Adult Learning Wales’  Learner Governor, Jan Tiley, recently joined our online delivery of Global Learning: Peace Studies course after previously attending the Peace Education Pilot as part of ALW’s Citizens Curriculum. Here, Jan shares with us her experiences and what she learnt from attending the course:

I enrolled on the course as a follow on from another pilot course I did as part of the Citizens’ Curriculum. Also, because it is the topic of this year’s Annual Conference for Adult Learning Wales and I felt it would give me a better background in understanding how I can achieve peace on a personal level which, in turn, would give me stepping stones to work towards peace on a community and understand the peace process on a global level.

We were a small group, but very much a group of women, most of a similar age and stage of life, who nevertheless share the same concerns. Notwithstanding the gender and age bias among Adult Learning Wales’ learners, where there is a higher percentage of female learners, it was disappointing that there were no male learners on the course.

I have found it particularly valuable to have been able to openly, frankly and confidentially discuss my concerns about peace, primarily on an international and global level and to learn that I was not alone with my concerns and that there are mechanisms and strategies available to work towards peace, provided all parties are prepared to enter into open dialogue.

I also learned about Wales’ heritage as a nation of peace and discovered a lot of information that I had hitherto been somewhat ignorant of. I enjoyed reading about the ‘Bridgend Nuclear Bunker – A Test Case for a Nuclear Free Wales’ which I studied and reported back on as part of the class work. A period of time when I was in my mid-twenties and yet blissfully unaware of what was happening just down the road from me. It would have been a very different story if social media was around in those days! I found all the case studies that were reported on were very interesting and some of them quite eye-opening.

I learned that peace, if it ever were to be achieved, is not a finite thing, but an ever-evolving state of existence, where the slightest event can tip the balance one way or the other. It is a thing to be constantly strived for and maintained. It needs to start the root, with inner peace and to be nurtured within the family. Only then can it be passed out in wider and wider concentric circles, from community to country, until it encompasses the globe. I was reassured to see that there are a number of models and strategies that can be applied as a means to move towards this elusive state of peace.

I would most certainly recommend the course to others but more importantly I would encourage men to attend and I think when advertising this course to future members, special marketing strategies should be used to target our male learners and the male population of Wales as a whole. I would very much liked to have seen and shared a male perspective on a lot of the subject areas covered on the course.

If Jan’s story has inspired you to find out more about Peace Education and the Citizens’ Curriculum with Adult Learning Wales, why not join one of our up and coming online courses, which can be found here: www.adultlearning.wales/community-courses/?subject=all&keyword=Citizen%27s+Curriculum