Hanna Niittymäki is a Finnish education professional specialising in peace education, global education, diversity and equality training and writing. She has been training particularly other educators across Finland on these themes since 2015. In 2021, Niittymäki also published an essay collection exploring what it means to be an ethical human in our time, drawing from her own experience in the educational field.

How did you end up working with peace education?

I suppose you could say that peace has always been something I found important. My parents were both involved in the peace movement when I was a child, so that had a huge impact on me.

For a long time, I resisted the urge to become an educator but then gave in and studied to be a teacher. First, I worked as a class teacher and then as a special needs teacher for years. Looking back now, a lot of what I did in my teaching years was what I would now define as peace education – I just did not think of it then.

What, in your definition, is peace education?

This is such an interesting question! At least in Finland, I feel the term has been quite unfashionable since the 1980s and carries some outdated, political connotations attached to it.

In my mind, however, peace education entails many things others might not automatically label as “peace education”. It can be, for example, learning about compassion and empathy, the quality of being dialogical and mediation skills. In my definition, peace education also contains learning about how not to discriminate against anyone based on age, origin, gender, nationality, language, religion, political views, health, disability or sexual orientation, for example.

I also like to think that global education and environmental education are deeply interlinked with and an integral part of peace education. By definition, peace education is about learning how to live in harmony not just with oneself and the people close to you, but also with the humans on the other side of the world and the natural environment we inhabit.

Could you describe the typical work you do with adults?

A big part of my work is training adults, particularly educators and people working in various non-governmental organisations. Most recently, I have been training primary school teachers about equality work and vocational school teachers about empathy and compassion skills. This is quite typical of my work in the sense that usually the training I do with adults revolves around values in one way or another.

I have also trained authorities such as the Finnish police and Finnish security intelligence service – people working in positions of power in relation to others’ rights and freedom particularly need this type of training, I think.

Tools I use include material challenging Eurocentric and white normative thinking, exercises to identify different types of privilege and critical walks, just to name a few. Recently I designed a so-called “disobedience academy” for the Finnish Peace Committee. The academy offers workshops, training and networking for young people interested in active citizenship, advocacy and activism work.

Overall, adults are the ones holding the most power and making the most decisions in this world, so I think all adults very much need peace education. The challenge is that as adults, we often tend to think we already know how to operate in the world – it is generally more difficult for people to re-evaluate their behaviour or attitudes when they are older.

It can be very uncomfortable to face one’s own privilege. If I talk about the kind of privilege being white or straight provides in life, for example, people might say they start feeling very ashamed. I always say there is no need to feel shame – it is important to be aware of and acknowledge the realities, however.

In some people, feeling uncomfortable translates into defensiveness. With those reactions, it is my job to ensure that the situation remains respectful and no one uses offensive or discriminatory language, for example.

I try to teach by example and am very open about the things I need to learn more about. For example, I am naturally very talkative and not the best listener, but I am consciously trying to develop that part of myself.

What kind of change do you think you can create through your work?

I do not think that people – particularly adults – would suddenly completely change their way of thinking. It is not my aim to do that either. However, peace education can provide an important space to stop and reflect on some bigger things.

Most of my training sessions start by looking inwards. I strongly believe that when talking about equality or equity, for example, it is key to start learning by first examining your own views and position in the world. If I were to ask a group of people whether they accept violence or discrimination, everyone would most likely simply say no – yet, most of us held some discriminatory beliefs.

How do you feel about the current world situation and the ongoing war in Ukraine? What do you think peace education can offer in volatile times such as these?

I have very conflicted feelings about the current war and particularly about the response to it in Europe. Obviously, it is great to see how strong the collective desire to help has been with countries welcoming Ukrainian refugees and people donating large sums of money. At the same time, I hope that we would learn from this and remember the power of collective support also the next time we have refugees coming in from countries outside Europe.

Having said that, I do think this is a great time to work on our empathy skills. It is scientifically proven that it is easier for us to empathise with someone who is closer to us and resembles us in some ways. But like any skill, empathy can also be developed, and we can learn to expand it to more people.

I also think that it is important for most people to be able to have open discussions about what is going on in the war. However, political and societal topics can also easily lead to conflicts. Therefore, I would suggest organising facilitated conversations to keep the discussion safe and peaceful for everyone.