(2013). The Importance of Afterschool and Summer Learning Programs in African-American and Latino Communities. Afterschool Alert. Issue Brief No. 59. Afterschool Alliance In classrooms across the country, when students hear the bell ring at 3 p.m., it signals the end of the school day and, for many, the start of an afternoon without supervision, without productive activities and without direction. Afterschool and summer learning programs are filling the invaluable role of providing essential services–such as a safe and supervised environment, academically enriching activities, healthy snacks and meals, and caring and supportive mentors–to children and families most in need of support. The need for these afterschool and summer learning programs is especially vital in African-American and Latino communities, communities that are experiencing higher levels of poverty, homelessness and food insecurity, and are facing disparities in education and access to extracurricular activities. Funding for afterschool and summer learning programs is a sound investment that will help meet the demands of, and bring much needed services to, African-American and Latino… [PDF]

Kabesiime, Mary (2010). Schooling Ugandan Girls: A Policy Historiography. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, v8 n1 p325-360 Aug. This is an abstract about Uganda. When the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government came to power in 1986, it had to address many challenges in order to achieve its objectives among which were: poverty eradication, eradication of illiteracy, reducing unemployment, bringing peace and prosperity for all. However, the government realised that in order to achieve the above, there was need to bring all citizens on board for national development. The first major challenge was the wide socio-economic gap between women and men. A deliberate action by the government to promote girls' education therefore took centre stage and resources were quickly mobilised to this effect. This paper is therefore intended to analyse the policy on education for girls in Uganda and the subsequent policies of Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education (USE). Through critical analysis, the paper reveals the policy's achievement of increasing the number of girls in schools and… [PDF]

Seager, Thomas P.; Selinger, Evan (2012). Ethics Go Digital. Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. To be truly innovative, digital pedagogy has to do a better job of giving students the very thing that makes brick-and-mortar schooling so special: It must foster immersive learning communities that connect students to both their instructors and each other. Fortunately, there are ways that online education can do just that, as the authors have learned while team-teaching an ethics course that blends traditional classroom activities with an unusual online component. This is the second year they will teach "Sustainability Ethics" at their respective colleges, Arizona State University and the Rochester Institute of Technology. In the course, students play interactive games that the authors developed to explore theoretic problems relating to important issues in sustainability. While the students participate in the usual learning activities like reading, discussion, and writing assignments, they experience ethical issues personally through the games, in which they have an… [Direct]

Bekerman, Zvi (2005). Are There Children to Educate for Peace in Conflict-Ridden Areas? A Critical Essay on Peace and Coexistence Education. Intercultural Education, v16 n3 p235-245 Aug. In this paper, I reflect on the education that is being conducted in two Israeli schools, often held up as exemplary, that have the declared educational aim of cultivating tolerance and recognition of otherness. What is "going on" with those presumed to be the primary beneficiaries (the children studying at these schools) of an integrated educational enterprise? Should the focus for future peace be on these children at all. I take a critical look at the way we are attempting to forge a peaceful future through our young…. [Direct]

Rohrs, Hermann (1989). Education for Peace: A Neglected Aspect of Re-Education in Germany. Oxford Review of Education, v15 n2 p147-64. Analyzes the reconstruction of education in West Germany following World War II based on the author's personal experiences. Notes that the primary aim of re-education was to overcome nationalism, militarism, and the ideology of National Socialism, but that the efforts were not successful. Offers explanations for this lack of success. (KO)…

Garc√≠a-Raga, Laura; Grau, Roser (2017). Learning to Live Together: A Challenge for Schools Located in Contexts of Social Vulnerability. Journal of Peace Education, v14 n2 p137-154. Currently, there are many educational centres that demonstrate the need to promote initiatives to improve coexistence at school at the international level, especially in those located in contexts of social vulnerability. A socio-educational programme has been developed, applied and evaluated at a Singular Education Action Centre (Centro de Acci√≥n Educativa Singular–C.A.E.S) in the city of Valencia (Spain). To ascertain the programme's impact and possible generalization to other contexts, a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a control group was used. Information was collected from 297 students and 54 teachers based on questionnaires assessing coexistence at school. The results obtained demonstrate the satisfactory functioning of the programme. The faculty and students from the experimental group affirm the importance of continuing to work in this direction to invest in creating a democratic school that firmly believes in coexistence and participation. Areas for… [Direct]

Guilherme, Alexandre (2017). Understanding Conflict Resolution Philosophically in a School Setting: Three Different Kinds of Violence and Dialogue. Journal of Peace Education, v14 n2 p215-234. According to Galtung, violence can be divided into two kinds: (i) direct violence, which is always physical in a wider sense (e.g. bodily harm or verbal abuse) or (ii) indirect violence that is either structural (i.e. the institution is structurally violent because it is organised so to privilege a group over others; e.g. a strict pyramidal organisational structure) or cultural (i.e. the institution is culturally violent because it encourages or fails to deal with cultural aspects that either privileges or is demeaning towards certain groups; e.g. institutionalised racism or misogyny). Galtung's theory provides us with three levels of violence, leading us to three different potential forms of conflict. In response to this, I propose a philosophical discussion centred on three distinct kinds of dialogue, each of which explaining forms of conflict resolution dealing with these three kinds of violence identified by Galtung. That is, Buber's, Levinas' and Arendt's conceptions of… [Direct]

Abs, Hermann J.; Filsecker, Michael; Roczen, Nina (2017). How School Influences Adolescents' Conflict Styles. Journal of Peace Education, v14 n3 p325-346. The willingness to solve conflicts without violence and to strive for a reconciliation of interests is of central significance for the continued existence of democracies. In this paper, we aim to analyze school-related determinants of adolescents' conflict behaviour. Models predicting the conflict styles of "integrating", "dominating", "avoiding" and "obliging" were developed drawing on different school climate and school development variables. At the individual level, almost all our hypotheses were confirmed. The highest correlations were found between an open classroom climate and the participation in a class council on the one hand, and an integrating conflict style on the other. On the class level however, most of the anticipated effects did not turn out to be significant. We hope that by providing information about different school climate and school development variables' impacts on adolescents' conflict styles, we can contribute to a… [Direct]

Akseer, Spogmai; Kovinthan, Thursica; Vanner, Catherine (2017). Learning Peace (and Conflict): The Role of Primary Learning Materials in Peacebuilding in Post-War Afghanistan, South Sudan and Sri Lanka. Journal of Peace Education, v14 n1 p32-53. Post-war education is usually considered a positive contributor to peacebuilding; however, it can also reinforce divisive perspectives. Textbooks and learning materials can be instrumental in maintaining or exacerbating existing inequalities. This paper uses case study literature reviews of Afghanistan, South Sudan and Sri Lanka to explore the ways in which primary learning materials extend existing challenges of post-war education and potentially create new ones. An analysis of the literature on learning materials from these countries reveals that textbook development and uses are intertwined with larger national and international political and social power structures. We draw from Bourdieu and Giroux to consider how learning materials contribute to the reproduction of cultures of hostility, violence, divisiveness and silence or to transformatory cultures of peacebuilding, inclusivity and critical thought. Our resulting conceptual lens highlights how education can take on the role… [Direct]

Szczepanska, Kamila (2017). Towards a "Common" View of Difficult Past? The Representation of Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Trilateral Teaching Materials. Journal of Peace Education, v14 n1 p114-129. The centrality of atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japanese collective memory has been often perceived by the country's neighbours, i.e. the People's Republic of China and South Korea, as a pillar of the country's (alleged) "victim consciousness" and amnesia in regard to the suffering inflicted on others. For this reason, the matter of how Hiroshima and Nagasaki's fate is discussed on the pages of joint teaching materials is an interesting puzzle. The article uses two supplementary history teaching materials published within a framework of trilateral cooperation between non-governmental actors from the PRC, South Korea and Japan ("History that Opens the Future" ["Mirai o hiraku rekishi"] and "The New Modern and Contemporary History of East Asia" ["Atarashi Higashi Ajia no kingendaishi"]) as case studies to investigate how the fate and meaning of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are represented in the above-mentioned books. The… [Direct]

Gebregeorgis, Mehari Yimulaw (2017). Peace Values in Language Textbooks: The Case of "English for Ethiopia Student Textbook". Journal of Peace Education, v14 n1 p54-68. Textbooks are not only meant to deliver subject knowledge; they are also a medium to convey universal and community-specific values. Aiming to explore the social and emotional development goals of "English for Ethiopia Student Textbook Grade 9," this study reviews the content and activities of the textbook by searching for embedded peace values and prejudices. Textual, contextual and sociological discourse analyses were conducted to characterise, understand and explain the nature of the textbook's discourse. A positive self-concept; good health and compassion (inner peace); tolerance, solidarity and social responsibility (social peace); and respect for life in all its forms and care for the environment (peace with nature) were found to be recurring peace values. However, some content reflected gendered stereotyping, which goes against the peace value of equality…. [Direct]

Bermudez, Angela; Stoskopf, Alan (2017). The Sounds of Silence: American History Textbook Representations of Non-Violence and the Abolition Movement. Journal of Peace Education, v14 n1 p92-113. In this paper we examine how the Abolition Movement's approach to non-violent resistance has been silenced in four American history textbooks. Despite extensive research that reveals an extensive network of groups dedicated to the peaceful abolishment of slavery little of this historical record is included in the textbooks. Instead, a skewed representation of the movement is conveyed to the reader, one that conveys an image of a movement that contributes to a climate of social violence. Through a critical discourse analytical approach to the data we carefully deconstruct how this process of misrepresentation occurs. By employing the discursive tools of narrative framing, positioning, and stance we lift up what is often hidden from the reader and demonstrate how language use communicates powerful social messaging to the reader. We argue that student readers are left with an impoverished sense of how non-violent democratic change has occurred when presented with a limited portrayal of… [Direct]

Kaohi, Sharon; And Others (1994). Justice for All: Resources for Peace and Law-Related Education. This publication is intended to serve as a resource for K-12 social studies teachers charged with the major responsibility of making peace and law-relaed concepts meaningful to students. The purpose of this resource book is to empower teachers and students in Hawaii with the concepts of peace and law. It seeks to foster dialogue between and among teachers and students that promotes respect, tolerance, and an understanding of the need for global peace. Pertinent information about Hawaii's judicial history, the civil and criminal trial process, and the court system is included in the resource book. It also contains sample learning opportunities that focus on peace and law-related concepts. The resource book intends to enhance students' critical and creative thinking, and communication skills, as well as conflict management and resolution skills. These skills are essential for maintaining successful relationships in the home, school, workplace, and community at large. (LH)… [PDF]

Brust Nemet, Maja, Ed.; Bushati, Jozef, Ed.; Mlinarevic, Vesnica, Ed. (2015). Intercultural Education: The Position of Roma in Education=Obrazovanje za interkulturalizam: Polo≈æaj Roma u odgoju i obrazovanju. Online Submission Faculty of Educational Sciences has recognized the importance of education for interculturalism, and it organizes the conference entitled "Education for interculturalism" every five years, so that all participants could gain new insights about interculturalism and strengthen their intercultural competencies. Modern interculturalism, as a modern and current topic in scientific and public educational policy, appears in the 20th century in the United States as an expression of pragmatic interest for international convergence of majority and minority ethnic groups. Education must be directed to the full development of the humans and strengthen respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It must promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and further support the United Nations work on the maintenance of peace. Pedagogy as a scientific discipline has an important role in the development of intercultural society. It cannot… [PDF]

Chang'ach, John Koskey (2011). History Teaching in Kenyan Secondary School, for Peace, Reconciliation and National Integration. Online Submission, US-China Education Review B 5 p688-694. The main objectives of teaching history and government are: First, to demonstrate an understanding of how people and events of the past has influenced the ways in which people live and behave; Second, to appreciate the need for an importance of mutual responsibility; and Third, to develop a sense of patriotism and national pride. The paper seeks to demonstrate that history is the most important subject for producing a strong feeling of nationalism and integrity of Kenya. Proper teaching of history inspires the students with a sense of patriotism to their motherland. However, currently history and government is compulsory up to form two. Taking Uasin Gishu County as a case in point and basing on the 2009 KCSE (Kenya certificate of secondary education) results of history and government, a large proportion of students drop History and Government in form two. Therefore, this paper argues that the objectives set by the Ministry of Education have not been achieved. It is the contention of… [PDF]

Goura, Tairou (2012). Globalization, Critical Post-Colonialism and Career and Technical Education in Africa: Challenges and Possibilities. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is central to political discourses and educational concerns as a means for economic development, poverty alleviation, youth employment, and social mobility. Yet, there is an intriguing contradiction between this consideration and the real attention dedicated to TVET. Research on African TVET is varied, but tends to be narrowly focused on issues of policies, economic strategies, cost-efficiency, curriculum contents, and outdated equipment. Offering an alternative inquiry, the purpose of this conceptual dissertation was to use critical education theory and post-colonial insights to explore the macro and micro challenges SSA TVET systems are facing in a global context. Indeed, in the era of economic and cultural globalization, the African continent has the opportunity to make its way toward socioeconomic development. Still, rich countries are getting richer and the poor poorer. The African continent is… [Direct]

Vander Horst, Anthony (2012). On the Relationship between Bonding Theory and Youth Gang Resistance in U.S. 8th Graders: Competing Structural Equation Models with Latent Structure Indirect Effects. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The Ohio State University. In a study of 5285 8th graders from the Gang Resistance and Education Training (G.R.E.A.T.) research, this study applied Travis Hirschi's social bonding theory to examine the curriculum's efficacy in increasing conventional bonding (friends with positive peers, succeeding at education etc.) and decreasing non-conventional bonding (drug use, truancy, law violations etc.). The results suggest that across the full models, multiple group models (i.e., receive the G.R.E.A.T. curriculum or not) and models with indirect effects, "attachment" to parent, education and positive peers is the most consistent construct for increasing youth bonding. In the multiple group model, "commitment" (i.e., feelings about joining gangs, being involved with gang behavior etc.) is reduced significantly for those youth who received the G.R.E.A.T. curriculum versus those who did not. In the full model, "belief" about gangs in school, and pressure to join gangs, as well as… [Direct]

Bradeen, Ryan; Hessler, Peter; Masalski, Kathleen Woods; Wang, Richard (2010). Personal Experiences of China. Social Education, v74 n1 p28-41 Jan-Feb. This article presents four stories of personal experiences of China. In "A Journey Between China's Past and Present," Peter Hessler, a former Peace Corps volunteer and author, highlights misconceptions between Chinese and Americans and the desire both peoples share for knowledge about one another. In "Life on Liberation Avenue," Ryan Bradeen discusses how studying the ups and downs of China's economic growth, as seen from the perspective of one neighborhood in Hubei province, can help students appreciate the process of development. "Richard's Story" is Richard Wang's personal story describing the two sides of China–the rural, developing side and the urban, developed one–and how the lives of Chinese people are affected by where they are born. "Juefei's Story" presents Kathleen Woods Masalski's interview with Juefei Wang. In this interview, Juefei describes growing up in China during the early years of the People's Republic–his family's… [Direct]

Balan, Meera; Nath, Baiju K. (2010). Teacher-Pedagogy Approach for Sustainable Proficiency. Online Submission Quality concerns of an institution shall be explained in terms of hardware and software. The hardware comprises of building and other infrastructural facilities and software involves teachers, students and administrative staff. Various agencies such as National Council for Educational Research & Training (NCERT), National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), National University for Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), State Institute of Educational Management & Training (SIEMAT), Institute for Advanced Study in Education (IASE), College of Teacher Education (CTE), District Institute of Education for Teacher (DIET) etc. are functioning in our country for the monitoring of school education. First of all, it is essential to identify the major quality determinants for attaining and sustaining quality. Hence the present study attempts to throw light into one of the key aspects of institutional quality namely Teacher and Instructional strategies. The present study follows the… [PDF]

Webster, R. Scott (2009). The Educative Value of Dewey's Religious Attitude for Spirituality. International Journal of Children's Spirituality, v14 n2 p93-103 May. John Dewey's \religious attitude\ has great potential for the educative development of children's spirituality. This is because it enables their spiritual understandings to become more intelligently composed–not just in a cognitive or hyper-rational sense, but as a way of being. This paper provides an outline of Dewey's approach, which is described as being democratic, inquiry based, and \scientific\. Such an approach therefore offers a contrast to other more epistemologically focused curricula which attempt to educate a person's spirituality. In order to make the case for the potential educative value of such an attitude, a brief review of Dewey's approach to education shall be offered, in which the notions of inquiry, democracy, and \science\ shall be highlighted to make the case that such attributes might be necessary for spiritual education if the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization's goal of attaining world peace is to ever become possible…. [Direct]

Ignatieva, Raisa P. (2011). Positioning Teachers: A Discourse Analysis of Russian and American Teacher Identities in the Context of Changing National Assessment Mandates. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Kent State University. The purpose of the study was to uncover the cultural beliefs and values that underlie American and Russian teachers' representations of their professional identities and their understanding of power in education in the context of globally disseminated education reforms and current educational mandates–the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) in America and the Unified State Exam of 2001 (USE) in Russia–through examining discourses that manifested themselves in their talk. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used both as a strategy of inquiry and a theoretical framework for analysis and interpretation of data. Primary sources of data were semi-structured informal interviews of 11 American teachers from a Midwestern state in the United States and 11 Russian teachers from a Mid-Volga region Republic in Russia. Observations of teacher lessons were included in the study to see what discourses manifested themselves in their actual behavior in reality of classrooms. In addition,… [Direct]

Hutchinson, Frank (1996). Building Alternatives to Violence. Are There Needs and Opportunities for Teachers and Teacher Educators To Be Practical Futurists? Peace Education Miniprints No. 85. This paper argues the importance of not only understanding how \cultural editing\ may limit our images and those of our children for creating non-violent futures, but also of the need for quality responses by teachers and teacher educators to such editing. Cultural editing is a term futurists use to describe processes both within formal and non-formal education that are likely to restrict imagination about social alternatives, including alternatives to violence, and to hamper action competence or skills in non-violent democratic participation. Drawing upon new research in schools, a strong case is presented for an explicit futures dimension in the school curriculum and for a re-conceptualization of \literacy\ to include more optimal forms such as skills of social imagination and action competence in the non-violent resolution of conflict. A number of working principles are advanced relating to active listening to young people's voices on the future, applied foresight, and… [PDF]

Waghid, Yusef (2009). Patriotism and Democratic Citizenship Education in South Africa: On the (im) Possibility of Reconciliation and Nation Building. Educational Philosophy and Theory, v41 n4 p399-409 Aug. In this article, I shall evaluate critically the democratic citizenship education project in South Africa to ascertain whether the patriotic sentiments expressed in the "Manifesto on Values, Education and Democracy" (2001) are in conflict with the achievement of reconciliation and nation building (specifically peace and friendship) after decades of apartheid rule. My first argument is that, although it seems as if the teaching of patriotism through the Department of Education's democratic citizenship agenda in South African schools is a laudable initiative that can contribute toward establishing a definitive break with our apartheid past, the expression of blind patriotic sentiments (such as pledging allegiance to one's country and its citizens only) as articulated in the "Manifesto" can potentially marginalise others (immigrant communities) as the country endeavours to build its fledgling democracy. My second argument is that the intended democratic form of… [Direct]

Chen, Chih-Ming; Lee, Tai-Hung (2011). Emotion Recognition and Communication for Reducing Second-Language Speaking Anxiety in a Web-Based One-to-One Synchronous Learning Environment. British Journal of Educational Technology, v42 n3 p417-440 May. e-Learning is becoming an increasingly popular educational paradigm because of the rapid growth of the Internet. Recent studies have argued that affective modelling (ie, considering a learner's emotional or motivational state) should also be considered while designing learning activities. Many studies indicated that various learning emotions markedly impact learning outcomes. In the language education field, many studies have investigated anxiety associated with learning a second language, noting that anxiety has an adverse effect on the performance of those speaking English as a second language. Therefore, how to reduce anxiety associated with learning a second language to increase learning performance is an important research issue in the language education field. Accordingly, this study employed a sensor, signal processing, wireless communication, system-on-chip and machine-learning techniques in developing an embedded human emotion recognition system based on human pulse signals… [Direct]

Tay, Bayram; Yildirim, Kasim (2009). Parents' Views Regarding the Values Aimed to be Taught in Social Studies Lessons. Educational Sciences: Theory and Practice, v9 n3 p1529-1542 Sum. This study aimed at learning parents' ideas about the values aimed to be taught in Social Studies lessons in the 4th and 5th grades of the primary education and about values education. Study data were collected by administering "the Values Education I" and "Values Education II" questionnaire forms developed by the researchers. The views of 378 and 387 parents who filled "the Values Education I" and "Values Education II" questionnaires respectively were collected. The results obtained in the light of the collected data are as follows: parents of the students attending at the 4th and 5th grades of primary education used 19 different values to define the values that have to be taught; they listed the reasons of value education as "success, socialization, democratization, self-improvement of the children", "peace" and "necessity to teach these values." Parents deemed both themselves and the school sufficient in terms… [PDF]

McGlynn, Claire (2004). Education for Peace in Integrated Schools: A Priority for Northern Ireland?. Child Care in Practice, v10 n2 p85-94 Apr. Although violence in Northern Ireland has been "neither halted or prevented" (Tomasevski, 2003a, p. 7), few would deny that the scale of the conflict has been reduced. This paper argues that a vital purpose of education in Northern Ireland should be peacebuilding and the promotion of social cohesion. In particular, the paper looks at the lessons that can be learned from integrated education by societies moving out of conflict. As part of a larger study of the impact of integrated (mixed Catholic and Protestant) education, former and current Principals of the two longest established post-primary (for children aged 11-18) integrated colleges were questioned about the policies and practice employed by their schools with regards to promoting respect for diversity, dealing with cultural symbols and affirming or challenging identity. The potential of integrated education to promote tolerance and understanding is discussed. This paper concludes that the needs of children and… [Direct]

(1975). Recommendation Concerning Education for International Understanding, Cooperation and Peace, and Education Relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Educational Documentation and Information, 197, 13-20, 75. A comprehensive recommendation covering all forms and stages of education adopted by the General Conference of Unesco at its 18th session in 1974, the article includes guiding principles, action in various sectors of education, teacher preparation, educational equipment and materials, research and experimentation, and international cooperation. (Author/ND)…

Avraamidou, Lucy; Kadis, Costas (2008). Outdoors Environmental Education for the Service of Peace: Lessons from a 2-Year Youth Program for Reconciliation in Cyprus. Science Education Review, v7 n2 p64-71. This paper examines the merits of the proposition that outdoors environmental education can be used as a means to promote reconciliation, and in essence peace, among communities in Cyprus. It does so through an examination of an outdoors youth program called CAFE (Camping, Fitness, and Education) that aimed to promote the awareness of members of two conflicting communities, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot, about local environmental issues. More specifically, the objectives of this program were to determine whether a specially-designed outdoors environmental program can assist in bringing the two communities together. In this paper we describe the nature of the program activities and provide some participant perspectives as anecdotal support for the program's success. The evidence suggests that the outdoors environmental activities provided the participants with opportunities to view socially constructed "realities" and "truths" from the other's point of view,… [PDF]

Bennett, Zoe (2006). Ecumenical Theological Education as a Practice of Peace. Religious Education, v101 n3 p331-346 Sum. This article addresses the question of whether ecumenical theological education may be a practice of peace. Beginning with the potential of religious belief to reinforce entrenched positions and to end in violence, it advocates instead the transformative practices of witness and risk. These practices have the potential to overcome the impasse between commitment and critique, between trust and suspicion. The core methodology of the article is reflection on practice in context. The contexts addressed are a consultation held in 2005, "Learning Confidence in Difference: Teaching Theology in an Ecumenical Context," and the context of its host body, the Cambridge Theological Federation (Cambridge, UK)…. [Direct]

Moser, Keith (2010). Reading Le Clezio: Simulating Empathy for the Marginalized Inhabitants of the Unwelcoming Global Village. Online Submission, Paper presented at \A World Without Walls 2010: An International Conference on Peacebuilding, Reconciliation, and Globalization in an Interdependent World\ (Berlin, Germany, Nov 6-10, 2010). The purpose of this study is to explore how the humanities, and specifically literary narratives, can help the American educational system to overcome its alarming, pedagogical deficiencies. In the United States, many educational organizations and boards have realized that the current curriculum is failing to prepare our students on multiple levels. Not only are American pupils underachieving in areas like science and math, but they are also painfully ignorant of the rest of the world. Using both an educational and philosophical approach, this investigation will underscore how a veritable, balanced liberal arts education can stimulate critical thinking, mold minds, foster a meaningful dialogue that will allow individuals to communicate across cultural boundaries, and simulate empathy for the Other. Literature may not provide absolute truths, but it forces people to reflect about the critical issues of their time by posing disconcerting questions about divisive ideologies and the… [PDF]