By Phill Gittins, World BEYOND War, September 30, 2026

On World Teachers’ Day, we want to begin with a simple message: Thank you.

To teachers, facilitators, trainers, youth workers, community educators and everyone helping people learn, question and act: thank you for the work you do.

This year’s World Teachers’ Day theme speaks of teachers ‘shaping our futures.’ It raises a simple question:

What kind of future are we educating for?

Education shapes how we understand peace, conflict, security and war; what futures we can imagine; and what we believe we can change.

At World BEYOND War, education is one of the main ways we work for change.

We call our approach pro-peace and anti-war education: helping people develop the knowledge, skills, relationships and collective capacity to build peace and contribute to more peaceful, just and inclusive societies, while critically examining the systems, institutions, cultural norms and interests that prepare for, normalize and sustain war.

The aim is not to tell people what to think, but to help them question, imagine alternatives and build the confidence and capacity to act — individually and together.

We do this through online courses and programs; webinars and podcasts; books, study guides, research and publications; curricula and free resources, including our Anti-War & Pro-Peace Resources Database; workshops and training; and education woven through our chapter and campaign work, media and communications.

We also work with educators, activists and organizers, as well as groups, organizations, communities, networks and movements, to strengthen practice, adapt learning to different contexts and help others learn more effectively.

More than 4,000 people around the world have taken part in our online education courses. In 2027, when our forthcoming book, From the War System to a Peace System, is published, we hope to bring more of these alumni together around it for further learning, discussion and action.

From learning to action

Education matters, but on its own it is not enough. One of the ways we connect learning with action is through our Peace Education and Action for Impact program (PEAI).

Since 2021, PEAI has connected and supported young people, adult mentors and community partners in more than 25 countries across five continents, including Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Ethiopia, Haiti, Iraq, the Philippines, Russia, South Sudan, Ukraine, Venezuela and elsewhere.

The 14-week program combines six weeks of online peace education with eight weeks of youth-led, community-rooted action, alongside mentoring, intergenerational collaboration and cross-cultural exchange. Participants use what they learn to design, implement and communicate projects responding to issues in their own communities.

One recent example: PEAI Sri Lanka

Sarala Nihari

PEAI Sri Lanka 2025

“PEAI taught me that we do not have to wait for peace to happen. We can begin building it ourselves through one conversation, one act of respect, and one small positive action at a time.”

Rev. P. Gnanalakkhana

PEAI Sri Lanka 2025

“One significant result of this experience was the translation of academic frameworks into community-level interventions.”

In February 2027, we plan to build on this with a new university-community PEAI initiative across eight universities in Sri Lanka. The program will build the capacity of young people, university faculty and administrators through peace education and mentoring, strengthen connections between universities and their surrounding communities, and culminate in eight locally led peace projects in different parts of the country.

Helping strengthen peace education beyond our own programs

Alongside working directly with learners, educators, activists and organizations, we also contribute to the wider research, policy and practice around peace education.

One current example is follow-up work on Recommendation CM/Rec(2026)11 of the Committee of Ministers on peace education by, with and for young people. This builds on earlier independent consultancy for the Council of Europe during the Recommendation’s development and now involves collaboration with Council of Europe colleagues and others on taking it forward.

In the short term, this includes publications and a planned webinar bringing together organizations working on peace education in Europe and beyond. Longer term, we hope this work can contribute to translation and contextualization, national and local implementation planning, and practical tools and support for educators, youth workers and organizations putting the Recommendation into practice.

Learn with us this World Teachers’ Day

If you would like to join us as a learner, our six-week War and the Environment course begins on World Teachers’ Day, October 5. It explores how war, preparations for war and militarism affect the climate and environment — and what can be done to reduce these harms and build more peaceful and sustainable alternatives.

FIND OUT MORE AND REGISTER

Will you help us educate for a world beyond war?

World BEYOND War is largely funded by small donations from people around the world.

Donations help make our education accessible in different ways. For PEAI, support helps cover the costs of young people participating in the program and carrying their learning into community action. For our online courses, people can also fund a place so that someone else can take part.

If you are able to give, here is what your support can do:

Gifts of any size also help us create and share books, webinars, podcasts, curricula, research, free resources, training and other learning opportunities.

DONATE TO SUPPORT PRO-PEACE AND ANTI-WAR WORK

If you would like your gift to support a particular area of our education work, such as PEAI or helping someone access an online course, please indicate this when you donate.

Your support helps more people learn directly — and helps educators, youth workers, organizers and organizations strengthen their own practice and take that learning further.

Because peace does not simply happen.

We have to prepare for it.

We have to learn it.

And we have to practice it.

This World Teachers’ Day, thank you to educators everywhere who are already doing that work — and to everyone helping us expand it.

**—Phill Gittins, PhD,**Education Director, World BEYOND War

P.S. If you are working in peace education, interested in bringing it into your classroom or community, or would like to explore ways we might collaborate, we would love to hear from you.

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