Education for Peaceful Relationships

Starting from a theoretical framework, this chapter reflects on how teaching complex skills of communication contributes to development of peaceful relational skills. The term “peaceful relationships” refers to interpersonal interactions that do not use violence, duress, constraint, or exploitation to achieve goals. It refers to all types of behavior and communication including explicit, implicit, direct, indirect, literal, and symbolic patterns. The chapter emphasizes that every educational intervention should include a plan to develop knowledge and competences that enable generation of peaceful relationships. This type of educational model improves self-awareness, ability to listen to others, sense of responsibility, attention span, and overall quality of learning. Such a plan should focus on theoretical considerations regarding the connection between relational competences and education for peace. The objective of education for peace is not only to end interpersonal conflict, but to build a society that fulfills the needs of all its members. The chapter presents two case studies conducted among Israeli and Palestinian youth, which utilize team sports as a context. The first case study is realized in the formal context to develop competences for peaceful social interactions. The second case study is an experience in the nonformal context examining how young people from different ethnicities learn how to live together.