer innovative ways to engage students in transformative learning experiences that foster empathy, critical thinking, and conflict resolution skills.
A Global Framework for Action
As the Director of the Division for Peace and Sustainable Development at UNESCO, Christopher Castle brings a policy-driven perspective to the conversation. Highlighting UNESCO’s commitment to transforming education systems worldwide, his intervention underscores how education for peace and peace education must extend beyond theoretical frameworks to become an actionable and systemic approach.
Countries have not only acknowledged that peace is more than just the absence of war, violence and conflict but also the incredibly powerful and important role that education can play in preventing the conditions that allow violence, war and conflict to happen.
Christopher highlights that UNESCO’s Recommendation on Education for International Understanding, Cooperation, Peace, and Human Rights, first established in 1974, was significantly revised in 2023. This updated recommendation reflects contemporary concepts, including social-emotional learning (SEL), decolonisation, and global citizenship education (GCE). His contribution shows that education systems must evolve to meet today’s challenges, including rising global conflict, environmental crises, and social inequalities.
We promote the co-creation of knowledge and the engagement of young people as more than mere beneficiaries of education, but really equip them with an active role in the education that they deserve.
One of the key takeaways from Christopher’s keynote is the 14 Guiding Principles for Transformative Education, which prioritise participatory, human rights-based, and inclusive approaches. He underscores the importance of building ecosystems that integrate formal and non-formal education to ensure that peace education reaches the most vulnerable communities.
Explore the resource page UNESCO Education for Peace for more on the Guiding Principles for Transformative Education, UNESCO’s Recommendation on Education for International Understanding, Cooperation, Peace, and Human Rights, and other work in this area.
Takeaways: Education as a Pathway to Peace
The session concludes with a consensus that education must be reimagined to address the complexities of global challenges. Cross-cutting themes of youth engagement and leadership, decolonisation, social-emotional learning, peer mediation, AI and technological embedment and experiential approaches emerge as central tenets to transforming education for peace globally.
AI has vast potential in peacebuilding—from identifying early-warning signs of conflict to advising teams on integrating diverse perspectives and suggesting early interventions. However, its development must be further explored and co-created with young peace leaders worldwide. – Pavel Luksha
The vital conversation is not only a call for systemic change but also a celebration of the grassroots work already underway. As we move forward, the question is not just what we teach but how we teach – and who we empower in the process.
Towards a Peaceful FutureResponding to these global challenges, the Learning Planet Institute and Global Education Futures are starting a joint initiative – Peaceful Futures: Cultivating the Next Generation of Young Peacebuilders programme. Together with international partners and leading experts, we aim to train and empower young leaders worldwide. Built around the co-design and acceleration of sustainable and scalable peacebuilding change projects tailored to their local contexts, the programme is based on strategic foresight thinking, conflict transformation tools, and a peace-oriented mindset.
- Learn more about the programme here
- Watch the full playback of the session
