(2023). Considerations in Education for Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Lessons from Arab and Muslim Majority Contexts. Journal of Peace Education, v20 n1 p30-52. This article presents lessons learned on the education for forgiveness and reconciliation in Muslim and Arab majority contexts, especially as part of civic engagement or across content areas. It first presents a brief review of the literature on forgiveness and reconciliation and ways they are interrelated in the larger Arab and Muslim contexts. Secondly, it points out religious and cultural sources that ground the practice of forgiveness and reconciliation. Thirdly, it presents the analysis of forgiveness stories collected from various Arab communities and discusses the main obstacles that hinder adopting a forgiveness and reconciliation agenda. Finally, it proposes forgiveness education and pedagogy based on stories to provide the framework and mechanisms to advance forgiveness and reconciliation education in schools and education spaces. We recommend utilizing local stories and storytelling as a method to delve into interpersonal and social conflicts…. [Direct]
(2023). Pacifism and Educational Violence. Journal of Peace Education, v20 n1 p75-94. Education systems are full of harmful violence of types often unrecognised or misunderstood by educators, education leaders, and bureaucrats. Educational violence harms a great number of innocent persons (those who, morally speaking, may not be justifiably harmed). Accordingly, this paper rejects educational violence used to achieve educational ends. It holds that educational violence is unjustified if the condition that innocent persons are harmed is satisfied, that this condition is satisfied in current educational practice (compulsory schooling), and that, therefore, the current education system (schooling) acts in an unjustifiable manner. If the means of educating cannot be justified, then that education system itself cannot be justified, since an end cannot be justifiably pursued if the means requisite to pursuing it are unjustifiable. I call this stance 'educational pacifism'…. [Direct]
(2023). A Mathematics Teacher's Respectful Listening in a Culturally Diverse Class. Journal of Peace Education, v20 n2 p151-175. Respect and listening are two issues that are complicated to research. This paper presents how respectful listening may constitute one aspect of a teacher's role in child-centered learning. The analysis focus on a teacher's reflections about events that took place after she and a colleague carried out a mathematics teaching unit on culturally diverse children's understanding of 'pattern'. The teacher observed situations that she found interesting and relevant for the children's learning. She communicated with the researcher about this for some months. A closer look at the teacher's reflections caused the research focus to change from what the teacher observed, to how she carried out the observations. So, the research focus is the teacher's application of respectful listening skills when these observations were made. Our analysis reveals the outcomes of two situations. Situation 1 is about communication between the teacher and a child's mother, while situation 2 is about communication… [Direct]
(2023). Female Russian Migrants in Norway and Their Stories about International Women's Day. Journal of Peace Education, v20 n2 p135-150. Although political relations between Russia and Norway have softened over the years, the symbolic boundaries persist. In this article, we illustrate how Russian female migrants in Northern Norway relate to these symbolic boundaries. Thus, perspectives from the phenomenology of the body and critical phenomenology are used to analyze qualitative data on how Russian female migrants experience the celebration of March 8, widely known as International Women's Day, as a transnational space where they feel both belonging and non-belonging. More specifically, we explore the following research questions: How do Russian female migrants in Northern Norway use International Women's Day as an occasion to express Russian femininity, or even Russian feminism, in their own way? And what can we, through a political-historical contextualization of these March 8 narratives, learn about the Norwegian majority and how the majority, often in subtle ways, represent women from outside the West, including… [Direct]
(2023). Reconciliation during an Intractable Conflict in a Hebrew Mixed (Arabs and Jews) College. Journal of Peace Education, v20 n3 p273-290. This study examines how a course that includes recognizing pain and suffering inflicted during intractable conflicts affects Indigenous Minority Group students' willingness to reconcile. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative research tools with a pre-/post- questionnaire examining Israeli-Palestinian indigenous minority group students' willingness to reconcile with the Israeli-Jewish majority group during an outbreak in violence (May 2021 Riots in Israel). Recognition entails creating space for minority students' narratives and listening to their pain and anger related to their history and lived experiences as a minority. Findings show that students who received recognition maintain a steady will to reconcile and students who did not receive such recognition express a decrease in their willingness to reconcile. Such a distinction in results demonstrates the importance of recognizing a minority group's narrative while an intractable… [Direct]
(2023). The Conception of War and Peace in Early Childhood: A Phenomenological Analysis of Kindergarten Children in Banten, Indonesia. Journal of Peace Education, v20 n3 p361-384. In recent decades, numerous studies have been conducted on children's understanding of peace and war. Geographic, economic, political, cultural, and social differences influence the concepts of war and peace. This study aims at examining this effect. In addition to comparing studies conducted in Western countries, the study aims to examine early childhood students' understanding of war and peace concepts. The study involved ten early childhood children who were at the kindergarten level with an average age of 5.7 years. The study employed a phenomenological approach. Drawing and semi-structured interviews were utilized for data collection. The study results indicate that children conceptualize war as unhappiness, conflict, and weapons. War concepts are symbolized by sad people, weapons, and fighting characters. In addition, children conceptualize peace as happiness, the beauty of nature, and a place that makes them feel safe, cheerful, free to express themselves, happy, and in which… [Direct]
(2013). Teaching for a Safer World: Lessons from the World Peace Game. Independent School, v72 n2 Win. In an era of unprecedented volatility, ambiguity, impassioned conflict, and intractable problems that affect the basic living conditions and prosperity of many, education has never been more important or more in need of purpose, meaning, and applicability. The solutions to the dilemmas that define our world will be created and implemented in the future by students in schools around the world today. Their education is their preparation for that responsibility. For educators looking to offer students practice with solving real-world issues and problems, the authors offer one example that has proven to be highly successful: John Hunter's "World Peace Game." The game offers students a learning space that is dynamic, meaningful, and challenging–and prepares them to understand and generate solutions for the world's dilemmas. This article explains the game, presents details, and highlights the core educational principles the game supports…. [Direct]
(2010). Navigating the Peaks and Valleys of Teaching. New England Mathematics Journal, v42 p56-61 May. After 30 years in education, the author decided to follow a lifelong dream to join the Peace Corps. She was assigned to teach mathematics (in French) in a small country in West Africa for two years. Reflecting on her life as a new Peace Corps volunteer, the author offers in this article some parallels between that experience and the early days, months, and years of a teacher's entry into the teaching profession…. [PDF] [Direct]
(2000). My Journey as a Peace Educator. Peace Education Miniprints No. 100. This paper discusses the need to prepare teachers as agents for a culture of peace. It notes that the core values in a culture of peace are environmental sustainability, cultural diversity, human solidarity, social responsibility, and gender equality. For each of these values, there is a complementary human capacity to be developed through teacher education, making it possible for teachers to cultivate these values and capacities in their students. These capacities are ecological awareness, cultural competency, global agency, conflict proficiency, and gender sensitivity. The paper suggests a number of recommendations to help promote developments in these directions, addressing them to UNESCO, ministries of education, and educational and professional associations. (BT)… [PDF]
(2017). Creative Engagement: Handwork as Follow-Up Work. NAMTA Journal, v42 n2 p121-137 Spr. "To a great extent, we all must "do" in order to learn." Ellen Lebitz begins with this overarching truth as a lead-in to a close look at handwork in the elementary environment. She explains the benefits of handwork for the second-plane child, including it being a key to helping "even the most distracted children find focus and interest." She gives concrete examples of handwork (mostly as follow-up work) along with tips for implementation, including maintaining a clean-up routine and having materials organized and available. She addresses teamwork in handwork, issues of scale, and poses handwork as a grounding route to abstraction. Supported by invaluable tools for the teacher to use, her enthusiasm and experience with this work shines through as encouragement to be prepared and, most importantly, to trust in the child: "It would be so easy to just assume that we know what the best follow-up is, but the children need to be free to figure out… [PDF]
(2015). Walking with Madhu: Healing Ped/agogy. Cultural Studies of Science Education, v10 n1 p187-201 Mar. In this essay, the author responds to Madhu Prakash's piece on friendship gardens and healing our "Mother" through Prakash's central question, "How to birth a world in which many worlds flourish and complement each other in their wild, divine diversity; all equally enjoying Ahimsa flourishing and happiness?" Coming from the standpoint of schooling, education, and teacher preparation, the author works to reground the descriptors of "pre-service" and "in-service" from a technical discourse to an ecological one, where the notion of service becomes expansive and pedagogical. Illustrated is how people in community are building gardens and working with soil in a way that is restorative for more-than human relationships, illuminating the deep ways gardens heal and nourish. This is especially important as we emerge from the wake of Cold War numbness, where gardens enable and empower continued societal growth from ideological mindset of… [Direct]
(2009). International Education: A Force for Peace and Cross-Cultural Understanding?. Journal of Peace Education, v6 n2 p209-224 Sep. This paper discusses the notion that the international sojourn has the potential to transform sojourners into cultural mediators who carry the power to improve global relations. A year-long ethnographic study of the adjustment experiences of international postgraduate students in England revealed a universal early enthusiasm for cross-cultural contact that was matched by a widespread adoption of segregated patterns of interacting. The most common friendship networks were described as bonds with co-nationals, and yet all students attested to an increase in their cultural learning and mindfulness by the end of the sojourn. Nevertheless, intercultural competence was maximised only in those "few" students who pursued a multicultural strategy of interaction, leading the researcher to call on higher education institutions to instigate policies to encourage lasting cross-cultural contact…. [Direct]
(1990). Statewide Needs Assessment Survey of the Continuing Education Needs of Minnesota Peace Officers: Phase One. A statewide needs assessment project was designed to identify the continuing education needs of Minnesota peace officers. Phase one measured perceptions of law enforcement administrators or training officers. The needs assessment committee conducted a literature review to identify items for the survey instrument and weighting formulas. A survey identified 65 training tasks that were highly representative of the most often cited training needs of peace officers. It was distributed to 97 percent of Minnesota's law enforcement agencies (n=525); 307 were returned. Data analysis resulted in a prioritization of training needs based on three criteria (time spent performing the task, harm resulting from inadequate performance, and need for additional training) and organized by demographic considerations. The amount of time and amount of harm did not appear to change the rank ordering significantly. Of the top 10 items, 2 were from the law-related group, 2 from the human… [PDF]
(2015). The Influence of Role-Players on the Character-Development and Character-Building of South African College Students. South African Journal of Education, v35 n3 Article 1086 Aug. The present world is in a moral crisis and it seems as though educational institutions experience both challenges and enormous behavioural problems. Statistics prove that there is a drastic decline in morals, values, standards, ethics, character and behaviour and schools, where colleges and even universities seem to indulge in crisis after crisis. It is perceived that behavioural problems such as substance and drug abuse, violence, theft, vandalism, bullying, aggression, immorality, examination fraud, amongst others, are increasing among students. The goal of this article is to determine how college students' lives are influenced by involved role-players in character-development and in character-building. Value and character education provides the building blocks for the inherent preservation of a healthy society. It is the art of life that keeps the environment friendly, free and safe, allowing earth's inhabitants to work, live and play together in peace. The influence of relevant… [PDF]
(2016). Biopedagogies and Indigenous Knowledge: Examining Sport for Development and Peace for Urban Indigenous Young Women in Canada and Australia. Sport, Education and Society, v21 n4 p549-569. This paper uses transnational postcolonial feminist participatory action research (TPFPAR) to examine two sport for development and peace (SDP) initiatives that focus on Indigenous young women residing in urban areas, one in Vancouver, Canada, and one in Perth, Australia. We examine how SDP programs that target urban Indigenous young women and girls reproduce the hegemony of neoliberalism by deploying biopedagogies of neoliberalism to "teach" Indigenous young women certain education and employment skills that are deemed necessary to participate in competitive capitalism. We found that activities in both programs were designed to equip the Indigenous girls and young women with individual attributes that would enhance their chances of future success in arenas valued by neoliberal capitalism: Eurocentric employment, post-secondary education and healthy active living. These forms of "success" fall within neoliberal logic, where the focus is on the individual being… [Direct]