Abstract:
A growing body of literature reports structural, cultural, social, and political barriers making
it challenging and stressful to integrate peace education in teacher education and in-service
teacher education programs. To support peace educators in achieving what they stand for, this
study proposes integrating wellbeing practices and approaches into the curricula. Drawing
from the fields of peace education, educational leadership and policy studies and higher
education, this study examines wellbeing as a potentially promising scholarly field to support
peace education scholarship. For happiness and life satisfaction, wellbeing links a person's
physical, mental, emotional and social health factors not just to internal factors such as
optimism, resilience and self-esteem but also external factors such as income, satisfaction at
work and social networks. In order to explore the ways wellbeing can contribute to peace
education, we first expand on peace education as a controversial and challenging practice
especially for practitioners in the field. Next, we discuss wellbeing practices as they relate to
educational settings. Finally, we discuss that peace educators can be supported by wellbeing
practices to overcome the degrading and demotivating effects of their practices.
