Quakers try to live in truth, simplicity and equality, finding God in ourselves and those around us with an emphasis on coming together to share our individual experience of the divine. Quakers in Britain support peace education, helping children and young people develop the skills and understanding we all need to be peacemakers.
We work with educators, volunteers and partners to develop and share creative peace education resources and practice.
Contributions to RE
Many Quakers speak about their faith to Religious Education students to help them in their studies. This might involve the peace testimony and the Quaker commitment to peace, or simply be an exploration of how “Friends” worship.
The Peace Education team works collaboratively with others to develop education resources that help young people explore issues from militarism to conscientious objection, conflict resolution to drone warfare. All our content asks young people to explore their own values and responsibilities, whether exploring conflict resolution, inner peace and mindfulness or their role as a citizen. Some have an explicit link to RE, such as our lessons teaching war and peace as part of the A-Level religious studies curriculum. We also promote and support the implementation of Peer Mediation schemes in schools which puts conflict resolution in the hands of children, and actively support the use of circle pedagogy across all subjects to maximise dialogue and collaborative learning. RE colleagues may want to complete the free online course we have developed alongside the Open University ‘Principles & Practices of Peace Education’ which can be accessed here.