Mapping Peace Education contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which is based upon the achievement of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015.
In particular, this project seeks to support the achievement of Goal 4:
Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
More specifically, we examine the achievement of Target 4.7, which provides analysis most consistent with the integration of peace education into formal education systems:
Target 4.7: By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development.
We intend for the data curated here to support Indicator 4.7.1.
Indicator 4.7.1: Extent to which (i) global citizenship education and (ii) education for sustainable development are mainstreamed in (a) national education policies; (b) curricula; (c) teacher education; and (d) student assessment.
National governments submit data on indicator 4.7.1 to UNESCO for review. The first official data set is set to be released in the second quarter of 2021. Data curated should be consistent with indicator guidelines developed by UNESCO and approved by member states. As noted by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, “The focus of the monitoring process is on policy development and implementation rather than student learning outcomes. It has four specific domains for reporting: policies, curricula, teacher education, and student assessment” (2018). Further, “A dashboard of five indicators is being proposed rather than a single composite indicator in order to highlight the conceptually distinct and statistically validated components.”
Mapping Peace Education will analyze data submitted by countries when it becomes available. While awaiting data, the project will include preliminary analysis conducted by UNESCO of the five indicators (policies, curricula, teacher education, and student assessment) based on data submitted by 83 member states from the 6th round of the monitoring process conducted in 2016. See the UNESCO report TCG4/16: Development of SDG thematic indicator 4.7.1 for a full explanation of these indicators and their analysis. The report ranks countries according to “their position for each of the five indicators within 3 groups according to their score: High, Medium and Low.” The scores are denoted by numbers: High = 3, Medium = 2, and Low =1. M is used to refer to missing national responses. For example:
Our preliminary analysis of individual country data suggests that there is wide variance amongst countries on the interpretation of the goals and achievement of mainstreaming of global citizenship education and education for sustainable development. For example, the preliminary data collected by the US on the achievement of 4.7.1 focuses narrowly on the “Percentage of 8th grade respondents who are in public and private schools that emphasize ‘world affairs’ to a moderate or great extent.” While this data is relevant, it does not come close to measuring the mainstreaming of the goals of GCED and ESD into national curricula.
Mapping Peace Education will attempt to interpret this data as more official responses become available. Additionally, we intend to make our country-level research and analysis available to support and strengthen data collected by national governments.