Integrating Peace Education into English Language Teaching in Primary Schools

Peace education is a significant aspect of education as it aims to teach individuals to deal with violence and conflicts in a peaceful way. A literature review indicated that peace education can be integrated into English language teaching (ELT) and learned by students while they study English in middle and high schools and at universities, but how peace education can be integrated into ELT in primary schools has not been studied. Therefore, the present study aimed to find out whether peace education is integrated into the new English language teaching program (ELTP) for primary schools in Turkey and, if it is, how it is integrated into the ELTP. This work was designed as a qualitative study. The new ELTP for primary schools in Turkey was used as the data collection tool and data were subjected to content analysis. The findings of the study indicated that peace education is integrated into the new ELTP through the themes and/or language functions of the units in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades. Findings also showed that the units related to peace education can help students study three aspects of peace education, which are inner peace, social peace, and peace with nature. The findings were discussed and suggestions for further studies were made.