When searching for group that offers something for the peace education world, I came across the National Peace Academy. The National Peace Academy (NPA) was founded in order to allow and encourage peace professionals and community organizers to continue practicing and share their knowledge with others. To sustain peace movements, leaders, organizers, and educators need a place to share resources and what they have learned as a way to give back. While the content isn’t tailored solely to the public education realm, there are resources for teachers surrounding the 5 spheres of peace. NPA’s 5 Spheres of Peace include social, ecological, personal, institutional, and political; these themes are the foundations for the different programs, events, and curriculums offered. This model would be easy to incorporate in formal and informal education for kids from grades K-8, especially in Civics course.

• How to use this resource: NPA offers many opportunities for those interested in peace education. Under their Programs and Projects page, readers can learn about offerings such as School Teacher and Administrator Trainings, the International Institute on Peace Education, Peacebuilder Teleconference Dialogues, and the Global Campaign for Peace Education. The more valuable link for those interested in learning or facilitating the learning of others would be the Ed Resources section. Resources include access to past dialogues and a “study guide” section. From the study guide, learners can access curriculum developed for children, youth, and adults around the 5 spheres of peace. The resource makes it very clear that these lessons are just a starting point for peace education and teachers should feel free to continue developing their own lessons and activities. Each lesson contains a list of activities, resources, and preparation guides for the teacher in order to have the lesson run smoothly; these predesigned lessons and activities can be adapted as educators see fit.
• Goal– This resource supports peace education by offering resources around 5 branches of peace. By extending these resources to the large community, NPA looks to be a guiding organization that offers a framework and foundation for integrating peace education activities into classrooms across the nation. By having youth focus on topics such as self-reflection, mindfulness, thinking about conflict, and active listening, educators could help develop the skills that youth would have to grow and develop in the modern world. This gets at some of the defining goals of peace education mentioned by Betty Reardon such as global agency, cultural proficiency, conflict competency, and gender sensitivity by giving youth and children the tools to discuss these topics. By offering other access points like dialogues and events, teachers can get the support and education they need to introduce the work authentically to students. Sharing knowledge and resources makes changing the culture to one that supports peace education much easier for teachers knowing that they aren’t alone in their efforts.
• Audience- Two stakeholders who could benefit from this program teachers, mainly grades K-8, interested in incorporating peace education in their classrooms or learners of any age who are willing to dive into the self-study of the 5 spheres of peace; this network is not exclusive to educators, but broadly open to anyone interested in learning more on their own volition.