Creating Inner Peace Education for Children and Youths Aims to Enhance Soft Power in Support of the National Strategy for Sustainable Development

Abstract

This research was conducted due to the goal of the Thai education system, which aims to develop people in all dimensions and across all age groups to become good, capable, and happy individuals. However, the current educational system lacks proactive learning management that focuses on developing the mind to foster awareness and adaptation to a rapidly changing society. As a result, many children and youth have an opposing attitude toward the traditional system, including rules, regulations, and political beliefs, leading to ideological conflicts between children and adults. This research has four objectives: 1.To analyze the problems and causes of ideological conflicts between children and youth and adults in Thai society. 2.To extract lessons from the model of the Threefold Training (Sīla, Samādhi, Paññā), or Inner Peace Education (IPE), both in Thailand and abroad. 3.To experiment with implementing the IPE model in an educational innovation area (Education Sandbox) through the participation of all sectors. 4.To propose a method for creating Inner Peace Education for children and youth to enhance Soft Power and support national strategies for sustainable development. This study is a mixed-methods research with a qualitative emphasis, focusing on document research and in-depth interviews. The quantitative aspect involved experimenting with creating good habits through the Threefold Training with 2nd-year secondary school students from two schools in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province. The experiment included a 21-day camp and self-training, with pre- and post-tests using three sets of assessment tools, observations, focus groups, and in-depth interviews with 3 representatives from the community cooperation, i.e., home, school and temple.

The findings of the research are as follows:

1. The ideological conflict between children and youth is caused by six factors: (1) Emotional and behavioral changes during adolescence, (2) Rigid adherence to one's own beliefs, (3) Conflicting opinions on politics, governance, and society, (4) Strict enforcement of rules by adults, (5) Lack of spiritual anchors, and (6) Generational and age differences.
2. Lessons learned from the study of inner peace education reveal that: Step 1: Discipline should be built on the foundation of the Five Precepts and the "Five Universal Virtues," which include cleanliness, orderliness, politeness, punctuality, and a focused mind. Step 2: Meditation should become a daily practice. Step 3: Maintaining the precepts and practicing meditation regularly cultivates wisdom, resulting in joy, happiness, and mental clarity.
3. The experimental application of IPE in the educational innovation space, with the involvement of all sectors, showed that the experimental group had significantly higher improvements in all areas compared to the control group across both schools.
4. To create Inner Peace Education for children and youth, contributing to Soft Power and supporting national strategies for sustainable development, the research suggests expanding the approach through the community network. This should involve central government policy integration with existing programs, such as scout camps, and proactively incorporating religious activities suitable for local contexts to create an effective learning ecosystem. The study also offers policy recommendations: The government should declare the policy "1 Subdistrict, 2 Schools, 3 Harmonized Community Cooperation Forces" as a national agenda to involve all sectors in developing children in each subdistrict, with two schools per subdistrict, carried out through a Public-Private Partnership model.