Description
Role of Sunday Schools in Peace Education in Karachi, Pakistan
Munir Lalani (Lecturer at Notre Dame Institute of Education, Karachi, Pakistan), Sarfaroz Niyozov (Associate Professor of Curriculum Studies, Teacher Development, and Comparative, International Education at OISE, University of Toronto, Canada & Aster Asif Sardar (Teaching Religion at Karachi, Pakistan)
Peace education (PE) initiatives and projects have been given tremendous value globally as a strategy for addressing many societal issues: combating injustice, reducing violence and aggression, curbing extremism, promoting tolerance, social cohesion, pluralism and human rights.
In Pakistan, civil society and non-government organisations, including primarily faith-based organisations, have played an essential role in the above aspirations. Given that religion is viewed as a vital factor affecting the lives of most of the Pakistanis, almost all PE initiatives, including educational, take into consideration the pivotal role of religion in the society.
A case study approach has been used in this research project to explore and explain the role of Christian Sunday Schools in promoting peace education in Karachi. These Sunday Schools have played an important role in imparting religious education to the Christian community co-existing with the Muslim majority and other minorities in Pakistan.
There is a dearth of research examining the role of these non-Muslim denominational schools in promoting peace values along with the Biblical lessons. This paper addresses this gap. The data was collected and triangulated by the semi-structured interviews with two Sunday School teachers and five students from junior and senior classes, and classroom observations.
The analysis provides insights into the achievements, challenges and possibilities of the Sunday Schools in disseminating values of peace and harmony through content and pedagogical approaches.
