(2019). Conviviality, Ego, Team and Theme Behavior in Transrational Peace Education. Journal of Peace Education, v16 n3 p252-273. The Innsbruck School of Peace Studies is known for its innovative academic teaching methods under the title Transrational Peace Philosophy. This essay introduces the epistemological fundament of this approach to peace education. It presents the didactic principles for its "Strategic Capacity and Relationship Building," combined with Strategic Leadership Training. They are based on the conviviality of students and a curriculum that follows the stages of groups' task behavior and individual learning by 'peeling the onion' of the Ego. It describes how the didactics are designed for the international, intercultural, interreligious and interdisciplinary groups of students. It demonstrates the five stages of Ego, Team and Theme Behavior during a semester and how the curriculum places courses for best learning results. It discusses the main presumptions on convivial learning processes for academics. The focus is on students who want to work later in a broader field of conflict… [Direct]
(2015). Assessing the Moral Relevance of Peace Education Contents in the Basic Education Social Studies Curricula for Effective Citizenship Participation in Nigeria. Journal of Education and Practice, v6 n13 p79-87. Social studies is a core subject at the basic education level in Nigeria which has the potentials of inculcating functional knowledge and desirable morals into pupils for effective citizenship participation through peaceful coexistence. However, despite this positive trend, the moral significance of peace education contents of the subject seem not to have been adequately explored. This lacuna justified the need for this study which sought to find out the moral relevance of peace education contents in basic education social studies in Nigerian schools. The study adopted a descriptive survey design with content analysis bias. A sample of 200 social studies teachers undergoing in-service sandwich training were selected through stratified random sampling technique from states across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria. Three research questions guided the study. Similarly, two major instruments namely 10-item questionnaire titled "Teachers' Awareness of the Moral Relevance of… [PDF]
(2024). Paving the Path to Peace through Citizenship Education in a New Social Contract. Prospects, v54 n2 p491-498. Trust in the potential of education as a common good is the cornerstone of the bond between citizens and their institutions. Changing current patterns entails lifting barriers to a culture of peace and uprooting all forms of violence. Education needs to be resilient enough through its citizen education to provide a framework for thriving societies. Governing education as a common good requires questioning educational models and curricula, considering how notions of peace are integrated into those models, which can serve as a basis for schooling as an integral part of society for the well-being and advancement of citizens. Therefore, we ask, how can citizenship education impact public institutions peace-wise? And conversely, how can citizenship education foster proximity peace and disseminate ethics for citizens, the planet, and peace building. How can citizenship education be beneficial to society as a whole? This article attempts to address these questions by exploring the benefits… [Direct]
(2019). An Interview with Ana Mar√≠a Garc√≠a Blanco. Montessori Life: A Publication of the American Montessori Society, v31 n3 p48-51 Fall. Ana Mar√≠a Garc√≠a Glanco is the AMS 2020 living legacy. As a fearless community organizer, peace education activist, and educational pioneer, Ana Mar√≠a has changed thousands of lives and transformed the future of public Montessori education in Puerto Rico. In this interview, Ana Maria discusses how she was introduced to Montessori, her own educational background, her involvement with Escuela Juan Ponce de Le√≥n public elementary school, and her response to the need for more Montessori trained teachers in Puerto Rico…. [Direct]
(2018). Educating for Peace in Higher Education. Universal Journal of Educational Research, v6 n9 p1916-1920. Peace education has become an important issue nowadays and a major concern for researchers and educators all over the world. Peace education has been introduced into many educational institutions either as separate programs or integrated within the various subject materials. Hoping to trigger some positive changes, post-war countries started adopting such programs. Research shows that the sooner children get introduced to the knowledge of peace and practice the skills related to it, the greater the chance they will become positive change agents in the future. While peace programs are being introduced into schools worldwide, it seems that attempts to do so in higher education are still minimal. Consequently, I believe that school teachers have become more qualified to educate their students for peace than university professors although one cannot deny that many universities are now offering courses or even degrees in peace studies such as conflict resolution and transformation…. [PDF]
(2017). Peace Education in Pakistan. Special Report 400. United States Institute of Peace With an eye to the theory that radicalization is a function of social and political marginalization more than of economic poverty, this report examines a cross-section of peace education initiatives in Pakistan. It relies on data collected through interviews with program teachers and students when possible. Funded by the United States Institute of Peace, it is part of a larger Center for South and Central Asia study on the role of education in preventing violent conflict…. [PDF]
(2023). The Arctic Migration Route: Local Consequences of Global Crises. Journal of Peace Education, v20 n2 p196-216. This paper addresses peace education focusing on how place-based experiences and collective memories stimulate local mobilisation for refugees fleeing from war. The Arctic Migration Route, located above 69th degree north, became an alternative to dangerous boat trips on the Mediterranean Sea, for people seeking safety and protection in the fall of 2015. During a few months, over 5,500 people from 35 nations, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran came to a municipality in north Norway with 10,000 inhabitants. The paper demonstrates how global conflicts far away, have important local consequences across borders and huge distances. Interviews with local authorities, teachers, voluntary workers constitute the main empirical material. By combining theories of place-based experiences and collective memories with phenomenology of practice, geographical location, collective and cultural memories across generations, are analysed as important driving forces for the local mobilization… [Direct]
(2017). Getting to "No": Locating Critical Peace Education within Resistance and Anti-Oppression Pedagogy at a Shi'a Islamic School in Lebanon. Research in Comparative and International Education, v12 n1 p46-63 Mar. This paper critically engages observations from a school that was aligned with a resistance movement in Lebanon during a post-war period of sustained political violence (2006-2007). Focusing on the pedagogical practices at one community-centered and community-led Shi'a Islamic urban school, the paper draws on extensive ethnographic data to illustrate how teachers and students, together, negotiated resistance and peace learning through a critical and participatory process at a school whose curricular content, structure, and pedagogy explicitly addressed both direct and structural forms of violence. Drawing on rich, illustrative classroom data, I examine the production and enactment of peace knowledge as resistance to the status quo. This knowledge production does not exclude the performance of militarism and heroic resistance as forms of praxis, creating dissonance for understanding peace education as a field of scholarship and practice. This dissonance, I posit, is critical in… [Direct]
(2014). Global Peace Education in 21st Century. Online Submission, Paper presented at the National Conference on Trends and Innovations in Gandhian Thought (Kerala, India, Dec 12-13, 2014). This article explores theoretical and practical issues related to education for global peace during the 21st century. The development of global peace education is discussed in this study. Although India has made many contributions to the theory and practice of peace work (the non-violent movement led by Mahatma Gandhi, who conceived peace as non-violence restored with justice and equity. By non-violent action Gandhi meant peaceful, constructive mass action. It is true that Gandhi did not write on global peace education in any very specific way, but his whole philosophy and life have been, of course, important in peace studies and peace education not only for India but for other nations of the world as well. His peace education must become part of all global education system…. [PDF]
(2022). Global Issues in a Series of EFL Textbooks and Implications for End-Users to Promote Peace Education through Teaching English. Journal of Peace Education, v19 n3 p373-396. English has long been accepted as "lingua franca" (ELF) to share values, beliefs and opinions. ELF can be interrelated with the paradigms of Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT), English as an International Language (EIL) and English as Medium of Instruction (EMI). Textbooks should present content covering global issues (GIs), leading to a better understanding of the spread of English and its connection with globalization where peace education (PE) should be built on. English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teachers usually feel under pressure to follow textbooks in English prep-programs in Turkey. Therefore, the extent that EFL textbooks offer GIs is crucial for developing learners' understanding of PE beyond national boundaries. Although relevant literature has well documented the place of GIs in language teaching and paucity of research on PE in language education, EFL textbooks have remained under-researched. For this reason, a comprehensive checklist of GIs was used… [Direct]
(2014). Reflections of a Peace Educator: The Power and Challenges of Peace Education with Pre-Service Teachers. Curriculum Inquiry, v44 n4 p489-507 Sep. This retrospective essay examines one long-standing peace and global education initiative for pre-service teacher candidates. The article probes the meanings of peace education and of global education embedded in the program, as well as the program's apparent consequences: What understandings of peace education did the pre-service candidates in this program demonstrate, through their own words and the teaching plans they produced? What skills did the pre-service candidates seem to acquire in curriculum design? My reflections are based on my own experience as a faculty member and coordinator of the program, as well as retrospective understandings derived from ongoing examination of questionnaires, focus group discussions, interviews, and especially, almost 200 curriculum products (lesson and unit plans) created by pre-service candidates in a special "global cohort" and in the general pre-service population at the same university. The article provides a literature review… [Direct]
(2020). Applying a Critical and Peace Education Lens to the American Revolution in the Social Studies Classroom. Social Studies, v111 n3 p143-154. The American Revolution is central to the identity of citizens of the United States. It is, therefore, rarely critiqued in the U.S. social studies classroom. This article examines how teachers can discuss the American Revolution using both a critical historical approach and the ideas of peace education, particularly the strand that focuses on the problematization of war. Specific examples are given for how teachers can critique some of the national myths surrounding the American Revolution. Furthermore, the rationale for this critique of the American Revolution is presented, particularly as it relates to the problematic history of minorities in the aftermath of the Revolution and the relationship between students' views of the American Revolution and the ties to modern-day violence and military engagements. The goal for this more nuanced understanding of the American Revolution is not only to make students more critical thinkers in regard to their history but hopefully to also help… [Direct]
(2015). Human Rights and Peace Education in the Lebanese Civics Textbooks. Research in Comparative and International Education, v10 n1 p135-150 Mar. In 1997 the Lebanese government published its newly developed curriculum and textbooks following a long and fierce civil war, which started in 1975. The new curriculum emphasized nation building, reconciliation and citizenship. This study aims to examine how the civics textbooks in Lebanon addressed human rights and peace education, both of which are crucial in any attempt to build cohesion in a post-conflict society. Findings revealed that human rights and peace education were endorsed in the aims and objectives of the 1997 curriculum. The textbooks directly addressed some of these themes, particularly human rights and to a lesser degree peace education. The pedagogy followed in the textbooks to teach the two concepts was primarily descriptive. Despite the fact that the constructivist approach has been adopted as part of the curriculum objectives, implementation of this approach is almost absent from the civics textbooks. The study compares these results to citizenship education in… [Direct]
(2019). The Philosophical Challenges of Critical Peace Education in the Palestinian-Israeli Context. Ethics and Education, v14 n2 p198-212. This article presents and analyzes two examples of peace education practices in the Israeli-Palestinian context. "Zochrot" is an organization dedicated to raising public awareness of the Palestinian Nakba, especially among Jews in Israel. "The School for Peace" is a Jewish-Arab organization that conducts encounter activities with the goal of encouraging participants to become active in relation to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Both practices are grounded in critical pedagogy and postcolonial literature, and their aim is to change existing power structures. Current political realities, however, which include oppression, occupation, and injustice, exacerbate the challenge of this goal. We identify three challenges that demand attention if these practices are to realize their transformative potential: essentialism, responsibility of the victim, and singular utopia. Finally, we highlight the importance of hybrid identity as an educational approach that is a… [Direct]
(2015). Promoting Peace Education for Behaviourial Changes in Public Secondary Schools in Calabar Municipality Council Area, Cross River State, Nigeria. Journal of Education and Practice, v6 n23 p144-149. This study aimed at investigating the promotion of peace education for behavioural changes in public secondary schools in Calabar Municipal Council Area of Cross River State. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. A set of questionnaire items were validated and used for the collection of data involving 310 respondents, selected from a total population of 773 teachers and 10 principals representing 39.5% of the total population of 783. The questionnaire was titled: Promoting Peace Education For Behavioural Changes In Secondary Schools Questionnaire (PPEFBCISSQ). The reliability of the instrument was determined by using the split-half method which involved 31 teachers outside the study sample. Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used to analyze the data. The reliability estimate was between r = 0.60 and r = 0.70. The result of the analysis showed a positive significant relationship between promotion of peace education and behavioural changes in curbing… [PDF]