Right: Mary Soley talks with Bosnian teachers about how to bring controversial subjects into the classroom.
Bringing adversaries together to discuss peace is a real challenge. Getting them to listen to each other can be even more difficult. Mary Soley, senior program officer in the U.S. Institute of Peace's Education and Training Program, was reminded of these challenges during a recent teacher training workshop in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Soley was one of nine educators who conducted a workshop in methods of teaching the principles of democracy March 29-31 in Sarajevo.
The training session--attended by 65 Muslim, Croat, and Bosnian Serb teachers of children and young adults (kindergarten through 12th grade in U.S. terms)--was organized by the American Federation of Teachers, the United States Information Agency (USIA), the Center for Civic Education (Calabasa, Calif.), and the Council of Europe (Brussels), and held in cooperation with the Institute of Peace and other organizations.
"I was impressed that teachers from all ethnic groups showed up for the training," Soley says. "But I soon discovered that it may be a while before they can listen more receptively to each other." Soley's goal was to teach the teachers how to work with controversial issues in the classroom.
For example, in one exercise, the participants were asked to discuss a statement that is controversial among teachers in Bosnia: "Education in Bosnia should be run by each separate school district and not by the federal/national government." In a role play exercise, the teachers subdived into four groups that would strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree with the statement. Each group listed reasons for its position, then explained these reasons to the others. At the end, Soley asked one member of the "strongly agree" group and one of the "strongly disagree" group to explain the other's position. They were not able to do this.
"I asked them why not. Somebody finally said, 'because we never listen to each other,'" Soley recalls. "This led to a wide-ranging discussion of the need to listen to each other if they are ever to understand one another and resolve their differences. The exercise finally produced a breakthrough in communication for them."
The teachers said they were eager to use the exercise in their classrooms and urged the trainers to return for additional workshops, Soley says. Follow-up training sessions are scheduled for the summer.
© 1996 United States Insitute of Peace