Looking for peace in the national curriculum of Mexico

Schools are places where we can learn ways of being, seeing and living. They are transmission belts – social institutions that can engender values and attitudes from both how we learn and what we learn. Using content analysis, this mixed methods study assesses the national curriculum of Mexico – the Plan de Estudios Educación Básica, 2011 – for three components found in peace education programmes: recognizing violence (direct, structural or cultural); addressing conflict nonviolently; and creating the conditions of positive peace. These three components contribute to the analysis of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): quality education (SDG 4); gender equality (SDG 5); reduced inequalities (SDG 10); responsible consumption and production (SDG 12); and peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG 16). This component of the Peace Education Curriculum Analysis (PECA) Project finds that the Plan de Estudios contains limited content that recognizes violence, some evidence of techniques used in transforming conflict nonviolently and only select content that is concerned with contributing to positive peace.