Assessing Administrators’ Effectiveness in Institutionalizing Peace Education in Secondary Schools in Calabar Metropolis of Cross River State

The study assessed administrators’ effectiveness in institutionalizing peace education in secondary schools in Calabar Metropolis of Cross River State. To achieve the purpose, two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Ex-post facto design was adopted for the study. Intact population was used because the population was not too large to warrant randomization. Data collection was carried out with the use of researchers’ constructed instrument titled Administrators Effectiveness in Institutionalizing Peace Education Questionnaire (HEIPEQ). The instrument was validated and reliability was established through a trial test using Cronbach coefficient alpha with obtained range from 0.68 0.91. These figures are a confirmation that the instrument is reliable in achieving the objectives of this research. Data collected were analyzed using population t-test of one sample mean and independent t-test statistical technique. Results obtained revealed that administrators’ (principals) effectiveness in institutionalizing peace education is low in Calabar Metropolis. Secondly, administrators’ effectiveness in institutionalizing peace education is not influenced by gender. Based on the findings and discussion, conclusions were made. It was recommended that administrators’ (principals) should integrate peace education in already existing activities to increase the knowledge, skills, attitude, and behaviour pattern.


Introduction 1.
Peace education is imperative in Nigeria in the light of the challenges of insecurity facing the nation, currently. This insecurity did not start one day. It arose as a result of growing perception of people seeing others as different and distinct entities irrespective of the fact that they live in the same village, community, town, state, and country. As a result of this perception, individuals and groups are taking up arms against one another and the country with secondary school students in most cases championing acts of violence. The reason for this behaviour arose from the fact that there have not been serious attempts in secondary schools to impact values, attitudes, skills, knowledge, and behaviour patterns of peaceful coexistence. The overall philosophy of this nation Nigeria is for all to live in unity and harmony as one invisible, indissoluble, democratic, and sovereign nation, founded on the principles of freedom, equality and justice; promote inter-African solidarity and world peace through understanding" (FRN, 2004:1). This national goal can be achieved through schools because they are socializing agents and children from difference family backgrounds and diverse cultures come there to learn. Schools have the capacity to reshape and refashion the students' mentality towards embracing peace rather than violence. This can be achieved school administrators who are principals of secondary schools. Children at this level of education are the future generation and when peace education is given to them it will be internalized and results to change in behaviour and character. Johnson and Johnson (2011), assert that lasting peace may depend on educating future generations into the competencies, perspectives, attitudes, values, and behavioural patterns that will enable them to build and maintain peace.
Education is a powerful key for inculcating peace in the minds of the learners. "If education is the only defence against human catastrophe, peace education is the soul of education that can create the shield for human survival on the planet Earth. It is only through peace education that peace can be installed in human minds as an antidote to war in the minds of men" (UNESCO, 2005). Peace education seeks to provide learners with knowledge, values, skills, attitudes, and behavioural patterns to help the learners to have peace a culture and become peacemakers in the schools, families and the outside their environments. The best platform for this type of education is the school as an agent of change. Peace education is a means for catching students young to minimize the attitude of intolerance that engenders conflicts in and outside the environment. Fountain (1999), asserts that peace education is a process of promoting the knowledge, skills, attitude, and values needed to bring about behavioural changes that will enable children, youths, and adults to prevent conflict and violence, both overt and structural; to resolve conflict peacefully; and to create the conditions conducive for peace, whether at an intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergroup, national or international level. There are two types of educational structure for establishing peace education in school setting. They are integrative peace education and independent peace education structure. Integrating is the infusion of the programme into existing ones while independent peace education is a conscious development of peace education as a separate subject of learning. In secondary schools, administrators' (male and female) have been educating (consciously and unconscious) learners on human rights, and the policies to adopt for peaceful environment, how to settle conflict in the school student leadership elections irrespective of where the students come from. They settle dispute through negotiation and mediation, manage anger among students, encourage diversity by accepting students irrespective of their tribe and race. Without discrimination, they encourage them to accept the world transformation for peace irrespective of their religion, culture, social status, tribe, and language. Some encourage the students to join clubs and other groups where they have common goals to achieve for coexistence. These are some of the ways of institutionalizing peace education in schools for peace culture but sometimes they are not properly checked. Ashton (2007) notes that although significant work has been done to define and describe the elements that constitute peace education, less work has been done on evaluating its effectiveness. It is against this back drop that this study intends to assess administrators' effectiveness in institutionalizing peace education in terms of human right education, democracy education, conflict resolution training, encouraging diversity, worldview transformation and cooperative experience in secondary schools.

Concept of Peace Education 2.
The concept of peace education has a wide range of meaning to different people. Peace education has many divergent meanings for different individuals in different places. For some, peace education is mainly a matter of changing mindsets. The general purpose is to promote understanding, respect and tolerance for yesterday's neighbours, for others, peace education is mainly a matter of cultivating a set of skills… to acquire a non-violent disposition and conflict resolution programmes. For still others, particularly in the third world countries, peace education is mainly a matter of promoting human rights, while in more affluent countries, it is often a matter of environmentalism, disarmament, and the promotion of a culture of peace (Salomon, 2002a:4).
Peace is the absence of war or violence among individuals, society or country. It is a relationship variable, not a trait, so it cannot be maintained in isolation. It is a dynamic and not a static process. Pace is an active process not a passive state. Peace is hard to build and easy to destroy. Peace is characterized by continuous conflict and not the absence of conflict managed constructively rather than destructively. Conflicts occur continually and it is not the avoidance, suppression or denial of conflict that maintains peace but rather facing conflicts as they occur and resolving them constructively. (Johnson & Johnson, 2006), Peace education is required to address the following daunting needs.
Develop interethnic understanding; Help the students to develop a positive identity as citizens of both their countries and the world. Foster within individuals and institutions a consciousness of the universal principles of human rights and individual and societal responsibilities to apply those principles. Develop an understanding of the causes of violence and the skills necessary to create violence free environments. Meet the psychological needs of traumatized children and adults. Deepen understanding of the principles, practices, and ethics of democracy. Above all, help students develop the necessary knowledge, attitudes, motivation and skills to become peacemakers (UNESCO, 2005).
Peace education as defined by Cubbon, (2010) empowers learners with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values necessary to end violence and injustice and promotes a culture of peace. Administrators are the managers of secondary schools that direct the classroom teachers in the implementation of instructions in and outside the curriculum. Institutionalizing peace education in secondary schools is a means for developing the rights attitudes in the life of students for peaceful co-existence.
attitudes, values, and behavioural competencies needed to resolve conflicts without violence and to build and maintain mutually beneficial, and harmonious relationships. Three interrelated theories underline effective peace education; social interdependence theory, constructive controversy theory and integrative negotiation theory. There is considerable research validating these theories and each has been operationalized into a practical procedures. It was discovered that a compulsory public education system must be established in which students from previously conflicting groups interact and have the opportunity to build positive relationship with each other. Cooperative experiences need to occur that highlight mutual goals, students must be taught the constructive controversy procedure to ensure that they know how to make difficult decisions and engage in political discourse. In the study, it was also discovered that students must be taught how to engage in integrative negotiations and peer mediation to resolve their conflicts of interest constructively.
Abiodun and Adenrele (2013), researched on the correlation between personal variables, knowledge, and disposition to peace education concepts among junior secondary school social studies teachers in Ogun State. They discovered that peace education is about promoting a culture of tolerance, that cooperative learning is a most suitable method of teaching peace education. That teaching of peace education requires additional training for teachers.
Najjuma (2011), carried out a study on the effectiveness of Revitalizing Education Participation and Learning in Conflict Areas Peace Education Programme (REPLICA-PEP). He stated that there is currently limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of peace education programmes in the context of post-conflict formal schooling. The study was conducted to explore the effectiveness of REPLICA-PEP and to gain insight into the reality of the current practice of peace education in schools in Uganda. The school is one of the places where children learn values, attitudes and behaviour. The study explored theoretical and practical aspects of peace education and key issues into the effectiveness of peace education programmes. The results showed that, although some traces of impact were found on pupils' awareness of the dangers of using violence, non-violent conflict resolution alternatives, and attitude change to non-violent conflict resolution, pupils did not develop empathy, self control, competences, and skills for non-violent conflict resolution. The few empirical related studies reviewed in this study show the importance of peace education in school setting as a means of promoting free violent environment in society. Many researchers had investigated on peace education but none is on administrators' effectiveness on institutionalizing peace education in Calabar Metropolis of Cross River State.

Objectives of the Study 4.
The objective of this study is to: 1. Assess administrators' effectiveness in institutionalizing peace education in Calabar Metropolis of Cross River State. 2. Find out whether administrators' effectiveness in institutionalizing peace education is influenced by gender.

5.
(1) Administrators' effectiveness in institutionalizing peace education is not significantly low.
(2) Administrators' effectiveness in institutionalizing peace education is not significantly influenced by gender.

Methodology 6.
This study investigated the assessment of administrators' effectiveness on institutionalizing peace education in secondary schools in Calabar Metropolis. Ex-post facto design was adopted for the study. This design was used because the incidence to be assessed, which is institutionalizing peace education had already occurred. Therefore the researchers cannot manipulate the variable. The study area is Calabar Metropolis of Cross River State. This is one of the states in south-south Geo-political zone. Cross River State has 18 Local Government Area and they have farming, trading and fishing as their major occupation. Calabar is the political and economic capital of Cross River State. Calabar Metropolis is made up of two local government areas-Calabar south and Calabar municipality. The population was made up of seven (7) principals in Calabar south and fifteen (15) principals in Calabar Municipality given a tot of twenty-two (22) principals. Intact population was used since the population was not large enough to warrant randomization. All the administrators' (principals) in Calabar Metropolis were used for the study.
The instrument used for data collection was Administrators' Effectiveness in Institutionalizing Peace Education Questionnaire (HEIPEQ). It had two sections A and B, section B 24 items, of which measured each of the six variables used in the study. The instrument was validated by experts in measurement and evaluation, while the trial test using Cronbach alpha reliability method gave rise to coefficient ranging from 0.68 -0.91. These figures were considered reliable

Source: Computed from field work
The results presented on table 1 revealed that the calculated t-values were found to be higher than the critical t-value of 2.08 at 0.05 level of significance and 21 degrees of freedom with respect to human right education (t= -9.484, P<.05), democracy education (t= -8.104; P<.05) conflict resolution training (t= -10.202; P<.05) encouraging diversity (t= -14; P.05) worldview transformation (t= -12.814; P<.05) and cooperative experience (t= -18.324; P<.05). The t-values were all seen to be significant and negatively signed indicating that their agreement to the response options is not high. This showed low effectiveness of administrators in implementation of programmes regarding peace education. The observed mean were all seen to be less than the expected mean of 15. With these results, the null hypothesis was rejected. This implies that administrators' effectiveness in institutionalizing peace education with regards to these programmes is significantly low.

Hypothesis 2
Administrators' effectiveness in institutionalizing peace education is not significantly influenced by gender. The result presented on table 2 revealed that the calculated t-values were found to be lower than the critical t-value of 2.074 at 0.05 level of significance and 20 degrees of freedom in respect to human right education (t=0.688; P>.05), democracy education (t=0.646; P>.05), conflict resolution training (t=0.542; P>0.05), inculcation of civic values (t=0.462; P>.05), world view transformation (t=0.682; P>.05), cooperative experience (t=0.564; P>.05). With these results, the null hypothesis was retained in these variables. Therefore institutionalizing peace education for sustainable development is not influenced by gender. By implication, it means that gender of school administrators does not influence the institutionalizing of peace education for sustainable development.

Discussion of the Findings 8.
The result of hypothesis one as presented on table 1 revealed that administrators' effectiveness in institutionalizing peace education in secondary schools is significantly low. This necessitated the rejection of the null hypothesis and accepting the alternate hypothesis. The finding revealed that administrators' effectiveness in institutionalizing peace education with regards to human right education, democracy education, conflict resolution training, encouraging diversity, worldview transformation, and cooperative experience is significantly low in secondary schools in Calabar Metropolis.
This result by implication means that the effort of the administrators' in institutionalizing peace education in school is still very low. This finding agrees with Najjuma (2011), whose finding showed that some traces of impact were found on pupils' awareness of the damages of using violence, non-violent conflict resolution alternatives, and attitude change to non-violent conflict resolution, pupils did not develop empathy, self control, competences and skills for non-violent conflict resolution. Abiodun and Adenrele (2013) discovered that cooperative learning is a most suitable method of teaching peace education.
Results of hypothesis two indicated that administrators' effectiveness in institutionalizing peace education is not influenced by gender. This means that the hypothesis is retained and that their effectiveness is not based on male or female principal. A male or female principal can effectively institutionalize peace education in schools through diverse techniques. It therefore follows that male and female principals have the same capacity to institutionalize peace education in secondary schools.

9.
On the strength of the findings, it was concluded that administrators' effectiveness in institutionalizing peace education with regards to human right education, democracy education, conflict resolution training, encouraging diversity, worldview transformation, and cooperative experience is significantly low. It was also concluded that administrators' effectiveness in institutionalizing peace education is influenced by gender. Male and female principals can promote peace education.

10.
Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made: (1) Administrators' (principals) in secondary schools should integrate peace education in already existing programmes in school.
(2) Principals should instruct their teachers to use the existing and approved curriculum to impact knowledge, skills, values, and behavioral pattern for peace and coexistence in school and society.