Event Reports
1. Program Overview
Saturday, May 22nd, 2010
Opening Session: Welcome Speech
PD Dr. Martin Beck
Resident Representative
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
General Mansour Abu Rashed
Amman Center for Peace and Development, Amman
Annika Khano
Project Manager
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Jerusalem
First Session:
Civic Education & Democracy
Dr. Munther Al-Share’
Professor and Former Minister of Political
Development, Amman
Second Session:
Communication between Teachers for Peace Education
Dr. Awni Faouri
Professor and Director of the Center of Linguistics, University of Jordan, Amman
2. Objective
Following many years of peace talks, the
Middle East is still struggling with
considerable cultural and religious
conflicts. In order to interrupt the spiral
of violence, it is imperative to establish a
sustainable foundation for mutual trust.
This mutual trust could be build through
civic education which is one of the main
tools in conflict resolution in multi-ethnic
and multicultural societies.
The EU-Partnership for Peace Program
“Utilizing Middle Eastern Civic Education
as Leverage for Peace” provided
participants from the educational sector
with information and working material on
educational tools and mechanisms for
peace education. The participants came
from over 15 schools in Palestine, Israel
and Jordan. The EU-project was financed
by the European Commission and
implemented in the period of April 2007
to March 2009. It aimed at training a new
generation of teachers in the Middle East
in implementing concepts of citizenship,
democracy, co-existence and tolerance.
As a follow-up event, KAS Amman in
cooperation with the Amman Center for
Peace and Development organized a
workshop entitled “Education as Leverage
for Building a Culture of Peace” on May
22nd, 2010. This workshop aimed at
reviving and fostering the introduction of
civic education in school teaching.
Furthermore, the participants were
provided with an overview over the
history of democracy in the Middle East
among the local community and with
different approaches on conflict
management.
20 teachers from Jordan who had
participated in the EU program attended
the workshop and were trained on
Democracy Education. The experts and
participants discussed issues such as
equality, tolerance, justice and the rule of
law, pluralism and active citizenship and
their implementation in society. The
participants were also trained in their
communication skills to improve the
dialogue with students.
3. Course of the event
General Mansour Abu Rashed opened
the workshop by thanking Konrad-
Adenauer-Stiftung and the teachers who
participated at the workshops held in
Jordan, Israel and Palestine. He pointed
out that Jordan is an example of a
tolerant and peaceful society. Every
citizen, regardless of his racial, religious,
ethnical or social background exercises
his rights and duties. He added that
without the help of the Konrad-Adenauer-
Stiftung and its offices in the region, the
project could not have been
implemented.
Dr. Martin Beck pointed out the high
relevance of cooperation between Palestinians,
Jordanians and Israelis. Even in
periods of bad overall political relations,
there are areas of mutual interest. Certainly,
peace education is among them.
As a reaction to actions of the current Israeli
hardliner government, His Majesty
King Abdallah stated in an interview
given to the Wall Street Journal in early
April 2010 that Jordanian-Israeli relations
have reached their “lowest point” since
the peace treaty of 1994. After this interview,
Israel even intensified policy actions
contradicting international law. Particularly
in the face of these regrettable
circumstances, KAS Amman highly appreciates
that the workshop connecting
Jordanian, Israeli and Palestinian civil society
could be held for the sake of promoting
peace in the region.
Annika Khano, who was the project
manager of the EU project from 2007 to
2009, talked about the outcome of the
workshop series. They were a success in
terms of enhancing the dialogue for
peace. She then pointed out that one
major aspect of the workshops was to
cope with the fears of cooperation
between Jordanian, Palestinian and
Israeli teachers. She stressed the fact
that KAS is doing its best to bring
together Israelis, Palestinians and
Jordanians for the sake of future
generations to live in better terms with
each other.
In his introduction to “Civic Education
and Democracy”, Dr. Munther Al-
Share’ talked about the difference
between the meanings of civic education
studies and civic education. He defined
the civic education studies as a branch of
Political Science which deals with citizens’
affairs, rights and duties and which dated
back to the time of Confucius’ and Plato’s
philosophy and teachings. Civic education
is rather an educational process designed
to raise awareness and to impart the knowledge on principles of citizenship, civic and political rights.
Dr. Al-Share’ explained that democracy
is a form of governance practiced directly
by the people or through their elected
representatives. Although there is no
specific and universally acceptable
definition of democracy, there are two
fundamental principles that must be
included in any definition, namely
equality and freedom: All citizens are
equal before the law and freedom rights
are protected under the Constitution.
Since the two principles are reflected in
the concept of citizenship which is a
social and legal link between citizens and
their democratic society, there are a
number of important responsibilities and
duties, which if shackled would lead to
the obstruction of democracy. The duties
of a responsible citizen include showing
commitment to democracy in word and
deed, obeying the laws passed by
parliament, exercising constructive
criticism of the political process and civic
life, participating in the development and
improvement of the political process and
civic life, paying taxes and not trying to
evade them, joining military service if
requested and participating in voluntary
work.
The concept of citizenship is the
cornerstone in understanding the
mechanisms of democracy and its work.
Knowledge of theoretical concepts of
democracy is not sufficient; rather one
should gain experience that leads to the
development and refinement of both
“civic disposition” and the necessary
“participatory skills” in order to exercise
the rights and duties associated with
democracy.
At the end of his contribution, Dr. Al-
Share’ stressed that “civic disposition”
and “participatory skills” are necessary to
make citizenship effective in a democratic
society. They could be developed through
civic education and ongoing training,
students’ participation in the student
democratic bodies or cooperative learning
activities.
Country surveys proved that the
programs of "civic education" become
more effective if training workshops
consist of more than three meetings.
Furthermore, the style of teaching or
training should be participatory (groups,
role plays, activities to resolve problems,
dramatic situations, imitation of political
or judicial activities). Effectiveness then
is much higher than lecture-style
teaching.
The paper presented by Dr. Awni Faouri
dealt with communication skills in
modern and ancient times in addition to
the general objectives of communication
skills in terms of form and components.
He examined in detail the practical
aspects of effective communication
methods and measures that the
participants studied during the workshop
series of the EU-Partnership for Peace
Program. Dr. Faouri then talked about
the importance of improving communication
skills as a means of expressing
empathy and comprehension of others by
creating an interactive process between
the parties involved.
He concluded that the knowledge of how
to communicate and transfer democratic
values and promote non-violent conflict
resolution leads to a higher political
participation.
At the end of the workshop, Dr. Al-
Share’, General Mansour Abu Rashed
and Dr. Martin Beck handed over
certificates of participation to the
Jordanian teachers who participated in
the project during the last 2 years and
who have already been working on applying the new techniques of teaching
at their schools.
4. Conclusion
The workshop organized by KAS Amman
and the Amman Center for Peace and
Development marked a first important
follow-up event of a workshop series
within the framework of the EUPartnership
for Peace Program “Utilizing
Middle Eastern Civic Education as a
Leverage for Peace”. The participants
were given a further training in teaching
principles of democracy and different
approaches on conflict management. The
participants highly appreciated that KAS
Amman and the Amman Center for Peace
and Development organized another
workshop in which the most important
working results were summed up and
elaborated. Dr. Munther Al-Share’
emphasized in his presentation the
importance of a true understanding of
both concepts of democracy and
citizenship. Dr. Awni Faouri made clear
that not only information on the
functioning of a state and one’s duties as
a citizen is important. Communication
skills are also of a major significance to
strengthen peace efforts in the region.
The teachers who participated in this
project will apply in their work what they
have learned during the workshop series.
The workshop will therefore have a major
impact on education in Jordan as it
trained teachers in principles of
democracy and citizenship and in
teaching methods to impart these
concepts to school students.