Talking Across Generations on Education (TAGe)
Under the momentum of G20/Y20 2023, the option "Peacebuilding and Reconciliation: Ushering in an Era of No War," comes at a very opportune time as the world faces so many challenges and conflicts at all spatial scales. The quintessential question we must ask ourselves is in what form and shape should peace education be redesigned and implemented. Outdated and irrelevant theories and practices need to be renewed and the most recent transdisciplinary science research and evidence should be brought to guide the future shape of peace education. The host country of G20 2023, the Government of India, with and through its Y20 consolidated and joint attempt, concludes that "Empowering Youth through Education and Awareness" is critical in this 21st century, building competencies of perspective-taking, empathy expansion, and peaceful coexistence. Recent research points towards the building of social and emotional competencies is key to changing mindsets of war to peace. The International Science and Evidence-based Education (ISEE) assessment finds that the benefits of social and emotional learning are enormous and are key to building peaceful societies across the world (2020).
Neuroscience research has also shown that biological roots of rage and aggression can be trained using the behavioural tools of social and emotional learning (SEL), and redirected towards peaceful and constructive action. Specifically, the introduction of programmes on mindfulness (Davidson et al., 2003), positive peer relationships (Osbuth et al., 2015) and compassion have been shown to regulate and reduce both aggression and violence and promote peaceful and prosocial behaviour. Against this backdrop, the Talking Across Generations on Education pose several questions for youth and senior decision-makers to ponder, debate and act upon. The main questions are:
Are our present systems inadequate for building peaceful mindsets? And if yes, why and if not-please explain why? If the latter, then why is the Global Peace Index increasing and the scale of conflicts on the increase?
How can we reimagine education such that social-emotional learning (SEL) can be mainstreamed into education systems?
How do we measure the impact? Distal (indirect) and proximal (direct) measures?
The Youth
Ajay Yadav (Nepal), Hayley Stone (France and USA), Bronwyn February (South Africa), Ingrid Siss (Brazil), Himanshu Panday (India) and Mohammad Amin Salihi (Afghanistan and India)
The Decisionmakers
Dr Yagnamurthy Sreekanth (Principal of, the Regional Institute of Education, Mysuru, India), Jackson Raymundo (Coordinator, Institutional Coordination, Secretariat of Higher Education, Ministry of Education, Brazil) and Dr Louise O’Reilly (State Examinations Commission, Ireland)
UNESCO MGIEP believes that any strategy aimed at the youth cannot be successful without empowering the youth, thereby encouraging them to speak up. The TAGe is a youth-driven intergenerational dialogue on education that provides a non-hierarchical platform to the youth to interact, discuss and debate critical issues that concern the future, with policymakers.