Making a school a place of peace is an achievement of a co-operative effort and the commitment of the whole staff under the supportive leadership of a competent school principal. The degree of the success depends upon the extent of support given by the staff. However, this is not to deny the strength of the individual teachers as change agents. There are illustrious instances where a single teacher has been able to change the whole school. Even such an effort involves winning the staff support.

Suppose you are a principal who wants to improve the quality of education through peace education. How are you going to win the staff support? Naturally it has to be achieved gradually through a process of staff development. Usually when the hierarchy tries to introduce a change the subordinates tend to resist. It is simply because people are reluctant to move away from their status quo or their established positions of present mindset and behaviour. Therefore the change has to be introduced with care, gentleness and tact in a way that nobody feels threatened.

1. Start it with yourself

Only a changed person can change others. The inward change flows naturally outward. The genuineness of it affects the social climate and permeates throughout the organization. The principal needs to be a role model of the innovation he intends to introduce to his school. Here he has to develop the qualities of peaceful behaviour such as being positive, genuine, compassionate, co-operative, empathetic and assertive when necessary. He has to create a sense of belongingness and appreciation through building teachers' self-esteem and confidence. As a leader he behaves in such a manner so as to bring out the best in people whom he comes into contact. Through providing positive reinforcement by praising, encouraging and developing trust. When such a principal shows interest in a certain change the staff tends to support him.

2. Provide literature, handbooks and guides on peace education to the staff.

Every innovation has a knowledge base. To effect the innovation the knowledge pertaining to it needs to be imparted to the actors. For this effect the school needs to collect some good books, guides and other reading materials for the study of the teachers. Sometimes mere availability of the books in the school library will not draw teachers' attention. Introducing good books to the staff can encourage such selected reading.

3. Organize staff seminars on peace education

It would be very useful to provide good training to the staff or at least to a group of the staff. The school can organize in-house programmes to provide training by inviting suitable resource persons from outside. Sometimes the school can rely on those teachers who are interested in the innovation and gain experience by applying the available knowledge.

4. Appoint an interest group

The school needs to have a committed group to work for the innovation. Fortunately many schools have teachers who love peace and want to do something about it. Such groups need to be developed and strengthened. If they could be formed as a committee they can serve the school better by taking the lead under the principal's guidance.

5. Decide activities

For instance, the committee can undertake to plan, organize and implement staff development activities in peace education. The activities should be based on the felt needs of the staff in the area of innovation.

Examples for staff development activities:

* Develop a school policy for peace education in collaboration with the staff, which will provide a guideline for action.

* Conduct school research and development work for the school.

* Design and conduct pilot projects in peace education.

* Organize in-house teacher development activities such as seminars, experience-sharing meetings, and lectures on relevant issues (e.g. ways of eliminating bullying in the college campus, identifying the school's hidden curriculum, ways of developing discipline, new methods of building students' self-esteem, new strategies the school can adopt to build peace culture, ways of identifying peace concepts in the curriculum)

* Organize model lessons regularly.

* Develop teaching aids for peace education.

* Encourage and facilitate teachers to write and produce peace drama.

* Organize film and video shows for the staff on peace education.

As the above list shows a variety of interesting activities are available for staff development. It is more effective when teachers themselves take the responsibility and initiative in organizing such activities for themselves. In fact teachers themselves should take the ownership of staff development. Another important principle in staff development is that it should be a continuous process. Staff development is crucially important to the school because it directly contributes to the quality improvement of teaching and learning.

6. Implement the plan

The committee has to implement the plan regularly. One of the constraints for school-based staff development is the time available. In certain countries arrangements for staff development have been made by making the staff stay after school hours. In many schools the staff can be motivated to stay willingly after school for a short period of time for the sake of their own professional development. If they find the sessions useful they tend to participate. However, there are staff development activities, which can be done in the form of on the job iruining. Examples: model lessons, understudy, quality circle discussions, research and development activities, peer support, etc.

7. Evaluate

The effectiveness of the programme has to be evaluated to develop it further. They need not be so formal in many instances. What is necessary is .;o get teachers' feedback and suggestions for improvement.

Concluding Thoughts

An innovation in a school should begin with staff development. Teachers need to understand the goals, concepts, and methods of peace education. The need can be fulfilled through in-service training by the authorities. Schools themselves can do this through school-based staff development mode.

Things To Do

1. Do an informal attitude survey of your colleagues about the need of peace education. Do a critical analysis of their attitudes.

2. What are the criticisms they have on peace educations, as they know it now?

3. What types of staff development are most suitable, correct and improve their attitudes?