The Education for Peace III project aims to build on the previous work initiated by POST Research Institute (POST RI) since 2004. POST RI believes that peace can only be sustained through education. This is based on research that has shown that education plays a crucial role in establishing long-term peace and reconciliation after an ethnic conflict occurs. To this end, POST RI has conducted projects on “Education for Peace” since 2004
The overall objective of the Education for Peace III project is to promote reconciliation, multi-culturalism and dialogue in Cyprus , by improving the quality of history education taught in schools. Moreover, the project aims to create an awareness and discussion regarding peace education in Cyprus , which we believe will contribute to the current curricula.
More specifically, the project will contribute to the debate regarding history textbooks by the conducting of an analysis of the new history textbooks introduced in schools in September 2009, compared to those textbooks previously used. The analysis will form part of a comprehensive report of the revisions made to history textbooks in the northern part of the island since 2004, thus instigating a debate on how history should be written and taught in divided societies. The final report will be disseminated in March 2010. During the project, four different study tours to various historical places across Cyprus will be conducted. The aim of which is to engage Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot history teachers with the amazing cultural and historical sites of Cyprus in a multi-perspective atmosphere, enabling participants to develop varying perspectives. In March 2010, POST RI will be holding a 2-day workshop with international experts in student-centered approaches to teaching. The workshop will provide teachers with knowledge on alternative methods of teaching in order to encourage the use of more interactive methods of teaching in classrooms. With a greater aim in mind, the project will also involve the organisation of workshop with historians and teachers from across Cyprus to come together to discuss the teaching of Cyprus history in an open dialogue.
