Teaching Ancient War and Peace

The Visualising War and Peace project is laying the foundations for a major five-year study of current practice and future approaches to teaching ancient war and peace within primary, secondary and tertiary education. To join in our discussions, please register to attend our series of online workshops (26th Nov, 1st Dec and 10th Dec, 2025) by emailing Prof. Alice König at viswar@st-andrews.ac.uk.

The study of ancient history, archaeology, literature and art involves repeat encounters with war. Current habits of teaching ancient war and peace have their roots in 19th century military history (itself informed by much earlier models), and are dominated by high-level politics and an emphasis on weapons, equipment, tactics and strategy, centering around (usually male) soldiers and their (usually male) leaders. Too little attention is paid to the second-order impacts of conflict (famine, disease, sexual violence, displacement, etc), to the diversity of people impacted by it, and to the everyday experiences of ordinary individuals. Compounding this, there is even less coverage of ancient concepts of peace, ancient approaches to conflict prevention and resolution, ancient experiences of peacebuilding and post-conflict recovery, and pockets of peace-making amid ongoing conflict. 

The urgent need for fresh approaches to teaching ancient war and peace reaches well beyond the classroom. Research into the militarization of childhood underlines the role that education can play in socializing young people into visualizing armed violence as normal, natural, impressive, even desirable. Arguably, the teaching of ancient warfare has been particularly prone to this tendency (compounded, of course, by representations of ancient warfare in many popular media). The flip side of this is that enhanced peace literacy can significantly improve inner peace and wellbeing, interpersonal relations, and conflict resolution in different spheres of life, empowering young people to take ownership of peacebuilding in their own lives. For both reasons, we should invest more research and resources in young people’s explorations of ancient peace and peacebuilding, alongside the study of military pedagogies. A further pressing issue is an increase in the numbers of trauma-experienced young people within our education systems, some of whom have direct experience of armed conflict. This requires more trauma-informed practice than is currently in place. Ancient warfare has long been perceived as so distant in time/myth that contemporary traumas are often overlooked in its teaching, while the historic but real impacts on real people from the past have frequently been airbrushed. When approached sensitively, however, the study of both military history and literary/artistic representations of ancient war and peace presents valuable opportunities for young people to develop critical awareness not only of the impacts of war itself but also the legacy of entrenched habits of war- and peace-storytelling, which continue to inform the ways in which we approach conflict today. 

An enhanced approach to teaching ancient war and peace is thus desirable for many reasons, not only to equip students of Classics to visualize ancient warfare and peacebuilding in more holistic ways but also to contribute to wider war and peace literacy, with real-world ramifications. Our upcoming series of online workshops aims to bring together experts on war and peace studies (within and beyond Classics) with experts on pedagogy (from the school sector, peace education institutes, and pedagogic studies) to set the agenda for an extended research and impact project over the next three to five years. Ranging across primary, secondary and tertiary education sectors, it will produce publications, develop training materials, design and pilot new teaching resources, and contribute to policy-making in this space. 

Consultation with professionals responsible for designing and delivering war and peace education in different subject areas (history, politics, religious and moral education, philosophy, citizenship teaching, and wellbeing, among others) and in different settings (e.g. the museum space, tourist attractions, as well as primary, secondary and tertiary classrooms) has much to contribute. Engagement with approaches in other academic disciplines (peace studies, critical military studies, feminist and post-colonial studies, migration studies, education studies, childhood studies) also has the potential to enhance war and peace pedagogies within Classics, alongside ongoing work within Ancient History, Classical Studies and Classics to foreground different voices and decolonise the curriculum. Drawing on inclusive practices in childhood and education studies, the Visualising War and Peace project has ethics permissions in place to engage with young people (aged 9-18) to better understand their concerns and interests and to co-develop new pedagogic principles and practices in dialogue with them. We also have ethics permission to run surveys and focus groups with primary- and secondary-level school teachers. Prompted by pedagogical and psychological research into the benefits of transrational learning alongside cognitive approaches, we are keen to explore creative methods (such as speculative history, useful fiction, and autoethnography) which can helpfully address the skewed nature of our surviving sources for ancient war and peace, which foreground elite, male experiences. 

Our discussions will examine current practice, war pedagogies for the future and peace pedagogies for the future). We invite contributions by non-Classicists on topics such as ‘militarism and education’ and ‘peace education in practice’, alongside contributions from those at the coalface of Classics teaching. The goal is to develop a framework for a longer-term collaborative project going forward, which will involve substantial grant applications, a range of publications, the development of teaching materials and training resources, and recommendations for wider policy change across the sector.

Autumn 2025 Online Workshops

Taking place on 26th November, 1st December, 10th December 2025, these workshops will discuss:

  • Current practice/trends in teaching ancient war/warfare (and their effects)
  • Current practice/trends in teaching ancient peace/conflict resolution (and their effects)
  • Examples of good practice in teaching war/peace (within or beyond Classics, ancient or post-antiquity) and their effects
  • Teaching practices beyond the classroom (e.g. in the museum setting, tourism etc)
  • The influence of popular culture (e.g. gaming, fiction) on students’ learning and/or teaching practice
  • Creative pedagogies for teaching ancient war/peace 
  • Diversifying voices/sources/themes for teaching ancient war/peace
  • Relating ancient war/peace teaching to modern contexts (challenges and opportunities)
  • Future goals for teaching ancient warfare and peace differently (desirable learning outcomes, assignment/assessment opportunities, skill-building, interdisciplinarity…)
  • Future challenges for teaching ancient warfare and peace differently (training requirements, resource needs etc, assessment issues, etc…)

The programme of speakers is available here. For further information, please email Prof. Alice König at viswar@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Past events

Online consultation 1: Weds 29th January 2025, 1-2pm: Teaching Ancient War – current approaches, what works well, what could be different?

  • Where/when is ancient war taught in your curriculum?
  • How does ‘war’ get defined?
  • Which wars/which aspects of war do you focus on? Who takes centre-stage?
  • What/who determines that (e.g. staff-choice, exam requirements, available sources/textbooks?)
  • What are the strengths of the current approach?
  • What are the challenges/gaps/things you would like to change?

Online consultation 2: Mon 24th February 2025, 1-2pm: Teaching Ancient War’s Aftermath – current approaches, what works well, what could be different?

  • Where/when is the aftermath of ancient warfare taught in your curriculum?
  • Which aspects of war’s aftermath (e.g. political developments, economic issues, physical/mental trauma, forced displacement, etc) get discussed?
  • What/who determines that (e.g. staff-choice, exam requirements, available sources/textbooks, teaching traditions, contemporary events?)
  • What are the strengths of the current approach?
  • What are the challenges/gaps/things you would like to change?

Online consultation 3: Weds 26th March 2025, 4-5pm: Teaching Ancient Peace and Peacebuilding – current approaches, what works well, what could be different?

  • Where/when is ancient peace or peacebuilding taught in your curriculum?
  • How do ‘peace’ or ‘peacebuilding’ get defined? (e.g. interstate conflict resolution, the absence of violence, physical rebuilding, personal healing, inner wellbeing?) 
  • Which examples/aspects of peace or peacebuilding do you focus on? Who takes centre-stage?
  • What/who determines that (e.g. staff-choice, exam requirements, available sources/textbooks?)
  • What are the strengths of the current approach?
  • What are the challenges/gaps/things you would like to change?

Online consultation 4: Mon 28th April 2025, 1-2pm: learning about ancient and modern war and peace in dialogue

  • Do you draw connections between ancient and modern war/peace in your teaching?
  • How can ancient and modern conflict/peace histories best inform each other?
  • What are the challenges?
  • What are the opportunities?
  • What structures or resources would need to change to facilitate more of this?
  • What can Classical Studies/Classics/Ancient History learn from approaches to teaching war/peace in other subject areas?
  • How can Classical Studies/Classics/Ancient History help inform the teaching of war/peace in other subject areas?

This project is part of some wider work on peace education and young people’s understandings of peace and conflict. It is being generously supported by the School of Classics at the University of St Andrews and the Institute for Classical Studies (https://ics.sas.ac.uk).