Final Report to the IPRA Foundation

Evaluating Peace Education (EPE): An initiative of the International Institute on Peace Education, a special project of Global Education Associates
Report prepared by Tony Jenkins

Project Overview
The Evaluating Peace Education (EPE) project, an initiative of the International Institute on Peace Education (a sponsored project of Global Education Associates) sought to develop and disseminate an adaptable evaluation tool designed for organizations and educators engaged in peace education, conflict resolution, and conflict transformation. This tool is intended to aid in measuring the effectiveness of educational programs toward nurturing students’ peace action capacities for reducing and delegitimizing violence in all its multiple forms. The tool is intended for practitioners – those who are on the frontlines of education evaluation and assessment.

Research Phase
In January 2008 the EPE team began researching and assessing existing literature on peace education evaluation. The most significant theoretical literature found was largely unpublished dissertations. During this research phase the EPE team also attended and participated in two conferences in which peace education evaluation was discussed and highlighted. Emma Groetzinger was an active member of a group in Bogota, Colombia that is working with the ministry to devise effective educational evaluation methods to measure “citizen competencies.” This group is loosely affiliated with an evaluation training initiative being developed by the Organization of American States (OAS).

In March 2008 Tony Jenkins attended the 2nd International Summit on Conflict Resolution Education sponsored by the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) and the International Network of Conflict Resolution Education and Peace Education (INCREPE). GPPAC and INCREPE are conducting an ongoing global survey of existing evaluations of peace education and conflict resolution education programs. Their initial findings affirmed our project’s position of the need to develop tools for educators. Their survey revealed that while most peace education project coordinators believe evaluation is important very few are actually conducted (less than 10% of organizations surveyed had conducted evaluations). Most cited a lack of training and external financial support.

Development Phase
One of the most important conclusions drawn from the research phase was the need to forge connections between educational planning and educational evaluation. The research team determined that planning for evaluation should be part of the initial planning process for any peace education program or project. When planning for evaluation is integrated into the whole-program planning process rather than added on as an afterthought a more comprehensive evaluation can be carried out and it may help clarify the goals of the program itself. From an educator’s perspective planning for evaluation is also critically important for intentional, effective teaching. By identifying the educational goals and learning objectives in the planning process a learning framework is developed that can be used as a guide in assuring the intentionality of the learning at all phases of the program. These goals and objectives in turn become the measurable base-line for assessing the impacts and outcomes of the learning. The evaluation tool we’ve developed emphasizes this connection.

Evaluation Tool Outline
Following is a short outline of the evaluation tool publication:

PART I: Evaluation in Peace Education
The Need
The Practice
Evaluation as Planning

PART II: Developing and using your own Evaluation Tool
Using the Tool
Activity 1: Educational Planning
Learning Outcomes Framework
Activity 2: Creating Evaluation Tools
Interpreting Results
Appendixes

Distribution and Testing
After some final edits and layout, the final phase of this project will be to distribute and test the use of the tool with educators participating in Global Education Associates sponsored projects. After initial feedback and modifications we intend to distribute the tool freely through the Global Campaign for Peace Education and other established list-serves.

The Foundation acknowledges that Tony Jenkins has successfully completed his project.