(2009). A Community Prevention Approach to Peaceful Schools: Application of Wakanheza. School Social Work Journal, v34 n1 p43-60 Sep. Schools have long recognized the importance of creating climates that are peaceful, laying the groundwork for good student academic learning. This article explores the work of a large urban school district as it applies a community violence prevention model developed by the local county public health department to create peaceful communities. Qualitative focus groups with four schools that implemented the program explore the nature of this project. Findings demonstrate several elements that correlate with evidence-based practice methods found in the literature, pointing to several positive benefits to implementing the project. School social workers, adept at understanding elements of person-in-environment, are suggested as a natural fit for implementing the program in school settings. (Contains 3 tables.)… [Direct]
(2010). The International Children's Assembly "Banner of Peace": Performing the Child in Socialist Bulgaria. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Indiana University. This project offers a close look into the meaning-making practices of the Bulgarian socialist state with regard to the conception and enactment of childhood. Held for the first time in 1979, on occasion of the UN declared "International Year of the Child", the International Children's Assembly "Banner of Peace" emerges as a focal point of Bulgaria's cultural management in the 1970s. The Assembly exhibits the conceptual tension between the aesthetic-humanist ideas characterizing Bulgarian culture of that period and traditional socialist discourse. To examine this process, I employ a diachronic analysis of the rationale, enactment, and significance of the Children's Assembly, paying attention to the ambivalent images of the child embedded in its model. In light of the peculiar status of socialist children as future builders of the new regime, my work foregrounds the discursive and embodied strategies which reinterpret and "perform" the child within the… [Direct]
(2010). Education and Conflict in Haiti: Rebuilding the Education Sector after the 2010 Earthquake. Special Report 245. United States Institute of Peace In Haiti, education both promotes and ameliorates conflict. This report describes the education sector before the 2010 earthquake, then presents recommendations on how Haiti and the international community can increase access to and the quality of Haitian schools and modernize the organization and function of the national education sector. Although these recommendations were initially developed before the earthquake occurred, the basic problems are unchanged, and the recommendations are relevant for "building back better," in UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon's words. (Contains 2 tables and 29 notes.)… [Direct]
(2009). Connecting Students Internationally to Explore Postconflict Peacebuilding: An American-Canadian Collaboration. Journal of Political Science Education, v5 n1 p27-54 Jan. This paper presents the design and assesses the results of an international collaborative course of American and Canadian undergraduates on the topic of postconflict peacebuilding. Using online discussions, a web-based role-play simulation, and videoconferencing this collaborative course sought to enhance student engagement with the material by exposing them to views from different countries and encouraging broader thinking about the complex set of activities and challenges involved in peacebuilding. The challenges and benefits of such collaboration are discussed. (Contains 8 notes.)… [Direct]
(2007). Peace Amid Violence. Chronicle of Higher Education, v53 n30 pA41 Mar. When the doors of the International Buddhist College opened in the southern rural province of Songkhla in Thailand after nearly a decade of hard work and planning, the founders praised the achievement as the culmination of devotion, faith, and, of course, good karma. With its rare combination of secular academics and monastic life, the college is a place where monks and nuns, as well as lay people, can pursue Buddhist studies. Not one, but all three major traditions of Buddhism–Mahayana, Theravada, and Tibetan–are taught. And with no single language spoken by the religion's multitude of followers, English is the medium of instruction. However, not long after the college welcomed its first students in October 2004, a bomb tore through a column of monks and the soldiers guarding them in the neighboring province of Narathiwat. Buddhist schools were burned and teachers were gunned down on their way home. Several were shot and then beheaded. The attacks on Buddhists, particularly… [Direct]
(2010). Going against the Grain: Challenges to Peaceful Leadership Styles in a K-12/University Partnership. International Education Studies, v3 n2 p32-41 May. This article shares and examines the challenges, findings, and lessons learned associated with embracing peaceful leadership styles during the first two years of a partnership between a failing K-12 urban school district and a university in the United States. The ongoing daily leadership issues that influenced, but were beyond the scope of, the partnership are also explored. Through the individual and collective lens of six educational leaders (K-12 and higher education) who embraced leadership feminist practices embedded in structures of difference, Buddhist philosophies, equity, and social justice, this study examines and illustrates the administrative efforts associated with "going against one's grain" when faced with the proverbial brick wall…. [PDF]
(2009). Teachers in a Bolivian Context of Conflict: Potential Actors for or against Change?. Globalisation, Societies and Education, v7 n4 p409-432 Nov. In response to exclusionary globalisation processes, Bolivia forms part of a wider Latin American return to regionalism and nationalism. With the indigenous president Morales, Bolivia distances itself from "imposed" neoliberal policies, aiming instead for "dignity and decolonisation". The Bolivian conflict is characterised by historical processes of poverty and inequality, discrimination and exclusion, a regional autonomy struggle linked to separatist discourses and identity politics, mistrust in the state and between societal groups and a tradition of (violent) popular pressure methods. Both urban and rural teachers play crucial roles in these processes of conflict. Drawing on insights from critical educational theories and the strategic relational approach, the paper analyses the possibilities and challenges Bolivian teachers face in changing this context of continuing tensions, discrimination and instability. It presents an analysis of teachers' complex… [Direct]
(2008). Training EFL/ESL Teachers for a Peaceful Asia-Pacific Region. Asia Pacific Education Review, v9 n3 p344-354. In this experimental study which is based on qualitative and quantitative data collection from an experimental and a control group, it has been found that when some educational terms in English Language Teacher Training programs are strengthened in meaning through some adaptations to better convey the message, their effectiveness is increased. Therefore, it is suggested that foreign or second language teachers in the Asia-Pacific region should not teach the target language only for linguistic and communicative purposes but also to introduce characteristics of different cultures and to contribute to educating people who enjoy similarities, respect differences and value human rights. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)… [PDF] [Direct]
(2007). Education and Fragile States. Globalisation, Societies and Education, v5 n2 p181-200 Jul. Within the fragile states agendas and policies of development agencies and organisations education is of concern; education is a social service sector in which the impacts of state fragility are significant, in terms of access and quality of provision for children, working conditions and support for teachers, good governance and legitimacy for the society/community as a whole. However, this article argues that education should be at the centre of fragile states discussions as more than a basic service; in relation to fragility, education is at the same time cause, effect, problem and possible solution. Education needs to be part of fragility analysis as well as in the identification of priority stabilising interventions. In education–as in other sectors and domains–gender equality and state fragility are inherently connected and gender equality must be integrated through all analysis and interventions. The article ends with some recommendations for moving in this direction…. [Direct]
(2010). Minimum Standards for Education: Preparedness, Response, Recovery. Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies Education in emergencies comprises learning opportunities for all ages. It encompasses early childhood development, primary, secondary, non-formal, technical, vocational, higher and adult education. In emergency situations through to recovery, quality education provides physical, psychosocial and cognitive protection that can sustain and save lives. Education in emergencies ensures dignity and sustains life by offering safe spaces for learning, where children and youth who need other assistance can be identified and supported. Quality education saves lives by providing physical protection from the dangers and exploitation of a crisis environment. However, education's life-sustaining and life-saving role has been recognised and the inclusion of education within humanitarian response is now considered critical. Education is an integral part of the planning and provision of humanitarian response, which goes beyond providing immediate relief. Coordination and collaboration between… [PDF]
(2006). "Patriotism, Eh?" The Canadian Version. Phi Delta Kappan, v87 n8 p589-593 Apr. How does patriotism look north of the 49th parallel? In this article, the author explores the answers to this question and examines the "quiet nationalism" that characterizes Canadians' views of themselves and their nation. One of Canada's best-known philosophers, John Ralston Saul, argues that Canada's contribution to the world has been to build a new type of quiet nationalism, characterized most fundamentally by the tradition of compromise between the three founding people: French, English, and First Nations. Adding to its heterogeneous mixture, Canada has welcomed a larger percentage of immigrants compared with its population base than has any Western nation over the past century, Saul asserts, including the United States. The concepts and proclivities underpinning this tradition of compromise–self-effacement, careful and endless debate on a shifting agenda of priorities, the notion of "limited identities" to describe the range of competing factors (regional,… [Direct]
(2006). Redefining the Fundamental Questions. Religious Education, v101 n4 p438-442 Fall. Every researcher must make some fundamental questions. A researcher's questions should include the following: (1) What is the nature of the reality that I wish to study? (2) How will I know it? (3) What must I do to know it? (4) Who am I? (5) Where is God in this? and (6) For religious educators–How does my research lead to a world of peace and justice, the realm of God? In this article, the author shares her views on how researchers should address these questions when doing research. (Contains 5 footnotes.)… [Direct]
(2008). Cultivating the Art of Safe Space. Research in Drama Education, v13 n1 p5-21 Feb. Performance-making and peace-building are processes predicated on the production of safe space. But what is "safe space"? In performance-making, what is it that makes space safe without losing the creative potential of tension? What role is there for risk? And, once achieved, how does safe space become meaningful beyond its immediate community of participants? This paper examines the value of the concept of "safe space" in performance, suggesting that for applied theatre practitioners it is more than just a precursor for the art-making processes it supports. Here, safe space is considered as a processual act of ever-becoming: a space of messy negotiations that allow individual and group actions of representation to occur, as well as opportunities for "utopian performatives". Contact Inc's Peace Project is profiled as a performance-based program that grounds these issues and offers insight into the ways in which "safe space" might function… [Direct]
(1991). Learning Peace. Adult Learning, v3 n1 p13-14 Sep. Contemporary adult education has neglected social change movements. Social action could benefit from broader exposure to the research findings and theories of adult learning and adult education cannot continue to overlook social action without cost. (JOW)…
(1992). Mediation for Kids: Kids in Dispute Settlement. Second Edition. The Kids in Dispute Settlement mediation program for grades 3 through 12 recognizes that conflicts are a part of everyone's life and that students can responsibly and constructively solve their own conflicts. Mediation uses the help of a third party to facilitate the conflict resolution process by working out differences non-judgementally. Student mediators are used because they do not threaten other students and can promote cooperation. Mediator training lessons are organized sequentially. They include objective, vocabulary, procedure, student pages, introduction, discussion questions, and closure. Student mediators should reflect the school population; and it must be clearly recognized that disputes involving weapons, drugs, and physical or sexual abuse are not cases for mediation. Confidentiality is emphasized, and a procedure is explained for situations in which mediation does not resolve the conflict. The following sections are presented: (1) "Setting the Stage"; (2)…