microsoft word adhik badal ifp v12.2 (1).docx in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 176-179 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 176 volume 12 number 2 (2018): 176-179 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review truth commissions: memory, power, and legitimacy, by onur bakiner, philadelphia, university of pennsylvania press, 2016, pp. vi+315, $65.00 (hardcover), isbn: 978-0-8122-4762-6. reviewed by adhik badal kent state university abadal@kent.edu truth commissions (tcs) have become the major political mechanisms to promote peace and social justice in transitional justice systems in post-war societies. in the aftermath of conflict, numerous actors including victims of conflict put pressure on an existing or new government to investigate the atrocities of the past. despite the global trend of tcs, only a small number of commissions seems to have been effective. what makes a tc effective? truth commissions: memory, power and legitimacy seeks to answer this question, while diagnosing numerous aspects of tcs: truth seeking, memory narrating and the politics of the commission. this book contributes to our understanding of how tcs are formed, shaped, and effect the society. using comparative case studies, onur bakiner analyzes 15 tcs with special attention to chile’s and peru’s commissions to understand the impact of tcs on politics and society. the book consists of three parts. part i is composed of three in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 176-179 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 177 chapters, and sets the conceptual and theoretical framework to understand the tcs’ struggles for justice and truth. in the first chapter, bakiner defines and conceptualizes tcs while placing them in a historical context. for bakiner, a tc “is a temporary body established with an official mandate to investigate past human rights violations, identify the patterns and causes of violence, and publish a final report through a politically autonomous procedure” (24). publishing a final report is the necessary component of the definition of a tc because “the failure to publish a final report simply violates the essential task of tcs” (24). chapter 2 offers critical assessments of tc processes. it explores their formation, mandates, engagement with civil society, and “the politics within the commission” (46). it demonstrates how similar tcs, due to their internal politics, produce different outcomes in terms of their effectiveness. this is followed by a further discussion on the type of truths, including forensic data and victims’ testimonies that tcs pursue to be effective in chapter 3. it theorizes strategies (adjudication, avoidance, giving voice and transformation) that tcs utilize to reconstruct the historical accounts of the past violence. for example, the chilean commission avoided the portrayal of the conflict to reconcile the rival parties (72), whereas the south african commission gave voice to the victims of conflict by including their narratives into national memory (73). part ii shifts its focus from theoretical to empirical studies of tcs’ influence on politics and society. this section has four chapters. chapter 4 conceptualizes tcs’ impact on domestic policies and practices more vividly. by identifying several causal mechanisms including direct and indirect political impact through civil society mobilization, the author underlines the ways “tcs are likely to produce impact” (87). the degree of autonomy each commission enjoys varies according to its mandate. he knows the degree of pressure tcs experience. but, despite these constraints, they are often able to challenge those in power. the author underscores that the commissioners can utilize their independence to be critical to current power holders. thus, he considers a tc more than a political tool in the nationbuilding process. bakiner’s ability to understand the degree of pressure that tcs face and articulated circumstances in which tcs promote justice is a definite strength. chapter 5 offers an in-depth comparison between chilean and in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 176-179 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 178 peruvian commissions to explain why some commissions generate direct impact, while others depend on the mobilization of civil society to produce impact. bakiner argues that the balance of power during the commission creation process is influential, but the major factor that determines commissions’ final success is “whether the commissions’ establishment process is tightly controlled or highly inclusive” (146). chapter 6 further investigates this argument analyzing 13 other commissions. the findings support the proposition outlined in chapter 5, arguing: short-and long term commission impact can be conceptualized as a mixture of change driven by political will and change resulting from civil society pressure. in some countries one sense of change dominates the other, whereas in other cases political and societal forces reinforce each other to generate either high or low impact (147). chapter 7 investigates chile’s and peru’s cases to understand the conditions under which tcs promote comprehensive historical accounts. it explores how tcs include and exclude narrative strategies outlined in chapter 3 to explain the causes and consequences of political violence. the findings demonstrate that the commission creation process (mandate and composition of tcs) shapes the agency. for example, the exclusionary chilean commission, established under the control of the government “produced a limited account of the underlying causes of political violence” (202). in contrast, the participatory peruvian commission produced a “comprehensive tcs narrative” (203). part iii is a critical analysis of tcs’ conditions of possibility, limitations and promises. this segment consists of one chapter. chapter 8 examines bakiner’s studies of tcs’ impact using theories from hannah arendt, pierre nora, and jürgen habermas. however, disconnected to the previous chapters, it underscores that tcs can recover factual and historical truth from the official dishonesty (victor’s history) by opening a social space to contest biased accounts of the past. the book ends with a series of recommendations to enhance the efficacy of future tcs. bakiner emphasizes the inclusion of local civil society to connect with local leaders and issues. he suggests that the commissioners must accept their responsibility, despite disapproval, to promote justice and accountability. he supports reduced criminal sentences for perpetrators, which should be in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 176-179 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 179 “conditional on the consent of individual victim-survivors and victims’ relatives” (235). the author strongly recommends that tcs should include a comprehensive approach to history while giving “voice to those persons and social groups that have been excluded” (236). bakiner writes in a clear way, and his use of charts is convincing. for example, the table presented in chapter 4 helps readers to know the causal mechanisms to understand the ways tcs influence domestic policies. there are, however, certain limitations. first, the author contends that commissioners alone can entertain the pressure and work for better justice, but he doesn’t explain the consequences of bypassing politics and political actors on tcs’ functionalities. this lack of explanation may limit the degree to which his findings are applicable to future tcs. second, this book misses the outlining of the impact of tcs at the level of individuals’ lives. examples at this level would have been more convincing. in the end, the book will be a great resource for anyone interested to learn how tcs influence politics and society. the focus on everyday practices of tcs also offers valuable insights for political actors interested in creating tcs in the future. microsoft word sweeney factis pax rmsjee review[1][1].docx volume 13 number 2 (2019): 172-175 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 172 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 172-175 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review review of liz atkins and verity duckworth, research methods for social justice and equity in education, bloomsbury research methods for education (london: bloomsbury academic, 2019). 336pp., 5 bw illus. $32.95. isbn 9781350015463. loughlin sweeney endicott college of international studies, woosong university atkins and duckworth begin their new book with a question: how can we be sure that research addresses social justice, when the notion of social justice itself is so contested, debated, and potentially contradictory? accordingly, the authors set themselves a difficult challenge, outlining two aims: attempting to balance, on the one hand, a discussion of theories of justice, and on the other, a focus on methodology, to reveal how questions of social justice problematize educational research. the work that emerges is divided into three sections, beginning with theoretical interventions on questions of social justice, equity, and ethics. then, the book discusses case studies, mainly drawn from uk further education (the authors’ own field), and invites researchers to reflect on the social justice issues raised in their work. finally, there is a focus on practical research methods, ‘to challenge inequality and work towards social justice and equity’ (15). the book ranges over a great deal of ground, and presents a nuanced, provocative, and volume 13 number 2 (2019): 172-175 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 173 useful compendium of research methods and case studies which is widely applicable to educational researchers, and indeed to all researchers seeking an equitable and just approach to fieldwork. as a postcolonial scholar, rather than a fe researcher, i shall focus my review on the core methodological discussion instead of the content of the studies. central to the book’s thesis is a focus on reflexivity and positionality: ‘unless a practitioner can critically engage in examining their own practice, they cannot position themselves as able to critically examine others’ claim to knowledge’ (102). tensions resonate throughout the chapters: operations of privilege and voice, implicit value-judgments and claims to knowledge, insiders and outsiders, practitioners and researchers – all of these are embodied in the person of the social justice researcher. the analysis of case studies in the middle chapters, which invite the researchers involved to discuss these tensions, reveals a number of important insights. the projects examined feature a wide range of methods and mixed methods approaches, including: group interviews, participant observation, workshops, the mixed use of text and images, quantitative analysis, participatory action research, critical discourse analysis, biography, and knowledge exchange. taken together, they present a convincing and incisive picture of what socially-conscious research can and cannot do. for example, a study by atkins of the aspirations of ‘othered… vocational… low-level’ further education learners, raises complex questions of participant involvement in data analysis: while ‘collaboration and inclusion were intended and attempted at each stage… she could only claim partial success’, due to the difficulties of engaging with participants of differing life experience and educational level (139). despite these downsides, the participants evinced ‘a far greater involvement’ in the project than they would have otherwise, and it succeeded in its aim of revealing issues of learner agency, othering, and social capital deficit in these learners’ experiences (139-140). a chapter comparing five research projects from a diversity of international contexts (armenia, barbados, ireland, pakistan, and south africa; the majority of the book’s other cases are from britain, with some from western europe and north america) explores the tension between structural inequalities and researcher agency: ‘collaboration in itself does not address issues of social justice, human value or power relations, despite consideration of these issues being of fundamental importance: does a study pay lip service to the notions of dialogue, equality and collaboration or does it try to find a means to negotiate the issues arising from the research with the participants in the context of an equal relationship?’ (198). the authors, citing bell hooks, conclude that, while researchers’ ability to advocate for social justice is partial, and perhaps volume 13 number 2 (2019): 172-175 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 174 compromised, socially just research can ‘facilitate’ the liberation of voices and the move from object to subject (199-200). the approach taken by this book is not without its drawbacks, however. the theoretical discussion is oddly unbalanced: a section on postcolonial thought makes no mention of spivak, for instance; a discussion of historical epistemologies of justice gives us plato, aristotle, and augustine, but not locke or kant, which would have added a useful counterpoint to later discussions of studies rejecting positivist approaches (230). the quran stands as the sole representative of non-western ideas of justice; the inclusion of other perspectives, mencius for example, would have been beneficial (21). the question is raised in the reader as to whether an entire section on theory was necessary, when the book’s major contributions are to be found in its discussions of case studies and methods. the only other criticism which might be levelled at this book is that it is strongly uk-focused, and this potentially narrows its scope somewhat. this is not to deny that an in-depth study of uk further education is useful and worthwhile, but considering the framing of this book as both a discussion of theories of social justice and a guide to research methods, a greater diversity of case studies would have strengthened its conclusions. there is one chapter on decolonization and global education, but it seems rather disconnected from the rest of the book. in this chapter, issues of indigenous silences, and difficult questions surrounding researchers’ implicit or explicit attempts at ‘reclaiming’ them are raised (171), and a postcolonial perspective is brought to bear in discussions of cultural relevance between contexts (192), the authors noting that ‘socially just research is highly contextualized, [and] demands a situated approach’ (196). however, discussions of coloniality are absent from other chapters. the final chapters focus on selected methods in depth, and the questions they raise for socially just research: participative and collaborative methods; the sensitive question of ‘insider research’; and ethnography. a call for ‘methodological creativity’ is made, or the combination and adaptation of different research methods to create a methodology uniquely suited to addressing a particular research question (254-5). again, a number of important insights present themselves here. the authors note that ‘researchers all too often restrict themselves to those most commonly used [methods] (e.g. interviews and questionnaires) even where these are not actually fit for purpose’, and call for a more nuanced approach to methodology (274). one core theme running through the book is ‘impact’, that much-maligned phrase beloved of managerial academia. atkins and duckworth recognize at various volume 13 number 2 (2019): 172-175 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 175 points that social justice approaches imply that ‘the usual forms of dissemination such as conference presentations and journal articles are insufficient’ (250). it may be for this reason that the methodology discussions focus primarily on policy research. another recurring theme in the book is the tension between the role of the researcher as scientist and as activist (9, 114), and once again policy-focused research in particular is proposed as an avenue to reconcile this tension, in a way that purely academic research cannot (167, 279). the suggestion seems to be that only policy-based research can truly have a social purpose, a bold claim which begs further examination. a more in-depth discussion of the complexities of researcher positionality, and the power relations between senior researcher, junior researcher, and ‘subject’ (which are raised but not extensively pursued) may be necessary to address these issues. there is significant scope for further work here, particularly from a postcolonial perspective. in the conclusion, the authors lay down a challenge to researchers, suggesting that ‘the very structures of academia may be incongruent with social justice approaches’, that it is ‘too easy to ignore the plight of children, young people and adults… who have differentiated, “divided and divisive” access to education’, and exhorting researchers to ‘challenge the status quo’, to ‘“walk the walk” as well as “talk the talk”’ (278). as welcome as these sentiments are, they strike the reader as perhaps slightly platitudinous in light of the authors’ prescription for these ills, of ‘practitioner fora, blogs, practitioner journals and conferences, personal and professional networks’ and the other trappings of academe (279). considering the nuanced discussions of the structural issues underlying access to education (4, 143, 150, 170), and the deep analysis into questions of structural violence, power, and equity revealed through the case studies, the conclusion seems to overemphasize the agency of individual researchers in resolving these issues. this is, however, a relatively minor objection to a book which stands as an important and welcome intervention in favour of socially just and equitable research, and provides numerous examples of how these approaches work in practice. overall, this book represents a useful contribution to the field, and its reflexive approach to its case studies is very insightful. research students and early-career academics will find much of value here. a good selection of further reading is also provided at the end of each chapter. while its theoretical framework, uk focus, and concentration on policy research limits its scope, these criticisms are more than made up for by the depth of insight into the methods that are presented. microsoft word kurian ifp v12.2.docx in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 184-187 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 184 volume 12 number 2 (2018): 184-187 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review review of: peace education: international perspectives, edited by monisha bajaj and maria hantzopoulos, bloomsbury academic, london, 2016, 304 pp., $124.69 (hardback), isbn 9781474233682, $38.05 (ebook), isbn 9781474233712 by nomisha kurian university of cambridge nck28@cam.ac.uk by presenting a mosaic of cross-cultural perspectives, monisha bajaj and maria hantzopoulos help fill a lacuna in the literature. although peace education does not lack insightful research on non-western contexts (see bekerman & mcglynn, 2007; burns & aspeslagh, 1996), this book explores a striking variety of international settings. the twelve case studies span cyprus, lebanon, the philippines, india, new york, south africa, northern ireland, trinidad and tobago, kenya and israel. all sketch contextually sensitive portraits of peace education in practice. the chapters tend to challenge normative assumptions, advocating nuanced local perspectives over universalistic theory: in other words, uniting their geographical range is a commitment to critical peace education. the book is well-organised. its first section explores peace education in conflict and post-traumatic contexts, the second national landscapes, the third structures of violence and the fourth approaches and models for peace education. this analytical breadth offers several strengths; one is the ability to stress the manifold, ever-evolving forms peace might assume. subramanian, lee, dollard and kabba evaluate ideas of social change embedded in television media, namely sesame street (chapter 12). mendenhall and chopra discuss in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 184-187 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 185 how peace education can unfold in kenyan refugee camps (chapter 5) while horner presents a non-formal, faith-based, community-led programme in mindanao, a region riven by religious riots (chapter 7). such discussions seem particularly relevant considering how conflict can disrupt the stable societal structures enabling formal schooling. dynamic pedagogies for peace, that transcend the four walls of conventional classrooms, thus seem all the more necessary. the book’s analytical breadth has the additional advantage of mapping diverse landscapes. zakharia deploys an example of peacebuilding during lebanon’s civil war to make a case for transformative education (chapter 4). she raises important questions about the need for peacebuilding initiatives to consider localised tensions and the positionality of the un. bajaj also delves into the complexities of a specific national context (chapter 6). elucidating the history of indian peace education, she enriches its theoretical dimensions by devising categories for the different stakeholders and ideological approaches involved. such chapters enable the reader to gain detailed insight into specific contexts as well as draw broader conclusions about peace education. another strength of the book’s analytical range is that it succeeds in conveying the complications and contradictions inherent in praxis. discussing the israel-palestine conflict, bekerman reveals the dynamics of power and inequality in bilingual integrated schools in the united states, northern ireland and israel (chapter 3). mendenhall and chopra reveal how barriers such as inadequate funding and friction with ministries of education hinder the delivery of peace education in kenyan refugee camps (chapter 5). bermeo explores the challenges faced by teachers in trinidad. demonstrating the potential of critical peace education in schools affected by urban violence, she focuses on teachers’ everyday encounters with students involved in the drug trade (chapter 9). the difficult realities of peacebuilding also emerge in williams’ critique of the antischool violence policies initiated by trinidad’s ministry of education (chapter 8). by showing how these policies ignore the persistence of exclusion and inequality, williams demonstrates how peacebuilding attempts may fail to dismantle structural violence. yet, alongside these helpful critiques, the book also offers hope. hantzopoulos conveys the potential of schooling to subvert structural violence in her portrayal of a transformative high school in new york (chapter 10). another promising example emerges in soetoro-ng and urosevich’s “ceeds of peace”, named after the ‘c’ skills the programme prioritises, such as compassion, critical thinking and civic engagement (chapter 11). without being prescriptive, soetoro-ng and urosevich offer concrete suggestions for working with children and families. the book thus blends critique with practical guidance for change. in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 184-187 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 186 in addition, the range of themes has the advantage of letting the authors bolster their academic arguments with the emotional heft of lived experience. zembylas colours his work on the politicisation of trauma with personal memories of primary school in cyprus (chapter 1). this engagement with authorial subjectivity hints at the book’s support of self-reflexive peace education. indeed, murphy, pettis and wray’s work on facing history, a project to encourage critical thinking about historical narratives, suggests that peace educators must embrace the vulnerability of looking inward (chapter 2). the discomfort involved therein emerges in the example of one trainee realising her internalised prejudices hinder her self-image as a ‘lovely liberal person’. the image of the peace educator as a neutral witness to conflict and injustice is thus disrupted. the book’s analytical breadth is also beneficial in that the chapters collectively work to unsettle normative assumptions. hantzopoulos states that she desires to overturn notions of peace education being ‘superfluous’ in american schools (chapter 10). indeed, her ethnographic accounts of caring teachers compellingly counter charges of irrelevance. zakharia also challenges a prevailing trend: the un’s prioritisation of security over education (chapter 4). by foregrounding the testimonies of participants in peace education in a fragile setting, she argues that the potential of education for sustainable, long-term change deserves recognition. the book also questions assumptions about peace itself. horner shows how muslims in mindanao conceptualise peace differently from democracy-focused liberal views (chapter 7). zembylas argues that critical pedagogy must take more notice of affect (chapter 1), while bekerman, exploring the prolonged israel-palestine conflict, underscores the need for peace educators to turn their gaze beyond dominant curricula lest they simply reproduce knowledge (chapter 3). the chapters thus question multiple norms and assumptions, pushing the field in new directions. perhaps the book could have strengthened its criticality by acknowledging the inescapable limitations of fieldwork. some chapters present glowing reports from participants in peace education programmes. however, hidden forces frequently influence oral evaluations. social desirability bias could have led participants to try and please researchers by praising the initiatives, while selfselection bias could have rendered only participants who enjoyed highly positive outcomes willing to report their experiences. while such biases would not invalidate the data, perhaps more reflection on the complexities of measuring ‘impact’ would have been pertinent. nevertheless, the book is a valuable contribution to the field, charting voyages into peace education on a global scale and drawing rich, locally contextualised maps of the possibilities and tensions therein. the diversity of the contexts examined and the combination of academic critique with practical guidance will make it useful for a wide range of audiences, in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 184-187 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 187 from university professors, peace researchers and students to classroom teachers and policymakers. references bekerman, z. & mcglynn, c. 2007. addressing ethnic conflict through peace education: international perspectives. new york: palgrave macmillan. burns, r. & aspelagh, r. eds. 1996. three decades of peace education around the world. new york: garland publishing. microsoft word ifp v 16 howard richards.docx volume 16 number 1 (2022): 85-90 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 85 volume 16 number 1 (2022): 85-90 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 review of magnus haavelsrud, education in developments. volume 3 (oslo: arena, 2020)1 by howard richards professor emeritus magnus haavelsrud, of the norwegian university of science and technology, has been a leading thinker in social science, peace studies and peace education for more than half a century, often working closely with johan galtung and betty reardon. this new volume can be read as carrying forward both their work as well as professor haavelsrud´s own earlier contributions. it will be of interest to anyone who is, as we all should be, interested in building a peaceful world; more particularly to scholars who practice interdisciplinary social science; and most particularly to those of us who work in the field of peace studies. the use of the plural in the title, education in developments, emphasizes that there is more than one possible development, and hence more than one possible role for education. development at its best is peacebuilding, and it is what drives the author´s life and his scholarship. as in his earlier works, haavelsrud provides a living counter-example to the stereotype of peace studies as a field with more good intentions than scientific rigor, and he has done so without surrendering to 1 e-book (isbn 9788291040103) $4.99 and paperback (isbn 978-82-91040-097) $10.99. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 85-90 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 86 another stereotype: one that equates scientific rigor with using positivist methodologies. chapter 1, rethinking peace education, co-authored with alicia cabezudo of the university of rosario in argentina, addresses the questions, “how is the constitution of this pedagogical democratic subject related to peace learning processes? how do the content, form, and contextual conditions in which this process occurs affect the constitution of a peaceful democratic subject open to transformation, solidarity and change by nonviolent means?” (haavelsrud 2020, page 41) the second chapter, learning human rights practice, deals at length with the question, how can a learner become what haavelsrud calls “a protector and not a violator human rights?” (haavelsrud 2020, page 44) the answer to this question concerns both content and method. the content features understanding the connections among direct, structural, and cultural violence. the method must be designed to encourage learners to become active thinkers and not merely passive receivers of knowledge. the third chapter, analysing peace pedagogies adds more insights concerning participatory methods. oddbjørn stenberg of the university of tromsø is its co-author. the fourth chapter is called three roots of transdisciplinary analysis in peace education. the three roots are three vastly different cases, one in italy, one in japan, and one in south africa. the general approach of transdisciplinary analysis passes a severe test when applied to peace education in three such different contexts: mario borrelli´s work among sub-proletarians in naples, yoshiko nomura´s idealistic peace education rooted simultaneously in japanese religious traditions and in an idealist reading of the natural sciences, and the work of nelson mandela and others under extremely adverse conditions in south africa. the fifth chapter, the academy, development and modernity´s “other,” problematizes the extension of western conceptions of knowledge to make them global standards. the genealogies of the western ways of thinking that have been imposed on the rest of the world can be traced to the roman and british empires. nonetheless, “modernity´s other” continues to exist and to function in daily life in many parts of the world. chapter 5 seeks ways to support a “transformation of the academy by enlargement” (haavelsrud 2020, page 97) that pursues cognitive justice, committing universities to correcting cognitive injustices of the past. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 85-90 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 87 chapter 6 is titled contextual specificity in peace education. given that subjective orientations as well as objective conditions define context, this chapter studies novels by young south african authors, looking for what paulo freire calls “generative themes.” peace educators can use generative themes to facilitate conscientizacion, defined by freire as “learning to perceive political, social, cultural and economic contradictions, and acting with the purpose of eliminating such contradictions…” (haavelsrud 2020. page 114) chapter 7 is called learning about contextual conditions from narratives. three narratives of heartbreaking extreme suffering in south africa contribute to “…enlargement of knowledge through their empathy for the protagonists, allowing a formulation of generative themes, focusing contextual conditions in need of change.” (haavelsrud 2020, page 145) chapter 8, power and knowledge in multi-paradigmatic science, relates discussions of the relation of power to knowledge by other thinkers to a central preoccupation (of the chapter) with what to make of the very influential, although constantly varying throughout his career, views of michel foucault. a key point is: “what is missing in his work are attempts to find answers to the question: in whose interests and on which normative base social science research is founded?” (haavelsrud 2020, page 156) chapter 9 on educational polices, which is, like chapter one, coauthored with alicia cabezudo, is generally oriented toward the policies of democratic governments where policy-makers realize that the survival and flourishing of democracy depends on educational outcomes where students become human rights protectors. peace education blends with human rights education and education for democracy and the rule of law. chapter 10 is called peace education confronting reality. the main reality confronted is neoliberal control of the main institutions that determine educational policy. “i therefore conclude that neoliberalism in educational policy-making is an obstacle to designing peace education processes for experimentation aimed at increased political awareness in confronting reality.” (haavelsrud 2020, page 184) the name of the eleventh and last chapter is revisiting peace learning methodology. four key concepts defining the content of peace education are taken from johan galtung: equity, empathy, healing of trauma, and resolution of conflicts. there follows a discussion of methodological issues in teaching positive peace, so defined, with a focus on transforming contextual conditions so that positive peace is made stronger and negative peace weaker. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 85-90 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 88 these eleven chapters, and indeed the whole life of its author, are remarkably persistent in doggedly pursuing what is in essence a single question: what can we do as human beings and as educators with rational grounds for believing that our actions will have the results we intend? the results we intend are named peace. peace is initially defined, following johan galtung, as increasing empathy, equity, transformation of conflicts, and healing of traumas. but this is only initial. filling in the meaning of these four pillars of peace, and complementing them with other perspectives, is ongoing. the question to answer is how education can support, and perhaps initiate, upward movements toward more peace. a key theoretical premise comes from pierre bourdieu: the objective social world over time tends to seek harmony with the subjective dispositions of the people (habitus). following this line of thought, a premise announced in the first chapter as applicable to all chapters is that educational energy from below and political energy from above over time tend to seek harmony with each other. education can be a force for change. otherwise stated, the conflict between culture and structure will continue as long as what the first prescribes is not what a description of the second describes. again following galtung, peace education can be seen as trilateral. first it is about understanding the world as it is. second it is about the future as it will be. third, it is about changing the future to make it conform more closely to what should be. in their methodologies for understanding, or “reading” the world, haavelsrud and his co-authors learn a great deal from paulo freire´s method of codification and de-codification. echoing habermas and freire himself, they find the subjective life-worlds of the learners to be crucial for moral learning, or, in more freirean terminology, consciousness raising. haavelsrud is especially interested in “reading” the life-worlds of people who live in violent contexts, under brutal dictatorships, and where authoritarian regimes make it impossible to do peace education in schools and limit it to informal and non-formal learning sites. an important practical lesson is that learning to participate in discussions and to reason together is more important than the conclusions that may and may not be reached. for example, if i were a secondary school teacher in a rural district in a red state in the usa, it would be more important for my students to learn to participate in reasonable discussions, and to respect one another´s contributions to them, than to acknowledge the fact that biden got more electoral college votes than trump. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 85-90 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 89 anticipating the future requires life-long engagement of peace educators, and the university programs that prepare them, with the many issues endlessly debated in the social and natural sciences and the philosophy and methodology of science. it requires welcoming voices that colonialism silenced. but, even though peace education in principle includes diverse paradigms and diverse perspectives, it is not true that nothing is predictable. it is predictable that if the currently dominant macro structures do not change, humans will make their habitat uninhabitable. although this particular issue is not discussed in this book, it appears to be assumed that the same absence of peace education that excludes the discussion of other major issues facing humanity from the classroom excludes the critique of the social forces producing ecological disaster. similarly, the same participatory democracy that peace education practices at the micro level will tend over time to produce more egalitarian, more free and more fraternal macro structures conducive to facing, freely discussing and rationally reversing humanity´s march to eco-suicide. a commitment to striving to change the future to make what will be more like what should be makes peace education a normative field. peace is an ideal. teaching peace is teaching ideals. in the words of haavelsrud, who in turn quotes betty reardon, “peace education is, therefore, not only an experiment with ideas but includes the goal of acting for transformation of both self and world. this implies “… to promote the development of an authentic planetary consciousness that will enable us to function as global citizens and to transform the present human condition by changing the social structures and the patterns of thought that have created it.” (haavelsrud 2020, p. 185, quoting reardon 1988, p. x) given that its author appropriately acknowledges the normative character of peace and peace education, a limitation of this volume concerns the status and nature of ethics and human rights. the author´s preface calls for making human rights and ethical standards foundational for human society. but this theme is taken up in the following pages more implicitly than explicitly. it is implicitly assumed that the structural change peace education contributes to achieving will feature, and perhaps even be structurally constituted by, one or another version of solidarity ethics – not by the liberal and libertarian ethics that underpin today´s global neoliberal hegemony. and it is implicitly assumed that the structural change that educators working to change culture will help to bring about will honor human social rights that today exist more on paper than in practice. it will not just guarantee first generation human rights, and indeed, when push comes to shove, volume 16 number 1 (2022): 85-90 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 90 sometimes it will favor the need-based rights of 1948 over the entitlement-based rights of 1789. more explicit attention to such issues, including their implications for curriculum planning and for educational policy, would have been welcome. this limitation should not obscure the depth and breadth of professor haavelsrud´s contributions. for more than a half century now he has been carefully contributing to building solid foundations for a science (or sciences) and a practice (or practices) of peace. hopefully, this new volume will make his work more widely known and more deeply appreciated. references haavelsrud, magnus, education in developments. volume three. oslo: arena, 2020. reardon, betty. comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility. new york: teachers college press, 1988. microsoft word gerson ifp v12.2.docx in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 154-164 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 154 volume 12 number 2 (2018): 154-164 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal a review essay of lindner, e. (2017). honor, humiliation, and terror: an explosive mix – and how we can defuse it with dignity. lake oswego, or: world dignity press, 786 pp., usd $36.00 (paperback), isbn 9781-937570-97-2 janet gerson, ed.d. education director, international institute on peace education gerson@i-i-p-e.org to understand dr. evelin lindner (md, phd psychology) and her new book honor, humiliation and terror: an explosive mix and how we can defuse it with dignity (2017a) is to seek out an innovative transdisciplinary approach to key crises of our times. her purpose is “intellectual activism” (p. xv) laid out through a “painter’s way of seeing, a journey in search of new levels of meaning” (p. xxi). lindner’s conceptual key is humiliation and its counter-concept, dignity (2006). this crystallized in her doctoral research the feeling of being humiliated: a central theme in armed conflict (2000; 1996), which focused on the cases of genocides in somalia, rwanda/burundi, and nazi germany, her country of origin. in a recent presentation on this book, she described growing up in a displaced family during the cold war, at the german edge of the soviet bloc border, right where atomic weapons were aimed. perhaps this accounts for her distinct insights into how humiliation and terror intertwine intra-personally, socially and at the level of states. in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 154-164 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 155 here and elsewhere, lindner identifies herself and lives in all her work as a post-national global citizen. her deep meditations on what causes war, what is needed to back away from it, how terror has deep roots in human history, and how it should be understood as a manifestation of humiliation are profoundly relevant to our current violent, environmentkilling stalemate. her approach to dignity as the core of global community action-taking offers a window for hope and resilience, for fresh approaches to peace action. lindner’s argument engages the objective and the subjective. she uses her science and social science backgrounds in conjunction with a historical perspective, a “psycho-geo-historical lens” (p. 4). the book under review contains vast “references” list and “notes” section. these demonstrate lindner’s capacity to digest literature from science, social science, history, and other scholarly disciplines. for this alone, it is a fascinating read. at the same time, she works from a personal wisdom drawn from having lived in many diverse cultures – germany, egypt, japan, and kenya, to name a few—and having lived an experiment of being a global citizen, who lives nowhere and everywhere, living on very little, moving gifts of learning and understanding from one setting across to others. she acknowledges the “vast network of friends” contributing many “gifts of insight” that make this volume a co-creating adventure (p. xxix). this co-creating adventure is the result of harvesting insights and examples through intensive networkbuilding generated by twice-yearly conferences of the human dignity and humiliation studies (hdhs) network. these conferences are global community gatherings, convergences for interacting, learning from and with others. they are powerful, enlightening, uplifting. kindness and warmth prevail. the education dimension of the network is led by hdhs director linda hartling, with contributions from don klein (now deceased), phil brown, and michael britton. to my mind, these events exemplify network-building peace education, the form in which my colleagues betty reardon, tony jenkins, dale snauwaert, and i practice as the secretariat of the international institute on peace education (iipe). lindner was a regular visitor to our peace education center at teachers college, columbia university. i attended her first conference in 2001 and stayed involved. that first meeting took place during lindner’s residency at the international center for in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 154-164 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 156 cooperation and conflict resolution in the program of social psychology under the auspices of morton deutsch and peter coleman, with whom we have worked closely on issues of peace and conflict studies. honor, humiliation, and terror, the first volume of a projected threevolume study “describes the normality of terror in the past and how terror was an accepted path to honor, definitorial for most societies, how it permeated every detail of psychological and social life, and how this is still relevant today” (p. xv). as in previous books, lindner’s conceptual key is humiliation. in three sections, she links humiliation to 1) domination and the security dilemma, 2) honor and the duty to retaliate, and 3) defining peace as a balance of terror. due to the book’s range, i will limit my focus to three areas: honor humiliation, dignity and its correlation to what lindner has coined egalization, and the implications of lindner’s methodology for peace studies researchers and peace educators. what is honor humiliation and the duty to retaliate? for lindner, humiliation is key, with cycles of humiliation setting in motion the explosive mix that leads to terrorism. she explains as follows: if we say that humiliation is the ‘nuclear bomb of emotions’ and perhaps the most toxic social dynamic there is, then this bomb can indeed be triggered by inflicting a steady stream of microhumiliations. by applying terrorism, even micro-terrorism, adversaries can be driven to retaliate. this then opens the opportunity to target them as the true aggressors, as deserving ‘defensive’ attack (p. 127). humiliation, then, is understood as a mechanism of domination in which a script of honor is supported by behavioral patterns that separate and elevate honored equals from subordinates. “in the context of the dominator model of society...victory over one’s opponents in competition for domination is the most important [task]...the one that provides honor and meaning” (p. 128). this script of honor and its connection to valorous, blood-shedding action was made vivid to me through a recent viewing of the 1823 opera, semiramide, composed by rossini with a scenario by rossi based on a voltaire play staged in new york by the metropolitan opera. in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 154-164 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 157 semiramide is an epic opera set in ancient babylon based on legend of the powerful queen semiramide. the operatic drama revolves around the questions of restoring honor to the monarchial rule that was tarnished by the murder of her husband, the king, whose ghost still haunts the monarchy. when queen semiramide invites neighboring warrior-kings to vie for the throne by way of marriage with her, the warrior-kings arrival provokes the ghost of the murdered king. his ghostly appearance terrorizes everyone. the apparition demands revenge with retribution that is to be paid with someone’s death. thus, the restoration of rightful power demands punishment. the question of whose death it is to be constitutes the subsequent dramatic tension, answered only in the last moments of the opera when the guilty party is stabbed. the body lays lifeless downstage as the new ruler, the executioner, is elevated to the crown in glory upstage. the “rightful” hierarchy is again uplifted literally and metaphorically; honor and order are thus restored. the opera’s scenario succinctly exemplifies what evelin lindner calls honor humiliation – the duty to retaliate. its archetypal story illuminates the model of honor, of an eye-for-an-eye, blood for blood, to bind society around dominant power. thus, in a world founded on honor, humiliation must lead to violence, even war. according to lindner, the second task of humiliation is the responsibility to maintain honor and domination through subordination. this is the form commonly encountered in everyday practices. to fulfill the second task, that of keeping underlings in due humility, openly displayed brutality always had its place, and still has. many rulers throughout history have used brute force to hold inferiors down – from violence and terror, to torture, to killing...over time, dominate groups tried to replace brute force with more sophisticated approaches...keeping people in fear of humiliation is perhaps the most effective tool” (2018a, pp. 128-9). lindner aims to help the reader challenge legitimizing myths, traumas, and susceptibility to “voluntary selfhumiliation”, that is, accepting the dominator myths that rationalize the subordination, and thus the manipulation of the many (pp. lxvi-lxvii). in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 154-164 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 158 finally, with this foundational explanation, lindner invites the reader into a paradigm-shifting project of “radical global reconciliation”, a project of courage, and recognition of interconnectedness, ...radical in dedication to building a common critical consciousness to enable political transformation...this means acknowledging humiliation, it means embracing feelings of humiliation to turn their energy into constructive action (p. lxvii). lindner uses the idea of blue planet, the vision of earth that we can now all access through the scientific projects and incursions into space, which allows humans to see the earth as a whole, a shared entity which we share within the vastness of other universes and solar systems (p. 375). with this image, she encourages us to recognize the need and intention of her subtitle, “how we can defuse [this explosive mix] with dignity”, in what she claims as a hopeful window of opportunity. dignity-based security for our blue planet for lindner, the image of blue planet, the vision of earth from space, captures the dual aims of global perspective-taking and the capacity to see the inclusiveness of global community on a shared planet. she challenges us to take advantages of the historical transitions faced by humankind at this crucial moment. [in regard to] climate change, inaction is fed both by denying the threat, as much as by its opposite, exaggeration to the point of defeatism – ‘there is nothing we can do; we’re already doomed.’ the image of the blue planet from the astronaut’s perspective summarizes, publicizes, and symbolizes an immense window of opportunity for us to create a dignified world, including a terror-free world, at last free of systemic terror. what befits humankind now is a sense of emergency so as to truly see and use this historically unmatched window of opportunity that may not remain open for long (2017a, p. 4) the window of opportunity is available because of this new expanded consciousness. it empowers humankind with a chance to challenge and rethink the deeply embedded security paradigm, the heart of international relations, and its co-related war system. the security paradigm, she in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 154-164 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 159 emphasizes, is based on domination and terror, on physical and psychological humiliation. wherever and whenever the security dilemma is strong, it is an alldefinitorial frame for all people in its reach. it forces the terminology of honor, enemy, revenge, war, and victory to the fore (2017a, p. 373). she invites us to engage in reformulating the domination-based security paradigm with an alternative conceptual scaffolding. interpretive frames or normative paradigms are a form of conceptual scaffolding that we rely on to construct our understanding of the world. our attention must go to the legitimizing myths (pratto) that underpin the dominant discourses that produce and reproduce the power dynamics that underpin governmentality (foucault).... intentionally guided globalization can bring change....we, as humankind, you, we together, can intentionally make use of globalization to attenuate the security dilemma. we can create global trust. we can create frames that make us play a global community game (2017a, p. 373). dignity is the core principle for transforming global relations to a peacebased system that embraces equality and inclusion – egalization as lindner has named these correlates. as she states, “i have coined the term egalization to signify the true realization of human rights ideals of equal dignity for all” (2017a, p. xxvii). by globalization she means “the coming together of all humankind...coupled with...human rights, which deems relative deprivation to be illegitimate, all former justifications for inequality are removed” (2017a, p. 366). in conjunction with conceptualizing a global community based on trust, communication, and deep listening, she suggests that we can transform our world from a competitive domination model of global relations to one based on unity in diversity “operationalized through constrained pluralism” (2017a, p. 374). now is the time to create superordinate goals that can bring humanity together, goals that manifest dignism. it is time to humanize globalism by merging egalization and form globegalization...globalization can aid us. however, only if equal dignity is nurtured so as to prevent feelings of humiliation from in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 154-164 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 160 turning benign opportunities malign...each community has the moral responsibility...this is also the moral responsibility of the whole moral [global] community (2017a, p. 375). as a ‘creative source of collective agency’ (2017a, p. 379), lindner urges participation in this normative paradigmatic shift toward security based on interconnected, diverse communicative plurality, within a oneness of an interdependent equal and dignity-based global community. peace education and methodological obstacles the new security paradigm discussed above strikes me as aligned with peace education. lindner, however, states that peace education is not enough. of course, in the new paradigm of the blue planet, she is quite right. no one approach, practical or theoretical, can address the complexity of challenges. her whole approach itself models the drawing upon many sources and disciplines. however, as a peace educator who also embraces many dimensions, i would like to take issue with her here. peace education is often viewed narrowly and thereby dismissed. unfortunately, lindner supports her statement with one source, one social psychology study using israeli and palestinian youth. it seems to me that she chooses this because of the vulnerability of youth to be recruited for terrorist acts as suggested by what follows her statement about the limits of peace education. lindner writes: whoever believes that peace education would be good enough as a remedy, will be disappointed. peace education is useful and important, yet, not enough. research in social psychology shows that particularly youths of thirteen to fifteen years of age, those in need to listen most, are the most difficult to reach. especially adolescent males are the most vulnerable to be recruited by terror entrepreneurs. most people do not reach their full brain capacity until the age of twenty-five. many youths may therefore not be able to contain themselves, and their environment must shoulder this responsibility. their communities have to hold and contain those young people in their vulnerability. “it takes a village to raise a child,” is one african saying, “all kids are our kids” is another. for a world in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 154-164 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 161 free of terrorism, it is the global village who is responsible for all of the world’s children and youth (2017a, p. 3-4). lindner substantiates this claim with reference to baruch nevo and iris breum’s evaluative chapter “peace education programs and the evaluation of their effectiveness.” this work examines social psychology programs based on contact theory and is oriented toward co-existence in post-conflict contexts. the chapter in peace education: the concept, principles, and practices around the world (salomon and nevo, eds., 2002), a book which i have previously reviewed (2004). despite the book’s title and its inclusion of research in diverse conflict contexts, all the studies are based on contact theory experiences and social psychology research. this book is important and useful book in its case studies and the research used. at the same time, the scope of the book eludes the broadness of the field of peace education, with work from many disciplines, methodologies, problems addressed, and the many more contexts in which it has been developed. why does lindner embrace this small research model of peace education as the model for a full and diverse field of research and practice? or, we might ask, how does lindner’s methodology allow her to hold this position? let us consider lindner’s methodology. she builds upon the key concepts of humiliation, honor, terror and dignity. using this conceptual framework, she delves into knowledge across disciplines, methodologies, and scopes of inquiry. this synthesizing, cross-cutting methodology provides an amazing reach of materials, theories, cases, metaphors. like a painting, it has an intuitive drive. this kind of work is problematic for those doing doctoral and other scholarship within the silos of the academy. practitioners in the academic field of peace education need to continue building the credibility of our field with the methodologies that are more widely understood and accepted: epistemological, quantitative, and/or qualitative research. at the same time, it is important for peace educators to understand and recognize the significance of lindner’s project. as peace educators and peace researchers in a global community, we need to tackle meta-problematics that our current research methods and policy-making institutions in all fields are failing to grapple with effectively. we need to be able to distinguish when research and frameworks benefit in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 154-164 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 162 from narrowly defined scopes and stay within silos to attain deep analysis. we must also learn to talk across disciplines and to collaborate – regarding climate crisis, it is essential to be able to engage with climate scientists, political scientists, psychologists, law scholars and practitioners, health professionals, teachers, activists, farmers, and community members. in fact, as the reader moves through this powerful work, it becomes obvious to the peace educator that much of lindner’s expanded understanding of global citizenship fits comfortably within the context of peace learning and peace educating. this too is what we are about. our conception of peace educating is a liberated conception, not a truncated version restricted to children, schools, single disciplines, methodologies, paradigms or prescriptives. herein lies a challenge to readers of lindner’s work: her research and writing combine personal genius and rare global experience with a brilliant capacity to read scientific, social scientific, historical, and other types of literature. none of these predominate, thus her work eludes standardized categories of academic disciplines and publications. developing scholars need to understand this distinction. on the other hand, the resulting idiosyncratic synthesis based on humiliation as the central driving concept, creates a freedom of associative investigation. given the complexity of global crises of war, climate dangers, and global human society, this kind of innovative approach is significant. the unique capacities lindner has brought together in her research and her global networking create conditions for many of us to learn from this emerging epistemological frontier. references gerson, j., & opotow, s. (2004). deadly conflict and the challenge of coexistence. book review of g. salomon & b. nevo (eds.). (2002). peace education: the concept, principles, and practices around the world. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates, inc. in analyses of social issues and public policy, 4, 265–268. in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 154-164 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 163 lindner, e. g. (1996). the feeling of being humiliated: a central theme in armed conflicts. a study of the role of humiliation in somalia, and great lakes region, between the warring parties, and in relation to third intervening parties. outline of research project. oslo: doctoral project description, university of oslo, department of psychology, the norwegian research council, department of multilateral affairs, the royal norwegian ministry of foreign affairs. see also the french version le sentiment d’e ̂tre humilie ́: un the ̀me central dans des conflits arme ́s. une e ́tude du ro ̂le de humiliation en somalie et burundi/rwanda, parmi les partis bellige ́rants, et par rapport aux tiers partis intervenants. www.humiliationstudies.org/whoweare/evelin02.php. lindner, e. g. (2000). the psychology of humiliation: somalia, rwanda / burundi, and hitler’s germany. oslo: university of oslo, department of psychology, doctoral dissertation. www.humiliationstudies.org/whoweare/evelin02.php. lindner, e. g. (2006). the concept of human dignity. human dignity and humiliation studies. www.humiliationstudies.org/whoweare/evelin02.php. lindner, e. g. (2014). evelin lindner’s “sunflower identity” conceptualisation and global living, and the dignilogue approach (dignity + dialogue), two contributions, 23rd january 2014, “communication and dignity” – thematic network meeting convened by human dignity and humiliation studies in oslo, together with “impuls” – student journal of psychology at the university of oslo, and education for peace, at the university of oslo, norway, 22nd – 24th january 2014. lindner, e. g. (2017a). honor, humiliation, and terror: an explosive mix – and how we can defuse it with dignity. lake oswego, or: world dignity press. lindner, e. g. (2017b). what is the aim of education? the need to educate in dignity and for dignity. lecture given on november 15, 2017, in the context of the international education week 2017 organized by in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 154-164 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 164 the office of international services (ois) at teachers college (tc), columbia university, new york city. lindner, e. g. (2017c). honor, humiliation, and terror: claudia cohen in dialogue with evelin lindner about her new book. dialogue recorded on november 16, 2017, dialogue recorded in the studio of teachers college, columbia university, new york city, by hua-chu yen. lindner, e. g. (2017d). honor, humiliation, and terror: an explosive mix – and how we can defuseit with dignity. talk given on december 8, 2017, at the 14th workshop on transforming humiliation and violent conflict, titled “the nature of dignity – the dignity of nature,” at columbia university, december 7 – 8, 2017. nevo, b. & breum, i. (2002). peace education programs and the evaluation of their effectiveness, pp. 271-82. in salomon, g. & nevo, b. (eds.). peace education: the concept, principles, and practices around the world. new malwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. \ semiramide (g. rossini) (march 10, 2018) new york metropolitan opera production march 10, 2018 https://www.metopera.org/discover/synopses/synopses1/semiramid e/ microsoft word ruane ifp 13.2.docx volume 13 number 2 (2019): 159-171 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 159 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 150-171 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal capabilities and conflict: an examination of colombia’s educational revolution and its role in peacebuilding jack ruane in loving memory of sam ling gibson, who would never accept weak excuses for ignorance abstract this article aims to examine whether the process of expansion of access to tertiary education in colombia, labelled the educational revolution by the government, has addressed inequalities that contributed to the colombian civil conflict and threaten its reconciliation today. using the capabilities approach as a framework for analysis, and referring to a combination of empirical studies, official national and supranational data and theoretical literature for evidence, it will be argued the policy has caused a stratified system that constrains nonurban and lower socio-economic people’s capabilities. only through investment and expansion of public universities will inequalities be addressed. key words: higher education h.e, capabilities approach, colombia, colombian peace process, peacebuilding, social justice, human development. in 2016 colombia signed an historic peace accord ending a 52-year civil war. the conflict affected many members of the population, with 7.7 million people forcibly displaced, the largest number of internally displaced people in the world (human right watch, 2017). equal access to social services such as health and education were oft cited objectives of the rebel groups that formed at the inception of the conflict. in order to address inequalities within access to education, the government enshrined the right to education in the ley 30 of the new volume 13 number 2 (2019): 159-171 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 160 constitution of 1992. in the year 2000, a policy of mass expansion of higher education through deregulation and creation of vocational colleges, labelled the educational revolution, sought to address some of these inequalities. this paper is an attempt to analyse the extent to which this policy has addressed inequality in access to higher education, based on a combination of a combination of empirical studies, official national and supranational data and theoretical literature, and using the capabilities approach as an analytical framework. it is argued that through deregulation and expansion of vocational study, a stratified higher education system has been created that perpetuates inequalities between socio-economic demographics and urban and non-urban populations, which could pose a threat to the ongoing reconciliation process. the ca was coined by the indian economist and philosopher amartya sen and continues to be developed by theorists such as nussbaum, robeyns, acemoglu and robinson today. the ca perceives people as both the means and ends of development, arguing that development is ‘a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy’ (sen a. , 1999:3). the ca is concerned with people’s capabilities and functionings (robeyns, 2017) with the latter being what a person is able to achieve, and the former being a person’s agency to do so. central to the ca is the idea of agency freedom; the autonomy to define one’s own functionings, and how lack of agency can become a constraint in this endeavour(ibid). hence, for ca theorists, access to quality higher education is key, due to its purpose of enabling people to achieve functionings, and providing agency to realise them. inequality in access to education and civil conflict in studies which have examined whether and how a lack of educational opportunities leads to civil conflict, two major causes have consistently been identified. first, is the concept of education providing an opportunity cost to recruitment to the army or paramilitary forces. where there are educational opportunities present, joining a militarized group and participating in conflict presents far higher risk than studying in the safety of an educational institution. reward is also far greater in a university, where one can have their skills and knowledge enriched enabling them to earn higher wages in the knowledge economy in the future, compared to the shorter term and uncertain rewards of recruitment (collier & hoeffler, 2004). this concept has been supported by paul collier’s finding that 47 out of 73 civil conflicts between 1965 and 1999 were in countries with low enrolment in education, leading him to conclude lack of educational opportunities post 16 is a significant risk factor for civil conflict (2006). an empirical quantitative analysis of 120 countries similarly found that those with large populations of young males with scant educational opportunities are at a higher risk of civil conflict (barakat & urdal, 2009). volume 13 number 2 (2019): 159-171 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 161 adjacent to the opportunity cost evidence is the concept of grievance as a common cause of civil conflict. gurr (1970), in his classic book why men rebel, termed the phrase relative deprivation, which is the discrepancy between what people feel they should have access to, based on observations of other groups in society, and what they have access to in reality. he concluded that the greater this discrepancy, the greater the potential for collective violence. the grievance theory has been examined more recently by thyne (2006), who found that countries that invested in education were more likely to be perceived as sensitive to the needs of the population, and showed lower incidence of civil conflict. the grievance theory also finds support within the capability approach. for capability theorists, education in a capability multiplier due to its potential for increasing one’s agency to convert opportunities into functionings (sen, 1999. deprivation of this capability for one section of the population therefore leads to asymmetries which can feed a sense of political alienation that can lead to war (sen, 2002:dupuy, 2008) education and conflict in colombia in colombia’s civil conflict, both feelings of grievance perpetuated between generations, and lack of educational access not providing a viable alternative to recruitment in rural areas were factors that contributed to the war. in the case of the latter, many non-urban areas had little or no tertiary education options until the educational revolution promoted the expansion of vocational study to these areas in 2002 (jacinto & garcia de fanelli, 2014). non-urban and agricultural regions were also the site of much of the recruitment into the farc and paramilitary forces, where disparity in educational access relative to major cities was and remains a risk factor for internal conflict (oecd, 2018). evidence that lack of education was the cause of one such grievance can be seen in the prominence of education in the declarations of newly formed left wing paramilitary groups. indeed, when the farc declared its first independent state the southern bloc, in 1964 it pledged to provide education and healthcare to the communities who had lacked it previously (martin, 2011). similarly, the eln was formed by intellectuals from public universities who sought to revolutionize the social, economic and political power structures that perpetuated poverty, citing education as a key pillar of the status quo. education was seen as a right that had been deprived of non-urban populations, and the eln and liberation theologists sought to reclaim it in order to address inequality (lopera, 2006). inequality in access to social services such as education was therefore a cause of the formation of rebel groups at the inception of the conflict. likewise, the persistence of inequalities of access between socio-economic groups and urban and rural areas remains a threat in the current reconciliation process started by the peace accord of 2016 (idler, 2019; human rights watch, 2018). education in colombia volume 13 number 2 (2019): 159-171 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 162 there is still a large disparity between secondary school diploma achievement and university enrolment between the larger cities, and regional areas that were often sites of the conflict and are still recovering from the resultant after effects (oecd, 2018). despite regional inequalities, overall enrolment in secondary school rose by 12.9%, between 2002-2010 (jacinto & garcia de fanelli, 2014), which can be attributed to widespread government interventions to enrol children from the lowest socio-economic strata in secondary school, such as the use of school voucher programmes (mcleod & urquiola, 2014) as part of the educational revolution. naturally, an increase in secondary school enrolment has led to increased demand for post-secondary education, and caused a 6.9% increase in enrolment over the same period (jacinto & garcia de fanelli, 2014). colombian post-secondary education is increasingly diverse with a wide range of courses available across the public and private sector. however, access to all tertiary education is highly divided between regions (fig.1). this article will focus on the areas of public universities, private universities and public vocational institutions, which make up 13.8%, 47.6% and 32.7% of the population enrolled in tertiary education respectively (ministerio de educacion de colombia, 2014). volume 13 number 2 (2019): 159-171 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 163 (oecd, 2012) 1.3 colombian public universities admittance to public universities in colombia requires an institutional entrance exam, separate to the secondary school completion exam icfes. fees are means tested, although even those from the highest socio-economic strata pay a fraction of what they would in the private sector. competition is fierce, as shown by the fact that only 10% of applicants received a place in 2016 (universidad nacional de colombia, 2016). such competition is understandable, given that public universities consistently rank equally or higher than their elite private counterparts in world rankings, and degrees from many public universities are highly valued in the job market. furthermore they number far less than private institutions and are concentrated in large urban areas such as bogota, medellin and barranquilla. with increased demand for university places, public university provision has come under recent scrutiny. students and lecturers protested in 2018 over funding deficits and attempts to repeal the ley 30, which was an article in the new constitution of 1992 that pledged to provide higher education to all those who showed the required abilities (ministerio de educacion, 1992). 1.4 private universities in colombia the expansion of private universities since the year 2000 has been attributed to supply side factors within increasingly neoliberal governmnt policy, such as deregulation of requisites to found a university (páez and teelken, 2016), and demand side factors, such as creation of a private student loan system that has enabled many middle class students to attend university (jacinto & garcia de fanelli, 2014). private universities mostly do not have entrance exams and the fees vary hugely between a few elite institutions and many mid-price range ones. 1.5 vocational institutions in colombia organisations such as the servicio nacional de aprendizaje (sena)1 are postsecondary institutions that offer vocational courses focused on the service sector (jacinto & garcia de fanelli, 2014). sena has been the focus of much public investment since the year 2000 as part of the educational revolution, particularly in regional areas, where educational opportunities were seen as most necessary (velez & guzman, 2014). between 2002 and 2010, sena enrolment saw a sharp increase of 241%, with many students being the first of 1 national service of learning volume 13 number 2 (2019): 159-171 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 164 their family to attend university and enrolment being highest among the lower and middle socio-economic strata (jacinto & garcia de fanelli, 2014). the educational revolution as seen in the previous sections, the self-proclaimed educational revolution, was an attempt by the colombian government to increase the number of people enrolled in tertiary education, with expansion policies starting around the turn of the century and continuing today. the policy’s stated aims were to increase equality in order to address threats to peace, and to improve the competitiviteness of the country through having more skilled workers (ministerio de educacion, 2013). the strategy for expansion was largely two pronged: deregulation of the private sector in order to increase choice and competition and make university education for those who had previously been unable to afford it, and expansion of the state funded vocational institution of sena, particularly in rural areas. official statistics report a staggering achievement in providing access to tertiary education, with an overall rise of 95.4% in students enrolled in some kind of higher education between 2002-2012 (ministerio de educación nacional, 2013). the largest public increase was in technical and vocational study, attributed to the expansion of state organisations such as sena (national service of learning), (velez & guzman, 2014). nevertheless, 47.6% of all tertiary level students still enrol in universities in the private sector (paez & teelken, 2016). the following sections will examine the extent to which the educational revolution has addressed inequality of access to education using the capabilities approach as an analytical framework. the policy of deregulation of the private sector and expansion of sena vocational colleges due to being the focus of the colombian government’s expansion strategy. capabilities framework the ca was coined by the indian economist and philosopher amartya sen and continues to be developed by theorists such as nussbaum, robeyns, acemoglu & robinson today. the ca perceives people as both the means and ends of development, arguing that development is ‘a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy’ (sen, 1999:3). the ca is concerned with people’s capabilities and functionings (robeyns, 2017), with the latter being what a person is able to achieve, and the former being a person’s agency to do so. central to the ca is the idea of agency freedom; the autonomy to define one’s own functionings, and how lack of agency can become a constraint in this endeavour (ibid). volume 13 number 2 (2019): 159-171 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 165 education is often called a capability multiplier within the ca, owing to its power as an opportunity that expands human freedoms (walker, 2006). for sen, education’s role in this function is threefold: first, it is an intrinsic good as it allows people to participate in the joy of learning and to understand the world around them. second, it has instrumental value as it enables people to do things they value, such as expanding one’s options in life or being able to engage politically. finally, it has a distributive role within society through promoting equality(sen, 1999). sen’s description of the function of education will be used as criteria for the analysis of the educational revolution, because it reflects two of the government’s own stated purposes in the formulation of the policy: to increase equality in order to address threats to peace(distributive); to improve the competitiviteness of the country through having more skilled workers (instrumental) (ministerio de educacion, 2013). the capability approach has been chosen as an analytical framework because it is concerned with the extent to which opportunities are distributed with equity across a society. indeed, in its manifestation as a numerical index ‘the human development index’ (hdi), the distributive equality of opportunities across demographics and regions is factored into the calculation. given the aformentioned causal relationship of unequal distribution of opportunities in colombia and conflict, it makes an apt framework for this analysis. ca theorists such as nussbaum see a strong link between equality of educational access and peace-building, arguing it provides critical reasoning to examine one’s own culture and society, increases solidarity and concern for those around them, and provides narrative imagination to empathise with others: all of which undoubtedly contribute to creating a more peaceful, egalitarian and tolerant society (2011). finally, the ca sees tertiary education institutions as having the ability to provide capabilities or constraints to citizens, depending on the equality of access they can offer across a whole population. which role higher education fulfills thus depends on how inclusive they are, and the extent to which this access is successful in enhancing capabilities. acemoglu and robinson (2012) note that inclusive institutions, such as universities, reinforce the social contract between state and citizen, which fosters the trust that is the basis of law and order and political participation, all of which contribute to an effective state. in contrast, states with exclusive institutions, ones which restrict access to a select few, have been shown to be more prone to political upheaval, greater inequality and more prone to civil conflict, both today and throughout the post-industrial period. capabilities and the private sector the educational revolution within the private sector involved supply side changes in the form of deregulation of the h.e sector, allowing new universities to be formed and smaller technical colleges granted university status. the government’s role was to be regulator of standards only, with universities acting volume 13 number 2 (2019): 159-171 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 166 as autonomous entities. simulateously, demand side changes were enacted, including the expansion of the loan system icetex, which saw an increase from 65,218 loans given in 2002, to 259,269 in 2010. these strategies resulted in a 20% increase in enrolment in private universities across the 8 year period 2002-2010, mostly among the lower and middle classes (ministerio de educacion 2013). given that most people in colombia cannot afford private h.e, and the fact that public university spaces are scarce, mid-price range universities enabled by deregulation have become increasingly popular with the lower and middle classes. (world bank, 2014). paez and teelken (2016) aimed to examine the effectiveness of newly formed mid-price range colombian universities by interviewing 700 current students and graduates. they found that the majority of undergraduate students perceived the quality of their education as poor and alumni described the degree as lacking in skills necessary for the job market. they conclude that due to deregulation of the colombian higher education sector, much of mid-price private university education is lacking in quality and does not provide sufficient skills for the job market (ibid). this view is echoed by the oecd, who report that the skills held by colombian workers do not match those necessary for its modernizing economy, and suggests reform and greater monitoring of standards in h.e (2017). the expansion of the private sector as part of the educational revolution has led to 20% more students attending university. under sen’s definition of the role of education in the ca, the policy has provided an intrinsic benefit of greater numbers who are able to experience the joy of learning. however, the extent to which the policy has provided instrumental and/or distributive benefits is less clear in the light of evidence. when graduates from mid-price range private universities were interviewed 88% were employed, which suggests that their degree had helped them to find employment. however, an alarming 33% reported being employed in a position that required no university degree, calling into question the extent to which mid-price range private universities had multiplied their instrumental capabilities (paez and teelken, 2016). it also calls into question the distributive benefit of these institutions, given that only 4% of respondents claimed they had a ‘well paid job’ and 63% said their salary was lower than expected (ibid). the perceived lack of social mobility granted by respondents’ degrees suggests they may not have increased distributive capability nor addressed the wider issue of social inequality. coupled with the large debts now incurred by the graduates due to use of the icetex scheme, it could be argued there has been a perverse effect on social inequality at the household income level. capabilities and the vocational sector volume 13 number 2 (2019): 159-171 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 167 jacinto and garcia (2014) conducted a study on the effect the expansion of vocational education through sena has had had on democratizing access to education and of increasing access to quality employment. by synthesising statistical data with qualitative interviews they found that there was often a discrepancy between students’ subjective satisfaction and the reality evident in the quantitative data. for instance, subjective satisfaction of sena graduates was extremely high, however theirs and another quantitative study by medina and nunez (2006) suggest that graduation from sena does little to impact lifetime earnings. these data therefore call into question whether sena provides greater distribution of capabilities, as they seem to show minimal impact on social mobility through increasing earning potential. jacinto and garcia attribute the incongruity between low earning potential and high student satisfaction to the fact that senas opened where there had previously been no tertiary education, and many sena graduates are the first in their family to attend higher education (2014). this could also be seen as an example of adaptation of agency goals based on what has come before, which are common when assessing one’s own capabilities within education (burchardt, 2009). in other words, if nobody in one’s family or social network has attended higher education, one is more likely to assess any form of higher education as multiplying capabilities. regarding sena’s ability to provide instrumental benefit, jacinto and garcia argue that vocational study has enabled a new generation of people to acquire skills in a way they previously could not (2014). however, they point out that these new instrumental capabilities are relative to what went before, and that university graduates appear to be favoured in the job market, suggesting degrees from sena may not improve graduates’ opportunities to get high quality work. ca measurements the capabilities that make up human wellbeing and the potential to even measure them has long been debated within the ca. initially sen refused to define what factors constitute human wellbeing, arguing that they are subjective and thus defined by the individual. despite his earlier resistance to measuring capabilities, sen worked with the un to formulate the human development index (hdi) in 1990, which sought to measure opportunities and choice for people, by examining a range of economic and social factors including access to higher education (united nation development programme, 2019). while this index has been criticised for relying on objective educational data such as enrolment and graduation which ignores intangible inequalities within education (unterhalter, 2017), it is nevertheless an insightful attempt at evaluating the capabilities a nation gives its citizens. between 1990 and 2017, including the educational revolution in higher education access from 2000 onwards, colombia’s hdi increased by 26.2%. however, when inequality in the distribution of human development across the population is factored in, the score is diminished to 2.6% over the same period (undp, 2018). this seems volume 13 number 2 (2019): 159-171 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 168 to concur with the empirical evidence mentioned in the previous sections (paez and teelken, 2016; medina and nunez, 2006; jacinto and garcia, 2014) which found that both deregulation of the private sector and increase in coverage of vocational courses have contributed little to the expansion of human capabilities in colombia. implications for social inequality and peacebuilding as has been shown, the educational revolution’s expansion strategies have meant those from lower-socioeconomic backgrounds and non-urban areas are constrained to vocational institutes or low quality private universities, neither of which significantly expand the capabilities of their students in an instrumental or distributive sense. this inequality can be seen as a stratified system in which degrees from good quality private universities, and the jobs that result from them, are ringfenced for those from higher socio-economic strata in urban areas. such a policy betrays a sufficientarian approach within the educational revolution, in which there is a minimum level of education the state is duty-bound to provide, but beyond which inequality in disitributive or instrumental capability is acceptable (brighouse & swift, 2006). if the state seems to give less regard to the education of some sections of society, then what effect will this have on the ongoing fragile reconcilliation period? peaceuilding is the support of the transformation from conflict to post-conflict over many generations, making education a huge part of whether that process impacts positively or negatively (novelli, 2011). the equality with which education is provided can then either foster constructive interactions and relationship building or promote distrust and entrench intolerance. (shah & lopes, 2015). in colombia, the student protests against the withdrawal of publicly funded university education in 2011 and 2018 have shown there is a dissatisfcation with the government’s policy and its inherent unequal distribution of opportunity. education is therefore viewed as a site of division and perpetuation of inequality rather than a multiplier of capabilities with redistributive impact in colombia. the educational revolution can be praised for bringing the intrinsic joy of education to many who in previous generations would not have had access to it, due to inability to afford the costs or lack of institutions in their geographical location. however, as has been shown deregulation with low levels of monitoring has led to the proliferation of low quality mid price range institutions lack in their provision of instrumental capabilities to graduates when compared to other universities in the country. the expansion of sena has also provided new forms of education to many, but provides less social mobility than degrees from a university. hence, the policy has had only a minor impact on redistribution of opportunities, resulting in social inequality in this sector persisting. in order to address this inequality and reduce the risk that it again becomes a contributor to the reignition of war, the government should not pursue a deregulatory approach that assumes the market will address volume 13 number 2 (2019): 159-171 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 169 inequalities. rather, it needs to invest in public provision in order to address social inequality directly from the supply side and make the growth of the economy in this post-conlfict period more inclusive (oecd, 2017). references acemoglu, d., & robinson, j. (2012). why nations fail. chicago: university of chicago. barakat, b., & urdal, h. (2009). breaking the waves? does education mediate the relationship between youth bulges and political violence? washington: world bank post conflict and social deveopment unit. brighouse, h., & swift, a. (2006). equality, priority, positional goods. ethics, 471-497. burchardt, t. (2009). agency goals, adaptation and capability sets. journal of human development and capabilities, 3-19. collier, p. (2006). economic causes of civil conflict and their implications for policy. washington: world bank. collier, p., & hoeffler, a. (2004). greed and grievance in civil war. oxford: centre for the study of african economies. de pretelt, c., & hoyos, f. (2015). innovation for social inclusion: challenges facing the state university university system in colombia. in r. teranashi, mitigating inequality: higher education research, policy and practice in an era of massification and stratification (pp. 127-147). bingley: emerald group publishing. dupuy, k. (2008). education for peace building peace and transforming armed conflict through education systems. oslo: save the children. gurr, t. (1970). why men rebel. princeton: princeton press. human right watch. (2017). world report 2018. usa: hrw. jacinto, c., & garcia de fanelli, a. (2014). tertiary education and youth integration in brazil, colombia and mexico. in g. carbonnier, m. carton, & k. king, international development policy: critical issues for development (pp. 59-80). graduate institute of international and development studies. lopera, a. s. (2006). ciencia, revolución y creencia en camilo torres: ¿una colombia secular? nomadas, 241-258. martin, g. (2011). “entrevista al legendario guerrillerro jaime guaracas.” el muerto que habla. in the sage encyclopedia of terrorism. 2nd ed. thousand oaks, cal: sage publications. mcleod, w. b., & urquiola, m. (2014). competition and educational productivity writ large. in p. glewwe, education policy in developing countries (pp. 243-284). chicago: university of chicago. volume 13 number 2 (2019): 159-171 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 170 medina, c., & nunez, j. (2006). the impact of public and private job training in colombia. inter-american development bank. ministerio de educacion. (1992). concejo nacional de educacion. bogota: republica de colombia. ministerio de educacion de colombia. (2014). http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/sistemasdeinformacion/ 1735/articles-212350_estadisticas_de_educacion_superior_.pdf. bogota: ministerio de educacion. ministerio de educación nacional. (2013). revolución educativa 2002 – 2010:acciones y lecciones. bogota: ministerio de educación nacional. novelli, m. (2011). the role of education in peacebuilding: case study – sierra leone. new york: un children's fund. nussbaum, m. (2011). creating capabilities: the human development approach. cambridge ma: belknap press of harvard university. oecd. (2012). access and equity to tertiary education in colombia. oecd. oecd. (2017). oecd economic reports from colombia: raise productivity and make growth more inclusive. washington: oecd. oecd. (2018). oecd review of school resources. washington: oecd. paez, p. n., & teelken, c. (2016). perceived quality of private education and fears of stratification: investigating the propositions of human capital theory by exploring the case of colombia. policy futures in education, 14, 597-616. robeyns, i. (2017). wellbeing, freedom and social justice: the capability approach reexamined. cambridge: open book publishers. sen, a. (1999). development as freedom. new york: oxford university press. sen, a. (2002). global inequality and persistent conflicts1. in war and peace in the 20th century and beyond (pp. 101-119). singapore: world scientific publishing co. shah, r., & lopes, m. (2015). the politics of education in emergencies and confict. in t. mccowan, & e. unterhalter, education and international development (pp. 181-200). london: bloomsbury. thyne, c. l. (2006). abc's, 123's, and the golden rule: the pacifying effect of education on civil war, 1980-1999. international studies quarterly,, 733-754. undp. (2018). human development indices and indicators: 2018 statistical update colombia. undp. united nation development programme. (2019, april 17). human development reports. retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/en/humandev universidad nacional de colombia. (2016, april 3rd). retrieved from https://agenciadenoticias.unal.edu.co/detalle/article/70729-jovenespresentaron-pruebas-de-admision-a-la-un.html unterhalter, e. (2017). negative capability? measuring the unmeasurable in education. comparative education, 1-16. velez, c. m., & guzman, c. (2014). acceso con equidad a la educación superior notas sobre oferta, demanda y retención. in a. varelo, & i. volume 13 number 2 (2019): 159-171 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 171 pachecho, educacion superior en colombia. barranquilla: univerdidad del norte. walker, m. (2006). towards a capability-based theory of social justice for education policy-making. journal of education policy, 163-185. world bank. (2014, 2019 3/10). world bank data. retrieved from http://data.worldbank.org/country/colombia microsoft word bryant, taylor ifp 14.1.docx volume 14 number 1 (2020): 89-104 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 89 volume 14 number 1 (2020): 89-104 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal some reflections on elicitive approaches to peace studies in higher education shawn bryant, phd and noah b. taylor, phd since john paul lederach coined the term ‘elicitive’ to describe his approach to conflict transformation (lederach, 1995), elicitive conflict transformation (ect) seems to have been slowly yet steadily gaining in popularity. the neologism reflects that the method of conflict transformation is elicited from and by the parties to a conflict and the energies that they bring with them. as wolfgang dietrich has posited that elicitive conflict transformation as the logical application of transrational peace philosophy (dietrich, 2013), elicitive methods have been applied in programs of peace studies in higher education in a number of countries (austria, brazil, cambodia, colombia, ethiopia, georgia, and iraq (echavarría, hamed & taylor, 2019, p. 14)) as a holistic pedagogical approach. as it is both a young and expanding field, we will ask the question: what is the current state of the art of elicitive approaches in education with regards to peace? we will elucidate the state of the art by expanding on three aspects: facilitator, curriculum, and institution. the foundational principles of elicitive approaches to higher education can be found in elicitive curricular development: a manual for scholar-practitioners developing courses in international peace and conflict studies (echavarría, hamed & taylor, 2019). the following six guiding principles were initially compiled as principles for curriculum development and we find them to be equally applicable here. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 89-104 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 90 focus on relationships: is a call to always take care of the relationships, be they between students and teachers, amongst faculty and staff, with an institution or university, or with other supporting institutions, such as governments, foundations, donor agencies, or armed groups. look beyond the episode: is a reminder to look beyond the horizon of what is immediately present to also bear in mind how it is nested in a web of relationships. facilitators look beyond students’ questions or conflicts to see the unique person in their constellation of political relations; curriculum is not just a program or course but serves student needs as well as societal needs; institutions provide an educational product but also serve the common weal. the conflict is always in the room: relates to the importance of paying close attention to the people in the room, their body language, and what is said and not said, as indicative of the latent conflicts in the group that may be emerging. the importance of communication: congruent communication is where witnessing and being witnessed meet, the fundamental reciprocity of building rapport and trust. collaboration, not competition: whether it is working with students, with coworkers, or with colleagues at the institutional level, keeping in mind a superlative goal and holding each individual’s unique strengths and weaknesses are tools for the greater success of the endeavor. grounding in context and local knowledge: should come as a reminder to the importance of place and to seek to make the most of the unique inflections of the situation. what unique expertise do we have access to here? what can we do here that is not possible elsewhere? what works elsewhere that we cannot do because of the contextual limitations? these six guiding principles inform, yet are distinct from, the methods of elicitive approaches to peace studies in higher education. to outline the methods in brief, we will follow the same structure as the overall article: facilitator, curriculum, and institution. elicitive pedagogical approaches take the teacher as facilitator as a methodological choice; this means that the role and responsibilities of the educator extend further than the conventional teacher as one who imparts knowledge. on the level of curricular design, the student experience is the guiding method; the student experience should balance the discomfort of challenge with the comfort of safety. on the institutional level, it is taken as a methodological volume 14 number 1 (2020): 89-104 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 91 choice that the framework of any educational program should be structured to be flexible; this means that in order to adequately respond to the ever-changing unique present moment and all of its circumstances and demands, the institutional framework must be clearly in place and allow for adaptation, permutation, and flexibility. the qualities of bamboo are an apt metaphor in this regard: rigid yet flexible; strong yet light; solid yet hollow. state of the art of elicitive approaches within peace education in order to outline the state of the art of elicitive approaches to education in peace studies, it must be positioned both within and in response to the larger context of the state of the art of peace education. this may prove to be a more difficult task than it first appears as “there is an absence of any universal consensus on what constitutes peace education” (kurian & kester, 2018, p. 1). we will attempt to frame peace education along four lines: purpose; postmodern critique; historical antecedents; and justice. this will conclude with setting up a justification for elicitive approaches to teaching and studying peace. we have taken the elicitive aspect of ect (lederach, 1995; dietrich, 2013) and posit that its relevance extends beyond the sphere of conflict transformation as it captures an orientational attitude towards the unfolding present moment that is characterized by permeability and creativity (lederach, 1995). it is in applying these same principles to education that we refer to elicitive approaches; we maintain the broad categories of ‘elicitive approaches’ and ‘peace studies’ to include many kinds of educational settings. there may be some confusion as to the separation of peace studies, as an academic discipline, and peace education: we understand a discursive relationship in which peace education falls under the larger rubric of academic peace studies, which in turn also attempts to implement the pedagogical and philosophical insights of peace education; therefore, educational programs in peace studies and conflict transformation, in higher education or elsewhere, often use peace education methods. finally, since our combined backgrounds are mostly concerned with peace studies and peace education within higher education, we place our focus there; however, we believe the experiences to be applicable to all levels of education. although at first blush the answer might seem quite obvious, we start this process to be asking the question of what peace education is actually for? peace education seems to cluster around three typologies: non-violent problem solving; recognizing structural violence; and educational reform (e.g. harris & synott, volume 14 number 1 (2020): 89-104 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 92 2002). these typologies all seem to point towards a teleological goal of social justice as the purpose of peace education (e.g. snauwaert, 2011). peace education is a postmodern response to education and the perceived unpeaceful or even violent tendencies inherent in systematized education. it emerged as an academic discipline amidst the postmodern condition (lyotard, 1973) of the twentieth century and the traumatized soul-searching of europe and the usa in the wake of the world wars (harris, 2011). it is another in the list of (post)modern phenomena that are required to adopt an adjective in order to regain their meaning from the perversion of modernity (e.g. organic farming, holistic health care). although peace education was a virtually unheard-of concept before the end of the great war, it gained in popularity near the end of the twentieth century with the writings of elise boulding, betty reardon, and johan galtung. peace education, as it is currently understood in a secular sense, can only be a postmodern phenomenon. education, as the institutionalization of learning primarily through the framework of the nation-sate, is itself a completely modern endeavor. learning is a neutral act and only carries moral weight when it is directed, or “educated,” as to what to learn, and when, where, and how to learn it. systematized learning with the goal of peace existed before the twentieth century. institutions of peace education have historically existed all around the world; they are just known by different names: monasteries, temples, cloisters, and orders: whether they are franciscan monks, kagyu buddhists, or the mevlevi order of sufis, they are long-standing educational institutions with the purpose of knowing peace. peace studies itself has been largely an extension of religious doctrine in the anglo-american world, with the substantial contributions of the doukhobors, mennonites, and quakers (morrison & harris, 2010, pp. 81-98). with moralistic origins, it should come as no surprise that peace education is oriented towards the cardinal theme of justice. following the model of elicitive conflict mapping (ecm)(dietrich, 2018), conflict episodes can usually be seen to favor one cardinal theme: harmony, truth, justice, or security. recalling the previously mentioned typologies of peace education, justice is clearly the dominant theme. educating the young in skills for non-violent conflict resolution is rooted in fear of repeating the violence of the past in hopes of a more peaceful future, which is to say, the definition of a teleological justice. recognizing structural violence may have an element of trying to achieve security; however, it is ultimately oriented towards a notion of justice in the future. mitigating the oppressive and deleterious consequences of contemporary modern education is striving for a more fair and just educational system. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 89-104 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 93 peace education is not just about justice and requires a holistic approach. cremin and archer (2018) make the case that peace education (and education in general) demands new approaches that draw on transrational principles and therefore include harmony, truth, and security alongside justice in order to develop “curious, confident, wise, compassionate and knowledgeable learners” (cremin & archer, 2018, p. 298). taken from this perspective, peace education can continue to serve as a vehicle for secular justice as outlined, while at the same time not being confined to postmodern reactions to prescriptive, rational, and linear paradigms of education, and furthermore drawing on traditions of energetic wisdom. to try to understand what it takes to perform the dance of elicitive approaches to education in peace studies, let us now look at the facilitator, curriculum, and institutions. the role of the facilitator in elicitive approaches to education in peace studies elicitive approaches require facilitators with a broad set of abilities. due to the relational nature of the orientation and its fundamental transgression of conventional disciplinary boundaries, the necessary skill sets are not limited to those of any single pre-established profession (mitchell, 1993). although the individual involved must be an expert in theories of peace and conflict transformation, the conventional profile of a university professor does not encompass what the role requires. norbert koppensteiner has argued that the skills of the elicitive peace studies facilitator draw from psychotherapy, counseling, peacebuilding, and conflict work, without completely taking over those practices (koppensteiner, forthcoming). conversely, they are also dissimilar enough to warrant differentiating an elicitive approach to peace studies from the aforementioned disciplines. for the purposes of this essay, we will break them down into three simplified and archetypal categories: academic skills, interpersonal skills, and self-reflective skills. starting from objective and verifiable observations about external reality, it is, of course, necessary to possess adequate background knowledge of conflicts, theoretical knowledge, and skills of writing and research. however, being a facilitator of elicitive approaches to peace requires expert academic skills and yet goes beyond the classical understanding of a teacher. the limitations of the prescribed institutional role of a “sage on a stage” who is there to impart their knowledge into the blank minds of the students (freire, 1970) have been thoroughly critiqued and need not be repeated here. students are not empty containers to be filled; they are co-creators in a complex relational system that works with the facilitators using their own personal experiences as grist for the volume 14 number 1 (2020): 89-104 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 94 proverbial mill in the academic learning environment (e.g. bovill, cook-sather & felten, 2011). facilitators need to be able to impart knowledge and download information to students effectively in the banking style of education; however, this needs to be only one dimension of their skills. the second category, which we have named interpersonal skills, moves from the external facts of the matter to the relational dimensions of facilitating. it thus requires teachers and facilitators to be trained and prepared by a pedagogy that combines cognitive knowledge acquisition with personal unfolding grounded in humanistic psychology (lederach, 1995, p. 64; curle, 1971). this can include but is not limited to counseling students, mentoring them professionally, supervising their projects, and recognizing moments of healing and transformation. this requires communication skills that are trained in therapeutic settings, such as active listening and speaking calmly and prosodically, however, we should point out that therapy is not the objective even though therapeutic moments may arise. furthermore, facilitators require levels of subtle awareness of themselves and others of their emotional states, psychological states, and body language cues. this aspect of peace studies facilitation, being open and aware in the present moment, can be understood by lederach’s concept of serendipity, which is “to see and move with the unexpected” (lederach, 2005, p. 118). thus, soft skills of communication, openness, and awareness lend themselves to skillful and adaptive action. self-reflective skills move from the interpersonal dyad to the intrapersonal layers of the self as a semi-permeable contact boundary (perls, 1973). this means to be able to observe and critically reflect on one’s internal subjective experience as well as one’s situatedness in a web of relations. it is an inward gaze that can be characterized by curiosity and a focus on process. from the perspective of an elicitive approach to facilitation, all aspects of an individual’s persona become part of a system by their mere presence. this means that the facilitator brings along the entirety of his or her biography, identities, perspectives, and shadows. this ability to look inwards is reflected, through the principle of correspondence (dietrich, 2018), in the ability to connect outwards. in the words of bai, park, and cohen (2016), who share a similar approach: we believe that the ability of the educator to be aware in the moment, selfregulate, and attend with love and care to his embodied experience is the measure of his or her ability to model this behavior to students and develop warmth, connection, and trust in the context of the teacherstudent relationship (p. 123). volume 14 number 1 (2020): 89-104 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 95 for effective and authentic communication the facilitator guided by an approach of elicitive inquiry needs to be keenly aware of all of these as well as have clarity of who they are in relation to the specific endeavor of the educational program. this is true for the individual facilitator as well as a team or group. ideally, education in peace studies at any level should be carried out with teams of facilitators who have spent sufficient time developing their own self-awareness on the individual and team levels, and who can work on their own dynamics as a facilitative system so that the individuals can be well aware of each other’s limits, strengths, and communication styles. this team building goes beyond those who are directly involved in the role of facilitation and also includes the support, logistic, and administrative staff as each individual is a contact point for the entire learning experience. this may be very difficult to achieve both in content, due to the inherent difficulty self-reflection, and in logistics, due to the complications of arranging time for team-building exercises for various parties all together (e.g. teachers, admin, support staff etc.). facilitation necessitates a unique blend of abilities that are both skills and an art. norbert koppensteiner elaborates on the skill and art of being a peace studies facilitator. as a skill, it necessitates structure, order, a concept or plan, the practiced use of the tools adopted and the patience to meticulously polish the details until each element fits. as an art, it requires a willingness to go with the energetic flow of the unexpected, curiosity, openness towards intuition and inspiration, readiness to take risks and the capacity to tolerate a high amount of uncertainty. (koppensteiner, forthcoming) it is in the tension of this ostensible paradox of structure and surrender, of tested plans and improvised flexibility, of skill and art that the facilitator guided by elicitive approaches truly emerges. elicitive curriculum design the creation of a curriculum is an essential concern when creating an educational program. through its structure and design, the plan of the course can facilitate a synthesis of academic, interpersonal, and self-reflective skills. the curricula and the academic standards of the program are two of the themes that shape the relationships between the facilitators and students (echavarría, hamed & taylor, 2019). finally, all of the curricular elements should contribute together to an volume 14 number 1 (2020): 89-104 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 96 overall flow that extends from and feeds back into the fundamental objectives of the program in question. while it is possible to run an educational program entirely based on an elicitive methodology, the circumstances when such an approach is warranted are few. the expectations of participants, the preparation of the facilitators, the requirements of the institutions, and the requirements for diplomas, certifications, and accreditation often necessitate the establishment of a pre-established curriculum. building the formal structures of a curriculum with elicitive approaches in mind requires extensive preparation on the part of the facilitators, a high degree of competence in the didactical teaching style of the facilitators, and familiarization with the context in which the training will take place. the question of elicitive and prescriptive design and methodology is an essential consideration in building a curriculum for a higher education program in peace education, peace studies, or conflict transformation. in recent literature, there have been calls for the importance of elicitive methodologies within the wide frame of peace studies, conflict transformation, and peace education (cremin & archer, 2018; dietrich, 2013). the essential components of curricula for peace studies and conflict transformation in higher education are similar from program to program, usually containing combinations of short lectures, discussions, embodied and experiential learning, simulations, facilitated group work, role plays, case studies, reflection and feedback sessions, critical thinking and skill based-practicums and one-on-one coaching. the contextualization of these components into the social, cultural, and political environment, in which they will be used, and the didactical skills and sensitivities of the facilitator are where elicitive approaches can be incorporated into the educational program. this will be broken down into three points: know the audience; know the objective; know the context. these three points have a parallel in ruth cohn’s theme centred interaction, in which the audience is the i or we, the objective is the theme, and the context is the globe (cohn, 1975). the first level of the process of contextualization involves knowing the audience. this means understanding who the participants in the program are, their motivations, and the organizational dynamics in which the program is operating. the span of these considerations can vary significantly depending on the intention of the program. the second consideration is knowing the objective or the theme of the program, course, or training. if the program is intended to provide conflict transformation training to a group of people who work together in a peace volume 14 number 1 (2020): 89-104 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 97 organization, there can be an implicit or explicit emphasis on team building, leadership, and strategic planning. conversely, if the intent of the training program is understood as an explicit effort in transforming a conflict, as in the case of bringing together participants representing groups involved in an ongoing conflict, the design of the curricular components can be significantly different. the third consideration is the over context or globe. every educational program exists within a web of cultural, social, and political contexts. if programs are operating during an ongoing peace process or protracted cycles of violence, the dynamics of this and their relationships to the participants need to be understood by the facilitators. these considerations can apply to the compositions of working groups, the selection of case studies and the use of role-plays. a facilitator may want to consider if in a given moment it is more skillful to select specific cases for use in role plays or simulations that mirror current conflict dynamics or if it may be wiser to select an example that is further removed temporally, geographical and thematically from the students’ context in order to focus on the relational dynamics and process of the group. in addition to these concerns, the context, or globe in cohn’s terminology, extends well beyond the immediate scope of the educational environment. sensitivity to the timing of the training with regards to ongoing political events could be very important. for example, a program occurring near or during a contentious election can require that certain considerations be made from the level of logistics to the specific content of the program to the visibility of the program in the media. these concerns make up the context in which the program operates. the facilitator need not design the curriculum of the program to fulfill every need in the system, but they should be aware of how these needs affect the participants of the program. another aspect in which elicitive methodologies enter the process of curriculum design is through the structure and flow of the different elements of the program. these elements of process design are done with a specific emphasis on the interpersonal skill sets of the facilitator. from the outset of each program, it is crucial to establish the participants as a learning group, the learning environment as a safe space, acknowledge the difficult nature of working with conflicts and perceptions and uncover hidden assumptions which shape understanding the dynamics of conflict and approaches to its transformation. when the strengths and weaknesses of the facilitator are harmonized with the structural and institutional elements of the program, the flow of the curricular elements should seem natural and effortless. this flow is achieved by being volume 14 number 1 (2020): 89-104 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 98 deeply intentional in which elements are included in the program, when they are included, how they link to the flow of the day and the overall program. every activity must have a purpose: icebreaker activities should be done in such a manner that connects to the purpose of the program and the relational dynamics of the participants and the facilitator. interspersing the different components of the curriculum with spaces for individual, small group and whole group reflections is important for establishing feedback between the facilitator and the group and amongst the group members. these reflection spaces encourage the use of the self-reflective skills of the participants and the facilitators and are vital for the integration of the experiential learning aspects of the program and for linking any content presented to the participants’ own experiences. further, well-designed and facilitated spaces for reflection encourage the development of reflective thinking skills on the process of learning itself. distinctions should also be drawn between reflection on the dynamics of the group and engagement with the contents of the program and the feedback directed from the group to the facilitator regarding the program itself. the creation of a curriculum is a dynamic interplay between structure and flexibility that acknowledges the skillful selection of the curricular content. furthermore, the design of the pedagogical process can provide the space and the spark that invites the participants into the learning space. contextualizing the curriculum to the current reality of the participants allows for the selection of the intellectual content of the program that can be engaged with through more embodied pedagogical methods and integrated through intentionally held spaces for reflection. educational institutions and elicitive approaches a holistic perspective on elicitive approaches to peace studies must include the educational institutions themselves. the structure and function of these institutions make them ideal vectors for the transformation of cultural perspectives and social structures. through holding the charge of educating and socializing young adults, schools and universities contribute to the generation and propagation of cultural views and collective knowledge. as institutions, they are what lederach designates as “middle range” actors (lederach, 2005). they provide space and means of connection between those in “elite” positions and the “grassroots,” this is true both of the educational function of universities and the potential of individuals and groups within universities to leverage their connection and respect amongst the community to build relationships and challenge perspectives. this role of education as an essential component in the volume 14 number 1 (2020): 89-104 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 99 transformation of conflict is well known in the literature on multi-track diplomacy (e.g. diamond & mcdonald, 1996). the social placement and cultural function of educational institutions is not values-neutral and does not necessarily predispose them to contribute constructively to the transformation of conflicts (cremin et al., 2018, pp. 298300). however, these institutions, by their nature are inherently resistant to elicitive approaches, since elicitive approaches emphasize dynamic and relational aspects. in many cases, higher education programs in peace studies are focused on the nation-state as the primary actor and mediator for working with conflict, neglecting other community-based approaches (cremin et al., 2018, p. 296). in many cases, educational systems have been misused to exacerbate conflicts through reifying forms of cultural and structural violence by intensifying and entrenching inflexible identities and lines of discrimination (paulson, 2019). it is precisely the power and ambiguity of educational institutions in regards to peace and conflict that make them an object of inquiry within peace studies and peace education broadly and why there is need for careful analysis of their structures and dynamics at all levels. alternative methods of education, while growing in acceptance in their use for children and young adults are still sparsely found in institutions of higher education. furthermore, higher education has been slow to adopt new insights into the learning process from neuroscience and other fields (dietrich, 2019). these institutions tend towards conservative approaches in pedagogical didactics, and pedagogical structure, with the structure of universities, having stayed largely the same over the last two centuries. possibilities to include aesthetic conflict transformation methodologies, such as dance and theatre, or trans-institutional training, such as civil-military cooperation (cimic), are lacking at the structural level. there are two main possibilities when considering elicitive approaches to peace studies at the institutional level within higher education. the first is to develop a program specifically in the field of peace and conflict studies or conflict transformation. the second is the incorporation of elements of elicitive methods into other fields of study and practice. a “peace lens” can be of benefit to any field that involves a high degree of relational skills such as medicine, law enforcement, social work, and psychology. further disciplines that may not emphasize this relational component but rather their potential effects on society, such as science, engineering, and technology, can also benefit from the integration volume 14 number 1 (2020): 89-104 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 100 of a “peace perspective” into their field of study. these two options are by no means mutually exclusive: elicitive approaches to education could be conceptualized like mathematics in that most students receive a fundamental level of education in the field while far fewer pursue it to the doctoral level. at the structural level of educational institutions, the most expedient and prudent efforts will be those that aim at a series of realistic and incremental changes. elicitive peace education requires skill sets and capacities that are usually outside the requirements used for faculty selection, evaluation, and training. if there is to be a shift from the teacher as a disseminator of knowledge to an elicitive facilitator who can synthesize relevant intellectual engagement with deeper relational levels of being these capacities will need to be specifically called for in faculty and further encouraged through ongoing faculty training. the need to dedicate time for focusing on internal development is especially true for faculty that work in facilitation teams. the formal structures of institutions of higher education provide for the legitimacy, sustainability and efficacy of higher education to be a force for change at multiple levels and in a variety of sectors. through applying the logic of ect to the educational system and praxis, these existing structures can be slowly modified so that through their programming, curricula and pedagogical practices, institutions of higher education can better support ongoing efforts of transforming conflicts and contribute to an increasing depth and nuance of education. due to its normative orientation (in that it seeks to work towards peace and the elimination of violence), transdisciplinary nature, and emphasis on holistic modes of learning, the overall field of peace studies is an ideal discipline for the exploration, experimentation, and reification of divergent and elicitive pedagogical approaches. conclusion education, in general, requires a total paradigm shift. peace education, which emerged as a postmodern response to education and the perceived structural violence inherent in its presuppositions, has largely been concerned with transforming the institutions, the ministries, schools, and universities, in which education takes place. adopting a transrational perspective and integrating elicitive methods shifts the focus from the transformation of institutions to the transformation of learning (cremin & archer, 2018, p. 298). an elicitive frame can re-orient (peace) education from focusing solely on the cardinal theme of justice to including security, truth, and harmony. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 89-104 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 101 we highlight some essential elements of the transrational shift towards elicitive approaches to peace studies, in general, and more specifically to peace education, by looking at facilitators, curricula, and institutions. facilitators should aspire to combine the cognitive prowess of a scholar, with the insight of a psychologist and the self-awareness of buddhist monk. curricula have to combine a clear logic and structure that builds on previous material to a logical conclusion while remaining open, permeable, flexible, and adaptable. institutions ultimately need to adapt to the shifting paradigm or perish. as we both describe and advocate an elicitive paradigm in the sphere of peace studies and peace education, this is not a new invention: it attempts to hold in a dynamic balance the knowledge of science, the wisdom of the ages, the order of structure, the chaos of uncertainty, and the unfolding mystery that is the human experience. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 89-104 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(2019) evidence hungry, theory light: education and conflict, sdg16, and aspirations for peace and justice. education and conflict review, 2, 33-37. perls, f. (1973). the gestalt approach & eye witness to therapy. palo alto: science & behavior books. schultz, b. (1989). conflict resolution training programs: implications for theory and research. negotiation journals, 3, 301-309. smith, a., & vaux, t. (2003). education, conflict, and international development. london: department for international development. snauwaert, d. (2011). social justice and the philosophical foundations of critical peace education: exploring nussbaum, sen, and freire. journal of peace education, 8 (3), 315-331. microsoft word hajir ifpv 13.1.docx volume 13 number (2019): 65-69 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 65 volume 13 number (2019): 65-69 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review review of peace education evaluation: learning from experience and exploring prospects. edited by celina del felice, aaron karako and andria wisler, information age publishing, charlotte, north carolina, 2015, 329 pp., (paperback), isbn 1623969735, £79.50 (hardcover), isbn 1623969743 by: basma hajir university of cambridge bh452@cam.ac.uk amid a global crisis of rising violence, bigotry, racism and xenophobia, the legitimacy of peace education has become increasingly evident. a field ridden with complexity, peace education grapples with creating structures that facilitate building an equitable world, with increased tolerance and change perceptions of the self and the other. such ambitious goals make building a wider net of support to the field more challenging, mainly because of the complications they pose on the evaluability of peace education programmes. despite the inherent difficulty, evaluation is indispensable to determine impact, learn from activities done and improve future implementation. by foregrounding evaluation, peace education evaluation by felice, karako and wisler is a valuable contribution to the field. the book advances our understanding of intrinsic dilemmas and predicaments that lie at the heart of peace education evaluation. it explores a wide range of pertinent efforts and practices that highlight the multiple, ever-evolving forms of evaluation. the book also offers a light of hope by combining critiques and reflections with theoretical and practical guidance for novel forms of praxis. in their introduction to the volume, felice, karako and wisler suggest that “assessing outcomes of peace education requires specific redesign of existing evaluation tools” (p. xviii) applied in a variety of fields. they argue volume 13 number (2019): 65-69 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 66 that such outcomes should be examined from the three perspectives of education, efficacy and pedagogy. this three-dimensional conceptualisation of an appropriate approach to assessment seems particularly relevant. it evokes an awareness of the need for developing evaluation tools that transcend a focus on behavioural changes and that enable us to practically follow the skills, knowledge and attitudes of the learners. it also stresses that due attention should be paid to the extent to which the evaluation tools reflect the empowering principles of peace education. the volume is composed of three main parts, each attending to one of its three primary objectives: to critically reflect on ‘theoretical and methodological issues’ associated with peace education evaluation; to examine ‘existing evaluation practices’; and to ‘propose novel ideas and techniques for evaluation’. part one includes five chapters that collectively succeed in conveying theoretical and methodological complications inherent in the evaluation of peace education. both chapter one by hakim williams and chapter two by werner wintersteiner speak out forcibly against positivist evaluative methodologies. they explicitly reject standardised evaluation criteria and articulate the need for developing specific ways of evaluation that take into account the complexity of peace education. while williams commends the interpretive turn as a “reflexive interrogation of power” (p.13) and a “step in the right direction” (p. 16), wintersteiner warns against trusting “an evaluation that reduces the complexity of education to a small list of parameters and numbers.” (p. 22). in chapter two, wintersteiner borrows the term “habitus” from bourdieu and proposes it as a promising element that could enable us to transcend evaluation approaches that insufficiently focuses on either a change of attitude or an increase of knowledge. he calls for creating a culture of feedback and reflection as a first step towards serving participants’ own needs instead of the needs of the system. similarly, the subsequent chapter by hopson and stokes advocates more participatory and culturally responsive evaluation practices that are informed by a deep understanding of nuanced local perspectives (chapter 3). this is vital if we are to add an in-built authenticity and promote the effectiveness and sustainability of the programmes. cheryl woelk narrows the discussion down and focuses on one major element of culture, namely language (chapter 4). woelk reflects on language dynamics and their impact on participants’ identities and experiences of reality. this chapter proposes that employing ‘reflective practice’ to evaluate the role of language in peace education evaluation is a promising avenue of practice. chapter five brings part one to a close. in this chapter, christina procter and erin dunlevy suggest new ways to assessing the efficacy of restorative practices in schools. while the authors briefly engage in a critique of methodological issues related to restorative practice, the central argument of this chapter revolves around redefining schools as systems of groups, establishing the link between restorative practices and group therapy and drawing attention to the potential benefits that can be gained from the evaluation criteria already established in psychotherapy volume 13 number (2019): 65-69 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 67 methodology. in this way, the value of this chapter lies in proposing a novel idea for evaluation. having said that, i find the location of this chapter at the end of part one somehow controversial. in fact, felice, karako and wisler state in their introduction of the book that this chapter is the first chapter in section two. apart from this misalignment between the structure of the book as presented in the editor’s introduction and the actual division of the three parts, i believe that by introducing a novel idea of evaluation, chapter five does indeed better serve the objective of part three of the book. part two includes 11 chapters that map manifold existing evaluation practices of different forms of peace education in a variety of international settings. this part starts with chapter 6 that can be perceived as highly informative in its own terms. however, it falls short when considered against the main objective of the second part of the book. while roberta and warren heydenberk offer a thorough theoretical discussion on bullying and present promising practices for prevention and intervention, they discuss briefly, in the very last page of the chapter, the assessment and evaluation of such interventions. given that, i believe that part two could have made a much more robust beginning had it commenced with what is currently chapter seven that directly contributes to fulfilling the objective of part two. chapter seven by antonia mandry closely examines a civic involvement project in higher education in turkey. it elaborates on and critiques the used evaluation measures and argues persuasively for stronger evaluation techniques that match the ambitious scope and goals of the cip project. part two of this volume is at its strongest when there is a clear theoretical lens behind the discussed evaluation practices such as chapter eight by rajashree srinivasan that explores the use of authentic assessment practices as a tool to prepare reflective peace builders. highlighting the need for collaborative reflective inquiry and journal writing, rajashree suggests that the evaluation of peace education can build on different modes of inquiry proposed by reardon1 (2011) to develop assessment rubrics that would enable us to better evaluate peace education. another promising example emerges in chapter ten by h.b. danesh. danesh examines the education for peace programme (efp) in bosnia and herzegovina. this programme views issues of conflict, violence and peace within the framework of the integrated theory of peace (itp). the project identified four dimensions of a successful peace education program and developed specific criteria to provide the necessary information and feedback regarding these dimensions. the key contribution of this chapter lies in shifting the focus to the importance of conceptual clarity of the evaluation design and comprehensive strategies of implementation. 1 critical/ analytic, moral/ ethical, and contemplative/ ruminative volume 13 number (2019): 65-69 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 68 chapter nine by zulfiya tursunova highlights the potential of use of narrative methodology as a bottom up participatory evaluation tool that empowers participants critical thinking and places their needs at the centre of peace and conflict educational programs. while assessing long term impact is incredibly difficult, chapters 11 by ned lazarus and 12 by wehrenfennig, brunstetter and solomon present two examples of two longitudinal evaluations. these two chapters have two strengths. first, they yield insights specific to peace education in the context of the palestinian-israeli conflict. second, they provide broader recommendations and conclusions on some practices that could positively contribute to longer term impact in other intractable conflict contexts. for example, while chapter 11 highlights the importance of follow up support activities, chapter 12 suggests keeping students actively involved in the program even after they return or graduate. part two also offers a worthwhile input for those interested in non-formal peace education programs for youth (chapters 13 by villanueva et al. and 14 by susan armitage). the argument of chapter 15 by ruerd ruben seems to extend beyond the focus of this volume and triggers a question around its pertinence. by providing an examination of two distinctive evaluation studies in south sudan and rwanda, ruben critiques the tendency of most bilateral and multilateral donors to invest in the reconstruction of physical infrastructure, recovery of facilities and service provision at the expense of paying due attention to the content of educational curriculum. thus, the chapter focuses on evaluating peace-building and reconstruction rather than peace education per se. given the wider implications of peace-building, the question naturally arises of the extent to which this chapter fits in with the purpose of the volume in general and part two in particular. in fact, the author of this chapter explicitly states the broader implications of peace-building. he does so by advocating support for civil society and local community actors and by calling for investments in peace education to address the behavioural dimension of the conflict. as expressed by the author, this is a crucial step “to support peacebuilding from below” (p. 235). while this chapter is one of the most interesting in the book, the editors’ lack of explanation on the ways in which it is different from other chapters limits the degree to which it contributes to fulfilling the objective of the volume. some reflection on its relevance could have possibly made it more convincing. chapter 16 by thonon and ospina, the last chapter in part two, focuses on the evaluation of peace education initiatives at a structural level. the authors tackle key questions around methodological challenges to evaluating peace education and relate them to the three basic principles of the theory of complexity defined edgar morin (1995). by identifying some criteria for a future development of peace education indicators at a national level, the chapter seems to better serve the objective of part three of this book. in fact, the editors mention in their introduction that this chapter is the first chapter of part three. again, this is another example of misalignment between the structure of the volume 13 number (2019): 65-69 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 69 book as presented in the editor’s introduction and the actual division of the three parts. the last part of this volume consists of four chapters that blend insightful suggestions for novel techniques of evaluation. chapter 17 by karen ross draws on the scholarship of social activism and introduces a cogent argument for alternative approaches that can be used to expand an understanding of what success might look like in the field of peace education. chapter 18 by naghmeh yazdanpanah sheds light on the blurred boundaries between education and evaluation and suggests that peace education itself is a constant evaluation of the quality of life. while this chapter is too theoretical for those looking for novel practical ideas, it includes a valuable elucidation of thematic similarities of the thoughts of bakhtin, freire, and gandhi and proposes ‘a pedagogy of addressivity’ as an evaluator of peace education. chapter 19 by thomas de hoop and annette brown stands in stark contrast to the arguments presented all throughout the volume around rejecting positivist approaches of evaluation and remaining loyal to the values that inspire the field. it discusses the use of comparison groups in rigorous impact evaluations and presents examples of quantitatively-oriented counterfactual analysis. given this difference, more reflection on this chapter by the editors would have been pertinent. chapter 20 by maria lucia uribe torres suggests an evaluation model that places the educator at the heart of the evaluation process and proposes self-reflection as a tool to encourage transformations at individual and organisational levels. this last chapter is particularly strong for shedding light on a crucial element to the success of all educational activities in general. therefore, peace education evaluation should extend to encompass the skills, values, attitudes and behaviours of educators as well. in conclusion, the volume could benefit from a reconsideration of its structuring and from further editorial reflection, specifically on a few chapters that seem to deviate away from the main argument of the volume and trigger some tangential questions (chapter 15 and 19 for example). despite this, the book is a significant contribution to the field. as a peace education scholar who is designing a peace education intervention, i found it greatly helpful. it equipped me with a rich understanding of existing critiques, tensions, complications and practices of evaluation. it also inspired me with ideas towards developing a methodology for the evaluation of my intervention. by spanning a multitude of existing evaluation practices on a global scale and opening up novel avenues and possibilities, peace education evaluation is undoubtedly a useful resource for a wide range of audiences. microsoft word ifp v 17 zhen li-revised.docx volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 76 volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 fighting against climate change to build positive peace: proposal of an intersectional panel on environmental peacebuilding in sudan zhen li new york university center for global affairs “if we are to achieve the sdgs, we need to act boldly and urgently to reduce the risks that environmental degradation and climate change present for conflict and commit to protecting our planet from the debilitating effects of war”. ---antónio guterres, secretary general of united nations abstract: sudan has a long history of conflicts between the central nile valley and those peripheral regions in the west, south, and north. climate change effects exacerbate the violent situation in sudan due to erratic rainfall, longer dry spells, and more frequent floods, which shortens sharply the supply of human basic needs and economic resources. relying on the thinking of the consequences of climate change in peacebuilding, i will argue that combating climate change can contribute to peacebuilding in sudan. the intervention is an intersectional panel that combines both top-down government-led initiatives to build stability and bottom-top civil society led initiatives to build both negative and positive peace and to decolonize peacebuilding in sudan via combating climate change. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 77 the theory of this proposal is based on environmental peacebuilding that environmental challenges encountered by parties in conflict can be turned into cooperation and peace opportunities for them. with a one-way fixed effects model data analysis, it shows evidence that combating climate change can contribute to peacebuilding. key words: environmental peacebuilding; climate change; decolonizing peacebuilding; one-way fixed effects model introduction according to the united nations environment programme (unep), “over the last 60 years, at least 40 percent of all internal conflicts have been linked to the exploitation of natural resources” (2022), and the possibility of conflicts related to natural resources is twice as likely as other conflicts to reoccur (united nations, n.d.). sudan has been suffering from social instability and violence since its independence in 1956. since the 2019 revolution overthrowing president omar albashir, the sudanese people have continued to fall into unstable power transitions and tribal conflicts (abdelrahman, 2021). further, because of the secession of south sudan in 2011, oil production decreased by 75 percent in sudan, which cut off an enormous number of economic opportunities (unep, 2020). according to unep, territorial control and natural resources control are the main causes of today’s violent conflicts among tribes in sudan (2022). climate change and its impacts exacerbate the violent situation in sudan due to erratic rainfall, longer dry periods, and more frequent floods, which sharply shortens the supply of basic human needs and economic resources (unep, 2022). for example, in october 2022, “sudan’s blue nile state declared a state of emergency following a rash of tribal fighting that reportedly left more than 200 people dead” over territorial and natural resources contentions (unep, 2022). to prevent more violence and tragedies ensuing as a result of the continued shortage of natural resources in the future, both negative and positive peace needs to be built in sudan. negative peace is the absence of violence, for example, the conditions produced by peace agreements or ceasefires (galtung, 2007); positive peace is “the presence of harmony, intended or not” (galtung, p.2, 2007). this proposal focuses on building positive peace among all the tribes in sudan by introducing an intersectional panel for fighting climate change. an intersectional panel would engage participants from national government, local communities and tribes, civil society and businesses, and external sectors covering economic, political, and social sectors. while many climate change mitigation strategies will be employed, an emphasis will be placed on renewable energy volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 78 (schirch, 2022). therefore, the proposed panel is aimed at designing and implementing intersectional policies and projects for renewable energy development that are aligned with local priorities. the theory of this proposal is based on environmental peacebuilding “as the process through which environmental challenges shared by the (former) parties to a violent conflict are turned into opportunities to build lasting cooperation and peace” (dresse et al., 2019, p.104). this proposal suggests that an intersectional panel should follow three trajectories to build environmental peace in sudan: 1) a technical trajectory aiming to reduce environmental destruction; 2) a restorative justice trajectory aiming to rebuild and restore neutral and common values and norms; and 3) a sustainability trajectory aiming for equitable resource distribution and sustainable development. 1. climate change and peacebuilding 1.1 theory although the climate change-peacebuilding nexus is not new, there is no comprehensive theory for it. nicoson articulated that “climate change is not a natural or completely external process; rather, it is produced by particular interests and exercises of power that are internal to societal structures” (p.1151, 2021). he pointed out that “climate resilience peace” is to address the imbalance of power and resources through intersectional distribution, and it is to tackle the structural violence caused by climate change. he utilized a degrowth approach to build climate resilience and peace. by degrowth, he aimed to address the overconsumption issue and build social equality through redistribution, reprioritized care for marginal groups, and decolonizing peace globally (2021). however, a weakness of this degrowth approach is that it is too ambitious and quite unrealistic as it attacks the structural pillars of capitalism. and it is not wise to persuade people of any economic status to stop chasing a higher living standard. schirch argued that “climate change weakens political systems, disproportionately affects marginalized communities, and contributes to social unrest and terrorism” (p.9, 2022). schirch introduced the decolonizing peacebuilding approach with a focus on local-level fieldwork and local priorities. schirch introduced that “decolonizing peacebuilding requires skills in designing inclusive peace processes around climate migration, adaptation, mitigation and prevention” (p.19, 2022). schirch emphasized the importance of local knowledge in fighting climate change, especially in energy transfer. decolonizing peacebuilding and fighting climate change complement each other since both are required to comply with local historical, cultural, and social norms instead of colonialist commitments (schirch, 2022). while schirch provided a general volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 79 description of decolonizing peacebuilding through combating climate change, her approach lacked depth of detail. after analyzing a plethora of climate change peacebuilding models, dresse, nielsen, and zikos built a theoretical framework for climate change and peacebuilding that has since been coined “environmental peacebuilding.” they defined environmental peacebuilding as “the process through which environmental challenges shared by the (former) parties to a violent conflict are turned into opportunities to build lasting cooperation and peace” (dresse et al., p.104, 2019). the core of their definition of environmental peacebuilding corresponds to local demands, which aligns with both nicoson and schirch’s decolonizing ideas. environmental peacebuilding embraces decolonizing peacebuilding by accounting for “the multifaceted, long-term nature of environmental problems and the social, cultural, and political identities that are vested in the immaterial values of natural resources'' (dresse et al., p.103, 2019). within the theoretical framework of environmental peacebuilding, the first step for parties in conflict due to environment and natural resources is to find mutual interests---“peace dividends” --including “the intrinsic benefits of environmental protection for human life and the environment itself, political or financial gain” (dresse et al., p.105, 2019). subsequently, the parties should build mechanisms to use and manage those dividends through technology, building a neutral space for common resource management. although external actors can “play a central role in funding environmental peacebuilding projects and can act as neutral intermediaries” (dresse et al., p.107, 2019), all of these efforts should be based on local or indigenous conventions and norms because “durable peacebuilding cannot be externally imposed” (dresse et al., p.108, 2019). in the end, two possible outcomes could arise. the first is environmental and resource protection; the second is a custom of cooperation and trust built by the parties (dresse et al., 2019). dresse, nielsen, and zikos pointed out the three trajectories of environmental peacebuilding. first is the technical trajectory that aims to reduce environmental destruction by using technical methods. “by reducing environmental problems and associated costs, this first strand of environmental peacebuilding potentially contributes to resolving the environmental causes of conflicts” (dresse et al., p.109, 2019). this process does not need close cooperation between the conflicting parties. instead, even a limited contact to find technical solutions for common environmental issues can help identify the common interests and special needs of each side to then foster a “transboundary interdependence,” which can be beneficial for future cooperation on other issues (dresse et al., p.109, 2019). second is restorative justice that aims to rebuild and restore neutral and common values and norms. through communication on environmental issues volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 80 between the parties, they could gain mutual understanding and cut down biases towards each other. in the long run, they could build mutual trust in social and political systems (dresse et al., 2019). third, sustainability seeks balanced resource distribution and sustainable development. this is the key to positive peace. due to the complexity of resource delivery, it is not necessary to be equitable. however, the distribution and management of resources must be inclusive and balance the interests of all parties (dresse et al., 2019). local priorities must be the focal point of all three trajectories. while a collective and top-down initiative is necessary, if the local demands are not satisfied, it will fail to restore harmony between the parties, and potentially cause conflicting interests to arise (dresse et al., 2019). based on this environmental peacebuilding theory, this proposal introduces an intersectional panel for building both negative and positive peace in sudan through combating climate change. 1.2 data evidence this research collects all the data from our world in data organization. since peacebuilding can be divided into negative peace and positive peace this research divided the dependent variables into two parts. the first one is the number of deaths in conflicts and terrorism to measure negative peace, while the second one is a self-reported life satisfaction score to measure positive peace, which is a continuous variable ranging from 0 to 10 with a higher number meaning being more satisfied. among all climate change actions, energy plays a central role (schirch 2022). therefore, the two independent variables are the primary one --renewable energy consumption per capital, calculated in megawatt hours (mwh), and the controlled one --co2 emission, measured in tons. *1. summary statistics n mean median sd min max range deaths in conflict and terrorism 2355 552.685 0.000 3799.895 0 75356 75356 *2. summary statistics n mean median sd min max range life satisfaction 2013 5.48 5.432 1.114 2.375 7.971 5.596 volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 81 the controlled confounding variable is a dummy variable divided into highincome countries (coded as “0”) and middle-low-income countries (coded as “1”). this research lagged the two independent variables---renewable energy consumption per capital and co2 emission---because they have a delayed effect on peacebuilding. the first model is a one-way fixed effects model (fe model), which has fixed effects on countries, to see the relationship between renewable energy consumption per capital, co2 emission and deaths in conflict and conflicts within middle-low-income countries (negative peace model). this model shows us that within 34 middle-low-income countries, when holding the co2 emission constant, one mwh increase in renewable energy consumption per capital in the previous year predicts an increase of 114 in the number of deaths in conflict and terrorism within those countries in the current year. however, this result is not statistically significant, thus, it fails to reject the null hypothesis. while holding renewable energy consumption per capital constant, within 34 middle-low-income countries observed, one ton increase in co2 emission in the previous year predicts a decrease of 0.18 in the number of deaths in the current year. however, this result is neither meaningful nor statistically significant. the second fe model is to see the relationship between renewable energy consumption per capital and life satisfaction within middle-low-income countries (positive peace model). this model shows us that within 34 middle-low-income *3. summary statistics n mean median sd min max range renewable energy consumption percapita 1184 6.246 1.864 18.235 0 153.883 153.883 *4. summary statistics n mean median sd min max range co2 emission 3036 164.339 9.754 785.731 .004 10956.213 10956.209 (1) variables b / (se) lagged renewable energy consumption per capital 114.22 (341.30) lagged co2 emission -0.18 (0.55) constant 887.14^ (494.87) observations 432 number of country 34 r-squared 0.00 r2_a -0.0879 standard errors in parentheses *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05, ^ p<0.10 *one-way fe: death in conflict and terrorism volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 82 countries, when holding the co2 emission constant, one mwh increase in renewable energy consumption per capital in the previous year predicts an increase of 0.20 in the score of life satisfaction within those countries in the current year. moreover, this result is statistically significant, thus, it rejects the null hypothesis. while the co2 emission have neither substantively nor statistically significant relationship with life satisfaction, the direction of the relationship is negative. robustness tests & extension analysis---autocorrelation as a time-series data set, there is a concern of autocorrelation that is errors at current time are correlated with previous time point. although autocorrelation does not affect beta coefficient, it has influence on standard errors, and thus misleads hypothesis tests for whether renewable energy is related to peacebuilding. to diagnose if autocorrelation exists in the two one-way fe models, this research uses auxiliary regression to estimate "rho" in which it predicts residuals at current time with residuals from previous time points. the “rho” ranges from -1 to 1, with being negative meaning negative autocorrelation and being positive meaning positive correlation, 0 meaning no autocorrelation. in the negative peace model, the “rho” is 0.52 and statistically significant. therefore, this model has a positive autocorrelation. in the positive peace model, the “rho” is also 0.52 and statistically significant. hence, it also has a positive autocorrelation. (1) variables b / (se) lagged renewable energy consumption per capital 0.20*** (0.05) lagged co2 emission -0.00 (0.00) constant 5.09*** (0.07) observations 441 number of country 34 r-squared 0.05 r2_a -0.0321 standard errors in parentheses *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05, ^ p<0.10 *one-way fe: life satisfaction volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 83 to deal with autocorrelation, this research utilizes a random effects model with fixed effects for year to control for time points. initially, it needs to test if the two fe models yield a similar coefficient to their corresponded random effects models (re) that doesn't have any fixed effects for country or time. this is because a re model accounts for units repeating but does not account for units having very different averages of dependent variables, namely, the intercepts. consequently, it may still yield biased results if intercepts are correlated with values of independent variables. this research used hausman lr test to detect this difference. since the p-values in both hausman test are larger than 0.05 it fails to reject the null hypothesis that there is no statistically significant difference between the two fe models with their related re models. therefore, bias may not be an issue, fixed effects for time in random effects models (retfe) can be included. (1) variables b / (se) lagged residual (rho) 0.52*** (0.04) constant 0.00 (0.02) observations 387 r-squared 0.27 r2_a 0.272 standard errors in parentheses *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05, ^ p<0.10 *autocorrelation test-life satisfaction (1) variables b / (se) lagged residual (rho) 0.52*** (0.04) constant -92.56 (98.72) observations 389 r-squared 0.29 r2_a 0.290 standard errors in parentheses *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05, ^ p<0.10 *autocorrelation test-death in conflict and terrorism hausman (1978) specification test---negative peace coef. chi-square test value .714 p-value .7 hausman (1978) specification test---positive peace coef. chi-square test value .424 p-value .809 (1) variables b / (se) lagged renewable energy consumption per capital 25.64 (250.24) lagged co2 emission -0.05 (0.33) 2008.year -406.18 (613.05) 2009.year -411.42 (608.36) 2010.year -470.54 (613.25) 2011.year -918.11 (613.74) 2012.year -808.89 (609.46) 2013.year -513.76 (619.90) 2014.year 189.71 (615.42) 2015.year -165.57 (610.49) 2016.year -201.06 (621.17) 2017.year -392.32 (611.68) 2018.year -1,110.74^ (618.65) 2019.year -1,284.97* (616.47) constant 1,428.24^ (815.50) observations 432 number of country 34 r2_a . standard errors in parentheses *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05, ^ p<0.10 *ret model-negative peace (1) variables b / (se) lagged renewable energy consumption per capital 0.22*** (0.04) lagged co2 emission -0.00 (0.00) 2008.year -0.04 (0.10) 2009.year 0.05 (0.10) 2010.year 0.07 (0.10) 2011.year -0.01 (0.10) 2012.year 0.14 (0.10) 2013.year 0.01 (0.10) 2014.year -0.10 (0.10) 2015.year -0.10 (0.10) 2016.year -0.16^ (0.10) 2017.year -0.10 (0.10) 2018.year -0.16 (0.11) 2019.year -0.16^ (0.10) 2020.year -0.14 (0.10) constant 5.13*** (0.13) observations 441 number of country 34 r2_a . standard errors in parentheses *** p<0.001, ** p<0.01, * p<0.05, ^ p<0.10 *ret model-positive peace volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 84 the retfe negative peace model shows us that within 34 middle-lowincome countries observed from 2008 to 2019, when holding the co2 emission constant, one mwh increase in renewable energy consumption per capital in the previous year predicts within those countries, an increase of 25 in the deaths of conflict and terrorism in the current year. this number dramatically decreased from 114 in the fe model, while it is still not statistically significant. the co2 emission still has neither meaningful nor significant relationship with negative peace, though the direction of the relationship is negative as the fe model. the retfe positive peace model shows us that within 34 middle-lowincome countries observed from 2008 to 2020. when holding the co2 emission constant, one mwh increase in renewable energy consumption per capital in the previous year predicts within those countries, an increase of 0.22 in the deaths of conflict and terrorism in the current year. this number increased from 0.20 in the fe model, and it is still statistically significant. the co2 emission still has neither substantiative nor significant relationship with positive peace, though the direction of the relationship is negative as the fe model. 2. renewable resources potential in sudan sudan is rich in renewable resource potential (abdelrahman, 2021). as one of the largest countries in africa, with the nile flowing through it, and a coastline along the red sea, sudan has a large territory made up of diverse natural resources that provides people and livestock with basic needs and energy. however, due to the over-exploitation in agriculture and industries, and fast population growth, traditional natural resources, such as oil and mines, have been dramatically depleted. global warming has aggravated this situation by sharply diminishing the energy supply in sudan. the rich potential of renewable resources has not been effectively explored in sudan, especially its solar and wind energy (abdelrahman, 2021). 2.1 solar energy being in a tropical area with a tropical desert climate over most of its land, sudan's desert and semi-desert areas cover more than 70 percent of the territory, which gives the enormous potential for solar energy development (abdelrahman, 2021). according to the institute of electrical and electronics engineers: sudan is characterized by its good solar radiation, where we find that the solar radiation in the range from 5.8 to 7.2 kwh/m2/day. the average annual solar irradiation rate is high at the level of 2,300-2,350 kwh/m2 (elsayed et al., 2019, p. 2). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 85 with more than half of the population working in agriculture, solar energy can reenergize agriculture in sudan (ali, 2018). currently, the sudanese people mainly use traditional irrigation pumps powered by diesel, which not only costs a large amount of money but also causes damage to the environment. yet, solar energy can be mixed with traditional energy for the pump, which will mitigate air pollution and environmental destruction. based on ali’s study, a photovoltaic pump can contribute to the irrigation pump system with the least costs of money in sudan (ali, 2018). also, developing solar energy can bring new industries in rural areas, such as solar energy system installation and maintenance, telecommunication, and so on, which not only improves the life standard but also creates employment opportunities. moreover, it can supply energy for hospitals and health centers, and reduce pollution to preserve the environment (elsayed et al., 2019). 2.2 wind energy wind energy is currently used in irrigation systems by pumping water from the ground, which provides more fresh water for the sudanese people (saeed, 2020). yet, based on saeed’s study, wind energy has not been fully developed in sudan, which has enormous potential for electricity production. sudan has considerable wind energy, especially around its northeast coastline. mean wind speeds of 4.5 ms-1 are available over 50% of sudan, which is well suited for water lifting and intermittent power requirements, while there is one region in the eastern part of sudan that has a wind speed of 6 ms-1 which is suitable for power production (saeed, p.4, 2020). 2.3 other renewable energy resources sudan also has substantial biomass resources including solid biomass, biogas, liquid biofuels, and municipal and forest wastes. biomass resources can be used for producing power and heat (saeed, 2020). due to its unique geography, sudan has huge potential for geothermal resources in its jabel-marra volcano, the tagbo and meidob hills, the bayud volcanic field, and the red sea coast (saeed, 2020). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 86 although sudan already has five hydropower plants, it is only realizing onethird of its hydropower potential, which could have major impacts on its access to electricity. 3. intersectional panel on environmental peacebuilding in sudan based on the environmental peacebuilding theory and positive peace theory, the proposal herein recommends an intersectional panel to be dedicated to building positive peace in sudan with a focus on fighting climate change. the intersectional panel should consist of the sudanese national government, local communities and tribes, civil society and businesses, and external actors. this combines both topdown government-led initiatives to build stability and bottom-up civil society-led initiatives covering all economic, political, and social sectors to restore social justice. 3.1 roles of each actor 3.1.1 sudanese government large-scale technical projects for renewable energy and environmental change need large-scale financial and political support (dresse et al., 2019). therefore, a government-led effort must be in demand. it is expected that the sudanese national government can provide financial support for renewable energy building and management. moreover, it is anticipated to give the green light to renewable energy development by facilitating productive policies. also, it could formulate mediation and legislation to contribute to a ceasefire, and fair resource delivery among local tribes. for example, when two tribes fall into the argument concerning the quota of resource delivery, the national government should have a strong and credible legislative institution to judge with impartiality. through competent and transparent approaches by the national government, greater publicsector credibility can be achieved. yet, the government does not play the central role in this panel; it is expected to make policies and financial budgets based on the demands of the local communities. 3.1.2 local tribes and communities environmental peacebuilding would be doomed if the local demands and priorities were not heeded (dresse et al., 2019). the local tribes and communities play the central role in this panel. as renewable resources are also a part of natural resources, local people have the deepest knowledge of where to explore natural volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 87 resources and how to explore them. the leaders from local tribes must bring their people’s demands and voices to this panel and provide proposals for renewable energy exploration and development policies or projects based on the local people’s priorities. regarding tribes still in conflict, this panel shall be a neutral space for them to gain mutual understanding and respect. following the technical and restorative justice trajectory, it is anticipated that they see environmental protection and resource development as their mutual interests and benefits. through cooperation in finding technical solutions to environmental issues, they could gradually build mutual trust. then, this mutual trust could bring collaboration and “transboundary interdependence” on other social and political issues. this could result in the restoration of social justice, which would bring sustainability and balanced resource delivery among tribes. moreover, other tribes can be mediators within the panel for those in conflict. tribes who have solved conflicts themselves can share the experience with those still in conflict. a domino effect here is once two tribes make a peace agreement and start cooperating on renewable energy development, it will become easier for all other tribes in conflict to follow and learn from the first two groups as an example. this process will lead to negative peace among all tribes and generate the beginning of positive peacebuilding. in addition, it is envisaged that local tribes also execute their supervisory role in this panel to ensure all the projects and policies are created and implemented based on local priorities. 3.1.3 civil society and business in this context, civil society includes local ngos, universities, religious institutions, cultural institutions, and other relevant citizen-led groups. the main role of civil society in this panel is supervision. they need to supervise the work of the national government and local tribes in case of corruption. moreover, they could be the media for governments and local communities to advocate environmental preservation and resource protection among the public. civil society is expected to also play a significant role in research and policymaking. universities and relevant environmental organizations shall conduct surveys and draft annual reports to provide the panel with feedback from local people and recommendations for future actions. the measurement of the success of this panel shall be mainly done by civil society. one direct way is to do a survey and collect both quantitative and qualitative data in local communities to see the change before and after any policies or projects are implemented. businesses is foreseen to play a crucial role in funding this effort, and the implementation and management of renewable energy projects. because of the volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 88 local priority and demands, this panel only gives discourse power to local businesses. the goal of the local business is to innovate more technical solutions for environmental issues and to create more employment opportunities for local people. there is also an expectation that educational institutes can play a significant role in peacebuilding and socioeconomic development. schools not only function as institutions for educating the younger generation but also provide safe spaces for their healthy growth and development. this expectation is rooted in the understanding that education not only contributes to economic growth but also enables society to invest in its own future development, ultimately fostering longterm positive peace construction (psacharopoulos, 1988). it is envisaged that businesses could cooperate with young people from universities and other educational or vocational institutes to create a domestic cyclical business model on renewable energy. in other words, the local businesses can earn capital from the current renewable energy projects and then reinvest it in training and educational boot camps, which aim to train more young people with related knowledge and skills. then, the young generation can continue to innovate and gain economic benefits for future investment. in the long run, the sudanese people can fundraise for their future projects on economic and social issues with their own money, which will be a massive step for decolonization. 3.1.4 external actors external actors here include international ngos, foreign government agencies, foreign businesses, and other kinds of foreign institutions. although external actors shall only play the role of an observer in the panel, it is still important for them to provide sudanese people with financial support and novel forms of technology at the beginning (dresse et al., 2019). moreover, external actors shall also be an oversight mechanism on corruption and misbehaviors among the national government or local tribes. yet, to decolonize the peacebuilding process, external actors cannot determine what and how the panel operates. external actors must respect the authority of the sudanese government and people when designing and implementing policies and projects. otherwise, this panel would fail because of neglecting the local priorities and interests (schirch, 2022). 3.2 a feasible case proposal example to make peace in the blue niles region where tribal conflicts and violence have constantly happened (unep, 2022), the panel shall bring the local tribes in conflict to sit together. during the first technical trajectory, the national government shall lead the conversation to mediate the tribes in conflict. then, since the conflicts volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 89 were mainly caused by the shortage of resources (unep, 2022), the tribes shall provide the panel with the demands provided by local people in their tribes. the tribes in conflict will be able to understand each other and find common interests in environmental protection and renewable energy. they shall provide a proposal to the panel to implement a renewable energy project for the tribes that could benefit all. then, civil society, local businesses, and external actors can do a prestage survey and exploration for renewable energy guided by the local tribes and people. since the blue niles region is located in the southeast part of sudan, where renewable resources are scarce (saeed, 2020), sudan will need to build infrastructure to transfer power from the northern part of sudan. this power transfer across the nation needs the national government and external donors to invest. the national government shall design and implement policies that fit every local community’s interest and ensure that no damage will be caused to local communities along the transfer route. the tribes involved in this power transfer shall cooperate to seek common grounds while finding solutions for existing disputes so that they can gain mutual understanding and trust. civil society and sudanese people shall cooperate to supervise the funding of this project to prevent any corruption amongst the national government and local tribal chiefs. all actors in the panel shall cooperate on this project based on local natural conditions and priorities. since this power transfer will be a long-term project all actors need to be patient with the outcome. further, civil society shall make measurements based on the opinions of local people. if the project goes well, it will help tribes in conflict to restore social justice and norms and build interdependence not only on the environmental aspect but also on the social and political system. 4. conclusion and discussion climate change leads to a shortage of natural resources and environmental destruction, which exacerbates the violence in sudan (unep, 2022). the intersectional panel proposed in this proposal is a creative approach that focuses on renewable energy exploration and development that brings the sudanese government, local communities and tribes, civil society, local businesses, and external actors together. environmental peacebuilding can be the theoretical framework for the panel to engage in new ways to build negative peace in the short term and positive peace in the long run based on local priorities through: 1) technical trajectory aiming to reduce environmental destruction; 2) restorative justice trajectory aiming to rebuild and restore neutral and common values and norms; and 3) sustainability trajectory aiming for equitable resources distribution and sustainable development (dresse et al., 2019). yet, the environmental peacebuilding theory is still in its infancy, which requires more practical cases and data to be refined. and the intersectional panel is volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 90 only one of the suggested ways to build environmental peace in sudan, which still needs to be tested if it fully corresponds to the local history and social norms. moreover, although renewable energy does play a crucial role in combating climate change and its impacts, it needs more data covering various aspects of climate change to evaluate the environmental peacebuilding theory and to find the most effective approach for peacebuilding to fighting climate change. in addition, corruption issue is always a big concern in any intervention. a detailed discussion on controlling and reducing corruption is still in need. above all, since the root cause for most tribal violence in sudan is climate change, all actors in sudan must pay attention to solving climate change challenges. this presents a new opportunity for the sudanese to decolonize peacebuilding and build positive peace aligned with their social norms and values to fight against climate change. references data resource: our world in data. (n.d.). from https://ourworldindata.org/ abdelrahman, m. s. (2021). an overview on environmental issues and natural resources management in contemporary sudan. ali, b. (2018). comparative assessment of the feasibility of solar irrigation pumps in sudan. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 81, 413–420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.08.008 dresse, a., fischhendler, i., nielsen, j. ø., & zikos, d. (2019). environmental peacebuilding: towards a theoretical framework. cooperation and conflict, 54(1), 99–119. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836718808331 elsayed, h. i., khadam, a., & elhassan, o. h. (2019). plans and challenges of the renewable energy in sudan. 2019 international conference on computer, control, electrical, and electronics engineering (iccceee), 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1109/iccceee46830.2019.9071319 environment, u. n. (2020, october 7). sudan first state of environment and outlook report 2020. unep un environment programme. http://www.unep.org/resources/report/sudanfirst-state-environment-outlook-report-2020 fischer, m., & schmelzle, b. (2009). building peace in the absence of states: challenging the discourse on state failure. galtung, j. (2007). a mini theory of peace. january 4 in sudan, conflict and environmental decline go hand in hand. (2022, november 4). unep. http://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/sudan-conflict-and-environmental-decline-gohand-hand irena energy profile sudan. (2022). international renewable energy agency. nations, u. (n.d.). international day for preventing the exploitation of the environment in war and armed conflict. united nations; united nations. retrieved november 19, 2022, from https://www.un.org/en/observances/environment-in-war-protection-day nicoson, c. (2021a). towards climate resilient peace: an intersectional and degrowth approach. sustainability science, 16(4), 1147–1158. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 76-91 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 91 nicoson, c. (2021b). towards climate resilient peace: an intersectional and degrowth approach. sustainability science, 16(4), 1147–1158. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-00906-1 psacharopoulos, g. (1988). education and development: a review. the world bank research observer, 3(1), 99–116. saeed, t. m. (2020). sustainable energy potential in sudan. journal of engineering and computer science (jecs), 20(3), article 3. schirch, l. (2022). decolonising peacebuilding. microsoft word ifp v 17 lehner.doc volume 17 number 1 (2023): 47-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 47 volume 17 number 1 (2023): 47-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 pluriversal and relational pedagogies for peace(s) daniela lehner abstract the aim of this paper is to recognize and re-envision strategies for peace education that encourage pluriversal and relational ways of knowing and being, and support the creation of a collective imagination of interdependence. one presumption is, that to realize cultures of peace it is crucial to transform the violences of modernity that encompasses a particular ontology and our mode of being in the world. the paradigm of modernity has universalized experience, grounding it in unitary ontologies and imperialist epistemologies that hinder certain systems of knowing and being. these epistemologies have heavily colonized our thinking and feeling, and consequently our educational systems. embodied and holistic forms of learning and knowledge are marginalized in our current educational institutions. the paradigm of modernity traps us within a certain way of thinking about the world. how can peace education work with the unitary mode of thinking and the violences of modernity? i will try to frame a teaching and learning approach that enhances learners’ ability to think, feel and act critically, interdependently, and pluriversally, allowing for the coexistence of different worlds and realities. pluriversality, the zapatistas’ decolonial political vision, refers to a world in which many worlds coexist and various systems of knowing and being are volume 17 number 1 (2023): 47-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 48 given equal acknowledgement. the pluriverse tries to go beyond the dualistic, separatist ontology that focuses on human/nonhumans, mind/body, global south/global north, and developed/underdeveloped. the pluriverse calls for an ontoepistemological turn towards radical relationality and interdependence and this is especial crucial for peace (education). keywords: interconnectedness, pluriversality, interdependence, relationality, care. acknowledgment: i want to thank maria jose bermeo for introducing me to the idea of pluriversal pedagogies. 1. the violent universality of modernity ‘the fact is that we all live within the earth as pluriverse; we weave the pluriverse together with every existing being through our daily practices. we are all summoned to the task of repairing the earth and the pluriverse, one stitch at a time, one design at a time, one loop at a time, so to speak.’ (escobar, 2018) more than ever, societies are experiencing vulnerability and transition across many different aspects of life (wars, climate change, social inequality, social polarization, racism, pandemics, species extinction, poverty and societal transformation through digitalisation). we live in a world that faces increasing fragmentation and vulnerability while technologies and global infrastructures continue to proliferate (perry, 2020, p. 293). decolonial authors (e.g. escobar, 2007; escobar, 2020; quijano, 2007; hall, 1992; mignolo, 2011; maldonadotorres, 2008) argue that we are facing a crisis of modernity that encompasses a particular ontology and our mode of being in the world. the paradigm of modernity has universalized experience, grounding it in unitary ontologies and imperialist epistemologies that hinder certain systems of knowing and being. global capitalism and extractivism have granted themselves the right to assimilate all other worlds, building on a modern epistemology that is based on the separation between entities, between humans and nonhumans and between mind and body. and at the same time what we call modernity is home to us. we want to make sense of the world but we ‘seek to meet the volume 17 number 1 (2023): 47-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 49 world by conquering it‘(akomolafe, 2017, p. 2). the paradigm of modernity has generated a universalization that hinders the various systems of knowing and being that constitute the pluriverse. universal conceptions of the world are grounded in unitary ontologies and imperialist epistemologies that assume there is only one world, which is knowable on a global scale within unique modes of thought, and therefore manageable and governable in those terms (conway & singh, 2011, p. 701). the rhetoric of the universality of culture also always means that cultural productions are closely interwoven with political and ideological agendas. the ‘de-universalisation’ of imperial culture is thus an important political goal; it can be achieved through contextualisation and educational processes that are as concrete as possible. the contextualisation of any cultural production undermines the unquestioned assumption that it is universal in character (said, 1993). modernity centres mostly on one universal human template based on enlightenment and rationality and applies it to everywhere and to everything. this leads to the assumption that other systems of knowing and being are inferior and seeks to erase them. existence becomes fragmented and individuals are separated from other living beings and the natural world (conway & singh, 2011; esteva & prakash, 1998; escobar, 2020; quijano, 2007). the global world structure is based on an ontology of separation and fragmentation; this leads to extractivism and the exploitation of the natural world (williams & bermeo, 2020; escobar, 2020). extractivism and other such practices ‘manifest the contemporary colonial ontological occupation of territories’ (de la cadena, & blaser, 2018, p. 3). the one-world world is ‘a world that has granted itself the right to assimilate all other worlds and, by presenting itself as exclusive, cancels possibilities for what lies beyond its limits’ (de la cadena, & blaser, 2018, p. 3; law, 2015). coloniality and modernity are inevitably linked to each other. according to quijano (2007), the western concept of modernity, which was established by the enlightenment, was first brought about by colonialism, enslavement and exploitation. modernity and coloniality pervade life on a global scale, whether through control of the economy, educational systems or the widespread exploitation of other humans and the natural world. modernity and coloniality have a binary logic, dividing phenomena into categories such as colonising/colonised and hierarchies such as high culture/low culture. this makes it difficult to introduce postcolonial continuity within today’s structures (mbembe, 2021; hall, 1992). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 47-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 50 such diametric segmentation, and so-called enlightment rationality, are among others based on rené descartes’ division of the world into res cogita (things of the mind) and res extensa (substance or matter), a dichotomy that created a hierarchy of mind, body and spirit as well as humans and non humans (wynter, 2003; maldonado-torres, 2007). in this worldview, living beings become machines, and understanding is achieved by means of division, separation, compartmentalisation, atomism and reductionism. the organic interconnectedness of the world is broken down into small components. these epistemologies have heavily colonized our thinking and feeling, and consequently our educational systems. in educational institutions, embodied and holistic forms of learning and knowledge are marginalized and disconnected from our senses and our lifeworld. (selby, 2002, p. 78; akomolafe, 2017, p. 172). the paradigm of modernity traps us within a certain way of thinking about the world. how can educational strategies work with the unitary mode of thinking and the violences of modernity? (mignolo, 2011). what are the limits on what we are able to sense, want and imagine? ‘how has being been reduced to knowing?’ (andreotti, 2011). this colonization of being has created intergenerational injuries that require humans to be re-subjectified and being to be decolonized (fanon, 1963). we need educational approaches and institutions that can facilitate this shift (williams & bermeo, 2020). lordes’ famous axiom that ‘the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house’ is central (lorde, 2007). in order to deconstruct and unlearn these colonial power structures, existing hegemonic power structures over the economy, politics, the body and knowledge production have to be questioned. revealing the entanglements of colonialism and the unequal distribution of power without reproducing them is one of the central challenges of decolonisation (hall, 1992; mignolo, 2014; spivak, 1999; quijano, 2000). this calls for processes of decoupling, delinking and unlearning the violent structures of modernity. ‘decoloniality, as i am posing it here, does not imply the absence of coloniality but rather the ongoing serpentine movement toward possibilities of other modes of being, thinking, knowing, sensing, and living; that is, an otherwise in plural’ (walsh, 2018, p. 81). we need to develop plural ontoepistemologies of thinking and being to create an otherwise in plural: ‘thinking in/on our own terms is crucial, for you cannot tear down the fiction with the same concepts with which the fiction was constructed’ (mignolo, 2014, p. 11). every act of refusing to think or behave according to the hegemonic discourse is an opportunity to explore new ways of being and doing that are radically different. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 47-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 51 2. pluriversal and relational pedagogies for peace(s) how can we imagine that another world, a world that is more social, just, ecological and peaceful is possible? how can we develop multiple ways of knowing and being rather than just a single story? the pluriverse tries to disrupt the idea that all worlds should be fitted into a single one, in contrast to modernity, in which the globalized capitalist world system became the universal world in which all worlds should fit into. the pluriverse is the search for a world into which many worlds can fit; it implies multiple ontologies, not simply multiple perspectives on one world (escobar 2020; de la cadena, & blaser, 2018). ‘as in the zapatista declaration, the concept of a world of many worlds, or what we call a pluriverse, entails heterogeneous worldings coming together as a political ecology of practices, negotiating their difficulties within heterogeneity’ (de la cadena, & blaser, 2018, 4). realities are plural and always in the making and therefore the possible realities are also multiple: ‘another world is possible because another reality – and other possibilities – are possible’ (escobar, 2020, p. ix). the pluriverse attempts to go beyond dualistic and divisive ontologies of human/non humans, mind/body, global south/global north, developed/underdeveloped. our shared world, or mitwelt, is seen as a living entity and politics is focused on the ethics of care and interdependence. this involves critical thought but at the same time, it goes beyond the concepts of critical thought and language. it is a reality always in making and therefore relational (escobar, 2020; de la cadena, & blaser, 2015; akomolafe, 2017). what could pluriversality mean for peace? maybe the need to reflect and transform modern and liberal understandings of peace and identify peace as plural. in the liberal model of peace, which richmond (2005) views as a universal, neo-colonial, state-building and free market model that was applied indiscriminately in post-conflict missions after the cold war, peace is based on the construction of state mechanisms through the promotion of good governance, the free market, law enforcement institutions, and human rights (richmond, 2005; horner, 2013). it is ‘the self-evident answer to conflict and fragile states’ (horner, 2013, p. 367). in a plural world, there cannot be a single and universal peace narrative that applies everywhere and to everything. this modern and mechanistic understanding of peace fails to take account of the many other contextual and smaller realities. williams & bermeo (2020) and zembylas (2017) criticize hegemonic discourses on peace and human rights that fail to reflect multiple perspectives and experiences, and call for a decolonialized education ‘that helps us reimagine discourses and praxes of volume 17 number 1 (2023): 47-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 52 being and relationality, peace, and rights’ (williams & bermeo, 2020, p. 11). peace can be redesigned within unique localities and contexts (dietrich 2012; richmond et al, 2016, cruz, 2021; anderson, 2004). it already exists on a local level and people create peace every day in areas affected by conflict (mac ginty, 2021; fontan, 2012). also, within peace education we have to listen to the voices of marginalized communities (shirazi, 2011). a universalist model of peace does not recognize local initiatives, viewing peacebuilding as mechanical and peace as something static that can be achieved. in addition, individuals working in conflict settings and students studying peacebuilding and peace education all need to be able to deconstruct and decolonize the universal peace narrative, in order to become aware that communities are not empty shells (fontan, 2012, p. 37). peace is a relational endeavor that calls for constant negotiation and reflection. individuals have different experiences of peace and interpret it in different ways; peace is closely related to human and more-than-human needs. the term many ‘peaces’ refers to a multiplicity of small, specific, often competing and contradictory lived peaces (dietrich & stützl, 1997; dietrich, 2012; rodriguez iglesias, 2019; škof, 2015). these multiple understandings mean that ‘perhaps conceptual unity is not as integral as having some shared values across pluriverses’ (williams & bermeo, 2020, p. 10). muñoz (2006) refers to the process-driven and contradictory nature of peace as ‘imperfect’, highlighting local circumstances and actions to promote peace on a smaller scale. epistemologically, the concept of imperfection moves us away from objective, closed and dogmatic visions of peace and brings us closer to the ‘intersubjective’ – conflicting and much-needed visions of peace that, like the subjects of perception themselves, are open and debatable (muñoz, 2006, p. 262263). a pluriversal peace vision must also include peace with all living beings and especially nature. the modern attempt to conquer nature and make sense of it by dissecting it needs a relational turn. for this to happen, we have to experience, feel and understand our interconnectivity with all living. there can be no peace if we are in war with nature. the pluriverse calls for an ontoepistemological turn towards radical relationality and interdependence with all living beings. the notion of radical relationality ‘refers to the fact that all entities that make up the world are so deeply interrelated that they have no intrinsic, separate existence in and of themselves’ (escobar, 2020, p. xiii). a deeply relational understanding of life does not view life as mechanical object to be exploited, as is common in modern, patriarchal, capitalist settings. modern epistemology is built on the volume 17 number 1 (2023): 47-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 53 separate existence of entities and in particular the separation between humans and nonhumans (escobar, 2020, p. xiii). from a relational perspective, the isolated self that modernity gave rise to becomes an i that exists because of a you, (buber, 2004; andreotti, 2011; irigaray, 2008) and life itself is conceived of as emerging rather than fragmented and dissected. the logic of coloniality (mignolo, 2011), based as it is on domination and hierarchy, does not allow for humans and the world to exist in relation to each other (escobar, 2018; maturana & verden-zöller, 1993). in order to create peaceful societies, we need new ways of relating to each other, to the world and to all beings that exist within it (tallbear & willy, 2019, p. 5). the globalized structures of modernity discouraged the view that life was communal, but the rebuilding of community is essential if we are to live a relational life. ‘if we took seriously the premise that all things are radically interdependent, how would we live and make life anew each day? what would we design and create in our world and how?’ we might transition ‘towards the healing, caring, and sustaining of life’ (escobar, osterweil & sharma, 2021, n.p.). to achieve this, we need different cosmologies and ontologies, not just different categories; we need to approach education in a different way. the here and now is not possible without educational processes (varela, 2007). our current educational approaches are strongly based on the premises of modernity, anthropocentrism, individualism and the separation of body and mind. this is no longer appropriate to the challenges we are facing today. education is a process of learning and unlearning and we need a pedagogy that can dismantle the violences of coloniality and modernity and at the same time re-arrange ‘uncoercive re-arrangement of desires’ that orient us towards ethical responsibility towards the other (spivak, 2004; andreotti, 2011; wintersteiner, 1999). at the same time, it is crucial for peace education to dismantle structures of colonialization and enlightenment’s moralistic and normative values that has also shaped the philosophical grounding of peace education (zembylas, 2018, p. 2–4). people involved in peace education ‘need to account for the complex historical and political contexts of peace education efforts’ and start to decenter ‘eurocentric narratives of peace education’ (zembylas, 2018, p. 5). we have to take the time and afford to realize the structural and epistemic violence of our colonial histories (williams, 2013). in the latin american context, a pedagogy of resistance developed out of the practices that challenged colonialism, capitalism, neo-liberalism and epistemic violence. educational processes are linked to social movements to create a good life for all (bajaj, 2015, p. 157). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 47-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 54 we also have to ask ourselves if a non-violent educational strategy is possible and how we can create it? (varela, 2007). justice-focused healing practices as described by bautista (2018) and gibbs (2020) include skills for healing, nonviolent communication, conflict transformation and a variety of forms of reparations for individuals and communities. abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom aims to delink, feel, think and act systemically. teachers understand the colonial and hegemonic history of the context they operate in and acknowledge how educational institutions and societies are shaped by their histories. this sets learning processes in motion that resist the disciplining of the mind, and teaching instead becomes a practice of freedom that encourages engagement and participation (hooks, 1994; love, 2019). to achieve this, we also need to create peaceful and pluriversal visions of the future. in education in particular, it is crucial to create new narratives that enhance relationality and interdependence; a new political imagination; and strategies and practices to promote social change (williams & bermeo, 2020). the contribution of postcolonial studies to education is the realization of inequalities and the possibility to meet the so called other through dialogue. it is the questioning of modernity and enlightenment humanism that might ‘prevent a noncoercive relationship or dialogue among different ways of being in the world’ (andreotti, 2011, p. 1). the modern universal form of reasoning is rational and dialectical striving for unanimity and consensus. it becomes difficult to disagree or express oneself in ‘other forms of thinking, knowing, being, and communicating’ (andreotti, 2011, p. 2). a pluriversal pedagogy needs to sensitize for difference and encourage learners to listen and relate to the other beyond once projections and presumptions. how can we learn to engage in solidarity even if there is no consensus or a common identity? how can we learn to recognize the other as equal and different at the same time? (andreotti, 2011, p. 6). how can one theorize learners, teaching, and learning in ways that take account of power relations, of the complexity of the construction of the self and of alterity, and of the situatedness and the limits of one’s own constructions and theorizations? what if we could create the conditions for a configuration where relationality could explicitly and purposefully bypass language and knowledge (and the need for consensus)? i suggest that this possibility could rest in a configuration that is not grounded on ideas of individuation and autonomy, but on ideas of interdependence consisting of two indivisible dimensions: a sense of selfworth located in one’s unique, nonpredetermined and volume 17 number 1 (2023): 47-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 55 always partial contribution to a collectivity, and a sense of selfin sufficiency conceptualized not as inadequacy, but as dependency on the uniqueness and indispensability of the other. (andreotti, 2011, p. 177–178) if we can realize difference as something creative and inspiring then interdependency becomes something beautiful. at the same time, it is important to acknowledge that education is embedded within the violent, patriarchal and neoliberal structures of society. pluriversal pedagogies for peace(s) might start from epistemic agency and the unlearning of the universal. rather than teaching learners theories, it could impart the ability to question knowledge and the awareness that it is never universal or inconsequential (spivak, 1995). andreotti (2011) asks an important question: ‘how can a pedagogy of selfreflexivity, selfimplication, dissensus, and discomfort support people to go beyond feelings of shame, guilt, or deceit?’ (andreotti, 2011, p. 177). the conditions of being modernity created based on individuation and autonomy determined by rational thought are our preconditions for relationality. we have to realize our interdependence including our self-worth and our uniqueness, and at the same time, our dependency related to the uniqueness of the other. this is not only based on rational thought and language but on the affective and embodied aspect of being (andreotti, 2011, p. 178). in education, it is important to critically reflect our doing but we need to experience unconditional value and acceptance on our being. only then becoming with others is possible (maturana & poerksen, 2004). bell hooks, inspired by paulo freire’s (1990) pedagogy of the oppressed and especially his critique on the banking model of education, wrote various books on violent educational structures. she invites us to build our pedagogical praxis on the questioning of authoritative knowledge and to claim our own place in the shaping of knowledge and move from individual to collective meaning-making. to quote bell hooks, ‘(…) the academy is not paradise. but learning is a place where paradise can be created. the classroom with all its limitations remains a location of possibility’ (hooks, 1994, p. 207). education and teaching, both formal and non-formal, can create spaces and practices that promote peace(s) and a good life for all. at its best, education as the practice of freedom means ‘(…) to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries (…)’ (hooks, 1994, p. 207). for this we have to find ways toward alternative ontologies and epistemologies. our pedagogies need to encourage forms of knowing that are volume 17 number 1 (2023): 47-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 56 affective and embodied (koppensteiner, 2018; brantmeier & mckenna, 2020). brantmeier describes it, as ‘a desire to connect across differences, to speak from the heart and to add an emotional and spiritual dimension to the learning experience that honours interdependence and deep differences’ (brantmeier & mckenna, 2020, p. 4). creating an ethics of caring, we need spaces where people are allowed to show their vulnerabilities, not randomly, but grounded in experience, without being judged or taken advantage of. deep and transformative learning includes personal transformation, straddling fragmented ways of knowing and ‘finding the courage to engage with and learn from the other and otherness, not least in ourselves’ (formenti & west, 2018, p. viii). one path to becoming aware of ourselves, others and the structures we are embedded in is through mindfulness. ‘mindful cultural engagement requires deeply understanding one’s own conditioning and context while appreciating the conditioning and context of others’ (brantmeier & brantmeier, 2020, p. 2.). the realization of once own and others cultural conditioning allows us to open up for the pluriverse and the many worlds that exist. through mindfulness we can get a greater awareness of your surroundings and therefore we have the possibility to create caring actions. this means that if we are aware of ourselves, our thoughts and feelings we might act less likely from our individual wounds or conditioning but from a greater collective awareness that leads us towards interconnectedness and compassion (hạnh, 2004). ‘if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life’ (hạnh, 1992, p. 12). the present moment is also the place where we can experience connection and healing. deep healing occurs when ‘the self ‘‘mutualizes’’ with body, mind, and spirit’ (cajete, 2010, p. 1130). active hope as framed by joanna macy and chris johnstone (2021) is reconnection with other humans, land and spirit, and acknowledges the grief and pain of violence and destruction. the body’s interdependent condition with the living world becomes visible through the reciprocity of our senses with the sensuous earth which also means that our emotional and embodied disconnection is related to the social and environmental disconnection (abram, 1996; macy & brown, 2014; manning, 2007; weber, 2016). huaman (2011) highlights the need to include indigenous knowledges in (peace) education. relating to place, the land and the earth not only means observing nature but also participating as a sensory being in intimate expressions of care for the earth (cajete, 2000; yunkaporta, 2019; dumont, 2002). we have to include moments of belonging in educational institutions. a belonging that is connected to once own body, the community, the earth/land. macy’s work volume 17 number 1 (2023): 47-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 57 would be a constant pedagogical recognition of our entanglement with this earth and that all lives depend on each other. thus, we need the experience of belonging to this world like it would be our larger self. this so-called ecological self is the realization that all life is related and connected (macy, 2020). 3. concluding remarks in this paper i tried to formulate thoughts on the universalist epistemology of modernity, and how we can pedagogically move from universal to pluriversal understandings of the world. one of the main challenges i addressed is that our current educational approaches are still built on the idea of a separated self, separated from once own body, from others and the world. if we base your learnings on these understandings we will rarely create experiences of interconnectedness. at the same time there is a need to realize the violences of educational institutions and how they are embedded within historical, societal, economical and epistemological forms of violence. especially the violences of modernity that created a hierarchy of knowledge and being. as pedagogues or educators, i do believe that we can create spaces, where violences can be reflected and transformed, and at the same time visions of pluriversal coexistence can be created. this involves critical thought but at the same time, it goes beyond the concept of critical thought and sometimes even language. realizing various forms of expressions and that we do not always have to agree with each other, to live solidary and peacefully is crucial. especially in times of digital transformation it is important to experience embodied connections (with people and nature) in physical spaces. only embodied we can experience the collective wisdom of communities and the interconnectedness of all living beyond thought and language. references abram, d. 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(2011). transforming education, transforming society: the co-construction of critical peace education and indigenous education. journal of peace education, 8(3), 243–258. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 47-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 61 tallbear, k., & willey, a. (2019). introduction. critical relationality: queer, indigenous, and multispecies belonging beyond settler sex & nature. imaginations ,10(1), 5–15. yunkaporta, t. (2019). sand talk: how indigenous thinking can save the world. melbourne: the text publishing company. weber, a. (2016). biopoetics towards an existential ecology. dordrecht: springer. williams, h. m. a. (2013). postcolonial structural violence: a study of school violence in trinidad and tobago. international journal of peace studies, 18(2), 39–64. williams, h., m. a., & bermeo, m. j. (2020). a decolonial imperative: pluriversal rights education. international journal of human rights education, 4(1), 1–33. wintersteiner, w. (1999). pädagogik des anderen. bausteine für eine friedenspädagogik in der postmoderne. münster: agenda verlag zembylas, m. (2017). the quest for cognitive justice: towards a pluriversal human rights education. globalisation, societies and education, 15(4), 397–409. zembylas, m. (2018). con-/divergences between postcolonial and critical peace education: towards pedagogies of decolonization in peace education. journal of peace education, 15(1), 1–23. microsoft word ifp v 17 knox steiner kim.docx volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 92 volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 community dreamwork as intercultural peacelearning hyoyoung minna kim inthebetween.minna@gmail.com stephanie marie knox steiner, phd university for peace sknox@upeace.org a first breath a vignette on the second morning, i sat down at a table with a group of people i hardly knew. the eagerness superseded any self-consciousness of oversharing too soon with strangers. i animatedly recounted my dream that featured the horror movie character, chuckie, eliciting gasps and laughter from the others. thus began the dream table at breakfast at the international institute for peace education (iipe) in 2022, which took place at casa xitla in mexico city. introduction in this article, we will explore community dreamwork as a form of intercultural peace learning pedagogy and community building and will connect this to themes of epistemic justice, decolonial praxis, and the importance of the learning that occurs in the in-between spaces. we will explore questions of formal volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 93 and informal learning spaces, our assumptions about where learning takes place, and the transformative potential of spontaneous, organic, emergent learning spaces that happen in the cracks of formal structures. we will also explore our experience of simultaneous translation (spanish-english) as a pedagogy of intercultural peacelearning that promotes epistemic justice and slowing down. we will further critically examine the reliance of freirean pedagogy within the field of peace education, particularly for its emphasis on rationality, as we believe it is necessary to reach beyond critical pedagogy through emotional, embodied, and other ways of knowing and being to achieve intercultural peace learning and sentipensante pedagogy. building on cremin, echavarria, & kester’s (2018) call for transrational pedagogy in peacebuilding education, we offer our experience of community dreamwork as an example of a transrational pedagogy that allows access to embodied, emotional, and spiritual ways of knowing. in this spirit, we believe educational spaces need to follow the wisdom of natural cycles such as metabolism and respiration, taking in and releasing, as exemplified and embodied in the in-breath and out-breath, with which we are most intimately connected. as a way of engaging embodiment and cyclical flow, we have written this article as a series of in-breaths and out-breaths, and we invite you to breathe with us as you read, to sense and feel into this rhythm.1 the in-breaths of this article are more of the intellectual content, and academic writing, the taking in. the out-breaths, woven throughout, will engage more directly with the transrational ways of knowing we are making a case for in this article, the processing, reflecting, releasing. the article is intentionally nonlinear, in an attempt to disrupt the linearity of western rationalism. we invite you to breathe and flow with us. 1. outbreath: seeds of friendship and dreamweaving at iipe mexico we, the co-authors of this article, minna and stephanie, met on the first day at the 2022 iipe mexico. our relationship deepened and grew through the spontaneous emergence of the dream table. we believe that all learning is relational, and feel it is important to begin our article by naming our relationship to each other and our respective and collective relationships to dreams. i (stephanie) have been writing down my dreams since i was a teenager. no one taught me to do this, and no one i knew actively worked with their dreamsit 1 the breathwork framing is inspired by yesworld.org's jam gatherings, in which there is a balance of time allotted for sessions (in-breaths) and breaks (out-breaths). since the pandemic, more time has been allotted for out-breaths, to account for the pandemic's impact on participants' capacity for socializing and need for more rest. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 94 was more of an impulse and a fascination, a way of honoring what felt like gifts when i woke up in the morning. i found that the more i wrote them down, the more i could remember, and i have developed this relationship over decades. i later studied community dreamwork as part of my doctoral coursework in depth psychology at pacifica graduate institute. at iipe, when minna came to breakfast and said, “i had a wild dream last night! does anyone work with dreams?” i was excited. i (minna) grew up hearing my mother and her friends share about their dreams, at times in hushed earnest and at other times in utter delight. in my korean ancestry, dreams hold wisdom that are not accessible in the waking-state. my mother’s dream of three korean peppers, two green and one red, were interpreted by my aunt as two daughters and one son; i am the eldest daughter followed by my sister and a younger brother. ajummas (korean word for married women) coming together for what could be described as an informal dream table, is an ancestral practice that simultaneously nurtured deep, meaningful connections and honored the power that emerges from collective wisdom. today, my connection to dreams is deeply inspired by ajummas. and surely, my ajumma-ancestors must have blessed my friendship with stephanie, as it continues to blossom since iipe, ever since that morning we bonded over our shared enthusiasm and appreciation for dreams. the community dreamwork table began organically on tuesday when minna arrived with her dream and lasted throughout the week. there were several participants who joined every day, several who floated in and out, and some who joined later in the week. there was excitement to see who arrived with “material,” and an excitement to both share and listen to one another’s nocturnal stories. each person who had a dream would share, and we would ask each other questions, like “what did it feel like? what was the emotional tone?” we would make meaning together, and we would also make some thematic connections between one another’s dreams. 2. in-breath: community dreamwork dreamwork is the practice of attending to and working with dreams, which generally speaking refers to the images and stories that unfold while we are in a sleeping state of consciousness, but can also include daydreaming images (when one is awake but in a semi-altered state of consciousness). dreams are a transrational way of knowing and allow us to access states of knowledge in a more metaphorical, non-linear, image-based way, grounded in sentipensar (sensing/thinking or feeling-thinking, explained in detail later). dreaming is an intercultural experience, common across humanity. all humans (and more-than-humans that we are aware of) experience dream states. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 95 dreamwork is present across cultures, and there are culturally specific ways dreams are worked with, interpreted, or given significance and meaning. thus dreamwork, with dreaming as a common shared human experience, has the potential, as we experienced at iipe in our diverse multicultural group, to serve as a thread for weaving intercultural peace learning. community dreamwork is, as the name implies, dreamwork that is done in the context of two or more people and the land. as taylor (2009) notes, dreams have multiple meanings, and working the dreams in a group allows for multiple insights to unfold. some indigenous cultures, such as aboriginal cultures and the senoi as will be discussed below, see dreams as the land dreaming through us, and dreams as central to the relationship between land and humans. there are many formats for community dreamwork, including informal sharing, talking circles and ceremonies, social dreaming matrix (morgan, 2010), and dream theatre (lipsky, 2008; watkins, 2017). at iipe mexico, the spontaneous emergence of the dream table involved informal sharing and discussion around dreams, which would sometimes lead to sharing beyond dreams and the themes they brought to the surface. according to tyson yunkaporta (2020), in aboriginal worldviews, dreaming mind is one of five different states of thinking (along with kinship-mind, story-mind, ancestor-mind, and pattern-mind). yunkaporta describes dreamingmind as a feedback loop between abstract knowledge from the nonphysical world and tangible knowledge from the physical world. abstract knowledge from the nonphysical world occurs through metaphors in “images, dance, song, language, culture, objects, rituals, gesture, and more” (p. 151). according to yunkaporta, the feedback loops between the worlds must be completed with practical action” (p. 151). yunkaporta further describes how the aboriginal australian flag depicts dreaming (yellow) at the center of their flag, between the symbols for people (black) and land (red) (yunkaporta, 2020, p. 66). for aboriginal cultures as yunkaporta describes, there is an interaction between the dreaming-mind and the more tangible (rational, intellectual, linear) knowledge. community dreamwork is one method of bridging these two worlds of the abstract and tangible through engaging in a thinking-feeling dialogue about the dreams (and beyond them). another example of indigenous relationship with dreams is told by ursula le guin, whose science fiction novella, the word for world is forest, was inspired by the senoi tribe living in the highlands of malaysia. as le guin (1976) describes: the senoi dream is meaningful, active, and creative. adults deliberately go into their dreams to solve problems of interpersonal and intercultural conflict. they come out of their dreams with a new song, toll, dance, idea. the waking and the dreaming states are equally valid, each acting upon the other in complementary volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 96 fashion...they have built a system of inter-personal relations which, in the field of psychology, is perhaps on a level with our attainments in such areas as television and nuclear physics. it appears that the senoi have not had a war, or a murder, for several hundred years. there they are, twelve thousand of them, farming, hunting, fishing, and dreaming, in the rain forests of the mountains of malaysia... many ancestral and indigenous practices value dreaming as a way of knowing. in contrast, euro-western modernity overvalues rational, intellectual, and linear thought, and values thinking over feeling, intuition, and other ways of knowing. within modernity dreams are often reduced to a phenomenon that occurs during sleep and not taken seriously. dreaming, in all its variations, known and unknown, is not a senseless sentiment, as it might be perceived to be in colonial thinking which dismisses the nonrational and nonlinear ways of thinking, being, and knowing.ng. as such, dreaming and even more so, dreamwork in community, has boundless potential and power for healing and transformation as a decolonial praxis through reclaiming this ancestral way of knowing and disrupting modernity’s overvaluing of rationality. dreamwork is a transrational way of knowing, and is a decolonial praxis in centering an indigenous way of knowing that is embodied, emotional, and in relationship with the land and nonvisible worlds. attending to our dreams allows us to reach beyond the rational to access different forms of intelligence not accessible by rational, linear thinking. dreams are a form of knowledge and understanding, and dreamwork is a process of meaning-making from the images, scenarios, and feelings that arise in dream states. even if one does not remember their own dream, it is possible to access this way of knowing through being present to others’ dreams and making meaning together, collectively. 3. out-breath: re-membering our nature through the breath by the end of our first full day, my (minna) head felt heavy and oversaturated. the day’s panel, group experience, and plethora of workshops were decadent. i recall wondering aloud to another iipe participant how i would make it through this entire week at this rate. my body was inflamed by the fullness of the day and yearned for time to digest all that i had consumed. in other words, i wished for a full and long outbreath after taking in a long stretch of nutrient-dense inbreath. the dream table was sparked organically during the outbreath, the less structured time in our schedule. while we were bound to the hours of meals being served, there was much more space to exercise our autonomy and imagination for what emerged within this container. as we filled our bellies with nourishing food, we were simultaneously reflecting, synthesizing, integrating, and daydreaming volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 97 about all that was teeming with possibilities seeded during the in-breath moments. the dreamstate is a peculiar place, one that is initiated during out-breath, yet similar mechanics of in-breath are present. during inhalation, the diaphragm contracts to create space in our chest activity, allowing for air to enter the body for gas exchange of oxygen into the bloodstream while carbon dioxide is carried to our lungs (national heart, blood, and lung institute, 2022). similarly, during exhalation, the diaphragm relaxes, deflating our lungs to push the waste product of oxygen being converted into energy, carbon dioxide, out. we could not survive without the full cycle of the breath (national heart, blood, and lung institute, 2022). no matter how pure and nutrient-rich the oxygen is and no matter how immaculate an inhalation is, an exhalation of equal quality, if not better, is necessary for wellness and sustainability. there is growing research (gerritsen & band, 2018; couck, et al 2019) that indicates the extended exhalation reduces stress and increases executive functioning skills. even during exhalation, there is dynamism albeit in reverse in some ways a beautiful balance of opposites. the breath is also the thread that connects us with the world beyond our own physical body. the reciprocity of oxygen and carbon dioxide is critical to sustaining life on this planet. thus, the ways in which we balance or lack balance between in-breaths and out-breaths can reveal how we regard and interact with the living organisms around us. we are inextricably linked to one another and the breath is the most simple yet profound evidence of it. however, historically and presently, the colonial conditioning of eurowestern modernity separates us from this awareness and disconnects us from our natural inclination to balance the metaphorical in-breath and out-breath of daily living. so, how can we look to our breath as a decolonial praxis for more dreaming, more out-breath, and ultimately co-liberation? 4. in-breath: intercultural peace learning and sentipensante pedagogy interculturality according to catherine walsh (2018), the conceptualization of interculturality draws its roots from the late 1980s and early 1990s from the indigenous regional council of cauca, colombia (cric) and the confederation of indigenous nationalities of ecuador (conaie), and their response to the neoliberalization of latin america. walsh describes interculturality as signifying “more than an interrelation or dialogue among cultures…it points towards the building of radically different societies, of an ‘other’ social ordering, and of structural economic, social, political, and cultural transformations” (2018, p. 57). it is important to note the distinction between interculturality and multiculturality. interculturality is not the same as multiculturalism, which walsh notes is part of volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 98 the project and logic of neoliberalism used to “pacify resistance, fragment movements, and bring the excluded into global capitalism’s all-consuming framework and structure” (2018, p. 57). accordingly, interculturality is “a permanent and active process of negotiation and interrelation in which difference does not disappear” (p. 59). thus interculturality goes beyond the multicultural tendency to include (and consume) cultures within the western hegemonic capitalist project, and includes a critical analysis and active disruption of modern colonial power structures and violence. 5. peace learning the concept of peace learning is at the heart of peace education praxis and iipe pedagogy. according to the iipe mexico theme description (international institute on peace education, 2022), peacelearning “is pedagogically grounded in the core values of human dignity, diversity, solidarity, and cooperation” and “is directed toward both inward and outward change.” furthermore, peacelearning “is pursued through an inquiry praxis that connects cognitive concepts to the learner’s experience of the world.” however, peacelearning is not solely a cognitive process, and as stated in the program description, our task as iipe mexico participants was to "inquire together into transformative practices for fostering constructive interconnectedness and interdependence that engage the balance of thinkingfeeling, cognitive-emotional, ‘sentipensar’ processes” (international institute on peace education, 2022). 5.1 sentipensante pedagogy since iipe specifically references sentipensar processes and pedagogy, it is important to clarify this term, which is also essential to our exploration of community dreamwork. laura rendon (2009), author of sentipensante pedagogy, describes sentipensante pedagogy in the following way: the world sentipensante comes from a combination of two spanish words: sentir, which means to sense or feel, and pensar, to think. [eduardo] galeano is taking the stance that rationality and intuition can exist in dynamic and complementary opposition. our early ancestors all over the world recognized this epistemological position, but as consciousness evolved, western philosophers assumed that intellectual training and rationality alone were key for understanding (p. 131). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 99 for rendon (2009), sentipensante pedagogy represents a teaching and learning approach based on wholeness, harmony, social justice, and liberation. accordingly, the three goals of sentipensante pedagogy are: 1. to disrupt and transform the entrenched belief system that disrupts wholeness, which privileges and perpetuates separation, monodiscipliarity, competition, intellectualism, and passivity at the expense of collaboration, transdisciplinarity, intuition, and active learning 2. cultivate well-rounded individuals who possess knowledge and wisdom 3. to instill in learners a commitment to sustain life, maintain the rights of all people, and preserve nature and the harmony of the world (rendon, 2009, p. 135-136). sentipensante pedagogy is an invitation to move beyond the rational by including and embracing ways of knowing that are grounded in embodiment and emotionality, while disrupting violent belief systems that produce domination and separation. importantly, a sentipensar approach does not dismiss rational and intellectual thought, or seek to remove it or disregard it, but rather to include sensing and feeling in the process of knowledge creation, learning, and unlearning. epistemic violence refers to the phenomenon of centering one knowledge system in a hegemonic relationship to others, and the devaluing, demonization, and attempted erasure of all other knowledge systems. within modernity/coloniality, this looks like the centering and overvaluing of eurocentric western knowledge, and the devaluing and delegitimization of other systems of knowing. a sentipenstante pedagogy as described above is a way of disrupting epistemic violence, and furthermore promoting epistemic justice, which includes linguistic justice and the decentering of english language in intercultural settings. 6. outbreath: murmurings epistemic and linguistic justice: inspired by starlings iipe mexico was conducted in both spanish and english. usually, when i (minna) have been a part of multilingual spaces, english is defaulted to with truncated or rushed side-interpretations and sporadic translated documents. this is the first time i have attended a community gathering where both languages were used consistently and interchangeably throughout the entire program that it nearly felt as though the english language was actively being decentered for refreshingly comforting/discomforting lengths of time. in addition to translation devices being readily available during group sessions, individuals who had varying degrees of bilingual ability could be found translating throughout the week. at times volunteers were asked for and at other volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 100 times, individuals would swoop in to translate in a low-whisper to the person(s) next to them. once it was clear that translation was needed, the configuration of the group would shift to accommodate certain people needing to be closer to each other and the waves of murmurs in either english or spanish would carry in the backdrop of the language being spoken to the group. often there are invisible moments of tension in which we know some are being excluded yet remain unattended to. however, at iipe mexico, we always chose to visibilize the friction of being in a bilingual space to the best of our abilities; it was as if there was an unspoken collective commitment to ensure inclusivity that naturally translated into the murmurations of our group in physical formations and spoken languages. this is very much aligned with walsh’s (2018) description of interculturality as described above, in which differences are actively engaged with rather than flattened or erased. in emergent strategy: shaping change, changing worlds, adrienne maree brown (2017) writes: my dream is a movement with such deep trust that we move as a murmuration, the way groups of starlings billow, dive, spin, dance collectively through the air – to avoid predators, and, it also seems, to pass time in the most beautiful way possible…each creature is turned in to its neighbors, the creatures right around it in the formation…each creature is shifting direction, speed, and proximity based on the information of the other creatures’ bodies. there is deep trust to this: to lift because the birds around you are lifting, to live based on your collective real-time adaptations. in this way thousands of birds or fish or bees can move together, each empowered with basic rules and a vision to live. imagine our movements cultivating this type of trust and depth with each other, having strategic flocking in our playbooks (p. 71). during iipe mexico, we practiced linguistic justice in the form of a murmuration. in recalling this detail that may seem trivial or obvious as this was publicized as a bilingual gathering, i am filled with awe and hope at the way we organically became a shape-shifting flock, whether it was for the sake of survival or to simply enjoy one another. in so many ways, the gift of being in a murmuration is needing to be present and to slow down. if we are to notice when translation is needed, we must be present to the moment as the person recognizing they require it or as the person checking in on another about needing linguistic support. if we are to translate, we must slow down the speaker, the translator, and the listeners. in being present and slowing down we are bestowed with the gifts of practicing community care through volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 101 exercising our patience and empathy. in both the in-breaths and out-breaths where translation was happening, our shared moments were made more conscious and intentional. thus, we were better able to attune to one another, allowing for more fluidity and easefulness of shape-shifting to naturally occur. the murmurs of translations continue to invite in the practice of forming a murmuration in the monthly iipe mexico zoom gatherings. in this regard, it is a real joy and honor to witness the dreaming and reimagining of peace learning, linguistic justice, and movement building as an on-going praxis we get to shape and shift together. 7. summary bringing these themes together, an intercultural peacelearning sentipensante pedagogy: • seeks radical transformation at all levels (inner, interpersonal, social, political, etc.) • is an active process of interrelation in which differences do not disappear • actively disrupts colonial ways of thinking,being, and relating • is embodied, emotional, and moves beyond the intellectual/rational the field of peace education has contributed the idea of peace learning, which to a large extent is aligned with interculturality and sentipensante pedagogy and its goals and approaches. however, in the next section we argue that the overreliance on freirean critical dialogic pedagogy results in overemphasizing the intellectual and rational and does not always leave room for other ways of knowing such as the intuitive and embodied. we argue that community dreamwork is one way of integrating transrational sentipensante ways of knowing. 7.1 in-breath: reaching beyond freire brazilian educator paulo freire’s (1970) work on critical pedagogy and liberatory education has been deeply influential on the peace education field. freirean notions of horizontal student-teacher relationships, education that is grounded in local context and that values the knowledge of everyone in the process, and education as a liberatory process are all core tenets of the peace education field. if we want to transform society, we must transform the way we learn and how we see the purpose of education, and freire’s work has been revolutionary in this regard. freirean pedagogy is cited as informing the pedagogy of iipe which is described as “an adaptive form of critical participatory peace pedagogy” (international institute on peace education, 2023). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 102 however, freirean pedagogy also has limitations, which have been identified by many indigenous, feminist, decolonial, and peace education scholars (grande, 2008; alexander, 2006; walsh, 2018; bajaj & hantzopoulos, 2021; zembylas, 2018; cremin, echavarria, & kester, 2018). some of these limitations include anthropocentrism (grande, 2008), privileging reason and dialogue over other ways of knowing (zembylas, 2018; cremin, echavarria, & kester, 2018), and overemphasis on class and lack of attention to other forms of oppression such as racism and sexism (zembylas, 2018). in acknowledging these limitations, catherine walsh (2018) suggests seeing freire as an elder and pedagogical guide rather than an authoritative source. rather than rejecting freire because of these limitations, she and others (including sandy grande and m. jacqui alexander) invite us to think beyond and with him. relatedly, cremin, echevarria, & kester (2018) call for the need to promote transrational approaches to peacebuilding education to reduce epistemic violence, and promote epistemic justice through disrupting eurocentrism that is often found within the peacebuilding education field. they argue that among the crises facing peacebuilding education today is the “dominant reliance on rational forms of learning often inconsistent with the transformative and inclusive purposes of peace education” (cremin, echavarria, & kester, 2018, p. 295). we posit that community dreamwork is one such method of transrational peace pedagogy that can be employed to disrupt eurocentrism and overreliance on rational ways of learning, to foster epistemic justice, transrational learning, and intercultural sentipenstante pedagogy. it is important to note that iipe (2023) describes its critical participatory peace pedagogy as being “adaptive,” and this creates space for such transrational approaches to emerge, and they did in fact emerge in the space available at the breakfast table and beyond. in order for iipe to move further towards transrational intercultural sentipensante peacelearning, it requires us to reach beyond in the sense that sandy grande, catherine walsh, jaqui alexander and others have proposed freire and hyperrational dialogic ways of co-constructing knowledge and meaning, and towards other ways of knowing that include (and emphasize) the embodied, sentipensar, intuitive, nonlinear, circular, emotive. we propose dreamwork of one such methodology and approach to access intercultural peacelearning grounded in sentipensar. 7.2 outbreath: rest and play as peace learning as we continue to intellectualize and dialogue about peace learning principles, it is important to consider how these principles might manifest (or not) in the structures we put in place for peace learning. our thinking and feeling have been colonized and conditioned to disregard the out-breath as an essential element, volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 103 and to overemphasize activity, productivity, and doing over being. in thinking about intercultural peace learning and sentipensante pedagogy, we are called to consider the structures and forms that we are creating for this kind of learning. when we design a schedule to be completely filled, where is the time for emergence, rest, and play? when we have formal sessions from morning until night, what does this communicate about our perceptions about the relationship between informal spaces and peace learning? while the iipe mexico description of the program highlighted themes of inward and outward change, inquiry, imagining, and reweaving, there was some rigidity and resistance to change the format and structures that have been used over time. resistance to change is part of being human, and while it can serve as a protection to threat, it can also create unnecessary stress as we speak with unwavering conviction for positive change yet so many of us often falter when we must reckon with the reality of what we must give up and give into. many times, we lack the awareness of this conundrum, an indication of how deeply ingrained colonial conditioning is. as tricia hersey (2022) writes in rest is resistance: a manifesto: we are socialized into systems that cause us to conform and believe our worth is connected to how much we can produce. our constant labor becomes a prison that allows us to be disembodied. we become easy for the systems to manipulate, disconnected from our power as divine beings and hopeless. we forget how to dream. this is how grind culture continues. we internalize the lies and in turn become agents of an unsustainable way of living (p. 99-100). hersey’s ministry on rest as a form of resistance to white supremacy, capitalism, and the resulting grind culture is aligned with sentipensar. when we have the space to engage in receiving information with other parts of our being beyond braincognition, we honor the wholeness of our intelligence. stephen harrod buhner (2004) presents readers with scientific research that disrupts the idea that the brain is the center of intelligence: analysis of information flow into the human body has been perceived by the heart. what this means is that our experience of the world is routed first through our heart, which “thinks” about the experience and then sends the data to the brain for further processing. when the heart receives information back from the brain about how to respond, the heart analyzes it and decides whether or volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 104 not the actions the brain wants to take will be effective. the heart routinely engages in a neural dialogue with the brain and, in essence, the two decide together what actions to take (p. 83-84). colonization has disembodied us from our intuition and feeling so much so that we overload our schedules with rigid structures, compulsive rationalizations, and performative acts of producing that we have forgotten how to simply be and to allow for emergence. the antidote to this is rest, not “to recharge and rejuvenate so we can be prepared to give more output to capitalism” but because we “were born to heal, to grow, to be of service to [ourselves] and community, to practice, to experiment, to create, to have space, to dream, and to connect” (hersey, 2022, p. 122). the dream table was an antidote to the toxic pervasiveness of colonial capitalism, and was a space to dream and connect. after each person shared about their dream, we asked each other, “what was the feeling? what did you sense?” at the dream table, sentipensar was centered. for a brief moment, we could suspend our colonial conditioning and rest in our dreams, not rush to find a rational or linear “sense” to them, relish in one another’s wildly bizarre universes, and reconnect with the ancestral practice of harvesting collective wisdom gifted to us through our dreams. like the ajummas. like the senoi people. like the aboriginal australians. 7.3 dreamwork as weaving community the dream table also became a site of profound and deep community building. part of the purpose of iipe is to build a learning community for the week, and the threads of peacelearning that we wove at the dream table were strong. at this table, we shared deep emotions that arose in the dreams, about how these were connected to things taking place in our lives, and really got to know each other in meaningful ways through this process. we also laughed a lot! the laughter and joy of the dream table was a beautiful way to begin our days and reverberated long past breakfast. the relationships themselves have continued, and several of us continue to share about our dreams over text and conversations. 7.4 dreamwork as a space in-between the dream table became a site of learning in the cracks, an in-between space of literally weaving together our sleeping and waking experiences, between sleep and our formal learning sessions, while simultaneously weaving relationships with each other. it was a space of dancing between our dreams and “reality,” as we shared with one another what had taken place in our dream consciousness. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 105 one of the themes that our experience with the dream table illustrates is the question of where learning happens, and our assumptions about this. the iipe learning community format is such that each participant is both a learner and a facilitator, and every person who comes offers something to the learning community. this is very much aligned with peace education and freirean pedagogy to value the knowledge that each person brings. as such that the schedule is very full, and there is very little free time for spontaneity to emerge. the dream table took place at breakfast, one of our only pockets of unstructured time. it emerged organically and spontaneously from participant experience and interest. just as much un/learning was inspired during unstructured time. to be clear, we are not arguing against structured time. however, we are articulating the need for outbreaths, for unstructured pockets where the mind can wander, where processing and digesting can happen, where relationships can deepen over coffee or a walk through the neighborhood. when everything is in-breath, we become oversaturated, and don’t have the mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual bandwidth to integrate. we need integration, digestion, processing time. there was much to be appreciated, as every participant was gifted with the opportunity to share their insights and wisdom through plenaries and workshops. throughout the week, several participants named that they were tired or saturated from all of the amazing offerings. the sparks of inspiration and magnetic draw to dreamweave with one another was undeniable! what reimaginings would take root and emerge if a balance of structured and unstructured time was scheduled into the week? how can we honor the necessity of both in-breaths and out-breaths for a healthy thriving ecosystem? 8. (in)conclusions: the pause between in-breath and out-breath the complete cycle of a breath actually includes the space between the inbreath and out-breath, known as the inspiratory pause, or kumbhaka (breath retention) in sanskrit (yartsev, 2021). intentional inspiratory pause or practicing kumbhaka in breathwork has been shown to result in many benefits “on the neurocognitive, psychophysiological, respiratory, biochemical and metabolic functions” (saoji, raghavendra, & manjunath, 2019, p. 50). some examples include reduction in stress and increase in mental clarity (saoji, raghavendra, & manjunath, 2019). when bringing awareness to this liminal space, it can be characterized as a fertile void. the pause offers us the opportunity to decide how we will take the next in-breath or out-breath; this intentional act is ripe with possibilities. as such, the invitation is for each of us to be intentional about the next breath we take and to notice the pause between, informed by preceding in-breaths and out-breaths. so, how do you wish to breathe? volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 106 as we write this article, we are in the fertile pause between iipes, which take place every two years. we invite you, dear reader, to join us in this pause, with questions: how do we move forward in the spirit of transrational intercultural sentipensante pedaogy? how do we carry forward the wisdom of the past while making space for what needs to be birthed? how do we honor legacy and lineage, while also reaching beyond it towards what the times ask of us? references alexander, m. j. (2006). pedagogies of crossing: meditations on feminism, sexual politics, memory and the sacred. durham, nc: duke university press. bajaj, m., & hantzopoulos, m. (2021). educating for peace and human rights: an introduction. bloomsbury. brown, a. m. (2017a). emergent strategy: shaping change, changing worlds. chico, ca: ak press. buhner, s.h. (2004). the secret teachings of plants: the intelligence of the heart in the direct perception of nature. bear & company. cremin, h., echavarria, j., & kester, k. (2018). transrational peacebuilding education to reduce epistemic violence. peace review: a journal of social justice 30(3), p. 295-302. de couck, m., caers, r., musch, l., fliegauf, j., giangreco, a., & gidron, y., (2019). how breathing can help you make better decisions: two studies on the effects of breathing patterns on heart rate variability and decisionmaking in business cases. international journal of psychophysiology 139(may 2019), p. 1-9. freire, p. (1970). pedagogy of the oppressed. new york, ny: contiuum. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 107 gerritsen, r. j. s., & band, g. p. h. (2018). breath of life: the respiratory vagal stimulation model of contemplative activity. frontiers in human neuroscience, 12(397), p. 1-25. grande, s. (2008). red pedagogy: the un-methodology. in denzin, n. k., lincoln, y. s., & smith, l. t. (eds.), handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. (p. 233-254). hersey, t. (2022). rest is resistance: a manifesto. little, brown spark. international institute on peace education. (2022). iipe mexico theme. https://www.i-i-p-e.org/iipe_mexico/theme/ international institute on peace education. (2023). iipe pedagogy. https://www.ii-p-e.org/about/pedagogy/ le guin, u. (1976). the word for world is forest. berkeley, ca: berkeley books. lipsky, j. (2008). theater of dreams: an overview. in dreaming together: explore your dreams by acting them out (pp. 11-30). burdett, ny: larson publications. morgan, h. (2010). the social dreaming matrix. in m. stein (ed.), jungian psychoanalysis, working in the spirit of c. g. jung (pp. 352-357). chicago, il: carus publications. national heart, blood, and lung institute. (2022). what breathing does for the body. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/lungs/breathing-benefits rendon, l. i. (2009). sentipensante (sensing/thinking) pedagogy: educating for wholeness, social justice, and liberation. sterling, va: stylus publishing. saoji, a. a., raghavendra, b. r., & manjunath, n. k. (2019). the effects of yogic breath regulation: a narrative review of scientific evidence. journal of ayurveda and integrative medicine 10(2019), p. 50-58. taylor, j. (2009). working with dreams in groups. in the wisdom of your dreams: using dreams to tap into your unconscious and transform your life (pp. 115151). new york, ny: tarcherpenguin. walsh, c. (2018). the decolonial for. in mignolo, w. & walsh, c., on decoloniality: concepts, analytics, praxis. durham, nc: duke university press. watkins, m. (2017). community dreamwork [handout]. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 92-108 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 108 yartsev, a. (2021). inspiratory pause: i:e ratio and inspiratory rise time. deranged physiology [web site]. https://derangedphysiology.com/main/cicmprimary-exam/required-reading/respiratorysystem/chapter%20539/inspiratory-pause-ie-ratio-and-inspiratory-risetime yunkaporta, t. (2020). sand talk: how indigenous thinking can save the world. new york, ny: harperone. zembylas, m. (2018). con-/divergences between postcolonial and critical peace education: toward pedagogies of decolonization in peace education. journal of peace education, 15(1), p. 1-23. microsoft word in factis pax perceptual limitation.doc  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 58 volume 1 number 2 (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ exploring our perceptual limitation1 lyudmila bryzzheva school of education adelphi university, ny personal perceptual checkup in my classroom, i see a black child. i hear her soft voice: “mwalimu unaniona? mwalimu unajua mimi nani? mwalimu nakupenda.”2 i see her mother wearing her kitenge and kitambaa gliding gracefully toward me. i do not know where to start – their oddity is palpable. this child and her family could very well be from mars. and i continue to wonder: if i were to reprimand her, would she cry? if i were to praise her, would she smile? does she have any friends? does she even need them? is she afraid of the same things that i fear? what if not? can i still care about this child whom i do not even understand? this child’s expression of humanity is so hard to comprehend that she becomes invisible, hidden behind her oddity as if behind a mask. but then i think maybe i  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 59 do not have to understand or even see her. i can just teach her… and it is from me, an educator who chose to “just teach,” that this child may also learn not to see. perceptual limitation is contagious. to this child and her teachers i devote this work on perceptual limitation. this work is prompted by a growing belief that perceptual limitation may negatively affect our peaceful relationships with people. peaceful relationships are the ones that celebrate human dignity and life and, since i hold human dignity to be one of the most valuable human3 possessions, i also believe that a condition that jeopardizes human dignity (both one’s own and that of another) ought to be treated or addressed in other ways which will be revealed in subsequent sections of this paper. today i write from a perspective of a recovering shortsighted4 woman. there are many reasons for my emerging ability to see more clearly. i owe the beginning of this recovery process to elaine scarry5 and her call for an ounce of honesty still preserved in my consciousness. my honesty was called upon to admit my shortsightedness, which in many ways undermined the human dignity of the people whom i overlooked. how was this awakening possible? who offered a much needed cure? what was this cure? is it available to all? is there only one such cure? i will attempt to illuminate the answers to the above questions as i discuss our “difficulty of imagining other people,” its consequences, and the kinds of dispositions that could lead to accepting the available cure(s). in addition, i will also share ways in which i address perceptual limitations in a classroom where i meet with odd and incomprehensible immigrants and those who teach them.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 60 it is arguably every person’s basic need to be confirmed by others in his or her uniqueness and to confirm them in return6. today we hear and participate in, what seems to be, omnipresent discourse on diversity; we vigorously discuss its central theme of respect that should be accorded to each unique individual. but are we all sufficiently awake to actively participate in this discourse and incarnate its themes in our teaching and learning? as i began familiarizing myself with this discourse, i was in awe of its message and the effect of this message on my spirit and, as a result, inspired to recognize and respect diversity. diversity was novel, fun, and passionate – my world became enchantingly kaleidoscopic. when i found out that diversity means all the cultural, linguistic, religious, gender, sexuality, and ability expressions that are somewhat similar but also vastly different from mine, i was somewhat worried. soon enough i discovered the meaning of difference that made me uncomfortable. it was much easier to accept the oddity of those students and colleagues who were still sufficiently like me. macedo and bartolomé confirm this sentiment by stating that: the practice of learning from and valuing student language and life experiences often occurs in classrooms where students speak a language and possess cultural capital that more closely matches that of the mainstream7. but then how could i talk to the others who were too hard to comprehend? but most importantly, why would i want to talk to them? our universal declaration of human rights and many a scholar in a variety of fields (especially, peace education, philosophy/political theory8, bilingual education, multicultural education, special education, women studies, queer studies, to name a few)  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 61 evoke the notion of human dignity as the underlying reason for offering respect to a different other. unfortunately, the notion of human dignity seemed too abstract for me to do anything about honoring it. but, perhaps, this response was to be expected from someone who held her human dignity in question for too long. allow me a brief autobiographical flashback which is employed here to offer explanation for my ambivalence toward the notion of human dignity. i grew up in the former soviet union where people were trained9 to see the world through the lenses of similarity. a russian author, yevgenii grishkovets, demonstrates how easily an eye trained to recognize and project similarity can predict people with their inner and outer landscapes to a minute detail: sometimes traveling along the main street of such a city you catch a glimpse of someone’s window on the second floor and see that it’s a kitchen. and the shades are a certain color… and the wallpaper… and the orange lampshade made out of plastic, and a back of some guy will whisk by the window wearing a tank-top… probably blue. and all becomes clear… what people talk about there, what’s in their refrigerator, what’s on the table… and what kind of dishes they have in the cupboard, and what kind of sofa, and what sort of carpet and a metal etching they have on the wall…10 attuned to expecting and seeing similarity, my fellow-countrymen superimposed their expectations of what it would mean to be a normal human being on those who were different and odd. we shied away from difference, branding it dangerous, perhaps, because it made us wonder about our own normality. in this environment, i was rarely  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 62 confirmed in my uniqueness but more often overlooked as a being of whom there is only one and, as a result, i overlooked others in service of similarity. this mistake came from misconstruing the idea of equality to emphasize sameness. this misconstruction resulted in the following pattern of perception of others: in this crude diagram of human relationship, the dark centers stand for that part of our identity, which each one of us holds sacred11: the unrepeatable combination/synergy of values and voices. when one person superimposes his or her core onto another’s, in an attempt to project similarity, the circles should actually overlap completely, because a person’s unique core informs his or her periphery (the ways people see him or her perform in real life). thus in this overly generous, or perhaps not generous at all, pattern of perception, one person overshadows another, each person’s human dignity severely endangered or even sacrificed. unfortunately, many of us are quite skilled at this kind of projection of our own thoughts, emotions, and attributes onto others. how often had i myself walked into my classroom having looked through the roster and found a few russian names and having assumed to know these people, what moved them, what left them cold, and how they would interpret me and their classmates? and how often had i been unpleasantly surprised at the fact that these students failed my expectations, openly or subtly rejecting my projection. i am glad that some of them did not allow me to cause them harm: the harm would have been caused if they allowed me to define them,  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 63 completely. thanks to their colorful and loud difference, i continued to explore the notion of human dignity without completely depriving them or myself of it. the problem was i was overly sensitive to the emphasis on similarity that the notion of human dignity of all seemed to imply. as a result after i moved to the united states i worked more effectively to be recognized as different. as i set out to explore the role of difference in constructing our common human dignity, i found that the notion of difference, too, may lead to a dead end if it is not addressed thoughtfully. today, when i ask my teacher candidates about the ways they engage in multicultural education in their classrooms, i inevitably hear a list of activities all geared toward exotisizing differences12. many of us may enjoy being considered exotic, in one way or the other. being perceived in this way accentuates a person’s uniqueness, but if this is the only perception a student receives from her teachers and peers, it is time to become seriously concerned. elaine scarry13 discusses in abundant detail the fact that it is generally difficult for human beings to stand clearly in the eyes of others, no matter how similar the observer and the one being observed are. the problem of perception is only exacerbated by differences. it is often difficult to imagine that a person vastly different from me can experience joy and sadness in the ways similar to how i experience these emotions. in extreme cases it may become difficult to imagine that this person even belongs to the human race. as a consequence, it is much easier for me to hurt this person without recognizing the extent of the effect of my words and acts, but often even without recognizing that harm was caused at all. scarry accounts for this experience in the following way:  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 64 the difficulty of imagining others is shown by the fact that one can be in the presence of another person who is in pain and not know that the person is in pain. the ease of remaining ignorant of another person’s pain even permits one to inflict it and amplify it in the body of the other person while remaining immune oneself.14 the pain from not being recognized as unique is familiar to me: for many years it has been inflicted and amplified in my heart and my body. this pain was inflicted by the same people who, too, were overlooked, whose human dignity, too, was under question. as a result of this personal understanding, i begin to realize that human dignity can only be respected by those who were themselves confirmed as humans with dignity. this realization underlies the imperative nature of my need to deal seriously with my perceptual limitation, a condition which did not necessarily go away by virtue of this profound realization. today i understand that the notion of human dignity, which seemed too abstract to heed, is necessarily dialogic in nature, comprising both recognition of similarity and difference. on the one hand, our universal human experiences, needs, and aspirations define and legitimate human dignity – universality should not be overlooked, yet my experience of human dignity should not stop there. on the other hand, cultural differences, and our individual uniqueness are the sources of our individual identities and they, too, define and legitimate the notion of human dignity15. recognizing the dialogue between the two orientations is what i try to hear and see when i listen to and look at a different other, who no longer stands in front of me as flat as a cardboard cutout.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 65 perhaps, in order to offer respect to different others, in order to confirm them by seeing and hearing their authentic selves, i need to experience my own human dignity first and then learn to project the generosity with which i looked at my own humanity onto others, no matter how odd and nearly incomprehensible their human ways and their human attributes are. elaine scarry suggests just such an intervention into the established patterns of thinking: when we seek equality through generous imaginings, we start with our own weight, then attempt to acquire knowledge about the weight and complexity of others. the alternative strategy is to achieve equality between self and other not by trying to make one’s knowledge of others as weighty as one’s own selfknowledge, but by making one ignorant about oneself, and therefore as weightless as all others16. today i know the gentleness of my hands, the heaviness of my feet firmly planted on the ground, the sometimes subdued, sometimes racing beat of my heart, i attend to a thought. i sit in a chair, i reflect, i account every aspiration, every disappointment, every loving wonder and every death wish – i sort them, sift them, and i marvel. i breathe in, i breathe out… and i become heavier with every physical, spiritual and mental stirring i attend to. what a thrill! no more dieting, i say to myself, the more weight i gain, the richer i grow, and the richer and the heavier i allow others to be. thus, my newfound understanding of the notion of human dignity and the resulting weight that i gained in my own eyes serves to enliven the flat cardboard figures, which would then transform into weighty and threedimensional human beings in my class and outside of it.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 66 feeling blessed by my recovery, i bring a beautiful poem by pablo neruda to my saturday class in foundations of bilingual and multicultural education. fifteen students are looking at me and i – at them, calculating who would be a good candidate to read the spanish version of this poem. in my mind i single out lourdes, an obviously hispanic woman. i ask for volunteers; dean, a white student of european descent, raises his hand, and so does lourdes. i look pleadingly at dean, “let her read it, i can’t imagine that you can do it, too,” i think to myself. and so dean gives up his chance to show the class and his instructor that his spanish is, in fact, near-native. dean recedes to the background because of the poverty of my imagination. i fail the test of unconditional hospitality by attempting to maintain my neat picture of the world. of unconditional hospitality i will say a few words as a way of refining the earlier lamentation on the poverty of my imagination. jacques derrida, famous, for his treatment of the notion of hospitality qualifies unconditional hospitality as a “welcome without reserve and without calculation, an exposure without limit to whoever arrives.”17 as dean’s incongruent-with-myexpectation multidimensionality arrived and knocked on my door, the door remained closed but not due to the poverty of imagination. i imagined him plenty: since he looked like me, i imagined him to be like me, an incompetent in the spanish language. i imaged him forth, instead of letting him freely enter into my imagination. perhaps, to practice unconditional hospitality i needed unconditional imagination. but derrida comes to the rescue: practical hospitality, he suggests, transforms the unconditional nature of pure hospitality because one needs to protect her home from unlimited arrival of the other18.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 67 and this statement points to the possibility that while often unconscious, perceptual limitation may also be consciously employed toward protecting one’s home/identity and, may, therefore, be a choice. in the next section i will address perceptual limitation as a choice. varieties of afflicted individuals linda lantieri and janet patti19 have written about various training activities to alleviate perceptual limitation. many teachers will find their work quite illuminating and useful. yet, it has been my experience that this training usually reaches only those who are already half way there, those who already have pre-requisite compassion which is a disposition that i build on when helping my teacher candidates overcome their perceptual disability. but there is also a person out there and even here, a person with 20/20 eyesight who voluntarily and stubbornly chooses to be shortsighted or even blind. perceptual limitation, indeed, serves some individuals very well. the more powerful one is, the more invested he or she will be in maintaining this self-inflicted condition. then, what could be done with the folks who wish to enjoy their perceptual limitation at the expense of many adults and children who desire recognition? if such is the case, then the ones who are not seen may want to step up. in fact, paulo freire20 suggested a while ago that this may be the only way a major change could happen (it is unlikely to happen at the decision of the afflicted in power). ian baptiste21 extended freire’s message and openly suggested coercive restraint as a means of dealing with those who choose to frivolously embrace their perceptual limitation and whose choice renders them “beyond dialogue.”  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 68 to justify his call for coercive restraint baptiste22 introduces useful vocabulary as he makes a distinction between “misguided foes” who often “injure others unintentionally” and “true enemies” whose “injurious acts are based on sufficient and principled conviction,” and these acts are intentional. true enemies are the individuals whom i term “beyond dialogue.” but then again by believing them beyond dialogue i fail to offer them a chance to surprise me, thus denying myself a chance to locate, even inadvertently, a point of entry into dialogue. sometimes it may be useful to attend to william james’ words: we have no right to speak of human crocodiles and boa-constrictors as of fixedly incurable beings. we know not the complexities of personality, the smoldering emotional fires, the other facets of the character polyhedron, the resources of the subliminal region23. he may be right, sometimes. baptiste also points to possibilities of transformation reminding us that each individual may act on a continuum: depending on the situation one can be my ally, misguided foe or, at another time, a true enemy. while we should not deny the possibility of recovery, we should also attend to reality, and reality is such that the cure for perceptual limitation needs to be altered according to specific diagnosis and it may sometimes be ineffective despite our hopes and efforts. let us review a few possible scenarios. when dealing with misguided foes, we are actually working with people who wish to be cured, they simply may not yet be aware of their affliction or of the cure. those who want to be cured can find this cure fairly easily (although, once the cure is  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 69 found, the process of self-healing is a long and challenging one). in previous section elaine scarry suggested one cure and i described my experiments with it. in addition to scarry’s suggestion, paulo freire24 spoke extensively on the value of consientization as a powerful cure. maxine greene25 advocated wide-awakeness. but, i repeat my question, what could be done with the persons who wish to enjoy their perceptual limitation at the expense of many adults and children who desire a peaceful present and a future? peace educators are faced with a number of challenging tasks. the first task is to figure out in what capacity they themselves are performing in any given situation (an ally, a misguided foe, a true enemy). the second task is to determine who they are currently working with. the third task is to catch themselves and their students during the moments when they change the roles, turning into allies, misguided foes, or true enemies. the fourth task is to attempt to seize that moment of breeching the role and enter into dialogue (this will work when a person breeches toward dialogue). the fifth and one of the most daunting tasks is to realize when it is time to use other strategies than those of enlightenment or consientization26. it is important to admit that perceptual limitation, indeed, serves some individuals very well. as mentioned earlier, paulo freire called upon the oppressed to show themselves to the oppressor as a way of countering his or her stubborn addiction to perceptual limitation. baptiste27 sees the obvious limit of this call in its underlying assumption that the power of positive transformation is located exclusively within the victim and that the perpetrator wishes to be cured or even could be cured. this  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 70 understanding is precisely what baptiste puts into question. he believes, as i do, that there may be times when it is quite impossible to minimize someone’s perceptual limitation. he then offers a solution in the form of an occasional need for coercion. to this end he articulated a pedagogy of coercive restraint which “exercises force that matches the level of conflict.”28 unfortunately a deeper exploration of coercive restraint would take me outside of the province of this paper. but i wanted to end my brief reflection on coercion with en ellipsis so that i may return to explore this intriguing topic further. the following are the questions i wish to address in my subsequent writings: what could be done to minimize the need for coercive restraint? and if coercion must be employed, what could be done to minimize the possibility of application of force while delivering a firm message of denunciation of the act/thought? appiah29 reminds us that besides the two responses to the “true enemy” already discussed that of changing his/her mind and keeping him/her out of our way, we could also consider keeping out of his/her way. while not the most appealing for being quite passive, this course of action may often be reasonable. today i find my own, less forceful ways of dealing with perceptual limitation: i help my teaching candidates develop dispositions and attributes that weaken their affliction and mine. i still walk an easy street, rarely finding true enemies among my teacher candidates, but even on that street there are educators who need to admit their affliction and deal with it with a sense of urgency and commitment. the recovering educators are likely to continue the ripple effect of the cure by encouraging their students to do similar work on their minds and spirits.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 71 minimizing perceptual limitation having pointed in the direction of the cure, i am inspired to offer a few concrete examples. in this section, i would like to share some of the ways to address perceptual limitation that i currently use in preparing esl and bilingual teachers. in my foundations of bilingual education class, one assignment became somewhat popular. as part of educating sensitivity and respect toward difference, my pre-service and in-service teachers and i engage in an exercise of perspective taking30. they are asked to carefully read one of the suggested immigrant memoirs or fictional life stories31 and then compose an essay in the voice of a chosen character from the book. the essays appear under the general title “the difficulty of imagining other people.”32 in the essay, the character discusses his or her life and educational goals and envisions who and how may be of help in accomplishing these goals. the essays may then be discussed in class. and as i respond to them, i choose to address the character instead of the actual graduate student who put the essay together. many of my teaching candidates see the value in this assignment, some take it to unexpected heights: …if i knew better, i would have wished for a world where my daddy was not cast off like so much black dirt. a world that did not take away from him at such a tender age the only love he ever knew… i would have wished for him a world that allowed him to love and be tender, to provide and to succeed, a world that didn’t take away his pride and masculinity, a world that did not shame and reject him… you see, if i could have wished for this world then things would have been different. my parents would have been different. maybe they would have been  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 72 happy, and most importantly, i think they could have loved me. and then what happened to me, right before i got my blue eyes, wouldn’t have happened. because you see, what happened to me that day didn’t just happen in a moment, in an instant of depraved insanity, it happened in a lifetime, two lifetimes, many, many lifetimes (pecola, the bluest eye). we can have all our judgments and wrong ideas and life can beat’em right on out of us. if we lucky. good people is good people. you a good person, celie. you just needed to git rid of your fear and live life. well, the both of us got love and the both of us got experience. ain’t that somethin’? and most of all we here. we here! (mr.____, the color purple)33 as the above excerpts make clear, some students, indeed, let the character pass through their hearts and they will never be the same. they may even remember how to see and hear others better. (un)fortunately, those who take this assignment to unexpected heights are often quite ready to embrace the other’s particularity. for those who are still struggling, other steps may be useful. below is one such step. while it is important to see and hear others properly, it is just as important to be seen and heard (those students who struggle to see and hear others may benefit from being seen and heard). the next exercise creates a space for my students’ voices, which, in this case, are to be heard by their former/current oppressor. we call this piece “letter to my oppressor.” teaching candidates are asked to compose a personal letter to their real-life oppressor who remains anonymous. the letter details various ways in which its  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 73 author was harmed, as well as ways in which he or she overcame or is attempting to overcome the aftermath of this oppression. this activity allows my teachers to stand up to the oppressor and throw off the cloak of invisibility in which they were clad until they heard themselves speak about the specific instances of oppression. as we read the letters out loud, tears come to our eyes. the catharsis that this assignment offers helps further develop our sensitivities to our own selves, parts of which were unheard until this moment. this is a crucial step toward opening our hearts to be sensitive to a different other. in the course of a semester, along with the above assignments my students and i engage in routine exercises that, too, help minimize our perceptual limitation. each session of my class begins with an open-ended “how are you (doing today)?” addressed to a specific student rather than to the whole class. i found that when i address this question to the whole class my eyes see a nameless and insignificant mass, thus overlooking unique individuals; and they, in turn, would respond with a formulaic “fine” rather than providing the answer unique to their current situation. derrida supports this attempt at particularizing classroom discourse: pure hospitality consists in welcoming whoever arrives before imposing conditions on him, before knowing and asking anything at all, be it a name or an identity ‘paper.” but it supposes also that one address him, singularly, that he be called therefore, and that he be understood to have a proper name: ‘you, what’s your name?’ hospitality consists in doing everything to address the other, to  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 74 accord him, even to ask him his name, while keeping this question from becoming a ‘condition,’ a police inquisition, a blacklist or a simple border control.34 i usually begin with one student and than ask him or her to address the same question to someone else in class. this way we become genuinely acquainted and set the tone for a more collegial exchange. it is, however, important to emphasize that students are not discouraged from providing a formulaic answer: some may perceive our inquiry about their day as a form of “shoving”35 into their private life. if or when they begin to get to know others vicariously, they may eventually open up. as the semester progresses, we continue to acknowledge each others’ uniqueness in a variety of ways. one way to confirm the particularity of each individual is to diversify the vocabulary of praise. this exercise is usually connected to individual presentations. the audience is encouraged to write a specific compliment to the presenter. some are still struggling with the traditional “good job” and “outstanding!”, yet others are able to come up with entire paragraphs. the more we practice, the better the compliments become. the compliments are usually turned in to me so that i could organize them for each presenter and type them up in order to share the good will of the audience. the impetus for this activity comes from my dissatisfaction with the existing rather scant and impersonal repertoire of praise which disregards rather than confirms the uniqueness of individuals and their acts. finding something new and unusual about each individual in class would not be possible without an openness to surprises which can only come when one acknowledges unfinishedness of each person and, therefore, the inevitability of change. direct teaching  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 75 is only part of the instruction that we, educators, can offer; while not explicit, our dispositions are inscribed in our every word and act. my teaching candidates continue to tune into their openness toward the mystery and surprise of a different other as they are encouraged to punctuate their definitions of different others with a metaphorical ellipsis or a question mark. thus “a jerk…,” “a sweetheart…,” “an ignoramus…” only last so long until we meet the labeled individual next time and witness a newness. thus, both metaphoric punctuation marks symbolize continuation, and openness to surprises within another individual so defined. in generously utilizing an ellipsis and a question mark, we remain present to dialogue, and i see dialogue as a foundation of the cure for perceptual limitation. toward a conclusion one of the key ingredients of any conflict is inability or unwillingness to see another person’s perspective, or simply to see another person. it would then seem that peace work necessitates regular and frequent perceptual checkups. i hope that this reflection demonstrates that perceptual limitation is a curable condition, but the success of the cure depends on a person’s willingness to seek and undergo treatment. i wish to end by inviting the reader to seek newer ways to treat his or her perceptual limitation, for after all, it is also a recurrent condition. every conscious effort at minimizing this condition, no matter how small, serves as a “testimony to one’s respect for the dignity of the other.”36 and as freire and scarry remind us, this testimony can only be given responsibly from one’s unique position in the world.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 76 notes 1 the original term, “perceptual disability,” was borrowed from a thoughtful piece by elaine scarry. the difficulty of imagining other people. in for love of country? edited by martha nussbaum (boston, ma: beacon press, 2002). the term “disability” was used loosely and, therefore, deemed infelicitous because it created disability where social factors may be instrumental in bringing about this condition. in addition, whereas many disabilities may not be curable, this piece strongly suggested a cure. disability, however, is a complex continuum, which may accommodate the original use of the term. however, a more neutral term was selected in an attempt to encourage the readers’ attention to the content of this article. to form a personal understanding consult deborah kaplan’s article, “the definition of disability,” http://www.accessiblesociety.org/topics/demographics-identity/dkaplanpaper.htm. 2 the child says in swahili: “teacher, can you see me? teacher, do you know who i am? teacher, i like you.” and all of these words fall on my deaf ears, and both of us incur a significant loss. i lose a chance to respond to this child’s love, and she loses her trust in one adult whose confirmation she so urgently needs. 3 while not in possession of human dignity, non-human yet living species also need to be perceived clearly if we purport to respect life, although the development of this perception will not follow the same route as the development of a clear perception of humans.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 77 4 perceptual limitation is more appropriately used in its plural “perceptual limitations,” metaphorical shortsightedness is just one of the many ways in which our perception could be limited. 5 elaine scarry. the difficulty of imagining other people 6 martin buber. a believing humanism: my testament, 1902-1965 translated by maurice friedman (new york: simon and schuster, 1967), also betty reardon. educating for a culture of peace in a gender perspective (paris, france: unesco, 2001). 7 macedo and bartolomé. dancing with bigotry: beyond the politics of tolerance (new york: st.martin’s press, 1999), 130. 8 see an intriguing overview of the development of the notion of human dignity in martha c. nussbaum’s recent work, frontiers of justice: disability, nationality, species membership (cambridge, ma: the belknap press of harvard university press, 2006). 9 for a long time i have been on the receiving end of “if you are not with us you are against us” message. according to paulo freire and many scholars of critical thought, the ideological fog of dichotomous thinking is socially encouraged and maintained and it clouds our perception thus limiting it. we are daily bombarded with ideologies exacerbating our perceptual limitation, and we re-create them because of our perceptual limitation. see a classical text on social construction of reality: peter l. berger and thomas luckmann. the social construction of reality: a treatise on the sociology of knowledge (new york: doubleday, 1966).  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 78 10 the original excerpt comes from the collection of plays by a russian author yevgenii grishkovets, the english translation is mine. see yevgenii grishkovets, zima. (moscow: vremya, 2005), 185. 11 okolie calls this “core identity”. core identities are the ones that “stand out to the subject and to the other, and they are the ones that often spur action on the part of the subject.” see andrew c. okolie, “identity: now you don’t see it; now you do,” identity: an international journal of theory and research, 3, no.1 (2003), 4. 12 for critique of exotisizing and essentializing difference see gary c. david and kenneth k. ayouby, “studying the exotic other in the classroom: the portrayal of arab americans in educational source materials,” multicultural perspectives, 7, no.4 (2005): 13-20 among many such sources, and for suggestions for alternative, more politically engaged ways to address multicultural issues see macedo and bartolomé’s dancing with bigotry. 13 scarry, the difficulty of imagining other people. 14 ibid., 100 15 reardon, educating for a culture of peace in a gender perspective 16 scarry. the difficulty of imagining other people, 105. 17 jacques derrida, “the principle of hospitality,” parallax, 11, no.1 (2005), 6. 18 ibid 19 linda lantieri and janet patti. waging peace in our schools (boston, ma: beacon press, 1996).  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 79 20 paulo freire, pedagogy of the oppressed (30th anniversary ed.) translated by myra bergman-ramos (new york: continuum, 2000). 21 ian baptiste, “beyond reason and personal integrity: toward a pedagogy of coercive restraint,” the canadian journal for the study of adult education, 14 no.1 (2000): 27 50. 22 ibid. 23 ibid, 311 24 freire, pedagogy of the oppressed. 25 maxine greene. landscapes of learning (new york: teachers college press, 1978). 26 freire, pedagogy of the oppressed 27 baptiste, “beyond reason and personal integrity” 28 ibid. 29 kwame anthony appiah. cosmopolitanism: ethics in the world of strangers (new york: w.w. norton and company, 2006). 30 reardon, educating for a culture of peace in a gender perspective 31 edwidge danticat. breath, eyes, memory (new york: vintage, 1998); toni morrison. the bluest eye (new york: plume, penguin books, 1994); richard rodríguez, hunger of memory: the education of richard rodríguez (new york: bantam doubleday dell publishing group, 1982); amy tan. the joy luck club (new york: g.p. putnam’s sons, 1989); jeanne wakatsuki houston & j.d. houston. farewell to manzanar (new york: bantam books, 1995); alice walker. the color purple (new york: pocket books,  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 58-80 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 80 1982), among other sources. in addition, i wish to suggest an article that details some of the uses of multicultural literature toward gaining sensitivity. see judith y. singer and sally a. smith, “the potential of multicultural literature: changing understanding of self and other,” multicultural perspectives, 5, no.2 (2003): 17-23. 32 the name of this activity is borrowed from scarry’s (2002) chapter with the identical title. 33 both excerpts are retyped from the originals with proper permission from their authors. i preserved the original grammar and syntax. 34 derrida, “the principle of hospitality,” 7. 35 theodore sizer and nancy sizer, the students are watching: schools and the moral contract (boston, ma: beacon press, 1999) 36 paulo freire. pedagogy of indignation (boulder, co: paradigm publishers, 2004). microsoft word peace ed assessment (ifp) updated proof.docx volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 93 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal towards an agreement on learning outcomes for peace education moritz bilagher principal evaluation specialist, internal oversight service, united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (unesco) the ideas and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the view of unesco. abstract as both the value of educational assessment for educational development and peace education for social development are increasingly recognised, it is of concern that peace education has as of yet no widely accepted assessment methodology. this may be due to the absence of agreed learning objectives. instead, peace education programmes tend to be evaluated as interventions to directly achieve peace, bypassing the need for learning outcomes. using delphi methodology, this study enquired how we could arrive at learning outcomes for peace education. this instance of delphi was organised with a group of 16 experts in peace education. this delphi found a difference between the social purpose of peace education and its learning outcomes. while its social purpose is peace, to be education, it must have learning objectives. while peace education is understood as education on group identity and diversity, this can be engaged with cognitively and noncognitively, suggesting different types of outcomes. the delphi concluded that learning outcomes in peace education culminate in inter-cultural communication skills, combining cognitive with non-cognitive characteristics. the offered understandings are underpinned by a relational conception of peace that is openended and non-utopian. volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 94 keywords: peace education, inter-cultural communication skills, learning outcomes, learning objectives, educational assessment, educational evaluation a concern that evaluation in peace education is weak has existed since at least the beginning of this century (ashton, 2007, cited in amani williams, 2015; harris, 2003; malhotra & liyanage, 2005, cited in lazarus, 2015; nevo & brem, 2002/2009; salomon, 2004, cited in duckworth et al., 2012). in their seminal review of peace education evaluations, covering the period 1981 to 2000, nevo and brem (2009) found 79 studies measuring the effectiveness of peace education programmes or projects. while most of these (80–90%) were found to have been successful, nevo and brem found shortcomings in the evaluation studies themselves, including a lack of delayed post-testing and attention to generalisability (p. 275). harris (2003) agreed with nevo and brem that “there have been very few rigorous quantitative or qualitative evaluations of peace education efforts” (p. 8). suggesting that not much changed in this regard, since january 2010 we find only six articles1 that, in one way or another, evaluate a peace education programme or project in the journal of peace education. these articles themselves often lament the absence of evaluation in peace education (duckworth et al., 2012; kester, 2013). in response to these concerns, there has been a number of attempts to develop theoretical foundations to evaluate peace education programmes. first, nevo and brem (2009) themselves designed an ‘orientation map’ for peace education programmes to specify their ‘facets’ such as purpose; (targeted) age of participants; major didactic approach; duration; and, moving into the area of evaluation, research design and method of measurement (pp. 272-273). in reaction to nevo and brem, salomon and kuppermintz (2002) developed ‘mapping sentences’ of peace education evaluations considering: programme attributes; socio-political context; implementation criteria; domains of changes; targets; and the criteria for assessing change (p. 8). more recently, an ambitious project was undertaken to clarify concepts, methodologies and techniques in peace education evaluation, culminating in the work peace education evaluation: learning from experience and exploring prospects (del felice et al., 2015). evaluation and assessment 1 apart from those cited in the remainder of this paragraph, they include: akgun and araz, 2014; goldberg and ron, 2014; and trinder et al., 2010. volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 95 what is problematic in these efforts is that they (almost) invariably address evaluation of peace education rather than assessment of the achievement of peace education learning outcomes. the difference between these concepts is rooted in that formal education is almost entirely defined by a curriculum or the “(i) why; (ii) what; (iii) when; (iv) where; (v) how; (vi) and with whom to learn” (braslavsky, undated, p. 1). within this definition, the ‘what’ is represented by learning outcomes, i.e. the knowledge, skills and other characteristics learners are expected to achieve in a course, programme or module. curricula thus address a learner. this suggests a logic different from that of many, specifically non-formal peace education programmes, which often focus on programme objectives rather than learners, using education and learners as means to an end that, in that logic, transcends her or him. in the programme logic, peace is more important than the learner. in the educational logic, learners are more important than the subject. the difference between the concepts of assessment and evaluation runs parallel to these two logics: the education one, in which the learner is an end in itself, as one is to a curriculum, is connected with assessment; the programme logic, which is usually concerned with objectives of collective development, is connected with evaluation. indeed, in the context of education, evaluation is understood to denote the formulation of value judgements as to the achievement of programme objectives, while assessment is interested in what the participants in a programme have learned or, in the words of nusche et al. (2012): the term ‘assessment’ is used to refer to judgements on individual pupil performance and achievement of learning goals. it covers classroom-based assessment as well as large-scale external tests and examinations. … the term ‘evaluation’ is used to refer to judgements on the effectiveness of schools, school systems and policies. (p. 24) peace education professionals, however, often seem to use the terms evaluation and assessment interchangeably. for example, the mentioned volume by del felice et al. includes a contribution titled ‘assessing peace education at the national level’ (barbeito thonon & ospina, 2015) in which the authors explicitly said they were not interested in addressing what participants had learnt (p. 239). this confusion between assessment and evaluation may be due to the fact that educational evaluation often uses assessment data to arrive at “judgements on the effectiveness of schools, school systems and policies” (nusche et al., 2012, p. 24) or programmes. however, it may also be a strategy to conveniently overcome the circumstance that peace education is an umbrella concept covering a range of subjects, including “conflict resolution education, multicultural education, development education, world order studies (or international education), human volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 96 rights education and environmental education” (hung, 2007, p. 40) or still other subjects (bajaj, 2008; duckworth, 2008; harris & morrison, 2013; hung, 2007; and salomon, 2009). after all, this heterogeneity signals the absence of a unified curriculum, from which broadly agreed learning outcomes may be derived. however this may be, when applying this distinction, it becomes clear that peace education evaluation, especially in non-formal education contexts, does not regularly use assessment data. to give one example, obura (2002) evaluated the effectiveness of a peace education programme in two refugee camps in northern kenya, dadaab and kakuma, on the extent to which they had become more peaceful after the programme, using a pre-test post-test design. the evaluation considered whether instances of human rights violations or violence had decreased, while an assessment of learning was not part of the evaluation design. the assumption seemed to be that to know the effectiveness of the programme it was unnecessary to assess what participants had learned. it was considered sufficient to know whether the programme had achieved its objective: more peaceful camps. (incidentally, in formal contexts, where curricula do exist, assessment data may be used, both for high-stakes and informal purposes; however, such cases are often not reported in the academic literature. in addition, such curricula can widely vary among one another.) in line with the observation that evaluation may include assessment data, what characterises programme evaluation is mainly research design, for example pre-test post-test experimental designs. it can be implemented without knowing what has been learned. what characterises assessment, on the other hand, is mainly method, for example, tests (robson, 2002, p. 292 ff.), essays and observations. this prevalence of design over method in work published in the field of peace education is reflected in its theory. for example, nevo and brem (2009) mentioned the facet of research design before the method of measurement; and their one traditional assessment tool, knowledge mastery tests, only as the sixth element within that facet, after official statistics, e.g. rates of mixed marriages (p. 273). in their discussion of what is missing in peace education evaluation, all facets except method were addressed. research question there thus appears to be a gap in the literature on evaluation in peace education in that it mostly focuses on evaluation, rather than assessment. yet this is understandable: in a sequential chain, the issue (a) that peace education evaluation tends to not consider assessment data seems to be rooted in that it (b) is problematic to do so as there exists no established methodology for assessment in peace volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 97 education. developing such a methodology would (c) require agreed learning objectives to determine what to measure but (d) given the contested nature of peace education it seems challenging to agree on learning outcomes. the absence of learning outcomes in peace education thus seems to be the difficulty underlying absence of assessment in peace education evaluation. for this reason, it seems that for assessment in peace education to be possible, learning objectives will have to be agreed upon. this, in turn, might help clarify what unites peace education programmes per se. to address this issue, i will attempt to answer the question: what could the generic learning outcomes of peace education be? methodology delphi methodology i decided to address the above-mentioned questions using delphi methodology, the consensus methodology with the most extensive track record of successful applications. delphi, as dalkey and helmer (1963) argued, is appropriate to “obtain the most reliable consensus of opinion of a group of experts” (p. 1). in particular, as rescher (1969) suggested, it offers a useful framework for addressing normative or value questions. in essence, it consists of a series of rounds of data collection (interviews or questionnaire administration), applied to a set number of experts, with feedback between rounds, with the aim to achieve a consensus on a specific issue. in this case, the issue is derived from the research question: what could the generic learning outcomes of peace education be? this process culminated in the expert consensus, which is reflected in a ‘statement of principles’ (annex i). while cuhls (undated) suggested a minimum of two rounds of delphi (p. 93), hsu and sandford (2007) argued that, according to most authors, three rounds are sufficient, in particular if literature is available on the subject (p. 2). as this study targeted experts with limited time, three rounds were applied as follows: (1) administration of an open-ended questionnaire to identify main issues. this could be administered as a semi-structured interview. (2) elaboration of a preliminary position paper (1-2 pp.), i.e. the statement of principles, based on questionnaire data. in this phase, participants could provide feedback. (3) elaboration of final position paper, accounting for the feedback received in round 2. in this phase, participants could indicate their adherence, if applicable, and identify points of dissent. it served as a phase of validation of the statement in terms of capturing the expert consensus. volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 98 research participants selection of participants is critical in delphi (hsu and sandford, 2007), both in terms of quantity and selection criteria, even though “no exact criterion currently listed in the literature concerning the selection of delphi participants” (p. 3) exists. on the basis of schulz & renn, 2009, i looked for experts in the field of peace education representing several positions in respect of the subject to be addressed (p. 14) and, to do so, considered four variables as proxies for different views: geographic spread, to avoid cultural bias; gender, to avoid gender bias; institutional affiliation; and area of focus in peace education. i identified the experts through internet-based and other searches. in all cases, they were at least one and often both of the following: (a) authors of significant articles in leading peer reviewed journals and / or book chapters; and / or (b) medium to high-profile officials or researchers affiliated with organisations working in the field of peace education. in terms of quantity of participants, hsu and sandford (2007) suggested that 10-15 constitute a reasonable number. similarly, schulz and renn (2009) recommended that a group not exceed 16-25 persons (p. 14). while 22 persons agreed to participate in the study initially, after several reminders, 16 responses were received for round 1 of the delphi. this was a good group size, considering the above-mentioned indications. in line with schulz and renn (2009), it could be argued that too large a group of experts would not only become unmanageable for the precise, in-depth analyses that consensus methodologies require, but also that it would make consensus more difficult to elicit. so then, ultimately six women and ten men participated in this delphi: ten from universities; three from un-related organisations; one from a think-tank; one from an ngo; and one from a religious organisation. in terms of geographical location, five participants were from the united states, two each from costa rica and germany; one from colombia, republic of korea, united kingdom, qatar, democratic republic of congo, nigeria and austria each. methods and analysis the questionnaire – or interview protocol – was structured in such a way that question 1 asked for the biography of the participant in relation to peace education; question 2 addressed the concept of peace; question 3 addressed the concept of peace education; and question 4, learning outcomes in peace education. the concept of educational assessment in general was addressed in question 5, while questions 6 and 7 focused on assessment in the context of peace education. question 8, finally, asked whether participants would like to add anything. thus volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 99 participants could comment on the questionnaire if they thought something was missing. the questionnaire contained only open-ended questions. in terms of analytical strategy, given that i was after a theory on assessment in peace education, grounded in the empirical data of the study, my requirement seemed filled by glaser and strauss’ grounded theory approach (1967/2009). this is based on the two main techniques of coding and categorisation of data, roughly as follows (cf. robson, 2002, p. 493): (1) first review of data – i.e. questionnaires and interview transcripts or open coding, to identify key ideas (conceptual categories); (2) second review of data or axial coding to find relationships between these categories and identify key themes; (3) third review of data (selective coding), to account for these relationships through core categories underpinning the themes. research ethics all participants enjoyed anonymity. while there are few specific known ethical issues related to delphi, there is one worth highlighting: while i generally attributed ideas that were not mine, to their owners, the statement of principles reflects a consensus developed through a process that i facilitated, while the ideas emanated from this process itself. for example, one participant mentioned that peace is the social purpose, not a learning outcome of peace education. this idea made its way to the statement, due to its explanatory value for the theory but, while i agree with it, it was not my original idea. however, i could not attribute it to a specific participant, due to the anonymity clause. the added value of my contribution then lay in bringing ideas together, choosing one over the other and crafting a coherent set of principles. the analysis of the data was mine and the statement shared, reflecting a consensus. data analysis understandings of peace in the analysis of the respondents’ views of peace, galtung’s (1975) definitions of positive and negative peace proved a useful device. roughly, three types of response were received to the question what peace is: firstly, those that emphasised the importance of negative peace, absence of violence; secondly, those that presented some kind of positive definition of peace; and thirdly, those that indicated that peace cannot be defined, should not be defined or did not define it for another reason. in this last category we encountered a respondent who, for pragmatic reasons, did not define peace (p10); one who argued that there is not one peace, but volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 100 that there are many “peaces” (p16); and one who suggested that the concept of peace is best approximated by the action of peace-building, i.e. “a collective effort toward co-constructing possibility” (p8). yet, the same participant sympathised with a definition of peace as described in article 16.f of the earth charter (the earth charter initiative, 2000): recognize that peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part. among the other two groups, consisting of those participants that emphasised the importance of negative peace and those that presented some type of positive definition of peace, there was an extent of overlap: of the five respondents that mentioned the importance of negative peace – i.e. peace as absence of overt violence for understanding peace (p3, p4, p6, p7, p9), only one said that all of peace is covered by negative peace. all but one either supplemented the importance of negative peace with a positive definition (p3, p7) or mentioned the importance of negative peace in conjunction with positive peace. when peace was defined positively, it was, again, defined in either of two ways: as a ‘state’ (of integrated being, p2; of justice, p7; of safety, p11; or of harmony, p12), or as a ‘process’ rather than a desired end state. in the case of one answer (p7), these two ways co-existed, although the concept of peace-as-process prevailed: i perceive the state of being peaceful to be the absence of both direct and structural violence and oppression, or in a more positive term, the state of having justice, equity, non-violence, healthy ecology, human rights, diversity, pluralistic democracy and care for oneself and others ensured and secured in a society. while the definition as such may be organized around its “state of being” as an end product, in approaching to “peace” in my own work, i treat “peace” more as a process than the state of being to be arrived at. in cases where peace was defined as a state, this was described in divergent ways, for example as in the preceding quotation, or as “presence of trust, respect, equality and expanding social justice and inclusion” (p1), rendering its meaningful understanding challenging. at first sight, it seemed difficult to find a common denominator to such a wide range of ‘things’ peace was thought of as. yet, with few if any exceptions, all volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 101 things that peace were considered to be, were relational – describing an organisation of a relation between self and others, self and nature and even self and self. for example, harmony was harmony in a relation between self and others, or also self and self; justice, a principle organising a relation between self and others; safety referring to a freedom from vulnerability or risk, again in a relation; trust, respect and equality all existing only in relations. without an ‘object’, a ‘subject’ cannot trust or respect – there has to be an object, even if that is oneself. the counterpart for peace that was least controversial was, explicitly or implicitly, groups, such as women, children and refugees (p5). the identification of group relations as object of peace connected well with salomon’s (2009) view from the literature that peace in the context of peace education addresses conflict between groups, rather than inter-personal conflict (see also harris, 2008, p. 249). while in the only case where groups were mentioned explicitly, individuals were, too (p12), the numerous references to social justice, structural violence and human rights (i.a. p1, p2, p7, p9) pointed to peace in terms of relations between groups. this notion that peace is, in the first place, relational, was supplemented by positive definitions of it as ‘open-ended’ or a ‘process’ rather than a state. it was striking that one participant (p13) labelled this as non-utopian: this [earth charter] definition also connotes peace as a very active, ongoing process – rather than a utopian end state and also hints to the fact that pursuit of peace is multidimensional, comprehensive, and holistic. the implications of this are significant. if peace were utopian and if, as per the historicist perspective, it were the necessary outcome of human history, then, as popper (1994) said, everything that stands between the now and peace, e.g. capitalism in the opinion of marx, could legitimately be eliminated (p. 50). this creates a conundrum, in as far as ‘elimination’ is not an activity usually associated with peace. while the conception that peace be understood as a process would overcome this dilemma, it was not directly clear how this could be imagined. fortunately, one participant (p3) gave a clue to solve this, referring to galtung (1967) who had said that positive peace is made of ‘positive relations’, of which one is justice, which he saw as synonymous with equality (p. 15). this helped clarify how to perceive positive peace as process: equality, understood as a main form of justice, is not (only) a state, but (also) a process. it is something that can be enacted in concrete instances on a more or less continuous basis. so, peace as process are the things that are done to further the equality of human beings and volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 102 groups. this, for peace, is axiomatic: ‘right relations’ are relations of fundamental equality. understandings of peace education at first sight, the views of the experts of what peace education is (or should be), mirrored the issue described in the introduction: that it is ‘something’ – a process, project, or programme – that should bring ‘something else’ about, whereby the first something (the independent variable, iv, or factor) x was not further defined, but the second thing (the dependent variable dv, or outcome) y was peace. in understanding peace, galtung’s definitions could be used. this, of course, related exactly to the initial problem underpinning this study: that, while there might have been consensus on what peace education should ultimately do, there was still no consensus on what its identity, its core, that is to say, its curriculum should be. thus, peace education itself remained somewhat of a black box. consequently, peace education was often defined as a process to bring about peace, without specifying what this process should consist of. for example, one participant (p1) argued that: “peace education embraces activities and curriculum that make our schools more peaceful within, and empowers them to contribute to peace in their global and local communities”. this definition said what peace education was supposed to do, but not how it was supposed to do this. this appeared as the fundamental challenge for peace education: it was considered ‘education for peace’, but what kind of education this is, was not clear. to give an example of this (p11): “peace education is a process through which we can educate our children, or the community on ways to live in harmony with the people around us, and the environment around us”. there were, however, three variations to this theme that helped understand the concept of peace education to a greater extent. the first of these took an intermediate step between education and its intended outcomes. for example (p7): education for peace is a kind of education (or any education) that encourages and facilitates the learners to develop their life-long commitments to the values of, and actions for, peace (as defined above) and their enduring capacities to materialize such commitments. so here we had the final aims of education – “peace (as defined above)” – but also the outcome of equipping learners with such skills, dispositions and abilities as to bring peace about, i.e. the development of their “commitments” to values and their “capacities” (abilities, skills) to give substance to these commitments. this was, in volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 103 a way, a step beyond the issue of peace education into that of peace education learning outcomes and even accompanied by a ‘mini-taxonomy’, where such objectives were thought of as having one affective, or value-related component (commitments) and one skills-related one. in addition, a relation was laid out between these, where one was configured as the enabler of the other. this shift was fundamental: in line with the problematique discussed in the introduction, the emphasis was not anymore on the wider environment, or even the school, but on learners; thus, we could move from a ‘programme logic’ to an educational one. in summary, this three-step configuration, of x (education) leading to y (peace) by means of z (given learning outcomes) was a step forward on the iv (independent variable) → dv (dependent variable) or ‘an x [whatever x means] leading to y’-logic in that it moved the focus to learners. a similar pattern appeared more than once in responses, for example (p12): “peace education is [x] the process of acquiring [z] knowledge, skills and dispositions that empowers individuals, groups and institutions to [y] resolve conflicts harmoniously and fairly”; or (p13): “peace education [x] prepares and nurtures learners with [z] the knowledge, skills, capacities and attitudes necessary to [y] critically understand, confront and end violence, war and injustice and promote a culture of peace.” only very few experts gave substance to the ‘x’: peace education. for example, and even though technically speaking learners were not mentioned (p4): “peace education is [x] teaching and learning processes (including formal and nonformal) and practices that foster [z] knowledge, attitudes and behaviours that support the realization of [y] peace” (emphasis mine). this additional step was crucial to understanding the essence of peace education in a number of ways. the ‘thin’ xyz-configuration (where peace education was mentioned, but not defined), as in the previous paragraphs, established the primacy of the learner before the subject, that is to say, it clarified that peace education is about learners before being about peace. this sets it apart from, for instance, peace studies, of which the primary focus is on peace. the ‘thick’ xyz-configuration, on the other hand, where peace education is defined as teaching and learning processes, went one step further: in line with the notion that education is not just or even mainly about outcomes but also process, this suggested that it is, in one way or another, an engagement. this led to a demarcation line between what is an educational experience for peace and what is any other ‘peace-related’ experience: it has to be an engagement of a learner. what we would classify as peace education would be experiences such as those stipulated in allport’s (1979) chapter on contact, in his the nature of prejudice (ch. 30), later called ‘contact hypothesis’ or ‘contact theory’ and of which social travel is an volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 104 example.2 according to this theory, if certain conditions are in place, contact with members of another group could lead to greater appreciation of that group. if we accept the common denominator of peace education as ‘education for peace’, which seems to emerge from the above analysis, in combination with the definition of peace as relational, and mainly addressing inter-group issues, it would seem that lines of demarcation of which subjects fall under the umbrella of peace education may be drawn. for example, education for sustainable development would not be a manifestation of peace education as it does not necessarily deal with differences between groups. in contrast, the following seem to belong to it (table 1): type main focus inter-cultural education knowledge of (other) cultures international education knowledge of (other) countries sexuality education knowledge of (other) gender(s) religious education3 knowledge of (other) religions understandings of learning outcomes in peace education so far we found that peace, in the context of peace education, is relational and openended and peaceful relations are, in essence, relations of equality, especially of groups; and that peace education is a type of engagement with a learner in respect of peace, which gives primacy to the learner, and where the focus is on group diversity and identities. these views and, in particular, the notions that, in peace education, learners come before peace and thus peace education’s main focus is not on peace but on a skills-set for the learner as peace-maker, were re-confirmed in the discussion on learning outcomes in peace education. for example, a respondent (p2) argued that: “outcomes should focus on the development of capacities— capacities of critical thinking, inquiry, reflection, etc. as well as the development of a sense of justice.” this view was possibly most clearly formulated by p13: 2 allport (1979) described some further examples of this under the name of ‘intercultural education’ (p. 264). 3 these are relatively generic indications. for example, in religious education, maudarbux (2016) created a distinction between religious education and inter-religious education (p. 461). tab. 1: types of peace education volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 105 i think it’s important to distinguish between social purposes of education and learning outcomes. social purposes are those conditions in society that education seeks to maintain, change or transform. the social purposes of peace education – nurturing a culture of peace – are rather open ended. learning outcomes, on the other hand, i see as more specific and rooted in the development of fundamental capacities or competencies seen as necessary for personal, social and political engagement. while programme evaluation in peace education assesses achievement of the social purpose of peace education, which is peace (in practice often negative peace), only educational assessment can help evaluate achievement of its learning outcomes. this illustrates why the gap identified in the introduction is real: if peace education programmes are evaluated but learners not assessed, the achievement of the social purpose rather than its learning outcomes (changes in learners) will be considered the purpose of peace education. when addressing the question what the learning outcomes of peace education should be, two initial findings emerged: first, that learning outcomes should be relational, i.e. should reflect issues of identity and diversity. second, that the sheer diversity of types of learning objectives (knowledge, skills, dispositions, attitudes, etc.) suggested that one category were insufficient to capture all peace education learning outcomes. to illustrate the first of these points, several respondents emphasised the importance of involvement with diversity, with ‘others’, e.g. (p1): “in terms of longer term outcomes and sustainability, i’d look for a student’s organically (… self motivated) continued engagement with including diverse ‘others’ and involvement in related activities”. this position was echoed by others, for example (p4): there may be core outcomes of peace education related to skills that are promoted through the teaching and learning processes, including: knowledge specific to the context in which peace education is taking place; analytical skills; and attitudes and skills that support positive relationships with others and acceptance of differences. this relationality, as a learning outcome, was captured by p3 in one word: empathy. this suggested realisation of one-ness: empathy may be interpreted as the understanding of the other from an awareness that, somehow, one is the other. in p3’s words, interpreted, the capacity of empathy establishes the link with the other cognitively and affectively: cognitively, in that it enables one to see from the perspective of someone else and affectively in the sense that this perception moves volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 106 the subject in one way or another, that is to say, involves him or her emotionally. this empathy can occur between others as individuals but, importantly, it can also be directed at others as a group. another type of outcome mentioned was knowledge of identities and differences and conflicts these can give rise to. for example, one respondent (p1) proposed: “being able to describe what a peaceable community would look like, articulate some causes of violence and name means accessible to the student of interrupting that violence (dialogue, community problem solving workshops, advocacy).” interestingly, this was mentioned in the context of a scale implying a difference between lower and higher order skills in the cognitive domain, suggesting that knowledge precedes advanced skills. another example was one according to which the outcomes of peace education include, presumably in this order (p4): “knowledge specific to the context in which peace education is taking place; analytical skills; and attitudes and skills that support positive relationships with others and acceptance of differences.” although these conceptions seemed unclear at first sight, i slowly saw an order emerging. using the concept of relationality as an organising principle i saw, in line with heidegger’s (1927/2006) philosophy outlined in being and time, that sorge (care, or concern) was a starting point for understanding peace education learning outcomes. what is needed to engage with identity and difference is an engagement-based care. i call this: recognition. this is a pre-requisite and, in sequential terms, a first stage were difference is recognised4 (which refers, first, to one’s own identity and, secondly, to diversity, i.e. others’ identities). this diversity may occur on a number of axes such as ethnicity; gender; religion; etc. one taxonomy applicable here is krathwohl et al.’s (1964) affective domain, elaborated based on the concept of ‘responsiveness’. this seems similar to heidegger’s sorge. once basic recognition of identity and diversity, through sorge, responsiveness or engagement would have occurred, knowledge of these recognised identities and diversities can be generated. this would follow p1’s order where “being able to describe what a peaceable community would look like”, or recognition, would be followed by the (cognitive) skill to “articulate some causes of violence”. this largely coincides with what allport (1979) called an ‘informational approach’ to reducing prejudice between groups (p. 485). it represents a stage where information is gathered on difference, i.e. first one’s identity and, secondly, the other’s, constituting diversity. this may involve several 4 like the word realisation, used above, the word recognition is ambiguous: similarly to acknowledgment it means at once factual acknowledgement, which is cognitive, and appreciation, which belongs to the affective realm. volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 107 educational subjects, including history (addressing migration, war, colonisation and in general the narrative of events that lead to group formation), geography (borders, geographical distribution of cultures) and religious studies. in terms of taxonomy of learning outcomes, here, bloom et al.’s book i would apply. as knowledge seems necessary, but not sufficient in peace education, in line with p1, after gathering knowledge, one would expect “continued engagement with including diverse ‘others’” be it in terms of gender, culture or other identifiers. this area has been theorised by allport, in his the nature of prejudice. on this third stage, learning would be experiential, involving social travel or a similar type of educational event, or the intercultural and interreligious encounter as described by gill (2016, p. 490). incidentally, this order of stages, where knowledge precedes the stage of contact, was implied by allport (1979) who argued that for contact to lead to reduction of prejudice, prior education is a pre-requisite (pp. 264-265). without this, contact may consolidate rather than diminish prejudice. p4’s view, quoted above that, in terms of learning objectives, peace education should flow into “attitudes and skills that support positive relationships with others and acceptance of differences” suggested that there should exist a learning objective above ‘mere’ contact. we saw that she referred to both ‘attitudes’ and ‘skills’. similarly, p2 argued that: “outcomes should focus on the development of capacities—capacities of critical thinking, inquiry, reflection, etc. as well as the development of a sense of justice.” these views suggested that, following from a recognition of identity and diversity; a stage of gathering knowledge about these identities; and one of engagement with diversity; a stage should follow where relations that were recognised, explored and engaged with, become ‘right relations’, i.e. relations of fundamental equality. such relations seemed to be addressed by kohlberg’s (1981) stage of moral development called principles of individual conscience. but what kind of outcomes may apply here? i assert that the answer to this question is hidden in p4’s view, which referred to attitudes and skills that support positive relationships with others and acceptance of differences. there exists a specific skills set uniting such attitudes and skills: inter-cultural communication skills, roughly as described by lustig and koester (2006). this is the ‘know how’ allowing for relational peace: communication between (individuals from) different groups to bridge identity and diversity, self and others. communication, moreover, is a process; it promotes and expresses understanding at the same time as it is both expressing oneself and listening, which gill (2016) calls “a compassionate act” (p. 492) and requires traits such as empathy (p. 456). volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 108 the hierarchy presented in this section might be visualised as follows: stage domain learning outcome ↓ recognition: of identity and difference affective responsiveness knowledge: of own and other groups cognitive lower order (memorisation), higher order (analysis) contact: with other groups conative open-ended [hopefully reduced prejudice] moral (conscience) multiple inter-cultural communication towards expert consensus while round 1 of the delphi led to the statement of principles, and round 2 elicited feedback on this, in round 3 the 16 participants were asked whether they agreed, grosso modo, with the statement; agreed with qualifications; or did not agree. responses were received from nine participants and, of these, eight agreed ‘grosso modo’ and one ‘with reservations’. none said that they did not agree. this suggests that the statement reflects, to a reasonable extent, expert consensus on learning outcomes in peace education. discussion and conclusion thus the answer to the question ‘what could the generic learning outcomes of peace education be?’ is: learning outcomes in peace education should be imagined on different stages, from an (affective) recognition of identity and difference; via (cognitive) knowledge of own and other groups; and (conative) contact with other groups, culminating in inter-cultural communication skills, which combines all of the mentioned domains. of course, further research may (in-) validate this model. for example, if these are really sequential stages, it is not clear whether they are related to specific age groups or educational levels. while the idea that contact without knowledge can reinforce prejudice is found in the literature (allport, 1979, pp. 264-265), it seems problematic to argue that contact between individuals belonging to different groups (e.g., gender groups) should not occur until a certain amount of knowledge is in place. i believe that there are two other main consequences of my findings for academic debate and research. first, this study validated the relevance of the problematique underpinning the research question. this suggests that the peace tab. 2: taxonomy of learning outcomes in peace education volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 109 education research community should engage more with educational assessment. finally, the study found that several subjects that tended to be classified as peace education, such as human rights education or environmental education (hung, 2007, p. 40), are not as per the consensus. while surprising it is convenient as there seems to exist a significant conceptual lack of clarity in peace education, which hinders the development of assessment theory and practice. in this sense, i hope that my enquiry into learning outcomes for peace education may contribute to a greater understanding of this field itself. references akgun, s. & araz, a. 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(2008). the promises and pitfalls of peace education evaluation. in j. lin, e. brantmeier & c. bruhn (eds.), transforming education for peace (245-264). charlotte, nc: information age publishing. heidegger, m. (2006). sein und zeit [being and time]. tübingen: max niemeyer verlag. (originally published 1927) hsu, c.c. & sandford, b.a. (2007). the delphi technique: making sense of consensus practical assessment, research and evaluation. vol. 12, nr. 10, 1–8. hung, r. (2007). is ecological sustainability consonant or dissonant with human rights? identifying theoretical issues in peace education, journal of peace education, vol. 4, nr. 1, 39–55. kester, k. (2013). peace education: an impact assessment of a case study of unesco-apceiu and the university for peace. journal of peace education, vol. 10, nr. 2, 157-171. kohlberg, l. 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(2016). interreligious education: conceptualising a needs assessment framework for curriculum design in plural societies (with special reference to mauritius). international review of education, vol. 62, 459–481. volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 112 nevo, b. & brem, i. (2009). peace education programs and the evaluation of their effectiveness. in g. salomon & b. nevo (eds.), peace education: the concept, principles, and practices around the world (271-282). new york, ny: psychology press, 271-282. (originally published 2002) nusche, d., laveault, d., macbeath, j. & santiago, p. (2012). oecd reviews of evaluation and assessment in education: new zealand 2011. paris: oecd publishing. obura, a.p. (2002). peace education programme in dadaab and kakuma, kenya: evaluation summary. new york: unhcr. popper, k. (1994). la lezione di questo secolo [the lesson of this century]. venezia: marsilio. rescher, n. (1969). delphi and values. santa monica, ca: rand corporation. robson, c. (2002). real world research. oxford: blackwell. salomon, g. & kuppermintz, h. (2002). the evaluation of peace education programs: main considerations and criteria. haifa: the center for research on peace education, university of haifa. salomon, g. (2004). does peace education make a difference in the context of an intractable conflict? peace and conflict: journal of peace psychology, vol. 10, nr. 3, 257–274. salomon, g. (2009). the nature of peace education: not all programs are created equal. in g. salomon & b. nevo. peace education: the concept, principles, and practices around the world (3-13). new york, ny: psychology press. (originally published 2002) schulz, m. & renn, o. (2009). das gruppendelphi: konzept und fragebogenkonstruktion [the group-based delphi: concept and questionnaire development]. wiesbaden: vs verlag für sozialwissenschaften. the earth charter initiative (2000). the earth charter. retrieved 19 march 2017 from: http://earthcharter.org/invent/images/uploads/echarter_english.pdf volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 113 trinder, m., wertheim, e.h., freeman, e., sanson, a., richardson, s. & hunt, s. (2010). comparison of the effectiveness of two forms of the enhancing relationships in school communities project for promoting cooperative conflict resolution education in australian primary schools. journal of peace education, vol. 7, nr. 1, 85-105. volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 114 assessment of the achievement of learning outcomes in peace education statement of principles 1. this statement formulates principles for the assessment of learning outcomes in peace education. 2. the assessment of learning outcomes in peace education is important because it helps to: (a) assess learner progress, thus creating learning opportunities for both learners and teachers; (b) assess effectiveness of the education initiative and its pedagogy to achieve its intended outcomes; and (c) for research purposes. the question that is critical in educational assessment per se, i.e. assessment of whom, for whom and with what purpose is equally relevant to assessment in peace education. 3. the domain that these principles cover consists of four main concepts: peace; education (for peace); learning outcomes (of peace education); and assessment (of the learning outcomes of peace education), which relate to each other in the given sequential order. to describe how the achievement of learning outcomes in peace education can be assessed, these concepts are clarified below. 4. peace is the central concept of peace education. while the absence of violence (‘negative peace’) is critical to peace, its durability can only be guaranteed by establishing ‘positive peace’. rather than a utopian end-state, this embodies the kantian ideas that (a) every human being, as a subject of reason, is an end in itself and (b) that one should act in such a way that one’s action could be a universal law. the postulate underpinning these ideas is that of human beings’ fundamental equivalence. 5. peace is thus a type of relation between self and others, or identities. as the greatest threat to human equivalence is the idea that one (group) identity is of greater worth than another, in peace education peace is, primarily, intergroup peace. it pursues the ideal of unity in essence and value in diversity of appearance. 6. the concept of education is similar to that of peace, in that it is non-utopian – that is to say, it does not lead to an end state or, in the words of dewey: “education is not preparation for life, it is life itself”. in addition, for both volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 115 peace and education the human mind is central, which is where the bulwarks of peace are constructed, as per unesco’s constitution, and it is the focus of attention of education. 7. while there exists learning without teaching, education without learning is unthinkable. peace education initiatives, therefore, by definition include learner engagement. 8. thus, while peace education may operate as an umbrella term, its criteria of demarcation are that it denotes (a) learner engagement (b) in relation to identity self and other(s) – focusing, primarily, on inter-group peace. groups can be defined in a number of ways, including gender, national and religious. thus peace education includes international education, religious education and sex education. global citizenship education (gced) may be considered archetypal peace education. 9. as peace education focuses on identity, and on the human mind’s engagement with this, its learning outcomes should be human-centred, i.e. focus on the learner’s development rather than peace itself, although this is its ultimate objective. peace is the social purpose of peace education, not its learning outcome. 10. the above suggests four levels of engagement, as per § 7 above, that may in principle take place on any educational level, with associated learning outcomes: a. the recognition of self and difference, that is to say, of identity and identities, which are likely to be multiple, overlapping and possibly conflicting; b. knowledge of self and others, that is to say, knowledge of these identities (gender, national, religious and socio-economic); c. engagement with others, that is to say, contact with carriers of other identities, either physical or otherwise; d. identification with principles of universal justice (as per § 4 and 5 above), and as reflected in the udhr, that is to say, on the assumption that communication is key to identity and identification, and that identity and otherness are essentially cultural, the acquisition of intercultural communication skills. 11. these outcomes stand in an iterative relation with both inner peace, i.e. peace with one’s self or one’s identity, and peace with nature, given the volume 13 number 2 (2019): 93-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 116 symbiotic relation between human being and nature, and the extent to which this defines our identities. 12. these levels of learning outcomes are associated with types of assessment, as follows: a. assessment on this level seems irrelevant to objectives § 2 a and b; b. traditional methods for cognitive assessment; c. verification of whether the contact has taken place, accompanied by a debriefing in the form of a dialogue or group discussion, without evaluation; d. foreign language skills; critical reading and writing; presentation and debating. 13. as an integral part of peace education, its assessment should be ethical. as the extent to which one succeeds in peace education is the extent to which others benefit, assessment in peace education should treat competition with caution. 14. psychometrics can be used in assessment in peace education. it is recommendable to develop a context, input, process and product (cipp-) model for assessment in peace education, given the importance of context and collective in relation to the individual and their achievement in this subject. 15. similarly to how peace education has the potential to transform education, so assessment in peace education has the potential to transform assessment overall, that is to say, to help reflect on how educational assessment can help achieve peace. microsoft word connecting inner and outer peace buddhist meditation integrated with peace education paper chicago 15th edition style.doc  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 120 volume 1 number 2 (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ connecting inner and outer peace: buddhist meditation integrated with peace education edward j. brantmeier assistant professor school of education colorado state university inner peace as a missing dimension in peace education connecting inner dimensions of peace education to outer dimensions of peace education is critical for transformative peace efforts aimed at curbing a cultural of violence and moving toward a culture of peace. the cultivation of inner peace can contribute to knowledge paradigms that are supportive of peace and can provide a foundation for social action toward supporting peaceful attitudes, dispositions, values, action-orientations, behaviors and social structures. contemplative practices/meditations  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 121 are essential to education for peace because inner and outer worlds are not mutually exclusive, rather they mirror and reinforce one another. therefore, inner violence correlates with outer violence; inner peace correlates with outer peace. aligning both nonviolent means with nonviolent ends is essential for building sustainable, renewable peace. the connection between being peace and doing peace needs to be more deeply fostered and explored in the field of peace education. particularly enlightening for the evolution of peace thinking is groff’s designation of seven types of peace: peace as the absence of war, peace as balances of forces in the international system, peace as no war and no structural violence on macro levels, peace as no war and no structural violence on micro levels (adding community, family, and feminist peace), intercultural peace, holistic gaia peace, and holistic inner-outer peace. groff maintains that inner peace is a neglected dimension in peace theory and urges further exploration (groff 2001; groff 2002). it is argued implicitly through this article here that the neglected dimension of inner peace can and should be explored and cultivated in various public schooling contexts, through moments of silence, through mindful reflection, and perhaps through guided visualizations that calm the body, subdue the stirring mind, and bring a sense of general well-being and happiness. such contemplative practices could provide physiological, emotional, interpersonal, and social benefits that will create a positive  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 122 classroom environment and safer school climates; this safe and more inclusive environment can help nurture a culture of peace in a broader u.s. society. overall, this article describes major types of buddhist meditation and elucidates the connections among buddhist meditative practices and a missing dimension of contemporary peace education—the cultivation of inner peace. in laying the groundwork for integrating aspects of buddhist meditation within peace education efforts, definitions of peace education are critiqued. the specific techniques of lovingkindness mediation and emptiness meditation are explored through the eyes of scholars of buddhism and through the eyes of the author who has been a student of buddhism for about twelve years. the secularization of buddhist and other contemplative practices for use in u.s. public schools is problemitized given the history of the separation of church and state in the united states. rooting insight into the radical interconnectedness of all life in hindu and buddhist religious traditions, the power of this insight for transforming individual dispositions and actions for nonviolent social change is explored. first an exploration of various conceptions of peace education is necessary. what is peace education anyway? defining peace education reardon, a prominent peace educator who contributed much to this emergent field, defines peace education as:  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 123 the transmission of knowledge about the requirements of, the obstacles to and possibilities for achieving and maintaining peace, training in skills for interpreting the knowledge, and the development of reflective and participatory capacities for applying the knowledge to overcoming problems and achieving possibilities (reardon 1999). key words in the above definition help elucidate the essence of reardon’s conception of peace education: knowledge of the requirements of peace must be gained; obstacles and possibilities of peace must be transmitted; a training in skills of interpretation must be part of peace education; development of reflective and participatory capacities must be enhanced; and a focus on applied knowledge for overcoming real life problems and actualizing alternative possibilities is crucial. reardon maintains that the transmission of knowledge and skills, the enhancement of capacities, and a focus on real life problems and possibilities must propel peace education endeavors. peace education should be rooted in real world problems and possibilities. the dimensions of reardon’s comprehensive peace education include: an integrated holistic education, a focus on the human context of relationships; ecological and planetary systems consciousness; and organic and developmental learning (reardon 1988). harris, an equally prominent peace educator who has focused mostly on micro community and school efforts, defines peace education as  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 124 teaching encounters that draw out from people their desires for peace and provide them with nonviolent alternatives for managing conflicts, as well as the skills for critical analysis of the structural arrangements that legitimate and produce injustice and inequality (harris 2002: 7). harris’s (2002) definition differs from reardon’s (1999) by focusing on the “drawing out” of desires for peace instead of “transmission of knowledge” for achieving and maintaining peace. harris’s definition places conflict resolution skills as well as the intellectual capacities for critical analysis of structural causes and conditions for the perpetuation of the absence of peace (with a special focus on positive peace or the absence of structural violence) as central to the aims of peace education. harris’s concern with “critical analysis” is not necessarily different from reardon’s concern for the development of “reflective and participatory capacities for applying knowledge.” both concentrate on consciousness-raising in the process of empowering students and teachers to seek nonviolent means to nonviolent ends and to actualize nonviolent solutions for creating alternative and sustainable futures. peace thinking and paradigm shifts peace thinking has evolved significantly over that last one hundred years. shallow definitions of peace convey the absence of war as the sole condition of peace. however, in the 1970’s, galtung (1969) suggested two ways of thinking about peace:  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 125 negative peace, or the absence of war (direct violence), and positive peace, or the absence of structural violence (indirect violence). framing peace thinking in the terms of positive peace brought issues of social justice, human rights, economic inequalities, and developmental issues to the forefront of peace theory and peace education (ardizonne 2001; reardon 1988). peace theory and peace education have expanded to analytically and practically encompass the indirect violence inherent in our economic, social, cultural, and political systems that privilege some at the exclusion of others. recent calls for a paradigm shift in the field of peace education urge for movement away from defining peace education in the negative as “elimination” or a “lack of”. brantmeier & lin (forthcoming) maintain that “a new paradigm for peace should embody the generative, integrative, transformative potential of education for peace.” (brantmeier & lin forthcoming). they offer values, principles, and assumptions to guide this new paradigm shift. one assumption states that, “inner and outer peace are interdependent dimensions of the human experience. being in peace and doing peace are united.” (brantmeier & lin 2008: 4). this assumption is a necessary consideration for rethinking a paradigm shift in the field of peace education. in my own work in peace education, i struggle for congruence in both inner and outer peace. i also struggle to infuse peace education approaches with insights from critical social theory—in the context of teacher education training. critical peace  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 126 education, a blending of critical social theory and peace education approaches of reardon and harris, can be understood here as education for the elimination of direct, indirect, and structural forms of violence; it aims to transform structural violence--the social, political, economic, and environmental arrangements that privilege some at the exclusion of others. critical peace education, informed by the work of freire (1971), includes various stages: raising consciousness about various forms of violence (direct, indirect, structural, cultural); imagining nonviolent alternatives (from social, economic, and political structures to psychological and spiritual methods for attaining inner peace); providing specific modes of empowerment (conflict resolution skills, critical thinking, political participation and mobilization, global perspectives and opportunities); and critical peace education includes enacted plans to move toward a more peaceful and just world through social transformation. the main focus of critical peace education is transformation via consciousness raising, vision, and action. thus, critical peace education is actionoriented by promoting social and cultural change toward a nonviolent, sustainable, and renewable future. the critical peace educator creates opportunities for students and teachers to understand the complex and variegated nature of violence in our world; s/he provides the space and scaffolding for envisioning and enacting alternative nonviolent possibilities for real world challenges (brantmeier 2004).  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 127 truly, peace thinking and peace education efforts need to continue to draw from various intellectual fields and traditions in order to build a more vibrant, relevant, and visionary approach to the challenges of a globalized world. a new paradigm for peace education needs to branch out, synthesize, integrate, and innovate. drawing from world wisdom traditions is but one thread of possible innovation. self disclosure and limitations i attempt to write this paper, not from a scholarly place with a guise of objectivity, not solely from a practitioner’s place, but from a place somewhere in the grey middle. as a euro-american male born into a catholic family in the rural u.s. midwest, i surely cannot claim to be a buddhist by cultural birthright, nor do i solely consider myself a buddhist. surely my cultural lens filters buddhist teachings in unique ways. my experience with buddhist meditation stems from twelve years of study, reflection, and practice in both tibetan and zen styles of meditation. my desire to learn more about buddhist meditation traditions has goaded me to seek opportunities to study in india on three occasions.1 i have studied in india at the library of tibetan works and archives on two separate occasions and once at the tushita retreat center in dharamsala. i also studied with the dalai llama as part of the kalachakra ceremony in 1999 in bloomington, indiana. my other experiences in buddhism are comprised of a day retreat 1 i also am interested in other forms of meditation, including yogic, sufi, christian, and native american practices.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 128 at a zen center in sydney, australia, study in thailand, and visits for meditation purposes and to study at the zen center, the tibetan monastery, and the tibetan cultural center in bloomington, indiana. almost daily sitting meditations for the last several years ground my practice. if my descriptions of buddhist meditation do not hold steadfast to respective meditation traditions, please forgive me. my eclectic spiritual practice leads to a certain degree of hybridity in experience and interpretation. accordingly, i will try to stay to the pathways as described by both spiritual practitioners and scholars of buddhism. as a cognitive exercise, this paper attempts to briefly summarize various schools and traditions of buddhist meditation, to contemplate the problems of secularizing buddhist meditation, and to provide a rationale for the use of certain types of buddhist meditation as tools in peace education. at its heart, this paper aims to discuss the cultivation of inner peace as a powerful tool for building a peaceful world. the paradox of course is that with words, i aim to point at what some say is the unnamable—beyond words. some words from the zen tradition clarify the paradox, “most people are very attached to words and speech. so we cure this sickness with word-and-speech medicine” (mitchell 1976: xi). a brief overview of schools and traditions in buddhist meditation  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 129 the two most basic schools of buddhism are the theravadic and the mahayana, otherwise known as the “lesser vehicle” and the “greater vehicle” respectively. as far as i can tell, the fundamental distinctions are geographic, cultural and methodological in nature. in thailand, for example, the majority of the population is of the theravadic tradition. most tibetans in-exile in india and elsewhere, are of the mahayana tradition.2 a distinguishing feature of the mahayana school is the boddhisatva vow to renounce one’s personal enlightenment until all sentient beings attain enlightenment—thus the term “greater vehicle.” smith (1991) writes: for the theravadans, the ideal was the arhat, the perfect disciple who like a lone rhinoceros, strikes out alone for nirvana and, with prodigious concentration, proceeds unswervingly toward that goal. the mahayan ideal, on the contrary, was the boddhisatva, ‘one whose essence (sattva) is perfected wisdom (bodhi)”— a being who, having reached the brink of nirvana voluntarily renounces that prize and returns to the world to make nirvana available for others. (smith 1991: 124). such a distinction is challenged by some theravadans who claim that once one attains nibbana (pali word for nirvana), he/she naturally extends loving kindness to all and seeks the liberation of those who are still caught in the wheel of samsara--the spinning 2 as part of tibetan cultural beliefs, one should treat all sentient beings as we treat our mothers because in all actuality—based on the law of reincarnation-at one time an ant could have been your mother. thus, loving kindness should be extended to all sentient beings that one encounters; one should treat all like her mother.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 130 wheel of suffering. the enlightened one cares for those who still cling to desire, attachments, or those who make distinctions between the satisfactory and unsatisfactory in both the theravadic and mahayanic traditions—so these theravadans claim. just as a catholic sometimes disagrees with a protestant, a sunni with a shiite, so too do buddhist schools disagree about the way to attain enlightenment and the responsibility one has to others. in both schools, the practitioner seeks liberation from suffering with the ultimate achievement of enlightenment being nirvana. meditation is a tool for attaining the state of nirvana. conze (1956) states the purposes of buddhist meditation: on the way to nirvana, they (meditations) serve to promote spiritual development, to diminish the impact of suffering, to calm the mind and to reveal the true facts of existence (conze 1956: 11). conze (1956) expands the narrow view of the word “meditation” by distinguishing among three different buddhist meanings: mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. thus, embedded within the word “meditation” are various meanings and meditation practices; the cultivation of mindfulness and intention, concentration for steadying the mind, and wisdom for understanding a deeper reality. one can integrate various meditation practices into approaches to cultivating inner peace. two basic types of buddhist meditation  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 131 buddhist meditation, called the “science of the mind” by the dalai llama, is a variegated practice according to distinctive traditions and interpretations of the path and purpose of meditation. the two basic most rudimentary distinctions are mindfulness and emptiness meditation. mindfulness meditation has an object of concentration, such as the breath in zen meditation or a mandala tibetan tantric traditions. the object of concentration is used as a means for training the mind or cultivating certain mental skills or psycho-emotive states and dispositions. for example, i was taught by zen practitioners prior to several zen meditation experiences that i should focus on the breath coming in an out at the tip of my nose. i was instructed to count to ten on the in-breaths. this type of meditation can be considered mindful in that a point of focus is chosen and when the mind inevitably wanders from the focal point, one gently brings mindfulness back to the focus of concentration. the purpose of this type of meditation is to sharpen the mind’s ability to concentrate on a single-object for prolonged periods of time.3 one can develop great powers of concentration through this type of calm, focused meditation. another zen practice teaches mindfulness through walking meditation. in the book peace is every 3 in the yogic tradition, this one-pointed concentration is sometimes referred to as samadhi, though some may argue that samadhi is much more than one-pointed concentration; it is union with the ultimate (varenne 1976).  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 132 step, thich nhat hanh offers an array of walking mindfulness meditations aimed at cultivating concentration, inner peace and meditative equipoise in motion. however, some consider mindfulness meditation a stepping stone to something more. from a tibetan cultural tradition, the dalai llama (2000) writes: in buddhism, we combine single-pointed meditation with the practice of analytic meditation, which is known as vipasyana, a penetrative insight…by recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of different types of emotions and thoughts, together with their advantages and disadvantages, we are able to enhance our positive states of mind which contribute toward a sense of serenity, tranquility, and contentment…reason thus plays a helpful part in this process (llama 2000: 7). from this perspective, single-pointed concentration on impermanence for example, becomes an analytic process that leads to understanding and insight or wisdom. the state of concentration is harnessed to channel thought towards insight about states of mind, the nature of emotional reactions—basically, experiments in the “science of the mind” are conducted. anecdotes to negative states of mind such as lust after the body or greed are applied to counteract the negativities. cultivation of compassion, insight, wisdom, and altruistic intent are among the goals of various practices in tibetan buddhist4 4 this is a specific reference to meditation practice in the gelupta order, one of several orders in tibetan buddhism.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 133 mindfulness meditations. the power of concentration is harnessed and used to evoke understanding and to create desirable psycho-emotive states and dispositions. on the other hand, emptiness meditation, distinct from meditation on emptiness, privileges the cognitive-emotive place prior to thought, or the calm, undifferentiated foundation of thought. quoting from the zen tradition might once again be helpful here, “this means that if you are thinking, you can’t understand zen. if you keep the mind that is before thinking, this is zen mind” (mitchell 1976: xii). in the zen meditation tradition, not thinking is crucial to attainment of satori. satori, the name of enlightenment in the japanese zen tradition, is possible and reachable from moment to moment. soensa suggests: people desire money, fame, sex, food, and rest. all this desire is thinking. not thinking is not suffering. not suffering means world peace. world peace is the absolute. the absolute is i (mitchell 1976: 4). this emptiness meditation, distinct from meditation on emptiness—a mindfulness form of meditation-suggests clearing the mind of all thought as a prerequisite to enlightened living. thought, as illustrated in the numerous zen koans, becomes an obstacle to attainment, insight, or understanding. assuming you do not remember your past lives, one effective way to understand emptiness meditation is to think of what you thought of  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 134 before you were born. this perhaps gives one a momentary glimpse of what empty mind is like. there are many different kinds or traditions of buddhist meditation that vary in their approaches. most aim toward a common goal—insight and/or liberation from suffering-though the methods vary. just as multiple personalities comprise a given society, so to do multiple ways of meditation comprise buddhist meditation. understanding the distinction between mindfulness and emptiness meditation is one important step toward understanding how buddhist meditation, or more appropriately, a secularized meditation shaped after buddhist meditative methods, might be used by peace educators to promote the conditions of inner peace in ourselves and fellow humanity. two specific buddhist meditative techniques for peace education the contemplative practice of sitting on a meditation mat, at one’s office desk, or in one’s school desk, calming the mind, focusing, and breathing alone have physiological and psycho-emotive benefits that make the practice of meditation worthwhile and worthy of the attention of educators at all levels, k-16. more disciplined and focused practices, be they mindfulness or emptiness meditation, provide opportunities for students to more deeply explore the worlds of meditation. first, i will describe two specific techniques of meditation through the eyes of scholars and then share personal experiences related to these two meditative techniques.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 135 metta meditation metta meditation, or loving-kindness meditation, can be a powerful technique to cultivate non-differentiation between the desirable and undesirable. in loving kindness: the revolutionary art of happiness, salzberg (1995) describes the structured technique of metta meditation. first, one cultivates loving kindness towards oneself by appreciating her/his positive aspects. when this feeling of loving kindness is generated toward oneself, then one cultivates a feeling of gratitude and loving kindness for a person whom they deem desirable--perhaps a friend, partner, or a historical figure of great admiration. after one holds this person in the mind’s eye and experiences all of the associated emotions (maybe a sense of caring, love, gratitude, respect, etc…) and extends loving kindness toward that person, then one brings a neutral person to mind; someone who she is ambivalent toward. after cultivating a sense of loving kindness toward this person, the focus of attention is turned toward someone deemed undesirable. loving kindness is also extended to this person. in this way, we learn to not differentiate between ourselves, our loved ones, those we feel ambivalent about, and our enemies. extending metta to one’s enemy is particular difficult and important. salzberg (1995) comments: this is a very powerful stage in the practice, because the enemy, or the person with whom we have difficulty stands right at the division between  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 136 the finite and the infinite radiance of love. at this point, conditional love unfolds into unconditional love (salsberg 1995) love that is unconditional is boundless and free and has the power to radically transform all who touch it. such a love must be applied with discipline. gandhi believed love, a limitless and unconditional love, to be the creative principle that would ultimately conquer violence. he also taught that love should be the impetus for action in nonviolent resistance. gandhi (1930) relays, “the force to be so applied can never be physical. there is in it no room for violence. the only force of universal application can, therefore, be that of ahimsa or love. in other words, soul-force” (gandhi 1930: 319). in this quote, gandhi translates ahimsa, traditionally translated as nonviolence, as love. in a gandhian theory of peace and nonviolence, loving kindness is the soul-force that motivates and guides action toward positive social change. if peace education aims to transform the violent into the nonviolent, the world of suffering into one of more happiness, lovingkindness emerges with radical and revolutionary powers of social transformation. a technigue for actualizing nonviolence must be tipped with love, “satyagraha is pure soulforce….the soul is informed with knowledge. in it burns the flame of love. if someone gives us pain through ignorance, we shall win him through love” (gandhi 1917: 319). nonviolent social action, armed with unconditional love cultivated through metta meditation, holds a potential to transform our world and those who live in it.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 137 salzberg makes a very important and often overlooked point: a way to discover intimacy with ourselves and all of life is to live with integrity, basing our lives on a vision of compassionate nonharming. when we dedicate ourselves to actions that do not hurt ourselves or others, our lives become all of one piece, a "seamless garment" with nothing separate or disconnected in the spiritual reality we discover (salzberg 1995). thus, nonviolent action in the world begins with loving oneself, extending that love to others, and acting without a seem between nonviolent thought and nonviolent action. the spontaneous flow of love becomes inherent in every action. with a “recognition of the fundamental unity of all life” we move forward with loving kindness. metta meditation holds a possibility for the transformation of the aversions and afflications of differentiating between the satisfactory and unsatisfactory. starting with loving kindness extended to oneself, which is often hard to do for many people, we radiate this loving kindness outward to others who we deem less desirable. friendliness then becomes unlimited. conze (1956) writes, “then as he feels friendliness again and again, he should achieve and even mind towards the four persons, --i.e., himself, a dear person, an indifferent person, a foe—and bring about the abolition of the barriers between them.”  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 138 (conze 1956: 128). with such even mindedness and cultivation of friendliness, kindness extends freely and unconditionally. the mind and heart seeds cultivated through metta meditation allow one to curb negative reactions to given individuals or situations. for example, in the past a particular cafeteria worker who i found particularly displeasing because of her mood, temperament, and differential treatment toward white people bothered me considerably for the better of part of a year. each day i would see this person, she would smile through what i perceived as subtley racist eyes at the various international and students of color she interacted with. i felt a sort of comradery that she wanted to build with me because of my light skin color, though i cannot validate this claim through actual proof. i would always experience a moment of uncomfortable hesitation when walking by because i did not really want to say hi, yet i felt obligated to. through a series of walking meditations each morning, i eventually found it possible to recognize my negative emotional aversion to her, reflect on how she feels suffering just as all sentient beings do, and acknowledge that she in part might be a product of her conditioning. after sending loving kindness toward her mentally before seeing her each day, i found it much easier to acknowledge her presence with a friendly hello and to engage in short conversations with her. by not differentiating between her and someone i found desirable, i was able to treat her more equally and fairly—for my preconceived notions of this southern indiana woman with a  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 139 southern drawl could very well have been integral to my assumptions about her being racist. as a matter of fact, since i have observed her having what seemed to be friendly conversations with people of other races. this metta meditation i used to embrace this woman was not only something i used when on the meditation mat during morning ritual and a technique i used as i walked toward the cafeteria each morning. it was a quick method i used to overcome my discomfort with her presence. recognizing my own assumptions, through a contemplative practice of reflection on the causes of how i was feeling, was also a form of mindfulness meditation practice. this reflection process and extension of loving kindness has helped me to build a more healthy relationship with this individual. mindfulness meditation, or concentrated meditation that uses the mind (to either still the mind, train the mind, or) to complete a process of thought for the cultivation of positive emotions becomes very beneficial to prevent, resolve, or transform conflict situations into mutually beneficial outcomes. by lessening aversion to certain people or situations, one can more peacefully interact with others and build relationships with mutual respect, dialogue, and understanding. one can more fully understand and embrace the self in all creatures, and all creatures in the self, “and so he dwells, recognizing himself in all, suffusing the entire world with a heart linked to friendliness, far-reaching, gone great, unlimited, free from enmity or malice” (conze 1956: 129).  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 140 emptiness meditation: mindfulness and no mind insight into emptiness is cultivated through no mind and through mindfulness meditation. let’s begin with a mindfulness meditation on the concept of emptiness. according to nagarjuna, insight into emptiness is what really dispels the fundamental ignorance or misperception of the world, so this point relates directly to the third axiom: that all phenomena are empty and devoid of inherent existence. this axiom tells us that although our normal perception leads us to believe that things are permanent and real, enjoy some kind of independent existence, through analysis we find that in reality they lack these qualities. (llama 2000: 30). the dalai llama, among others, makes the important distinction between appearance and reality. this distinction helps to more fully gain insight into the concept of emptiness. from a perception limited by time and space, “things in the world” appear to be independent and permanent. if analyzed, the reality of “things in the world” including our own selves suggests that everything is impermanent and relational in its existence. for example, i look out our front window next to my computer and see the sun shining brightly on the jade green leaves of a second year mulberry tree. i might think to myself, “what a beautiful mulberry tree. it exists independently from the lamb’s ear  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 141 plant growing next to it.” however, upon closer examination, i realize that both share the same soil nutrients because of intertwining root structures. both mulberry tree and lamb’s ear plant thrive because of water, sunlight, nutrients, adequate space to grow-among other things. both lack inherent self-existence because both exist because of multiple processes and elements that contribute to their growth. and they have grown much from last year, and will be far from their present state next year. vibrant with green and growth last year, the vica vine hanging on the front porch withers brown and nears the end of its growth cycle; all organic “things of the world” grow, change, decay, and eventually die. life or existence is dependent on the “other” in order to survive (codependent arising). non-plant elements comprise that which has been designated as “plant.” thus, “plant” lacks inherent self-existence because the plant’s existence is contingent and relational. in other words, plant is “empty” of inherent self-existence; it exists in relation to a vast cosmic web of processes and elements that comprise its nature and inform its growth and change. the concept of emptiness is both difficult to explain and hard to grasp. through prescribed analytical reflection/meditation, one more fully understands “emptiness” as a concept. however, mere conceptual understanding does not ensure a compassionate and kind action-orientation towards “beings and things of world.” realization of the lack of inherent self existence of all phenomena does not necessarily ensure nonviolent actions in  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 142 the world, though it can only help us to see how our existence is dependent, which in turn can activate a sense of universal compassion and responsibility for all “beings and things of the world.” the radical interconnectedness of all life, or as gandhi puts it, “the rock bottom foundation of the technique for achieving the power of nonviolence is belief in the essential oneness of all life” becomes the insight and knowing that informs our actions in the world. an ethic of other-centeredness naturally permeates our choices. no mind think what you thought before you were born. if you do not remember past lives, a rather blankness comes to mind after this thought. this stillness, or mental place of “no mind,” is a valid and important form of emptiness meditation. if one thinks of the latin phrase, tabula rasa, one can think of this state of mind as “blank slate mind.” a tasteless zen koan helps out here, “original nature has no opposites. speech and words are not necessary. without thinking, all things are exactly as they are. the truth is just like this (mitchell 1976: xi). without thinking, all things are exactly as they are. the cultivation of deep calm of mind, deep peace of mind, manifests in the stillness of no mind. a thoughtless realm of awareness offers a deep stillness and presence. lao tsu, a chinese taoist, describes this space of awareness as letting the mud settle to discover the clarity of consciousness:  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 143 do you have the patience to wait till your mid settles and the water is clear? can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself? (mitchell 1988: verse 15). for example, normally we are like a glass of water filled with mud. the mind is very unclear, like when one shakes the glass of water filled with mud. if we sit quietly and bring the thoughts habitually back to the space of awareness of no mind, the mud settles to the bottom of the water glass and the water once again becomes clear. the right answers to our questions arise naturally, from a calm state of inner peace. such centeredness and stillness cultivated from no mind can be beneficial physiologically, mentally, and emotionally. the ground of existence, this still, centeredness and yet nameless “space of awareness” has a rippling effect on one’s being. on a more rudimentary level, just sitting down and calming the body positively affects the speed of thoughts and brings about a sense of physiological relaxation or peace. even if the space of no-mind awareness is not accessed, the slowing and calming of the habits of mind become beneficial for ones general well-being. degrees of stillness of the mind and relaxation of the body arise from simply focusing on the breath and gently leading thoughts back to the breath as they inevitably wander away to the past or toward the future. a disciplined approach to bringing the mind back to the thought one had before  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 144 birth will be beneficial to the practitioner in the long run. some suggest it is the pathway to world peace, “people desire money, fame, sex, food, and rest. all this desire is thinking. not thinking is not suffering. not suffering means world peace. world peace is the absolute. the absolute is i” (mitchell 1976: 4). religion and public education: secularizing buddhist meditation? in a u.s. context, separation of church and state become critical when considering the potential of meditation as a tool for peace education. public schools are suppose to keep religion as separate from affairs of state, though hidden and sometimes explicit religious curriculum and instruction enter into the public sphere. such a dichotomy between church and state is highly contested. the problem of religious practice in public schools in the forms of school prayer, the teaching of biological evolution, and positions on abortion all represent fundamental secular-religious tensions that complicate the schooling of american children. the majority of americans identify as christian. thus, buddhist meditation is highly suspect and definitely not is/would not be wholeheartedly accepted as a normative cultural practice. however, contemplative, meditative practices have a long history in many of the world’s faiths, including christianity, judaism, islam, native american religions, and buddhism. perhaps some middle ground, a more inclusive and secular middle ground, can be found that would satisfy various religious traditions.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 145 secularizing meditation emerges as paramount to integrate the practice into mainstream schooling. contemplative practices, the use of analytically prescriptive or reflective thinking, are part of nearly every world religion, and definitely part of modern schooling. these practices are not so far removed from meditation practices. in fact, it could be argued that such an integration of meditation is already apparent in the form of guided visualization, mindfulness in the classroom, and other creative techniques to engage students in learning. with a little guidance, “contemplative practices” become meditations in and of themselves, capable of transforming physiological, conceptual and affective domains. in the article, “meditation, social change, and undergraduate education,” steven rockefeller (1994) affirms the benefits of such contemplative practices. contemplative disciplines may help some people become less frenetic and more centered, more aware of the goodness and beauty of their own being, more appreciative of the intrinsic value of other beings, more responsive to suffering, more attentive and mindful, more open to i-thou relationship and meaning (rockefell 1994: 2). rockefeller sees the benefit of “contemplative practices” as physical in the form of a more relaxed physiological state and potentially much deeper in the form of a de-centered ego or a relational way of viewing and living in the world.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 146 the distinction between a “contemplative practice” and a meditation remains ambiguous and problematic as presented in this article. are the two fundamentally different? connotatively, yes. people are much more likely to accept a contemplative practice as a legitimate instructional means over meditation. perhaps equating meditation with prayer, something that i have often been successful with in christian circles, might be beneficial. however, the practices of buddhist meditations that i am familiar with are much different than prayer in christianity because the recipient of prayer is usually an external, abstract entity, namely god, and the object of buddhist meditation generally is more close to one’s individual human psychology and cosmic connectedness. nonetheless, rockefeller’s use of the term “contemplative practice,” though problematic, grounds meditation and equates it with more familiar and acceptable terms to an american public. such use of this term is more palatable. rockefeller proposes directions for creative social change via democratic revolution, new ecological reconstructions of thinking, and living, and an awakening to the sacredness of the earth. (rockefeller 1994). he sees social change occurring through both reconstructing the social environment and through changing “character orientations through transforming… awareness, attitudes, and values” (rockefeller 1994: 2). he situates the practice of meditation in a dialogic process of thought and social action,  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 147 in an american culture the challenge is to set the practice of meditation in the context of a worldview that affirms a healthy balance between inwardness and activism, concentration and going forth into relationship, quiet contemplation and social responsibility (rockefeller 1994: 2). meditation thus emerges as a way to balance our inner lives within our social spheres of action and influence. from a place of centeredness, we then engage in more enlightened action in our socio-cultural, political, and environmental spheres of our lives. the problem with such a simplistic vision of the use of meditation as a transformative social change agent is neglectful of the macro economic and political structures that impinge on people’s ability to survive and pursue their own version of the good life. habermas (1987) explains the process of structures shaping and forging subjectivities as the “system” influencing the “lifeworld.” structural violence in the form of economic and political systems that privilege the few, sedate the many, and neglect the majority are rampant. comparing the amount of information systems in america and canada in relation to sub-saharan africa proves this point quite well. comparing the life expectancy of canadians or americans to our fellow humans in sub-saharan africa will also prove this point well. meditation can be used as a transformative tool for socially enlightened action, but can it serve to change the economic systems and institutions that  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 148 perpetuate inequality? once again, we are reminded that social change is sometimes a small, slow, and local phenomenon. the problems posed by religion are many if the inclusion of meditation as a mainstream cultural practice will indeed manifest. buddhist meditation, or as some say, the “science of the mind,” is extremely rational and scientific in its approach to understanding the nature of existence and the antidotes to suffering. vast arrays of buddha images in tibetan temples and even simple statues of the buddha invoke some form of deity worship that often sits uncomfortably with christians who follow the commandment of “though shall not commit idolatry.” the bowing to the buddha statue does not necessarily have to mean the worship of a strange deity in the form of a statue. it can simply mean the acknowledgement of an ideal state of consciousness. joseph campbell once conveyed that bowing to the form of a deity was recognizing the state of consciousness represented in it in one’s own self. true, many traditions of buddhism invoke green tara, white tara, and the medicine buddha as part of their practices. this can be a bit scary to someone coming from a different cultural background. however, bare bones buddhism, in my interpretation, is an extremely rational process that hangs its strength on the power of reason and analytic thought. critical thinking is core to buddhism because one critically dissects and synthesizes the nature of existence, the law of impermanence, the difference between appearance and reality, the  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 149 law of karma, the concept of emptiness and interdependent arising to come to an understanding of our positionality in a vast cosmos. the problem that the religiosity of buddhism poses can be tempered by the rationality used in many buddhist meditations; a rationality that can hardly be considered outside the boundaries of many other world religious traditions, and definitely not outside secular traditions that hang their hats on rationality. religious values and practices need to be presented in secular terms in order to gain their acceptance in public schools. they have been throughout the time of secular schooling. the 14th dalai llama of tibetan buddhism agrees with this position, “i think the best thing is to develop secular ethics. simply make clear the essential human values: a warm heart, a sense of caring for one another. these values can be taught without referring to a religious point of view.” (llama 2000: 88). buddhist or not, rational or contemplative practices that promote a calm body and mind, perhaps insight into how we are all related and different, are and can be beneficial to children in u.s. schools and schools elsewhere. in the chapter, “toward the mainstreaming of american dharma practice,” kabat-zinn (1998) demystifies meditation and provides an example of the natural tendency for school children to meditate: i like to make the point that meditation is really about paying attention. there’s nothing particularly magical or mystical about it—everybody is  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 150 capable of paying attention—only it’s gotten a bad reputation because when you stare out the window in the second grade, and the teacher catches you at it, what does she yell at you? (kabat-zinn 1998: 487). paying attention does not have to be magical or mystical, it can be mere moment to moment awareness. toward closure: interconnectedness, buddhist meditation & peace education radical interconnectedness as an approach to nonviolent social action if all the people in the world understood themselves, they would attain the absolute. then the world would be at peace. world peace is zen. (mitchell 1976: 4). the previous quote from zen conveys the need to understand ourselves. a quote from a foundational hindu text, the bhagavad gita, conveys the need for non-differentiated awareness: arming himself with discipline, seeing everything with an equal eye, he sees the self in all creatures and all creatures in the self (stoler: 67).  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 151 plato’s maxim “know thyself” lays the foundation for a process of self-examination that both buddhists and hindus suggest opens one to understanding of the essential and radical interconnectedness of all life. in “seeing the self in all creatures and all creatures in the self” one moves beyond a dualistic interpretation and experience of the world and insight into the unity of all is cultivated. the self and the other are non-differentiated. in order to understand gandhi’s theory of peace and nonviolence, we must revisit the foundation from which the theory is built--the hindu belief in a unified existence that stems back to the ancient upanisads and to the bhagavad-gita. notice how gandhi reiterates ancient ideas, i believe in non-duality, i believe in the essential unity of man and, for that matter, of all that lives….. the rock bottom foundation of the technique for achieving the power of nonviolence is belief in the essential oneness of all life. (gandhi 1924: 390). through the eyes of gandhi, the technique for achieving nonviolence stems from a firm understanding of non-duality and the unity of all life. often quoted by members of the tibetan gelupta order, nagarajuna—a second century buddhist saint, provides insight into the grasping of self, one who does not grasp onto “i” or “mine,” that one does not exist.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 152 one who does not grasp onto “i” and “mine,” he does not perceive (garfield 1995: 247). not existing and not perceiving convey a loss of “self” into the fabric of the “others.” with duality transcended, violence against the other becomes an act of violence against the self and is deemed an undesirable course of action in the transformation of a conflict situation. an understanding of the fundamental and radical interconnectedness of all life must serve as a rock bottom foundation for peace education endeavors. without this sense of unity, of commonality, of collective humanity or of collective planetary coexistence, the value of “other” life forms lessens and acts of violence against the “other” are justified; human normative structures prioritize life forms and hierarchies are created to justify the domination, oppression, or killing of the “other” based on positions of privilege established in those hierarchies. such human designations become reified in time, morph into “natural” law, and form the basis for harmful discrimination. granted, we sort and select on a daily basis those things we deem appropriate to consume for the enhancement of life; life indeed does feed on life. however, the degree of harm that we do, i believe, is essential to consider when making our survival and consumer choices. how harmful we are when we sort and select in the dirt and concrete  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 153 world of daily existence is of utmost importance to consider when building a world where violence is minimized and more peace is actualized. buddhist meditation becomes a tool that multiplies the potential for nonviolent thoughts, attitudes, values, dispositions, actions-orientations, and behaviors in the world. because its aim is the liberation from suffering through deep insight into the nature of existence, it holds the potential, not the all-curing prescription, to transform one’s understanding and relatedness to others, both human and nonhuman, in the world. from deep insight into the nature of self and the nature of existence, nonviolent thought, action, and disposition just might flow naturally, effortlessly. thus, buddhist forms of meditation emerge as very useful tools for peace educators. buddhist meditation integrated with peace education teaching contemplative practices to students in schools is beneficial. the processes of reflection on the content and process of learning are helpful to ensure the absorption of knowledge and understanding of the process of absorbing knowledge that constitutes the learning experience. to more fully cultivate holistic human beings, i argue that the inclusion of meditative techniques and practices of various religious traditions of the world could be beneficial to more fully develop compassionate and caring human beings. the separation of church and state does not have to mean the  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 154 separation of children and adults from contemplative practices/ meditative techniques that might be helpful to their holistic development as human beings. buddhist meditation techniques, among others, can be integrated into peace education efforts to cultivate inner peace. the extension of friendliness and loving kindness to all can be cultivated through disciplined meditative techniques that aim to reduce the barriers we place between ourselves, friends, neutrals, and foes. contemplating how we are related to other sentient beings and non-sentient inorganic matter brings us to an understanding of the radical and subtle interconnectedness of all life—which serves as a foundation for nonviolent action. without so much differentiating among various people and “beings and things of the world,” perhaps we can recognize the necessary and important role that all beings serve on the planet, and to not be so earth-centric, the necessary and important role the earth plays in a vast cosmos. understanding the essential unity of all life provides the necessary foundation for nonviolence in the world because violence against the “other” is then understood as violence against the “self.” buddhist meditation, though not the sole form of meditation capable of doing so, offers the potential for understanding the interdependence of all life, thus deeming violence as an unsuitable and an illegitimate means to resolve conflict. it also offers mindful attunement--a helpful tool for everyday living. the world can benefit  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 155 from the extension of loving-kindness and a deeper understanding of how we are all related as a planetary family. peace education can surely benefit from harvesting and using the rich meditative means and insight of all the world’s great wisdom traditions: native american; islam; hinduism; judaism; confucianism and taoism; christianity; sikhism, jainism; paganism; and other global indigenous traditions. inner peace, an often neglected dimension of education for peace, is necessary for a sustainable and renewable culture of peace for the children of the world. references ardizonne, leonisa. 2001. getting their word out: youth peace builders of new york city. unpublished doctoral dissertation, teachers college, columbia university. new york. bhagavad-gita: krishna’s counsel in a time of war. translated by miller, barbara stoler. new york, bantam books. brantmeier, edward j., lin, jing. 2008. toward forging a positive, transformative paradigm for peace education. in lin, jing, brantmeier, edward j., bruhn, christa. educators as peacemakers: transforming education for global peace. information age press. forthcoming. _____brantmeier, edward. 2004. transforming the order of “things”: peace education in dialogue with critical social theory. ph.d. qualifying exam. unpublished manuscript. indiana university. the fundamental wisdom of the middle way. nagarajuna. 1995. translation and commentary by garfield, jay. oxford university press.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 156 conze, edward. 1956. buddhist meditation. london, george allen and unwin ltd. freire, paulo. 1972. the pedagogy of the oppressed. penguin books. galtung, johann. 1969. violence, peace and peace research. journal of peace research 3: 167-192. gandhi, m.k. essential writings of mahatma gandhi, p 319. from “some rules of satyagraha,” 1930. gandhi, m.k. 1924. young india. 4 december. in collected works, volume 29: 390. groff, linda. 2001. seven concepts in the evolution of peace thinking. peacebulding. university of wisconsin-milwaukee, 2001. _______ 2002. seven concepts in the evolution of peace thinking. social alternatives. the university of queensland. 21(1). habermas, jurgen. 1987. the theory of communicative action (vol 2): lifeworld and system: a critique of functionalist reason. beacon press. hanh, thich nhat. 1995. peace is every step. bantam doubleday dell harris, ian. 2002. peace education for a new century. social alternatives. the university of queensland. 21(1). harris, ian. 1989. a model for teacher training that would promote peace. teacher education quarterly, spring, kabat-zinn, dr. jon. 1998. toward the mainstream of american dharma practice. in buddhism in america: proceedings of the first buddhism in america conference. charles e tuttle, co. lama, dalai. 2000. transforming the mind: teachings on generating compassion. thorsons.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 120-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 157 lin, jing, brantmeier, edward j., bruhn, christa. educators as peacemakers: transforming education for global peace. information age press. forthcoming. mitchell, stephen, trans. 1976. dropping ashes on the buddha: the teaching of zen master seung sahn. grove press books. mitchell, stephen, trans. 1998. tao te ching by lao tsu. harperperennial, new york, 1988. reardon,betty. 1999. peace education: a review and projection. peace education reports. sweden: malmo university school of education. no. 17. reardon, b.r. comprehensive peace education: education for global responsibility. new york: teachers college press of columbia university, 1988. rockefeller, stephen. 1994. meditation, social change, and undergraduate education. meeting of the working group of the contemplative mind in society. sept. 29oct. 2, pocantico, ny, 1994. sponsored by: the nathans cummings foundation & fetzer institute. salzberg, sharon. 1995.. loving-kindness: the revolutionary art of happiness. shambala. smith, huston. 1991. the world’s religions. harper. varenne, jean. 1976. yoga and the hindu tradition. the university of chicago press, chicago. microsoft word v14.2 mcgregor.docx volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 140 volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal consumer moral leadership sue l. t. mcgregor abstract despite conceptualizations of moral leadership, the literature is silent on consumer moral leadership proposed herein as a new intellectual construct. this conceptual paper reframes consumers as marketplace leaders grounded in a moral imperative. an overview of the moral leadership construct is provided from which sprang a collection of genitor constructs integrated into a new understanding of moral leadership in the consumer context: moral intelligence, discipline, integrity, courage, self-transcendence, intensity, and authority. reasoning and argumentation strove to convince readers of the conceptual merit of the consumer moral leadership construct, which is, as yet, abstract anticipating theoretical verification. keywords: consumer moral leadership, moral leadership, morality, moral efficacy, ethical and moral consumerism introduction the problem addressed in this paper is the need for consumer leadership in the marketplace to augment the fallout of consumerism perpetuated by consumer management. this paper challenges the longstanding assumption that consumer’s efficient management of resources is enough. it tenders a new construct called consumer moral leadership, which is predicated on people being self-efficacious moral leaders in their consumption practices. volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 141 141 consumerism ideology “the role of consumption and the ideology of consumerism are key elements in modern global cultures and societies” (hinkins, 2007, p. 44). although consumerism can mean different things to different people (gabriel & lang, 1995), in this paper, consumerism connotes an ideology with an attendant belief system, and consumption refers to behaviour stemming from the ideology. in more detail, sklair (2010, p. 136) described the ideology of consumerism as “a set of beliefs and values, integral but not exclusive to the system of capitalist globalization, intended to make people believe that human worth is best ensured and happiness is best achieved in terms of our consumption and possessions.” the consumerism ideology (cultural blueprint) “shapes the very assumptions that consumers hold about power relationships, preferred market dynamics, presumed rights and responsibilities and how people make sense of their role as a consumer” (mcgregor, 2013, p. 6). consumers as efficient managers hand in hand with this problematization of consumerism is the longstanding notion of efficient consumer managers instead of moral leaders in the marketplace. the notion of consumers as efficient managers arose from the home economics discipline at the turn of the twentieth century (berger, 1984; key & firebaugh, 1989; mcgregor, 2009). founders of the profession reasoned that bringing scientific principles to the study of the home, at a time when consumerism was gaining ground, would empower individuals and families to fight back against the pitfalls of industrialization and capitalism. efficient management of scarce resources to improve well-being and quality of life was the mantra of the day (brown, 1993). she explained that home economists strove to improve economic and consumer well-being “through efficiency in management” (brown, 1993, p. 49). this “efficiency is exercised by ... the management of economic resources” (p. 50) with management meaning handling things – latin manus, ‘hand’ (harper, 2020). consumers were to ensure efficiency in their behaviour (i.e., handlings resources to meet needs and wants with minimum waste) by privileging competitive self-interest, individualism, and consumer rights. over time, it became evident that a focus on consumer efficiency when managing resources compromised social efficacy and caring for others and the planet (brown, 1993). she maintained that consumers were distracted from the larger issue of whether the economic and political systems, which are dependent on consumerism (an ideology) and consumption (a behaviour), had threatened their ability to fulfill volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 142 142 human and societal needs beyond their own self-interest. brown thus argued that such a heavy focus on being efficient consumer managers had led to “a lack of moral responsibility within the family” (1993, p. 52). home economics has since enhanced its approach to consumer and family well-being with global perspectives, sustainability and consumers as global citizens (see mcgregor, 2002), but this initial awareness coincided with the ethical consumerism movement and its concern for ethics and morality in consumer decisions. the 1980s decade of the ‘green consumer’ lead to the ethical consumerism movement, which, “by the early 1990s, was starting to gain attention ... as an exciting innovation” (anderson, 2015, p. 108). but despite its innovative nature, consumers were simply expected to shift from being efficient managers to sustainable, efficient managers, and always with the expectation that consuming is their major contribution to the economy and thus society (brown, 1993). requisite paradigm shift with ethical consumption, the “concern is primarily for others, distanced by geography, class, species or generality” (newholm, newholm, & shaw, 2015, p. 301). but the concept of leadership was never explicit in the equation for transforming consumption to an ethical imperative (mcgregor & shaw, 2006). not surprisingly, conceptualizing people as moving from efficient managers to moral leaders will require a paradigm shift, because despite there being an ongoing “consumption ethic” since adam smith’s work in the 1750s (newholm et al., 2015, p. 290), the uncritical assumption has been that consumers will be ethical and efficient managers of their own resources not leaders in the marketplace for the benefit of others and the earth. peace educators and consumerism some people in the peace education field have acknowledged that consumerism is not peaceful, because it reinforces and depends on structural violence and hinges on people being efficient managers of scare resources, so they can meet their own self-interests when consuming (mcgregor, 2010, 2016). fellow peace educators also interested in non-violent, just, responsible and accountable consumption may be looking for alternative ways to reorient people to engage in consumer decisions that are moral, ethical and inflict nominal harm. this type of peace education would require teaching people how to be consumer moral leaders not just efficient managers. volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 143 143 such an approach to peace education is necessary, because consumers often encounter moral situations and grapple with morally irresponsible and morally risky behaviour. such behaviour can lead to exploitation, oppression, marginalization and disadvantaged scenarios for fellow humans (neilsen & mcgregor, 2013). in his seminal paper consuming morality, wilk (2001) posited that “consumption is in essence a moral matter” (p. 269). put simply, consumers are “subjects of moral obligation” (cherrier, 2006, p. 515). moral consumers are “motivated by desire to be better people” (jelovac & rihtaršič, 2014, p. 87) in the marketplace for the betterment of everything. to respect the moral imperative at play (with imperative meaning a strongly felt principle that compels people to act), this conceptual paper focuses on the consumer moral leadership construct.1 as noted, this new conceptualization is intended to augment the longstanding consumer management construct. to elaborate, unlike management, leadership has normative connotations of a higher moral purpose (safty, 2003). morality pertains to harm arising from actions (rozycki, 1993). normative pertains to ‘what should be done or ought to be?’ rather than ‘what is being or can be done?’ normative statements express a value judgement (i.e., taking one’s value system into account) about a situation (wong, 1987). for clarification, this paper is not about moral management, which is a construct developed to study how well business managers apply the moral maximization principle when handling their workforce (sikula, 1996). it concerns whether they went “against the grain, [took the] elevated ethical ground [and] walked the high road” while striving for profit (sikula, 2009, pp. 253, 261). consumer accountability imperative the premise of normatively focusing on consumers as moral leaders in the marketplace is deceptively complex. that said, if consumers are to assume accountability for the impact of their marketplace choices, they must move from viewing themselves as efficient managers to also being self-efficacious moral leaders. it is not unreasonable to ask consumers to assume this role, because they spend trillions of dollars annually on products that are not ethically sourced and produced (assadourian & mastny, 2017). compared to businesses and governments, consumers spent two thirds (62.87%) of the global gross domestic product (gdp) in 2018 (global economy, 2019). with this spending power comes undeniable responsibility whether desired or not (mcgregor, 2017). 1. an earlier version of this paper was published as a book chapter in mcgregor (2010). any overlapping material contained herein is used with copyright permission from brill/sense publishing. volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 144 144 as a caveat, some take issue with this stance (e.g., john broome, slavoj zizek), arguing instead that vulnerable consumers do not exert power through their shopping decisions, because they are powerless in the marketplace. instead, the moral responsibility principle should be relegated to the nation state to make up for the lack of personal moral responsibility of the masses. it is governments, not consumers, that have the power to alter global hierarchies and structural inequalities that perpetuate unethical economies and markets (peer reviewer, personal communication, december 9, 2020). albeit respectful of this counterpoint, the cumulative power of billions of consumers takes precedence in this paper. dearth of consumer moral leadership literature as noted, implementing the new intellectual construct introduced in this paper will require an immense paradigm shift. to further explain, although moral leadership has received attention in the literature (anello, 1992; gini, 1996; tamang, 2013; vaduva, alistar, thomas, lupiţu, & neagoie, 2016), virtually nothing exists about consumer moral leadership proposed herein as an additional marketplace responsibility and opportunity. from a moral leadership perspective, people are paradigmatically being asked to rethink their consumer role by augmenting ‘managing for efficiency’ with ‘leading for moral efficacy.’ the latter is the ability to both “deal positively with ethical issues that arise . . . and overcome obstacles to developing and implementing ethical solutions” (may, luth, & schwoerer, 2014, p. 68). the moral imperative (i.e., guiding principle) is to mitigate harm thereby lessening the gravity or culpability of one’s marketplace actions (rozycki, 1993). conceptual clarification while appreciating that these aligned constructs are interrelated, the consumer moral leadership construct purposefully deals with (a) leadership not management, (b) morality not ethics and (c) moral consumerism not ethical consumerism. each is differentiated. leader versus manager. leaders work on changing the system, while managers work within it. leaders proactively adapt and draw on principles to provide direction for transformation. managers react to situations by gaining control of resources to efficiently maximize benefits (covey, 1992). consumer management pertains to people, in varying degrees, taking control of and regulating the use of their finances and other resources to meet needs (essential) volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 145 145 and wants (desirable) by using and disposing of goods and services procured from the marketplace. these management decisions represent varying degrees of ethical consumption. asking people to make ethical consumption decisions in their management role is not the same thing as asking them to be moral leaders when confronting an ethically intense purchase situation with leadership intimating service (anello, 2006; mcgregor, 2010; tamang, 2013). morals versus ethics. the consumer moral leadership construct deals more so with morality than ethics appreciating their philosophical connection and frequent conflation. put simply, morals are what people consider to be normative (should and ought to – right and wrong) and affect their thought and reasoning process. ethics are standards used to judge the goodness and badness of one’s behaviour. ethics are external codes (standards) that guide personal and collective behaviour, while morals are internal normative principles (i.e., a moral compass) that influence personal thoughts and decisions (e.g., “doing the right thing, living honourably, leading with high character”) (weinstein, 2018, para. 1). ethics (codes and standards) are developed purposefully over time, while morals are something people feel intuitively. ethics guide and map decisions, but morals are used to normatively judge decisions – what should be done? (weinstein, 2011, 2018). in effect, morals exemplify the idiom – think before you act. moral versus ethical consumerism. ethical consumerism was already introduced. “moral consumerism has arisen [in conjunction with] the ethical consumerism trend [and involves taking] moral considerations into account [when purchasing]” (tang et al., 2016, p. 152). ethical consumerism is a type of external consumer activism (giesler & veresiu, 2014), while moral consumerism is internal and concerns whether purchase decisions are principled (i.e., morally correct) (brinkman, 2004). cain (2019) concurred that moral consumerism is principle based. ethical consumerism is about freedom of choice, but moral consumerism is about actions and behaviour based on personal, principled integrity and thought processes (jelovac & rihtaršič, 2014). method: conceptual integration the consumer moral leadership construct herein was developed through a research process called conceptual integration; that is, the intermixing of previously segregated, abstract ideas (gilson & goldberg, 2015; rocco & plakhotnik, 2009). the result is the articulation of definitions of contributing constructs along with posited systematized relations among them and between the new construct and the phenomenon in question (mcgregor, 2018; rocco & plakhotnik, 2009). the construct of consumer moral leadership frames consumers volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 146 146 as leaders in the marketplace acting from a position of morality. morality comes into play when there is a chance that harm will result from an action (rozycki, 1993). conceptual papers such as this one report the results of integrative research (gilson & goldberg, 2015). as in this paper, most new ideas presented this way are abstract and not theoretically proven; yet, they are considered valuable contributions to the literature if well argued (mclean, 2011; saunders, 2018). the abstraction is usually expressed through word models, pictorial models or both (o’toole, 2013; smyth, 2004). a word model is a clear statement and description of all elements and any processes that link them to the research phenomenon (kimmins, blanco, seely, welham, & scoullar, 2010). also, conceptual papers are discursive in that they involve reasoning and argumentation to convince others of the conceptual merit (mcgregor, 2018; mclean, 2011; saunders, 2018). the discursive narrative shared in this paper includes an overview of the moral leadership construct from which sprung a collection of genitor constructs (gilson & goldberg, 2015) that were integrated into a new understanding of moral leadership in the consumer context – consumer moral leadership. this empirically untested abstraction and its supportive argument (developed using logic and rhetoric) are presented herein for scholarly consideration, debate and dialogue (saunders, 2018). after explaining the moral leadership construct (including moral leaders in general), the discussion shifts to an elaboration of the new idea of consumer moral leadership. moral leadership construct although all leadership is irrevocably tied to morality (safty, 2003), moral leadership is different from leadership in general (sucher, 2007). moral leaders strive to serve rather than be followed (tamang, 2013). lead is old english lædan, ‘go before as a guide; show the way’ (harper, 2020). leadership in general is a process that enables people to achieve their goals by guiding and inspiring others. a leader brings a clear and compelling sense of the future as well as any actions needed to get there. the intent is to effect change (covey, 1992). morality is latin moralite, ‘virtuous thought or conduct’ (harper, 2020) with virtuous meaning of high moral standard. morality is a concern for creating and mitigating harm (rozycki, 1993). until relatively recently, little attention was paid to the moral dimension of leadership (gini, 1996; safty, 2003). consequently, a universally accepted definition of moral leadership is still volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 147 147 evolving (johnson, 2003). although moral leadership is hard to define (gini, 1996; johnson, 2003), leading from a moral perspective is basically about service to others, society and the world. this service, in turn, leads to personal empowerment and agency that enable people to contribute to societal transformation (anello, 2006; tamang, 2013). moral leaders by serving the needs and well-being of others, moral leaders strive to preserve human honour and dignity, which leads to a more deeply caring civilization and less harm to each other. to that end, moral leaders aspire to release each person’s potential and do so concurrently protecting the latter’s rights and freedoms while safeguarding the whole community’s welfare (anello, 1992; gini, 1996). moral leaders act from a deep sense of ethics (e.g., consciousness and integrity). they are driven by core, moral ideals (e.g., justice and a respect for humanity) and motivated by the pursuit of a higher purpose than self-interest (safty, 2003; tamang, 2013). they are deeply certain about their moral beliefs and scrupulous in their efforts to use morally justifiable means to pursue their moral goals (colby & damon, 1992). in effect, “moral leaders are the conscience (i.e., the moral compass) of an enterprise . . . and the glue that holds it together” (tamang, 2013, para. 4). grounded in this conscience or moral voice, moral leaders demand and exercise transparency, accountability, and they expect behaviour of the highest ideals (goode, 2010). they know how to temper their ego, manage themselves and act with morally correct behaviour (rectitude) to right or prevent moral wrongs. in the marketplace, they are expected to overcome selfishness, materialism and consumerism-driven ambition (goode, 2010; tamang, 2013). they can be effective in this role, because they “have the ability to see ‘the end in the beginning’” (tamang, 2013, para. 11). this means they tend to step back and ponder the consequences of their actions before acting, knowing that these actions “are tested against values and not [just] . . . results” (tamang, 2013, para. 12). “moral leaders are not heroes of morality, but individuals . . . that strive to do things ethically, trying not to have a negative impact on stakeholders and pushing others to behave the same” (vaduva et al., 2016, p. 2). in summary, people assuming a moral leadership role will have (a) a service orientation for the common good, (b) the intent to ensure personal and social transformation, (c) a moral responsibility to investigate and apply the truth, (d) a belief in the essential nobility of human nature, (e) personal transcendence volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 148 148 through vision (i.e., putting the welfare of others first) and (f) to develop moral capabilities (anello & hernandez, 1996). operating on ethical principles, moral leadership is inspirational, morally uplifting, and it mobilizes people (bass & steidlmeier, 1999; gini, 1996). given the unjust and unpeaceful nature of the 21st century global marketplace, a concern for consumer moral leaders is well placed and needs to be mobilized. to that end, the next section introduces the consumer moral leadership construct scaffolded with supportive argumentation of its intellectual merit. consumer moral leadership construct as noted, a new construct can arise from the integration of existing constructs related to the phenomenon in question (gilson & goldberg, 2015). part of this creation process involves the development and articulation of possible relations among these ideas as they pertain to the new construct (rocco & plakhotnik, 2009). to that end, this section identifies, explains and weaves together the relationships among seven moral leadership-related constructs as they pertain to consumers assuming the role of a moral leader in the marketplace: moral intelligence, discipline, integrity, courage, self-transcendence, intensity, and moral authority. in the consumer moral leadership construct, these seven elements are interrelated via a connecting logic (see figure 1). volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 149 149 logic is a method of reasoning used to build and substantiate arguments and draw conclusions (mcgregor, 2018). the logic set out in figure 1, which traces the connections and associations (not causation) among these seven ideas, supports the argument herein pursuant to consumers assuming the mantle of moral leader in the marketplace. this assertion is tempered with an acknowledgement that consumers will be in different stages of readiness and willingness to assume this responsibility. what matters is the rigour of the presentation herein of this new construct for scholarly consideration. as a caveat, figure 1 represents a process model (as will become evident) rather than linear, causal relationships. moral intelligence intelligence is latin intelligere, ‘capacity for understanding and comprehending general truths; ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills’ (harper, 2020). any interest in others, and how one’s actions impact them, involves moral intelligence (jordan, 2005). borba (2001) defined this as the capacity to understand right from wrong and comprehend when this understanding is required. it means having strong ethical convictions and acting on them so that one behaves in the right and honourable way. lennick and kiel (2005) concurred, asserting that moral intelligence is both the possession of a strong moral compass and the ability and inclination to follow it; this disposition is tantamount to moral integrity (to be discussed). also, people can draw on their moral intelligence to persuade others to behave in morally justifiable ways (sama & shoaf, 2008), which relates to moral authority (to be discussed). lennick and kiel’s (2005) conceptualization of moral intelligence comprises four competencies: (a) integrity (conscience and fairness), (b) responsibility (self-control and respect), (c) compassion (empathy and kindness) and (d) forgiveness (tolerance). a morally unintelligent person would lack the ability to vary their response when confronting morally bound situations; they would struggle with drawing on these four competencies. their struggle makes sense in that “moral intelligence is grounded in emotion and reason. mature moral functioning relies on [their] integration” (narvaez, 2010, p. 77). thus, when faced with a moral quandary in the marketplace, consumers must know how to bring both reason and emotion into equal participation. immature moral functioning manifests in not possessing adequate volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 150 150 measures of moral intelligence. intelligence in general includes aspects of cognition (knowing and thinking), affection (valuing and emotions), and conation (ethics) (clarken, 2009). moral intelligence is no exception. respectively, morally intelligent consumers would be informed, understand how they think when acting in the marketplace, bring their values to bear, be aware of their emotions, and apply a sense of right and wrong (ethics) to their consumer decisions. moral discipline discipline is latin disciplina, ‘instruction (to train); to correct’ (harper, 2020). moral discipline is the best check and balance against not fulfilling moral obligations to each other. it “means self-discipline based on moral standards” (christofferson, 2009, p.1). exercising moral discipline entails using social norms, rules, customs and laws to personally develop moral reasoning, selfcontrol and a general respect for others (denton, 1999). moral discipline entails confronting moral and ethical choices by developing skills in moral reasoning, moral analysis and moral judgements (sucher, 2007). self-discipline based on moral standards increases feelings of moral obligation and reinforces the need for moral leadership (denton, 1999; johnson, 2003). this self-discipline is “the consistent exercise of agency to choose the right thing because it is right, even when it is hard” (christofferson, 2009, p. 1). in a consumer society especially, too many people lack internal control that is grounded in moral values. the attendant decline of self-regulated behaviour leads to unprincipled conduct (anello, 2006). but this unregulated behaviour can be ameliorated by anchoring oneself to an internal moral compass to support the exercise of moral discipline. in order to both self-discipline based on moral standards and exercise moral agency, people must have the truth of things as they really are, otherwise they cannot be expected to understand and evaluate their choices (christofferson, 2009). this truth sentiment applies especially to consumer choices that are often riddled with moral implications, which are difficult to discern because the truth of production, manufacturing, marketing and retailing is often not readily accessible. this is one factor making it so unpeaceful. moral integrity integrity is one of the primary principles of moral leadership (quick & normore, 2004). it is latin integritas, ‘intact, whole, complete’ (harper, 2020). moral volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 151 151 integrity refers to the complex notion of moral wholeness or unit of the self (ascension health as cited in mcgregor & gentzler, 2009). integrity as a character trait refers to the quality of being morally upright (anderson, 2014). it is a consistency between values and beliefs and attendant actions: people ‘walk their talk.’ this idiom refers to standing for something, having a significant commitment to it and exemplifying this commitment in one’s behaviour. people ‘practice what they preach’ (lennick & kiel, 2005; quick & normore, 2004). if people do not act from a position of integrity, their actions cannot be trusted (laundauer & rowlands, 2001). acting in accordance with one’s beliefs (quick & normore, 2004) builds moral character, which is then reflected in a commitment to searching out moral excellence. this moral character is a key component of moral leadership (gini, 1996). to act without integrity means others may become mistrustful, because one’s actions are not predictable (laundauer & rowlands, 2001). fortunately, moral character and integrity can reinforce the use of a moral compass that reads true. a moral life of integrity rests upon the foundations of virtuous individuals (i.e., being of morally sound character). once people become virtuous within a community, they can become virtuous for the community. they can transform others and the social environment for the good of humanity (bass & steidlmeier, 1999). this sentiment resonates with a consumer society as well and contributes to more peaceful and inclusive consumption. moral courage next to integrity, courage is the other primary principle of moral leadership (quick & normore, 2004). courage stems from latin cor, ‘heart’ (harper, 2020). it is defined as digging deep and finding strength to act in the face of pain, grief or fear (anderson, 2014). moral courage (i.e., dealing with rightness and wrongness) manifests when people act in service of their values (kidder, 2005). this act entails moral discernment and then taking responsibility for the consequences of any actions (costa, 1998). it also means “stand[ing] up for what is right even in the face of adverse personal outcomes” (may et al., 2014, p. 68). moral courage involves acting with integrity in moments with moral consequence (i.e., harm might ensue). it requires “lifting values from the theoretical to the practical and carries us beyond ethical reasoning to principled action” (kidder, 2005, p. 2). moral courage does not always produce immediate benefits however, because it is one thing to have values and another to live by those values (kidder, 2005). and, “a morally courageous person often goes against the grain, acting contrary to the accepted norm” (kidder, 2005, p. 7). as volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 152 152 threatening as this is, with moral courage, consumers can buck the consumerism ideology and materialistic paradigm thereby shifting to a moral imperative. this ideological and paradigmatic pushback is not easily done. rhode (2006) identified three major obstacles to moving beyond the violent-inducing emotions of fear and guilt: self-interest, impaired judgement, and the psychology of power. moral courage is the quality of mind and spirit that enables people to firmly and confidently face up to ethical dilemmas and moral wrongdoings. without it, people cannot take persistent and firm actions while not flinching or retreating in the face of persuasion and resistance – holding their moral ground (kidder & bracy, 2001). finally, moral courage, a virtue that enables people to be effective when they face ethical challenges (including consumer decisions), is a necessary element in the ethics equation and involves overcoming fear, cowardice and weakness through practical (morally grounded) actions. possessing a sense of core moral values means little without the courage to see things through (bass & steidlmeier, 1999; kidder & bracy, 2001). moral self-transcendence transcend is latin transcendere, ‘go beyond the range or limits to a new space; to surpass’ (harper, 2020). only self-transcendence (i.e., movement to a new mental and perceptual space) can lead to moral leadership (carey, 1992; jordan, 2005; sanders, hopkins, & geroy, 2003). when people transcend their self-interest, they become focused on the other rather than themselves (cardona, 2000). cardona (2000) called this transcendent motivation and defined it as a concern for others, an incentive to both do things for others and contribute. when people have self-transcended, they reach out to others and strive to meet the latter’s needs and ensure their well-being and development. this other-directed behaviour is exactly what is called for to ensure consumer moral leadership. people’s genuine interest in the welfare of others creates a sense of responsibility, whereupon conscious choices emerge (cardona, 2000) intimating a moral imperative to ‘do no harm.’ people who have achieved self-transcendence have deep integrity and the capacity to sacrifice some aspect of their lives for others. in a consumer world, this sacrifice would translate to ethical and moral consumer purchasing behaviour informed by justice, security, peace and equity. people who have achieved self-transcendence have learned to create habits of serving the needs of others, habits that ensure consistent behaviour (cardona, volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 153 153 2000). people who have gained the habit of consuming with others’ interests at heart are truly able to contribute to a more sustainable, just and peaceful world (mcgregor, 2016; sanders et al., 2003); they would be true consumer moral leaders. transcendent moral leaders are mindful having learned to move beyond their unexamined inner dialogue by creating an informed self-conversation based on compassion, hope and self-knowledge (downing, 2008). consumer moral leaders who have achieved self-transcendence can contribute richer and deeper understandings of the relationships and responsibilities to each other and the world – and shop accordingly. moral intensity intensity is latin intensus, ‘extreme situations, strained, serious.’ intense refers to an extreme depth of feeling (harper, 2020). building on jones’ (1991) idea, marketplace transactions can be characterized as having high moral intensity (mcgregor, 2008). izzo (1997) clarified that moral intensity refers to the degree to which consumers perceive that a purchase demands the application of ethical principles. the moral intensity of a consumer issue, linked with the ethical intentions of a person, truly influences that person’s moral judgements and ethical decision-making process. their perception of moral intensity affects their evaluation of the ethical content of a purchase situation and their subsequent choices. jones (1991) proposed several factors that can come into play when consumers are assessing the moral intensity of a purchase situation including their beliefs about the (a) magnitude of the consequences and (b) the possibility of the latter happening (causing harm), (c) number of people affected and (d) time between their purchase and any consequences. other factors include (e) any attachment to or closeness with those affected by their decision (e.g., cultural, social, psychological, physical); and (f) the level of societal agreement about the unethicalness of the specific purchase (see also mcgregor, 2008). jones (1991) theorized that an increase in any one factor will increase moral intensity, and they may have an interactive effect as well. given the magnitude of the consequences of moral lapses when consuming in the 21st century, it is imperative that people have a deeper understanding of what it means to be a moral consumer and how ‘morally intense’ most of their consumption decisions really are (izzo, 1997). consumer moral leaders have the option and obligation to live by moral principles. once volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 154 154 learned, an appreciation of moral intensity can empower consumers to act with moral imperative. this principled action involves self-evaluation, self-reflection and self-discipline in conjunction with systems thinking, taking initiative, and perseverance (mona foundation, 2009; sanders et al., 2003) especially in marketplace decisions. moral authority finally, authority is latin auctor, ‘originator’ (harper, 2020). people with authority have the right to exercise power and make decisions, while appreciating that to be effective, others must recognize that authority – that it originates with them (rozycki, 1993; souza, 2018). generic discussions of leadership are always intertwined with issues of power and authority (bass & steidlmeier, 1999). the quest for moral leadership is the quest of reconciling power with moral authority (rozychi, 1993), which is understood to involve convincing others of how the world should be rather than how it is with the latter called epistemic authority (labinger, 2009). people derive moral authority from their connection to values, ideas and ideals shared by the larger community. this connection helps them feel an obligation and duty to each other and instills the imperative of being selfmanaged (i.e., morally self-disciplined). when exercising moral authority, people “place all others subordinate [to the aforementioned values and ideals and ask others] to respond morally by doing their duty, meeting their obligations, and accepting their responsibilities” (sergiovanni, 2007, p. 27). they do this through the exercise of moral persuasion using authority to protect rights and distribute the benefits and burdens of society. the greatest threat to people neglecting moral authority is internal not external. society is only as good, decent and moral as its citizens (denton, 1999, 2000; sergiovanni, 2007). respecting the latin meaning of authority originator consumers acting with moral authority are presenting behaviour that others can choose to model. moral consumers are the source (origin) of preferred marketplace conduct. their representations of moral authority and moral judgements can serve as inspiration for others to follow their lead. they serve as leadership examples of how people in their consumer role can effectively reconcile their power in the marketplace with moral obligations to those who can be harmed by unethical and immoral consumer decisions. discussion and conclusions volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 155 155 peace educators are encouraged to consider bringing this perspective to their practice. pinker (2008) proposed that having a moral sense is such an innate part of being human, that people may actually have a moral gene. he reasoned that moralizing is a distinctive mindset that must be nurtured, so it can be accessed for moral deliberations. more compelling is his suggestion that this psychological state can be turned on and off like a light switch by using this moral gene, which distinguishes between right and wrong and rights and obligations. pinker bolstered his argument that everyone holds this gene (i.e., the potential to be moral leaders) by referring to a proven collection of universal moral concepts and emotions held by all humans (see also the mona foundation, 2009). pinker (2008) further asserted that, for people to appreciate that moral judgements differ from other kinds of judgement, they need to realize how important moral values are in their consumer decisions. moral judgements are not just opinions. they are decisions arrived at through judgments of what is right or wrong against some standard of good. consumers cannot arrive at a moral judgement without calling on their morality – their internal system of values and moral principles. operating from this moral compass, consumers can begin to move from being just a manager to a marketplace leader. they can judge each ethically contentious purchase situation and act accordingly. upon witnessing this behaviour (i.e., recognizing another’s moral authority), others can choose to switch on their moral gene and become leaders as well. if there really is “a universal morality... a moral instinct” (pinker, 2008, p. 5), it is not farfetched to propose that anyone can be a consumer moral leader, if we all have this gene. people can be socialized into these roles and responsibilities, just like they have learned how to be efficient consumer managers. in that spirit, this paper tendered a new intellectual construct (with supportive argumentation) that can better ensure this eventuality – consumer moral leadership. its seven elements were woven together with their own connective logic and rhetoric (see figure 1): moral intelligence, discipline, integrity, courage, self-transcendence, intensity, and authority. this conceptual paper served to synthesize previous works on a particular topic into a new construct thereby providing a springboard to new research. as with any conceptual paper, this one served to “show how moving beyond the current norm will enhance knowledge” (saunders, 2018, para. 2). per any new construct, it is an abstraction that has not been theoretically tested (o’toole, 2014; smyth, 2004). but as required for conceptual papers, the pictorial model (see figure 1) and word model herein were designed to sufficiently describe each element and convincingly, using logic and rhetoric, develop links (i.e., connecting volume 14 number 2 (2020): 140-160 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 156 156 logic) among them relative to the consumer moral leader phenomenon (kimmins et al., 2010; mclean, 2011). in closing, this paper reported integrative, conceptual research that reframed consumers from managing for efficiency to leading for moral efficacy. because this is a conceptual paper, readers are encouraged to judge “how the argument [supporting the construct] is built [and decide if the] argument is a valid contribution to the literature” and, by association, the construct itself (saunders, 2018, para. 10; see also mcgregor, 2018). consumer moral leadership readily aligns with ethical, conscious and sustainable consumption thereby opening doors for complementary scholarship and theorization. the conceptual argument herein serves to encourage consumer and peace scholars, educators and policy analysts to engage with the idea and eventually animate the consumer moral leadership construct and use it in their research and practice. references anderson m. 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(pp. 920-921). palgrave macmillan. microsoft word v15.1 mcgregor democratic consumption galley.docx in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 32 volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal democratic consumption sue l. t. mcgregor abstract this think piece explores the idea of democratic consumption. after explaining its etymological roots, 12 principles of democracy are described. a narrative of the review of literature (organized by century 19th, 20th and 21st) is followed with an analysis of common threads and emergent patterns. five ideas were associated with democratic consumption with nominal agreement on how and in what direction: common good, economic freedom and capitalism, welfare state, ethical consumption, and diverse consumer interest. although the focus of democratic consumption has changed over time, it is consistently linked with several principles (e.g., economic freedom, equality, freedom and rights, and the rule of law) and it eschews others (e.g., an independent judiciary). consumer, philosophy, political, social welfare, economic, and peace theorists are encouraged to empirically explore what constitutes democratic consumption defined tentatively as behaviour having to do with consumption reflective of and influenced by democratic principles for a myriad of reasons. keywords: democratic consumption, democratic principles, consumer behaviour, common good, economic freedom. in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 33 introduction this think piece explores the idea of democratic consumption. intending to “reopen what has been a long conversation about the nature of democracy in an age of consumer culture,” kroen (2004) referred to “the compatibility of consumption and democracy (p. 711). of interest herein is how consumption is related to, informed by or reflective of democratic principles. in a think piece, the author shares their conceptually advanced but still evolving thoughts on a topic to stimulate provocative thinking and scholarly discourse. arguments are developed and tested in anticipation of other scholars judging them meritorious (mcgregor, 2018; mclean, 2011). think pieces “reflect an amalgamation of literature and the author’s intellectual insights” (mcgregor, 2018, p. 475). in that spirit, after explaining the etymological roots of democratic consumption, key principles of democracy are described as a preamble to reviewing literature pursuant to democratic consumption. the paper concludes with an analysis of common ideas that were threaded through and patterns emergent in this literature. etymological roots the suffix -cracy is a word-forming element used to create nouns. democracy, one example, is greek demos, ‘the people’ and kratia, ‘power or rule’ (harper, 2021). a democracy is thus a form of rule or government where people have a say or voice in the exercise of political power, a voice they manifest by electing others to represent their interests (i.e., elected representatives constitute a representative democracy) (macquoid-mason, 1994). western democracy (also called liberal democracy) is a political system prevalent in the united states (presidential system), canada (parliamentary system) and the united kingdom (constitutional monarchy). it operates on the principles of liberalism including liberty, consent of the governed, and equality before the law. it manifests in free trade, capitalism, individualism, the rule of law, and the protection of rights and freedoms (harpin, 1999). the suffix er is old english ere, ‘man [sic] who has to do with’ (harper, 2021). so, a consumer is a person who has to do with consuming. consume can have many meanings: (a) use up completely, (b) spend wastefully or squander, (c) use in great quantity, (d) avidly enjoy (devour), (e) fully engage (be engrossed) and (f) utilize as a customer (i.e., consume goods and services) (“consume,” n.d.). consumer behaviour pertains to the “processes [people] use to select, secure, use, and dispose of products, services, experiences, or ideas to satisfy needs [and wants] and the impacts that these processes have on the consumer and in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 34 society" (hawkins, motherbaugh, & best, 2007, p. 6). the word consumption is formed by adding the word-forming element -tion to the noun consume (harper, 2021). democratic consumption is thus behaviour having to do with consumption reflective of and influenced by democratic principles for a myriad of reasons. principles of democracy iacocca (1984) posited that people who “buy a house and a car and a refrigerator [are] the cement in our whole democracy” (p. 319). but consumers have also been called the irrational masses because they are under the influence of persuasive and pervasive advertising and marketing (aptheker, 1955). sassatelli (207) characterized advertising and marketing as an “all-powerful ‘brainwasher’ [that] shapes the image of consumption and of consumers” (p. 126). no longer trusted to make rational choices under this influence, it has been argued that consumers serve as evidence that mass consumerism is undermining the guiding principles of democracy (aptheker, 1955). lohmann (1988) suggested that people’s brains have political parts and consumer parts. he asserted that it is time to use the political parts to think new thoughts that focus on consumption and democracy. this new thinking requires an awareness of the principles of democracy (lohmann, 1988). principles guide personal behaviour. democratic principles can thus guide consumer behaviour, which inturn impacts democratic society. in an oft-cited document, macquoid-mason (1994) spelled out 12 principles of democracy (see table 1). table 1 principles of democracy (gleaned from macquoid-mason, 1994) • citizen participation in government • free and fair elections • accept election results – win or lose • multiparty systems and perspectives • transparency and accountability • independent judiciary (separation) • control of government’s abuse of power • rule of law • protected rights and freedoms (bill of rights, charters, constitutions) • political tolerance of diversity • equality and human rights • economic freedom to begin, in descending order per table 1, because democracy is about in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 35 elected representation, three key principles are citizen participation in government, free and fair elections (and the right to run for office), and accepting election results – win or lose – with a smooth transition of power. next, democracies depend on multiparty systems that allow for formal opposition to the majority party. different viewpoints exist on various issues, and voters have a choice of whom to vote for to best represent their interests. and, those elected are expected to be accountable to the public and responsible for their own actions. this means that elected officials must arrange for public meetings and consultations with constituents to ensure transparency so people can ‘see through’ their actions – both intent and consequences (macquoidmason, 1994). to continue, a democracy has an independent judiciary that is separate from other parts of government. the judicial system (i.e., law courts, judges, and those who interpret the law and administer justice) can act without undue influence from or control by elected or other parties. hand in hand with judiciary separation are the principles of zero tolerance for corruption, and the solid control of any abuse of power (e.g., misappropriated public funds or illegal political influence). an additional principle is the rule of law, which holds both that no one is above the law (i.e., everyone has to obey it) and everyone is entitled to equal protection of the law, which is enforced equally, fairly, and consistently in a democracy (macquoid-mason, 1994). in principle, citizens can also expect their rights and freedoms to be recognized and protected usually in charters, bills of rights, and constitutions. these instruments protect citizens from harmful actions of their elected government (but not from corporations’ actions). also, in a democracy, society is expected to be politically tolerant of diversity (e.g., culture, religion, ethnicity, age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, locale). in principle, all voices are valued, and people must be allowed freedom of assembly, movement, and speech (i.e., expression of thoughts and opinions) (macquoid-mason, 1994). in close association is the principle of equality and human rights. for clarification, democracy values equality and strives for everyone to have equal opportunities (i.e., resources to meet challenges) (macquoid-mason, 1994). respectfully, equality concerns giving everyone the exact same resources, while equity involves distributing resources based on people’s needs so they can meet their challenges (bronfenbrenner, 1973). to illustrate, three people of varying heights are behind a fence trying to see a ball game. from an equality stance, they would each get the same box to stand on. from an equity stance, the heights of the boxes would vary, so everyone can see over the fence. premised on both concepts, democracy minimizes prejudice (erroneously prejudging someone) and discrimination (acting on the prejudgement). from a structural in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 36 (systemic) violence perspective, the fence would be removed entirely thereby eliminating the systemic barrier and source of inequity (business disability international, 2016). human rights value human life and dignity (i.e., the right to be valued and deemed worthy of respect). these rights include but are not limited to (a) the freedom to move within, beyond and back to one’s own country; (b) freedom of assembly (people gathered together) and self-expression while assembled; and (c) freedom of thought and conscience as long as exercising these freedoms respects the law (macquoid-mason, 1994). in particular, freedom of thought and conscience means people are aware that they are holding particular beliefs and are free to actually have, hold and act on them without persecution or prosecution. indeed, democracy depends on people being able to harbor whatever opinions and beliefs their conscience dictates. they can act on these thoughts if they do not injure themselves or others (mckay-panos, 2012). people draw on their conscience (i.e., moral sense of right and wrong) when they assemble and express their opinions (macquoid-mason, 1994). a final democratic principle is economic freedom, wherein the elected government encourages private ownership of property and businesses, and citizens have a choice of work with the option to join labour unions. in most democracies, free markets prevail with nominal government control over the economy – just enough to ensure uninterrupted, competitive trade (macquoidmason, 1994). consumption is implicit in economic freedom, because free market capitalism depends on consumerism (the ideology) and consumption (the behaviour) with private ownership extending to people being able to own and consume what they purchase. economic freedom allegedly expands the range of choices for consumers (vasquez, 2005). “economic freedom, the right to use the fruits of our labor every day without political influence, is essential for democracy to thrive” (dunkelberg, 2018, para. 1). that said, “capitalism [is] based on the freedom to: [sic] own property, earn a living, operate a business, invest earnings, trade internationally, and participate in a market economy” (burkhart, 2000, p. 237). according to jeremy rifkin (american economic and social theorist), we “cannot have true participatory democracy in a market economy. [there is] absolutely no way of invigorating principles of democracy... so long as [companies and consumers] have to survive in a market economy” (as cited in gabriel & lang, 1995, p. 150). if participating in a capitalistic free market economy as a consumer impinges on democratic principles, then consumption can be characterized as undemocratic. in summary, democracy is predicated on a set of widely accepted principles concerning a form of government where all citizens technically have in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 37 a say in a nation’s life. these principles guide citizens’ thought processes, behaviour, and attendant reflections on the same. democracies provide opportunities to become personally involved in the life of a nation (especially the government). if the principles are adhered to, they ensure that power is evenly distributed, people can contribute their opinions without being overly judged (especially via voting), and they get to live in a country whose economy is strong and has steady growth. elected representatives can be voted in or out at regular intervals helping citizens ensure their interests are being represented. democratic arrangements tend to lead to stronger levels of patriotism, because, in principle, people have a say in molding a society that meets their expectations. adherence to democratic principles also creates conditions where extremes are less frequent (people tend to come to the center), war is less likely to manifest, and economic stability is more assured (miller, 2019). this paper concerns how these principles are linked with consumption. method for collating ideas about democratic consumption using boolean searches via google and google scholar in winter 2021, the author judiciously selected and collated a diverse collection of ideas about democratic consumption and consumerism with the process unfolding until saturation (kline & farrell, 2005). the conceptually rich selection of ideas shared herein represents conceptualizations of democratic consumption prevalent from the 1800s to the 2020s. the presentation of this corpus reflects a cohesive and cogent argument that threads divergent ideas and aligned trajectories together per the tenets of preparing a think piece (cohen, 2014; lindsay, 2012; mcgregor, 2018). results fourteen documents (i.e., refereed papers, books, book chapters, keynote addresses) were found pertaining to democratic consumption and consumerism (published between 1982 and 2020). their presentation is organized chronologically by century (19th, 20th and 21st) unless detours are justified. supportive or clarifying literature is interwoven into the results when warranted. nineteenth century democratic consumption (1800s) speaking of consumption in nineteenth-century france (1800s), williams (1982) affirmed that, during this era, democratic consumption was considered a manner of consuming that “encouraged a simplicity of lifestyle and in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 38 the dignity of the common man [sic]” (mccracken, 1988, p. 23). she suggested that “merchandise is seen, or rather heard, as making a statement [thereby enabling people to] communicate through things” (williams, 1982, p. 203). democratic consumption was viewed as a means of using consumption to instruct others about how to reform how they consume. building on this potential, the intent of democratic consumption is thus to resocialize people so they can change their concept of self, society and consuming itself (williams, 1982). mccracken (1988) described this mode of consumption as “accessible, modest, and dignified” (p. 23). he too considered consumer goods and services as expressive and symbolic referring to “the language of goods” (mccracken, 1998, p. 25). with this form of democratic consumption come egalitarianism and equality (williams, 1982). twentieth century democratic consumption (1900-1999) although consumerism was born in western europe (stearns, 2006; williams, 1982), latecomer north america left an indelible mark on the rest of the world. events in the united states (us) influenced canada, other commonwealth nations, and many european countries (horowitz, 2004). capitalism and economic freedom. the political call for people to consume intentionally was part of the early evolution of american consumerism (1920s and 1930s). the aim was to “connect purchasing their products with protecting the american way of life by supporting the war effort” (horowitz, 2004, p. 21). any concurrent calls for consumption as democratic for the good of community were stifled relative to calls for consumption as patriotic for the good of the nation. efforts to “make a convincing link between democracy, the reform of capitalism, and lessened consumption” were undermined (horowitz, 2004, p. 21). democratic consumption was actively touted, but its uptake was thwarted at the time. political initiatives in the 1930s (e.g., the new deal in response to the depression era) entrenched a system supportive of bourgeoning consumerism. these initiatives helped people spend money. examples of the new deal include (a) a new social welfare system (social security, minimum wages, unemployment benefits); (b) a shored-up banking system (secure way to save for homes, cars and education); and (c) a stabilized economy via fiscal and monetary policies. these and other political initiatives all depended on consumption, which “was seen as critical to the economy” (horowitz, 2004, p. 23) and to western democracy. major pushback to this policy direction came in the form of lewis in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 39 mumford (american historian, sociologist, humanist) who argued that a democratic society depends on (a) cohesive families and communities and (b) self-restrained consumption rather than liberalism and the pursuit of materialistic self-gratification through capitalistic markets at the expense of families and communities (horowitz, 2004). this was, in effect, a “wartime cry for democratic consumption [characterized as] chastened consumption [dependent on] nonmaterialistic values responsive to human needs and human purposes” (2004, p. 40). mumford’s (and likeminded) attempt to ensure democracy by pushing back against liberal capitalism and unchaste consumption failed however with economic freedom prevailing (horowitz, 2004). macquoid-mason (1994) recognized economic freedom as a key principle of democracy. but this was not always so. kroen (2004) recounted that “this positive connection of the consumer as the quintessential citizen, and free enterprise as the ideal medium for democracy, only came to prevail after the second world war” (p. 709). before that, people fighting for consumer cooperatives, labour unions, and a living wage “claimed that democracy depended on a critique of capitalism” (p. 710) not a full-on embracing of capitalism as a key principle of democracy. after the forties, however, “the informed consumer was the linchpin of freedom and democracy” (kroen, 2004, p. 710) in the capitalistic market (see also iacocca, 1984). in more detail, after 1945, american discourse viewed “the consumer as an active agent of democratization... and the handmaiden of social democracy” (kroen, 2004, p. 720). it is noteworthy that a handmaiden connotes someone of lowly status who serves others in the role of slave or servant. whether intended or not, this view intimates that democracy cannot exist without people enslaved in the consumer role. kroen asserted that, at this historical moment, consumers were “recognized as key actors in a democracy” (2004, p. 721). they became the bedrock of democracy, a sentiment echoed in the democratic principle of economic freedom (macquoid-mason, 1994). this era actually formulated “consumption as democracy” (kroen, 2004, p. 731) with this ideology migrating to the restructuring of postwar europe via the american-led marshall plan intended to bolster the devastated european economy and world trade (horowitz, 2004; kroen, 2004). consumerism as a building block of democracy went global. little (1993) referred to democratic consumption in his discussion of the approximately two-year journey (1947-1948) of the freedom train (an actual train housing a curated exhibition and educational program) commemorating the 160th signing of the american constitution. “embedded in some of the [civic education] program's language and symbols ... was the idea that democratic consumption was a crucial measure of the american system of government. ... in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 40 the consumption theme ... was present and persistent enough that the celebrated democratic values and freedoms were often circumscribed to the amorphous national issues of abundance, growth” (p. 39). the curators of the freedom train exhibit “sought a unity that was rooted in free enterprise capitalism and the perception of economic abundance for business and consumers. by implication, the ability to purchase consumer goods was a tangible measure of abundance and inexorably tied to democratic principles” (little, 1993, p. 46). toward the end of the twentieth century, brown (1993) discounted the democratic principle of economic freedom in concert with capitalism when she argued that “no economy is based on individual choice[,] and the systems of institutions, social relationships, and power in modern capitalism foreclose democratic control of the economy” (p. 57). she maintained that when the education system solely trains workers to sustain the capitalistic system, which in turn depends on their consumer behaviour, people miss the opportunity to develop “capacities for social reason in communication necessary for shaping and participating in a democratic community” (p. 56). in this scenario, brown (1993) claimed that the tradition of democracy had been assaulted by capitalism thereby crippling people’s ability to promote the common good. welfare state. the literature review also revealed that the welfare state and democratic consumption are connected. the former emerged in the united states after the great depression via president franklin d. roosevelt’s new deal. in a welfare state, the government creates a system that protects and ensures the health and well-being of its citizens especially those in financial, physical or social need (e.g., unemployment insurance, pension plans, social welfare [food, shelter and otherwise], child benefits, veterans’ benefits, workers’ compensation) (barr, 2020; kessler-harris & vaudagna, 2017). this system of basic economic security and individual and social well-being (current state) and wellness (process) entails redistributing excess public funds by (a) giving money directly to individuals, (b) using money to create services for everyone or (c) some combination (engellau, 1984). from a different perspective, engellau (1984) discussed the democratic consumption of surplus income in a welfare state. he explained that administrators of welfare states normally actively resist the ethics of capitalism whose basic tenet is that each person is responsible for their own state. the government (state) is not responsible – instead, capitalists assume that everyone is out for themselves (economic individualism). adherents of this philosophy argue that self-reliance will push individuals to work harder, which in turn benefits society as a whole. engellau (1984) proposed that affluence (i.e., an abundance of surplus wealth) can eventually kill a democratic welfare state, because the larger the welfare state grows, the more it eats into its surplus to in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 41 distribute benefits until there is no surplus left. when this happens, the market has to take over thus leaving the welfare state by the wayside. wealth is instead created and distributed according to neoliberal tenets in a capitalistic market (engellau, 1984). for clarification, neoliberalism privileges privatization, deregulation, decentralization, nominal government intervention in markets, individualism (no concern for others), and materialism and consumerism to fuel the capitalistic economic model – property ownership, growth, development, and progress predicated on the elite’s accumulation of money and wealth (mcgregor, 2001). consumer rights and strategies. in the mid-1900s, democratic consumption was linked with consumer rights. in the early fifties, the consumers union (renowned american consumer activist group) “reaffirmed [its] ‘faith in a democratic society in which the production of goods and services is guided by the free choice of consumers’” (as cited in hilton, 2009, p. 159). this sentiment especially represents a direct link between the democratic principle of economic freedom and democratic consumption. in the sixties, president john f. kennedy ushered in consumer rights and argued that if they are not respected, “‘the national interest suffers’” (as cited in hilton, 2009, p. 185). these rights were intended to be “the means to achieve the consumer democracy” (hilton, 2009, p. 185). the original four consumerinterest pillars (information, choice, safety, voice) became the foundation for consumer international’s (ci) eight consumer rights (including redress, consumer education, healthy environment, basic needs). ci (2021) is a world federation of more than 200 national consumer organizations spanning 100 countries. these rights were eventually embraced by the united nations (hilton, 2009, mcgregor, 2017). in effect, the concept of democratic consumption (although not necessarily called that) had gone viral. near the end of the century, lohmann (1998) argued that “bringing consumption under more democratic control ... requires political action [and consumer strategies]” (p. 7). key strategies include, first, people being aware of and then exposing how corporations conceal their “connections among consumption, production and power politics” (p. 7). second, consumers can connect and communicate with labourers whose presence and involvement in the supply chain have been blocked by corporations protecting their pecuniary interests. these connections can pave the way for both (a) “a new, more civilized kind of negotiation over what reasonable consumption might consist of” (lohmann, 1998, p. 7) and (b) more transparent pricing that acknowledges hidden oppression, exploitation, and repression. harken the fairtrade movement (hassoun, 2019). in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 42 twenty-first century democratic consumption (2000-onward) welfare state and capitalism. entering the next century, kroen (2004) continued the discussion of the redistribution of wealth in a welfare state, wherein its decline saw “increased consumption as critical to social and political stability [and democracy]” (p. 729). sassatelli (2007) bemoaned “the crises of the welfare system” (p. 125), explaining that the provision of basic needs and necessities cannot be efficiently provided through the market mechanism. pertinent to the argument herein is the idea that, in the process of a declining welfare state, several key principles of democracy are compromised leaving citizens at the mercy of the free market where they have to fare for themselves with no state concern for their welfare. stroup (2007) downplayed this argument, asserting instead that enabling individuals to voluntarily consume a wide range of goods and services increases societal welfare. he affirmed “the apparent superior ability of economic freedoms to promote non-material measures of well-being in society” (p. 63). this improved well-being allegedly reflects the ability of neoliberal decentralization to heighten both market innovations and consumers’ flexibility (stroup, 2007). bonell and hilton (2002) asserted that, through democratic consumerism, citizens in welfare states can use consumerist strategies to influence the formulation of policy and public goods and services instead of focusing on the delivery and receipt of said goods and services in the marketplace. at issue then is whether democracy or the market has failed. in a backhanded way, democratic consumerism defined thus can be used to challenge market consumerism, because inequalities in the social welfare state are addressed before they manifest in marketplace failures and inequalities (hugman, 1994). the latter are staved off when people “influence the means [i.e., policy process] of developing products rather than choosing between finished products [using] consumerist strategies” (bonell & hilton, 2002, p. 29). similarly, stroup (2007) asserted that democratically determined public policies can superordinate (i.e., become more important than) individual economic freedoms and choice, which become subservient. ethical consumption. with a different focus on markets, hussain (2012) discussed ethical consumption, liberal democracy, and whether consumers should use the market to pursue social change (e.g., democratic principles of justice, equality, rights, freedom). he claimed that people should view their decision to use their alleged consumer bargaining power to effect social change as “part of the wider political process, not a private purchasing decision” (p. 112). this stance reflects that citizens are embedded in a liberal democracy as well as a capitalistic marketplace. to that end, hussain (2012) conceptualized in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 43 social change ethical consumerism (scec) and defined it as consuming in way that creates an economic incentive for others to do the same – akin to the nineteenth century notion of democratic consumption described by williams (1982). in preparation for this conceptualization, hussain (2012) acknowledged three other types of ethical consumerism that reflect changes in one’s own actions. (a) clean-hands ethical consumerism involves avoiding certain merchandise so one is not implicated in immoral production practices. (b) expressive ethical consumerism entails intentionally buying something to express one’s personal beliefs, attitudes, or judgements about certain production, marketing, or retail practices. (c) unmediated ethical consumerism involves changing one’s own buying behaviour to advance a nonmarket agenda (e.g., to confront child labour). scec strives instead to convince others to change things thereby leading to more fairness, justice, and equity for all. the responsibility of consumers in a liberal democracy is thus to find a balance between effecting change through (a) the market process and (b) the democratic process, which is informed by procedural values, institutions, and practices (see table 1). both approaches confront power with the former focused on marketplace power and the latter on political power (hussain, 2012). hussain (2012) further explained that both the market and a democracy are mechanisms of social change but cautioned that relying solely on market transactions requires processes that threaten the principles of democracy. instead, people should treat “the formal democratic process as the supreme system for making and changing social rules (including the rules of the market itself)” (p. 124). he proposed that people using scec would see themselves as representing society as whole. they are thus charged with using their consumer bargaining power to involve other affected parties to jointly create a solution to the issue, one that respects the principles of democracy (e.g., people’s basic liberties and freedoms, their voice and participation in social decision making, and the rule of law) (see also lohmann, 1998). democratic versus marketplace power. like hussain (2012), hassoun (2020) discussed consumption, social change, and political philosophy (including democracy). she maintained that some procedural norms are essential to arguments justifying liberal democracy, asserting that “only democratic consumption respects [these] norms” (hassoun, 2020, p. 150). basic liberties (procedural norms) include freedom of thought, movement, assembly, and expression (hussain, 2012). hassoun (2020) posited that “consumption that promotes social change must respect [these] basic liberties and advance a reasonable conception of the common good” (p. 143). otherwise, consumption in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 44 is construed as undemocratic (i.e., not adhering to democratic principles). to offset this possibility, people should view using their marketplace bargaining power as part of the wider democratic process. this perspective entails respect for several key principles of democracy: basic liberties, political tolerance and equality, and participation and deliberation in social and political life (hassoun, 2020). using another tactic, hassoun (2020) first asserted that democratic consumption is ethical because it promotes democratic change. then she claimed that “if democracy is too central” (p. 10) in consumption it can prevent positive change for the common good. therein she recognized the argument that it is alright to consume based on price alone (normally construed as undemocratic) if people “bring paerto optimal improvements in preference satisfaction; they make at least some better off without making anyone worse off” (p. 145). this is an example of the democratic principle of economic freedom improving people’s welfare. pragmatically, mattheis (2019) claimed that “the tools of democratic consumerism broadly [include] activities which can challenge the foundation of our economy and political system” (pp. 9-10). he conceived democratic consumerism as limited to consumer decisions that merit the consideration of others’ vision of the common good, which is necessary to bring about social change (including changes to the market) (see also hussain, 2012). not all consumer decisions are thus immediately political, nor do they have democratic implications – only those striving to bring democratic principles to bear. respecting this caveat, mattheis (2019) asserted that “consumers should generally conform to democratic considerations in their consumption decisions” (p. 10) and “our ‘overall consumption basket’ should be in accordance with democratic [principles]” (p. 12). diversity and power differentials. democratic societies are societies of equals. in that spirit, democratic consumption depends on people viewing democracy and the actualization “of conditions of equal participation as the guideline for their general consumption behaviour” (mattheis, 2019, p. 12). that is, people must recognize the power differentials that exist within the consumption process and then consume accordingly (mattheis, 2019). people’s use of their purchasing power “should be backed by a sensitivity to diverging conceptions of the good [and] be justifiable to other persons” (mattheis, 2019, p. 11). similarly, stearns (2006) conceptualized the democratization of consumerism as “homogenizing tendencies across group lines [whereby people of different class, ethnicity, gender, age, religion and locale eventually gain] access to consumerism” (p. 55). stearns referred to this as the democratization in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 45 of consumer audiences thereby intimating egalitarianism – everyone is equal and deserving of the same rights and opportunities (key democratic principle). hilton (2009), in his discussion of global consumer activism, maintained that the sheer diversity of global voices advocating for the consumer interest intimates that consumption is a potentially democratic activity. a key principle of democracy is political tolerance of diversity where all voices are valued (macquoid-mason, 1994) even in the consumer arena. as did kroen (2004), hilton (2009) mentioned american postwar “consumer democracy [whereby] consumers were able to exercise their citizenship not only at the ballot box but on a daily basis through their participation in the marketplace” (p. 55). through the latter, everyone got to “participate in the good life” (hilton, 2009, p. 55) while protecting western democracy against other political ideologies (e.g., fascism and communism). analysis and discussion of common threads and patterns iterative readings of the results revealed several common threads woven through the democratic consumption literature: the common good, economic freedom and capitalism, welfare state, ethical consumption, and diverse consumer interest. there was a consensus that these elements are associated with democratic consumption but less agreement on how and in what direction. also, the focus of democratic consumption (i.e., specific principles) changed over time. common good the most widely held idea was that democratic consumption serves the common good, with noteworthy mention that those writing about this connection did not use the term a common good, which has economic theory connotations (crespo, 2016). authors often used the term the common good without defining it. put simply, if something is good for the commons (i.e., the community or populace as a whole), it benefits the public as a whole and improves the general welfare of most or all citizens (lee, 2016). although the common good is normally viewed as manifesting in the realm of politics and public service (lee, 2016), scholars expounding on democratic consumption also linked it with the realm of marketplace transactions. they argued that if people respect the principles of democracy when they consume, they will enhance the common good. conversely, purely self-interested consumer behaviour will detract from the common good. that is, a narrow focus on the consumer self (necessary for capitalism) can draw attention away from democratic principles such as transparency, accountability, equality, equity, and human rights (brown, 1993; hassoun, 2020; mattheis, 2019; williams, 1982). in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 46 46 economic freedom and capitalism a second common thread was the link between economic freedom (a key democratic principle) and democratic consumption. freedom means an unrestricted right or power to think, speak or act. it is old english freodom, ‘power of self-determination, state of free will’ (harper, 2021). freedom in an economy refers to (a) the market and economic system being relatively free of government interference; (b) workplaces respecting labourers’ rights; and (c) all citizens being free to own private goods, experience services, and accumulate wealth (producers and consumers). the assumption is that this freedom makes economies and labourers more productive, markets more competitive and efficient, and it gives consumers more choice (macquoid-mason, 1994). two clear lines of thought emerged in the literature. (a) if people do participate in the capitalistic economy exercising the democratic principle of economic freedom, they are being democratic consumers. conversely, (b) critiquing or refraining from participating in the capitalistic economy constitutes democratic consumption too, because it favours democratic principles other than economic freedom. if participating in a market economy as a consumer impinges on democratic principles, then consumption can be characterized as undemocratic (kroen, 2004; little, 1993). this ambivalent relationship between democratic consumption and economic freedom reflects the iffy connection between economics and democracy. western (liberal) democracy depends on (a) free trade (nominal government involvement in economic affairs), (b) laissez faire capitalism (economy controlled by trade and industry not government), (c) economic individualism (focus on individuals’ freedom and rights relative to the collective or common good), (d) the rule of law and (e) the protection of rights and freedoms so that trade can continue unabated (harpin, 1999). conversely, as a principle of democracy, economic freedom means people must be able to choose where they work, be protected in that work, spend their earnings, and own what they buy (private property) (macquoid-mason, 1994). the sketchy element of this for democratic consumption is the consumption part – how to do this without being undemocratic? welfare state the link between the welfare state and democratic consumption is a third theme that manifested in the literature. most scholars agreed that the loss of the welfare state paved the way for economic and market superiority (including consumption). when consumers are faced with faring for themselves in the free market, they are less able to consume for the welfare of the state (i.e., the in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 47 47 common good). their own personal welfare takes precedence, and the only way they can improve it is to consume in the capitalistic market; government assistance is curtailed or eliminated when the welfare state declines (kroen, 2004; sassatelli, 2007). democracies and welfare states go hand in hand. social welfare is supposed to ensure greater equality by providing social benefits, protecting working people, and constraining capitalism (kessler-harris & vaudagna, 2017). the recent and ongoing transformation of the global economic order (through massive redistributions of income and wealth in favor of the elite) has challenged the welfare state and its fate. these challenges have manifested in constrained social movement; increased, displaced migrant workers; infringement of family and gendered rights; and more – all of which drain national surplus (kesslerharris & vaudagna, 2017). consumption within this context is undemocratic if it further threatens the welfare state. conversely, democratic consumption can shore up social welfare (bonell & hilton, 2002; engellau, 1984; hassoun, 2020; hugman, 1994; stroup, 2007). ethical consumption fourth, ethical consumerism was associated with democratic consumption notably when the former concerned getting others to change how they consume so the common good is privileged. consumption that is ethical takes into account the morality of the purchasing situation (mcgregor, 2010). democracy and the common good are both anchored in morality (hussain, 2012) – the rightness and wrongness of a situation – and concern whether harm ensues from a course of action. this harm is mitigated somewhat if consumption is democratic, meaning it considers the impact of consuming on democratic principles: human rights, equity and equality, transparency and accountability, the rule of law, and tolerance of diversity and a range of voices and perspectives (hussain, 2012; hassoun, 2020; horowitz, 2004; williams, 1982). diverse consumer interest finally, democratic consumption encompasses a concern for the consumer interest. mcgregor (2012) explained that “it is in the best interest of consumers (to their benefit or advantage) to have marketplace failures (the conditions that affect the realization of their interests) and resultant consumer issues (if a power imbalance arises) dealt with effectively and expediently, in a sustainable manner” (p. 4, emphases in original). the consumers’ interest is affected by (a) consumers’ characteristics and circumstances; (b) relationships between sellers and consumers; (c) major social issues; (d) economic and fiscal policies; (e) in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 48 48 corporate, marketing and retail behaviour; and (f) the integrity of specific goods and services (mcgregor, 2012). democratic consumption deals with both (a) diverse voices speaking out for the consumer interest and (b) speaking out for diverse consumers’ interests (hilton, 2009; horowitz, 2004; lohmann, 1998; stearns, 2006). the former pertains to consumer activists from all over the world speaking out for the interests of consumers. this community of activists reflects the reality that consumers are not homogenous. because they are diverse in their identity, interests, and concerns, a collection of diverse voices is needed to voice consumers’ interests. this diversity culminated in the formation and continuing influence of consumers international originally called the international organization of consumer unions (iocu) (horowitz, 2004). per speaking out for diverse interests, consumers’ interests are diverse, because consumers themselves differ on many aspects (stearns, 2006): culture, religion, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, locale, income, occupation, access to technology and so on. any or a combination of these and other factors in concert with businesses’ behaviour can expose consumers to situations where their interests (i.e., benefits or advantages) are threatened or compromised. democratic consumption concerns itself with these eventualities, because democracy respects political tolerance of diversity, equity, equality, and human rights, which are closely tied to consumer rights (mcgregor, 2010; stearns, 2006). mattheis (2019) urged people to be cognizant of the power differentials informing consumption and the consumers’ interest so their purchase decisions can be justifiable to others. patterns over the centuries this think piece sought evidence of democratic consumption in the literature, which scholars traced back over three centuries. the focus tended to shift over time with each century concerned with different democratic principles (see table 2). table 2 democratic consumption and democratic principles over the centuries 19th century (1800s) 20th century (1900s) 21st century (2000s) egalitarianism and equality human rights (dignity) economic freedom human rights (dignity) the rule of law equality economic freedom the rule of law in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 49 49 protected rights and freedoms political tolerance of diversity citizen participation accountability and transparency in the 1800s, democratic consumption was clearly associated with both the common good and resocializing people to consume for human dignity and simplicity. goods and services were symbolic (i.e., imbued with meaning) and construed as a means of communicating with others. people were urged to spend in such a way that convinced others to live more simply so that egalitarianism and equality (democratic principles) could prevail in society. in the 1900s (20th century), the focus shifted especially in north america where consumption was linked with saving western (liberal) democracy. in the wake of two world wars, the great depression, and the first cold war (communism and fascism threats), political voices called for democratic consumption to preserve the liberal democracy while businesses called for it to advance laissez faire capitalism. both the welfare state and capitalism battled it out with capitalism coming ahead as the forerunner. the principle of economic freedom dominated this century in concert with the rule of law so the competitive marketplace could prevail. economic individualism trumped collectivism. consumption that threatened these principles was construed as undemocratic by some and democratic by others. democratic consumption also became associated with consumer rights and human rights. so far, in the early 2000s (21st century), democratic consumption has clearly been associated with positive social change, democratic change, ethical consumption, and consumer activism to protect the diverse consumer interest, which is threatened by declining welfare states and rising global, corporate-led capitalism. concerns for diversity in interests, perspectives, voices, and such prevail. the end goal is egalitarianism, accountability, transparency, the rule of law, and the protection of human rights and freedoms especially freedom of movement, assembly, thought, and expression. consumer rights remain linked with human rights, and people are encouraged to influence public policy to thwart marketplace failures before they happen. as evident in table 2, several democratic principles were consistently linked with democratic consumption (e.g., economic freedom, equality, freedom and rights, and the rule of law) with the current century the most expansive in its inclusion of the 12 rights set out in table one. five democratic principles were not linked with democratic consumption: an independent judiciary; control of government’s abuse of power (especially in the marketplace but also in the policy arena); anything to do with elections; and multiparty systems (although somewhat in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 32-53 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 50 50 covered by consumer global activism for diverse consumer voices, perspectives, and interests). their exclusion merits further exploration in future research. conclusions the intent of a think piece is to “test ideas and arguments as a precursor to [future empirical] research” (mcgregor, 2018, p. 474). using an amalgamation of literature and the author’s thoughts and intellectual insights, a case was made for the merit of an idea. in this instance, literature pursuant to democratic consumption was reviewed and presented to stimulate others’ engagement with this idea. as noted, there was a consensus about five ideas often associated with democratic consumption but less so on their effect (i.e., direct or inverse, positive or negative): the common good, economic freedom and capitalism, welfare state, ethical consumption, and diverse consumer interest. also, the focus of democratic consumption temporally shifted with each century being concerned with different democratic principles. “think pieces are legitimate tools for contributing to the cumulative improvement of theoretical knowledge” (mcgregor, 2018, p. 470). their development depends on convincing arguments tendered with limited corroborating empirical evidence. the goal is to raise questions and challenge thinking while anticipating that others will validate the idea through future study and experimentation if they judge it meritorious (mcgregor, 2018). consumer, philosophy, political, social welfare, economic, and peace and conflict theorists are thus encouraged to tease out what constitutes democratic consumption defined tentatively herein as behaviour having to do with consumption informed by, reflective of, and influenced by democratic principles for a myriad of reasons. references aptheker, h. 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(2019, june 17). 20 advantages and disadvantages of democracy [web log post]. retrieved from https://futureofworking.com/11-advantages-anddisadvantages-of-democracy/ sassatelli, r. (2007). consumer culture: history, theory and politics. thousand oaks, ca: sage. stearns, p. n. (2006). consumerism in world history (2nd ed.). new york, ny: routledge. stroup, m. d. (2007). economic freedom, democracy, and the quality of life. world development, 35(1), 52-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2006.09.003 vasquez, i. (2005, december). the central role of economic freedom in democracy. issues of democracy ejournal, 6-9, https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/articles/200512_vasquez.pdf williams, r. h. (1982). dream worlds: mass consumption in late nineteenth century france. berkeley, ca: university of california press. microsoft word v14.2 moon & lim[1].docx volume 14 number 2 (2020): 161-163 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 161 volume 14 number 2 (2020): 161-163 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review review of asia-pacific centre of education for international understanding under the auspices of unesco multiple pandemics: beyond covid-19 and inequality toward global solidarity, seoul, 2020, 256 pp., $12.00 (₩14,000), isbn 979-1-155-31117-21 reviewed by jeongmin moon, seoul national university, shysilphil@gmail.com euna lim, seoul national university, elim0409@gmail.com along with the covid-19 pandemic, the world is facing many other issues such as hatred and discrimination, inequality and exclusion, climate change and ecosystem destruction, mass unemployment and economic crisis, and last but not least, the world is plagued by an "infodemic" due to overflowing information and fake news. in this book, published by unesco-apceiu, these issues are defined as “multiple pandemics.” the book aims to provide the readers with an understanding of these emerging issues more professionally, and to contribute a more diversified and in-depth reflection on the current situation by providing insights from the perspective of global citizenship. the book is divided thematically into nine chapters discussing multiple pandemics in terms of infection, prevention, and solidarity. in each chapter, the book attempts to answer various questions such as: how do politics and science meet covid-19? can people overcome the pandemic of stigma, hatred, and exclusion? in the era of multiple pandemics, what should education do? plus many more. in the foreword of this book, hyun mook lim, the director of apceiu, states that “citizens’ solidarity and cooperation are the keys to overcoming the pandemic crisis and creating a better world” (p. 7). although 1 the original manuscript is in korean with an english translation forthcoming. volume 14 number 2 (2020): 161-163 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 162 this phrase was repetitively mentioned in the book, it is clearly emphasized that citizens' thoughts and actions are as important as the role of governments and experts in preventing the spread of infectious diseases. the first part deals with “infection” in which moran ki explains the dynamics of covid-19 and suggests seven strategies to combat infectious diseases. after explaining the social factors that contribute to the spread of infectious diseases, chang-yup kim, emphasizes that "infectious diseases cannot be explained separately from the structure, mechanism, and operation of the international or domestic political economy" (p. 56). the second part deals with “prevention” where eui-young kim analyzes korea's unique characteristics by pointing out that the success of korea’s response to the pandemic lies in a democracy based on citizens' voluntary participation. this part was very informative as the author cited yuval harari’s comments on how important it is to have a cooperative and wellinformed public. subsequently, young-gyung paik suggests that global citizens should look away from the confrontational view of human rights and prevention but instead look at it as a common good. as anyone regardless of one's nationality or status can be affected by covid-19, jongryul choi contends in his chapter that multidimensional cooperation is needed to overcome the pandemic. lastly, hyunjae yu analyzes that the "infodemic" a phenomenon in which false information or malicious rumors spread quickly through the media. the infodemic crisis leads to dangerous conspiracies and falsehoods that undermine science and endangers lives. the third part deals with "solidarity" which puts global citizenship at the center of the conversation. global citizenship education is an educational movement that enables individuals to realize what actions and thoughts they should do as members of the global community (p. 200). this is emphasized in soon-yong pak’s chapter as he also examines the issue of bridging the information gap that represents injustice in the field of education in the pandemic era. cheol-sung son investigates various ethical ideas and stresses that “solidarity and cooperation are the moral obligations of global citizens" (p. 225). this chapter provided many provocative questions as the author’s philosophical examples will make readers stop for a moment to think. lastly, han-seung cho predicts the feasibility of global health governance and discusses the need for recovery by all global citizens based on mutual understanding and cooperation. this book is highly recommended for a global audience as it provides an overview and analysis of the korean response to the pandemic. it also succeeds in its purpose of providing a more diversified and in-depth reflection on the current situation as it was written by experts in various fields such as medicine, political science, sociology, philosophy, journalism, and education. the nine chapters were not only well organized, but the discussions shared by the scholars were conflicting and consistent at the same time. one of the key volume 14 number 2 (2020): 161-163 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 163 messages that these authors had in common is that viruses cannot see people’s identity; in other words, anyone anywhere can get the virus. therefore, trying to discriminate against people or excluding some will not help to fight the disease. in conclusion, this book is timely and important as it provides valuable information concerning covid-19 and solutions to the issues that emerged from the pandemic. nobody knows when the pandemic will be over, but what societies know for sure is that living the same way as before is no longer possible. even when the virus passes, the older epidemics of racism, poverty, gender inequality, and ethnonationalism that have been plainly exposed through covid-19 will still need to be addressed. a single task like washing hands can prevent people from getting an infectious disease, and it is also in the hands of the citizens to really start caring for each other through global solidarity and cooperation to overcome these “multiple pandemics” together. microsoft word finley ifp 14.1.docx volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 66 volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal the criminology and peacemaking possibilities of the purge film and tv series laura finley as has been widely noted, film both reflects and shapes social reality. films represent current social, political, economic and cultural trends and shape societal perceptions and ideas (welsh, fleming & dowler, 2011). as hooks (1996) wrote, “whether we like it or not, cinema assumes a pedagogical role in the lives of many people” (p. 2).yet media constructions of crime are often inaccurate or misleading, overrepresenting predatory violent crime perpetrated by the poor and underrepresenting crime by elites (coyne & archer, 2004; surrette, 2011). also overrepresented are retributive, punitive systems and underrepresented are restorative practices (raney, 2005). cultural criminologists recognize that media representations of crime are important sites to analyze contested ideas about crime, justice and punishment (berets, 1996; ferrell, 1999; rafter, 2006). gerbner and colleagues have conducted studies that lead to the development of cultivation theory, which argues that high levels of media exposure about crime creates a “mean world” effect whereby people overestimate the dangers of society (gerbner & gross, 1976; gerbner, gross, morgan, signorielli, & shanahan, 2002; gerbner, gross, signorielli, morgan, & jackson-beeck, 1979). some studies have found support for the mean world effect (gilliam & iyengar, 2000; gross & aday, 2003), although others critique it for assuming media people are passive consumers (hirsch, 1980; hughes, 1980). others posit that media is more influential in shaping ideas when people lack direct experience or alternate information sources are less accessible (soulliere, 2003; surrette, 2007). given that the average viewer likely volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 67 has little direct experience with crime or the criminal justice system, this may be particularly true of media constructions of those topics (surrette, 2007). many of these studies were focused on news media, but there are some that show a mean world effect among viewers of fiction (appel, 2008; kappeler & potter, 2005). kappeler and potter (2005) argue that crime fiction offers explanations for phenomena that are not easy to understand. several studies have found that fictional narratives depicting violent street crime lead viewers to support more conservative approaches to crime control (altheide, 2002; chiricos, padgett & gertz, 2000; roberts & white, 1986; surrette; 1998; weitzer & kubrin, 2004) to oppose strong gun control measures (dowler, 2003; holbert, shah & kwak, 2004), and to have greater support for capital punishment (holbert, shah & kwak, 2004). common in crime films and television is a “good defeats bad” narrative structure which features a “psychotic super-male offender” (welsh, fleming & dowler, 2011, p. 461). in fictional narratives, crimes are typically solved and the offender apprehended, showing law enforcement to be good, and the system to be overwhelmingly effective whereby offenders are unsympathetic and bad. rogue police films, also very popular, reinforce these same viewpoints, as they show dedicated officers who have to bend the rules a bit to keep people safe and to enact justice. a common criminological theory presented in fictional crime film is rational choice (rafter & brown, 2011). few films show crime as a structural issue, rather focusing on blameworthy individuals (carlson, 1975;cavendar & deutch, 2007; dominick, 1978; rafter, 2006; surrette, 2000; zillman & wakschlag, 1985). further, most crime fiction depicts “ideal” victims who are sympathetic to viewers (christie, 1986; welsh, fleming & dowler, 2011). racial, ethnic, and gender stereotypes are common in crime fiction as well (finley, 2003; rafter, 2006). yet there are some alternate narratives in crime fiction. it is important to analyze those film and television shows that offer different ideas about crime and criminal justice. welsh, fleming and dowler (2011) noted a category of crime films that depict the flaws in the justice system, referring to them as “david and goliath” films. such films are often set in courtrooms or prisons. yet even these often secure justice within these very systems, often by portraying a heroic lawyer who defies the odds to win on behalf of his or her client (rafter, 2006). still other films do frame crime as a social problem. these tend to show the long-term effects of crime for individuals and communities. such films can move viewers to critically assess the effectiveness of criminal justice approaches and to critique stereotypes of simple good victims and bad offenders. further, as rafter and brown (2011) noted, volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 68 crime films can offer differ theoretical examinations, thereby challenging simplistic choice narratives. even more, some films have the possibility of promoting peacemaking and restorative themes. previous research has used five analytical themes to identify restorative justice and peacemaking themes in feature films about crime: “embracing change,” “second chances,” “hope,” “connectedness,” and “becoming more human” (thompson, 2007). these come from scholarship on peacemaking and its emphasis on mindfulness, care for others, possibilities, feeling tied to others, and understanding one’s deeper purpose in life. further, there is a wealth of literature about using film to teach peace, even film that depicts violence. some assert that viewing violence may provide a safe place for young people to explore emotions and reflect on critical issues (jones, 2003). finley (2015) asserts that “instead of shying away from all violent media, educators should coordinate dialogue and activities with students so as to challenge why it is so pervasive in the united states, how violence is depicted, and the impact it may have” (p. x), as one of the primary goals of peace educators is to “make the seemingly invisible more visible” (p. x). through analyzing films about violence and crime, peace educators and their students can consider the many barriers to social justice and identify creative methods of addressing them. others have identified that, because film and other popular culture often results in strong emotions, it is ripe for promoting caring, empathy and inclusivity, all components of positive peace or what lin (2006) refers to as “peace intelligence.” johnson (2015) notes that film can be a useful tool to teach theories of violence and nonviolence, as “one of the most difficult, and sometimes daunting, tasks for a teacher is to make theories real in the lives of students” (p. 1). johnson discusses using film to teach about walter wink’s concept of the “myth of redemptive violence,” which according to wink (1998), “enshrines the belief that violence saves, that war brings peace, that might makes right. it is one of the oldest continually repeated stories in the world” (p. 42). similarly, klein (2015) discusses how film can be used to demonstrate conscientization. conscientization is the freireian (1973) concept of developing critical consciousness so as to analyze social situations and eventually, develop agency to challenge structures of oppression and injustice. film is also useful to teach gramsci’s (1971) concept of hegemony, which emphasizes how people learn to embrace enthusiastically beliefs and practices that work against their own best interests, believing them to be the “right” or “normal” way. freire and gramsci’s work are key components of most peace and justice courses, while hegemony is a major emphasis in criminology. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 69 this paper offers a critical analysis of the film and television series, the purge. the purge is a horror/science fiction series and, as romano (2015) notes, “science fiction movies are pedagogical tools that not only influence our views about history and contemporary times, but present to us with clear ideas about how the future will be” (p. 219). this paper offers an examination of themes about crime and justice. it also describes common issues related to crime that are not featured or are only minimally depicted in the films and tv series, including domestic and sexual violence, child abuse, and financial crimes. further, the paper discusses the lack of nonviolent resistance strategies depicted as well as the ways those restorative justice and peacemaking is included. finally, the paper offers recommendations for using the purge film and television series to understand assumptions about violence, crime, justice and conflict resolution. description of the films and tv series the purge is a series of films that was also adapted into a television series that has run for two seasons to date. the films were created by james demonaco, are distributed by universal pictures, and produced by blumhouse productions and platinum dunes. the first film was released in 2013, followed by the purge: anarchy in 2014, the purge: election year in 2016, and the first purge in 2018. the tv series ran on usa network, with season one opening september 4, 2018. both seasons one and two ran ten episodes. the purge (2013) starred ethan hawke as james sandin, an affluent man whose money comes from selling security systems to families to protect themselves from the purge. lena heady plays his wife, mary, adelaide kain is his 16-year-old daughter, zoey, and max burkholder plays on, charlie. the film s set in 2022 and iopens with james heading home for dinner with the family before the start of the purge. the purge was created in 2014 by the government, the new founding fathers of america (nffa), who were voted into office after an economic collapse. claiming that people need to take out their aggression or else it leads to crime, the nffa declared a 12-hour time period once a year for the annual purge. during this time, from 7 pm until 7 am, all crime, including murder, rape, burglary and more, is legal except against government officials. no police or emergency services are allowed during the purge, either. sandin’s family does not choose to purge so is determined that they will be safe hunkering into their home with his security systems. things go awry, however, when zoey’s boyfriend henry (tony olier), who the sandins believe is too old for her, sneaks into her room and is still there when the purge commences. upset at james and trying to convince him that he should be able to date their daughter, henry pulls a gun on james who ends up volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 70 shooting and killing him in defense. meanwhile, charlie has seen on their security monitor a black man, referred to throughout the film as “the bloody stranger” (edwin hodge) walking around wounded and calling out for help. he disables the security system and lets the man in. james is upset that a stranger is in their home and holds him at gunpoint but he gets away and hides in their home. in a later confrontation, the family decides to help him. s=on after, a team of masked purgers, led by a character known as “the polite leader” (rhys wakefield), appear at the sendin’s. they attempted to purge the “bloody stranger” but he got away and they declare it is their right to purge him. they demand that the sandins release him or they will infiltrate their home and purge them. they do just that, and it looks as though the sandins will be killed when their neighbors kill the purgers. yet they did so only because they wanted to purge the sandins themselves, as they are all jealous of their affluence. rather than execute their neighbors, the sandins hold them hostage until the purge ends, then release them since it is no longer lawful to commit crime. the purge: anarchy, which takes place in 2023, is not set in one household like the first but rather an overview of purge night in los angeles. it follows several characters. police sargeant leo barnes (frank grillo) is committed to purging to avenge the death of his son, who was killed by a drunk driver. he ends up helping a waitress, eva sanchez (carmen ejogo) and her 17-year-old daughter, cali (zoe soul). the mother-daughter duo, distraught that eva’s father rico, who lived with them, had slipped out and offered himself to be purged in exchange for $100,000 to be paid to eva and cali post-purge, are attacked by their superintendent, diego, who had felt insulted by eva’s refusal to date him. a paramilitary group arrives at the right time and saves eva and cali, only to take them to their leader, big daddy, for his own personal purge. leo finds them and the trio flee. meanwhile, a married couple, shane and liz, are ambushed while grocery shopping and are in search of safe places and eventually end up hiding in leo’s car. the car breaks down as big daddy fires at them and the entire group escape on foot with a wounded shane. eva promises that her co-worker, tanya, has a car leo can use to finish his purge if only he will help keep them safe. the group also learns that the stranger from the first film is working with a man named carmelo jones (michael k. williams) are leading an anti-purge resistance movement. at tanya’s eva tells leo there is no car—she just said that to get his help. he is upset, but chaos takes over as tanya’s sister, lorraine, murders her for sleeping with her husband. they are all captured by the masked gang that ambushed shane and liz earlier, and that group intends to sell them to an auction where people bid on individuals they can purge. leo manages to fight off some people but in the melee shane is killed. the anit-purge volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 71 resistance group arrives and liz, distraught over shane’s death, stays with them but the others leave in a car that leo carjacks. leo drives the trio to the home of warren grass, the man who killed his son. it is just five minutes before the end of the purge but he ends up deciding not to kill him. as he exits their home, big daddy shoots him, acknowledging that the nffa had sent out death squads because the purge was not killing enough poor people, its original intent. warren saves leo, and the purge ends. warren drives leo, cali and eva to get medical attention. the purge: election year starts with a young girl, charlie roan (elizabeth mitchell), being forced to watch her mother, father and brother be executed during a purge. eighteen years later, roan is a u.s senator campaigning for the presidency and is staunchly anti-purge. leo barnes (frank grillo) is her head of security. because the nffa and their candidate minister edwidge owens (kyle secor) see roan as a threat, they change the purge rules to remove the immunity on government officials. meanwhile, deli owner joe dixon (mykelti williamson), his assistant marcos (joseph julian soria) and their friend laney rucker (betty gabriel), a former purger who know runs a clandestine emt service, are watching the presidential debate. a group of teenage girls are enraged that joe catches them attempting to shoplift and later, once the purge starts, they come back to try to kill him and destroy his deli. when the purge starts it is bigger than ever due to a boom in “murder tourism” from visitors outside the u.s. roan is waiting out the purge in her home that leo believes is secure but two of their security force members have betrayed them and allow a neo-nazi paramilitary force to invade the home. leo and roan escape but not before he is wounded. as they seek refuge they are attacked by a group of murder tourists but joe and marcos arrive and kill them. they all take shelter in the store, but after that is attacked the group flees. they continue to be ambushed until leo realizes they are being tracked by the bullet in his shoulder so he removes it. they are helped by a group of crips, as joe used to be a member, who hide the bullet somewhere else to throw off the surveillance. they make their way to an anti-purge hideout run by dante bishop (edwin hodge), who they learn intends to kill top nffa officials. roan pleads with them not to do so. the seemingly secure location is not, and a paramilitary group in hunt for roan and bishop arrives. leo and roan escape and are reunited with joe, marcos and laney. they are attacked and roan is pulled from the van to a fancy cathedral where wealthy nffa supporters intend to sacrifice her. the others arrive and marcos kills the man about to kill roan, resulting in a shootout. the other paramilitary and antipurge groups arrive and bishop and his team are killed. joe is also killed. two months later, roan has been elected in a landslide and barnes is director of the secret service. laney and marcos are taking care of joe’s store. news reports state volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 72 that nffa supporters have staged riots around the country in response to roan’s election and the end of the purge. the first purge is a prequel, explaining how the purge came to be. it is set in 2017, when a sociologist, may updale (marisa tomei), and her team announce to the nffa the experiment that is the purge. during the experiment, residents of staten island are offered $5,000 to stay home. each participant in the purge is outfitted with contact lenses that allow the nffa to monitor their activity. it features a drug lord, dmitri (y’lan noel), who decides they should lay low. one of his dealers, capital a (christian robinson), defies him and goes out to purge. skeletor (rotimi paul) is another purger who the nffa encourages to act and who commits the first documented purge. the nffa videotaped it and it goes viral, promoting the purge. at the same time, the nffa sees that more parties than killings are occurring, and that rather than murder, as is apparently the plan, it involves more looting and vandalism/ as many flee staten island, nya (lex scott davis), dmitri’s former girlfriend, tries to help her neighbors, dolores (mugga), luisa (luna lauren velez) and (kristen solis) . the latter two turn out to be sent by capital a to overthrow dmitri. isiaah (joivan wade), nya’s brother, wants to purge skeletor but can’t, and ends up saving nya when skeletor tries to rape her. updale begins to be suspicious of nffa reports of surges in murder, especially involving masked perpetrators. she reviews videotapes and realizes that the killers are largely paid mercenaries. it becomes obvious that the nffa’s agenda is to dispose of the poor to reduce expenditures on social programs. nffa chief of staff arlo sabian (patch darrag) has updale killed. dmitri and his crew kill capital a’s group, then escape until an unknown group attacks them. they discover that the group are mercenaries sent by the nffa to flood the neighborhood with weapons to provoke confrontation, and dmitri’s crew is determined to fight back and to protect the neighborhood. they then save a local shopkeeper and go to nya’s, but nffa drones shoot and kill most of his crew. skeletor, still thriving in the purge, arrives to kill many of the mercenaries before he is killed. dmitri then kills the remainder of the mercenaries and the purge ends. at the end credits, sabian reads a public statement announcing the purge a success. the tv series still focuses on the purge but, as does tv in general, develops the characters over several episodes. it follows siblings miguel and penelope, executive jane barbour, and a married couple, jenna and rick betancourt. penelope is a former addict who has joined a cult that pledges members to the purge. miguel is a marine because he had gotten into trouble so was forced to leave the area. jane is intent on purging her boss as revenge for repeatedly being passed over volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 73 for promotions and accolades, and has hired someone to kill him during the purge. the bettancourts are a middle class couple that want financing from some wealthy nffa supporters, the stantons. both are seemingly anti-purge, but as they attend a gala event, rick becomes more amenable to it. in addition, they have a past relationship with lili stanton, albert and ellie stanton’s daughter, both of which challenge their relationship. joe owens is an ordinary man who drives around town wearing a mask but instead of purging he intervenes to save people who are about to be purged. season two focuses on marcus moore, a successful surgeon who learns someone has put a bounty on him and he is nearly assassinated. he makes it his mission to find out who. in the process, he learns that his loving wife michelle had an affair, and casually mentioned to her lover that they could be together if marcus was gone, so it was he who put out the hit. another story line follows esme carmona (paola nunez), an nffa surveillance employee who becomes suspicious of the government’s tactics when she learns about the strange death of professor drew adams, who had been conducting a study in which she interviewed purgers and found that, contrary to the nffa’s claims, it makes people more violent, not less. marcus’s son darren was her student, and he ends up assisting esme as they unravel the details of adams’ death and the corruption of the nffa. another primary character is ryan grant, who, with friends tommy, sarah and doug, waits all year until purge night to carry off a large heist. he ends up helping esme and the two begin a relationship at the end of the season. one other main character is ben gardner (joel allen), who after having been abandoned by his frat brother and attacked on purge night goes out for his first purge. he finds he likes it and goes on a killing spree, even off-purge. themes about crime and justice one of the primary themes of the films and tv series is that violence is natural and people must use it or else it will build and get worse. the purge is supposed to offer catharsis. people buy into it because the nffa tells them that crime is way down and unemployment decreased to one percent, so the purge must be working. it is later revealed that the nffa doctors the numbers and commit their own offenses that are, of course, not counted. in season one, the stantons and their wealthy friends praise the founding fathers for understanding the “healing power” of violence. in episode nine of season one, an advertisement for the purge states “take the horror build up inside of you and spill it on the streets.” the ad admonishes listeners not to “squander this privilege.” only at the end of season two of the tv series is it made clear that the catharsis hypothesis is incorrect. this is revealed first volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 74 through the frat boy ben, whose friend abandoned him on purge night and he nearly died. he becomes obsessed with violence, playing video games first then going to a place where people can kill animals to “get out their aggression.” he later escalates to killing people off-purge, starting with the owner of a strawberry stand. eventually he goes on a rampage, killing anyone he can. also in season two, esme finds in professor adams’ home records of research trials she was conducting that show that the purge makes people more violent. the series ends with ben having survived and training with new weapons. in terms of explaining crime and violence, then, the criminological theory depicted in the film is rational choice. this is common in crime films, as it frames crime as solidly an individual choice (rafter, 2006). people are shown choosing to engage in crime because they are allowed to with impunity during the purge. many specifically choose who they will purge, thus they are making the cost-benefit analysis that is in addition to applying this theory to the purgers, you can also apply it to explain the actions of the nffa. the government chooses whom they see as threats, how they will orchestrate efforts against those individuals, and how to protect their own. even more than rational choice, however, routine activities theory helps explain the crime depicted in the purge. there are plenty of motivated offenders—people who are upset with others, who’ve been rejected, or who’ve been wronged in some way. the nffa is plenty motivated to maintain its power through whatever means necessary. there is ample opportunity, the second element of routine activities theory. crime is entirely legal for twelve hours. and, there is a lack of guardians in that police, emergency services our any other “checks” on such behavior are not allowed. even when people are able to purchase security systems, some purgers find it a challenge to attempt to circumvent them. similarly, seductions of crime theory can be applied here in that, after some time, many purgers are simply doing it for a thrill. kids are generally taught that the purge is right, normal, and necessary, although some resist. charlie sandin in the first film tells his family that they study the purge in history class, and in episode nine of season two, a teacher is assuring kids that the purge is a holiday and that their parents who purge are simply exercising their right. . even those who generally do not purge, like the sandins in the original film, repeat the nffa’s claims. frat boy ben’s new friend andy and his girlfriend, neither of whom purge, both look the other way because “what happens on purge night stays on purge night.” episode eight of the first season of the tv show is the first time a character vocally challenges the nffa’s claims about the effectiveness of the purge. pete the cop, who has a bar where anti-purgers gather, says about the alleged cathartic effect of violence “i’m not sure that’s how people work,” and says of their crime statistics, “that’s just what they say.” the volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 75 nffa has been hiding many murders by classifying them as something else. ben hears about the man he murdered on the radio and the cause of death is stated as “heat stroke.” season two, episode six ends after the college is in chaos due to ben’s killing of andy but a conservative commentator is arguing that there’s no real problem and that “everyone knows the purge works.” an anti-purge activist, lena, is also on the show and the commentator and nffa representative minimize and dismiss her, even calling for more frequent purges. the nffa representative, lena has used an app to call for purge on the student and brags that you can track “purge surges,” or the number of people who wish to see you purged. at the beginning, the purge generally shows that violence is largely instrumental. the characters typically purge others who have or who are perceived to have wronged them. in the first film, the neighbors are jealous of and upset with the sandins, who they say “you made money off us then stuck it in our faces.” they call it their “duty” as americans. ben’s new friend in season two, episode four tells him he should purge his buddy turner, who abandoned him, saying “the best thing i ever did was purge the people who made my life miserable.” even when people randomly purge because “it is their right,” they are not doing it from a sense of rage against injustice or oppression but rather because they can. people have come to feel entitled to purge, with characters often stating that specifically. the purge: anarchy, as does the second season of the tv series, shows characters talking about “releasing the beast” and the man, diego, who tries to purge eva and cali says it’s his right and that he’s “tired of being ignored.” in election year, the group of teenage girls who try to shoplift from joe return to get their revenge, all decked out in cute attire singing “party in the usa.” the leader of that pack announces she “already took care of mom and dad tonight.” eventually, purgers take advantage of the easiest prey. the purge is even marketed outside the u.s. and people buy packages to travel and purge. the government uses the purge to control the poor, as they are themselves off limits until the end. this is actually stated at the end of the purge: anarchy. furthermore, the nffa is fully aware that the poor cannot afford security, and it is wealthy people like the sandins that peddle such systems. the entire economy, as becomes clear in the later films, is built on the purge, which enriches many business owners. even small businesses emerge, as is shown in episode two of season two of the tv series, which opens with cleaning services mopping up blood and disposing of bodies. there’s a tv interview with a criminologist in the first film who briefly mentions that perhaps the purge is used to eliminate the poor, needy, sick and “non-contributing,” but it ends with saying, “either way, crime is down volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 76 and the economy is flourishing.” the leader of the masked purgers who come to the sandins refers to them as “the haves” and a “fine, young, very educated group of guys and gals ready to violate, annihilate and cleans our souls.” he refers to the bloody stranger as “a dirty homeless pig.” when sandin says that he’s hiding, the leader responds “don’t force us to hurt you, we don’t want to kill our own.” in the purge: anarchy, eva’s father sells himself to be purged so that she and her daughter can have some money. this is how the wealthy purge, while the less affluent must generally take to the streets in more of a free-for-all. in the purge: anarchy, when leo rescues eva and cali, he says they all must flee because “they’re not the kind of people who will survive the night.” some poor people do not purge but make money capturing others to sell to purgers, which happens to leo, cali and eva. they are taken to a fancy dinner event with all white people adorned in their finest tuxedos and gowns and then are to be released onto a hunting ground where, after selecting the weapon of their choosing, the rich will hunt them down. when leo is nearly shot at the end of the film after sparing the life of his son’s killer, the mercenary holding the gun tells him its an “unwritten rule—don’t save lives.” he also explains that citizens weren’t purging enough for the nffa’s liking so they were called in to “supplement” the purge. in election year, the purge is referred to as “spring cleaning” by the nffa candidate during a strategic meeting with his advisors, all white men. it is also revealed in that film the level to which insurance companies benefit from the purge. a restaurant owner complains that his rates have gone up so much for purge coverage but if he doesn’t pay he will have nothing and his business likely destroyed by purgers. ewing (2018) noted that this would be a very real effect if the purge was reality. in the first purge, the initial pilot program paid purgers $5,000 to participate, thereby attracting the financially needy. the cult in season one of the tv series, run by tavis who is known as “the good leader,” claims that giving themselves to the purge will send them to heaven, or “the invisible.” the cult preys on young, troubled youth, and it is later revealed in season one, episode eight that tavis works for the nffa. the nffa actually held auditions to find just the right person who could convince young people to give themselves up for the purge. the bettancourts attend a party at the stantons and they refer to the purge as “the great liquidator.” in season one, episode two, miguel is captured and taken to participate in “the gauntlet,” which is a contest coordinated by a car insurance company annually. contestants fight to their death, like modern gladiators, and the wealthy vote on who should prevail. he and penelope learn in episode three that their parents, who were purged, had been told they would be paid to stay home that night. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 77 government corruption is a primary theme outside of the first film. the nffa violates their own laws as long as it suits them, and changes them when they want to. for instance, when they want purgers to go after senator roan, the nffa changes the rules such that government officials are no longer exempt. she responds by refusing to go to a safe house, as the rest if the “99%” do not have that luxury. also, the unwritten rule is to always leave the triage providers alone, yet that all changes after the nffa goes after senator roan. police corruption and abuse is featured prominently in season two of the tv series but not in the films. pete the cop tried to expose corrupt cops and now runs the bar as a safe zone. season two emphasizes that “off purge” crimes are to be dealt with harshly, but only if they are committed by citizens, but the government. esme’s boss refers to these efforts as “liquidation protocol.” in episode two of the series, tommie, one of ryan grant’s friends in on their heist, surrenders to police and admits he moved money illegally when off-purge. they beat him horribly and grant knows they will likely hold him until the next purge, when they can kill him legally. his attorney tells him to plead guilty so his minor offense will be treated leniently. he does, but using cctv footage to show him on private property, he is convicted of a level r major felony and sentenced to die on the next purge. police chief ziv is working with the local drug dealer and getting paid very well. in a flashback, ryan, sarah, tommy and doug all turn in their badges rather than work for her and she claims she will block them getting any kind of work in the city. esme is able to use nffa tools to identify who the people in adams’ trials were and she finds that all have been killed by the nffa except one, as they did not want her study to become public knowledge. when she goes to that woman’s home, she finds she too is dead. when she calls the police to ask about what happen, she is told it was a suicide but she does not believe that. when the group’s new heist goes awry, she demands a cut in their next plans. she says she will turn them in if they don’t cut her in. esme’s boss demands that she stop investigating adams’ death and when she refuses, the nffa tries to kill her claiming she has committed treason. she escapes repeatedly, with the help of ryan, over several episodes. she eventually airs video she finds of the nffa murdering professor adams on television and even though the purge ends, they shoot both her and ryan, not knowing it was still on air. interestingly, there is very little domestic violence and sexual assault depicted in either the films or the tv series. given that these are some of the most frequently occurring crimes in the u.s., it is a strange decision to minimize them. in the purge: anarchy, it is a woman who commits an act of domestic violence when she kills her husband. tanya, eva’s friend, has been having an affair with her sister lorraine’s husband and lorraine uses the purge to try to kill both of them. in volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 78 season one, episode five, a flashback shows penelope’s drug dealing boyfriend henry hitting her then miguel beating him badly. in season two, ben ends up killing his brother in an argument, as his brother had been taunting him. he later kills his own girlfriend after she finds the mask he saved when killing andy. the most significant emphasis on gender-related crimes in in season one, episode four. when she goes out on purge night to stop the hit she placed on her boss, jane is grabbed and a man tries to make her drink a roofie. she is saved by a group of women who call themselves the “matron saints.” they note that every purge, year more than 10,000 women are sexually assaulted during the purge. sexism is shown in a variety of ways, however. jane’s reason for paying someone to purge her boss is that she believes he is responsible for the glass ceiling she has hit at work. when she goes to tell him about the hit because she no longer wants him killed, he taunts her, even saying “you really hired a woman to do this?” he walks her through his home where he has a bunch of women tied up and refers to them as a “living, breathing art gallery. david states, “times were different before. tonight, we can give in and become men.” jane is also upset at her mother for forcing her to participate in beauty pageants when she was young. at the end of episode seven, she shoots david after being rescued by joe the vigilante. in episode five, the matron saints hold down a man who had been attaching women and brand him as a pig “so women will know.” jenna bettancourt is repeatedly undermined by her husband despite being obviously intelligent and capable. penelope ends up being a strong character but is mostly shown succumbing to her abusive boyfriend henry’s pushing of drugs and then to the cult. also surprisingly minimal, given its ubiquity in the u.s, is specific examples of crimes against children. charlie roan’s flashbacks in the purge: election year demonstrate that she watched her brother be executed by a purger but there is no sign of child abuse or child sexual abuse in any of the films or in the tv series. similarly, while season two of the tv series shows ryan grant’s group planning a heist, financial crimes are not a primary focus of the purge. their heist has not resulted in as much as they had thought, so they begin to plot another one. it is revealed that the reason the amount was less than they thought is because the government is putting most of its money in airplanes so it cannot be purged. in that season, there are also jackals who steal from other purgers. race issues are visible in that most all the purgers are white. there are only a handful of black purgers, and many involved seem to be doing it for the payout, not for the thrill. skeletor is the exception. yet the films also play into some stereotypes. for instance, joe is a former crip and although they actually offer help, volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 79 it reinforces the idea that black men are largely gang-involved. in the first purge, dmitri is a drug dealer who is betrayed by his associates. in the purge: election year, the nffa supports white supremacist purgers attacking people of color. the nffa has also dumped weapons into the urban neighborhood to stimulate trouble. in season two of the series, marcus is disliked by his neighbors, all of whom are white, and it is implied that this is because he is a successful, “uppity” black man. they demand he and his wife michelle leave the area or say they will purge them. even as the second and third films featured people of color prominently, it is still leo who is the hero, the white savior. the first purge confronts race most directly. men in kkk robes purging in the streets. it becomes clear that the government has stimulated black-on-black violence. black and brown people save each other in churches and in community groups because they know no one else will. although it did make allusions to trump’s hateful rhetoric, even featuring a red hat like the make america great again hats trump supporters wear on a promotional poster, the film falls short of really tackling trumpism. weapons are very easy to access, as they are in the u.s. today. in addition, military-grade weapons and materials like tanks and body armor are also shown repeatedly. in the second film, weapons dealing is happening openly on the streets and announcers note that spike in sales for smith and wesson before the purge. in the purge: election year, mercenaries look like soldiers and have rocket-propelled grenades. season one, episode one of the tv series opens with commentary on the news about stores selling out of weapons and ammunition and newscasters wear bulletproof vests. season two, episode four shows ben at the purge usa store, which has every weapon available and is offering a discount on remembrance day. he meets another guy there to buy a crossbow. the films also offer a critique of reality tv. viewers hunker down in their secure homes watching live coverage of the brutality and many have “purge parties.” the gauntlet that miguel is forced to participate in during season one, episode two is televised for public consumption. penelope is taken to the “carnival of flesh,” which is basically a mcdonalds of the purge. people are auctioned so that others can torture and kill them. after the chaos of ben’s killing of andy, companies are marketing campus killer masks. young people dress up and take “purge selfies.” the frat boys are watching tiktok purge videos and partying before the opening of that year’s purge in season two, episode eight. the nffa increasingly echoes the trump administration’s attempt to blend christianity with patriotism to support its corrupt practices. they even encourage celebrating the purge as if it’s a holiday. the purge: election year opens with a volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 80 “purge playlist” on the radio. “blessed be america, a nation reborn” is a common mantra. in the first film, the neighbors hold hands in a prayer circle before they are about to kill the sandins, saying “blessed be the nffa.” the same type of prayer circle is formed by the rich people who are about to hunt down eva, cali and leo in the purge: anarchy. in election year, a pastor leads a “purge mass” and says “america was built on sacrifice.” when charlie roan is captured in election year, she is taken to a church so they can “purge and purify.” the pastor calls on congregants to “eliminate evil” by killing her but she survives and is elected two months later. season one, episode two of the tv series opens with a dj asking “what could be more american than the purge?” and referring to it as the “ultimate night of freedom.” episode four of season two opens on “remembrance day,” three month after a purge. announcers “thank those who sacrificed,” almost like thanking veterans of war. the star spangled banner is playing in the background and people are asked to wear a yellow flower if someone they loved was sacrificed. the nffa’s surveillance, in particular as it is demonstrated in season two of the tv series, is similar to that of the nsa after 9/11. all encompassing, all the time surveillance of citizens who are doing nothing suspicious. esme becomes a whistleblower somewhat parallel to edward snowden, who reveals the total surveillance system. as such, she, like snowden, becomes a target. in the purge: anarchy, leo, cali, and eva are being tracked via the bullet he sustained. even as early as the first purge, which is set in 2017, the nffa has given purgers content lens cameras. in election year, the nffa uses drones to take out most of dmitri’s group. most purgers wear masks, which has been shown to be a factor that allows people to engage in acts they otherwise would not. in season two of the tv series, ben takes the mask from the person who attacked him and wears it. it has god written on it, emphasizing that purgers often feel as though they have the right to make choices like that of a divine power. in season one, the stantons distribute masks of infamous serial killers to the party attendees who will be purging. the power of masks is well-documented. in october 2019, hong kong banned masks at demonstrations, noting that protestors wearing them are prone to violence. twelve states and seven countries have banned protestors from wearing masks. such bans in the u.s. were largely enacted in response to the kkk, while in hong kong, it was to suppress dissent (pasley, 2019). nonviolent resistance and conflict resolution volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 81 like today, there are many resistance movements that form to oppose the nffa and to try to end the purge. none use overtly nonviolent tactics. conflict resolution is exclusively via violence or the threat of violence. this lack of nonviolence strategies among resisters is highlighted in the purge: anarchy, when leo, cali and eva are saved by a group of black men, led by carmelo johns, who disagree with the purge. he says, “fuck your money and the purge. there are more of us and we’re more pissed off. change comes when their blood spills.” in the purge: election year, senator charlie roan, who watched her family get purged 18 years prior, is leading a more public resistance. others resist in alternate ways, like laney, who is an underground emergency worker in election year. dante bishop runs a triage center and a resistance movement, and when leo, joe, charlie, and the others end up at the triage, they find a room full of photos of the nffa and learn that bishop’s movement intends to take them out. roan tries to talk them out of it, arguing that it will merely make them martyrs. when roan is elected, there are reports that the nffa is retaliating by staging violent uprisings. there are also vigilante individuals and groups that kill purgers, as is introduced in episode three of season one. in season one, episode six, joe is a vigilante who felt he had been rejected by a woman and lost his job. at the end of episode eight, he has taken the bettancourts, penelope, and jane and in episode nine he puts them “on trial” because all previously slighted him somehow. in a clear nod to trump era politics and a slight of president obama, joe says that he supports the purge because “hope and change didn’t get us anywhere.” the stanton’s maid, carolina, is part of a resistance movement that ultimately attacks the home during their purge party. she tells jenna bettancourt so that they can escape. esme’s friend vivian, who helped her evade the nffa, survived being shot and is working with marcus’ son darren in a resistance campaign. marcus and his first wife, tonya, are assisting. they received money from ryan’s friends. they announce, “the government created a virus for violence, it is spreading.” the lack of nonviolent conflict resolution strategies is common in feature films. media attention, both news and fiction, is essential to create successful nonviolent social movements that document and attempt to address social and structural injustices (gorbenko, 2012; nykon, 2011). woodhouse (2011) contends that film narratives and images of nonviolent conflict resolution help to create a culture of peace, as they are “creative modes of knowing” (boulding, 1990) that build people’s “moral imagination” (lederach, 2005). “film, an art form which has the power to depict human behaviour more lucidly than any other, has the potential to portray conflicting parties respecting one another and creatively finding peaceful win-win solutions to conflicts” (nykon, 2011). while conflict is an essential part volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 82 of narrative storytelling, (mckee, 1999), often, conflict in film is portrayed in ways that destructive of dehumanizing (nykon, 2011; senihi, 2002). this true of the purge series in large part, but not exclusively. few characters are really redeemed, but there are a few important examples. esme and ryan elect to do good over what is easy sacrificing themselves at the end of season two of the tv series. their actions help catalyze greater resistance to the nffa. laney is a reformed purger who puts herself in great danger to operate a rogue, mobile help service on purge night in the purge: election year. these characters, then, embracing change. leo offers a great example of second chances when he refuses to purge the man who killed his son. connectedness is shown through several characters who help others they barely know. the purge series reminds viewers of the destructive nature of violence, in the short and long-term. it can therefore be a powerful tool for seeing a more complex view of violence, crime and justice, and to shed a light on the way that powerful people are able to offend with impunity, often. several characters show their humanity by saving others when they do not have to. in the first film, the sandins save the bloody stranger and he later helps them. joe, laney and marcos help charlie and leo escape imminent death in the purge: election year, esme and ryan help the entire nation by revealing the nffa’s murders in season two of the tv series, and nya helps as many neighbors as she can in the first purge. conclusion while the purge film and tv series seem to reinforce the notion that violence is natural, it also provides viewers with an important critique of common tropes about why violence occurs, who commits it, and justice systems. it firmly rejects the catharsis notion that is still widely held in the general public. the explanation for crime and violence depicted in the purge series can help students understand theory, as was explained above. as johnson (2015) notes, once students can apply theories of violence and nonviolence “to a low risk example, such as a film, then they start to make the leap to real political and social situations” (p. 16). although the series does little to address some of the more frequently occurring types of violence and in some ways locates violence as an individual choice, it simultaneously offers an interesting view on the way violence is learned behavior, how elites are able to avoid sanctions for their own violent actions, and why justice is elusive in societies where the powerful control all the rules without accountability. it provides an important critique of government surveillance and control. after 9/11, many activists were concerned, and remain so today, about government monitoring of the sort that is clear in the purge. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 83 yet, as thompson (2007) explained, themes of hope and connectedness are quintessential to a peacemaking approach, and both are clear within this series. even when things are the most dire, there are good people working together to help others, especially in the later films and tv series. this counters the typical narrative, which “continues to privilege and celebrate the individual actions at the expense of more collective responses to injustice, or even more nuances understandings of how our economic, political, and cultural structures devalue and harm certain kinds of people” (bateman, 2015, p. 83). although it utilizes some racial stereotypes, the series rejects white saviorism by showing people of color doing good despite being the object of many purgers. as such, it helps to reject what hooks (1996) called “white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” (p. 3). it shows the realities of how people can get caught up in something they are told is not only right but essential. in this sense, the series highlights how hegemony works. in particular, the purge shows how coupling violence with patriotism is problematic. while it is not an overt part of the narrative, the series also begs the question about easy access to weapons. students can be asked about how nonviolence could have been used to a greater degree and to identify the many reasons why violence is a failure. this then reinforces the work of peace educators and scholars like barbara deming (1985), whose emphasis is on revolutionary nonviolence to move beyond the person and to address structural inequalities. in sum, the purge provides an interesting and important balance to many fictional crime films. as such, it can be a useful and engaging tool for broadening perspectives. as bajaj and chin (2009) wrote, “education is not only an end to itself. it is a key instrument for bringing about the changes in knowledge, values, behaviors, and lifestyles required to achieve sustainability within and among countries and ensure democracy, human security, and peace” (p. 447). references appel, m. (2008). fictional narratives cultivate just world beliefs. journal of communication, 58, 62-83. bajaj, m., & chin, b. (2009). education for sustainable development as peace education. peace & change, 34(4), 441-55. bateman, j. (2015). gender and homelessness: the search for justice in popular culture and film. in l. finley, j. connors & b. wein (eds.) teaching peace through popular culture (pp. 81-98). charlotte, nc: information age. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 84 berets, r. (1996). changes images of justice in american films. legal studies forum, 20, 473-80. boulding, e. (1990). building a global civic culture: education for an independent world. new york: syracuse university press carlson, j. (1985). prime time law enforcement. new york, ny: praefer. cavendar, g., & deutsch, s. (2007). csi and moral authority: the police and science. crime media culture, 31, 67-81/ chiricos, t., padgett, k., & gertz, m. (1997). crime, news and fear of crime: toward an identification of audience effects. criminology, 38, 755-85. christie, n. (1986). the ideal victim. in e.a fattah (ed.), from crime policy to victim policy (pp. 17-30). london: macmillan. coyne, s., & archer, j. (2004). indirect aggression in the media: a content analysis of british television programs. aggressive behavior, 30, 254-71. deming, b. (1985). on revolution and equilibrium. new york, ny: a.j. muste memorial institute. dominick, j. (1978). crime and law enforcement in the mass media. in c. winiuk (ed,) deviance and mass media (pp. 105-128). beverly hills, ca: sage. dowler, k. (2003). media consumption and public attitudes toward crime and justice: the relationship between fear of crime, punitive attitudes, and perceived police effectiveness. journal of criminal justice and popular culture, 10, 109-26. ewing, j. (2018, june 26). why a real-life ‘purge’ would be terrible for the economy. forbes. retrieved february 22, 2020 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffewing/2018/06/26/4-real-world-economicconsequences-of-the-purge-or-its-terrible-for-the-economy-too/#4277542d28c0 finley, l. (2015). introduction. in l. finley, j. connors & b. wien (eds.) teaching peace through popular culture (pp. ix-xv). charlotte, nc: information age. finley, l. (2003). american history x: tool for teaching or tool for white supremacy? contemporary justice review, 6, 81-83. ferrell, j. (1999). cultural criminology. annual review of sociology, 25, 395-418. freire, p. (1973). education for critical consciousness. new york, ny: continuum. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 85 gerbner, g., & gross, l. (1976). living with television: the violence profile. journal of communication, 2, 173-99. gerbner, g., gross, l., signorielli, n., morgan, m., & jackson-beeck, m. (1979). the demonstration of power: violence profile no. 10. journal of communication, 29, 177-96. gerbner, g., gross, l., morgan, m., signorielli, n., & shanahan, j. (2002). growing up with television: cultivation processes. in j. bryanat and d. zillmann (eds.), media effects: advances in theory and research (pp. 43-67). mahwah. nj: erlbaum. gillim, f., & iyengar, s. (2000).prime suspects: the influence of local television news on the viewing public. american journal of political science, 44, 560-73. gorbenko, k. (2012). from print to pixel: visual media and the fate of nonviolent social movement activism. dissertation prepared for the university of pennsylvania. retrieved march 20, 2020 from https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1794&context=edissertat ions gramsci, a. (1971). selections from the prison notebooks. new york, ny: international publishers. griffiths, j., & regan, h. (2019, october 5). hong kong’s ban on masks at protests sparks night of violent protests. cnn. retrieved march 10, 2020 from https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/05/asia/hong-kong-protests-mask-emergency-intlhnk/index.html gross, k., & aday, s. (2003). the scary world in your living room and in your neighborhood: using local and broadcast news, neighborhood crime rates, and personal experience to test agenda setting and cultivation hypothesis. journal of communication, 53, 411-26. hirsch, p. (1980). the “scary world” of the nonviewer and other anomalies: a reanalysis of gerbner et al.’s findings on cultivation analysis, pt. 1. communication research, 7, 403-56. holbert, r., shah, d., & kwak, n. (2004). fear, authority and justice: crimerelated tv viewing and endorsements of capital punishment and gun ownership. journalism & mass communication quarterly, 81, 343-63. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 86 hooks, b. (1996). reel to real: race, sex, class and the movies. new york, ny: routledge. hughes, m. (1980). the fruits of cultivation analysis: a reexamination of some effects of television watching. public opinion quarterly, 44, 287-302. johnson, d. (2015). using film to illustrate theories of violence and nonviolence. in l. finley, j. connors, & b. wein (eds.) teaching peace through popular culture (pp. 1-18). charlotte, nc: information age. jones, g. (2003). killing monsters: why children need fantasy, superheroes, and make-believe violence. new york, ny: basic. kappeler, v., & potter, g. (2004). inventing criminal justice: myth and social construction. in p. kraska (ed.), theorizing criminal justice: eight essential orientations (pp. 185-94). long grove, il: waveland. klein, m. (2015). popular film and peace studies: conscientization in and through film. in l. finley, j. connors, & b wein (eds.) teaching peace through popular culture (pp. 41-63). charlotte, nc: information age. lederach, j. (2005). the moral imagination: the art and soul of building peace. new york: oxford university press. lin, j. (2006). love, peace and wisdom in education: vision for education in the 21st century. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield. mckee, r. (1999). story: substance, structure, style and the principles of screenwriting. london: methuen. newby, r. (2018, july 6). how “first purge” takes a hands-on approach to race. hollywood reporter. retrieved march 10, 2020 from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/first-purge-is-a-hood-filmdisguised-as-a-horror-movie-1125203 nykon, b. (2011). the feature film as a vehicle for disseminating principles of conflict resolution. journal of conflictology, 2(2), 18-31. pasley, j. (2019, october 7). 12 u.s. states and 7 countries that have banned protestors from wearing masks. business insider. retrieved march 10, 2020 from https://www.businessinsider.com/countries-states-where-protesters-cant-wearmasks-2019-10 volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 87 rafter, n. (2006). shots in the mirror: crime films and society (2nd edition). new york, ny: oxford university press. rafter, n., & brown, m. (2011). criminology goes to the movies: crime film and popular culture. new york: nyu press. raney, a. (2005). punishing media criminal and moral judgement: the impact on enjoyment. media psychology, 7, 145-63. roberts, j., & white, n. (1986). public estimates of recidivism rates: consequences of a criminal stereotype. canadian journal of criminology, 28, 229-41. romano, v. (2015). dreaming of a white future: the portrayal of race in science fiction films. in l. finley, j. connors, & b. wein (eds.). teaching peace through popular culture (pp. 219-235). charlotte, nc: information age. senihi, j. (2002). constructing storytelling: a peace process. peace and conflict studies, 9(2), 41-64. shager, n. (2018, july 4). the first purge envisions a second civil war between white nationalists and people of color. the daily beast. retrieved march 10, 2020 from https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-first-purge-envisions-a-second-civil-warbetween-white-nationalists-and-people-of-color soulliere, d. (2003). prime-time murder: presentations of murder on popular television justice programs. journal of criminal justice and popular culture, 10, 12-38. surrette, r. (2007). media, crime, and criminal justice: images and realities (3rd ed.). belmont, ca: thomson-wadsworth. surrette, r. (1998). some unpopular thoughts about popular culture. in f. bailey and d. haley (eds.), popular culture, crime and justice (pp. xiv-xxiv). belmont, ca: wadsworth. thompson, k. (2007). cinema, race and justice: a qualitative analysis of selected themes. thesis prepared for east tennessee state university. retrieved march 23, 2020 from https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3470&context=etd weitzer, r.,& kubrin, c. (2004). breaking news: how local tv news and realworld conditions affect fear of crime. justice quarterly, 21, 497-520. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 66-88 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 88 welsh, a., fleming, t., & dowler, k. (2011). constructing crime and justice on film: meaning and message in cinema. contemporary justice review, 14(4), 45776. wink, w. (1998). the powers that be: theology for a new millennium. new york, ny: doubleday. woodhouse, t. (2011). conflict resolution and peace culture: conflict resolution in art, theatre, music and sport. in o. ramsbotham, t. woodhouse and h. miall (eds.), contemporary conflict resolution: the prevention, management and transformation of deadly conflict. cambridge: polity press. zillman, d., & wakschlag, j. (1985). fear of victimization and the appeal of crime drama. in d. zillmann and j. bryant (eds.), selective exposure to communication (pp. 141-56). hillsdale, nj: erlbaum. microsoft word ifp v 16 benson.docx volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 64 volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 why peace and justice education is important in places of worship: an introduction and curriculum proposal to peace and justice education in companion to the sermon on the mount george m. benson georgembenson@gmail.com www.georgembenson.com introduction: why peace and justice education is important in places of worship1 for a few years now, i have worked as an outreach director for a church located within the community of five points toledo. it is an area that is made of diverse people, incomes, and has really taken a hit since the 2008 economic crisis. the church i work for has occupied the same building for 100 years, and still looks the same. they come every week and participate in the service that has changed very little, then they leave and most of them drive back to the suburbs they came from (myself included). while they want to engage actively with their surrounding community, they have no resources or points of contact. that is the genesis of this 1 it should be noted the following was written before the mass shootings and supreme court abortion rights leak that occurred in the united states in may 2022. this is not the final curriculum, and work is already underway to provide a section covering how being pro-birth does not mean one is prolife. and that christians who support things such as the death penalty, war, caps on welfare, forced births, etc. should question whether or not they are in fact “pro-life”. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 65 piece of work. the purpose of this curriculum is to engage people who want to incorporate issues of justice and peace into their practicing faith that have no way into the conversation, or how to even start helping or learning that come from a religious background that are saying they’re called to do so. this paper is meant to be the starting point of a curriculum that should help those with no formal experience in peace and justice education to move forward in a world where they can bring light and knowledge to places that do not have it. in considering the importance that peace and justice education has in our society, it would stand to reason that, outside of academic and higher education settings, houses of worship and religion ought to be a voice teaching people in their settings the importance of peace and justice. having been in ministry for a cumulative decade in various denominations, and now serving as an outreach director for the past few years, i have been surprised to see this is not at the forefront of most evangelical church agendas. given the tumult and general political unrest over the past six years, and how the majority of american evangelicals have adopted political views that run counter to their professed beliefs. it is with this in mind that i have decided to put together a six-part curriculum for evangelicals, specifically white cis hetero evangelicals, who are interested in learning more about peace, justice, and how they can fight against systems of oppression that they themselves (passively and actively) have upheld and benefited from. this six-part curriculum is going to be based on the sermon on the mount as found in the gospel of matthew chapters 5 – 7 of the new revised standard version (nrsv) translation of the christian bible. by basing the curriculum on the most famous sermon of jesus, and widely accepted teaching in general, there is a universality that most evangelicals can accept. using parts of the hebrew bible (christian old testament) as primary text (which talk at a greater length the need for justice), it may be easier to dismiss as most american evangelicals are taught passively or actively that all the hebrew bible is used for affirming jesus as the messiah and has no real bearing on today. the curriculum should or can be taught over a series of at least six weeks, and by centering each week on a different passage of the sermon on the mount, there are specific readings from various authors of peace education that correspond with that passage. understanding how peace and justice impact our world through our actions is critical to belonging to the christian faith. both the old and new testaments are peppered with verses, teachings, and stories about how peace and justice should influence our lived faith. most famously, this is seen through jesus’ teaching on the sermon on the mount. throughout this course, we are going to be focusing on specific verses that highlight some of these while diving into the volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 66 writings of betty reardon, john rawls, daniel buttry, some of the works from the black panthers, and a few others. specifically using reardon’s works, and her approach to global citizenship and the importance of thinking globally and acting locally as the backbone of this curriculum (reardon 2021; reardon, b. a. & snauwaert d. t., 2015). the goal by the end of this course is for those who have walked through these classes to be able to articulate not only the importance of peace and justice education within their faith, but also the importance of it as members of our shared society. part one: salt and light learning outcomes: the students should start to understand that not only does life exist outside of their personal context, but that they can play an active part in not only modeling peace and justice to others and engage in conversations to teach others the importance of peace and justice education. knowing that by first modeling the knowledge one has on the subject, a community in which peace and justice conversations/education happens can be more attainable. approach: the section of the sermon on the mount where jesus discusses shining light in front of others paired with betty reardon’s concept of global citizenship should give the learner a tangible grasp on how to approach global citizenship. by becoming empowered to love out the education, and beliefs tied into one action provides grounding for learners to go out and do likewise. you are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? it is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot. you are the light of the world. a city built on a hill cannot be hid. no one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. in the same way let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven. matthew 5:13 – 16 (nrsv) within evangelical christianity, it is common for preachers, pastors, elders, and followers to bring about the importance of emulating the character and personhood of jesus. this is usually described as found in the sermon on the mount, because the teachings and anecdotes that jesus describes in that section are the most attainable (on the surface). it is easy to draw a line to how the teaching of jesus can be translated to one’s life in a way that the parables he gives out cannot. also in those churches, it is not uncommon for the language to be that the church (as in the global church) should be the leaders in peacemaking and issues of justice. unfortunately, what is left out of those conversations are concrete ways to learn volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 67 about peace, justice, or anything resembling those two that are found outside of the bible. while christians are quick to point out that they are called to be peacemakers, as stated in the sermon on the mount, “blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of god” matthew 5:9 (nrsv), but there are not a lot of great examples of this that are lifted up regularly, especially when considering why this teaching of peace and justice education is important. most of those who fought for these issues (mlk, john lewis, dorothy day to name a few) are not only activists but also seem to be raised on pedestals to where their works cannot be replicated and so it is almost feeble for others to attempt the same. this is why the education of peace and justice within christian settings is so crucial. so, when those in the christian tradition are untouchable, those within the tradition must reach outside to show how fighting and working for peace and justice are attainable. after all, fighting for those two issues are, in theory, key to the christian faith, so examples of people working within that sphere of education should be sought by any means necessary. it is with that mentality that we look at our first example of someone doing the work is none other than betty a. reardon. in looking at the passage from the sermon on the mount from the beginning of this section, it not only is important to stress the teachings of jesus and emulation of his example within a christian setting but look to others who do the same, regardless of faith. betty a. reardon is our first example of this type of life. reardon has spent her lifetime not only calling for peace among nations but educating others about the importance of learning from peacemakers. reardon promotes the importance of working within the mentality of acting as a global citizen. while each person works from their own context, it is important to remember that social structures, contexts, and experiences are not static. the experiences of someone who grew up in beverly hills, california is not the same as someone who grew up in ocala, florida. however, there are universal systems in place that are oppressive to those that do not fit the social and societal norms regardless of geography. to be the salt of the earth means to ensure that the flavor everyone brings to each situation is noticed and welcomed. hence why we ought to shine our light in our communities to those on the outsides. while democracy may not act in favor of everyone at all times, we must take up a stance in which it can. social systems, to maintain viability and vigor, must nurture human variety of all kinds. in ethnically homogeneous societies, this variety may be said to be adequate if various individual capacities and talents and other forms of human diversity and viewpoints are nurtured. in ethnically (and, we volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 68 might also argue, ideologically) mixed societies, the varieties of cultures and modes of thought must also be intentionally cultivated. such conditions are essential to our notion of democracy that derives from the belief that the broader and more varied the human resource base, the more successful a society is likely to be. above all, a successful democracy encourages full and responsible participation of all citizens. (reardon and snauwaert, 2015, p. 135) to start thinking as a global citizen means to start at home, ensuring those in our neighborhoods are receiving the full support of the social systems and structures at hand. when christian practice was still in its infancy, it became famous for caring for the orphans, the widows, the foreigner, and the sick. in being the type of person who does not hide their light under a basket, christians are called to be on the front lines demanding this type of justice. thinking as a global citizen has never been hard for christians when it comes to recognizing that we are a part of a global religion. often, we speak of the church in the capital “c” form, meaning the church as a whole. only when some action is expected of us do we run and hide behind the image of jesus and turn our once very physical religion into one that only consists of ethics, morality, and spirituality. thinking about and acting as a global citizen is foundational to the structure of this curriculum. to be a global citizen, and a part of a global religion means to care about the human rights issues at home and away. as reardon (1989) writes in comprehensive peace education: peace as a network of humane relationships based on equity, mutuality, and the inherent worth of all persons might be interpreted as the manifestation of global justice. this concept of peace means to be the one that is the most characteristic of multicultural approaches to peace education that seek to develop appreciation of cultural differences and recognition of human dignity as the essential basis for human relations-interpersonal, social, and structural. it is, as well, the value base that informs human rights education (p. 30). to see this in action is a wonderful thing that can be done locally, and has. we have the tools and talents to do so, we just need to approach this as students, and humbly ask to learn. as rev. daniel buttry, who has spent his life working in peacemaking missions at home and abroad writes in his book, peace ministry a handbook for local churches: volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 69 the local congregation is a particular manifestation of the body of christ (see 1 corinthians 12:27), so it is appropriate for the local congregation to eb a locus for peacemaking ministry. as a gathered community of believers, the local church can give flesh to the work of christ through its witness and action for peace. peacemaking is not to be surrendered to the realm of politicians, diplomats, and activists; it is to be embraced as a component of the mission of the local church too (buttry, 1995, p. 6-7). the choice has always been ours as to whether or not we wanted to be the salt and light. christianity, at its best, is fighting for those who even oppose the beliefs, because we believe that peace and justice ought to rule. in some ways, it starts with us. learning questions: 1. what does it mean to be a global citizen according to reardon? 2. what does it mean for you to be a global citizen? 3. what is similar, and what is different according to yours and reardon’s definitions? 4. would you consider jesus and his ministry to be globally minded? 5. how do you envision your community engaging and teaching what it means to be a global citizen? part two: violence, prison, and reconciliation learning outcomes: for learners to realize that an essential part of peace and justice education and living is to call out structures and systems of violence. injustice is present in every community with a jail or prison. learners should be able to articulate why it is important to care about prisoners and that they should be contacting local representatives for more humane treatment of fellow image bearers of god. approach: the majority of evangelical christians in twenty-first century america are not always so quick to reach out to prisoners or argue that prison reform is a christian principle. in looking at the section of the sermon on the mount in which jesus teaches directly on violence, prison, and reconciliation, it provides a thorough line tied directly to modern issues within every community. the church is supposed to be the place where reconciliation thrives and is alive, so in keeping in mind reardon’s global citizen approach we start to tie in other writings of hers, and amy levad (2014) we able to get learners to start thinking about how they can approach this leviathan in tangible ways. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 70 you have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘you shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ but i say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘you fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire. so when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. truly i tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. matthew 5:21 – 26 (nrsv) as we learned in the previous section, there is an importance to calling out injustices where and when we see them. to be a christian means to understand we may not always be correct in our deeds and actions. but we also know that no matter how far down the alleyway we go on that, there is always a point where we can turn around. there are so many stories of people finding faith behind bars, and while their actions may have been forgiven by god, there is still societal atonement to complete. the passage from the sermon on the mount this section focuses on, jesus speaks to those committing acts of violence, whether physical or not. murder, emotional abuse, sexual assault or harassment, and many things in between, can be argued, fall into this category of the sermon. while the united states no longer has a debtor’s prison (in theory) the imagery can still be used today. there is a price to pay for every action. questions to ask: “if christians are to fight for justice and peace, what does this have to do with the legal system? isn’t that justice in action within our democracy?” but while not everyone is a lawyer, there are simple things we can do in order to dismantle systems of violence that are within our systems that are supposed to achieve justice. in march of 2022 a scottish court refused to extradite an american citizen who had shot and killed a security guard before fleeing the united states. the man was arrested in scotland, and the judge in his case, “decided that poor conditions in texas prisons might constitute an international human rights violation” (blakinger, 2022). there are so many calls to care for prisoners within the christian bible, but it becomes difficult to care for those where institutions have been built up to do the job for us. but we do not have to go far to find how awful these conditions are in many states (especially those who support the death penalty). volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 71 in using what was learned in the last section, we can call upon our knowledge of being the salt and light of the earth, and letting our lights shine for caring for those who are incarcerated. to be a global citizen/christian, means to engage in this education and call for accountability. peace educators who teach so as to cultivate the values of civility and reason and the capacity of reasoning see these values and this capacity as basic to education for reconstructive practice of global citizenship; to preparation for participation in global as well as national politics of change. peace education’s commitment to change toward reducing violence and vulnerability through dialogic critical analysis of political and social structures and relationships distinguish it from standard citizenship education (reardon & snauwaert, 2015, p. 158). we tend not to think of prisoners as “the vulnerable”, but they are, and it is our job to call out for better treatment of them. as amy levad (2014) puts it in her book, redeeming a prison society: a liturgical and sacramental response to mass incarceration, we may always need prisons. however: . . .our use of prisons could be reformed to minimize the harm they cause both to the imprisoned and to those of us who are ultimately harmed by the loss of full relationship with all of our neighbors. sacramental and liturgical ethics call upon catholics and other christians to advocate for reform of our prisons. in all penal practice of our prisons, prisoners must be treated as fully human persons and must be provided with the resources necessary to participate in the dignity, unity, and equality of all people. the ultimate ends of punishment-internal reform and social reintegration-ought to be upheld. while some prisoners may never be capable personally of internal reform, the possibility that they could bring about significant change in their lives must be maintained or else we risk treating them as merely caged animals. the community must strive to provide the guidance and support for prisoners to prepare themselves to return as fully reintegrated members, even if their full integration may never occur (levad, 2015, p. 138). we have all been on both sides of violence, prison, and reconciliation whether it is literal or metaphoric. reconciliation is something that should always call christians to action, because it is a physical act. to be reconciled means to be restorative. as reardon puts it, “if we take seriously the need to change our way of thinking then we have to look toward the reintroduction of qualities and capacities volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 72 into the educational pursuit” (reardon, 2022, p. 55). for christians that education is to be interwoven in all our teachings, sermons, bible studies, and classes. the reconciliation of all things is what drives jesus, and it should drive us too. the start of reconciliation for us sometimes, is calling our elected officials to create better conditions for those we are mandated to care for, by word and deed. learning questions: 1. when you think of prisons, what comes to mind? pop culture interpretations, or real-life examples? 2. according to reardon and snauwaert, what is a commitment that peace education offers to global citizens? 3. does looking at the injustices that still happen in our own country today bring jesus’ teachings to life? 4. levad paints a pretty harsh, but accurate picture, and christians of all walks have a responsibility to our fellow humans. how does this section from her book make you feel about providing guidance and support to your community on fighting for humane and just conditions for those in jail? 5. what tangible ways do you think reconciliation could play in real life situations? part three: non-violence in the face of violence learning outcome: understanding that engaging in non-violent acts can be more powerful and radical than violent ones. the learner should be able to articulate the importance of going the extra mile and turning the other cheek, and how it helps promote justice and peace. approach: in looking at part of the historical context to “going the extra mile” as the basis for good trouble and civil disobedience, paired with the student nonviolent coordinating committee (sncc), and reengaging in a conversation about reconciliation in a more meaningful way learners should be able to have a firm understanding on non-violent engagement. you have heard that it was said, ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ but i say to you, do not resist an evildoer. but if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. matthew 5:38 – 42 (nrsv) volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 73 the passage from the sermon on the mount we are focusing on in this section is a rather infamous one. in it, jesus lays down the expectation of physical conflict in the culture and settings of his time. for example, today not many people can force you to walk one mile, and therefore you should go another. the context for this is that roman soldiers could force anyone who was under roman rule/subjugation to take their armor and force them to carry it up to one mile. any further than one mile, and the soldier would get into trouble. it is also argued that this was the model in which jesus was executedby not speaking to the charges which ultimately lead to his death. but what does it mean in practice when one is fighting against injustice and trying to teach peace to others? how are we to respond in a way in line with the global mentality of everyone being a part of the same community, and not wanting to cause more violence? easter weekend in 1960, the student nonviolent coordinating committee (sncc) was founded by ella baker in raleigh north carolina at shaw university. sncc became infamous throughout the civil rights era as a group of non-violent protesters led by students of color to fight for equality. they participated in many sit-ins, marches (including selma), and were incredibly influential. when we talk about peace within christianity and our local church settings, it can often mean silencing those who are “stepping out of line”. the rationale is that conflict has no home in the church, but that could not be further from the truth. there is a difference between trouble and good trouble as john lewis, former head of sncc and united states congressman liked to say. the church’s call is getting into all kinds of good trouble. the civil rights movement is a time where some churches in the united states can point to and say, “we were on the right side of history.” it is no breaking news that religion, specifically christianity is acknowledged as a cause of racist ideals. after all, cotton mather is one of the most influential preachers this country produced, and a notorious example of why those ideas were so prevalent. but we know with education comes growth, and with context comes deliverance. to turn the other cheek in the same way that the sncc protesters did forced those inflicting the harm and violence to look at them as equals (whether they recognized it or not). refusing to hit back, and in turning your cheek in the time jesus was preaching this meant having to hit someone with an open palm. it is hard to dehumanize someone with an open palm. in the case of injustice and a violation of human rights, there must be an absence of physical conflict and more open dialogue. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 74 while there are occasions, i’m sure it can be argued that violence is the only way to stop some people, as members of the church, that is not our cause or argument to make. we are called to be peacemakers, and peacemakers show up and love people into being, even when others don’t recognize the humanity in them. as we move through new spaces and learning, we must look again through the lens of a global community, and not in the way that some of the christians who attended the violent insurrection at capitol hill on january 6th, 2021 did. but to practice nonviolence and in negotiation means walking alongside and ushering in reconciliation. as we learned in the previous section, reconciliation is more than just a word, it’s an action. reardon goes into depth about the importance of teaching reconciliation, and the impact it can have globally. . . .the capacity for reconciliation must be included in education for conflict resolution. it should, perhaps, be considered both as a culminating phase and the context of conflict resolution. not just the settlement of disputes, but the true reconciliation of the disputing parties might well be the purpose of transformative conflict resolution processes. the notion of reconciliation and the capacity to reconcile can be integrated into much of what we now teach in world studies, in comparative systems, in the analysis of conflicting ideologies, and the problems of sexism, racism, and colonialism and world community building. reconciliation is the manifestation of wholeness, relatedness, and integrity. teaching for the recognition of interconnection is teaching toward reconciliation. (reardon & snauwaert, 2015, p. 105) reconciliation is a threat to the powers at hand that continue to enforce systems of violence. that is why working with those in our communities and practicing this in front of others in authentic ways help lend to not only the credibility that the christian church has something to offer, but that this fight is important enough to stand up in the face of violence and can be done without lifting a finger. it is in part of the actions and sit-ins from the student nonviolent coordinating committee and their ever-present reminder about how things could be that the civil rights era was such a success. they did not give up in the face of harsh violence, and serious cost to their personal lives. to be a peacemaker means walking the path of reconciliation in a tangible way and remembering that those often-inflicting violence are doing so out of a place of fear. to hold someone accountable to their actions while going the extra mile is not for everyone, but we can all turn our cheeks and hold those doing the slapping accountable. it cannot be stressed enough that without teaching peace and justice, reconciliation cannot happen, and without those two being tied to accountability for violence, reconciliation is unlikely. this is why people protest the deaths of people volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 75 of color at the hands of state sanctioned violence, and it is rare to see protests for those police who are injured or killed at the hands of citizens. those who kill or injure cops are almost always brought to court and jailed, while those cops that may have unjustly killed people of color are still on the job. no justice, no peace, no reconciliation. learning questions: 1. how does the extra mile backstory change what you learned growing up about it? how does that impact your understanding of peacemaking or justice? 2. are there ways the non-violent protests can still have an impact in your community in the same way the student non-violent coordinating committee did? 3. reconciliation is something that is talked about a lot the evangelical church, or at least should be. usually, it is taught in conjunction with repentance. do you think repentance should be a part of the conversation when it comes to non-violent actions? 4. what are the three things reardon names as hallmarks of reconciliation? do you agree with them? why or why not? 5. knowing that peaceful, non-violent protests or actions can make you the target of violence, do you think it is worth engaging in? why or why not? part four loving your neighbor (5:43-48) learning outcome: to continue partnering the concept of being a global citizen with the concept of caring for one’s neighbor. the learner should be able to articulate the connection as to why love of neighbor is important as a global citizen and how everyone is our teacher in this way. approach: chairman fred hampton is not someone who has been welcomed with open arms by most evangelical christians. they haven’t probably heard of him, but also because most of evangelical christianity has severe issues with racism. in pointing out how groups like the black panthers have cared for their neighbors in line with the sermon on the mount, this can be contrasted by christianity systemically supporting racist policies and agendas that keep children hungry. this can show us how there are wonderful people doing the work of jesus by being a global citizen, while thinking and acting locally within their communities and contexts. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 76 you have heard that it was said, ‘you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ but i say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? do not even the tax collectors do the same? and if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? do not even the gentiles do the same? be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect. matthew 5:43 – 48 (nrsv) to love one’s neighbor is hands down the easiest thing christians recite when asked what is important to their religion. jesus is asked in one account of the gospels what are the two most important commandments, and he sums the torah up by saying to, love your neighbor as yourself and love the lord your god with all your heart, soul, body, and spirit. if this is such a pillar to being a christian, then why is it we are often so quick to shut our neighbor and their needs out? after all, we are also called to love our enemies and to pray for those that want to hurt or harm us. should the love of our neighbor outweigh our political beliefs? after all, as jesus teaches, rain falls on those who deserve it, and those that do notdoes this impact our thoughts and practices? in striving to learn more about how our global citizen mentality works, and seeking out justice and peace matters, how are some examples to love our neighbors? not everyone knows of the name fred hampton. hampton was the deputy chairman of the illinois chapter of the black panther party, and he was assassinated by the federal bureau of investigation while he slept. now, not everyone expects the black panther party to be associated with peace, but most who do not could probably fairly comfortably get pulled over by the police and walk away safely from that experience. the black panthers were founded due to ongoing police brutality and wanting to protect neighborhoods of color from those issues. as the panthers gained more in popularity, they also grew by creating programs to help to continue to watch out for their neighbors and community in order to fight oppression. mary potorti (2014) points out that the panthers food program . . .represent[ed] an opportunity to approach food less as a forum of cultural and community expression than as a tool for political mobilization. as a historical case study, the panther food programs offer several useful angles for classroom interrogation of hunger and emergency food relief specifically, as well as struggles for liberation and movements for social change more broadly. their message remains relevant today, or as the volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 77 black panther newspaper proclaimed in march 1969, “hunger is one of the means of oppression and it must be halted.” (potorti, 2014, p. 44) a common quote that is credited to chairman hampton is, “first you have free breakfasts, then you have free medical care, then you have free bus rides, and soon you have freedom.” this signifies not only that the breakfast program was not only a start, but not the means to an end. so often christians are confused as to how they can care for their neighbors. what occurs is a bunch of people cooking meals that may or may not be needed. or dropping off toiletry kits to the unhoused. basically, outreach without a touchpoint, when instead, if we are acting as global citizens, we should be asking our neighbors “what do you need and how can i help?” by listening to those around us, we can find small, tangible ways to achieve justice. what chairman hampton was able to accomplish by creating the free breakfast program for the children in his area was incredible. most churches that have a free meal to the community are not just attempting to serve some hungry people but are secretly hoping for a meal-tochurch attendance pipeline. this is not only an unreasonable expectation but goes against seeking peace and justice. at this point, what is being done in the name of attempting to provide justice has become a transaction with obligations placed (knowingly or unknowingly) on the recipient. this can often lead to resentment on the side of the church because they are in some views doing this to people who should be more grateful. to be a global citizen attempting to learn and teach others peace and justice pedagogy in a christian setting is to set up a meal that someone may not show up to and be okay with it. after all, in loving your neighbor, you can do the work in finding out what neighbors need and are asking for. providing that for them at no cost, but out of love and service, and being there every time whether the neighbors show up or not. you cannot force love on someone, but you can be there offering it to them when they are ready to take it. while i realize some may say that i am offering a romanticized version of the panthers and their breakfast program, it is important to point out the good they did, and the example that they can still hold in showing up to love their neighbors (and enemies). but this love of neighbor does not just extend to feeding those in need but caring for the very planet that we leave behind. it is recognizing our privilege and what we are able to accomplish easily, but at the risk of the death of our planet. a way that this can be changed, as c.a. bowers puts it: “traditions provide the basis of living less commoditized lives--and thus do not contribute to degrading the environment in ways that threaten the health of marginalized groups, including future generations.” (2003, p. 17) volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 78 to be perfect does not mean to do everything right, to be perfect in the time of jesus meant to follow the torah in every way. when we abandon the concept of greek perfection that so often infiltrates christianity, we recognize that loving our neighbors with practical action is not only attainable but is also in line with living as a global citizen. learning questions: 1. what does it mean for you to love your neighbor in your community? 2. have you ever listened to what the needs are, or have you assumed what is needed? 3. what do you think it means to be a global citizen while loving your neighbor? 4. is being a global citizen and acting globally possible? is it something that can only be done locally? 5. how does the free breakfast for children program reshape your thoughts on loving your neighbor? part five do not rush to judgment (7:1-5) learning outcome: christians should be able to articulate reasons as to why they should not judge those they do not know. by learning about the veil of ignorance, it should open the eyes of those trying to be global citizens within a christian framework. upon completion, the learner should have a better understanding as to how they can approach situations without judging first, but instead displaying compassion. approach: john rawls’s (1971, 1993) work is a great introduction for those who have never experienced looking outside of their privilege and community. it is a low stake attempt to get people to realize there is life outside of their bubble. christians are also infamous for judging individuals, communities, and other general settings. pairing that with the section of the sermon on the mount where jesus is very specific about how to handle situations where others would be quick to judge should allow the learner to step outside of themselves and begin to truly love their neighbor. do not judge, so that you may not be judged. for with the judgment, you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? you hypocrite, first take the volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 79 log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye. matthew 7:1 – 5 (nrsv) “only god can judge me” is a phrase often heard from christians, and while it is true, is also incredibly unhelpful. for some reason, christians think that they not only cannot be judged by other christians, but for some reason are given full scope to judge those who may or may not be of their faith. in the sermon on the mount, jesus is pretty clear about the standards of judgment. don’t worry about someone else while you need to get your house in order. if your house is in order, then you can worry about what the other person has going on. however, to be a global citizen in peace and justice matters means to be concerned with the realities of life for others. not in a way to condemn, but to hopefully bring about a just resolution, equity, and equality. the problem with most christians and the stance on judging comes from others expecting to think their stuff doesn’t stink because of god’s unconditional forgiveness. the reality is, life is unfair, and some people are born with golden spoons in hand, while others have to fish a spork out of the garbage. christians look at their surroundings and are quick to point out why others are failing and offer platitudes about how god is in control. however, in the twentieth century, a philosopher named john rawls (1971) gave us an exercise that helps break down some of those barriers and forces these christians (and others) to face their reality to some degree. the exercise is called, the veil of ignorance, and is described as such: a hypothetical state, advanced by the us political philosopher john rawls, in which decisions about social justice and the allocation of resources would be made fairly, as if by a person who must decide on society’s rules and economic structures without knowing what position he or she will occupy in that society. by removing knowledge of status, abilities, and interests, rawls argued, one could eliminate the usual effects of egotism and personal circumstances on such decisions. rawls maintained that any society designed on this basis would adhere to two principles: the principle of equal liberty, which gives each person the right to as much freedom as is compatible with the freedom of others, and the maximin principle, which allocates resources so that the benefit of the least advantaged people is maximized as far as possible. rawls’s exposition, and the maximin principle in particular, have proved widely influential in discussions of welfare provision and, especially, the allocation of medical resources (oxford, 2022). volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 80 in looking at the two principles rawls describes equal liberty and maximin principle. not knowing how you were going to be born into that society, one can assume people will choose the maximin. when it is in the best interest of ourselves, typically humans choose an equal playing ground, it is only after we know the stakes and our place within the culture do we decide to critique systems of violence. but to live and act as a christian, and by extension a global citizen, means we must always act in a way that promotes the maximin principle. to point at others and say, it is their fault they are in that situation, is not an acceptable response. we know systems exist, like redlining, to keep people of color as second-class citizens in a nation that should be exuding principles of equity and equality. when considering the place of justice in this, it is good for us to look at rawls’s (1971) principles of justice as fairness. the first of these principles is that “each person has the same indefeasible claim to a fully adequate scheme of equal basic liberties, which scheme is compatible with the same scheme of liberties for all”. what does this mean for us, especially in the context of the sermon on the mount and judging others? as global citizens we must do our part in thinking globally, acting locally, and being the salt and light to lead by example. as an example, we know there are areas of our society where the police have broken the social contract that is in place to protect all citizens regardless of ethnicity, belief, etc. after all, “the origins of modern-day policing can be traced back to the ‘slave patrol’” (naacp). with this knowledge, when we as citizens see public school budgets being slashed and the police budgets growing obscenely, we can ethically call for a defunding of the police and reallocate those funds to go back where they belong. and at the very least, ensuring that police are not the first in the line of defense for calls that may not require them. in a just democracy, according to rawls all citizens have a claim to equal basic liberties. an equal basic liberty for philando castile was the right to bear arms, and when he informed the cop who pulled him over that he had a gun and was then asked to remove it, he was murdered. the second principle rawls points out for justice as fairness is “social and economic inequalities are to satisfy two conditions: they are to be attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair and equality of opportunity; they are to be to the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged members of society”. the second principle falls into what we have already read with the veil of ignorance. for us to truly be a just society, we must be taking care of those in need first. this falls in line with the judgment aspect of the sermon on the mount. too often those of us in the church are quick to blame others for their circumstances. this is instead of realizing we and the structures we uphold have failed our fellow siblings who are marginalized because we remain silent in the volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 81 ways that would be helpful. the circumstances in which we enter life have a larger grasp around our throats than we realize, and we as christians often fall under the illusion that it does not, usually because of our privilege. to live in a way in which we consider the global view, and to live by example, we must again address the human rights component of this. in order to do this, we must also do the inner work or being a student and listening about where to start. to paraphrase jesus, what comes out of the mouth is an overflow of the heart, and the same can be said of direct action and figuring out where to begin. dale snauwaert puts it in his introduction to betty a. reardon a pioneer in education for peace and human rights: moral/ethical reflection addresses questions of justice, and thereby structural and cultural violence, guided by the principles of a human rights framework. contemplative reflection is conceived as self-examination of internal moral motivation and commitment. it pertains to a reflection on what is meaningful and valuable. it also involves the exercise of imagination to envision alternative realities necessary for transformative action. (reardon & snauwaert, 2015, p. 14) when we are no longer concerned for only ourselves, but the situations of those around us, we judge a person and context in a more just and peaceful way. learning questions: 1. what makes up rawls’ principle of justice as fairness? 2. do you agree with rawls on the principles? why or why not? 3. what is the “veil of ignorance”? how does it make you feel? 4. do your moral and ethical reflections have a place in looking at justice? 5. do you think applying the veil of ignorance to the sermon on the mount passage of not judging one another should help you love your neighbor? why or why not? volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 82 part six review learning outcome: the learner should be able to articulate the importance of peace and justice education in the lens of the sermon on the mount and should understand why being a global citizen is important not only as a christian, but a way to live as a society. approach: by reviewing all five previous parts in summary, this review should serve to help the learners consolidate the program into practical application. the sermon on the mount has been used for generations and should continue to be used as the standard to which jesus sets for our lives. there are ways to live that are found within that text, but more is needed if we are to try and live a life of seeking and teaching peace and justice wherever we go. while people may not have changed fundamentally, the world is slightly more complex than when jesus walked the earth. there have always been systems of violence that oppress others. knowing the strength of the people and finding nonviolent ways to bring about change that fall in line with the sermon exist, but also have been expounded upon. in assessing part one and trying to encapsulate being the salt and light in the world, we must remember that the mentality starts in being a global citizen. thinking globally but acting locally is the best way to begin a lifelong journey towards being a student of peace and justice issues. the example of reardon’s life is one we could all strive to emulate, whether teaching peace and justice issues, or being vocal and calling out the need for disarmament in an ever-increasing situation. we are so quick as christians to want to lead by example, that we end up with the wrong people holding the leadership microphone. by sitting and listening to those around us and starting to understand the importance of being a global citizen, the transformation into someone seeking peace and justice in all situations can begin. we must engage in and create new systems to care for the oppressed and marginalized. prisoners are people who tend to fall through the cracks in our christian walks, and often the conditions that they live in are in most need of love, care, and justice. people are not animals, and as we found out from a judge in scotland, some prisons in our country are inhumane. reaching out and starting to contact those officials in charge of prisons are an easy way to engage in peace and justice issues locally. when we lock people up and throw away the key, that does not make them any less of an image bearer of god, and it is for the least of us that we must be sure to care for. it is through these actions reconciliation can start to volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 83 have a foothold in ours and their lives. to be held accountable for an action, and to be reconciled are two completely different things. violence is an ever-present part of life, and if we are lucky or privileged enough, we can avoid it. standing on the side of peace and justice, learning and teaching, means we would most likely find ourselves facing it. whether state or civilian, violence finds a way to express itself out of fear and insecurity. this is why we must remember to turn the cheek and go the extra mile. while not all of us are capable of that, we are capable of contacting our representatives to advocate for policies that reflect the change put forth in this curriculum. not everyone can be ella baker and form the student nonviolent coordinating committee on an easter weekend (probably the most appropriate time for that founding). but what we are able to do is force others to see us as equals and fellow global citizens whether those committing the violence want to admit it or not, knowing reconciliation is the name of the game. may we be able to love our neighbors in not only a way that would make fred rogers happy, but fred hampton too. providing for those who are in need physically, emotionally, or spiritually is part of providing peace and justice. people cannot be active members of society when they are bankrupt in all areas of life. what is important is we listen and provide what is asked for, even if no one shows up. part of loving our neighbor’s means being there ready to give love, peace, and justice at all costs. even when people are not ready to receive it. finally, we are not rushing to judgment. in awakening to being a global citizen, we recognize that there are structures of power that must be overcome for a just society to prevail. rawls provides an exercise and a few glimpses of what those requirements are. in moving and looking at those on the margins that are there due to the brokenness of those structures supported by most christians, it is upon us to not judge those in those spots. while we are able to move and judge one another when our house is in order, there are others whose houses may never be in order due to those structures. as global citizens a part of a church that believes in the reconciliation of all things and people, it is our duty to come alongside and call for those unjust areas to be righted. learning questions: 1. what does it mean to live as a global citizen? 2. do you think peace and justice education should be taught in tandem with the sermon on the mount? 3. do you think jesus had a global citizen mindset? 4. what stood out to you most in this learning? volume 16 number 1 (2022): 64-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 84 5. how should you use what you have learned to love your neighbor better? conclusion christians of all walks of life can stand to learn more from the studies of peace and justice education. looking at the sermon on the mount as a tangible way to provide a better life for those, jesus calls christians to be moreto seek justice and peace at every doorstep and pathway. jesus calls christians to a higher standard of living within those chapters in matthew’s gospel that can get lost today in mainstream evangelical churches. but by taking some guiding principles of peace and justice education and teaching them in local congregations, there is hope that they can become guiding lights for those seeking to learn more about building the kingdom of god on earth as it is in heaven. references blakinger, k. (2022) do texas prison conditions violate human right standards? https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/03/17/do-texas-prisonconditions-violate-human-rights-standards-one-scottish-court-says-yes bowers, c.a. (2003) toward an eco-justice pedagogy https://cabowers.net/cabookarticle.php buttry, d. l. (1995) peace ministry: a handbook for local churches. judson press. levad, a. (2014) redeeming a prison society: a liturgical & sacramental response to mass incarceration. fortress press. oxford reference. (2022) veil of ignorance. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803115 359424 potorti, m. (2014). feeding revolution: the black panther party and the politics of food. radical teacher, 98, 43–51. https://doi.org/10.5195/rt.2014.80 naacp (2022) origins of modern-day policing. https://naacp.org/findresources/history-explained/origins-modern-day-policing new revised standard version bible. (1989) national council of churches. reardon, b. a. & snauwaert d. t. (2015) betty a. reardon: a pioneer in education for peace and human rights. springer. reardon, b. (1989) comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility. teachers college press. rawls, j. (1971). a theory of justice. belknap press of harvard university press. rawls, j. (1993). political liberalism. columbia university press. microsoft word wilson-daniel-in factix pax.doc  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 81 volume 1 number 2 (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ the preparation of pre-service teachers for a culture of dignity and peace melodie wilson ontario institute for studies in education university of toronto & yvette daniel university of windsor, windsor, on “if peace is both the destination and the journey, then what we teach and how we teach it must not be separated in our preparations for working with pupils.”1 introduction peace education is a complex concept. although the perception of peace always has been and continues to be in the possession of the individual, each viewpoint seems to follow a similar quest – personal dignity. the search for personal safety through the inner 1 patrick whitaker. "curriculum considerations," in education for peace: issues, principles and practice in the classroom, ed. david hicks (london: methuen, 1988), 32.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 82 and outer journey for self-worth, confidence, honor, self-respect, and distinction continues in almost all individuals, communities and groups at both international and local levels. the same is equally true of our present contemporary age with its technological advancements and socio-political imbalance that set the stage for a now and me, self-indulgent generation. understanding peace education means coming to terms with its participatory, holistic and ongoing nature. peace education is built on a philosophy that teaches nonviolence, compassion, equity, love, trust, cooperation, and respect for humanity and all life on our planet.2 certainly, the issues of violence and the need for peace are not new ideas. these are ongoing problems and a continual part of the human condition. mainstream teacher education rhetoric in ontario now turns its attention to the constraints and possibilities for strengthening the overall momentum of education through assessment of both the physical safety and the social climate of their schools. in 2006, the education minister of ontario announced the newly appointed safe schools action team “…to ensure that every student is safe and feels safe at school and on school grounds.3 this paper focuses on peace education in teacher education as a viable preventative practice, essential to the improvement of safety as well as the social climate of schools. peace pedagogy is defined as those conceptual and theoretical frameworks related to the subject of peace, non-peace and peace education. this paper provides an overview 2 ian harris, “peace education theory,” journal of peace education 1, no. 1 (2004). 3 ministry of education ontario, “talking to your kids about bullying,” ministry of ontario, http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/about/whatwedo.html (accessed july 20, 2006).  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 83 of how a particular explorative effort of peace pedagogy at one ontario university, facilitated possibilities for development of explicit peace education curricula in teacher education. the overarching purpose is to stimulate further discussion and networking among ministry of education in ontario and faculties of education by advocating how education for peace aligns with the ministry’s stated goals as well as those of the global alliance for education agenda. both the ministry of education and unesco4 believe that education is a key to positive social development and change. discourse on peace education, with its practical and social applicability to the overall health of our schools and community is important for re-imagining education, curriculum, and pedagogy in the 21st century. our intent is not to point toward our worst fears, but to work alongside teachers and support them in their effort to promote equity, fairness, and universal peace values in their classrooms. teachers should be encouraged to take a proactive stance to peace and not a reactionary one. this paper is organized into five sections to provide an overview of research into pre-service teachers’ perceptions of peace pedagogy and the implications for developing a peace education curriculum. the first section introduces the reader to the rationale for preparing pre-service teachers for a culture of peace and deals with the challenges inherent in finding a conceptually clear definition of peace. the second takes a closer look at the concept of implicit and explicit peace education. it highlights theoretical perspectives such as, traditional peace theory, combining the traditional theoretical 4 unesco, “education for all coordination,” united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization, http://portal.unesco.org/education/ (accessed april 1, 2006).  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 84 distinctions, defining and assessing transformation, and understanding comprehensive peace education and worldview. section three presents the methodology, relevant findings, and discussion. section four provides implications of the findings for teacher education in ontario. it underscores the need for teacher education to recognize the proclivity of teacher candidates towards partnership pedagogy, to create space for sharing experiences related to peace and safety, and calls for the exposing of peace education knowledge. we conclude by offering recommendations for teacher education practice in ontario. preparation of pre-service teachers for a culture of peace in this contemporary age of widespread global conflicts, questions need to be asked regarding the role of schools and teachers. the impact of violence on our children and youth necessitates further investigation. discussion is needed on the relationship between the social climate of schools and teacher candidates’ perceptions of that climate. careful examination of the social condition, along with open dialogue with all stakeholders is the first step to understanding how schools and teachers can adapt to meet a myriad of expectations. there is no ‘quick fix’ or ‘easy button’ pedagogy to change the apparent climate of schools and their ability to cope with shifting educational trends. the understated reality is that, like ontario’s four seasons, our social system continues to undergo its own unique changes. the inevitable and unyielding shift within our even greater interdependent society should move us beyond our settled and confident pedagogical past towards a new critical literacy.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 85 given the importance of education, we need to review our current pedagogical philosophies, perspectives, and policies. our practices should reflect schools as spaces for critical transformation where teachers play a vital role in creating conditions for students to become caring members of society. "peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”5 we cannot desensitize ourselves to the need for peace education and dignity in our schools and classrooms. the matter of universal human rights and values is a critically important topic in our world today. the ultimate goal of peace education is “the formation of responsible, committed, and caring planetary citizens with sufficiently informed problem awareness and adequate value commitments to be contributors to a global society that honors human rights.”6 educators, scholars, and activists who advocate for human rights urge schools to promote awareness in their curricula from the earliest levels. teacher education is an integral part of unesco’s six education for all goals7 as well as the united nation’s un millennium development goals.8 unesco and the un aim “to provide global leadership concerning teacher training and related policy issues.”9 these overriding 5 martin luther king, jr., in the imagine peace network, http://www.imaginepeace.net/quotes.html (accessed november 1, 2006). 6 betty reardon, educating for human dignity: learning about rights and responsibilities (philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press, 1995), 3. 7 unesco, “six education for all goals,” http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php (accessed april 1, 2006). 8 united nations, “un millennium development goals,” united nations website, http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ (accessed january 5, 2006). 9 unesco, http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 86 global priorities set the pace for innovative peace education in the policies and practices of local teacher education. challenges in defining peace and peace education peace involves cooperation and understanding and can be described as a social construct. in terms of a conceptually clear definition of peace, it has been contextually established in the literature that there is no one consensus. anderson maintains that although there are various definitions that appear in literature, “there is no consensus on a particularly clear definition to guide researchers in developing measurement procedures and indicators.”10 fogarty asserts that everyone has a working idea of what peace is, but what is really known of peace?11 analysis and evaluation of the term in the english language alone would be exhaustive not to mention the various meanings in different languages. in a thesaurus search, definitions and synonyms of peace are diverse making a working definition of the term subject to individual and cultural interpretation. people of different cultures and within any given culture may agree or disagree about the meaning of the word. for example, some english synonyms of peace include “accord, amity, concord, harmony; calm, quiet, serenity, tranquility; order, stability; pacification, peacefulness.”12 these varied meanings suggest context-dependent uses and understandings. 10 anderson, “a definition of peace,” 1. 11 brian e. fogarty, war, peace and the social order (boulder, co: westview press, 2000). 12 merriam-webster, http://www.m-w.com/dictionary (accessed february 12, 2006).  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 87 the noun peace is also akin to the latin word pacisci which means to agree or the process of coming to an agreement.13 it is interesting to note that the act of concurrence or the process of forming mutual consent is historically rooted in the word peace. if the process of coming to an agreement, treaty, or compromise is one definition of peace, then attaining peace is as much about the process as it is the result. in this context, the need to find common ground supportive of a unified conceptually clear consensus becomes less significant. peace education can generally be defined as a “participatory holistic process that includes teaching for and about democracy and human rights, nonviolence, social and economic justice, gender equality, environmental sustainability, disarmament, traditional peace practices, international law, and human security.”14 fountain defines peace education as: the process of promoting knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to bring about behavior change that will enable children, youth and adults to prevent conflict and violence, both overt and structural; to resolve conflict peacefully; and to create the conditions conducive to peace, whether at an intra-personal, interpersonal, inter-group, national or international level.15 13 ibid. 14 hague appeal for peace, ¶ 1. 15 susan fountain, “peace education in unicef,” unicef staff working papers (1999): i.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 88 fountain’s definition moves beyond the promotion of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values. it suggests that transmission of such information is a mere starting point in our endeavor to changing behaviors. transformation refers to a change in character or nature.16 foley characterizes change as the result of a reflexive process distinguished by habitual and unthinking behavior. foley further asserts that individuals evolve through personal reflection and confession.17 freire contends that change is more than habitual unthinking behavior and reflection. he advocates that true transformation can only be attained through praxis – “participatory reflection and action.”18 fullan and freire concur on the principles of participatory action as an essential motivator in promoting lasting transformation. yet, how do these change theories contribute to our current discussion of peace education? the goal of defining peace education functions as a guide to influence attitude change characterized by habitual behavior and participatory action leading to the reduction of unresolved conflict. harris defines peace education as “teaching encounters that draw out from people their desires for peace and provide them with nonviolent alternatives for managing conflicts, as well as the skills for critical analysis of the structural arrangements that legitimate and produce injustice and inequality.”19 the issue of universal human rights and values in education begins with a definition of peace education that 16 merriam-webster, 2006. 17 foley, “critical ethnography.” 18 paulo freire, pedagogy of the oppressed (new york: continuum, 1970), 107. 19 ian harris, “challenges for peace educators at the beginning of the 21st century,” social alternatives 21, no 1 (2002): 28.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 89 distinguishes transmission of knowledge from participatory action and subsequent transformation. implicit and explicit peace education – theoretical perspectives the philosophies of peace pedagogy need to be made explicit and recognized as legitimate in an attempt to bring about concrete behavioral change in students, henceforth; the various scholarly peace concepts, theories, and discussions should be thoroughly re-visited and seriously re-considered by all educational stakeholders. peace education is a viable way to prepare pre-service teachers in their quest to provide their students alternatives to violence, to create safer schools and classrooms, and in a greater context, to promote social cohesion. while many agree that conflict is inevitable, some conflicts become obstacles to learning. we have dreamed of becoming teachers for as long as we can remember; spent our formative years imagining our contribution to learning. we grow up in schools observing and experiencing disciplinary issues warranting consequences ranging from the look to expulsion, and when we enter the field of education, we are overwhelmed with a plethora of delinquent behavioral patterns in students that deter us from our goal of becoming effective agents of change. how might theoretical frameworks of teaching and learning be affected by this fact? how is the field of teacher education capable of changing itself, or revisiting its structures so that our goals of producing socially responsible citizens are realized? it is worthwhile to examine the existing attempts at developing resources that promote education for and about peace and, thereby, facilitate pre-service teachers in their quest to become effective agents of change. discussion of the  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 90 theoretical frameworks of peace education may also serve to reignite new interest in the value of the profession. traditional peace theory “a theory is a set of principles or beliefs that guide practice.”20 as with the evolving concept of peace, conceptualizing peace education is not easy. its elusive concept leaves educators laden with generalizations and assumptions of what teaching peace is really all about. a worldwide, diverse, and continually changing field, peace education is developing in response to a myriad of “interrelated issues focusing on violence, war, conflict resolution, social and economic justice, and human rights.”21 a look at the traditional theoretical background of peace education helps us to understand its origins. traditional theoretical distinctions in peace education are embedded in terms of negative and positive peace.22 more specifically, peacekeeping (peace through strength) teaches strategies that discourage violence stemming from lapses in the balance of power.23 peace theory is also characterized by the assumption that peace education is either “(a) a knowledge-based subject that can be directly taught in the school curriculum, [or] (b) a set of skills and attitudes that can be explicitly taught in the school 20 ian harris, “peace education theory,” journal of peace education 1 (2004): 5. 21 david r. conrad, “on peace,” journal of teacher education 46, no. 3 (1995): 229. 22 johan galtung, “violence, peace, and peace research,” journal of peace research 6 (1969). 23 fogarty, war, peace and the social order.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 91 curriculum.”24 existing attempts at developing theoretical resources have uncovered meanings of peace education as presented in the work of scholars who have studied the traditional distinctions. for example, reardon defines peace education as: the transmission of knowledge about the requirements of, the obstacles to and the possibilities for achieving and maintaining peace, training in skills for interpreting the knowledge, and the development of reflective and participatory capacities for applying the knowledge to overcoming problems and achieving possibilities.25 key words, namely, ‘transmission of knowledge’ and ‘training in skills’, point to both the knowledge-based subject approach and the skills and attitudes approach inherent in traditional theory. fountain defines it as: the process of promoting knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to bring about behavior change that will enable children, youth and adults to prevent conflict and violence, both overt and structural; to resolve conflict peacefully; and to create the conditions conducive to peace, whether at an intra-personal, interpersonal, inter-group, national or international level.26 whereas both reardon and fountain argue the importance of transmitting knowledge and the training in skills for interpreting that knowledge, their scholarly work is not reflective of a pedagogical approach where teachers “had typically assumed a functionalist role in 24 fountain, “peace education in unicef,” 39. 25 betty reardon, “educating the educators: the preparation of teachers for a culture of peace,” peace education miniprints 99 (1999a): 2. 26 fountain, “peace education in unicef,” i.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 92 preparing individuals to stand in front of children in classrooms and impart acceptable knowledge.”27 in this context alone, the transformative process may not be realized. therefore, transmission of peace knowledge and skills is considered a starting point in our endeavor. combining the traditional theoretical distinctions peace theory perspectives have evolved to include the promoting of egalitarian and transformative learning environments.28 a focus on applied knowledge for “overcoming problems, and achieving possibilities,”29 is the crucial goal of peace education theory. here, the focus is turned toward peacebuilding – educating and inspiring students to become peacemakers.30 there is an assumption that combining the instructional processes can lead to transformation. this is the dominant assumption currently held by scholars.31 in other words, the instructional processes in learning should work to promote participant change. for example, reardon contends through her definition that effective peace education should not only be characterized by the transmission of knowledge and training of teachers in the skills to interpret that knowledge, but also as “the development of reflective and participatory capacities for 27 miller and ramos, “transformative teacher education,” 1999. 28 leonisa ardizzone, “towards global understanding: the transformative role of peace education,” current issues in comparative education 4, no.2 (2001). 29 reardon, educating the educators, 2. 30 harris, peace education theory. 31 fountain, peace education in unicef.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 93 applying the knowledge to overcoming problems and achieving possibilities.”32 fountain posits that peace education theory must “bring about behavior change that will enable children, youth and adults to prevent conflict and violence.”33 even more important is the hope for lasting change and sustained peace practices resulting from combining the basic principles of the two distinctive assumptions inherent in the traditional peace theory fullan (1993) summarized the combined theoretical approaches to state: to break the impasse, we need a new conception of teacher professionalism that integrates moral purpose and change agentry; one that works simultaneously on individual and institutional development... moral purpose without change agentry is martyrdom; change without moral purpose is change for the sake of change itself.34 without change agency, threats of violence will continue to chip away at attempts for peace pedagogy. the notion of transformation is a gateway for building and maintaining peace. nevertheless, what is the real essence of transformation? how can educators contribute to making a truly peaceful person? ultimately, the goal of fullan and other likeminded activists is to bridge the divide between theory and practice – more specifically, between knowing about peace and doing peace. this remains the ongoing challenge. 32 reardon, educating the educators, 2. 33 fountain, peace education in unicef, i. 34 michael fullan, “why teachers must become change agents,” educational leadership 50 (1993): 1214.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 94 in our review of courses offered at the designated site, we found, implicit course strands manifested in foundation courses, issues in education and religious education courses. a scanty outline at best, it ignores the unambiguous “participatory holistic process that includes teaching for and about democracy and human rights, nonviolence, social and economic justice, gender equality, environmental sustainability, disarmament, traditional peace practices, international law, and human security.”35 explicit and comprehensive peace pedagogy, including the aforementioned existing implicit strands is called for as we work together to enhance our current pedagogical landscape. defining and assessing transformation transformation refers to a change in character or nature36. foley characterizes change as the result of a reflexive process distinguished by habitual and unthinking behavior. foley further asserts that individuals evolve through personal reflection and confession.37 freire contends that change is more than habitual unthinking behavior and reflection. he advocates that true transformation can only be attained through praxis – “participatory reflection and action.”38 freire believes that true change meant empowerment and true empowerment encourages participation – mutual partnership – necessary for the establishment of fair practices. 35 hague appeal for peace, ¶ 1. 36 merriam-webster, 2006. 37 foley, “critical ethnography.” 38 freire, pedagogy of the oppressed, 107.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 95 fullan and freire agree on the principles of participatory action as an essential motivator in promoting lasting transformation. yet, how do these change theories contribute to our current discussion of peace education? the goal of peace theory functions as a guide to affect attitude change characterized by habitual behavior and participatory action leading to the reduction of unresolved conflict. traditional and combined theoretical distinctions have assisted in guiding practice; however, these theoretical assumptions have been difficult to assess.39 how can we know that peace education works? what markers have been used to measure the impact of peace pedagogy? lacking is evidence of quantitative indicators or empirical evidence that students who participate in peace education programs exhibit habitual peace acts with signs of lasting transformation. this is apparently not surprising to harris who argues that we cannot know emphatically that peace pedagogy works. harris posits that relevance should not rest on measurement of the impact of peace education, but rather, “on the effect it has on the students’ thought patterns, attitudes, behaviors, values, and knowledge stock.”40 pursuing students throughout their lives to determine concrete and specific outcomes may prove non-productive. teachers can only do their part despite not seeing immediate or long-term results. salomon puts forward this assertion: “it is difficult to evaluate the achievements of peace education because its objectives pertain mainly to the internalization of values, attitudes, skills, and patterns of 39 harris, “peace education theory.” 40 harris, “peace education evaluation,” 19.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 96 behaviors.”41 if measurable outcomes are limited, then why study this topic any further? more documented qualitative and quantitative inquiry on this subject is necessary if we are to get to the heart of teaching for peace, and then the beneficial factors may appease those who desire proof that educating for peace works. comprehensive peace education and worldview pedagogy that truly identifies with the human condition is one, which is shared, inclusive, and recognizes limitations. it is a matter of looking at the whole picture, one that is marked by ongoing change that leads to a particular result. understanding peace education means coming to terms with its participatory, holistic and unending nature. therefore, it is understandable that anderson considers peace education a matter of developing measurement procedures and indicators. fogarty describes it as a social construct. smoker and groff delineate the concept of peace and call it an evolving idea.42 reardon defines the core of the peace education task as “the development of learning that will enable humankind to renounce the institution of war and replace it with institutions more consistent with the visions and values being articulated in the body of international standards.”43 harris identifies ten goals for effective peace education: to appreciate the richness of the concept of peace; to address fears; to provide information about security systems; to understand violent behavior; to develop 41 gavriel salomon and baruch nevo, peace education: the concept, principles, and practices around the world (mahwah.:lawrence erlbaum associates, 2002), 34. 42 linda groff and paul smoker, “peace: an evolving idea: implications for future generations,” future generations journal 23 (1997). 43 betty reardon, peace education: a review and projection (malmo sweden: malmo university, 1999b), 31.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 97 intercultural understanding; to provide for a future orientation; to teach peace as a process; to promote a concept of peace accompanied by social justice; to stimulate a respect for life; and to end violence.”44 this multiplicity of approaches suggests a widespread desire for peace, on the one hand, and the complexity of doing it on the other.45 “there is a clear need for a theoretical framework of peace that will bring together these divergent – yet interrelated – objectives and concepts and would provide the necessary framework for a comprehensive, effective peace education programme.”46 danesh’s integrated theory of peace assumes that this framework is possible through the understandings of the principles of a shared worldview. the integrative theory of peace holds that the foundation of every culture is its worldview. a worldview is a comprehensive conception or understanding of the world from a specific standpoint. danesh’s theory promotes a worldview that changes the framework of war principles to peace principles. the absence of a unanimous conception of peace education is not the only reason for the prevalence of violence in schools. another reason is in the nature of education provided to students. rethinking the current perspectives and approaches to education must move beyond content and methods to 44 ian harris, “challenges for peace educators,” 20. 45 h. b. danesh, “towards an integrative theory.” 46 ibid., 56.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 98 include a framework – “conflict-oriented or peace-oriented – within which this education is provided.”47 according to danesh, a unity-based worldview can be achieved when pedagogical philosophies and practices no longer revolve around issues of war, conflict, and violence. salomon adds that “the continuous war education that youngsters and adults have been receiving since the beginning of mankind” shapes and informs conflictbased perspectives of children and youth in this generation.48 this has made peace education a difficult task. mass media, entertainment, and the entertainment industry have educated children in the home for war and not for peace. conflict-based perspectives are also learned “through the actual experience of school life with its culture of otherness, conflict, competition, aggression, bullying and violence – and through concepts provided by teachers and textbooks that further validate these conflictoriented ideas and experiences.”49 danesh’s four prerequisites and components of effective peace education are presented based on insights emerging from five years of research in 112 schools in bosnia and herzegovina: prerequisite i: truly effective peace education can only take place in the context of a unity-based worldview prerequisite ii: peace education can best take place in the context of a culture of peace 47 ibid., 56. 48 salomon, peace education, 55. 49 danesh, “towards and integrative theory,” 57.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 99 prerequisite iii: peace education best takes place within the context of a culture of healing prerequisite iv: peace education is most effective when it constitutes the framework for all educational activities.50 the notion that peace education can best take place in the context of a culture of peace is noteworthy, but difficult to achieve. vriens’ research of 50 years on peace education asserts the compelling argument that “although studies of children’s conceptions of war and peace are very important for the realization of a balanced peace education strategy,” this goal is difficult in conflicting worldviews.51 for example, effectiveness of vriens’ education for peace (efp) program was low due to three reasons: 1. the classes which received training covered only a few of the issues as extracurricular activities, 2. participating students were not psychologically ready to deal with issues as “tolerance, democracy and human rights,”52 3. there was an insufficient degree of trust and confidence between participating schools, 4. the issues were seen as unrealistic and not applicable to real life experiences within the community. peace curricula emphasizing a development of a worldview “based on peace principles within a peace-based environment” is necessary, though, contingent upon the culture itself.53 50 ibid., 57-61. 51 lennart vriens, “children, war, and peace: a review of fifty years of research from the perspective of a balanced concept of peace education,” in how children understand war and peace, ed. amiram raviv, louis oppenheimer, and daniel bar-tal (san francisco: jossey-bass), 48. 52 ibid., 48. 53 danesh, “towards an integrative theory,” 60.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 100 because of the “tremendous need for children to overcome the catastrophic impact of war on all aspects of their lives and grieve their monumental losses,”54 a culture of healing can be elusive. after his work in rwanda, staub reports the relationship between a culture of healing and a culture of peace: without such healing, feeling vulnerable and seeing the world as dangerous, survivors of violence may feel that they need to defend themselves from threat and danger. as they engage in what they see as self-defence, they can become perpetrators.55 when the conflict ends, survivors of war sometimes feel that they are still in danger. the difficult task of freeing oneself from the psychological damage caused by conflict and war becomes evident when considering the challenges and psychosomatic barriers to trust and cooperation.56 according to danesh, if a unity-based worldview, a culture of peace, and a culture of healing are realized, peace education, as a framework for all educational activities, would become an expected reality. the development of peace-based curricula “demands a total reorientation and transformation of our approach to education with the ultimate aim of creating a civilization of peace, which is at once a political, social, ethical and 54 ibid., 46. 55 ervin staub, “from healing past wounds to the development of inclusive caring: contents and processes of peace education,” in peace education: the concept, principles, and practices around the world, ed. gavriel salomon and baruch nevo (new york: lawrence erlbaum associates), 83. 56 danesh, “towards an integrative theory.”  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 101 spiritual state.”57 danesh’s postulated prerequisites for effective peace curricula and a unity-based worldview addresses possibilities for the reformation of cultures and social structures that are antithetical to peace. methodology, findings, and discussion methodology the bachelor of education degree is conferred upon pre-service teachers who have completed the required eight-month program and have undergone guided teaching practicum at designated local schools. the perceptions of teacher candidates at the designated research site were critical in obtaining implications for peace education in teacher education programs. teachers continue to be integral contributing voices standing at the frontline as well as essential contributors to educational policy and reform, therefore, democratic practices and inclusive participatory engagement was vital and welcomed throughout the research process. we specifically wanted to hear the perspectives of candidates for the bachelor of education degree understanding that contemporary progressive educators have accorded critical pedagogy a holistic and essential methodology in their critiques of marginalized discourse and their proposals for educational transformation.58 59 pre-service teachers of varying ages were randomly recruited for this study. unstructured interviews were conducted, audio taped and transcribed. focus group 57 ibid., 62. 58 paulo freire, pedagogy of the oppressed and henry giroux, “rage and hope: henry giroux,” http://www.perfectfit.org/ct/giroux2.html.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 102 discussions were conducted, video taped, and examined. students submitted personal reflections for review. course outlines as well as a government report59 prepared for the ministry of the solicitor general in canada focusing on school based violence prevention in canada, were analyzed. data collection was a dialogic process without chronological limitations. data analysis was ongoing and interwoven with data collection. during the initial phases of data collection, low-level inferences60 were made in an attempt to keep as close to the data as possible without jumping to conceptual or theoretical conclusions based on limited observation. different data sources of information were triangulated and used to build a coherent justification for themes.61 data dealing with perceptions, definitions, attitudes, organizational culture, and educational policy were derived from the triangulated data. with the research focusing on perceptions, descriptions, and interpretations of a cultural group, an ethnographic approach seemed most appropriate. teacher candidates’ perceptions of peace pedagogy and how these pedagogies were applied to their learning system formed the basis for examination of the group’s observable and learned patterns of behavior.62 this study was ethnographic in “focus”, “discipline origin”, “data 59 david m. day et al., school-based violence prevention in canada: results of a national survey of policies and programs (toronto: public safety canada, 1995-2002). 60 phil f carspecken, critical ethnography in educational research: a theoretical and practical guide (new york: routledge, 1996). 61 john w. creswell, qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions” (london: sage, 1998). 62 ibid.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 103 collection”, “data analysis”, and “narrative form.”63 for example, the study of the phenomenon of peace, its sociological implications; heterogeneous definitions; and multiple theoretical concepts, required triangulated data collection, extended analysis, and clear interpretation of the ideas that the participant group brought to bear on the issues. data contributing to this exploration was generated during videotaped classroom observations where teacher candidates negotiated meanings of peace pedagogy. meanings were explored through dialogue and negotiation in a collaborative, noncompetitive, and non-exploitative manner. teacher candidates articulated multiple definitions and implications. findings and discussion teacher candidates who participated in the study emphatically noted that peace education in mainstream teacher education was implicit and presented primarily as electives or intermittent discussions given by professors as it ‘fit the occasion’. within courses and programs examined at the designated research site, education for peace was tacitly manifested in courses such as, “education foundations”, “issues in education” and “religious education in roman catholic schools” while the course ‘education foundations’ was compulsory for all pre-service teachers, the topics concerning selected professional issues, including professional relationships, were not clearly spelled out and varied according to the priorities and experiences of the instructors teaching this course. the course ‘issues in education’ 63 ibid., 65.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 104 seemed to meet the immediate inquires of teacher candidates in that it offered space for shared experiences related to dealing with conflict and conflict related school policy. these discussions, however, were classified as spontaneously ignited, without sufficient time for collaborate resolutions. ‘religious education in roman catholic schools’ offered prospective teachers the opportunity to reflect, in an adult context, upon the significance of their faith and growth for themselves and their students, and to gain a theological background. this course, while relevant to peace values, did not lend itself to a global context and was left optional for teacher candidates. along with the examination of the outline of study, participants put forth their own six core values pertaining to development of a comprehensive and effective peace education curriculum: a) providing conflict resolution strategies b) promoting peaceful classroom environments c) modeling and sharing peace values d) developing explicit peace curricula e) promoting global awareness f) promoting peace through teacher preparation and training exploration of the concepts and theories of peace education guided candidates towards a heightened awareness of the implications and potential development of peace education curricula in mainstream teacher education. smoker and groff’s scholarly publication, peacean evolving idea: implications for future generations delineates the three central  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 105 concepts in peace thinking. their peace model assists in putting the participant’s six core values into perspective: a. war prevention (negative peace) 1. peace as absence of war 2. peace as balance of forces in the international system b. structural conditions for peace (positive peace) 3. peace as no war and no structural violence on macro levels 4. peace as no war and no structural violence on micro levels (community, family, feminist peace) c. peace thinking that stresses holistic, complex systems (integrated peace) 5. intercultural peace (peace among cultural groups) 6. holistic gaia peace (peace within the human world and with the environment). 7. holistic inner and outer peace (includes all 6 types of peace and adds inner peace as essential condition).64 in line with smoker and groff’s peace model, teacher candidate observations reinforced the notion of movement away from violence (negative peace) to the formation of a culture of peace (positive peace). teacher candidates felt that discussion of core values and attitudes of peace were important as it pointed to the potential focus and effectiveness of any peace curriculum. discussion also included understanding the role of the teacher, participating and taking responsibility, and identifying classroom tensions. with regards to the practical benefits of peace pedagogy, all pre-service teacher participants felt that teaching universal peace values along with alternatives to violence warranted explicit inclusion into educational discourse, policy and practice. they unanimously agreed that implicit peace education failed to adequately address issues of 64 linda groff and paul smoker, “peace: an evolving idea,” 7-8.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 106 the perceived current climate. indeed, existing implicit peace education attempts were commendable, however, in this regard; the development of explicit peace pedagogy was highly recommended. one stated role and mission of faculties of education in ontario is to inform and shape a commitment to equity and social justice.65 teacher candidates should therefore, be provided opportunities to develop a professional sense of accountability. this includes an understanding of the social and moral responsibilities that underscore the practice of the teaching profession. implicit strands in teacher education currently align with peace theory, however, the mission of faculties of education in ontario is clear suggesting that explicit peace education in teacher education will undoubtedly strengthen the overall momentum of producing equitable societies, thereby, building human dignity. pre-service teachers felt that incorporation of peace education curricula would unduly limit their schedules and that of their professors. despite variations in definitions, teacher candidates did not primarily concern themselves with how to define peace education, but negotiated the practicalities of having a peace curriculum in their teacher education program. the question of time was vital in the discussion. as the data suggested, educating for peace was not a straightforward task. nonetheless, participants thought out several probable options for adding it to the existing curriculum. they felt that any change to the curriculum, however, would not be minimal. they also discussed 65 ministry of education ontario, “royal commission on learning provides a blueprint for changing ontario schools,” ministry of education, http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/general/abcs/rcom/full/.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 107 the possibility of having peace education workshops in lieu of changing the curriculum. the following dialogue uncovered perceptions of peace education as it related to time management and assessment: p:66 “in terms of peace education, i think our issues course this year was a really good start and i know that some of us from the beginning have said that there is not enough time given to it. fifteen minutes a week is not enough. two hours a week is not enough. we have no time. every time the issue of conflict was introduced, there was no time to address it or present it from individual standpoints.” p: “creating space to discuss these issues of conflict would be a wonderful arena for us to relieve stress. we’re not given that opportunity.” teacher candidates had different opinions as to how the course should be implemented and whether or not it was even a viable option considering time constraints and career focus. there was also an undisputed sense of apprehension on behalf of professors who the students felt were already grappling with the fast-paced nature of the program. the following data exemplifies two things: 1. teacher candidates felt unprepared to resolve conflict that was out of their experience, and 2. teacher candidates felt that all stakeholders (community, parents, administration, etc.) should participate in the effort. p: “teachers working in schools don’t know what to do if something like that happens. a student brought a bullet to class and said that he was going to come back and shoot the teacher and two girls in the class. he was sitting at the office saying he knows who told and he was going to blow their f-cking heads off. i was only aware that there was a lock down and i wasn’t able to talk to the parents about it. i came to school everyday putting myself into danger along with the students that i’m responsible for. what happens if that kid showed up? what do i do with my kids? do i tell them to get under their desks? do i tell them to get in the cloakroom? what is the deal? stay away from the window? what’s the right 66 the letter ‘p’ represents the voices of participants. each response has been quoted verbatim.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 108 thing to do in that situation? what’s the protocol? who’s calling the cops? what happened to that kid? what happens if someone in my class starts crying because they think that they are going to be murdered at school? but we’re not supposed to talk about it at all just keep a lid on it? so, i felt wholly unprepared and often i went to my car looking around thinking where the hell is this kid and why is he not in a detention center?” another participant responded by sharing his experiences related to gun violence preparedness. his response tells of his knowledge of school-based violence prevention policies. it also reveals a need for a unified framework for all educational activities. p: “at the school we were at we practiced for the event of gun violence. preventative measures are happening in schools and it’s the teachers’ responsibility, if you don’t know these things, to ask. you had better find out what to do. i bet you every school has a policy and a manual that’s hidden in a desk somewhere if nobody told you to look.” this participant experienced being ‘informed’ of safe classroom strategies during placement. while the participant was convinced that these strategies were being implemented in schools, the comment did not bring a sense of consolation to the other participants. although, there was a consensus that teaching for peace would be a great idea, there was also unanimity of opinion that teachers could and should not be held solely morally and socially responsible for the education of our children although their role is integral to this task. the participants felt that it would indeed take a whole community to raise a child. they also felt that having opportunities to share experiences was an important component in being prepared to teach peace. some participants expressed that the emotion felt during the class discussion helped them consider change of attitude towards safety and peace in the classroom. the following words describe the feelings that  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 109 emerged while stories were being shared: empathy, anger, sadness, resoluteness, and questionings. implications for teacher education practice what do these insights about peace pedagogy mean for re-imagining teacher education in the 21st century? the following are three practical implications of the findings. they suggest that teacher education programs should: 1. recognize the proclivity towards partnership pedagogy while some educators may enjoy the surge of power in assuming a “functionalist role,”67 teacher candidates expressed a proclivity towards partnership pedagogy.68 in contrast to the dominant models of pedagogy that pervade the ways schooling is structured,69 partnership pedagogy has become the lens through which peace researchers and educators envision hope for change. “no serious reform of schools is possible without the enthusiastic participation of teachers. teachers are the heroes of education, but they must have greater support in playing their vital and difficult roles.”70 past and current critical pedagogical approaches hold that students function best under conditions of support, trust, and freedom of choice.71 67 miller and ramos, “transformative teacher education,” 1999. 68 sam intrator, stories of the courage to teach (san francisco: jossey-bass, 2002). 69 riane eisler, tomorrow’s children (boulder: westview, 2000). 70 ministry of education, “royal commission on learning,” ¶ 6. 71 maria montessori, the absorbent mind (new york: holt, rinehart and winston, 1967), freire, pedagogy of the oppressed, 1970, michael fullan, the moral imperative of school leadership (california: corwin press, 2003) and giroux, “rage and hope,” 1999.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 110 2. create space for sharing experiences if we agree that one of the goals of education is to create better citizens, educators must be committed to making the adjustments the move beyond the status quo. creating space in the program for teacher candidates to recount experiences related to issues of peace and conflict is vital. teacher education programs must find adequate time and create space for pre-service teachers to share applicable peace related experiences and approaches. this approach will benefit pre-service teachers in the following ways: (a) it reduces their fears and anxieties stemming from inevitable aggressive behavior in their classrooms. (b) it initiates the participatory and holistic process involved in building a peace education curriculum. (c) it develops their critical thinking skills and responses as they participate in the formation of school practices. (d) their shared experiences are more likely to cause change in their own behavior.72 (e) it can potentially make them aware of their contribution to world peace. 3. expose peace education knowledge the marginalization of professional knowledge of peace education in teacher education limits the rich benefits of peace-related instruction.73 professors may become better prepared to teach peace when they take interest in this marginalized course content and make peace education an explicit and mandatory part of the teacher education 72 jeffrey jenson and mark w. fraser, social policy for children and families: a risk or resilience perspective (thousand oaks: sage, 2005). 73 ian harris and mary lee morrison, peace education (jefferson: mcfarland & co., 2003).  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 111 curricula in ontario. participants expressed their feelings of inadequacy in dealing with the negative and potentially harmful ramifications inherent in conflict. participants knew about resolving conflict within the context of their own experiences; however, not all teachers shared the same level of confidence or proficiency. the problem was magnified when considering that many educators had received little guidance in the way of peacerelated instruction.74 recommendations six general recommendations emerged from the study. first, it has been established that peace pedagogy is a viable way to prepare pre-service teachers in their quest to provide their students alternatives to violence, to create safer schools and classrooms, and in a greater context, to promote social cohesion. the philosophy of peace pedagogy should be recognized as legitimate henceforth; the various peace concepts, theories, and discussions presented should be thoroughly re-visited and seriously reconsidered by educational stakeholders. second, teacher education administration should consider the possibility that preservice teachers are not adequately prepared to deal with potential issues, such as, violence, physical assault, verbal harassment, intimidation, threats, and bullying in their classrooms. for example, if a students threatens his/her peers, are the steps to be taken by the teacher clearly spelled out? does the teacher have practical and emotional support 74 laura finley, “the current state of teaching for peace in higher education,” the online journal of peace and conflict resolution 6 (2006), http://www.trinstitute.org/ojpcr/6_1finley.htm.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 112 systems? teacher candidates should not be left without clear support and direction in the event of unanticipated altercations. third, a comprehensive peace education curriculum should be collaboratively developed as an add-on course to existing teacher education curricula. it should be explicit, that is, its objectives and implications for practice should be clearly articulated and consistent with school policy. fourth, teacher education programs should recognize that the causes of school violence often lie outside the walls of the school system. developing partnerships with internal and external personnel and organizations, who promote peace initiatives, may help to strengthen the overall effectiveness of the program. for example, a guest speaker associated with a local or provincial corrections facility may shed light on violence prevention strategies. a seasoned teacher may want to share his/her related experiences that may inspire and help give direction to teacher candidates. these supplemental programs may be assigned by the administration within the faculty, the school boards, and by the community. fifth, teacher education programs should adopt the resources and materials offered by scholars and agencies who are dedicated to promoting peace education and its values. approaches to peace pedagogy that have been tested in environments experiencing radical changes have been developed and are available for pre-service and in-service teachers. reardon’s book, educating for human dignity: learning about  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 113 rights and responsibilities,75 is a k-12 teaching resource that provides support and direction for teachers and advances the development of human rights as a major component of education for peace. sixth, teacher education programs should prepare pre-service teachers in such a way that encourages them to dispel their preconceived notions about aggressive students. the notion that students who are considered a threat ought to be silenced and subject to unreasonable punishment, may further marginalize those who are already predisposed to violent behavior. teacher education programs must join with school boards and the community at large to find ways to maximize pro-social theories, practices, and policies. the ministry of education in ontario and faculties of education would do well to further advocate this value-based endeavor considering how these goals are already at the core of their own philosophies and those of the global peace agenda. 75 reardon, educating for human dignity, 1995.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 114 bibliography anderson, royce “a definition of peace.” journal of peace psychology 10 (2004): 101116. carspecken, phil f. critical ethnography in educational research: a theoretical and practical guide. new york: routledge, 1996. conrad, david r. “on peace.” journal of teacher education 46 (1995): 229-234. creswell, john w. qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions. london: sage, 1998. danesh, h. b. “towards an integrative theory of peace education.” journal of peace education 3, no.1 (2006). day, david m., carol a. golench, jyl macdougall, and cheryl a.beals-gonzalez. school-based violence prevention in canada: results of a national survey of policies and programs. toronto: public safety canada, 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"curriculum considerations," in education for peace: issues, principles and practice in the classroom, edited by david hicks, 20-35, london: methuen, 1988.  in factis pax 1 (2) (2007): 81-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 118 microsoft word v14.2 abura[1].docx volume 14 number 2 (2020): 164-167 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 164 volume 14 number 2 (2020): 164-167 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review review of nasia hadjigeorgiou, protecting human rights and building peace in post-violence societies (human rights law in perspective), hart publishing (london: bloomsbury academic, 2020). 248pp. £49 (ebook). isbn 9781509923427. reviewed by mary abura global education cooperation seoul national university maryabura@gmail.com this book is a concise compilation of how human rights relates to peace building in post-violence societies and peace education. hadjigeorgiou brings an analytical robustness using the cases of northern ireland, bosnia and hezogovinia, cyprus, and south africa to unpack post-violence societies. furthermore, as an expert in intra-state conflict settlement and constitutional law, hadjigeorgiou offers an unparalleled perspective from these three interrelated fields of study. lawyers, sociologists, and peacebuilders will be able to draw a wealth of knowledge from her book. hadjigeorgiou’s contribution to the body of knowledge has been to engage human rights and peacebuilding in post-violence societies in an interdisciplinary analysis exploring the potential and limitations of human rights. following the introduction which lays the anatomy of the relationship between human rights and peace, chapter two introduces the reader to a workable definition for peace in volume 14 number 2 (2020): 164-167 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 165 chapter 2-clarifying the end: a workable definition of peace, followed by chapter 3-the means and the end connected: a framework for the relationship between human rights and peace. in chapter 4-promoting objective peace through human rights adjudication, chapter 5-promoting objective peace through human rights implementation, and chapter 6-protecting human rights and promoting subjective peace, the author explores objective and subjective concepts of peace. in the end hadjigeorgiou makes a significant contribution to the liberal peacebuilding critique. the books main focus is peace and the protection of legal rights. her main tenet being that moral rights are not as intellectually disciplined in their content as much as their legal counterpart (50). hadjigeorgiou posits, the pursuit of peacebuilding and attaining a subjective peace should move beyond legal tools and expand to social values. in relating the book’s content to a case with relation to the elements of peace: security, justice, and reconciliation—south africa is in a precarious position because it had reconciliation without justice, some south africans like myself would argue. the popular opinion is the masses were forced to move on without a ‘formalistic’ apology from the state, which was further exacerbated by the truth and reconciliation committee’s inadequate remedies resulting in a temporary peace (173). a regime was instilled without adequate restorative justice. any process that undermines the subjective feeling of peace broadly, has negative implications for future attainable peace. one major revelation of the book has been for social and psychological changes within the post-violence societies. for this to occur there needs to be symbolic change, and institutional and legal amendments. hadjigeorgiou references kenneth boulding (34), he is correct in theorizing that the sense of injustice in the aforementioned subjectively theorized condition would untimely erode the legitimacy of the current system. in my opinion, it is not clear if the south african system will collapse, but the country is definitely in the cusp of change and there is a foreboding public sentiment. hadjigeorgiou delves deep into terminology, unpacking the terms that are misunderstood rendering them valuable for her arguments pertaining to peace and post-conflict societies. the author does well to reject mutually incompatible ideas such as ‘the promotion of human rights promotes reconciliation’ (42). the pursuit of moral rights and legal rights hold different facets and the outcomes are different. hadjigeorgiou argues, ‘the use of human rights as a conflict resolution strategy results in a virtuous cycle, whereby subjective feelings of peace make it more likely that both objective and subjective security, justice, and reconciliation are further promoted’ (73). yet, how does one promote subjective peace? in the book hadjigeorgiou includes the notion of human rights aiding peacebuilding volume 14 number 2 (2020): 164-167 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 166 efforts by helping victims articulate their grievances, followed by a process of restorative justice facilitated by the state through adjudication (248). furthermore, in the conflict resolution process, local or country experts provide more relevant knowledge as compared to thematic or technical expertise, this according to severine autesserre in the book peaceland: conflict resolution and the everyday politics of international intervention. at times the peacebuilding strategies fail due to two reasons: 1) superficial knowledge of the context on the ground, or 2) their decisions to reform the law instead of inducing social change through other mediums (196,198). against this backdrop, hadjigeorgiou is forced to confront the limitations of liberal peacebuilding. she argues the protection of human rights can induce socio-economic and psychological change but she does not describe how or why these changes take place (205). my assumption is perhaps there are existing differences and nuances in psychosocial ways of being subjectively peaceful in each case study. because protecting human rights and building peace in post-violence societies is largely a book on linkages and relationships between the protection of human rights and the building of peace, she offers no concrete applicable method in securing an outcome for her suggested reforms. my largest critique being the case studies do not relate to inter-state conflict rendering the theories limited to only intra-state post-violence societies, this is also a stated limitation of the book. she does well to note that bad legislative drafting impedes the protection of human rights but does not address how this can be overcome. in legal institutions and amongst the plethora of declarations that have been articulated, it is interesting that the author notes that the right to peace has been underexplored (49). in highlighting this realization, readers are left questioning the best combination of multidisciplinary practices to remedy this. bad legislative drafting and limited institutional capacity also play a role in resolution outcomes, hadjigeorgiou writes (123, 127-135,151). from a legal perspective the book would have done well to explore detailed ways in building legal institutional capacity. the book makes bold calls for reform leaving learning points to ponder about at the end of each chapter. she sufficiently explores the relationship between human rights and peace from a multidisciplinary lens: namely peace studies (chapter 2), constitutional and international law (chapter 4), political science (chapter 5), sociology (chapter 6), and a combination of these (chapter 3). the largest acknowledgement and aspiration being for post-violence societies to move towards ‘eirinism’, a term coined by oliver p. richmond in his work the end of the liberal peace? post-liberal peace vs. post-liberal states; defined as, “a volume 14 number 2 (2020): 164-167 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 167 hybridized, localized, and internationalized practice that is more locally sustainable, resilient and legitimate.” the term is also widely used in a post-liberal peace: eirinism and the everyday by the same author, which hadjigeorgiou references several times in her book. without giving a comprehensive framework for this, readers will be left wanting a sequel to see this concept fully developed and explored with another post-violence society case study. the book piques the interest of the reader. what hadjigeorgiou should be commended on doing is developing a nascent framework for post-violence societies to avoid a resurgence of violence. academics and practitioners alike will find the book a valuable resource. microsoft word ifp v 16 tarugarira.docx volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 26 volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 creating and developing capacities for national healing and peace building in zimbabwe through ‘difficult history’ gilbert tarugarira midlands state university, zimbabwe tarugarirag@staff.msu.ac.zw mbusi moyo mbizo high school, zimbabwe moyombusi9@gmail.com abstract national healing and reconciliation have become integral engagements in post-conflict recovery processes in africa. however, the persistence of violent conflicts has cast doubts on the extent to which governments can facilitate reconciliation. unless a deliberate effort is made to incorporate peace education through the lens of ‘difficult history’, the cycles of ethnic violence characterising post-colonial zimbabwe will continue unabated. this study examines how the zimbabwe government can navigate social conflicts and contribute to building democratic peace volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 27 and security through public education. the gukurahundi massacre is considered pivotal towards understanding how ‘difficult history’ can be utilised to promote healing and reconciliation in a state with perennial ethnic antagonism. an argument is sustained that educational institutions have the capability of transforming the pervasive atmosphere of suspicion, mistrust and discord between the ndebele and the shona for national healing and reconciliation. key words: difficult history, gukurahundi, healing, reconciliation, ndebele, shona introduction in zimbabwe, public schooling is a government responsibility and this explains why some official curricula have been shown to encourage compliance with the dominant political status quo. bishop (1985:10) maintains that “there is an inextricable relationship between education and national ideals and objectives”. zimbabwe, like many other african countries has used “the school as an important instrument to further the achievement of [its] political aims and to foster particular attitudes and values deemed necessary for national advancement and cultural identity” (bishop 1985:10). the emergence of patriotic history in the year 2000 prompted the formulation of the new curriculum package which was implemented in institutions of higher learning in 2005. tertiary institutions which included teacher training colleges and polytechnics introduced a compulsory course national strategic studies (nass). the course was designed to cultivate values of patriotism, national identity, national unity and commitment to sustainable national development (ranger 2004). the introduction of nass in institutions of higher learning was welcomed with suspicion and distrust since it was labelled a zanu-pf project. as patriotic history evolved, ndlovugatsheni (2011) notes, it embraced new themes and discarded others. in this study, we argue that patriotic history deliberately overlooked other critical historical elements that would expose past unhealed wounds. given that patriotic history emerged during an era when zimbabwe relations with the international community were strained, controversial issues like gukurahundi were sidelined in patriotic history discourses. according to tendi (2010), themes and events which did not serve zanu pf’s agenda were downplayed and misrepresented. what becomes blatantly clear is that history education may legitimize or mitigate enmity through narratives of past conflicts, in particular by silencing (or acknowledging) alternate perspectives and pluralist identities. the presentation of one hegemonic version of the volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 28 past impedes understanding of complex realities (anne tupper 2014; davies 2005). the existence of conflict and its consequences in zimbabwe are traceable to the pre-colonial, colonial and post-independence eras. although zimbabweans share a common territorial area, they tend to live within it as a divided people not only geographically, but also in terms of experiences, traditions and values. with the ndebele and shona speaking zimbabweans comprising approximately 15% and 80% of the country’s population respectively, the political leaders have often mobilized identity-based nationalism. historically, the relations between the ndebele and shona people in the late 1830s, have been subjected to a process of legend-making that amounts to the creation of a mythology (beach 1986). myths flourished because missionaries, traders and travellers desired to gain the support of the british government for their varied activities, an objective which the rudd concession of 1888 achieved. admittedly, the ndebele and shona were equally involved in the myth-making process. while cordial relations and intermarriages between the belligerent ethnic groups have continued, the weight of the evidence to the contrary confirms long-term and persistent tensions between them. despite having fought side by side to free the country, heroes of zimbabwe’s liberation struggle seem to have failed to accommodate each other in the post-colonial era. ndlovu (2015), lindgren (2002), muchemwa (2016), tarusarira (2000), ndlovu-gatsheni (2009) among others, have aptly observed that gukurahundi indeed heightened the tensions between the ndebele and the shona. against the backdrop of the 1987 unity accord and other initiatives, this paper unpacks the untapped potential of the gukurahundi experiences in setting the stage for national reconciliation projects in zimbabwe. while government curricula generally include some dimensions of peace building, citizenship knowledge and competencies, we argue that the curricula examined are insufficiently comprehensive to equip young people for constructive democratic action to transform the nation towards sustainable peace. this study is particularly interested in investigating the feasibility of promoting, deepening and broadening reconciliatory or peace building education opportunities through public institutions. we stand guided by brouneus (2003:20)’s definition that reconciliation is “a societal process that involves mutual acknowledgement of past sufferings and the changing of destructive attitudes and behaviours into constructive relationships towards sustainable peace”. conceptual framework the diametric but pivotal terms under consideration are patriotic and difficult history. patriotic history is a liberation war-related version of volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 29 history which was advanced by the then president of zimbabwe, robert mugabe and the zimbabwe african national union-patriotic front (zanu-pf) party since the year 2000.the substance of this brand of history, according to coltart, (2009) proclaimed zanu pf as the alpha and omega of zimbabwe’s past, present and future. the thrust of patriotic history was propping a radical revolutionary tradition “premised on land, race, a dichotomy between ‘sell-outs’ and ‘patriots’ and the rejection of the western interpretation of human rights” (tendi 2010:1). mugabe considered patriotic history as an essential response to resurgent western imperialism and its local allies who purportedly threatened ‘the hard-won integrity and sovereignty of zimbabwe’ (coltart, 2009). zanu-pf) used the patriotic history narrative to foster transmission of liberation struggle ideas to gain legitimacy in the wake of great political and electoral rejection in the face of the challenge posed by the movement for democratic change (mdc). as discussed below, this brand of history entered the schools’ curricula. straddling et al, (1984:2) define ‘difficult history’ as history that “divides the society and for which significant groups within the society offer conflicting explanations and solutions based on alternative values”. difficult history includes contested issues such as terrorism, violence, and any related sensitive and controversial questions (foster, 2014). kidd (2014) is more emphatic that this brand of history encompasses, ‘challenging’, ‘emotive’, ‘sensitive’, ‘contested heritages’ and ‘legacies’. as an aspect of difficult history, re-engagement with the past is done from a critical perspective which promotes the development of transformative approaches in the way history is written, taught and understood. gukurahundi is considered as an epitome of difficult history. methodology this study employed mixed methods by combining quantitative and qualitative research techniques. the quantitative method was facilitated by using structured questionnaires which were prepared and administered among lecturers and students either personally of by email. the qualitative method consisted of interviews conducted with the lecturers and students. with the permission of the interviewees, the conversations were recorded and later transcribed and used for the analysis. both questionnaires and the interview schedules revolved around an attempt to make sense of the meaning of difficult history through making inferences and interpreting different views surrounding the gukurahundi violence. the intention was to get clarity on whether the syllabi content created any opportunities and challenges for students to build capacity and inclinations for peacebuilding citizenship participation. the other task was to identify curricular spaces where volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 30 capabilities for participation in promoting values and developing confidence for peacebuilding, including conflict awareness and communicative conflict resolution skills could be located. the population of the study comprised of 8 lecturers and 60 students aged between 19 and 60 years. the age range was considered as a key period for developing citizenship inclinations and capabilities to handle social conflicts. the population of the study comprised lecturers and students from hillside teachers college, joshua mqabuko nkomo, bulawayo and kwekwe polytechnics. the first three institutions are located in matabeleland while the last one is in the midlands province of zimbabwe. the two provinces suffered the wrath of the gukurahundi violence. all the institutions offer the national strategic studies as a compulsory course. this course was selected for this study because it represents explicit locations for peace and citizenship-related education with the provision to address how the official curriculum normalizes (or questions) the use of violence and military force in both historically rooted and contemporary conflicts. some thoughts on classroom practice while authentic classroom discussion on sensitive and controversial issues might be rare, we argue that the teaching of contested issues has a role in democratic education. according to davies (2005) curricular narratives may normalise or glorify enmity, militarism, and other violence. in contrast, any curriculum that engages students in interpreting the causes and consequences of social conflicts from multiple perspectives can help develop affective and cognitive capacities for democratic peacebuilding. engaging students in deliberation of controversial issues inducts them into the community of responsible citizenship and predicts democratic participation attitudes. we concur with tarusarira’s (2016:611) claim that the history of zimbabwe being taught in schools and universities is riddled with deliberate biases and distortions. the current political history from where nass is rooted, is bent on celebrating the incumbent regime as heroic and as such “shielding the regime from accountability for human atrocities it committed during the post-colonial times” (tarusarira, 2016:612). ndlovu-gatsheni (2009:14) argues that the politics of inclusion and exclusion meant to advance the zanu-pf political ideology has distorted history, hence the clarion call for the “deconstruction of the celebratory texts”. tendi (2010:3) has bemoaned the marginalisation and deliberate omission of contributions to the liberation struggle by critics of zanu-pf. he questions why important events in zimbabwe’s history like gukurahundi have been overlooked. “it is in the significant silences of a text, in its gaps and silences, that the presence of ideology can be most positively felt...” (eagleton, 1976:35). volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 31 barnes (2007:633) notes that zimbabwean secondary school historical textbooks which include proctor and phimister’s people and power book 1(1991); prew, pape, mutwira and barnes’s people making history book 4(1993); mukanya’s dynamics of history (1994) and mlambo’s focus on history (1995) were produced to meet the requirements of a nationalist, africa-centred and marxist-inspired history syllabus introduced in 1991”. in as much as these texts might have wanted to articulate an agenda of national reconciliation, they were constrained by the hegemonic zanu-pf ideology of the day. macherey (1978:132) was emphatic that what should and what should not be said is governed by ideologies “which set the parameters by which writers can tell their stories while avoiding certain aspects”. murphy et al (2017:213) observed that a distressing history can be hard to digest, but all the same, history must be swallowed whole to undeceive the present and to fortify the future. they stress the importance of editing the past with honesty and equity for posterity. kidd, (2011) believes that educators and intellectuals can be brought together to bring about ideas and share knowledge on any history that is contested or difficult and upsetting to know about. this kind of history should be delivered to learners in order to unite and not divide the nation. in as much as difficult histories help us to understand our past, there is need to approach the past with a critical mind. if teachers approach gukurahundi with biased minds and perspectives, they are likely to continue to worsen relations. wertsch (2002) says that historians have a professional responsibility to convey the past as something not one sided or simple but complex. goldberg (2017) and wallis, (2019) agree that teachers have a major challenge in that they might lack the expertise both in terms of content knowledge and pedagogy to handle controversial issues about a ‘disturbing past’ which might raise the emotions of the affected group. moody (2015) warns that in as much as teachers can contribute towards ongoing discourses and changing insights about the past, they face the danger of approaching difficult histories with a subjective mind. the moment teachers follow their own biases and political inclinations in selecting and presenting materials, the entire purpose gets defeated. teachers have to “subordinate many of their own interests and enthusiasms in pursuit of objectivity” (tosh 2010:232). teachers must never force learners to accept their point of view about a controversial topic but must give an opportunity for more research so that learners can feel accommodated in the teaching and learning of history. carrico (2014) suggests a “pedagogy of disengagement” whereby the teacher distances himself/herself from dominating or directing the unfolding discussions but continues to share views with the students. when volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 32 handled inexpertly, the teaching of controversial topics may lead to partial or biased knowledge and partisan views of history. thus dealing with controversial issues is what vessey (2009) terms the ‘fusion of horizons’ or a blending of the cognitive and affective domains in the students’ learning. according to goldberg and savenije (2018:505), “discussion of controversial issues leads to cognitive gains in the realm of argumentation and reasoning where connections between claims and evidence are seen”. cole (2007), says that it is crucial to teach a violent past as a form of reconciliation and to foster reconciliation. reconciliation affords those responsible for the violent past to actually apologize for such a past and help in the promotion of unity among warring communities. peace remains fragile for as long as animosity continues to exist. as such, evading or avoiding such history is damaging and only worsens relations which were already sour. as himmelfarb (1987:177) argues, “there is no fact in history which is not a judgement, no event which is not an inference”. while it is impossible to prevent students from making moral judgements, they should be made to recognise that their judgement is a matter of opinion. wren et al (2007:4), say that, “the study of history can be emotive and controversial where there is actual or perceived unfairness to people by another individual or group in the past…where there are disparities between what is taught in school history, family/community history and other histories”. wallis, (2019) observed that teachers have challenges in dealing with ‘difficult histories’ especially when they might follow their own biases or political inclinations in selecting and presenting materials. lederach (1997) observed that tensionbased past relationships can influence present and future relationships through intergenerational transmission of distrust and disrespect of each other. in this study, we argue that patriotic history in zimbabwe could not play a reconciliatory role because of its selective conception and intolerance to open questioning and re-examination of difficult histories like the gukurahundi violence. understanding gukurahundi as an epitome of ‘difficult history’ gukurahundi was the code name for the fifth brigade soldiers, “an army that was sanctioned by then prime minister robert mugabe to dismantle the zimbabwe african people’s union (zapu) and the defected military wing, the zimbabwe people’s revolutionary army (zipra) officials” (ccjpz 1997:45).while sisulu (2007), gatsheni-ndlovu (2008),murambadoro (2016) and eppel (2008) proffer different definitions and motives behind gukurahundi, their points of convergence are the massacre of over 20 000 people, havoc, violence and the excruciating atrocities which the people of matabeleland and volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 33 midlands suffered at the hands of the government sanctioned north koreantrained soldiers between 1980 and 1987.the shona derivative of the label given to this elite regiment of the zimbabwe defence forces (zdf) seems to have added fuel to an already smouldering rag. according to eppel (2008:1) gukurahundi is “a shona term referring to the first rain that washes away chaff before the spring”. an analogous interpretation, was that the fifth brigade was created for a special purpose of establishing peace through violent means by washing away (killing) either the dissident menace or the opposition zapu (murambadoro 2016, cameron ,2017). the historical conflict between zapu and zanu going back to the mid-1960s was now being re-lived through gukurahundi. ranger (1996:12) observed that “zapu elders in matabeleland ‘s northern districts of nkayi and lupane believed that the brigade was the tool, not of the state, but of zanu-pf as a party”. given that most of the soldiers who were members of the fifth brigade were largely shona, it could be interpreted that gukurahundi was indeed planned to tame the people of matabeleland and midlands for supporting ‘dissidents’ in their areas. although matabeleland and midlands’ demographic loss due to gukurahundi remains conservative, popular estimates by most scholars have pegged the figure as having been no fewer than 10 000 and not more than 20 000 people, exclusive of thousands who were maimed, detained without trial, tortured, beaten and raped and left for the dead (eppel, 2001; cameron,2017, ccjp 1997). in 1983, mugabe even hinted that men and women who provided food for the dissidents were indiscriminately eradicated; compounding the government’s attitude that “to support zapu was the same as to support dissidents” (ccjp 1997:16). it is beyond doubt that crimes against humanity were committed by the fifth brigade during the days of gukurahundi. webner (1998:91) noted that the elites of matabeleland, “most prominently those suspected of being zapu supporters, were picked out, and systematically decimated by hit squads; its people were starved, brutalised and raped...” sisulu (2007: 62) bemoans that the events of matabeleland remain “a mouldering sore on the country and the effects will not go away until they have been properly dealt with”. the emergence powers to enforce widespread curfews, detention without trial, arbitrary arrests, torture and rape suffered by the ndebele created an atmosphere of fear and mistrust which has persisted to this day between the people of matabeleland and mashonaland. the political leadership has remained silent over the issue possibly out of fear of being implicated in the investigations. our stance is that the postgenocidal regime should have adopted a discourse of reconciliation through educational institutions towards the realisation of a genuine volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 34 form of reconciliation. while the victims are clamouring for justice, the perpetrators are elusive and wish to escape justice at all costs. president robert mugabe described gukurahundi as a ‘moment of madness’ whose emotional attachments have remained highly political and sensitive. people in matabeleland and midlands are still bitter about gukurahundi because the government has not exhibited any political remorse for the violence and deaths inflicted upon them. while grosland (2015) argues that certain content may be considered difficult or dangerous in a given context, due to the emotional responses that may be elicited, if a conflict is left undressed, it can also have destructive consequences. arguably, gukurahundi has nourished the permanency of scars of hostility between the communities of matabeleland and mashonaland. according to the catholic commission for justice and peace, the saddest outcome of the 1980s violence is that the people in matabeleland believe themselves to have been the target of a war not against dissidents, but against the ndebele and zapu (ccjp,1997). as a result, the communities of matabeleland condemn all the shonas for causing gukurahundi (lindgren 2015). what made the situation worse was that since the days of gukurahundi, the government did not make a formal apology to the victims of the massacres. dumiso dabengwa a former commander of zipra forces bemoaned the reluctance by the government to apologise, adding that for as long as the victims remained bitter, the issue of gukurahundi was never going to be forgotten (the sunday mail, 22 may 2012). nothing has been done by the government to convince the communities of matabeleland and midlands that history will not repeat itself. the football fraternity has not been spared from the ethnic violence which has characterised ndebele-shona relations. a gamut of literature on dynamos and highlanders football clubs’ rivalry shows that the teams are supported along ethnic lines (stuart, 1995; chiweshe, 2011; zenenga, 2011 and ncube 2014b). dynamos fc draws its support base from among the shona speaking people while highlanders fc is predominantly supported by the ndebele-speaking people of zimbabwe (ncube, 2017). the matches between the two clubs portray battle grounds for “the performance and contestation of ethnic differences and power” (ncube, 2017; muchemwa, 2016). violent clashes between their rival supporters have led to death and some injuries. any supporter who supports his/her team on the wrong side bears the wrath of hooliganism and related acts of violence. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 35 what has also frustrated zimbabweans in general and the communities of matabeleland and midlands in particular is the failure by the government to release the findings of the dumbutshena and chihambakwe commissions of enquiry set up to investigate the violence that occurred at entumbane in bulawayo when zimbabwe african national liberation army (zanla) and zimbabwe people’s revolutionary army (zipra) ex-combatants clashed and the gukurahundi massacres of matabeleland and midlands respectively. the findings of the two commissions have remained a guarded secret. activist groups like ibhetshu likazulu and zimbabwe victims for organized violence trust have made concerted efforts to push for the release of the findings to no avail (murambadoro and wielenga, 2016). the failure to release the contents of these enquiries has heightened people’s mistrust of government intentions given that were it not for the dredging of mine of water in the drought of 1992, the full horror of gukurahundi would not have been fully exposed (webner 1995). for some six months, mugabe also suppressed the report on the 1980s disturbances in matabeleland and the midlands which had been compiled by the catholic commission of justice and peace and submitted to him by the catholic bishops. even vice president joshua nkomo who had condemned state terror, demanded that copies of the report by the ccjp be submitted to him because they were a danger to national unity (zimbabwe independent,9 may 1997:2).upon the widespread leaking of the contents of the catholic commission’s report, mugabe responded: “ if we dig up history, then we wreck the nation...and we tear our people apart into factions, into tribes and villagism will prevail over our nationalism and over the spirit of our sacrifices” (webner 1998: 96,citing the sunday mail, 11 may 1997:1,4). mugabe’s approach, webner (1998: 97, 98) argues, was tantamount to imposing state-buried memory which would not withstand popular insistence on remembrance because the fifth brigade “deliberately stopped the proper burial and mourning through which people are expected to cope with bereavement”. history is therapy for those who suffered from a collective trauma through experiences of mass death and incarceration. tosh (2010:36) warns: “a nation that cannot face up to its past will be gravely handicapped in the future”. during the mugabe era, any public talk about gukurahundi led to detentions. mzila ndlovu a member of the opposition movement for democratic change-ncube (mdc-n) was detained for uttering that the victims of gukurahundi needed to be compensated by the government. morgan tsvangirai the founder of the mdc was labelled a ‘puppet of the west’ by mugabe upon threatening to release lists of the perpetrators of the gukurahundi massacres and vigorously campaigning that he would bring them to justice. the malicious hostility from government volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 36 coupled with fear of victimisation closed doors for open discussions on gukurahundi. the cardinal observation is that whenever past violence remains ‘unfinished business’ relations between communities will continue to boarder on mistrust and depict a sad story of deep hostilities (muchemwa,2016). for some of the ndebele people, the shona are to blame for all the pain, sufferings and misfortunes that the former have experienced since independence. aspects of supra-ethnicity have featured in marriage circles where activist groups have discouraged inter-marriages between the communities of matabeleland and mashonaland. some aggrieved ndebeles have refused to allow their daughters to get married to men from mashonaland. many cases have been reported in the media about some fathers refusing to accept lobola payment from the shona in-laws. strained relations characterised by anger and bitterness have also resulted in the ndebele ascribing marginal development of their region upon the shona who happen to occupy top leadership positions (muchemwa, 2016). the general feeling among the ndebele is that the lack of development in matabeleland is a deliberate policy by the shona to continue instilling pain on the communities of matabeleland (muchemwa 2016). lindgren (2002:19) has been emphatic that “as a result of the fifth brigade atrocities in southern zimbabwe, ndebele ethnicity has become more salient after than before independence”. ndlovu (2015: 105) captures similar sentiments that, “the humanitarian disaster for the ndebele started in 1983 with gukurahundi and that the latent conflicts which have continued insistently to shape the ndebele’s sense of belonging in zimbabwe have been exported to johannesburg in south africa”. as already mentioned even the 1987 unity accord has been considered as a placatory gesture to diplomatically silence and overshadow the ndebele in the country’s official historical narrative. while the rhetoric and goals of unity are laudable, the absence of reconciliation over the gukurahundi atrocities seems to have made everything frivolous. the above sentiments point to the gravity of the sourness of the relations. ‘patriotic history’ and the missed opportunity for reconciliation this section demonstrates how zanu-pf lost a grant opportunity for creating an environment of tolerance and respect among perpetrators and victims of violence by propping ‘patriotic history’. our argument is that for as long as the curriculum is disconnected from the politics of contemporary problems, it reflects missed opportunities for peacebuilding citizenship education. in zimbabwe, ‘patriotic history’ was carefully and strategically crafted as an ideological project to silence alternative political views and shape the nature of political debate in the country. the monolithic interpretations of history by zanu-pf in its quest towards legitimising its authoritarianism and the political volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 37 hegemony through cohesive patriotism and heroism were a betrayal to the nation building project meant to promote national healing. a strategy reminiscent to mass indoctrination was championed by government officials and public intellectuals loyal to zanu-pf. a cabal of public intellectuals sympathetic to zanu-pf and masquerading as political analysts had special access to state-controlled zimbabwe television (ztv) and radio stations talk shows where they celebrated mugabe’s militancy as heroic and revolutionary. zanu-pf legislatively controlled key national institutions to freely pronounce its interests whose articulation made them sound synonymous with national interests. the nationalist public intellectuals and other zanu-pf functionaries who were considered loyal to the ‘national interest’ did not convey a national perspective at a time when access to accurate and unbiased information was critical for building cross-ethnic trust. the tone, diction and content of the debates were deliberately twisted, highly politicised and manipulated as an instrument of exclusionary politics to side-line the opposition movement for democratic change (mdc). the broadcasting services act (bsa) of 2001 gave the minister of information unlimited influence over programming on zimbabwe’s broadcasting corporation (zbc) radio and television. the beaming of programmes and cultural documentaries like nhaka yedu (our heritage), national ethos or new farmer were deliberately designed to expose perceived government opponents as “traitors”, “enemies of the state” and “stooges” of imperialism (chiumbu,2004:33). manyawu (2013) describes how zanu-pf saturated airwaves with chimurenga songs meant to secure political hegemony and instil the politics of fear. as tendi (2010:14) put it, the likes of tafataona mahoso, claude mararike, vimbai chivaura, sheunesu mpepereki, godfrey chikowore and ibbo mandaza were afforded by zanu-pf an unassailable platform in the largely state-controlled media to churn out ‘patriotic history’. tafataona mahoso wrote articles in government owned national newspapers hero-worshipping mugabe and hailing the redistributive policies anchored on the land reform and black economic empowerment programmes. accusations of mis-governance and human rights violations lodged against zanu-pf were considered as gibberish and neo-liberal globalised rhetoric. the public order security act (posa) 2002 limited freedom of assembly, movement and expression. the access to information and protection of privacy act (aippa) 2002 severely restricted the activities of journalists and media institutions. zimbabwe’s high level of literacy played into the hands of the ruling elite by boosting the readership of government-controlled newspapers like the herald, the sunday mail, the chronicle and the manica post whose editorial policies and staff recruitment and appointments were mandated to the ministry of information and publicity. the closure of volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 38 private media institutions left state-controlled print media with the monopoly to churn out biased news coverage. while glorifying zanu-pf, they explicitly negated and nullified the contributions of other subaltern groups in the struggle for independence (tendi, 2010). we argue that the zanu-pf aligned public intellectuals’ conspiracy of silence over certain historical episodes confirmed the government’s lack of sincerity on reconciliation. silence on the gukurahundi which the mdc and civil society reverberated when emphasizing the zanu-pf government’s genocidal attributes smacked of political bigotry on reconciling ethnically induced divisions. the arrest and state persecution of public intellectuals critical of zanu-pf like masipula sithole, john makumbe, brian raftopolus, elphas mukonoweshuro and lovemore madhuku among others, cast a bright spotlight on the question of how zimbabwe would deal with its record of grave human rights violations. what ‘patriotic history’ advocated was as significant as what it was silent on. all historical events for example gukurahundi which were considered detrimental to efforts towards ‘unifying’ zimbabwe and upholding nationalism were not embraced by patriotic history. the selective, exclusive, authoritarian and absolutist nature of patriotic history undermined dialogue and embraced the deceptive conciliatory approach which mugabe pronounced in his independence speech. the abandonment of the 1980 policy of national reconciliation which mugabe had enunciated also accounted for the miscarriage of the nation-building project. discussion of findings this section of the study discusses invaluable insights from the educators and learners on the utility of the nass curriculum in developing capacities and competencies which foster the inculcation of peace-building and conflict management skills among learners. curriculum documents analysed were the nass syllabi from hillside teachers’ college, joshua mqabuko nkomo, bulawayo and kwekwe polytechnics. the documents we examined included the course outline whose common topics were culture and heritage, pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial history of zimbabwe, legal and parliamentary studies and conflict transformation and resolutions. however, these documents did not uniformly cover content, learning expectations, suggestions for teacher pedagogy and approved texts for the course. in all institutions, course content tended to give more space to the rise of african nationalism and the liberation struggle with a deliberate slant towards normalizing war and violence as signified by the topics on protests against the colonial system, oppression and torture of the african people at the hands of rhodesian soldiers. the students were required to learn dominant singular nationalist narratives encouraging patriotism and volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 39 respect for military heroes and heroines of zimbabwe’s war of independence. in all four jurisdictions, the topics on conflict transformation and resolutions were covered to varying degrees. in the majority of cases conflictual historical moments unevenly addressed colonial relations between settlers and indigenous people in zimbabwe and seemed to deliberately omit controversial topics like the gukurahundi violence in the course outlines. the four contexts showed that diversity appeared in terms of what to focus on and the depth to which some topics were handled. they were considerably more uneven in addressing gukurahundi violence. such a scenario, according to bickmore et al (2017:11) represents a missed opportunity for students to investigate structural impediments to democracy and peace, or to imagine potential solutions to end armed conflict. zimbabwe’s major challenge might be that the perpetrators of the gukurahundi violence are part of the ruling elite. given that people were discouraged to speak about the post-independence violence by the same government as a function of the nationalist monologic history, teachers fear being victimized. both lecturers and students expressed fear for their lives in case they might fall prey to the murderous tendencies of the ruling party. the practice has been the celebration of elite memorialism and an official obliteration of such for gukurahundi victims. a classic example is the banning of owen maseko’s art on the gukurahundi massacres by the zimbabwean government, acting under the censorship and entertainment act (the zimbabwean, 2010, cited by raftopoulos & mlambo, 2011:12). the study revealed that when dealing with a sensitive past, teachers needed to be selective in their choices of words lest they open old wounds and instigate violence. thus, skill full teaching which requires particular capabilities is paramount when teachers are dealing with controversial topics. data also revealed that some teachers had not experienced, either as students or in their own training, inclusive student-centred active pedagogies that meaningfully confront conflict and difference and so would need assistance. bickmore (2008) observed that professional guidance was critical if teachers were to develop competences and confidence to facilitate specific pedagogies, which included structured academic controversy. the following excerpts from interviews with lecturers demonstrate: in the classes you will be shocked to realise that the ruling party has deployed intelligence personnel to check on what you say. there are people on government payroll whose task is to sniff out perceived enemies of the revolution. the language they understand is killing. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 40 some of us were victims of gukurahundi and so we might end up being emotional when delivering lessons. where government curriculum guidelines neither require nor guide inclusion of difficult topics and challenging pedagogies, we also feel unprepared, we fear losing our jobs, and consequently we refrain from teaching about conflictual questions and perspectives. the psychological burden of the past is crippling for as long as it remains buried. as such, banishing certain issues to silence is unsuitable for creating sustainable relations. instead, through nass new insights and processes that redefine the role of history from being exclusively instrumental for those in power should be forged. data from interviews with students indicated that much of what they know about gukurahundi violence is from personal readings and research. the students felt that teachers were not encouraging openness and did not allow learners to express themselves freely when it came to controversial topics. the following quotes illustrate the participants’ responses: gukurahundi illuminates the conflict between elite political interests and popular memory practices and so for as long as selective memory is considered instrumental in the making of political subjectivities, reconciliation will remain a pipe dream. talking about gukurahundi is taboo. you disappear. if gukurahundi was a political mistake, then it should be discussed openly and freely so that we learn from our mistakes. however, as it is now, the political environment is not permitting and yet it is the truth which shall set us free. the type of history being taught in schools is patriotic history. for our zanu-pf government, sensitive topics like gukurahundi are anathema. the study of controversial topics would be beneficial to both the educators and learners because the dialogue which is promoted enhances the sharpening of our skills of analysis, synthesis, comprehension, critical thinking and problem-solving. history is dynamic and so controversial issues may motivate learners and stimulate debate. the accommodation of learners’ views erases the sense of shock and anger which may be associated with the presentation of controversial issues. promoting dialogue between teachers and learners can enable the identification of factual gaps which might provoke additional research or investigation on controversies understudy. discussion enhances learners’ ability to engage with opposing views while articulating their own reasoned opinion. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 41 moreover, controversial issues and historical disputes expose learners to the controversial nature of history as an interpretative discipline in which scholars contrast their reconstructions of the past. we have also seen how the teaching of ‘difficult history’ like gukurahundi leads to cognitive gains through developing students’ skills of comprehension, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. although the wisdom of opening and directing energies to examining old wounds can be questioned, this study indicated that the historical memory-preservation process, largely springing from desires to reveal the truth about what happened is set to prevent a repetition of the past mistakes and promote the rebuilding of trust and understanding among antagonistic groups. it is beyond doubt that some process is desirable for national reconciliation through education programmes. access to accurate and unbiased information is a crucial ingredient to ensure the success of a nation building project. like what the zanu-pf government did to promote patriotic history, an active but objective educational programme is indispensable for building trust and unity between the shona and ndebele. conclusion the teaching of controversial topics like gukurahundi has an immense potential to develop problem-solving, critical thinking and analytical skills among learners. there is need to be mindful of the values, attitudes and attributes that learners should possess as a result of their learning experiences. learners should be prepared to be able to rise to the challenges of the 21st century and beyond. positive ethics and values which need to be inculcated include peaceful resolution of conflicts and employment of sound judgement. teaching gukurahundi bears all the ingredients of an education system geared towards promoting education for sustainable development. the nass curriculum creates both opportunities and barriers for building young citizens’ capacities to participate in the daily work of building democratic peace. nass historical narratives being taught in institutions of higher learning seem to reinforce consensus around hegemonic and adversarial perspectives. the inadequate coverage of aspects of ‘difficult history’, the study has shown, could be attributed to the inappropriate utilisation of teaching methods, a vindictive political climate which breeds fear, poor attitudes of the students towards the course and the political affiliations of the teachers and students among other reasons. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 26-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 42 however, for history to be a firm base for socio-political reconciliation, it has to be open for revision and plurality. for as long as history is instrumentally serving the interests of those in power, postconflict healing and reconciliation will remain difficult to realise. the matabeleland crisis epitomised by gukurahundi has been left out of history textbooks as if it never happened thereby delivering a deadly blow to efforts towards reconciliation. 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(2004). patriotic history and the history of the nation: the struggle over the past in zimbabwe. journal of southern african studies 30(2): 215-234. sadler, t. d., amirshokoohi, a., kazempour, m., & allspaw, k. m. (2006). socio -science and ethics in science classrooms: teacher perspectives and strategies. journal of research in science teaching, 43(4), 353-376. storey, j. (2010). culture and power in cultural studies. the politics of signification. edinburgh: edinburgh university press. straddling, r. (1984). “the teaching of controversial issues: an evaluation” educational review, 36(2), 121-129. tarusarira, j. (2016). revisiting zimbabwe's celebratory history in pursuit of peace and reconciliation. in g. castryck, s. strickrodt, & k. werthmann (eds.), sources and methods for african history and culture: essays in honour of adam jones (pp. 611-623). leipziger universitätsverlag. tendi, b. (2020). the army and politics in zimbabwe. mujuru the liberation fighter and kingmaker. cambridge: cambridge university press. tosh, j. (2010). the pursuit of history. london: pearson. vessey, d. (2009). gadamer and the fusion of horizons. international journal of philosophical studies. vol 17(4), (pp 525–536) doi: 10.1080/09672550903164459. wallis,j. (2019). difficult histories and positive identities. cumberland lodge: windsor great park. webner, r. (1998). ‘smoke from the barrel of a gun: post wars of the dead, memory and reinscription in zimbabwe’. in richard webner (ed.) memory and the postcolony.african anthropology and the critique of power. london: zed books. wertsch, j. (2002). voices of collective remembering. cambridge: cambridge university press. wrenn, andrew, alf wilkinson, alison webb, helena gillespie, michael riley, penelope harnett, richard harris, tim lomas.‘t.e.a.c.h.teaching emotive and controversial history 3-19’, the historical association, september 2007, https://www.history.org.uk/secondary/resource/780/the-teachreport. microsoft word finley et al ifp v12.2 .docx in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 103 volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal (un)civil war: the current political discourse in america laura finley, luigi esposito and matthew johnson although negative campaigning and mean-spirited politics are far from new, the venomous way in which political candidates and officers behave toward those in the opposing party, and even sometimes within their party, has seemingly hit a zenith with the presidential election of donald trump. not only did candidate and now-president trump take vitriolic rhetoric to a new level, but there is evidence to suggest that his campaign and election has given others license to spew hateful comments about those with whom they disagree. importantly, though, the political left also struggles with incivility. even a perfunctory review of political discourse within the left reveals that this incivility is not only directed at the right, but also at others who align on the left but whose positions are different. this paper explores the divisiveness of political incivility on the right and the left, framing it as a natural but disturbing consequence of neoliberal ideology that is hyper-focused on individuals and winning at all costs. the paper concludes with recommendations for improving political discourse, drawing on the work of lilliana mason (2018) in her book uncivil agreement: how politics became our identity. civility and incivility in us political discourse: history and overview in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 104 the need to behave in a “civil” manner is widely considered a requisite for sustaining order. but what does it mean to be “civil”? the term derives from the latin civilis, which means the state of being a good citizen. by the mid-16th century, particularly in the west, the term became associated with politeness and refraining from obscene, disruptive, or disorderly behavior (elias 1978). within the political realm, the need for “civility” has long been regarded as essential to the viability of democracy (e.g., carter 1998). in the absence of civil dialogue and debate, there is little possibility for reconciling disagreements or successfully mediating the conflicting values and interests that are inevitable in open, democratic societies. according to louis gawthrop and dwight waldo (1984), an ethics of civility is what ensures that the rights and privileges that citizens enjoy in a democracy are balanced by obligations and responsibilities. it is also this ethic of civility that is supposed to guide the language and actions of political representatives who presumably seek to promote the well-being or best interests of the populace. in short, democracy requires a certain etiquette of civility, without which a “government of the people” would quickly have to be replaced by a tyrannical state or otherwise devolve into a hobbesian nightmare. in the united states, and notwithstanding historical injustices associated with slavery, racism, and the subordination of women, the socalled founding fathers are often celebrated for making this country an exemplary model of civility and democratic etiquette. as discussed by mark kahn (1998), the founders were committed to civility as a key criterion for social standing and political legitimacy. yet behind this romantic façade of virtue and civility, the history of us democracy is also rife with examples of astonishing incivility. for example, during the election of 1800, thomas jefferson and john adams exchanged incredibly vulgar, ad-hominem insults. the jefferson campaign referred to adams as a “hideous, hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and or sensibilities of a woman.” adam’s campaign responded by branding jefferson “a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed indian squaw, sired by a virginia mulatto father” (geier, 2016). as another example, in 1828, andrew jackson was repeatedly called a “jackass” by his political opponents as a reaction to his slogan to “let the people rule.” jackson embraced the slogan, noting the virtues of in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 105 donkeys (loyalty, strength, persistence, etc.), thereby making this animal the symbol of the democratic party. also, in her book rude democracy, susan herbst (2010) gives the example of charles sumner, a republican senator from massachusetts who, in 1856, was nearly beaten to death on the senate floor by virginia representative, preston brooks (a democrat), for having given a speech against slavery. of course, as a more recent example, the obamas were subject to all manner of racist attacks and images, which have included president obama being depicted as an african witchdoctor, a radical jihadist, and an ape. but while crass, violent, offensive language and behavior has a long history in us politics, many critics contend that in the era of trump, incivility in political discourse has not only intensified but, because of the unprecedented pervasiveness of social media, reaches more people than ever before. hardly a day goes by that president trump does not violate some norm of political discourse by saying or tweeting something that many might regard as racist, sexist, classist, homophobic or hyper-aggressive. many of trump’s supporters have also followed the president and employed highly uncivil tactics in their actions and language, celebrating trump’s profanities, assuming all brown-skinned people are “illegals” that need to be deported, and threatening “civil war” if the so-called “deep state” impeaches the president. at the same time, trump’s opposition has not fared much better in terms of living up to standards of political civility. from hillary clinton referring to trump’s supporters as a “basket of deplorables;” to california representative, maxine waters encouraging the public to “push back” on members of the trump cabinet wherever they see them and let them know they are “not welcome anymore, anywhere;” to celebrities such as kathy griffin teasing about employing violence against trump (e.g., consider griffin’s photo shoot with a mock head of trump’s severed, bloody head); to members of the trump administration—including sarah huckabee-sanders, stephen miller, and kristjen nielsen—being heckled and harassed at restaurants and other public spaces; to anti-trump activists using violence against trump supporters and others on the right; to making false lewd remarks about some sort of incestual relation between the president and his daughter, ivanka; the level of civility among leftists and liberals (including the liberal media) also seems pretty low. in terms of how incivility effects democracy, there are opposing viewpoints. according to some social scientists, employing incivility in the in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 106 form of profanity, demonizing opponents, denouncing contrary viewpoints as “fake,” etc., can often be an effective way of generating passion, gathering support, mobilizing like-minded individuals, and opening up political debate, even if it means making others feel uncomfortable (herbst 2010; see also sydnor 2018). research has also found that incivility is far more effective in terms of drawing people’s attention and encouraging them to vote or to participate in the political process more generally (e.g., brooks & geer 2007). there is also plenty of research, however, that finds incivility to erode people’s trust in institutions, reinforce political cynicism, and lessen respect for opposing viewpoints (e.g., mutz 2016). incivility may result in political gridlock and alienate voters (massaro & stryker 2012; hutchens, cicchirillo & hmielowski 2014). furthermore, according to political theorist benjamin barber, while “a rhetorical incivility within the boundaries of bipartisan politics is a healthy manifestation of political conflict and disagreement. . . divisive rhetoric has become not only disagreement between parties but a rejection of the legitimacy of the other side, validating a position that your opponents are immoral, un-american and possibly worthy of being subjected to violence” (as quoted by james 1997). although barber’s comments were from the 1990s, they are astonishingly relevant within the context of trump’s campaign and presidency. images of trump encouraging violence against his opponents at political rallies and his claim that the mainstream media is the “enemy of the people” are prime examples of this. polls suggest that a majority of american do believe that an erosion of civility is harming us democracy. a 2018 poll by weber shandwick, powell tate and krc research found that political incivility has become a “crisis,” as 75 percent of respondents believe incivility is leading to political gridlock, 83 percent believe incivility leads to intolerance of free speech, and 93 percent believe it is important for the president of the united states to be civil (shandwick & powell 2018). ultimately, it is not difficult to imagine why so many people believe incivility in politics is, in fact, problematic in a democracy. after all, effective democratic governance is supposed to be about disagreeing without disrespecting others, listening beyond one’s preconceptions, prioritizing the common good over narrow, self-serving interests, and treating all voices as worthy of being heard. research does tend to show that conservatives are more accepting of political incivility (e.g., fridkin & kenney 2011; mason 2018) and that in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 107 republicans engage in more negative campaigning than democrats (lau & pomper 2004). both of these factors may help explain why trump was able to win the presidency. stryker, danielson and conway (2015) found that heavy viewers of fox news were more accepting of political incivility. although they predicted heavy viewers of msnbc and the colbert report would show similar acceptance, they found the opposite: these respondents were less accepting of political incivility. incivility on the right in the era of trump it was on day one of his candidacy that donald trump made clear that his rhetoric would be vicious and often inaccurate. on the day that trump announced his candidacy in 2015, he referred to mexicans as rapists. he has since doubled down on that comment, claiming in june 2018 that he “was 100% right” (baker & rogers 2018). in the first republican primary debate, commentator megyn kelly asked donald trump about disparaging comments he had made about women, both in person and on twitter, to which he responded that “i think the big problem this country has is being politically correct” (bump 2018). he routinely referred to his competitors, both democrats and republicans, with disparaging comments and derogatory nicknames. trump has referred to some countries as “shitholes” and allegedly claimed all haitian immigrants have aids . philip bump (2018) of the washington post asserts that trump won the election and is popular among his base precisely because of his coarse language. a 2017 poll by the pew research center found that more than half of respondents who supported the president claimed to like his brashness more than anything else about him. a 2018 poll conducted by cbs-yougov found that nearly 80 percent of republicans most like “how trump is upsetting the elites and establishment.” bump (2018) asserts that trump’s base has no problem with him being petty and vindictive because he largely does so to people they hate. this “pushback” against elites is really “pushback against shifts in american culture that have made it unacceptable to say things that are racist and sexist” (bump 2018). in effect, trump’s vulgarity and brash tone against his opponent is,. in the eyes of his base, a clear manifestation of how the president represents a repudiation of the establishment. according to bump (2018) politicians have traditionally respected standards of civility in their messaging because failing to do so would cost them votes. yet trump has shown that that is in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 108 not the case. trump gets away with incivility because he refuses to be shamed (baker & rogers 2018). “rude and extreme rhetoric has galvanized and mobilized the republican base by catastrophizing the consequences of democratic governance and demographic change. this has won the right the support of less-ideologically committed and active voters who have found the rhetoric of trump and precursors like sarah palin relatable, refreshing, and ‘honest’”(nwanevu 2018). important to emphasize is that it is not just trump who employs uncivil language, it is most of his administration and many of his supporters. former campaign manager corey lewandowski made a mocking noise when a liberal strategist asked about a 10-year-old with downs syndrome who had been separated from her parents at the border (baker & rogers 2018). although he ended up being forced to resign, carl higbie, who helped with the 2016 trump campaign and was appointed to oversee external affairs for the corporation for national and community service, was found to have made a series of racist and inflammatory remarks about black people, muslims, immigrants and others. he also appeared on a radio show questioning barack obama’s birth certificate. comedian jimmy kimmel received a barrage of nasty tweets from trump supporters after he commented that he understood why they may have voted for him but implored them to admit they made a mistake. one person wrote, “why don’t you go somewhere else like a different country if you don’t like our president and stop your [sic] crying on tv snowflake” (bradley 2017). trump and his supporters dismiss critics by calling them “politically correct” or “liberal snowflakes.” they denounce the media as being biased and routinely claim any type of criticism to be “fake news.” for instance, in advance of a july 2018 summit in helsinki with russian leader vladimir putin, trump tweeted that the american news media “is indeed the enemy of the american people and all the dems know how to do is resist and obstruct. trump even skipped the white house correspondence dinner, saying he did not want to be stuck in a room “with a bunch of fake news liberals who hate me” democrats, trump frequently tweets, are “dumb,” “weak,” and “disgraceful,” among other insults (lee and quealey 2018). the guardian interviewed nine trump supporters at a 2017 rally in phoenix and found it was his very incivility that appealed to them. one commented, “he’s anti-left, he’s anti-pc, he’s anti-stupid,” while another called protesters in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 109 against trump “haters,” a common refrain issued by trump himself (smith 2017). incivility on the left in the era of trump as bump (2018) points out, “democrats loathe trump even more than republicans love him.” many on the left have responded to the president and his supporters in similar fashion. christine porath, a professor at georgetown university, says, like “a bug of virus. . . .incivility is contagious.” actor robert de niro issued a curse-laden diatribe at the tony awards. a congressional intern screamed “f-@$ trump” when he visited the capitol in june 2018 (baker & rogers 2018). protesters at a duluth, minnesota rally held signs reading “liar. racist. fascist. sociopath. twitter troll. idiot” and “my grandpa didn’t fight nazis for this” (baker & rogers 2018). as was noted, several trump staffers were denied service in various restaurants by people who do not agree with the president and his administration. last year, education secretary betsy devos had to be walked to her car by security after protesters blocked her entrance to a school building (pavlich 2018). florida attorney general pam bondi claims to have been threatened while attempting to buy a movie ticket with a friend. she argues the protesters were aggressive, with one standing so close to her and yelling that she felt spit in her hair. yet the activists do tell another story, asserting that they only accidentally ran into bondi at the theater and that they merely tried to talk to her about her policies and support of president trump. fox news, known for aligning conservative, denounced the left as “setting a new standard of incivility” (mcelway 2018). house majority leader kevin mccarthy, r-california, said in response to the denial of service to sarah huckabee sanders, “this is very dangerous. [the restaurant owner] should apologize to the american public. what is interesting to me is the people who claim tolerance seem to be the most intolerant in this process” (mcelway 2018). conservative sites like townhall feature routine comments that claim the left is actually more responsible for political incivility than the right. will alexander (2018) argued that, not only does the incivility lean left, but that leftists have been “mocking, bullying and insulting conservatives for decades.” alexander claims the left knows it is outmatched and so is scrambling to remain relevant. in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 110 but returning incivility with the like does not work for everyone, as was evidenced when marco rubio and ted cruz tried it during the republican debates. some, like the atlantic columnist conor friedersdorf have argued that responding with incivility makes a trump re-election more likely, while others argue that such an argument is silly and merely serves to divide the anti-trump movement (cooper 2018). still others express concern that the left’s responses will merely generate an arms race of sorts, with the right amping up its attacks. this does seem to be the case with president trump. after democratic california congresswoman maxine waters called on more people to “push back” against trump and his supporters by creating crowds that tell them they are unwelcome, trump tweeted, “congresswoman maxine waters, and extraordinarily low iq person, has become, together with nancy pelosi, the face of the democrat party. she has just called for harm to supporters…be careful what you wish for max?” (mcelway 2018). ryan cooper (2018) wrote that, “if there is any main wellspring of ‘incivility’ (an extremely ill-defined word, but setting that aside), it comes from the monstrously evil actions of the trump regime.” further, cooper (2018) argues that because he is the president, trump’s incivility is “10,000 times more influential than any lefty protestor on earth.” civility, cooper reminds us, has long been used to dismiss heinous crimes. similarly, charles pierce (2018) wrote in esquire, “if you’re being civil, you’re not paying attention.” these commentators and others point to the racist and abusive comments hurled at president obama, and that some members of the tea party spit at members of the house of representatives in arguing that while the trump era has escalated incivility, it has been a tactic of the right for some time (caputo & lippman 2018). former democrat representative tom perriello, who lost his seat in 2010 and failed in his gubernatorial campaign in virginia, notes that elected officials eight years ago were subject to death threats (caputo & lippman 2018). some on the left believe responding to trump and his supporters with equal incivility is actually necessary. author and blogger jessica valenti has written that “civility ended the day trump was elected,” and asking people who are upset with his policies to denounce them civilly is “like telling a woman to smile as she’s being sexually harassed on the street” (baker & rogers 2018). pavlich (2018) commented that, “lectures about civility require taking the high road and that certainly isn’t the place in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 111 democrats and their activists currently stand.” one of the problems, however, is that while the left denounces political incivility, political infighting and backstabbing has long been a problem within the left. this, too, undermines democracy, and is one of the main reasons why the gop has prevailed in elections. the left and acceptance of allies while the debate on the left as to the merits of incivility toward its opponents continues, sometimes those opponents are fellow progressive commentators, celebrities, and activists. in an era where reactionary republicans control both houses of congress, the courts, and the presidency, there is infighting within the opposition over everything from identity politics to sexual assault to relations with russia. this is part of a larger trend, summarized by comedian bill maher (2018) as a conflict between a person’s “avatar,” or public persona, and that person’s authentic self. the avatar persona is meticulous with word choice and fearful to offend — not unlike a moderate or progressive politician. the avatar is paramount in a social and political sphere increasingly defined by twitter, facebook, and other social media — not to mention traditional media sources. while tactful messaging on these platforms may appear to be evidence of civility, it could just as easily be looked at as evidence of the opposite, given that these carefully constructed avatars often withhold the true beliefs of the real people behind them due to fear of virtual and, at times, actual, retaliation (white 2017). for example, matt damon argued in a late 2017 interview that the nascent #metoo movement should analyze high-profile sexual violence allegations on a spectrum (agostini 2017). in other words, it would be wrong to conflate the actions of al franken, for example, with those of roy moore. he also praised the newfound focus on women’s empowerment resulting from #metoo and #timesup (agostini 2017). he was heavily rebuked for this moderate position — first by co-star/ex-girlfriend minnie driver and actress alyssa milano. their response, to put it mildly, was dismissive. damon was treated as part of the problem and not as an ally in a shared struggle. in effect, he was told that his opinions were invalid because he is a male and that he should shut up and listen to women (agostini 2017). he ultimately apologized, agreeing that he should “close [his] mouth for a while” (brockington 2018). in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 112 uncivil infighting via social media is nothing new for the left, however. in 2014, actress rose mcgowan, called gay men as “misogynistic” as straight men — among other controversial and divisive statements (hare 2014). this led to a twitter war with much vitriol on all sides. this was no aberration. the aforementioned maher tackles political subjects with a level of candor not often seen on the left, and no one is beyond his ire. as a result, he is the target of much criticism despite his relentless opposition to trump and the republicans (wilstein 2018). while open debate is essential to a thriving democracy and constructive criticism should not be confused with incivility, the left’s opposition to maher, in its worst manifestations, seeks to cast him outside the left entirely (jones 2017). the left’s denunciation of those who lack politically correct sensibilities and rejection of them as allies is true beyond the realm of entertainment, but it is especially strange in this context given that the role of a comedian is to push boundaries. stephen colbert, michelle wolf, and other comedians — ironically — find themselves under attack by the left for jokes intended to undermine trump and his supporters (otterson 2017) (wischhover 2017). given this context, which predates 2016, the left’s infighting is not a response to trump’s ascension and his flouting of niceties and political correctness. on the contrary, it appears as if trump took a page from the left’s playbook as he continues to tweet out attacks on not only the democratic and grassroots opposition but also his allies and supporters (mascaro et al 2018). despite the left’s emphasis on inclusion, many of its spaces — both virtual and physical — are anything but. much of the left’s rhetoric emphasizes inclusion, even mcgowan’s calling out of gay men for allegedly being anti-women is an attempt to include women and emphasize their rights within the sphere of gay rights (hare 2014). most on the left seek to extend not only attention but rights and privileges to those perceived as being left out of the circle of humanity — people of color, lgbtq+ folks, poor people, etc. while these goals are laudable, the methods taken to achieve them could often be characterized as uncivil. the incivility comes when those well within the parameters of mainstream thought are shunned or disparaged by the left when they could be embraced as allies or educated. clearly there are certain views that are unacceptable in almost any space and should be shunned, but if the goal is to achieve sweeping social change, it is not only uncivil but unproductive to alienate potential allies whose views are mainstream. this is not a question of free speech in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 113 but of tactics. to expect that every potential ally be “woke” is to expect perfection in an imperfect world. the relevance of neoliberalism in encouraging political incivility to a large extent, the incivility discernible in contemporary political discourse reflects a larger, more encompassing set of values, attitudes, habits, and relational structures associated with neoliberalism. although typically associated with pro-market policies like de-regulation, privatization, and liberalization, neoliberalism is far more than simply a set of policy prescriptions and entails a specific vision of the world (e.g., esposito 2011). drawing from classical liberal principles and neoclassical economics, neoliberals focus on the individual and contend that, under conditions of freedom, all persons are rational actors who are naturally driven towards competition and constantly make calculations on what will serve their best interests. in fact, in a neoliberal society, a type of “market rationality” reigns supreme that prioritizes self-interests and “returns on one’s investments” over any other consideration, including the interests and well-being of others (brown 2015; esposito & perez 2014; giroux 2008). neoliberalism, in this sense, diminishes the communal nature of social existence and reconfigures society as little more than a heap of competitive individuals seeking to outdo one another in a relentless pursuit for private gain. and while neoliberals might insist that unregulated competition and the untrammeled pursuit of self-interest is the sine qua non of freedom and what promotes creativity, productivity, and prosperity, critics contend that neoliberalism encourages a social darwinian type of order in which compassion, trust, and civility are de-emphasized in favor of competitive advantage and “coming out on top.” what results, to borrow from henry giroux (2017), is a “culture of cruelty” in which malice, greed, aggressiveness, and other qualities that might maximize self-gain are not only normalized but celebrated as virtues. a predatory mindset is thus promoted that dissolves democratic social bonds and encourages people to overlook one another’s humanity. within the united states, this sort of mindset has led to a sharp decline in levels of empathy and perspective-taking. indeed, a large 2011 study of u.s. college students found that the average level of “empathic concern” (i.e., people’s feeling of sympathy for the misfortune of others) declined by 48 percent between 1979 and 2009, while the average level of in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 114 “perspective-taking” (imagining other people’s point of view) declined by 34 percent during the same period (konrath, o’brien, & hsing 2011). at the same time that levels of empathy have declined since the 1980s, levels of depression and anxiety during the same period have soared (klein 2012). while there is a constellation of factors that might help explain this, the decline in mental health coincides precisely with the rise of neoliberalism and the attack on the welfare state, the outsourcing of us jobs to cheaper labor markets, the automation of workplaces, stagnant wages, the erosion of labor unions, and increasing costs in housing, food, education and healthcare. these shifts have encouraged a reduction in marriage rates, increased isolation, and, perhaps most striking, a decline not only in mental health but in life expectancy among middle-aged white americans, which have traditionally been the most privileged group in us society. as life and security become increasingly precarious in a neoliberal market economy, it is no surprise that civic values are weakened and people begin to search for scapegoats on which to vent their frustration and blame their problems. and while trump has been masterful in employing this tactic to gather political support by telling his base that their problems have to do with illegal immigrants, liberal elites, political correctness, etc., members of the left have also vented their frustrations by branding anyone who supports trump as ignorant bumpkins, despicable bigots, or fascist pigs. what has resulted from these conditions are a series of hyper-partisan interpretative frameworks that undercut honest debate and stifle productive forms of political dialogue. as insults and ad-hominem accusations replace speech, interlocutors lose communicative competence. hurting or delegitimizing one’s opponents begins to supersede any effort towards reconciliation and consensus. people lose sight of other viewpoints that deviate from their own presuppositions about the world. particularly with the advent of social media algorithms and personalized advertising, personal newsfeeds become echo chambers, as political viewpoints become increasingly insulated and intransigent. in the end, as both politicians and the people they serve lose the ability to deal with differences and attribute malevolence to oppositional viewpoints, the neoliberal logic of having to “destroy” or “outdo” others who stand in the way of your particular vision and interests becomes de rigeur. under these conditions, incivility prevails while democracy is imperiled. one example that illustrates this perfectly is the unite the right rallies. these are rallies coordinated by and for those who consider themselves part of the extreme right. the first, held in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 115 in august 2017 in charlottesville, resulted in a violent clash with leftist counter-protesters, leaving one woman dead and several people injured. a second rally was planned for mid-august, 2018 and counter-protests were again planned, although the second year the protests nearly shut it down before it happened. antifa, the anarchist group, believes action, even violence, is required to contest the racist violence of the alt-right. they also claim that the administration and law enforcement are sympathetic to the alt-right and therefore simple nonviolent tactics will always disadvantage leftists (simon 2018). recommendations because humans are susceptible to both confirmation bias (seeking evidence to confirm what we already believe) and disconfirmation bias (dismissing competing evidence or finding ways to counter-argue with or reframe it), people on both sides of the political spectrum generally consume media that affirms their existing beliefs. those who are most politically engaged may consume opposing media but with the general purpose of identifying counter-arguments (mason 2018b). similarly, for many people, our social identities are associated with our political ideologies, and people are more frequently associating with only others who align similar to themselves. it is, as mason (2018b) says, the first time in history that both political parties hold strongly unfavorable opinions of each other. these polarized social and political identities leave people deeply distrusting their opposition, even in cases in which agreements on policy issues can exist (mason 2018b). as mason (2018a) has commented, “when we have political conversations, we are not like bankers discussing investments. we are more like screaming football fans. we have taken sides and we are not interested in sitting calmly with our opponents. civility is not baked in to political discourse.” partisan victory, in such a climate, is the only way to “win,” and politics driven by anger prevails over that driven by reason. yet mason (2018a; 2018b) notes that as we develop crosscutting identities, we are more open to engaging with people who are dissimilar to us in various ways, including politically. republicans tend to be more socially homogenous and spend less time meeting people who are different from them. this means that democrats have more practice engaging with a range of political ideas, while republicans “are more accustomed to a world in which they are not confronted” (mason 2018a). the extension of this, then, is that democrats should become more unified in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 116 in regard to what they stand for, not against. meanwhile, republicans should address their homogeneity and how it affects their positions and support for uncivil behavior. the left also needs to reject any holier-thanthou rhetoric and really seek to identify why it is so unwelcoming to people who seek only to be allies. while we understand the sentiment of groups like antifa in that racism and systemic violence are very much still problems in the u.s., we disavow the use of violence to contest the alt-right, and other factions of the extreme right more generally. as was evidenced in charlottesville in august 2017, the violent clash did nothing to help the two sides see one another’s perspectives or to make positive social change. instead, we call on activists on both sides to employ the bevy of nonviolent methods that have proven to be successful. voting for candidates who refuse to conduct themselves uncivilly certainly will be part of the solution. while there is some research showing that negative campaign ads can be effective, ultimately voters have free will to choose candidates who behave civilly. given research that shows that women are less likely to use mean-spirited and nasty language politically, and that female voters are less accepting of incivility (stryker, danielson and conway 2011), the projected wave of women running for office may help address the normalization of meanness that seems to dominate political discourse today. and, quite simply, educating new voters on the issues versus the attacks will always be an important part of the solution. similarly, part of what has been effective at galvanizing trump’s supporters is his allegation that mainstream media is on a witch hunt and cannot be believed. the general public definitely needs to be able to identify fact from fiction. to this end, more efforts are needed towards enhancing media literacy skills among the public. of course, efforts to reject neoliberalism and its pathologizing and divisiveness would inevitably create a more civil political and social culture. clearly this will require dramatic efforts that are well beyond the scope of this paper, but one part of it would include educating young people about neoliberalism and its influence on our lives, not simply in the form of promarket policies, but as an unquestioned common sense that associates rabid competition and self-serving ruthlessness with virtue. few are taught to critique neoliberalism, and thus may believe it to be inevitable or the in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 117 preferred ideology. similarly, efforts to ensure a fair and unbiased media, in particular public media, can help people better understand complex issues without the nasty and mean-spirited attacks that are currently frequent components of news media. references agostini, e. 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(2017, may 02). stephen colbert in hot water over 'homophobic' donald trump joke. variety. retrieved august 25, 2018, from https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/late-show-stephen-colbert-homophobicdonald-trump1202406991/ pavlich, k. (2018, june 26). pavlich: lessons from the left on incivility. the hill. retrieved august 9, 2018 from www.thehill.com/opinion/white-house/394298-pavlich-lessons from-the-left-on-incivility pierce, c. (2018. june 21). this country was born in incivility. being “civil” won’t save it now. esquire. retrieved august 6, 2018 from www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a21750189-donaldtrump-incivility-new-york-times shandwick, w., & tate, powell. (2018). civility in america survey, 2018. accessed july 23, 2018 from https://www.webershandwick.com/news/civility-in-america-2018civility-atwork-and-in-our-public-squares/ simon, c. (2018, august 10). radical groups, other activists plan protests for “unite the right 2” rally in d.c. usa today. retrieved august 10, 2018 from in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 103-122 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 122 www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/08/01/unite-right-2rally-activists-plan-counterrally-aug-12/878556002/ smith, d. (2017, august 23). “he’s anti-left, anti-pc, anti-stupid”: trump supporters in their own words. the guardian. retrieved august 10, 2018 from https://www.theguardian.com/usnews/2017/aug/23/trump-supporter-interviews-phoenix arizona-rally sydnor, e. (2018, june 27). does incivility hurt democracy? here’s what political science can tell us?” the washington post. accessed july 24, 2018 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkeycage/wp/2018/06/27/does-incivilityhurt-democracy-hereswhat-political-science-can-tell-us/?utm_term=.6fb31d5881af stryker, r., danielson, j., conway, b. (2011). who is more tolerant of political incivility? the role of gender, political ideology and media use. paper presented at the american political science association annual meeting. retrieved august 10, 2018 from https://nicd.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/whoismoretoleran tofpoliticalincivility.pdf white, c. (2017, december 11). public shaming – digital trauma. medium. retrieved august 25, 2018, from https://medium.com/s/digitaltrauma/public-shaming-e9b0815d98fc wilstein, m. (2018, april 22). why liberals need bill maher's tough love. the daily beast. retrieved august 25, 2018, from https://www.thedailybeast.com/bill-maher-the-onlylate-nighthost-willing-to-challenge-the-left wischhover, c. (2018, april 29). michelle wolf's joke about sarah huckabee sanders's eye makeup was totally fine. retrieved august 25, 2018, from https://www.racked.com/2018/4/29/17299160/sarahhuckabee-sanders-michelle-wolfwhite-house-correspondentsdinner-smokey-eye microsoft word ifp v 16 hazelton.docx volume 16 number 2 (2022): 186-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 186 volume 16 number 2 (2022): 186-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 souls not skin: an examination of war and peace education in the context of w.e.b dubois’ the souls of black folk. matthew hazelton university of toledo the primary purpose of this paper is broadly to discuss the normative foundations of peace education in the context of war and peace. this is an exercise others have engaged in with far greater depth and investment, building on the work of scholars before them. while this is the primary purpose of the paper, i will also centrally utilize the narrative lens of w.e.b dubois as exhibited in his seminal 1903 work the souls of black folks throughout as a contextual framework for the theoretical conversations seen throughout the field of peace education. snauwaert writes that the peace education is advanced through the development of normative philosophical foundations, yet “philosophical reflection on the normative foundations of peace studies education remains underdeveloped”(snauwaert, under review). in their 2019 article “southern voices in peace education: interrogating race, marginalization and cultural violence in the field”, kurian and kester argue that peace education critically lacks input from the “global south” – a historically volume 16 number 2 (2022): 186-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 187 marginalized population (kurian and kester, 2019). they suggest that the study of peace education lacks the context of the victim – the one who has suffered violence and lived to be victimized again and again. this paper – in summarizing much of the field of peace education through the lens of dubois’ the souls of black folk – will argue that it is not that southern voices have remained silent with regards to peace education, but rather, the vantage points from which these voices view the field of peace education has been ignored, missed, marginalized or perhaps been abstracted away from the historical context they speak from. peace education is the story of the pursuit of justice – and is perhaps best told by those who longed for justice the most. in the telling of this story, this paper will first lay out a normative framework for this study, highlighting the importance of respect for individual humanity and the accompanying tilt towards justice in the study of peace education. next, in walking through the foundational elements of peace education – moral reasoning, concepts of war and violence, and the means to resist such violence – i will lean heavily on excerpts and themes from dubois to provide an image of the peace he envisioned and the education he thought necessary to accomplish that vision. to conclude, i will engage in a discussion around the three elements of just war theory, once again engaging with dubois’ perspective. before establishing the conceptual framework for this discussion, i want to highlight a significant delimitation of this paper – this is intentionally not a comprehensive review of dubois’ role in the peace movement and does not take into account his many later works on the subject such as color and democracy: colonies and peace (1945) and in battle for peace (1952). this is not an oversight, but rather a conscious decision to highlight the raw, unformed emotive expression found in dubois’ early work rather than the more philosophic and focused later pieces. it is worth mentioning, however, that such works exist and highlight the well-formed thoughts of an oft-unrecognized peace scholar. even just a year after the publication of souls, dubois described his commitment to peace, writing, i believe in the prince of peace. i believe that war is murder. i believe that armies and navies are at bottom the tinsel and braggadocio of oppression and wrong, and i believe that the wicked conquest of weaker and darker nations by nations whiter and stronger but foreshadows the death of that strength (dubois, 1904, p. 787). he would go onto to write extensively throughout the next 50 years on peace – developing a “quasi-leninist outlook on the relationship between international volume 16 number 2 (2022): 186-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 188 wars, racism and world capitalism” and becoming something of a forefather of the modern peace movement (marble, 1983). in his book, teaching peace as a matter of justice, dale snauwaert highlights betty reardon’s three forms of a pedagogy of reflective inquiry: critical/analytic; moral/ethical; and contemplative/ruminative (snauwaert, under review; reardon and snauwaert, 2011; reardon and snauwaert, 2015). snauwaert writes that “reardon argues that these three forms of reflective inquiry comprise a pedagogical means that develops the human capacities and transformative skills necessary for the actualization of peace and justice” (snauwaert, under review, p. 5). it is from these three pedagogical forms that i will draw a conceptual framework for this paper. aided by the critical lens of dubois’ souls and guided by the moral framework of the existing field of peace scholarship, this paper will seek to introduce a contemplative “self-awareness” to the study of peace education. namely, i argue that dubois’ pedagogical and philosophical views in the souls of black folks represents something of a manifestation of reardon’s three forms roughly a century prior to her work in a profound expression of the two definitive tenets of peace education: democracy and justice. in the souls of black folks, dubois does not engage with the modern principle of democracy – indeed his work predates most of the foundational works of progressive thinkers who have defined the modern study of democracy. however, a careful reader of dubois is drawn into a powerful imagery of a new democratic world – one in which dubois found himself and his fellow black citizens inextricably engaged with. of this elevation of the human condition, dubois writes that: the nineteenth was the first century of human sympathy, the age when half wonderingly we began to descry in other that transfigured spark of divinity which we call myself; when clodhoppers and peasants, and tramps and thieves, and millionaires and – sometimes – negroes, became throbbings souls whose warm pulsing life touched us so nearly that we half gasped with surprise, crying, “thou too! hast thou seen sorrow and the dull waters of hopelessness? hast thou known life (dubois, 1903, pp. 134-135)? this “warm pulsing life” being experienced the former slave community – this freedom of will was in many ways the first time these souls had felt fully human. this was a new thing – this democratic experience. while it is difficult to compare this raw conception of democracy with the refined normative theories of men such volume 16 number 2 (2022): 186-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 189 as rawls (1971) and dahl (2000), there was a kindred spirit at play.1 within the heart of dubois and his fellow freemen was a new chance – a wind of change as it were. somehow the playing field had been levelled, even though society and its structures would not get that message for decades or even centuries. the second definitive element of peace education is justice. while rawls (1971) and most of his disciples define justice as “fairness”, dubois again has a far more visceral understanding of justice – perhaps from living in its void for so long. in many ways, the central story of the soul of black folk – which is in a sense the story of all black folk in america is of a hope for justice, a hope for peace. dubois brilliantly frames each chapter in souls in the context of a negro spiritual – a sorrow song. for dubois, these soulful mournings are the purest manifestation of a truly american art form (dubois, 1903, p. 156). in his conclusion, he notes that “through all the sorrow songs there brings a hope – a faith in the ultimate justice of things” (dubois, 1903, p. 162). this faith in justice is a different kind of justice than rawls’ complex normative construction. it is a deeply felt spiritual deprivation that steals humanity away from those who are denied it. dubios continues, describing this faith in the unseen savior justice, sometimes it is faith in life, sometimes a faith in death, sometimes assurance of boundless justice in some fair world beyond. but whichever it is, the meaning is always clear: that sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by their souls and not by their skins (dubois, 1903, p. 162). while his beautiful language defines this concept with a flourish, it seems that dubois views justice similarly to dr. martin luther king who famously declared on the steps of the lincoln memorial: “i have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” (king, 1963). the essence is the same: justice cannot be skin deep. each man is accountable to a sense of justice that is far bigger than himself and has far more to do with his soul than his skin. such soulful writing, while is does not come close to the normative depth of the writings of philosophers such as plato or rawls, reveals a different side of justice that is critical to the teaching of peace education. while snauwaert encourages the positive definition of peace as “the presence of justice” (snauwaert, under review, p. 2), dubois’ raw emotional longing for that which lacks is an equally powerful reminder of the power 1 dubois almost certainly espoused a more “platonic” moral philosophy (compare with snauwaert, 3-4), although the spirit of his work is consistent with much of the modern peace movement scholarship. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 186-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 190 of injustice to disturb the human peace and perhaps a stronger reminder of the need for an education that promotes such a justice. lopez describes peace studies as an “interdisciplinary…exploration of conceptual frameworks of peace, threats to and violations of peace, and processes of peace building” (lopez, 2008, p. ?). in many ways, peace studies and peace education center on the concepts of war and peace. traditionally, peace has been defined as “the absence of war; the absence of direct organized violence between states” (galtung, 1969, p. 167). as mentioned above, however, this negative concept of peace falls short for many reasons. first, as snauwaert notes, defining peace “only in terms of an absence of violence…allow[s] violence to be the operative concept”, rather the justice as discussed above (snauwaert, under review, p. 2). secondly, this negative concept of peace falls short based on the context of the post-war south that dubois engaged with daily. while there was no war – no direct conflict between states that is – there certainly was no peace. snauwaert frames this idea of the “sphere of peace”, referring “to the space where peace exists and seeks to answer the question of the scope or range of peace: local, national, international, and global…in general, the sphere of peace is a socio-political state of affairs that manifests within and between societies” (snauwaert, under review, p. 31; see also matsuo, 2007). in the context of the post war south, this is a much better way to approach the discussion of war and peace. while there was not an active conflict between military states, there was certainly ongoing societal violence. this violence, whether physical or societal, represented the restriction of the humanity of individuals at the hands of others. this is an opportune time to reintroduce the positive conception of peace as the presence of justice, as mentioned above. if peace is the presence of justice, then the lack of justice means the lack of peace. a central reason for the lack of justice in a society is the presence of oppression. oppression can be understood as the "structural phenomena that immobilize or diminish a group”, by definition creating injustice (young, 1988). young (1988) further expounds on this, laying out oppression as a condition of social groups, a set of relations within or between societies. she describes at least five types of oppression: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. the story of dubois and the african slave in america is one definitionally of oppression as described by young. consider first the tribes of africa, plundered by their neighbors and europeans alike, sold into exploitative slavery for centuries. once finally freed from the legal bonds of slavery, they found themselves marginalized from proper society, even in areas that had long rejected volume 16 number 2 (2022): 186-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 191 the institution of slavery. this social marginalization along with political disenfranchisement led to almost a century of powerlessness in the black community. for much of the first half of the 20th century, the black community was the victim of cultural imperialism as white consumers happily engaged with black performers, musicians, athletes, and chefs, while still denying them basic human rights such as voting, equal pay, and shared public services. and of course, a common trend throughout the history of black communities in america is the direct manifestation of violence against persons and property. from the beating of slaves in the 1700s to the lynching of young black men in the 1950s, it is an unavoidable truth that lies heavy over black history in the us. if oppression is the story of injustice, then the story of the black man in america is one of injustice as well. the correction of this injustice (in pursuit of peace) was the aim of dubois and continues to be the aim of many peace educators today. the second foundational element in the study of peace education is the connection between moral reasoning and pedagogy. snauwaert succinctly describes the correlation between moral education and peace, writing “engaged, informed citizens are necessary participants in the pursuit of peace and justice, and those citizens need to be capable of exercising moral reasoning and judgment regarding principles of justice and a complex array of basic questions of justice” (snauwaert, under review, p. 4). in many ways, the development of this democratic-citizen oriented pedagogy is the story of dubois and other black educators in the post-war south. afterall, the question of what must citizens know started the entire black community in the face in the wake of slavery’s demise. as booker t. washington laid out in his own 1901 autobiography, the black citizen was essentially a blank slate following centuries of servitude in a paternalistic chattel slavery system. washington noted that within a few hours [of being granted freedom] the great questions with which the anglo-saxon race had been grappling for centuries had been thrown upon these [former slaves] to be solved. these were the questions of a home, a living, the rearing of children, education, citizenship, and the establishment and support of churches (washington, 1901, p. 11. these questions at their core reflect the question – what did these men and women need to learn to live in a democracy? unlike the somewhat sterile academic setting within which students now engage with these questions, however, the black community was forced to learn under constant threat to life and property. in the face of this question, dubois points to a certain form of education needed to develop a democratic citizenry. he writes that “the training of the schools we need to-day volume 16 number 2 (2022): 186-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 192 more than ever, the training of deft hands, quick eyes and ears, and above all the broader, deeper, higher culture of gifted minds and pure hearts” (dubios, 1903, pp. 6-7). this illusion to the broad impact of a liberal arts education foreshadows key elements of peace education – citizens capable of moral reasoning mentioned by snauwaert at the beginning of the paragraph. dubois further expounds on the pedagogical means needed for this form of education in chapter vi in souls, entitled “of the training of black men”. in this brief essay, he writes practically of the need to “seek the social regeneration of the negro” (dubios, 1903, p. 66). in this endeavor, he also speaks broadly of “the one panacea of education [that] leaps to the lips of all: such human training as will best use the labor of all men without enslaving or brutalizing…to stamp out those that in sheer barbarity deafen us to the wail of prisoned souls within the veil” (dubios, 1903, p. 57). he goes on to critique the mere knowledge learning of industrial education and to promote again a deeper knowledge – a need for more than the mere meat of life. this education is the same as that needed for peace in a democracy – one that teaches the mind to engage against the forces that oppress, exploit, and commit injustice. this ties in closely with a third element of peace education: the duty to resist injustice. once again, this concept is tied closely to dubois and his legacy in the civil rights movement. peace advocate and civil rights legend dr. martin luther king wrote the following powerful statement while himself jailed in birmingham moreover, i am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. i cannot sit idly by in atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in birmingham. injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly (king, 1963). this idea of the interrelatedness of justice across communities is especially powerful in the context of the civil rights movement. dr. king and men like dubois recognized that injustice would not stop in one community. victory in one area or region would be temporary and limited. injustice to one is an injustice to all. snauwaert echoes this sentiment in his discussion of resisting injustice, noting that “the duty to resist injustice is also grounded in and animated by a belief in the possibility of justice. the belief that justice is possible, even in the face of profound injustice” (snauwaert, under review). this possibility of a complete justice is the same dream as dubois – a justice again based on the soul and not the skin. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 186-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 193 the final elements of peace education are found in the discussion of the morality of the use of force in varying levels in response to injustice. the first claim is of that the position of nonviolence, which aims to fight injustice without the use of any physical force whatsoever. in chapter 10 of teaching peace as a matter of justice, snauwaert lays out seven "basic elements of non-violence": understanding and awakening the conscience, critique and dissent, disruption and negotiation, consensual power and withdrawal of consent, unconditional respect and goodwill, self-purification and inner peace, and the power of suffering. the nashville student sit-in movement provides a perfect practical example of these elements in action in a context that beautifully ties into the world of dubois’ souls.2 these seven elements of non-violence and their application in this setting are worth diving into as a manifestation of a duboisian approach to peace education.3 firstly, the nashville students highlighted the importance of creating awareness in the dominant culture and the impact that movement has on awakening the culture's conscience. by highlighting the importance of individual respect and dignity, the protestors appealed to the dominant white culture's own virtues and held them to standards that already existed within the culture. the symbolism of quiet strength in the face of adversity would not have been lost of the predominantly white anglosaxon protestant nashville majority. secondly, the movement embodies the spirit of critique and dissent by its unwillingness to settle for less than the ideal. when the students heard that a government committee was suggesting a compromise resolution that would allow blacks to sit at the lunch counters, but remain segregated, they critiqued the idea and rejected it for its willful violation of the ideal they laid out full desegregation (clark and coy, 2015). accordingly, they continued their peaceful dissent, continuing to highlight their critiques of the existing system. thirdly, the element of disruption and negotiation is clearly laid out in the movement of the story and in the stages of curle's conflict progression theory (clark and coy, 2015). the nonviolent action of sitting at the lunch counters significantly affected downtown nashville's economic viability, which drove much 2 the history of this event is discussed in detail by clark and coy in their 2015 article “civil rights, social movements, and domestic policy: the 1960 nashville student sit-in movement”. 3 manning marable has a more holistic overview of dubois’ impact on the peace movement in the context of the civil rights movement in his article “peace and black liberation: the contributions of w.e.b. du bois.” as mentioned in the delimitations section, this paper is focusing on dubois’ peace philosophy as seen in the souls of black folk – even though these principles are further developed in his later works. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 186-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 194 of the progress in negotiation. the disruption caused by the violent white antiprotestors caused significant decreases in customers to affected areas, which led to much of the business community being far more "amenable" than they would have been had business continued as normal (clark and coy, 2015). fourth, the black community's withdrawal from the existing power structure highlights the impact of a peace withdrawal from a system of complacent consent. by refusing to tacitly participate in the segregated system any longer, the student's emphasized their desire for a better system and refused to participate in any other system. with the support of the larger nashville community, they were able to effect permanent change. fifth, the commitment of the black students to dressing in their sunday best and refraining from any violent responses epitomizes the idea of unconditional respect. by portraying themselves as they were well-respected members of a welleducated community these young students gave the business owners a respect that would not be reciprocated by their white counterparts. this unconditional respect would be critical in gaining the support of the larger white community. sixth, and related to the fifth, the training that went into a non-violent protest of this kind demanded a strict commitment to self-control and improvement. the story of joe goldthreate and the character growth that occurred as he trained in non-violent tactics is representative of the kind of personal leadership development that these youth had to embody as they stepped out in faith. finally, the power of suffering is crucial to the nonviolence movement. clark and coy capture it powerfully, writing, "the spectacle of nashville jail cells filled with educated, respectful, well-dressed young black students...was a public relations nightmare” (clark and coy, 2015, p. 12). the willingness of the protestors to sit in jail for the sake of a simple civil right like eating a sandwich was extremely powerful and was the spark for many other comparable protests around the south (clark and coy, 2015). in many ways, this was the legacy of dubois and his work as laid out in the souls of black folk. this cry for justice – for equal treatment based on the content of the soul and not the color of the skin – was another sorrow song sung from a newly freed community learning what it meant to be a democratic citizen. while nonviolence is one element of responding to injustice, just war theory discusses the justification needed to engage with injustice forcefully, how to engage forcefully with justice, and how to end a conflict justly. the context of the souls of black folk does not contribute much to a discussion of just war theory in general, except for one chapter in which dubois details the actions of the freedman’s bureau during the early days of reconstruction. understanding the violence of the institution of slavery as a metaphor for war, the actions of reconstruction in many ways represent a question of jus post-bellum – that is the volume 16 number 2 (2022): 186-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 195 element of just war theory devoted to the just actions following the conclusion of a war. in chapter ii, “of the dawn of freedom, dubois discusses the actions of the freedman’s bureau as attempts of the us government to right the wrongs of the past and restore justice to the communities devastated by slavery. clifford lays out several elements of a post-war return to a state of justice, broadly under four headings: establishing the respect for persons, the establishment of justice, the need to exercise ecological responsibility, and finally engage broad support and commitment from the larger community (clifford, 2012). in this chapter, dubois lays in great detail some of the restorative success of the bureau in exactly the areas. first, he references the establishment of the respect for persons in the establishment of schools and the introduction of “practicable systems of compensated labor” for the former slaves (clifford, 2012). secondly, he reflects on the attempt to establish of justice in the restoration of the legal system. although he bemoans the incomplete nature of this effort by the bureau, he also recognizes the complex social nature of this attempt and the need for time to heal some of these wounds before such a structural change could be effective (clifford, 2012). thirdly, he notes the attempts of the bureau to restore the “abandoned lands of the south” through various efforts such as the infamous “40 acres and a mule” (clifford, 2012, p. 15). this need to prudently but fairly redistribute the shattered wealth of the south was underway during the efforts of the bureau, but was an effort that likely would have lasted a generation or more. which leads to the fourth and final element of clifford and dubois’ discussion on the restorative needs of the post-slavery black communities – a long-term commitment. throughout the chapter, dubois notes the early successes of the bureau and decries the lack of commitment from the government and influencers in power to see through the goals of the institution. this lack of follow through shows the frailty of post-war peace – early successes can be quickly wiped out, especially when injustice is the status quo. unfortunately, this would be the reality that dubois and his community experienced. in conclusion, the story of dubois is the story of peace education – the education of citizens to participate in a just community. a comparative study of the foundational elements of peace education the themes of dubois’ souls point to a common vision of a well-educated, community of philosophically-engaged learners committed to resisting injustice. practically, dubois shows the challenges of building an educational system committed to peace education and it’s foundational elements. it requires a long-term commitment to sacrificial pedagogy and a willingness to resist tyranny at every turn. nevertheless, this sacrifice was one dubois and many of his peers made consistently throughout the 20th century. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 186-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 196 martin luther king, jr. perhaps best encapsulated dubios’ vision for peace, when he firmly claimed on the steps of the lincoln memorial: now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. now is the time to make justice a reality for all of god's children (king, 1963). references clark, a.d. and coy, p.g. “civil rights, social movements, and domestic policy: the 1960 nashville student sit-in movement”. published in understanding nonviolence: contours and contexts, maia carter hallward and julie norman, eds. polity press, 2015. clifford, george m. “jus post bellum: foundational principles and a proposed model”. journal of military ethics, no 11, iss. 1. 2012. dahl, r. (2000). on democracy. new haven: yale university press. dubois, web. the souls of black folk. new york: dover. 1903. dubois, web. "credo." independent, vol. 57 (october 15, 1904). dubois, color and democracy: colonies and peace. new york: harcourt. 1945. dubois, in battle for peace. oxford: university press. 2007 (1952). galtung, johan. “violence, peace, and peace research”. journal of peace research, no. 6(3). 1969. 167-191. http://jpr.sagepub.com/content/6/3/167.citation. king, martin luther, jr. “letter from a birmingham jail”. the martin luther king papers project. 1963. king, martin luther, jr. “i have a dream.” transcript of speech delivered at the lincoln memorial, washington, dc, august 28, 1963. https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-itsentirety. kurian, nomisha, and kevin kester. “southern voices in peace education: interrogating race, marginalisation and cultural violence in the field.” volume 16 number 2 (2022): 186-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 197 journal of peace education 16, no. 1 (2019.): 21–48. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&authtype=sso&db= eric&an=ej1 212819&site=ehost-live. lopez, g. a. “social, political and cultural influences on peace studies”. in t. a. mcelwee, b. w. hall, j. liechty, & j. garber (eds.), peace, justice, and security studies: a curriculum guide (seventh ed.). lynne rienner publishers. 2008. marable, manning. “peace and black liberation: the contributions of w.e.b. du bois.” science & society 47, no. 4 (1983): 385–405. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40402519. https://web.p.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=24&sid=46e 11782-a12b4f51-91b7-cfc651221e41%40redis matsuo, m. (2007). concept of peace. in peace studies: a short historical sketch. retrieved from ipshu, tokyo, japan: rawls, j. (1971). a theory of justice. cambridge: harvard university press. reardon, b. a., & snauwaert, d. t. (2011). reflective pedagogy, cosmopolitanism, and critical peace education for political efficacy: a discussion of betty a. reardon’s assessment of the field. in factis pax: journal of peace education and social justice, 5(1), 1-14. reardon, b. a., & snauwaert, d. t. (eds.). (2015). betty a. reardon: a pioneer in education for peace and human rights. cham, switzerland: springer. snauwaert, d. t. (under review). teaching peace as a matter of justice: a philosophical and pedagogical framework. newcastle upon tyne, uk: cambridge scholars publishing. washington, booker t. up from slavery. new york, ny: doubleday page, 1901. young, i.m.. “five faces of oppression”. philosophical forum, no. 19, iss. 4. 1988. 270-290. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&authtype=shib&db= hlh&an=73205877&site=ehost-live&custid=s8899245 microsoft word v15.1 wright.docx in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 54-59 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 54 volume 15 number 1 (2021): 54-59 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review review of rebecca l. oxford, maría matilde olivero, melinda harrison, and tammy gregersen, peacebuilding in language education: innovations in theory and practice (bristol: multilingual matters, 2021). 320 pp., $49.95. isbn: 9781788929783. jocelyn wright department of english language and literature mokpo national university, south korea jocelynmnu@yahoo.com four editors and twenty-one influential authors from diverse geo-cultural backgrounds and contexts collaborated on this inspiring edition of peacebuilding in language education, book 83 in the series new perspectives on language and education. this six-year labor of love, which culminated during the covid-19 pandemic, is available in print and electronic formats. hadley’s foreword begins by highlighting the urgent need to foster holistic peace in classrooms worldwide against a capitalist backdrop in which influential media and discourse color it unprofitable and calls on language educators to respond as transformative agents. emphasizing the interconnectedness of humanity and the impact of individual actions on ourselves and our ecosystem, harrison’s introduction then underscores how integral language use is to peace. in the following 16 chapters, contributors emphasize the importance of verbal and nonverbal communication for building peace and address the challenge educators face of simultaneously helping learners to develop proficiency and strategies necessary to construct more peaceful societies. to give due consideration to each article in this collection, i review each chapter separately. chapter 1 in section i: language education responds to the call for peace sets the stage with the editors posing fundamental questions like what is in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 54-59 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 55 peace? and how do we communicate it?, defining basic concepts related to peace, conflict, and violence, discussing popular conceptions, and explaining the six dimensions of peace from oxford’s the language of peace (2013) that serve to structure middle sections of the volume: inner, interpersonal, intergroup, intercultural, international, and ecological. to empower language educators to peacebuild in chapter 2, gkonou et al. recall prerequisite knowledge, share a framework of classroom teacher competencies for peace, and claim that the skills can be developed by strategically implementing proposed language and culture activities in multiple dimensions, following transformative, holistic approaches. useful comments about their impact follow. chapter 3 then focuses on the transformative contributions of nonverbal and paraverbal communication to harmonizing interactions. while gregersen and macintyre share nonverbal decoding and encoding strategies, examples, and peacebuilding tips, they highlight the importance of awareness, attention, intention, and effort, a combination dubbed ‘peace consciousness’ by oxford. next, chapter 4 in section ii: applying peacebuilding for inner, interpersonal and intergroup peace presents a theoretically-grounded, experiential pedagogical intervention aimed at contributing to holistic education by developing inner peace through increased emotional regulation and positivity in a language classroom for teacher educators. here, barbeito and sánchez centeno present adaptable activities to foster peace under ‘full consciousness mode’. chapter 5 then explores the emotional reactions of students and teachers to an innovative and holistic learner-centered and taskbased approach rooted in humanistic principles called ‘cooperative open learning’. here, amerstorfer relates empirical evidence on the benefits of this approach to aspects of inner and intrapersonal peace. noting the importance of the under-researched emotion of love in opening chapter 6, barcelos critically advocates for its incorporation into research and practice to rehumanize education and bring about social change. she explores the concepts of ‘revolutionary love’ and amorosidade and their connection with peace before relating them to the construction of a teacher’s professional identity using a framework for narrative analysis informed by perspectives on love. subsequently, chapter 7 emphasizes connection and harmony through difference via the nexus of holistic, transformative learning and peacebuilding in language learning. through storied form, the authorpractitioners, prado et al., present journeys of personal and professional selfknowledge, gradually resulting in conscientização that empowered them to work for social change. they then share advice and recommend classroom materials, ways of structuring interactive activities, and strategies for integrating and reinforcing peace language and skills. in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 54-59 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 56 chapter 8 in section iii: applying peacebuilding for intercultural and international peace begins by exploring the special circumstances of teaching foreign languages and peace to military linguists, diplomats, and astronauts and ways that the teaching led to successful bior multi-lingual and cultural transformations. among others, bernhardt et al. present a design thinking approach to curriculum development and problem-based practica, which promote authentic language use, context-specific skills, and a peaceoriented learning culture. following this, chapter 9 on internationalization in the us, looks at the impact of campus conflicts on motivation and achievement and how stakeholders can foster peace cultures through intercultural communication. after introducing key concepts, models, and prerequisites, wei and zhou back the promotion of peace education and the role of language educators in this task. then, they present pedagogies to cultivate dialogue, critical literacy, intercultural encounters, and culturally responsive conflict resolution. they also discuss peace, social justice, and actions that can lead to understanding and conflict management. next, they provide definitions of intercultural critical incidents and two analyses along with implications and recommendations for peace-fostering strategies and practices. chapter 10 focuses on social justice pedagogies intended for use with muslim english learners in us schools. aiming to better understand identities, social relations, power, and language use and, thereby, improved educational and social experiences and outcomes, mahalingappa et al. advocate for teaching inspired by critical multicultural education, culturally relevant teaching, and equity literacy. to this end, they implemented the critical language awareness framework. chapter 11 in section iv: applying peacebuilding through positive psychology, peace linguistics and peace language starts by highlighting a shift away from deficit understandings of phenomena to sustainably constructive ones and from reactionary to proactive actions. gregersen and macintyre discuss the contributions of positive psychology to peace from local to global levels before raising the pragmatic question “what can a humble language teacher do to affect world peace?” (p. 185). acknowledging the cumulative potential for change through english language learning, they focus on pragmatic pedagogical interventions. turning to language, oxford explores interpretations and features of speech and hate-related words and reveals how the dehumanizing process of enemycreation works in chapter 12. she discusses reasons hate speech is used, consequences of acute and chronic discrimination/hate, and the controversial issue of banning hate speech without addressing its root causes. then, she shares contextualized examples of its nefarious impacts by supposed leaders. more hopefully, she then presents two psychosocial alternatives, a humanistic african philosophy embodying connectedness, community, and caring and the complex notion of empathy, along with a developmental in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 54-59 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 57 process. after featuring the triumphant story of an individual’s ‘pathway of positive peace’ (p. 208), she cites work by notable supporters of love. combined, chapters 13 and 14 look at forms of six h words: hate, hurt, and harm, and hope, help, and harmony, respectively. curtis and oxford describe their origins, meanings, and uses giving examples from selected dictionaries. they share application activities using mostly news media to develop awareness and reflection on the use of ‘the negative 3-h words’ and social issues. insights from the arts and humanities on ‘the positive 3-h words’ are shared along with positive psychology interventions aimed at stimulating them. the shortest part, section v: moving further with peacebuilding, contains a highly practical chapter and future-oriented conclusion. after presenting a triad of approaches consisting of holistic, contemplative, and experiential learning and benefits, chapter 15 outlines the format of 54 distinct and adaptable classroom activities inventoried into five categories with detailed lesson plans. chapter 16 closes the anthology with stories of remarkable young peacebuilders and the message that nomenclature, actions, the internal source of peace, timing, and change matter. the editors summarize five important principles (peace as positive, embodied and enacted, arising from within, urgent, and transformative) and underline the need to actively pursue and propagate positive peace. lastly, they identify validating peacebuilding actions as an important research agenda and pinpoint ecological peace as an urgent focal area. as a budding peace linguist, i welcomed this book, and i believe it achieves its aims (p. 12). despite pandemic travel restrictions, through this text, i was able to embark upon a journey of self-exploration and discovery. i cultivated inner peace and positivity and did soul work through deep breathing, visualization exercises, alternative scenarios activities, applying meaning-making principles of logotherapy, and learning about new notions of love and the kindness concept of ubuntu. looking outward, i genuinely reflected on social justice issues explicitly mentioned such as inequality, discrimination, hate speech, and bullying as well as inferred (linguistic rights) and pondered my role as a peacebuilder and activist ally through the lenses of critical and caring theories. i saw avenues for research through qualitative questionnaires, case studies, and interviews. vicariously, i crossed continents through success stories, counter-stories, critical incidents, and presentations of artwork, videos, photo stories, poems, and other media, and stopped by classrooms, campuses, a peace booth, marginalized communities, and wellknown government institutes like nasa. as i filled my suitcase with the new-to-me pedagogy of encounter, appreciative inquiry, and servant leadership, i considered how to own these experiences and approaches and even incorporate them. in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 54-59 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 58 clearly, there are more than three things to savor in this work! the humanistic style with emphasis on the positive perspective and whole person sets the tone. its organization around a theoretical framework provides structure. the inclusion of many core peace concepts, inspirational quotes, interesting anecdotes, valuable perspectives, varied research methodologies, and adaptable pedagogical approaches and activities, supported by informative endnotes and useful references after each chapter, offer substance. additionally, the examples of teaching all around the world, with diverse populations, and at different levels provide numerous contexts for application. certainly, though, adventures can leave us craving more. because the term appears in a section and chapter title, i longed to read about peace linguistics, an area still little known despite having roots in the 1980s. since words matter and studying language on, in, for, and through peace may uncover promising shortcuts to peace cultures, i hoped to find a discussion of its origins and aims and pioneering linguists, most notably, francisco gomes de matos, who coined the term ‘communicative peace’. second, this book is plotted around six dimensions of peace. however, the ecological dimension is somewhat washed-out. while there was an opening for environmental justice, no chapter is dedicated to this theme, and only a few activities focus on nature and its protection. hopefully, future research directions will stake this out as called for in the conclusion. last, a wealth of possibly unfamiliar or confusing concepts is scattered throughout this book. to this end, a collaboratively constructed glossary of key terms might have provided valuable orientation. yet, a silver lining takeaway related to these limitations might be that curiosity often leads us to further expeditions. while covering a wide terrain, this anthology remains very accessible and should appeal to you as ‘peacebuilders-under-construction’ (p. 16) or in action worldwide, whether engaged in teaching, learning, administration, or research. overall, if you are like me, this resource will move you. the change within will transform your work, and this is exactly ideal and necessary given our privileged positions to impact the world positively through language education and use. after all, what could be more worthy than pursuing a broad itinerary of peacebuilding? inspired, i leave you with an offering: in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 54-59 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 59 microsoft word sarangi ifp v12.2.doc in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 123 volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal global peace security and conflict resolution: an assessment for global economic and sustainable development unmana sarangi the government of india abstract this article is an attempt to assess the various macroeconomic, social, political, environmental and other variables that affect and resolve conflict for attaining global peace and security based upon a critical review of core literature in the field. the article argues in support of the proposition that international trade promotes global peace, security and reduces conflicts. the paper highlights the features of the present trump administration relating to promoting peace through trade. the limitations of trade have also been highlighted. it is observed that international trade promotes global peace, i.e., attainment of positive peace through inclusive societies and security and reduces the scope of wars and militarized conflict. key words: global peace, multilateral trade, national security, economic diplomacy, foreign policy in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 124 in this article it is argued that international trade promotes global peace and security. it is observed from the study that global peace is accounted for by various macro variables such as security, political set-up, culture and social structures of economies, apart from environment and labor standards/laws, global justice and governance that determine the level of global peace and security of various economies/nations. the article highlights the features of the present trump administration relating to promoting peace through trade. the limitations of trade have also been highlighted. it is observed that international trade promotes global peace i.e. attainment of positive peace through inclusive societies and security and reduces the scope of wars and militarized conflict. the analysis includes among others the findings of the world economic situations and prospects report 2018 of the united nations, us trade policy as an instrument of foreign policy, new era of global trade, study of relationships and linkages existing between trade, peace and conflict resolutions, re-examining the nexus between global peace, trade and conflict resolutions through the lens of peace and conflict science, role of unctad in promoting trade and development etc. various propositions such as trade promotes peace, changing definitions of trade including multilateral trade, peace and conflict science, relationships existing between trade and national security, economic security, human security, international trade rules for global peace, trade as a tool for economic diplomacy and global security etc., have also been analyzed in detail. global economic development scenario and outlook according to a united nations report released on 17th may, 2018, global economic growth is advancing, however, heightened geo-political tension and uncertainty over international trade could thwart progress (united nations, 2018). the global gross domestic product (gdp) is expected to expand by more than 3 per cent this year and next, according to the un report, an improved outlook compared with the 3 per cent and 3.1 per cent growth for 2018 and 2019, forecast six months ago (united nations, 2018). the revision reflects strong growth in developed countries due to accelerating wage increases, broadly favorable investment conditions and the short-term impact of a fiscal stimulus package in the united states. at the same time, widespread increase in global demand in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 125 has accelerated the overall growth in trade, while many commodityexporting countries would also benefit from the higher energy and metal prices. according to elliott harris, un assistant secretary-general for economic development and chief economist, the accelerated growth forecast was positive news for the international effort to reach the 2030 sustainable development goals (sdgs), which include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger (harris, 2018).” however, harris cautioned that “there is a strong need not to become complacent in response to upward trending headline figures”. he added that the report “underscores that the risks have increased as well”, adding that rising risk “highlights the need to urgently address a number of policy challenges, including threats to the multilateral trading system, high inequality and the renewed rise in carbon emissions (harris, 2018)”. trade barriers and retaliatory measures mark a shift away from unambiguous support for the norms of the international trading system, the report notes, which threatens the pace of global growth with potentially large repercussions, especially for developing economies. international trade and global peace 1. findings of un world economic situations and prospects report 2018. the following are the findings of the un report that would lead to achieving global peace and sustainable development viz; (i) income inequality remains alarmingly high in numerous countries but there is evidence of noticeable improvements in some developing countries over the last decade; (ii) there are some countries in latin america and the caribbean region where specific policy measures related to minimum wage levels, education and government transfer payments have significantly reduced inequality over the last twenty years; and (iii) the global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions increased by 1.4 per cent in 2017 due to faster global economic growth; the relatively low cost of fossil fuels and weaker energy efficiency measures, among other factors (united nations, 2018). reforming fossil fuel subsidies and providing tax breaks to boost greener economic growth could accelerate the international effort to meet the greenhouse gas emission targets outlined in the 2015 paris agreement. 2. trade and foreign policy have always been intertwined. alan wolff, deputy director general, united nations, argues that “attempts to trace the thread of trade policy for peace from its inception”. he in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 126 underlines that “trade and foreign policy have been intertwined throughout history” and that history has taught us that failure to maintain openness to trade leads to “instability, and a threat to peace, both internally and internationally (wolff, 2018).” 3. paradigm lost: us trade policy as an instrument of foreign policy. for most of the last hundred years, the united states has entered into trade negotiations based upon the belief that open markets foster democracy which in turn supports the maintenance of world peace. this grand credo that increased trade bolsters the prospects for peace indicates that u.s. trade policy aside from its announced goal, the opening of foreign markets has also had an important foreign policy component. in fact, trade policy has been a bedrock of u.s. foreign policy dating from the second world war. if this is no longer the objective of u.s. trade policy, this largely unnoticed change in policy is nothing short of revolutionary. some clarifications are in order to keep the overarching policy objective in perspective: first, the fact that this high foreign policy aim was embraced by political leaders did not regularly affect actual detailed trade negotiations. in the trenches, u.s. trade negotiators, at least for the last several generations, have apparently been oblivious to the greater purpose that their efforts served. they simply sought to open foreign markets for u.s. goods, services, and investment. second, foreign policy objectives can be served not only by opening markets but, as has been the case, through weaponizing trade though the imposition of sanctions. the question examined today is whether the grand article of faith that obtaining more open markets leads to the creation of democracies which in turn improves the prospects for world peace is still an accepted u.s. dogma and whether it is operational as current policy is a moot question. if it is not, and the evidence suggests that this might be the case, the change in policy, is profound. if there has been a loss of faith, it is likely to have occurred through erosion over time, and is not solely a question of a new administration coming into office. this paper attempts to trace the thread of trade policy for peace from its inception, and provide some evidence of whether somewhere along the way that policy was forgotten or discarded. if so, it is a paradigm lost and why this is so very important. it means that the basis for u.s. support for the multilateral trading system must now be found in in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 127 pragmatism, in narrower commercial self-interest, and perhaps much less if at all on the basis of america’s foreign policy interests. if the sole motivation for participation in the world trading system is obtaining reciprocity, can the system be maintained, much less improved. which countries will act and to what extent for the global public good is a moot question. this question is independent of providing “special and differential treatment” for developing countries. the answer to the question of how much countries will be willing to act on the basis of a broader definition of national interest is fundamental to the well-being of all. the trump administration historically the united states adminstration have subscribed to the proposition that international trade fosters the growth of democracies, which in turn leads to enhanced prospects for world peace. it is a question whether the trump administration is and will adhere to this proposition. first and foremost, the current administration has announced that it intends to redress what are taken to be imbalanced trade relationships with other countries. this, the primary announced goal of current u.s. trade policy, clearly resonates with a not inconsiderable number of american voters. these supporters of the president, concerned with their own failure to participate in the benefits of globalization, are likely to believe that america has done enough for the world trading system. more pointedly, in the view of some, it is time for america to be paid back for the investments it made for the global public good. this is not a majority public view according to polling data. members of the american public, when asked whether they back free trade agreements, say that they do. there is not a lot of evidence of a widespread movement toward isolationism which critics of the administration feared in the early days of this presidency. second, there is little belief at present, in american policy circles, that movement in the direction of free markets, at least in the foreseeable future, is accompanied by movement toward democracy. the progress toward greater political freedom does not appear to be linked to rising in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 128 standards of living and greater market orientation. the wto has 164 members. by signing up to the wto, the trade of each acceding country is freer than it otherwise would have been. the trend to democracy, however, is not encouraging. according to one source, that measures progress toward democracy in the most recent period, seventy one countries suffered net declines in political rights and civil liberties, with only 35 registering gains in 2017. the year 2017 marked the 12th consecutive year in which declines outnumbered improvements. according to the imf, world gdp growth has averaged nearly 4% per year since 1980, including this eleven year period. the march to prosperity does not seem to be in lockstep with the march to democracy based on present data. what the future holds, decades from now, is not available. suffice it to say that in the case of the largest developing country that joined the wto, u.s. policy makers would not say that the paradigm is working. if freer trade is not leading to greater democracy, than the logic of free markets leading to democracy then peace, does not hold. a third answer may be that it is felt the post-war reconstruction has accomplished all that it could accomplish through trade. the case is not being made that the trans-atlantic trade and investment partnership (ttip) is needed to shore up european security. during the cold war, european reconstruction was seen as critical to preventing a slide to communist domination. similarly, trade is not seen as a foreign policy tool with respect to japan. during the korean war, accelerated development of the japanese economy was seen to be in america’s interest. the united states and china have massive bilateral trade and are at the same time enhancing their armaments as a priority for the contingency that these weapons may be needed primarily with respect to each other. the u.s. and china each view their major trading partner as a strategic competitor with which conflict is likely to occur. the u.s. government does not see external threats to smaller countries where it has interests solved through enhanced trade. as a result, it is not seeking trade agreements to bolster any particular regime, either because more is needed than a trade agreement, or nation building is no longer considered desirable or feasible, or both. as an example, the stability of mexico, a concern when nafta was being negotiated, has not been articulated as a current u.s. motivation for re-negotiation of nafta. enhanced u.s. trade with russia and iran are not seen as in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 129 practical inducements to change their current conduct in international affairs. a fourth answer may be that the u.s. does not have much more to give in terms of lowering trade barriers in an era where industrial tariffs are on average very low for all developed countries. the world of trade has become multi-polar. the u.s. is no longer the largest trading country, and adding in the european union as a whole, it is only the third largest trader. this cupboard-is-empty rationale does not appear to slow the eu in its own special trading arrangements with 95 countries. but those arrangements appear to be in place or being created for commercial, not foreign policy reasons, with the exception of eastern europe. the future: interaction of trade policy and foreign policy in the trump administration in united states president trump clearly explained to the president of china and stated that a trade deal with the u.s. will be far better for them if they solve the north korean problem. the apparent trade-off is: if president xi could restrain the north koreans from continuing development of its nuclear and missile technologies that threaten the u.s homeland, its troops deployed abroad and its allies, china might be allowed to keep a larger portion of its trade surplus with the united states, supported as it is by its mercantilist trade measures (statement made by trump on april 11, 2018 cited in wolff, 2018). whether this stark trade-off could be delivered by either country is unclear. what is clear is that the two streams of national security and trade policy at that moment intersected. it is a traditional use of trade policy, not dissimilar from the russian grain embargo imposed by president carter, as leverage to seek to foster foreign policy goals. no other policy example of the trade-foreign policy linkage stands out as starkly in the trump administration. when the president gave a major address in danang on november 10, 2017, he praised democracy, economic development and prosperity in the region. he did not attribute in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 130 these positive attainments to trade, nor did he conclude that they contributed to peace in the region. in the bush and obama administrations, tpp was seen in part as a foreign policy tool, to give comfort to asian countries in tangible trade agreement form that there would be a lasting american commitment to asia. as of this writing, it is not clear that the trump administration has abandoned the use of trade agreements to promote foreign policy goals in the region. president trump stated at davos that he could see the united states joining with groups of former tpp partners in improved trade arrangements (statement made by trump on april 11, 2018 cited in wolff, 2018). this statement was in line with u.s. trade objectives (implicitly reciprocal) and possibly linked to foreign policy objectives. the vision for the indo-pacific excludes no nation. there needs to be commitment and redoubling of efforts to establish alliances and partnerships, while expanding and deepening relationships with new partners that share respect for sovereign, fair and reciprocal trade, and the rule of law. the united states would seek equal and reliable access for american exports. they would work with partners to build a network of states dedicated to free markets and protected from forces that would subvert their sovereignty. earlier in the year, in the first month of the trump administration, in their joint statement, president trump and prime minister abe stated the following : the united states and japan reaffirmed the importance of both deepening their trade and investment relations and of their continued efforts in promoting trade, economic growth, and high standards throughout the asia-pacific region. toward this end, and noting that the united states has withdrawn from the trans-pacific partnership, the leaders pledged to explore how best to accomplish these shared objectives. this would include discussions between the united states and japan on a bilateral framework as well as japan continuing to advance regional progress on the basis of existing initiatives’ (joint statement made by trump and abe, on february 10, 2017 cited in holland, 2017). in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 131 the u.s., japan, and the eu joined together to state in december 2017 during the wto ministerial meeting in buenos aires, that they would collaborate to deal with creation of industrial excess capacity and trade distortions created by others. the trade component of this policy trilateral declaration is explicit, the foreign policy element, if any, is only implicit. key observations for more than seventy years, trade policy, for better or worse in terms of impact on particular sectors of the u.s. economy, was carried out in conjunction with u.s. foreign policy. president trump’s december 2017 national security strategy acknowledges this progression of us support for the post-war international economic system. for seventy years, the united states has embraced a strategy premised on the belief that leadership of a stable international economic system rooted in american principles of reciprocity, free markets, and free trade served the economic and security interests of u.s. working with allies and partners, the united states led the creation of a group of financial institutions and other economic forums that established equitable rules and built instruments to stabilize the international economy and remove the points of friction that had contributed to two world wars. that economic system continues to serve their interests, but it must be reformed to help american workers prosper, protect their innovation, and reflect the principles upon which that system was founded. the strategy then goes on to concentrate on challenges, often referring to unfair trade. but it does envisage a relationship between geopolitical interests and trade, providing that trading arrangements deliver fairness and reciprocity viz; (i) fair and reciprocal trade, investments, and exchanges of knowledge deepen the alliances and partnerships, which are necessary to succeed in today’s competitive geo-political environment. trade, export promotion, targeted use of foreign assistance, and modernized development finance tools can promote stability, prosperity, and political reform, and build new partnerships based on the principle of reciprocity, (ii) the emphasis is on mutuality of benefit, not the united states as guarantor of an international economic system. alliances are deepened if they are reciprocal, fair and balanced. the tools that promote development are still mentioned, and these can lead to political reform, but in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 132 not necessarily peace, with an end objective being reciprocal relationship, (iii) this should not be taken as abandonment of the international trading system, rather a concentration by the administration on changing that system. the united states position, as articulated by the u.s. trade representative, is that “if the wto did not exist, it would have to be created.” this could be interpreted as referring only to its value as a set of trading rules, and not as an instrument of international stability that is necessary to the preservation of world peace. in fact, in the taormina summit, the u.s. trade representative pledged to make the “utmost efforts” to make the december 2017 wto ministerial meeting a success, and declared it to be so at its conclusion, the u.s. trade representative having addressed what the u.s. considered needed reforms in the wto system. apart from u.s, other countries would have to define their national interests to be broad enough to contribute to carrying this trade agenda forward. the european union, japan and china, as well as mid-sized countries need to feel that they have moved their policies in that direction. in fact, all, including the united states, would need to raise the level of their game to maintain and improve this present international economic system. there is an optimism that there would be enhanced broader leadership by the united states in the near future, and that a number of other countries would in fact step up to the challenge of acting in the best interests of maintaining and enhancing the world trading system. they would do this because they would find that it is in their geostrategic as well as their economic interests to do so. the united states is for the foreseeable future an indispensable country both for keeping the peace and for setting the rules of trade in this multi-polar world, but it is likely that it will be willing and able to do so only with greater burden-sharing by others. supporting the world trading system foster world peace. greater trade, lead to prosperity, guarantees a march to democracy in every country. failure to maintain openness to trade, consequent economic decline and domestic high unemployment, leads to instability, and a threat to peace, both internally and internationally (stokes, 1998). global trade connects communities and businesses, and encourages the flow of products, capital, and ideas. the features of new in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 133 era of global trade need to take into account the following viz; (i) over the past generation, building economic bridges between countries has helped reduce by half the proportion of the global population living in extreme poverty, (ii) it has reduced the cost of living, and has created hundreds of millions of new jobs with higher wages. in the united states alone, one in five jobs today is supported by international trade in goods and services. challenges in global trade for promoting global peace though global trade is exceedingly beautiful but there are challenges. trade has not worked for everyone, and that some parts of the multilateral trade system are creaking. the current trade tensions are, in fact, a symptom of underlying challenges and addressing these issues is one of the key challenges of the present time viz;, (i) thousands of small businesses that thrive in the global market place are mainly due to e-commerce platforms and other forms of digital trade, (ii) the stakes are high because the health of the global economy depends on healthy trade flows. the rebound in trade has recently contributed to stronger global economic growth, and yet, rising protectionism could stop this positive momentum in its tracks, (iii) imf as a global financial institution is keenly aware of the consequences that could happen when trade gets interrupted, i.e. when economic bridges are damaged. the imf was set up precisely to help prevent a return to the self-defeating policies of the great depression including protectionism. a key part of the mandate of imf is to “facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of international trade.” hence, promoting international cooperation and dialogue are prerequisites for promoting international trade which would in turn promote global peace and security. much harder to build peace than to destroy it: a review of literature on peace according to a report published on 19th june, 2018 by ms. breslauer, international peace institute, new york, ‘to meet the challenging task of putting the sustaining peace agenda into operation, there is still limited understanding of how to measure the impact of preventative activities and sustain peace (breslauer, 2018). however, as the united nations works to advance the peace building and sustaining peace agenda, there is a need to identify and analyze innovations in in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 134 prevention and sustaining peace. this requires moving beyond political discourse to understand what works to build peace on the ground and how to measure this. the recent tool developed by the institute for economics and peace, sydney is the ‘global peace index’ which could be taken as a tool to measure global peace. a key message from international peace institute, new york is that ‘it is much harder to build peace than to destroy it’. the breakdowns in peace tend to be quick and severe, while building peace is slow and incremental. the leading indicators of breakdowns in peace tend to be political in nature, while leading indicators of improvements in peacefulness tend to be structural, institutional, or material and economic which make a strong case for prevention. according to breslauer (2018), “in order to improve levels of negative peace, to advance in the global peace index, there must be improvements across a broad range of the pillars of positive peace viz; effective institutions, fair structures, and material well-being that provide the resilience to resolve any arising group grievances or political conflicts non-violently (breslauer, 2018).” further, a deterioration in peacefulness can be triggered by just handful of indicators such as heightening of group grievances, uncontrolled corruption and a lack of freedom of the press. the index implies that prevention requires fewer investments than does recovery, thereby resulting in more cost effective than post-conflict or post-violence peace building. according to robert piper, un assistant secretary general and director of external relations and advocacy of the un development programme, the gpi and the un sustainable development goals are connected to each other which are called as ‘a huge organizing idea for the world’ (piper, 2018). the sdgs have a preventative lens and can provide an incredibly powerful platform on which to do prevention and stop talking about. the whole notion of leaving no one behind is an incredibly powerful organizing idea. according to piper, ‘prevention is a key to sustaining peace’. the big idea behind sustaining peace is the very powerful idea that peace is not given that actually one has to maintain. if one is not deliberate about it than one need not be surprised to find oneself in a very difficult position’ (piper, 2018). in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 135 according to susanna campbell, assistant professor of the school of international service at american university, said ‘peace is about inclusion, and about adaptation. conflict and violence is about exclusion. she emphasized that “this is an active process and that this is not something that is done once for all, this is about establishing institutions that can take in new voices, incorporate new opinions, take in new individuals, give new agency to actors in this complex world where borders are increasingly fluid (campbell, 2018).” vanessa wyeth, senior political and public affairs officer in peace building at the permanent mission of canada to the united nations, stressed the importance of trusting in local capability to prevent conflict (wyeth, 2018). she further said that the un system have a variety of tools to help, supplement, or support, those national capacities. she argued that peace is the work of citizens and communities, and peace is not built by the un. noting that the ‘investments that yield peace as an outcome are very much baked into the sdgs’ she pointed out that the risks to peace are much more varied than ‘an arms group taking up weapons somewhere in a country’. equally menacing to peace, she said, were such things as inadequate education, joblessness, inequality, rampant rights abuses and economic and environmental shocks. we need to recognize that countries face a variety of risks across the spectrum of security, economic rights, environmental concerns, and that they have a variety of capacities to manage these risks on their own’ (wyeth, 2018). re-examining the connection between peace, conflict and trade: an assessment through the lens of peace and conflict science according to director, war prevention initiative, dr. patrick hiller there is a connection between peace, conflict and trade. (hiller, 2015 ) . hence, the research study also examines the connection between peace, conflict and trade through the lens of peace and conflict science. core to the examination are the contradicting propositions that trade promotes peace and trade is a source of conflict respectively. the relationship between trade and peace is far more complex than simplistic trade theories have suggested. costs of conflict, cooperation through trade, cross-societal understanding, and economic development are among factors suggesting that trade promotes peace. unequal trade relationships, trade of unrenewable resources, perceived threats to in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 136 trade agreement outsiders, and military intervention connected to trade relationships are among factors suggesting that trade is a source of conflict. those points are of particular relevance given the changing nature of warfare. free trade agreements have the potential to lift environmental, labor, human rights and living standards. if designed and implemented that way, trade can indeed reduce root causes of destructive conflict. as currently practiced and implemented, trade interests are overarching i.e. above the interests of people and the planet, consequently the potential for conflict may be increased, though overall trade promotes peace. the current debate on the trans pacific partnership suggests that the agreement can lead to immense social conflict, unrest and instability. contentious are labor rights and income inequality, agriculture, environmental issues and national, regional and local community decision-making powers. while the peace through trade question leads to inconclusive results regarding direct violence, it can be clearly stated that unregulated free trade strongly contributes to structural violence, the violence where social structures and institutions prevent people from meeting their basic needs. in fact, trade is not the issue. people and societies have always traded and would continue to do so. the trade relationships and mechanisms are at the core of whether trade contributes to peace or drives violent conflict and war. the question as to whether foreign trade promotes peace or destructive conflict has been debated for a long time. globalization, related international trade agreements and a changing global landscape of conflicts and wars pose new challenges and require new thinking process and approach and new examinations. the growing scientific field of peace and conflict studies is able to provide insights through a lens examining the causes of violent conflict and war as well as the conditions for peace. schools of thought for trade related issues, global peace and conflict resolution many schools of thought and studies posed questions about trade related issues which have important policy implications (barbieri, 2005; in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 137 haar, 2010; peterson, 2014; traag, 2013; xiang and keteku, 2007). in most general terms, there are two major propositions: (1) trade promotes peace; and (2) trade causes conflict. the propositions can also be viewed in terms of trade being conducive to peace when trade relationships are symmetrical (equal) or to conflict when they are asymmetrical (unequal). another less examined proposition is that trade and conflict are unrelated. the relationship between trade and peace is far more complex than simplistic trade theories which have suggested. in particular, the liberal peace claim (trade and economic inter-dependence enhance the prospects of peace) has been criticized and academics certainly differ on the issue. at the same time, global actors like the european union, the world trade organization or previous and current us administrations “confidently claim that their trade policies have a positive impact on the world”. certainly more literature supports the idea “that economic inter-dependence has a pacifying effect on inter-state relations”, but there is no consensus. under corporate globalization, however, one needs to ask if the role of trade is not actually increasing conflict. promotion of peace through trade propositions: conflict increases the costs of trade: when trade relationships and interdependence exist, the costs of destructive conflict (violence and war) for commercial partners are too high. the potential negative economic fallout and instability can disrupt trade and therefore violent conflict is not desirable for any side. trade encourages cooperation: trade increases contact and communication and the necessity to come to agreements encourage cooperation. to successfully create and maintain beneficial trade relationships, partners need to focus on common interests rather than differences. trade increases understanding among societies: through communication, contact, cooperation and transnational trading, partners better understand ‘the other’ and reduce conflict-causing misunderstandings. foreign trading partners adopt a mutual “trade agreement identity”, thereby reducing potential to engage in violent conflict with the in-group (trading partners). in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 138 institutional trade mechanisms address conflicts : trading partners can establish mechanisms where conflicts are dealt with through facilitation, mediation, or interest-based negotiation. those conflict resolution approaches range from simple dispute resolution and conflict management to long-term constructive conflict transformation. trade leads to economic development: perceived benefits of free market trading systems are national and regional economic integration. poverty and unemployment are proven drivers of destructive conflict. trade promotes economic development in poorer areas, and positive impact of multinational corporations has a positive impact on trade. trade as a source of conflict-propositions: asymmetrical (unequal) trade: while trade benefits are enjoyed by developed nations or corporations the trade relationships can destroy traditional, political, economic and social structures. this destruction leads to increased inequality between and within nations as well as dependence on trading partners. groups who are not benefiting or even exploited through trade, may have less favorable attitudes toward international trading partners. more powerless actors are more likely to engage in conflict. trade is not voluntary: trade agreements imposed on many by few create involuntary, forced relationships. such relationships are more likely to create destructive conflict. trade of unrenewable resources creates conflicts: fossil fuels, earth minerals and metal ores are among the finite resources which continuously create conflict on local, regional, national and international levels. with the increasing recognition of the negative impact on the climate and the recognition to address climate change with urgency, resistance to resource extractions is growing globally. trade increases range of conflict issues: when nations become involved in trade agreements, the range of issues over which disputes occur are greater. force to access resources/raw materials: when markets are opened in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 139 through trade agreements, local populations lose control over selfdetermination of their lands. forced relocation and land grabs are direct factors causing instability and conflict. trade agreement outsiders feel threatened: states entering into preferential trade agreements gain from the reduced barriers with members. nonmembers of such agreements, however, might see it as a threat. a study demonstrates that “economic agreements can be used as a form of discrimination, benefiting insiders at the expense of outsiders. outsiders suffering from trade distortions potentially could respond with hostility to a perceived economic attack.” trade relationships can lead to military intervention: with established trade relationships, intervention in civil wars by outside actors is more likely in order to protect economic ties. the intervention is more likely to support the government, which is usually the entity with which the trade relationship has been established, even if the government is considered authoritarian and undemocratic. trade and conflict: the less examined propositions trade and conflict are unrelated: this line of thought holds that traditional security and military concerns are independent from trade considerations and relationships. asymmetrical (unequal) vs. symmetrical (equal) trade relationships: the arguments for these propositions essentially support the points “trade promotes peace” and “trade as a source of conflict” with an emphasis on the relationship between the trading partners and the consequences for the constituencies affected by trade. both propositions, even though they seem to stand in stark contradiction, logically and realistically have their merit. therefore it is important to focus on the nature of trade and trade relationships. unbalanced, exploitative relationships tend to increase conflict. balanced and mutually beneficial relationships can reduce them. free trade agreements, conflict and peace one of the most notable debates on free trade agreements currently evolves around the trans pacific partnership (tpp). the lens of peace and in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 140 conflict studies offers a unique angle. an international trade policy like tpp has the potential to lift environmental, labor, human rights and living standards. if designed and implemented that way, trade can indeed reduce root causes of destructive conflict. however, the history of free trade agreements, the secrecy around tpp, and the leaked information of the actual agreement suggest tremendous potential for social conflict, if implemented (peterson, 2014; bove, skrede, gleditsch, and sekeris, 2015; galtung, 2011; hiller, 2015). social conflict has many root causes. human needs are necessary universal aspects for humans beyond the physical needs. conflict theorists identify security, participation, autonomy, recognition, and identity as human needs. if those are not met, it is argued, then people engage in conflict. another proposition suggests that sustainable peace is only possible when the human needs for security, identity, well-being and selfdetermination are met. when unmet, they come prevailing factors in interstate wars and destructive conflict. this is commonly manifested in the form of structural violence, when political and economic structures systematically deprive certain parts of society. free trade agreements like nafta clearly deprived indigenous populations from their basic human needs and interfered with self-determination and democracy. if tpp is designed and implemented in a similar fashion and current debate suggests that tpp is very similar to nafta the potential for destructive conflict is immense. contentious areas of tpp which can be directly linked to social conflict, unrest and instability are: labor rights and income inequality, agriculture, environmental issues and national, regional and local community democratic decision-making powers. a critical perspective through the lens of peace and conflict studies can be summed up as follows: the contemporary global crisis cannot be grasped unless the true nature of ‘global finance’ and ‘global hegemony’ is understood. our guiding principle in this exercise would be a deliberate choice to look at the world, not from the point of view of the market and the state, but rather from the vantage point of the peoples, whose rights, security and development are put at risk the actions, institutions and structures of the present global neo-liberal/neo-conservative order (mushakoji, 2007, p. 87). in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 141 basic principles of peacekeeping economy peace through trade can become a more realistic idea when connected to basic principles of a peacekeeping economy (dumas, 2011) . these are: establish balanced relationships: everyone gains benefit at least equal to their contribution and there is little incentive to disrupt the relationship. this is confirmed by the larger body of literature. example, the european union they debate, there are conflicts, but there are no threats of war. emphasize development: most of the wars since world war ii have been fought in developing countries. poverty and missing opportunities are breeding grounds for violence. development is an effective counterterrorism strategy, as it weakens the support network for terrorist groups. example, recruitment of young, uneducated males in urban areas into terror organizations. minimize ecological stress: the competition for depletable resources (“stress-generating resources”) most notably oil; in the future water generates dangerous conflicts between nations and groups within nations. it is proven that war is more likely to happen when there is oil. the key findings are viz; i) foreign governments are hundred times more likely to intervene in civil wars when the country at war has large oil reserves. oil dependent economies have favored stability and support dictators rather than emphasizing democracy; ii) using non-polluting technologies and procedures and a large shift toward qualitative rather than quantitative economic growth can reduce ecological stress. does international trade help to enhance national security recent developments in international political and economic environment have made the national security issue more complicated. in particular, the september 11, 2001 terror brought additional dimension to the scope of national security. thus, the national security could be expanded to cover the so-called human security in the context of international trade. one has to examine how the human security in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 142 measures or efforts affect international trade flow and to make policy suggestions for the more trade-friendly measures, if there is a conflict between them (tuchman, 1989). in addition to the multilateral rules at the world trade organization (wto) and the united nations (un), national security also enters into free trade agreement (fta) as well as national dimension. ftas acknowledge in general the need for national security consideration in pursuing for the economic integration and then permit national security exceptions. also many countries enact a variety of legislations that allow export and import control for the protection of national security. the united states is the leading and active user of national security laws. the major national laws and regulations of korea and the united states are deemed to have impact on international trade. national security the point of discussion is how national security enters into the international trade dimension. while international trade is one way to achieve a nation’s economic prosperity, national security is one objective for which a nation shall seek in the presence of external threat, actual or potential. thus, it seems at a glance that there exists no substantial relationship between them. national security, however, has often been referred in attempts or efforts to request for or to justify protection of certain import-competing industries. according to the so-called national security argument, if a product in question is used by the military, regardless of whether they are arms or necessities such as shoes and clothes, the industries concerned may claim that they are vital to national security and then that they need protection from foreign competition. national security concerns also affect export side. trade sanctions have been used as a major means to counteract external threat to national security, mainly in the form of export controls. when a nation judges that a foreign country took or will take actions against its national security, it entitles to take measures to diffuse the threat under the international laws. the invoking country may use export-restricting measures solely or coupled with other diplomatic or political means. it is argued that the absence of an objective definition of national in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 143 security could lead to abusive use of national security provisions. thus, it may result in adverse effects on international trade. recognizing these concerns, the various concepts of national security could be discussed. they are of military and of economic nature in a broad term. when we classify them in detail, they include energy security, security against economic espionage, and human security against terrorism. national security against military threat the most familiar concept of national security is that national security is a safeguard to secure a nation against external military threat. certain trade-restricting measures were imposed simply to put pressure on countries of the other side with an aim of changing their practices to the advantage or getting political concessions in the world politics, regardless of their effectiveness. thus, the united states had sometimes introduced its own trade sanctions or supported multilateral ones on the communist countries. economic security beginning 1980s, the concept of national security has been expanded, emphasizing the economic aspects. they include economic security, energy security, security against economic espionage and food security. since the end of cold war, countries have increasingly attached importance to the economic espionage, recognizing intellectual property rights (iprs) as vital sources of a nation’s international competitiveness and then as essential to national security. thus, they have introduced more comprehensive systems to protect sophisticated technologies from foreign countries’ espionage attempts. as part of anti-espionage efforts, the united states enacted the economic espionage act of 1996. the act enforces primarily trade secret espionage. linkage between international trade and national security no one could cast doubt to the fact that the international trade and national security affect each other. while they seem to be in conflict, they support mutually. the substantive questions, however, may be raised such as how closely they are related, how they interact each other in in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 144 practice and whether there exist reasonable institutional frameworks. national security affecting international trade national security affects international trade. in particular, trade measures have been often used as a means to protect national security. trade sanctions have been applied in various forms viz; complete or partial embargo on exports and imports, restrictions on air and sea transportation, prohibition on financial transaction and freeze the target country’s assets the invoking or the participating countries’ territories. quite often trade sanctions imposed for national security purpose are said to result in adverse effects on international trade without achieving the intended goals. thus, expressing concerns about the negative trade effects, industry groups called for the governments and the multilateral organizations to take trade measures with special caution. they also emphasize that those measures are to be imposed in conformity with the relevant international laws including the wto agreements. international trade enhancing national security on the other hand, international trade helps to enhance national security. regardless of whether they are driven by the economic or political goals , regional trade agreements (rtas) can enhance national security because it enlarges the level of trade between member countries and, in so doing, increases familiarity between the people of the member countries and lessens the degree of misconceptions. enlarged economic integration could discourage war because it makes war more costly. thus, security issues provide a rationale for discriminating against non-members and limiting trade preferences to member countries. to conclude the relationship between international trade and national security, it is worth of referring to arguments by (stokes,1998). he argues that prospects for spending on defense and diplomacy depend as never before on the performance of the economy and that the economic performance is increasingly dependent upon exports and earnings from investments abroad. he also emphasizes that the u.s. in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 145 foreign policy and security policy-makers shall recognize that foreign economic policy opening markets for u.s. exports and investment in order to sustain domestic economic growth is a tool to achieve their foreign policy ends. united nations charter, wto and other multilateral rules the un has imposed and considered a variety of trade sanctions under certain provisions of the un charter. the relevant provisions are articles 39, 41 and 42. under article 39, the un security council has authority to determine whether there exists any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression. if it determines the existence of one of the situations, it shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with article 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security. more important, the un charter is one of bases for trade-restricting measures to be taken for the security purpose under several wto agreements (bhagwati, 2004; choate, 2005; hoekman, mattoo, and english, 2002; wto, 2003). the united states has enacted continuously laws and regulations to protect its national security. under certain national security rules, it has imposed trade sanctions against foreign nations. it is no secret that those trade restrictions resulted in adverse effects on trade in goods and services, and investment. on the widely-accepted facts, a number of scholars, including hufbauer and schott, assessed whether those measures were effective in achieving their intended goals. most of the analyses ended up with negative assessments. those outcome do not necessarily mean that trade sanctions shall not be imposed. rather, it is fair to say that they imply that there is a need to seek for better policy alternatives. how trade agreements build peace according to a report of arp submitted on july 28, 2017 to the united states trade representative in response to the administration’s reviews and report to the president on trade agreement violations and abuses, america’s trade agreements are a powerful tool in buttressing america’s national security. the united states should not walk away from in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 146 trade deals in a misguided effort to fight violations and abuses (holland, 2017). the american military is stretched by commitments around the world. it has faced repeated deployments to successive wars in the middle east; it is tasked with preventing a new cold war in eastern europe; it is “rebalancing” its military force to asia in an effort to ensure that the asiapacific region remains a region of peace while the countries in the pacific arm for war. to alleviate the pressure on the american military, the u.s. government should apply all elements of american power to ensuring a lasting peace among our allies. increasing trade between and among nations has proven effective over the last seventy years in building economic prosperity at home while drawing allies closer. trade has opened once closed regimes to international standards. trade sends the american message abroad without putting single american service member’s life on the line. america’s trade agreements have buttressed america’s national security around the world. perhaps, they can be called as “trade and peace agreements.” trade agreements build peace through shared values by encouraging free exchange. trade is not only an engine of economic growth, it also encourages people to share ideas, business practices, and culture. trade agreements should enshrine these advances by providing assurances about property rights and business practices. as trade and investment increase, so too will travel and direct engagement. it is far harder to demonize people as an enemy when one is doing business with them. increasing trade builds peace through prosperity. when countries become rich through business and trade (as opposed to through resource exploitation), they are less likely to go to war. on the other hand, should economic growth fail, evidence shows that governments emphasize nationalist disputes, compromising regional security. trade builds peace through strength. the national academies of sciences has found that increased trade actually helps to build a more stable network of military and strategic alliances. coalitions of like-minded countries that come together on trade will also work together on defense and security issues. these alliances will help regional powers stand up to the bullies that try to use military might to assert their will. those who would retreat from trade are signaling american weakness, not strength. in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 147 trade agreements, instead, should help enshrine a rules-based system of trade where countries cannot “race to the bottom” and flout the rules at the expense of american workers. by establishing strong labor and environmental standards in the region, american trade agreements reward countries that play by the rules. if other countries can raise their standards, all should be encouraged to join the u.s. in mutually beneficial trade agreements. over recent decades, the american military has seen too much of the horrors of war. if the american fails to lead on a rules-based international trade regime, it will show their allies that the benefits of trade, liberalization, and engagement with the u.s. are fleeting. it would give support to those that argue interdependence is just another world for vulnerability. trade’s real value is that it can build regions peace and stability in a world that is growing increasingly unstable. trade as a tool of diplomacy and global security this article investigates how economic-security linkages can be used in a creative way to contribute global security (kara, 2008). it argues, although aggregate studies on correlations between alliances, trade and war have yielded conflicting results, economic interdependence and cooperation created by various economic diplomacy tools including trade can be very effective in conflict prevention. the most obvious example is the european union as a“ peace project”. upon assessment of thomas friedman’s theory of conflict prevention, the study touches upon some aspects of the economic-security linkages like business’ role in conflict prevention, increasing number of regional trade integrations, doha development agenda and trade liberalization, and finally the relationship between peace and prosperity. it concludes that trade and economic projects can help in achieving peace by facilitating interactions, fostering prosperity and sustainable development. each year, the world economic forum prepares a global risks report defining the challenges to global security and prosperity. 2008 report adds four “new” categories to the previously defined ones; namely systemic financial risk, food security, supply chains and the role of energy, moving from the periphery of the global risk landscape to its in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 148 centre. considering the impact of globalization on security, we need to adopt a broad based definition of security that encompasses economic, technological and defense security. today’s security challenges of global nature require new and innovative strategies being adopted in response to those challenges. as a result, economic diplomacy seems set to continue to grow in importance. the economic diplomacy has become more complex, with more issues now subject to negotiation; more state and non-state actors engaged in domestic decision making; and more countries actively participating in the international system. in parallel, the new strategies involving greater use of multi-level diplomacy; transparency and engaging non-state actors are giving the process more legitimacy and necessitate institutional reform in that way. on the other hand, economic diplomacy yields successful results and future projections are encouraging. promotion of trade and investments has been one of the basic tools of economic diplomacy, yet it should be used in a creative way to contribute to global security. in friedman’s “flat world”, trade and the inter-dependence it creates have become very effective in conflict prevention. for example, “new generation trade agreements” have proved to be very influential with their clauses on labor standards, environmental protection, human rights etc. a number of studies show the positive impact of regional trade integrations to the security in those regions. in this study, “economic diplomacy” refers to the use of trade and economic relationships and influence to consolidate the right political climate to facilitate peace and security, by promoting international trade and investments; developing international telecommunications, energy and transport networks, improving the functioning of markets, and reducing the cost and risks of crossborder transactions among many other factors. this is a great challenge, especially for governments, which must contend with the forces of economic nationalism, cultural anxieties, embedded corruption, and resistance to reform. in a nutshell, today’s challenges are complex and interdependent. complexity of these global challenges, reshaping international relations requires to adopt a broader definition of security that in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 149 encompasses economic, technological and defense security, and adopt a new and innovative approach by using economic diplomacy effectively. role of unctad in promoting international trade development and global peace according to the united nations conference on trade and development (unctad), which provides developing countries with technical assistance on trade and development, assuring development gains from international trade in the context of globalization necessitates improving the quantitative benchmarks of integration in international trade through increased trade performance, increasing shares in world trade and in gdp (united nations, 2018). more importantly, a major improvement in the qualitative benchmarks of integration such as increased competitiveness and enhanced productive capacity, adequate and modern infrastructure (physical and social), trade facilitation, human resource development, diversification, a sound financial and investment climate, competition culture, technological advances, and more environmentally sustainable and climate-friendly production and consumption patterns will also be required. concluding observations in this paper the proposition that international trade promotes global peace, security and reduces conflicts has been supported. trade also benefits workers in terms of providing employment opportunities through adoption of appropriate international labour laws/standards. the paper highlights the features of the present trump administration relating to promoting peace through trade. it is observed that international trade promotes global peace i.e. positive peace through inclusive societies and security and reduces the scope of wars and militarized conflict. to conclude, effective trade promotes peace, justice, resolves warfare and militarized conflict. effective trade can be achieved through promotion of culture and human values in the societies and through proper economic diplomacy. in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 150 references barbieri, k. 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(2011). the peacekeeping economy: using economic relationships to build a more peaceful, prosperous, and secure world. new haven: yale university press. galtung, j. (2011). “peace and conflict studies as political activity.” in t. matyók, j. senehi, & s. byrne (eds.), critical issues in peace and conflict studies: theory, practice, and pedagogy. minneapolis lexington books. haar, e. (2010). “the liberal divide over trade, peace and war; ”international relations” 24 (2): 132–54: netherlands, leiden university. harris, e. (2018). united nations report. new york: united nations, 17th may. in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 151 high-level panel of eminent persons (2013). “a new global partnership: eradicate poverty and transform economies through sustainable development.” new york: united nations. hiller, p. (2015): re-examining the connection between peace, conflict and trade: an assessment through the lens of peace and conflict science; a war prevention initiative white paper. portland: portland state university. hoekman, b., a. mattoo and p. english, eds., (2002), development, trade and the wto: a handbook. washington, d.c.: world bank. holland, a. (2017). how trade agreements build peace a report of asp submitted on to the united states trade representative in response to the administration’s reviews and report to the president on trade agreement violations and abuses. hufbauer, c., j. schott, & k. a. elliott,(2005), economic sanctions reconsidered. (3rd ed.,) washington, d.c.: institute for international economics. jackson, j. h. ( 1989), the world trading system: law and policy of international economic relations. cambridge, ma: mit press. kara, y. t. k. (2008). trade as a tool of diplomacy and global security. anakara: anakara university institute of social sciences. kastner, s. l.(2007). “when do conflicting political relations affect international trade?” journal of conflict resolution 51 (4): 664–88. kay, sean.( 2012). global security in the twenty-first century: the quest for power and the search for peace. 2nd ed. lanham, md: rowman & littlefield publishers. kiyoun s. & t. d. yeo, (2012). does international trade help to enhance national security? https://faculty.washington.edu/karyiu/confer/sea05/papers/sohn_yeo.pdf in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 152 kleinberg, k. b., & b. o. fordham. (2010). “trade and foreign policy attitudes.” journal of conflict resolution, 54 (5): 687–714. lash, w. h., (1998), u.s. international trade regulation: a prime. washington, d.c.: aei press. lupu, y. & v. a. traag. (2013). “trading communities, the networked structure of international relations, and the kantian peace.” journal of conflict resolution, 57 (6): 1011–42. matsushia, m., t. j. schoenbaum, & p. c. mavroidis, (2003), world trade organization: law, practice, and policy. oxford university press. mousseau, m. (2011). “urban poverty and support for islamist terror survey results of muslims in fourteen countries.” journal of peace research, 48 (1): 35–47. mushakoji, k. (2007). “peace studies and peace politics. multicultural common security in north-south conflict situations.” in c. webel & j. galtung (eds.), handbook of peace and conflict studies. london; new york: routledge, 86–93.. nivola, pietro s., (1993), regulating unfair trade, washington. d.c.: brookings institution. peterson, t. m. (2014). “insiders versus outsiders preferential trade agreements, trade distortions, and militarized conflict.” journal of conflict resolution, february. piper, r. (2018). statement. new york: united nations, 26th june. stojek, s. m. & m. chacha. (2015). “adding trade to the equation multilevel modeling of biased civil war interventions.” journal of peace research, 52 (2): 228–42. stokes, b. (1998) “a geo-economic strategy for the 21st century,” in trade strategies for a new era: ensuring u.s. leadership in a global economy (geza) in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 123-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 153 “the social movement against ‘globalized trade’ and the trans-pacific partnership (tpp).” (2015). global research. tuchman, m. j. (1989), “redefining security,” foreign affairs, 68(2): 162. trebilcock, m. j. & r. howse, (2005), the regulation of international trade. (3rd ed). london: routledge. united nations. (2018). world economic situations and prospects report. new york: united nations. whitney, m. e. & j. d. gaisford, (1999), “why spy? an inquiry into the rationale for economic espionage”, international economic journal, 13 (2), pp. 103-123. wolff, a. (2018). paradigm lost? us trade policy as an instrument of foreign policy. washington dc american university. wyeth, v. (2018). peace is the work of citizens and not built by the un. senior political and public affairs officer, peace building, un mission, canada, united nations. xiang, j., x. xu, & g. keteku.(2007). “power the missing link in the trade conflict relationship.” journal of conflict resolution, 51 (4): 646–63. microsoft word adjei ifpv31.1.docx volume 13 number (2019): 62-64 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 62 volume 13 number (2019): 62-64 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal globalization and militarism: feminists make the link by cynthia enloe. 2ed. new york, rowman & littlefield publishers, 2016, ix + 216pp., $99.00 (hardcover), isbn 978-1-4422-6543-1. by maxwell adjei, kent state university, kent, oh, usa. while they may seem loosely related on the first look, cynthia enloe’s careful and nuanced analysis reveals how globalization and militarism are deeply intertwined processes, which collectively (re)produce gendered ideas about how men and women, boys and girls, should think and go about their daily activities. enloe’s accessible style of writing and methodological attention to readers who may not be expertly familiar with the critical feminist literature makes her book very relevant for interdisciplinary studies and for a broad range of social policymakers and practitioners. she begins her analysis with a series of conceptual clarifications where she defines some of the key terms – e.g. masculinities, feminization, militarization, etc. – she will be using throughout the book. she follows this, in chapter two, with a discussion on, perhaps, what sets the stage for every other chapter in the remaining parts of the book – “feminist curiosity”. here, enloe argues that developing “curiosity” is essential to “explore, question – [and] refuse to take something for granted” (p.15); and that “every issue has become an issue only because people stopped taking it for granted, developed a new curiosity about it […]” (p.24). as an analytical framework, “feminist curiosity” therefore involves constantly asking questions about how certain roles, expectations, and behaviors come to be seen as “normal” for women, while challenging often ignored assumptions that confine women to stereotypical gender roles. in chapter three, enloe uses examples from countries such as malaysia, south korea, indonesia, liberia, chile, etc. to show how global corporations such as nike and adidas come to rely on national militaries to make women’s labor “cheap”, less risky, and more profitable for their business. in the context of volume 13 number (2019): 62-64 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 63 “national security,” enloe argues that governments have narrowed security interests to the strength of military institutions, which themselves are extremely patriarchal institutions within which women (especially spouses of uniformed soldiers) are urged to give up their “ability to think and act as full-fledged citizens [as well as their “femininity”]” in the interest of “national security” (p.70). enloe’s analysis is important for two main reasons: first, by focusing on how women (and girls) are impacted by globalization and militarism, she draws critical attention to a group that has often been ignored in international relations (ir). thus, whereas dominant traditional and contemporary theories of ir such as realism, liberalism, and even constructivism tend to put little emphasis on gender and on the general existence of women in international relations, enloe places them at the center. discussions within the dominant ir frameworks – lacking feminist “curiosity” – frequently assume that both women and men, girls and boys, are impacted the same way by the global manifestation of capitalism (globalization) and militarism, significantly limiting what we can learn about the two processes (p.53). i would argue, as does enloe, that overcoming these blind spots for women’s existence and peculiarity in the global system would require a “gender-curious” analytical framework that decenters past theories and approaches issues – both at the domestic and international levels – from the perspectives and experiences of women and genderequality conscious men. second, enloe’s analysis provides useful guidance on how contentious concepts such as “national security” can be deconstructed to become more inclusive and representative of societies. while enloe, like other critical scholars, recognizes that redefining “national security” to include women and gender may not be enough to address the layers of (in)security concerns in various societies, it will be an important step toward a broader interpretation of what “national security” should really entail. thus, it will help to promote a shift in focus from state borders, “terrorism”, police, military, etc. as the sole and primary concerns of “national security” to broader considerations of security (e.g. “human security”) which address issues such as poverty, gender inequality, employment, healthcare, etc. as essential components of national security. enloe shows us the importance of exercising our own curiosity as we go about our daily activities and making judgements on why and how certain roles – social, economic, political, or cultural – become “best suited” for men and women. she argues in chapter six, for instance, that making use of feminist curiosity can help one to fully understand the tortures perpetrated by members of the us military at the abu ghraib and guantanamo prisons, among others. thus, being feminist curious would prompt one to ask questions about why military officers use feminization to intimidate and humiliate their male prisoners while taking into account how the military institution has become highly masculinized in ways that privilege certain forms of masculinity and trivialize most forms of femininity (p.115). more importantly, it would help us to volume 13 number (2019): 62-64 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 64 understand why, following the leakage of pictures of the prison abuse, the public and the media seemed very concerned and shocked by the involvement of women soldiers in the activities while appearing to be less interested in – or startled by – the role of the male military officers (p.121). in many ways, this unequal public reaction reflected how gendered expectations of men and women have become deeply rooted in society – men expected to be aggressive, violent and independent, while women being passive, emotional and dependent. while discussing the increasing number of women soldiers in the 21st century as reminiscent of an early globalized image of the modern woman – the “new woman” – in the 1910s and 1920s, enloe cautions against the tendency to homogenize the experiences of all women soldiers. she argues that just like how the paths of the “new woman” turned out differently in each country, once they join the military, women may have different experiences and challenges; for one, training opportunities and promotions may not be equally distributed among women of all backgrounds (p.82). with this argument, enloe acknowledges an important connection between “feminist curiosity” and intersectionality as analytical frameworks, while demonstrating her awareness of the interlocking nature of social identities despite foregrounding gender in most of her analysis. essentially, she shows that “being feminist curious requires [one to be simultaneously] concerned about the inter-workings of gender with those of class, race, and ethnicity” (p82). overall, this book provides an exceptionally useful tool for making sense of the world around us. applying “feminist curiosity” to the arguments being churned out by “experts” in the media, to (inter)national policies laid out in legislative/executive councils, and to national “emergency” declarations on presidential twitter handles will help individuals, governments, and ingos to ask probing questions about why certain activities, jobs, and positions are considered “normal” for women and less “normal” – and even demeaning – for men. microsoft word pistolato ifp 14.1.docx volume 14 number 1 (2020): 56-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 56 volume 14 number 1 (2020): 56-65 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal transforming ourselves first. the need of a paradigm shift in peace research and peace education by francesco pistolato, phd gandhi’s invitation to self-change real masters (with a capital m) are few, and they are not taken literally or, less diplomatically, they are not taken seriously. gandhi is no exception. when he meant that the world can only change, if we start changing ourselves1, he was inviting all of us to a change, not only the perpetrators of violence. when i tried to explain this to the best possible audience – a bunch of very clever young people with already a remarkable experience on the field (and at the always encouraging presence of iipe’s director tony jenkins), in july 2019 at the home for cooperation in the buffer zone of nicosia, cyprus – my message was not very successful. to be sincere, i expected this failure. apart from a communicative limitation due to my almost lost fluency in spoken english, the time of a seminar was too short to allow an adequate transmission of concepts people 1 the often repeated quote: “be the change you wish to see in the world” seems not to be literal. according to supriya kelkar, author of the novel ahimsa (2019 new york, tu books) the quote is actual a reduction of a larger passage, in which gandhi said “if we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. as a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him…we need not wait to see what others do.” (from: https://blog.leeandlow.com/2017/10/03/did-gandhi-say-be-the-change/, last visited on april 18th, 2020) volume 14 number 1 (2020): 56-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 57 are not familiar with, especially if they apparently clash with common sense and the accepted idea of what is science like. here i shall go again into my argument and try to be clearer then i was in cyprus. the time elapsed since then has allowed me to deeper reflect on what gandhi possibly meant by transforming oneself. as i’ll try to demonstrate in the following pages, i believe that gandhi’s suggestion can be enormously fruitful for both peace research and peace education. satyāgraha we know that gandhi gave his nonviolent struggle the sanskrit name of satyāgraha, meaning “recourse to truth-force”. truth and love are not only intimately linked in gandhi’s vision, they are but one thing: “the force of love is the same as the force of the soul or truth. we have evidence of its working at every step. the universe would disappear without the existence of that force. […] if the story of the universe had commenced with wars, not a man would have been found alive today. […] the fact that there are so may men still alive in the world shows that it is based not on the force of arms but on the force of truth or love.”2 so, the satyāgraha is based on the very law that rules the world and allows humans to exist. this force is love, which for gandhi cannot be separated from truth. no human world is possible without the love-truth force. however. the struggle based on satyāgraha requires a special preparation, that is a previous purification from the remnants of violence within us. this is because the presence of the love-truth force as a base for the existence in this world is not immediately evident. we as human species are not born intrinsically violent3, but we are definitely born and grown up in manifold violent societies. the consequence of this is that we definitely carry with us a whole bunch of violent habits, hardly mitigated by our polite manners and formal education, if we happen to have them. this leads us to 2 m.k. gandhi, hind swaraj or indian home rule, ahmedabad, navajivan publishing house, p. 68-69. this booklet, first published in 1909 can be downloaded from https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/hind_swaraj.pdf (last visited on april 18th, 2020.) 3 the idea of the humans as being innately violent has been rejected by the peace research. see the seville statement on violence 1986 in: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000094314 (last visited on april 18th, 2020) volume 14 number 1 (2020): 56-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 58 statement no. 1: the first job of a peace worker is to get rid of this personal burden of violence. an even previous job is to become conscious of this personal burden. the very fact that we are against war and violence, that we spend a lot of time and energies in campaigning, in educating young people to global citizenship, in giving lectures about conflict resolutions and so on, does not make us any better possibly not even better of our violent counterparts if we persist in believing, consciously or unconsciously, that we are somehow good enough for this society that we want to amend. this does not mean that we have to wait to become like saint francis of assisi before doing anything for peace. it only means that we should better not throw stones of judgments against anyone and rather clean our home, before teaching others how to clean theirs. statement no. 2: violence is not only in deeds and omissions at various levels galtung’s direct, structural and cultural violence4 but is first of all in thoughts and emotions5. this is equal to say: “thoughts and emotions are forces, they are energy that can cause visible effects on the outer world”. an utterance rather hard to accept within the conventional borders of what is held to be scientific. heart coherence and the magnetic fields of the earth however, i think i can show the there is enough scientific evidence behind this. the heartmath institute6 openly maintains that violence in thoughts and emotions causes lack of coherence in our heart, whereas heart coherence “measures order, stability, and harmony in the oscillatory outputs of the regulatory systems during any period of time”. they explain that the human heart influences the magnetic field around the body and through this also other people. translated into our language of peace workers, according to this group of scientists • heart coherence as a factor of peace is influenced by our thoughts and emotions: 4 for galtung’s theory on violence see his two articles in the journal of peace research : “violence, peace and peace research”, 6 (1969) , p. 167-191 and “cultural violence”, 27, no. 3 (1990), p. 291-305. 5 during my seminar in cyprus i also spoke of verbal violence, with special reference of the way some pacifists choose to express their thoughts and feelings. here i prefer to limit my analysis to the latter ones, as being at the root of the former one. 6 https://www.heartmath.org/about-us/videos/the-hearts-intuitive-intelligence/ last visited on november 27th, 2019. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 56-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 59 • positive, loving thoughts and emotions bring coherence • negative, non-loving thoughts (including any form of negative judgments) and emotions destroy the coherence and bring disorder, first in our physical bodies, then in the magnetic fields around us • the influence on the magnetic fields grows when the number of people increases a huge number of people feeling the same at the same time can have a strong influence on the magnetic field on a planetary level. gregg braden, a well known researcher and popularizer with a strong scientific background explains this with reference to the measured alteration of the magnetic fields of the earth7 shortly after the first stroke against the twin towers on september 11th, 2001, when the news reached the whole world population: “at that time, the usa had two satellites called geos (geosyncronist environmental satellites), one positioned in the northern hemisphere, one positioned in the southern hemisphere. the role of these satellites is to measure the magnetic fields of the earth and send back readings every thirty minutes. these readings normally were within a certain range that the scientists were relatively used to see. now, it was on september 2001 that scientists began to see some readings that were just off the scale, compared to what they had seen in the past. and they said: ‘what’s happening, what is it that could be influencing the magnetic fields of the entire planet to such an extent, that we see our satellites sending back these big spikes we had never seen before?’ they related the data of the satellites on a calendar with days and months and they found that the spikes occurred precisely during the time of september 11th, 2001, and even more precisely, that the first spike occurred 15 minutes after the first plane hit the first tower in the world trade center”8. but listen even more attentively to the commentary of gregg braden, reversing the currently dominant scientific view: “the reason why this [the above readings of the two satellites, fp] is so important for our scientist is because during 300 years our science has been based on two false assumptions: 1) that everything is 7 for the vital role of the magnetic fields see the explanation of the european space agency in http://www.esa.int/science_exploration/human_and_robotic_exploration/lessons_o nline/the_effects_of_magnetic_fields last visited on november 27th, 2019. 8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7iyyyeet0w last visited on november 29th, 2019. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 56-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 60 separated from everything else, that what happens on one place has no effect on what happens anywhere else9 and if it looks like it does, it is only a coincidence; 2) that our inner experience: thoughts, emotions and beliefs, have no effect on the world beyond our bodies […]. [however, when the scientists] looked at the magnetic fields of the earth spiking precisely at the moment the human emotion of the planet is focused on a disaster, [….] this lead to a series of studies showing that when a certain number of people come together and they choose a moment of time to create a precise emotion in their hearts, that emotion literally can intentionally influence the very fields sustaining life on planet earth. these fields are implicated in everything, from immune response in humans, climate, weather patterns, cycles of war and peace, our abilities to solve problems […] all these, as different as they might look, are related to the magnetic fields of earth10. the global coherence initiative based on this, the heartmath institute is currently monitoring the effects of their global coherence initiative, a synchronic meditation of volunteers all over the world. the heartmath institute describe it as follows: “the global coherence initiative is an international effort that seeks to help activate the heart of humanity and promote peace, harmony and a shift in global consciousness. gci conducts groundbreaking research on the interconnection between humanity and earth’s magnetic fields and energetic systems.11” the maharishi effect the global coherence initiative is in fact the 21st century version of the maharishi effect. starting from the 1980s, the so-called maharishi effect showed that it is possible to enormously reduce violence in an area, if so little as the square root of 1% of the population practice transcendental meditation. such a practice by a small percentage of people positively influences the magnetic fields of the earth. 9 to my poor scientific knowledge – i refer to the so-called butterfly effect – this might not be completely true, but braden clearly speaks of the general fragmentary approach of western science, as opposed to an holistic vision of the world. 10 see note 8. 11 https://www.heartmath.org/gci/ last visited on november 29th, 2019. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 56-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 61 this apparently bizarre idea of “the fool on the hill12” has been confirmed by a number of scientific studies13. david orme-johnson so explains the phenomenon: “just as modern physics has recently postulated that nature is fundamentally composed of quantum fields that mediate action at a distance, maharishi mahesh yogi has postulated that there is a fundamental level of consciousness, transcendental consciousness, at the basis of each individual’s mind. a direct experience of transcendental consciousness is an experience of the unified field of nature’s intelligence.”14 therefore, there is i believe enough ground on which to base statement no. 3: we as human beings are well equipped to generate states of peace or war simply through our thoughts and emotions. the need of opening our minds to another worldview to quote a yogi is not the best way to convince western readers. we usually refrain from grounding our beliefs on utterances based on a different worldview as ours. but there are exceptions. one of these is mind and life15, an ongoing conversation of western scientists with the dalai lama, with the goal of “bridging science and contemplative wisdom to illuminate our shared humanity and inspire action16.” buddhism has been exploring human consciousness for over 2000 years. the west cannot claim such an experience. we still have to find a satisfactory definition of “consciousness”. it is a little more of 100 years since we started to scientifically investigate our psyche. but our psyche is not consciousness, whatever this last might be. as it seems, we have to do with two elements we have never really counted with in western sociology17: energy and consciousness – our thoughts and feelings as energy, with a mysterious consciousness as postulated background. the combined action of both elements is now said 12 it seems that this famous song of the beatles was inspired by the visit they paid in the 1960s to maharishi mahesh yogi in india. 13 https://research.mum.edu/maharishi-effect/ last visited on november 29th, 2019. 14 david orme-johnson, theory and research on conflict resolution through the maharishi effect, ibidem. 15 https://www.mindandlife.org/ last visited on november 30th, 2019. 16 ibidem. 17 sociology is the academic branch in which peace research falls. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 56-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 62 to have visible effects on human life and relationships. energy and consciousness, instead of matter. never heard of it? planck and einstein jump in yes, we heard of it, particularly in the first half of the 20th century. let us read from the text of the lecture given by max planck, 1918 nobel prize for physics, in florence in 1944 (underlining and commentary between [ ] are obviously mine, fp): “as a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear-headed science, to the study of matter, i can tell you as a result of my research about the atoms this much: there is no matter as such! all matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particles of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together [….] we must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent geist [this word means both “mind” and “spirit”]. this geist is the primordial fundament (urgrund) of all matter.18” please notice: 1) planck denies the existence of matter as such; 2) he affirms the existence of a force, t. i. of an energy, as the cause of matter; 3) behind matter and the force that give birth to it, he assumes the existence of a consciousness. not less evident is the primary role of energy and the only derivative one of matter in einstein’s famous equation19: e = mc2 where e is energy, m mass, that is matter, and c2 the square of the speed of light. the same equation becomes: e/c2 = m where it is evident that m, matter, is but energy speeded down. therefore, again, energy is the matrix of matter – without energy, there is no matter. beyond a matter-based peace work what has all this with peace work to do? if we consider work on the outer world as the core of any activity in favour of peace, we miss the causative dimensions behind the curtain: energy and the – for us actually very 18 archiv zur geschichte der max-planck-gesellschaft, abt. va, rep. 11 planck, nr. 1797. 19 this formula was first published in a. einstein, „ist die trägheit eines körpers von seinem energieinhalt abhängig?“ in annalen der physik, vol. 18, 1905, p. 639-641 volume 14 number 1 (2020): 56-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 63 mysterious – intelligence assumed to drive it, to drive the force that generates matter and, within matter, facts. the hypothesis that deserves to be developed, the chain consciousness/intelligence-energy-matter/facts is obviously of no easy investigation. most of all, we have no idea, nor will possibly ever be able to somehow encompass the assumed intelligence as the matrix of energy. on the other hand, knowing the only relative existence of matter, to look at facts as given matter, and not at ourselves as generating, through the influence on the magnetic fields of our surroundings, peaceful or conflictive situations, is to ignore that a comedy, or a tragedy, is made by the actors and not by the stage. gandhi seemed to know this: he wanted good actors and cared less about the scene, because he was confident that the players would finally draw the whole picture. we have now landed to statement no. 4: energy and consciousness claim their place within peace research and peace education one more physicist: hans-peter dürr20 hans-peter dürr (1929-2014) was a remarkable quantum physicist, a close collaborator of werner heisenberg. he was granted the alternative nobel prize in 1987 and in 1995 he was one of the members of the pugwash group that received the nobel prize for peace. in his potsdam denkschrift 200521 he explains the copernican revolution brought about by quantum physics (again the underlining is mine, fp): “the dualism between matter and mind is […] rendered obsolete. the alternative in the 19th century was between a “positivistic explanation of nature” and a “christian creator-god and world ruler”. in both systems, humankind was contrasted with nature, which he could and was permitted to subjugate, whether justified by divine destiny or by evolutionary superiority. we leave this false alternative behind us, clearly also in the sense of the new access to a consciousness of omniconnectedness, a consciousness that the natural sciences open up for a non-dualistic view of the world. this makes it possible to recognize humanity in fundamental commonality with the rest of nature, without thereby falling into a conventional naturalism or simply invoking 20 see my article: hans-peter dürr’s thought as a source for peace work, in factis pax, vol. 2 number 2 (2008): 185-194, http://www.infactispax.org/volume_special_iipe/pistolato.pdf last visited on december 1st, 2019. 21h.-p. dürr, d. dahm, r. prinz zur lippe, potsdam denkschrift 2005, http://www.gcn.de/download/denkschrift_en.pdf last visited on december 1st, 2019. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 56-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 64 cosmologies that may have corresponded with the worldviews and ways of life of cultures that remain close to nature.”22 a new paradigm in peace research and peace education let us come to a synthesis of all the above: great physicists inform us that matter is not existing per se but it is the direct product of energy, with a conscious mind beyond it; they add that everything is interconnected with everything else cutting-edge science shows that we are able to influence the world of matter with our thoughts and feelings. we are now in a position to interpret gandhi’s invitation to transform ourselves in the light of science, coming so to statement no. 5: transforming ourselves means rising our consciousness to the point from which we clearly see that matter is relatively non-existent and that we can act upon it. let me say this in other words, hoping to be clear: the world of matter is the world of duality and division. where there is division, peace is impossible: we can do our best with better laws, declaring war a crime, prohibiting the use of arms, feeding all the children and the poor of the world, but even if we succeed in this, conflicts and violence, as caused by the idea of separation, are built-in in matter and will come up again and again. the struggle for peace is a lost one, where division is intrinsic. we cannot escape the world of matter, but we can rise our awareness above it, and even beyond the level of energy. the more we approach the dimension of non-dualism, of the conscious, intelligent mind, the more we see a totally different panorama, we see solutions, alternatives, effective ways of conveying ideas. most of all, we so deeply feel the absurdity of violence, that our words and actions get a force unknown and their magnetic emanation begins to change the world. this is not a dream of an old, desperate pacifist, this is science, yes, it is science, i repeat: it is science! if you are not yet convinced, then read again and again these few pages. practical ways for rising our consciousness above the world of division and violence to the level of oneness being intellectually convinced, however, is not enough. an intellectual realization is only the first step. our senses, our habits, our subconscious beliefs stick to the material reality. transforming ourselves is a hard, very hard 22 ibidem, p. 6. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 56-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 65 job, but it becomes more and more evident – for the ones ready and willing to see it is a necessary one. age old technologies, like yoga, buddhist meditation, christian contemplation and many others have exactly this goal, to substitute reality with reality, in order to act upon the material world from that vantage point. as a matter of fact, however, not everyone feels attracted by such practices. we have, anyway, the freedom of choosing other paths, or developing our own path, our own training. the turning point will be reached when we, independently from the way we choose, realize and are therefore able to transmit to others – that, as the great dürr says: “… omni-connectedness, which we can call love and which germinates from vitality, is inherent in the core of us and of everything else.”23 23 ibidem, p. 17. microsoft word finley ifp 13.2.docx volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 117 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal sexual misconduct, callout culture and the possibility of redemption laura finley and matthew johnson although it was actually started more than ten years ago by survivor tarana burke as a means for women, especially black women, to offer support to others who had endured sexual assault, the rapid spread of metoo as a hashtag and a movement came in fall 2017 when several hollywood actresses commented on the frequency of sexual assault and harassment in that industry. alyssa milano is often credited with starting the movement but has repeatedly acknowledged burke. milano was spurred to use the phrase metoo when actress rose mcgowan accused hollywood mogul harvey weinstein of rape. it wasn’t just weinstein, however. the movement did prompt action against the accused in many cases — sometimes legal and other times shaming them within the industry. yet there are definite limitations to the “callout culture.” as melo (2019) explains, what is missing in this public shaming is the chance for perpetrators to change. “the assumption is that tearing down fellow human beings will somehow eliminate their past bad behavior,” yet “call-out culture seems increasingly concerned with the thrill of social assassination, rather than with remedying undesirable behavior. it does not seek justice for the wronged, but the destruction of the wrongdoer” (melo, 2019). similarly, rebecca hamilton (2017), assistant professor of law at american university, washington college of law, herself a victim of rape, asserts that naming her perpetrator would not help her, as it would bring him back to a place central to her thoughts. it would essentially force her to relive something she wish never happened. further, calling him out would then also make her family, friends and colleagues share in the revictimization. volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 118 hamilton (2017) further argues that social media campaigns like #metoo view raising awareness as an end, not as a means to an end. they emphasize quick and visible solutions, such as the firing of perpetrators, and, “over time, they crowd out lower profile work that could ultimately create the structural changes needed to really reserve the problem” (hamilton, 2017). what is particularly interesting is that progressives who typically critique the rush to judgement and the hyperpunitive system of justice in the u.s. often advocate just those things when it comes to sexual misconduct. that is especially true when it comes to allegations against someone who politically aligns progressive as well. this paper addresses several high-profile sexual misconduct claims in the #metoo era, focusing largely on those involving progressives. it discusses the concerns about how these situations have been handled and offers a model of forgiveness and redemption informed by restorative justice. allegations against celebrities as of january 9, 2019, a reported 263 politicians, celebrities, ceos and other prominent individuals had been accused of sexual harassment since april 2017. 101 are in arts and entertainment, the largest group. many renowned film directors have been accused of sexual harassment. as of december 2018, a total of nine women have accused french film director luc besson of sexual harassment. since 1997, director bryan singer has faced accusations of sexual misconduct involving minors. the allegations started when the parents of an underage extra sued him for filming their son and other boys on the set of the movie apt pupil. although the case was withdrawn, singer was later sued by model michael egan for sexual assault of a minor in 2014, and an anonymous plaintiff sued him for sexual assault the same year (this time the case was dismissed). in 2017, cesar sanchez-guzman filed a lawsuit in washington and alleged that singer had raped him when he was a teenager. singer was fired from directing the film bohemian rhapsody because of the many allegations. in december 2017, director morgan spurlock admitted to a history of sexual misconduct. this included rape allegations in college, settling a sexual harassment suit, and infidelity in all his relationships. spurlock is best known for his documentary supersize me. the case receiving the most attention to date has been the litany of allegations against weinstein. public attention was focused on weinstein after the new york times published a story on october 5, 2017, describing decades of allegations. shortly thereafter many actresses spoke out. among the earliest to do so were rose mcgowan and ashley judd. women alleged that weinstein made inappropriate comments and propositions, forced women to massage him and watch him naked, and promised career advancement in exchange for sexual favors. volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 119 weinstein issued an apology for “causing a lot of pain” and his lawyers claimed he planned to sue the times. he announced a leave of absence from the weinstein company the same day of the times report. three days later the board of the weinstein company announced it had fired him. many other actors denounced weinstein including meryl streep, george clooney, and dame judi dench. on october 10, 2017, the new yorker issued a report with thirteen more allegations, three of which included accusations of rape. mira sorvino, gwyneth paltrow and angelina jolie all alleged that weinstein propositioned them. that same day, weinstein’s wife georgina chapman announced she was leaving him. over the next several days, many others came forward, and on october 15, 2017, the organization behind the oscars announced it was expelling weinstein, as did the academy of motion picture arts and sciences. british law enforcement was also investigating weinstein, as there were numerous allegations of sexual misconduct falling under its jurisdiction as well. the following day the producers guild of america expelled weinstein and on october 30 it announced weinstein was banned for life. several actors and directors were accused of knowing about weinstein’s behavior and doing nothing to stop it, among them quentin tarantino. meryl streep was criticized for staying silent about weinstein for too long, although she claims she knew nothing. also levying allegations were several staff members who had worked with weinstein. in the next several months, even more actresses came out with allegations, including lupita nyong’o, cara delevigne, brit marling, daryl hannah, annabella sciorra, salma hayek, and uma thurman. on february 11, 2018, new york prosecutors announced they were filing a lawsuit against the weinstein company, alleging that it failed to protect its employees from sexual harassment and on march 20, 2018, the company filed for bankruptcy. on may 25, 2018, weinstein turned himself in to the new york police, where he was charged with rape and several other counts of sexual assault against two women. he pleaded not guilty on june 5, 2018. another rape allegation was added in july and weinstein pleaded not guilty to that charge as well. a trial date has been set for may 2019 while additional allegations continue to emerge in the u.s. and uk. while it was roundly applauded that action was taken against weinstein, in other cases some have criticized what they see as a rush to judgment against prominent people when the allegations are less serious or perhaps the context or details are not entirely clear. if nothing else, the #metoo movement seems to have been unevenly applied, especially in cases involving politicians (rosen, 2019). for instance, tom ashbrook was fired as host of national public radio’s “on point” after being accused of creating “an abusive work environment.” he was cleared of sexual misconduct, and many felt like firing him was not necessary given that. volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 120 ashbrook himself wrote that, while his behavior was “offensive and overbearing to some,” he wondered, “is there room for redemption and rebirth, in our time of google trails and hashtag headlines?” (smith, 2018). such cases can be especially challenging when they involve progressives or people otherwise respected by the left. allegations against politicians reaction was mixed when allegations of sexual misconduct were levied against former senator al franken. under pressure, largely from fellow democrats, franken resigned from the senate. the alleged misconduct ranged from unwanted kissing to groping during photo shoots. franken did issue an apology that most accepted as sincere, and he even called for an investigation by the senate ethics committee into the allegations. new york democratic senator kirsten gillibrand was one of the most vocal proponents of franken’s resignation and stands by that decision, noting in a tweet after fellow 2020 presidential hopeful pete buttigieg said he would not have called for a resignation, that there were “eight credible allegations of sexual harassment, two since he was elected senator, and one from a congressional staffer. that is not too high a standard” (miller, 2019). some progressives thought that resignation was too heavy a punishment, especially given the allegations of far worse conduct that have been made against president trump. supporters also wanted to see an investigation into the allegations. many progressive men cautioned against lumping together the type of allegations against franken with those against weinstein, asserting that it somehow dilutes the metoo efforts and imposes higher standards on democrats than have been placed on republicans, who at the time were dealing with far more serious allegations against alabama senatorial candidate roy moore, who nonetheless proceeded to face off against—and ultimately lose to—democratic senator doug jones (blake, 2017). others accused gillibrand in particular for using the franken situation for political gain, as she readied herself for a presidential run (mcgann, 2018). presidential hopeful and former vice president joe biden has also come under fire for his nonconsensual touching of women in public settings. while these allegations do not rise to the level of those made against franken and have not been labeled as sexual assault or harassment, they fall within the realm of women seeking to hold powerful men accountable for behavior that is no longer considered acceptable in the metoo era. lucy flores, former democratic nominee for lieutenant governor of nevada, documented a 2014 incident that “changed how [she] saw joe biden” in a personal essay for the cut (flores, 2019). flores claimed that biden came up behind her, put his hands on her shoulders, and kissed the back of her head. for flores, this was an unwanted and unwarranted intrusion of her volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 121 personal space. for biden, this was a seemingly typical display of affection, as numerous similar incidents have been documented from the obama era—with political allies and their families as the subjects of biden’s physical contact (mcgann, 2019). while initially claiming he did not recall the flores incident, after more complaints of unwanted touching followed, biden posted a video to twitter of himself explaining his behavior and promising to change with the times and to respect personal space. biden’s critics condemned him for not directly apologizing for his actions while repositioning himself as a bystander rather than a perpetrator— much in the same way as he did while addressing his role in the controversial anita hill hearings, which he presided over as the chair of the senate judiciary committee in 1991 (garber, 2019). it is unclear at the time of this writing to what extent these scandals will weaken biden’s candidacy for president in 2020. while never accused of sexual misconduct himself, 2020 presidential hopeful and vermont senator bernie sanders was criticized by some progressives for sexual harassment that occurred within the context of his 2016 presidential campaign. this was not a problem confined to the sanders campaign, however, as nearly 60 percent of political consultants in a survey stated that sexual harassment is at least “somewhat common” in the industry (miller, 2019). president trump was accused directly of sexual assault by an ex-staffer for his campaign (corbett, 2019). for his part, sanders released a comprehensive blueprint for addressing sexual misconduct and harassment within his organization (moon, 2019). allegations against academics the allegations of sexual harassment against academic michael kimmel pose a different challenge. kimmel is a distinguished professor of sociology and gender studies at the state university of new york at stony brook. he identifies as a male feminist and his life’s work has focused on gender equality. shortly after the allegations were first publicized, kimmel announced that he would defer accepting a major sociology award from the american sociological association but was criticized for referring to the accusations as “rumors.” although they were initially circulating as anonymous, it was not too long before one of kimmel’s former stony brook graduate students, who uses the pronoun their, stepped forward as the accuser. the student alleges that kimmel engaged in explicit sexual talk, was homophobic and transphobic, and lacked respect for anyone who was not a cisgender heterosexual male. bethany coston, now an assistant professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at virginia commonwealth university, also alleges that kimmel engaged in benevolent sexism by telling attractive students volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 122 they would have to work harder to get ahead professionally. coston also claims that kimmel refused to use students’ preferred gender pronouns and says that kimmel gave more privileges to straight male students. in all, coston contends that these things, plus the sheer nature of the work required of graduate students, which they called exploitative, constitutes a hostile work environment. stony brook has said it is investigating the claims (flaherty, 2018). critique of naming and shaming as noted earlier, not all victims want to publicly out their perpetrators for a variety of reasons. further, using twitter or other social media platforms to call out abusers and assailants might open victims up to another hostile environment. as feminist digital activism has increased, so too has a backlash of misogynistic vitriol (mendes, ringrose, & keller, 2018). simply put, a goal of #metoo is to provide a safe space for victims to share their experiences but twitter is far from that. additionally, in some cases, the naming and shaming strategy of the #metoo era may even be backfiring. for instance, virginia lieutenant governor justin fairfax was accused of sexual assault by two women but remains in office and has said he is strongly considering running for governor in 2021. fairfax even implied that the attention was good for his career, citing many people who recognize him now in public and claim they believe he is innocent (rosen, 2019). the congressional misconduct database (n.d.) reveals that many lawmakers who have faced allegations have suffered little, if any, sanction. obviously, the seventeen allegations against president trump have not resulted in anything close to accountability. brett kavanaugh was confirmed as a supreme court justice despite multiple claims of sexual assault. in fact, the president’s rhetoric about the allegations, as well as those against roy moore and others, seem to resonate with many in a culture that is far too quick to believe that false accusations are common. trump said “it’s a very scary time for young men in america. it’s a very scary time when you’re guilty until proven innocent.” some women the hashtag #protectourboys “to denounce what they consider false claims” (yan & chavez, 2018). one of the most important criticisms of naming and shaming is that it does nothing to address how rape culture is institutionalized. there has been little to no action to address hollywood’s misogynistic culture or the fact that in most of the cases involving “outed” artists and directors, it was a well-known fact that abuses were occurring but was considered simply how business is done, as in the “casting couch.” the routine glorification of men’s violence against women and objectification of women’s bodies is left unchanged when individual perpetrators are named and even when they face some type of repercussion. in order to change volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 123 this culture, we must recognize “the larger context in which men are trained to seek control and pursue conquest in order to feel like a man, and how that control is routinely sexualized” (jensen, 2014). likewise, rape culture is institutionalized via state practices that exercise limiting economic control on anti-rape movements, viewing rape as an individual problem, rather than a gendered-social one (bumiller, 2008; whailey, 2018). when victims do report harassment and assault, institutions often fail them, what freyd (2018) calls institutional betrayal. institutional betrayal occurs through overt policies and behaviors but also through failing to do what is reasonably expected to assist victims or hold perpetrators accountable. this includes retaliation or backlash against the victim as well. smith and freyd (2013) found that more than 40 percent of college students who were sexually assaulted reported some type of institutional betrayal. rather than assisting victims, institutional betrayal has been found to exacerbate trauma, increasing depression, anxiety, dissociation, and problematic sexual functioning (smith & freyd, 2013). another study of military sexual violence survivors who experienced institutional betrayal found they had higher rates of ptsd, depression, and suicidal ideation (monteith, bahraini, matarazzo, & soberay, & smith, 2016). another study found institutional betrayal to be associated with several physical health outcomes, including difficulty sleeping, headaches and shortness of breath (smith & freyd, 2017). given these limitations of naming and shaming, it is imperative to consider alternate approaches that might 1) help victims heal; 2) hold perpetrators accountable; and 3) address the institutionalization of rape culture. forgiveness and redemption many sexual abuse experts argue that forgiveness is a necessity in order to reduce instances of sexual misconduct. while perpetrators must be held accountable, exactly how that should happen is not clear. it probably goes further than a simple apology, especially since so many of those, like weinstein, have issued half-hearted apologies at best. celebrity chef mario batali, for instance, ended his apology for sexually harassing multiple women with a recipe for pizza dough cinnamon rolls (smith, 2018). similarly, weak apologies like that of actor jeffrey tambor, which often start with “if i offended anyone…” or refer to their actions in only vague ways reinforce that the victim was mistaken or at least overly sensitive (wexler & robbennolt, 2019). apologies must focus on the person who was wronged, and perpetrators must ask how they can right their wrongs, according to experts. thus, asking for forgiveness is difficult for those who are powerful, as they are unaccustomed to volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 124 being so vulnerable. comedian aziz ansari eventually addressed his own allegation of sexual misconduct on stage during a performance, expressing contrition and appreciation for lessons learned while stopping short of an apology (north, 2019). men whose apologies are not deemed sufficient may retreat, as did comedian louis c.k., until enough time has gone by that tensions are reduced. many are shamed in the media, especially social media, but alissa ackermanacklin, sexual assault expert and assistant professor of criminal justice at california state university, fullerton, argues this is the opposite of what will help: “if we want a society free of sexual misconduct and we want people to really understand the impact of their actions, then publicly shaming them is not the way to do it. it makes us feel good, but it doesn’t do anything to reduce sexual misconduct.” instead, the men should be making connections — possibly with their victims, if that’s what the victims want, or with others in a “safe, non-judgmental space, people who have caused this kind of harm can really think about what they’ve done and get really introspective and come to a place where they can offer an authentic apology,” ackerman-acklin said (smith, 2018). “what atonement means, and what it looks like to truly take responsibility for one’s own choices and one’s own life naturally varies with the specific act of wrongdoing” (filipovic, 2018). sexual predators should not be treated the same as those who make inappropriate jokes. both are wrong, but these acts are not equal; neither should be their penalties. for many of the men accused of serial sexual misconduct, one of the consequences may need to be withdrawal from public life. redemption and forgiveness are not synonymous with a return to fame or a position of power. this goes for institutions as well, especially those” that position themselves as arbiters of authority” (filipovic, 2019). “none of this means that the men who have harmed women can never have happy lives again, can never create art again, can never dedicate themselves to the causes they care about the most. it does mean that we will know the worst offenders understand the depths of their transgressions when they do their work quietly, without wanting or expecting public accolades; when they realize that public adoration, or even the public’s eyes and ears, are the price they have paid for what they chose to do” (filipovic, 2018). shunning, isolation, and in some cases incarceration, does nothing to heal an individual, let alone a community (ortiz, 2019). further, as hamilton (2017) points out, naming and shaming should never be seen as the only option in order for a victim to be taken seriously or for action to be taken against a perpetrator. “we need to listen to the many women (and men) whose stories do not involve newsworthy perpetrators, and not demand that the signature ‘name and shame’ action of volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 125 this moment be the price of entry into the conversation about how to deal with all of this” (hamilyon, 2017). one strategy for this type of redemption and possibly even social change is restorative justice. restorative justice has been used for more than forty years in north america, europe, australia and new zealand. it generally involves three components: victims and secondarily affected family and friends; community members who feel less safe as a result of the violence; and offenders and their family and friends (shapland, 2014). the key to the last part is that the offenders and their supporters must feel guilt and shame about their actions — in fact, they must admit guilt in order to participate, which is a significant change from the retributive criminal justice system. there are several models of restorative justice including sharing circles, victim-offender dialogue, victim impact panels, community reparation boards, circles of support, sentencing circles, mediation, and conferencing (umbreit et al., 2006). in essence, restorative justice is a victimcentered approach. there is a growing body of scholarly literature about restorative justice programs being used in sexual assault cases, with general findings that restorative justice is less traumatizing for victims (daly, 2006), keeps victims safer (koss, 2014), is empowering (wager, 2013), affords them a greater sense of justice (mcglynn, westmarland, & godden, 2012), and can be more effective at holding assailants accountable (daly, 2006). if there is a pre-existing relationship between victim and offender, restorative justice has been found to help redefine the relationship and diminish fear of retaliation (mercer & sten-madsen, 2015). one of the most well-known restorative justice initiatives is restore, a pilot program that ran from 2003 to 2006 in arizona. an evaluation of restore found that it reduced victims’ post-traumatic stress disorder, and participants lauded it for helping them “take back their power” (koss, 2014). it has been endorsed by some of the more vocal #metoo celebrities, including ashley judd and laura dern (griner, 2018), and has been touted as a method of compliance in sexual assault cases on college campuses (koss, wilgus, & williamsen, 2014). some feminists have expressed concern about restorative justice. one concern is that restorative justice requires victims to face their assailants in situations of unbalanced power, but lesley wexler, a professor at the university of illinois college of law, whose work has focused on sexual harassment, armed conflict and apologies, said, “part of what should be happening here is personal. making amends to the victim, restoring the victim. and a separate part is acknowledging that the nature of this harm isn’t just the individual, you are a community. that suggests you also need to be public about what specifically was wrong and what you can do better” (smith, 2018). another concern of some volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 126 feminists is that restorative justice is “cheap justice;” that is, it allows the state to push its responsibility for handling these offenses to less formal, inexpensive programs (daly & stubbs, 2006). yet a feminist framework of restorative justice can account for these concerns and furthers historical feminists’ concerns about excessive state involvement (bumiller, 2008; daley & stubbs, 2006; whailey, 2018). efforts to understand what is meant by a victim-centered approach have identified several primary characteristics, all of which can be found in restorative justice models. these include: “victims need to tell their own stories about their experiences, obtain answers to questions, experience validation as a legitimate victim, observe offender remorse for harming them, receive support that counteracts isolation and self-blame, and above all have choice and input into the resolution of their violation” (koss & achilles, 2008). restorative justice may offer more options to the diverse group that is victimized, especially for those who do not prefer formal prosecution. it also gives greater attention to lay, not legal, understandings of the offenses and thus may offer a more holistic understanding (curtis-fawley & daly, 2005). restorative justice seems to have appeal when people are aware that it is an option. one study of 121 community members, 40 of whom identified as sexual assault survivors, found that both survivors and nonsurvivors supported restorative justice (marsh & wager, 2015). curtis-fawley and daly (2005) interviewed victim advocates in south australia and queensland as well as indigenous and non-indigenous victims. further, they conducted an archival analysis of nearly 400 sexual assault cases and an analysis of fifteen restorative justice conferences involving sexual assault and domestic violence in south australia. both victims and advocates expressed concern about the criminal (in)justice system. most of the advocates felt that restorative justice would result in more positive outcomes for victims. in giving victims more voice, the advocates noted that restorative justice could help address power imbalances. while most of the cases discussed in this paper are not about sexual assault but rather various forms of sexual misconduct, an approach based on the model of restorative justice could be useful in these situations as well. yet there remain few restorative programs for sexual misconduct, which koss and achilles (2008) attribute to policy, system, and resource barriers, including the fact that programs working with both victims and offenders are not eligible for funding via the violence against women act. funding further effects the development of new programs, and there remains debate over whether it is best to professionalize them as a part of the criminal justice response or lean toward more grassroots efforts. moreover, misunderstanding about what it entails and how restorative justice differs from mediation have hampered progress in using it for volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 127 sexual misconduct cases (griner, 2018). additionally, more evaluation of restorative programs for sexual misconduct cases is needed. gang, loff, naylor and kirkman (2019) searched five databases for examples and found only one—koss (2014)’s study cited earlier. redemption is far more consistent with the progressive position on the criminal justice system. most progressives disavow the retributive prison industrial complex with its emphasis on retribution instead of rehabilitation. progressives critique the rush to utilize criminal justice responses without exploring alternatives for accountability and see the stigmatizing effects of a prison sentence on ex-felons. most believe that even those who have committed horrible offenses can eventually be redeemed. restorative justice is more suited to minimizing the net-widening of the criminal justice system and to redemption, although some, including shapland (2014), assert that restorative justice programs have increasingly been professionalized and coopted by the state. in addition, progressives often critique “trial by media” as an injustice. the dalhousie university facebook scandal offers an examination of the divide between some progressives and feminist groups when it comes to restorative justice and forgiveness. in 2014, some male students in dalhousie’s dentistry program created a facebook group called “class of dds 2015 gentlemen” in which they posted sexist comments about female classmates including a poll asking participants to respond to which classmates they would have “hate sex” with. the female students were shocked and upset but determined to use it as an educational experience for the men. they called on dalhousie university’s schulich school of law restorative justice expert jennifer llewellyn, who helped utilize a restorative approach that resulted in the men accepting responsibility for their behavior and, even more, helped uncover a culture of misogyny at the university that was at the root of the problem (llewllyn, demsey, & smith, 2015). yet, the restorative approach was met with great public outcry, even by women’s groups, who felt the men should have been expelled and that the victims were being coerced to participate. the women did not feel that way, however; they felt as though the university had allowed them to choose, and they chose restorative justice because it had the potential to change the men’s behavior before they graduated and moved into professional settings (wemmers, 2018). investigations of the allegations found that the dentistry program had a culture of “sexism, misogyny, homophobia and racism,” meaning these were institutionalized behaviors, not one-offs (cbc news, 2015). restorative justice, then, was seen by many as the way to challenge the institutionalization of rape culture. koss, wilgus and williamsen (2014) reviewed the white house’s “dear colleague letter,” which was issued in 2011 to provide guidelines to campuses on handling sexual assault, and found that restorative volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 128 practices are permitted and, “when implemented appropriately and effectively restorative justice processes support the shared interest of victim survivors, institutions, the office for civil rights, and student conduct professionals” (p. 242). conclusion forgiveness is not akin to acceptance or pardon but rather a way of affording some type of second chance that can reintegrate offenders into a society, with changed behavior. without a model for forgiveness, survivors often face two competing options: “you must either forgive and stay silent or stay angry and press charges, and if you do forgive someone, you must be happy to have this person at thanksgiving. what a toxic brew of nonsense” (bettencourt, 2018). further, as bettencourt (2018) notes, “merriam webster defines forgive” as, “to give up resentment.” you can give up resentment and hold someone accountable — in private or public. you can, and in certain situations you should, forgive, yet never reestablish a relationship.” in other cases, victims are ready to have a relationship of sorts. restorative justice allows that to be an option but does not require it. it also calls on the accused to not only acknowledge his or her behavior but to pledge, in specific terms, how he or she will do better (wexler & robbennolt, 2019). as melo (2019) explains, “we can still hold people accountable: we do not have to give them their tv shows back, restore them as directors of movie franchises, or vote them into office. even redemption does not absolve them of responsibility. but true accountability leaves room for the chance—however slim—that people can change their minds and help advance society.” in sum, bettencourt (2018) asserts: “the idea that forgiveness and justice are mutually exclusive is more than semantics. it robs sexual assault survivors of dignity, empowerment, and healing. to recover from trauma and change the culture that enables sexual abuse, we must be free to tell the truth, protect our safety, seek justice, and release our bitterness. yet lumping forgiveness in with reconciliation and pardon prevents that.” alternately, calling out abusers but never attempting to forgive can turn into a bitterness that maya angelou called “a cancer.” bettencourt interviewed many sexual assault survivors who forgave their perpetrators, all of whom said they did so first for their own self-preservation. “the #metoo movement, driven by righteous rage and demands for dignity, is an opportunity to upgrade the antiquated definition of forgiveness that deprives women of empowerment and healing. the more we view forgiveness as a process of releasing resentment, rather than an abdication of justice that implies silence or reconciliation, the better equipped we’ll be to help survivors” (bettencourt, 2018). a model of justice based on forgiveness helps those who align as progressives be “for” something, not simply “against” the current system (ortiz, 2019), and reduces volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 129 the “tribal mentality” of us/them, victim/abuser, thereby offering an opportunity for real change (melo, 2019). it is indeed what tarana burke intended when she started the hashtag. ”in a 2017 interview, burke described her multilayered vision of healing: victims use “me too” as a way of creating connections and sharing empathy; the community recognizes victims and their needs; perpetrators move toward discussions of accountability, transparency, and vulnerability; and everyone considers how “collectively, to start dismantling these systems that uphold and make space for sexual violence” (wexler & robbennolt, 2019). callout culture can never work to truly change society. instead, dialogue, understanding, accountability and sincere efforts will be what reduces sexual misconduct. for those involved in progressive peace and justice activism, it is important to practice what we preach consistently. references bettencourt, m. (2018, september 25). how forgiveness has been weaponized against women. harper’s bazaar. retrieved june 10, 2019 from https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a23284069/metoo-sexualabuse-forgiveness-weaponized-against-women/ blake, a. (2017, december 6). why al franken is done for—and roy moore isn’t. washington post. retrieved july 8, 2019 from www.washingtonpost.com bumiller, k. (2008). in an abusive state: how neoliberalism appropriated the feminist movement against sexual violence. durham, nc: duke university press. cbc news. (2015, june 29). dalhousie dentistry report: university had culture of “misogyny, homophobia and racism.” cbc canada. retrieved september 16, 2019 from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/dalhousiedentistry-report-university-had-culture-of-misogyny-homophobia-andracism-1.3131522 congressional misconduct database. (n.d.). govtrack. retrieved september 13, 2019 from https://www.govtrack.us/misconduct corbett, e. (2019, february 25). alva johnson, former trump campaign staffer, accuses president of sexual assault. fortune. retrieved july 8, 2019 from https://fortune.com/2019/02/25/trump-campaign-staffer-lawsuit-againstsexual-assault/ volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 130 curtis-fawley, s., & daly, k. (2005). gendered violence and restorative justice: the views of victim advocates. violence against women, 11(5), 603-38. daly, k., & stubbs, j. (2006). feminist engagement with restorative justice. theoretical criminology, 10(1), 9-28. freyd, j. (2018, january 11). when sexual assault victims speak out, their institutions often betray them. the conversation. retrieved september 15, 2019 from https://theconversation.com/when-sexual-assault-victimsspeak-out-their-institutions-often-betray-them-87050 gang, d., loff, b., naylor, b., & kirkman, m. (2019). a call for evaluation of restorative justice programs. trauma, violence, & abuse, 1-5. griner, a. (2018, march 13). the better way to support rape victims: put their needs first. the guardian. retrieved july 6, 2019 from https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/mar/13/restorative-justiceputting-the-needs-of-victims-first hamilton, r. (2017, december 21). no, naming and shaming offenders doesn’t always help. washington post. retrieved september 13, 2019 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/no-naming-and-shamingsexual-offenders-doesnt-always-help/2017/12/21/4210486c-e5bb-11e7ab50-621fe0588340_story.html jensen. r. (2014, april 29). rape, rape culture, and the problem of patriarchy. waging nonviolence. retrieved september 13, 2019 from https://wagingnonviolence.org/2014/04/rape-rape-culture-problempatriarchy/ koss, m. (2014). the restore program of restorative justice for sex crimes: vision, process and outcomes. journal of interpersonal violence, 29(9), 1623-1660. koss, m., & achilles, a. (2008). restorative justice response to sexual assault. vawnet. retrieved july 6, 2019 from https://vawnet.org/sites/default/files/materials/files/201609/ar_restorativejustice.pdf koss, m., wilgus, j., & williamsen, k. (2014). campus sexual misconduct: restorative justice approaches to enhance compliance with title ix guidelines. trauma, violence, & abuse, 15(3), 242-57. llewellyn, j., demsey, a., & smith, j. (2015). an unfamiliar justice story: restorative justice and education. reflections on dalhousie’s facebook volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 131 incident 2015. canadian centre for policy alternatives, our schools / our selves, fall, 43-56. retrieved july 7, 2019 from https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/ national%20office/2015/12/os121_restorative_justice.pdf marsh, f., & wager, n. (2015). restorative justice in cases of sexual violence: exploring the views of the public and survivors. probation journal, 62(4), 336-56. mcgann, l. (2019, april 3). lucy flores isn’t alone. joe biden has a long history of touching women inappropriately. vox. retrieved july 8, 2019 from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/29/18241598/joe-bidenlucy-flores-touching-women-media-history-explained mcgann, l. (2018, may 21). the still-raging controversy over al franken’s resignation, explained. vox. retrieved june 10, 2019 from https://www.vox.com/2018/5/21/17352230/al-franken-accusationsresignation-democrats-leann-tweeden-kirsten-gillibrand mcglynn, c., westmarland, n., & godden, n. (2012). “i just wanted him to hear me:” sexual violence and the possibilities of restorative justice. journal of law & society, 39(2), 213-240. melo, d. (2019, february 4). what’s missing from callout culture: the opportunity to change. areo magazine. retrieved july 12, 2019 from https://areomagazine.com/2019/02/04/whats-missing-from-call-outculture-the-opportunity-to-change/ mendes, k., ringrose, j., & keller, j. (2018). #metoo and the promise and pitfalls of challenging rape culture through digital feminist activism. european journal of women’s studies, 25(2), 236-46. mercer, v., & sten-madsen, k. (2015). doing restorative justice in cases of sexual violence: a practice guide. european forum on restorative justice. retrieved july 7, 2019 from http://euforumrj.org/wpcontent/uploads/2015/09/doing-restorative-justice-in-cases-of-sexualviolence_practice-guide_sept2015-1.pdf miller, h. (2019, june 4). kirsten gillibrand defends al franken resignation push after peter buttigieg swipe. huffington post. retrieved june 10, 2019 from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kirsten-gillibrand-pete-buttigieg-alfranken_n_5cf67a90e4b0e346ce8516b1 miller, s. (2019, march 6). consultants mostly optimistic on industry’s future, but 2020 worries loom. campaigns & elections. retrieved july 8, 2019 from volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 132 https://www.campaignsandelections.com/campaign-insider/consultantsmostly-optimistic-on-industry-s-future-but-2020-worries-loom moon, e. (2019, may 7). bernie sanders says his campaigns new sexual misconduct policy is “the gold standard.” ps magazine. retrieved july 8, 2019 from https://psmag.com/news/bernie-sanders-campaigns-new-sexualmisconduct-policy north, a. (2019, february 13). aziz ansari actually talked about the sexual misconduct allegation against him like an adult. vox. retrieved july 8, 2019 from https://www.vox.com/2019/2/13/18223535/aziz-ansari-sexualmisconduct-allegation-me-too ortiz, w. (2019, april 10). punishment is not justice. bitch media. retrieved july 6, 2019 from https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/feature/punishment-isnot-justice rosen, c. (2019, june 25). the #metoo movement is on life support. commentary magazine. retrieved july 6, 2019 from https://www.commentarymagazine.com/american-society/metoo-momentis-on-life-support/ shapland, j. (2014). implications of growth: challenges for restorative justice. international review of victimology, 20(1), 111-27. smith, c., & freyd, j. (2013). dangerous safe havens: institutional betrayal exacerbates sexual trauma. journal of traumatic stress, 26, 119-24. smith. c., & freyd, j. (2017). insult, then injury: interpersonal and institutional betrayal linked to health and dissociation. journal of aggression, maltreatment & trauma, 26(10), 1117-1133. smith, m. (2018, april 15). in age of #metoo, can there be forgiveness, second chances? ap news. retrieved june 10, 2019 from https://www.apnews.com/c69e3a82417f4af280376fdc10cf8651 umbreit, m.s., vos, b., coates, r.b., & lightfoot, e. (2006). restorative justice in the twenty first century: a social movement full of opportunities and pitfalls. marquette law review, 253-304. wager, n. (2013). a scoping review considering the applicability of restorative justice to cases of sexual assault. paper presented at the international psychological applications conference and trends, madrid, spain. volume 13 number 2 (2019): 117-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 133 wemmers, j. (2018). judging victims: restorative choices for victims of sexual violence. victims of crime digest number 10. retrieved july 7, 2019 from https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/victim/rd10rr10/p3.html wexler, l., & robbennolt, j. (2019). #metoo and restorative justice. american bar association dispute resolution magazine. retrieved july 6, 2019 from https://www.americanbar.org/groups/dispute_resolution/publications /dispute_resolution_magazine/2019/winter-2019-me-too/metoo-andrestorative-justice/ whailey, e. (2018). rape crises in rape cultures: transnational dehumanization within sexual assault response complexes. thesis submitted to the university of colorado boulder. retrieved september 16, 2019 from https://scholar.colorado.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1069&context=so cy_gradetds yan, h., & chavez, c. (2018, october 3). here are the stats on false sexual assault claims. cnn. retrieved september 13, 2019 from https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/03/health/sexual-assault-falsereports/index.html microsoft word ifp v 17 meng.docx volume 17 number 1 (2023): 62-75 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 62 volume 17 number 1 (2023): 62-75 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 local worldmaking through little dragons for a better world: a case study of a intercultural community building project vanessa meng abstract: this article presents a case study in grassroots aesthetic education as world-making within a diaspora chinese community in the united states. this experimental education acted as a pedagogy of resilience in the face of the pandemic and its revealing of structural injustices. for american-chinese and chinese-american students, this education provided a way to understand themselves as inhabiting multiple identities, a re-orientation urgently needed in the context of politicized u.s.-china relations during and after the pandemic. encouraging creativity and the arts as methods to bridge identities and communities, little dragons for a better world also established new pathways for resource sharing and care relationships. the article situates this education in theories of activism drawn from grace lee boggs, angela davis, wangari maathai, urmi basu, hu mama, thich nacht han, arundhati roy, and giovana di chiro, orienting community-building at the local scale as a revolutionary practice. keywords: american-chinese and chinese-american activism, glocal, grassroots education, syncing up, community-building, resilience in the summer of 2020, i had just graduated with a liberal arts college degree, and like many others, was set ablaze with the feeling that the revolution needed to happen now. my education gave me the tools to analyze and understand the intersecting crises of capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, ableism, and climate volume 17 number 1 (2023): 62-75 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 63 disaster and the global pandemic seemed to only prove to us all how the systems of the old world are broken. suddenly it felt absurd to continue with what seemed to be logical or ‘normal’ next steps. what is looking for a job in a world that has systems that are so destructive and broken? what is aligned with my values and also useful to the multiple crises happening all at once around me? what makes sense in a senseless world? i found myself gravitating towards books and scholars taught in my environmental justice professor giovanna di chiro’s classes: amongst them were grace lee boggs and angela davis’ reverberating voices. perhaps i found solace in the fact that they, too, studied philosophy, and they too felt the urgency of the revolution. boggs famously asks, “what time is it in the clock of the world?” and, to me, this was a pivotal question. i realized, then, that it was not the time for me to fret about my ego. indeed, arundhati roy’s prescient article, the pandemic is a portal sheds light on how much the world was already changing. she said: "we can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. and ready to fight for it" (roy, 2020, p. 1). amidst racial tension, worldwide grief, and personal uncertainty i realized that the revolution was happening now, it was already underway and it was up to me to take it upon myself to live my life in the way of the world that i want to help build. worldmaking was not a metaphorical concept anymore, as a student who already graduated from college it was necessary that i built the world i believed in. with the help of these writers and thinkers, the answer for me was to bring happiness, creativity, peace, and most importantly, co-created actions that reflect these values in the day-to-day, local community. roy states in her book the cost of living, that it is now the "time of the small," that perhaps there is a "god of small things" looking down at us. she states this by saying that for too long our world valued projects that were "big" and full of "big ideas" but those projects would fail with no accountability, citing the dams in india (roy, 1999, p. 1). real change happens on the scale of the small, the unseen, and often unnoticed. these thinkers gave me the courage to find immense value in teaching at a small scale, and to create the project little dragons for a better world. this article provides a case study of this project, its results, and a brief analysis of the importance of community-making at the local level. it is deeply inspired by grace and james boggs' "detroit summer" project which was briefly discussed in her book the next american revolution. "detroit summer" is a multi-racial and intergenerational collective that empowers local youth through arts and co-creation to improve their local communities (boggs & kurashige, 2012, pp. 105–34). little dragons of a better world has a similar mission, centering chinese american and american volume 17 number 1 (2023): 62-75 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 64 chinese families (ca-ac) living in the swarthmore wallingford areas in delaware county, pennsylvania. 1. the time in the clock of the world in 2020, the issue of chinese and asian hatred in the us became apparent. as stated by hung et al., “anti-chinese sentiment increased during the covid-19 pandemic, presenting as a considerable spike in overt violence and hatred directed at asian american individuals (p. 1).” it seemed that what used to be latent racism, especially in comparison to the racism directed towards black and brown bodies, became for the first time an overt one. indeed asian racism often is in the strand of micro-aggressions instead of overt aggression (lee, 2022). the issue was a wakeup call to many. asian americans are often considered a "model minority" in the united states and also often accepted in general society. this has led to many asian americans being less aware, interested, and involved in social justice issues. oftentimes, asian americans feel the need to internalize a choice between their asianness and americanness, and many feel that they identify completely with the american system and values. most of the time ca-acs are understood as those who "put their head down and work on their lives" 過自己的小日子 (a common saying amongst chinese communities). thus, in 2020 it was particularly powerful to see a wave of asian people coming together in solidarity. in this essay, i will also specifically look at ca-ac. oftentimes, asian americans are lumped together, but most asian people feel much more connected to their specific ethnic heritage than the general pan-asian label. indeed, as seen in pew's data, most asians think of this identity as only something to "check a box" and identify more closely with their ethnic heritage (greenwood, 2023). in 2020 it was the antichinese sentiment that was spearheading the racist comments, as led by the president of the united states of the time. it is hard to forget how the previous president continued to speak about the "chinese virus" and the "wuhan disease", in the context of the covid-19 pandemic. anti-chinese sentiment however did not simply spring up overnight, rather it has been brewing for decades. the pandemic was a catalyst that brought it onto the surface like an oil spill on water. it floated on top and stewed up violence, confusion, and latent anger and frustrations. the president at the time was simply spewing views that quietly brewed in many people's minds. china and the chinese culture have been pitted against the us and us values for a long time. in my undergraduate work, i spent much time delineating how the media has carefully created the narrative of china as the imposing other (pan, 2010). indeed, on the world stage, china has time and time again been publicly humiliated by the us, whether it is public shaming about human rights or environmental rights, or actual political stamping on the global stage like in the united nations. most of the time, volume 17 number 1 (2023): 62-75 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 65 the narrative is superficial and not interrogated further, for example, most of the environmental problems stem from factory work that is creating products for the us's capitalist industries, and most people seem to quickly associate china with ethical issues (pan, 2010). as a chinese-american myself i saw in my community of ca-ac how this tension causes a rift within the family and personal interaction within the nuclear family. the tension of holding cultures that are not only different but often pitted against one another with an inherent power dynamic causes personal tensions and the splitting of the self. as freire (2010) says in pedagogy of the oppressed when the oppressed are in structures of learning environments that internally view them as the oppressed: [the oppressed] are one at the same time themselves and the oppressor whose consciousness they have internalized. the conflict lies in the choice of being fully themselves or being divided; between ejecting the oppressor within or not ejecting them; between human solidarity or alienation; between following prescriptions or having choices; between spectators or actors; between acting or having the illusion of acting through the action of the oppressors; between speaking out or being silent; castrated in their power to create and re-create, in their power to transform the world. this is the tragic dilemma of the oppressed which their education must take account” (2010, p. 47). indeed on the world stage, china has continuously been oppressed, and this rift between the two cultures causes this kind of division within the children of the community living in the united states. the question then is how can one be both american and chinese in a time where there is not only conflict and power dynamics that interplay between the nations, but also a seemingly ethical conflict between the two cultures. chinese and us values seem to not only be politically unaligned but also have inherently different sets of values on how to live life. oftentimes children of immigrants are much more americanized than their parents, causing internal conflict in the home. i saw how the children who were attending schools, who were living in america, were internally divided, constantly castrating their own culture and language. children would dismiss their parents, and parents would find it more difficult to communicate with the children. further, there are few examples of people who can balance their identities, and interestingly enough, many chinese americans who then become american diplomats, such as gary locke, are then shamed by chinese communities as traitors (kamen, 2021). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 62-75 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 66 to circle back to the original question, about the clock's face, i saw the need for ca-ac communities to celebrate chinese heritage as well as integrate with american justice and societal issues. how can we balance these identities that seem to be so different from one another? in an ideal world, where the chinese american identity is not simply a chinese american who is simply americanized but can celebrate their heritage and have a cultural set of values that is understood and accepted. these questions were the bedrock of this project. 2. hope in aesthetic education the question that naturally follows the identification of the problem, is the methodology for the solution. at the time i had just begun tutoring and teaching small classes on writing and poetry. this was something i started doing in 2016 when i had an internship with new light, an organization that worked with the women and children of the red-light district in kolkata. amid the crisis, this gave me hope. to see young minds express, dream, and believe in humanity despite what felt like a dark time gave me tender light. one of my students, in writing about covid wrote this: "hope may have not been found/ but that doesn't mean hope is not around… no matter what is happening/ whether we are in a pandemic or when we are separated/we are connected/like tree branches" (diaz, 2020). at the tender age of 11, she was already encouraging the world, already seeing our interconnections, already trying to take in the pain and soothe the worries of others. to me, this gave me the strength that fueled my positivity as well. it dawned on me that the power of teaching writing and poetry or teaching art in general, was that students not only receive a skill or knowledge but also be given a space to situate themselves in the web of relations in the world. the true power of education is for students to have the space to discover and deepen their understanding of the self in relation to the world. one of the largest propagators of aesthetic education and its power is 蔡元培 cai yuanpei (1868-1940). he was a chinese politician and the most influential chinese educator: he was the first minister of education in the newly formed republic of china in 1911. he studied philosophy, aesthetics, and experimental psychology at the university of leipzig, germany before returning to this position. he is heavily influenced by kant, hegel, and especially schiller who "argued for the centrality of aesthetic education in the healthy development of both society and the individual" (lal, 1984, p.). cai believed that “beauty” represented the key not only to general well-being but also to a triadic model of historical progressin a lineage akin to hegel’s dialectic of absolute idealism—from the physical to the aesthetic to the moral. he was also deeply influenced by american philosopher john dewey’s orders objective for modern education. dewey, who was a hegelian, espoused an organic view of society in which an individual’s measure is linked to his or her performance in and volume 17 number 1 (2023): 62-75 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 67 for society. indeed, cai’s thinking came at a time when china was in deep distress, reeling from a revolution and the failed first sino-japanese war. “the system of education within such a view would be an expression of the highest form of hegelian reconciliation, identified metonymically as an absolute” (lal, 1984, p. 31). cai’s famous line is 以美術代宗教 “aesthetic education as a substitute for religion” (pan, 2012). in china, religion was commonly thought of as the reason why europe was more advanced. chinese people are not religious but are extremely ideological. aesthetic education proved to cai to be the true road to creating free individuals; free to know themselves and their interests, free to pursue what was necessary for them in relation to their society. he wrote, with many similarities to hegel and schiller: "we must follow the general rule of freedom of thought and freedom of expression, and not allow any one branch of philosophy or any one tenet of religion to confine our minds, but always aim at a lofty universal point of view which is valid without regard to space or time. for such an education i can think of no other name than education for a world view" (zhang, 1990, p.134). to provide a space for students to freely express themselves and also to give them prompts that give them the bedrock to find this "world view" was thus also a key ingredient to this project. just like how the "detroit summer" centered art and co-creation as part of its methodology, i realized that creativity and the arts were needed to develop this bridging of identities. thus, in developing little dragons for a better world, i saw that the central part of celebrating and reifying chinese heritage for the kids was through creativity and storytelling, co-creating, and co-building. the development of this “worldview” rests on the ability for students to expand their understanding of the self as one of multiplicity and that needs to happen with sharing the arts. furthermore, it was central for me to see in this development of worldview, and possible worlds, was my role as a chinese american who grew up in china with a college education from swarthmore. i realized that my language skills, cultural background, and my understanding of how to synthesize cultures are something that the children in the community do not have examples of, and it was incremental that i could be a teacher that led by example. thus, the project was created bilingually, inclusive of the parents and the intergenerational language barrier. most importantly, the event hoped to teach the value of not only celebrating the self, but also caring for the community; as thich nhat hanh writes, “[the] mission [of] teachers are not just to transmit knowledge, but to form human beings, to construct a worthy, beautiful human race, in order to take care of our precious planet” (hanh et al, 2019, p. 22 ). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 62-75 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 68 3. little dragons for a better world mid-autumn festival the first event was in celebration of the mid-autumn festival, in 2022. this was sponsored by both the peace and justice studies association as well as the asian pacific islander political alliance (apipa). the event was entirely advertised on the neighborhood wechat group, a social media platform that is distinctively used by chinese people and communities. during the first section, children listened to a story of skywoman, based on robin kimmerer's introduction in braiding sweetgrass. skywoman is the native american story of the founding of this land. the reason i chose this as the opening story was because i thought it was important to connect first with the land that we were in. around 30 children participated and worked on their gratitude chain. children listening to the story of skywoman. the parents were led into a workshop on creating an ideal community poster. apipa led this workshop so that they could state what a good community looked like. parents gained more connections, learned about the local apipa organization and their initiatives, such as the "save chinatown project", as well as experiencing the local college campus. afterward, there was a show put on by students from swarthmore college as well as community members, including volume 17 number 1 (2023): 62-75 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 69 taiko, the erhu (traditional chinese instrument), and an exercise in the use of the nunchucks. parents doing the idea community activity led by apipa students learning the nunchucks from a local father. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 62-75 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 70 finally, there was a dinner sponsored by apipa, with food provided by a local restaurant. during this dinner, there was a bilingual performance of the story change and houyi, the story that is celebrated during the mid-autumn festival. the storytelling was accompanied by a chinese/indianamerican dancer who used bharatanatyam dance to accompany the story's events, again allowing the community to expand their worldview (link to performance). over 100 community members eating dinner together overall, the event was a great success that led to strengthened bonds, formed new connections, and established a sense of trust. the next section will go over what kinds of bonds have been created, and how this relates to the creation of intercultural peace and resisting dominant structures. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 62-75 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 71 little dragons for a better world mid-autumn festival event 09/10/2022 4. “worldmaking on the ground up”1 the event led to new connections, deepened trust, and the beginning of a project that is self-sufficient. the strengthening of a community is creating a deeper sense of relations that leads to more support, more sharing of resources, and more sharing of knowledge. though this is happening on a small scale, its implications and happenings are aligned with the values and ideals set by the revolutionary thinkers in the environmental justice movements and social justice movements. to reimagine the world and create a decolonial, environmentally just, anti-capitalist future is often to venture into the realm of speculative fiction. donna haraway's book staying with the trouble gives us a view of what this new world could be. in the section labeled "camille stories: children of compost" haraway delineates the story of five generations of symbiogenetic beings, who have connected with other creatures such as the monarch butterfly. the intergenerational communities live in deep connection with one another, and without much separation from nature (haraway, 2016). 1 this term was borrowed from giovanna di chiro’s forthcoming book worldmaking from the ground up: the praxis of environmental justice (berkeley, university of california press). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 62-75 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 72 what does this vision look like in praxis? in some ways, ca-ac and all immigrant identities are like symbiogenetic creatures, living within two worlds, two palettes, and two tongues that are vastly different from one another. like camille in the stories, there is a stitching together of biospheres, the melding of life forces. there is a newness to the identities formed in the liminal spaces, and connection and celebration are instrumental in creating solidarity, and also in creating a sense of identity. although the actual internal shifts within the families such as views on community and views on identity have yet to be assessed, the most notable effects are more connections, friendships, and relations leading to more sharing of resources. for example, there is an elderly couple who began a farm in their backyard, naming it "happy farm." they were farmers when they were back in china, and they came to be with their granddaughter. however, due to language barriers, they found it difficult and boring to live here so they began happy farm as a way to stay connected with the community. they grow chinese vegetables that are hard to find in the supermarkets here, such as 絲瓜 loofah melon, and 茭白筍 white bamboo shoots. during the event their contact and information were spread across, giving them many more customers and connections to share their vegetables with. as boggs states "we must be practicing in the social realm the capacity to care for each other, to share the food, skills, time, and ideas that up to now most of us have limited to our most cherished personal relationships" (boggs & kurashige, 2012, p. 47). this caring relationship when it comes to sharing is one of the most radical and important steps in creating a new world, and in educating the youth about what can be possible. further, it became more common for neighbors in the area to invite one another to dinner, to help each other get groceries, and to share things like educational resources and books. these interactions are happening on a day-to-day basis. however, because more interactions are occurring there are also more conflicts and more arguments happening as well, and little dragons hopes to continue building a neutral space so that the community can come together. perhaps most excitedly, many families decided to donate monetarily to the next event and were extremely willing to help. thus, for the next event, there was no need for an external sponsor. for the dinner families all brought homemade food and shared in a potluck style. for the show children performed piano, singing, and karate and even one student shared doing his rubik's cube live. at one point all the parents came up to sing a shared song that the chinese community knows, a moment of true belonging and co-creation. further, there is a renowned violinist named zhou xiaofu who gave a free performance for the community. now mothers have begun to volunteer their time to help plan the next one. melissa miles coauthor of ecofeminism wrote that true consumer liberation is "self-sufficiency, co volume 17 number 1 (2023): 62-75 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 73 operation instead of competitiveness and their diversity, belief in the subjectivity of not only human beings but also non-human beings, commonality instead of aggressive self-interest, creativity instead of the 'catching-up-with-the-joneses' factor that is responsible for much superfluous consumption in our societies and to find satisfaction and joy in one's work and life" (shiva & miles, 2014, p. 254). from food to time, to looking after each other's kids, to material resources, the community is connected and frequently helps one another out. this fabric of trust is built one friendship at a time, and the chinese community is quite intimate. seeing the intergenerational interactions, children and parents and friends gathering in more frequent and normal spaces have been a glimpse into a hopeful future. when it comes to empowering an intercultural community, it is important to acknowledge the politics of space. ca-ac families have been forming relationships before the events of course, but it had always been within the margins. with our second little dragons event, we had the endorsement of the town's mayor, martin spiegel, and we had the opportunity to host the event at the historical local community center, park avenue center. what once felt underground, connections formed mostly in liminal spaces in each other's private spaces, were able to come to shared public spaces. the hope is now the community knows that they do have a space to celebrate themselves within the fabric of their local community, a true intercultural mingling. there is much to continue with this project, much to explore, and much to grow from. there can be more connection with local organizations and more actual work to be done with local issues, but this article hopes to shed light on a small intercultural educational program happening at the grassroots level, with values that resonate with a global mission. little dragons for a better world winter gathering 12/17/2022 at park avenue center volume 17 number 1 (2023): 62-75 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 74 references boggs, g. l., & kurashige, s. (2012). the next american revolution sustainable activism for the twenty-first century. university of california press. x di chiro, g. (1997). local actions, global visions: remaking environmental expertise. frontiers: a journal of women studies, 18(2), 203. https://doi.org/10.2307/3346975 diaz, (2020). together we will rise. delaware library poetry contest. freire, p. (2010). pedagogy of the oppressed. green bee. greenwood, s. (2023, april 6). what it means to be asian in america. pew research center race & ethnicity. retrieved april 9, 2023, from https://www.pewresearch.org/race-ethnicity/2022/08/02/what-it-means-tobe-asian-in-america/ huang, j. t., krupenkin, m., rothschild, d., & lee cunningham, j. (2023). the cost of anti-asian racism during the covid-19 pandemic. nature human behaviour, 7(5), 682–695. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-022-01493-6 haraway, d. j. (2016). staying with the trouble: making kin in the chthulucene. duke university press. kamen, a. (2021, december 6). here's why the chinese government hated gary locke. the washington post. retrieved april 9, 2023, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-the-loop/wp/2014/02/26/hereswhy-the-chinese-government-hated-gary-locke/ lee, j. (2022, may 18). confronting the invisibility of anti-asian racism. brookings. retrieved april 9, 2023, from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2022/05/18/confronting-theinvisibility-of-anti-asian-racism/). lal, s. (1984). rabindranāth tagore's ideals of aesthetic education. journal of aesthetic education, 18(2), 31. https://doi.org/10.2307/3332497 volume 17 number 1 (2023): 62-75 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 75 pan, j. (2010). chinese philosophy and international law. asian journal of international law, 1(2), 233–248. https://doi.org/10.1017/s2044251310000354 pan, l. (2012). aesthetic education replacing religion: dual aims of aesthetic faith value constructed by cai yuanpei. journal of jishou university（ social sciences), 33(1), 56–60. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.10074074.2012.01.011 roy, a. (2020, april 3). arundhati roy: 'the pandemic is a portal': free to read . financial times. retrieved april 9, 2023, from https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca roy, arundhati (1999). the cost of living. the modern library. shiva, v., & miles, m. (2014). ecofeminism. zed books. weare, k., kabat-zinn, j., & hanh, t. n. (2017). happy teachers change the world: a guide for cultivating mindfulness in education. parallax press. zhang, l. (1990). profiles of educators. prospects, 20(1), 129–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02195435 microsoft word ifp v 16 karen ross.docx volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 1 volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 aspiring to transformation: solidarity and prefiguration in an educational social movement organization karen ross university of massachusetts-boston karen.ross@umb.edu introduction studies of peace and social justice-focused education have long explored the role of pedagogy in enabling individual transformation and moving towards social change (bajaj et al, 2017; finley, 2004). indeed, the fields of peace and human rights education have increasingly emphasized critical, feminist, and transformative pedagogies as fundamental for developing a critical consciousness and motivation to act among young people (bajaj & hantzopoulos, 2016, 2021; jenkins, 2016; zembylas, 2013). however, the primary focus in this scholarship has been on pedagogy itself: on interactions between teachers/mentors and their students, and how these are or can be designed in transformative manners. little attention has been paid to organizations – that is, entities with some level of formality and hierarchy, and fixed bureaucratic functions (huag, 2013) – that run the educational programs volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 2 where these pedagogies are put into practice. this is true even though we know that, especially in conflict areas, transformative education often happens outside of formal educational contexts (bar-tal & rosen, 2009). in particular, scant attention has been paid to the way that organizations in conflict areas create conditions that both allow for transformative pedagogies to be implemented within their programs, and that enable these organizations, as hybrid educational-political organizations (minkoff, 2002), to engage with external actors in contexts where their work is unsupported – even, at times, greatly opposed. to address this gap, i explore the work of sadaka reut, an israeli educational and social movement organization working with jewish and palestinian youth1 and that is staffed and directed by both jewish and palestinian educators and activists. using sadaka reut as an example, i ask two key questions: how do educational organizations formed across conflict lines develop a shared sense of solidarity and partnership that is modeled by its staff as part of its pedagogical approach? and how can these organizations interact with external actors that hold different values, in ways that remain consistent with their own values? i argue that sadaka reut’s prefigurative politics (defined below) serve the role of creating a strong sense of binational solidarity within the organization, and that this internal solidarity and sense of unity enables the organization to navigate the tensions between its own values and the values of state actors with which it must engage in order to recruit participants for its programming. in other words, prefiguration allows sadaka reut to be strategic in its actions when it navigates value tensions. my analysis suggests that we need to think about prefiguration as both an educational and political approach, and that we should view prefiguration as aspirational as much as it is performative. further, my analysis illustrates the significance of internal solidarity for educational organizations working across conflict divides, as well as how such solidarity both shapes possibilities for engagement with the state and is shaped (and limited) by the broader socio-political context within which it functions. the article proceeds as follows: i first discuss relevant literature for framing these questions. i then describe sadaka reut, the israeli context within which it works, and the methodology used in this analysis, before focusing on the organization’s internal dynamics. i consider the significance of sadaka reut’s internal dynamics for how it engages with external actors before addressing challenges that the organization faces and implications for the work of educational 1 i use the term “palestinian” in this article to refer to individuals who are citizens of israel but who are of palestinian descent. my use of this term (rather than “israeli arab” or “arab citizen”) reflects the self-identification of my participants. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 3 actors in other contexts. prefiguration, solidarity, and the education-social movement nexus three areas of literature provide a framework for exploring sadaka reut’s work: the scholarship on prefiguration/prefigurative politics; literature on solidarity, particularly solidarity across conflict divides; and the burgeoning field of research on the connection between social movements and education. prefiguration as a movement ideology the concept of prefigurative politics, or prefiguration, is central to understanding the way that movements model the change they wish to bring about (boggs, 1977; gawerc, 2012; leach, 2009, 2013; tarlau, 2021). essentially, prefigurative politics refers to a means-end alignment where movements embody the change they wish to see as a means of achieving the end of broader societal change (leach, 2013). vinthagan (2015) refers to the concept as normative regulation, or “building up the new personal habits and social institutions to replace the oppressive ones, in order to form the basis of a new society” (p. 271), using the example of the brazilian landless workers movement (movimento sem terra, or mst) to argue that this approach creates a movement culture/belief system enabling successful strategic action. theory contends that modeling desired change strengthens movements internally (ross et al, 2019), which in turn sets a strong foundation for engaging with external actors. the foundation that prefiguration creates for strategic engagement indicates that internal solidarity can build a strong framework for engagement with external forces (see also: ackerman & duval, 2005; hallward & shaver, 2012), enabling navigation of value tensions in ways that are palatable to state actors but consistent with internal beliefs. moreover, engagement with outsiders can enable further development and refinement of internal frameworks, thus creating recursive opportunities for visioning and modeling change. however, there is little literature on the nature of prefigurative politics within educational organizations, or within entities that aim to build solidarity across social identity divides or conflict lines. solidarity across conflict lines as donatella della porta (2013) notes, the internal dynamics of smo culture and possibilities within them created for solidarity remain relatively unstudied, at least in western contexts. the two primary emphases in existing literature are volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 4 organizational culture as characterized by democratic decision-making (e.g. kew, 2016), and deliberative and participatory decision-making within movements (e.g. buhlungu, 2009; della porta, 2009; polletta, 2002). in the context of movement work that occurs across social identity divides or between dominant and marginalized groups, particularly in terms of transcending power imbalances, existing scholarship points to a number of inherent difficulties. for instance, while diversifying movements through inclusion of privileged allies can create positive opportunities, it can also potentially undermine attempts to challenge dominant social policies and discourses or result in elites or members of dominant groups taking control of decision-making (buhlungu, 2006; marx & useem, 1971). still, existing scholarship in both social movement studies and other fields provides insight into how cross-conflict solidarity can be negotiated in positive ways. jill bystzdzienski & steven schacht (2001) emphasize the importance of acknowledging the dynamics of difference by both understanding “the process of how one’s own social statuses often inform one’s relationship to others” (p. 10) and trying to see the world from perspectives of others; and by finding a common ground “by accepting and honoring those perspectives, experiences, and insights that are shared between them” (p. 10). bystzdienski & schacht also note that negotiation of difference is insufficient without simultaneously creating alternatives or working to transform existing structures (p. 11). similarly, einwohner et al. (2016) distinguish between active and passive solidarity: solidarity can only be characterized as active when it includes an intentional focus on confronting internal power dynamics and dismantling privilege (p. 10). in other words, active solidarity is not a “thing” but a process – ideally a deliberative process – that necessitates actively countering the silencing of marginalized groups. solidarity requires acting to change power dynamics between dominant and oppressed groups, rather than simply working within the status quo. it is thus emblematic of a prefigurative approach where movements and smos deliberately work in ways that challenge the status quo as part of their strategy for broader change. empirically, michelle gawerc’s scholarship on combatants for peace (cfp) and the parent’s circle/family forum (pcff), two of only a few joint israelipalestinian organizations working against the occupation, illustrates how active solidarity can be engaged within conflict contexts. for instance, gawerc (2018) describes steps taken to build trust and solidarity among palestinian and israeli cfp members, even as the risks each group faces differ. gawerc suggests that explicit discussion of what creates asymmetry in the context of cfp’s work, serves as a foundation for trust-building. she further notes that three measures help build israeli-palestinian solidarity despite asymmetrical risks: a clear commitment to volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 5 shared goals; being willing to defend and support one another; and respecting the boundaries of engagement on both sides. this analysis is reinforced in gawerc’s discussion of collective identity formation in cfp and pcff, which similarly emphasizes the importance of concrete actions taken by both palestinian and israeli activists, including actions taken solely by jewish activists when palestinians are unable to engage (gawerc 2016, 2017). scholarship on feminist and queer activism offers further insights for examining the possibilities of solidarity and the prefiguring of alternatives to hegemonic power dynamics. nira yuval-davis’ (1999) concept of transversal politics challenges conceptions of “collective identity” within movements that ignore identity and interest differences (see also rupp & taylor, 1999; steans, 2007), instead emphasizing difference as a basis for engagement. empirically, hewitt (2011) points to discursive framing strategies that transnational women’s rights activists use to foster a sense of shared struggle across intra-movement differences, including process-oriented, internally focused frames that are “highly inclusive, broadly applicable, [and] indigenously generated” (88) and can be used to foster a sense of shared struggle that transcends intra-movement differences. likewise, weldon (2006) argues that within the movement against gender violence, cooperation has been achieved despite structural inequalities, due to inclusive norms providing a basis for cooperation. van den brandt (2015), writing about religious-secular divides among feminist groups, also notes the significance, for solidarity, of actively engaging in creating discursive frames that deconstruct dominant norms. this conceptual and empirical scholarship challenges notions of solidarity that emphasize similarity rather than recognizing difference. as such, it offers a more nuanced framework for exploring the activation of solidarity within smos working across significant power differentials, and better understanding the nature of prefigurative politics in such contexts. social movements, smos, and education notwithstanding the significant body of literature that addresses prefigurative politics and solidarity across divides, little scholarship focuses on these issues within movements or smos that have explicitly educational as well as political orientations. historically, scholars connecting education to movement issues have primarily studied the influence of social movements on formal education (niesz et al, 2018), focusing on challenges to dominant educational paradigms from civil society groups as well as larger movements. the scholarship illustrates two main forms of education-related social movements. first, there are those concerned primarily with the education system itself—e.g., the homeschooling movement (apple, 2000; volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 6 stevens, 2001) opt out movement (pizmony-levy & saraisky, 2016; pizmonylevy & cosman, 2017), or movements utilizing ‘bottom up’ community organizing for education reform (e.g. kamber, 2002; lopez, 2003; oakes et al, 2008). second, a range of organizing initiatives are connected to broader attempts at social transformation (e.g. binder, 2009; gaskell, 2008): as just one example, the emergence of school-based gay-straight alliances (fetner & kush, 2007) can be understood as part of the broader movements for lgbtqi+ rights. this scholarship provides important insights into the ways that education intersects with broader socio-political issues. however, most of this literature treats educational institutions as separate from their challengers and indicates that movements engaged with education and state actors operate in opposition to one another. an important exception is rebecca tarlau’s (2021) research on the brazilian landless workers movement (mst) and the national program for education in areas of agrarian reform (pronera). tarlau explores a combination of simultaneously collaborative and contentious set of movement strategies by mst/pronera leaders for institutional engagement that she calls “contentious cogovernance,” illustrating the way that this combination of strategies works as a set of tools “not only for improving educational equity but also for increasing the strength and coherence of social movements themselves” (p. 2). in other words, tarlau argues that by partnering with education officials, even when conflicts exist in that partnership, movements and movement organizations can enter institutions where they are able to demonstrate the values that form the basis for prefiguring the change they wish to see. while tarlau’s research helps us understand the integration of social movement and educational spheres, it remains focused on the movement-state dynamic with respect to making changes in the realm of formal education. further research is needed to understand how movement organizations, particularly hybrid organizations (minkoff, 2002) with both educational and political missions, navigate relationships with state actors. additional research is also necessary to clarify the significance of prefigurative politics within these educational smos for success in navigating these relationships, as well as in enabling them to succeed pedagogically in their educational work. i address these gaps in this manuscript by focusing on what sadaka reut, as a movement organization with both educational and political goals, does to prefigure an alternative vision of society at an organizational level. i show how sadaka reut builds internal cohesion among its binational staff in a way that demonstrates a set of values connected to cross-identity group solidarity; this cohesion among staff enables the organization to navigate value tensions in its volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 7 interactions with state actors, in particular education officials in schools, in order to recruit participants. i argue that as an educational movement organization, sadaka reut engages in a set of prefigurative strategies among its staff that enable it to successfully interact with external actors even when there are tensions between the organization’s internal values and the values characterizing both the actors it partners with and israeli society writ large. in my analysis, i show how sadaka reut’s prefigurative strategies, while constrained by discourses in the broader political sphere, serve as a foundation for building solidarity within the organization and therefore for interacting with external actors in ways that allow for recruitment of participants and thus potentially for broadening the scale of the organization’s values. sadaka reut and the israeli context discussion of sadaka reut’s work must be preceded by an introduction to the israeli context and the relationship between israel’s two primary ethno-national identity groups: jewish citizens and citizens who largely identify as part of the palestinian collective. this relationship is characterized by a severe power imbalance, where, most fundamentally, jewish citizens hold rights as a collective, while palestinian citizens hold citizenship rights but only at the individual level (shafir & peled, 1998). concretely, discrimination against palestinian citizens is a norm of israeli society and occurs at an institutional level across almost all sectors (e.g., coursen-neff, 2004; rabinowitz, 2001; rouhana, 1997), as well as via vandalism and physical violence against individuals. the power imbalance between jews and palestinians in israel further manifests in dissemination of collective narratives: dominant ethno-national discourse in israel privileges beliefs that emphasize jewish victimization while simultaneously de-legitimizing the palestinian historical narrative (bar-tal, halperin & oren, 2010). palestinian citizens learn about jewish history and culture in school but receive little or no instruction about events important to the palestinian nation, while schools in the jewish sector follow a curriculum steeped in jewish discourse. likewise, although arabic is recognized as a language with special status in israel, few jewish citizens speak it, while hebrew is required for full participation in israeli society (rouhana, 1997). in sum: while palestinian citizens must be familiar with jewish norms and the hebrew language to succeed in israeli society, little value is placed on their own history, language, or culture. these imbalances exist within a broader israeli context that is dominated by the military. conscription to the israel defense forces is mandatory for men and women within israel’s jewish community; military service is central to civilian life, volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 8 even as its existence serves as an anathema for the palestinian community. thus, as hila amit (2018) notes, “the army itself is a symbol of normative behaviour in israel” (80). in this context, organizations challenging dominant norms – about narratives, language, military service, and so on – face a particularly difficult task. indeed, hila amit (2018) suggests that working against dominant norms is so challenging as to only be possible by removing oneself from the israeli context. in other words, creating alternatives to israel’s dominant norms from within israel is nearly impossible. and yet, collective action has occurred in israel for decades, including by the aggregate of activist groups, individuals, and the field of organizations (levitsky, 2007) that make up israel’s “peace movement”, and that have worked against israel’s occupation of the west bank and gaza strip and, more recently, against unequal treatment of disadvantaged groups within israel (cohen, 2019; fleischmann, 2016; hall-cathala, 1990; herman, 2009). sadaka reut (named for the arabic and hebrew words for “friendship”), one smo within this movement, is a veteran israeli organization founded in the 1980s by a group of jewish and palestinian citizens. sadaka reut brings together jewish and palestinian staff (all citizens of israel) for educational work based in a mission “to educate and empower palestinian and jewish youth to pursue social political change through bi-national partnership.”2 while its primary focus is educational, sadaka reut’s political work at an organizational level, and its emphasis on motivating young people to envision and create an alternative to the status quo – much as the organization itself aims to embody a different vision of society – situate it as a social movement organization within the broader movement, along the lines what isaac at al (2021) refer to as a “social movement school.” it is within this framework that i explore sadaka reut’s prefigurative strategies, and how its internal work, both organizationally and in its pedagogical modeling, shape the way it navigates external engagement – particularly in a socio-political environment that has grown less open to joint jewish-palestinian initiatives in recent years. methodology data for this manuscript draws broadly on a decade of research with sadaka reut, which has previously explored sadaka reut’s pedagogical approach and the extent to which its programs have motivated participants to continue working for socio-political change (for more on the organization’s pedagogical approach and its impact on participants, see ross & lazarus, 2015; ross, 2017, 2019). the http://www.reutsadaka.org/about-us-2/, accessed september 21, 2021 volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 9 present analysis is based primarily on interviews conducted in 2018 with all of sadaka reut’s full-time staff (administrators and program coordinators) and with all but one of its board of advisors. interviews were conducted with 15 individuals (8 jewish, 7 non-jewish; 8 staff, 7 board members) and addressed participants’ understandings of the dynamics of internal jewish-palestinian partnership and the implications of this partnership for building relationships externally. the semistructured nature of these interviews enabled participants to take the conversation in directions of their chosen within the broad areas of research focus. interviews ranged from approximately 40 minutes to 1.5 hours; all were conducted in hebrew in either sadaka reut’s offices or in an alternative location of the participant’s choosing, recorded with an audio voice recording device, and transcribed verbatim.3 i analyzed the transcripts using reconstructive hermeneutic analysis (carspecken 2007, 2008), a set of techniques that emphasize reconstructing meaning by making explicit participants’ implicit understandings. within this framework, i examined my data holistically. my analysis began by writing reflections following each interview; once interviews were complete, i read interview transcripts in full and wrote memos discussing potential angles for exploration. i then coded my data line-by-line using an open, emergent approach, generating new codes and sub-codes as needed before refining thematic categories in further analysis. i utilized several techniques to support my interpretations (lincoln & guba, 1985). first, although my interviews occurred over a period of only several weeks, my prolonged engagement with sadaka reut since 2009 (and my personal connections to israel as a citizen who lived there for many years) provide confidence in my understanding of organizational norms and of the israeli context. i triangulated interview data with data from other sources,4 including from earlier fieldwork. given my ongoing work with sadaka reut, i also relied on peer debriefing to help minimize bias in my interpretations. finally, ongoing discussions 3 a native hebrew speaker, i conducted all interviews myself. interviews were transcribed in hebrew and translated to english only when necessary for quotations. i relied upon the help of an additional native hebrew and fluent english speaker to ensure the accuracy of my translations and suggest possible wording when i was not certain how best to translate a hebrew phrase. 4 in addition to interview data, i collected a range of materials from sadaka reut, including: internal monitoring reports; transcripts of recorded program meetings; lesson plans; and transcripts of interviews conducted as part of external evaluations. in addition, in june 2015, i participated in the last of a year-long series of training and debriefing sessions held for all sadaka reut facilitators. the following year, i attended the 3rd of 4 weekend-long strategic planning sessions organized for sadaka reut staff and board members as a part of an ongoing strategic planning process. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 10 with sadaka reut staff served as a form of both preliminary analysis and member checking. these discussions continued into late 2019, including in the form of organization-wide discussions and strategic planning sessions, based upon the findings i discuss below. prefiguring a more just society: solidarity in sadaka reut in the following pages, i critically examine what prefiguration looks like within sadaka reut. my analysis focuses on three elements that form the basis for establishing the cross-identity solidarity sadaka reut aims to model as an alternative to existing dynamics in israeli society: decentering dominant narratives, amplifying arabic use, and blurring personal and professional lines. i argue that the sense of solidarity that these elements provide internally within sadaka reut not only serves as a counterpoint to dominant dynamics in israel, but also enables the organization to navigate relationships with external actors, even when this requires strategies that at first glance seem to contradict sadaka reut’s values. setting the stage: creating a culture of reflection a sense of solidarity among jewish and palestinian staff is modeled through an environment of continuous reflection and questioning, formally (in staff meetings) and informally among individuals, as well as in the pedagogical approach sadaka reut staff use with program participants. as articulated during interviews, these ongoing conversations are perceived as providing an alternative to dominant power structures in israeli society and prefiguring a society characterized by jewishpalestinian equality. ilana,5 a jewish staff member, illustrated what this looks like in practice by noting that it requires constant attention to decentering her perspective. she stated that as a jew, “i need to be sensitive and pay attention all the time…it challenges me…and everyone who is around me, and…it requires me to look at things differently.” ilana also noted that she holds ongoing conversations with her palestinian co-coordinator about what to present to program participants and how to discuss issues, including in terms of how to create space for conversation within the group of youth they work with; this requires her to put aside her view of doing things in favor of finding joint approaches. prefiguring solidarity necessitates that joint efforts reflect shared decisions at both pedagogical and organizational levels. shlomit, a jewish staff member, echoed ilana’s comments about the significance of transparent conversation with her co-program coordinator. she noted that talking through disagreements not only 5 the names of all individuals quoted have been changed. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 11 helps her “think outside [my] assumptions” but also lends significance to pedagogical decisions she and her palestinian partner make, because “it’s felt that…we really want to create something together.” at the organizational level, hend, a palestinian board member, said that “discussions about everything” in sadaka reut include issues not often addressed transparently among all organization staff, such as decisions about funding. for instance, hend reflected on discomfort felt by several staff and board members about a usaid-funded program the organization was implementing, and explained that a conversation was held about this discomfort, open to all staff at sadaka reut. not only was an open conversation held, but it ultimately resulted in a decision to stop accepting usaid funds, illustrating how sadaka reut’s dialogic culture helps strengthen the sense of belonging and solidarity within the organization. finally, several individuals noted the significance in sadaka reut of being able to voice disagreements about socio-political issues present in israeli society, both in terms of modeling an alternative to the (lack of) discussion about such issues in other contexts, and in terms of strengthening the sense among sadaka reut staff that they are a collective. munder, a palestinian staff member, stated that the process of disagreeing is, by necessity, “a kind of dialogue that speaks about everything,” and noted the importance of staff “bring[ing] all of the world of the substance” into the dialogue process. he used the example of gender, explaining how paying attention to who speaks and how often helps foreground issues of equality, showing that the norm of attentiveness to both form and substance when discussing issues is central to building solidarity within sadaka reut: we have a sort of culture among us, of certain understandings related to gender balance or related to how much i take from the circle or in terms of the amount of time that i speak…things like that, that create a kind of culture that brings [into the conversation] the entirety of the content [we deal with], all our beliefs, all of our principles, as an organization. and that’s a model for real partnership. for much of the staff, this ongoing reflection about social issues also is significant in explicitly prefiguring an alternative to existing power dynamics in israel. lucy, a palestinian board member, said: because our reality is of a conflict, you can’t just leave [equality and partnership] alone. …it’s something that, because you’re working within the framework of power dynamics that exist in reality, but you’re trying to create something different, you constantly need to be aware of the something different that you’re trying to create…so you constantly need to volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 12 work on it. likewise, yael (jewish), also a board member, noted that sadaka reut’s uniqueness lies in creating space for “bringing everything” to the table; this creates an opportunity both for understanding the challenges of working together, and most significantly, for creating a desire to do so. in other words, sadaka reut presents a contrast to israeli society in enabling difficult issues to be addressed (when they usually are not), and also in creating space for choosing to jointly engage in making change. as yael stated, when people work together, and do the educational work of getting to know one another, learning the narratives of the other nation, speaking about the conflict, speaking about the difficult things, speaking about identities…when you do these things you learn that’s it’s a choice, a very complicated choice, and very challenging to say, ‘these things exist, we don’t think [these things] make us enemies, and we want to live together and work together.’ choosing to work together as jews and palestinians is a process sadaka reut staff and board members must constantly navigate. by doing so in the ways that yael lays out, the organization solidifies a core value: engaging difference within a shared vision – a value that is itself a core element of sadaka reut’s pedagogical model (ross, 2013, 2017). this creates a space for balancing different needs and strengthening the sense of a collective – a counter to the segregation within israeli society as a whole. linguistic equality: arabic in the organizational context a second element strengthening solidarity within sadaka reut is its normalization of arabic language use. while approximately 20% of israel’s population speaks arabic, the language holds second-class status compared with hebrew (saban & amara, 2002) and in recent years lost its status as an official language.6 thus, attempts to equalize use of both languages are, as grace feuerverger (2001) argues, “a powerfully subversive act” (p. 62), and another channel via which alternatives to societal dynamics can potentially be actualized. within sadaka reut, an alternative is created by the fact that hearing arabic 6 arabic was recognized as an official language in israel from the founding of the state in 1948; however, in 2018 a bill passed by the knesset (parliament) downgraded arabic to a language with “special status” (see https://www.languagemagazine.com/2018/08/14/arabic-downgraded-inisrael/, accessed october 14, 2021). volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 13 requires non-arabic speakers in the organization to experience, in some small way, what it feels to be outside of the dominant group. more broadly, staff use of arabic is also tied to enhancing the status of the language across sadaka reut as a whole, including for program participants who quickly become used to dual-language conversations happening within their groups. ilana explained the significance of hearing arabic, emphasizing that as a nonarabic speaker, “there’s a certain lack of comfort [when arabic is spoken]…as someone who doesn’t understand what’s being said.” she acknowledged that this discomfort enabled her to better understand and thus empathize with what palestinians experience every day: “there’s something about understanding…to feel this discomfort, somehow i can understand the other within this experience.” for others, arabic use within sadaka reut is significant because of its potential for increasing the status of the language. for instance, liana, a jewish project coordinator, spoke about how she and her co-coordinator had started the year with their participants by talking about the importance of language and more significantly, “our responsibility as jewish [staff members] to learn arabic…and what responsibility our participants have [to do so as well].” nadav and liana, jewish staff members, also noted the importance of jews learning the language. liana stated, “i can talk as much as i want to about partnership, but the moment that someone has to translate herself every time for me to understand her, then there’s a kind of partnership that isn’t yet entirely equal.” in other words, for liana as for other jewish staff members, partnership requires linguistic equality, which necessitates arabic use by both jews and palestinians. this means all staff in sadaka reut should have at least some facility in both languages. “everyone here is my partner”: blurring professional/ personal relationships finally, a significant basis for solidarity within sadaka reut is a sense among staff that they are a “family,” characterized by strong relationships and a general lack of hierarchy. these are characteristics that help create partnership and commitment among activists (see nepstad, 2004), and, given the jewishpalestinian rift in israeli society, are significantly different from the dynamics of most contexts where both jews and palestinians interact. ameena, a palestinian staff member, emphasized the importance of fluidity between personal and professional relationships within sadaka reut: “[it’s important]…that in our staff meetings you can get upset, or say something, like, criticize, but afterwards [you] can go and drink a beer with these same people.” to illustrate this, ameena gave the example of attending events like birthday parties, or outside political initiatives, to deepen personal relationships between herself and volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 14 co-workers. one of sadaka reut’s co-directors noted that blurring roles is particularly important in sadaka reut specifically because it is both an educational organization and a binational, political organization. she said, “what lets a binational organization survive is…less hierarchy.” she continued, stating that because of challenges staff face from others due to their political ideologies, “here’s the place to talk…where it’s protected, safe, you can say what you want… with the professionalism comes also the friendship.” furthermore, this blurring of hierarchy is modeled for participants in the organization’s educational programs, which are co-facilitated: “if it’s not in partnership, it won’t work. so you need to know how to blur the boundaries of that hierarchy.” others also affirmed the importance of blurring professional and personal roles. ilana said, “what i love [about sadaka reut], it’s a declaration of the organization that in order to engage in partnership the way it needs to be done, it’s not possible for one person to be superior to another or lead another.” likewise, ina asserted that the sense of family in the organization was important for letting her be her authentic self. she noted that in other contexts, “i didn’t have that space. it was always…what’s at home is at home, and what is at work is at work.” within sadaka reut, on the other hand, “[t]here’s the space, and the openness to listen.” finally, yael, who was a long-time sadaka reut participant prior to becoming a board member, said that blurring roles creates a community among individuals – participants as much as staff and board members – that they continue to be part of even when no longer directly involved with sadaka reut. being part of this community is important, yael suggested, because it adds to the sense that members of that community are partners in their endeavors. in other words, its helps scaffold and reinforce the feeling of “being in this together” that characterizes jewishpalestinian solidarity in sadaka reut, thus strengthening the organization’s ability to engage in its political work. yael noted: at the end of the day, it’s an organization, but it’s also a community…there are a lot of people who grew up in this organization, and who are now in a lot of different places and, [sadaka reut] is part of who they are. it influences their worldview, how people live their lives. yael’s words echoed a statement made by gabrielle (jewish), a former staff member i interviewed several years prior. she told me: “my participants in sadaka…this place, it planted roots in them, and in that sense, it creates a joint community of activists, i mean, a type of solidarity that you can’t find in other volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 15 places.” the sense of community created in sadaka reut through its emphasis on relationships rather than hierarchy, in other words, enables a strong and long-lasting solidarity to be established not only among the staff, but also among participants in the organization. internal solidarity and external engagement the previous pages illustrate how sadaka reut works to cultivate solidarity among jews and palestinians within the organization. this serves as a form of prefigurative politics, modeled and normalized for participants in the organization’s programs as well as exemplifying jewish-palestinian interactions among the staff. further, it unifies sadaka reut staff and board members in a way that allows them to act in a consistent way when engaging with external actors not ideologically aligned with the organization. more specifically, unity among staff and confidence in the values the organization stands for allows for using certain strategies with external actors even as these strategies may seem contradictory to the organization’s values – but ultimately that serve the purpose of recruiting participants, thus enabling sadaka reut to thrive and potentially to scale its work. the significance of sadaka reut’s prefigurative strategies is exemplified in a comment ameena made about needing to dialogue with her co-facilitator about challenging issues before engaging with their program participants: i need to know [how she feels], so that i’m not in a situation where i’m surprised each time anew…so, i know what she’s going to say, and she knows what i’m going to say. and when she and i aren’t surprised [by one another], then also in front of the group [of participants] it gives them a chance to understand, ok, we’re engaged in partnership but it’s possible to not agree about everything. ameena’s quote illustrates how the culture of openness within sadaka reut enables staff to develop what ilana told me is necessary for the organization to achieve its goals: “the most basic thing, a set of shared values.” because of a unified understanding of these values within the organization, staff and board members can engage with external actors in ways that are palatable to those who may not share sadaka reut’s ideology, such as school administrators or ministry of education officials. for example, several staff members spoke about “muting” the language they use when engaging with institutional actors or, in the words of one staff member, “walking the razor’s edge” with the framing they use, given the politicized nature of terminology related to their work. this emphasizes the significance of a uniform understanding with sadaka reut that such “muting” is strategic rather than reflective of a value shift. for instance, citizens of israel who are of palestinian volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 16 descent are referred to as “palestinians” within sadaka reut, because is how most individuals in this group identify; however, in meetings with external actors, staff often use the term “arab” or “israeli arab” (the official designation of this group). likewise, instead of discussing sadaka reut’s focus on jewish-palestinian solidarity, staff often frame sadaka reut’s educational work as focused on universal values such as human rights. as one staff member put it, “you don’t lie…but there’s depth [that isn’t addressed]” in how sadaka reut presents itself externally. the success of sadaka reut’s use of seemingly contradictory strategies when navigating relationships with state and other educational actors manifests in the organization’s ongoing ability to work with groups reflecting the israeli mainstream. sadaka reut regularly holds one-day workshops in israeli public schools; staff also give presentations in schools to recruit participants for sadaka reut’s programs, and they run programs for students at israeli universities. more significantly, in recent years the organization has established an ongoing partnership with a program of the israeli scouts, which holds what can be characterized as a mainstream zionist ideology. participants in the scouts’ program join participants in sadaka reut’s leadership program for high school graduates for the entirety of the year-long initiative, and as one of the coordinators of this program explained to me, the very existence of the partnership, as she sees it, has resulted in the development of a critical consciousness not only among scout participants but also among the staff who work with sadaka reut counterparts to implement this program. sadaka reut’s capacity for building relationships with non-ideologically aligned actors is particularly important given sadaka reut’s focus on education rather than explicitly on advocacy or protest. given that the organization recruits participants from within schools, it must be able to engage with state actors and not only function in conflict with them (tarlau, 2021). sadaka reut’s approach thus provides a template by which other education-focused movement organizations can engage in both modeling change internally (among staff and for participants in educational programs), and in finding ways to engage externally with ideologically divergent actors. confronting the limits of solidarity despite sadaka reut’s capacity to engage with external actors, it is worth further exploring the nuances inherent in use of strategic shifts in language and framing of goals when staff and/or board members engage with external actors. on the one hand, because of the development of a “binational consciousness” (in one volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 17 staff member’s words) that is jointly created among staff, jews and palestinians in sadaka reut feel that their shared values are strong; strategic tactics used as the basis for partnering with external actors are just that – tactics – and don’t reflect compromised values. therefore, sadaka reut can work with institutions or organizations that whose values stand in contrast with its own. on the other hand, the external framing sadaka reut uses privileges the status quo, rather than emphasizing the experiences and needs of palestinian citizens: to use scott davies’ (1999) words, it is framing that “holds resonance with the prevailing culture” (pp. 17) rather than its own values. in this sense, although the frame is used strategically and with full consent of all staff, as an organization working within an oppressive system, sadaka reut cannot fully transcend it. in other words: the paradox of sadaka reut’s work as an organization engaged in social change is that its emphasis on internal solidarity stands in tension with its orientation towards outside actors. this is a tension that must be negotiated constantly in its work, particularly given its emphasis on modeling jewish-palestinian solidarity for participants as well as among staff and board members. moreover, it is important to note that even sadaka reut’s internal aspirations are constrained by the socio-political context – most prominently in terms of achieving arabic language equality, but also with respect to imbalances in staff tenure. in terms of the former: while sadaka reut makes a concerted effort to elevate arabic and ensure its use within the organization, there is a clear disparity between desire and outcome. the disjuncture between creating a space for arabic and the actual use of arabic among jewish staff raises questions about can be realistically expected in terms of linguistic equality. as rula, a palestinian staff member noted, both hebrew and arabic need to be equally utilized within the organization for there to be true partnership – suggesting that just having arabic be (occasionally) present is not enough: “if we’re talking about partnership, we need to speak both of the languages…and to flow from language to language. that’s what needs to exist here.” however, realistically, in a context where jews in israel receive little if any structured exposure to arabic (and the language in fact is no longer an official language), equal usage is unlikely to happen. this raises the question: in a broader socio-political environment where arabic is not valued, is simply being open to arabic sufficient for creating an alternative within sadaka reut to what exists outside of it? similar questions arise with respect to discrepancies between jews and palestinians in terms of the length of their tenure as sadaka reut staff: as a whole, palestinian staff members remain within the organization for much longer than jewish counterparts who leave for other positions within a few years. ameena, a long-time palestinian staff member, suggested that the issue of jewish staff leaving volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 18 after relatively short periods of time raises questions about their commitment to the organization and its values: you see that the jewish staff turns over and the palestinians do not. and then you ask yourself, what’s happening here?...there’s privilege – they can allow themselves simply to take on a position, and…and then decide to leave...and that creates a crisis among the palestinians – each time we start over getting to know new people, believing in them, and then suddenly they leave. greater turnover among part of the staff raises both a pedagogical challenge, in terms of modeling joint commitment to program participants, and a logistical one – specifically, the need to bring jewish staff members in more often and build the internal solidarity necessary for successful external engagement. in both ways, it raises questions about the actual strength of sadaka-reut’s solidarity and unified commitment to organizational values. discrepancies in staff tenure, as in arabic use, can largely be explained by socio-political forces outside of sadaka reut. for instance, jewish staff members have educational and/or professional options, in israel and elsewhere, that are often not open to their palestinian counterparts. likewise, while jewish and palestinian sadaka reut staff are paid equal salaries, more lucrative positions are far more abundant for jews than for palestinians, making their departure to higher paid positions more likely. however, the discrepancies serve to highlight how even an organization such as sadaka reut, which tries to create an alternative to israel’s current socio-political reality in every way possible, is affected by that reality in ways that limit its ability to create a truly equitable partnership. in this case, it shapes the commitment that different groups of staff members feel they can, or that they need, to give to the organization. ultimately, these issues raise important questions about the potential for educational organizations engaging in prefigurative politics to be exemplars of the change they wish to see. even in an organization like sadaka reut that models a culture of solidarity, attempts to create an alternative to israel’s current sociopolitical reality are affected by that reality – in ways that limit possibilities for creating a truly equitable partnership, and that therefore constrain possibilities for solidarity to fully emerge. discussion sadaka reut’s example holds important implications, both theoretically and volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 19 practically, for education-focused organizations that are oriented towards social transformation. one significant implication has to do with our concept of prefigurative politics and what prefiguration entails. while sadaka reut prefigures an alternative to the status quo among its staff and board members, and also serves as a pedagogical tool for participants in its educational programs, as discussed above, its capacity to embody this alternative is constrained significantly by the environment within which it operates. to this end, sadaka reut’s experience suggests that we might think about prefiguration as aspirational rather than as modeling an entirely different set of norms than those that are prevalent in a given socio-political context. maelkelbergh (2009) argues that prefiguration consists of “everyday practices and processes of revolutionary change through doing in the present” or “the creation of alternatives in the here and now” (2011, p. 3). these definitions, like others in the literature, seem to take for granted that the act of prefiguration is equivalent to the future that actors envision. and yet, as sadaka reut’s experience shows, prefiguration itself can be limited by the socio-political context within which it is enacted. this indicates that we might benefit from exploring prefiguration in a way that orients us towards understanding its possibilities and constraints, and as something that actors are striving toward, rather than having already accomplished. that is: we should explore prefiguration as a process, rather than as an outcome or product. at the same time, sadaka reut serves as an example of how organizations can create binational solidarity across conflict lines and draw upon that solidarity to find strategies for engaging or even partnering with non-aligned, and sometimes ideologically opposed, actors. the same strategies that allow for sadaka reut staff to develop a strong sense of solidarity internally – particularly its culture of constant questioning and dialogue – provide a foundation for engaging in the challenging work of finding ways to frame its work in ways that will appeal to others and to deal with the inevitable tensions that arise in the context of ideological conflicts with external partners. this is no small feat in the context of an ongoing conflict, especially given that the goal of sadaka reut’s work with external actors is to find ways of educating children in ways that challenge dominant narratives and the conflict-perpetuating beliefs that permeate israeli society (bar-tal, halperin & oren, 2010). it is also important to consider the significance of sadaka reut’s approach as a hybrid political and educational organization. as discussed above, all the organization’s prefigurative strategies – creating a culture of dialogue, normalizing arabic use, and blurring hierarchies – are modeled pedagogically in its work with young people. and as i have written elsewhere (ross, 2013, 2016, 2017), these approaches have led to a motivated cadre of sadaka reut alumni who are volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 20 themselves committed to engaging in social change and to different kinds of relationships, personal and professional, than those that are traditional in israeli society. in other words, an important dimension of sadaka reut’s prefigurative politics is its potential for diffusion (yates, 2014). however, the aspirational nature of sadaka reut’s prefiguration suggests that within the context of organizations committed to educating young people for change, it is important to focus work with young people not only on envisioning alternatives to the status quo, but also on considering strategies for building solidarity within structural constraints. finally, sadaka reut’s navigation of relationships with government institutions, while challenging, also illustrates that for entities functioning within the framework of the israeli state bureaucracy, it is not feasible to act in ways that are fully antagonistic to this system. organizations committed to creating change through education and that are connected to formal education institutions must engage with the system, even as their missions aim 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(2004). persistent resistance: commitment and community in the plowshares movement. social problems, 51(1), 43-60. oakes, j., rogers, j., blasi, g., & lipton, m. (2008). grassroots organizing, social movements, and the right to high-quality education. stan. jcr & cl, 4, 339-341. pizmony-levy, o. & saraisky, n.g. (2016). who opts out and why? results from a national survey on opting out of standardized tests. teachers college. pizmony-levy, o. & cosman, b. (2017). how americans view the opt out movement. teachers college. polletta, f. (2012). freedom is an endless meeting: democracy in american social movements. chicago: university of chicago press. rabinowitz, d. (2001). the palestinian citizens of israel, the concept of trapped minority and the discourse of transnationalism in anthropology. ethnic and racial studies, 24(1), 64-85.sution, 3(2), 116-135. rouhana, n. (1997). palestinian citizens in an ethnic jewish state: identities in conflict. new haven: yale university press. rupp, l.j. & taylor, v. (1999). forging feminist identity in an international movement: a collective identity approach to twentieth-century feminism. signs: journal of women in culture and society, 24(2): 363386. saban, i., & amara, m. (2002). the status of arabic in israel: reflections on the power of law to produce social change. israel law review, 36(2), 5-29. shafir, g. & peled, y. (1998). the dynamics of citizenship in israel and the israeli-palestinian peace process. in g. shafir (ed.,), the citizenship debates (pp. 251-262). minneapolis: university of minnesota press. steans, j. (2007). negotiating the politics of difference in the project of feminist solidarity. review of international studies, 33(4), 729-743. stevens, m. (2001). kingdom of children: culture and controversy in the homeschooling movement. princeton, nj: princeton university press. tarlau, r. (2021). contentious cogovernance and prefiguration: a framework for analyzing social movement–state relations in public education. educational researcher, 0013189x2110234. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 25 van den brandt, n. (2015). feminist practice and solidarity in secular societies: case studies on feminists crossing religious–secular divides in politics and practice in antwerp, belgium. social movement studies, 14(4), 493-508. vinthagen, s. (2015). four dimensions of nonviolent action: a sociological perspective. in k. schock (ed.), civil resistance: four dimensions of nonviolent action: a sociological perspective (pp. 258-288). minneapolis: university of minnesota press. weldon, l.s. (2006). inclusion, solidarity, and social movements: the global movement against gender violence. perspectives on politics, 4(1): 55-74. yates, l. (2014). rethinking prefiguration: alternatives, micropolitics and goals in social movements. social movement studies, 14(1), 1-21. yuval-davis, n. (1999). what is ‘transversal politics’? soundings, 12: 94-98 zembylas, m. (2013). the “crisis of pity” and the radicalization of solidarity: toward critical pedagogies of compassion. educational studies, 49(6), 504-521. microsoft word jacobson-teaching_peace.doc volume 1 number 1 (2007): 38-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ volume 1 number 1 (2007): 38-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ nonviolence as a way of knowing in the public school classroom anya jacobson “the opposite of war is not peaceit is creativity”1 the moment i decided to become a teacher is very clear. i was taking a graduate international relations course at the london school of economics entitled “gender, justice, and war.” the students in the department were intelligent, progressive, and wellread individuals from around the world. one morning we were asked the question, “what can we do with a rogue state if we don’t want to use either sanctions or war?” no one had an answer. no one had ideas. there was thoughtful, but lasting, silence. in that moment i realized that war is indeed inevitable… not because of ‘man’s inherent nature’ or the state system that we’d been reading about, but because of a simple lack of creativity. i wondered how violence can be prevented if it isliterallythe only thing that we can think to do? i decided then that an important part of overcoming war must come volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 39 from a deliberately innovative education. as teachers, we can bring peace content and a way of thinking that can foster and further creativity, and hence, peace. as articulated by the policy of “no child left behind,” the us educational system is based on certain measurable standards whose mastery is demonstrated by nationalized testing. in practice, the structure of a classroom requires an omniscient teacher, who ‘knows’ the right answer. creativity of the learner is encouraged within very defined boundaries: write about greed in this text, for example. however, there is neither time for nor widespread acceptance of truly transformative thinking (why are we learning this, anyways?) at the same time, students demand that their education be relevant: they are constantly curious about how a subject relates to them, how a skill will be useful to them, and where exactly will they use algebra? what an opportunity! our students are begging us to make their educations more real and meaningful. we are responding through raising standards, but we are also pulling subject matter further and further away from our students and their day-to-day lives as dynamic, creative, thoughtful individuals. “learn it” (i.e. memorize it) has superceded “think about it…” a move of coercion rather than working-with that permeates our schools. peace education is a growing field, and most commonly means either adding content relating to peace—peace movements, nonviolent leaders etc. to the curriculum2 or conflict resolution skills, peer mediation, and communication skills.3 both of these are valuable additions to every child’s education and every teacher’s training. however, if we emphasize the linkages of peace and creativity, the beginning of successful peace education begins at a more basic level than content can allow. it begins in how we volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 40 know— in what i call a “nonviolent epistemology.” this is built upon with specific subject matter that informs and broadens students’ understanding of peace and living without violence. in this paper, i will examine a method in which education can become ‘peace education’ through a shift in epistemology. i will show violence to be an avoidable choice not inherent in either human nature or political structure, and i will emphasize the connections between peace and creativity. i will then examine feminist epistemology, standpoint theory, nonviolence theory, and educational philosophy to suggest another way of knowing and teaching. lastly, i will examine how a nonviolent epistemology can transform a classroom into an environment that supports peace, both theoretically and practically, through new knowledge and new methods. what is violence? what is nonviolence? for hundreds of years, political scholars have questioned whether violence is inherent in human nature, the state system, or both.4 in any case, violence is considered to be inevitable and the best a nation can do is to prepare to win wars when they do occur. peace theorists, on the other hand, argue that violence is a result of the world humans have made rather than a biological inevitability5 and hence can be avoided. indeed, the nonviolent actor trusts in the inherent goodness of humanity to make their strategies work. thinking of violence as the symptom of a system rather than a natural and inevitable condition creates a space for the educator to make change, for by studying peace and removing knowledges that assume violence, we can change an aspect of the system that legitimizes and perpetuates violence. in any case, as michael nagler explains, “we are not hard-wired for war, and we're not hard-wired for peace: we're volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 41 hard-wired for choice.”6 as educators, our role is to make this choice available to all of our students. pacifism is the moral renunciation of war.7 war is the most extreme act of oppression, it is organized political violence and its means are also violent. war involves dehumanization, separation, abstraction, dichotomization, hatred, and prejudice.8 the pacifist view is that “violence turns those who use it into the likeness of the oppressor,” thus violent means cannot produce nonviolent ends.9 to be lethally violent is to “assume a position of moral infallibility that suppresses the ‘truth’ of the other,” thus one can never have the knowledge necessary to carry out violence.10 for these reasons, nonviolence emerges as the only appropriate method of change for absolute pacifists. at the same time, pacifism places responsibility for effective nonviolence in education, for it is from our particular knowledge that we choose either violence or nonviolence. johan galtung describes violence as “avoidable insult to human needs,” and distinguishes between what he termed ‘structural violence’ (“exploitation built into a social system” such as poverty) from direct violence (such as war).11 for ivan illich, violence is a compromise to diversity and racism, marginalization, and essentialism are considered violent.12 michael nagler writes, “dehumanization is the beginning of all violence.”13 simone weil agrees. for her, violence is “whatever turns a person into a thing.”14 dehumanization thus emerges as essential for all acts of violence, while humanization (achievable through knowledge) is both a way towards and a component of peaceful interaction. volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 42 nonviolence appeals to the universal human needs of integration, bonding, and belonging.15 as michael nagler defines it, nonviolence is a ‘positive force generated by self-sacrifice in the cause of truth.”16 the nonviolent approach is not “with a view of trying to prevail at any cost” but with seeing “the truth prevail—trying to see that the best solution emerge.”17 nonviolence works through an appeal to ‘heart-unity’ (connection), and satyagraha (“truth force”).18 if violence is rooted in dehumanization, nonviolence works by re-humanizing oneself and others. it is effective because “there is enough innate rejection of violence inside a person that (nonviolent struggle) can often work just by making the violence in a situation unmistakably visible.”19 in bringing suffering to the surface, the nonviolent actor gives his/her opponent the opportunity to see the suffering, at which point it can be rejected. nonviolence relies on connecting with the “goodness” of others, and is adamantly constructive: it works by building and creating, not just dismantling. from this perspective, peace emerges as a struggle for truth and creative solutions that prioritizes the sanctity of life over materialistic or egocentric concerns. creativity, in this context, is well defined by photojournalist dewitt jones. he writes, creativity is the ability to see the ordinary as extraordinary. creativity really is... falling in love with the world…. think about it. first, when we're in love with something, it really is extraordinary. we see its uniqueness, feel its potential, celebrate its excellence, are open to its growth… when we're in love with something we take care of it; we treat it with respect and compassion…. the essence of creativity… is not a technique but an attitude; an attitude of curiosity, openness, and celebration.... i found the real key to creativity… in another lesson from my photography: there's more than one right answer.”20 similarly, peace is brought about by working on what is held in common and by finding ways to work together. there is, indeed, no one “right answer.” for these reasons, peace volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 43 requires thinking that is inherently and constantly creative. peace is characterized by humanization, imagination, multiplicity, tolerance, and justice, and, most importantly, it can be learned. epistemology in the classroom: in theory and practice epistemology is the “philosophical study of knowledge,”21 but can be simply defined as “the ways in which we know.” these are value and power laden, and as patricia hill collins writes, “far from being the apolitical study of truth, epistemology points to the ways in which power relations shape who is believed and why.”22 thus, attention to epistemology is a way of understanding our place in the world and a means by which it may be changed.23 in proposing a nonviolent epistemology as a basis for teaching, i take as my starting place feminist standpoint theory. standpoint recognizes all knowledge as situated and partial, and claims that we can learn from our distinctive opportunities and locations in ways not available to those with other experiences.24 as such, standpoint sees transformative potential in marginalized knowledges. it works towards the attainment of ‘truth.’ thus, each group speaks from its own standpoint and shares its own partial, situated knowledge. but because each group perceives its own truth as partial, its knowledge is unfinished. each group becomes better able to consider other groups’ standpoints without relinquishing the uniqueness of its own standpoint or suppressing other groups’ partial perspectives.25 kimberly hutchings argues that standpoint theory is useful in bridging the distance between the subject and object of knowledge, so that the “feminist standpoint brings the scientist closer to the truth of at least some aspects of… reality.”26 volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 44 lorraine code argues that personal subjectivity is as important as the object being studied in the pursuit of ‘truth.’ as politically motivated, biased, and located subjects, frameworks of understanding and life experiences shape the knowledge produced. in ‘locating’ the knower, we see that all knowledge is situated and partial, however this does not mean that it is not ‘true.’ code advocates for a “knowledge which is always relative to…specifiable circumstances.”27 knowledge and truth are thus contextual, specific, flexible, situated, value laden, and relative. in developing a nonviolent epistemology for teaching, feminist standpoint allies with the gandhian principle of satyagraha. satyagraha is a struggle for the truth. as explained by robert holmes, the central idea…is to approach disagreements not in a spirit of conviction that you are right and your opponent wrong but rather with an openness to the possibility that each of you may have hold of a part of the truth, and that only by taking seriously that possibility are either of you likely to make progress toward a completer truth.28 satyagraha requires humanization, we must recognize others and their perspectives as equally important to our own. as lennon and whitford write, “what is required is the acknowledgement of others as persons, the recognition that there may be points of view other than one’s own and a preparedness to re-evaluate our own position.”29 satyagraha prioritizes connections between antagonists rather than differences, not in search of ‘sameness’ but in search of an understanding that accounts for and meets individual needs in the shared pursuit of liberation from oppression. it begins in seeing others as equal to ourselves, and with whom we can produce better, fuller understanding. volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 45 satyagraha is also ongoing struggle for truth, not for a single, replicable, universal truth but for a relational one reached by communication, humility, and consensus. a nonviolent understanding is different from both a modern approach that calls upon a stable notion of truth, and a postmodern approach that denies the possibility of a single ‘truth.’ satyagraha calls upon truth as a flexible notion, best forged by a contextualized understanding of the realities of all relevant parties. truth can be achieved, but requires a commitment to listening and to humility regarding one’s own perspective, as incomplete and maybe even incorrect. in addition to feminist standpoint theory and tenets of satyagraha, a nonviolent epistemology is articulated in “heart-unity,” a nonviolent principle meaning the “emphatic desire for the welfare of others” that can also be called “rejoicing in diversity.”’30 it is an invocation to resolve conflicts from the perspective of “you and me against the problem” rather than ‘you against me.’31 heart-unity is at once re-humanizing and a ‘positive’ response to difference. “heart-unity,” michael nagler writes, “means that i want you to be happy, notwithstanding our differences. in fact, to feel heart-unity with others is to enjoy differences.”32 difference, in this interpretation, is not as a stopping block but opportunity to learn more; specifically and carefully, to get closer to the ‘truth.’ through focusing on what is held in common, on connection, and on goodness, a nonviolent classroom will encourage students and teachers to discuss and learn about difficult issues without falling into the pitfalls of discrimination and distance—requisite precursors to violence. volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 46 an important part of a nonviolent epistemology that cannot be generalized is awakening and empowering our students to their own value. nonviolence asks us to see the ‘good’ in others, to connect with that, and to move together towards a higher truth. thus, teachers often need to help their students to believe in their own inherent goodness, for the student must experience their own value and potential before they see it in others. as a humanizing practice, peace education is intrinsically education for the whole child, a being with a mind, body, and spirit. this way of teaching is supported through much existing educational philosophy. in his comprehensive study of rudolf steiner, aurobindo ghose, and hazrat inayat khan, david marshak writes that the three educational philosophers are united in the belief that “the task of the human being is the attainment of divinity” and that the purpose of education is to foster and nourish this goal.33 further, the job of the parent and teacher is to “help guide and nurture (the youth)… to develop her own instruments, faculties, and capabilities…. to help the child… learn to recognize and validate her own inner knowing, her inner teacher.”34 in other words, we must recognize the humanity, experience, and knowledge of our students and see them as they are: human beings living lives that are complicated, challenging, and divine in purpose, and encourage them in succeeding at this, at living and believing in their personal highest potential. changing how we teach to emphasize this full and ‘divine’ humanization can be done with any subject matter, in any classroom, with any age student. the change begins in the way in which we see them. it is beneficial to our students and also brings teachers closer to our raison d’etre—making real and positive change in the lives of others. volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 47 as peace educators, our work is to privileges the struggle for connection over separation, commonality over difference, sufficiency over scarcity, and what ‘works’ over moments of failure. we must learn to see and teach ‘good’ human beings about humanity, a world peopled with human beings who live remarkable lives and make choices that we find admirable, impressive, and appalling, and whom we can choose to either emulate or move beyond. in terms of content standards, peace educators must actually put peace in the picture. we need to teach about the lives of gandhi and martin luther king jr., and learn about what they did that worked. we need to learn about those who have resisted violence, why, and how. for, if we teach social studies, for example, and grant the warriors dominance in both time and value, we are doing our part to keep the war system thriving. when violence becomes “what we know” as a collective culture its students, to an extent, can’t be blamed for war’s continuation. we must learn about peacemakers and alternative ways of responding to conflict if we want to see them manifested. this is difficult because we have to look not only at where violence happens and why, but also at where it does not happen and ‘should.’35 these challenges are not simple for the educator, and it is in this realm that we need more knowledge and research in order to be effective facilitators of such paradigm shift. in brief, a nonviolent epistemology for the peace educator is this: we recognize that all truth is partial for all people have a unique and correct experience of the truth. we relinquish our role as knowledge-broker in the classroom, and accept the wisdom of our students to supplement and direct learning. we model heart-unity through volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 48 acknowledging and rejoicing in differences. we remember and teach that all human beings carry goodness within them, and that violence is neither natural nor inherent. we believe that all humans have a divine core and purpose, and we demonstrate this understanding with our own behavior and interactions. lastly, we are mindful that what we teach is important, and perhaps equally important is what we leave out. the classroom: benefits of peace education approaching education as the pursuit of ongoing and relational truths empowers the student in learning and maintains curiosity and agency for the learner. importantly, it is not about lessening or loosening standards, but for creating space within them for discovery and personalization. for example, in studying science we learn to ask very specific questions, to pay very careful attention, to gather facts and use previous knowledge, to infer, to record details, and to try and do it all over again. science demands that we are curious and creative and rewards this type of thinking with a trophy of truth achieved. science at the k-12 level is presented as a set of attainable and knowable truths. however, what is profoundly and enduringly interesting about science is that so much is unknown, and “answers” frequently become new questions. by emphasizing the inquisitive aspects of science, we maintain its appeal. this is useful not because it muddles science, (in fact, it makes it more real) but because it curtails the belief that one can ever be 100% ‘right’ about anything—a belief that is often dangerous in the ‘real world.’ at the same time, this method of truth pursued keeps the integrity of the student as a valuable player in knowledge production very much relevant and alive. in social studies, supplementing standard history texts with howard zinn, (who tells the volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 49 story of the us from the perspective of the oppressed) is not confusing, but helpful to the student of peace. through it, we learn a more complete story, and we also learn that in this cacophony of truths is a better, truer, more real, legitimate and full way of knowing. in the messiness of history lies the best and truest story. in other words, peace education is fundamentally about keeping the curiosity of the student awake and their relevance as a learner intact. it allows for moments of wow, of confusion, of “i get it!” and of creative thinking. ultimately, peace education also supports individual value and meaning for the learner and knower. direct instruction of peace and nonviolence increases the world-view of students, broadens their creativity, and changes their conception of the possible. this, in turn, may manifest as alternative reactions to violence that make the choice of nonviolence more frequent and, ultimately, normal. learning peace content educates and empowers students to live differently and make more informed choices, as they have not only learned from one perspective-the perspective of violence. if we study the history of the world’s wars but not it’s peace, we graduate from school as experts on violence and we expect to see it in our own lives. this perpetuates a cycle of violence that begins with partial knowledge, thus teaching peace has the potential to remove an unhealthy selective knowledge and replace it with a healthier and fuller one. lastly, by educating the whole child and recognizing each as a valuable human being, a teacher may be providing a child with a unique and precious experience of feeling fully human—which the child may now also recognize in others. this aspect of volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 50 peace education offers the child the potential to be a happier and more effective human being… one who can realize her or his own role in the urgent task of making peace. conclusion as an 8th grade public school teacher who strives to teach peace through standardized curriculum, i have developed this “nonviolent epistemology” through practice. at the most basic level, however, i define myself as a peace educator simply because i constantly encourage my students to think creatively. it is that simple. violence, in the context of my classroom, is believing without examination that something is impossible. once again, i take inspiration from dewitt jones: “to find an extraordinary photograph, i need the right lens on my camera. in other words, if i don't view the challenge from the right perspective, i won't have a chance of finding a creative solution.”36 peace education is about being open to all the ‘right answers’ that exist at a given moment, and to taking the time to find the right perspective. our students are experts of their own complicated young lives. as their teachers, we can value their wisdom, ideas, and experiences, and build on them with content that uplifts, transforms, and promotes peace, in our personal and our public lives. volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 51 bibliography coates, a.j. the ethics of war. manchester, manchester university press, 1997. code, l. rhetorical spaces: essays on gendered locations, new york, routledge, 1995. harding, s. “introduction,” in harding, s. (ed), the feminist standpoint theory reader: intellectual and political controversies, london, routledge, 2004. hill collins, p. black feminist thought: knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment, new york, routledge 2000: ch. 11. holmes, r.l. on war and morality, princeton, princeton university press, 1989: ch. 8. hutchings, k. “the personal is international: feminist epistemology and the case of international relations,” in lennon, k. and whitford, m. (eds), knowing the difference, london, routledge, 1994. volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 52 jones, d. http://www.dewittjones.com/html/seeing_the_ordinary.shtml, 2007. lennon, k and whitford, m. in lennon, k. and whitford, m. (eds), knowing the difference: introduction, london, routledge, 1994. marshak, d. the common vision: parenting and educating for wholeness, new york, peter lang, 2002 mrsevic, z.“the opposite of war is not peaceit is creativity,” in waller, m.r. and rycenga, j. frontline feminisms: women, war, and resistance. new york, routledge, 2001. nagler, m. the steps of nonviolence, nyack ny, fellowship publications, 1999 nagler, m. is there no other way? the search for a nonviolent future, berkeley, berkeley hills press, 2001. nagler, m. personal communication, january 31st, 2007. robinson, f. globalizing care: ethics, feminist theory, and international relations, boulder, westview press, 1999. rosenberg, m. nonviolent communication for the classroom, http://www.cnvc.org/matls.htm, 2007. ruddick, s. maternal thinking: towards a politics of peace, london, the women’s press ltd, 1989. tanesini, a. an introduction to feminist epistemologies, malden, blackwll publishers, 1999. tickner, a. gender in international relations: feminist perspectives on achieving global security, new york: columbia university press, 1992. united nations peace curriculum, http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/peace/index.asp, 2007. waltz, k. man, the state, and war: a theoretical analysis. new york: columbia university, 1959. volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 53 1 mrsevic, z.“the opposite of war is not peaceit is creativity,” in waller, m.r. and rycenga, j. frontline feminisms: women, war, and resistance. new york, routledge, 2001. 2for example, http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/peace/index.asp, 2007. 3for example, http://www.cnvc.org/matls.htm, 2007. 4 waltz, k. man, the state, and war: a theoretical analysis. new york: columbia university, 1959. 5 see tickner, a. (1992), robinson, f. (1999), hutchings, k. (2002). 6 nagler, m. personal communication, january 31st, 2007. 7coates, a.j. the ethics of war. manchester, manchester university press, 1997, p. 77. 8 nagler, m. the steps of nonviolence, nyack ny, fellowship publications, 1999, p. 2. 9 coates, a.j. p. 87. 10 coates a.j. p. 88. 11 nagler, m. is there no other way? the search for a nonviolent future, berkeley, berkeley hills press, 2001, p. 48. 12nagler, m. 2001, p. 302. 13nagler, m. 1999, p. 2. 14 quoted in ruddick, s. maternal thinking: towards a politics of peace, london, the women’s press ltd, 1989, p. 164. 15 nagler, m. 2001, p. 45. 16nagler, m. 1999, p. 5. 17holmes, r.l. on war and morality, princeton, princeton university press, 1989,p. 291. 18 these terms will be more fully explained in the first chapter. 19 nagler, m. 2001, p. 232. 20 jones, d. http://www.dewittjones.com/html/seeing_the_ordinary.shtml, 2007. 21tanesini, a. an introduction to feminist epistemologies, malden, blackwll publishers, 1999. p. 3. 22hill collins, p. black feminist thought: knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment, new york, routledge 2000: ch. 11, p. 253. 23tanesini, a. p. 3. 24 harding, s. “introduction,” in harding, s. (ed), the feminist standpoint theory reader: intellectual and political controversies, london, routledge, 2004, p. 7. 25hill collins, p. p. 270. 26hutchings, k. “the personal is international: feminist epistemology and the case of international relations,” in lennon, k. and whitford, m. (eds), knowing the difference, london, routledge, 1994, p. 156. 27 code, l. rhetorical spaces: essays on gendered locations, new york, routledge, 1995. p. 54. 28holmes, r.l. p. 287. 29lennon, k. and whitford, m. in lennon, k. and whitford, m. (eds), knowing the difference: introduction, london, routledge, 1994. p. 10. 30 nagler, m. 2001, p. 289. volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-17 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 54 31 nagler, m. 1999, p. 7. 32 nagler, m. 2001, p. 191. 33 marshak, d. the common vision: parenting and educating for wholeness, new york, peter lang, 2002, p. 9 34 marshak, d. p. 20 35 in other words, the conditions that typically lead to violence are present, and yet violence does not occur. 36 jones, d. http://www.dewittjones.com/html/seeing_the_ordinary.shtml, 2007. microsoft word william mcinerney book review for in factis pax 01 11 19.docx volume 13 number 2 (2019): 176-179 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 176 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 176-179 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review review of engaging men and boys in violence prevention. by michael flood, new york: palgrave macmillan, 2018, 392 pp., £34.08 (hardcover) isbn 9781-137-44210-9, £27.71 (ebook) isbn 978-1-137-44208-6. by william w. mcinerney university of cambridge wwm26@cam.ac.uk as the global #metoo movement continues to expose and challenge individual and structural sexism and gender violence, engaging men and boys in violence prevention provides a thorough and accessible overview of the latest research on the opportunities, challenges, and risks of men’s violence prevention work. author michael flood argues in the book’s introduction that violence against women is a serious, pervasive, and systemic social problem. flood notes that recent efforts to address this violence have increasingly turned towards public health and feminist-informed violence prevention approaches that directly engage men and boys. flood, an associate professor in the faculty of law at queensland university of technology, is one of the most influential and prolific scholars of men, masculinities, and violence prevention today. using a multidisciplinary lens and global case studies, this new book reviews the scope and causes of men’s violence against women, discusses why men have historically been silent and absent from prevention efforts, and examines the theories, strategies, settings, and best practices of contemporary men’s violence prevention. overall, flood argues engaging men in preventing men’s violence against women can and does produce positive results, but that the field requires continued innovation, improvement, and accountability to address an array of complex challenges and risks. this book is essential reading for researchers and volume 13 number 2 (2019): 176-179 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 177 practitioners working directly on men’s violence against women, and a valuable addition for peace educators and scholars interested in the nexus of gender, masculinities, violence, and peace. engaging men and boys in violence prevention is divided into three parts: i) the problem and its prevention, ii) strategies and settings, and iii) challenges. in part i, flood reviews key debates on the definition and characteristics of men’s violence against women and discusses its causes and contexts including gender roles and relations, social norms and practices related to violence, and access to resources and systems of support. in chapter 2, flood notes the importance of understanding men’s violence against women as a pattern of ‘coercive control’ and as simultaneously an individual and a structural problem (29). flood reviews recent trends in violence prevention and highlights the need for a critical and feminist social-ecological framework that engages feminist analysis and practice with a public health primary prevention approach examining individual, interpersonal, communal, and structural levels of violence. flood’s review of existing scholarship and program evaluations in chapter 4 indicates that well-designed efforts to engage men can and do help address men’s violence supportive attitudes and behaviors. effective programs tend to be informed with sound theoretical frameworks, comprehensive, engaging and well-taught, and culturally and contextually relevant. however, flood cautions that several meta-evaluations of men’s violence prevention programs show mixed results of effectiveness, and that many men’s violence prevention programs do not follow best practices. further, more research is needed as many programs are poorly evaluated or not evaluated at all. thus, flood argues for cautious optimism and notes there is a clear need for critical reflection, innovation, improvement, and accountability in efforts to engage men in preventing men’s violence against women. in part ii, flood reviews the research on men’s attitudes and behaviors related to violence against women and looks at the barriers and inspirations for men’s involvement in prevention efforts. flood then explores the most common form of men’s violence prevention, face-to-face education programs. flood’s review of the literature indicates, ‘the single-most important criterion for effective violence prevention and respectful relationships education in schools, universities, and other institutions is the adoption of a whole-of-institution approach’ (185). these approaches are designed to be culturally responsive, context-specific, focused on sustainable and comprehensive work, and aimed at a variety of stakeholders across the institution. flood complements this broad guidance with an examination of global case studies and a series of best practices discussing curriculum content and structure, pedagogy, and teacher training. flood argues effective education programs use interactive and participatory pedagogies with both analytic and affective approaches. furthermore, effective programs tend to be of greater duration and intensity and are often staffed with well-trained and supported educators. part ii continues by volume 13 number 2 (2019): 176-179 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 178 looking at other popular strategies to engage men such as traditional and social media (chapter 7), collective organizing (chapter 8), and transforming men’s organizations through cultural and institutional change (chapter 9). in part iii, flood focuses on the challenges of engaging men. he starts by discussing men’s resistance and defensiveness, including anti-feminist backlash, and outlines a range of strategies related to both the content and process of effectively engaging men. in chapter 11, flood discusses the challenges and complexities of working with diverse populations and emphasizes the necessity of using an intersectional analysis in men’s violence prevention. in the concluding chapter, flood reviews the overall development of the engaging men field as well as some of its key challenges and limitations. flood notes the path forward must maintain a feminist agenda, work in partnership with women and women’s movements, link gender justice to other forms of justice, continue to build a rigorous evidence base, politicize men and masculinities, and scale-up efforts. engaging men and boys in violence prevention provides a robust overview of men’s violence prevention literature and practice. the book makes an insightful, practical, and valuable contribution for scholars, students, and practitioners working on this issue. further, the book is also relevant and informative to the broader field of peace education. violence against women is a threat to peace around the world that peace educators and scholars must continue to address. gender-neutral or -blind approaches to peace education overlook the reality that many forms of violence are often fundamentally gendered, and that violence is disproportionately perpetrated by men. peace education must be responsive to this dynamic and interrogate the connections between socially constructed masculinities and patterns of violence, coercive control, and structural inequality. peace education scholars and practitioners can benefit from flood’s thorough review of this subject and explore ways peace education could better engage boys and men and benefit from a feminist and critical masculinities analysis of violence. flood’s book covers a vast amount of research in an efficient manner. but despite the canopy of topics and themes discussed, there is one noticeable omission: the book does not fully unpack the concept of masculinity itself. comprehensively detailing the complex conceptualizations of masculinities is a massive task and beyond the scope of this book. however, flood’s work could have benefited from a clearer overview of the evolving and competing contemporary theories of gender and masculinity from feminist, public health, sociological, queer, and post-structural perspectives. this book does not cover everything relating to men, masculinities, and violence prevention, nor does it claim to do so, but having a deeper understanding of the concept of masculinity in part i could have complemented and supported the subsequent chapters by opening a generative space for reflections on how differing conceptualizations volume 13 number 2 (2019): 176-179 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 179 of masculinities impact understandings of men’s violence against women, engagement theories and strategies, and the challenges and points of tension embedded in this work. in the introduction of engaging men and boys in violence prevention, flood emphasizes the value of a cautious and balanced view of men’s violence prevention; bringing both a hopeful and critical orientation to the work of engaging men. flood argues men’s violence prevention educators should avoid the extremes of 1) ‘naïve optimism’ – that men’s violence prevention work will suddenly uproot entrenched patriarchal structures of violence, and 2) ‘paralyzing pessimism’ – that changing men is impossible and violence against women is inevitable (2). drawing on freire (1998) and rossatto (2005), there are parallels between flood’s call for a balanced optimism and the critical peace education concept of transformative optimism. transformative optimism is a reflexive, critical, and informed optimism that seeks to avoid the traps of pessimism and naivety. transformative optimism is rooted in an understanding of the interconnected nature of personal and structural change and is bolstered with an iterative critical praxis. when viewed through a critical peace education lens, the evidence and analysis from flood’s book presents a strong case for approaching men’s violence prevention with transformative optimism. this emergent field shows promise but still requires continued innovation, improvement, and accountability. those necessary developments in men’s violence prevention could emerge in part from transdisciplinary work with peace education scholarship and practice. likewise, peace educators could also benefit from a more intentional and gendered analysis of violence and masculinities through examinations of feminist and men’s violence prevention approaches. the fields of peace education and men’s violence prevention have a lot in common but are rarely explored in conversation with one another. flood’s informative new work offers an opportunity to begin thinking about such collaborative innovations, cross-pollinations, and transdisciplinary praxis. references freire, p. 1998. pedagogy of hope. new york city, new york: continuum. rossatto, c. a. 2005. engaging paulo freire's pedagogy of possibility: from blind to transformative optimism. oxford, uk: rowman and littlefield. microsoft word nganga ifp 13.1.docx volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 70 volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal the effects of colonialism on indigenous conflict resolution systems among pokot and turkana communities daniel nganga lecturer department of philosophy, religion & theology, school of arts & social sciences, moi university-kenya. abstract colonialism impacted local cultures far beyond their infrastructure, government and geography. in addition to eroding indigenous power structures, the structural violence inflicted during colonialism left native populations with lasting selfdoubt and rejection of traditional practices. among these rejected traditions are informal processes of resolving conflict. conflict resolution methods in different cultures often vary greatly in underlying values and perceptions. western judicial systems reflect individualistic, highly uncertainty avoidant, low-context tendencies, while indigenous conflict resolution methods reflect collectivistic, minimally uncertainty avoidant, high-context tendencies. research into the current state of formal courts and informal justice forums in pokot and turkana counties provides case study-based evidence arguing that the transition from restorative justice (lapai) offered by indigenous justice mechanisms to retributive justice catalyzed by colonialism has effectively weakened both the turkana and pokot systems of justice. due to impacted value systems, neither the restorative, volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 71 social harmony focus of traditional processes, nor the retributive, compensatory justice focus of the formal judicial system make the available forums wholly appropriate or adequate resources. this has left the two communities torn between two distinct choices, the western and indigenous approaches in conflict management. the main objective of this research was to investigate the effects of colonialism on indigenous conflict management in pokot and turkana counties. these were both positive and negative effects. to achieve this objective the overarching question that guided this research was; “how did colonialism affect the indigenous approaches of conflict management in pokot and turkana counties? the research was designed to apply qualitative research methods. both structured and less structured interviews were conducted along the turkana-pokot borders. this paper proposes a hybrid model in conflict management not only for the pokot and turkana pastoral communities but also to other pastoral communities with similar set-ups. key words: lapai, formal, informal, indigenous, kokwo, tree of men, restorative, punitive, retributive--justice, communities, pokot and turkana this study focuses on the bloody violent ethnic conflict between two pastoral/nomadic communities, pokot and turkana communities, along the turkana and west pokot counties’ border in north rift kenya. although there are other intra conflicts, the inter conflict across their community’s border was used in analysis of the effects of colonialism on the indigenous justice systems. this study was inspired by interactions with some of my friends living along the pokot-turkana conflict corridor, which is also the two communities border. david not real his name was born in 1950 in ombolion village along west pokot and turkana counties. he was brought up at a time when the elders solely led indigenous justice system. from his story the council of elders (kokwo)1 was key in conflict management. family disputes, marital conflicts, intra and inter community conflicts were settled by the council of elders. he could not understand why the government seemed to emphasize on judicial processes that divided the communities with murder cases that would take decades to be solved. he would go further to claim that even when such cases were solved, there was no healing of the affected families. this only led to carrying grudges, and planning for retaliation by the looser of the case against the winners and thus creating unending cycle of conflict. 1 kokworefers to the pokot council of elders. elders are chosen from men of good repute and their integrity in beyond reproach. they are form dispute resolution council and their verdict is final. volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 72 david would argue that with the country attaining its independence in 1963, the question of have a formal justice system applied to all regardless of the indigenous justice system that held communities together prior to colonial ‘laws”. david was of the idea that hybrid approach to conflict management was not an option but the best approach. he also gave preference to indigenous justice system over liberal approaches to conflict management arguing that cut and paste approach that liberal approach uses is not healthy for their nomadic communities that have better approaches in place. this engagement with david led to my research question; “what were the effects of colonialism on indigenous justice systems in kenya? to carry out the research this paper is divided into three main parts. these are: pre-colonial pokot and turkana counties, colonial period and post-colonial period. the pokot and turkana communities’ background and the existing literature review provide the reader with a clear understanding of the communities under study. definition of terms used in this study indigenous justice systems are culturally established processes of addressing conflict with intention to resolve, contain or manage it that have existed since precolonial times and are generally still in pokot and turkana counties. western justice systems or formal conflict resolution systems refer to processes of addressing conflict created and run by the state. these may include systems such as the police, and the courts. they are usually perceived local communities as colonial approach in conflict management as opposed to indigenous approaches. kokwo or ekuko (councils of elders) in pokot and turkana respectively are an elected body of community members who serve a governing function at the local level. a main task of these councils is to arbitrate -through council sittings (kikao) in a mediation process-between local disputants in a dispute, frequently fining one or both parties for their failure to keep the integrity of the community. ngimurok are medicine men in turkana who are believed to have supernatural powers and supervise rituals and sacrificial ceremonies in the turkana community. ngimurok are consulted before and after a raid and work closely with kraal leaders. “lapai’ customary law in pokot and turkana communities is exercised by council of elders, when a person from the community kills a person from the same community. it is a way of compensating the bereaved family by the killer’s family or clan, and compensation is in terms of livestock. volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 73 nyumba kumi translated as ten homes, is an initiative by the kenyan government aimed at creating awareness to citizens of who are their neighbors for security purposes background to the study in kenya, the pastoralist communities occupy the largest percentage (70%) of the countries’ total land area. the population of the livestock keeping pastoralist communities in kenya is estimated at about 20% of the total population of the country. according to central bureau of statistics, kenya 1999 population and housing census. most of these people occupy the vast arid and semi-arid region of northern kenya. the turkana and pokot communities are among the kenyan pastoralists. they are nomadic ethnic groups that are highly mobile. they move from one area to another in search of water and pasture for their livestock. their movements are not restricted to one area or even country. they move in and out of the neighboring countries such as ethiopia, sudan and uganda. these movements are one of the major sources of misunderstanding and conflict between them and their neighbors. the vastness and remoteness of the area, inadequate road networks and scarcity of resources goes hand in hand with a lapse in security, occasioning frequent misunderstandings and conflicts among them and other pastoral communities. for decades, these communities relied largely on their indigenous justice system to resolve and manage their conflicts. however these justice systems have been weakened and even eroded in some parts of the two counties especially near the cities. in their studies on the pokot-turkana conflict adan and pkalya (2004:106) and kirimi (2003: 45) have proposed the strengthening of the indigenous conflict management approaches. other scholars such as john ahere mention the various indigenous peace agreements that have been ratified between the turkana and the matheniko, the pokot and the turkana. however these scholars fail to explain why the parties in conflict chose indigenous approaches over the judicial court system provided for by the government. thus, the study will be investigating the rational underlying the choices parties in conflict make when confronted with different opportunities to resolving conflict. what informs their decisions and of what significance are those decisions in relation to the communities affected. according to azarya (1996:2), pastoralism refers to an economy that is based on raising livestock, which could be undertaken by sedentary or nomadic groups. pastoralists include those who earn part of their living from livestock and volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 74 livestock products. they include those who are still connected to pastoralist culture, even if livestock does not provide their main source of income (humanitarian policy group 2009: 2). pastoralism in all its forms is more than just a mode of production. it involves a certain mode of social organization and cultural patterns and practices (markakis, 2004:4). nomadism on the other hand refers to the extent of spatial movement of pastoralists; therefore, pastoral production is conceptually different from the extent of residential mobility. the turkana and pokot are both pastoralists inhabiting the extreme north rift region with historic conflict and clashes over animals pasture and protracted violent ethnic oriented conflict (mccabe 2004:90). according to mwaniki et al (2007:19) this area is characterized by high poverty levels and illiteracy, with life expectancy ranging from 57 years among the turkana to 66 among the pokot. moreover, mwaniki et al (2007:19; goldsmith, ahmed and babiker 2007:39; greiner, 2013:224) argue that cattle rustling bear a histo-cultural face among these communities, pointing out that since 1992, and the activity has become commercialized. as pastoralism revolves around livestock, the conflicts are predominantly about livestock and related productive assets namely; pasture-land and water. these resources closely tie conflicts to the violent and theft of livestock, referred to as raiding, which are both a contributing factor and an articulation of conflict. mwangi (2006:81-91) argues that raiding leads to distrust between communities which is a pre-requisite for conflict, and schilling et al, (2012:13) seems to support this argument by explaining that communities use raiding to articulate their hostility toward enemy communities. the partition and scramble for africa had tremendous changes in the social-economic set-up of the pastoral communities. their free movements were curtailed, as they needed pass/permit to travel from one village to the other. in addition their way of resolving conflicts were regarded as primitive and thus the need to replace them with western/liberal approaches which were considered superior. while it is true that when reading any colonial literature to know who is speaking and who is listening, the nomadic communities here were regarded as the subaltern and needed an outside voice to speak on their behalf, to define them, and provide their destiny. research design the study used a cross-sectional study design. this study design was suitable for this study because it aimed at finding out the effects of colonialism on indigenous conflict management approaches in pokot and the turkana counties by taking a volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 75 cross-section of the population. the researchers did this by taking a crosssectional of both the study population and the time of investigation. the crosssection of the population was chosen from district peace committees, chiefs, nongovernmental organizations, community based organizations and faith based organizations. interview guides were used to gather data from a cross-section of youth leaders, men, women, village elders, medicine men, businessmen and politicians. focus group discussions were also carried out to gather more information from a cross-section of groups of women, men and the youth. this formed the primary data for this study. (i) interviews this study used both structured and less structured interviews or formal and informal interviews. according to lieberman conducting a productive research begins with good preparations, which includes but is not limited to “converting one’s research design to “to get” or “ to do “ list. in regard to this we prepared a list of those to be interviewed in both communities through a survey that was conducted prior to fieldwork. the list included local chiefs and other state officials, ngo personnel, religious leaders, elders, county representatives, women, youths and other political leaders in the two communities. (ii) categories of analysis the researchers organized the data by categorizing it in themes and subthemes. the researchers also labeled it in groups of questionnaires for the target groups. the labeled and grouped data was coded with answers for specific questions. the data was analyzed using descriptive narratives and illustrations presented in form of tables and graphs. (see appendices a&b). literature review colonial literature is full of binaries, such as the colonized and the colonizer, the rulers and the ruled. in this context the pokot and turkana communities are hereby referred as the colonized. seeing through the lens of the colonizer the two communities were perceived as backward, uncivilized and therefore the indigenous conflict management systems were weakened by the introduction of western liberal approaches in conflict management. for similar explorations of these themes in the larger international relations literature, campbell (1992, 1998), chowdhry (2007), chowdhry and nair (2002), darby (2004), inayatullah volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 76 and blaney (2004), muppidi (2012), seth (2011, 2012), shilliam (2011), shinko (2008), and vasilaki (2012). this sort of interrogation is not an uncommon line of inquiry in postcolonial studies, for example, asad (2003), bhabha (2004), chatterjee (2010), fanon (1963), hall (2007), mitchell (1991), morrison (1992), said (1978, 1981, 1993), spivak (1988). chakrabarty (2000) interrogates these binaries as well as their political implications as they have emerged from a “historicizing” modernist discourse that consigns “rude” nations (like indians or africans) to an imaginary waiting room of history—waiting until they move out of their anachronistic “prepolitical” stage to the stage of the “modern citizen.” “historicism—and even the modern, european idea of history—one might say, came to non-european peoples in the nineteenth century as somebody’s way of saying ‘not yet’ to somebody else….mill’s historicist argument thus consigned indians, africans, and other ‘rude’ nations to an imaginary waiting room of history. in doing so, it converted history itself into a version of this waiting room. we were all headed for the same destination, mill averred, but some people were to arrive earlier than others. that was what historicist consciousness was: a recommendation to the colonized to wait”. interpreted in the pokot-turkana context the attitude of the ‘marginalized” being in waiting room has had far reaching effects in incorporating their indigenous justice system into the mainstream peace building approaches. however this study while answering the question; what leads to the choices between either western liberal approaches or indigenous or hybrid approach, is a way of moving the indigenous approaches from the periphery as it has been pushed by history to the center. the subaltern studies group that was a part of [a group of primarily south asian postcolonial scholars focused on the role of non-elites—the “subaltern” who do not have access to the instruments of cultural imperialism being “outside” of the hegemonic discourse—as agents of political and social change] critiqued the idea of “peasant consciousness” as “pre-political” instead suggesting that “the nature of collective action by peasants in modern india was such that it effectively stretched the category of the ‘political’ far beyond the boundaries assigned to it in european political thought” . “it did not follow the logic of secular-rational calculations inherent the modern conception of the political. this peasant-but-modern political sphere was not bereft of the agency of gods, spirits, and other supernatural beings. social scientists may classify such agencies under the rubric of ‘peasant beliefs,’ but the peasant-as-citizen did not partake of the ontological assumptions that the social sciences take for granted” (12-13). destabilizing categories like the “political” was the point of subaltern studies, writing “the subaltern classes into the history of nationalism and the volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 77 nation, and to combat all elitist biases in the writing of history. to make the subaltern the sovereign subject of history, to listen to their voices, to take their experiences and thoughts (and not just their material circumstances) seriously” (102). according to mahmood mamdani, african historian and political scholar, claims that colonialism left a lasting impact on the cultural structures of the colonized. mamdani's expertise on the subject gives weight to his theory of decentralized despotism, a crucial concept of the political structure used by colonists to wield racialized power (mamdani (1996:21). this is manifested in kenyan communities, where there was adaptation of western conflict management approaches at the expense of weakening of indigenous conflict management structures. the state's exploitation of indigenous vulnerability calls upon tatum's theory of internal colonialism that sheds light in ways in which colonialism impacted identity in the longterm. internal colonialism as tatum reveals is one of the main factors contributing to the depreciated state of indigenous justice systems in pokot and turkana counties in kenya today how did colonialism affect the collective identity so powerfully, and what is the evidence to show that it did so? in response to this question david an elder in sarmach village claimed, “…the state used customary authority to disempower natives and fragment indigenous society along tribal lines. for example the colonialists created the current conflict along the pokot-turkana border, even our inability to resolve these conflicts is basically due to the perception created during colonial era that we are different”. he also argued that prior to colonialism ‘our fore fathers lived together and used indigenous approaches to manage conflicts, (both inter and as well as intra-conflicts). this simply weakened the customary governing structure, albeit while creating a segregated system to determine first and second-class citizens. according to patrick, a justice and peace officer in the catholic diocese of kitale working along the turkana-border responding to the same question argued that, “…institutions and rules established by the colony, provided a platform in which colonialism transformed the perceptions and identity of pokot and turkana communities”. his sentiments concur with tatum who held that, people who have suffered from internal colonialism incorporate the lingering state of their subordinate, colonized status through political, economic and social ramifications (tatum, 2002). volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 78 although, the indigenous conflict management is still in existence in turkana and pokot communities, the alternative form of justice mechanism put in place by the colonialists weakened the indigenous approaches by providing an alternative. the perception that elders are the sole “coffers” of truth in terms of conflict management is no-longer tenable as both victims and perpetrators can seek redress from courts. the concept of lapai2 or paying of fines between the two communities was a deterrent factor for both intra and inter-community conflicts before colonialism. however, according to domongu’ra it has become difficult to pay lapai for the inter-community conflict, a problem he attributed to the era of colonialism. he postulates that, the wage that was created by the colonialism between the two communities left lasting effects; we always interpret things and events from different lenses, of “we vs. them”. this is also reflected on our choices on which we turn to in resolving the conflicts. as chinua achebe (1958) would put it “they have put a knife on the things that held us together and things have fallen apart”. colonialism weakened the community’s bond from collective responsibility to individual choices. and by extension weakened the indigenous conflict management approaches, first by creating two centers of power that never existed before and also portraying the western legal system as superior. this can be better understood through the existing narratives of the pokot and turkana communities’ prior, during and post-colonial period. pre-colonial pokot and turkana counties prior to colonial period, livestock transactions served to maintain social interactions that cut across ethnic boundaries and linked neighboring ethnic groups. that was grown out of mutual economic interests between groups that lived near each other. according to mkutu (2003:13) turkana district established dependent relationships with the pokot and karamoja, which allowed them access to dry season grazing across the border with uganda. he adds that such relationships were very beneficial in securing individual survival in the event of disasters such as raids, drought, and diseases. however, poverty occurred whenever this system of reciprocity broke down. the pokots and turkanas with other pastoral communities in the region such as dassenech or merile, and toposa would freely graze their animals in their neighbors’’ territory, guided by the indigenous structures. the elders had to give permission to the other community to graze in their territory. the same arrangement is today still in place 2 lapaikilling of a kinsman in pokot community is the worst form of crime. indigenous justice system calls for restorative as well as punitive justice to the offenders, which is done in a ritual called lapai. lapai simply means paying of fine agreed by the elders for the crime committed. in matters involving death the criminal is also banished from the community. the fine is considered restorative justice while banishment is punitive. volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 79 but has been disrupted by fixed borders that were established by the colonialists (muwonge j, 2009:6 and bevan, 2007:34). the key to this arrangement was the indigenous institutions that were mandated to resolve any disputes arising due to non-compliance to the established rules; payment of fines or lapai was the norm for failure to keep the rules especially when death occurred as a result caused by the conflict. colonial pokot and turkana counties the indigenous structures and institutions were affected during the colonial era mainly with border fixity that separated communities across newly created countries and even within the same countries for british self-interest of divide and rule tactic. for example, the british colonial government in kenya adopted policies that contributed to the economic and political marginalization of pastoral communities during colonial rule. the colonial governments favoured the establishment of agricultural white settlers and a plantation economy at the expense of peasant production. colonial officials regarded pastoralism as a primitive mode of production and efforts were made to discourage it. mkutu, (2003:13) and leff, (2009:192) postulates that, the creation of fixed ethnic borders did not only limit free access to grazing land and water, but also increased territorial ethnic land area, and social conflict among the pastoral africans. this would not only affect the movement of the pastoralists but also created the notion of difference among the pokot, turkana and other pastoralists. such difference would today complicate the use of lapai/fine in indigenous conflict management in inter-community conflict, which was not the case before colonialism. with the modern formal education, which is a product of western influence some community opinion leaders from both sides would prefer court process rather than indigenous approach in conflict resolution. post-colonial pokot and turkana counties it is arguable that the state of marginalization among the pastoralists in the northern kenya did not end with independence. as pavenelo argues, ‘policies pursued by post-colonial governments failed to reduce the exclusion of pastoralists from mainstream national development’. there has been a tendency to neglect the needs of pastoralists and even to envisage the gradual eradication of pastoralism. more attention has been paid to the interests of agriculture and urban dwellers (pavanello, 2013:5). in addition, the post-colonial period has seen a further weakening of traditional governance institutions in pastoral community areas in pokot and turkana counties. this is partly due to the failure of the volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 80 kenyan and ugandan governments to realize the role of the traditional institutions in management at the community level. (ngeiywa and benson, 2008:27). at the pokot-turkana border the erosion of traditional governance institutions has weakened the ability of community elders to exercise control over young men especially in cattle raid. while “eldership” was a merit prior to colonization, today it can be attained by wealth, and youth are often well positioned to attain wealth if they can gain access to guns. elders now have to ‘negotiate’ with such youth in a way that has not been the case in the past. while in article 159 of the kenyan constitution 2010 mentions of the alternative justice systems and the role of elders in conflict management little has been done to empower them. at the same time, official administrative governance structures since post-colonial period have usually been unrepresentative. kendagor claims that, collaboration and coordination between the governments and their border societies are relatively rare unless a raid takes place. the authorities have undermined traditional structures without ‘modern’ alternatives being established to replace them (kendagor, 2005:7). research findings we don't want to [use only their systems] because we know that they are weapons they use to take away what is ours. [john and mary residents of sarmach-pokot county] they were arguing within the context of government legal proceedings that ends up in a win loose situation. indigenous conflict resolution systems have roots as old as the tribes of people who crafted them. the outside influence of trade, missions and inter-group warfare is palpable, yet for the most part conflict resolution forums remained unchanged throughout centuries of heterogeneous cultural interaction. as long as the values of society held firm, definitions of conflict and sanctioned methods of resolution served societies well without change. colonialism, with its new governing body and legal structure, imposed differences that went deeper than structural change. the very foundations of indigenous society were shaken to the core during colonization. opposing values were present in all parts of colonial society, and the native culture reeled from the confrontation. nowhere is the impact of the cultural collision between colonists and colonized were more evident than in the deterioration of indigenous conflict resolution systems. in pokot and turkana counties, traditional councils the kokwo volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 81 and ekuko 3 (tree of men) respectively, which had formerly fulfilled the responsibility of resolving conflicts were now weakened and people were torn between either choosing the indigenous or western approaches. the colonial government declaring the then west pokot district a “closed district” worsened the situation because the colonial government perceived the community as hostile and primitive and heightened the need to change their cultural practices by imposing western rule of law. recent assessments done in sarmach and kainuk villages along the pokot-turkana border indicated that most community members recognized the main function of the village council of elders was to maintain peace (58%), but also noted that the council did not treat everyone equally, mostly due to favoritism (while handling intra-conflicts) and tribalism (in intercommunity conflicts) (see appendices a & b). a significant portion (39%) of the youths themselves cited lack of faith in council process as the main reason that community members would take a dispute to an alternate forum (see appendix c). one reformed warrior stated that he thought people wouldn't take a dispute to the village council of elders (kokwo) if they thought the council wouldn't handle the matter well. a common regret shared by some young elites was the lack of community respect for the council. a female worker with an ngo in the region voiced support for training so that "the council of elders could get respect. this will help reclaim the lost glory". she also argued that the western approaches alone are not sufficient in community dispute management referring to the kenyan constitution, 2010, which empowers the indigenous conflict resolution mechanisms as an alternative. how did the traditional council system stray so far from the steadfastness it must have had to remain effective for many generations prior to the onset of colonialism? and how far has it changed? in response to this questions, some members of the formal justice system in kapenguria town implied that the reason people came to the court to solve disputes was that they would fail to receive 'justice' at the hands of the local council. a woman peacemaker from kacheliba village while explaining a case where the local chief and some elders had been compromised by the perpetrator of a domestic violence said, "justice is more lasting, more credible in court" (peace ambassadors interview 18 october 2015). it would appear a contradiction from this case where the lady was calling for a judicial process while the majority within the same region would prefer 3 kokwo and ekuko means the same thing----council of elders. while pokot calls it kokwo turkana refers to the same as ekuko translated as tree of men. turkana council of elders literary sits under a tree that provides shade in the south of sahara desert while deliberating on the future of their community or when resolving disputes volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 82 indigenous system. another peacemaker concurred, "generally we all know why courts exist, it is for justice. even the common man knows that. that is where they can seek justice especially when the elders have failed!" (peace ambassadors interview 18 october 2015). a third woman peacemaker, when questioned about alternative justice forums, shared: “to an extent, some are effective. some are not effective. the traditional council is not a court. it does not have coercive power and it cannot command people to attend. people have to attend based on sheer will. neither can it handle conflicts of huge magnitude.” the traditional council's decisions are not binding, and they cannot be enforced. the councils have no army or police to enforce their decisions. this is why hybrid model is important (finn church aid ngo officer interview, 14 june, 2015. the suggestion that voluntary attendance is a weakness exemplifies how colonialism reframed ideas of power and authenticity. before colonialism, the only option for conflict resolution was a traditional council, an institution that was too established and respected to be voluntary. the imposition of formal justice systems rebranded council of elders and reconciliation ceremonies as 'informal' and far less authentic and recognized than the western alternative. in contrast, formal justice systems could issue court orders or summons; though in practice these are hardly more effective than the council calling a participant to attend a mediation. due to its formal nature the western system is assumed to wield more power. thus appearing superior compared to indigenous justice system. many of the members of the formal justice system referred to the traditional councils as "quasi-judicial forums." the title alludes to the moral and legal inferiority that those in the formal justice system equate with the indigenous one. even the concept of 'justice' itself is one over, which the western system, and those certified in its practice, retain a monopoly. in addition to the usual condemnation, an elite working for an ngo in the region expressed anger and frustration at the inadequacy and dishonesty of the indigenous courts (kokwo and ekuko respectively) he argued; the council of elders are not a court or anything. they have no jurisdiction over anything. their job is just a civic duty, like peacekeeping, and best as part of “nyumba kumi” initiative. unfortunately we have some elders who are “politicians puppets” and water down the true role of elders. and they are so corrupt! how many times have you seen some elders crowning a politician as a community kingpin and a few days later another group of elders comes up and disowns the others and calls them fake” (local chief volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 83 interview, 16 july 2015) in pokot and turkana, the traditional system of kokwo poyi and ekuko in which the community would witness and support the restorative justice and reconciliation of a fractured relationship is still in use today. though in most cases, the performance of these reconciliation council rituals holds very little of the same meaning that it did previously before the colonization. the lack of meaning is apparent in the reality that kokwo and ekuko sittings are today incapable of reconciling inter-ethnic relationships; specifically it has been a challenge to use lapai in the inter-conflict between pokot and turkana communities, something that was common before colonialism. in the event where it was attempted people participated in them but their attitudes and perspectives remained unaffected by the process. the restoration of relationships used to be the main purpose of these kokwo-poyi sittings, and the reason for their conception. now that they fail to produce the intended result, the lapai is merely a superficial charade of a once-meaningful event in lieu of inter-ethnic conflict. however, it is worth noting that the success of these lapai in intra-conflicts in the two communities cannot be understated. among the pokot the cursing ceremonies are a necessary part of customary conflict resolution due to their longevity and effectiveness. africans in general believed in the existence of curses but in a more unique way pokot and turkana communities invoke curses in a ritual (burying the hatchet) as the last resort in resolving conflicts. these rituals have been used in the past conflicts to seal the peace agreements among other pastoralist communities. this is not unique among pastoralists as it is a common tradition in other pastoralist counties split in myriad ways across geographic, linguistic and tribal lines. the fact is that these ceremonies speak to these communities’ original value and efficacy prior to colonial period. the turkana and pokot regard the burying hatchet ceremony as a nonnegotiable step in the process of managing and resolving conflict. they act as a seal and a culmination of the indigenous peace processes and agreement. in addition the interviewees claimed that indigenous rituals marked closure of conflicts among many african communities. for even the few issues that were brought to the police, society would require a custom ceremony to ritualistically acknowledge the resolution of the conflict. in a part of the world that was once rife with violent tribal clashes, people revered muuma/cursing ceremonies and universally regarded them as the tool to keep communities healthy and just. at the present day communities in pokot and turkana still regularly use kokwo poyi sittings for resolving conflict at the community level, often without success. volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 84 reasons cited include but not limited to “lack of seriousness and trust that was invested in the council of elders”. the purpose of paying lapai is to restore the damaged relationship between disputing parties through public offerings of compensation on both sides. lapai give the impression of protecting social harmony upon which tight-knit, collectivistic societies such as those in pokot and turkana survive. yet these sittings fail to produce the same outcome as originally intended. no longer satisfied with a restorative mechanism, disputants do not attend kokwo sittings with intention to forgive or to prioritize the relationship. participants in kokwo sittings reported that it has turned to merely a formality and a shadow of the original sittings where the elders were strictly referred as the ‘coffers of truth’ and their word was final. the bottom line being there is an alternative of going to court, which was not there before colonialism. lapai declared by the kokwo was only aimed at material restoration since the parties involved in case of killing a kinsman during the conflict were banished from the community. this was meant to instill fear among those who would be perpetrators and enhance social harmony. (interview with lengosiwa, july 2015) the informal conflict resolution systems of traditional councils grew from a local, collective concept of justice derived of what society thought was fair and equal; these notions had obviously been greatly impacted by both colonialism itself and the example set by the western justice systems. former standards stemming from indigenous society had relied on collective meaning and collective priorities to form a conflict resolution process that met the need for restoring social balance. according to zartman, conflict management in these cases can take advantage of referents in values, authority and community to anchor its efforts; it is essentially calling the offender to order, preserving the community and hierarchy and restoring the harmony of society. this context is particularly important. (zartman, 2000: 8) the ideas of equality and fairness had changed as a consequence of the imposition and standardization of western norms, in which property was paramount, violations, required restitution and criminals were bad members of society who must be jailed and excluded, for the good of society. the prior process, using a traditional arbitrator who relied on knowledge of a past relationship, context and the collective belief in the importance of a continued relationship in order to reconcile parties lost the confidence of the locals in the community. the restorative penalties favored by indigenous justice processes seemed inferior and not aligned to the newly discovered standards of the local population. perhaps the issue is not that the traditional system became ineffective, volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 85 but that the evolved cultural needs are not truly understood. in his book culture and conflict resolution, kevin avruch explores the difference between conflict resolution and other forms of conflict management. conflict resolution is so called because of its aim "somehow to get to the root causes of a conflict and not merely treat its episodic or symptomatic manifestation" (avruch, 1998: 26). the indigenous system at one time aimed to directly address the root causes of conflict the broken relationship in a community. outside influence and natural evolution have changed indigenous cultural values to the point that the process does not hold the broken relationship to be the root cause of the conflict. dissatisfaction with the indigenous forms of conflict resolution is a form of grievance with the structures of governance and community. conflicts between disputants lead to conflict with the resolution process. negotiation expert william zartman refers to this situation as "neither authority-neutral nor authorityreinforcing but authority-destroying," while noting that these types of conflicts are the most difficult to handle. (zartman, 2000: 9) the de-legitimization of tribal authorities and customs, a secondary objective of the colonists, remains a consistent problem. in the new system due process focused only on the act of someone being wronged, and the power of the state to 'correct' that wrong, and as a result restorative penalties and processes were simply not what people wanted. compensation used to be rehabilitative as well as punitive; the party found guilty in pokot and turkana communities was required to pay the lapai fine of goats to the complainant. this process enabled the dishonored to rise to an honorable status. the public nature of the apology and fining also provided a strong social influence to follow through on one's promise to forgive (abu-nimer, 1996). yet the rehabilitative focus of these penalties is no longer one that seems to satisfy local communities. after colonial courts taught a new framework through which to see the problem, one is right, the other must pay the old compensatory system became inapplicable to a great extend. framed around the subject of peacebuilding processes, mac ginty argues that: instead of reciprocation and sustainable resource sharing, there was the imposition of western models of peace and peace making, including surrender and re-grant, formal written peace treaties and the violent suppression of indigenous groups and appropriation of their resources. indigenous social structures and inter-group relations were often eroded over a long period through the introduction of firearms, missionaries and money trading. thus weakened, indigenous groups’ customary norms of peacemaking no longer retained their power. (mac ginty, 2008: 153) following this loss of power, traditional peace-making or conflict resolution systems exist only as a souvenir of what they once were. not only have the volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 86 concepts of justice, fairness, and resolution changed, the local definition of a conflict has changed. the pattern of social reactions to conflict situations is not uniform, and neither are the connotations that people and societies attach to denotative meanings of conflict (kruglanski, bar-tal, & klar, 1993). conflict and identity it can arguably be held that cultural identity is a major cause of conflict. identity crisis or crash has in the past led to protracted conflict in different communities. cultural identity was but one of the many basic needs deprived in the structural violence of colonialism. the loss of a former collective identity was only one of many changes in formerly collective meaning and social understanding. one such collective meaning was the group definition of conflict; what constitutes errant behavior is culturally defined and reflects cultural consensus. native understanding of what defined conflict, and what defined proper resolution of conflict, was a key indicator of the change in cultural standards. an example of the shifting paradigm of conflict is the increase in border disputes, a serious problem along the pokotturkana border. before colonialism, there were few troubles over boundaries and there was nothing like personal land among the two communities. colonialism brought with it the western perception of ownership as an individual, unalienable right (universal declaration of human rights); the collectivistic nature of ownership was destroyed or weakened at behest of the colonialists divide and rule tactics of survival. western ideas of ownership have influenced local landowners' need to aggressively defend or pursue their disputed property in courts of law. land dispute cases are handled by a western, position-based system, which results in a fixed outcome. whether the land is divided or awarded only to one party, neither is satisfied with the distributive process, which divides the outcome and leaves the parties' identities without reconciliation. this is what some politicians are advocating for as a solution to the border conflict between the turkana and pokot. an indication of how colonial legacy has continued shaping and influencing people’s thinking. how a society defines problems reflects their self-understanding; responding to a stimulus with action or inaction indicates whether the source of the problem is considered internal or external (criss & johnson, 1993). definitions of conflict or crime are subjective. there are only acts that are given certain meaning within social frameworks, and the meaning attributed to these acts is suggestive of certain features of a society (gabiddon, 2010). dispute resolution in any culture reflects values, psychological imperatives, history, and economic, political, and social organization (jandt & pedersen, 1996b). social and personal identity is wound up in perceptions of conflict, and thus identity is a vital part of the volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 87 resolution of conflicts. human needs, including identity, are a basic necessity for survival and positive peace (galtung, 1969). edward azar's theory of how the deprivation of human needs is a direct factor in protracted social conflict includes social identity (azar, 1986). "it is the denial of human needs, of which ethnic identity is merely one, that finally emerges as the source of conflict" (azar, 1986: 29-30). colonialism's indifference to ethnic identity, evident through the many and diverse ways in which this identity was minimized, is no small part of the environment of negative peace. identity is central to conflict, and reconciliation must address identity, transforming if necessary the aspects of identity that are linked to the conflict (schirch, 2001). in high-context, collectivistic cultures such as pokot and turkana with relationships and social bonds, in effect, the connections between people are what define identity. especially in indigenous societies, conflict resolution is linked to identity formation and maintenance (mac ginty, 2008). the transformation of identity out of conflict would require renewing or reinforcing social connections between disputants. turkana and pokot communities prioritized the kokwo-poyi sittings, which determined the compensation of the aggrieved parties. before colonialism these indigenous councils kept these conflict resolution systems functioning effectively. while conflict resolution involves an active focusing on the conflict interpretation in ways that may lead to a reassessment of its validity, conflict resolution may occur when the conflict schema is put out of the focus of attention and moved into relative obscurity...it follows that a conflict interpretation left inactive for long periods of time might become relatively inaccessible and thus cease to exert any appreciable influence on judgments and behavior. (kruglanski, bar-tal, & klar, 1993: 53) inactivity of the prior interpretation of conflict and resolution made the traditional conflict resolution system on which it was based ineffective. highcontext cultures had formerly seen conflict as part of the ongoing holistic relationship of all society. in the new framework after colonialism, conflict became instead something that was inherently negative and needed to be removed from society while being handled only by those deemed worthy of the task. this “elitising” conflict management by the western approaches only served to weaken the existing indigenous mechanisms. conflict resolution became results-orientated rather than process-focused, and the concept of social harmony was no longer a concern now that reconciliation ceased to be a central goal. volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 88 the new western judicial system further added to the problem of human needs deprivation. lacking ownership over an effective conflict resolution process left the indigenous struggling to meet their basic needs. not only did the western legal system fail to meet these needs, the natives' own original forums had become ineffective. the tools once employed to meet native needs were now futile due to the change in cultural perception. in a way the colonialists had succeeded in diving the community. without their own definition of conflict, the locals had lost their definition of themselves and were forced to search for a new identity within the new western framework. along with this new framework came a host of problems with traditional and modern justice systems. conclusion and recommendation as presented in this research’s arguments and claims it can be concluded that formal justice system weakened the indigenous conflict management mechanisms to a great extend. social harmony among the turkana and pokot communities was based on the long-standing indigenous resolution systems built upon restorative justice. however the effects of colonialism cannot be underscored as highlighted in the paper. colonialism superimposed a system of justice premised on completely different social values. while the indigenous justice system mainly ended in a winwin situation the western approaches and processes led to a winloose situation. the collision of these two opposing cultural perspectives on conflict resolution left post-colonial societies with functioning but inadequate options. although africa has self determination colonialism is ever present, lingering in today's many conflict resolution forums in post-independent states. whether the indigenous systems of justice now condemned as biased; ritual reconciliation ceremonies now failing to resolve deeply rooted conflicts; or western institutions of justice unable to serve the population adequately, local communities are without a single effective, reliable means to conflict volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 89 management. the research points out clearly that there is no one ‘fit-all’ conflict situation approaches and ‘cut and paste’ approaches are bound to fail. western approaches should not be imposed on every situation but rather they should be tailor-made to take to account the local needs, as each conflict is unique. interviews in the research for this work show that concepts of justice and people's desire for fair and fitting dispute resolution have altered drastically since colonialism. the change in perceptions of conflict resolution options meant that the basic human need of means to a peaceful society was unmet. the understanding of notions such as unbiased justice, fair compensation and the purpose of penalties have all shifted in response to western framing. the reconfiguration of native identity and the corresponding cultural values has caused successful conflict resolution to remain elusive in post-independent states. the need for restorative justice makes western courts unfathomable, while the new ideas of justice based on the retributive system of the colonists render traditional forums substandard. to reduce all the comments and perceptions in this exploratory research to a single point, there is a basic similarity between native dissatisfaction with informal and formal justice systems alike. the current indigenous systems seem insufficient, while the formal justice system lacks indigenous values. neither system fits perfectly because neither one is a product of cultural expression and ownership. as such, neither fully meets basic human needs, without which internal and systemic conflict is standing by. it is arguable that the lack of cultural ownership is the main factor influencing informal and formal conflict resolution systems' inadequacy. how could either of these systems one from an untouched world, one a foreign import fit changing values? any conflict resolution system that attempts to successfully serve a population must originate from the people themselves, according to their specific values and beliefs. for example the conflict between the turkana and pokots of north rift kenya can well be addressed basing on their existing cultural values, however these too have been infiltrated by western values that are still alien to indigenous people. the ultimate goal for successful conflict resolution post-independence is a system by which all people are satisfied. with this objective in mind, it is simple to identify the weaknesses in the current conflict resolution options. formal systems that bear the mark of colonial imposition fail to recognize and respect the culture of the indigenous. based on these arguments the research recommends a hybrid approach of both western and indigenous systems. for pokot and turkana, none of the currently established systems are wholly accurate for conflict resolution. volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 90 communities should be allowed to identify and correct the inefficiencies and inadequacies in the conflict resolution systems designed to serve their needs. these systems will have to be reformed or a new system created if there is to be social order, harmony, and positive peace. references abu-nimer, m. 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(2000). contradictory perspectives on rights and justice in the context of land tenure reform in tanzania. in m. mamdani (ed.), beyond rights talk and culture talk: comparative essays on the politics of rights and culture (pp. 37-60). new york, ny: st. martin's press. smith, j. (1996). the effects of tribal wars on personal and family disputes in papua new guinea. in f. jandt. & p. pedersen (ed.), constructive conflict management: asia-pacific cases (pp. 112-118). california: sage publications, inc. tangiora, p. (1996). an indigenous perspective on one aspect of reconciliation. in f. volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 94 jandt & p. pedersen (ed.), constructive conflict management: asia-pacific cases (pp. 215-219). california: sage publications, inc. tatum, b. (2002). the colonial model as a theoretical explanation of crime and delinquincy. in s. gabiddon, h. greene, & v. young, (ed.), african american classics in criminology and criminal justice (pp. 307-322). california: sage publications, inc. zartman, i. w., ed. (2000). traditional cures for modern conflicts: african conflict medicine. boulder, co: lynne reinner publishers, inc. appendices appendix: awhat affects the fairness in the council of elders responses on fairness of council of elders favouritism clanism tribalism volume 13 number (2019): 70-95 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 95 appendix: bwhat are the roles of the council of elders appendix: cwhat necessitates individuals’ decision to go to elders or court for arbitration? 12% 12% 18% 58% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% maintain peace dispute management security water and pasture regulation pe rc en ta ge o f r es po nd en ts responses on role of council of elders series1 0% 20% 40% no fa ith pr ide /sh ow of f fe ar of pu nis hm en t dis res pe ct do n't kn ow 9% 13% 22% 39% 17% pe rc en ta ge o f r es po nd en ts responses on individual's decision series1 microsoft word v14.2 finley and esposito.docx volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 105 volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal antifa as bogeyman laura finley and luigi esposito many regard president donald trump as a master of whipping up fear to support his political agenda (e.g., ball 2016). perhaps like no other president, trump creates scapegoats and bogeymen to shift direction from his own faults and failings, to ignite his base of supporters, and to garner approval for repressive policies and practices. we’ve seen the president do this with immigrants, spewing and tweeting that they are all criminals who will take americans’ jobs and soak our social services (e.g., finley and esposito 2020). his latest foil, amidst the protests by black lives matter related to the murder of george floyd and many other black men, is antifa. trump has said “our nation has been gripped by professional anarchists, looters, criminals, antifa and others.” the president has repeatedly vowed to officially label antifa a terrorist group, putting it on a federal list alongside alqaeda and isis. this is impossible, as the federal government can only classify foreign groups as terrorist entities and anti-fascism is an ideology, movement, and tactic, not an organization (feuer 2020). further, none of trump’s rhetoric matches reality. instead, antifa is a “trumped-up boogeyman for the conservative movement, a totem used to justify their violent ‘law and order’ approach to legitimate demonstrations demanding racial justice’ (beauchamp 2020). antifa has been found to have very limited involvement in any of the protests of 2020 (collins 2020). at the same time they denounce antifa, trump and his supporters have been largely silent on violence by far-right groups, especially pertaining to white supremacists (haltiwanger 2020). volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 106 in reality, antifa “is not a unified organization, but rather a loose ideological label for a subset of left-wing radicals who believe in using street-level force to prevent the rise of what they see as fascist movements. it is a kind of anarchist alternative to the police that [although traceable to europe] took root in america’s punk scene, without any kind of national command and control structure” (beauchamp 2020). fear of these far-left agitators using “antifa” tactics and infiltrating otherwise peaceful protests has also been used to justify the deployment of federal agents to various, mostly democratic-run cities, that the trump administration claims have been “taken over” by antifa and are now cesspools of crime and violence. in fact, on june 14, 2020, trump tweeted “interesting how antifa and other far-left militant groups can take over a city without barely a whimper from soft, do-nothing democratic leadership” (trump tweet archive). this same anti-antifa rhetoric has also encouraged ultra-repressive tactics, including violently suppressing protestors and even whisking people away in unmarked cars without probable cause. in short, antifa appears to be the latest iteration of a bogeyman that is being employed to criminalize social and political dissent in the united states. this paper examines the creation of antifa, framing it within the history of anti-leftist scapegoating. it then examines the claims made about antifa’s propensity for violence and its alleged denial of free speech. further, the paper exposes how president donald trump and his supporters have made antifa a bogeyman and the effect this has had and will likely have on political and social policy and, in particular, its impact on the 2020 presidential election. brief history of antifa and leftist scapegoating in his book antifa: the anti-fascist handbook, historian mark bray (2017, p. xv) explains that “depending on local contexts and politics, antifa can variously be described as a kind of ideology, an identity, a tendency or milieu, or an activity of self-defense” in its most basic sense, those who associate with the term “antifa” oppose fascism. although fascism is politically thought of as a type of far-right, authoritarian ultra-nationalism characterized by dictatorial power, in a broader sense fascism also entails a system, ideology, and/or organized social/political activity in which some groups oppress, dehumanize, or marginalize other groups of people. currently, antifa groups in the united states and elsewhere are committed to actively opposing—both through non-violent and direct action tactics—any individual, group, or organization that, in one way or another, promotes racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and other systems of oppression. volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 107 the origins of antifa are found in european leftist organizations during the 1920s and 1930s, notably the “arditi del popolo” (“the people’s daring ones”) in italy, and the antifaschistiche aktion (or “anti-fascist action”) in germany, both of which were militant anti-fascist groups. early anti-fascist initiatives are also found in england, such as in the battle of cable street, when, on october 4, 1936, tens of thousands of socialist, communist, anarchist, and jewish groups organized to prevent the british union of fascists from marching through their east end london neighborhood, beating back three thousand fascist black shirts and six thousand police officers (penny 2017). with the defeat of mussolini and hitler by the allied armies, fascism came to be widely understood as synonymous with “evil”—i.e., as something any moral individual would oppose. according to bray, this moral, individualistic interpretation of fascism during the post-world war ii era, particularly in the west, discounted the need for political organizing against farright politics (bray 2017). yet various groups, particularly members of marginalized communities, understood the need to actively confront fascism whenever and wherever it reared its head, as they believed that ignoring far-right ideologies and political organizing, however insignificant they might seem at any specific time, could lead to a potential fascistic metastasis and a repetition of auschwitz and treblinka. by the 1960s, anti-immigrant sentiment in several western countries once again revitalized anti-fascist energies that sought to challenge xenophobia and white supremacy. in england, for example, increased immigration during the late 1960s led to an anti-immigrant backlash that targeted south asian communities and bolstered racist organizations such the national front, the racial preservation society, and other far-right groups (bray 2017, pp. 45-47). the emergence of these groups became a “wake up call for the anti-fascist movement,” which, by the 1970s, was comprised of anti-racists, socialists, anarchists, feminists, gays and lesbians, and others championing the plight of immigrants and other marginalized communities. similarly, in germany, a resurgence of neo-nazism during the 1980s re-energized anti-fascist groups that emphasized militant self-defense against racists. many of these anti-fascist groups dressed in black to ensure anonymity— a strategy also known as “black bloc”—which is today common among anti-fascist activists in various countries (van deusen 2002). interestingly, these anti-fascist efforts occurred amid the explosion of punk rock music across britain, which later spread to other western countries, notably the united states. according to various accounts, the modern north american antifa movement developed to defend the punk scene from the neo-nazi volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 108 movement (thomson 2017). particularly during the 1980s and early 1990s, as neonazis in the united states became more prevalent in the hardcore punk scene, they were increasingly confronted by anti-racist skinheads who drew from european anti-fascist groups and exercised a politics of self-defense as a way to protect not only the underground/punk music scene but vulnerable communities from what they perceived as a neo-nazi threat (bray 2017). various groups broadly associated with antifa in the united states today were also active in other organized protests, including the so-called “battle for seattle” 1999, in which activists, through direct action tactics, managed to disrupt the world trade organization ministerial conference in seattle, washington. the presidential candidacy and election of donald j. trump represents another historical landmark in the formation of antifa in the united states. as has been well documented, trump’s presidency emboldened white nationalists associated with the so-called alt-right, who call for, among other things, a “white ethno-state” in the united states (hawley 2017). however, similar to what happened in england and germany in the 1970s and 1980s, the increasing visibility of the alt-right in the united states from 2015-2017 revitalized antifa groups, who organized to challenge the alt-right. the most publicized clashes between antifa and the far-right took place at the “unite the right” rally in charlottesville, virginia on august of 2017, which involved physical confrontations and the death of antiracist activist, heather heyer. but while antifa drew support from some quarters, they were denounced by many—both liberals and conservatives—as a fanatical fringe group that suppresses free speech and uses violent tactics to achieve its political aims. the same accusations have been made in response to the uprisings against systemic racism and police brutality that took place in the wake of the murder of george floyd. here again, many have accused antifa of hijacking black lives matter and undermining their political efforts by encouraging violence, looting, damaging property, and occupying sections of entire cities, as with the creation of a so-called “autonomous zone” referred to by the acronym chaz in seattle. in fact, many on the right have even argued that antifa (along with black lives matter) is actually funded and controlled by a sinister cabal of leftist elitists, including george soros, who want to promote violence and divisions with the ultimate aim of consolidating power (gibbons 2020). of course, there is absolutely no evidence that any of this is true. far from new, the idea that radical leftists are plotting to take over the country and create havoc is an old fear within the context of recent us history. in volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 109 fact, according to various commentators, the demonization of antifa today is a continuation of the so-called “red scare” of the early 20th century, and a bit later, the rise of mccarthyism in the 1950s (e.g., gomez 2020). the first red scare occurred in the wake of the world war i. the triumph of the bolshevik russian revolution in 1917 coincided with a rise in labor strikes and other forms of activism in the united states. tapping into the xenophobic sentiments of the era, the media sensationalized these labor strikes as the work of “foreign communist radicals” who were determined to undermine capitalism and the american way of life. fear of this foreign threat is at least what partly led to the passing of the sedition act of 1918, which criminalized criticism against the us government and led to the close monitoring of anyone who was deemed to be a threat. the implied anti-communist fervor eventually encouraged us attorney general of the time, mitchell palmer, to order what came to be known as the “palmer raids” from late 1919 to early 1920— a series of violent raids that targeted primarily immigrants who were known to be communists or anarchists (shepley 2011). similar stigmatization and repression of left-leaning activists or sympathizers continued in subsequent decades with the rise of the cold war and the creation of the house un-american activities committee in 1938 (later named the house committee on internal security in 1969), a committee devoted to investigating and exposing communists and other “subversive” or “disloyal” actors in government, academia, the film industry, and other areas. as is well known, one particularly fervent anti-communist crusader, especially during the 1950s, was us senator joseph r. mccarthy of wisconsin, who actively destroyed the careers and reputations of people by accusing them, often falsely, of being communists (schreker and deery 2017). presupposed by all this was the idea that anyone who held leftist viewpoints was a threat to decency and democracy and thus an enemy of the united states. the implied witch-hunt was further carried out by various other government officials, targeted far more than just communists, and was even used to persecute civil rights leaders. for example, in the early 1960s, fbi director edgar hoover “was quick to equate any kind of protest with communist subversion, including civil rights demonstrations led by martin luther king, jr. hoover labeled king a communist and covertly worked to intimidate and discredit the civil rights leader” (red scare 2010). under the counterintelligence program (cointelpro), which lasted until the 1970s, the fbi drew from “techniques of warfare” that were designed to surveille, infiltrate, discredit, and disrupt hostile foreign agents and applied them to domestic political movements that threatened the existing social and political order (gibbons 2020b). when one considers this history, parallels to how antifa is currently being demonized by members of the volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 110 current trump administration to intimidate protestors and discredit legitimate popular anger and calls for social and racial justice are difficult to ignore. controversy over free speech and aims of antifa important to note is that antifa is predicated on an illiberal worldview, which is partly why this movement is often misunderstood, particularly in the united states. from an antifa perspective, respecting free speech is secondary to the need for unapologetically fighting, de-platforming, silencing, and stopping nazis and other far-right actors who seek to hurt, discriminate, or dehumanize others. as stated by mark bray (2017, p. xiv), “at the heart of the anti-fascist outlook is a rejection of the classical liberal phrase incorrectly ascribed to voltaire that i disapprove of what you say, but i will defend to the death your right to say it.” sensitive to past historical atrocities, contemporary antifa groups are firmly convinced that unless racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and other systems of oppression are immediately confronted whenever and wherever they occur, they quickly spread, thereby putting vulnerable communities at risk. as such, antifa not only physically confronts and attempts to silence nazis, white supremacists, and others they deem to be a threat—a tactic bray (2017) describes as “anticipatory self-defense”— but also uses nonviolent tactics against their political opponents, such as gathering information about them and releasing it to the public (a practice known as “doxing”) so as to make them unemployable, ensure they feel unsafe, and turn them into social pariahs. not surprisingly, these tactics have been accused by both conservatives and many liberals of being authoritarian and undemocratic. in fact, when antifa groups in the united states organized to prevent white nationalist richard spencer, or controversial right wing provocateurs like anne coulter and milo yiannopoulos from speaking on college campuses, they were denounced by many as politically correct fanatics carrying out the modern equivalent of book burnings. but is antifa really an enemy of “free speech”? according to bray (2017, (pp. 144-149), the answer is more complicated than what it is often made out to be. we will focus here on four points. first, the charge that antifa is antithetical to free speech assumes some type of free speech absolutism or “neutrality” that simply does not exist in the us, as the us government already restricts things like false advertisement, television commercials for tobacco, libel, various forms of pornography, and other issues. within the private realm, free speech is also often restricted, as when corporate employees (similar to government officials in the public realm) are frequently prohibited from sharing privileged company volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 111 information by having to sign nondisclosure clauses in their employment contracts. second, when popular movements have posed an actual threat to the status quo, the state has often suppressed or distorted their messages, as in the case with antineoliberal globalization protests in the 1990s, the anti-war movement in the early 2000s, occupy wall street in 2011, and, more recently, black lives matter and their call to defund the police. in the latter example, blm activists—most of whom have not called to completely eliminate the police but rather to invest in communities and reallocate crime control funding to more comprehensive emergency/public safety response teams that might include mental health specialists, social workers, and others— have been accused by the trump administration and others of wanting to do away completely with law enforcement, thereby giving criminals a green light to victimize with impunity. third, assuming some sort of free speech “neutrality” also ignores how the state effectively silences groups like prisoners and undocumented immigrants, many of whom have very little legal recourse to defend their rights. and fourth, “free speech,” as conceptualized in the united states, is essentially a market driven notion which relies on an idealized “marketplace of ideas” to ensure that the better argument wins out. this, however, ignores how far from a free flow of ideas, multinational corporations have enormous control over capital and information, and therefore shape public opinion and people’s conception of reality. when one considers these issues, the argument can be made that while antifa does not prioritize some idealized conception of free speech over confronting fascism, these activists are passionate about ensuring that the concerns and voices of marginalized communities are heard. in this sense, antifa might actually be regarded as a promoter of free speech, particularly for those who are too often stripped of a voice. for a concise statement addressing the central aims of antifa, one can look at the torch network’s website (torchantifa.org). the torch network is the successor of the anti-racist action network and currently the biggest and best known antifa network in the united states. in their website, torch list “five points of unity” defining their network (emphasis in the original: 1. we disrupt fascist and far right organizing and activity. 2. we don’t rely on the cops or courts to do our work for us. this doesn’t mean we never go to court, but the cops uphold white supremacy and the status quo. they attack us and everyone who resists oppression. we must rely on ourselves to protect ourselves and stop the fascists. 3. we oppose all forms of oppression and exploitation. we intend to do volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 112 the hard work necessary to build a broad, strong movement of oppressed people centered on the working class against racism, sexism, nativism, antisemitism, islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and discrimination against the disabled, the oldest, the youngest, and the most oppressed people. we support abortion rights and reproductive freedom. we want a classless, free society. we intend to win! 4. we hold ourselves accountable personally and collectively to live up to our ideals and values. 5. we not only support each other within the network, but we also support people outside the network who we believe have similar aims or principles. an attack on one is an attack on all! (torch network, points of unity). of course, the historical nuances and social-political implications of these aims are typically ignored by those who demonized antifa as a bunch of fringe radicals hell bent on destroying america. indeed, research into the trump administration’s understanding of antifa has found that it includes little more than google searches (devereaux 2020b). trump and his supporters’ use of antifa as bogeyman trump and his supporters have been demonizing antifa for years. in summer of 2017, trump denounced antifa for perpetrating violence at the unite the right rally in charlottesville, despite the real culprits being far-right white supremacists. he even said the “alt-left,” meaning antifa, came charging the “alt-right” (mark and perrett 2020). antifa/anarchists were said to be infiltrating trump and ice’s attempts to separate families from their children and were allegedly planning violent attacks that never happened. in may 2019, the fbi circulated a report titled “anarchist extremists very likely increasing targeting of us government entities in arizona, increasing risk of armed conflict. it was later leaked to several media sources. despite its provocative title, almost all the evidence cited in it involved nonviolent protest. (devereaux 2020a). the emphasis on antifa as a violent group intent on destroying america has escalated since the murder of george floyd and the subsequent black lives matter protests. when 75-year-old protester martin cugino was pushed down by two police officers in buffalo, trump tweeted that cugino might be an antifa “agitator,” despite no evidence to support that claim (collins 2020). these claims seem to have volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 113 been based on a report from one america news network, a right-wing cable tv station, which has since the 2016 election been a cheerleader for trump. trump’s cronies have advanced his antifa bogeyman agenda. testifying before the house judiciary committee on july 28, 2020, attorney general william barr stated, incorrectly, that "antifa is heavily represented in the recent riots.” in fact, in the wake of nationwide uprisings against racism and police violence, barr dismissed the idea that there is systemic racism in law enforcement, called for the creation of a new taskforce on “violent anti-government extremism,” and suggested recent protests and uprisings demanding racial justice are controlled and organized by “outside agitators and radicals [who] are exploiting the situation…[and] in many places it appears the violence is planned, organized, and driven by anarchic and left extremist groups, far-left extremist groups using antifa-like tactics” (quoted in wu 2020). the trump “make america great again” committee, an official fundraising arm for the president, ran campaign ads telling donors to contribute to the administration’s anti-antifa campaign. on june 4, the fbi released a report about the protests and while it noted the possibility of violence on both political sides, antifa was the only group specifically mentioned (devereaux 2020b). on june 5 in an op ed published by fox news, ken cuccinelli, acting deputy secretary of dhs, tweeted, ““their silence is deafening. cities across america burn at the hands of antifa and anarchists while many political leaders are refusing to call it what it is: domestic terrorism.” on july 4, trump reiterated his approach to the protests at an address honoring the u.s. military, “we are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the marxists, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and people who in many instances have absolutely no clue what they are doing” (deveraux 2020b). the claim that antifa is somehow leading the protests about black lives matter or that it is spearheading violence is nothing more than a way to delegitimize the protests. it is intended to detract from the fact that, globally, the black lives matter protests were in all likelihood the world’s largest nonviolent gatherings. in fact, a report in the guardian found that leftwing violence has resulted in far fewer deaths than has rightwing violence, and that leftwing antifa activists have not been linked to a single murder in over a decade. it examined nearly 900 incidents since 1994 and found just one attack staged by an anti-fascist activist and the only fatality was the perpetrator (devereaux 2020b). volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 114 the president and his supporters’ rhetoric about anti-fascist violence is clearly aimed at his base and sends a message that it is acceptable to attack people who protest. yvette felarca, a california-based organizer and anti-fascist activist, explained, “it’s his way of saying to his supporters: ‘yeah, go after them. beat them or kill them to the point where they go back home and stay home afraid” (beckett 2020). in fact, leaked law enforcement documents show that police knew that it was rightwing infiltrators, not antifa or other activists, who were planning on attacking protestors. the documents, which were published online at “blueleaks,” expressed concern about violence encounters with the far-right “boogaloo” movement, which seeks to attack police in order to instigate a civil war. hina shamsi, director of the aclu’s national security project, explained, “there are instances in which people engaging in white supremacist violence get the benefit of the doubt as potential lone offenders, while people of color and those who dissent against government injustice are smeared as threats with guilt by association.” michael german, a former fbi agent who specialized in domestic terrorism, decried the politicization of these threats and asserted that painting both sides of the political spectrum as equally dangerous is disingenuous when only the right is actively killing people. in many states, the overblown threat of antifa has led the fbi to target individuals who may be involved or sympathetic and to try to get them to become informants (devereaux 2020b). two days before trump tweeted about classifying antifa as a terrorist organization, leaked documents show that his own department of homeland security analysts had identified an encrypted message in which followers were encouraged to use molotov cocktails and firearms against police. this group calling itself the national accelerationist revival wrote “looting and shoplifting are both cool and whites should be doing it way more,” the source went on. “when the laws no longer benefit you, break them for personal gain. if you don’t feel like buying something, steal it. if you don’t feel like driving slow, drive fast. if you don’t like someone, hurt them.” in another document issued the following day, dhs warned of the white supremacist boogaloos who were planning attacks on law enforcement. these concerns came to fruition, in particular with the attack by former air force sergeant steven carillo, carillo assassinated a federal court security guard in oakland and then ambushed and killed a sheriff’s deputy and wounded many others while wearing a boogaloo patch and scrawling the movement’s phrases on the hood of a vehicle in his own blood. carillo had previously made comments in a facebook group about how the protests provided the ideal opportunity to attack police. yet while carillo was on the run, the fbi in minneapolis was circulating an uncorroborated and unsubstantiated online discussion that antifa intended to massacre the national guard at the state’s capitol. that same day, trump tweeted a quote from “fox and friends” host volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 115 brian kilmeade about the carillo incident, “i don’t see any indication that there were any white supremist [sic] groups mixing in. this is an antifa organization. it seems that the first time we saw it in a major way was occupy wall street. it’s the same mindset” and then responded to the tweet “true!” later trump appeared in the white house rose garden vowing to mobilize military forces to quash ““the violence and restore security and safety in america,” noting incorrectly that violence was being perpetrated by ““professional anarchists, violent mobs … arsonists, looters, criminals, rider rioters, antifa, and others” and citing carillo’s crimes as if they were committed by antifa (devereaux 2020b). immediately after senator kamala harris was announced as the democratic vice-presidential nominee, attempts to link harris and the biden campaign with antifa and so called “radicals” seem to have intensified. in one tweet, rnc chair, ronna mcdaniel, quoted david bossie, the president of citizens united, who said “make no mistake about it, if elected, this weak democratic duo will aid and abet the radical socialists and anarchists at every turn. america must reject joe biden, kamala harris, and their dangerous ideology.” a similar warning was expressed by vice president, mike pence, who, in an email, told the american people that “joe biden and kamala harris would set america on a path of socialism and decline” (quoted in krieg 2020, emphasis in the original). the attempt among trump and his supporters to link their political rivals with antifa took on a particularly sensational turn on august 12, 2020, when it was discovered that the domain name “antifa.com” redirects to joe biden’s website, giving the illusion that the biden campaign might be in charge of antifa itself. although the domain bait-and-switch was likely the work of pro-trump hackers trying to associate the biden campaign with the far left, the supposed “controversy” became a serious topic of discussion on various social media platforms, much to the delight of trump supporters (binder 2020). conclusion: implications of the paranoia about antifa not only is the incendiary rhetoric about antifa taking up more fbi and law enforcement time and resources, it is resulting in public paranoia that is dangerous. in denver, a resident reported a “suspicious” person who supposedly appeared ready to set the building on fire. he wrote, “fairly certain he was a member of an antifa like group,” the resident wrote, adding that there were “two antifa safe houses on our block.” he went on to demand that law enforcement “get these terrorists out of our city please!” the douglas county (colorado) sheriff’s department requested information about antifa from the colorado information analysis center (ciac). “the blueleaks documents suggest a borderline volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 116 obsession on the part of some law enforcement offices with painting antifa, anarchists, and left-wing dissent more broadly as a serious terrorist threat.” german, the fbi agent, explains that this paranoia effects individual officers, who believe the reports being disseminated and therefore feel as though their lives are in danger from leftist anarchists or anyone who loosely “appears” that way. shamshi explained, “it’s law enforcement agencies engaging in unjustified discriminatory investigations and bias-based profiling, which in turn generates inaccurate or unreliable information, which is then used by other federal, state and local agencies in a variety of contexts” (devereauzx 2020b). german went on to explain the real goal of the trump administration’s emphasis on antifa. “they know as well as anybody does, because they’re not stupid people, that there is no organization called antifa. it’s an absurdity what they’re talking about, but they’re using it as this umbrella term to justify militant or vigilante violence against these groups, and also police violence against these groups. they’re identifying the enemy — and that’s what’s very dangerous” (devereaux 2020b). the campaign to demonize antifa is fueling racial divides in the u.s, as trump and his supporters are clearly painting protesters for racial justice as dangerous zealots who must be stopped at any cost. and, as the 2020 election approached, it is clear that trump and his supporters are doing as they did in 2016, using hateful rhetoric, misleading and false claims, and repeated incendiary comments to ignite his base. for example, with respect to the george floyd protests, trump tweeted “when the looting starts the shooting starts.” trump’s campaign ads emphasized that he’ll maintain law and order and that his opponent should be feared as a socialist who will endanger our lives, all in stark contrast to reality but playing on emotions that continue to divide. while trump lost the election, the emphasis on keeping “suburban women safe,” “restoring law and order,” and ensuring that the united states does not become a socialist country seem to have resonated with the more than 70 million people who voted for him, revealing continued deep political divides. the social construction of a bogeyman to manipulate public opinion and garner support from a fearful public is an old political tactic. but as franklin delano roosevelt famously stated in 1933, often times what we need to fear most is fear itself. fear, particularly when predicated on a fiction, amplifies anxiety, discourages rational thought, creates divisions, fosters anger, and invites misguided and potentially dangerous policies and practices. as discussed by martha nussbaum (2018). a populace cannot make rational decisions or engage in productive dialogue when operating on the basis of fear and fictitious volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 117 assumptions. associating anti-fascism with a communist rabble hell bent on undermining democracy, freedom, and civilization is not only fictitious but impedes any possibility for productive deliberation across the political divide. fear and anger also make scapegoating more likely, particularly during periods of social, economic, and political volatility. indeed, at a time when millions in the us face a deadly pandemic, major debt, unemployment, financial precarity, food insecurity, homelessness, and other social ills, people are particularly receptive to the idea of scapegoats. during such times, the practice of demonizing specific groups of people as threats to law and order, freedom, property, decency, and prosperity can only lead to misunderstanding, resentment, and potential violence. as history has shown, when people are afraid and angry, they can justify violating human rights, especially when their fear and anger is directed against a socially constructed “other” that they have been told is the enemy. references barr, luke and jack date. (2020, may 30). barr claims protests were 'hijacked' as authorities point to out-of-state actors. abc news. https://abcnews.go.com/politics/ag-blasts-violent-radical-elements-leftantifa-tactics/story?id=70972194 ball, molly. (2016, september 16). donald trump and the politics of fear. the atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/09/donald-trumpand-the-politics-of-fear/498116/ beauchamp, zack. (2020, june 8). antifa, explained. vox. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/6/8/21277320/antifa-antifascist-explained beckett, lois. (2020, july 27). anti-fascists linked to zero murders in the us in 25 years. the guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/27/us-rightwing-extremistsattacks-deaths-database-leftwing-antifa binder, matt. (2020, august 12). no, this doesn't mean that joe biden owns antifa.com. mashsable. https://mashable.com/article/antifa-joe-bidentrump/ bray, mark. (2017). anti: the antifascist handbook. brooklyn, ny: melville house publishing volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 118 collins, ben. (2020, june 9). president donald trump tweets “antifa” conspiracy theory that originated on anonymous blog. nbc news. https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/president-trump-tweetsantifa-conspiracy-theory-originated-anonymous-blog-n1228356 devereaux, ryan. (2020a, july 25). before portland, trump’s shock troops went after border activists. the intercept. https://theintercept.com/2020/07/25/portland-federal-agents-antifa-border/ devereaux, ryan. (2020b, july 15). leaked documents show police knew farright extremists were the real threat at protests, not ‘antifa.’ the intercept. https://theintercept.com/2020/07/15/george-floyd-protests-police-far-rightantifa/ feuer, alan. (2020, june 9). trump falsely targets buffalo protestor, 75, as “antifa provocateur.” new york times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/09/nyregion/who-is-martin-guginobuffalo-police.html finley, laura and luigi esposito. (2020). “the immigrant as bogeyman: examining donald trump and the right's anti-immigrant, anti-pc rhetoric,” humanity and society, 44:178-197. gibbons, chip. (2020a, june). donald trump’s antifa hysteria is absurd; but it’s also very dangerous. jacobin. https://jacobinmag.com/2020/06/trumpgeorge-floyd-antifa-protests gibbon, chip (2020b, july 10). barr’s new task force is a blatant attempt to target racial justice protesters. in these times, https://inthesetimes.com/article/22657/fbi-barr-task-force-racial-justiceprotests-dissent-red-scare-trump-antifa gomez, julia. (2020, july 11). antifa labels are today’s mccarthyism. panther now. http://panthernow.com/2020/07/11/antifa-labels-are-todaysmccarthyism/ haltiwanger, john. (2020, july 28). trump, barr and the gop present antifa as a major threat in the u.s, but they’re not killing people—unlike white supremacists. business insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/barrgop-present-antifa-major-threat-but-no-evidence-killings-2020-7 volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 119 hawley, george. 2017. making sense of the alt-right. new york: columbia university press. krieg, gregory. (2020, august 12). republicans rush to condemn kamala harris, but their message is all over the place. cnn politics. https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/12/politics/republican-attacks-kamalaanalysis/index.html mark, michelle and connor perrett. (2020, june 2). trumps said he intends to declare antifa as a terrorist organization. here’s what we know about the decades-old, leaderless group. business insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-antifa-movement-charlottesvilleva-trump-news-2017-8 nussbaum, martha c. 2018. the monarchy of fear: a philosopher looks at our political crisis. new york, ny: simon and schuster. penny, daniel. (2017, august 22). an intimate history of antifa. the new yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/an-intimatehistory-of-antifa red scare (2010, june 1). red scare: cold war, mccarthyism, and facts. history.com. https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/red-scare schrecker, ellen and phillip deery. (2017). the age of mccarthyism. new york: bedford/st. martin’s. shepley, nick. (2011). the palmer raids and the red scare: 1918-1920. luton, uk: andrews uk limited. thomson, jamie. (2017, september 6). 'no fascist usa!': how hardcore punk fuels the antifa movement. the guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/09/no-fascist-usa-howhardcore-punk-fuels-the-antifa-movement torch network. points of unity. https://torchantifa.org/points-of-unity/ trump twitter archive (2020, june 14). http://trumptwitterarchive.com/archive van deusen, david. (2002). emergence of the black bloc and the movement towards anarchism. green mountain anarchist collective. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-van-deusen-green-mountainanarchist-collective-emergence-of-the-black-bloc-the-movement-t.pdf wu, nicholas (2020, may 30). attorney general barr: peaceful protests over george floyd 'hijacked' by 'far left extremist groups. usa today. volume 14 number 2 (2020): 105-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 120 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/05/30/george-floydprotests-ag-barr-blames-anarchic-and-leftist-groups/5291926002/ microsoft word ifp v 16 gerstner & shin.docx volume 16 number 1 (2022): 91-94 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 91 volume 16 number 1 (2022): 91-94 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 review of maria hantzopoulos and monisha bajaj, educating for peace and human rights: an introduction (london: bloomsbury academic, 2021). 188 pp., $36.95 (paperback), isbn: 9781350129719 reviewed by nicki gerstner, seoul national university, nickigerstner@gmail.com and jungyoon shin, seoul national university, jungyoonshin@snu.ac.kr this book offers a very important, although very condensed, primer for peace education and human rights education and how the fields intersect to move forward as peace and human rights education or liberatory education. the introduction examines the intersections of the two fields and brings the reader into the dialogue of implementation: challenges and possibilities. hantzopoulos and bajaj build from freire’s (1970) “problem tree” heuristic, in which the leaves represent the symptoms of a problem; the trunk represents the attitudes and beliefs “that keep the symptoms in play” (p.3); and the roots represent systematic/structural sources. from this they conceptualized a “possibility tree” to illustrate “what a culture of peace, justice, and human rights looks like” (p. 7). the leaves represent the articulation of the concepts as they are manifested in lived experiences; the trunk represents education as the embodiment of these concepts; and the roots represent fundamental concepts of peace education and human rights education. the problem tree represents challenges and the possibility tree offers a collaborative and participatory envisioning of new worlds or solutions to encourage action. this book is divided into four thematic sections discussing (i.) peace education (ii.) human rights education (iii.) bridging the fields: liberatory education; and (iv.) current discourse and ways forward. the practical examples in volume 16 number 1 (2022): 91-94 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 92 chapters 2 and 4, provide perspectives from the global north and the global south respectively and are divided into community and schooling contexts to represent the diverse applicability of the fields. the first part of the book discusses the theory and practice of peace education (pe). this section does justice to pe by revealing that it is not an idle, abstract concept but a vibrant, active field of practice, aiming to undo violence and lay the foundations for sustainable peace. pe emerged as a named field in the early nineteenth century europe. it was during this time that people started to question the dominant framework of “peace through war or armament” and began considering ways to achieve peace through justice and nonviolence (p. 18). pe was further developed after world war ii, with a renewed commitment to world peace and global citizenship. pe seeks to attain “comprehensive peace”, which is not only the absence of direct violence (i.e., negative peace) but also the pursuit of justice and societal wellbeing (i.e., positive peace) (p. 20). chapter 2 then exemplifies two transformative pe cases in practice: the truth telling project (ttp) and school-based restorative justice in new york city public schools. the two practices place students and community at the center and tackles the very real forms of violence they experience. by reading about pe’s emphasis on agency and dignity, readers come to recognize how pe allows for empowerment and transformation. the second part covers human rights education’s (hre) history, theories, and practices. the authors discuss the origins of hre and focus on its modern adoption in the universal declaration of human rights (udhr) in 1948 with specific mention regarding education. fascinatingly, hre momentum and institutionalization is relatively recent, starting with the 1993 vienna declaration and program of action and high-profile global institutions backing hre initiatives. even with the global institutionalization of hre, it continues to be implemented in community-based settings and varies depending on the context and approach. table 3.1 by nancy flowers (pp. 56-57) presents a helpful conceptual framework for hre and beginners trying to understand goals, concepts, practices, problems, and implementation. this section covers approaches, conceptual orientations, and scholarship. it discusses how informal education can create space for collective and participatory hre where it’s needed most. additionally, transformative and decolonial strands of hre are covered. the practical examples in chapter 4 are based in the global south: india’s people’s watch implementing hre nationwide through its institute for human rights education (ihre) operating in “government-run schools” and a bangladesh ngo, brac (building resources across communities) providing hre as a “foundation for legal, advocacy, and community mobilization strategies … tailored to the realities of poor, rural women” volume 16 number 1 (2022): 91-94 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 93 (p. 90). both provided a portrayal of how individual communities can inculcate hre with meaning and relevance in their specific contexts. the third part begins with a new conceptualization of the possibility tree, as the authors contextualize liberatory education through pe, hre, and social justice education. together, in the trunk of a banyan tree, the fields fuse in their goals to respect inherent dignity, promote transformative agency, and develop the capability to act for positive social change. the foundational concepts of liberatory education make the roots; while the leaves represent the outcomes that the field adopts, such as “positive peace, negative peace ...and global citizenship” (p. 96). this specific tree was chosen for its unique feature to make new roots, representing the renewal of the field through reflexivity and growth. the authors suggest that renewal could be expressed through decolonial ethics and the concept of the “pluriverse” in which many worlds coexist within one (p. 113). in line with the leaves as outcomes, we would like to offer suggestions to better encourage growth in the book and audience. while this book offers a glimpse of what works, it neglects implementations that may perpetuate conflict. while pe and hre may offer practical alternatives to critical theories, scholars should remain critical of the gaps between policy and practice. in this book, examples of contextual practice that may have caused harm when the intention was to do the opposite would be an important insight into unintended outcomes. moving toward liberatory education, pe and hre must continue to validate their effectiveness within various communities and prove that the cases mentioned in chapters 2 and 4 were not unique, intrinsic cases, but an instrumental representation of a greater possibility of application. the fourth part of this book leaves readers with five lessons to consider when bridging theory with praxis: (1) the nature of peace and hre are relational and contextual; (2) eurocentric frameworks for peace and hre must be challenged; (3) concepts of peace and hre should be critically reflected upon implementation; (4) complex analyses of violence and power must be preceded; and finally (5) examples of effective peace and hre can inspire action in other fields (pp. 116117). these lessons may serve as the basic premise for researchers to further develop peace and hre into a more “efficacious and responsive” practice. with this in mind, the book concludes with advice from senior scholars about the way forward. they suggest applying and conjoining ideas from other theories such as postcolonial/decolonial studies, feminist studies, and affect theory for a more “robust conceptual engagement” with the fields (pp. 122-125). liberatory education may complement these critical approaches by offering a meaningful volume 16 number 1 (2022): 91-94 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 94 praxis with empirical data that demonstrates its positive influence on students and community (pp. 35-50, 79-93). this book will be a useful resource for young scholars or new practitioners who are looking to visualize and conceptualize the frameworks for praxes in understanding the fields; how they could be practiced; their similarities, synergies, and deviations; and possibilities for their transformation. microsoft word alasdawi ifp v12.2[1].docx in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 180-183 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 180 volume 12 number 2 (2018): 180-183 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review review of: twitter and tear gas: the power and fragility of networked protest by zeynep tufekci. yale university press, 2017. 360 pp. $26 (hardcover). $16 (paper). by ayman alsadawi kent state university twitter and tear gas endeavors to explain how digital technologies are used by activists and as governance. zeynep tufekci considers the effects that technological advancement has on the success rate and organization of a social movement, and the capacity of “networked” global movements. tufekci defines “networked” as the reconfiguration of publics and movements through assimilation of digital technologies (x). the author argues that networked movements, such as the egyptian revolution of 2011, cannot be measured as success or failure based on traditional models of social movements (xiv). she argues that, “digital technologies were profoundly altering the relationship between movement capacities and their signals” (xii). the book describes how technological affordances (actions a given technology facilitates or makes possible) are intertwined with culture, politics, and civics in social movements, which distinguish a movements capacity to carry out their objective. signals that indicate a capacity, such as strikes and boycotts, can be a tool to understand how a social movement or the government will potentially act (xi). to conceptualize the perceived in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 180-183 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 181 reconfiguration of the public sphere, tufekci draws examples from the “arab springs” and illustrates the transformation of turkey. the chapters use qualitative data to portray how social media and continuously updating computer algorithms are employed in the orchestration of a social movement, specifically in demobilization efforts. the concepts that tufekci incorporates are directed towards the trajectories of networked social movements and their capacities. the government or opposing party may use technology to manipulate a social movements capacity; by understanding the technological affordances and the indications of capacity, a social movement may also develop strategies to overcome the hinderance of their mobilization resulting in a more prepared and successful campaign. these implications may provide a foundation for further research into nonviolent strategy and enhanced methodology to demobilize violent operations and allow peace researchers to predict and prepare for conflict. tufekci offers a perspective from both sides of a conflict; how the activists are limited and or advanced by technology, and the government also uses computer algorithms and other technologies to their benefit. there is also a distinct link to global security methods and controlling the population which is demonstrated by how the government utilizes media platforms; yet the book neglects the origin and objective of social media as a security method, a component of governance. twitter and tear gas could potentially contribute to research in different aspects of the political science field. there are three parts of the book that tufekci constructs beginning with how digital technology has been implemented to mass mobilize and demobilize the society. the next section discusses how technology can be a tool for the public even though it is volatile and manipulated by the repressive authority to demobilize or mobilize specific target populations. the third and final section, tufekci elaborates on the aftermath of networked global social movements indicates for the power and capacities of the people, and governmental responses to networked movements. in part one: making a movement, tufekci emphasizes two resources of digital connectivity, attention and censorship. activists are heavily dependent on attention, without attention they cannot reach their target audience. social media provides that attention and can rapidly mass mobilize. however, mass media and governments attempt to deny activists in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 180-183 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 182 attention through censorship (30). the ability of social media to mobilize people quickly and without a leader draws attention to the campaign yet it often lacks an institutionalized structure and does not have the capacity to sustain itself. tufekci terms this model as an “adhocracy”, “tasks can be accomplished in an ad hoc manner by whoever shows up and is interested” (53). social movement culture has been spread through social platforms, and the affordances of technologies. in part two: a protester’s tools, she explains how technology and society interact (117). “there is a range of what is possible based on what is known” (121). this statement encompasses the idea of security mechanisms, as well as the capacities of social movements. tufekci analyzes how algorithms are used to target individuals with specific information, continuously gathering data to know what will potentially happen next. part three: after the protests closes reiterating that, “the strength of social movements is dependent on their capacities which interacts with the powerful as they assess and respond to the movements signals” (191). the book is concluded with a chapter on how the governments strike back exemplifying cases where the government responds to a movement using media. for example, the chinese president responded to a protest by denying activists any media coverage and heavily censored social networking sites (203). in another instance during the 2016 military coup in turkey, president erdogan accessed the news media through a facetime call as he was being held captive in which he mobilized masses of the population to take to city squares, major buildings, and airports and to resist the attempted coup (257). overall, tufekci weighs the affordances and the reciprocations of networked movements. twitter and tear gas examines the interactions of society and digital technologies and how governments implement algorithms and technological developments to demobilize or mobilize the population. they target specific audiences and censor information on the web. in networked global social movements, activists employ social media as a method that generates a massive, ad hoc, but often unprepared campaign. tufekci argues that the transformative public sphere of digital technology has altered the relationship between movement capacities and their signals (xii). if a movement applies the knowledge that may be gained by reading this book, they may be better prepared to overcome interference in their success and develop strategic methods that can also subdue violence. it in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 180-183 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 183 may potentially provide scholars in peace studies with research on how to indicate and predict if a movement will result in conflict. overall, tufekci offers an insightful work on the significance of technological affordances, providing a perspective from both the activist and the government’s utilization of technology. however, the book has potential to be improved by analyzing how technology is implemented by the government for securitizing the population. the implications of social media for both the activist and for authorities raises further inquiries, such as, how do authoritative regimes have access to the global web? who provides the network that allows cultures to interact and assimilate? if the government manipulates mass media, then how do activists know if they are being mobilized for a cause purposefully through targeted ads and information? if the government can control the mobilization of the population, then they also may determine which movements will be successful. microsoft word ifp v 16 wegert .docx volume 16 number 2 (2022): 198-209 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 198 volume 16 number 2 (2022): 198-209 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 the heart of justice: peace’s process as the essence of liberating choice, moral systems, and consciousness jessica wegert university of toledo humans have the power to act as both experimental creators and careful observers within the sets of living creations and systems which move in ways both inside and outside of our control. in this unique position, we have the choice (personally and as a part of the collective sum of our parts) to move toward peace with intention, by taking the principles of elements inside our control into actionable consideration. this intention also requires an understanding of the elements of peace, its processes, and evidence for and against its existence across sets of realities. peace is a fundamental component of basic human rights, and evidence of peace is evidence of justice. snauwaert (2022) identifies peace’s fundamental connection to social organization and describes peace as both the operative absence of structural violence and the functional presence of structural justice, consisting of variations in value, relating to its substantial nature, and spheres, relating to the spaces it occupies. peace encompasses the foundational elements of security and justice which all humans in any society, under any nation or agency, are owed (snauwaert, under review). in order to understand how this peace is to be provided to and accessed by all members of our shared global society, we can examine the world’s existing components of peace throughout the disciplines which define (using conceptions of volume 16 number 2 (2022): 198-209 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 199 the past) and further (using conceptions of the future) its components’ existence in a certain way. these disciplines include: history, which asks us to examine its elements in connection to the shaping of present sets of conditions and experienced realities; philosophy, which asks us to compare the most fundamental elements of our internal realities and identify where these realities are shared, in order to make sense of the order of natural and unnatural systems of being; psychology, which asks us to attempt to understand the developmental mechanisms and methods which humans use to internalize, process, and externalize experienced sets of realities, through diverse perspectives; and most notably; education, which guides methodical and creative inquiry each of these fields toward what comes next and how sets of realities and knowledge are shaped by and into meaning. the development and shape of the compounded effects of each of these fields are guided by their systematic evolutions and the moral consciousnesses of its members. shaped by these fields, in between our shared history and shared future lies the present, and in the present lies the connection and potentiality to point our shared experiences toward peace and justice. the central focus of this paper aims to outline the means and considerations which might form a basis for the development of communally experienced peace, throughout moral consciousnesses and shared systems; it must be noted that experiences must be first modeled in order to be mirrored. to create this model, educational dynamics (in both macro and micro level contexts) must be built upon the foundation of intentionally-rooted methods of peace, apply principles and practices which create experiences of and through peace for all members of a given group, understand the processes through which people become capable of exercising peace-oriented moral reasoning methods, and point to an experientially shared goal (to share the conditions of living through peace) capable of withstanding resistance. peace as process: growing a method to learn and teach peace, it must be understood primarily as alignment with process and means rather than as a fixed goal, end, or set of conditions. consistent with dewey’s conception of education, meaningful movement of a valued element (such as peace) is more aligned with an educational aim than is the containing of any certain set of informational knowledge about the aspect (dewey, 1903). the aim is to transfer a method, and in this way, the material factors secondary to the capacity to think and act meaningfully about the principled process of an element of learning, (dewey, 1903) such as the element of peace. with this in mind, the process of peace exists or does not exist (yet, speaking optimistically) across multitiered levels of perspectives, spaces, and times. in other words, the experienced existence of peace occurs variably across perspectives, shifts throughout different volume 16 number 2 (2022): 198-209 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 200 nations/cultures/places, and differs along with the conditions of a given time period. if and when peace becomes thoroughly conceptualized as a core necessity of life in its true essence, throughout each of these levels, then its sustainability becomes self-sustaining. as is true in any systemic process, the seeds which are planted, nurtured, maintained, and watered manifest within the growth of the fruits it produces. these fruits spread and continue the cycle; if the seeds are of peace, peace will grow. if the core of the seeds are rotten, rot will spread. systems founded on violence produce violence until its violent roots are plucked. peace sustained in any sphere requires awareness of the work it takes to grow and attention to its roots and fruits; its history and origins, as well as its impacts and outcomes. resistance to the process of peace can be evidenced by the observance of systemic violence and injustice (snauwaert, 2022). if grounded and nurtured by the shared value (of peace) at its core, peace’s processes will build and spread. peace as process: defining components awareness and practice of components of peace include and account for peace’s defining characteristics and its relation to human rights, violence, evil, and justice. each of these can be experienced, modeled, and created across personal and structural levels. snauwaert (under review) defines these in the following ways: ● peacepeace consists of positive and negative peace. the presence of justice (positive peace) and absence of violence (negative peace) are felt, from the organization and functioning of systemic cultural relationships, when peace is at the core of a society’s structures. ● human rightshuman rights are moral claims and justified demands for socially guaranteed ethical goods for all members, placed upon a governing organization of society. ● violenceviolence is the core problematic of peace, and includes direct, cultural, and structural types of harm. ● evilevil can be described as an inability to judge right from wrong, or inability to take on another person’s point of view into account when attempting to respond morally. ● justicejustice is concerned with the organization and functioning of social structures, and is described as what is collectively owed to each and what each owes to the collective (consisting of rights and duties, including those to resist injustice). each of these terms define processes we all share and experience deeply amongst ourselves, and i believe it is significant to add one additional definition of my own to this list: volume 16 number 2 (2022): 198-209 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 201 ● love = spread of peace and justice, through a system’s organizations, principles, and functionings peace as process: our core choice when we feel the impacts of an absence of peace, violation of justice or violation of human rights (snauwaert, under review), we are faced with a choice, whether we are consciously aware of this choice or not. this choice defines responses to injustice, which determine the future’s progression continuing toward or away from this direction. this choice is decided by our developed methods of moral reasoning, which determine our conceptions of rejectable injustice and the imagined possibilities of peace. observing realities which are without peace, in these terms, leads to a choice to move toward creating peace where we hope to see its existence grow, spread, flourish, and sustain us and itself. i prefer to use the term choice here over obligation because i believe it encompasses the meaningful impacts of both elements of justice (rights and duties) in a way that distributes power (at least linguistically) democratically rather than authoritatively, as rights and duties without choice are not liberating. love and liberation always prioritize choice, and that is also the power of peace; if its processes are chosen, its consequences naturally continue to sustain the choosing of justice, love, and liberation. conversely, choosing paths which are foundationally disconnected from peace lead to unavoidable disconnections from widespread justice and love. within this choice, all are free to decide one’s own means of resistance to an absence of peace and justice. even the most influential educators, scholars, and activists do not agree on a consensus regarding any single most effective means of resistance to injustice. this is evidenced by unsettled philosophical and moral debates such as those between non-violent and forceful means of resistance, as can be explored through the lived philosophies of civil rights movement activists, such as martin luther king jr. (mlk) and malcolm x, two of the most significant leaders during this societally transformative time. both activists understood the systemic injustices in their shared society and chose responses to their observations and experiences based upon their own methods of moral reasoning. while they differed greatly (could even be argued as opposing) in their approach, their core, guiding beliefs grasped onto the hope of peace’s possibilities to be embedded into transformed social consciences and systems. mlk said, “we have learned from our have-not status that it profits a nation little to gain the whole world of means and lose the end, its own soul. we must have a passion for peace born out of wretchedness and the misery of war. giving our ultimate allegiance to the empire of justice” (king, 1967). his activism was monumental in gripping the public and institutional volume 16 number 2 (2022): 198-209 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 202 attention which led to the civil rights act of 1964 and voting rights act of 1965, which are transformative legislations in the ongoing fight for justice in america. malcolm x, in comparison, operated through means of calculated confrontation, deemed violent actions occasionally necessary responses to systemic violence, and succeeded in many ways by shifting power into the shared hands of the people fighting for justice (potorti, 2017). he believed in radical and occasionally forceful means of resistance, but also emphasized his belief in peace as a means to a liberating end; “you can’t separate freedom from peace because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.” (malcolm x, 1965). thanks to the efforts shared by malcolm x, educational and social programs took shared action by opposing the course of systemic violence toward black and marginalized communities, and public schools even began providing meals to students after mirroring student food programs of the black panthers (potorti, 2017). though incredibly different in approaches and actionable goals, both of their chosen means guided them toward shared access to peace, freedom from targeted violence, presence of justice, and faith in these elements' lasting, societal qualities through communal praxis and education on these matters. when the possibilities of peace are imagined, and the principles and practices of peace are prioritized, taught, modeled, and nurtured, then individual choices on resistance to systemic violations of peace are afforded and are likely to vary from one another; still, the core value and occupied sphere of peace (snauwaert, under review) remain the same through the presence of choice. conversely, when the possibilities of peace are not considered, they become impossible. the ability to choose how to personally engage in moral reasoning methods is crucial for democratic dispersion of power. a prerequisite to the availability of this choice is the ability to use one’s own moral reasoning methods to see beyond fear and to understand the scope of the matters of justice, peace, violence, and evil. evil, whose methods lead to the continuation of structural violence, can be defined by an inability to use one’s own reasoning processes to approach the making of just choices (snauwaert, under review). or in other words, evil is a procedural failure to develop an understanding of the presence of personal choice between peace and violence, between love and fear, or between right and wrong. as such, failure to teach and learn the moral reasoning methods which create routes for the choices of peace to take shape becomes the origin point of procedural, cultural evil. if this is the origin point observed in current unjust realities, it is also a springboard from which collective education can catapult the shift of our relation to these moral developmental processes. the freedom to know the alternative choices to evil is instrumental in this process. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 198-209 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 203 the ability to choose one’s own outcomes, one’s own personal responses to moral judgements, and the right to choose one's own justifications for selfdetermination are fundamental to the freedoms prescribed to the existence of democracy and peace (snauwaert, under review). all members of a society should be equipped with educational access to knowledge and experiences which steer the development of the moral reasoning toward encouragement of creativity, curiosity, critical thinking, and choice. education and systems which lead to accepting singularized beliefs, limited outcomes, and narrow views of choice oppose the course of peace. today, the world’s religious, military, and political leaders demonstrate their chosen or developed use of their methods of moral reasoning to sanction systemic violence, to uphold their own interests in their own power and gain. in his article, the morality of obliteration bombing, ford (1970) highlights his narrowly framed choice in matters of morality and discusses his moral beliefs, which lack any alternatives to violently destructive methods of transnational relations. through his outlined ideologies, he portrays the belief that the only options, in matters of morality in global affairs, are “violence” or “obliterating violence”. he unquestionably accepts the position of war itself as a moral necessity (and explicitly assumes the majority of all others within his religion also accept this position), and he explores the answers to his moral inquiries within the framework of only these identified options. there is no thought mentioned (on the part of ford, or the collective consciousness his position represents, or the national and international systems who closely align with his narrow morality framework) of consideration for alternatives to the options of structural violence; there is no questioning of the moral priorities of war1 itself; and there is no questioning of the justifiability of those who speak and act as authority on matters of war. these positions, (which are notably representative of the most materially powerful, organized systems and collective moral consciousnesses of the modern world), are devastatingly troubling for their atrocious moral values and inability to comprehend the choice we all have to depart from evil (evil means, not necessarily evil intentions) as conditional to ways of living in a global society. not only do these perspectives fail to comprehend the existence of moral reasoning outside the interests served through violence, but they also entirely miss any possible notion of relating to and through peace. effective moral reasoning will look different in each person who employs its methods, but only truthful educational moral reasoning 1 global discussions and attempts to apply justified principles of war (such as just war theory’s principles of jus ad bellum, jus in bello, jus post bellum) should be noted here. these attempts are helpful and justifiable in theory, but after reflecting upon the actual, experienced issues caused by sanctioned global violence, and after reflecting upon the justifications used by nations and agencies to evade responsibility to adhere to these principles, their power seems to dissimulate the truth of the matter more than they uphold any type of justice in global and national contexts. the interests of a hierarchical state’s power serve themselves and release themselves from any actual responsibility to practice regulating themselves according to principles or practices of justice. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 198-209 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 204 frames choices in light of their connection to peace. while we cannot say what all realities of peace might look like because we cannot predict what each person’s independent methods of moral judgment might come up with (because there are endless possibilities), we can, however, say with certainty that an absence of peace takes the form of a lack of choice, or at least a belief in a lack of choice. applying this reasoning to current social realities paints a clear picture of a societal perception of an inability to choose (or perhaps more accurately described as a fear which blocks the realization of this choice), and therefore an inability to access peace and justice. it is important to note the distinction between perception of choice and actual ability to choose; education provides access to the power of choice, and this power is essential to be shared, collectively, in order to escape current, atrociously unjust social realities. the way modern systems and collective moral consciousness are so far disconnected from peace is evidenced by widespread beliefs held by an unquestioning majority of people, claiming, in both theory and practice, that peace and justice are not even fathomable options for contemporary societies of humans’ ways of living. this is an inherently violent belief to adhere to and compels knowledge to be used for actionable, powerful resistance to its structures for the sake of peace. when public consciousness does not question the inherently violent nature of systems of power, educators for peace and justice must take responsibility to pose these questions ourselves. peace as process: prioritize over belonging even more than we have a moral duty to resist injustice or move toward peace, we share a longing for lasting justice and encompassing peace. connecting to the roots of our shared desires according to our most personal feelings and experiences is even more operative than claiming obligation or duties as a member of any nation or agency because we connect to this desire for peace more fundamentally than we connect to belonging within a bordered society. the refutation of this claim might assert that desire for belonging within a collective or society supersedes the desire for overarching peace. both belonging and peace are fundamental human desires; however, organization surrounding principles of belonging does not necessarily lead to collections built upon justice and the deepseated desire to resist injustice. due to variations in moral reasoning methods (and arguably failure to provide appropriate reasoning-based education), it is possible to feel a sense of belonging within an organization, community, or nation who ultimately lacks shared peace and justice as evidenced by groups such as modern american nationalists. this caveat to belonging is especially important to consider, in theory and practice, when the groups within which belonging is sought are rooted in systemic injustice and a shared lack of basic human rights. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 198-209 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 205 the conditions of late-stage capitalism in modern america are debilitating to all its members’ ability to access security, basic rights, justice, education, and shared peace; these systemic orderings create wide-ranging and inescapable conditions of extreme poverty, financially and otherwise; many describe the need to earn a living by selling copious amounts of time, energy, and ideas to corporate interests, as synonymous with slavery. these conditions are detrimental to its members’ personal and shared interests, well-being, and access to life’s most fundamental necessities, such as education, healthcare, shelter, food, rest, community, and connection. (but at least we can vote and “belong” here, right?) despite all this, and an increasingly violent and invasive presence of corporate government involvement across all spheres of living, millions of american people continue to accept this fate as “just how it is;” and millions even still celebrate belonging to the “greatest country in the world” as they say, and vehemently support its conditions, authority, and structures. the inability to imagine the potential for social realities and living conditions better than these is devastating. organization, connection, and education founded on principles of peace, however, adhere to the core desires we share, and the consideration of present realities’ relation to justice and injustice, where injustice is inherently rejected by all who contribute to its structures by simply engaging in its process. for these reasons, in organized groups and movements for justice, peace must be centered over feelings of belonging. how do we apply principles of peace to address systemic injustice? this is where communal collaborations for peace ensue and take shape through sharing the spheres and values built from personal peacemaking. peace as process: personal peace as the point of departure if peace is to be practiced and collective resistance is to gain strength, then these methods are also to be taught and learned. where are these teachings and learnings to be done? when and where does it start? how do we all participate in modeling the changes of peace? how do i educate, organize, and practice resisting what doesn’t lead toward peace? how might the hopes of these collectively transformational efforts be embodied personally and locally? these questions, at the heart of the matter of peace as a foundational component of justice, ask us to organize deep introspection and to practice asking who am i? and what does peace look and feel like to me? reflecting meaningfully on these questions creates the core of peacebuilding-work at the seat of each of our own, unique perspectives and capabilities. clarity in awareness of the aspects of collective peacebuilding within our power is preceded by awareness of our inner positioning on the path of inner peacekeeping. this intimate knowing becomes the building block upon which the structures of peace pile and spread outward in connection with others and shared realities. while the inverse could also be argued as true (where the collective spread volume 16 number 2 (2022): 198-209 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 206 of peace informs the personal), this approach is less powerful because in daily realities, individuals operate from the positioning of our own personal perspectives, rather than operating from some universally or collectively shared standpoint. with this in mind, the process of planting, growing, and spreading sustainable peace begins with every individuals’ awareness of their own unique position, in relation to the process of peace. in teaching his followers the methods of going and spreading peace among the towns they pass through, jesus tells his followers to be discerning in the places where they find rest and offer to rest their peace, and he continues, “if the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it. if it is not, let your peace return to you” (matthew 10:13, niv). attention to the positioning of one’s own personal peace is inner security and operates as the heart of the effective flow of greater societal peace. peace as process: creating community and classroom security over fear peace becomes an optionable systemic outcome, only through the process beginning with internal adoptions of its principles and then through shared external expressions; through these ways, peace can then be spread and developed with intentional direction. these efforts create methods of coexisting and relating interpersonally to one another which foster natural processes of peace, justice, and the sharing of these interests. when the interests of peace are embedded deeply within the mindsets of each person, the values of peace become shared and develop along with the groups to which these people belong. a focus on the shared interests of peace (which externalize when shared) cultivates communities who then prioritize internal and external peace over profit, over superiority or power over others, and over adherence to principles of authority which are deeply disconnected from peace’s personal and shared values. what does prioritizing peace over fear in the classroom and immediate communities look like? how is shared peace developed and upheld over other potentially competing core principles? the question of prioritizing peace over fear of other core alternatives brings up the security dilemma regarding potentially problematic questions in situations of conflict. the security dilemma refers to conflict stemming from the sequence of an agency's actions out of self-interest in relation to their own security, which then impact others, whose reactions to these actions are also out of self-interest in their own security, and results in dilemmas of seemingly conflicting security-based interests (snauwaert, under review). in other words, “to defend one’s self is to increase the probability of conflict” (snauwaert, under review, chapter 4, p. 4). the conception of this dilemma is commonly understood in the context of international relations as seen in political realism theory, yet its application is relevant to all intergroup dynamic types. the existence volume 16 number 2 (2022): 198-209 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 207 of this dilemma as a common core relational problem across contexts is telling of the nature of individual agency or state’s interests and core values. what i mean by this is, in this dilemma, the agency’s belief in a need to operate out of fear (fear of a lack of personal security or fear of the reaction of others) is what creates the dilemma itself and is mirrored in the responses which also operate out of this fear. i argue that this dilemma only functions when the core value of fear across relations is centered more than the value of peace is centered in these spheres. what if we were to operate out of a core belief in the possibility of centering a principle of peace rather than fear? how do we create and shift relations from centering fear to centering peace? this is the core problem which blocks the actualization of visualized peace; the disconnection between the peace we imagine and hope to share and the living experience of justified fear of not actually experiencing this peace. the conscious effort it takes to make this transformation requires space to build trust in the idea that one’s own primary interests are peace (which is interdependent with the peace of others), acts on these principles, and trusts that the process of peace will follow the course of these efforts. the fear of insecurity is justified when it reflects experienced truths, but becomes unjustified when the truth of the possibility of peace is instilled. we act on what we know to be true, so we must know peace more truly than we know fear. going back to the security dilemma, we ask, where is this insecurity rooted? what do we believe we must ultimately defend ourselves against? why do we believe our security must oppose the security of others? why do we believe our own interests of holding security and peace will be reacted to with the infliction of harm to ourselves and these interests? if these processes are what we’ve experienced, we must acknowledge these realities for what they are to then move past them, create new experiences with security, and adjust our internal and external responses to others accordingly. to practice this adjusting is to practice responding to conflicts with others in ways that do not deter the entire path of peace toward one of potential fear and insecurity. conflict among people and groups is unavoidable, but it must not be confused as synonymous with responding to conflict out of an essence of fear and insecurity. our responses to conflict give us a choice between peace and fear; between moving in security or insecurity. can we make the conscious choice to respond to conflicting personal or group interests without inflicting harm, with respect for the desire to stay in each’s own process of peace? if we can continue to create a way for peace to move even in the face of conflict, we can also learn to teach and trust that others will be able to do the same. various models of justice (such as alternative methods to retributive and even restorative modes of justice) dispel the actualization of fear-inducing reactions to conflict by creating communally shared spaces which build on and collect shared values, based on each member’s own interconnected desires for peace and needs for security, such as volume 16 number 2 (2022): 198-209 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 208 reclaimative and transformative models of justice (gerson and snauwaert, 2021). adopting these means in the classrooms and other immediate community environments we live, work, and connect in brings the principles of peace to fruition and in these spaces, produces alternatives to the core premise of the insecurity dilemma. our interactions and interventions with others must, and more importantly can, remain in connection with the heart of peace as it continues to flow through its own and others’ systems. peace as process: shared morally, consciously, and systemically the social and educational conditions necessary for peace to be shared as a core process of reasoning are not currently widespread; however, they are not entirely missing from current realities, and this core is not an impossible aim. where we find peace (within ourselves, in nature, in community, in cultural and social groups) we must choose to center and amplify it from the hearts and bodies of our methods. to center peace in moral reasoning, systemic actions must provide access to the possibilities (or freedom to imagine possibilities) of peace. hoffman (2003) outlines how the evolution of 1) international systems and 2) human consciousness shape the stage upon which humanitarian intervention is discussed and played out. this stage displays not only the evolution of humanitarian intervention, but also the evolution of the compounds of systems of human order, awareness, and shared realities. intentionality throughout this evolutionary process and awareness to the stage must be attended to if our interests are tied to the evolutionary productions of our realities’ collective narratives. if we want to stage a narrative of peace, we must prepare the stories and roles accordingly. as participants in this staging, remembering our role as individual components in a bigger picture is essential to systemic processes. we cannot tell the whole story of peace without first breaking down and knowing its moving parts. systems built on the core of peace stem from the ground up, not the other way around, which is why the process must be approached according to attending to and maintaining our own peace, our local community’s peace, and then our systemic peace might be uncovered. conclusion at its core, the power of peace relates the value of choice to the disintegration of the core problem of insecurity. the peace (and security, justice, and liberation) of all of us relies on the knowledge that the peace within ourselves also relies on the existence of peace within all others in order to be experienced truthfully. if peace cannot be dispersed and commonly shared, it lacks the space needed to continue to breathe and grow. when the shared realities of collective volume 16 number 2 (2022): 198-209 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 209 societal organization lack even consideration for the thought of truthful peace, its moral reasoning methods also lack peace in its true essence. this is not to say that peace does not or cannot exist in places and times within these social structures; rather, it means systems and consciousnesses in modern times do not value peace as a leading or rooted principle. we must understand, learn, and teach the components and steps toward peace, guide inner and outer methods in this direction, and share inquiries toward the process of peace and its development, planting, and spreading roots of a new social order governed by peace. to hold knowledge of these governing needs for the shared experiences of peace is to also hold responsibility to act on its principles. this responsibility is not to be taken lightly, nor is it to be used to superior-ize one’s individual role in peacebuilding. with education comes not only power but also new choices upon which to act, and we must remember the power of choosing peace for ourselves and us all. together is the only way toward peace. references dewey, j. (1903). democracy in education. the elementary school teacher, 4(4), 193-204. ford, john c. (1970). the morality of obliteration bombing. in war and morality, edited by r. a. wasserstrom. belmont, ca: wadsworth publishing company. original edition, theological studies, vol. 5 (1944), pp. 261-309. gerson, j., & snauwaert, d. (2021). reclaimative post-conflict justice: democratizing justice in the world tribunal of iraq. cambridge scholars publishing. hoffman, s. (2003). intervention: should it go on, can it go on? in ethics and foreign intervention, edited by d. k. chatterjee and d. e. scheid. new york: cambridge university press. king, m. l. (1967). where do we go from here: chaos or community? ([1st ed.). harper & row. malcolm x (1965). malcolm x speaks, 1965. us black nationalist leader (1925 1965). potorti, m. (2017). “feeding the revolution”: the black panther party, hunger, and community survival. journal of african american studies, 21(1), 85-110. snauwaert, d. t. (under review). teaching peace as a matter of justice: a philosophical and pedagogical framework. newcastle upon tyne, uk: cambridge scholars publishing. united nations office of genocide prevention. responsibility to protect. new york: united nations. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 198-209 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 210 microsoft word ipf v 16 reardon and snauwaert.docx volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 105 volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 dialogue on peace as the presence of justice: ethical reasoning as an essential learning goal of peace education an invitation to peace educators from dale snauwaert and betty reardon as we look to the 75th anniversary of the universal declaration of human rights (udhr), the germinative source of the range of human rights standards adopted over the second half of the 20th century by the community of nations, we are dismayed at the lack of regard that community seems to hold for these standards. intended as the guidelines for achieving essential conditions of a just and peaceful world society, they are hardly implemented and infrequently invoked. the second decade of the 21st century witnesses “disregard and contempt for human rights” exceeding those that produced “the barbarous acts which…outraged the conscience of mankind…” this is a time when we have cause to question: where now is such an active global conscience that gave rise to the response that produced the udhr, adopted by acclamation of the un general assembly on december 10, 1948? this apparent absence or obscuring of a sense of global ethics, poses ethical and pedagogical challenges to peace education that must be faced if the field is to be truly relevant to the present peace problematic that challenges the normative aspirations of peace education as never before. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 106 while we are aware of the need for establishing new normative standards related to the new challenges, we also note that the norms established in the mid 20th century have an indispensable role in confronting the ethical issues arising in the current global order. we assert that the internationally agreed human rights standards provide a basic code of ethics of global citizenship, comprising essential substance for education, and for ethical reasoning and decision making; core skills to be developed by peace education. furthermore, such learning should be intentionally embraced as a central purpose of peace education. this dialogue on peace education is guided by two foundational assertions: peace as the presence of justice; and ethical reasoning as an essential learning goal of peace education. we invite peace educators everywhere to review and assess our dialogue and the challenges outlined, and to engage in similar dialogues and colloquies with colleagues who share the common goal of making education an effective instrument of peace. in this way we hope to inspire discourse on cultivating peace, human rights and the moral imperatives of justice; let us strive together to develop core learning pedagogies of ethical inquiry and moral reasoning as essentials of peace education. a note on the meaning of the terms “ethical” and “moral” used in this dialogue. the terms ethical and moral are often either used synonymously or they are defined in distinct ways. in reardon’s previous work she conceives “ethical” reasoning broadly to include value inquiry, the process of providing justificatory reasons for principles of rights/justice, and the process of applying values and principles to specific cases (betty a. reardon, 2010; betty a. reardon & snauwaert, 2011; betty a. reardon & snauwaert, 2015). in snauwaert’s work he distinguishes these dimensions of normative reasoning as ethical value inquiry, moral reasoning, and moral judgment (snauwaert, under review). in our dialogue below we refer to all three of these dimensions either separately or under the umbrella term of ethical reasoning. 1. snauwaert: to begin our dialogue, we can reflect on the nature of peace. peace has often been conceptualized as the absence of violence. however, instead of defining peace in terms of an absence of violence, which makes violence the operative concept, peace can be conceptualized as the presence of justice. even from within the narrow perspective of peace as the absence of aggressive warfare, peace is a matter of justice, for security of person is a vital interest; persons have a basic human right to security. in turn, there is a duty to organize society in a way that avoids depriving persons of their right to security, protects them from threats to their security, and aids victims of the violation of their human right to security. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 107 the right to security of person imposes duties onto the basic institutional structures of society as a matter of justice. when the existence of structural, systemic injustice is taken into consideration, the parameters of peace expand to include basic questions of social justice relating to a significant range of rights and duties. from this perspective, peace constitutes a social system of cooperation regulated by principles of justice and ethical values essential for the pursuit of a good life. establishing and sustaining peace within all levels of society, local, national, international, and global, is an urgent moral imperative of justice. peace as a matter of justice, consequently, calls for an educational approach that is designed to cultivate the capacities of moral reasoning, reflection, and sound judgment in present and future citizens. could you reflect on the pedagogical processes most suited to this aim? reardon: my first and fundamental assertion about the relevant pedagogy is that the nature of the learning space or environment is a primary determinant of what will be learned. if the learning intention is the development of capacities for ethical reflection and decision making, then the environment itself must manifest a system of ethics. in the case of the arguments we make here, it must manifest respect for and enactment of human rights. the “what and how” of manifesting human rights in learning spaces will be addressed as we continue this dialogue. the learning intention of developing ethical capacities infuses the way i see this first point of your argument that peace is the presence of justice, a public goal to be reached through citizens exercising their ethical capacities, which i posit as learning objectives. such is essential to building the requisite “duties into social structures.” social structures, as we teach in peace education, reflect the values of the societies that construct them. they may appear abstract, but they only manifest in concrete human actions. what we aim for are operative social values derived from deep and robust ethical reflection, a goal that, in turn requires a pedagogy of ethical inquiry. for the educator, the task is devising and posing queries most likely to produce relevant reflection. indeed, i would argue that in our present circumstances all citizens should be grappling with the formation of such questions to be raised in all public spaces. the inquiry could begin with queries to elicit an assessment of the ethics of the learning environment. i would begin by examining your first point about expanding the definition of peace as an absence of violence, to a more positive definition of peace as the presence of justice. i would like to question the indicators of each definition, and how they might be affecting the relationships that comprise the learning environment; whether and how they might be changed to facilitate all learners achieving their respective learning objectives. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 108 there are other pedagogical treasures suggested by your first point that i hope will appear again in our exchanges. perhaps your second point regarding cultivating peace as an urgent moral imperative of justice will surface some of them as it poses other pedagogical possibilities. among them, inquiring into a conceptual definition of justice would be a fruitful starting point. 2. snauwaert: yes, that inquiry is essential; if we conceive peace as a moral imperative of justice and understand the basic aim of peace education in terms of the pursuit of justice, then we need to explain further the nature of justice. justice refers to what each person is due or justified in demanding, as well as what we owe to each other; our duties to each other. the fulfillment of what we are due and thus what we owe each other is a matter of how society is organized in terms of its basic institutional structure. justice does not refer to the whole of morality, including our conception of the good life and what morality demands of us in our personal relationships with others, among many other considerations. it pertains to the organization and functioning of social institutions (political, legal, economic, educational, etc.), specifically the integrated system of social institutions that comprise the basic structure of society. one general approach to normative political philosophy suggests that a just society is built on and through the vast array of ethical and moral relationships and interactions between individuals. a just society is contingent upon the moral soundness of such relationships (may, 2015). however, it can be argued that the normative quality of relationships between individuals is contingent upon the basic institutional structure of society, and if that structure is unjust, then it is difficult at best for individuals to engage in ethical relationships. as the philosopher john rawls noted: justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. a theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust (rawls, 1971, p. 1). the basic structure of society is, so to speak, the water in which we swim; if the water is polluted, that pollution conditions the quality of our swimming together. an important way to conceive the subject of justice is to conceive it as the terms or principles that regulate the basic institutional structure of society. if justice pertains to what each person is due and what we owe to each other in light of what we are due, then the principles of justice would necessarily volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 109 express what each person is justified in demanding as a “moral claim on the organization of society” (pogge, 2001, p. 200) and what the society is obligated to provide each person as a matter of justice. given this conception of the subject of justice, what follows pedagogically? reardon: following on my focus in our first exchange on the learning environment as a laboratory for testing civic values and competencies, i will focus in this second exchange on your assertion that “a just society is contingent on and through an array of ethical and moral relationships and interactions between individuals.” and your statement that “…justice would express what each person is justified in demanding of society.” as a teacher, i see these assertions as essential to cultivating learning relationships and interactions in the learning environment that would constitute a human web of mutual fulfillment of the claims each learner has a right to make upon their learning community. justification of those claims would offer learners opportunities to engage in the very form of ethical reflection integral to responsible civic action toward the realization of human rights. it is citizen education in a form so necessary at this time. the fulfillment of claims of individual learners is the responsibility of all other learners in the web of interactions that comprise the learning process, as the fulfillment of claims to rights is the responsibility of the society and the institutions established to carry out the responsibility. in the case of education, schools and universities are the institutions established to fulfill claims to learning. in each class or learning community the learning of each derives in significant part from the learning of all, as the learning of all in the community is in general the aggregation of the learning of each individual, mirroring the relationship of the fulfillment of the human rights of one citizen redounding to greater assurance of the rights of all. individual learnings, while varied are part of the total learnings of the community. the sum learning is the product of the relationships and interactions that comprise a learning community, a community being persons joined together in pursuit of their common welfare and shared social purposes. a learning community is brought into being by an intention to pursue learning that all agree serves their welfare, an intention they hold is best pursued in community rather than individually or in non-communal groups that will contribute to the achievement of commonly held social purposes. the ethicality and efficacy of learning communities are determined by the degree and quality of justice that they manifest. successful learning communities volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 110 are those in which individual claims are assessed in terms of their potential effects on the common interest, and in which all learning benefits of the community are fully and equally shared. effective learning communities interpret harms to an individual’s learning as justice deficits to all. the concept of individual human rights deemed by the udhr to be the foundation of “justice and peace in the world,” is commonly interpreted as meaning that the violation of the rights of one constitutes a deficit of justice and peace for all (i.e., “an injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.”) so, fulfilling claims of individual learners serves to assure that justice and peace are experienced – and learned from – by all in a learning community. what i write here in terms of abstract principles can and should be translated into actual teaching-learning behaviors. as we look to educating toward the principles set forth in this your second point, i would assert that peace educators have a duty and a responsibility to devise and practice methods consistent with a just learning environment. the duty is imposed by the assumed, if not stipulated, moral codes of the teaching profession. the responsibility derives from the personal and individual professional commitments and capacities peace educators have developed through practice, and recognition of the social significance of their teaching stance and methodology. the learners we guide have a human right to claim nothing less than the fulfillment of these duties and responsibilities; failing to do so will serve as a major obstacle to educating for the ethical decision making upon which a just civic order depends. 3. snauwaert: as you suggest, the claims and obligations of justice, which form the ethical core of peace education, can be expressed in the language of rights and duties, and therefore, peace educators have a moral duty to provide the opportunity for human rights learning and a learning environment consistent with justice. your points here are of great importance. the idea of human rights is the dominant way of articulating the demands of justice in the modern world (bobbio, [1990] 1996; falk, 2000; glover, 2000; gutmann, 2001; ignatieff, 2001; jones, 1999; perry, 1998; vincent, 1986). rights talk has become the “lingua franca of global moral thought” (ignatieff, 2001), p.53). rights are justified demands for the socially guaranteed enjoyment of ethical goods. in addition, some rights are “basic,” in the sense that they are necessary for the enjoyment of all other rights (shue, 1980, p. 19). a right is a rational basis for a justified demand in the sense that it provides a compelling normative reason for the demand being met. rights have to do with the activity of claiming, which is a rule-governed activity: “to have a claim … is to have a case meriting consideration … to have reason or grounds that put one in a position to engage in [legitimate] claiming (feinberg, 2001, p. 185).” volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 111 as such, rights can be conceived as protections against coercion, deprivation, and inhumane treatment. rights protect the powerless from the powerful (bobbio, [1990] 1996; ignatieff, 2001; jones, 1999; vincent, 1986). as norberto bobbio asserts, human rights arise out of “specific conditions characterized by the embattled defense of new freedoms against old powers (bobbio, [1990] 1996, p. xi).” r. j vincent maintains that they are “a weapon of the weak against the strong (vincent, 1986, p. 17).” in this sense rights are political, in that they are means of adjudicating conflict and serve as a means to protect the interests of individuals (ignatieff, 2001). rights thus define what the individual is due, is justified in demanding/claiming, and/or is protected from, and, as such, constitute one of two core dimensions of justice. reardon: there are two concepts in these assertions about rights that are integral to the social purposes and civic learning goals of peace education: first, the notion of rights as ethical goods that you defined in another exchange that i paraphrase as: vital basic interests, substantive or abstract, a person has reason to value; and second, your concluding statement on the rules-based political nature of rights. the learning goals i posit as the intended outcome of secondary and tertiary study of these ideas are the capacities to recognize, define and pursue ethical goods, and the skills to engage in the politics of realizing them. while you speak in terms of the rights of the individual, the assertion that it is society that is obligated to fulfill justified rights puts the learning discourse in the communal realm of second-generation human rights, codified in the international convention on social and economic rights. the norms or rules of the convention were generated from the fundamental concepts of needs required for human wellbeing, previously and more succinctly identified in the udhr. within the framework of your assertions, the claim that all members of a society, individually and collectively, can make for fulfillment of these needs is that they are universal requirements to maintain life, physical and social wellbeing. reflection on rights so conceived, essentially recognizing universal human needs, could lead learners to a comprehension that human beings are one single species who share a common destiny. the species, generally referred to as humanity is, like societies, a subject of rights. for example, the un recently declared humanity’s right to a healthy environment. the fact of universal human needs combined with the concept of a singular humanity manifest both substantive and abstract ethical goods, the claims to which raise fundamental ethical and moral issues. the current fragility of the wellbeing and the future survival of humanity pose the overriding political problematic that peace volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 112 education has an unavoidable ethical responsibility to confront. as such, it should be both a primary focus and a constant subtext of all peace education inquiries into human rights and any and all forms of justice. the primary focus and subtext put the requisite peacelearning directly in the context of the current cultural, social, and political conflicts, rawer and more virulent than any faced since human rights became recognized international norms. peace education is challenged to guide learners in acquiring political skills that enable them to effectively apply human rights to the resolution of conflict, making your concluding assertion an excellent articulation of the positing of this goal. i urge all peace educators to consider your statement as the justification of how we can seek to fulfill this crucial ethical obligation of our time. 4. snauwaert: given the importance of rights and duties that you suggest are the core purposes of peace education, it would be fruitful to elaborate further on the idea of rights and duties. the idea that rights are justified claims is comprised of two elements: the claim, and its justification. claims necessarily have a content. when a claim is made it is always a claim for something, and this raises the question of the content of rights—what are we justified in claiming? moreover, justified claims are necessarily addressed to others (forst, 2012). “to have a claim-right is to be owed a duty by another or others” (jones, 2001, p. 53). a basic element of a right, therefore, is the identification of a duty generated by the right (shue, 1980). in turn, duties entail the identification of the agent(s) who holds the duty generated by the right. this identification also entails a justification for imposing the duty onto the specified agent (jones, 2001). rights necessarily entail duties and thus the identification of who is obligated to guarantee the protection of those rights. the imposition of the duty onto a specific agent is contingent upon the type of duty involved, the capability of the agent to fulfill the duty, and a moral justification for the imposition of the duty. this discussion of duties invoked by rights suggests that, as we discussed above, the subject of justice is the basic institutional structure of society (rawls, 1971). as thomas pogge argues, rights are “moral claims upon the organization of society” (pogge, 2001, p. 200), and thus are matters of social justice. it is the primary duty of the state, of government, to aid, avoid depriving, and protect the rights of its citizens. the idea that rights entail duties is a foundational idea of justice. rights as justified claims to, and protections of, one’s vital interests thus call for the institutional structures of society, its’ legal and governmental systems, to be just. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 113 it is essential to point out that citizens, in turn, have a duty to support the establishment and sustainability of just institutions. this duty includes a duty to resist injustice. if we are due the protection of our rights, and social institutions, specifically the government, hold the duties of aid and protection, then individual citizens hold a basic duty to support just social and political institutions, and to resist and reform institutions, laws, policies, customs, and practices that fail to provide that protection, or are intentionally designed to violate the rights of certain persons. reardon: the philosophic concepts on which you build these assertions are the foundation for education for ethical reasoning, and various core skills of responsible citizenship. they also provide opportunities for reflection on language, the words we use to interpret the world, and to articulate how we hope to change it. agency, content, duty, institutional structures, and justification are terms that should be in the vocabulary of all peace educators, and the ideas they express – even if in different words – should be familiar to and valued by the citizens of any society that purports to seek justice. to achieve familiarity, the curricular task for basic citizenship education is to interpret these concepts in the language of the ordinary citizen. if sustainable justice is to be achieved through the realization of human rights, the foundational ideas of a philosophy of justice need to be familiar to and valued by the general citizenry. for that reason, these observations are formulated with secondary school and beginning level undergraduate teachers in mind. secondary school and the first years of undergraduate education are the learning levels most relevant to the purposes that inform this exchange. these are years during which young citizens begin to take up action in pursuit of the values they hope society will manifest, to confront the complexities of realizing justice. complexities are revealed as the meanings and usage of the relevant words that articulated the concepts are to be explored, seeking the clarity of meaning and purpose essential to political efficacy. conceptual clarity is important for the content of all curriculum design and has been especially emphasized in peace education. i would argue that informing values and the philosophy of purpose should also be clearly stated by the designers. concepts i.e., ideas and the words that articulate them are the primary medium of the discourse of peace education. the philosophic concepts you invoke in this statement should be the medium that peace education employs to explore the complexities of the problematic of justice. as the connotations that volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 114 the words bring to mind are considered, learners clarify the denoted and connoted meanings of the relevant concepts and how they operate realizing justice. complementarities as well as contradictions among the core concepts and meanings of the words we use to express them can be discerned, invoking more complex thinking a step away from the bifurcation of the either/or framing that dominates consideration of ethical issues in most current political discourse. establishing complementarities, the possibilities of also/and as framing is grounds for projecting various alternative approaches to any given problem of justice. assessing multiple alternatives and engaging in values reflection in selecting among choices for action are practices prominent in the pedagogy of peace education. learning to assess various possibilities for action and analyzing the values that infuse them, nourishes the will to act, to exercise agency. proposing and assessing alternative courses of action is a capacity that well serves those who intend to be agents of justice. the assertion that claiming rights requires an agent, is one of the factors that makes the development of capacities for effective agency an imperative of peace education. the learner/citizen, thinking as agent, must identify and choose courses of action to realize the claim, i.e., to pursue justice by providing remedy for a harm or access to a benefit though one or a combination of the alternatives. the efficacy of the action will likely be determined by the rigor of the assessment of alternatives and sharpness of the values analysis, and certainly on the articulation of the content of the claim. developing the content of a claim (referred to in a previous exchange as substance) – describing the benefit to which the claimant aspires or the harm for which remedy is sought is essentially the same process of identification and definition of the injustices deemed to be the causes and consequences of world war ii that produced the udhr; and in subsequent decades, as other harms were identified, the international human rights standards now recognized – though not fully observed – by the world community. the udhr and the international conventions and covenants are essential material for any and all curricula intended to develop capacities for the pursuit justice. knowing the standards and the history of the evolution of human rights concepts brings a human dimension to the inquiry through which the content of a claim is conceptualized. accounts of actual experiences can serve to humanize this history and can be woven into curricula through the stories of how society came to see harms as injustices to be remedied, stories that we call history. study of actual cases illuminate the actual suffering of harms or struggles to acquire volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 115 benefits; the stuff of great literature and films, long used to good effect in human rights curricula. human experience is the most motivating framework for inquiry into conceptualizing the claim. as illustration of a possible line of inquiry, i suggest here a few sample queries. these queries are intended to provide deeper understanding of experiences that lead to awareness of the injustice that gave rise to the claim in question. an inquiry establishing the content of a claim might begin with asking, “what actually is being experienced or was experienced by the claimant?” then with a view toward establishing grounds for justifying the claim, “is the harm or denial of a benefit the claimant experiences addressed in international human rights standards? if not, on what grounds might the claim be argued? are there applicable national, local, or customary laws to be invoked? how might these laws be used to argue for the claim?” here, the point is to clarify the injustice, establish that it is recognized as a violation of rights, make the case that justice demands the harm be remedied or the benefit provided and awaken in the agent a motivation to act to fulfill the claim as a personal responsibility and a civic duty. fulfilling of personal and civic obligations leads the citizen/learner to seek out the institutional structures designed to realize justice, such as those intended to enact human rights standards. such seeking facilitates understanding of how justice is pursued in the public sphere and imparts knowledge of the institutional procedures for the remediation of harms that society designates as inconsistent with its fundamental values. peace pedagogy should aim to cultivate comprehension of the evolution of how societies came to recognize harms as contradictory to their sense of what is right. that comprehension could be achieved in reviewing the conceptualization and encoding of those human rights standards, such as the human rights of women and the rights of the child, as political processes in which, citizen agents took responsibility to actively pursue justice as a civic duty. the complementarity of also/and framing of responsibility and duty, i argue, is more likely to achieve a more genuine and sustainable quality of justice than justice pursued only through responsibility or duty. authentic justice is the consequence of wanting for others the rights and benefits we hope to enjoy ourselves. it derives largely from the acknowledgement that equity in the sharing of social goods is mutually beneficial to all members of society, and that every possible means should be used to pursue it. pursuing authentic justice invokes the complementarity of morality/ethics. morals, or inwardly held convictions of what is right and good, are usually acquired from family, religious teaching, or other authoritative sources; ethics are derived from demonstrable principles of fairness, justice and equity. the origins volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 116 of the morality/ethics complementarity and application are similar to those of duties/responsibilities. duty and responsibility both have roles in the justification of claims. together they can provide a wide range of arguments, principles, and standards to establish that support fulfilling a claim. indeed, justification should be the cornerstone of a peace and justice pedagogy. it calls for the problem analysis integral to peace pedagogy, but also and particularly for the ethical reasoning so sorely needed and tragically absent it today’s political discourse. considering the multiple crises that now overwhelm the pursuit of justice, questions of basic needs, human dignity, and the legality of circumstances in which they are denied, now addressed by but few active citizens and fewer policy makers, needs to be central to all policy discourse. it is imperative that peace education place a high priority on a capacity for ethical reasoning as a primary educational goal. for without such capacity, citizens are not likely to function as responsible and efficacious agents of justice. ethical reasoning is integral and essential to peace education’s long advocated educational goal of political efficacy. ethical reasoning for political efficacy was never more needed than now when earth itself calls us to act to remedy the multiple harms that can lead to the end of the whole human experiment. 5. snauwaert: yes, the necessity of developing the capacities of ethical reasoning and judgment among citizens cannot be overestimated; ethical reasoning is integral to and essential for peace education. to say that the society is just or unjust and thus the principles of justice that regulate it are justifiable, requires a process of offering reasons that verify the normative validity of those principles. educating for and about rights and duties is, therefore, central to peace education, which calls for a theoretical and practical inquiry into pedagogical approaches to the development of the capacities to assert and justify one’s rights and to understand, affirm, and enact the duties entailed in rights. however, the principles of justice that serve as the regulating rules of institutions “must be not only verified but also validated. it is not enough to show that if certain criteria [rules] are employed, then a thing must be said to have a certain degree of ‘goodness’ [justice]; we must also show that these criteria ought to be employed” (baier, 1958, p. 75). so, in ethical reasoning about the terms of social cooperation necessary for peace and justice, we need to not only consider the terms themselves, that is, principles of justice and shared political values, but also the criteria or standards of validity upon which we can assess the justifiability of those values and principles. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 117 the judgment or claim that a principle is right or just presupposes that we have reason to affirm it, and that reason is not any reason as such but a justifiable and thus valid reason. “we are thinking of the conditions which something must satisfy in order to be properly called a [political value and/or principle of justice] … (baier, 1958, p. 181).” claims of justice thus presuppose criteria for the determination of the justifiability of reasons. it can be argued that the process of moral reasoning and judgment is one of deliberating and offering reasons that justify those claims, including claims about the justifiability of social norms and institutions (baier, 1954, 1958; forst, 2012; habermas, 1990, 1996; rawls, 1971; rawls & kelly, 2001; scheffler, 1981; singer, 2011). as thomas scanlon suggests: “if we could characterize the method of reasoning through which we arrive at judgments of right and wrong, and could explain why there is good reason to give judgments arrived at in this way the kind of importance that moral judgments are normally thought to have, then we would, i believe, have given sufficient answer to the question of the subject matter of right and wrong” (scanlon, 1998, p. 2). from this perspective, we can look to the nature of reasoning itself, specifically, its presuppositions, for the criteria of justification. moral reasoning is a form of argumentation and discourse that contains unavoidable “presuppositions,” which are the constitutive elements of reasoning in the sense that they define what reasoning is. they are necessary conditions or predicates for the very possibility of reasoning (brune, stern, & werner, 2017; stern, 2021). presuppositions are analogous to the primary rules of a game that define what the game is, such that those rules are necessary conditions for the very possibility of playing the game. you cannot play a game of chess, for example, without knowing and accepting the rules that define chess. the presuppositions of moral reasoning are logically necessary if one is to engage in the practice of moral reasoning (habermas, 1990, 1993; kant, 1991 [1797]; may, 2015; peters, 1966; watt, 1975). following the insight of john rawls, we can invoke the elements of fairness as the presuppositions of moral reasoning that serve as the basic criteria for the normative justification of principles of justice (rawls, 1971; rawls & kelly, 2001). these elements of fairness serve as basic moral reasons for the justification of principles and values. it can be argued that there are at least four criteria of fairness: equality, recognition, reciprocity, and impartiality. regarding equality, fairness is grounded in a recognition of and respect for the intrinsic equality of persons (rawls, 1971; rawls & kelly, 2001). a foundation of moral reasoning is the normative assertion of equality, the volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 118 presupposition that every human being should be considered as possessing an equal, inherent value (kymlicka, 1990; snauwaert, 2020). regarding recognition, the possibility of moral relationships between persons, and when structured politically, between citizens, is grounded in and made possible by the reciprocal recognition of each person’s equal dignity and right to freedom—recognition of persons as free and equal (fukuyama, 1992, 2018; honneth, 2015, 2021; rawls, 2000; williams, 1997; zurn, 2015). furthermore, moral reasoning and justification is a demand for reasons that can be accepted by others (forst, 2012; habermas, 1990, 1993; scanlon, 1998). it constitutes a reciprocity of mutual agreement, which requires that the terms that regulate the moral and political relationship between citizens must be acceptable to all affected. the terms must be such that no reasonable person would have grounds to reject them (forst, 2012; rawls, 1993; rawls & freeman, 1999; rawls & kelly, 2001; scanlon, 1998). in turn, to achieve reciprocity the claim or norm must be free of the bias of exclusive self-interest; that is, it must be impartial. to gain legitimate general acceptance the moral claim or principle must be impartial, in the sense that it is good for all (habermas, 1990). "bare-faced appeal to self-interest will not do” (singer, 2011, p. 93). these criteria are the presuppositions of fairness in the sense that they shape the meaning of fairness. as mentioned above, these criteria of fairness are analogous to the basic rules of a game, for as the basic rules of a game define the game and form the basis of its secondary rules. the criteria of fairness define the standards for the justification of principles of justice, including rights (snauwaert, under review). for example, a right to freedom of conscience is justifiable because it applies equally to all, recognizes each person as free and equal, is not met with reasonable rejection by believers and nonbelievers alike, and is impartial in that it favors no one’s particular self-interest. on the other hand, it can be argued, for example that the principle of “separate but equal” is unjustifiable for it treats persons unequally, recognizes them as inferior, persons treated unequally have valid reason to reject the principle, and it serves the self-interests of a particular social group and not the common good. as outlined previously, in this dialogue we hope to inspire discourse on cultivating peace, human rights and the moral imperatives of justice, and to develop ideas for pedagogies of ethical inquiry and moral reasoning as essentials of peace education. above we have shown how the presuppositions of the elements of fairness, when applied to moral reasoning, can provide essential standards of validity for principles of justice. developing these capacities of moral reasoning and judgement among citizens is fundamental to the goals and volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 119 pedagogy of peace education. educating about rights, duties, and developing capacities to discern, assert and justify one’s rights while working to understand and create the social and political cooperation necessary for peace and justice to prevail are tall orders, no doubt. betty, your pioneering writing and work over many decades continues to demonstrate a deep recognition and comprehension of the fundamental importance of the political in all its dimensions, including an incisive understanding of society’s political terrain. could you expand our dialogue by discussing the current socio-political terrain and what further capacities citizens need to develop to become politically astute, efficacious, and educated for ethical reasoning in this moment of history? reardon: when you call for a “theoretical and practical inquiry” into a general pedagogy in education to understand and affirm rights and enact duties, you call for a mapping of a broader conceptual range than we have thus far considered, which also involves taking into account the political realities as the context for the process of consideration. your call requires addressing both the political context of the pursuit and the requisite capacities to equip individual citizens and societies to campaign for and to maintain a more just social order if and when it is achieved. just as we need to translate the philosophic conceptual base for the pursuit of justice into ordinary language, familiar to the general citizenry, we need to consider the relevant socio-political terrain in which learner/citizens are to exercise agency. today that terrain is fraught, rent by ideological divisions, conflicting values, hatred of difference, and contempt for truth, all antithetical to respect for human rights, and the enactment of duties to fulfill them; the context itself is an impediment to justice and to the ethical reasoning its achievement requires. with that terrain in mind, i propose three additional concepts to the taxonomy we have thus far established: integrity, accountability, and audacity. these concepts pertain in all political contexts but demand particular attention in the design of a relevant pedagogy in our present situation. audacity, the propensity to take bold risks, often connotes lack of civility or rudeness. however, even while seeking more civility in political discourse, the present moral/ethical necessity to break through silent acquiescence to blatant injustice and painfully evident authoritarianism running rampant over the institutions charged with delivering justice, demand nothing less than “speaking truth to power.” in this reference to moral/ethical, as noted, i invoke a complementarity volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 120 such as that of responsibility/duty. to me, the two concepts are not synonymous, so much as providing a kind of synergy of distinct but related, equally essential efforts toward a common purpose, i.e., making sound personal and political value judgments so as to apply normatively consistent values to all realms of the justice problematic. i would designate the three concepts i am adding to this glossary for education for ethical reasoning as capacities, human abilities to be developed through intentional learning. they are, as well, what douglas sloan has referred to as qualities (sloan, 1983, 1997), i.e., individual personal characteristics to be brought forth as learners do the inner work of reflecting on what they truly believe to be just responses to actual cases of rights violations and/or to particular claims to rights. i put forth these conceptual pairs within the also/and mode of thinking, previously advocated, believing that mode to hold some promise of mending the fissures, dividing a society deeply wounded by political bifurcation. the ideological and normative differences among us compound the difficulties of assuring rights and enacting duties, and thus impede justice. while steadfast values commitment would be a desired developmental goal, we must recognize that personal political values are in as much need of reflective review as are public norms and legal standards. the three concepts and their complements, outlined below are integral to that review. integrity/reflexivity is a synergic conceptual pair that most clearly manifests the imperative of reflective review. integrity, connoting wholeness of person wherein one’s behaviors are consistent with her articulated values, is the quality most lacking in present leadership and too many of their followers. craven behavior, guided by narrow and exclusionary interests, totally antithetical to the principles of the universality of human rights, govern both discourse and policy making. an aura of anti-reflective, self-righteousness prevails on both sides of this polarized society, ungrounded moral certainties propel us toward greater and greater national disasters, consigning more and more to conditions under which their most fundamental rights are denied. the spirit of open inquiry is moribund. consideration that there may be flaws in one’s values or the thinking which produced them is seen as weakness, or worse, compromising with the “other side.” authentic integrity cannot be sustained without being subject to regular reflective examination to assess personal values in terms of how they affect one’s views on current public issues and controversies. reflexivity helps to maintain integrity by enabling us to volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 121 regularly shed the light of reality on our inner-most values and how they affect our relationships, behaviors, and stances on issues of justice. the political efficacy of agents quite likely depends on both elements of this pair of complementary concepts. integrity calls us to hold ourselves to the same standards as those to which we hold our political opponents. regular reflective examination of our own morality and ethics may help make that possible. whereas i assert that integrity is most relevant to the person, the individual citizen, clearly, i also assert that it pertains to individuals in public positions, especially positions in the institutions intended to protect human rights and to defend and/or dispense justice. beyond that accountability is especially important for those who hold public positions. paring it with its complement, compliance makes it more possible for public servants to fulfill the duties that accrue to the offices they hold. the conceptual pair of accountability/compliance describes complementary behaviors that are important in assigning and accepting responsibility for fulfillment of duties as functionaries of public institutions. in its full sense these behaviors are likely to be evident in officials who also have personal integrity as well a strong sense of civic responsibility and a commitment to the public they serve. such is not always the case, yet public servants can serve adequately in light of accountability and compliance as they fulfill the basic civic functions assigned. this conceptual pair assures the possibility that justice can be dispensed, even in the absence of civil servants lacking the preferred qualities of personal morality and integrity. indeed, compliance with public norms and legal standards can be a limited but sufficient basis of a reasonably fair society, one that might well be advanced to a more robust condition of justice, when elements of the society mobilize for it. mobilizations arise out of growing public justification of claims or growing consciousness of an injustice. they have been effective in achieving compliance and sometimes have exacted accountability. audacity/prudence come into play in responsible civic action based on reasonable and reasoned public discourse. audacity is generally understood to be a propensity to take bold risks. risk taking, an essential peacemaking capacity and a personal attribute of persons of integrity, exercised in publicly challenging an injustice, has made possible most of the legal standards by which we justify claims. for the individual citizen whose conscience demands response to any of the many injustices still tolerated by societies, audacity is a liberating quality that enables her to risk retaliation by institutional authorities, governments, religions, universities, corporations, and businesses, as well as groups who believe they are benefited by that injustice. whistle blowers, like prisoners of conscience risk jail volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 122 and/or exile, yet their “speaking truth to power” can sometimes turn the public toward justice. none-the-less, political efficacy frequently demands that conscience be tempered by taking into account all elements that might affect an audacious, morally inspired act. so, we must educate, as well, for prudence and strategic discernment, hoping to avoid self-righteous self-sacrifice, by taking actions that are more practical within the given context. educating for prudent assessment of the potential consequences and efficacy of actions for justice should be included among pedagogies for development of ethical reasoning. previously, i recommended that justice curricula should include the historic evolution of human rights standards. as an extension of that recommendation, i suggest teaching that awakens awareness of the politics of conscience that produced the evolution. capacities such as political discernment and qualities such as prudence and moral courage are characteristic of those who engage in a politics of conscience that have energized human rights movements. the educational goal advocated is the formation of citizens as principled and prudent risk takers, likely to be politically effective agents in the pursuit of justice. our present context demands all possible efforts to transcend the lack of ethics and the moral inconsistencies that plague public life. it demands of us as persons that we act according to our fundamental inner sense of what is right; as citizens to engage in principled reasoning based on recognized norms of justice, as participants in a given political context to act on what we can ascertain to be the truth of “the facts on the ground;” and as peace educators to devise a pedagogy to prepare all citizens to do so, as well. the rights and justice pedagogy we devise must be directed toward the invocation of profound moral reflection in concert with the exigent exercise of ethical reasoning. fulfilling those civic and professional obligations is certainly a tall order, inevitably involving risks, some of them in the sensitive process of initiating moral reflection. the moral/ethical dissonance of the present political context suggest the need for safe learning spaces for individuals to dare to delve into that part of the self in which resides our personal morality, a sense of what is truly good and evidently right. we may not enter that space with the learner, only assure its availability. ours is not the task of formulating personal morality. nonethe-less we have a responsibility to make it possible for learners to become aware of the morality that actual guides their thinking and its origins, be they religion, volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 123 family, ideology or personal or historic experience and how it affects their identities and behaviors. we have an even greater responsibility to assure the same for ourselves. as peace educators, aspiring to integrity, we should be fully aware of own personal values, assuring that no matter how strongly committed we may be to those personal values, they are not at direct play in our teaching, nor the basis on which we take positions and actions regarding public issue in general and the pursuit of justice in particular. regarding pedagogical principles, first and foremost, a relevant pedagogy, in distinguishing between personal morality and public ethics, would make it clear that in a diverse society, the personal realm must not be the basis of public policy. it would demonstrate that when it is, it constitutes an egregious violation of the rights of those who hold different moral values. still, it is to be hoped that consistency of values between personal morality and ethical principles would be consistent in persons of integrity, in clear contrast to the moral hypocrisy and ignorance of standards of justice that now characterizes our politics. we need a pedagogy that capacitates citizens to bring sound value judgments into our political conversations. preparation for making sound judgments requires opportunities for all members of any learning community to be introduced to the social norms and legal standards that should be common knowledge among the citizenries. learners could be guided in practice to review, assess and apply these norms. such opportunities might be introduced through communal learning exercises, and actual practice of engagement in ethical reasoning in the conduct of simulated public discourse on the justice problematic as it is manifest in current issues. hands on exercises, simulations and experiential learning are the major teaching modes that i believe would be most effective in a pedagogy to develop moral reflection and ethical reasoning intended to develop capacities for political efficacy. elements of experiential learning and practice of the requisite reflection and reasoning are integral to the following suggestions for a pedagogy comprising inquiry, problem posing and case studies. these suggestions are very limited guidelines, offered as a starting point for a more fully developed pedagogy to be devised and elaborated by many peace educators, adapting the general approach to their own particular contexts. a form of inquiry especially designed for the learning of normative assessment skills and for the development of strategic planning competencies volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 124 would involve more pointed and specific questions than the open-ended queries usually posed in peace education. peace education queries are usually formulated to elicit multiple responses. in this case we seek a narrower range of responses based on the norms that are relevant to justification of claims, and appropriate to formulating strategies for their recognition and fulfillment. questions or tasks posed in a form that calls the learner into an assessment process wherein for example the utility of particular norms might be weighed. the formation of the questions is the most significant aspect of the pedagogy. problem posing, a process in which morals and ethics are the determining factors, would involve reading the political context in which a moral or ethical decision is to be made. a review of interests at play, who holds them, how they affect the possibilities for the efficacy of any action considered and identifying commonalities among contentious factions, are examples that could establish context to begin problem posing as a learning process. a harm inflicted or a claim being made would be identified, and elements of the context be integrated into the problematic to address with strategies for resolution in the form of remedy for the harm or fulfillment of the claim. it should be acknowledged that some of the strategies proposed might well require audacity, and prudence certainly should be factored into the actions considered. the risk factor is further reason for assuring awareness of political realities. case studies, human experiences as the curricular content of the pedagogy, could be similar to the stories that we recount as history. for decades, cases have been employed as devices to teach moral decision-making, and in teaching human rights law. cases can be based on the substance/content of claims, taking the form of narratives to which, the learners can more easily relate than to the abstractions of a “docket case”. they might also be drawn from media accounts of un-remedied harms or disputed human rights claims. the actual suffering of a person or persons can ignite the flame of conscience and personal moral conviction that i see as the first stage of this learning process. inspired by a feeling for the human experience, learners are motivated to research and formulate claims or plan campaigns, as they apply established norms and standards, and engage in practice ethical reasoning to justify them and conceptualize potential action strategies. it should be noted that, while we as educators cannot responsibly suggest or guide learners to action, neither can we restrain it when ethical reasoning, validation of facts and a practical reading of political context impel them to act as responsible citizens, the very roles for which we educate. responsibilities of volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 125 citizenship are often upon us before our school diplomas and university degrees have been bestowed. concluding reflections i (reardon) hold no idealized view of the probability of rapid or widespread practice of what i propose. i really do not expect most peace educators to immediately engage in such hands-on kind of education for justice through rigorous values analysis and exigent assessment of relevant strategies, some of which are likely to entail personal and professional risks for educators and learners as they do for activists. but i do honestly believe that such education and the learning it strives to develop is practically possible. i fervently hope some few will try it, and that in time, it will be emulated by others. it is from our collective beliefs and hopes that the whole of human rights emerged, and thus, i expect our aspirations for a just and peaceful world society will continue. i extend my thanks to the philosophers whose original queries and insights produced all human rights movements, and in particular to peace philosopher, dale snauwaert, who initiated this dialogue. thank you, professor reardon, for this stimulating dialogue on justice, human rights, and peace education. over many years you have been a rich source of insight and inspiration to me, and for many others. the pedagogical framework that you outline in this dialogue is one, along with dewey and freire, that i have adopted as my basic orientation, an orientation that i understand as processoriented and inquiry-based. by stipulating what each citizen is due and what, in turn, each citizen owes to each other, justice refers to the normative political principles and values that the members of a society have mutually agreed to and affirmed as the basis of the nonviolent resolution of inevitable conflict between them. as discussed above, the principles of justice can be articulated in terms of rights and duties, and in turn, define rights as justified claims that invoke specific duties held by both individual citizens and the officers of the basic institutions of society. the establishment and enactment of justice is thereby the animating principle of political power (arendt, 1963, 1970; muller, 2014). power is dialogical; it is based in the free public exchange of ideas that lead to reciprocal agreement. violence is its opposite; it is the failure of political power and justice. if we conceive justice in this way, what follows is a conception of the citizen as an agent, and not merely a recipient, of justice. as an agent of justice, volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 126 the citizen is empowered to engage in public discourse and judgment; to do so the citizen must have the developed capacity to engage in a range of judgments and actions, as we outlined in this dialogue. these capacities cannot be merely transmitted to citizens. the capacities for ethical inquiry, moral reasoning, and judgment (ethical reasoning broadly defined) can be developed only through exercise and practice (rodowick, 2021). what follows is a process-oriented, inquiry-based pedagogy that we have explored in this dialogue. its’ employment is essential for the development of students’ capacity to engage in ethical inquiry, moral reasoning, and judgment; in turn these capacities are necessary for the protection and realization of human rights as urgent matters of justice. the educational cultivation of these capabilities is of singular importance (snauwaert, under review). references arendt, h. (1963). on revolution. new york: penguin books. arendt, h. (1970). on violence. new york: harcourt brace & company. baier, k. (1954). the point of view of morality. australasian journal of philosophy, 32(2), 104 – 135. baier, k. (1958). the moral point of view: a rational basis of ethics: cornell university press. bobbio, n. ([1990] 1996). the age of rights. cambridge, uk: polity press. brune, j. p., stern, r., & werner, m. h. (eds.). (2017). transcendental arguments in moral theory. berlin: walter de gruyter. falk, r. a. (2000). human rights horizons: the pursuit of justice in a globalizing world. new york: routledge. feinberg, j. (2001). the nature and value of rights. in p. hayden (ed.), the philosophy of human rights. st. paul, mn: paragon house. forst, r. (2012). the right to justification: elements of a constructivist theory of justice (j. flynn, trans.). new york: columbia university press. fukuyama, f. (1992). the end of history and the last man. new york: free press. fukuyama, f. (2018). identity : the demand for dignity and the politics of resentment (first edition. ed.). new york: farrar, straus and giroux. glover, j. (2000). humanity: a moral history of the twentieth century. new haven: yale university press. gutmann, a. (2001). introduction. in a. gutmann (ed.), human rights as politics and idolatory. princeton: princeton university press. habermas, j. (1990). moral consciousness and communicative action. cambridge, mass.: mit press. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 127 habermas, j. (1993). justification and application: remarks on discourse ethics (c. cronin, trans.). cambridge: mit press. habermas, j. (1996). between facts and norms : contributions to a discourse theory of law and democracy. cambridge, mass.: mit press. honneth, a. (2015). freedom's right: the social foundations of democratic life. new york: columbia university press. honneth, a. (2021). recognition: a chapter in the history of european ideas (j. ganahl, trans.). cambridge: cambridge university press. ignatieff, m. (2001). human rights as politics and idolatry. princeton, nj: princeton university press. jones, c. (1999). global justice: defending cosmopolitanism. new york: oxford university press. jones, c. (2001). global justice: defending cosmopolitanism. new york: oxford university press. kant, i. (1991 [1797]). metaphysics of morals (m. gregor, trans. l. denis ed.). cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. kymlicka, w. (1990). contemporary political philosophy. oxford: oxford university press. may, t. (2015). nonviolent resistance: a philosophical introduction. cambridge, uk: polity. muller, j.-m. (2014). the principle of nonviolence: a philosophical path (r. james & m. james, trans.). honolulu, hi: center for global nonkilling. perry, m. j. (1998). the idea of rights: four inquiries. new york: oxford university press. peters, r. s. (1966). ethics and education. london: george allen & unwin. pogge, t. (2001). how should human rights be conceived? in p. hayden (ed.), the philosophy of human rights. st. paul, mn: paragon house. rawls, j. (1971). a theory of justice. cambridge: belknap press of harvard university press. rawls, j. (1993). political liberalism. new york: columbia university press. rawls, j. (2000). hegel. in b. herman (ed.), lectures on the history of moral philosophy (pp. 329-372). cambridge, ma: harvard university press. rawls, j., & freeman, s. r. (1999). collected papers. cambridge, mass.: harvard university press. rawls, j., & kelly, e. (2001). justice as fairness: a restatement. cambridge, mass.: harvard university press. reardon, b. a. (2010). meditating on the barricades: concerns, cautions and possibilities for peace education for political efficacy. in p. trifonas & b. l. wright (eds.), critical peace education: difficult dialogues. cham, switzerland: springer. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 105-128 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 128 reardon, b. a., & snauwaert, d. t. (2011). reflective pedagogy, cosmopolitanism, and critical peace education for political efficacy: a discussion of betty a. reardon’s assessment of the field. in factis pax: journal of peace education and social justice, 5(1), 1-14. reardon, b. a., & snauwaert, d. t. (eds.). (2015). betty a. reardon: a pioneer in education for peace and human rights. london: springer. rodowick, d. n. (2021). an education in judgment: hannah arendt and the humanities. chicago: the university of chicago press. scanlon, t. (1998). what we owe to each other. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. scheffler, i. (1981). reason and teaching. new york: hackett. shue, h. (1980). basic rights: subsistence, affluence, and u.s. foreign policy. princeton: princeton university press. singer, p. (2011). the expanding circle: ethics, evolution, and moral progress. princeton, nj: princeton university press. sloan, d. (1983). insight-imagination: the emancipation of thought and the modern world. westport, ct: greenwood publishing. sloan, d. (1997). the recovery of wholeness. teachers college, columbia university. new york. snauwaert, d. t. (2020). expanding the scope of a just peace: environmental sustainability, justice, and the foundations of a pedagogy of peace. in a. yudkin suliveres & a. pascual morán (eds.), descolonizar la paz: entramado de saberes, resistencias y posibilidades [e-book]. antología conmemorativa 20 aniversario cátedra unesco de educación para la paz. . suan juan, puerto rico: universidad de puerto rico. snauwaert, d. t. (under review). teaching peace as a matter of justice: a philosophical and pedagogical framework. newcastle upon tyne, uk: cambridge scholars press. stern, r. (2021). transcendental arguments. stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, fall. vincent, r. j. (1986). human rights and international relations. cambridge: cambridge university press. watt, a. j. (1975). transcendental arguments and moral principles. philosophical quarterly, 25. williams, r. r. (1997). hegel’s ethics of recognition. berkeley, ca: the university of california press. zurn, c. (2015). axel honneth. london: polity. microsoft word ifp v 16 gasasira gasana john.docx volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 153 volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 resolving interpersonal conflicts through accessible justice in rwanda: the contribution of access to justice bureaus gasasira gasana john university of nairobikenya and staff at the university of rwanda email: gasanajohn@gmail.com (corresponding author). margaret w. gachihi lecturer, department of history, university of nairobi herbert misigo amatsimbi lecturer, department of history, university of nairobi etienne ruvebana senior lecturer, school of law, university of rwanda volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 154 abstract this article examines the contribution of accessible justice to conflict resolution and its translation into sustainable peace. it adopts a case study of access to justice bureausa judicial service established by the government of rwanda to help people access free legal remedies. subsequently, the study investigates how far granting people access to justice helps in resolving conflicts between members of the community.while most of the work on justice in post-conflict settings addresses justice for crimes tied to mass violence, this study charts a new territory and broadly looks at how peace is built through the accessibility of justice for crimes not tied to mass violence. based on the experiences and perceptions of 40 individual interviews and 5 focus group discussions, findings show that there is a significant relationship between the accessibility of judicial services and a peaceful relationship between members of society. in this study, the legal services provided ensured respect for the rule of law, conflict mediation, and restoration of social bonds between members of the society. key words: interpersonal, conflict, accesible justice, access to justice bureaus, conflict resolution, rwanda. introduction a number of studies show that rwanda’s colonial past has been characterized by ethnic divisions which precipitated atrocious events among them, the the 1994 genocide against the tutsi (des forges, 2011; newbury, 1988; vansina, 2005). although rwanda was made up of three groups before colonialism, scholars argue that they were tied to social classes other than ethnic groups – the hutu tilled the land, the twa were gatherers and potters, and the tutsi owned cows and reaped the associated economic advantages (lemarchand, 1970; mamdani, 2001; newbury, 1978). when belgian colonialists came to rwanda, they ethnicized the existing identities by suggesting that the tutsi were taller, lighter, and had less ‘african’ features as compared to both the hutu and twa (mamdani, 2001). smitten with volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 155 the tutsi who dominated the rwanda’s monarchy, colonialists suggested that they were more intelligent and endowed with advanced leadership qualities as compared to the rest of the two groups. consequently, they enacted policies that favored their continued dominance despite being a numerical minority that did not comprise more than 15 percent of the total population (prunier,1997). like many other african colonies, during the 1950s the leadership of king mutara iii rudahigwa started asking for independence which angered the belgians and shifted the favor to the hutu. they mentored hutu politicians in the formation of political organizations that argued for their emancipation from the tutsi domination. in 1959, hutu politicians mobilized the mass to express discontent at years of perceived marginalization and subjugation by the numerically minority tutsi. a movement for hutu emancipation emerged, culminating in the institution of a hutu-led government at rwanda’s independence in 1962. violence and discrimination against the tutsi accompanied this power shift, and tens of thousands of tutsi fled rwanda to neighboring countries among them uganda, the democratic republic of congo (then zaire), burundi, and tanzania (des forges, 1999; hintjens 1999; reyntjens, 1995). at the turn of events, on 5 july 1973, a new hutu president called juvénal habyarimana took power through a coup and his regime continued to discriminate against the tutsi (des forges, 1999; prunier, 1997). after nearly 30 years, battletested tutsi military officers in president museveni’s army formed an armed movement, known as the rwandan patriotic front (rpf) and on 1 october 1990, attacked rwanda’s northern border with uganda. propaganda against the rpf swept through the country’s radio stations and newspapers and soon all tutsi were associated with the enemy (thompson, 2007). to end the civil war, the government and the rpf signed several peace protocols known as the arusha accords (des forges, 1999; prunier, 1997; straus, 2006). however, sporadic violence amidst an economic downturn, intra-group cleavages, and a looming power-sharing deal with the rpf threatened the hutu who were desperate to cling to power (gentil, 2010; longman, 2011; verwimp, 2013). on the evening of 6 april 1994, president habyarimana’s plane was shot down as it was landing in kigali, killing all occupants on board. this assassination marked the beginning of the genocide, and soon tutsi and moderate volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 156 hutu throughout rwanda became the target of attacks (kimonyo, 2016; straus, 2019). the rpf also re-initiated its war in rwanda and over several months, hundreds of thousands of hutu civilians engaged in genocidal violence (straus, 2004). the war and genocide ended with the rpf toppling the government on 4 july 1994. in the aftermath of the genocide, different justice mechanisms were established to try the hundreds of thousands of people suspected of participating in the genocidal violence (bornkamm, 2012; doughty, 2016; ingelaere, 2016; jones, 2009). the mechanisms included the international criminal tribunal for rwanda formed on 8 november 1994 by the united nations resolution 955 on the request of the government of rwanda (stromseth, 2006). formal courts were also revamped to dispense justice even though out of 70 prosecutors and 758 judges that the country had before the genocide, only 12 prosecutors and 244 judges had survived the war and genocide (nyseth et al., 2014). in addition, rwandan prisons which had been built to hold 45,000 prisoners were now overcrowded with close to 120,000 prisoners (molenaar, 2005; nyseth et al.,2014) and the government of rwanda remodeled the gacaca courts (a court system traditionally used in rwanda for settling minor crimes) to try genocide cases (clark, 2007; nyseth et al.,2014). although the war and genocide are blamed for having ruined rwanda’s institutions among them the judiciary, literature posits that even before the genocide, the rwandan justice system was marred by impunity as evidenced by different episodes of sporadic killings between the years 1959, 1962, 1966, 1970, and 1973 up to 1990 where the perpetrators were not held accountable (adelman & astri, 1999; brannigan & jones, 2009; nmaju, 2011; prunier, 1997; straus, 2013). in order to have an effective justice system, in 2004 the government of rwanda embarked on overall judicial reforms (rugege, 2020). it is expounded that the reforms were undertaken to address various challenges, among them, the lack of universal access to quality justice (sebastian, 2010; uvin & mironko, 2003). it is also argued that the new government believed that sustainable peace could not be achieved without an effective and equitably accessible justice (sebastian, 2010). volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 157 consequently, it is within this process of judicial reforms that access to justice bureaus were initiated in 2007, specifically not as a response to genocide crimes but for ordinary crimes which could escalate into violence if left unaddressed (ministry of justice report, 2014). it should be noted that although crimes tied to the genocide were handled by gacaca courts, formal courts, and the international criminal tribunal for rwanda, the few unexecuted gacaca courts’ decisions can be handled by these bureaus alongside ordinary cases. in 2019, the ministry of justice reported that close to 52,000 (4 percent) cases tried by the gacaca courts had not yet been enforced (https://imvahonshya.co.rw). the director in charge of the access to justice department in the ministry of justice, urujeni martine promised to handle these cases through different mechanisms among them access to justice bureaus (https://imvahonshya.co.rw). this means that though the bureaus were not created for this purpose, they can be used for dealing with unexecuted genocide cases. when access to justice bureaus were created, rwanda was facing many problems including the lack of equitable access to justice. through what it calls the justice, reconciliation, law, and order (jrlo) sector, the government maintained that peace could only be built through access to equitable justice and among the mechanisms for achieving this was the establishment of institutions like access to justice bureaus (sebastian, 2010). therefore, this study argues that literature on access to justice and peacebuilding is mostly dominated by transitional justice mechanisms that are tied to mass violence. therefore, it bridges this knowledge gap by examining the role of accessible justice institutions in resolving interpersonal conflicts. consequently, the study examines the role that access to justice bureaus play in making justice accessible to people, it interrogates the approaches used by the bureaus in resolving conflicts and finally explores how people appreciate these conflict resolution efforts in rwanda’s peacebuilding process. in the following sections, it gives an overview of access to justice bureaus, followed by a review of existing literature, it then addresses the theoretical perspectives explaining access to justice bureaus, describes the methodology, presents the results and winds up by discussing the findings and draw a conclusion. understanding access to justice bureaus volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 158 access to justice bureaus are legal offices which were established by the government of rwanda in 2007. they are staffed by three lawyers in each of the 30 districts that make up the country. the main aims of the bureaus are to: 1) provide legal counsel and representation to the poor 2) enforce court decisions on the behalf of the poor 3) create legal awareness and, 4) build peace through mediation of conflicting parties (https://www.minijust.gov.rw). these four main functions of the bureaus are divided among the three lawyers. one of the lawyers is the access to justice district coordinator and is also in charge of representing the indigent in courts. the second lawyer is in charge of court decision enforcement and the coordination of local conflict mediation committees in the district, and the third one is in charge of handling issues related to gender based violence. the functions of legal awareness creation and conflict mediation are handled collectively among the three lawyers. the division of tasks amongst the three lawyers ensures the effective functioning of the bureaus in relation to the delivery of the legal services. figure 1 below explains the four major functions of access to justice bureaus in a detailed manner. fig 1 functions of access to justice bureaus legal awareness • helping in court filing legal assistance and representation make citizens aware of their fundamental rights & laws help people know where they can find official gazettes help citizens know about the online court filing system volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 159 note. this figure was produced by the authors to illustrate the functions of access to justice bureaus. as illustrated in figure 1, access to justice bureaus were created to dispense free legal remedies through four different functions: conflict mediation, legal counsel and representation, legal awareness, and enforcement of the court decisions. access to justice bureaus identify areas of mutual interest facilitate the mediation process enforce ground rules assists in finding options help in reaching a peaceful resolution conflict mediation enforcement of court decisions legal counsel help the poor enforce court decisions in their favor volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 160 the bureaus play a mediation role by bringing conflicting parties together and mediating in the conflict by first identifying the areas of mutual interest that led to the conflict and then facilitating a mediation process by using rules that facilitate mediation. the bureaus the generate different options that lead to a definitive resolution for the grievance and also provide legal counsel and represent the poor in court free of charge. additionally, the bureaus create legal awareness. for example, they provide people with information on where they can find official gazettes, help them in using the online court filing system, and spreading awareness about their fundamental rights and how to claim them if they are violated. lastly, access to justice bureaus also help in enforcing the court decisions on behalf of the poor free of charge. of these functions, legal representation and enforcement of the court decisions are reserved for the poor, while the rest of the services are open to all citizens (rugege, 2020). to be eligible for the services reserved for the poor, one must produce an indigence certificate issued by a competent authority. rwandans are categorized into five socioeconomic categories locally called ubudehe. categories a and b consist of self-reliant households with diverse life choices while categories c and d comprise of households that partly benefit from social protection. only those in category e get full state social protection including all free legal services (https://www.newtimes.co.rw). access to justice lawyers create awareness of the available legal services through community meetings and radio talk shows. the bureaus handle both civil and criminal cases but only represent civil cases in court. assistance for criminal matters is only limited to legal advice and orientation while those that need legal representation are referred to the bar association for pro-bono services. lawyers at the access to justice bureaus are government workers and cannot represent cases that involve government prosecutor as it can lead to conflict of interest. literature review peace without justice is suppression and justice without peace is a new form of oppression (bhoke, 2006; petersmann, 2006; sawatsky, 2009). studies show that equitable access to justice is a key component of peacebuilding volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 161 (unhchr, 2006). furthermore, if perceived grievances are left unaddressed for a long period, they can lead to conflict. literature attests that societies without mechanisms that resolve injustices are prone to conflict (deutsch, 2011). in post-conflict settings in particular, if people cannot access justice that protects their rights and addresses their legal needs, there is a risk that they will resort to violent means for dispute resolution. subsequently, the rule of law has to ensure accessible justice as a remedy for problems afflicting post-conflict settings (rajagopal, 2007; stromseth, 2009). some studies highlight that rule of law is ensured not only through the application of the law but also when it is upheld as one of the major tools for building a stable society. its distortion is a central factor in igniting conflicts (herman & ortega, 2012). other studies posit that equitable access to justice that ensures legal remedies in conformity with fundamental rights is among the major components of the rule of law (agrast et al., 2013; botero & ponce, 2011; skaaning, 2010). the united nations secretary general’s report on the rule of law and transitional justice in conflict and post-conflict societies maintains that access to justice is not only important in peacebuilding but also in consolidating it (annan, 2004). certainly, maintaining peace in the long term cannot be done without confidence in the way justice institutions address disputes. call (2005), for example, argues that accessible justice can forestall conflicts. he adds that mechanisms that are used for building peace after a war can also be used for preventing war. this means that if justice can be used for building peace after conflict, it can also be used for preventing conflict. accessible justice, especially in post-conflict settings can deter abuse and lead to sustainable peace by addressing grievances (rauschenbach & scalia, 2008). the united nations secretary general’s report on the rule of law suggests that conflicts often arise because of the failure of a state’s legal system to protect individuals’ rights. if left unaddressed, injustice can lead to violence (united nations, 2006). the report also argues that in many post-conflict settings, a large majority of the population has never had meaningful access to courts. thus, installing courts that quickly resolve conflicts prevents violence. conversely, volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 162 biased and corrupt courts and unfair laws perpetuate human rights violations and undermine the efforts to stabilize society (hurst, 2006). rawls (2009) argues that a society becomes peaceful and stable when it reaches a consensus on the main principles of justice. therefore, the peace that people experience after this process is referred to as the ‘fruits of justice’ (fiebleman, 1993). functioning justice systems support social order (genn, 2010). by social order, the author means those efforts that prevent and mitigate violence. hence, access to justice bureaus is one of the mechanisms mandated to resolve conflicts thus supporting the restoration of a social order. this paper addresses the nexus between accessible justice and conflict resolution mechanisms that contribute to sustainable peacebuilding. extant literature on justice and peacebuilding mostly examines access to justice for crimes tied to mass atrocities (fischer, 2011; lundy &mcgovern, 2008; tabak, 2011; teitel, 2003), and justice during the time of peace agreements (bass, 2005; binningsbø et al., 2012; gloppen, 2005; jost & kay, 2010; krcmaric 2014; melander, 2009; orentlicher, 1991), interpersonal conflict at the workplace (pector & bruk-lee, 2008), how interpersonal conflicts affect the wellbeing of employees (bono, mccullough, & root, 2008; bruk-lee & spector, 2006; rahim, 2010). there is evidently little knowledge on the contribution of accessible justice to peacebuilding in normal times. this paper therefore, seeks to expand this scholarship by examining other mechanisms through which accessible justice can help in addressing conflicts thus impacting sustainable peacebuilding via the case of access to justice bureaus in rwanda. theoretical framework observing the relationships between conflict, access to justice, and peacebuilding, scholars have sought to theorize possible underlying mechanisms linking these concepts in different ways. some explain peacebuilding in terms of globalization (clark, 2001; cousens, 2001; khong, 2001; paris, 2001). others theorize the promotion of democracy and market-based economic reforms as a driving force for building peace (doyle, 2005; lemay-hébert, 2013; newman, 2009). volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 163 literature further shows that resolution of the conflicts can only be achieved by restoring justice and eliminating structural inequalities underlying conflict situations. interventions should be made to redress economic, political, and social inequalities (rapoport, 1960; boulding, 1978; boulding, 1992; jeong 2009). in this paper, the concepts of justice, conflict, and peacebuilding are anchored on johan galtung’s peacebuilding theory (galtung, 1969). galtung’s theory addresses both negative and positive peace, defining negative peace as a condition characterized by the absence of physical violence like war, and positive peace as the absence of structural violence or systematic injustices (galtung et al., 2013; shields, 2017). galtung’s theory further maintains that positive peace cannot exist in contexts that lack strong, accountable, and accessible institutions (rissler & shields, 2019). it underscores that positive peace entails the existence of social justice, equality, and the absence of structural or indirect violence (barash, 2017). this means that peace is not only the absence of war but also the absence of all factors that can lead to war. building on this theory, this paper argues that peace is not possible without an independent, strong, and responsive judiciary that addresses injustices. among the structural causes of conflict that galtung discusses are unaddressed injustices due to the absence of proper conflict resolution mechanisms that ensure the protection of human rights (cremin & bevington, 2017; toohey, 2013). therefore, providing justice to litigants can be interpreted as a peacebuilding mechanism that tackles the potential causes of violence embedded in societal structures. as expounded by literature, in societies where judicial institutions do not guarantee accessibility to justice, structural injustices are likely to persist. people (especially the illiterate) face the danger of conviction because they do not know how to establish their innocence hence leading to civil resentment that can result in violence (nichol, 2009). mische and harris (2008) add that positive peace conditions lead to the creation of policies, norms, systems, and practices that respect human dignity, meet human needs, uphold standards of social justice, and sustain human and natural communities. some studies also argue that justice is volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 164 not possible in contexts with structural inequalities as they may be prone to conflict (sen, 1999; sharp, 2011). building on the central tenets of galtung’s peace theory, this study argues that positive peace cannot be achieved without accessible justice. on the contrary, when institutions of justice are accessible, members of society get an opportunity to claim the restoration of their violated rights. without accessible justice, there is a likelihood that conflicts will ensue because members of society have no mechanisms to claim their violated rights. methodology this paper is part of an ongoing phd research at the university of nairobi, kenya. the university of nairobi requires a phd student to publish two papers and a thesis in order to fulfill the phd completion requirements. however, it should be noted that this paper is not an extract from the thesis but a standalone article that has not been published anywhere. the study conducted interviews and focus group discussions over ten months between february and december 2019 with the help of a research assistant paid for by the university of rwanda. data collection through in-depth interviews and focus group discussions was important in getting deep insights and an understanding of the functioning of access to justice bureaus. both the interviews and focus group discussions were conducted in kinyarwanda and transcribed and translated into english. the participants in the study were approached with authorization from the ministry of justice which supervises access to justice bureaus. the office of the minister authorized the authors to have access to a database of names of people who were legally assisted and from this database respondents were selected with the assistance of access to justice coordinators at the district level. the authors systematically sampled the names and the coordinators only helped in providing contacts of the selected service beneficiaries, local conflict mediators and local leaders. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 165 the participants responded to seven open-ended questions on the assessment of the role that the access to justice bureaus play in resolving interpersonal conflicts and how this eventually leads to sustainable peacebuilding. the specific questions were : 1) what do you know about access to justice bureaus? 2) who has access to them? 3) which cases do they handle? 4)which approaches do they use in resolving conflicts? 5) are you happy with the approaches used in conflict resolution approaches by the bureaus? 6) do you think they contribute to resolving interpersonal conflicts? and 7) do they contribute to peacebuilding? if yes how? questions were designed in a broad and open-ended manner to get a wider picture of what people thought of the access to justice bureaus and their role in resolving interpersonal conflicts. the participants included 10 access to justice lawyers, 10 local leaders, 10 local conflict mediators, and 60 access to justice service beneficiaries. lawyers, local conflict mediators, and local leaders were selected through purposive sampling while the beneficiaries were selected through systematic sampling from the database provided by the access to justice offices. lawyers were interviewed to help understand the impact of the legal services that they provide, local leaders were interviewed because they knew the conflicts that access to justice bureaus handle and could hence help understand if the bureaus had any impact; and local conflict mediators (abunzi) were interviewed because they work hand-in-hand with the bureaus and have information on how conflict mediation is handled. lastly, access to justice beneficiaries were interviewed to help understand how their legal problems were handled and the impact this had on their relationship with their adversaries. at the start of each interview and focus group discussion, the authors explained to the participants the benefits and consequences of taking part in the study and asked them to sign consent forms. they were also asked if they wanted to remain anonymous but none of them had problems with either disclosing their identities or tape recording the interviews. the interviews lasted between 50 minutes to an hour depending on what the respondents said, while focus group discussions lasted between 1 to 2 hours. all the participants who were contacted participated in the interviews leading to a 100 percent participation rate; 46 respondents were women while 44 were men. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 166 the participants were met at a location of their choice. access to justice bureaus’ lawyers and local leaders were interviewed in their offices, local conflict mediators and legal service beneficiaries who participated in individual interviews were interviewed in their homes while focus group discussions were conducted in cell offices (a geographical unit smaller than the district and the sector). bus fares were reimbursed to those who participated in focus group discussions as this expense had been budgeted for. the participants were aged 18 years and above because in rwanda anyone below this age is legally a minor and if they are involved in any case, they have to be legally represented by an adult. geographically, data was collected from five districts out of the 30 that make up rwanda. rwanda has four provinces and the city of kigali. each of the four provinces has a provincial capital in which the provincial offices are located. these provincial capitals have both urban and rural areas. the selection of four districts in the four provinces and one in the city of kigali was based on the fact that they provided an opportunity to interview people from both rural and urban areas. from each of the four provincial districts, two sectors (lower administrative structures below the district) were selected: one urban and one rural. this was done to get a full picture of both rural and urban areas. for kigali which has three districts, one district (gasabo) was selected, and in total five districts were selected. the others were rwamagana in the eastern province, musanze in the northern province, nyanza in the southern province, and karongi in the western province. interviews were orthographically transcribed and simultaneously translated into english by reproducing all spoken words and sounds including hesitation, false starts, and cut-offs. identifying what was common in the data and making sense of the commonalities remained important. this process helped explore important elements in the data in relation to the study’s topic and the main research questions. numerous patterns relevant for answering the main research questions were identified in the dataset. a thematic analysis offered a way of coding and analyzing data systematically and then linking it to broader theoretical issues. transcripts were mainly edited for brevity, removing any words/clauses that were not essential for understanding the overall meaning of what the participants had said. this was not done as a means of ‘cleaning up the transcript’ but the grammatical errors were volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 167 removed while keeping the details and full transcripts of the interviews. the researcher then familiarized himself with the data by reading and re-reading the transcripts and listening to audio recordings, especially those conducted, transcribed, and translated by the research assistant. reading was done actively, analytically, and critically while thinking about and taking notes on what the data meant. this process involved asking questions like: how does the participant make sense of her/his experiences? what assumptions does s/he make while interpreting her/his experience? what kind of world is revealed through the account? data was analyzed systematically through coding using nvivo. all features of the data relevant for the research questions were identified to interpret the data. data extracts were later identified with codes and written down after marking the texts associated with them. the data analysis started taking shape when codes were shifted to themes, an exercise which ensured that everything important in the data concerning the research questions was considered in the analysis. patterned responses were coded and the data reviewed to identify similarities and overlapping between the codes. themes that shared some unifying features were clustered together to reflect and describe a coherent and meaningful pattern that told an overall story. miscellaneous themes were used for making new themes and those that did not connect to the main research questions were discarded. potential themes were then reviewed by developing them in relation to the coded data in the dataset and the quality of the data was established by re-reading it to ascertain if the themes captured the relevant data. defining and naming themes helped in identifying what was unique and specific about each theme. data assessment was done to check if the themes had a singular focus, they were related, and were not repetitive and overlapping. deep analytic work was done through a thematic analysis for getting details using extracts to set out a story from the developed themes. the last phase of this process was producing the report. in making sure that this paper speaks from the data, the analysis phase and article writing were interwoven. article writing was directly connected to the writing of notes, memos, and the analysis. the analysis also helped in the proper use of data by avoiding repetitions, paraphrasing, and volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 168 passive writing thus logically connecting themes in a meaningful manner to tell a compelling and coherent story based on the data. findings analysis of interviews conducted using the seven primary questions revealed that three major themes emerged. these strands include among others 1) access to justice bureaus assist in the mediation of conflicting parties and create better relationships 2) access to justice bureaus ensure rule of law by treating people equally 3) access to justice bureaus restore social bonds between people hence making them feel valued within the society. these strands were further refined during the analysis phase and formed different themes suggesting that accessible justice is tied to conflict resolution and peacebuilding in at least three main ways: 1) conflict settlement through mediation 2) strengthening rule of law through accessible justice and finally, 3) restoration of social bonds and creation of a sense of belonging. the participants gave different accounts during the interviews and focus group discussions that support these themes. this study observes that the concept of access to justice is wider than the work of access to justice bureaus and its findings are limited to the mandate of access to justice bureaus. for example, access to justice bureaus represent clients in courts but do not have full control over the decisions that the judges make. a represented litigant may get an unfair court verdict not because of the bureaus but because of the inefficiencies in the court system. therefore, it is important to understand that access to justice bureaus make a contribution in making justice accessible but they do not represent access to justice in all its entirety as will be highlighted by the following accounts. conflict settlement through mediation most of the participants recounted how access to justice bureaus resolved conflicts and mended relationships through mediation. they added that this helped them live more harmoniously after long periods of conflict. they expounded that lawyers advised them that resolving conflicts by mediation was better than litigation because it facilitates reconciliation after a conflict. siborurema vincent commended the bureaus for helping him to peacefully settle volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 169 a dispute with his brother, “i had a conflict with my brother because he denied me access to a son i sired with his wife. family members failed to solve the problem but access to justice bureaus reconciled us and all is well (individual interview 28 , september 15, 2019).”similarly, twizerimana, testified that access to justice bureaus helped in resolving conflicts through mediation. he explained that his land case with a neighbor was resolved after mediation by the access to justice bureaus and he was now living in harmony with his neighbor. he emphasized that as opposed to litigation, mediation improves relationships between community members (individual interview 05, february 20, 2019). like twizerimana, another beneficiary, nadine, explained that the bureaus were very important for mediating conflicts between members of the community. she added that a conflict she had with her sister over land inherited from their parents had lasted for many years without a solution. when she learned of the bureaus, she reported the case and which was resolved before it was taken to court (individual interview 32 september 19, 2019). karambizi ephrem from gasabo who had marital problems with his wife explained how the bureaus helped in mediating their conflict. he explained that his wife had inherited land from her parents and did not want to co-own it with him yet they were married with equal rights to acquired property. after a long dispute, and after mediation by family and friends failed, he learned of access to justice bureaus which made his wife understand what the law says and the issue was solved amicably (individual interview 48, december 18, 2019). niyomugenga cassim explained that he had a land dispute with his brother after their parents passed away and the access to justice bureaus mediated and they shared the land fairly and were now living together in harmony (individual interview 35, november 05, 2019). these, and many other respondents commended access to justice bureaus for using mediation as the best approach to conflict resolution. they explained that this approach not only found solutions but also improved relationships between people in conflict as testified by access to justice lawyer claude ngaboyisonga: volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 170 we use many approaches for conflict resolution, but we prefer mediation when possible. mediation not only resolves disputes but also mends relationships thus being a good approach. litigating for our clients is only done where mediation cannot have an impact. we do this because we want a society where people have rights but also live in harmony(individual interview 09 , february 27, 2019). emeritha musanganire, a local leader in karongi district agreed saying that as local leaders, they commend the bureaus not only for helping people get their legal rights but also for handling it in a manner that builds social cohesion: i know of many cases which the bureaus have helped through mediation and are now living together in harmony. although taking matters to the court gives people their rights, i believe mediation is better because this also mends relationships. litigation should always be used as a last option (individual interview 33, september 22, 2019). although the bureaus were commended for mediating conflicts, some respondents argued that in some cases people needed litigation and not mediation so that the offenders could face the consequences of their crimes. sharing these sentiments was julliet whose boyfriend refused to provide financial support to their child. when she went to the bureaus, they asked her to use mediation but she needed litigation. as she explained, “i had a problem with my boyfriend who refused to provide child support. when i went to the bureaus to seek help, they subjected me to mediation though i wanted to take the matter to court so that i could get a binding decision(individual interview 41, november 27, 2019).”kabagwira antoinette agreed and added that mediation was good but it should not be used in cases related to gender based violence. she added that most of the time abusive husbands deserve to be punished so that they can learn a lesson (individual interview 43, december 09, 2019). wondering if the preference of mediation to litigation by access to justice bureaus is not done for the mere purpose of finding legal solutions, the researcher sought clarity from access to justice lawyers who explained that reconciliation was very important while dealing with sensitive cases especially marital problems. they argued that rushing to courts may destroy relationships which would have been mended hence having long-term effects on the couple and their volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 171 children. for the lawyers, mediation came first, and litigation was used only where mediation was not possible. in addition, different reports show that people’s satisfaction with the services of access to justice bureaus is very high. in 2018, rwanda governance scorecard-an annual report published by rwanda governance board, shows that people’s satisfaction with the services of access to justice bureaus is at 78.06%, the same report shows that the level of citizen’s satisfaction with these services was 82.60% in 2019 and was at 82.57% in 2020 respectively (rwanda governance board, 2018; 2019;2020). comparing this to the ministry of justice annual reports on the same matter, reports also show high levels of citizen’s satisfaction with the same services by access to justice bureaus. it is reported that out of 20461 that were received, 20423 were resolved and only 38 cases were pending at the end of the year. different approaches were used and among them mediation, court submission and representation, and orientation to other institutions. out of all the mentioned cases only 3617 were represented in court. although this represents only 17.68% of the cases received by the bureaus, the rest of the cases were handled through the use of diverse approaches depending on their gravity and nature hence yielding the mentioned satisfaction by both the reports and study findings. strengthening the rule of law through accessible justice the respondents explained that access to justice bureaus helped in ensuring that people were treated equally and in accordance with the law. angelique, an access to justice lawyer stated that the bureaus received every case irrespective of who brought it and against whom. she added that treating people equally was at the forefront of what they did and she believed that a society like rwanda which has a history of violence needed to respect people’s rights if peace was to be built, as explained, “it does not matter who you are to get justice. you know, this country’s past was marred by injustices. before 1994, some people could be summoned and would ask the summoning authority, ‘uzi icyondicyo?’ (do you know who i am?). that meant that some people were untouchable but that period ended and today everyone is treated equally. we are in a society which had problems because of such behavior so if we want to build peace, the rule of law should be prioritized.” buregeya nicodeme also thanked the bureaus for treating people equally and in accordance with the law by sharing the following sentiments: volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 172 access to justice bureaus ensure that people are treated equally before the law. they represented me in court and i won a case against a connected court bailiff. i had been warned by people that one of the high court judges was his brother-in-law and i could not get justice but i won (individual interview 44, december 12, 2019). similarly, maniragaba from karongi commended the access to justice bureaus for treating everyone equally before the law. he talked of how he won a land conflict against his uncle even though his uncle had political connections. he thanked the bureaus for treating everyone equally before the law and said this would help in ending injustices that could lead to violence (individual interview 45, december 16, 2019). murenzi innocent whose land had been grabbed by a police officer thanked the bureaus for helping him get justice despite threats from his powerful adversary. he pointed out that his neighbors had told him that having a conflict with a powerful police officer could cause him problems but the bureaus disapproved them by helping him regain the right to his property (focus group discussion 04, september 16, 2019).uwamurera epiphania also emphasizes that the bureaus have been important in treating everyone equal. holding the rich accountable was difficult in the past hence interfering with the rights of others but today, the bureaus ensure that everyone is treated in accordance to the law (focus group discussion 05, november 12, 2019). ntirandekura, a local leader from nyanza district, also emphasized that rule of law is reached through accessible legal mechanisms that treat everyone equally and access to justice bureaus are doing this(individual interview 37, november 16, 2019). ndungutse from karongi too shared his sentiments by commending access to justice bureaus for treating everyone equally before the law (individual interview 30 , september 17, 2019). to these respondents, access to justice bureaus ensure rule of law by treating everyone equally. they recounted different situations when they did not expect justice because of the stature of people they had grievances against. additionally, they referred to the past where well-connected people could unfairly volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 173 treat the poor and go unpunished. they underlined that bureaus have been important in improving the respect of people’s rights and the enforcement of the law. to concretize these findings, different reports were consulted to establish reliability the findings and among them is the rwanda governance 2018 scorecard report which suggests that the bureaus have been very important in the consolidation rule of law in rwanda. it elucidates that bureaus help in the delivery of justice independently, ethically, timely with the help of its three trained and competent lawyers. the report emphasizes that the bureaus train people on the use of ict in the judiciary which is one of the most transparent ways on justice administration. this is implemented through online case filling in primary, intermediary, and high courts (rwanda governance board, 2018; 2019). additionally, the 2018 ministry of justice 2018 report explains that access to justice bureaus strengthen rule of law through the dissemination of laws and regulations to people in the communities, representing the poor in courts and also helping the poor by enforcing their court decisions free of charge. it is explained that rule of law cannot be ensured when people do not know laws, when the poor are not represented in courts and when court decisions are not enforced for the completion of the justice process. from july 2018 to 30th june 2019, access to justice lawyers represented 677 indigents in courts (ministry of justice, 2019). restoration of social bonds and creation of a sense of belonging the respondents’ perceptions and experiences show that access to justice bureaus helped in restoring social bonds between conflicting parties. they explained that the bureaus helped in re-establishing contact and communication. nyirahitimana anastasia recounted how strained relationships between her and her neighbor improved as a result of access to justice bureaus, “my neighbor shifted land demarcations and the local leaders failed to impartially decide the case so i approached access to justice bureaus who mediated in the case and today we are in good terms.”(individual interview 31, september 17, 2019) similarly, kayirangwa clarisse, a leader of murinja cell in nyanza, recounted that access to justice bureaus helped by mediating in conflicts, “taking matters to court cannot be as helpful as mediation. courts apply the law where one side can lose heavily.”(individual interview 38, november 16, 2019). umwiza rose talked of how access to justice bureaus made her feel that she belonged to society after restoring her violated rights as explained below: volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 174 my ex-father-in-law who hated me for being a genocide survivor cut down my banana plantation. when i took the matter to the mediators, they took bribes and ruled in his favor which made me lose hope in the judiciary. i reported this to the bureaus who mediated and ordered compensation for me. i am now happy as i feel valued like everyone else(individual interview 26, september 14, 2019). like rose, shadrack from nyanza explained how he inherited a land dispute from his father but access to justice bureaus helped him get justice: my father died in 1993 when he had a land dispute with his brothers. the case was decided and enforced in 2012 when i could not see eye to eye with them. i had lost hope but access to justice bureaus mediated and enforced the decision. now i am thankful to the government that justice was done and our relationships were mended (individual interview 34, november 02, 2019). these accounts show how access to justice bureaus have not only solved problems through litigation but also through mediation as an appropriate approach for facilitating reconciliation. one can argue that this not only helped in getting justice but also restored social bonds between neighbors. it initiated communication and interaction between former adversaries. however, as noted above, there are still some gaps that need to be addressed especially on the choice of the conflict resolution approach by the claimants. if necessary, enough explanations should be given on why the chosen approach is the best one to ensure accountability of the bureaus to the people they serve. if not done, provided services will remain unappreciated by some who come expecting litigation but mediated. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 175 discussion and conclusion this article used interviews and focus group discussions with 10 lawyers of access to justice bureaus, 10 local conflict mediators, 10 local leaders, and 60 access to justice beneficiaries. these people were interviewed either because of their role in delivering access to justice services or because they used the services provided by the access to justice bureaus. in doing so, the article examined the role that access to justice bureaus play in resolving interpersonal conflicts and how this contributes to sustainable peacebuilding in rwanda. our findings suggest that access to justice bureaus resolved interpersonal conflicts through mediation. according to most of the respondents, mediation of conflicts was one of the best approaches for conflict resolution. most respondents explained on how the bureaus held mediation sessions that were very important in resolving the conflicts by clarifying how they were now living in harmony with their former adversaries. according to the respondents, mediation was better than litigation because with mediation relationships were repaired thus building harmony in society. some respondents even thanked the bureaus for doing what their families had failed to do in terms of mediating conflicts with their relatives. these findings align with prior studies which suggest that mediation encourages disputants to settle the differences by themselves hence fostering good relationships (ross & conlon, 2000). this article extends existing knowledge by linking such a narrative technique to respondents’ discussions of their past and the nature of the conflicts that they had experienced. emphasizing the role of access to justice bureaus in fostering mediation is not only based on interview narratives but also on the ministry of justice’s annual reports which show that access to justice bureaus have been very helpful in mediating different cases. in 2014-15, of the 22,510 cases received, 55 percent were handled through mediation. in 2016-17, the bureaus got 17,048 complaints of which 66.5 percent were handled through mediation and in 2018-19, it got 20,461 cases of which 70.1 percent were addressed through mediation (ministry of justice, 2015, ministry of justice, 2017, ministry of justice, 2019). volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 176 although the bureaus were applauded for doing a commendable job, some respondents argued that clients should be left to choose their conflict resolution approach. this was mostly highlighted in matters related to gender-based violence. the access to justice lawyers explained that they considered family matters sensitive and important hence preferring mediation to litigation. they explained that this was due to the problems that arise when marriages are broken. aligning this argument with existing studies, literature shows that the use of conventional legal systems in settling marital conflicts is difficult because lawyers have an adversarial nature which depicts them as warriors whose primary objective is winning for their clients instead of playing a reconciliatory role (coogler, 1977). this behavior tends to convert disputes which may have been solved with gains to both parties and their children into conflicts in which one spouse's gain is the other's loss (gulliver,1979). furthermore, litigation practices have been denounced for exacerbating differences between litigants (susskind and ozawa 1985), promoting zero-sum solutions (gordon 2000), failing to address issues underlying conflict (bush and folger 1994), doing little to advance the future relationship of the parties in dispute (susskind and ozawa 1985), and being costly and inefficient. literature reveals that mediation is a means to empower disputants to reclaim ownership of their disputes from an unfair court system (hedeen and coy 2000). on the rule of law, respondents explained that access to justice bureaus ensure that no one is above the law. many of the respondents said that it did not matter who you were to get justice. they compared this to the past where some people were considered to be above the law because of their power and background. they argued that given rwanda’s past, facilitating access to justice is very helpful in preventing another conflict. tying this argument to literature, this article concludes that there cannot be rule of law where there is no justice (carothers, 2009; chesterman, 2008; scalia, 1989). some studies also show that if people are treated equally before the law, there is likely to be peace, and failure to do so may lead to violence (annan, 2004; igbuzor, 2011; mangu, 2007). restoration of social bonds and sense of belonging was seen as another major achievements of access to justice bureaus by the respondents who indicated that the bureaus helped mend strained relationships making former adversaries live more harmoniously.they added that the bureaus not only helped volume 16 number 2 (2022): 153-185 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 177 in mending relationships but made people feel that they belonged to society after the restoration of their violated rights. tying this to literature, this article concludes that lack of accessible justice leads to discontent and resentment towards the government (mutabazi, 2014). the respondents’ accounts show that after long periods of feeling neglected, after getting justice victims felt accepted in society. the creation of community belongingness and social capital were found to be important in fostering social connections, mutual concerns, common symbols, and ongoing development (kelman, 1999). at the same time, this also created networks, norms, and trust that enabled people to act and work together to reach individual and common goals (rostila, 2011). finally, this article argues that despite its uniqueness in a postgenocide setting, there is substantial evidence to show that lessons learned from the rwandan access to justice bureaus can be applied to other times and places primarily because the cases studied were not entirely tied to the genocide. through functions like mediation, legal aid and representation, legal awareness, and legal counsel, access to justice bureaus have been able to resolve different legal matters. accounts from the respondents showed that access to justice bureaus should be applauded. a undp report commends and terms these bureaus to as “justice brought closer to home’’(https://www.rw.undp.org). however, for policy action, some challenges remain especially in the involvement of clients in the choice of a conflict resolution approach, and they may need to be resolved if access to justice bureaus are to effectively dispense justice. references adelman, h., & suhrke, a. 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https://www.rgb.rw/fileadmin/user_upload/rgb/publications/rwanda_gove rnance_scorecard-rgs/rgs_6th_edition.pdf (accessed on 05 february 2022) https://www.rgb.rw/fileadmin/user_upload/rgb/publications/rwanda_gove rnance_scorecard-rgs/rgs_7th_edition.pdf (accessed on 05 february 2022). microsoft word ifp v 16 finley esposito.docx volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 129 volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 educators as bogeyman: exploring the attacks on public education in the 2020s and offering recommendations for a more peaceful k-12 educational climate laura finley, ph.d. professor of sociology & criminology barry university lfinley@barry.edu and luigi esposito barry university lesposito@barry.edu introduction much has been written about the plight of teachers and how they have been devalued within the context of us society (e.g., goldstein, 2015). issues related to poor pay, cuts to pension plans, diminished bargaining power, school volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 130 disinvestment, an obsession with high stakes standardized testing, an emphasis on merit pay, and questionable evaluation tactics have all been problems teachers have faced for decades (bruno, 2018; giroux, 2012). in recent years, teachers in the united states—particularly those working in public schools—have also been scapegoats in what might be regarded as a reactionary populist backlash against critical pedagogy and equitable diversity. to use language recently employed by stephen steinberg (2022), this backlash is part of a “counter-revolution” that has been gaining momentum and seeks to roll back rights, values, ideals, and practices that have characterized the post-civil rights era in the united states. although steinberg is referring primarily to the reconfiguration and re-entrenchment of systemic racism in the us since the 1960s, the idea of a counter-revolution is also discernible in recent efforts to limit or outright ban american schools from teaching critical aspects of us history and society. according to many on the right (e.g., hegseth and goodwin 2022), pedagogical objectives that move beyond standardized, “common core” curricula and use schooling as a way to encourage critical thinking, civic engagement, and social justice are a clear indication that education has been weaponized by the radical left and transformed into a system of indoctrination. in response, under the guise that parents have the “right” to control what their children learn in school, states have been proposing and enacting a number of attacks on curricula reminiscent of the mccarthy era. much of the furor has been focused on the teaching of racial issues, in particular, critical race theory (crt), which is a framework that was developed for use at the graduate level of academia. crt is an approach to teaching history that emphasizes race as a social construct and documents how racism is not just individual bias but embedded into legal systems, education, and various policies. further, crt highlights the legacies of racist practices like slavery on people of color today. key architects of crt, with its origins in the 1970s and 1980s, include scholars kimberle crenshaw, derrick bell and richard delgado. other attacks are focused on teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity as well as on “social and emotional learning,” or sel. sel aims to teach young people the five general skills: self-awareness, social awareness, selfmanagement, the ability to get along in groups, and ethical and responsible decision making (strozewski, 2022). additionally, there has been a surge of attempts to ban certain books in schools, most notably those focused on the same two subjects of race and sexual orientation/gender identity. as the nation continues to grapple with the global covid-19 pandemic, school boards, educators and administrators who volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 131 followed science-based recommendations for safety protocols, notably mask mandates, have also faced attacks by legislators and, in many cases, by parents. furthermore, as part of these attempts to put more control over school curricula in the hands of parents instead of the school system, there has also been an increase in efforts to overturn school board decisions and even remove school board members. none of this, however, is new. educators have previously been vilified as bogeyman in the us. accordingly, this paper begins with a brief history of rightwing efforts to dismantle public education, framing them as moral panics. it then explores some of the structural conditions that promote the current concerns mentioned above, followed by an examination of who is largely responsible for the current demonization of educators. the paper concludes with a review of the effects that these attacks are having on educators and on public education, and provides recommendations for change. moral panics and the demonization of teachers in us historical context a recent national survey shows that a majority of k-12 teachers, although left-of-center, hold moderate political views and are by no means the “radicals” they are often portrayed to be (green and paul 2021). in fact, the same survey finds that close to a third of teachers classify themselves as “conservative.” therefore, far from any solid grounding in objective reality, fears about a “leftist take-over” of the school system—which are based on hearsay, half-truths, and exaggerations— are constitutive of what is sometimes referred to as a “moral panic” (cohen 1972/2022; goode and ben-yehuda 1994). in his classic study folks devils and moral panics, stanley cohen (1972, p. 9) defines moral panics as “a condition, episode, person, or group of persons. . .that becomes defined as a threat to societal values and interests; its nature is presented in a stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moral barricades are manned by editors, [religious leaders], politicians, and other right-thinking people.” as with most moral panics, the main agents driving the presumed threat are what cohen referred to as “folk devils,” or people who are socially constructed as villainous agents actively encouraging the degradation of society. in short, folk devils are the equivalent of a “boogeyman.” taking this framing into account, there is a long history in the united states of teachers being vilified as “folk devils” or “bogeyman” polluting the minds of students and carrying out some nefarious mission to undermine us society. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 132 during the 1920s, for example, conservative pundits warned that teachers who taught “evolution” were stripping children of their christian values, and, in doing so, promoting moral decay and social dysfunction. evangelist t.t. martin from mississippi exemplifies this anti-evolution/anti-science sentiment. in his 1923 book hell and the high schools, martin condemns educators who teach evolution as follows: the germans who poisoned the wells and springs in northern france and belgium and fed little children poisoned candy were angels compared to the teachers, paid by our taxes, who feed our children’s minds with the deadly, soul-destroying poison of evolution. . . evolution and the teaching of evolution in tax-supported schools is the greatest curse that ever fell upon the earth (martin 1923, p. 24). martin’s comments clearly reflect a moral panic of that time, particularly among christian conservatives. teachers who gave credence to evolution, according to martin, were akin to agents of satan (i.e., folk devils/bogeyman) who were corrupting the youth, emasculating boys, robbing students of their christian virtue, and promoting a morally bankrupt society under the guise of teaching “science.” to counteract the threat posed by teachers propagating evolution, martin, like other conservative leaders around the country, urged parents to take over local school boards, filter out all suspicious educators, and ensure their state legislatures were dominated by men of god. according to reporter adam latts (2021), largely as a result of this anti-evolution hysteria, from 1922-1929, 53 bills or resolutions to ban evolution from schools were proposed in 21 states. by the 1930s, the moral panic shifted to communist educators—sometimes referred to as “reducators”—infiltrating us schools. particularly during and in the wake of the great depression, discussions about marxism and the “failures of capitalism” became increasingly popular among many intellectuals, and this prompted some states to conduct investigations of potential communist influences in schools and colleges (howlett and cohan 2008). new york was at the forefront of these efforts. in 1934, for example, state legislator irving ives sponsored a bill that required public school teachers to sign a “loyalty oath” as a defense against communism and other ‘isms’” that were oppositional to the american government, capitalism, and way of life (ekrich, 1967, p. 357). furthermore, in response to a presumably mounting (albeit unsubstantiated) communist threat in schools, a new york statute in 1939 called the feinberg law banned teachers from calling for the overthrow of the us government. contrary to what supporters of this law claimed, volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 133 the idea that there were large numbers of communist teachers or professors indoctrinating children and calling for a violent overthrow of the us government was largely a myth (hunt, 2015). nonetheless, this law further reinforced the need to surveille, identify, and remove teachers suspected of being communists or communist sympathizers. after a group of parents and teachers challenged this law, the case was taken to the us supreme court. in a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that “the state had a constitutional right to protect the immature minds of children in public schools from subversive [communist] propaganda, subtle or otherwise, disseminated by those to whom they look for guidance, authority, and leadership” (supreme court rules on communist teachers 2021). the moral panic against communists gained even more momentum during the 1940s and 1950s. as discussed by jonathan hunt (2015), particularly during the decades following world war ii and at the height of the cold war, anticommunism became central to an “american identity.” identifying and weeding out all potential communists from schools and other areas of us life thus became a national priority. a major promoter of these efforts was the house committee on un-american activities (hcua), a committee of the us house of representatives that sought to investigate communists, fascists, and other “subversive” people and activities in the us. in 1948, hcua published a guide listing “100 things you should know about communism and education,” in which the committee issued the following warning to parents in the us: this is to tell you what the masterminds of communism have planned for your child in the name of ‘education.’ they mean to take him from the nursery, put him in uniform with hammer and sickle flag in one hand and a gun in the other, and send him out to conquer the world. if they have their way, he will be guided from the kindergarten straight to college so that he will have anything except a mind of his own. he will be trained but not educated. . . he will be the child-man of communism (communism and education 1948). in short, children in american schools, according to hcua, are at risk of being stripped of their agency and turned into communist automatons unless something is done to stop this threat. other state level committees—e.g., the rapp-coudert committee in new york, the canwell committee in washington, and the tenney committee in california—also followed these directives and sought to identify communists in public schools through a variety of intrusive means that are antithetical to a presumably “free” society (hunt 2015). the huac in particular volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 134 urged the us public to be vigilant, work in their community “to get rid of communists and communist influences in their schools or anywhere else,” and not be dissuaded if, in their valiant efforts, they face accusations of “witch hunting,” or “textbook burnings,” as these are all “standard smear in the communist propaganda machine” (communism and education 1948). yet this moral panic led precisely to “witch hunting” in american schools and universities. despite the fact that, in actuality, a very small percentage of americans teachers and professors were formally affiliated with the communist party (e.g., hultzen 1950; iverson 1959), educators were increasingly subject to investigations, loyalty oaths, pedagogical restraints, and threats of termination. particularly during the 1950s, at the height of mccarthyism, hundreds of teachers and professors were fired for being communists or suspected communists. in reality, even among the educators who might have been affiliated with the communist party or sympathetic to communism, the majority did not use the classroom as a locus of indoctrination. as noted by hunt (2015, p. 33), “yet if successful in firing hundreds of teachers who were communists and suspected communists, investigating committees and even the fbi were hard pressed to provide examples of actual subversion or indoctrination in the classroom” (see also shrecker 1986). the social activism of the 1960s and 1970s also encouraged a moral panic about “radical” teachers and professors who, here again, were presumably committed to pushing a leftist political agenda that challenged prevailing institutions, perpetrated epistemological sabotage, and eroded the social and moral fabric of american society in the name of promoting equality and social justice. in his bestselling book the closing of the american mind, philosopher allan bloom (1987) argued that the social upheavals of the 1960s lead to an obsession with social activism that compromised higher education by undermining the search for “truth,” vulgarizing culture, and promoting a form of social and moral relativism that was oppositional to the western canon. bloom’s fears were further promoted by a host of writers throughout the 1990s. according to roger kimball (1990), as student radicals from the 1960s and 1970s earned doctorate degrees, entered the academy, became tenured professors, department chairs, and even deans and elite universities, they systematically reshaped college curriculums to fit a leftist view of the world that denigrates western values, undermines objective reality, and gives legitimacy to subversive perspectives associated with deconstructionism, postmodernism, critical theory, and liberation theology. the anti-essentialist, antihierarchical orientation of these perspectives, in turn, bolstered fields like black studies, gender studies, gay studies, post-colonial studies and other field of inquiry that, according to critics, are little more than programs of indoctrination that pass volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 135 as “scholarship” (kimball 1990). according to dinesh d’souza (1991), these radical fields of study are fundamentally illiberal, as they emphasize a victim mentality that demonizes western culture, promotes resentment, erodes academic standards, and encourages preferential treatment. in more recent years, the moral panic has continued in the form of a presumably militant “woke” agenda that is said to permeate the school system, as “radical” educators are given a green light to teach subjects that demonize white people, encourage racial minorities to see themselves as victims of “systemic racism,” confuse underage kids about their gender identity and sexual orientation, and convince students that the united states is a fundamentally immoral society that must be entirely uprooted. social structural promoters of moral panics against teachers/critical curricula as in the past, the current moral panic directed against teachers might be a reflection of prevailing structural conditions in contemporary us society. first, the increasing pervasiveness of the internet and social media has encouraged the rise of “filter bubbles” and digital echo chambers that can easily distort reality and reinforce confirmation biases. as stated by walter quattrociocchi (2017, p. 63), “the web has created an echo chamber where misinformation thrives. . . the viral spread of hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and other false or baseless information online is one of the most disturbing social trends of the early 21st century.” misinformation about radical teachers trying to undermine america, encourage the persecution of white people, or “groom” students to become gay or transgender has been widely propagated in right wing media outlets and especially on social media (e.g., block 2022). as is well known, in their efforts to promote “personal advertising,” major digital/social media companies such as google, youtube, facebook, and others use algorithms that bring up search results based on users’ likes, preferences, or search histories. what results are “echo chambers” or online spaces/communities where people encounter others who share similar ideologies, interests, or beliefs. according to pariser (2011), these echo chambers and the filter bubbles that create them “dramatically amplify confirmation biases” as users inadvertently participate in an ongoing “communal reinforcement” of misinformation that, over time, becomes accepted as indisputable truth. the fervor with which angry parents are currently going after “woke” or “leftist” teachers is a testament to this bias. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 136 second, political divisions are also a structural promoter of moral panics. while the us has always experienced political divisions, these divisions have, especially since the rise of donald trump into the national political scene, become magnified. perhaps more so than in the last four decades, democrats and republicans accuse one another of espousing ideas that are not simply different to their own, but rather anathema to what is moral, factual, and/or genuinely “american” (see finley, esposito, and johnson 2020). as was the case during the so-called “red scare,” this sort of radical partisanship has created a fertile environment for demonizing others who deviate from one’s own worldview. the demonization of teachers who presumably “indoctrinate” children into beliefs and values that are vilified as evil, degenerate, and/or un-american is a prime example of this. third, the last several years have been particularly difficult for millions of people in the united states. after years of neoliberal policies that emphasize free markets, undermine job security, stagnate wages, erode families, and thwart social mobility, millions of people in the united states have felt anxious, vulnerable, and forgotten (esposito 2021). as discussed by case and denton (2020) these dynamics have eroded what had been the “pillars” that once gave life meaning in the united states: a good job, a stable home life, and a voice in the community. in the last two years, these challenges have been compounded by the effects of covid-19, which further amplified a context of fear, mistrust, and anxiety. under these sorts of conditions, people are more likely to look for scapegoats—whether it be immigrants, racial minorities, or “radical” teachers promoting leftist “woke” propaganda, normalizing degeneracy, and undermining us society. fourth, the past few years have also witnessed increasing activism and calls for social change. the murder of george floyd and subsequent civic unrest in the us signaled to millions of people that the country was in dire need of a “racial reckoning”. this call for a ‘reckoning” was also extended to include increasing support not only for racial justice, but for lgbtq rights, women’s rights, environmental responsibility, and other issues. movements such as me too and black lives matter have promoted awareness about the fact that the country still faces patterns of female subordination, systemic racism, and homo/transphobia. as such, there have been increasing calls to uproot all vestiges of patriarchy, white privilege/supremacy, and heteronormativity. but much like what was seen during the activism and turmoil of the 1960’s, while many contemporary liberals/progressives regard all this as “progress,” others find these developments to be disconcerting, destabilizing, and clear signs that the country is being “taken volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 137 over” by leftists who are determined to destroy america. all these conditions have contributed to current attacks against teachers and curriculums that: 1) critically discuss issues related to systemic racism, gender identity, and sexual orientation; 2) emphasize the need for civic engagement and social/personal responsibility; and 3) address alternatives to dominant narratives of us history and society, including those pertaining to foundational documents (e.g., the us constitution) and political/economic systems. attacks on teaching anti-racism as discussed, right-wing media outlets and conservative politicians have made it seem as though k-12 educators are deliberately attempting to “indoctrinate” youth by teaching about systemic racism. critics charge that crt is divisive and that it teaches young people to feel guilty about the country’s past and to feel bad about their race. they claim it is nothing more than indoctrination. calls for bans on crt are typically misinformed about what it really is and are a part of broader conservative criticism of “wokeness.” according to education news outlet chalkbeat, efforts to restrict education on racism, bias, the contributions of specific racial or ethnic groups to us history and similar topics have been attempted in 28 states, as of this writing. nine states (arizona, idaho, iowa, oklahoma, tennessee, texas, new hampshire, south carolina and north dakota) have enacted anti-crt legislation, although arizona’s law was overturned by that state’s supreme court (graham, 2021). in reality, crt is not being taught in k-12 schools, but most educators do believe that it is essential that young people learn about the history of racial injustice in america, how racism has been institutionalized into laws and policies, and the effects of that institutionalization both historically and today. yet even if educators are not explicitly teaching from a crt framework, these kinds of laws have a chilling effect on the teaching of racial issues in general. further, many of the anti-crt laws are very broad, and thus have been interpreted to prohibit an array of issues. these include teaching the story of johnny appleseed and objections to a book about ruby bridges, as the latter does not offer the perspective of redemption for racists who screamed at her for trying to attend school. it appears fairly clear that the chilling effect on teaching about race and anti-racism is no accident but rather the intended, if not stated, effect of the laws (graham, 2021). a bill in wisconsin would forbid not just teaching crt, but also ban the teaching of concepts including “social emotional learning,” “diversity, equity volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 138 and inclusion,” culturally responsive teaching, anti-racism, conscious and unconscious bias, culturally responsive practices, diversity training, equity, microaggressions, multiculturalism, patriarchy, restorative justice, social justice, systemic racism, white privilege, and white supremacy, among others. it includes another near 90 terms, such as anti-racism, centering or de-centering, critical pedagogy, equity, implicit bias, normativity, patriarchy, racial prejudice, systems of power and oppression, and woke. more than just ideological, these bans often come with financial implications. in wisconsin, the proposed bill would authorize a 10% loss of funding to any school district or charter school found to be in violation. the teaching of crt and the like reached the federal level, as former president donald trump pushed for “patriotic education” and asserted that leftwing teachers were indoctrinating students. he issued an executive order prohibiting certain types of diversity training for federal employees. trump endorsed, and several republican representatives in congress, called for cutting federal funding to any school that used lessons based on the 1619 project, a new york times series that emphasizes the legacy of slavery (greene, 2021). importantly, as was true historically, the teaching of anti-racism has been inaccurately equated with communist infiltration of education. attacks on teaching sel florida is perhaps the epicenter of the right-wing agenda to dismantle public education as we know it. it bans crt and sel among other things. last year, a bill proposed in indiana, referred to as “a parents' bill of rights” focused on sel. attorney general todd rokita explained, "sel programs represent a fundamental shift in the role of teachers from educators to therapists and expand the reach of government into domains of the family.” a bill in oklahoma would impose a similar ban on sel. the oklahoma bill states that "no public school district, public charter school, or public virtual charter school shall use federal, state, or private funds to promote, purchase, or utilize the concepts of social emotional learning for training, instruction, or education of students.” additionally, no "public school district, public charter school, or public virtual charter school teacher, administrator, counselor, employee, or volunteer shall use any curricula with content related to social emotional learning in the training, instruction, or education of students," with the bill specifying that it applies to all learning resources. dozens of other efforts have been proposed around the country (strozewski, 2022). critics assert that the prohibitions on sel will do a terrible disservice to young people, who need to learn not just academic curricula but also how to volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 139 effectively communicate, behave, and participate in civil society (strozewski, 2022). yet, taking it further, in some communities, parents have begun to contend that mental health counselors and suicide prevention initiatives in schools are also “indoctrinating” students (kingkade & hixenbaugh, 2021). such a claim, if taken seriously by school boards or legislators, would inevitably lead to further deficits in mental health assistance which is deeply troubling, in particular at a time when more youth are struggling than ever due to the global pandemic and other factors. attacks on teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity several states have considered or enacted legislation related to teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity. florida’s law titled parental rights in education has been roundly criticized and referred to as the “don’t say gay bill.” more than a dozen similar bills have been proposed around the country. in arizona, hb 2011 is currently being considered. it is similar to a law that was previously overturned that had been called “no promo homo,” as it would require students to seek permission before joining groups like gay straight alliances (gsas) or others that involve sexuality and gender. the previous law even prohibited any sexual education in public schools that “promoted a homosexual lifestyle.” iowa is considered senate bill 2024, which bans any instruction related to gender identity in k-6 classrooms unless parents give their consent. in ohio, hb 616 mirrors florida’s “don’t say gay” legislation, banning instructional materials and curricula on sexual orientation, gender identity, and crt (stanton, 2022). attacks on teaching alternate political systems under the guise of supporting victims of communism, starting in 20232024, florida teachers have to devote at least 45 minutes of instruction annually to teaching about the harms of communism. governor ron desantis signed house bill 395 in may 2022, designating november 7 as “victims of communism day.” it requires teaching about communist leaders including joseph stalin, mao zedong, and fidel castro as well as the “poverty, starvation, migration, systemic lethal violence, and suppression of speech” that occurred during those regimes (ocasio, 2022). while surely there are many legitimate criticisms of communist regimes, this is yet another example of legislators pushing a political agenda, with desantis declaring “communism is evil.” and while most social studies courses already do cover communism and the concerns about this system/ideology, here the state is again trying to control school curricula. further, it is hard to miss the contradictions volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 140 in these laws—educators are to avoid teaching the ills of racism in the us but are mandated to teach about them elsewhere. right-wing politicians, pundits and activists often equate anti-racism education with communism, with crt often being called “marxist.” this concern about communism in school is not new, however. in 1953 florida adopted a strictly anti-communist curriculum that, like today, inspired parents to report supposed violations. three mothers complained about the textbook american problems today, which they claimed, “painted a favorable picture of the american civil liberties union, and “advocated fepc [the fair employment practice committee] and other forms of integration.” a state senator claimed that the textbook taught principles “opposite” to those in the constitution, and the northeastern florida teacher who introduced the book to his class was eventually fired.” according to dr. robert dahlgren, a suny fredonia professor who has written about the red scare’s effect on florida teachers, the point is to stifle discussion about america’s past and to promote american exceptionalism. he stated, “i think that’s the deeper level that these laws are trying to address, as they did back in the ’50s. they shut down any kind of expression of critical examination of our history” (weill, 2021). once again, it seems the key word of “communism” is enough to excite paranoia and legislative action. book bans in april 2022, florida’s department of education (fde) banned 54 mathematics textbooks from use in k-12 schools, asserting that they include prohibited topics like crt and social emotional learning. in all, the ban included more than 40 percent of the textbooks that had been submitted for review. the review was conducted to see if the textbooks were in line with a 2021 law that prohibits inclusion of “the theory that racism is not merely the product of prejudice, but that racism is embedded in american society and its legal systems in order to uphold the supremacy of white persons. the law also prohibits references to the 1619 project, the new york times work that highlighted the role of slavery in the nation’s founding. the fde also wanted to know whether the material contained ‘culturally responsive teaching as it relates to [critical race theory]’ and “social justice as it relates to [critical race theory].’ finally, they asked: does it solicit “social-emotional learning?” (ballingit, 2022). initially the specific reasons for why these books violated that law were not made public. however, upon requests from the public and florida’s largest teacher’s union, some details were revealed. almost 6,000 pages of documents were shared and showed that the books were overwhelmingly consistent with state law, and the issues cited by reviewers seemed to be more about personal opinion than actual violations. one reviewer said a book volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 141 was biased because it presented climate change as a fact, rather than an opinion. this, of course, flies in the face of science. using an overly broad definition of crt, one reviewer flagged a textbook because it included the statement “the united states has eradicated neither poverty no [sic] racism.” that reviewer claimed the book had an “emphasis that racism is embedded in american society,” which allegedly violates the 2021 law. twenty-four of the books that were banned had even received high marks from the state’s textbook reviewers (ballingit, 2022). more than crt or issues related to racism, the reviewers flagged books that supposedly teach social and emotional learning. the majority of the books that were rejected were at the k-5 levels, where 71 percent of the submitted texts were disapproved (hayes, 2022). florida is not alone in this zeal to ban books. a report from pen america found that 86 districts in 26 states had banned more than 1,100 books from classrooms and libraries, most of which were about black and lgbtq+ individuals (hayes, 2022). classroom surveillance in addition to banning curricula and books, right-wing leaders are attempting to infiltrate the work of educators by proposing legislation that would allow school districts to install cameras in classrooms and record teachers and students. florida is again leading the way. hb 1055, sponsored by rep. bob rommel, r-naples, and rep. mike beltran, r-lithia, states that its goal is to record “incidents” of bullying or inappropriate behavior by teachers or students. in districts where cameras are implemented, teachers would be required to wear microphones while class is in session and parents would have access to a recording if an incident occurred (lowe, 2022). conservative legislators in iowa have proposed a similar bill, h.f. 2177, even expanding it to allow parents to see livestream recordings, which is not included in the florida bill. the iowa bill also requires that cameras be in every public school classroom, whereas the florida bill allows districts to vote on whether they want to do so. educators, administrators and staff who do not have their cameras active and in working order, or who otherwise obstruct the camera’s view would face fines up to five percent of their weekly salary. rep. norlin mommsen, r, claims that bill is to “increase the involvement of parents in their children’s education” (edelman, 2022). volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 142 many are concerned that educators have been fleeing the profession and that fewer people want to become teachers. this is due to a host of factors, including low pay, safety concerns, and pressures during the covid-19 pandemic. educators and teacher’s union leaders are concerned that this type of surveillance would further dissuade people from wanting to teach or keep teaching (lowe, 2022). further, educators see this as an attempt to censor classrooms and intimidate teachers. iowa state education association president mike beranek called the bill “completely outrageous and dangerous,” and national education association president becky pringle cautioned against using public school funding for such measures, especially at a time when schools are struggling to maintain necessary supplies and retain qualified educators and staff (edelman, 2022). school board meddling another tactic in the playbook of right-wing leaders and their supporters today is to interfere with local school boards. according to ballotpedia, a website that tracks u.s. elections, conservative activists have tried at least 85 times to recall 225 school board members in 2021 alone, a record for a single year. only 23 states allow voters to recall school board members, so that makes these numbers even more troubling. right-wing activists attempted to recall school board members in 11 districts in wisconsin in 2021, although only one reached the ballot. this was an attempt to recall four of seven school board members. some 60 percent of parents voted to retain the school board members, but the brazen attempt to meddle with elected officials for a political agenda is scary (graham, 2021). opposing sensible pandemic protocols the same groups that are leading the attacks on curricula and educators have also peddled disinformation and lies about covid-19, which in turn has resulted in opposition to common sense and science-based safety recommendations from the centers for disease control and prevention, the american association of pediatrics, and many other experts. florida again was a leader in these efforts, with governor ron desantis supporting the state’s department of education in fall 2021 to withhold funds from two districts (alachua and broward county) that imposed mask mandates. state education commissioner, richard corcoran, invoked the parents’ rights argument in a statement announcing the decision, claiming “they know what is best for their children” (mervosh, 2021). in february 2022, however, desantis said he supported a different but equally punitive approach: allowing volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 143 parents to sue school districts over covid protocols. he urged the legislature to allow “any parent whose kid was illegally forced masked this year in florida, in any of those districts, they should have the right to sue if their kids have any negative effects of it” (ceballos, 2022). governors in texas, arizona, oklahoma, iowa, south carolina, tennessee and utah also imposed bans on school district mask mandates, and arkansas attempted to do so but the effort was overturned in court (durkee, 2022). who is responsible? while right-wing media has made it seem as though these assaults on education and educators are the work of an organic grassroots movement of parents, but the reality is quite different. it is clear that these efforts are calculated and orchestrated by radical groups, many of which are well-funded and influential. they use social media to spread disinformation and garner support for their socalled parents’ rights initiatives. according to tim chambers, whose work is focused on monitoring and countering disinformation on the internet, "the anticrt effort is textbook disinformation, manufactured and funded by right-wing think tanks and boosted by programmatically targeted ads to inflame users. it is from well-funded orgs working with suspect local groups on the ground, and with the ever-present background push from fox news on broadcast and cable behind it all” (graham, 2021). many of the anti-crt efforts were influenced by “model” legislation promoted by conversative organizations, including the heritage foundation, citizens for renewing america, and the american legislative exchange council. another group that has spearheaded the efforts to unseat school board members is no left turn in education. founded by elana yaron fishbein, a woman who objected to her children’s philadelphia school including lessons about racism after the murder of george floyd in 2020, the organization now has chapters in many states where it offers resources for parents to “expose the radical indoctrination in k-12 education.” parents defending education, based in virginia, has a similar aim, even encouraging parents and activists to “document examples of woke indoctrination” and then adding them to its “indoctrination map.” samples include schools that encourage equity and anti-racism. similarly, also in virginia, the organization fight for schools opposed crt and pushed for a school board recall in loudon county in 2019. co-founder ian prior claimed to be simply a concerned father but in fact had previously served as spokesman for attorney general jeff sessions and is a long-time republican strategist. another leading volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 144 voice in opposing anti-racism education is citizens for renewing america, which was founded by president trump’s former budget director russell vought. it provides a toolkit for activists to oppose crt, even including the note "whether crt is currently in your school system is mostly irrelevant to the purpose of this document.” other supporters of these groups include long-time wealthy conservatives, including the koch family and the devos family (murphy, 2021). in florida, the push to review and then ban textbooks has come in large part from the florida citizen’s alliance, which critics say is a “fringe, right-wing group” that has expressed anti-lgbtq views. among its supporters listed on its website is florida oath keepers. some of the members of that group have faced sedition charges due to the january 6, 2021 insurrection at the us capitol. another group that has supported the book bans and the don’t say gay bill is the conservative moms for liberty. one member, chris allen, volunteered for the review of math books (murphy, 2021). another tactic these groups use is to reward parents to “catch” educators violating new laws about teaching anti-racism. for example, moms for liberty, which operates in 35 states, offered a $500 reward in new hampshire for the first person to report a teacher violating its laws about teaching anti-racism (murphy, 2021). effects of the attacks on education and educators as previously mentioned, these efforts have an impact well beyond the actual targets. students overwhelmingly want to learn about the topics that are being banned or minimized. likewise, educators believe these issues to be a critical part of civic education. research is clear that failing to provide safe spaces for lgbtq youth in schools has a tremendously detrimental effect. usa today spoke with 10 students who identify as lgbtq in states where legislation like florida’s “don’t say gay” bill has been proposed. these youth feel angry, disgusted, and scared that they will face even more discrimination. the trevor project found that youth in schools that are more affirming for lgbtq individuals have almost 40 percent less odds of attempting suicide than those in schools that are less welcoming (stanton, 2022). educators are fearful of teaching anything that might get them into trouble, hence are avoiding important topics that youth need to understand. when educators fear they will face sanctions for teaching what they know to be historically, sociologically, and psychologically accurate, the chances of a continued volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 145 whitewashed approach to race are elevated, if not inevitable. further, in recent years there has been a sharp increase in actual threats against educators and school boards. school board members in virginia received death threats. teachers in california and texas reported being physically assaulted because they wore masks. a group of men in arizona attempted to abduct an elementary school principal because they opposed the school’s covid-19 policies. there was even a social media challenge that encouraged students to slap their teachers and share the videotapes of the assaults. protestors in san diego took over a school board meeting, forcing their way in and declaring themselves the new school board (murphy, 2021). a mother in texas ripped the mask off a teacher’s face while a father in california verbally harassed a principal then physically attacked a teacher who tried to intervene. a survey conducted by the american psychological association’s involving almost 15,000 school personnel from june 2020 to june 2021 found that many had experienced harassment during the covid-19 pandemic. fifty-nine percent of teachers, 58 percent of administrators, 48 percent of support staff, and 38 percent of school psychologists and social workers reported some type of victimization at work. the most likely to experience physical aggression were support staff, which included school resource officers, aides and bus drivers. in all likelihood these numbers are an underestimate, since the time period included when most schools were operating remotely due to the pandemic. although students were most frequently the perpetrators, the survey found that parents were responsible for a sizeable portion of verbal aggression, with 42 percent of responding administrators and 29 percent of teachers saying they had been verbally harassed by a parent. in written responses, educators expressed how parents had rejected requests for students to wear masks and berated them for calling home to check on a student who was not completing assignments, among many other examples (kamenetz, 2022). these attacks not only show children that violence is the way to solve problems, but they also inculcate a lack of trust in and respect for educators and staff. further, the continued assault on public schools threatens the very core of the country’s democracy. critical pedagogy is one of the hallmarks of peace education, which aims to teach youth how to create a more peaceful and just world. limits on what teachers can do in the classroom work against the promotion of peace. as horace mann stated, “public education is the cornerstone of our community and our democracy.” lose this and we become not a nation but a series of towns filled with people who make decisions based solely on self-interest. to preserve it, “we need to de-escalate, to remember who we are: neighbors and fellow citizens. and we need to remember what we are arguing about: a piece of cloth designed to keep volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 146 us individually and collectively safe. it cannot become the flag we wave in surrender” (fernandez, 2021). possible solutions one piece of the solution is to crack down on the misinformation and lies that are being peddled by right-wing pundits, activists and parents. in particular, as was mentioned, social media has provided a platform for inaccurate information about crt and other issues that have inspired the “parent’s rights” assaults on education. in october 2021, the national education association sent a letter to social media executives asking them to help end the stream of propaganda on their platforms (murphy, 2021). these online realms are like a wild west, with seemingly anything goes. while censorship is not the answer, legitimate curtailing of outright lies is far from censorship. another option is to work with law enforcement to address violence against educators. in october 2021 attorney general merrick garland announced that the department of justice planned to meet with federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement agencies to discuss how to quell the violence against educators and school board officials (murphy, 2021). the biden administration has also undertaken investigations of the states the imposed school mask mandate bans, a welcome move of leadership (durkee, 2022). further, legal challenges to these laws are imperative. many human and civil rights groups have already filed lawsuits challenging the bans on crt, sel, bills like florida’s “don’t say gay” and more, and it is quite possible these initiatives will overturn those laws. indeed, many political strategists have commented that these laws were never intended to stand up to constitutional muster but rather were about pandering to an ultra-conservative base. additional attempts to ensure that such laws are overturned are essential, not just for educational purposes but for democracy as a whole. andrew spar, head of florida’s education association, explained that a critical challenge is for voters to push for legislative changes. that could include, in part, voting out legislators who have supported attacks on educators as well as supporting those who promote public education and teaching critical pedagogy. spar said, “if giving students a good education is the goal, the rule could be amended to say in part: ‘instruction on the required topics must be factual and objective, and may not suppress or distort significant historical volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 147 events, such as the holocaust, slavery, the civil war, reconstruction, and jim crow” (weill, 2021). although there has also been legislation attempting to limit what colleges can teach (see coward, 2021), it is still troublesome and therefore, educating young voters, possible educators, politicians and others, can help challenge these attacks on public education. this can involve classroom instruction as well as other campus-based programs. importantly, educators in many disciplinary areas need to ensure that their students are aware of what is happening. as educators who teach sociology and criminology, the authors have found that students are not generally aware of these issues but, upon being informed, are moved to take action. finally, those on the political left or in the middle need to stress the hypocrisy behind these attacks. while the notion that “woke” educators are “indoctrinating” young people has resonated with many, an honest review of the many bills that have been proposed and signed into law do that very thing—dictate who can be taught what information and in what way. countering this moral panic with actual facts about what is being taught is imperative—as was true in previous eras noted in this paper—to retain the us’s system of public education, for the good of all. references ballingit, m. 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(2021, august 23). school covid mask rules have sparked parent-teacher violence. we can’t ignore it. nbc news. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/school-covid-mask-rules-havesparked-parent-teacher-violence-we-ncna1277415 finley, laura, luigi esposito, and matthew johnson. "(un)civil war: the current political discourse in america." in factis pax: journal of peace education and social justice 12(2018): 103-122. giroux, henry. (2012, december 17). the war against teachers as public intellectuals in dark time. truthout. https://truthout.org/articles/thecorporate-war-against-teachers-as-public-intellectuals-in-dark-times/ goldstein, dana. (2015). the teacher wars: a history of america’s most embattled profession. new york: penguin random house. goode, erich and nachman ben-yehuda. “moral panics: culture, politics, and social construction.” annual review of sociology 20(1994): 149-171. graham, e (2021, december 14). who is behind the attacks on educators and public schools?” nea today. https://www.nea.org/advocating-forchange/new-from-nea/who-behind-attacks-educators-and-public-schools green, jay and james paul. “political opinions of k-12 teachers: results from a national representative survey (2021, november 16). the heritage foundation. https://www.heritage.org/education/report/political-opinionsk-12-teachers-results-nationally-representative-survey greene, p. (2021, september 29). critical race theory bans are expanding to cover broad collection of issues. forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2021/09/29/critical-race-theorybans-are-expanding-to-cover-broad-collection-ofissues/?sh=556565d05e5d volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 150 hayes, k. (2022, april 22). state education officials release examples of ‘impermissible’ materials in math textbooks. florida politics. https://floridapolitics.com/archives/518442-state-education-officialsrelease-examples-of-impermissible-materials-in-math-textbooks/ hegseth, pete and david goodwin. (2022). battle of the american mind: uprooting a century of miseducation. new york: broadside book/harper collins. howlett, charles and audrey cohan. “loyalty oaths and academic witch hunts.” faculty works: education, 6 (2008): 53-61. hultzen, lee. “communist on the university faculty,” the journal of higher education 21 (1950): 423-429. hunt, jonathan. “communists and the classroom: radicals in u.s. education, 1930-1960,” composition studies 43(2015): 22-42. iverson, robert. (1959). the communists and the schools. new york: harcourt brace. kamenetz, a. (2022, march 19). 6 in 10 teachers experienced physical violence or verbal aggression during covid. npr. https://www.npr.org/2022/03/17/1087137571/school-violence-teacherscovid kimball, roger. (1990). tenured radicals: how politics has corrupted higher education. new york: harper and row. kingkade, t., & hixenbaugh, m. (2021, november 15). parents protesting ‘critical race theory’ identify another target: mental health programs. nbc news. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/parents-protestingcritical-race-theory-identify-new-target-mental-hearcna4991?fbclid=iwar3tu09qg6d9vd8pojqzlwcpdwkn8qk6cxqcgv u527lkphp5j-gs81qlmk8 latts, adam. “the conservative war on education the failed.” the atlantic, november 23, 2021, accessed may 9, 2022 from https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/failed-school-banevolution-conservatives/620779/ volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 151 lowe, d. (2022, january 20). florida bill would allow cameras in classrooms, microphones on teachers. wptv. https://www.wptv.com/news/state/florida-bill-would-allow-cameras-inclassrooms-microphones-onteachers#:~:text=florida%20bill%20would%20allow%20cameras%20in% 20classrooms%2c%20microphones%20on%20teachers,%2d%2d%3e&text=the%20bill%20states%20the%20purpose,by%20a %20teacher%20or%20student. martin, t.t. (1923). hell and the high schools: christ or evolution, which? ms: western baptist publishing co. mervosh, s. (2021, september 10). florida withholds money from school districts over mask mandates. new york times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/30/us/florida-schools-maskmandates.html ocasio, b. (2022, may 9). desantis signs bill mandating communism lessons in class, as gop leans on education. miami herald. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politicsgovernment/article261246872.html pariser, eli. the filter bubble: what the internet is hiding from you. new york: penguin press, 2011 quattrociocchi, walter. “inside the echo chamber.” scientific american 316(2017): 60-63. schrecker, ellen. 1986. no ivory tower: mccarthyism and the universities. new york: oxford university press. stanton, c. (2022, may 9). as ‘don’t say gay’ and similar bills take hold, lgbtq youths feel they’re ‘getting crushed’. usa today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2022/05/09/dont-saygay-lgbtq-youth-reaction/7398468001/ steinberg, stephen. (2022). counterrevolution: the crusade to roll back to gains of the civil rights movement. stanford, ca: stanford university press. volume 16 number 2 (2022): 129-152 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 152 strozewski, z. (2022, january 21). ‘social emotional learning’ becomes the latest battleground in school curriculums. newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/social-emotional-learning-becomes-latestbattleground-school-curriculums-1671698 supreme court rules on communist teachers (2009, november 13). history.com. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/supreme-courtrules-on-communist-teachers weill, k. (2021, june 25). florida guv’s school crackdown is a red scare throwback. the daily beast. https://www.thedailybeast.com/floridagovernor-ron-desantis-school-crackdown-is-a-red-scare-throwback microsoft word ouma ifp v13.1 (1).doc volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 36 volume 13 number (2019): 36-61 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal role of early warning systems in conflict prevention in africa: a framework peterlinus ouma odote and maria nzomo abstract in the last four decades, the international peace agenda has been dominated by debates on conflict prevention. in africa, the post-cold war era has witnessed a shift in emphasis from conflict management to conflict prevention. essentially, the shift is necessitated by the shortcomings of the reactive nature of conflict management approaches. irrespective of the paradigm shift towards conflict prevention, most african countries continue to witness persistent overt conflicts despite the existence of early warning systems. this article investigates why existing conflict early warning and early response systems have not managed to fully prevent conflict in the region in a timely manner. this article makes the case that the short comings of the existing early warning systems are due to a combination of factors including divergent scholarly perspectives and practical policy dilemmas. many conflict early warning systems are reactive, not context specific, and in many cases early warning signs and indicators are ignored. this article suggests an early warning and response framework that would link warning and preventive responses. guided by the view that each conflict has its own dynamics, nature and context, response plans must be developed as part of the early warning system. the framework proposed in this article, lays emphasis on context-specificity and critical leadership and responsibility in early warning and early response. violent conflicts all over the world but particularly africa, have multiplied in complexity and intensity. the conventional paradigm of states going to war with each other has become less common. today, intra-state conflicts are more volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 37 prevalent. since the establishment of the african union (au) in 2002, african countries such as burundi, south sudan, somalia, drc, nigeria, egypt, uganda, south africa, tunisia, ethiopia and kenya, have in various degrees, witnessed persistent overt conflicts. these conflicts are associated with civil wars, wars of independence, secessionist conflicts, national violence resulting from border disputes, poor governance, ethnic rivalry, competition over natural resources, declining economic conditions, and widespread poverty (wallensteen and möller 2003). during the first quarter of the 21st century, sub-saharan africa has witnessed an increase in the number of military interventions as a result of the rising violence across the continent. the armed conflict location and event data project (acled) database (2015) records a dramatic rise from over 3,000 violent events in 2009 to over 12,000 in 2014. much of the impetus for conflict early warning stemmed from the events of the 1990s. for instance, the failure to prevent the rwandan genocide of 1994 followed by the end of the cold war, led to increased scholarly interest in the study of early warning mechanisms as instruments of conflict prevention. many divergent conceptual debates on early warnings have since emerged and have been assimilated into many conflict prevention agendas as well as disaster reduction across the world. the increasing threats of terrorism, especially since the us 9/11/2001 attack; have inspired the rapid interest in the development and advancement of conflict early warning and early response systems. however, while a significant literature on how early warning and early response systems should be carried out exists, there is still limited convergent understanding of how early warning actually happens and how early should preventive interventions be taken. the contending approaches revolve around the fundamental issue that the added value of early warning systems is still unproven. there are two main schools of thought that inform the origins of the early warning system. historically speaking, some authors hold that early warning is of a military origin whilst some ascribe its development to an altruistic frame of reference. pursuant to the first perspective, early warning emerged during the cold war in the broad area of national military intelligence to reinforce and strengthen the anticipation of impending aggression. on the contrary, the second school of thought postulates that early warning has emerged as a system of forecasting threats, largely to anticipate natural disasters calamities such as floods, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. in the wake of the 1980s, early warning was also used for forecasting fiscal situations of the stock exchange. important to note however, is that the emergence of early warning is a direct response to disasters that affected individuals and communities as a whole. for volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 38 this reason, the focal point of early warning embarked on humanitarian issues and also incorporated famine and refugee migration in the late 1980s. the conflict prevention theory holds that conflict does not just happen, that it goes through a cycle of phases, and that preventing the outbreak of overt conflict is possible depending on three assumptions: timely response to manifestations of danger; an all-inclusive, coordinated approach to mitigate the threats to violence; and a comprehensive attempt to transform the root causes of violence. according to this theory it is possible to collect data in order to determine whether a situation is risky and likely to escalate into violence. a second tenet of this theory states that, in situations where clear information of an impending crisis exists, there remains the task of persuading stakeholders to act upon the warning signs in a timely manner. this theory further propagates the prospects of facilitating advanced planning and the early deployment of supplies and personnel, as well as prompting intervention efforts to rescue the situation. conflict prevention requires the identification of both structural and proximate causes of conflict, as well as efforts to avert causes before the outbreak of violence. the championing for conflict prevention does not imply that conflict is undesirable. it just simply means that trying to resolve a conflict after it has happened complicates its resolution and it is costly. the practice of conflict prevention is divided into three stages: structural or long-term; early warning and analysis; and operational. the two major principles of conflict prevention hold that peacebuilding is only sustainable if it embraces core principles of conflict prevention; that preventive action is more feasible (although more complex) in post-conflict environment; and that lessons learnt from post-conflict preventive action must inform and encourage pre-conflict prevention. decades after it was embraced as an international commitment, conflict early warning remains a fragile undertaking with mixed results. while there is little doubt that early warning will continue to require international attention, the lessons of the last two decades do not add up to a successful record. early warning failures revolve around the inability to predict crises beyond the obvious trends. lack of accuracy, ad hoc responses, actionable recommendations, lack of political will and divergence in warning often make the whole exercise redundant even when warning signs are obvious. this article is convinced that with the changing nature of the 21st century conflict trends, calculated responses can be achieved by the rigorous methods entailed in early warning systems. there is need therefore to interrogate the impact and assess the performance of early warning mechanisms in africa with an aim of formulating early warning frameworks that are context-based. volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 39 role of early warning in conflict prevention effective prediction and analysis of impending conflicts should be underlined with some type of early warning-system. proper investigation is in the long run a waste of time and resources if it fails to be acted upon by the decision makers. the thought of a universal early-warning system for conflict prevention is not new. the concept of conflict early warning and early response entails monitoring when violence is about to befall and enhancing well-timed intervention to avert or avoid conflict. in more basic terms, early warning is perceived as data collection and dissemination. for conflict to be forecasted, information about its characteristics is crucial on one hand and the situation at risk on the other hand. early warning is also perceived as the dissemination of information, highlighting the magnitude of data collected. just merely having a regularly-updated database on states at risk of conflict, whose data has been shared among interested parties, is not exhaustive of an early warning system. a successful intervention to conflict is one that is able to contain conflict in its premature phases. it is for that reason that scholars root for a characterization of early warning that denotes specific types of violence rather than just large-scale warfare, which often manifest in the later stages of a conflict. therefore early warning, characterized as a tool for conflict prevention should help to a certain extent, to prevent the outbreak of violent conflict by way of a socalled early response. such an intervention could include a variety of both (military and non-military) intervention by stakeholders, such as states, international organizations or individual intermediaries. the purpose of early warning is to initiate or draw early responses that happen at the latent stages of an anticipated violent conflict, with an aim of averting, lessening, resolving, or changing circumstances that may increase the likelihood of violent conflict breaking out. although the roles of stakeholders were first propagated through the corporate social responsibility drive, the idea has been functional mainly by international organizations operational in development and conflict management. harvard’s global negotiation project supports a way of approaching conflicts which is opposed to looking at conflict from a single side but also from the bigger standpoint of the immediate community which is otherwise referred to as the stakeholders’ perspective (david, david, & martin 2006). the entire linkage of early warning stakeholders and target groups is made up of networks of local volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 40 monitors, trained analysts, journalists and media, intelligence services, diplomatic missions, development agencies, local committees, early warning country coordinators, research institutes, donors, economic actors, and their local affiliates, as well as even the rule of law bodies (suzsanna). the harvard project on negotiation maintains that, early warning signals appear most clearly to those immediately around the disputants (david, david, & martin 2006). these early warning indicators are open source intelligence signals that local stakeholders are more likely aware of than outsiders. nevertheless, it should be explicitly acknowledged that all informants—remunerated or voluntary, third-party or stakeholder—carry their own insecurities to a monitoring attempt, and these insecurities may or may not be compatible with those of the local communities. warning happens when predictive conclusions and a verification to support them are produced and disseminated to various stakeholders. thus warning entails championing for well-timed and proper restorative actions as response options for prevention and transformation before conflict intensifies. this perspective presupposes a consistent, well-timed, and regular practice, in which inputs and decision-making processes about the information that is disseminated are comprehensible and sufficiently flexible to produce well-timed interventions. reality, on the other hand, reveals the contrary, whereby decisions to intervene in situations of impending violence are time and again subjected to concerns over interests or sovereignty of states or are postponed as a result of reservations over who should in fact take action and under whose authorization. in nigeria for instance, early warning program was established in 2003 by the wanep regional office which at the time was partnering with an unstable network of nigerian csos. because of the urgency to institute an official platform for nigeria, a wanep country office was founded in 2002. specific successes of this structure include reinforced response system and production of nigeria incidence and situation accounts for ecowarn as an appendage of the ecowas/wanep early warning system for west africa. a different achievement has been the evolution of election barometer monitoring and analysis system for nigerian elections of april/may 2007, culminating into a letter of cooperation with wanep regional office by the action congress before the elections. in kenya the national council of churches commenced intervention programs/activities in kenya to tackle political conflicts as a result of the multiparty elections. in spite of prosecution and threats from the government, the volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 41 council created peace committees to tackle internal displacement resulting from political violence. the district peace committees acknowledged the influence of the church as they sent early warning reports to the government and the church. the church leaders were able to tackle political conflicts and promote popular participation in the democratic processes because they were held in high regard. their achievements and impact led to the formation of a civil society-based peacebuilding and management commission, which works directly with the igad monitors and district peace committees. the response strategies in africa have involved strengthening the continent’s conflict management organizations. they have been based on the idea that keeping peace requires permanent organizations, not just ad hoc responses. the process of building such an organizational architecture across the continent entailed four elements: defining priorities, allocating resources (human and financial), and constructing both bureaucratic structures and mechanisms and a capacity to create and disseminate knowledge (and hopefully act upon it). in the early 1990s, one of the central challenges was that africa’s regional bodies were generally not geared up to manage armed conflicts; they were underfunded, they lacked personnel, and most had been established to stimulate economic growth and sub-regional integration. moreover, the attempt to refashion these organizations came at a time when armed conflicts engulfed much of the continent: african governments and their external funders were thus forced to try and build effective organizations while simultaneously attempting to stem a significant number of ongoing crises (paul 2013). early warning as a system marwala and lagazio (2011) argue that the preliminary step of conflict early warning is completely intertwined with conflict prevention. in fact, early warning has been held as a tool of conflict deterrence that aids in establishing the likely occurrence of violent conflicts and how to arbitrate and avert these conflicts. early warning denotes a series of activities whose intentions are to accumulate, join together and evaluate records with the sole purpose of discovering and categorizing the preliminary indications of an upcoming predicament prior to explosion. in practice, early warning entails three steps: information gathering (data collection), processing and analysis (detection), translation and signalling (prognosis). volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 42 scholars who have intensively studied early warning make a distinction between two stages in the operationalization of this tool. the first one is that of gathering and evaluating information that may be regarded as characteristic of an impending violent conflict. if the analysis reveals a looming conflict, and that timely response can make a change, the early warning process then assumes a subsequent phase: a warning is relayed to the political decision-makers who should take the necessary action to ensure the violence is prevented. stages of early warning are discussed below: collection of conflict early warning data collection of early warning data is an imperative stage of the entire process. more importantly, data collection enables tracking of an event or events and their effects as well as how these events affect stakeholders. in a similar conception, janie, william & patrick (1999) emphasize that data collection makes up a key element of an early warning system. however, they hold that the “reliability” and “validity” of the data gathered must be observed for any achievements to be met in the execution of early warning systems. the authors recommend that it is a necessity for early warning systems to have the power of being systematic, investigative and must possess the institutional competence to process, calculate and make use of any incoming information. an appropriate early warning system ends up with an assessment that informs a political decision of taking or not taking an action. on a positive note, the wide-ranging toil in and outside academic circles, tied with the information insurgency, has enhanced access to information. mwaûra & schmeidl (2002) are however keen to warn that, easy access to information does not automatically impact on indicators. indicators are determined through comprehensive analysis that categorizes the multifaceted causes that may lead to escalation of armed conflict. today, monitoring of major early warning indicators has not been given due attention. nevertheless, most analysts contend that tailoring early warning around groups of “family” indicators is useful. the figure below shows a graphic display of such an analytical and monitoring framework. figure1: graphic display of such an analytical and monitoring framework root causes used to assess the risk potential of a country necessary but not sufficient causes of armed conflict mostly state-change only slowly overtime embedded in historical /cultural context can be instrumentalized examples are: • ethnic proximate causes can create conditions (with the root causes) armed conflict interplay with root causes closer in time to the outbreak of armed conflict may change overtime often linked to the (in) ability or willingness of a government to cope with a situation examples are: positive intervening factors decreasing the likelihood of conflict example: civil society initiative a r m e d c o n f l i c t volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 43 adopted from mwaûra & schmeidl 2002 chen et al. (2008) have grouped indicators into: “systemic-general underlying, structural, deep-rooted (e.g. economic disparity, historic oppression, high military expenditure); proximatespecific situational circumstances (e.g. increasing insecurity on streets, frequency of political arrests); triggerselectoral fraud, political assassination, new and enforced discriminatory policies.” in early warning, two major elements—root cause and proximate causes are given consideration. root causes include pervasive factors that form the foundation of a people and may form the pre-conditions for violence. according to clark, root causes are a deep-rooted state of affairs that have been passed on for generations, and their change is gradual. root causes are entrenched in a people’s way of life. root causes are hence crucial for the overall evaluation of a country’s risk potential (mwaûra & schmeidl 2002). proximate causes on the other hand are close in proximity to the real conflict and can be the breeding site for armed conflict. proximate causes contribute to a climate favourable for violent conflict or advance its intensity, at times actually indicative of a deeper problem. these are definite situations such as an enlarged income difference, antagonism between ethnic groups, uprisings. as such, proximate causes may transform with time and often follow a government’s capability/failure or readiness/reluctance to correct situations, for instance a government’s failure to put up laws that enhance fairness in the political and economic spheres of an especially ethnically diverse society (mwaûra & schmeidl 2002). volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 44 intervening factors also known as accelerators have a two-fold effect. they can either augment or reduce the chances of armed conflict and augment or reduce the prospects of peace (hence contributing to the intractability of conflict or contributing to conflict resolution). specialists have reached a consensus that aiding and restraining factors to conflict escalation are key to note for anticipation of events that could act as accelerators as well as devising strategies and organizing effective responses. lund on the other hand holds that collection of data and analysis are significant, not only for predicting conflict, but also for devising suitable response strategies for particular conflict contexts. just like mwaûra and schmeidl (2002) lund also advances that early warning calls for accuracy, complete and logical data on conflict which he maintains most early warning responses lack. rupesinghe further recommends that the collection of precise and consistent information in a logical manner is better executed by a well-established network, composed of both the external and internal organizations, where early warning work is decentralized and roles given on the basis of a proper division of labour. regional attempts such as the continental early warning system that was initiated in 1995 by the then african union in addis ababa, were some efforts in that direction (marwala & monica 2011). whereas information gathering is connected to a broad-spectrum of vital categories, early warning analysts are encouraged to begin on a case-by-case foundation, the specific factors, the influence each factor has as well as a classification of the most crucial ones, and the origin. for this reason it is significant to devise a country-specific analytical framework with targeted indicators. analysis of data coming from crisis areas multifaceted structures of investigation are compulsory for scrutinizing conflicts consisting of various actors and problems. with divergent levels of difficulties, every conflict is prone to possess different chronological progressions and results. an understanding of the state of a conflict arises from exploring the background and changes of relationships between opponents. classifying the actors in a conflict is a fundamental move preceding the comprehension of their opinions, interests, and abilities as well as the extent of outside support. the progression of interactions among actors and their social environment can be scrutinized in terms of temporary and enduring changes. a chronological order of events is to be made basing on how the major actors perceive the implication of every happening, particularly in a protracted social conflict (ho-won jeong 2008). volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 45 conflict early warning data takes into consideration two broad types of information—quantitative data (structural, event data, statistics) and qualitative data (narrative/descriptive data/ information). generally, analysts should be able to differentiate raw data (unprocessed indicators) from analytical data (information that has already been set into context). preferably, the center of attention should be on raw data for analysis. however, analytical data can also be used to inform the analytical process or to compare results and theories. early warning specialists strongly advise on a combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods in order to achieve an all-encompassing approach. mwaûra & schmeidl (2002) argue that information must live up to some principles; these principles they argue, include: the information must be welltimed, precise, convincing, consistent and provable. the two authors however warn that standardization is extremely enviable, but very difficult to achieve. nonetheless, employing a set of “family indicators” serves to simplify the task. like-minded organizations are very important in supporting the collection and authentication of early warning information. this allows consumers of the information to judge source reliability and the authority of the analysis. most important to remember is that information (though refined) is not early warning. mwaûra & schmeidl (2002) maintain that information devoid of analysis is as the popular adage goes, “like an orange without sunshine.” analysis helps to fit information into context that further enables the prediction of violent conflict. finally, it promotes devising of case scenarios and response choices that make early warning whole. early warning analysis entails evaluating a number of questions that lead the analyst towards a comprehension of both underlying and apparent concerns rooted in a particular conflict. the major inclination in particular areas of crisis aids in the assessment of the possibility for escape from unfriendly environments. despite the fact that every conflict context is distinctive, indicators can be tailored to enlighten on their linkages in diverse backgrounds. signs are important for the reduction of a complex situation to manageable concrete features and to assign useful issues against which to observe any transformations. not only are the variations of party, aspirations, problem, and approach that illustrate the nature of conflict, but also the styles and effects of opposition. the features determine the conflict approaches but also shape dynamics associated with mutual relations. the planning ought to authorize conflict analysts to discover particular conducts which provoke conflict and maintain the intensification of the conflict. parties in a conflict are often grouped according to different levels of obligation to the fight and capacities to marshal resources as well as their perceptions of each other. volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 46 early response plan there seems to be unanimity that for analysts to establish the sources of conflict, and effectively forecast the eruption of bloodshed and alleviate the conflict, an early warning system ought to include six central systems: data collection; data analysis; assessment for earning or identification of different scenarios; formulation of action proposals; transmission of recommendations; assessment of early response. however, there are reservations as to whether such an ideal model is attainable. despite decades of research and practice, the record of success has been uncertain and the added value of early warning has not been obvious. nevertheless, an early warning system is comprised of three elements: receiving, believing, and taking preventive measures (anna 2006). every approach for the creation of an anticipatory strategy has to be particular on a case-to-case starting point, denoting that it is impossible to devise a ‘one fits all’ methodology. to make such an anticipatory action plan functional would need the harmonization of actions by preventive parties, and the examination and assessment of the effect of the anticipatory action assumed. lund advocates for the designing of a successful prevention strategy which can generally be categorized into three areas: conflict examination (the analysis of the deep-rooted and proximate causes of conflict deterrence and detection of prospective preventive parties), prevention examination (a harmonization of preventive approaches to the established sources of conflict and an initial evaluation as to the potential success of such strategies once put into operation) and preventive action (how to systematize and execute anticipatory action, examination and assessment of the outcomes of such action) (ackermann 2003). it is necessary that communities recognize the impending dangers; value the warning structures available and have a slight idea of how to act in response. instruction and awareness programmes are very vital. it is also crucial that the available risk management preparations are habitually exercised and assessed. the community should be aware of alternatives for safe behaviour, existing escape routes, and how best to prevent destruction and loss of property. coordination of conflict early warning and response is one very problematic yet delicate process. the complexities of the process emanate from the commonly documented reasons of protocol (i.e., who has the command to “lead” a synchronized intervention), impartiality (as many groups do not wish to participate in coordinated action), and reputation (the role assigned to an organization may not produce the visibility that an organization yearns for). in order to avoid the aforementioned challenges, some early warning attempts have volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 47 concentrated on a devolved methodology, where stakeholders convene on a quarterly or monthly basis to share information on activities and on the present conflict situation. this methodology however, necessitates consensus in selecting a convener (who should be nonthreatening) and a group that compares information on activities and conflict dynamics in the region covered (carment & schnabel 2004). assessing the capacity of african early warning and early response architecture in the year 1994, rwanda a small country in the great lakes region of africa, hit the headlines and catapulted onto the international centre stage. retrospectively, the international community has been harshly criticized for its failure to take preventive measures in a timely and effective way to contain the genocide in rwanda, despite the knowledge that genocide was going to transpire. at the core of the debate that has followed this tragedy are the questions: how did rwanda abruptly collapse into a civil strife? what reasons did the international community have for its failure to intervene and prevent genocide in the rwandan situation even after it was evident that genocide was underway? despite the international developments in conflict early warning practice, africa’s early warning systems have been harshly criticized for their failure to look at the future in a predictive fashion. as a matter of fact, the post-cold war africa has earned a negative niche as a region that bears witness to some of the grave humanitarian intervention failures the world has experienced. national and regional security issues are inexorably intertwined in africa. state weakness and the issue of ethnic groupings across porous, colonially imposed borders determine the extent to which instability in one country affects neighboring countries and speak to the need for regional solutions to domestic challenges. during the institution of the oau at the cairo summit, when the heads of states established the machinery for conflict prevention, management and resolution, they intended to endow the continental body with an up-to-date institutional framework for the advancement of peace, security and stability through the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts. the leaders were conscious of the fact that there cannot be substantial and sustainable development in africa in the absence of peace, security and stability. as an amendment to the machinery, the au secretary general, salim ahmed salim says that the ews is seen as being: originally intended at allowing specialists in the field of conflict prevention, the opportunity of predicting and countering crisis situations volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 48 before they get out of hand, or in the very least, allow them the bargaining chip to take corrective action in order to alleviate their negative effects once they are underway (oyom & oshita 2010). the au previously known as the organization of african unity (oau) was formed in 1963 to articulate the interests of african states as members of the international community. the founding of oau was a great triumph for the cause of decolonization. the oau’s charter gave it a wide mandate, and it was intended that the organization would spearhead and coordinate african platforms on issues such as development and cooperation. however, with the settlement of conflict in south africa, the organization suddenly found itself without a common cause. it therefore needed to search for, and articulate a new agenda, if it was not to become irrelevant in the twenty first century. during the cold war, oau conflict management revolved around two approaches. the first was that the oau created a dichotomy between internal and inter-state conflicts. having created this dichotomy, the oau argued that its conflict management mandate applies to inter-state conflicts rather than to internal conflicts. the argument was that the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states precluded the organization from involving itself in internal conflicts in member states. the second policy of oau conflict management was that mediation under the oau was undertaken by committees of heads of state. these committees were appointed ad hoc and reported back to the assembly of heads of state and government (mwagiru 2006). according to the report, the mechanism would be equipped with the “objectives and principles of the oau charter. the principles entail, the sovereign equality of member states, noninterference in the internal affairs of states, the respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of member states, their inalienable right to independent existence, the peaceful settlement of disputes as well as the inviolability of borders inherited from colonialism. it would also function on the basis of the consent and the cooperation of the parties to the conflict” (bliswaro 2013). the continental early warning system (cews) is a structure that is core to the fulfillment of africa union’s conflict prevention, management and resolution mandates. the psc protocol gives the cews a fundamental responsibility for which a carefully developed methodology and process are required: that of anticipating and preventing the occurrence of overt conflict through the provision of information and analysis of the chairperson of the commission. in the fulfillment of his responsibility to advise the psc on potential threats to peace and security in africa, as well as recommend best courses of action, the chairperson relies therefore on a well-functioning, comprehensive and au specific early warning system. consequently, the cews assumes a critical role as regards the ability of key institutions of the union and other pillars of the peace and security volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 49 architecture to perform their responsibilities, particularly the psc, other departments within the commission, the panel of the wise, and the pan-african parliament among others (gomes joão porto & ulf 2013). nevertheless, africa clearly has weak conflict prevention capacity, a situation compounded by the international community’s reservations about substantively contributing to africa’s conflict prevention. considering africa’s capacity constraints, the major question still remains, is african conflict prevention a reality or merely rhetoric? judging from the findings from the different countries, particularly when assessing relations between pairs of neighbouring countries depicts a wide variety of differing experiences in terms of ability to restrain disputes and disruptions and in setting up institutional machinery for managing them. four distinctive categories exist in which conflicts across state boundaries can surface: borderline disputes, battles between communities across borders, joint interventions by outside governments in internal conflicts, and inter-state warfare. borderline disputes the war between eritrea and ethiopia underlines a case in point with terrible human costs when such disputes escalate into major violent confrontations. it serves as a reminder that the best action in other such cases would be conflict prevention. in such a context a conflict prevention formula is likely to be one in which each pair of neighbours agrees to set up a joint commission (with or without a third party mediator such as the un or igad itself) to settle any outstanding counter claims about border delineation or demarcation. one such instance that resulted in some degree of acceptance transferred a territory claimed as ugandan to kenya-but this was accomplished while there was still a single colonial authority ruling both countries. other instances of unilateral “settling” of frontiers by the later colonial powers, such as the haud, are still remembered as a source of grievance. it should be recognized that the existence of disputed enclaves in some cases only threatens to generate open conflict when relations between two governments deteriorate because of other factors (mwaûra & schmeidl 2002). eritrea’s disputed border in the red sea with yemen is one of the only cases where a definitive ruling was made by an international legal body and accepted. but there again the lesson is that such steps could have been taken preemptively before a violent clash had caused loss of life and soured relations. there have been instances of conflict management in such border disputes, meaning in this context that action is taken to prevent a descent into open conflict. volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 50 in one or two instances, it would be more appropriate to talk about inaction: kenya and sudan seemed to have reached an agreement at the top political level not to do anything to disturb (or clarify) the ambiguous status of the ilemi triangle. similar disputes between somalia and kenya were defused many years ago. yet these and many others are instances tacit agreement often exists-one centered at summit or other high diplomatic level as part of a political arrangement. the agreements are not codified nor made public and transparent. nor are monitoring and regulatory mechanisms set up and institutionalized. the eritrea-ethiopia case is a cautionary tale in many ways, but specifically in this context, because a joint commission was in place to seek clarification of the border and to ease tensions that were recognized as building up (thus hardly a case of lack of early warning). the eritrean case study thus makes a point of providing detailed review of the experience of that commission and the failure of it and other mechanisms to achieve what they had been set up to do. this analysis supports a general conclusion that border issues of prevention and management have usually been handled on an ad hoc basis, being taken seriously only after tensions have been built up, and by political dialogue at leadership levels. even though the latter process has chalked up some successes as well as spectacular failures, the lesson would seem to be that processes that are more transparent and institutionalized might be more sustainable, especially if undertaken before tensions mount and while relations are not mutually suspicious (mwaûra & schmeidl 2002). battles between communities across borders conflicts and disturbances between communities living on opposite sides of the border are common in africa. these may involve rustling of livestock or other forms of theft, terrorizing of communities, destruction of crops, smuggling and imposition of illegal levies on trade, and trade in arms. such violent events may be essentially local ones between communities. but because they involve international frontiers, they have the potential to escalate, as a result of some combination of the conflict becoming “ethnicized” or through involvement of government personnel. the implication is that conflicts that might otherwise be managed or resolved by customary, inter-community mechanisms tend to involve local administrators and even foreign ministries and state security services. these conflicts also tend to be dealt with in an ad hoc way, rather than on a pre-emptive and institutionalized basis. sudan and chad have had a joint border commission operating and meeting regularly for many years. this body deals with a wide variety of problems, including encroachment by rebels from across the border and even border demarcation issues. at one time a committee was set up to deal with conflicts across the somali-kenya border, originally reaching out from the kenya volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 51 county of wajir but now extended to other districts of the northeast kenya. this innovative committee involves administrations from the two areas as well as army and police on either side of the border, but also traditional authorities and civilian representatives (mwaûra & schmeidl 2002). joint interventions by outside governments in internal conflicts there is a persisting systematic pattern whereby internal rebel groups operate from neighbouring countries, often with the support of governments. intervention escalates on a tit-for-tat basis. these tendencies aggravate and amplify the internal conflicts and make them harder to resolve. they also exacerbate tensions between countries and make contested issues between them harder to settle peaceably. indeed, this pattern is often at the root of the chronically unstable and volatile regional security regime that characterizes african countries. although some individual internal conflicts have been resolved, and occasional (but usually shortterm) improvements do occur in bilateral relations, little has been done systematically to tackle this combined problem of internal conflicts feeding off external support from countries whose relations are antagonistic. given this complexity for example, igad could not be expected to come up with an immediate formula for such a fundamental transformation. but it constitutes the only forum where such discussion and imaginative rethinking can take place. the temporary restraint on interference, suggests that the present pattern is not immutable. there are also instances like the agreement between the ethiopian and somalia governments in 1988 that emphasized the mutual advantage in nonintervention. this should be stressed as opposed to the seeming short-run political gains from intervention. peacemaking in inter-state wars in the horn of africa, there had only been one case of inter-state war, the somalia-ethiopia war of the 1970s, until the 1998-2000 war between ethiopia and eritrea. however, one can also say that, despite africa’s conflict ridden image, the horn appears to be the only region in africa where inter-state wars have occurred. so, even if very rare, the wars’ enormous human and political cost and the fact that they have occurred at all mean that it is vital to explore what mechanisms are in place to resolve and prevent them. the eritrea-ethiopia war is of great significance for future conflict resolution in the region, and specifically for igad. a look back to events following the outbreak of war in 1998 shows that there was a delay before initiatives got underway. the world was shocked and did not anticipate the escalation and scale of fighting or its long duration. but neither were there any clearly available mechanisms for stepping in. however, the oau played a critical role, especially through its central organ of the mechanism volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 52 for conflict prevention, management, and resolution (comcpmr). igad itself was unable to register any considerable successes in any of these initiatives. this inertia was perhaps predictable as the war involved two member governments with whom other members had intimate relations. these circumstances raised the issue of whether igad could ever have been an appropriate and sufficiently disinterested third party. even if it had been seen as appropriate, the antagonism between the two countries also imposed strains on the organization itself and generated a paralysis (mwaûra & schmeidl 2002). the constraints facing early warning in africa with almost five decades of practice, early warning systems are facing a myriad of challenges that have grown out of events during those decades. there are several obstacles identified by the literature reviewed in this article. to begin with, the role of methodological frameworks for informing response mechanisms still remains inadequate. experience shows that most stakeholders do not outline or encourage clear approaches for promoting peace in violent conflict situations. the lack of these kinds of calculated structures provides room for incoherence and inept responses. early warning is dependent on appropriate prediction of the possibility and magnitude of an underlying conflict rising into violence. delays are a characteristic that jeopardize the performance of multifaceted systems. it takes time to measure and report information. it takes time to make decisions. and it takes time for decisions to affect the state of a system. delays may lead to “counterintuitive behaviors or to striking differences between shortterm and long-term behaviors. two main types of delays are usually considered in the literature on dynamic systems, material delays and information delays.” the first one concerns the delay in the flow of material objects. take for example the time required to set out a un peacekeeping force on the ground once the resolution has been made. the contingents from countries that play part in the peacekeeping force must be gathered, and afterward transferred to the site. all these take some time and often impact negatively on the mission’s success. more difficult is the type of delay that has to do with communication, views and attitudes. the process of getting information from the crisis area for instance takes time to reach the media. also it takes much time for the government to reach an agreement on a viable humanitarian response. information delays may play a key role in circumstances where several stakeholders are present, and operating in correspondence with one another. the absence of appropriate information of the other stakeholders’ interventions and an imprecise assessment of their aims, may result in disastrous outcomes (gallo 2012). volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 53 for a long time, conflict early warning machineries have not necessarily meant success in conflict early response. the relation between warning and response still remains inadequate. according to evans, as cited in kuwali & viljoen (2014) “if early warning alarm bells do not generate enough response they might as well not be rung at all.” there continues to be a crack between early warning and early response which some have ascribed to various aspects, among them malfunction of early warning designs, a detachment between the early warner and policymaker, lack of political will and bureaucratic blockages and interests. this is as a result of reduced excellence of early warning and undeveloped mechanisms and response strategies, alongside a variety of individual, institutional and political weaknesses that impinge on decision making. if initially the challenge was early warning is not wired to the bulb, presently it could be the existence of countless bulbs opposing each other or not operational when need be. a primary assessment of conflict early warning and early response mechanisms is that in as much as delivering caution is somewhat unproblematic, pulling together an early response is not. this censure has been pointed primarily at large-scale systems. george and hall as cited in bock (2012) refer to this as the “warning-response problem.” indications in point of fact show that the “warning-response problem” is being resolved, at least in part, with large-scale systems. international institutions and governments are by means of satellite images trailing huge massacres and causing international anxiety to end them. for example, the united states agency for international development (usaid), with support from google earth and the united states holocaust memorial museum, trails the detrimental behaviour of the janjaweed militia in darfur, sudan. in the same way in southern sudan, the satellite sentinel project merges field accounts and satellite descriptions with google’s map makers for an early warning system of massacres. contrastingly, carment and schnabel (2004) argue that the challenges of linking early warning to response are abundant and come about as a result of what is time and again dubbed “lack of political will.” unloading the key components of political reluctance to act is the first move towards building approaches to tackle the problem. countering these challenges is a difficult task and conceivably an unrealistic mission. it calls for realistic and rational responses to deal with the lack of political will to take action. the lack of political will has meant that conflict anticipation has been ad hoc and inept. obtainable literature mainly documents the incidents of ‘missed opportunities’ and centers minimally on linking the warning-response gap. there is a figurative association between early warning and early response that calls for the improvement of approaches that match up with institutional mandates, competencies and machineries. the lack of political will has often been acknowledged as the principal factor volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 54 hampering both inter-governmental and regional organizations from acting resolutely in the early days of conflict spiral. unlike ngos, governmental organizations have a higher threshold to wait before acting upon signals. there are political sacrifices implicated with identifying and evaluating early warning signals. political misunderstandings within organizations; incompetent and ineffectual interventions and principles such as nonintervention and sovereignty are some of the obstacles that reign. even an influential international security apparatus such as the un security council is still not proficient enough to discover impending disasters and act in response to early warning. towards an action oriented early warning framework it is a sign of the times that there is renewed interest in studying the lessons learned from intervention in early warning. lacking an agreed-upon strategic paradigm, decision makers find themselves needing both a conceptual compass and a means for relating different types of conflicts to the kinds of early warning interventions that may be relevant. all too often, the early warning debate has been the disconnection between early warning and response. however, the threats and opportunities of the 21st century demand that increased attention be paid to practical questions about how to design and implement effective prevention strategies—beyond identification of warning signs, a system should be put in place to address the question of when, how and who should take preventive actions. in an effort to clarify what is required for successful early warning systems, we discuss the following key elements of a successful early warning framework: context-specific early warning frameworks preventing overt conflict continues to be severely constrained by systemic disconnect between early warning and early response. one way this could be addressed is through having a contextualized conflict early warning framework that would help to predict the outbreak of overt conflicts. an early warning framework is a crucial part of the efforts to engage in conflict prevention measures. we believe that early warning frameworks should aspire, explicitly or implicitly: to clearly identify the structural, proximate and triggers of conflict; identify the conflict related signs and indicators and the most preferred operations that best deter the signs and indicators from escalating into violent conflict (dessler 1991). one of the challenges with a framework of this nature is that signs and indicators can only be identified within a single context since conflict analysis volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 55 is also only possible within contextual boundaries and with respect to a specific conflict’s nature and dynamics (ho-won jeong 2008). there is no one-size-fits-all approach for conflict early warning, and as much as the tasks of an intervention may vary, the contexts are specific. consequently, the process of developing certainty with regard to what signs and indicators are, who should act and when requires some comparison with what happens in different situations. even though each case must be interpreted independently, comparisons ought to be made with other regions in the world so as to develop full certainty that the identified indicator is really a pointer to a possible occurrence of conflict (sriram & wermester 2003). a framework that takes into consideration this strategic adaptability to particular contexts, greatly facilitates strategic planning and operational coordination among different organizations: international and local, civilian and military, official and private. critical leadership responsibilities we know too well that without several critical components—from resources and authority to international support and legitimacy an intervention may falter or fail. earlier early warning frameworks tend to be silent on these types of responsibilities within intervention activities, thereby disguising or even entirely hiding the responsibilities. by highlighting critical leadership responsibilities, early warning interventions could be more effective. elies, iglesias & yeo (2010) argue that the duty to act rests in the hands of policy makers, whereas the scrutiny of information, knowledge, and indicators as well as early warning is vested in the hands of policy analysts. the conversion of information from analysis to policy can be sustained by the activities of civil society groups, lobbyists and other players. as a matter of fact, there is an additional significance of those bodies and organizations that put on various hats — supplying both assessment and back up associated with early warning. the present third generation of early warning systems now relies on and support home-grown initiatives in early warning and early response. for example, due to local efforts in ambon, indonesia, the first early warnings of conflict go to the local community leaders (in the case of ambon, the rajahs) who use the information to forestall and prevent violence in the community through mediation. whereas development associates are more and more dedicated to state building, their methodologies do not satisfactorily replicate the need to assist volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 56 government institutions, while nurturing state-society affairs. they have not moved beyond technical institution building and capacity development to hold up wider political discourses and courses of action. state building attempts are inclined to center on the executive at central level, with a smaller amount of aid for the legislature, judiciary and decentralized administrations. assistance is often concerted on formal institutions and traditional areas of intervention such as election support, public sector management and service delivery, while support to civil society organizations in order to foster free and fair political processes, domestic revenue mobilization or job creation is left behind. this work argues that early warning is far wider, deeper, and more encompassing and involves a far greater array of actors, activities, levels of society, links between societies and time horizons than the dominant practice recognizes. it involves nongovernmental organizations (ngos) and civil society. it involves religious actors, who are all but ignored in most current thinking on early warning. it involves combating inequalities that are embedded in the global structures of power and wealth. not only is the broad range of these players, practices, and periods crucial for achieving sustainable peace, each is linked to others through cause and effect, for better or for worse. effective early warning system, it follows, aims to strengthen these ligatures of interdependence, accenting, deepening, and synchronizing them, and linking them further with the efforts of governments and international institutions and with the broad project of building a just peace in and between societies. this article suggests a bottom-up operational framework that could be domesticated in different conflict contexts as indicated in the figure below: volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 57 volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 58 conclusion when passing judgment on the effectiveness of early warning system, we need to be conscious that the whole subject is still a major work in progress-especially since it did not begin to boom until the end of the cold war. the experience over the past decade has provided some important lessons that assist in structuring a practicable mechanism not destined for collapse from the beginning. the key point so far is that it may not be the notions of early warning and conflict prevention that are flawed per se, but potentially our relevance or failure thereof. we can distinguish failures associated with early warning’s technical features (information collection and analysis), its institutional features (communication channels and decision-making processes), as well as its response side. failures at the response side of conflict avoidance not only tend to be associated with technical or institutional constraints but also to situational and political conditions (mwaûra & schmeidl 2002). long-term security is process-based, different from being a short-range, deliverable product. dedicating concentration to the process is paramount because it shapes the building blocks of trust, a vital precondition for all conflict resolution dealings. in the context of interstate conflicts, process obtains even greater impact because of the psychopolitical dynamics implicated. to overcome negative feelings and perceptions so that structural issues can be addressed, protagonists have to develop trust in the process and in those who guide it. whether security is being sought in a troublesome environment, or as a conflict deterrent action, it is a process that is based on agreements, trust and cooperation between various subdivisions of society at the local, national, and regional levels. there are two viable ways to tackle the disparity between early warning and early response. early warning systems must be: (a) “built back-to-front. to augment the possibility that the suggestions would be followed, the early warning systems must openly employ the assistance and, furthermore, the capacity of the decision makers. unless, this is accomplished, then it will make a small difference how much is devoted in the correctness of the mechanism; (b) built as a satellite around particular conflict hindrance machineries in so doing directly connecting warning with concrete response initiatives. the system should not be built in seclusion.” (austin, martina & nobert 2004). to overcome the disparity between conflict prevention theory and practice, prevention needs to develop into a round the clock specialized and governmental venture. a significant feature that will direct this obligation is to deal with the urgent need to actively get involved in crisis prevention. in particular, concentration should be aimed at advancing all the major actions volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 59 entailed in the prevention process, from the identification and projection of when, why and where conflict will explode to how to mediate. there is need for conflict early warning systems to integrate, at different stages of the warning process, different groups of stakeholders involved in governance so that when particular occurrences are conveyed such actors or groups are automatically set off as part of a wider response strategy and therefore protect the warning from vanishing on transit as it moves from the warning room to the decision makers at the top. this type of organization would have been useful in a situation like kenya where the national government was warned about the looming post election violence of 2007/8, but the information did not arrive to others who could have taken action where the government did not. the underlying principle behind the development of early warning systems for instability in general and conflict and crises in particular lies in the acknowledgment that it is simple to power international events in their initial phases, before they become more hostile and less controllable. such systems, while in their formative years, hold promise of providing early enough warning so that policy makers can lay down, standardize, and fine-tune their strategies so as to be at the forefront of events. this work affirms that the context should serve as the first point of reference, and that knowledge of local political economy realities is important, yet they neither carry out regular and systemic assessments, nor methodically distribute the ones they have carried out, nor do they necessarily use the analysis to inform their programming. on the contrary, international stakeholders still use pre-packaged programming rather than modifying assistance to fit local realities as suggested by the framework in this work. references ackermann, a. (2003). the idea and practice of conflict prevention. journal of peace research, 40, 343-344. anna, m. (2006). early warning and early response: conceptual and empirical dilemmas. netherlands: european centre for conflict prevention. armed conflict location and event data project, conflict trends (no. 36) realtime analysis of african political violence, april 2015. volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 60 austin, a., martina, f., and nobert, r. (2004). transforming ethno political conflict: the berghof handbook. allerechtevorbehalten: springer fachmedien wiesbaden. biiswaro, j. (2013). the role of regional integration in conflict prevention, management, and resolution in africa: the case of african union, brasilia. retrieved july 20, 2018 from http://funag.gov.br/loja/download/1038role_of_regional_integration_in_conflict_prevention_management_and _resolution_in_africa_the.pdf bock, g. (2012). the technology of nonviolence: social media and violence prevention. mit press. carment, d., carment, d., and martin r. (2006). peacekeeping intelligence: new players, extended boundaries. routledge. carment, d., and schnabel, a. (2004). conflict prevention from rhetoric to reality: opportunities and innovations. new york: lexington books. chen, h., edna, r., joshua s., andrew. s., and boaz, g. (2008). terrorism informatics: knowledge management and data mining for homeland security. new york: springer. dessler, d. (1991). beyond correlations: toward a causal theory of war. international studies quarterly, 35, 3. elies, s., iglesias, s., and yeo, h. (2010, may 20-21). early warning systems in minority conflicts: a framework for developing regional responses. singapore: asia-europe foundation. gallo, g. (2012). conflict theory, complexity and systems approach, systems research and behavioral science syst. retrieved july 20, 2018 from wiley online library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) doi: 10.1002/sres.2132. gomes, j.p., and ulf, e. (2013). africa’s new peace and security architecture: promoting norms, institutionalizing solutions. ashgate publishing ltd. ho-won, j. (2008). understanding conflict and conflict analysis. los angeles: sage. volume 13 number (2019): 28-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 61 suzsanna, k. civilian conflict management: the role of scenario building in the practice of conflict management. kuwali, d., and viljoen, f. (2014). africa and the responsibility to protect: article 4(h) of the african union constitutive act. london: routledge. marwala, t., and lagazio, m. (2011). militarized conflict modeling using computational intelligence: advanced information and knowledge processing. london: springer-verlag. mwagiru, m. (2006). conflict in africa: theory, processes and institutions of management. nairobi: centre for conflict research. mwaûra, c., and schmeidl, s. (2002). early warning and conflict management in the horn of africa. eritrea: the red sea press. oyom, c., and oshita o. (2010). governance and border security in africa. lagos: malthouse press limited. paul, w. (2013). war and conflict in africa. john wiley & sons. sriram, c., and wermester, k. (2003). from promise to practice. strengthening un capacities for the prevention of violent conflict. boulder: lynne rienner publishers, inc. wallensteen, p., and möller, f. (2003). conflict prevention: methodology for knowing the unknown. uppsala peace research papers no.7. sweden: department of peace and conflict research uppsala university. microsoft word 2. ifp v 16 owais and majeed.docx volume 16 number 1 (2022): 95-104 www.infactispax.org 95 volume 16 number 1 (2022): 95-104 www.infactispax.org issn 2578-6857 aesthetic deprivation in perpetual conflict saeed owais mushtaq faculty department of economics university of kashmir jammu & kashmir mehak majeed faculty department of economics islamic university of science & technology jammu & kashmir dhaarmehak.scholar@kashmiruniversity.net abstract the decades of persistent and protracted conflict amid despair hopes become structural in nature. it permeates into the normal life-course of people making the common masses unaware of its destructive and long-run negative impacts. the survival becomes a priority and people tends to be insensitive towards innate volume 16 number 1 (2022): 95-104 www.infactispax.org 96 feelings associated with the aesthetic sense. once people are accustomed about the loss of aesthetic sense especially in the stark presence of aestheticism it proves its presence as a structural problem creeping into systems of various kinds. the current essay is a novel attempt to associate the loss of aesthetic sense to continuation of structural conflict. the study is based in the low-intensity conflict region of jammu and kashmir, india. the region presents a peculiar case of aesthetic environment called “heaven on earth” amid the infamous “most militarized zone in the world”, and reports some instances of people to support the conflict-aesthetic travesty. key-words aesthetic; kashmir; peace; violence the purpose of human life has been associated with the attainment of what is thought of to be and sought-out by an individual looking at his life-course. the experience with the broadly fulfilled life is loosely associated with a happy childhood, followed by a constructive adulthood, rewarding middle-age and a gratifying old age. the attainability of all these phases of life however demands the basic prerequisite of peace which synonymously resonates with the absence of conflict, violence and fragility. loosely any avoidable potential or perceived suffering is defined as a form of violence by galtung (1965). this also violates the basis of the capability approach to life. the modern-day democratic regimes are set with the aim of enhancing the wellness of human beings residing within the national systems. the same is intended to be attained by uplifting and enhancing the human capabilities through multiple and simultaneous policy interventions. however, the 21st century world has come to become a mosaic of political and economic conflicts affecting the development process of human and infrastructural capabilities pan globe in different degrees. the lack of peace across various pockets of the world makes generally increases the resilience of the people and making them insensitive in particular towards the importance of aestheticism towards the attainment of a fulfilling life. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 95-104 www.infactispax.org 97 the latest and current academic interest in peace and conflict studies has been towards the understanding of environment-peace nexus processes. this stand of literature sheds important light on the role of environmental integrity in the creation of sustainable peace. the fundamental axiom on which the premise of this branch of literature is based on the need for a durable peace process across the world in order to endeavor upon the capable, progressive, productive and attainable lives of people across the globe (tirrell et al., 2021). the current study is a novel attempt towards the understanding of a similar aspect by discussing diminishment and loss of aesthetic life due to the normalization of violence and fragility in the daily life of commoners. the essay in focused in the region of jammu and kashmir which happens to be one of the most beautiful, aesthetic and scenic places of the world so much so that it is termed as “heaven on earth”. tragically, this trait is disproved by the fact that, it is also infamously known by the label of “most militarized zone” on the planet, and grounds the most dangerous geo-political conflicts of the modern-day world. such travesty has blurred the sources of happiness among people living in the region. the essay tracing the roots of the conflict to the ‘sale deed of kashmir’ between the colonial british rulers and maharaja gulab singh soon after the collapse of the sikh empire in 1846 in sub-continent, culminating into a low-intensity conflict and trading a unique path of lifelong uncertainty.. the fragility has hampered any sort of durable peace process in the region till date. the essay using some instances of ethnographic case studies highlights the case of loss of aesthetic values among humans as occasioned by presence of violence in a place which otherwise is naturally and historically aesthetic and serene. the main reason agreed upon by the historians behind the ‘sale deed of kashmir’ is economical. the anglo-sikh war in british india had drained the britishers and in an attempt to find some compensation they sold the geographic entity of kashmir to maharaja gulab singh along with the people residing therein (bamzai, 1994). this also helped them to keep a direct eye and an indirect control over the strategically important region of j&k. its borders touched profitable central asia markets, therefore russia, and borders of china. during the colonial rule in india the princely state of j&k was classified in the first-class category. however, the region has had the peculiarity of having a hindu ruler ruling over a muslim majority subjects. on the eve of independence in 1947, while it was expected of j&k to join pakistan (as explicitly stated by menon (1955), the maharaja given the size, status, prestige and international borders of his territory was hoping for a separate and volume 16 number 1 (2022): 95-104 www.infactispax.org 98 independent existence (rai, 2004). the indecisiveness of maharaja, popularity of sheikh abdullah as the people’s leader and the actions taken by the independent nations of india and pakistan took a course of events: wars, and a line of control was eventually drawn between india and pakistan. the region of kashmir got divided into three parts, (i) pakistani part of kashmir, (ii) indian part of kashmir and (iii) chinese administered aksa-i-chin region. sheikh abdullah was the leader of secular national conference party. soon after drawing the line of control he was made the prime minister of j&k (lamb, 1991). the political map of j&k as is today, has always been disturbed and fragile. a number of events took place and sheikh abdullah was removed as the prime minister of j&k on the reason of conspiring against the union of india government. following a series of unexpected and unfortunate political events, the last nail in the coffin for durable peace of the region was hammered in by the elections of 1987 (snedden, 2015). the powerful and dominant national conference was competing against the expansive coalition of muslim united front (muf). sources quote the happening of yet another election rigging at a large scale in favor of national conference supported by indian national congress at the centre. some member and workers of muf group decided to take up arms against the government of j&k and india . it was in 1989 that the outbreak of violence and high intensity conflict took place. since then the dynamics of conflict, fragility and uncertainty has changed. with time, situation in kashmir transformed from high intensity militancy years to wide popular uprising to new age guerilla warfare to a situation of relative calm and concord. based on the sequence of the historic events the region of j&k has been classified as a low intensity conflict zone (lic). the defining characteristic of a lic include 25 to 1000 conflict related deaths over the duration of the conflict. a confrontation that in nature is essentially political-military confrontation and one of the parties in the conflict is the state. most often a lic is an ideological battle fundamentally political in nature. the kashmir conflict qualifies for all these characteristics (satp, 2021; uppsala 2021). in the political and ideological battle between the two groups the peace of the region and aesthetic values of the locals have been compromised making life difficult. the social history of j&k bears witness to the mutual co-existence of different communities in the region. despite the presence of autocratic and tyrannical regimes for centuries in general and conflict, fragility and uncertainty volume 16 number 1 (2022): 95-104 www.infactispax.org 99 in last three decades in particular, people at the community level have always shown a high need and regard for peace focusing on the ordinary business of life in a mutually reinforcing way. this foundation of religious tolerance and brotherhood in kashmir has been laid steadily by muslim sufi and shavaite hindu saints preaching the basic philosophy of religious and social humanism. this spirit of unity and coexistence has been referred by some as “kashmiriyat” and has a fundamental basis of aestheticism motivating the peaceful coexistence of kashmiris despite the differing religious affiliations (rafiqi, 1972). the sufi tradition in kashmir has fostered a social system of ethno-religious traditions whereby people predominantly follow the mixed social customs. the people of the region are known to follow and apply the sufism principles in their ordinary lives basing aestheticism at the core of their belief system. the aesthetic spirit has further been nurtured by the geographic factors. living in a valley abound in aesthetic elements like calm mountains, lakes, rivers, fields, dells and passes, the people of the region have always had a close association with nature, drawing inspiration from the same. people of all ages have been visiting different parts of the region with religious and tourism motives both reinforcing their innate link with the nature. there is no kashmiri who hasn’t spent the least of a night in the meadows of pahalgam and trekked through the cliffs of snow clad gulmarg. the wish to breathe in the tranquil and peace of the high passes to ladakh is inborn in every resident of the soil. the basic instinct of every kashmiri can be associated with closeness to nature and an instinctive desire for durable peace. however, the strategic geographic location and shrewd political systems rampant over time have never allowed for a longevity of durable peace in the region. from exploitative regimes to selfish leaders the region has witnessed the worst of political systems. while the whole world confides in the greater benefits of democratic regimes, the region of j&k has been unfortunate enough to bear the un-payable costs of democratic set-up in the indian subcontinent. the establishment of democracy in the sub-continent right after 1947 could never usher in durable peace in the fragile region of j&k. two generations have been born in fragile situations and raised in uncertain times. people have steadily adjusted to the dogged fragility and uncertainty where more than seventy days per year remained affected by curfews and shutdowns from 1989 to 2016 (parvaiz, 2017). shouts of mourning rings the ears in a place surrounded by aesthetic himalayan mountains and meadows. the volume 16 number 1 (2022): 95-104 www.infactispax.org 100 normal lives of the kashmiris have been defined in terms of a normal that is not consistent with the standard global definition of normal and ordinary. the lack of positive peace, as established by sharp (2020), in the region which is associated with the presence of unrest and fragility has led to the decreasing association between the people of j&k and the aesthetic nature which has been bestowed to the region by divinity. the disassociation between the two has degraded the aesthetic sense of the locals taking away from them the inspirations for calmness, peace and tranquility. the roots to the degrading aesthetic sense among the locals of j&k can be associated with the economic and social challenges and hardships faced by the people resulting from the perpetual exploitative and corrupt political systems sowing the seed of discontent among the people and laying the foundation of perpetual fragility. given the unrest and the chaotic circumstances in j&k, people in the region have forgotten to take a moment and connect with the bountiful aesthetic and objects in their surroundings. the people of mountains who are so well known for having the sense of depth and peace rested in their souls have long forgotten to take a moment to just stare at a mountain perpetually within the radius of their eyes. instead, 45 percent (1.8 million) suffer from some kind of emotional distress and an adult, on average, has experienced around 8 traumatic events during his life as reported by médecins sans frontières (msf, 2015). people over time have been exposed to this vulnerability while being completely unaware about the same. the mountain perhaps as old as the earth itself which would otherwise influence a kashmiri to draw the inspiration of perseverance fails to get a bare aesthetic recognition of presence. the back of mind of the locals is so occupied with the meager business of survival and catching the breath every next moment that aesthetics has lost value for quite some time now. the brooks that flow from the windows and lawns of the beautiful houses customarily constructed by the kashmiris no longer inspire them to accept the bounty brought by the course of time with the best possible surprises. kashmir over the time have decreased the frequency of going to picnics due to the uncertainty of expected episodes that may take place. they have especially abandoned the venturing out at night due to regular searches at military check posts stationed at every nook and corner of the region. case study.1 volume 16 number 1 (2022): 95-104 www.infactispax.org 101 as a matter of facts, the brooks flow more often in rural areas over urban areas. instead of cherishing the meaning of life silently sung by the swaying water, the women in rural kashmir use it more often to get rid of garbage. jana, a grandmother in the neighborhood aging approximately 85 years recalls with a number of pauses how the brook much wider in size and cleaner in water with trout fish used to pass through their lawn. the salty-tea prepared in a big copper utensil was the late-noon affair and members from the extended family used to sit by the brook and enjoy the tea, jana sighs. their grandfather she says was specific and particular about the use of the water from the brook. he taught every child to respect the water, protect it and decipher the meaning of life and responsibility from it. “army’ she says came and then everything changed, which is her way of referring to the conflict. jana says with the coming of army, the tea tradition was gone and the brook ended up becoming nothing but the source of getting rid from the waste! case study.2 smiling at a framed picture from her teenage days, a middle-aged lady sighs at the magnificence of carelessness back in time. not the carefreeness of young age but of the social system. she recalls that all the sundays and holidays were earmarked for picnics and outings. given the seasonal magnificence of kashmir no season is off season for leisure and aesthetic purposes! she says that they would enjoy food and tea and watch about tourists; national and international. after the violent turn of conflict, she recalls spending all sundays at home. at times not even in the lawns that are a prerequisite to every kashmiri household. she sighs at the loss of aesthetic sense that anonymized in coping up with fear, death and destruction emanating from conflict! “the feelings of nostalgia become rather a source of regret when they overtake your thought process in the midst of your youth” she says. she recalls how the meaning of her morning view from the window changed and rather neutralized after the outbreak of the conflict towards the end of 1980s. she would wake up to see the rush of tourists, shikara filled dal lake and happy-cheering floating markets. “and then there was no one and it seemed like the dal-lake lost the meaning of its existence and the aesthetics associated with it just vanished like that”, she sighs! case study.3 volume 16 number 1 (2022): 95-104 www.infactispax.org 102 the uncle that sells groceries often complains about the current life jokingly! i recently asked for the reason behind his sweet resentment and he tells me that he was a hiking guide. he used to guide locals and tourists to various trecks across kashmir like sheshnag, harmukh and tarsar-marsar. he confirms that his elated sense of aesthetic realization has long been lost since the end of 1990s when the violent uprising began in the region. he explains the calling from the mountains and the sense of fulfillment. his current life selling groceries looks nothing more than a breathing exercise to him. given his age he is not sure if he can return to mountains but on the arrival of durable peace, he wishes that every young person in kashmir realizes his/her innate calling from the mountains and experience the aesthetic air we are born to breathe in. he laments about the lives of young people who are forced to stay indoors by their parents, of course given the uncertainty and threat of the unknown looming over their heads. “given the fact that we are mountain people, our innate calling is associated with a deep connection with the mountains” he says with a strange ecstasy in his eyes going quite ironically with his sorrowful voice. this confused me for a final calling with his hopefulness and hopelessness with the events which quite resonated with the aesthetics associated with his life! the instances of these events clearly highlight the presence of structural violence and an absence of positive peace in the region of j&k. the petty battle of survival, psychological duress and making the ends meet has robbed the locals of their basic humane value of aestheticism. this combat of survival has decreased the motivation among the people for finding and arriving at an inspirationally peaceful life. the grievances against the state emanated from the conflict has robbed people from demanding any development in general and preserving of environment in particular. the conflict in the region which is essentially political in nature and perpetual in existence has led to the wearing out of the aesthetic elements from the lives of the locals, and diminished their resolute and bargaining power to deliberate a durable peace. the consequences of the perpetuation of the conflict are negative for (a) the people of j&k, (b) the political systems of the parties having stake in this conflict and (c) the durable peace of the south asian region. as such the conflict can be thought of one of the vital roadblocks towards achieving aesthetic life. this could possibly make people accustomed to such a travesty of life and have a long-run effect. reestablishment of the aesthetic values/sense among the locals is the need of hour. however, volume 16 number 1 (2022): 95-104 www.infactispax.org 103 given the conflict has permeated every sphere of life the road to durable peace cannot be guaranteed yet hoped for. conclusion the current study is a novel attempt to open the grounds for debate and discussion in the nexus between human well-being and aesthetic links. in order to initiate the discourse. the present study opens the debate in retrospect by establishing the channel of losing the aesthetic values in the absence of durable peace. the study is based in the fragile region of jammu and kashmir which has witnessed a number of fragility and conflict relates shocks. despite being an aesthetically appealing region and a world-famous tourist destination the people living in the region have lost touch with their surroundings while coping with the circumstances and developing resilience. a situation of perpetual fragility alters the dynamics of people and societies steadily over time without coming in the direct notice. as such, in fragile regions, the study by analyzing the existing string of literature and some case studies from the ground validate the loss of aesthetic consciousness. the study further opens ground for discussing the importance of aesthetics in a stable and capable life. references bamzai, p. n. k. (1994). culture and political history of kashmir (vloumes: iiii) (1st ed.). frontières, m. s. (2015). the university of kashmir, institute of mental health and neurosciences (imhans), 2016. muntazar: kashmir mental health survey report. galtung, j. (1965). violence, peace, and peace research: sage, 6(3), 167–191. https://doi.org/10.1177/002234336900600301 hussain, a. (2019, may). 45% of kashmir’s adults suffer from mental distress: survey | hindustan times. hindustan times. lamb, a. (1991). kashmir a disputed legacy 1846-1990. in roxford books (1st ed., issue 1). roxford books. menon, v. p. (1955). the story of the integration of the indian states. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 95-104 www.infactispax.org 104 longmans, green and co. parvaiz, a. (2017, may). since july 2016, kashmir schools & colleges have been shut on 60% of working days | indiaspend-journalism india |data journalism india|investigative journalism-indiaspend. rafiqi, a. q. (1972). sufism in kashmir from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century. rai, m. (2004). hindu rulers, muslim subjects: islam, rights, and the history of kashmir. orient blackswan. satp. (2021). https://www.satp.org/. https://www.satp.org/datasheet-terroristattack/fatalities/india-jammukashmir sharp, d. n. (2020). positive peace, paradox, and contested liberalisms. international studies review, 22(1), 122–139. https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viy076 snedden, c. (2015). understanding kashmir and kashmiris. in hurst and company (issue 1). tirrell, a., cordero, p., & crane, d. (2021). addressing the environment-peace nexus. peace review, 0(0), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2021.1953802 uppsala conflict data program/international peace research institute, o. (2021). https://ucdp.uu.se. ucdp. https://ucdp.uu.se/exploratory microsoft word ifp v 16 laura finley.docx volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 46 volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 death penalty as state crime: examining the physical and mental health concerns with capital punishment in the u.s. laura finley, ph.d. professor of sociology & criminology barry university lfinley@barry.edu abstract this paper begins with a review of the relevant literature on state crime. it then focuses on the physical health concerns related to the methods used to execute individuals in the u.s. lethal injection is the primary method used today, yet there are a host of issues related to the chemicals used in lethal injections, how states are obtaining them illegally, and the protocol for lethal injections. in addition, while there has been some case law on executing those with intellectual disabilities or those who struggle with mental health, there is no categorical prohibition on executing people who suffer from severe mental illness. this not only violates international human rights laws but because these mental health issues are wellknown to those who oversee executions and the legislative and judicial bodies that volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 47 authorize them, they can also be seen as crimes of the state. the paper concludes with a review of how abolitionist groups should proceed. introduction although the remainder of the global north, or “developed,” countries have abolished the death penalty, much of the u.s. still allows the antiquated practice. yet the death penalty is rife with problems and has been since its inception (amherst college, 2012). state and national lawmakers and courts have repeatedly admitted that these problems exist, yet capital punishment remains legal at the federal level and in 27 states. this form of punishment is not only inhumane but it is in stark contrast to several international human rights treaties to which the u.s. is party. as such, retention of the death penalty can be seen as a form of crime by the state. while arguments can be made about the death penalty as a whole, the focus here is on two specific issues: the continued use of torturous methods and the execution of people whose mental illness prevents them from fully understanding their actions, the courtroom processes, and the nature of their punishment. the state knowingly does both, in contravention of human rights. this paper begins with a review of the relevant literature on state crime. it then focuses on the physical health concerns related to the methods used to execute individuals in the u.s. lethal injection is the primary method used today, yet there are a host of issues related to the chemicals used in lethal injections, how states are obtaining them illegally, and the protocol for lethal injections. in addition, while there has been some case law on executing those with intellectual disabilities or who struggle with mental health, there is no categorical prohibition on executing people who suffer from severe mental illness. this not only violates international human rights laws but because these mental health issues are well-known to those who oversee executions and the legislative and judicial bodies that authorize them, they can also be seen as crimes of the state. the chapter concludes with a review of how abolitionist groups should proceed. state crime according to rothe and kauzlarich (2016), state crime is “an act or omission of an action by actors within the state that results in violations of domestic and international law, human rights, or systematic or institutionalized harm of its or another state’s population, done in the name of the state regardless whether there is or is not self-motivation or interests at play” (p. 102). volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 48 others use the term state-produced-harm rather than state crime, in recognition that there are certain policies and practices that may not be overtly illegal but perhaps should be, given the degree to which they are injurious (tombs, 2018; carlson, 2020). this is because it is the state itself that gets to determine what is illegal. as white (2008: 36) noted, “the authority vested in the state means that it has an intrinsic capacity to do harm.” faust and kauzlarich (2008) applied this lens to explain harms committed, via action or omission, in the local, state and national response to hurricane katrina. many others have reviewed state crime in terms of injurious policies and practices, for instance, the handling of domestic violence (finley, 2017), sexual assault (collins, 2015), and the use of torture (hamm, 2007; collard, 2018). a zemiological or harms focus helps highlight how leaders enact and maintain problematic practices (rothe, 2020), as is the case with the us death penalty. michalowski (2010) observed that state crime often causes outcomes that are analogous to those prohibited by criminal law. murder is illegal; executions are murder, just those deemed justified by the state. but, as iadicola and shupe (1998) reminded us, violence is violence whether it is justified or unjustified, and who gets to determine which types of violence are justified and under what circumstances matters tremendously. ward (2014) observes that state crime is slow violence, in that it may occur out of sight or at least in ways that are rarely publicly acknowledged. nixon (2011) explains that slow violence is “a violence of delayed destruction ... dispersed across time and space, an attritional violence that is typically not viewed as violence at all” (p. 2). this failure to recognize slow violence is accomplished through demonization of those it largely effects, inadequate education, and misinformation. pain (2019) observes that “central to the argument is that slow violence is often invisible, yet the scale of its brutality towards humanity is as great or greater than sudden and spectacular events such as natural hazards. this invisibility is both a manifestation of capitalism and in capitalism’s interest, being difficult to identify and mobilize against” (p. 387). in the case of the death penalty, those most affected are the poor, people of color, and the mentally ill, as those are the groups most likely to land on death row (long, 2020). these groups are already marginalized, and it is all too easy for people and politicians to support executions for these “criminals.” further, because executions are not public, the average citizen has no idea when one is occurring, the nature of the alleged offense, and the protocols of the actual death procedure. many have no idea that other punishments are less costly, more effective as deterrents, less racially biased, and less likely to kill someone who was actually innocent. many are unaware of court decisions that have determined specific issues related to the death penalty to be unconstitutional, even though the supreme court has not deemed it in itself to be so (only issuing a moratorium in 1973 due to the arbitrariness of the process of death sentences being assigned). as such, despite some strong movements toward abolition and continued volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 49 support for it, much of the public still supports the death penalty over life without parole for the same offenders. most americans are unfamiliar with the international human rights treaties that address the death penalty, despite the u.s. being party to them. green and ward argue that state crime should be defined as ‘state organisational deviance involving the violation of human rights’ (2000: 101), which is clearly the case in regard to the death penalty. the u.s. signed and ratified the international convention on civil and political rights. it has also signed and ratified the convention against torture. both of these, as written, call for serious limitations on the use of the death penalty, allowing only for executions in the most severe cases and in spirit, promoting abolition. much has been written about issues with the death penalty, including cost, deterrence, access to counsel, race, innocence and more. the next section focuses on two specific issues that demonstrate the willful ignorance of state leadership and the courts in maintaining the death penalty. first, that the primary method of execution being used today, lethal injection, is inhumane and illegal. second, executions of people with severe mental illness are entirely inappropriate and deeply injurious, therefor are examples of state crime. methods of execution one issue the state is entirely aware of with the death penalty is the problems with the methods used to execute. lethal injection remains the most common method used and is listed as the primary means in every u.s. jurisdiction, yet it is the most fraught with error. a 2012 study by amherst college professor austin sarat and students reviewing 9,000 executions between 1900 and 2012 found that 3% had been botched. the study found that lethal injections were botched in 7.12% of cases, compared to 5.4% involving lethal gas, 3.12% hanging, and 1.92% electrocution. sarat cited the case of romell broom in ohio in september of 2009 as one recent example of a botched execution. efforts to find a suitable vein through which prison officials could inject a lethal dose of drugs were terminated after more than two hours of trying. broom repeatedly grimaced in pain throughout the excruciating process and even attempted, at points, to help his executioners find a vein. finally, ohio governor ted strickland put a halt to the execution and ordered a one-week reprieve (amherst college, 2012). states are increasingly struggling to obtain the chemicals required for lethal injection. since every country in europe except belarus has banned the death penalty, the european union prohibits the export of products, including medicines, used for torture or in executions. the eu was a primary source for lethal injection drugs used in the u.s. many u.s.-based pharmaceutical companies no longer wish volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 50 to provide them for the purpose of execution. since the early 2000s, abbott laboratories, which manufactures the barbiturate anesthetic thiopental (then the first substance used in the three-drug protocol), has objected to its use for lethal injections. while some have done so due to corporate policies regarding ethics and human rights, others are more inspired by the bad public relations that might result if people knew that their products were used for the death penalty. major professional associations including the international academy of compounding pharmacies and the american pharmacists association have adopted policies aimed at the discouragement of using drugs for lethal injection, as have many major medical bodies (berger, 2020). as a result, states are turning to dubious sources or practices to obtain the drugs. some states have begun using compound pharmacies, which mix small batches of drugs for special order. this type of pharmacy has often been found to escape fda evaluations for effectiveness and safety, meaning they are more likely to produce substances that could be dangerous or ineffective. for example, in 2015, the fda and oklahoma board of pharmacy found that an oklahoma compounding pharmacy that had supplied execution drugs for missouri had violated nearly two thousand state guidelines. still other states have gone beyond compound pharmacies to obtain chemicals from overseas. arizona, california, georgia, south carolina, arkansas, and others purchased or tried to purchase thiopental from dream pharma, a sketchy vendor named mehdi alavi who ran dream pharma, which was operating out of a driving school in london. nebraska attempted to purchase drugs from harris pharma, a salesman without a pharmaceutical background operating near kolkata, india. the state even sent $54,400 to this salesperson, even though the drugs were illegal to import and were never received. nebraska had also ordered from a mumbai, kayem pharmaceuticals, as did south carolina (stern, 2015). another tactic was to switch to entirely different protocols for lethal injection. in oklahoma, with sodium thiopental increasingly difficult to get and an execution scheduled for december 2010, officials decided they could no longer avoid finding a substitute. they settled on another powerful barbiturate that was more easily available: a short-term therapy for insomnia called pentobarbital, made in the u.s. by a copenhagen-based company called lundbeck. according to state officials, pentobarbital was ideal “for humane euthanasia in animals.” this was just before the dea began raiding prisons, as these illegal purchases essentially made them drug smugglers. it seized sodium thiopental from prisons in georgia, tennessee, kentucky, south carolina and alabama (stern, 2015). these different chemicals and protocols often resulted in botched executions. in 2014 alone, arizona, ohio, and oklahoma badly botched executions using new protocols, and shortly thereafter these states halted executions (berger, 2020). volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 51 other states are being duplicitous with how and where they obtain their lethal injection drugs. nebraska executed carey dean moore in 2018 using drugs it obtained that violated the distribution policies of the company fresenius kabi. before moore’s execution the company had sued nebraska in federal court, alleging that the state had obtained its drugs through “improper or illegal means.” upon finding out that their products were being used for executions, hikma pharmaceuticals and pfizer inc also demanded that their drugs be returned. the state refused and despite a trial court decision requiring nebraska disclose the records about its purchase, the state stalled until after moore was executed. scott frakes, director of corrections for nebraska, has asked the state to pass legislation permitting the information about execution drugs to be concealed, but the state has not done so and in fact, passed a bill in 2020 requiring greater transparency. governor ricketts vetoed the bill (death penalty information center, 2021b). florida recently passed such a bill, which begs the question: what is going on that the public cannot know the source of your execution drugs? despite deep budgetary woes and crumbling infrastructure, arizona spent $1.5 million in 2020 for 1,000 vials of the barbiturate pentobarbital from an unknown source. the invoice, which was heavily redacted when it was obtained by the guardian, documents that the state ordered four to eight “unlabeled jars” to be shipped in “unmarked” packages to a location to be determined. deborah denno, a professor at fordham university, explained, “states have switched from one drug to another, crossed state lines to get drugs, paid cash and failed to record the payments to keep the purchases secret. all of those actions are violations of state or federal laws, and all of them have ended up jacking up the price of the drugs.” this was the third time arizona had been found attempting to import lethal injection drugs from dubious overseas suppliers. missouri obtained lethal-injection drugs illegally from an oklahoma pharmacy, the apothecary shoppe, that was not licensed to practice in the state. to hide the state’s business with the pharmacy, a missouri corrections official traveled to oklahoma at night with an envelope containing $11,000 in cash to purchase the drugs. later investigations by buzzfeed news found that the apothecary shoppe had admitted to nearly 1,900 violations of state pharmacy regulations. another pharmacy missouri used to supply execution drugs had been deemed “high risk” by the fda because of numerous safety violations (death penalty information center, 2021a). in addition to difficulties with obtaining the drugs that are required to “humanely” execute someone by lethal injection, many states are struggling to assemble competent execution teams. some have little medical expertise and have struggled to properly administer the drugs into someone’s veins (berger, 2020). this also increases the likelihood of botched executions. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 52 “what many people don’t realize, however, is that choosing the specific drugs and doses involves as much guesswork as expertise. in many cases, the person responsible for selecting the drugs has no medical training. sometimes that person is a lawyer—a state attorney general or an attorney for the prison. these officials base their confidence that a certain drug will work largely on the fact that it has seemed to work in the past. so naturally, they prefer not to experiment with new drugs. in recent years, however, they have been forced to do so” (stern, 2015). the case of clayton lockett is illustrative of the problem when administrators experiment with lethal injection drugs and utilize undertrained personnel. it also highlights the fact that officials are aware there could be problems and tend to proceed, regardless. two months prior to lockett’s execution, oklahoma officials had planned to get pentobarbital from a compounding pharmacy. the supplier backed out after compounding pharmacies came under pressure to stop selling the drug for lethal injections, so oklahoma department of corrections officials had to scramble to find a substitute. leading the efforts was mike oakley, the general counsel for the oklahoma department of corrections, who had no medical training no expertise in the area. oakley found it difficult to get people to advise him, eventually turning to florida. florida had used a sedative called midazolam to execute william happ in october 2013. happ remained alert far deeper into his execution than those who were given sodium thiopental or pentobarbital, although it was unclear he was in pain. however, ohio used the same drug a few months later to execute dennis mcguire, who witnesses said “snorted, heaved, clenched one of his fists, and gasped for air.” oakley decided oklahoma would use midazolam as officials in ohio convinced him that mcguire’s struggles were sensationalized by the media and because it was easy to obtain, not because he had evidence that it was effective. oakley retired shortly after, before lockett’s execution. lockett’s attorneys tried to appeal to the supreme court, arguing that oklahoma’s secrecy law denied lockett and michael lee wilson access to the courts and as such was unconstitutional. the court declined to hear the case. the case bounced around other courts and in the interim, locket and wilson got temporary stays while the state scrambled to get the drugs. meanwhile, one judge ruled that oklahoma’s secrecy law was unconstitutional, which the state appealed. the oklahoma supreme court issued a stay. eventually, governor mary fallen announced that she did not recognize the state supreme court’s stay and proclaimed that both lockett and wilson would be executed on the same day, april 29, 2014 (stern, 2015). on the execution day, the paramedic who oversaw the process had never administered midazolam. other things were wrong as well: the saline was packed volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 53 in bags, not syringes, the tubing for the iv was the wrong kind. she had also never executed two people in one night, although most no one has. she forgot to tape down the iv, so it slipped out and she had to readjust it, which made lockett’s arm bleed. when she did so it did not work, so she tried another vein with no success. she knew that protocol was if you could not find a vein in three tries you had to ask for help, so she contacted johnny zellmer, who was a last-minute substitute who had only previously been involved in one execution and that was to check his consciousness and pronounced the time of death. zellmer struggled with the more active participation required of him in this case. when the paramedic noted a bulging vein in lockett’s neck, she requested that zellmer give her needle for the jugular. this is atypical, as ivs in the neck are painful and difficult to place. indeed, zellmer struggled to insert the iv in lockett’s neck while the paramedic proceeded to try to stick him three more times in the arm to no avail. when the needle did go into lockett’s neck it appeared to go all the way through the vein, so zellmer tried subclavian line, in a vein running beneath lockett’s collarbone while the paramedic jabbed him twice in the right foot. still without success, they decided to try to insert the iv into lockett’s femoral vein in his groin. he had now been stuck more than a dozen times and was clearly in pain. they did not have a long enough needle for insertion into the far deeper femoral vein, so decided to use an io infusion needle, which is, “in effect, a power drill, used to bore a hole through bone and into the marrow, and therefore doesn’t require finding a vein.” but they did not even have that, so zellmer determined that they’d make it work with a shorter needle and now, thirty minutes later, finally had the iv inserted. saline should have been flowing through it regularly but only did so when the iv was propped up, a sign to re-start that the paramedic ignored. although two ivs are usually used for a lethal injection, given their troubles so far the pair decided to use just one (stern, 2015). when they dislodged the midazolam, the iv dislodged and the sedative was pumped not into his vein but directly into his tissue. some would go into his bloodstream but not as much as should be, making it less effective as a sedative. lockett was alert and looking around after five minutes, so they waited another two when zellmer said he was unconscious and the paralytic vecuronium bromide was administered. this is intended to block the signals the nervous system sends to the muscles, including the message to breathe. “an incompletely sedated person under a paralytic might look serene, because his face muscles are paralyzed. but he’s suffocating: when he tries to expand his chest and draw breath, nothing happens. the animal welfare act has banned the use of paralytics without anesthesia in the euthanasia of animals.” noting that the plunger was hard to depress, one of lockett’s executioners pushed harder. they then administered the third drug, potassium chloride, which was supposed to stop his heart. it did not. lockett was witnessed moving, kicking his right leg, and breathing heavily. he clenched his volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 54 teeth, his head rolled back, and he tried to speak. lockett lurched violently against the restraints, writhing as if to free himself (stern, 2015). zellmer finally decided it was enough and removed the sheet that was on top of lockett’s body, only to find a tennis ball size protrusion on his groin. there was also blood and other liquids pooled around his groin. zellmer jammed another iv in lockett’s left femoral and blood squirted all over, including on the doctor. he had hit an artery. lockett continued to moan. while the warden and others scrambled to figure out what to do, lockett lay there slowly and agonizingly dying (stern, 2015). despite the scandalous and inhumane way that lockett died, arizona proceeded to use midazolam to execute an inmate months later. joseph wood took nearly two hours to die and was gasping throughout the process (stern, 2015). thus, the state was fully aware that they could be torturing another person and elected to do so. the supreme court has set a standard for what is an “acceptable” level of pain that someone can endure during an execution for it to be constitutional. that threshold is not consistent with international law and allows the state to torture inmates under legal cover. in missouri, russell bucklew, had a rare medical condition, cavernous hemangioma, which causes blood-filled tumors to grow throughout his head, neck, and throat. they were too fragile to remove through surgery and thus his attorneys argued that executing him using nitrogen hypoxia would mean they could erupt and die and bucklew might drown in his own blood. bucklew filed a lawsuit in 2015 to ask missouri to execute him using a different method. the five conservative justices on the court ruled that he hadn’t met their high threshold for challenging execution methods. justice neil gorsuch wrote the opinion for the court, stating that the eighth amendment “does not guarantee a prisoner a painless death—something that, of course, isn’t guaranteed to many people, including most victims of capital crimes.” the court’s four liberal justices dissented and accused their colleagues of denying bucklew’s constitutional rights. justice sonia sotomayor wrote, “there are higher values than ensuring that executions run on time. if a death sentence or the manner in which it is carried out violates the constitution, that stain can never come out.” justice stephen breyer added, “bucklew has provided evidence of a serious risk that his execution will be excruciating and grotesque. the majority holds that the state may execute him anyway” (ford, 2019). ford (2019) wrote, “in deciding that bucklew had no right to an alternative method of execution, the majority does what it increasingly feels like it must do: mangle facts and precedent to keep the machinery of state-sanctioned death rolling.” volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 55 another approach to address the limited supply of lethal injection drugs is to use other methods of execution. arizona announced it would be conducting executions by lethal gas and as of late may 2021, had already spent several thousand dollars to purchase hydrogen cyanide. this is the same gas, under the trade name zyklon b, that was used at the nazi concentration camp auschwitz and others to kill more than one million people. arizona officials claim they have “refurbished” their gas chamber. besides sounding like it’s a rental property, this pronouncement sanitizes what happened the last time the state used this method of execution. walter lagrand, a german national, was sentenced to death for a 1982 bungled armed bank robbery in which a man was killed. an eyewitness account, published in the tucson citizen in 1999, said he displayed “agonizing choking and gagging” and took 18 minutes to die. “the witness room fell silent as a mist of gas rose, much like steam in a shower, and walter lagrand became enveloped in a cloud of cyanide vapor. he began coughing violently – three or four loud hacks – and made a gagging sound before falling forward.” of course, the other choice for an inmate in arizona facing execution is lethal injection, and the last of those involved joseph wood, who took nearly two hours to die after an experimental cocktail of drugs (pilkington, 2021). similarly, alabama is looking to employ nitrogen gas and south carolina passed a law authorizing the firing squad as an alternative to lethal injection, given the shortages of drugs for executions. in the early 2000s, anesthesiologists began suspecting that some inmates were awake but paralyzed during their execution. david lubarsky, an anesthesiologist at the university of miami, reviewed the postmortem records of 49 executed patients and determined that almost half of them may have been conscious during lethal injection. it is likely, then, that they were in excruciating pain as the final drug was administered (sanburn, 2014). despite such research, states have persisted in lethal injections. justice john paul stevens, in his dissent in roper v. simmons (2005), acknowledged the culpability of the state. “[o]ur experience during the past three decades has demonstrated that delays in state-sponsored killings are inescapable and that executing defendants after such delays is unacceptably cruel. this inevitable cruelty, coupled with the diminished justification for carrying out an execution after the lapse of so much time, reinforces my opinion that contemporary decisions ‘to retain the death penalty as a part of our law are the product of habit and inattention rather than an acceptable deliberative process” (death penalty information center, n.d.) executing the severely mentally ill volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 56 while the u.s supreme court has said that mental illness makes a defendant less morally culpable and that is must be considered in determining whether a death sentence is appropriate, it has yet to categorically prohibit the practice for those with severe mental illness. this is despite the recommendation by major medical bodies, including the american psychiatric association and the american bar association, among others. mental illness affects the individual’s understanding of the court procedure, their ability to cooperate with their attorney or to represent themselves, and jury members’ perception of their threat to society. while the supreme court has determined that mentally incompetent people cannot be tried, is rare that a defendant facing a death sentence is actually considered mentally incompetent. further, while a person who has become incompetent while on death row is not to be executed, per supreme court precedent, this has happened many times. the following cases are illustrative that the state has been aware that they will be executing someone who is obviously incapable of participating or understanding and chose to do it any way. cecil clayton was executed on march 17, 2015, in missouri. he had an iq of just 71, which makes him only one point above what is deemed mentally retarded. that one point would have spared his life, as the supreme court ruled in atkins v. virginia (2002) that it was unconstitutional to execute persons who are mentally retarded. in addition, clayton suffered from dementia and was missing approximately 20% of his frontal lobe due to an accident. that part of the brain affects impulse control, problem-solving and social behavior and it was after the accident that clayton began acting violently. he developed severe paranoia and checked himself into a mental hospital, and dr. douglas stevens, the psychiatrist who examined clayton in 1983 concluded, “there is presently no way that this man could be expected to function in the world of work. were he pushed to do so he would become a danger both to himself and to others. he has had both suicidal and homicidal impulses, so far controlled, though under pressure they would be expected to exacerbate.” six other psychiatrists determined that clayton did not understand that he would be executed or the reasons for it. despite this, he was denied a competency hearing before a judge (williams, 2015). volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 57 florida executed john ferguson on august 5, 2013. ferguson had welldocumented mental illness going back to 1965, when he first suffered from visual hallucinations. he was admitted to several mental institutions and had been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic, delusional and aggressive. when he was 21, ferguson was shot in the head by a police officer. like clayton, a psychiatrist said in 1975 that he was “dangerous and cannot be released under any circumstances.” he was, however, released less than a year later. ferguson had no understanding of what was going to happen to him, repeatedly stating that he believed he was the “prince of god” and was being executed so he could save the world. he had previously been found not guilty of crimes by reason of insanity (lush, 2013). perhaps the most obvious case in which the state was well aware that an individual’s mental illness prevented him from understanding what was happening yet sentenced him to death any way is that of scott pannetti. pannetti was diagnosed as having schizophrenia and had been hospitalized fourteen times in mental health facilities for it and for severe bipolar disorder. his first wife divorced him because he was obsessed with the idea that the devil lived in their home and was having hallucinations. there is evidence that at the time he shot his parents-in-law to death in 1992 pannetti was psychotic. he was likely not competent to stand trial when he did, yet he was even allowed to represent himself. during his trial, which has been called a “joke,” “farce” and ‘a mockery,” pannetti dressed as a cowboy and rambled nonsensically, claiming he was possessed by “sarge,” which was an auditory hallucination. after the jury rejected his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity in just two hours, pannetti moved to the sentencing phase of the process but offered no mitigating circumstances because he did not know what that meant (amnesty international, 2004). the supreme court has previously ruled, in ford v. wainwright (1986), that it is unconstitutional to execute someone who does not understand the reason for or reality of their punishment. these cases clearly demonstrate that the court’s ruling has frequently been ignored, in violation of the constitution as well as international human rights law. the un commission on human rights has called on countries that retain the death penalty to cease using it against anyone suffering from a mental disorder (amnesty international, 2004). conclusion it is clear that in the u.s officials are aware of the physical and mental health problems with respect to the death penalty. efforts to illegally obtain lethal injection drugs are in obvious violation of not just state and federal law, but also international human rights law. several supreme court justices, include stephen breyer and volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 58 former justice ruth bader ginsburg, acknowledged that international law should guide decisions about the death penalty and that retaining it is inconsistent with human rights treaties (death penalty information center, n.d.). change may be afoot, however. in august 2021, a federal judge in oklahoma city ruled that a lawsuit challenging the state’s lethal injection protocol can proceed. a moratorium on executions had been in place for six years while the state figured out which chemicals it would use. oklahoma had planned on resuming executions using three drugs, midazolam, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride. the death row inmates who filed the suit had proposed that they be executed via different drug combinations or by firing squad. yet the judge stopped short of approving all the inmate’s requests, including a right to know more about the drugs used for lethal injection and that the proposed lethal injection protocol made them guinea pigs for human experimentation (murphy, 2021). . similarly, that states are still putting to death people who are severely mentally ill is cruel and inhumane and is counter to un recommendations, the u.s. constitution, and the advice of many major medical bodies. although prisons are far from wonderful places and prison reform is desperately needed, while that reform is in progress life without parole is a viable alternative to the death penalty. that punishment will never have the state killing someone in horrific fashion, with them taking 45 minutes or longer to die. it does not require dubious maneuvering in order to happen. utilizing mental health facilities for those who committed crimes while severely mentally ill is the only fair and humane strategy. dr. joe thornton, a psychiatrist and former death row medical director, noted that 18% of people on death row are veterans and their violent behavior commenced after their service. thornton recommends greater utilization of drug and veteran courts and additional services for veterans with mental health issues (vasilinda, 2021). several states have introduced bills to prohibit the execution of those suffering from severe mental illness which would help with that issue but is only one step. abolitionists are also concerned that such bills might leave people the impression that the death penalty is fixable. it simply is not. abolishing the death penalty at the federal level and in all states would ensure that this state-sanctioned murder no longer occurs. un secretary-general antonio guterres stated, “the death penalty has no place in the 21st century.” the office of the high commissioner for human rights lobbies for the universal abolition of the death penalty, and former secretary general of the un, ban ki moon expressed in 2012, “the right to life is the most fundamental of all human rights. … the taking of life is too absolute, too irreversible, for one human being to inflict it on another, even when backed by legal process” (kim, 2016). united nations human rights experts have called on president joe biden to take action to volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 59 end the death penalty in the u.s., describing capital punishment as an “inherently flawed” and “abhorrent practice” (united nations office of the high commissioner, n.d.). a statement issued from the office of the un high commissioner on human rights on march 11, 2021 implored president biden to abolish the death penalty, saying the death penalty “serves no deterrent value and cannot be reconciled with the right to life.” the group also acknowledged that executions in the u.s. “have repeatedly resulted in degrading spectacles” (death penalty information center, 2021c). yet the u.s. has repeatedly shown that it ignores international human rights law when it wishes. for example, when ratifying the iccpr, the u.s issued reservations to the part of it that prohibited executing juveniles simply because the country still wanted to do that. the u.s. was one of only three countries that made reservations to article 6, and they have been roundly criticized in international forums and eleven countries issued formal objections. the u.s. reservation specifies that the state be allowed to murder whomever it pleases. the united states reserves the right, subject to its constitutional constraints, to impose capital punishment on any person (other than a pregnant woman) duly convicted under existing or future laws permitting (dieter, n.d.). abolition movements should be using every means possible to publicize these and other issues with the death penalty. studies have shown that people who are more fearful of crime are more supportive of the death penalty (kort-butler & ray, 2019). perhaps if people knew that the state is knowingly engaging in illegal and injurious behavior when it comes to lethal injections and inhumane treatment of those who are not mentally capable of understanding their actions and the consequences of them, they’d be less inclined to support the death penalty. globally, framing the death penalty as a human rights issue has been effective as a tool for abolition (kim, 2016). awareness has already resulted in decreased support and the abolition of the death penalty in many states (lambert, camp, clarke & jiang, 2011), including, most recently, the first southern state to abolish, virginia. as a presidential candidate, biden pledged to “work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example.” abolitionists should pressure the administration to follow through on this promise. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 60 references amherst college. (2012, may 29). three percent of u.s. executions since 1900 were botched, study finds. science daily. retrieved june 14, 2021 from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120529133458.htm amnesty international. (2004). united states of america: where is the compassion? retrieved august 9, 2021 from https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/amr51/011/2004/en/ berger, e. (2020).courts, culture and the lethal injection stalemate. william & mary law review, 62(1), 1-81. collins, v. (2016). state crime, women and gender. routledge. collard, m. (2019). torture as state crime: a criminological analysis of the transnational institutional torturer. routledge. death penalty information center. (2021a). arizona doc paid $1.5 million for execution drugs while facing a budget crisis. retrieved june 14, 201 from https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/arizona-doc-paid-1-5-million-forexecution-drugs-while-facing-a-budget-shortfall death penalty information center. (2021b). in ‘netherworld’ between law and reality, nebraska prosecutors continue pursuit of death penalty. retrieved june 14, 2021 from https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/in-netherworldbetween-law-and-reality-nebraska-prosecutors-continue-pursuit-of-deathpenalty volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 61 death penalty information center. (2021c). un human rights experts urge u.s. federal government to take steps to end the death penalty. retrieved august 26, 2021 from https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/un-human-rights-expertsurge-u-s-federal-government-to-take-steps-to-end-the-death-penalty death penalty information center. (n.d). justice john paul stevens’s death penalty jurisprudence. retrieved august 23, 2021 from https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/justice-john-paul-stevenss-deathpenalty-jurisprudence dieter, r. (n.d). the u.s death penalty and human rights. death penalty information center. retrieved august 26, 2021from https://files.deathpenaltyinfo.org/legacy/files/pdf/oxfordpaper.pdf faust, k., & kauzlarich, d. (2008). hurricane katrina victimization as a state crime of omission. critical criminology, 16, 85-103. finley, l. (2017). failure to protect: state obligations to victims and state crime. crimes of the powerful conference, york university, may 25-26. ford, m. (2019, april 2). the supreme court’s twisted devotion to the death penalty. new republic. retrieved august 19, 2021 from https://newrepublic.com/article/153437/supreme-courts-twisteddevotion-death-penalty green, p. & ward, t. (2000). state crime, human rights, and the limits of criminology. social justice 27(1), 101–15. hamm, m. (2007). “high crimes and misdemeanors”: george w. bush and the sins of abu ghraib. crime, media, culture, 3(3), 259-84. iadicola, p. & shupe, a. (1998). violence, inequality, and human freedom. general hall. kim, d. (2016). international non-governmental organizations and the abolition of the death penalty. european journal of international relations, 22(3), 596621. kort-butler, l., & ray, c. (2019). public support for the death penalty in a red state: the distrustful, the angry, and the unsure. punishment and society, 21(4), 473-495. lambert, e., camp, s., clarke, a., & jiang, s. (2011). the impact of information on death penalty support, revisited. crime & delinquency, 57(4), 572-599. volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 62 long, c. (2020, september 15). report: death penalty cases show history of racial disparity. ap news. retrieved january 25, 2022 from https://apnews.com/article/united-states-lifestyle-race-and-ethnicitydiscrimination-racial-injustice-ded1f517a0fd64bf1d55c448a06acccc lush, t. (2013, august 5). convicted mass murderer executed in florida. usa today. retrieved august 11, 2021 from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/05/convicted-massmurderer-executed-in-florida/2621285/ michalowski, r. (2010). in search of “state and crime” in state crime studies, in chambliss, w., michalowski, r., & kramer, r. (eds.), state crime in the global age (pp. 13–30).willan. murphy, s. (2021, august 11). federal judge says oklahoma death penalty suit can proceed. us news. retrieved august 19, 2021. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/oklahoma/articles/2021-0811/federal-judge-says-oklahoma-death-penalty-suit-can-proceed pilkington, e. (2021, may 28). arizona ‘refurbishes’ its gas chamber to prepare for executions, documents reveal. the guardian. retrieved august 10, 2021 from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/28/arizona-gaschamber-executions-documents rothe, d. (2020). moving beyond abstract yypologies? overview of state and statecorporate crime. journal of white collar and corporate crime, 1(1), 7-15. sanburn, j. (2014, may 15). lethal injection’s fatal flaws. time. aretrievd august 23, 2021 from https://time.com/100566/lethal-injectionsfatal-flaws/ stern, j. (2015, june). the cruel and unusual execution of clayton lockett. the atlantic. retrieved june 14, 2021from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/06/execution-claytonlockett/392069/ united nations office of the high commissioner. (n.d.). death penalty. un office of the high commissioner. retrieved august 26, 2021 from https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/deathpenalty/pages/dpindex.aspx vasilinda, m. (2021, march 31). florida bill would prohibit executing mentally ill. news 4 jacksonville. retrieved august 14, 2021 from volume 16 number 1 (2022): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 63 https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2021/03/31/florida-bill-wouldprohibit-executing-mentally-ill/ white, r. (2008). depleted uranium, state crime and the politics of knowing. theoretical criminology, 12(1), 31-54. williams, t. (2015, march 8). lawyers seek reprieve for killer who lost part of his brain decades earlier. new york times. retrieved august 11, 2021 from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/us/lawyers-seek-reprieve-for-killerwho-lost-part-of-his-brain-decades-earlier.html microsoft word simpson revised.doc in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 38 volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal game theory and peace research: professor anatol rapoport’s contributions erika simpson department of political science, western university, london, canada, n6h 1j7 abstract at the forefront of the game theoreticians who conceived of concepts that contributed to peace research and conceptualized strategies that could promote international cooperation, professor anatol rapoport used simple game theory in the classroom to generate ideas about how to enhance world peace. the basic logic of game theory is explained using his game models of ‘chicken’ and ‘prisoner’s dilemma’. rapoport’s revolutionary ideas about how to promote international and national cooperation are overviewed; for instance he developed a simple strategy, tit for tat, to help minimize conflict that won two computer tournaments, and he taught scholars to consider the risks of nuclear deterrence. he was one of north america’s pre-eminent peace researchers and his legacy will live on for generations of future scholars and policy makers. keywords: chicken game, cooperation, game theory, peace research, prisoner’s dilemma, rapoport in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 39 game theory is usually used to rationally and dispassionately examine the strategic behaviour of nations, especially superpower behaviour. game models are used to describe and explain all types of situations, as well as to prescribe how rational leaders or countries should act in given situations. economists have their own models of supply and demand and, similarly scientists and political analysts often use game theoretical models to understand the underlying structure of conflict. dr. rapoport’s contributions to game theory were solidly in the area of peace research, an important sub-field of political science and international relations. rapoport was a recognized leader in peace research world-wide. he was particularly well-known as one who was also highly respected in peace and conflict studies and in the military and strategic studies community. this article explains how basic game theory—at its simplest level—was used by professor anatol rapoport to generate ideas about how to enhance world peace. rapoport was at the forefront of the game theoreticians who sought to conceptualize strategies that could promote international cooperation. accordingly, the basic logic of game theory is explained using the game models of ‘chicken’ and ‘prisoner’s dilemma’. these models were used by rapoport in his books and lectures in simple and complex ways. then rapoport’s revolutionary ideas about how to promote international and national cooperation are overviewed. he developed a simple strategy called tit for tat which won two computer tournaments. rapoport suggested that applying his strategy to real-life problems could help prevent human vulnerability and minimize conflict. finally, this article considers the inherent dangers of game theory and nuclear deterrence in the way that rapoport taught young scholars to contemplate their risks. background of anatol rapoport dr. anatol rapoport was born may 22, 1911 in lozova, ukraine to a family of jewish socialists that fled the soviet union while he was still a boy and settled in the united states. he went to school in chicago and afterwards studied music in vienna from 1929 to 1934. until 1937 he was active as an international concert pianist and even in his later years as his memory waned, he could play the piano expertly from memory. he began a second study in mathematics at the university of chicago (phd in mathematics, 1941). after military service rapoport began his scientific career and research at the in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 40 illinois institute of technology, chicago, in 1946. from 1955 to 1970 rapoport was professor at the mental health institute of the university of michigan. in 1970 he transferred as a professor of psychology and mathematics to the university of toronto. then he became the director of the institute for advanced studies, vienna in 1980. in 1984, rapoport moved back to canada where he was a long-serving professor at the university of toronto; the co-founder of its peace and conflict studies program; and president of a well-known society that continues to debate, ‘science for peace’. he died in 2007 in his 96th year. known worldwide as one of game theory’s most pre-eminent theorists, rapoport published more than 400 contributions to game theory, mathematical biology, semantics, systems theory, and peace research. he wrote two classic works: fights, games and debates (1961) and prisoner’s dilemma: a study in conflict and cooperation (1965), and he wrote and edited many other books on game theory, the best known of which are: nperson game theory: concepts and applications (1970); the big two: soviet-american perceptions of foreign policy (1971); conflict in man-made environment (1974); game theory as a theory of conflict resolution (1974); the 2 x 2game (1976); mathematical models in the social and behavioral sciences (1983); and decision theory and decision behaviour: normative and descriptive approaches (1989). later in life, rapoport contributed two seminal volumes to peace research: the origins of violence: approaches to the study of conflict (1989) and peace: an idea whose time has come (1992). these ground-breaking texts continued to be used by students and scholars in the university of toronto’s program of peace and conflict studies, which dr. rapoport co-founded, and they are still used in many other specialized peace and conflict studies programs. according to the oxford international encyclopedia of peace, rapoport occupies an important place in the development of peace research. he emphasized the importance of pacifism—the refusal to participate in the system of war—and he focused on abolition of war including nuclear abolition. professor rapoport’s contributions to the field of peace research were complex and manifold. as the model of a ‘passionate, engaged intellectual’ he contributed to system theory, game theory and the study of human cooperation. he believed that the systematic scholarly inquiry of peace research was powerfully important (young, 2010). rapoport also contributed to peace research by teaching that value-free research and positivism should be criticized. he believed in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 41 behavioural science could not be value-free: “as a rule the assumptions made in natural science do not affect the material under study; in behavioural science they do” (eckhardt 1983). rapoport became involved with peace research in the mid-1950s. he argued that scientists should work for peace and should not prioritize war, despite practical realities, especially regarding vietnam from 1965 onward. his scholarly work was embedded in the multidisciplinary ideal and the behavioural revolution. his use of analytical tools, namely mathematics established the basis for a new criticism of deterrence theory. rapoport joined his skills in mathematics and formal logic with those of biologist ludwig von bertalanffy, economist kenneth e. boulding and psychologist ralph w. gerard to found the society for the advancement of general systems theory in support of what came to be known as the systems movement. he took a non-realist approach to conflict and identified the creative exploration of analogies, especially those deducible from mathematical models. in the 1970s he was president of the peace research society (international) and of the canadian peace research and education association. he received the lentz international peace research award in 1975. the end of détente by the late 1970s and the intensification of cold war dynamics during the reagan years led him to intensify his search for peace research conceptions, proposing new forms of bipolar confrontation logic and common security. rapoport was at the forefront of those game theoreticians who sought to propose alternative ways to conceptualize strategies that could promote international cooperation. with the end of the cold war and the collapse of the bipolar system, game theory lost much of its former popularity (mcmillan, 1992; powell, 1999) although it continued to preoccupy scholars and educators. this article explains how basic game theory—at its simplest level—was used by rapoport to generate ideas about how to enhance world peace. many of his books on game theory are difficult to understand from a mathematical perspective, but he believed the basic lessons of game theory could be taught to everyone using chalk and a blackboard. he was often found standing in front of the classroom at the university of toronto, wearing a snappy blue beret, surrounded by clouds of chalk dust. he would draw the essential boxes that make up a matrix in game theory with so much vigour that his piece of chalk would break. already in his eighties, he continued to teach part-time decades after official retirement. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 42 the basic logic of game theory using two game models: chicken and prisoner’s dilemma. two game models were used by rapoport in his books in complex and sophisticated ways. for those less well versed in mathematics—and in order to better appreciate rapoport’s fine contribution to peace studies – the models are explained here as he explained them during his first few lectures in the classroom. then rapoport’s revolutionary ideas about how to promote international and national cooperation are overviewed. he remains well-known more than a decade after his death because he developed a simple game theoretical concept, called tit for tat (tft) which won two famous computer tournaments. he suggested that applying tft to real-life problems could help formulate preventive measures that reduce human vulnerability and minimize conflict. finally, the essay reflects upon the inherent dangers of game theory and nuclear deterrence just as dr. rapoport taught many scholars to contemplate their risks. he felt very responsible to counsel students and scholars of peace research and game theory to be careful about wielding game theory’s arcane language for nefarious ends. game 1: ‘chicken’ or deterrence model it is helpful to first explain the concepts of a ‘matrix’, and a ‘payoff’ with reference to the game of chicken. the chicken model was often used to illustrate the logic—or illogic—of deterrence strategy; however, it is also useful for explaining the basic logic of game theory and the ‘minimax’ principle. chicken was developed by daniel ellsberg, a strategic analyst at rand, the american think-tank. he wanted to create a ‘machine’ for asking useful questions and for preliminary testing of alleged answers about nuclear deterrence. the model was based on a daredevil game played by teenagers in the united states. two groups would pile into cars and drive full-speed at each other with their cars straddling the middle of the road. the first driver to swerve to avoid collision would be the loser, earning the nickname ‘chicken’. but both drivers would be losers if they collided. the choices that face both drivers—rapoport called them sam and ivan (but they could be any other adversaries, like donald trump and kim jong un)—can be illustrated using a rectangular box called a matrix. sam’s choices are listed in the horizontal rows, in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 43 while ivan’s choices are ordered in the columns vertically. in the simple two-player game of chicken, sam and ivan each has two choices—to swerve or not to swerve—but there are four possible outcomes and four possible ‘payoffs’ for each player. a payoff is defined as the outcome of both players’ decisions. figure 1 ‘chicken’ or deterrence game ivan (column) swerve (cooperate) don’t swerve (threaten) swerve sam (cooperate) (row) +1 +1 +10 -10 don’t swerve (threaten) -10 +10 -100 -100 to illustrate, let us assign some numbers for the possible payoffs for sam and ivan, and examine these payoffs closely: 1. if sam decides to swerve off the road at the last second—but so does ivan—both will be seen by their friends as lacking in courage—as ‘chickens’. but they do earn some status at least for playing the game—so we will give them each a single point or +1 (upper-left box) 2. if sam swerves, and ivan does not, then sam looks like a chicken—in this case the payoff for sam would be -10 points—and ivan wins—let us say this is worth +10 points to him (upper-right box). 3. however, if sam decides not to swerve, and ivan swerves, sam earns +10 points, and ivan receives 10 points (lower-left box). 4. but if both sam and ivan decide not to swerve, the rather grisly outcome could be calculated as 100 points for sam, and 100 points for ivan (lower-right box). in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 44 evidently, the game of chicken was meant to mirror the calculations that the superpowers made about nuclear deterrence. in a situation of deterrence, both the united states and the soviet union (or north korea) could threaten to ‘go to the brink’ and use nuclear weapons. but if neither backed down, there would be a nuclear war and both players would suffer enormous costs. the costs of playing the ‘game’ of deterrence would outweigh the benefits of going to the brink. in this sort of situation, what might sam or ivan (or trump or kim jong un) decide to do? according to traditional game theory, sam should make his decision by considering all the worst possible consequences of each of his choices. then he should choose so as to avoid the worst conceivable outcome. in game theory this course of action was referred to as the ‘minimax’ or the ‘maximin’ principle (or the von neumann principle). sam should look for the payoff where his minimal payoff is maximal—in other words, he should try to make the best of the worst behaviour of his opponent. as dr. rapoport pointed out, if both sam and ivan choose according to the maximin principle, they would both decide to swerve in order to avoid the worst payoff—a perfectly rational solution. similarly, game theorists pointed out that in a crisis situation, the enormous costs for the united states and the soviet union of carrying out a strategy of mutual assured destruction (mad) would not be borne by rational decisionmakers. thus, mad would not be perceived by either side as a credible strategy of conflict avoidance because the costs of possible nuclear war far outweighed the benefits of going to the brink and threatening possible retaliation. moreover, if mad was not seen as credible, the soviet union might threaten a conventional or limited nuclear attack against western europe, knowing full well that the united states would back down because of the enormous costs of all-out nuclear retaliation. the problem, then, for game theoreticians became how to signal that the american nuclear threat was credible—that the united states would risk some measure of destruction, for example, for the sake of berlin, korea, or cuba. a few solutions to this conceptual conundrum emerged from game theory. as rapoport pithily explained, the famous nuclear strategist herman kahn advised the following winning strategy: in full view of the opponent, tear off the steering wheel and in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 45 throw it away. in this manner, the opponent will become convinced of your resolve, for now he knows that you could not swerve even if you wanted to. taking this line of reasoning one step further, kahn recognized that just as sam, showing his resolve, yanks his steering wheel off, ivan might get the same idea and do the same thing, creating a problem for both parties. as rapoport explains, ‘if one remembers that it is not only the two imbeciles’ lives that are put on the line in the global game of chicken but practically everyone else’s, one begins to realize the dangers involved in indulging in strategic analysis from only one strategist’s point of view’ (1971:180-81; 1985: 179-81). the basic question—how to credibly threaten to go the brink—continues to preoccupy game theorists concerned with making deterrence work (for example, brams and kilgour, 1988; powell, 1990; paul et. al 2009). but rapoport was at the forefront of those who forthrightly argued that ‘this fixation on the zero-sum paradigm, together with the inability to break away from the imperatives of individual rationality, prevent the military from designing a way out of the impasse created by the threat of total extinction’ (1985: 180). deterrence and the intellectual poverty of signalling resolve in the chicken model the problem of how to signal resolve in a nuclear deterrence situation will probably never be solved. how should the united states signal to an adversary, for example, that if it attacks—using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons—that the us may use its nuclear weapons? nevertheless, game theoreticians have gone to great lengths to try to derive game-theoretical solutions to the problem. rather than admit that the strategy of nuclear deterrence should be re-examined and revised, game theorists experimented with many possible solutions to the problem. it was evident in his classes that rapoport had little patience with the work by theoreticians who tried to formulate complex concepts (e.g. ‘robust threats’, ‘probabilistic doomsday machine’) and mathematical proofs (e.g. ‘backward induction’, ‘conditional probability’) to show that it can be rational, in certain circumstances, to issue a nuclear threat (brams and kilgour, 1988: 38-53, 74-94). while game theorists’ attention shifted to modelling nuclear rivalry, deterrence theory, and crisis stability, including the effects of first-strike advantages, limited retaliation, and the number of nuclear powers in the international system on the dynamics of escalation, (for example, harvey, 1997) in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 46 rapoport broadened his academic focus to write books that explained theories of peace research, the origins of violence, and ideas about semantics and systems theory. he continued to publish extensive research on game theory but he embraced the game of ‘prisoner’s dilemma’, rather than ‘chicken’, in books like prisoner’s dilemma: a study in conflict and cooperation (1965); the 2 x 2 game (1976); and mathematical models in the social and behavioral sciences (1983). his major contributions to game theory revolve around the prisoner’s dilemma (pd) model because it reveals, in devastatingly clear terms, the underlying structural conflict that bedevils most systemic-, state-, and individual-level conflicts. game 2: ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ model rapoport used the prisoner’s dilemma game to neatly demonstrate how humans and nations can get into threatening sorts of situations—and how the structure of a situation can force everyone to continue to endure insecurity. the prisoner’s dilemma model demonstrates that we can be caught in a dilemma, not because of evil or stupid leaders, but because of structural imperatives and thinking patterns that dictate choices where, in order to avoid the worst-case scenario, we end up in a less-than-optimal situation. in his own words, ‘in the game called prisoner’s dilemma, the rational choice of strategy by both players leads to an outcome which is worse for both than if they had chosen their strategies ‘irrationally’. the paradox remains unresolved as long as we insist on adhering to the concept of rationality which makes perfect sense in zero-sum games but which makes questionable sense in non-zero-sum games. thus the paradox forces a re-examination of our concept of rational decision’ (rapoport and chammah, 1965: 13). as rapoport liked to explain in his classes, the original story of prisoner’s dilemma was formulated in the early 1950s, and the problem it poses continues to preoccupy policy-makers and academics who think about decision-making. the parable goes something like this: two suspects are taken into custody and placed in separate cells. the prosecutor is port convinced that they are guilty of a specific crime but he does not have sufficient evidence to convict them at a trial. accordingly, he gives each prisoner two alternatives: to confess—or not to confess—to the crime he is sure they have committed. he tells each in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 47 of them: ‘if you do not confess—if you are silent—i will book you on the lesser charge of illegal possession of a weapon. you will get a sentence of 1 year in jail.’ ‘but,’ he says to each of them separately, ‘if you both confess—if you both defect—i will prosecute you both but i will recommend less than the most severe sentence—probably each of you will be sent to jail for 5 years’. then the prosecutor goes on to say: ‘however, if one of you confesses and the other does not, then he who confesses will get lenient treatment because he provided us with evidence—only 3 months in jail—and i promise that the other prisoner, who does not confess and stays silent, will receive the maximum sentence—at least 10 years.’ the choices facing each prisoner can be illustrated using a matrix. at this point, rapoport would give the prisoners the names of two erstwhile students in the classroom, but for the sake of clarity here, we will call them arnold (a) and bob (b). if we examine how arnold (a) reasons, we can obtain insights into the way in which leaders, groups, nations, and international organizations can also find themselves in a prisoner’s dilemma. to illustrate, let us assign some numbers for the possible payoffs for arnold and bob, and examine these payoffs closely in the matrix (figure 2) on the following page: in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 48 figure 2 prisoner’s dilemma: arnold and bob in jail bob (b) -3 = ‘best’, most-preferred outcome -10 = ‘next best’ or next-preferred outcome -50 = ‘next worst’ outcome -100 = ‘worst’ or least-preferred outcome cooperate (silence = c) defect (confess = d) cooperate (silence = c) arnold (a) b gets 1 year (-10) both silent (c, c) a gets 1 year (-10) b gets 3 months (-3) bob confesses, arnold is silent (c, d) a gets 10 years (-100) defect (confess = d) b gets 10 years (-100) arnold confesses, bob is silent (d, c) a gets 3 months (-3) bob gets 5 years (-50) both confess (d, d) a gets 5 years (-50) in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 49 arnold’s choices: sitting alone in prison obviously, arnold does not know what bob is planning to do, nor can he communicate with him from his prison cell, so arnold calculates as follows: 1. if i choose to be silent, and bob does too, we will both get 1 year in jail (c, c box) 2. but if i am silent, and bob confesses, then i get 10 years, and he gets only 3 months (c, d box) 3. if i confess, and bob does not, then i get only 3 months, and he gets 10 years (d, c box) 4. but if we both confess, then we both get 5 years (d, d box). thus, says arnold to himself, if i want to avoid the worst outcome—that is 10 years—then i should not risk being silent. i should confess because the worst that can happen is that i get 5 years, and i might get only 3 months. this is arnold’s reasoning (based on the minimax principle). but, unfortunately, bob makes the same calculations. bob also chooses to confess so as to avoid the worstcase outcome so both arnold and bob spend 5 years in prison—a sad ending to a metaphorical tale. the principal lesson of prisoner’s dilemma is that—despite the existence of a mutually preferable outcome (the cc box)—the rational calculations of both prisoners in favour of their own self-interest in avoiding the worst-case outcome dictates that both end up worse-off. the appeal of prisoner’s dilemma lies in the fact that its underlying logic can apply to a wide variety of threatening situations. for example, the next matrix (figure 3) demonstrates the same kinds of calculations leading to an arms race. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 50 figure 3 an arms race as a prisoner’s dilemma country b cooperate (low arms spending) defect (high arms spending) cooperate (low arms spending = c) country a country b disadvantage (-10) (c, c) arms limitation country a disadvantage (-10) country b advantage (+50) (c, d) country a serious disadvantage (-100) defect (confess = d) country b serious disadvantage (-100) (d, c) country a advantage (+50) country b (-50) (d, d) arms race country a (-50) +50 = ‘best’, most-preferred outcome -10 = ‘next best’ or next-preferred outcome -50 = ‘next worst’ outcome -100 = ‘worst’ or least-preferred outcome in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 51 in this game, country a would most prefer a situation where it has a superior weapons system to country b. for instance, the superior weapons system could be advanced nuclear submarine technology or a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system based in space. however, country b sees a situation where country a has superior firepower as its worst-case scenario; consequently, it develops its own weapons. these could be modernized anti-submarine warfare systems or thousands of decoys designed to trick tracking systems, satellites, and lasers in space. as a result, both countries become entangled in an arms race, although the costs of an arms race are higher than agreeing to some sort of arms limitation agreement. it should be pointed out that in this simple prisoner’s dilemma model, the two players need not be the obvious ones—the united states versus russia. the parties could be india versus pakistan; north korea versus south korea and japan; or al qaeda’s network versus the united states and the nato allies. prisoner’s dilemma also describes many conceivable scenarios other than arms races. the choices facing group a or group b could be between: • cooperating with other countries to impose sanctions against a violator country (e.g. cooperating to impose sanctions on iran)—or defecting from an international agreement to impose sanctions (e.g. loosening trade restrictions with iran’s military regime). • cooperating with other countries to limit weapons stockpiles (e.g. ratifying the comprehensive test ban treaty)—or choosing to export certain weapon systems (e.g. modernizing nato’s ‘dual-use’ weapons systems in turkey) prisoner’s dilemma can apply to a myriad of particular cases, such as businesses cooperating together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, governments seeking to control landmines, or the united nations (un) attempting to mobilize member states for peace support operations. the choices could be between: • cooperating with an adversary to reduce forces and military equipment, such as cooperating with russia to reduce nato’s weapons arsenal in europe—or reneging from serious arms limitation talks, such as failing to honour the intermediate nuclear forces treaty in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 52 • cooperating with the general trends of arms control agreements, such as honouring the as-yet-unratified comprehensive test ban treaty—or choosing to modernize nuclear weapon systems, such as making plans to erect groundand space-based ballistic missile defence systems and modernizing nuclear weapons arsenals • cooperating with adversaries to negotiate peace agreements, such as cooperating among the nato allies and russia in order to pursue peace negotiations about how to deal with armed rebel groups in ukraine’s eastern area – or choosing not to negotiate peace agreements about how to deal with armed rebel groups, including for example rejecting the prospect of peace negotiations about how to deal with isis in syria and iraq among the nato allies including with russia and syria’s pro-assad forces. in all these cases there are great advantages to being the only one to defect, however, if both or all parties defect, it works out to everyone’s disadvantage. thus, prisoner’s dilemma starkly illustrates how spirals of insecurity can develop. it shows how parties can be trapped in security dilemmas—not because of stupid or irrational calculations—but because of thinking patterns or ‘decision rules’ where each group seeks to avoid the worst-case scenario at all costs, and where each player is unwilling to risk the costs of cooperating if the other player also does not cooperate. rapoport’s contribution to cooperative game theory a great deal of scholarly work tests the intricacies of the chicken and prisoner’s dilemma games. for example, jurišić et al., after reviewing the relevant literature up to 2012, concluded ‘prisoner’s dilemma is still a current research area with nearly 15,000 papers during the past two years.’ (jurišić m, kermek d, konecki m, 2012; quoted in rapoport, seale and coleman, 2015). rapoport believed a basic understanding of both models’ underlying logic could help devise creative strategies to promote international cooperation. as he repeatedly showed, a game theoretical framework can help generate useful ideas and unusual solutions that enhance human security. taking a simple approach could help generate solutions and detect problems with these same ideas. his concept of ‘tit for tat’ was a very simple idea, yet it generated some amazing discoveries. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 53 rapoport’s strategy of ‘tit for tat’ (tft) in his lectures, rapoport explained the idea that costs and benefits need not be one-time pay-offs, but can be incurred or appreciated more than once over time. as he would ask, what happens if we play prisoner’s dilemma over and over again? in other words, what happens if two players know that they will interact repeatedly? in game theory, this is referred to as an ‘iterated’ prisoner’s dilemma. to answer this question, political scientist robert axelrod invited experts to submit programs for a computer prisoner’s dilemma tournament. he wrote a nine-page article in 1981 and a 1984 book with the same title, the evolution of cooperation, about the results. decades later, the article is still one of the most cited articles ever published in the journal science (axelrod and w.d. hamilton, 1981; axelrod, 1984). scores of game theoreticians continue to test his findings under various computer, human, and laboratory conditions (for example, betz, 1991; busch and reinhardt, 1993; simpson, 1990, 2001; kretz, 2011; axelrod, 2012; hilbe c., traulsen a., sigmund k. 2015; rapoport, seale and colman, 2015). axelrod first set up the tournament so that each computer program would interact with other programs, and each program would be matched against itself, as well as against random—a program that randomly cooperated and defected with equal probability. in the first round-robin, each game consisted of exactly two hundred moves, there were 14 separate strategies, and the game was run five times so there were 240,000 separate choices. the strategy that won the tournament, because it attained the highest average score compared to any other entry, was the simplest of all the submitted programs. it was formulated by rapoport. his strategy, tit for tat (tft), began with a cooperative choice and then did whatever the other player did on the previous move. the reasons for the success of the strategy of tft were that: • it was nice by starting off with cooperation; • it was retaliatory immediately in the case of defection—it defected once after each defection by the other; • but it was forgiving if the adversary cooperated again • and it was not too clever, but it was very clear—consequently, it was easy for other programs to figure out its strategy. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 54 then axelrod ran another tournament. this time, however, all the participants knew tft had won the first round so many tried to design entries to beat tft. strategies such as stab in the back defected on the last move; strategies such as tester defected immediately; while tranquillizer lulled the other player into cooperation, and then tried to get away with defection. in this tournament, axelrod also remedied a problem arising out of the first round robin related to the finite number of moves. he was able to more closely mirror reality by ensuring that minor endgame effects were eliminated (e.g. in this round robin, the game did not end after 200 finite moves; instead, the end of the game was probabilistic with a .00346 chance of ending the game with each given move.) in the second tournament, there were 63 different strategies, and more than a million plays. there were many programs designed to be nice and forgiving; while other programs tried to take advantage of others if they were nice and forgiving. anyone could submit any program but only one person submitted tft again—anatol rapoport. to everyone’s surprise, tft won the tournament once more. thus, the success of tft led to some simple, but powerful advice: • be nice; • practice reciprocity (e.g. cooperate if the other player cooperates but retaliate if they defect); • forgive; • try to be as clear as possible. how might tft be applied to international relations? first, if leader a knows that leader b will be around for a long time in the foreseeable future, they might conclude that it would be worthwhile to improve their long-term relationship. in game theoretical language, ‘the shadow of the future’ looms larger in an iterated game. and if there will be no foreseeable end to their relations, adopting a tit for tat strategy could be fruitful (simpson, 2001b: 139-49). for more than thirty years, in hundreds of publications, social and behavioral scientists have propagated the conclusion that tft is the appropriate strategy to follow in resolving conflicts in dyadic interactions that satisfy the assumptions underlying the iterated two-person pd game (rapoport, amman, 2015). ‘new strategies are developed and old ones are reused in new areas. but basic rules for cooperation that were recognized by axelrod in the first competition are still valid’ (p. 1097). in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 55 the inherent dangers of game theory and nuclear deterrence dr. rapoport made very clear in his classes that game theory is replete with abstract language and complicated numerical terms—concepts that can be used more to obfuscate than to clarify. just as the language of nuclear deterrence and strategic thought uses many complicated concepts such as flexible response, bolstering and pre-emptive warfare (simpson 1990, 2001b, 2009), game theoreticians have their own forbidding terms (e.g. nash equilibria, pareto-optimal, non-zero-sum games). rapoport cautioned that those who use game theory can experience a kind of thrill at being able to manipulate the language. and they can also mistakenly feel that they have nuclear weapons under control. game theory veils the choices facing humans about their survival in innocuous quasi-mathematical language. by doing so, game theory desensitises policymakers and scholars to the reality of what they are talking about—which is actually about using weapons and force to threaten, deter, and kill other humans. as he emphasized, ‘strategic science is what confers intellectual respectability on the military profession, deflecting attention from the concrete results of military activity—mass killing and destruction’ (rapoport, 1995: 169) dr. rapoport taught generations of students’ game-theoretical styles of reasoning to generate ideas about how to deal with the broad range of challenges to human security, such as armed intra-state conflict, gross violations of human rights, environmental degradation, and nuclear proliferation. he understood that for students, learning the language of game theory was useful if we want to understand the abstractions of strategizing—much like mathematicians or physicists have a shared language. a basic appreciation of game theory also helps to understand the rather skewed assumptions about ‘rationality’ that underlie traditional military thinking about deterrence strategy. indeed, a basic grasp of game theory’s underlying assumptions and oversimplifications helps develop sufficient game-theoretical parlance to ask uncomfortable questions of the proponents of deterrence, such as: ‘can we assume that decision-makers will act and make decisions rationally during a crisis, such as a nuclear war?’ (simpson, 2001a, 2009) moreover, rapoport showed how game theory can be useful for generating creative strategies that can help cooperation emerge in a world without central in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 56 authority—that is, in a world of supposed ‘anarchy’. his strategy of tft can be applied to a myriad of interactions between leaders, groups, countries, alliances, and international organizations. taking remedial action—a tit for tat approach—based on game theoretical ideas may (or may not) help reduce all types of conflict. scholars continue to challenge the generality of rapoport’s strategy and point out that tft is restricted to a particular combination tournament format, criterion for success, and payoff values (rapoport, seale and coleman, 2015). as a famous scholar, anatol rapoport (1911-2007) contributed to many key concepts and terms in peace research, like conflict resolution, deterrence, militarism, pacifism and rationality and there remains wide agreement that as a public intellectual he made an enormous contribution to game theory, peace and conflict studies and strategic studies. he was one of north america’s pre-eminent peace researchers and his legacy will live on for generations of future scholars and policy makers. references axelrod, r. 2012. launching the ‘evolution of cooperation’. journal of theoretical biology 299: 21-24. axelrod, r., and w.d. hamilton. 1981. the evolution of cooperation. science 211(4489): 390-96. axelrod, r. 2006 [1984]. the evolution of cooperation. 3rd edition. new york: perseus books. betz, b. 1991. response to strategy and communication in an arms race-disarmament dilemma. journal of conflict resolution 35: 678-690. brams, s. j. and d. m. kilgour. 1998. game theory and international security. oxford: basil blackwell inc. busch, m. l. and e. r. reinhardt. 1993. nice strategies in a world of relative gains: the problem of cooperation under anarchy. journal of conflict resolution. 37: 427445. diekmann, a., and m. peter, eds. 1986. paradoxical effects in social behavior: essays in honour of anatol rapoport. heidelberg, germany: physica-verlag. eckhardt, w. anatol rapoport: critic of peace research. peace research. 15(3): 43-51. harvey, f. p. 1997. the future’s back: nuclear rivalry, deterrence theory, and crisis in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 57 stability after the cold war. montreal: mcgill-queen’s university press. hilbe, c. and t. arne, and k. sigmund. 2015. partners or rivals? strategies for the iterated prisoner’s dilemma. games and economic behaviour. 92(1): 41-52. jurišić m., d. kermek, and m. konecki. 2012. a review of iterated prisoner’s dilemma strategies. proceedings of the 35th international convention on information and communication technology, electronics and microelectronics. mipro: 1093–1097. mcmillan, j. 1992. games, strategies, and managers. new york, toronto: oxford university press. paul, t. v., p. m. morgan and j. j. wirtz. 2009. complex deterrence: strategy in the global age. chicago: university of chicago press. powell, r. 1990. nuclear deterrence theory: the search for credibility. cambridge, new york: cambridge university press. powell, r. 1999. in the shadow of power: states and strategies in international politics. princeton, n.j.: princeton university press. rapoport, amnon, d. a. seale and a.m. colman. 2015. is tit-for-tat the answer? on the conclusions drawn from axelrod’s tournaments, plos, 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encyclopedia of peace. oxford: oxford university press. microsoft word redfering ifpv13_1.docx volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal teacher training and perceptions of self efficacy in violence prevention approaches kristie jo redfering and alexia georgakopoulos abstract this research project explored teachers’ beliefs of violence prevention approaches and self-efficacy. relevant research indicates the value of violence prevention and conflict resolution education as well as the importance of teacher support of such programs. theories of decision-making and self-efficacy provide the foundation for the variables that were examined through use of a survey instrument developed by dr. k. king and dr. t. kandakai. participants were sampled from two florida school districts. independent variables included teacher background and experience indicators including demographics and teaching/training experience. dependent variables were comprised of multiple indicators of outcome value, efficacy expectation, and outcome expectation. manovas and anovas were utilized to identify relationships between the independent and dependent variables. among the statistically significant findings a theme emerged: training history including variety of training, specific topics, and the interaction effects of combinations of training impacted perceptions of self-efficacy and outcome expectation more significantly than other demographic and background characteristics. the results suggest that the provision of a variety of training for teachers may benefit violence prevention practice by increasing perceptions of volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 8 efficacy which may lead to an increase in consistent and effective utilization of various conflict resolution education programs and strategies. conflict is an inevitable part of life and how we respond to it can either be constructive or destructive (deutch, 1973). educators have worked to instill the values of peace and the skills for constructive conflict resolution for hundreds of years. peace education is often conceptualized as human rights, disarmament, development, multicultural, and violence prevention educations. each of these related approaches takes a slightly different swing at the same target: educating for equity, responsibility, and the elimination of violence. violence prevention in schools in the united states often seeks to reduce violence through specific programming. the issue of violence and aggression in schools has become prominent in the last two decades following school shootings in numerous states. in response to data regarding violence in schools many school districts are implementing conflict resolution education (cre) programs for use with traditional approaches such as parental contact, detention, and referring students to administrators or school counselors. cre involves teaching and modeling of skills and methods of resolving a variety of conflicts. communication and problem solving are key components of cre that when maximized should empower participants in more effectively maintaining relationships and managing conflict. cre programs may vary but most include the development of critical thinking skills, problem solving procedures, social and emotional skills, and an understanding of the nature of conflict (jones, 2003, p. 20). for this discussion cre refers to peer mediation, bullying prevention, conflict resolutions skills (i.e. problem solving, nature of conflict, nonthreatening communication), and social/emotional skills (i.e. anger management). violence prevention refers to cre and traditional approaches (i.e. crisis intervention, student suspension and/or detention, parent contact, referrals to administrators and/or counselors). many cre programs require significant time and financial commitments due to the broad scope of their application. these programs are dependent upon school staff to remain effective and enduring. rational choice theory and selfefficacy theories suggest that educators regularly assess the value of educational material, curricula, and/or programming. this evaluation often determines the likelihood and/or style of use. while administrators may make the ultimate decision about the use violence prevention approaches in their schools and guidance counselors may supervise and manage programs, teachers very often implement lessons and refer students to peer mediators or other participants. teachers are at the frontline of the endeavor to reduce violence and promote constructive conflict behaviors in schools. without teacher commitment to such programs, lessons may not be appropriately delivered (or delivered at all) and opportunities to practice conflict resolution (cr) skills may go unaddressed. thus program fidelity and viability is largely the responsibility of teachers. because the choice of what volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 9 program to use—even whether to use one at all—is often left to individual schools, and because the sustainability of such programs can be tenuous, it is crucial to understand how these programs are perceived by those who would implement them. literature review there are a number of different types of education that are often cited in discussions of peace education. these include global, human rights, disarmament, and environmental or development education. looking at peace education in terms of interpersonal conflict skill acquisition it may include conflict resolution programs, violence prevention programs, and nonviolence education. there is another facet of peace education as well—the context and method of delivery of content. this includes the incorporation of multicultural methods and strategies, a context of cooperative learning, and the use of constructive controversy in the classroom. these practices seek to address peace education by establishing a climate conducive to peace it and to impart the skills that students need to resolve conflicts constructively. while there are a number of inquiries concerning peace education (bar-tal & rosen, 2009; bettencourt & farrell, 2013; biton & salomon, 2006; bradshaw, waasdorp, & o’brennan, 2013; gallagher, 2007; hussesi, 2009; rosen, 2008), characteristics of youth conflict and victimization (goksoy & argon, 2016; johnson & johnson, 1979; nickerson & martens, 2008; vera, shin, montgomery, mildner, & speight, 2004), and violence prevention generally (dogan, 2016; lubelska, 2012; park-higgerson, perumean-chaney, bartolucci, crimley, & singh, 2008; volungis, 2016; welsh, 2000) there is also a great deal in the literature specific to method or strategy. thus far, many studies indicate that the effects of particular conflict resolution programs are promising (bell, raczynski, & horne, 2010; edmondson & hoover, 2008; johnson & johnson, 1996; schellenberg, parks-savage, & rehfuss, 2007; simon et al., 2009; stevahn, johnson, johnson, & schultz, 2002). there is not absolute agreement in the literature about the necessary components or effectiveness of violence prevention strategies in schools there is a great deal of variation in how strategies are employed, in what combinations they are utilized, target populations, and with what level of program fidelity. some focused on safety (homer et al., 2009) while others on behavioral outcomes (parkhiggerson, perumean-chaney, bartolucci, crimley, & singh, 2008). these methods of violence prevention include bullying prevention, conflict resolution, peer mediation, nonviolent response to conflict, and crisis intervention. anger management and crisis intervention differ from strategies such as bullying prevention, conflict resolution, and peer mediation in their praxis. while bullying prevention, conflict resolution, and peer mediation focus on attitudes such as tolerance and the skills and knowledge to solve problems, anger management and crisis intervention seek to intervene when emotions prevent or inhibit the use of these skills. these areas seek to address violence both preventatively by imparting volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 10 the knowledge to foster attitudinal development such as tolerance and empathy, and responsively by teaching the skills to manage conflict and crisis without the use of violence. campbell (2003), daunic, miller, robinson, & smith (2000), johnson & johnson (2005), konak & erdem (2015), lantieri (1995), and smith, cousins, & stewart (2005) provide insight into components of violence prevention programs including, but not limited to, instruction in negotiation strategies, community involvement, peer mediation, common goal setting, and bullying prevention. examinations of general and specific programming explore characteristics and outcomes using a variety of methods. researchers have used nursing logs, suspension rates, and victimization to assess program outcomes (breunlin, cimmarusti, bryant-edwards, & hetherington, 2002; brener, krug, dahlberg, & powell, 1997; multisite violence prevention project, 2009). others (turnuklu, kacmaz, gurler, sevkin, & burcak, 2010; and turnuklu, kacmaz, gurler, turk, & kalender, 2010) have examined others factors such as family dynamics and socialcognitive elements in relation to outcomes of cre. much of the research shows promise in the ability of various programming to affect perceptions, attitudes, and behavior in youth but more research is needed to understand the interaction between elements of programming, context, as well as the attitudes and behaviors of interventionists. framework in order to achieve the goals of violence prevention education we will rely heavily on teachers to explicitly educate as well as to create climates that support the learning and use of cr skills, nonviolent responses to conflict, and attitudes of tolerance. therefore we must understand what impacts teacher practice through the investigation of decision-making processes, theories of self-efficacy, research in cre, program fidelity, and teacher perceptions and beliefs. the two primary theories that provided the framework from which this project developed are rational choice (rct) and self-efficacy. these theories provided the lens through which one might understand why teacher perceptions and beliefs are important in improving the field of conflict resolution in education. rational choice theory—as modified by the concept of bounded rationality—and theories of hypothetical thinking provide the framework for understanding how implicit and explicit thinking systems interact in analysis and “rational” decision-making. it clarifies how perceptions and beliefs of external factors influence an individual’s choice making behavior. in this case it suggests that teachers will opt to adopt cre programming when benefits are perceived to outweigh costs. costs may include competing objectives (simon, 1982) and a tendency to resort to the “tried and true” friedrichs and opp (2002, p. 410). bandura’s theory of self-efficacy further clarifies choice-making behavior by addressing internal factors that affect choices—specifically the level of volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 11 confidence that an individual possesses in taking successful action in a given situation (bandura, 1977). an individual develops a sense of self-efficacy through information derived from personal performance accomplishments, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states. beliefs of self-efficacy impact choice of what goals to work toward, the level of effort and perseverance put forward in their attainment, and how much stress one experiences as a result of the consideration of particular actions or behaviors associated with the goals (bandura, 1986, 1989). those who feel confident in their abilities to manage specific situations, or in successfully engaging in activities toward a desired outcome will be more likely to set successively more challenging goals, put more effort forward in reaching them, be more resilient to setbacks in these efforts, and experience less emotional distress in the process. concepts of self-efficacy are important in that teachers must have confidence in their abilities in using and teaching violence prevention approaches if they are expected to put forward great effort and persistence. self-efficacy is not the only factor involved in decision making, however. incentives to execute an action are also at play. for example, one may believe that they possess the ability to successfully take action but they may not value the outcome sufficiently or perceive the action to be effective or valid. that the outcome is valuable and the action valid is incentive to take action. the value of outcome, outcome expectation, and the certainty of success work side by side (figure 1). taken together, the rct and theory of self-efficacy essentially suggest that a teacher will weigh the costs and value of expected outcomes of utilizing a cre program. if that teacher believes that the program is valuable (outweighing the costs of implementation), the action to be valid, and believes that he or she can successfully implement it, then the likelihood of use of the program in increased. figure 1. connection between efficacy and outcome expectations. adapted from bandura, 1977, p. 193. examination of violence prevention literature to determine its potential value, studies in the role of program adherence (sometimes referred to as treatment outcome use of violence prevention method cost/benefit analysis individual teacher outcome value (importance of outcome) efficacy expectation (ability to successfully act) outcome expectation (effectiveness of the approach) volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 12 integrity or fidelity), and research focused on the impact of the educator illuminates the importance of teacher beliefs. some research suggests that treatment integrity is closely related to positive outcomes (biggs, vernberg, twemlow, fonagy, & dill, 2008; digennaro, martens, & kleinmann, 2007; hirschstein, van schoiack edstrom, frey, snell, & mackenzie, 2007; wilder, atwell, & wine, 2006). other studies have revealed an association between teacher beliefs and treatment integrity. the manner of treatment delivery has been found to be associated with beliefs of effectiveness or outcome value as well as competing objectives (melde, esbensen, & tusinski, 2006; and ringwalt et al., 2003;). further, teacher training appears to be a key factor in teacher perceptions of programs (dang, 2009; maughan, 2009; mccaleb, andersen, & hueston, 2008; and sterling-turner, watson, wilmon, watkins, & little, 2001). while past research indicates that factors such as training and social validity impact program fidelity and that perception of costs, benefits, and practicality may be obstacles to implementing new programs in schools, there seems to be a gap in the literature. the literature indicates that teacher perceptions and beliefs are important but there is currently no connection made to understand if and how perceptions and beliefs of violence prevention approaches are related to variables such as training, experience, and self-efficacy. exploration of how teachers perceive various violence prevention approaches and their abilities to utilize them effectively provides the opportunity to improve teacher training and the conditions under which cre and other violence prevention approaches may flourish. research questions according to the literature, violence prevention approaches are a valuable tool in teaching students interpersonal problem-solving skills and social responsibility. we have learned that specific programs can result in specific outcomes. data indicate that the implementation of one or more approaches holds promise toward achievement of the goals of peace educators. given that these programs have such potential the next step is to examine how teacher practice impacts the success of any effort. further guiding our inquiry, research suggests that teacher practice is influenced by perceptions. rq1a: in what ways are teachers’ outcome expectations of violence prevention approaches related to demographic variables? rq1b: in what ways are teachers’ outcome expectations of violence prevention approaches related to background variables (i.e. training and teaching history)? rq2a: in what ways are teachers’ outcome expectations of cre related to demographic variables? volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 13 rq2b: in what ways are teachers’ outcome expectations of cre related to background variables (i.e. training and teaching history)? rq3: in what ways are teachers’ beliefs of self-efficacy in using violence prevention measures related to demographic variables? rq4: in what ways are teachers’ beliefs of self-efficacy in using violence prevention measures related to background variables? rq5: in what ways is the outcome value teachers place on violence prevention related to demographic variables? rq6: in what ways is the outcome value teachers place on violence prevention related to background variables? methodology this research project was a quantitative design utilizing a survey developed and tested by previous research (kandakai & king 2002a; kandakai & king 2002b). this design was selected due to its ability to collect data from a large sample for the purpose of exploring teacher perceptions. the goals of the research were to identify potential relationships between independent and dependent variables that may impact teachers’ choice behavior as related to violence prevention approaches and curriculum. participants. kindergarten through grade 12 teachers of two school districts in central florida were sampled for the purpose of obtaining a variety of experiences with violence prevention approaches and training, and differentiating how these experiences may relate to perceptions of violence prevention approaches. district a and b were selected due to their size and policies regarding cre and other prevention programs. district a employed over 25,000 faculty, staff, and administrators in order to serve more than 180,000 kindergarten through grade 12 students with 139 elementary, 43 middle, and 25 high schools. all schools in district a had peer mediation programs. district b served almost 104,000 kindergarten through grade 12 students. there were over 17,000 full time faculty, staff, and administrators employed in the district. district b offered training in violence prevention, peer mediation, character development, and bullying prevention. as with many other districts in florida these programs were not mandated by the district but may have been selected for use by schools. access to these populations was obtained from the research and assessment departments of both districts through the submission and acceptance of research proposal applications. volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 14 the sample size was determined by population size, confidence level, precision—or confidence interval—and variability. for the purposes of this project the variability was set at 0.05—high variability—as a conservative estimate. there were a total of 15,938 teachers employed in both districts. with a confidence interval of 5%, a confidence level of 95% (95% certainty that the true percentages fall within ±5% of results), 399 responses were required. the total sample number was 409 with 194 from district a and 214 from district b. process. this exploratory research project was quantitative whereby a correlational survey with likert-type responses was utilized to address the research questions. the data required to answer the research questions were derived from the following variables: (a) demographic items; (b) background items, including teaching and training experience; and (c) teacher beliefs including those regarding the value of the outcomes of violence prevention approaches, the effectiveness of violence prevention approaches, and confidence in utilizing them. the variables were broken down into indicators about which survey items were composed. this design allowed for the analysis of ordinal and nominal values of the independent variables against ordinal values of the dependent variables. all independent variables were compared to all dependent variables. instrumentation and variables data were collected via a survey instrument (see appendix) developed by drs. keith a. king and tina l. kandakai of university of cincinnati and kent state university respectively (2002b) and an additional item from a related survey authored by the same researchers (2002a). the survey was developed using bandura’s model of self-efficacy (1977). the survey utilized here was essentially comprised of five subscales: demographics, teacher background, outcome value, efficacy expectation, and outcome expectation (table 1) utilizing likert-type responses to various items within the subscales. outcome value, efficacy expectation, and outcome expectation subscales were tested for use in the kandakai & king studies (2002a, 2002b). independent variables include demographic and background information. demographic factors such as age, gender, level of education, race, and occupation have been identified as significant in prediction of choice behavior (hadley & scheingold, 1993; jaber & moore, 1999; prasad, 2010; and wozney, venkatesh, & abrami, 2006). there were seven demographic items which include age, school district, highest degree earned, sex, race/ethnicity, title i status of school, and teaching certification. background factors suggest the level and type of experience of a teacher. the background items identified here numbered four and included years teaching, exposure to violence at school, training type, and training amount. volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 15 table 1 variable, subscale, and item identification independent variables dependent variables and factors i. demographics a. age b. sex c. race/ethnicity iii. outcome value a. importance of preventing violence b. value of teaching skills v. outcome expectation student skills a. respect for differences b. social discrimination c. seeking assistance in conflict d. use of nonthreatening language e. remaining calm in conflict f. use of cr skills g. nonviolent responses to conflict h. use of peer mediation preventative measures a. teacher training b. cre punitive responses a. detention b. suspension ii. background a. degree b. years teaching c. district d. title i status e. position f. exposure to violence at school g. training type h. training amount iv. efficacy expectation a. respect for differences b. social discrimination c. seeking assistance in conflict d. use of nonthreatening language e. remaining calm in conflict f. use of cr skills g. nonviolent responses to conflict h. use of peer mediation validity, reliability, and analysis procedures. demographic and background queries as well as subscales for efficacy expectation, outcome expectation, and outcome value were developed and tested for validity and reliability by the survey’s authors based on a single study. to establish stability reliability the instruments were subjected to test-retest procedure whereby they were completed by a convenience sample of 25 teachers, then again one week later. coefficients for efficacy expectation, outcome expectation, outcome value, and strategy effectiveness were 0.73, 0.67, 0.75, and 0.79 respectively. internal reliability was calculated using the cronbach’s alpha and were 0.84, 0.96, 0.45, and 0.87 respectively. the relatively low coefficient for outcome value may be a result of the low number of items addressing this variable. validity measures included those for face, content, and construct validity. face validity was established for the common approaches section of the outcome expectation subscale (subscale v, item 4) by submitting the instrument to two experts in the field of health education. revisions based on the recommendations of these individuals were made as necessary. content validity for this subscale was established via a thorough review of the literature. a principal components analysis was conducted to establish construct validity of subscales iii, iv, and v (item 3) which indicated the three clusters of items. these were consistent with the bandura model undergirding the survey. criterion loadings for efficacy-outcome items, outcome expectation items (item 3), and outcome value items were at minimum 0.69, 0.82, and 0.86 respectively. volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 16 quantitative analysis involved examination of the independent variables against the dependent variables utilizing descriptive and inferential statistics. responses to items in subscales iii, iv, and v used a likert-type scale with five option choices (“strongly agree-strongly disagree” and “extremely effectiveextremely ineffective”) making these variables ordinal. independent ordinal variables were demographic and background items including age (20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60+ years), highest degree completed (bachelor, master, specialist, doctoral degrees) years teaching (0-3, 4-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20+ years) exposure to violence (never, rarely, monthly, weekly, daily), and amount of training (1-3, 4-6, 7+ hours). other independent variables were nominal including sex, title i status, certification, and training type. examination of differences between groups was conducted to reveal variance through multivariate analysis of variance (manova). the groups were disaggregated by the independent variables and variance of the dependent variables was analyzed. manova analyses performed include the eleven independent variables (age, school district, highest degree, sex, race/ethnicity, title i status, teacher certification, years teaching, exposure to violence, training type, and training amount) separately against four groups of dependent variable indicators. the first and second groups contain the indicators of efficacy expectation and outcome expectation specific to violence prevention skills respectively: (a) respect for differences, (b) social discrimination, (c) seeking assistance in conflict, (d) use of nonthreatening language, (e) remaining calm in conflict, (f) use of cr skills, (g) nonviolent responses to conflict, and (h) use of peer mediation (table 2). indicators of outcome expectation of preventative methods of responding for violence made up the third group: teacher training and teaching students specific violence prevention skills. the fourth group was comprised of outcome expectation of punitive responses: detention and suspension. those manovas that suggested significant differences in the dependent variables based on the independent variables were further examined utilizing anova to separate the categories of the independent variables for examination against specific indicators of each dependent variable. table 2 dependent variables—efficacy expectation i believe that i can effectively teach students to ____________________________. effexp.0 respect others who are of different national origin or ethnicity effexp.1 not discriminate against others based on social differences effexp.2 seek help from school staff when they encounter conflict with others effexp.3 use nonthreatening language when speaking to others effexp.4 remain calm when they encounter conflict with others effexp.5 use conflict resolution skills effexp.6 refrain from fighting when they encounter conflict with others effexp.7 use peer mediators when they encounter difficult situations with others volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 17 data analysis and discussion descriptive data. the majority of respondents were female (80%), white (80%), and had been teaching for at least four years (84%) (table 3). participants ranged in age with more than half reportedly in their 40s or 50s and about 25% in the youngest and oldest categories (20s and 60+ respectively). respondents worked in two school districts: district a (47%) and district b (52%). more than 52% worked in title i funded schools. current teaching position was a multiple response set (i.e. respondents were able to select more than one response). almost 40% identified themselves as elementary teachers and nearly 45% as secondary teachers. about 20% reported teaching exceptional student education (ese) and about 7% were reportedly specialists (art, music, or physical education). higher frequencies of exposure to violence were reported in district b, title i funded schools, and among ese and secondary teachers. overall, 75% of respondents reported encountering violence no more than a few times per year. about 12% of respondents in district a reported encountering violence daily or weekly whereas 15% of those in district b reported this level of exposure. 19% of those teaching in title i funded schools reported encountering violence daily or weekly whereas only 7% of respondents in non-title i schools reported this level of violence. approximately 17% of ese and 16% secondary teachers reported encountering violence at this level as compared to 11% of elementary teachers. bullying prevention was the most common type of training received by respondents (73%) followed by crisis intervention (64%). almost half (47%) of respondents received training in conflict resolution whereas peer mediation was received by less than one third (30%) of participating teachers. anger management was received by only about one in five (21%) respondents. overall more ese teachers reported having had at least three types of training (53%) followed by elementary (46%), specialists (45%), then secondary (43%). a greater percentage of respondents from district b had three or more types of training (49%) compared to district a (41%). more respondents in district a had been trained in peer mediation (32%) than in district b (29%). however, in all other included areas more district b teachers had received training. table 3. descriptive data item n % _________________________________________________________ age (years) 20-29 59 14.4 30-39 86 21 40-49 101 24.7 50-59 109 26.7 60+ 51 12.5 race/ethnicity volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 18 black 38 9.3 white 328 80.2 asian 2 0.5 hispanic 23 5.6 multiracial 6 1.5 other 11 2.7 gender female 326 79.7 male 81 19.8 education level bachelor’s 214 52.3 master’s 173 42.3 specialist 11 2.7 doctorate 8 2.0 years teaching 0-3 64 15.6 4-9 122 29.8 10-14 65 15.9 15-19 45 11 20+ 113 27.6 district a 194 47.4 b 214 52.3 title i school yes 213 52.1 no 192 46.9 current position elementary 162 39.6 secondary 183 44.7 ese 82 20 specialist 29 7.1 exposure to violence never/almost never 156 38.1 a few times per year 149 36.4 monthly 48 11.7 weekly 38 9.3 daily 18 4.4 training received bullying prevention 299 73.1 peer mediation 123 30.1 conflict resolution 194 47.4 anger management 84 20.5 crisis intervention 260 63.9 ___________________________________________________________ n= 409 teachers surveyed outcome expectation. there were no significant differences discovered in the outcome expectation of the specific student skills between those exposed to violence more or less frequently or based on teaching experience and background. however, discrepancies were noted in the percentages of respondents who had positive outcome expectations for specific violence prevention skills and those who had actually received the training related to the same skills. for example almost volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 19 92% reported that teaching students to use conflict resolution skills would prevent violence but only about 47% had been trained in conflict resolution. similarly about 92% perceived remaining calm and refraining from fighting—skills associated with anger management—positively, while only about 21% had been trained in this area. further examination of relevant factors may be warranted to explain why this is so. relative to outcome expectation of preventative methods (i.e., training teachers in violence prevention and teaching students to solve problems with words) females and those with peer mediation training had higher mean scores for teaching students to use words than males or those without peer mediation training. whether individuals value this as a result of peer mediation training or perhaps pursued this training because of this value is not clear. efficacy expectation. perceptions were analyzed against numerous factors including variety and type of training in violence prevention, amount and type of teaching experience, and school and personal demographic data. the self-efficacy model suggests that more opportunities to practice a behavior—in this case teaching students skills to resolve conflict—would result in a stronger sense of confidence in one’s ability to effectively do so. it would be expected that more experienced teachers and those more frequently exposed to violence in schools would have had substantial opportunities for practicing skills and therefore building confidence. however, this study did not find significant differences in perceptions of selfefficacy based on age, years of teaching experience, exposure to violence, teaching position, or the title i status of the respondent’s school. while this seems contrary to self-efficacy theory, it might be explained by other intervening factors related to specific job-related dynamics including the leadership style, expectations at the school and district level, an individual’s values, worldview, evaluation of experiences, and teaching style/philosophy. outcome value. the vast majority of participants valued violence prevention: 96% believing preventing violence is important and 90% believing that teaching students violence prevention skills is important. the discrepancy between the percentages may be attributed to the belief that preventing violence is associated less with student skill than some other variable. investigating how law enforcement, community and family, school administrators, and other relevant entities are perceived in terms of preventing school violence, in conjunction with teaching students skills, might provide information that would connect efforts across contexts. manova/anova analysis among the statistically significant findings a theme emerged: training history including variety of training, specific topics, and the interaction effects of volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 20 combinations of training impacted perceptions of self-efficacy and outcome expectation more significantly than other demographic and background characteristics. greater variety in training yielded higher efficacy expectation scores in 75% of efficacy expectation variables. manova examined differences between efficacy expectation variables and the level of variety in training received, f (40, 1980) = 1.809, p = .002, pillai’s trace = .176, partial eta squared = .035. when considered separately, six of the dependent variables reached statistical significance using a bonferroni adjusted alpha of .006. teaching students not to discriminate against others based on social differences (effexp 1), to use nonthreatening language (effexp. 3), to remain calm in conflict (effexp. 4), to use conflict resolution skills (effexp. 5), to refrain from fighting (effexp. 6), and to use peer mediators (effexp. 7) reached statistical significance. the mean scores indicated that respondents who received no training or one training differed significantly in their reported levels of efficacy in these variables from those who received three, four, or five types of training who reported incrementally higher efficacy scores. higher efficacy scores were associated with more variety of training. in almost all cases efficacy expectation mean scores increased incrementally based on the number of trainings received. having covered all five training topics had a consistently positive effect on perceptions of selfefficacy. having three or four had an only slightly less significant impact. this result suggests that the provision of a variety of training for teachers may benefit violence prevention practice by increasing perceptions of efficacy which may lead to an increase in consistent and effective utilization of various conflict resolution education programs and strategies. different trainings yielded different efficacy expectation results across efficacy variables. some training courses affected many variables while others only a few. conflict resolution had positive effects on all of the eight variables’ means. bullying prevention saw similar results with the efficacy scores of seven variables effected. peer mediation had statistically significant results with six while crisis intervention impacted three of the variables (tables 4-7). table 4 peer mediation training and efficacy expectation effexp.1 effexp.3 effexp.4 effexp.5 effexp.6 effexp.7 f (1, 402) = 11.982 8.818 17.158 25.172 14.635 31.404 p = .001 .003 .000 .000 .000 .000 partial eta squared = .029 .021 .041 .059 .035 .072 pm training m = 4.48 sd = .660 m = 4.47 sd = .709 m = 4.37 sd = .709 m = 4.43 sd = .603 m = 4.35 sd = .692 m = 4.26 sd = .761 no pm training m = 4.22 sd = .706 m = 4.25 sd = .718 m = 4.01 sd = .840 m = 4.03 sd = .778 m = 4.02 sd = .821 m = 3.75 sd = .873 volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 21 note. significant at the p = <.006 level. table 5 conflict resolution training and efficacy expectation effexp.0 effexp.1 effexp.2 effexp.3 effexp.4 effexp.5 effexp.6 effexp.7 f (1, 402) = 8.590 11.003 10.460 12.229 23.396 25.751 17.376 12.410 p = .004 .001 .001 .001 .000 .000 .000 .000 partial eta squared = .021 .027 .025 .030 .055 .060 .041 .030 cr training m = 4.42 sd = .667 m = 4.41 sd = .682 m = 4.48 sd = .597 m = 4.44 sd = .612 m = 4.32 sd = .709 m = 4.35 sd = .621 m = 4.29 sd = .722 m = 4.06 sd = .856 no cr training m = 4.22 sd = .689 m = 4.18 sd = .737 m = 4.28 sd = .641 m = 4.20 sd = .741 m = 3.93 sd = .872 m = 3.98 sd = .815 m = 3.96 sd = .835 m = 3.76 sd = .865 note. significant at the p = <.006 level. table 6 bullying prevention training and efficacy expectation effexp.0 effexp.1 effexp.3 effexp.4 effexp.5 effexp.6 effexp.7 f (1, 402) = 8.554 15.992 15.384 15.978 12.200 12.110 7.956 p = .004 .000 .000 .000 .001 .001 .005 partial eta squared = .021 .038 .037 .038 .030 .029 .020 bp training m = 4.38 sd = .647 m = 4.38 sd = .663 m = 4.39 sd = .618 m = 4.21 sd = .768 m = 4.23 sd = .709 m = 4.20 sd = .762 m = 3.98 sd = .863 no bp training m = 4.16 sd = .689 m = 4.07 sd = .756 m = 4.09 sd = .819 m = 3.85 sd = .899 m = 3.95 sd = .827 m = 3.89 sd = .850 m = 3.70 sd = .871 note. significant at the p = <.006 level. table 7 crisis intervention training and efficacy expectation effexp.3 effexp.4 effexp.5 f (1, 401) = 8.179 13.030 13.086 p = .004 .000 .000 partial eta squared = .020 .031 .032 ci training m = 4.39 sd = .647 m = 4.23 sd = .733 m = 4.25 sd = .680 no ci training m = 4.18 sd = .750 m = 3.93 sd = .922 m = 3.97 sd = .835 note. significant at the p = <.006 level. volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 22 other ways to examine the impact of specific trainings on efficacy is to look at the differences in mean scores between those who received the training and those who did not using independent-samples t-tests and to review the partial eta squared statistic. examination of these statistics can give an indication of the strength of the training to impact efficacy in teaching specific skills. partial eta squared suggests the effect size or “magnitude of differences between the means” by identifying how much of the variance is explained by the training (pallant, 2010, p. 210). according to pallant one can utilize guidelines established by cohen (1988) for evaluating eta squared: small effect size, .01 (1%); moderate effect size, .06 (6%); and large effect size, .138 (14%). examination of means and partial eta squared statistics allows some tentative conclusions to be drawn about strengths of particular trainings (table 8). peer mediation had the greatest effect on teaching students to use peer mediators, (eta squared = .075); use conflict resolution skills, (eta squared = .055); remain calm in conflict, (eta squared = .039); and refrain from fighting, (eta squared = .033). conflict resolution training had the greatest effect on teaching students to use conflict resolution skills, (eta squared = .057); remain table 8 efficacy means differences and eta squared statistic note. pm = peer mediation; cr= conflict resolution; bp = bullying prevention; ci= crisis intervention; am= anger management calm in conflict, (eta squared = .051); and refrain from fighting, (eta squared = .039). bullying prevention training had the greatest effect on teaching students to not discriminate based on social differences, (eta squared = .037); remain calm in conflict, (eta squared = .036); and use nonthreatening language when speaking to others, (eta squared = .033). crisis intervention training had the largest effect on effexp. 0 effexp. 1 effexp. 2 effexp. 3 effexp. 4 effexp. 5 effexp. 6 effexp. 7 p m mea n diff .18 .25 .17 .20 .35 .38 .32 .51 effec t size .016 .028 .015 .017 .039 .055 .033 .075 cr mea n diff .19 .23 .20 .22 .37 .36 .32 .30 effec t size .020 .026 .025 .026 .051 .057 .039 .029 bp mea n diff .21 .31 .15 .29 .35 .29 .30 .27 effec t size .020 .037 .012 .033 .036 .028 .028 .019 ci mea n diff -.18 .14 .19 .29 .27 .19 - effec t size -.006 .005 .007 .029 .031 .013 - a m mea n diff .21 .18 .17 .21 .34 .31 .30 .26 effec t size .015 .010 .012 .015 .028 .028 .023 .015 volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 23 teaching students to use conflict resolution skills, (eta squared = .031); and remain calm in conflict, (eta squared = .029). while there is some overlap with these results it suggests that particular topics have an effect on specific skills. this supports the indication that the greater the level of variety in training the greater the perception of efficacy. discussion implications. a possible implication of these data is that these school districts might work to include a greater variety of training for their teachers. according to the survey, less than a quarter (22%) of respondents received peer mediation training through their school district (table 9). less than one third (33%) of respondents received district conflict resolution training, while more than one half had the benefit of district training in bullying prevention and crisis intervention (56% and 51% respectively). whether this was due to the failure of the districts to offer all of these topics or a result of teachers simply not taking advantage of the opportunities is unclear. further investigation of the reasons that more teachers are not more broadly trained would be a topic worth pursuing in an effort to increase teacher perceptions of self-efficacy in teaching violence prevention skills to students. respondents with more variety in their training history tended to perceive themselves as more effective in teaching violence prevention skills to students while certain combinations of trainings resulted in lower self-efficacy scores in teaching some skills to students. interaction between pairs of training courses on efficacy expectations suggested that some combinations may depress perceptions of efficacy. for example, having had training in conflict resolution did not yield higher means in teaching conflict resolution skills to students than having bullying prevention training. nor did it yield higher means in three of the efficacy variables than having neither training. it is unclear as to why conflict resolution training has this weaker effect on perceptions of efficacy when not combined with bullying prevention. conflict resolution training tends to focus on how actors in conflict can use problem solving processes and improve communication skills while bullying prevention programs often look more closely at developing student tolerance and on bystander skills. perhaps it is when conflict is addressed from the perceptions of all involved—actors and bystanders—that teachers see themselves as better able to effectively teach students to remain calm, use conflict resolution skills, and refrain from fighting. through a more thorough examination of the content and objectives of each course, the manner in which bullying prevention and conflict resolution together seem to boost self-efficacy might be better understood. crisis intervention training resulted in lower efficacy means than peer mediation in three of the variables when analyzed for interaction. this may be due to the difference in intensity of conflict that each area addressed. peer mediation is volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 24 used for lower level conflicts where parties are typically rational and able to use problem-solving strategies whereas crisis intervention is utilized for managing serious and emotionally volatile situations. not surprisingly those with peer mediation training felt more confident in their abilities to teach students to stay calm in conflict than those with crisis intervention training. this may be a result of the differing levels of intensity associated with the issues addressed by the two strategies. having both trainings had a positive effect on efficacy scores suggesting that learning the skills to assist students at both ends of the conflict spectrum is beneficial. as with the combination of bullying prevention and conflict resolution, addressing conflict and violence prevention from multiple angles may give teachers an increased sense of empowerment and confidence. further, a majority of participants valued violence prevention: 96% believing preventing violence is important and 90% believing that teaching students violence prevention skills is important. the discrepancy between the percentages may be attributed to the belief that preventing violence is associated less with student skill than some other variable. investigating how law enforcement, community and family, school administrators, and other relevant entities are perceived in terms of preventing school violence, in conjunction with teaching students skills, might provide information that would connect efforts across contexts. future research. future research may be warranted in light of the results of this research in the areas already discussed and in the broader context. first, a more thorough examination of specific trainings may provide a clearer understanding of how content impacts the various areas of efficacy expectation in teaching violence prevention. while the data from this project indicated that certain trainings yielded significant differences between individuals with and without training in specific areas of efficacy, it is not clear how this connects to the content of that training. by comparing the content with perceptions of efficacy in these skills, districts may better evaluate the objectives of trainings. also in terms of a school/teacher focus, qualitative examination of perceptions of obstacles and drivers to teacher choice behavior, cre, and student skills may have the ability to contribute a richness of experience that was beyond the scope of this exploratory project. questions that remain include those surrounding the lived experiences of teachers—perceived successes and failures, beliefs about violence and conflict among students and in the community, competing resources that may limit teacher practice, and the dynamics of school-based cultures. second, a greater understanding of the context of violence may inform the development of innovative violence prevention strategies in schools. research suggests that socioeconomic status, exposure to violence in the home and community, race/ethnicity, family cohesion, and other social conditions are correlated to youth violence (demosthenous, bourhours, & denosthenous, 2002; volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 25 ennett, flewelling, & pashall, 1998; pearlman, zierler, gjelsvik, & verhoekoftedahl, 2003; riner & saywell, 2002; st. george & thomas, 1997; singh & ghandour, 2012; sullivan, klingbeil, & van norman, 2013) therefore addressing only one element of the equation may be insufficient. further, there is a substantial body of research that indicates that african american youth are disproportionately subjected to exclusionary disciplinary practices (balfanz, byrnes, & fox, 2013; the center for civil rights remedies, 2013; frank, hawken, tobin, & vincent, 2012; vincent, sprague, & tobin, 2012). looking at issues of race, sociodemographic factors, and psychosocial factors in the system in which schools are couched may result in greater success in reduction of violence. one such innovative program is in place in broward county, florida. the promise program is an initiative designed to intervene in student behavior incidents that might be handled by juvenile justice or those related to bullying or harassment, including drug/alcohol infractions, assault/threats, fighting, theft, and vandalism. the program utilizes a system of care approach that involves academic assistance, counseling, social skills/cr training, prevention activities, restorative justice, parental involvement, and support from other community agencies. such programs address the problem of youth violence systemically rather than symptomatically. third, to more fully understand choice behavior in this context, more research would be required. one area concerns how teachers perceive the costs of implementation. bounded rationality, as described by simon (1982), asserts that people make rational decisions only to the extent that they are cognitively able to process the relevant information. simon states that “the bounds are the bounds on knowledge, bounds on calculation, multiple objectives, or competing objectives” (simon in an interview with augier, 2001, p. 272). without knowledge, one cannot fully consider options. this supports the notion that teachers must be adequately trained and oriented to violence prevention approaches. however, teachers are often overwhelmed by demands on instructional time and academic accountability. many cre programs require extensive training and they may be perceived by educators as just one more “objective.” furthermore, cre may be viewed as an objective that is in competition with other academic responsibilities. as a result, an educator’s ability to consider the benefits of cre may be limited by the costs associated with multiple demands. a more thorough understanding of how teachers perceive these cost is warranted. conclusion. it is not uncommon for efforts to reduce violence at the school level to include strategies such as metal detectors, locked campuses, and the presence of law enforcement. these methods attempt to control violence externally through suppression. but there are a number of methods that seek to teach students the skills to resolve conflicts, express emotions, and learn to communicate more effectively. these peace education methods are not aimed at suppression but constructive conflict resolution. harris & morrison (2003) suggest that peace education addresses violence on three levels: peacekeeping, peace-building, and volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 26 peacemaking. peacekeeping is viewed as the creation of an “orderly learning climate” in schools (harris & morrison, 2003, p. 11). this relates to stable and well-functioning schools. the primary charge of peace-building is to affect the underlying desire in students for a non-violent, socially just future. peacemaking is manifested in various conflict resolution (cr) and management strategies including bullying prevention, peer mediation, development of negotiation and problem solving skills, anger management, and crisis intervention. cr in schools is essentially a microcosm of the field of cr such that strong, comprehensive programs in schools are borne of the goals, contributions, and foci of the field. cr addresses issues such as (a) methods of resolving conflict, (b) establishing socially just environments, and (c) developing/institutionalizing systems for managing conflict. in schools comprehensive cr programs (a) teach students skills for resolving conflict, (b) teach about social justice, and (c) establish systems for managing conflict in the school setting. disciplines that contribute to the field include international and labor relations; professions such as law, business, or public administration; social justice movements; and peace studies. school cr programs draw from contributions of social justice movements and peace studies. types of conflict addressed by cr range from interpersonal to international. interpersonal and intergroup conflicts are the primary foci in school-based cr programs, but strong programs will infuse cr foci throughout academic content. while we can make programs available to schools and classrooms, teachers must utilize them with fidelity to see the desired results. self-efficacy theory suggests that an individual is more likely to employ strategies when he or she feels as though they will be successful. training is one step in the process of building the required perceptions of self-efficacy in teachers that may be required to fully and viably implement conflict resolution education programs. self-efficacy, which often begins with training, might involve establishing coaching programs so that teachers can then feel success through performance accomplishments. the results of this study suggest that teachers with training in multiple domains of violence prevention perceive the greatest sense of self-efficacy in teaching students the skills necessary to prevent violence. the policies that drive the training of new and veteran teachers might benefit from a broadening of requirements such that recipients are expected to obtain a more comprehensive set of skills and knowledge. while this might look different from state to state and district to district, a set of standards can be created similar to the common core standards for academics that would provide the necessary range of training to strengthen perceptions of selfefficacy. through systematic examination of training and teacher perceptions, school districts may target and hone training programs, modify training requirements, and work toward systems to maintain teacher self-efficacy. with the goal of embedding teacher-centered skills, knowledge, and beliefs in the larger context of violence prevention in the community we might better create conflict volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 27 resolution programs with the necessary longevity to be successful in preventing violence in school and building pro-social skills for society’s future adults. volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 28 references augier, m. 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(2002). effects of conflict resolution training integrated into a high school social studies curriculum. the journal of social psychology 142(3), 305-332. sullivan, a.l., klingbeil, d.a., & van norman, e.r. (2013). beyond behavior: multilevel analysis of the influence of sociodemographics and school characteristics on students’ risk of suspension. school psychology review 42(1): 99-114. turnuklu, a., kacmaz, t., gurler, s., sevkin, b., & burcak, f. (2010). the effects of volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 33 conflict resolution and peer mediation training on primary school students’ level of aggression. education 3-13 38(1), 13-22. turnuklu, a., kacmaz, t., gurler, s., turk, f., & kalender, a. (2010). the effects of conflict resolution and peer mediation training on turkish elementary school students’ conflict resolution strategies. journal of peace education 7(1), 33-45. vera, e.m., shin, r.q., montgomery, g.p., mildner, c., & speight, s.l. (2004). conflict resolution styles, self efficacy, self control, and future orientation of urban adolescents. professional school counseling 8(1), 73-80. vincent, c.g., sprague, j.r., & tobin, t.j. (2012). exclusionary discipline practices across students’ racial/ethnic backgrounds and disability status: findings from the pacific northwest. education and treatment of children 35(4): 585-601. volungis, a. m. (2016). school size and youth violence: the mediating role of school connectedness. north american journal of psychology 18, 123-146. welsh, w.n. (2000). the effects of school climate on school disorder. the annals of the american academy of political and social science 567(1), 88-107. wilder, d.a., atwell, j., & wine, b. ( 2006). the effects of varying levels of treatment integrity on child compliance during treatment with a three-step prompting procedure. journal of applied behavior analysis 39(3), 369-374. wozney, l., venkatesh, v., & abrami, p.c. (2006). implementing computer technologies: teachers’ perceptions and practices. journal of technology and teacher education 14(1), 173-207. appendix: survey instrument volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 34 age________ years teaching ________ district __________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ highest degree completed bachelor master specialist doctorate ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ sex male female ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ race/ethnicity white black asian hispanic other ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ do you teach at a title i school? yes no ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ certification (please circle those that reflect your current teaching position) elementary (k-5) secondary (6-12) ese pre-k specialist (pe, art, music) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ about how often do you encounter situations that result in either violence or staff intervention to prevent violence? never/almost never a few times per year monthly weekly daily ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ please indicate your participation in the following trainings. bullying prevention yes no ___________hours peer mediation yes no ___________hours conflict resolution yes no ___________hours anger management yes no ___________hours crisis intervention/prevention yes no ___________hours ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ 1. please use a five point scale in which 1 is strongly disagree and 5 is strongly agree to rate the following statements: _____i believe preventing school violence is important. _____i value teaching violence prevention skills to students. 2. please use a five point scale in which 1 is strongly disagree and 5 is strongly agree to complete the following statement: volume 13 number (2019): 1-35 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 35 i believe i can effectively teach students to________________________. _____respect others who are of a different national origin or ethnicity _____not discriminate against others based on social differences (i.e. gender, class, physical disability) _____seek help from school staff when they encounter conflict with others _____use nonthreatening language when speaking to others _____remain calm when they encounter conflict _____conflict resolution skills _____refrain from fighting when they encounter conflict with others _____use peer mediators when they encounter difficult situations with others _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. please use a five point scale in which 1 is strongly disagree and 5 is strongly agree to complete the following statement: if i effectively teach students to __________________it will prevent school violence. _____respect others who are of a different national origin or ethnicity _____not discriminate against others based on social differences (i.e. gender, class, physical disability) _____seek help from school staff when they encounter conflict with others _____use nonthreatening language when speaking to others _____remain calm when they encounter conflict _____conflict resolution skills _____refrain from fighting when they encounter conflict with others _____use peer mediators when they encounter difficult situations with others _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. please use a five point scale in which 1 is extremely ineffective and 5 is extremely effective to answer the following question. how effective do you believe each of the following is to reduce school violence? _____training teachers and school staff in violence prevention _____teaching children to resolve problems with words _____requesting parent/teacher meeting at school for those involved _____referring students to the school counselor _____referring students to the principal _____keeping students after school _____suspending students from school ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ microsoft word ifp v 17 salazar cruces.docx volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 20 volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 nuevas realidades, nuevas prácticas educativas: esbozo de un espacio socio-reflexivo en la formación en psicología social en venezuela1. josé félix salazar cruces orcid 0000-0001-7905-9328 universidad central de venezuela escuela de psicología, departamento de psicología social doctorando en paz, conflicto y desarrollo en la universidad jaume i alterjf@gmail.com el aumento de la violencia y muertes por armas de fuego en venezuela durante las últimas décadas es otra cara del conflicto social y político que resulta una realidad ilegible para los sectores medios y desde el nivel de análisis exclusivamente psicológico. para superar estos obstáculos etnocéntricos y epistemológicos, que dificultan comprender los impactos de la violencia estructural, se ha ensayado un dispositivo pedagógico socio-reflexivo en la formación en psicología social en la ucv. a partir del análisis cualitativo de 23 entrevistas y cuestionarios a estudiantes, se sistematizan sus principios organizadores: la reconstrucción narrativa, autoetnográfica e interseccional de la trayectoria social del estudiantado; el diálogo interdisciplinar e interdiscursivo; el cuestionamiento práctico de la relación pedagógica tradicional y la reconsideración de la función pública de los/las intelectuales. se reportan impactos en los posicionamientos identitarios, las visiones de mundo de los/las participantes y el reconocimiento de la heterogeneidad de mundos de vida. este ensayo pedagógico puede servir como punto de apoyatura para repensar el qué y el cómo de los procesos formativos de las universidades venezolanas y su papel público en el reconocimiento y diálogo con sujetos sociales y políticos, para transformar, con ellos, las violencias y desigualdades que experimentan. palabras claves: desigualdad, obstáculos epistemológicos, educación para la paz, socio-reflexividad, formación en psicología. absract: 1 agradezco a la fundación carolina por el financiamiento de mis estudios de doctorado que me ha permitido sistematizar esta experiencia. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 21 the rise of violence and deaths by fire arms during the past decades in venezuela is another aspect of the social and political conflict which results in an nonunderstandable reality for middle class sectors, and from an exclusive psychological analysis. in order to overcomen ethnocentric and epistemological obstacles that make structural violence hard to understand, we have undertaken a pedagogical socio-reflexive approach in the study of social psychology at ucv. based on the qualitative analysis of 23 students interviews and questionnaires, these findings are systematized into the following organizing themes: narrative, autoethnographic and interseccional reconstruction of the social trayectory of students; interdisciplinary and interdiscursive dialogue; the questioning in practice of traditional pedagogical relationships and the reconsideration of the public role of intellectuals. changes are reported in their identity positionings, participants world views and in the recognition of heterogenous ways of living. this pedagogical essay can serve as starting point for rethinking the what and how of formative processes in venezuelan universities and their public role in recognizing and entering into dialogue with social and political subjects, in order to transform with them the violences and inequities they experience. key words: inequity, epistemological obstacles, peace education, socio-reflexive study, study in psychology 1. introducción ¿qué podemos hacer cuando nuestra experiencia de vida y nuestra formación académica entran en connivencia para obliterar la existencia de realidades emergentes? ¿cómo hacemos para comprender estos mundos sin proyectar acríticamente nuestras prenociones y saberes preteóricos, perpetrando nuevas formas de violencia cultural? ¿cómo podemos promover una relativización de nuestras formas de conocer y asumir que los recursos que nos habilitan para habitar un fragmento del mundo, en sociedades cada vez más desiguales, quizás nos inhabilitan para comprender otras formas de convivir? ¿qué tipo de experiencias pedagógicas pueden ayudarnos en estos procesos de deconstrucción y descentramiento de miradas que se han tejido en los/las trabajadores/as por la paz no solo como información o saberes declarativos, sino como saberes prácticos y corporales? este tipo de reflexiones se tornaron relevantes al participar, como profesor de psicología social de la universidad central de venezuela (ucv), en dos iniciativas de investigación: el «estudio exploratorio: sentidos de la demanda de armas de fuego en venezuela, desde la perspectiva de diversos actores sociales vinculados al uso de armas», promovido por la comisión presidencial para el control de armas, municiones y desarme (2011) y las jornadas «reconfiguraciones del mundo popular: conflictos, prácticas y subjetividades emergentes», llevadas a cabo en la ucv (2012)2. la participación en estas experiencias dentro de equipos interdisciplinares tornó evidente que en venezuela, así como en otras sociedades latinoamericanas, se ha venido 2 los diálogos, seminarios y conversaciones con chelina sepúlveda, andrés antillano, verónica zubillaga, josé luis fernández shaw y muchos otros investigadores que participaron en estas iniciativashan nutrido de múltiples maneras las perspectivas que aquí se expresan, siendo las posibles deficiencias responsabilidad única del autor. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 22 produciendo una diversificación y pluralización de mundos de vida que operan con lógicas y ordenamientos que estructuran formas de cotidianidad ilegible para los sectores medios de las propias sociedades y para muchos académicos del norte global. en estas configuraciones, las formas de producción del orden, el uso de la fuerza para la gestión de disputas y conflictos no responden a las categorías políticas y normativas tradicionales de estado de derecho, monopolio de la violencia legítima, justicia, esfera pública, soberanía y burocracia, sino que ocurren de otras maneras (feltran, 2020). así las cosas, educar para la paz en estas sociedades pasa por reconocer la especificidad de sus configuraciones, así como la coexistencia y fricción de diversos órdenes sociales heterogéneos y desiguales (feltran, 2020). por ello, las soluciones estandarizadas, que generalmente se elaboran desde la cosmovisión etnocéntrica de sectores privilegiados o con perspectivas top-down de construcción de estado o irreflexivamente liberales, como las de muchas ong, terminan profundizando, muchas veces sin pretenderlo, los efectos de la violencia estructural. en todos estos casos, las prácticas de educación para la paz pueden fungir como instrumento adaptativo de gobernanza al asumir una visión civilizadora que plantea la pacificación como una forma de colonización interna que atiende los “efectos” más no la transformación de las causas raíz de los conflictos estructurales (grasa, 2016; 2018; lederach, 2005). para fomentar el reconocimiento y el cambio de estas nuevas realidades, propuse y ensayé un dispositivo pedagógico socio-reflexivo en el ciclo aplicado de psicología social de la escuela de psicología de la ucv. este espacio formativo se articuló en cuatro ejes fundamentales: la reconstrucción narrativa y autoetnográfica de la trayectoria social del estudiantado; el desarrollo de capacidades de lectura y diálogo interdisciplinar sobre los procesos psicosociales; el cuestionamiento práctico de la relación pedagógica tradicional vivida en la formación universitaria y la reconsideración de la función pública de los/las intelectuales, asumiendo los límites antropológicos y sociales de la ciencia como actividad técnica realizada por expertos. en este artículo presento la sistematización de esta propuesta. para ello, primero, presento esbozos de las configuraciones emergentes en las últimas décadas en venezuela. luego, comparto los principios organizadores y generadores del dispositivo socioreflexivo. 2. realidades emergentes como señalan antillano (2016) y zubillaga (2013), la disminución de la desigualdad de ingresos, de acuerdo al índice de gini, no había producido una reducción de la violencia letal en la primera década del gobierno de la revolución bolivariana. esto motivó a un grupo de investigadores —que habían participado en la comisión de desarme— a emprender estudios etnográficos multisituados en varios sectores populares, urbanos y en prisiones en venezuela (antillano, 2015; antillano et al., 2020; sepúlveda & pojomovsky, 2021; zubillaga et al., 2021). según antillano (2016), la disminución de las distancias interclases vino acompañada del aumento de las distancias intraclases, volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 23 produciendo psicosocialmente el aumento de la privación relativa que afecta negativamente a los jóvenes de sectores populares3. el proceso, como señala antillano (2016), es más complejo: se acumulaba la exclusión social e histórica, la desafiliación a formas de integración social a través del trabajo y la poca atracción de los sistemas educativos como mecanismo de inclusión y ascenso social. a esto se adicionan las políticas de encarcelamiento que se endurecieron para la década del 2010 y que han virado en años recientes hacia una militarización de la seguridad pública, con violaciones de los ddhh, ejecuciones extrajudiciales y déficits ostensivos en el estado de derecho (zubillaga & hanson, 2021). las transformaciones sociales en curso han aumentado la segregación urbana y espacial, produciendo órdenes morales y simbólicos que establecen otros tipos de ciudadanía, o “anticiudadanía”, que deshumaniza a los habitantes de los sectores populares (zubillaga, 2013). esta configuración emergente es similar a la de otros centros urbanos latinoamericanos. en los nuevos ordenamientos, la brecha social es al mismo tiempo epistemológica y política, pues implica la coexistencia de regímenes normativos en fricción que no encajan dentro las concepciones liberales de democracia (feltran, 2020). como señala este autor refiriéndose a brasil: los representantes de las clases media y alta de la ciudad quedan restringidos en un “espacio democrático”, el gobierno o la esfera pública realmente existente, y discuten entre ellos qué hacer con, o a pesar de, los delincuentes. quien piense que los delincuentes no hacen lo mismo se está engañando. la afirmación del gobierno —“trabajamos por la seguridad de todos” — y la del tercer elemento “el crimen es un medio de movilidad social”— no pueden escucharse juntas. el crimen amenaza la seguridad del país, y punto, dice el gobierno. el “crimen” es el único camino a la seguridad en las favelas, y punto, dicen los criminales del pcc (feltrán et al., 2022: 539). para sumar complejidad, la situación de venezuela sigue cambiando. además de la cara política del conflicto, nos encontramos con una crisis del modelo de integración social basado en el petróleo, que ha producido un aumento y diversificación de la desigualdad, la disminución leve de la violencia letal en los centros urbanos y el aumento de la misma en zonas mineras y territorios fronterizos (antillano et al., 2021; fernándezshaw, 2021). asimismo, se reporta el aumento de la violencia institucional a manos de cuerpos de seguridad del estado, las violaciones de ddhh, la emergencia de paramilitarismos y vigilantismos (zubillaga & hanson, 2021), la crisis migratoria, la inflación e hiperinflación que ha desmantelado la estructura salarial y la dolarización de facto que ha aumentado la informalidad; entre muchos otros problemas que han sido 3 “las cifras parecen confirmar este desnivel: mientras el desempleo general cae en más de un 50% en la última década, colocándose por debajo de 10% (incluso tendiendo a disminuir aún más, hasta un 7% desde 2013), el desempleo juvenil se mantiene por encima del 20%. (…) las políticas de inclusión de los últimos años parecen impactar más en los grupos de mayor edad que en los más jóvenes” (antillano, 2016:46). “desde 1998 y hasta 2003 se observa el período con mayor crecimiento de muertes por armas de fuego, encontrándose un aumento de 32,1 puntos en la tasa. en 1998 el valor era de 19,8 y para 2003 se situó en 51,9 muertes por cada 100 mil habitantes (…) a partir de 1991 la presencia del arma de fuego en la muerte violenta es cada vez mayor, entre 2000 y 2010, 79% de las muertes violentas fueron ocasionadas por armas de fuego” (fernández shaw & chacón, 2013: 345). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 24 catalogados como una “emergencia humanitaria compleja” por instancias nacionales y organismos internacionales. en este escenario convulso, con una gran opacidad de datos oficiales y con el debilitamiento y polarización de la esfera pública y académica, la formación e investigación universitaria pública se encuentra en una profunda crisis por la desfinanciación del estado (fuenmayor, 2020). dado que el conflicto venezolano se ha codificado primordialmente como una disputa por la captura de las instituciones de gobierno en un marco liberal o iliberal (ferreira & richmond, 2021), surge la necesidad de formar a los futuros/as psicólogos/as sociales para investigar y comprender la heterogeneidad y complejidad de los conflictos y las violencias en el país, dentro y fuera del campo político. sin embargo, los retos epistemológicos que produce la vivencia en zonas segregadas, sumados el recorte de la unidad de análisis e intervención —que la psicología tradicionalmente impone a sus profesionales— pueden constituir obstáculos para la transformación de estas realidades. 3. más allá del psicologismo y el etnocentrismo: necesidad de una formación socio-reflexiva existen al menos dos obstáculos epistemológicos comunes a la psicología social y a la educación para la paz. por un lado, tenemos lo que llamaré, siguiendo a bourdieu y wacquant (2005), el epistemocentrismo psicologista, que comprende y transforma los conflictos sociales proyectando en el mundo el mapa y nivel de análisis del campo o complejo psi: individualista, atomista, privado, interaccionista, voluntarista, emprendedor y psicologista (parker, 2010, 2020). desde este horizonte es difícil concebir realmente la experiencia de la otredad y de la diferencia más allá de lo interindividual (zembylas & bekerman, 2013). es decir, planteo que el encuadre biopsicosocial convencional tiene serias dificultades para comprender las diferencias entre los mundos de vida que coexisten en sociedades desiguales. por otro lado, tenemos el etnocentrismo no reconocido por quienes egresan de las universidades —que han devenido o provienen de los sectores medios (parker, 2010)— a quienes les cuesta entender que su vivencia se ha articulado sobre principios de dominación que, a veces, los benefician y privilegian aún sin que se lo hayan propuesto. estos/as profesionales, certificados por un sistema educativo, adquieren una autoridad que pretende elevar su voz por encima de otros grupos y sectores sociales, reclamando para sí la condición de expertos. esta potestad es común a muchos campos profesionales y científicos, pero en el caso de quienes trabajan en la construcción de paz, puede servir para perpetrar intentos de (auto)colonización dentro de sociedades occidentalizadas del sur global, movilizando imágenes de “la civilización que vence a la barbarie” (coronil, 2016). para lidiar con estos obstáculos, que tienen claras implicaciones políticas en las prácticas psicológicas y educativas como medios de violencia simbólica y cultural, he propuesto una experiencia formativa socio-reflexiva. esta experiencia posee una doble apoyatura: por un lado, la descentración de la mirada de la unidad de análisis individual a través del diálogo interdisciplinar, habituando a quienes se forman en psicología social volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 25 a abrevar intertextualmente en diferentes campos para configurar sus “diagnósticos”, explicaciones y propuestas de transformación de conflictos; por otro, la revisión autoetnográfica (foradada et al., 2023) de la vivencia desigual, naturalizada e interseccional (crenshaw, 1991) de ciertas realidades que tenemos muchos/as universitarios/as en sociedades occidentalizadas como las latinoamericanas. ambos propósitos encuentran resonancia en planteamientos recientes de educación para la paz, que señalan la reflexividad individual y colectiva —de primer y segundo orden (kester & cremin, 2017)— como una competencia y recurso clave en la transformación de conflictos (bajaj, 2015, 2019), a lo que se agrega la vigilancia epistemológica sobre la “ceguera” frente a los propios privilegios que constituye una característica de universitarios/as y académicos/as (kester, 2019; komers & kester, 2018). 4. el dispositivo socio-reflexivo según los/las estudiantes como parte de un trabajo de investigación más amplio —que valora la experiencia formativa del ciclo aplicado en psicología social del grado en psicología que se imparte en la ucv— se ha entrevistado a 23 estudiantes de este programa de las cohortes de 2015 a 2018. los instrumentos de recolección de información reconstruyen toda la experiencia formativa en el grado en psicología que consta de un ciclo básico (seis semestres) y otro aplicado (cuatro semestres) con seis salidas posibles: clínica conductual, clínica dinámica, asesoramiento, educativa, industrial y social. para revisitar las experiencias de los estudiantes del ciclo aplicado en psicología social se ha recurrido a entrevistas semiestructuradas y a profundidad que se complementan con un cuestionario escrito que les pide sintetizar aprendizajes significativos y oportunidades de mejora para todas las asignaturas y experiencias formativas en las que participaron. el fundamento metodológico es el análisis fenomenológico interpretativo (smith & osborn, 2007) que se centra en reconstruir las vivencias desde el punto de vista del participante. se exploran además otros elementos de la cotidianidad en el contexto venezolano. de este corpus amplio de información, he seleccionado intencionalmente lo que expresan los participantes sobre lo vivido en la asignatura planificación de la investigación i, bajo mi responsabilidad. esta asignatura metodológica tiene un gran peso en la pre-especialización en psicología social, debido a que las competencias para la investigación son muy importantes en el perfil de egreso definido en el pénsum actual. por su carga de créditos se contemplan seis horas académicas de trabajo semanal, entre 14 a 16 semanas, con grupos que no exceden los 15 participantes. la selección del verbatum que se presenta es solo con fines expositivos y no responde a un criterio de redundancia, saturación u otro parámetro común en las investigaciones cualitativas. a través de ello es posible mostrar el dispositivo socioreflexivo que se ha co-construido con los estudiantes. respetando la confidencialidad del estudio se presentan los testimonios de manera anónima, se usa un código de dos letras y se indica la fuente de datos (entrevista o cuestionario). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 26 4.1 reconstrucción del dispositivo como señala el modelo de concreción curricular planteado por coll (1994), podemos analizar una apuesta formativa tomando en cuenta tres aspectos igualmente importantes: el contenido que define el ideario y los énfasis curriculares; los factores organizacionales que modulan cómo se imparte el contenido, las condiciones y recursos de los ambientes de aprendizaje y sus modalidades (presencial, a distancia, en línea, etc.); finalmente, los aspectos interactivos que determinan el microcurrículo (el tipo de relación construida en los encuentros, los posicionamientos identitarios y comunicativos). entretejeré el reporte de los participantes con comentarios que explicitan o elaboran aspectos que aluden a algunos de estos niveles —ideario, organización y relación— que considero importantes para dar cuenta del dispositivo socio-reflexivo ensayado. mv cuestionario: esta es la materia que considero que me formó en un 75% como psicóloga social. la selección de los textos y la dinámica de las clases me permitieron situarme como estudiante de psicología, en su momento, mediante una revisión de mi trayectoria sociopersonal en cuanto a la clase social, la raza, el género, la generación, y ubicación geográfica. además de ser un espacio donde practiqué mi desenvolvimiento académico, oral y escrito, tanto al enfrentarme a textos complejos, como al tener que profundizar y cuestionar cada uno de los aspectos que consideraba estables en mi vida. como puede notarse, una de las bases del espacio formativo co-construido con los participantes consiste en convertir la propia experiencia vivida en una oportunidad para la reconstrucción autoetnográfica de la trayectoria sociopersonal, utilizando una clave analítica interseccional, que se refuerza con el manejo de literatura. el sentido de documentar y objetivar lo vivido como base de la formación en psicología es, entre otras cosas, mostrar otra manera de mirar en la propia experiencia, por fuera del encuadre íntimo, familista y terapéutico, que generalmente se asocia al campo o complejo psi (deleuze & guattari, 2002; parker, 2010). la idea de la que se parte es que tanto los pensamientos, sentimientos y prácticas se construyen en experiencias que son posibilitadas contextualmente. por lo tanto, se pueden reconstruir elementos de esos contextos a partir de estas experiencias que todos portamos y que posibilitan formas de subjetivación específicas. el foco en la propia vivencia, junto con la exploración del universo significativo de los agentes de socialización primaria, permite evidenciar tanto el carácter recibido y polifónico de muchas de sus nociones de sentido común, cuanto el cambio intergeneracional entre tendencias y dinámicas de la vida en conjunto. puntos de apoyatura como el papel del trabajo, las tecnologías, la relación con la autoridad, las formas de comprender la sexualidad, las violencias, entre muchos aspectos, son desnaturalizados y se convierten en objetos de reflexión en copresencia y contraste con la experiencia de otros/as estudiantes. estas experiencias grupales de acompañamiento y movilización tienen antecedentes en los grupos de autoconciencia feminista (guzmán martínez et al., 2021) y más recientemente en los grupos de reflexión volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 27 y comunidades críticas de educadores para la paz (cremin, 2018; kester & cremin, 2017), así como en muchos otros referentes, pero en el caso de la escuela de psicología de la ucv, resulta una experiencia innovadora. el ejercicio de autodocumentación no se plantea en clave catártica ni terapéutica. se busca que el/la estudiante produzca conocimiento sobre elementos que conoce muy bien, pero que quizás pase por alto por el recorte psicologista que fomenta su formación y socialización. de este modo, se proponen referencias bibliográficas de otros campos del saber, que son las que dan soporte y andamiaje para identificar los vectores interseccionales a revisar y que se asumen como una oportunidad de diálogo interdiscursivo. hay que destacar que el ideario de la asignatura es solo el punto de apoyatura para la creación de un texto inédito, que cruza y contrasta teorías, enfoques, ensayos y estudios con la experiencia sociopersonal de los participantes. así las cosas, tanto la bibliografía —sobre algún fragmento del mundo social que ha venido transformándose— como el revisitar y documentar la experiencia, se relacionan oralmente y por escrito para empezar a usar la imaginación teórica por fuera del encuadre psicoterapéutico problema-solución. se invita a ampliar perspectivas, a través de un doble movimiento que va de la exégesis de las teorías a la experiencia y que regresa de lo vivido a los planteamientos de los/as autores/as, buscando también retar sus límites para dar cuenta de realidades singulares. es decir, se prueba, se disputa e interpela la posible sobregeneralización de supuestos que pueden inadvertidamente establecer los textos consultados, más si vienen del norte global, como casi toda la teorización que consumimos en el sur (krotz, 2011). por ello, se les anima a desacralizar el conocimiento, a dialogar en pie de igualdad con las fuentes y a practicar el reconocimiento de las singularidades que se multiplican en un mundo contemporáneo multidiverso, sin perder de vista las determinaciones globales y estructurales. este cruce de textos, orales y escritos, produce un discurso inédito que es sumamente alentador para los/las estudiantes, quienes evidencian que el conocimiento instituido puede dialogar con sus formas de vida. así, estos psicólogos/as sociales en formación, evidencian, de manera concreta, determinaciones, micro, meso y macrosociales. ap entrevista: yo me acuerdo de que mi séptimo semestre estuvo muy definido por la experiencia en metodología para la investigación, porque o sea no había otra cosa más importante para mí que ver clases a esa hora (…) porque era el momento en que yo de verdad estaba leyendo, y resulta que el contenido que estoy leyendo tiene absolutamente que ver con todo, o sea, con todo tenía que ver. y yo eso no lo había experimentado nunca antes en ninguna otra materia. lo más cercano fueron la (asignatura) teoría social (del ciclo básico), pero esto era otro nivel, esto era para mí otra cosa (…) me interpelaban, o sea, me interpelaban a nivel como superpersonal, y es cuando te das cuenta de que justamente lo personal es político. porque crees que esto que está aquí es como tuyo, y no, eso viene de un lugar ahí, como una trayectoria. comienzas a tomar en cuenta de verdad la experiencia como socio-personal. nos invitaba a escribir, y yo posta escribía, o sea, como que trataba de recordar cosas para explicar por qué ahora yo hago esto, o soy así o me manejo de esta forma (…) volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 28 esa invitación hacía qué la materia y la clase, particularmente, se tornara como extremadamente nutritiva, o sea, no había manera en que no creciera viendo la clase, no había forma en que no. (…) si bien tienes que manejar el contenido y todo esto, yo lo que quiero ver es qué hace ese contenido conmigo, y para mí eso era lo que me hacía sentido. 4.1.1 destejer experiencias configuradas en trayectorias desiguales la socialización que nos habilita como seres capaces de acción y discurso ocurre en trayectorias sociales que se encuentran segmentadas e imbricadas desigualmente por muchos factores. al respecto, el “devenir sujeto” es un efecto de las relaciones de poder e implica una cierta sumisión, pues la acción de los otros significativos se nos impone heterónomamente en un contexto en el que nuestra supervivencia biológica depende de que asumamos los lugares que se nos conmina a aceptar (butler, 2015). sin embargo, toda sujeción, toda individuación, implica al mismo tiempo un ejercicio de la agencia. este tipo de mediaciones socializadoras que ocurren por la acción de otros significativos vienen en una mezcla de afectos, cuidados, coacciones y violencia, que usualmente permanece invisibilizada o mistificada en los recuerdos biográficos. uno de los retos que tenemos para asumir este tipo de entrecruzamientos, que se hacen cuerpo en todos los seres humanos, proviene de su carácter tan material y real como elusivo. este proceso tiende a invisibilizar el origen público y social de lo que consideramos íntimo y subjetivo (davidson, 2001). como ya adelantaban berger y luckmann (1968), la realidad social está objetivada significativamente en conglomerados institucionales, externos y materiales, que poseen tipificaciones de acciones y tipos de actores. estas segmentaciones arbitrarias del ámbito de lo posible se particularizan en nuestras vivencias singulares por procesos de apropiación que implican una modificación del mundo sobre nuestras maneras de ser y estar como sujetos. esta interiorización constructiva de formas de subjetivación, participando en contextos y espacios regulados por normativas formales e informales, resulta relativamente fácil de evidenciar. un poco más difícil es despsicologizar el análisis de la propia vivencia, ya que implica la conexión entre lo subjetivo con aspectos sociales y contextuales que se comparten con categorías sociales más amplias. por ello, en el dispositivo socio-reflexivo, el grupo de pares tiene la posibilidad de conocer de primera mano otras trayectorias sociopersonales. pensar la relación contexto-experiencia junto a otros/as, permite: contrastar vivencias, rastrear el origen de ciertas posiciones y de ciertas formas de ser. en este espacio se conciben los procesos de subjetivación como una instancia a través y por la cual se estructuran relaciones y prácticas, no como punto de partida o llegada definitivo. para ello, se rompen con muchas prenociones que se encuentran naturalizadas en las formas como entendemos las diferencias entre personas, grupos y culturas. vr cuestionario: aprender a desaprender para entender al otro y sus realidades, tener una mirada crítica del mundo, investigar y no conformarnos solo con lo que nos es dado, ser comprensivo y reflexivo, hablar con fundamento, problematizar, argumentar con bases teóricas. mv entrevista: volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 29 qué te hizo sentido del texto, cómo se conecta eso, con tu experiencia personal, cómo se conecta eso… con la experiencia del compañero, qué experiencias tienen en común… ahí para mí es impresionante del texto tan largo que se esperaba que lo leyera completo para la clase y debatirlo… para mí es muy importante… porque a partir de ahí fue que comenzó como todo el cuestionamiento de ok… ¿a qué generación perteneces?, ¿cuál es tu diferencia con la generación de tus papás?, ¿cuál la diferencia con la generación de tu abuelo?, ¿qué comparten?, ¿qué no compartes con tus compañeros? en esta experiencia de destejer la propia vivencia se evidencia que los ejercicios narrativos constituyen demandas comunicativas que, al focalizar la atención a aspectos generalmente considerados irrelevantes, —como, por ejemplo, las formas de jugar en la infancia, o los modos de gestión de la apariencia—, llevan a descubrimientos sobre impactos configuradores impensados hasta el momento. vg entrevista: vg. — recuerdo que en ese semestre tuve como una clase de crisis existencial. me empecé a cuestionar muchísimas cosas, me preguntaba “pero ¿quién soy yo?, pero ¿qué quiero?, no me siento igual que cuando venía de sexto semestre, pero ahora no, no sé quién soy” estaba como en esto de soltar cosas, pero quedarme con otras o sea porque me estaba como cuestionando cosas prácticas que tenía internalizada: desde el estudio, desde la estética. me acuerdo de que yo les decía a mis amigos… yo antes me solía arreglar mucho, me maquillaba todo el tiempo, me planchaba el cabello, siempre estaba como impecable en la escuela (de psicología). jamás me iba en zapatos de goma (deportivos), que siempre era como una cosa así, y yo empecé como a vestirme muy deportiva, me dejé de maquillar, me dejé de pintar las uñas y yo les decía a mis amigas “no sé qué pasa conmigo, estoy como en una crisis existencial, ya no sé si a arreglarme, ya no sé si vestirme deportiva, ya no sé qué hacer con mi vida” y todo esto bueno, pues con relación a este semestre, estaba como descubriendo otra vez quién, quién era yo investigador. — ¿te puedo preguntar algo? vamos… a detenernos en el séptimo semestre… ¿este cambio personal, de imagen, de posicionamiento que has referido lo vinculas con una experiencia que ocurrió parcialmente o completamente dentro de la mención de psicología social? ¿lo ves con algo o con qué lo relacionas? vg. — bueno, mira, yo lo asocio con nuestro espacio de planificación de la investigación, porque era un espacio bastante vivencial. es una materia que me sorprendió mucho porque yo estaba esperando otra vez, como bueno, sí “leemos las lecturas, hablamos de las lecturas, reflexionamos qué es la psicología, reflexionamos qué es el mundo”, y me di cuenta de que no, que eso si es parte de la psicología, pero el poder revisarte, a ver internamente qué es lo que está allí, también es un ejercicio importante que yo no sé si se hace en otros lados. y este ejercicio importante, yo venía como de no ver hacia adentro, todo era muy hacia afuera y “la psicología, la gente, las lecturas, esto lo otro”. este ejercicio, digamos, de introspección, por llamarlo de alguna forma, de vigilancia epistemológica, no sé, me hizo como chocar con todo esto que yo tenía dentro y yo decía “oye, pero qué es esto que desconozco, que tengo dentro de mí” y ahí empezó como esa crisis. del mismo modo, emergen a la mirada de los/as investigadores/as nóveles experiencias sin trascendencia aparente: la frecuencia de las prácticas de lectura en la volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 30 infancia, la familiaridad con productos culturales, el tipo de géneros comunicativos que pueblan la vida diaria, las oportunidades de expresar el propio punto de vista, el manejo de la autoridad, la posibilidad de escoger o no determinadas experiencias… en fin, una miríada de elementos, que son ciertamente inagotables, pero que pueden ayudar a despsicologizar lo que se vive individualmente, reponiendo la memoria personal y familiar en un entramado sociohistórico mayor. para todo este ejercicio, nos apoyamos en el concepto de habitus (bourdieu & wacquant, 2005), pues este concepto confiere una dimensión corporal a los procesos de adquisición de recursos, gustos, costumbres, formas de manejo del espacio, consumos materiales y simbólicos, contacto con bienes culturales, entre muchos factores. el habitus no implica una apropiación completamente pasiva de lo social como algo totalmente externo, sino que la experiencia se teje en y con nosotros por la participación activa en campos y contextos de interacción variados (shotter, 2008). entre otros autores, bourdieu (1998) muestra, a través de investigación cuantitativa y cualitativa, cómo los efectos de la clase social distan mucho de encapsularse en los aspectos económicos. el capital económico modula el acceso y la familiaridad a bienes culturales y a relaciones sociales que dotan de prestigio a ciertas posiciones en un proceso donde lo no formal, lo informal y lo formal tienen peso constitutivo. de este modo, se aprovecha la pertenencia a una institución universitaria para tematizar la relación entre las demandas culturales de los sistemas educativos y las formas de socialización en sociedades desiguales. en estas últimas, las clases populares se encuentran en desventaja por su escasa familiaridad con la cultura del mundo escolar y la falta de acompañamiento de padres, madres y cuidadores/as (bourdieu & passeron, 2009; willis, 2008). como se sabe, esto puede modular la autovaloración sobre el desempeño y generar sensaciones y emociones que perturban. este aspecto sirve a los propios estudiantes para intelegir socialmente el origen de ciertos malestares y emociones. ap entrevista: tú me preguntas: “¿qué opinas tú?”, y yo llegando. “hola, me llamo … ” te dije lo que pensaba y me habías dicho algo así como “sabes, tienes como que despojarte de este discurso coreográfico” y a mí eso me partió a la mitad y yo me quedé así… “¿cómo me dijo?” y después, como “¿qué me trató de decir?”, después, pues … reflexionando y porque lo entendí y fue como “guau”. yo por eso necesito ser (psicólogo)social y por eso necesito social (…) esa confrontación y como este, ese cuestionamiento de todos mis privilegios, o sea, darme cuenta de todos mis privilegios con la clase, para mí fue una cosa de otro mundo. vf cuestionario: la metodología empleada en esta asignatura fue un poco inusual; al principio incluso me sentí intimidada, sin embargo, aunque el contenido es denso y complejo, la discusión y el debate continuo me permitieron comprender los temas y cultivar el pensamiento crítico. la reconstrucción de trayectorias sociales sirve para iluminar cómo el recuerdo biográfico y la reconstrucción de nuestras experiencias puede estar plagada de detalles que tendemos a obviar en los regímenes de relatos más psicologistas. en ellos, volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 31 generalmente, el acento de lo relatado tiende a concentrarse en los subsistemas íntimos de interacción (deleuze & guattari, 2002). dado este aspecto configurador, sostenido y heterónomo de nuestra socialización, la indagación sobre estos aspectos solo tiene un carácter parcial y no puede alumbrar de manera definitiva, ni mucho menos anular o controlar completamente los prejuicios y predisposiciones que se hacen cuerpo en los/las investigadores/as, psicólogos/as y educadores/as como sujetos sociales. el proceso de “mirar” es acompañado de indicaciones y consignas que permitan revisitar experiencias constitutivas puntuales y establecer contrastes generacionales. por ello, esta reconstrucción autonarrativa se complementa con entrevistas a padres, madres, familiares o miembros de otras generaciones. junto a ellos se les anima a explorar y documentar cómo ha sido su aprendizaje de la sexualidad, sus vivencias del tiempo libre, las relaciones con la autoridad, con el estudio, con el mundo del trabajo, los proyectos de vida, los consumos y muchos otros aspectos que generalmente no se consideran dentro del horizonte de análisis psicológico. la idea es mostrar el carácter procesual de las realidades sociales y las transformaciones que experimenta el mismo subsistema familiar de cuidados —o violencias— que modula gran parte de la socialización primaria. la clave del compartir de estas experiencias es siempre la de la investigación social. vf cuestionario: (…) aunque el contenido es denso y complejo, la discusión y el debate continuo me permitieron comprender los temas y cultivar el pensamiento crítico (…) que cada uno razonara y se cuestionara sus propios pensamientos para darle paso a la comprensión, la autocrítica, la reflexión, el cambio de creencias y actitudes, acercándose a la realidad, pero sabiendo que esa realidad no escapa de la subjetividad de cada uno. la materia se vale de lecturas cargadas de historia, opiniones, realidades, críticas, teorías, que hicieron que con cada encuentro se afinara el pensamiento crítico, se abriera la mente a un mundo de aprendizajes y nuevas posibilidades de entender la vida, las sociedades y las individualidades. conviene destacar que la propuesta socio-reflexiva produce experiencias movilizadoras acompañadas de aspectos emocionales, que no se buscan clausurar ni sobreinterpretar. estos relatos singulares se elaboran progresivamente, clase a clase. para ello, se establece un contrato de habla grupal basado en el respeto mutuo, que siempre explicita la capacidad de autorregulación de cada participante, quien puede decidir cuánto comunica al grupo. dd cuestionario: la posibilidad de encontrarse con tus propias visiones del mundo. entender “la realidad” conjunta e individual. el contrastar el material teórico con discusiones activas. el que fuese un material principalmente oral te obligaba a mejorar mucho tu argumentación, y el que hubiese un espacio seguro para volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 32 escuchar al otro y siempre encontrarnos de una u otra manera nos preparó para tener una buena fase de discusión más adelante en la tesis. para sentar las pautas y el clima del intercambio —en mi rol como docente facilitador— compartía mis vivencias en el encuadre interseccional que transversaliza el programa. para ello, modelaba y ejemplificaba el tipo de auto-objetivación y elaboración recursiva de la experiencia que proponía. mv entrevista: (…) comparando la experiencia de uno con el otro de uno con el docente, porque tú también te abriste mucho en esas en estas clases… entonces era como (que) tenía esa experiencia como doble y nosotros tenemos la experiencia de los millennials, contigo, con nuestros papás, entonces con cosas muy ricas. al final del curso, el tipo de relación y de conocimiento que se establece entre los/las compañeros/as entre sí y con el docente es de bastante cercanía. todo esto sin perder de vista el enclave diferencial de deberes y derechos comunicativos que impone la institución universitaria y el programa formativo al que estamos adscritos en diferentes roles en relación de complementariedad. es importante recalcar que sobre la experiencia sociopersonal cada participante tiene una autoridad intransferible. y esa autoridad, ese contacto privilegiado con los aspectos aparentemente superficiales y rutinarios, cobra una relevancia epistemológica y crítica que es inédita para muchos de ellos/as y les invita a asumir una postura situada y no etnocéntrica sobre sus grupos de pertenencia y mundos de vida. mv entrevista: estamos practicando la desestabilización, vamos a revisar toda la trayectoria. ¿por qué eres quién eres? ¿por qué haces lo que haces? vamos a cuestionar todo lo que son los textos sagrados, toda esa estructura que son inamovibles que se tienen en la psicología. estos son los pilares teóricos en psicología y eso, ¿no se puede cuestionar? no se puede controlar de dónde vino, por qué se hizo y que nosotros viniéramos a hacer eso. seguí la carrera y siento que me dio mucho. 4.1.2 diálogo interdisciplinar la revisión de la propia trayectoria en sus condicionantes sociales ocurre simultáneamente con lecturas de textos sociológicos, antropológicos, filosóficos, humanísticos a las que muchos/as estudiantes no estaban acostumbrados. la tematización de los vectores interseccionales —clase, género, generación, territorio y raza— se lleva a cabo con autores tanto del norte como de latinoamérica, que alumbran en diferentes registros la constitución social de nuestras experiencias. formalmente, la asignatura posee dos unidades teóricas y una unidad “práctica” que concentra la reconstrucción de la trayectoria sociopersonal y todos los productos intermedios que se elaboran de manera continua. desde el inicio, la asignatura se presenta volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 33 a los cursantes como una introducción a los “debates epistemológicos en las ciencias sociales4”. para ello, se disponen los tránsitos temáticos que se exponen a continuación. unidad i: el investigador y su ubicación en el espacio social. aquí se introducen: • cambios del mundo del trabajo y las experiencias de la flexibilización laboral (sennet, 2008), paso del fordismo al posfordismo (harvey, 1998), estudios sobre movilidad social en américa latina (kessler & espinoza, 2003) y autores latinoamericanos que hablan de la colonialidad del saber y del poder (quijano, 2002), así como la condición subalterna. estos autores constituyen la puerta de entrada para empezar a dialogar con la experiencia propia y la de otras generaciones. • teoría de los campos sociales y de la reproducción social (bourdieu & wacquant, 2005), reflexiones sobre la condición juvenil (hopenhayn, 2006), etnografías de economías ilegales y subterráneas (bourgois, 2010). constituyen un abrebocas para pensar el papel constitutivo de lo social en las formas de ser sujeto, el papel de las economías políticas, morales e institucionales, así como los impactos y mediaciones de la violencia estructural en la producción de lógicas relacionales y mundos de vida profundamente desiguales. • la performatividad del género (butler, 2007), la nueva ontología relacional y el carácter complejo y rizomático del devenir sujetos (deleuze & guattari, 2002), las mutaciones de los sujetos colectivos, los movimientos sociales y las reconfiguraciones de las clases sociales (bensaid, 2006). con estos autores, se invita a proseguir con la complejización interdisciplinar, conociendo formas alternativas y no hegemónicas de concebir el pensamiento psicosocial. como puede verse, casi todas las lecturas apuntan a elementos macro y mesosociales, sin descuidar su vinculación con lo microsocial, en la que se produce la bisagra entre lo social y lo individual que acuñó ignacio martín-baró como característico de nuestra disciplina (jiménez-domínguez, 2009). unidad ii: la ciencia desde un punto de vista antropológico y social la segunda unidad de esta asignatura examina de cerca los planteamientos de la visión posempirista del cuestionamiento científico. se asume la ciencia, natural y social, como una actividad antropológica, partiendo de una conceptualización pragmatista de los regímenes de verdad como aquello “en que no es bueno creer” (rorty, 1996: 41) dentro de una comunidad. estas consideraciones se dan a través de dos ejes temáticos: • el planteamiento del debate posempirista que supera la dimensión epistemológica de la actividad científica, de la mano de berstein (1988); davidson (2001); rorty (1989). asumiendo la ciencia desde el punto de vista hermenéutico, internalista y holista. 4 debates epistemológicos en ciencias sociales es el nombre de una asignatura de la maestría en psicología social de la ucv en la que he impartido clases desde 2008. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 34 • la ampliación del ámbito objetual de las ciencias sociales que trabajan con acciones significativas y el establecimiento de la comprensión weberiana como forma de explicación en las ciencias empíricas de la acción, considerando los planteamientos de habermas (1990); weber (1984); williams (1987). se busca descentrar la mirada de lo que pasa dentro de los sujetos para mirar contextos, campos y relaciones sociales, en donde se producen las formas de subjetivación que interesan a la psicología social. dd cuestionario: como ya teníamos experiencia previa (primera unidad) con la dinámica de esta clase, me sentí mucho más confiada y preparada para mantener discusiones académicas en un formato oral. aterrizar en que la metodología no necesariamente es una guía de doce pasos para averiguar algo. el poder argumentar las limitaciones de las teorías también fue un punto de valor para esta asignatura, en el ciclo básico creo que había mucha limitación para esto. lp cuestionario: la importancia y el rol que tiene la subjetividad propia del investigador en la forma de ver los problemas de investigación. culmina la asignatura con “el maestro ignorante” de rancière (2003), que relata la particular pedagogía de un maestro que no explica ni sobrefacilita el trabajo a sus estudiantes, confiando en sus capacidades de aprender y basándose en el principio de “igualdad de las inteligencias”. se establece un paralelismo con el proceso que han vivido para reflexionar sobre la función política que tienen los/as psicólogos/as sociales como intelectuales con vocación pública (burawoy, 2005). cada uno de estos encuentros es profundamente singular e intenso. rutinariamente, se cierran las sesiones con una valoración que hacen los/las estudiantes sobre lo que aprendieron y experimentaron durante las mismas. ap cuestionario: es difícil sintetizar todos los aprendizajes significativos que tuvo esta materia para mí. no obstante, hago uso de estas pequeñas frases que todavía me resuenan hoy y me acompañan en todas mis instancias: “¿qué me llevo y qué aprendí?”, “la coreografía”, “despolitizado”, (…) “privilegios”, “mundo social”. las experiencias de lectura con estos autores tan diversos, con distintos enfoques, son traídas al aula de clase, tematizando la propia incomprensión inicial, la complejidad que puede llegar a ser abrumadora y la falta de rutina de abrevar de fuentes heterogéneas para comprender realidades emergentes. hay en este tipo de lecturas una relación activa, que no se da solo para recuperar contenidos, sino para aplicarlos a la propia vivencia, realizando síntesis novedosas. esto constituye otra forma de relacionarse con el conocimiento, que el profesor también busca escenificar mostrando elementos para construir puentes, entrecruzamientos y posibles agenciamientos no contemplado por los/las estudiantes. de manera intencionada, no se incluyen autores/as canónicos/as de la psicología social —que son abordados en una materia que cursan en paralelo en el mismo semestre volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 35 (teorías en psicología social)— pero se pide a los/las estudiantes un ejercicio retador y creativo: elaborar una versión de lo psicosocial pensado desde el horizonte categorial, el nivel de análisis y las preocupaciones de cada uno de los autores/as consultados/as. este trabajo se propone desde el inicio del semestre y se complementa con prácticas de escritura, anotaciones personales, diarios de campos y textos informales que se traen a cada clase. con este tipo de aproximaciones sucesivas a las prácticas orales y escritas dentro de la academia, se persigue fomentar la autorregulación, la autovaloración y un sentido autoeficacia académica, que va ganando en seguridad a medida que se ejercita la propia voz y palabra. todos estos productos se asumen como parte de un proceso que “apenas comienza” en su andar profesional. la evaluación se desarrolla de forma acumulativa y formativa, compilándose los productos intermedios en una carpeta de aprendizajes. mv entrevista: lo más interesante de planificación de la investigación era el momento de la evaluación. no fue algo, a ver, esa fue la materia en la que uno más se exigió, lo que estuvimos más sobre las actividades, más de estar metidos en los textos, de la responsabilidad de no faltar nunca a la clase, de llegar puntuales, de hacer todo a tiempo, de tratar de participar, de estar muy pendiente… y a la vez, fue la materia en la cual se nos evalúa menos en forma formal, en esta cosa como todo tan en el aire, pero que se sentía como con tanta responsabilidad, de no… esto es lo que en realidad me está formando. vo entrevista: investigador. —¿qué recuerdas de la evaluación de la materia? vo. — eso también era muy divertido, porque todos se preguntaban “¿y él no nos va a hacer un examen?”, y “¿cómo nos va a evaluar?”, y “¿él no nos va a pedir nada?”, porque venimos de esta estructura de exámenes y cosas, y realmente no era… o sea, yo no me acuerdo si tú nos llegaste a pedir un ensayo, algo, te lo juro que no recuerdo, porque no lo tengo (risa). no lo recuerdo. o sea, creo que tú llegaste a decir “bueno, escriban”, pero para que nosotros hiciéramos el ejercicio. o sea, era por nosotros, no para que tú nos aprobaras. eso no era lo que tú estabas evaluando. tú estabas viendo qué tanto nos poníamos nosotros en la experiencia o no. creo que esa era la evaluación. ahorita tampoco lo sé, pero creo que era eso. o sea, si estábamos viviendo o no la experiencia. y al final, en términos medibles cuánticos… o sea, no sé cómo lo hiciste (risa). sinceramente, no sé. pero no, no sé. o sea, yo nunca me sentí evaluada. o sea, no sentía… más bien, nosotros éramos los que decíamos como que “ajá, ¿y no nos vas a evaluar?” o sea, nosotros éramos los que teníamos esa necesidad de aprobación, y era como que “no…”. cuando yo entendí que no fue así como “ah, yo me entrego y ya, y si me pide algo, lo hago, y sino no, ya”. o sea, me entregué. ya. eso creo que también nos pasó a todos. dijimos como “entrégate” (risa) “entrégate y dale y ya”. investigador. —¿qué significa…? ¿qué significaba “entregarse”? vo. — dejar ese tema de que “necesito aprobación, que me tienen que validar, que lo que estoy haciendo está bien, que necesito una nota”. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 36 el docente realiza valoraciones, sugiere interpretaciones alternativas y elabora preguntas sobre aspectos que quizás no hayan sido tratados. a pesar de las limitaciones propias de los lapsos académicos, se promueve que el control sobre el propio aprendizaje sea administrado por el estudiante, quien participa en procesos de auto y coevaluación. 4.1.3 un cambio en el contrato de habla vg entrevista: yo dije “¿qué es esto? ¿dónde está el profesor? ¿dónde está la clase? ¿dónde está la pizarra? ¿qué pasa?”, todo fue como muy desconocido. me cuestionario: creo que es una experiencia fuerte, que emocionalmente te compromete y necesaria para el ejercicio de la psicología y la transformación propia, de los lentes con los que observamos y de las personas en sus contextos. como señalan los analistas de la conversación desde un punto de vista microsociológico, el sistema de turnos de habla devela relaciones de poder. por ello, la capacidad de iniciar la conversación y escoger un tema, la potestad de interrumpir, la posibilidad de autoseleccionarse o heteroseleccionar a otros para hablar, la capacidad de corregir y reformular, informan de la codificación de relaciones asimétricas en contextos regulados de habla (fairclough, 2001). los estudios de la etnografía de la comunicación (ray & biswas, 2011) muestran que las instituciones delimitan eventos comunicativos regidos por reglas implícitas que configuran contratos de habla. en ellos se establecen derechos y deberes comunicativos, así como la potestad de establecer tareas, de realizar consignas, de evaluar y de certificar saberes. esto es común a todas las instituciones del sistema educativo. en las instituciones de educación superior, el profesorado produce conocimientos, que expone y transmite en intercambios gobernados por la coreografía didáctica de la clase magistral5. generalmente, este tipo de encuentros se basa en presentaciones audiovisuales, a ser evaluadas en función de la recepción y comprensión de contenidos que deben ser recuperados y aplicados en situaciones de prueba. dada esta sobrecodificación de la relación pedagógica entre profesor y estudiante, me planteé disputar no únicamente el qué, sino también el cómo enseñar (jenkins, 2019, 2022), rompiendo con la convención de que el docente es quién decide cuándo inicia y culmina la clase. 5 conviene aclarar que esto es cada vez menos frecuente en las nuevas configuraciones docentistas de las universidades formateadas por el modelo neoliberal. en el caso de venezuela, la desfinanciación de las universidades públicas y autónomas por parte del estado ha dificultado la construcción de programas y líneas de investigación actualizados. estas actividades quedan como un asunto individual de cada docente, un colectivo que tiene que complementar sus ingresos con otras fuentes de financiamiento (bencomo & alvarado, 2022). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 37 inspirado en los experimentos de ruptura etnometodológicos que garfinkel proponía a sus estudiantes para develar normas implícitas de interacción, al inicio de cada sesión permanecía en silencio los primeros diez o quince minutos hasta que alguien preguntaba: “¿cuándo va a comenzar la clase?” mi respuesta era: “la clase ha comenzado ya”. esta doble negativa como docente, a iniciar la clase y a establecer el punto temático de inicio, servía para proponer al estudiantado otro contrato comunicativo, al mismo tiempo que emergían las expectativas educativas “bancarias” —como las caracterizó paulo freire (gonzález, 2022)— a las que se habían habituado. la idea fuerza que guía estas reflexiones es que quien aprende a escuchar y a obedecer también aprende que su rol como experto, e incluso como ciudadano, es ser escuchado y obedecido. esto habilitaba consideraciones sobre los obstáculos para el diálogo social en una sociedad desigual, en la que no todos los grupos pueden influir sobre los principios de dominación que formatean la esfera pública (fraser, 1993). a pesar de la tematización explícita sobre el andamiaje interactivo y comunicativo de las relaciones de poder en la universidad, instaurar este contrato de habla alternativo tomaba a veces todo el semestre. a todos los participantes se les animaba iniciar la clase. la única consigna establecida era la de hablar sobre algún aspecto de la lectura que haya resultado significativo. esto podía adquirir la forma de sentimientos, emociones, dudas o elaboraciones complejas imbricadas con la propia experiencia sociopersonal o con un problema de interés. sin embargo, este ejercicio de asumir la propia palabra implica una responsabilidad y un grado de exposición que a muchos les cuesta asumir. lp cuestionario: no sé qué tan útil sea, pero sé que hay algunos estudiantes que no entendían el proceso en el que se encontraban y se sentían perdidos o sin rumbo. quizás haya alguna forma de comunicar mejor el sentido del proceso. así las cosas, en este nuevo contrato de habla se aprovechaba para explicitar las propias valoraciones sobre las formas de habla más prestigiosas y académicas que exhiben el profesor o estudiantes “aventajados”. todo ello sirve como oportunidad para develar las diferencias en las trayectorias educativas y la socialización informal, al mismo que tiempo que se les alienta a practicar y familiarizarse progresivamente con los géneros argumentativos y académicos. la función de sujeción del profesor es cuestionada por su poder de establecer definiciones, no solo en términos de la aprobación del curso, sino también sobre aspectos que pueden fijarse e internalizarse como características identitarias. en estos espacios socio-reflexivos, el docente, en su rol de facilitador, debe obligarse a la escucha, permitir las experimentaciones y fomentar el proceso de ensayo y mejora más allá de los juicios evaluativos numéricos. es importante decir que este espacio funciona como parte de un ensamblaje colectivo que el resto de los profesores y profesoras, de la pre-especialización en psicología social de la ucv, nutren, completan y complementan en sus respectivas asignaturas. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 38 5. resumen del dispositivo socio-reflexivo una vez llegados a este punto presentaré los principios organizadores de la experiencia pedagógica reconstruida, tomando en cuenta algunas categorías provenientes del modelo de concreción curricular de coll (1994), así como de los estudios del discurso, la psicología social y la etnografía de la comunicación. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 39 tabla 1 síntesis de los principios organizadores del dispositivo socio-reflexivo nota. a coll (1994).b moscovici et al. (1991). organización, relación e idearioa características turnos de habla docente no inicia formalmente la clase. se comparte la capacidad de autoseleccionarse para hablar. se propone un nuevo contrato de habla. géneros comunicativos y formas de organización del discurso incorpora géneros narrativos y experienciales como base para la argumentación. diálogo entre pares y con el docente. exposición y argumentación, oral y escrita. norma de consenso, originalidad o preferenciab no se presupone convergencia en la interpretación y recepción de los textos ni con las posiciones del docente. espacio para la originalidad y la preferencia, sin perder de vista la argumentación – validación y mostrando la plausibilidad de las propias posturas. descubrimiento de las propias vivencias y reconocimiento de las diferencias. expectativas con respecto al estudiante que asuma un rol activo en su proceso de aprendizaje. que proponga y asista a clases con elaboraciones sobre su vivencia en clave psicosocial. que sea creativo y esté plenamente inmerso y comprometido con el proceso propuesto. posicionamiento del docente frente al propio rol escuchar más que hablar. permite el ensayo, el “error” y la mejora continua en el proceso de aprendizaje. muy consciente de lo que no debe decir. proporciona mediaciones y andamiajes, dando claves interpretativas que sirven de puentes para la elaboración de conceptos complejos. comparte la propia vivencia en clave interseccional. sirve de modelo argumentativo y socio-reflexivo. control sobre tareas y consignas dentro del lapso pautado se establece un cronograma general. el estudiante controla su ritmo de trabajo. se sugieren elaboraciones intermedias, prácticas de escritura con plazos flexibles. evaluación formativa, diaria, informal. todas las sesiones se autoevalúan. las calificaciones son propuestas por los propios estudiantes de manera argumentada y se discuten en grupo. contenidos programáticos ideario interdisciplinar, ciencias sociales, filosofía y humanidades, referencia a productos culturales. relación con los pares grupos pequeños y medianos. alto compromiso y “engagement”. acompañamiento y continuación del proceso fuera del aula. la relación permanece activa al terminar el ciclo formativo. conformación de una comunidad crítica informal. relación con la vivencia en el aula de clases y con la materia se tematiza en cada clase. se pide explícitamente que se hable de ello y se valora al final del proceso de forma individual y colectiva. relación con el contexto demanda concreta de vinculación explícita con el contexto actual, micro, meso y macrosocial. se reconoce la heterogeneidad y singularidad de las configuraciones sin perder de vista conexiones con el sistema-mundo. cambios de posicionamiento se producen movilizaciones identitarias y emocionales. cambia la autovaloración y las posiciones de sujetos asumidas. desestabilización identitaria, se cuestiona la naturalización de las posiciones auto y heteroatribuidas. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 40 6. algunas consideraciones finales vg entrevista: puede que estemos acompañando a estas minorías a que descubran y se apropien de su voz. mira, puede ser el caso, no sé, del feminismo, del racismo, o sea, porque trabajamos con las minorías. no es que seamos los únicos que lo hacen, pero podemos trabajar con las minorías. entonces, tenemos eso allí y siempre buscamos cómo. siento que tenemos unos valores así, como de comprensión, de no imponer cosas, muy de escuchar al otro. y bueno, como de libertad también, de alguna manera, porque buscamos que las personas, no es que les enseñemos, sino que posibilitamos a que las personas puedan comprender mejor su realidad y puedan tomar decisiones que los ayuden a estar mejor. este ensayo pedagógico puede servir como punto de apoyatura para repensar el qué y el cómo de los procesos formativos de las universidades venezolanas y su papel público en el reconocimiento y diálogo con sujetos sociales y políticos que habitan mundos de vida profundamente desiguales. sin embargo, la propuesta presentada es insuficiente por su alcance y escala, como lo es cualquier actividad formativa que se lleve a cabo en un aula de clases sin establecer redes, vínculos y conexiones que perturben los principios de dominación imperantes en una sociedad. la experiencia en el espacio socio-reflexivo interpela a nivel del contenido, de la organización y de las relaciones, el contrato de habla habitual que se producen en el aula de clase. esto puede resultar desconcertante, incómodo y abrumador para estudiantes poco acostumbrados —por su experiencia académica y capitales culturales— a expresar y ejercer su propia voz. por otra parte, solamente quienes culminan el proceso entienden el sentido de ciertas prácticas, que por su novedad pueden ser vistas como que exceden “lo que debe ser una clase”. el docente-facilitador asume un riesgo interactivo que implica la construcción de un espacio seguro y de confianza que requiere tiempo e implicación para habituarse. la movilización de procesos sociopersonales debe atenderse por si existen necesidades de atención individual que deban derivarse a otras instancias de soporte. a pesar de que el acompañamiento del proceso es continuo, mucha de la resignificación y valoración del mismo ocurre de forma retrospectiva y fuera del aula, en el tiempo de la realización del trabajo final de grado, en las experiencias laborales o en otras experiencias y vivencias sobre las propias asunciones identitarias. por otra parte, los/las estudiantes perciben un desbalance entre las capacidades de investigación y diagnóstico frente a las posibilidades de producir transformaciones sociales. la reflexión constante sobre las implicaciones de las prácticas psicológicas e institucionales se ven sobrepasadas por las dificultades cotidianas del contexto venezolano, lo que lleva algunos a manifestar el deseo de cambiar de ámbito profesional, para no incurrir en contradicciones. en ciertos contextos laborales, los/las participantes reportan que la reflexividad es percibida como incómoda y moviliza imágenes estereotipadas sobre su formación psicosocial, la cual es percibida como academicista e hipercrítica. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 41 en general, la experiencia se valora positivamente, expresando que sería deseable ampliar este tipo de formación socio-reflexiva al resto de las pre-especializaciones en psicología. sin embargo, no se ignoran los efectos de deseabilidad social que pueden incidir en sus valoraciones positivas frente al docente-investigador que las documenta. el dispositivo socio-reflexivo se queda a medio camino entre la reflexividad personal y la de segundo orden. esta última interpela las violencias culturales y simbólicas que producen iniciativas diversas de educación para la paz como campo de intervención social (kester & cremin, 2017). en este sentido, considero importante problematizar en investigaciones futuras el impacto social de las agencias educativas en la producción de sujetos sociales y políticos, así como las prácticas de (no)reconocimiento y (des)legitimación de realidades emergentes que se promueven en la formación universitaria. finalmente, desde una perspectiva de responsabilidad social universitaria (valleys, 2016) debemos analizar críticamente las funciones que cumple el campo académico en la captura, orientación y complejización de la agenda de problemas sociales de un país, en los diferentes públicos y contrapúblicos (fraser, 1993) que hacen vida en una sociedad en conflicto. en venezuela, la ausencia de recursos para programas de investigación en las universidades públicas debilita la formación continua de los/las egresados/as y aleja la posibilidad de incidir en la transformación y superación de las nuevas desigualdades que han emergido. esto deja un vacío a la hora de enriquecer y complejizar la agenda de los problemas sociales, políticos, económicos e institucionales. así las cosas, el diálogo interdisciplinar y la necesidad de fortalecer las capacidades individuales, colectivas e institucionales para investigar y transformar realidades conflictivas —promoviendo derechos, participación democrática y justicia— sigue siendo una tarea pendiente. referencias antillano, a. 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(2009). ignacio martín-baró’s social psychology of liberation: situated knowledge and critical commitment against objectivism. psychology of liberation, 37-50. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-85784-8_2 kessler, g., & espinoza, v. (2003). movilidad social y trayectorias ocupacionales en argentina: rupturas y algunas paradojas del caso de buenos aires. en santiago de chile: cepal.[links]. cepal. https://repositorio.cepal.org/handle/11362/6038 kester, k. (2019). whiteness, patriarchy, and peacebuilding in un higher education: some theoretical and pedagogical implications from one case institution. irish educational studies, 38(4), 481-499. https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2019.1645722 kester, k., & cremin, h. (2017). peace education and peace education research: toward a concept of poststructural violence and second-order reflexivity. educational philosophy and theory, 49(14), 1415-1427. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2017.1313715 komers, s., & kester, k. (2018). poststructural democratic education? assessing the potentialities of a non-individualistic, non-instrumental, «action»-oriented democratic education. education as change, 22(3), 23 pages. https://doi.org/10.25159/19479417/3702 krotz, e. (2011). la enseñanza de la antropología «propia» en los programas de estudio en el sur. una problemática ideológica y teórica. alteridades, 21(41), 9-19. lederach, j. paul. (2005). the moral imagination: the art and soul of building peace. oxford university press. moscovici, s., mugny, g., & pérez, j. a. (1991). la influencia social inconsciente: estudios de psicología social experimental. anthropos. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 45 parker, i. (2010). la psicología como ideología: contra la disciplina. catarata. parker, i. (2020). la psicología crítica como psicología histórica-cultural: las dimensiones políticas y las limitaciones del conocimiento psicológico. tesis psicológica: revista de la facultad de psicología., 15(2), 14-31. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2209-3_3 quijano, a. (2002). colonialidad del poder, eurocentrismo y américa latina. en e. lander (ed.), la colonialidad del saber: eurocentrismo y ciencias sociales. perspectivas latinoamericanas. clacso. rancière, j. (2003). el maestro ignorante. cinco lecciones sobre la emancipación intelectual. editorial laertes. ray, m., & biswas, c. (2011). a study on ethnography of communication: a discourse analysis with hymes ‘speaking model’. journal of education and practice, 2(6), 33-40. rorty, r. (1989). la filosofía y el espejo de la naturaleza. ediciones cátedra. rorty, r. (1996). ¿solidaridad u objetividad? en objetividad, relativismo y verdad. escritos filosóficos l (pp. 39–56). paidós. sennet, r. (2008). la corrosión del carácter. anagrama. sepúlveda, c., & pojomovsky, i. (2021). carceral order, mediation, and representation: fiction and ethnography in a venezuelan prison. carceral communities in latin america, 339355. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61499-7_16 shotter, j. (2008). dialogical realities: the ordinary, the everyday, and other strange new worlds. journal for the theory of social behaviour, 27(2-3), 345-357. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5914.00042 smith, j. a., & osborn, m. (2007). interpretative phenomenological analysis. qualitative psychology, 53-80. valleys, f. (2016). introducción a la responsabilidad social universitaria. ediciones de la universidad simón bolívar. weber, m. (1984). la acción social: ensayos metodológicos. península. williams, r. n. (1987). can cognitive psychology offer a meaningful account of meaningful human action?. the journal of mind and behavior, 8(2), 209-221. willis, p. (2008). aprendiendo a trabajar. akal. zembylas, m., & bekerman, z. (2013). peace education in the present: dismantling and reconstructing some fundamental theoretical premises. journal of peace education, 10(2), 197-214. https://doi.org/10.1080/17400201.2013.790253 volume 17 number 1 (2023): 20-46 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 46 zubillaga, v. (2013). menos desigualdad, más violencia: la paradoja de caracas. nueva sociedad, 243. zubillaga, v., & hanson, r. (2021). el avance de los operativos militarizados en la era poschávez. en v. zubillaga, m. llorens, & f. sánchez (eds.), la muerte nuestra de cada día (1.a ed., pp. 229-256). editorial universidad del rosario. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv282jfpk.12 zubillaga, v., hanson, r., & antillano, a. (2021). gangs in the post-chávez bolivarian revolution : how mano dura policies and political pacts have organized crime in venezuela 1. routledge international handbook of critical gang studies, 473-488. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429462443-39 sam snyder outsourcing   in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  1  (2012):  70-­72   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     70     volume  6  number  1  (2012):  70-­72   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   outsourcing war and peace sam r. snyder a review of laura a. dickinson, outsourcing war and peace: preserving public values in a world of privatized foreign affairs. (new haven and london: yale university press, 2011). professor dickinson begins her book with a recounting of four incidents involving private contractors. the first is the shooting in baghdad’s nisour square on september 16, 2007. when the shooting is over seventeen civilians, all iraqi nationals, are dead. the incident began when a single bullet, apparently fired by a blackwater guard, killed an iraqi man driving a car that was approaching a convoy. a military report determined that the guards had used excessive force and that all of the deaths were unjustified. the second incident occurred in january of 2007 when it was learned that the state department paid $43.8 million to dyncorp for operating a residential police training camp. $4.2 million has been diverted to the purchase of twenty luxury v.i.p. trailers and an olympic-size pool. previously, in a similar agreement in bosnia, dyncorp employees were caught running a sex trafficking ring. in april of 2006 in iraq, a string of stopped cars and trucks are riddled with bullets fired by another security contractor, a shift leader of a group of guards working for triple canopy, under contact to protect the employees of kellogg, brown, and root (kbr), logistics contractors hired by the u.s. department of defense (dod).   in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  1  (2012):  70-­72   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     71   the fourth incident is the well-known abuses at abu ghraib. less recognized is the involvement of contract interrogators and translators at abu ghraib. according to military investigators, these contractors were inadequately trained and supervised and were responsible for some of the worst abuses at the prison, an example of the sometimes unhealthy mixing of uniformed soldiers and private contractors. according to the author, these various incidents reveal one of the most remarkable facts about the u.s. conflicts in iraq and afghanistan: alongside the military there is another fighting force. they are not wearing uniforms, and they are not subject to military discipline or the chain of command. in the past ten years, states and international organizations have shifted many foreign policy functions over to private contractors.; governments around the world have employed these contractors. the u.s. government has used private security companies and other contract firms in iraq to perform a wide variety of functions that involve the potential use of force. although incorporated in western countries, the firms hire employees of multiple nationalities. (italics in original) the same privatization trend can be seen in the realm of foreign aid; in iraq and afghanistan for-profit companies have actually predominated. according to the author, this trend represents a threat to public values. these values include (1) the fundamental respect for human dignity enshrined in international law, including norms of human rights, human security, and the idea of rule-bound warfare, with its protections for non-combatants and wounded soldiers; (2) public participation in decision making; and (3) transparency and anticorruption. these public values are at risk because of an outmoded legal architecture. the author calls for the construction of a new regulatory architecture for an era of privatization; she then proposes four distinct mechanisms of accountability or constraint: “(1) pursuing litigation under international and u.s. domestic law and possibly changing existing statutes; (2) reforming both the contracts themselves and the entire contract oversight and enforcement regime; (3) fostering public participation; and (4) addressing organizational structure and culture (italics in original, p. 13).” these proposals are based upon two background premises: (1) public values matter when we are operating overseas; (2) outsourcing has become so entrenched that we cannot completely eliminate it. the remainder of the book discusses the four mechanisms of accountability and constraint, their potential difficulties, and the variety of objections that might be raised. the author offers a brief recent history of privatization, suggesting that the turn to private organizations has fundamentally altered the very nature of the modern liberal democratic state.   in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  1  (2012):  70-­72   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     72   the ensuing chapters focus on legal accountability and asses the extent to which private contractors might be amenable to criminal prosecution or civil suit in international or domestic forums, contractual accountability and constraint, the knotty problems of public participation as a mechanism of constraint, as well as a value in its own right, and finally, a suggestion that more attention be paid to organizational constraints. while there is a burgeoning literature dealing with the rise of the privatized military and its consequences, the privatization of government functions as a threat to democracy, the rise of mercenary armies such as blackwater, and the role of private security contractors in iraq, none of the current literature focuses principally on legal and public policy reforms that might increase accountability as the current volume does. professor dickinson, currently a faculty member at arizona state university, was formerly a fellow in the princeton program on law and public affairs while on a research leave from the university of connecticut school of law. the book is well-organized, persuasively argued, well documented, and a valuable contribution to the literature on a vitally important topic. it is intended for the educated public as well as the legal scholar. microsoft word snauwaert ifp v12.2.docx in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 165-175 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 165 volume 12 number 2 (2018): 165-175 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal the dialogical turn: a review essay of peacebuilding through dialogue: education, human transformation, and conflict resolution edited by peter n. stearns, george mason university press, fairfax, va, 2018. developed in association with the ikeda center for peace, learning, and dialogue. isbn : 978-1-942695-11-0 (trade paper) isbn : 978-1-942695-12-7 (ebook)) dale t. snauwaert the university of toledo dale.snauwaert@utoledo.edu peacebuilding through dialogue is a valuable collection of reflections on the meaning, complexity, and application of dialogue (stearns, 2018). the collection advances our understanding of dialogue and its applicability in multiple and diverse contexts. in this review essay the general orientation as well as the specific reflections of dialogue in the domains of education, transformative personal development, and peacebuilding will be summarized, followed by a reflection on the dialogical turn in moral and political philosophy; this turn may have foundational significance for dialogue in the domains explored in the book. peacebuilding through dialogue in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 165-175 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 166 in his introductory chapter, the editor of the volume peter stearns anchors the inquiry into dialogue by situating it within historical context; he concludes that the practice of dialogue has a long history within the educational processes of teaching and learning. this educational commitment to dialogue originally emerged from within a variety of religious and philosophical traditions, which generally agreed that the practice of authentic dialogue requires internal preparation--the development of particular capacities and dispositions. grounded in this history is an emergent revival of dialogue throughout the 20th century and into the 21st. this revival has also offered a number of innovations to the conception and practice of dialogue. stearns frames the book by pointing to the need to clarify the meaning of dialogue amidst multiple interpretations in various domains that are a consequence of the dialogical revival. the subsequent chapters in the book explore the importance, meaning and potential applications of dialogue in three domains: 1) the conceptions of education as an active process of learning; 2) the interrelationship between internal dialogue and social transformation; and 3) the role of theory and practice of dialogue within the fields of conflict resolution, transformation and peacebuilding. this inquiry is further grounded in the two core principles of dialogue articulated by daisaku ikeda (founder of the ikeda center for peace, learning, and dialogue): “overcoming division within our own hearts (p. ix)” and the dialogical generation of mutual understanding and solidarity (p. xi). section 1 includes four chapters on the importance of dialogue within conceptions of education as processes of active learning. in the first chapter identity, race, and classroom dialogue steven d. cohen provides an examination of classroom practices aimed at the facilitation of honest and open conversation regarding issues of race, identity, and power among american preservice social studies teachers. the aim of his dialogical approach is to encourage critical self-reflection regarding bias, and to develop within future teachers a sense of empowerment as classroom facilitators of critical dialogue concerning these sensitive issues. in the second chapter listening and dialogue in educators’ reflective practice, bradley siegel and william gaudelli explore the movement of the reflective practice of teachers, from internal reflection to dialogical exchange with other teachers. dialogical reflective practice enables teachers to construct a more authentic personal and pedagogical identity, which they in turn model in the classroom as a necessary condition for peacebuilding. the third chapter, the in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 165-175 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 167 presence and role of dialogue in soka education by jason goulah, explores how and in what ways the practice of dialogue emerged in the development of the philosophy of soka education, and central to that philosophy, how dialogue functions in the process of value creation, in particular the creation of peace as the ultimate value. in the fourth chapter, dialogue and agency: educating for peace and social change, monisha bajaj and ion vlad articulate a critical conception of peace education by examining the relationship between dialogic learning and the cultivation of the transformative agency of students. dialogic learning entails critical inquiry into presupposed assumptions pertaining to social structures and conditions, including the distribution of power. through this critical examination, students are empowered to become not only agents of peace, human rights, and justice, but also to become capable of transformative reflection and action; what the authors refer to as “empowering praxis.” the development of such empowered agents is at the core of working towards democratic ideals, and in turn an education for peace. section 2 of the book explores the interrelationship between internal dialogue and social transformation; how dialogical methods can contribute to conflict transformation and building cultures of peace. in compassion in dialogue bernice lerner explores three meanings of dialogue as salve, inspiration, and discovery. dialogue as salve, expresses the power of words to help victims and those in suffering go beyond external oppression. dialogue as inspiration, speaks to how words inform the minds of others, showing them the way forward. dialogue as discovery, suggests the developmental enlightening power of opening ourselves to others. in bringing out the best in oneself and others: the role of dialogue in daisaku ikeda’s peacebuilding practice, olivier urbain articulates daisaku ikeda’s comprehensive approach to dialogue and peace building. he explores the question: “what really happens when one person connects with another through verbal exchanges, and what is the impact of this apparently insignificant event on humanity and the world (p. 105)?” he explores four core aspects of ikeda’s philosophy that connect with the relationship between dialogue and peacebuilding: the goal, to bring out the best in oneself and others; dialogue as continuum between inner transformation and peacebuilding; and communicative creativity through the arts, and the praxis of dialogue as preventive peacebuilding. in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 165-175 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 168 in the wise model and the role of self as observer in genuine dialogue, meenakshi chhabra explores transforming the internal essential dialogue between the “internal other” and “the self as observer” as the key to changing the dynamic of conflict with external others. dialogues concerning encounters of deeply opposed beliefs involve the interplay between two others, internal and external, and two selves, “self on stage” and “self as observer”. the internal other is the internalized and reified perception of the external other as well as one’s internal beliefs regarding that other. the internal other is a source of fear, anxiety, and resistance to the external other, which the self on stage experiences, as well as being it’s voice. the self as observer is the judicious impartial spectator and the source of possible transformation. it is the activation and guidance of the self as observer that is the key to opening into a transformative dialogue with the external other. in values, dissonance, and the creation of shared meaning, gonzalo obelleiro explores the challenges of dialogue in a context of value division and polarization. he suggests that we should conceive and understand dialogue as an encounter, a shared space, for the creation of shared meanings and the reconstruction of values. this process of dialogic encounter is illustrated within an encounter of police and criminal justice reform activists in the context of an educational seminar. section 3 explores the role of the theory and practice of dialogue in the fields of conflict resolution, transformation and peacebuilding. in dignity dialogues: an educational approach to healing and reconciling relationships in conflict, donna hicks identifies “the human response to violations of dignity” as the key factor in international conflict resolution and peacebuilding. she proposes that “conflict is rife with dignity violations”; violations of one’s sense of self-worth and the healing of such “dignity wounds” are seen as the key to conflict transformation. in turn, she argues that the establishment of cultures of dignity are the foundations of peace. hicks maintains that the exploration of dignity violations as the source of conflict, and their healing and protection, is best pursued through dialogue as shared learning. in changing the conversation: emerging better dialogue practices through four lenses, mark farr summarizes and explores four philosophical models of dialogue: sustained dialogue, religious dialogue, buddhist dialogue, and a reconciliation model of dialogue. based upon this exploration he concludes that a model of good dialogue should have intellectual in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 165-175 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 169 rigor, allow for off-line opportunities for the development of relationships, possess a strong philosophical basis (whatever that basis might be), and should generate trust. in dialogue and mutual recognition: the practice of interreligious encounters, andrea bartoli and charles gardner maintain that mutual recognition, that is, the mutual acceptance of the presence of the parities to the dialogue, is a necessary condition for dialogue. however, dialogue transcends acceptance into a developmental process of becoming more fully human together. in modes of peacemaking dialogue susan h. allen presents a multidimensional model of peacemaking dialogue. she surveys a number of models in order to uncover possible core characteristics of peacemaking dialogue: • dialogues are learning opportunities. • dialogues engage the moral imagination. • dialogues engage impartial outside facilitators. • dialogue honors participants as meaning makers possessing dignity. • dialogues will shift in focus between understanding, analysis, and planning. these elements characterize peacemaking dialogue as a learning process. finally, in dialogue and demographic complexity, ceasar l. mcdowell presents an insightful conception of social pluralism as “demographic complexity”, which often generates social conditions of polarization, segregation, and conflict. he asks whether, and on what grounds, a public infrastructure necessary for democracy and justice could be mutually designed and recognized under the conditions of demographic complexity. in response, he outlines the design of two types of public dialogues he considers to be essential to establishing a public, civic infrastructure: designed public dialogues and ambient dialogues. within these forms of public dialogue, mcdowell argues that people will have greater opportunities to find their voice. the insightful reflections offered in this volume suggest many common elements concerning the question of what is ‘meaningful’ in the dialogic revival as it relates to peacebuilding in the three domains discussed above. this reviewer would like to reflect upon an additional domain of dialogue in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 165-175 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 170 that is implicit in the assumptions underlying many perspectives offered in this book, a domain that could be seen as foundational to the meaningful application of peacebuilding through dialogue: the dialogical turn in moral and political philosophy. the dialogical turn in moral and political philosophy in the second half of the 20th and the first half of the 21st centuries a dialogical turn in moral and political philosophy, in particular theoretical considerations of justice, has occurred. dialogue is at the very center of our current understanding of ethical and moral inquiry and justification. dialogue within this domain is arguably foundational to many other domains, for example dialogue in the domains of teaching, personal and interpersonal transformation and development, and resolution and transformation of conflict and peacebuilding explored in this book. dialogue in these domains often involves basic ethical and moral claims, as well as being grounded in ethical values and moral principles, such as dignity, equal worth, human rights, and justice. given that normative considerations are central to the meaning of dialogue and its application to the three domains explored in the volume, reflections upon this normative dimension of moral and political philosophy are seen to be relevant and illuminating. the two dominant modern (enlightenment) moral theories, utilitarianism and kant's deontological theory, proceed from a subjectivist orientation. utilitarianism defines moral rightness in terms of the maximization of aggregative utility, wherein utility is defined as an individual’s subjective state of affairs, such as preference satisfaction. the utilitarian calculation is thus based in the equal consideration of individual subjective states. from a different perspective kant also proceeds from a subjectivist perspective. he maintains that in the process of moral justification “... we merely make reason attend ... to its own principles.” (kant, [1785] 1964, p. 404). in other words, the criteria of the justifiability and validity of moral norms can be constructed from within the presuppositions of reasonable moral judgment, that is, solely within the reason of the individual; a process of internal subjective reflection. in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 165-175 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 171 subsequently in the development of moral theory, there has been a shift from a subjective to an intersubjective orientation, which entails a significant dialogical turn, in the sense that dialogue has come to be understood as central to the processes of ethical and moral justification. it is recognized that the hallmark of human reason of all kinds theoretical, practical, and instrumental is that its validity is grounded in intersubjective mutual understanding and agreement (habermas, 1984; habermas, 1995; habermas, 1996; habermas, 2011). justification is inherent in reason for it constitutes the offering of reasons. however, reason is not solely subjective and internally focused, it is directed outward toward others. this is true of moral justification as well. as the moral philosopher rainer forst maintains: “respect for others does not rest on my relation to myself as ‘making laws for myself’ but corresponds to an original duty toward others … (forst 2012, p. 55) … it is the ‘face’ of the other that makes clear to me where the ground of being moral lies (forst 2012, p. 59).“ this intersubjective call of the other is the basis of the dialogical turn in various approaches to moral and political philosophy, including deontological moral constructivism, communitarianism, walzer’s interpretative approach, and capabilities theory, among others. in the following summary, the dialogical turn within each of these approaches to moral and political philosophy are highlighted. deontological moral constructivism moral constructivism refers to a process of justification of moral norms through a dialogical procedure of deliberation that is structured and defined in terms of fairness (rawls, 1971; rawls & freeman, 1999). in this approach kant’s subjective constructivist procedure is reconstructed in intersubjective dialogical terms. the validity of the principles of justice, and thus their normative force, are constructed through a fair procedure of dialogical intersubjective justification (forst, 2012; habermas, 1996; rawls, 1971). from this perspective, valid moral norms and ethical values rest upon sharable reasons exchanged in a deliberative, dialogical process (forst, 2012, 2017; habermas, 1996; rawls, 1997; rawls & kelly, 2001; scanlon, 2000). as john rawls suggests: "the fairness of the circumstances under which agreement is reached transfers to the principles of justice agreed to ... what is just, is defined by the outcome of the [deliberative] procedure itself (rawls & freeman, 1999, p. 310-311)." in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 165-175 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 172 communitarianism a number of contemporary communitarian political theorists maintain that normative justification and political legitimacy can only be grounded in a substantive collective ethical identity. communitarians in turn maintain that individual identity is ontologically dependent upon culture and community. they assert a dialogical understanding of identity as formed in the context of the particularities of comprehensive conceptions of the good life implicit in the culturally thick traditions of various kinds of communities (sandel, 1984; taylor, 1994). they maintain that moral rights dialogically emerge out of, and are thus grounded in, the web of human relationships which constitute communal life (sandel, 1984; sandel, 2009). it is maintain that valid justification of political norms is based upon collectively shared values forged out of communal dialogical relationships (macintyre, 2007). michael walzer’s interpretative approach working within communitarianism, michael walzer argues that morality is neither discovered in the fabric of reality (e.g., religious ethics, natural law ethics), nor is it constructed (moral constructivism) (orend, 2000; walzer, 1983, 1987; walzer & miller, 2007). walzer argues our own communities and cultures are the ultimate source of morality; and therefore, we do not need to discover or invent morality, we need to interpret it, which entails dialogue with others about the meaning of ethical goods and values. fidelity to the deepest meaning of our most cherished values uncovered through a dialogical process of interpretation is the ethical standard of justification. capabilities theory in amartya sen’s capabilities theory of justice, what is just is defined as that which promotes the realization of the combined index of capabilities of members of society as determined by the methods of social choice theory, comparative assessment, open impartial scrutiny, and public reasoning (sen, 2009). in other words, the state of affairs that ranks highest in terms of the combined index of capabilities is the most just/morally right among comparative alternatives. the process of comparative assessment proceeds through public reasoning, open and informed public deliberation, in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 165-175 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 173 which tests the validity of the assessment. the pursuit of justice for sen, can therefore, only proceed in terms of open, impartial dialogue among citizens as the exercise of their public reason. these examples highlight a significant dialogical turn in various approaches to moral and political philosophy, placing dialogue at the center of ethical and moral justification. dialogue within moral theory is arguably foundational to the domains explored in this volume, as the use of dialogue within these domains often involve basic ethical and moral claims. in addition, dialogue often finds its grounding in basic ethical values and moral principles, such as dignity, human rights, and justice. in conclusion, the collection of reflections on the dimensions of dialogue in peacebuilding offered in the book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the dialogic revival. this volume elaborates and refines our understanding of the emerging, intersecting themes of this dialogical turn, as well as it’s application and practice in basic domains of peace education, including the important foundational work of daisaku ikeda. these intersecting themes include: openness to diverse ideas and suggestions; a means for addressing conflict; mutual recognition and understanding; inner preparation to develop dialogic capacities; and respect for the dignity of others, among others. although these reflections and applications manifest in a variety of ways and contexts, uncovering and elucidating these emerging unitary themes is sure to invigorate practitioners, authors and researchers; any student and/or practitioner of dialogue, including peace and justice educators, will find important value in this collection of essays from a diverse range of scholars and practitioners. this volume offers in-depth and rigorous insight into the theory and practice of dialogue in education, personal development, and peacebuilding, insight that seems of even greater ethical and political importance today. references forst, r. (2012). the right to justification (j. flynn, trans.). new york: columbia university press. forst, r. (2017). normativity and power: analyzing social orders of justification (c. cronin, trans.). new york: oxford university press. in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 165-175 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 174 habermas, j. (1984). the theory of communicative action. boston: beacon press. habermas, j. (1995). reconciliation through the public use of reason: remarks on john rawls's political liberalism. journal of philosophy, xcii (3 march), 109-131. habermas, j. (1996). between facts and norms: contributions to a discourse theory of law and democracy. cambridge, mass.: mit press. habermas, j. (2011). 'reasonableness' versus 'true,' or the morality of worldviews. in j. g. finlayson & f. freyenhagen (eds.), habermas and rawls: disputing the political (pp. 92-113). new york: routledge. kant, i. ([1785] 1964). groundwork of the metaphysic of morals. new york: harper torchbooks. macintyre, a. (2007). after virtue: a study in moral theory. south bend: university of notre dame press. orend, b. (2000). michael walzer on war and justice. montreal ; ithaca, n.y.: mcgill-queen's university press. rawls, j. (1971). a theory of justice. cambridge: belknap press of harvard university press. rawls, j. (1993). political liberalism. new york: columbia university press. rawls, j. (1997). the idea of public reason revisited. the university of chicago law review, 64(3), 765-807. rawls, j., & freeman, s. (eds.). (1999). john rawls: collected papers. cambridge: harvard university press. in factis pax volume 12 number 2 (2018): 165-175 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 175 rawls, j., & herman, b. (2000). lectures on the history of moral philosophy. cambridge, mass.: harvard university press. rawls, j., & kelly, e. (2001). justice as fairness: a restatement. cambridge, mass.: harvard university press. sandel, m. j. (1984). liberalism and its critics new york: new york university press. sandel, m. j. (2009). justice: what's the right thing to do? new york: farrar, straus and giroux. scanlon, t. m. (2000). what we owe to each other. cambridge, ma: belknap press. sen, a. (2009). the idea of justice. cambridge, massachusetts: the belknap press of harvard university press. stearns, p. n. (ed.) (2018). peacebuilding through dialogue: education, human transformation, and conflict resolution fairfax, va: george mason university press and the ikeda center for peace, learning, and dialogue. taylor, c. (1994). multiculturalism. princeton: princeton university press. walzer, m. (1983). spheres of justice: a defense of pluralism and equality. new york: basic books. walzer, m. (1987). interpretation and social criticism. cambridge: harvard university press. walzer, m., & miller, e. b. d. (2007). thinking politically: essays in political theory. new haven: yale university press. jenkins-volume 10 in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 1-7 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 1 volume 10 number 1 (2016): 1-7 http://www.infactispax.org/journal transformative peace pedagogy: fostering a reflective, critical, and inclusive praxis for peace studies tony jenkins, phd one of the key conclusions of a 2014 conference on “reconstructing peace studies,”1 was that how we teach is as important as what we teach. faculty participating in the conference agreed they had minimal knowledge or preparation in the methods and pedagogies of peace education seen as essential to pursuing the transformative outcomes of peace studies programs. this article offers a brief philosophical and pedagogical framework and rationale for transformative peace pedagogy as a preferred approach and philosophy of teaching and learning in peace studies. transformative peace pedagogy fosters the development of a self-reflective praxis and nurtures a holistic, inclusive relationship between the inner (personal) and outer (political, action oriented) dimensions of peacebuilding. this praxis is the basis for both internal consideration and social and political action that is pursued by peace studies. the transformative social purposes guiding peace studies and peacebuilding the social purposes of peace studies are oriented toward the transformation of a culture of violence. johan galtung (1969) observed, “violence is present when human beings are being influenced so that their actual somatic and mental realizations are below their potential realizations.” accordingly, a culture of violence may be understood as a dynamic system of reciprocally reinforcing physical, psychological and structural influences working together to impede human potential (as well as the potential of other 1 co-hosted by the baker institute for peace and conflict studies at juniata college and the peace and justice studies association. for conference proceedings please see: http://www.bakerinstitute.net/reconstructing-peace-studies-conference-proceedings/ in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 1-7 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 2 living things). one aspect of peace studies is to develop awareness of these influences, understand their causes and conditions, and identify interrelationships. peace studies is equally, if not more so concerned with developing knowledge, skills and capacities essential for resisting and transforming these influences and establishing new, preferred conditions as the foundations for a culture of peace. the transformative work of peacebuilding is rooted in two fundamental dimensions: the psychological (inner) and the structural (outer). the constitution of unesco famously captures what is implied in the psychological task where it states, “since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.” the structural dimensions, interdependent with the psychological, are more outward looking, involving transformation of social and cultural constructions imbedded in political, institutional and ecological relationships. the relationship(s) between these inner and outer dimensions is a subject of much rhetorical debate.2 most peace scholars and practitioners support the position that the inner work is foundational to – or at the very least enhances -the ability to effectively engage in the outer work. however, under conditions of extreme violence and oppression there is little luxury afforded to focus on personal and spiritual development. in such contexts resistance and engagement in forms of strategic nonviolent action are the entry points to transformation. in addition to disrupting injustice, structural transformation also requires envisioning and modeling of preferred alternatives. this is the constructive work pursued by gandhi, and in some instances the more socially isolated prefigurative politics described by engler & engler (2014). from a transformative pedagogical perspective, the inner, strategic and constructive are equally valid entry points into the transformative work. the point at which an agent enters is largely contingent upon context, experience and worldview. the path taken is one that helps give meaning to the violence or conflict that is or has been experienced. while there may be contextually relevant points of entry, a transformative pedagogical approach to the teaching of peace studies would emphasize developing capacities of holistic, inclusive, critical and reflective thinking. such capacities are the basis for both personal growth and socially transformative action. foundations of transformative pedagogy: personal, social and ethical dimensions in the context of transformative learning, transformation indicates a reorientation of worldview that leads to a new rendering of the world and one’s place within it. there are many worldview obstacles that peace studies seeks to redress (militarism, gender, 2 the original, shorter version of this article was commissioned for the forthcoming textbook “current debates in peace studies,” edited by huston woods and to be published by oxford press. this article was invited as a complement to a series of perspectives exploring debates about personal peace, prefigurative politics and pedagogy. in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 1-7 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 3 development and economics, racism…), and these violent worldviews are reproduced and codified into social institutions and human arrangements. the pedagogical approach of peace studies, however, should not be to simply replace these violent ideologies with more peaceful ones. such an approach is indoctrination. the learner in such an arrangement is treated as an object onto or into which knowledge and ideas are imparted3; not permitting the learner to critically and ethically grapple with concepts under consideration. transformative peace pedagogy is the antithesis of indoctrination. it is an ethical, elicitive and learner-centered approach to worldview transformation that honors the dignity and subjectivity of the learner. fostering ethical, inter and intra-subjective relationships with concepts, knowledge, knowledge creation, and other persons is the hallmark of transformative learning. this is consistent with betty reardon’s articulation of pedagogy as the “determinant of human relationships in the educational process. it is itself the medium of communication between teacher and learner, and that aspect of the educational process which most affects what learners receive from their teachers” (reardon, 1993). from this perspective, transformative pedagogy requires establishing ethical relationships in and through all dimensions of teaching and learning. peace is a moral and ethical pursuit. inquiry into the definition of peace, the conditions of peace, and the processes through which those conditions are pursued is a process of moral interpretation. values and ethics form the core inquiry for assessment of ethical action. developing the skills and capacities to interpret and negotiate values and morality in social and political contexts forms the foundation of many peacemaking and peacebuilding skills. knowledge construction itself is a moral and ethically reflective, transformative and formative process. transformative learning theory is thus concerned with the modes and processes of facilitating worldview transformation and shifts of perception. the processes through which such learning is pursued are dialectical, requiring internal and external dialogue between existing knowledge and perceptions and fresh considerations towards the development of potential new phenomenological dispositions. construed dialogically, it is an ethical, learner-centered, non-indoctrinating process. theorist jack mezirow (1991) describes transformative pedagogy as having a constructivist phenomenological orientation based on the assumption that “meaning exists within ourselves rather than in external forms such as books and that the personal meanings that we attribute to our experience are acquired and validated through human interaction and communication” (mezirow, 1991, p. xiv). 3 this is a foundational premise of paulo freire’s critical and emancipatory pedagogy as outlined in pedagogy of the oppressed (2000). freire’s work is often the primary or sole source cited when exploring the foundations of transformative learning in peace education. in instances where a single voice is our main source of knowledge that knowledge is often left to uncritical interpretation and/or rote understanding. the author has intentionally left freire out of the conversation in this article to highlight other perspectives often overlooked that might enhance understanding of transformative pedagogy. a dialogue between freire and the authors cited here might be a source for a future article. in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 1-7 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 4 as peace studies presented here is oriented toward transformation, it follows that an ethical, transformative pedagogy should be the preferred mode of learning. dale snauwaert, in a discussion of betty reardon’s assessment of the field, identifies the rationale for ethical and reflective inquiry as the basis of peace education pedagogy: reardon’s basic presupposition is that political efficacy [one of the transformative intentions of peace education], the capacity to engage in transformative political action, is contingent upon the cognitive, ethical, and self-reflective capacities of citizens. transformative action is a reflective-practice. being a reflective practice it requires both the capacity and space for authentic open reflective inquiry in dialogue with the diverse range of other citizens. it requires “authentic open inquiry.” (reardon & snauwaert, 2011, p. 2) snauwaert’s analysis points to another premise, that knowledge and meaning making is socially constructed and verified. martin buber’s (1970) ruminations on what he describes as the two primary forms of relationships, “i-it” and “i-thou,” is instructive in this regard. in the “i-it” relationship one experiences the other as an object separate from the self. “i-thou” relationships, on the other hand, are built upon mutuality and are characterized by encounters with other’s subjectivity. through these ethical, intersubjective encounters meaning is validated and new perceptions can emerge. betty reardon, in a response to snauwart, adds to this dialogue a more politically efficacious perspective. she suggests “were it [the reflective learning] to be left at the inward without the communal sharing, it might become meditative rather than ruminative, remaining personal, not becoming a social learning process, preparatory to the public political discourse for change” (reardon & snauwaert, p. 8). transdisciplinarity: a framework for pursuing peace knowledge and action implied in this social constructionist theory of knowledge creation is the necessity for dialogical encounters with diverse perspectives toward the possibility of identifying and agreeing upon a shared moral or ethical position. this rationale can be extended to another premise, that the pursuit of peace knowledge should be transdisciplinary in nature. peace researcher kenneth boulding (1956) proposed the need for a unified or transdisciplinary approach to knowledge and theory construction that he named eiconics. his rationale was premised on his observation of an interconnected global web of violence that he believed could only be transformed through knowledge sharing across the disciplines. he proposed the approach as an ethical imperative in pursuit of knowledge creation for the common good. betty reardon (2000) identifies “peace knowledge” as an umbrella term, encompassing the more discrete realms of peace research, peace studies, peace education and peace action. each of these realms characterizes a particular study or approach to the pursuit of peace of various academic disciplines, yet they all share the common purpose of knowledge development for a culture of peace. academically, these realms are studied in a reductionist fashion, in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 1-7 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 5 orienting such studies as false dichotomies. the academic obstacles to transdisciplinary knowledge generation need to be addressed by peace studies as a unique form of structural violence (jenkins, 2008; galtung, 1969). it follows from the preceding premises, therefore, that the methods of research, analysis and interpretation called for in pursuing the socially transformative purposes of peace knowledge should be multiple in scope and not limited to one theory of knowledge or science. johan galtung argued that peace studies should “be concerned with both nomothetic, universalizing and ideographic, singularizing methodologies” (galtung, 2002, p. 16). the rationale for this holistic methodology is rooted in the applied nature of peace studies and the place peace studies finds itself situated within the cosmology of time. galtung observes that “peace studies can be conveniently and usefully divided into: past-oriented, empirical, what worked and what did not; present-oriented, critical, evaluating present policies; future-oriented, constructive, elaborating future policies” (p. 16). each of these approaches has a unique scientific basis and accompanying limitations. empiricism is useful in learning from fact and past observations, but it is not useful in guiding the unobserved future. the critical approach is moral/ethical, scientifically interpreting present conditions through a values lens. the constructive is the most future oriented, relating “theories to values to construct a transcendence from reality into potential reality…” (p. 17). elise boulding (1988) emphasized this constructive, futures orientation in her research. she was resolute in her call for nurturing social imagination, which she described as “the capacity to visualize the present in fresh ways and to visualize the not-yet in positive ways, in order to release society from the paralysis induced by technological dependency and the fear of nuclear war” (1988, p. 116). without imaginative/interpretive processes new possibilities, theories and testable hypotheses would never be pursued. conclusion: fostering a reflective, critical, transformative praxis for peace studies the arguments and premises presented here attempt to provide a philosophical and pedagogical framework and rationale for a more inclusive and transformative approach to teaching and learning in peace studies. ultimately, personal and social transformation – a range of which is sought through peace studies – is a radical endeavor. transformation requires a complete reorientation of self and society; as such transformation is not achieved by simply exchanging old parts with new. transformation, as outlined here, is pursued through critical, reflective inquiry and requires an inclusive-holistic understanding of the relationship of knowledge, learning and action. this orientation may seem to extend a superhuman standard to the expected learning outcomes of a student of peace studies: to be rooted in a meta consciousness while simultaneously engaged in the micro details of peacebuilding work. to be in all places at once means one is never fully present in the moment. a more human goal is the development of a reflective, critical and transformative praxis. such a praxis establishes a bridge between the false divides of the inner and the outer, the principled and the strategic, and helps the in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 1-7 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 6 peacebuilder/peacelearner to see, imagine and construct the whole. references: boulding, e. (1988). building a global civic culture: education for an interdependent world. new york, ny: syracuse university press. boulding, k. (1956). the image: knowledge in life and society. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press. buber, m. (1970). i and thou. (w. kaufmann, trans.). new york, ny: simon & schuster. engler & engler (2014). should we fight the system or be the change? waging nonviolence. retrieved from: http://wagingnonviolence.org/feature/fight-system-change freire, p. (2000). pedagogy of the oppressed. new york, ny: continuum. galtung, j. (1969). violence, peace, and peace research. journal of peace research, 6, (3):167-191. galtung, j. (2002). the epistemology and methodology of peace studies. tromsø papers no. 1. tromsø, norway: university of tromsø and transcend. jenkins, t. (2008). a peace education response to modernism: reclaiming the social and pedagogical purposes of academia. in lin, j., brantmeier, e., & bruhn, c. (eds.). transforming education for peace. charlotte, nc: information age publishing. mezirow, j. (1991). transformative dimensions of adult learning. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. reardon, b. & snauwaert, d. (2011). reflective pedagogy, cosmopolitanism, and critical peace education for political efficacy: a discussion of betty a. reardon’s assessment of the field. in factis pax, 5(1), 1-14. reardon, b. (2000). peace education: a review and projection. in moon, b., brown, s. & peretz, m.b. (eds.), routledge international companion to education. new york, ny: routledge. reardon, b. (1993). pedagogy as purpose: peace education in the context of violence. in cremin, p. (ed.), education for peace (pp. 101-113). ireland: educational studies association of ireland and irish peace institute. in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 1-7 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 7 unesco. (1945). constitution of the united nations educational, scientific and cultural organisation (unesco). retrieved on may 8, 2014, from: www.refworld.org/docid/3ddb73094.html microsoft word ifp v 17 leonardo gonzález torres.docx volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 1 volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 contacto intergrupal y repercepción como mediadores de procesos de paz intercultural: programa de encuentros de educación para la paz. intergroup contact and reperception as mediators of intercultural peace processes: program for peace education encounters. leonardo gonzález torres resumen: partiendo del análisis de la educación intercultural y sus retos, el presente artículo plantea y discute el papel que la práctica de mindfulness, la teoría del contacto intergrupal y la práctica de la compasión puede tener en espacios de educación para la paz intercultural. se busca problematizar la manera en la que clásicamente se entiende la educación intercultural y describir un modelo de trabajo centrado en la disminución del prejuicio. finalmente se expone la potencialidad que espacios como el iipe tienen para cultivar la paz intercultural y se presentan los principios, objetivos y una propuesta1 de encuentros de educación para la paz basada en el marco conceptual previo. 1 la presente propuesta es el resultado de un proceso de trabajo que se ha realizado en el contexto del círculo de estudios para la paz, con personas en situación de conflicto, desde los años 2017 al presente. las dimensiones que se discuten en este texto parten de experiencias e instancias de investigación previas expuestas en gonzález y lópez (2016). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 2 palabras clave: iipe, mindfulness, teoría del contacto, paz intercultural abstract: starting from the analysis of intercultural education and its challenges, this article proposes and discusses the role that the practice of mindfulness, the theory of intergroup contact, and the practice of compassion can have in spaces of intercultural peace education. it seeks to problematize the way in which intercultural education is classically understood and to describe a working model focused on the reduction of prejudice. finally, the potential that spaces such as the iipe have to cultivate intercultural peace is presented and the principles, objectives and a proposal for peace education encounters based on the previous conceptual framework are presented. key words: iipe, mindfulness, contact theory, intercultural peace. 1. introducción: espacios interculturales de educación para la paz. se ha establecido que lo primero que se debe aclarar cuando se trabaja con la paz es qué entendemos por ella. si bien, para reardon (1988) la paz negativa puede asimilarse a la ausencia de guerra o violencia y la paz positiva a la presencia de justicia, esta última implica, además, el cumplimiento de los derechos humanos por todos los seres humanos y la justicia social. la autora es crítica con las definiciones de paz que no incluyen aspectos relativos con los modos de transformación de las violencias. en relación a la educación para la paz, snauwaert (2012) resalta el enfoque transformacional de reardon (1988) desde el cual se entiende que la meta de ésta es la génesis de una conciencia en las personas, que permita generar ciudadanos globales que realicen acciones que implicarán un trabajo a corto y también a largo plazo2para transformar las estructuras socio políticas sobre las que se articula la violencia. lo interesante de este planteo es que, además de aportar elementos a una concepción de paz positiva pone de manifiesto un proceso de trabajo para transformar la realidad en que los seres humanos vivimos. en relación a la filosofía de base de tal enfoque, el autor retoma un tipo específico de pedagogía (reardon y 2 se coincide con opotow, gerson y woorside (2005) en que la paz es un proyecto a largo plazo que tiene por fin promover el cambio social en las estructuras de la sociedad. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 3 sanauwaert, 2011 en sanauawert, 2012) que posee características diferenciadas como: "la orientación a proceso, la base en preguntas o cuestionamientos a las personas, la reflexividad, el aprendizaje experiencial, procesos dialogados o conversacionales, valores, imaginativa, crítica, liberadora y empoderadora” (p. 49). la educación para la paz se estructura, desde el enfoque descrito, sobre principios de política cosmopolita y en la orientación ética. comprende a la educación como un elemento central de la sociedad y da a la educación para la paz un papel importante como proceso que se encarga de articular la paz concebida como el valor esencial. lo mencionado tiene importantes implicaciones en relación con la interculturalidad. la educación para la paz, tal como se ha definido implica el cultivo de la sensibilidad intercultural, a la que considera necesaria, pero no suficiente para lograr procesos de transformación de la violencia. buscando un horizonte pacífico en tales esfuerzos, la interculturalidad se entiende como un valor y como un elemento político en tanto pretende superar las divergencias de poder entre diferentes culturas. cuando se trata de abordar la manera en que se trabaja con personas de procedencias culturales distintas, las intervenciones pueden estar orientadas hacia la promoción de la paz con una perspectiva multicultural o intercultural. frecuentemente confundidas, los conceptos poseen implicaciones significativamente diferentes. un abordaje multicultural busca aplicar medidas de discriminación positiva para empoderar a grupos menos favorecidos o representados dentro de la sociedad. la interculturalidad, por su parte busca promover cambios en la naturaleza de las relaciones entre las personas y la búsqueda del cambio en las relaciones mayoritarias (dietz, 2018). evidentemente, buscar que personas ubicadas en sectores marginados del entramado social global tengan voz propia es diferente a promover una transformación colectiva de las relaciones entre estos. desde la interculturalidad, entonces, no se trata tanto de permitir al otro/a tener voz como de construir una voz colectiva donde no se diluyan las diferencias, pero se cree un terreno en común de diálogo y encuentro. en el campo de la educación y la construcción de paz “la paz debe construirse ecuménicamente, interculturalmente, desde un diálogo cultural en el que participen todas las vivencias y tradiciones de paz, rescatando y activando ese tesoro oculto esparcido por toda la humanidad” (jiménez, 2016, p. 24)3. 3 una de las críticas a la paz intercultural que se ha realizado el mencionado autor es que ésta es incompleta. en su lugar propone la paz transcultural, como forma de “superación” de los marcos volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 4 dicho esto, podríamos definir a la paz intercultural como una manera de relación entre personas donde prima el encuentro, el respeto y la equidad por encima de las diferencias culturales y a partir del cual se busca comprender y crear soluciones a la violencia desde la horizontalidad cultural. una paz como esta es, por definición, siempre nueva y dinámica: no existiría -desde esta miradauna paz única y cerrada, sino que deberíamos hablar de las muchas paces y tradiciones de paz. aunque la paz intercultural es una meta importante para quienes trabajan en procesos de educación para la paz, es evidente que incluir a personas dentro de estos espacios supone retos complejos. estos, en gran medida, se presentan porque no se estimula suficientemente la educación intercultural en la educación formal. no es raro que como consecuencia la violencia intercultural sea frecuente en los espacios de educación. en otras palabras, si bien los contextos de educación son espacios donde estas relaciones se producen de manera privilegiada (jiménez, 2016) no es menos cierto que representan una circunstancia problemática para quienes facilitan aprendizajes de paz. uno de los retos más complejos en la construcción de paz es aprender a responder adecuadamente, como educadores, ante situaciones en las que personas de diferente contexto cultural entran en interacción. por ello una de las habilidades más importantes de los profesionales que trabajan desde un paradigma de paz intercultural es la capacidad de enseñar a regular pacíficamente los conflictos potenciales que pueden emerger del encuentro entre portadores de diferentes paradigmas culturales. además, deben tener habilidades que les permitan construir justicia, equidad y cultivar el respeto de los derechos humanos en estos espacios. hay que tener en cuenta, además, que las prácticas de paz no se transfieren de cultura a cultura sin más (brome, 2017) sino que -como se ha mencionadoel aprendizaje de la paz implica un proceso dialéctico, participativo y situado. ser conscientes de miradas y actitudes etnocéntricas en los contextos de enseñanza es fundamental para evitar estilos y contenidos de educación impregnados de una mirada colonialista y/o actitud paternalista. ejemplo de ello son intervenciones donde se intenta adaptar un modelo de trabajo a espacios culturales diversos y alejados de los marcos conceptuales -a menudo cargados de eurocentrismoen los que surgieron. este marco implica dejar de hablar de paz para hablar de “paces” o “muchas paces.” culturales de origen a partir de nuevos referentes. esta sería producto de la fusión o mestizaje cultural de las culturas previas. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 5 promover, no obstante, espacios de tal naturaleza no es simple. vivimos en sociedades profundamente etnocéntricas y -por tantocargadas de fuertes cuotas de prejuicios y estereotipos negativos ante la alteridad cultural. ante tales circunstancias se han desarrollado espacios de aprendizaje estructurados con el objetivo de propiciar el encuentro intercultural y el aprendizaje de la paz desde esta perspectiva. en lo sucesivo se describen elementos conceptuales y metodológicos de una propuesta de educación para la paz intercultural que busca incidir fundamentalmenteen procesos de violencia cultural representados por el prejuicio y los estereotipos negativos frente a personas de culturas diferentes. combinando intervenciones basadas en mindfulness y compasión con prácticas de contacto intercultural intencional se busca promover el cambio personal y social basado en valores de paz intercultural. 2. intervenciones basadas en mindfulness en procesos de paz: mindfulness4 puede comprenderse como la capacidad de prestar atención de modo deliberado, con aceptación y sin juicio al presente momento a momento (kabat-zinn, 2015). sabemos poco sobre los vínculos entre la práctica de mindfulness y sus efectos en la promoción de narrativas y prácticas pacíficas en las personas en comparación con toda la información disponible sobre las aplicaciones de éste en otros campos. esto puede deberse a que, en gran medida, la aplicación de este tipo de meditación está fuertemente ligada, en sus orígenes, a la medicina preventiva5 fuertemente vinculada al modelo médico de comprensión del sufrimiento. como fruto de la búsqueda de formas alternativas de tratamiento de problemas para cuyo tratamiento no había una respuesta cierta o clara, la práctica de la atención plena en el contexto de la salud comienza a denominarse intervenciones basadas en mindfulness6. la incorporación de dicha forma de meditación en ámbitos del saber como: la 4 lo que puede traducirse como “sati” en pali, el idioma original de los textos en los que se menciona por primera vez la conciencia plena en el contexto budista. sati puede equipararse a “recordar” o “ser consciente de”. en occidente tal tipo de meditación -vinculada a la meditación vipassanaha sido denominada y popularizada con el término “mindfulness” o conciencia plena en castellano. 5 con este me refiero a los orígenes de la práctica de mindfulness en occidente la cual puede trazarse hacia mediados de los años sesenta del siglo pasado aproximadamente. 6 estas se caracterizan por realizarse en contextos de atención o intervención profesional, contar con validaciones científicas de sus efectos y representan la articulación de la práctica de mindfulness orientada a la atención de problemas humanos vinculados a la salud o al bienestar. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 6 psicología clínica, el mundo empresarial, la atención a procesos de enfermedad física, ha ido desde entonces en relativo aumento (spijkerman et al, 2016). mindfulness ha sido incorporado, también, dentro del ámbito educativo (zenner et al, 2014). en este campo los aspectos que se han buscado desarrollar o atender se pueden unificar en torno a el desarrollo de la compasión, el fomento del rendimiento académico e intervenciones en pos de que los alumnos aprendan a regular sus estados internos, entre otros. en esta área la aplicación de mindfulness en el desarrollo de la paz intercultural no ha sido explorada con la misma profundidad que lo mencionado. han existido, no obstante, estudios que se ocupan de temáticas vinculadas a la justicia social o la prevención de la violencia, generalmente adaptando programas como el mbsr al abordaje de problemas psicosociales como: el racismo, la violencia de género, la violencia contra la comunidad lgbtiq+, entre otros (hidalgo et al, 2020). estos enfoques representan un avance en varios sentidos: en primer lugar, porque ponen sobre la mesa la dimensión socio-cultural de las intervenciones basadas en mindfulness; en segundo lugar, porque centran su trabajo en la capacidad de las personas de observar y re-construir sus vínculos con otros; y, en tercer lugar, porque atienden a la violencia como elemento central de trabajo, un elemento ausente en los programas centrados en el paradigma salud-enfermedad, previamente mencionados. 3. procesos de mindfulness y elementos de trabajo en relación con el prejuicio: a continuación, se describen los elementos fundamentales que forman parte del modelo de trabajo que se presentará posteriormente. los mismos se desprenden de la práctica de mindfulness, pero incorporan elementos provenientes de otras tradiciones, con el fin de añadir una dimensión para vincular al trabajo con los estereotipos y prejuicios negativos. para explicar el funcionamiento de la meditación mindfulness se han propuesto algunos mecanismos básicos de mindfulness (shapiro et al, 2016), los cuales constituyen el substrato que permite cultivar este particular tipo de conciencia: (1) la intención, es decir aquello que el o la practicante busca en la práctica7; (2) la atención, que implica notar lo que ocurre dentro y fuera de uno 7 la intención (shapiro, 2006) es un elemento frecuentemente cambiante que parece moldear la práctica -en la medida en que la intención “dirige” la prácticapero también es moldeado por la práctica persistente. a medida que éste se adentra en ella. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 7 mismo momento a momento; y (3) la actitud, que involucra la capacidad de permanecer abierto y con curiosidad ante lo experimentado. la capacidad que los mecanismos anteriormente mencionados tienen para incidir en la conducta de las personas depende del entrenamiento. dado que nuestra propia mente ha sido estimulada y condicionada para vivir en piloto automático (kabat-zinn, 2015) -lo cual se manifiesta en un modo reactivo, repetitivo y poco consciente de responder a los estímulos externos e internoses evidente que el cultivo de un estado de conciencia plena requiere un proceso de aprendizaje capaz de modificar esta forma habitual de respuesta. este proceso permite, en el mediano plazo, que el practicante pueda -con base en la práctica sostenidatransferir esta capacidad de mantenerse presente -que se produce en el contexto de entrenamiento a la vida cotidiana. este proceso le permitirá desarrollar un rasgo de respuesta plenamente consciente. los componentes de mindfulness previamente mencionados están controlados por un meta mecanismo que se ha denominado repercepción e “implica un cambio fundamental de perspectiva. en lugar de estar inmersos en el drama de nuestra narrativa personal o la historia de nuestra vida, somos capaces de tomar distancia y simplemente presenciarlo” (shapiro et al, 2016, p.377). la repercepción es una forma de des-identificación con los contenidos de la consciencia y supone un cambio de perspectiva por el cual el observador pasa a ser lo observado. este meta mecanismo que se encuentra en la base de los demás previamente descritos, permite adoptar una meta-perspectiva mediante la cual el practicante puede advertir que los contenidos de la consciencia no son el “yo” sino eventos cambiantes cuya ilusión de permanencia es dada por la identificación previa y repetida con los mismos. la repercepción ha sido equiparada a la defusión cognitiva (shapiro et al, 2016) planteada dentro del paradigma de flexibilidad psicológica teorizado por hayes et al (1999) en el contexto de la terapia de aceptación y compromiso (act), un enfoque basado en mindfulness y la tradición conductual, que se centra en el desarrollo de habilidades de flexibilidad en los clientes. la defusión cognitiva se produce cada vez que la persona puede advertir que su comportamiento está guiado por el comportamiento verbal y, mediante la práctica de ejercicios procedentes del marco de trabajo de mindfulness, se pretende que se distancie cognitivamente de tales contenidos8. 8 se ha descrito a la des literalización (hayes et al. 1999) como la capacidad de no confundir los pensamientos con hechos. mediante la disminución de la relación literal que establece la persona con los contenidos mentales se pretende ayudarla a dejar de vivir una vida controlada por el pensamiento y comenzar a dirigir su conducta a acciones basadas en valores. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 8 lo mencionado tiene una importante significación en relación con la paz intercultural en la medida en que la des-identificación puede cultivarse no solo con las narrativas sobre uno mismo sino con las narrativas sobre el otro. en adelante, nos centraremos en el trabajo que hemos desarrollado en torno a los prejuicios desde el enfoque mindfulness. pretendemos explicar la manera en la que, desde una metodología que combina la comunicación intercultural con la práctica de mindfulness, estamos trabajando en procesos de construcción de paz intercultural. a) repercepción y mecanismos de des-identificación cognitiva ante los prejuicios: aunado a lo anterior, se han realizado intervenciones preliminares sobre el prejuicio desde enfoques basados en el modelo de flexibilidad psicológica de la terapia de aceptación y compromiso (lillis y hayes, 2007) que han puesto el énfasis sobre procesos de aceptación aumentada y la disminución de la literalización -con base en la defusión cognitivaconcretamente de pensamientos vinculados al prejuicio. en estos estudios se consideró la aceptación como la capacidad de permanecer con una actitud de apertura frente a lo que ocurre, tal cual es, sin intentar modificar la experiencia. a la des-literalización se la entiende como la capacidad de no tomarse los pensamientos como hechos sino verlos como eventos mentales cambiantes, capacidad que se desarrolla a partir de la práctica combinada o por separado de meditaciones completas o ejercicios breves que pretenden desarrollar la defusión cognitiva. algunos hallazgos de estos estudios revelaron que a medida que los alumnos eran capaces de reconocer los procesos de juicio y evaluación, su comportamiento se hizo más flexible y que, por otro lado, el aumento de la aceptación y la disminución de fusión cognitiva con estos contenidos se vinculó a un aumento de las intenciones positivas del comportamiento (lillis y hayes, 2007, p. 405). uno de los elementos centrales del planteo es que no se trata de confrontar los prejuicios directamente, ni siquiera de centrarse en los productos del pensamiento. por el contrario, la práctica de la defusión -basada en mindfulness busca centrarse con atención en el proceso del pensamiento, es decir, se invita al participante a no luchar ni dejarse llevar por los contenidos mentales sino, por el contrario, a observarlos sin juicio y con una actitud de aceptación. al interrumpir la relación típica con el contenido mental, esto es, seguir los pensamientos como si fuesen hechos, las personas pueden lograr, paulatinamente, estados de des-identificación con los procesos mentales vinculados al prejuicio. esto tiene un enorme impacto en la capacidad para actuar conforme en los propios valores y metas y no en las ideas internalizadas sobre el otro. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 9 b) contacto intergrupal y disminución del prejuicio: en lo sucesivo describiré las bases del trabajo con el prejuicio que pueden dar una idea al lector de los principios que se ponen en marcha en la enseñanza de la paz intercultural. estos principios provienen de la tradición de la psicología conductual, pero poseen dimensiones que vinculan estos aspectos conductuales con consecuencias de carácter social. en relación con trabajos que abordan la modificación de prejuicios, si bien se han descrito diferentes estrategias basadas en evidencias (pettigrew et al, 2007) parece ser que el contacto inter grupal tiene el mayor potencial para promover la disminución de prejuicios entre las personas de diferentes grupos. esta teoría ha sido llamada la teoría del contacto (pettigrew et al, 2007). desarrollada originalmente para situaciones de contacto interétnico y racial, la teoría parece extenderse más allá de estos asuntos. se ha documentado la efectividad del uso instrumental de situaciones de contacto intergrupal para la reducción del prejuicio frente a personas con diferente orientación sexual a la propia y en el caso de discapacidad, entre otros. uno de los efectos ha demostrado correlacionarse con la disminución de la amenaza percibida. se ha teorizado que, al entrar en contacto con personas de un grupo diferente al propio se produce una disminución de la ansiedad y que esa disminución de la ansiedad es un importante factor en la mediación del prejuicio (pettigrew et al, 2007). a ello deben añadirse dos elementos significativamente relevantes: que el contacto directo, cara a cara, es esencial en la reducción de la vivencia de amenaza y que ese contacto no solo es benéfico para las personas que conforman los espacios de interacción mencionados sino también para sus familiares, amigos o conocidos siempre que estas interacciones sean públicas. esto tiene, al menos, dos implicaciones importantes en torno a la promoción de la paz intercultural. primero: que el contacto directo y público entre personas de diferentes grupos -que involucran raza, etnia o géneros diversos, etc.permite una disminución del prejuicio entre éstos y segundo: que esto produce un cambio en la conducta del prejuicio en personas que se encuentran directa o indirectamente relacionadas con las primeras. en otras palabras: cada vez que nos relacionamos con personas diferentes vamos cuestionando los esquemas normativos de relación intercultural y normalizando relaciones interculturales. además, este contacto permite integrar en los actores sociales nuevas maneras de mirar la realidad social que se manifiestan en la adquisición de nuevos recursos como: recursos interrelacionales, los cuales se manifiestan al ampliar las volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 10 alternativas de respuestas frente al otro y recursos intrapersonales que se muestran al aumentar el acervo de respuestas frente a los propios eventos y vivencias internas. en otras palabras, el contacto con el otro nos transforma al confrontar nuestros prejuicios con el comportamiento real del otro, volviéndonos más flexibles y permitiéndonos aprender nuevos modos de actuación en situaciones interpersonales e intrapersonales. c) compasión basada en mindfulness: un tercer y último elemento vinculado al planteo que hacemos es la práctica de la compasión basada en mindfulness. se ha descrito a la compasión como la “capacidad de sensibilizarse con el sufrimiento de los otros con el compromiso de tratar de aliviarlo o prevenirlo” (gilbert, 2020, p.24) y se han desarrollado métodos para su práctica basándose en la idea de que el cultivo de estados compasivos a nivel mental permite la organización del comportamiento y cerebro debido a que activa el sistema de calma, vinculado a la vivencia de seguridad, protección, cuidado y confianza (gilbert, 2020) en detrimento de la disminución de la activación del sistema de amenaza y defensa vinculado a conductas de lucha y evitación. desde la tradición filosófica budista, la compasión posee elementos que la distinguen de otros estados psicológicos. estos son: 1) reconocer el sufrimiento como una experiencia humana y universal, 2) sentir empatía por quienes sufren y 3) cultivar el deseo de aliviarla. en el contexto de las intervenciones basadas en mindfulness, la práctica de la compasión basada en mindfulness es una práctica generativa debido a que pretende -a diferencia de la práctica de la meditación mindfulness, que busca cultivar la capacidad de observar lo que ocurre sin modificarlopromover en el practicante la vivencia de la compasión. algunas de las prácticas pueden incluir la repetición de frases en silencio o voz baja hacia la imagen interna de personas conocidas, desconocidas, personas con las que se pueden tener potenciales problemas y uno mismocargadas del reconocimiento del sufrimiento y el deseo de aliviarlo9. 9 una de las prácticas de compasión más extendidas consiste en el cultivo de una sincera vivencia de interés y deseo de alivio del dolor del otro acompañada por la repetición de frases como: “que puedas ser feliz, que puedas liberarte del sufrimiento, que experimentes alegría, que puedas estar tranquilo”. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 11 hasta el momento, se ha descrito la práctica de la repercepción, la relación intergrupal y la autocompasión. el aprendizaje intercultural para la paz puede beneficiarse de los procesos descritos. en lo sucesivo describimos un marco de trabajo con base en lo planteado. 3. propuesta de trabajo en la construcción de paz intercultural a través de la práctica de mindfulness y el contacto intergrupal. se describe, a continuación, una propuesta de trabajo que se presentó, de manera adaptada, en el encuentro “tejiendo juntos el aprendizaje intercultural para la paz” del international institute of peace education -en adelante iipe-, celebrado a mediados del año 2022. el encuentro, en el que compartimos el espacio con artistas, líderes comunitarios y académicos -entre otrosvinculados por su labor en la educación para la paz. el iipe puede ser comprendido como una comunidad de aprendizaje (jenkins, 2008) en la que participan educadores aunados a partir de un tema específico para cada encuentro. caracterizado por una particular horizontalidad en su diseño el encuentro nos permitió: compartir conocimientos situados culturalmente; intercambiar epistemologías sobre y para la paz que han surgido del trabajo particular de los participantes y cambiar constantemente de lugar para ser sujeto y objeto de conocimiento en torno a la paz y a la enseñanza, entre otros. el encuentro puntual se centró, fundamentalmente, en las paces interculturales y fue para nosotros un espacio privilegiado de reflexión y discusión del trabajo realizado. una situación específica que nos sirvió para cuestionar las propias creencias sobre la educación, para reflexionar sobre el papel como educador y dar una perspectiva global sobre la relevancia y sentido del propio trabajo y propuesta de intervención. en lo sucesivo se describe el programa que dio lugar a nuestra participación en el encuentro. el objetivo principal del programa presentado es promover la paz intercultural en contextos de educación con especial énfasis en la disminución del prejuicio y estereotipos negativos entre personas de diferentes culturas. en este sentido puede ser considerado como una intervención que se basa en prácticas contemplativas en general y en particular si atendemos a las técnicas principales que utiliza. por otro lado, si tenemos en cuenta su objetivo y estrategia general, puede considerarse un tipo de intervención en educación para la convivencia, debido a que pretende promover la inclusión moral de los participantes de diferentes grupos identitarios a través de esfuerzos para: sustituir los estereotipos deshumanizadores, la desconfianza crónica, la hostilidad, la violencia y la exclusión moral por, primero, volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 12 tolerancia y la cooperación mínima y, en última instancia, con inclusión moral -aumentando la aplicabilidad de justicia, compartiendo recursos y haciendo sacrificios que puedan fomentar el bienestar conjunto (opotow, gerson y woodside, 2005, p.307) dando por sentado que los prejuicios y estereotipos negativos sobre el otro inciden en la propia capacidad y voluntad para promover y defender un estado de bienestar, trato digno y cumplimiento de los derechos humanos en personas de grupos culturales diferentes, se piensa que la modificación de la relación con estos elementos cognitivo-sociales es esencial en el trabajo con la paz interna e intercultural, a corto plazo, y con la justicia a mediano y largo plazo. a) principios del programa: a modo de estructurar el trabajo se han propuesto algunos principios basados en los contenidos expuestos anteriormente que se encuentran presentes en cada uno de los encuentros. estos son: 1. distanciamiento cognitivo: el programa a de centrarse en la producción de cambios de segundo orden respecto de las cogniciones vinculadas prejuicios y estereotipos negativos. no se pretende eliminar las cogniciones10 sino promover la capacidad de distanciamiento respecto de ellas mediante la práctica de mindfulness y ejercicios vinculados. 2. acción participativa consensuada: el programa no termina en el grupo, el trabajo debe orientarse a generar habilidades para promover, en última instancia, acciones concretas en los espacios de vida donde los participantes habitan y se vinculan con la sociedad. 3. humanidad compartida: se entiende que, independientemente de las diferencias culturales entre los participantes, la vivencia del sufrimiento es universal, inevitable y compartida por todos. al poseer un zócalo experiencial común, es posible plantear la compasión como elemento intercultural vinculante. el programa busca, por tanto, la puesta en marcha de acciones para incentivar en los participantes la capacidad de ponerse en el lugar del otro, a partir de una visión de humanidad compartida. 10 se ha descrito (hayes et al, 1999; 2012 ) el efecto contraproducente que tiene la “lucha” de la persona contra sus propios eventos privados. mientras más se empeña alguien en cambiar aquello que piensa, más probabilidades tiene de entrar en procesos de evitación experiencial. dicho efecto vuelve cada vez mas difícil la relación con esos contenidos mentales. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 13 b) contextos de aprendizaje: basándose en lo descrito, los espacios de enseñanza se estructuran en cuatro diferentes contextos de aprendizaje. cada uno de ellos se manifiesta en las sesiones de trabajo grupal con el fin de dar sentido y coherencia a las intervenciones y se promueve como prácticas concretas. estos son: a) la práctica de mindfulness y compasión en grupo: tiene el objetivo de servir de apoyo para el desarrollo de una pauta de práctica de mindfulness en los participantes. se comienza por ejercicios simples como llevar la atención a la respiraciónhasta formas de práctica más compleja porque involucran elementos o prácticas generativascomo prácticas basadas en la compasión-. b) presentaciones didácticas: pretenden servir como temas iniciadores de procesos dialécticos dentro del grupo. están organizadas en torno a temáticas específicas y vinculadas a las prácticas de cada sesión. estas son: 1) introducción al mindfulness, 2) la mente que juzga, 3) tu historia y mi historia, 4) cultivando la humanidad compartida y 5) ritual de paz. c) pregunta clave: busca promover el aprendizaje experiencial, el contacto intercultural y la capacidad de respuesta a situaciones nuevas. consiste en una pregunta por encuentro que los participantes deben responder de modo creativo apelando a actividades no verbales como: danza, representaciones teatrales, collage, entre otros. d) prácticas semanales: tiene por objetivo fortalecer las habilidades que los participantes cultivan en cada sesión. se relacionan íntimamente con las prácticas y ejercicios vistos en cada encuentro. el participante lleva un diario de prácticas semanales con el fin de monitorear su experiencia y compartir en grupo aquellas reflexiones que surgen en la semana a partir de las actividades de transformación social e) actividades de experimentación intercultural fuera de los encuentros: tienen por meta promover la acción concreta de los participantes fuera de la sesión y promover la capacidad de ampliar los conocimientos obtenidos. consisten en conductas simples que, generalmente, implican la interacción con personas que forman parte de un grupo cultural diferente. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 14 c) estructura de encuentros11: en el plano diacrónico, los principios y actividades mencionados se articulan a lo largo de cinco encuentros semanales de dos horas de duración cada uno. a continuación, se presenta cada uno de ellos. encuentro 1 (sesión inicial) “introducción a la práctica de mindfulness”: el objetivo del encuentro es permitir que los participantes se conozcan entre sí y compartan las aspiraciones y motivaciones en el proceso. 1. presentación didáctica: se realiza una presentación didáctica sobre mindfulness y sus componentes fundamentales12. 2. práctica: meditación de atención plena con ancla en la respiración de 15 minutos. 3. pregunta clave: ¿dónde va nuestra atención cuando no está presente? 4. práctica semanal: práctica diaria de 15-30 minutos de mindfulness con la guía de un audio. se debe tener en cuenta que al final de cada encuentro se invita a los participantes a elegir voluntariamente una actividad de experimentación intercultural para realizar en la semana. se incentiva, además, a usar un diario en donde se vuelquen semanalmente las actividades mencionadas incluyendo aspectos como: experiencia, expectativas y aprendizaje. encuentro 2 “la mente que juzga”: tiene por finalidad aprender sobre los mecanismos de fusión cognitiva y defusión para analizar el poder del pensamiento en la anticipación y el modo en que quedamos, muchas veces, atrapados por éste. 1. presentación didáctica: se presenta a “la mente-prejuicio”, es decir, una metáfora que señala un funcionamiento particular de la mente que construye historias sobre el otro, antes de tomar contacto con él/ella. 2. práctica: se invita a los participantes a trabajar en dos con la pregunta: ¿qué piensa tu mente de mí? se hace hincapié en la posibilidad de notar que lo que “la mente” dice es un evento mental y no un hecho. 11 los encuentros que se presentan son una propuesta provisional en revisión y constante evaluación. se describen brevemente con el fin de dar una idea al lector del modo en que se han organizado las sesiones de trabajo a la fecha. 12 ver apartado tres. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 15 3. pregunta clave: ¿qué historia cuenta mi mente-prejuicio? 4. práctica semanal: práctica de tres minutos 13 de conciencia plena en momentos donde advierta a la mente-prejuicio en actividad. encuentro 3: tu historia y mi historia: el encuentro tiene por finalidad poner en contacto a los participantes explorar la historia propia y compartirla con el fin de normalizar diferentes maneras de significación de la vida social. 1. presentación didáctica: en esta sesión se invita a los participantes a presentar su propia historia gráficamente haciendo hincapié en sus valores religiosos, comunitarios, familiares y personales. 2. práctica: meditación de movimiento consciente14. 3. pregunta clave: ¿en qué se parece nuestra historia? encuentro 4: cultivando la humanidad compartida: en este encuentro se practica la compasión basada en mindfulness con el objetivo de aumentar la capacidad para la empatía y las habilidades de autocompasión en la vida cotidiana. 1. presentación didáctica: que es la compasión y cuáles son sus componentes. 2. práctica: meditación de compasión de 20 minutos tomando como objetos de compasión a los participantes presentes y al grupo. 3. pregunta clave: ¿cuál es nuestra historia en común? encuentro 5 (sesión final): ritual de paz: en este último encuentro se pretende sintetizar lo aprendido en el proceso dentro del grupo y posteriormente elaborar y mostrar en público un ritual creado por los miembros del grupo a modo de cierre. 1. presentación didáctica: que es un ritual. la manera en la que el ritual nos ayuda a recordar lo aprendido. 13 esta es una práctica breve y ampliamente utilizada dentro de las intervenciones basadas en mindfulness, popularizada por segal et al (2015) que consiste, a grandes rasgos, en ampliar la atención para advertir lo que ocurre en el cuerpo y la mente sin juzgar, posteriormente en centrar la atención en un punto de la experiencia corporal y, finalmente, volver a ampliar la atención para incluir las sensaciones corporales, emociones y inputs provenientes de los sentidos. ha demostrado una gran capacidad para interrumpir estados de rumia, promover la conciencia plena en momentos claves de la vida de la persona y poder ser realizada en -prácticamentecualquier lugar. 14 consiste en la realización de movimientos de yoga con énfasis en el cultivo de la conciencia plena del cuerpo durante su realización. ver kabat-zinn (2009). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 16 2. práctica 1: práctica de meditación completa de mindfulness. 3. práctica 2: describe y comparte con el grupo un ritual y su significado dentro de tu cultura. 4. práctica 3: construye un ritual en grupo que re ayude a recordar y compartir con las personas fuera del grupo lo aprendido. 5. pregunta clave: ¿cuál es el aprendizaje fundamental que te llevas del proceso? actividad de exploración intercultural de la sesión 5: esta sesión culmina con la realización del ritual en un espacio abierto y publico a elección de los participantes. conclusiones: a partir de lo expuesto en este trabajo, se ha explicitado y problematizado una manera de articulación de educación para la paz intercultural que retoma elementos poco frecuentes. se piensa, no obstante, que el marco conceptual y de trabajo mostrado puede aportar herramientas significativas para profesionales que trabajan con problemáticas de conflicto o prejuicio intercultural. referencias: ameglio, p. 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(2012). acceptance and commitment therapy: the process and practice of mindful change (2nd ed.). the guilford press. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 18 heise, a., panting, a., waelde l. c. (2019). mindfulness in the peacebuilding process. the psychology of peace promotion. springer. 11-24. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-14943-7_2 hidalgo, m.a., layland, e., kubicek, k. et al. (2020) sexual racism, psychological symptoms, and mindfulness among ethnically/racially diverse young men who have sex with men: a moderation analysis. mindfulness 11, 452–461, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-01278-5 hyukmin, k. (2022). enforced silence or mindful non-violent action? everyday peace and south korean victims of civilian massacres in the korean war, peacebuilding, 10 (3), 297-312, doi: 10.1080/21647259.2021.1989901 jenkins, t., and reardon, b.a. 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(2004). noviolencia para generar cambios sociales. polis revista latinoamericana, 9, santiago. disponible en: http://polis.revues.org/7326 lópez, m. (2012) noviolencia. teoría, acción política y experiencias, educatori. opotow, s., gerson j. y woodside, s. (2005) from moral exclusion to moral inclusion: theory for teaching peace”, theory into practice, 44 (4), 303318. doi: 10.1207/s15430421tip4404_4 volume 17 number 1 (2023): 1-19 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 19 pettigrew, t., christ, o. wagner, u, & stellmacher, j. (2007). direct and indirect intergroup contact effects on prejudice: a normative interpretation. international journal of intercultural relations, 31, (4), 411-425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2006.11.003. reardon, (1988) comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility, teachers college press. segal, z., williams, m., & teasdale, j. (2015). terapia cognitiva basada en el mindfulness para la depresión, ed. kairós. spijkerman, pots & bohlmeijer (2016). effectiveness of online mindfulness-based interventions in improving mental health: a review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, clinical psychology review, 45, 102-114, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2016.03.009. shapiro, s. (2002). towards a critical pedagogy of peace. in g. salomon & b. nevo (eds.), peace education: the concept, principles and practices around the world. lawrence erlbaum. snauwaert, d. (2012). betty reardon’s conception of “peace” and its implications for a philosophy of peace education”. peace studies journal, 5, (3), 45-5.2 sharp, g. (1988), la lucha política noviolenta. criterios y métodos. cedesoc, santiago. zenner, h. & walach, h. (2014) mindfulness-based interventions in schools—a systematic review and meta-analysis. frontiers in psychology, 5. issn:1664-1078, https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00603 microsoft word v15.1 greer-travis.docx in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 1-13 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 1 volume 15 number 1 (2021): 1-13 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal people over profit: rejecting corporate egoism chitranjan greer-travis chitranjan.greer-travis@rockets.utoledo.edu i learned many important lessons about life as a detroit police officer. i learned that there is a lot of good in the world. i witnessed a goodness that stems from a collective spirit of togetherness. detroiters are resilient. in the face of poverty, institutional racism, classism, violence and a crumbling educational system, detroiters find a way to persevere despite odds that might appear to be insurmountable (at least on the surface). inscribed on the flag that represents the city of detroit is a latin saying that i believe captures the true spirit of the city of detroit: speramus meliora; resurget cineribus, we hope for better things, it shall arise from the ashes. detroit is a resilient city, a city that has seen race riots, violence, collapse of the automotive industry, bankruptcy and a football team that has been the laughingstock of the national football league. i am a proud detroiter and i am happy to say that the city is my home. the global covid-19 pandemic has also taught me a great deal. the pandemic has allowed me to see suffering on a scale that shook (and continues to shake) me to my core. as a police officer, i was responding to calls from citizens who were on the verge of death, looking for help in the face of chaos during a time of negligence on behalf of the president of the united states of america. as a lifelong philosophy student, i began researching some of the critical questions relating to meaning, human nature, critical race theory, and social and political philosophy. during the quarantine, i began reading everything related to social justice and philosophy that i could get my hands on as a kind of therapy for what i was witnessing on a daily basis. i recall the fema coolers that collected the remains of the citizens that i served stationed just outside of the hospitals. i also in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 1-13 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 2 recall the countless hospital gurneys filled with patients coughing and fighting for every breath lining the hallways of sinai-grace hospital, located in detroit’s westside. i had never seen human suffering on such a large scale. i came face to face with violence, a pandemic, poverty, substance abuse and mental illness on a daily basis. i loved and continue to love the people of the city of detroit. my love for the city caused me to raise my right hand and take an oath to protect the citizens of the city. i saw myself in the people that i served. i was passionate about serving them with dignity, courtesy and respect. i began to question my career decision when i saw the systemic ways that the city made money from targeting and criminalizing the poor. i found that what once stood in a shining light to me had been corrupted, tarnished and lacking luster. the targeting of poor, predominantly black people by police is both corrupt and morally reprehensible. i decided to leave my career as a police officer behind for several reasons. ultimately, i could not continue to do harm to the people that i love. the job of a police officer is a difficult and dangerous job. although it can be uplifting to save the lives of people that need help, it is deeply disturbing to enforce statutes and laws that are unfair and criminalize the poor. so how did it get this way? more importantly, what lies at the root of environmental injustice? how are the people of so many cities like detroit (flint, michigan comes to mind) allowed to suffer due to racism and corporate greed? what are the moral implications of urban suffering, corporate egoism, pollution, and systemic institutional racism? in what follows, i take a look at vendana shiva’s answer to some of the questions posed above. how can we solve some of the problems that befall citizens of urban, predominantly black, communities? i investigate some of the root causes of environmental injustices. finally, i look at some of the implications that environmental injustice has had on the city of detroit. what is critical to the liberation of those who are marginalized is to be empowered and equipped to understand the teleological relationship between the agent and environmental injustices. this is how we overcome what i call corporate egoism. in principles of earth democracy, vandana shiva (2005) sheds light on some of the global injustices that relate to the suffering that i bore witness to as a police officer. shiva argues: when economic dictatorship is grafted onto representative, electoral democracy, a toxic growth of religious fundamentalism and rightwing extremism is the result. thus, corporate globalization leads not just to the death of democracy, but to the democracy of death, in which exclusion, hate, and fear become the political means to mobilize votes and power. (shiva, 2005, p. 6) in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 1-13 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 3 i can bear witness to what shiva posits as the “democracy of death.” the democracy of violence, fear and death is a direct consequence of democracy being hijacked by corporate interests. the disparity between the violence that is contained within the local detroit city neighborhoods contrasted to the lack of violence in the downtown area are night and day. the resources of law enforcement and security in place to protect business assets downtown are, to put it lightly, disproportionate. the violence disparities are designed to function this way. for instance, in detroit, the tactical services section is routinely on hand for crowd control in the summer months in the downtown area. downtown detroit is a key element to the moneymaking infrastructure of the city of detroit; thus, it has a lower crime rate. while the majority of the city is plagued with violence on a scale that resembles a war zone, downtown is secured and kept clean safe for patrons who visit the city from out of town. the former is an example of environmental injustice on behalf of the city. the city does much more to protect its “assets” than what it does to protect its true assets: the people. through gentrification, the city has privatized a better quality of life for its more affluent citizens while the majority of the citizens feel left behind and taken advantage of. the regular police precincts are mostly under-staffed and over worked. ultimately, in my view, the people of the city of detroit are being underserved. when i reflect upon my brief tenure in detroit, the work of shiva resonates well and speaks to the situation that continues to limit the overall quality of life for the people of a great city. although shiva is writing of the plight of global injustice, her work relates well to the struggle for democracy and a better way of life for many people a bit closer to home: detroit. shiva writes: living democracy enables democratic participation in all matters of life and death-the food we eat or do not have access to; the water we drink or are denied due to privation or pollution; the air we breathe or are poisoned by. living democracies are based on the intrinsic worth of all species, all peoples, all cultures; a just and equal sharing of this earth’s vital resources; and sharing the decisions about the use of the earth’s resources. (shiva, 2005, p.6) at the time that i am writing this paper, the people of flint, michigan are still without clean drinking water due to the repressive and reprehensible actions by michigan’s past governor, rick snyder and others of his administration. the city of detroit routinely over charges its residents for clean drinking water. the most polluted detroit neighborhoods are often the poorest neighborhoods where out of towners routinely come to dump trash in vacant lots and run down, dark streets. if you were to drive through detroit’s brightmore neighborhood, you will see trash dumped in vacant lots as if this area was a public landfill. businesses travel to in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 1-13 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 4 detroit’s brightmore to dump tires and hazardous waste, poisoning the citizens who live in the neighborhood. also, most of the streetlights do not work. the streets are dark, filled with trash and generally unsafe. shiva’s argument is both plausible and valid. the privation of resources is not only morally reprehensible, but it actually harms those that impose inequality. in the following pages, i discuss the implications that the privation of resources has on the urban environment. as shiva has argued in her work discussed above, i hope to extend her critical conversation to the lives of detroiters. though both detroit and flint, michigan are excellent case studies by which we can examine the impacts that capitalism, colonialism and racism has had on the environment and peoples of color, i will, however, focus the majority of my efforts on the city of detroit. i argue that the commodification of nature leads to a democracy of death and destruction. more specifically, the death and destruction as evidenced in the city of detroit has a direct correlation to the commodification of the environment as has been argued by shiva (2005) and others. the teleological orientation or ethic will be my grounds for my paper. equal consideration must be given to the most marginalized of society. the overall well-being of a community and the environment must be equally considered by legislatures. the overall well-being consists of a democratic society united by the equal distribution of resources for self-sustainability and environmental sustainability. in order to illustrate my thesis, i investigate some of the injustices that have recently surfaced in the detroit community. we are all in this together. detroit will rise from the ashes if and only if the people and the environment are put first. the commodification of resources and exploitation of people are the root causes to the demise of what was once one of america’s most affluent cities. the notion that nature can be owned is non-sensical to most indigenous people. most indigenous people have a teleological understanding of the interconnectivity between nature and humans. in fact, humans are nature. shiva writes: we are connected to the earth locally and globally. living cultures based on the recovery of our earth identity create the potential for reintegrating human activities into the earth’s ecological processes and limits. remembering we are earth citizens can help us recover our common humanity and help us transcend the deep divisions of intolerance, hate, and fear that the corporate globalization’s ruptures, polarization, and enclosures have created. (shiva, 2005, p.7) corporate and colonial greed have been the cause of lack of sustainability and living in commune with nature on many fronts. there is a deep assumption that lays at the in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 1-13 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 5 foundation of corporate greed. some corporations posit that it is not in the best interest of the corporation to limit their carbon footprint, for example. in contrast, shiva’s earth democracy takes into account how we can collectively thrive and work for harmony, peace and an overall better quality of life. the notion of ownership over what cannot be owned had its genesis in the colonial mindset. to the colonist, ownership of the land was an essential element of self-sustainability (even if it meant pillage by stealing the land from natives). conquest through domination and violent means allowed one to have the means to sustain themselves. for example, in order to justify the destruction of the earth and ownership of other humans through slavery, the colonist had to justify the conquest by the might makes right ideology. that is, through the utilization of manifest destiny and religion, the colonizer was able to justify his conquest of terror. native americans and africans were seen as “savages” and less than human. the role of the upright and just colonizer was to civilize the so-called savage with both the lash and bible. the colonial, anthropocentric view, has surfaced in the work of ayn rand. for rand’s egoist ethic, the right action tends to help the agent and the agent alone. although, to be fair, rand’s argument is not an inherently racist one. her argument does favor what lies at the heart of racism and oppression: narcissism. in fact, the agent has a duty to foremost herself and not to the other. an act is given moral consideration on the grounds of how much the consequences of an act weigh in the favor of the agent. rand calls her view the virtue of selfishness (1964). rand’s reasoning is erroneous on several grounds. first, ethics are other regarding. that is, ethics is the study of how we treat others. a myopic ethic fails to give consideration to something fundamental to human sustainability: relationships. we cannot survive alone. we rely on the environment and other people to sustain ourselves. we have evolved to help one another because we are stronger in this way. also, rand’s work relies on a false dilemma. namely, rand assumes that altruism is self-sacrifice. rand sees two alternatives for an agent, altruism (more akin to agapic love and thus supererogatory, in her view) on the one hand and egoism on the other hand. rand fails to give consideration to the many different forms of altruism. rand dismisses the necessity for empathy in ethics also. likewise, corporations, politicians and business leaders make decisions that have a tendency to protect their interests more than what might be a better for the society. rand’s egoism relates to privation and unequal distribution. free market fundamentalism and greed lead to human suffering and an overall lack of empathy for others. matthieu ricard’s work, altruism (2013) constructs a pithy, scientific and very thorough account of human relational ethics. selfishness and virtue are contradictory entities. given the teleological framework, a more cosmopolitan and macrocosmic scope becomes necessary. everything is aimed at the good. in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 1-13 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 6 everything has a purpose, design or function. each part contributes to the overall harmony of the other. we have evolved to be altruistic, not selfish. ricard writes: understanding interdependence notably allows us to destroy the illusory wall that our minds have raised between self and other. this makes obvious the mistaken foundations of pride, jealousy and malevolence. since all beings are interdependent, their happiness and their suffering concern us intimately. to want to build our happiness on others’ suffering is not only immoral, but unrealistic. universal love and compassion are the direct consequences of a correct understanding of this interdependence. (ricard, 2013, p. 34) ricard’s argument sheds light on the necessity of love and empathy toward others. ricard’s argument is not limited to the love of other human beings, he argues for love and empathy being at the core of our being. love and empathy, in his view, should be extended to all sentient beings. teleologically, everything is reaching toward the good. if i were to interfere with the well-being of the other, then i am limiting what is good on a macrocosmic level. ayn rand’s work is completely shrouded with ignorance with respect to understanding cognitive science, human nature and morality. it is counter-intuitive to be selfish. in fact, one must work harder to be selfish. we have evolved to act in cooperation with one another because of interdependence (or at the very least, as some have argued, to act in accordance to a kind of reciprocal altruism). if i never cooperate with others, i place myself in unnecessary peril. as the seventh dalai lama wrote: “if there is a way to free ourselves from suffering/we must use every moment to find it. / only a fool wants to go on suffering. / isn’t it sad to knowingly imbibe poison?” (37) selfishness is poison. to be selfish is to willfully ignore the suffering of other beings in the quest for happiness. a mark of psychopathy is the lack of empathy for others. rand’s moral philosophy is suitable for a psychopath because of the lack of capacity for empathy. ayn rand (1964) writes: if a man accepts the ethics of altruism, his first concern is not how to live his life, but how to sacrifice it…altruism erodes men’s capacity to grasp the value of an individual life; it reveals a mind from which the reality of a human being has been wiped out. (rand, 1964, pp. 27-32) here it is evident that rand’s understanding of altruism is incomplete. she posits that the true altruist is one who sacrifices their life or puts themselves in harm’s way. rand’s understanding of altruism is mistaken and her argument rests upon a sophomoric hasty generalization. rand asserts that to be altruistic is somehow to in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 1-13 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 7 do more harm to an agent. although rand’s version of egoism is not the only version of egoism, it is probably the weakest. rand’s argument fails to give a concrete reason why we should be egoists. her argument ultimately fails. rand’s argument has been used to support conservative accounts of oppressive economic systems that are exclusory of the poor. rand’s argument can be used to support racism, classism and sexism. selfishness can quickly turn into racism, classism and sexism. selfishness endorses the privation of happiness. one only has a moral obligation to act in accordance with the better consequence for one’s-self. not only should an ethic be other regarding in its dynamics, it should also be nonanthropocentric. paul taylor (1981) argues for a life-centered theory of environmental ethics in the ethics of respect for nature. much like ricard, taylor endorses a kind of reciprocity and harmony in his ethic. taylor writes: every organism, species population, and community of life has a good of its own which moral agents can intentionally further or damage by their actions. to say that an entity has a good of its own is simply to say that, without reference to any other entity, it can be benefited or harmed. one can act in its overall interest or contrary to its overall interest, and environmental conditions can be good for it (advantageous to it) or bad for it (disadvantageous to it). what is good for an entity is what “does it good” in the sense of enhancing or preserving its life and well-being. what is bad for an entity is something that is detrimental to its life and well-being. (taylor, 1981, p. 2) taylor gives credence to the overall good of biodiversity. there is a kind of reciprocity for all beings. an act is good to the degree that it has a tendency to sustain life. if i am only ever concerned with my own life, i am either directly or indirectly contributing to the suffering of others. in detroit and flint, the suffering of others has been silenced. that is, the underclass has been underserved and exploited for the gain of the more opulent of society for many years. the privation of proper nutrition and education for example are hallmarks of the disparities that are prevalent in both detroit and flint respectively. for instance, grocery stores are not plentiful in the city of detroit. however, in the new center area, midtown and downtown residents have access to fresh, whole foods. farmer’s markets are common and more access to a variety of food is more than plentiful at the eastern market. as i mentioned above, i saw mass suffering during the covid-19 outbreak in the city of detroit. steve neavling writes in the detroit metro times on april 2, 2020: in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 1-13 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 8 black people make up 12% of michigan’s population-and at least 40% of its coronavirus deaths…‘there is no question that the covid-19 outbreak is having a more significant effect on marginalized and poorer communities, particularly communities of color,’ dr. joneigh khaldun, michigan’s chief medical executive, tells metro times. ‘while covid-19 can infect anyone regardless of race or class, african americans have historically been more likely to have higher rates of chronic medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer in the united states. we know that people with these underlying medical conditions are more likely to become severely ill from covid-19.’ (neavling, 2020, metro times) health disparities and environmental factors contribute to a public health crisis in detroit. marginalized and poor communities routinely forgo medical expenditures due to lack of income and resources. poor nutrition, and access to quality healthcare contributes to health disparities. as notes in the metro times article, the city of detroit’s rate of covid-19 infection made up at least 40% of the state of michigan’s coronavirus deaths. this is an environmental injustice! in order to build a more free, democratic detroit, it is necessary to challenge systemic racism, classism and environmental injustice. a change must also occur through environmental education. the hallmark of a free and just society is a quality system of education. economic, social and environmental education must be introduced in schools at an early age. environmental education should be a strong part of the curriculum in k-12 schools, especially in marginalized communities. environmental education education is a means to affect change in the lives of students. knowledge is power. education liberates. education challenges. education is the bridge over the troubled waters of dogmatic thinking and oppression. environmental educator david orr (1991) gave a compelling, uplifting and erudite commencement speech to a group of college graduates. in his speech, orr gives his account for the purpose of an education. orr suggests that ignorance is a part of the human condition. orr also suggests that we cannot manage the planet, but primarily ourselves. teleology is the underpinning of this argument. orr also dispels the myth that education’s purpose is to give upward mobility and pecuniary wealth. orr notes “[t]he plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. but it does need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every shape and form…it needs people of moral courage willing to fight to make the world more habitable in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 1-13 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 9 and humane.” (orr, 1991, pg.4) orr argues that environmental education is all education. a true education is not dismissive of the environment. nature is reflected in everything that we do. orr argues: …i would like to propose that the way learning occurs is as important as the content of particular courses. process is important for learning. courses taught as lecture courses tend to induce passivity. indoor classes create the illusion that learning only occurs inside four walls isolated from what students call without apparent irony the “real world.” dissecting frogs in biology classes teaches lessons about nature that no one would verbally profess. campus architecture is crystallized pedagogy that often reinforces passivity, monologue, domination, and artificiality. my point is that students are being taught in various and subtle ways beyond the content of courses. (orr, 1991, p. 4) orr closes his remarks by urging students to work with nature and not against it. in order to work with nature, it is necessary to understand the interconnectivity of nature. deep ecology, earth democracy and paideia are imperative to human development. understanding nature and understanding one’s-self is a principle that has died within most educational systems. if education does not teach us how to learn, think and research for ourselves, what good is education? educators have a responsibility to share their findings with society. i agree with orr. all education is environmental education. as shiva and others have argued, education is political. education plays a role in shedding light on the truth (veritas). after encountering the truth, there is a responsibility to share the truth for the betterment of society. it is the role of the educator to contribute to bettering and furthering society. educators should cultivate society. education, like nature, is not a commodity. in not for profit: why democracy needs the humanities (2010) martha nussbaum has argued that: the cultivation of sympathy has been a key part of the best modern ideas of democratic education, in both western and non-western nations. much of this cultivation must take place in the family, but schools and even colleges and universities also play an important role. if they are to play it well, they must give a central role in the curriculum to the humanities and the arts, cultivating a participatory type of education that activates and refines the capacity to see the world through another person’s eyes. (nussbaum, 2010, p. 96) in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 1-13 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 10 education, as nussbaum has argued is a powerful tool. an environmental pedagogy can help students understand the role that they play in the sustenance or destruction of the environments they inhabit. just as ricard noted earlier, nussbaum’s discussion of the role of empathy in education is critically identified. to increase education through the arts and the humanities is to become a citizen of the world through the exploration of diverging experiences. through education, we can cultivate an experience of unity and togetherness. environmental educators shed light on the teleological thread that ties ecosystems together. although the family, or home environment, plays a critical role in supplementing the lessons learned in the classroom, the most effective schools reinforce their role through staying consistent. the implications of a non-democratic education that considers the environment are grave. if we are to continue on our course, it will lead to a catastrophic end for our posterity. in the source of self-regard (2019) toni morrison warns us of what is to come. morrison writes: when our fears have all been serialized, our creativity censured, our ideas “marketplaced,” our rights sold, our intelligence sloganized, our strength downsized, our privacy auctioned; when the theatricality, the entertainment value, the marketing of life is complete, we will find ourselves living not in a nation but a consortium of industries, and wholly unintelligible to ourselves except for what we see as through a screen darkly. (morrison, 2019, p. 16) i hope that we heed the warnings of morrison and so many other truth tellers. morrison is perhaps one of the best of the truth tellers in my view. morrison’s words about the implications of racism and fascism speak to what is going on in our schools and predominantly black cities. creativity is being censured and discouraged. liberal arts education is seen as a waste of an education. again, education has been changed to be a means to pecuniary wealth and upward social mobility. the very fabric of our nation has been hijacked by greedy politicians and corporations. we no longer value freedom of thought and the intellectual has been chastised (especially by conservatives) for “turning our youth into marxists and socialists.” morrison continues: if education is about anything other than being able to earn more money (and it may not be about any other thing), that other thing is intelligent problem-solving and humans relating to one another in mutually constructive ways. but educational institutions and some in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 1-13 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 11 of our most distinguished scholars have considered the cooperation among human beings and mutually constructive goals to be fourthand fifth-rate concerns where they are concerns at all. the history of the country is all the proof one needs that it is so. (morrison, 2019, p. 44) just as shiva reminds us of a kind of death democracy earlier, morrison parallels this argument above. cooperation and unity are not on the to do list of oligarchs and oppressors. rather, for the oligarch, the goal is to divide and polarize society and anesthetize individuals with entertainment. intelligent, problem solving humans are more difficult to take advantage of. environmental educators, like orr, incorporate cooperation into the curriculum. understanding one’s place in the environment and the role that can be played to help sustain the environment is imperative for our longitudinal and collective well-being. to look into the depths of the mind and begin to ask the critical, engaging questions that matter relate to the notion of paideia as discussed above. just as the environment is not a commodity, education and people are also not commodities. shiva’s notion of a death democracy has an implication that extends beyond here and now. we owe those who come after us a world that is sustainable. just as educators cultivate and inspire minds, citizens must cultivate the earth in order to ensure our collective survival. conclusion the people of detroit are under served. politicians fight for the corporate elite and not for the poor and minorities. cash rules everything in the city and the most valuable asset of the city, its citizens, are failed by the systemic oppression and racism that keeps them in their respective places. you can hear the echoes of anti-city rhetoric by many conservative politicians. they promote law and order, state’s rights and other coded language that is derived from meaning ‘good for whites’ and ‘bad for non-whites.’ jason stanley (2018) has written about the plight of urban american people in how fascism works: the politics of us and them. stanley explains: many areas that in the 1970s and 1980s were the paradigm of blighted urban ghettos, such as harlem, had experienced, for good or for ill, tremendous gentrification and steeply escalating housing prices. despite this, u.s. president donald trump, during the 2016 u.s. presidential campaign and afterward regularly spoke of american cities as sites of carnage and blight. for example, in a tweet on january 14, 2017, then president-elect trump spoke of in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 1-13 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 12 “burning and crime-infested inner cities of the u.s.” despite remarkable gentrification in american cities, trump regularly speaks of cities as containing ghettos filled with black people (who, he implies, are likely criminals)…trump’s rhetoric about cities makes sense in the context of more general fascist politics, in which cities are seen as centers of disease and pestilence, containing squalid ghettos filled with despised minority groups living off the work of others. (stanley, 2018, pp. 148-9) trumps message of fear, inequality and terror are the dog whistle that resound in the ear of his most racist and xenophobic supporters. trump’s coded language is music to the ears of most of his supporters. race and class disparities are deeply woven into the fabric of american society. trump’s fascist words have become a battle cry for american’s who feel their bedrock being shaken by the work of progressive more teleological expressions of togetherness and inclusion. shiva’s earth democracy, if applied could lead to a more cosmopolitan pedagogy and a brighter future that respect’s the dignity and well-being of our planet as a whole. i have argued that the commodification of nature leads to a democracy of destruction and death. to illustrate this thesis, i discussed some of the injustices that i saw first-hand as a police officer in detroit. detroit has long been impacted by a democracy that caters to corporations and the more affluent citizens. the city of detroit is much more than downtown detroit. i sustained my argument by looking at ayn rand’s egoist ethic. rand ultimately fails. rand’s notion of altruism being detrimental to the agent is not valid. ricard’s work on altruism offers support against rand’s thin view of altruism. versions rand’s view has been used by corporate entities to justify their practices of exploitation and destruction in the communities they inhabit. environmental education is imperative. education is the key element to destroy the status quo. a more teleological, other regarding pedagogy (such as the introduction of environmental education pedagogy) can be a solution to detroit’s corrupt infrastructure. environmental education supports a theoretical framework that could diminish or dismantle oppressive, fascist politics. cultivating citizens who see themselves in nature. cultivating citizens who understand the interconnection in all things. cultivating citizens who work with the environment and not against the environment. although i have traded in my badge for books, i will never forget the hardworking people of the city of detroit. i won’t forget their resolve. i won’t forget their struggle. i won’t forget their love and their words of encouragement. i was inspired to write this essay by the people of the city i served. i hope that somehow, someday, through my academic work, i allow suffering and injustices to come to light. i hope that the people who are underserved get what they deserve: justice. in factis pax volume 15 number 1 (2021): 1-13 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 13 the environment is for all of the people. all of the people can and should be able to have a better quality of life. the police department is not an entity that should be used as a private security force to protect business interests while shunning the safety and security of the citizens. there is much work to be done. i will continue to labor in love. speramus meliora, resurget cineribus! references morrison, t. (2019) the source of self-regard. new york, ny. vintage books. nussbaum, m. (2010) not for profit: why democracy needs the humanities. princeton, nj: princeton university press. rand, a. (1964) the virtue of selfishness. new york, ny. rankin, c. (2020) just us. minneapolis, mn: graywolf press. ricard, m. (2013) altruism. new york, ny: back bay books. stanley, j. (2018) how fascism works: the politics of us and them. new york, ny: random house. microsoft word v15.1 yazdani & devere.docx volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 14 volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal gender and peace education in afghanistan hafiza yazdani, otago university hyazdany@gmail.com heather devere, otago university heather.devere@gmail.com abstract political instability, war and conflict for long periods and insufficient educational opportunities in this country have exacerbated women’s inequality, and women’s role in contributing to development in afghanistan has been ignored. however, the current government have ensured that there are greater opportunities for women to have access to education. advocates of peace education believe that gender equity is important to bring about positive peace. this article reports on a study that examined school textbooks in use in afghanistan since 2004 and demonstrates that while there is some content that relates to girls and women, it is minimal. it is argued that the textbooks need to be improved if the role of women and their rights are to be recognised. introduction gender equality as a social value is still a new concept in afghanistan and people have doubts about equal rights of and equal roles for men and women in afghan society. according to reilly (2015, 334), “on nearly any index of those nations where women suffer the greatest, afghanistan remains constantly identified within the top ten year after year”. political instability, war and conflict for long periods and insufficient educational opportunities in this country have exacerbated women’s inequality, and women’s role in contributing to the country’s development has been ignored (heinrich böll foundation 2006). lack of access to education for women has been reinforced volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 15 by beliefs based in the religious and familial tradition of the country (kissane 2012). the philosopher amartya sen (1999a, 128-9) identified education as perhaps the clearest route to “economic development, political stability and ultimately peace”. peace education aims not only at negative peace, or the absence of war, but also at positive peace, to address direct, structural and cultural violence, and to empower students with a peaceful consciousness that condemns discrimination by respecting all human beings equally (galtung 1990; grewal 2003; bajaj and chiu 2009; kester 2010; reardon1988). recognition of gender and gender equality is a core aspect of peace education (harris and morrison 2013; standish 2016; webel and galtung 2007). this article provides a brief discussion of the importance of education for stability, development and peace, and then gives an historical account of women’s education in afghanistan. this is followed by an explanation of the importance of gender in the concept of peace education. the article then looks at a study from a peace education perspective of the school curriculum that includes an examination of how gender is integrated into school textbooks at the primary level, using directive qualitative content analysis. this study shows that although gender is an important element of peace education, it has barely been covered in the dari language and in algebra textbooks of grade 4th of school curriculum under the afghanistan islamic republic government (airg) where there is a lack of representation of girls and women. importance of education for stability, development and peace. “[e]ducation is perhaps one of the most important tools for human development and the means by which successive generations develop the values, knowledge and skills for their personal health and safety as well as for future political, economic, social and cultural development. this is one of the reasons for the global emphasis on achieving universal, free and compulsory primary education” (unicef 2011, 17). education systems are important facets of social stability and individual development. sociologist emil durkheim, discussing the importance of education in society, argued that education socializes individuals to become citizens, leading to social solidarity and stability (durkheim1956; sharepour mahmoud 2009). the educational theorist freire noted that the quality and methods of education are important for educating students towards change. similarly, paolo freire emphasised the need to raise the critical consciousness of learners as a means for social change (freire 2005; bartlett 2008). drawing from educational scholarship, international bodies such as the united nations educational scientific cultural organization (unesco) focus on and recognize the importance of education for development, promotion of human rights and maintaining peace, stating that volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 16 [e]ducation shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. it shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the united nations for the maintenance of peace (unesco education report 2000, 74). peace requires an environment where both men and women are able to practice their essential rights and play their roles equally and meaningfully towards development. education is an essential human right and prerequisite for peace and development in any country and particularly countries in conflict. thus, generally education is essential for individual development towards social change and stability, poverty reduction, practicing human rights and bringing peace to any society, particularly to societies in conflict like afghanistan. afghanistan is one of the countries that has a long history of conflict. in afghanistan people, and particularly women, have not had adequate access to education opportunities as an essential human right. women and girls in afghanistan experience huge obstacles receiving education in practice (jeaniene 2005). the history of formal education in afghanistan the history of formal education1 in afghanistan illustrates that afghan women and girls have experienced both progress and setbacks, due to political instability as well as cultural issues (kazim 2005; javid 2002). formal education was established in the country between 1868 and 1878, but afghan girls could only access formal schooling in 1921, almost fifty years later. when formal education began in afghanistan schooling was only for boys. during the period of monarchy in afghanistan from 1747 to 1973, the only king who genuinely supported women’s education was king amanullah khan (19191929). afghanistan’s liberal king amanullah khan and his wife established the first school for girls and supported female students’ higher education in afghanistan and abroad (kamgar 2002; husham 2015; baiza 2015), but amanullah khan faced conservative resistance that halted women’s education for years (javid 2002; samadi 2001; baiza 2015). it was not until 1973 when the next afghan ruler who supported women’s education came to power, daoud khan. he ruled from 1973-1978 and changed women’s social status during his leadership, ensuring that women’s opportunities in education and employment were improved, girls’ schools were established in kabul, and the numbers of female students in schools and at university increased (kazim 2005; javid 2002). 1 formal education comprises the official educational institutes and well-structured school programs, with a grading system, different forms, specific timetables, separate modules, annual examinations and uniforms. volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 17 however, when, the taliban, the extremist group that ruled in afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, took over power, women’s education was banned absolutely (husham 2015; baiza 2015; shayan 2015; adkins 2016). the action of forcing female teachers home also had a devastating effect for both boys and girls, as most teachers were women (alvi 2003). the impact of taliban rule lasted long after the taliban were defeated in 2001. according to alvi (2003) adult literacy rates were very low: 11.4 percent for men and only 2.8 percent for women. nevertheless, despite continuing attacks and bombing of girls’ schools by taliban sympathisers in various parts of afghanistan, afghan girls were not deterred but became even more determined to pursue their education. afghan women and girls gradually were able to access education and employment. millions of girls enrolled in schools and universities and found the opportunity to study abroad in specialized areas. importantly, women’s and girls’ education has been supported by the country’s constitution (adkins 2016; shayan 2015; husham 2015) that specifies that ‘the state shall devise and implement effective programs to create and foster balanced education for women’ (article 44, constitution of the islamic republic of afghanistan 2004). generally, since 2003, the government of afghanistan and the international community, civil society and women activists have worked hard to deepen the understanding of gender in afghanistan and have made efforts to provide equal opportunities for both genders, girls and boys, particularly in education. many projects have been implemented related to gender and the inclusion of men and women, boys and girls in the education sector in this country (husham 2015; samadi 2013; heinrich böll foundation 2006; the word bank 2008). more recently, the afghanistan ministry of education and the international community have made an effort to reform the education system with a peace education objective. on the website of the ministry of education is a message from the minister that reads: education is the fundamental cornerstone and a key pre-requisite for durable peace, stability and socio-economic development in every society – afghanistan is not an exception. development is about people, not infrastructure, aimed at bringing positive changes in behaviour and attitude of people. education makes people think, behave, act positively, and promotes social co-existence. work between 2004 and 2016 particularly, and still in progress, has been undertaken on the school curriculum and on the development of new school textbooks (jeaniene 2005; husham 2015). this represents notable progress and advancement in education in this area. however, while acknowledging all these efforts, it is clear that afghan girls still face huge obstacles to receiving education in practice. insecurity in the county, poverty at the family level and social and cultural constraints are major obstacles that challenge women’s and girls’ education in afghanistan. the volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 18 taliban retains power in many provinces where women and girls do not have a fair access to school and education. schools and education centres, and students and teachers in areas under the control of the taliban are at risk of attack (adkins 2016). half of the country’s population are struggling with poverty, and thousands of families, due to poor economic situations in both urban and rural areas, cannot afford to support their daughters’ education (shayan 2015; sigar 2017). in addition, social and cultural beliefs limit women and girls’ education. many girls have to marry at an early age and cannot attend school after marriage; some girl students have to leave school after primary level due to cultural issues in their environments; in some families boys have the priority for education rather than girls; or families do not accept male teachers for female students in school and female teachers are not available in remote areas of afghanistan (shayan 2015). these social and cultural issues are a huge constraint on girls’ education. educating students from the early grades about boys’ and girls’ equal education rights and access is essential in order to address social and cultural limitations on gender. peace education and gender there are many definitions of peace education. often cited is the unicef statement that peace education is: … the process of promoting the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to bring about behaviour changes that will enable children, youth and adults to prevent conflict and violence, both overt and structural; to resolve conflict peacefully: and to create the conditions conducive to peace, whether at an intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergroup, national or international level (cited in fountain 1999, 1). peace education should empower students with a knowledge of conflict resolution, an understanding of conflict dynamics, and communication skills to manage relationships peacefully (harris 2004; johnson d and johnson r 2010). it is claimed that there is a transformative element to peace education that will lead to long lasting peace by maintaining mutually beneficial, harmonious relationships (harris and morrison 2013; kester 2010; page 2008). the limitations for peace education in intractable regions (salomon 2002) and fragile states (robiolle-moul 2016) are acknowledged, with robiolle-moul’s research pointing out the many technical, political and institutional challenges. an important element of peace education is gender equality (standish 2016; harris and morrison 2013; brock-utne 2009) and educating students on gender from an early age provides key opportunities in response to social and cultural constraints (brock-utne 2008). educating children from the early grades will help address the social and traditional beliefs of stereotypes which oppose women’s education in general. training students from the early classes of school about men and women as equal human beings and having equal rights volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 19 and equal roles is a vital aspect of peace education (brock-utne 2008; boaz yablon 2009). peace education is about teaching equality, justice and respect for all human beings, so recognition of gender, gender equality are a core aspect of positive peace (harris and morrison 2013; standish 2016). there is concern from peace educators that women tend to be invisible in the learning material available to children. as brock-utne points out, even though women frequently build the backbone of peace organisations, they are seldom given credit for their work… conflicts which are solved non-violently or the work for peace, especially the work of women for peace, do not find their way into history books. this naturally has consequences for peace education. it is difficult to educate about peace when the textbooks youngsters are required to read are mostly on war (brock-utne 2009, 105). study of peace education in afghan school textbooks this research studied the afghanistan school curriculum through the analysis of dari language and algebra subject textbooks for grade 4th of school which have been in use from 2004. as part of the study conducted in 2018 from a peace education perspective, this article addresses the specific question: to what extent has gender integration have been considered in the afghanistan’s school textbooks (2004 – 2018) from a peace education perspective? while there is a range of gender identities, this study focuses on the male and female genders, and will look at the visibility or invisibility of girls and women. research framework the peace education curricular analysis or peca project framework, is an analysis of the school curricula of different countries related to the peace education content in the curriculum. katerina standish who created the peca framework, has carried out a number of studies, include investigations of the national curricula of australia, england, scotland, sweden, saudi arabia, mexico and new zealand, looking for peace education elements within the school curriculum (standish 2015; standish and kertyzia 2015; standish and joyce 2016; standish 2016; standish and talahma 2016; standish and nygren 2018; kertyzia and standish 2019). these studies so far published demonstrate some interesting findings and provide initial information that could be used to evaluate peace education programs that are being operated globally without previously having “being subjected to any act of empirical validation” (harris and morrison 2013, 219). for this article, only one aspect of the standish’s peca framework which is “gender mind” will be discussed, as the basis for analysis of gender volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 20 integration in the school curricula though textbooks in afghanistan.2 the peca framework identifies peace education elements, values and context that are consistent with the literature on peace education. while afghanistan is not a western nation, many of the donor agencies providing support and advice for afghanistan’s peacebuilding and education make recommendations consistent with western values (husham 2015; jeaniene 2005). the three main areas of peace education content according to the peca analysis are: recognizing violence, resolving conflict non-violently, and creating environments for positive peace. this third element, creating environments for positive peace, includes sub-categories of peace zone, peace bond, social justice, eco mind, link mind, gender mind, resilience, wellbeing and prevention (standish 2016). gender mind is the aspect of this framework that is the focus of this article. gender mind is defined as awareness that humans comprise men and women with equal rights and equal roles (standish 2016). based on this definition, the study analysed the content of school textbooks and recorded information related to gender mind. research design the peca project framework serve as a model for this study using a content analysis method. content analysis is a valid research method for studying communication material and to systematically analyse text (krippendorf 1989). the content analysis method is particularly appropriate for analysing secondary sources of data such as books, documents, newspapers and diaries (krippendorf 2004; harris 2001). the main purpose of this article is to explore to what extent gender integration is considered in the school primary textbooks under the afghanistan islamic republic government (airg) between 2004 to 2018 from a peace education prospective. content analysis as the research method for this particular study analyses school textbooks as items of cultural value. directive qualitative content analysis (krippendorf 2004) has been used and illustrative statistics derived from summative or quantitative content analysis (neuendorf 2002) are provided. the research data comprised two textbooks under the current government, afghanistan islamic republic government (airg). two contrasting school subjects are examined for one grade: the textbooks for the grade 4th (class 4) are the dari language and algebra. the dari3 language is one of the main subjects in schools from class 1 elementary school to class 12 of high school in afghanistan. the teaching of the dari language is seen as reflecting the culture and social values of the nation and contains texts related to the importance of social and moral behaviour. algebra is also one of the main subjects in school from class 1 in elementary school to class 12 of high school 2 a full account of the research can be found in hafiza yazdani (2020). 3 dari is the first language subject of school according to the new curriculum. both dari and pashto were declared the official languages of the state in the 2004 constitution. volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 21 in afghanistan. algebra deals with numeration and counting formula, but the short text of this book is used to support social and culture values. the intention of this study is to investigate and reflect on the information that afghan children are provided with near the beginning of their schooling at age 9 or 10. classes 1 to 3 are a little too early to concentrate on content, so class 4 was selected for this study. the analysis of the dari language textbook of afghanistan islamic republic government (airg) for class 4, dated 1390 (2011),4 involves a comprehensive and detailed examination of 154 pages, which contain 77 lessons, with each lesson followed by instructions for both teachers’ and students’ activity. the main part of the lesson is the discussion point for teacher and students. according to the dari language subject instructions, the teacher teaches the lesson text, then repeats the main idea of the lesson and discusses it with students. after the lesson and discussion from the teacher’s standpoint, students discuss the lesson’s theme in groups and also write sentences or paragraphs about the lesson’s topic or main idea. this practice structure is designed to reinforce the information for students. algebra textbook of the airg for class 4, dated 1390 (2011), involves a comprehensive and detailed examination of 104 pages, which contains 39 lessons. this textbook consists of main calculation lessons with follow up practices, evaluation questions and homework questions. these homework questions are phrasal questions (questions in the form of narrative). the content of these questions addresses different topics. findings awareness of gender or that humans comprise men and women with equal rights and equal roles without discrimination contributes as a response to structural discrimination. gender for this study means gendered language and the equal rights and roles of men and women or girls and boys. according to this understanding, information from the content of the dari language textbook for grade 4th of schooling under the airg has been recorded and coded under gender mind. the dari language textbook for grade 4th has only three sentences relevant to gender mind in total.: on page (86) there is a sentence on the role of men and women. in villages, men and women are working together on the farm. on page (138) there is a reference to education for both men and women. learning knowledge is obligatory for men and women. on page (104) both a boy and a girl are named. hameed’s father bought three books for nazia and hameed. (nazia is a female name and hameed is a male name). 4 the official calendar used by the government in afghanistan is the solar hijri calendar.. volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 22 although there are only these three sentences relevant to gender mind in the textbook, there is some other evidence that schooling for both girls and boys is being considered. for example, the image on page (46) of the dari language textbook demonstrates that there is an assumption that going to school is necessary for both girls and boys. the image shows a boy and a girl with their books and school bags. volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 23 besides the above picture, one lesson of this textbook provides an example of a letter from a female student to her parents (110). considering that a letter from a girl student to their parents generally means that schooling is considered essential for both girls and boys, this shows there is an intention by volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 24 education actors in afghanistan to include girls in the education. in this context, this lesson of the textbook is generally relevant to gender mind. p110: letter to mother objective of the lesson: students read and write the text, learn how to write a letter. question: have you ever written a letter to anyone? date: dear mother, greetings. i kiss your hand from far way and send you my respects with all my heart. i hope you are well and happy. i am well till writing this letter. dear mother, i assure you that i am trying my best to study hard. i attend school on time. i try to learn the lessons very well, and make myself and you proud. our final exams will be soon, hopefully after the exams and announcement of the result i will come home to see you. please do not worry about me. your daughter the following image is the dari text of this letter. volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 25 volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 26 the cover page of this textbook also pictures a class of female as well as male students. it shows that education for both boys and girls is important, and schools are for both sexes to receive education equally. findings of the algebra subject textbook volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 27 the algebra textbook of the airg has only one question related to gender mind (12). a question on page 12 of this book deals with boys’ and girls’ admission to school: 4340 students received admission in a primary school. if 1350 of them are boys, how many of them are girls? besides the calculation, this question narrates the integration of boys and girls in schooling, providing students with the idea that education is important for both girls and boys. discussion and conclusion gender as an important element of peace education is included in both the dari language and in algebra textbooks under the airg. one reference in the algebra and three references in the dari language textbooks are relevant to gender mind. there are also some images in the dari language textbook demonstrating that going to school is necessary for both girls and boys (46). the notion of gender and education for girls and boys has been considered but only very minimally. gender mind as an important element of peace education has been barely covered. it would be possible to make minor additions to school textbooks at all levels of schooling if there was more text providing stories or simple narratives related to women and girls. for example, on page (46) of the dari language textbook, an image of a girl and a boy with school bags and books shows that the idea of gender and education for girls and boys has been considered, but the narrative related to the image is not about gender. the narrative is a poem on the country as homeland. this picture on page (46) of the dari language textbook could be accompanied by a narrative on the importance of schooling for girls and boys. in this way the idea of gender could be operationalized explicitly into the book’s content. this helps to improve and change the negative mindset of a generation’s attitude to gender discrimination to a better understanding of the roles of men and women and boys and girls in education, as well as more broadly in development programs (brock-utne 2008). education right is an essential human right, and both genders need to practice and access their rights and have opportunities to shape their own lives and contribute to the society (kavazanjian 2010). including information on gender and gender equality as an important element of peace education towards an international standard education system is crucial in the afghanistan school curriculum, textbooks, and the pedagogy as a whole. educating children with peace education information from the early grades will help students to learn about and gain respect for all human beings, equally and recognize both genders equally (harris and morrison 2013; standish 2016). more importantly, consideration of information on inclusion of gender in education system is a societal need towards long term social and cultural change and contributes to poverty reduction in afghanistan. considering gender integration and the increasing number of girls in school would help to volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 28 mitigate the economic underdevelopment in the country and may lead to greater incomes at family and community level. having both men and women bringing money into the home can help to reduce poverty at the individual family level and contribute to transforming the community. educating girls and women could significantly improve health care generally at home and in the community and reduce child mortality rates in the country. educated women and girls would be more knowledgeable about health and wellbeing which would have very real and practical benefits (kavazanjian 2010). this study has featured evidence of how gender is integrated in afghanistan’s school textbooks, and recommends a study of more school textbooks to provide further evidence for the afghan ministry of education that more needs to be done to better integrate gender equality in school textbooks and the overall teaching of the concept and importance of gender. a separate study of current school textbooks on gender mind or gender integration could help further knowledge and understanding of this gap. it is the time for the afghanistan ministry of education and education actors in afghanistan to consider gender as an important element of peace education and address the parity of information on gender in the content of school textbooks. without a shift to place more emphasis on gender equality in the education system, women and girls will remain disadvantaged, and the important contributions that women make to society and to peace will be lost. information on gender is not only important for peace education but is essential for social cohesion in this country. references adkins, michael jessee. 2016. “challenges for progressive education in afghanistan: a history of oppression and the rising threat of isis.” international journal of progressive education. volume 12 number 2. url: http://ijpe.penpublishing.net/makale/8 alvi, hyat. 2003. “reconstruction in post-taliban afghanistan women and education”. resources for feminist research, 3:3/4, 13-37 baiza, yahia. 2015. education in afghanistan: developments, influences and legacies since 1901. abingdon. routledge bajaj, monisha, and chiu belinda. 2009. “education for sustainable development as peace education.” peace & change, a journal of peace research. 34, no.4. url: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.14680130.2009.00593.x/full bartlett, lesley. 2008. “who was paulo friere?” department of international & transcultural studies 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kavazanjian, laura. 2010. “addressing gender disparities: an investigation of nonformal education in afghanistan”. women’s policy journal of harward. volume 7 kazim, sayed abdul. 2005. afghan women under culture stress. california kester, kevin. 2010. “education for peace: content, form, and structure: mobilizing youth for civic engagement.” peace & conflict review 4, 2: 1659-3995. ulr: http://www.review.upeace.org/pdf.cfm?articulo=101&ejemplar=19 kissane, carolyn .2012. “the way forward for girls’ education in afghanistan”. journal of international women’s studies. 13:4, september, 10-28 krippendorff, klaus.1989. “content analysis.” international encyclopaedia of communication 1: 403-407. new york; oxford university press. url: http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1232&context =asc_papers ministry of education for afghanistan, https://moe.gov.af/en/minister-message (accessed 17 february 2021) krippendorff, klaus. 2004. content analysis: an introduction to its 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development as freedom, new york: anchor books sharepour, mahmoud. 1388 (2009 ). sociology of education. 7th ed. tehran: samt university volume 15 number 1 (2021): 14-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 31 shayan, zafar. 2015. “gender inequality in education in afghanistan: access and barriers.” open journal of philosophy. 5, 277-284.url: https://file.scirp.org/pdf/ojpp_2015042313174030.pdf sigar (special inspector general for afghanistan reconstruction). 2017. “quarterly report to the united stated congress, july 30, 2017”. accessed on november 5, 2017. url: https://www.sigar.mil/quarterlyreports/ standish, katerina. 2016. “looking for peace in national curriculum: the peca project in new zealand.” journal of peace education 13.1: 1840. doi: 10.1080/17400201.2015.1100110 standish, katerina and heather, kertyzia. 2015. “looking for peace in the national curriculum of england.” journal of peace and justice studies. vol. 24(2), 73-99 standish, katerina, and janine joyce. 2016. “looking for peace in the national curriculum of scotland.” peace research, the canadian journal of peace and conflict studies, vol. 48(1-2), 67-90 standish, katerina and talahma rula. 2016. “looking for peace in the national curricula of the kingdom of saudi arabia.” peace and conflict studies 23: no. 2. url: https://nsuworks.nova.edu/pcs/vol23/iss2/2/ standish, katerina, and thomas nygren. 2018. “looking for peace in the national curriculum of sweden.” nordic journal of studies in educational policy. doi: 10.1080/20020317.2018.1474701 the world bank. 2008. “girls’ education in the 21st century gender equality, empowerment, and economic growth.” edited by tembon, mercy and fort lucia. accessed on september 19, 2017. url: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/education/resources/2782001099079877269/547664-1099080014368/did_girls_edu.pdf the constitution of the islamic republic of afghanistan. 2004. (unauthorised english version)https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/img/pdf/the_constitution_of _the_islamic_republic_of_afghanistan.pdf (accessed 17 february 2021). unicef. 2011. “role of education in peacebuilding: literature review.” accessed on september 15, 2017. url: http://www.unicef.org/education/files/eepct_peacebuilding_literatur ereview.pdf unesco. 2000. “world education report; the right to education towards education for all throughout life.” accessed on september 16, 2017. url: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001197/119720e.pdf webel, charles, and galtung, johan, eds. 2007. handbook of peace and conflict studies. london and new york. routledge yazdani, hafiza. 2020. peace education in afghanistan: a comparative study of conflict and post-conflict school textbooks (thesis, doctor of philosophy). peace and conflict studies, university of otago dunlevy-final draft in factis pax volume 8 number 1 (2014): 57-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 57 volume 8 number 1 (2014): 57-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal negotiating competing ethical systems in schools: restorative practices for transforming violent school communities erin dunlevy this briefing contributes to an ongoing international conversation about restorative practices by examining how restorative justice functions as a peace-building tool in culturally diverse public schools plagued by high incidences of violence. by focusing this briefing on new york city, we are reminded that violence and conflict are not limited to the global south. we are also reminded that our understanding of the term “violence” must include the less conspicuous, but no less prevalent, forms of violence that we see in our schools today. for the purpose of this briefing and my current research, i define schools as a dynamic and intricate system of interdependent groups (dunlevy and proctor, 2011), and i will define school-based violence as the intentional harm caused by any member (or members) of that group through systematic, physical, verbal, or attitudinal aggression. my research intends to address some of the challenges of evaluating restorative practices in school settings, specifically by acknowledging and challenging the tacit ethical assumptions about violence brought to play in school communities though official policy and the value systems of individual community members. as such, i am interested in exploring the implications that culturally-based ethical conflict have for the conceptualization and practice of restorative justice in schools. with this in mind, i propose that restorative practices, including but not limited to, proactive and reactive circles,1 and training for students and staff in restorative conferencing can significantly contribute to neutralizing the multiple and often competing value systems that come to play when a school is faced with issues of violence. finally, i propose that schools that consistently demonstrate high rates of suspensions due to 1 the purpose of proactive circles is to build community and relationships among school groups, whereas reactive circles are typically held in response to an event or conflict and are utilized to reach consensus (pranis, 2005) in factis pax volume 8 number 1 (2014): 57-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 58 violent incidences be considered violently divided, as suspension is in and of itself an act of division of community member from the community, and i will subjectively suggest that the impact of this division on our school communities be considered in urgent need of attention from the peacebuilding community. the legal document that guides all official response to violence in new york city schools is the citywide standards of intervention and discipline measures, commonly referred to as the nyc discipline code. in september of the 2012-2013 academic year, the nyc department of education introduced dramatic changes to this document, which includes a bill of student rights and responsibilities, offers a brief guideline for promoting positive student behavior, the assumed role of parents in behavior management and a short subsection dedicated to the implementation of restorative approaches as “both a prevention and intervention measure” (new york city department of education, doe) for addressing negative student behavior. in previous years, the discipline code provided a great deal of flexibility and autonomy for schools in deciding on disciplinary responses to negative behavior, however, in response to an alarmingly high number of annual suspensions, the newer version of the document no longer allows for suspension as a targeted consequence for minor infractions such as truancy, lateness or verbally rude or disrespectful behavior. however, while these changes signify a significant paradigm shift in policy regarding challenging student behavior, the document is negligent in addressing the divergent ethical perspectives concerning the legitimacy of violence as a method of problem solving within the diverse communities that make up our schools. with this in mind, a central question concerns the impact of a legal document that explicitly opposes the use of violence as a legitimate behavioral response to problem solving, but that never acknowledges the complex and often competing ethical dimensions brought to the school community by its diverse members. the discipline code is unambiguous in its ideology regarding student behavior. sub-section five, article twelve of the bill of student rights and responsibilities, k-12 in the discipline code states that, “students have a responsibility to use non-confrontational methods to resolve conflicts.” (doe) further articles require that students “behave in a polite, truthful and cooperative manner”, “promote good human relations” by “build[ing] bridges of understanding”, and “assemble in a peaceful manner”. the bill also states in its preamble that, “violation of some of these responsibilities may lead, in accordance with the discipline code, to disciplinary measures.” such language unquestionably constitutes a document that legally enforces nonviolence as its central ethical standpoint in outlining expectations and processes for addressing student behavior. conversely, as the document clearly enforces nonviolence, it can be concluded that it explicitly opposes the legitimacy of violence as a method of problem solving. and while the new changes to the discipline code offer more progressive and therapeutic approaches to dealing with violent behavior than ever before, the meanings of concepts like “respect”, “safety” and even “responsible behavior”, which appear frequently throughout the text, have been negotiated in advance by groups far removed from the school communities for which they are designed, ostensibly eliminating the voices that would be the most efficacious in mitigating root causes of violent behavior in schools. in factis pax volume 8 number 1 (2014): 57-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 59 according to the doe website dedicated to the teaching fellows program, nyc has the most culturally diverse student population in the world, with students in grades k12 speaking more than 150 languages at home (doe). language is often cited as the trademark for new york city’s vastly diverse student population, and for good reason. as a signifier of diversity it is benign. indeed, on the teaching fellows recruiting website the fact is presented as one of the incomparable draws to teaching in new york city public schools. yet the cultural pluralism represented by so many languages carries with it an equally large number of often competing cultural factors. could we imagine the doe recruiting potential teachers with statistics about 150 different religions practiced among the student body of new york city’s classrooms? or more relevant still, 150 distinct cultural and ethical approaches to problem-solving? it is also noteworthy that publicity regarding the diversity of nycdoe schools rarely if ever includes data about the adults that staff them. teachers, administrators and other school staff clearly contribute to the multiple ethical frameworks at play in a school setting. but the fact remains that when a student uses violence to solve problems, the ethical system outlined in the discipline code is in direct conflict with the ethical system of the student and often times, their family. if these competing systems are not negotiated, the most frequent disciplinary response utilized by schools is suspension. how then, can restorative justice help mitigate the often ambiguous messages communicated to the school community regarding violence for problem-solving? additionally, how can restorative practices help reframe the conversation about schoolbased violence to shift responsibility from just the student body to to whole school communities, including the adults that work there? primarily, i will argue that the circle itself, either as a preventative or reparative tool, is foundational for negotiating competing ethical systems in schools. circles constitute a reformation of space. there is ritual in the circle process, and the simple act of creating it as a group can be an act of appropriation. by shifting desks and chairs, classic power dynamics are altered and the space now belongs to the group. i also argue that the circle, once constructed, possesses the qualities of the aesthetic space as outlined by augusto boal in his final work, aesthetics of the oppressed (2006). boal proposes that the aesthetic space has transformative power because it embodies plasticity, which implies that subject and object are essentially liberated from their preordained meanings in the ‘real world’ (2006). his classic example refers to a chair placed in the aesthetic space that is declared to be a throne. no actor or spect-actor questions this transformation. as such, in circles, school culture gains plasticity. it is a space within which the agreements of a new community framework can be written. the plasticity of the circle can be extremely powerful when a group arrives at new agreements with relation to problem-solving. students and adults with competing perspectives regarding the legitimacy of violence earn the freedom to create new and more just conditions for interacting. additionally, these agreements arise from the personal narrative of every member of the group, scaffolding their authenticity. in this way, the circle is an exercise in citizenship, and the impact is often swift. in factis pax volume 8 number 1 (2014): 57-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 60 story-telling in circle forces community members to personalize their relationship with violence, thereby removing violence as a concept from the greater, more unmovable global, national, community or family sphere, allowing participants to reclaim it. this is what boal referred to as the telemicroscopic quality of the aesthetic space (2006). that which was very far is now close, and possible. this reclamation of violence is an act of reframing; seeing violence as idea within which there is room for personal choice as opposed to an absolute truth. and the circle format insures that all community stakeholders are heard which implicitly eases conflicts that formerly may have led to violence and suspensions. there is an urgent need to address violently divided school communities and the structural factors that systemically reinforce the failure of so many of our students. additionally, it is hardly an exaggeration to acknowledge that the nyc discipline code reinforces a very specific and troubling form of systematic racism that exists in our schools, directly contributing to the well-documented school-to-prison pipeline that exists in our nation. yet despite the potential for success, trends in school-based restorative justice assessment have shown that initial improvements can often lead to long-term implementation challenges (daly, 2001). of note, a study by the youth justice board for england (yjb) concluded that, “restorative justice is not a panacea for problems in schools but, if implemented correctly, it can improve the school environment, enhance learning and encourage young people to become more responsible and empathetic” (yjb, 2004, p. 65). the sustainability of restorative justice in a school is therefore dependent on lasting cultural change within the school, which has shown to be fragile at best amidst the dynamic and ever-changing populations of schools in general. students are typically in high school for about four years, and a new population of students replaces every one that graduates. additionally, the turnover of teachers and administrators remains high in hard-to-staff schools. for these reasons it is essential that schools develop long-term plans for sustainable maintenance of the model. references arum, r. (2002). education and crime. in j. dressler (ed.), encyclopedia of crime and justice (607-613). new york: macmillan. arum, r. (2003). judging school discipline: the crisis of moral authority. cambridge: harvard university press. arum, r. & beattie, i. (1999). high school experience and the risk of incarceration. criminology, 37, 515-539. bazemore, g., & elis, l. (2007). evaluation of restorative justice. in g. johnstone & d. w. van ness (eds.), handbook of restorative justice (397-425). cullompton, in factis pax volume 8 number 1 (2014): 57-61 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 61 devon: willan publishing. boal, a. (2006) the aesthetics of the oppressed. london, new york: routledge taylor & frances group. daly, k. (2006). the limits of restorative justice. in d. sullivan & l. tifft (eds.), handbook of restorative justice: a global perspective (134-143). new york: routledge. dunlevy, e & proctor, c. (2011) bridging restorative practices and group therapy; new evaluative measures for school relationships. peace education evaluation information age press morrison, b. (2005). schools and restorative justice. in g. johnstone and d. w. van ness (eds.), the handbook of restorative justice (325-350). cullompton, devon: willan publishing. noguera, p. (2001). finding safety where we least expect it: the role of social capital in preventing school violence. in w. ayers, b. dorhn, and r. ayers (eds.), zero tolerance: resisting the drive for punishment in our schools. new york: new york press. microsoft word baja-1.1-in factis pax.doc 55 volume 1 number 1 (2007): 55-56 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ dubois, laurent. (2005). avengers of the new world: the story of the haitian revolution. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. isbn: 0-674-01826-5 reviewed by monisha bajaj teachers college, columbia university how can the haitian revolution (1791-1804) inform the study of human rights? why is this historic event consistently omitted from the history of human rights? what can scholars, students, and activists learn from haiti’s history that may contribute to a greater understanding of the prospects for and challenges to the realization of all human rights for all peoples? it is precisely these questions, among many others, that are skillfully examined through the thorough and rich exploration of the conditions that led to the haitian revolution, and the consequent overthrow of colonial slavery and establishment of the world’s first black republic, in avengers of the new world: the story of the haitian revolution, by historian laurent dubois. this book details the relevance of the haitian revolution for the field of human rights through detailed analyses of the economic, social, political, historical, and cultural realities of the colony of saint domingue (1697-1804) and later, the independent nation of haiti. the trans-atlantic slave trade, the extremely profitable production and export of coffee and sugar directed towards france, and, after haiti’s independence in 1804, the economic embargo placed on the country by the then slave-holding united states and western europe, all remind readers of the global interconnectedness of economies and polities that predates the current era of economic globalization and neoliberalism. the author tells the story of the haitian revolution in great detail with his goal throughout the book being to examine how a coalition of slaves and free people of color worked together to radically apply the 1789 french revolution’s notions of liberty, equality, and fraternity. the limited franchise of the political developments at the time in the united states and western europe belied the ideals of true equality for all citizens regardless of gender, ethnicity, or economic status. the revolutionary promise in haiti of equality and true democracy, although one which ultimately failed to be realized, is one that provides important insight for scholars and activists seeking to apply universal ideals (such as human rights standards) to local communities plagued by social and economic inequalities. 56 “avengers of the new world” is comprised of a prologue, an epilogue, and 13 chapters in between that offer a “play-by-play” account of the 13-year slave uprising. the sections are titled: specters of saint-domingue; fermentation; inheritance; fire in the cane; new world; defiance; liberty’s land; the opening; power; enemies of liberty; territory; the tree of liberty; and those who die. these sections offer an in-depth glimpse into the structural and physical violence that led to the bloody revolution and the desire for freedom, brutally denied for so long, that inspired it. in the colony of saint-domingue, the brutal torture of slaves (and their resulting death) was so common that they had to constantly be replaced such that “on the eve of the revolution, … two-thirds of saint domingue’s slaves had been born in africa” (p. 42). as such, african customs, practices, and military tactics guided many aspects of the revolutionary struggle and the ensuing socio-political order that emerged once haiti declared its defeat of napoleon’s troops on january 1, 1804. in the epilogue, dubois’ reflects on the past 203 years since haiti’s independence, which have led the once most-prosperous colony in the world to plunge into the depths of underdevelopment. offering a postcolonial analysis and critique, the author discusses various reasons—internal and external—that have caused this. while violent content is often eschewed by peace educators (and this approach is certainly necessary at the primary and early secondary levels), understanding such an important historical event as the haitian revolution, particularly given its absence from most history textbooks, is invaluable to the study of human rights and social justice at the advanced secondary, undergraduate, and graduate levels. an overall review of the book’s primary strengths and weaknesses reveals that its contribution to the study of human rights lies in its ability to transport the reader back to an historical moment in which everyday individuals, through collective action, achieved the impossible. from the perspective of the book’s utility for students and scholars of human rights, the weakness of this work lies in its failure, aside from in the brief epilogue, to connect haiti’s present-day reality to the rich narrative of its history of struggle and resistance. haiti’s eight million inhabitants, 80 percent of whom live on less than two u.s. dollars per day in the hemisphere’s poorest nation and who face regular political violence, perhaps need more from those individuals interested in human rights than mere acknowledgement of their historical accomplishments. if this well-written story in “avengers of the new world” inspires greater solidarity across borders, it will indeed begin to honor the shared legacy that dubois identifies so eloquently in his prologue: the impact of the haitian revolution was enormous. as a unique example of successful black revolution, it became a crucial part of the political, philosophical, and cultural currents of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. by creating a society in which all people, of all colors, were granted freedom and citizenship, the haitian revolution forever transformed the world. it was a central part of the destruction of slavery in the americas, and therefore a crucial moment in the history of democracy, one that laid the foundation for the continuing struggles for human rights everywhere. in this sense we are all descendants of the haitian revolution, and responsible to these ancestors. (p. 7) microsoft word v14.2 yazdani.docx volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 120 volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal history of formal education and influence of politics in afghanistan hafiza yazdani national centre for peace and conflict studies, otago university, new zealand hyazdany@gmail.com key terms: formal education, afghanistan this article presents detailed information on afghanistan formal education system from 1868 to 2014. it provides information on afghanistan’s development of the modern education system from 1919 to 1929, a setback and the revival of formal education from 1929 to 1973. it elaborates on the progress of formal education in the country from 1973 to 1978 and education losses from 1978 to 2001. in addition, it discusses the history of women’s formal education in the country and structural discrimination of girls’ and boys’ education in the history of afghanistan. a timeline of the different regimes or governments and educational changes in afghanistan can be seen at the end of this manuscript. education in afghanistan from the tenth to the nineteenth century, afghanistan had a rich culture and advanced education (kamgar 2002; husham 2015). at the beginning of the twentieth century, islamic tradition influenced every aspect of afghan society volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 121 including education at all levels. education was provided at home, in the mosques and madrasas (informal schools) and the tutors were the religious scholars (samadi 2001). these education programs were supported by private sources, parents, communities, religious and tribal leaders (samadi 2001; husham 2015). within these education programs young men prepared to be religious and community guides and teachers; there were opportunities for creative writing (poetry and literature); history, science and traditional medicine were available through private tutoring in small informal circles (samadi 2001). although informal education has continued in afghanistan from the tenth century until the present, formal education was only established between 1868 and 1878 (kamgar 2002). formal education comprising the official educational institutes and well-structured school programs, with a grading system, different forms, specific timetables, separate modules, annual examinations and uniforms, was launched in afghanistan by amir sher ali khan in 1868 (baiza 2015; samadi 2001; husham 2015; kamgar 2002). formal education received its formal shape and structure in afghanistan during amir sher ali khan’s reign from 1868 to 1878 (kamgar 2002). amir sher ali khan established a formal education classroom-based school system for boys which is noted as a major accomplishment in his leadership. amir sher ali khan, who ruled the country twice, established two schools, one military and one civilian, during the second part of his rule (baiza 2015; husham 2015; kamgar 2002). he initiated significant developments in education and humanitarian services for the afghan nation, aimed at a new civilization (kamgar 2002). the military school located in kabul had three hundred students who lived in a dormitory financed by the government. in this school, students were taught practical and theory lessons, writing, history, religion, and military knowledge and skills (kamgar 2002). the civil school, also located in kabul, did not have live-in facilities, and most of the students came from high-ranking government families (kamgar 2002; husham 2015). the main courses of this school were law, diplomacy and literature, and classes were taught by foreign teachers. notably, amir sher ali khan himself oversaw the schools’ administration and even controlled the examination process (kamgar 2002; husham 2015). in addition to the two initial schools, the first publication, shamsonahar, in afghanistan was published during amir sher ali khan's reign. this publication included news, articles, poetry, and advertisements of that period. this publication represented a major step, initiating the advancement of afghan culture and signalling the availability of opportunities for intellectual and academic progress (kamgar 2002; tanwir 2000). after amir sher ali khan, his son mohammad yaqub khan and grandson amir abdul rahman khan ruled as kings for over twenty years from 1879 to1901 but paid no attention to the formal education system (javid 2002). volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 122 abdul rahman khan ruled with a ruthless hand, for which he acquired the name, the ‘iron’ amir abdul rahman, as he focused on military forces and the suppression of tribal leaders (javid 2002; kamgar 2002). after the death of abdul rahman khan and what was considered a gloomy era, his son habibullah khan took over for eighteen years, from 1901 to 1919 (kazim 2005). habibullah khan, who was a liberal man compared to his father, made a fundamental effort to revive the formal education system in afghanistan, reconstructing the two schools and also establishing the first college, habibia high school (kazim 2005). saif rahman samadi, who was the first deputy minister in the ministry of education from 1967 to 1971, stated in his article on education in afghanistan that modern1 education in afghanistan corresponded with the establishment of the habibia high school in 1903 (samadi 2001, 2). establishing the first college to train government personnel for a better civil service, habibullah khan made an attempt to build capacity towards development. habibia college (or high school) was inaugurated in 1903 and had ten indian and afghan teachers with four hundred students (kamgar 2002). since then, this high school has been one of the leading schools in afghanistan, and the early central political movements were led by this school. later, six branches of this high school and three branches of the military school were established in different parts of kabul (kamgar 2002). soon after, many primary schools and teacher training institutions were established. in 1909, a board of education was organized to supervise education activities in the country and to work on school curricula and textbooks (samadi 2001; husham 2015). habibullah khan’s personal commitment to the development of the education system played an important role, and his educational policies were influenced by educational reforms in india around that period and tarzi’s2 modernist ideas (baiza 2015). mahmud tarzi, journalist, politician, intellectual and afghan liberal who was educated in turkey, was minister of foreign affairs during habibullah khan’s leadership. the political and educational reforms in turkey and india became sources of inspiration for modern education in afghanistan (baiza 2015). it is important to point out that these schools were for boys only, and girls were not able to enrol. with the establishment of formal education in afghanistan and for over fifty years, schooling was only for boys from the families of high-ranking government officials. in fact, formal 1 ‘modern education’ means western-style education. 2 suraya tarzi, daughter of mahmud tarzi married amanullah khan. having influence and a vital role within government authority under habibullah khan and amanullah khan, mahmud tarzi contributed to establishing modern education in afghanistan (baiza 2015). volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 123 schooling was for the sons of high-ranking government officials only (kazim 2005; baiza 2015). development of modern education in afghanistan, 1919 – 1929 habibullah khan was assassinated, and his son amanullah khan took control of the country from 1919 to 1929. educational development was a high priority for amanullah khan’s government (baiza 2015). he believed in afghanistan’s development and attempted to implement significant changes in the country (baiza 2015; samadi 2001). he succeeded in establishing afghanistan’s independence from the united kingdom in 1919 and introduced momentous reforms in the country pertaining to development. enhancing the education system and establishing the first girls’ schools in afghanistan were significant achievements of amanullah khan’s government (samadi 2001; husham 2015; baiza 2015). during amanullah khan’s leadership, the ministry of education was established, and the first minister of education was appointed in 1921. a number of schools, including girls’ schools, were founded in kabul and more than a hundred schools for boys in the provinces (kazim 2005; javid 2002). vocational institutes were established for the purpose of improving economic resources and increasing the supply of skilled labour (husham 2015). students of both sexes were sent abroad for higher education to study medicine, engineering, agriculture, economics, law and political science, as well as military studies (tanin 2005). two libraries were established in kabul. foreign teachers from different countries were invited to work in kabul. elementary education became free and compulsory for all afghan citizens (baiza 2015). amnaullah khan himself taught literacy courses and encouraged people to undertake education (kamgar 2002). he expanded diplomatic and cultural relations with foreign countries, including turkey, france, germany and egypt, which also contributed to the improvement of the education system (samadi 2001; husham 2015; baiza 2015; kamgar 2002; kazim 2005; tanin 2005). the budget for the ministry of education was increased and was the third largest budget in the government after the ministry of defence and the ministry of justice. the development of modern education was set in place in this era (baiza 2015). generally, shah amanullah khan was an ambitious leader, keen to modernize afghanistan so it would be the equal of developed countries (baiza 2015; tanin 2005). however, there was opposition from conservative groups to amanullah khan’s modernist ideas for social change (baiza 2015; tanin 2005; barfield 2010). conservative groups eventually influenced the situation against the modernization program. these groups of conservatives viewed the modernization programs as a coordinated attempt to change the established social order (baiza 2015). they generally disagreed with all the changes and reform agenda which included educational development and girls’ education (baiza 2015; tanin 2005). a letter was sent to amanullah khan, volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 124 expressing their disagreement with the implementation of the changes and particularly with the modernization of education and girls’ schooling in afghanistan and abroad. the conservative groups claimed that girls’ schooling was against islamic religious principles and afghan cultural norms (baiza 2015; barfield 2010). girls’ outfits at school were western style and that was a strong point for conservatives to criticize and argue on the basis of cultural norms and reputation (javid 2012). in afghanistan, an islamic state, women were required to wear islamic outfits covering their head and hair, particularly outside the home in public, but female school students during amanullah khan’s rule did not follow this norm, and this was an issue for the mullahs (baiza 2015). although the king defended his position with a rationale that supported education for both boys and girls, unity between the modernists and the conservatives collapsed and amanullah khan was forced to give up the throne and leave the country in 1929 (baiza 2015; kazim 2015; barfield 2010). he did not want civil war and bloodshed within the nation, and so left the country for italy (kazim 2005; husham 2015; baiza 2015; tanin 2005; javid 2002). according to baiza, the following four main factors contributed to the development and destruction of modern education in afghanistan during and following amanullah khan’s government: first, the achievement of independence created a crucial momentum for the country to move forward independently and modernize its political and public institutions. second, amanullah’s personal support and, third, economic growth were major factors that influenced the development of modern education. fourth, modernists and conservative elements at times affected key developments in education (baiza 2015, 89). amanullah khan’s personal enthusiasm for the development of modern education caused problems for both modernist and conservatives in the country. he did not secure support from either faction, which eventually led to his downfall (kazim 2005; baiza 2015; tanin 2005; javid 2002; barfield 2010). setback to education in afghanistan 1929 habibullah kalakani from the conservative group took control of the country for over nine months in 1929 by means of a coup. this was a period of internal war between the conservative tribal leaders and the modernists in afghanistan (kazim 2005; baiza 2015). habibullah kalakani was illiterate and totally disagreed with modernization and social changes in afghanistan (baiza 2015). during his rule schools were closed, and women were absolutely prohibited from access to schooling (kamgar 2002; kazim 2005; samadi 2001). this period was a setback for the development of education in afghanistan (samadi volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 125 2001). after this period of conflict, nader shah became king of afghanistan from 1929 to 1933 (baiza 2015; kamgar 2002; barfield 2010). nader shah, who was defense minister during amanullah khan’s government, had habibullah kalakani executed and ruled for four years (baiza 2015; barfield 2010). the first priority for nader shah’s government was to manage the tribal leaders’ expectations and control the conflict between the conservative tribal leaders and the modernists. he was cautious to keep peace in the country (baiza 2015). he had begun to develop good foreign relations, particularly with britain, which supported his strong authority in the country (husham 2015; kamgar 2002; baiza 2015). revival of formal education in afghanistan 1930 – 1973 although nadir shah was subject to ethnic and political pressures, he managed to gradually improve the educational environment (baiza 2015). he made efforts for educational development cautiously, considering the influence of conservative groups in the country, who disagreed with modern education, but education was initially politicized in this era (baiza 2015; husham 2015). primary and secondary schools were reopened for students and attention was given to higher education: the first medical college was established in kabul (husham 2015; baiza 2015). afghanistan’s education system once again revived, and primary education became mandatory for all citizens under the constitution including all afghanistan ethnic groups (baiza 2015). in the third year of his leadership, nadir shah sent a number of male students to the united states and european countries for higher education (husham2015; kamgar 2002). on the other hand, nader shah was very cautious about reopening schools, as he feared political opposition from old students of schools who supported amanullah khan’s reform. he was afraid that the students’ movement might support amanullah khan’s bid for leadership of the country. therefore, he was selective about which schools were reopened; he categorized school students and expelled some students from school under various allegations that linked education with politics (baiza 2015). this was first obvious and direct politics influence by the afghanistan government on education. girls’ education also remained restricted from 1931 to 1946. according to baiza, “girls’ education was ignored until 1948. the former girls’ school from amanullah khan’s period was converted into a midwifery school in 1941” (baiza 2015, 104). with afghanistan’s admission to the united nations in 1946 the country was obligated to improve the education system and focus on girls’ schooling, respecting international conventions (baiza 2015). volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 126 nadir shah, who ruled for four years, led a clan dynasty rule for almost half a century. he was murdered in 1933 and his young son mohammad zahir shah became the king of afghanistan (baiza 2015; barfield 2010). zahir shah was only nineteen, not having adequate political knowledge and experience when he inherited the country’s leadership, and his government from 1933 to 1973 was influenced by his two uncles, mohammad hashim and shah mahmud and his cousin mohammad daoud (baiza 2015). zahir shah remained in power for forty years and his government worked for education development gradually and systematically (husham2015; kamgar 2002; baiza 2015). many schools were built in kabul and in the provinces, the number of students increased remarkably, schooling became accessible for students at the provincial level, teacher training institutes were built in kabul and afghanistan’s first university was established in kabul comprising many faculties: science, law and political science, medicine, and literature (samadi 2001). many students were sent abroad for higher education. girls were encouraged to attend school and were offered educational opportunities, but with a difference, as they were required to wear the veil at school (husham 2015; kamgar 2002; samadi 2001). over a period of years, a considerable budget was earmarked by the ministry of education to focus on the quality of education, the improvement of textbooks, and the launch of a development plan for the expansion of primary and secondary schools all over the country (samadi 2001). the main reason behind this effort was afghanistan’s admission to the united nations in 1946 (samadi 2001). the critics of zahir shah’s government and educational developments highlight two points. the first criticism was that zahir shah had a 40-year peaceful period of leadership when more could have been achieved with the country’s development, particularly education development (baiza 2015). in other words, zahir shah’s government worked on education development, but the achievement was not significant over this long period of 40 years. zahir shah’s reign was a peaceful era compared to prior and subsequent regimes —it was a golden opportunity for the country’s development (baiza 2015). the second criticism concerned the resources and time allocated by zahir shah’s government to changing the school instruction language from dari to pashto, which was seen as a big mistake (durani 2014; baiza 2015). during zahir shah’s administration, and generally throughout the monarchy leadership period, preference was given to pashtun ethnic students to study at university, and higher education was limited for other afghan ethnic groups (baiza 2015). it was the intention of nadir shah’s administration to improve the pashto language and make it the official language of the country, but the implementation of this policy had begun during zahir shah’s government between 1937 and 1943 (baiza 2015). mohammad naiem, zahir shah’s cousin, volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 127 who was minster of education, operationalized this concept as government policy. mohamad naiem began the efforts to change the language of school instruction, based on a royal decree that it be changed from dari to pashto (durani 2014). all school textbooks were rewritten in pashto and even teachers who did not know pashto were obligated to teach students in pashto. this led to chaos in the education system and threatened national unity. the school textbooks became a political device used to promote pashto traditions and suppress non-pashto cultural identities (baiza 2015). the ministry of education allocated resources and budgets for the development of textbooks over a three to ten-year period of implementation, but the efforts failed, apparently for the following reasons: besides the political influence, there was a shortage of teachers who spoke pashto, an unwillingness on the part of teachers to learn pashto and teach in it, as well as the use of the pashto language as the academic language (durani 2014; baiza 2015). in fact, removing the farsi (dari) language as the country’s official language did not prove possible. in addition to farsi being the first language for most of the country’s population, this language has a rich history over many centuries and strong academic use in the region, and additionally a great deal of research has been carried out on the farsi language and literature throughout history (durani 2014, baiza 2015). this was political domain and put pressure on the education system in afghanistan which threatened national unity. afghanistan, civil war and education loses 1978 2001 after the assassination of president daoud khan in 1978, noor muhammad taraki, leader of the people's democratic party of afghanistan (pdpa), who was supported by the soviet union, became the new president, and this period marked the beginning of another downturn for education in the country, as it became a field of conflict during the war (samadi 2001; baiza 2015). the communist-supported government (pdpa) used education as the political platform for continuation of the communist political tradition and a mechanism for achieving its political goals. the afghan ministry of education and the ministry of higher education, with support from soviet union experts, integrated communist ideology into the education curriculum, and school textbooks and teacher education program. afghanistan universities’ curricula and structure were changed as part of the government reform. they believed that a fundamental change in the field of education was important in the process of democratic revolution in the country (matsumoto 2008; giustozzi 2010; baiza 2015; amiri 2016). similarly, the resistance groups used the school and education institutions as propaganda centres encouraging people, particularly students, to join islamic jihadi groups. this opposition groups, with support from the united states of america (usa) and other international experts, also developed school textbooks disseminating violent messages against the soviet union and government (pdpa) (baiza 2015; jones 2009; amiri 2016). the volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 128 school textbooks were all about being mujahed 3 and the use of weapons, firearms and killing. for instance, “math textbooks included questions such as: if three mujahedeen need 3000 bullets, two need 2000 bullets, how many bullets do nine mujahedeen need?” (interim curriculum 1987, grade 8. cited in jones 2009, 115). from 1978 to 1992, afghanistan experienced two contradictory education streams. the government conducted an education program disseminating preferred political information to students in areas under their control, and at the same time, the jihadi groups implemented education programs that were anti-soviet and anti-pdpa in areas they controlled inside afghanistan as well as in afghan refugee schools in pakistan (jones 2009; samadi 2001; baiza 2015; tanin 2005; matsumoto 2008; amiri 2016). besides the indoctrination of students through the educational curriculum and school textbooks, the government began recruiting teenage students into military service. as armed resistance continued and there were insufficient soldiers to fight, the government started recruiting graduates of secondary schools for military service (baiza 2015). interest in higher education declined among students, and many students chose pdpa military service or joined the jihadi groups. the third option for students was to leave the country and immigrate to pakistan or iran. very few students had the opportunity to study at universities in afghanistan during the pdpa government. students graduating from secondary school had to do service in the government fighting resistance jihadi groups (husham 2015; kamgar 2002; baiza 2005). the mujahedeen overthrew the pdpa government in afghanistan and took control of the country from 1992 to 1996 (kamgar 2002) and announced their government as the islamic state of afghanistan. but civil war between the jihadi groups ensued, and educational institutes and schools were utilized for armed conflict, particularly in kabul and other major cities (tanin 2005 baiza 2015). following the mujahedeen, the taliban took over kabul and were in control of afghanistan from 1997 to 2001. it was at this point that the education sector almost completely collapsed, and schools were closed for girls. the education curriculum continued with the language of resistance, reinforcing the political purpose of jihad (jones 2009). discussion according to scholar kelly “education and politics are inextricably interwoven with each other” (kelly 2004, 161), and definitely in any country political power has influence on a country’s education system and particularly countries that are in conflict situation. of course, afghanistan is no exception (unesco 2016). 3 mujahed is singular and mujahedeen is the plural form of the name. volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 129 afghanistan’s different governments influenced the education system in different ways. king amanullah khan wanted to reform the education system and establish a modern education system based on the western style in afghanistan. nadir shah’s government supported a conservative education style. nadir shah was afraid of the opposition groups from the older school students who supported amanullah khan’s reform, and this was the reason that he expelled some students from school under various allegations. zahir shah’s government reformed schooling teaching language and make efforts to change instruction language from dari to pashto in support of pashto traditions (durani 2014; baiza 2015). the political interference and influence during these governments was relatively mild in the political environment when afghanistan was in relatively peaceful time with no physical war. conversely, when afghanistan was in physical war during the pdpa and mujahedeen governments, the war situation and the country’s political atmosphere impacted negatively on the education system, as both opposition groups, pdpa and mujahedeen, used education material directly for their own political platforms (jones 2009; baiza 2005; amiri 2016; ). both pdpa and the mujahedeen/taliban governments from year 1978 to 2001 used the school environment particularly via textbooks as a tool to provide political propaganda to students. these political ideologies directly impacted the school, students, teachers and generally the whole education system and environment. taking peace education theory in consideration, during the pdpa and mujahedeen governments, students were provided information in school which was in support of conflict, disunity and war (baiza 2015; david 2005). school textbooks are a powerful means through which students learn social and cultural information (kumar shah 2016; unesco 2018; unesco 2016). teaching information in support of a culture of violence guided students in afghanistan toward violent behaviour which effected students throughout their lives. this method of teaching aimed at training people to be warlike in afghanistan which impacted on generations (david 2010; unesco 2018). it is important to mention that during the mujahedeen time the islam religion related lessons were central for education programs. the school textbook contained lessons related to religious information (baiza 2015), and this may include relevant information somehow allied with peace education, because islamic principles insist on peace. however, even in the religious lessons more attention was given to information about jihad (baiza 2015). post-conflict era and education status in afghanistan, 2002-2014 after the taliban was defeated in 2001, education in afghanistan as a postconflict country became the centre of attention for the new government of the islamic republic of afghanistan and the international community that had promised its full support for the country’s reconstruction. the education system was highlighted as one of the key areas needing support (samadi 2013; jones volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 130 2009; husham 2015; baiza 2015; amiri 2016; robiolle-moul 2016). the government and the international community resumed working on the development of education and made significant efforts to retrieve schooling after the period of wars (husham 2015; amiri 2016). the constitution stipulates that basic education from classes one to nine will be compulsory for all the country’s children, higher education will be expanded, education from school level to bachelor degree level will be free of charge, special reference is made to the elimination of illiteracy and the promotion of education for women, and the initiation of private education was approved for the first time (samadi 2013; husham 2015; afghanistan constitution law; robiolle-moul 2016). the ministry of education and ministry of higher education both separately developed new education laws in support of afghanistan’s constitutional law (husham 2015; jeaniene 2005). besides the development of education laws, there was enhancement of the education system; the establishment of new faculties within government universities; the establishment of many private schools and institutes in kabul and other cities; the improvement of vocational institutions; and the building of new schools all over the country (baiza 2015, husham 2015, samadi 2013; robiolle-moul 2016). the afghanistan ministry of education with support from international organizations completely changed the direction of education and developed a new school curriculum and textbooks committed to peace, national unity, human rights and democracy. new school textbooks incorporate peace messages and are cleared of references to war (jones 2009; jeaniene 2005; amiri 2016). the new afghanistan education laws and new school curricula comprised peace education in general, respecting the islamic religion, promoting human rights, commitment to national unity, conveying knowledge towards being peaceful individuals for an ideal social life, training to be responsible citizens, strengthening student creativity, and promoting a culture of peace, all of which support the purposes of peace education (husham 2015; robiolle-moul 2016; amiri 2016). discussion the revival of afghanistan’s education system since 2001 is essential work. the afghanistan government with support of the international community undertook a significant re-establishment of the education system and development of education material for schools. the revival of the education system which had almost completely collapsed during the internal war from volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 131 1978 – 2001 in afghanistan involved immense effort. both government and the international community made substantial efforts to ensure that new school textbooks were developed with new ideas and texts to convince students that peace is necessary and possible for afghanistan. although, there are many challenges and constraints that affect the education system in afghanistan in the attempt to meeting education standards, the new changes and progress in education sector is notable, especially given that afghanistan is still suffering from insecurity and an economic crisis (baiza 2015: husham 2015; robiollemoul 2016; jones 2009). more details are mentioned in the following section on education challenges in afghanistan. education challenges in afghanistan afghanistan is still in a transitional period from conflict towards peace and development, and educational development has been affected by many continuing challenges and constraints in the country such as insecurity, political instability, the existence of high levels of corruption in the government system, high illiteracy rates among the population, poverty, and challenges within the education sector such as insufficient educational facilities to respond to demand, insufficient technical or professional human resources in the education sector, inadequate budgets for the ministry of education, and dependency of the ministry of education on donor support for technical and financial assistance (baiza 2015; samadi 2013; unesco 2011; robiolle-moul 2016). there are also many constraints on educational development in afghanistan as a fragile state (unesco 2011; holland 2010). insecurity is always a strong threat to education in the country: there are attacks on schools in rural areas, murders of teachers and staff of education institutes, banning women and girls’ access to school and education in remote areas by the taliban, and isis forces have recently challenged educational progress (adkins 2016). educational facilities are not sufficient to meet educational demands in the country, and this is a most significant challenge at present for the afghanistan ministry of education. “many of the existing schools do not have suitable buildings, safe drinking water, or sanitation of facilities. the key factor inhibiting the growth of educational infrastructure is funding” (adkins 2016, 106). there are not sufficient numbers of schools in rural areas, particularly for girls, and girls are more disenfranchised from education in this situation (the world bank 2008). women’s education in afghanistan, 1919 – 2014 there is no doubt that education is a remarkable sign of civilization and human development, even at the primary level. history is the witness of human progress and great personalities throughout education. nonetheless, brave and brilliant afghan women like rabia balkhi, the first female poet who lived in the volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 132 seventeenth century in balkh, afghanistan, and others made great contributions towards the enhancement of knowledge and afghan civilization. they did not have an opportunity to participate in formal education institutes. their examples show the interest of afghan women in education, and their willingness to contribute to civilization and the improvement and development of their environment, even before formal education began in afghanistan (javid 2002; kazim 2005). formal education was established in the country between 1868 and 1878, but afghan girls could only access formal schooling in 1921, almost fifty years later. when formal education started in afghanistan, schooling was only for boys. the first girls’ school was opened in afghanistan in 1921 (kamgar 2002; baiza 2015). in addition, afghan women have experienced both progress and setbacks with regard to education, due to political instability as well as cultural issues during the history of formal education (kazim 2005). structural discrimination between men and women has existed in this country for over a century: during the period of monarchy from 1747 to 1973, the only king who supported women’s education was amanullah khan (1919-1929). afghanistan’s liberal king amanullah khan and his wife established the first school for girls, and supported female students’ higher education in afghanistan and abroad, but amanullah khan faced conservative resistance that halted women’s education for years (javid 2002; samadi 2001; baiza 2015). after amanullah khan, the next afghan ruler who supported women’s education was daoud khan. daoud khan changed women’s social status during his leadership, ensuring that women’s opportunities in education and employment were improved, girls’ schools were established in kabul, and the numbers of female students in schools and at university increased (kazim 2005; javid 2002). the taliban, the extremist group that ruled in afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 banned women’s education absolutely. for five years women were not allowed to leave their houses, unless they were accompanied by a male family member (ghosh 2003). this was a period of severe violation of human and women’s rights in afghanistan (kazim 2005; human rights watch 2006). post-taliban, the poor situation for afghan women became more obvious internationally. international donor agencies supported projects to improve the situation of afghan women. afghan women and girls once again gradually gained access of education and employment. women participated in culture, social and political life. millions of girls enrolled in schools and universities, women started to run businesses, they became parliamentarians, were appointed as ministers, and found positions in which they could contribute to development programs (intili et al. 2006). the important achievement volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 133 regarding women's progress in afghan society is the national constitution that was passed in january 2004. it states that “any kind of discrimination and privilege among the citizens of afghanistan is forbidden. citizens of afghanistan, men and women, have equal rights and responsibilities before the law” (afghanistan constitution law. article forty-three). informal education in afghanistan beside the formal education system in afghanistan, there is an informal education program that takes place mostly in mosques and madrasas (religious centres). in informal education programs students learn about the quran, jurisprudence and islamic principles as well as the arabic language and literature. this type of education is more about islamic education that began with the arrival of islam in the seventh century and is still common and important in both urban and provincial areas, although in the cities, people access formal rather than informal education. today, each village and every town has at least one to three mosques, often many, and virtually all children, particularly boys, of pre-school age who live in the neighbourhoods go to the mosque school and get a basic islamic education. pre-school aged students start learning alphabets and reading the holy book (quran), and continue to read many books related to islam. formal education also includes an islamic education program up to degree level in afghanistan universities (samadi 2013; karlsson and mansory 2002; majroh 1987). conclusion this study provides an overview of the history of afghanistan’s formal education and its establishment and progress. it presents important information on afghanistan's formal educational system and influence of politics in this country’s schooling structure. this historical detailed information is significant for the literature and educational development contribution and reflection and involvement in the education sector in afghanistan. educational development in afghanistan has experienced a circuitous path of progress. a lack of historical continuity in state policies and national plans from one era to another has been a characteristic feature of statebuilding which affected educational development in the country from 1878 to 2014. regardless of the efforts of sher ali khan, habibullah khan and king amanullah khan, and president daoud khan, educational development was not important for some governments, or education was used as a key tool for political purposes of the particular regime. in addition, women’s education has not been taken into consideration during the history of the formal education system in afghanistan. afghan women have experienced structural discrimination regarding education. conversely, in the post-taliban era from volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 134 2002 to 2014, the afghanistan ministry of education and the international community have made many efforts in the education sector, with a commitment to provide a standard education system and to meet peace education objectives, but there are still many challenges to meet this objective of meeting standard education system in afghanistan. continued commitment at different level of institutions including government of afghanistan, donor agencies in afghanistan and individual potential efforts are required to further improve the education system in afghanistan. timeline of different regimes/governments and education changes in afghanistan date government a summary of government changes summary of educational changes summary of women’s education 17471973 afghanistan monarchy durani clan, barakzai clan and mohmammadzai subclan of durani who were of pashto ethnicity ruled in afghanistan from 1747-1973. they were mainly involved with clan power sharing conflicts, but sher ali khan, habibullah khan and amanullah khan initiated development in afghanistan. sher ali khan and habibullah khan established formal education in afghanistan 1868-1878 and amanullah khan worked hard on educational development in afghanistan 1919-1929. first school for girls established during leadership of amanullah khan in 1921. when formal education started in afghanistan, schooling was only for boys. the first girls’ school was opened in afghanistan in 1921, 50 years later. formal education established between years 1868-1878 in afghanistan. volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 135 19731978 republic of afghanistan daoud khan who was from mohmammadzai sub-clan of durani and pashto ethnic ruled for 7 years. he changed the monarchy to a republic. daoud khan believed in afghanistan’s development and expanded education accessibility all over the country. daoud khan supported women’s education and changed women’s social status. women’s educational opportunities and employment were improved, girls’ schools were built in kabul, and the number of female students increased at schools and at university level (1973-1978). 19781992 people's democratic party of afghanistan (pdpa) people's democratic party of afghanistan (pdpa) had two separate groups of khalq and parcham, was in favor of communist ideology and was supported by soviet union. it was an era of communist regime in afghanistan. this party was involved in conflict and war with islamic jihadi groups. this party was a mix of different ethnic groups. education was in favor of the regime ideology in this era. no progress on women’s education. 19921996 islamic state of afghanistan (islamic islamic jihadi groups/mujahedden parties fought with people's democratic this period was a setback for educational education was restricted for women. volume 14 number 2 (2020): 120-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 136 jihadi groups) party (khalq and parcham follower of communist ideology) for purpose of protecting islam in afghanistan. islamic jihadi groups were a mix of different ethnic groups. development in afghanistan. 19962001 islamic emirate of afghanistan (taliban) taliban, the fundamentalist political and extremist belief movement in afghanistan has been involved in war with afghanistan’s government. this group is mostly of pashtun ethnicity and ruled four years. educational development collapsed in afghanistan during this time. education was banned for girls and limited for boys in this period of time. 20012015 the islamic republic of afghanistan islamic republic of afghanistan was formed through election process and the presidents were of pashto ethnicity. this government has been involved in reconstruction as well as fighting with the taliban group. education in this era became central for the government and the international community that had promised its full support for reconstruction of afghanistan after downfall of the taliban. women’s education has been supported by the afghan government and international community in 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peace? new delhi, india. accessed on may 2019. url: https://d27gr4uvgxfbqz.cloudfront.net/files%2f74b94694-8f97-4aaa-b2c7d6f8e4b084dc_can%20education%20contribute%20to%20peace.pdf unesco. 2011. on the road to resilience: capacity development with the ministry of education in afghanistan. edited by morten sigsgaard. international institute for educational planning, paris, france. accessed on september 18 2017. url unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001915/191583e.pdf gómez collado-modelo uamex final   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       39     volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     diseño, aplicación y evaluación del modelo de intervención tutorial en la uaemex desde la perspectiva de la educación para la paz martha estela gómez collado universidad autónoma del estado de méxico resumen el modelo de intervención tutorial en la facultad de ciencias políticas y sociales en la universidad autónoma del estado de méxico responde a una serie de necesidades detectadas a través de la realización de tres encuestas a los estudiantes en los años de 2005, 2006 y 2009. los resultados arrojaron que los estudiantes de nuevo ingreso requieren de un curso inicial a fin de que: conozcan de manera general la normatividad y reglamentación universitaria; elaboren un ejercicio de trayectoria académica óptima; cuenten con elementos básicos para saber redactar, conocer la diferencia entre elaboración de un ensayo, resumen, reseña y control de lectura; desarrollen hábitos y técnicas de estudio; y conozcan los beneficios de orientación y asesoría con su tutor. los resultados de estas encuestas arrojaron también la necesidad de diseñar, aplicar y evaluar el modelo de intervención tutorial desde la perspectiva de la educación para la paz, ya que los estudiantes necesitan herramientas para solucionar de forma dialógica y noviolenta los conflictos que se le presentan a lo largo de su licenciatura. el diseño, aplicación y evaluación del modelo de intervención tutorial dio como resultado que los estudiantes de nuevo ingreso estén informados y cuenten con un panorama general de la licenciatura a la que pertenecen los universitarios. este modelo, bajo los principios y prácticas de la educación para la paz, podría ser adaptado a cualquier licenciatura del nivel superior requiriendo que sea congruente con su contexto político, económico, social y sobre todo cultural, para que produzca excelentes resultados. palabras clave: perspectiva de educación para la paz, modelo de intervención tutorial y estudiantes universitarios de nuevo ingreso.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       40   introducción actualmente en la universidad encontramos alumnos de diferentes razas, género, edad, estudiantes de medio tiempo, de diferente origen, de diferentes capacidades, de preferencias sexuales diversas, así como estudiantes internacionales que hacen un poco más compleja la educación tradicional a la que estábamos acostumbrados. aunado a esto, aparecen también otros elementos tales como las actitudes y valores cambiantes, concepciones familiares, cambios en cuestiones de salud física y mental y preparación académica. bajo esta premisa, incorporamos elementos pedagógicos de la educación para la paz al modelo de intervención tutorial que se desarrolló en la facultad de ciencias políticas y sociales de la universidad autónoma del estado de méxico. ello, con la idea de dar un panorama general, así como los elementos mínimos necesarios de las actividades que los estudiantes de nuevo ingreso tienen que desarrollar durante sus estudios de licenciatura, independientemente de la carrera que hayan elegido. entonces, “en esta visión se tiene que incluir una comprensión de quienes son nuestros estudiantes, cómo aprenden, su nivel de preparación, sus itinerarios curriculares, sus metas de empleabilidad, su desarrollo personal....” (sanz, 2009,15). es necesario apoyar a los estudiantes en sus estudios profesionales bajo los contenidos de la educación para la paz, ya que esta perspectiva les brinda herramientas para resolver, gestionar y transformar los conflictos de manera creativa, reflexiva, crítica y propositiva. los elementos teóricos y prácticos de la educación para la paz se ven reflejados en el modelo de intervención tutorial al incluirlos en aquellas dinámicas lúdicas que ayudaron a la impartición de diferentes temas, tales como: la normatividad universitaria; el diseño del mapa curricular; la elaboración de ensayos, reseñas, resúmenes y controles de lectura; hábitos y técnicas de estudio; y lectura y redacción en las ciencias sociales. estas dinámicas de naturaleza lúdica propiciaron que los estudiantes pudieran clarificar y definir sus valores éticos y morales e identificar aquellos con los que se deben conducir para contribuir a la construcción de una cultura de paz (cascón & beristain, 1999; 2000). por su parte, ignacio sotelo (citado en sanz, 2009, 25) al hablar sobre el papel que juegan las universidades en la actualidad establece cuatro funciones fundamentales, siendo estas: preparar buenos profesionales; enseñar a hacer ciencia; transmitir la cultura del tiempo en el que se vive y promover un compromiso cívico-social que redunde en beneficio de la sociedad y que por tanto pueda aportar a la construcción de una cultura de paz. bajo este orden de ideas, el modelo que se aplicó a los estudiantes de nuevo ingreso se pensó y diseñó como una experiencia de aprendizaje cooperativo. además, de   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       41   diseñarse como “un vehículo para generar un determinado alumno (incluyendo el aprendizaje, el desarrollo de habilidades, de valores, de actitudes: es decir, el crecimiento como un ser humano)” (vadillo, 2007, 12). la relación que establezca un profesor con sus alumnos a través del diálogo permanente, el respeto a la diversidad, el trabajo colaborativo y en equipo, son fundamentales durante la aplicación del modelo. por ser cónsonos con la educación para la paz, estos elementos tienen la capacidad de potenciar la motivación y actitud favorable de los alumnos hacia los estudios profesionales. sustentación del modelo de intervención tutorial para llevar a cabo el modelo de intervención tutorial en la facultad, fue necesario considerar las fases clásicas de todo programa: la planificación, el diseño, la aplicación y la evaluación. en la fase inicial de planificación se identificaron las metas deseadas del programa, se realizó un análisis de necesidades, se establecieron metas y objetivos prioritarios, y se desarrollaron las estrategias y actividades del programa. el modelo de intervención tutorial está ligado al potencial de recursos humanos y materiales con los que cuenta la facultad para la atención de los estudiantes, así como a las necesidades detectadas a partir del diagnóstico de la población en estudio. el modelo cuenta con la coordinación del programa y los tutores debidamente capacitados a través de cursos, con equipo de cómputo y el sistema inteligente para la tutoría académica como herramienta del programa tutorial, así como con la sala de tutores. para alejandra romo “un modelo de intervención tutorial deberá corresponder al potencial que la institución tiene de profesores habilitados para atender al mayor número de estudiantes, así como a las necesidades de tutoría identificadas por medio de un diagnóstico” (romo, 2005, 37). dicho diagnóstico se basó en la aplicación de tres encuestas realizadas a los estudiantes en tres momentos diferentes que fueron: junio de 2005, noviembre de 2006 y mayo de 2009. los resultados de estas encuestas arrojaron la necesidad de diseñar, aplicar y evaluar el modelo de intervención tutorial y de incorporar en éste la perspectiva de la educación para la paz de forma transversal. por eso en dicho modelo se insiste en fomentar valores en los tutorados a través de actividades lúdicas que se desarrollen en un plan de acción tutorial. se fomentan valores tales como la responsabilidad, el respeto, el diálogo, la creatividad, la justicia y en particular la solidaridad y la cooperación. se resaltan estos dos últimos porque al conocer las percepciones de los tutorados, se observó que los valores menos apreciados son la solidaridad y la cooperación, que son fundamentales para construir una cultura de paz. en las universidades europeas, los programas de acción tutorial (pat) funcionan desde cuatro momentos clave, a saber: “antes de su entrada a la universidad, cuando   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       42   ingresan a la misma, durante sus estudios y al finalizar los mismos” (sanz, 2009,16). entonces, la idea es que al momento de ingresar a la facultad, los alumnos tengan nociones de lo que se van a enfrentar al estudiar en la universidad y una vez ingresados, llevar un seguimiento de ellas y ellos. sin embargo, para realizar ésta propuesta de intervención tutorial fue necesario considerar diversos aspectos, tales como los que se describen a continuación. al momento de ingresar a la universidad, es bueno aplicar un plan de bienvenida para obtener una adecuada integración a la vida estudiantil universitaria en la que se tengan presentes aspectos cónsonos con la educación para la paz, tales como el respeto a la diversidad, la relación dialógica permanente y el compromiso ético, cívico y social. asimismo, dicho plan debe contener aspectos tales como: información sobre los servicios que ofrece la facultad y la universidad, las autoridades que integran la facultad, las funciones principales que realizan, las características del plan de estudios, la conformación de su trayectoria académica, el funcionamiento de las unidades de aprendizaje, e información sobre becas, movilidad estudiantil nacional e internacional y ayudas al estudiante, servicios médicos y asistenciales de la institución y la bolsa de trabajo. además, debe contar con cursos de orientación sobre temas transversales de su carrera, como son: métodos y técnicas de estudio, redacción y presentación de trabajos de investigación. entonces, estos aspectos fueron considerados e incluidos en el modelo de intervención tutorial. durante el desarrollo de los estudios, los alumnos podrán profundizar sobre aspectos de su desarrollo académico en cuanto a la elección de su área de acentuación, sobre la elección de su servicio social y prácticas profesionales, y sobre todo acerca del área de investigación que quieran estudiar para realizar su trabajo de investigación final, sea cual fuese la modalidad de titulación elegida. en el modelo de intervención tutorial, esta fase se desarrolla desde una visión pedagógica de la educación para la paz, tomando en cuenta, la relación dialógica permanente con el estudiante, la diversidad de pensamiento y cultura con la que se presenta, el compromiso institucional y personal con el alumno, así como el interés que manifieste durante su licenciatura. en la finalización de sus estudios, los alumnos serán orientados en el sentido de visualizar algún estudio de posgrado, realizar alguna práctica relacionada a su licenciatura y considerar algunas técnicas de solicitud de empleo, bolsa de trabajo, becas de investigación y estudios en el extranjero. también serán orientados en cuanto a aspectos relevantes de su formación profesional tomando en cuenta sus intereses personales y posibilidades académicas. dicho proceso de orientación se lleva a cabo desde una visión pedagógica de cultura de paz mediante una relación dialógica permanente que reconoce sus aptitudes y actitudes frente a la vida y respeta su diversidad cultural.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       43   en cada uno de los cursos aplicados en el modelo de intervención tutorial, la fase de valoración debe contar con instrumentos por medio de los cuales se recabe información, tanto de los alumnos como de los tutores participantes. alejandra romo refiere que […] “la implantación de un programa institucional de tutoría inicia con un proceso de planificación centrado en un diagnóstico de necesidades y en el diseño de un plan de acción” […] (2005, 39). de manera que para llevar a cabo el modelo es muy importante la actitud y respuesta de los diferentes actores e instituciones ya que si alguno de éstos falla, entonces no se cumple cabalmente con los objetivos planteados. diseño del modelo de intervención tutorial en el momento de incorporarse el alumno a la universidad, específicamente a la facultad, se detecta frecuentemente el desconocimiento generalizado sobre temas relacionados con los servicios que ofrece, así como la estructura y el funcionamiento del plan de estudios que va a cursar según la licenciatura de su elección. así que la intención del programa de intervención es realizar el primer acercamiento del estudiante con los profesores, en este caso con los tutores, para inducirlos a la información básica sobre el contexto universitario. es así como el alumno de nuevo ingreso bajo diversos elementos de la educación para la paz y el compromiso cívico, social y ético del tutor recibe en pocos días un cúmulo de estímulos y novedades que propiciarán que tengan un panorama general de la vida universitaria, así como de su licenciatura en especial. según delgado (2005), para el diseño del programa es importante considerar las necesidades y los objetivos que tendrán que responder a las dimensiones personales, académicas y profesionales de los estudiantes. así también, es esencial tomar en consideración cómo lograr aprendizajes concretos, desarrollo de competencias, mejora de habilidades y adquisición de actitudes, experiencias vivenciales y valores. sobre todo, es necesario fomentar aquellos valores éticos y morales cónsonos con la educación para la paz e indispensables en la formación de un joven universitario: el respeto, la responsabilidad, el diálogo, la justicia, la creatividad, la cooperación y la solidaridad. es necesario además, contemplar los recursos con los que se cuenta para desarrollar este trabajo. estos recursos pueden ser de carácter humano, financiero, material y de servicios o técnicos. delgado nos dice que esto conlleva: (a) contar con tutores con una adecuada formación para el desarrollo de la tutoría; (b) considerar la acción tutorial como parte del tiempo lectivo del profesorado; y (c) retribuir a los tutores implicados en los planes de acción tutorial mediante incentivos económicos, académicos o ambos. (sanz, 2009, 91).   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       44   aplicación del modelo de intervención tutorial para la aplicación del modelo de intervención tutorial fue necesario abordar los siguientes elementos esenciales (delgado, 2005, 63): necesidades, metas y objetivos; planeación y organización de las actividades; y recursos o medios necesarios. necesidades, metas y objetivos. tanto las metas como los objetivos están íntimamente relacionados con las necesidades detectadas. el modelo puede fijarse como meta “favorecer el desarrollo integral de los estudiantes atendiendo los aspectos personal, académico y profesional como parte constitutiva de su proceso formativo” (delgado, 2005, 64). este desarrollo debe tratarse desde una triple función informativa, formativa y orientadora. estas tres funciones a su vez, se valen de principios y estrategias acordes con la educación para la paz. la función informativa se lleva a cabo por medio del fortalecimiento de un diálogo permanente y un compromiso cívico, social y ético. la función formativa se ejerce a través de dinámicas participativas, lúdicas y experiencias vivenciales. y la función orientadora se realiza a través del aprendizaje colaborativo y dinámico. planeación y organización de las actividades. con el objetivo de proporcionar al alumno asesoría, orientación y apoyo en su desarrollo académico, profesional y personal, así como facilitar su adaptación al contexto social universitario a partir de valores y elementos cónsonos con la educación para la paz, se planearon y organizaron las actividades del modelo de intervención tutorial de la manera siguiente: • se incluyeron temas sobre la legislación universitaria, a fin de dar a conocer el reglamento universitario para que los estudiantes conocieran sus derechos y obligaciones, así como las sanciones a las que podrían hacerse acreedores, en caso de incumplimiento. • se elaboró un ejercicio de su trayectoria académica personal (mapa curricular) con la finalidad de potencializar la toma de decisiones en la elección de sus unidades de aprendizaje hasta la conclusión de su licenciatura. • se incluyó una sesión para dar a conocer y aprender a utilizar el sistema inteligente de tutoría académica (sita). • se efectuaron diversas dinámicas para que los estudiantes clarificaran y definieran los valores éticos y morales que tienen y con los que se deben conducir en su vida personal, universitaria y profesional. • se utilizaron dinámicas lúdicas, participativas y vivenciales como apoyo pedagógico al fortalecimiento de valores acordes con una cultura de paz. • se desarrollaron ejercicios sobre hábitos y técnicas de estudio para fortalecer la parte académica de los tutorados, así como para aportar las herramientas   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       45   necesarias para los procesos de aprendizaje (aprender-haciendo y aprendersiendo) y estudio individual, potenciando de esta forma su rendimiento académico. • se enseñó cómo elaborar ensayos, reseñas, resúmenes y controles de lectura que son trabajos productos de investigaciones en las ciencias sociales, así como se definió el contenido de los controles de lectura. • se realizaron dinámicas vivenciales y participativas de lectura y redacción en las ciencias sociales, así como ejercicios sobre administración del tiempo. • se asesoró y orientó a los estudiantes sobre su servicio social y prácticas profesionales de manera personalizada, reforzando el trato dialógico y el respeto a su diversidad cultural, así como sus intereses personales. • se asesoró sobre los distintos programas de movilidad estudiantil. • se dio a conocer el uso del material bibliográfico y hemerográfico, publicaciones, préstamos a domicilio y estrategias de búsqueda en el centro de información y documentación de la facultad. • se informó sobre el procedimiento de canalización de estudiantes a las áreas médicas, psicológicas, de nutrición, centro juvenil universitario, etc. que se requieran durante su estancia en la facultad. • se proporcionó información sobre los diferentes tipos de becas, así como los requisitos de cada una de ellas. recursos o medios necesarios. según delgado (2005, 66) los recursos aportan un apoyo básico en el diseño del modelo para la consecución de los objetivos. los recursos materiales e instalaciones hacen referencia a un conjunto de materiales e instalaciones que apoyan y dan vida al modelo de intervención tutorial. las aulas asignadas y las instalaciones contaron con computadora, cañón y acceso a internet, así como la sala de cómputo para la capacitación del sita. evaluación del modelo de intervención tutorial la evaluación del modelo de intervención tutorial resultó interesante porque se obtuvo información sobre su desarrollo y se pudieron extraer nuevas ideas para mejorar la realización del mismo. dicha evaluación conllevó una rigurosa planeación en equipo. se realizó además desde la perspectiva de educación para la paz, ya que contempló aspectos como los siguientes: las dinámicas participativas, vivenciales y lúdicas; el compromiso institucional y ético; el respeto a la diversidad cultural del estudiante; y la coherencia en virtud del diálogo desarrollado y sistemático a partir de su aprendizaje colaborativo. con esto, el modelo constituye una “actividad sistemática diseñada para producir cambios esperados en los estudiantes” (delgado, 2005, 69), relacionados con las necesidades planteadas que se pretenden resolver con su desarrollo bajo los principios y prácticas de la educación para la paz.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       46   respecto a los resultados, la evaluación estuvo directamente relacionada con los objetivos previstos. así pues, los aspectos evaluados fueron: • conocimiento de la legislación universitaria; lectura y redacción en ciencias sociales; hábitos y técnicas de estudio; elaboración de ensayos, reseñas y resúmenes. • comprensión de la metodología de las trayectorias académicas, así como su elaboración propia. • aplicación de diversas dinámicas lúdicas para la clarificación y definición de valores éticos, morales y de cultura de paz. • conocimiento de los recursos y actividades no académicas que ofrece la facultad y la universidad. en cuanto al desarrollo del modelo, la evaluación se efectuó para medir: • la colaboración del personal docente en la impartición del curso. • la efectividad en la programación en tiempo e infraestructura de la facultad. • la coherencia entre los objetivos y los contenidos de las sesiones en el aula. • la claridad y preparación en las exposiciones de los tutores. • la calidad y utilidad del sita y materiales didácticos utilizados en el curso. • el grado de disponibilidad de los tutores durante el desarrollo del curso. en la evaluación de los resultados se utilizaron escalas de medición tipo likert con la finalidad de comprobar la aplicación de conocimientos por parte de los estudiantes en el contexto universitario, así como para determinar si se cubrieron las expectativas de orientación educativa e información. el proceso de evaluación concluyó con un informe sobre los resultados de su implementación que sirvieron de base para la toma de decisiones y para obtener conclusiones generales acerca de la incorporación de elementos de educación para la paz en el diseño y la aplicación del modelo. los procedimientos e instrumentos de evaluación que se utilizaron fueron, entre otros: cuestionarios, fichas, modelos, entrevistas, grupos de discusión e informes. los mismos aportaron información tanto cuantitativa como cualitativa a fin de dar mayor confiabilidad y validez a la información y fueron coherentes con los objetivos del modelo. para efectuar la evaluación y presentar los resultados del modelo de intervención, se aplicaron técnicas y procedimientos afines a los principios y prácticas de la educación para la paz. en este caso, se utilizaron dinámicas participativas, lúdicas y juegos vivenciales en donde los estudiantes pudieron libremente expresar sus sentimientos y manifestar sus emociones. la idea de la aplicación de dinámicas es crear ambientes más agradables, menos tensos, con fines de alegría, reto, diversión y distracción. existen diferentes tipos de   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       47   dinámicas que persiguen objetivos distintos. para el caso de los sistemas educativos la utilización de dinámicas lúdicas y vivenciales pretende que los cursos sean más atractivos y sirvan de apoyo a temas cónsonos con la educación para la paz tales como la comunicación, las relaciones interpersonales, el trabajo en equipo, la toma de decisiones y la resolución, gestión y transformación de conflictos. por otra parte, la aplicación de las dinámicas grupales estimula la colaboración de todo el grupo y los estudiantes se sienten motivados y participantes de la misma actividad. jaime grados (cárdenas, 2004, 4) define a las dinámicas grupales como “procesos participativos en la conducción de grupos, lo que permite al facilitador como a los participantes que interactúen en una forma dinámica con el concepto de aprenderhaciendo y aprender-siendo”. una dinámica de aplicación común es el juego, que tiene el objetivo de divertir, de llenar de energía, de hacer ejercicio físico y mental, entonces recurrimos a él como herramienta estratégica para romper el hielo y entablar una relación dialógica con los estudiantes de nuevo ingreso que implique reflexión y un aprendizaje colaborativo, ya sea profesional o para la vida. paniego afirma que los juegos enseñan destrezas, habilidades y actitudes necesarias para la vida y que por lo tanto, son esenciales para un adecuado desenvolvimiento tanto intelectual como afectivo y psicomotriz (paniego, 2000,160). el juego educativo representa para maría borja una gama inagotable de actividades físicas, mentales, emocionales, comunicativas y sociales que se desarrollan en dos dimensiones: la imitativa o reproductora de lo vivido, y la imaginativa o creadora, fruto del mundo interior, sueños e ilusiones y fantasías. añade, que el juego como capacidad, no se aprende, ya que nos viene dado (borja & martínez, 2007, 13). estos juegos enseñados y aprendidos nos introducen en una cultura, con su moral, sus valores y formas de entender el mundo. entonces, los alumnos que juegan mucho podrán ser más dialogantes, creativos, propositivos y críticos con la sociedad. además, al enfrentar diversas problemáticas y conflictos en situación de juego, podrán imaginar formas concretas en las que se pueda propiciar la mediación, la negociación y la cooperación. resultados y aportaciones del modelo de intervención tutorial para la realización de la sesión sobre legislación universitaria se tocaron los temas alusivos señalados anteriormente. a esos fines, se distribuyó a los asistentes un cuestionario que contenía diez preguntas para conocer el grado de conocimientos sobre temas tales como los siguientes: la ley de la uaem; las funciones de los h.h. consejos universitario, de gobierno y académico de cada organismo académico; los derechos de estudiantes para solicitar revisión de exámenes; la forma y lugar para presentar evaluaciones ordinarias, extraordinarias y a título de suficiencia; el número de bajas que puede tener cada alumno como máximo sin ocasionar cancelación de matrícula, así como el periodo para efectuar el trámite; el número máximo de evaluaciones reprobadas para   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       48   no causar baja definitiva o cancelación de matrícula; los casos en los que los estudiantes pueden cursar, aprobar o reprobar unidades de aprendizaje obligatorias y sus respectivas consecuencias; el porcentaje de asistencia mínima obligatoria para poder presentar exámenes ordinarios, extraordinarios y a título de suficiencia; la descripción de cada una de las modalidades de titulación en los estudios profesionales de licenciatura, así como los derechos y obligaciones de los estudiantes universitarios. la suma total de asistentes al curso fue de 54 estudiantes dando un promedio general de 82.33 de calificación. se observa en términos generales que fue muy bueno el ejercicio de información y recepción de la misma por parte de los alumnos de nuevo ingreso en virtud de que algunos argumentaron desconocer el funcionamiento de la universidad porque provienen de escuelas preparatorias no incorporadas a la universidad autónoma del estado de méxico. con respecto al taller sobre lectura y redacción en las ciencias sociales, se contó con la participación de 54 asistentes en sus tres diferentes sesiones. el instructor repartió un comunicado de prensa que había salido publicado en días anteriores en materia política. se trataba de una crítica al sistema político mexicano con la cual se trabajó señalando primeramente que se realizaría una lectura general del documento en 10 minutos, luego se preguntó a los alumnos sobre el contenido del texto, y señalaron tres puntos fundamentales que deben seguir, siendo éstos: obtener la idea principal del texto, sacar las tres ideas que respalden o fundamenten ese texto y obtener conclusiones. en un segundo momento, el instructor pidió elaborar un concepto general que definiera cada párrafo de la lectura para después realizar una crítica dando aportaciones y opiniones sobre el artículo. se trata en esta parte de construir el conocimiento para obtener argumentos y evidencias con razonamientos y opiniones. dei igual manera, se intenta fortalecer el diálogo y las acciones de aprender-haciendo y aprender-siendo, bajo los principios y prácticas de la educación para la paz. el profesor sugirió que se leyera nuevamente el artículo y se redactara de otra forma. para finalizar este ejercicio se dio lectura a varias aportaciones de los estudiantes dando sus argumentaciones y aportaciones, así como comentarios generales y complementarios a la lectura, lo que contribuyó a dar una visión y conocimiento del documento trabajado y enfatizando que el conocimiento se construye a través de dos aspectos claves en la construcción de una cultura de paz: la socialización y el trabajo en equipo. los estudiantes se mostraron participativos y en general les agradó esta sesión del curso afirmando que les parecía muy bueno e interesante porque expresaron su punto de vista. para evaluar el ejercicio de elaboración del mapa curricular se les distribuyeron dos hojas para que cada estudiante realizara el ejercicio y poder entregar un ejemplar y conservar otro para que en el momento en el que se le asigne tutor, acuda con esta información y el propio tutor lleve el seguimiento de las unidades de aprendizaje de sus tutorados. para efectuar este ejercicio, en el grupo había alumnos de las tres licenciaturas,   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       49   entonces se dividió la sesión en dos partes, la primera la jefa del departamento de control escolar explicó de manera general el mapa curricular y la trayectoria académica que los estudiantes tienen que planear y diseñar, así como elegir la duración de la licenciatura que están cursando. para explicar este apartado, se elaboró un formato de mapa curricular por licenciatura en el cual se incluye en la parte posterior del mismo, un cuadro en donde se contemplan ocho espacios para que los tutores registren las unidades de aprendizaje dadas de baja por el tutorado. asimismo, hay un cuadro donde se lleva el seguimiento del inglés con la finalidad de que los tutorados no dejen al último momento estudiar el idioma y lo puedan cursar en tiempo y forma para no retrasar su egreso de la carrera. se incluye también un apartado que registra el número de créditos aprobados por semestre con el propósito de no rebasar el límite de créditos permitidos. cabe señalar que esta dinámica fortaleció el diálogo, la comunicación y la participación de los estudiantes todos aspectos claves en la educación para la paz. en cuanto a la sesión sobre hábitos y técnicas de estudio, el número total de participantes fue de 15 estudiantes y se inicio la sesión con una dinámica de organización del tiempo en la que se dibujó un círculo en el pizarrón representando las 24 horas de un día. este círculo se iba dividiendo según el número de horas dedicadas o que invierte cada estudiante en sus actividades diarias, tales como: alimentarse, asearse, asistir a clases, estudiar, dormir, divertirse, descansar y transportarse a diferentes lugares. con esta división, se pasó a ejemplificarlo con un pastel de naranja en donde cada actividad de acuerdo al número de horas, representaban un tamaño diferente de rebanada del pastel. fue totalmente representativa esta dinámica porque iba pasando cada estudiante a cortar una rebanada de pastel de acuerdo al ejemplo que en horas implicaba cubrir cada actividad que los alumnos señalaron. con este ejercicio se pudo observar claramente que el tiempo que dedica cada alumno a estudiar es reducido diariamente lo que ocasionó el tener que “quitar” partes de rebanada de pastel asignadas a realizar otras actividades y dejar las dedicadas al estudio. el profesor enfatizó que el estudiante universitario de tiempo completo tiene que estudiar, repasar sus apuntes, leer libros, revistas especializadas, periódicos y solicitar ayuda a los especialistas para investigar, realizar trabajos en equipo, asistir a conferencias y presentaciones de libros; todo esto forma parte de su formación académica. en cuanto a las técnicas de estudio, el profesor señaló que es necesario repetir, leer, reproducir, intercambiar ideas, elaborar notas, mapas mentales, memorización e intercambiar notas. también sugirió que al momento de estudiar se realice una introducción al tema, una sinopsis, un resumen, formular preguntas, efectuar lecturas, obtener puntos importantes y hacer una prueba o examen. después de esto, se explicó una técnica cuyas siglas son “aida” para apoyar los hábitos de estudio en los jóvenes universitarios y esta significa a (atención), i (interés), d (deseo) y a (adquisición). el desarrollo de esta técnica permitió a los estudiantes ser críticos, colaborativos, creativos y propositivos en su manera de estudiar. en este sentido, la técnica aida propició la aplicación transversal de diversos valores y estrategias propios de la educación para la paz.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       50   con relación a la sesión correspondiente a la elaboración de ensayos, reseñas, resúmenes y control de lectura, el profesor abordó claramente los puntos principales de cada uno de estos subtemas. definió al ensayo como “un escrito que busca mostrar la validez de un punto de vista u opinión personal fundamentada sobre un tema dado, a través de una defensa lógica y argumentada”. explicó las características y mencionó que el objetivo del ensayo es conducir al lector hacia una reflexión. las partes de un ensayo son tesis o idea principal, puntos secundarios, propósito (explícito o implícito) y estructura (explícita o implícita). enseñó la manera de estructurar un ensayo y mencionó que la evaluación se realiza con estos puntos fundamentales: orden temporal, orden espacial, análisis, clasificación, argumentación lógica, comparación, contraste, causa-efecto y conclusión. mientras que la reseña la definió como “un documento científico secundario, en el cual se generalizan los datos contenidos en los documentos primarios. abarca materiales sobre un solo tema y en un determinado período. se distinguen entre otras, la reseña analítica y la reseña descriptiva”. explicó los tipos de reseña y mencionó que el propósito de elaborar una reseña es el dar información fiel del tema del libro y una opinión sobre el mismo para guiar al lector sobre si debe o no realizar la lectura. explicó el resumen como “la representación breve y concisa del contenido de un documento, especialmente de sus objetivos, alcance y resultados, sin interpretación ni crítica alguna”. además definió las características y señaló que el resumen incluye los objetivos o propósitos del documento; el alcance del trabajo; la metodología; y los resultados o conclusiones. explicó que los tipos de resúmenes pueden ser indicativos, informativos, ejecutivos y estructurados; mientras que los estilos del resumen deben ser claros, concisos y exactos. finalmente para hablar del control de lectura lo definió como “una estrategia de aprendizaje, que permite identificar los aspectos más importantes de una lectura, de igual forma su propósito es demostrar que efectivamente se realizó la lectura”. mencionó las características resaltando los datos del autor y del texto, los conceptos centrales y las teorías; así como la extensión que es variable según la solicite cada profesor. los estudiantes pasaron luego a realizar dos ejercicios prácticos con información de una reseña y de un artículo para que tuvieran un ejemplo de manera práctica en la que se escribe o redacta cada uno de estos documentos. la sesión resultó muy enriquecedora porque los cuarenta alumnos asistentes así lo manifestaron al permitirles tener un conocimiento más avanzado sobre cada uno de los documentos descritos anteriormente. respecto a la evaluación del ejercicio sobre usos y servicios del centro de información y documentación se realizó bajo los planteamientos de fornols (arnaiz &   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       51   isús, 2008, 55) que tiene como objetivo que los alumnos se familiaricen con la biblioteca de la facultad como lugar de trabajo y de búsqueda, estimulando su curiosidad. cuando se efectuó este ejercicio, el profesor dio los lineamientos generales para hacer un buen uso de las instalaciones, así como de la manera de consultar el centro, las secciones en las que se encuentra dividido el edificio, las actividades que podrían llevar a cabo, así como las publicaciones que existen y los procedimientos para solicitar el préstamo y devolución de los libros. se informó también de las sanciones a las que se hace acreedor el estudiante cuando no devuelve libros. para esto, los alumnos hicieron una visita organizada, se les informó de las diferentes secciones, el sistema de clasificación, las novedades editoriales y la parte de hemeroteca. después en grupos de tres alumnos, realizaron un ejercicio de búsqueda teniendo que encontrar las referencias de libros especializados en cada una de las tres licenciaturas; revistas especializadas y referencias enciclopédicas. asistieron veinticinco alumnos a las tres sesiones resultando las dinámicas muy enriquecedoras en información y participativas. se realizo la sesión sobre el programa tutorial para darles a conocer el objetivo general del programa que es “promover en los estudiantes una formación integral en las disciplinas de las ciencias sociales; esto es, en los aspectos informativo, disciplinario, ético y afectivo para un mejor desarrollo de sus estudios de licenciatura, mediante una relación de diálogo permanente” (programa, 2008), así como los objetivos específicos. cabe señalar que tanto la dimensión ético-afectiva como la relación de diálogo permanente constituyen dos elementos claves del programa de intervención tutorial que son cónsonos con la visión pedagógica de la educación para la paz. dentro de las estrategias operativas del programa destacan tres fases que son la inicial, la intermedia y la de conclusión de estudios. se explicó el código de ética del tutor y tutorado, así como los derechos y obligaciones del tutor y del tutorado, las modalidades de impartición de la tutoría que son individuales y grupales. para concluir con la sesión, se habló sobre las canalizaciones que pueden ser al centro juvenil universitario, áreas médicas de salud, nutrición y psicológicas. se distribuyó además, un formato sobre la administración del tiempo que los diecisiete participantes contestaron realizando una programación de actividades diarias que comprenden de las siete de la mañana hasta las veintitrés horas. se observó de manera general que los estudiantes dedican de lunes a viernes al estudio y los fines de semana a descansar, ir de compras, realizar labores del hogar, salir con la familia, amigos, novios, ir al cine, ver televisión, visitar a su familia en otros lugares cercanos a toluca, otros para trabajar, etc. se consideró que podrían mejorar la distribución de su tiempo para efectuar actividades académicas más planificadas. la profesora hizo recomendaciones y sugerencias a cada estudiante de manera individual y desde un enfoque dialógico, cónsono con las prácticas de la educación para la paz.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       52   en cuanto a la evaluación de los valores, se realizó a través de cuentos, poesías, canciones, narraciones, acontecimientos o sucesos reales o hipotéticos. también, se aplicaron cuestionarios, comentarios de textos, diálogo crítico sobre personas y actitudes, escalas de medición de valores y exposición de conflictos y dilemas éticos, entre otras estrategias afines a la visión pedagógica la educación para la paz. conclusiones desde la perspectiva de la educación para la paz la intención de instrumentar el modelo de intervención tutorial en el ciclo académico 2010-2011 en la facultad de ciencias políticas y sociales de la universidad autónoma del estado de méxico fue brindarle a los estudiantes de nuevo ingreso información oportuna sobre la universidad, la facultad y de manera pormenorizada, acerca del plan de estudios de la licenciatura que eligieron. más aún, el propósito fue apoyar a los estudiantes en sus estudios profesionales bajo los contenidos de la educación para la paz, ya que les brinda herramientas para resolver, gestionar y transformar los conflictos de manera creativa, reflexiva, crítica y propositiva. a partir del diseño, la aplicación y la evaluación de dicho modelo pude llegar a las siguientes conclusiones desde la perspectiva del educación para la paz: primera conclusión. de acuerdo con los planteamientos de xesús r. jares (1999, 2004a, 2004b), la educación para la paz debe educar desde y para el conflicto. entonces, a partir del modelo de intervención tutorial se diseñaron, aplicaron y evaluaron varias dinámicas que por medio de la lúdica pudieron enseñar a los alumnos cuestiones axiológicas y de resolución, gestión y transformación de conflictos. segunda conclusión. los estilos de abordar los conflictos, según jares (1999 y 2004b), son competir, evitar, convenir/negociar, acomodar y colaborar, que es cuando se satisfacen los intereses de uno y a la vez se satisfacen los intereses de los otros. de acuerdo con las dinámicas propuestas en el modelo de intervención tutorial, los estudiantes pudieron clarificar y descubrir el valor de la cooperación, que es cuando se satisfacen los intereses de las dos partes y se llega a un punto medio entre ambas posturas. tercera conclusión. de acuerdo con galtung (2004), la transformación de los conflictos se realiza a través de la trascendencia, porque vuelve más manejable el conflicto y busca que la solución sea lo más alta posible. en el modelo de intervención tutorial se pudo aplicar este método, ya que se propició que los tutorados, con una visión positiva y a partir de su creatividad e imaginación, lograran trascender los conflictos planteados. cuarta conclusión. la educación para la paz es una educación desde y para la acción que al regirse por diferentes principios se basa a su vez en la educación en valores. al desarrollar las diferentes dinámicas lúdicas y vivenciales en el modelo de intervención   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       53   tutorial, pudimos clarificar los valores que tienen los estudiantes y responder de manera continua y permanente a sus necesidades presentes. quinta conclusión. en la técnica de clarificación de valores según jares (2005), los educadores formulamos una serie de preguntas para que los alumnos lleguen a un proceso de búsqueda de la verdad. en el modelo de intervención tutorial se aplicó esta técnica a través de dinámicas con cuestionamientos acerca de los valores que la juventud universitaria otorga más importancia y sus respectivos contravalores. esta técnica les permitió vislumbrar y definir los valores que ostentan y sentirse comprometidos con aquellos valores de cultura de paz que pudieran ser factor de cambio hacia una sociedad más humana y menos conflictiva y violenta. sexta conclusión. los valores de la educación para la paz que consideré fundamentales durante la implantación del modelo tutorial de intervención son la responsabilidad, porque hay que fomentar en los tutorados el saber responder por los actos que efectúan; el diálogo, porque es indispensable mantener comunicación permanente con los alumnos y asesorarlos a partir de sus inquietudes, conflictos potenciales y necesidades académicas y afectivas; y, la creatividad, porque si no imaginan y crean nuevas ideas, entonces estaremos en la etapa de adoctrinamiento como lo mencionaba paulo freire (2005). séptima conclusión. en el modelo de intervención tutorial, los valores constituyen referentes centrales para trabajar con los universitarios, en virtud de que al clarificar y exponer los valores con los que cuentan, los estudiantes podrán desarrollar mejor sus estudios y proyectos profesionales. en el curso impartido se resaltaron a través de las diferentes dinámicas lúdicas una serie de valores indispensables en la formación de un universitario, que a su vez con cónsonos con la educación para la paz: el respeto, la responsabilidad, el diálogo, la justicia, la creatividad, la cooperación y la solidaridad. octava conclusión. con el fin de cumplir con los objetivos del modelo de intervención tutorial, adoptamos durante el proceso de implantación del mismo una serie de principios cónsonos con la educación para la paz que pueden contribuir a la construcción de una cultura de paz. entre éstos: tolerancia, solidaridad, afrontamiento noviolento de conflictos, autonomía para lograr la aceptación a la diversidad, no discriminación de estudiantes y tutores, vivencia de derechos humanos, cooperación, diálogo, técnicas de resolución, gestión y transformación de conflictos, compromiso y acción pedagógica. novena conclusión. los programas tutoriales en instituciones de educación superior deben dar atención individualizada al estudiante de nuevo ingreso con el propósito de apoyar sus estudios profesionales y evitar la deserción, así como elevar su eficiencia terminal. una política educativa a esos fines, deberá estar centrada en proporcionarle herramientas para apropiarse de conocimientos amplios y alcanzar un cambio de   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       54   mentalidad para hacerla mas crítica, reflexiva y capaz de resolver, gestionar y transformar los conflictos y de contribuir a la construcción de una cultura de paz. décima conclusión. pudimos constatar que lo trascendente de aplicar el modelo de intervención tutorial desde la perspectiva de la educación para la paz a los estudiantes al ingresar a la universidad radica en que conozcan el programa de tutoría académica y los beneficios de acudir constantemente durante toda su carrera a las reuniones individuales y grupales. en otras palabras, a través de la asesoría y orientación que les brinde su tutor(a), esto es, de una relación dialógica permanente, se podrá evitar la deserción escolar por un lado y por el otro, abatir los índices de reprobación en el primer año de ingreso. décima primera conclusión. el diseño, la aplicación y la evaluación del modelo de intervención tutorial requirió de la participación y del apoyo decidido de doce profesores-tutores de la facultad. dicha colaboración se realizó con profesionalismo, puntualidad y cumpliendo con el contenido completo de la temática que presentaron, logrando así un excelente trabajo en equipo y la incorporación de aspectos y elementos centrales de la educación para la paz. décima segunda conclusión. la coherencia entre los objetivos y las sesiones en el aula fueron totalmente claras y cumplidas cabalmente. en cuanto a la calidad y el empleo de materiales didácticos, se utilizaron presentaciones digitales ilustrativas de las sesiones de legislación universitaria, mapas curriculares, ensayos, reseñas, resúmenes y controles de lectura. de igual manera, se llevaron cabo de manera muy efectiva dinámicas lúdicas en educación para la paz y de gestión, resolución y transformación de conflictos. décima tercera conclusión. la aplicación de juegos en las dinámicas de valores permitió relajar a los grupos, aportando experiencias para resolver, gestionar y transformar conflictos, hacerlos responsables en la toma de decisiones y asumir las consecuencias de sus actos, ser imaginativos, creativos, propositivos y reflexionar sobre sus posturas. durante estas actividades lúdicas, se mantuvo un diálogo permanente y se permitió la participación libre y organizada de los estudiantes. décima cuarta conclusión. al incorporar aspectos y elementos de la educación para la paz en la instrumentación y el desarrollo del modelo de intervención tutorial, pudimos constatar que la misma debe constituir un eje transversal al currículo universitario. esto es así, en virtud de que la necesidad de educar para una cultura de paz permea en todo momento el proceso educativo del nivel superior y afecta todas sus etapas. para finalizar, cabe destacar que una cultura de paz está basada en valores, actitudes y comportamientos que convergen de manera constructiva en una convivencia armónica, y que ésta se puede generar a través de la participación dinámica de los actores involucrados en la educación. también, que una cultura de paz se fundamenta en el debate, en la crítica, en el diálogo, en la libertad de expresión y de creación. entonces, la   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       55   educación para la paz debería entenderse como un proceso permanente a lo largo de toda la vida del ser humano y como eje transversal en los estudios de la juventud universitaria. referencias alonso, j. m. (2006). manual de orientación educativa y tutoría. educación media y media superior. méxico: universidad la salle, plaza y valdés editores. arnaiz, p & isús, s. (2008). la tutoría, organización y tareas. barcelona: graó. borja, m & martínez, m. (2007). la intervención educativa a partir del juego. participación y resolución de conflictos. barcelona: universitat de barcelona. cárdenas, a. (comp.) (2004). dinámicas de grupos. toluca, méxico: secretaría de docencia, dirección, de desarrollo de personal académico. cascón, p. & beristain, c. (1999). la alternativa del juego (8va ed.) madrid: xiana color gráfico, apdh. cascón, p. & beristain, c. (2000). la alternativa del juego (1): juegos y dinámicas de educación para la paz. madrid: los libros de la catarata. delgado. j. a. (coord.) (2005). líneas básicas de intervención en tutoría universitaria. granada: método ediciones. freire, p. (2005). pedagogía del oprimido. méxico: siglo xxi editores. galtung, j. (2004). trascender y transformar. una introducción al trabajo de los conflictos. méxico: transcend-unam. jares, x. r. (1999). educación para la paz: su teoría y su práctica. madrid: editorial popular. jares, x. r. (2004a). educación y conflicto. guía de educación para la convivencia. madrid: editorial popular. jares, x. r. (2004b). educar para la paz en tiempos difíciles. bilbao: bakeaz. jares, x. r. (2005). educar para la verdad y la esperanza. en tiempos de globalización, guerra preventiva y terrorismos. madrid: editorial popular.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  39-­‐56   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       56   paniego, j. a. (2000). cómo podemos educar en valores. métodos y técnicas para desarrollar actitudes y conductas solidarias. madrid: editorial ccs. programa de tutoría académica del plan flexible de la facultad de ciencias políticas y sociales (2008). toluca, uaem. romo, a. (2005). la incorporación de los programas de tutoría en las instituciones de educación superior. méxico: anuies. sanz, r. (coord.), (2009). tutoría y atención personal al estudiante en la universidad. madrid: síntesis. vadillo, g. (2007). de maestro a tutor académico. cuarenta semanas de clases innovadoras y efectivas. méxico: paidós. microsoft word kester v12.1_kk final edits.docx in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 1 volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal coproducing peace: beyond psychologized approaches — toward a transrational onto-epistemology and dialogic learning community as the foundations of peace education kevin kester1*^ department of education, keimyung university abstract: this paper critically examines the underlying theoretical premises of the psycho-social peacebuilding agenda upon which much of peace education is founded. i do this specifically through a reflexive and diffractive analysis to examine the epistemologies, theories and pedagogies that permeate the field. overall, the paper is positioned within educational sociology, theoretically informed by new materialisms, and drawing on literature from peace studies and peace education. i locate the study within the epoch of postmodernity and global neoliberalism. the paper contributes to already existing disparate literatures on higher education peace studies, peace pedagogy, and educational neoliberalism. it merges these areas to provide new insights into contemporary theoretical and pedagogic practices within peace education with a particular focus on critiquing common psychologized approaches. keywords: peace education; psycho-social peacebuilding; new materialisms; reflexivity; diffraction; second-order reflexivity 1 correspondence email: kkester@kmu.ac.kr. * i would like to sincerely thank the three anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful critiques and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper. the paper benefited greatly from the peerreview process. any mistakes that remain are entirely mine. ^ for more on the arguments made in this paper, see my forthcoming book reproducing peace? the case of educational peacebuilding inside un higher education (information age publishing). in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 2 introduction this paper seeks to explore the limits and possibilities of psycho-social peace education with a particular focus on peace education in a global context. i start with an explication of my psycho-social positioning within peace education broadly and then within higher education peace studies specifically. i locate the writing within social thought on new materialisms, reflexivity and diffraction (barad 2003; bourdieu 2003; bozalek and zembylas 2017; brookfield 2009; daley 2010; lather and st. pierre 2013). i then offer critical reflections on the dominance of psycho-social reflexivity in much peace education (pupavac 2001), and question whether reflexivity is limited in its application toward the transformative objectives of the field (kester 2016; kester and cremin 2017). finally, i discuss some methodological and pedagogical implications for diffractive reflexivity in peace education before concluding with a call to de-psychologize peace education. i am arguing throughout for a transrational onto-epistemology and a dialogich community of learning as the foundations for transformative peace education in the 21st century. in the pages that follow, i employ a diffractive methodology that crisscrosses between various bodies of literature in peace studies and peace education, and in and out of personal experience and primary research. this criss-crossing and diffractive methodology “reference[s] a traveling back and forth along intersecting lines… [an] approach [that] puts relationality at the center, sees research as an active process of criss-crossing, and aims to surface the entangled complexity…” (sobe 2018, 11). this approach is iterative and read differently across time-place (barad 2003; bozalek and zembylas 2017; ulmer 2016) and through various theoretical lenses (e.g., bourdieu, freire, foucault, critical race theory, and neoliberalism, etc.). in empirical and philosophical research elsewhere, i have examined the theoretical premises and practices of contemporary peace education through diverse theories (see kester 2017a, 2017b, 2017c, 2018; kester and cremin 2017; lee, sweeney and kester 2017). these other analyses link to the arguments in this paper and diffract the results, sometimes agreeing, sometimes contesting the argument presented herein. the criss-crossing and diffractive method presents insights into second-order reflexivity in the field (kester and cremin 2017).2 using this diffractive lens (bozalek and zembylas 2016), i turn now to my educational backstory as an entry point into the discussion. 2 second-order reflexivity is a collective effort by scholars engaging in field-reflexivity to protect against structural and epistemic violence seeping into peace work (fontan 2012; gur ze’ev 2001; zembylas and bekerman 2013). in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 3 the peace researcher as (re)source of peace and conflict my professional engagement with peace education began at columbia university’s teachers college in tokyo in 2004. noted peace educator betty reardon acted as my mentor then and for many years after. this positioned me firmly within a particular school of peace education that might be called ‘transformative peace education’. with this a number of accompanying pedagogical and philosophical tenets taught at columbia entered my professional practice, most notably, the notion of a ‘pedagogy of democratic engagement’ (kester and booth 2010). as reardon’s (1988, 1999, 2001) conceptual work in the field has been influential my mentorship with her locates me in part (but not totality) among those other centers and peace educators who have been influenced by reardon (yet it must be noted that these scholars have developed divergent approaches to the field). i later entered into a second peace education studies program with reardon’s support at the united nations university for peace (upeace) in costa rica. reardon had been instrumental in developing the ma program at upeace (jenkins 2004). there, my thinking and networks in the field expanded widely. the university is a cosmopolitan community of students and scholars from over 60 countries, which provides an experiential learning community for the practice of peace and conflict resolution (kester 2016). i read theories of peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding and applied these theories to educational settings and beyond. whereas columbia enhanced my pedagogical skills, upeace developed my technical field-based knowledge of peace and conflict resolution theory and practice. since then, i have sought to combine these content and pedagogic lenses in my work as peacebuilder and educational researcher. for example, i have applied these skills to the development of three educational peacebuilding programs at three different universities in korea: hannam, keimyung, and woosong universities. together, the programs offer higher education in peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding to korean students aiming to work within educational settings, government, ngos, business, and non-profit sectors. in particular, the curricula draw on theories of sociology and politics as applied to contemporary global issues, especially in the fields of education and research. the ongoing questions that i seek to address include: ‘what are the a/effects of such programs?’, ‘what pedagogies have transformative potential?’, and ‘how might peace scholars better protect against inadvertently reproducing structural and epistemic violence through their peace work?’ in this paper, i am reflecting on this experience through in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 4 diffractive analysis to understand the limits and possibilities of common reflexive methods used in peace education. the role of reflexivity and diffraction it is typical in critical qualitative research for the researcher to position oneself in the study to provide full disclosure and context for the reader to understand and interpret the dependability and credibility of the work (lather 1992, 1993; fanow and cook 1991; harding 2004; daley 2010; rich 1986; lather and st. pierre 2013). this positioning can be interpreted as an attempt to supply the mental and physical states and social positions that influence the textual and analytical choices of the author. it might also be understood to disrupt the dominant logic of objective empiricism (where the author puts nothing of oneself in the text) as the primary foundation of knowledge (koppensteiner 2018; lee 2012). for example, bourdieu (2003) said: [the researcher]…making rational use of his native but previously objectivated experience in order to understand and analyze other people's experiences. nothing is more false, in my view, than the maxim almost universally accepted in the social sciences according to which the researcher must put nothing of himself into his research. (287) in addition, in research as resistance (brown and strega 2005), indigenous scholars absolon and willett write: it is our opinion that one of the most fundamental principles of aboriginal research methodology is the necessity for the researcher to locate himself or herself. identifying, at the outset, the location from which the voice of the researcher emanates is an aboriginal way of ensuring that those who study, write, and participate in knowledge creation are accountable for their own positionality. (absolon and willett, as quoted in brown and strega 2005, 97) from this research standpoint, then, i have positioned myself here (drawing briefly on indigenous scholarship, feminism, and post/structuralism) to indicate the diffractive politics of location from which this debate is emerging. i will re-turn to my positionality again throughout the rest of the paper (in the analytical framework and discussion sections). examining positionality diffractively across space-time allows depths of meaning and complexity to emerge not accessed upon initial review (brantmeier in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 5 forthcoming; cremin 2018; ulmer 2016). i turn now to address the literature before moving to the analytical framework. a brief review of literature a popular approach to peace education referenced in much literature is gordon allport’s (1954; see also pettigrew 1998) intergroup contact theory. it is one of the earlier and most well-known theories to be applied to the field (aboud and levy 2000; abu-nimer 2004; chavrous 2005; gawerc 2006; hewstone et al. 2006; kester 2018a; maoz 2000). specifically, in the nature of prejudice (1954), allport outlines his ‘contact hypothesis’, where he argues that within a supportive environment members of majority and minority groups might identify commonalities that help them overcome their differences. contact theory, thus, argues that direct interaction will assist members in altering the stereotypes they hold of each other. there are certain conditions, allport writes, under which such interactions might support social transformation, including: i) a supportive environment, ii) close sustained contact, iii) equality of status among community members, and iv) continued encouragement for cooperation (kester and booth 2010). hence, intergroup contact is an important psycho-social approach to peacebuilding, yet it is argued elsewhere that while important this method is inadequate for durable social peace (bekerman 2007; helman 2002; johnson and johnson 2005; kester and booth 2010; lave and wenger 1991; pettigrew 1979; zembylas and bekerman 2013). a different (perhaps complementary) approach is offered in the work of johan galtung (1969, 1990). his development of the concepts of cultural and structural violence aids scholars and practitioners in analyzing the social structures (e.g., customs, institutions, and policies) apart from the individual and group psyche that contribute to violence and peacebuilding. galtung’s cultural violence, for example, addresses beliefs, attitudes and social norms that support prejudice and discriminatory action (e.g., greed, racial stereotypes, misogyny). in contrast, his notion of structural violence details the ways in which state laws and institutional policies buttress social inequalities (e.g., unfettered capitalism, structural racism, and patriarchy). in other words, galtung’s concepts of cultural and structural violence help explain the multiple layers and levels of social violence that impede cultures of peace. many peace educators draw on galtung’s foundational work in their research and practice (bickmore 2013; cabezudo and haavelsrud 2013; cremin 2016; fontan 2012; jenkins 2016; reardon 1988). this is an approach that transcends the focus on the individual as the locus of social change. it too has its limitations, however, in mostly externalizing violence and peace toward outside agents. thus, a third in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 6 approach might help. a third approach is found in the work of pierre bourdieu’s (1986, 1988, 2003) socio-cultural theory that blends together aspects of the structure and agency interrogations of many of his sociological predecessors, including karl marx, max weber, and louis althusser. i find promise in bourdieu’s post/structural work on reflexive sociology to overcome the antinomy of peace/violence, object/subject, and mind/body found in the earlier work. bourdieu’s thinking is similar to many of the new sociologists of education working in his time, including sam bowles, herb gintis, and basil bernstein who together critiqued the reproductive aspects of education. in short, bourdieu’s reflexive sociology and that of the new sociologists, and critical pedagogues such as henry giroux, offers insights for turning the gaze of peace work back onto scholars to assess the a/effects of peace practices. elsewhere i have discussed this as ‘second-order reflexivity’ (kester and cremin 2017), a theoretical tool emerging from my prior research investigating peacebuilding practices within the un (kester 2017a, 2017b, 2017c; kwon 2017). the secondorder reflexive approach challenges the common use of first-order reflexivity as a prescriptive panacea to combat structural and cultural violence. i argue that such a first-order approach is incomplete as peace is relational and the aggregate a/effects of peace education happen beyond any one individual. a fourth strand of work is now emerging from educational studies and qualitative research more generally that has important ramifications for peace education, notably the notion of diffraction. this strand of thought is coming from post-qualitative research and new materialisms (barad 2003; lather and st. pierre 2013). it suggests there is not only one reality with multiple truths to be examined, but multiple realities that co-exist (zembylas 2017). this offers the potential for constructivist and critical pedagogues (as well as others) to go beyond pressing the mind alone as the site of social change; peace, from this perspective, must be seen from multiple angles. there are embodied and transrational possibilities here because the mind is no longer the locus of multiple interpretations of one reality (as in peace approaches reliant on representationalism and voice), but only one of many spaces that occupy the synchronous truths about multiple intersecting possibilities, human and nonhuman. peace pedagogy then needs a critical ontology for the people that takes into account the material and embodied, a shift from the mind to the body and body-politic – a transrational embodied materiality. in this, transacademic, trans-epistemological explanations of the world that are practiceled and theory-informed offer a way forward in a return to a focus on relationality and materiality beyond the popular discursive and mind-centric approaches of peace education. this is not to discard of psycho-social and in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 7 enlightenment-oriented critical pedagogies, but to expand beyond them. indeed, i find a number of contemporary approaches useful to engage the nexus of the trans-epistemological and critical ontological, including critical peace education (bajaj and brantmeier 2011), transformative peace education (jenkins 2016), and transrational peace education (dietrich 2012; cremin, alvarez and kester 2018), all approaches that have influences from earlier enlightenment-oriented thinking. this paper in part draws on each but focuses primarily on transrationality. i turn now to discuss the reflexive analytical framework. a reflexive and diffractive analysis the diffractive analytical framework for this paper (which has already been referenced) draws on conceptual tools from reflexive sociology (bourdieu 1986, 1988, 2003; brookfield 2009) and new materialisms (barad 2003; lather and st. pierre 2013). this framework provides new insights into the role of firstand second-order reflexivity as an emancipatory or problematic practice within peace education. in particular, this method offers insights for scholars gazing inward on their own practices (jenkins 2016) and on the collective practices of the field (brookfield 2009). bozalek and zembylas (2016) claim that “diffraction constitutes an alternative methodology to reflexivity... reflexivity remains caught up in sameness… whereas diffraction is specifically attuned to differences and their effects in knowledge-making practices” (2). they continue, “diffraction is not only epistemic, but ontological and ethical” (ibid), which bears a sharp contrast with the concept of reflexivity which is epistemic and representational. fox and alldred (2015) explain in relation to new materialisms, diffraction “replace[s] the conventional conception of human agency with the spinozist notion of affect, meaning simply the capacity to affect or be affected” (401). thus, reflexivity promotes self-reflection while diffraction promotes new analytical insights through relationality. therefore, i relationally blend reflexivity and diffraction in this paper drawing on the strengths of each. for example, one critical contribution that reflexivity makes where diffraction may fall short is in the ease with which educators relate to the concept. reflexivity is familiar, thus making it relatable for a variety of practitioners and scholars, whereas diffraction is complex, new and dispersive. still, i hold that educators should retain the lessons that diffraction teaches, that reflexivity is limited in its foregrounding of liberal human agency and representationalism in understanding the complexity of social relations that peacebuilding is built upon. thus, a diffractive reflexivity that is aware of these limits is what is needed. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 8 i contend therefore that applying a diffractive reflexive inquiry may critically inform social justice work as scholars interrogate their role within the promotion (or not) of field-based orthodoxies, and in the pathologization of students’ minds as the site of social change (brown and strega 2005; cremin 2016; spry 2016). hence, diffraction has implications for embodiment and a re-examination of the relationality between selves, others, the text, context, and larger social and political possibilities. because these phenomena are not static, diffraction reveals different details at different times. i will now re-turn to apply these concepts to my own backstory in peace education, and then use this to consider the limits and possibilities of diffractive reflexivity as a modality of ethical and socially-just peace work. in the end, i question whether reflexivity is too limited in its first-order psychologized methods of peacebuilding, and whether a second-order of reflexivity/diffraction might assist in overcoming some of these limitations. diffracting reflexivity i apply diffractive reflexivity here to my personal case as a form of critical inquiry. looking back now, i realize that i intuitively employed reflexivity when i was younger to move about spatial and intellectual boundaries (howarth 2006), yet i of course did not think of it as such at the time, nor did i apply diffraction — that is, materialist inquiry and theoretical analysis. for example, in primary and secondary school the contrast between my school’s middleclass ethos and my own working-class family background inscribed in me both a “sense of one’s place” (goffman 1951, 297), and an urgency to disrupt this social location. over time i intentionally adopted the ‘langue legitime’ (bourdieu 1991; reay 1999), that is, the accepted nomenclature of the middleclass that would in turn allow me social mobility. for instance, i was inspired to read the classics, adopt the references, learn linguistic codes of ‘high culture’, and mimic standardized accents – all objects and forms of reflexive capital. most importantly, i did all of this strategically. gazing back now diffractively, e.g., with a bourdieusian and foucaultian lens, it is clear to me that there were strands of social and economic influences (beyond my family and community) that led to my performance of normative social standards. thus, the behavior was neither individual nor apolitical — it served hegemonic social purposes. therefore, today using a critical reflexive framework informed by diffractive theories (e.g., bourdieusian field theory, foucaultian technologies, critical race theory, neoliberal analyses, etc.; see kester 2017a, 2017b, 2017c, 2018; kester and cremin 2017; lee, sweeney and kester 2017), i also consider in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 9 such rejection of my working-class background and middle-class mimicry to have lent itself to a self-imposed cultural violence and epistemicide (de sousa santos 2007), although i did not realize i was engaging in such. in adopting middle-class attitudes and behaviors i denounced my working-class cultural background and accepted the liberal norms inscribed above. i gained some (e.g., social mobility, normative alignment with broader society), but i also lost much (e.g., autonomy, pride, culture, a sense of familial dignity). hence, i now turn this personal reflection to an academic critique of the ‘good-intentioned’ peace education that individuates violence onto students (not the system) by promoting the adoption of accepted liberal social norms and reflexive accountability as the pedagogic pathway to peace (gur ze’ev 2001; zembylas and bekerman 2013). this is highly problematic, and the approach should be much more contested than it is. for in this the individual student and lone educator become scapegoats of larger structural inequalities that go undercriticized. if naively accepting peace education as benevolent without critical interrogation there is a danger that systems of inequality are reproduced. in other words, the therapization of peace and education through psycho-social approaches (that omit structural analysis) threatens to become a form of neoliberal biogovernance and endemic symbolic violence (ecclestone and brunila 2015). the accountability regime in education generally is well documented in other literature (ball 2016; reay 2004; lareau and weininger 2003). here, then, i turn the gaze back specifically onto peace education and common practices within the field (kester and cremin 2017). i argue that both personal and field-based reflexivity, i.e., second-order reflexivity, are needed to prevent against the reproduction of social inequalities through peace education. by returning the focus to the collective social and political actions of the field, rather than individual reflexivity alone, field-based transformation becomes possible. in the final two sections of this paper i will turn to discuss the methodological and pedagogical limitations of the psycho-social peace education approach, and offer some possibilities for a second-order reflexivity in education and peacebuilding that leads toward transrationality and dialogue as the foundations for new ways of practicing peace through education. some methodological and pedagogical implications the combined constructivist and critical foundations upon which much of reflexive peace education is founded are too often criticized as narcissistic, self-obsessed, and of little value beyond the individual, since reflexivity turns itself inward and applies primacy to the idea that individuals and social groups make of the world what they will (kim 2010; davies et al. 2004). younger in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 10 scholars might playfully refer to such work as an ‘academic selfie’.3 thus, qualitative reflexive work is judged to have negligible potential to contribute to society due to its limited audience and inherent potential for bias. for instance, it has been pointed out that self-reflection, picking at dialectics, pulling apart concepts and words to reveal dominant paradigms, and/or telling the story of ourselves and others, does not in itself serve to better the actual material conditions of people (moosa-mitha 2005; goldthorpe 1996; hanssen 2000). in other words, critics proclaim that qualitative reflexive traditions tend to be myopic and offer little by way of changing the actual circumstances of scholars and students within educational contexts. critical qualitative scholars might respond that the qualitative tradition in itself is an intentional challenge to the dominance of psycho-social and neo/liberal approaches to education, research and peacebuilding (denzin and lincoln 2018). the way forward, then, may be through marrying subjective experience with structural critique, and diffraction with reflexivity, for a second-order reflexive peace education agenda that takes account of the dialectic of structure and agency, power and empowerment, and other field-based orthodoxies that scholars find themselves entangled within (bajaj and hantzopoulos 2016; brookfield 2009; lather and st. pierre 2013). susen (2011) counterpoints, though, that even this integrative position is problematic, in reference to bourdieu: “to the extent that bourdieu’s social theory not only reproduces the antinomy between universalist and contextualist approaches to knowledge but also favors the latter over the former, we are left in an epistemic no-man’s-land” (81). susen is arguing that bourdieu is trying to accomplish too much, and by extension so too are critical peace educators and diffraction scholars who wish to work at the nexus of the personal, social and material to create new possibilities. hence, in this respect, critical peace educators drawing on diffractive reflexivity by focusing on personal and social change with a strong emphasis on the latter might be prone to insufficiently cover either. in this regard, i maintain that peace scholars must remain focused on the social processes of knowledge creation, and protect against a priori dogmatic and individuated politics. hence, power is constituted in knowledge creation, as scholars have long argued (gramsci 1971; sriprakash & mukhopadhyay 2015), both human and non-human (barad 2003; bozalek and zembylas 2016), and peace educators must be cautious against reproducing systems of privilege through their good work. fairn herising (2005) builds on this to argue that researchers “are always already situated in and in relation to multiple communities and ongoing 3 in common parlance, a ‘selfie’ is a photograph that one takes of him/herself, typically with a hand-held camera. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 11 multiple passageways” and thus she argues crucially against the sort of firstorder psychologized “formulaic re-presentations of positionality that present researcher subjectivity in cartesian terms” (147). i interpret this to mean that herising is critiquing the tendencies to isolate and separate the research project from the researcher positionality, the researcher from the researched, the researcher and researched from others who are researchers and researched, and all from larger economic, social, and technological forces. this is to separate the personal and the political while also creating artificial silos. in this, herising argues, “integral to such considerations is whether we reproduce epistemic or colonialist violence in our process of entry or participation in and with marginal communities” (147). the net of reflexivity must thus be widened. importantly, this position does not deny the value of positive psychology/thinking but it insists on not reducing conflict and peace to one’s individual happiness or rational action. though hopeful, the positive psychology position is reductionist and loops backward onto itself to support narratives of neo/liberal governance and personal accountability. thus, the common individuated practice of first-order reflexivity presents important methodological and pedagogical challenges for peace education. methodologically, the implication of reflexivity is that it should be a continual critical process of reflection and action with oneself (first-order) and with and in community with others (second-order). as this process evolves it becomes diffractive. thus, a peace educator’s positioning as a practitioner and scholar is an ongoing critical practice that must refuse fixed identities of researcher/researched, object/subject, participant/observer, methodology/findings. this in itself is not new, but doing it at the level of the field is. the latter aims, for example, to disrupt the traditional qualitative method of positioning oneself simply at the beginning of a study (lather and st. pierre 2013), or positioning violence simply as the social sum of individuals’ actions (danesh 2006). the iterative process of diffractive reflexivity throughout research and in the second-order across the field is critical. here, then, i wish to reiterate that i am writing from the intersectional position of a white, working/middle-class, north american, english-speaking male — although i also want to clarify that i do not believe that all those who identify as i do necessarily share the same values and worldviews. this would be an essentialist position with little room for change. thus, it is important for diffractive reflexivity to look at phenomena through different theoretical lenses, across time, and through community. pedagogically, peace education has long operated on the assumption that altering the psychology of the individual has a multiplying effect that in aggregate alters society toward peacebuilding (aboud and levy 2000; abu in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 12 nimer 2004; chavrous 2005; gawerc 2006). hence, to paraphrase unesco, “war begins in the minds of men (and women), so it is in the minds of men (and women) that the defences of peace must be constructed” (unesco 1945). the issue with this pedagogical approach is that it also places the locus of social change within the individual student’s head thereby under-examining social causes, such as neoliberalism, capitalism, sexism, etc., that contribute to social inequalities and violence (bekerman and zembylas 2017; ecclestone and brunila 2015). thus, this has implications for a peace education pedagogy that is often overly rational and mind-oriented (alvarez, ingruber and koppensteiner 2018). zooming outward this is reinforced through naive cultural and technocratic approaches to peace education that essentialize psychology, nations, cultures, knowledge, and peacebuilding. in turn, a more holistic approach that emphasizes relationality and teaching to students’ bodies — through embodied learning, meditation, and experiential activities — that links the subject with her psyche and society could be a more socially aware approach. i will discuss how below. de-psychologizing peace education through second-order reflexivity it may seem from above that there is a contradiction in the argument of promoting a peace educator’s awareness of positionality and diffraction in the practice of peace education but at the same time arguing for a depsychologized perspective. i contend to the contrary. the two are not mutually incompatible if the scope of reflexivity is widened. here then i argue for second-order reflexivity (kester and cremin 2017), to which i posit diffraction contributes. first, i will explain why de-psychologizing peace education is important, and then i will outline how and why second-order reflexivity offers a constructive response. psychologized peacebuilding hinders the social transformative purposes of peace education. for example, bekerman (2007) claims intergroup contact encounters rest on the same “constrained theoretical approaches” (23) that lack reference to educational theorizing. the primary argument is that a psycho-social approach is rarely evidence-based and ignores the broader social structures that underscore social inequality and violence. this approach is limited because of its over-emphasis on the atomization of education to the individual and pathologization of the mind (see also brunila and siivonen 2016). zembylas and bekerman (2013) too have argued for de-psychologizing peace education specifically. for example, they explain that palestinians and jews should not be talked about as a “what” (i.e., the psycho-social explanation), an essential characteristic or being, but as a “when”, a “how”, namely, defined by the wider historical and social particularities that at the in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 13 time in/form the identity. hence, first-order reflexivity and psycho-pedagogy is insufficient to counter the dominant approaches of psycho-social peacebuilding within the field. there are at least a few reasons why. first, the heterogeneity of peace education models and peace education lecturers challenges the limits of promoting a singular approach. in other words, peace education must be cautious of promoting hegemonic psycho-therapeutic models/methods alone and should embed such methods within discourse on the various approaches available acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses of each. psycho-social peacebuilding is only one method, limited yet dominant today (pupavac 2001). second, externalizing (i.e., focusing on the material world, ontologizing) what has been internalized (i.e., psychologized, epistemologized) challenges the presumption that peace and violence are simply in the minds of individuals (bekerman and zembylas 2017), and that consequently effective rational interventions too are in the minds of scholars and students. accepting this idea opens up the possibility of relational and embodied responses to conflict and violence. for example, pedagogically ranciere (1991) wrote about this in the ignorant schoolmaster, where he explained that progressive socratic methods are in part flawed according to their strong focus on the educator’s mind and the inherent hierarchy of knowledge where the educator knows best. here, the method too often is used to position solutions within the minds of a progressive educator who guides students to the already foreseen answer. hence, socratic queries may push in a particular direction rather than open exploration according to ranciere. brookfield (2009) similarly writes about reflection and ideology in education: “for reflection to be considered critical it must have as its explicit focus uncovering, and challenging, the power dynamics that frame practice and uncovering and challenging hegemonic assumptions (those assumptions we embrace as being in our best interests when in fact they are working against us)” (293). here, the assumptions being that the educator has the solution and that rational dialogue necessarily brings about changed thinking/behaviors. this is clearly limited and problematic. moving away from this enlightenment baggage of discursive and rational emancipation opens space for more sensory experience in learning (ellsworth 1989). in response, scholars have proposed embodied pedagogies, meditation, personal reflection, yoga, dance, theatre, sport, qi gong, artsbased learning, community service, etc., as ways to promote the relationality of knowledge to being and learning (cremin 2016; dietrich 2012; toh 2004). in this collaborative space of being, scholars and students coproduce knowledge together in dialogue with inner and outer processes of balance, intuition and harmony. hence, the process of de-psychologizing peace education allows for in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 14 more collective engagement with bodies amongst scholars, students, schools, and society at large. for example, jenkins (2016, 1) explains from the approach of transformative pedagogy, “transformative peace pedagogy fosters the development of a self-reflective praxis and nurtures a holistic, inclusive relationship between the inner (personal) and outer (political, action oriented) dimensions of peacebuilding.” he details further, “transformation indicates a reorientation of worldview that leads to a new rendering of the world and one’s place within it” (jenkins 2016, 2). the transformative approach is crucial here toward opening up possibilities for transformative learning (o’sullivan 1999), yet another approach – transrationality – brings in the possibility of relating to peace differently, from the body and spirit in addition to the mind. for example, in using theatre exercises for peace learning the body is the conduit of knowledge, not the head, and students are encouraged — challenged — to think with the muscles and heart. these two approaches in tandem, along with a third – decolonial peace education – offer for me a new foundation for a comprehensive peace education in the 21st century. such multi-modality in learning, teaching and research for peace education then offers multiple ways of knowing, learning, and being, i.e. wisdom, humility, and compassionate vulnerability. i briefly focus here on transrationality. as peace education is de-psychologized the focus shifts toward transrationality (dietrich 2012). transrationality accepts that rationality is important, yet it is only one small part of knowing and learning, and one tiny part of explaining our social, political, and environmental world today. transrationality appreciates the experiential and embodied knowledge that students and scholars bring with them into the peacebuilding site, understanding that such knowledge has not necessarily been acquired rationally (i.e., through reason and experience) (o’sullivan 1999; dietrich 2012). such an onto-epistemological framing notably has potential today to provide insights in this post-truth era, where rationality and evidence is increasingly eschewed for emotionality and belief (kester 2018b). the accompanying transrational pedagogy, therefore, posits that bodily reflexivity enhances personal and social peacebuilding by opening processes of vulnerability and emotional exploration. transrationality is vulnerable because it is affective, personal, and unorthodox. it builds upon the introspective reflexivity of critical pedagogy. koppensteiner (2018), for example, relates the transrational method specifically to researcher and practitioner reflexivity arguing that transrationality and reflexivity are integrally linked. transrationality then creates knowledge equity between the scholars and students, between the rational and emotional faculties, and follows methodologically on the second-order critiques of first-order reflexivity i have given thus far. transrationality thus supports second-order reflexivity in its in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 15 emphasis on relationality. furthermore, in its displacement of the mind as the center of knowledge it opens possibilities for new materialist diffractive insights. to re-emphasize, de-psychologizing peace education opens the space for second-order reflexivity by moving toward the material world yet still foregrounding humanist relations. but how might scholars practice such second-order reflexivity and diffraction? some pedagogic examples include reflection groups, conferences, symposia, embodied learning exercises, and learning communities as spaces for engaging in and with second-order reflexivity (lave and wenger 1991; wenger 1998). they are communities of collectively informed reflection and social action. such educational communities offer the potential for continual sharing, investigation, critique, and the creation of new social and political possibilities for personal and social transformation (brookfield 2009). the international institute for peace education is one case of such a learning community within peace education. in addition, scholars in these learning communities would benefit greatly by putting themselves aside (to displace their person) to think with and through theory with others. this onto-epistemological re-turn to community and group awareness serves as a reminder of the limitations of modernist, neo/liberal, individuated, and psychologized approaches to peacebuilding and education that have become conventional (kester and cremin 2017). thus, second-order reflexivity in tandem with transrationality re-engages collective field-based awareness and collaborative decision-making, and may be enacted in communities of practice that re-affirm the value (and limits) of depsychologizing peace education for imagining new transformative possibilities for peace education today. conclusion in this paper i have sought to explore the limits of peace education when approached from a psycho-social framework, and to offer an alternative. using my personal narrative as a case analyzed through a reflexive and diffractive lens, the paper has offered a critical reflection on the dominance of psycho-social theory in peace education, and questioned whether first-order reflexivity is limited in its application toward the transformative objectives of the field. in the end, i have raised a call to de-psychologize peace education and to promote second-order reflexivity through transrationality and a dialogic learning community as the foundations of peace education. i contend that peace is necessarily a coproduction, as conflict is embedded within social relationships, and it is in the relationality of each/other, nature/culture, ontology/epistemology/communication, in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 16 mind/body/spirit, and matter/what matters that sustainable peacebuilding through education becomes possible. moving the exploration from the mind (in the psycho-social approach) toward people, processes and pedagogies (in a critical social ontology) constitutes a significant onto-epistemological shift that provides the foundations for new ways of being/relating. diffraction, new materialisms, second-order reflexivity, and transrationality offer some of the building blocks, or assemblages, 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(1971). selections from the prison notebooks. new york, ny: international publishers. gur ze’ev, i. 2001. “philosophy of peace education in a postmodern era.” educational theory, 51, 315-336. hanssen, b. 2000. critique of violence: between poststructuralism and critical theory. new york: routledge. harber, c., and n. sakade. 2009. “schooling for violence and peace: how does peace education differ from ‘normal’ schooling?” journal of peace education, 6, 171-187. harding, s. 2004. “a socially relevant philosophy of science? resources from standpoint theory’s controversiality.” hypatia, 19, 25-47. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 20 helman, s. 2002. “monologic results of dialogue: jewish-palestinian encounter groups as sites of essentialization.” identities: global studies in culture and power, 9, 327–354. herising, f. 2005. “interrupting positions: critical thresholds and queer pro/positions.” in l. brown and s. strega, eds., research as 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23, 1-19. kester, k. 2018b. “postmodernism in posttruth times.” educational philosophy and theory, 50. kester, k. forthcoming. reproducing peace? the case of educational peacebuilding inside un higher education. charlotte, nc: information age publishing. kester, k., and a. booth. 2010. “education, peace and freire: a dialogue.” development, 53, 498-503. kester, k, and h. cremin. 2017. “peace education and peace education research: toward a concept of poststructural violence and secondorder reflexivity.” educational philosophy and theory, 49, 1415-1427. kim, k.-m. 2010. “how objective is bourdieu’s participant objectivation?” qualitative inquiry, 16, 747-756. koppensteiner, n. 2018. “transrational methods of peace research: the researcher as (re)source.” in j. echavarria alvarez, d. ingruber, and n. koppensteiner, transrational resonances: echoes to the many peaces (59-81). london: palgrave. kwon, s.-j. 2017. “평화를 교육하는 유엔 평화대학.” 통일과 평화, 9, 321333. lareau, a., and e. weininger. 2003. “cultural capital in educational research: a critical assessment.” theory and society, 32, 567-606. lather, p. 1992. “critical frames in educational research: feminist and poststructural perspectives.” theory into practice, 31, 87-99. lather, p. 1993. “fertile obsession: validity after poststructuralism.” the sociological quarterly, 34, 673-693. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 22 lather, p., and e.a. st. pierre. 2013. “post-qualitative research.” international journal of qualitative studies in education, 26, 629-633. lave, j., and e. wenger. 1991. situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. lee, k., l. sweeney, and k. kester. 2017. “critical human rights education and technologies of peace: a teleology too far?” in m. garrido (ed.), human rights and technology: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development (267-280). san jose, costa rica: united nations upeace press. lee, w.o. 2012. “meaning making in cultural experience: insights from ruth hayhoe in interpreting internationalization and localization in australia, hong kong, and singapore.” in k. mundy and q. zha, eds., education and global cultural dialogue: a tribute to ruth hayhoe (2547). ny: palgrave. maoz, i. 2000. “power relations in intergroup encounters: a case study of jewish-arab encounters in israel.” international journal of intercultural relations, 24, 259–277. moosa-mitha, m. 2005. “situating anti-oppressive theories within critical and difference-centered perspectives.” in l. brown and s. strega, eds., research as resistance: critical, indigenous and anti-oppressive approaches (37-72). toronto: canadian scholar’s press. o’sullivan, e. 1999. transformative learning: educational vision for the 21st century. london: zed books. pettigrew, t.f. 1979. “the ultimate attribution error: extending allport’s cognitive analysis of prejudice. personality and social psychology bulletin, 5, 461-476. pettigrew, t.f. 1998. “intergroup contact theory.” annual review of psychology, 49, 65-85. pupavac, v. 2001. cultures of violence theories and cultures of peace programs: a critique. leicester, uk: perpetuity press. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 23 rancière, j. 1991. the ignorant schoolmaster: five lessons in intellectual emancipation. paris: fayard. translation by k. ross. stanford: stanford university press. reardon, b. 1988. comprehensive peace education. new york: teachers college. reardon, b. 1999. “peace education: a review and projection.” peace education reports no. 17. malmo, sweden: school of education. reardon, b. 2001. education for a culture of peace in a gender perspective. paris: unesco. reay, d. 1999. “making contact with teachers: habitus, cultural capital and mothers’ involvement in their children’s primary schooling.” in m. grenfell and m. kelly, eds., pierre bourdieu: language, culture and education (271-280). ny: peter lang. reay, d. 2004. “‘it’s all becoming a habitus’: beyond the habitual use of habitus in educational research.” british journal of sociology of education, 25, 431-444. rich, a. 1986. “notes towards a politics of location.” in a. rich, blood, bread and poetry: selected prose 1979-1985 (210-231). london: virago. sobe, n. 2018. “problematizing comparison in a post-exploration age: big data, educational knowledge, and the art of criss-crossing.” comparative education review, 62. doi 0010-4086/2018/6203-0002. de sousa santos, b. 2007. another world is possible: beyond northern epistemologies. london: verso. spry, t. 2016. autoethnography and the other: unsettling power through utopian performatives. new york: routledge. sriprakash, a., and r. mukhopadhyay. 2015. “reflexivity and the politics of knowledge: researchers as ‘brokers’ and ‘translators’ of educational development.” comparative education, 51, 231–246. susen, s. 2011. “towards a critical sociology of dominant ideologies: an unexpected reunion between pierre bourdieu and luc boltanski.” cultural sociology, 10, 195-246. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 1-24 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 24 toh, s.-h. 2004. “education for international understanding toward a culture of peace: a conceptual framework.” in v.f. cawagas, ed., education for international understanding toward a culture of peace: teachers resource book (7-22). seoul, south korea: unesco-apceiu. tuhiwai-smith, l. 1999. decolonizing methodologies. london: zed books. ulmer, j. 2016. “diffraction as a method of critical policy analysis.” educational philosophy and theory, 48, 1381-1394. unesco. 1945. constitution of the united nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization. downloaded from www.unesco.org. public domain. wenger, e. 1998. communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. zembylas, m., and z. bekerman. 2013. “peace education in the present: dismantling and reconstructing some fundamental theoretical premises.” journal of peace education, 10, 197-214. zembylas, m. 2017. “the contribution of the ontological turn in education: some methodological and political implications.” educational philosophy and theory, 49, 1401-1414. daniel       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   51   volume  6  number  1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   culture as the cause of conflict. a case study in west pokot district, kenya daniel nganga the pattern of conflict in the north rift of kenya involving mostly the ethnic community of the pokot and their neighbors is a complex one. scholars have interpreted various factors that contribute to violence and conflict in the region. these included: proliferation of illegal arms, inadequate policing and state security arrangements, diminishing the role of the traditional government, competition over control and access to natural resources such as pasture-land and water, political incitements, ethnocentrisms, increasing level of poverty, idleness among the youth, and territorial control. the concept of the pokot culture however has been inadequately explored. culture, taken in a broader sense, is the way of life of a people as mary clark puts; “it includes socially acquired knowledge, beliefs, art, law, morals, customs, and habits … culture is a life thought system, which influences the people’s lives, activities and behavior towards others”1. a cattle rustling is a cultural aspect of the pokot founded on their myth of origin and a belief that all cattle belong to them. this research hypothesizes that the cultural belief in raiding is perpetuated by people (seers) who have an economic and political interest in promoting the very cultural system that places them in a powerful position. to test this hypothesis the following research question was posed: how central are pokot seers to the phenomenon of raiding? in other words, do the pokot seers play a central (main or primary) role in perpetuating the cultural                                                                                                                           1 mary, c. (2002) in search of human nature. london: rountledge publishers. p.1       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   52   belief that (1) raiding is acceptable and (2) raiding is to be rewarded by consulting a seer? and how can the pokot cultural belief that all cattle are theirs be transformed? this is based first on the assumption that cattle’s rustling is cultural practice and all cultures are dynamic and can change. secondly, that education is one of the tools in conflict transformation and can be used to bring about that change. the purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between culture and conflict in north rift, with special emphasis on the pokot culture and the cultural phenomenon of cattle rustling and the fortune telling of the seers. to achieve the above objectives the research employed a qualitative method, which is explanatory and exploratory. the researcher collected data from 20 people through interviews from the sook division that included women, men, and the youths from different social, political and economic backgrounds. the qualitative method was used to analyze the data collected from the field and during the discussions. the significance of this research was to highlight the role of the seers in the conflict as an overlooked party and thus provide recommendations that can be used to change them and transform the conflict. it also sought the link that exists between the pokot culture and cattle rustling. this research has also added new ways of conflict transformation to the existing pool of knowledge and given suggestions for areas of further research. background of the study/ statement of the problem according to documented sources2, in kenya, pastoralist communities occupy the largest percentage (70%) of the countries’ total land area. the population of the livestock keeping pastoralist communities in kenya is estimated at about 20% of the total population of the country. most of these people occupy the vast arid and semi-arid region of northern kenya. the northern kenyan pastoralists are nomadic ethnic groups that are highly mobile. these are mainly turkanas, samburu, pokot, borana, rendile, orma, and somali clans. they move from one area to another in search of water and pasture for their livestock. their movements are not restricted to one area or even country. they move into and out of the neighboring countries such as somalia, ethiopia, sudan and uganda. these movements are one of the major sources of misunderstanding and conflict between them and their neighbors. the vastness and remoteness of the area, inadequate road networks and scarcity of resources goes hand in hand with lapses in security occasioning frequent misunderstanding and conflicts among these pastoral communities. the pokot community is seen as hostile and aggressive by their neighbors. often the pokots are the ones who raid their neighboring communities, causing conflicts. the pokot community lives in the pokot districts north rift valley kenya. the pokot attitude and perception of cattle can be compared to that of gold or money in modern society. the pokot base                                                                                                                           2 land privatization and pastoralist communication-kenya, retrieved on may, 18,2010 from website: http://www.comminit.com/en/node/1473/306       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   53   their perception of richness or wealth on cattle, their traditional rites are cattle centered, and their food is mainly livestock oriented (blood and milk). every generation is taught to perceive a cow as an important treasure that the community cannot do without. consequently, this leads to desperate searches for livestock, using all means available. for example, after a circumcision ceremony there is always a dire need for cattle to pay dowry during marriage. while most of the research publications and media reports cover the political conflicts, little research has been done to indicate the extent to which ethnic conflicts are influenced by culture. the research strongly shows that the element of cultural disposition of the pokot pastoral community is a violent escalatory one against their neighbors. it was therefore important to carry out a critical analysis into the cultural facet of cattle rustling and conflict in north rift kenya. the purpose of the study the purpose of this research was to explore the relationship that exists between the pokot culture, cattle rustling and conflict in the north rift of kenya. it has also critically explored how the culture and other conflict escalation factors are mutually reinforcing. this has led to recommendations on conflict transformation strategies that can be utilized to manage ethnic tribal conflicts in this region in addition to what other researchers have given in the past. in the recent past, there have been numerous efforts to try to understand and manage conflicts in the north rift, especially among the pokot and their neighbors. indeed these enterprises bore considerable fruits but did not completely resolve conflicts in the region. this study which deals with culture as a source of conflict adds to the existing pool of knowledge from a unique perspective of the pokot cultural practice. therefore, the insights advanced in this study will help transform the violent cultural practice into a more accommodative culture. the study explored the correlation that exists between cultural values and conflicts in north rift kenya and proposed recommendations for their resolutions and for further research. the pokot world view this section explores the pokot and their culture in search of identity, the value of cattle and how this forms their worldview. apart from life being centered along their cattle, we have other important variables that actually dispose the pokot community to look livestock as the only solution to their problems thereby making cattle rustling conflict the normal way of life in north rift region. exploring the concepts of “we” and “they” among the pokots’-identity there are various reasons attributed to causes of conflict within the pokot borders in the north rift kenya. these are culture, limited resources of pasture and water, political incitement and moranism.3 most of these causes are based on the concept of “we” and “they”. the pokot people have no word or term for a visitor. anybody who is not a pochonone of them is                                                                                                                           3 moranism is used as a generic term referring to pokot men after undergoing the cut (rite of passage) that qualifies them to be warriors and defenders of their community. they are the ones who go raiding.       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   54   described as an enemy. this is used to differentiate an insider “we” pokots and the non-pokots “they”. due to this perception, therefore, all the cows belong to “us” insiders and not to “them” outsiders. this is also embedded in their myth of creation story which has it that god created the first pokot man and gave him the cattle. they usually use this kind of explanation to justify cattle rustling. they don’t call cattle rustling stealing since they believe that they are bringing them back to where they belong. the researcher was looking into the possibilities on how such a cultural belief can be transformed. this kind of thinking is part of their cultural belief system, and it is passed on from one generation to the other. as mary clark argues; “…cultures are the shared values and assumptions on which rest the customs, norms, and institution of any particular society. these world views formed are tactfully communicated through myths of origin, narrative stories, linguistic metaphors, and cautionary tales.”4 jeffery, seul in one of his articles notes that; “culture is an essential part of conflict and conflict resolution. he argues that our culture is like underground rivers that run through our lives and relationships, giving us messages that shape our perceptions, attributions, judgments, and ideas of “self” and “other”. 5 though cultures are powerful, they often unconsciously influence conflicts. thus anyone who attempts to resolve intergroup conflicts must be aware of their cultural beliefs. when we talk of culture, it is more than food, clothes, and customs. it is quite possible for culture groups to share race, ethnicity, or nationality but they also arise from cleavages of generations, social economic class, sexual orientation, ability and disability, political and religious affiliation. it is important to note that cultures are not fixed; they are in the state of flux or change they relate to the symbolic dimension of life. therefore i strongly believe that claims about pokot identity, traditions, and creation myths, can change but the question is how? this research explored whether there is something from within the culture that can be used to bring the transformation. bearing the fact that the symbolic dimension of culture is the place where we are constantly making meaning and enacting our identities. cultural messages from the groups we belong give us information about what is meaningful or important, and who we are in the world and in relation to others. it gives us our identity. the concept of “we” and “they” has succeeded in keeping the pokot community and their traditional practices such as “ptengowo” and “menjo” (clitoridectomy for females and circumcision for males respectively) intact. these practices are surrounded with a lot of secrets aimed at shielding the outsiders (they) from knowing what goes on, since they are referred to as enemies. the secrecy mainly involves oath taking during the seclusion period after circumcision. scholars have further held that cultural messages simply refer to what everyone in the group knows that outsiders do not know. michelle le baron asserts to cultural influence; “they are like                                                                                                                           4 mary, c. (2002) in search of human nature. london: rountledge publishers. p.1 5 seul, j. (1999 ) “ours is the way of god: religion, identity, and intergroup conflict” in journal of peace research vol: 3b issue:5 thousand oaks: ca: saga publications, p. 43       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   55   the waters fish swim in, unaware of its effect on their vision. in shaping our values, cultures contain starting points and currencies”6 she postulates further that culture is largely below the surface. “cultures are a shifting dynamic set of starting points that orient us in particular ways and away from other directions”.7 when others do not meet our expectations, it is often because our cultural expectations are different. cultural messages shape our understandings of relationships and of how to deal with the conflict and harmony that are always present whenever two or more people come together. le baron believes that culture is multi-layered. what you see on the surface may mask differences below the surface. therefore, cultural generalizations are not the whole story and therefore are no substitute for building relationships and sharing experiences, coming to know others more deeply over time. however, culture is constantly in flux as conditions change. cultural groups adapt in dynamic and sometimes unpredictable ways. therefore, no comprehensive description can ever be formulated about a particular group. any attempt to understand a group must take the dimensions of time, context and individual differences into account. le baron describes well why some conflicts become more violent than others. i would describe her explanation on culture and world view as the lens in which we perceive reality. our cultures influence our way of thinking and our response to issues. when two different parties view the same reality they might end up giving different interpretations, which might become the source of their conflict. the truth behind it is they perceive it from two different world views. in her detailed explanation of world view and culture and their effects in conflict resolution and prevention, le baron postulates many important points. two of them are very important in relation to understanding pokot culture and world view: “world view can be resources for understanding and analyzing true stories, rituals, myths and metaphors used by a group, we can learn efficiently and deeply about group members’ identities, which they see themselves to be, what matters to them and how they make meaning. when we do this each side to a conflict, places of connection and divergence may become clearer, leading to a better understanding of the conflict in context. world views with their embedded meanings can be the seedbed from which new shared meanings emerge. these shared meanings may arise as people co-create new stories, designing rituals and find inclusive metaphors to contain their meanings.” 8 it can arguably be said that most attempts to solve the conflicts among the pokots and their neighbors in the north rift kenya have, in a way, overlooked the effect and influence of the pokot culture. their culture which is deeply rooted in them and passed from one generation                                                                                                                           6 le baron, m.(2001) essays on cultural conflict in an age of complexity,” bergh of research center for constructive conflict management 200-12-01 retrieved on april, 20,2010 from website: http://www.berghofhandbook.net/ 7ibid 8 le baron, m. (1999) “essays on cultural worldview: frames and communication tools for understanding cultural differences,” san francisco: goffery and boss publications, 1999 p.34       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   56   to the other gives them their world view. the pokots perceive things and interpret issues based on what they hold in their culture. in his book “beyond war” douglas fry advances an argument that we can transcend violence even in the worst form of conflicts. he provides a new dimension by “surveying another set of disciplines namely cultural anthropology.”9 he calls for an exploration into cultures and their social mechanisms for sidestepping group violence. this will reveal the mistake in classifications that have given rise to the erroneous labeling of certain societies as warlike. this kind of labeling of the pokots as warlike by their neighbors has always made them feel hated by others and thus influenced the need to arm themselves against their perceived enemies. the researcher assumes that this is not a true form of the pokot culture; they are not war-like, since the word pokot or pochon denotes peace. even their greeting, poghisio (how are you) calls for an inquiry if there is peace and the response kalya (there is peace) means affirmation of the prevailing peace. value of cattle among the pokots we can only understand why the culture of cattle rustling has been carried all along for centuries by understanding the pokot world view. as mentioned earlier the world view of a group influences them on the way they do things and behave. viewing the pokot culture as “a lens” within which they perceive their world, the research looked into cattle as the center of their lives, and how their lives revolves around and is defined by their cattle. this part elaborates more on the value of cattle which is embedded in pokot culture that is the cause of conflict, and how the place of a cow in building a harmonious community has turned to be the cause of conflict with their neighbors. the cow also referred to as (tany) in pokot is the greatest valued animal. this is because it is practically the life line of the pokots. it is their source of livelihood. from the cattle they get food i.e. milk, blood and meat. they make their household items such as cups from cattle horns and plates from their hide and skin. it is also from the cattle that the pokots get to pay the bride price for their wives and pay fines for the mistakes they commit in their society and give cattle out as gifts to their beloved ones. in order to carry out all this, the wealth of a pokot person depends on the number of cattle he has. cattle define not only the wealth for a pokot but his status in the society and his very existence. a pokot with many cattle commands respect from the community and his family is held with a lot of dignity. “cattle are the objects of raids on the neighboring tribes. they are a form of legal tender and considered a mobile bank. they give a man prestige and wealth. they give him meat and clothes. they are the means for blessing and purification”.10 due to this a pokot child is taught the value of cattle, how to love and take care of them and also how to defend them against any aggressor (be it wild animals or human). they are also                                                                                                                           9 douglas, f. (2007) beyond war. human potential for peace. new york: published by oxford university press, p.11 10 visser, j. (1982) “toward a missionary approach about the pokot (zoandijik). netherlands.,p. 102       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   57   taught the myth of their origins and how god in mt. “mtelo” (a pokot sacred mountain) gave them the cows. this makes them feel that the cow is sacred because it was given them by god and they have to cling to it even if it means death. from the myth and beliefs about their origins the pokots are told that all the cows were given to them by god and no other community were given them as mentioned earlier. this means any of their neighboring communities that keep cattle have stolen from the pokots. with this in mind, the young boys while under the period of seclusion during circumcision are prepared to go and raid as a sign of heroism. they are referred to as ‘morani’ which literally means warrior or heroes. they are told to go out and bring back their stolen cattle. a cattle rustling is therefore an honorable art of courage of bringing back to the community what rightfully belongs to the community. a young circumcised man after the cut is considered a warrior when he successfully goes out to raid and bring home what the pokots call the strayed cattle. if cattle rustling has to be transformed then it is this cultural belief which has to be transformed. the researcher’s main task will be to find ways on how it can be transformed. bride price in pokot culture has been a major reason for cattle rustling among the young men. this gives an interesting relationship between women and cattle in the pokot marital system. it is surprising that a pokot man cannot marry if he has no cattle. this is because he is considered poor and cannot pay the bride price. the researcher also will carry out a quatitative research to establish whether there is a difference in dowry payment. for example how many cattle are paid for an educated girl and uneducated girl and look into alternative ways of paying dowry other than depending on cattle. theoretical framework this study employed dennis sandole’s good three pillar approach, in mapping out the cattle rustling conflict, and give a resolution through some intervention methodologies. according to sandole’s approach, the first pillar constitutes; what is the conflict? and who are the parties? in the second pillar it looked into; what are the causes and conditions of the conflict? this is where a critical analysis of the conflict was carried out. his third pillar looks at the conflict intervention perspectives and processes. this pillar constitutes a preliminary step to designing and implementing an effective intervention into the conflict. it evaluates other researchers’ interventions and their limitations and gives new ways of intervening in the conflict. the study analyzed pokot culture as the main cause of conflict in cattle rustling in north rift kenya and look into effective intervention methodologies that can be applied. it can be concluded that the life of the pokot community rotates around their cattle. from their cattle they get food which includes milk, blood, and meat. they also get clothes and beddings from their hides and skin and also pay dowry for their marriage. the literature suggests that culture is a lens through which reality is perceived and the group’s worldview is formed. methodology       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   58   the research applied a qualitative method. interviews in ten villages within sook division of west pokot district, including women, men, and youths from different social, political and economic backgrounds were conducted. basing on the guiding research question on the pokot belief that all cattle belong to them, the researcher hypothesized that: people who have very strong traditional pokot beliefs are more likely to view cattle rustling as acceptable. the qualitative research method was also used to test the hypothesis that the cultural belief in raiding is perpetuated by people (seers) who have an economic and political interest in promoting the very cultural system that places them in a powerful position. the researcher was looking for: what is in it for the seer? what are their interests? is it connected with the pokot belief that all cattle are theirs? to get to this the researcher asked open ended questions to the seers, ex-seers, and ex-raiders: ai know this is a very honorable profession, but isn’t it hard to make a living? bhow do people in the community see you? for the ex-seers the same questions were asked but in past tense form. other questions for them included: is being a seer a calling from god or a profession? how did you come to the decision of leaving? this was conducted in a formal interview. through discussions or informal interaction the researcher gathered information from both active and ex-seers. in order to carry out a successful interview the researcher established a relationship with his subjects to build trust. he assured them to maintain condition of confidentiality, by not mentioning of names or other identifying information and rather used pseudo-names. details about individuals and locations of interviews were also withheld. other groups that were interviewed included pokot elders and the ngo officials who work in peace building in sook division. instrumentation i would like to speak with you today about your views on cattle rustling in west pokot district. am specifically interested in what you know and how you feel about cattle rustling occurring within the west pokot borders. if you feel uncomfortable with any of the questions i ask you may choose not to answer them. assure those to be interviewed that their names will be withheld for confidentiality sake. ci know this is a very honorable profession, but isn’t it hard to make a living? dhow do people in the community see you? eis being a seer a calling from god or a profession? f how did you come to the decision of leaving? (ex-seer) gi understand that god created the pokots and gave them cattle, tell me about it hshould other people posses cattle? questions for ; elders, police, ngo officials, • why do think cattle’s rustling is happening? who do you think is responsible? can you raid from your fellow pokots or only from others? • when did you become aware of cattle rustling?       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   59   • what measures if any have you done to intervene? • what recommendations/suggestions do you have for other ways to make things better? (for stopping or decreasing cattle rustling) • how hopeful are you that things will get better in the near future. research assumptions • that there is a significant relationship between culture and cattle rustling in north rift parts of kenya • that the role of the pokot seers who foretells whether the raiders will be successful or not has been overlooked in conflict resolution in the north rift kenya. • that the best and lasting solution to the conflict will come from within the pokot people themselves scope and limitations of the study • the study was limited to the concept of culture and its impacts on conflicts among the pokots in north rift kenya. • the research method that was adopted was qualitative research methodology. • the study acknowledges the fact that there are other dependent variables on ‘conflict’ in the north rift however for manageable scope and the amount of time allocated for research only culture was be considered. • due to the limited amount of time allocated for this research, the study concentrated only in the sook division of west pokot district though cattle rustling affects the whole north rift province. • some of the challenges the researcher faced was how to get to interview the active seers due to the culture of secretes in the pokot community. interviews cattle rustling, the community perspective the purpose of the interviews was to explore the role of the pokot seers also known as the werkoyon as a forgotten party in the cattle rustling conflict in north rift parts of kenya. their role in blessing the raiders, foretelling of their success and failure and how this contributes in conflict escalation. the interviews were also meant to establish the relationship between pokot culture and cattle rustling conflict. the role of the pokot seers (werkoyon) the role of the pokot seers (werkoyon) is part of the rich pokot culture to the extent that the pokot culture seems incomplete without the seers.       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   60   from the interviews carried out during data collection which was inform of discussion involving five people, ezra, joshua, kiptoo, maria and jeniffer11, who among them ezra was a seer, it came out clearly that there are two types of seers among the pokots. those born seers, and those that inherit the gift from the family, which means the seer comes from the lineage of seer. in response to the first question, “i know this is a very honorable profession, but isn’t it hard to make a living? four out of the five including the seer (ezra) agreed that since being a seer is a gift to the community and for their good, the community takes care of their seers. since the questions was aimed at getting to know if there is any economic or monetary gain, the researcher made a follow up question, “do the community reward them and if yes, how?” the answer was in affirmative. they responded in unison, “pesa ya kuangalilia”( meaning literary; money for foretelling). “they are paid money for them to foretell and what amount of money is not specified. it’s upon the community to decide. it depends on whether he is foretelling an imminent danger from their enemies after raid, or foretelling good fortune like rains or showing directions, which to follow and recover their stolen animals. according to the five in the discussions, ezra was of the opinion, “yes, sometimes it’s hard to make a living out of being a seer because we largely depend on the good will of the people to give us gifts for our services but if they don’t trust you, then it is hard to make a living.” and jennifer (a school teacher) had a different opinion. “it is very difficult for the seers to make a living out of it because today many people are civilized. the influence of religion and education is very high especially near the towns. there is also influence as a result of intermarriages and such families, no longer consult the seers? ” but in respond to jennifer, ezra was not fully convinced that it was civilization and education that has great influence but rather it’s about trust. “we get good gifts from the politicians during the election year. they are learned and go to church. once we win their confidence and trust definitely they will reward you.” how do people in the community see the seer? the response to the question varied. three of them who were born and brought up in the remote parts were of the opinion that people in the community respected the seers because of the services and their age while the other two said it was not so much respected but fear, “people in remote places are made to fear the werkoyon (seers). sometimes, they fear them because the people think they will use their “occult” powers to harm them or curse them if they don’t respect them and what they say, ”it’s about ignorance of the people because they have not gone to school. the researchers wanted to know if there are qualities for one to be a seer like education, or there are families that are reserved or destined for that role by asking this question. “is being a seer a calling from god or is it a profession? and can a seer decide to leave or quit?” the whole group of the respondents agreed that not everyone can become a seer. one of the respondents (joshua) said; “this is for a specific clan among the pokots, and it is passed on from generations to generations. it is hereditary. although if a seer comes from a certain family, it does not mean that all members of that family are seers.” it is more of a calling from god rather                                                                                                                           11 pseudonyms are used in place of the real names for all respondents to protect their confidentiality.       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   61   than a mere profession. it’s only unfortunate that most people nowadays take it as a profession because they need payments first which should not be the case.” but maria was of the opinion that, “it largely depends on the person with this gift of being a seer.” kiptoo contributing on the same said, “right now it is a profession, but in the old days, i think it was a calling. it is a profession because there are many false seers everywhere and what they say never comes true. the researcher intervened and asked, “can one leave the calling or the profession?” the majority of the responses were, “once a seer always a seer.” but there are those who are advised by the community to leave, some are banished from the community, and even some are killed. these are the ones who mix witchcraft and being a seer. it is worth noting that witchcraft in pokot community is not allowed and the punishment is death or being ostracized from the society. there are some who leave because of religious influence or education. in trying to find out if there is a direct connection between seers and the raiders the researcher asked; do the warriors who go raiding have any connection with the seers and if yes, what exactly happens?” the whole group agreed that this was a very sensitive question, and they were not ready to respond to it, but ezra who is now a staunch christian believed that is was important to share what exactly happens. the raiders are first separated from their families and lives in seclusion for two weeks in the forest. they arm themselves and putting all they need for a successful raid. later they pass by the house of the seer who slaughters a black goat and interpret the intestines. if the seer finds out from that ritual that the raid will be successful he gives them a road map to follow. he tells them where to follow and what they will encounter. the seer goes ahead to smear the raids with red soil and ties their wrists with a piece of the black skin from the goat as a sign of good luck, or a charm that they will not be harmed. the mothers to the young raiders also tie the black skin on their wrists, until their sons come back home. failure to follow the seer’s road map and instructions leads to killing of the raiders by their enemies. this was a clear indication that the role of seers cannot be overlooked for any successful interventions without the seers the raiders cannot go raiding. responding to the question, “why raid from other people and not from fellow pokots?” they gave a narration of their myth of creation story. it’s explained in pokot creation story that in the beginning god created the first pokot man on top of mt. mtelo and gave him the cattle. by saying so they meant not other persons in the world are entitled to own the cattle. this was a communal consensus passed down as a tradition from one generation to the next. because of this tradition, they believe they don’t steal but rather they return the lost or stolen ones. relationship between culture and cattle rusting. the second part of the interview targeted the elders of the pokot, the police as law enforcers and the non-governmental organization officials, especially the world vision staff who       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   62   over decades have been promoting education in the pokot disctrict. the aim was to understand and analyse the conflict from those in moral, economic, religious and political authority’s perspectives. the pokot elders “kokwo” are highly regarded in the community because they are the custodians of the pokot traditions and cultures in fact they are “the coffers of tuth” and traditionally what they say is final and cannot be challenged. the interviews were also aimed at evaluating the different kinds of intervention carried out by the different parties such as the police, the non-governmental organizations, and the pokot elders themselves. it was aimed at looking into other recommendations or suggestion, towards ending the conflict. the responses from the three pokot elders, patrick, james, and peter indicated that cattle rustling take place because of prestige and fame. this is because riches in pokot culture is based on how many cattle one owns not by how much money one has in his bank account. they also said that there has been a cycle of revenge and counter revenges from their neighbors hence creating an endless cycle of rustling. this has made it a very dangerous venture due to the proliferations of small arms from the unstable neighboring countries such as sudan, northern uganda, and the somalia. when asked who is responsible for raiding, james who is a christian said, “the young warriors are responsible. the cultural practice has been used to prove their courage after undergoing the rite of initiation into adulthood. they are expected to go and bring home the lost cattle. also we have to blame the culture of dowry. for a young man to get married one has to pay a lot of cattle and their parents cannot afford these. they are advised to go and raid or no marriage for them.” peter also confirmed the same sentiment. when asked the cause of cattle rustling, he said, “an educated pokot woman is very expensive, “ni kama kununua gari” (it’s like purchasing a car). you are asked for more than 30 cows. but they also acknowledged that this is changing due to the influence by religion and education. he gave an example where a young man went raiding and killed the owner of the cattle but when the cattle were presented to the father of the bride as dowry, the father of the bride refused to take them since he was a christian. this led researcher to ask more questions to the elders, “why do the seers (merkoyon) bless the raiders to go and kill?” the three were very categorical. the seers do not bless the raiders to go and kill because our culture does not allow killing, but rather they foretell the success or failure of the raiders. any seer who contradicts their role is at once ostracized by the community. the police officers who were interviewed attributed the cause of cattle rustling to the fact that the pokot districts have been neglected by the government over the years. the roads are impassible, and following the raiders after the raid becomes difficult. they also acknowledged that raiders have more sophisticated arms, and attributed this to failed state of somalia. when asked, “if there is hope for bring the conflict to an end?” the police like the others interviewed before were very optimistic that education is one of the best tools of cultural transformation and so far more schools are needed in the remote parts where the cattle rustling cultural practice is deeply rooted. from the non-governmental organization staff, they gave the history of change and transformation over the past twenty years. they cited education and       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   63   religion as major contributors toward transformation of the cattle rustling cultural practice. the majority of the interviewees were positive that the culture will eventually be transformed! analysis of the results: analysis of eleven interviews carried throughout research revealed several themes, and sub themes of agreement a cross interviews in response to the questions, such as the role of the pokot seers in cattle rustling conflict, pokot traditional and cultural beliefs embedded in their creation story that all cows are theirs and their hope that education and religion has been the best tools in transformation. they were also able to link cultures with other conflict escalating factors. culture and other conflict escalations factors: during the interviews carried out the researcher noted the following links between the pokot culture and other causes of conflict escalation factors. since the colonial period and the three consecutive presidents has neglected the pokot districts in terms of development programs hence impoverishing the people. this is manifested by lack of educational facilities and those that exists lack capacity and adequacy to support the growing population. this has led to the high rate of illiteracy in the sook division. the researchers noted that the sook division which covers approximately 30 miles square has only one boy’s secondary school, which was established five years ago, and no girl’s secondary school to date. the researcher also noted that health facilities were lacking and those present were almost collapsing. this has empowered the pokot seers who come up to foretell the cause of illnesses and sometimes attributing them to curse and witchcraft which only adds demands for more cattles for cleansing for such families. due to being labeled as war like by their neighboring communities the pokots believe that the outsiders are enemies and thus the need to be armed in case of any attack. this has led to importation of small arms to defend their wealth. there has been destruction of biodiversity due to overgrazing and overcrowding in places presumed safe. this has led to the exhaustion of the limited natural resources of water and pasture. this in turn created a need to search elsewhere hence accelerating conflict with their neighbors. poor infrastructure and road network has turned to be the biggest challenge for the police officers to provide better security services to the people. above all, the role of the pokot seers (werkoyon) took the majority of the blame for their role in giving road map to the raiders, blessing them, and giving them charm meant for protection during the period of raiding. from the interviews, the seers stand to benefit in a successful raid in the sense that they become more famous and earn themselves respect. they are also given gifts which include a big bull thus it becomes a source of income to them.       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   64   the cultural practice of giving dowry before marriage also was cited by all interviews as a major cause of the conflict. it was very clear to the researchers that these contributing factors have had a major impact on the escalation of the culture of cattle rustling and conflict in the north rift part of kenya. this cultural practice has made pokots to think that conflict and cattle’s rustling is a normal way of life. it should be noted that marginalization is the result of distributive injustice in a nation. the government uses its resources in already developed areas and neglects to give the same to the pokot districts which need preferential consideration in budgetary allocation. this has resulted in poverty, despair and crime which accentuate the culture of cattle rustling. consequently, the pokot community remains stuck in their traditional culture without socializing with other wider culture. they remain a closed society not out of their wish but because there are no other opportunities to enable them to grow and change. thus the culture of cattle rustling remains. it has become the only means to some and an alternative to survival among the pokots. recommendations when at least more than two groups manifest contrary claims, they have incompatible goals, they are in conflict. frequently, one or both sides will try to coerce the other to accede to its wishes. this is what is happening in the north rift parts of kenya. the pokot pastoral community is trying to force other neighboring communities to believe that all cattle are theirs, while the other communities believe it is not the case. the two incompatible beliefs lead to different incompatible goals that eventually flare up into conflict. the conflict may then escalate destructively as it has been over the years. with this background the research postulates the following recommendations which i consider applicable in addressing the problem of culture of cattle rustling and conflict in the north rift kenya. 1) education just like any other myth including the biblical myth of creation story the different myths of origin have a loophole and one cannot question the internal logic in the myth for it ceases to be a myth when subjected to the critical court of reason. this makes education one of the best tools of cultural transformation. from the interviews carried out most of the respondents acknowledged the role of education and repeatedly offered the same as a recommendation towards eliminating the pokot myth of creation that all cattle are theirs. building of a girl’s secondary school in sook division will be a big boost to the girls who are the first teachers of morals and faith to their children as mothers to the future generation. 2) peace building from below12                                                                                                                           12 miall et al op.cit p. 217       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   65   miall, ramsbotham, and tom argue that peace building from below or from the grassroot levels is the best way to a lasting conflict resolution. this should involve an outsider partnership with the local people. according to william ury in his talk on the role of the third sider he emphasized on the external third siders helping the internal third siders in coming up with a solution and not imposing the solution on the local people. this is what the government has failed in handling the cattle rustling among the pokot. for the conflict to be resolved the government should seek to understand the pokot leadership, including the role of the elders (kokwo) who are the decision makers; the government should partner with them in order to secure peace. this should be in conjunction with other stakeholders such as ngos in training them. the government should also set aside funds towards the community dialogue and dispute management activities. 3) the intervention must include all parties. there has been a group of very important persons in the pokot community that has never been addressed in conflict resolution and these are the seers (werkoyon). these are the ones who fore-tell whether the raid will be successful or not. they also give traditional blessings and instructions to the warriors before they go to raid. this group must be addressed. from the research carried out it was clear that religion has a big role in transforming them by converting them and reawakening their conscience. 4) use of coercive and non-coercive methods. sometimes coercive methods in conflict management can be used. this leads to negative peace for a while as other methods of peace building are being put in place. the kenyan government needs to come out strongly in enforcing the rule of law to avoid self redress by the victims. the pokot community for a long period of time has taken the advantage of lawlessness in their region to cause harm and even endanger the lives of their neighbors. the government should disarm the pokot community and other pastoral communities who are in possession of the guns and in-return assure them of security from the government. by so doing the government will be acting in accordance to the kenyan constitution which prohibits illegal arms. if this does not happen and the status quo remains then the culture of cattle rustling will continue, and fighting and poverty in the region will never be resolved. to effectively bring this proposal to fruition the government must work closely with our neighboring countries which are the source of proliferation of small arms. also security measures in the borders to contain the influx of the arms into the country must be put in place. non-coercive methods could yield much fruits in peace building in north rift region. some of the non-coercive methods the government could use are: strong non violent campaign message of peace at all levels, peacemakers and its administration in helping transform the culture of the pokots and other pastoral communities. they should begin to help people understand that culture should grow and change with time in order to remain relevant, for example looking at other ways of paying dowry during marriage. one way of effectively transforming the culture is to introduce peace studies in the school curriculum in addition; nonviolent, social interactions between the pokots and their neighbors should be encouraged. this could be done through sports’ drama, religious activities, trade and       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   66   use of media in peace education programs. non-coercive strategies could be done through persuasion. persuasive inducements are efforts to influence an opponent by communicating arguments or appeals that alter their perception of the conflict. disarmament of the pokot community can also be done in a very humane manner without use of force. for example collecting weapons from the pokots nobody will be willing to surrender a gun he bought from the sales of his ten bulls so the government could use incentives to those who return their guns willingly. it could use rewards, “you give us your weapon’ we pay you something.” this noncoercive tactics should be accompanied with promise for a better future. if the government can be trusted to keep them secure, the involvement of the elders (kokwo) in the process will legitimize the operation since they are highly regarded in the pokot community. 5) strenghthen legal institutions. to fight self redress through revenge, which leads to cycle of conflict, the government should strengthen its legal systems in north rift. this will help solve disagreement, complains, problems, or contention. parties should be encouraged to make legitimate claims on the other party through institutionalized methods of judicial proceedings. the adversary should be made to be responsive to the claims, within the legal framework in solving the conflict. 6) intergroup contact according to yehuda amri13 intergroup contact is commonly believed to reduce prejudice and intergroup tension. since most of the pastoral communities belong to what karl popper refers to as closed society category through intergroup contact a room for sharing and making friendship among the warring community is created. this will encourage intermarriages and thus reduce tensions since the pokots will take their in-laws as part of their community and the culture prohibits stealing from their own. it will also reduce the stereotype thinking that exists among their neighbors that pokots are warlike by nature. as it came out clearly from the interviews that the cultural practice is more common in urban centers than interior because of education, business interaction and intermarriages. 7) alternative livelihood the government should enhance better use of natural resources to prevent conflict among the pastoral communities. west pokot district in known to be rich in minerals such as cement, and by putting up a cement factory in west pokot will be a viable way to employ idle youths and would provide an alternative livelihood. this will in turn empower the community towards self reliance and self sustenance and move from depending on cattle only. it will also provide the seers with a source of income and thus avoid taking their role in the community as a means of livelihood.                                                                                                                           13 yehuda amri.( 1988) in the hand book of interethnic coexistences, ed; eugene weiner, new york: continuum publishing.       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   67   8) preventive measures there is a saying that goes “prevention is better than cure.” the government should create and implement policies that actually counter intractable conflicts expressed through cattle rustling. such programs as listed below can be beneficial in preventing conflicts: ø constant disarmament of any person armed in the region ø strengthening or starting alternative livelihood like crop farming ø developing of water resources by building dams as a way of storing the rain waters for drought seasons.   further research it is clear from the research that there is need for economic empowerment in the transformation of the pokot seers, the raiders and the culture of rustling. the researcher would recommend for further research on how micro-finance institutions can be used in development and empowerment of the pokot community in this cultural transformation endeavor. conclusion cattle rustling and conflict in the north rift kenya have led to loss of lives, destruction of property and even displacement of people when conflict turns violent. cattle raid is accompanied by indiscriminate killing of innocent people, the majority of whom are women, children and the elderly who are unable to run or hide. the practice has undergone tremendous transformation from normal cultural practice of replenishing to a more militarized, predatory and destructive practice. conflict resolution in north rift demands concerted efforts from both the government and other development partners in supporting programs whose efforts are geared towards conflict resolution and peace building. without such programs being in place then cattle rustling becomes a norm which leads to conflicts. conflict in this region has also led to serious environmental degradation and real threat to water catchment areas in the north rift kenya. due to lack of alternative livelihood and increase in poverty level after some communities lost their cattle, many have resorted to felling the few trees that in the semi arid area of north rift burning and selling charcoal to earn a living. this has resulted to lack of rains due to interference with the ecosystem and water catchment areas. this implies scarcity of both water and pasture. conflict in the north rift has increased economic hardship as the people’s only livelihood option, pastoralism has been ravaged. cattle rustling in the past have increased the vulnerability of the poor pastoralists to hunger , malnutrition and poverty. basing on the recommendations the targeting of the transformation of the pokot seers through religion and education and also through economic empowerment through micro finance institutions, and creation of employment through constructing of a cement factory in pokot       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   68   districts will create alternative source of livelihood. this will help transform the pokot culture from violent culture to non violent culture since am convinced cultures grow and change with time and the pokot culture too can change. references   barnes, b. (1994) “conflict resolution across cultures a hawaii perspective and a pacific mediation model.” new york: mediation quarterly 12. vol.2, cattle rustling (custom). march, 09, 2009. in new york times retrieved april, 22, 2010 from website: www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/us/25rustling.html cattle rustling (custom). (n.d) in wikipedia. retrieved april, 20, 2010 from website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cattle_rustling clark, m. (2002) “in search of human nature,” london: ronnhedge publisher. douglas, f. (2007) beyond war. human potential for peace. new york: published by oxford university press horowitz, d. (1985) “group comparisons and the source of conflicts.” in ethnic groups in conflict, berkeley: university of california press. lederach, j. (1992) “beyond prescription: new lenses for conflict resolution training across culture” waterloo canada: corad grebel college. le baron, m. (1999) “essays on cultural worldview: frames and communication tools for understanding cultural differences,” san francisco: jossey and bass publications. le baron, m. essays on cultural conflict in an age of complexity,” berghof research center for constructive conflict management 200-12-01 available at: http://www.berghofhandbook.net/ rothman, j. (1997).”resolving identity conflicts in nations, communities and organizations. london: jossey and bass publications. ramsbotham, t. et al (2008) contemporary conflict resolution: the prevention, management and transformation of deadly conflicts 2nd ed., malden: polity press ury, w. (2000). the third side. why we fight and how we can stop. new york: penguin group, publications. ury, w (1991) getting past no negotiating with difficult people. new york: bantam books. seul, j. (1999) “ours is the way of god: religion, identity, and intergroup conflict” in journal of peace research volume: 36 issue: thousand oaks: california sage publications. available at: http://www.beyondintractability.org/m/culture conflict.jsp       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  51-­‐69   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   69   visser, j. (1982) “toward a missionary approach about the pokot. (zoandijik. netherlands. yehuda amri.(1988) in the hand book of interethnic coexistences, ed; eugene weiner, new york: continuum publishing. appendix interview guide-questionnaire i would like to speak with you today about your views on cattle rustling in west pokot district. am specifically interested in what you know and how you feel about cattle rustling occurring within the west pokot borders. if you feel uncomfortable with any of the questions i ask you may choose not to answer them. assure those to be interviewed that their names will be withheld for confidentiality sake. ii know this is a very honorable profession, but isn’t it hard to make a living? jhow do people in the community see you? kis being a seer a calling from god or a profession? l how did you come to the decision of leaving? (ex-seer) mi understand that god created the pokots and gave them cattle, tell me about it nshould other people posses cattle? questions for ; elders, police, ngo officials, • why do think cattle’s rustling is happening? who do you think is responsible? can you raid from your fellow pokots or only from others? • when did you become aware of cattle rustling? • what measures if any have you done to intervene? • what recommendations/suggestions do you have for other ways to make things better? (for stopping or decreasing cattle rustling) • how hopeful are you that things will get better in the near future. microsoft word devere v12.1.docx in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 59 volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal exploring relationships for positive peace dr. heather devere director of practice national centre for peace and conflict studies university of otago dunedin new zealand heather.devere@otago.ac.nz as an aspiration, positive peace is envisaged as a goal for society that requires an inter-relationship between non-violence, social justice and ecological sustainability, as proposed by harris (2004). in this article, i am exploring a concept that is often taken for granted in analyses of positive peace, but which is often not discussed explicitly, although it is vital for establishing and ensuring positive peace. this is the concept of human relationships.1 the debate about positive peace in western scholarship has been traced back to jane addams (1907) who broke away from the traditional antiwar ‘negative peace’ focus of conventional pacifism (xiv), to concentrate on ‘positive ideals of peace’ (xvii). martin luther king also referred to the concept of positive peace as the presence of love and justice. however in the academic field of peace and conflict studies one of its founders, johan galtung, is usually credited with making the distinction between negative and 1 the importance of ecological sustainability and relationships between people and the environment is acknowledged too as vital, but this is not the focus of this article, although some obvious links will be able to be drawn. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 60 positive peace a feature of the study of peace and conflict, as opposed to the study of war and conflict. reference to ‘relationships’ is one that crops up repeatedly in this field of study, but is not often defined or specified, although the assumption is that these should be some sort of ‘good relationship’.2 and while we often refer to relationships, we sometimes gloss over the people or things that form the very basis for the relationship. this article begins this exploration by firstly defining ‘positive peace’, then looking at the sorts of relationships between people that might contribute to positive peace, with a focus on four relationship categories: relationships based on emotion; relationships based on cognitive awareness; relationships based on social conscience; and relationships based on trust. what is positive peace? the main focus of peace research over the fifty years of its existence has been on negative peace, in the sense of reducing war and violence. however, as gleditsch et al point out in a study of what have been identified as two important journals for peace research, journal of peace research and journal of conflict resolution, ‘positive peace, in the sense of cooperation or integration, has also always been on the peace research agenda’ (2014, 145). positive peace can be distinguished from ‘durable peace’ described as ‘when former combatants reconcile their differences and rebuild security, governmental and economic institutions’ (wagner and druckman 2017, 45). definitions of positive peace include the absence of war but also ‘the absence of internal and external exploitation of both human and non human resources, gender equality and respect for human rights’ (bockerie 2002, 118). newsom and lee (2009, 6), drawing on galtung (1967), hulme and goodhand (1999), harris (2004) and king (1964) contrast negative peace with: a positive or peace-building/peace-making approach where programs, institutions, and other efforts are made by individuals and political entities to create a condition or infrastructure which encourages peace, 2 betty reardon, adam curle and john paul lederach, however, do discuss very explicitly the importance of relationships for positive peace. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 61 rather than attempt to remove a condition that makes peace a challenge. they recognize that positive peace efforts ‘often take a lifetime of work, or an extended series of efforts before they begin to be recognized’. shields and soeters (2017, 324) also see positive peace as a process and an ‘end-in-view’. for them, the ideal of positive peace incorporates ‘social justice, social equity, cooperation, community engagement, collaboration, effective-governance, and democracy’. they point to jane addams’ ideals of peace ‘more than 100 years ago’, as not distinguishing specifically between negative and positive peace, but as ‘unquestionably within the scope of positive peace’, incorporating a ‘feminism that is derived from female experience’. for addams (1915/2003, 117): there is nothing negative in the idea of peace. war is negative. peace is the highest effort of the human brain applied to the organization of the life and being of the peoples of the world on the basis of cooperation. relationships and positive peace it is shields and soeters who point to addams’ focus on peace as being concerned with relationships (p.329). just as war is characterized by violent, conflict-ridden relationships between nations, addams’s theory of peace ‘begins by focusing on relationships in the home and neighbourhood. she eventually extends these outward to incorporate nations.’ (330). the centrality of human relationships and people within the field of conflict transformation is evident in the work of lederach (1997 and 2005; see also shields and rissler, 2016). in his little book of conflict transformation (2003) lederach envisages conflict transformation as a ‘person on a journey, comprised of head, heart, hands and legs and feet, so includes how we think, feel emotionally, what we do, and where we do it’. he defines conflict transformation as being: … to envision and respond to the ebb and flow of social conflict as lifegiving opportunities for creating constructive change processes that reduce violence, increase justice in direct interaction and social structures, and respond to real-life problems in human relationships. (reproduced in peacework, 2006, 26). in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 62 the literature on relationship theory focuses mainly on dyadic relationships such as mother and child, or couple relationships, the psychology of ‘how’ and ‘why’ relationships develop. there are different ways in which relationship theories are categorized, such as attachment theory (see for example, bowlby) and social network theory (see for example scott 2017). there are grand theories (freud, piaget, werner, skinner 1985) and domainspecific theories. furnari (2013, 233) whose work explores the importance of relationships in peacekeeping, refers to deutsch’s typology which describes relationships as fitting into two overarching categories of ‘socio-emotional or task-oriented’. peacekeepers in her research described good relationships as ‘cooperative, trusting, with some degree of shared goals’ (furnari 2015, 4). in this article, i am focusing on the attributes or values that contribute to relationships that are most likely to contribute to positive peace. these might be classified as ‘good relationships’ – the sorts of relationships that help to reduce violence and increase justice; that might help to create environments and societies where positive peace is possible. these relationships should be able to assist in preventing or addressing conflict, and enabling non-violent communication and behaviour. while this may be useful for dyadic interaction, the focus is directed to relationships between people who share a community, a society, a nation or as global citizens. for this purpose, i am categorizing these relationships as to whether they are based on emotion, cognitive awareness or insight, social conscience, or trust. this categorization of relationships is not meant to imply that these are discrete categories with no overlap. in fact the opposite is the case, where the importance for positive peace is interlinking and interweaving of positive relationships. i will describe and analysis different concepts or values that are associated with each of these four types of relationship. (see table of relationships). table of relationships for positive peace based on emotion based on cognitive awareness or insight based on social conscience based on trust love affection kindheartedness compassion respect tolerance acceptance empathy justice equality fairness ethics honesty openness sincerity genuineness in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 63 concern care friendship cooperation harmony peacefulness forgiveness rightness helpfulness generosity hospitality empowerment integrity trustworthiness reliability confidence confianza relationships based on emotion in his work on perpetual peace, immanual kant insisted that it is our moral duty to seek peace. he was concerned with peace between nations, and the standard view of kant is that duty rather than emotions should guide our behaviour. however, boxill (2010, 274) argues that even kantians now believe that emotions can sometimes motivate us to act in accordance with certain duties. emotions can come unbidden or emotions can develop over time. we can learn to control our emotions, but we are often controlled by our emotions. emotions are instinctual or intuitive feelings, often contrasted with cognitive reasoning. emotions appropriate for positive peace would include love, affection, compassion for other people and kindheartedness towards others. these emotions can be fostered, or even manipulated. in the field of conflict resolution, there are strategies suggested for regulating emotions to change attitudes and behaviour ‘in order to promote peace’ (see for example halperin, cohen-chen and goldenberg 2014, 1). however, this is a challenging undertaking and not always successful. love is one of the most difficult words in the english language to define.3 it covers a wide range of feelings from inanimate objects (such as chocolate), to activities (such as sport), to the environment or physical space (such as love for one’s land or country), to other living beings (such as animals), to other humans (such as one’s friends), to romantic and erotic love, to the deep unselfish (and not always attainable) love, referred to by the greek term agape, used to describe such emotions as parental love, or 3 some reference will be made in this article to the origin of the english words describing the concepts, but it is not intended as an authorative semantic analysis. rather the aim is to begin a debate about the various meanings and connotations of good relationships. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 64 the love of god for his/her people. c.s. lewis (1960) identified ‘four loves’ that include eros ‘the state of being in love’; charity or caritas that is a spiritual concept related to ‘the love of god’; friendship, or philia, less about passion and emotion than about companionship and activity; and affection or storge the least discriminating and most comfortable of the four loves. some kinds of love would be more likely to cause conflict rather than contribute to positive peace. however, love that is a strong passionate and/or spiritual emotion is also part of the motivation that drives people to be peaceful and unselfish, and to care about others. affection has connotations of gentleness, fondness, tenderness towards someone. the english word comes through latin and old french from the verb ‘to affect’, which means to have an effect on, or to make a difference to someone or something. it implies that one is emotionally moved in the relationship with the other – not as in the uncontrolled passion of erotic love, nor in the sense of the goodness of unselfish love, but touched by a feeling of genuinely liking for the other person. these feelings of affection can be trifled with, can be spurned, but are also the basis for firm friendships, and caring for each other. the concept of kindheartedness is an innate goodness of spirit or beneficence that enables the person to understand and share in particular the sorrows and pains of another, with the intent of easing that pain and suffering. when we experience a powerful emotion, adrenaline causes acceleration of the heart. historically, the heart has symbolized moral courage, energy, happiness, joy and love. kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous and considerate, but kindheartedness implies that the motivation to be kind is deeply seated within the character. sometimes it is used synonymously with compassion. compassion is identified with fellow-feeling, understanding, tenderness and consideration. it comes from the latin meaning ‘to suffer with’. compassion is often seen as synonymous with sympathy. however, the latter has been associated with pity and to some extent condescension. while love, affection and kindheartedness seem to stem from innate qualities that give rise to these emotions, compassion could also be a more conscious response. for example, clements (2016) talks about the politics of compassion which ‘asserts the dominance of social criteria in political decision making’. he sees this as contributing to the creation of ‘functional, empathetic and empowering relationships’ (15). in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 65 relationships based on cognitive awareness or insight the relational concepts that represent cognitive, conscious acknowledgement of other people are based on an understanding of positive interactions. the range of cognitive positive attitudes and behaviours towards others are linked by the other-regarding nature of these sorts of relationships. in contrast to emotion or feeling, relationships based on cognitive awareness are seen as rational, considered, ethical, altruistic, but in the negative sense can be viewed as instrumental, not genuine. respect represents an important value in relationships, in that most people want respect shown to them, whether there is conflict or a difficult situation, or not. the concept of respect comes through latin and late middle english verb ‘respectus’ or ‘respicere’ meaning to ‘look back at’ or reconsider. respectful relationships hold others in high regard. it is about being aware of the rights and wishes of others and valuing the perspectives of others. respect honours others and pays attention to them. it involves accepting people as they are. behind showing respect is a tacit acknowledgement that one is open to being wrong. however, there is also the understanding that respect is earned, and that in order to be respected one should be dependable, practice integrity and humility. acceptance in relationships allows for the possibility that one considers the other to be wrong, but nonetheless to be valued for who they are and not as someone needing to change or improve. accepting relationships are openly welcoming, giving recognition to others and showing them positive approval and encouragement. acceptance comes from the old french ‘accepter’ and an aspect of its meaning is connected to receiving a gift. while there is the understanding that acceptance does not need to be earned, there is an element within the idea of acceptance that the other may not be up to a particular standard, and so acceptance could imply some kind of condescension. tolerance is lack of prejudice or bias, showing understanding for the beliefs and practices that differ or conflict with one’s own and a willingness to allow others to express their beliefs and to follow their chosen practices. to tolerate can also mean to put up with something that one does not like and comes from the old latin ‘tolare’ meaning to endure pain. in some senses, tolerance, like acceptance, can be seen as involving patronizing attitudes or condescension, as a superior person, able to put up with, or endure the pain of dealing with the weaknesses and inadequacies of other people. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 66 empathy, originally from the greek word for ‘feeling along with’ is a concept that came into more general use in the english language only in the early 20th century. empathy goes further than tolerance in that it involves the ability to understand and share in the feelings of another. empathy is associated with the capacity or ability to imagine what it might be like to be in the other person’s position and to feel from the other’s frame of reference. empathy is often compared to sympathy denoting feelings of pity or sorrow for another person’s misfortune, and is similar to compassion but is distinguished from sympathy which has come to imply a sense of superiority, associated with feeling pity for those less fortunate, and sometimes only for those who are deserving of our pity. empathy is closer to compassion but shows more of a cognitive understanding of the difficulties experienced by the other. relationships that show concern are based on feeling responsible and often worried or anxious about the other. being concerned can be seen as the opposite of having peace of mind. in medieval latin concern is related to being relevant to, or being important to someone, and in this sense the opposite might be indifference. so concern in relationships is caring about someone, as an issue of importance. concern can be considered to be what is expressed, whereas care involves the action to relieve or address the concern. care is conceptualized as including custodial responsibility, friendship, self-care, and emotional reciprocity. the two main aspects of care are ‘caring about’ and ‘caring for’. ‘caring about’ is similar to concern. it is about attaching importance to something or somebody, troubling oneself about people, and being concerned about someone in need. originating from high german, old english and old norse, care was related to ideas of grief, lamentation and sickness. so ‘caring for’ involves the physical taking care of, ministering to, looking after someone. this includes attending to needs, protecting and watching over, nursing, providing sustenance and assistance. care tends to imply a response to need, and so does not have quite the same connotations of patronizing or condescension associated with some of the other relationships. the ethics of care advocates the importance of appropriate self-care as well as the care of others (see gilligan 1982; noddings 1984; baier 1994; held 2006, kittay 1987, 1999; ruddick 1989, and tronto 1994). in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 67 friendship as a concept is intrinsically reciprocal. within relationships based on friendship are many of the concepts associated with ‘good relationships’. there needs to be affection, caring for each other, some sort of commitment and reciprocity. friendship is associated with attachment, closeness or intimacy, mutuality, esteem and respect. it requires being loving, supportive, and wishing well. it is about tolerance and putting up with the idiosyncrasies of your friends. friendship can range from close to cordial, from affinity to rapport. it has been associated with gentle liking or passionate emotion. friendship has been described in kinship terms: brotherhood or fraternity, and sisterhood. it can be applied to sexual, political and/or business partners, or even relationships between nation states. (devere 2014b). peace scholar adam curle (1971, 15) coined the term ‘befriending’ as determining both peaceful personal relationships and those on a larger scale that would ‘imply active association, planned co-operation, and intelligent effort to forestall or resolve potential conflicts’. lederach (2014) builds on curle’s concept of ‘befriending’, to develop what he calls ‘the radical notion of diplomacy as friendship’,4 characterized by ‘care, concern, honesty and commitment and never taken up for purposes of instrumental engagement to achieve ulterior purposes, even if those are noble’. friendship has an intrinsic element of equality because it cannot be a one-way relationship. but as a two-way relationship, friendship cannot always necessarily be considered altruistic, as important for maintaining friendship is recognition and returning favours. the notion of ‘befriending’ could also imply some element of condescension with the idea of ‘taking on’ someone as a friend. the idea of mutual support is also captured in the concept of cooperation, working as partners towards a shared end. cooperation demonstrates unity and is associated with synergy, the combined effort producing superior outcomes to individual efforts. those who are cooperative are considered to be thoughtful and helpful, willing to participate and share the burdens. while similar to collaboration, cooperation has more positive connotations. collaboration has been associated with traitorous cooperation with an enemy. both cooperation and collaboration have origins in the latin referring to the activity of working together or co-working. 4 see also the literature on friendship in international relations (devere et al 2014a). in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 68 harmony relies on cooperation. the word is used to describe musical notes that are sounded simultaneously to produce a pleasing sound as a consistent whole. this element of balance, consonance and compatibility is also present in the idea of people being in a state of agreement or concord, from the greek word meaning joining together. harmony as the basis for relationships focuses on the maintenance of the relationship, avoiding aspects that might cause upset. this may imply that conflictual elements of relationships are not necessarily addressed, but rather are avoided, by concentrating on what is the same or similar and avoiding difference. there are similarities between harmony and peacefulness as the basis for relationships. peacefulness is associated with quiet and calm, and possibly avoiding conflict. but also peacefulness could indicate that there may be lack of conflict or worry, and thus no need to be anxious. lederach’s (1997b) story of the ‘meeting place’ in his work on reaching reconciliation explores the conflicting values of truth, mercy, peace and justice, and illustrates how peacefulness is needed for justice to flourish, but equally if peacefulness is prioritized, then this might result in injustices remaining hidden. forgiveness has also been seen as standing in the way of justice. according to lederach, forgiveness (or mercy) can mean that justice is not fulfilled, those who are guilty are not punished but pardoned, and victims are not compensated. and derrida (2001), questions whether there are not some actions that are unforgiveable, especially if the victims are no longer there to forgive. nevertheless, forgiveness is essential for positive peace and reconciliation. forgiveness is related to giving up resentment or the wish for revenge or recompense, to not wish harm on another, or want her/him punished. it is recognizing weaknesses in others and oneself, and acknowledging the provocation that caused the other to perform harmful actions. it is stopping the blaming. while some are more easily able to forgive, it is also a deliberate decision made to release unhealthy feelings of resentment or vengeance. there need be no moral worth or action from the other. it is distinguished from forgetting or condoning. relationships based on social conscience while treating people well, showing understanding and working to keep relationships harmonious and peaceful is part of positive peace, this is insufficient without relationships that show understanding of the negative societal elements such as injustice, inequity, and unfairness. these are related to what i have called relationships based on social conscience. in in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 69 these relationships there is an awareness of the problems and challenges faced by many people in society, a concern about these, responsibility accepted for injustices, and a conscious effort to do something about this. relationships that reflect justice are concerned with fairness and equity. originally, the word ‘justice’, from latin and old french, was related to administration of the law. however, the term ‘social justice’ has evolved to emphasise human rights and equality based on the belief that each person has value and possesses an innate human dignity. just relationships are nondiscriminatory, treating others as equal, without being patronizing. just relationships incorporate respect for others’ rights and concerns. they are fair, unbiased, and do not use favoritism or preferential treatment. the concept of human rights is enshrined in international law to promote the belief that every person in the world should have equal access to rights and freedoms. equality is about regarding and treating other people as the same. from the latin, equality has been used increasingly since the 15th century. equal relationships are where everyone has the same right or entitlement. neither person feels superior to the other in the relationship. they value each other’s qualities equally. equal treatment, or treating each other the same, however, does not necessarily result in equality in that relationship. this is the fundamental issue with the concept of equality, and philosophical, economic and political debate focuses on two main aspects of equality: equality of opportunity and equality of outcome (see for example mitra et al 2015, abdullah et al 2016, montoya et al 2013). one person might bring to the relationship more than the other, perhaps in terms of disposable income, or ability to empathise. each person might need different things from the relationship, maybe at different times throughout the relationship. in order for each person’s needs to be satisfied, there may be unequal contributions required from one or the other. there may be more given by one party to a relationship, and more received by the other, in order to keep the relationship on an equal footing. fairness or equity has been described as ‘quite a different matter’ from equality (see for example moscrop and warren, 2016, 2). equity takes into account more than just equal shares or same treatment, but also incorporates what is seen as fair and just. fairness is a perception that no one has more than they deserve or are entitled to. this can result in feelings of harmoniousness or peacefulness. underlying relationships that are equitable is an awareness that some people are able to contribute more, due to personal attributes and/or circumstances. some people might need more in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 70 assistance than others in order that the outcome is fairer. this is reflected in the slogan popularized by karl marx ‘from each according to his [sic] ability, to each according to his need’. relationships based on social conscience also need to incorporate actions, not just ideas. they demonstrate ethical behavior, conduct that can be recognized as reflecting upstanding, morally good practices. ethical relationships involve following ethical principles and codes. so, for example, following the principles of virtue ethics would mean consciously working out what virtues are needed for people to lead good lives. the next step is to practice these virtues conscientiously until it becomes a habit to be a good person and to behave towards people in an ethical way. following the ethics of care would mean working out what caring relationships one is involved in and making sure that caring is carried out appropriately. kantian ethics requires that the motivation for your action needs to be taken into account for ethical behaviour. right relationships can be similar to ethical relationships that are right in the sense of being morally good, decent, honest and incorporating integrity. in theological contexts right relationships refer to relationships with god, with others and with the earth. right relationships within christianity can be similar to the concept of spiritual friendship that involves relationships that are mediated through the godhead. the relationship with the christian god is the most important part, and then other relationships will be good, pure and right. in some christian contexts, this right relationship emphasizes social justice and the concern for those disadvantaged and requiring assistance. on the other hand, right relationship can also be used to mean a relationship that is appropriate, suitable, beneficial or fulfilling for you. many self-help books and websites give advice about what might be the ‘right’ rather than ‘wrong’ relationship for people based on compatibilities, desires and expectations. helpfulness, support or useful assistance needs to be made available in relations in order to combat inequities and injustices. helping is a response to what is needed and has to have some beneficial practical or emotional outcome as perceived by the person receiving the assistance. otherwise the response is unhelpful, even if well intentioned. wanting to give help or provide aid is considered to be an ethical motivation, but can sometimes give more satisfaction and benefits to those ‘helping’ rather than to those requiring the help. criticisms of international aid projects illustrate some of these problems where sometimes well-intentioned assistance causes more harm than good. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 71 generosity involves giving to others, usually practical gifts including money, but also giving of one’s time and labour. it is the concept of giving without expecting anything in return. originally associated with nobility of birth, during the 17th century the idea of generosity became associated with nobility of spirit or character, and then later in the 18th century had connotations of liberality in giving of money and possessions to others, and as an antidote to greed. if there is an intention of receiving benefit for the gift-giver, however, then in some accounts it is no longer regarded as generosity, which should be carried out without the expectation of receiving something in return. if gift-giving is used instrumentally then it can be interpreted as treating relationships as transactional or trying to ‘buy’ a good relationship. if there are more deliberate intensions of buying relationships for some malevolent purpose, then this would be seen as bribery. an aspect of generosity is hospitality. the word originally comes from the latin ‘hospes, from the word ‘hostis’ that originally meant ‘to have power’. the host receives guests, who could be visitors known to the host or strangers, with goodwill. it is about welcoming, providing accommodation and sustenance. the current use of hospitality as the name for the industry of accommodation and food provision involves exchange of these ‘courtesies’ for money, as a trade or exchange. derrida distinguishes between conditional hospitality, which he identifies as being from the western heritage and unconditional hospitality that for him is pure, real, genuine and absolute (see kakoliris 2015, 144). the concept of empowerment refers to enabling the increase of power and autonomy. empowerment has been defined as ‘an intentional, ongoing process centered in the local community, involving mutual respect, critical reflection, caring, and group participation, through which people lacking an equal share of valued resources gain greater access to and control over those resources’ (cornell empowerment group, 1989). empowerment has a sense of being a process whereby people become stronger, achieve rights, and gain more independence. in terms of relationships it is about ensuring that the others in the relationship gain control themselves in order for them to determine for themselves their future direction. empowerment does not imply doing things for others but enabling them to develop on their own and to make their own choices. however, as with other relational concepts, there is also a sense of giving to someone who is lesser in some way, and it still contains elements of condescension. there is also a danger of lack of empathy with empowerment, with the responsibility given back to in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 72 the other, who may or may not succeed, having been ‘empowered’ and thus not deserving of the rights or benefits that they are seen to have squandered. relationships based on trust trust comes from the old norse ‘traustr’ meaning strong. trust is the confidence or belief that someone is truthful and reliable or able to do something. a trusting relationship is one where both parties feel safe, both physically and emotionally. relationships based on trust mean the other person is relied upon and is reliable. trust involves honesty, openness, sincerity and genuineness. relationships based on trust are without guile, without deceit. trust cannot survive too much secrecy and sometimes privacy can be interpreted as secrecy. trust can take some time to be built up, but it can be very easily destroyed and brought down. as a fundamental ethical quality necessary for trust, honesty stands for moral correctness and uprightness. it is considered to be a high, noble principle of honour and integrity. virtuous attributes such as integrity and truthfulness are associated with honesty and with conduct that is absent of vices such as lying, cheating and theft. diogenes’ search for an ‘honest man’ is an acknowledgement of the difficulty of achieving the virtue of honesty. apart from being sincere, genuine and sometimes too blunt, honest people are considered to be incorruptible, and therefore can be trusted. trusting relationships also involve openness, based on frankness, lack of concealment, not hiding anything, being direct. as planalp (2003, 89) states: ‘we move toward openness and expressiveness when we feel curious or excited; we move towards closeness and protectiveness when we feel anxious or threatened’. openness is considered to be on the opposite end of the spectrum to secrecy (see for example cottey 2016, 320). openness is also associated with tolerance, as being open to diversity (see lauring and selmer 2012, 795). there is the danger, however, that honesty and openness in relationships can sometimes be cruel, or lacking in tact, so trusting relationships also need to be sincere incorporating connotations of kindness, not based on manipulation, subterfuge, trickery or intrigue. there is no pretense, deceit or hypocrisy, but in the honesty there is also good will. here, the notion of tact is considered to be a positive attribute, as opposed to deceit and concealment (see for example cottey, 319). whereas sincerity also incorporates seriousness about commitment, without being flippant or in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 73 lighthearted it is nevertheless also associated with spontaneity because there is no need to pre-plan if one is acting genuinely. sincerity and genuineness are almost synonymous. the subtle difference is that being genuine is related to reflecting the real or original as a core. trusting relationships are genuine and authentic. there is no trying to be someone you are not. genuineness is often defined in terms of what it is not. the quality of being genuine is being non-corrupt, not phony, fake or counterfeit. genuineness is associated with being proper and natural. honesty and clarity are aspects of being genuine and there is the sense of being ‘real’, not someone who is constructed, or is posing, pretending to be someone different. genuine relationships rely on there being no subterfuge, no pretense or deceit. integrity is tied to more consciously acting in accordance with moral principles, rather than just acting consistently with one’s feelings, thoughts and desires. integrity comes from the latin term ‘integritas’ meaning wholeness. integrity builds trust as it is associated with people who have strong moral principles and then act according to those principles. integrity is about knowing what is right and wrong, and acting on that knowledge. words and actions need to be integral to each other, coherent and consistent. the maintenance of moral integrity requires moral courage. people with integrity are described as confident, with a personal moral code and conscience that guide their decision-making and behavior. they know where they stand on issues and they have the courage to stand up for what they think is right, despite the consequences to them personally or professionally (see for example laabs, 2001 433). relationships based on integrity therefore may take time to develop, but are strong and enduring. trustworthiness has been described as a virtue (flores and solomon 1998) ‘that governs the intensity of trust’ (bews and rossouw 2002, 378). trustworthiness is not just about benevolence, openness, loyalty, concern, but also requires reliability, having the competence or ability to do what is promised or intended. in addition there needs to be a history of interactions that demonstrate that the trust placed in the other is justified. however, according to husted (1998, 239, cited in bews and roussouw, p.383) there are limitations as ‘there is no element inherent in the trust relationship to assure that the trustor’s good is good for the trustor’. trust also involves discretion and integrity on the part of the person being given the trust. annette baier defines trust as ‘reliance on others; a competence and willingness to look after, rather than harm things one cares about which are in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 74 entrusted to their care.’5 the focus of reliability is consistency, always following through, always being honest. people who are reliable can be depended on, for being well informed, so that they are able to provide useful and relevant help, advice, or information. they will not let you down. however, depending on others has also been interpreted as not being independent enough, and self-reliance is encouraged as a strategy for building character, resilience and for dealing with being let down by people that had been mistakenly considered trustworthy. if relationships have been shown to be trustworthy then there is confidence about interactions between people. behr (1945 cited in cottey 319) uses the term confidence as necessary for an open world and distinguishes between confidence in others (trust) and self-confidence (as necessary for openness). as cottey points out, self-confidence makes openness psychologically possible. without self-confidence, it is claimed that people are fearful of exposure, of scandal, and are therefore more secretive. the spanish term confianza has been adopted by lederach (2006, 89) because he believes that trust or confidence are inadequate as translations. for him confianza is ‘a profoundly cultural term’ that describes relationships that are built over time, and include sincerity, security, inspiration and not being betrayed. the importance of confianza is that it comes from personal connections and human interactions. thus it is not expected that institutions are trustworthy. trust or distrust are a function of the behaviour and attitudes of the people in those institutions. discussion it is clear from the above that identifying what are ‘good relationships’ that would contribute to or are necessary for positive peace, is a complex and debatable task. there are other concepts that could have been included, so this will not be an exhaustive list. my intention is to start a conversation about what sorts of human relationships might assist in working towards positively peaceful societies that are non-violent, socially just, and sustain the environment that provides us with life. however, it also needs to be acknowledged that behaviour usually associated with more negative concepts might be necessary to ensure justice in peace. emotions such as anger, disgust, disappointment and resentment 5 cited in elizabeth porter (1999) feminist perspectives on ethics. harlow, essex: pearson education, p.44. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 75 might be necessary to motivate people to take action against injustices, and to resist repression. the rational and logical application of insight and cognitive awareness might calculate that, for challenging the people and institutions that are responsible for injustice in order to bring about the conditions for positive peace, requires additional or alternative virtues. relationships between resisters of violence and oppression would need to be based on such concepts as commitment, courage, resourcefulness and persistence. trust that is naïve or foolish can allow corruption and dishonesty to remain hidden and allow possibilities for further harm to be caused. the semantics of the concepts discussed reveal the nuances and sometimes contradictions inherent in language. while there is universality in some of the concepts required for positive relationships, different languages and cultures give priorities to different aspects for building good relationships. in this article, we are evidently using the english language focusing on the western tradition that incorporates elements from greek, latin, german, french and spanish. however, there are concepts in other languages not easily translated into english that would enhance this discussion. i acknowledge that this terminology is limited and does not embrace all of the types of relationships that might be helpful or even essential for bringing about positive peace. conclusion this article puts forward the idea that the three elements proposed by harris that contribute to positive peace, non-violence, social justice and sustainable ecology, need to be added to with a fourth element, ‘good’ relationships. the focus here is on human relationships and the sorts of relationships that are needed to produce and sustain positive peace. to start a conversation about relationships that would enhance this goal, four categories of good relationships are considered, based on emotion, cognitive awareness and insight, social conscience, and trust. love, affection, kindheartedness and compassion are positive emotions that enable people to connect to each other based on innate feelings. on the basis of rational, cognitive and logical insight, there is a range of relationships that can be developed that are very likely to create conditions conducive to positive peace. these include respect, tolerance, acceptance, empathy, concern, care, friendship, cooperation, harmony, peacefulness and forgiveness. for a sustained peaceful society, people also need to examine their social conscience to ensure that the way they relate to in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 76 each other addresses social justice issues. so relationships need to be based on justice, equality, fairness, ethics, rightness, helpfulness, generosity, hospitality and empowerment. and lastly, without trust, relationships are likely to deteriorate, so trusting relationships, based on honesty, openness, sincerity, genuineness, integrity, trustworthiness, reliability, confidence and confianza are essential for positive peace. without ‘good’ relationships, societies are unlikely to be able to sustain peace, but the conversation remains open as to what other sorts of relationships are required to advance efforts within societies whether they are experiencing immediate conflict or not. references abdullah, carolyne, christopher karpowitz & chad raphael (2016). equality and equity in deliberation: introduction to the special issue. journal of public deliberation; berkeley, 12(2). addams, jane (1907). newer ideals of peace. urbana & chicago: university of illinois press, addams, jane (2003). women and internationalism. in j. addams, e.g. balch, and a. hamilton (eds), women at the hague: the international congress of women and its results (pp. 107-115), champaign: university of illinois press (original work published 1915). azarmandi, mahdis (2017). colonial continuities: a study of anti-racism in aotearoa new zealand and spain. unpublished phd thesis, peace and conflict studies, university of otago, dunedin. baier, annette (1994). moral prejudices: essays on ethics. , cambridge, ma.: harvard university press. bews, n.f. & g.j. rossouw (2002). a role for business ethics in facilitating trustworthiness. journal of business ethics. 39(4), 377-390. bockerie, abu (2002). peace education in a wartorn small state: the case of sierra leone peace research. 34(2), 117-128. boxill, bernard r. (2010). the duty to seek peace, social philosophy and policy, oxford, 27(2), 274-296. clements, kevin (2016). the politics of compassion in a world of ruthless power. paper presented to the centre research seminar, national centre for peace and conflict studies, university of otago, dunedin, new zealand, 18 august. cottey, alan (2016). openness and stability. ai and society. 31(2), august, 319-325. curle, adam (1971). making peace. tavistock: london. curle, adam (2006). the fragile voice of love. john carpenter: oxford. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 77 derrida, jacques (2001). cosmopolitanism and forgiveness. routledge: london. devere, heather (2014a) friendship in international treaties. in simon koschut & andrea oelsner (eds.) friendship and international relations. palgrave macmillan: basingstoke and new york. devere, heather (2014b) the many meanings of friendship. amity: the journal of friendship studies, 2(1), 1-3. furnari, ellen (2013). understanding effectiveness in peacekeeping operations: exploring the perspectives of frontline peacekeepers. unpublished phd thesis, national centre for peace and conflict studies, university of otago, dunedin. furnari ellen (2015). relationships are critical for unarmed peacekeeping. peace review: a journal of social justice. 27(1), 25-30. galtung, johan (1969) violence, peace and peace research. journal of peace research. 6, 167-191. gilligan, carol (1982). in a different voice: psychological theory and women’s development. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. gleditsch, nils petter, jonas nordkvelle & håvard strand (2014). peace research – just the study of war? journal of peace research, 52(2), 145-158. halperin, eran, smadar cohen-chen & amit goldenberg (2014). indirect emotion regulation in intractable conflicts: a new approach to conflict resolution’ european review of social psychology. 25(1), 1-31. harris, ian (2004). peace education theory. journal of peace education 1(1), 5-20. held, virginia (2006). the ethics of care. new york, ny: oxford university press.. kakoliris, gerasimos (2015). jacques derrida on the ethics of hospitality. in e. imafidon (ed.) the ethics of subjectivity. london: palgrave macmillan: london (pp.144-156). king, martin luther, jr (1964/2009). the nobel peace prize 1964 nobel lecture, december 11, the nobel foundation, retrieved from http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/king-lecture.html. kittay, eva feder (1999). love’s labor: essays on women, equality, and dependency. new york: routledge. kittay, eva feder & myers, diana t. (eds.) women and moral theory. usa: rowman and littlefield. laabs, carolyn (2011). perceptions of moral integrity: contradictions in need of explanation. nursing ethics. 18(3), 431-440. lauring, jakob & jan selmer (2012). openness to diversity, trust and conflict in multicultural organizations. journal of management and organization. 18(6), 795-806. lederach, john paul (2014). remembering forward: the visionary practical scholarship of adam curle. delivered at the bradford university conference, may 3. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 78 lederach, john paul (2006). preparing for peace: conflict transformation across cultures. new york: syracuse university press. lederach, john paul (2005). the moral imagination: the art and soul of building peace. oxford: oxford university press. lederach, john paul (2003). little book of conflict transformation. new york city: skyhorse publishing (also cited in peacework (2006), 33, 26-27). lederach, john paul (1997a). building peace: sustainable reconciliation in divided societies, washington dc: united states institution of peace. lederach, john paul (1997b). the meeting place http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/transform/jplchpt.htm. lewis, c.s. (1960). the four loves. london: font. mitra, aniruddha, james t. bang & arnab biswas (2015). gender equality and economic growth: is it equality of opportunity or equality of outcomes. feminist economics. 21(1), 110-135. montoya, r. matthew, mu-qing huang, bridget p. lynch, & cassondra m. faiella (2013). is equality perceived as a solution to societal problems? north american journal of psychology, winter garden 15(1), march, 39-48. moscrop, david r.h. & mark e. warren (2016). when is deliberation democratic? journal of public deliberation. 12(2), article 4, http://www.publicdeliberation.net/jpd/vol12/iss2/art4, accessed 1 august 2017. newsom, victoria ann & wenshu lee (2009). on nourishing peace: the performativity of activism through the nobel peace prize global media journal. 8(5), 1-16. noddings, nel (1984). caring: a feminine approach to ethics and moral education. berkley: university of california press. planalp, sally (2003). the unacknowledged role of emotion in theories of close relationships: how do theories feel? communication theory, 13(1), february, 78-99. porter, elizabeth (1999) feminist perspectives on ethics. harlow, essex: pearson education. reardon, betty (1988). comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility. new york: teachers college press. reardon, betty (1997). human rights education as education for peace. in george j. andreopoulous & richard pierre claude (eds.) human rights education for the twenty-first century. philadelphia: university of philadelphia press. ruddick, sara (1989). maternal thinking: toward a politics of peace. new york: ballentine books. scott, john, (2017). the sage handbook of social network analysis. london/new delhi/singapore/thousand oaks: sage. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 59-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 79 shields, patricia m. and grant rissler (2016). positive peace: exploring its roots and potential for public administration. global virtue ethics review. 7(3), 1-13. shields, patricia m. & joseph soeters (2017). peaceweaving: jane addams, positive peace and public administration. american review of public administration. 47(3), 323-339. tronto, joan (1994). moral boundaries: a political argument for an ethic of care. new york: routledge. wagner, lynn & daniel druckman (2017). drivers of durable peace: the role of justice in negotiating civil war termination. group decision negotiation 26, 45-67. woodhouse, tom (2010). adam curle: radical peacemaker and pioneer of peace studies. journal of conflictology. 1(1), 1-7. servais volume 10 in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 35-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 35 volume 10 number 1 (2016): 35-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review peace education from the grassroots, edited by ian m. harris. a volume in the series: peace education, editors laura finley & robin cooper, information age publishing, 2013, 322pp., us $45.99 (paperback), us $85.99 (hardcover), isbn 978-1-62396-349-1 reviewed by mallory servais teachers college, columbia university mallory.servais@gmail.com editors note: this review is one in a series co-published by the global campaign for peace education and in factis pax: journal of peace education and social justice toward promoting peace education scholarship. these reviews are of information age publishing’s peace education series. established in 2006 by founding editors ian harris and edward brantmeier, iap’s peace education series offers diverse perspectives on peace education theory, research, curriculum development and practice. it is the only series focused on peace education offered by any major publisher. click here to learn more about this important series. bringing together fourteen accounts of peace education case studies from around the world, editor and contributor ian harris uses peace education from the grassroots (2013) to build a compendium of the work of educators, activists, and academics in peace education. the book offers a collection of firsthand stories, qualitative and quantitative research, and contextual analysis for peace education efforts and the challenges facing educators, activists, and academics working to build a more sustainably peaceful world. from various institutions around the world, peace education from the grassroots offers a relative diversity of contributors. research is included from jamaica, mexico, the in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 35-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 36 philippines, el salvador, belgium, uganda, the united states, canada, south korea, india, spain, germany, japan, and a chapter about the work of the international red cross. harris reached out to his networks for “stories about how citizens at the grassroots level developed peace education initiatives to inform fellow citizens about the dangers of violence and promise of peace” (xi), though no word is given to harris’ criteria for article selection, nor is it clear if through his process any submissions were withheld. peace education from the grassroots’ collaborative nature offers a framework for continued growth within the field of peace education. from primary school-based conflict management programs, to university-level peace education, to reflections on museums as centers for learning about peace, the book’s chapters detail a variety of methods for teaching and learning about peace and through peace, as well as some of the obstacles to peace education efforts globally. the chapters offer insight into the best practices for managing challenges that may arise when building successful peace education programs from the grassroots. the thread that ties each article together is the concept of each program or example of peace education in the book being “grassroots”. detracting from this idealized bond is the vagueness by which harris defines grassroots. inspired by his friend antonio poleo, harris’ most explicit definition of grassroots peace education is: groups of people meeting informally…using peace education tactics to advance their peace agendas. some were sponsoring conferences; some were teaching courses to adults; others were writing newsletters, staging rallies, promoting multiculturalism and anti-imperialism, challenging racism, and/or infusing peace concepts into their lessons (harris 2013, x). by this definition, very little peace education work would not be considered grassroots, and a great deal of general grassroots activism would be considered peace education work. several of the case studies included in this collection reflect state-sponsored programs or heavily institutionalized non-governmental organizations, and very few chapters reflect the work defined by harris in the above quote. harris better clarifies his perception of grassroots work, perhaps unintentionally, when he describes “people all over the world are using educational tools to liberate themselves from human suffering caused by direct and structural violence” (harris 2013, x). even by this definition, harris measures success of a grassroots peace education movement by its ability to influence a state actor or government, which leads to some confusion about the relevance of “grassroots” to this collection, when focusing on the centrality of peace education broadly would have served just as well to tie the chapters together. additionally, despite its caliber in breadth and content, there remain some inconsistencies in quality of writing and design between chapters. however, these criticisms do not detract from the main objective of peace education from the grassroots, in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 35-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 37 which is to uplift and provide case studies for examination and inspiration for future programming. this book is ideal for introductory peace education courses at the undergraduate or graduate level, and individual chapters could be pulled for course readings as needed. it serves veteran peace educators as a reminder of the work being done by peace compatriots around the world. in both the introduction and his collaborative chapter, harris returns to the interdependent relationship between peace activists, peace researchers, and peace educators (harris & howlett, 2013). this theme resurfaces throughout the book, with each chapter epitomizing the intersection of these educator-asactivist, educator-as-researcher identities. this text provides value in sharing helpful ideas for peace educators in community-based organizations working for social justice and peace through education, and also for those academics seeking to identify and articulate the strengths and challenges facing peace educators. given that peace remains a constant struggle in vast and diverse communities, it is comforting to have resonating program ideas, activist stories, and reminders that peace educators continue to do impressive work globally. peace education from the grassroots not only offers lessons from around the world on overcoming the challenges of implementing grassroots peace education programs, it also provides a blueprint for documenting and compiling diverse experiences for future generations of peace education leaders and innovators. microsoft word camouflagevirtualviolencerhetorics.factispax.doc volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 2 volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ words matter: exposing the camouflaged violence of hunting rhetoric heidi a. huse assistant professor department of english university of tennessee at martin hhuse@utm.edu until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, we ourselves will not find peace. albert schweitzer1 to stay with the concept of power dominant in our current situation…helps guarantee the defeat of other ways of living…to remain within the existing cultural values helps ensure that nothing else will be possible. to seek ways of embodying other understandings of power makes it possible that being as domination and control will not have the last word. sharon d. welch, a feminist ethic of risk2 volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 3 it’s easy to invoke words of kindness and peace; however, too often we do so without seriously considering exactly what we mean by what we say or what the implications might be of our words. in the contentious age in which we live, when virtually anyone can voice their views on tv or on the radio or internet, we insist on the truthfulness of our personal standpoints—and the erroneous thinking of those with other views—often with vitriol in our voices that contradicts our self-proclaimed peaceful intentions. i’m as guilty of such action as anyone else; however, despite my own hypocrisy, as a university writing teacher, i regularly challenge students to think about what they mean when they make public their professions of belief, endorsement, or disagreement in the classroom or in their writing. one “theme” i’ve recently used as a focal point in one of my first-year writing courses is animal exploitation, for which i assign dominion: the power of man, the suffering of animals, and the call to mercy by conservative political writer matthew scully.3 the book challenges much of what my largely rural, religious, conservative, meat-eating, pro-gun, pro-hunting students take for granted about the role of animals in our society and economy. they assume their knowledge and moral foundation regarding animals as consumer products created by god solely for human benefit is complete and above question. as a result many rarely give thought to the often-violent inter-relationships that are currently common between humans and animals. as they read the book, many are disturbed by the graphic stories scully narrates of brutal animal exploitation and are shocked by the prevalent practices of which they’re unaware. they insist that they “love animals,” and they express anger at those individuals scully cites who argue in support of “necessary” animal cruelty or who kill animals at whim. yet they insist just as vociferously that their love of hunting is justified and humane, and that although it’s too bad for the animals condemned to slaughter in assembly line “meat production,” they also “love meat” volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 4 and have no plans to give up or even reduce their beef, poultry, pork, or seafood consumption. they do not (or will not) see the contradictions between their words and actions, leaving one to wonder exactly what the words “i love animals” mean. but today’s college students are not alone in the contradictions between their words and actions; rather they reflect a systemic, largely unquestioned ethical and rhetorical divide. many articulate animal advocates have written thought-provoking challenges to systemic animal cruelty, so that is not my goal here. instead, i focus on the language by which we humans justify—both to ourselves and in public—our often violent actions against animals, and ultimately against other humans. for the sake of space i have narrowed my focus to the representative language of public hunting. but my point is much larger: that our incomplete knowledge about the realities of hunting mirrors a lack of knowledge in other arenas of oppression and violence that is likewise based in a lack of critical engagement with what we are told. such a lack of knowledge becomes all to common precisely because “we”—literate if not highly educated beings—seem to readily accept an implicit universal understanding of such common violent practices. i question language that seems to go unchallenged by much of american society, if not globally, despite the fact that hunting language regularly describes and extols arbitrary violence for sheer sport. admittedly there is a host of other possible arenas of violence, in these early years of the 21st century, ripe for critical interrogation, that could be argued to be more significant: “war” on “terrorism” and escalating violence in the middle east, genocides, global child sexual exploitation, environmental destruction, threats of nuclear annihilation, astounding poverty; even nature herself seems eager get in on the act with extreme natural disasters that have traumatized thousands around the globe. in the context of such relentless global trauma, volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 5 why should we attend to the issue of hunting? we’re “just” talking about animals after all. why be bothered that the violence of the recreational and, in many cases, government-endorsed slaughter of animals (too often to the point of extinction) rarely even makes the local news, unless some hunter “bags a newsworthy one” or accidentally gets injured through his/her own carelessness or that of another hunter? rather than seriously question hunting violence, if hunting is made public at all, defenders of hunting have the last word, consistently presenting the sport as a time-honored pastime that only reflects the best of noble character and human stamina against unpredictable nature. but the words by which we justify violence against animals have direct implications for how we justify targeting each other as humans for exploitation or destruction. as albert schweitzer implies rather directly, humanity’s peace is directly tied into the peace we humans extend to animals. i chose hunting in particular, to begin an investigation into the misleading language used to extol violence, because of its directly violent nature. after all, the ultimate goal of hunting is extermination of a living being, by violent, bloody means. yet hunting is regularly portrayed as a leisurely outdoor activity that is fun for the whole family. hunting directly exposes the reality that the language justifying violent human domination of other living beings, demands interrogation for at least two reasons, especially by a self-identified “compassionate” american society. first, animals are virtually powerless in the world, with no voice to speak on their own behalf; for the most part, animals are at the mercy of humans who, as a whole, often do not act mercifully toward them, despite our insistence that in our care, animals fare well. in fact, the voicelessness and powerlessness of animals are often used against them, as justification for the violence humans inflict upon them.4 unfortunately, judeo-christian theology, a significant volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 6 influence on western culture, worldview, and language, particularly in the u.s., has used scriptural text to support a sort of divinely authored “manifest destiny” toward animals, much as has been done in the past with regard to biblical support of human exploitation and extermination—for slavery or for native american genocide, for example. that is, “we,” god’s righteous humans, can do whatever we want to do with or to “them” (the unrighteous, or animals, which are already condemned or have no soul) since god said we could; in fact god commanded “us” to rule over the whole earth (“go forth and multiply, subdue and have dominion over the earth,” genesis 1:28)5. consequently, animals have suffered immensely at the hands of humans, for food, clothing and household goods, entertainment and sport, scientific experimentation, and, ultimately, extermination. second, animals have no inherent legal status by which compassionate humans can act to protect them from exploitation (much as has been the case throughout history with slaves, children, and women). existing animal control laws—generally applied only to a limited range of “domestic” animals such as dogs and cats (at least in the u.s.)—are too often minimal and porous; what few legal standards do exist often are followed only minimally or are disregarded by law enforcement and judicial personnel. look at the tragedy of how u.s. gulf coast animals fared in the aftermath of hurricane katrina; it wasn’t offensive enough how we treated those humans who had no escape and were helpless before the rising water; animals were considered to be little more than household goods, not living beings or beloved family members, and evacuees were expected to simply leave them behind as they might leave behind a favorite chair. animals are treated primarily as human prey, as possessions, or as technologies for human manipulation, not as living, feeling beings with inherent value in themselves. their worth is evaluated solely by their usefulness to our well-being. they are classified as “other” in our volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 7 efforts to defend our animal exploitation, worthy of compassionate consideration only at human convenience or whim. hunting language offers insightful illustrations of how unexamined words of violence against “others” underlies an ethic of animal—and ultimately human— domination, regardless of how nobly our motives for such violence might be constructed. tally ho! hunting virtues hunting in the u.s. is publicly presented as a popular commonplace of 21st-century american culture with a long, rich history, aided and abetted by current print, broadcast, and internet media. hunting programs regularly air on cable television channels, and the internet is rife with hunting web sites. where i live in western tennessee, gun and hunting-centered outdoor magazines fill large sections of retail magazine racks. and in a stroll through the local wal-mart super center, a person can get lost in the outdoor sports aisles, filled to overflowing with a wide array of hunting paraphernalia from head-to-toe camouflage clothing to weaponry, particularly during the fall hunting season though available year-round. hunting is not only a well-established given in much of american culture, it’s regarded as a traditional, virtually sacred outdoor activity, as much a part of a noble, patriotic american character as mom, apple pie, “one nation under god,” and the american flag. to question hunting is to question being american. ironically, for such a supposedly universal pastime in the u.s., the actual ratio of american hunters relative to the total population is small—around seven percent according to some sources6. steve williams, director of the u.s. fish & wildlife service (fws), laments that the numbers of u.s. hunters is declining. he reports that as of 2001, “13 million americans volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 8 enjoyed hunting, a 7 percent drop compared to 10 years ago.” the context for his report was a speech at the national shooting sports summit, where he publicly committed himself, personally and professionally, to working to reverse the decline and “re-energize the sport.”7 he will have high-powered help. in his book, scully critiques the booming financial success of large, national and global, hunting organizations such as safari club international, a hunting network with extensive economic and political power, which it uses to ensure hunting’s unfettered future. directly challenging the noble yet humble, “aw shucks,” character safari club international (sci) presents for itself and its members, scully explains that “[t]he average safari club member owns eleven rifles, six shotguns, five handguns, and a bow”—a small arsenal— with which to stalk and kill “wild game,” a term that i believe makes of living animals mere, expendable, objects, free for the taking if the hunter can “bag” one. my pro-hunting students, assigned to read scully’s book, regularly discount scully’s challenges, insisting that he’s the one twisting words, seeking out only those extreme, unethical hunters to make his anti-hunting argument. and yet the safari club members he cites include such “extremists” as retired general normal schwarzkopf; wade boggs, a future professional baseball hall-of-famer; a realtor and former owner of a national football league team; a trial lawyer who was sci president when scully was conducting his research by speaking himself with a diversity of sci members. according to scully, the average sci hunter “spends $14,000 a year on hunting, compared to $1,500 for the average american hunter, for an annual half a billion dollars spent by the entire membership.”8 and despite scully’s implications that hunters are male, heidi prescott, of the fund for animals, who like scully holds to an anti-hunting standpoint, reports that around eight percent of hunters are women.9 regardless of their small numbers, male and female hunters together have created a public image for hunting as only volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 9 virtuous, a sanctified tradition and an american heritage, which is the right and privilege of hunters to protect at all costs from unenlightened anti-gun and anti-hunting peaceniks. their rhetorically-constructed self-identity hides the bloody violence inherent in hunting; what violence is acknowledged is cast only in the best light. in this article, i challenge the “virtuous violence” that is rendered invisible in pro-hunting language. i examine three common arguments: hunting as “conservation” or “animal management”; hunting as a spiritual celebration of god, humanity, and nature; and hunting as a survival contest between human and beast. in all three arguments, killing animals for sport is ennobled, making hunting impervious to critical interrogation in the public arena. being a hunter becomes a sought-after attribute of high moral character. in fact, 2004 democratic presidential candidate john kerry deliberately, though unsuccessfully, emphasized his own love of hunting late in his campaign (in a hunting expedition in ohio about two weeks before election day)— complete with photo ops in camouflage, hunting rifle in hand, images splashed across every major news outlet. he sought to enhance his presidential persona in the minds of voting hunters and gun enthusiasts who, due in large part to the lobbying and campaign efforts of the national rifle association, have heavily affiliated themselves with the “compassionate conservative” agenda and goals of the republican party. kerry’s goose hunting expedition even made international news; bbcnews.com reports that at the end of the hunt, kerry emerged “without a bird in hand, insisting he had killed a goose but was ‘too lazy’ to carry it.10 according to jodi wilgoren of the new york times, kerry confirmed his success: “‘everybody got one, everybody got one,’ said mr. kerry, his hand stained with goose blood, though he was the only member of the hunting party not carrying a carcass.”1112 volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 10 for the purposes of this investigation into deceptive uses of the language of violence, i have confined myself primarily to hunting texts available online. these texts are accessible to the public at large, and they well represent the common portrait of hunting as wholly virtuous, a self-identity that, despite involving only a small minority of the national population, seems to have wide appeal and a virtually blind acceptance. if significant numbers of individuals find hunting problematic, they appear to be a silent majority. the reality is that the pro-hunting individuals and organizations creating and interacting with those multi-media hunting texts, many of whom hold passionately to the words and ethics they put forth, despite their limited number, together wield a great deal of public, political clout. we kill out of respect, to protect and “conserve” i begin with an examination of the quite ironic language that casts hunting as synonymous with animal “conservation.” the “conservation” message of hunting enthusiasts directly champions the virtues of hunting as the means of protecting or “managing” animal species and the environment. fws director williams directly equates hunting with the desire “to conserve america’s wildlife heritage.” in the speech before his sports shooting audience mentioned above, his passion is clear: “i would suggest to you that hunting is more important to wildlife management now that it has ever been before.” he credits hunters with the origination of u.s. conservation efforts, explaining that “[i]n the early 1900s, when here in the united states, we began to see widespread wildlife population declines, the hunting community saw what was happening and took action…sounded volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 11 the alarm…the abuses associated with unchecked wildlife consumption were reduced, and we saw flocks of waterfowl and herds of deer rebound. and for this, the hunting community deserves the credit.”13 in other words, the “flocks and herds” rebounded because of concerned hunters. what williams neglects to mention is that they were allowed to rebound not simply for their own value but so that they would be available as future prey for hunters. the conservation force agrees with williams’ assessment. on their website, they explain the role of hunting in conservation by proclaiming that “hunting has been the cornerstone and most important conservation development in the 20th century and continues to be the leading contributor to conservation as man [sic] enters the 21st century.”14 never mind that it was hunting that most heavily contributed to the need to establish conservation and species protection programs in the first place. williams, as a federal agent (who, by the way, is paid by u.s. taxpayers, the majority of whom, according to statistics, are non-hunters) promises to revive “the balance to our conservation mission.” he challenges his audience to also get involved in the work of conserving the noble, “deeply personal and spiritual experience” of hunting: “we are facing a decline in hunting participation in this country. our traditional…support is challenged. throughout the history of wildlife management, the hunting and shooting community has risen to the challenge and saved the day…..i urge you to recommit yourself to our american hunting heritage…let’s grow the shooting sports.”15 it is difficult to assess whether williams’ priority is on conserving wildlife or conserving the sport of recreational wildlife extermination. volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 12 my merriam-webster pocket thesaurus offers the synonyms for “conserve” as “save, preserve, protect, shield, safeguard, defend”16; my oxford american college dictionary defines “conservationist” as one who “advocates or acts for the protection and preservation of the environment or wildlife.”17 both of these linguistic sources seem to contradict the ultimate goal of hunting—to take an animal’s life. so it’s difficult to legitimate the violence of hunting as a means of “protection” or “preservation.” it would seem more prudent to pursue conservation through humane, non-lethal means of wildlife population management. yet because of hunting’s seemingly unquestioned virtue, there appears to be little incentive for developing non-lethal alternatives for “managing” animal populations that could ensure a high quality of life for all beings. in fact, it’s difficult to find literature that seriously presents alternatives to hunting in any length or that discusses any significant research into efficient and cost-effective non-lethal methods for animal population management. instead, “control” or “conservation” by extermination is often presented as better for the animals themselves, so that healthy animals can have greater access to the limited resources “we” humans kindly allow them. as a result, the argument goes, “managed” herds can produce healthier offspring for our use. “we” are moral because we are “conserving” animal populations through “managed harvests.” in defense of such manipulation of words that makes hunting a benign activity, the conservation force cites well-known hunter and former u.s. president teddy roosevelt who, like williams, credits the hunter virtually exclusively for the protection of wildlife species: “‘[w]ild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen…in reality the genuine sportsman is, by all odds, the most important factor in keeping the larger and more valuable wild creatures from total extermination.’”18 neither roosevelt nor the conservation force explain from whom these creatures face extinction other than hunters or what roosevelt might mean by “valuable” wild volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 13 creatures (what happens to “non-valuable” wildlife?), nor do they or williams, among other prohunting conservation advocates, engage the contradiction inherent in protecting wildlife by means of recreational extermination of the very wildlife they insist they are protecting. pheasants forever is one example of such contradiction that i ran across after a former student wrote a paper advocating pheasant conservation for the purpose of preserving the tradition of pheasant hunting. the non-profit organization presents its mission immediately on the web site home page as one of conservation, the goal being “the protection and enhancement of pheasants, quail and other upland wildlife through habitat improvement, public awareness, education and advocacy for sound land management.” although the web site has undergone revision over the past few years since i first visited the site, their message is still the same. while pheasant hunting is not supported in direct words in their mission statement or at first glance, hunting is clearly significant to their identity: their home page menu for the rest of the site includes a page for “pheasant hunting,” which displays several photos of hunters in action. ironically the pheasant hunting link falls directly below the link to their “habitat/conservation” page. here, the organization creates for itself an identity as political advocates for the pheasants’ well-being: “we at pheasants forever are striving to give a voice to the upland birds of america.” and yet on their history page, entitled, “the birth of a conservation powerhouse,” hunting is clearly essential to their growth and development as a conservation organization, both in their historical narrative and in the accompanying photos. meanwhile, throughout the site, sidebar advertising offers site visitors the opportunity to win a hunting rifle and repeatedly promotes pheasant hunting.19 “conservation,” then, for the founders and members of pheasants forever seems to mean pheasant habitat protection and population control through and for the volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 14 pleasure of killing the pheasants whose habitat and future they are protecting, ultimately not for the pheasants’ well-being but for the deadly recreation of the humans who want to hunt them. when hunters hunt in the name of conservation, they “cull” overpopulated herds by “taking” or “harvesting” individual members of the herds, ostensibly selecting and killing only weaker members of that herd to ensure that the strong continue and, at least in theory, produce equally strong offspring. as above, such deliberate terminology for describing hunting camouflages hunting’s deadly actions by putting such actions into morally neutral terms. the reality is that far from “culling” the weakest members of the herds who would be the most vulnerable to harsh winters and food shortages, most hunters actually want to “bag a big one.” as joanne stepaniak, author of the vegan sourcebook puts it, most hunters seek out the biggest and best among the herds, leading some anti-hunters to identify “sport hunting as ‘evolution in reverse’; the survival of the least fit.” she points out that nature, left alone, does well in maintaining balance: “without human interference, nature has its own way of reducing starvation. when food is scarce, the rate of conception drops and single births greatly outnumber twins; when food is more plentiful, both the conception rate and number of multiple births increase.” more troubling, according to stepaniak, is that, under pressure from hunters, state wildlife agencies—which are, without exception, strongly prohunting—systematically act to increase rather than decrease the size of deer herds so that there will be plenty of live targets at which hunters can take aim. this is done through practices volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 15 such as clear-cutting forests to increase the food supply for deer—which in turn increases the size of the herd—and gender manipulation, allowing far more bucks than does to be killed during hunting season….having deliberately increased the size of the deer herd, state wildlife agencies inform the public that hunting is necessary to control overpopulation, prevent starvation, avert dangerous collisions with cars, and avoid damage to crops and shrubs. because the agencies’ budgets are dependent upon the sale of hunting licenses, a large deer herd means increased sales.20 further, new species of wild life are imported by state agencies to increase hunting opportunities for the public. for example, they “breed ring-necked pheasants, which are not native to north america, for release at the start of each hunting season.”21 that is, federal and state public funds, including hunting fees, are used regularly to manufacture increased numbers of wildlife so that a small minority of the u.s. population can slaughter them for sport, in the name of “conservation,” a slaughter that is constructed through language as humane if not necessary to ensure the survival and well-being of the targeted wildlife. but as anne muller’s article on the committee to abolish sport hunting web site points out, “conservation law itself was created by hunters for hunters and greatly impacts the 93% non-hunting public…it subjugates the nonhunting public to the will of the 7% minority that hunts.”22 such an imbalance of power, and the volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 16 passive acquiescence of that overwhelming majority to the violent conservation strategies of the seemingly indomitable few, is troubling at best. we kill because we love nature and celebrate the human spirit hunting is also cast as a celebration of nature; hunters enjoy the beauty of god’s creation while extolling the glory of the human spirit. a hunting character is created which paradoxically portrays hunters as lovers of nature. hunting is also portrayed as a means of building human character. the conservation force, for example, argues that hunting furthers character virtues like self reliance, responsibility, competence, discipline and resolve. it employs and awakens our senses and our physical condition….it is our essence. hunting made us human….it is our “authenticity”…hunting uniquely provides self actualization, completeness and expressions which are complex, higher order needs deserving of protection. if we were deprived of it, we would lose more than recreation. it is more than our heritage and culture, it is our essence.23 williams adds that “hunting is much more than bringing down a deer, a turkey, or some other game species”; he describes hunting as a spiritual endeavor “that teaches us about ourselves, about each other, and about nature.”24 but what, exactly, is it that hunting teaches us about who we are? both the conservation force and williams further celebrate hunting as a right, as both a volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 17 personal choice and an american freedom all hunters should enjoy without guilt, question, or restraint. nowhere does the portrayal of hunting as a celebration of nature seem more paradoxical than in the rhetoric of christian hunting organizations. mark a. depugh, founder of the fellowship of christian hunters, explains what he enjoys about hunting: god’s creation and the witness of his creation are magnificent! it is beyond my compre hension! as hunters, we have the opportunity to see many species of nature including countless varieties of animals, plants, trees, flowers, insects and more. can you think of anything more beautiful than.. dogwood’s [sic] in the spring? spectacular and vibrant foliage in the fall? snow-kissed pine branches in the winter? only to be followed again by daffodils, tulips, and the wonders continue! i can close my eyes and envision pillows of snow covering the vast forest floor.. wow, the [sic] only thing to make it more beautiful would be to picture a 10-point buck standing in that snow at a mere 30 yards away! what a dream, right? well guess what, god wants and allows our dreams to come true. his magnificent creation is awesome, and he created it for us to respect and enjoy!25 a similar organization, the christian outdoor fellowship of america, offers both christians and non-christians the opportunity to celebrate the beauty of nature while stalking and killing wildlife. when i first visited their web site, their home page exhibited a photo of a hunter kneeling behind the antlers and head of the buck he had “harvested” (a euphemism many hunters substitute for the word “kill”). next to the photo was the welcome: volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 18 greetings friend. i want to personally welcome you to cofa’s hunting page. there is nothing like being in the woods, on the side of a mountain walking in the aspens, or on the prairies looking off into the distant sky. the sights and smells of autumn can be breathtaking to say the least. here at cofa we want to encourage you to participate in the splendors of god’s great outdoors.26 besides celebrating the wonders of nature, all of the christian hunting organizations whose web sites i visited, present hunting, like williams, as a spiritual practice, as a means of developing, renewing, or enhancing a relationship with god. it’s an opportunity for bonding with fellow believers as well as for evangelism of unbelievers. hunting additionally serves as a means of biblical instruction, according to the christian deer hunters association. on a web page entitled, “ministry to hunters,” founder tom c. rakow writes that one “primary objective of the christian deer hunters association is to reveal and encourage a biblical world view approach to deer hunting,” imbuing hunting with a godly virtue, which he then contrasts with the more pagan, idolatrous, and non-christian worldview that condemns hunting and values animal life as sacred.27 scully found a similar theology in his visit to the sci convention. he reports that a handout distributed during an sci prayer breakfast “warns against ‘the pagan roots of environmentalism,’ tracing everything from the united nations to the endangered species act to ‘new age’ religions that include deep ecology, eco-feminism and the worship of gaia— mother earth”28 so those who hunt are characterized as closer to god’s truth than those resisting such a blood sport and its camouflaged violence. volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 19 even espn, a cable television sports network, offers on its web site a christian defense of hunting. in his article “bringing hunting back into the church,” james swan argues that hunting has always been closely connected with religious belief and practice, implying direct biblical support for hunting. extoling the virtues of charitable christian hunting organizations that distribute their “harvests” to food banks as “outreach ministries,” he laments intolerant churches that support animal rights and anti-hunting viewpoints and ignore the christian call to “brotherly love of the christian faith as well as biblical teachings.” he seems to argue that hunters aren’t being fully welcomed or integrated into church congregational practice as they should be. he points to one particular example of a church that practices what swan seeks— open support for hunting as a god-blessed activity. reverend stephen dietzler, pastor of the church swan extols, annually offers a “service of the hunt” at the opening of deer season. the service “gives hunters a chance to celebrate god’s creation, and shows parallels between hunting, christian stewardship, and christian living.” further, according to swan, dietzler “encourages hunters to wear blaze orange or camouflage to church” during hunting season, and swan believes that more pastors should follow dietzler’s example. as swan sees it, if churches would encourage hunters in their congregations to fulfill their godly celebration of nature by hunting, they would be helping to “restore hunters to the rightful place in society as being heroes.”29 in fact, according to the conservation force web site, it is the anti-hunters who are acting “anti-socially, offensively, and immorally” in the world.30 thus, in the “hunters as lovers of nature” self-identity, hunters are glorious and heroic lovers of god and his creation and servants of humanity, who humbly celebrate nature and build their character by killing wild animals, and who, as they portray themselves in their public texts, are above moral question or reproach. volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 20 british theologian and animal advocate andrew linzey, however, is unconvinced by this character-building, godly construction of “the conscientious christian hunter” celebrating the wonders of nature. he argues instead that hunting is “the anti-gospel,” making jesus a predator and human hunters little more than parasites on creation (114): “in short, the gospel of ‘hunting with jesus’ is a gospel of predation. life eating life is not some unfortunate aspect of the natural world to be tolerated…between creation and consummation. rather, [in the hunting gospel] god actually wills and blesses a self-murdering system of survival. god’s will is death.” linzey insists that, in reality, celebrating god’s creation through the slaughter of animals has nothing to do with god or the gospel of jesus: overall, and without the faintest fear of contradiction, we can with confidence proclaim that the predator view of jesus is untenable…the sacrifice of animals is always murder.”…. the biblical orientation is not to baptize the ‘laws of the universe’ as the purposes of god but rather to look to their transformation and fulfillment. if we are to appeal to the life and teaching of jesus as the revelation of god, we cannot avoid the fact that so much of his life challenges, if not contradicts, the order of the world as we know it. from this standpoint, to be involved in wanton killing can only be judged deplorable….since in christ there is a new creation, there can be no justification for humanity to increase, exacerbate and intensify that predatory system itself…we can volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 21 live differently and we should.31 stepaniak offers similar challenges to the notion that hunting is a means of celebrating nature and developing character. “hunters…portray themselves as the last exemplars of the glorious virtues of a bygone era,” she observes. she adds that for hunters, “[h]unting…instills in its devotees such noble qualities as self-reliance, ruggedness, discipline, and courage. it is characterized as a salutary antidote to the debilitating vices of modern civilization.” but stepaniak quickly questions such character building: contrast the hunters’ fiction with the facts. hunters skulk about the forest in camouflage, wait in ambush for their victims, and kill at long range with overpowering, technological weapons, often going to extraordinary lengths to lure their unsuspecting prey to a violent death….they inflict pain and death on creatures who cannot hurt them. even animals who could pose a threat…would normally run rather than fight a human being….hunters kill innocent, helpless beings who bear them no ill will and whose best defense is blind luck…entrap and frequently shoot terrified animals in the back as they flee for their lives…tempt animals with a false promise of food or a mate, and then kill the trusting creatures who are duped by their bait. these are not the virtues of any era, volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 22 past or present. they are the vices of bullying and cowardice.32 and then they pass on such character qualities to their children with a sense of pride and tradition, which many of the students who come through my classes attest to by their love and defense of hunting as only humane and virtuous, if not necessary for human survival. but stepaniak argues that in fact what hunters are teaching their children is that “concern for the suffering and death of animals is a form of weakness, and…killing is fun.” likewise stepaniak is no more convinced than linzey that hunting is a glorious way to enjoy nature, pointing out that in fact, what hunters insist they enjoy about hunting—being outdoors, sitting around campfires with family or friends, getting refreshed by brisk hikes in the crisp fall air—is actually “derived from the pursuit not from the kill.” if, on the other hand, she adds, it is in fact the kill that hunters enjoy, then “it is bloodlust pure and simple.”33 we kill to survive a third common pro-hunting argument is that of a “contest” of survival—“us” against “them,” taking animals on in a life-or-death battle on “their turf.” in a display of absolute human power, an intellectually superior human being challenges the power of an inferior but possibly threatening “other”—in this case an animal or game bird. like modern-day gladiators, hunters enter the other’s territory and challenge their animal prey to battle, as if the animal has any voice in such a “head-to-head” confrontation. but there is no “contest.” the animal is not there in the wilderness to contest anyone; it’s not there looking for a fight with a human opponent whose life it’s seeking to terminate just for “sport.” the contest is entirely initiated and carried out by the human hunter. further, to reiterate stepaniak above, the animals have no long-range, highpowered weapons with which to shoot back, or defenses that can match the firepower of human weapons technologies. instead, they’re often taken by deception and surprise, from a distance, volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 23 from a camouflaged location, shot in the back so-to-speak, “harvested” out of the air, or while they are grazing nearby. and the proud hunter returns from the wilderness with his or her prey, full of photos and stories that celebrate the victory over the wild beast. a perfect example comes from the web site biggamehunts.net, where hunter jim oltersdorf details for the pro-hunting audience his “contest” against alaskan brown bears, which admittedly are wild animals that could easily kill a human. he begins his story by describing the survival context: the stakes become high when the hunter becomes the hunted. becoming the ultimate jackpot isn’t why you are there. in this game of bullet against claws, teeth, and immeasurable strength, the victor becomes the king of the alaskan tundra. there are no places to hide; there are no trees to climb in out of harms way. it becomes a chance hand of how the cards are dealt. you pray they fall in your direction. it is hunting at its finest and it addresses every bit of talent, stamina, nerve, marksmanship, stealth and courage you may or may not have. a thousand pound carnivore that can out-sprint a gold medal olympian runner and deliver death in a single blow is nothing short of what we all fear, the primal response of being attacked and killed by a beast.34 volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 24 in his story, however, oltersdorf wasn’t exactly the “hunter becoming the hunted,” in which the bear pursued him. rather, oltersdorf and his companions flew far into the alaskan wilderness, stalked and then shot two bears who were simply living their lives, of no threat to human habitat or humans. he too celebrates the beauty of the wilderness, including the beauty of one of the bears who had “the most beautiful fur [he’d] ever seen, deep chocolate with silver tips.”35 but his focus remains primarily on the life-threatening challenge he and his fellow hunters faced. describing the actual hunt, he recalls the moment when one of the two bears sensed the human intruders’ presence. but instead of charging the humans, in a “game of bullet against claws, teeth, and immeasurable strength,” oltersdorf notes that the bear “spun around and took off,” alerting the other bear who apparently stayed in place but who still posed no direct threat to the men. he explains that he held his fire at that moment; apparently he wasn’t in a position to mortally wound the remaining bear, since “[a] wounded brownie [brown bear] can become the devil himself and that was the last thing i wanted.” but then the bear apparently began to rise onto its hind legs, and the men opened fire. oltersdorf writes that the bear was fired upon multiple times, and although he points out that when first fired on, the bear “never flinched,” certainly it felt the pain of being hit repeatedly by the bullets. oltersdorf describes the bear’s final moments of life: “labored breathing is all that could be heard for that moment; the great bear lay dead.” he explains why the hunters didn’t go ensure the bear was dead, to put it out of its misery if it was not: “it’s a very good idea not to go charging in after a kill, especially with bears. i like to give a minimum of half an hour after the bear goes down before going up to it. simply said, it’s too dangerous.”36 consequently, if the bear was mortally wounded but still alive, it had to lie there and slowly bleed to death in pain, because of the danger it posed to the hunter. volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 25 oldersdorf then narrates his efforts to “bag” the second bear, who’d fled the scene. clearly, from his story, there was “no place to hide…out of harm’s way” for that bear because oltersdorf pursued it, determined to end its life for his own pleasure. he reports that he found it minding its own business looking for salmon on a river bank, no threat to him or his companions. but he explains that he wanted the second bear because he “might not get another chance to bag one” before this particular “contest” was over.37 when the bear at the river raised up, still unaware of his human predator, oltersdorf fired. the injured bear ran away and oltersdorf chased it, continued firing, and ultimately brought this bear down as well. his final sentences conclude his “contest” with the bears in concise but victorious terms: “the smith & wesson had done its job well. i had bet my life on it.”38 although, from his narration, both bears continually sought to get away from the hunters, rather than pursuing the humans as his opening paragraph implies, oltersdorf maintains the theme of “us” against “them” throughout the violent tale, violence enacted solely by the humans who went out of their way to be in the circumstances oltersdorf describes. his story is not unique; several pages of similar “us against them” hunting stories are provided at the biggamehunts.net web site. wayne van zwoll, in the article “why hunting can’t be what it was” on the north american hunting club web site, explains oltersdorf’s love of the hunt and the kill as a “manifestation of the vestigial beast in humans—the predatory instinct of a killer…unsettling evidence of our primitive bond to nature.”39 as one of the more straightforward defenders of hunters that i have encountered online, van zwoll admits in direct terms that the goal of hunting is always to kill: “hunters want to get game. that’s why they hunt. if they tell you different, don’t believe them. the object of hunting has always been to get game, not to see pretty country, hike new trails, or relax around a campfire…a hunter who loads his rifle is putting his volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 26 reputation as a predator on the line.”40 he cites writer ernest hemingway, who “relished ‘the competitiveness, the occasional not-quite necessary tests of courage and endurance”41 that oltersdorf narrates. none of them ever questions (at least not in print) their contradictory construction of a hunting identity that relies on an understanding of evolved humans (or, in the case of the christian hunters, “redeemed” humans ostensibly under the control of god’s spirit) as unevolved, primitive and predatory, as seemingly addicted to the need to kill that lies hidden, deep within our genetic makeup as humans and thus out of our control. it seems, instead, to simply be a given, a natural part of human essence. and the image of the fierce hunter facing danger is always cast in the light of survival and strength. anti-hunting critic matthew scully adds to this ethical construction one hunter’s own words, from the magazine shooting field. this individual celebrates the unpredictability inherent in hunting wild animals: “‘even if the day’s quarry has been nurtured throughout the year by a gamekeeper, the more the guns remember that these are essentially wild creatures that can surprise and delight in their wild unpredictability, then the better they will enjoy the day.’”42 in other words, even “canned hunting” on game preserves is cast in the framework of potential danger. but scully, unwilling to accept this portrayal, sets his readers straight about what really takes place during such canned hunts for “wild” game birds, explaining that as the hunters get in place, the birds are released for the first time in their lives from cages. the gamekeeper then “grabs hold of the fowl…and hurls them heavenward” so that the hunters “experience the exhilaration of hearing all the familiar sounds of the beaters urging the birds on their way, and relish the challenges ahead.”43 the “contest” in this case is entirely but carefully staged, carefully, so participants can still experience the thrill of the hunt. the tame nature of this hunt, in contrast to the wilderness hunt oltersdorf narrates, is nevertheless presented to readers as a volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 27 survival contest, albeit one in which the human hunter is destined to prevail (since victory is what the game preserve hunter has paid for). like scully, stepaniak challenges this heroic hunter narrative: “in fact, very few hunting injuries are inflicted by animals; nearly all are caused by carelessness. most hunters who are killed during the hunt either shoot themselves accidentally or are shot by other hunters. if hunting is considered a dangerous sport, it is not the animals who make it so.”44 indeed; during the 2005 hunting season, when i undertook much of my cable news channel-surfing on hunting, i ran across more than one news bite about residents living near hunting areas dying their cattle and companion animals red or pink in order to offer them some protection by distinguishing them from the targeted wild game that trigger-happy, shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later hunters were seeking. the violence of hunting is not virtuous even if the human hunters are there is one more reason to question language used to camouflage the bloody reality of hunting, and that is for what it can reveal to us about ourselves, whether we are hunters or silent non-hunting bystanders: hunting language is based in an ethic in which taking non-human life is glorified, and the slaughter of the animal is given little reflective, critical thought; animal life is inferior to human life, of value primarily for its benefit to humans and therefore expendable. it is rhetoric that does not hold up under scrutiny. modern weapons technologies have evolved exponentially to make the hunting “contest” highly one-sided against the animals. technological advances potentially offer alternative, humane, and non-lethal methods of animal population conservation, but because of little outcry against hunting and even less monetary support for further research, such non-lethal methods are rarely pursued or improved so that they become cost-effective and preferred to hunting. further, framing hunting as an act of conservation or of celebrating the glory of creation—in which living creatures are stalked and then destroyed—is volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 28 contradictory at best, if not absurd. and while hunting animals for food, clothing, or home furnishings once might have been necessary for survival, such circumstances, for the most part, are no longer the case. hunting for food and household goods is, at least in western cultures, primarily a lifestyle choice, as is meat-eating, and thus subject to challenge and change, particularly when that lifestyle choice is extolled as “good” and “responsible,” if not as an absolute right even though it requires the bloody slaughter of a living being. but we cannot conflate a character for hunters with the virtuously violent act of hunting. in fact i argue the opposite, that hunters are in fact most often likely to be “good,” peace-loving people, with good intentions. to portray them as somehow and in varying degrees “evil,” or as blood thirsty in character simply dismisses “them” as different from “us” truly good folk who find hunting antithetical to a peace-seeking, life-affirming ethic. in other situations, “them” is “us”; that is, we’re all susceptible to justifying or rationalizing our unseemly peccadilloes or our blatantly bad behavior with well-crafted syntax and carefully chosen words. instead, as religious studies and women’s studies professor sharon d. welch points out, the violence and oppression endorsed in our culture as not only necessary but responsible and noble often arise from genuinely good intentions of well-meaning people. in her book, a feminist ethic of risk, welch focuses primarily on the violence inherent in a militaristic national defense policy relied upon as the best way to keep america secure from threatening others.45 we might offer as one example of the rationale she critiques the 2005 u.s. congressional debates about torture as an ethical means of “interrogation” for guantanamo “detainees” incarcerated during the u.s. war on terrorism. critiquing nuclear proliferation in particular, welch does not question the “goodness” of national decision-makers or of citizens who support a strong nuclear defense program, explaining that volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 29 the arms race is as much a product of goodness as it is of evil, as much a consequence of responsibility as it is of irresponsibility….as much a fruit of what western civilization regards as its best as it is of its worst….when confronted with social evil, many people assert their good intentions, resist feeling guilty, and claim that they are actually decent people.46 in fact they are in all likelihood “decent people” with “good intentions” as is also likely true of our current leaders who endorse a strong militaristic ethic as the best means of keeping “us” safe from terrorists. one might claim that when the governor of louisiana and the mayor of new orleans decided in august 2005 to open the superdome as a place of refuge from hurricane katrina for the poorest of the poor, their intentions were to protect the residents who had no means of evacuation in what they determined was the safest location. but good intentions did not reduce the travesty we all witnessed on cable news for days after katrina was long gone. welch argues, in fact, that “‘good’ intentions are beside the point, for wellintentioned people are responsible for the nuclear arms race.” the problem, as she sees it, lies not in the evil of individuals, but in our corporate, cultural, and even individual definition of “goodness”: “the problem is deeper and more complex than a simple manifestation of either ignorance or malevolence. our culture’s definition of goodness will lead us again and again to the horrors of genocide, to the threat of nuclear war.”47 so whether we’re talking about national responses to terrorism, nuclear arms, disaster response, or animal exploitation, there are deep, life-threatening flaws in how we, individually and together, define what is “good,” and until we are willing to seriously re-examine our definitions, and the language with which we publicly volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 30 argue our ethical ideals, we will continue to participate in and experience a world that is dangerous and deadly. welch poses as a solution a “reversion of values” in which we embrace our genuine “desire to be good as the motive for a thorough examination of the deadly consequences of particular values and reformulating what we mean by ‘responsible action” in light of the consequences of our culture’s definitions of virtue.”48 that is, we need to stop and thoughtfully ask ourselves why we are doing what we are doing, examining whether or not we are truly becoming the people we profess and seek to be. perhaps arizona senator, and former vietnam pow, john mccain serves as an example of such an examination when in late 2005, he persistently and successfully challenged congress and the administration to articulate and enforce a policy against any kind of torture in our pursuit of information necessary for national security.49 besides the fact that such torture rarely succeeds in its goals, it says more about us than it does about the prisoners we are “interrogating.” welch presents her “ethic of risk” as grounded in feminist ideology because it is “in communities of women” where she has found “clear analyses of the nature of oppression” and “modes of resisting” violence and oppression “with dignity and joy.” she argues that we cannot understand national ethics and policies that are grounded in violent control by structures of power “without examining the role that sexism plays in constituting the structures within which strategic policies are developed.” in particular, welch has found in “the wisdom of women from around the world” a different kind of power, power that is healing and transformative, yet power that is risky because it is not the power of guaranteed success, which is the goal of what welch has identified as an ethic of control.50 i agree with welch’s challenge, and argue that the same kind of “reversion of values” and “thorough examination of the deadly consequences of volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 31 particular values” is called for with regard to the practice of slaughtering animals for sport. welch explains that our current definitions of “goodness,” and “responsible action” are based in “an intrinsically immoral balance of power,” and as i’ve already demonstrated, hunting is all about a balance of power that is entirely weighted on the side of the humans with their camouflage and overwhelming, long-range weapons. the camouflage of hunting rhetoric that ennobles the violent stalking and slaughter of animals must be challenged so that a serious and life-affirming transformation of ethics and practice can evolve. a good first step is questioning the words by which any violence against a living being is justified or glorified, so that we can see and then resist the unjustifiable and unethical violence we uncover, such as the very real violence of hunting. but then such an unveiling must be accompanied by a willingness to respond and change how we act in and upon the world. with regard to a life-affirming and compassionate interaction with animals, such a willingness could include a transformation of how we eat, what laws we enact, what we purchase, what traditions we pass on to our children, how we share our resources and confront animal over-population, how we conduct needed medical research, and how we entertain ourselves including how we spend recreational time.51 undertaking such transformation of ways of life we’ve accepted if not participated in unquestioningly for decades would not be easy, and, as welch notes, would require us to examine exactly what we mean by “good,” which itself would be thought-provoking and difficult, and not something “we” could accomplish quickly. but if albert schweitzer is right, that until we treat animals with compassion, we ourselves will never know peace, then such questioning and transformation will be well worth the risk. watching our words, and the actions they describe, imply, justify volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 32 to paraphrase schweitzer, we humans and animals are all connected on this planet, like a mobile: if we jostle just one strand, the entire system feels it and reacts. shining a light on the questionable virtues endorsed by commonplace hunting language, which camouflages reality and distracts us from the violence inflicted upon animals, is not necessarily an isolated act of reflection that challenges only the actions and ethics of a small minority of individuals who hunt. van zwoll’s honest assessment of every hunter’s mission, to pursue and kill an animal, offers us all a challenge to assess the language undergirding violent national policies and individual ethical standpoints. i’m not in a position to put words in her mouth, but welch might point out that it’s likely no accident that hunting camouflage bears direct resemblance to the camouflage military personnel wear into combat; after all, the ends are strikingly similar. the camouflage with which hunters cover their bodies itself presents a powerful visual message. likewise the camouflaged language intended to disguise the brutal realties taking place during hunting season bears resemblance as well, again with similar ends—to present both hunting and mortal combat as necessary at worst, glorious and heroic at best. clearly, such camouflaged violence doesn’t begin and end with hunting language. the debates in our legislative and executive branches about the necessity of torture to a successful military campaign against an enemy designated as “terrorist”—as if our own brutalities are somehow more honorable than those of our enemies—further illustrate how deliberate language choices are made with the intention of minimizing the violence of our actions if not rendering it invisible. one of my favorite hunting terms is “harvesting,” used when an animal is successfully killed in a hunt, as if what takes place while hunting is simply a neutral agricultural process; the term renders the violence entirely invisible and twists hunting into a benign event. but our lexicon is filled with such rhetorical camouflage. thus it is likewise fallacious that mortally volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 33 wounded victims of combat are identified as “casualties,” when there is nothing casual about their deaths in violent battle. we hide the violent realities of abortion behind clinical terminology, and whether a woman is pro-choice or pro-life doesn’t change the violent realities of the abortion procedure, especially when it is undertaken late in a pregnancy. we hide the frightening realities of the daily slaughter of unwanted pets in shelters and pounds with the most inappropriate term—“euthanasia” (which from its greek roots means “good death,” when there is nothing good about it). we make the daily barbaric slaughter of tens of thousands of animals for food into the clean and efficient technological, assembly-line production of “meat processing.” disciplinary execution of individuals found guilty of violent crimes is dispatched as “capital punishment,” again rendering often violent deaths invisible, as well as arguably unjust in far too many cases. my point is that when we continue to hide our violence behind deliberate, carefully manipulated language, particularly if we accept as reality what we are told with little if any critical interrogation, especially without any self-reflection individually or as a society, we cannot confront the violence we say that we seek to eliminate so that all living beings can live out their lives in safety and peace. i have offered concrete examples, from the arena of hunting, of how violence can be deliberately camouflaged by the words we put forth, to illuminate the rhetorical and ethical contradictions common to such common practice. my goal has been to argue that such illumination is necessary in order to confront violent realities frequently taken as given in prevailing notions of “goodness.” language can be (re-)invented to mask our violent actions, to empower us with a deadly form of power and a sense of goodness about our necessary yet noble actions. but our public rhetoric can also be used to resist “virtuous violence” and deliver alternative, transformative ethics and actions to volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 34 those who are seeking new, healing and life-affirming ways of being for themselves and for the world. 1 schweitzer, albert, source unknown. 2 welch, sharon d. a feminist ethic of risk. minneapolis, mn: fortress press, 1990. see page 9. 3 scully, matthew. dominion: the power of man, the suffering of animals, and the call to mercy. new york: st. martin’s press, 2002. scully served on the speechwriting staff of president george w. bush throughout his first term as president and into his second term. 4 scully makes repeated reference to this trait throughout his book, particularly by animal behaviorists, of justifying our brutality against animals because animals are not like humans especially because they are unable to speak up in their own defense, a justification he challenges. because the animals can’t articulate their terror or pain, the argument goes, then we can’t prove scientifically that they feel pain or fear, so then we must assume that they do not, so it then there is no harm, no foul in anything we do to them in the name of science (or meat processing, or hunting, etc.). see chapter 5 in particular. 5 genesis, the first book of the old testament of the bible, and the first book of the torah, begins with the creation narrative that describes how god created the universe through an ordered process. in that narrative, god gives humanity “dominion” over creation, and this verse is referenced regularly in defense of animal exploitation, to support a belief that god created animals for human use. some jewish and christian animal advocates and religious scholars challenge how the term “dominion” is defined and used by those who use scripture to justify their treatment of animals. 6 heidi prescott. “hunting the hunters:women hunt saboteurs.” feminists for animal rights: an eco-feminist alliance. accessed august 27, 2005 from http://www.farinc.org/newsletter/v8_n3-4_94/hunt_sabs.html. also, williams, steve. “director steve williams at the national shooting sports summit: giving weight to hunters & shooters— the original conservationists.” speeches. u.s. fish & wildlife service. june 7, 2002. accessed august 27, 2005 from http://news.fws.gov/speeches/director2002june7.html. 7 williams, steve. op cit. 8 scully, matthew. op cit., 53 9 prescott, heidi. op cit. volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 35 10 bbcnews.com. “kerry goes hunting for ohio votes.” bbcnews. october 22, 2004. accessed july 13, 2006 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3762770.stm. 11 wilgoren, jodi. “the 2004 campaign: the democratic nominiee; kerry on hunting photo-op to help image.” the new york times, october 22, 2004. accessed july 13, 2006 from http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9907e3da1e3af931a15753c1a9629c8b63&fta=y. 12 the nra political arm, the ila, commenting on kerry’s october 2004 hunting excursion, wasn’t impressed with kerry’s efforts to frame himself as a pro-gun rights, pro-hunting candidate. see robinson, kayne. “kerry rated “f”…fake, fraud and second amendment phony. nra-ila 22 october 2004. accessed july 16, 2006 from http://www.nraila.org/issues/articles/read.aspx?id=151. 13 op cit., williams. 14 the conservation force. “the call of the hunt: why we hunt.” and “the role of hunting.” accessed august 27, 2005 http://www.conservationforce.org. 15 op cit., williams. 16 merriam webster’s pocket thesaurus. pocket reference library. springfield, ma: merriam-webster incorporated, 2002. 17 the oxford-american college dictionary. oxford university press. new york: g.p. putnam’s sons, 2002. 18 op cit., the conservation force. 19 pheasants forever. accessed july 16, 2006 from http://www.pheasantsforever.org/. 20 stepaniak, joanne. the vegan sourcebook. los angeles: lowell house, 2000. see pages 77-78 21 ibid., 78 22 muller, anne. “the greatest challenge facing the american hunting movement today is…to democratize wildlife management.” committee to abolish sport hunting, spring 1994. accessed august 27, 2005 from http://www.allcreatures.org/cash/cc94sp-challenges.html. 23 op cit., the conservation force. 24 op cit., williams. 25 depugh, mark. “why i hunt.” fellowship of christian hunters. accessed june 25, 2004 from http://fellowshipofchristianhunters.org/a%20momment/hunt!.htm. 26 christian outdoor fellowship of america. “hunters.” accessed june 25, 2004 from http://www.cofausa.org/hunters.shtml. volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 36 27 rakow, tom c. “ministry to hunters.” the christian deer hunters association. accessed june 25, 2004 http://www.christiandeerhunters.org/. 28 scully, matthew. op cit. see pages 55-56. 29 swan, james. “bringing hunting back into the church.” espn.com:conservation. december 4, 2003. accessed august 27, 2005 from http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id+1678441&type=story. 30 op cit., the conservation force. 31 linzey, andrew. animal theology. urbana, il: university of illinois press, 1994 . see pages 114, 119, 121, 123. 32 op cit., stepaniak, 76-77. 33 ibid., 80 34 oltersdorf, jim. “handgun hunting the alaskan brown bear.” biggamehunts.net february 5, 2004. accessed july 4, 2004 from http://www.biggamehunt.net/sections/alaska/handgun_hunting_the_alaskan_brown_bear_02050401.html. 35 ibid. 36 ibid. 37 ibid. 38 ibid. 39 van zwoll, wayne. “why hunting can’t be what it was.” evolution of hunting. north american hunting club. accessed august 27, 2005 from http://www.huntingclub.com/document.asp?did=5236. 40 ibid. 41 ibid 42 op cit., scully, 74 43 ibid. 44 op cit., stepaniak, 76 45 op cit., welch. see page 8, for example, where she initially explains her opposition to the “actions, values, and philosophies that have brought us to [the brink of nuclear annihilation].” chapter 2, “an ethic of control,” also details in depth the militaristic mindset that welch challenges. 46 ibid., 2 47 ibid., 2 volume 1 number 1 (2007): 2-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 37 48 ibid.,, 3 49 mccain, john. “torture’s terrible toll.” newsweek november 21, 2005. accessed 16 july from www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10019179/site/newsweek/. in this editorial, mccain argues that torture and abuse of prisoners of war “inevitably become public, and when they do they threaten our moral standing” by raising questions about the moral superiority of democracies over oppressive regimes and by weakening the credibility of nations such as the u.s. that insist upon “international prohibitions against torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners.” 50 op cit. welch, 9 51 modeled on a list welch offers, in her 2000 revision of a feminist ethic of risk, as examples of how we might work to transform society from within a life-affirming ethical foundation rather than a militaristic one. see page 35, where she argues that accountability for social transformation must ultimately move beyond ideas and rhetoric into action. i must add that welch does not offer this list as a “one-size-fits-all ‘how to’ manual” of prescribed actions that everyone who is on the side of “right” should undertake. rather she suggests life-affirming actions as possibilities that may promote compassionate transformation and liberation from oppression though they will never guarantee success; to imply otherwise would be to misrepresent what she is proposing. microsoft word yazdani ifp 14.1.docx volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 1 volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal peace education in afghanistan: a comparative study of conflict and post-conflict school textbooks hafiza yazdani national centre for peace and conflict studies, otago university, new zealand hyazdany@gmail.com abstract afghanistan has experienced numerous educational curricula supporting its different governments’ policies regarding the establishment of formal education. afghanistan’s school textbooks were published in support of alternate ideological regimes or governments during the years 1979 to 2002. from 2003 to 2014, the afghanistan islamic republic government, with support from international donor agencies, worked to change the direction of education towards peace, free from political intervention and favouritism. the purpose of this research is to evaluate three different approaches to education in afghanistan by examining a range of school textbooks, from three distinct political and cultural regimes, from a peace education perspective. it focuses in particular on the extent to which the objectives of peace education appear in afghanistan’s newly developed school textbooks between the years 2004 and 2014. school textbooks from the communist people’s democratic party of afghanistan (pdpa), the islamic state of afghanistan (isag), and the current afghanistan islamic republic government (airg) were analysed volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 2 using directive qualitative content analysis. using components of the standish analytical framework utilised in the peace education curricular analysis project (2016), three objectives of peace education are surveyed in the afghanistan data: 1. recognizing violence, 2. resolving conflict non-violently, and 3. fostering an environment of positive peace. key terms: education, peace, peace education background to the study “education is one of the most important tools for human development and the means by which successive generations develop the values, knowledge and skills for their personal health and safety as well as for future political, economic, social and cultural development. this is one of the reasons for the global emphasis on achieving universal, free and compulsory primary education” (unicef 2011, 17). the effectiveness of education for the growth of individuals and society depends on how the education system in a country develops and how it directs students’ growth towards progress both within and beyond the country (unicef 2011). it is generally accepted that education’s function is positive and essential for transmitting knowledge and skills from generation to generation (durkheim1956; unesco 1996; bajaj and chiu 2009; cardozo 2008), but scholars also argue that education can play a negative role as well, particularly in conflict areas1 (davies 2010; jeaniene 2005; unicef 2011). scholars have begun discussing the role of education in creating or sustaining conflict (lethanh 1999; davies 2010; jones 2008; jones 2009; jeaniene 2005; unicef 2011; cardozo 2008). davies discusses education’s different functions in conflict situations: supporting political interests towards conflict or maintaining peace with no messages of harm. he argues that conflict can be maintained through education reproducing the status quo, but also that attention to the school curriculum can help towards peace (davies 2010). in a conflict zone, political groups try to utilize the education system and train students to speak or act against opposition ideologies. jeaniene argues “once an ideology has been instilled in the minds of the youth, it cannot be simply ‘switched off’ when the war ends” (jeaniene 2005, 204). afghanistan has a long history of conflict and manipulation of its education system by internal and external powers for political purposes (jeaniene 2005). afghanistan as a country with a 1 countries or states where clashes and struggles occur between opposing forces. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 3 history of conflict has been experiencing education’s dual roles (negative and positive). since 1979, afghanistan has experienced several different power regimes, each of which has dominated the country’s education system, particularly the school curriculum, to reflect its preferred political ideology, and school textbooks have been used to provide preferred information for students (husham 2015). between 1979 and 1992, afghanistan was under the control of two main opposition parties: 1 the government of the people's democratic party of afghanistan (pdpa)2 that had more control in cities, and 2 the islamic jihadi3 groups (jihadi groups) as opposition groups which were active at the provincial level (husham 2015). these groups comprise the mujahedeen. the afghanistan ministry of education under the pdpa, with the support of the soviet union’s experts, integrated communist ideology into the education curriculum, school textbooks and teacher education programs. they believed that a fundamental change in education was important in the process of a democratic revolution in the country, and so students received large amounts of information about communist beliefs and principles (baiza 2015). similarly, the jihadi groups, as the resistance groups, used the school and education institutions as propaganda, encouraging people to join islamic jihadi groups. the jihadi groups, with the support of the united states of america, developed school textbooks disseminating violent messages against the people's democratic party of afghanistan government and the soviet union. the school textbooks in areas under the control of jihadi groups were all about being mujahed4 and the use of weapons, firearms, and killing (baiza 2015; jones 2009; kamgar 2002). for instance, “maths textbooks included questions such as: if three mujahedeen need 3000 bullets, 2 needs 2000 bullets, how many bullets do 9 mujahedeen need?” (interim curriculum 1987, grade 8. cited jones 2009, 115). from 1978 to 1992, afghanistan experienced two contradictory education streams. following the jihadi groups or mujahedeen regime, the taliban,5 the extremist group, took over kabul and control of the country from 1997 to 2002. 2 the people's democratic party of afghanistan pdpa was supported by the soviet union and believed in communist ideology, and was thus known as the communist regime in afghanistan. i used communist regime for pdpa government in this research as well. 3 islamic jihadi groups (jihadi groups) or mujahedeen groups were the groups of afghan people who came together and fought against the people's democratic party of afghanistan for the purpose of protecting islam during years 1979 to 1992. the jihadi groups were supported by many countries, particularly by the united states of america. 4 mujahed is singular and mujahedeen is the plural form of the name. 5 taliban is the fundamentalist political and extremist belief movement in afghanistan. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 4 during this period, the education sector in afghanistan almost collapsed and schools were closed for girls (jones 2009). after the taliban was defeated in 2001, the afghanistan ministry of education and the international community have made an effort to reform the education system with a peace education objective (jones 2009; jeaniene 2005). work between 2004 and 2014 particularly, and still in progress, has been undertaken on the school curriculum and on the development of new school textbooks (jeaniene 2005; husham 2015). however, at the time of this research there had been no evaluation or review had taken place to see whether the joint efforts of the international community and the afghan government had changed the direction of education towards peace. this research has undertaken a comparative study of the afghanistan school curriculum through the analysis of dari language and algebra subject textbooks under three governments, in order to feature changes and improvements in the current school curriculum. this study examines peace education core objectives (1-3) to investigate and observe to what extent these appear in the textbooks. this study is a comparative one and evaluates the textbooks that have been used in school in the three different regimes of the people's democratic party of afghanistan (pdpa), the mujahedeen regime, and the afghanistan islamic republic government from 1979 to 2014. the study will answer the following two specific questions: • do afghanistan’s newly developed school textbooks (2004 – 2014) meet peace education objectives in comparison to the previous school textbooks, which were in use from 1980 to 2002? • how is peace education reflected in the school textbooks in afghanistan? literature review peacebuilding and peace education peacekeeping, peacemaking and peacebuilding are the three facets of peace that address violence (cremin and bevington 2017). peacekeeping aims to respond to violence immediately and stop it from escalating. at the macro level, military forces control violence by acting as peacekeepers, and at the micro level, for example, school security guards break up fighting and work as peacekeepers in the community. peacekeeping suppresses the conflict, but does not address the cause of conflict, nor does it establish long-term peace among disputants (johnson w and johnson t 2010; cook 2008: cremin and bevington 2017). the second approach, volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 5 peacemaking, aims to resolve conflicts without the use of force and involves communication, persuasion and dialogue, mediation, empathy and reconciliation. (johnson w and johnson t 2005; cook 2008; cremin and bevington 2017). peacebuilding, aims for long-term peace. peacebuilding strategies are used to create cultures of peace and do not depend upon the use of violence, but rather promote nonviolence and a sustainable world as a way to avoid the horror of war. peacebuilding addresses the root causes of violence and works at the structural level to create conditions for positive peace (johnson w and johnson t 2010; harris and morrison 2013; johnson and johnson 2005; cremin and bevington 2017). an important form of peacebuilding is peace education. peace education is a transformative approach that transmits knowledge and skills that have relevance for keeping, making and building peace (salomon 2004; johnson w and johnson t 2005). peace education education is a means by which knowledge, cultural values and behaviour are transmitted from generation to generation with the purpose of initiating children into the adult world of meanings (unicef 2011; bajaj and chiu 2009; burns and aspeslagh 1996). peace education claims to empower students with a knowledge of conflict resolution, an understanding of conflict dynamics, and communication skills to manage peaceful relationships (harris 2004; johnson w and johnson t 2010; unesco 2008). students learn to take a social perspective, involving decisionmaking, solving social problems, peer negotiation, conflict management, valuing diversity, and social resistance skills and effective communication (harris 2004). peace education is broadly defined as the educational policy, planning, pedagogy and practice that develop awareness, skills, and values towards positive peace (bajaj and chiu 2009). the transformative role of peace education unesco discusses the role of peace education at different level; individual, school or community, national and global level. individual needs to have and knowledge and skills like positive thinking, empathetic listening and communication, assertive behaviour, decision-making and critical thinking etc. at school, students need to learn these skills in order to be peaceful individuals in the society. a peaceful environment or culture in school helps to develop attitudes and behaviour of appreciation, co-operation, belongingness, trust and spirit of learning. by way of developing a mutually respectful teachers and students’ relationship, school volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 6 introduce a living system of peace values, norms and practices into the individual daily life. at the national level, peace education is entrusted to produce good and productive citizens to the nation. focusing on learning and understanding the current socio-political and economic problems and issues and teach student accordingly as future citizens to develop realistic perspectives to view problems in the society and globally. school can generate discussions and debates on world issues to raise the global awareness in the students (unesco 2005). the key focus of peace education is capacity building: the development of knowledge and skills of conflict resolution and of personal attitudes and respect for human rights, and a positive culture of valuing peace. however, content and formulation of peace education continues to be debated (burns and aspeslagh 1996; page 2008; cremin and bevington 2017). the development of peace education curricula, contents and the methodology of peace education are seen as progressive, promoting an egalitarian learning environment that is proactive and centred on learner participation (kester 2010; ardizzone 2001). divergence on peace education content one of the curious aspects of peace education is the wide variety of content. peace education programs have been implemented worldwide, but they differ considerably in terms of objectives, content, focus, and curriculum (cardozo 2008; robiolle-moul 2016). there is no absolute formulation and definitive content of what constitutes peace education (page 2008; harber and sakade 2009; cardozo 2008; burns and aspeslagh 1996; hicks 2004; ben porath 2003). furthermore, peace education programs carry different names and merge with other education models, including education for human rights, education for conflict resolution, education for international understanding, global education, environmental education, and life skills education (cardozo 2008; cook 2008; hicks 2004). cardozo argues that “there needs to be some consensus on what peace education is or should be in a certain context” (cardozo 2008, 21). she says that, while there is a general agreement on the suitable peace education teaching and learning methods that stimulate reflective and critical dialogue in the class, a firm consensus on a clear conceptualization of peace education is missing in the literature (cardozo 2008). peace education and political challenges peace education is concerned with positive peace and addresses all three forms of violence, direct, structural, and cultural violence (galtung 1990; kester 2010; volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 7 reardon1988; harris 2009; harris and morrison 2013; harber and sakade 2009; standish 2016). however, according to some scholars it is problematic for peace education to address all three forms of violence at once, particularly structural violence (ben porath 2003; cardozo 2008; rosen and bar-tal 2009). cardozo mentions in her article that one of the challenges for peace education programs is in addressing power structures and political issues and having feasible alternatives to counteract violence in all its forms (cardozo 2008, 31; ben porath 2003). she says it is a major challenge for peace education to address structural inequalities and power relations particularly in conflict regions. according to her, peace education cannot succeed on its own and needs to be incorporated into a multilevel process of peacebuilding that can address structural inequalities and the root causes of conflict (cardozo 2008). theoretical framework unesco described peace education objectives to be included across the school curriculum and subjects as following: • to create in the learner the awareness, knowledge and sensitivity regarding issues that deal with war and peace; power and justice, gender and race; ecology and environment; conflict, etc. • to develop skill in critical thinking and problem solving/conflict resolution, empathy, assertiveness, sharing and cooperation. • to instil in the learner the attitude of self-respect and self-esteem, respect for others, open-mindedness and vision, environment concern, commitment to justice, etc. • to develop pro-peace attitudes, skill and competences in the learner (unesco 2005,16). building on this framework, standish (2016) identifies the elements that need to be incorporated into a school curriculum in order for peace education values and skills to be implemented. standish categorises these elements into three distinct areas: recognizing violence, resolving conflict non-violently and creating environments for positive peace (standish 2016, 20). for her, it is important, firstly, that violence is recognised and defined. she sees violence is as an intentional human act causing harm or the threat of harm. violence is a barrier to creating positive peace. secondly, resolving conflict non-violently means that instead of resolving conflict through violent means, for example, using weapons, it is more effective to achieve the desired result by understanding the root cause of volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 8 conflict, resolving conflict through communication, and building commitment for long-lasting peace, together with maintaining mutually beneficial, harmonious relationships (standish 2016; cook 2008). thirdly, creating environments for positive peace requires a focus on peace that she describes as including: peace zone, peace bond, social justice, ecological mind, link mind, gender mind, resilience, wellbeing and prevention (standish 2016). using the peace education framework that she developed, standish has created the peace education curricular analysis or peca project, an analysis of the school curricula of different countries related to the peace education content in the curriculum. some of the studies that have been published include investigation of the national curricula of australia, england, scotland, sweden, saudi arabia, mexico and new zealand, looking for peace education elements within the curriculum (standish 2015; standish and kertyzia 2015; standish and joyce 2016; standish 2016; standish and talahma 2016; standish and nygren 2018; kertyzia and standish 2019). these studies so far published demonstrate some interesting findings and provide initial information that could be used to evaluate peace education programs that are being operated globally without “being subjected to any act of empirical validation” (harris and morrison 2013, 219). standish’s peca framework has been chosen as the basis for analysis in this study. it is considered as useful and relevant for the study of textbooks that form the basis of the school curriculum in the afghanistan context. the peca framework identifies peace education elements, values and context that are consistent with the literature on peace education. while afghanistan is not a western nation, many of the donor agencies providing support and advice for afghanistan’s peacebuilding and education make recommendations consistent with western values (husham 2015; jeaniene 2005). therefore, standish’s theoretical framework can be used to look at the extent to which the new afghanistan school curriculum and textbooks developed with the help of international education experts addresses peace education concerns. the use of peca for looking at the curricula of different regimes is a new application of the standish model, that allows for a comparative analysis of different eras of education. definitions of the concepts the three main areas of peace education content according to the peca analysis are: recognizing violence, resolving conflict non-violently and creating environments for positive peace. recognizing violence volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 9 galtung identified three forms of violence: direct violence such as abuse, gun violence, physical fighting. structural violence refers to systematic inequities and unjust structures embedded in society as part of the social process. cultural violence refers to the way in which a society legitimizes and accepts direct and structural violence as part of its worldview (galtung 1990; standish 2016; cremin and bevington 2017). the theoretical argument is that in order for violence to be resolved, it first needs to be recognized and identified. peace education includes drawing attention to acts or conditions of violence, defining these and being aware of the consequences of different forms of violence. non-violent conflict resolution nonviolence means that instead of resolving conflict through violent means, the nonviolent way is more effective for achieving the desired result (standish 2016; salomon 2004; kester 2010; cook 2008; unesco 2008). in other words, nonviolent is communication process with aim of peace that guides us to reframe how we express ourselves and hear others by focusing our consciousness on what we are observing, feeling, needing, and requesting (unesco. 2002; king and christopher 2006). dialogue, collaboration and conflict resolution skills are the tools for nonviolent conflict transformation. dialogue refers to the capacity to discuss and negotiate rules, rights and fairness and the ability to express opinions assertively towards peace. collaboration is the technique of building social capacity to work collaboratively with others and to learn to appreciate different ideas, perspectives and insights from others. conflict resolution refers to skills and techniques used as intervention to settle disputes (standish 2016; king and christopher 2006). positive peace peace education emphasises creating positive peace or long-lasting peace free from the three forms of violence: direct, structural and cultural violence (harber and sakade 2009). positive peace aims at long-term resolution and responds to towards accomplishment of equity and social justice (galtung 1990; grewal 2003; bajaj and chiu 2009; kester 2010; reardon1988; burns and aspeslagh 1996). positive peace is a condition in which individual have the fullest possible opportunity to meet their potential unrestricted by political, social and economic inequality (burns and aspeslagh 1996: cremin and bevington 2017). volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 10 in the peca project there are 9 facets of positive peace; peace zone, peace bond, social justice, eco mind, link mind, gender mind, resilience, wellbeing and prevention (standish 2016), in this study five of the nine facets of positive peace which are relevant in the afghanistan context have been selected. peace zone, link mind and resilience are not relevant to afghanistan’s context, and i changed eco mind to ecological responsibility. eco mind defined as “harmonious living between humanity and nature” (standish and kertyzia 2019, 54), while ecological responsibility has been defined for this study as positive interaction and connection of humans with natural resources and the environment. so, the following five facets of positive peace from peca plus ecological responsibility has been selected for this study: 1. peace bond (positive relationships characterized by kindness and empathy) 2. wellbeing (individual wellbeing, and feeling responsible for one’s own and others’ health) 3. social justice (presence of equality and human rights) 4. gender mind (awareness of gender or that humans comprise men and women with equal rights and equal roles) 5. prevention (skills and techniques to resolve conflict non-violently or before violence starts). 6. ecological responsibility (positive interaction and connection of humans with natural resources and the environment). research design the peca project framework serve as a model for this research design using content analysis method. content analysis is a valid research method for studying communication material and to systematically analyse text (krippendorf 1989). krippendorf defines content analysis as a research technique for making replicable and valid inferences from texts (krippendorf 2004). content analysis method is particularly appropriate for analysing secondary sources of data such as books, documents, newspapers and diaries (krippendorf 2004; harris 2001). this present study intends to investigate and analyse the content of school textbooks in order to understand their meaning from a peace education perspective. the main purpose of this study is to explore to what extent peace education is integrated in afghanistan school textbooks. it is a comparative study and evaluation of textbooks which have been used in schools in three different governments of the people’s democratic party of afghanistan, the islamic state of afghanistan, and the current afghanistan islamic republic from1980 to 2002. for this reason, it is significantly relevant to use content analysis as the research method for this particular volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 11 study analysing school textbooks as items of cultural value. the directive qualitative content analysis (krippendorf 2004) has been used. illustrative statistics derived from summative or quantitative content analysis (neuendorf 2002) have also been used as the methodology for this research. the research data comprised six textbooks in total, two from each government period. analyse two textbooks from each regime, for the same class level (class 4) in two main school subjects – dari language and algebra that would provide the opportunity for a legitimate comparative analysis. the dari6 language has been one of the main subjects in schools from class 1 elementary school to class 12 of high school in afghanistan for the three regimes. the teaching of the dari language reflects the culture and social values of the nation and contains texts related to the importance of social and moral behaviour. as an example, the importance of family respect, respect for others in the community such as neighbours, respect for elders as a cultural value, good social behaviour, and honesty, integrity and trust as social and cultural values are some lesson titles included in this subject. therefore, this subject is appropriate for investigating how peace education is integrated in the textbooks. the algebra is also one of the main subjects in school from class 1in elementary school to class 12 of high school in afghanistan. algebra deals with numeration and counting formula, but the short text of this book is used to support a particular ideology. for instance, during the mujahedeen rule, textbooks included questions such as, “if three mujahedeen need 3000 bullets, 2 need 2000 bullets, how many bullets do 9 mujahedeen need?” (interim curriculum 1987, grade 8. cited jones 2009. 115). it is worth seeing how this subject content has been transformed to content free of ideology in the new algebra textbook under new reform of current government (airg). i wanted to investigate and reflect on the information that afghan children are provided with near the beginning of their schooling at age 9 or 10. dari language teaching is integral to local culture and social values, and there is a need to assess whether there is any reflection of peace in the teaching of these values. classes 1 to 3 are a little too early to concentrate on content, so class 4 was selected for this subject. finding this research finding presents the data analysis process covering the school textbooks of three regimes in three main sections. the first section presents the findings from the afghanistan islamic republic government (airg) school 6 dari is the first language subject of school according to the new curriculum. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 12 textbooks for the subjects of dari language and algebra (the current curriculum). the second section discusses the findings of school textbooks under the people’s democratic party of afghanistan government pdpa (the communist regime) and the third section is on the findings of the school textbooks from the islamic state of afghanistan government isag (the mujahedeen regime). section 1: findings of school textbooks under the afghanistan islamic republic government (airg), 2001-2014 findings of dari language textbook the analysis of the dari language textbook of airg government for class 4, dated 2011, involves a comprehensive and detailed examination of 154 pages, which contain 77 lessons. element one: recognition of violence recognition of violence in dari language under airg the dari language textbook of airg contains no reference to recognition of cultural or structural violence, but one lesson is devoted to direct violence (100, 101) and includes six (n=6) specific references to direct violence. the passages give students information about direct violence and how to keep themselves safe from violence. element two: nonviolent conflict transformation 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 direct violence structural violence cultural violence recognition of violence number of coding references volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 13 nonviolent conflict transformation in dari language under airg the dari language textbook of airg contains three references (n=3) to nonviolence (1, 115, 146). these references concern dialogue (n=2), and one reference relevant to conflict resolution (n=1), but no references relevant to collaboration (n=0). element three: positive peace 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 dialogue collaboration conflict resolution nonviolent conflict transformation number of coding references volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 14 positive peace in dari langauge under airg the dari language textbook of airg presents narrative content relevant to positive peace. there is information in this textbook that is relevant to all six elements of positive peace. most of the references are to wellbeing (n=45), peace bond (n=22) and ecological responsibility (n=15), social justice (n=12), prevention of violence (n=6), with gender mind having the least coverage (n=3). findings of the algebra subject textbook the analysis of the algebra textbook of the airg for class 4, dated 2011, involves a comprehensive and detailed examination of 104 pages, which contains 39 lessons. this textbook consists of main calculation lessons with follow up practices, evaluation questions and homework questions. these homework questions are phrasal questions (questions in the form of narrative). the content of these questions addresses different topics. for example, the first question on page 9 of the algebra textbook is about a pilgrimage (hajj),7 and the third question on the 7 hajj is the muslim pilgrimage to mecca at saudi arabia that takes place once every year. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 wellb eing pea ce bond ec ologic al resp onsib ilit y so cia l ju sti ce gender m ind preve ntio n positive peace number of coding references volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 15 same page is about the immunization of children. following are the questions, and these type of phrasal question in form of text can be use for peace education content. first question: in the year 1383 (2004), 18540 people and in year 1384(2005), 21250 people from the country went to mecca for hajj. how many people from our country went to mecca for hajj in the two years of 1383 and 1384? (9) third question: a group of vaccinators immunize 25980 children in the first week and 28645 in second week. please calculate how many children have been immunized in two weeks? (9) however, algebra textbook of the airg class 4 contains no references (n=0) related to recognition of violence and nonviolent conflict transformation. element three: positive peace figure 1: positive peace in algebra under airg the algebra textbook of airg does present four references (n=4) to positive peace. there are 3 reference (n=3) that are relevant to wellbeing (9, 12, 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 wellb eing pea ce ban d so cia l ju sti ce gender m ind ec ologic al resp onsib ilit y preve ntio n positive peace number of coding references volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 16 15), and one reference (n=1) to gender mind (12). this textbook has no references to the other four elements of positive peace: ecological responsibility, prevention, social justice and peace bond. the references to wellbeing include the importance of health (9, 12, and 15). references to the importance of health are the questions that provide information on child immunization. gender mind the algebra textbook of the airg has one question related to gender mind (12). a question on page 12 of this book deals with boys’ and girls’ admission to school: 4340 students received admission in a primary school. if 1350 of them are boys, how many of them are girls? besides the calculation, this question narrates the integration of boys and girls in schooling, providing students with the idea that education is important for both girls and boys. discussion of dari language and algebra textbooks of airg the content of the dari language textbook of the airg as part of the current school curriculum for class 4 has references related to all eight elements of peace education that have been defined in the theoretical framework of this research. some of the text content demonstrates more thorough coverage of certain elements of peace education. for example, there is an entire lesson on ecological responsibility, and three lessons8 on wellbeing, which shows consideration of these aspects of peace education in the curriculum. however, the element of positive peace that receives the least coverage in the text in comparison to the other five elements of positive peace (peace bond, wellbeing, social justice, ecological responsibility and prevention) is that of gender mind, or equality for girls and boys, women and men. while some of the images show girls and boys, there is very little reference in the text. this means that the notion of gender and education for girls and boys has been considered but not operationalized well into the book’s content. so, while there is some reference to women’s and girls’ rights, there is little else that indicates that females are 2 a lesson of this textbook covers two pages of text including discussion questions. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 17 considered throughout the rest of the textbook. the content on wellbeing in the dari textbook of airg is primarily narratives but provides practical information for students in class 4th of school in afghanistan. for example, the textbook contains good narratives on wellbeing which includes importance of health, importance of clean environment and being mindful of nutrition. similar content related to prevention of harm, nonviolence, peace bond, social justice and ecological responsibility are presented in basic stories but are targeted at the relatively young children of class 4. for instance, a girl in class 4 learns to be responsible for a clean environment or to be mindful of nutrition. this can be a practice in the family with her siblings or with her illiterate mother which contribute to whole family wellbeing. similarly, if a boy learns good things about keeping natural resources at school, he can practice it in his house. while these can be seen as gender specific lessons, it is also necessary learning for students in afghanistan. as harris claims, peace education content needs to be flexible in order to address concerns of peace at the national or international levels (harris 2009). these lessons even with basic narratives are appropriate for students and can contribute to positive peace in longterm in afghanistan. the algebra textbook of the airg contains questions for students’ practice. these question narratives are an opportunity to integrate aspects of peace education into the content of the textbook, but this textbook has only three brief references related to wellbeing as one element of positive peace. there is one brief reference to boys’ and girls’ education that reflects the gender mind value. this analysis demonstrates that peace education is integrated into the dari language textbook used for the current afghanistan school curriculum, and all eight elements of peace education are covered to some extent. however, the textbook for the subject of algebra has very limited reference to topics that relate to peace education. so, while there has been an attempt by the afghanistan islamic republic government (airg) to incorporate peace education related content into the school curriculum, this is not reflected in all subjects, and there is certainly room for improvement. the content of questions narratives could quite easily have texts related to the importance of fruits for health which is relevant to wellbeing value. for example, “there are 10 apples on the table for 5 children, if we divide the 10 apples to the 5 children, please calculate how many apples are there per child?” this is an example and this question can be elaborated more in follow up question, like why is it important for children to have an apple almost every day etc. another example for environmental responsibility could be to question narratives on the importance of trees and forests, and there could be more text related to gender that would be helpful for children’s learning about positive peace. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 18 section 2: findings of school textbooks under people’s democratic party of afghanistan government (pdpa) 1978 1992 findings of dari language subject textbook of the pdpa government the analysis of the dari language textbook dated 1984, used as part of the school curriculum of pdpa government, involved a comprehensive and detailed examination of 147 pages, containing 40 lessons. each lesson of this textbook starts with a grammar lesson on the dari language, followed by practice of the lesson by reading and writing of sentences relevant to the grammar lesson. element one: recognition of violence recognition of violence in dari language under pdpa the dari language textbook of the pdpa contains no references relevant to recognition of structural violence, but there is a short paragraph that refers to direct violence in the passage on page (56), and also a sentence as an example of cultural violence on page (101), that informs students about oppression and truth. in total, there are three (n=3) references to recognition of violence, with two references relevant to direct violence (n=2) and one relevant to cultural violence (n=1). salma’s mother beat salma and said, why did you beat your sister? your sister is younger then you, and you should not beat 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 direct violence cultural violence structural violence recognition of violence number of coding references volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 19 her. salma was crying and said to her mother, i am younger than you. why you are beating me?( 56) mazdak disliked oppression and was courageous in teaching about the truth (101). element two: nonviolent conflict transformation nonviolence conflict transformation in dari language under pdpa the dari language textbook of the pdpa contains three references (n=3) related to nonviolent conflict transformation (1, 93, 132). these references are in a general passage that encourages nonviolence, as in collaboration (n=2) and conflict resolution (n=1). element three: positive peace 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 collaboration conflict resolution dialogue nonviolent conflict transformation number of coding references volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 20 positive peace in dari language under pdpa the dari language textbook of the pdpa presents narrative content relevant to positive peace, with a total of thirty references (n=30). the narratives contain references relevant to four elements of positive peace. most of these references are related to peace bond (n=14), followed by wellbeing (n=12), with only two (n=2) references for each of social justice and gender mind. there are no references (n=0) to prevention or ecological responsibility. the references relevant to peace bond are more than any other element of positive peace, in the dari language textbook of pdpa. these references include texts that encourage students to be kind and helpful to others. the narratives teach students how important it is to take care of parents, relatives, neighbours and people in the community. the references (n=12) relevant to wellbeing include content on taking responsibility for oneself and others’ health (n=1), the importance of health (n=4), caring and helping others (n=6) and one reference to physical exercise (n=1). 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 pea ce bond wellb eing ec ologic al resp onsib ilit y so cia l ju sti ce gender m ind preve ntio n positive peace number of coding references volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 21 the references are only two (n=2) relevant to social justice that include text on respecting equality and justice, equal rights for all humans, and are against oppression. there are two references relevant to gender mind in the whole book (n=2). the references refer to a short story and one sentence concerning women’s rights and roles. although the two references to gender mind are not adequate for an entire book, they present a meaningful understanding of women’s rights and equal rights for men and women. on page (13) there is a sentence on the role of men and women in work. it is one short sentence, but the meaning of this short text is the recognition that women can work, like men. our sisters are working besides their brothers. page (103) contains a passage on equal rights of men and women. this is a very clear and strong statement on women’s rights. in a male-dominated society like afghanistan, addressing woman’s rights with a clear and strong message is significant. mazdak was saying: women and men have equal rights. so, women should not be men’s servant, and men should not consider women as their servant. mazdak’s words stirred up farmers, woman and youth, and they spoke with one voice. findings of the algebra subject school textbook of pdpa government the analysis of the algebra textbook dated 1982 for the school curriculum of pdpa government involves a comprehensive and detailed examination of 216 pages, which contain 173 lessons. this textbook contains no references (n=0) recognition of violence, nonviolent conflict transformation and positive peace. discussion on dari language textbook of pdpa government the dari language textbook for class 4 of school under the pdpa government touches on six of the eight elements of peace education that have been defined in the theoretical framework for this study; recognition of violence nonviolence, peace bond, wellbeing, social justice, and gender mind, and no references to ecological responsibility and prevention. however, in addition to the peace education elements there was texts that provided explicit political messages and ideological instruction volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 22 to the students, which is contrary to peace education. there were eleven (n=11) references throughout the book that are statements in favor of the pdpa government. the people’s democratic political party, supported by the soviet union, took over power in 1978 through a military coup, and noor mahammad taraky, the leader of people's democratic party of afghanistan (pdpa) became the president of afghanistan (baiza 2015; tanin 2005). this power change was called the “saur revolution” by the pdpa government, and there are many statements in the dari language textbook regarding this revolution. these statements do not seem to have any particular relevance to the content but seem to be imposed or inserted into the textbooks. the sentences on pages 17, 52, 105, 50, 54, and 138 of the dari textbook provided students with statements pertaining to the saur revolution. all revolutionary youth are together in strength. this year we celebrate the revolution’s anniversary. long live the revolution! revolutionary youth keep your ranks tight. a new stage of development of the sour revolution started on jadi 6th 1358(1980). the second stage of the saur revolution started on jadi 6th 1357 (1979). we do not forget the memory of jadi 6th of 1358 (1980). (memory of jadi 6 means the saur revolution). on pages (106, and 109) are references to the memorial of martyrs of the saur revolution. eternal glory to the brave martyrs of the homeland who in the fight against the enemy of saur revolution sacrificed their lives. long live the memory of martyrs of the revolution. on page (106) women are encouraged to contribute to the saur revolution. brave homeland women, participate in social, political and economic affairs in the country and solidify the achievement of the saur revolution. so, although there are references that can be counted as peace education in the dari textbook under pdap government, these 11 very explicit political references demonstrate that pdpa used the textbooks also for political propaganda, to encourage students to support the pda regime and its ideological teachings. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 23 section 3: findings of school textbooks under the islamic state of afghanistan government isag 1992-1996 the analysis of the dari language textbook dated 1370 (1991) for the school curriculum for class 4 under the islamic state of afghanistan government (isag) involves a comprehensive and detailed examination of 143 pages, which contain 46 lessons. the dari language textbook of isag contains no references (n=0) to recognition of violence and nonviolent conflict transformation, but there is references to positive peace. element three: positive peace positive peace in dari language under isag the dari language textbook of the isag does present narrative content related to positive peace. there are forty-one (n=41) references to positive peace, covering only two of its elements, wellbeing (n=24) and peace bond (n=17) and contains no references (n=0) relevant to social justice, gender mind, ecological responsibility and prevention. the references relevant to wellbeing include information on taking responsibility for one’s own and others’ health (n=12), and the importance of 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 well b eing pea ce bond so cia l ju sti ce ec ologic al resp onsib ilit y gender m ind preve ntio n positive peace number of coding references volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 24 health (n=11), but there is only one reference to caring for and helping others with health issue (n=1). the references (n=17) relevant to peace bond discuss parents’ rights and taking good care of them and discusses neighbour’s rights and aims to convince students to respect their neighbour’s rights. it encourages students to be empathetic towards their neighbor and help them when required. findings of the algebra subject textbook of isag the analysis of the algebra textbook for class 4 of school under isag government involved a comprehensive and detailed examination of 183 pages, comprising 18 lessons. the content of these questions covers different topics, most of them related to the mujahedeen fighting with russian forces and internal pdpa government forces. this book has no references relevant to peace education elements. the entire textbook does not have a single element that could be seen as reflecting peace education elements as they have been defined in this study’s theoretical framework. however, there are fourteen (n=14) narrative questions in this textbook that promote violence. more details on this presented in the following discussion. discussion of dari language and algebra textbooks the dari language textbook under the isag has references relevant to two positive peace values, wellbeing and peace bond, but no references to recognition of violence, nonviolence, gender mind, social justice, ecological responsibility or prevention. the references relevant to wellbeing and peace bond values of peace education in the dari textbook of isag are important information for students that learn in a time of war and conflict in afghanistan. as mentioned earlier, during mujahedeen power as opposition groups to pdpa or as government of afghanistan, schools were place of physical war. there was no attention in the textbook’s content to improvement or improvement to education generally. so, finding text relevant to wellbeing and peace bond values of peace education can be viewed as positive considering the war situation. the text or narratives in the dari language textbook under isag relevant to wellbeing and peace bond are very much connected to islamic values. the narratives demonstrate more of a good muslim personality and characters and uses the example of the prophet mohammad’s (pbuh) behavior and good character regarding wellbeing. information relevant to peace bond referred to the context of volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 25 muslim brotherhood with reference to jihad. the information is linked to religious references. on page (55) of the textbook as lesson discusses neighbour’s rights and encourages students to be empathetic with their neighbor with reference to almighty allah. almighty allah will be happy with us if we show good behavior to our neighbours and do not create problems for them. discussion of algebra textbook the algebra textbook for class 4 of school under the islamic state of afghanistan government (isag) contains no references relevant to any of the peace education elements: recognition of violence, nonviolent conflict transformation and positive peace. however, there are fourteen (n=14) narrative questions in this textbook that promote violence. there are texts that speak favorably about the mujahedeen in general and support fighting with russian forces and pdpa government forces (26, 33, 34, 35, 48, 57, 60, 61). these 14 questions have content that relates to mujahedeen attacks on russian forces, calculation of bullet numbers and killing of russian soldiers. the following are some of the questions: in a mujahedin camp, from 446 people 44 mujahed per night work as security guards to watch the camp, and 320 mujahed have been deployed to attack the russian forces at midnight. please calculate how many mujahed are on duty per night. (26) in a mujahedeen camp during the night 1926 mujahed perform prayers, 540 mujahed attack the atheist state forces and 423 mujahed work as security guards of the camp. please calculate how many mujahed are awake at night. (26) the mujahedeen had a total of 90,090 bullets for the kalashnikov (gun). 8095 of them were used in an attack on russian forces, and they seized 40,549 kalashnikov bullets as booty. please calculate how much bullets they have now? (33) volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 26 a group of mujahedeen had 5,009 bullets for the yazdateera (type of gun) and 5,196 bullets for the kalashnikov. they used 2,085f yazdateera bullets and 5,196 kalashnkov bullets in an attack on russian forces. as a result of the attack, the mujaheedin seized heavy weapons and 21,095 yazdateera bullets and 25,965 kalashnikov bullets as booty. please calculate how many yazdateera bullets and how many kalashnikov bullets the mujahedin have now. (34) these questions are not relevant to peace education elements, but rather are relevant to war education. according to lynn davies, teaching about struggle, war and violence prepares children mentally for war (davies 2005). these references demonstrate that it was war time and school curriculum textbooks were utilized for political purpose (jeaniene 2005; lethanh 1999; davies 2010; jones 2008; jones 2009; jeaniene 2005; unicef 2011; cardozo 2008). these lessons narratives convince students to get familiar with war physical tools; guns, bullets etc. students were encouraged to help the mujahedeen ideology and become fighter to support them. the impact of these lessons remained on students’ mentality for life time and affected students’ behaviors with themselves, family, community and society. rather than encouraging non-violence, these textbooks are teaching students very explicitly to accept violence, war and killing of others regarded as enemies. conclusion the afghanistan ministry of education considered information relevant to peace education in the current school textbooks that were developed in the years 2004 to 2014. the information related to peace education is more relevant to positive peace, while there are limited references to recognition of violence and nonviolent conflict transformation. the analysis of the dari language textbook shows that the afghanistan ministry of education considered information about peace education with a focus on society’s needs, but this has not been well operationalized in all textbooks. further attention is required to integrate information about peace in all possible school textbooks, particularly in the social science area. by contrast, the previous school textbooks that were in use in schools from1980 to 1996 contained less information relevant to peace education. the volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 27 previous textbooks also contained information that clearly favored political party influence and supported undesirable education or even education for war. textbooks under the people’s democratic party of afghanistan, the communist regime from 1978 to 1992, provided information in favour of this government. the school textbooks of the islamic state of afghanistan, the mujahedeen regime from 1992 to 1996, contained information that supported both the mujahedeen regime and fighting russian forces and communist-supported government forces. recommendations peace education content incorporated into the school textbooks under the airg, particularly the dari language subject that covers all eight elements of peace education, has been defined in this research’s theoretical framework. however, the information related to peace education is more relevant to positive peace, and fewer references are relevant to the recognition of conflict and nonviolent conflict transformation. recognition of violence, nonviolent conflict transformation and positive peace are the main peace education objectives that have been defined in this research. the dari language textbook of the airg contains few texts relevant to recognition of violence and nonviolent conflict transformation. peace education is a strategy for peacebuilding, in which the core elements include recognition of violence and nonviolent conflict transformation. the afghanistan ministry of education in another round of reform of the school textbooks should focus on integration of more information on recognition of violence and nonviolent conflict transformation in school textbooks, as well as in other sectors of the education system. there is an opportunity for skills in conflict resolution to be taught at all levels of the school, with appropriate instructions for the teachers and exercises for the students to be provided in the textbooks. some more practical and applied instructions would be of value here. gender mind as an important element of peace education has also not been adequately covered in the textbooks under the airg. the dari language textbook of the airg has only three sentences relevant to gender mind as a value of positive peace. gender is an important aspect of positive peace, and positive peace cannot be considered to be comprehensively covered without further consideration of gender equality. information on gender is not only important for peace education but is essential for social cohesion. simply, there needs to be more information on gender included in the textbooks. the example given previously of the image on page (46) of the dari language textbook showing a girl and a boy with school bags and books means that volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 28 the idea of gender and education for girls and boys has been considered, but this could also include a narrative on the importance of schooling for girls and boys, or the inclusion of both boys and girls in education programs. it would give students further knowledge of gender equality and important roles for girls and boys, and men and women, in a nation state and in the world. in this way the idea of gender could be operationalized into the book’s content. a separate study of school textbooks on gender inclusion could support the ministry to better understand the gender gap at the school level. the comparative analysis demonstrates that the algebra textbook of the school curriculum of the afghanistan islamic republic government has limited text related to peace education. while there were opportunities to integrate more content relevant to peace education into algebra textbook, there are only six references related to the wellbeing value of positive peace in the entire book. based on this research finding, i recommend further inclusion of peace education content into the algebra textbook. the content of the algebra textbook questions is an opportunity to integrate text related to the topic of peace education. for example, the third question on page 9 of the algebra textbook of the current school curriculum is about immunization of children. this question is relevant to the wellbeing value of positive peace. more examples and exercises could be provided that bring to children’s attention the place for girls in the education system, to cover the gender mind element. more integration of text relevant to all elements of peace education, is possible in the algebra textbook. it is necessary to operationalize peace education content into all school subject textbooks, not only dari language and algebra textbooks. it is essential to integrate information related to peace education in all possible subject textbooks. under the afghanistan islamic republic government, the dari textbook content relevant to positive peace as an element of peace education discusses the society’s needs, which is very supportive of peace education practice. the dari language class 4 textbook of the current school curriculum contains lessons that are relevant to ecological responsibility, wellbeing and social justice elements of positive peace, focussing on the afghan population’s needs and concerns. it is helpful and constructive learning to consider information related to peace education that addresses the people’s needs. these texts in the school textbooks contribute to peace education in practice towards peace-building. the afghanistan ministry of education should maintain this practice, addressing the society’s needs and further reinforcing them. this study’s findings show that peace education information has been considered in the school textbooks, but there is a need for further research to fulfil volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 29 this huge gap. more research is certainly required on the afghanistan school curriculum, particularly school textbooks. this research is a comparative study of current and previous school textbooks and addressed peace education information in two subject textbooks, dari language and algebra. more research to review all current curriculum textbooks is needed, and possibly research on textbooks in comparison to other countries’ school textbooks would be helpful for the ministry of education to ensure quality education towards peace. a comparative study of the afghanistan school curriculum or textbooks with other countries’ school curricula may support the ministry of education to reflect on their work towards a standard education system, for example, a comparative study of afghanistan and indonesia would be useful to reflect on the standard of education in afghanistan or see how other countries with a similar culture provide education for their school students. references akhooundi, z. haji, emam-jom’eh, and sarmadi m. r. 2011. “explain the key elements of curriculum based on the concepts introduced by freire.” journal of curriculum studies 6: 142-171. bajaj, monisha, and chiu belinda. 2009. “education for sustainable development as peace education.” peace & change, 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university of minnesota. accessed on november 10, 2017. url: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/david_johnson50/publication/26621 1579_6_peace_education in_the_classroom_creating_effective_peace_education_programs/links/ 542d59750cf277d58e8cc0a7.pdf johnson, w. david and johnson t. roger. 2005. “essential components of peace education.” theory into practice. url: doi: 10.1207/s15430421tip4404_2 jones, adele. 2009. “curriculum and civil society in afghanistan.” harvard educational review 79, 1. 113-122. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 31 kester, kevin. 2010. “education for peace: content, form, and structure: mobilizing youth for civic engagement.” peace & conflict review 4, 2: 1659-3995. king, mary e. and miller christopher a. 2006. “teaching model: nonviolent transformation of conflict. university for peace krippendorff, klaus. 2004. content analysis: an introduction to its methodology. 2nd ed. london: sage le, thanh khoi.1999. education cultures and societies. translated by douzi sorkhabi mohmmad yamani. tehran. shahid beheshit university publication centre page, james. 2008. peace education: exploring and philosophical foundations information age publishing inc reardon, betty a. 1988. comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility. new york and landon. teachers college, columbia university robiolle-moul, tina. 2016. “peace education in fragile states”. phd thesis. tufts university: the fletcher school of law and diplomacy salomon, gavriel. 2004. “what is peace education?” journal of peace education. 1, 1:123-127. standish, katerina. 2015. “looking for peace in the australian national curricula.” peace and conflict studies 22: no. 2, article 5. standish, katerina and heather kertyzia. 2015. “looking for peace in the national curriculum of england”. journal of peace and justice studies vol. 24(2), 73-99 standish, katerina. 2016. “looking for peace in national curriculum: the peca project in new zealand.” journal of peace education 13.1: 18-40. doi: 10.1080/17400201.2015.1100110 standish, katerina, and janine joyce. 2016. “looking for peace in the national curriculum of scotland.” peace research, the canadian journal of peace and conflict studies, vol. 48(1-2), 67-90 standish, katerina and talahma rula. 2016. “looking for peace in the national curricula of the kingdom of saudi arabia.” peace and conflict studies 23: no. 2. standish, katerina, and thomas nygren. 2018. “looking for peace in the national curriculum of sweden.” nordic journal of studies in educational policy. doi: 10.1080/20020317.2018.1474701 unesco. 1996. “learning: the treasure within, 1996; report to unesco of the international commission on education in the twenty-first century.” accessed on september 16, 2017. url: http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/briefingpapers/efa/resources.shtml volume 14 number 1 (2020): 1-32 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 32 unesco. 2002. “best practices of non-violent conflict resolution in and outof-school”. accessed on july 2019. url: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000126679 unesco. 2005. peace education: framework for teacher education. new delhi, india. accessed on may 2019. url: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000150262 unesco. 2008. unesco’s work on education for peace and non-violence. accessed on may 2019. url: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000160787 unicef. 2011. “role of education in peacebuilding: literature review.” accessed on september 15, 2017. url: http://www.unicef.org/education/files/eepct_peacebuilding_literaturer eview.pdf the crime of war volume 7 number 1 (2013): 59-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ war: the ultimate crime against humanity review of gwynne dyer, war: the lethal custom (new york: carroll & graf publishers, 2005). by sam r. snyder the institution of war has an improbable history. it is the only human institution that has such a checkered history of short-term gains and long-term losses. it is the ultimate crime against humanity if, and more probably when, the human race successfully destroys the conditions which make human existence on earth possible. although rooted in our animal past, war as a human institution profoundly connected to civilization and technology. gwynne dyer entitled his book, war: the lethal custom, signifying in the subtitle that war is a customary activity in human society. dyer, who holds a ph.d. in military history from the university of london, has served in the canadian, british, and american navies. the book, published in 2005, is a completely revised edition of the 1985 edition. in the 1980’s a seven-part television series, based upon the original edition, was broadcast in forty-five countries. in his introduction, dyer states that war has been a “more or less” functional institution and it is only in the past century that two trends, one moral and the other practical, have gained strength. after the atrocities of the 20th century, large numbers of people came to the realization that war might simply be wrong. the other factor is that we will almost all die, and our civilization with it, if we continue to practice war. in his first chapter, the author discusses the nature of war, about how the soldier was one of civilization’s first inventions and how little armies have changed over the past five thousand years. the consequences of war, however, can and do change. once force has been invoked, the only effective response is superior force. the one certainty about battle is its uncertainty, the “fog of war.” the author says that everything that army officers know about battle leads them to believe that “it is an environment where nothing works reliably, and no plan or stratagem succeeds for very long.” (p. 27) in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 59-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 60 the second chapter, entitled “anybody’s son will do,” talks about the process of taking ordinary young men, most of whom have an inhibition against killing, and removing that inhibition by routine psychological conditioning. war has been chronic for about ten thousand years, since we moved into mass civilizations. the author raises the question of whether war is an inevitable part of civilization, or whether it goes even deeper. in the third chapter, “the roots of war,” the author turns to the great debate about human nature as characterized by thomas hobbes and jean-jacques rousseau. hobbes’s leviathan was published in 1651, just after the thirty years war. the work was a defense of the powerful centralized state in contrast with the chaos and misery of life without it, a life, which hobbes characterized as being “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” (quoted on p. 67) rousseau, writing a century after hobbes, made the “noble savage” his model, people who rousseau characterized as living in freedom and equality. he argued that people who lived in “pre-civilization” possessed the freedom and equality that was the original heritage of all mankind. the evidence we have for the way human beings used to live is the archeological data about long-ago hunter-gatherer bands. what evidence we have indicates that hunter-gatherer bands contained about twenty to fifty people. there was a rough equality among adults with a sharp division of labor between the sexes. however correct rousseau was about some characteristics of their life, he was incorrect about an absence of warfare. as hobbes asserted, they did live in “continual fear and danger of violent death” at the hands of their fellow men. (quoted on p. 69) jane goodall’s discovery in 1973 that chimpanzees in tanzania waged a kind of war against neighboring tribes was subsequently confirmed other investigators. it was concluded that fighting between rival gangs of chimps is “widespread, chronic, and very serious.” about 98 percent of our genetic material is common to the two species and until about ten or twelve thousand years ago all of our human ancestors made their living in essentially the same way as chimps, by foraging for food in small bands about the same size. (p. 70) the rest of the chapter is devoted to considering the question of whether the tendency to make war is an inevitable part of our animal heritage. this is a disturbing thought, as the author states, but territory is important, and predators play for keeps. (p. 81) the “predator” distinction is important: this phenomenon of raiding and waging ‘war’ against other members of the same species occurs only among predators. moralists will start looking for the mark of cain, but pragmatists would simply observe that if you are not equipped in some way to kill members of other species, you probably cannot kill members of your own either. thus, for example, only two species among the great apes, humans and chimpanzees, routinely hunt, and they are also the only two primate species that regularly engage in intra-species killing. why these predators (and some others) make a kind of war is a difficult and contentious question, but how is simple: they can do it because both their physiology and their group-living habits make it easy for them to do in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 59-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 61 so. (pp. 81-82) [italics in original] in his fourth chapter, “the rise of battle,” dyer associates war, as we know it with the rise of civilization. he states: [by] 2000 bc or thereabouts, all of the main institutions, values, and behaviors [sic] of civilization were in place, and they would not change drastically for another three millennia. by then, at least 90 percent of the human race was making a living from agriculture, and the vast majority of these people lived in states that were social pyramids with semi-divine kings at the top. the old egalitarian values survived only in a few small city-states, and among the relatively small number of people who made their living as pastoralists or as tribal farmers and hunter-gatherers. (p. 144) the fifth chapter, entitled “the middle passage,” describes the period from the second millennium bc to the beginning of the present era four or five centauries ago. it links the rise of battle as the predominant feature of war, as described in the previous chapter, and in the subsequent chapter, “the road to mass warfare.” gun power was invented by the chinese during the sung dynasty, a period of remarkable technological innovation in china. by 1257 a primitive gun using a bamboo tube, called the “fire lance,” was developed. the mongols probably transmitted the new weapon to europe, and the first real metal guns were being cast in europe by the 1320’s. after that, europe took the lead in development of firearms. the old-style medieval castles and town walls could be knocked down by cannon fire, but “by the seventeenth century a new kind of fortification based on deep ditches, sloping walls, and angular bastions was winning the technological race against the cannons of the time.” (pp. 207-208). cannon fire had its most profound effect at sea, where the ocean-going sailing ships of western europe ideal artillery platforms. (p. 208) the author states, however, that firearms did not destroy feudalism. the whole basis of the feudal nobility’s economic and political power was undermined by the shift from agriculture to commerce as the main source of wealth and by the growing centralization of political power in the monarch. within a generation of the introduction of modern european firearms into japan in, 1542, the japanese were manufacturing firearms fully comparable to the european. in 1575, japanese musketry was the best in the world but by 1675 there hardly any guns in japan and they had disappeared completely from war. “it was one of the most extraordinary about-faces in history: the japanese looked down the road on which firearms were taking them, decided they did not like the destination, and simply turned back.” (p. 212) from the mid-sixteenth century on, europe was increasingly torn by wars of religion arising out of the protestant reformation. the thirty years war, which ended in 1648, was the first war in which all of the european powers became involved. “battles had taken on the form they were to retain until a little more than a century ago – and eight million people were dead” (p. 215) the other great change in war [besides the increase in the number of battles] was in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 59-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 62 political, not military: for the first time ever, mass societies had found a way to dispense with their autocratic rulers and revive the old human principle of equality. in less than fifteen years, popular revolutions overthrew the monarchs first in the british colonies in america (population three million), and then in france, the biggest state in europe (population thirty million). (p. 237) . . . all that was lacking to transform mass warfare into total war was the technology – but the industrial revolution was already almost a generation old in 1815, and soon it would begin to fill that last remaining gap. (p. 240) dyer’s seventh chapter is entitled “reductio ad absurdum: total war.” he begins with the greatest mid-century war of the nineteenth century: the american civil war. more american soldiers died – 622,000 – in the civil war than in the two world wars, korea, and vietnam. this with a population of only ten percent of what it is now. world war i, the trench war, became a war of artillery; over half the casualties were now caused by shellfire. because of the trenches, strategy was paralyzed and tactics narrowed to the search for bigger bombardments. the war became simply a matter of attrition. in the fivemonth battle of the somme, for example, the british lost 415,000 men and the germans lost a similar number. bombing civilians in cities . . . was the final step in the brutal logic of total war. . . . the first major air raid on london came little more than a year after the war’s outbreak. (pp. 262263) attrition, in the end, was the main factor that decided who won the war. the entente powers simply had more men and resources than germany and its allies . . . . the scale of losses dwarfed those of any previous war in history. over eight million soldiers were killed and about twenty million wounded, and it is estimated that around three million civilians also died, mostly from malnutrition and disease. (p. 267) during the twenty years between the two world wars, theorists worked out how best to use tanks (developed at the end of world war i) in warfare. the germans developed the “blitzkrieg” (lightning war) using a large force of tanks to penetrate the enemy’s front, assisted by aircraft and followed by motorized infantry and artillery. using this method, the germans destroyed the entire polish army in three weeks in 1939. (p. 271) world war ii killed at least twice as many soldiers as world war i, but it also killed almost twice as many civilians as soldiers. as the author states: “at least 97 percent of the forty-five million people who were killed in world war ii were not killed by air raids on cities, and it is very hard for even the most devoted admirers of ‘strategic bombardment’ to make a convincing argument that it won the war. . . . bombing is the natural weapon – the reductio ad absurdum – of total war, and it was particularly attractive to those theorists between the wars who wished to avoid another bloody struggle in the trenches.” (p. 275, italics in original) in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 59-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 63 in the war against japan the united states used huge b-29 bombers and more “british” tactics. by 1945 only about three hundred thousand civilians were killed by the bombings, but about twenty-two million were living in temporary shelters amid the burnt-out cities or had fled to the countryside. on 6 august 1945, colonel tibbett’s crew dropped the [atomic] weapon on hiroshima, and total war came fully into its inheritance: seventy thousand people were killed in less than five minutes by a single aircraft carrying a single bomb. (p. 283) colonel tibbetts is unusual only for what he did. his attitudes toward war are those that still dominate the world, although the weapons of mass destruction have grown still more efficient in the [then] six decades since he dropped his relatively puny bomb on hiroshima. the disproportion between means and ends in warfare has widened into an unbridgeable chasm: the causes and the various national aims of modern wars are no more profound or complex than those that sent tuthmose iii’s army marching into palestine three thousand years ago, but the means by which wars can now be fought have placed the whole human race on a permanent notice of extinction. (p. 284) [but] crisis management, however necessary, is bound to fail sooner or later; only profound institutional change can provide long-term safety, for the technologies of total war cannot be unlearned. that change has not yet been accomplished in practice, but one of the vital preconditions for change had come to pass by 1945. as a result of two world wars, a majority of people everywhere have ceased to see war as an opportunity for personal and national glory, and come to see it instead as a very big and ugly problem. (p. 285) but are we sure? in the opening pages of dyer’s eighth chapter, entitled a short history of nuclear war, 1945-90, the author states that the assumption that great military strength is the surest guarantee that a country will be left in peace – is demonstrably false. the bigger and more powerful the state, the more frequent its wars. world war i spread to all the european great powers and japan, and after two and a half years, the united states. by its end it had involved half the independent states then in existence. world war ii involved every great power in just over two years and all but six of the world’s independent countries were at war by 1945. since 1945, however, none of the great powers has fought any other great power directly. wars between middle-rank neighboring countries have occurred regularly. these are now known as conventional (non-nuclear) wars, but they tend to be short. the majority of people killed in war since 1945 have died in new kinds of struggle: guerrilla warfare, “revolutionary war,” counter-insurgencies, and terrorism. these all have one thing in common: military power is becoming less effective in achieving decisive and politically satisfactory results. after an extended discussion of crises and near-crises from the 1960’s through the 1980’s: berlin, cuba, vietnam, the middle east, the author arrives at the following conclusion: in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 59-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 64 the problem we face was bound to arrive eventually: war is deeply ingrained in our culture, but it is lethally incompatible with an advanced technological civilization. six [now nine] decades after hiroshima we have a clearer grasp of the precise nature of our fate if we fail to solve the problem, but the essence of our dilemma was already obvious to albert einstein in 1945: “everything has changed, except our way of thinking.” (p. 346) “keeping the old game alive” is the title of the ninth chapter, the “game” being referred to being, or course, “the game of war, as practiced by great nations. while we normally count only the two great wars of the twentieth century as “world wars,” the author states that a political definition of a world war would be one in which “all the great powers of the time are involved. by this criterion, there have been six world wars in modern history: the thirty years war of 1618-48, the war of the spanish succession in 1702-14, the seven years war of 1756-63, the revolutionary and napoleonic wars of 1791-1815, and the two wars that actually bear the name of world war in 1914-18 and 1939-45.” (p. 351) the author notes that the most striking thing about this list is its cyclical character; the great powers have all gone to war with each other about every fifty years. dyer says that the reason that great powers all go to war about every fifty years is almost certainly because of the peace treaty that ended the last war. (p. 352) if this is true, and there seems to be a great deal of evidence to support it, a functional definition of the purpose of war is to prepare for the next war. chapter 10, the penultimate chapter in dyer’s book, concerns guerrillas and terrorists. the final paragraph in that chapter is a quotation from september 2002 made by stella rimington, former director-general of mi5, the british foreign intelligence agency. i’m afraid that terrorism didn’t begin on 9/11 and it will be around for a long time. i was very surprised by the announcement of a war on terrorism because terrorism has been around for thirty-five years. . . . [and it] will be around while there are people with grievances. there are things we can do to improve the situation, but there will always be terrorism. one can be misled by talking about war, as though in some way you can defeat it. (p. 416) the final chapter of dyer’s book is “the end of war.” the chapter begins with an account of a disaster that struck the forest troop of baboons in kenya. when the alpha males, who ruled the garbage dump of a tourist lodge within their range, ate meat that was infected with bovine tuberculosis at the dump and promptly died, the less aggressive half of the group’s males survived. male baboons are so obsessed with status that they routinely bully and terrorize lowerranking males and even females who are half their size. after the biggest, most aggressive males died, the surviving members relaxed and began treating one another more decently, changing the whole social atmosphere. all primates are very malleable and adaptive in our cultures. human beings are less aggressive and more cooperative than baboons or chimpanzees, and infinitely more flexible in in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 59-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 65 our cultural arrangements. although war is deeply embedded, given some of the other changes we have already made in the way we live, it seems reasonable to assume that we should be able to wean ourselves away from it. none of the great powers sees any of the others as a dangerous enemy at the moment. by the end of the cold war, however, the glorification of national military power had already become part of the political culture in washington. the full implications of what we have done in the past two centuries – increasing the human population six fold and industrializing most of the planet at the same time – will have huge consequences over the next two or three generations. according to a long-range economic forecast by goldman sachs, the world’s largest economy will be china, followed by the united states and india, and then brazil, russia, and japan. just the proliferation of nuclear weapons alone challenges the stability of the system, so are the environmental crises, which will hit some countries harder than others. the highest priority at the moment, the author states, is to keep the multilateral approach alive and avoid a drift back into alliance systems and arms races. dyer concludes: our task over the next few generations is to transform the world of independent states in which we live into some sort of international community. if we succeed in creating that community, however quarrelsome, discontented, and full of injustice it probably will be, then we shall effectively have abolished the ancient institution of warfare. good riddance. (p. 446) the end of war 123 in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 123-125 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 123 volume 6 number 2 (2012): 123-125 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ the end of war sam r. snyder a review of the end of war by john horgan (san francisco: mcsweeney’a books, 2012) john horgan is a professor and director of the center for science writings at stevens institute of technology in hoboken, new jersey. he states in his introduction that he wrote this book . . . “ to make the case that the end of war is possible, and even imminent.”1 granting that his is a minority view, the author begins with the premise that war is a choice. the conventional wisdom is that while virtually everyone claims to be opposed to war, war continues. yet it cannot be inevitable, for all events have causes. therefore, if we could identify the causes of war and eliminate them, war could be eliminated. horgan says that when he asks his students the causes of war, he typically gets the following: innate male aggression, ambition, greed, the desire for freedom, religion, ethnic differences, capitalism, patriotism, overpopulation, poverty, inequality, the militaryindustrial complex, the media, stupidity, and boredom. the point of the exercise is to demonstrate that war has no single cause and no single solution. some factors that trigger conflicts can also help suppress them; i.e., they are both causes and solutions. in 1986, david adams, a psychologist at wesleyan, and 1 introduction, p. 16. 124 in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 123-125 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 124 nineteen other scientists launched a campaign to dispel the myth that war is inherent in our human nature. the scientists met in seville, spain, under the auspices of the united nations, and drafted a statement that began with five propositions:2 it is scientifically incorrect: 1. to say that we have inherited a tendency to make war from our animal ancestors. 2. to say that war or any other violent behavior genetically programmed into our human nature. 3. to say that in the course of human evolution there has been a selection for aggressive behavior more than for other forms of behavior. 4. to say that humans have “violent brain.” 5. to say that war is caused by “instinct” or any single motivation. the author devotes the remainder of the book to an analysis of the reasons (and the reasons given) for going to war. the reader will find no easy answers here. are there men who seem to take pleasure in war, including killing. are they responsible for starting wars? highly improbable, knowing what we do about men who actually fight in wars. do scarce resources make us fight? sometimes, yes; sometimes, no; however, there are no data to indicate that resource scarcity in itself is either a necessary or sufficient reason for going to war, wartime propaganda to the contrary notwithstanding. in his fourth chapter, on war as a cultural contagion, the author quotes margaret mead as asking: “if we know that it [war] is not inevitable, that it is due to historical accident that warfare is one of the ways in which we think of behaving, are we given any hope for that?”3 at the end of that chapter the author writes: “modern societies resolve conflicts via a wide range of institutions, from local courts to town halls to senates to parliaments and all the way up to the world court and the united nations. . . . we have the ways to end wars. we need only the will. . . . some extremely belligerent societies have found the will, and there are even tantalizing signs that humanity as a whole may be choosing peace. 2 chap. 1, p.30 3 chap. 4, pp.121-122. 125 in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 123-125 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 125 i finished the book with a feeling of ambiguity. it is a good book, and well worth reading for the author’s many insights into the phenomenon of war and as a serious attempt to analyze that institution. it goes without saying that the end of war does not imply the end of conflict, but what is needed is what william james referred to as “a moral equivalent of war.” i believe that professor horgan is correct when he states that we have the ways to end wars, “will,” whatever that means, does not count for much until until it is institutionalized into patterns of behavior that will promote human welfare while prohibiting or ameliorating the destruction of human life. there is hope. in a recent article in the new yorker, adam gopnik said that the number to remember is sixty million. “that is the approximate and probably understated) number of europeans killed in the thirty years between 1914 and 1945, victims of wars of competing nationalisms on a tragically divided continent. the truth needs re-stating: social democracy in europe, embodied by its union, has been one of the greatest successes in history. finley in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     66   volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal peace in every relationship: building an interdisciplinary, holistic domestic violence program on college campuses laura finley assistant professor of sociology & criminology, barry university lfinley@mail.barry.edu introduction despite recognition that college-aged students are particularly at-risk for experiencing abusive relationships (fisher, cullen & turner, 2009; leonard, quigley & collins, 2002; sellers & bromley, 1996; schwartz & dekeseredy, 1997; strauss, 2008), the creation and implementation of impactful campus-based educational programming remains a challenge. some colleges and universities are teaching domestic violence by adding specific courses or even whole programs on the topic, but more frequently the academic coverage of this topic comes from units or event one-time lectures within specific courses. those programs that address the issue more extensively tend to be directed at the graduate level (see for example university of central florida, university of colorado at denver, etc.). due to the siloed nature of higher education, rarely are curricular approaches to domestic violence education interdisciplinary in nature (astin & astin, 2000; harkavy, 2006). yet it is clear that a true understanding of the issues and dynamics related to domestic violence necessitates a multi-disciplinary approach (allen-meares, 1998; colarossi & forgey, 2006; hall & weaver, 2001; retkin, stein & draimin, 1997; weinstein, 1999). further, it is hard to believe that ad-hoc approaches reach the masses of students who might at some point in their lives experience or be impacted by abuse, nor those who wish to get involved (fisher, cullen & turner, 2009). in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     67   similarly, while campuses often provide programming outside of the curriculum on the topic of domestic violence, often through their student affairs or other non-academic units, such programs also typically fail to reach a large percentage of students. oftentimes, these events are required for student-athletes or fraternity or sorority members (anderson & danis, 2007). although that is logical, given the over-representation of these groups in abusive relationships, educators know that often fail to internalize, or may actively resist, information when it is made mandatory. further, one-time events are far from adequate to change perceptions and beliefs, let alone to challenge the social norms that underlie abuse. domestic violence is a complex issue that involves patriarchal social norms, gender expectations, intersecting inequalities, and legal, policy, and advocacy implications. one-off events or event short academic units simply cannot address the issue thoroughly. and, importantly, such cursory attempts fail to inspire students to take action to help end abuse. it is clear that domestic violence, what former un secretary general kofi annan called “perhaps the most shameful” and “most pervasive” human rights violations (shabazz, 2006), are impediments to the development of more peaceful communities. colleges and universities, then, must work to improve the ways they teach about domestic violence. what is needed is a campuswide, holistic approach that integrates numerous disciplinary areas but that also goes beyond the confines of the classroom. such a program would inspire students to get involved at the campus, community, or national level. an impactful domestic violence awareness program would bring campuses together with community providers, allowing students opportunities for service learning and providing useful skills for the community. in sum, a holistic domestic violence educational initiative would follow cannon (2011) in that it would be based on the concepts of thinking, caring, and acting. how to do so is the million dollar question. this article highlights the ways that campusbased domestic violence educational efforts can draw on the rich literature in peace education to build such programs. it presents a case study of one campus-based program that utilizes peace education concepts and practices to raise awareness about domestic violence. curricular concerns although domestic violence can be addressed in numerous disciplinary areas, it is often not. or, when it is, it is done in a cursory way that leaves students ill-prepared to understand the issue. even in disciplinary areas in which the topic is often addressed, research suggests there remains much work to be done. for instance, danis (2003) found that while 92 percent of bsw and msw-level social workers had worked with victims of domestic violence, more than half felt their college education did not adequately prepare them. students in medical-related fields often receive some type of education about domestic violence (wilke & vinton, 2003). this is important, but it is still limited, as most programs only address the issue for one class period or perhaps during a short unit. lecture is typically the only mode of teaching (alpert, sege, & bradshaw, 1998. hamberger, 2007; hamberger & phelan, 2004). thus students are passive recipients, rather than active learners. as a consequence, such programs may teach about peace but fall short of teaching for peace (finley, 2004). in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     68   many still see domestic violence as a “woman’s issue.” often, these “women’s issues” are still included largely as a part of specialized programs or courses. as wilke and vinton (2003) explained, specialized programs or courses may reinforce the current dichotomy between “mainstream curriculum” and “special populations” (p. 226). clearly, it is problematic to chalk domestic violence up to being only a woman’s issue. the effect may be that believe that only women are victims of abusive relationships and that it is women’s responsibility to address the problem. further, it is generally only those students studying in the specific discipline who will take those courses, again ensuring that the curricular reach is limited. it is unusual to find any interdisciplinary programs or curricula in higher education that address domestic violence (astin & astin, 2000; harkavy, 2006). faculty rarely have the opportunity to work together to integrate any topic across disciplines. most universities and colleges are not structured to support holistic, collaborative education. rather, most institutions of higher education reinforce societal individualism (astin & astin, 2000; finley, 2004; palmer & zajonc, 2010; sperber, 2000). jasper (2002) explained that universities have, over the last hundred or so years, increasingly been structured on a natural sciences model. this results in “… a division of labor into departments and disciplines that only make sense if they correspond to objective aspects of the world out there that can be divided into tiny fragments. it means evaluation criteria that turn to the disciplines. only other experts in your sub-subfield can judge your work, so peer review is used not only for publications but also promotions…” further, “…hyperspecialization can be the death not only of creativity but of solid understanding, for it is often the big picture that is most important. …the rare interdisciplinary seminar is seen as fun, not an integral part of one's life as a scholar or teacher” (jasper, 2002). interdisciplinary training and education is essential to enable people to work collaboratively to help victims and to prevent abuse (allen-meares, 1998; colarossi & forgey, 2006; hall & weaver, 2001; retkin, stein & draimin, 1997; weinstein, 1999). increasing class sizes makes it is difficult, if not impossible, for professors to do much but lecture. lecture-based methods, what freire (1970) called “banking education,” is often conducted in auditorium-style arrangements that are not conducive to dialogue or group activity (sperber, 2000). banking education is not well-suited to addressing issues like domestic violence. domestic violence is a social problem that is connected to patriarchy and authoritarian systems of power and control. teaching strategies that utilize the same power and control results in a disjuncture between the message and the mode of presentation (gardner, 1993). educators must be careful to address the root of the problem of domestic violence, rather than contribute to the already widespread pathologizing of victims. berns (2004) explained that the dominant ideology or “frame” (best, 1995) about domestic violence is victim-focused. this easily leads to victim-blaming, whether overt or more subtle. today, victims are told they must “take back the power.” berns (2004) critiqued this new “empowerment” model, asserting that, “this focus may help build support for programs that help victims of domestic violence. however, it does little to develop public understanding of the social context of violence and may impede social change that could prevent violence” (p. 3). alternately, real empowerment involves, “an understanding that powerlessness is a result of structural and institutional forces in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     69   that allow for inequality in power and control over resources. therefore, empowerment should be a process that aims to identify and change the distribution of power within a culture to achieve social justice” (berns, 2004, p. 154). another issue is that many professors are ill-equipped to deal with the emotional difficulty of teaching about domestic violence (gardner, 1993; bent-goodley, 2008; murphygeiss, 2008). teaching about domestic violence may reopen wounds for those who have experienced it while those without personal experience often find it intellectually difficult to imagine, despite hearing statistics and theoretical explanations. research has found that students want more creative, engaged, thoughtful and reflective assignments, in particular as it relates to understanding social inequalities and gender-based violence (bent-goodley, 2008). yet much of the “how to” work on teaching in more integrated and engaging ways is focused on k-12 schools. as such, the pedagogical approaches that are most effective with adult learners at the collegiate level are in need of further development (turay & english, 2008). this is where the vast literature on peace education and human rights education (hre) can be tremendously useful, as it provides a framework as well as practical ideas on how to both inform and inspire students to transform their communities and their world (cannon, 2011; dale & kalob, 2006; finley, 2011; jenkins, 2007; kester, 2010; lin, 2006). concerns about campus-wide programming many universities teach domestic and dating violence outside of the curriculum. campus programming around domestic and dating violence varies, but typically features one-type events, like expert speakers or survivor panels. surely such efforts are worthwhile, but they are probably unlikely to result in wide-scale change in people’s understanding about gender-based violence. for one, such one-time events rarely reach a substantial portion of the campus population. attendance is generally voluntary, or may be mandated for a small segment of the population, like fraternity and sorority members. thus presenters reach just a few already-interested students or may be presenting to those who are disinterested but required to attend. additionally, one session or even a few seminars or workshops is not nearly enough to address the complexity of domestic violence. from the scope and extent of the problem to forms of abuse, to victim and offender characteristics, to warning signs and impact of abuse, to resources and prevention, a true understanding of abuse must be much more extensive. one-time events are unlikely to inspire students to take action to transform their own relationships, to assist those in need, or to get involved with efforts to challenge social norms and structures that permit abuse. sometimes, campuses hire experts or well-known names to present on issues like domestic violence and sexual assault. these people are well-versed and dynamic speakers, but they typically require significant honoraria and can only present one time. further, hiring an outside “expert” might send a message to students that domestic violence is a national problem but not one in their community. consequently, students may believe that no local activists or advocates are working on addressing the issue, thus they leave the session unable to identify and begin working with local social change movements. further, students cannot see themselves as in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     70   leaders in the movement to end abuse when they are always being taught by “experts.” as astin and astin (2000) noted, many times people believe that the only student leaders on campus are those that have some type of formal title. those who do not may feel as though it is someone else’s job, not theirs, to make a difference. additionally, campuses tend to present domestic and sexual violence in very binary and negative ways. programming stresses how “not” to be a victim or a perpetrator. women in particular are encouraged, and at some campuses they are required, to enroll in some type of selfdefense course. this serves to reinforce the individualized perspective of abuse (berns, 2004; bumiller, 2008; ferraro, 1996). that is, if women are taught where they should and should not walk on campus, with whom they should associate, and how to fight back against an attacker, the onus for ensuring they are not victimized is on them alone. further, self-defense-based approaches reinforce the misconception that women’s greatest risk is from a stranger. in reality, women are at far greater risk from someone they are dating. students find this emphasis on the individual to be off-putting, as most do not see themselves as ever being a victim or a perpetrator. limitations of the educational paradigm perhaps the primary barrier to more interdisciplinary, holistic, and action-oriented domestic violence teaching is that higher education still largely uses traditional teaching methods that are not conducive to transformative education. that is because, as lin (2006) noted, our current educational paradigm fails to teach whole persons. we do not teach in ways that allow students to see themselves as being interconnected. instead, we teach in ways that emphasize separateness—body from minds and spirits, people from nature, each person from each other. as lin (2006) explained, “we have trained people to use their minds sharply but have largely neglected to cultivate their hearts and souls with love and compassion” (p. xi). education today is often fragmented and divisive. it typically reifies a competitive, capitalist social system, generally without critique. some have called the present educational paradigm militaristic. militarism is “…the deep conditioning of the society to valorize military cultures” (feinman, 2000, p.11). it is a mindset or system of values that privilege hierarchy, authority, obedience, discipline, pragmatism, efficiency, rationality, competition and force (feinman, 2000; merryfinch, 1991). eisler (2000) referred to this as dominator modeled. kester (2011) explained, “our schools and nations intend to create democracy and community interdependence, yet to do so educators often use tactics of war-making (e.g. obedience-drilling, secrecy, and competitive games) that reflect more fully the very ideologies the school system intends to transcend” (p. 5). finley (2010) elaborated on how higher education is, if anything, even more dominator-modeled than k-12 schools. zajonk and palmer, authors of the heart of higher education, told interviewer scott jaschik (2011) that higher education today has “an impoverished and outdated view of reality (including ourselves), a truncated notion of knowing and learning, and a cost-benefit approach to ethics.” peace education: a different educational paradigm in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     71   the scholarship on peace education provides a different framework for teaching and can help guide the creation of more impactful domestic violence awareness programs. peace education takes many forms, as harris and morrison (2003) explained and covers a range of topics (boulding, 1988; reardon, 1988; galtung, 1996; harris & morrison, 2003). peace education can, as jenkins (2007) and finley (2010) be either about peace, which emphasizes the teaching of specific content, or it can be for peace, which focuses on inspiring students to transform their beliefs, values, and actions towards a peacemaking and peace-building paradigm. as kester (2010) explained, “peace education as a practice and philosophy refers to matching complementary elements between education and society, where the social purposes (i.e. why teach), content (i.e. what to teach), and pedagogy (i.e. how to teach) of the educative process are conducive to fostering peace. accordingly, peace education is a dialogical experience conducted through participatory learning, where learners communally and cooperatively grapple with contemporary issues (i.e. talking points) related to local and global contexts” (p. 2). peace education should emphasize teaching positive peace. positive peace is “a process of disbanding structural conditions that foster systematic inequities and societal injustice. positive peace supports an agenda for greater equity, greater social justice and increased political participation” (grodofsky, 2012, p. 741). ). it involves humans cooperating to benefit all (o’kane, 1991). it is education that “enables learners to critically analyze the root causes of violence, war, conflicts and social injustices, and develop alternatives to violence” (turay, 2005, p. 465). bajaj and chiu (2009) explained that “peace education seeks to achieve human rights for all by transforming students into agents of change for greater equity and social justice,” drawing on multiple disciplines to educate for social justice and social responsibility. as finley (2010) noted, “positive peace, then, encompasses the very things domestic violence advocates desire as well. that is, to help victims live in a world in which they are safe, secure, and in control of their own destiny.” similarly, fetherston and kelly (2007) explained, that the goal of “…education ‘for’ peace is graduates who go on to work in the peace field, presumably adding to the strength of ‘alternatives to violence’ voices around the world” (p. 263). ultimately, as lin (2006) noted, we should seek to inculcate our students “peace intelligence.” peace intelligence is “a form of intelligence that is associated with a deep love for all lives, a deep compassion for all existences, a courage and a conviction for unconditional forgiveness and reconciliation. it is the ability to see others’ losses as our losses, others’ pain as our own pain. it is cultivating the ability to coexist in a peaceful, respectful manner” (p. 68). similarly, paul (1999) and murphy-geiss (2008) discuss the need for emotionally-engaged education, a pedagogical approach that “can leave a long lasting, even transformative impression on students that outlives the details of course content” (murphy-geiss, 2008, p. 378). human rights education (hre) is a form of peace education intended to “prepare students about human rights, for human rights, and towards a human rights consciousness. as such, students can recognize social injustices (civic intelligence) and become advocates of such in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     72   injustices (civic responsibility) evident in their immediate schools and communities” (osanloo, 2009, p. 156). opotow, gerson, and woodside (2010) asserted that the study of human rights can encourage students to be morally inclusive, an attitude characterized by a willingness to “extend fairness to others, allocate resources to them and make sacrifices that would foster their wellbeing” (306). hre is, as galtung (1996), explained, a method that teaches “peace by peaceful means.” freire (1970) outlined a form of transformative learning he called conscientization. education should not prepare students to live in a world that is oppressive and disempowering, according to freire (1970). rather, the goal of education should be to teach people to question, challenge, and transform their world into one that is better, one that is more empowering and that is socially just. as fetherston and kelly (2007) explain, such an education is “no longer ‘neutral’ but oriented towards the achievement of social justice and personal liberation” (p. 267). drawing on freire’s (1970) work and that of peace educators, turay and english (2008) developed a transformative model for peace education (tmpe) for adult learners. their model includes celebrating the diversity of learners, participatory learning, globalized perspectives, indigenous knowing, and spiritual underpinnings. according to turay and english (2008), transformative education begins with personal reflections and stories. additionally, social change projects and service learning activities help ignite students’ passion to help and develop their leadership skills. critical peace education has also emerged as a transformative approach built on freireian concepts. bajaj (2008) explains that, in critical peace education, “attention is paid to issues of structural inequality and empirical study aimed towards local understandings of how participants can cultivate a sense of transformative agency assumes a central role.” critical peace education, according to bajaj (2008) should emphasize depth over breadth, the “messiness” and complexities of human rights issues, and analysis of asymmetrical power relations and their impact not just on marginalized groups but on the entire society. further, critical peace education must include methods that do not impose violence by disempowering students (bajaj, 2008; brantmeier, 2011). transformative education will involve profound shifts in the ways we understand ourselves and our world. it is developed through critical reflection and dialogue and emanates from opportunities to encounter new information or experience something that disrupts our current understanding (fetherston & kelly, 2007). developing transformative education is not easy. given that young people have generally been educated in systems that are what eisler (2000) called dominator-modeled, they come to expect knowledge to be presented in authoritarian, hierarchical ways. challenges to this form of pedagogical practice may be met with confusion, apathy or disdain. professors must then engage in a practice of slowly peeling back what bourdieu (1977) called “habitus,” or the common-sense, taken-for-granted assumptions about how education is done. fetherston and kelly (2007) explained that challenging students’ assumptions and beliefs about how learning occurs may be “like peeling an onion, and yet eventually leaving space for the self to see more thoroughly the effects of what is taken for granted” and eventually translating “”into questioning other knowing about the world” (p. 278). some in the field of social work have also begun to integrate peace education principles and concepts into their pedagogy (gil, 1998; gradofsky, 2012; ife, 2008; reichert, 2001) and in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     73   some scholars have done so in other fields like criminology (i.e., pepinsky, 2000), but literature does not suggest that peace education is widespread in areas outside of traditional peace studies. conceptualizing a holistic, transformative domestic violence educational program to shift our educational paradigm from one that is militaristic and dominator-modeled to one that is holistic and centered on peace and human rights will require both creativity and collaboration (finley, 2011; krishnamurti; 1981; palmer & zajonc, 2010). drawing on the insights of peace educators and hre, campuses can create transformative, holistic domestic violence awareness programs that integrate traditional content knowledge as well as emotional components like survivor’s stories, arts-based activities, multi-media to address the many different learning styles, and wellness events. further, a transformative, holistic domestic violence awareness program should involve numerous disciplinary areas, including but not limited to communications, public relations, marketing and business students, along with medical, nursing, psychology, sociology, social work, political science, education and other disciplines can and should be involved (guigno, 2009; keller & otjen, 2007; reese, 2004). further, such a program should integrate opportunities for students to design projects, to take action to serve their communities, and to share what they have learned through peer education initiatives. students must be taught as if they are leaders in the effort to end abuse, not just would-be victims or offenders. bystander intervention efforts, then, are a mainstay of an effective domestic violence awareness program (banyard, moynihan & plante, 2007; banyard, plante, & moynihan, 2004; burn, 2009; casey & ohler, 2012; mcmahon & farmer, 2009). involvement in real or life-like situations helps students see that it is not just the government’s responsibility but that of each individual to ensure that we all have the human rights we deserve (print, ugarte, naval & mihr, 2009). case study of a holistic, transformative domestic violence educational program barry university, a catholic, liberal arts university in miami shores, florida, has built an innovation domestic violence awareness and education effort that involves both curricular and extra-curricular activities. since 2006, the program has been organized through the collaborative efforts of faculty in numerous disciplinary areas, as well as by staff and students. the program involves year-round activities, with special emphasis in november and february. although october is national domestic violence awareness month, november was selected as a month of focus because organizers noticed that students found it difficult to choose between involvement in this program and other programs designed to raise awareness about breast cancer, disabilities, and other issues featured that month. february is teen dating violence awareness month as well as the month of valentine’s day, a time when many are thinking about relationships and thus ideal for discussing healthy ones. the program includes arts-based components, theater, movement and physical activity, and film components, with the goal of reaching a diverse range of students. service learning is a key component of the program. students are provided opportunities to engage in service that not only addresses the issue of gender-based violence on campus but also aides the community and victims in need. through service learning and other programmatic efforts, the community is engaged throughout the year. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     74   the arts are highly valued as a tool for teaching peace in that they prompt creative thinking and stimulate learners’ affective responses (byron, 2011; cannon, 2011; finley, 2011; hooks, 1994;  lin, 2006; palmer, 1998). research has demonstrated that the arts are a great way to raise awareness about abuse, as they help us tap into our emotions. arts can help those who have experienced harm share their feelings. for those who have not, the arts can be a powerful vehicle for understanding the emotional impact of abuse. as knafo (2000) explained, the arts help viewers “...bear witness to horrible events and to hold traumatic reality in consciousness” (pp. 661-662). art can be “raw and confrontational; it reaches out with a sense of urgency. it is meant to invoke a visceral involvement in its audience” (knafo, 2000, p. 663). the barry university program integrates several arts-based components. one of these is the clothesline project. started in cape cod, massachusetts in 1990, the clothesline project “…is a vehicle for women affected by violence to express their emotions by decorating a shirt. they then hang the shirt on a clothesline to be viewed by others as testimony to the problem of violence against women. with the support of many, it has since spread world-wide.” additional information is available at http://www.clotheslineproject.org/index.htm. the clothesline project has been supported by evaluation research. for instance, cheek, rector and davis (2007) found the clothesline project to be a positive learning experience for social work students. barry university coordinates the clothesline project, generally during the month of november. each year, the student government association hosts the effort in a major walkway on campus. typically, a fraternity or sorority assists. students hang shirts that have already been painted as a way to demonstrate the project and to encourage students to paint their own shirt. dozens of shirts are added to the line each year, creating a huge visible display. the display is then used to initiate dialogue about abuse. another arts-based component is the silent witness project, a national initiative intended to raise awareness about abuse and, in particular, the fact that domestic violence can be lethal. life-size red cardboard cutout bearing breast plates that honor those in a community who have been killed from domestic violence are used as “silent witnesses” in communities all over the u.s. more information is available at http://www.silentwitness.net/index.htm since 2006, barry university has collaborated with an area domestic violence agency to display their silent witnesses around campus. the breast plates are changed annually to reflect domestic violence homicide victims in miami. it is a powerful way to remind the community that abuse kills, and professors in various disciplines have used the witnesses for writing prompts and to initiate research projects. peace educators note the importance of using multiple methods that meet the needs of all styles of learners (finley, 2011). since so many students are visual learners, it is important to integrate multimedia into a domestic violence awareness program. many feature films and documentaries address domestic violence that can be used in classes or as public screening and dialogue events. media education foundation offers a wealth of great documentary films addressing various aspects of abuse and the social norms that allow it to continue. a simple google search reveals extensive lists of feature films and documentaries that address domestic violence. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     75   barry university’s program always involves at least one film screening. often, these are “dinner and a movie” events in which food is provided to attendees. one year we featured the film slumdog millionaire then facilitated a dialogue about abuse as a global human rights issue. a local domestic violence survivor of indian origin made some tasty indian snacks. students enjoyed the dialogue and were happy to be able to support a survivor. in 2012, barry university coordinated a screening of the academy award-winning documentary saving face, which addresses acid attacks. throughout the country, physical activities like 5k walks are used to raise funds for domestic violence services. barry university has coordinated some slightly different events, however. in 2012 and again in 2013, the university hosted a zumba event to raise awareness. zumba originated in south florida and is widely popular. some 100 people attended the zumba classes each year. information about abuse was placed around the room and during breaks, organizers shared more information about the issue and about local services. another component of a holistic, transformative domestic violence awareness program involves reaching out to the community. critical peace educators (bajaj, 2008; brantmeier, 2011; cannon, 2011) call on educators to help their students understand local human rights issues related to power and difference through active collaborations in the community. recent institutional interest in global citizenship and civic responsibility illustrates a commitment to learning in ways that extend beyond the classroom, with an ultimate goal of bringing about social change (see mayhew & fernandez, 2007; miller, beliveau, destigter, kirkland, & rice, 2008). service learning and community engagement projects beyond our institutional locations represent best practices in achieving these outcomes. according to the national service-learning clearinghouse (2013), “service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities.” service-learning and community engagement bring together “academic” expertise with experiential learning to create new ways of viewing the world (erickson & o’connor, 2000; mitchell, 2008; o’grady, 2000). further, these opportunities afford students, faculty, and community members with the ability to engage in real situations with real people with real possibilities for social justice education. additionally, having students teach young people about abuse is a well-recognized strategy for community change. the centers for disease control and prevention (cdc) (2010) has called peer education models a promising practice in violence prevention, and research has shown that peer education programs help change students’ attitudes about sexual assault and domestic violence (smith & welchans, 2000). barry university started a domestic violence peer education program in 2011-2012, with support from an avon foundation grant. graduate students studying counseling were trained to present to college and high school youth about dating and domestic violence. they presented to student groups and classes on campus as well as at local conferences and to area high schools. building on the literature cited earlier in this paper, the peer education program utilizes a bystander intervention approach that encourages participants to see themselves as agents of change who can intervene to stop abuse (cdc, 2010). in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     76   in 2012-13, a grant from the city of north miami has supported additional peer-led sessions to local youth. a key component of peace education, and, as such, of a holistic, transformative program, is that it inspires action (brantmeier, 2011; cannon, 2011; finley, 2011; lin, 2006). gardner (1993) noted the importance of student-initiated social change projects. service learning allows students to make connections to one another and to develop a sense of empathy and pride (koliba 2000). further, it helps students develop critical analysis and writing skills, better see connections between theory and practice (alberle-grass, 2000; kuh, 1995; parker-gwin, 1996; roschelle, turpin, & elias, 2000), and see themselves as part of the community, not just the campus. students who participate in service learning related to domestic violence or other social issues may be more likely to enter careers in the non-profit sector and advocacy organizations (alberle-grass, 2000). roschelle, turpin and elias (2000) argued that religious-based institutions that include social justice in their missions, as is the case of barry university, are particularly well-suited for this type of service learning. the primary service learning vehicle at barry university is the college brides walk (cbw). the following portion of the article describes the college brides walk and its service learning component, as well as the ways that it promotes peace through community collaboration to address domestic and dating violence. the college brides walk the goal of cbw is to raise awareness about dating and domestic violence. further, recognizing the many misconceptions about abuse, cbw helps accurately identify who can be a victim, why abuse occurs, and its impact. importantly, cbw is intended to provide a vehicle for campuses and communities to work together in the effort to help victims and to prevent abuse. the idea of a brides march began more than a decade ago, when josie ashton, a south florida activist and a college student at the time, became outraged upon hearing about the brutal murder of gladys ricart. gladys ricart, a dominican woman, was killed by an abusive exboyfriend on september 26, 1999, just moments before she was supposed to marry another man. ricart was in her wedding gown posing for photographs with her closest loved ones when agustin garcia barged in and shot her point blank. ashton obtained permission from the ricart family to walk in gladys’ memory, then walked from the new jersey home where ricart was killed to miami, florida, wearing her own wedding gown and carrying signs denouncing abuse. she stayed in 14 domestic violence shelters and visited 22 cities, facilitating dialogue about abuse. ashton’s efforts have inspired annual brides marches in new york, wisconsin, washington, d.c. and now florida and the dominican republic. media typically covers the brides marches, which is essential in prompting public discussion about a topic that is still too often taboo. in 2010, ashton met with several colleagues at south florida colleges and plans began to start a brides march on a college campus. the first cbw was held on february 11, 2011. attendees included students, faculty and staff from barry university and four other south florida colleges and universities, as well as community members. some 300 people met for in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     77   opening ceremonies, which featured survivor’s stories, activist’s efforts, and support from local officials. approximately 100 proceeded to walk the 7.5 mile course, which wove through some of the busiest streets in miami. many participants wore wedding attire. after the walk, participants ate dinner, and had the opportunity to interact with community providers of services to victims of domestic and dating violence. in 2012, the 2nd annual college brides walk featured a similar format but different speakers. despite a heavy rain, close to 400 people attended the event in year two. in 2013, more than 450 people attended the event, with some 200 walkers, again despite inclement weather. while the walk itself is impactful, the inspiring survivor stories allow attendees to see victims as human beings. attendees hear their pain and suffering, yet also see their amazing resilience. survivors describe horrific physical, sexual and emotional abuse. given the goal of correcting misconceptions about who can be a victim, organizers select a diverse array of survivors to speak at the event. further, the stories all emphasize the role each individual must play in making social change to end abuse. one of the speakers in year one was the mother of a young man who, with his friend, was murdered by the friend’s ex-boyfriend while attending a florida university. despite numerous attempts to contact police about being stalked by the exboyfriend, no action was taken. the young man’s mother went on to spearhead the creation and passage of critical legislation related to dating violence in florida. in year two, a speaker discussed the connection between domestic and dating violence and animal abuse and shared her local activism to help the pets of abused women. year two also featured a student-led mid-walk program. a student who had grown up witnessing abuse and had recently lost a cherished friend to a senseless act of violence led a solemn balloon release in which attendees could write or say something to those they had lost to violence. in year three, grammy-nominated latin artist elain, an ambassador for the united nation’s unite program, performed at the opening event while a powerpoint slideshow featuring pictures of those who in the last year had lost their lives to domestic violence played. there was not a dry eye in the room and thus, consistent with the work of lin (2006) and noddings (2004) and others, the program served to stimulate emotional responses and develop attendees’ sense of caring, love and justice. students can earn service learning credit for participating in the college brides walk. students in perspective consciousness and social justice (soc 200), a required course for students whose majors are in the arts and sciences at barry university, are offered the opportunity to complete the ten hours of service learning required for the course by assisting with and participating in the college brides walk. the emphasis in soc 200 is on equality and justice. the course critiques systems of thought which conceive of inequality as natural, promotes understanding of the ways institutions perpetuate inequality, and helps illuminate the experiences of disadvantaged or marginalized groups. the course is structured around the universal declaration of human rights (udhr). soc 200 is intended to provide students with a better understanding of what it means to be an activist, and through the service learning requirement, provide opportunities for activism that is tied to course content. the course, then, was developed based on principles of critical peace education and human rights education. students can earn service credit the day of the event as well as before it. before the event, students help to create banners and decorations that feature statistics and catchy phrases related to identifying, responding to, and preventing abuse. students doing this work must in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     78   conduct research, using credible sources to identify current and factual data about abuse. some work in small groups to create poster boards addressing specific facets of abuse, such as male victims and victims with disabilities. students can also assist with outreach to local elementary, middle and high school classes. with a trained adult (either an organizer or one of the graduate peer educators), students go to community organizations and to schools to talk to young people about abuse and to engage them in artistic activities, like the clothesline project. many of the schools and groups reached through these efforts then attend the cbw. on the day of the event, students earn service hours by helping to set up all the visual displays, posters, and painted t-shirts. they also help the local organizations that are tabling at the event and provide tours for the high school groups who attend. further, students have the option of actually participating in the walk. those who choose not to walk must attend additional training about domestic violence, along with other community members. all students earning service hours are required to listen to the speakers before the event so as to hear the authentic voices of victims. in all, more than 100 students elected to complete their service learning hours with the college brides walk in the first year. some 150 did so the second year, and a similar number in year three. at the end of the term, students are required to write a journal-style paper in which they reflect on what they did and how it connects to class material. student papers indicate that those who participate learned much about the prevalence of domestic and dating violence, who is most likely to be victimized, the warning signs of abuse, how to support victims, and how they can get involved locally to stop abuse. most comment on the horror that victims endure and are tremendously moved by the speakers’ courage. many describe enjoying being part of a critical mass that brings the message from the campus to the community. professors teaching the course guide students in seeing the ways that domestic and dating violence are related to structural inequalities (bajaj, 2008; brantmeier, 2011). while each student’s paper is unique, most are able to connect what they learned about abuse to class material on gender, highlighting how women are more likely to be victimized due to gender role norms that still tend to stress aggressive masculinity and passive femininity. some also draw connections between other inequalities like poverty and racism, showing how these influence who is most at risk for victimization and the likelihood that they will be able to access appropriate local resources to obtain and maintain safety. most importantly, students note the importance of a community response in order to respond to and hopefully prevent domestic and dating violence. as such, students are learning to see the importance of localized understandings and localized responses to human rights issues like domestic violence (bajaj, 2008; bajaj & chiu, 2009; freire, 1970). conclusion barry university’s holistic program, and in particular the college brides walk, has been developed and implemented from a framework of critical peace education, transformative peace education, and human rights education. it has been very successful in terms of participation and media attention. local and even national televised and newspaper media have covered the event each year, with year three receiving coverage from as far away as chicago. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     79   each year, the program becomes even more community-based, helping to bridge the difficult college-community gap (boyer, 1996). planning is about to begin for the 4th annual college brides walk, and the program continues to expand in scope and in collaboration, with new efforts on campus being led by counseling, social work, nursing and psychology students. off-campus, additional colleges, universities, k-12 schools and community partners continue to agree to help. collaborations with women of tomorrow mentor and scholarship program, honey shine mentoring, and a local girls school (young women’s preparatory academy) resulted in almost 200 high school girls attending workshops before the 3rd year cbw as well as scheduling ongoing sessions for additional training on topics related to women’s human rights and domestic and dating violence. several years into these efforts, what is needed next is a more systemic evaluation of the program and its impact on social norms. it is clear from students’ service learning papers and from other feedback throughout the seven years that attendees to these programs learn a lot, but is not entirely how and to what degree that translates into changed behaviors. anecdotally, more students have sought to get involved as volunteers at local domestic violence centers, but a more comprehensive analysis would be useful. an important addition to the 3rd and upcoming 4th year cbw is the development of a community-based research project (cbr) that provides students the opportunity to create, implement, and analyze survey results at the walk. this work is supported by a barry university mini-grant and will serve as the starting point for ongoing assessment of the program’s impact. strand et al. (2003) define cbr as “collaborative, changeoriented research that engages faculty members, students, and community members in projects that address a community-identified need” (5). cbr is a form of participatory action research that critiques the rigidity of western social science research and its’ emphasis on objectivity and the authority of researchers over research “subjects” (strand et al., 2003). cbr has been promoted as a useful tool for evaluating domestic violence educational programming (bell et al. 2004; bowes 1996). although the program is still evolving, it is an exciting attempt to integrate peace education, hre and service learning to raise awareness about domestic violence. the cbr project is an important element to benefits students and community and that will help the program refine and expand. through continued and expanded collaboration, research, and service, it is hopeful that the program at barry university can not only reduce the amount of abuse in the miami shores area, but that it can serve as a model for other campuses wishing to create more holistic, transformative programs. references alberle-grasse, m. 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(2008). dominance and symmetry in partner violence by male and female university students in 32 nations. children and youth services review, 30, 252-275. turay, t. (2005). peace education. in english, l. (ed.). international encyclopedia of adult education (pp. 465-67). london: palgrave. turay, t., & english, l. (2008). toward a global culture of peace: a transformative model of peace education. journal of transformative education, 6(4), 286-301. weinstein, j. (1999). coming of age: recognizing the importance of interdisciplinary education in law practice. washington law review, 74,319-366. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-85 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     86   wilke, d., & vinton, l. (2003). domestic violence and aging: teaching about their intersection. journal of social work education, 39(2), 225-35.   billups volume 10 in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 32-34 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 32 volume 10 number 1 (2016): 32-34 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review building a peaceful society: creative integration of peace education, by laura l. finley. a volume in the series: peace education, editors laura finley & robin cooper, information age publishing, 2011, 138 pp., us $45.99 (paperback), us $85.99 (hardcover), isbn 978-1-61735-456-4. reviewed by christie billups lewis university billupch@lewisu.edu editors note: this review is one in a series co-published by the global campaign for peace education and in factis pax: journal of peace education and social justice toward promoting peace education scholarship. these reviews are of information age publishing’s peace education series. established in 2006 by founding editors ian harris and edward brantmeier, iap’s peace education series offers diverse perspectives on peace education theory, research, curriculum development and practice. it is the only series focused on peace education offered by any major publisher. click here to learn more about this important series. building a peaceful society attempts a daunting task in a relatively few pages, that of collecting and integrating a vast variety of resources related to peacebuilding and peace education across a spectrum of realities and institutions. the author demonstrates the wide-reaching need for and application of peace education in systems ranging from policing and courts to sports, schools, and ngos. her scope is global with some emphasis on issues and resources within the u.s. her introduction to the book establishes the problems underlying violence vis-à-vis the dominator model so prevalent in western society, particularly the u.s. in chapter one, she ensures that she and her reader are operating from a common vocabulary regarding peacemaking and positive peace, and introduces the partnership in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 32-34 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 33 model as preferred to the dominator model for growing relationship, understanding and peace. the heart of the book is six chapters exploring the possibilities for peacemaking and the use of peace education in various institutional settings, namely: law and policing, courts and corrections, prevention programs, non-profits and social services, sports, and brief attention to a few other institutions such as the military, economics and family, among others. she concludes by offering insights for the path forward. dr. finley critiques the militarization of police academies and districts as well as other dominator-model approaches to communal conflicts, needs and services. she advocates partnership-model leadership, peace education and peacebuilding as ways to enhance communal voice and collaboration toward a more equitable and just society. finley references a wide range of scholars of peace education and offers insight and inspiration toward its greater use and efficacy. she offers an important thread throughout regarding the need to shift from dominator-model systems to partnershipmodel structures and strategies. her work is concise and readable, passionate yet academic. she has formed an extensive network among advocates of peace education, and she utilizes this web to inform her readers. despite the author’s scholarship in the field, the book has numerous deficits which are difficult to overlook. the larger issues with building a peaceful society are the following: the book’s audience is unclear, the author’s voice is in scant evidence, the reach of the book too grand for its length, peacebuilding practitioners who frame the scholarship from the field are too few, and the engaging art of storytelling is almost completely absent. there are a few other minor critiques that will follow, but these five require primary attention. first, dr. finley presumably partnered with this publisher to provide a resource for higher education classrooms, and yet, she appears more interested in affecting change among dominant systems and therefore may be trying to catch the attention of non-profits or peace organizations. since organizations tend to have a specific injustice or problem to which they are attempting to respond, her cursory consideration of each type of institution is unlikely to be helpful. that students in peace education would eventually be responsible for peace work and education is obvious, but it’s improbable that her writing style would stimulate undergraduate interest or connect with the way they tend to learn. therefore, the potential audiences of the book remain unclear or possibly dissatisfied. second, due to very extensive use of quotes and references to various peace educators, organizers and scholars, there were numerous times when the author’s voice got lost. jumping from one scholar or resource to another created a frequently choppy text that did not attract the reader nor provide a clear thread amidst copious expert opinions. when she did comment or offer insight, there were presumptions and biases that raised concerns. for instance, not everyone agrees that the police are militarized. various narratives and academic texts demonstrate that there may be some level of consensus among peace advocates that policing tends toward militarization in the u.s., in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 32-34 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 34 and she does attempt to explore this reality to some degree (20ff), but again, depending on her audience, she may need to better support her claim that police and other institutions are militarized in order to build her case more convincingly and set the stage to propose alternatives. third, dr. finley attempts to do it all in this short text, as suggested in the book outline above. ironically, the attention to the role that higher education plays in dominator and partnership-model structures and initiatives, or should play in building bridges between the academy and the wider community, is given scant attention. since these are frequent places in which peace educators are formed, it seems that greater attention, beyond a brief mention of service learning (136-7), is needed. fourth, the author’s strength clearly lies in specific social and broad institutional aspects of ‘peace education,’ mentioned in the book’s subtitle, and thus her frequent reference to paulo freire is appropriate. numerous other authors, scholars and researchers are credited by finley with contributions to the field of peace education. conversely, there seemed to be a dearth of important contributors and scholars from the study of actual peacebuilding praxis. when she speaks of ‘conflict resolution’ on the global stage (e.g. 114), john paul lederach and robert schreiter, both pace setters in the discipline, were not mentioned. kay pranis has been pivotal in reframing approaches to juvenile delinquency and court processes, particularly in the u.s. no doubt, there are others who may have deepened the erudition in the text. finally, in order to engage one’s readers, whoever the audience may be, stories are essential. storytelling and relationship building are cornerstones of peacebuilding and peace education, so the lack of narratives and examples from the field created a text that was often dry and somewhat devoid of the humanity whom educators and peacemakers are striving to heal and reconcile. one would hope that finley’s focus on creativity in the final portion of the book would evoke story and greater imagination. that said, each chapter opened with a stanza or more of a relevant song, and this was welcome. a few minor, more detailed observations: a) there were numerous minor editing errors which were distracting. b) many chapters included lists of organizations or programs that might have been better suited to her appendices in which she offers readers a list of books, films, and websites. and c) an index would have been extremely helpful. while there’s no question that this review errs on the side of critique over commendation, dr. finley has clear wisdom to offer the field of peace education. perhaps a more targeted focus in a future publication would allow for her voice to be heard, her audience to be clarified and the scholars and practitioners on whom she relies to be winnowed and enriched. microsoft word badal ifp 13.2.doc volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 134 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal why civil resistance fails: the saffron uprising in myanmar, 2007 adhik badal department of political science, kent state university abadal@kent.edu abstract this article examines why the 2007 saffron uprising in myanmar failed to achieve its strategic objectives. by applying ackerman and kruegler’s (1994) principles of nonviolent conflict, the author examines how the strategic and tactical choices employed by campaign leaders minimized the campaign’s ability to achieve its goals. the findings suggest that the major reason the movement failed is associated with two factors: first, movement leaders were unable to create defection in security forces and in the civilian bureaucracy; second, the organizers were unable to build organizational strength and to produce contingency leadership. the other reasons for the failure include the movement leaders’ inability to generate wide external support and that they did not assess the events and options in light of strategic decision making. these findings are essential not only for understanding the campaign’s failure, but to building theory. they alert scholars and activists to acknowledge the type of foreign support required for modern campaigns to succeed. the case also underscores the significance of education and preparation volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 135 through training so that activists understand the dynamics of nonviolent conflict and are able to respond strategically to trying circumstances. keywords: nonviolence, saffron uprising, campaign, loyalty shifts, monks most of the social movement literature shows that nonviolent resistance tends to be more effective than violent campaigns to achieve policy goals (martin, 2015; stephen & chenoweth, 2008). less research, however, explains why civil resistance succeeds or fails. nonviolence as a concept, originated with mahatma gandhi at the beginning of the twentieth century (martin, 2015). however, the method of nonviolent action was brought into the field of scholarly research by gene sharp (1973), who theorized how nonviolent action tends to defuse power (martin, 1989; schock, 2013). since then, several scholars have studied the power of civil resistance. in 2008, maria stephen and erica chenoweth broke new ground with an empirical analysis of the effectiveness of nonviolent action compared to violent action when opposing a repressive regime (stephen & chenoweth, 2008). ‘saffron uprising’ or ‘saffron revolution’ [august-october 2007] in myanmar was a series of peaceful economic, political and religious protests led by buddhist monks against the government’s removal of fuel subsidies (kingston, 2008; shen & chen, 2010). the removal doubled the price of diesel while the cost of natural gas increased five-fold in less than a week, devastating citizens’ purchasing power for basic goods (pollard, 2015). while the movement received wide popularity in myanmar and abroad, it ended with killings and massive arrests of campaign participants and monk leaders by the military junta (shen & chen, 2010). this paper applies peter ackerman and christopher kruegler’s (1994) framework to understand the failure of saffron uprising. in strategic nonviolent conflict: the dynamics of people power in twentieth century, ackerman and kruegler present twelve principles which they assert will make civil resistance more likely to succeed if they are followed. this framework fits the proposed analysis because it critically examines strategies and tactics employed in the movement to examine its effectiveness rather than investigating the process of a volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 136 nonviolent movement. the major questions this research analyzes are: why did the ‘saffron revolution’ fail to achieve its goals? what were its shortcomings? this study analyzes the degrees to which the movement leadership conformed to ackerman and kruegler’s principles of nonviolent conflict. this is a qualitative study based on secondary sources. i selected this case because it is one of the prominent nonviolent movements that occurred in south east asia at the beginning of the twenty-first century which attracted global attention, and in many cases, international condemnation (mccarthy, 2008). required data are taken from books, scholarly journals, newspaper articles and other sources for analysis. the paper consists of three parts. the first section highlights a brief review of literature which conceptualizes the strategy of nonviolent action. the second section presents a summary of the saffron uprising while employing some of the concepts of nonviolence theories. in the third section, i analyze the case in light of ackerman and kruegler’s principles to look at why the 2007 resistance failed to achieve its goals. the strategies of nonviolent action nonviolent action is an active, civilian based method of waging conflict in the collective pursuit of a social or political objective without using physical force. it comprises ‘acts of commission, acts of omission or a combination of both’ (sharp, 2005, p. 41). researchers have identified hundreds of methods including boycott and sit-in resistors have employed to engage people to delegitimize adversaries and to restrict oppositions’ sources of power (sharp, 1973). similarly, they have differentiated principled and pragmatic nonviolence approaches. principled nonviolent resistance is based on religious and ethical elements against violence. leaders such as mahatma gandhi and martin luther king engaged in nonviolent campaigns. however, all involved in nonviolent campaigns do not depend on moral authority (schock, 2003). this suggests that the effectiveness of civil resistance relies on how activists utilize tactics and strategies to wage nonviolent conflict. however, as mentioned above, there is less research that explains what determines the success or failure of civil resistance. for some scholars (nepstad, 2013; stephen & chenoweth, 2008) loyalty shifts in security forces explains the efficacy of nonviolent conflict whereas for others (ackerman, 2007), skills rather than conditions are essential in volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 137 civil resistance. ackerman and kruegler (1994) present twelve principles of strategic nonviolent conflict, which examine how nonviolent techniques are utilized by activists. they contend that nonviolent struggles which follow most strategic principles are likely to succeed. the six case studies presented in their book illustrate that the principles are applicable in evaluating the effectiveness of the movement. erica chenoweth and maria stephen (2011) argue that tactical diversity strengthens the ability of civil resistance to strategically outmaneuver the opponents. for them, civilian resistance methods tend to be more successful than violent methods to achieve strategic objectives. the findings of their study indicate that loyalty shifts in security forces and in the civilian bureaucracy are positively correlated with the probability of a campaign’s success. the authors also identified that international sanctions do not affect nonviolent campaigns which fail to achieve widespread and decentralized mobilization and are unlikely to create defection among elites. in recent literature, erica chenoweth (2018) examines why some campaigns succeed at making repression backfire while others do not. her study demonstrates that loyalty shifts among security forces and national elites is the leading factor in the success of nonviolent campaigns, along with movement participation, and withdrawal of support by foreign allies. it indicates that nonviolent conflict does not work as magic. if resistors are weak, if the technique they have employed is poorly chosen, if activists are frightened to submission, or if they lack proper strategies, the likelihood of succeeding diminishes (sharp 2005). for zeynep tufekci (2017, pp. 195-197), the success of social movements lies in their capacity to set a narrative, disrupt the status quo, and affect the institutional or electoral changes. by comparing modern protests such as 2011 tahrir squire protests with those of the past, including the civil rights movement, she asserted that the failure of modern campaigns is associated with resistors’ inability to develop organizational strength. they lack organizational structure and leadership to respond to a new political development which she calls tactical freeze. all the literature reviewed above underscores the significance of nonviolent tactics and strategies in examining the success and failure of the nonviolent campaign. volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 138 background and context of saffron uprising the saffron uprising, against the military regime and led by prodemocracy activists from 88 generation students group, began with four days of protest on august 15, 2007, denouncing the removal of fuel subsidies and the price hike in tamwe township in rangoon (brough & li, 2013; chaudhary, 2008; mccarthy, 2008). the rise in the price of diesel and natural gas quickly created pressure on the civilian population. by august 19, a number of pro-democracy activists including students and affiliates of the national league of democracy (nld) party started marching through the streets of rangoon. the ruling state, peace, and development council (spdc) permitted these demonstrations to proceed, but the resistors were beaten brutally charged by security forces and the pro-government militia [called swan arr shin (sas)] of the union solidarity development association (usda) (clapp, 2007). in late august, a small number of buddhist monks in the western city of sittwe joined the marches against the government’s harsh economic policy. however, on september 5, a small number of monks in the town of pakokku in central myanmar were attacked and beaten by sas who tied some of the monks to poles and beat and disrobed (clapp, 2007). this event created the ‘paradox of repression’ -the use of force by actors to repress their opponents engaged in nonviolent movements often backfires (chenoweth, 2018, p. 49; smithey & kurtz, 2018, p. 2). it revived the wave of resistance around the nation because monks are highly respected in burmese society. the all burma monks alliance (abma), a central decisionmaking agency, was formed during the movement to coordinate the campaign. the membership of abma included all burma young monks’ union; federation of all burma young monks’ union, rangoon young monks’ union, and sangha dutta council of burma (human rights watch [hrw], 2009). on september 9, abma issued a leaflet while giving an ultimatum of september 17 to spdc to meet their objectives or face a religious boycott: provide an official apology to the monks for the violence in pakokku, to reduce commodity prices, to release all political prisoners, and to enter into dialogue for national reconciliation with democratic forces (mccarthy, 2008). the spdc denied their demands, which fueled more crises from september 18th. tens of thousands of monks along with other civilians volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 139 peacefully marched against the regime. the authoritarian regime sabotaged the situation through violence. pro-government security forces raided monasteries and detained monk leaders and activists (shen & chen, 2010). the number of civilian dissenters killed during the movement varies. the government claim was thirteen. the un estimate was at least thirty-one. however, other pro-democracy opposition groups put the figure much higher (selth, 2008). the extent of the external support the movement received varies. the international community, especially western states, reacted to the violence by calling on the ruling generals to practice restraint (pollard, 2015). they imposed new sanctions. however, the movement crackdown by spdc continued, leaving the spdc free to use its power to arrest civilians (thawnghmung & myoe, 2008). the following analysis examines the saffron revolution’s degrees and means of adherence to ackerman and kruegler’s twelve principles in understanding the reasons behind the failure of this campaign. principle 1: formulate a functional objective developing a functional objective is ackerman and kruegler’s first strategic principle of nonviolent conflict. the objective must be specific and achievable within a particular time frame (ackerman & kruegler, 1994; brown, 2009; fischer, 2010). it must include a diverse section of nonviolent sanctions and should be vital to the protagonists. the functional objective must attract wide support from those who are affected by the conflict and be in line with the interests of potential external supporters (ackerman & kruegler 1994, pp. 25-26). concurrently, stephen and chenoweth (2008) argue that the quantity and quality of campaign participation is the major factor in determining the outcome of the resistance struggle. the objectives of the saffron uprising were practical and were manifested in demands made upon the government. the implementation of these demands was the goal of the campaign. the movement was initiated first by 88 generations students. their primary demand to reduce the price of basic commodities was specific, allowing for various processes for achieving it and serving the basic need of protestors (hrw, 2007). however, with the change in the dynamics of the conflict, the objectives of the campaign expanded. as the movement was revived with the involvement of buddhist monks, the campaign added further specific objectives such as an official apology to volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 140 the monks for the violence in pakokku, the release of political prisoners, and entering into dialogue with democratic forces to promote reconciliation (mccarthy, 2008). the monks’ withdrawal of religious services from the members of spdc and security forces (oxford burma alliance), and their demand for an official apology was symbolic and practical for achieving their major objective of enhancing the economy. the goal is practical for its symbolic value of making the government morally accountable to the people (international federation for human rights [fidh], 2007). other objectives such as releasing political prisoners and engaging into dialogue with democratic forces are functional because the first one is sufficient to promote and protect justice and human rights of civilians. the second goal is practical because it promotes democracy and peace in the country. this objective is functional because it helped generate wide support for the campaign nationally and internationally while disclosing the lack of political legitimacy of the regime (mccarthy, 2008). principle 2: develop organizational strength the principle of developing organizational strength concerns a movement’s ability to form new groups or to turn preexisting groups or institutions towards serving a movement’s different functions. effective organizations lead nonviolent actors ‘to make decisions under pressure to translate their decision into mobilizations, and to motivate others to play various supporting parts’ (ackerman & kruegler, 1994, p. 26). saffron uprising was organized effectively while forming a national agency called abma. directed and supported by local and national actors including all burma young monk union, the abma in association with 88 students group developed strategies and tactics of the campaign (hrw, 2009). the 15 steering committee members of abma consisted of senior monks from different monasteries. their ability to lead people of diverse socio-economic and political background was maintained through regular contact. the leaders worked with local organizers and travelled to speak with supporters. by doing this, the monks lead the campaign throughout myanmar (hrw, 2007). the secretary of abma also built volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 141 up networks with monasteries inside and outside the country. the clear structure and task specialization helped decentralize the movement from rangoon to sittwe and other cities, which increased widespread participation among monks, nuns, and other civilians (mccarthy, 2008). the call to mobilize was strengthened by existing monks’ networks (hrw, 2007). unlike indian satyagraha, and civil rights movement, the saffron uprising lacked charismatic leadership. initially, the functional leadership of the movement was provided by 88 generations student leaders including ko min ko naing. when the student leaders were arrested, such monk leaders as u gambira and ashin issariya offered leadership (kovan, 2012) directly and indirectly. the leadership structure motivated and engaged a large number of populations, thanks to the high regard in which monks are held in burmese society. campaign messages were framed in a religious manner. the use of saffron colored clothes, religious flags, and the overturning bowl as a symbol of alms boycott were impressive. it represented the collective identity of buddhists living in myanmar (heisler, 2012). the general strike demonstrated an unusual degree of civilian participation. for example, on september 24, 2007, an estimated 100,000 people joined the peaceful protest with monks in yangon (oxford burma alliance). however, the movement lacked middle range leadership such as students (pollard, 2015) who could gauge an opponent’s movement well in advance. it was unable to create affinity groups who could utilize diverse tactics such as turning the fear of tragedy into excitement as suggested by george lakey (2018) and provide a leadership role to save the movement from military crackdown. the training and educating mechanism for the activists was not developed (kyaw, 2008). therefore, such a great peaceful protest ended in a few months due to the lack of leadership and strategic planning. most of the monk leaders were arrested and detained. the peaceful protest ‘lasted leaderless for about two days before the protestors yielded to regime repression’ (pollard, 2015, p. 53). the movement could have succeeded if abma had produced leaders like sarojini naidu from the dharasana salt march in india who employed unique tactics to keep the campaign functional when gandhi and most of the other leaders were arrested. the regime’s violent tactics and the unity did not allow the movement to stabilize. principle 3: secure access to critical material resources volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 142 this principle takes into account material resources necessary to sustain the conduct of nonviolent protagonists that includes basic commodities for activities unique to the campaign, among others. effective communication and access to transportation are vital in mobilizing resources (ackerman and kruegler 1994, p. 31). the saffron movement secured access to critical materials through the contribution of local, national and international actors including monastic and local communities. the movement’s organizational structure played significantly into procuring resources. monks in myanmar are completely reliant on donations from the people. they are forbidden to handle cash or to engage in politics. during the conflict, the monks received non-monetary (food) support from the local people (heisler, 2012). the level of support, however, was minimal in some places due to economic hardships (hrw, 2009). by utilizing its existing religious networks, abma generated financial support from overseas especially from burmese buddhist monasteries from sri lanka, penang, malaysia and singapore. the movement also received funding from many other buddhist institutions from thailand (hrw, 2009). by broadening its networks with international non-governmental organizations (ingos), the campaign also received financial support from numerous governments and non-government agencies including the united states congress through the national endowment of democracy (selth, 2008). ackerman and kruegler (1994) write that swift and accurate communication is necessary to bolster the nonviolent activists. despite the censorship of national media, and the regime’s termination of internet and telephone services, the campaign received media support from radio stations of bbc burmese, voa burmese, radio free asia burmese and the democratic voice of burma, all operated from abroad and which allowed the resistors to share information with the public in myanmar (zin, 2010; wang, 2007). the it support came from burmese dissidents living in neighboring states. through them the news was circulated to the whole world. these journalists regularly monitored the junta’s activities with respect to human rights violations (chaudhary, 2008). all these supports were crucial to the operation of the movement. principle 4: cultivate external assistance volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 143 ackerman and kruegler (1994) note that external assistance can be instrumental in attacking ‘the adversaries in outside areas where their vital interest lies’ (p. 32). effective support from external sources can enhance organizational strength necessary to make the campaign successful. these actors launch sanctions of their own against the violent protagonist and in effect become direct parties to the struggle. the extent of the external support the saffron uprising generated varied. the international community, especially western states, reacted to the violence by calling on the ruling generals to practice restraint (pollard, 2015). they imposed new sanctions against the regime. the us tightened the 1997 investing ban and froze assets of many regime members. canada imposed a sweeping ban on all economic deals including all trade and investment. australia issued visa bans and asset freezes on 430 myanmar elites. the european union (eu) added financial bans on the logging and timber industries (international crisis group [icg], 2008: pp. 16-17). japan dismissed us $4.7 million aid in burma. the association of south east asian nations (asean) nations expressed their revulsion against the repression; however, they expressed a softer tone towards the regime (selth, 2008). china and india wanted a peaceful resolution to the conflict in myanmar. however, china vetoed the us/uk resolution of security against myanmar in january 2008, which received strong negative international reaction. india requested the spdc to launch a probe into the violent crackdown. however, it wanted to remain invisible on this movement due to its trade deal with the regime (icg, 2008; kyaw, 2008). on other side, the un, especially the security council and human rights council, deplored violence against civilians from the beginning. they called for the release of political detainees and for dialogue with democratic forces for national reconciliation (icg, 2008; selth, 2008). secretary general ban ki moon deployed a special representative, ibrahim gambiri, to solve the problem diplomatically. however, in the absence of cultivating wider support from the regional powers as well as neighboring countries (i.e. asean), the western sanctions failed to strengthen the campaign. principle 5: expand the repertoire of sanction the principle expanding the campaign’s method of nonviolent action enables nonviolent actors to utilize all their constituents’ capabilities volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 144 (ackerman & kruegler, 1994). this principle was particularly important in myanmar’s case, in which many of the resistors were monks who had moral power in myanmar. prayers were utilized. the movement started with the monks reciting paritta sutta-prayers for protection against evil and metta sutta-loving kindness (hrw 2007, p. 33). prayers usually take place in the monastery or in the private home. the monks brought this ritual to the public space throughout the entire campaign to demoralize the military regime. exposing the regime as the common enemy of myanmar, the monks publicly denounced the military rulers’ activities as evil, sadistic, and pitiless (kovan, 2012). the monks captured the world’s attention through an alms boycott against the military regime and its supporters. on september 14, 2007, abma issued a statement calling for the withdrawal of religious services and refusal to accept alms from all members from the military, government officials and spdc members (mccarthy, 2008). andrew selth (2008) writes that by overturning the alms bowls and refusing to accept donations from spdc officials and their supporters, the monks attacked the military regime’s main claim of political legitimacy and the spiritual wellbeing of buddhist armed forces. the use of religious signals such as overturning alms bowls and buddhist flags was excellent. the nonviolent actors followed the gandhian method of marching to challenge regime restrictions and to generate solidarity from the people and buddhist nuns. for example, on september 25, despite the government’s restriction, a larger number of monks (30,000-50,000) and other equal number of civilians continuously marched down the street while making a human chain in yangon (hrw, 2007). in this context, employing these religious methods were innovative and effective for the movement to maintain internal unity of the campaign and increase campaign participation. many of the scholars (chenoweth, 2018; tufekci, 2017) argue that campaign size matters the most for a nonviolent movement to succeed. principle 6: attack the opponents’ strategy for consolidating control ackerman and kruegler (1994) state that ‘the violent opponents’ optimum control of the conflict situation derives from the presumed link volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 145 between commands and responses of those they seek to dominate’ (pp. 35-36). thus, weakening the legitimacy of the oppressors by disobeying their commands is the major pillar of support. explaining the same phenomenon, sharp (2005) argues that oppressors are given power through the consent of oppressed. however, that power can be eliminated if the consent is revoked. in the saffron uprising, movement leaders tried to delegitimize the regime by exposing their lack of control in myanmar through religious sanctions. the monk leaders effectively designed and implemented religious boycotts. it questioned the legitimacy of the regime which considered itself as the guardian of buddhism in myanmar (heisler, 2012). in addition to the boycott, they employed the method of non-compliance to attack the regime’s legitimacy. for instance, on september 25, the government implemented a ban on meetings of more than five people. but the resistors defied the ban and continued to meet, march, and conduct religious activities (hrw, 2009). however, the primary source of control that never was attacked was the internal unity of the security forces. many of the scholars (nyein, 2009; pollard, 2015) contend that the main reason for the failure of the movement was the unity of the military regime and the security forces. they argue that despite their great effort, the movement leaders were unable to delegitimize the military regime so that defection could occur. glenda pollard (2015) state, the short-lived nonviolent movement was unable to gain leverage over the powerful junta. general than shewe’s repressive strategy towards his opponents combined with the provision of economic incentives to his supporters had effectively entrenched regime solidarity and military loyalty. stephen and chenoweth (2008, p. 22) assert that security force defection make civil resistance forty-six times more likely to succeed than nonviolent campaign where a loyalty shift does not occur. by raising the political cost of crackdown, the moral cost of regime loyalty, the honor cost of regime loyalty, and the personal cost of regime loyalty, civilian resistors can encourage security force defection (nepstad, 2013). in this campaign, beside religious boycott and some individual monk’s personal request to a single soldier during the crackdown, no other organized strategies were pursued to generate defection among spdc and security forces (pollard, 2015). the possibility of loyalty shifts was further discouraged by the lack of communication between the resistance leaders and regime elites. min zin (2010) noted that the nld leaders volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 146 joined the street protests rather than playing the role of serving as a bridge between the junta and the demonstrators. the revolution failed because the highly unified security forces prevented the opposition from gaining leverage. the regime employed smart strategies to maintain their unity. on the one hand, they utilized economic incentives including an increase in troop salaries (pollard, 2015). on the other, they had already placed regional military leaders into cabinet positions in the ministries (nyein, 2009). similarly, the regime was able to maintain its ties with its traditional trade allies such as china and india (kyaw, 2008). it boosted their strength to content the movement by using violent repression and minimized the possibility of loyalty shifts in security institutions and the spdc. chenoweth (2018) states, ‘once regime allies withdraw support, the chances of success among the largest campaign double to forty per cent’ (p. 46). principle 7: mute the impact of the opponents violent weapons even when nonviolent resistors eliminate violent behavior from their support base and allies, the threat of violence from their opposition remains. violence utilized against protestors can demoralize supporters, destroy resources, and encourage violence to be reciprocated. thus, the impacts of violence have to mitigate as soon as possible (ackerman & kruegler, 1994). to do so movement leaders can prepare people for the worst effects of violence and reduce the strategic importance of what may be lost to violence. in the saffron revolution, violence used against resistors was countered by strengthening commitment and preparing actors psychologically in the initial days of the protests. the arrests of the student leaders from the 88 generation student group and sas’s attack on monks in pakokku turned into the paradox of repression. it revived the campaign by the monks who are highly respected by the people and the military (heisler, 2012). after the pakokku event, the leaders were aware of the possible risk of violence. to prevent the demoralization of their supporters, they established the abma. the organization, while issuing a statement on september 9, 2007 gave the spdc an ultimatum to comply with the four demands or face a nationwide religious boycott (hrw, 2007, p. 30). ackerman and kruegler (1994) write that ‘the agents of violence can be blunted by confusion. . . or fear of being isolated socially or physically’ (p. 39). similarly, on september 14, the agency issued a second leaflet volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 147 and called for an alms boycott (kovan, 2012). the leaders thought religious boycotts would generate defection among security forces and national elites. they believed that at least rank and file soldiers would revolt because of their strong faith in religion (heisler, 2012). however, these strategies failed to stop the use of violence by the repressive regime. to prevent the demoralization of their supporters, on september 24, the members of the abma and the 88 generations students group informed the demonstrators that security forces might use violence against them. by taking the reference from the 1988 burmese campaign, they made protestors aware of the possibility of the regime repression prior to the government crackdown (hrw, 2007). however, no existing literature says that they were actually prepared for handling such challenges. this suggests that abma also did not develop any support systems for victims such as medical, psychological, and financial help. ackerman and kruegler (1994) note that these dynamics can mitigate human suffering and unite the campaign. as a result, after september 26, the number of the participants decreased, and the movement ended being leaderless. principle 8: alienate opponents from expected bases of support ackerman and kruegler (1994, pp. 40-41) write that when oppression and violence are inevitable, the best way to prevent violence is to increase the cost of using force. the saffron movement was partially able to do so by capitalizing on the brutality they endured from spdc and security forces. buddhism was the foundation of myanmar’s military regime. having the supreme command over sangha, the regime believed it had political legitimacy to govern the buddhist state. however, by disobeying the command of spdc, the monks marched into the street, and the religious boycott against spdc and their supporters questioned the regime’s pillar of support (mccarthy, 2008). this helped the monks win the hearts and minds of the people and alienate the regime from popular support. repression can create the climate of revulsion for an adversary’s politics and strategies can be created to alienate the opponent from its usual and expected sources of support (ackerman & kruegler, 1994, p. 41). in myanmar, by using satellite phones and the internet, resistors were able to share the images of demonstrations and the regime’s violent volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 148 repression with foreign media (selth, 2008). it helped the resistors internationalize the movement repression and generated international condemnation of the violent acts of spdc. for instance, the western countries imposed new sanctions against the regime. they banned all economic activities and froze the property of many national elites (icg, 2008). these actors put pressure on china and india to persuade spdc to initiate dialogue with democratic forces. the leadership, however, was unable to alienate china and india from the violent acts of spdc. as mentioned above, both china and india wanted a peaceful resolution of the conflict in myanmar. however, china vetoed the us/uk resolution of security against myanmar in january 2008 (kyaw, 2008). the reason for china to support spds were: first, myanmar has become its reliable ally in the south east asia. china is equally aware of increasing us influence in the region. second, its increasing business relationships with myanmar (icg, 2008). the reason india remained invisible from the movement was similar. selth (2008) notes that at the time monks were protesting, india was enjoying its new energy deal with spdc. thus, the monk leaders failed to disconnect the power of support of the regime from its traditional allies. had this been pursued effectively, the movement would have been more effective in creating loyalty shifts among security forces and the civilian bureaucracy. principle 9: maintain nonviolent discipline maintaining nonviolent behaviors is ackerman and kruegler’s main variance from military strategy. however, remaining nonviolent requires the same courage and discipline from individuals as soldiers. ackerman and kruegler write that nonviolence delegitimizes the opponents’ violence and gives the nonviolent actors ‘credibility, stature, and ultimately power’ (p. 43). the monk-led campaign was in line with this principle. towards the whole campaign the resistors maintained nonviolent discipline. in the initial protest in august 2007, there were no major accounts of protestors acting violently even if the security forces arrested and detained prominent leaders of 88 generations students including ko mink ko naing and ko ko gyi (hrw, 2007). the movement became more peaceful after the monks joined the protests. their involvement helped enhance the campaign’s momentum. stephen and chenoweth volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 149 (2008) argue that nonviolent campaigns that are overwhelmingly nonviolent tend to succeed more than twice as often as those of violent campaigns. despite the monks being assaulted by sas, they did not engage in violent activities. by forming abma, they participated in religious protest. their tactics of overturning the bowls and rejecting the alms from the elites were excellent (kovan, 2012). it shamed the violent opponents and impressed third parties nationally and internationally. erica chenoweth and kurt shock (2015) argue that implementation of nonviolent methods tends to increase the power of challengers because the use of violence undermines a movement’s legitimacy, discourages people’s participation, diverts resources and confronts the state. in the 2007 saffron revolution, the monks did not give up this discipline as the crackdown began after september 25. for example, on september 27, despite severe repression, a senior monk requested all the members to ‘just pray, do not shout, do not throw rocks; pray for peace and protection and love’ (hrw 2007, p. 69). this demonstrates how nonviolent the monks were during the campaign. however, there were few instances of violent sabotages. for instance, on september 26, when the riot police raided the shewedagon pagoda in rangoon, students and other protestors gathered outside attacked the security forces by throwing stones and pushing aside the barricades (hrw, 2007). however, these minor incidents did not taint the overall campaign. principle 10: assess events and options in light of levels of strategic decision making this principle is concerned primarily with the assessment of a party’s tactical stance, what is needed to advance, and party’s tools and weaknesses (ackerman & kruegler, 1994). the campaign leadership conformed this principle in some but not all events. first, on september 9, campaign leaders analyzed their nonviolent strategies and choices, which was a response to the september 5 attack on the monks by sas. as mentioned, they formed abma to coordinate the campaign and issued a statement asking the spdc to address their four demands. they also gave an ultimatum for the spdc to meet their demands by september 17 or risk immediate boycott (clapp, 2007; mccarthy, 2008). another successful assessment occurred on september 14. the spdc denied meeting their demands and accused the organizers of volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 150 making monasteries a safe haven for terrorists. the members of spdc also offered bribes to senior monks to stop the campaign. at this juncture, the call from abma for the religious boycott was crucial (kovan, 2012). the logistics and tactics were all planned. the action tainted the image of the regime nationally and internationally. the decision to march outside the home of aung san suu kyi in rangoon on september 22 was decisive. this march brought momentum and dramatically increased the size of the campaign. (selth, 2008). the joint statement of the abma and the 88 generations student group was well planned. it informed the protestors of the possible risk of repression (hrw, 2007). however, there were no contingency plans if the security force arrested all the monk leaders (selth, 2008). as ackerman & kruegler (1994) suggest movements should do, the movement leaders did not focus on prevention, mitigation and recovery of the movement from crackdown. therefore, the campaign ended when the regime arrested most of the monk leaders (heisler, 2012). abma lacked a creative leadership structure who could take the advantage of repression and build a spirit of resistance and collective solidarity as jenni williams (2018) noted in her analysis of the women’s campaign in zimbabwe. such strategies and tactics would have prevented the massive arrests and detention of their leaders. in this context, the decision on the level of policy was poor. principle 11. adjust offensive and defensive operations according to the relative vulnerabilities of the protagonists the principle concerns the ability of a nonviolent campaign to pivot between attempting to cripple their opponent’s pillars of strength and defending its own members. campaigns should be able to switch tactics based upon which party has more freedom, morale, and resources (ackerman & kruegler, 1994, p. 48). the saffron uprising utilized offensive strategies. it was unable to address vulnerabilities related to morale and in preventing resistors from the regime’s repression. the movement used numerous offensive tactics against the regime. although demands were made throughout the campaign, they had the greatest impact following other offensive actions, such as giving an ultimatum to risk a religious boycott and marching in the streets by rejecting the ban of the government after september 25 (selth, 2008). volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 151 the alms boycott was symbolic, but it was the most offensive act that tainted the image of the military regime nationally and internationally (heisler, 2012). the campaign also was successful in immediately turning repression to its strategic advantages in the beginning. for example, the incident of pakokku became a point of departure to revive the movement (fidh, 2007). however, the leaders did not employ defensive adjustments such as ‘dispersion of sanctions, persons and material resources, reduction of the numbers of tactical encounters, and the devotion of energy to constructive work rather than overt conflict behavior’ (ackerman & kruegler, 1994, p. 49). for example, on september 26-27, the security forces detained at least 100 monks from ngwe kyar yan monastery in rangoon (hrw, 2007). despite the damaged morale of the monks and other bystanders and supporters, the leaders did not pursue defensive maneuvers. none of the existing body of literature shows that the leadership received feedback from the conflict to identify their vulnerabilities and to bring more defensive tactics to counter the regime’s repression. the movement leaders could have built communication with spdc leaders (zin, 2010). they should have tried to negotiate with spdc members while keeping the movement intact. had these tactics and strategies been pursued, leaders would have been better prepared for counterattack. principle 12: sustain continuity between sanctions, mechanisms, and objectives this principle concentrates on using the appropriate tactics to achieve the campaign’s objective; it includes conversion, accommodation, coercion and disintegration (ackerman & kruegler, 1994). the objectives of the saffron uprising are best characterized as coercion in which the nonviolent actors wanted change against their opponent’s will but did not want to overthrow the regime (gravers, 2012). the sanctions, such as giving an ultimatum to the government to meet their demands, religious boycotts, and marching into the street were excellent choices to alienate the regime from its major pillar of support. these coercive tactics helped the resistors win the heart and minds of the people and increase campaign size rapidly (fidh, 2007). on a few occasions, they utilized tactics related to accommodation. accommodation is marked by oppressors giving in to volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 152 the nonviolent actors’ demands in order to avoid future damage without being forced (ackerman & kruegler, 1994). on september 9, the abma issued a leaflet and gave it to its supporters to send to spdc leaders asking them to meet the demands of the monks (selth, 2008; mccarthy, 2008). this tactic can be considered as accommodation because it did not force the government to take an action. although the regime was not convinced and denied addressing the resistors’ goals, this tactic helped spdc acknowledge the situation. it also succeeded in raising awareness of the conflict. conclusion ackerman and kruegler’s framework for analyzing a nonviolent campaign explains why saffron uprising in myanmar failed to achieve its strategic objectives. this case underlines the lesson that success in a campaign does not depend solely on the movement having functional objectives. the findings discussed in preceding sections indicate that the campaign failed due to the movement leadership’s inability to properly employ other nonviolent strategies and tactics. this includes the campaign leadership’s inability to fully conform to many of the ackerman and kruegler’s principles of nonviolent action such as developing organizational strength, fostering wider external support, attacking opponent’s base of support, accessing the events, and adjusting offensive and defensive tactics. first, the movement leaders did not fully develop the organizational strength of the campaign. the findings (principles 2, 10) indicate that abma was unable to train and educate its operational corps so that they could mobilize people while operating within a culture of fear in order to maintain the sustainability of the movement. as clark and coy (2015) stated in their analysis of the nashville student sit-in movement, “proper preparation keeps hope and vision alive no matter what happens at the confrontation stage” (p. 10). second, the movement leadership had limitations in building broader international support. however, this principle (principle 4) is questioned by the study of chenoweth and stephen (2008) who identified that international sanctions are not necessarily associated with the success or failure of nonviolent campaigns. therefore, the question that comes from the analysis is: what kind of external support fosters the campaign’s success? this movement benefitted from the direct support of some western states and the un which put pressure on the regime volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 153 diplomatically. the movement, however, did not receive assistance from neighboring states. the finding shows that in the absence of wider support from regional powers and neighboring states, western sanctions alone are not sufficient external support. the nature of external support seems to matter, moreover, context is an important variable in this as well. this result is also in line with stephen and chenoweth’s (2011) assertion that domestic mechanisms are more critical components of success in nonviolent movements. third, the movement leadership was unable to weaken or separate opponents from their major pillars of support. the findings (principles 6, 7 and 8) demonstrate the campaign’s inability to generate a loyalty shift in security forces and the civilian bureaucracy. although the religious boycott was a powerful tool the resistors utilized, too few other strategies and tactics were pursued. notably, the prospect of defection was also discouraged by a communication gap between the resistance leaders and regime elites. sharon e. nepstad (2011) states that resistors should be equally careful to create loyalty shifts within the security forces without which success in a nonviolent campaign is difficult. fourth, the leaders were unable to shift between offensive and defensive positions. the findings (10 and 11 principles) underline that the religious sanctions the leaders utilized were highly offensive. at the same time, the campaign experienced extreme vulnerability such that most of its leaders were arrested and detained by the security forces (selth, 2008). they clearly needed to develop defensive tactics. but they did not accurately analyze the situation and adjust their approach to include defensive tactics to build strength in supporters who had been brutalized and demoralized. nor did they develop and nurture other defensive initiatives. moreover, campaign leaders should have developed communication with spdc officials and pursued negotiation. potentially, this could have minimized the violent repression. in the end the myanmar case provides details not only about how a nonviolent campaign may fail to achieve its goals, but the analysis provided here also contributes to theory building in nonviolent resistance. as discussed, it alerts activists and scholars to recognize more precisely the types of external supports required for a campaign to succeed. the saffron uprising benefited from strong support of the west and the international organizations. however, it lacked assistance from regional powers and neighboring states. hence, the leadership failed to volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 154 create the defections within security forces and national elites necessary for a campaign to succeed as noted by many of the social movement scholars (chenoweth, 2018; nepstad, 2011). therefore, the case underscores that activists should not ignore the benefit of domestic and foreign support when their interest is to weaken the oppressor’s source of power. but they should also be cognizant that total reliance on foreign support does not make a campaign successful. similarly, the saffron case also establishes the significance of education and preparation through training so that activists understand the dynamics of nonviolent conflict and are able to deal with difficult circumstances. this is essential to reap the many benefits from the paradox of repression. these are some of the lessons this case analysis provides and that can be employed now and in future campaigns in a wide variety of settings. references ackerman, p. 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(2013). “the practice and study of civil resistance.” journal of peace research, 50 (3), pp. 277-290. volume 13 number 2 (2019): 134-158 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 158 selth, a. (2008). “burma's ‘saffron revolution’ and the limits of international influence.” australian journal of international affairs 62(3), pp. 281-297. sharp, g. (1973). the politics of nonviolent action. boston: porter sargent. sharp, g. (2005). waging nonviolent struggle: 20th century practice and 21st century potential. extending horizons books. shen, s. & chan, p. c. y. (2010). “failure of the saffron revolution and aftermath: revisiting the transitologist assumption.” journal of comparative asian development 9(1), 31-57. stephan, m. j. & chenoweth, e. (2008). “why civil resistance works: the strategic logic of nonviolent conflict.” international security 33(1), pp. 7-44. thawnghmung, a. m. & myoe, m. a. (2008). “myanmar in 2007: a turning point in the roadmap.” asian survey 48(1), pp. 13-19. tufekci, z. (2017). twitter and tear gas: the power and fragility of networked protest. yale university press. wang, s. (2007). “pulling the plug: a technical review of the internet shutdown in burma.” retrieved march 29, 2019 from http://opennet.net/research/bulletins/013. williams, j. 2018, “overcoming fear to overcoming repression.” in l. r. kurtz and l. a. smithey (eds.), the paradox of repression and nonviolent movements (pp. 143-163). new york: syracuse university press. zin, m. (2010). “opposition movements in burma: the question of relevancy.” in s. l. levenstein, (ed.), finding dollars, sense, and legitimacy in burma (pp. 77-94). washington: woodrow wilson centre. j francis designing teacher education programs for human rights       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     36     volume  6  number  1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   designing teacher education programs for human rights joshua c. francis defiance college america is one of the foremost western nations identified as having a free and just society. as such, the government must ensure that american citizens are receiving a fair and equitable education that prepares them to be effective citizens in a liberal democratic nation. one historical goal of public education in america is the transmission of culture from one generation to the next. however, in a globally diverse society education should not be limited to the reproduction of the dominant ideology, but should emphasize the promotion of those values that support a liberal democracy: protection from despots, the possession of fundamental political rights and liberties, and most importantly a pluralistic system in which they may selfdetermine what is best for their own good and interests. public education should help students to understand their role as citizens within america's liberal democratic society. to be truly effective citizens in a liberal democracy, students need to be educated with the knowledge, ability and dispositions to engage in a pluralistic society that internalizes global values. as such, the role of american public education should be redefined as the creation of a citizens that hold a liberal democratic political culture that values national and international law while valuing human rights, the standards by which a       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     37   society can come to realize and support the conditions necessary to ensure the human dignity of its members.1     a liberal democracy is based on the principles of public reason and intrinsic equality in which its citizens are governed based on the precepts of intrinsic equality and the affirmation of the basic principles of justice, ensuring that basic rights are guaranteed to all individuals.2 in addition, educational institutions in a liberal democratic nation are tasked with developing within students an understanding of intrinsic equality.3 furthermore education, being a concern for all of a nation's citizenry, is certainly the responsibility of a governing body that practices the principle of intrinsic equality, thereby ensuring the political and legal equality of all the stakeholders.4 how do we develop an educational system that is tasked with taking the unique and uncommon identities and belief systems that exist within the united states and developing a citizenry that maintains a sense of positional objectivity and that has a common national identity based on a system of intrinsic equality? to answer this, we must first look at a definition of human rights. we then highlight the need for schools to develop citizens who maintain a sense of positional objectivity and a common national identity based on a system of intrinsic equality and the role of public education in developing this in the youth of a nation's citizenry. this leads to an examination of the role of teacher education in preparing educators that have the ability to ensure students receive such an education. human rights defined to begin, it is important that we have an understanding of the meaning of human rights as they relate to the educational system. regardless of the philosophical justification for human rights used, such as social contract theory or natural law, there are some basic tenets that everyone can hold true. it is these principles that are essential to the development of a human rights education.                                                                                                                           1  fernando reimers, "citizenship, identity and education: examining the public purposes of schools in an age of globalization," prospects 36, no. 3 (2006); betty a. reardon, "human rights learning: pedagogies and politics of peace" (paper presented at the unesco chair for peace education master conference, university of puerto rico, april 15, 2009). 2 m. j. adler, the paideia proposal: an educational manifesto. (new york: macmillan, 1982); robert alan dahl, on democracy (new haven: yale university press, 1998); lynn davies, "focusing on the equal rights in teacher education," educational review 46, no. 2 (1994); amy gutmann, democratic education (princeton, n.j.: princeton university press, 1999); john rawls, political liberalism (new york: columbia university press, 1993); amartya sen, the idea of justice (cambridge, mass.: belknap press of harvard university press, 2009). 3 adler, the paideia proposal: an educational manifesto. ; dahl, on democracy; walter feinberg, common schools, uncommon identities: national unity and cultural difference (new haven: yale university press, 1998); gutmann, democratic education; rawls, political liberalism; sen, the idea of justice. 4 dahl, on democracy; gutmann, democratic education; sen, the idea of justice.       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     38   in general, human rights are standards that ensure certain necessary conditions are met so people may achieve their full potential and maintain a sense of dignity.5 these standards are so important that they necessitate the protection and promotion of everyone from government officials to single individuals. because we live in a globally diverse society, the universality of certain rights should be the topic of mutual debate so that a mutually collective understanding can be achieved.6 this includes those rights listed in the universal declaration of human rights.7 in many teacher education programs, pre-service educators are provided content relating to ideas such as gender, race, religion, social class, and ability and their related impact on student achievement. pre-service educators are also taught that regardless of a student's socio-cultural and economic background, all students should be guaranteed an equal opportunity to succeed. horace mann stated that, "education is the gateway to equality." to not provide an equality of educational opportunity would violate the very principle of intrinsic equality and public reason upon which liberal democracies are based. however, equal opportunities do not necessarily equate to equal rights.8 the importance of educating students regarding equal rights has been made easier with the increasing number of national and international documents that provide definitions of specific rights, such as the united nations universal declaration of human rights, the united nations declaration on the rights of the child, the geneva convention, and numerous national constitutions. all of these documents contain lists of what people may expect and demand. when we demand a right we our also according that right to others, which supports the fact that human rights apply to all individuals regardless of socio-cultural or economic background. furthermore, when we demand rights we are also assuming the correlated duties and obligations associated with that demand.9 most important of these obligations is the assurance and support of those who are having their rights denied. the role of education in human rights a liberal democratic government, and therefore a public education system, being based in public reason is essential to the development of a system of intrinsic equality and an educational system that educates positionally objective democratic citizens for the three reasons that make public reason public: (1) it is the reason of the public because it is the reason of the citizens, (2) it centers on the good of the people and fundamental justice, and (3) it has a public content and                                                                                                                           5 todd jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education," teaching education 17, no. 4 (2006). 6 ibid; g. meintjes, "human rights education as empowerment: reflections on pedagogy," in human rights education for the twenty-first century, ed. george j. andreopoulos and richard pierre claude (philadelphia, pa. :: university of pennsylvania press, 1997). 7 united nations general assembly, "universal declaration of human rights," (1948). 8  davies, "focusing on the equal rights in teacher education." 9 ibid.       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     39   nature given by the ideals and principles grounded in the society's notion of political justice.10 such a purpose is essential to the development and maintenance of an educational system that is tasked with taking the unique and uncommon identities and belief systems that exist within the united states and developing a citizenry that maintains a sense of positional objectivity and that has a common national identity based on a system of intrinsic equality.11 schools are connected to this in two ways. first, public education must have a foundation in a reasonable system of principles based in a system of intrinsic equality and the basic principles of justice. the second reason naturally follows from the first in that the purpose of schools is to use this system of principles to develop a sense of positional objectivity that is shared by the numerous cultures that exists within our country. it is the role of schools to instruct the future generations in the necessary guidelines of inquiry that are the basis of public reason as well as the liberal political values of political justice and public reason.12 it is through schools that a liberal democratic citizenry develops its sense of positional objectivity as well as its methods for balancing the diverse values that exists through the use of public reason. this is done to ensure that the system of principles upon which we are governed is reasonable, ensures intrinsic equality and fairly answers basic questions of justice.13 for it is through these basic questions of justice that the governing structure and norms of all systems of our government, including the guiding principles of our educational system, are developed, therefore inextricably linking the two together.14 freire stated that the educational process, or the process of conscientization, coincides with the student's increasing awareness of their condition and how they may act to change that condition through reflection on their values, concern for societal equality, and willingness to aid others.15 if education is to do all this, and is such an important aspect of human society, it should be identified as a basic right. in addition, to ensure the goals mentioned by friere are met, our institutions of public education must ensure students obtain at least a basic knowledge of human rights, and the necessary skills to defend not only their rights, but the rights of others. finally, if schools are to incorporate a human rights education into their curriculum, teachers must receive the appropriate preparation through teacher preparation programs. education as a basic right conceiving education as a human right is a relatively new idea, first taking written form in the nineteenth century. lindahl and pimentel stated that the modern changes to the social,                                                                                                                           10 gutmann, democratic education; rawls, political liberalism. 11 dahl, on democracy; feinberg, common schools, uncommon identities: national unity and cultural difference; gutmann, democratic education; rawls, political liberalism; arthur m. schlesinger, the disuniting of america: reflections on a multicultural society (new york: w.w. norton & company, 1998); sen, the idea of justice. 12 gutmann, democratic education; rawls, political liberalism. 13 dahl, on democracy; gutmann, democratic education; rawls, political liberalism; sen, the idea of justice. 14 rawls, political liberalism. 15 p. freire, pedagogy of the oppressed (new york: continuum, 2009).       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     40   cultural, political, and economic facets of society have greatly affected the relationship that exists between the individual and the state, especially rights of the individual and the duties of the state.16 through their drafts of the socialist ideas of a paternal state, marx and engels influenced the definition of educational rights through their discussion of compulsory school attendance and other similar measures.17 the first discussion of education as a right and the state's duty to provide that education can be found in stalin's soviet constitution of 1936. in fact, education as a human right is a common theme among all socialist states. this trend continued to develop throughout the twentieth century, being incorporated into many national and international documents, projecting education to the status of a fundamental human right.18 when viewed as a human right, education is said to be the acknowledgement of individual rights rather than emphasizing a person's role in the capitalist goals of a society's economic growth.19 however, research shows that actions to promote and protect human rights will remain improbable if people remain ignorant about human rights and continue to ignore public education's role to provide a human rights education.20 society as a whole is dependent upon its educational systems to develop its citizenry and ensure the creation and sustainability of satisfactory life conditions and the achievement of societal goals. therefore, the role of education as a right is to empower individuals to meet their basic needs and while enabling them to fully and freely develop as individuals. as such, education can be seen as the pathway to individual freedom and toward the development of a free liberal democratic society in which the citizenry have the liberty to choose, think, and express themselves while pursuing political and social processes as unique, culturally diverse individuals.21 human rights education the united nations was the first to publish a formal declaration of human rights that alluded to the content of a human rights education in the charter of the united nations. in article 1, section 3, the united nations charter reads: to achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for                                                                                                                           16 r. lindahl, "the right to education in a globalized world," journal of studies in international education 10, no. 1 (2006); caetano pimentel, "the human right to education: freedom and empowerment," multicultural education 13, no. 4 (2006). 17  douglas  hodgson,  the  human  right  to  education    (brookfield,  vt.:  ashgate,  1998).   18  pimentel,  "the  human  right  to  education:  freedom  and  empowerment."   19  lindahl,  "the  right  to  education  in  a  globalized  world.";  pimentel,  "the  human  right  to  education:  freedom  and   empowerment."   20  davies,  "focusing  on  the  equal  rights  in  teacher  education.";  jennings,  "human  rights  education  standards  for   teachers  and  teacher  education."   21 davies, "focusing on the equal rights in teacher education."; pimentel, "the human right to education: freedom and empowerment."       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     41   human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.22 furthermore, the preamble to the universal declaration of human rights states: as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of member states themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.23 those who drafted this instrument struggled to ensure that it would fit the myriad of cultural and philosophical traditions it applied to. the united nations has historically been concerned with the low status that human rights education has received in national educational goals across the globe. the concern over this low status generated a number of efforts to promote a widespread application since 1994.24 such a strong recognition of education as an instrument for the promotion and protection of human rights demonstrates that everyone has a right to know their rights. in addition, it creates the realization that the true civic purpose of education is to lead students to the adoption of a human rights framework through which to carry out their roles as citizens in a liberal democratic society.25 it is essential that students learn about the universality of rights from an early age as most, if not all, governments that subscribe to the common human rights instruments violate those rights in practice. davies argued that when a person has their rights violated, the concept of achievement has little meaning.26 however, a human rights education is more than teaching a nation's citizenry about their rights, it is more importantly about developing empowerment.27 this does not mean that we dismiss the teaching of our individual rights, for to achieve this empowerment, people must first learn about their rights. according to pimentel and jennings, the empowerment that comes from a human rights education creates an awareness of rights and obligations as they relate to the                                                                                                                           22 united nations general assembly, "the charter of the united nations," (1945). 23 ———, "universal declaration of human rights." 24 murray print et al., "moral and human rights education: the contribution of the united nations," journal of moral education 37, no. 1 (2008). 25 jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education."; pimentel, "the human right to education: freedom and empowerment."; reimers, "citizenship, identity and education: examining the public purposes of schools in an age of globalization."   26 davies, "focusing on the equal rights in teacher education." 27 jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education."; meintjes, "human rights education as empowerment: reflections on pedagogy."; pimentel, "the human right to education: freedom and empowerment."; reimers, "citizenship, identity and education: examining the public purposes of schools in an age of globalization."       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     42   human condition and leads people to make claims not only for their rights, but the rights of others as well. all of this requires a properly constructed set of human rights standards that would shape not only k-12 education, but shape the nature of teacher education programs as well.28 empowerment. by developing a sense of empowerment, a human rights education is helping individuals increase their control over their lives and the decisions that affect their lives, an educational approach evidently different than the "banking" model.29 empowered individuals are conscious of their participation in the development of knowledge and seek opportunities to participate in social and political institutions in order to control their own life experiences and ensure that they reside in a system of intrinsic equality.30 an effective human rights education is more than just the inclusion of human rights in the school curriculum, nor should an attempt be made to simply add the content of human rights to an already robust curriculum.31 what sort of educational system could support an equality of educational opportunity whose end product is an educated and positionally objective citizenry capable of maintaining a liberal democracy based on the principles of intrinsic equality and public reason? to answer this, it is necessary to begin from the premise that the goal of educational institutions is to serve as the preparatory stage for ensuring that all citizens are educated and have the skills to continue learning after their schooling is complete.32 this form of education would be a one track system appropriately adjusted to individual differences with similar goals for all students based on three overarching objectives.33 these objectives are: 1) all citizens should make as much of their abilities as possible, and therefore public schooling should provide them the necessary skills and knowledge to take advantage of every opportunity ensuring true intrinsic equality; 2) the citizenry are the principal rulers of a liberal democratic society, and as such public schooling should adequately prepare them to responsibly discharge their duties34; 3) all citizens should receive an education that includes the basic skills that are common to all work in a liberal democratic society.35 according to jennings, a move toward comprehensive reform of the k-12 curriculum and teacher education to not just be about human rights, but to become the embodiment of human rights is necessary.36 this transformation should include everything from the training that the teacher receives to the learning environment that is provided to the students. more importantly,                                                                                                                           28 jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education." 29 meintjes, "human rights education as empowerment: reflections on pedagogy." 30 ibid. 31 jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education." 32 adler, the paideia proposal: an educational manifesto. . 33 ibid. 34 ibid; dahl, on democracy; gutmann, democratic education; rawls, political liberalism. 35 adler, the paideia proposal: an educational manifesto. . 36 jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education."       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     43   all aspects of a human rights education should be provided in a culturally and socially relevant environment.37 implementing a human rights education in k-12 the philosophical basis of a human rights education aligns well with freire's liberatory pedagogy and is a truly comprehensive approach.38 this pedagogical approach employs a dialogic method intended to support the growth of humanization and personal empowerment while supporting differences by emphasizing the principle of equality. research has shown that the focus of a human rights education must be on equity, transformation, and inclusion through the development of critical consciousness and critical thinking.39 such an approach develops through the recognition of students' personal knowledge and skills.40 teachers and learners equally share in the learning experience through active participation in inquiry and reflection through a process that reinforces our diverse human potentials. this would develop into a critical consciousness through which students' can question their social situation and become active subjects in a global dialogue.41 research shows that high quality human rights education is provided in learner centered environments containing both content and pedagogy that promotes the characteristics of equality, freedom of expression, and the participation of learners in the educational process.42 the content provided should be related to both relevant life experiences and the students' cultural and social contexts while emphasizing the development of human rights and providing contemporary knowledge of human right instruments. all of this should be provided through the use of a pedagogical approach that encourages full participation of all the stakeholders, reinforcing their basic rights to freedom of self-expression and personal liberty.43 critical pedagogy, as a democratic mode of instruction, has as its aim specific democratic goals. for friere, as for many authors of the democratic ethic, democracy was a political ethic that permitted everyone an equal right to shape collective knowledge, while hierarchal social relationships were seen as antidemocratic because they permitted specific groups to have a                                                                                                                           37 ibid; pimentel, "the human right to education: freedom and empowerment." 38 freire, pedagogy of the oppressed. 39 ibid; jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education."; meintjes, "human rights education as empowerment: reflections on pedagogy." 40 pimentel, "the human right to education: freedom and empowerment." 41 freire, pedagogy of the oppressed; jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education."; meintjes, "human rights education as empowerment: reflections on pedagogy." 42 jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education."; pimentel, "the human right to education: freedom and empowerment."; meintjes, "human rights education as empowerment: reflections on pedagogy."   43 jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education."; pimentel, "the human right to education: freedom and empowerment."       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     44   greater voice in social institutions.44 critical pedagogy supports this view in that the curricular and instructional practices that take place under this theory are developed based on the interests of the students.45 in addition, it rejects the teacher student dichotomy and replaces it with a deep reciprocity. this, in turn, leads to democratic results because students have a deeper understanding of social hierarchies and how they can limit free expression throughout society.46 therefore, critical pedagogy links pedagogical practice to the various spheres of social life and power configurations, turning pedagogical practice to a democratic political practice.47 critical pedagogy supports the development of students' abilities to participate in the process of public reason. based on the aforementioned democratic basis of critical pedagogy, it can be said the teachers who employ this methodology in the classroom encourage students to adopt a particular method of sociopolitical analysis so that they may more clearly understand the relationship between world events and their personal experiences.48 this methodology is based on the traditions of marxism, feminism, and critical race theory and emphasizes examining how systems of inequality are created and reproduced and how they might be overturned.49 this is similar to the work that a liberal democracy based on the principles of public reason and justice is aimed at achieving.50 this transformative method of supporting democratic education and the development of praxis centered on the identification and understanding of social ills ensures that students understand why they exist and that they result from the political and economic forces at work in society.51 in all of this, the role of the teacher is to facilitate the dialogue and raise questions to ensure the students understood the relationship between economic and political systems and the concrete social conditions students experience daily.52 critical pedagogy emphasizes the development of a method of sociopolitical analysis through dialogue, a concept very similar to that of public reason which is the basis of a liberal democracy. this analysis aims at uncovering and understanding antidemocratic practices, inequalities and injustices, linking them to the global economic and political forces that create them. by having such an understanding of these                                                                                                                           44 dahl, on democracy; eric b. freedman, "is teaching for social justice undemocratic?," harvard educational review 77, no. 4 (2007); freire, pedagogy of the oppressed. 45 freedman, "is teaching for social justice undemocratic?."; freire, pedagogy of the oppressed; peter mayo, "critical literacy and emancipatory politics: the work of paulo freire," international journal of educational development 15, no. 4 (1995); meintjes, "human rights education as empowerment: reflections on pedagogy." 46 dahl, on democracy; freedman, "is teaching for social justice undemocratic?."; freire, pedagogy of the oppressed; gutmann, democratic education; mayo, "critical literacy and emancipatory politics: the work of paulo freire." 47 ———, "critical literacy and emancipatory politics: the work of paulo freire." 48 freedman, "is teaching for social justice undemocratic?."; mayo, "critical literacy and emancipatory politics: the work of paulo freire." 49 freedman, "is teaching for social justice undemocratic?." 50 dahl, on democracy; freedman, "is teaching for social justice undemocratic?."; gutmann, democratic education; rawls, political liberalism; sen, the idea of justice. 51 freedman, "is teaching for social justice undemocratic?."; freire, pedagogy of the oppressed; mayo, "critical literacy and emancipatory politics: the work of paulo freire." 52 freedman, "is teaching for social justice undemocratic?."         in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     45   antidemocratic practices, it is then possible to develop strategies to overturn them, thereby creating a more equal and just liberal democratic ethic. preparing teachers to provide a human rights education teacher education programs have historically been analyzed in terms of their graduates' impact on students' cognitive learning, while little consideration is given to the effectiveness of teacher education program's role in the creation of a just, liberal democratic society.53 jennings stated that teacher education programs should use human rights as the organizing principle so that their graduates come to see themselves as human rights educators and advocates. to that end, he proposed a set of 6 human rights standards for classroom teachers (292-294): (1) engages and supports all students' learning about human rights; (2) creates and maintains effective environments that embody the principles and concepts of human rights; (3) understands and organizes subject matter to promote student learning about human rights; (4) plans instruction and designs learning experiences for the human rights education of all students; (5) uses assessment strategies that embody human rights concepts and principles; and (6) develops as a professional human rights educator.54 while these standards may seem complex, they can all be directly related to the standards issued by the national council for the accreditation of teacher education (ncate). by combining these standards, teacher educators can demonstrate the ease with which the existing k-12 education mandates can be reinterpreted with a human rights framework through new pedagogical approaches and supplementary curricular materials.55 ncate one example of standards that can be shown to have a link to the principles of a human rights education proposed by jennings can be found in ncate's professional standards for the accreditation of teacher preparation institutions. throughout standard 4 of ncate's professional standards, entitled "diversity," we find that educators should be trained to provide a fair and equitable learning environment that is inclusive and promotes the diversity of all students.56 jennings would agree that this form of an environment is necessary to promote his 6 standards for human rights education in k-12 classrooms, which is made evident as jennings includes fair and equitable learning environments as a part of each of his 6 standards.                                                                                                                           53 davies, "focusing on the equal rights in teacher education."; reimers, "citizenship, identity and education: examining the public purposes of schools in an age of globalization." 54 jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education." 55 davies, "focusing on the equal rights in teacher education."; jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education." 56 national council for the accreditation of teacher education, professional standards for the accreditation of teacher preparation institutions (washington: national council for the accreditation of teacher education, 2008).         in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     46   a second example found in ncate's professional standards states that candidates must learn to "contextualize teaching and draw effectively on representations from the students' own experience and culture."57 this is also a principle that can be found in each standards 1, 2, 4 and 5 jennings' standards for human rights education. jennings' first standard states that educators engage and support "all students' learning about human rights."58 this standard specifically states that educators need to be able to relate to students' developmental characteristics and needs and use this to help them connect with human rights themes. in addition, jennings' standard 1 states that educators should be able to connect "students' prior knowledge, life experiences, and personal interests to human rights principles." the connection to jennings' standards 2, 4 and 5 which state that educators must create environments, instruction and assessments that embody human rights principles, environments, classroom instruction, and assessments that are just and equitable. perhaps the strongest connections to human rights and jennings' standards for human rights education is a statement ratified by the executive board of ncate on october 27, 2007, entitled "ncate and social justice." in this statement, the executive board states that a high quality, fair and equitable education is a fundamental right of all children. in this statement, the executive board draws connections to the human rights perspective taken within this research. specifically, this statement evidences the belief that educators be required to demonstrate fairness, non-discriminatory practices, and create an equitable, caring environment for all students. according to ncate's professional standards, the purpose of standard 4 is to ensure that educators are positionally objective, that they have the ability to understand and see from the perspective of each of the diverse students that they teach and reflect multicultural and global perspectives. furthermore, educators are to be educated to understand the impact of discrimination and rights violations on the educational process. however, while ncate's professional standards call for educators to be trained to carry out an approach grounded in human rights principles, there is no requirement for k-12 teachers to have received an education containing content of human rights principles. differences between ncate and jennings although jennings' standards can be easily cross referenced with the existing ncate standards for teacher education programs, we need to examine what is different. each of the aforementioned standards emphasizes a human rights component. the change that jennings standards would call for would be the inclusion of content relating to human rights principles and an examination of the content in teacher education programs through the principle of human rights so that teacher education programs are preparing future educators to understand the social and political venues of society through a human rights framework. davies suggested that if                                                                                                                           57 ibid. 58 jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education."       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     47   much of this seems idyllic, it is because it is. furthermore, davies stated that there is little evidence that teacher educators develop a deep awareness of human rights and human rights violations through their teacher education program.59 rather, the research suggested that preservice teachers are heavily influenced by their personal experience in american schools and that their professional training led them to accept an ideology based in human capital theory. truly drastic changes are necessary to change the nature of teacher education from a system that reproduces the existing authoritarian culture that supports social division. to accomplish this would mean not just the reform of teacher education programs, but the institution as a whole. there must be a congruence between teacher education programs and the goals of a democratic learning environment within the schools, meaning that the teacher educators must practice human rights education as well. this is based on the perception that if teachers are to promote human rights in a liberal democratic environment, they must have experienced the same in their teacher education programs as well as have received an education of human rights principles.60 teacher educators could use human rights concepts and instruments to help pre-service teachers explore the "psychological, philosophical, social, and cultural foundations of education."61 pre-service educators should then be taught how to use this information to participate in teacher decision-making efforts and the development of educational policy. however, just as a k-12 human rights education should be relevant to student lives, the education that pre-service teachers receive in teacher education programs should be made relevant to the lives of pre-service teachers, their communities and the lives of their future students.62 the education that pre-services teachers receive in teacher education programs includes more than just content, it also educates pre-service teachers in pedagogical content knowledge. as mentioned earlier, a human rights education is more than just content, it also involves the pedagogical approach employed by the classroom teacher. it is suggested that teacher educators emphasize to pre-service teachers that discipline and classroom management take on a new and engaging element when implementing a human rights education.63 furthermore, davies posited that pre-service teachers should be provided a variety of diverse pedagogical approaches and develop an understanding that the approach they employ in the classroom is dependent on the student. freire would go even further and suggest that the pedagogical approach used in the classroom should result of a dialogue between the teacher and the students.64                                                                                                                           59 davies, "focusing on the equal rights in teacher education."   60 ibid; reimers, "citizenship, identity and education: examining the public purposes of schools in an age of globalization." 61 davies, "focusing on the equal rights in teacher education."; jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education." 62 ———, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education." 63 davies, "focusing on the equal rights in teacher education."; jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education." 64 freire, pedagogy of the oppressed.       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     48   in the end, if pre-service teachers receive the appropriate training on the content of human rights and how to provide a human rights education, they will have the ability to communicate how their pedagogy is shaped by a knowledge of human rights. the benefit to this approach is that future educators will have a framework through which they can develop an understanding of the schooling environment and advocate not only for themselves, but their students and their communities.65                                                                                                                           65 jennings, "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education."       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     49   bibliography adler, m. j. the paideia proposal: an educational manifesto. . new york: macmillan, 1982. assembly, united nations general. "the charter of the united nations." 1945. ———. "universal declaration of human rights." 1948. dahl, robert alan. on democracy. new haven: yale university press, 1998. davies, lynn. "focusing on the equal rights in teacher education." educational review 46, no. 2 (1994): 109. education, national council for the accreditation of teacher. professional standards for the accreditation of teacher preparation institutions. washington: national council for the accreditation of teacher education, 2008. feinberg, walter. common schools, uncommon identities: national unity and cultural difference. new haven: yale university press, 1998. freedman, eric b. "is teaching for social justice undemocratic?". harvard educational review 77, no. 4 (winter2007 2007): 442-73. freire, p. pedagogy of the oppressed. new york: continuum, 2009. gutmann, amy. democratic education. princeton, n.j.: princeton university press, 1999. hodgson, douglas. the human right to education. brookfield, vt.: ashgate, 1998. jennings, todd. "human rights education standards for teachers and teacher education." teaching education 17, no. 4 (2006): 287-98. lindahl, r. "the right to education in a globalized world." journal of studies in international education 10, no. 1 (2006): 5-26. mayo, peter. "critical literacy and emancipatory politics: the work of paulo freire." international journal of educational development 15, no. 4 (1995): 363-79. meintjes, g. "human rights education as empowerment: reflections on pedagogy." in human rights education for the twenty-first century, edited by george j. andreopoulos and richard pierre claude. xxviii, 636 p. :. philadelphia, pa. :: university of pennsylvania press, 1997. pimentel, caetano. "the human right to education: freedom and empowerment." [in english]. multicultural education 13, no. 4 (summer 2006): 2-10.       in  factis  pax   volume  6  number1  (2012):  36-­‐50   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     50   print, murray, carolina ugarte, concepción naval, and anja mihr. "moral and human rights education: the contribution of the united nations." journal of moral education 37, no. 1 (2008): 115-32. rawls, john. political liberalism. new york: columbia university press, 1993. reardon, betty a. "human rights learning: pedagogies and politics of peace." paper presented at the unesco chair for peace education master conference, university of puerto rico, april 15, 2009. reimers, fernando. "citizenship, identity and education: examining the public purposes of schools in an age of globalization." prospects 36, no. 3 (2006): 275-94. schlesinger, arthur m. . the disuniting of america: reflections on a multicultural society. new york: w.w. norton & company, 1998. sen, amartya. the idea of justice. cambridge, mass.: belknap press of harvard university press, 2009. microsoft word chehimi ifp 11.2.docx in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 224 volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal the need for peace education for university students in lebanon ghada chehimi faculty of english language & literature, lebanese university, beirut, lebanon ghchehimi@gmail.com nadine joudi faculty of english language & literature, lebanese university, beirut, lebanon abstract lebanon’s young generations face the harshest outcomes of the country’s continuous state of turmoil and instability. regardless of their distinct social, economic and educational backgrounds, lebanese youth seem to be victims of the aggressive politics, degenerative culture and misleading notions of what it means to be a peaceful individual. these conditions, though over-simplified, tend to necessitate a more institutionalized approach in directing youth and equipping them with peace education. this paper aims to explore the need for peace education for university students in lebanon. it also investigates the extent to which a sample of lebanese students and instructors are aware of the presence of the peace concept, and its method of application to the education environment. it also examines the shortcomings of current university students’ peace education, and in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 225 recommends some major changes that need to be introduced to their curricula. data is collected using a survey administered to 119 students from a variety of lebanese universities, in addition to focus group discussions with 14 university professors. research outcomes serve as a foundation for further research, application and or implementation of peace education in the curriculum of lebanese universities. keywords: lebanon, peace, peace education, university students, curriculum literature review peace education in the united nations children’s fund (unicef) refers to the process of promoting the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to bring about behavior changes that will enable youth and adults to prevent conflict and violence, to resolve conflicts and to create the conditions conducive to peace (fountain, 1999). galtung (1997) emphasizes that peace education should enable and empower people to handle conflicts more creatively and less violently, “this is what i mean by peace education, and a lot of knowledge and skills, theory and practice are required for it.” (galtung, 1997, p. 1). reardon (1999; cited in mirra, 2008) also defines peace education as being the transmission of knowledge, the training of skills for interpreting the knowledge, and the development of reflective and participatory capacities to overcome problems and achieve possibilities. more broadly, peace education is also defined as both a philosophy and process empowering people with skills, attitudes and knowledge to create a safe and sustainable world (harris and morrison, 2003). in practice, peace education is problem-posing education that attempts to build in every person the universal values and behaviors, including the development of non-violent conflict resolution skills and a commitment to working together for a better future. it does not pour knowledge into the minds of students or tell students what to do, nor does peace education utilize a system of experts who come into the classroom and tell students what to think. peace education helps learners begin to raise questions and give students the tools they need to direct their learning. it is education about how to learn, not what to learn. it includes cultivating peace building skills, teaching the values of respect, understanding, and nonviolence, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 226 educating for alternative security systems, and using democratic and participatory pedagogies (kester and booth, 2010). accordingly, peace education focuses on the transformation of various educational methodologies, structures, content, and pedagogy to combat violence in all its forms (kester, 2017). in schools and universities, peacekeeping is employed through detention, expulsion, and other threats of surveillance and punishment (cremin and guilherme, 2016). however, according to bickmore (2013) and johnson and jonson (2013), peace building is facilitated in curriculum and pedagogy through talking-circle dialogues and conflict resolution practices. the pedagogy used in peace education is cooperative, participatory and active, including case-studies, storytelling, role plays, empathy activities, negotiations and mediation practice, journaling, reflection circles, and alternative future exercises (kester and booth, 2010). according to brown and morgan (2008), peace education should take place through discussion, with learners guiding their own education, and students should be active participants in both teaching and learning. it is essential to create an educational environment in which young people feel comfortable when learning through enquiry and co-operation, both in the actual and the virtual classroom, and in working with people whose background may be very different to their own. inquiry-led education helps motivate learners to be confident, speak up, share opinions, resolve conflicts and raise critical questions to become reflective and active learners. through this inquiry– based method of learning, sharing of personal knowledge and experiences, asking critical questions and listening actively to others, students experience a range of thoughts and perspectives for cultural understanding, nonviolent communication and conflict management (kester and booth, 2010). although peace education (pe) dialogues and reflections are grounded in the work of several educators, including john dewey (1916), maria montessori (1949), paulo freire (1970), betty reardon (1988), johan galtung (1975), swee-hen toh (2004) and tony jenkins (2007) (all cited in kester, 2012, p. 1). many contemporary scholars cite john galtung as the “father of peace studies” and betty reardon as the “mother of peace education, “particularly as a leading pioneer in the design of education for peace programs within higher education institute (kester, 2012, p. 2). in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 227 the university’s framework includes toh’s flower-petal model that focuses on holistic understanding, dialogue, values explicit learning and critical empowerment (toh, 2006, p. 2). it tackles different dimensions of comprehensive education for peace, human rights, intercultural understanding, social justice, environmental stewardship and inner peace. it also includes another frame work which is the learning to abolish war model of the global campaign for peace education. the second frame work adds to toh’s flower-petal model the consideration of international law, conflict resolution institutions, participatory democracy and a culture of peace approach (kester, 2017). students at upeace interact with concepts of peace building through a broad curriculum including the following courses within the pe concentration : foundation in peace and conflict studies, peace education : theory and practice ,cultures and learning : from violence towards peace ,practices of conflict management and peacebuilding ,language, media and peace, human rights education ,education for sustainable development and gender and education (kester, 2012). even though peace education has taken an important role and a significant position in many educational institutions around the world, there are only few studies that have addressed peace education in lebanon (ghosn, 2005; chehimi, 2012; chehimi and candlin, 2013). although the new national education strategy in lebanon (2006) includes the goals of learning responsibility, moral and ethical commitment, and developing cultural openness, critical thinking, intercultural understanding and appreciation (lebanese association for educational studies, 2006), and the aims of peace education are articulated in the unesco declaration and integrated framework of action on education for peace, human rights and democracy (the hague agenda, 2000), still in lebanon, peace education is mainly promoted by non-governmental organizations. however, many interreligious groups dealing with peace issues have sprung in lebanon, such as nahwa al-muwatiniya, adyan, the arab group for muslim-christian dialogue, the forum for development, dialogue and culture, the initiative of change as well as artists, intellectuals and online activists who emphasize peace education and peace building. many initiatives in civil society have contributed to promoting tolerance and peace since the late 1990s, and especially in the last decade. in a number of secondary classes, many activities and platforms were targeted towards common goals such as increasing tolerance, deconstructing stereotypes, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 228 reducing prejudices, changing visions of self and other, building interreligious/inter-sectarian bridges, reinforcing a sense of collective identity, contributing to conflict resolution (chrabieh, 2009). however, peace education in the university context, i.e., including undergraduate and graduate courses on peace or even a pedagogical approach related to peace issues in the humanities academic curriculum, is considered to be a rare phenomenon. little attention has been paid so far to the inclusion of peace programs in universities. some exceptions can be noted, however, that link peace education to interfaith dialogue: st joseph university offers a master’s degree in muslim-christian relations. other universities, such as university of balamand, founded centers for interfaith dialogue (chrabieh, 2015). however, there are some teachers around the world who still take their own voluntary initiative to integrate peace education into their subject matter and their classes (carter, 2008). according to chehimi and candlin (2013), “integrating peace education into the university curriculum should follow a formal government’s direction on a country level that is disseminated to all educational institutions including schools” (p. 23). she also recommends having formal peace education courses classified either as liberal arts courses in institutions with different technical majors (business, engineering, sciences, etc …), or as education courses in liberal arts universities (psychology, sociology, philosophy, humanities, etc …) may guide students to use a more structured approach in analyzing situations requiring the understanding of peace, harmony, and coexistence in a community (chehimi and candlin, 2013, p. 23). furthermore, chehimi and candlin (2013) found that the present formal peace education curriculum does not exist; only schools that follow religious authorities (islamic or christian) are teaching peace because religions have innate in them the message of peace and love; consequently, it is recommended to incorporate a set of two formal peace education courses in the electives area of the curriculum and to facilitate the findings of the current research to the ministry of education in lebanon to serve as a stimulus for further in depth assessment of peace education. moreover, instructors in schools and universities should provide a formal coverage of peace within “ethics chapter” found in many textbooks used across lebanon. instructors have to use case studies on peace dilemmas and extract lessons learned. these recommendations are in parallel with what other researchers have found. moreover, other initiatives, such as hosting guest speakers, offering service learning projects, and establishing endowed chairs in peace education, are in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 229 highly desirable in addressing the issue of ethics education (swanson, 2005). education for peace must be trans-disciplinary and included in all learning spaces to foster intercultural and international dialogue and respect, knowledge of national and global systems of governance, respect for all life and a commitment to no-violence (kester and booth, 2010). chehimi and candlin (2013) contend that “sectarian coalitions and friendships are built at all social levels in lebanon. it’s worth noting here that lebanon is an example of a real federation of communities in the world” (p. 11). further, chehimi and candlin assert that “multiculturalism in lebanon constitutes a reality that must be observed and abided by when considering the institution of new educational phenomenon as peace education” (p. 12). therefore, teaching peace to university students will have a great impact on their attitudes, their beliefs and their actions and this will eventually lead them to a better future where they can enjoy the privilege of peace, respect, tolerance and above all stability. this research investigates the extent to which a sample of lebanese students and instructors are aware of the presence of the peace concept, and its method of application to the education environment. it also examines the shortcomings of current university students’ peace education, and recommends some major changes that need to be introduced to their curricula. methodology lebanese university students were educated in an environment of war, conflict and political unrest. what these students need is stability on the security level and peace education on the personal human level. moreover, lebanese university professors have also lived the same struggle therefore; students and professors’ knowledge, views, attitudes and recommendations regarding peace education will be highlighted and investigated in this paper. this research is exploratory in nature based on mixed methods approach (creswell, 1999) which combines both quantitative and qualitative methods. according to van breda (2006), the direction of the research process and the research methodology are to be determined by the choice in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 230 between a qualitative and quantitative, or a mixed methods approach (p. 81). primary and secondary data are required in the current research; secondary data has been used in the literature review to provide the theoretical and historical grounding concerning peace, peace education, and peace education in lebanon, and is collected from studies and publications about the topics in question. primary data is collected directly from a sample of respondents and results are used to show the need for peace education for lebanese university students and their willingness for change. research instrument the research instruments used were a survey questionnaire and focus group discussions. the survey questionnaire was based on previous qualitative and quantitative research outcomes in the field of peace education conducted by the co-author of this paper (chehimi, 2012; chehimi and candlin, 2013). the modified questionnaire consists of four sections with fourteen questions: the first section consists of five dichotomous questions whose purpose is to assess the participants’ knowledge about peace and peace education; the second section with two questions to assess the respondents’ attitude towards acceptance and tolerance; the third section consists of a set of two open-ended questions assessing the respondents’ personal views about peace and peace education; and the fourth section consists of 3 demographic questions related to gender, age and university status. the statements utilized in section two were designed using 5-levels likert scale, where respondents are given five levels of choice ranging from “strongly agree to strongly disagree”. sample selection the questionnaire was distributed online to 200 lebanese university students, who willingly provided their e-mail addresses. the number of participants who responded fully to the survey was 119, making the response rate 99.2%. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 231 the current research focuses on the need of lebanese university students for peace education and highlights their views on the topics related to peace and peace education. this need will also be studied from university professors’ point of view. the participants are students and professors from several lebanese universities. one public, the lebanese university (lu) and four private; the lebanese international university (liu), the lebanese american university (lau), american university of beirut (aub) and the islamic university of lebanon (iul). data analysis data generated from the survey was processed using spss 17.0 “statistical product and service solutions”, the spss version 17, an ibm product acquired by ibm in 2009 (hejase and hejase, 2013, p. 58) and was classified, organized and presented using descriptive statistics. as for the qualitative data collection, two focus group discussions were conducted with university professors from different universities who were willing to participate in the study where each consisted of seven members with one of the researchers conducting the discussion/interview herself. the two sessions were conducted in informal settings outside university premises. results and findings survey analysis demographics results show that respondents are 49.6% (59/119) males, and 50.4% females 60/119. respondents’ age fall into the range of 17 and 26 years with an average age of 23 years. furthermore, results show that 52.94% (63/119) of the respondents are sophomore students; 22.69% (27/119) are junior students; and 24.4% (29/119) are senior students. peace and peace education respondents were asked if peace could be taught in school, results show that 74% affirming that peace could be taught, 22% answered maybe, and 4% who believed that peace could not be taught in schools. figure 1 depicts the results. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 232 figure 1. teaching peace in schools respondents were then asked if they had been exposed to lessons related to peace in school, and their responses were very close yet opposite, whereby 51% said that they had been taught about peace in school and 49% said that they were not. in this case, it must be noted that there are no official peace lessons or courses in the lebanese curriculum for schools. this might explain why students responded so conversely to this question; where they may have considered some lessons in civics education as relating to peace, while others simply did not make that relation. this question asserts the confusion about what some may consider peace education and what some may not. in line with determining students’ theoretical and ethical understanding of peace, they were asked if peace by definition meant the absence of war. the overwhelming response of 99% of the respondents was that peace does not mean the absence of war. then, when the respondents were asked if they are familiar with the term “peace education”, results show that 59% of the respondents are not familiar with the term as opposed to 41% who confirmed that they have been introduced to the term before (see figure 2). yes 74% no 4% maybe 22% can peace be taught at school? in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 233 figure 2. familiarity with peace education other results are depicted in figures 3 and 4. figure 3 shows students’ responses to the statement “lebanese university students accept each other as they are”. 40% provided a neutral stance to the statement, 27% negated the statement, while 33% approved of the claim. while figure 4 depicts the responses to the statement “universities provide lessons of tolerance and acceptance”. the majority of 44% provided a neutral response, followed by 32% who disagreed and 24% who agreed that universities contribute with lessons of tolerance and acceptance. figure 3. acceptance 41% 59% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% yes no are you familiar with the term "peace education"? 27% 40% 33% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% disagree neutral agree lebanese university students accept each other as they are in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 234 figure 4. lessons of tolerance and acceptance on the other hand, figure 5 displays that the majority of the respondents (85%) think that peace education should be taught in universities. while only 1% disagreed and said that it shouldn’t and 14% responded with maybe. figure 5. teaching peace education when the students were asked whether they had been exposed to material relating to peace or peace education in university, only 14% said 32% 44% 24% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% disagree neutral agree universities provide lessons of tolerance and acceptance yes 85% no 1% maybe 14% do you think universities should teach "peace education"? in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 235 that they had taken a course dealing with the topics. 86% of respondents have not taken any courses that deal with peace or peace education. this asserts the need to integrate peace education courses in the university curriculum. moreover, the overwhelming majority or 92% of the respondents answered yes to the question: “did conflict and war create prejudices among lebanese people?” the aforementioned majority of university students believe that prejudices exist among lebanese people as a result of war and conflicts, while 8% do not believe that prejudices exist. this result confirms the need for intervention to help students overcome their prejudices and this requires peace education. section three of the questionnaire consists of two open-ended questions. the first was “what can be added to the university curriculum to teach students the value of human differences, tolerance, respect and understanding? students’ answers were somehow similar and revolved around the main theme and most suggested that universities should provide obligatory sessions or courses in human rights and/or peace education. exhibit 1 shows a sample of the answers given. exhibit 1. content of university curriculum ø lessons about the acceptance of diversity study about other cultures ø i think why not to add a course that every student must take in their curriculum that talks about human rights and moral values and how to stop the differentiation between people especially us the lebanese. ø a course of peace education could be taught because simply peace is summation of all human values found and thus it would enhance the positivity among students and even instructors. ø teaching civics for all majors ø courses that look into other people's cultures/religions. ø teaching acceptance and tolerance. ø interaction and team building with a variety of people from different backgrounds. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 236 the second open question asks students to define peace. exhibit 2 shows a sample of the students’ perception of peace. exhibit 2. definition of peace ø peace is a state of harmony and tranquility with oneself and with others ø peace is when people are able to resolve their conflicts without violence and can work together to improve the quality of their lives ø peace is the presence of tolerance and love between people and it’s the absence of war ø peace is a state of mind ø peace could be many things, but if i had to summarize it in one idea. it is the ability to coexist with others in harmony and respect without overstepping on the other side's freedom or rights. ø peace is a spiritual as well as mind comfort with inner self it starts inside every individual alone and then spreads its positive impact through the whole universe focus group discussion analysis for the qualitative data collection, two focus group discussions were conducted. professors from different universities participated in these discussions. the first one was held in december 2016 and the second was in january 2017. the participants were both males and females in both groups but with the majority (9/14) or 64.3% were females. through these focus groups, the researchers wanted to gather information about the professors’ knowledge, attitudes and recommendations regarding the need for peace education for university students in lebanon. professors’ role in this study was essential because they are at the core of this issue and they are supposed to be the most cognizant of the university students’ needs. within the current study, focus groups constitute the second method that is used to create a complete picture of how a given issue affects a community of people. according to mack, woodsong, macqueen, guest and namey (2005), “focus groups contribute to this broad understanding by providing well-grounded data on social and cultural norms, the pervasiveness of these in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 237 norms within the community, and people’s opinions about their own values” (p. 52). the researchers concur with such argument, because such findings can provide a unique insight into existing beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes toward peace and peace education. according to kreuger (1988), data can be examined and reported at three levels, including 1) the raw data, 2) descriptive statements, and 3) interpretation. statements were concocted from the questions asked to the members of the focus groups and were interpreted accordingly. both groups’ responses are combined in the following outcomes and a sample of what was stated, whether they shared consensus or disagreed, both views are reported. outcome 1. to understand their knowledge of “peace” what is peace? ø a state of forgiveness ø opposite of war ø harmonious interactions among people ø living without any offensive actions ø peace does not exist one finds here that the participants’ understanding of “peace” is related to their own beliefs and experiences. outcome 2. to check if they knew what peace education is what is peace education? ø no idea at all ø i know there are majors and programs that are intended to educate for peace like peace building and conflict resolution ø to teach the peace in the curriculum, i am wondering; no idea most of the participants (10/14 or 71.43%) did not know exactly what peace education is. therefore, the researcher conducting the discussions had to explain the term to be able to carry on with the rest of the questions. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 238 this result shows that even professors are not exposed to such education and this requires attention and further exploration. outcome 3. to find out if peace education is taught at lebanese universities do lebanese universities teach peace education? ø we teach conflict resolution ø i don’t think so ø actually we try to teach values throughout english books, discussions, reading texts and writing. we try to include many values, but i don’t know if they match with peace education. ø it is introduced in some courses indirectly ø we teach building character personality which serves peace education. every teacher addresses peace education at one stage or another but indirectly as it is a part of a hidden curriculum; we may discuss values in classrooms which i think is peace education. this depicts the confusion in the actual knowledge related to peace education and the concept of peace itself and whether it is taught at the lebanese universities. participants tried to relate peace education courses to any other courses that deal with peace or peace studies. outcome 4. to see if there is a need to teach peace education is there a need to teach peace education for university students? ø yes ø absolutely ø for sure we need it ø instead of teaching about the effects of war on environment and health ,we should teach about peace and its impact ø we sure do but it doesn’t work unless we start from school; there are certain things that don’t drop from sky; it is something that grows with the child. if there is an effort and declared intention to do this we can do it. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 239 all participants agreed that there is a need to teach peace education for university students. they also gave recommendations for starting peace education at an earlier stage in the students’ lives to have better results. outcome 5. to explore the readiness of universities to take on peace education do you think universities are ready to take on peace education as part of their curriculum? ø no, i don’t think so ø as a distinctive part, something by itself, i can’t even answer that because it depends on what is going on at administrative levels, but some university graduate students are well ingrained with skills and values that tackle peace education ø there are lots of faculties that teach conflict resolution ø i don’t think they are ready ø we need to have graduates with peace building degrees to take on this educational project most participants do not think that universities are ready to take on peace education as part of their curriculum. however, few confused peace education with conflict resolution for being the same. some participants believed that it is the administration at the university is responsible for this implementation and others recommended that specialized teachers in peace building should take on this teaching task. outcome 6. to find out whether university students need such education and the purpose for it. do you think that university students need peace education and why? ø we are not just teaching academics; we are preparing students to become better responsible citizens ø it is a must and the reason is that our culture, education and society emphasize war a lot, so we need something to change this mentality and mindset. we have seen the result among this generation that have been raised and brought on war. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 240 ø we have to make a change; the students are at risk (irresponsible, bad behavior, drugs and alcohols); we need good mental health and we have to start with peace education. ø the concept of peace building is rooted in religion and we have to emphasize its importance from this perspective to appeal the students. all participants are well aware that students are in urgent need for peace education because they were not raised in a healthy and peaceful environment. some recommended that teachers should emphasize the concept of peace which is rooted in all religions and this is a natural outcome in a country like lebanon which is mainly driven by religious beliefs and belongings. outcome 7. to find out if professors expect good results after administering peace education as university professors, do you expect any kind of change in students’ behavior and attitudes after such instruction? ø if it is well handled, yes ø if teachers are well trained on teaching peace and how to implement peace education; if workshops are conducted, teachers may be well trained and make a difference ø some teachers can’t handle such kind of instruction; they don’t have peace within themselves ; they have to be well trained so they can train students ø young teachers in particular need training and experience. some have knowledge about peace education but they need shaping and training. ø the students are ready and they have potentials ø lecturing won’t make a change but projects and case studies would certainly do this shows that professors believe that change can happen because students are ready and have the potential to learn and change their behaviors and attitudes provided that the program is handled well and teachers are well trained. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 241 outcome 8. to check if peace education courses can be integrated in the curriculum and how what departments can include or integrate peace education as a major or elective course? ø educational psychology should implement peace education ø it could be interdisciplinary; you can teach peace education through languages, through your choice of texts, you can teach anything about real life situations. in political science courses, they focus on conflict resolution, critical thinking and reasoning. ø in business courses , customer service this shows that even professors find it difficult to fit or integrate peace education courses into the curriculum even though they suggested few courses where they can implement it. discussion and recommendations this research provides several insights. first, in relation to answering the question “can peace be taught”, referring to the survey and focus groups results and their consequent analysis shows that peace can be taught whereby 74% of the students agreed and 12 out of 14 (85.71%) of the instructors also agreed. further, the instructors related teaching peace to responsible citizenship, to deploy change, to abolish bad habits, and should capitalize on religious principles. these results confirm previous research outcomes reported by chehimi (2012) and chehimi and candlin (2013). moreover, results show that both groups show a weak awareness on the following themes: (1) familiarity with peace education: 41% of the students confirmed versus (4/14) 28.57% of the instructors. (2) students’ exposition to class themes related to peace education in their universities: both groups showed some notions of peace education where 14% of the students confirmed being exposed through their civic education and 24% being exposed to lessons of tolerance and acceptance, versus all instructors who believe that students are taught conflict resolution skills, values, and personality improvement lessons. the aforementioned in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 242 skills are somehow asserted by kester (2012) who contends that “students at the un university for peace (upeace) interact with concepts of social justice and peace building through exploration of the values, beliefs and worldviews present among cultures of the diverse student body” (p. 5). (3) can peace education be taught in the lebanese universities: 85% of the students agreed that peace education can be taught while 100% of the instructors strongly agreed that there is a need. however, based on the previous responses, and reviewing the outcomes achieved by chehimi (2012) and chehimi and candlin (2013), one finds there is a challenge to implement peace education in lebanon. chehimi and candlin concluded that “teaching peace education is possible if the following conditions are met: (a) the term peace is familiar; (b) there is a belief that peace can be taught in schools; (c) giving support if schools teach peace; (d) people should not tie peace to politics; and (e) formal government strategy should be designed to counter the notion that lebanon cannot teach peace in schools (countries that have undergone war)” (chehimi and candlin, 2013, p. 22). a second insight is based on the findings that show that it is imperative to teach peace education to university students because only 33% of the students believe that lebanese students accept each other as they are (taking into consideration that the majority are politicized); while 44% kept neutral about their responses; and 92% of the students also believe that the continuous conflicts and wars created prejudice among lebanese people. based on the above, both students and instructors were asked what to add to the lebanese universities’ curricula to instill change, and their responses shown in exhibit 1 and outcomes 5 and 6 emphasize civic education, conflict resolution, acceptance of diversity, tolerance, and capitalizing on religious beliefs. these notions were emphasized earlier by the integrated framework on education for peace, human rights and democracy (unesco, 1995). on the other hand, kester (2012) recommends that peace education programs should “contain diverse worldviews, nonviolent methods of social transformation, case studies of peacemakers, human rights and responsibilities” (p. 6) a third insight of importance is the fact that the lebanese university professors involved in this research, manifested a great interest in peace education after they were introduced to it. they believe that lebanese university students do need this education and they agree that it will in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 243 certainly make a big difference in students’ lives, behaviors and attitudes providing a well-planned and well -handled program/ curriculum along with professional development for instructors. one final insight of great importance for this research is its academic contribution to the few recorded literature found on the subject matter in lebanon (ghosn, 2005, lebanese association for educational studies, 2006; zakharia, 2011; chehimi, 2012; chehimi and candlin, 2013). though, it is worth mentioning that much of the reported research in the middle east concentrates more on the palestinian-israeli initiatives, for example among others (abu-nimer, 1999; aweiss, 2001; zamir, 2004; maoz, 2011; gawerc, 2012; schroeder and risen, 2014; and lazarus, 2015). in addition, the results of this research will provide more exploratory findings that can be used by other middle eastern or other researchers; consequently, cross-cultural comparisons could be performed. moreover, another contribution of the current study is its stimulating effect that might lead others to test peace education. limitations the findings of this research cannot be generalized because of the low number of student respondents, a larger number is required to cover all universities in lebanon. this will allow the researchers to have richer data base to form a strong appeal for the ministry of education and higher education (mehe) to adopt peace education as part of the university curriculum. another limitation for this study was the unavailability of many university administrators to participate in this research which could have added valuable information and recommendations to gain more accurate results regarding the university curriculum. acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge the constructive criticism and editing performed by prof. hussin j. hejase, dean faculty of business at al maaref university. references aweiss, salem (2001). educating for peace: visions and reality. palestineisrael journal, 8(2), pp. 41-45. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 224-247 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 244 abu-nimer, m. 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(2000). the hague agenda for peace and justice for the 21st century: global campaign for peace education. retrieved april 26, 2017, from http://www.haguepeace.org/resources/hagueagendapeace+justice4the2 1stcentury.pdf toh, swee-hin (2006). education for sustainable development & the weaving of a culture of peace: complementarities and synergies. paper presented at the unesco expert meeting on education for sustainable development (esd): reorienting education to address sustainability, 1-3 may, 2006, kanchanaburi, thailand. unesco. (1995). declaration and integrated framework of action on education for peace, human rights and democracy. paris: united nations educational scientific and cultural organization. retrieved april 20, 2017, from http://www.unesco.org/education/pdf/rev_74_e.pdf van breda, maynard john (2006, november). guidelines for empowering secondary school educators, in loco parentis, in addressing truancy among early adolescent learners. (doctoral dissertation). department of education, university of south africa. south africa. zakharia, zeena (2011). the role of education in peacebuilding: case study – lebanon. united nations children’s fund, new york, new york: unicef. retrieved april 20, 2017, from https://www.unicef.org/education/files/eepct_peacebuilding_case study_lebanon.pdf zamir, sara (2004). universal obstacles to peace education. (ed.), ada aharoni, in peace, literature and art: encyclopedia of life support systems (eolss) (pp. 59-76). oxford, uk: eolss publishers/ unesco. pascualmorán.in factis pax 2013final in factis pax volume 8 number 1 (2014): 1-9 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 1 volume 8 number 1 (2014): 1-9 http://www.infactispax.org/journal educación en y para los derechos humanos y la paz: valores, principios y prácticas pedagógicas medulares1 anaida pascual morán cátedra unesco de educación para la paz universidad de puerto rico la paz se encarna en el vivir los derechos humanos; los derechos humanos solo se viven en escenarios de paz. tiene mucha razón nuestra querida colega y amiga betty reardon (2010) cuando afirma que “los derechos humanos dan cuerpo a los huesos de la abstracción de la paz, infundiéndole así vida”. la centralidad y transversalidad de los derechos humanos en los procesos de educación para la paz es crucial. la educación para la paz y la educación en derechos humanos son inseparables y están íntimamente entrelazadas. en esta breve reflexión, les propongo un andamiaje pedagógico para educar de forma integrada y articulada en y para los derechos humanos y la paz. la esencia de mi propuesta, enfocada en los derechos humanos como marco normativo y formativo idóneo para contextualizar la educación para la paz, se basa en siete principios y en aquellos valores y prácticas pedagógicas que de éstos se derivan. 1. los derechos humanos proveen el marco normativo y formativo idóneo para contextualizar la educación para la paz, haciendo así la paz pertinente, real y concreta. betty reardon (2010) afirma que los principios y valores de los derechos humanos 1 trabajo presentado en la sesión plenaria de apertura del instituto internacional de educación para la paz, el 8 de julio de 2013. este escrito recoge, a manera de sinopsis, las ideas centrales de un capítulo extenso del libro en dos volúmenes cultura e educação em e para os direitos humanos na américa latina / cultura y educación en derechos humanos en américa latina, editado por maria de nazaré t. zenaide, ana maria rodino, giuseppe tosi y mónica beatriz fernandez; publicado en formato impreso y digital por el núcleo de cidadania e direitos humanos de la universidade federal da paraíba, brasil (ncdh-ufpb), 2013. in factis pax volume 8 number 1 (2014): 1-9 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 2 históricamente acumulados, configuran la “medula ética” de una educación por la paz y la dignidad humana. en esta misma línea, xesús jares (2002, 2004, 2005) destaca la centralidad de los derechos humanos sociales, económicos, culturales y políticos al educar para una cultura de paz. reardon (1995, 1997, 2010) argumenta que los derechos humanos nos proveen de una ética social, espiritual y moral, para detectar manifestaciones de injusticia e impunidad y violaciones a la dignidad humana. más aún, que cuando los derechos humanos codificados en pactos, convenios, convenciones y políticas públicas internacionales son denegados, nos ofrecen indicadores de violencia y vulnerabilidad; y que en cambio, cuando son respetados, nos proveen indicadores de progreso y civilidad. en este marco normativo, afirma reardon (2010), podemos evidenciar injusticias y violaciones de derechos humanos, así como comprender conceptos que suelen ser abstractos, tales como: la violencia estructural, que ocasiona la pobreza y las relaciones de inequidad; (b) la violencia política de los sistemas opresivos; y, (c) la violencia cultural que menosprecia identidades y estilos alternos de vida y que se manifiesta mediante el racismo, el sexismo, la homofobia, el etnocentrismo, el colonialismo y otras formas de discrimen, exclusión y dominación. 2. tanto una cultura de derechos humanos como una cultura de paz son esenciales para la defensa de la dignidad humana. nuestra finalidad educativa debe ser pues resaltar los valores de solidaridad, libertad, igualdad, justicia, sustentabilidad y democracia (jares, 2002, 2004, 2005). la noción cultura de paz y derechos humanos conlleva visualizar la paz como eje hilvanador y fuerza motriz a través de la cultura y la educación, con el fin de propiciar una nueva ética de reciprocidad (boulding, 2003; hicks, 1993; yudkin suliveres & pascual morán, 2008). esta noción supera la definición negativa de la paz, para darle paso a un contenido positivo, de ausencia de violencia directa, cultural y estructural. por ejemplo, se trata de educar y actuar para erradicar las asimetrías y desigualdades, el hambre y la pobreza; acabar con la explotación de los marginados; y, abordar problemas, tales como la proliferación de conflictos étnicos y fundamentalismos (mayor zaragoza & mateos garcía, 2004). es decir, se trata de edificar una convivencia noviolenta desde cuatro piedras angulares, conocidas como “las cuatro d’s”: derechos humanos, desarme, democracia y desarrollo sustentable. la educación para la paz suele limitarse a la paz negativa, particularmente a cómo reducir la violencia y evitar la guerra (boulding, 2003; reardon 2010). para contrarrestar este abordaje, reardon (2010) propone la integración del aprendizaje en derechos humanos a través de todo currículo. desde el movimiento/visión para una cultura de paz de la organización de las naciones unidas para la ciencia, la educación y la cultura (mayor zaragoza & mateos garcía, 2004), se plantea que es necesario afirmar aquellos valores que constituyen “la levadura de la paz”: noviolencia, tolerancia, democracia, solidaridad, justicia, diálogo y equidad. con este fin, los seis pilares del manifiesto 2000 por una cultura de paz y noviolencia (onu, 1999; unesco, 2000) cobran significado. in factis pax volume 8 number 1 (2014): 1-9 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 3 "respetar la vida" responde a dos vertientes claves de la educación para la paz: aprender a convivir y aprender a ser (delors, 1996). nos requiere este pilar (tuvilla rayo 1998, 2004), fomentar pedagogías que afirmen la alteridad y la interdependencia; y detectar sesgos con matices de racismo, sexismo, militarismo, xenofobia y homofobia. "rechazar la violencia", nos exige reconocer la tendencia educativa a reproducir los modelos de agresión e intolerancia que provienen del ámbito familiar, comunitario y social. conlleva este postulado, solucionar los conflictos de forma creativa y canalizar las conductas agresivas hacia actividades auto-afirmativas y proyectos sociales. "compartir con los demás" nos exige asumir una cultura de colaboración que evite la exclusión y valores solidarios de justicia social. asimismo, nos requiere reconocer la naturaleza ética y política de la educación y entenderla como “democracia en acción” en un ambiente de aprendizaje participativo. "escuchar para comprenderse" nos exige "escucha activa" y un diálogo auténtico a partir del reconocimiento de la dignidad de cada persona. nos requiere también, propiciar un clima de encuentro y confianza, centrado en el respeto a las diferencias, que posibilite el ejercicio de los derechos humanos como principio y práctica democrática. "conservar el planeta" reconoce la ecopedagogía como proceso formativo esencial para construir la paz con la naturaleza. a partir de este pilar, venimos llamados a forjar alianzas a favor de un desarrollo sustentable y a hacer de todo ámbito educativo espacio de solidaridad, consagrado a la conservación de la naturaleza (antunes & gadotti, 2006; tuvilla rayo, 2004). "redescubrir la solidaridad para reinventarla", nos requiere repensar ésta desde lo próximo hasta lo distante; desde lo personal y local, hasta lo global (tuvilla rayo, 2004). más aún, desde una “cultura de solidaridad” protectora de los derechos de los más vulnerables, este pilar nos alerta sobre asuntos tales, como el crecimiento desmedido y dispar de países ricos, en detrimento de países pobres (aranguren, 1997). 3. la noviolencia activa y la resolución de conflictos conjuntamente constituyen la única ruta posible conducente a una cultura de derechos humanos y paz. la noviolencia, denuncia el fracaso de los modos violentos, mientras anuncia la posibilidad de construir la paz. se trata, de una visión que asume la violencia como inaceptable; de una práctica orientada a la resolución creativa de conflictos (lederach, 2000). gandhi la define como “el arma de los fuertes” y la afirma como “la única vía” conducente a una acción social liberadora conciliatoria (pascual morán 2002, 2003). a partir del legado de gandhi y de movimientos de derechos civiles como el liderado por martin luther king2, contamos con una larga historia de cambio social, mediante acciones noviolentas de protesta, persuasión, no cooperación e intervención, tales como marchas, boicots, demostraciones, sentadas y pintadas (sharp, 1973). al igual que la noviolencia, el conflicto es inherente a la paz; de aquí que la noción de “paz conflictual” sea real y válida. johan galtung (2006), autor de la teoría/método 2 describe martin luther king los seis principios de su filosofía de la noviolencia en el libro stride toward freedom: the montgomery story, publicado en 1958. in factis pax volume 8 number 1 (2014): 1-9 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 4 trascendencia del conflicto asemeja el conflicto a un “lazo”, que lejos de separar a los “adversarios”, une sus destinos desde “su verdad” e incompatibilidad en común. galtung (2006, 2008) define la violencia como la incapacidad de transformar creativamente el conflicto; y el “crear paz”, como evitar la violencia antes de que se manifieste y reducirla, una vez emerge. se trata de romper el círculo vicioso de la violencia para superar el espiral de violencias y contraviolencias. a esos fines, nos exhorta a examinar los daños visibles e invisibles del triángulo de violencias: la violencia directa, la violencia cultural y la violencia estructural; a “trazar mapas” de la evolución de los conflictos; y, a evitar “el metaconflicto que se eterniza”. nos convoca también, a prestar atención a las tres fases del ciclo de vida del conflicto (antes de la violencia; durante la violencia; y, después del conflicto) y a tres procesos paralelos necesarios para trascenderlo (las 3r’s): reconstrucción, reconciliación y resolución (galtung, 1996, 2006, 2008). 4. las pedagogías liberadoras y críticas proveen un marco de referencia emancipatorio para la educación en y para los derechos humanos y la paz. en este sentido, tiene mucha razón abraham magendzo (2002) cuando afirma que “la educación en derechos humanos es una de las más concretas y tangibles expresiones de la pedagogía crítica”. maría montessori (1949), visualiza la educación como “el gran armamento para la paz” y afirma que organizar la niñez y la juventud para la paz como principio práctico constituye "el gran secreto" para liberar y encauzar las “energías dispersas, reprimidas y mal encaminadas”, hacia el bienestar de la humanidad. paulo freire (1993, 2006) argumenta que nuestro quehacer educativo debe estar al servicio de la problematización, la concientización y la humanización, es decir, a “la acción y reflexión de los seres humanos sobre el mundo para transformarlo”. desde este prisma, se concibe la educación como “práctica de la libertad” y “pensar en acción”, en lugar de “práctica de la dominación” y “pensar vacío de acción”; y se afirma la dialogicidad desde la teoría; y ésta se hace dialógica en la práctica, mediante la pedagogía dialógica, el ambiente dialógico y el método dialógico (shor & freire, 1987). la pedagogía dialógica privilegia el derecho democrático a la participación del aprendiz; se opone a toda forma autoritaria y elitista de enseñar; y contextualiza el aprendizaje en su realidad existencial, desde su “lectura del mundo” y su “lectura de la palabra”. para crear un ambiente dialógico, es esencial una ruptura con toda relación de autoritarismo y poder que provoca una “cultura de silencio”; y eliminar la educación pasiva, para dar paso a una comunicación democrática. el método dialógico constituye un proceso participativo y problematizador capaz de iluminar la realidades sociales, culturales, históricas y políticas, con el fin de transformarlas. rechaza este método la acción de depositar conocimientos y valores, ya que reconoce que el saber auténtico proviene de la experiencia y autenticidad del pensar de los educandos (shor & freire, 1987). 5. es esencial diferenciar y democratizar la educación, de manera que los aprendices alcancen su potencial óptimo y así puedan contribuir a la construcción de una cultura de paz y derechos humanos. este postulado nos requiere captar y cultivar in factis pax volume 8 number 1 (2014): 1-9 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 5 los talentos y potencialidades de todos los aprendices y superar la violencia sistémica en la educación, es decir, aquellas políticas y prácticas que impactan adversamente al estudiante “al gravarle psicológica, mental, cultural, espiritual, económica o físicamente” (ross epp & watkinson, 1997). entre estas políticas y prácticas discriminatorias y excluyentes se encuentran, por ejemplo: los sesgos y vacíos en el currículo; los paradigmas deficitarios; los “sellos” y tipologías que estigmatizan; las pedagogías autoritarias; la formación de rasgos de personalidad agresivos y antidemocráticos; y, los métodos educativos que no reconocen la diversidad, ocasionando así el desperdicio de talentos y la pérdida de potencialidades (pascual morán, 2002, 2007). en esta violenta realidad, según perrenoud (2007), subyacen las raíces de las desigualdades en el aprendizaje, que a su vez determinan el “éxito” de los más favorecidos y el “fracaso” de los menos desfavorecidos. estas desigualdades, provenientes de las desigualdades de capital cultural y de las diferencias de desarrollo, son contrarias a los principios democráticos y de derechos humanos. urge entonces, afirma perrenoud (2007), acabar con “la indiferencia ante las diferencias”, mediante una “pedagogía de las diferencias”. urge, afirma, “dar a todos la oportunidad de aprender” en el marco de una “discriminación positiva” y “diferenciación intencional”. 6. la idea de la paz como derecho humano de síntesis constituye una dimensión clave para construir una nueva cultura sobre la base de valores como la noviolencia, la justicia y la democracia. es decir, el derecho a la paz es un derecho humano holístico y fundamental de todos los seres humanos y los pueblos. por eso, actualmente se hacen gestiones para reconocer mediante normativa internacional la paz como derecho humano de síntesis. por ejemplo, en la declaración de santiago de compostela del 2010, resultado del congreso internacional sobre el derecho humano a la paz, se reclama la ausencia de todo tipo de violencia armada, estructural o cultural por ser incompatible con la paz integral. más aún, se reafirman los contenidos de la paz como derecho humano, particularmente, el derecho a: la educación para la paz, la seguridad humana, el equilibrio ecológico, el desarme, el desarrollo socioeconómico, la migración y, los derechos de personas y grupos en situaciones de vulnerabilidad. desde diversas propuestas para la seguridad humana, también se cuestiona la noción negativa y reduccionista de la paz, así como el concepto de seguridad nacional vigente que incita a la “guerra preventiva” y el “equilibrio del terror”. como alternativa, se propone la reconversión de las capacidades bélicas y el astronómico gasto que el militarismo conlleva, en pro de la justicia social, la sustentabilidad ecológica y la paz integral.3 en última instancia, se trata de un cambio de paradigma (fisas, 2002; tuvilla rayo 2004) que nos requiere transitar de la visión utópica de la paz perpetua, a una paz imperfecta e inacabada de naturaleza dinámica; y de superar la concepción de la paz negativa, para asumir una paz positiva multidimensional que contemple la suma de: la 3 véase, por ejemplo, el portal cibernético de security pax forum: the international network for the promotion of human security and peace. in factis pax volume 8 number 1 (2014): 1-9 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 6 paz directa, a partir del manejo noviolento de conflictos; la paz cultural, desde unos valores compartidos; y, la paz estructural, mediante políticas de justicia social. desde mi perspectiva pedagógica, también nos exige la construcción de “proyectos de posibilidad”. 7. los “proyectos de posibilidad” constituyen propuestas viables para la acción en el ámbito de la educación en y para los derechos humanos y la paz. todo proyecto tiene su origen en una idea, ya sea para crear algo novedoso o modificar una realidad no deseada. idear un proyecto posibilita pues pensar un pedazo de futuro y darle coherencia mediante la acción (ander-egg & aguilar idañez, 2000; ulla & giodomi, 2006). freire (1993, 2006) nos propone la noción de “lo inédito viable” para designar aquello que aunque no existe, tenemos la certeza de que es posible, ya que el destino no es algo inexorable ni predeterminado. para labrar este futuro, insiste en la forja de “propuestas de posibilidad” y nos convoca a soñar con “proyectos de humanidad”. desde el legado histórico de la noviolencia, gandhi y martin luther king apuntan a la urgencia de establecer vínculos entre las acciones noviolentas y proyectos prospectivos de transformación cultural, ética, política y social. en similar sintonía, desde el movimiento/visión hacia una cultura de paz y noviolencia de la unesco (2000), se afirma la cultura de paz y derechos humanos como construcción, como proyecto colectivo, como proyecto transdisciplinario de investigación, educación y acción (pascual morán, 2003, 2007). desde mi perspectiva pedagógica, implica propiciar el aprendizaje basado en proyectos, como el modo más auténtico y democrático de educarnos y de educar. a esos fines, les propongo que exploremos estas siete premisas como andamiaje pedagógico para construir una amplia gama de proyectos de posibilidad. afortunadamente, ya existen senderos sobre los cuales edificar innumerables proyectos pro paz y derechos humanos a nivel nacional e internacional, los cuales demuestran que los proyectos de posibilidad no solo son “sueños viables”, sino semillas que en terreno fértil, ciertamente pueden germinar en “proyectos de humanidad”. referencias ander-egg, e. & aguilar idañez, m.j. (2002). cómo elaborar un proyecto: guía para diseñar proyectos sociales y culturales. buenos aires: editorial lumen/humanitas. antunes, a. & gadotti, m. (2006). la ecopedagogía como la pedagogía indicada para el proceso de la carta de la tierra. en la carta de la tierra en acción, (p.141-143). disponible en: http://www.educacionenvalores.org/img/pdf/spa-p.141-143antunes.pdf aranguren, l. (1997). educar en la reinvención de la solidaridad. cuadernos bakeaz, n.22, p.1-15. bilbao, españa. disponible en: http://pdf.escueladepaz.efaber.net/publication/full_text/22/cb22_maqueta_pdf.pdf in factis pax volume 8 number 1 (2014): 1-9 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 7 boulding, e. (2003). cultures of peace: the hidden side of history. new york: syracuse university press, 2003. declaración de santiago sobre el derecho humano a la paz, 10 de diciembre de 2010. disponible en: http://www.fesmadrid.org/media/1037_human%20right%20to%20peace/derecho%20humano%20 a%20la%20paz_declaracion%20de%20santiago.pdf delors, j. (1996). la educación encierra un tesoro. [informe delors]. informe a la unesco de la comisión internacional sobre la educación para el siglo xxi, presidida por jacques delors. santillana, ediciones unesco. en: http://www.unesco.org/education/pdf/delors_s.pdf fisas, v. (2002). la paz es posible: una agenda para la paz del siglo xxi. barcelona: intermón / oxfam. freire, p. (1993). pedagogía de la esperanza. un reencuentro con la pedagogía del oprimido. madrid: siglo xxi. freire, p. (2006). pedagogía de la indignación. madrid, españa: ediciones morata. galtung, j. (1996). peace by peaceful means: peace and conflict, development and civilization. london: sage. galtung, j. (2006). trascender los conflictos: la perspectiva de johan galtung. futuros, revista trimestral latinoamericana de desarrollo sustentable. disponible en: http://www.revistafuturos.info/futuros13/trascender_conflictos.htm galtung, j. (2008, 23 de marzo) la resolución de conflictos exige creatividad. [entrevista por ezequiel moltó]. el país, españa. disponible en: http://elpais.com/diario/2001/01/28/cvalenciana/980713094_850215.html gandhi, m. (2002). my faith in nonviolence. the power of nonviolence: writings by advocates of peace. boston: beacon press. disponible en: http://www.mkgandhi.org/nonviolence/faith%20in%20nonviolence.htm hicks, d. (1993). educación para la paz: cuestiones, principios y práctica en el aula. ministerio de educación y ciencia. madrid: ediciones morata. jares, x. (2002). educación y derechos humanos. madrid: editorial popular. jares, x. (2004). educar para la paz en tiempos difíciles. bilbao: ediciones bakeaz. in factis pax volume 8 number 1 (2014): 1-9 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 8 jares, x. (2005). educar para la verdad y la esperanza en tiempos de globalización, guerra preventiva y terrorismos. madrid: editorial popular. king, m. l., jr. (1958). stride toward freedom: the montgomery story. new york: harper and row publishers. lederach, j. p. (2000). el abecé de la paz y los conflictos. madrid: catarata. magendzo, a. (2002, junio). human rights education as critical pedagogy. human rights education listserv. disponible en: http://www.hrea.org/lists/hreducation/markup/msg00963.html mayor zaragoza, f. & mateos garcía, a. (2004). ¿por qué una cultura de paz? polylog. foro para filosofía intercultural [blog]. disponible en: http://them.polylog.org/5/dmfes.htm montessori, m. (1949). educación y paz. errepar: argentina. onu (1999, 6 de octubre). declaración y programa de acción sobre una cultura de paz. resolución de la asamblea general de las naciones unidas (a/res/53/243). disponible en: http://portal.unesco.org/education/es/ev.phpurl_id=37317&url_do=do_topic&url_section=201.html pascual morán a. (2002). la noviolencia: tiempos para una nueva mirada al pensamiento de gandhi. signos de vida, revista cristiana de divulgación y reflexión. quito, ecuador: consejo latinoamericano de iglesias, n.24, p.39-42. disponible también en: http://unescopaz.uprrp.edu/antologia.pdf pascual morán a. (2003). acción civil noviolenta: fuerza de espíritu, fuerza de paz. hato rey, puerto rico: publicaciones puertorriqueñas, puerto rico evangélico y cátedra unesco de educación para la paz. pascual morán a. (2007). liberar talentos, optimizar inteligencias, sobredotar potencialidades: ¿paradigma vital para diferenciar la educación y propiciar los derechos humanos, la justicia y la paz? pedagogía, facultad de educación, universidad de puerto rico, recinto de río piedras, v.40, p.63-78, 2007. perrenoud, p. (2007). pedagogía diferenciada: de las intenciones a la acción. madrid: editorial popular. reardon, b. (1995). educating for human dignity: learning about rights and responsibilities. philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press. reardon, b. (1997). human rights as education for peace. disponible en: http://www.pdhre.org/book/reardon.html in factis pax volume 8 number 1 (2014): 1-9 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 9 reardon, b. (2010). human rights learning: pedagogies and politics of peace / aprendizaje en derechos humanos: pedagogías y políticas de paz. conferencia magistral 2008-2009, cátedra unesco de educación para la paz, recinto de río piedras de las universidad de puerto rico [bilingual publication]. disponible en: http://unescopaz.uprrp.edu/act/lecciones/2009reardon/hrlearningbettyreardon.pdf ross epp, j. & watkinson, a.m. (1997). systemic violence in education: promise broken. state university of new york press. security pax forum: the international network for the promotion of human security and peace [portal]. disponible en: http://www.unesco.org/securipax/index.htm sharp, g. (1973). the methods of nonviolent action. [tres volúmenes]. part i / politics of nonviolent action. part ii / politics of nonviolent action. part iii / politics of nonviolent action. porter sargent publishers. shor, i. & freire, p. (1987). what is the dialogical method? en a pedagogy for liberation: dialogues on transforming education, (p.97-119). westport, connecticut: bergin & garvey. tuvilla rayo, j. (1998). educación en derechos humanos: hacia una perspectiva global. bilbao: editorial desclée de brouwer, colección aprender a ser. tuvilla rayo, j. (2004). cultura de paz: fundamentos y claves educativas. bilbao: desclée de brouwer, colección aprender a ser / educación en valores. ulla, l. & giomi, c. (2006). guía para la elaboración de proyectos sociales. instituto para la cultura, la innovación y el desarrollo. buenos aires: editorial espacio. unesco (2000). manifiesto 2000 para una cultura de paz y no violencia [portal]. disponible en: http://www3.unesco.org/manifesto2000/sp/sp_manifeste.htm yudkin suliveres, a. & pascual morán, a. (eds.) (2008). educando para la paz en y desde la universidad: antología conmemorativa de una década. cátedra unesco de educación para la paz, recinto de río piedras de la universidad de puerto rico. disponible en: http://unescopaz.uprrp.edu/antologia.pdf schreck in factis pax copy 2 in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 39 volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal inculcating peaceability: “let us make what peace is left for us to make” jane m. schreck bismarck state college jane.schreck@bismarckstate.edu what kentucky writer-farmer-thinker wendell berry thinks about agriculture is usually straightforward and clearly identified as such. what he thinks about culture sometimes has to be gleaned from his opinions on other topics. one topic of american culture that he takes on often in an oblique way is education, and his short story “pray without ceasing” (fid, 1992) is a prime example. many relevant themes of education play out in the story and how berry tells it, but formal education is never mentioned—the closest we get is the appearance of jack beechum’s grade school teacher. yet berry himself cited this story as a way to gain insight into how education could better serve our world, and the story connects with his deepest hope for education. the story raises important questions about the relationship between formal education and violence, something berry has called the “great moral issue of our time” (wi, 2005, p. 145), and the story suggests how education could do better. andy catlett is the narrator of the story. he is thirty in 1965 and newly moved back to port william with his family to farm. braymer hardy, an older neighbor, has found a newspaper article from 1912 about the murder of andy’s great-grandfather ben feltner by his neighbor and friend thad coulter. andy is moved by this tangible link to the past to seek out what else can be known, to fill in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 40 in the gaps in what he knows about the murder “from bits and pieces dropped out of conversations among [his] elders” (fid, 1992, p. 8). he goes to see his grandfather, mat feltner, ill and failing now, and ends up talking to his grandmother, margaret feltner, instead. the murder of ben feltner is one of the great tragedies in the history of port william, relieved only by the certain knowledge that it could have been much worse. ben feltner was a good man, well liked in the community. braymer hardy tells andy that he knew ben and says he was “fine as they come. they never made ‘em no finer. the last man on earth you’d a thought would get shot” (p. 6). when andy shows his grandmother the old article, her first response is to say, “it’s a wonder that mat didn’t kill thad coulter that morning” (p. 11). the tragedy that could have been worse has its roots in the ambition to help a child get out and improve himself. in the early twentieth century, thad coulter’s son, abner, wants to open a grocery store in hargrave, county seat and a town with more promise than port william. after all, “abner had been reserved for something better” (p. 22) than farming, as his parents understand: “abner was smart—too smart, as thad and rachel agreed, without ever much talking about it, to spend his life farming a hillside” (p. 22). berry has a diagnosis for the condition, as he explains: and yet in port william, as everywhere else, it was already the second decade of the twentieth century. and in some of the people of the town and the community surrounding it, one of the characteristic diseases of the twentieth century was making its way: the suspicion that they would be greatly improved if they were someplace else. (pp. 19-20) as it would for any parent, this judgment causes dissonance for thad. he loves his farm, thinks it is “a pretty farm” (p. 22), largely because of the work and thought he has devoted to it. to then deem the farm unworthy for his own son causes thad to be “divided in his mind” (p. 22). it is as if to love his son, he must despise his life. thad has trapped himself between these two extremes, confusing his judgment and pressing him to disregard his life and himself. but braymer tells andy, “thad coulter was a good kind of feller, too, far as that goes. i don’t reckon he was the kind you’d a thought would shoot somebody, either” (p. 6). but things get set in motion. abner takes out a loan from the hargrave bank “secured by a mortgage on his father’s farm” (p. 12), so thad “had in effect given his life and its entire effort as hostage to the possibility that abner, his only son, could be made a merchant in a better place than port william” (p. 12). when abner fails and disappears into the night on a borrowed horse (p. 12), thad is left to face the bank and the near in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 41 inevitability of losing his farm. further, he imagines the public ridicule he will face because of his broad boasting about abner’s success in leaving port william. his desperation turns to delusion with the help of two days of solitary drinking. disgusted with his son, he becomes disgusted with himself, and in spite of the pleadings of his wife and daughter to come into the house, he declares that he is fit only to “shelter with the dogs and hogs” (p. 14). after two days and nights of drinking in the barn, he walks to town to seek help from his friend ben feltner. as thad explains his situation to ben, thad lapses into irrational cursing, and ben judges it best to allow thad time to sober up. after listening for a time, ben tells him to go and come back later. “and then we’ll see” (p. 15), he tells thad. perhaps ben should have expected this, but thad is insulted to be turned away. broken and humiliated, he cannot see the sense of what ben has proposed. the request that they discuss the matter when thad is thinking clearly pushes him further into despair, and he begins cursing: i cuss you to your damned face, ben feltner, for i have come to you with my hat in my hand and you have spit in it. you have throwed in your lot with them sons of bitches against me. (p. 16) ben remains even-tempered and not physically forceful, but escorts thad out in a way that is beyond refusal. far from wanting to insult thad, ben is already making plans to help, and after thad leaves, ben goes out, hoping to find some of thad’s kinsmen in town, to let them know what has happened and get them to help thad sober up. ben finds dave coulter, a cousin of thad’s, in town and tells him that once thad is sober, “then we could see if we can help him out of his scrape” (p. 29). that he uses the word scrape suggests a deference to his friend’s problem. meanwhile, thad’s rage at himself and the world gets redirected at his daughter martha elizabeth, who has come to town to take him home. once they are home, he threatens her with a whip for trying to help him, his uncharacteristic cruelty toward her further shaming and angering him until all his anger becomes focused on port william itself and its living embodiment, ben feltner, the friend he thinks has turned him away. ben has become in thad’s mind his only hope, his only friend, and his sharpest critic. having encouraged his son to disown port william, thad finds it easier now to do the same—he too becomes afflicted with the disease of wondering if someplace else would be better. “if port william could not save him,” he thinks, “then surely there was another place that could” (p. 20). but thad cannot simply disappear into the night on a stolen horse as his son did—his attachment to port william is too strong. instead he needs to destroy in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 42 it: “he must rid himself of it somehow” (p. 20). thad decides he needs to go back to town with a pistol, but first he finishes off his jug of whiskey. at the very moment when ben is standing on the street in port william, laying out a plan with dave coulter to help thad, thad arrives back in town and shoots ben in the forehead. as thad flees port william, he realizes that “two lives had ended for a possibility that never had existed: for abner coulter’s mounting up in a better place” (p. 43). by the time he reaches hargrave, the full reality of his act has hit thad, and he turns himself in to the sheriff, saying “i have killed a man…ben feltner, the best friend i ever had” (p. 45). but this short story is not over; it does not end with the murder nor with thad’s subsequent suicide. berry’s fictional world, while sometimes based on real people, landscapes, and events, is not history. he is a fiction writer, not a chronicler. he chooses where to begin and end, what characters and details to include, what order to present the events, what imagery, what point of view and voice. he uses imagination—his own and his reader’s—to shape the story and give it meaning and wholeness. the point of “pray without ceasing” is not senseless death. the deaths have to be placed within the context of the people, landscapes, and events—and it all needs to be placed within the context of time. we know something of the violent nature of port william, particularly in the years following the civil war, from stories such as “the hurt man” (tdl, 2004) and “fly away, breath” (pt, 2012). if violence can be stopped, it has to be stopped with a decision for peaceability. it has to be stopped with an acknowledgement of human frailty and with mercy. it has to be stopped finally with love. ben feltner’s son, mat, is in town at the time of the murder. he is twentyeight years old, a young husband and father with the potential for a long life ahead of him, a son yet to be born, and grandchildren still undreamed of. he has been away to college and is now back, settling in to what becomes a long life in port william. but his life might have been sadly different. at the sight of his dead father bleeding into the dirt, he is seized with an impulse for revenge, the need to answer violence with more violence. jack beechum, ben’s brother-in-law and mat’s uncle, is in town that day too, and when he sees mat running from ben’s body and toward his horse, jack knows instinctively that mat must be stopped. he does not have time to have puzzled it out—“jack could hardly have known what he was doing. he had had no time to think. he may have been moved by an impulse simply to stop things until he could think” (p. 36; italics original). jack loved and respected ben feltner as he would a father. jack can be impulsive and heedless of consequences. he has also been known to indulge his anger and resort to violence himself (oj, 1974/1999, pp. 63 and 67). his own grief and rage must have been tremendous, but in an instant, his own need for revenge becomes in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 43 subsumed by love. he knows instinctively what ben would have wanted and what mat needs. he collides at a full run with mat and is able to hold mat in “a desperate embrace” (fid, 1992, p. 37), stopping mat from adding his own life to the lives destroyed that day. and jack accomplishes this at considerable cost to himself, for jack “ached afterward. something went out of him that day, and he was not the same again” (p. 36). but through their struggle, jack has been able to redirect mat’s anger and grief, allow mat time to come to himself and end the violence, and give him the strength to contain that grief and anger (pp. 36-37). when mat goes home to tell his mother of the murder, he is gentle again, he is clear in his thinking, and he is mindful of his responsibilities to those he loves and who love him. his four-yearold daughter, bess, has been waiting for the men to come home for the noon meal. when her father comes in, she is happy that they will be able to eat. the adults know from the look on mat’s face that something is wrong, but mat has the strength to spare his daughter the abruptness of the news that her grandfather is dead. he suggests that his wife, margaret, take bess upstairs to read a book. years later, as margaret feltner is remembering it all and telling the story to her grandson andy, she says she knew then what had happened, and she “just wanted to crawl away” (p. 38). but she too has the responsibilities of love. she tells andy, “i had your mother to think about. you always have somebody to think about, and it’s a blessing” (p. 38). mat’s turn from violence is tenuous, and jack knows it. he stays by mat’s side all day while preparations are made for a vigil at the house. that evening, just as the feltners and the neighborhood ladies and a few of the men are preparing to sit down to supper—a recognition that the living must go on, in their ordinary routines and in their ordinary needs—a crowd gathers in front of the house. it is the men of port william, come to declare their friendship with ben and claim their side in the divide. the town doctor is chosen as spokesman, and he tells mat that thad is in jail at hargrave. then he says, as if necessary to clarify, “we want you to know that we don’t like what he did” (p. 56), and others from the crowd shout their agreement. without knowing the whole story, they have concluded that this was “a thing done out of meanness” (p. 56), and they are offering to preempt the legal system. “we’ll ride down there tonight,” doctor starns says, “and put justice beyond question” (p. 56). then to remove all doubt about their intentions, he adds, “we have a rope” (p. 56). port william has never had organized law. the sheriff in hargrave describes the town as “nothing but trouble, almost beyond the law’s reach and certainly beyond its convenience—a source, as far as he was concerned, of never foreseeable bad news” (p. 46). the story “the hurt man” (tdl, 2004) says that the town “remembered all its history of allegiances, offenses, and resentments, in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 44 going back from the previous saturday to the civil war and long before that” (p. 5). the town is described in that story, set in 1889, as “a dozen miles by river from the courthouse and the rule of law” (p. 5), where “anger had a license that it might not have had in another place” (p. 5). by the time of ben feltner’s murder, it is also connected to the courthouse by a road, but it is still far removed, in space and oversight. the town is used to dealing with its own, and too frequently it has selected violence in those dealings. so when the men of port william come to the feltner home that evening, probably a mix of some who witnessed the murder and some who have only heard about it, what they are proposing is a lynching. indeed “a noose [is] already tied” (fid, 1992, p. 56). with the town’s history, such an action is not unimaginable to them, but still they fear it enough to hesitate: they want mat’s permission to proceed. the crowd’s choice of spokesmen—and his acceptance of that role—is telling in understanding berry’s views on education. doctor starns has counted ben feltner as a friend, but so have all the men in the crowd that night. this is not the reason he is chosen to speak for them. nor certainly is he chosen because he has devoted his life to healing and sworn an oath to do no harm. no doubt he is chosen that night, as he probably has been chosen on other important occasions, out of deference and unquestioning respect for his education. this is an ongoing theme in berry’s writing: the misplaced regard people too often have for credentialed education over character, intelligence, or actual learning. when berry was asked in an interview to identify the most dangerous superstitions of modern industrial culture, among the several that berry named were “that education is good; that education makes people better” (1993/2007, p. 93). berry is not saying that education is bad or that it cannot make people better. what he is saying is that too often these ideas are accepted unquestioningly by modern industrial culture—in a superstitious way. judgment based on superstition tends toward an uncritical acceptance of education. while berry is certainly in favor of learning and admiring of intelligence, he avoids endorsing anything unthinkingly, including education. in his essay, “a remarkable man” (wpf, 1990/1998), berry reviews the book all god’s dangers: the life of nate shaw. berry declares it “a remarkable book because nate shaw was a remarkable man” (p. 17). the book tells the life story of “nate shaw” (pseudonym) in his own words. he is a black alabama farmer, born in 1885 and living into the 1970s, in spite of twelve years in prison for trying to defend a neighbor from having his livestock seized by the county. according to berry, shaw tells of his life with intelligence and humor, in language that is expressive and specific to his place, with a pride in his work and the conviction of character—all of which berry admires. to berry, shaw is “a man of exceptional competence, both practical and moral” (p. 21). berry says the in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 45 book has two themes: shaw’s love for farming counterbalanced with his awareness of and his “uneasiness” (p. 23) about his lack of formal education (p. 23-24). berry’s own love of farming and his skepticism about institutionalized education make him wonder how education might have changed shaw. would education have made him a better farmer? possibly. but berry believes it might well have led him away from farming (p. 25). would education have made him a better man? this seems unlikely to berry because “shaw is not potentially admirable; he is admirable as he is” (p. 24; italics original), and his character is the result of “a strong, sustaining culture” (p. 24). berry says this book on shaw is “a burden” (p. 25) to us, that shaw “burdens us with his character” (pp. 25-26) because “here is a superior man who never went to school!” (p. 26). the book and nate shaw’s life are a direct challenge to the almost superstitious acceptance of education as an absolute good. for berry, this should make us all stop and consider what our educational institutions have produced for us, the purpose we have conventionally assigned to education, and what superstitions we cling to about education. in the industrial culture, “the purpose of education,” says berry, “has been to prepare people to ‘take their places’ in an industrial society, the assumption being that all small economic units are obsolete” (p. 25), and “the superstition of education assumes that this ‘place in society’ is ‘up.’ ‘up’ is the direction from small to big. education is the way up. the popular aim of education is to put everybody ‘on top’” (p. 25; italics original). nate shaw’s life burdens us, as berry puts it, with an obligation to reconsider our assumptions about education: “what a trial that ought to be for us,” says berry, “whose public falsehoods, betrayals of trust, aggressions, injustices, and imminent catastrophes are now almost exclusively the work of the college bred” (p. 26). in other words, berry wants us to confront a full accounting of the good of education, that here, as everywhere, the gains need to be balanced with the losses, advances with damages. this digression from “pray without ceasing” has two purposes: first, to illuminate berry’s skepticism about the absolute good of formal education, and second, to highlight his opinion on the pattern of misdeeds of the “college bred.” he has noted this relationship between education and damage elsewhere. in a commencement address to the 2009 graduates of northern kentucky university, he quoted canadian ecologist stan rowe: “well-educated people, not illiterates, are wrecking the planet” (quoted in berry, wm, 2010, p. 33). the dynamic is simple: because of greater influence, the educated can do greater damage, and because educational institutions tend to train students to serve the industrial economy not the ecosphere, that damage is often done on a bigger-is-better scale. said berry about education today: in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 46 to have founded an enormously expensive system of education on the premises of, and in service to, such an economy has been a mistake, calling for a long, arduous work of revision. if authentic hope is to survive in our present circumstances, education will have to change…, both selfeducation and the work of schools. (wm, 2010, p. 33) the change berry advocates is that formal education change its focus “from the economy to the ecosphere as the basis of curriculum, teaching, and learning” (p. 33). this is not simply the plea of a nature lover. this is, for him, the practical calculation of a thinker who recognizes that any legitimate economy must be sustainable, locally adapted, and based on the material world. likewise, education must be based on the material world. “education in the true sense,” says berry in “higher education and home defense” (he, 1987), “is an enablement to serve—both the living human community in its natural household or neighborhood and the precious cultural possessions that the living community inherits or should inherit” (p. 52; italics original). he reminds us that “to educate is, literally, to ‘bring up,’ to bring young people to a responsible maturity, to help them to be good caretakers of what they have been given, to help them to be charitable toward fellow creatures” (p. 52). to berry, the “up” of “bring up” is different from the “up” that has education be the way “up,” the direction of “small to big” (wpf, 1990/1998, p. 25). and the “place” of “take their places in an industrial society” is different from “place” in the description of nate shaw and his personal character as “native to his place in the world” (p. 25). no doubt doctor starns did much good for the people of port william in his time, and no doubt much of that good was due to his education and training as a doctor. but all that good could have been undone in a moment by his leading part in turning that group of port william citizens—his neighbors and his patients—into a lynch mob. in that moment, standing up for the crowd of men in front of the feltner house, starns was standing against his place—very different from nate shaw’s stand for his place and his neighbors. berry would have us wonder about the impact of formal education on our understanding of place, but also on both the arrogance of the educated and the ready acquiescence of power by the uneducated. when they arrive at the feltner house, rope in hand, someone shouts out, “let the doc do the talking” (fid, 1992, p. 56). starns is in the front of the crowd—apparently he has been among the leaders as they approached—and he does not hesitate to step forward and speak. he announces that they are ready to “put justice beyond question” (p. 56), as though a lynching could ever end the possibility of reflection or reappraisal or regret in an issue like justice. in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 47 so now it is all on mat feltner: his mother stands behind him at his right, his uncle jack on his left. the crowd goes silent, waiting for mat’s response. no doubt some in the crowd are expecting self-righteous anger from mat and a hearty endorsement of their plan; maybe some have the sense to fear that response. instead mat’s response is steady and clear: “no, gentlemen. i appreciate it. we all do. but i ask you not to do it” (p. 57). he is gracious and formal with them, elevating them all above mobs and nooses. it is only at that moment, finally, that jack beechum is able to relax the fierce tension that has held him on his feet and close to mat all day long out of love for him and dread for what he might do. upon hearing mat’s words, jack “stepped back and sat down” (p. 57) for the first time since morning. mat’s mother, nancy, steps forward and speaks then too, emphasizing mat’s wishes and calling forth the weight of ben’s authority. she too thanks them and acknowledges them with the distinction of being ben feltner’s friends. but she leaves no room for question about what should be done. she tells them: i know you are my husband’s friends. i thank you. i, too, must ask you not to do as you propose. mat has asked you; i have asked you; if ben could, he would ask you. let us make what peace is left for us to make. (p. 57) the possibility of peace is small, but the word has been uttered aloud, and now there is hope. mat invites the men in, to sit with them and share the food the neighbor women have provided in the town’s shock and grief. some do; the rest disperse, going back to their lives to follow this current of port william’s future, the one where they are not a lynch mob forever. and what of faithful, loving martha elizabeth coulter, thad’s daughter? she trails her father into town to bring him home—twice. the first time, she takes him home, and in telling the story to andy, margaret feltner remembers “how gentle martha elizabeth had been with him” (p. 18). martha elizabeth is thad’s youngest child, now seventeen. he thinks she has “the levelest head of any of his children” (p. 21), and he regards her as “the best” (p. 21) of the five. she is described as “responsible beyond her years” (p. 21), “a tall, raw-boned girl, with large hands and feet, a red complexion, and hair so red that, in the sun, it appeared to be on fire” (p. 21). at first, thad is relieved to be in her care, “resting in being with her” (p. 21) on the wagon ride home. but even thad’s love for her and her love for him cannot lessen the pain he feels at the sight of the “pretty” farm that he now stands to lose. he becomes too ashamed to look at his farm or daughter. when she tries to get him inside to eat and rest, he cannot bear her kindness. he pushes her away, and she falls. “he could have cut off his hand for so misusing her, and yet his rage at himself included her” (p. 23), and he threatens her with a in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 48 whip, shocking them both. she goes into the house, leaving him to sink further into despair and drink. when he finally comes into the shelter of the house, it is not for healing; it is for his pistol. now he is armed and wildly unlike himself, and neither martha elizabeth nor her mother dare to stop him. the second time martha elizabeth comes to town for her father, she is too late. the murder has already happened, and her walk to town becomes a walk through town, past the dead body and horrified citizenry of port william, and all the way to hargrave. then it becomes a devoted vigil with her father, first outside the courthouse, then inside the cell, saturday evening and all day sunday. she tries to get him to eat something and drink some water. in his terrible shame and guilt, he is unable even to look at her. each night, the sheriff takes her home with him, and his wife gives her something to eat and a safe place to sleep. on monday morning, when the sheriff brings her to the cell to resume her vigil, they find thad has killed himself. what becomes of this long-suffering girl with the fire-red hair? andy knows part of her story—he knows miss martha elizabeth as an old woman. he knows her as “always near to smiling, sometimes to laughter. her face, it seemed, had been made to smile. it was a face that assented wholly to the being of whatever and whomever she looked at” (p. 48). andy struggles to see her as the girl swept up in this terrible drama and wonders that she could have become the old woman he knows. martha elizabeth “had gone with her father to the world’s edge and had come back with this smile on her face” (p. 48), and that is hard for andy to reconcile. but his grandmother has had more time to consider it all, and she understands, in part because she has imagined it all: thad’s despair and shame and the quiet, unwavering love of martha elizabeth. she sees it in the particulars of familiarity. she tells andy, “all these years i’ve thought of him sitting in those shadows, with martha elizabeth standing there, and his work-sore old hands over his face” (p. 50-51). she imagines god’s love, knowing it “included thad coulter, drunk and mean and foolish, before he killed mr. feltner, and it included him afterwards” (p. 49), and that finally thad must have seen his daughter, his “best,” standing by him in his guilt, as the very face of god’s love. while conceding that thad was wrong to kill himself, margaret also says, “surely god’s love includes people who can’t bear it” (p. 50). in her imaginings, she comes always to the mystery of love and the forgiveness required in loving frail human beings. “if god loves the ones we can’t,” she says to andy, not doubting god’s love, but trying to comprehend the immense implications of that love, “then finally maybe we can” (p. 50). it is a hope in the possibility of mercy and peace, but it is also a necessity if we are to survive with each other. the title of the story is provided, nearly at the end of the story, by the character della budge. aged and ailing, able to walk now only with great in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 49 difficulty, she still comes to the feltner home where ben’s body is lying in state, to offer an iced cake and a presence of grief and respect. della budge was once the schoolteacher in port william. indeed, she had been jack beechum’s teacher, and they recognize each other with something between fondness and respect. we are told their teacher-student relationship was not an easy one—“for years they had waged a contest in which she had endeavored to teach him…and he had refused to learn….he was one of her failures, but she maintained a proprietary interest in him nonetheless” (p. 54). jack is by now a man past fifty years old, and we are told that miss della is “the only one left alive who called him ‘jackie’” (p. 54). jack’s response to everything she says is a respectful, “yes, mam” (p. 54), and as she is leaving, he helps “her out the door and down the porch steps” (p. 55). but before she goes, she and jack share a brief conversation, nearly perfunctory in tone and content—a good man is dead, we are surprised, but we never know when our time is up. jack agrees at each statement. she says, “so we must always be ready,” then advises, “pray without ceasing” (p. 54), quoting from the new testament (1 thes 5:17), a verse no doubt familiar to anyone who regularly attends the port william church, a part of the culture of the place. this verse is from the chapter of paul’s first letter to the thessalonians that compares the return of jesus to a thief coming in the night. because of the possibility of such a surprise, this is also the chapter that encourages constant good behavior. paul cautions against drunkenness, and he instructs the christian community of thessaloniki to support each other, giving comfort to each other and support. paul says, “admonish the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be longsuffering toward all” (1 thes 5:14). it is a good program for harmony in a community. indeed, it is an outline of what ben feltner was trying to do for thad. ben would have wanted to help thad, not simply out of human sympathy or a tradition of moral instruction, but also out of practical necessity. no doubt ben knew well that a good farmer tending his farm well is valuable to the community, that a good neighbor is an asset. paul’s further advice—“see that none render unto any one evil for evil”—speaks directly to mat and jack and their decisions not to answer a senseless killing with more killing, more violence. the verse is a curious one for the title of such a tragic tale because of the joyful context it has within scripture. the verse before it is, “rejoice always” (1 thes 5:16), and the one after is, “in everything give thanks” (1 thes 5:18). the verse is crowded on both sides by the exuberance of a pep talk from paul to the thessalonians. the moral instruction earlier in the chapter does not seem burdensome. instead it is presented as something more like a privilege to know, the not-so-secret secret to a happy life, especially a happy life in community. in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 50 the verse is also an acknowledgement that all life is a prayer, it is an acknowledgement of mystery and of hope, and it is an acknowledgment of the constant need for mercy in the face of human frailty. finally, it is an affirmation of mat’s decision on the steps of his porch before the crowd of men seeking vengeance; it is an affirmation of jack’s instinctive decision for love. that this line is delivered by della budge is probably no accident. heavy as it is with its weight as the title and with the weight of all the scriptural implications, it is fitting that it be delivered by a schoolteacher, indeed by jack beechum’s teacher. this is consistent with berry’s hopes for education: that it could preserve the good of local culture in a place and that it could “inculcate a capacity for peaceability” (w. berry, personal communication, july 17, 2011). what makes this story especially poignant as told by andy catlett is that andy shares ancestors with both the murdered and the murderer. ben feltner was his great-grandfather, father of andy’s grandfather, mat feltner. but thad coulter was also kinsman, first cousin to andy’s grandfather marce catlett, the lines joining years after the murder in the marriage of andy’s parents. had mat not made the decision for peace—had jack not stopped him and held him fast until that decision became a possibility for mat—things might have happened very differently, and andy knows this now. he stands in time, uniting the two lines in that place that might otherwise have been hopelessly divided. the weight of that tragic moment is balanced against the weight of what followed and the alternate history of violence that ended on the feltner’s front porch. “my grandfather,” andy catlett says as narrator, “made a peace here that has joined many who would otherwise have been divided. i am the child of his forgiveness” (fid, 1992, p. 59). as berry crafts the short story and as he himself regards it, it is not too much to say that the future of port william changed that day. in considering the events surrounding the murder and his grandfather’s own quiet death of old age all those years later, andy becomes awash in time, the what-is asserting itself finally over the what-might-have-been: this is the man who will be my grandfather—the man who will be the man who was my grandfather. the tenses slur and slide under the pressure of collapsed time. for that moment on the porch is not a now that was but a now that is and will be, inhabiting all the history of port william that followed and will follow. (p. 58) a space was created—first for mat feltner and then for the town itself—to decide against violence, to decide for love, and it is accepted as fact that it would not have happened without jack beechum and what he did in that moment to stop mat. as margaret feltner tells andy, “if it hadn’t been for jack beechum, mat in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 51 would have killed [thad]” (p. 11; italics original), confirming her own witness to the events then and family lore since. “that was the point” (p. 11), berry has andy understand within the story: that jack had stopped mat from escalating the violence and sending port william into a very different future. it is worth noting here too that in the face of such a tragedy, the women of the town bring food to the feltner home; the men bring a noose. the women speak of peace and prayer; the men speak of justice and vengeance. the women are animated by quiet, steadfast service, concerned for immediate physical needs such as hunger and comfort; the men are animated by violence, unconcerned for the long-term consequences. the women offer their presence; the men offer their action. the women tend to their business; the men try to step beyond their business. a direct comparison of della budge and doctor starns illustrates this contrast well, particularly from the perspective of education. typically, the town schoolteacher and the town doctor would be among the most educated of the citizenry, with each afforded a sort of deference as a result of that education. miss della arrives in the afternoon, in the daylight, and she is “bearing an iced cake on a stand like a lighted lamp” (p. 53). in contrast, the men, led by doctor starns, arrive at sundown, “the light cool and directionless” (p. 55), a “deepening twilight” (p. 57). it is not yet dark, but it is heading there. miss della comes into the house; doctor starns stays outside. if he comes into the house later when he is invited to join the family and the neighbors who are there, we are not told. miss della brings comfort and some cheer in her iced cake, but she also brings instruction—she is a teacher to the end with jack, still working to enlighten, to bring light into darkness. she speaks in support of the best in the local culture. doctor starns brings anger and the threat of violence in the tied noose. he speaks with an angry chorus of “that’s right!” (p. 56) from the men behind him, urging him on and escalating the animus. he says of the issues of justice and legality, “we think it’s our business, and we propose to make it our business” (p. 56), planning to disrupt the order of law. most strikingly, when doctor starns comes to the feltner home that night, he does not bring healing, to which he is supposed to have dedicated his life, and with the authority granted him by his neighbors, he speaks in support of the worst in the local culture. the respect afforded miss della then is appropriate because in this case she uses her education to serve the community, while the respect afforded doctor starns—and the destructive license that accompanies that respect—is misplaced because in this case he acts in defiance of what is best in his education and what is best for the community. in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 52 but both the women and men of port william are moved by their culture and its expectations of them. only jack beechum does the unexpected, moved by love rather than expectation in a radically countercultural way. and his unexpected radicalness allows mat to do the same and opens a new future for port william. jack beechum is a frequent character in the fiction of port william, sometimes appearing in minor roles, sometimes featured as he is in the novel the memory of old jack. mostly in the fiction he is highly respected as a smart, careful farmer, a tireless worker, and a faithful friend and neighbor. he is that, but he is also flawed. proud and somewhat vain, jack sometimes displays a dangerous insensitivity in his dealings with people, and even when he recognizes the hurt he causes, he seems unable to effect a remedy. he can be hot-tempered and defiant, and he is capable of physical violence himself. one cannot help but wonder if some study of psychology or literature might have improved his interpersonal skills. when asked how a liberal arts education might have helped jack beechum with his personal relationships, berry said, “i don’t know. that’s an interesting question because i somehow don’t want him to have a liberal arts education. and that’s because he was indigenous in a way that a liberal arts education is not going to allow” (w. berry, personal communication, july 17, 2011). the use of the word indigenous may seem surprising here or even extreme, accustomed as we are to thinking of its use in describing native peoples. after all, jack beechum is probably no more than second or third generation in kentucky. we do not usually think of the children or grandchildren of white settlers as indigenous, but perhaps we should. perhaps that sort of connectedness should be our standard for a person’s relationship to place. in describing jack as indigenous, berry indicates the depth and seriousness with which he regards jack’s connection to his land and community, and berry reveals too his opinion of education’s role in disrupting that connection. when pressed about the pain jack caused for himself and others, berry agreed that he had, but he noted that jack “was a model and a standard for a lot of people too.” then he said, “and he held mat feltner and kept him from killing” (w. berry, personal communication, july 17, 2011), as though to offer that act alone as redemption for any failings, however grievous. berry clearly credits jack with stopping mat from seeking revenge on thad coulter, and in turn giving mat the strength and the capacity to stop the crowd from lynching thad. it does not take the skills of a fiction writer to imagine how a man’s life might be changed by taking part in a lynching or encouraging one, and those changes would surely never be for the good. the mortal lives of ben feltner and thad coulter both end as a result of this tragic incident in port william. but because of jack beechum— just as he is, indigenous and “native to his place in the world” (wpf, 1990/1998, p. 25) in the same way that nate shaw was—mat has a better future than he in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 53 would have had without jack, and the would-be lynch mob and all of port william have a better future, a future that allows for “what peace is left for us to make” (fid, p. 57). would a college education have prevented jack from acting on instinct to stop mat? would it have caused him to hesitate while he thought things through? would it have emboldened a righteous sense of justice or self-importance in him that could have made violent vengeance acceptable? would it have caused him to value reason over love or power over grace or justice over mercy? would it have made him disregard the possibility of mystery and expect that all things are explainable and somehow reversible? would it have removed him from his place so that he would lose sight of the connectedness of all things, the sense of grave consequence arising from grave action? would a liberal arts education have displaced jack, disrupted his indigenousness in a way that he would not have been able to instantly see what the local culture would expect of mat, nor see what the radically countercultural stand had to be? we cannot know this about jack or about anyone, but we can see what was essential in jack at that moment and ask what higher education does to support that in a person and what it does to destroy it. in closing his discussion of that story and that incident in the history of port william, berry said, “if you’re not going to have an educational system that inculcates that capacity for peaceability, for the refusal of that doctrine of maximum force relentlessly applied, then what’s the use of it? why not keep your kids at home?” (w. berry, personal communication, july 17, 2011). and that, finally, is berry’s point. an educational system that fails to value affection and imagination and humility is a failure. an educational system that fails to honor home and neighborhood and local place is a failure. an educational system that fails to admit to its own failings is a failure. berry’s deepest hope for education is that its success would to be measured by our ability to make peace—with each other and with our world. what we have in common is our humanity; what we share is our world. an education that inculcates the capacity for peaceabilty must begin there, teaching our students not just as future employees, not just as specialists in a particular field, not just as a bundle of learning outcomes. we must teach our students as whole—even holy—human beings, who live and work with other people in a place on earth, with both the people and the place in need of our care. wendell berry might say we should be educating our students to be good neighbors, prepared always for acts of redemption. in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 39-54 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 54 references berry, w. (1974/1999). the memory of old jack. washington, dc: counterpoint. berry, w. (1987). home economics: fourteen essays. new york: north point. berry, w. (1990/1998). what are people for? new york: north point. berry, w. (1992). fidelity: five stories. san francisco: pantheon. berry, w. (1993/2007). field observations: an interview with wendell berry. interview by j.f. smith. in m. a. grubbs (ed.), conversations with wendell berry (pp. 86-102). jackson, ms: university press of mississippi. (reprinted from orion, 12, pp. 50-59) berry, w. (2004). that distant land: the collected stories. washington, dc: shoemaker & hoard. berry, w. (2005). the way of ignorance and other essays. emeryville, ca: shoemaker & hoard. berry, w. (2010). what matters: economics for a renewed commonwealth. berkeley, ca: counterpoint. berry, w. (2012). a place in time: twenty stories of the port william membership. berkeley, ca: counterpoint. cannon-2   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  92-­‐100   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     92     volume  8  number  1  (2014):  92-­‐100   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     reflections on international institute on peace education 2013: exploring a possible world free from violence susan gelber cannon “knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.” —paulo freire (pedagogy of the oppressed, 1970/2000, p. 72) “our work is inspired by a vision of a transformed global society, a human future for all the earth’s people and a healthy future for our shared planet.” —betty reardon (learning peace, 1994, p. 40) transformative researchers and practitioners from all over the globe use conceptions of critical thinking that are—at heart—the same. further, they see such thinking as a tool to change the world for the better. brazilian education reformer paulo freire (1970/2000) sees critical reflection and committed social action in a deeply intertwined cycle arising from questioning and rethinking knowledge. american nel noddings’s (2007) definition encompasses reasoned analysis of issues, as well as reflection on moral and social beliefs and action. tanzanian-born ladislaus semali (2004) offers perspectives from elders in his native chaggaland, who describe critical thinking as imanya, (“to know intellectually and to be morally or spiritually motivated”) and kusare (“to consider all the possibilities ... think deeply”). he concludes, “critical thinking is a lived activity, not an abstract academic pastime” (pp. 170-171). joe kincheloe (2004) adds that critical thinkers recognize that they are part of a social fabric woven by threads of racial, economic, class, gender, religious, and geographical circumstances   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  92-­‐100   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     93   and awareness, and that they understand that these connections affect the ways they think, learn, and change. international institute on peace education: weaving the fabric of peace in july 2013, at puerto rico university in san juan, transformative global citizens from over twenty countries brought critical thinking to life. a seventy-person learning community gathered to participate in the weeklong international institute on peace education. iipe is described as an “annual, intensive, international learning experience in peace education.” peace educators, activists, and researchers from all over the world have assembled for thirty years to teach and learn with each other in this unique institute, creating “an intensive short-term learning community that embodies the practices and principles of critical, participatory peace pedagogy.” founded in 1982 by betty reardon and colleagues at teachers college, columbia university, iipe’s original focus was on nuclear disarmament and peace education methodologies. there were few such initiatives in educational institutions at the time. over the past thirty years, iipe has become more holistic, evolving into what reardon describes in conversation as a peace education “swap shop.” reardon, alicia cabezudo, (2002) and a group of global educators use the term “comprehensive peace education” (p. 19) to describe the broad outcomes envisioned and multiple strands of education employed in the effort to teach and learn for peace. it is a participatory process. in contrast to such participatory learning, freire (1970/2000) denounces “banking education,” in which “the teachers make communiqués and make deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat” (p. 72). as students are denied opportunities to develop critical and transforming thinking, they become apathetic and passive. not so at iipe. participants were engaged and active as they constructed the reality of the 2013 theme: “towards a possible world free from violence: pedagogies, proposals and politics for human rights and peace.” a perfect storm: cooperation, community, content, culture, chantal? what makes iipe work as a critical-thinking community? in 2013, there was a perfect storm of components. energy and organizational expertise came from members of the iipe staff, tony jenkins (global director/coordinator) and janet gerson (education director). host-organizers anita yudkin suliveres, anaida pascual moran, and lourdes torres santos tirelessly offered inspiring vision, hard work, and warm welcomes along with their team at the unesco chair in peace education at the university of puerto rico. they planned for years and hosted enthusiastically, even managing to send hurricane chantal on her way around, rather than through the island. the passionate culture, food, music, and diversity—along with the ongoing anti-colonial struggles—of the puerto rican people became part of iipe learning as well. content was rich, relevant, and reflectively developed. core to the community is the community itself: seventy individuals from over twenty countries, creating a temporary village with far-reaching implications. participating with this dedicated and diverse team of academics, student volunteers, teachers, researchers, and activists, one feels   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  92-­‐100   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     94   another world is possible. the plenary gatherings and workshops offered by participants helped community members construct multiple paths to peacebuilding. too numerous to detail all aspects of the program here, four highlights will allow readers to construct their own impressions of iipe. i have made these selections with teachers and community organizers in mind. each of the four examples depicts underserved, under-recognized, or disempowered women, men, and youth finding their voices in active community projects, creatively imagined and enacted in step-wise processes. to honor the host community, all examples are from puerto rico, with readily transferrable global applications. judith conde pacheco (vieques, puerto rico): diary writers of peace made invisible by history co-founder of the vieques women’s alliance, judith conde pacheco described the role of women of vieques as they protested the presence of the united states navy on their island east of puerto rico. military maneuvers took place near civilian areas, health of civilians deteriorated, and long-term heavy-metal residue still pollutes the island. women started to document the impact of the military on their lives, becoming—for once—visible after years of “invisibility.” one woman wrote that she would “nunca (never)” strike, volunteering instead to cook for protesters. as conditions for civilians deteriorated, however, she started banging her cooking pot at demonstrations to protest the imposed curfew. women organized because they perceived risk to their families and communities, overcoming their fear of commonly perceived stigmas against protesters. the contributions of everyone— women, men, and children—were respected. they determined as a group who would be arrested and who could not. women elders volunteered to risk arrest, noting their children were grown and their husbands could take care of themselves. judith noted that her own child learned to walk and talk protesting in front of the camp garcia gate. a feminist and inclusive ideology gave face and voice to the women of vieques. although the navy “left” in 2003, numerous unexploded ordinances remain, cancer rates are high, and the struggle continues. the transformational actions of the women, men, and youth of vieques can inspire others to conduct such grass-roots and multifaceted social justice work. entire families were engaged. youth and elders played unique and complementary roles. women’s voices were strengthened in the diary process. the story of nonviolent civil protest and the struggle for human rights on vieques is one that should be explored by students and community activists, who can research via news accounts and various web resources and apply the vieques solutions to local and global problems they face. (see links below.) liliana cruz and yara lari gorbea colon (san juan, puerto rico): theatre for building another possible world. theatre of the oppressed was developed by brazilian augusto boal, integrating the roles of actor and spectator into “spect-actors.” this format envisions alternate political and social realities and engages participants in political and social action via the arts. liliana cruz and   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  92-­‐100   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     95   yara lari gobea colon (and their high school student troupe) demonstrated with iipe participants various exercises common to theatre of the oppressed, allowing participants to enact real-life circumstances, transform the situations, and build ideal images of a better possible world. first, participants struck poses representing oppressive situations that violate rights expressed in the universal declaration of human rights. next, participants mirrored partners’ poses, worked in groups to clarify the departures from human rights, and re-interpreted the problems represented. through group discussion and exercises, actor-participants re-worked their poses and scenes, portraying the possible world free of violence and abuse. students in the youth theatre workshop “pintar teatraliz(ando)” worked with adult participants to clarify and enrich such scenes. later in the day, donning masks they had created, these youthful actors presented scenes they wrote and revised, transforming human rights abuses to scenes of respect, dignity, and cooperation. this two-part presentation at iipe engaged adult peace educators in the theatre-of-theoppressed process. the workshop called on us to experience the process physically and viscerally, and also to analyze its educational power critically with fellow educators. further, we adults were able to query the youth directly about difficulties and benefits of the process. identifying problems that are relevant to participants is one key to the success of re-enactments and revisions. building trust in the acting/learning group is another key element. finally, participants discuss real-world actions that can bring about the ideal-worlds portrayed. theatre of the oppressed exercises, such as striking poses and having a partner mirror the pose, having groups mirror each other’s portrayals, and using ideas from the group to alter scenes’ outcomes are effective tools for any classroom or social action group. (see links below.) alexis massol gonzález and casa pueblo (adjuntas, puerto rico): sustainable development, ecopedagogy, and peace in context during the two-hour bus ride from san juan to adjuntas, puerto rican iipe members pointed out landmarks of ongoing struggles on the island, including a wind-farm that does not produce wind, a monsanto farm intruding on local farmers, and the jíbaro monument to people of the mountains. arriving at casa pueblo, we revived ourselves with artisan shade-grown coffee, one of the sustainable initiatives of this ecologically conscious organization started in 1980 as a cultural center. our hosts, founder alexis massol gonzález and his family and staff, detailed the history of casa pueblo, starting with their efforts to stop open-pit copper mining in the area in the 1980s. the story is a textbook case of nonviolent social action for human rights that should be in textbooks! planning the first anti-mining demonstration was frustrating: after weeks of publicizing and organizing, only one person showed up. they revamped their strategy, engaging youth. shortly thereafter, 800 students formed anti-mine slogans that were photographed from above by journalists in helicopters. by the end of the successful campaign that included cultural groups, students, environmentalists, scientists, and religious groups, 10,000 people turned out to   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  92-­‐100   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     96   celebrate. instead of falling apart or forming factions as many movements do, this activist community evolved from protest to proposal, petitioning for the creation of bosque del pueblo, a 748-acre forest preserve that was granted in 1996. the struggle was not over, however. government leaders proposed a gas pipeline that would destroy the pristine mountain preserve. again the casa pueblo community mobilized to defeat the ill-conceived pipeline, opposed by over two-thirds of puerto rico’s population but pushed forward by the governor. protesters learned that contracts had been awarded to friends of the governor who lacked pipeline-building experience. scientists in the movement (among them sons of massol gonzález) demonstrated that copper deposits would form corrosive oxides; the pipeline was also in an active seismic zone, making it unstable ecologically. the pipeline was defeated. using a process of governing themselves as equals and striving for consensus, casa pueblo activists have created a network that includes a community school with art classes and a symphony orchestra. to provide energy independence, solar panels were installed. the butterfly garden thrives. in august 2013, bosque escuela (forest school) was inaugurated. “people are dominated when made dependent,” alexis says, and casa pueblo uses initiatives such as coffee sales, sales of local artisans’ work, and radio station woqt (1020 am), to fund sustainable programs. the community itself is in charge of managing the government preserve. for his work with his community to protect the environment and create ecologically sustainable cultural, educational ecological and economic projects, alexis was awarded the goldman environmental prize in 2002. this iipe experience energized critical and creative thinking in numerous ways. first, the environmental commentary by local peace educators helped visitors understand numerous agricultural and ecological obstacles and ongoing struggles on the island. as alexis enumerated the steps taken by his community to reclaim the beautiful mountainous landscape, we were able to see tangible fruits of the movements’ struggles, from delicious coffee to vibrant teaching and tourism facilities. finally, by hiking the bosque del pueblo, iipe participants viewed first-hand the landscape preserved from destructive mining and ill-conceived pipeline. community activists and peace builders should see and evaluate such success stories. this visit by iipe participants gave us hand-on experience of an ongoing community partnership building sustainable, ecological, educational, and socially just initiatives in the mountains of puerto rico. this example can be replicated if our students and others know the story of casa pueblo. (see links below.) kanti mendez aramburu (san juan, puerto rico): nuestra escuela (our school): an alternate model to violence in this plenary presentation, kanti mendez aramburu asked us to imagine a school whose core mission is love. imagine a school that is family. imagine a school where there are no grades, where sports are intense but not overly competitive, where students are motivated to learn. imagine a school in which students who had been abandoned by the school system find success and graduate, having created their own personally compelling curricula. such a school exists:   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  92-­‐100   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     97   nuestra escuela (our school). inspired by the vision of founder justo méndez arámburu, nuestra escuela is an alternative school founded in 2000, whose students are referred by the education department, families, or by request of the students themselves. acknowledging that education is a basic human right, kanti explained how nuestra escuela invests human, social, and cultural capital to “develop social responsibility and citizenship,” developing attitudes among students that inspire them to reject violence and build their communities on a basis of love and respect. students who come to nuestra escuela have been abandoned and damaged by the system. pillars of love, family, nation, freedom and a service model surround these youth in a cocoon of safety and healing. staff members recognize students’ life experiences, often lived in conditions of violence and dysfunction. incoming students participate in a three-day retreat to help them process their life experiences and goals for their futures. with the help of teacher guides, students create a personalized education asking questions like “who am i? what do i want to do? how to do it?” the school’s 98% retention rate is testament to the efficacy of the school’s emphasis on individualized education that is personal and relevant, enabling students to “recover the capacity to dream and turn dreams into reality.” service and practical projects include gardens, fisheries, and business initiatives. recognized as an exemplary program by the department of education of puerto rico, it is also deemed a “best practice project” by the u.s. department of education. practicing democratic education, nuestra escuela’s program enriches the emotional, physical, and mental well-being of its students in caguas, loiza, vieques, and culebra, puerto rico. nuestra escuela shows that alternative education can be effective with diverse learners from a variety of socio-economic settings. ask teaches, staff, students, and families what is at the core of nuestra escuela’s success? love. the iipe process at plenary workshops is uniquely active. following presentations, audience members meet in small groups to formulate questions for presenters. my small group asked kanti to “elucidate the steps for creating social programs of hope even in hopeless situations.” she promptly did so, outlining judicial, familial, and education practices the school employs so effectively. students and teachers should know about nuestra escuela. (see links below.) iipe as freirean community realizing the education system is too often instrumental in preparing compliant, silent masses, paulo freire urged an education model that allows students to construct and create relevant, empowering knowledge in cooperation with teachers and peers willing to create democratic and dynamic spaces for these efforts to take place. the iipe community created such spaces, allowing participants to weave a critically-and creatively-thinking community from their multiple backgrounds, interests, and experiences. as seen above, plenaries and workshops alike provided opportunities for active engagement allowing participants to construct knowledge through critical and cooperative thinking. the plenary format was far from passive. participants worked actively and cooperatively to sift   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  92-­‐100   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     98   through multiple questions. this practice enabled listeners to analyze and synthesize information from several perspectives before choosing one question to represent the group’s collective interest. workshops allowed participants to try projects, games, and exercises and reflect on how to employ them in school and community settings. many days ended in reflection groups in which we shared our optimism based on the case studies about which we had learned and the educational activities we had created and analyzed together. iipe ended with a process of evaluation and extension: inviting participants to continue contact and create initiatives. overall, participants engaged in the critical, creative, and cooperative thinking from dawn to dusk, and beyond. online communication continues, months after the close of the conference. thus, iipe provided not only the content of peace education and peacebuilding initiatives, but also the model of teaching and learning about peace. esperanza (hope): transformative optimism for a peaceful future this account mentions only four initiatives shared at iipe, chosen for their puerto rican origins, focus on grassroots participation, stepwise and evaluative approaches to social-justice issues, and success in empowering underserved women, men, and youth. iipe participants shared so much more work that upholds human rights and builds peace using diverse approaches. there are the fourth graders taking action against the death penalty in puerto rico. there is the school for refugees in burundi. there is the cosmetology school economic cooperative in puerto rico. there is the democratizing art project in spain’s basque country. there are student leaders running school wide human-rights initiatives in the united states from newtown square, pennsylvania to washington, d.c. to berkeley, california. there is the kinokuni children’s village, a democratic eco-school in japan. there is growing green, an educational model for children with autism and other behavioral differences. there are the conflict resolution initiatives in sri lanka. there is the documentary singers in the band, helping viewers connect modern-day sex trafficking with the u.s. military. countless other initiatives deserve mention. how does such a gathering as iipe enhance peace education and peacebuilding? freire emphasizes the importance of hope combined with critical understanding of realities. thus, freierean scholar cesar rossatto calls for us to embrace transformative optimism: awareness of our potential for being effective actors in collective and critical efforts for transformation and change (bajaj, 2008). the iipe theme pointed participants “towards a possible world free from violence.” having shared stories, employed methodologies, and developed initiatives, participants have returned to their far-flung homes empowered to build this possible world. readers can employ activism examples and pedagogical formats from iipe with students and colleagues, and use the links below to investigate—and build—the world that is possible. _______ about the author:   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  92-­‐100   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     99   susan gelber cannon, is an educator with over thirty years of classroom experience in the united states and overseas. she has trained teachers in china and japan and at international conferences to develop teaching methods to empower students to think, care, and act as honorable global citizens. she teaches middle school history, english, model un, and debate at the episcopal academy in pennsylvania, united states. her book think, care, act: teaching for a peaceful future was published in 2011. her website www.teachforpeace.org provides resources in character, global, multicultural, and peace education. she blogs at http://thinkcareact.blogspot.com. links: international institute on peace education: http://www.i-i-p-e.org/index.html catedra unesco de educacion para la paz, universida de puerto rico, rio pedro google translated page: what is unesco chair --education for peace? follow links on left: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://unescopaz.uprrp.edu/&prev=/search %3fq%3dunescopaz%26client%3dsafari%26rls%3den freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed in pdf format: http://www.users.humboldt.edu/jwpowell/edreformfriere_pedagogy.pdf http://organizingforpower.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/games-theater-of-oppressed.pdf history of theatre of the oppressed and explanations of methods and games: http://www.theatreoftheoppressed.org/en/index.php?nodeid=3 theatre of the oppressed: theatre tree explaining various aspects of to. inside story americas: special report on vieques (al-jazeera-youtube video4 mins.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x0axmni8ck history of the navy in puerto rico (website with links to variety of articles) http://www.viequesisland.com/navy/ casa pueblo leads resistance to governor’s gas pipeline: npr radio story http://www.npr.org/2011/08/25/139801215/puerto-rican-governor-faces-opposition-to-pipeline goldman prize to casa pueblo founder: http://www.goldmanprize.org/2002/islands nuestra escuela website (in spanish): http://www.nuestraescuela.org nuestra escuela (our school) website and philosophy: http://www.nuestraescuela.org/aboutus/what-is-nuestra-escuela-our-mission-of-love.html   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  92-­‐100   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     100   universal declaration of human rights documents and curricula: http://teachforpeace.org/care/universal-declaration-of-human-rights references: bajaj, m. (2008). introduction. in m. bajaj (ed.), encyclopedia of peace education (pp. 1-11). charlotte, nc: information age publishing. freire, p. (2000). pedagogy of the oppressed (30th anniversary ed.). new york, ny: continuum international. (original work published 1970) kincheloe, j., & weil, d. (eds.). (2004). critical thinking and learning: an encyclopedia for parents and teachers. westport, ct: greenwood press. noddings, n. (2007). critical lessons: what our schools should teach. new york, ny: cambridge university press. reardon, b. & nordland, e., (eds.). (1994) learning peace: the promise of ecological and cooperative education. new york, ny: state university of new york press. reardon, b., cabezudo, a., & teachers college, columbia university peace education team. (2002). learning to abolish war: teaching toward a culture of peace: vol. 1. rationales for and approaches to peace education. retrieved september 5, 2010, from http://www.haguepeace.org/?index.php?action=resources semali, l. (2004). indigenous ways of knowing and critical thinking. in j. kincheloe & d. weil (eds.), critical thinking and learning: an encyclopedia for parents and teachers (pp. 167-171). westport, ct: greenwood press. microsoft word o'neill ifp 14.1.docx volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 33 volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal problematizing the peace discourse in world’s largest lesson: a critical exploration of knowledge production through discussions of violence maggie o'neill stockholm university maggieoneill12@gmail.com abstract: there is no single concept of peace in peace education. a large part of peace education recognizes and discusses different forms of violence and how they affect peace. critical peace educators and transnational feminists recognize the need to critically consider concepts of violence. using transnational feminist theory and a transnational feminist critical discourse analysis, this study problematizes the peace discourse that is created in peace educational material from world’s largest lesson. in order to problematize the overall peace discourse, this study critically explores the knowledge that is produced through discussions of different forms of violence. the peace education materials were selected based on their relevance to peace education occurring in relation to education for the sustainable development goals. they were also selected based on their aim to produce knowledge specifically related to concepts of peace and violence. the study finds that overall, the knowledge produced in the materials deemphasizes the interconnectedness of different forms of violence and, therefore, creates a peace discourse that is decontextualized, dehistoricized, depoliticized, and maintains the status quo. the study also discusses pedagogical implications in relation to mohanty’s (2003) volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 34 discussion of different pedagogical strategies. it is argued that the peace discourse in world’s largest lesson contributes to a peace as tourist pedagogical model. introduction peace education is a diverse field without strict definitions or set curricula. there have been different ways to study peace, and reardon (1999) has suggested that “the practices and perspectives that comprise the field are varied and not fully consistent one with the other” (p. 4). this could be a result of peace education having “sprung up in many parts of the world, often independently of efforts in other countries, and has been developed in various subject areas” (reardon, 1999, p. 4) understandably, one concern of many peace educators is violence. some peace educators have described the need for a more critical version of peace education and refer to it as critical peace education. bajaj and hantzopoulos (2016a) state that peace education must continually “re-evaluate its goals to open up possibilities for engagement in new ways” (p. 236). brantmeier (2013) suggests that considerations to power are missing in peace education and he challenges the field to include “a critical eye on power dynamics and place-based violence” (p. 244). bajaj (2008a) challenges traditional peace education and notes that peace education must transform “educational content, structure, and pedagogy to address direct and structural forms of violence at all levels” (p. 135). she notes an approach to peace education should introduce students to “asymmetrical power relations [and] structural violence” (bajaj, 2008a, p. 139). critical peace educators are not only concerned with promoting peace, but are also concerned in the critical connections that can be made within peace education. bajaj (2015) notes that critical peace educators and peace education should always be in conversation with other fields like postcolonial theory, critical race theory, human rights and others. notable peace educators like betty reardon and birgit brock-utne have specifically recognized feminism’s role in peace education. brantmeier (2013) notes that feminist discussions of power can be helpful for peace researchers and educators. he notes, “there is much to be learned by peace researchers and educators from feminist theories and critiques of patriarchy” (p. 245). however, there is no one definition of a feminist perspective. brock-utne (1989) recognizes six different feminist perspectives. the feminism this study is rooted in is most similar to what brock-utne (1989) describes as women of color feminism, though i refer to it as transnational feminism. transnational feminism considers a variety of oppressions and their interconnections in its analysis. transnational feminism volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 35 “encourages an examination of how categories of race, sexuality, culture, nation, and gender not only intersect, but are mutually constituted, formed, and transformed within transnational power laden processes such as european imperialism and colonialism, neoliberal globalization and so on” (patil, 2013, p. 847). additionally, transnational feminism recognizes the need to challenge certain types of knowledge production (fultner, 2017). a feminist approach to knowledge recognizes that knowledge is powerful and serves a purpose (brisolara & seigart, 2014). hawkeswork (2014) recognizes feminist research interests in knowledge production. davis (2008) recommends the use of feminist methodologies to explore connections that are not always obvious. davis (2008) also suggests that feminism is concerned in making connections, and is therefore not only about women and gender. feminism is a “broader methodology that can enable us to better conceptualize and fight for progressive change” (davis, 2008, p. 25). combing the concerns of critical peace educators and transnational feminism, this study challenges knowledge production and the peace discourse occurring in peace education. davis (2008) calls us to “always be critical of the vocabulary we use for change” (p. 24). i apply this reasoning to problematize the peace discourse occurring in peace educational material from world’s largest lesson. this research is rooted in recognizing that there are different forms of violence and how they are discussed produces knowledge that contributes to a certain peace discourse. williams (2016) notes connections between postcolonial theory and critical peace education and combines insights from both to inform his research framework. similarly, this study finds influences from critical peace education, feminist peace education and transnational feminism. this study follows the aims of transnational feminism and critical peace education by both problematizing knowledge and creating new knowledge. it engages with critical peace education, transnational feminism, and education for sustainable development in a way that is not prevalent in the current literature of the field (o’neill, 2019). world’s largest lesson as an actor in peace education peace education has long been connected to the missions of the un, unesco, and unicef. in 2015, world leaders gathered and developed the sustainable development goals (sdgs). these goals were made to reflect a worldwide effort to promote and develop a more sustainable world. since then, different forms of education surrounding the goals have been in discussion. this can be seen in the volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 36 educational programming created in relation to the goals, the conferences centered around the goals, and the global recognition of the goals. peace education finds connections to all the goals, but peace is specifically noted in sdg 16: peace, justice and strong institutions. therefore, there is a unique kind of peace education occurring through education for the sdgs. feminist perspectives in peace education related to the post-2015 agenda offer a unique opportunity for analysis. the global discourse and knowledge production surrounding educating for the sdgs provides a background that warrants analysis that challenges uncritical education and research. world’s largest lesson is an organization that was created to advance the sdgs. according to its website, it has been used in over 130 countries and has reached millions of students all over the world since its launch in 2015 (world’s largest lesson, n.d.). it produces “free and creative resources for educators to teach lessons, run projects and stimulate action in support of the goals” (world’s largest lesson, n.d.). the materials include digital content in the form of films, posters, and lesson plans that are meant to be used across different sectors. each sdg has specific material created in relation to the goal, including sdg 16: peace, justice and strong institutions. ministries of education, education organizations, for and nonprofits, are all encouraged to use the materials provided by world’s largest lesson in order to promote action for working towards the global goals. the website has numerous resources regarding the global goals, ranging from classroom decorations, print outs of certificates of participation, to educator training courses. there is also a resource library, information about teaching the goals and information about different ways students can take action for the goals. lastly, information about partnerships with world’s largest lesson and how to use social media to promote world’s largest lesson and the global goals is mentioned. two lessons created in relation to sdg 16 specifically give examples of peace and violence from around the world to serve as examples for peace education. these lessons are “the power of peace1” and “understanding community violence2”. the power of peace describes stories about peaceful activists from around the world, while understanding community violence gives examples of violence experienced by children around the world. lessons from world’s largest 1 1 http://cdn.worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/2016/06/8_the_power_of_peace.p df 2 2http://cdn.worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/2016/06/understandingcommunity-violence-lp-pdf.pdf volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 37 lesson are worth exploring because they differ from other discussions occurring in peace education, like how to create peace, avoid conflict, etc. they are lessons about what peace is. through discussions of violence, the lessons create a specific peace discourse that is in need of exploration and further consideration. the lessons aim to create new knowledge surrounding peace and have a global audience. while this study is not generalizable, it contributes to and critiques knowledge production within peace education. bajaj and hantzopoulos (2016a) note that peace education must “continually take into account [the] intricate negotiation between participants’ experiences and the larger structural realities that frame them” (p. 236). they suggest that we must illuminate the discussions of the larger structural realities that “transcend demarcated international, national, regional, and local levels of violence” (p. 236). this study follows bajaj and hantzopoulos (2016a) suggestion that “complex analyses of violence must undergird peace education” (p. 233). concepts of violence direct, structural, and cultural violence are some of the ways different forms of violence are conceptualized. galtung (1969) describes direct violence as violence that is committed against a person via direct action, like killing, maiming, or detention. direct violence can be “exemplified by torture, war, militarism, rape and other forms of aggression” (bajaj & hantzopoulos, 2016b, p. 3) structural violence, can be described as when a structure “has exploitation as a centre piece, meaning that some get much more out of the system than others” (galtung, 2013, p. 37). it can be described as a “state of social inequality in which privileged groups exploit or oppress others; created by deprivation of basic human needs, such as civil rights, health, and education (galtung, 1969; harris & morrison, 2003)” (as cited in bajaj, 2008b, p. 166). cultural violence is when aspects of culture, via “religion and ideology, language and art, empirical science and formal science” are used to “justify, legitimize direct or structural violence” (galtung, 2013, p. 38). cultural violence “makes direct and structural violence look and feel right, or at least not wrong” (galtung, 2013, p. 39). brantmeier (2013) describes cultural violence is when cultural beliefs are used to “legitimate any form of violence, either direct or indirect” (p. 246). transnational feminism and concepts of violence volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 38 transnational feminism is concerned with the complexities of and between different forms of violence. davis (2008) notes that if we want to end violence against women, our work must extend beyond addressing individual acts of violence because violence is not only “individualized and domestic” (p.25). she recognizes how different forms of violence such as prisons, state violence, capital punishment and torture are all connected (davis, 2008, p. 25). davis’ approach to violence recognizes a “spectrum of violence” and she suggests that “while we cannot simultaneously eliminate the entire spectrum of violence, we can always insist on an awareness of these connections” (2008, p. 25). davis notes the need to make connections between different kinds of violence. a transnational feminist approach to violence rejects conceptualizing violence without considering its political context (chew, 2008). chew (2008) is critical of “antiviolence” activities that do not challenge sexism more broadly (p. 85). chew (2008) gives the example of educating males who are abusive to their partners through an anti-violence paradigm rather than an anti-sexist paradigm. she discusses that this approach encourages behavioral changes, not structural ones. chew says that focusing on “how individual males perform violent masculinity in limited circumstances, misses the overwhelming structural inequalities that remain in place to prop up abuse” (2008, p. 86). she suggests that we should question how economics, politics, social support, or citizenship status “allow some people to prey on others in interpersonal relationships” (chew, 2008, p. 86). a feminist approach to violence challenges the “larger societal structures fueling violencerather than simply accommodating its existence” (chew, 2008, p. 86). chew argues for the political and structural conceptualizations of violence. therefore, a transnational feminist view of violence is not only concerned with different types of violence, but is also concerned with their connections. aim and research questions the aim of this study is to problematize the peace discourse that is created in peace education material from world’s largest lesson from a transnational feminist perspective. specifically, this study critically explores the knowledge that is produced through discussions of different forms of violence. 1. what peace discourse is created through discussions of violence in world’s largest lesson? 2. what are the pedagogical implications? theoretical framework and methodology volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 39 this study uses a transnational feminist critical discourse analysis to problematize knowledge production occurring in peace education. transnational feminist theory draws on recognizing the intersections of oppressions, which can be described as intersectionality (crenshaw, 1991). transnational feminism “encourages an examination of how categories of race, sexuality, culture, nation, and gender not only intersect, but are mutually constituted, formed, and transformed within transnational power laden processes such as european imperialism and colonialism, neoliberal globalization and so on” (patil, 2013, p. 847). transnational feminism is critical of the “neoliberal appropriation of feminism that uses feminism as a theory of gender minus a feminist critique of power relations” (mohanty, 2013, p. 972). mohanty (2003, p. 6.) has been critical of the predominantly class based gap between a vital women's movement and feminist theorizing, and the “neoliberal, consumerist (procapitalist) feminism concerned with “women’s advancement” up the corporate and nation state ladder” which encourages competition and individualism. davis (2008) also discusses a feminism that does not “capitulate to possessive individualism” (p. 21). continually, transnational feminism is “political in nature” and has the “commitment to challenge injustice or oppression” (parekh and wilcox, 2018, n.p.). it recognizes that in order to understand different systems of oppression, gender, race, class, and sexuality cannot be ignored (cagan, 2008). alcoff (2017) also notes that “nationality, religion, geographic region, disability, and political status (citizenship)” (p. 23) also need to be considered. transnational feminism suggests that while there are differences in women’s issues across the world, “women’s plights in one place are often deeply connected to women’s situations everywhere” (fultner, 2017, p. 205). fultner (2017) suggests that this is this is “perhaps the defining feature of transnational feminist theory” (p. 205). continually, fultner (2017) says transnational feminism recognizes that the historical, economic, political, social and cultural contexts need to be considered in order to understand a given issue. a transnational feminist critical discourse analysis draws on concepts from discourse analysis (da), critical discourse analysis (cda) and feminist critical discourse (fcda) analysis. da recognizes that our language is filled with bias and agendas, therefore we are not neutral when we speak and write. da also looks “beyond linguistic features to the links between language and society, language and the social context in which they are set” (cohen et al., 2018, p. 687). this is similar to cda. in other words, the way something is discussed creates a certain version and understanding of it. it creates a certain knowledge of it. here, language forms versions of our social reality and creates particular world views. cda considers not only how language creates social realities and world views, but it also considers volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 40 who maintains power in the process. continually, cda “aims to investigate critically social inequality as it is expressed, signaled, constituted, legitimized and so on by language use (or in discourse)” (wodak, 2001, p. 2). an interest in power structures and power dynamics is at the core of cda. in cda, the analysis not only considers what is included in the text, covertly or overtly, but also what is excluded, covertly or overtly, to investigate power dynamics. this is similar to fcda, which aims to highlight the “complex, subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, ways in which frequently taken-for-granted gendered assumptions and hegemonic power relations are discursively produced, sustained, negotiated, and challenged in different contexts and communities” (lazar, 2007, p. 142). the attention given to language, knowledge, and power through cda and fcda are in alignment with the concerns of transnational feminism. like cda and fcda, transnational feminism considers how oppressions intersect. i suggest a transnational feminist critical discourse analysis extends even beyond cda and fcda, because it is an analysis that examines a discourse for even “broader patterns and structures of domination and exploitation” (mohanty, 2013, p. 967). transnational feminism extends beyond traditional liberal feminisms, radical feminism, and marxists feminism, which either don’t allow for historical considerations, singularize gender, or ignore race and gender (mohanty, 2003, p. 243). a transitional feminist analysis “refuses to choose among economic, cultural, and political concerns” (kaplan & grewal, 1999, p. 358). therefore, transnational feminist critical discourse analysis not only considers how language can influence a discourse at the expense of women, but it also considers how language creates discourses that are at the expense of other marginalized groups. beverly bain says that feminism helps “makes visible how the discourses of race, nationalism, citizenship, colonialism, queerness, economics, culture, are invested in whiteness, masculinity, class privilege, and homonormativity” (carty & mohanty, 2015, p.99). therefore, a transnational feminist critical discourse analysis is not only concerned with critiquing discourses that maintain patriarchal structures, but also in critiquing discourses that maintain structures that are racist, colonial, capitalist, nationalist, etc. considering the peace discourse that is created in world’s largest lesson, this study does not aim for generalizable findings. rather, this study is follows a feminist view of research which does not aim to claim universal validity, instead it seeks to “illuminate existing social relations, demonstrate the deficiencies of alternative interpretations, and debunk opposing views” (hawkeswork, 2014, p. 114). this study challenges the deficiencies that are presented in the peace discourse. in doing so, the thesis “debunks” the peace discourse present in world’s largest lesson. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 41 findings the power of peace lesson largely reduces concepts of peace to a binary of peaceful and nonpeaceful, which limits the extent other forms of violence are recognized. it recognizes people’s right to live free from structural violence, but it does not challenge the structure itself. williams (2016) notes that if structural violence is left unquestioned, it becomes a “major blockade to the implementation of comprehensive critical peace education interventions” (p. 154). the few examples of structural violence (like access to education or civil rights) that are mentioned are discussed without reference to racism, classism, colonialism, religious discrimination, or sexism. therefore, the types of violence that are described in the stories are disconnected from each other and do not account for cultural violence. the violence is largely discussed without context, which also limits connections to be made. continually, despite mentioning some group involvement in peaceful protests, the overall focus of action for peace is shown as action by individuals fighting against either direct violence or unnamed or decontextualized structural violence. this framing of peace does not allow the structures that potentially have “exploitation at a center piece, meaning that some get much more out of the system than others” (galtung, 2013, p. 37) to be questioned. overall, the lesson produces knowledge that understates the interconnectedness of different forms of violence. this kind of peace education omits cultural, political and economic forces from peace education programs (bajaj & hantzopoulos, 2016a, p. 236). understanding community violence creates an idea of violence that acknowledges its complexity and attempts to make connections between local and global experiences of violence. it recognizes different forms of direct and structural violence, but the discussion of cultural violence is largely missing. the stories do not provide much context, so the different forms of violence become disconnected from their foundations. the actions to take to prevent violence that are offered by the lesson lack recognition of structural or cultural violence. galtung (1969; 2013) and brantmeier (2013) both recognize structural violence leads to unequal power and unequal life chances and that cultural violence is used to legitimate direct violence. the way direct violence is presented in the lesson fails to recognize this. the actions that are discussed also create an element of choice in preventing violence in a way that lacks connecting structural and cultural violence to direct violence. attention largely is not given to “the cultural, political, and material forces –often rooted in colonial relationsthat engender [violence] in specific places and times with specific groups of people” (bermeo, 2016, p. 159). the lesson attempts to have students take action and make connections between violence in their communities and the world. however, the lesson itself largely does not do this. while some connections between different forms of violence are made in the volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 42 lesson, overall, the lesson does not offer students the opportunity to “cultivate an understanding of social dynamics and resist pressures –be they post/colonial or the outcome of class conflictto assimilate into dominant economic and cultural structures that often do not serve the needs of students and their communities” (bajaj, 2016, p. 109). of the different forms of violence that were mentioned in the two lessons, racism, classism, colonialism, religious discrimination, sexism, and more, are never named. the lesson creates a concept of peace that does not name these types of structural violence. by extension, the lessons do not account for different forms of cultural violence like white supremacy, capitalism/casteism, patriarchy, misogyny, homophobia, anti-blackness and more. continually, not only are these types of violence not considered, they are not connected to one another. considering all this, the next section discusses how knowledge that deemphasizes the interconnectedness of violence creates a peace discourse that is decontextualized, dehistoricized, and depoliticized, privileges individuals, and maintains the status quo. analysis a decontextualized, dehistoricized, and depoliticzed peace both lessons create knowledge about peace and violence that lack recognizing the interconnectedness of different forms of violence, which results in a peace discourse that is decontextualized, dehistoricized, and depoliticized. the power of peace lesson notes that some peaceful activists could be viewed as political and warns the teachers to choose with care, but the stories of the peaceful activists are themselves depoliticized. all the stories create a concept of peace that does not acknowledge or connect many forms of structural and cultural violence. for example, mahatma gandhi’s story about his fight for independence against the british empire is told without acknowledging structural and cultural forms of violence like colonialism, racism, religious discrimination, classism, or sexism. similarly, in the story of nelson mandela, there is no mention of racism, white supremacy, or colonialism. this creates a peace discourse in peace education that horner (2016) critiques. she challenges the discourse of what she calls liberal peace, which is presented as neutral and depoliticized (horner, 2016). this discourse of peace makes western political and economic violence invisible (horner, 2016, p. 126). within this discourse of peace, less attention is given to the “complexities and interactions between the less visible forms of cultural and structural, which may underpin direct violence” (p. 126). malala yousafzai’s story does not make the connection between the direct violence she experienced and the volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 43 structures of sexism/patriarchy. therefore, it promotes the type of thinking that does not connect the idea that, as fultner (2017) notes, the struggles of women in one place are often connected to the struggles of women in other places. because these examples do not make connections between these different forms of violence, their peaceful activism is based in a story with no contextual, historical or political foundation. it creates a discourse of peace that does not consider the “complex relational understanding of experience, location and history” (mohanty, 2003, p. 238). without acknowledging the history, politics, and context of the past, the peace discourse of the future becomes disconnected and limited. karim wasfi’s story describes his response to acts of direct violence without any mention of the structural or cultural forms of violence that form the background of the bombings in baghdad (imperialism, colonialism, militarism, religious fundamentalism). leymah gbowee’s story highlights her ability to get muslim and christian women to work together for the first time, but it does not give any indication to why this was so out of the ordinary, and therefore deemphasizes the significance of overcoming potential structural and cultural violence to work together for peace. it also does not mention sexism or patriarchy, so it neglects discussing that the group of women demanded peace because they were seeing and experiencing horrible forms of violence that were unique to them as women. the story describes gbowee’s activism without acknowledging how women experienced different forms of violence than men. it does not acknowledge how the women in particular were able to fight for peace in ways that were informed by the violence they faced. this neglect to make the connection to how women, as brockutne (1989) suggests, are “as a group are oppressed by the patriarchy on a macro level, and experience male dominance at the meso-and micro levels” (brockutne,1989, p. 7). discussing the stories of these peaceful activists without making connections to different forms of cultural and structural violence creates a version of peace that is decontextualized, dehistoricized, and depoliticized because it separates the work of the activist from the context, history and politics that their work was/is rooted in. additionally, because it does not mention things like whitesupremacy or misogyny, it limits the historical, contextual, and political connections that, mohanty (2003) and alcoff (2017), suggest can be made between groups throughout the world. similarly, the stories and actions described in the lesson to prevent violence in understanding community violence also create a decontextualized, dehistoricized, and depoliticized version of peace. gang violence in the stories about martin, denis, susana, and farida is not connected to other forms of violence like colonialism, imperialism, classism, capitalism, etc. alia’s increased risk of being a victim of violence because she is a girl is not connected to sexism or volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 44 patriarchy. susana’s story does not connect ideas of masculinity and patriarchy to gang violence. denis’ story does not connect children’s experiences of sexual violence to other forms of violence like classism, sexism, homophobia, or racism. hanh’s story does not connect child labor exploitation to capitalism or racism. this contributes to a peace discourse that is neutral and depoliticized (horner, 2016). the violence they experience is presented as something that is separate from time and space. this discourse of peace does not focus on “institutional or historical domination” (mohanty, 2003, p. 209). the actions to prevent violence continue to create a discourse of peace that ignores forms of violence and their interconnectedness. the examples do not offer solutions to violence that acknowledge structural and cultural violence like racism, sexism, classism, or cultural ideas about physical punishment or their connections. galtung (2008) expresses the importance for peace education to make connections to historical mobilizations against structural violence, but the strategies for violence prevention in the lesson lacks contextual, historical or political relevance. i suggest a transnational feminist perspective of peace is a peace that recognizes that different forms of violence are connected and refuses to separate them from either context, history, or politics because a transnational feminist perspective of peace knows these things cannot be disconnected. because the stories fail to mention many forms of cultural and structural violence, the depictions do not allow for connections to be made between the activists’ peaceful responses and the structures that had them living in a “state of social inequality in which privileged groups exploit or oppress others” (galtung, 1969; harris & morrison, 2003)” (as cited in bajaj, 2008b, p, 171). i suggest a decontextualized, dehistoricized, depoliticized concept of peace is one that cannot work towards transformative feminist peace. an individual peace both lessons produce knowledge about peace and violence that lack recognition of the interconnectedness of different forms of violence, which results in a peace discourse that places the emphasis on individuals, instead of structural or cultural aspects when creating the peace discourse. different definitions of peace in the power of peace highlight individuals’ possibilities to live in peace (by having food, education, clean water, etc). however, the lesson does not mention individuals’ possibilities to challenge unjust systems. therefore, the burden of peace is placed on individuals having the opportunity to have something in a system because they are an individual human, rather than a more collective one where everyone has the opportunity to live with the freedom from an unjust system. focusing on individuals’ rights within a system can “extol a culture of individualism and consequently suppress notions of collective rights” (horner, 2016, p. 126). volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 45 instead of framing peace as “when everyone has fair and equal access to water”, i suggest a transnational feminist framing of peace would challenge the structural and cultural violence that allows some people to go without access to water, and instead would say “peace is when everyone is able to live free from an unjust system that prioritizes access to water for some people, while neglecting or even blocking the access of others (often women, people living in poverty, transgender people, immigrants, prisoners, non-citizens, or other marginalized groups). a transnational feminist perspective would challenge the injustice or oppression in the system, not just accept the system as is (mohanty, 2003). i suggest an individual peace is a peace that does not recognize the interconnections of different forms of violence, therefore it is also a peace that does not see the need for the structural and cultural change that would benefit humans, animals, and the environment, as brantmeier (2013) suggests. individuals are also highlighted in other places in the lesson. the entire structure of the lesson focuses on peaceful activists instead of peaceful movements. this deemphasizes the roles of organizers, many of whom have been women, “and the agency of the participants in movements for change” (davis, 2018, p. 48). the stories are also formatted in a way that furthers the idea of individual action. not only does this deemphasize the collective struggle for peace, but it also continues the idea that peace is something that belongs to individuals. it creates a discourse of peace that contributes to “possessive individualism” (davis, 2008, p. 21). the lesson highlights different characteristics of the peaceful advocates in a way that promotes individual choice for peace and rewards individuals for acting for peace. this concept of peace focuses on individual change rather than challenging structural and cultural violence and deemphasizes the need for structural change for peace. it creates a discourse of peace that is part of the “masculinist leadership paradigms anchored in charismatic individualism” (davis, 2018, p. 48). this is also seen in understanding community violence. the lesson describes direct violence as something that is directly lifethreatening through physical harm without considering how other types of violence can be life-threatening themselves. this frames direct violence as a physical act against an individual, not as a structure itself. this peace discourse contributes to what mohanty (2003) describes as when “complex structural experiences of domination and resistance [are] ideologically reformulated as individual behaviors and attitudes” (p. 209). framing violence through individuals limit how we conceptualize violence. for example, if direct violence is when someone commits physical harm, then what kind of violence is it when certain people are denied access to medical care due to their race, gender, or class? is it not direct, structural and cultural violence? when direct violence is framed in this individual way, it volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 46 limits the need for structural change because it does not see direct violence as also being structural or cultural violence. it limits the complexity and interconnectedness between these forms of violence. it creates a discourse of peace that is unable to critically account for how, for example, police violence, sexual violence, or state violence are all simultaneously forms of direct, structural, and cultural violence. discussing action for peace by focusing on individuals contributes to a discourse of peace that does not account for the “complexities and interactions between the less visible forms of cultural and structural, which may underpin direct violence” (horner, 2016, p. 126). additionally, the lesson highlights how organizations have helped the individual children in the stories, but it does not mention what they are continuing to do to work towards violence prevention. this emphasizes how an individual organization has helped individual children, but it does not say how the organizations are continuing to work with the children and the community towards violence prevention. focusing on the organizations’ violence prevention without actually discussing what they are doing to prevent violence in communities ignores how different forms of violence are connected. this deemphasizes the structural and cultural change that is needed to prevent violence against children, which also leads to ignoring the structural and cultural change that is needed to work towards peace. this discourse of peace simply tries to eliminate violence within in a system, rather than challenge “the larger societal structures fueling violence” (chew, 2008, p. 86). a status quo peace both lessons produce knowledge about peace and violence dismiss the interconnectedness of different forms of violence, which results in a peace discourse that does not challenge power or structures, and therefore maintains the status quo. despite recognizing the potential power of peace, as seen in the title of the lesson, the power of peace does not challenge the status quo. this is seen in the power of peace when it describes pictures of peaceful and non-peaceful protests. if images (displaying actions) are clearly meant to be either peaceful or non-peaceful, it has the potential to create a meaning of peace that ignores structural or cultural violence in favor of something simply appearing peaceful. for example, if a teacher shows a picture of people “shouting or being aggressive” (the power of peace, n.d., p. 2) what kind of concept of peace does this create? if shouting or being aggressive are seen as non-peaceful situations, what does this mean for images of activists yelling in protest of police shootings of unarmed black people, or images of women being aggressive towards elected officials in demanding sexual assault to be taken seriously. volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 47 alternatively, what does this mean for images of “a large peaceful rally” (p. 2) if the rally is a rally for white nationalism or rallies for certain political figures? does peaceful mean a large group of people gathered together without physical harm being done (direct violence)? is this really peaceful? this is not to say that no images can be used to display something peaceful and non-peaceful situations, rather it is just to question how portraying something as non-peaceful could be at the expense of people who are fighting against structural and/or cultural violence. continually, the idea of something as peaceful and non-peaceful creates a binary that has the potential to keep those in power already in power because they are the ones who get to decide what is seen as peaceful and non-peaceful and therefore can promote and dismiss certain concepts of peace (which can turn into another form of violence). this is also seen in the when the lesson encourages schools to participate in the great kindness challenge week. equating peace with kindness has the potential to maintain the status quo because it can allow those in power to dismiss demands of people fighting against structural or culture violence because it does not sound kind enough. this discourse of peace potentially allows those already in power to maintain a “monopoly of violence” (bannerji, 2018, p. 56) because they get to decide what peace is and what it is not. it allows those in power to disregard legitimate criticism because they deem it unpeaceful. similarly, the lack of interconnectedness of different forms of violence promotes a status quo peace in the stories about the peaceful activists. i have already discussed how the stories are decontextualized, dehistoricizied, and depoliticized, and focus on individuals. these all contribute to maintaining the status quo. but the stories further this in other ways as well. the stories of gandhi and mandela both mention that the men broke laws by protesting for freedom and they were both imprisoned. because the lesson does not consider the different types of violence that contributed to their imprisonment, the stories frame imprisonment as an event in the men’s lives, rather than as another form of violence. it allows violence that is perpetrated by the state or governments via imprisonment, to be seen as standalone events committed against individuals, rather than as structural or cultural forms of violence. this allows the existence of prisons, and the laws that allowed the men to be sent there, to go unchallenged. this creates a discourse of peace that does not view these different forms of violence on a “spectrum of violence” (davis, 2008, p. 25). it does not acknowledge how prisons and state violence are connected (davis, 2008). this also seen when the text discusses mandela being released from prison. it says that both men agreed to stop fighting as if they were coming to the discussion with the same amount of power. it positions both of them as agreeing to stop fighting in way that assumes they are in the same position, as if they were both equally wrong or right. this reproduces a status quo peace discourse because it ignores how power dynamics and hierarchies, as brantmeier (2013) suggests, lead volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 48 to the domination of some humans over others. bajaj (2008a) notes “approaches that fail to question the status quo and examine structural causes of social conflict usually accommodate the economically and politically privileged” (p. 142). she suggests the “conceptual foundations of peace education must be reexamined in order to tease out issues of power, domination, and symbolic violence “(p. 142). some of the stories in understanding community violence also contribute to a status quo concept of peace. the stories of martin and susana present the idea that there is an element of choice and an element of worthiness in who gets to live without violence. this creates a concept of peace that places the power to live without violence on choices and worthiness and therefore creates a concept of peace that does not challenge the current power positions of society. it presents a concept of peace where the burden of peace is placed on the choices of individuals rather than on challenging the powerful structural and cultural aspects that create violence. this allows current power structures to retain their power because they are not positioned as something that needs to be changed. henry (2009) suggests that without considering macro inequalities and structural violence, the status quo is reinforced (as cited in williams, 2016). creating a concept of peace that does not challenge power structures maintains the status quo. therefore, it creates a discourse of peace that does not consider “how dominant groups maintain power over others” (brantmeier, 2013, p. 247). brantmeier (2013) suggests that critical peace education is needed to help “actualize a vibrant, sustainable peace” (p. 255) and suggests that understanding forms of violence and power allow for “intentional change on individual, institutional, societal and global levels” (p. 255). implications mohanty describes three different pedagogical strategies for internationalizing gender and women’s studies programs and names them the feminist as tourist model, the feminist as explorer model, and the comparative feminist studies or feminist solidarities model (mohanty, 2003). the feminist as tourist model “involves a pedagogical strategy in which brief forays are made into non-euroamerican cultures” (mohanty, 2003, p. 239). she believes this model is a problem because it “leaves power relations and hierarchies untouched since ideas about center and margin are reproduced along eurocentric lines “(mohanty, 2003, p. 2016). feminist as explorer model positions women as “the object and subject of knowledge and the larger intellectual project is entirely about countries other than the united states” (p. 240). she suggests this model is inadequate because it leads to “global as a way of not addressing internal racism, capitalist hegemony, colonialism, and heterosexualization as central to processes of global domination, exploitation, and resistance” (mohanty, 2003, p. 240). the comparative feminist volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 49 studies or feminist solidarities model considers the “interconnectedness of the histories, experiences, and struggles of u.s. women of color, white women, and women from the third world/south” (mohanty, 2003, p. 242). mohanty suggests that these arguments hold for other education programs that are seeking to globalize or internationalize their curriculum (2003). due to peace education’s global nature, specifically in the form of education curricula created in relation to the sdgs, i suggest that these arguments also hold for the lessons from world’s largest lesson. the lessons specifically highlight stories from around the world in order to educate for sdg 16: peace, justice and strong institutions. based on my analysis, i suggest that the curriculum presented in the lessons fall under the feminist as tourist model. with this in mind, i decide to call it the peace as tourist model. mohanty (2003) usually describes specifically women in her discussions of the different models, but i consider all the people described in the lessons. the following section will describe how the lessons contribute to this model. peace as tourist model mohanty (2003) describes the feminist as tourist model includes curriculum that briefly looks at non-euro-american cultures from an otherwise eurocentric gaze. this can be seen in the lessons from world’s largest lesson. the lessons look into examples, from what mohanty calls the third world/south, without much connection to context, history, politics or power, therefore the eurocentric gaze is maintained. the eurocentric gaze is maintained because the examples offered portray the people from the stories either as victims or as powerful (mohanty, 2003). this allows world’s largest lesson, unicef, and the other educational businesses mentioned in the lesson to remain at the center, while briefly considering stories from the periphery. mohanty (2003) suggests this type of model creates a clear sense of who is seen as the other and without considering power relations. the feminist as tourist model also highlights extremes from the third world/south, like dowry deaths or the exploitation of women factory workers (mohanty, 2003). this results in women just being seen in stereotypical terms rather than in their everyday lives, like euro-american women are able to be (mohanty, 2003). the lessons give examples of peace, non-peace, and violence that are positioned outside of euro-america (with the exception of mentioning sweden and hanh’s story based in the usa, although it mentions he was adopted from vietnam). without connecting the stories to their historical, contextual, and political locations, the people and their experiences are stereotyped and are presented as separate from euro-america. this also contributes to the idea volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 50 mohanty calls a “confirmed sense of the evolved u.s./euro feminist” (2003, p. 239). the lessons highlight unicef programs and educational organizations, which potentially creates an idea that these organizations know best. the lessons also highlight unicef’s contributions to encouraging peace and preventing violence. consequently, their work potentially becomes “a predominantly selfinterested chasm” (mohanty, p. 239) as they seek to highlight their own work. additionally, the feminist as tourist model creates the “third world difference” (mohanty, 2003, p. 240), which portrays monolithic images of third world/south women. this image is different to that of euro-american women, who are viewed as “vital, changing and complex” (mohanty, 2003, p. 240). this is seen in the lessons. the people in the stories are described through their relationships with violence, largely without considering the interconnectedness of different forms of violence. therefore, this creates an image of the third world/south that is monolithic because it does not account for the complexities of the stories. the stories present individuals “as representatives of majority or minority groups whose experience is predetermined within an oppressor/ victim paradigm” mohanty (2003, p. 209). the overall peace discourse created in world’s largest lesson contributes to a peace as tourist model because the euro-american centric gaze is maintained through the overemphasis of stories about individuals from the third world/south without considering power relations and histories. peace as solidarity model what would a peace as solidarity model, in world’s largest lesson, look like? this model would recognize that differences and commonalities exist “in relation and tension with each other in all contexts” (mohanty, 2003, p. 242). applying mohanty’s (2003) reasoning, a peace as solidarity model would tell the stories of the peaceful activists and the stories of the children experiencing violence in a way that recognizes the interconnectedness of their histories, experiences and struggles. this type of teaching is attentive to power, therefore “each historical experience illuminates the experiences of the others” (mohanty, 2003, p. 242). a peace as solidarity model in world’s largest lesson would tell the stories of the peaceful activists in a way that explicitly connects how their struggles for peace are connected through their responses to colonialism, racism, sexism, and imperialism. their stories of peace would then be centered around collective struggles, instead of being centered around the stories of individuals whose stories are only connected via their use of non-violent acts. in a peace as solidarity model, the stories of peace would start from a place of resistance to these larger oppressions and would only later mention the individuals, because the focus would be on how interconnecting volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 51 histories have led to different forms of violence and how collective struggles have fought against it. in the peace as solidarity model, the lessons in world’s largest lesson would be organized around “social and economic processes and histories of various communities” (mohanty, 2003, p. 242). for example, the stories of the children’s experiences from around the world would consider how the experiences of violence of one child in one place is connected to the violence experienced by another child in another place. it would consider how the social (racism, sexism, and more) and economic history (colonialism, imperialism, capitalism) in one place leads to violence, while connecting it to how the social and economic history in another place leads to violence. therefore, the stories would not be centered around individual children or individual unicef programs, rather they would focus on how certain economic and social processes result in violence against children. the center of a peace as solidarity model is not individuals, rather the center considers the interconnectedness of the histories, power relations, and collective struggle. i suggest a peace as solidarity model combines both the concerns of critical peace educators and the concerns of transnational feminism. therefore, i suggest it is the model that is needed in order to work towards transformative peace and a more just world. conclusion a recognition of the interconnectedness of forms of violence is crucial for peace education because if they are not considered, it can lead to the peace discourse that i have described. if we take the goals of critical peace educators and transnational feminism seriously, we must consider how these discussions of violence have a potential to create a specific peace knowledge that, at best, is not transformative and, at worst, is harmful to already marginalized groups. this peace discourse also results in the erasure of groups of people from the peace discourse entirely. according to the arguments i have made, where do gay people, trans people, nonbinary people, people with disabilities, indigenous people, refugees, migrants, prisoners and more, fit in the peace discourse created in world’s largest lesson? if students are taught about peace and violence in a way that my analysis has argued, how are students supposed to be able to account for and connect their peace knowledge to other marginalized groups? people in these marginalized groups are in the world, in their classrooms, or might even be themselves; yet, these marginalized groups are erased from the peace discourse because the peace discourse that has been created does not allow other connections (historical, social, cultural, political, economic) to be made. if these connections are not made, peace education has the potential to become reduced to a concept of kindness, centered volume 14 number 1 (2020): 33-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 52 around individual choices without disrupting the status quo. continually, the peace discourse that is produced is also a discourse that erases animals and the environment from concepts of peace and violence. i suggest future research should investigate how peace educators can/ are contribute/contributing to a peace as solidarity model. this research would combine the interests of critical peace educators and transnational feminisms as it seeks to contribute to a peace education that is contextually, politically, and historically connected. i suggest, moving forward, critical peace educators need to avoid contributing to the peace as tourist model and must actively strive for the peace as solidarity model. only this model is equipped to contribute to change both critical peace educators and 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(2001). what cda is abouta summary of its history, important concepts and its developments. in r. wodak & m. meyer (eds.), methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 1-14). sage publications. world’s largest lesson (n.d.) world’s largest lesson. retrieved march 20, 2019 from http://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/project-everyone/. microsoft word gibson v12.1.docx in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 103 volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal ´not as my neighbor´: how misinformed narratives surrounding the farc are hindering the social reintegration of its demobilizing combatants sam l. gibson, department of human sciences, el rosario university, bogotá. samlinggibson@gmail.com abstract with the current group-demobilization of the fuerzas armadas revolucionarias de colombia-farc, this study offers a timely exploration on the relationship between how the guerrilla group and its members are viewed and their capacity to return to society as civilians. through a grounded theory qualitative approach based on interviews and focus-groups with former farc members, as well as ex-paramilitary and wider civil society, findings show that how the group members are received back into communities hinges on dominant, national-narratives surrounding the farc which blur the group and its former-members as terrorists and criminals. therefore, despite a widespread desire for a negotiated end to the conflict, most colombians are not prepared to accept what this actually entails, i.e. the reintegration of a collectively-demobilizing farc back into society—showing reluctance towards the social integration of its excombatants, whether as co-workers or neighbors, and even less so as citizens or friends. however, the counternarratives of the excombatants, and empirical evidence show great in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 104 inconsistencies and falsehoods in these narratives. moreover, the returnees’ reactions to this hostile climate is often to be secretive about their past and keep a low profile with minimal social interaction whilst striving towards what they conceive as being a “normal” citizen—that is studying and/or working (termed here as the “secret-citizen” narrative). the study demonstrates that the current model—akin to reinsertion—will not lead to a fuller reintegration unless national-narratives shift significantly, and the farc and its excombatants are at a very minimum accepted as citizens in a post-conflict society. keywords: ddr, reinsertion, reintegration, colombia, farc, excombatants, peacebuilding, grounded theory, peacebuilding, duque, uribe. introduction wanting a peace process without actually accepting us…i can´t see how that would happen (interview with excombatant). a few might take up politics, but most of them will use the skills they already have, taking hostages and making bombs…crime is what they know (non-excombatant focus group participant). colombia has experienced a protracted civil war since the 1960s, with numerous guerrilla groups on one side advocating land redistribution and greater political inclusion, and anti-communist paramilitary groups on the other, backed by the colombian state, wealthy landowners, and later the us. with the latter's technical and financial aid, álvaro uribe focused his (20022010) presidencies on a hardline military confrontation against the remaining rebel groups, particularly the largest—revolutionary armed forces of colombia-farc. the succeeding president juan manuel santos capitalized on uribe´s effective reversal of the farc's military advantage, and initiated the negotiations of the current process. as part of the ensuing peace agreement, as of september 15, 2017, the un has reported that the vast majority of the farc`s 7000 members have arrived at the 26 “demobilization zones” across the country and have turned over nearly all remaining weapons to the un (un, 2017). following several months in these camps, the demobilized will go on to spend up to 3 years in reintegration programs. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 105 therefore, it would appear that colombia is finally on the road to peace, and the first stages of a wider ddr (disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration) process has begun. defined by international and national ddr standards, as ´turning combatants into productive citizens…[who] formally acquire civilian status[…]to integrate socially and economically into society´ (uniddrs 2014, 1.10; departamento nacional de planeacióndnp, 2008, p6). however, as the quotes outlining this article show, the transition from “guerrilla” to “citizen” may be clear in legal terms, but is not necessarily afforded such a neat social distinction. this highlights a tension comparable to many war-to-peace transitions, which this paper will attempt to elucidate; despite a general belief in a negotiated solution (67%-gallup poll, 2017), a warweariness amongst the populace is also accompanied by an antipathy to the farc. thus, a call such as that of the president, that it is the responsibility of all colombians ´to accept former guerrillas´ (santos, 2015) sits at odds with a great deal of the population who see the farc as a malign and untrustworthy group responsible for what his predecessor describes a ´decades-long narcoterrorism campaign against the colombian people´ (uribe, 2016). not only are parts of these narratives surrounding the farc at a group level inaccurate, but also they extend to its individuals, and as this paper demonstrates, its ex-members. moreover, how society perceives the demobilizing group has the potential to determine if the group are accepted and allowed to participate in their new host-communities. in short, to dictate very terms of citizenship for excombatants in a post-conflict society. war-to-peace transitions and ddr following any conflict, the disarmament and demobilization of an armed group consists of a transcendental achievement towards peace. however, it is only the beginning of the reintegration stage, which is widely recognized as being the most challenging and complex part of ddr processes worldwide (kingma, 1997; bowd & özerdem, 2012; muggah, 2009). during armed conflicts, excombatants often perpetrate violent acts against the civilian population possibly ranging from rape, mutilation, kidnappings, pillaging, and murder. such hostilities can be highly divisive, and result in social rifts, the erosion of trust and enduring alienation. with the cessation of hostilities and the demobilization of the fighters, society must deal with these challenges in order to be able to live together once again (ccddr 2009, p45; nilsson 2008, p19). for groups that have deeply contested one another to coexist in these shared in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 106 post-conflict settings, a transformation in their relationship is needed to one based on the reconstitution of mutual acceptance and social inclusion (ccddr, 2009; siddr, 2006). seeking to address this critical and complex reintegration of former-fighters, the un integrated standards of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (uniddrs) have evolved from some 60 processes to adopt and advocate a more maximalist approach to ddr policy (muggah, 2009). the most recent (2014) revision of this acknowledges that reintegration is ´primarily taking place in communities at the local level´ and recommends a communitybased reintegration in addressing the ´social and psychological issues of identity, trust, and acceptance [which] are crucial to ensure violence prevention and lasting peace.´ towards this, it stresses the pivotal role of the community in allowing excombatants to ´rebuild their lives and social networks´; which involves their ´civic participation´ and ´the acceptance of excombatants by [the] community´ (uniddrs 2014, 4.30). an emerging ´third-generation´ of ddr researchers and practitioners have collected both qualitative and quantitative data from former-fighters themselves and their surrounding communities. from this, they contend that despite the uniddrs´ call for greater attention (and investment) towards reintegration efforts, there exists a dissonance between ddr policy and practice, and that this reintegration component continues to be the most incomplete and neglected (for instance, kingma, 1997). therein, this assumption in ddr norms that communities will simply accept returningfighters upon their status/legal change to civilian, has been criticized as flawed, even naïve, as it fails to address the challenges of reintegration (willems 2015, p118). notably are the effects of the image of the demobilizing group (and the stigma this can bring), and the related capacity of receptor-communities in accepting and allowing the participation of demobilizing-individuals. these deserve some explanation to better understand and contextualize the challenges of the present colombian case. image of former groups and social acceptance interestingly, excombatants from illegally armed groups have reported marked differences between the perceived image of their former-group and how they are accepted by receptor-communities—even in the same conflicts. for instance, former members of the cdf (civil defense forces) in sierra leone and the ira (irish republican army) in northern ireland reported a greater social in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 107 acceptance, which receiving communities have cited as being due to the role in supporting the government in “defending communities” and “bringing peace” in sierra leone (humphreys & weinstein 2004, p26), whilst the struggle of the ira was seen by many as “political” in nature (mitchell 2008, p4). conversely, some community members viewed former-paramilitaries in northern ireland as “warlords”, the ruf (revolutionary united front) and afrc (armed forces revolutionary council) as “dangerous” in sierra leone, with the former-members reporting lower levels of community acceptance than that of the aforementioned adversaries who enjoyed greater perceived legitimacy (mitchell 2008, p12; interview with konyima, 2015 in gibson 2016; themner 2013, p327). excombatant narratives and stigma the actions and behaviors, and image of the former-group, especially when negative, has profound implications on how its former-members are viewed, and consequently received into host communities. mcmullin (2013) argues that excombatants are generally portrayed through “resentment” or “threat” narratives. the former is underpinned by the notion that, due to perceived violent actions committed during and after conflict, targeted programmatic aid to demobilized-fighters is often seen as “rewarding the perpetrators of violence.” the targeting of aid directly to excombatants is generally considered to be justified and necessary in helping excombatants stay away from violence (kingma & bicc 2001, p14). despite this, in many instances, considering the limited resources of countries emerging from war, the demobilized usually end up in the most impoverished localities with high levels of crime and unemployment. this negatively affects the communities’ capacity and willingness to absorb excombatants because returning-fighters are competing for (often scarce) resources (unhcr 2003, p11-12). as a result, ddr programmatic help directed at former-fighters is seen as being diverted from other deserving groups, and from communities themselves. indeed, idps often outnumber excombatants in such communities which adds to the resentment narrative, as kingma observes in the case of mozambique (1997, p6). the threat narrative, on the other hand, is premised on the assumption that the group’s violent actions or criminality during the conflict will be continued by its ex-members within receiving-communities. despite the fact that following demobilization, excombatants returning to criminality or violence is ´a relatively rare phenomenon´ (themner 2013, p296; see also weinstein & in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 108 humphreys 2004, p39). despite these factual flaws, such narratives are often pervasive and often result in unfounded or exaggerated stereotypes. to name a few examples, excombatants being viewed as “violent bandits”, and therefore something to fear and not trust (in ugandajrp 2008, p5), and reject socially (in sierra leonnebolten, 2012), or even to threaten or physically attack (in liberiapugel 2006, p48). importance of community acceptance these community attitudes towards excombatants resonate in the daily challenges experienced by many of the former-fighters themselves. in contrast to the “threat” narrative, excombatants themselves note that their role in the community and communities’ attitudes towards the former-fighters are a key means to reintegration. from individual and cross-country studies into ongoing ddr processes, former-fighters have consistently reported that social acceptance is an often lacking (yet necessary) part in their reintegration. this leads bowd & özerdem to conclude that reintegration hinges on the ´degree to which receiving communities are willing and able to accept excombatants and the efforts they expend in making this a realistic possibility´ (2013, p459). one striking finding across these distinct processes is that excombatants report that the stigma and resulting discrimination, and even threats and violence from the host-communities, are an impediment to their acceptance (ccddr 2009, p57; hazen 2005, p5; kingma, 1997). a lack of social acceptance, and the heightened insecurity this generates, negatively affects the relationship between the excombatants and their communities, in varied ways. alongside acceptance, pugel (2006) and bolten (2012) found community participation to be a (albeit lacking) priority to former-fighters in liberia and sierra leone, respectively. whilst clubb (2014) and nussio & kaplan (2013) found, in turn, a positive and negative correlation between the participation of former ira and autodefensas unidas de colombia-auc members. moreover, they found greater community participation pushed down recidivism levels with the ira, and vice versa with the auc—again with the variable of community acceptance. integrating into new communities the image of the demobilizing group has another critical effect on reintegration, effecting whether or not the excombatants return to their communities-of-origin at the end of a conflict. in part due to the image and actions during the conflict of their former-group (in several of the above-cited in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 109 cases), individuals from groups whose actions during the conflict were deemed as predatory, and thus less legitimate, were less likely to feel safe enough to return “home” (for instance only 34% of ruf fighters in sierra leone). in contrast, those factions with a “cleaner” war record, or seen as “defending communities” and/or “democracy” were more likely to return, and be accepted socially and participate more (75% of cdf fighters in the same conflict felt safe enough to return home, with corresponding higher levels of acceptance and participation compared to groups with more negative imageshumphreys & weinstein, 2004, p31; 39; 40). thus, this mistrust, fear, and even social rejection of excombatants is exacerbated by the fact that often fighters are moving to new communities following demobilization. therefore, whether true or not, negative group images, stereotypes, and the challenges of being in new communities often lead to the rejection of excombatants and less engagement with their hostcommunities. considering the abovementioned determinants of reintegration as being “mutual acceptance” and “social inclusion”, this does not constitute reintegration. it should come as no surprise then, that escolar de cultura de paz´s review of ongoing ddr programs globally concluded that ́ no ddr process in the last few years has produced optimal results´ (2009, p10). ddr efforts in colombia are emblematic of these shortfalls, and thus deserve further exploration to frame the context (and challenges) of this research. ddr (and its shortcomings) in colombia the seemingly perpetual hostilities in colombia have also seen numerous efforts towards ddr processes, characterized by theidon (2009) as ´colombia’s serial search for peace.´ the most notable of these processes have been two collective efforts (m-19 or 19th of april movement insurgent-group in the early 1990s, and the auc in 2003) and the current individual demobilization process of farc members. as a result of these processes, colombia has developed a substantive ddr policy that both borrows from and contributes to the understandings and practice of ddr (as underscored by the cartagena contribution to ddr (2009)), similarly stressing the importance, and risks of an incomplete reintegration, and aiming to ´promote the peaceful resolution of conflicts, civil participation and trust between the demobilized, the communities and local authorities´ (colombian reintegration agency-acr 2009, p19). therefore, its focus has increasingly been on the social inclusion of excombatants through a community-level reconciliatory approach to in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 110 reintegration, which offers former-fighters a monthly stipend, psychological support, healthcare, as well as vocational and educational training (dnp, 2008), with community interventions carried out in 59 municipalities between 2007-2009 (acr, 2009). it also acknowledges, however, the challenges that remain in achieving reintegration; that excombatants continue to ‘face barriers to their social, economic and community reintegration…[as] the great majority of demobilized possess psychosocial attributes and values which limit the possibility of social interaction; in other words, they’re not prepared to live within the confines of social rules within the legal framework´ (dnp 2008, p18). similarly, that the host communities may resent, fear, distrust and stigmatize demobilized, ´since many demobilized committed and participated in violations of human rights and international humanitarian law´ (dnp 2008, p23). although they do recognize the ´lack of receptivity of some sectors of society´ and resentment and stigmatization towards demobilized, as a major impediment to reintegration (dnp 2008, p18), this is purportedly due to the individuals violent past and fragile state of mind. farc narratives these implications, furthermore, echo parts of longstanding narratives about the farc and its former-members. through 8 years of the “democratic security” policy of attempting to militarily defeat the farc, uribe declared the group as ´the first and most important threat´ to the nation, cultivating a securitizing discourse which de-politicized the group as ´terrorists and narcotraffickers´ (ministry of national defense 2007, p23; 48). in the run-up to the (non-binding) october 2016 referendum on the peace deal, uribe claimed that the farc would be granted undemocratic powers in congress and exaggerated the stipend that demobilized farc would receiveclaiming that the ´so-called peace deal will serve as a thick mantle of impunity…[thus] narco-terror is being rewarded in colombia´ (uribe, 2016). despite these claims being false (with a substantive transitional justice framework as part of the deal), this terroristthreat narrative remains pervasive and resonates with a majority of colombians who believe the farc to be nothing more than “delinquents” who cannot be trusted to fully demobilize (centro de memoria histórica-cmh, 2012; gallup, 2017). indeed, the proposed peace deal was (narrowly) rejected, and more recently, the 2018 congressional and presidential elections saw the dominance of candidates critical of the peace-process— and indeed a president in the mould of uribe (iván duque), (daniels, 2018(a)). despite in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 111 congress unanimously voting to push ahead with the deal, the referendum, and congressional and presidential elections highlighted huge divides, even ambivalence, as to how, and even if the reintegration process should happen. despite favoring a negotiated peace with the farc, most colombians do not trust the group and by extension its ex-members, which has the potential to hinder any meaningful reintegration. role of community and stigma in reintegration the accounts of former-fighters shown through the recent third-generation of ddr research strongly contest these assumptions and conversely show that challenges to reintegration have more to do with host-communities than the former-fighters themselves. the negative images of the former groups appears to fuel resentment for the programmatic support they receive, and feelings of fear and suspicion from receiving-communities, and the resultant discrimination and stigmatization affects not only their education and employment prospects, but also their physical security (32% are victims of human rights violations, including homicidecentro nacional de consultoríacnc 2011, p50). this all amounts to a struggle to adapt to daily civilian life. many of the challenges that excombatants report are due to, if not exacerbated by the fact that the vast majority will end up in urban centers far from their places of origin due to retributive threats from neo-paramilitary groups—70.7% according to cnc, (2011); see also unhcr, (2015). consequences of this battery of challenges to reintegration are profoundwith studies finding excombatants from various demobilized groups resorting to making efforts to publically conceal their past identities and minimizing social interaction in their host-communities (flórez, 1997; prieto, 2012; nussio, 2011). these criticisms mirror the normative and theoretical dissonances that can be seen between the international ddr standards and practices: whilst the colombian programmatic policy has been effective in the narrow sense of rehabilitation and avoiding recidivism (“d&d”)—86% according to nussio & kaplan (2013)—past and current experiences of reintegration in colombia have shown it to be incomplete as they are not ´facilitating social reconstruction and coexistence´ (theidon 2009, p11). what is potentially explanatory to this gap is the effect of the narratives surrounding formergroups in the reintegration process, and how this affects expectations of the role that former-fighters should have in a post-conflict society. indeed, in in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 112 comparing the m-19 and auc collective processes, guáqueta (2007) found that the individual’s former group (and the perceived legitimacy of that group) influenced the extent of reintegration, to a greater and lesser extent with the m-19 and auc respective cases. despite this apparent link, however, to the knowledge of this author no research exists which systematically tests the effects of these perceptions against the various components and determinants of reintegration. this article therefore employs a qualitative grounded theory methodology (gtm), working principally with individually demobilized farc members, but also exparamilitaries (auc) and non-excombatant members of the public. it uses this data to explore the narratives surrounding the farc, its members, and exmembers, and exploits these narratives to examine the relationship between how the farc and its members are viewed and how they are received as demobilized excombatants by host-communities. it finds these narratives are underpinned by two assumptions, firstly that the group has departed from its original ideals to the point that they constitute an illegitimate and terrorist group, and secondly that its members carry some proclivity towards violence and criminality which limits their ability to reintegrate back into society, as seen below in insert 1 (data from gibson, 2016). findings show that how the group members are received back into communities hinges on these dominant, national-narratives surrounding the farc which blur the group and its former-members as terrorists and criminals, and that this capacity of receiving-communities to hinder reintegration is stronger than previously shown. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 113 however, as also seen in insert 1, the counter-narratives of the excombatants found here, bolstered by empirical evidence, show significant inconsistencies and falsehoods in these narratives. not only are these assumptions at best exaggerated or distorted, and at worst inaccurate and even baseless, they are largely duplicated onto its ex-members and become in part self-fulfilling. these narratives feed stigmatization which is often responded to through less engagement of excombatants with the host-community and their development of dual-identities— one public and one private. this generates differing notions and expectations of what constitutes reintegration. the former-fighters’ reactions to this hostile climate of new host-communities is often to be secretive about their past and keep a low profile with minimal social interaction whilst striving towards what they conceive as being a “normal” citizen—that is studying and/or working (termed here as the “secretcitizen” narrative). on the other hand, unlike the receptor-communities, returning-fighters generally want more than to simply coexist in their new environments, often craving to be accepted and to be given the chance to participate in their wider-communities. the study demonstrates that the current model—akin to reinsertion—will not lead to a fuller reintegration unless national-narratives shift significantly, and the farc and its excombatants are at a very minimum accepted as citizens in a post-conflict society. methods participants due to concurrent safety concerns, i was unable to carry out first-hand research with the farcat the time an active insurgent-group. i therefore worked initially with individually-demobilized farc members (n=26, age 1729), participants of one ngo in bogotá, and all past or present members of the ddr program. although not wholly representative, the sample did show a variation in terms of gender, age, year of demobilization, region of conflict, as well as circumstances of demobilization (e.g. voluntarily, deserted, captured etc.). these interviews were conducted between february 2015 and august 2016. contact to the ngo was made through email, and several meetings followed in-person to discuss and arrange the interviews. participants were requested by the ngo, and those who had the time agreed. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 114 as the research evolved the unit of analysis extended to former-paramilitaries (n=4, age 18-22), as well as non-excombatants selected from several universities in bogotá (n=27, age 18-24). alongside this were focus groups: exclusively amongst former farc-members (3 focus groups in total with 7, 9 and 5 participants), and non-excombatant groups (3 in total with 15 and 12 participants), as well as combined members of the former-farc and formerparamilitary members (2 in total with 6 and 8 participants). design & procedure considering this limited data set, this research does not pretend to be comprehensive nor fully representative. indeed, this provided the main rationale for the use of a qualitative and inductive methodology for data collection and analysis—specifically one following the procedures of gtm developed by corbin & strauss, which provides highly valid data in which ‘representativeness of concepts, not of persons, is crucial’ (1990, p9). following and being reflexive to the data thus allows a theoretical sensitivity as the researcher attempts to uncover often overlooked and salient insights without prejudice, critical in the highly polarized and divisive attitudes seen in countries at civil war (corbin & strauss 1990). as stipulated by gtm, initial interviews were open-ended and unstructured and were framed as such to allow for the emergence, development, and testing, of codes, concepts, and categories (open, axial, and selective coding). thus, the opening statement for the excombatants was, ´i would like to hear about your experiences as an excombatant, and would like you to speak freely´, whilst for the non-excombatant groups, ´what are your views on the farc and its ex-members?´ this first feedback-mechanism (constant comparative analysis) continued until no new categories emerged (conceptual saturation), indicated by a second feedback-mechanism (theoretical sampling), which allowed emerging concepts, categories, and core categories to inform and be tested against the selection of the subsequent interviews detailed above. following this, focus groups involving non-excombatants and formerparamilitaries were used. to minimize the validity drawbacks of relying on using perceptions alone— notably the “social desirability response-bias” and “hawthorne effect”— neutrally worded and unambiguous questions and assurances of anonymity were used. additionally, to provide a more robust depth to the emerging concepts, secondary analysis of cross-sectional and nationally representative in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 115 survey quantitative data were used to triangulate the data, as well as qualitative data to offer further understandings and differences to the concepts and findings generated through constant comparative analysis, until conceptual saturation was reached. results and analysis the gtm of data collection first allowed for the identification and exploration of the principle challenges to the post-conflict life from the perspectives of former-farc combatants. this was triangulated with secondary data— informed in part by the theoretical sampling feedback loop—, which in part corroborated, offered explanation, and also revealed inconsistencies in the narratives which required and informed further data-sets. accordingly, considering the crux of these involved their social rejection and stigmatization, largely influenced by what they perceived as misguidednarratives of the farc and its former-members, focus groups with nonexcombatants, and later ex-paramilitaries, were used to explore such narratives and their effects, respectively, on the social integration and social relations of excombatants. for the sake of more coherent reading, these following data sets are not presented in a chronological order. perceptions of the farc, its ex-members and their reintegration: reinsertion secondary data with the non-excombatant public various cross-national surveys regarding perceptions of the farc report the group as being responsible for more of the violence in the country than any other actor, finding common descriptors as being “plain delinquents” (82% cmh 2012, p23; 21), with less (23%) conceiving the group as continuing to constitute as terrorists, even with the conclusion of the peace deal (arco iris, 2017). with the demobilized-farc, prevalent views are those of suspicion (56.8% believing that former-fighters increase insecurityprieto, 2012), and fear (with 33.6% and 16.4% viewing them as dangerous and violent, latin american public opinion project-lapop, 2015). regarding the reintegration of excombatants, polimétrica (2016) polled over 60% of respondents as being against the demobilized having political participation, or being in a relationship with their children; 38% being unwilling to provide employment to excombatants, and 45% being against knowingly living alongside them. in terms of programmatic aspects, we also see significant opposition—with 49% in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 116 disagreeing to former-fighters receiving support through the ddr program (cmh 2012, p60). primary data with the non-excombatant public focus groups with non-excombatants were used to explore narratives about excombatants in the broader society, and to attempt to understand the effect of these narratives on their social integration. in terms of the perceptions of the farc and its members, many of the participants in the initial focus groups referred to the group as “terrorists” and “illegitimate”, and perpetrators of most of the violence in the country. typical responses being, ´they lost their ideals a long time ago when they started bombing civilians, kidnapping and being narco-traffickers´, and, in response, ´i think they’ve caused most of the blood-shedding since this.´ regarding excombatants, a wide variation of views was found. although there were some moderate and even favorable views to the group and its exmembers, they were scarce, and the most typical characterizations were “criminals”, “dangerous”, “delinquents”, and something to be suspicious of and fear. they generally saw little distinction between them and their former group, often doubting any chance of meaningful rehabilitation, and assuming that they have a proclivity towards violence, which they will bring into receiving-communities. tellingly, one respondent in a focus group of nonexcombatants used the spanish-language adage of ´a cheetah never changes it spots.´ when asked about the various components of reintegration— political, social, and economic, as well as ddr programmatic aspects—the negative perceptions held by the focus groups not only reverberated but also showed signs of potential stigmatization against demobilizing excombatants; our congress is already corrupted enough, these criminals don´t deserve a space there. most of us don´t trust the farc, so their demobilizing can assume some level of social rejection…definitely not as my neighbor. if a demobilized was in the same place i worked, how would they act? in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 117 they’re receiving money just for having been a guerrilla—how is that fair? so, think of someone who has been killing for the past 20 years, do you think they can just begin a new life driving a taxi in bogotá? when you’re a murderer you always will be. analyzing our secondary-data provides, an albeit superficial, glance of the common attitudes surrounding the farc and its ex-members and their reintegration. moreover, through comparing the similarities shown between the views of the group, its members, and former-members, implies that little distinction is offered between its actual and ex-members at an individual-level, and that this effects how they are received. although large-scale and representative, beyond establishing these general attitudes of these groups, and the similarities attitudes between them, it does little towards explaining why people held these views (i.e. what underpins the narratives), and does not link the views on the group and ex-members with how they are received into society. the use of primary data went some way to fill these theoretical gaps. the attitudes of the focus groups towards the farc and its ex-members are generally consistent with the secondary data. indeed, the views of them as being narco-traffickers, and the principle threat to the country corroborates this, as well as chiming with the securitizing discourse of uribe´s democratic security policy (ministry of national defense 2007, p23; 48). however, another key part of said discourse, that of being terrorists, was far more prevalent in the non-excombatant focus groups than in the secondary-survey data, with 83% of participants referring in some way to the terroristic tactics used by the farc. this suggests that such narratives are more pervasive than national surveys show. furthermore, through the use of both primary and secondary data it appears that these narratives are underpinned by two assumptions: firstly, that the group has departed from its original ideals to the point that they constitute an illegitimate and terrorist group, and, secondly that its members carry some proclivity towards violence and criminality, which limits their ability to reintegrate back into society. the primary data goes some way to explain why one assumption would lead to another (thus why images of farc-members and ex-members are similar), and why this would lead to not accepting excombatants back into receiving in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 118 communities. when the non-excombatant focus groups discussed reintegration, most reasons to not support reintegration were qualified and justified by the negative stereotypes of the assumptions regarding the guerrilla group and its former-members. as one respondent in a focus group of nonexcombatants put forward, ´[t]he neighborhood is already dangerous…that can only get worse with those who have lived with conflict.´ these data imply deep societal divisions on whether reintegration should occur, and what it should involve. refining these views on reintegration also shows us that this opposition to reintegration is not only theoretical, but demonstrates a capacity of civil society to hinder reintegration at both community and individual levels (as seen below in insert 2, data from gibson, 2016). moreover, the deeper examination of these attitudes provided by primary focus groups offers evidence that the narratives are being taken at face value, and that this is effecting the rejection and stigmatization of excombatants in host-communities and thus limiting the reintegration process—resembling the reinsertion that comes with “d&d”, rather than reintegration. as one of the excombatants told me, ́ if all of those stories about us were true, then of course they’ll [non-excombatants] be scared.´ in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 119 following is an examination of the excombatant counter-narratives, which, with triangulation of other secondary data, highlight several inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the prevalent views of the group and its former-members, as well as some explanation towards how they respond to the wider-public’s expectations of reintegration. excombatants on the farc, its ex-members and reintegration: the “secretcitizen” unlike the non-excombatant public, many of the excombatants opposed and were frustrated with the essentialism that underpinned the narratives surrounding them and their former group. many former-fighters acknowledged the violence and atrocities as well as involvement in the narcotrafficking that the farc have been responsible for, yet felt the group received a disproportionate part of the blame vis-à-vis other armed-actors in the conflict, ´the farc have caused a lot of pain and suffering to many people and families, i can see that´, to which another replied, ´but so did the army, the paras [paramilitaries]…we all have blood on our hands.´ they saw a clear demarcation between being a farc-combatant and being a farc excombatant, ´they think that all excombatants are killers just because we were involved [in the conflict]…there’s a transition, a separation that people don´t see.´ similarly, most rejected the obstacles to reintegration that were implied in the narratives: that of continued affiliation with the farc, and latent violent tendencies brought into host-communities. in the same focus group, another added, ´it´s difficult because people judge without understanding your past…we all want to leave the conflict behind us.´ herein was a shared deep frustrated with the recidivism of some excombatants being pinned on all of them, ´that’s all you see on the tvthe crimes of the farc and the demobilized which gives us all a bad name.´ contrarily, typical accounts showed that challenges to reintegration were more to do with employment and education issues, the difficulties of settling into new and alien environments, security threats, and how they were received by their host-communities—all compounded by the stigmatizing labels of their past as guerrillas and present as excombatants (seen in insert 2 above). in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 120 education and work most respondents reported difficulties in attaining the education and employment that they considered adequate, which some blamed the ddr program in its failure to provide appropriate training to make up for their rural and conflict-based background. as one pointed out, ´in a job interview, of course you can’t tell the boss that the experience you have is knowing how to use a gun.´ as a result, many did not feel economically reintegrated, ´we had so many workshops [during the reintegration program] on setting up our own business, but those projects failed…i eventually found work as a streetcleaner trying to earn enough for food for me and my daughter.´ with a few exceptions, they reported having either no employment, or any jobs found were generally in the informal sector, often as taxi drivers, security guards, cleaners—found previously with both demobilized-paramilitaries (nussio, 2011) and ex-guerrillas (anaya, 2007). new urban lives studying balkans and western african ddr processes, hazen notes that armedgroups consist of a “war family”, that is, a ´support network [which] provides a sense of identity and purpose, but it also provides security and access to basic goods´ (2005, p5). these are often lost in ddr processes as noted in these two accounts of excombatants; when i arrived to bogotá it was very hard, even crossing the roads terrified me, i’d never seen so many cars… we´re campesinos and don’t know how to find the right bus, let alone pay bills, get healthcare, and support a family. the farc was like my family…we got clothes, medicine, a place to sleep, and enough food and supported each other in good and bad times. this support disappears when you arrive to such a big city and i had a hard time in adapting…in fact, i tried to go back [to the guerrillas]. as these accounts indicate, reintegration is further complicated as the demobilized are leaving the social and material support systems of the armedgroup. as anaya points out, they are therefore passing from a ´collectivistic rural-military life to an individualistic urban life as civilians’ (2007, p185). many reported fear of retribution to them or their families and consequently many were unwilling or unable to return to their typically rural home-communities (and the social support networks there). two reported trying to return home, in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 121 but for reasons of community or family rejection, even danger, they had returned to bogotá, i wanted to get to know my family [she left when she was 11, returning at 22], but they didn’t want to know me. my brother being in the [regular] military had a big part in this. i didn't have any childhood at home as i was brought up by the farc…when i went back, most of the community were indifferent, but some were angry because i didn’t have the ways of thinking, stories, songs and other customs and i didn’t feel part of my [indigenous] tribe anymore. conversely, nussio & kaplan (2013) found that when security risks permitted former-guerrillas to return to their rural homes they participated more in those communities, rather than when they moved to new and alien cities where they felt more threatened and lost familiar social networks. security issues settling into new cities is often compounded by the fact that demobilized are usually housed in parts of the cities—whether in bogotá, medellin or cali— which are for the most part slums with a high presence of neo-paramilitary groups, poverty, violence and unemployment (colombia idp 2004, p70; brooking institute 2011, p58). as one respondent from soacha—the locality which has amongst the highest concentrations of demobilized as well as idps in the country (prieto, 2012; norwegian refugee council, 2004)—put it, ́ when i get home and lock the door and then i can relax a bit…there you can’t even go out at night and i never let her [the daughter] out to play.´ the dynamic of host-communities with such low socio-economic levels fuels the resentment for ddr benefits even more. these are generally the same areas where idps and other victims of the conflict end up (norwegian refugee council, 2004), which further limits the communities’ capacity to economically support or absorb the excombatants. ´we´re all in this same situation with the same needs: water, rent and a job,´ as one excombatant told me. moreover, the already high levels of mistrust and suspicion of those areas, coupled with the perception of excombatants as a threat, hinders the interactions needed for any meaningful reintegration (prieto, 2012). in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 122 unsurprisingly, in such environments excombatants felt insecurity to be a primary concern. however, unlike many non-excombatant community members, the source of these threats was not considered to be other excombatants, rather from neo-paramilitary groups in retribution for being a guerrilla, or from refusing to be coerced into joining such criminal organizations. contrary to their assumed life of crime, the vast majority rejected violence as a means to solve problems—whether social or economic. as one recounted, ´the temptations of working with these gangs are always there…they pay well and can provide safety to your family, but you have to be strong and remember why you left the conflict.´ others linked their insecurity with the possibility of recidivism, ´if the state protects us with a more rigorous [peace] process other criminal groups won´t be created.´ these accounts resonate with data in large-scale quantitative surveys. prieto (2012), for example, found that in receiving communities, 11% of nonexcombatant members had received threats, compared to 76.5% of demobilized. furthermore, these threats are often not hollow, with national police statistics from 2003-2009 finding that 3-4% of demobilized were murdered, leading to the logical conclusion of the same report that, ´the protection mechanisms [offered by the state] have not been effective (cnrr 2010, p265-268). tellingly, nussio & kaplan (2010) found that the lesser threats and lesser stigma attached to ex-paramilitary compared to ex-farc resulted in higher levels of community participation in the former group. secret-citizens due to the stigmas discussed above, when their past-identities had been found out, many demobilized reported accounts of discrimination, rejection, and even threats in places of work (´i had a small shop setup and everything, but when the locals found out my past business suffered´), study (´when they found out that i’d been part of the guerrilla, they didn’t renew my next enrollment´), and host-communities (´i don’t know how, but when they [the local community] found out my past identity, i panicked because maybe the paramilitaries would find out…how could we stay? i didn’t feel safe for my son…we moved again´). as the latter quote shows, some excombatants responded to these unmaskings by relocating—often for safety concerns. these varied yet common experiences of the challenges described above led many to adopt what is termed here the “secret-citizen” narrative. the first (“secret”) part—to dissociate from the stigma of “farc” and “excombatant” in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 123 through being publically secretive about their past and keeping a low profile with minimal social-interaction, ´because nobody knows who is listening and looking,´ and ´[t]here’s an expectation from society, that when you leave the conflict you have to forget your past, forget your identify as an excombatant.´ combining this with the second (“citizen”) part— “fitting in” with what they conceived as being a “normal” citizen, that is studying and/or working—was deemed as the best means to coexist with relative safety within society. as one noted, ´i think that if we study and work, we can be a good citizen.´ however, the same respondent continued lamentingly, ´[b]ut even with this we can’t be citizens if we’re not accepted…reintegration means giving us the chance to be here and to be involved with our neighbors.´ as this respondent´s frustrations show, the public´s minimalist notion of reintegration contrasts with how the former-fighters consider reintegration should be; involving reciprocal and reconciliatory aspects such as trust and acceptance, the ability to participate, and overall that the receiving-communities also have a role to play within this broader notion of reintegration—as deemed as necessary in the previously discussed ddr standards and literature (see insert 3, data from gibson, 2016). in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 124 the lived experiences of many former-fighters generally conformed to a minimalist-approach to reintegration, largely stipulated by the expectations of receiving-communities. as a result, demobilized participate less and limit their hopes for their relationships with local “civilians” to simply "getting along with each other." this secrecy inherent in the narrative resulted in many formerfighters having few, if any, friendships with “civilians”, and interestingly, those who did generally did so ´without telling my history.´ this dual identity, however comes with additional problems, as noted in the responses from a focus group of mixed former-paramilitary and former-farc members; sometimes we have to lie because if we don’t the community could reject us. sometimes you have to use armor…a false identity; a lot of relationships with “civilians” fail because of that. if you can´t tell people about your life as an excombatant, it´s difficulty to have a trusting relationship. whilst several of the excombatants had in the past or present tried to avoid socializing with other excombatants, many—particularly younger members— only felt safe enough to have relationships, intimate or otherwise, with other former-fighters, including between former “enemies”, i.e. between exguerrilla and ex-paramilitaries. frequent explanations for this were, ´you can feel safer´, ́ be more accepted´, ́ speak freely about the past´, and ́ support each other emotionally´ (focus group of ex-paramilitary and ex-farc members). however, these intra-group relations contrasted with the reintegration ideals of those same excombatants. in the same focus group, for instance, one respondent contended that, ´having a partner that's not necessarily a demobilized, that's part of reintegration into society.´ although negative reactions to being “found out” were the norm, several, when they had been open about their past and chanced the security risks, recounted positive experiences of acceptance, even embracement, through their participation as members of the community. one respondent, reported that, ´i'm part of the committee board now and this satisfies me because i feel like a citizen and i can be useful in the community.´ another noted, ´[a]t work [as a nurse], i’m sometime times honest and use stories about my difficult past [in the conflict] to encourage really ill patients in their tough situations…this often helps them and makes me feel like i’m somehow contributing to society.´ in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 125 discussion: identity, citizenship, and narratives although data sets for the excombatants and non-excombatants used here are clearly not nationally or demographically representative, or large in size, they did allow for the for the identification and exploration of the principle challenges to the post-conflict life of former farc combatants. as the challenges identified involved how they were perceived and treated by the non-excombatant public, focus groups with these groups were conducted, which corroborated much of the negative images and challenges to reintegration asserted by the former-combatants. additionally, the triangulation through secondary data helped to further highlight and explain the inconsistencies and pervasiveness in the narratives of the farc and its former-members. interpreting these results, this study finds that much of society’s rejection of farc excombatant s appears to hinge on how the group and its present and former-members are perceived. a widespread desire for peace paradoxically lies alongside the fact that many colombians are not inclined to accept what this actually involves, i.e. a collectively-demobilizing guerrilla group returning back into society—showing reluctance towards the social reintegration of its excombatants—whether as co-workers or neighbors, and even less so as citizens or friends. the demobilized reactions to this (secret-citizenship) are secondary findings, and have been touched upon in prior research. in terms of the “secret” component, studies have found excombatants from various demobilized groups resorting to making efforts to publically conceal their past identities (with some removing all links from other excombatants as part of this) and minimizing social interaction in their host communities with nonexcombatant members (nussio & kaplan, 2013, 2011; flórez, 1997; prieto, 2012; hazen, 2005), with podder finding a strong correlation between social rejection and public anonymity in liberia (2012). with the “citizenship” part, bolten (2012) observes sierra leonean former-fighters attempting to conform to what society deems “normal”, and nussio (2011) reports a tendency by some ex-paramilitaries to ‘dedicating oneself to family, education and work’ (p. 590). although being previously examined as distinct phenomena, this study contends that these two components of the narrative should be analyzed conjointly to pinpoint and engage with the emotional-identity contradictions in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 126 of the secret-citizen that have been documented here. past identities of returning-fighters are rejected (yet unresolved) whilst they assimilate those of “normal” citizens—that does not allow for the long-term multiple-transitions and multiple-identities involved in the shift from combatant to citizen. the tendency among excombatants to refer to non-excombatants as “civilians”— with the implication that they themselves do not yet feel included in that category—underscores this difficulty in transcending the stigmatizing label of ex-combatant. overall, this shows that for most former-fighters this shortterm reinsertion is not a ´route to reintegration´ as contended by the government (dnp 2008, p3); at what point does the excombatant label go away? i work, i mother a girl single-handedly, i´m also studying…i’ve done everything to deserve a place colombian society. what more do we need to do to be integrated and accepted? therefore, this paper recommends a shift in how citizenship is considered in ddr to allow both an acceptance of the past, and the endeavor to be a “good citizen” to take place simultaneously, and concludes by considering how entrenched narratives of insurgent-groups can be aligned more closely to a historical truth, and how this is more conducive to acceptance, security, and more broadly reintegration—particularly of pertinence in post-conflict settings. narratives and counter-narratives parts of the narratives surrounding the farc are indeed merited considering their departure from their original ideals since the 1970s—with increasing attacks against civilians, extortion, narco-trafficking and illegal mineral extraction (prieto, 2012). however, misrepresentations and mistruths can be used by the state to exclude and delegitimize out-groups (foucault, 1972, in gibson 2016), therefore allowing the farc’s traits and actions at an organizational-level to become exaggerated and attributed to, firstly its individual-members, and secondly its ex-members—from a figure of the farc being responsible for far less violence in the country than paramilitary groups (23% in aggregate, and around 14% in recent years), 62% of colombians surveyed believe otherwise (gibson, 2016). moreover, despite the great majority of excombatants staying away from criminality, we see trust in former-fighters at less than 19% (cnc, 2011). in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 127 looking at the collective-demobilization of the m-19 guerrilla group, flórez (1997) contends that the group’s actions during and after the peace deal shifted the notion of “enemy”, “bandits”, and “narcos” to one of gradual acceptance as both political actors and community members (p146). similarly, the aforementioned gallup and ipsos surveys report a rise of around 10% in trust in the farc over the last 3 years, which suggests that the top-down “peace discourse” of santos, as well as the farc´s role towards implementing the peace deal is slowly redressing dominant images and mistruths—largely propagated by his predecessor. moreover, if the m-19 experience is indicative, the farc´s actions as post-conflict (political and civilian) actors will clearly affect their acceptance at both group and individual-levels. it remains to be seen if the planned truth commission will contribute to this process by adding this critical bottom-up aspect. accordingly, it would be wise if it sought to follow the south african model´s attempt to establish a historical truth by discerning between emotionally-driven collective-narratives and the factual through discussion, interaction and debate at community-level, which served to re-examine the totalizing social categories that existed surrounding the demobilizing group (buikema, 2012). at present however, the crucial outgroup perspectives are not serving the critical function of dialogically engaging with the unfamiliar communities who will be determining whether the demobilizing farc integrate, or segregate. contrarily, when the formerfighters are viewed as terrorists and criminals, their acceptance and personal safety in host-communities are far from guaranteed. former-fighters live in constant risk (prieto, 2012), seen in a spate of paramilitary-led excombatant killings since the signing of the peace deal (daniels, 2018(b)), and evidenced here with intra-excombatant relationships. this is all the more urgent as the government’s inability to protect the demobilizing-rebels, amongst other government noncompliance of the implementation of parts of the peace deal, has been cited as possible reasons for excombatants delaying leaving the demobilization camps to continue the reintegration process, as well as an estimated 5-15% of recent dissidence (daniels, 2018(b)). this leads to the second departure of this paper, two premises prevalent in ddr literature (for instance un 2014, 4.30, p2; 10), not to mention colombian government policy (dnp 2008, p2; 11). the first is that returning fighters are able (and willing) to return to their communities-of-origin (for instance un 2014, 4.30; dnp 2008, p2), and the second is that views the post-conflict in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 128 preservation of wartime networks as an incomplete reintegration. in terms of the latter, this is with good reasons as it can lead to the group rearming, splintering, or engaging in other organized criminality (as the auc experience shows too well). however, as the auc experience also shows, as suggested by the fledgling farc process, an incomplete ddr process increases recidivism, which for the auc centered on (disaffected) mid-level commanders and an incomplete disarmament (daly, 2017). often overlooked is the potentially positive role of the social support networks that excombatants often provide to each other during the conflict. with demobilization, these “war families” need replacing, and excombatants will look for these systems of social support elsewhere (hazen, 2005). as the rare accounts showed here, host or originalcommunities can provide this (in colombianussio & kaplan, 2013, in liberia podder, 2012, and in northern irelandmitchell, 2008). however, as these accounts also show, this is often the exception to demobilization of illegal armed-groups and largely due to these negative security conditions most cannot return ´home´. notably, amongst others, rather than providing such support, host-communities often stigmatize and discriminate returning-fighters. therefore, former-fighters’ identities are often hidden in public and excombatants will look elsewhere for such emotional supportoften being more inclined and feeling safer to maintain relations with other excombatants. previous processes the balkans and western africa (hazen, 2005), and colombia, with the m-19 (söderström, 2016), have also shown this link between preserving wartime networks and a more complete reintegration. as many of these challenges to reintegration— common to many ongoing ddr processes—, and their responses to them (i.e. secret citizenship) are distinct to integration into new communities, and have therefore been largely overlooked in the literature and merit greater study and policy consideration. these elements of negative and flawed narratives, acceptance, security, and reintegration are all interrelated; as the national top-down narratives gradually shift to one more aligned with accuracy, helped potentially by the actions of the farc and its former-members, this will increasingly allow the critical bottom-up shift through community-level dialogue and interaction. although rare, when these above-detailed everyday interactions of social and civic participation do occur, they often allow for the inclusion, acceptance, and the enabling of the community-level dialogical shifting of inaccurate in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 103-133 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 129 stereotypes that buikema advocates. indeed, as indicated here, when community and security factors allow, former-fighters often want to participate and contribute to a post-conflict colombia and tackle these misguided assumptions, which have until now been silenced in the dehumanizing discourse of war; people just want to know how many soldiers i´ve killed in the conflict. how they accept us as people who left that behind them, and instead ask how we can cooperate and live together again? in varying degrees, all war-to-peace transitions are affected by the images and perceptions of the demobilizing groups involved, and the success or failure of reintegration often hinges on these narratives. with this in mind, and with further investigation needed, this study offers tentative lessons which have the potential to be extrapolated and considered to facilitate the complex processes of reintegration elsewhere—both in colombia where other illegallyarmed actors continue to be active across much of the country, as well as in other ddr processes around the world. references albaladejo, a. (2017, october 17). is colombia underestimating the scale of farc dissidence? insight crime. retrieved from https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/is-colombiaunderestimating-scale-farc-dissidence/ acr. (2009). publicación del observatorio de la reintegración enero 2009 año 1 número 1. bogota: espacio creativo. retrieved from http://setianworks.net/indepazediciones/wpcontent/uploads/2012/02/revista_acr.pdf anaya, l. (2007). individual demobilization process in colombia: implementation, challenges and former combatants perspectives, intervention 5(3), 179-190. arco iris. (2017). resultado de encuesta: farc sale de lista de terroristas. retrieved from https://www.arcoiris.com.co/2017/11/resultado-deencuesta-farc-sale-de-lista-de-terroristas/ buikema, r. 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(2007). policy for the consolidation of democratic security. bogotá: imprenta nacional. retrieved from https://www.oas.org/dsp/documentos/politicas_ublicas/colombia%20 2.pdf mitchell, c. (2008). the limits of legitimacy: former loyalist combatants and peace building in northern ireland. irish political studies 12(1), 1-19. nilsson, a. (2005). reintegrating ex-combatants in post-conflict societies: reintegrating ex-combatants. stockholm: swedish international development cooperation (sida). norwegian refugee council. (2004) profile of internal displacement: colombia. norwegian refugee council: geneva. nussio, e. (2011). how ex-combatants talk about personal security: narratives of former paramilitaries in colombia. conflict, security & development 11(5), 579-606. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14678802.2011.641725 nussio, e., & kaplan, o. (2013). community counts: the social reintegration of ex-combatants in colombia. retrieved from http://ssrn.com/abstract=2138188 polimétrica. 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(2017, september 15). un mission finalizes extraction of arms caches and laying down of weapons of the farc-ep. retrieved from https://unmc.unmissions.org/en/un-mission-finalises-extraction-armscaches-and-laying-down-weapons-farc-ep uribe, a. (2016, july 7). narco-terror is being rewarded in colombia. washington street journal. retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/narco-terror-is-being-rewarded-incolombia-1467932606 valenzuela, s. (2017, october 5). the murder of pardoned farc members in colombia. democracy now. retrieved from https://www.opendemocracy.net/democraciaabierta/santiagovalenzuela/murder-of-pardoned-farc-members-in-colombia willems, r. c. (2015). security and hybridity after armed conflict: the dynamics of security provision in post civil war states. new york: routledge. zukerman-daly, s., paler, l., samii, c. (2014). retorno a la legalidad o reincidencia de excombatientes en colombia: dimensión del fenómeno y factores de riesgo. bogotá: fundación ideas para la paz. microsoft word luppens v12.1.docx in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 97-99 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 97 volume 12 number 1 (2018): 97-99 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review education for peace: the politics of adopting and mainstreaming peace education programs in a post-conflict setting, by vanessa tinker, bethesda, academica press, 2015, 262 pp., us $74.95 (hardcover), isbn 978-1-68053007-0. reviewed by line kuppens university of antwerp & ku leuven line.kuppens@uantwerpen.be set up in the aftermath of the civil war in bosnia and herzegovina (bih), the education for peace (efp) program is among the longest running and largest projects within the field of peace education. it started as a small pilot project in six primary and secondary schools in the country and soon developed into a nationally implemented curriculum for primary and secondary school pupils. rather than the result of reflection and careful consideration, tinker describes the decision to adopt efp as an ‘unexpected outcome’ and its mainstreaming as ‘accidental and contingent’ in nature (1516). indeed, the political success of efp is somewhat startling: centered on the philosophical foundations of the bahá’í faith, first, the choice for a religiously inspired program seems counterintuitive in a context where religious differences fueled identity politics and violence. second, with the exception of a single funder-commissioned report, efp was never systematically evaluated – at least not by an independent research team. the aim of the book is therefore to uncover the factors that can help to explain how efp succeeded in scaling up from a small pilot project to a nationwide curriculum without any systematic independent impact evaluations, and in spite of its religious character. based on a critical analysis of the decisionin factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 97-99 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 98 making process, interviews with key policy-makers and the program contributors, as well as participant observations, tinker puts forth six elements that contributed to the program’s political success: (1) the novelty of peace education as a peace-building tool in post-conflict societies, (2) the desire for peace in war-torn bih, (3) the seeming correspondence between the program’s discourse and the objectives of the international community, (4) the unfamiliarity with the bahá’í faith, (5) the disconnect between efp’s content and the political process of its adoption, and (6) the lack of independent systematic evaluations – which, like the funder-commissioned report, would likely problematize some of the preceding elements. the book is structured in a clear and traditional manner. chapter 1 sets the stage, introducing the theoretical framework and methodological research design, as well as summarizing the main findings of the study. in chapter 2, tinker introduces the concept of peace education and discusses its potential utility in post-conflict settings. next, chapter 3 introduces the origins and philosophical underpinnings of the bahá’í faith given that the founding father of efp, h.b. danesh, is a bahá’í follower. the crucial role played by danesh’s faith in the shaping of efp is explained in chapter 4: the bahá’í faith laid the foundations of the efp worldview and determined the structures within which efp developed. from chapter 5 onwards, tinker takes the reader back in time and guides him/her through the underlying decision-making process that led to the mainstreaming of efp. this process started in 2000 with the introduction of a pilot project (chapter 5), and was subsequently scaled up as from 2002 (chapter 6). once it was consolidated at the primary and secondary levels, efforts were undertaken to integrate the efp project at the tertiary level (chapter 7). tinker’s book stands out in a number of ways. first of all, the perspective of the book is innovative within the literature on peace education: so far, relatively little studies have focused on the politics of mainstreaming peace education. second, tinker’s writings are bold and critical: while generally assumed to be in correspondence, she exposes the discrepancy between the program’s aims and the objectives of the international community, and problematizes the religious foundations of efp in the context of bih’s history of ethno-religious conflict. the theoretical chapter on peace education, thirdly, is truly elucidating. it offers a clear and to-the-point discussion of the concept, its limitations and its challenges. overall, the concise and clear style in which the book is written turn it into a pleasant and accessible read. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 97-99 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 99 while the rich description of efp contributes to the literature on peace education, its theoretical contribution remains rather underdeveloped. the book takes a hermeneutic-constructivist theoretical approach, which combines a hermeneutic epistemology with a constructivist framework. according to this framework, people’s ‘actions and beliefs are understood to be situated in, but not socially and culturally determined by, their inherent normative structures’ (3). whereas the framework, as explicated in the introduction, seems promising, it is further on not used to interpret and reflect on the research findings and results. on the empirical level as well, more could have been done. apart from document analysis, tinker conducted interviews with policy makers and efp program designers, and participated in one efp seminar. most interviews took place via email, however, limiting the possibility to probe and analyze non-verbal behavior. moreover, more extended participant observation could have provided for thicker information. also, in spite of the critical tone, the book itself misses at times some critical edge. the chapter on the bahá’í faith, for example, seems to be informed by very few sources and fails to critically discuss the religion and its underpinnings. lastly, while easy to read, the book arguably contains now and again too much factual information regarding the implementation of efp that is not relevant to the research question. in sum, the book could have gained from stronger theoretical reflections and more critical edge, omitting the nitty-gritty of logistic program details. education for peace: the politics of adopting and mainstreaming peace education programs in a post-conflict setting is among the first to analyze the politics of mainstreaming peace education, making it a must-read for scholars of peace education. furthermore, it is a valuable resource for policy makers, detailing the decision-making and implementation process of one of the oldest and largest peace education projects. the conclusions are eye-opening and call for rigorous evaluations and thorough reflection in the process of adopting and mainstreaming future peace education projects. whereas some readers may not hold their attention throughout the series of program details, peace education scholars and policy makers should make sure to read the insightful introductory and concluding chapters attentively. kus v8_2   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     189     volume  8  number  2  (2014):  189-­‐210   http://www.infactispax.org/journal   citizenship preferences of turkish parents regarding their children1 zafer kuş kastamonu university zaferkus@gmail.com durdane öztürk kastamonu university d.korkunc@hotmail.com özlem elvan kastamonu university ozlem_elvan_85@hotmail.com introduction citizenship is an issue which was discussed by plato and aristotle. but from the beginning of the 21st century in particular, in connection with changes in social, cultural and political areas,                                                                                                                           1 the study was presented at the international social studies symposium (2014), gazi university, ankara, turkey.   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     190   the number of both national and international studies on citizenship has increased rapidly (beiner 1999),2 caymaz,3 ersoy,4 kadioglu,5 kymlicka,6 marshal,7  osler & starkey,8 soysal,9 ustel.10 also, in some countries specific organizations related to the concept of “the citizen” have been founded and these groups have prepared reports on national and international levels (qualification and curriculum authority, 1998),11 council of europe,12 torney-purta, lehmann, oswald & schulz.13 in these studies and reports the concept of citizenship has been handled and defined differently. the concept of citizenship can simply be defined as legal status of the individual granted by a state or a people.14 according to pierson, citizenship is a positive legal status related to a number of rights and duties, which themselves have been shaped differently in different historical and national contexts. the british sociologist marshall15 accepts citizenship as the legal status granted to the members of a community and considers each owner of this status equal in terms of rights and responsibilities. when this traditional definition of citizenship is examined, it can be seen that citizenship is represented by institutions and practices that shape the reciprocal rights and responsibilities of the state and the individuals.16 recently, citizenship has gone through a transformation in terms of its relationship to identity, status and rights. in terms of status, the most obvious development in                                                                                                                           2 ronald, beiner., ed., why citizenship constitutes a theoretical problem in the last decade of twentieth century, in theorizing citizenship, (suny press, 1999). 3 birol, caymaz., türkiye’de vatandaşlık resmî i̇deoloji ve yansımaları. 2. baskı, i̇stanbul i̇stanbul (bilgi üniversitesi yayınları,2008) 4 arife f. ersoy, “sosyal bilgiler dersinde öğretmenlerin etkili vatandaşlık eğitimi uygulamalarına i̇lişkin görüşleri,” anadolu üniversitesi, eğitim bilimleri enstitüsü, sınıf öğretmenliği bilim dalı basılmamış doktora tezi: eskişehir, 2007. 5 ayşe kadıoğlu, vatandaşlığın dönüşümü üyelikten haklara (hz. a. kadıoğlu). vatandaşlığın ulustan arındırılması: türkiye örneği, (i̇stanbul: metis yayınları,2008) 6 will kymlicka, çokkültürlü yurttaşlık. (i̇stanbul: ayrıntı yayınları, 1998) 7 thomas h marshall, “citizenship and social class”, ed. by. dabid held, models of democracy, (second edition, oxford,u.k: polity press, 1994). 8 audrey osler and hugh starkey, changing citizenship: democracy and inclusion in education. (england: open university pres, 2005) 9 yasemin soysal n. changing citizenship in europe. remarks on postnational membership and the national state. in: d. cesarani and m. fulbrook (eds.) citizenship, nationality and migration in europe. (london; new york: routledge, 1996). 10 füsun üstel, “makbul vatandaş”ın peşinde ii. meşrutiyet’ten bugüne vatandaşlık eğitimi,” (i̇stanbul: i̇letişim yayınlar, 2004). 11 qualifications and curriculum authority. education for citizenship and teaching of democracy in schools. final report of the advisory group on citizenship. http://www.qca.org.uk/libraryassets/media/6123_crick_report_1998.pdf , 1998. 12 council of europe education for democratic citizenship: a lifelong learning perspective. 2000. 13judith torney-purta et all, citizenship and education in twenty-eight countries: civic knowledge and engagement at age fourteen. amsterdam, netherlands: the international association for the evaluation of educational achievement, 2001. 14 shirley h. engle. and anna s. ochoa, education for democratic citizenship: decision-making for the social studies. (new york, ny: teachers’ college press, 1988) 15 thomas h marshall, class, citizenship and social development, (university of chicago press, chicago and london, 1977). 16 tim hayward, “ecological citizenship: justice, rights and the virtue of resourcefulness,” environmental politics, 15 no,3 (2006): 435-446.     in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     191   the past half century has been the liberalization of access to citizenship by neutralising and/or removing ethnic and sexual barriers to naturalization. the inevitable result of this evolution of citizenship is its ethnic, racial and religious diversity as well as internal diversity. undoubtedly this brings about significant implications for the rights dimension of citizenship.17 turkey is also affected by this trend. in conjunction with the eu harmonization process the concept of citizenship in turkey is moving away from politics of nationality and is moving towards a transnational scope. kadioglu states that citizenship is defined in four different ways based on the politics of different states. these are citizenship as national identity or nationality (1), citizenship defined on the basis of documents (2), citizenship defined on the basis of rights (3), and citizenship defined on the basis of duties and responsibilities (4). citizenship as national identity or nationality as an understanding of citizenship dates back to the french revolution and sees the citizen as a member of nation-state. the notion of ‘citizenship based on documents’ is used with regard to some kinds of documents (passport, identity card) which determine the legal status of individuals. citizenship defined on the basis of rights represents an understanding of citizenship which is based on political and social rights. citizenship defined on the basis of duties and responsibilities represents a republican way of understanding referring to some kinds of duties in contrast to liberal tradition.18 beiner states that the current understanding of citizenship is based on three traditions,19 one of which is the liberal tradition. the liberal tradition emphasizes citizens’ rights and freedom. citizens are free to choose their own identities and commitments. the second tradition, the socialist approach, emphasizes group commitment rather than individuality. it also emphasizes national identity. the third tradition, a republican understanding, underlines the responsibilities to the society and the state. in the literature there are a number of different theories related to citizenship, but which understanding of citizenship applies in turkey? in his study durgun explicated the liberal and republican profiles and tried to uncover which one applied in turkey.20 according to durgun, liberal individualistic approaches grant the individual ontological, epistemological and ethical privilege, and define citizenship as a status on the basis of “rights”. it is possible to say that in the liberal type of citizenship individual rights are of first priority. “rights” are inherent parts of an individual because individuals precede the state which is responsible for providing individuals’ security and protecting them both ethically and logically since these are “natural” or “human” rights. the liberal type does not exclude duties such as military service or taxation, which are also of great importance in republican/communitarian idea of citizenship, but is concerned with the active participation of individuals in political and social fields within the framework of a civilization.21                                                                                                                           17 nilgün dağ, “vatandaşlığın niteliksel dönüşümü ve vatandaşlık eğitimi üzerine bir betimleme çalışması” eskişehir osmangazi üniversitesi sosyal bilimler dergisi. 13, no,1 (2012):105-118. 18 see kadıoğlu, vatandaşlığın dönüşümü üyelikten haklara. (emphasis added). 19 see osler and starkey, changing citizenship: democracy and inclusion in education. (emphasis added). 20 şenol, durgun, “cumhuriyetçi ve liberal anlayış çerçevesinde türkiye’de vatandaşlık sorunsalı,” çankırı karatekin üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü dergisi 1(2010): 65-­‐92. 21 ibid,68     in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     192   in the republican understanding, citizenship is not a status but a practice or action. certain requirements should be satisfied before a large-scale participation in the practice of citizenship is expected. the emphasis on practice leads to the emergence of the perception of “duty” in order for individuals to be accepted as citizens among other citizens. for this reason, it is a community-based understanding of citizenship and individuals are citizens as long as they are the members of a community. in this tradition citizenship is defined as having duties within and/or responsibilities to a group. because a republican approach starts from an understanding based on community, social bonds are not contractarian but rather depend on sharing and determining to lead a specific way of life. public service is very important in this tradition. individuals perceive themselves as citizens as long as they carry out acts of public service.22 liberal citizenship is based on universal liberal norms. republicanism shapes the concept of citizenship to create a specific group. without social and economic rights most of citizens remain passive or cannot use their political rights meaningfully and make informed choices.23 in turkey, civil, political and social rights were granted by the administration rather than gained through demands or social struggle. in this sense, the republic is still looking for how to create a true ‘national citizen’. the most obvious feature of how national citizenship is understood are loyalty and self-abnegation. the roots of this type of citizen go back to the final years of the ottoman empire and the first years of the turkish republic. the development of citizenship in turkey following world war i, the ottoman empire collapsed and most of the country was invaded. the struggle for independence under the leadership of mustafa kemal ataturk was successful and the turkish republic was declared on 29th october, 1923. after the declaration of the republic many reforms were made by ataturk. it can be clearly seen that in the first years of the republic the aim was to create loyal, good citizens with strong nationalistic feelings. the objective of the “civics course” given in schools was to create self-denying citizens who were respectful of national institutions. thus, citizenship went beyond the political and legal relationship between the state and the individual and was based on the turkish concept of commitment-self-abnegation-obedience (ustel; 2004).24 the “ethics of responsibility/duty” described in the course books in the first years of the republic developed into a discourse of “citizenship duties” which would never change during the republican period. the three main duties of the citizens are paying taxes, doing military service and obeying the laws. the ethical responsibility of this republican pedagogy was to shape the child’s ethical values and teach him/her to accept his/her duties.25 in this sense, it can easily be seen that in the first years of the republic the aim was to create individuals categorized within the republican/communitarian citizen type.                                                                                                                           22  ibid,70   23 ibid,68 24 see üstel, makbul vatandaş”ın peşinde ii. meşrutiyet’ten bugüne vatandaşlık eğitimi, 142(emphasis added). 25 ibid,222   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     193   the perception of citizenship changed between 1950 and 1980. in this period, political citizens emerged rather than an ethno-cultural understanding of citizenship. citizenship was liberated from its compulsory bonds with nationality, yet the expected transformation in terms of participatory citizenship did not emerge. after the 1980 coup, religion was also included as a significant component of citizenship. the “human rights and citizenship” course, which was included in the curricula towards the end of 1990 focused mostly on national security and prevented the emergence of a democratic, participatory and civil citizenship.26 after the foundation of the republic, and in subsequent years during the second constitutionalist period, schools were where the state placed its focus on creating the types of citizen.  citizenship training is therefore considered important in schools. schools played a central role in the modernisation of the society, and this opinion still prevails.27 all states want to produce a desirable citizen through education. for this purpose, a course or courses are included in the curricula. in countries such as the usa, australia, canada and turkey much of the information necessary for learning how to be a good citizen is acquired through social studies courses (ozturk, 2009), 28 ncss, 1994.29 in this context the main objective of a social studies course is to create active, participatory and democratic citizens within the society (avery,30 barr, barth & shermis,31 boyle-baise and goodman,32 stanley,33 ross,34 ochoa-becker35). addressing the problem recent changes in turkey have brought about a transformation in the type of citizen desired. the harmonization process with the eu, developments in science and technology, globalisation, and the results of academic studies have restructured the social studies curriculum.36 in the latest social studies curriculum the target is to create democratic, active, enterprising citizens with basic values and skills, who have nationalistic values as well as respect for universal values.                                                                                                                           26 ibid,241 27 ibid,127   28 cemil öztürk, sosyal bilgiler: toplumsal yaşama disiplinlerarası bir bakış. ankara: pegem a yayıncılık, 2009). 29 ncss, national council for the social studies., expectations of excellence: curriculum standards for the social studies. washington, dc: ncss. 1994. 30 patricia g. avery, social studies teacher education in an era of globalization. in s. adler (ed.), critical issues in social studies teacher education (greenwich, ct: information age publishing, 2004). 31 robert d. barr et al., defining the social studies (va: national council for the social studies, 1977). 32 lynne boyle-baise., jesse goodman. “the influence of harold o. rugg: conceptual and pedagogical considerations.” the social studies, 100, no.1 (2009). 33 william stanley, b. recent research in the foundations of social education: 1976-1983. in w. b. stanley (ed.), review of research in social studies education, 75 (pp. 309-397). washington d.c: national council for the social studies, 1985. 34 e. wayne ross, the social studies curriculum: purposes, problems, and possibilities (albany, state university of new york press, 2001). 35 anna s. ochoa-becker, democratic education for social studies: an issue-centred decision making curriculum greenwich, information age publishing, 2007. 36 meb, i̇lköğretim 1–5. sınıflar programları tanıtım el kitabı, (ankarameb yay,2005).   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     194   however, shaping citizens is not only a process related to schools and curricula. there are a number of factors, including the media, non-governmental organisations and society, that also affect citizenship education. apart from all these factors, one of the most important factors in citizenship education is family. family is the first social environment where children acquire basic knowledge, skills and values and attitudes. this environment is of great importance in citizenship education in terms of being a model of society as well as a source of information for children (hess and torney, 2006)37 ichilov.38 the child is prepared to enter society by acquiring family values within the family. in terms of social and ethical development the value structure of the child shows a strong parallelism to the value structure of the family.39 the desired citizen model is expressed in writing in schools and curriculum. however, it is often overlooked that what parents, who have a great importance regarding education of children, think. what kind of citizen model do parents want their child to up bring into? in this study parents were asked which citizenship profile they would predominantly want their child to acquire by starting off from the citizen types included in the social studies curriculum in turkey. method the research is quantitative research. it attempts to define the desired citizen type of parents who live in different cities of turkey by examining their views. study group families from different cities of turkey were chosen by maximum diversity sampling with matters of cultural richness forming the basis of maximum diversity source. for patton, creating a sampling which shows maximum diversity has two benefits: 1) the identification of the unique dimensions of each group in a detailed way. 2) the revelation of common themes and their values which may emerge in situations that show a great difference.40 for this purpose agri and van in east anatolia, kirsehir in central anatolia, diyarbakir and batman in southeast anatolia, mersin in the mediterranean, izmir in the aegean region, istanbul and edirne in the marmara region and kastamonu and samsun in the black sea region were chosen. 38-40 families from the above mentioned cities with different socio-economic statuses were identified and from these families one volunteer participant, either the mother or                                                                                                                           37 robert hess and judith torney, “the development of political attitudes in children.” (usa: transaction publishers, 2006). 38 orit ichilov, “family politicization and adolescents’ citizenship orientations.” political psychology, 9, (1988): 431-444. 39 arife f. ersoy, “mothers’ perceptions of citizenship, practices for developing citizenship conscience of their children and problems they encountered,” educational sciences: theory & practice 12 no. 3 (2012):2120-2124   40 michael quinn patton, how to use qualitative methods in evaluation. (california: sage publications, inc, 1987).   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     195   father, was included in the study. incomplete data were excluded and data from a total 330 families (30 from each city) were included in the study. 46% of participants were female (the mother) and 54% were male (the father). 33% of the parents were university graduates, 28% of them were high school graduates, 21% of them were primary school graduates and 12% of them were secondary school graduates. moreover, illiterate and postgraduate parents were also included. illiterate parents were helped to complete the data-collecting process. 50% of the families lived in city centres, 27% of them lived in town centres and 25% of them resided in villages. 27% of the parents were housewives, 20% of them were civil servants, 8% were tradesmen, 4% of them were labourers, 3% of them were police officers/soldiers, 2% of them were retired, 7% of them worked in private business and 7% of them were unemployed. other parents were doctors, lecturers, farmers and bankers. data collection tools data collected in quantitative studies show a variety of sources (observation notes, interviews, documents, pictures and other graphic presentations).41 in this study written answers given by the parents were evaluated. the data collection tool used in this study was a survey developed by the researchers and composed of two parts. questions related to personal information were in the first part. in the second part citizenship profiles taken from the social studies curriculum were sorted and parents were asked which citizenship they would prefer and why. kus analysed the current social studies curriculum which was revised in 2005 in turkey and sorted it into different citizenship profiles (democratic and active citizen, scientific citizen, enterprising citizen with economic awareness,   has strong values, well-informed and skilful citizen, patriotic citizen, global citizen and culturally-aware citizen).42 data analysis descriptive and content analysis of the quantitative research data was done. during the data analysis process the citizenship types desired by the parents were entered into the microsoft office excel program. by doing so, the order of precedence of citizen types in each city was determined. a content analysis of the parents’ written responses was done. statements related to each citizenship type in each city were identified separately. statements were used as a unit of analysis. an analysis of quantitative data was done in accordance with descriptive analysis. subcategories of the data were arranged and a conceptual structure was formed. then the frequency of each category was identified and quantitative data were converted to qualitative data. the aim of this conversion was to increase reliability, decrease bias and make comparisons between the categories. 43 sample: i want her/him to be aware of and interested in social problems and be socially sensitive.                                                                                                                           41 ali yıldırım ve hasan şimşek, nitel araştırma yöntemleri. (ankara: seçkin yayınları, 2005).   42 zafer kuş, what kind of citizen? analysis of social studies curriculum in turkey. (in submision). 43 see yıldırım ve şimşek, nitel araştırma yöntemleri. (emphasis added).   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     196   expressions category f aware of social problems democratic and active citizen 1 interested in social problems democratic and active citizen 1 social sensitivity democratic and active citizen 1 in order to see how many opinions were stated, total frequencies were presented in the data analysis. in some profiles parents stated more than one opinion and in some profiles they stated none. in the data interpretation parents’ opinions were quoted directly and parents’ names were coded, for example: is/1a/ first mother from istanbul, va./2b second father from van. role of researcher the data collected in this study was coded at different times by two researchers who specialise in citizenship and social studies education. this process took almost four weeks. the correspondence rate of the quantitative data analysis of the two researchers was 0.89 which means that the evaluators corresponded in terms of quantitative data analysis.44 findings table 1: parents’ views of the type of citizen they most want to raise                                                                                                                           44 hüner şencan. sosyal ve davranışsal ölçümlerde güvenilirlik ve geçerlilik. (ankara: seçkin yayıncılık, 2005)     in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     197   a gr i b at m an d iy ar ba ki r ed irn e is ta nb ul iz m ir m er si n k as ta m on u k irs eh ir sa m su n v an σ 1st p ri or ity democratic and active 18 12 16 12 14 19 13 12 13 12 16 157 has strong values 2 12 3 10 8 0 4 9 11 6 11 76 patriotic citizen 1 3 2 4 5 6 7 6 0 6 0 40 verbally communicative 2 2 4 3 1 4 2 2 4 1 0 25 thinks scientifically 1 1 5 2 0 2 3 0 1 2 1 18 ag bat diy edi ist izm mer kast kirs sam van σ 2nd p ri or ity thinks scientifically 14 7 11 0 8 16 10 6 9 8 7 96 verbally communicative 9 5 8 2 7 2 1 8 2 8 8 60 democratic and active 2 6 2 8 2 4 7 3 6 4 10 54 has strong values 2 3 4 8 4 4 4 5 3 3 3 43 patriotic citizen 1 0 0 7 5 1 3 4 7 2 0 30 ag bat diy edi ist izm mer kast kirs sam van σ 3rd p ri or ity verbally communicative 10 8 8 2 7 15 9 9 8 6 6 88 economically aware 5 2 4 3 2 0 4 8 2 4 4 38 scientific 1 3 2 5 2 4 2 5 6 0 7 37 patriotic citizen 3 1 3 4 6 6 0 1 6 4 3 37 has strong values 1 6 5 4 3 2 6 2 2 3 2 36 ag bat diy edi i̇st i̇zm mer kast kırs sam van σ 4th p ri or ity economically-aware 7 6 5 4 7 13 9 4 2 2 5 64 general knowledge/skills 5 4 6 5 3 3 5 9 3 1 3 47 patriotic citizen 5 4 3 4 3 4 3 3 6 9 1 45 scientific 1 4 2 3 4 3 5 4 2 7 7 42 has strong values 9 2 4 0 3 5 2 1 9 4 1 40 ag bat diy edi i̇st i̇zm mer kast kırs sam van σ 5th p ri or ity general knowledge/skills 5 6 6 4 8 13 8 7 7 0 7 71 has strong values 12 2 2 1 4 2 2 6 2 9 3 45 verbally communicative 3 4 7 3 2 2 2 2 3 7 8 43 aesthetically-minded 2 2 4 10 3 3 4 1 2 5 0 36 global citizen 6 3 2 3 1 0 5 1 3 0 4 28 as seen in table 1 parents primarily stated that they wanted to raise democratic and active citizens. izmir, agri, diyarbakir and van are the cities which chose democratic and active citizens above all. in batman, van, kirsehir, edirne, kastamonu the citizen who has strong values is the next most desired after the democratic and active citizen. the second most wished-for citizen type is citizen who can think scientifically. it is izmir that preferred this type most and edirne that liked this type least.   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     198   parents also stated that they wanted to raise patriotic citizens and literary citizens respectively. global and culturally-aware citizens were the least mentioned profiles. table 2: numerical tally of parents’ statements regarding the type of citizen they want to raise a gr ı b at m an d iy ar ba kı r ed irn e is ta nb ul iz m ir m er si n k as ta m on u k ırs eh ir sa m su n v an σ democratic and active 76 52 83 52 56 41 74 61 71 47 77 690 has strong values 44 42 66 51 50 38 28 51 44 52 50 516 verbally communicative 47 26 51 42 35 37 37 31 51 41 32 430 thinks scientifically 27 30 41 26 29 43 39 29 42 26 46 378 patriotic citizen 14 24 16 28 42 35 38 45 48 44 11 345 citizen with economic knowledge 25 22 18 19 21 33 37 43 27 23 18 286 general knowledge/skills 24 24 28 22 32 25 27 30 23 26 23 284 global citizen 10 13 11 11 7 4 13 2 9 2 11 93 aesthetically-aware citizen 6 11 17 8 8 2 10 1 3 9 14 89 other 1 1 3 6 5 1 1 0 4 2 5 29 σ 274 245 334 265 285 259 304 293 322 272 287 3140 as seen in table 2 the highest number of views (690) was expressed by the parents about democratic and active citizens. most statements were expressed on democratic and active citizen in cities such as diyarbakir, van, agri and mersin. the parents emphasised the concept of “rights” while expressing their opinions on the democratic and active citizen. they also emphasised “knowing and defending her/his own rights” (124) and “knowing human rights” (119). parents’ views on rights were as follows: my child as a citizen should know her/his rights, use these rights and respect other people’s rights (ed./6m). she /he should be a citizen who knows her/his responsibilities, makes her/his own choices and respect rights and freedom. also, i want to live in a world where all citizens are like this (me./14m). i want her/him to respect other people’s rights and to know and protect her/his own rights and to be aware of her/his own feelings and ideas. she/he should make decisions freely by taking their social impact into consideration (sa./3f). another concept emphasised by the parents in the democratic and active citizen category was “responsibility”. the statement “to know her/his responsibilities” was emphasised frequently (107).   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     199   parents’ statements relating to responsibilities were as follows: to me, my child should be aware of her/his responsibilities (ed./9m). i want my child to be a helpful person. i want her/him to know her/his responsibilities and respect human rights. i want her/him to know her/his duties to her/his nation and people (dy./23m). she/he should know her/his responsibilities. a responsible person helps people and the nation and does not get into trouble (sa./1m). parents established a relationship between being a democratic and active citizen and society. parents emphasised the child’s active participation in the society (83), being a helpful person (51), having a say in the society (18), being a well-adjusted individual (16), and being sensitive to society (9). their views on this were as follows: she/he should know how to gain a place in society. she/he should also be aware of the fact that each age has its own responsibilities, and other people have rights to be respected. in this way social harmony can be constructed (ki./16f.) as long as she/he defends democratic and active rights she/he can be an individual. for a better and happier society, each individual must be democratic and active (me/17m). she/he should be aware of her/his responsibilities and act accordingly, or else she/he cannot gain a place in society (sa./9m). i want her/him to know and be interested in social problems and to be socially sensitive. in order for her/him to be an individual, she/he should be a democratic and active citizen (va/2f). another point emphasised by the parents about democratic and active citizens was protecting their children. parents wanted their children to be conscious of themselves (18) and not to abuse themselves (8), to trust themselves (6) and not to surrender that trust to others. in terms of being respectful to differences parents’ views were as follows: it is important for her/him to be respectful (29), not to be discriminative (14) and to show empathy (3). i don’t want her/him to succumb to other people. she/he should know her/his own rights and be aware of herself/himself (ki./2m) she/he should state her/his own opinions and feelings, question society and be productive (me./6f) i don’t want my child to be silent like me and give up (me. 20/f). the statements in the category of democratic and active citizen were as follows: to be a democratic citizen (51), to have an understanding of citizenship (14), to live in a democratic country (10), to live in a democratic turkey (8), because the decision-making process is important in democracies (6), because of the need for democratic and active citizens (6) and to be aware of boundaries (3). the citizen with strong values   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     200   in the ‘citizen with strong values’ category parents emphasised the following concepts: honesty (57), respect (56), being helpful (53), tolerance (48), being hard-working (44), being fair (39), and love (27). being a free and independent individual (21) was emphasised least. parents views on values were as follows: i want to raise my child as a human being and i want her/him to be a citizen who has values. being human requires being honest and helpful (ka/3f). raising a respectful child means raising a qualified person with whom we can trust the society’s future. a respectful, honest and hardworking generation will be in a better place in the future (is./11m) parents linked values with society in their statements. the importance of having humane qualities (47), being beneficial to society (21), according with the basic values of the society (19), dismay at the disappearance of these values in the society (11), and the importance of living with human values (9) were among the parents’ statements. parents stated the following ideas about the importance of values and the loss of values: what makes a human being a human being are basic values. an honest and respectful person can succeed at anything. a person without humane qualities is not accepted in society even though she/he is successful (sa./16f). an individual who does not know or have mora and social values can never be happy. for this reason, it is important that she/he has values (va./29f) in our environment love and respect have been lost and our values and culture are being forgotten. people are more interested in the virtual world and social values are disappearing. for this reason, my child and other children should be aware of social values (ki//24f) some parents made explanations related to the child’s personal traits such as increase her/his self/confidence (4), be useful to herself/himself (3), improve herself/himself (2). some participants made a direct connection with religion by saying that these values were also important in their religion (11). it is important to have values in our religion, too. a real muslim should be honest, fair, tolerant and helpful (sa./2f) the verbally communicative citizen in the verbally communicative citizen category, parents mostly stated their views on communication. parents stated that children should be able to speak well/express their opinions clearly (135), communicate effectively (115), affect people with what they say (15), think correctly (4), and show empathy (3). they advanced the following arguments about the importance of communication and self-expression: one who can communicate effectively and express her/his opinions correctly can be successful. many negative events (both domestic and social) are caused by ineffective communication (ed./8m).   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     201   i want my daughter to speak and express herself well. she should be able to have an effect on people with what she says (dy./1a) one expresses oneself in the way one talks and acts. words and speech are the keystones of communication. people live in a society. speaking well, expressing oneself and understanding others are vitally important. thus, it is important for her/him to have a personality that can communicate well with words (ki/4m). another point emphasized in the verbally communicative citizen category was related to reading. parents dwelled on their children being literate (33), improving themselves by reading (27), loving to read (20), understanding the effect of reading and writing (16), being beneficial to people and being role models for society (4) they presented these views on the importance of reading: today, there are fights or murders because people do not communicate. reading is a must in our lives, it improves people (sa./27m) i want my child to read a lot of books, improve her/himself, affect people and write good books (sa/11a). the citizen who thinks scientifically in the citizen who thinks scientifically category parents mentioned science and technology as being necessities in our era. for instance, they expressed the following ideas within this category: to keep up-to-date (48), to use current technology (48), because technology is part of daily life (29), to follow technological developments (25), and to be successful (11). parents stated the following opinions on the importance of science and technology: we live in an era of science and technology: thus, unscientific information or rules are inapplicable. my child should know and follow these to keep up-to-date (is./1f.) since we live in an era of science, information is the centre of the world. given that science is the number one tool for creating wealth, science and technology are on course to become the most significant value (iz./25f). a further point emphasized in the scientific citizen category was related to science on its own, but here parents did not give details. to think scientifically (54), to be curious (29), to improve herself/himself via science (27), to use scientific research steps (23), to be interested in science (18), to make use of science (11) were examples given in this situation: it is important for her/him to be a scientific citizen. science and technology are developing day by day. she/he should know about these. (ag./11m) science and technology are the most important components of this century. being innovative and discovering something would be good both for her/him and the country (ag. 19f) scientific thinking is important. therefore, she/he should care about science and improve herself/himself. (ba./9f)   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     202   another point emphasized by the parents was producing works beneficial to her/his country (15) and humanity (21): scientific developments are important in terms of improving our country and being informed; therefore, she/he should produce and use the necessary technologies (ka./11f). we live in the era of science and technology. for this reason, my child as a citizen should come up with new inventions and benefit humanity and her/his own country by making use of technology (iz./12f). countries that do not take note of technology fall behind. if individuals attach importance to science, the country develops and everyone wins (ba./28f) the patriotic citizen in this category, parents used these phrases about the patriotic citizen: to support kemalist ideology (48) and because we are ataturk’s children (7) were the most commonly used phrases. the phrases related to the importance of ataturk in nationalistic feelings were as follows: she/he should know her/his past and how this country was founded. we owe ataturk many things. i want her/him to know and appreciate ataturk. if it weren’t for ataturk, we would not be here now (kas./7m). i want her/him to appreciate ataturk and embrace his reforms and principles. i want her/him to be a kemalist citizen (is./27m). one who does not know who died for this country and who does not love her/his land cannot be a patriotic citizen. for this reason, i want my child to be a patriotic citizen (sa. /11m) i want her/him to know the values and traditions of the society and improve her/his character in line with these (va./1b). another point emphasized in patriotic citizen category was national pride. the parents answered the question “why should she/he be proud to be a citizen?” as follows: it is important to be a proud citizen (131), so that she/he can know history (36), to embrace her/his country (43), to be useful to the society (18), to create a socially-cohesive nation (10), and because national pride is important (4). she/he should know, protect and develop the ethical and moral values of our society. i want her/him to love her/his family and nation and serve her/his nation (ki./1f) it is important to raise proud citizens in line with ataturk’s ideas. this is the fundamental thing which will make our country prosper (me./13f). i want my child to love her/his country and nation and learn the basics of turkish history and important people. this will connect her/him with the past (ag./7f). the citizen with economic knowledge   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     203   in this category parents elaborated mainly on two points, one of which was statements related to the child and the other of which related to the country’s economy. the statements related to the child were about the child’s living prosperously in the future as an enterprising individual. the most common desires expressed were to be enterprising (56), to know basic economic terms (28), to govern her/himself (26), to spend consciously (21), to use her/his knowledge as an investment (17), to run her/his family (14), to make her/his own living (13), to have economic rights and to be economically free (11), to create new job opportunities for herself/himself (9), and to be productive (8). statements related to the country’s economy were as follows: for the country’s economy to be strong (28), to derive profit for the country (21), and to know about the country’s economy (13): for her/his own future, she/he should know about basic economic terms and be enterprising because only in this way can she/he and the country survive (dy./29f). if she/he knows about the economy, she/he can make a living easily and create job opportunities for other people. by generating different ideas and realizing these, she/he can contribute to the country’s economy (ka/12m). the citizen with general knowledge and skills in this category parents talked about information rather than skills. the child’s knowing about her/his own country and general knowledge was particularly emphasized. she/he should know her/his country’s history (59), she/he should know her/his country’s geography (30), she/he should be a good citizen (17), she/he should know about her/his country (17), someone who does not know her/his past cannot know the future (10), she/he should take lessons from history (6) were among the statements parents made. regarding the students’ own personal knowledge parents said it was important to have general knowledge (54), to have basic information and skills related to social studies (48), to be hardworking and thus selfsufficient (17), to be able to make her/his life easier (15), to know about the world (4). parents said the following things about the importance of social studies: i don’t think that a person who does not know history can be a beneficial person. thus, i want to raise a person who knows history and about her/his country (is./19m). i want my child to be a knowledgeable person. she/he should have a say in society and know what is right or wrong. if she/he has the necessary knowledge and skills, she/he can express her/himself clearly. she/he can analyze things and can build a bridge between the past and future (me./30m). turkey is surrounded on three sides by the sea. for this reason, she/he should know the importance of our geographical location and the history and about areas of national beauty in our country (iz/28f). the global citizen   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     204   in this category parents said that their children should first of all know about the world. for example: she/he should know about other countries (22), she/he should follow the international news (21), the world is rather small at the moment (4), she/he should integrate into the world (3), she/he should be sensitive to the world (3), she/he should think globally (2). some parents said that by being a global citizen one’s level of general knowledge increases. for example, improving general knowledge (11), being more aware (4), improving one’s knowledge of a foreign language (4), being investigative (4), taking firm steps forward (1). other statements related to global citizenship were as follows: to know what other nations think about her/his country (4), because we have to live without any kind of discrimination (3), to love people (3), to have knowledge of her/his own country (3), to compare her/his country with other countries (2), not to judge people (1), to be of benefit to her/his own country (1). she/he should know not only about her/his own country but also other countries. she/he should know about international issues (iz./6f). individuals who do not know what is going on in turkey cannot protect their country. she/he should know about her/his country and follow what’s happening in the world (me./4f) it is not enough for a person to know her/his country’s history or geographical location. i want her/him to know some things about other countries (ba./22f). in a world where science and technology is developing every day and in an era when the world is becoming smaller i want my child to know about other countries’ cultures and economies and to shape her/his future. (me./5f) the world is not only composed of turkey. i want my child to know a foreign language, to know about other cultures and understand her/his own values (me./9m). the aesthetically-minded citizen in this category parents talked about the aesthetic and cultural feelings of their children, and the importance of having these feelings and behaving with aesthetic sensitivity (35). another point emphasized in this topic was art. parents talked about giving importance to art (18) and being interested in art (17). other explanations related to culture were as follows: to reveal her/his feelings (9), to love life (8), to improve visual intelligence (1), and to protect historical artefacts (1). here are the statements of the parents related to aesthetic citizen: art is enjoyable. i want my child to enjoy it and to develop aesthetic ideas and an aesthetic spirit (dy./24m) to me, every citizen should have a hobby because a person interested in art is sensitive and has cultured feelings and does not hurt people (me/29f).   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     205   she/he should understand art and be a kind and respectful person. in this way she/he can have real artistic feelings (ag./25m). the other citizen in the other citizen category parents mostly talked about the religious citizen. they stated that they wanted to raise a child who practiced her/his religion and cared about moral values (29). i want to raise her/him up as an individual who practices religion perfectly (is./14m). i want to raise a child who is aware that she/he is religious because a person who does not love god cannot be a useful person (va./13m). results and discussion parents in turkey stated that they wanted to raise their children as democratic and active citizens primarily. while sharing their opinions, parents elaborated on the concepts “rights and responsibility”. moreover, they identified a strong relationship between the society and being a democratic and active citizen. although parents would prefer their child to be a democratic and active individual, it can also be seen that they favoured the concepts “responsibility and benefit of society”. it can be seen that this situation is closer to favouring the republican/socialist citizen, rather than the republican/socialist and liberal and individualistic citizen which durgun stated in his study.45 in the republican/socialist citizen type there is a society-based understanding of citizenship and in this tradition citizenship is expressed by duties and/or responsibilities to the group.46 when the results of this study are examined, it is seen that parents emphasize their children’s being active and aware of their responsibilities for the benefit of society. this has been the desired situation in turkey since the first years of the turkish republic. in ustel’s study, in which he researched the concept of the acceptable citizen from the political reforms made in the ottoman state in 1839 to the present day, he stated that citizenship training courses had changed their name over the years but the main aim of these courses was to form self-denying citizens who were respectful to national institutions and who know their duties, and to shape the child’s ethical values and make her/him accept her/his duties. ustel concluded that the understanding of citizenship in turkey lacks civil and participaticipatory dimensions and aims for passive obedience and conformism.47 this study shows that the turkish parents’ perception citizenship is similar to beiner’s socialist and republican approaches because groups are seen as more important than the individual in the socialist and republican approaches and responsibilities to the society and state are emphasized over individuals.48 a number of recent studies in different countries related to citizenship and citizenship profiles stand out in this regard.                                                                                                                           45 see durgun, “cumhuriyetçi ve liberal anlayış çerçevesinde türkiye’de vatandaşlık sorunsalı,” (emphasis added). 46 ibid, 70. 47 see üstel, “makbul vatandaş”ın peşinde ii. meşrutiyet’ten bugüne vatandaşlık eğitimi,” (emphasis added). 48 see osler and starkey, changing citizenship: democracy and inclusion in education. (emphasis added).     in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     206   in the study carried out in 28 countries by the international association for the evaluation of educational achievement (iea) it was found that the most important characteristics 14-yearold students wanted a citizen to have was to obey laws and be loyal to the nation. the least important feature they wanted a citizen to have was joining a political party and political discussions. students from chile, colombia, greece, cyprus, poland and romania emphasized traditional citizenship whereas students from italy, norway, portugal and the usa emphasized social-active citizenship. secondary school students from countries such as cyprus, denmark, estonia and sweden preferred traditional citizenship, but the same age group in denmark, russia and sweden preferred social/active citizenship.49 in their study conover, crewe and searing researched the perception of citizens related to the nature of citizenship in the usa and britain and found that adults in the usa perceived citizenship mostly as having the responsibility to vote and a commitment to rights and responsibility. adults from britain emphasized participation in the social life. elements of liberal and traditional citizenship were seen in perception of citizenship of both countries’ citizens.50 in this study the “citizen with strong values” is one of the types of citizen parents predominantly desire. in the “citizen with strong values” category parents emphasized honesty, respect, being helpful, tolerance, being hardworking and fair, and love. being a free and independent individual was emphasized less. in their explanations parents emphasized society and talked about the benefits to society. in the study “world values research culture map” carried out by inglehart and welzel, turkey stands in the traditional values and survival values part.51 in ersoy’s study it was found that mothers describe a good citizen mostly as a good person who has ethical values such as honesty, being responsible and respectful and loyal to the country, and that these mothers try to instil their children with these values so as to raise up good citizens.52 in many studies carried out in turkey it has been found that families cared more about social values than individual values (gungor, 1993),53 kus, merey, karatekin.54 this study shows that the “patriotic citizen” is among the predominantly desired citizen types. in explanations of what a patriotic citizen is, kemalist ideology prevails. for turkish society mustafa kemal ataturk is a significant and indispensable leader. in world war i the ottoman empire was invaded and ataturk won the war of independence and founded the turkish republic in 29 september 1923. for this reason, parents want the new generation to know about ataturk and embrace the kemalist ideology as a citizen. in the 1982 constitution act                                                                                                                           49 jo-ann amadeo et al., “civic knowledge and engagement: an iea study of upper secondary students in sixteen countries.” amsterdam: international association for the evaluation of educational achievement (iea). (2002). 50 pamela johnston conover et al., the nature of citizenship in united states and great britain. journal of politics, 53 no.3 (1991). 51 ronald inglehart,; welzel, christian. modernization, cultural change, and democracy: the human development sequence. (new york and cambridge: cambridge university press, 2005). 52 see ersoy, “mothers’ perceptions of citizenship, practices for developing citizenship conscience of their children and problems they encountered,” (emphasis added). 53 erol güngör, değerler psikolojisi. (amsterdam hollanda türk akademisyenler birliği vakfı yayınları, 1993). 54 zafer kuş et al. “the value preferences of the parents in turkey towards their children,” journal of social science education, 13 no, 3 (2014).   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     207   kemalist nationalism and turkish nationalism were used as synonyms.55 in the social studies curriculum kemalist ideology was discussed in a separate part and the explicit aim was to teach it the students. to educate patriotic citizens who know about turkish culture and history is among the main objectives of social studies in turkey.56 this study demonstrates that ataturk’s nationalism is a state policy that has been embraced by society and that parents want to raise their children in line with this ideology. the second most desired citizen type was the “citizen who thinks scientifically”. in this category parents mentioned the necessity of technology and science, and made general statements related to science. they also stated that their child should be interested in science in order to better serve the country and its people. in the “verbally communicative citizen” category parents talked about communication skills. they wanted their children to express themselves clearly, to speak well and to have effective communication skills. furthermore, parents stated that their children should read books and love reading books. in the category “citizen with economic knowledge” parents emphasized two points, one of which was related to the child and the other which was related to the country’s economy. they wanted their children to be enterprising and have a job in the future. they also emphasized that the country’s economy should be strong. the last citizen types were the “global” and “aesthetically-minded” citizen. in the “global citizen” category parents mentioned that their children should be aware of the wider world. in the “aesthetically-minded citizen” category parents talked about their children’s aesthetic feelings and the importance of art. it has been seen in other studies in turkey that the aesthetic value which does not stand in survival values was the last mentioned profile by the parents and teachers (acun, yucel, onder and tarman, 2013),57 gungor,58 sari,59 karatekin, et all,60 kus, et all.61 in lights of all these results, it can be seen that parents generally highlight public interest and responsibility towards society with high regard. the need for child to be independent as an individual is generally not expressed. also we see that parents generally favor their children to become a “nationalist” citizen rather than a “global” citizen. all these results show that parents want to raise their children as “republican/national socialist” citizens. in terms of                                                                                                                           55 hasan tunç ve faruk bilir, “cumhuriyet dönemi anayasalarımızda milliyetçilik anlayışı ve atatürk milliyetçiliği,” gazi üniversitesi hukuk fakültesi dergisi, 1, no:1 (1998). 56 see kuş, “what kind of citizen? analysis of social studies curriculum in turkey,” (emphasis added).   57 i̇smail acun et all., ”değerler: kim ne kadar değer veriyor?” uşak üniversitesi sosyal bilimler dergisi, 6, no.1 (2013). 58 see güngör, değerler psikolojisi. (emphasis added). 59 e. sarı, “öğretmen adaylarının değer tercihleri”. değerler eğitimi dergisi, 3, no, 10, (2005) 73–88. 60 kadir karatekin et all. “öğrenci, sosyal bilgiler öğretmen adayi ve öğretmenlerinin değer hiyerarşisi”. adiyaman üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü dergisi yil : 6 no: 14 (2013). 61 see kuş et all. “the value preferences of the parents in turkey towards their children,” (emphasis added).     in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     208   turkish democracy, it can be said that these results are the desired model of citizenship since the beginning of the republic of turkey (1923) and are parallel to those stated in social studies curriculum. bibliography acun, i̇smail., yücel, cemil., önder, ahmet., and tarman, bülent. ”değerler: kim ne kadar değer veriyor?” uşak üniversitesi sosyal bilimler dergisi, 6, no.1 (2013):  191-206. amadeo, jo-ann, torney-purta, judith., lehmann, rainer., husfeldt, vera., & nikolova, roumiana. civic knowledge and engagement: an iea study of upper secondary students in sixteen countries. amsterdam: international association for the evaluation of educational achievement (iea). 2002. avery, patricia. g. social studies teacher education in an era of globalization. in s. adler (ed.), critical issues in social studies teacher education, greenwich, ct: information age publishing, 2004:37-57. barr, robert d., barth, james. l., & shermıs, samuel. s. defining the social studies. va: national council for the social studies, 1977. beiner ronald., ed., why citizenship constitutes a theoretical problem in the last decade of twentieth century, in theorizing citizenship, suny press, 1999. boyle-baise, lynne., goodman, jesse. “the influence of harold o. rugg: conceptual and pedagogical considerations.” the social studies, 100, no.1 (2009): 31-40. caymaz, birol. türkiye’de vatandaşlık resmî i̇deoloji ve yansımaları. 2. baskı, i̇stanbul: i̇stanbul. bilgi üniversitesi yayınları, 2008. cohen, louis., manion, lawrence., and morrison, keith. research methods in education. new york: routledge, 2007. conover, pamela j., crewe, ivor m., and searing, donald. d. the nature of citizenship in united states and great britain. journal of politics, 53 no.3 (1991): 800-832. council of europe education for democratic citizenship: a lifelong learning perspective. 2000. http://www.okm.gov.hu/letolt/nemzet/eu/education%20for%20democratic%20citizens hip.pdf. dağ, nilgün. “vatandaşlığın niteliksel dönüşümü ve vatandaşlık eğitimi üzerine bir betimleme çalışması” eskişehir osmangazi üniversitesi sosyal bilimler dergisi. 13, no,1 (2012):105-118. durgun, şenol. “cumhuriyetçi ve liberal anlayış çerçevesinde türkiye’de vatandaşlık sorunsalı,” çankırı karatekin üniversitesi sosyal bilimler enstitüsü dergisi 1(2010): 65-­‐92 engle, h. shirley, and ochoa, s. anna, education for democratic citizenship: decision making in the social studies. new york: teachers college press, 1988 ersoy, a.figen., “sosyal bilgiler dersinde öğretmenlerin etkili vatandaşlık eğitimi uygulamalarına i̇lişkin görüşleri, anadolu üniversitesi, eğitim bilimleri enstitüsü, sınıf öğretmenliği bilim dalıi basılmamış doktora tezi: eskişehir, 2007.   in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 189-210 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     209   ersoy, a. figen. “mothers’ perceptions of citizenship, practices for developing citizenship conscience of their children and problems they encountered,” educational sciences: theory & practice 12 no. 3 (2012):2120-2124 güngör, erol.. değerler psikolojisi. amsterdam: ;(hollanda türk akademisyenler birliği vakfı yayınları, 1993. hayward, tim. “ecological citizenship: justice, rights and the virtue of resourcefulness,” environmental politics, 15 no,3 (2006): 435-446. hess, d. robert., and torney, judith “the development of political attitudes in children.” (usa: transaction publishers, 2006. ichilov, orit. 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(in submission). stanley, william. b. recent research in the foundations of social education: 1976-1983. in w. b. stanley (ed.), review of research in social studies education, 75 (pp. 309-397). washington d.c: national council for the social studies, 1985. şencan, hüner. sosyal ve davranışsal ölçümlerde güvenilirlik ve geçerlilik. ankara: seçkin yayıncılık, 2005. torney-purta, judith., lehmann, rainer., oswald, hans. and schulz, wolfram. citizenship and education in twenty-eight countries: civic knowledge and engagement at age fourteen. amsterdam, netherlands: the international association for the evaluation of educational achievement, 2001. tunç, hasan ve bilir, faruk. “cumhuriyet dönemi anayasalarımızda milliyetçilik anlayışı ve atatürk milliyetçiliği”. gazi üniversitesi hukuk fakültesi dergisi, vol:1, no:1.(1998): üstel, füsun. “makbul vatandaş”ın peşinde ii. meşrutiyet’ten bugüne vatandaşlık eğitimi.” i̇stanbul: i̇letişim yayınları. 2004. yıldırım, ali. ve şimşek, hasan. nitel araştırma yöntemleri. ankara: seçkin yayınları, 2005. simon volume 10 in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 29-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 29 volume 10 number 1 (2016): 29-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review the language of peace, communicating to create harmony, edited by rebecca l. oxford. a volume in the series: peace education, editors laura finley & robin cooper, information age publishing, 2013, 355pp.us $39.09 (soft cover), us $73.09 (hardcover), isbn 1623960940 reviewed by mumbua simon the united nations mandated university for peace msimon@doctorate.upeace.org editors note: this review is one in a series co-published by the global campaign for peace education and in factis pax: journal of peace education and social justice toward promoting peace education scholarship. these reviews are of information age publishing’s peace education series. established in 2006 by founding editors ian harris and edward brantmeier, iap’s peace education series offers diverse perspectives on peace education theory, research, curriculum development and practice. it is the only series focused on peace education offered by any major publisher. click here to learn more about this important series. the language of peace, communicating to create harmony is divided into four parts each with varied chapters. part one runs through four chapters; the first chapter dedicated to detailing six principles that lead to a discovery of a language of peace. the first principle outlines the belief that peace is attainable. citing several sources of evidence including the seville statement on violence (1986), this first principle contrasts a contention from some experts that peace is impossible due to a biologically inherited aggressive nature in both humans and animals. the other five principles briefly include: human beings can/must decide to choose peace; the verbal and non verbal forms of peace language; the multiple dimensions addressed by peace language ranging from inner, interpersonal, intergroup; and the language of peace is not always simple. combined, in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 29-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 30 these six principles offer a comprehensive framework through which to postulate the possibility of peace through language. the language of peace is put into action in chapter two. three peace processes are identified: peacekeeping, peacemaking and peacebuilding. among the three actions, peacebuilding is given more focus in the discussion and six strategies for peace identified. these six strategies include peace through: strength, justice, politics, sustainability, education, and transformation. the background of non-violent action and virtues employed by some known non-violent leaders, such as gandhi and dr. martin luther king jr., are elaborated and a brief history of peace studies and peace research from the 1950s introduced. conflict is discussed in detail in chapter three: its definition; key aspects, and root causes including needs, interests, identity, values and actions are introduced. the author, oxford, then provides some key elements in a conflict mapping and common conflict styles for example, refusing to get involved, compromising, and collaboration. the last chapter in part one elaborates on violence putting it into five clusters: genocide, war, terrorism, misogyny, and bullying. in each of these strata, the foundation of the society is wounded. part two covers four chapters that avail tools for transforming a society wounded and torn by conflict and violence. the major tool used here is `discourse`language in action (p. 147). using critical discourse analysis, oxford categorically pierces through the “i have a dream” speech of dr. king jr. to show how the speech was/is pregnant with peaceful communication. she further analyzes peace poetry and visual images in chapters six and seven respectively with questions to stimulate ideas and discussions about peace to learners. the last chapter of part two compares and contrasts war and peace journalism, and circus versus balanced journalism, where she posits that war and circus journalism have a `civic responsibility not to throw gasoline onto a small fire` (p. 239). oxford then offers some tips to help strike a balance: the use of proportionality, avoiding publication of hate-mongering material, analyzing the causes and outcomes and not just reporting the first impression. according to her, modern social media such as twitter, facebook and youtube could offer peace or violence. she contends they are a tool for peace if they examine the many sides of an issue and allow many voices to be heard, and a tool for violence if it portrays images with potential to stimulate revenge. part three explains the use of verbal and non-verbal languages. the first chapter in this section defines the process involved in using language to create enemies and some metaphoric names used to describe them (enemies) barbaric, death. citing reasons for creating enemies, oxford highlights some dangerous steps towards creating enemies that overlap with the stages of genocide. she advocates forsome transformative uses of language in order to create unity and understanding but not enemies. to this end she explores the communication skills used by two dominant cultures collectivism and in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 29-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 31 individualism. these are compared and contrasted in depth and mechanisms to improve them in order to create harmony are addressed. the last chapter in this section counts on understanding body language and gestures from diverse cultures as a good effort towards creating unity and harmony among different cultures. peace educators are commissioned to make this happen through teaching. the final chapter of the book then gives a summary of how professionals including johan galtung and linda groff perceive peace as a multidimensional concept and the absence of various forms of violence respectively. importantly, the author touches on areas never thought of in chapter 11, such as body language. this chapter deals with a common yet often overlooked source of conflict. furthermore, at the end of each chapter, the author provides exercises and ideas for peace educators to draw from in their peace teaching, thus the book offers some practical examples for teachers to draw on. also, one area for improvement would be for peacemaking and peacekeeping to be given more attention in the discussion. these areas of peace work help stop the escalation of violence, so perhaps they should receive as much attention as peacebuilding. finally, the book is a vital contribution to the literature in the field. it is not only a book for peace educators but also for peace studies teachers and students. the book is pregnant with conflict and conflict resolution research and teaching suggestions, and would be a useful companion for new and old peace scholars and practitioners alike. references oxford r. l. 2013.the language of peace, communicating to create harmony. a volume in peace education.charlotte: information age. spanish national commission. (1986). seville statement on violence. seville, spain: unesco microsoft word ifp v 17 ruppel et al (1).docx volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 109 volume 17 number 1 (2023): 109-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 supporting local actors in times of conflict: the civil peace service and its various actors samantha ruppel peace research institute frankfurt, frankfurt, germany ruppel@hsfk.de german institute of development and sustainability (idos), bonn, germany samantha.ruppel@idos-research.de orcid: 0000-0001-8232-0996 bernd rieche aktionsgemeinschaft dienst für den frieden, bonn, deutschland / germany rieche@friedensdienst.de t. debey sayndee kofi annan institute for conflict transformation, monrovia, liberia tsayndee@umich.edu, peacebuilderlr@gmail.com orcid: 0000-0003-1579-5224 christoph schlimpert former cps worker and officer at a german cps organization, cologne, germany christophschlimpert@gmail.com orcid: 0000-0001-8622-0247 maría requena lópez freelance trainer in the area of peacebuilding, berlin, germany volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 110 mrequena.lopez@yahoo.com daniela pastoors international fellowship of reconciliation deutscher zweig e.v., minden, deutschland daniela.pastoors@uni-marburg.de abstract in the last years, the number of articles that have been calling for a stronger influence of local actors in conflict transformation and peacebuilding has been steadily increasing. at the practical level of peace-work, we can already find some examples where the local actors play an important role in the peace processes. this cooperative work can be found for example in the german civil peace service (cps) that is working in (post-) conflict countries with the aim of involving and working together with local actors in local peace processes. this article reflects on this cooperation and looks into the following questions: how can partnership in peacebuilding look like? what role do power-asymmetries play in the work of the cps? and what do people working in the area of cps need and what do they do? to answer these questions, the article uses the unique method of storytelling in order to combine voices from cps-actors as well as researchers in order to discuss different perspectives and answers to this question. the article will introduce the cps, its history, and forms of cooperation, will speak about chances and limitations for both local actors as well as german peace workers during the cooperation but also in their training and accompaniment and will close with recommendations for peace work that aims to cooperate with local actors. keywords: peacebuilding, storytelling, local, civil peace, conflict transformation introduction social sciences among other disciplines and the people working in the area of peacebuilding call for a stronger influence of actors from the global south and their local knowledge in conflict transformation (mac ginty and richmond 2013) and there are calls for an “everyday peace” (mac ginty 2014, p. 551). still, actors from the global north continue to play an important role in the peace processes (paffenholz 2015). by looking into the various cooperatives and partnerships between the actors involved in peacebuilding, it becomes important to analyze power structures, the relationship between local peacebuilders and external supporters as well as the logic behind changes within peacebuilding research (chandler 2015; ruppel 2021). still, there are no clear volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 111 answers to the first question of how partnership in peacebuilding could look like and the second question about the role of power. therefore, this article brings together researchers and practitioners working on conflict and global-local interactions to show and discuss different perspectives and answers to this question. with the help of these various perspectives, this article aims to answer the third question on what actors working in the area of cps need to carry out their work. the article focuses on the german civil peace service (cps), that is acting worldwide in (post-)conflict countries with the aim of working together with local actors in local peace processes and promoting a “local people’s peace” (paffenholz 2011, p. 11). the cps is carried out by nine german organizations, each with slightly different approaches, but they all work together with local partner organizations (pos) and seconded personnel from germany.1 this article provides insights and reflection on research on the cps, especially its history and relevance, the topic of staff care and interactions of actors, and combines them with reflections from practitioners. compared to traditional peacebuilding interventions which are mostly designed and implemented with a rather top-down approach, the cps, with its close day to day interaction and joint planning and implementation of international cpsworkers and local partners, can be seen as an innovative way of how partnership in peacebuilding can look like. therefore, examining case studies of the cps’ work can contribute to answer the questions raised. the article itself tells five different stories of the cps that complete each other and show a mosaic of approaches to the cps. using knowledge from field research and introspections from people working with and for the cps this article uses the method of storytelling – a method that is often used within the cps and is well known as a peacebuilding method (bush et al. 2011). the storytellers themselves offer different perspectives from within and outside germany, from practitioners and scholars, and cover the different questions that are important for them in their own work. in the case of this article, the method of storytelling aims to give insights into the cps and to give the authors (who wrote the individual stories and selected references) the chance for elaborations on their understanding and experience with a certain focus on their research and work. the method helps to reflect the authentic experience of the individual authors and the different sections are told like a traditional story to utilize the narrative approach as a good way to explain complex settings (polletta et al. 2011). therefore, the method of storytelling can help to give answers to research questions and the stories can play an “active role in the development and evaluation of hypotheses” (geleman and basbøll 2014, p. 548) in social science. the stories all highlight different vital aspects of conflict transformation work. elaborating on these different aspects help to explore the field of the cps 1 for a more detailed explanation of the cps see ruppel 2023. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 112 but doesn’t aim to necessarily comparison the topics. the article starts with a story about peacework in germany and describes some of the grassroots of the cps and will reflect on what the cps is still missing in order to have a true partnership. to look into the cooperatives of the cps, the article will then examine different levels of cooperation between cps-actors. for this part, examples outside of germany have been chosen, as this is where the cps is implemented. the storytellers work in liberia and sierra leone. these two countries have been chosen, as a variety of cps-projects is implemented there as well as they have a long history in peace cooperation. the last two stories will focus on the training and preparation of peaceworkers. at the end, the article will reflect on the inputs and answers to the research questions of the various stories and combines them in recommendations for the cps and peace work in general. 1. “peace service for my country and for your country”2 i intend to tell you the story of peace service in east and west germany. i will stress how it influenced the idea of the cps and how my biography is connected with it. i will also reflect (in my personal view) on what the cps is still missing in order to become a true peace service in partnerships. the idea of peace services started 100 years ago. in 2020, we celebrated 100 years of the “workcamp” idea, which started as a reconciliation project between the french and german people after world war i (berndt 2008). after wwii, the action reconciliation service for peace3 was founded through a declaration of the recognition of guilt for the nazi crimes by members of the synod of the protestant church in germany in 1958. the organization started to send young voluntary germans to countries in eastern europe and north america, as well as israel, which have suffered under german fascism. this service was a gesture to ask for reconciliation. later on, after the construction of the wall between east and west germany, action reconciliation service had to split up into two branches. the west branch continued with long-term voluntary service; the east branch had to reduce their activity to “workcamps” that typically lasted three weeks. at the same time organizations like the world peace service and eirene – international peace service were founded to foster partnerships with the global south, and to send people to work in these countries. later on, this was done using the legal framework of development service.4 in 1961 the westgerman “zivildienst” started – the civil service for conscientious objectors as an alternative to military service. some organizations organized it as an international voluntary peace service. some of these organizations were among 2 reflections on the history of civil peace service by bernd rieche, cps expert at agdf. 3 https://www.asf-ev.de/de/english/about-us/history/. 4 https://www.entwicklungsdienst.de/ueber-uns/struktur/geschichte/ volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 113 the founding organizations of the agdf, the action committee for peace, an umbrella organization of peace service. in east germany, compulsory military service was also reinstated in the early 60ies. conscientious objectors refused it, so the unique construct of socalled building soldiers was installed. they were soldiers in the army without a weapon. the building soldiers community became a melting pot for oppositional thinking.5 friendships that had started there became an important part of the opposition against the socialist regime in east germany. yet, because it was still a military service, in the 80ies, a group of young christians started to campaign for a social peace service as a substitute. this movement was unsuccessful at the time and some of the early activists were prosecuted or even arrested (bürger 2013). the peace services mentioned above were important for my own path. i was born in 1970 and grew up in east germany. i was 16 when i first met with young people from abroad for a couple of weeks during a “workcamp” with action reconciliation (east). one year later i participated in a “workcamp” where we cleaned up foot paths in a former concentration camp and national memorial. later that year, i got the chance to take part in the only peace demonstration ever in east germany at which the emblem “swords into ploughshares” was shown officially. this was at the “olof palme peace march”, the only peace action in east germany organized jointly by action reconciliation, oppositional church groups and the fdj – the communist youth organization (bürger 2013). in east germany, the protestant church was generally in opposition to the east german state and provided shelter for oppositional groups, including peace or environmental circles (rieche and weingardt 2008). it was the only space where a youngster like me could discuss freely, for instance, becoming a building soldier or even totally objecting to military service and facing getting arrested. initially, i intended to do normal military service as a precondition to be able to attend university. yet, in the end i became a building soldier where i luckily became part of the peaceful dissolution of the army in 1989/1990. in retrospect, i understood that the support and the substantial funding of the protestant church of east germany by the church of west germany without any preconditions was a very helpful and needed service. this changed after the reunification, when financial support was tied to implementing the west german state-church system.6 5 http://www.gesellschaft-zeitgeschichte.de/geschichte/bausoldaten-in-der-ddr/ 6 https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/de/recherche/dossiers/198990-friedlicherevolution-und-deutsche-einheit/deutsche-einheit-und-kirchen volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 114 these stories of peace service in east and west germany illustrate one of the roots of the cps among others.7 in the late 90ies, i was active in the friedenskreis halle, a peace group that we founded in 1990. several colleagues and i started a project in bosnia. at the time we started it without a local partner organization (po) because after the war in bosnia, there was no independent partner that had not been involved in one or the other war parties. in the beginning, we started supporting bosnian refugee families living abroad. after the end of the war in 1996, we started with volunteers to build up a youth centre in the small town of jajce. some years later, in 2000, this became one of the first cps-projects. this change gave us the possibility to fund long-term qualified volunteers and to employ locals in the project. the cps project ended after three years, but still to this day, there is an ongoing exchange of young volunteers and the project developed into a true partnership. being part of this project and also later on from the cps colleagues i learned how important partnership is. and still today with any new project, it is always an important question what kind of local partner you can find, and you may collaborate with. especially in post war times, when structures, institutions and organizations have to be developed again. always ask yourself: is your partner only there because you are there? 1.1 what can the cps learn from this story? the cps has a long and successful history. the story clearly shows how political circumstances as well as individual organizations have shaped the cps over time as well. time has shown how important partnership and support is, but we know how easily partnership can drift into dependence. we all need partners who are able to support us with another perspective from the outside which also often means from abroad. we strongly need it in germany too, as we have conflicts for example with neo-nazis or about the topic of migration and they also turn into open violence. due to its mandate and funding by the federal ministry for economic cooperation and development, the german cps can only send people abroad and not host peace experts from abroad in projects in germany. just, know there is a new opportunity to also invite people, their work still has to be aimed at the countries in the south, an area of the cps that needs to be explored further. another vision of extending the partnerships is, that the german cps will become a part of a worldwide peace service, of a network of organizations that send people abroad to support peace work between partners. from germany, we could for example invite experts from burundi and myanmar and at the same time send qualified volunteers into these countries. at the same time a space where all sides can exchange experiences and learn from each other will be important. to summarize the story and the lessons learned it can be said that peace work is especially helpful for partnerships at eye level, because it mainly needs people with their experience 7 https://www.entwicklungsdienst.de/ueber-uns/struktur/geschichte/ volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 115 and knowledge and it doesn´t need much technical supply. but there is still a long way to go. 2. “the civil peace service from the insight: a view from a liberian partner organization”8 liberia, as a post-conflict country has a variety of local and international actors that are working on the topic of peace. one of them is the kofi annan institute for conflict transformation (kaict), which is a partner of the cps. it is a semi-autonomous unit of the university of liberia, where i am working. the catholic bishop of the diocese of cape palmas, liberia, informed me about the cps and encouraged me to apply on behalf of kaict for a cps-worker to support what he referred to as “a great work of nation-building”. this application was reviewed by the country-coordinator of cps. we began our cooperation with the cps in 2008. our application was successful, and the first cps-worker joined in 2010. from this time on, a long-drawn cooperation developed, with three cps-workers having been seconded to kaict. the first cps-worker was seconded to kaict for three years and was reappointed but had to be evacuated in the first year of the second term due to the ebola virus disease outbreak in liberia (perry and sayndee 2016). the second cps-worker was seconded in 2016 and stayed six years. the third cps-worker started with us in early 2022 for an initial three-year term. these changes of cps-workers have brought new insights into the institute including skills, working styles, and organizational capacity building. the cooperation with the cps has enabled us to have some of the basic resources. it needs to carry out outreach programs to communities and to do high level research in order to support and enhance teaching and learning at the master classes. besides the work at the university, we at kaict focus on the work with local people. typically, institutions, communities or groups make a request for training and capacity building. when we at kaict get such requests, it will be evaluated by our team. however, in most instances, logistical support to implement the said training is a challenge, as we only have limited resource capacity. this is where the support of the cps comes in handy. cpsworkers are usually equipped with vehicles, stationery and other material that are necessary to make such trainings possible. we team up to carry on the needed intervention as requested. in other instances, we at kaict may identify some capacity building needs in a community or sector of the society and will develop an intervention accordingly together with the cps. additionally, some of the cps pos also selected members of their working groups to participate in these sessions and thereby multiplying the benefit of the trainings. these 8 reflections from t. debey sayndee, cps-partner in liberia, kofi annan institute for conflict transformation, university of liberia. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 116 trainings provide lessons in integrity, gender, and conflict prevention. the participants go out as peace ambassadors to their respective communities. aside from the regular cps activities, we closely collaborated with other cps-partners. the cps-partners in liberia have constituted themselves into a network for collaborating on actions and activities. the key area of this collaboration started with the joint celebration of international day of peace, which is celebrated each year (fultang and atitwa 2017) and mainly organized by the kaict. we celebrate this event by bringing together students from major universities, civil society, and the public to commemorate the day with programs for promoting peace. there are many success stories from these celebrations. for example, in palala, bong county, the celebration re-ignited the community’s return to their communal method of settling disputes in which the rival parties settled a long standing dispute with the exchange of kola nuts and pledge never to attack each other again. but not only for the communities, but also for us as cps-partners, this collaborative approach has been quite helpful on various levels. this wide range of actors from all levels and a focus on capacity building go hand in hand with the approaches by other internationally working organizations in post war liberia (mccandless 2008). from our perspective relationships are built and fostered through partnership, analysis of the driving factors of a given conflict, accessibility to various actors, their level of trust and the possibility of real impact and change through engagement. for example, the collaborative network allowed us, as the cps network to come together and support the major intervention during the ebola outbreak. relying on our support network allowed us to work better when “business-as-usual” is made harder by acute crisis (eufemia et al. 2020). together we planned interventions, in order to take awareness to remote areas and we developed messages that were easy to understand by the local people. based on our past experience, when covid-19 broke out, the cps network organized an intervention that was directed at the epicenter of the outbreak in the country. this outreach and awareness campaign consisted of activities for the prevention, awareness, and information on the covid-19 pandemic where we collaborated to developed appropriate messages. health experts in the network provided the knowledge, while we at kaict provided the community engagement approach, while others worked on the communication and media outreach. together, we worked cooperatively to make the intervention impactful for rural dwellers and slum communities that other organizations did not reach with their awareness work. through this cps collaboration, there have been many outcomes that are tangible and few of them to consider include guiding local peace actors on how to best work with communities affected by conflict; helping some of the local institutions and donors to improve their community policies in contexts of violence, crisis, and fragility; working through local stakeholders and communities to identify and unite around collective actions that a community identifies as positive. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 117 2.1 what can the cps learn from this story? as the story has shown, the cps can successfully support the work of cps po in the country. this does not only happen with the knowledge or due to exchange but especially due to financial and technical support. as much as this is needed, it opens the question of the power imbalance between the different partners. the cps still has a giving and a receiving end of the partnership, which is very problematic if it is not reflected upon and just called “partnership on eye level”. the strong point of the cps is another sort of partnership, namely the one between pos. together, the cps-partners work in a wide range of sectors, but also work corporately as a network to support each other and enlarge the scale of the cps impact on peace in the country. it shows that this network is a very important part of the cps and is a selling point. these networks are a fundamental part of the cps and need to be taken into account more strongly by, for example, the country strategies and in the definition of partnership within the cps. 3. “fully utilize the potential of the cps-approach by granting sufficient time and space for local ownership”9 every german organization that carries out the cps has its own approach when working with its partners. there are two main models: either having cps-workers placed at cps-country offices from which the partners receive trainings, advice, or support for specific campaigns or projects. or the cps-workers are embedded in their po, usually with a three-year contract, with the option for extension if wished by all parties involved. here, local ownership is supposed to be additionally strengthened as the cps-worker is part of the staff of the local po, being supervised by and having to report to the director or line manager of the hosting organization. based on the cps’s fundamental principal of partner orientation (ziviler friedensdienst 2014) and out of necessity, this structure leaves a lot of room for flexibility in its specific practical implementation. this is an advantage given the huge variation of contexts in which the cps operates. additionally, the specific implementation and the actual amount of partner orientation is determined by the characteristics of the individual po and the cps-workers’ personality. as my experience is working as a cps-worker with agiamondo in sierra leone from 2015 to 2021, first at the cps-country-coordination level, later integrated in the youth organization west african youth network, my story will focus mainly of latter aspect – the interaction of cps-workers and the 9 reflections from christoph schlimpert time working as a seconded cps-worker in sierra leone. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 118 pos.10 for this interaction to be fruitful the african proverb “if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together” can serve as a personal guidance as it helps to ensure ownership and sustainability in a cooperation setting like the cps. this is important because as an international expert working abroad, one can be tempted to do things on your own, as it seems that by doing so, it would be easier to deliver fast results. for the local partners this “shortcut” approach could also seem convenient as it would take less of their time and could deliver quality outputs. yet, in this way both sides would fail to make use of the full potential of the cps cooperation model, as it circumscribes mutual learning and sustainability. in the worst case, this could even lead to a decrease in the po’s capacities if it becomes used to outsourcing certain tasks to the cps-worker that otherwise would be done by regular staff, leaving a new gap at the end of the cps-project instead of closing existing ones. therefore, this section will discuss strengths and weaknesses of the integrated cps-worker approach and the factors that could help to avoid certain pitfalls. from setting up project designs, to its monitoring and implementation: as someone trained in the global north education system one is usually more familiar with the tools and frameworks which were mainly developed in the global north. as they often demand a certain level of formal education it can be quite demanding and can take more time to understand and apply them for someone who received his or her schooling in a dysfunctional education system and even more for individuals who became peacebuilders by being community activists or traditional leaders, and not by taking courses at formal education institutions. therefore, to counter this power imbalance, one fundamental basis of good partnership in the sense of the cps is not to deliver “fast results” but, if necessary, to focus more on the process than on the results to allow the local colleagues to be part and even to be the true owners of the process. therefore, it is necessary to leave the established paths, which is often top-down and has little connection to local community actors and mostly overlooks their capacities to build their own peace within their societies (autesserre 2021). this means sometimes that on the surface it feels like “less is more” by avoiding over-ambitious project designs with unrealistic time frames and looking beyond the focus on “big people” as members of the elite but rather taking the “grassroots” seriously and engaging and strengthening everyday peacemakers within their communities. these local peacemakers can be formal part of a cps-project as staff or volunteers of cps-po or as direct or indirect partners within a defined project, as well as other influential actors or everyday 10 as my experience is that of the cps-worker in a specific constellation i can only provide limited insights in the partners perception or the experience of other cps-workers on the other end of the spectrum of country and organization specific contexts. for a wider range of partner’s perceptions see: ruppel 2023. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 119 people who interact in multiple ways with each other. looking deeper it becomes clear that this approach is not even “less” to begin with. to give an example: the initial project planning process for a cps project takes place in a planning workshop. in the case of agiamondo, this workshop usually takes three days and includes the po with its cps-worker, the planning, monitoring, and evaluation (pm&e)-officer from the cpscoordination office and the cps-coordinator. the planning phase could be faster if the cps-worker comes up with the project goals, objectives, indicators, and activities. since the setting of a planning workshop is often a “home game” for the international expert, the danger is that there will be quick results in the form of well sounding project designs while the partners are standing by and agreeing without really agreeing or fully understanding the process. due to the inherent power imbalances, the risk is high that ownership is lost or was never established without the international expert even noticing. additionally, to this power imbalance caused by the formats and language being used, the financial dependency often comes into play. the local partners might play along just out of fear of upsetting their “donor”11 as they are usually intent to reapply for a new cps-project and the funding it entails. this is highly problematic as research shows that peacebuilding “can only be successful if local actors are actively included and if they are put in the driver’s seat of the peace process” (ruppel 2020, p. 1). therefore, questions regarding the role of power in the interactions between cps-organizations, cps-workers and local partners remain crucial throughout every step of the cooperation. as the contractual responsibilities are defined rather minimalistic, requiring the po to use the financial and project monitoring systems of agiamondo but not “dictating” the content of and the approach to implementing the project, the local partner has actually a real possibility to place himself in the driver’s seat. this is clearly stated in the document that is outlining the principles of the cps which grant the local partners the authorship for defining the goals and approaches for each cps-project and locate the development of the cps-country-strategies mainly within the host countries to ensure the inclusion of the expertise and perspectives of the local partners (zfd 2014). to utilize the full potential provided by the cps-framework in practice, a continuous dialogue between the parties is important to ensure that both sides understand their roles. misunderstanding could easily lead to a falling back on top-down approaches, with the international side of the partnership pointing the way and the local partner merely implementing what they see as being expected from them. other problems that could hamper the utilization of the cps-approach’s potential could occur if for example the director of an organization is not present at the planning workshop or does not show much interest in the cps-project. 11 cps always emphasizes not being a donor but a partner. this is often, for good reasons, seen differently by local partners (ruppel 2020). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 120 reasons could be time constraints, since dedicating three full working days to a workshop is often difficult for senior leadership, or that the cps-project is not seen as being important enough, which can especially be the case with bigger organizations. hierarchical structures, as they are found within many organizations in sierra leone, would limit the possible contributions of the staff that is present or could reverse the results from the workshop if the director sees it important to become involved at a later point. this can result in a very frustrating experience for a cps-worker who would expect to follow the planning document as agreed to in the workshop. if the partner is not much interested in the cps-project, sometimes cps-workers see only the options to support the partner with its other projects, trying to get at least some of the planned project implemented, or to sit and wait for the partner, often in vain, resulting in her or him not being very effective for three years. sometimes cpsworkers in that situation decide to try implementing parts of what is planned on his or her own, therefore delivering some results but without being able to fulfill the criteria of local ownership or partnership. the real advantage of the cps approach is that it provides the keys to avoid this trap, which are time, close day to day interaction, and flexibility. this is defined in the cps principles where it is stated that cps-workers must live in the country where the cps-project takes place to enable them to develop close relationships with their local partners (zfd 2014). the need for flexibility and context orientation is reflected in the cps’s understanding of result orientation (zfd 2014) and has implications for the related monitoring and reporting systems (zfd 2014). since every cps-project has its own specific dynamics, which are determined by the context and the constellation of working together, recommendations and lessons learned can often be difficult to generalize. but to ensure local ownership and sustainability, thereby fully utilizing the potential of the cps-approach, it is crucial to adapt any cps-project to the realities of the context and the needs and targets of the po. while planning, monitoring and evaluation tools and systems can play an important role in supporting partners to achieve their goals, it needs to be understood by all parties involved that they are not an end in itself. also, cpsorganizations and the cps-workers must be aware that those systems and their foundations’ origin from western education systems, making them less accessible for someone who did not receive a similar training if vocabulary and formats are not adapted to the contexts where they are supposed to be used. pm&e should always be approached as participatory as possible, enabling ownership by the po. a rather voluminous handbook on outcome mapping (kuijstermans 2019) is provided by the cps in the case of agiamondo, including many useful tools and approaches that offer the opportunity to choose those who seem most suitable for the specific context of the project. here “less is more” applies again, since it is better to invest more time in fewer tools, and to make sure the staff of the po is always part of the process, understands why and how monitoring is applied and becomes volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 121 capacitated to adapt the pm&e systems to their own needs and implement it in future projects without cps-support. therefore, it is necessary to avoid the risk of going for the “fast solution”. the cps-worker could be tempted to do the monitoring and reporting on his or her own, without trying to “bother” the local partner, for whom this framework might often seem rather alien. this way he or she could deliver nicely formulated reports which might be rather detached from the views of the local partner. here again, less is usually more: to start with a rather minimalistic monitoring system but ensure that the partner is on board and sees the value of it would usually be the more sustainable approach. 3.1 what can the cps learn from this story? while what is described here might sound rather logical and harmonic, many of these insights result from the insight of several years of experience and i also fell regularly into the trap of trying to rush things and had to learn to take myself back and to give room to local colleagues who always remain the true experts of peacebuilding in their communities. only looking back after several years of working side-by-side in joint project implementation revealed the great impact and transformation on both sides of the equation and as the cooperation progressed it became increasingly possible to see each other’s strengths. for example, while doing a community conflict analysis during my final months, i understood much better which questions to ask and being fully aware that even after living half a decade in the country i would not even come close to getting the answers right. in the end, this complementarity carries the power of cps approach: as an outsider, one can offer certain (participatory) tools and financial resources and contribute by asking questions. but the answers have to be given and the final calls need to be made by the local partners and this are aspects that need to be considered with high priority in every cps project. 4. “from the lived reality to the virtual community – a shift in peacebuilding trainings”12 on march 16th, 2020 the full-time professional training in peace and conflict work was set to begin in germany with 16 peace practitioners working all over the globe. participants were ready to leave their homes and immerse themselves in a 10-week learning experience. one of them was already on his way to the airport when, on march 13th, the global pandemic obliged the organization to shift the course from a presence event to a virtual training. the format, structure and content needed to be adapted to the needs, conditions, and opportunities of digital learning. the human connection that the 10 weeks living together sought to find was interrupted by unstable internet and faces on the screen. instead of travelling to an environment close to nature and distancing themselves for 10 weeks from 12 reflections by maría requena lópez, former advisor for cooperation and development at the academy for conflict transformation and freelance trainer in the area of peacebuilding. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 122 the social tensions of their daily lives, participants not only remained fully occupied by work, family, and routines, but furthermore needed to obtain the energy to concentrate in the online training, all while dealing with the pandemic. our initial intention as the organization team to create a calm atmosphere where they could fully concentrate on the process was suddenly and irremediably challenged by the new situation. the contact hypothesis and intergroup contact theory, both pillars of conflict transformation, are challenged in the digital sphere (laruni et al. 2020). this is a story of three of the participants of that course, but their stories are only a representation of the many different stories; a window to better understand a process-oriented approach to training, which puts individuals at the center of the experience, takes participants as the main resource for knowledge and understands learning as a complex, multi-layered process (alvarez et al. 2019). the story begins with remy, who recently lost their job, needed to move back to their parents’ place and enrolled in the course looking for a career shift. remy gets infected with covid-19 and spends a significant amount of time at home, isolated, without much more in their life than the digital platform that offers a door to the course. the uncertainties surrounding their job situation, the pessimism around the pandemic and the emotionally demanding topics that need to be dealt with in a peace training soon begin to take an emotional toll on remy. on the other extreme, there is kaya, surrounded by people at most times of the day: married, 5 kids, 8 cats and a full-time job. kaya has worked in the area of conflict transformation in her region as long as she can remember and brings an incredible amount of hands-on experience. this is something she can do when she actually has time and energy to focus on the course. kaya is expected to work, be a wife, act as the primary caretaker of the children, the cats and the house and, in this case, also focus on a demanding online training. she comes from a context where this expectation is imposed on her by cultural gender norms (harmat 2020). little else needs to be said to imagine the pace of kaya’s life, which she seemed to always face with a smile in the camera. for bruno, unfortunately, having the camera turned on during the life sessions of the training is often impossible. he lives in a region with active armed conflict and is being persecuted due to his many years of peace activism. in recent years, civil society organizations and peace activists globally have experienced an increasing risk of “public defamation and stigmatisation, intimidation and criminalisation, even including threats to personal safety, arrest and murder” (justen and rolf 2018, p. 1). that is why bruno needs to constantly change locations throughout the 10 weeks of training, and his connection is often weak and unstable. his situation also has a strong impact on the group that quickly develops a strong relationship with bruno and tries to stay updated about his situation. the group cohesion depends on all members volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 123 being safe and present, and that is why the constant check-ups on him become an essential part of the journey. these are only three of the 16 stories in the group, each with their personal challenges outside of the course. if we as facilitators would have taken a traditional approach to learning as the retention of knowledge, with an “emphasis on performance and measurable outcomes” (shapiro 2015, p. 8), i dare to say that the course would have been a failure. the difficulties participants had to concentrate on the course, the inability to “switch off” other aspects of their lives to free time and energy for the course, and the lack of a common physical space to share the learning process made it extremely difficult to monitor the way in which learning objectives where being met and to evaluate the cognitive learning progress. covid-19 and the shift to digital training made us face our own ability to practice what we preach: reacting to crisis, adapting to the needs of the target groups, trusting the process (lederach 2005). therefore, the course served much more as a sharing ground for current challenges and a space to explore one’s own needs and boundaries. remy used all the time they had on their hands to summarize the learning materials and share it with the rest of the participants. colleagues like kaya could truly benefit from these summaries, which allowed her to stay up-to-date and remain connected with the group. she nourished this connection by sharing with all of us pictures of her cats– a tiny, simple gesture, outside of the scope of the course, which had a tremendous impact on the feeling of community of the group and contributed to build relationships among participants (alvarez et al. 2019). furthermore, she shared that setting the example for her children, who could see her work as a peacebuilder and contribute to the course on a daily basis, had been one of the most meaningful happenings of the course. from a feminist critical pedagogy perspective, this in and of itself is already a contribution to social transformation (harmat 2020), which is ultimately the process which participants are learning to initiate and accompany. bruno felt part of that community and, since he often could not join the live sessions directly, he called one of the other participants individually to connect the voice and audio through their phone. in the end, this allowed him to establish a bilateral connection with everybody, to get to know them in the more intimate space of one-on-one phone calls and to open possibilities for using whatever resources we had at hand for supporting each other. in this unexpected practice, participants developed their ability to empathize with others, adapt to the situation and embrace complexity, all of which lederach considers essential aspects of preparation for peacebuilding (lederach 2014). participants found those ways of relating to one another and generating their own group dynamic on their own. although we always take the group process into account and integrate learning from its dynamics as an essential part of all our courses, the sudden shift during the pandemic made us face volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 124 enormous uncertainty as for how exactly this would work out in an online context – if at all. the way in which we tried to deal with those open questions was by applying to ourselves the same principles we convey in our courses. on the one hand, we opened the space for disturbances to take priority in the process, as proposed by ruth cohn’s model of theme-centered interaction (cohn and klein 1993). on the other, we followed lederach’s principles for peacebuilding, especially by accepting the circumstances that came in our way with a peripheral view and a willingness to deviate from our pre-designed course path (lederach 2005). what this ultimately meant is that we guided a process which we did not control but could trust. 4.1 what can the cps learn from this story? peacebuilders definitely need certain skills and knowledge related to the field, and the importance of expertise and know-how should not be understated. at the same time, capacity building needs to remain focused on applying the same principles we share for project work to our training activities. building trust, strengthening relationships, taking participants as the main resource for learning, trusting the way in which the group itself chooses to carry the process and embracing diversity in the forms of learning, sharing and obtaining knowledge are all key in supporting the key players in conflict transformation. the way we design peacebuilding trainings -perhaps just as much as education in generalneeds to be reconsidered: from an input of knowledge to a facilitation of exchange; from a generation of expertise to an incubator for skills development. we need to de-colonize the ways we use words like “learning” or “teaching”, and most importantly we need to conceptualize and conduct trainings with the same attitude we would accompany peacebuilding processes: guided by authenticity, approached with empathy and stimulated by openness to change. at the academy, the pandemic has taught us that very significant learnings can be drawn from the most unexpected and uncontrolled circumstances. as long as we remain true to our own principles, trust the process and prepare the framework with care and high quality, the energy, knowledge and attitude that participants already bring with them are the real drivers of the learning journey. 5. "connecting inner and outer peace work – supporting conflict workers to support conflict transformation"13 peace workers in the cps have the task of accompanying peace processes. they are not the 'makers of peace’ but focus on supporting local peace actors in different countries of the world to transform conflicts in a 13 this contribution deals with questions that are part of daniela pastoors research. the story and the characters are fictional, but based on the findings of a dissertation (pastoors 2021). volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 125 sustainable and non-violent way (ziviler friedensdienst n.y.; pastoors 2017; pastoors 2019). the transformative paradigm of peace and conflict work goes hand in hand with an elicitive attitude and practice, that does not apply techniques, prescribes 'recipes' or provides solutions. rather, it means to establish a relationship and to design a helpful framework to elicit the already existing wisdom on conflict transformation (lederach 1995). thus, it places specific demands on professionals who want to support processes of change in this way. due to the complex challenges of their activities and their multi-layered roles, cps professionals need many competences: special skills, sound knowledge and a distinct attitude (schüßler and thiele 2012; schweitzer 2009; sell 2006). at the same time, they need to master the demanding art of peace work without losing sight of themselves. looking at peace work as relationship work reveals that, in addition, peace workers need spaces for reflection, which must necessarily be part of professional peace practice. not only peace work needs accompaniment, but also peace workers – and different elements of psychosocial staff care can enable this support (pastoors 2018; pastoors 2021). although the importance of staff care and support measures for expatriate staff has been repeatedly referred to in the literature, very few studies focus on this, in particular in peace and conflict work (behboud 2009; schwarz 2009). the practice of staff care has only been studied in a few areas of international cooperation, mainly in the humanitarian aid sector and for staff in the field of mental health & psychosocial support (becker et. al. 2018; jachens et al. 2018). therefore, in my research i focused on the question of how psychosocial staff care is provided to professionals in the cps (pastoors 2021). to explore the question what peaceworkers in the cps need, in the following i tell the fictional story of kim: a peace worker, who is in a crisis of purpose and who is looking for ways to deal with it. -------------- a peaceworker’s story: climbing out of the hole “why am i here? does this work make sense? can i really make a meaningful contribution?” kim was working as a peace and conflict worker in a civil peace service project. the project was nice and she was truly passionate about the cps, her partner organization and the joint work on conflict transformation. but still, she had doubts and huge questions about purpose. she was unsure whether it makes sense that she was there. she questioned her own motivation. she was doubtful about the possibility of change anyway. “can we really make a difference here? volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 126 can this little project change anything in the deeply rooted conflict? is peace work not just a drop in the ocean of violence?” she fell into despair about the state of the world. she became quieter, less active, less involved. she participated in daily work, but her mood had impacts: she was less creative, less open and less confident. she was there, working on the project, in contact with colleagues and project partners, but it felt to her as if none of this was real. as if efforts for peace and conflict transformation were not real. as working in partnership was not real. as if she herself was not real. kim was stuck and could not get out of the negative circles her thoughts drew. she was sitting in a deep hole and got stuck in it. --- one day, a regional cps-meeting was scheduled. kim did not feel much like going, but still she went. she met colleagues and there was a lot of talk about the projects and the work. she listened but had no big interest in country strategy papers and project evaluations. for the afternoon, an “intervision” session was scheduled. she never had any contact with intervision before and only knew that it was to be a form of collegial consultation, peer consulting or peer coaching. she attended the session without any expectations. alex, one of the colleagues in the meeting agreed to be the case presenter. alex started to talk about the fact that a serious backlash had ruined years of work of her organization and herself. the whole team was devastated. they had lost all their hope. they stopped working, hid at home. at the moment, no one in the team was talking to each other. no one was talking about the situation of the project and the organization, much less about themselves and how they felt in the situation. when kim heard this, she sat up straight. she pricked up her ears, was fully present. she felt with alex and her team and could understand their desperation very well. after she had been sitting in her hole in silence and isolation for so long, for the first time, she felt emotionally touched and moved again. all the colleagues in the intervision sessions took great interest in alex’ case. they did not try to talk it away, did not give good advice, did not analyse it with great theories. they were very grateful that alex had spoken from the heart. they gave resonance and offered a space in which the feelings could be there. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 127 kim participated actively in the intervision. she was able to offer some perspectives and insights that helped to gain a better understanding of the team's situation. moreover, she herself understood her own feelings much better. the next day, the whole group was full of new energy. the country strategy was well processed, and the remaining points of discussion went smoothly and quickly. the group agreed to use the remaining time of the cps-meeting for dialogue on fundamental issues. kim could open her heart freely. when she shared her thoughts, doubts and feelings and the others listened to her and understood her, a dam broke. she felt recognised and appreciated by her colleagues and was very relieved – they did not consider her weak. she realised that she needed such spaces for reflection. that she needed the connection to others, the authentic conversation about the real issues, the view from the outside and the change of perspectives. she understood that she longed for joint learning processes, for empathy, and for a sense of affiliation and belonging. in this moment, something changed inside her: her own inner conflict transformed. she understood that all of this was exactly the same in conflict transformation outside. her needs were so similar to the basic needs of the conflict parties. and the transformation in peace and conflict work could develop in a very similar way to the transformation within herself. kim began to climb out of her hole and to see with new eyes. she was starting to explore the connection between inner and outer peace work. -------------- 5.1 what can the cps learn from this story? it is normal that there are ups and downs in life – also and especially in peace and conflict work. it is important to acknowledge this and not to address it as an individual problem or personal weakness, but to deal with this fact appropriately: not only on a human level, but also on a structural level. therefore, staff care must be a regular part of the job and part of everyday life. it should start in the preparation and training period, by introducing professionals to intervision and establishing contact with supervisors. during the service, cps professionals should not have to ask for it when they are unwell – and sharing joy and insights is important for their own well-being and for the success of the work. besides, psychosocial staff care must also be oriented towards the needs of the peace workers and should include the time of return, which is often very challenging for professionals. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 128 it is not only a matter of recognizing the duty of care, but also of establishing a culture of care. and this culture of care is interwoven with a culture of peace (boulding 2000), which shows that personal, collective, and global well-being are interconnected (pigni 2014) and that psychosocial staff care contributes to inner and outer peace work and conflict transformation (pastoors 2021). 6. conclusion and recommendations this article used an experimental design by gathering insights of different cps-actors and researchers with the method of storytelling. the method of storytelling helped to hear voices from different actors in their unique languages, describing their experiences in their words and reflecting them in their own particular way. the special character of storytelling had an impact on the way the authors reflected on their experiences and the process of writing itself was an instrument to harvest insights in a different way, which is very explorative and highly oriented on the qualitative research paradigm that gives insights on different viewpoints and doesn’t aim to be a comprehensible contextual analysis. the different stories have given insights into the work of the cps and provided different answers to the three questions that this article is dealing with. especially the first and second question are strongly connected, therefore the answers to them are summarized. what have we learned about the topic of partnership in peacebuilding? and what about the power-asymmetries in the work of the cps? as we have seen in the first story, we need to critically assess the instrumentalization and rezoning behind partnership. peace workers as well as institutions should always reflect their own background, traditions, experiences in own conflicts and then ask themselves if partners they work with are only there because they are there. in order to open up the way we understand partnership and in order to challenge existing structural power asymmetries, it could be helpful to create spaces where all involved actors can exchange experiences and mutually learn from each other. in this spirit, actors from the global north in general and, in the case of the cps, actors from germany in particular should be open to learn from an external viewpoint and request help with their own conflicts. this cooperative approach and a more mutual understanding of cooperation can help to create global networks of support. that these networks are already quite helpful, at least on a national level, was indicated by the second story, which shares the insights from a partner organization. when likeminded organizations work together and support each other cooperatively the peace intervention can become impactful. it is important to coordinate capacities and bring together the various expertise. this can only happen, when there is enough space and time for local ownership, as indicated in the third story. trying to achieve partnership in peacebuilding is in practice is a challenge for all actors involved. all actors come in with a different volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 129 background and a different agenda which can lead to misunderstandings and frustrations. therefore, it is of high relevance, to put local actors in the driver’s seat and to sensitize the international peace workers. and what about looking at the needs and experiences of people working in the area of cps what lessons learned do we take from the stories? the fourth and fifth story are focusing on this question. as indicated in the fourth story, skills and knowledge related to the field are crucial. in order to create and foster the knowledge and skills of the peace workers the provided trainings should be designed as elective trainings that strengthen the role of peace professionals as facilitating and accompanying supporters of peace processes. also the trainings need to open up and take learnings from unexpected and uncontrolled circumstances into account. but not only these trainings are important, but also an ongoing support and staff care for peace workers, both local and international. as indicated in the last story peace work is relationship work, the human and psychosocial aspects needs to be taken into account in order to make the work successful and sustainable for all actors. the aim of the cps is to apply different standards than traditional donor organizations by assigning an active and influential role to local actors and by working in partnership. however, as the stories have shown this role bears some challenges. this is already due to the fact that the cps as an organization goes into a country and works together with local organizations. also, the allocation of roles as well as the work parameters do not always take place in a negotiation process. nevertheless, there are many positive examples within the cps of how local actors are actively involved in peacebuilding: the network character and the idea of creating ownership for local actors in peacebuilding. still, these elements are not sufficient to actually speak of partnership on eye-level. further changes are necessary to challenge existing power dynamics. in order to achieve such changes, a fundamental change are required at many points in the architecture of peacebuilding. references alvarez, j., hamed, a., & taylor, n. 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(2021). power imbalances and peace building: a participatory approach between local and international actors. africa amani journal, 8(1), 1-29. ruppel. s. (2023). lokal verankerte zivile konfliktbearbeitung zwischen partnerschaft und machtungleichgewicht. springer vs. volume 17 number 1 (2023): 108-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 132 schüßler, m., & thiele, u. (2012). evaluationsbericht. grundqualifizierung für den zivilen friedensdienst/ zivile konfliktbearbeitung. akademie für konflikttransformation. schwarz, c. (2009). bedarfsanalyse in der begleitung von freiwilligen. pbi deutscher zweig e. v.. schweitzer, c. (2009). rekrutierung und qualifizierung von personal im zivilen friedensdienst. akademie für konflikttransformation. sell, s. (2006). qualifizierung zu zivilem friedensdienst/ziviler konfliktbearbeitung – bedarfserhebung unter den zfdträgerorganisationen und akteuren benachbarter arbeitsfelder. akademie für konflikttransformation. shapiro, s. (2015). towards a critical pedagogy of peace education. kulturaspołeczeństwo-edukacja, 1(7), 7-20. ziviler friedensdienst. (2014). ziviler friedensdienst (zfd) kompakt: grundlagen, akteure und verfahren des zfd. zfd gemeinschaftswerk. ziviler friedensdienst. (n. y.) homepage. ziviler friedensdienst. sam r snyder   in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  126-­129   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/       126   volume  6  number  2  (2012):  126-­129   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     a review of charles a. kupchan. no one’s world: the west, the rising rest, and the coming global turn. a council on foreign relations book. (new york: oxford university press, 2012) by sam r. snyder “in august of 1941 franklin roosevelt and winston churchill held a series of secret talks . . . in a secure newfoundland harbor. . . . the atlantic charter they crafted envisioned a global order resting on self-determination, free trade, and dis-armament (p. 1).”1 thus begins the opening paragraph of an argument that focuses on the shifting balance of power in the world and what it will mean for how the world works in the future. the book has two primary goals: (1) to explore the causes and consequences of the coming global turn, and (2) to map out how the west should prepare for and adjust to the world of the twenty-first century. the author contends that from the collapse of the roman empire to the beginnings of the reformation europe was a geopolitical backwater. power shifted to constantinople, the center of the byzantine empire, while by 1600 china and india accounted for almost one-half of global wealth. in the meantime, islamic civilization flourished. by the thirteenth century, moorish invaders from north africa had converted the majority of inhabitants in the iberian peninsula.                                                                                                                 1  all references are to the book under review with page numbers as indicated.   in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  126-­129   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/       127   yet, between 1500 and 1800 the era of ottoman domination of the mediterranean basin was ended. europe surpassed in economic and military strength the ottomans and india and china. over the course of the nineteenth century europe and north america came to dominate global politics. europe’s stunning rise was the product of political weakness resulting from the fragmentation of imperial rule. authority was widely distributed among the king, the pope, local religious leaders, noble families, and relatively autonomous fiefdoms. the emerging bourgeoisie, merchants, and other members of this newly existing middle class, founded independent towns in which to ply their trades and accumulate wealth, challenging manorial and ecclesiastical authority. with the wealth from commerce and finance came education and literacy. urban populations became the primary supporters of religious leaders who in the sixteenth century challenged the theology and practices of the catholic church. the reformation drove forward the political transformation of europe. religious tolerance came to europe as a result of the widespread embrace of protestantism. religious diversity had to be accommodated if the different branches of christianity were to live side by side. the thirty years’ war killed forty percent of germany’s population. conflict born of confessional difference advanced the fortunes of political pluralism as well. while at first only the landed nobility and wealthy bourgeoisie enjoyed the expansion of political rights, rule by lineage and wealth gave way to liberal democracy as the industrial revolution led to the education, mobilization, and empowerment of the commoner. urbanization, the formation of a middle class, religious tolerance, industrialization, and the rise of the democratic nation-state were the underlying socioeconomic developments that fueled the rise of the west and its economic and military primacy (p. 16). unlike the leading states of europe, the ottoman empire after 1500 maintained centralized control, prohibiting the emergence of an autonomous class of artisans, merchants, traders, and intellectuals. in addition, the author states that there is a fundamental difference between christianity and islam. christianity is a religion of faith, whereas islam is a religion of faith and law. there is no distinction between the sacred and the secular. non-muslim communities were allowed to retain their own religious and political institutions but these institutions were then brought under the control of the empire. the author states that “the centralized strength of the ottoman empire’s system of governance eventually proved to be a defining source of its weakness . . . too reliant on traditions of hierarchy to take advantage of the dynamism offered by reform, but too weak for the center to maintain imperial integrity. the empire ultimately collapsed in the face of economic, military, and ideological challenges posed by the rising west (p .58   in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  126-­129   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/       128   59). the ottoman empire and imperial states in china, india, and japan were held back by centralized and hierarchical structures of rule while, in the 1400’s, oceangoing ships and advances in navigation enabled european explorers, merchants, and immigrants to establish outposts in the middle east, africa, asia, and the new world (p. 64-65). between 1815 and 1914 – the era of pax britanniaca – european imperialism expanded in terms of both territorial reach and the scope of political control . . . the era of pax americana began after world war ii. europe and the united states teamed up to fashion the world’s first global order. in the fourth chapter, entitled “the next turn: the rise of the rest,” the author reproduces a table which compares the top five economies in the world in 2010 with the top five projected for 2050. 2010 2050 1. united states 1. china 2. china 2. united states 3. japan 3. india 4. germany 4. brazil 5. france 5. russia the author’s contention seems to be that the decline of the west is inevitable. however, he departs from the conventional wisdom that modernity will follow the western model. rather, other nations will follow their own multiple versions of modernity rather than political homogeneity. the rise of the west, he argues, was unique to the conditions of early modern europe. further, culture shapes the particular forms of modernity. in capitalist autocracies such as china and russia, illiberal politics and capitalism offers an alternative to the western model. finally, today there is a very different international setting than the one that saw the rise of the west. the remainder of the chapter is devoted to an analysis of what the author describes as the communal autocracy of china, paternal autocracy in russia, tribal autocracy in the gulf sheikdoms, and the theocracies of the middle east. israel is seen as a hybrid, containing many of the institutions and values of the west blended with the values and institutions of the middle east. finally, the author labels latin america as the populists. it is the one region that is most closely following the western model of development. the conclusion is that nation states are on very different “political trajectories.” “the next world will not march to the washington consensus, the beijing consensus, or the brasilia consensus. rather, the world is headed toward a global “dissensus” (p. 145).   in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  126-­129   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/       129   in his penultimate chapter the author discusses the (un)governability of the west, citing the re-nationalization of europe, its causes and consequences; the polarization of the united states and its causes and consequences, and the problem of restoring western solvency. the author believes that the west can learn much about the benefits of strategic economic planning from countries with state-managed markets such as china. the final chapter is entitled, “managing no one’s world.” in a section called principles for the next world the author considers the challenges of defining legitimacy, defining sovereignty, balancing representation and efficacy, facilitating regional devolution, taming globalization, managing the rise of china, and restoring u.s. leadership. since this work is described on the title page as “a council on foreign relations book,” its focus is naturally restricted to the political and economic issues central to the united states and its relations with other nations. while excellent in its analysis of these issues, its concentration on the future of humanity in terms of their current institutional arrangements, it ignores some issues which i believe are of paramount importance to the continuation of the human race on this planet. are we going to continue the promulgation of war as a basic strategy of foreign policy? the continuing development of this institution as an instrument of private enterprise, the increasing legitimization of tactics such as assassination, torture, rendition, blackmail, and the targeting of civilian populations through such devices as economic sanctions seem diametrically opposed to professed traditional western values. will the doctrine of “money as morality” continue to deplete the resources of the natural world, destroy the flora and fauna that maintain the balance that makes life on earth possible? microsoft word how-long-to-mourn clean sep 2019.docx http://www.infactispax.org/journal 70 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal how (long) to mourn the pedagogical implications of imposed remembrance practices: two cases from bosnia–herzegovina nena močnik, phd university of turku, finland abstract with the example of two anthropological accounts from bosniaherzegovina, the author explores the discrepancy between the creators of memory politics and remembrance practices, who are often survivors or political bodies, and the post-war youth audience with its own understanding and—occasionally second-hand—experience of recent violent events. the memory created by one generation is through memory practices passed to the post-war generation, but not necessarily in the way that generation wants to be served. if one is to accept the notion that present memory serves future aspirations, the author argues that it indicates the future generations passively accept their acquired memories, with no critical reflection or fresh response, and an accepted version of social history is constructed out of the memories of their predecessors. this perspective marks every new generation as a mere carrier of past agendas, lacking critical appraisal and autonomous action. this approach condemns every new generation to simply fulfil the future aspirations of their parents. indeed, this happens and social institutions, like schools and media, support this largely. on the contrary, the author claims that by creating a space for alternative voice of youth, we could hear what the new generations aspire for. http://www.infactispax.org/journal 71 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 key words: remembrance, post-war youth, history education, peace education in my work in peace education in bosnia-herzegovina i have lately noticed a tension between the memorialization fatigue on the one side and persistent silence on the other: while many survivors fight daily to break the silence that perpetuates impunity and in this way aiming to achieve justice (tepić 2012), the post-war generations, today’s teenagers, would often feel overloaded by the war memories, that overshadows problems of their own zeitgeist, like unemployment, or mass depopulation. in a way, the socially imposed necessity to always remember in the post-conflict society uses the new generations as sort of ‘remembrance vehicle’, carrying the burden of remembrance for the violent events and atrocities of the past generations. in this paper i explore how some grand memory narratives are accepted by the youth today. i ask if the memory created by the survivors can serve the post-war youth, or should every generation create its own approach to the survivors’ memory practices and nonetheless, to create its own memory – in a way that they want or need to remember. the questions and discussion in the following paper were inspired by two ethnographic accounts that i documented during my research fieldwork in the summer of 2018. in july of that year, i attended ifs – emmaus international youth working camp in srebrenica, bosnia–herzegovina, with young people drawn from within the country and further afield, including a group of teenage volunteers of african descent from paris, france. camp every year attracts among 60-80 participants of different ages. in addition to concrete physical work, the educational activities focused on the memorial centre in potočari and preparation of the memorial site for the commemoration that was scheduled to take place on 11 july. as part of the visit, we also watched a short but very graphic film about the massacre in srebrenica. since no french translation was available and no discussion followed, the french volunteers soon became bored. they started to chatter and giggle, and one volunteer lay down on a bench and fell asleep. the young bosnian volunteers were upset by this behaviour and their concentration on the film was disrupted. when the screening ended, the group leader intended to take us to the exhibition next door; however, due to the incident during the screening, the group dynamics were unsettled and some of the young people stayed outside the hall, expressing anger and frustration about the behaviour of the french participants. much was said about ‘proper ways of behaving’ and ‘showing respect to the locals’. the conversation evolved into arguments involving racist biases and pejorative, discriminatory comments about the black french teenagers. a week before this incident, i was at the mostar summer youth programme (msyp), http://www.infactispax.org/journal 70 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 1 teaching a class about the historical continuation of collective (structural) violence and the transmission of hatred through toxic collective memories. the group in mostar consisted of ten teenage students with mixed ethnoreligious backgrounds. when i submitted my syllabus, the organizers expressed hesitancy regarding the wisdom of raising such loaded historical topics in the region. this hesitancy and extreme caution proved to be justified. one day during the summer school, the post-conflict research centre (pcrc) of sarajevo screened a short film representing the events in mostar during the war, conveyed through the story of a rabbi who resided in the town at the time. bosnian croats and bosniaks who survived the attacks in the town shared their stories and, since these were portrayed as first-hand accounts of personal experiences, the film director did not present a balanced perspective or search for an ultimate ‘historical truth’. the film was very personal and, hence, subjective and one-sided. after the screening, some pupils responded with anger and frustration, calling it ‘propaganda’. despite the fear of the organizers, i did not experience any similar outbursts during my class. however, i also noticed that while the students were eager to discuss anything related to the massacre in srebrenica, my references to the war-related events in mostar were mostly responded to in silence. by exploring these two events in more depth and including the informal conversations that i engaged in with the participating teenagers, i aim to explore the discrepancy between the creators of memory politics, who are often survivors or political bodies, and the post-war youth audience with its own understanding and—occasionally second-hand—experience of recent events. with the case of in-situ learning (the camp in potočari) and the classroom teaching in mostar, i consider the ways in which the same memory practices are applied by different generational groups and whether expected understandings of those practices, ie. appropriate and desired readings and appropriate and desired commemorative behaviour differ between groups or are dictated by those who create them. for survivors, remembrance is often part of the efforts towards achieving recognition, justice and denying the crimes (e.g. selimovic, 2013; mcgrattan & hopkins, 2016) but during my ethnographic work i noted that this agenda is not necessarily shared by their descendants. witnessing the war stories from (grand)parents in the families, does not necessarily make youth interested or (emotionally) affected. through our conversations i could record, that memory is important for them, but it is not central to their own everyday life. as my note from the field diary reads mostar, 11 july 2019): it was very hard to get them in discussion about srebrenica, i was trying to pose different questions and ask in different ways, but their responses were very short, and they felt artificial. something that i hear from everyone is that they need to remember. at one point, i felt that m. was hesitating with their answer; they say that talking about srebrenica is important, but also show with the face and body expression that they http://www.infactispax.org/journal 71 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 feel annoyed and uncomfortable. i waited for them after the class, and they would say that all this is overwhelming, and that it is not that they do not care, but they really have to move on (translated and transcribed by the author). while this and similar patterns have been repeating throughout the entire course, i have noticed that adhering to what is expected of them without any critical appraisal or reflectiveness is some type of comfortable position. their answers on the importance of remembrance were almost always aligned with the mainstream narratives, expressing sorrow and mourning with the victims, but also keeping a distance – historically and geographically: in showing as they are not (anymore) part of this story. this lead me to ask if young people really need (or want) to remember: and if yes, what would their motivation for remembrance be? how and what do we expect young post-war generations to remember and commemorate? are they able to understand the importance of commemoration practices beyond personal, emotional attachments of the traumatic experiences of their parents, namely, to learn about the mechanisms of collective violence and more importantly – how to prevent it? to address these concerns, i use data consisting of diary analysis, participation observation, and informal conversations with 15 young people: all aged 15–19, ten of them attended msyp in mostar and 5 of them a camp in srebrenica. six of the 15 participants would not state their ethnic origin; one participant explicitly claimed to be raised in a mixed family; one of the participants identified as ‘yugoslav’ and the remainder identified as croats, serbs, bosniaks or bosnians. i am not using names or pseudonyms but only providing the quotation of the original transcription. throughout this text, neutral pronouns and adjectives (they) are used to indicate gender of the research participants.2 all the events and individuals in this text are real people and may recognize themselves, although i have attempted to ensure their anonymity. i informed all the participants in advance about the nature of the study and obtained their consent to publish my observations. the conversations were held in both english and local languages. if citation was originally in the local language, i have indicated that the translation is mine. remembering srebrenica in mostar i initially responded to the call for volunteer teaching staff at the mostar summer youth programme (msyp) with the intention of taking as my subject the continuation of violence in a historical perspective. the main coordinator shared my ideas with other staff at the school. they all expressed hesitancy about the subject and stressed the need for a cautious approach when teaching about the recent violent history of mostar. the goal of the course was to address repeating patterns of collective violence, to learn about preventive practices and to discuss ways of breaking the cycle of violence and building resilience. we http://www.infactispax.org/journal 72 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 agreed on certain language policies and curriculum adjustments, beginning by replacing the term collective violence with social oppression. the latter term can also relate to everyday practices, such as prejudice, sexual harassment and bullying, and is supposedly less provocative in this context than collective violence. this would allow the students to respond to the topics that they felt comfortable with and avoid causing distress to their families. in the ten-hour course, we attempted to address the tendency of historical oppression to ‘normalize’ everyday violent practices and the impact of this normalization on the ways that conflicts and wars are waged. i tried to cover cases from all over the world, including slavery, colonialization, the holocaust and the recent persecution of the rohingya people in myanmar. i used the concepts of intersectionality and multiple identities to elucidate how ideological and propagandist strategies employ social exclusion, incorporate discrimination and sometimes eliminate entire groups. i took great care to design every session in a balanced way, introducing both recent and older historical examples, comparing geographically and culturally diverse cases and so on. i did not want to completely omit the bosnian case, but i wanted students to understand broader, conceptual paradigms in relation to concrete experiences in their local environment. before the class, i asked all of the students for their consent to write about this course in my research and, since they were all underage, i needed to obtain permission from their parents. all but one set of parents gave their signed consent. one of the students came to me with his signed consent form and told me that, although his parents signed the form, ‘they do not want me to talk much about what happened during the war and they want me to leave the class if we talk about it too much.’ this same student did not participate in any of the activities that were related to the recent war. they remained in the room but left their papers blank. after the class i always invited them to talk to me and share how they felt. they said: i feel okay. i like this class. i just have no idea of what to draw or write when you ask me. i don’t feel bad, or that i don’t want to write or join in. i just have no ideas. usually, the group was responsive and curious; they frequently asked questions or shared examples from their history classes or other sources. occasionally i asked them about the case of mostar, but since these questions were mostly met by silence, i did not persist. however, one day before 11 july, when commemorative ceremonies for the srebrenica massacre are held in potočari and other parts of bosnia and around the world, i found myself wondering how to address this subject and whether i should do so at all. it was important for me to understand whether i could teach something that was so close, both temporally and geographically, in a class that, until that point, had been willing to accept, understand and engage in critical discussion about similar atrocities http://www.infactispax.org/journal 73 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 elsewhere in the world or at other historical times (for instance, the assassination of franz ferdinand in sarajevo) – but not in relation to their own town. i decided to dedicate the entire session to the question of srebrenica. i purchased all the newspapers from the kiosk nearby3 on the 11 july. their front pages covered with topics related to the massacre and brought them into the class. i divided the group of ten students into three smaller groups and asked them to look through the newspapers then, as a group, to analyse and discuss how the event was represented, visually and linguistically, and answer various questions: what do the images portray? on which pages does the topic occur? what is the main theme? how much space does the article cover in the entire paper? what do the titles convey? when giving the task to the students, i did not provide them with information regarding the publisher, the main audience or the ethno-religious identity of each of the papers. the students cut out the titles, keywords and images, prepared posters and presented their observations to their classmates (see figure 1, 2 & 3). figure 1, 2 & 3. posters with cut-outs, photo by the author (2018). after the groups had discussed their observations, i asked them to share their findings and present their posters to the class. one of the students was particularly vocal but, interestingly, verbalized familiar narratives from the ‘never forget’ dictum (‘we need to see these articles so that we never repeat the atrocities’), to discourses regarding the mothers of srebrenica as ‘eternal victims’ (‘no mother can ever forgive such thing.’). none of them had visited srebrenica or the memorial in potočari, but they all agreed that commemoration is important and that such terrible events should not be forgotten. when i asked them whether they would visit the memorial, they responded only by nodding. when one of the students said: ‘this is just very sad’, i asked them to explain what they meant by ‘this’. they said: ‘seeing all those sad people at the graves: http://www.infactispax.org/journal 74 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 those mothers who lost sons, all these pictures ... it is not fair.’ i struggled to extend the discussion beyond emotional, empathetic responses to introduce some of the previous day’s topics that were related to historical events in different geographical, political and social contexts (for instance genocide in rwanda, slavery in caribbean etc.) or to encourage comparisons with different historical events, atrocities or lessons learned. most complex and analytical questions remained unanswered, as if the students could only comprehend this event emotionally. the experience seemed to be internalized and for me, as a teacher and researcher, difficult to access using either direct questions or physical, non-verbal activities. i asked them whether they thought it was important to have this news in the daily papers and if the ‘percentage’ of the space that this news occupied was explanatory in any way. one of the students elaborated: preporod is obviously a muslim newspaper, so it does not surprise me that the entire edition is reporting on this, but i also think this event is especially important for those people. i did not learn or see or read anything new in these articles today. furthermore, they explained that they know the newspapers report on the srebrenica commemorations on this day, but they would not buy the papers. after the discussion that followed, it has become clear that the reason for this was the format (of traditional newspaper) and not the topic. this same student mentioned that they noticed posts on facebook, but they ‘scrolled through’, because they ‘knew this already.’ when i noted the comment that they ‘didn’t learn anything new’, i asked them whether it is important to have this news in the newspaper every year. one student responded: it is an important day and, of course, newspapers will report on it. from these newspapers i didn’t learn anything new because i have seen pictures from srebrenica before. i still think it is important to remind us and i also think that many people do not know about this, because it is very far from us. we discussed whether they are often asked in the classroom to share their opinions about the massacre and one of the students said: i was never asked about it or asked to do what you asked me to do today. this presentation of newspaper cuttings is the first time i really looked at the pictures and thought about my feelings when i see these images. it is very sad … because i had to search for keywords and explain what is in the images, it was the first time i really studied them. http://www.infactispax.org/journal 75 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 another student raised a hand: ‘i was never asked about it, but we were often told about what happened there and our teacher told us about it.’ these responses helped me to pay more attention to pedagogic and didactic methods that are not often given so much space as content-centred analysis about the history curricula. the majority of the students were exposed to very common post-communist institutional teaching that incorporated lectures and the banking model of education that freire (1970) criticized, an approach that renders students passive recipients of information and that minimizes their creative powers and ability to reflect and act upon cultural and structural norms and discourses independently and critically. i shall discuss this further in the discussion section. at this point, i simply wish to mention that this type of lecturing, as well, does not facilitate the transfer of knowledge to different contexts. it does not encourage students to understand, emotionally and cognitively, the many aspects of individual and collective action before, during and after the particular historical event. nor does it help to contextualize historical legacies and power of transferred historical memory. not only by their verbal responses, but also by their emotional reactions and body language during the activities, it was clear that the act of cutting out the images and keywords from the newspapers demanded a different way of engaging with the material. it required active reading and reflection as opposed to scrolling through the words and images on a screen, for instance. in order for a word or image to be selected, its meaning had to be understood, both linguistically and in relation to personal knowledge and experiences. after we finished the class, i invited the students to accompany me to see a performance of srebrena krv (silver blood)4 that was staged in the evening of the same day in narodno pozorište mostar. the performance is about two brothers who, in the fall of srebrenica in july 1995, try to escape to the free territory. in the interview, the director of the performance states that in mostar, it is especially important to perform this play for the generations that are now in a particular stage of emotional development, and are bombarded with miscellaneous, spin-twisting information and history” (malkočević in bljesak.info 2018, translation is mine). interestingly none of the students came.5 when i asked them the next morning about their absence, one used the excuse that they were watching the world cup; the other one said, ‘i knew it would be sad’. from the remainder, i encountered silence. when i was reflecting on the day’s session and trying to see connections between the topics we were working on, the performance and students’ reactions, i wrote a note in my field diary on my observance of imposed remembrance and silence: http://www.infactispax.org/journal 76 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 when i asked them about the performance, i didn’t want to sound moralistic or judging them. i was very careful not to sound that i was expecting them to go to theatre. but i still felt that they understood as if i am trying to say ‘don’t you think you should go’. i feel i am selfcensoring myself too, because i am very cautious not to provoke anything to put the school staff in the trouble. but it is also frustrating because i feel it doesn’t lead me anywhere, because in most cases they just don’t respond. i was trying to ask in different ways, but at one point it all became awkward, so i stopped. i felt frustrated because today after the class i had nothing concrete to work on; but i also had all this ‘noresponse’ which can mean so much. i am thinking that it would be really good to have time and space to ask them to create ‘remembrance’ on their own. i think this could encourage some active response. but then again, wouldn’t it just be another ‘forced’ action. maybe they just don’t want to act, react or/and do anything (12 july 2018, translation is mine). we ended the course by discussing ways of developing resilient practices that they, as individuals, can create, rehearse and apply in their everyday lives. i introduced them to the idea of breaking the cycle of violence and abuse, as i wanted to understand on the role of silence in this process, particularly among this generation.6 silence in post-conflict societies appears as a consequence of a secret, part of a painful past that cannot be communicated out loud, but it also appears as a desire to forget past traumas in order to construct new, trauma-free, post-war identities. some scholars claim that silence, especially in families, is used as a protective mechanism (bar-on 1996; wiseman and barber 2008). survivors who desire to forget the past and adjust to new, post-conflict lives continue to believe that withholding information about the horrors they experienced is compulsory for their children’s unaffected developments. in past studies, this belief has proved to be a misconception: the children who were “protected” from the traumatic stories of their parents and grandparents were sometimes affected not only in the form of ill health but also in social dysfunction, violence in their communities, and other outcomes (for more, see milroy 2005). in the current world of omnipresence of information and relatively easily accessible sources, silencing about the past is harder to sustain. one can remain silent, but it does not mean that their traumatic story is not heard. and this is the oxymoron where i am trying to introduce the ideas of the imposed remembrance: the survivors that decide to speak out, often speak on behalf of those who remain silent too. but do the silent ones want this? speaking out is often promoted by the need to remember; but what if those that keep silent want to forget? the circle of those that speak up, furthermore, are granted social (and political) power to design the remembrance practices, namely, what and how to remember. this often creates fixed and rigid agendas of survivors, that are not to be questioned or alternated, as this could violate the honor of those who vanished or disvalue the pain of those who survived. and where is place of post-war generations in this battle? http://www.infactispax.org/journal 77 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 in the feedback provided at the end of the course, students stated that working together for a better future is necessary, and that the remembrance is an important part of it. but they felt quite uncertain when i asked them how this could be achieved and if they attend or participate in current remembrance practices. one particularly consistent response from the students concerned the need to stop talking about the past, bringing it up repeatedly instead of looking forward. one of the students told me: i am really tired of these war stories. i want to live my life and just move on. sometimes i feel i can’t think who i am because i need to listen what happened before me here. of course, i want to know what happened, but i am also tired because it never stops. i don’t think this is my history and therefore i would be happy to be spared listening to it over and over again. as one of the closing activities, i asked them to write a letter (fig. 2 & 3) to people on the other side of the conflict. i did not ask them to write a letter of forgiveness would it be either forgiving or asking for forgiveness instead, i asked them to write down what would they like to know from ‘the others’; what issues they were curious to explore and what puzzling questions they would like to address. there were two unexpected outcomes: despite no directions being given, seven of the 10 participants’ letters concerned the need to forgive and work together for a peaceful future. besides, all the letters were written in english. in answer to my question about language choice, one of the students told me: ‘i did not want to be recognized and judged. i wanted to write freely about my thoughts, without thinking about being judged for who i am.’ the letters were not signed, and i asked them to leave them in a box before they exit the classroom. in this way i wanted to move away from the similar studies that take into consideration the ethno-religious identities of the research participants. i do not claim that this is not important, but i also believed that the past scholarship has addressed this aspect very adequately. what i wanted to focus when reading and analysing letters was, if there is a ‘generational connection’. namely, can there be any other component that unites/divides those youth as opposed to their ethno-religious identities. for i claim, analysing different narrative in letters from this perspective would in a way continue the grand narrative of their parents – survivors, witnesses, perpetrators. searching for the commonalities in the prisms of the(ir) generation, the zeitgeist they live in, http://www.infactispax.org/journal 78 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 might help to hear what kind of remembrance practices they need to learn from, and how to further peace education in these terms. figure 2 & 3. decision to write letters in english as opposed to their local languages is highly symbolical. in some other parts of the workshop, i could see that ethno-religious identity for them is important; but at the same time, identifying this way immediately correlates with taking sides and hence, a symbolic ownership over one interpretation of the war history. while they want to identify as members of one or another group, they have chosen ‘a distance’ (through the language) which i interpret as a very clear message. although being members of one or the other group, they want to be read as an individual, that looks into the future rather than in the past. srebrenica: the expedition to the ‘bloody room’ after the summer school in mostar i headed to srebrenica, where i spent another week surrounded by local and international youth engaged in volunteer activities to revive the city and help survivors, particularly elderly women who lost all or most of the male members of their families during the massacre in 1995. when i arrived, the commemoration day was over and the place had returned to its usual deserted state. the camp coordinator explained that they understand peacebuilding as ‘working together to rebuild this place, bringing it back to life, and just being present here in srebrenica.’ (translation is mine) furthermore, they explained that they occasionally organize workshops with specific topics focused on peacebuilding, but ‘we believe that much more can http://www.infactispax.org/journal 79 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 be learned while young people simply work and spend time together; for example, playing and sitting next to the fire in the evening’ (translation is mine). while engaged in daily work activities and assigned a task group, (for instance cutting a wood, construction work, gardening, picking the berries, delivering and distributing the food among survived women etc.) i could experience this myself: while taking a rest from stacking wood for a family in the town, a debate about the war would start, or we would run across the field to take a group photo and a dark joke about undiscovered mines would crop up. the topic of war was always present, even if there were no planned activities or sessions designed to address it specifically. the only planned activities relating to the massacre in srebrenica were the preparation of the memorial before 11 july and the group visit to the memorial centre. since i missed the first of these, i took the opportunity to engage with the young people when we visited the memorial centre. despite the incident described in the introduction, which left a residue of negative feelings, a group of three wanted to return to the place and explore it alone, ‘in peace with no stupid interruptions’ (translation is mine), as the one of them stated in an irritated manner. the day after our group visit, this trio and i headed back to the abandoned factory in potočari. while walking there, it was mentioned to me that ‘some people are talking about the “blood room”’ (translation is mine); a room where one can supposedly see a bloody handprint on the wall ‘from someone who was executed’ (translation is mine). this information is confusing because the former car battery factory, which is today partly reconstructed as a memorial centre and gallery and partly abandoned, did not serve as a place of execution. it was—at least in theory—a safe area; a base for dutch un peacekeepers that became a refuge for local people after the fall of srebrenica. however, i did not intervene as i wanted to learn what information and knowledge the students possessed and, more importantly, why they were so keen to find signs of torture and violent atrocity. as it transpired, they were on a mission to find the famous graffiti left by dutch soldiers, but they were also very eager to find any human remains and were disappointed that no such remains existed. http://www.infactispax.org/journal 80 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 while passing the largest hall, i spotted ‘bones’ on the floor that were the remains of the one million bones project that was installed in potočari in 2015.7 the students were very excited about the discovery, taking photos and posting them on social media. they shared their discoveries with others when we returned to the camp (figure 5 & 6). fig 4 & 5: taking pictures of bones and showing them to the others in the camp. observing and reflecting on the experience of those three young people, i felt that i was not entitled to judge or condemn their approach to the srebrenica issue. as far as possible, i tried to remain a neutral observer, merely asking questions during and after the visit and in later informal conversations. this served as my springboard for discussing and understanding aspects of the violent past. however, it is challenging to deny their overall emotional fascination with the site, and especially with learning more about mass murder, bones, bloody remains and torture. it is even more challenging to present, analyse and discuss this, here, in the present paper, without it seeming that i am accusing these young people of some type of ‘war porn’. the excitement was evident in their body language, attitudes and narratives when talking about this experience to their fellows in the camp. in a very long conversation that i had with one of the three, i noted their visceral fascination with the acts of cruelty and their curiosity about civilians’ suffering experiences, rather than about the raw facts and policies that enabled the massacre to happen. what led those three young people into the halls of the factory was a search for something they could identify with, the experience embodied in fellow human bodies—the pain and suffering of fellow human beings and the experience of survival. perhaps they also felt the thrill of connecting with the past through finding concrete remains. finding a bloody handprint on the wall is finding real evidence that real people were here—that these people, in fact, are not only numbers on a long list of names. and finding blood still there means those http://www.infactispax.org/journal 81 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 people were there–not long ago. in another conversation about my observations and questions related to this, one of them told me that what interests them are the ‘stories’: we have never heard this in the school. they told us the facts. i know everything about who was fighting, who was killed, when this happened, but being here in srebrenica, for me, means much more. suddenly it feels so real. i am very excited. i could return to this factory over and over again. they returned four more times. with those visits, they were not shocked or intimidated; rather, they were entertained, as they would be at an amusement park, not knowing exactly what awaited them except the adrenaline, the thrill— the excitement. discussion up till now, several scholars provided important evidence relating to the teaching of history and war studies in post-conflict settings (pašalić-kreso, 2008; berkerman & zembylas, 2011; ahonen, 2012). the official history teaching material in bosnia–herzegovina has been under critical scrutiny since the early stages of the dayton peace agreement. the use of three different ethnically oriented textbooks has been problematized and has encouraged the establishment of an inclusive textbook that aims to ‘remove offensive material from textbooks’ and introduce modifications to meet ‘modern european standards’ (karge & batarilo 2008, 10). with little progress being made, fundamental changes are still needed in terms of curricula harmonization and teacher training for the delivery of content that promotes sociopolitical unity in diverse bosnian society. grassroots organizations have for years been furthering critical approaches toward history education although education policy and curricular have been and are still guarded by the state authorities. 8 in contrast to formal history teaching, non-formal programmes pay more attention to the study of collective memory and emotional aspects in approaching violent pasts.9 in my own course and on the later visit to the memorial site in potočari, i noted that the stories and testimonies were what attracted the youth; those very subjective, if not intimate, representations of and encounters with past events. what the young people learned in school was factual knowledge, divorced from the narrative domain of historical research. the official curricula, for obvious reasons, avoids emotional engagements. aiming to present balanced, factual and objective narratives, the curricula, therefore, must be detached from personal stories, and with this, emotions. personal narratives have always been more compelling, if sanctioned in schools because they provide a description and interpretation of historical events, not only through the prism of contemporary ideologies, myths and collectivisms, but also through the personal and emotional accounts of ordinary people’s traumas. studies of personal and collective memory have recently flooded http://www.infactispax.org/journal 82 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 contemporary discourses in the social sciences and humanities and the popularity of the studies has certainly pushed traditional historical research towards the margins (bellino & williams, 2015; campos-matos, 2015). consequently, this demands new skills of educators and poses new questions for researchers regarding how the many aspects violent histories–cognitive, emotional, embodied–should be taught. i wish to consider these issues in relation to the question of how the post-war generation reads, accepts and reacts to collective memories concerning the war—in comparison with how they are expected to respond to such collective memories. if memorialization is a process that consoles those who suffered and enables people to honour the victims (barsalou & baxter, 2007, 1), what role do the young people play in the process? mannheim (1972, 296) urged a distinction between personally acquired memories (those based on first-hand experience) and appropriated memories (those disseminated through survivors or other media). in my two cases, all the participants told me that at least one of their parents had witnessed or lived through the war. however, regarding how much their parents had told them about the war, it transpired that very few of them had access to their parents’ personally acquired memories. in fact, only one student openly talked about this, having read their mother’s diary, which was written during the siege of sarajevo. the remainder of the group did not mention their parents’ experiences and responded with silence when my questions related to the wartime experiences of their parents and how much they knew about them. on the other hand, all the research participants seemed eager to share appropriated memories of events surrounding srebrenica even though they were apparently remote (geographically and emotionally). in contrast to ger duijzings' notion of srebrenica as one of the hardest examples to digest, accept and understand (2007, 145), these mostar teenagers seemed to have the hardest time digesting the wartime antagonisms most proximal to their lives. since it has garnered much attention from the international community, srebrenica has gained a special place in bosnian memorial culture and its politics have been disputed on several levels and approached through different narratives (e.g. simić, 2009; halilović, 2015; jacobs, 2016). however, prioritized interest and long-term neglect of other, less notorious, war contexts (or refusal to acknowledge genocidal acts elsewhere in bosnia–herzegovina), have transformed srebrenica into a metaphysical, if not surreal, place. the annual commemoration becomes a form of re-enactment with the mothers as protagonists, dressed in traditional clothing, with props of green coffins and a huge audience witnessing their sorrow, grief and mourning. the young people share the mourning, but a visit to the memorial site also generates excitement. like auschwitz, srebrenica now risks becoming a ‘disneyland of misery’.10 those mostar teenagers, for instance, easily related to the mourning of elderly http://www.infactispax.org/journal 83 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 women who lost their sons in the massacre, but not to the ‘mourning silences’ of their own parents. in contrast to shahak shapira’s yolocaust project,11 for example, which morally judges the consumption and commodification of memorial places, i wonder whether history teaching that deals with such events should include moral directions in terms of how to perceive and consume the difficult pasts. or whether we should let future generations decide for themselves what to do with the collective memories created by survivors? i wonder if, instead of telling young people how to remember, we should first ask and listen: what is in the historical experiences that attracts, teaches, instruct the current generations how is this useful – if at all? do they have their own ideas of remembrance practices that reflect also the current issues, challenges and social questions that are specific for their own generation, ie. their own historical time? memorialization serves both to promote social recovery and to preserve the sense of victimization, injustice and desire for revenge. the owners of acquired memories may be in the best position to transform commemoration from a simple memorial practice into an instrumental one that aims to prevent similar events from happening in the future. the srebrenica massacre is today internationally recognized as genocide and, as such, deemed morally reprehensible. the students in the mostar classroom agreed that it was wrong, but it elicited no anxiety such as that shown by individuals during the mostarrelated film screening testimony and there were no unexpected emotional outbursts regarding srebrenica. if there is such a difference between memorializing ‘their own space’ versus memorializing a place somewhere distant, how can/should our education system help these young people to make connections between experiences, to construct pedagogical translations between one violent atrocity and another, in order to prevent not the same–but similar ones–in the future. one answer may perhaps be found in the concept of the transgenerational functionality of memory. it has been agreed by memory scholars that collective memory is never a mere reflection of the past, but always a mediated reflection of the past that can be linked to the present and future (polkinghorne, 1998; assmann, 2007; haukanes and trnka, 2013). it is a result of past experiences, present needs and future aspirations. therefore, remembrance practices are established to empower the present and to imagine the future; if past experiences are presented to us, we can imagine what the future holds for individuals and societies (kerby, 1991; koselleck, 2004; natzmer, 2002; palmberger and tošić, 2016; polkinghorne, 1998). however, in most cases, the generations of survivors, witnesses and perpetrators construct collective memory through their personally acquired memories. this memory created by one generation is then passed to the post-war generation, but not necessarily in the way that generation wants to be served. if we accept the notion that present memory serves future aspirations, it follows that future generations passively accept their acquired http://www.infactispax.org/journal 84 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 memories, with no critical reflection or fresh response, and an accepted version of social history is constructed out of the memories of their predecessors. this perspective marks every new generation as a mere carrier of past agendas, lacking critical appraisal and autonomous action. where this occurs, this approach condemns every new generation to simply fulfil the future aspirations of their parents. social institutions, like schools and media largely support this reproduction of collective memory agendas. however, what the experiences i’ve described in this paper suggest is that, by creating a space for alternative voice of youth, we may hear that what the new generations aspire for is changing, and this open new challenges for memorialisation to reach them in a meaningful way. in conversations in both mostar and srebrenica, the students expressed an overload of remembrance and a feeling of being overwhelmed by the omnipresence of the war and the past in general. many legal cases are still open, many survivors are still waiting for justice and plenty of trials and prosecutions are continuing. moreover, political parties tend to use the war legacy to legitimate their political agendas. while it is understandable that those who lived through the war are attached to their memories and no one should take that away from them, pressuring post-war youth into remembrance and a utopian belief that never forgetting means never repeating seems neither constructive nor pedagogically sound. when survivors and witnesses control what is remembered, how and why, the practices they create also generate a certain amount of trauma and frustration over slow sociopolitical change. if young people do not respond to this as expected, it causes further anger and disappointment among those who suffered losses and have remained traumatized because of the war since the survivors and/or witnesses believe that they ‘own’ the memories and are therefore the guardians of ‘true’, ‘right’ and ‘proper’ remembrance practices, happy faces and selfies will never be welcomed. nevertheless, paying closer attention to the responses of young people—to happy and playful faces on the photos from auschwitz or giggling, bored and napping students during painful video clips of mass executions—communicates to educators the need to shift gears perhaps and create different opportunities, knowledge, and emotional literacy for more effective ‘never again’ interventions in the futures of those young people. perhaps their responses indicate that an agenda that is formed by others and rooted in the past is simply not an acceptable framework for their future. another angle that we need to consider more carefully in educating about violent pasts is the lack of teacher training to prepare teachers to witness student’s learning processes, mechanisms of coping with the history that is not really theirs, and to witness without judging – this also means learning how to respond to hatred, rage and the toxic responses in the form of political http://www.infactispax.org/journal 85 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 radicalisation effective preparation of teachers would facilitate such witnessing that avoids responses that might be insulting to survivors or descendants, such as mimicry, voyeurism, or spectatorship (eppert and simon, 1997, 179). instead of dictating proper behaviour during visits to memorial sites, teachers may prioritize emotional literacy over moral judgements. during my classes in mostar and the visit to srebrenica, the emotional reactions were definitely some of the most important components—and considerably more challenging than conveying fact-based knowledge through lectures. few students have highlighted the emotional aspects of testimonies and personal sharing, during the activities (for instance while writing letters) or during conversation in the circle during the classes nevertheless, past studies show that both teacher education generally (whitted, 2011; jones & bouffard, 2012; waajida, garnerb and owen, 2013) and post-conflict history teaching in particular (zembylas 2008) have paid very little attention to the social and emotional development of teachers. teachers must develop their own emotional literacy and create trauma-informed classes in order to deal with the emotional dynamics of their students. the teacher’s task, write eppert and simon (1997, 189), is to ‘create conditions and means for moving beyond attempts to speak that falter into silence or regress into familiar and potentially debilitating frames of reference’. as i have struggled to break the silence with students about the violent local events in mostar, i assume that the students had not previously had many opportunities to address these questions in either history classes or other courses during their schooling. furthermore, students’ inability to relate the difficult pasts of slavery, the holocaust and srebrenica to their local (family) histories, shows the limits of the formal school education they have received in accomplishing one of memorialization’s functions: to appraise past events in order to understand one’s contemporary perceptions and actions. without skills of emotional literacy, students will struggle to deduce, process and apply historical lessons in a critical, independent and reflective manner. however, nurturing emotional literacy among the students demands also trained teachers with the ability to recognize and accurately label and respond to the emotional reactions of students; ability to predict and tackle the triggers; and prevent retraumatization or deepening ptsd, etc. when teachers are not skilled enough to acknowledge the emotional journeys of all students in the classroom and are not consciously making space for emotions, they might simply shut down the student when faced by the controversial encounter. not embracing the spectrum of emotions, from rage to sympathy, adds to the culture of historical silence and sometimes collective amnesia. allocating couple of minutes in the classroom to reflect and evaluate emotional state of students, and sharing teacher’s own experiences, can enhance trust between the teacher and students, and provides a sense of mutual learning experience. memorialization seems to serve different purposes for different generations (see barsalou and baxter 2007, 4). while those who survived or witnessed the atrocities memorialize in order to mourn, to seek truth, reconciliation and social http://www.infactispax.org/journal 86 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 recovery, the post-war generation is expected to witness and participate in those practices in order to learn and project the lessons of the past onto their future. in mostar, for instance, where the venue of the summer camp was in one of the infamous ‘two schools under one roof’,12 a participant from this school told me that they had never been in the same classroom with anyone from the other side of the conflict prior to attending this school. before the class began, they felt anxious and even afraid: i was surprised that this class is no different from those in my school. i expected that we would have a lot of fights, but we don’t, and it’s good that the official language of this school is english. it stops me thinking of someone as being from the other side. in a camp in srebrenica, i witnessed the conversation of a 17-year-old participant from istoćno sarajevo (a mostly serb-dominated part of the town) who was attending the camp for the second time. earlier, the camp coordinator had explained to me that their mother was seriously concerned about their visit to srebrenica and feared for their safety. during the visit to the memorial site in potočari, this bosnian serb and his bosniak companion were photographed and both of them posted the picture on facebook. one of them added a caption: figure 6: facebook post from memorial centre in potočari (retrived 10 january 2019) we were sitting there in silence and suffering. it hurts to look at this, but one finds it hard to leave. it is impossible to understand this horrific act against other people or what happens to someone to make them willing to commit such acts. today, we, /bosniak’s name/ and /serb’ name/, a bosnian girl and serb boy, two young people who came to potočari together, were horrified by what the people before us did and we have sworn to do everything we can to prevent this happening to us—or ever again! (translation is mine). http://www.infactispax.org/journal 87 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 i read this quotation as a cultural narrative transferred that they have received from parents, the media, schools and institutions. if we look back to the posters that students in mostar created and the keywords that they selected from the articles (for instance: sjećanje (memory), ne smije se zaboraviti (should not be forgotten), bol i suze (grief and tears)), we can see the similarity in the vocabulary. i read this as (unconscious) internalization of the collective memory and socially desired witnessing and use of the memorial space. there is an future aspiration of those two youth–to live in peace–but in this picture they are also a ‘proof’ that the future aspiriration of the war survivors and witnesses–for two sides to reconcile–have succeeded. why, then, problematize this? in adopting a critical position toward the narrative, i am not accusing the young people of wrongdoing, but i want to use this example to explore the issue of how young people are expected to respond to the commemorative needs of those who survived the atrocities and whether there are ‘right’, ‘proper’ and socially desirable commemorative practices. if one assumes that the message of this post actually reflects that of a different generation, it is interesting to consider what a constructive, future-oriented alternative might be. public spaces, like the media, always have target audiences and are often subject to market needs, having to provide consumers with what they want. hence, the images and narratives found in the media are designed to satisfy the audience rather than problematize issues. the reality, on the other hand, changes daily as new trials are held, new mass graves are discovered, and new evidence is provided. as generations pass away, consumers eventually change, and the descendants of survivors become the active readers. considering the reach of the media, the facebook post is important. it received a relatively small number of ‘likes’ (75). for comparison, i scrolled through this person’s other pictures—mostly self-portraits—and saw that, on average, she receives 150–200 likes per post, yet this post was seen by many more people than the number of likes indicates. hence, the discrepancy warrants scrutiny, poses questions and invites a positive and constructive dialogue. once again, i have no intention of doubting the integrity of the post, but i see the similarities with the infamous auschwitz selfies: the narrative is simplified and idealized. my critical hesitancy arises from the experiences in both examples discussed here, where srebrenica is somehow an artificial, exclusive and almost imaginary13 memorial space that restricts the horrific scale of human violence to safe and narrow pedagogical boundaries. my concern is that the lessons are unlikely to remain with a learner once they leave the venue. to sum up, these two cases equipped me with the following guidelines for further teaching. firstly, it is important to deliver more education about the past outside of the classroom and the usual context of a history lecture. even though the working camp in srebrenica has activities that relate directly to remembrance and education about the past of this particular venue (such as http://www.infactispax.org/journal 88 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 preparing the memorial site for the commemoration on 11 july, cleaning afterwards, or visiting the memorial centre), most of the volunteers’ time was spent in mixed groups, engaged in apparently informal activities. one such activity involved chopping wood for one of the ‘mothers of srebrenica’ and delivering a daily warm meal to her. this visit to a survivor, a living person in a ‘live space’ (the city) as opposed to a dead person in a memorial cemetery, prompted one of the volunteers to visit this woman again and start to learn on their own initiative. another factor that i noted is the importance of teaching history by incorporating historical events in the broader context of the humanities and social sciences, rather than teaching them separately and decontextualizing them. my own background in social and political sciences is beneficial in explaining historical events from the perspective of social phenomena. among other examples, i might call upon the systemic use of rape and sexual violence in the war to reflect on wider gender-based and sexual oppression, both in the past and today, in peace or in conflict. we still fail miserably to understand auschwitz and srebrenica as social and political phenomena, rather than merely historical ones, and this is exactly where i see the importance of creating diverse collective memories, where young people can speak also from the perspective of their generation and not just ethno-religious group. since history is often burdensome for the survivors, they should be given the opportunity to focus first and fully on their own recovery, leaving the post-war generation in charge of the creating the future – perhaps even without memory. however, i do not believe that they can create a truly alternative future if they are continuously exposed to pressure to remember the past and engage in the remembrance practices of older generations with other agendas. while, for the survivors, achieving justice is one of the most important incentives for insisting on certain memorial narratives, for young people it is important to understand not only who the victims and perpetrators were or how many and which people were killed, but how individual human beings, anywhere in the world, including themselves, can reach the point of committing such atrocities and what they can do to prevent it. young people need to understand the stages of the process that leads to mass executions and what the early warning signs of that process are. those lessons have already been incorporated in peacebuilding and reconciliation programmes. however, civic education, ethics, moral philosophy and peacebuilding are still, too often, the preserve of nonformal education programmes only. there is a long way to go before they are incorporated in formal history education curricula and pedagogy. references http://www.infactispax.org/journal 89 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 ahonen, sirkka. 2012. coming to terms with a dark past. how post-conflict societies deal with history. frankfurt: peter lang. barsalou, judy & victoria baxter. 2007. the urge to remember the role of memorials in social reconstruction and transitional justice. us institute for peace. accessed from: https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/srs5.pdf. bar-on, d. 1996. the indescribable and the undiscussable: reconstructing human discourse after trauma. budapest: central european university. bekerman, zvi and michalinos zembylas. 2011. teaching contested narratives: identity, memory and reconciliation in peace education and beyond. new york, ny: cambridge 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university press. 1 msyp is a non-profit, free summer educational programme supported by local and international organizations and businesses. it aims to empower youth aged 14-19 from mostar and the surrounding area with opportunities in their educational, social and professional aspirations. the participation is voluntary, but highly competitive as the programme is very popular among the youth. dozens of students apply every year, but only limited spaces are offered. there is a lot of returning students as well. i would like to emphasize that this is a selected, very exclusive group of highly motivated, curious, open-minded cohort of the students. i am aware that the experience in a regular school during the school year would be probably very different. more information about msyp: https://mostarsyp.org. 2 a participant in mostar asked, if they can identify by gender, and surpsingly enough, three out of 10 have claimed that they prefer no gender pronoun, and two explicitly asked to use 'them' instead of he or she. in this vein, i decided to omit also other identity layers. please see for more explanation: p. 12. 3 stav, dnevni avaz and oslobodjenje are all sarajevo-based newspapers and magazines. those were the papers that on 11 july reported the commemorations on the front page and were available in the three kiosks in mostar that i visited; hence i chose those newspapers by the visibility of the issue: i entered the kiosk and collected those with srebrenica on the cover, without inspecting the content inside. as an interesting observation, in mostar one can also buy newspapers that are printed in herzegovina; however, none of those papers had a srebrenica commemoration on the front page. the same day, croatia was playing in the semi-final of world cup and this was the main feature that the herzegovian newspapers reported on their cover pages. http://www.infactispax.org/journal 92 volume 13 number 2 (2019): 70-92 4 as a matter of fact, i realized there were no young people in the audience at all; depending on the estimated age of the spectators, i would assume they were all of the generation that witnessed or/and survived the war, but i have no exact information on this—nor do i have any information on the ethnic origin of the audience. 5 on the same day, the croatian national soccer team was playing in the world cup semi-final and the entire city seemed even more divided than usual. while the east side of the town is mostly populated by bosniaks, local people were following both the commemoration and the match—both in silence. in complete contrast was the atmosphere on the west side, inhabited mainly by bosnian croats; chairs in bars were overlayed with textiles mimicking the white-andred cubes of croatian flags; flags were hung from apartment buildings and waved from cars. however, the coincidence of these two events might also explain how students were spending their evening. 6 as a material i used my own text that discusses the creation and social preservation of collective silences, see here: author. 7 the sarajevo-based ngo post-conflict research centre partnered with the us-based art of revolution to establish the project for the 20th commemoration of the genocide in srebrenica. this project previously brought together over 2,500 volunteers from across the united states to lay out 1,000,000 handcrafted bones in the national mall in washington, d.c. as a visible protest against ongoing genocide and mass atrocity occurring around the world. for more see: http://www.onemillionbones.net/ (retrieved: 7 january 2019). 8 lately more and more programs run and delivered in collaboration between ministries of education, pedagogical institute and international initiatives and organizations, are being offered to help to reform history education in official institutions; among them for instance forum zfd, euroclio-hip, yihr, dijalog za budućnost. 9 see for instance projects run by: pro-bodućnost (https://probuducnost.ba/); tpo foundation (www.tpo.ba); most mira (www.mostmiraproject.org), centar za izgradnju mira (www.unvocim.net). 10 paraphrasing the term used for disscussing the 'dark tourism' in auschwitz, available here: http://bocktherobber.com/2013/10/has-auschwitz-become-the-disneyland-of-misery/. 11 yolocaust project of israeli-german artist shahak shapira has attracted international academic and public interest by raising awareness of ‘appropriate’ commemorative and remembrance practices among generations of young westerners who are temporally, and often geographically, distant from the mass atrocities of the holocaust and the consequences and/or legacies of collective violence. for more see: https://yolocaust.de/ 12 this phenomenon is known as one of the worst examples in the european educational sphere and many people have openly criticized it and called for change. in the meantime, local students that attend these schools have taken the initiative in their own hands. in some places, like jajce and travnik, they even achieved the agreement that two different ethnic groups could attend the same class. several local and international newspapers reported about the protests (see for instance sito-sucic 2017); and students also engaged in writing about their positions (see blog post by jahic 2018). 13 this imaginary space does not in any sense connote or imply that the massacre did not happen or that any facts or evidence are invented. this paper does not discuss the massacre as such but rather teaching of 'srebrenica' as an (european) example of post-holocaust genocide. due to its international recognition, it is not only subjected to contested memories and politicization, but also to a predatory consumerist market. microsoft word arce-trigatti & santucho ifp 11.2.docx in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 195 195 volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal espacios de revisión: literatura argentina y pedagogía hacia la pazi andrea arce-trigatti aa.trigatti@gmail.com university of tennessee, knoxville college of education, health, and human sciences florencia beatriz santucho fbsloli@hotmail.com universidad nacional del litoral facultad de humanidades y ciencias en uno de sus más memorables discursos al público, la escritora nigeriana chimamanda ngozi adichie habló de los peligros de una historia singular, significando una historia contada desde una sola perspectiva. en su discurso principal, ella declaró que es imposible hablar sobre la historia singular sin hablar sobre el poder, el cual es la habilidad de no sólo decir la historia de otra persona sino hacer la historia definitiva de la persona (adichie, 2009). a pesar del gran número de inmigrantes y recién llegados a territorio argentino a través de su historia, argentina sufre de lo que adichie describe como el peligro de la historia singular. en el caso de argentina, como en la mayoría de latinoamérica, la historia singular es la historia de los colonizadores, la élite europea, los que personifican el ideal occidental (gordillo y hirsch, 2003; hoberman, 2007). en la identidad nacional que perpetúa argentina, es casi imposible in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 196 196 identificar un pasado ligado a las comunidades originarias en el imaginario colectivo (delrio, lenton, musante, nagy, papazian, y perez, 2010; hoberman, 2007). insistiendo en que una identidad nacional influenciada por tradiciones europeas era el camino hacia el progreso, la generación intelectual del siglo xix impuso una idea de civilización que se basa en suprimir toda identidad no occidental/europea (rodríguez, 2006). por lo tanto, en un esfuerzo para reivindicar las voces silenciadas de estas comunidades en la construcción de la identidad nacional, nosotros examinamos cómo la literatura argentina es enseñada como parte del currículo de las escuelas públicas sin reflexionar sobre los mecanismos discursivos que legitiman la exclusión de esas voces. según foucault (1977, 1982), los mecanismos y las prácticas discursivas son el producto de lucha social, conflicto ideológico, y relaciones de poder; en consecuencia, el discurso dominante reproduce un orden social basado en exclusiones. de este modo, proponemos que la falta de análisis crítico de estos textos en el contexto de su enseñanza ayuda a perpetuar el discurso dominante que forma parte del imaginario social: como la dicotomía civilización/barbarie y lo que ésta implica en las lógicas fundantes de las naciones en formación durante el siglo xix. para ilustrar este punto, en un estudio realizado por gerbaudo (2006), se analiza de qué manera la importación de las teorías estructuralista y estilística durante los años 70 derivó en una simplificación aplicacionista que reducía dichas teorías a una serie de fórmulas simplificadas. de esta manera, el abordaje de los textos literarios se reduce a la enumeración de sus características principales: autor, personajes principales, secundarios, trama, etc. siguiendo a esta autora, este tipo de abordaje sigue siendo el más frecuentemente utilizado en las aulas argentinas: tradiciones que dominan aún hoy la enseñanza de la literatura, especialmente en el nivel medio, y que han sido reducidas básicamente a una técnica que simplifica las derivaciones metodológicas de los proyectos de base y que omite las derivaciones antropológicas en el caso del estructuralismo (gerbaudo, 2006, p. 1). en consecuencia, a través del uso de esta pedagogía aplicada a textos literarios e históricos -cuya influencia en la formación de una imagen nacional ha sido decisivael análisis de estos textos se vuelve acrítico y el in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 197 197 mensaje de la voz dominante se perpetúa (adichie, 2009; gerbaudo, 2006). la motivación para incorporar el análisis crítico del discurso en la educación argentina proviene de un llamado global cada vez más grande de líderes internacionales para engendrar la paz entre comunidades diversas en un esfuerzo por mantener y fortalecer la estabilidad de las existentes democracias (spring, 2015). esto empieza por una educación que fomente el espíritu crítico, que tienda hacia la paz y tolerancia hacia otros (de zavaleta, 1986). parte de este proceso requiere, entonces, una pedagogía que brinde herramientas que hagan frente a los prejuicios a los que todo individuo se ve sometido más allá de su voluntad (barker, 2012; hooks, 1993). hablando acerca la pedagogía para la paz, de zavaleta (1986) propone: en esta lucha contra el prejuicio se deben analizar objetivamente las opiniones contrarias a las propias y los modos de comportarse de los demás, situándose en el ángulo de mira de los otros, tratando de descubrir sus motivos. solo así se logrará una actitud de comprensión y de tolerancia (p. 64). este trabajo es, pues, un esfuerzo para concretar ese proceso, específicamente con miras a su aplicación pedagógica en el contexto educativo argentino. habiendo planteado estas cuestiones, nuestro objetivo es proponer dos lecturas alternativas para ayudar a redefinir lo que anderson (1983) ha descrito como la comunidad imaginada: una identidad nacional que forma una comunidad concebida como una camaradería profunda y horizontal sin importar la desigualdad y explotación actuales que puedan prevalecer (pp. 15-16). en este trabajo presentamos ciertos elementos del contexto de producción de las obras literarias que se analizarán. luego, delineamos la metodología ésta incluye elementos del análisis del discurso, de los estudios culturales y de lingüísticaque proponemos integrar a la pedagogía de los textos literarios e históricos de las escuelas públicas. después mostramos cómo se aplica esta metodología a dos textos paradigmáticos del currículo argentino: facundo de domingo f. sarmiento y una excursión a los indios ranqueles de lucio v. mansilla. estos análisis implican no sólo un trabajo por parte del alumno sino también por parte del docente como formador del espíritu crítico, tendiente hacia la búsqueda de la paz en la comunidad. como conclusión, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 198 198 presentamos las ventajas que esta metodología puede tener para la incorporación de herramientas teóricas que permitan una reflexión más crítica, tanto de los textos literarios como históricos. de este modo docentes y estudiantes pueden abrir nuevos espacios de revisión que cuestionen los discursos dominantes. elementos de contexto en el contexto argentino, el “pasado salvaje” abarca más de diecinueve identidades originarias, cada una con sus propias tradiciones, lenguajes, y forma de vida (delrio et al., 2010; minority rights group international [mrgi], 2013). la comunidad wichi por sí sola se expandía sobre 400,000 hectáreas y tenía mil aldeas a través de la región del chaco y las regiones del norte de argentina (rankin, 1995). en el noroeste, los líderes de la comunidad diaguita calchaquí gobernaban más de dieciséis comunidades mientras que las comunidades mbyá/guaraní tenían una presencia imponente en el área de misiones con la frontera de brasil, uruguay, y paraguay (vom hau y wilde, 2010). a pesar de que en el pasado su existencia era ubicua dentro del territorio argentino, en el presente hay menos de 400,000 descendientes de estas diecinueve comunidades originarias que se puedan identificar con su pasado original (mrgi, 2013). las poblaciones guaraní y mbyá comparten la más grande devastación con solamente 4,000 descendientes y alrededor de 450 miembros representando respectivamente cada comunidad (mrgi, 2013; rankin, 1995). como ha sido mencionado, la erradicación de estas comunidades no fue accidental. esto comenzó por las campañas políticas y militares a mediados del siglo diecinueve que iniciaron la guerra contra sus propios “hermanos” y “ciudadanos” que anteriormente ayudaron a crear la nación argentina en las guerras de la independencia (quijada, bernard, y schneider, 2000; vom hau y wilde, 2010). delrio y sus colegas (2010) postularon que las políticas de los primeros líderes argentinos que contribuyeron a la construcción de la identidad de la nación fueron los que esencialmente propagaron el genocidio de sus anteriores compañeros en armas. en particular, concluyeron que las campañas militares de 18781885 terminaron con la autonomía política indígena, por acciones que incluían la eliminación física, prácticas de concentración, deportación, esclavitud, la purificación de la comunidad infantil originaria, y la destrucción cultural (delrio et al., 2010, p. 139). efectivamente, según los autores, todo esto suma a conceptualizar este proceso político como in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 199 199 genocidio (delrio et al., 2010, p. 139). aunque ha habido cierto progreso, incluyendo la constitución de 1994 que se focalizó en redefinir argentina como una nación multiétnica al incorporar varios derechos, incluyendo el reconocimiento de tierras a ciudadanos de las comunidades originarias esto no hace justicia a los silencios incorporados al pasado nacional que han justificado que en el imaginario se los trate como semi-humanos (freire, 1970; greene, 1993; vom hau y wilde, 2010). por ejemplo, a pesar de la protección legal del terreno de las comunidades originarias, entre los años 2007 y 2009 más de sesenta familias fueron desahuciadas con fuerza policial de sus terrenos (amnesty international [ai], 2013, 2017). estos actos violentos culminaron en la muerte de javier chocobar, un líder de la comunidad diaguita de chuschagasta, por disparo policial el 12 de octubre del 2009 (ai, 2017). en una reciente protesta de paz, felix díaz, líder de la comunidad qom en la provincia de formosa, argentina, declaró: “nosotros queremos vivir como personas humanas. no queremos ser considerados como extranjeros en nuestro propio país, pobres o inútiles. queremos vivir sin discriminación. no queremos derramar sangre, sólo queremos reclamar nuestra comunidad” (ai, 2013, p. 1). para añadir otro dato, en el 2016 fueron reportados más de doscientos casos de violación a derechos humanos por parte del gobierno argentino contra las comunidades originarias (ai, 2017, p. 1). este tratamiento de las comunidades originarias como semihumanos viene en parte de una educación que no fomenta un análisis crítico acerca de cómo se formó la actual identidad argentina (delrio et al., 2010; freire, 1970, p. 47). por consiguiente, a pesar de la abundancia de material en las antologías históricas, literarias, y políticas en relación con estos textos específicos y el silencio de las comunidades originarias en la historia argentina, creemos que es justo y beneficioso reanalizar la historia de la nación argentina a través de los trabajos de aquellos que tenían el poder de transformar la historia en una historia definitiva. muchos de ellos, en tanto escritores, contribuyeron mediante sus discursos a anestesiar la violencia que implicó la construcción social y étnica de la nación argentina, violencia que significó borrar todas las identidades “otras”, no compatibles con el proyecto de nación de raza blanca que buscaba ser reflejo de europa (gordillo y hirsch, 2003; hoberman, 2007). focalizando en el papel que la campaña del desierto (1870-1884) el genocidio más grande de los pueblos originarios de in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 200 200 argentina desempeñó en el establecimiento de la identidad nacional, este trabajo combina una investigación histórica y política con un análisis literario de dos textos formativos en la generación del ideal argentino: facundo de domingo f. sarmiento y una excursión a los indios ranqueles de lucio v. mansilla. perpetuando las motivaciones políticas y sociales de la campaña contra los pueblos originarios, las obras de estos hombres “determinaron” la identidad étnica y cultural específica de quienes permanecerían como los “legítimos” representantes de la sociedad argentina. más aún, la selección de estos textos fue de importancia primordial para este análisis. en el caso de estos dos trabajos, el contexto histórico y social al tiempo de su publicación fue ideal para fomentar su influencia en el desarrollo del mito de la identidad argentina. podría decirse que el mecanismo principal utilizado por los constructores primarios de la nación del imaginario argentino fue la palabra escrita. como rodríguez (2006) ilustra en su investigación, la literatura en argentina durante el siglo diecinueve estaba intencionadamente saturada con terminología científica y de la época de la iluminación, que ayudó a convencer a la gente de su veracidad. en consecuencia, colmado con justificaciones pseudocientíficas, el poder del lenguaje durante la época en que los trabajos de sarmiento y mansilla estaban en circulación, elevaron sus palabras a ser la verdad en los ojos de su audiencia (barthes, 1984; rodríguez, 2006). es esta verdad la que llevó, en última instancia, al silenciamiento de las voces originarias y a las políticas polémicas que impusieron que una historia singular dominara dentro del imaginario argentino. metodología los métodos de análisis utilizados en este ensayo pueden ser abarcados bajo lo que es considerado como elementos del análisis del discurso en los campos de estudios culturales y lingüística. en particular, los dos textos principales de este trabajo – facundo de sarmiento y una excursión… de mansilla – son analizados usando dos bases teóricas que están asociadas con este tipo de metodología: análisis crítico del discurso y la teoría de enunciación respectivamente. el análisis crítico del discurso es usado como una fundación teórica principal dentro del campo de estudios culturales para examinar las dinámicas del poder que están presentes dentro de los discursos culturales, contextos sociopolíticos, y narrativas históricas (barker, 2012). siguiendo los acontecimientos filosóficos y teóricos de marx, gramsci, foucault, y derrida, inter alios, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 201 201 este tipo de evaluación intenta identificar los mecanismos en que desigualdades sociales y políticas, dominios del poder, y luchas económicas han sido reproducidos o resistidos entre los discursos culturales (barker, 2012; derrida, 1976; foucault, 1982; hall, 1983). por otro lado, la teoría de la enunciación implica pensar el ejercicio del lenguaje como “una acción (…) cuya significación depende no sólo de las relaciones estructurales entre sus elementos constitutivos sino también de los interlocutores implicados y sus circunstancias espacio-temporales” (filinich, 1999, p. 11). en este sentido, debemos postular una mirada crítica frente al carácter instrumental del lenguaje, puesto que, a diferencia de cualquier otro instrumento fabricado por el hombre y que está por fuera del hombre el lenguaje no pertenece a una realidad exterior sino que posibilita la definición misma del hombre y de su realidad, estableciendo de este modo la consciencia de sí y del otro y constituyéndose en tanto sujeto. para clarificar, aunque las técnicas varían, los objetivos de estas estrategias teóricas son similares, pues el objetivo principal de los dos en relación al propósito de este trabajo es identificar los mecanismos dentro de los textos que permiten a la audiencia leer una determinada mirada hacia los pueblos originarios que los considera inferiores, ignorantes, o “semi-humanos” con respecto a quien “habla” por ellos (freire, 1970, p. 47). debido a que la intención de ciertos discursos está frecuentemente incrustada dentro de los detalles culturales y sociales que forman la imagen de la nación, es difícil distinguir los objetivos iniciales de estos detalles y la posición de tal discurso de lo que es real. este discurso eventualmente forma parte de lo que es considerado un mito (barthes, 1984). los mitos no esconden nada ni ostentan nada distorsionan; los mitos no son ni una mentira ni una confesión es una inflexión: es aquí que alcanzamos el principio del mito transforma historia en naturaleza (barthes, 1984, p. 10). por lo tanto, solamente a través de los esfuerzos por sacar estos mecanismos a la luz se puede tomar conciencia de cómo ha sido construida la imagen de las identidades originarias en el discurso argentino y cómo esto representa sólo una de múltiples perspectivas (derrida, 1976). usando esta metodología interdisciplinaria tenemos la esperanza de clarificar nuestro entendimiento de los textos y traer un sentido de conciencia acerca de los aspectos contextuales y sus consecuencias sociales. finalmente, antes de analizar los textos, es necesario determinar in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 202 202 ciertas lógicas que dominaron la escena del siglo xix, haciendo determinante no sólo una concepción del mundo sino también un modo de lectura de la realidad. las lógicas fundantes de la modernidad se basaron en el poder del lenguaje para comunicar el mundo. el lenguaje constituía, en la cosmovisión occidental, la “herramienta” universal para comunicar “verdades objetivas”, por lo que el discurso occidental no sólo era incuestionable sino que se imponía a cualquier otro discurso (este último no sólo era desplazado sino también negado) (copes y canteros, 2012). esta concepción contribuyó a consolidar el saber occidental europeo como una epistemología hegemónica y universal, puesto que el lenguaje desempeñó en la modernidad la función de representar la realidad: de aquí la idea de mímesis, trasladada al lenguaje como expresión de una realidad externa o interna al sujeto (copes y canteros, 2012). en este sentido, el sujeto que pertenece a esa cultura, al hablar de un otro, está hablando desde un punto de vista unidireccional y parcial, pero en la modernidad es tenido por universal por parte de aquéllos a quienes se dirige (sus potenciales lectores son, obviamente, occidentales). la creación de una historia singular: análisis de textos primer ejemplo: facundo civilización y barbarie la visión que tenía domingo faustino sarmiento para su nación fue notablemente inmortalizada en el trabajo más influyente de su carrera: facundo: civilización y barbarie. cuando se publicó en el año 1845, argentina sufría una guerra civil entre los unitarios y federales que impedía el progreso y estabilidad que la nación había deseado después de la independencia de españa en 1816 (sarmiento, 1998, 2005). la publicación de facundo durante este tiempo de inestabilidad fue crucial para construir la narrativa utilizada por políticos para construir un sistema que iba a reproducir lo que significaba ser parte de esta nación (arcetrigatti, 2012; barker, 2012; sarmiento, 2005). como barker (2012) sugiere, la identidad nacional es una forma de identificación con representaciones de experiencias e historias compartidas; estas se conocen a través de historias, literatura, cultura popular, y medios de comunicación (p. 260). al escribir facundo, sarmiento estaba dando forma a lo que significaba ser parte de la identidad argentina al reescribir la historia de la nación que era relevante a su futuro – la parte europea. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 203 203 por consiguiente, el siguiente análisis investigará los mecanismos ligados a las nociones culturales y sociales dominantes de su época por los cuales el texto facundo abiertamente excluye la voz de las comunidades originarias de la historia argentina (barthes, 1984; foucault, 1982). esta evaluación se centra en la noción de las batallas de poder dentro del discurso y la dominancia que la élite intelectual, representada a través de sarmiento, tuvo sobre la población nativa de la región (foucault, 1977, 1982). como la primera sección del libro consiste en el esfuerzo de sarmiento para recrear el pasado de una nación que vehementemente refuta la existencia de la raza humana anterior a la llegada de los europeos, es apropiado focalizar en esta porción del texto para este análisis. al analizar esta sección, tres mecanismos son resaltados en la descripción de sarmiento sobre el pasado que finalmente silencia las voces de las comunidades originarias en el propósito de la historia: exclusión, generalización, y asociación. el poder del lenguaje: una tierra, vacía y desierta (exclusión). de acuerdo a rodríguez (2006), usando la ciencia para justificar sus declaraciones, las élites intelectuales del siglo diecinueve abogaban la patología social para purificar las naciones de deformidades genéticas y reemplazarlas con lo que ellos creían eran aspectos superiores de la raza humana. consistente con las nociones de un patólogo social, sarmiento excluyó las voces de las comunidades originarias de la historia de la nación para preservar su noción de la aristocracia intelectual (halperin donghi, 1972; katra, 1985). por ejemplo, a pesar de la vasta y diversa presencia de las comunidades originarias dentro del territorio argentino, sarmiento lo describió como un territorio desierto de ella (delrio et al., 2010; sarmiento, 1998). en realidad, ofreció su perspectiva de que argentina era un país vacío, listo para que los valores de la élite europea pudiesen implantar sus costumbres, tradiciones, e ideales: “después de la europa ¿hay otro mundo más cristiano civilizable y desierto como la américa?” (sarmiento, 1998, p. 4). debido al hecho de que la religión y los rituales de las comunidades originarias no estaban alineados con la aristocracia intelectual que anhelaba para su nación, sarmiento (1998) negó la existencia de estas costumbres y en lugar de ello, propagandizó los aspectos cristianos y civilizados de la región. es más, enfatizó los aspectos europeos del pasado de argentina focalizándose en una dicotomía dentro de la sociedad que solamente incluía miembros con sangre pura de ascendencia europea. para in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 204 204 acentuar este punto crítico, los principales antagonistas en su historia no son las comunidades originarias que vivían en la argentina; su principal antagonista es un “hombre divorciado con la sociedad”, más específicamente, un “salvaje de color blanco” (sarmiento, 1998, p. 27). una vez más, sarmiento (1998) pinta una imagen del pasado argentino que sólo incluye a aquellos que tienen la habilidad, de acuerdo con él, de ser “conductores de civilización” dentro de la república argentina (p. 13). como resultado de esto, la historia se centra alrededor de la narrativa singular de los descendientes europeos dentro de los territorios de las comunidades originarias. a través del refinamiento intelectual, medido por los ideales de la iluminación europea, el extranjero todavía tenía el poder de contar la historia de las comunidades originarias como la historia definitiva que forma su imagen de silencio y no existencia (foucault, 1982). finalmente, la principal tesis de sarmiento (1998) refleja esta exclusión: había antes de 1810 en la república argentina dos sociedades distintas, rivales e incompatibles; dos civilizaciones diversas: la una española, europea, civilizada, y la otra bárbara, americana, casi indígena (p. 33). en esta descripción, sarmiento (1998) recrea la narrativa del pasado argentino, que incluye los años antes de la guerra de independencia contra españa, y que muestra dos civilizaciones: una con una conexión directa con españa, europa, y la civilización, la otra con una conexión con el nuevo territorio, casi indígena. la palabra clave es casi en que puede ser implicado que la segunda civilización a que se refiere deriva de una mezcla de una sangre europea con la de las comunidades originarias. de cualquier manera, ninguna civilización que, de acuerdo con sarmiento (1998), existió antes de 1810 incluía las contribuciones o las voces de los individuos que comprendían las comunidades originarias: por ende, estas contribuciones fueron simplemente borradas del pasado de la nación en esta versión de historia. accidentes que ocurren naturalmente (generalización). el segundo mecanismo que sarmiento utiliza para quitarles la voz a las comunidades originarias de la historia argentina es a través de la generalización. debido a que las comunidades originarias no eran los sujetos principales de la historia argentina en el trabajo de sarmiento, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 205 205 cuando están mencionados en su obra, suelen ser clasificaciones generales y necesarias de personas y roles de acuerdo a la categoría cultural (barker, 2012, p. 271). es decir, a pesar de la variación en su vestimenta, costumbres, tradiciones, lenguajes, y forma de vida, el texto rutinariamente ignora estas idiosincrasias y en lugar de ello, se refiere a las comunidades originarias simplemente como indígena (delrio et al, 2010; mrgi, 2013; sarmiento, 1998). aparte de la consecuencia general de distinguir el nosotros de ellos en la historia, con ignorar las contribuciones únicas e identidades asociadas con las comunidades originarias, sarmiento enfatiza aún más el poder de la estructura en la cual no es importante hacer distinciones entre los individuos que no son parte de esta historia singular (foucault, 1982; hooks, 1990; gordillo y hirsch, 2003). la historia de los descendientes europeos, y sus particularidades y contribuciones, es así elevada a ser el foco de su imagen de argentina (sarmiento, 1998). un fragmento específico del texto expresa particularmente este sentimiento en el cual sarmiento (1998) atribuye las costumbres y tradiciones de las comunidades originarias a accidentes. al detallar ocurrencias típicas de nociones tradicionales asociadas con el campo, sarmiento (1998) comenta sobre los detalles pertenecientes que se pudiese encontrar en una población indígena: los accidentes de la naturaleza producen costumbres y usos peculiares a estos accidentes, haciendo que donde estos accidentes se repiten, vuelvan a encontrarse los mismos medios de parar a ellos, inventados por pueblos distintos. (p. 21) al generalizar las “costumbres y usos peculiares” como reacciones a accidentes que ocurren naturalmente, sarmiento (1998) está esencialmente sacándoles a los individuos dueños de estas costumbres sus talentos y habilidades propios (p. 21). sarmiento (1998) acentúa este pensamiento introductorio con un ejemplo explícito: “esto me explica por qué la flecha y el arco se encuentran en todos los pueblos salvajes, cualesquiera que sean su raza, su origen, y su colocación geográfica” (p. 22). la generalización no es solamente a las contribuciones tecnológicas de cada comunidad que utilizaba el arco y la flecha como un arma de defensa y estrategia táctica, sino a todos los “pueblos salvajes” sin importar la raza, origen, o ubicación geográfica, por lo tanto expandiendo la generalización de los que pueden ser considerados “salvajes” (sarmiento, 1998, p. 22). en su obra, sarmiento (1998) cementa la in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 206 206 distinción entre nosotros y ellos sugiriendo que estas costumbres eran irreconocibles fuera de su contexto original. una vez más, ignorando la importancia que la variación que estas costumbres significaban a las diferentes comunidades originarias, sarmiento (1998) concluyó que para el “espíritu educado europeo” estas dramáticas peculiaridades eran exageraciones fútiles de una naturaleza salvaje (p. 21). este último punto lleva a la más grande generalización hecha por sarmiento (1998): la de una clase civilizada versus una clase salvaje. más aún, el punto principal de sarmiento fue generalizar estos conceptos a las ideas mantenidas y reproducidas por ciertos tipos de razas y pueblos. para enfatizar la veracidad de sus palabras, sarmiento (1998) habla sobre una gran batalla dentro de los territorios americanos: “la lucha entre la civilización europea y la barbarie indígena, la inteligencia y la materia” (p. 21). dentro de esta frase, sarmiento infiere que la civilización proviene solamente de fuentes europeas y que trae con ellas inteligencia; en contraste, la barbarie proviene de una fuente únicamente salvaje y que solamente está preocupada con estímulos materiales y no mentales. efectivamente, como sugiere hooks (1990), cuando la diversidad de una población peor aún la diversidad entre una sola comunidad es ignorada, sus contribuciones humilladas, y su inteligencia anulada, se vuelve muy fácil para los que están contando la historia encuadrar estos objetos, nuevamente creados, en categorías que ignoran estas diferencias (pp. 28-29). esto es precisamente lo que sarmiento logró a través de facundo: construir un escenario de poder que permitió a tradiciones con bases europeas a ser el centro de la historia mientras que las costumbres accidentales y las tradiciones de aquellos marginalizados se volverían anécdotas secundarias dentro de una historia que refutaba reconocer sus contribuciones. el problema con la naturaleza (asociación). a través de la descripción del pasado de la argentina, sarmiento utiliza el mecanismo de asociación para vincular las comunidades originarias con la noción de la naturaleza combinándolo con lenguaje netamente negativo para ilustrar la noción e influencia de la naturaleza dentro de la historia argentina. esto crea un escenario en el cual la raza central, superior europea del pasado argentino debe enfrentar y luchar contra la influencia del otro para asegurar la sobrevivencia de la aristocracia intelectual que sarmiento cree que llevará la nación a un futuro próspero y estable (halperin donghi, 1972). por ejemplo, abundan las siguientes palabras en relación in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 207 207 con el término naturaleza: salvaje, bárbaro, pobre, sucio, miserable, oscuro, vergüenza, gracioso (sarmiento, 1998, pp. 13-15). en contraste, dentro de estas mismas páginas sarmiento asocia las ciudades regiones donde la presencia de la naturaleza ha sido desplazada con las siguientes palabras: comodidades, progreso, talento, pura, hermosas, elegantes (sarmiento, 1998, pp. 13-15). utilizando estas técnicas asociativas, sarmiento está perpetuando dos caras de una dicotomía dentro del marco del pasado argentino: una que es buena, pura, y asociada a la tradición europea de aquellos importados a la tierra americana; la otra, oscura y miserable, conectada a lo que ocurre naturalmente (barthes, 1984; foucault, 1982). no sólo sarmiento reafirma la conexión con lo natural con designaciones negativas, sino que además demuestra cómo esta conexión es un problema dentro de la historia argentina. de acuerdo a sarmiento (1998), la naturaleza y el campo son las causas principales por la cual el progreso y la prosperidad son evidentes solamente en las ciudades: lo que por ahora interesa conocer, es que los profesos de la civilización se acumulan sólo en buenos aires; la pampa es un malísimo conductor para llevarla y distribuirla en las provincias, y ya veremos lo que de aquí resulta (p. 13). la pampa, donde las comunidades originarias solían anteriormente residir, y donde también los colonizadores estaban enfrentando dificultades para volver habitable la región, era, para sarmiento, el obstáculo primario para la implementación de la civilización. aún más, sarmiento (1998) enfatizó este punto con la siguiente conclusión, “todo lo que hay de civilizado en la ciudad está bloqueado por allí” (p. 16). en declarar que las pampas eran efectivamente inadecuadas para la civilización, sarmiento (1998) le niega a la naturaleza, al campo, y por asociación a las comunidades originarias, cualquier beneficio o contribución que puedan ellos conceder para el progreso de la nación. sarmiento aún más fortalece esta divergencia como un problema cuando detalla las diferencias entre las costumbres europeas y nativas recalcando puntualmente el significante propósito y los intrincados detalles de las costumbres frecuentemente importadas del contexto europeo. describiendo las ciudades, sarmiento (1998) asocia las nociones de la iluminación, la libertad y la democracia al contexto in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 208 208 urbanizado todos símbolos de progreso. específicamente, las ciudades eran buenos conductores del progreso porque tenían la capacidad de contener y guardar libros, ideas, instituciones educativas, inter alia, que eran sumamente necesarias para ejecutar la ley justa, procurar el juicio equitativo, y establecer una comunidad organizada (sarmiento, 1998). para sarmiento (1998) los habitantes de las ciudades formaban parte de una “raza inclinada a la civilización, dotada de talento y de los más bellos instintos de progreso” (p. 15). por consiguiente, este tipo de ambiente, en contraste al ambiente del campo, podría ser solamente implementado y mantenido por una raza europea que entendía la importancia de estos principios (rodríguez, 2006). el problema con la naturaleza se hace aún más evidente para sarmiento cuando analiza lo que ocurre cuando un individuo de descendencia europea tiene contacto con los elementos naturales de origen americano. sarmiento (1998) describe este escenario en lo siguiente: “este hombre divorciado con la sociedad, proscrito por las leyes; este salvaje de color blanco, no es en el fondo un ser más depravado que los que habitan las poblaciones” (p. 27). adicionalmente, él agrega que mucho tiempo en contacto con estos elementos, influenciado por el salvajismo y la pobreza de la tierra, no sólo iba a deteriorar la afinidad del individuo a la civilización, sino también destrozar la única capacidad humana necesaria para el progreso: la inteligencia (sarmiento, 1998). acentuando este punto crítico, declaró, “la vida del campo, pues, ha desenvuelto (…) las facultades físicas sin ninguna de las de la inteligencia” (sarmiento, 1998, p. 20). en fin, la asociación de la naturaleza con un problema dio a entender que no había nada rescatable que podía originarse del contexto natural; las comunidades originarias no eran una excepción a esta conclusión. segundo ejemplo: una excursión a los indios ranqueles lucio victorio mansilla (1831-1913) fue un general del ejército argentino quien también se desempeñó como escritor, periodista, político y diplomático. su obra más conocida, una excursión a los indios ranqueles (1870), relata su viaje hacia una comunidad de ranqueles en calidad de diplomático para establecer un tratado de paz con el cacique paghitruz guor (cuyo nombre cristiano será mariano rosas, por ser un protegido de juan manuel de rosas). el texto fue publicado en forma de entregas en el diario la tribuna, a modo de cartas que el propio mansilla dirige a un amigo suyo residente en españa, santiago arcos (mansilla, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 209 209 2006). hay, pues, un receptor determinado a quien se apela explícitamente a lo largo del relato. es necesario señalar, además, que el relato se ubica temporalmente en un momento anterior al presente de escritura, por lo que las consecuencias de esta travesía ya han sucedido tiempo antes de empezar a relatarlas. en efecto, algunos fragmentos del texto revelan, como se verá a continuación, el hecho de que el escritor es perfectamente consciente de las consecuencias que el paso del ejército argentino traerá a los habitantes de las tierras cuya exploración nos relata, aún antes de que este evento se produzca, ya hacia el final del libro. la anécdota de este viaje, aparentemente relatada día a día, ha sido en realidad narrada de manera que todo lo que irá sucediendo después se interprete como consecuencia necesaria e inevitable del choque entre civilización y barbarie. así, el texto irá construyendo una imagen del ranquel con el propósito de hacer patente la incompatibilidad de dos mundos, representados en la dicotomía civilización/barbarie. sólo la primera parte de esta dicotomía era acorde a la idea de nación que se pretendía establecer en el siglo xix (rodríguez, 2006). en lo que sigue se hará una lectura de esta obra que intenta mostrar otra manera de abordar tanto éste como otros textos literarios utilizando la teoría de enunciación como técnica de análisis. esta técnica subraya los desbalances de poder social que son inherentes en la voz dominante del autor, representando la voz europea/occidental, contra la voz de las comunidades originarias en la historia argentina (filinich, 2011). el discurso de la modernidad: el lenguaje dice el mundo. en el texto una excursión a los indios ranqueles asistimos a un relato que, desde la lógica de la modernidad, narra verídicamente el viaje que realiza el coronel mansilla hacia esa comunidad. en este sentido, se leyó (y aún se lee hoy) como el relato de un “testigo fiel” de aquello que comunica, lo cual se interpreta como lo que en verdad pasó. esto no es casualidad, sino el resultado de toda una concepción del lenguaje (anterior al siglo xix y aún muy difundida) que lo había definido como reflejo de la realidad. en este sentido, la interpretación del texto (y del lenguaje en general) como transmisor de hechos verídicos, deriva de concebir al lenguaje sólo en su sentido instrumental, poniendo énfasis en su función comunicativa (filinich, 1999). la consecuencia principal que resultó de estas concepciones fue, entre otras, que el texto del presente análisis se interprete como un relato objetivo; que cuando se lee un diálogo en que in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 210 210 los aborígenes hablan, interpretemos que su voz está realmente presente: se lee, en definitiva, como palabras de otros, cuando en realidad sólo hay un sujeto que habla en todo el relato. esta voz que narra la historia en primera persona, es el sujeto de enunciación al que se subordinan las voces de los demás personajes (filinich, 1999). este sujeto pertenece a un contexto determinado (a una visión del mundo determinada) y despliega un discurso cuyas marcas subjetivas son patentes en el enunciado. en el nivel de la enunciación, es la única voz que puede haber en el enunciado. de esta manera lo plantea filinich (1999): la noción que subsume las diversas modalidades bajo las cuales el sujeto se hace presente en lo que comunica es la de enunciación: el proceso de enunciación, de apropiación del lenguaje por parte de un yo que apela a un tú, pone en juego los diversos aspectos de la subjetividad configurada por el propio discurso. así, la constitución misma del sujeto de la enunciación (la relación yo-tu implicada por todo discurso), tanto en su dimensión intelectiva como afectiva y pasional, la representación discursiva de la temporalidad, la reticulación del espacio, la actividad perceptiva y cognoscitiva del observador, la modalización del discurso son todos componentes del proceso enunciativo a través de los cuales es posible comprender la conformación discursiva de la subjetividad (p. 9). el sujeto, es decir el “yo”, está hablando desde un locus de enunciación determinado cuyo centro es el mundo occidental, y desde el cual habla de sí mismo y de los “otros” en relación a este centro único. la dificultad que encierra tomar conciencia de esta visión parcial de los hechos viene dada por concebir al lenguaje como legitimador de los discursos, a partir de afirmar su veracidad y objetividad (copes y canteros, 2012). en definitiva, lo que estamos leyendo en este texto aparenta ser objetivo pero en realidad no lo es, y la dificultad de descubrir las marcas subjetivas de enunciación en el enunciado estriba en que, en primer lugar, somos lectores occidentales, por lo que nuestra propia tradición ha venido siempre legitimando las lógicas decimonónicas. en segundo lugar, existen determinadas operaciones discursivas en el texto, que funcionan como una marca de distanciamiento del enunciador para in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 211 211 con su enunciado y que tienen que ver con estrategias verosimilizantes (e.g., el estilo directo, donde se cede la palabra). la clave es ser conscientes de que sólo hay un sujeto de enunciación y que éste sujeto es el único que está hablando. este sujeto transporta todo un conocimiento en el simple acto de nombrar o describir al “otro”, y en cada momento en que ese “otro” es hablado por el “yo”, el “otro” queda marcado, definido, determinado por esa mirada: lo único que podemos saber acerca de éste es lo que el “yo” nos dice respecto de él, comparándolo con sus propios valores (occidentales) (copes y canteros, 2012; filinich, 1999). desde esta perspectiva, una mirada (que es parcial) se convierte a través del discurso en una visión (que pretende ser universal y de hecho así se lee), sin que se advierta que una mirada recorta lo que mira, lo determina bajo su propio campo de conocimiento, apropiándose de las voces de otros y condenándolas por ello a ser solamente “lo que no es el yo” (y, en consecuencia, en “lo negativo” respecto al “yo”). de esta manera, el “yo” es el civilizado porque posee determinada cultura, bienes, religión, mientras que el “otro” es el bárbaro porque no las posee, así como no tiene voz para ser escuchado, pues en su misma condición de bárbaro y según la mirada de la civilización, su voz no tiene ninguna legitimidad. el “otro” debe, entonces, ser hablado por el “yo” porque no posee la cultura que legitime su discurso. en ese sentido, ya desde la llegada de colón a américa, el europeo se basó en estas “carencias” que veía en el “otro” para legitimar su papel de evangelizador, de civilizador al tiempo que era conquistador (copes y canteros, 2012). el sujeto hablante y los sujetos hablados: las marcas discursivas del “yo”. una vez planteadas las dificultades que estas lógicas encierran al ocultar en el texto su propia parcialidad, podemos ahora mostrar las marcas visibles del sujeto de la enunciación que se encuentran en el enunciado. las principales marcas que pueden encontrarse son, entre otras, la ya mencionada de construir al otro como el carente: carente de todo aquello que el “yo” posee en tanto valor (su cultura, su lengua, su religión), la generalización que se establece para con los sujetos (los ranqueles son “los otros”, los indios), los prejuicios derivados de un ”saber popular” acerca del otro (configurado en la cultura), la valoración positiva hacia los sujetos que tienen algún rasgo en común con el mundo del “yo” (color de la piel en el mestizo, pasado civilizado de un cautivo, costumbres compartidas), etc. estas marcas in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 212 212 derivan de una constante comparación entre dos mundos, que es dicha desde uno solo de ellos y que en ese acto se apropia de “lo otro” incorporándolo a su propio mundo como lo “no yo”. por esta razón “el otro” no tiene voz alguna, todo lo que podemos conocer en este texto es al “yo” y a sus valores (filinich, 1999). todo lo que queda fuera, pues, de esta lógica no sólo es distinto, sino también condenable y la integración entre unos y otros, imposible (el exterminio de la parte “otra” es la única opción). sin embargo, debemos aclarar aquí que la construcción del sujeto “otro” es inherente de la lógica a partir de la cual el “yo” se construye, ya sea como su opuesto, ya como carente, y siempre desde lo negativo: lo civilizado no puede construirse sólo a partir de sí mismo, sino que sólo existe a partir de lo que está por fuera de sus límites (rotker, 1999). este procedimiento se cifra, como se verá, a partir de la lógica binaria civilización/barbarie, que implica procesos de selección (de rasgos significativos) y exclusión (de los sujetos “otros”). como señala rotker (1999): esta identidad depende claramente de establecer diferenciaciones, aunque ‘identidad’ sugiera igualdad, parecido, identificación con otros. la paradoja es que, (…) la identidad se define a partir de su otredad: lo marginal, lo diferente, lo que no soy. (p. 40) paradoja que es el resultado, en definitiva, de construir representaciones a partir de una lógica binaria. en esta lógica, el lenguaje de la civilización se instaura como visión totalizadora y fundante, se auto-legitima en el discurso una y otra vez a partir de la idea positivista del lenguaje como espejo/mímesis de la realidad. mansilla (2006), como representante de un lado de esta dicotomía, la única presente y la única válida en definitiva, se declara como el primero que contará la verdad: …el deseo de ver con mis propios ojos ese mundo que llaman tierra adentro (…) e inspeccionar el terreno por donde alguna vez quizás tendrán que marchar las fuerzas que están bajo mis órdenes (…) contra el torrente de algunos hombres que se decían conocedores de los indios. (pp. 16-17) [el subrayado es de las autoras] quien cuenta la historia legitima su autoridad de testigo en el acto mismo de declarar que lo que cuenta es lo que “vio”, mientras que ya anticipa la marcha del ejército sobre esas tierras. veamos a continuación una in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 213 213 descripción clave del espacio, en donde es denominado como desierto, palabra que en su misma raíz contiene el sentido de “no estar habitado”. en este caso, no está habitado por el hombre occidental: muchos miles de leguas cuadradas se han conquistado. ¡qué hermosos campos para cría de ganados son los que se hallan encerrados entre el río cuarto y el quinto! la cebadilla, el potrillo, el trébol, la gramilla, crecen frescos y frondosos entre el pasto fuerte; grandes cañadas como la del gato, arroyos caudalosos y de largo curso como santa catalina y sampacho, lagunas inagotables y profundas como chemeco, tarapendá y santo tomé constituyen una fuente de riqueza de inestimable valor. tengo en borrador el croquis topográfico, levantado por mí, de ese territorio inmenso, desierto, que convida a la labor y no tardaré en publicarlo, ofreciéndoselo con una memoria a la industria rural. (mansilla, 2006, p. 18) la descripción está claramente configurada desde el aspecto de la utilidad material que el terreno tiene para el hombre occidental: “campos para cría de ganados”, ríos, vegetales que “crecen frescos y frondosos”, “fuente de riquezas”, “que convida a la labor” (mansilla, 2006, p. 18). esta última frase hace aún más evidente el valor del trabajo de la tierra y el valor de ésta para el hombre occidental. asimismo, la denominación de desierto no sólo borra de un plumazo las identidades otras que pudieron existir alguna vez, sino que invita a aquellos hombres que estén dispuestos a aprovechar este espacio, descrito como un conjunto de recursos “de inestimable valor” (mansilla, 2006, p. 18). aquí vemos una forma de anestesiar la violencia en la denominación misma de un espacio: se interpreta así que en el desierto no hay ni ha habido nadie y por tanto tampoco se ha exterminado ni desplazado a nadie sólo es un supuesto espacio vacío con recursos aprovechables para quien esté dispuesto a explotarlos (mansilla, 2006). he aquí un ejemplo en el que se habla de un “otro”: luego de describir a un “indio” llamado linconao, inmediatamente lo distingue del resto en que “no es pedigüeño”: …se distingue de los demás indios en que no es pedigüeño. los indios viven entre los cristianos fingiendo pobrezas y in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 214 214 necesidades, pidiendo todos los días; y con los mismos preámbulos y ceremonias piden una ración de sal, que un poncho fino o un par de espuelas de plata (mansilla, 2006, p. 20). hay aquí dos elementos clave a tener en cuenta. en primer lugar, un par dicotómico perfectamente identificable: indio/cristiano. en segundo lugar, la visión del “otro” como contracara del “yo” que habla por él, quien borra asimismo las diferencias de ese “otro” a partir de una nominación genérica: los indios señala no sólo a los ranqueles, sino a toda población fuera de los límites de lo civilizado, límites que la separan de tierra adentro. como proponen copes y canteros (2012): el caso del término ‘indio/s’, nomenclatura que conmemora un error fáctico de colón, se presenta al respecto como paradigmático. más allá de su uso como categoría jurídica social durante la colonia, éste no designa una etnia, ni una clase, sino la identidad del vencido (p. 73). en este punto es pertinente adoptar una denominación que se encuentra en aventura y relato apuntes para una historia literaria de la frontera (batticuore, el jaber, y laera, 2008). las autoras comentan de jens adermann que, “concibe la territorialidad nacional como ‘un artefacto producido en el discurso’, como el efecto de narrativas dramáticas donde se cuentan escenas de producción de límites” [el subrayado es de las autoras] (batticuore, et al., 2008, p. 15). si bien en este texto la visión está puesta en la frontera en tanto división de un espacio físico o geográfico, sería posible entender la construcción de la lógica binaria “yo”/”otro” en el discurso a través, precisamente, de estas escenas de producción de límites: límite de lo que se dice sobre el “yo” (lo que se quiere exaltar como valor) y límite de lo que es aceptable o no aceptable en el “otro” a partir de los parámetros del “yo” (batticuore, et al., 2008). los sujetos son definidos, a partir de estas escenas, en la selección de los rasgos que el sujeto de enunciación decide convertir en discurso acerca de “otro” (filinich, 1999). la decisión sobre qué decir de ese “otro” implica ya aquí un rasgo de exclusión, pues el destinatario del texto, si bien señalado como un “tú” (i.e., santiago arcos), no es otro que el mismo “yo” (i.e., pertenecen al mismo mundo y comparten los mismos valores), así como lo es el lector en general al que se destinó premeditadamente el texto (copes y canteros, 2012). por lo tanto, la selección ya pone en evidencia, así como en lo que deja fuera, un sistema de valores y representaciones que identifica el par civilización/barbarie con dicotomías tales como bueno/malo, cristiano/indio, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 215 215 aceptable/inaceptable. en algunos casos, la cercanía hacia el lado civilizado de la dicotomía es tranquilizadora: por ejemplo, es más aceptable el indio blanco porque se acerca al “yo”. a continuación citaremos algunos ejemplos de estas escenas de producción de límites (batticuore, et al., 2008): sobre todos los pensamientos el que más me dominaba era éste: probarles a los indios con un acto de arrojo, que los cristianos somos más audaces que ellos y más confiados cuando hemos empeñado nuestro honor. los indios nos acusan de ser gente de muy mala fe, y es inacabable el capítulo de cuentos con que pretenden demostrar que vivimos desconfiando de ellos y engañándolos. achauentrú es entendido y comprendió no sólo que mi resolución era irrevocable, (…) sino algunos de los motivos que le expuse (mansilla, 2006, p. 26). en este caso, además de las denominaciones clave antes mencionadas, es destacable la caracterización del achauentrú como entendido, es decir, que comprende la dinámica del hombre civilizado. baste mencionar un fragmento que sigue poco después: le pedí para el efecto un indio, y me dio uno llamado angelito, sin tener nada de tal. positivamente los nombres no son el hombre (mansilla, 2006, p. 26). es interesante ver que aquí la relación de un nombre acorde con un determinado carácter se realiza a partir de que este nombre es cristiano, en tanto que no menciona esto si se trata de un nombre ranquel (y sólo si además explica su significado en español). es a partir del supuesto de que, en el sistema de representaciones del “yo”, el nombre sí es el hombre, que esta observación puede ser discurso (batticuore et al., 2008). otro ejemplo de la asimilación de conceptos es la superposición de dos términos: …cuando fuimos acometidos por unos cuantos indios que, lanza en ristre, y viniendo hacia mí gritaban: ¡winca! ¡winca! ¡matando! ¡matando, winca! eché una mirada a mi alrededor, y vi que mi gente estaba in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 216 216 resuelta a todo, y con disimulada irritación, le dije a bustos: ¿pensarán éstos hacer alguna barbaridad? los bárbaros estaban ya encima (…) los indios bramaban de coraje. felizmente, el incidente no pasó de ahí (mansilla, 2006, p. 91). aquí los “indios” pasan a ser “bárbaros” en el continuo hilo del discurso y por medio de la denominación “barbaridad,” que implica a su vez un acto de violencia (mansilla, 2006, p. 91). de este modo a la primera identificación (indio-bárbaro) se le suma la de violento. nótese asimismo el verbo “bramaban”, verbo que contribuye en el texto a un proceso de animalización del habitante nativo (e.g., los toros braman) y en este sentido se vuelve menos que un ser humano (mansilla, 2006, p. 91). siguiendo el planteo de rotker (1999): el rechazo al otro (el indio, la montonera) no era sólo racial, sino que representaba el temor autoproyectivo que el esquema liberal modernizador tenía hacia el espacio no urbano, el espacio de la frontera, donde todo era móvil, inestable, desordenado: justo lo opuesto de los límites y confines estables que buscaba la nueva nación. además, si el proyecto civilizador tenía como objetivo convertir a la familia americana-argentina en una sociedad urbana al estilo europeo, ese otro espacio debía ser borrado y, junto a ese espacio, sus habitantes (p. 48). por último, ya hacia el final de la obra, se puede leer lo siguiente: oigamos discurrir a los bárbaros. conversando un día con mariano rosas, yo hablé así: -hermano, los cristianos han hecho hasta ahora lo que han podido, y harán en adelante cuanto puedan, por los indios. su contestación fue con visible expresión de ironía: -hermano, cuando los cristianos han podido nos han muerto; y si mañana pueden matarnos a todos, nos matarán. nos han enseñado a usar ponchos finos, a tomar mate, a fumar, a comer azúcar, a beber vino, a usar bota fuerte. pero no nos han enseñado ni a trabajar, ni nos han hecho conocer su dios. y entonces, hermano, ¿qué servicios les debemos? (mansilla, 2006, p. 393). in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 217 217 a partir de una escena como ésta se plantea que el “otro” (el indio, en este caso) no puede cruzar el límite que lo separa del “yo” sin traer consigo las características negativas que el “yo” ve en él: en este ejemplo específico, resulta revelador el hecho de que se ponga en discurso la voz de ese “otro” como si fuera la voz real (en estilo directo) y no a través de una mediación, pero sólo para decir “no nos han enseñado a trabajar, ni nos han hecho conocer su dios” (mansilla, 2006, p. 393). el primer elemento, la falta de cultura del trabajo, es uno de los ejes fundamentales de la sociedad civilizada, y por tanto ya es una carencia que lo condena. el “intento de civilización” no ha servido de nada. y cobra un nuevo sentido el fragmento del capítulo i, en esta obra en la que, como se dijo, nada pasa a medida que se narra, sino que ya sucedió antes de ser narrado: “más tarde todo es lo mismo; con guantes o sin guantes, con retoques o sin ellos, ‘la mona aunque se vista de seda mona se queda’” (mansilla, 2006, p.16). en fin, utilizando la teoría de enunciación se puede deducir que el “yo” en esta obra, no tiene intención de ser humanitario: es más, el “yo” va a borrar al otro no sin antes hacernos ver que no es compatible con “nuestro” mundo occidental y que no hay otra manera de proceder (filinich, 1999). nuevamente la violencia hacia los sujetos “otros” es anestesiada por un discurso que, al “hacer hablar” al “otro”, al cederle la palabra (i.e., ilusión de la lectura en estilo directo) se condena a sí mismo al exterminio. pedagogía hacia la paz para los docentes argentinos que enseñan literatura, utilizar elementos del análisis crítico del discurso en las aulas implica dar una herramienta a los alumnos que les ayudará a abrir los ojos a los desbalances de poder que perpetúan la voz dominante en la historia argentina. historia que deriva de las luchas por la dominación de unos pueblos sobre otros, y de los esfuerzos por legitimar la superioridad del vencedor deslegitimando a su vez al vencido (gordillo y hirsch, 2003; hoberman, 2007). por ende, para cambiar el contexto actual de los pueblos originarios en argentina un residuo negativo de esta historia donde su voz fue silenciada se deduce que la actitud del imaginario social tendría que cambiar hacia la paz y la total inclusión de estos pueblos (anderson, 1983; rodríguez, 2006). esto subraya la importancia in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 218 218 de la educación para la paz, e implica que docentes sean comprometidos con su realidad social y que guíen a sus estudiantes al enfrentar y superar las fronteras concernientes al conocimiento, para transformar el aprendizaje en una oportunidad única de evaluar críticamente los saberes establecidos (hooks, 1993, 1994). greene (1993), en su polémico ensayo sobre la importancia de incorporar el pluralismo dentro de la democracia, declaró que la comunidad democrática, siempre una comunidad en formación, no depende tanto de lo que se ha conseguido y fundado en el pasado; se mantiene viva y es motivada e irradiada por una conciencia de las posibilidades futuras (p. 19). agrega que aprendiendo a entender dentro de múltiples perspectivas, los jóvenes pueden ser guiados a construir puentes entre sí; atendiendo a una gama de historias humanas, y ellos pueden ser motivados a sanar y transformar (greene, 1993, p. 19). citando a piaget, de zavaleta (1986) propone lo siguiente al implementar la pedagogía hacia la paz: la tarea del educador en presencia del problema internacional, será entonces adaptar al alumno a dicha situación sin ocultarle su complejidad. es formar dentro del [alumno] un instrumento espiritual no un hábito nuevo, ni una creencia nueva sino un nuevo método que le permita comprender y conducirse. (p. 63). es entonces que al enseñar literatura argentina, como los ejemplos presentados en este trabajo, el estudiante forma este método con el que, guiado por objetivos de la pedagogía de la paz, puede comprender mejor la realidad de los pueblos originarios y reconocer que los privilegios que brindan los que representan la voz dominante tienen un origen basado en la violencia ejercida sobre otros (barker, 2012; de zavaleta, 1986). al entender esto, pueden ser agentes del cambio que convierta la violencia generadora de separación a la paz que crea la inclusión. implicaciones y conclusiones hablando sobre el concepto de la identidad nacional y problemas de etnicidad, barker (2012), comenta que dentro de occidente, la gente que no es blanca ha sido frecuentemente representada como una serie de problemas, objetos, y víctimas (p. 285). en el tiempo de la formación de argentina existía una clara división de clases entre los que estaban dirigiendo el estado (i.e., representación el occidente) y los que vivían de la tierra (rodríguez, 2006). parte de estos últimos incluía a las in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 219 219 comunidades originarias que eran cazadores, granjeros, o nómadas, y por tanto el estilo de vida campestre se asociaba a la mentalidad de estas comunidades (mrgi, 2013; rodríguez, 2006). más aún, como aquellas eran, a diferencia los colonizadores europeos, nativas del territorio americano y por tanto un elemento natural del contexto, su imagen se asociaba necesariamente a la naturaleza (delrio et al., 2010). en términos metafóricos, las concepciones que se tenían de una cultura “inferior” y “superior” estaban a su vez relacionadas con las nociones de coexistencia y respeto por la naturaleza, por un lado, y con la “conquista” o “dominio” del entorno, por otro (criscenti, 1993). sumado a esto, muchas comunidades originarias, a diferencia de los conquistadores europeos, no concebían la tierra en términos de propiedad privada (gordillo y hirsch, 2003; rodríguez, 2006). por lo tanto, al ver a estas comunidades como parte integrante del entorno, resulta inevitable que se convirtieran en un elemento más a ser dominado, ya no siendo sujetos sino objetos. de este modo, como fue escrita la historia por parte de los colonizadores, anestesia la violencia que la dominación de un grupo por otro implicó en cuanto a su persecución y exterminio (delrio et al., 2010; hoberman, 2007; rodríguez, 2006). en este trabajo, proponemos que esta anestesia a la violencia histórica de las comunidades originarias se perpetúa en cómo se sigue enseñando e interpretando estas historias a través de los textos que estudiamos en las escuelas: sin un análisis crítico, el abordaje de los textos literarios se reduce a la enumeración de sus características principales autor, personajes principales, secundarios, trama, etc. (gerbaudo, 2006). lo que ofrece el análisis crítico de estos textos como presentamos en los ejemplos de este trabajo es poner en foco los mecanismos y prácticas discursivas que establecen el discurso dominante como la única voz de la historia y deconstruir la totalidad y permanencia de este discurso (foucault, 1977, 1982). siguiendo este punto, derrida (1993) argumenta que la desconstrucción del discurso a base de la metodología del análisis crítico del discurso ofrece una forma de exponer los desbalances de poder en los que el discurso intenta significar y cómo es, en realidad, interpretada como una forma de resistencia al discurso dominante. en cuanto a los textos de sarmiento y mansilla, se ve la desconstrucción de la voz dominante del colonizador que se refleja en el discurso, por un lado asociada a la práctica cultural (e.g., exclusión, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 220 220 generalización, asociación) y por otro a la práctica literaria (e.g., enunciación del “yo” y del “otro”, técnicas de verosimilitud, procesos de animalización, etc.) (barker, 2012; filinich, 1999; foucault, 1982). haciendo esto, se abre un espacio para poder entender una versión de la historia que incorpora más que una voz (hooks, 1990). por ende, es necesario que tomemos consciencia de que aún hoy la lengua es portadora de sentidos y de las operaciones intrínsecas que pueden pasar desapercibidas puesto que en la concepción general se toma a ésta como una simple “herramienta” que tiene el poder de decir “la verdad” sobre el mundo. la lengua dice el mundo, sí, pero un mundo con valores determinados y una visión siempre parcial. es momento de dar un paso al costado y dejar que las voces que han sido injustamente habladas por otros sean oídas a partir de sí mismas, mientras que debemos ser críticos de nuestra propia mirada y de nuestra historia, abandonando de una vez por todas las pretensiones de universalidad en los textos decimonónicos occidentales. como se ha ilustrado, la implementación de una pedagogía hacia la paz tiene el potencial de engendrar este espíritu crítico y de diálogo en que todas voces pueden ser escuchadas e incluidas en la conciencia social argentina. notas i las autoras agradecen a beatriz y pedro quienes aportaron una ayuda sumamente importante en la traducción de pasajes significativos para la finalización de este ensayo. referencias adichie, c. (2009). the dangers of a single story. tedglobal 2009. recuperado de https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_ single_story/transcript?language=en amnesty international [ai]. (2013). indigenous peoples in argentina: 'we are strangers in our own country'. amnesty international indigenous rights forum. recuperado de http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/indigenous-peoples-argentina-weare-strangers-our-own-country-2013-08-09 in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 221 221 amnesty international [ai]. (2017). argentina 2016/2017. amnesty international annual report. recuperado de https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/americas/argentina/reportargentina/ anderson, b. (1983). imagined communities: reflections on the origins and spread of nationalism. london, uk: verso. arce-trigatti, a. (2012). redefining civilization: investigating argentina’s social and cultural dichotomy through domingo f. sarmiento's interpretation of benjamin franklin's principles. electronic theses, treatises and dissertations -paper 5489. recuperado de http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/etd/5489 barker, c. (2012). ethnicity, race, and nation. cultural studies: theory and practice (4th ed.). london, uk: sage publications. barthes, r. (1984). myth today. (a. lavers, trad.). en mythologies, (pp. 126). new york: hill and wang. (trabajo original publicado en 1957). batticuore, g., el jaber, l., y laera, a. (2008). aventura y relato: apuntes para una historia literaria de la frontera. en b. vitero (ed.), fronteras escritas: cruces, desvíos y pasajes en la literatura argentina, (pp. 126). rosario, argentina: viterbo. copes, a. y canteros, g. (2012). políticas de la memoria y emergencia social en américa latina: imágenes de un pasado que cambia. unl revista culturas: debates y perspectivas de un mundo en cambio, 6(1), 69-86. criscenti, j. (1993). sarmiento and his argentina. boulder, co: lynn rienner publishers, inc. de zavaleta, e. (1986). aportes para una pedagogía de la paz. santiago, chile: unesco orealc. delrio, w., lenton, d., musante, m., nagy, m., papazian, a., y perez, p. (2010) discussing indigenous genocide in argentina: past, present, and consequences of argentinean state policies toward native peoples. genocide studies and prevention, 5(2), 138-159. derrida, j. (1976). of grammatology. (g. chakravorty spivak, trans.). baltimore: john hopkins university press. (trabajo original publicado en 1967). in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 222 222 derrida, j. (1993). structure, sign, and play in the discourse of the human sciences. in j. natoli, & l. hutcheon (ed.), a postmodern reader, (pp. 223-242). new york: state university of new york press. filinich, m. i. (1999). enunciación. buenos aires, argentina: eudeba. foucault, m. (1977). discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. new york: random house. foucault, m. (1982). the subject and power. critical inquiry, 8(4), 777-795. freire, p. (1970). pedagogy of the oppressed. new york: seabury. gerbaudo, a. (2006). traducciones teóricas del estructuralismo y de la estilística desde argentina: una interpretación. teoría literaria i. santa fe: unl, archivo digital en el entorno virtual de la universidad nacional del litoral. recuperado de http://entornovirtual.unl.edu.ar/ gordillo, g., y hirsch, s. (2003). indigenous struggles and contested identities in argentina: histories of invisiblization and reemergence. journal of latin american anthropology, 8(1), 4–30. greene, m. (1993). the passions of pluralism: multiculturalism and the expanding community. educational researcher, 22(1), 13-18. hall, s. (1983). the problem of ideology: marxism without guarantees. en b. matthews (ed.), marx: 100 years on, (pp. 54-84). london, uk: lawrence & wishart. halperín donghi, t. (1972). argentina: la democracia de masas. buenos aires, argentina: editorial paidós. hoberman, g. (2007). rethinking ethnicity and democracy: argentina and its silenced voices. paper presented at the teresa lozano long institute of latin american studies conference (ilassa), austin, tx, february 1 – february 3, 2007. recuperado de http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/etext/llilas/ilassa/2007/hoberman.pdf hooks, b. (1990). yearning: race, gender, and cultural politics. boston, ma: south end press. hooks, b. (1993). a revolution of values: the promise of multicultural change. in s. during (ed.), the cultural studies reader (2nd ed.) (pp. 233-240). london: routledge. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 195-223 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 223 223 hooks, b. (1994). teaching to transgress: education as the practice of freedom. london; routledge. katra, w. h. (1985). domingo f. sarmiento, public writer (between 1839 and 1852). tempe, az: center for latin american studies, arizona state university. mansilla, l. v. (2006). una excursión a los indios ranqueles. buenos aires, argentina: gradifco. minority rights group international [mrgi]. (2008). argentina: overview. world directory of minorities and indigenous peoples. recuperado de http://www.refworld.org/docid/4954ce2f23.html quijada, m., bernard, c., y schneider, a. (2000). homogeneidad y nación, con un estudio de caso: argentina siglos xix y xx. madrid, spain: consejo superior de investigaciones científicas. rankin, a. (1995). ‘real history’ revives argentina indians. history today, 45(6), 8. rodríguez, j. (2006). civilizing argentina: science, medicine, and the modern state. chapel hill, nc: university of north carolina press. rotker, s. (1999). cautivas: olvidos y memoria en la argentina. buenos aires, argentina: ariel. sarmiento, d. f. (1998). facundo: civilización y barbarie. vida de juan facundo quiroga (ed. 10). buenos aires, argentina: editorial porrúa. sarmiento, d. f. (2005). recollections of a provincial past: library of latin america (bilingual edition), (e. garrels y a. zatz, ed. y trad.). new york: oxford university press. spring, j. h. (2015). globalization of education: an introduction (2nd ed.). new york, ny: routledge. vom hau, m., y wilde, g. (2010). ‘we have always lived here’: indigenous movements, citizenship and poverty in argentina. the journal of development studies, 46(7), 1283-1303. braatz_v_8_2 volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 104 volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal the satyagraha of john brown timothy braatz john brown, a complicated man with the plainest of names, lives on—or so we are told.1 the past decade or so has seen a resurgence of scholarly interest in his remarkable life, due in part to a combination of the sesquicentennial of his harpers ferry raid, a handful of recent high-profile acts of terrorism within u.s. borders, and one wellreceived novel.2 in popular memory, brown is known for taking an unwavering stand against the evil of slavery, to the point of killing civilians who stood in his way. accounts of his life typically begin with the dramatic raid—no surprise in a culture that celebrates the gunfighter archetype. in academic circles, brown serves as the centerpiece of discussions regarding the use of violence for moral ends.3 as such, the john brown 1 blakeslee gilpin, john brown still lives!: america’s long reckoning with violence, equality, and change (chapel hill: university of north carolina press, 2014); evan carton, patriotic treason: john brown and the soul of america (new york: free press, 2006), xi. 2 david reynolds, john brown, abolitionist: the man who killed slavery, sparked the civil war, and seeded civil rights (new york: alfred knopf, 2005); louis decaro jr., “fire from the midst of you”: a religious life of john brown (new york: new york university press, 2002); robert mcglone, john brown’s war against slavery (new york: cambridge university press, 2009); carton, patriotic treason; tony horwitz, midnight rising: john brown and the raid that sparked the civil war (new york: henry holt, 2011); merrill peterson, john brown: the legend revisited (charlottesville: university of virginia press, 2002); russell banks, cloudsplitter (new york: harpercollins, 1998). 3 gilpin, john brown still lives!, 1; bruce lesh, “interpreting john brown: infusing historical thinking into the classroom,” oah magazine of history 25:2 (apr. 2011): 46-50; “john brown, slavery, and the legacies of revolutionary violence in our own time: a conference commemorating the 150th anniversary of the harpers ferry raid,” yale university, oct. 29-31, 2009. for a precise example of the prevailing emphasis, see barack obama, the audacity of hope: thoughts on reclaiming the american dream (new york: crown, 2006), 97, which says, “it was the wild-eyed prophecies of john brown, his willingness to spill blood and not just words on behalf of his visions, that helped force the issue of a nation volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 105 story can easily become an aspect of cultural violence, meaning those beliefs, ideologies, and cosmologies that legitimize and perpetuate direct and structural (indirect) violence. yet, as recent scholarship shows, there is another side to the story: john brown’s struggle against violence.4 emphasizing, honoring, and learning from that part of his biography is an example of cultural peace. to fully appreciate the significance of brown’s peace work, though, it helps first to look at the thinking of mohandas gandhi. satyagraha what did gandhi mean by satyagraha? the term is a combination of two sanskrit words: satya (ultimate truth) and graha (holding). for gandhi, truth meant ahimsa (without harm or coercion), and universal truth is god. put another way, the interconnectedness of all living things is ultimate reality. a satyagrahi is a person committed to truth, both as a goal (the integration of all humankind) and a means to that goal (non-harming).5 in a.j. muste’s perfect phrase, “there is no way to peace—peace is the way.”6 satyagraha—persistence in truth—is a way of life, one that rejects all forms of violence, but not one that ignores conflict. conflict, in gandhian thought, is an opportunity to bring the conflicted parties, self and other, closer together by correcting a bad relation.7 other is not the enemy, but, rather, a partner in the conflict, and is invited to join self in transforming their conflicted connection. however, there is much self can do without other’s cooperation. to break away from dehumanizing relations, a satyagrahi seeks to develop power over self, or autonomy. this includes fearlessness, to neutralize threat power; self-reliance, to eliminate vulnerability to exchange power; and self-respect, to rise above the power of persuasion.8 autonomy works on either side of a bad relation: power over self rather than submission to other, and power over self rather than power over other. a fearless person won’t be intimidated by threat of harm and also won’t need to intimidate; bullies are motivated by deep-seated insecurity. a truly self-reliant person isn’t vulnerable to exploitation and has no need to exploit others. true self-confidence means holding half slave and half free. i’m reminded…that it has sometimes been the cranks, the zealots, the prophets, the agitators, and the unreasonable…that have fought for a new order.” 4 reynolds, john brown, is the most thorough account of brown’s work against violence. 5 raghaven iyer, ed., the essential writings of mahatma gandhi (new york: oxford university press, 1991), 244. 6 quoted in ira chernus, american nonviolence: the history of an idea (maryknoll, ny: orbis books, 2004), 133. an excellent summary of gandhi’s philosophy is found on 91-110. 7 gandhi’s conflict resolution is summarized in johan galtung, peace by peaceful means: peace and conflict, development and civilization (thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, 1996), 114-126. 8 kenneth boulding, three faces of power (thousand oaks, ca: sage publications,1989). galtung, peace by peaceful means, 2, identifies four power types: military (threat), economic (exchange), cultural (persuasion), and political (decision-making). see also robert burrowes, the strategy of nonviolent defense: a gandhian approach (albany: state university of new york press, 1996), 83-84. volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 106 firmly to your truth, not submitting to other’s truth, but without the need to force your truth onto other; evangelists may be seeking affirmation. autonomy is an antidote for the three types of violence identified by peace theorist johan galtung: fearlessness versus direct violence, self-reliance versus structural violence, and self-respect versus cultural violence (which normalizes fear and dependency).9 autonomy resistance to: no desire to: antidote to violence fearlessness intimidation dominate direct self-reliance dependency exploit structural self-respect persuasion manipulate cultural conflict, then, is also an opportunity to test and strengthen self’s commitment to nonviolence, an opportunity to rid oneself of fear, dependency, and submissiveness. by holding firmly to truth, by being willing to absorb suffering but refusing to inflict it, by showing respect and concern for other, self employs integrative power. simply put, integrative power is the ability to attract empathy, and the surest method is by expressing empathy. if threat power says, “do this or else!” and exchange power says, “do this for me and i’ll do this for you,” then integrative power says, “i’ll do this for you because i care about you, and maybe we’ll become closer.” integrative power means appealing to the universal human need for interconnection, hoping this will inspire others to move in a similar direction.10 gandhi called it “soul force.” so satyagraha is a method of nonviolent conflict resolution that approaches conflicts as opportunities to reduce violence of all types and also as opportunities for transformation of all parties involved. gandhi applied satyagraha in his attempt to resolve the conflict known as british colonial rule over india—a dehumanizing relation that kept the british imperialists dependent on exploitation of indians, indians submissive before british demands, and all sides persuaded of british superiority. but when gandhi spoke of hind swaraj (indian self-rule), his was not the late 20th-century western notion of freedom as license or “freedom to.”11 rather, gandhi was concerned with “freedom from.” true freedom meant liberation from passions and desires. “the outward freedom therefore that we 9 galtung, peace by peaceful means, esp. 2, 9, 196-201. galtung defines violence as “avoidable insult to basic human needs,” those needs being survival, well-being, identity, freedom. direct violence is when one party physically or verbally causes harm. structural violence (indirect violence) is built into a political or economic system, and the harm it causes may be unintentional. cultural violence includes the beliefs, language, ideologies, and cosmologies that legitimize, motivate, and perpetuate direct and structural violence. galtung believes “the major causal direction of violence is from cultural via structural to direct violence,” but each type of violence can cause or reinforce the other two types. 10 boulding, three faces of power, holds that integrative power is the most reliable because it builds upon itself, while threat power needs constant reinforcement, and exchange power requires both supply and demand. 11 eric foner, the story of american freedom (new york: norton, 1999), 262-274, 307-332, discusses the notions of “consumer freedom” and “free market” that prevailed in the united states after world war ii. volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 107 shall attain will only be in exact proportion to the inward freedom to which we may have grown at any given moment.”12 for example, the attachment to material existence, the desire for physical satisfaction, will bring fear of physical suffering and death, and thus submission before superior threat force. gandhi asserted that, “you cannot be ruled without your consent.” you can be tortured and killed without your consent, but giving into demands in order to avoid suffering—however coerced and unfair the choice may seem—is to cooperate in your subjugation. so indian independence would come when indians developed fearlessness in the face of british direct violence; self-reliance, rather than colonial dependency, to dismantle structural violence; and self-confidence to end the cultural violence that taught british superiority and indian inferiority. gandhi viewed the british as partners in this enterprise because the ultimate goal was integration of humankind—a planet of friends, no enemies; freedom from domination, not freedom to dominate. gandhi’s dramatic undertakings—the salt satyagraha, general strikes and boycotts, the near-fatal fasts—usually receive the most attention from casual observers, but far more of his effort went into what he called the “constructive programme”— putting into action his vision of indian “civilization.” in his own words: i am not interested in freeing india merely from the english yoke. i am bent upon freeing india from any yoke whatsoever….work of social reform or selfpurification of this nature is a hundred times dearer to me than what is called purely political work.13 gandhi established small, communal villages called ashrams, where he experimented with a simple, sustainable, subsistence-oriented lifestyle. he worked against illiteracy, ignorance, and unsanitary living conditions, and he encouraged daily, universal “spinning”—indians producing their own cotton thread to make homespun cloth as an alternative to dependency on imported british textiles. he promoted muslim-hindu unity, women’s rights, and the elimination of “untouchability.” regarding the so-called “untouchables,” gandhi renamed them harijan (children of god) and invited them into his communities. full integration was gandhi’s vision, and he also knew that british rule was impossible over a united india of three hundred million people in autonomous yet cooperative communities; the british could join or depart. in the end, though, gandhi’s unparalleled accomplishment was not as a nation-builder, but, rather, his systematic investigation into the potential of a human society based on “nonviolence of the strong.” through his teaching, writings, and personal example, his “experiments with truth” showed the way forward. compassionate warriors 12 dennis dalton, ed., mahatma gandhi: nonviolent power in action (new york: columbia university press, 1993), 100. 13 dalton, mahatma gandhi, 120. volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 108 how does any of this apply to john brown, a renowned man of violence? in 1859, brown led eighteen heavily armed men in an audacious invasion of the u.s. arsenal at harpers ferry, virginia. he hoped to outfit a guerrilla army of escaped slaves that would terrify southern plantation owners into abandoning slavery. the violent plan failed at the outset; brown was captured at the arsenal by federal troops, tried for treason, and executed by the virginia government. this sensational event, which presaged the civil war, made brown a household name and a polarizing symbol of the national slavery debate. over one hundred fifty years later, brown remains an iconic figure, but despite recent brown biographies that depict a complex personage, the tendency is still to view him only as a man of violence. the pottawatomie massacre of 1856, which brown directed, was so outrageous, and brown’s career ended so dramatically, that it’s easy to interpret his life as one long, increasingly violent journey to harpers ferry.14 but to focus on brown’s violence is to miss his remarkable work against violence. indeed, in his final hour—his finest hour—brown appealed to integrative power, to the human need for interconnection that invigorates nonviolence, and may have done more to undermine u.s. slavery than his violence did. reframing the narrative, placing brown in the context of gandhian thought, can be a way to teach the power of nonviolence. the story of john brown may seem an unlikely place to observe integrative power at work. born in connecticut in 1800 to parents who taught him the calvinist doctrine of predestination and helplessness in the face of divine sovereignty, brown was, in religious conviction, an old-style new england puritan. the puritan search for evidence of individual salvation may have promoted personal humility, but notions of predestination could easily become justifications for rather vile behavior: in a word, divinely ordained violence. the puritan ministers who led the 17th-century colonization of the massachusetts bay region claimed that they represented the new “chosen people,” replacing the “chosen” hebrews of the old testament and charged with a special mission to create the “true christian community.” this was john winthrop’s “city upon a hill.” in the minds of puritan leaders, “chosenness” justified the destruction of native communities, with methods that included the slaughter and burning of entire towns and enslavement of the few survivors; religious certainty, expansionism, and militarism make a dangerous brew.15 brown grew from a rather militant branch of christianity—both of his grandfathers participated in the independence war—but the tree had more than one root. new england also had a tradition of antinomianism—literally, “against the law”—which held that god spoke directly to the individual and one’s conscience trumped socially established moral precepts. anne hutchinson is new england’s best-known early antinomian; massachusetts officials exiled her to rhode island, in 1637, for believing she 14 for example, see horwitz, midnight rising, 7, which calls brown’s early life and career “the road to harpers ferry.” 15 david chichester, patterns of power: religion and politics in american culture (new york: prenticehall, 1988), 18-27; francis jennings, the invasion of america: indians, colonialism, and the cant of conquest (new york: norton, 1976), 202-227. volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 109 could interpret scripture for herself. however, her friend, mary dyer, eventually presented a more powerful challenge to puritan orthodoxy. back in england from 1652 to 1657, dyer converted to quakerism, joining a new and rapidly growing sect whose beliefs threatened religious and political authorities. quakers believed that all individuals had access to a divine “inner light,” and, thus, there was no need for seminaries and clergy, no need to obey unjust secular laws. quakers also rejected violence. faced with brutal persecution, quakers were learning that “patient suffering” not only met the biblical admonition to “resist not evil,” but it could “purchase peace.” they were discovering the potency of integrative power. when quakers who were sentenced to public flogging vocally forgave their tormentors, onlookers often expressed empathy, were moved to tears; some became quakers. according to quaker belief, awakening the world to the “inner light” would bring about the kingdom of heaven on earth, so suffering for faith was not simply individual martyrdom, it was also a tactic for fulfilling god’s covenant.16 in 1657, mary dyer sailed back to massachusetts bay, and was soon expelled for preaching quakerism.17 twenty years earlier, dyer had gone quietly into exile with hutchinson, but this time she was prepared for a campaign of “patient suffering.” when dyer reappeared in massachusetts, in 1659, to protest the arrest and flogging of fellow quakers, the governor ordered her and two men, william robinson and marmaduke stephenson, banished “upon pain of death.” a month later, the trio returned, ready to “lay down their lives.” the exasperated governor ordered their execution. as they walked to the gallows, dyer called it “an hour of the greatest joy i can enjoy in this world.” robinson forgave the assembled crowd. stephenson whispered to the hangman, “i suffer for christ.” after the two quaker men were killed, dyer received a prearranged pardon, but she objected, insisting, “i am willing to die as my brethren did unless you nullify this law.” despite the presence of a large detachment of soldiers, the crowd refused to allow another killing—“patient suffering” had moved them. they surged on the gallows to pull dyer to safety. soldiers physically removed dyer from the colony, and she rejoined her family in rhode island. but seven months later, she was back before a massachusetts court, demanding repeal of anti-quaker laws. the eloquence of dyer’s next and final visit to the gallows is a revelation. onlookers begged her to accept banishment rather than be killed. she declined and was hanged, but not before explaining herself. i came to keep blood-guiltiness from you, desiring you to repeal the unrighteous and unjust law of banishment upon pain of death, made against the innocent 16 meredith weddle, walking in the way of peace: quaker pacifism in the seventeenth century (new york: oxford university press, 2001). 17 this section on mary dyer is drawn in part from the research and conclusions of casey mceachern, “through blood we purchase peace: mary dyer, patient suffering, and puritan persecution in massachusetts bay, 1656-1661,” m.a. thesis, university of california, berkeley, 2007. a summary of this paper can be found in mceachern, “the quaker martyr mary dyer and the principles of nonviolence at work,” peace power (summer 2006): 26-28, www.calpeacepower.org. volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 110 servants of the lord; therefore my blood will be required at your hands who willfully do it: but for those that do it in the simplicity of their hearts, i desire the lord to forgive them. i came to do the will of my father, and in obedience to his will, i stand even unto death.18 applying galtung’s definition of violence—“avoidable insult to basic human needs”— it’s safe to say that violation of the human need for life is usually more obvious and dramatic than violation of the need for identity.19 with her bold civil disobedience, dyer was dramatizing the violence of religious intolerance, equating religious identity with life, thereby confronting massachusetts residents with the ugly implication of antiquaker laws: actively oppose religious intolerance or tacitly support murder. the massachusetts governor did not want to kill quakers, he just wanted them gone, but dyer, stephenson, and robinson would not let him off so easily. they were directing their “patient suffering” at the cultural violence of religious exclusivism, which was reinforced by the structural violence of puritan theocracy—government by churchmen— and which led to the direct violence of floggings and hangings. peace theory aside, dyer’s words and actions made her intentions clear; a tearful onlooker reportedly said, “she hangs there as a flag for others to take example by.”20 what did the deaths of dyer and her friends accomplish? the governor was employing threat power—do this or else!—to keep out quaker influence, but integrative power—i do this because i care about you—reversed the effect. puritans continued to become quakers, among them a soldier guarding the gallows when dyer was killed. when the king of england was informed of the events, he ordered massachusetts to cease torturing and killing quakers, and, under popular pressure, the governor halted even the jailing of quakers—the beginning of the end of official religious intolerance in the colony. longer-term results are more difficult to track, and the influence of these stunning demonstrations of “patient suffering” may be impossible to measure, but dyer and other quakers planted a seed of nonviolence in new england, and such powerful acts are not easily expunged from emotional memory. just as an abusive parent teaches a child to abuse, lessons of tolerance and nonviolence were certainly passed through generations of new englanders, knowingly and unknowingly, by word and example. indeed, quaker thought and experience were the original impetus for the u.s. peace societies and the slowly emerging abolitionist movement.21 the life of owen brown provides an instructive example of transgenerational integrative power. as a boy in connecticut, owen played with a neighbor’s guinean 18 the words of robinson, stephenson, and dyer come from william sewel, the history of the rise, increase, and progress of the christian people called quakers (1728), 222-229, as quoted in mceachern, “through blood we purchase peace,” 27-32. 19 galtung, peace by peaceful means, 197. 20 horatio rogers, the quaker martyr that was hanged on boston common (providence, ri: preston and rounds, 1896), 62, quoted in mceachern, “through blood we purchase peace,” 32. 21 gerda lerner, “nonviolent resistance: the history of an idea,” in lerner, why history matters: life and thought (new york: oxford university press, 1997), 60-66. volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 111 slave and was deeply affected when the man died. the kindness of an enslaved african humanized owen, prevented him from seeing blacks as less than human, despite the dehumanizing culture of white supremacy. as an adult, owen brown became an abolitionist, but went beyond most white abolitionists in rejecting racial prejudice altogether, and taught his children to respect people of all races.22 when the family moved to ohio, owen’s son john befriended local natives, whose lingering presence other settlers resented. after he observed a white master abuse a black boy, john became, at age twelve, a committed abolitionist.23 like father, like son. in the ensuing decades, owen and john participated in the underground railroad, assisting runaway slaves on their northward flight. the ideas of abolitionist quakers, including john woolman and lucretia mott, also influenced john brown’s thinking, and the rude behavior of u.s. soldiers during the war of 1812 disgusted him so that, as he explained in his curious syntax, “he would neither train, or drill; but paid fines & got along like a quaker until his age finally has cleared him of military duty.”24 one acquaintance reported that brown was a committed nonresistant.25 in 1837, though, in response to the murder of defiant antislavery editor elijah lovejoy by a proslavery mob, john brown stood up at a prayer meeting, with his father at his side, and declared, “i pledge myself, with god’s help, that i will devote my life to increasing hostility to slavery.”26 his father had taught him colorblindness, but the abused boy, the desperation of fugitive slaves, lovejoy’s courageous death on their behalf—these reached brown’s heart. he felt their suffering and knew their humanity. after his public vow, brown emerged a puritan warrior certain of his divine mission. william lloyd garrison and other prominent abolitionists rejected violence; they were christian “perfectionists,” believing that by achieving a sinless existence they could provide a righteous model that would persuade slave owners to cease their sinful ways.27 in contrast, brown’s old-school calvinism led him to believe that he was chosen by god to end slavery and that god, not human efforts to rise above sin, determined who was saved and who was damned. inspired by accounts of violent slave revolts throughout the americas, and by the example of oliver cromwell, a 17th-century english puritan who believed he had been chosen by god to wage war against monarchy, brown declared a war of arms, not words and piety, against slavery. the conflict over the expansion of slavery into kansas territory provided brown with a theater to begin his holy war. after “border ruffians” sacked lawrence, an antislavery town, in 1856, brown organized the brutal murder of five proslavery settlers. the pottawatomie massacre, as it was called, escalated hostilities from threats and 22 decaro jr., “fire from the midst of you,” 23-24. 23 brown’s account of the beating is likely stylized, but it accurately presents his view of blacks as peers. decaro jr., “fire from the midst of you,” 53-56; mcglone, john brown’s war against slavery, 53-55. 24 quoted in reynolds, john brown, 33. 25 mcglone, john brown’s war against slavery, 54, 237; decaro jr., “fire from the midst of you,” 72. 26 quoted in carton, patriotic treason, 82. 27 henry mayer, all on fire: william lloyd garrison and the abolition of slavery (new york: norton, 2008), 223-226, 236-237. volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 112 property damage to pitched battles—“bleeding kansas”—with “captain” brown leading antislavery forces. in late 1858, brown directed a raid on two missouri farms, liberated eleven slaves, and delivered them over one thousand miles to permanent freedom in canada. next came the spectacular takeover and shootout at the harpers ferry arsenal, which brought death to ten of brown’s men, one federal soldier, and four townsmen, including a slave. brown and six others were subsequently hanged—live by the sword, die by the sword—and brown’s plan to “carry the war into africa,” meaning into southern states, appeared a complete failure. the john brown problem brown’s antislavery violence created a problem for white americans opposed to slavery.28 for the pacifist abolitionists, the question brown raised was should they abandon their nonresistance principles. garrison, for example, had rejected moderation and gradualism in the fight for abolition, but, after harpers ferry, brown appeared the one man fully committed to destroying slavery immediately. by comparison to brown’s method, perfectionism could seem hesitant, even cowardly. in a public address on the day brown was killed, garrison invoked “the spirit of ‘76” and equated brown with george washington and other “revolutionary fathers” who struck “a blow for freedom.” the rhetoric of the independence war—patriotic killing in the name of “liberty”—had great resonance, even for a self-described “ultra peace man.” “i am trying him by the american standard,” garrison said, and characterized that standard as violent resistance to despotism. garrison affirmed his own rejection of violence, but insisted that violent resistance by the oppressed was better than submission. “rather than see men wear their chains in a cowardly and servile spirit, i would, as an advocate of peace, much rather see them breaking the head of the tyrant with their chains.”29 when they were the foremost abolitionists, the pacifists’ claim to moral superiority had been secure. but when violent abolitionism took the lead, the pacifists had to decide whether or not to support killing that might bring liberty to the enslaved, and, indeed, all but a few dedicated pacifists eventually embraced union efforts in the civil war.30 for others, the problem was non-state direct violence. within modern states, government administrators claim a monopoly on violent redress; officeholders and courts get to decide when killing is just; blood feuds and vigilantism are circumscribed. the pottawatomie murders made brown a federal outlaw, and the harpers ferry action was a blatant attack on federal property, so expression of support for brown could easily be construed as promoting vigilantism, anarchy, and treason. immediately after brown’s capture, public opinion in the north generally condemned the raid, and presidential 28 black americans generally had little quarrel with brown’s antislavery violence. benjamin quarles, allies for freedom: blacks and john brown (new york: oxford university press, 1974). 29 garrison’s eulogy for john brown was printed in the liberator, dec. 16, 1859. john stauffer and zoe trodd, eds., the tribunal: responses to john brown and the harpers ferry raid (new york: belknap, 2012), 160-165. 30 mayer, all on fire, 518-526. in explaining garrison’s decision to support the union war effort, mayer wrote, “the wound dealt to his pacifism by john brown had now proved fatal.” (520) volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 113 candidate abraham lincoln, even as he spoke against slavery, took pains to deny any connection between his republican party and brown’s “peculiar” and “absurd” enterprise.31 but the demise of slavery at the end of the civil war complicated the issue. lincoln issued his emancipation proclamation as a wartime maneuver, and union victory led to ratification of the thirteenth amendment by southern states. the simple equation that follows—the civil war ended slavery—implies that antislavery slaughter was appropriate or served a higher purpose. in that sense, as w.e.b. du bois insisted, “john brown was right.”32 he was fighting the good war before it was officially declared, while federal laws were still protecting slavery, while lincoln was repeating his promise not to “meddle” with the south. brown was a premature antislaveryist.33 but lauding brown’s antislavery raids is to honor unsanctioned direct violence—unsanctioned by the state—which mainstream opinion usually deems illegitimate. approval of brown sets a dangerous precedent, as it suggests violent enforcement by private citizens is acceptable if their cause is righteous, or if they simply believe it is.34 in the early twenty-first century, the u.s. political class’s nervous obsession with “terrorism” made the john brown problem even more awkward.35 scholars who label brown a “terrorist” may be referring to a category of violent action, but in current parlance, this term is an indictment.36 it says that extralegal killing defines the historic figure—defines him as “evil”—with no room for nuance. but how could he be evil if he 31 eric foner, the fiery trial: abraham lincoln and american slavery (new york: norton, 2010), 137; stauffer and trodd, eds., the tribunal, 2012, 206-209. 32 w.e.b. du bois, john brown (millwood, ny: kraus-thomson, 1973, originally published in 1909), 338. 33 milton wolff, an american citizen who fought with the international brigade against spanish fascists while the u.s. government claimed “neutrality,” discovered during his world war ii service that the u.s. army had labeled him a “premature anti-fascist”—a very dangerous creature. studs terkel, “the good war”: an oral history of world war ii (new york: new press, 1984), 480. 34 robert e. lee, the u.s. officer who captured john brown at harper’s ferry, and who later committed unambiguous treason by going to war against the united states, isn’t nearly as problematic as brown, because the treasonous lee was a professional soldier dutifully serving a government—directing statesanctioned killing—even if that government was the confederate states of america (c.s.a.) slavocracy. lee and c.s.a. president jefferson davis received u.s. presidential pardons in the 1970s. brown has not been pardoned. 35 u.s. opinion-makers use the term “terrorism” to indicate direct violence they condemn and “counterterrorism” to mean direct violence they condone. a u.s. army manual’s more technical definition of terrorism—“the calculated use of violence or threat of violence to attain goals that are political, religious or ideological in nature”—would include most u.s. war-making, and thus cannot be employed. noam chomksy, hegemony or survival: america’s quest for global empire (new york: metropolitan books, 2003), 188-189. 36 tony horwitz, “why john brown still scares us,” american history 46:5 (nov.-dec. 2011): 38-45. michael fellman, in the name of god and country: reconsidering terrorism in american history (new haven, cn: yale university press, 2010), 14-56, 237-244, places brown within an american tradition of terrorism, and concludes with an insightful essay about the term. reynolds, john brown, 500-506, is careful to distinguish brown from less tolerant “modern terrorists”: “he was an american terrorist in the amplest sense of the word, because he believed in the american ideal of equal rights for all, regardless of creed or race.” (503) in other words, reynolds believes brown’s terrorism was for a worthy cause. decaro jr., “fire from the midst of you,” 268, believes that brown’s concern for his hostages proves he wasn’t a terrorist. volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 114 was trying to end the evil of slavery? one way around the john brown problem is to dismiss the old man as insane—a strategy originally attempted by brown’s lawyers and roundly rejected by brown and recent scholarship. heroic or dastardly, misguided or treasonous, good or evil—what to do with “osawatomie” brown? radical egalitarianism peace theory offers a different perspective on john brown’s career. brown characterized slavery as “war,” and believed that god had chosen him to end it. that was brown’s stated goal: the elimination of slavery in the united states, the liberation of the slaves. he declared war on a war. direct violence to stop direct violence—the contradiction is clear. yet brown had other methods, and while it would be wrong to equate him with gandhi and other advocates of nonviolence, looking beyond his violence reveals surprising parallels to gandhi’s approach to conflict resolution. like gandhi, brown believed he served a higher power, desired to liberate an exploited people, and was willing to die for his cause, but brown wholeheartedly embraced direct violence as the means to his goal. brown’s solution to the direct violence of slavery was greater direct violence—a guerrilla army of escaped slaves terrorizing slave owners—violence of the strong. in this, he succeeded. the kansas slavery war and the harpers ferry raid hurried secession by the south, leading to the warfare of 1861-65, which created the circumstances of slavery’s demise, most critical being the willingness of slaves to become union soldiers—mass, state-sanctioned slave revolt. (hence, the john brown problem.) if gandhi’s goal had been simply the end of british rule over india, we could say he, too, succeeded. yet just as gandhi failed to create a nonviolent, unified subcontinent, brown’s war against slavery, even with the federal government taking up his crusade and then outlawing slavery, did not end the subjugation, exploitation, and marginalization of black americans by white americans. brown’s antislavery efforts, though, amounted to more than a war of arms, albeit without the benefit of gandhi’s philosophical analysis, profound insight, formal education, and international influences. a hide tanner by trade, remarkably unsuccessful as a businessman, seemingly only skilled at producing children—nineteen by two wives—and starting wars, john brown still managed to develop a “constructive program” of his own. as peace theory predicts, structural and cultural violence supported the direct violence of u.s. slavery. the structural violence included an economic system based in part on private, concentrated ownership of land and other means of production, and on the exploitation of the laboring masses by ownership. in the north, industrialization brought “wage slavery”; in the south it was worse yet. the u.s. political system was an anemic version of representative government, with participation usually limited to white adult males and filtered by two-party dominance of the electoral process. dissenting voices were excluded, co-opted, or drowned out. the most obvious cultural violence was the ideological partnership of patriarchy and white supremacy. the gandhian approach to resolving the conflict known as u.s. slavery would likely have included the creation of communal, interracial, self-sustaining, gender-cooperative, agrarian villages, with former volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 115 slave owners welcomed as friends. the john brown approach too. in his own home, brown taught racial tolerance, sheltered fugitive slaves, insisted on gender cooperation rather than task differentiation, supported women’s rights including suffrage, promoted education for blacks, and tried to establish a cooperative warehousing system to protect wool producers from corporate buyers. his son, john jr., later recalled, “father’s favorite theme was that of the community plan of cooperative industry, in which all should labor for the common good; ‘having all things in common’ as did the disciples of jesus in his day.”37 again similar to gandhi, though perhaps more intuitively than philosophically, brown understood that to overcome the divisiveness of racism, blacks and whites would have to live and work together as equals. to understand the uniqueness of brown’s radicalism, consider that many antislavery activists supported deportation of freed slaves, believing blacks and whites could never, in lincoln’s words, “live together upon the footing of perfect equality.” in 1848, gerrit smith, an immensely wealthy abolitionist, designated 120,000 acres in far northeastern new york for distribution to black families; they would be free and self-supporting and isolated. brown convinced smith to sell him a farm in the same mountainous region, promising to provide farming instruction and assistance to his black neighbors.38 there brown lived among blacks as equals, cooperating at work, socializing, even seeking their advice and approval as he plotted his next move. he imagined a free state farther south, in the appalachian mountains, and wrote a political blueprint modeled after the u.s. constitution, then he organized a biracial convention to ratify his document. in a clear rebuke of u.s. slavocracy, brown’s “provisional constitution and ordinances for the people of the united states” would guarantee protection of all citizens regardless of race and gender, institute communal ownership of property, and require all “to labor in some way for the general good.” males and females alike would be encouraged to carry arms for defense of the community, and slave owners who voluntarily freed their slaves would be “treated as friends.” in brief, brown’s “provisional constitution”—like his personal life— challenged the cultural violence of racism and patriarchy by providing for an interracial, gender-cooperative community, and addressed the structural violence of capitalism by proposing economic communalism.39 of course, the contradictory commitment to direct violence remained; the provisional constitution wouldn’t go into effect without a violent uprising. but even brown’s war plan incorporated his vision of radical egalitarianism. more than simply abolish slavery, brown wanted to empower blacks, and he surmised that arming them for battle would do both. in 1851, he issued a call to arms urging free blacks in the north to organize and fight back against slave catchers. 37 quoted in reynolds, john brown, 82. 38 fergus bordewich, bound for canaan: the underground railroad and the war for the soul of america (new york: harpercollins, 2005), 397-400. 39 horwitz, midnight rising, 80-82, 113; stauffer and trodd, eds., the tribunal, 26-37. volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 116 be firm, determined, and cool; but let it be understood that you are not to be driven to desperation without making it an awful dear job to others as well as you. give them to know distinctly that those who live in wooden houses should not throw fire, and that you are just as able to suffer as your white neighbors.40 at brown’s encouragement, 44 black men and women formed the united states league of gileadites to do just that. brown believed that antislavery whites would be inspired by courageous blacks and compelled to take their side. “nothing so charms the american people as personal bravery,” he wrote, an argument later echoed by frederick douglass’s call for blacks to join the union army to prove their worth, and by gandhi’s encouragement of indians to fight in world war i to prove their manhood; gandhi, like brown, preferred brave men of violence to pacifist cowards.41 brown wanted a black president for his biracial state, and he recruited black leaders for his invasion of the south. douglass, who thought the plan hopeless and who had no desire to return to virginia, declined the leadership role offered by brown. harriet tubman, legendary “moses” of the underground railroad, responded more positively to brown’s overtures—he dubbed her “general tubman”—but she missed the adventure, perhaps due to illness. (brown recruited a sickly black woman to lead white and black men— sound absurd? in 1863, while serving the union army as nurse, spy, and recruiter, tubman led union forces up a river to liberate hundreds of slaves from south carolina plantations, the first woman to direct a u.s. combat operation.42) all told, brown had a plan to cultivate fearlessness, self-reliance, and self-respect among blacks and their white allies. the comparison to gandhi’s constructive programme may be unconvincing or unfair—gandhi laid out a far more comprehensive and holistic philosophy, brown’s approach was marred by advocacy of direct violence— but whereas gandhi worked at it for over forty years before he was killed, brown was just getting started. the sword of the spirit the raid on harpers ferry began smoothly enough. in short order, brown’s men seized the weapons stockpiles, taking townspeople hostage in the process. all that remained was for slaves to flee nearby farms en masse and take up arms with the raiders. that did not happen, due to fear, mistrust, and lack of communication. (one can speculate on a different outcome had “general tubman” been present.43) when brown 40 “words of advice to the united states league of gileadites,” in jonathan earle, john brown’s raid on harpers ferry: a brief history with documents (new york: bedford/st.martins, 2008), 45. 41 judith brown, gandhi: prisoner of hope (new haven, cn: yale university press, 1989), 125-126. 42 catherine clinton, harriet tubman: the road to freedom (new york: little brown, 2004), 124-136, 163-168. 43 horwitz, midnight rising, 136, 145; mcglone, john brown’s war against slavery, 268-274. brown chose a sunday night for his raid, not realizing that slaves would be out visiting, away from their homes, and hard to locate. tubman probably wouldn’t have made that mistake. also, she probably would have volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 117 realized only a few slaves were bold enough to answer his call, he still had time to attempt a withdrawal; some of his men suggested it, and a few did escape capture. shortly after surrendering to u.s. troops, brown explained it was out of concern for his prisoners that he had erred in not fleeing—perhaps he had imagined more townspeople being killed in a fighting retreat. but brown seems to have been weighing both the power of personal sacrifice and a desire for national attention when at the chaotic point of no return—run or die—he stayed put. at least a year earlier, according to one of his confidantes, brown had concluded that only the deaths of white men could awaken people in the north from their apathy toward slavery.44 more certain is how brown, in prison for six weeks awaiting execution, viewed his failure at harpers ferry and his impending death. he believed it was all part of god’s plan to end slavery, and thus he would go joyfully to the gallows. his many letters and interviews are consistent on that point. he rejected talk of a rescue attempt, insisting, “i am worth now infinitely more to die than to live.”45 with two days to go, he wrote to his family, “i have now no doubt that our seeming disaster: will ultimately result in the most glorious success.”46 he didn’t explain just how his death would bring change, but there are clues as to what he anticipated. his “words of advice to the united states league of gileadites,” written eight years earlier, begins with reference to the amistad trial, but reads like instructions to himself: the trial for life of one bold and to some extent successful man, for defending his rights in good earnest, would arouse more sympathy throughout the nation than the accumulated wrongs and sufferings of more than three millions of our submissive colored population.47 brown knew, too, how the fighting death of elijah lovejoy had inspired his own commitment to ending slavery. brown held the puritan belief that the innocent must suffer for the sins of the guilty, but, in his talk of joyful sacrifice, the puritan warrior was sounding more and more like mary dyer and her comrades in “patient suffering.” to me it is given in behalf of christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake….i think i feel as happy as paul did when he lay in prison. he knew if they killed him it would greatly advance the cause of christ….let them hang me; i forgive them, and may god forgive them, for they know not what they do. i been more successful than john cook, brown’s point man, in communicating with local slaves ahead of time, as she did before her south carolina raid. 44 mcglone, john brown’s war against slavery, 249, 304-306; horwitz, midnight rising, 236-240; decaro jr., “fire from the midst of you,” 251. garrison wondered if brown’s intent at harpers ferry was “a desperate self-sacrifice for the purpose of giving an earthquake shock to the slave system.” quoted in mayer, all on fire, 496. 45 quoted in reynolds, john brown, 388. 46 earle, john brown’s raid, 101. 47 earle, john brown’s raid, 44. volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 118 have no regret for the transaction for which i am condemned. i went against the laws of men, it is true; but “whether it be right to obey god or men, judge ye.48 when the threat power of armed struggle could take him no further, brown had turned to integrative power, dying to win sympathy for his cause. or, as he put it, “christ…saw fit to take from me a sword of steel after i had carried it for a time but he has put another in my hand (‘the sword of the spirit;’).”49 what did brown accomplish? the harpers ferry raid unleashed a wave of violence across the south that became the civil war. in the north, thanks to the storm of publicity surrounding his trial and execution, particularly the exultant pronouncements of garrison, henry david thoreau, and ralph waldo emerson, brown became the symbol of the war, the rallying cry, and the meaning.50 the union army’s wildly popular marching song, “john brown’s body”—the source of “the battle hymn of the republic”—ended with the refrain “his soul goes marching on.” and his “soul” imbued antislavery with a greater moral authority.51 brown is often labeled a “martyr,” but this term implies a kind of passivity—at best, refusing to betray one’s beliefs, trying to maintain personal purity; at worst, choosing to play the self-pitying victim—and does not adequately capture the proactive nature and social dimension of “patient suffering” and integrative power. a bible-quoting white man, undeniably courageous and sincere, who proclaimed his joy in forfeiting his life for slaves, who demonstrated that such people are worth fighting and dying for, was rehumanizing blacks in the eyes of whites. his eloquent words reached minds, and, like mary dyer, his eloquent deed touched hearts.52 in so doing, he was also rehumanizing whites, teaching them to recognize the humanity in blacks, and dramatizing the violence of slavery in a fashion they could not ignore, undoing what douglass called the “benumbed…moral sense of the nation.”53 brown’s influence worked in remarkable ways. for example, his death inspired tubman to be bolder in her antislavery efforts. a few months later, in troy, new york, tubman transformed a biracial crowd of onlookers, including prominent white townsfolk, into a rescue party that liberated a fugitive slave in broad daylight. a reporter concluded that the rescue “has developed a more intense anti-slavery spirit here, than was ever 48 earle, john brown’s raid, 97. quaker influence can be seen in brown’s last days: in court he quoted john woolman, and from prison he corresponded with quaker friends. 49 earle, john brown’s raid, 93. 50 mayer, all on fire, 495-507. mayer’s comment—“brown’s act…irrevocably moved the slavery controversy from the sphere of constitutional and moral abstraction to the visceral realm of feelings intensified beyond measure or reason” (495)—identifies the emotional power of brown’s sacrifice. 51 franny nudelman, “‘the blood of millions’: john brown’s body, public violence, and political community,” american literary history 13:4 (winter 2001): 639-670, discusses how proponents of wartime nationalism used brown’s sacrifice as a model for the suffering of soldiers, transforming brown’s attack on a federal installation into a basis for greater state authority. 52 according to a new york reporter, brown’s testimony in a hostile courtroom “touched the hearts of many who had come only to rejoice at the heaviest blow their victim was to suffer.” quoted in peterson, john brown, 14. 53 quoted in horwitz, midnight rising, 287, volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 119 known before.”54 just as gandhi expanded the notion of freedom, brown’s “soul” was liberating whites from enslavement—enslavement to racist indifference. this was the power of brown’s soul force: from the outset, lincoln’s political war for the union was becoming a righteous war against slavery; even white union soldiers understood they were killing and dying for black freedom. yet one courageous death was not enough to transform the most deeply dehumanized individuals in a deeply dehumanized society. the greater the dehumanization, the greater the sacrifice required for rehabilitation, and it did not help that brown’s soul force was compromised by his earlier violence. the integrative power of his sacrifice may have moved northern whites, but southern whites responded more to the threat force of his raids. brown’s last scribbled note was predictive: i john brown am not quite certain that the crimes of this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with blood. i had as i now think: vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might be done.55 understood in traditional terms, brown was anticipating the civil war catastrophe—u.s. society would pay for its sins at the price of over six hundred thousand corpses. but mutual slaughter is not how a society overcomes violence. this is where the brown approach falls well short of the gandhian. wars dehumanize, they widen the gap between self and a “foreign” other. slavery plus war does not equal peace. if southern whites viewed black slaves as subhumans, they now imagined black soldiers as subhuman enemies coming to rape and kill. after the war, the presence of the union army in the south—threat power—allowed former slaves the space to practice citizenry and improve their condition, but the weakness of threat power is that it requires frequent reinforcement. when federal soldiers departed, southern whites remade black subjugation into racial segregation and de facto slavery. the cultural violence of white supremacy not only lingered, but intensified—across the entire country—in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.56 slavery was outlawed; racial harmony was hard to find. a century after brown’s death, the integrative power of the civil rights movement, organized around gandhian principles, finally put a dent in u.s. racism. the suffering and deaths of those who nonviolently absorbed the violence of police batons, klan bombs, assassins’ bullets, attack dogs, and fire hoses gave new meaning to brown’s final prediction. from mary dyer to john brown to martin luther king jr.—when you open your eyes to integrative power, you start to see connections everywhere. there are, indeed, strong ties between brown and the civil rights movement. well into the twentieth century, brown remained an inspiration to those who worked for black liberation. one of the founders of the naacp, the most important early civil 54 clinton, harriet tubman, 136-138. 55 quoted in reynolds, john brown, 395. 56 james loewen, sundown towns: a hidden dimension of american racism (new york: new press, 2005). volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 120 rights organization, acknowledged it was “a direct descendant of the old league of gileadites founded by john brown.”57 king’s masterful speech at the alabama state capitol, in 1965, concluded with words from “the battle hymn of the republic”—a tribute, in effect, to john brown on the scaffold: “his truth is marching on!” the gandhian influence behind the civil rights movement actually reaches back to the early quakers who learned, through painful trial, the integrative power of “patient suffering.” quakerism influenced the nonviolence of u.s. abolitionists, including adin ballou, who influenced the russian writer leo tolstoy’s radical christian anarchism, which in turn influenced gandhi’s satyagraha. thoreau is also part of this tradition, not for nonviolence, but for other principles—individual conscience, asceticism, the integrity of labor—shared with tolstoy and gandhi.58 good company to be in, and john brown is there too. perhaps more than any other contemporary white observer, thoreau immediately understood the power of brown’s sacrifice. in his lecture, “a plea for captain john brown,” thoreau noted, “when a man stands up serenely against the condemnation of mankind, rising above them literally by a whole body…the spectacle is a sublime one…and we become criminal in comparison.”59 brown’s puritan militarism took him away from the nonviolent tradition, but, in the end, “the sword of the spirit” brought him back: an accidental satyagrahi. conclusion the popular framing of brown as a man only of violence, while other aspects of his life and work are largely disregarded, is an aspect of cultural violence as it emerges from, and reinforces, the thinking that legitimizes direct violence. the emphasis on brown’s violence fits the mindset that believes direct violence “works,” without careful consideration of what the maiming and killing of others actually accomplishes. this follows from the belief that threat power, which functions on fear, is more potent than integrative power, which functions on the universal human need for interconnection.60 from this perspective, brown’s violence was more effective and remains more noteworthy than his attempts at biracial community, and his attack on a federal arsenal deserves more attention than his radical revision of the federal constitution. but if the goal is to decrease violence of all types, then integrative power, especially in the form of “patient suffering,” is what works. the harpers ferry raid may have sped the demise of 57 quoted in reynolds, john brown, 496. after the civil war, a maine businessman funded a school in harpers ferry with the stipulation that it would uphold brown’s commitment to racial and gender equality. storer college trained african americans to be teachers, and, in 1906, hosted the second niagara movement conference, whose members later formed the national association for the advancement of colored people (naacp). reynolds, john brown, 491-496. 58 chernus, american nonviolence, esp. 1-25; lerner, why history matters, 59-73. 59 stauffer and trodd, eds., the tribunal, 105-109. 60 decaro jr., “fire from the midst of you,” 39, for example, argues that “fear of escalating violence is a far greater catalyst for change within an indifferent majority than ‘moral suasion’ or appeals to the conscience of a society.” decaro, a christian minister who seems to see god at work in human history, has done a fine job of describing brown’s religious life without getting caught up in the sensationalism of brown’s violence. he calls brown a “saint,” but his apparent skepticism of integrative power may prevent him from understanding the power of brown’s death. see pages 4-7, 283-284. volume 8 number 2 (2014): 104-121 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 121 southern slavery, but it didn’t bring any lasting reduction in the violence of white supremacy and exploitation of southern blacks. that shift came a century later with the “patient suffering” of civil rights movement activists. therein lies a solution to the john brown problem. rather than debating whether or not his resort to vigilante murder was legitimate, justified, and righteous, it is more fruitful to investigate the dynamic that made his death so powerful and to consider how his positive peace efforts, throughout his life, challenged a violent status quo. consider this a prescription for cultural peace: less discussion about when killing might be justified, more discussion about how to address all violent aspects of society. microsoft word candel ifp v 11.1_approved by slc.docx in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 28-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 28 volume 11 number 1 (2017): 28-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review understanding peace cultures, edited by rebecca l. oxford, a volume in the series: peace education, editors laura finley & robin cooper, information age publishing, 2014, 344 pp., us $45.99 (paperback), us $85.99 (hardcover), isbn 978-1-62396-505-1 reviewed by sandra l. candel university of nevada, las vegas candel@unlv.nevada.edu in this volume rebecca oxford, a professor of language education and research at air university in montgomery, alabama who has also authored books on culture and the language of peace, makes an open invitation to peace education teachers and students, peace organizations, and individuals who want to experience peace from multiple perspectives to share cultural aspects of peace. the book captures the multidimensionality and complexity of cultures by incorporating critical, spiritual, philosophical, linguistic, literary, and sociopolitical views related to peace and peace education in the chapters. the book is divided into five sections: part a, looking at peace cultures, offers a definition of culture, peace culture, and peace, which oxford defines as “multidimensional” to denote the intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergroup, international, and ecological dimensions of peace (p. 5). oxford spends the first two pages of her first chapter defining culture from the broadest to the most specific levels (drawing on historical, cognitive, affective, material, and artistic dimensions of culture), arguing in the end that culture is “the software of the mind and heart” (p. 4). while some authors made connections to culture in subsequent chapters, others did not explicitly state their notion of culture, denoting the need in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 28-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 29 for more precision in the definition and analysis of the term. in chapter 2, authors rebecca oxford and rebecca boggs introduce iconic peace figures that exemplify the different ways in which people have worked for the creation of peace cultures, including muhammad yunus, founder of the grameen bank in bangladesh; aung san suu kyi, awarded the nobel peace price for her efforts to peacefully free burma; and mary robinson, the first woman president of ireland and united nations high commissioner of human rights. part b, peace cultures: creating small and large peace cultures, is one of the most complete sections of the book, analyzing peace education and curriculum from multiple perspectives. for example, chapter 3, ‘womanist and critical race theory for peacemaking in multilingual, multicultural classrooms’ is a theoretical chapter that critically challenges social injustices by using critical and feminist theories to discuss the experiences of the trauma caused by racism, xenophobia, and war while at the same time offering curricular strategies for peacemaking. tina wei, in chapter 4, discusses the use of reflective essays to explore transformative peace education. author rui ma, uses the christian bible in chapter 5 to introduce peace education curriculum to youth in the middle east. finally, wang describes how she integrates peace education into her english language classes with international students in chapter 6. part c, creating peace cultures: spiritual, philosophical, linguistic, and literary insights, is characterized for the diversity of viewpoints with which it explores peace cultures, ranging from spiritual buddhist and islamist perspectives that incorporate experiential knowledge, to chinese philosophies on the wisdom of peace and semantic explorations of peace. the decision to separate christian from non-christian traditions, placing them in different sections of the book, is not discussed by the authors. however, it would have been interesting to cluster them in the same section to give the reader the opportunity to compare and contrast approaches to peace education using different traditions. in addition, it is worth mentioning that within this section we can find an excellent literature review of multicultural children’s books in ‘peace lessons in multicultural literature for children’ (chapter 11), which contains an analysis of 44 books on themes covering peace, diversity, equality, and social justice comprising a wealth or resources for those interested in including peace in children’s literature. part d, performing art for peace: cultural understandings for peace educators, looks at peace education from an artistic lens. chapter 12 describes african performing art and its capability to “craft” peace through an analysis of artifacts that include drinking cups, masks, and figurines. the strength of this section, however, is found in chapter 13, in which blake, rudolph, oxford, and in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 28-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 30 boggs make an in-depth theoretical and historical analysis of hip hop music to support their central topic of “what it means to make peace with gansta rap” (p. 266). as the authors contend, it would be difficult to make the case for hip hop as a vehicle for peace with the violence and misogyny depicted in hip hop’s lyrics. nevertheless, the authors manage to deconstruct those lyrics by going beyond the seemingly negative messages and uncovering the greater meaning of hip hop described as “socially aware and consciously connected to historic patterns of political protest and alighted with progressive forces of social critique” (p. 277). the authors go as far as declaring that hip hop can be socially conscious by promoting civic participation and giving voice to vulnerable populations that might not otherwise be heard. unfortunately, this section’s limitation consisted of not covering any artistic means of peace education, but restricting itself to only commenting on art and music. finally, part e, social and political perspectives: challenges for peace educators and peacebuilders, approaches peace education from a socio-political perspective based on international conflicts that include the israeli-palestinian as well as the north and south korean conflicts. this section describes the real-life difficulties one encounters when trying to open dialogue between two parties tangled in intractable religious, ideological, and land conflict, including, for example, the importance of having an acute awareness of cultural norms when addressing palestinian and israeli populations. one of the virtues of this book is the inclusion of activities for exploring and practicing peace at the end of each chapter. these carefully crafted questions give experts ideas to further the discussion of the chapter, as well as provide guidelines for novices to further the exploration of a topic of their interest. the book successfully introduces a multitude of views on peace and peace education, indicating the abundance of perspectives on the socially constructed notion of culture. however, the concept of culture remained elusive throughout the chapters. oxford incorporates a diversity of authors comprised of peace scholars, including professors, students, anthropologists, and policy analysts that used theoretical and historical analysis to support their arguments, as well as practitioners, including nuns and physical therapists that used experiential knowledge to make their claims. the mixed presentation of chapters, regardless of the academic training of the authors, seems to suggest that oxford gave equal status to the experiences shared. an added benefit of the diversity of authors is that the book may appeal to the critical peace educator who will appreciate the chapter written from a feminist and critical race theory perspective, as well as to those interested in socio-politically situated peace education, who will find international current issues such as the israeli-palestinian and north-south in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 28-31 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 31 korean conflicts discussed in the book interesting. similarly, this book may appeal to those interested in spiritual and philosophical insights, as well as to those interested in non-academic and artistic practices. on the down side, some of the data presented in chapter 12 date back up to forty years, raising the question of relevance for the 21st century. finally, the book contains a wealth of resources for those interested in children’s multicultural literacy and for those looking for strategies to infuse peace building in their curriculum. overall, the breadth of topics covered may have affected the depth. some parts of the book seemed more substantial in the support of their arguments – for example, using critical theory to support the claim for peace and justice – than others – for example, using spiritual semantics to deconstruct the word peace – corroborating the idea that less is more. on the other hand, the book’s appeal to an audience that is open to exploring the multiple cultural aspects of peace education, and the activities and questions contained at the end of the chapters, make this book an important component of any peace education collection. mcgregor volume 10 in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 8 volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal non-violent consumption1 sue l. t. mcgregor abstract non-violent right action is proposed as the most promising method of moving beyond capitalism and a consumer culture to a more humane society. after exposing the violence inherent within the consumer culture and the global marketplace (due to structural violence), this paper explains the main principles of non-violence (especially satyagraha, right actions, and the truth), and then reframes consumption through a non-violent lens. offering the satyagraha (drawing on an inner power reserve of self-truth) is tendered as a progressive way for people to view themselves as consumers, thereby enabling them to engage in right actions in the marketplace. non-violence is offered as a way to deal with the inequities of the global consumer marketplace and the infringements on the human condition, other species, and the earth. introduction a consumer culture is not peaceful. it is characterized by alienation, dissatisfaction, disenchantment, misplaced self-identity, and false relationships (mcgregor, 2010). taken together, these features and those of the neoliberal marketplace, contribute to violence, which must be mitigated for the sake of the human condition, and the sanctity of earth and other species. non-violent action is the most promising method of moving beyond capitalism and a consumer culture to a more humane society (martin, 2001). after exposing the violence inherent within the consumer culture and the global marketplace, this paper explains the main principles of non 1a different version of this paper was included as a chapter 10 in my book titled consumer moral leadership (sense publishers 2010). in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 9 violence, and then reframes consumption as non-violent. characteristics of a consumer culture first, the consumer culture reflects a highly individualized order that is devoid of communal values. it is driven by self-interests and material pursuits such that it has intensified people’s sense of loss and alienation (goldman, 2005; schor, 2007; slater, 1997). alienation makes it easier to see other human beings as the other; hence, they are not within one’s realm of responsibility. people have become too removed from the origins of the goods and services they consume. geographical and mental distance compromises people’s abilities to establish trust relationships, gain and apply knowledge of ethical and moral principles, respect a sense of community and solidarity, and believe that they can make a difference (klintmann & boström, 2006). second, the consumer culture promises everything, but never fully delivers. people are permanently disappointed. dissatisfaction is always one step ahead of satisfaction, with the cycle perpetuating itself. people end up feeling responsible for just themselves (goldman, 2005; international network of engaged buddhists, 2016; mccracken, 1988; mcgregor, 2010; sassatelli, 2007). third, a consumer culture co-opts people’s humanity and spirituality. instead of being socialized to be caring, loving and compassionate, people learn that purchasing things brings a sense of belonging. they end up disenchanted and disillusioned, longing for a sense of identity (goodwin, nelson, ackerman, & weisskopf, 2006; mcgregor, 2010; ritzer, 1999). fourth, in a consumer culture, people create a sense of identity (self) through consuming more and more, and accumulating different, material objects. this behavior generates a misplaced identity, and narrow connotations of responsibility for whom and what (goldman, 2005; mccracken, 1988; mckibben, 1999; sassatelli, 2007). finally, in a consumer culture, people relentlessly seek self-fulfillment and self-identity through what they consume instead of through relationships with others. but this misguided behavior creates false relationships by rejecting the relationships between the individual and the collective, meaning people end up paying little attention to others’ working conditions or the environment. they are responsible only to themselves, often at the expense of others (harris, 1997; kasser, 2003; mcgregor, 2010). violent consumer infrastructure the consumer culture creates a context within which consumer activities inadvertently become deep sources of violence, mainly because the consumer society and the consumerism ideology are sources of structural violence (mcgregor, 2010). whereas direct violence and war are very visible, indirect, structural violence is almost invisible. it is embedded in ubiquitous social structures, and is normalized by stable institutions and in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 10 by regular experiences. the results are unequal power, and unequal life chances. structural violence can also occur in a society if institutions and policies are designed in ways that build barriers into society. the results can be lack of adequate food, housing, health, safe and just working conditions, education, economic security, clothing, and family relationships. unequal access to resources, political power, or legal standing are all forms of structural violence (galtung, 1969; winter & leighton, 2001). because these inequities are longstanding, they usually seem ordinary, the way things are done, and always have been. still worse, the people who are victims of structural violence often do not see the systematic ways in which their plight is choreographed by unequal and unfair distribution of society’s resources and power, or due to human constraint caused by economic and political structures (galtung,1969; winter & leighton, 2001). people affected by structural violence tend to live a life of oppression, exclusion, exploitation, marginalization, collective humiliation, stigmatization, repression, inequities, and they face a lack of opportunities due to no fault of their own, per se. those most affected by structural violence are women, children, elders and those from ethnic, racial, and religious groups, and sexual orientations that differ from the mainstream (winter & leighton, 2001). because they, and others, may not see the origin of the conflict and violence, people negatively affected by invisible structural violence often feel they are to blame, or are blamed, for their own life conditions (freire, 2007). this perception is readily escalated because people’s normal perceptual and cognitive processes tend to divide people into in-groups and out-groups. those outside our group lie outside our scope of interest and justice. they are invisible. injustice that would be instantaneously confronted if it occurred to someone in our group is barely noticed if it occurs to strangers or those who are invisible and irrelevant. it is easy to morally exclude those who fall outside our group (winter & leighton, 2001). this exclusion leads to the others becoming demeaned or invisible, meaning people do not have to acknowledge the injustices others suffer, even if they are the cause (see klintmann & boström, 2006). such is the case with consumption. indeed, the entire consumer infrastructure is a key source of structural violence, meaning people are harmed somehow due to no cause of their own. consumers enable this violence by embracing the ideology of consumerism, knowingly or not (mcgregor, 2007, 2008a, 2010). a consumer society teaches people about the merits of capitalistic consumerism but little to nothing about the lives of the workers who make the goods and deliver the services. consumers are often blind to how animals and other species suffer to create these products, and they are inadequately informed of the environmental and societal impact (although this is changing). and, they seldom realize that all of these situations are inextricably linked (wells, 2000). in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 11 rivola (2005) shares the story of a simple t-shirt to illustrate the complex connections inherent in the global marketplace, and the violence inherent in such benign purchases. the conflicted consumer culture legitimizes violence as a way to deal with conflict, which manifests as structural violence, and even direct violence, against each other (e.g., children killing each other for brand name clothing). hurtful and harmful actions (intentional or not) become so entrenched that the violence permeates everything, leading to extreme resistance to change when the consumerism veil is lifted (galtung, 1998; mcgregor, 2008b, 2010; sankofa, 2003). also, unless informed by corporate social responsibility (csr) principles, current modes of production are predicated on classical economic theory, and the ideologies of capitalism and neoliberalism (i.e., individualism, deregulation, decentralization, and privatization) (mcgregor, 2008a). the result is a market system that, intentionally or not, creates huge systems of injustice; infringements on human, labour, and environmental rights; gendered inequities; threats to peace, human security, and freedoms; and, massive encroachments on the human condition, and the commons. this violent marketplace and consumer infrastructure emerged out of the tensions of perceived scarcity, one of the main determinants of conflict (homer-dixon, 1991). more specifically, the ideologies of capitalism, top-down globalization, and neoliberalism are predicated on the notion of scarcity, rather than abundance. with perceived scarcity comes competition for resources (land, water, labour, money, time), leading to winners and losers. ironically, scarcity is not necessarily the problem; instead, it is often the uneven distribution of resources that is the problem (an injustice). there is enough to go around; however, situations of unfair access to political, economic, and other resources, because of involuntary membership in marginalized groups (structural violence), leads to exploitation, repression, and alienation as well as denial of basic needs (galtung, 1969; homer-dixon, 1991). as a consequence, so-called affluent people in a consumer society live a relatively comfortable life at the expense of impoverished labourers and fragile ecosystems, often in other countries. the veil of consumerism enables consumers to overlook the connections between consumerism and oppressive regimes (e.g., governments, world financial institutions, and transnational corporations) that violate human rights and increase drug trade, human slavery, and military spending (klintmann & boström, 2006; sankofa, 2003). this disregard is possible because consumerism accentuates and accelerates human fragmentation, isolation and exclusion for the profit of the few, contributing significantly to violence (board of the commission of the churches on international affairs, 1994). a consumer society values this new form of slavery, and the resultant disposable people. it also ignores the implications of northern consumption decisions on majority in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 12 world1 citizens, the next generation, and those not yet born (sankofa, 2003). many northern consumers justify their consumer behaviour with the argument that their purchases ensure majority world citizens have a job and an income, preventing them from starving; that is, the oppressors view themselves as liberators of the oppressed. however, northern consumers often do not appreciate that the working conditions are not safe; the salaries are insufficient; and, the children working to supplement adult incomes cannot attend school. also, human dignity and self-esteem are negatively affected, setting people up for future failure and other stark realities evident in the examples of structural violence committed by consumerist lifestyles (mcgregor, 2008a, 2010). a counter argument is that many northern consumers believe that people in majority world countries deserve what they get. if they would just work harder to produce goods and deliver services for northern consumption, they would be able to raise themselves up and out of poverty and despair. unless they work harder, they are not deserving of liberation, and they deserve to be oppressed. this position smacks of social darwinism and the neo-liberal principle of individualism, that is, everyone out for themselves (mcgregor, 2010). 1 the term developing country refers to an economy that is still in the developing stages (likely agricultural) relative to more advanced industrial, service and/or information based economies. it has taken on negative connotations because people assume that the whole country is developing when in fact languages, cultures and the like may be strong and thriving as judged by contextual and indigenous standards. peoples of developing countries have begun to self-identify as majority world citizens. they comprise nearly 90% of the world’s population, compared to the privileged north, the minority world (alam, 2009). from still another perspective, mcgregor (2010) suggests that consumerism is also a form of slavery to those doing the consuming. people behave as they do in a consumer society because they are so indoctrinated into the logic of the market that they cannot see anything wrong with what they are doing; they are wearing blinders. because they do not critically challenge the neo-liberal market ideology, and what it means to live in a consumer society, they actually contribute to their own oppression, becoming slaves of the market and capitalism. this enslavement happens at the same time their consumption decisions oppress others who make the goods and deliver the services. in fact, such strong and unsustainable consumption patterns have developed over time and have gone unchallenged that consumerism and structural violence represent dominant forces in human social interaction, especially in the marketplace. these forces are transforming human life in powerfully destructive ways (santi pracha dhamma institute, 2001). they need to be addressed with non-violence (martin, 2001), which is the philosophical awareness that each human being is significant, valuable, and powerful in a good sense (unesco, 2009). principles of non-violence in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 13 the principles of non-violence are now offered as a way to challenge the harm caused by untenable consumer behaviour. when people demand non-violence relative to consumption, they are expressing their humanity (unesco, 2009). in 2007, the nobel peace prize laureates presented the united nations with a 13-principle charter of a world without violence. principle eight focuses on “encourag[ing] people to adjust their consumption on the basis of resource availability and real human needs” (permanent secretariat of nobel peace laureates, 2007, p. 3). people living a non-violent way of life adhere to a collection of guiding principles: no harm, cooperation, respect, focus on process, humanization, resistance, conversion, inclusiveness, perseverance, fellowship, sharing, mutuality, sustainability, trust, honesty and, above all, truth. table 1 compares these to the principles and assumptions of violence. the following text elaborates on the fundamental tenets of non-violence. table 1. comparing non-violent and violent assumptions and principles non-violence principles violence principles “let us grow and move ahead together,” a positive sum game “i win, you lose,” a zero-sum game see people as humans and honor them (meaning you always have to humanize the situation) see people as the enemy, then label and treat them as such (enemy is latin inimicus, "not friend"); enables dehumanization (degrading and debasing) oppose and resist the action, program, or agenda, not the person; resist the sin while affirming the opponent’s integrity, capacity for growth, and their ability to examine their values and beliefs; value their truth oppressor opposes the person and resists the sinner by demoralizing, demeaning, and marginalizing them; opponent does not value the oppressed’s truth, their capacity for growth, or their values and beliefs respect the person and do not harm (softens anger); this approach evokes respect (rather than relies on respect) harm others (and their property) with no respect for the person (hardens anger) positive feelings stem from belief that we are all connected negative feelings stem from belief that we are all separate and disconnected never sacrifice principles of freedom, truth, justice, dignity, peace and honor, but do adapt strategies and techniques take a strategic approach in order to win, dismissing overarching principles; do whatever it takes to win set in motion forces that lead to a new equation and a new situation set in place forces that seize, crush, break, and beat down the opponent in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 14 in the end, people are liberated but friends (fellowship) in the end, people are dominated and they are not friends (enemies and adversaries) mutual learning process for change; see life as a co-evolution toward a loving community in which everyone thrives; power is shared for the common good power struggle; see life as a clash of egos where victors make material and symbolic gains (symbolic means a visible symbol for something abstract, like reputation); oppressor resists change, striving for the status quo, which keeps them in power success is “we moved ahead together” (and did so by undermining the opponent’s sources of power, creating new webs of shared power) success is “i won ”(by imposing power over others while maintaining separateness); oppressors gloat, brag, and boast a victory success is when you overcame yourself; it is an inner victory over self, a personal gain that no one can take away (successful inner struggle and learned discipline leading to satyagraha) success is when you beat someone; it is an external victory, expressed as “i won, you lost”; however, this gain can be taken away with more force and more violence heal yourself at the same time that you are trying to get oppressor off of your back and heal them too (i.e., open their minds so they can open their hearts) win the battle or the war, and then deal with each person (if at all); perhaps heal physical wounds but usually not spiritual or personal wounds you and me against an unjust situation you against me focus on eliciting right action and behaviour focus on the wrongs positive force, satyagraha both violence and non-violence are construed as strong forces. violence is a force externally exerted on someone else. non-violence is a force created within someone. violence is power over people while non-violence is power from within. non-violence is “a positive force generated by self-sacrifice in the cause of the truth” (nagler, 1999, p. 5). this positive force is not physical power (as it is with violence); rather, it is inner power, a mental power and strength that is gained from the inner struggles to overcome negative emotions and reactions (mainly fear, anger, frustration, greed, and alienation). when people have learned non-violence, they know how to control their negative reactions, then store this energy and power. their minds and emotions are always active, always generating a positive force that is stored. this power, called satyagraha, is often referred to as in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 15 soul-force or truth-force (nagler, 1999). the word literally means clinging firmly to the truth (satya), with graha meaning hanging on against immorality and injustice. satyagraha can also mean universal well-being. humans are linked through contemporary world interdependencies. the fate and fortunes of individuals, families, nations, and ecologies have become interlocked (naidu, 1996). naidu (1996) proposes that “if satya (truth) ... is enlightenment that liberates the human spirit from the darkness of ignorance, then pursuit of satya is the most meaningful search for humanity. human beings should continually struggle to seek and hold on to truth” (p. 153). self-sacrifice and self-discipline the act of ‘hanging in there’ against injustice, the process of satyagraha, takes incredible self-discipline, and sometimes self-sacrifice. the latter is defined as the willingness to always engage in an inner struggle to harness the positive force and release it in constructive ways toward other people. people learn how to master their impulse to either fight the other out of anger, or flee the other out of fear. instead, they face, control, and convert this energy and it becomes a reservoir of inner strength. in effect, they learn to conserve their anger and fear for peacemaking actions (nagler, 1999; naidu, 1996). the assumption is that, as people discipline themselves to harness their emotions, creating a stockpile of positive, inner energy, they build up steadfast resistance and cultivate relentless persistence. when they draw on this energy to resist oppression and fight injustices, the action is called offering the satyagraha (drawing from inner power). the person taking the action is called a satyagrahi. it takes years to prepare for this, but the self-discipline can hold and be employed throughout life. non-violent satyagraha is a way of life, a means of resisting injustice with a vision toward peace, harmony, participation, solidarity, and well-being (nagler, 1999; naidu, 1996). mishra (2007, pp. 2-3) offers a compelling account of people offering satyagraha during the years-long fight to save the yamuna river in india. for the first time in history of the delhi government assembly, someone dared to stand up and shout from the viewer’s gallery, speaking for the people’s cause: it resulted in a pin drop silence in the hall... everyone was shocked and in a state of disbelief as if wakened up from a deep sleep. soon they realized what has happened, marshals ran to sunil prabhakar, got hold of him he kept shouting while marshals were dragging him out of the house. before anyone could understood another satyagrahi kapil mishra raised his voice... . kapil has got time [to speak], as marshals were busy with sunil. again pin drop silence in house, before marshal could come, kapil mishra stopped and walked to marshal. history was repeated, this time a bit differently, hot debate on yamuna stated in the house, the job was done. govt. initially threatened these satyagrahis that they would be sent to tihar but in next couple of hours they realized that these two have the in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 16 power of truth with them, by evening both were released. gandhian notion of truth the non-violent notion of truth stems from gandhi, who held a wider connotation of truth than does the english language. for gandhi, truth was not only factual and logical, but also moral and metaphysical (ostergaard, 1974). “in its moral sense, truth for gandhi approximates to the concept of justice in the natural law tradition of western thought. but in its fullest sense truth is more than justice; it is truth in the realm of knowledge and righteousness in the realm of conduct, as well as justice in social relations” (p. 5). to view the world from the gandhian notion of truth, people have to have an open mind, be empathetic of other people’s concepts of truth, be willing to accept convincing new proof, and have a readiness to change their existing view, all without ill will, prejudice, intolerance or violence (naidu, 1996; ostergaard, 1974). this notion of truth assumes that each person has an inner struggle to endure so that he or she can overcome their inner negative feelings. truth is determined by observation. truth is always partial and incomplete because reality (what people observe) is always partial and incomplete. because people see things differently, they have a different reality, meaning they have a different truth. from a non-violent perspective, people even listen to the people they detest and hate, just so they can catch some remarks about truth that they would have otherwise missed (nagler, 1999). do no harm from a non-violent perspective, it is unconscionable to harm or take another person’s life. to do so deprives the rest of us of their contribution once they are gone, they are gone, and so is their piece of the truth. nonviolence (from sanskrit ahimsā, ‘lack of desire to harm or kill’) is the personal practice of being harmless to self and others under every condition. it is underpinned by the belief that hurting people, animals, or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome. instead, it embraces the general philosophy of abstention from violence based on moral, religious, or spiritual principles (sharp, 2012). rather than killing or harming the other, people would learn to strive for the truth (respecting the principle of non-injury), hopefully leading to the opening of hearts of others, who are also oppressed (nagler, 1999). ostergaard (1974) explains that acts like not striking back, turning the other cheek, and accepting injury without retaliating serve to sharply pull up the opponent in their tracks, shocking them. this dramatic step of ‘do not harm’ “constitutes a way of reaching the opponent’s heart when appeals to his head (rational argument) have failed” (p. 7). such brave and courageous actions by the satyagrahi demonstrate their seriousness of purpose, and their fearlessness. “in this way, the opponent is reluctantly compelled to respect the person” (p. 7). open the opponent’s heart in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 17 the non-violent approach to life assumes that when the oppressor sees that the oppressed is not afraid to suffer for what he or she believes in, the oppressor’s mind can begin to change, and then their heart can begin to change, to soften toward the oppressed. this stance assumes a positive view of the other. it assumes that conducting oneself in the non-violent spirit of respect and goodwill can appeal to the opponent’s humanity and conscience. what is always needed is the fullest possible development of people’s humanity, their potential as human beings (vellacott, 2000). this appeal to humanity can lead to a change of heart for two reasons. first, the opponent’s view may be converted to the oppressed party’s point of view, meaning the former adopts the latter’s position; in effect, the oppressed’s truth (position) is more accepted as right. second, if the opponent can be convinced to participate in a joint problem solving effort, both parties can search for the truth, appreciating that the opponent’s position may be nearer to the truth (ryan, 1997). if successful, the violent party will lose their balance when confronted with non-violent opposition. in this place of disequilibrium, a chance for new perspectives emerges. if people are not ready to accept that they may be wrong and their opponent right, they are not ready for a non-violent perspective (burgess & burgess, 1998; ostergaard, 1974). personal suffering works when it moves the heart of the oppressor (who is also seen as oppressed). figure 1 represents a hardened heart, grasped firmly by an angry and fearful fist. the strength of the fist stems from: worries, anxieties and fears; blind spots, biases and anxieties; discrimination and prejudice; the belief that we are all separate and disconnected; guilt and bad illusions; mindless automation; and, compulsions and greed. this fist represents suppression (to choke, stifle, smother and quench), repression (to hold back or hold down), and oppression (to prosecute, wrong, cause suffering, sorrow, distress or grief) (vellacott, 2000). figure 1. representation of a hardened heart (art work by peter d. d. mcgregor) in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 18 if one were to peel back the fingers of the fist, dealing with each of these strong emotions and ideological underpinnings of anger and fear, one could create a softened heart, firmly but gently cradled in cupped hands (see figure 2). cradles act as frameworks that can support a nonviolent approach to conflict. cradles represent connections between people. they serve to catch people as they are cut away from their familiar, violence-driven world views. also, cradles are a good metaphor for care, trust, nurturance, love, support, compassion, and they offer safe havens (inspired by vellacott, 2000). figure 2. representation of a softened heart (art work by peter d. d. mcgregor) free reasoning (connectedness) although the intent of non-violence is to gain access to the positive force, human conditioning has stifled the expression of this force by propagating the idea of disconnectedness. the latter sets up the dynamic of separateness and isolation, enabling people to dismiss, even fear, the invisible other. to counter this reasoning, people must unlearn their instincts to fight against the other person, to see the bad in them, to assume the worst. accessing their positive inner force enables people to free human reasoning from its inertia (people resisting change). non-violence understands reasoning to be an awareness that all people are connected rather than separate, fragmented beings. having access to this reason (awareness of connectedness) allows people to regain control of their baser emotions, be it hate, jealousy, greed, fear, frustration, or anger. instead, they learn to convert, store and then release the positive energy under selfdiscipline to maximum effect (nagler, 1999). hold to principles, change strategies in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 19 acting with tenacity, conviction, and determination, those offering the satyagraha never compromise on principles but they are very creative in finding new strategies and tactics if they are unsuccessful in their cause. resilience and resistance are the core of non-violence (nagler, 1999). to resist means to withstand pressure, strive against, oppose, and take a stand. gene sharp (1973) developed 198 non-violent methods of resistance, see www.peacemagazine.org/198.htm. these can take two forms. first, people can rally together in symbolic action, engaging in marches, pickets, sits ins and fasting, often (but not always) while wearing ribbons, pins, carrying posters, or handing out pamphlets. second, people can also take concrete actions, which entail moving forward together by (a) cooperating with the good that the oppressor is doing; (b) not cooperating with their bad (by striking, disobeying curfews, refusing orders, entering illegally); (c) not cooperating as something is happening, often by obstruction and blocking power; and, (d) being constructive when possible yet still eroding the oppressor’s power. the latter includes community gardens, newsletters and websites, social media, blogs, and volunteering (sharp, 1973). to further organize the 198 methods of resistance, sharp (1973) created six categories of non-violent right actions: protest and persuasion, social non-cooperation, economic noncooperation (buycotts and strikes), political non-corporation, and non-violent interventions. the person’s view of the opponent determines their overall intent for resisting. holding a negative view of the opponent (which is not the gandhian take on non-violence advocated in this paper) involves using force or threats to coerce opponents by persuading them to do something against their will. if the satyagrahi holds a positive view of their opponents, they can try to convert them by persuading them to join their side of justice (the satyagrahi’s notion of truth). or, they can strive to win the opponent’s participation in a joint problem solving effort (by jointly searching for the truth). see people as humans non-violence highly values the principle of seeing people as humans. reconciliation and healing cannot happen if people dehumanize the situation and see the other as the enemy rather than another human being. the word enemy is latin inimicus, meaning not a friend. such labeling enables dehumanization, degradation, and debasing. to act non-violently depends totally on being able to continue viewing the other as a person. even calling someone ‘an unreasonable person’ means they are still seen to be a person (nagler, 1999). rector (2014) explains that when people objectify someone (dehumanize them), they tend to see only the surfaces, and then assume that this superficial understanding of the person represents the truth of their existence. “seeing life this way distorts the deeper truth of ourselves and others, making it possible for us to perpetrate evil [and harm] ... not only on our fellow human beings but upon the planet as a whole” (p. 3). rehumanizing starts when others are seen as human beings again. non-violence gradually works on the heart of oppressors so that they in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 20 slowly change from within, and come to humanize the oppressed. instead of seeing people as inhuman objects (i.e., objectifying them, often by calling them animals), humanizing means entering into a relationship with them as a fellow human (nagler, 1999). success is victory over self from a non-violent perspective, success is defined as victory over self rather than a victory over another. victory of oneself is evident when one’s inner spirit forgives, shows compassion, and seeks healing and reconciliation. nagler (1999) explains that someone who has hated but subsequently learned not to hate is living non-violence, but not so the person who has hated and not learned to forgive. when practicing non-violence, people strive to overcome many negative emotions, which all humans face on a daily basis. victory over self translates to someone overcoming hatred, greed, vanity, fear, apathy, indulgence, excess, envy, and other negative virtues or vices, even under great provocation. when people learn life lessons and gain new self-insights, they are said to have succeeded because they have transfigured themselves. even admitting one’s errors and failings is a victory within self (nagler, 1999). there are no losers in the non-violent process. indeed, a non-violent practitioner would have failed if she, he, they strived to make someone else lose. the intent is for all to learn, and move forward together (nagler, 1999; naidu, 1996). gandhi viewed non-violence as a second skin that is perpetually renewed but never worn out or cast off. ongoing victory over self (success) serves to renew this skin so it can be worn in all relationships, not just selected ones (ostergaard, 1974). this success within self, this learned discipline, sustains people in future satyagraha. abhorrence of violence the abhorrence of violence is another tenet of non-violence. violence leads to more violence; however, conflicts resolved non-violently stay resolved for good; there are no future flare ups. henry david thoreau believed that “what is once well done is done forever” (cited in nagler, 1999, p. 21). this finality is assured by viewing the satyagraha as a mutual learning process for change rather than accepting life as power struggles over ego clashes. non-violence brings into play forces that bring about a better situation for all concerned. indeed, the objective is not to win, but to change the situation itself. the new society or situation that emerges must include those who were perceived as the oppressors, because all voices are needed to find the truth (satya) (nagler, 1999; naidu, 1996; ostergaard, 1974). satyagraha is always practiced with opponents, not against them. “no victory is sought over the opponent, but rather a resolution of the conflict will be of real benefit to both sides” (ostergaard, 1974, p. 9). problem and conflict resolutions generated using non-violence are more sustainable than when violence is used, because non-violence is grounded in the truth. “with truth as its lodestar, [satyagraha] never fails; it is creative nonviolence leading to a constructive in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 21 transforming of relationships... ensuring a basic restructuring of the situation which led to the conflict” (ostergaard, 1974, p.10). truth-oriented resolutions work better than power-oriented resolutions because those involved have been mindful of the truth, privileging it rather than power. power can be usurped, but truth is authentic and genuine, worthy of joint respect and preservation (ostergaard, 1974). non-violence awareness in a final interesting twist, nagler (1999) suggests it is non-violence that is real, positing that violence happens when people lose their awareness of non-violence. this is a compelling philosophical position because the normal assumption is that violence and conflict are natural aspects of people’s daily reality, with non-violence being a rare exception to the rule. to reiterate, non-violence is “a positive force generated by self-sacrifice in the cause of the truth” (p. 5). non-violence always works to restore justice and improve relationships because of its respect for all humans and life forms, and its tenet to do no harm. nagler (1999) predicts that people will gradually correct the unconscious biases toward violence as more stories come to light of persistent resistance to injustices in society, the core of non-violence. the final section of the paper now applies the tenets of non-violence to reframe consumption. reframing consumption through a non-violence lens the violence of the contemporary consumer infrastructure is reflected in humans’ negative impact on the natural world, the breakdown of interdependent relationships, and the injustices of global industrial capitalism (via sweatshop, child, and prison labour) (mcgregor, 2007). the fallout of the neoliberal capitalistic production mode and complicit consumer behaviour manifests as massive infringements of the principles of non-violence: exploitation, dehumanization, lack of respect, social and economic injustice, harm to others, impoverishment leading to oppression, stressed human relationships, exclusion from power, lack of opportunities, and ecological disharmony. this paper proposes that consumers’ perceptions of the marketplace and their role within it would change if viewed from a non-violent perspective. the rest of the paper reframes consumption using a non-violent lens. because the consumer society may not be able to contain the violent resentments that it generates (goldman, 2005), it is imperative that a non-violent perspective is brought to bear. non-violence is a way to construct harmony among/between human beings, creating self-esteem and a profound respect for other humans and life forms. once learned, non-violence principles enable individuals to become autonomous beings who can assert their points of view, and take initiatives in conjunction with others. passing on, and awakening in others, such values as tolerance, solidarity, and peace empowers people to face up to conflict within a consumer society in a positive manner, and then work to transform it, even transcend it (galtung, 1998; unesco, 2009). in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 22 this is a daunting prospect. in the age of top-down, corporate led globalization, neoliberalism, capitalism, and consumerism, it is difficult to find anyone whose consumer choices have not, at one time or another, oppressed another individual in the global web of international trade and consumption. this paper frames billions of consumers as oppressors who are creating and sustaining violence. from a hopeful perspective, the author asserts that bringing a non-violent perspective to bear on consumption can aid in the process of conscientization. achieving an in-depth understanding of the world allows consumers to perceive and expose social and political contradictions, as well as internal contradictions. conscientization also includes taking action against the oppressive elements in one's life that are illuminated with these in-depth understandings (freire, 2007). exposing northern consumers to the notion of non-violence could enlighten them to the world that surrounds them, and the impact that a consumer society has in shaping a shared world. indeed, non-violence does not speak just to the oppressor (the northern consumer); it speaks to the humane in everyone. although people tend to lose touch with humanity as they age in a consumer society, the notion of non-violence brings hope that this situation can be reversed, or at least mitigated. hope is a connection to the future (freire, 2007). if the principles of nonviolence can sensitize northern consumers to the oppression they cause, or have the potential to cause, an opportunity is created to find and build empathy. the ability to feel, then show, empathy means people are getting closer to the truth (weber & burrowes, 1990). this newfound empathy can inform and exponentially multiply people’s awareness of the injustices in the world that are created by consuming within a market infrastructure fretted with structural violence. from a non-violent perspective, people can learn that there are other ways of perceiving reality aside from that informed by neoliberalism and capitalism. there are other truths. the world is a place where others’ experiences are just as valid as those of the privileged north. northern consumers have to learn to trust in the oppressed’s knowledge of their lived experiences, and their notion of truth (weber & burrowes, 1990). non-violence assumes that people are in process, unfinished, and able to change. from a position of non-violence, northern consumers would learn to view themselves as the oppressors with a new conscience, accepting that people can change the consumer world together. with the aid of non-violent principles, northern consumers would learn to name and own their oppressive consumer actions, and then relate differently to those they currently oppress. rather than viewing the latter as the distant other, outside the realm of care and compassion, northern consumers would see them as fellow citizens worthy of love and support. with this profound insight, the oppressors (northern consumers) would continue to educate themselves and transform their behaviours so they would not become, or continue to be, an accomplice to other oppressors. they would learn to acknowledge their privilege, and side with the oppressed, in solidarity. as northern consumers become conscious of those who suffer under oppressive social, economic, and political conditions, due to the violence inherent in a consumer society, they in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 23 would join in the struggle to right the injustices. they would engage in disciplined inner struggles against the angst of the consumer society (i.e., alienation, identity loss, fractured relationships and the like). they would build up (accumulate) a positive inner force that could be directed toward relieving oppression, marginalization, and exploitation. they would strive to find the truth in the context of deeply entrenched structural violence. this conscientization is deeply valuable and possible from a non-violent perspective. it allows northern consumers to recognize themselves, to help them take their heads out of the proverbial sand, and see to their own emancipation from the oppressive forces of the neoliberal agenda. this new freedom from violent forces would lead to newly found energy to free others from their oppression. in the process, the truth is served. as soon as northern consumers become conscious of those who suffer oppression due to northern consumers’ decisions, they could join the others in their struggle, striving to move ahead together. northern consumers would have succeeded if they witnessed a change in their inner self. citizens in the majority world would have had their truth respected and heard. consumption behaviour could change. non-violence is a positive force generated by self-sacrifice in the cause of the truth. to achieve the best of goals, the path of non-violence calls for a great amount of courage on the part of the person practicing it. it calls for guts and self-sacrifice. self-sacrifice is the personal willingness to give deeply of oneself for a cause, idea or principle; in this case, the moral imperative of non-violent consumption. theoretically, the oppressed are expected to endure selfpain and sacrifice to move out from under an oppressive situation. this non-violent principle can also be used to sensitize northern consumers to the notion of self-sacrifice. they could be socialized to become open to deliberately following a course of action that has a high personal risk or certainty of suffering or death (which could otherwise be avoided). from a non-violent perspective, northern consumers would be further sensitized to appreciate the fundamental goodness of humans. in the fight for what is right and good, including freedom, morality, justice, and equality, violence would be evaded, meaning consumption practices and attendant value sets would have to change. the human penchant to flee or fight (due to fear and anger) would lessen, making way for consumers to find their identity and relationships in ways other than accumulating material goods. this perspective enables society to assume that humankind must awaken and understand that the world of consumer violence can blow up in people’s faces at any time (pun intended). for the sake of humanity, people need to recognize the futility of indulging in violent consumption. to that end, the principles of non-violence can offer humanity a release from the ills of a consumer society and the injustices of a structurally violent global marketplace. nonviolence seeks to defeat injustices, not people. through the lense of non-violence, the truth of what it means to be human would become evident to consumers. once northern consumers realized they were oppressed by the market ideology, they in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 24 would be able to liberate themselves and transform the global situation by critically inserting themselves into the search for the truth. their culture of silence and endless consumption would be breached, leading to cooperation, no harm, fellowship, sustainability, humanization, mutuality, inclusiveness and above all, a new truth of consumption with fellow humans. overcoming themselves is a massive task for northern consumers, but the process of offering the satyagraha leads to healing; honour; a mutual, co-evolving learning process; and, ultimately, the right behaviour (weber & burrowes, 1990). in the non-violent context, right stems from sanskrit samyañc, denoting completion, togetherness, wisdom, coherence, and ideal (allan, 2016). non-violence aims to attain the truth through love and right action, which requires the elimination of violence from the self, and from the social, political and economic environments. suffering and offering the satyagraha can educate, enlighten, and transform people (sharp, 2012). table 2 posits examples of right consumption action using non-violent principles (see table 1), illustrating how people’s perspectives would be profoundly transformed if they strived for right action while consuming. table 2. examples of non-violent consumption-talk • when observing other people consuming in the violent infrastructure, people could take issue with these violent consuming actions, but never judge the ethics or morals of the person. • northern consumers could try to see majority world labourers as their friends who need to be liberated from oppression. • northern consumers could envision their consumer decisions as respecting and honoring majority world labourers, thereby humanizing consumption. • do not call majority world labourers the others; rather, call them fellow citizens and friends. together, they become ‘you and me against an unjust and violent situation.’ • northern consumers could view consumption as a mutual learning process leading to global change and co-evolution toward a common, loving community. • northern consumers could try to view owners of trans-national corporations (tncs) as oppressed by the neo-liberal ideology, and appreciate that they are needed in order to find the truth. • each time northern consumers are about to consume, they could look inside to see what needs to be healed; to succeed when consuming from a non-violent perspective, people have to overcome a negative virtue (e.g., greed, apathy, irresponsibility, indulgence, self-gratification, vanity, excess, envy, laziness, selfishness). each time they do this, they gain satyagraha (self-truth), a power they can draw on later to resist oppression and liberate themselves and others. • try not to say the tnc; instead, say the people in the tnc, thereby humanizing the situation. otherwise, it is far too easy to dehumanize (deprive of any positive human qualities), paving the way for relentless aggression, adversity, and conflict. in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 25 • northern consumers could strive to work with the people in tncs (rather than calling them the enemy) so all can grow inside and move ahead together; everyone has a piece of the truth, so every voice is needed. • people could view consumption as a positive sum game rather than a zero-sum game; they would assume that their right actions in the marketplace will achieve wholeness, exhibit wisdom, and ensure togetherness. • people could take issue with the neo-liberal agenda rather than the chief executive officers (ceos) who live by its principles; that is, strive to reveal the truths behind the ideology, the agenda. try to see the ceo as a person (fellow human) in need of liberation from an oppressive ideology. • when consuming, people could let go of their ego (i.e., inner power struggle that instigates external power struggles) and replace it with a sense of connectedness; what happens to one person affects everyone else, mitigating or moderating wrong actions. conclusion violence prevents the fulfillment of human potential because it blocks an appreciation of shared humanity (weber & burrowes, 1990). non-violence is one way to deal with the inequities of the global consumer marketplace, and the infringements on the human condition. in a consumer society, individuals become numb from their fleeting pleasures of consumption and exploitation by the neo-liberal, capitalistic system. they become so inured to their plight that they lose the ability to have human concern for others who are being run over by the consumerism machine, the violent system. in a consumer society, many people are all-to-willing to sacrifice the well-being and livelihood of others instead of giving up their own indulgences and impulses. greed-based capitalism and fear-and anger-driven consumerism lead people to overlook the injustices that go hand-in-hand with their consumption decisions. the principles of non-violence offer preventive hope that, if applied now, they can mitigate untenable human and environmental crises in the future. consumer structural violence should be fought through non-violent satyagraha, which aims at long-range transformation of human beings, systems, and societies, even while dealing with short-range crises. when nonviolence prevails, both the opponent and the sufferer are transformed. the oppressors are compelled to confront their own views on the truth of the situation, which may lead to conversion. the oppressed may be morally enriched by not compromising fundamental principles (weber & burrowes, 1990). satyagraha creates and integrates liberty, equality, and fraternity (principles) through the non-violent struggle of the soul-force or truth-force (naidu, 1996). when people refuse to consume in a way that is repugnant to their conscience, they are using soul-force (see tables 1 and 2). with this truth-force at play, the consumer world can change. at its best, non-violence in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 26 indicates an open mind, the essence of finding the truth. if nothing else, non-violence can make the violence in the consumerist system more visible so it can be dealt within a constructive manner (whiting & drake, 2016). martin (2001) believes that non-violent right action is the most promising method of moving beyond capitalism and a consumer culture to a more humane society. wilson (1990) claims that a worldwide nonviolent revolution of consciousness is the only hope left for our species, and the earth. these sentiments especially ring true for the hope of non-violent consumption. to stem the daunting nature of this vision, people can draw inspiration from gandhi’s belief that in the early stages of a satyagraha, it is not the number of people involved that matters. what matters is that even a few people acting with “clarity, consistency, courage, and dedication” (nagler, 1999, p. 20) can create and sustain momentum in the spirit of truth. references alam, s. (2009). majority world. in appropedia. arcata, ca: appropedia foundation. retrieved from http://www.appropedia.org/majority_world allan, j. (2016). the eight-fold path. in basic buddhism guide. tullera, australia: buddha dharma education association. retrieved from http://www.buddhanet.net/elearning/8foldpath.htm board of the commission of the churches on international affairs. (1994). programme to overcome violence: assumptions and principles. kitwe, zambia: mindolo ecumenical foundation. retrieved from http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/pcn/assumptions.html burgess, g., & burgess, h. (1998). non-violent struggle. boulder, co: conflict resolution consortium. http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/treatment/nonviolc.htm creative associates international. (2000). conflict prevention practitioners guide. washington, dc: creative associates international. freire, p. (2007). pedagogy of the oppressed [1970]. new york, ny: continuum international. galtung, j. (1969). violence, peace and peace research. journal of peace research, 6(3), 167191. galtung, j. (1998). after violence: 3r, reconstruction, reconciliation and resolution. grenzachwhylen, germany: transcend international. retrieved from http://www.arnehansen.net/011013galtung.3r.htm goldman, p. (2005). consumer society and its discontents. anthropoetics, 10(2), http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap1002/truman.htm goodwin, n., nelson, j., ackerman, f., & weisskopf, t. (2006). consumer society. in s. haertling neuberger (ed.), encyclopedia of earth. washington, dc. retrieved april8, 2016 http://www.eoearth.org/article/consumer_society homer-dixon, t. (1991). on the threshold. international security, 16(2), 76-116. international network of engaged buddhists. (2016). key characteristics of consumerism and in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 27 buddhist foils. bangkok, thailand: author. retrieved from http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.inebnetwork.org/thin ksangha/tsangha/keycharacs.html kasser, t. (2003). the high price of materialism. cambridge, ma: mit press. klintmann, m., & boström, m. (2006). editorial: special issue on political and ethical consumerism. international journal of consumer studies, 30(5), 401-404. martin, b. (2001). nonviolence versus capitalism [e-book]. london, england: war resisters’ international. retrieved from http://www.uow.edu.au/arts/sts/bmartin/pubs/01nvc/nvcpall.pdf mccracken, g. (1988). culture and consumption. bloomington, in: indiana university press.mckibben, b. (1997). consuming nature. in r. rosenblatt (ed.), consuming desires: consumption, culture and the pursuit of happiness (pp. 87-95). washington, dc: island press. mcgregor, s. l.t. (2007). consumerism, the common good and the human condition. journal of family and consumer sciences, 99(3), 15-22. mcgregor, s. l.t. (2008a). ideological maps of consumer education. international journal of consumer studies, 32(5), 545-552. mcgregor, s. l. t. (2008b). transformative education: grief and growth. in m. gardner & u. kelly (eds.), narrating transformative learning in education (pp. 51-73). toronto, on: palgrave macmillan. mcgregor, s. l. t. (2010). consumer moral leadership. rotterdam, the netherlands: sense publishers. mishra, k. (2007, october 11). youth and yauma: a people struggle to save river. articlesbase, http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/youth-and-yamuna-a-peoplesstruggle-to-save-river-232799.html nagler, m. (1999). the steps of non-violence. nyack, ny: fellowship of reconciliation. naidu, m. v. (1996). dimensions of peace. oakville, on: multidisciplinary investigative and teaching association press. ostergaard, g. (1974, october). gandhian nonviolence and passive resistance. paper presented at the muirhead society, birmingham. http://civilresistance.info/ostergaard permanent secretariat of nobel peace laureates. (2007). charter for a world without violence. rome, italy: permanent secretariat of nobel peace laureates. http://www.nobelforpeacesummits.org/docs/charter-eng.pdf http://www.nobelforpeacesummits.org/charter/charter.htm rector, j. (2014). the objectification spectrum. new york, ny: oxford university press. ritzer, g. (1999). enchanting a disenchanted world. thousand oaks, ca: pine forge press. rivola, p. (2005). the travels of a t-shirt in the global economy. hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. ryan, h. (1997). nonviolence as a political philosophy. in h. browns (ed.), world history archives hartford, ct: hartford web publishing. http://www.hartfordhwp.com/archives/27d/002.html in factis pax volume 10 number 1 (2016): 8-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 28 sankofa, p. (2003, march 21). despite war, more hopeful than ever for humanity. insight news: http://www.insightnews.com/2003/04/01/despite-war-more-hopeful-than-ever-forhumanity/ santi pracha dhamma institute. (2001). ariyavinaya. bangkok, thailand: santi pracha dhamma institute. http://www.sulak-sivaraksa.org/project14.php sassatelli, r. (2007). consumer culture. london, england: sage. schor, j. (2007). in defense of consumer critique. the annals of the american academy of political and social science, 611(1), 16-30. sharp, g. (1973). the politics of non-violent action: part two: the methods of non-violent action. boston, ma: porter sargent. sharp, g. (2012). sharp's dictionary of power and struggle. new york, ny: oxford university press. slater, d. (1997). consumer culture and modernity. cambridge. ma: polity press. unesco. (2009). what is non-violence? paris, france: author. retrieved may 26, 2009 from http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php url_id=4977&url_do=do_printpage&url_section=201.html vellacott, j. (2000). nonviolence: a road less travelled. in l. fisk & j. schellenberg (eds.), patterns of conflict, paths to peace (pp. 103-142). orchard park, on: broadview press. weber, t., & burrowes, r. (1990). nonviolence: an introduction. bangkok, thailand: nonviolence international south-east asia. retrieved from http://www.nonviolenceinternational.net/seasia/whatis/book.php wells, l. (2000, november 10). learning about peacemaking is step toward ending violence. los angeles times: https://www.wagingpeace.org/?s=learning+about+peacemaking+is+step+toward+ending +violence whiting, s., & drake, d. (2016). nonviolence common dilemmas. london, england: friends house, turning the tide. retrieved april 8, 2016 from http://www.turning-thetide.org/nonviolence/dilemmas wilson, b. (1990). making war obsolete: nonviolence. in b. erickson (ed.), call to action: handbook for ecology, peace and justice. san francisco, ca: sierra club books. retrieved from http://www.brianwillson.com/making-war-obsolete-nonviolence/ winter, d., & leighton, d. (2001). structural violence section: introduction. in d. christie, r. wagner & d. winter (eds.), peace, conflict, and violence: peace psychology in the 21st century (pp. 109-111). new york, ny: prentice-hall. rivillas volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 268 volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ unidades móviles como estrategia para prevenir la violencia y educar para la paz: la experiencia de antioquia, colombia juan carlos rivillas olga espinosa henao palabras clave: educación para la paz, prevención de la violencia, derechos humanos, construcción de paz english abstract: in spite of its geographic location, cultural diversity and marked development, the department of antioquia, has not been oblivious to the social and economic processes which have historically characterized colombia. such processes include the various situations of violence and violations of human rights occurring since the beginning of the “victims repair process” in the 1990s after the first demobilization of illegal armed groups. consequently, further efforts by the academy are required to help in the understanding of violence and aggressive behaviors. simultaneously, further efforts are also required of the governor office in the designing of strategies in education and construction of peace. previous efforts have been fruitful; human rights reports conducted by various national and international ngos note how the department of antioquia has shown significant progress, mainly in the reduction of violations of human rights violations as well as in the implementation of actions aimed at violence prevention. none the less, antioquia is still characterized as one of the most violent departments of colombia with the highest proportion of human rights violations at the national level. given this background, the departmental government has included prevention of violence and education on peace as an essential program in its development plan. the mission of the program is to increase the skills of leaders at the local level, to raise awareness and educate their communities, in order to prevent and control the different factors of risk that generate any kind of violence at familiar, school or community-levels. in practice, the peace component is strongly linked to sub-regional development plans, and is promoted through interventions on prevention violence based on scientific evidence by the departmental government and university, seeking to foster coexistence among communities through training and education processes in education on peace and prevention of violence. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 269 mobile units are a flexible response to the difficulties of geographical access and financial limitations affecting the development and expansion of educational services for peace, human rights training, prevention of violence, in urban and rural areas of antioquia in colombia. established in august 2009, this strategy has a permanent presence in 93 of the 125 municipalities, in eight of the nine sub-regions of antioquia. it aims to provide educational services, training, prevention and care, by teams of professionals trained in peace education with experience in the prevention of domestic violence, assistance in cases of violation of human rights and international human rights law. the activities are primarily focused on children, adolescents and youth, based on the consideration that they are the future builders of peace and are currently the most vulnerable group to any type of violence. violence frequently reported in the region includes: domestic violence, child exploitation, forced displacement, and recruitment by illegal armed groups. introducción las unidades móviles para la prevención de la violencia y promoción de los derechos humanos son una estrategia flexible de respuesta a las dificultades de acceso geográficas y económicas que afectan el desarrollo y expansión de los servicios de educación y construcción de la paz, en las zonas urbanas y rurales del departamento de antioquia en colombia. esta estrategia, iniciada en agosto de 2009, tiene presencia permanente en 93 de los 125 municipios de ocho de las nueve subregiones de antioquia. incluye entre sus propósitos trasladar al terreno servicios de educación, formación y capacitación, prevención y asistencia, a través de seis equipos de cuatro profesionales cada uno. estos profesionales tienen experiencia en materia de prevención de la violencia intrafamiliar, asistencia a casos de vulneración de derechos humanos y derecho internacional humanitario y en pedagogía de educación para la paz. las actividades y servicios son principalmente dirigidas a los futuros constructores de paz: los niños, niñas, adolescentes y jóvenes. en la mayoría de los casos son los grupos más vulnerables frente a los tipos de violencias denunciados con mayor frecuencia en antioquia, tales como la violencia doméstica, la explotación infantil, el desplazamiento forzado y el reclutamiento por parte de grupos armados ilegales.1 es importante resaltar que la intervención de las unidades móviles de derechos humanos en antioquia se ha caracterizado, desde su fase de diseño e implementación, por tener como referentes: a) la priorización de problemas y necesidades de formación más sentidas y expresadas en el contexto de la violencia intrafamiliar y respecto a los derechos humanos por actores locales y representantes de la comunidad, así como por representantes de las víctimas de la violencia identificadas en cada municipio y subregión objeto de la 1 resultados consignados en: gobernación de antioquia. informe de las mesas de análisis subregional para la identificación y priorización de problemas en violencia intrafamiliar y vulneración de derechos humanos en los municipios de antioquia. (medellín, colombia: secretaría de gobierno, oficina de derechos humanos y derecho internacional humanitario, universidad de antioquia – facultad nacional de salud pública y programa prevención de la violencia previva, 2009). estas mesas fueron organizadas por la universidad de antioquia y la secretaria de gobierno departamental para adelantar la aplicación de una matriz epidemiológica que permitiera valorar en esta materia y acorde a su gravedad, frecuencia, grado de vulnerabilidad los problemas y necesidades mas inmediatas de ocho subregiones y 90 municipios, con la participación directa de los actores locales: alcaldes municipales, secretarias de gobierno, representantes de la fuerza pública, maestros y funcionarios de las casas de justicia y comisarías de familia, responsables inmediatos en la promoción de formación para la paz y derechos humanos como herramienta para superar las secuelas el conflicto y hacer frente a la violencia y sus consecuencias en la jurisdicción departamental. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 270 intervención, mediante herramientas epidemiológicas para priorización de problemas, gracias a la universidad de antioquia. b) la revisión de los planes de desarrollo y políticas públicas municipales y regionales, que han sido proporcionados gracias al apoyo de la secretaría de gobierno departamental y los gobiernos locales del departamento de antioquia en colombia. el departamento de antioquia está ubicado al noroeste del estado colombiano, es uno de los 32 departamentos de colombia, su capital es medellín, la segunda ciudad de colombia en población y economía. según el último censo realizado en 2005, en antioquia habitan 5.962.885 personas2, de las cuales más de la mitad viven en el área metropolitana de medellín (3'340.350)3. como norma general, antioquia es asociado a la montaña debido a que su cultura y su economía se han desarrollado especialmente en torno a su geografía, la cual se caracteriza por ser variada y conjugar todos los elementos de la geografía nacional: mar, llanuras, montañas, altiplanos, páramos, ríos, ciénagas y bosques, donde tienen asiento sus 125 municipios en los cuales se desarrolla de manera paulatina la estrategia de unidades móviles de derechos humanos. el departamento de antioquia aun con su diversidad geográfica, cultural y su marcado desarrollo, no ha sido ajeno a los procesos sociales y económicos que históricamente se han presentado en el país en torno a las diversas situaciones de violencia, así como la delicada vulneración de derechos humanos registrada desde el inicio de los procesos de reparación de las víctimas en los años noventas. los homicidios selectivos, el desplazamiento forzado, las minas antipersonales, la presencia de grupos armados ilegales en escuelas, entre otras, han implicado mayores esfuerzos y motivaciones en torno a la educación y construcción para la paz en esta región. de esta forma, gran parte de los eventos y situaciones lamentables que han ocurrido en el departamento de antioquia han afectado principalmente a la población civil, constituyendo problemáticas prioritarias que requieren fuertemente del desarrollo de planes de formación y asistencia dirigidos a múltiples poblaciones. estos grupos incluyen a los responsables de dichos procesos como los alcaldes municipales, funcionarios de las secretarías de gobierno, educación y salud, docentes y maestros, representantes de las comisarías de familia y casas de justicia, así como a la comunidad en general. se busca lograr empoderamiento de la educación como herramienta clave para promover y finalmente, materializar como hecho regional y nacional la construcción de la paz. de otro lado, la preocupación por intervenir con la problemática de los diferentes tipos de violencia (intrafamiliar, interpersonal, social, insurgente), es parte del plan de desarrollo departamental diseñado para el cuatrienio vigente (2008-2012). en su primera línea estratégica definida como “desarrollo político” aborda claramente tres componentes de intervención: 1) la seguridad y el orden público, 2) la convivencia y 3) la paz.4 allí, de forma concreta, el componente de paz se concibe fuertemente ligado a los planes de desarrollo subregionales. es promovido por el gobierno departamental para intervenir la violencia y consolidar la paz mediante acciones definidas y estructuradas de promoción de la convivencia, 2 departamento administrativo nacional de estadística dane. censo nacional 2005 (bogotá, d.c., colombia: dane, 2006). 3 dirección seccional de salud de antioquia. antioquia en cifras: indicadores de mortalidad por subregión (medellín, colombia: dirección seccional de salud de antioquia, dirección sistema de indicadores, 2007). 4 gobernación de antioquia. plan de desarrollo departamental “antioquia para todos: manos a la obra 2008-2011” (medellín, colombia, 2008). volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 271 y la puesta en marcha de procesos de formación y educación para la paz entre los diferentes grupos de una comunidad. puede considerarse como un claro ejemplo de las posibilidades de legitimación de la educación para la paz desde las políticas públicas y las mismas administraciones territoriales en antioquia. implica trascender lo plasmado en figuras políticas como una resolución, un acuerdo o declaración para hacerlo útil en realidades específicas, maximizando las oportunidades de formación, información y educación para todos. este es el principio que mueve al departamento para la creación, diseño e implementación de la estrategia denominada unidades móviles para la prevención de la violencia y la promoción de los derechos humanos en antioquia. esta estrategia se ha adoptado e implementado con éxito en gran parte del territorio, correspondiente al 77% de sus municipios, una de las mayores coberturas registradas en este tipo de formación en un departamento de colombia.5 en su implementación se han superado barreras culturales y económicas, inconvenientes derivados del orden público y del acceso geográfico, así como limitaciones de tipo pedagógico, escasez de recursos, para finalmente lograr trasformar realidades a través de: 1) la participación social de actores, 2) la construcción y adopción de rutas de aprendizaje y planes de formación, y 3) el desarrollo gradual de la interacción de estos procesos con los actores. es importante precisar que la conceptualización y fundamentación del material didáctico preparado y desarrollado por la estrategia de unidades móviles de derechos humanos, ha tenido como elemento central y punto de partida, el concepto de la seguridad humana (ilustrada en la figura 1), entendida como la garantía de los derechos humanos y de las opciones de libertad, gobernabilidad y desarrollo humano integral. la experiencia obtenida en las pasadas dos décadas con programas de intervención para controlar y prevenir la violencia basados en evidencia científica en medellín y los municipios de antioquia, demuestran aportes significativos, en especial de aquellos que fueron orientados por las siete dimensiones de la seguridad humana: económica, personal, salud, alimentaria, ambiental, comunitaria y política6. es de resaltar que, a pesar de las claras diferencias analíticas de cada dimensión, todas forman parte de un solo fenómeno: la seguridad de los seres humanos. la orientación anterior coincide con los niveles de prevención que pueden definir los tipos de acción más apropiados al conformar programas o políticas públicas de prevención y control de la violencia. se distinguen tres niveles de prevención – la promoción, la protección y la rehabilitación orientados a evitar que en la sociedad se desarrolle, perpetúe o agrave un problema, como pueden ser la salud mental, la agresión o la delincuencia7. en el caso de las unidades móviles, se persigue el propósito de prevenir la violencia mediante la educación para la paz. con este enfoque propuesto, la intervención posibilita la identificación de factores generadores de violencia, como las conductas de riesgo dentro de un contexto determinado y con características muy delimitadas. por ejemplo, en el caso de una población víctima de la violencia, una comunidad en proceso de reintegración, o en un municipio con casos de desplazamiento forzado; es allí donde las mismas acciones diseñadas permiten la diferenciación de aquellas influencias directas y/o indirectas que pueden perturbar o beneficiar la educación de un individuo en su contexto. sólo al diferenciar estas influencias, sin perder 5 gobernación de antioquia, oficina de derechos humanos, universidad de antioquia, facultad nacional de salud pública. tercer informe de avance y seguimiento al plan operativo del proyecto de unidades móviles para la prevención de la violencia y la promoción de los derechos humanos en antioquia, colombia. octubre 2009 – abril 2010 (medellín, colombia: gobernación de antioquia y universidad de antioquia, 2010). 6 programa de las naciones unidas para el desarrollo pnud. nuevas dimensiones de la seguridad humana, en informe mundial sobre desarrollo humano (washington, d.c.: pnud, 1994). 7 duque, l.f. (ed.), la violencia en el valle de aburrá: caminos para la superación. (medellín, colombia: universidad de antioquia y área metropolitana del valle de aburrá, 2007). volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 272 de vista sus interrelaciones, es posible lograr un acercamiento a actividades incluidas en procesos de formación para la paz que promuevan una intervención efectiva y facilitadora de propuestas de prevención tempranas y oportunas para las comunidades donde finalmente se interviene. figura 1: componentes de la seguridad humana en la perspectiva de los derechos humanos. fuente: pnud programa de naciones unidas para el desarrollo. contexto: ¿por qué es necesaria la prevención de la violencia y la educación para la paz en antioquia, colombia? en los reportes e informes recientes sobre derechos humanos registrados por ong nacionales y de carácter internacional,8 el departamento de antioquia demuestra importantes avances, destacando la reducción de las violaciones a los derechos humanos, así como la puesta en marcha de acciones como la analizada en esta oportunidad. no obstante, aun así sale mal librado en sus cifras y lidera los grupos de las violaciones a los derechos humanos más atroces. ante este panorama, es importante tener en cuenta que el camino es largo y hacen falta diversos procesos para generar cambios en un departamento que, como antioquia, se ha caracterizado por ser uno de los más violentos de colombia. por su parte, las cifras sobre violencia en antioquia, en especial su desglose para cada tipo específico de violencia y los datos sobre violaciones a los derechos humanos, presentan limitaciones ya que siguen siendo incompletas, segmentadas y con alto subregistro. afortunadamente, como complemento de los informes y experiencias revisadas, se emiten recomendaciones y sugerencias de buenas prácticas en lo concerniente al desarrollo de programas. se invita claramente al fomento del trabajo interdisciplinario y sectorial para 8 human rights watch. recomendaciones para colombia de human rights watch sobre el decreto reglamentario de la ley 975 del 2005 (bogotá d.c., colombia, human rights watch, 2009). naciones unidas, oficina del alto comisionado para los derechos humanos. informe de la alta comisionada de las naciones unidas para los derechos humanos sobre la situación de los derechos humanos en colombia (bogotá, dc., colombia, oficina del alto comisionado para los derechos humanos, 2009). naciones unidas, oficina del alto comisionado para los derechos humanos. informe de la alta comisionada de las naciones unidas para los derechos humanos sobre la situación de los derechos humanos en colombia (bogotá, dc., colombia, oficina del alto comisionado para los derechos humanos, 2008). programa de las naciones unidas para el desarrollo. el conflicto, callejón con salida: informe nacional de desarrollo humano para colombia (bogotá, colombia: editorial panamericana, 2003). united nations. report of the united nations high commissioner for human rights on the situation of human rights in colombia. annual report of the united nations high commissioner for human rights and reports of the office of the high commissioner and the secretary-general. humans rights council. (genève, switzerland: united nations, general assembly, 2010). volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 273 reducir las brechas en la información, y al afianzamiento de las medidas pedagógicas y educativas basadas en evidencia que promueven, desde la infancia, la paz, para acabar con la cadena intergeneracional de la violencia. la información del cuadro 1 provee los resultados presentados por “antioquia en cifras, 2008” sobre los índices de violencia por cada una de sus subregiones y reflejados en la variable “agresiones (homicidios) y secuelas”, que son bastante coherentes con la priorización de problemas realizada por las unidades móviles de derechos humanos en los municipios de antioquia. las cifras se obtienen gracias al sistema de información en prevención de la violencia intrafamiliar y educación para la paz diseñado según el componente de formación y asistencia y que tiene en cuenta la clasificación internacional enfermedades cie-10 para registrar la ubicación de muertes violentas. ubicación de la variable “agresiones-homicidios” entre las tres primeras causas de defunción discriminados por subregión. antioquia, 2008 subregión ubicación de las agresiones/homicidios dentro de las tres primeras causas de defunción carga de la mortalidad por agresiones/homicidios entre las diez primeras causas de defunción por subregión magdalena medio segunda causa 14,8% nordeste primera causa 21,1% norte primera causa 22,4% suroeste tercera causa 8,3% urabá primera causa 16,4% bajo cauca segunda causa 10,4% oriente segunda causa 9,9% occidente segunda causa 12,10% cuadro 1: índices de violencia en las subregiones reflejados en la variable “agresiones-homicidios”. antioquia en cifras, 2008 fuente: dirección seccional de salud de antioquia. de manera inmediata y preocupante puede notarse que la violencia se ubica entre las tres primeras causas de defunción en todo el departamento (2008)9. lastimosamente, no se llega a un nivel de especificidad tal como para determinar el porcentaje de agresiones y secuelas que se derivan directamente de violencia en el ámbito familiar, pero es posible colegir el ambiente violento en el que se están desenvolviendo los individuos y las familias, y que su influencia directa como factor de riesgo es la que potencializa la generación de agresores a nivel intrafamiliar. adicional a esto, puede notarse que, de manera alarmante, las lesiones fatales a causa de cualquier tipo de agresión figuran dentro de las tres primeras causas de defunción en ocho subregiones de antioquia durante el año 2007, se observa como las agresiones y homicidios constituyeron la primera causa de mortalidad en las subregiones de urabá, norte y nordeste, y que se ubicaron como segunda causa en magdalena medio, bajo cauca, oriente y occidente, y excepcionalmente -pero no por eso más alentador-, como tercera causa de mortalidad en la subregión de suroeste. esta evidencia es la que ha servido de base para que los tomadores de decisiones a nivel territorial incluyan la educación para la paz como prioridad dentro de sus 9 dirección seccional de salud de antioquia. indicadores de mortalidad por subregión, en antioquia en cifras. (medellín, colombia: dirección seccional de salud de antioquia, dirección sistema de indicadores, 2008). volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 274 planes de desarrollo subregionales, respaldando de esta manera la adopción e implementación de iniciativas de enfoque multidimensional en prevención de la violencia y promoción de la convivencia, como la que ha propuesto y ha venido desarrollando la estrategia de unidades móviles para la prevención de la violencia y la promoción de los derechos humanos en los municipios de antioquia. unidades móviles para la prevención de la violencia y promoción de los derechos humanos: modelo de intervención simple y concreto en educación para la paz con este panorama, y conscientes del fenómeno multicausal de la violencia, el gobierno departamental ha incluido en su plan de desarrollo, la educación para la paz y la formación en prevención de la violencia como un programa esencial.10 contempla la misión de aumentar capacidades de los responsables en el nivel local y facilitar el desarrollo de diversas herramientas para sensibilizar, informar y formar a sus comunidades, con el objetivo de prevenir y controlar diferentes tipos de violencia que se originan al interior de la familia, en la escuela, y dentro de una comunidad. es así que, como departamento, antioquia ha avanzado de manera significativa en la recuperación de la convivencia y ha trabajado en la difícil tarea de construir la paz dentro de un contexto tan complejo como el previamente descrito, todo esto mediante el desarrollo de estrategias y programas que crean sinergia para maximizar sus beneficios mientras abordan problemas como los mencionados. entre estos, se destaca la creación e implementación de una estrategia práctica, simple y que trasforma territorios por medio de la movilización de recursos físicos (vehículos, videobeam, cámaras fotográficas, computadores, guías, videos) y de recursos humanos (profesionales en salud pública, derecho, comunicación social, trabajo social, psicología, desarrollo familiar y sociología). estrategia que tiene el objetivo fundamental de orientar procesos de educación para la paz formales, continuos y estructurados en zonas afectadas por la confrontación armada; que se caracterizan usualmente por ser comunidades en proceso de recuperación mental y localizadas en municipios con difícil acceso geográfico. constituyen las comunidades rurales y urbanas de al menos 90 de los 125 municipios que componen el departamento de antioquia. estos procesos de formación han sido agrupados por componentes temáticos y líneas base para una mejor diferenciación y aplicación en el terreno. están diseñados de acuerdo al grupo específico al cual se dirigen. inicialmente, los contenidos teóricos y de actualización en didáctica en el tema son desarrollados en coordinación con las administraciones subregionales y municipales, y son de exclusividad directa para los responsables de programas de prevención de la violencia, formación en derechos humanos y promoción de la paz, es decir: funcionarios de las alcaldías municipales, secretarías de gobierno, educación y salud, comisarías de familia, casas de justicia, miembros de la fuerza pública (ejército y policía), maestros y cuidadores. en un segundo plano se incluyen los líderes comunitarios, padres de familia, niños, niñas, adolescentes y jóvenes, bajo la premisa que la educación para la paz debe ser una responsabilidad de comunidad, y que debe partir de cada uno, en especial de los futuros constructores de paz: los niños, niñas y jóvenes. 10 gobernación de antioquia. plan de desarrollo departamental “antioquia para todos: manos a la obra 2008-2011”, 2008. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 275 esta experiencia pedagógica se ha caracterizado por ser concreta, definida y ser lo más clara posible, funcionando además bajo la idea que los programas, mientras más simples sean, mayor impacto pueden otorgar a sus beneficiarios finales. en gran medida, esto ha determinado el éxito y acogida de la estrategia, pues mientras más entendible para la comunidad en general pueda llegar a ser, mayores resultados pueden lograrse durante su sensibilización, facilitando así la apropiación de los conceptos y prácticas que se pretenden transmitir por medio de las actividades, tareas y dinámicas comprendidas en la ruta de aprendizaje. a continuación se ilustra el modelo en el gráfico 2, adaptado al departamento de antioquia y diseñado por el programa de prevención de la violencia –previvade la facultad nacional de salud pública de la universidad de antioquia, para promover la prevención de la violencia, mediante la implementación de la estrategia de unidades móviles de derechos humanos en los municipios de antioquia, colombia. el modelo propone el fortalecimiento de la capacidad institucional de las entidades locales responsables de la protección de los derechos humanos y la educación para la paz mediante cinco (5) objetivos claves: 1) articulación local de actores, 2) fortalecimiento de los sistemas de información claves, 3) mejoramiento y puesta en marcha de amplios y cualificados procesos de formación, 4) capacitación para brindar una asistencia oportuna y mas integral, y 5) divulgación permanente, uso de los servicios de comunicación y difusión para llegar a todas las comunidades. objetivos que a su vez, se especializan en el campo de aplicación de acuerdo a los problemas más acentuados de cada región. así la intervención en violencia intrafamiliar es más especializada en los municipios de suroeste donde las cifras son alarmantes, mientras que el abuso sexual infantil es mas elevado y tiene más víctimas en el nordeste antioqueño. los objetivos se fundamentan en los tres (3) ejes temáticos a intervenir: derechos humanos, violencia intrafamiliar y consumo de sustancias psicoactivas. gráfico 2: modelo de intervención para antioquia: líneas de acción y ejes temáticos de intervención de los diversos factores que condicionan y determinan el problema de violencia y requieren de educación para la paz. adaptado por el programa previva de la universidad de antioquia. el propósito general de la intervención es sensibilizar e instruir a los actores claves de los municipios en la temática, abordándola de una manera sencilla y práctica que permita la urabá 11 occidente 18 nordeste 8 magdalena medio 6 oriente 20 bajo cauca 8 suroeste 19 norte 10 maltrato infantil violencia género consumo de drogas jóvenes escolares reclutamiento menores articulación local/ intersectorial fortalecimiento sistema información procesos de formación asistencia integral divulgación e información antioquiaantioquia intervenciintervencióón antioquian antioquia fortalecimiento institucionalidad pública local protección derechos y promoción deberes nnaj generar espacios opinión nnaj futuros constructores paz desplazamiento forzado violencia intrafamiliar abuso sexual infantil deserción escolar p ro b lem as in terven id o so b je ti vo s p ro p u es to s volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 276 participación de los asistentes a los talleres, actividades y conferencias. se busca que puedan interiorizar con facilidad contenidos de este tipo, y a su vez puedan replicar la información dentro de sus comunidades. a partir de lo anterior, se pretende conformar una base fortalecida de ciudadanos formados en educación para la paz, informados sobre el alcance de sus derechos y en los mecanismos diseñados para lograr su cumplimiento. se espera que actúen como multiplicadores y procuren, con ello, evitar la solución de los problemas cotidianos mediante el uso de la violencia u otras conductas socialmente indeseables que atenten contra el bienestar de los individuos y las comunidades. de igual forma, se pretende crear una conciencia colectiva sobre la necesidad de reconocerse a sí mismo y a los demás como sujetos de derechos y, en consecuencia, resaltar la importancia de respetar los derechos de los otros en la misma medida que se aspira a que sean respetados los propios. idealmente, el nacimiento de la educación para la paz debe darse en el seno del hogar, lugar en el que cada ser humano puede focalizar sus experiencias con miras a que se presente un cambio de actitud, mediante las prácticas de educación y crianza de los hijos. lugar donde además se potencien padres vigilantes y cercanos11, en el cual los niños y niñas sean educados en un contexto que facilite los procesos de desarrollo integral, fraterno y libre de conflictos. en suma, donde se favorezcan aquellas experiencias que les permitan, en un futuro, ser constructores de paz y ser agentes de cambio enfocados a trasformar realidades tomando como referencia valores como la justicia y el respeto recíprocos. para fortalecer este propósito general se diseñaron diversas rutas de aprendizaje y guías adaptadas para la promoción del respeto a los derechos humanos y la prevención de la violencia intrafamiliar. las guías sirven actualmente como material didáctico en los procesos de formación impartidos y como material de consulta para los funcionarios y comunidad beneficiada pedagógicamente por la estrategia de unidades móviles. esta formación brinda elementos metodológicos y conceptuales para que los actores decisores (funcionarios municipales, comisarías de familia, personerías municipales, comunidad organizada, sector salud y educativo) puedan intervenir para prevenir y controlar la violencia desde el enfoque dimensional de la seguridad humana. están diseñadas para que los actores decisores se apropien de estos para encaminar a las comunidades hacia el desaprendizaje de la violencia, fomentando principalmente entre los padres de familia, cuidadores y maestros, la importancia de educar a los niños y niñas partiendo de pautas de educación y crianza no violentas, a través de actividades asertivas que faciliten la comunicación, el fortalecimiento de la afectividad, la vigilancia y cercanía hacia los hijos e hijas. todo esto con el objetivo de disminuir aquellos factores de riesgo que se desarrollan durante la infancia y que terminan en conductas agresivas que se prolongan hasta la adultez, además con la verdadera misión de interferir en el círculo intergeneracional y vicioso de la violencia al interior de las familias. la estrategia de unidades móviles diseñó tres rutas pedagógicas que implican el desarrollo de exposiciones teórico – prácticas para cada una de las líneas base de la siguiente manera: 1) prevención, 2) violencia y 3) educación para la paz, que fueron construidas por un equipo interdisciplinario de profesionales con formación específica experiencia en educación para la paz. en el cuadro 2 se ilustra la estructura del plan de formación diseñado en prevención de la violencia intrafamiliar y compuesto por seis (6) talleres, cada uno dirigido a una población específica, con temas definidos y un objetivo base para los equipos de profesionales responsables de desarrollarlo. 11 duque, l.f. (ed.), la violencia en el valle de aburrá: caminos para la superación, 2007. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 277 cuadro 2: estructura plan de formación en prevención de la violencia intrafamiliar en los municipios de antioquia fuente: unidades móviles prevención violencia y ddhh de antioquia. estas rutas se desarrollaron teniendo en cuenta diversas situaciones de violencia tales como la atención a casos de violencia intrafamiliar, violencia sexual infantil, desaparición forzada, asistencia al desplazamiento forzado, prevención de accidentes por minas antipersonales, prevención y rehabilitación del reclutamiento forzado de menores por parte de grupos armados ilegales. así mismo incluyen y proponen contenidos jurídicos en materia de educación, prevención, asistencia y rehabilitación para cada uno de los casos, en los cuales se proveen presentaciones didácticas para hacer más entendible el tema a las comunidades. incluyen conceptualización básica y revisión del marco legal colombiano. se resaltan además los puntos más trascendentales y de interés para los funcionarios y víctimas de la violencia, el estudio y socialización de las estadísticas que evidencian la problemática y permiten la comparabilidad con otras regiones. finalmente, proveen la revisión teórica consignada en mapas sinópticos y flujogramas de formación. esta revisión es de suma importancia para los responsables de los programas de formación en el nivel local, porque facilita el desarrollo de la capacidad analítica que se requiere para comprender los principales factores protectores y de riesgo asociados a la agresión en el hogar, las escuelas, el barrio y la comunidad, y a su vez proponer acciones de intervención enmarcadas en un modelo más asertivo y efectivo. en el gráfico 3 se presentan volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 278 los principales actores y/o poblaciones objeto de la intervención para el caso específico de dos subregiones que comparten una unidad móvil de intervención: norte y bajo cauca llevan a cabo la intervención en 14 municipios de las dos subregiones. el centro del gráfico siempre varía de acuerdo a la subregión a atender, pero el resto de los elementos permanecen constituyendo en sí el mapa de actores: comunidad general, líderes comunitarios, maestros y padres, personerías municipales, fuerza pública, casas de justicia, comisarías de familia, y de otro lado hallamos los niños, niñas, adolescentes y jóvenes como actores vitales dentro de la educación para la paz. gráfico 3: población objeto/beneficiada de la intervención, ejemplo subregión bajo cauca y norte antioquenos: 14 municipios intervenidos con los planes de formación en educación para la paz y prevención violencia. adaptado por el programa previva de la universidad de antioquia. las unidades móviles como política pública para promover la educación para la paz al analizar la adaptabilidad, difusión y resultados del modelo de intervención en el mediano y largo plazo, se observa que la estrategia de las unidades móviles cumple con muchos de los atributos propuestos por la perspectiva de seguridad humana para convertirse así en una de las primeras políticas públicas para promover la educación para la paz en el país y el departamento, por las siguientes razones: § supera barreras de acceso: esta iniciativa lleva la institucionalidad pública de la educación para la paz a las veredas y corregimientos de los municipios con barreras de acceso económico, cultural y/o geográfico. otorga entonces la oportunidad de acceder a los servicios de formación y restablecimiento de derechos a los más vulnerables, así como asistencia psicosocial, familiar y jurídica a las comunidades y victimas con enormes secuelas del conflicto. § tiene en cuenta la inclusión social y cultural: para la ejecución de los dos componentes de la estrategia – la formación y la asistencia directa a las comunidades poblacipoblacióón objeto intervencin objeto intervencióónn norte y bajo caucanorte y bajo cauca yarumal toledo ituango valdivia cáceres zaragoza nechí zaragoza el bagre caucasia briceño tarazá san andrés de cuerquia guadalupe niñas adolescentes niños jóvenes casas de justicia fuerza pública comisarías de familia maestros y padres personerías municipales líderes comunitarios comunidad en general enfoque  diferencial   enfoque  diferencial   para  promover  la   para  promover  la   igualdad  de  g igualdad  de  géénero nero lecciones  aprendidas  y   lecciones  aprendidas  y   difusi difusióón  de  resultados n  de  resultados volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 279 se tienen en cuenta las diferencias culturales entre las subregiones del departamento. estas subregiones han sufrido vulneración de derechos humanos y derecho internacional humanitario de manera diferente. además el comportamiento de la violencia social e intrafamiliar se concibe de manera distinta culturalmente de acuerdo a la subregión a la que pertenezcan las comunidades. es fundamental tener presentes estas diferencias a la hora de abordar metodológicamente los procesos de intervención, principalmente los de formación en promoción de derechos y prevención de la violencia intrafamiliar y otras conductas de riesgo. esto se ha fortalecido a partir de la contextualización de las problemáticas específicas por subregiones por medio del diagnóstico participativo. § es sostenible: la estrategia forma parte del plan de desarrollo departamental en su línea estratégica de desarrollo político, y existe la voluntad política para convertirlo en política pública con el ánimo de garantizar su continuidad en el mediano y largo plazo. § promueve la prevención temprana de la violencia: el enfoque preventivo, con las actividades realizadas con niños, niñas y jóvenes, así como con los padres de familia, pretende impactar en la prevención temprana de la violencia para reducir los riesgos de generar futuros agresores, lo que a su vez es una forma de sostenibilidad de los efectos del proyecto a largo plazo. § propone procesos de formación y educación para la paz en el mediano plazo: con los procesos de formación dirigidos a funcionarios de las administraciones públicas, fuerza pública, organizaciones de base y líderes comunitarios se pretende dejar capacidad instalada a nivel local para que actúen como multiplicadores en las comunidades y garantizar continuidad y replicabilidad en los procesos. no obstante existen problemas coyunturales frente a los cuales el proyecto no interviene directamente pero trata de generar sinergia con otros proyectos, programas y políticas públicas. § finalmente la estrategia es participativa gracias a que: a) prioriza necesidades: el análisis situacional (diagnóstico) se realizó mediante mesas subregionales con los actores claves de los municipios por subregiones, y en ellas hay representación de las comunidades para conocer sus principales necesidades. b) propone acciones con las organizaciones de base: la comunidad organizada y en general es la razón de ser del proyecto; por esta razón, se parte de sus potencialidades para formarlos, para que sean multiplicadores, y se atiende a las víctimas de vulneración de derechos humanos partiendo de sus necesidades más apremiantes a nivel jurídico, psicosocial y familiar. c) crea sinergia con otras iniciativas en el tema: se apoyan proyectos derivados desde las comunidades para fortalecer sus procesos mediante los servicios propios de las unidades móviles. de esta manera se han articulado procesos con organizaciones comunitarias como asociaciones de víctimas, madres comunitarias, grupos de tercera edad, escuelas de padres, comunidad escolar, entre otros. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 280 camino a seguir: conclusiones y resultados de la experiencia de las unidades móviles de derechos humanos en antioquia las unidades móviles de derechos humanos se presentan como una iniciativa pertinente en relación a la preocupante realidad de las subregiones antioqueñas en materia de violación de derechos humanos y derecho internacional humanitario y al reciente aumento registrado por algunas encuestas poblacionales en lo que respecta a la violencia intrafamiliar. el banco interamericano de desarrollo ha sugerido la estrategia de las unidades móviles en antioquia como una intervención digna de replicar en otras regiones de américa latina, gracias a que se promueven procesos de formación educativos bien definidos y de simple aplicación en prevención de la violencia y el delito entre las comunidades; realizando así un importante aporte en el proceso de restablecimiento de la confianza de las comunidades en las instituciones del estado a través de los procesos de educación, prevención y promoción con actores municipales y comunidad en general. la estrategia de unidades móviles en el eje temático de derechos humanos, ha jugado un papel fundamental en la sensibilización y empoderamiento a los funcionarios municipales sobre la responsabilidad estatal en la protección y defensa de los derechos humanos, en desarrollo de las funciones y responsabilidades legal y constitucionalmente asignadas. se resalta el esfuerzo en capacitar focalmente al personal de la fuerza pública, sobre su responsabilidad especial en la defensa y protección de los derechos humanos y en la interiorización de las normas fundamentales sobre derecho internacional humanitario, que se deben tener presentes en desarrollo de su especialísima función que implica el uso de las armas y la defensa y seguridad de las poblaciones. las comunidades impactadas han respondido satisfactoriamente a la iniciativa gracias a las notificaciones de alcaldes municipales y secretarios de gobierno (alrededor de 400 cartas oficiales enviadas a la gobernación por parte de actores claves) en las que apoyan la estrategia y describen el impacto atribuible para casos específicos en sus municipios. el proyecto ha focalizado su intervención en varios segmentos de la población: los jóvenes escolares constituyen un porcentaje importante de las personas sensibilizadas. al priorizar en los jóvenes, se ha pretendido generar, desde una etapa temprana, una concientización acerca de la responsabilidad que como ciudadanos y miembros de la sociedad civil tienen en el respeto y protección de sus derechos. del mismo modo, las víctimas de la violencia, los líderes comunitarios y padres de familia se han vinculado a la iniciativa, participando activamente en las convocatorias de capacitación ofrecidas por el proyecto. lo anterior permite concluir que se está cumpliendo uno de los objetivos inspiradores del proyecto: generar comunidades empoderadas y capacitadas en la promoción y protección de los derechos humanos, a partir de su propia iniciativa como ciudadanos conscientes y responsables, eliminando la tolerancia a las situaciones en las que se presenta la violación a los derechos humanos, fortaleciendo una cultura de la denuncia y la protección colectiva. la estrategia de unidades móviles desde su componente de capacitación, a través de los procesos formativos relacionados con la violencia intrafamiliar, convivencia pacífica, rutas de atención, derechos sexuales y reproductivos, pautas de educación y crianza, entre otros, ha podido incidir positivamente, dando un paso inicial y determinante para que las comunidades identifiquen la violencia intrafamiliar como un problema que forma parte de su realidad. en volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 281 consecuencia deben avanzar hacia el reconocimiento de que tanto hombres como mujeres son sujetos de derechos de manera equitativa, y a su vez que, las actitudes violentas al interior del hogar no son parte de la funcionalidad de la pareja, ni de las relaciones entre padres e hijos y que conforman un círculo vicioso que debe romperse. estos preceptos se complementan con las intervenciones domiciliarias e institucionales (generalmente comisarías de familia, casas de justicia, encuentros masivos de víctimas) en las cuales se aborda a la pareja y la familia, brindando elementos jurídicos, psicosociales y familiares que, adaptados a sus propias realidades, permiten ejercer una intervención integral frente a este tipo de violencia. específicamente en el tema del maltrato infantil, se ha logrado iniciar un proceso de sensibilización dirigido a comunidades en favor de optimizar las relaciones familiares, básicamente en el subsistema parentofilial. mediante este proceso se pretende crear estrategias reflexivas desde las particularidades de las subregiones en torno a la funcionalidad familiar y modelos de resolución de conflictos familiares que no atenten contra la particularidad de los integrantes de la misma en su ciclo vital individual. para ello, los talleres sobre conceptualización en violencia intrafamiliar se enfocaron especialmente hacia los padres de familia, niños, niñas y adolescentes, para que estén en capacidad de identificar los diferentes tipos de maltrato, así como los derechos de los niños y las pautas de crianza apropiadas para así deslegitimar el uso de la violencia en la educación y la crianza. se busca que las relaciones entre padres e hijos no solo se fundamenten en el afecto y la cercanía, sino que además se basen en los niños y niñas como sujetos de derechos. partiendo de los altos índices de vulneración de derechos humanos presentes en el departamento de antioquia, se validan este tipo de propuestas de intervención en respuesta a las necesidades puntuales planteadas desde las mismas comunidades. además se provee para el fortalecimiento de la institucionalidad pública que tanto se requiere con respecto a los niveles de vulnerabilidad propios en las zonas rurales de las subregiones. con el fin, a su vez, de brindar herramientas metodológicas y conceptuales para la atención psicosocial, jurídica y familiar de las víctimas de la violencia y los procesos de formación que permiten empoderar a las personas a nivel local. dentro de los logros más importantes del proyecto unidades móviles podemos destacar: aumento de la presencia institucional en los municipios, aumento de las capacidades en derechos humanos (mejora la atención a los usuarios desde cada dependencia), complementación y mejoramiento de los servicios que prestan las comisarías de familia. también se ha promovido una correcta articulación y desarrollo de la propuesta unidades móviles de derechos humanos con los demás actores y entes municipales, además de la búsqueda de organización de un trabajo significativo con otras organizaciones para maximizar los beneficios e impacto de las actividades. son de resaltar las intervenciones que acertadamente se han llevado a cabo por parte de las unidades móviles, lo que ha impactado de manera directa a la población de los municipios objeto de intervención del proyecto. las intervenciones instruyen a los ciudadanos sobre sus derechos y la forma de hacerlos efectivos e igualmente benefician a la población en los diferentes procesos jurídicos y socio-familiares que desarrollan los profesionales de las unidades móviles. con los diferentes planes de formación desarrollados, las unidades móviles han fortalecido la cultura de la paz y sembrado las primeras bases sólidas en educación para la paz en los diferentes actores municipales y la comunidad en general. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 282 además de los logros previamente señalados, se identifican algunos retos que tiene por asumir esta estrategia. al atenderlos se aportaría a fortalecer componentes propios del desarrollo humano como parte de esta iniciativa. se recomienda aumentar la cobertura geográfica en términos del 100% de los municipios y en la intervención rural, extendiendo todos los beneficios de este a cada localidad y comunidad identificada. ya logrado el posicionamiento de unidades móviles de derechos humanos, es importante darle a la estrategia largo aliento para continuar apoyando el fortalecimiento institucional municipal para consolidar mecanismos de prevención y enfocar acciones en los planes, programas y proyectos tendientes consolidar una convivencia pacífica en las subregiones. se sugiere además, desarrollar próximos procesos de formación en temáticas nucleares tales como: desaparición forzada, prevención de la trata de personas, y aumentar el énfasis en prevención y erradicación del trabajo infantil. se deben continuar generando espacios de discusión de las problemáticas que consoliden redes sociales de protección a los derechos humanos, prevención de la violencia intrafamiliar y del consumo de sustancias psicoactivas. destacamos que el trabajo en terreno pone en evidencia la necesidad de crear un sistema de información que permita a las entidades estatales tomar decisiones adecuadas en la prevención de la violación de derechos humanos. a su vez, el trabajo en terreno debe favorecer con el aumento de la voluntad política para el sostenimiento de este tipo de espacios y establecimiento de redes sociales. en fin, esta experiencia demuestra que es posible llevar a cabo en una conurbación de una región en conflicto y dentro de un país en desarrollo, la formulación participativa y sostenida de una estrategia en prevención de la violencia y educación para la paz que incluye a todos. esta iniciativa, basada en la evidencia científica, permite implementar herramientas diseñadas de manera amigable, al alcance de cualquiera de las capitales colombianas y latinoamericanas, que con problemáticas similares forjen esfuerzos conjuntos para este tipo de procesos sociales. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 268-283 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 283 referencias departamento administrativo nacional de estadística dane. censo nacional 2005. bogotá d.c., colombia: dane, 2005. dirección seccional de salud de antioquia. indicadores de mortalidad por subregión. antioquia en cifras. medellín, colombia: dirección seccional de salud de antioquia, dirección sistema de indicadores, 2007. duque, l.f. (ed.). la violencia en el valle de aburrá: caminos para la superación. medellín, colombia: universidad de antioquia y área metropolitana del valle de aburrá, editorial fotográficas mario salazar, 2007. gobernación de antioquia. tercer informe de avance y seguimiento al plan operativo del proyecto de unidades móviles para la prevención de la violencia y la promoción de los derechos humanos en antioquia, colombia período octubre de 2009 – abril de 2010. medellín, colombia: secretaría de gobierno, oficina de derechos humanos y derecho internacional humanitario, universidad de antioquia, facultad nacional de salud pública, programa prevención de la violencia previva, 2010. gobernación de antioquia. informe de las mesas de análisis subregional para la identificación y priorización de problemas en violencia intrafamiliar y vulneración de derechos humanos en los municipios de antioquia. medellín, colombia: secretaría de gobierno, oficina de derechos humanos y derecho internacional humanitario, universidad de antioquia – facultad nacional de salud pública y programa prevención de la violencia previva, 2009. gobernación de antioquia. plan de desarrollo departamental “antioquia para todos: manos a la obra 2008-2011” . medellín, colombia: gobernación de antioquia, 2008. human rights watch. recomendaciones para colombia de human rights watch sobre el decreto reglamentario de la ley 975 del 2005. bogotá d.c., colombia, human rights watch, 2009. naciones unidas, oficina del alto comisionado para los derechos humanos. informe de la alta comisionada de las naciones unidas para los derechos humanos sobre la situación de los derechos humanos en colombia. bogotá, dc., colombia: oficina del alto comisionado para los derechos humanos, 2009. naciones unidas, oficina del alto comisionado para los derechos humanos. informe de la alta comisionada de las naciones unidas para los derechos humanos sobre la situación de los derechos humanos en colombia. bogotá, dc., colombia: oficina del alto comisionado para los derechos humanos, 2008. programa de las naciones unidas para el desarrollo. marco de asistencia de las naciones unidas undaf 2008 – 2012. washington d.c.: pnud, 2008. http://www.nacionesunidas.org.co. programa de las naciones unidas para el desarrollo. el conflicto, callejón con salida: informe nacional de desarrollo humano para colombia. bogotá, colombia: editorial panamericana, 2003. programa de las naciones unidas para el desarrollo. informe mundial sobre desarrollo humano: “nuevas dimensiones de la seguridad humana”. washington d.c.: pnud, 1994. united nations. report of the united nations high commissioner for human rights on the situation of human rights in colombia. annual report of the united nations high commissioner for human rights. genève, switzerland: united nations, general assembly, 2010. al-daraweesh--ifp[1] volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ human rights and human rights education: beyond the conventional approach fuad al-daraweesh∗ the last three decades have witnessed an intellectual conflict between two diametrically opposed schools of thought on human rights. the first school of thought concerns the universalism of human rights, and the second is based on cultural relativism. universalists are committed to the view that, while the discourse of human rights originated in the west, a common set of human rights standards can, and should, apply across cultures. for cultural relativists, there is no universally moral doctrine, since morality is viewed as a relative social and historical phenomenon. as follows from the relativist approach, human rights are valid only in and for those cultures that established the discourse of rights. relativism emphasizes that values of human rights are at odds with traditional intercultural beliefs. this paper is an attempt to go beyond the dichotomy inherent in the universalistrelativist debate. as a prerequisite, to move beyond the debate, it is essential to acknowledge the nature of the dichotomies in existence (universalism versus cultural relativism, western vs. non-western). this study is an effort to translate one perspective into another and discover a common denominator for the variance in perspectives. in this study, i argue for a third conceptualization of human rights that is based on efforts to reconcile the dichotomy that informs the debate between universalists and cultural relativists. while acknowledging the necessity for global awareness of human rights, we must consider, at the same time, negotiating with cultures to embrace the human rights corpus, through local cultural representation: conceptualization. this approach has a potential in cultivating human rights across cultures, while reconciling the intellectual conflict between two hard-lined schools of thoughts on human rights. the theoretical framework, i use in this paper, ∗ the author earned his ph.d. from the university of toledo majoring in philosophy of education. currently he is a research fellow of the center for nonviolence and democratic education at judith herb college of education in the university of toledo. in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 39 is originated in the work of an-na’im,1 bell,2 taylor,3 and healy.4 these philosophers have articulated the core claims of my argument. however, i venture to expand the theoretical framework of the aforementioned philosophers by dwelling on mannheim’s thoughts on sociology of knowledge and connect these thoughts to human rights and human rights education.5 this connection, i shall argue, is an unconventional strategy to go beyond dichotomies, and to offer a new approach, which potentially could overcome some of the problems that are facing human rights and human rights education. the validation of my argument is achieved through four main steps. first, i shall define relationalism and place it within the context of sociology of human rights knowledge. the isomorphic equivalents of human rights emerge as a manifestation of the relational approach. second, i shall define human rights and the isomorphic equivalents of human rights, and i shall discuss the historical and sociological underpinnings of both concepts. third, i shall connect the first two steps to human rights education by accounting for the consequences of failing to contextualize human rights knowledge, through the excessive use of one conceptualization of human rights as a representative of all. finally i shall explain how a relational approach could create a critical pedagogy for human rights education. the problem: a singular conception of human rights education the conventional approach to human rights education is based upon using a singular conceptualization of human rights as representative of all other conceptualizations. this tendency has exacerbated the problems facing human rights and human rights education. the utilization of one tradition, with regard to human rights and human rights education, has nurtured anti-educational orthodoxies. okafor and shedrack argue that human rights education has produced three unfavorable orthodoxies: the hell and heaven binary, the one-way traffic paradigm, and the abolitionist paradigm, all of which constitute a challenge for human rights education.6 okafor and shedrack explain that the mainstream human rights discourse pertains to a dichotomous binary; “the one hellish and the other heavenly…those who employ it basically view the world as…the one respective of human rights, and the other violative of human rights.”.7 thus, the conditions and the states of geographical locations are expressed in terms of heaven and hell. western society, according to most of the narratives employed by the 1. abdullahi an-na'im, “the cultural mediation of human rights,” in the east asian challenge for human rights, ed joanne bauer & daniel bell (cambridge: cambridge university press, 1999). 2. daniel bell, “the east asian challenges to human rights: reflection on an east west dialogue,” human rights quarterly, 18, no.3 (1996): 641-667. 3. see charles taylor, “the politics of recognition,” in multiculturalism, eds. charles taylor, and amy gutmann (princeton university press, new jersey, 1994). 4 paul healy, “human rights and intercultural relations: a hermeneuticaldialogical approach,” philosophy and social criticism 32, no.4 (2206): 513-541 5 see karl mannheim, ideology and utopia (new york: harcourt & brace company, 1940). 6. obiora okafor, shedrack agbakwa, “re-imagining international human rights education in our time: beyond three constitutive orthodoxies,” leiden journal of international law 14, no.3 (2001): 563-590. 7. ibid, 566 in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 40 discourse, is portrayed as heaven, while third world countries are “virtually constituted by incessant epidemics of the most horrendous sorts of human rights violations.” 8 the heaven and hell dichotomy is a result of grounding human rights knowledge on one tradition, namely the western construction of human rights. people in the heavenly domain, that is western countries, believe if a society has not met the expectations that result from human rights knowledge, it is automatically rendered hellish. expectations and judgments about the hellish domain are expressed in the form of a narrative of human rights violation and abuses. these violations, according to the narrative, only occur in non-western societies. in addition to the oral narrative, there is also a textual narrative, which is based on the same typology of heaven and hell. it is important to note, at this conjecture, that the textual narrative informs the oral narrative in the discourse. okafor and shedrack claim: the existing corpus of international treaties and instruments is too often conceived as heavenly and infallible…[since] it presents a particular picture of the good life that ought not to be challenged…[is] incontrovertible. gospel like, it is a final set of truths.9 the international treaties and instruments on human rights have contributed to the western conceptualization of human rights. these treaties and instruments connote a picture of what ought to be realized with regard to human rights. consequently the conceptualization of rights is perceived by non-western society as an obligation to realize the picture of the good life, which ought not to be challenged. this conceptualization makes human rights a set of final truths, which all countries and cultures are to uphold. other contexts, and contents, that are related to human rights, are completely obliterated in order to empty a space for the heavenly to take over the hellish. constitutive texts, that provide experiential meaning of human rights, exemplified in buddhism, confucianism, taoism, african traditions, christianity, judaism, and islam (etc.), are rendered irrelevant in the process of applying binary typologies. consequently human rights learners seem to recognize that violations of human rights only occur in the hellish domain. the national center for human rights education, which is based in the united states of america admits the existence of this binary and its consequence: “there is no global human rights movement in the united states. to the majority of americans, human rights violation occurs overseas.”10 utilizing one conceptualization of human rights, to serve human rights education across cultures, is a major contributor to the heaven and hell binary. a human rights learner may think because the concept of human rights has been originated in x country, or culture, that human rights are preserved and recognized in that culture. thus, x culture or country is perceived as 8. ibid. 9. ibid. 10 ibid. in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 41 the guardian of human rights, which contributes to its link to the heavenly domain in the imaginations of the learners. okafor and shedrack plead that: the dichotomous binary contributes to the alienation from human rights message many addressees of ihre [international human rights education] experience, thus detracting from the effort to generate a measure of mass cultural legitimacy for the human rights project. the real message of ihre is all–too-often occluded by the operation of this binary. 11 there is a void between praxis and theory, which has led to the impotency of human rights education in cultivating any learning outcomes, beyond knowledge content. the binary opposition comes into play to exacerbate the problems already facing human rights education, which contributes to the notion of absolutism that is a characteristic of the heaven and hell binary. the binary “hinders the cross-fertilization of human rights ideas and thinking across the western-third world.” 12 for this reason, human rights education, which is supposed to cultivate universal human understanding, is deviated to split the world into an old colonial text of the “savage” and the “civilized.” under these circumstances the current paradigm is “not [a] suitable philosophical posture for any human rights project that hopes to gain widespread legitimacy among historically skeptical third world mass populations.”13 how is it possible for human rights education to gain mass cultural legitimization, when the culture whereby human rights are to apply, is already being redeemed as hellish? rather, the philosophical posture for any human rights project should be established on the equal dignity of all contributors and receivers of human rights education. this step facilitates cross-cultural understanding and dialogue with regard to human rights and their equivalents. the second orthodoxy that has resulted from current human rights education applications, is the use of what okafor and shedrack call the “one-way traffic paradigm”. the one-way paradigm is the outcome of the dependence on one tradition with regard to human rights conceptualization, mainly western conceptualization. this traffic flows exclusively from the heavenly source of human rights narrative, whether oral or textual. human rights education has utilized this paradigm, which is manifested in the western conceptualization of human rights. thus, the interest becomes the transmission of human rights knowledge from heaven to hell. the transmission is carried out through legitimizing the one-way traffic paradigm, embedded in the goodness of the text of human rights, which is designed in the heavenly domain. this design is supposed to bring about the same effect on the hellish ground. consequently, the flow of this paradigm is exclusively transmitted from the utilization of one tradition with regard to the conceptualization of human rights. this paradigm has resulted in blindness, on behalf of the human rights learner, in the recognition of human rights violations in the heavenly hemisphere. 11 ibid, 574 12 ibid, 575 13 ibid, 574 in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 42 grounding universal human rights on one ethnocentric concept of rights contributes to the one-way traffic paradigm. the problem with the one-way paradigm is that it is incoherent, since “there is no infallible human rights heaven and there are no absolutely fallible human rights hell…[instead] there must be a two-way traffic on matters of human rights real dialogues.”14 the relational approach could transcend the issues that have resulted from the use of the one-way paradigm. this is a more authentic step towards a cosmopolitan consensus on human rights. such consensus cannot be formed by a mere monologue, in which the “western view is uncritically proselytized without benefiting from” other views on human rights and human rights education.15 it is only through a genuine dialogue that is based on equality and respect, between and among peoples of both divides, that an appropriate paradigm will be fostered, one that is inclusive and conducive to human rights education. okafor and shedrack wonder: how can a people feel the kind of sense of ‘ownership’ of a human rights movement if they have had no input regarding the validity of the basic philosophical foundations of the human rights corpus, or as to the relevance of the priorities of the movement to their own lived experience?16 if human rights are to be realized and recognized globally, through human rights education, it is important to consider inputs in relation to the human rights corpus and conceptualization from diverse cultural backgrounds. the plurality, with regard to human rights inputs, could initiate a sense of ownership between human rights and their isomorphemes, and the population whereby rights are to apply. in addition to ownership, a dialogue, with regard to the matter at hand, could contribute to the enlargement of the human rights ethos and corpus. this idea constitutes another reason for considering plural conceptualizations with regard to human rights education. the third orthodoxy is the abolitionist paradigm. as a result of relying on one conceptualization with regard to human rights education, educators and some scholars in the field seek the “abolishment of local practices that contravene the dictates of international human rights law.”17 the abolishment of cultural traditions that contravene the conceptualization of human rights has challenged human rights dissemination in these same cultures. this is due to the suspicions that the abolishment movement has spread in the mind of the populations in the targeted culture. consequently, the efforts have fallen short in acquiring mass cultural legitimization with regard to the western conceptualization of human rights. culture, in this context, is perceived as an obstacle to human rights education, and to human rights enjoyment. following this logic: 14 ibid, 581 15 ibid, 575 16 ibid, 582 17 ibid, 584 in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 43 these abolitionist responses create the impression that women’s rights do not exist in custom or local practices, and the solution, therefore, lies in substituting custom and local practices with alternatives offered by national legislation or the international human rights regime.18 in this paradigm, human rights are perceived as diametrically opposed to culture and cultural practices. thus, human rights education needs to be de-contextualized, since scholars and educators view “local practice and culture, both historically and non-contextually, as monolithic, static, ossified and generally incapable of being transformed by the local population themselves.”19 this logic indeed perpetuates the dichotomy we explained earlier. it also marginalizes the human agency in different cultures. this abolitionist paradigm is ethnocentric and deterministic. hence, practitioners and scholars must rethink the content of human rights education across culture to move beyond these orthodoxies and problems that face the discipline. therefore, it is important for any human rights education to start with the recommendation of the people’s decade of human rights education, which entails “an aspiration of human rights education is to engage individuals and communities dialectically…this aspiration requires more than knowledge of the content and mechanisms of international human rights instruments, which is the focus of much traditional human rights teaching.”20 to fulfil these aspirations, practitioners in the field “must latch on to, and mobilize, culturally legitimate signs, forms, artifacts, and languages that make its message more resonant, more inviting, and more palatable among the target population.”21 therefore, human rights education becomes more authentic through seeking a constitutive, mass cultural legitimization in the form of inputs and dialogue. cultural legitimization of human rights could offer a conducive environment for learning that nurtures dissemination of learning beyond content knowledge. the divorce between the current form of human rights education, and the targeted culture, has challenged the successful implementation of human rights education, since, every society struggles to better embody human rights principles. the embodiment of human rights principles is contingent on engaging culture and community, not only as a partner and supporter of the educational process, but also as an informer and director of education. this is due to the fact that: every moral philosophy offers explicitly or implicitly at least a partial analysis of the relationship between an agent to his or her reason, motives, intentions, and actions, and in doing so generally presuppose some claims that these concepts are embodied or at least can be in the real world.22 the efforts of human rights education programs to draw on the agent’s reasons, motives, and intentions have fallen short, considering that human rights education has mainly been 18 ibid, 584 19 ibid, 585 20 ibid, 585 21 ibid, 588 22 alasdair macintyre, after virtue: a study in moral theory, (indiana: university of notre dame press, 1981) 22 in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 44 informed by the western traditions of human rights. therefore, this tendency has caused some issues in human rights education. one of these issues pertains to the abstractness of the educational process, since the educational process draws its pedagogy and curriculum from the western traditions on rights. human rights education depends on some of the socio-cultural norms. these norms provide a representation for the concepts of human rights. thus the efforts, in the relational approach, are manifested in searching for an embodiment of human rights moral substance that draws on the agent’s motives, reasons, and actions. current human rights education is directed to the dissemination of content knowledge about human rights. although content knowledge is important, it is but one possible outcome from the educational process. tibbitts explains that human rights education seeks to cultivate “all possible learner outcomes: content, critical thinking, values, and social action.”23 human rights education across cultures has not successfully affected learners, beyond content knowledge. this is due to the fact that the western conceptualization of rights has constituted the source of curriculum and pedagogy of human rights education. thus, learners and educators have been engaged in education utilizing what freire refers to as “the banking model,” which holds that the bank is the student, the currency is western traditions, and the teacher is the banker.24 this model is rejected because it seeks to treat students and learners simply as receptacles, to be filled with information. in this model, learners are deprived of their critical consciousness. the model portrays knowledge as a static object, rather than a continuous process of inquiry and reflection. the current discourse of rights is characterized by “education about human rights.” in this model, education has been a tool to disseminate and transmit knowledge about western conceptualization of human rights. most of the educators and scholars involved with this model were concerned with the urgency of disseminating human rights knowledge. although these educators and scholars were motivated by a genuine concern to disseminate human rights knowledge globally, the efforts for their goal has not gone beyond drawing on arrangements about human rights education. this idea constitutes the orientation of human rights education in the current paradigm. toward a relational paradigm of human rights education relationalism is an epistemological framework for a socially contextualized conception of knowledge. thus knowledge, according to karl mannheim, cannot be formulated absolutely, but rather knowledge is formulated in terms of the perspective of a given situation. relationalism is defined as: a modern theory of knowledge, which takes account of the relational as distinct from the merely relative character of all historical knowledge, must start with the assumption that 23 felisa tibbitts, “understanding what we do: emerging models for human rights education,” international review of education 48, no. 3-4 (2002): 159-171, 164 24 see paul freire, pedagogy of the oppressed. (new york: continuum, 2005) in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 45 there are spheres of thought in which it is impossible to conceive absolute truth independently of the values and position of the subject and unrelated to the social context. 25 in this sense, human rights knowledge ought to be consistent with the values and position of the subject. however, relationalism, as mannheim warns, should not be confused with cultural relativism. since cultural relativism denies the validity of any standards in the world, relationalism relates standards to a society, and vice versa. the relational approach signifies that all elements of meaning in a given situation have reference to one another and derive their significance from this reciprocal interrelationship in a given frame of thought. in other words, the elements of meaning for human rights knowledge in a certain context are related and interrelated within a frame of thought. this necessitates a careful consideration of the context for human rights knowledge, as well as the frame of thought whereby this knowledge of rights is to be disseminated. human rights knowledge is, it is argued here, relational and can be formulated, or educated for, with reference to the position of the learner in one’s social or cultural milieu. contextualizing concepts and providing experiential meaning for human rights is a prerequisite for its cultivation. hence, the development of a theoretical framework for human rights education, in this research, is channelled towards contextualizing human rights concepts through experiential meaning. this view proposes the idea of the isomorphic equivalents of human rights as a way of contextualizing human rights knowledge. isomorphic equivalents of human rights are notions comparable to human rights language. these notions are referred to in the literature as “homorphic equivalents of human rights,”26 and “functional equivalents of human rights.”27 however, i believe that referring to these notions as isomorphic equivalents captures the meaning more accurately. the problem i seek to address is significant to the field of human rights, since one of the main underlying causes for violation of human rights standards, as an-na’im argues, is the lack of cultural and contextual legitimacy for human rights standards.28 hence, this research acknowledges the importance of cross-cultural legitimization by providing a theoretical framework to inform the cultural legitimization and institutionalization of human rights. the study is significant, since scholars like pollis and schwab have emphasized repeatedly the importance of rethinking the conceptualization of human rights. the re-conceptualization of human rights is defined as, “an effort…to distill from the multiplicity of philosophies and 25 mannheim, ideology and utopia, (emphasis added), 70-71. 26 see allison renteln, international human rights: universalism versus relativism (newbury park: sage publications, 1990) 27 see bell, “the east asian challenges to human rights ,” (emphasis added) 28 an-na'im, “the cultural mediation of human rights,” (emphasis added) in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 46 ideologies, and their divergent values, any universals that may exist.”29 building on this need of rethinking human rights, the research examines, cross-culturally, the overlapping values among traditions that attest to the relational universality of human rights concepts across cultures, and relate these findings to human rights and human rights education. it is essential in this approach to recognize different traditions, with regard to human rights conceptualization, in a manner that could transcend the dichotomies inherent in the universalist-relativist debate. thus, the argument is built on the relational approach to human rights. the approach is relationalist because it considers the importance of recognizing human rights conceptualization in relation to the horizon of the moral system from which the meaning of rights emerges. it considers the dialogical equality of the different traditions, with regard to human rights. human rights traditions and isomorphic equivalents human rights are defined, by donnelly as the rights one has because she is a human being.30 donnelly defines human rights with relation to two concepts: rectitude and entitlement. “in the first sense, of rectitude, we talk of something being right; in this sense we say of an action that it is right. in the second sense, of entitlement, we talk of someone having a right.”31 in the first sense, rights are judged in terms of their conformity with the established moral and political traditions, while the second sense is a claim, which demands recognition of entitlement. the concept of rights, as entitlements, is defined as: titles that ground claims of special force: to have a right to x is to be specially entitled to have and enjoy x. the right thus governs the relationship between right-holder and duty bearer…to have a right is to be empowered to press rights claims.32 rights, as entitlements, mean that rights are justified demands to the enjoyment of basic social goods for a life of human dignity. the construction of human rights concepts emerged from western democracies; namely the united states of america, britain, and france (bouandel (1997),33 donnelly,34 healy,35 hsiung,36 pollis & schwab,37 renteln.38 donnelly attests to this fact: 29 adamantia pollis, peter schwab. “human rights: a western construct with limited applicability,” in ed. adamantia pollis, peter schwab (new york: praeger publishers, 1972), 11 30 jack donnely, universal human rights in theory and practice (ithaca and london: cornell university press, 1989) 31 ibid, 9 32 ibid, 9 33 yousef bouandel, human rights and comparative politics. (aldershot: dartmouth publishing company, 1977) 34 donnely, universal human rights in theory and practice, (emphasis added) 35 healy, “human rights and intercultural relations: a hermeneuticaldialogical approach,” (emphasis added) in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 47 human rights represent a distinctive set of social practices, tied to a particular notion of human dignity, that initially arose in the modern west in response to the social and political changes produced by modern states and modern capitalist market economies.39 the concept of human rights as rectitude is a universal concept, since it exists in most cultures around the globe, while the concept of rights as entitlements is a western conceptualization of rights. this conceptualization is a product of particular moral, cultural, social and historical relational contexts. human rights as entitlements, or claims against a society, are a western construction, which privileges individuals and recognizes their claims against others, or against the society. but the concept of human rights as rectitude exists in most traditions in the world. this is the point of departure, which differentiates between human rights and the isomorphic equivalents of human rights. different cultures represent and express their moral concerns in a framework that is similar, in function, to human rights discourse. most traditions in the world have recognized some form of human rights. finnis explains: all human societies show a concern for the value of human life…in none is the killing of other human beings permitted without some fairly definite justification…in all societies there is some prohibition of incest, some opposition to boundless promiscuity and to rape, some favour for stability and permanence in sexual relations. all human societies display a concern for truth, [and] all societies display a favour for the values of cooperation, of common over individual good, of obligation between individuals, and of justice within groups. all know friendship. all have some conception of meum and tuum, title or property, and of reciprocity. all display a concern for powers or principles which are to be respected as superhuman.40 traditions and cultures across the globe value human life, and respect it, in a manner that organizes the relationship between individuals in different societal groups. i refer to the forms of human rights concepts as rectitude, in non-western societies, as the isomorphic equivalents of human rights, because isomorphemes partake in the same function as western human rights discourse. isomorphemes pertain to rights in the sense of moral righteousness, “what is right”.41 these isomorphemes constitute the overlapping principle between the 36 james hsiung, “human rights in an east asian perspective,” in human rights in east asia, ed. james hsiung (new york: paragon house publishers, 1985) 37 pollis, schwab. “human rights: a western construct with limited applicability,” (emphasis added) 38 renteln, international human rights: universalism versus relativism, (emphasis added) 39 donnely, universal human rights in theory and practice, (emphasis added), 50 40 john finnis, natural law and natural rights. (oxford: clarendon press, 1980), 83-84. 41 see jack donnelly, “how rights and duties are correlative?” value inquiry 16 (1982) in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 48 conceptualization of human rights in western traditions and the conceptualization of human rights in non-western traditions. it is also important to note that in comparing the isomorphemes in non-western cultures to human rights discourse in western cultures using the term “equivalent,” my intention is not to privilege the western conceptualization of human rights as a template whereby any comparison is made, or upon which human rights discourse is founded. therefore, the western conceptualization is entitled to be the centre of the discourse. the comparison i make between traditions is not to privilege one and repudiate another, rather the purpose of such a comparison is to highlight some of the similarities, and differences, which illuminate both traditions, giving them equal dialogical dignity and vulnerability. the isomorphic equivalents of human rights do not represent a set of invariable rights equivalents that are the same across cultures, but rather these equivalents vary across traditions. the isomorphic equivalents of human rights exist either in the moral system, or are codified in the legal system. as evident in donnelly’s definition, the emphasis in human rights conceptualization within western traditions is on rights as claims for entitlements. the notion of entitlement refers to subjective rights; for example, it is a claim of an individual against the society for recognition of an entitlement to a right. the emphasis, in this context, is on the individuals who are the subjects of rights. thus, the entitlement of an individual’s right is a priority to the concept. in the isomorphic equivalents of human rights, the priority is to maintain the social harmony of a group. the emphasis is on group harmony because the due process is different between human rights and the isomorphic equivalents of human rights. donnelly (1989) explains rights as entitlement: a has a right to x (with respect to b)…[which] specifies a right-holder (a), an object of the right (x), and a duty bearer (b). it also outlines the relationships in which they stand as a result of the right. a is entitled to x (with respect to b). b stands under correlative obligations to a (with respect to x).42 rights, in this sense, are perceived as an assertive demand for recognition of a’s right to x against b. this dynamic characterizes the due process in western conceptualization of human rights. the isomorphic equivalents of human rights have a different due process, which is manifested in one’s duties towards others and towards the society at large. thus, a fulfilment of a duty, of a certain nature, results in a right entitlement. although this due process is not necessarily perceived as such, it is logical to claim that if two individuals, for example, fulfil their duty in respecting each other’s personal lives, then both individuals are entitled to the same right without any claims or demand for recognition, since reciprocity of respecting a right is an entitlement of a right. 42 donnely, universal human rights in theory and practice, (emphasis added), 10 in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 49 to explain the idea further, i use a donnelly’s paradigm: if a has a duty towards b with respect to x, then b has a duty towards a with respect to x. both a and b are entitled to x by the nature of their reciprocal obligatory duties towards each other and towards other individuals in a society. this dynamic characterizes the due process in the isomorphic equivalents of human rights. the isomorphic equivalents of human rights are enforced by fulfilling duties, which draw on the morality of certain groups. donnelly (1982) introduces four ways in which rights and duties might be correlative: “ (1) a right of a against b implies a duty of b to a. (2) a duty of b to a implies a right of a against b. (3) a right of a against b implies a duty of a to b (4) a duty of a to b implies a right of a against b.” 43 1, and 2 are characteristics of rights claims in the western conception of human rights which demand entitlements with a special force to the enjoyment of certain rights. 1, 2, and 3 are characteristics of the isomorphic equivalents of human rights which demand a duty fulfilment on the right and duty holder. rights and duties are perceived, here, as essential components of the recognition of rights, with a slight difference in the due process, among others. there is a difference between western traditions of rights and the isomorphic traditions in conceptualization. the divergence between human rights and the isomorphic equivalents of human rights can be traced to the fact that each tradition emerged from a different sociopolitical system. hsiung argues, “the meaning of ‘human rights’ in the west is inseparable from the adversarial legacy in which they were conceived.”44 hsiung explains the adversarial tradition, with reference to the long historical clash between classes, in western tradition. this class clash has been influential in informing human rights conceptualization. this, according to hsiung explains the individualistic connotation embedded in western human rights conceptualization. the non-western conceptualization of human rights is influenced by the process of consensual legacy, which prioritizes the social harmony over the concept of individual rights, as hsiung claims. this divergence in conceptualization makes the kind of urge for freedom found in the west incompatible with the urge for freedom in other traditions. in non-western traditions, “there was neither a legacy of adversarial relations, that would press the people to search for abuses of their rights, nor any comparable adversarial experience to enable them to appreciate the significance of the western notion of human rights.”45 that does not mean that 43 donnelly, “how rights and duties are correlative?,” (emphasis added), 288 44 hsiung, “human rights in an east asian perspective,” (emphasis added), 5 45 ibid, 12 in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 50 there is no room for freedom, or rights, in non-western traditions. rather, the idea at hand is to explain the difference in orientations and traditions between human rights conceptualization in the west and the isomorphic equivalents of human rights conceptualization in non-western traditions. a discussion of the differences in human rights conceptualizations and the implications on education shall be the force in the next section. toward a relational conception of human rights education the current paradigm for human rights education focuses on “education about human rights,” while the relational paradigm emphasizes “education for the realization of human rights and their equivalents.” in the latter, the focus is on disseminating rights knowledge utilizing cultural knowledge, while in the former, attention is placed on disseminating rights knowledge, by utilizing the western conceptualization of human rights. the application of the relational approach could aid in the realization of the goals of human rights education. in this approach, human rights are learned within one’s tradition, as well as through other traditions. the relational epistemology imparts knowledge about rights that goes beyond content knowledge. the resulting knowledge can be applied within societies and cultures, in a manner that fosters the attitudes and behaviors necessary to uphold the human rights of all individuals in the globe. in addition to transcending the universalist-relativist debate, the relational epistemology would also eliminate some of the previously described antieducational orthodoxies and issues. meintjes defines empowerment as, “a process through which people and/or communities increase their control or mastery of their lives and the decisions that affect their lives.”46 if people and community are to increase control of their lives, as a prerequisite for empowerment, then human rights education has to draw on the knowledge that exists in the community, which is utilized towards empowerment of individuals and communities simultaneously. in this sense, education is the link between the culture and human rights. this link facilitates the educational process, and represents an embodiment of human rights principles. this link also draws on the individual’s reasons, motives, intentions, and actions, and cultivates all possible learning outcomes. educating for human rights, as a result, becomes more authentically directed towards empowerment. furthermore, a critical pedagogy emerges from applying the relational approach to human rights education. the pedagogy is characterized by being meditational and dialectical in nature. these characteristics shall be explained in the following discussion. 46 garth meintjes, “human rights education as empowerment: reflections on pedagogy,” in human rights education for the twenty first century, ed. george andreopoulus, richard claude (philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press, 1997) in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 51 meditational pedagogy at the outset of this section, it is important to dwell on the meaning of the word “pedagogy.” daniels states that the term pedagogy should be constructed in reference “to the forms of social practice which shape and form the cognitive, effective, and moral development of individuals.”47 pedagogy is linked to the socio-cultural theory, with regard to education and educational psychology. since the emphasis is on theorizing and providing methodological tools for investigating the processes by which social, cultural, and historical factors influence human cognition and function within a society. the socio-cultural theory emphasizes the social, cultural, and historical context, in which learners are nurtured. the social and cultural context has a profound influence on thinking and learning. the socio-cultural context can also be used as an effective instructional practice. the theory asserts that during the social interactions within a community, learners encounter certain ways of thinking, which are characteristic of certain social and cultural patterns of thought. in this theory social interactions need to include mediation if they are to affect cognitive growth. mediation refers to, among others, to cultural mediators of meaning, which included, “language; various systems for counting; mnemonic techniques; algebraic symbols; works of art; writing; schemes, diagrams, maps and mechanical drawings; all sorts of conventional signs.”48 these tools and signs are the means by which interactions between the subject and object are mediated. therefore, the process of mediation helps learners to create a shared understanding with others within a given society. in this context, mediators are means that direct the mental process(es), and are significant aspects of the learners’ culture. culture, according to daniels, provides learners with psychological tools that are important in the learners’ cognitive growth. as an example, in this case, the subject is a human rights learner, the object is human rights knowledge, and the tools refer to the relational epistemology, as expressed in the isomorphic equivalents of human rights. therefore the tools are the mediator of the meaning and the concept and are a part of the pedagogy of human rights education. bruner differentiates between two theories with regard to education. the theories are of pivotal importance, since they are related to human rights education and to the described approach.49 the first theory contains the hypothesis that the mind could be conceived as a computational device, which is defined by bruner as “computationalism.” computationalism is related to the banking model of education, explained by freire.50 the banking model of education and computationalism, marginalize the learner’s agency as a human being, since 47 harry daniels, vygotsky and pedagogy, (new york: routledge falmer, 2001), 1 48 ibid, 15 49 see jerome bruner, the culture of education, (massachusetts: harvard university press, 1996) 50 see freire, pedagogy of the oppressed, (emphasis added) in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 52 information is spoon fed to the learner. the learner is presumed to process information like a computer. this process includes an input and a predicted output. the second theoretical approach is defined by bruner as “culturalism.” it is “the proposal that mind is both constituted by, and realized, in the use of human culture.”51 in this approach, the emphasis is on the nature of mind, since this nature is linked to “the development of a way of life where ‘reality’ is represented by a symbolism shared by members of a cultural community in which a technical-social way of life is both organized and constructed in terms of that symbolism.”52 cultural symbols represent a system of communication that is shared by a community. this system constitutes a conserved form of culture that is elaborated on, preserved, and passed on to succeeding generations, which contribute, maintain, and continue the culture’s identity and way of life.53 the relationship between computationalism, culturalism, and epistemology is manifested in knowledge construction, with regard to human rights. to elaborate further, utilizing one tradition, with regard to human rights conceptualization, as representative of all traditions in the educational process, is an embodiment of both the banking model and computationalism, because the primary focus is placed on feeding the learner with uncontextualized human rights knowledge that does not correspond to the reality of the learner. the uncontextualized knowledge is delivered through “the complex ‘universal models’ [computationalists] proposed are sometimes half-jokingly referred to by them as ‘toes,’ an acronym for ‘theories of everything.’”54 thus, to capitalize on the western conceptualization of human rights knowledge as a universal knowledge about rights is as unmistakably a philosophical fallacy as it is an educational one. in this scenario, human rights knowledge marginalizes the learner, culture, and cultural symbolism that could be viewed as cardinal in cultivating and disseminating rights knowledge. as opposed to computationalism, culturalism places emphasis on symbolism, which uses contextualized meaning from appropriate cultural contexts, to deliver meaning about information: in this case, human rights knowledge. the quest for constructing meaning is almost impossible without symbolism, since: nobody can do it unaided by the culture’s symbolic system. it is culture that provides the tools for organizing and understanding our world in communicable ways…without those tools, whether symbolic or material, man is not a ‘naked ape’ but an empty abstraction.55 51 bruner, the culture of education, (emphasis added), 2 52 ibid, 3 53 ibid 54 ibid, 5 55 ibid, 3 in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 53 human rights education, which is aided by cultural symbols, cultivates beliefs, skills, and feelings that correspond to a culture’s way of interpreting the natural and social world. human rights dissemination, which is grounded on a relational epistemology, advances human rights education in a manner corresponding to the culture’s way of interpreting the world. this advancement is contingent on using cultural symbols that contribute to meaning-making within a relational context. contextualizing meaning, with regard to human rights education, aids cultures in their adaption to change, since the opposite is perceived as “when education narrows its scope of interpretive inquiry, it reduces a culture’s power to adapt to change.”56 the pedagogy involves “a vision (theory, set of beliefs) about society, human nature, knowledge and production, in relation to educational ends, with terms and rules inserted as to the practical and mundane means of their realization.”57 to appropriate this definition of pedagogy to human rights education means that this pedagogy is to consider how social, historical, and cultural institutions impact the process of teaching and learning. it is only with the relational /meditational approach/ pedagogy that an authentic universality, and generalizations of rights, can be recognized. an-na’im asserts: it is not a matter of choice between cultural mediation and other approaches to the universality of human rights. rather, it is simply that there is no alternative to the cultural mediation approach if genuine and lasting universality of human rights is to be achieved.58 the pedagogical aim in this context emphasizes the importance of cultural mediation, symbols, the isomorphic equivalents of human rights, and channels this process towards global human rights education, which cultivates a genuine sense of concern to the well-being of humanity. the approach “demands a respect for the authenticity of mediated frames of meaning: this is the necessary avenue for understanding other forms, that is, generating descriptions that are potentially available to those who have not directly participated in them.”59 in this context, the approach at hand demands respect and recognition of the isomorphic equivalents of human rights to be a starting point for education about human rights in some cultures. human rights education should also be buoyed to infer a common universal experience, based on the particularity of each unique cultural experience. the inference is to consider cultural artefacts, signs, symbols, forms, language, folk stories, texts, etc., or any part of the culture in question, which should be part of the sub-alternate narrative on human rights and human rights education. 56 ibid, 15 57 daniels, vygotsky and pedagogy, (emphasis added), 4 58 an-na'im,“the cultural mediation of human rights,” (emphasis added), 186. 59 see anthony giddens, new rules of sociological method, (stanford: stanford university press, 1993), 152 in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 54 dialectical pedagogy in human rights education it is of cardinal importance to refrain from using the banking model as pedagogy for education. the issue with this pedagogy lies in its impotency in transforming the social reality that is antithetical to human rights. reardon testifies, “most current practices in education focus on transfer of knowledge rather than on the development of the capacities to produce and internalize it; so they remain mechanisms for the pedagogies and politics of the status quo.”60 the utilization of one way of thinking, with regard to human rights, does not cultivate knowledge beyond content knowledge. thus, the focus in this approach is on transferring knowledge. a genuine endeavor would focus on the development of learners’ capacities. the nature of dialectical approach relies on the fact that education for human rights unfolds from within. thus, the learner reflects on the context through learning and active experimentation of the contextual meaning of human rights or its isomorphemes. in this manner, education becomes empowering to learners, considering it makes possible “for people to enter the historical process as responsible subjects.” 61 as responsible subjects, learners are enrolled in a search for self-affirmation in a form of engagement meant to transform concrete objective reality that is antithetical to the preservation and recognition of human dignity. dialectics is premised on the interaction between subjective and objective experience. it is through the amalgamation of two kinds of experiences that a dialectical pedagogy emerges. thus, “the subjective aspect exists only in relation to the objective aspect (the concrete reality, which is the object of analysis). subjectivity and objectivity thus join in a dialectical unity producing knowledge in solidarity with action, and vice versa.”62 in grounding human rights education on a relational epistemology, the subjective aspect to human rights knowledge is linked to the concrete reality of knowledge analysis. hence, a dialectical pedagogy emerges as human rights learners acquire objective knowledge from the tradition. reflecting on objective knowledge is the subjective aspect of knowledge acquisition. freire elaborates: to explain to the masses their own action is to clarify and illuminate that action, both regarding its relationship to the objective facts by which it was prompted, and regarding its purposes. the more the people unveil this challenging reality, 60 see betty reardon, [human rights learning: pedagogies and politics of peace] (keynote address, the university of puerto rico, april 2009), 2. 61 freire, pedagogy of the oppressed, (emphasis added), 36. 62 ibid, 38 in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 55 which is to be the object of their transforming action, the more critically they enter that reality.63 by the same token, human rights education, which is established on a relational epistemology, as in the case of the isomorphic equivalents of human rights, presents human rights knowledge in relation to the objective facts that prompted the recognition of human rights, or their equivalents. hence, the epistemology is perceived, not in terms of explaining to the learners the importance of human rights recognition per se, but rather in terms of dialoguing with learners about their actions and knowledge of rights or their equivalents. the dialogue is critical and liberating, to human rights learners, assuming it is based on a critical reflection which ultimately leads to engagement, in the form of action. engagement, in this sense, becomes praxis as the object of critical reflection.64 to achieve this praxis, it is necessary to trust the learner and her ability to reason. “whoever lacks this trust will fail to initiate (or will abandon) dialogue, reflection, and communication, and will fall into using slogans, …monologues, and instruction.”65 to appropriate freire’s notion of praxis to human rights education implies that human rights knowledge is contingent on history and culture. history and culture provide continuity and potency as sources of the praxis. the dialectical pedagogy is necessary for human emancipation from wrong-doing, it is also a necessary stimulus to human rights recognition. thus, human rights education: must be forged with, not for, the oppressed in the incessant struggle to regain their humanity. this pedagogy makes oppression and its causes objects of reflection by the oppressed, and from that reflection will come their necessary engagement in the struggle for their liberation.66 for freire, to liberate humans within a certain context, it is important to first establish a pedagogy that draws on their condition of existence, as opposed to having a set of principles or established concepts, as a recipe for their liberation. this is due to the logical conclusion that prescribing uncontextualized recipes for human liberation is depriving humans from the process of reflection. this process is an integral part of education, as well as liberation. in deduction human rights education across cultures assumes validity, since it offers the concepts of human rights a representational validity from cultural repertoire of knowledge about human rights. thus, human rights learners can recognize the possible adequacy of some different understandings and learn from differences continually to enrich their own 63 ibid, 53 64 see ibid 65 ibid, 66 66 ibid, 48 in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 56 understanding. this approach to human rights education has pragmatic implications on the educational process, since it offers a suitable, contextualized means (isomorphic equivalents of human rights) to serve the broader end, which is the goal of human rights education. there are two consequences which follow from this approach that influence education locally and globally. on a local level, one assesses the adequacy of understanding human rights with others within the same culture. this provides a potent environment that nurtures human rights dissemination through communication. on a global level, one is able to understand others’ perspectives on human rights, through a comparison between one’s own understanding, and other cultural interpretations of the same topic. the ethnocentric views on human rights are an important component in human rights education. habermas maintains: in moral discourse the ethnocentric perspective of a particular collectivity expands into the comprehensive perspective or an unlimited communication community, all of whose members put themselves in each individual’s situation, worldview, and self-understanding, and together practice an ideal role-taking.67 habermas enumerates four advantages to a border crossing approach, which could be also the advantages of the relational approach. first, it expands one’s understanding. second, it provides an “unlimited communication community.” communication is based on shared understanding within one culture and across cultures. third, this approach closes gaps between cultures and nations, and builds bridges that are based on empathy. fourth, the total process is ideal for “roletaking.” in this approach, each culture or tradition expands its understanding, and accordingly, takes the role necessary to educate for human rights. concluding remarks relationalism is the claim that human rights are to be consistent with the values and the position of the subject in relation to, but not limited to, her context. thus, there is no absolute truth independent of the values and position of the subject and unrelated to the subject’s context.68 this idea means that knowledge should be taught with reference to the subject (the learner) and to the object (human rights), taking into consideration the reciprocal interrelationships between both. in addition to that, this reciprocity has to unfold from a contextspecific historical and cultural experience, given that history and culture inform knowledge in diverse epistemological manifestations. consequently, an adequate understanding of global human rights has to dwell on the relationship between human rights and the isomorphic equivalents of human rights in other 67 jürgen habermas, justification and application, (massachusetts: mit press, 1994), 162 68 see mannheim, ideology and utopia, (emphasis added) in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 57 cultures. thus, human rights education is to expand its source, instead of relying on one tradition. the exploration of more than one tradition is beneficiary to the learner, since it expands the learner’s horizon. understanding, in this context, reaches a high level of validity, since it is perceived as being-in-the world, rather than learning about an abstract conceptualization that does not correspond to the social reality. further studies emerge from this paper that could broaden the collective understanding of relationalism with regard to traditions of justice. some questions arise, such as: is justice a universal conception? is justice a culturally relative concept? it is plausible to argue that justice is a relational concept, since justice is contingent on the culture and the moral system of a certain group. in addition, the implementation of justice has due processes and procedures, which vary across cultures. thus, the relational epistemology could further our understanding of justice, and its aims. as a prerequisite, it is essential not to fall a prey to the dichotomy of universalism and cultural relativism. the dichotomy of universalism and cultural relativism has led to a considerable myopia with regard to the possibility of disseminating human rights globally. this paper has offered an alternative conceptualization of human rights by exploring the sociological foundations of human rights knowledge, which is based on relationalism. the relational approach illuminates the difference between human rights and their isomorphic equivalents, which necessitates a contextual consideration of human rights knowledge. this approach could potentially contribute to the legitimization and the institutionalization of human rights, if considered as means towards that end. bibliography an-na'im, abdullahi. “the cultural mediation of human rights.” in the east asian challenge for human rights. edited by joanne bauer, daniel bell, 147-168. cambridge: cambridge university press, 1999. bell, daniel. “the east asian challenges to human rights: reflection on an east west dialogue.” human rights quarterly, 18, no.3 (1996): 641-667. bouandel, yousef. human rights and comparative politics. aldershot: dartmouth publishing company, 1997. bruner, jerome. the culture of education. massachusetts: harvard university press, 1996. daniels, harry. vygotsky and pedagogy. new york: routledge falmer, 2001. donnelly, jack. universal human rights in theory and practice. ithaca and london: cornell university press, 1989. ____________. “how rights and duties are correlative?” value inquiry 16, no 22 (1982): 287-294. freire, paul. pedagogy of the oppressed. new york: continuum, 2005. in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 38-58 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 58 finnis, john. natural law and natural rights. oxford: clarendon press, 1980. habermas, jürgen. justification and application. massachusetts: mit press, 1994.healy, paul. “human rights and intercultural relations: a hermeneuticaldialogical approach.” philosophy and social criticism 32, no.4 (2206): 513-541. hsiung, james. “human rights in an east asian perspective.” in human rights in east asia. edited by james hsiung, 1-30. new york: paragon house publishers, 1985 macintyre, alasdair. after virtue: a study in moral theory. indiana: university of notre dame press, 1981. mannheim, karl. ideology and utopia. new york: harcourt & brace company, 1940. meintjes, garth. “human rights education as empowerment: reflections on pedagogy.” in human rights education for the twenty first century. edited by george andreopoulus, richard claude, 64-79. philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press, 1997. okafor, obiora ., agbakwa, shedrack .“re-imagining international human rights education in our time: beyond three constitutive orthodoxies.” leiden journal of international law 14, no.3 (2001): 563-590. pollis, adamantia., schwab, peter. “human rights: a western construct with limited applicability.” in human rights: cultural and ideological perspectives. edited by adamantia pollis, peter schwab, 1-18. new york: praeger publishers, 1972. reardon, betty. [human rights learning: pedagogies and politics of peace]. keynote address, the university of puerto rico, april 2009. renteln, allison. international human rights: universalism versus relativism. newbury park: sage publications, 1990. taylor, charles. “the politics of recognition.” in multiculturalism. edited by charles taylor, and amy gutmann, 25-75 . princeton university press, new jersey, 1994. tibbitts, felisa. “understanding what we do: emerging models for human rights education.” international review of education 48, no. 3-4 (2002): 159-17. microsoft word kazuyo v12.1.docx in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 100-102 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 100 volume 12 number 1 (2018): 100-102 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review for the people: a documentary history of the struggle for peace and justice in the united states, edited by charles f. howlettt and robbie lieberman, charlotte, nc, information age publishing, 2009, 351 pp., us $39.09 (paperback), us $73.09 (hardcover), isbn 978-1-60752-305-5 (paperback.) reviewed by kazuyo yamane ritsumeikan university ky5131jp@fc.ritsumei.ac.jp for the people is a book on the struggle and efforts for peace and justice in us history from pre-colonial times to the present. each chapter begins with a brief introduction of history with primary source documents and some questions for readers, especially for students to discuss various issues in each historical document. there are also photographs on various issues for peace and justice. the list of references on the most important works in us peace history is useful for students and readers to research more. the contents consist of a ‘foreword’ by larry wittner, an ‘introduction’, ‘early forms of peace and justice from precolonial times to the creation of a new nation (chapter 1), ‘the organized movement and the search for justice in antebellum america’ (chapter 2), ‘standing up for the oppressed in an age of expansion’ (chapter 3), ‘early 20th century peace efforts and a “modern" movement’ (chapter 4), ‘radical pacifism and economic and racial justice’ in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 100-102 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 101 (chapter 5), ‘nonviolent direct action for equality and disarmament’ (chapter 6), ‘protesting imperialism, promoting democracy’ (chapter 7), ‘ a broad agenda’ (chapter 8), and a ‘conclusion’, followed by ‘photos’ and ‘references’. the content includes not only peace movements but also struggles for human rights, such as the rights of african americans, native americans, working people, women, immigrants, and so forth. movements to deal with issues on the environment and sustainable development are also introduced as well as the importance of peace education, which makes the book comprehensive to the study of peace and justice. it is pointed out in the ‘introduction’ that ‘movements for peace and justice still receive little attention in secondary schools and college survey courses’ (xxi). not only students but also many american and international readers will learn more about the american struggle and efforts for peace and justice for the first time by reading this book. movements for peace and justice are often not reported in the media and also such a history is not well-written in school textbooks in many countries. therefore, it is eye-opening and encouraging for readers in the us and abroad to know more about the american people’s efforts for peace and justice. the book should be read abroad because there are different ideas on various issues such as nuclear weapons in different countries. for example, most japanese people may not know that many americans have also been working hard for the abolition of nuclear weapons. it is encouraging for japanese people to know more about this, as they may then feel greater solidarity with american people. in the book, an emphasis is put on non-violent and peaceful ways to deal with issues for peace and justice. many readers could learn much from these alternative ways to deal with issues without using force. the book also shows not only the importance of individual efforts for peace and justice but also the power of action by united peoples. concerned citizens can learn what to do and how to deal concretely with various social and political issues from this book. though an excellent and thought-provoking book, it would additionally be beneficial if other peace leaders, such as barbara reynolds (1915 – 1990), could be introduced in the next edition of the book. reynolds and her family sailed in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 100-102 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 102 the ship “phoenix” to protest against hydrogen bomb tests in the pacific ocean in 1958. reynolds’ husband, dr. earle reynolds as captain, was put under arrest. her family was influenced by a yacht called “the golden rule” in which four quakers had tried to protest the american hydrogen bomb tests in the pacific ocean, but they were arrested, which is introduced in the book for the people. subsequently, barbara reynolds founded the world friendship center in hiroshima on august 7th, 1965, to provide a place where people from many nations can meet, share their experiences, and reflect on peace. thus, her work is worthy of inclusion in this fine text. additionally, the peace resource center at wilmington college in ohio is also noteworthy because it was founded in 1975 as well by barbara reynolds. the inclusion of reynolds would provide an added gender dimension to the work, as well as discussion of how americans have influenced peace movements in the us and abroad. it would also be beneficial if the peace and justice studies association (pjsa) could be introduced in the book. this is because, according to its website, the pjsa “serves as a professional association for scholars in the field of peace and conflict studies. pjsa is dedicated to bringing together academics, educators, and activists to explore alternatives to violence and share visions and strategies for peacebuilding, social justice, and social change.” the inclusion of pjsa will expand the study into the present as this society actively engages in contemporary social movements to address the peace and social justice issues of today. in conclusion, the book is very good for many readers across the world, especially students studying social studies and american history as well as those studying peace and conflict studies. it would also be a positive contribution to the global field of peace studies if the book could be translated into many languages. democratizing_global_justice_final 13-9-10 volume 7 number 2 (2013): 86-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal democratizing global justice: the world tribunal on iraq janet gerson if world peace is to be constituted—and this is an absolute necessity for our world to continue to exist—we need to develop the bases for a different approach to justice, judgment, and institutions. hilal küey, world tribunal on iraq (wti) what does one do with one’s words but reach for a place beyond war, ask for a new constellation of political life in which the relations of colonial subjugation are brought to a halt…we can or, rather, must start with how we speak, and how we listen, with the right to education, and to dwell critically, fractiously, and freely in political discourse together. perhaps the word “justice” will assume new meanings as we speak it…1 judith butler can justice be enlarged to the global level? this article explores the world tribunal on iraq (wti), a global civil society tribunal, and its contributions to democratizing post-conflict justice deliberations. this study reflects the wti’s self-understanding as enacting an innovative reclaimative justice tribunal form. as a political theorist and peace educator, i aspire to doing scholarship that contributes to advancing global justice. at first glance, the aims of political theory research and peace education might seem disparate, even incompatible. political theory tends to focus on institutional arrangements and often hierarchical power relations, generally within and between nation-states. peace education is typically identified with schools and teaching in everyday faceto-face relations with students. however, global justice, i believe, necessitates democratizing justice. by that i mean that justice must be conceptualized as more than institution-based and/or in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 87 systems-based, although these too are important. to bridge the apparent incongruence, a comparative approach is applicable. a comparative approach to global justice comes from scrutinizing people’s outcries for more justice, as amartya sen asserted (2009). when people around the world protest “outrageously unjust arrangements” (p. 26), they are attempting to resist injustice and to reclaim their consideration and participation in what just policy should be. by including people’s voices, authority, and participation, the conception of justice can be enlarged. theoretically speaking, democratizing justice broadens the issue of justice beyond the problem of global governance or global institutions for law, judgment, and enforcement. but how can people’s voices be included, coordinated, enacted? how can the social dimension of justice be reclaimed in furthering global justice? the gap between institutional arrangements and worldwide people’s protests is similar to the apparent gap between political theory and the real life accounts that emerge in face-to-face peace education social learning. global civil society tribunals are one type of undertaking to bridge the gap between institutional-political and social-political approaches to enhancing global justice. the world tribunal on iraq (wti) was a global civil society tribunal generated in response to the 2003 war and occupation of iraq. the wti, i argue, was an innovative form of post-conflict justice tribunal, reclaimative justice, in which the wti sought to build upon the communicative, democratizing practices of social justice movements. the wti coordinated a two-year process that engaged people’s diverse perspectives on the problem of the war through deliberation on critical-analytic, ethical-moral, and collective social-political action. the wti-coordinated public deliberations on global justice provide a record of how global citizens can engage social justice movement learning in order to bridge the gap between institutional-based and face-to-face learning. this is the emphasis of my study on the wti. the wti’s self-understanding was to address the broad imperative for peace and justice as articulated by hilal küey, one of the coordinators of the wti: if world peace is to be constituted—and this is an absolute necessity for our world to continue to exist—we need to develop the bases for a different approach to justice, judgment, and institutions (küey, 2008, p. 476). the statement comes from a presentation by the wti istanbul coordination (wti-ic), five women who declared that they alone were not the wti, but rather part of a two-year collective effort that involved people from all over the world (berktay, 2008, p. 468). the culminating session of the wti was published in 2008 as the world tribunal on iraq: making a case against war.2 this documentary text – and especially their self-description in “the wti as an alternative: an experimental assertion” (pp. 468-483) – is the source from which this paper is drawn. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 88 judith butler poses the inquiry behind the wti-ic’s self-understanding: how can people engage in public contestation, to disagree, to let multiple differences co-exist, and still continue to engage “freely” and respectfully together? butler points to the necessity to find ways of engaging communicatively without domination and without violence. this is especially necessary for engaging in contentious politics. with words, we can also be violent. but our abilities to communicate, to deliberate, and to learn from each other hold the potential for new understandings of justice. butler asks: what does one do with one’s words but reach for a place beyond war, ask for a new constellation of political life in which the relations of colonial subjugation are brought to a halt…we can or, rather, must start with how we speak, and how we listen, with the right to education, and to dwell critically, fractiously, and freely in political discourse together. perhaps the word “justice” will assume new meanings as we speak it…3 the wti established a global public space, as butler suggests, in which “to dwell critically, fractiously, and freely in public discourse together.” thus, my thesis is that the wti provided a context for public deliberation as a social communicative means to enlarge and deepen a shared understanding of what global justice can mean. the problem of global justice was brought to the forefront on the weekend of february 15, 2003, when millions of people worldwide participated in coordinated antiwar protests. yet, despite the immense worldwide protest, the war on iraq was launched. the wti was formed in reaction, to contest and to resist the us decision to attack and subsequently occupy iraq. the wti and global civil society tribunals the world tribunal on iraq (wti) was an experimental global civil society tribunal project4 that took place from 2003-2005. the wti built upon the momentum of global public outrage and protest regarding the injustices of the war in iraq, specifically, the challenge presented by the us/uk invasion and occupation. this counterhegemonic tribunal model challenged the dominate discourse on the war in iraq, thereby attempting to influence who could write the history of the war, whose voices would be heard, what account of the events and processes would prevail, and, from this discursive struggle, what understandings of justice would contest or support conduct in the global community. in this sense, the wti was grounded in social justice and resisting oppression by voicing the concerns of a global public. global civil society tribunals are an increasingly used form for transnational deliberation and social-political organizing (borowiak, 2008; falk, 2008b, 2007; sökmen, 2008; falk, gendzier and lifton, 2006; maeda, 2007, 2003a, 2003b; klinghoffer and klinghoffer, 2002; chinkin, 2001; matsui, 2001, 2000). this was the case with the wti. the wti was shaped, organized, and sustained by a coalition of global civil society activist groups, concerned individuals, scholars, and international jurists. the wti did not have official or legal institutional authority. instead, the organizers claimed to draw their authority from the in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 89 convergence of people from all over the world who participated in antiwar protests. but how was this social-political organizing and transnational deliberation accomplished? global civil society tribunals like the wti that arise out of protest movements from diverse perspectives all face this challenge: how to transform a convergence of protesters decrying injustice into a coordinated tribunal project? the wti addressed this organizing challenge through 1) claiming the legitimacy of people who protested the war as legitimate voices and authority, 2) asserting “we the peoples” and “human-to-human” connections as a basis for determining questions of justice, 3) establishing relations of shared responsibility rather than hierarchical organization, 4) reclaiming ethical and moral principles from both official international documents and social movement organizing, 5) engaging democratic principles for deliberation while inviting inclusion of diverse—even contradictory—positions and perspectives from the global antiwar movement, 6) generating an experimental two-year tribunal form that mixed polycentric flexible local forms with the deliberative intensity of a culminating session, and 7) assessing the process of deliberation as well as the tribunal’s concrete accomplishments. these dimensions reflect the findings of my in-progress study, “public deliberation on global justice: the world tribunal on iraq.” i take the position that the efficacy of civil society tribunals should not be evaluated by the standards of official political or legal or judicial institutions. the efficacy, at least of non-official tribunals, does not lie in the criteria of official change, diminution of systemic violence, or enforcement of law. rather, the efficacy of nonofficial, non-institutional tribunals should be judged on their contributions toward enlarging the scope of justice, specifically, to include people’s voices and authority, democratizing processes, and participation in deliberation on issues of injustice. in the case of the wti, this was accomplished by means of coordinating comparative pluralistic and epistemological approaches that enriched the deliberations, thereby advancing a shared understanding of justice. it is hoped that the case of the wti and this study will make a modest contribution to the scholarly discourse on the problem of global justice. thus,, following habermas (1998, 1993), fraser (2009, 2008, 2007, 2005, 1997), sen (2009), nussbaum (2006), and snauwaert (2010a, 2010c, 2004, 2002), i will explore the problem as one focused on how the wti enabled an enriched, more complex, comparative understanding of justice. each of these authors grapples with rawls’ concepts of justice as fairness, rawl’s applicability to actual politics and governance (2005, 2001a, 2001b, 1971), and his attempt to expand the concept of justice beyond the official state in law of peoples (2001b). global civil society tribunals, by responding to gaps in existing institutions, must create some aspects of their own form. new procedures and new discursive rules are generated in the process of formulating new interpretations. these have the potential to become influential in peoples’ thinking, not only in social justice movement practices, but also in legal and official domains. thus, global civil society tribunals can serve as important bridges in the gap between people’s concerns and institutional arrangements for stabilizing justice. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 90 post-conflict justice tribunals the wti, a tribunal organized by global civil society, provoked many questions: can justice be advanced by a social movement project? can the legality of a war be questioned through non-official means? can there even be global justice without institutional and official authorities adjudicating? critics of the wti and even the organizers themselves posed these challenges.5 the us-led war and particularly the occupation of iraq raised calls to further develop jus post bellum, the theory of justice after war. scholars in multiple disciplines have pointed out the need for conceptualizing principles and practices for post-conflict justice — in international relations, moral philosophy, legal theory, ethics studies, and political theory, etc. (cohen, 2012; orend, 2007, 2006; stahn, 2006; williams and caldwell, 2006, evans, 2005; bass, 2004). recent literature on post-conflict justice identifies two conceptual types, retributive and restorative (hayner, 2010; clark, 2008; bass, 2004, cassese, 2004; stover and weinstein, 2004; eisnaugle, 2003; teitel, 2000; rotberg and thompson, 2000; kiss, 2000; tutu, 1999; minow, 1998). retributive justice tribunals, exemplified by the nuremberg tribunal on nazi germany’s world war ii crimes, have a primary focus on criminal justice, with judgment and punishment for crimes. in retributive justice, the domain of justice is state-centric, i.e. crimes are prosecuted as crimes against the state, thereby leading to the reinforcement of the rule of law as administered by the state. in international law, crimes are against the international community of nations, which is officially coordinated through the united nations and other treaty bodies. crimes are the central concern with judgments of guilt leading to punishment, thereby reinforcing the rule of the law. the nuremberg tribunal was a precedent-setting milestone in international law and for the majority of tribunals since the formation of the united nations. the nuremberg tribunal was formed by the victor nations of wwii and operationalized as a trial with judges, the accused, and lawyers for prosecution and defense. … the tribunal shall have the power to try and punish persons who, acting in the interests of the european axis countries, whether as individuals or as members of organizations, committed any of the following crimes: a) crimes against peace…b) war crimes… [and] c) crimes against humanity… (international law commission, 1949, p. 4). retributive justice tribunals rely on official and legal authority. the focus was on the perpetrators of the crimes as delineated in the nuremberg charter, which defined the “scope of jurisdiction” (ibid). judgments of guilt or innocence were determined and punishments decided. german defendants found guilty were either executed or imprisoned. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 91 retributive justice in international law, as exemplified by nuremberg, has been critiqued as “victor’s justice,” meaning the military victors enacted a tribunal in which the leaders of the losing nation were tried and punished for their war crimes. at the same time, the victors themselves were not prosecuted for their possible war crimes.6 restorative justice tribunals, exemplified by the south africa truth and reconciliation commission (trc), focus on restoring society and renewing the legitimacy of governance. in restorative justice, the domain of justice extends beyond the state to emphasize victims, truthtelling, and restoration of society. in particular, there is a focus on the victims of injustice and the inclusion of their stories without the cross-examination procedure characteristic of retributive justice. the name restorative justice comes from the 1998 final report of south africa’s trc, which conducted the tribunal. …the tendency to equate justice with retribution must be challenged and the concept of restorative justice considered as an alternative. this means that amnesty in return for public and full disclosure (as understood within the broader context of the commission) suggests a restorative understanding of justice, focusing on the healing of victims and perpetrators and on communal restoration (vol. 1, p. 118). often, confessions are exchanged for amnesty, that is, individuals are not prosecuted for their criminal acts, but instead are offered reprieve from criminal prosecution in exchange for their telling the truth about what happened. attaining a truthful record of individual responsibility, often from those in official roles of high authority, is prioritized over punishment. in other words, amnesty is offered in exchange for confessions. in addition, restorative justice is considered a part of transitional justice, a complex of processes to reformulate and reconstruct a discredited state. this was linked in the south africa trc final report with reconciliation among the victims and perpetrators, among the divided citizens. the basis was claimed in restoring the dignity and humanity to both victims and perpetrators in order to move on and rebuild the nation shared by various communities and the individual people who constituted them. the road to reconciliation, therefore, means both material reconstruction and the restoration of dignity. it involves the redress of gross inequalities and the nurturing of respect for our common humanity. it entails sustainable growth and development of the spirit of ubuntu…it implies wide-ranging structural and institutional transformation and the healing of broken human relationships. it demands guarantees that the past will not be repeated. it in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 92 requires restitution and the restoration of our humanity as individuals, as communities and as a nation (ibid, p. 110). the african term ubuntu entered discussions of reconciliation as a significant component of post-conflict justice. as far as traditional african values are concerned, the fundamental importance of ubuntu must be highlighted. ubuntu, generally translated as ‘humaneness’, expresses itself metaphorically in umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu – ‘people are people through other people’. in the words of constitutional court justice makgoro: ‘its spirit emphasizes respect for human dignity, marking a shift from confrontation to conciliation’ (ibid, p. 127). thus, restorative justice expanded the understanding of justice after war to include “correcting the imbalances, restoring broken relationships—with healing, harmony, and reconciliation” (kiss, 2000, p. 69). while there can be healing and restoration of a functioning society, these high moral and social aspirations can leave much disappointment. perhaps this is why the term transitional justice has become the more commonly used term. transitional justice captures the problematic and pragmatic adjustments that reforming states must go through.7 in summary, both of these conceptions of post-conflict justice tribunals – retributive and restorative – were established to fulfill societal needs that neither the international community following world war ii nor the national community in south africa following apartheid had the institutional means to accomplish. all wars are different and not surprisingly, it follows that all post-conflict efforts are particularly shaped to address the contexts in which they are enacted. tribunals have been theorized into these two general conceptualizations of post-conflict justice—retributive and restorative. these conceptualizations are useful in both understanding past tribunals and in organizing new ones. however, each tribunal is a unique and innovative mixture. like the wti, the nuremberg tribunal and the south africa’s trc were also innovative, experimental responses to their particular historical contexts. using the examples of nuremberg for retributive justice and south africa’s trc for restorative justice helps to capture basic differences. what kind of post-conflict justice did the wti understand itself to be enacting? the wti aimed to address the accountability of those responsible for the destructive war and occupation of iraq. the wti was an alternative form of post–conflict justice: it did not involve all parties to the conflict, it did not take place in iraq or involve primarily iraqis, and it did not wait until the actual end to belligerence. thus, it does not fit either the model for retributive justice or the model for restorative transitional justice. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 93 it is generally accepted that official tribunals, if successfully formulated, sustained, and completed, can reframe collective and legal norms. most of the literature on tribunals evaluates their legitimacy from the standpoint of legal scholarship (sands, 2005; teves, 2005; sob, 1998; taylor, 1973) and/or from the efficacy of their challenge (borowiak, 2008; klinghoffer & klinghoffer, 2001; blaser, 1992). at least in the case of civil society tribunals, however, i propose that they should be assessed by another standard: what are their conceptual and practical contributions to: 1. critical analysis of power relations and actions that are broadly protested as unjust 2. ethical-moral principles and social-political aspirations, including those already codified in international law and institutions 3. forms in which democratizing justice through diverse pluralities and participation can be coordinated toward strategic changes in the transnational discourse in order to formulate a common platform for action 4. exchange of knowledge and experiences as well as intensive examining of moral principles that already exist in official texts and that can be reclaimed 5. deliberations with other perspectives toward transformed views and broader understandings of what is possible 6. cooperatively formulated strategies for future action based on transformed understandings and new knowledge. according to the wti, the us invasion of iraq and the way in which the war was conducted were violations of principles of jus ad bellum and jus en bello (shiner, 2008, pp. 1428). both the war and the ensuing belligerent occupation of iraq provoked a rethinking of postconflict justice, especially in light of the widely perceived roll-back and undermining of international law and the un (cohen, 2012; orend, 2007, 2006; stahn, 2006; williams and caldwell, 2006, evans, 2005; bass, 2004). the un failed to sustain its legitimacy because of its inability to act as an international forum to settle conflicts among nations. it further failed to fulfill its obligations to protect peace for people of the world as stated in the un charter and to fulfill its own ethos of human rights and equality as stated in the universal declaration of human rights. the most alarming breaches of collective international relations were the disproportionate use of violence by the united states in conducting the war. perhaps, the most tragic aspect was the lack of preparation for returning iraq securely to its people after declaring the war to be over. it could possibly be argued that the war was justified in bringing down the dictatorship of saddam hussein, but the iraqi people and nation continue to suffer. furthermore, for those who protested the war, the invasion itself constituted a violation of human dignity. wti-ic presenter hilal küey stated this as follows: this war, which has violated the collective conscience of the peoples of the world as well as international documents, in violating the law did not only breach some signed and stamped documents but also violated people’s hopes and beliefs in the future, and that this, in fact, is the real atrocious crime and traumatic violation. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 94 otherwise, once again, we will be deprived of the human dignity that we have lost en masse in iraq (2008, p. 476). both temporally and spatially, the wti proposed a new way of conceptualizing post-conflict justice. temporally, from a social justice perspective, the initiation of deadly conflict, particularly one viewed as unjust, is the point at which post-conflict justice can begin. for the people affected by the war, it is unjust to wait until official authorities decide the deadly conflict has ended before the principles of post-conflict justice become relevant. spatially, the wti asserted that the war on iraq was an ethical-moral violation of the human dignity of people all over the world, not just those people in iraq. the “hopes and beliefs in the future” are dependent on realizing and recognizing the interdependence of the global human community on each other (maeda, saruto, and inamori, 2008, pp. 188-208; fasy, 2008, pp. 209-11). the most radical political innovation proposed by the wti was to proclaim the role of authority for “peoples of the world” (küey, 2008, p. 476), particularly those who protested the war. the wti coordinators self-identified as people of a global moral community that was also political, “a civil global collective subject acting as a counterpart in the field of the force of nation-states” (çubukçu, 2008a, p. 482). those contributing to the tribunal understood themselves to be global citizens and subjects who could claim rights and duties, and most importantly, the authority to stand up to the outrageous arrangements of injustice (a. sen, 2009). from this common moral identification of people of conscience, the wti generated a broad common critique of the us/uk-led war and the un’s failure to stop the war and the belligerent occupation. the wti’s reclaimative post-conflict justice what does reclaiming justice mean? what does it entail? my thesis is that reclaimative post-conflict justice is primarily directed toward realigning claims for justice in times of upheaval and “radical political change.”8 this need is distinct from other identified types of post-conflict justice, although arguably related. while retributive justice takes a legal approach, especially using international law, and restorative justice emphasizes a political and societal approach within a given state, both have institutional orientations and may also be part of transitional justice processes (teitel, 2000). in other words, official institutional authorities have enacted both retributive and restorative justice post-conflict justice tribunals, even though restorative justice examples have engaged citizens, victims, and perpetrators in new ways. reclaimative justice is distinct because it arises from people without institutional or official authority. as wti-ic speaker ayşe berktay explained: we believed in ourselves. we did not regard ourselves as inferior subjects who could only be expected to come up with evidence on the basis of which the superior authorities would run assessments and make judgments, but also as active subjects, capable of in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 95 making evaluations and reaching a judgment to reclaim justice, as well as taking action to have these decisions implemented (2008, p. 469). reclaimative justice does not arise from international or from nation-state intentions. instead, reclaimative post-conflict justice arises from global citizens coordinating action for non-violent justice, justice that is both for and also of the people it is intended to protect and defend. reclaimative justice, as enacted by the wti, was a means to reclaim the bases for peace and justice in the face of the deadly conflict, upheaval, failure, and loss of legitimacy precipitated by the war of aggression launched against iraq. despite ambitions and aspirations, the wti coordinators realized that they did not have the means to stop the war or to regain sovereignty for the iraqi people. but the wti did attempt to reclaim the bases for legitimacy in justice by democratizing justice. reclaiming the “social” in social justice the wti reclaimed social justice by reaffirming the common critique of the antiwar movement, identifying ethical-moral principles that were commonly accepted, asserting the legitimate authority of people’s voices, and engaging democratic practices of participation. in doing so the wti constituted a type of solidarity that emphasized individuality and a multiplicity of differences rather than a uniform ideology or political affiliation. from a common moral identification as people of conscience, the wti generated a critique of the us/uk-led war and occupation and the un’s failure to stop them. the wti’s critique had to be very broad in order to include the participation of people from many diverse points of view. as wti-ic presenter ayça çubukçu stated, the wti came together “in order to express and strengthen the antiwar resistance collectively and globally by embedding the opposition to this outrageous war in concrete evidence and testimony” (2008a, p. 481). the wti process offered a public platform and opportunity for public recognition to a wide variety of activist groups to present their particular work on the war and occupation. working together, these groups could reach much greater audiences than any of them could through the means usually available to them.9 the wti came together through three international meetings—in jakarta, brussels, and istanbul. the platform for action was launched in october 2004 (http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=1). hearings were organized in twenty cities, covering different issues related to the war and occupation. they included research on the participation of governments and corporations from each of the localities and states where the hearings took place. each group developed its own orientation. for example, the new york city cooper union hearing in may 2004 was in large part a teach-in on international law. photographs of violations in iraq were paired with specific articles of international law crimes. the international criminal tribunal on iraq-japan (icti-jp) took place in a number of cities and engaged young lawyers with activists to develop case material for the icc. in other words, the various hearings were not in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 96 confined to one kind of format, procedure, or epistemological criterion. instead, the wti encouraged open, reasoned scrutiny from multiple means of knowing and exchanging. thus, through a very broad common critique and a flexible polycentric organization, the wti managed to coordinate participation from people with divergent, even contradictory ideologies, strategies, and long-term aims, many of who would not otherwise work together. what was required was that the hearing organizers connect with the broad defining statement, the wti platform for action, which served as the equivalent of by-laws, a charter, a statute, or a mission statement. the most basic statement of the wti’s reclaimative justice was the platform of action’s claim that it represented people who rejected the war and were “convinced of the duty of all people of conscience to take action against wars of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other breaches of international law” (http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2003/10/20_istambul_iraq-tribunal_print.htm ). in addition to the broad critique of the war and the broadly stated platform for action, the wti situated itself within a cosmopolitan ethic. the social arguments must be grounded in ethical-moral bases to contribute to enlarging justice. as martin luther king, jr. famously stated from jail in birmingham, alabama, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (1963). thus, while most of the wti participants and contributors were not iraqis, they nevertheless claimed that the war on iraq was for them also a violation of global humanity and a threat to the ethical and moral bases of justice in human global society everywhere. a cosmopolitan ethic captures this enlarged scope of a global, socially interconnected, moral community. in this conception of moral community, each and every person has inherent dignity and therefore is entitled to certain rights, as well as having responsibility to the human community. human dignity is the first inviolable principle in the universal declaration of human rights. subsequent human rights covenants and treaties of international law are based on this fundamental principle. human dignity and a global inclusive moral community as expressed in the cosmopolitan ethic are fundamental to conceptions of peace and justice, according to peace education scholars betty reardon and dale snauwaert (reardon and snauwaert, 2011; reardon, 2011, 2001, 1997, 1993, 1988; reardon and cabezudo, 2002; snauwaert, 2011, 2010a, 2010b, 2010c, 2002; opotow, gerson and woodside, 2005). they argue that the cosmopolitan ethic is important for political efficacy in futhering peace and justice, which i believe is exemplified by the wti’s concept of reclaimative justice. the wti’s cosmopolitan ethic was an orientation that invited more people’s participation and mutual cooperation. reclaimative justice, as expressed by the wti, engaged a cosmopolitan ethic as a common framing; yet it was also much more. reclaimative justice contains the demand that justice is constituted by the fulfillment of already promised rights. ayşe berktay, a wti-ic speaker, identified the worldwide sense of violation of these promised rights by the us/uk leaders of the invasion of iraq: in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 97 they violated everything so flagrantly; they assaulted our futures so blatantly, and they continued their mean ways despite such global opposition from divergent groups and sectors that it was impossible not to rise up in protest (2008, p. 468). arundhati roy, indian author-activist and spokesperson for the jury of conscience, opened the culminating session by stating that “the assault on iraq is an assault on all of us: on our dignity, our intelligence, and our future” (p. 4). roy’s assertion assumes that the “assault” was beyond physical dimensions of body or location. violations of justice are also violations of our intangible rights to our humanity and humanity’s interconnectedness. the wti platform states a central dilemma for organizing: being confronted with the paradox that we want to end impunity but we do not have the enforcement power to do so, we have to follow a middle way between mere political protest and academic symposiums without any judicial ambition on the one hand, and on the other hand, procedural trials of which the outcome is known beforehand. this paradox implies that we are just citizens and therefore have no right to judge in a strict judicial way and have at the same time the duty as citizens to oppose criminal and war policies, which should be our starting point and our strength (http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=1). the wti’s hilal küey, who drew upon the statue of the international court of justice (icj), addressed this problem on ethical-moral grounds. article 38 of this document states that what is fair and good supersedes what is written in the law. this principle of ex aequo et bono was also used in the nuremberg tribunal to address the gaps and limits in the law as it existed. the principle can be used, as it was in nuremberg, to challenge laws that are “on the books,” but are unjust and allow for official violation of basic moral principles. in summary, the wti saw its legitimacy to be based on ex aequo et bono and on human rights and universal moral principles that should take precedent over weaknesses in law or failures of official institutions. theorizing global justice how can global justice be advanced? through his investigations into the ideal of justice, as constituted by ideal arrangements of institutions within an ideal context of liberal democracy, john rawls re-energized political theory. he based his theory of justice on basic principles of fairness and equality, with open scrutiny and public reason as the means to formulate just policies. in response to rawls, jürgen habermas focused on communicative interaction and discourse ethics. public deliberations in a democracy had to reflect inclusion of all voices affected to support the legitimacy of democratic institutions of law and governance (habermas, 1998). in response to rawls, habermas tilted his theory of justice and democracy toward the citizens engaging in public deliberation directed toward official policy and decision makers. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 98 the wti-ic took this further. another of the five wti-ic speakers, hülya üçpinar, asserted the public’s fundamental right and responsibility to critique the law. her statement addressed the wti dilemma of wanting to call into account those responsible for the war, while acknowledging that the wti was neither a legal tribunal nor official authority. in the following statement, üçpinar projects a future orientation for global and democratized justice, while underscoring the wti’s intent to reclaim fundamental principles of law in relation to the people affected by it: the fundamental principles of international law, written documents, the international customary law, and local laws are the legal means to have our demand evaluated. however, we are of the opinion that these means are insufficient….law is a dynamic social-political field, which is open for development. and we believe we can contribute to the development of international law by means of both the facts laid out by the prosecution and by the end decision of the [wti jury of conscience]. it is also obligatory to contribute to the improvement of law through the criticism of the existing jurisprudence. (üçpinar, 2008, p. 477). in contrast to both rawls and habermas, the wti’s üçpinar asserted that collective human conscience should inform laws, and that the sense of justice should be considered in determining the legitimacy of law itself. “even though the actions that are defined as crimes according to the common human conscience have not yet been defined by any written document of law,” she maintained, “we are asking the [wti] jury [of conscience] to evaluate them in the culminating decree” (ibid). the wti-ic saw themselves as building on the antiwar movement and people’s sense of the illegality, illegitimacy, and immorality of the war. this is theoretically explicated by amartya sen in his the idea of justice (2009). sen proposes a further democratization of justice by including people’s expressions against injustices and considering them through complementary and comparative analyses. for sen, understanding the cutting edge of justice comes from looking at injustice, especially when voiced by diverse groups of people with different critiques but all on the same issue-event. thus, for sen, guidance for policy problemsolving and decision-making is illuminated when people around the world clamor for more justice. when people across the world agitate to get more global justice – and i emphasize here the comparative word ‘more’ – they are not clamoring for some kind of ‘minimal humanitarianism.’ nor are they agitating for a ‘perfectly just’ world society, but merely for the elimination of some outrageously unjust arrangements to enhance global justice, as adam smith or condorcet or mary wollstonecraft did in their own time, and on which agreements can be generated through public discussion, despite divergence of views on other matters” (sen, 2009, p. 26). (italics in original). in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 99 when sen spoke of “people across the world agitat[ing] to get more global justice,” he had in mind the february 15, 2003 antiwar global protests (ibid., p. 2). his point is that arguments against the proposed invasion came from multiple diverse perspectives that “can still lead to the same conclusion – in this case, that the policy chosen by the us-led coalition in starting the war in iraq in 2003 was mistaken (p. 3). sen’s argument is that the idea of justice is comparative, that it arises from the reasoned diagnosis from multiple perspectives, and from reasoned outcries against “outrageous arrangements of injustice” from people whose sense of justice has been violated. the intention, then, is to move from the diagnosis of injustice, from protest and critique, to finding ways to advance justice (p. 5). sen’s comparative justice is also “realization-focused,” that is, social comparisons from already existing arrangements that can lead to doable enactments (p. 7). he contrasts his realization-focused comparison approach with rawls and others’ “transcendental institutionalism,” which focuses on ideal arrangements for developing theories to advance justice. sen argues that enlarging the scope and understanding of justice is a practical imperative, given current awareness of global problems. at the same time, arguments abound against the possibility of global justice because justice is understood to be dependent on institutionalization. global or transnational justice understood as “transcendental institutionalism” is only deemed possible through institutionalization through some form of global state (ibid, pp., 24-27). this is reflected in the two post-conflict justice models that depend on militaryor un-organized international law tribunals and nation-state restorative justice tribunals. without global governance, sen explains, “questions of a global justice appear to transcendentalists to be unreasonable” (p. 25). however, sen refocuses the understanding of global justice away from the ideals of justice to the more accessible idea of injustice. in doing so, he re-orients the discussion away from institutions and toward the people who are affected by injustice. he does this by starting with a plurality of people from diverse circumstances protesting against what they understand and experience as outrageous arrangements of injustice (p. 26). in light of sen’s reformulation, consider the wti’s self-understanding of its project as stated reflectively in the preface of the documentary text making a case against war: when initiating the wti process, we knew that the antiwar movement was not homogeneous; everybody had different reasons to oppose this war. the starting group included renowned experts in international law, people who worked for the united nations on varying levels, peace activists, philosophers, political scientists, conscientious objectors, alter-globalization activists, and others with diverse identifications. some of us believed that it would suffice to improve the existing international institutions and international law; some of us believed that those should be abolished all together; some of us defined ourselves as world citizens; some of us gave precedence to national, regional, or ethnic identities.… but our common aim brought us together to work through our differences…it was in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 100 clear that we needed to raise our voices, to resist, and to find creative ways of resistance in order to reclaim our future, in order for the world even to have a future. it was also clear that we needed to work as hard as and be as creative as the enemies of humanity (sökmen, 2008, pp. ix-x). here wti-ic presenter müge gürsoy sökmen helps us see that people contributing to the wti reflect sen’s perspective that people “can have a strong sense of injustice on many grounds,” while also reaching the same conclusion (2009, p. 2), a conclusion grounded in their everyday lives. portuguese political theorist boaventura sousa de santos, like amartya sen, picks up the thread of theorizing justice from people’s protests, especially in his writing on the world social forum, (2006). in addition, santos and co-author leo avritzer focus on people’s socialcommunicative practices to address injustice. in proposing an alternative to a social contract theory of the relation of citizens to institutional authorities, santos explores a theory of social relations and shared responsibilities. he proposes focusing on “social grammars and contexts” with special attention to “practices of participation and deliberation” (santos and avritzer, 2005, p. vi). the world social forum provided an experiential model for the wti. central to the wti’s approach were two principles santos brings to the forefront as ways to move toward a radical form of what he calls “high-intensity democracy.” this can be done by “deepening authority-sharing and respect for difference in the social domains where the democratic rule is already acknowledged,” as in official institutional arrangements, and “by spreading democracy to a larger and larger number of domains of social life. … to radicalize democracy is to transform it into a principle with the potential to regulate all social relations” (santos, 2006, p. 43). the wti applied this principle by engaging a democratic ethic of participation based on learning from the world social forum practices. the principles of the democratic ethic of participation included horizontal organization; inclusion of open, diverse, and pluralistic participation; multiple modes of argumentation; volunteer participation; and reasoned deliberation toward mutual learning and future coordinated actions. deliberative juxtaposition …to dwell critically, fractiously, and freely in political discourse together. perhaps the word “justice” will assume new meanings as we speak it.” judith butler10 to address global issues – from war to climate destruction to democratizing political institutional arrangements to human security – we need to find innovative ways to engage in public deliberations grounded in social justice. to this point, i have described the tasks of the coordination of the wti that focused on framing commonalities and broad principles. however, the conflicts among the tribunal’s contributors and participants need also to be explored. (see in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 101 çubukçu, 2011, 2008b.) the problem of transforming contentious politics into a sustained project was a significant accomplishment of the wti, with implications, i believe, for policy regarding advancing and democratizing global justice and for peace education and conflict studies. the problem confronting the wti was how to organize a democratic form without domination of any one group over any other, but, at the same time, with enough resilience to withstand the critical, fractious political discourse for which judith butler calls. this dilemma is captured well by the word tensegrity, which refers to the dynamic of tension and integrity of a tribunal form as the public dwelling space for dynamic deliberation (snauwaert, 2010b). the wti did this by what i call deliberative juxtaposition; and in concluding this paper i will describe two examples of this practice that brought internal conflicts into a deliberative tension without suppressing or delegitimizing diverse viewpoints. the wti culminating session was a change from the flexible polycentric organizing of the associated hearings in twenty cities that led up to it. the culminating session consisted of three days of public presentations on all aspects of the war in iraq. together, these presentations demonstrated a comprehensive multidimensional account of the impact of war on both iraq and on the global community. the deliberations were first and foremost directed to the jury of conscience. these fourteen activists from around the world had a daunting task: to write a final statement in the hours following the sunday presentations and to present the result at a press conference the next tuesday morning. the structure was thygmotactic — that is, pressed together in both time and space. the thygmotactic intensity further enabled conflictual stances to be overridden in order to co-create the final statement, “declaration of the jury of conscience of the world tribunal on iraq – istanbul, 23-27 june 2005” (2008, pp. 492-501). to advance and democratize justice, the wti coordinators attempted to allow differences to co-exist and influence the outcome without one dominating over others. the wti operationalized deliberation of difference and presented their processing at the culminating session (sökmen, 2008, pp. 470-475). the deliberative process was presented in the following example: when drafting the “platform for action” some people wanted to make a case for the newly formed icc, which would entail following legal procedures. others wanted to contribute to reforming the un. at the same time, people spoke against being other than what they were, not a legal tribunal but instead a project of global citizens and subjects of law, as embodied by the global antiwar movement, people supporting the iraqi resistance, and people from all over who demanded the necessity of “giving voice the voiceless victims of this war, and people who came together by articulating the concerns of civil society as expressed by the worldwide social justice and peace movements” (pp. 474-5). crafting the “platform for action” established a template for the dwelling together critically and fractiously, that is, it included all these different views and acknowledged them (ibid). another good example of this “dwelling together” involved measures taken by the wti coordinators to address the split between what i refer to as two different camps of in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 102 cosmopolitanists. insurgent cosmopolitanists (santos, 2006, p. 35) were those who saw the wti as a public space to resist domination and to practice an alternative experimental formation based on the moral and political authority of people working together. critical cosmopolitanists (bartholomew, 2008, p. 83) were those who saw the wti as a public space to use law-based and international institutional means to challenge crimes of war and imperialism. since the wti recognized that these two views could not be resolved and that both were significant, the culminating session was structured to highlight both orientations through juxtaposed opening and closing speeches. arundhati roy, a writer and activist from india, and richard falk, an us based international law professor emeritus from princeton university, bookended the culminating session each with an opening and closing speech. arundhati roy spoke first in the “opening speech on behalf of the jury of conscience” (2008, pp. 2-4). in my analysis, roy spoke as an insurgent cosmopolitanist, as someone who was at once a revolutionary and, at the same time, recognized a global humanity with common dignity and a common future. roy declared the tribunal to be “an act of resistance in itself”, “a weapon in the hands of those who wish to participate in the resistance against the occupation of iraq” (p. 3). she further asserted that “[t]he assault on iraq is an assault on us all: our dignity, our intelligence, and our future” (p. 4). richard falk gave the second “opening speech on behalf of the panel of advocates” (pp. 5-11). he spoke as a critical cosmopolitanist and declared that the wti was “acting on behalf of peoples of the world to uphold respect for international law” (p. 7). he added that “[i]f governments and the un are unwilling to pass judgment, it is up to initiatives by citizens of the world to perform this sacred duty” (p. 10). these two prominent world citizens eloquently closed the three-day session in reverse order, with falk speaking first and roy speaking second. arundhati roy read the “declaration of the jury of conscience” at the post-tribunal press conference (çubukçu, 2008b). in the intensive hours of preparation it became clear that the jury members were for the most part writers but not legal experts, and therefore were not up to the task of writing up a legal document.11 to address this asymmetry, it was agreed that falk would write a legal summary following the conclusion of the tribunal. this is included in making a case against war as an “appendix: international law,” a primer on the place of the wti as a global citizens’ tribunal and a legal analysis on how to use wti-gathered evidence for criminal cases in official courts like the icc (sökmen, ed. 2008, pp. 502-509). instead of discounting these different perspectives, the overall effect in my view was mutual learning and an expanded sense of the tools available for reclaiming justice. on the one hand, the legal experts could inform the wti participants about how to make a case against the war and occupation of iraq using international legal documents, arguments, and the newly formed icc. in complement, other participants could contribute evidence and testimony as witnesses, victims, and researchers from many fields. the wti-ic, through hülya üçpinar, juxtaposed crimes as legally defined and covered by the law with violations that, from a human perspective, should be crimes and for which the violators should be held accountable. thus, neither the lawyers nor the anti-statist activists dominated the deliberations, nor were they left in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 103 out. people who would not usually work together were coordinated through the wti’s deliberative form to be challenged by each other’s strategies and longer-range goals (berktay, 2008, p. 468). thus, the practice of deliberative juxtaposition enabled a limited but significant socialpolitical efficacy. the wti did not manage to sway public opinion sufficiently to pressure an end to the chaos and violence unleashed in iraq. however, the wti did build a documentary record of the crimes and human violations of the war and occupation. it challenged the limits of the un system and pushed demands for developing international law. most significantly, the wti demonstrated how global citizens could assert their collective authority to challenge the powerful and armed. though the us-led war was not stopped, it was challenged, and a countercase was made. rather than protesting once and going home to watch the war on television, hundreds of people working together for several years to construct a milestone of transforming dissent into a sustained coordinated counterhegemonic project, that provided hope and vision for a world without war. post-conflict justice conclusions the 2003 war and occupation of iraq provoked worldwide antiwar protests and continued activism against domination of iraq. at the same time, political theorists, peace scholars and educators, philosophers and legal theorists called for further conceptualization of post-conflict justice. post-conflict justice has been conceptualized along two lines, retributive or restorative post-conflict justice. the wti, i argue, enacted a third form, reclaimative post-conflict justice. the nuremberg tribunal that took place after world war ii exemplified retributive postconflict justice. the tribunal was organized by the allied victor nations to put on trial government and military leaders of the defeated german-led axis nations. these sessions were conducted like trials, with lawyers for the defense and the prosecution of those accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and/or crimes against peace. judgment was passed and those found guilty were executed or imprisoned. international law was extended through this international retributive post-conflict justice tribunal. it became the model for accountability for leaders of unjust wars and war activity. at the same time, the nuremberg tribunal was labeled victor’s justice because only the losing sides’ leaders were prosecuted. since 1946, there have been continued efforts to attain accountability for crimes in war and deadly conflict. these efforts have been coordinated through the united nations and now have added potential with the formation of the international criminal court (icc). the south africa truth and reconciliation commission (trc) that took place from 1996-8 following the fall of the apartheid government exemplifies restorative post-conflict justice. the trc addressed the transition of south africa from a racially divided society toward a more democratic and equal one. those appointed to lead the trc on behalf of the new government aimed to restore the dignity and humanity of the individual victims and of the perpetrators, as well as the human community of south africa. in addition, these social in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 104 reconciliations, it was hoped, would coincide with a renewed legitimacy in governance. restorative justice is said to be victim-centered. victims were offered public space to tell the story of their victimization or that of their family members. their testimonies were presented without adversarial cross-examination and without the goal of one side’s “truth” winning out over the others. punishment of the perpetrators was also not the goal as in retributive justice. full disclosure of the truth was prioritized and for that, the individual perpetrators who gave testimony to their role in apartheid violations and deaths could be granted amnesty. truth-telling was considered to be healing and to be a necessary contribution to restoring justice in the renewed state. in contrast, the wti’s post-conflict justice tribunal was not predicated on international law. it was not organized by official institutional authorities nor was it organized by or within single states. the wti’s purpose was not to punish those who broke the law, although holding them accountable was an important long-range aim. nor was the wti’s intention to restore legitimacy to a new government after civil war or deadly conflict or to reconcile the society members within that state’s boundaries. reclaimative justice, as exemplified by the wti, calls for transforming global reaction to injustice into coordinated global deliberation in order to demand more justice and accountability from those responsible for the war and deadly conflict. the wti coordinated a flexible, polycentric group of variegated hearings in twenty cities that subsequently converged into an intensive culminating session in istanbul in 2005. the wti challenged two principles of postconflict justice, the temporal principle that the deadly conflict must be over and the socialpolitical principle that all parties to the conflict must participate. in fact, the wti offered a radically distinct geopolitical difference to previous post-conflict justice conceptions in that the wti was coordinated and populated with people from most continents of the world; however, iraqis, although represented, met with great difficulties to participate despite determined efforts of all involved. furthermore, the leaders of the war and occupation did not participate either. the wti based their validity and legitimacy instead on universal moral and human rights principles as the bases of global justice. the coordinators did not claim to be what they were not—official or legal authorities. instead, they aimed to reclaim the common bases of human dignity and human-to-human connection of all global society. the violations against the iraqis were a threat to all of us, and the dismissal of the concerns of the global anti-war movement and the global citizens who said no to the war were in themselves acts of violation and injustice. the most radical claim of the wti was to reclaim the voice of authority of people of the world and to reclaim the promises for justice in the un charter, the universal declaration of human rights, and the international court of justice (icj). the wti called itself an “experimental assertion” and a “creative” act of resistance to reclaim the future of humanity by finding alternative bases for justice, judgment, and the institutions that failed to prevent the destruction of iraq. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 105 the wti operationalized deliberations using principles of a democratic ethic of participation in which consensus could be reached without anyone dominating over others. the principles included non-hierarchical organizing, volunteer participation, inclusion of diverse and pluralistic participation to include divergent debates and views. they achieved some of their aims by leaving an alternative record of the war and occupation of iraq, by working together for more justice, and by asserting a form that could be used as a future model for global citizen participation in bringing about more justice. the wti’s democratizing justice the wti’s central experimental assertion was that people could mobilize their sense of injustice into a collective project to advance social justice on a global scale. the tribunal form provided a cohesion and tensegrity to coordinate diverse and divergent deliberations. this is a significant role for civil society tribunals—to experiment in ways that official institutions and procedures are too restricted to attempt. the wti’s documentary account of the war and occupation of iraq from 2003 to 2005 is immensely informative, diversely argued, an astounding account. the wti advanced the processes of democratizing justice by practicing non-hierarchical, horizontal social relations of shared authority. the inclusion of diverse conflictual positions is an important example for conflict resolution and peace education as well as real world political conflicts. models for deliberation can reasonably be expanded to include diagnoses of injustice as well as solution-finding. reclaiming ethical-moral promises within the already existing mandates of international and national institutions can ground people’s collective claims to advance justice. this includes the effects of war on people who are directly victimized and people all over the world who are also affected, albeit indirectly. thus, post-conflict justice as a sub-theory of justice and just war theory should ground itself in claims of those both directly and indirectly affected. dialogical practices must also include skills in defining the group and organizing the group’s aims through deliberative processes. global citizenry is a human-tohuman experiment that we political theorists and peace educators can help to advance by considering the wti’s collective resistance and their coordinated tribunal accomplishment. references bartholomew, a. (2008). empire’s law and human rights as swords of empire. in sökmen, m. g., (ed.), (2008). world tribunal on iraq: making the case against war (pp. 76-83). northampton, ma: olive branch press. bass, gary jonathan (2004). stay the hand of vengeance: the politics of war crimes tribunals. princeton: princeton university press. berktay, a. (2008). the wti as an alternative: an experimental assertion. in sökmen, m. g. (ed.) (2008). world tribunal on iraq: making the case against war (pp. 468-483). northampton, ma: olive branch press. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 106 blaser, a. (1992). how to advance justice without really trying: an analysis of nongovernmental tribunals. human rights quarterly, 14(3):339-370. borowiak, c. (2008). the world tribunal on iraq: citizens' tribunals and the struggle for accountability. new political science 30(2), 161-186. butler, j. (february 7, 2013). presentation at brooklyn college on the boycott, divestment, sanctions campaign on israel. http://www.thenation.com/article/172752/judith-butlers-remarks-brooklyn-collegebds cassese, a. (2004). the role of internationalized courts and tribunals in the fight against international criminality. american journal of international law, 95 (2), pp. 335-341. chinkin, c. (2001). women's international tribunal on japanese military sexual slavery. american journal of international law, 95 (2), pp. 335-340. clark, j.n. (2008). ‘the three r’s: retributive justice, restorative justice and reconciliation, contemporary justice review, vol.11, no.4, 2008, p 331 cohen, j. l. (2012). globalization and sovereignty: rethinking legality, legitimacy, and constitutionalism. cambridge: cambridge university press. çubukçu, a. (2011). on cosmopolitan occupations: the case of the world tribunal on iraq. interventions, 13(3), pp. 422-442. ----(2008a). the wti as an alternative: an experimental assertion. in sökmen, m. g. (ed.) (2008). world tribunal on iraq: making the case against war (pp. 468-483). northampton, ma: olive branch press. ----(2008b). humanity must be defended?: paradoxes of a democratic desire. (unpublished doctoral dissertation). umi number: 3317541. dadak, z. ertür, b., köstepen, e. and lebow, a. (2007). for the record: the world tribunal on iraq (video documentary). available at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=pl2d0ee9948d8f5973 deep dish tv (2005). world tribunal on iraq, documentary film. internet archive, iraq war. retrieved february 10, 2011, from http://www.archive.org/details/worldtribunaloniraq eisnaugle, c. j. n. 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(november, 2011). democracy, public reason, and peace education. global campaign for peace education newsletter, issue 88. http://www.peace-edcampaign.org/newsletter/archives/88.html ----(july 2010a). social justice, diversity and peace education. plenary presentation. international institute on peace education, cartagena, colombia. ----(july 2010b). reflective practices of learning and change: strengthening the inside for the outside work. plenary presentation. peacelearning peacebuilding institute, national peace academy. ----(2010c). democracy as public deliberation and the psychology of epistemological world views and moral reasoning: a philosophical reflection. in factus pax 4(1), 120-126. retrieved december 15, 2010, from http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ ----(2004).the bush doctrine and just war theory. ojpcr: the online journal of peace and conflict resolution 6.1 fall: 121-135 (2004) issn: 1522-211x | www.trinstitute.org/ojpcr/6_1snau.pdf ----(2002). cosmopolitan ethics and democracy. current issues in comparative education, teachers college, columbia university, 4(2) 5-16. sob, p. (1998). the dynamics of international criminal tribunals. nordic journal of international law 67: 139–163. sökmen, m. g., (ed.) (2008). world tribunal on iraq: making the case against war. northampton, ma: olive branch press. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 111 south africa truth and reconciliation commission (1996). final report, vol. 1. retrieved from http://www.justice.gov.za/trc/report/finalreport/volume%201.pdf stahn, c. (2006). 'jus ad bellum', 'jus in bello' . . . 'jus post bellum'? -rethinking the conception of the law of armed force. the european journal of international law (ejil) 17 (5):921-943. stover, e. and weinstein, h. (eds.) (2004). my neighbor, my enemy: justice and community in the aftermath of mass atrocity, cambridge university press, cambridge, 2004. taylor, t. (october, 1973). war crimes. law in american society, 2(3), 26-36. teitel, r. g. (2000). transitional justice, new york: oxford university press. teves, t. (2005). introduction. [electronic form]. retrieved pp. 1-8. in teves, t. frigessi di rattalma, m., tanzi, a., fodella, a., pitea, c., ragni, c. (eds.) (2005). civil society, international courts and compliance bodies. the hague, the netherlands: t.m.c. asser press. tutu, d. (1999). no future without forgiveness. new york: doubleday. üçpinar, h. (2008), the wti as an alternative: an experimental assertion. in sökmen, m. g. (ed.) (2008). world tribunal on iraq: making the case against war (pp. 468-483). northampton, ma: olive branch press. williams, r. e. jr., and caldwell, d. (2006). jus post bellum: just war theory and the principles of just peace. international studies perspectives 7:309-320. world tribunal on iraq, archived website (http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=1.) wti platform for action (october 20, 2003). istanbul mission statement for the creation of an international tribunal of justice on the war and occupation on iraq. retrieved from http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2003/10/20_istambul_iraq-tribunal_print.htm zolo, d. (2009). victors’ justice: from nuremberg to baghdad. london: verso. endnotes 1 the complete quote refers to the contentious, even aggressive, debate regarding the bds campaign to boycott, divest, and institute sanctions against israeli corporations and institutions instrumental in the oppressions of palestinians. the quote refers to within-state conflict, but applies equally to how all of debate these conflicts as part of the ethical political dialogical attention to address global justice. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 112 what does one do with one’s words but reach for a place beyond war, ask for a new constellation of political life in which the relations of colonial subjugation are brought to a halt. my wager, my hope, is that everyone’s chance to live with greater freedom from fear and aggression will be increased as those conditions of justice, freedom, and equality are realized. we can or, rather, must start with how we speak, and how we listen, with the right to education, and to dwell critically, fractiously, and freely in political discourse together. perhaps the word “justice” will assume new meanings as we speak it, such that we can venture that what will be just for the jews will also be just for the palestinians, and for all the other people living there, since justice, when just, fails to discriminate, and we savor that failure.” (judith butler, february 7, 2013. http://www.thenation.com/article/172752/judith-butlers-remarks-brooklyn-college-bds). 2 the world tribunal on iraq: making a case against war is the documentary text of the culminating session of the world tribunal on iraq (wti.) the wti project was formulated and enacted over a two year period that ended on june 23-27, 2005 with the culminating session. müge gürsoy sökmen was the editor in conjunction with the istanbul coordination (wti-ic.) making a case against war was published in 2008. this is the time at which the publication became fully public. additional materials are available at (http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?b=1.) 3 butler, op. cit. 4 i refer to the wti as a tribunal project to distinguish it from official, legal tribunals. this study does not in any way propose that alternative civil society tribunals should dilute the important role of international law and official tribunals. these also need continued theorization and continued work to become more effect means to support global justice. at the same time, this study strives to demonstrate the significant contributions of alternative tribunal projects, especially in opening consideration of democratizing official tribunal processes and incorporating people’s voices and authority in determining what is just. 5 see “appendix i: international law” written by richard falk (2008, pp. 502-509). in the culminating session falk presented the opening and closing speeches on behalf of the panel of advocates. in my study, he and important panel of advocate presenters are considered as secondary framers of the wti culminating session. also see çubukçu, a. (2008b). humanity must be defended?: paradoxes of a democratic desire. (doctoral dissertation). umi number: 3317541 and (2011). on cosmopolitan occupations: the case of the world tribunal on iraq. interventions, 13(3), pp. 422-442. 6 us, as a victorious allied nation and a key coordinating nation of the nuremberg tribunal, was exempt from prosecution for their war acts. “the tribunal’s statute ruled out any consideration of such criminal behavior as the saturation bombing of german and japanese cities by the anglo-american forces, or the dropping of the atomic bombs on hiroshima and nagasaki”, states danilo zolo (2009, victors’ justice: from nuremberg to baghdad. london: verso, p. 145.) he refers both to nuremberg and the international military tribunal of the far east conducted by the us against japan in 1945-6. 7 restorative justice is now more commonly referred to as transitional justice, a complex of processes to reformulate and reconstruct a discredited state. importantly, transitional justice is the term used by patricia hayner, the leader scholar and expert on transitional justice in states attempting to recover from deadly conflict and transition to governance for a more democratic, humanly respectful civil order. 8 legal theorist ruti teitel’s scholarship on transitional justice has identified the need to review the claims for justice. teitel states that the claims for justice in times of state’s transitions have not been sufficiently studied in either political or critical theory. “…neither liberal nor critical theorizing about the nature and role of law in ordinary times accounts well for law’s role in periods of political change, missing the particular significance of justice claims in periods of radical political change and failing to explain the relation between normative responses to past injustice and a state’s prospects for liberal transformation” (teitel, 2000, p. 4). in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 66-112 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 113 9 the author thanks dr. jennifer chan for this insight. see chan-tiberghien, j. (2004). constructing global citizenship: japanese social movements, grassroots education, and alternative globalization. stanford: stanford university press. 10. judith butler, february 7, 2013. http://www.thenation.com/article/172752/judith-butlers-remarks-brooklyncollege-bds). see note 1. 11 for a fine first-hand scholarly account, see ayça çubukçu’s two works on the wti, humanity must be defended?: paradoxes of a democratic desire, (2008b). (doctoral dissertation). umi number: 3317541 and on cosmopolitan occupations: the case of the world tribunal on iraq, (2011), interventions, 13(3), pp. 422-442. also see the video documentary on the wti with footage of the jury of conscience deliberations, “dadak, z., ertür, b., köstepen, e. and lebow, a. (2007). for the record: the world tribunal on iraq. microsoft word gray ifp v 11.1.doc in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 38-40 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 38 volume 11 number 1 (2017): 38-40 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review peace jobs: a student’s guide to starting a career working for peace by david j. smith, a volume in the series: peace education, editors laura finley & robin cooper, information age publishing, 2016, 183 pp., us $45.99 (paperback), us $85.99 (hardcover), isbn 978-1-68123-330-7 reviewed by janet gray the college of new jersey gray@tcnj.edu david j. smith, who is well known in peace education for his work as a consultant and educator and his former roles at the us institute of peace, wrote peace jobs to answer a question students frequently ask him: how can i get a job working for peace? that anyone can do peace work in almost any occupation is a central claim of this book, which brings a career guidance lens to the emergent broad scope of peace education. smith frames the book in terms of the pressures that students today face to treat college as career training and devalue liberal arts education: they will end college with high educational loan debts, and the job market is tight. the study of peace bridges the gap, smith suggests, by inviting students to discover a sense of purpose as they prepare for careers of the future. millennial generation students are smith’s target audience. he cites polling research showing their commitment to social change. peace jobs shows this generation concrete career options. the ten chapters introduce a broad scope of occupations and advise students how to prepare for them before and during college. while “direct-action” peace professions such as humanitarian aid and diplomacy are few and hard to get, smith suggests that “indirect action jobs” are in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 38-40 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 39 nearly limitless. he describes three factors shaping the future of peace work: the mainstreaming of peace and conflict knowledge into all occupational fields, the application of creativity to addressing structural violence and preventing destructive conflict, and the “soft skills” skills associated with a liberal arts education, such as leadership, communication, and problem solving. chapters in peace jobs are devoted to careers in diplomacy, human rights, law, nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations including both humanitarian and military careers, peace teaching, social justice, environmental activism, health work, community work, faith-based approaches, the arts and sciences, technology, and the media. the appendices include a list of 86 peace jobs, a glossary of terms, a list of online resources, and recommendations for further reading. each chapter begins with a fictionalized story of a student facing questions about peace work and career preparation, then follows up with practical guidance. readers are introduced to key concepts, such as peacebuilding, peacemaking, and peacekeeping, as well as organizations engaged in these activities. contexts for peace work include diverse current issues and movements such as #blacklivesmatter, reproductive justice, sexual assault, lgbtq rights, hiv/aids, and bullying in schools and workplaces. famed figures such as gandhi, martin luther king, jr., and albert einstein are strategically depicted as youths, not much older than the reader. boxes and figures integrate research findings and fundamental concepts into the text. each chapter also includes truelife profiles of young people in peace occupations, and ends with reflection questions about the profiles as well as steps the reader can take to further explore the chapter’s topics. each chapter has an extensive reference list with a variety of sources—scholarly, news, organizational, and governmental—many of them very current. my critiques of peace jobs concern how it will work for its intended readers. at $45.99, the price is stiff for students. the abundant text boxes and figures, while valuable, visually confuse the chapters. further, in its drive to mainstream peace skills, the book holds back on critical engagement with the ways that well meant work can fuel indirect violence. nevertheless, in many respects, peace jobs is a book that peace educators have been waiting for. it captures the front edge of the field in its inclusive attention to differences of gender, sexuality, class, and race, and in its unpacking of peacebuilding as an expansive framework for education and career planning. the book will be of value to guidance counselors, career centers, academic advisors and mentors, peace teachers, and faculties planning the development or enhancement of programs of study. smith helpfully includes a table from his in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 38-40 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 40 2014 book peacebuilding in community colleges on infusing and integrating peace studies across the curriculum, which suggests a broad institutional context for the career advisement that peace job offers. the book is unique in breadth; other available peace education-related job guides in book form (e.g. mediation career guide by forrest s. mossen) are narrowly specialized. there are several online job lists, but they lack the contextualization and breadth of smith’s book and are not all regularly updated. because peace jobs is directed toward student readers, instructors might find it valuable as a course text. the high price makes me hesitant to recommend it as a supplemental text, although it would fit especially well with houston wood’s invitation to peace studies (2016), with which it has much in common: up-to-date research, broad incorporation of diverse movements and identities, and a broad range of occupational contexts in which peace can be practiced. however, because smith introduces key theoretical concepts throughout the texts, and each chapter proposes resources for exploration beyond the text, instructors could conceivably assign peace jobs as the core text--a possibility that raises questions about how academic programs envision introductory courses and whether they can make room in the curriculum for a course that centralizes careers. the expansive framework that smith’s book identifies for incorporating career guidance into peace education programs makes all the more important that programs engage students with critical analysis of the systemic and on-the-ground realities of occupational domains. smith touches on some areas of critique—for instance, the conflation of militarism with peacebuilding, and the disruptions that humanitarian efforts can impose on target populations. whatever the occupational field where students aim to work for peace, they need a strong grasp of structural and cultural violence, including the impacts of neoliberal policies and neocolonial practices, and the potentials and limitations of human rights approaches, as well as self-reflective skills as allies and advocates. programs need to be alert to the limitations of volunteerism as an occupational entry for lower-income students, and to the ways that their promotion of service opportunities frame those experiences as adventures that will make privileged participants feel good about themselves, to the neglect of their potential detrimental impacts on the communities served. alfonso_v_8_2docx in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 167 volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal peace education in early childhood education stacey m. alfonso university of toledo introduction early childhood education in the united states focuses on educating the youngest of our citizens. although the age range of what is considered “early childhood” for teacher certification purposes may slightly differ from state to state, it is generally understood that early childhood is birth through age eight. in practice, early childhood education tends to specifically focus on those children younger than primary school grades. ideas of early childhood have evolved, shifted and transformed over time. the ideas of many theorist, philosophers and educators from plato, rousseau and pestalozzi to piaget, vygotsky and dewey have been addressed, debated and applied to a variety of issues in early childhood.1 approaches to early childhood education may vary in the united states but there tends to be an universal emphasis on educating the “whole child” which encompasses understanding the importance of supporting a child in all developmental domains including cognitive, physical, language, social and emotional.2 the general holistic approach to early childhood education seems to create an open door to the integration of peace education within the early years of childhood. this is supported by betty reardon's recognition that the “holism of early education sets learning in a context of the linkages and interrelationships between cognition and affect and among subjects of study that more closely approximates the natural learning of lived 1 weber, e. ideas influencing early childhood education: a theoretical analysis. new york, ny: teachers college press, 1984. 2 roopnarine, j. l., & johnson, j. e. approaches to early childhood education. upper saddle river, n.j: merrill/pearson, 2009. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 168 experience.”3 it is within this environment of interrelationships and a more natural learning process that peace education can be most fully realized. this paper is meant as an introduction to the idea of peace education in early childhood and will focus on the broad possibilities of creating a pedagogical framework for early childhood founded on peace education. throughout this paper i will discuss early childhood education within a framework of peace education, using the human rights and peace education approach as the main directive with elements of other approaches to peace education integrated. special attention will be given to the advantages of including a component of education in an outdoor natural setting. before discussing the importance of nature in peace education or early childhood education in general, a very brief background and introduction to peace education will be given to provide a basic understanding of this broad and growing field. this will be followed by a discussion of the importance of peace education in an early childhood setting, including the importance of nature and outdoors in the curriculum. after laying that structure, i will propose a curricular framework for early childhood based on the values of peace education that will rest on four pillars; value and respect for self, appreciation of diversity, sense of fairness and justice, and awareness of interconnectedness. overview of peace education in order to set the stage for the proposal of an early childhood peace curriculum, an overview of the peace education field will be presented. to begin, betty reardon breaks down peace education to education for peace, education about peace and peace knowledge.4 education for peace is concerned with creating preconditions necessary for peace, helping to build the skills and knowledge necessary for peaceful interactions and endeavors. education about peace teaches about what peaceful conditions are and what the essence of peace is. peace knowledge includes such things as peace research, peace studies and peace education. while keeping in mind betty reardon’s foundation for peace education, it is also important to note that various forms to peace education exist, all are currently being developed, maintained and investigated. since each of these forms takes a slightly different point of view and emphasis, they will be briefly examined separately. comprehensive peace education takes a wide-lens view of the subject, integrating negative peace and positive peace; negative peace as the absence of direct violence and positive peace as the existence of a socially just society. 5 both pieces play an integral part of 3 reardon, betty a. human rights learning: pedagogies and politics of peace. unesco chair for peace education master conference: university of puerto rico, 2009, 5. 4 reardon, betty a. (1999). "peace education: a review and projection." sweden: school of education, malmo university. 5 galtung, johan. violence, peace, and peace research. journal of peace research, 27 (1969): 291-305. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 169 comprehensive peace education and challenge educators to consider both these elements while reflecting on all aspects of peace from a personal to a global perspective.6 danesh in his integrative peace education approach, argues that “peace in its essence is a spiritual state with political social and ethical expressions” and that “peace must first take place in the human consciousness.”7 his focus was on creating a world-view based on unity which he believed is determined by human cognitive and emotive capacities. critical peace education grew from paulo freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed intended to reflect on oppression and action upon which to take in order to transform the world. critical peace education is meant to be problem-posing, dialogical and analytical in nature leading to a critical consciousness for transformative action.8 gender perspective and human rights peace education challenge the brute forceful views and values of people in power, specifically those of a patriarchal society. through this view, human rights (including gender rights) can be seen as a counter to violence and a way to achieve equality, justice and peace. it is built on the “fundamental belief in moral equality, a belief that all human beings possess an equal inherent dignity or worth."9 while discussing gender perspective in peace education, betty readon would refer to “humane persons” as those peace makers who are gender sensitive. i would elaborate on the idea of humane persons as those who believe in a moral equality for all, which includes differences in gender but also differences and variations found among human diversity at large.10 ethical approaches to peace education explore the ethical, spiritual and philosophical dimensions of peace education. within this exploration, care theory (concerned with creating two-way caring relationships) and the need for public reason and deliberation are included within a cosmopolitan perspective which transcends societal boundaries.11 eco-peace, a more recently developed branch of peace education, calls for the need to consider creating peace with the world as a whole, including all living things and our natural 6 reardon, betty a. comprehensive peace education : educating for global responsibility. new york: teachers college press, 1988. 7 danesh, h. b. education for peace reader. victoria, canada: efp press, 2011, 23. 8 freire, paulo. pedagogy of the oppressed. new york: continuum, 1970; bartlett, lesley. "paulo freire and peace education." in encyclopedia of peace education, edited by monisha bafa. charlotte, nc: information age publishing, inc., 2008; baja, monisha. "'critical' peace education." in encyclopedia of peace education, edited by monisha baja, 135-146. charlotte, nc: information age publishing, 2008. 9 snauwaert, dale t. "human rights and cosmopolitan democratic education." philosophical studies in education, 40 (2009): 94. 10 reardon, betty a. education for a culture of peace in a gender perspective. paris: unesco, 2001. 11 noddings, nel. "caring and peace education." in encyclopedia of peace education, edited by monisha baja. charlotte, nc: information age publishing, inc., 2008; snauwaert, "human rights and cosmopolitan democratic education;" snauwaert, dale t. "democracy, public reason, and peace education." global campaign for peace education newsletter, 88 (2011): 1-5. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 170 systems, creating an education for sustainability as an element of peace education.12 a goal of such an approach would be “‘to have humans live in peace with nature, appreciating that their own survival and health depends upon the health of water, air, plants and animals."13 approaches to peace education vary widely but all hold similar characteristics and goals. all forms of peace education are concerned with cultivating citizens of a cosmopolitan perspective who are capable of working towards a humane and just society. i think betty reardon most clearly and succinctly lays forth the purpose of peace education as promoting “the development of an authentic planetary consciousness that will enable us to function as global citizens and to transform the present human condition by changing the social structures and the patterns of thought that have created it.”14 if peace education is on the forefront of early childhood, it becomes feasible that there will be less need for change in the patterns of thought and world views and more emphasis on the establishment of world views for peace. early childhood as a foundation of peace early childhood is a time when a child is laying the foundation for future development capabilities across all domains. the interplay of language, cognition, social-emotional capacities and physical abilities come into use more frequently and purposefully. as children develop language, they use it to convey their needs and wants, express their emotions, and verbally solve conflict. as children’s cognitive ability allows them to see a distinction between themselves and others, they use their new social skills to test out friendship-making capabilities. because of these great steps in development, early childhood becomes a crucial time for developing the skills and capacities necessary for peace making, peace keeping, and peace building. early childhood educators can be instrumental in building those capacities in what betty reardon might refer to as teaching for peace, which as mentioned earlier is concerned with creating preconditions necessary for peace. supporting the importance of including a peace curriculum in early childhood is research which has helped uncover optimal developmental periods of the brain. it is the early years of life that are considered “prime time” for brain development which can affect a child’s social capacities, critical to preconditions necessary for peace. it was found that “both quality of care and security of attachment affect children’s later capacity for empathy, emotional regulation, and behavioral control."15 this suggests that if peace education is included in early childhood experiences it can be extremely influential in building a child’s later capacities for peace such as empathy, emotional regulation and behavioral control which will prove to be important pieces. betty reardon describes human rights as the “ethical core” of peace education.16 when better to 12 brenes, abelardo. "education for sustainable development based on the earth charter." in factis pax 2, no. 1 (2008): 1-29; mische, patriacia & harris, ian. "environmental peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding." in the encyclopedia of peace education, edited by monisha baja. charlotte, nc: information age publishing, 2008. 13 mische & harris, "environmental peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding," 3. 14 reardon, comprehensive peace education, x. 15 shore, r. "‘what have we learned?’ in ‘rethinking the brain'." new york: families and work institute, 1991, 41. 16 reardon, betty a. human rights learning: pedagogies and politics of peace. unesco chair for peace education master conference: university of puerto rico, 2009, 2. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 171 build this core of human rights understanding (along with other capacities for peace) than during the early childhood years when the core of the person themselves is being built? early childhood should be used as a place to lay down the building blocks for our future peace leaders. including nature and outdoor experiences in the early childhood curriculum nature provides an abundance of rich experiences for children in which these building blocks can be formed. these experiences have the potential to provide strong learning and developmental opportunities for all children as well as play a key role in developing a peace curriculum for early childhood. providing time in nature will allow children at an early childhood level to have unique opportunities for growth in all domains of development; social, emotional, cognitive, language, and physical. for young children, outdoor time in nature will provide the setting for more active physical endeavors while enhancing motor fitness, balance, agility, body awareness, motor planning, and coordination. in addition, this time has great potential to allow for children to partake in more active communication, social-emotional skills and cognitive endeavors as well. outdoors in nature children will be constantly challenged to use problem solving and decision making skills in an ever changing and sometimes unpredictable environment. the freedom and open-endedness of the natural environment allows them to develop play and communication skills crucial to language, social, and emotional development. being in nature will also enhance opportunities for children to find patterns, similarities and differences using critical thinking and creative skills while developing a bond with nature and being exposed to a bigger more interconnected pictures of the world in which they live. including this component of exposure to nature and natural experiences provides opportunities for healthy developmental growth and as this paper will highlight, opportunities for the integration of peace education and building the child's capacities for an understanding of peace. pedagogy of peace in early childhood: standing on four pillars of peace it is through the establishment of four pillars of peace that i propose an early childhood peace education curriculum: self-value and self respect, appreciation of diversity, sense of fairness and justice, and the awareness of interconnectedness. these four elements will be used to create a curricular framework for early childhood educators who wish to embrace peace education and create a classroom culture based on peace. self-value and self-respect in order to help children develop the skills to build and maintain peaceful relationships and endeavors, early childhood educators must recognize the importance of creating a positive self image built on love and respect for oneself. in learning to love and value oneself, self-worth can be recognized. in understanding one’s self-worth, one can believe they deserve a just and peaceful society therefore becoming capable of striving for it. if we are not to value and respect ourselves, than how can we envision the most just situation for ourselves and others? betty reardon acknowledges that learners of all ages must examine and challenge the current practices dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 172 and situations, including affairs of person justice.17 with a strong sense of self worth and a positive identity, one can stand up for oneself and the injustices which they experience. the early childhood years are most important in developing this value of self because this is a time when the sense of self is taking major steps in development. in reference to sense of self development, work by developmental psychologist, erik erickson established that a sense of trust was the first and most basic stage as babies and very young children form a relationship with themselves and their social world. in the following early childhood years, he proposed that autonomy and initiative were essential as children develop healthy self and social relationship. 18 through interactions with peers, adults and the environment, children get to know themselves; their abilities, their preferences and their feelings.19 when children enter an early childhood school environment, the possibility to interact with peers, adults and multiple environments is dramatically increased, therefore creating great opportunity to enhance trust, autonomy and initiative. education and the learning process itself becomes a natural setting in which these elements and other sense-of-self growth can take place. according to reardon “true learning [is] an organic, vibrant process through which we develop our human identities and social capacities.”20 in a sense this conceptualization of learning is meant for all educators who strive to espouse peace education but early childhood educators should pay particular attention to this notion. they must promote this “true learning” as a way to develop their young students’ identity and social capacities and in doing so enable children with the potential to help build a peaceful society. contributing to the idea of social capacities, dale snauwaert makes a clear connection between peace education and the facilitation of public reason and deliberation.21 if children are to one day become citizens involved in public reason and deliberation in order to further peaceful efforts, a strong understanding and respect for self will play a major role in successfully doing so. one must know one's self, their capacities and understand their thoughts if they are to contribute to such reason and deliberation towards a movement of peace. it is also through love and respect of oneself that love and respect for others can be grown. we must first love and understand ourselves as people in order to love and respect others as people. this self awareness and self respect will help a child understand the respect and dignity that should be applied towards others because, as dale snauwaert writes “a sense of justice, grounded in a proper sense of self-respect, is a capacity and higher-order regulative desire to affirm and act from a recognition of moral reciprocity, to offer to others terms of social cooperation that they would agree to under conditions of equality and fairness.”22 these terms of 17 ibid. 18 crain, w. c. theories of development: concepts and applications. upper saddle river, n.j: pearson/prentice hall, 2005. 19 ormrod, j.e. educational psychology: developing learners, 7th edition. boston, ma: pearson education inc., allyn & bacon, 2001. 20 reardon, human rights learning, 23 21 snauwaert, "democracy, public reason, and peace education." 22 snauwaert, dale t. "upholding a human right to peace." global campaign for peace education newsletter, no. 105 (2013): 5. dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 173 social cooperation can begin to be tested and strengthened as children gain a sense of themselves and others while early childhood educators guide children towards an understanding of moral reciprocity. first classroom experiences are also a time in which children learn their value within a classroom or community and begin to gain a sense that they are an accepted, appreciated member of a group. early childhood educators should be supportive in the development of a child’s appreciation and respect for self through helping each child become a vital member of the classroom community. through a caring, thoughtfully planned environment, teachers of young children can help establish the sense of self worth and self respect. it is through getting to know oneself and her/his value and acceptance in a community, that children can become aware of their place in the world at large. as the care theory of peace education helps us understand, “as human beings, we are inevitably in relation, and our individuality arises in relation.”23 as young children mature and become exposed to a variety of experiences, their ability to know themselves in relation to others changes.24 maturity and experience assists in the process of making this inter-relational understanding more meaningful and connected. if fostered properly from early childhood, social interactions can help establish a positive self identity and therefore set the stage for positive, peaceful relationships in order to appreciate the value of peaceful interactions and capacities such as cooperation, empathy, caring, and respect. cultivating self-value and self-respect there is much that can be done in an early childhood education setting to help children value, appreciate and respect themselves. first teachers must nurture a trusting relationship between themselves and students. over time, teachers can also help young children develop trusting, caring relationships with their peers. teachers must truly care for their young students, giving them the feeling that they are loved and appreciated. by creating a caring, trusting relationship, the capacity to care can be cultivated in each child. caring is imperatively placed in a pedagogy that embraces peace education as an essential capacity “that will facilitate the emergence of a culture of peace.”25 all children should also be given the opportunity to find their area of success and feel self-efficacious, building their sense of self-worth. building self-worth, which is a “general belief about the event to which one is a good, capable individual,” can be fortified through giving children a variety of experiences, allowing them opportunity to do things on their own, appreciating their efforts and providing the opportunity to make choices.26 when a teacher provides such opportunities children are given the chance to understand themselves and their preferences while developing autonomy and initiative. indeed peace educators would support 23 noddings, "caring and peace education," 1. 24 ormrod, educational psychology. 25 reardon, education for a culture of peace in a gender perspective, 85. 26 ormrod, educational psychology. dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 174 the notion of providing choice and variety of experiences. in "human rights and cosmopolitan democratic education," dale snauwaert writes, “if all human beings are equal, then they should have the right to define and pursue their own conception of the good life (consistent with the equal rights of others). they should have a right to decide their own interests, for there exists no higher moral authority.”27 all members of a society, including our youngest children should be afforded such experiences to realize their interests, their capacity for decision making and the empowerment that comes with it. outdoors/nature component providing an element of the educational experience which takes place in a natural setting outdoors, will give a child the space, time and environment to reflect and find one’s self. in how nature helps children develop, crain brings to light how “nature creates states of quiet and calm”28 through which children are given the means to digest and reflect upon their life experience. 29 the freedom and choice of work and play in nature inherently provides opportunities for confidence building,30 and advances in self-esteem,31 and self-efficacy,32 all necessary for developing value and respect for self. appreciation of diversity even the youngest students arriving in an early childhood educational setting, bring with them experiences that contribute to their understanding of diversity.33 before children can fully articulate perceived differences, they are aware differences such as skin color and gender.34 early childhood educators ideally have an understanding of the cognitive abilities that may be present at this young age and be aware of how this affects with understanding. cognitive theorist, piaget would categorize these young children in a pre-operational stage, meaning that they construct knowledge based on very concrete observations.35 the concrete interpretation of 27 snauwaert, "human rights and cosmopolitan democratic education", 94 28 crain, w. "how nature helps children develop." montessori life. 9(2), (2001): 23. 29 powell, m. "the hidden curriculum of recess." children, youth & environments,17(4), (2007): 86-106.; crain, w. "how nature helps children develop." 30 allison, p., carr, d., & meldrum, g. "potential for excellence: interdisciplinary learning outdoors as a moral enterprise." curriculum journal, 23 (2012): 43-58; maller, c. "promoting children's mental, emotional and social health through contact with nature: a model." health education, 109 (2009): 522-543; powell, "the hidden curriculum of recess." 31 o’brien, l., & murray, r. "forest school and its impacts on young children: case studies in britain." urban forestry & urban greening, (6) (2007): 249-265. 32 sweatman, m., & warner, a. "integrating nature experiences into early childhood education." canadian children, 34 (2009): 4-9. 33 tatum, b. d. “the early years: is my skin brown because i drink chocolate milk?” in why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? and other conversations about race. new york: basicbooks, 1997; roopnarine & johnson, approaches to early childhood education. 34 ramsey, patricia “young children’s thinking about ethnic diversity.” in children's ethnic socialization: pluralism and development, edited by phinney, j. s., & rotheram-borus, m. j. newbury park: sage publications, 1987. 35 crain, w. c. theories of development; ormrod, educational psychology. dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 175 information received can lead to misinterpretation of certain information such as skin color being determined by what kind of milk children drink36 or length of time they are exposed to the sun.37 their understanding can also be based upon experiences in which they interpret adult behavior and how they receive answers to their questions.38 it is the job of early childhood educators who strive to create an appreciation for diversity, and therefore aid in building a peace education pedagogy, to support a child in creating a positive understanding of those who may seem different from themselves. educators working with these young children must help their students establish respect and understanding of diversity in variety of races, cultures, ages, ability levels, socioeconomic status, family structures, gender and sexual orientation. by addressing children’s misconceptions, naive theories and possible fears, educators can have an impact on guiding this type of thinking away from turning into stereotypes or prejudices by creating a space in which it is possible “to relate to others customs and behaviors, ways of thinking and ways of managing their…cultures.”39 betty reardon’s work, education for a culture of peace in a gender perspective would emphasize cultivating the capacity for “tolerance of differences in any area where people may differ, even conflict; appreciation of and ability to view human diversity in terms of complementary; and moral inclusion, considering those who are different and with whom we differ as being within the realm of justice and deserving of fair treatment.”40 early childhood educators would also need to be aware of such goals. as young children are constructing their views of the world around them and the people in it, teachers must help their students put experiences into relational perspective to build tolerance, appreciation and moral inclusion. the early childhood curriculum based on peace education will cultivate an appreciation for those who are “different” or come from a background that is different from their own but they must also allow children to feel that their own culture is accepted and appreciated. just as early childhood educators want to help children develop a positive sense of self, they also must aim to help them establish a positive sense of their home or family culture. a feeling that one’s cultural experiences are appreciated and those experiences can contribute to the bigger community can help support a development of positive sense of self and others and set children up for understanding themselves in a wider context.41 supporting appreciation of diversity it is up to the educator to create a community in which diversity is embraced and appreciated. in order to achieve such a goal, it starts with the teacher.42 as mentioned earlier, perceptions of differences which young children adopt can be the product of adult reactions and 36 tatum, b. d. “the early years." 37 roopnarine, j. l., & johnson, j. e. approaches to early childhood education. 38 ibid. 39 reardon, education for a culture of peace in a gender perspective, 71-72. 40 ibid., 72 41 ormrod, educational psychology; 42 gonzalez-mena, j. diversity in early care and education: honoring differences. boston, ma: mcgraw-hill, 2008. dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 176 attitudes towards diversity. the teacher who is going to fully embrace peace education in the early childhood setting, must be willing to take a look at her/himself and the attitudes and values which s/he holds. teachers themselves must truly honor and respect differences in order to serve as a model for the young students. teachers must be aware of the way they interact with family of their students. both explicit and implicate actions will be registered and interpreted by young children so it becomes extremely important to model respect for families of all types and include family into the classroom activities when possible. when i speak of diversity it is in terms that go beyond racial differences, including differences in cultural customs, ages, ability levels, socioeconomic status, family structures, gender and sexual orientation. so when considering constructing such an environment to support understanding and appreciation of differences, teachers must be mindful of all groups and individual differences. at the early childhood education level, gender tolerance and appreciation is imperative to address. as betty reardon (2001) points out, gender may be the first encounter with differences and states that “persons who are gender tolerant and gender sensitive are likely to manifest tolerance of other differences and to be able to develop a mature appreciation for diversity.”43 teachers can create an environment in which this is embraced by fully making no judgments or assumptions based on gender. in an early childhood setting, this means creating equal opportunity for girls and boys to do the same work and have the same choices. this is important because “if early childhood children experience an environment in which both girls and boys are perceived and treated as being of equal worth, they will receive the message that human difference does not carry with it unequal human value.”44 beyond gender tolerance, appreciation and understanding of diversity will blossom in a culturally inclusive classroom. this means the environments and activities will represent diverse experiences and perspectives, exposing children to contributions that have been made by those groups that may be underrepresented as contributors to society. books and other classroom materials should include people of diversity different races, cultures, family structures, women in roles that may not be seen in the mainstream. this is not meant to be a special once a year unit on diversity or differences but something to integrate and infuse into the early learning classroom. to mirror this thoughtfully planned environment in their actions, teachers should provide opportunity for their students to be represented in a variety of roles regardless of race, gender, or other aspects of diversity and avoid prescribing “social norms” for gender, race or class. because young children’s cognitive ability may lead them to conjure up misconceptions based on the concrete information they receive, it is up to teachers and other adults to challenge these assumptions to help broaden the child’s perspective. i once had a student who believed women did not drive. she made this assumption based on the fact the no women in her family drove. i made sure to point out such cases in books when there was a women driver and gave her the opportunity to see female members of our staff drive a car. in providing such experiences, her current views were being challenged which cognitive theorists would say 43 reardon, education for a culture of peace in a gender perspective, 72-73. 44 ibid., 77. dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 177 creates disequilibrium or cognitive dissonance to expand her current schema.45 the expansion of her current schema allows for the challenge and ultimately the acceptance of different and new ideas. appreciation and respect for diversity should extend beyond the classroom walls as well. the early childhood teacher truly adopting a peace education pedagogy would also take into consideration the need for a cosmopolitan approach, transcending boundaries, in a sense of extending beyond their own class group. just as in human rights peace education “respect for persons should not…be limited to any particular nation state; it should be cosmopolitan in a sense that it transcends political boundaries,”46 in early childhood peace education respect, understanding and appreciation should extend beyond the classroom walls to the community, to other communities and eventually to all humanity. teachers can support this by modeling such respect and creating opportunities for children to do so, which may include collaborative work with other class groups and other schools or involvement in the community for a start. outdoors/nature component in order to understand ideas of differences and diversity, children should be given abundant and varied experiences with diversity. a great opportunity to enhance this would be to include experiencing the diversity found in our natural world. experiences with the diversity of nature can lay way for the understanding of the diversity among people, creating similes, metaphors, contrasts and comparisons perhaps furthering the understanding of and appreciation for diversity which a child may encounter in various forms. time outdoors in an open-ended, natural environment will also provide the necessity for communication and collaboration between children, which is essential in getting to know a diverse range of people and understanding their ideas and thoughts.47 sense of fairness / justice an early childhood classroom is a perfect time to develop the values and attitudes necessary for an understanding of fairness and justice. at this stage, children are just beginning to gain an awareness of the perspective of others (ormrod, 2011). they are being placed in a classroom setting where there are many children who hold multiple opinions, needs and wants. they may, for the first time, need to defend the position of having their own needs and wants met within a common good for the group. as children are becoming aware of others' views and opinions, teachers and professionals working with young children must help them to understand their needs and wants as part of a whole. if we are to build children capable of working towards a “common commitment to the general public good [and] a just distribution and equitable enjoyment of benefits and resources” 45 ormrod, educational psychology. 46 snauwaert, "human rights and cosmopolitan democratic education", 94. 47 powell, m. "the hidden curriculum of recess"; o’brien & murray, "forest school and its impacts on young children." dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 178 (reardon, 2009, p8), which i believe is necessary for a classroom culture that truly supports a peace agenda, it should start with building the foundation of those values at the early childhood level. as children experience conflict, differences in opinion, or find themselves having unmet wants and needs it is possible that they may become confused, angry, or resentful. it is the job of early childhood educators to help a child express those feelings in a healthy manner and work toward understanding the outcome. in a classroom community that supports peaceful conflict resolution, group cooperation, and peer understanding, children should be guided to work through the fairness/justice conflicts and eventually gain the skills to work through them more independently. whether it is an internal conflict based on an individual’s own need, the conflict of a single child and a peer, or group conflict involving the needs of the whole class, each can be a learning opportunity for the children. creating a sense of fairness and justice creating a classroom community that integrates fairness and a sense of justice throughout all processes will be key in helping children develop their own sense of justice. this starts by allowing and supporting opportunities that examine and challenge current situations. for an early childhood student this might mean inquiry into a personal situation with support from a teacher. teachers themselves should be aware of injustices in order to help their students identify and understand such issues. the questioning and challenging must start somewhere. an effective and practical setting to start would be at an early childhood setting. beyond examining personal situations this can mean questioning classroom practices or school-wide policy that may seem unfair or unjust. those teaching young children should not put aside questions but assent to students' challenges and inquiries into what is going on in their immediate environment and the world around them. children at this age naturally want to know “why” and ask this on a regular basis. teachers who strive to instill a sense of fairness and justice in their students will embrace these “whys” as opportunities to explore issues more deeply and critically. in human rights learning: pedagogies and politics for peace, when speaking of human rights as components of justice betty reardon conceptualizes “just societies [as] those that are conscious of vulnerabilities, seek to prevent them from becoming the occasions of avoidable harm, and devote resources to care for those who are vulnerable so long as they are in such condition.”48 such ideology should be built into any classroom culture, especially that of young children who are developing their sense of the world and idea of justice. if children in their earliest school years are given the opportunity to explore their “whys”, while uncovering vulnerabilities and harmful or unfair situations, they will have great practice and experience in order to apply such skills to a larger degree as they develop their cognitive capacity. evaluating and questioning their personal experiences, classroom practices or school policy can pave the way to evaluating economic, political, social, cultural and environmental injustices. 48 reardon, human rights learning, 20 dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 179 children’s literature can assist teachers, encourage children to embrace the ideology of peace education and offer an effective means in which to explore issues beyond first hand experiences. critical literacy “which encourages readers to adopt a questioning stance and to work toward changing themselves and their world” can be integrated into the widely held preschool practice of story time.49 children’s books with social justice themes or underlying questions can be read to children with discussion after the book guided towards addressing social issues of justice and fairness at their level of understanding. through doing this, teachers will be able to promote certain themes found in a peace education framework such as the building of perspective,50 challenging of social injustices,51 environmental injustice and even equitable distribution of resources.52 these themes begin in classroom readings but extend to a wider context through building these skills of critical analysis. teachers that have used critical literacy in their classroom found that the skills developed in the classroom were used to confront larger societal issues.53 another tool which should be used to create a peaceful and positive community while addressing justice/fairness issues is the classroom meeting. it is common practice in preschools and other early childhood settings to have regular classroom meetings. in early childhood, classroom meetings are typically used to determine the schedule for the day, discuss weather or give a special presentation. in a classroom that desires to be one built on peace understanding, classroom meetings can also be used as a discussion platform. to bring together a multifaceted issue or open discussion to the whole group, teachers can present topics at classroom meetings to get feedback from the group and interaction of individual students’ ideas. in an early childhood education setting, this can even be seen as what dale snauwaert might call a “‘democratic public space, a public forum wherein opinions and perspectives can be communicated” essential to a truly democratic and peaceful community.54 outdoors/nature component open-ended outdoor time promotes children working together, collaborating and communicating. during this collaborative time children are learning to understand others, their views and needs while beginning to grasp the ideas of fairness and justice. reardon makes clear that a culture of peace is fair and just and does not accept violence as an answer.55 young children need time and space to grapple with such big ideas. open-ended time in nature allows just that. in fact, a case study by mark powell found that children engaged in regular free time in nature regulated such things as fairness and rejected violence as a way to accomplish a goal 49 mcdaniel, cynthia. "critical literacy: a questioning stance and the possibility for change." the reading teacher, 57 (2004): 472. 50 snauwaert, "human rights and cosmopolitan democratic education." 51 reardon, human rights learning. 52 mische & harris, "environmental peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding." 53 chafel, j. a., flint, a. s., hammel, k., & pomeroy, k. h. young children, social issues, and critical literacy: stories of teachers and researchers. young children, (2007): 73-81; mcdaniel, "critical literacy." 54 snauwaert, "human rights and cosmopolitan democratic education," 101. 55 reardon, human rights learning. dsnauwa highlight in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 180 when playing outside.56 in order for children to appreciate a fair and just situation for all, the capacity to care about others must exist. some research suggests that the capacity to care may be enhanced through experiences in and with nature. a study by maller’s indicates that children who engage in caring nature activities such as caring for plants and animals were able to easily transfer the skills over to caring and nurturing of people and considering the feelings of others.57 interconnectedness if children are given the opportunity to see themselves as part of a whole in terms of solving conflict in a just and fair manner, children will begin to make sense of the interrelationships between themselves and others. in order to truly work towards a just and peaceful society one must realize the relationships s/he has with others. it is through the realization of these relationships and the interconnectedness present, that one can most authentically solve problems and come to peaceful, just terms. through the growing life experiences of a preschooler, many in which take place inside an early childhood classroom group, young children can begin to understand themselves as part of a whole. the social nature of a group in a classroom presents opportunity for children to see their effects on others. it is also necessary that children be aware of their relationship with the natural environment. helping children in an unthreatening way, to “appreciate that their own survival and health depends upon the health of water, air, plants and animals” is an integral piece to giving them a sense of interconnectedness.58 children need to know how their actions affect the natural world and in turn how those effects have an impact on the human race and other living creatures on earth. according to the biophilia hypothesis defined by edward wilson,59 young children have an innate sense of their relationship with natural elements and have a desire to be in contact with them. teachers in an early childhood setting should use the opportunity of the young student’s inclination to be in nature as a tool for creating the awareness of the interconnections present between all humans and between humans and the rest of the natural world. promoting awareness of interconnectedness to become aware of the interconnectedness that exists between us all, children must have the opportunity to interact in positive, productive ways with peers and adults. within these interactions children must be given the freedom to act and react autonomously. this can happen in an environment that is well prepared to support the freedom of movement and choice as well as encourage communication and dialogue among all members of the group. if teachers provide children with this opportunity, “dialogical relationships” can be formed while developing a sense 56 powell, m. "the hidden curriculum of recess." 57 maller, "promoting children's mental, emotional and social health through contact with nature: a model." 58 mische & harris, "environmental peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding," 3. 59 as discussed in louv, richard. last child in the woods: saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. chapel hill, nc: algonquin books of chapel hill, 2005. dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 181 of interconnectedness.60 in the processes of interactions, teachers of young children who are just beginning to gain a sense of “the other” can highlight causations of how each affects another, the relationships between members of the classroom community and each member's contribution to the whole group and wider community and world. this view of holism is supported by peace educators and is instrumental in creating a curricular model of peace education for early childhood. preschool teachers and other early childhood educators tend to conduct units of study in a holistic manner interconnecting subject content and focusing on the whole child in all developmental domains. early childhood educators wishing to embrace a peace pedagogy must grow from this vantage point and focus the holism present between people, places, events and the natural world we live in; helping children view all people as one human species among many valued living species on our single planet. for children of preschool age, this could mean taking simple steps in acknowledging all humanity as one by asking questions that require reflection within a preschooler's capability including "what makes us human" or "what makes us each unique". teachers can also point out and discuss natural cycles or systems at an early childhood level such as how the rain is important for the trees, plants and animals. beginning to explore those topics will set building blocks for the exploration of larger, more complicated queries as developmental advances allow for more in depth discussions. as betty reardon points out in human rights learning: pedagogies and politics of peace, “a holistic approach calls for identifying links and relationships among issues and problems."61 it is important for teachers to identify these links for their young students but it also important for early childhood educators to identify and value these links for themselves. they must perceive a child not simply as a child within the context of their classroom but within the world as a whole, taking into account children’s experiences, background and family history. this means intimately getting to know each student and responding in appropriate ways for each individual. a truly holistic approach to early childhood education also places value on working with families and integrating a child’s home life into school life. in support of understanding the interconnectedness of human to human relationships, one must also understand the interdependence we have with the rest of the natural world. if children are given exposure to the natural connections of our planet it leads the way for interpretation and understanding of the interconnectivity which constantly surrounds us in all endeavors. i agree with mische & harris in their statement that “humans are not apart from or over nature, but part of the earth’s larger community of life.”62 this is true in that human activity affects our natural environment and the life of all creatures on earth (including humans). we are indeed part of earth’s community and children need to be given opportunity to realize that from a very young age. currently we are experiencing a disconnect or distancing from humans and the rest of the 60 snauwaert, dale t. "the ethics and ontology of cosmopolitanism: education for a shared humanity." current issues in comparative education, 12 (2009): 14-22. 61 reardon, human rights learning, 6 62 mische & harris, "environmental peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding," 3. dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 182 natural world.63 early childhood educators have the power and i would argue the responsibility to close that gap by building children who see the connection that is life on earth. spending time outdoors, studying animals, teaching children human impact on nature, and discussing natural systems are all ways to promote such understanding. as mentioned earlier, cultivating caring is important for creating a culture of peace. the caring component should be extended beyond human relationships to the relationships with all living beings and the natural world in which we live. outdoors/nature component experiences in and with nature are an integral part of developing a child’s sense of interconnectedness. to combat the distance that is taking place between people and the natural world, early childhood educators can expose children to the natural world from a young age and with consistency. they can help children understand systems and cycles of nature as part of who we are as people and how we function in this living world. outdoor time in nature is important “for children’s discovery of their environment and of their own place in the world.”64 i believe this to be very true; if children do not understand the world in which they live, humans' role in it and how it functions as a system, they will not fully understand their own place and the impact they have on the world. an early childhood curriculum that supports peace in its entirety will encourage what mische and harris would call environmental peace making.65 this is only possible if we give children the opportunity to act as such by exposing them to their natural environment, providing the chance for environmental peace-making. building the four pillars educators working with preschool age and other early childhood groups, who wish to create a culture of peace in their learning environment will recognize the importance of developing and supporting creativity and critical thinking in their young students. while the four pillars i suggest; value and respect for self, appreciation of diversity, sense of fairness and justice, and awareness of interconnectedness are the integral substance of an early childhood curriculum supporting a peace agenda, they will only be fully realized when built from creativity and critical thinking processes. creativity young children are naturally curious and excited about new things. they are in a stage of imagination and creativity. they naturally immerse themselves in imaginative play using creative processes in doing so. creativity, new and original behavior and/or ideas will be key in developing young children’s capacity for peace and should be fostered at this ripe creative age.66 63 mische & harris, "environmental peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding"; louv, last child in the woods. 64 maller, "promoting children's mental, emotional and social health through contact with nature," 529. 65 mische & harris, "environmental peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding." 66 ormrod, educational psychology. dsnauwa highlight in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 183 in order to imagine a new situation, a different more peaceful world, one must be able to imagine in general through the process of creative thoughts and eventually create change through the process of creative actions. mische and harris discuss education for social responsibility as teachers posing problems and helping students search for solutions.67 with a strong creative skill set, imaging solutions and creative possibilities will be easier and more natural of a process. betty reardon describes this in terms of hope, an essential of peace, as that which “enables us to believe in the possibility of positive change…elicited and developed through practicing the skills of visioning, imaging and modeling.”68 these are skills which can be developed through a young child’s natural use of creativity and imagination. teachers can build upon the child’s natural creative inclination at this age by giving them various outlets in which to express their creativity. whether through play, art, building, constructing, storytelling, or physical adventures indoors and outdoors, creative thoughts and behaviors are valued in an early childhood setting which wishes to generate a peace pedagogy. creativity requires the ability to take risks and it requires time. providing children freedom with appropriate levels of security and support will establish this space to take risk. providing children with the time they need to explore their ideas and maintaining an environment in which mistakes and failures are appreciated as learning opportunities will support creative processes and risk taking. critical thinking critical thinking also becomes a necessary vehicle in developing the four pillars of early childhood peace education. if we want our children to be able to challenge world views and question current unfair practices, they must be taught to be critical in their thinking processes. if children are to be able to identify the problems in which to find creative solutions, they must be able to see the problems in the first place through a critical lens. if a teacher is to take on an element of early childhood peace education such as critical literacy, one in which children are asked to think deeply about what they are reading/hearing, they must have the critical thinking skills to do so. dale snauwaert proposes thinking as a “reflective activity wherein one literally stops and steps back within one's self to reflect upon the meaning and value of the thought.”69 while this may seem a lofty goal for young children who are only beginning to gain a sense of self and awareness of others, the ideas of thinking and reflecting are quite applicable to the early childhood years. this might be done through classroom activities that require such authentic thinking to take place. in making thinking visible, ritchhart, church, and morrison describe “thinking routines”, activities that help children to interpret, wonder, question, reflect and take perspective.70 this may include having children carefully observe a painting, respond to each 67 mische & harris, "environmental peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding." 68 reardon, betty a. education for a culture of peace in a gender perspective, 86 69 snauwaert, "human rights and cosmopolitan democratic education," 97 70 ritchhart, r., church, m., & morrison, k. making thinking visible: how to promote engagement, understanding, and independence for all learners. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass, 2011. dsnauwa highlight in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 184 other's comments or making connections between new and previously learned information. in providing such experiences for young children, teachers are promoting skills for critical thinking. attentive listening, active observation, and good communication skills are necessary in the full process of critically thinking and applying critical thoughts. while thinking often begins as internal, it is in response to something that is being heard or something that has been observed. thinking becomes external as thoughts are communicated to others and in this manner, communication of thoughts is crucial for the thinking/applying process. communication also becomes important in creating a relationship of dialogue. this dialogical component is acknowledged by many peace educators as being key in the peace education process. noddings describes dialogue as “a basic requirement in a caring relationship.”71 as discussed earlier, caring relationships are often the foundation of a positive, productive early childhood experience and the capacity for caring is essential in peace education. the process of critical thinking and the skills that go along with it are applicable to all pillars described in this curriculum. one must be able to reflect upon oneself and experiences to develop understanding, value and respect of self. to understand and appreciate diversity, a child must be aware of diversity and be able to reflect upon the differences s/he encounters. children must be able to communicate with others and listen to others if they are to understand those who are different from themselves. if children experience differences in people as a means in which difference in just and fair treatment is distributed, they must be able to acknowledge that difference and reflect upon the reasons, approaching the situation from a critical standpoint. in understanding the interconnectedness that is constantly present between all peoples and between people and the rest of the natural world, children are using attentive observation and listening skills to make those connections. outdoor/nature component again, special attention is given here to the potential for including a component of outdoor natural experiences in early childhood education. creativity has the ability to thrive outdoors in nature as children work in an open-ended environment. a myriad of interpretations and actions are available when working in nature. the rich environment of the natural world presents a variety of choices for engagement in creative endeavors. children are able to make their own decisions and interpretation of the "loose parts” which nature provides.72 working in nature provides teachers with great opportunities to promote critical thinking and cognitive engagement as they ask questions, make connections and help children create hypothesis to the "whats and whys" of the natural experiences. also, as one’s body is physically engaged in unplanned, unstructured challenges in nature one will have to think critically to solve the problems in this complex environment that constantly requires reflection, critical thinking and decisions making. 71 noddings, "caring and peace education," 2. 72 louv, richard. last child in the woods. dsnauwa highlight dsnauwa highlight in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 185 early childhood peace education curricular model conclusion peace education in early childhood has the potential to make a significant and lasting impact. it is in the early years of life that children are developing their social and cognitive capacities to become active and productive members of society. early childhood educators and others working with young children have the opportunity to integrate capacities for peace into the young child's growing sense of the world. in viewing early childhood education through the four early childhood peace pillars discussed here, i propose a curriculum for young children that fully embraces peace. each pillar as important as the next, these four components will guide an early childhood teacher towards a curriculum which will support the building of peaceful children giving them the great potential to grow into peaceful adults, societal members who contribute to creating a peaceful world. the proposed framework here seeks to help teachers of young children understand how peace education can be integrated into early childhood. helping children develop value and respect for self, appreciation of diversity, a sense of fairness and justice, and an awareness of interconnectedness will give them the ability to become global citizens who engage in patterns of thought and possess world views that are built on an understanding of peace and a peaceable world. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 186 references allison, p., carr, d., & meldrum, g. (2012). potential for excellence: interdisciplinary learning outdoors as a moral enterprise. curriculum journal, 23(1), 43-58. baja, monisha. (2008). "'critical' peace education." in encyclopedia of peace education, edited by monisha baja, 135-146. charlotte, nc: information age publishing. bartlett, lesley. (2008). "paulo freire and peace education." in encyclopedia of peace education, edited by monisha bafa. charlotte, nc: information age publishing, inc. chafel, j. a., flint, a. s., hammel, k., & pomeroy, k. h. (2007). young children, social issues, and critical literacy: stories of teachers and researchers. young children, 73-81. crain, w. (2001). how nature helps children develop. montessori life. 9(2), 22-24. crain, w. c. (2005). theories of development: concepts and applications. upper saddle river, n.j: pearson/prentice hall. danesh, h. b. (2011). education for peace reader. edited by h. b. danesh, education for peace--integrative curriculum series. victoria, canada: efp press, parts 1, 2, 3, & 6. freire, paulo. (1970). pedagogy of the oppressed. new york: continuum, chapters 1 & 2. galtung, johan. (1969). violence, peace, and peace research. journal of peace research, 27 (3): 291-305. galtung, johan, and dietrich fischer. (2013). johan galtung: pioneer of peace research. edited by hans günter brauch, springerbriefs on pioneers in science and practice. heidelberg: springer, chapter 15. gonzalez-mena, j. (2008). diversity in early care and education: honoring differences. boston, ma: mcgraw-hill. louv, richard. (2005) last child in the woods: saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. chapel hill, nc: algonquin books of chapel hill. maller, c. (2009). promoting children's mental, emotional and social health through contact with nature: a model. health education, 109(6), 522-543. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 187 mcdaniel, cynthia. (2004). critical literacy: a questioning stance and the possibility for change. the reading teacher, , 57(5), 472-481. mische, patriacia & harris, ian. (2008). "environmental peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding." in the encyclopedia of peace education, edited by monisha baja. charlotte, nc: information age publishing. national association for the education of young children & national association of early childhood specialists in state departments of education. (1990). guidelines for appropriate curriculum content and assessment in programs serving young children (naeyc position statement). noddings, nel. (2008). "caring and peace education." in encyclopedia of peace education, edited by monisha baja. charlotte, nc: information age publishing, inc. o’brien, l., & murray, r. (2007). forest school and its impacts on young children: case studies in britain. urban forestry & urban greening, (6), 249-265. ormrod, j.e. (2011). educational psychology: developing learners, 7th edition. boston, ma: pearson education inc., allyn & bacon. powell, m. (2007). the hidden curriculum of recess. children, youth & environments, 17(4), 86-106. ramsey, patricia (1987). “young children’s thinking about ethnic diversity.” in children's ethnic socialization: pluralism and development, edited by phinney, j. s., & rotheram-borus, m. j. newbury park: sage publications. reardon, betty. (1988). comprehensive peace education : educating for global responsibility. new york: teachers college press. reardon, betty a. (1999). "peace education: a review and projection." sweden: school of education, malmo university. reardon, betty a. (2001). education for a culture of peace in a gender perspective. paris: unesco. reardon, betty a. (2009). human rights learning: pedagogies and politics of peace. in unesco chair for peace education master conference. university of puerto rico. ritchhart, r., church, m., & morrison, k. (2011). making thinking visible: how to promote engagement, understanding, and independence for all learners. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 167-188 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 188 roopnarine, j. l., & johnson, j. e. (2009). approaches to early childhood education. upper saddle river, n.j: merrill/pearson. shore, r. (1997) ‘what have we learned?’ in ‘rethinking the brain’. (pp. 15-27).new york: families and work institute. snauwaert, dale. (2009)a. "human rights and cosmopolitan democratic education." philosophical studies in education, 40, 94-103. snauwaert, dale. (2009)b. "the ethics and ontology of cosmopolitanism: education for a shared humanity." current issues in comparative education, 12,14-22. snauwaert, dale t. (2011). "democracy, public reason, and peace education." global campaign for peace education newsletter, 88, 1-5. sweatman, m., & warner, a. (2009). integrating nature experiences into early childhood education. canadian children, 34(2), 4-9. tatum, b. d. (1997). “the early years: is my skin brown because i drink chocolate milk?” in why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? and other conversations about race. new york: basicbooks. weber, e. (1984). ideas influencing early childhood education: a theoretical analysis. new york, ny: teachers college press. microsoft word aryoubi. v12.docx in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 93-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 93 volume 12 number 1 (2018): 93-96 issn 2578-6857 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review a pedagogy of faith: the theological vision of paulo freire by irwin leopando, bloomsbury, 2017, 237 pp. reviewed by hogai aryoubi university of cambridge cambridge peace education research group hogai.aryoubi@gmail.com a pedagogy of faith: the theological vision of paulo freire is an intriguing book-length study that investigates freire’s educational theory and practice through his religious lens. the issue the author irwin leopando tackles is the misconception of many western readers and the academic left in restraining or completely dismissing freire’s theological dimensions when discussing his theory or practice. emphasizing his religiosity is important, because leopando asserts that freire’s praxis can only be fully understood by recognizing the catholic thought that established the source of his moral vision, social concern, and worldview. the book is divided into five chapters: (1) paulo freire’s life and educational praxis; (2) freire and the brazilian catholic left movement; (3) freire and catholic theologies of the person; (4) freire and liberation theology; and (5) freire, neoliberalism, and integral pedagogy. the first chapter opens on freire’s younger years in the brazilian northeast. the context describes the high levels of inequality and poverty in the region and his personal family life. his father believed in spiritism and his mother in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 93-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 94 was a devout catholic, but both were tolerant and open with their children. freire eventually embraced the catholic faith on his own at the age of seven with the support of his parents. in his twenties, he developed his academic interests in the philosophy of education, as a university student and teacher. freire’s formative years as the director of the department of education and culture of pernambuco’s social service ministry for ten years and his doctoral studies and professorship at the university of pernambuco is reviewed. leopando also outlines freire’s involvement at the movement for popular culture, where he focused on adult literacy with other active volunteers, who were mostly middleclass catholic university students. the author then describes freire’s conscientizing literacy method and program, its national implementation in brazil, imprisonment after the 1964 military coup and finally his exile. the author spans freire’s many achievements abroad, including scholarly and professional work in education. his permanent return to brazil in the 1980’s led to further professional success and major academic activity in the 1990’s, until his death in 1997. the chapter was a methodical review of his life in relation to his work in education and his catholic faith, which gives the reader, regardless of previous knowledge, a relevant and thorough context. the second chapter outlines the period of the conservative catholic electoral league and the rise and era of the catholic left movement, catholic university youth, popular action, movement for grassroots education, and freire’s literacy programs. the brazilian catholic left movement organized efforts to mobilize and educate the poor for a more just and democratic society, which the author claims had shaped freire’s worldview, identity, and educational praxis. he was influenced and became an activist and intellectual during these movements in the 1950’s to the 1960’s. the author is able to give a detailed analysis of the catholic church and its entities in brazil from the twentieth century to 1964, especially in regards to its ideological tensions and the major theological and ecclesiological developments. though the chapter focuses extensively on brazilian catholic left movement and other catholic entities, it allows the reader to understand the fluctuating time period in which freire developed professionally and academically. catholic elites and freire then, ‘drew on the latent resources of their religious heritage in order to break with their church’s prevailing conservatism and authoritarianism’ (p.48). this break in conservatism and authoritarianism and embrace of a modern theology is discussed further on. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 93-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 95 the third chapter demonstrates the influence of the less conservative french religious thinkers: jacques maritain, emmanuel mounier, and pierre teilhard de chardin on paulo freire’s theory and practice. maritain’s ideas of liberal pluralism, universal human rights, catholic involvement in the modern world and social issues, alongside his views on the goal of education, are all outlined. next, a summary of mounier’s advocacy for christian personalism, with his ideas on personalist anthropology, civilization, praxis, and education are given, in addition to the groundwork he laid in the dialogue between christianity and marxism. finally, jesuit paleontologist chardin’s push for the catholic church’s engagement with the modern world and his production of constructive theology of human existence and nature is reviewed. after presenting each catholic thinker in-depth, the author concludes the impact of the three on freire. further, also influenced by the three catholic philosophers, almeri bezerra and hernrique caludio de lima vaz’s impact on freire’s thoughts and ideas are presented. the former chapters outlined freire’s life, his academic and professional work in relation to his faith, the developments of the catholic church and entities in brazil, philosophical catholic influences, and the fourth chapter explores freire’s theology and embrace of marxist praxis. the focus is on the relationship between liberation theology and paulo freire’s pedagogy. initially, a review of the historic medellin conference and documents in 1968 display the church’s transformed progressive stance, which included a freirean vision of social action. freire was designated as a founder of the liberation theology movement by liberation theologians, as his conscientizing practice was adapted as a basis for their work. throughout the chapter the author claims that freire’s faith laid the groundwork for his awakening and embrace of marxist praxis and analysis, which he incorporated into his philosophy. his vision of a prophetic church is one that is on the side of the vulnerable and poor and is the ‘only historical manifestation of the church that has manifested the gospel’s original vision of justice, freedom, authenticity, and human well being. “christ,” he [freire] asserted, “was no conservative” (p. 176). his faith here aligns with his marxist praxis. the fifth and final chapter discusses freire’s post-exile years in brazil as the secretary of education and the neoliberal decade from 1990 to 2000. freire’s opposition to the neoliberalization of the education system is discussed, where he compares it to ‘animal training,’ like maritain had done (p. 203). he found capitalism to violate essential human capacities for community, solidarity, and in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 93-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 96 self-giving. an extended discussion on neoliberalism follows with its impact on the education system in brazil. freire’s final vision of pedagogy is then examined at full-length. the author concludes the book with a final thoughts section. in this segment, leopando asserts and maintains the general argument of this book, that the catholic faith deeply influenced freire’s ideology and outlines his humanizing and person-centered pedagogy and theological stance in education. the author’s religious background, which is being based on the acknowledgments section where he states, ‘my warmest thanks to st. bartholomew’s episcopal church for two decades of spiritual nourishment and radical welcome,’ leopando offers an often missing religious voice in the western intellectual left dominated academic world (p.221). further, as an assistant professor of english rather than expert on freire, he brings a diverse perspective to the table. leopando has however worked with ira shor, who was the co-author with paulo freire to a pedagogy for liberation. over the five chapters, he provides a thorough analysis of freire’s pedagogy and theological stance. the author brings readers to acknowledge the role of freire’s catholic faith in the formation of his consciousness, activism, and worldview. the fourth chapter was especially convincing in leopando’s claim, as it gives less context and rather his direct views and ideas in theology that laid the groundwork for his pedagogy. certain sections, such as the three french catholic philosophers reviewed in the third chapter or the neoliberal ideology in itself, were much more lengthy than required, without adding much depth to the relevant discussion. on the other hand, the author does not assume that the audience has familiarity with freire or any of the significant ideologies, entities, or figures discussed, which did lead to a thorough context. this well-written book avoids overly specialist phrasing, which allows it be accessible to a wide audience. those who read a pedagogy of faith will gain valuable insight to freire’s esteemed pedagogy, which is especially vital for teachers, school administrators, and education students and researchers. microsoft word standish .docx in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 27-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 27 volume 9 number 1 (2015): 27-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal the critical difference of peace education katerina standish phd national centre for peace and conflict studies, university of otago katerinasstandish@gmail.com   introduction how does critical thinking, critical theory and critical pedagogy relate to building peace? peacebuilding is changing. change is happening conceptually – from the international to the local (macginty 2013), spatially – from the global north to the global south (richmond 2011), and temporally – from post-conflict to pre-conflict (boutros-ghali 1995). the past perceptions of peacebuilding as an intervention that happens after violent conflict have to make space for more inclusive, rooted and preventive measures – such as peace education – that seek to transform violent aspects of societies from within – so that violent conflicts do not materialize. in this essay the theoretical constructs of critical literacy, critical theory and critical pedagogy will be examined to illuminate how critical pedagogy in peace education provides practical applications of transforming cultural and symbolic forms of violence when peacebuilding through education. by doing so, this essay considers that although critical literacy provides students the capacity to approach learning materials and identify power and inequality, and, while critical theory is important in delineating discrimination and oppression, critical pedagogy in peace education transcends the recognition of diversity to result in solidarity; or, said another way, critical literacy creates recognition, critical theory takes sides (the side of the oppressed) and critical pedagogy in peace education eliminates impediments to genuine unanimity. in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 27-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 28 schools as sites of peacebuilding social groups have values, attitudes and behavioural expectations that they transmit to their young in school. schools are a critical component of confronting complex social problems and looking to build peace because education systems occupy an ideal environment to impart transformative cultural values and effect change. positive peace requires a long-term, nonviolent, harmonious and sustainable relationship between peoples, governments and the ecosystem (lederach 2006). peace education is a form of education that seeks to both recognize violence in society, impart and employ nonviolent tools for transforming conflict and support and create the interconnectivity needed to achieve what galtung (1996) conceives of as ‘positive peace’ – the absence of all forms of violence and the presence of harmonious social/environmental relationships. education systems are important locations of cultural alteration because they act as both markers of social authority and radical fronts of change. education systems make choices that include understandings of peoples, places and origins – these understandings are made concrete in textbooks and other documents that showcase some voices while silencing others and make certain things ‘known’ leaving other things absent or indeed, hidden from view (eisner 1985). the great ‘project’ of education incorporates the needs of the nation – creating loyal and obedient citizens from heroic narratives of the past – with the prerequisites for future productivity – recognizing trends and anticipating needed skills. when looking to build peace (positive peace) education can act as an intervention in the ways we see ourselves, others and the natural world and it provides an ethical platform from which our human outputs are articulated to holistic living and harmonious relationships. peace education examines the use of history in creating identity and the way education systems are often a ‘part of the problem’ when inequality and inhumanity are present (lange 2012). peace education can illuminate how violence becomes normalized in society in structural (for example: discrimination) and cultural (for example: patriarchy) ways and teaches ways of being and seeing that attempt to be both culturally reflective and socially responsive and responsible (harris and morrison 2013). contested history and education educative systems are places that can create and duplicate cultural understandings and therefore critical consciousness makes it possible to harness the unique positionality of schooling when generating social change (noddings 2012). there are few forums of socialization more suited to massive cultural change than educative systems. educative systems are social institutions that occur in almost every nation on earth and even in in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 27-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 29 places where traditional schooling still exists many societies are embracing values such as human rights, democracy and anti-discrimination. because peace education is a form of transformational pedagogy (boulding 1988) it is concerned with more than serving the current needs of a particular society it is concerned with imparting principles and approaches that utilize nonviolence and champion reflective and responsive acts of learning (bajaj 2008). voices in the peace pedagogy there are myriad individuals whose work has contributed to peace education theory – a common list would include jane addams, maria montessori, birgit brock-utne, elise boulding, betty reardon, john dewey, john holt, paulo freire, colman mccarthy, herbert read, danial bar-tal, ian harris and mary lee morrison. for academics, curricular analysts, peace practitioners, ngo’s and government ministries the time may have arrived for a deeper analysis, one in which the theories of peaceful transformation become more visible. in the following section critical literacy and critical theory will be contrasted with critical pedagogy and then three forms of peace education programs will be explored to illustrate the difference between recognizing power and building positive peace. critical literacy while critical thinking can be considered an intellectual exercise of appreciation and reflection critical literacy is a practice of identifying power in language and, specifically, “uncovering the perspectives and positions that underpin texts…to ask and judge what these perspectives might mean” (sandretto 2011, 14). in order to engage with the practice of critical literacy individuals approach text (or expression from any medium of communication) critically. to do so, there needs to be a baseline understanding that the world is not a natural or normal consequence of social history and textual messages tend to provide people with unequal benefits, describe conditions that often privilege the status quo and create avenues of inadequate representation and/or limited participation. although critical literacy can have many incarnations, the scope of this essay will classify critical literacy varieties as those that involve revealing perceptions and positions in expressions about reality. critical literacy tasks us with the obligation to ask questions of reality and interrogate both the location of speakers and the purpose of communication. to repeatedly inquire ‘why the world is the way it is?’ is an opportunity to do more than understand language (literacy) it is an invitation to analyze how language is related to reality and therefore, that reality – as a constructed social product – can be different (freire and macedo 1987). the process of critical literacy authorizes the receiver to comprehend reality as both constructed and dynamic and this allows for the possibilities of social in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 27-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 30 change to move from a “way of thinking” about the status quo to ways of imagining change (mcdaniel 2006, 5). simply put, critical literacy allows us to identify injustice, document contradictions, perceive consequences and imagine social transformation. as an example of the value of critical literacy one could ask ‘did christopher columbus discover america?’ critical literacy interrogates this statement to challenge the veracity of such a claim, position this assertion using historical context and ask ‘in this statement what do the voices gain by this declaration and which voices are being silenced?’ the result of this process leads to a new understanding of history and an awareness of the role of power (in this case colonial power) in establishing social facts. in this example critical literacy destabilizes this reality and therefore leaves room for other considerations of the past. using critical literacy in schools means students become adept in questioning content, context and relationships between power and social products (janks 2010). critical theory there are strong connections between critical literacy and critical theory – critical theorists use the tools of assessment and recognition used in critical literacy but expand the domain of their evaluation to include all social phenomenon and not solely the products of a society used in communication. critical theory has historically been associated with sociological inquiry (the frankfurt school) and many scholars in both the humanities and social sciences link their investigations of social/cultural phenomenon to the work of critical theorists (dahms 2008). with the emergence of social science – the investigation of the social and cultural worlds and their impacts – it became possible to connect the practice of academic inquiry to the project of social transformation and many contemporary writers now consider it a primary function of research to illuminate hegemonies that lead to social, cultural or environmental injustice (gramci 1971). through critical theory, observation becomes an apparatus aimed at change. whereas critical literacy can be considered illuminating the philosophical orientation of critical theory is emancipatory to “liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them” (horkheimer 1982, 244). although critical theory has a close theoretical association with postmodernism this brief exploration will limit itself to notions of the nature of reality (critical theory) rather than notions of the nature of knowledge (postmodernism). critical theory has evolved from an understanding that individuals create knowledge through interaction with other things and beings. in this sense, reality is something encountered and constructed through experience – this is distinct from the positivist conceptualization of reality that posits the existence of observable and independent truth (guba and lincoln 1994). in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 27-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 31 critical theorists do not want to merely investigate reality as it is encountered they want to change it (giroux 2003). critical theory emerges from positions of oppression to take different forms and can be seen in philosophical, social and political contestation to forms of cultural violence such as racism, sexism and colonialism (galtung 1996). indeed, the oppositional predisposition of critical theory considers it essential to name an injustice, locate avenues of social transformation and identify agents of change. critical theory emerges from a social inquiry into inequality, difference and oppression, as such; it is concerned with making visible inequity, inconsistency and domination. critical pedagogy critical pedagogy builds upon the important awareness-raising practices of critical literacy and critical theory but adds measures of radical love, hope (freire 2003) and the transformation of students, teachers and groups by de-essentializing identities (bekerman and zembylas 2012) and dismantling categorizations of individuals through authentic interaction. by no means a uniform concept, critical pedagogy – from the frankfurt school to marxist, and postmodern scholars – is often concerned with inequalities in society and how education facilitates hegemonic power through invisible oppressions (kincheloe and mclaren 2000). while pedagogy is considered by some to be the amalgamation of critical theory and educational philosophy the practical nature of acts of critical pedagogy requires processes that eclipse both the binary quality of critical theory (oppressed/oppressor) and the intellectual practices of critical literacy. critical pedagogy requires the perception that human freedom is related to the act of inclusion, authentic interaction and a cycle of action and reflection that leads to freedom (freire 2003). critical pedagogy recognizes the inherent political nature of education and argues that what and how we learn – whose knowledge is considered – cannot be separated from whose power is maintained by education (kincheloe 2008). in peace education, critical pedagogy is more than the radicalization of educands and the revolutionary potential for a kind of education that displays, investigates and challenges forces of power (mclaren 2000). critical pedagogy, in peace education, relates to the universal quality of human suffering (rorty 1989) and the goal of surpassing the recognition of difference and violence to pursue an objective of inclusion. kincheloe states that “white people must learn to learn to listen to nonwhites and indigenous people’s criticism of them and of the cultural norms they have established and imposed on people of a lower socioeconomic class” (2008, 34) but when you survey a classroom in search of an individual who holds such reified (white, male, wealthy) hegemonic power, they rarely exist. it could be an invisible disability, a social stigma related to sexuality or income, a history of trauma, a in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 27-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 32 personality of gentleness or introversion that eschews dominatory tendencies, or any number of other possible markers of difference. the practice of critical pedagogy in peace education requires that all characteristics of identity that can be perceived of as ‘more than’ or ‘less than’ be discarded. when critical pedagogues are educating for peace they are not simply looking for those who have, and those who have less (or at least are perceived so) but are looking to create radical love in the classroom. bekerman and zembylas aver, “critical pedagogy is about improving the learning and life opportunities of all students, notably the typically marginalized ones” (2012, 221). this essay argues that critical pedagogy in peace education needs to connect with and appreciate the knowledge’s brought to the classroom from all educands regardless of where each students identity potentially places them socially. when we, as critical pedagogues interject the notion of difference in the classroom we must be very certain that our inquisition of power does not result in the disempowerment of others. it may be useful to interrogate difference in the classroom to introduce diverse ways of being and perceiving but as peace educators the perceptions and practices of critical pedagogy must result in authentically valuing diversity while celebrating individual worth; we need to engage to destabilize identity characteristics and reveal inherent human dignity. in the following section three examples of critical pedagogy in peace education will be explored to highlight how critical pedagogues who educate for peace consider the classroom as more than a location where violence and social inequality exist but an avenue of interpersonal, affective transformation. montessori education maria montessori believed that existing educative systems were harmful to the genuine potential of learning and that the true role of education rested with the outcomes of society, including the elimination of war (duckworth 2006). montessori perceived that education systems were perpetrators of ‘war culture’ and were a reason that there were continued cycles of violence and poverty (duckworth 2006). montessori proposed a child-centric pedagogy (teaching) that was not hindered by authoritarian separations between student and teacher and deeply connected to the act of love (harris 2004). by letting a child’s curiosity about the world guide his or her learning a student could explore the multiplicity of human and natural life while in a safe environment. importantly, montessori saw the role of the teacher as a guide or facilitator rather than as a repository of information sending information in a unidirectional trajectory at ‘ignorant’ children. montessori was responsible for one of the first forms of ‘critical’ pedagogy examining the art, science, and outcomes of education and her in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 27-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 33 work (and her model of education still used today in montessori schools) accentuates the importance of teaching universal social responsibility. montessori acknowledged that a child learns the violent values of society in school and could, therefore, learn about peaceful values there too (duckworth 2008). the montessori method is used worldwide and has become a recognized pedagogical construct in education (http://montessoriconnections.com/about-montessori-education/what-is-themontessori-method/). the prem rawat peace education program (pep) mohandas gandhi was a critic of educational systems as he found them to be signifiers and sustainers of the violent status quo (allen 2007). he perceived of structural and cultural violence as something that needed to be socially challenged and considered cooperation with existing education systems a form of exploitation (allen 2007). as long as educative systems continued to ignore their role in ‘war culture’ gandhi explained that violence would continue. gandhi perceived of personal transformation (to nonviolence and love) as a primary goal of education and saw the transformation of society as a desirable, although secondary outcome. students in modern education, to gandhi, become participants in a society that normalizes violence and aggression and, further, educators who utilize teaching methods that duplicate inequality and ignore the qualities of nonviolence and transformative love become accomplices in ‘war culture’ as well (allen 2007). utilizing gandhi’s critique of education, prem rawat created his ‘peace education’ model for use in a variety of institutions, including correctional facilities, schools, community groups, and wellness centres. the prem rawat peace education program utilizes gandhian peace education components that seek to transform the individual based on qualities such as selfawareness, hope and contentedness. the goal of prem rawat peace education is the nonviolent transformation of the self (http://tprf.org/programs/peace-education-program/). the national peace academy the national peace academy (npa) is an educational facility that was fashioned to increase global and local peacebuilding skills through holistic peacelearning learning activities that inspire and equip peacebuilders to engage and manifest peace. the npa philosophical foundations arise from the earth charter (2000) and envision that the practice of peacelearning involves both inner and outer transformation that manifests through the “right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures [and] other life” (principle 16-f). committed to providing the tools and mindsets necessary to manifest positive peace in society the npa addresses the root causes of social, in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 27-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 34 political, economic, environmental and collective conflict through offering peacelearnings that addresses five components of human relationships: personal, social, political, institutional, and ecological. similar to the aforementioned forms of critical pedagogy mentioned in this commentary (montessori and pep), the npa is a repository of vital resources for building peace (http://nationalpeaceacademy.us/). discussion: how are these three approaches informed by critical pedagogy? critical pedagogy creates learning environments that foster loving, nonviolent transformation: personal or collective, local or global. the previous three approaches are informed by critical pedagogy in the following manner: montessori education perceives that the imposition of authoritative values (obedience, duty, sacrifice) lead to war – a definitive form of organized violence whereas the values of peace (love, stewardship and sustainability) result in positive and reciprocal relationships, personal and social responsibility and a sense of inclusion that contributes to self-esteem. prem rawat peace education perceives that eradicating the violence of the ‘self’ is the first step in creating a culture of peace. just as gandhi believed that inner transformation was an essential component to authentic revolution, prem rawat peace education works toward transforming one’s inner violence. this program relates to holistic transformation – how can we be nonviolent when we have yet to address the violence within ourselves? the national peace academy considers the act of transformation to be a vital and foundational process to becoming a builder of peace. peacelearing refers to aspects of information, tools, techniques and capacities that give humans the tools to be agents of change in personal, social, political, institutional and ecological domains. montessori education acts to transform society, prem rawat peace education works to transform the self and peacelearning at npa seeks to transform the world. disscussion: how do these three approaches enact critical pedagogy? in critical pedagogy a connection is made between acquiring the mindsets and means of building positive peace to the formation of loving and nonviolent relationships between educands (student/learners) and educators (facilitator/learners). without this vital connection learning is reduced to a ‘banking’ process that disconnects the content of learning from mental/social/emotional transformation, but, when this process is in place (when critical pedagogy is enacted) then the result of learning is an authentic co-created, co-creating space of loving, nonviolent change (freire 2003). enacting critical pedagogy means putting into practice through aspiration and pedagogy – inclusive learning practices that require love, cherish human dignity and support transformation away from violence. violence can be conceived of as the avoidable harm that we inflict upon others and ourselves. in montessori education, the child is the centre of a loving and nonviolent in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 27-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 35 learning environment and this form of critical pedagogy connects the experience of early learning to the act of social responsibility. prem rawat peace education enacts critical pedagogy by focusing on personal transformation. society is made up of individuals. those who practice the discipline of personal nonviolence are better prepared to stem interpersonal violence and increase the peace dividend for all of us. finally, npa peacelearning is distinct from ‘practice’ programs or peacebuilding trainings as the pedagogical orientation is explicitly based upon gaining outer abilities and inner qualities. critical pedagogy is enacted by peacelearning through the creation of loving relationships – interconnection (in five spheres) that do not merely benefit or profit participants but lovingly transform them. these three programs (there are many, many more) seek to activate the conceptual underpinnings of peace education – that worldviews can change and that education systems are a part of building worldviews. as a form of critical pedagogy peace education has something very significant to contribute to the complex understandings of the world around us and in particular, position learning as a co-created, inclusive and empowering experience that results in positive change. conclusion critical pedagogy is a variety of orientations that build upon critical thinking, critical literacy and critical theory. critical 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daniela pastoors wissenschaftliche mitarbeiterin am institut für erziehungswissenschaft der philipps-universität marburg peace and conflict workers, peace educators and other humanitarian, aid and social workers are engaged in responsible and challenging contexts.1 there are a lot of reasons, why they should be accompanied, supported and counseled during their work regardless of whether they are local or international staff, working in peace education, in the field of social justice, human rights or peacebuilding. the work of conflict workers and peace educators consists in fostering a culture of peace, which is closely connected to a culture of care. 1 in this article, peace and conflict work is used as an umbrella term for peacebuilding, conflict transformation, peace education and other areas related to the concepts of peace and conflict. the people working in this field are referred to as peace and conflict workers or staff, not experts, mediators or else, because it shall describe a lot of different roles and activities. humanitarian and aid work as related ‘international fields’ and education work, social work and community work as related ‘national fields’ of activity have a lot of overlaps and similarities with peace and conflict work and can be taken into consideration in this discussion, although the article focuses on international peace and conflict work. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 80-92 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 81 organizations assume their duty of care for their staff by providing staff care2. but this can be approached in different ways and different paradigms underlie it. staff care activities are often financed and implemented because of risks that are seen in the work contexts. ‘working on conflict’ while ‘working in conflict’ is seen as the big challenge of these activities. the discussion about the duty of care for staff focusses on physical security and now also on mental health. this leads to instruments of crisis intervention and, at best, on prevention of risks, and this way of reasoning is very powerful. at the same time, it is possible to discuss staff care in terms of potentials and of learning that can be strengthened thereby. to elicit peace and encourage conflict transformation the professionals themselves, their constitution and their relationships with themselves, with others and with the world are relevant for staying healthy as well as for doing a good job. in this way, staff care activities can aim on education and development of the employees themselves as well as the organizations. this article argues that there are two paradigms that underlie the reasons for staff care and introduces them, after explaining what is meant by staff care in the context of international peace and conflict work. both paradigms will be presented and their consequences for staff care implementation in the field of international cooperation will be discussed. subsequently, the various reasons can be classified and analyzed in a grid of staff care reasons to make the relations visible and discussable for the context of peace pedagogy as well as for other fields. staff care as ‘duty of care’ a lot of international organizations, working in the fields of international cooperation – humanitarian and aid work or in peacebuilding and conflict transformation – have recognized the issue of staff care and affirm that they have a ‘duty of care’ – a responsibility to care for their staff (porter & emmens, 2016; unhcr, 2013). they accept that the individuals are not solely accountable for their self-care but that the employing organization must do something for the well-being of their staff. but what does this mean in concrete terms? 2 “mental health and psychosocial support (mhpss) for humanitarian staff, is often referred to as staff welfare, care, or well-being.” (unhcr, 2013, p.9.) in the context of this article the term ‘staff care’ is used mainly for psychosocial support for staff, although the questions of physical safety, security and well-being are as important and can be discussed in a similar way. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 80-92 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 82 staff care can include all services, which an organization offers before, during and after the assignment. elements and instruments of staff care can be very different, according to the cultural context, the field of work, the organizational structures and a lot of different influencing factors. there is not the one and only concept of staff care, but organizations have to develop and implement their own approach to it. nevertheless, some basic elements will be described in the following. at the beginning, the process of selection and assessment can be seen a relevant part of staff care since the person must have the capabilities to handle the job and cope with the situation. all measures of training, preparation and orientation for the selected staff before the new assignment starts, are part of staff care. different ways of support from the organization – technical, informational, organizational and psychosocial – help the staff at all stages. during the mission, the interconnection with colleagues is very important – both in the formal way of intervision3, mentoring, peer counseling or team meetings, symposiums and conferences and in the informal way of communication and networking with others. moreover, support formats with external professionals, like counseling, supervision, and coaching, are important psychosocial staff care instruments that can be used at all times of assignment. specialist advice, further trainings and support by ombudspersons are other instruments that are relevant on the job. after a person has concluded an assignment, debriefings, returnee seminars and integration offers are part of staff care services. most of the staff care services are used for prevention as well as for intervention, only crisis management strategies and rest and recreation are exercised just after a critical incident happened. instruments that focus on physical wellbeing, safety and security are just as much a part of staff care as measures that focus mostly on the psychosocial wellbeing. discovering the paradigms starting this exploration, it is necessary to recall what can be understood as a paradigm. in reference to kuhn (1967), a paradigm can manifest in different ways. it can define the items of interest, what is observed and checked and what is not. moreover, a paradigm affects the 3 intervision is a specific format of collegial counselling primarily in psychosocial professions. coequal employees search together for solutions to a specific problem. one colleague brings in a topic, the others support him*her in finding a solution or in better understanding the problem. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 80-92 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 83 type of questions that are asked in relation to a topic, which questions should be examined and the way how to ask these questions. besides it has influence on how to interpret the results of the scientific investigation. related to international staff care this means to analyze: a) what kind of issues are observed and discussed in the context of staff care? what is being talked about? and b) what kind of questions are asked and how are they asked, especially according to the relevance of the topic? how is staff care discussed? paradigm 1: focus on exposures and risks when people think about humanitarian or aid work or peace and conflict workers, they think about risks and exposures. they often work in areas with wars or physically violent conflicts going on and a lot of structural and cultural violence around them, like inequality and poverty and neocolonial power relations. they are confronted with natural and manmade disasters and the destructions that people can do to one another. difficult working conditions, a high workload and a lack of personal life or close relationships can be standard. international and local staff are exposed to some factors in a different way, but most of the exposures are relevant to all of them. the exposures can be systematized in different ways. they can be divided in situational, organizational, work-related and personal factors. or they can be seen as parts of concepts like resilience or vulnerability. with the concept of vulnerability4, an important differentiation can be made. the exposure to these factors and the sensitivity, with which a person is affected by them, result in a potential impact (adger, 2006). this potential impact is influenced by the adaptive capacity, consisting of the possibilities to cope or to avoid. sensitivity means, that because of different characteristics and living conditions the same exposing factor has different impacts on people. at the same time the adaptive capacity is important to understand the real influence of these exposures. people have other coping strategies and other options to avoid a risk because of their privileges. all this has to be taken into account in the field of mental health and psychosocial support as well as in 4 this type of vulnerability concept is more widely used in environmental science and climate change research (for an overview of this discussions see adger, 2006). the psychological concept of vulnerability often sees it as the opposite of resilience and does not differentiate between exposure, sensitivity and adaptation. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 80-92 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 84 staff care. with this concept, the impact of the exposures is contextualized, which helps to understand the relation between exposures and risks. becker & weyermann summarize the connections as follows: “maintaining the psychosocial stability of staff is an institutional responsibility. aid workers in conflict areas are in danger. exposure to continuous pressure and confrontation with suffering and helplessness can eventually make people ill.” (becker & weyermann 2006, p. 52) in international staff care discussions, predominantly the risks are discussed and they are a main trigger to address the topic of (psychosocial) staff care (antares foundation, 2012; lauffer & hamacher, 2016; iasc, 2007; merkelbach, 2017; porter & emmens, 2016; the sphere project, 2011; unhcr, 2013; who, 2011; zif, 2015)5. when people are exposed to these factors, are affected by them and cannot avoid or adapt to them, they can face several risks. stress, fatigue and burnout as well as mental illness, posttraumatic stress disorder and vicarious traumatization can be psychosocial consequences. people can become cynical and lose their belief in the meaningfulness of the work or life in general – just to mention some examples of risks. all in all, stress is the concept, which most organizations refer to. this can even be seen in the title of some international staff care publications: e.g. “managing stress in humanitarian workers” (antares foundation, 2012); “stress im einsatz” (zif, 2015). consequences: prevention and crisis intervention of course, these risks are serious threats for the well-being of international aid or peace and conflict workers. therefore, prevention is an important topic and studies and staff care concepts often argue with the prevention of these risks. for example, the antares foundation created a whole cycle of staff care, that helps organizations to create own staff care policies and based their work on the stress-argument: 5 these examples of international staff care handbooks, studies or guidelines on the field of (mental) health and (psychosocial) support for international aid or humanitarian workers are all primarily concerned with the concepts of risks and stress. the article does not want to go into a detailed analysis and evaluation of this handbooks but rather discuss the topic at a more fundamental level. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 80-92 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 85 “good staff care and psychosocial care have proven to be an important asset in stress management and the prevention and treatment of traumatic and post-traumatic stress.” (antares foundation, 2012, p. 5) risks seem to be the most important reasons for funding and implementing staff care instruments. recognizing that not all risks can be avoided by prevention measures, the organizations establish crisis intervention measures as well. this paradigm that concentrates on exposures, risks, stresses and strains has different consequences. one consequence is that the staff care measures predominantly address cases of emergency and necessity. some measures are designed only for emergency and will be put into practice if an emergency case appears. if a person has a problem s*he shall ask for support and the services are offered on demand, if it is ‘really serious’. related to this, some measures are only financed when they proof their efficiency. it can be a purely economic decision to fund some prevention measures when it is shown that this is cheaper than the lack of workforce by sick leaves or terminations. another point is that mainly certain staff care measures are on the agenda: stress management trainings, psychological first aid, emergency plans, (critical incident stress) debriefings and self-care seminars are examples of activities that are related to this perspective. psychological staff care services are most common, when following this paradigm. moreover, most of these staff care measures focus on self-care and on promoting the individual initiative to care about the own well-being. it is likely that the focus on international professionals and the insufficient involvement of local professionals may also be related to this paradigm together with the adjacent processes like economic imperatives. to sum up, one can say that the underlying paradigm influences the perspective with which we look on staff care and has effects on the way staff care is funded, designed, implemented and used. paradigm 2: focus on potentials and education yet a different perspective on staff care, based on another paradigm, is possible as well. from the perspective of peace pedagogy, the potentials and resources come to the fore. building a culture of peace, embedding staff in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 80-92 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 86 care in ways of peace logic6 and connecting inner and outer peace work are the aims that this paradigm is concentrating on. the essence of this paradigm can be “defined by openness and accountability, self-reflection and vulnerability, mutual respect, dignity, and the proactive engagement of the other” (lederach, 2005, p. 42)7. discourses about education and learning, about using the experiences, that are made in the field and about opportunities and capacities for (self-)reflection are signs for this. how can the resources of a person be conserved, enhanced and strengthened? how can staff care help people to do a good job and contribute constructively to peacebuilding? how can it sustain the well-being of staff and how can personal, organizational and social development can go hand in hand? how can a culture of peace be fostered? “the purpose of staff care is to create a healthy and productive workforce; to create wellbeing among staff and improve the quality of their work.” (porter&emmens, 2009, p.10) these are the questions and arguments that take center stage with this paradigm. according to this perspective, staff care services are essential part of professional work. it is necessary to reflect on your own work, on the way you are doing it and on the circumstances around you. while using staff care services as spaces of reflection, you can gain insights and a new perspective and you can get new ideas and are able to adapt your behavior. tony jenkins describes this attitude and aims for transformative peace pedagogy: “transformative peace pedagogy fosters the development of a selfreflective praxis and nurtures a holistic, inclusive relationship between the inner (personal) and outer (political, action oriented) dimensions of peacebuilding.” (jenkins, 2016, p. 1) 6 the german peace researcher hanne-margret birckenbach distinguishes between security logic and peace logic (birckenbach 2014). security logic describes the phenomena of securitization and the logic behind the politics of security and use of violence. peace logic tries to promote conflict transformation by peaceful and nonviolent means and defines the principles behind politics of peace. 7 lederach (2005) presents the two paradigms of fear and of love and discusses them as different directions in which social change can move. they show many parallels with the paradigms of risk and of potentials which are referred to in this article. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 80-92 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 87 following this paradigm, staff care can be understood as a part of transformative peace pedagogy as it is following the same aims and principles and tries to encourage a dialogical, non-indoctrinating process of counseling, accompanying and supporting staff. consequences: reflective learning and further development when we argue with learning, development and professionalization, it has effects on staff care. the consequences refer to the circumstances and resources and to the way, how staff care services are designed and implemented. at first, staff care services are intended for ‘ordinary times’, as well as for emergencies. that means that people do not need to have a problem to make use of the services. even if everything works out very well, the space for reflection can be used to become aware of it and savor or even celebrate it. organizations don‘t wait for staff to come around just as the situation has become unbearable. they implement staff care for ordinary times and in regular intervals or at certain dates. this takes the responsibility from the staff, thus they do not have to assess if it is serious enough to ask for support. another effect is that organizations will try to get staff care services fully funded, independent from trends and projects and without making hierarchies in the neediness. furthermore, the organizations will encourage staff to make use of the services and will actively initiate it. some of the staff care instruments will work like outreach services with low threshold so that the first impulse does not necessarily have to come from the peace and conflict worker. when staff get explicitly invited, they lose their fear and the inhibition to try to make use of support. in conclusion, this approach can lead to the implementation of different staff care services. supervision and coaching, peer counseling and intervision, mentoring or organizational development are examples of instruments that can be an indication for this different paradigm. classification of staff care justifications into a paradigm grid figure 1 shows the different arguments ranged in a grid of paradigmatic dimensions. the horizontal axis of the model describes the two paradigms that have been explored above. it illustrates the continuum between the idealized paradigms of ‘avoiding risks’ and ‘enhancing potentials’. on the vertical axis the social dimension between the individual and organizational perspective is represented. on this axis a distinction is made between whether the argumentation for staff care relates to the in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 80-92 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 88 individual person and his or her health, endangering or development or whether from the point of view of the organization or societal context with the focus on work and outcomes. depending on the perspective of the individual person or the employing organization, the reasoning for staff care is different, even if it works according to the same paradigm. this results in four fields that represent archetypical arguments for staff care: ‘we need staff care to prevent individual risks like stress, trauma, burnout etc.’ (upper left); ‘we need staff care to avoid organizational risks like a lack of workforce.’ (lower left); ‘we need staff care to support the personal growth, learning and development of the staff.’ (upper right); ‘we need staff care to improve the work and the organization to be more efficient.’ (lower right). figure 1: grid of staff care reasons and paradigms (own presentation) the classification of the grid should help to visualize the different paradigms and underlying assumptions. the simplification of the model can help to understand the different approaches to staff care and may explain different priorities in the areas of activity and the implementation of different staff care services. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 80-92 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 89 nevertheless, the aim of the grid is not to reinforce polarizations, but to make differences visible in order to understand and discuss them. the transrational and elicitive way tries not to replace and overcome one with the other, but to see the (dis)advantages of each paradigm and to combine and integrate all of these different perspectives in a holistic manner (dietrich, 2014). introducing a third dimension: the motivation behind staff care reasons the presented model is limited to systematizing and classifying observations. of course, the reasons are often mixed and a staff care concept can serve several or all of these purposes. although the above mentioned paradigms are relevant for reasoning and justifications, other paradigms are powerful as well. deep-seated worldviews and human perceptions are related to them and there can be motivations and goals that lie beyond or even across the aforementioned paradigms. in a capitalist system, even staff care can be purely economically motivated. in contrast, in the era of human rights, human dignity and the preservation of life can be guiding values. following this first motivationor ideology, staff care may be far more prescriptive than elicitive, the first aim being to preserve, use and exploit the workforce in the best possible way. exploitability, self-optimization and employability8 are the central references. reflection remains at the individual and interpersonal level, but does not necessarily include fundamental structural questions. in the second motivation, elicitive and transformative approaches to staff care come to the fore, and the goal is to give people space for critical thinking and questioning of circumstances – for the sake of themselves as well for others and their surroundings. these motivations or ideologies are not congruent with the perspectives described above, but can be connected with both axes of the grid. according to the ideology of exploitability, the question of why risks should be avoided can be answered in the same way as the question of why potentials should be enhanced: to preserve and exploit workforce. the same 8 in other fields like in social work critical thoughts about the self-conception of the work and the underlying paradigms lead to a discussion about service or human rights profession, in which the neoliberal paradigm of employability faces a systemic paradigm of human rights (staub-bernasconi, 2007). this discussion is very similar to the argumentation presented in this article though the concepts cannot be transmitted directly. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 80-92 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 90 holds true for the ideology of human dignity: we care about risks and potentials because we care about people. in parallel to this, both the individual as well as the collective argument perspective can be combined with these two motivations. thus, the ideology of exploitability and the ideology of human dignity can be seen as a new axis and thereby add a third dimension to the model. conclusion: fostering a reflective, critical, transformative praxis for staff care this article argues that there are different paradigms to justify staff care and that they have different impacts on the perception of the duty of care and the implementation of staff care services. these paradigms can be observed in other fields of activity as well, for example in education. tony jenkins discusses the necessity of strengthening “reflective, critical and transformative praxis” (jenkins, 2016, p. 5) in peace studies. the same argumentation can be applied to staff care, because in the end it is also a question of educational processes and the inclusive connection between the inner (personal) and outer (political) dimensions of peacebuilding and “the interconnection between personal health and global health, between personal transformation and global transformation” (pigni, 2014, p. 231). if people care for themselves and organizations care for their staff, it has impacts: on themselves, on others and on the (peace and conflict) work they are doing. in conclusion, this means that a culture of peace, which peace pedagogy aims to boost, includes a culture of awareness, a culture of reflexive learning and a culture of care – care for your own and for others. references adger, w. n. (2006). vulnerability. global environmental change, 16(3), 268281. antares foundation (2012). managing stress in humanitarian workers. guidelines for good practice. amsterdam: antares foundation. becker, d. & weyermann, b. (2006): gender, conflict transformation & the psychosocial approach: toolkit. bern: swiss agency for development and cooperation (sdc), federal department of foreign affairs (dfa). birckenbach, h.m. (2014). friedenslogik und friedenslogische politik. in informationsstelle wissenschaft und frieden & plattform zivile in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 80-92 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 91 krisenprävention (eds.): friedenslogik statt sicherheitslogik. theoretische grundlagen und friedenspolitische realisierung. bonn: wissenschaft und frieden (w&f), 3-7. dietrich, w. (2014). a brief introduction to transrational peace research and elicitive conflict transformation. journal of conflictology, 5 (2), 4857. lauffer, s. & hamacher, j. (2016). entri handbook in control: a practical guide for civilian experts working in crisis management missions. 3rd edition. berlin: center for international peace operations (zif). francis, d. (2004). culture, power asymmetries and gender in conflict transformation. in austin, a. & fischer, m. & ropers, n. (eds.). transforming ethnopolitical conflict: the berghof handbook, 91-107. inter-agency standing committee (iasc) (2007). iasc guidelines on mental health and psychosocial support in emergency settings. geneva: iasc. jenkins, t. (2016). transformative peace pedagogy: fostering a reflective, critical, and inclusive praxis for peace studies. in factis pax, 10 (1), 17. kuhn, t.s. (1967). die struktur wissenschaftlicher revolutionen. frankfurt a.m.: suhrkamp. lederach, john paul (2005): the moral imagination. the art and soul of building peace. new york: oxford university press. merkelbach, m. (2017). voluntary guidelines on the duty of care to seconded civilian personnel. berne, london, berlin: swiss federal department of foreign affairs (fdfa), stabilisation unit (su) and center for international peace operations (zif). pigni, a. (2014). building resilience and preventing burnout among aid workers in palestine: a personal account of mindfulness based staff care. intervention, 12 (2), 231-239. porter, b., & emmens, b. (2009). approaches to staff care in international ngos. london: people in aid and interhealth. staub-bernasconi, s. (2007). soziale arbeit: dienstleistung oder menschenrechtsprofession? zum selbstverständnis sozialer arbeit in deutschland mit einem seitenblick auf die internationale diskussionslandschaft. in lob-hüdepohl, a. & lesch, w. (eds.) (2007). ethik sozialer arbeit – ein handbuch: einführung in die ethik der sozialen arbeit. paderborn: utb, 20-54. in factis pax volume 12 number 1 (2018): 80-92 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 92 the sphere project (2011). sphere handbook, humanitarian charter and minimum standards in humanitarian response. 3rd edition. southhampton, u.k.: the sphere project. united nations high commissioner for refugees (unhcr) (2013). unhcr’s mental health ad psychosocial support for staff. geneva: unhcr. world health organization (who), war trauma foundation & world vision international (ed.) (2011). psychological first aid: guide for field workers. geneva: who. zentrum für internationale friedenseinsätze (zif) (2015). stress im einsatz. praxishandbuch für zivile fachkräfte. berlin: zif. the importance of philosophy for education in a democratic society in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 73-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 73 volume 6 number 2 (2012): 73-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ editorial essay the importance of philosophy for education in a democratic society dale t. snauwaert the university of toledo dale.snauwaert@utoledo.edu this essay explores the importance of philosophy for the study and practice of education in a democratic society. it will be argued that at its core education is a normative enterprise, in that it is driven by fundamental social values as well as the imperatives of social justice. these values and imperatives powerfully shape every dimension of educational theory, policy, and practice. from this perspective, education requires a normative frame of reference. democracy, understood as not only a political system but more fundamentally as a way of life grounded in specific values and principles, provides a powerful point of reference. at the heart of democracy is the value of liberty, understood as self-determination. self-determination requires that there should be careful reflection upon and rational deliberation concerning social values and, in turn, the imperatives of justice that inform the purposes and practices of education. it will be argued that philosophy constitutes a mode of inquiry and a discipline that enriches the capacity for reflection and rational deliberation, and hence it is essential for both democracy and the study and practice of education in a democratic society. education as a normative enterprise there are a number of ways in which education is normative. while what follows is not an exhaustive list, it is arguably sufficient to demonstrate the normative nature of education. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 73-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 74 first, education is an intentional activity. the planning and implementation of education isn’t arbitrary; it is purposeful and forward-looking. being intentional and purposeful, education is value driven. educational ends are driven by and express what we value as individuals and as a people. human beings do not merely reproduce themselves biologically; we are cultural beings, and we therefore engage in cultural reproduction. we attempt to reproduce what we believe is most valuable about our way of life. being intentional, purposeful, and value driven, education involves, for individuals, families, and the society, choices about a way of life. from a normative point of view, choice in turn requires both ethical and political justification.1 betty reardon succinctly articulates this perspective: “most . . . agree that there is no neutral education. education is a social enterprise conducted for the realization of social values.”2 what values and in turn purposes should drive education, and why? who should decide what values and purposes should apply, and why? how should these values be prioritized, and why? how should value conflict be adjudicated, and why? second, being driven by a social choice of a way of life, and being a foundation for membership and participation in society, education constitutes a basic public good. as a public good, who should have authority over it? what should be the limits of that authority?3 in turn, the distribution of education as a basic public good is a question of distributive justice. as the political philosopher john rawls suggests: “justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. a theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust.”4 the distribution of a basic public good should comport with the imperatives of justice.5 what constitutes a just distribution of educational resources? what defines justice? 1 james m. and harold g. cannon banner, the elements of teaching (new haven: yale university press, 1997); john dewey, democracy and education: an introduction to the philosophy of education, textbook series in education (new york: the macmillan company, 1916); paulo freire, pedagogy of the oppressed (new york: continuum, 1970); amy gutmann, democratic education, revised edition ed. (princeton: princeton university press, 1999). 2 betty a. reardon, comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility (new york: teachers college press, 1988). p. 23 3 gutmann, democratic education; dale t. snauwaert, democracy, education, and governance: a developmental conception (albany, ny: the state university of new york press, 1993). 4 john rawls, a theory of justice (cambridge: belknap press of harvard university press, 1971). p. 1 5marilyn gittell, strategies for school equity : creating productive schools in a just society (new haven: yale university press, 1998); will kymlicka, contemporary political philosophy (oxford: oxford university press, 1990); robert nozick, anarchy, state, and utopia (new york: basic books, 1974); rawls, a theory of justice; joseph p. viteritti, choosing equality : school choice, the constitution, and civil society (washington, d.c.: brookings institution press, 1999); michael walzer, spheres of justice : a defense of pluralism and equality (new york: basic books, 1983). in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 73-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 75 third, a democratic society founded upon a right to liberty is deontological, in the sense that it does not prescribe per se a particular conception of the good life. individuals possess the right to define and pursue their own conceptions of the good life, consistent with the equal right of others. this basic freedom invites, generates, and fosters pluralism, a diversity of perspectives, values, cultural ways of life, etc. given the legitimate existence of pluralism, and the fundamental importance of cultural, religious, and other forms of identity to personal well being, a society’s response to diversity is a question of justice, and thus should comport with its imperatives.6 what constitutes a just response to diversity? how should public institutions, such as schools and educational systems, respond to diversity? do individuals have a right to cultural recognition? if so, what individual and state obligations are entailed in this right? should a right to cultural recognition be balanced with the need for social unity and individual autonomy? what would constitute a proper balance between recognition, unity, and autonomy? is it possible to articulate a conception of multiculturalism that fulfills the twin goals of national unity and cultural recognition? fourth, the educational experience necessarily has content. the organization of this content in the form of the curriculum is comprised of what knowledge, skills, dispositions is held to be most valuable. the curriculum is also value-driven.7 what knowledge, skills, and dispositions are most valuable? should they reflect our most fundamental values? fifth, how we teach is as significant as what we teach. in one sense pedagogy follows from the logical structure of the curriculum, and is thus by implication value driven. in another sense, the method of teaching constitutes a relationship between teacher and student. this relationship constitutes a power relation; the teacher exercises power and authority over the student. it, therefore, has a moral and political dimension. 8 should a democratic pedagogy follow from the core democratic values? should the value of self-reflection and rational deliberation, central to democracy, be actualized in 6 walter feinberg, common schools/uncommon identities: national unity and cultural difference (new haven: yale university press, 1998); gutmann, democratic education; kevin and walter feinberg (editors) mcdonough, citizenship and education in liberal-democratic societies: teaching for cosmopolitan values and collective identities (new york: oxford university press, 2005); martha nussbaum, cultivating humanity: a classical defense of reform in liberal education (cambridge: harvard university press, 1997); martha nussbaum, for love of country: debating the limits of patriotism (boston: beacon press, 1996); charles taylor, multiculturalism (princeton: princeton university press, 1994); michael walzer, on toleration (new haven: yale university press, 1997). 7 george sylvester counts, the social foundations of education (new york, chicago etc.: c. scribner's sons, 1934); dewey, democracy and education: an introduction to the philosophy of education; john dewey, the child and the curriculum/the school and society (chicago: the university of chicago press, [1900/1902] 1956); paulo freire, pedagogy of freedom : ethics, democracy, and civic courage, critical perspectives series (lanham: rowman & littlefield publishers, 1998); gutmann, democratic education. 8 banner, the elements of teaching; martin buber, between man and man (new york: macmillan, 1965); paulo freire, pedagogy of freedom: ethics, democracy, and civic courage (new york: rowan & littlefield, 2001); freire, pedagogy of the oppressed. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 73-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 76 the form of a democratic pedagogy? what would constitute such a pedagogy? what constitutes a morally and political right relationship between teacher and students? the answers to these questions are consequential. they profoundly influence educational purposes and goals, curriculum, pedagogy, organization, and governance. they are normative questions, and thus they illustrate the normative nature of education. democracy as a normative frame of reference how should we engage these normative social and educational questions? one way is to approach them unreflectively. we can easily adopt particular values and imperatives unconsciously, based upon our socialization. we choose randomly. we can adopt them consciously out of fear of those who hold power over us, or we can engage in a process of conscious, rational reflection and deliberation. as john dewey suggests: “. . . schools do follow and reflect the social ‘order’ that exists . . . accordingly, the problem is not whether the schools should participate in the production of future society (since they do so anyway) but whether they should do it blindly and irresponsibly or with the maximum possible courageous intelligence and responsibility.”9 educational reflection and deliberation, however, require a normative frame of reference. human beings interpret and understand experience, including values and moral and political principles, through frames of reference. we think, choose and value within context of frameworks of discourse and understanding.10 it has long been recognized that education is contingent upon the specific social and political organization of the society within which it is situated. for example, aristotle maintains that citizenship and civic education are logical expressions of the constitution (politeia) of the society. the politeia is not merely the formal juridical structure of the legal system; it comprises the basic structure of values that define the society’s view of the world. 11 democracy, understood as not only a political system but more fundamentally as a way of life grounded in specific values and principles, historically constitutes the politeia of the united states. the united states possesses a democratic self-identity, and in fact, claims to be a beacon of democracy for the world. normatively, democracy 9dewey cited in steven tozer, et al.,, school and society: educational practice as social expression (new york: macgraw hill, 1993). p. 121. 10 george lakoff, moral politics : how liberals and conservatives think, 2nd ed. (chicago: university of chicago press, 2002). 11 aristotle and stephen everson, the politics, cambridge texts in the history of political thought (cambridge [england] ; new york: cambridge university press, 1988); werner jaeger, paideia: the ideals of greek culture, 3 vols. (oxford: oxford university press, 1943); clarence j. karier, the individual, society, and education (urbana: the university of illinois press, 1986); henri irâenâee marrou, a history of education in antiquity, wisconsin studies in classics (madison, wis.: university of wisconsin press, 1982). in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 73-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 77 should be adopted as a frame of reference, for it is the ideal most consistent with human well being and flourishing.12 the alternative would entail the adoption of intrinsic superiority/inferiority, from which follow the principle of unequal consideration of the goods and interests of persons as well as the platonic ideal of unequal qualifications to participate based upon superior expertise/knowledge –leading to unequal voting, hegemony, and exclusion – would apply.13 democracy is an appealing and powerful normative frame of reference. as dewey suggests: “. . . unless education has some of frame of reference it is bound to be aimless, lacking a unified objective. the necessity for a frame of reference must be admitted. there exists in our country such a frame of reference. it is called democracy.”14 at the heart of democracy are the values of moral equality and liberty, understood as an equal right to self-determination. self-determination requires that there should be careful reflection upon and rational deliberation concerning social values and, in turn, the imperatives of justice. as amy gutmann puts it, democracy as a frame of reference requires “conscious social reproduction.”15 john dewey suggests: “democracy also means voluntary choice, based on an intelligence that is the outcome of free association and communication with others. it means a way of living together in which mutual and free consultation rule instead of force . . .”16 from the perspective of education as a normative enterprise and democracy as a normative frame of reference, all those concerned with education, parents, teachers, administrators, and policy makers, should possess the capacity to engage in critical selfreflection and rational deliberation concerning fundamental social values and the imperatives of justice as they inform the purposes, content, methods, evaluation, organization, and governance of education. the importance of philosophy the central thesis of this paper is that philosophy constitutes a mode of inquiry and a discipline that enriches the capacity for reflection and rational deliberation, and hence it is essential for both democracy and the study and practice of education in a democratic society. philosophy makes this contribution by providing frameworks for understanding and generative ideas, methods of reflection and analysis, and disciplines (exercises) for the cultivation of the capacity of reflection and rational deliberation. western philosophy originates with the basic question: how should we live? what is the good life? philosophy was thus originally conceived as the pursuit of 12 c. b. macpherson, democratic theory: essays in retrieval (oxford,: clarendon press, 1973); snauwaert, democracy, education, and governance: a developmental conception. 13 robert dahl, on democracy (new haven: yale university press, 2000). 14 dewey cited in tozer, school and society: educational practice as social expression. p. 125. 15 gutmann, democratic education. 16dewey cited in tozer, school and society: educational practice as social expression. p. 125. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 73-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 78 wisdom, the pursuit of the knowledge of how to live a good life, of how to achieve enduring happiness. as pierre hadot has demonstrated, ancient philosophy did not primarily concern the construction of abstract theoretical systems; philosophy was conceived as vision and existential choice of a way of life, a discourse and justification for a way chosen way of life, and the articulation of the path or curriculum leading to the realization of the ideals of the way of life. this choice was understood to be based upon the socratic assertion that the “unexamined life is not worth living.” the focus of philosophy was the transformation of one’s way of life, one’s mode of being in the world through self-reflection and rational deliberation.17 as a way of existential choice, philosophy included sets of discursive frameworks of understanding, methods of rational deliberation, and reflective exercises necessary for the transformation of one’s being in accordance with the vision of the existential choice. schools were formed out of the chosen way of life of the philosophy and those attracted to the philosophy. in these schools the way of life defined by the philosophy and the understandings and exercises necessary to live that life were developed, taught, and experienced. differing opinions of what this knowledge consisted of gave rise to different schools of philosophy and in turn different conceptions of education, all though based upon the common thread: enduring happiness occurs through conscious, rational selfreflection and deliberation. this vision of philosophy has much in common with the understanding of democracy as a way of life, as an ethical and political mode of being. frameworks of understanding and generative ideas: philosophy is based upon the presupposition, now confirmed by cognitive science, that human beings interpret and understand experience, including ideas, through frames of reference. we think within context of frameworks of discourse and understanding. philosophy as a discipline offers the articulation of competing frames of reference in order to enhance and enrich rational deliberation. the discourse that surrounds the normative questions posed earlier takes place within and is enriched by a number of ethical and political philosophical frameworks, which frame and give meaning to the debate about them. as discussed above, democracy itself is a philosophical frame of reference that, while deontological and based upon liberty as self-determination, stipulates a set of values and principles necessary for its sustainability. in summary, democracy can be understood as a system of rights premised upon the logic of equality.18 at its core is a fundamental belief in moral equality, a belief that all human beings possess an equal inherent dignity or worth. the ideal of human dignity upon which democracy is based is reflected in the principle of moral equality common to all modern political and ethical 17 pierre hadot, what is ancient philosophy? (cambridge, mass.: harvard university press, 2002); pierre hadot and arnold ira davidson, philosophy as a way of life: spiritual exercises from socrates to foucault (new york: blackwell, 1995). 18 dahl, on democracy. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 73-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 79 theories.19 moral equality maintains that every human being by virtue of their humanity possesses equal intrinsic value and dignity. moral equality is not earned or bestowed; it is inherent in our humanity. the logic of moral equality runs as follows: if we are morally equal, then our “rights,” our inviolable claims to the actual enjoyment of particular social goods, should be guaranteed by the society. the two basic rights that should follow from the egalitarian logic of democracy are: liberty and selfdetermination. if all human beings are equal, then they should have the right to define and pursue their own conception of the good life (consistent with the equal rights of others). they should have a right to decide their own interests, for their exists no higher moral authority. in addition, security of person should also be considered a basic right, for dignity and freedom cannot be fulfilled under the conditions of threat to the integrity of one’s person. a right to self-determination follows. it entails the basic notion of government by consent, which involves political equality and concomitant rights such as rights to freedom of expression, association, due process, etc. as moral equals, all citizens of a democracy have an inviolable claim to determine their own interests and to have those interests represented (directly or indirectly) in the political process.20 while these values and principles provide the deep normative framework of democracy, there is much debate about their further specification. this debate gives rise to a number of democratic moral and political frameworks that debate the interpretation and implications of the basic deep values and principles of democracy. thus, there exists a range or a continuum of democratic theories in general and in particular framing each of the specific normative questions inherent in the deep frame.21 democratic philosophy therefore includes a number of theoretical frameworks including: value theory, political theory of authority, distributive justice theory, etc. in turn, these frameworks inform development of philosophies of democratic education. all of these frameworks inform and enrich rational deliberation. in addition, philosophical frameworks allow for development and articulation of “generative ideas.”22 “ideas,” distinct from facts and information, are creative acts of meaning; they are acts of making sense of individual experience. ideas therefore cannot be transmitted; they emerge from each individual’s reflection on their own unique experience. in addition, ideas have generative power; they move and transform us. from this perspective, philosophy is not the production of theory per se, rather it is the pursuit of ideas– philosophy therefore speaks to how we live. this conception of philosophy illuminates the task of the democratic educator and citizen. from this perspective there exists a plurality of educational ideas. it is therefore fundamentally important for 19 kymlicka, contemporary political philosophy. 20 dahl, on democracy; henry shue, basic rights: subsistence, affluence, and u.s. foreign policy (princeton: princeton university press, 1980); dale t. snauwaert, "reclaiming the lost treasure: deliberation and strong democratic education," educational theory 42, no. 3 (1992). 21 david held, models of democracy (stanford, ca: stanford university press, 1987); kymlicka, contemporary political philosophy; c. b. macpherson, democratic theory: essays in retrieval (oxford: oxford university press, 1973). 22 david hansen, ethical visions of education: philosophies in practice (new york: teachers college press, 2007). in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 73-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 80 educators to enter into conversation with a variety of philosophies as a stimulus for the generation of their own ideas; the dynamism of their own pedagogical practice is contingent upon the generation of these ideas. tools of rational deliberation: the discipline of philosophy has developed a sophisticated range of methods of analysis. these methods include methods of and for argument, conceptual distinctions, assessment and critique.23 many of these methods are grounded in the rules of logic and logical analysis. they include, for example, the following: methods of argument  deduction  induction  validity and soundness  consistency (logical coherence)  refutation  dialectic  etc. methods for assessment and critique  question begging  reductio ad absurdum  self-defeating arguments  regressions  redundancy  sufficient reason  alternative explanations  ambiguity  excluded middle  bivalence  category errors  circularity  conceptual incoherence  counter examples  false dichotomy  etc. 23 julian baggini and peter s. fosl, the philosopher's toolkit: a compendium of philosophical concepts and methods (malden, ma: blackwell publishers, 2003). in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 73-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 81 methods for conceptual distinctions  a priori/a posteriori  absolute/relative  analytic/synthetic  necessary/contingent  essence/accident  necessary/sufficient  objective/subjective  thick/thin concepts  etc. the knowledge and application of these methods enable critical thinking, analysis, reflection and rational deliberation, and thus significantly enhance the capacities of democratic citizens and educators. exercises: from the perspective of ancient philosophy, the search for such wisdom is interrelated with the internal preparation of the subject to receive it. michel foucault’s analysis of the history of philosophy from the perspective of the hermeneutics of the subject reveals an “event in thought” in philosophy; this event conceives the search for truth and the preparation of the subject to receive it as intimately interrelated.24 that is, throughout the history of philosophy, philosophy and internal development are linked in such a way that the discovery of wisdom is contingent upon the transformation of the wisdom seeker’s being. philosophy is thus devoted to the search for wisdom and the transformation of the subjectivity of the seeker.25 in what foucault refers to as the “cartesian” moment modern epistemology the subject is divorced from the pursuit of knowledge, resulting in the separation of knowledge and wisdom. knowledge becomes merely the technical discovery of truth divorced from the subjectivity of the knower; education in turn becomes the transmission of technical knowledge with little or no concern for the internal subjectivity of the student. in this separation modern knowledge, philosophy, and education lose their transformative power. it can argued, therefore, that interior perspective of philosophy be reclaimed and that philosophy include internal exercises of self-development. conclusion 24 michel foucault, the hermeneutics of the subject: lectures at the college de france, 1981-82, ed. frederic gros, trans. arnold i. davidson (new york: picador, 2005). 25 hadot, what is ancient philosophy; hadot and davidson, philosophy as a way of life: spiritual exercises from socrates to foucault; pierre hadot and aurelius marcus, the inner citadel : the meditations of marcus aurelius (cambridge, mass.: harvard university press, 1998). in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 73-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 82 education is a normative enterprise, in that it is driven by fundamental social values as well as the imperatives of social justice. these values and imperatives powerfully shape every dimension of educational theory, policy, and practice. from this perspective, education requires a normative frame of reference. democracy, understood as not only a political system but more fundamentally as a way of life grounded in specific values and principles, provides a powerful frame of reference. selfdetermination requires that there should be careful reflection upon and rational deliberation concerning social values and, in turn, the imperatives of justice that inform the purposes and practices of education. philosophy constitutes a mode of inquiry and a discipline that enriches the capacity for reflection and rational deliberation, and hence it is essential for both democracy and the study and practice of education in a democratic society. bibliography aristotle, and stephen everson. the politics, cambridge texts in the history of political thought. cambridge [england] ; new york: cambridge university press, 1988. baggini, julian, and peter s. fosl. the philosopher's toolkit: a compendium of philosophical concepts and methods. malden, ma: blackwell publishers, 2003. banner, james m. and harold g. cannon. the elements of teaching. new haven: yale university press, 1997. buber, martin. between man and man. new york: macmillan, 1965. carnoy, martin, and henry m. levin. schooling and work in the democratic state. stanford, calif.: stanford university press, 1985. counts, george sylvester. the social foundations of education. new york, chicago etc.: c. scribner's sons, 1934. dahl, robert. on democracy. new haven: yale university press, 2000. dewey, john. democracy and education: an introduction to the philosophy of education, text-book series in education. new york: the macmillan company, 1916. ———. the child and the curriculum/the school and society. chicago: the university of chicago press, [1900/1902] 1956. feinberg, walter. common schools/uncommon identities: national unity and cultural difference new haven: yale university press, 1998. foucault, michel. the hermeneutics of the subject: lectures at the college de france, 1981-82. translated by arnold i. davidson. edited by frederic gros. new york: picador, 2005. freire, paulo. pedagogy of freedom : ethics, democracy, and civic courage, critical perspectives series. lanham: rowman & littlefield publishers, 1998. ———. pedagogy of freedom: ethics, democracy, and civic courage. new york: rowan & littlefield, 2001. ———. pedagogy of the oppressed. new york: continuum, 1970. gittell, marilyn. strategies for school equity : creating productive schools in a just society. new haven: yale university press, 1998. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 73-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 83 gutmann, amy. democratic education. revised edition ed. princeton: princeton university press, 1999. hadot, pierre. what is ancient philosophy? cambridge, mass.: harvard university press, 2002. hadot, pierre, and arnold ira davidson. philosophy as a way of life: spiritual exercises from socrates to foucault. new york: blackwell, 1995. hadot, pierre, and aurelius marcus. the inner citadel : the meditations of marcus aurelius. cambridge, mass.: harvard university press, 1998. hansen, david. ethical visions of education: philosophies in practice. new york: teachers college press, 2007. held, david. models of democracy. stanford, ca: stanford university press, 1987. jaeger, werner. paideia: the ideals of greek culture. 3 vols. oxford: oxford university press, 1943. ———. the greeks and the education of man. annadale, ny: bard college papers, 1953. karier, clarence j. the individual, society, and education. urbana: the university of illinois press, 1986. kymlicka, will. contemporary political philosophy. oxford: oxford university press, 1990. lakoff, george. moral politics : how liberals and conservatives think. 2nd ed. chicago: university of chicago press, 2002. macpherson, c. b. democratic theory: essays in retrieval. oxford: oxford university press, 1973. ———. democratic theory: essays in retrieval. oxford,: clarendon press, 1973. marrou, henri irâenâee. a history of education in antiquity, wisconsin studies in classics. madison, wis.: university of wisconsin press, 1982. mcdonough, kevin and walter feinberg (editors). citizenship and education in liberaldemocratic societies: teaching for cosmopolitan values and collective identities new york: oxford university press, 2005. nozick, robert. anarchy, state, and utopia. new york: basic books, 1974. nussbaum, martha. cultivating humanity: a classical defense of reform in liberal education. cambridge: harvard university press, 1997. ———. for love of country: debating the limits of patriotism. boston: beacon press, 1996. plato. the republic. translated by r. larson. arlington heights, il: harlan davidson, 1979. rawls, john. a theory of justice. cambridge: belknap press of harvard university press, 1971. reardon, betty a. comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility. new york: teachers college press, 1988. shue, henry. basic rights: subsistence, affluence, and u.s. foreign policy. princeton: princeton university press, 1980. snauwaert, dale t. democracy, education, and governance: a developmental conception. albany, ny: the state university of new york press, 1993. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 73-84 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 84 ———. "reclaiming the lost treasure: deliberation and strong democratic education." educational theory 42, no. 3 (1992). taylor, charles. multiculturalism. princeton: princeton university press, 1994. tozer, steven, et al.,. school and society: educational practice as social expression. new york: macgraw hill, 1993. viteritti, joseph p. choosing equality : school choice, the constitution, and civil society. washington, d.c.: brookings institution press, 1999. walzer, michael. on toleration. new haven: yale university press, 1997. ———. spheres of justice : a defense of pluralism and equality. new york: basic books, 1983. adr and niyama, the second limb of yoga sutra (1)     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   107   volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   alternative dispute resolution and niyama, the second limb of yoga sutra carmen m. cusack* i. introduction the yoga sutras is an ancient text that was recorded in india more than 1,000 years ago.1 it contains the 8-limb path.2 the 8-limb path describes various prohibitions and requirements for reaching peace and fulfillment.3 on this 8-limb path, the second limb, niyama, teaches that looking at life through a virtuous filter can be of benefit.4niyama literally means observances.5 yoga sutra is revived by its application to alternative dispute resolution (adr).6 “the word                                                                                                                           * the author received her b.a. and j.d. from florida international university (fiu), and she is a ph.d. student in criminal justice specializing in behavioral science at nova southeastern university. she teaches animals in the criminal justice system and theory of child protection, investigation, and advocacy for nova southeastern university, and sociology of deviant behavior at university of alaska southeast. she has taught yoga for ten years. 1 patanjali, yoga sutra (inner traditions international, ed. georg feuerstein, 1989). see e.g., judith lasater, "cultivate your connections," yoga journal (last viewed on mar. 29, 2012 http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/455). 2 patanjali, yoga sutra, (inner traditions international, ed. georg feuerstein, 1989), at ii.29. 3 id. 4 id. at ii.32. 5 id. 6 patanjali, yoga sutra (inner traditions international, ed. georg feuerstein, 1989).     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   108   sutra literally means a thread which strings together a series of 'beads' or aphorisms in their most terse or unadorned elaboration” [italics added].7 the sutra’s words take on meaning when they are applied.8 once they are strung in context, a lesson takes shape.9 stringing together the sutras around adr practices, including, negotiation, mediation, and plea bargaining, is beneficial for studying conflict and dispute resolution in a multicultural and philosophically spiritual way. law schools, which teach conservative, socratic analysis, train the majority of adr practitioners.10 lawyers tend to emphasize law during dispute resolution,11 and believe that adr “is not merely an alternative, nor a private process within [the legal] framework, but a discourse that carries legal meaning and which can be used to enforce and implement the rule of law, encompassing its highest values.”12 this article intends to encourage adr practitioners to think in terms of the sutras in order to expand knowledge, develop new strategies, and better resolve disputes with savvy awareness and acceptance rather than stricture.13 dovetailing with adr and yama, the first limb of yoga sutra,14 this article will contemplate the five subcategories of niyama, the second limb.15 these subcategories are saucha (purity), santosha (truthfulness), tapas (heat), svādhyāya (study of sacred texts), and ishvarapranidhana (surrender).16 ii. niyama niyama translates from sanskrit as “observances.”17 yogis often interpret the niyama as group of spiritual and behavioral aims that should be observed.18 in the adr context, we are observing how niyama can help resolve disputes. truthfulness, purity, heat, study of sacred texts, and surrender may seem like a motley set of qualities, but when they are braided in with the principles of adr, they produce valuable wisdom.19 a. saucha saucha is purity, radiance, or cleanliness.20 georg feuerstein writes, that “the practice of purification (sauc[h]a) as one of the items of observance (niyama) may comprise a physical                                                                                                                           7 joe lepage, patanjali's yoga sutras as a model for psycho-spiritual evolution, 6 international journal of yoga therapy 23, abstract (1995). 8 id. 9 id. 10 cris currie, "should a mediator also be an attorney?," mediate.com, aug. 2000 (last viewed on mar. 29, 2012 http://www.mediate.com/articles/currie.cfm). 11 id. 12 michal alberstein, forms of mediation and law: cultures of dispute resolution, 22 ohio st. j. on disp. resol. 321, 322 (2007). 13 cris currie, "should a mediator also be an attorney?," mediate.com, aug. 2000 (last viewed on mar. 29, 2012 http://www.mediate.com/articles/currie.cfm). 14 carmen m. cusack, adr and yama, the first limb of yoga sutra, adrj (accepted mar. 22, 2012). 15 patanjali, yoga sutra, ii.32 (inner traditions international, ed. georg feuerstein, 1989) 81. 16 id. 17 patanjali, yoga sutra, ii.32 (inner traditions international, ed. georg feuerstein, 1989) 81. 18 id. see e.g., judith lasater, "cultivate your connections", yoga journal (last viewed on mar. 29, 2012 http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/455). 19 id. 20 b.k.s. iyengar, light on yoga (random house, inc., 1994), 530. patanjali, yoga sutra, ii.32 (inner traditions international, ed. georg feuerstein, 1989), 80.     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   109   cleansing process, a psychic process of catharsis and also a moral act of pure intention.”21 while it would be ideal to describe how mutually pure intentions will carry opponents effortlessly toward resolution, the truth is that there is no such thing as purity. any resolution process might be plagued with egotism, posturing, puffing, anger, terror, ignorance, sneakiness, withholding, sadism, confrontation, obstructionism, or graymail. disputes are at the center of conflict resolution.22 parties develop their intentions to deal in the face of impasse and conflict.23 attempting to resolve the problem does not suddenly open a spiritual portal where solutions flow purely between the parties.24 to the contrary, parties bring baggage that taints their perspectives. by observing the impurity, we can separate the personal from business, the impersonal from the essential.25 “[s]aucha, at its root, is concerned with keeping different energies distinct” [italics added].26 before attempting to resolve a conflict, it is advantageous to reflect on one’s impure perspective. asking, what are my objectives? can they be clarified? can they be humbled or reprioritized? do they need to be purified—and if so, will this make the fight easier or more successful? in white collar zen, steven heine writes, zen agrees with nietzsche that from ignorance or arrogance we are, human, all too human…. dogen further explains that inherent constraints cannot be separated from enlightenment. when one side is illumined, the other side is dark.27 “yoga has become a very recognizable feature of western culture.”28 but the idea that one should reflect on his own flaws in order to make greater gains, is something of an anomaly in western conflict resolution. all too often we are capable of observing others’ failures, noting impurities and self-deception. the grammy award winning musical duo, outkast, once ineloquently sang “i know you like to think your s—t don’t stank, but lean a little bit closer see,                                                                                                                           21 patanjali, yoga sutra, ii.32 (inner traditions international, ed. georg feuerstein, 1989) 80. 22 shireen sondhi, "is timing everything?," up-date magazine, may 2011 (last viewed on mr. 28, 2012, http://www.sfhgroup.com/blogs/news_and_articles/2011/06/01/is-timing-everything/). 23 id. 24 id. 25 utilizing saucha in business disputes offers more than a way to “help you get your desk in order and not doublebook your calendar” sangeetha vinod sudhakar b, a literature review on the impact of yoga way of life on the reduction of job burnout of managers, international conference on technology and business management, 643 (2011) (last viewed on mar. 23, 2012, http://www.trikal.org/ictbm11/pdf/hrm/d1321-done.pdf). 26 aadil palkhivala, "teaching the niyamas in asana class," yoga journal (last viewed on mar. 23, 2012, http://www.yogajournal.com/for_teachers/976). 27 steven heine, white collar zen (oxford university press 2005) 176-177. see also, steven heine, bargainin' for salvation: bob dylan, a zen master?, (continuum, 2009). 28 sacha matthew, indian religion and western yoga practice. masters’ thesis, concordia university, abstract (2011).     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   110   the roses really smell like poo poo.”29 the reflection on impure objectives or mechanisms is natural, but to maximize saucha, we need to point the laser at our own tactics, intentions, and deficiencies. “there is enormous risk inherent in the process of negotiating an agreement, as those involved must rely on the belief that they have all the relevant information that they need in order to make a wise deal.”30 beatles’ manager, brian epstein, once made a costly mistake because he failed to realize that he did not have all of the information.31 he opened royalty negotiations for the beatles’ movie, a hard day’s night, with a demand that he believed was quite high, 7.5%, only to have it accepted immediately.32 mr. epstein knew nothing about the movie industry, so he did not know that if he was going to open with a high demand, then he should have begun with 25%.33 there is no way to know what number the movie executive would have used to open, but had the executive been under the prolonged impression that mr. epstein knew about the business, then it is likely that the beatles would have received more money for a hard day’s night.34 observing saucha in an adr context would not have magically permitted mr. epstein to intuit the starting position of “25%.” but, reflection on his position, intentions, and perspective would have allowed mr. epstein to see that his approach did not exercise professional judgment.35 in addition to the wisdom found in the sutra’s observances, business ethics require that practitioners prioritize purity in judgment over their desire to make a deal.36 “desire obscures even the wisdom of the wise.”37 mr. epstein’s impure desires, to appear knowledgeable, to remain in control, to work alone on behalf of the beatles, overcame his negotiation objectives—to get as much money as possible for his client.38 reflection on his impurity may have led him to hire a consultant, conduct research, or strategize differently. mr. epstein is no exception.39 everyone is impure, by reflecting on this, you not only open yourself to the possibility of perfecting your approach, objectives, and strategy, but you also leave room to accept your opponent’s imperfect behavior. if you seize upon these imperfections with excessive passion, then you will lose your focus. instead, you must continue to observe the impure motives and segregate them from the essential issues and outcome. in other words, because no one is perfect, keep your eyes on the prize, not the lies. practice saucha,                                                                                                                           29 outkast, “roses,” the speakerboxxx/the love below, purple ribbon label (2003). 30 michelle oberman, sex, lies, and the duty to disclose, 47 ariz. l. rev. 871, 872 (2005). see e.g. daniel mcauliffe, is honesty the required policy? ethical settlement negotiations, 43 az attorney 20 (2007). 31 g. richard shell, bargaining for the advantage (penguin, 2006) 158. 32 id. 33 id. 34 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/a_hard_day's_night_(film) 35 w. bradley wendel, professional responsibility (wolters kluwer, 2 ed., 2007) 438. 36 id. 37 m. g. chitkara, kashmir shaivism: under siege, 69 (a.p.h. publishing corporation, 2002). 38 g. richard shell, bargaining for the advantage (penguin, 2006) 158. 39 id.     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   111   which is “indifference…and non-attachment…for…one-pointedness…and vision of the inner self” to strike the deal.40 a. santosha santosha is satisfaction and agreement. 41 “in nearly every translation of yoga sutra ii.42, santosha is interpreted as the greatest [satisfaction]…that cannot be shaken…by injustice” [italics added].42 looking for santosha in the criminal justice system leads us to observe plea bargaining. “some 97 percent of convictions in federal courts were the result of guilty pleas. in 2006, the last year for which data was available, the corresponding percentage in state courts was 94.”43 santosha is a part of the plea process. when attorneys bargain and reach an agreement on behalf of their clients, clients “release [their] minds from constantly wanting [their] situation[s] to be different….[they] find more ease.”44 the plea-bargaining process is worth observing in the context of agreement since it is the way in which most criminal defendants agree to satisfy their debt to society.45 “the ordinary criminal process has become too long, too expensive, and unpredictable, in no small part as a consequence of an intricate federal code of criminal procedure imposed on the states by this court in pursuit of perfect justice….the court now moves to bring perfection to the alternative.”46 even though the criminal justice system is the adversarial justice model, plea bargaining is a form of alternative dispute resolution. “criminal justice today is for the most part a system of pleas, not a system of trials.”47 the right to agree to a plea is a defendant’s constitutional right.48 under the sixth amendment, the right to effective assistance of counsel has been extended to include the defendant’s right to consider plea offers and accept them.49 it also includes the right to receive good advice, which means the right to be advised that one should satisfy his or her debt to society with a favorable agreement.50 on march 23, 2012, the court wrote, the “court today                                                                                                                           40 yogacharya dr. ananda balayogi bhavanani, "yoga sutras of patanjali: an overview," international centre for yoga education and research, (last viewed on mar. 23, 2012, http://icyer.com/documents/patanjali.pdf) at 8 citing yoga sutra ii. 40ii.41. 41 m. g. chitkara, kashmir shaivism: under siege, 69 (a.p.h. publishing corporation, 2002). 42 hillari dowdle, “path to happiness,” yoga journal (last viewed on march 24, 2012, http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/2565). 43 missouri v. frye, 2012 u.s. lexis 2321, 16 (2012). 44 hillari dowdle, “path to happiness,” yoga journal (last viewed on march 24, 2012, http://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/2565). 45 missouri, at 36. 46 missouri, at 34. 47 cooper v. lafler, 2012 u.s. lexis 2322, 14 (2012). 48 “plea bargains have become so central to today's criminal justice system that defense counsel must meet responsibilities in the plea bargain process to render the adequate assistance of counsel that the sixth amendment requires at critical stages of the criminal process…. as a general rule, defense counsel has the duty to communicate formal prosecution offers to accept a plea on terms and conditions that may be favorable to the accused. ” missouri v frye, 2012 u.s. lexis 2321, 3-4 (2012). 49 missouri v frye, 2012 u.s. lexis 2321, 2 (2012). 50 cooper v. lafler, 2012 u.s. lexis 2322, 24 (2012). “the decisions mean that what used to be informal and unregulated deal making is now subject to new constraints when bad legal advice leads defendants to reject favorable plea offers.”     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   112   opens a whole new field of constitutionalized criminal procedure: plea-bargaining law.”51 the court held that if the defendant failed to agree to a satisfying offer from the state that she, he, or others in the same position would have ordinarily accepted, then counsel has failed to provide effective representation.52 this holding did not answer every question regarding a defendant’s right to plea. yet, in acknowledging the questions that remain to be argued, the court discussed the relevance of the “art of negotiation.”53 one concern that was raised is whether a positional negotiation style that fails to close a deal can be considered ineffective assistance. in his dissent, justice scalia wrote, if an attorney's “personal style” is to establish a reputation as a hard bargainer by, for example, advising clients to proceed to trial rather than accept anything but the most favorable plea offers? it seems inconceivable that a lawyer could compromise his client’s constitutional rights so that he can secure better deals for other clients in the future; does a hard-bargaining “personal style” now violate the sixth amendment?....[c]ounsel’s plea-bargaining skills…must now meet a constitutional minimum.”54 applying santosha, then the answer to justice scalia’s question would be, yes.55 if a defendant can satisfy the state and be satisfied by a deal, then that satisfaction is more important than those additional gains that failed to be agreed upon or a future client’s potential leverage.56 last year, no one would have written that defendants have a right to plea bargain.57 this year, the court noted that counsel’s concern for his or her reputation as a hard bargainer cannot obstruct the defendant’s right to receive, consider, or accept agreements.58                                                                                                                           51 missouri, at 34. 52 cooper v. lafler, 2012 u.s. lexis 2322, 14 (2012). “a defendant must show that but for the ineffective advice of counsel there is a reasonable probability that the plea offer would have been presented to the court (i.e., that the defendant would have accepted the plea and the prosecution would not have withdrawn it in light of intervening circumstances), that the court would have accepted its terms, and that the conviction or sentence, or both, under the offer's terms would have been less severe than under the judgment and sentence that in fact were imposed. 53 missouri, at 19. 54 missouri, at 33. 55 id. 56 missouri, at 19. contra. “bargaining is, by its nature, defined to a substantial degree by personal style. the alternative courses and tactics in negotiation are so individual that it may be neither prudent nor practicable to try to elaborate or define detailed standards for the proper discharge of defense counsel's participation in the process.” 57 compare robert barnes, supreme court expands plea bargain rights of criminal defendants, washington post, march 21, 2012 (last viewed on march 24, 2012 http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-expandsplea-bargain-rights-of-criminal-defendants/2012/03/21/giqa6vizss_story.html) with brady v. united states, 397 u.s. 742 (1970) and santobello v. new york, 404 u.s. 257 (1971), which specify that plea bargains create legal standards that are rooted in contract law, e.g. voluntariness and breach. 58 u.s. const am. iv. missouri v frye, 2012 u.s. lexis 2321 (2012). cooper v. lafler, 2012 u.s. lexis 2322 (2012). strickland v. washington, 466 u.s. 668, 104 s. ct. 2052, 80 l. ed. 2d 674.     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   113   additional plea bargain-based challenges may continue to develop in the future as new defendants seek to satisfy themselves with a plea.59 appeals may challenge the court’s dicta, which stated that there is no right to be made an offer by the state and no right guaranteeing that a federal judge will accept the state’s offer.60 but since satisfaction and agreement are so central to the criminal justice system, this right may be carved out under a different constitutional amendment.61 [t]he state insists there is no right to receive a plea offer. for [many] reasons, the state contends, it is unfair to subject it to the consequences of defense counsel's inadequacies, especially when the opportunities for a full and fair trial, or, as here, for a later guilty plea albeit on less favorable terms, are preserved. the state’s contentions are neither illogical nor without some persuasive force, yet they do not suffice to overcome a simple reality. the reality is....[i]n today’s criminal justice system,...the negotiation of a plea bargain, rather than the unfolding of a trial, is almost always the critical point for a defendant. 62 though santosha would urge advocates to be satisfied with the current status of defendants’ rights, it would also an exercise of santosha to observe how future agreements could be guaranteed to satisfy defendants and the state in every case. b. tapas tapas means heat in sanskrit. 63 tapas refers to the “inner heat” created by the practice of physical austerity.64 this practice is found in jainsim, buddism, and hinudhism.65 tapas is both the purification created by asceticism and the asceticism itself.66 tapas is always voluntary.67 “these types of voluntary practices include such things as seclusion or isolation.”68 though theses tapas are undesirable and painful, both mentally and physically, even as the                                                                                                                           59 cooper v. lafler, 2012 u.s. lexis 2322, 52 (2012) (scalia dissenting, “today, however, the supreme court of the united states elevates plea bargaining from a necessary evil to a constitutional entitlement.”) 60 cooper v. lafler, 2012 u.s. lexis 2322, 21 (2012). 61 cooper v. lafler, 2012 u.s. lexis 2322, 33 (2012). “today's decision leaves open to the trial court how best to exercise that discretion in all the circumstances of the case.” this dicta may likely be cited in the future when knew challenges for the right to bargain begin to arise. 62 missouri, at 16-18. 63 sarah hammett, tapas – hindu ascetic heat, mahavidya, (2008) (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://www.mahavidya.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/hammett-sarah-tapas.pdf). 64 encyclopedia britannica, (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://www.britannica.com/ebchecked/topic/583081/tapas). 65 “the concept of destructive tapas is observed both in the rg veda and the atharva veda.” sarah hammett, tapas – hindu ascetic heat, mahavidya, (2008) (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://www.mahavidya.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2008/06/hammett-sarah-tapas.pdf). encyclopedia britannica, (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://www.britannica.com/ebchecked/topic/583081/tapas). 66 id. 67 sarah hammett, tapas – hindu ascetic heat. 68 id.     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   114   aesthetic destroys himself or herself, she or he destroys the power of the opponent to inflict pain.69 in the context of plea bargaining, positional bargaining is wrong. but, when a negotiator seems to have no choice other than to retreat or submit, then the negotiator has one final move— self-inflicted austerity measures. in usual suspects, verbal recounts how keyser söze’s family was taken hostage.70 rather than see his family tortured, keyser söze murdered his own family in front of the kidnappers.71 “then he showed those men of will what will really was.”72 after killing his family, he set on a course for revenge.73 this scene expresses tapas.74 keyser söze seemed to be at the mercy of the attackers.75 but instead, keyser söze took austerity measures.76 he eliminated that which the opponents threatened to take away from him so that it could no longer be used as their bargaining chip.77 yet, austerity measures cannot realistically ever be violent because negotiation ceases when force is used. though sacred texts, like the bhagavad gita, describe heroic acts of war and violence, the violence is a metaphor for the process of achieving inner peace.78 nonviolent austerity is one way to achieve inner peace.79 we have seen nonviolent austerity measures used in world affairs time and again. world leaders have taken austerity measures in order to avoid violence and avoid being driven into unwanted bargains.80 following the collapse of the soviet union, rather than concede to the u.s., which had been executively enforcing an embargo against cuba since 1963,81 cuba resisted u.s. imperialism by increasing austerity measures.82 among other austerity measures taken during the cuban’s special period, cuba decreased food rations, and promoted the conservation of oil and other resources.83 the u.s. moved to disrupt cuba’s plan by tightening                                                                                                                           69 see e.g., kristen f. grunewald and priya nath, defense-based victim outreach: restorative justice in capital cases, 15 cap. def. j. 315, 323, n. 68 (2003). ancient scriptures stated that, through forms of penance such as confession and austerity, a sinner is freed from guilt. id. at p8 (quoting manu dharma shastras 11.228-34). sarah hammett, tapas – hindu ascetic heat, mahavidya, (2008) (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://www.mahavidya.ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/hammett-sarah-tapas.pdf). encyclopedia britannica, (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://www.britannica.com/ebchecked/topic/583081/tapas). 70 usual suspects (mgm studios 1995). 71 id. 72 id. 73 id. 74 sarah hammett, tapas – hindu ascetic heat. 75 usual suspects (mgm studios 1995). 76 id. sarah hammett, tapas – hindu ascetic heat. 77 usual suspects (mgm studios 1995). 78 stephen mitchell, bhagavad gita: a new translation, (three rivers press, 2002). 79 id. 80 “greece passes new austerity deal amid rioting,” usa today, feb. 12, 2012, http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/story/2012-02.../greece=riots/.../1-58k (discussing greece-european union relations). 81 "pope slams 'unfair burden' of us embargo on cuba," abc news, mar. 29, 2012. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-29/pope-slams-us-embargo-on-cuba/3919116. 82 see, arthur morgan, "the power of community: how cuba survived peak oil," institute for community solutions. (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://www.powerofcommunity.org/cm/index.php). 83 id.     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   115   the embargo during the special period.84 the cuban democracy act85 and the helms burton act86 attempted to choke international trade with cuba.87 even as the european union, international agencies, and nations88 independently condemned the u.s. treatment of cuba, cuba took further austerity measures by reducing any oil-run mechanization and turning to sustainable and renewable resources in order to meet demands and attract new investors.89 with increased manual labor and reduced consumption of meat, “cubans witnessed a significant drop in the rates of heart disease, diabetes, [and] strokes.”90 throughout this period, they also persisted in providing free education, cultural programs, and medical treatment in line with their constitutional mandate.91 in a great demonstration of strategy and will, cuba’s austerity measures worked. today, cuba exports doctors and pharmaceutical drugs.92 tourism is bustling.93 cuba is renowned for its green alternatives94 and farming industry.95 cuba boasts the second highest literacy rate in the                                                                                                                           84 22 usc 69 § 6001. 22 u.s.c. §§ 6021–6091. 85 22 usc 69 § 6001. 86 22 u.s.c. §§ 6021–6091. 87 infra note. 88 eu council regulation (ec) no 2271/96, “protecting against the effects of the extra-territorial application of legislation adopted by a third country, and actions based thereon or resulting therefrom,” nov. 22, 1996, official journal l 309 , 29/11/1996 p. 0001 – 0006; "canada's response to the helms-burton act," jan. 18, 1996, department of foreign affairs and international trade, oct. 21, 2008 (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://nscuba.blogspot.com/2008/10/canadas-response-to-helms-burton-act.html)("we have made it clear time and again to the u.s. congress and administration that canada will not tolerate any interference in the sovereignty of canadian laws.") see, jeffrey dunnung, the helms-burton act: a step in the wrong direction for united states policy toward cuba, 54 j. urban and contemporary l. 213 (2003). 89 see, arthur morgan, "the power of community: how cuba survived peak oil," institute for community solutions. (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://www.powerofcommunity.org/cm/index.php). 90 craig mackintosh, a lesson for our future – the cuban experience: alternatives to political systems, community projects, food shortages, people systems, society, urban projects, village development, peak oil,” the permaculture research institute of australia, jun. 29, 2011 (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://permaculture.org.au/2011/06/29/a-lesson-for-our-future-the-cuban-experience/). rory carroll, economic crisis boost to health of cubans, sep. 26, 2007, the guardian uk (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/sep/27/cuba.international). 91 constitution of the republic of cuba, 1992, article v, ix, and xdiii (available at http://www.cubanet.org/ref/dis/const_92_e.htm). “cuba's ratio of teachers to students is akin to sweden's; people who want to go to college go to college.” bill mckibben, "the cuba diet: what will you be eating when the revolution comes?," apr. 2005, harper's magazine (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012 http://www.harpers.org/archive/2005/04/0080501). 92 see, steve clemons, "cuba's soft power: exporting doctors rather than revolution," washington post, nov. 12, 2009 (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-clemons/cubas-soft-powerexportin_b_355373.html ). see, bill mckibben, "the cuba diet: what will you be eating when the revolution comes?," apr. 2005, harper's magazine (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012 http://www.harpers.org/archive/2005/04/0080501). 93 bill mckibben, "the cuba diet: what will you be eating when the revolution comes?," apr. 2005, harper's magazine (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012 http://www.harpers.org/archive/2005/04/0080501). 94 see e.g., jelvys bermúdez acosta, rehabilitación de zonas contaminadas con hidrocarburos.: biorremediación de residuos petrolizados. estudio de caso en la comunidad costera de "reina", cienfuegos, cuba (editorial académica española, 2012).     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   116   world. 96 the u.s. is ranked 45th in literacy.97 instead of crippling cuba, the codification and strict enforcement of embargo, which deepened cuba’s self-imposed austerity measures, endedup costing the u.s. disproportionately more than it cost cuba.98 the embargo, without question, has caused substantial economic damage to the u.s., such that the cuba policy foundation has estimated that the u.s. loses between usd 126 million and usd 252 million in agricultural sales each year. the embargo also increases the worldwide costs of doing business, driving up the price of imported goods. countries that trade with the u.s. have to certify that their products do not contain cuban intermediate or raw materials. the aforementioned certification process is a significant drain on time and resources. overall, estimates indicate that the embargo on cuba has cost the united states up to usd 4.84 billion annually, and by the year 2000, it was estimated to have cost a total of usd 67 billion in economic losses. furthermore, this embargo has failed to achieve its stated goals of removing the castro brothers from power….the embargo has not effectively wrought the expected damage to the cuban economy. foreign direct investment (fdi) in cuba was a paltry usd 2 million in 1990; after the passage of helms-burton, fdi rose to usd 74 million by 2000, and in 2008 a full usd 185 million reached cuban shores.99 rather than sacrifice its sovereignty, cuba cut itself off from what the u.s. had to offer and was attempting to leverage by withholding.100 castro’s cause built momentum and caused the people to rally in spite of the u.s.101 the baggavad gita, a sacred text in yoga, states that in negotiation, “krishna believed that not getting ones’ needs met was worse than death….if however, one could not satisfy his or her own needs by peaceful negotiation, then one has no other choice but to go to war.”102 this war is not a physical war, but a war against one’s own                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         95 craig mackintosh, a lesson for our future – the cuban experience. 96 wikipedia: list of countries by literacy rate (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_countries_by_literacy_rate). 97 wikipedia: list of countries by literacy rate (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/list_of_countries_by_literacy_rate). 98 "helms-burton act: resurrecting the iron curtain," council on hemispheric affairs, jun. 10, 2011 (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://www.coha.org/helms-burton-act-resurrecting-the-iron-curtain/). 99 "helms-burton act: resurrecting the iron curtain," council on hemispheric affairs, jun. 10, 2011 (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://www.coha.org/helms-burton-act-resurrecting-the-iron-curtain/). bill mckibben, "the cuba diet: what will you be eating when the revolution comes?," apr. 2005, harper's magazine (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012 http://www.harpers.org/archive/2005/04/0080501). 100 today the u.s. is cuba’s largest food supplier, as a result of the trade sanctions reform and export enhancement act (tsra) signed into law in 2000, were allowed to sell food and agricultural products to cuba on a cash basis. office of global analysis, fas, usda, agriculture situation report, mar. 2008 (last viewed on http://www.fas.usda.gov/itp/cuba/cubasituation0308.pdf). 101 "helms-burton act: resurrecting the iron curtain," council on hemispheric affairs, jun. 10, 2011 (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://www.coha.org/helms-burton-act-resurrecting-the-iron-curtain/). 102 aalok sikand, adr dharma: seeking a hindu perspective on dispute resolution from the holy scriptures of the mahabharata and the bhagavad gita, 7 pepp. disp. resol. l.j. 323, 353-354 (2007).     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   117   weaknesses. positional bargaining led to cuba’s austerity measures—a war against their own consumption practices—and this, in effect, waged a successful war against u.s. imperialism.103 c. svadhyaya svadhyaya is the study of the scriptures in order to know more about oneness and one’s inner person.104 svadhyaya helps adr practitioners observe religious inclinations and be sensitive to them.105 in a very practical sense, it is not necessary to study religious scriptures, as much as familiarize oneself with cultural adaptations of religious doctrines.106 religious groups sometimes interpret scriptures in nonliteral ways or place an emphasis on some scriptures over others. initially, studying a holy book would not provide information about these subtleties. yet, refining ones’ self with the study of culture would.107 a person who can respectfully observe the nuances of an opponent’s religious culture will give fewer reasons for the opponent to reject the resolution.108 [c]ulture can affect the negotiation. culture can influence the availability, accessibility, and activation of the social knowledge structures or constructs that inform a negotiator's cognition of the negotiation context. this can lead to negotiators not sharing the same understanding of an issue or the same framework for thinking about the issues involved in the negotiation.109 familiarization with religious culture helps one choose effective wording.110 for example, katy perry, the recording artist, said in rolling stone magazine, “i wasn’t ever able to                                                                                                                           103 "helms-burton act: resurrecting the iron curtain," council on hemispheric affairs, jun. 10, 2011 (last viewed on mar. 26, 2012, http://www.coha.org/helms-burton-act-resurrecting-the-iron-curtain/). 104 satvinder singh juss, the secular tradition in sikhism, 11 rutgers j. law & relig. 270, 335 (2010). 105 id. 106 infra notes. 107 giyang an, enhancing the effectiveness of mediation in korean-american family disputes: cultural sensitivity training for mediators and co-mediation teams , 11 cardozo j. conflict resol. 557, 579 (2010). “in analyzing how to inject cultural understanding into the mediation process, one must be careful when dealing with the term “culture.” depending on how it is interpreted, it can be more divisive, instead of serving as a reference point for evaluating and understanding the parties involved.” 108 jessica r. dominguez, the role of latino culture in mediation of family disputes, 1 j. legal advoc. & prac. 154, 161-162 (1999). “cultural factors play a relevant role in dispute resolution. advocates of cultural consideration contend that judges and mediators should be aware of, and respond to, persons' different cultures.” 109 carrie menkel-meadow, the trouble with the adversary system in a post-modern, multi-cultural world, 1 j. inst. stud. leg. eth. 49, 83-84 (1996). 110 parties basically aspire to go beyond their needs. on the one hand, they approach the mediation parties as moral agents, capable of transcending their needs and biases by being profoundly human. on the other hand…the tendency toward the other is natural and is not a manifestation of pure reason. parties to mediation are naturally connected to one another and need to strengthen their interrelationship. related perceptions such as humanistic mediation and restorative justice repeat the same idea of connectedness, sometimes accompanied by religious sensitivities. michal alberstein, forms of mediation and law: cultures of dispute resolution, 22 ohio st. j. on disp. resol. 321, 322 (2007).     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   118   say i was ‘lucky’ because my mother would rather us say that we were blessed, and she also didn’t like that lucky sounded like lucifer.”111 though luckiness and gambling are not condemned directly in scripture,112 many christians believe that faith cannot coexist with “luck” in the christian lifestyle or vocabulary.113 during dispute resolution, phrases like “good luck,” “lucky, you!,” or “you’re in luck,” could have a negative effect. though the average person is aware that phrases such as “oh my god” or “god--it” might offend christians, one may not reflect on the fact that taking god’s name in vein, which violates the ten commandments114, could insinuate that one would readily violate other commandments by bearing false witness.115 the more you study the scriptures—or more importantly, the religious cultural climate—the more successfully you can avoid pitfalls. less accessible in svadhyaya, but still common, is the use of a phrase that may offend natives--“moving up the totem pole.”116 not every native tribe includes totemic religious symbolism or ritual.117 yet, the totem pole represents a universal form of “religious expression,” and is generally respected in native culture.118                                                                                                                           111 brittany talarico, “katy perry brings light to religious upbringing in 'rolling stone',” ok! magazine, aug. 3, 2010, (last viewed on mar. 27, 2012, http://www.okmagazine.com/news/katy-perry-brings-light-religiousupbringing-rolling-stone). 112 the following scriptures also mention chance occurrence as a nonevent or a positive happening: “if a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones, or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young,” deuteronomy 22:6; “and the young man that told him said, as i happened by chance upon mount gilboa, behold, saul leaned upon his spear; and, lo, the chariots and horsemen followed hard after him,” 2 samuel 1:6; “i returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all,” ecclesiastes 9:11; “and by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side,” luke 10:31. in the following scriptures, the bible mention gambling in a positive or acceptable context: “joshua then cast lots for them in shiloh in the presence of the lord, and there he distributed the land to the israelites according to their tribal divisions,” joshua 18:10; “and they cast lots, as well the small as the great, according to the house of their fathers, for every gate. and the lot eastward fell to shelemiah. then for zechariah his son, a wise counsellor, they cast lots; and his lot came out northward,” nehemiah 10:34; “and we cast the lots among the priests, the levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our god,” acts 1:23-26. these verses demonstrate that it is christian culture, a collective understanding of where to best focus the spiritual direction of their community, that frowns upon the use of the work “luck,” in the context of chance. christians synergize these scriptures with christian cultural beliefs through proverbs 16:33, “the lot is cast in the lap, but its every decision is from the lord.” id. 113 see e.g., “the [c]hristian and “good luck.” the foolish galation, oct. 26, 2008 (last viewed on mar. 27, 2012, http://thefoolishgalatian.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/the-christian-and-good-luck/_. 114 exodus 20:7; deuteronomy 5: 11. 115 exodus 20:16; deuteronomy 5: 20. 116 “things never to say to american indian coworkers,” diversity, inc. (mar. 27, 2012, http://diversityinc.com/things-not-to-say/things-never-to-say-to-american-indian-coworkers/). 117 houston smith, the world’s religions, 375 (harper san francisco, 1999). 118 this concept is originally emile durkheim’s. fiona bowie briefly discusses it. fiona bowie, the anthropology of religion , 125 (blackwell publishing, 2006). see also, the world’s religions at 375.     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   119   the totem animal bonds the human members of its clan distinctly to one another, while acting as their mate, friend, guardian, and helper....they in turn, respect it and refuse to injure it unless in dire distress. the totem animal serves as the clan’s emblem, and at the same time symbolizes the ancestor or hero whom the clan commemorates.119 the use of “climbing up the totem pole” expresses a flippant attitude toward cultural sensitivity and it could also insinuate that a person would turn on his or her family and vital connections in exchange for upward mobility.120 one of the greatest factors impacting the mediation process today, however, is the multi-cultural impact brought by the diversity of ethnic participants now taking part in the system. the cultural…differences often require an understanding of the cultural role of parents and the familial roles within a particular family.121 suggesting that a native opponent would abandon family in pursuit of individual status could upheave any groundwork laid in the resolution of a conflict. a final example can be observed in the phrase “survival of the fittest.”122 clearly, this phrase echoes darwin’s theory of evolution, specifically, natural selection.123 a speaker may not intend to insinuate an anti-creationist position or may not affiliate the context of his or her use with a denial of god. yet, to a muslim, for example, “survival of the fittest” could be a form of anti-creationism dialogue.124 once a person believes that his or her religious culture is under attack, then it is probable that he or she will shut down or retaliate in some way.125 either way, a bit of study that uncovers muslim culture’s disdain for the theory of evolution, and an observance of one’s language choice could, go add an additional positive variable to the resolution process.126 “these culturally variable features shape the way people understand their                                                                                                                           119 the world’s religions at 375. contra, claude levi-strauss. fiona bowie briefly discusses it. fiona bowie, the anthropology of religion , 128 (blackwell publishing, 2006). 120 id. 121 jessica r. dominguez, the role of latino culture in mediation of family disputes, 1 j. legal advoc. & prac. 154, 160 (1999). 122 see e.g., "theory of natural selection," biology online (last viewed on mar. 29, 2012, http://www.biologyonline.org/2/10_natural_selection.htm). 123 id. 124 id. taner edis, “between nasr and ateş: what understanding of evolution do science educators want?,” powerpoint presentation, truman state university (last viewed on mar. 27, 2012 phonon.truman.edu/~edis/talks/nasrates.pptx). 125 see e.g., jonathan turley, "singer faces two years in prison for tearing up bible and insulting catholic church," jonathan turley: res ipsa loquitur (mar. 11, 2010, http://jonathanturley.org/2010/03/11/singer-faces-twoyears-in-prison-for-tearing-up-bible-and-insulting-catholic-church/). 126 taner edis, “between nasr and ateş: what understanding of evolution do science educators want?,” powerpoint presentation, truman state university (last viewed on mar. 27, 2012 phonon.truman.edu/~edis/talks/nasrates.pptx). see e.g., "theory of natural selection," biology online (last viewed on mar. 29, 2012, http://www.biology-online.org/2/10_natural_selection.htm).     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   120   experiences.”127 rather than hope that “they do not determine them,” one should merely anticipate that “[c]ulture [will be] the "lens" that refracts the issues or disputes to be negotiated.”128 [t]hose who seek greater harmonization of human rights norms, commercial trade rules, or other legal standards may view culture as simply a monkey wrench in the machinery of global consensus and cooperation. in such debates, culture is often conceptualized as fundamentally pre-modern, something "they" cling to, but that "we" have long since jettisoned….[but rationalizing] cultural considerations out of the equation is simply not an option….law lives entwined with culture.129 studying the interpretation of scripture in religious cultures can help one avoid offending an opponent, as well as possibly “open ways of conceiving of solutions to problems.”130 d. ishvarapranidhana ishvarapranidhana is surrender to (or worship of) god.131 god is not commonly discussed in professional circles. yet, in this article, god can be discussed in terms of surrender to an unchangeable force.132 a belief that there exist forces that are beyond our control is not a spiritual belief, it is fact. forces beyond our individual control include the weather, traffic, and natural disasters. accepting forces that are beyond our control, and the fact that some greater force may deeply affect the outcome of our disputes, can provide the practitioner and the client                                                                                                                           127 carrie menkel-meadow, the trouble with the adversary system in a post-modern, multi-cultural world, 1 j. inst. stud. leg. eth. 49, 83 (1996). 128 carrie menkel-meadow, the trouble with the adversary system in a post-modern, multi-cultural world, 1 j. inst. stud. leg. eth. 49, 83 (1996). see also, jacqueline nolan-haley, self-determination in international mediation: some preliminary reflections, 7 cardozo j. conflict resol. 277, 279-280 (2006). notwithstanding the strong emphasis on self-determination in private mediation, scholars have observed a disconnect between its theory and practice. while self-determination appears to be an explicit value in private mediation, in fact, much depends upon the "frame" in which mediation is conducted and the place and the culture in which mediation takes place….more importantly, the lens of culture is a critical component in shaping and understanding party self-determination. western, individualist cultures typically honor a form of self-determination that gives the disputing parties significant control over deciding the outcome. in contrast, more traditional, collectivist cultures value the interests of the community over those of the individual in deciding outcomes. cultural considerations also influence mediator behavior. 129 paul schiff berman, lawrence rosen, law as culture: an invitation (princeton univ. press, 2006) and oscar g. chase, law, culture, and ritual: disputing systems in cross-cultural context (new york univ. press, 2005), 57 am. j. comp. l. 249, 251, 253 (2009). 130 carrie menkel-meadow, the trouble with the adversary system in a post-modern, multi-cultural world, 1 j. inst. stud. leg. eth. 49, 64 (1996). 131 abhyasa ashram, "yoga sutras 2.35-2.45: benefits from the yamas and niyamas, “yoga sutras 2.35-2.45: benefits from the yamas and niyamas,” swamiji (mar. 29, 2012, http://swamij.com/yoga-sutras-23545.htm). 132 id.     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   121   with peace of mind.133 many seasoned practitioners already know that outcomes can be randomly decided by “what the judge ate for breakfast.”134 the most easily accessible example of a force beyond our control is timing.135 in 2011, shai danziger, jonathan levav, and liora avnaim-pesso, conducted a study that found that “judicial rulings can be swayed by extraneous variables that should have no bearing on legal decisions.”136 in this study, the researchers kept a daily record of judges’ two food breaks.137 the researchers kept this log since food breaks segmented the judges’ work days.138 during the segments, they deliberated during “three distinct “decision sessions.”” the research showed that favorable rulings in parole decisions dropped gradually following their food breaks.139 each session began with approximately 65% favorable rulings to approximately no favorable rulings toward the end of each session.140 after a food break, the favorable rulings jumped again to 65%.141 this study reviewed the verdicts in 40% of all parole requests over a ten month period in israel.142 daily, the judges each spent six minutes per decision.143 they considered between 14 and 35 cases each day.144 researchers believe that “repetitive action leads to intense mental resources depletion and fatigue, which leads to something called “choice overload.””145 “choice overload” makes it probable that we will choose the default option.146 in this case, the default option is to deny parole.147 when judges take food breaks, when a hearing is scheduled, and the fact that the default option is to deny parole, are forces that have not been challenged, are currently beyond regulation, and are beyond an individual defendant or attorney’s control.148 the force in this example may not always be beyond control, but it certainly is now. accepting these facts--that parole hearings can be determined by amorphous factors, like timing and “what the judge ate for breakfast” can give practitioners a sense of peace.                                                                                                                           133 id. 134 paraphrase attributed to judge jerome frank. shai danziger, jonathan levav, and liora avnaim-pesso, extraneous factors in judicial decisions. (ed. daniel kahneman, feb. 25, 2011), princeton univ. 135 shai danziger, jonathan levav, and liora avnaim-pesso, extraneous factors in judicial decisions. (ed. daniel kahneman, feb. 25, 2011), princeton univ. 136 id. 137 id. 138 id. 139 id. 140 id. 141 id. 142 “justice served cold before lunch time: hungry judges less likely to grant parole,” zme science, apr. 11, 2011, (last viewed on mar. 27, 2012 http://www.zmescience.com/research/justice-lunch-hungry-judges-less-likelygrant-parole-315475/). 143 id. 144 id. 145 id. 146 id. 147 id. 148 id.     in  factis  pax     volume  6  number  2  (2012):  107-­‐122   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   122   “there is timing in everything,” miyamoto musashi, writes in a book of five rings.149 “there is also timing in the void.”150 for musashi, timing cannot be conquered, but it can be learned, sensed, and navigated to victory.151 a relationship with timing is developed through practice.152 the more one accepts that timing is everything, the more practitioners can continuously detect subtle cues and triggers.153 even when a person fails to acknowledge that timing is an uncontrollable, overriding factor, one’s opponent may not forget this fact, and may use it advantageously.154 though you must develop “a sense of timeliness,” when timing is beyond either party’s control, then “[l]et things happen in their own time.”155 in adr, the optimal way to avoid bad-timing is to preemptively create a structure for dealing with conflict.156 when a family, an institution, or corporation have an internal dispute resolution mechanism that is known to work, then people expect to be subject to its rules and timing.157 formulating machinery will shield you from having to force the timing or rely on a particular individual’s timing.158 a mechanism invites its own timing.159 relying on the mechanism supplies peace of mind to those who can accept that it is a force beyond the participants’ control. standardizing dispute resolution also helps “to reduce time and costs;” “[i]mprove or maintain the relationship;” “[a]chieve a satisfactory outcome;” “[d]eal with emotions;” and “[a]void future disputes.”160 iii. conclusion in conclusion, observance of saucha, santosha, tapas, svādhyāya, and ishvarapranidhana can help clarify directives and perspectives, create agreement, disarm your enemies and seize an advantage, bridge cultural gaps, and accept the inevitable or insurmountable. eastern philosophy need not be observed dogmatically, yet linking yoga sutras’ niyama to adr revives the text while bolstering contemporary problem-solving with ancient wisdom.                                                                                                                           149 miyamoto musashi, a book of five rings: the classic guide to strategy (trans. victor harris, the overlook press, 1982) 48. 150 id. 151 id. 152 id. 153 id. 154 id. 155 michael sean quinn, the analects for lawyers: variations upon confucian wisdom, 34 tex. tech l. rev. 933, 987 (2003). 156 shireen sondhi, "is timing everything?," up-date magazine, may 2011 (last viewed on mr. 28, 2012, http://www.sfhgroup.com/blogs/news_and_articles/2011/06/01/is-timing-everything/). 157 id. 158 id. 159 id. 160 id.   the pen is mightier than the sword volume 5 number 3 (2011): 303-304 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 303 volume 5 number 3 (2011): 303-304 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ the pen is mightier than the sword i have a dream . . . martin luther king, jr. i think, at first, of king . . . i see him on the monument, up there, gathering in the words with slow, powerful cadences, people nodding, “uh unh” and i think of the pen in his hand as he must have jotted those words nights before. and i think of the short, squat implement in his hand and wonder about its standing up to the semi-automatic, or to the submarine missile gliding silently in subarctic waters. and yet it isn’t king, nor even the small, still voice he listened to . . . volume 5 number 3 (2011): 303-304 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 304 it is the writing, the jotting of a phrase: “beloved community,” “a force field more powerful than war,” and the way each phrase enters the brain, the bloodstream, the very expanding and contracting of the lungs . . . until it is filtered, distilled, into the myriad choices that make our days, our weeks, our millennia. --andrew moss, 2010 roselynn verwoord volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 284 volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ participatory artistic quiltmaking for peacebuilding and peace education: reflections on a workshop in the international institute for peace education 2010 and on a research study roselynn verwoord rverwoor@uvic.ca introduction as a participant in the 2010 international institute on peace education (iipe) which was held in cartagena, colombia, i had the opportunity to facilitate a workshop relevant to the field of peace education. when the time came to propose a workshop, i had no difficulty deciding what i wanted to share with other educators, peace activists, individuals from non-profit and non-governmental organization, and academics. at the iipe i facilitated a workshop on participatory artistic quiltmaking for peacebuilding and peace education that was based on my master of arts research conducted in vancouver, british columbia, canada, on the role of participatory artistic quiltmaking for peacebuilding and peace education among youth aged 8 to 12. this paper presents a narrative of what occurred in the iipe workshop as well as explains participatory artistic quiltmaking in the context of peacebuilding. the paper also highlights some initial findings from my master of arts research and describes the use of participatory artistic quiltmaking in research. personal background and research motivation as an educated caucasian woman with european and indonesian heritage who was raised in a middle class canadian family, i have grown up privileged. this privilege volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 285 has allowed me to receive formal training as an elementary school educator and work experience in formal and informal education both in canada and internationally. my experience has heightened my awareness of the need for peacebuilding approaches that welcome diverse ways of understanding relationships in cross-cultural educational settings, and the social contexts in which these relationships arise. my teaching and research as an elementary educator in new delhi, where i explored the role of participatory art as a vehicle for promoting global citizenship for youth in a cross-cultural classroom, led me to my master of arts research on the role of participatory artistic quiltmaking in support of peacebuilding among youth. furthermore, my teaching experience has helped me identify the lack of understanding amongst educators and researchers about the relationship between participatory arts-based social responsibility programs in cross-cultural educational settings and the promotion of conflict resolution and community development. having volunteered for various “social responsibility” programs offered in primarily what have been labeled as “inner-city” schools in the british columbia (bc) public school system, i have also observed the plethora of structured social responsibility programs that are available to teachers and students to address topics like social engagement, personal development, and conflict resolution. many of these programs seem to re-enforce liberal ideologies about education and a liberal notion of social responsibility, which continues to privilege the privileged, by failing to address systemic oppression and inequality. they also seem to lack the use of the arts as a vehicle for promoting cross-cultural relationship building and as a tool for contributing to peacebuilding efforts and towards peace education. having had many powerful experiences with the arts, i believe that participatory quiltmaking in place of a social responsibility-based program, can be used for supporting peacebuilding and efforts towards peace education. theoretical frame the theoretical framework for my research on the role of participatory artistic quiltmaking in supporting peacebuilding among youth, utilized kathy bickmore’s three types of conflict management activity as identified from conflict and conflict theory and originally applied to international conflicts. these types of conflict management include peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding, and they have been applied to interpersonal and inter-group levels in the context of education, to highlight how interpersonal and social conflict is handled in schools 1. they also reflect varying political ideologies. peacekeeping 1 kathy bickmore, “discipline for democracy? school districts’ management of conflict and social exclusion,” theory and research in social education 32(1) (2004): 77. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 286 peacekeeping reflects containment or security approaches, and relies on the “narrowest repertoire of strategies for controlling behaviour” 2. politically, it represents a conservative ideology, in that it attempts to establish security through control. in school systems, peacekeeping is reflected in “burgeoning emphases on violence prevention and zero tolerance strict discipline policies including mandated codes of conduct” 3. the limitations of peacekeeping are that it often emphasizes short-term control of violence and disruption by punishing or excluding individual students, rather than resolving underlying conflicts or strengthening social relationships 4. according to bickmore, these punitive methods are increasing as “a widening variety of youth behaviour is being criminalized and managed with standardized punishments” 5. a significant restriction with this approach, besides it being authoritative in the hands of the teacher, is that restrictions and punishments are disproportionately imposed upon certain populations of students, based on racial, social class and other biases 6. furthermore, peacekeeping approaches often emphasize obedience, blaming, and exclusion of those citizens who do not comply with authority 7. because of power imbalances and often embedded social biases that define this kind of conflict and violence, peacekeeping alone does not address or alleviate harassment and bullying, nor the deeper issues of social status competition and bias that underlie bullying and harassment 8. despite its limitations, it is important to acknowledge that peacekeeping is essential to protecting vulnerable students from victimization, and is an important catalyst for the development of peacemaking skills among students 9. peacemaking peacemaking represents dispute resolution, negotiation, and dialogue approaches10. it includes some peacekeeping as well as conflict resolution, and attempts to facilitate conflict management and resolution through dialogue and problem solving rather than blame or punishment 11. examples of peacemaking include democratic processes like legislative governance, class meetings, and student councils, as they facilitate collective deliberation and decision making in the face of citizens’ conflicting wants and needs 12. politically, peacemaking represents a liberal or “middle of the road” ideology. 2 ibid., 77. 3 ibid., 78. 4 ibid., 78. 5 ibid., 78. 6 ibid., 78. 7 ibid., 78. 8 ibid., 80. 9 ibid., 80. 10 ibid., 77. 11 ibid., 79. 12 ibid., 79. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 287 the limitations of peacemaking include that it encourages a sense of agency and the practice of democratic participation capabilities, such as dialogue and negotiation; however, it does so without always emphasizing dispute settlement13. although it encourages individual skill development and helps to foster nonviolent management of disputes between children of similar social status through the development of direct communication or mediation skills and procedures, it neglects to consider issues of class difference. class difference impacts children’s participation in both democratic processes and in the facilitation of disputes 14. furthermore, some peacemaking initiatives emphasize conflict avoidance, control of anger, and narrow cultural formulas for appropriate social behaviour, all of which exclude marginalized students. other peacemaking initiatives including peer mediation, delegate tangible responsibility to “good” students, which emphasizes dominant cultural manners and control 15. it is important to acknowledge that some peacemaking activities do generate more democratic space for diverse students to autonomously manage conflict, but i believe that the creation or lack thereof, of democratic space, is dependant upon the social, political, and educational ideology that is employed by the educator and the broader ideology of the school. peacebuilding peacebuilding supports the redress of underlying inequities and social conflicts in order to restore healthy relationships or to prevent future escalation of conflicts 16. it is the most comprehensive and inclusive form of conflict management, because it includes both peacekeeping and peacemaking and adds long-range harm reduction through social reconstruction 17. politically, is represents radical ideology, as it is linked to structural equity issues and institutional forms of oppression. as bickmore stated, “if social exclusion and inequity cause frustrations, social fractures and disengagement that may lead to violence, then equity efforts likely contribute to peacebuilding” 18. therefore, because violence is caused by social exclusion and inequity, we need to focus on dealing with issues of equity, which are included in peacebuilding efforts. peacebuilding originated with repairing relationships after incidents of violence, and it has been applied to rebuilding equitable and resilient relationships at points in the conflict cycle, through anti-discriminatory problem solving, restorative justice, and inclusive critical citizenship education 19. it facilitates the deepening and broadening of democratic space by redressing injustice, rights violations, and participation barriers20. it is based on restoration beyond simple dispute settlement and instead of retribution. peacebuilding is accurately represented in “democratic education that helps students to 13 ibid., 79. 14 ibid., 79. 15 ibid., 79. 16 ibid., 77. 17 ibid., 77. 18 ibid., 80. 19 ibid., 80. 20 ibid., 80. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 288 develop accepting attitudes and a sense of personal responsibility toward unfamiliar or subordinate national or social groups” 21. implicit learning of peacebuilding is shaped through structural mechanisms for equity and human rights protection, and explicit learning of peacebuilding is reflected in bias awareness, gender equity, anti-racism, global and international development, holocaust education, and peace education curricula 22. peacebuilding emphasizes the development and autonomous implementation of individual and institutional capacities over time; therefore, it can take a long time to see the effects of peacebuilding, and it can be difficult to assess reliably 23. some peacebuilding initiatives are “conflict avoidant or assimilationist,” whereas others “openly confront controversial justice issues that underlie intractable conflicts and violence” 24. although both approaches reflect political and social biases, the difference between conflict avoidant and assimilationist initiatives and others that confront controversial justice issues, is that the initiatives that confront justice have highly visible biases, as opposed to hidden or covert biases which are present in assimilationist initiatives 25. as bickmore stated, “democratic citizenship education needs to focus on initiatives that attend to critical agency and conflict communication across cultural, gender, language, ideological, or power differences, as these created opportunities for democratic citizen engagement” 26. these initiatives need to include guided opportunities for active conflict deliberation, peacemaking, and peacebuilding, which are essential to the development of citizenship capabilities, and for actually resolving conflicts that underlie violence. the simple fact is that schools need to embrace conflict and difference as normal aspects of their daily operations and as learning opportunities for educators, students, and administrators. furthermore, once educators are able to embrace these ideas of democratic citizenship, particularly as they relate to peacebuilding, their own citizenship actions make a difference in shaping the political will and understanding that in turn shapes school policy. this has been demonstrated in numerous examples in schools in british columbia, where teachers have become allies for the promotion of issues around diversity and inclusion in schools. failing to address issues of bias that underlie issues of conflict, as well as violence and bullying, fails to address the challenges of the contemporary world. as bickmore stated, “some citizens’ concerns are encoded in policy much more readily than others, based on their identity, visibility, political participation, and socio-economic clout” 27. my ideological stance regarding both citizenship and social education, which is reflected in my beliefs about conflict management, is that educators should be focusing 21 ibid., 80. 22 ibid., 80. 23 ibid., 80. 24 ibid., 81. 25 ibid., 81. 26 ibid., 80. 27 ibid., 80. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 289 their efforts on activities that promote peacebuilding. i also acknowledge that all schools, classrooms, and educators, many not necessarily be of the same mindset that peacebuilding is an important and necessary part of the curriculum, and thus one may see schools embracing various forms of peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peacebuilding, within the same school environment, depending on individual beliefs about teaching, and conflict resolution in the education system. why quiltmaking? quilts as end products and quiltmaking as a process serve a variety of needs including satisfying physical needs of warmth, protection, and packaging, as well as documenting rites of passage, stating political allegiance, and representing avenues for religious and aesthetic expression28. today quilts are valued and categorized in diverse ways. for example, political activists have seen the collaborative nature of quiltmaking as a way to publicize their concerns in such projects as the peace ribbon, the names project, and the boise peace quilt awards 29. these projects all used the collaborative aspects of quiltmaking as a mechanism to present social commentary. for example, the ribbon was sewn together by people protesting nuclear war and tied around the pentagon in a public demonstration in august, 1985; the names project was a collective response to hiv/aids wherein each segment of a quilt top was sewn in commemoration of the death of a loved one; the boise peace quiltmakers of idaho promote “people-to-people” peacemaking and award quilts as prizes to people who work towards world peace. to date, there have been several research projects that have examined group dynamics and relationship building through the use of participatory quiltmaking; these have highlighted the role of quiltmaking in relationship development among people of diverse backgrounds and interests. for example, ettinger & hoffman researched the use of quiltmaking in an academic course with twenty-seven female university students, and found that participatory quiltmaking was a way to “initiate strong kinship bonds, develop intricate networks of friendship, and support personal growth” 30. despite students’ initial hesitation and differences of opinion around the logistics of engaging in the quilt project, researchers found that as the school term progressed, the group became “more cohesive” with several students even volunteering to help others sew 31. the researchers noted that “these activities of helping and sharing became important aspects of teaching and learning in the course” and found that by the final class, “students appeared to be generally more involved, confident, and supportive as evidenced in the easier flow of dialogue of all types and the increase in sharing among participants” 32. furthermore, the researchers found that the quiltmaking process seemed to affect the viewpoints of individuals in the class and concluded that “many behaviours frequently noted appeared 28 pat ferrero, hearts and hands: the influence of women & quilts on american society (san francisco: the quilt digest press, 1987). 29 linda f. ettinger and elizabeth hoffman, “quilt making in art education: toward a participatory curriculum metaphor,” art education 43(4) (1990): 43. 30 ettinger and hoffman, “quilt making in art education,” 45. 31 ibid., 46. 32 ibid., 46. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 290 to reflect the kinds of interactions that reportedly happen during traditional quiltmaking including sharing ideas, making group decision, developing social ties, and producing something meaningful” 33. quilts produced through quiltmaking also have the ability to serve as vehicles for social and political action, as stalp found through an analysis of quilting as a meaningmaking process 34 she stated that “with political voice, private and public memory, and commemoration, quilts can travel through time in both public and private ways that other cultural objects cannot” 35. she also noted that with respect to women’s identity, “quilting is one of many ways in which women can connect with other women on personal and societal levels, develop a creative self in which women find themselves not just as family caretakers but as subjects of their own lives” 36. elsley, in the context of researching about reading quilts as textile texts, found that “quilts constitute a way for marginalized groups to find center stage” and concluded that “quilts constitute a system of language where voices are heard in the context of community” and that “quilts speak to their society about controversial issues”37. holland, in a discussion about the use of quilts to celebrate diversity with young children, noted that “quilts reflect the expertise, values, and culture of the hands that stitched them and are appropriate for discussions about uniqueness, differences, and relationships” 38. helm, huebner and long further support holland’s claim by noting that “quilts create connections within families, throughout cultures, and across cultures” as well as “celebrate the similarities and differences in people and their heritage” 39. because quilts are functional and familiar objects to children, and because “children learn best when they start with what they already know and then expand on their ideas and experiences”40, the use of quilts and quiltmaking therefore, “gives children a chance to build on their understanding of differences through the use of a familiar object” 41. furthermore, the meaning making process behind quilts and quiltmaking has been explored by devaul, who examined the communicative aspects of quilts and the communal process of quilting. she concluded that “quiltmakers encode cultural differences and similarities in the process of construction” of a quilt, which in turn express fundamental beliefs 42 33 ibid., 46. 34 marybeth stalp, “women, quilting, and cultural production: the preservation of self in everyday life” (phd diss., university of georgia, 2001), 153. 35 ibid., 154. 36 ibid., 154. 37 judy elsley, quilts as text(iles): the semiotics of quilting (new york: peter lang publishing, 1996), 10. 38 marna m. holland, “using quilts and quilt picture books to celebrate diversity with young children,” early childhood education journal 32(4) (2005): 243. 39 jeanne helm, alice huebner, and becky long, “quiltmaking: a perfect project for preschool and primary,” young children 55(3) (2000): 47. 40 janet b. mccraken, valuing diversity: the primary years (washington, dc: naeyc, 1993), 14. 41 holland, “using quilts and quilt picture books,” 244. 42 diane devaul, “mother work – quilts and art: a material culture study” (phd diss., university of maryland, 1998), 15. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 291 one aspect and important tension that is raised in scholarly literature and that needs to be considered in the context of discussions about quiltmaking for peacebuilding (which includes discussions about culture, race, and ethnicity) is how the word “culture” is being used. another tension in different educational discourses including peace education, global citizenship education, diversity education, and others is how to treat the word “culture.” davies notes that “in discussions of cultural integration there is often the language of “one’s own culture” and “others’ culture” but that this notion of “us” and “them” may become more complex in a world of migration and of dual or hybrid identities” 43. furthermore she states that “culture is not just about origin but about current linkages, trading, and economies” where the emphasis on culture and identity is “not just a better understanding of the multicultural society we live in, but the fact that this hybrid society is itself engaged in various economic and cultural linkages outside” 44. furthermore, klein (as cited in davies) argues that learning from other cultures means “embracing an internationalist perspective on citizenship by taking an interest in world cultures and an curiosity to find out more; learning respect for cultures different from one’s own; regarding cultures as living and changing, affected by external circumstances such as invasion, colonization, globalization” 45 arts-based research and a/r/t/ography arts-based research arts-based research has many labels and terms some of which include artsinformed research or inquiry, arts-based inquiry, lyric inquiry, image-based research, performative inquiry, storywork methodology, and installation art-as-research. furthermore, there are many different types of arts some of which include photography, cartoons, video, graffiti, sculpting, theatre, maps, murals, collage, mosaic, metaphors, dance, writing, drawing, and fabric crafts. irregardless of the art form, the arts have the ability to be used as tools for generating counter-narratives (stories we have been told to believe); link feelings to cognitive understandings; promote social change; encourage collective creation; encourage the aesthetic as a way of entering into an issue or genre; and generate knowledge through symbols, images, etc. a/r/tography as a form of arts-based research the arts-based research methodology that i used in my research was a/r/t/ography as it focuses on individuals being artists, researchers, and teachers, and 43 lynn davies, “global citizenship education,” in encyclopedia of peace education, ed. monisha bajaj (charlotte, nc: information age publishing, 2008), 111. 44 davies, “global citizenship education,” 112. 45 reva klein, citizens by right: citizenship education in primary schools (great britain, uk: trentham books and save the children, 2001) as cited in lynn davies, “global citizenship education: abstraction or framework for action?” educational review 58(1) (2006): 9. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 292 engaging in and making a commitment to living inquiry 46. engaging in living inquiry involves the practice of continuously asking oneself questions and inquiring into those questions, and then asking new questions. a/r/tographical research focuses on “living and inquiry in the in-between, of constantly questing, and complicating that which has yet to be named” 47. in practice, as a researcher this involves constantly questioning our experiences and findings, as we engage in research. a/r/tography defines research as an “evocation, a provocation, calling us to transformation”48. for researchers, this involves learning about oneself, in the process of conducting research. it also involves seeing the practices inherent in the work of artists and educators are forms of research, because they are grounded in ongoing forms of recursive and reflexive inquiry engaged in theorizing for understanding. a/r/tography could be termed as practitioner-based research, because a/r/tography perceives research as a disposition for knowledge creation and understanding through acts of theorizing as complication 49. there is attention paid to the aesthetic, and a commitment to how the aesthetic elements of an art form can inform research. furthermore, a/r/t/ography can aid in the construction and generation of counternarratives and stories through an aesthetic medium because as individuals engage in research studies and create and analyze their artwork they draw on their own lives, knowledge, and experiences, which in turn become counter-narratives. a/r/tography allows research to transgress the “…limitations and oppressive features of traditional scientific research, opening spaces for experimentation of alternative approaches that weave in aesthetic sensibilities and post-positivistic forms of expression” 50. it is “about writing outside of the lines, transgressing the rules, while staying within the lines of dominant discursive practices...[and is one of the] few ways we have left to disrupt the dominant discourses in society that silence and marginalize” 51. it is “a mode and form of qualitative research…that is influenced by, but not based in, the arts broadly conceived,” and whose central purposes are to “enhance understanding of the human condition through alternative (to conventional) process and representational forms of inquiry, and to reach multiple audiences by making research more accessible” 52. as finley states, “at the heart of arts-based inquiry is a radical, politically grounded 46 rita irwin, “communities of a/r/tographic practice,” in being with a/r/tography, ed. stephanie springgay et al. (rotterdam, the netherlands: sense publishers, 2008). 47 rita irwin and stephanie springgay, “a/r/tography as practice-based research,” in being with a/r/tography, ed. stephanie springgay et al. (rotterdam, the netherlands: sense publishers, 2008), xxxi. 48 irwin and springgay, “a/r/tography,” p. xxx. 49 ibid., p. xxiii. 50 shauna butterwick and jane dawson, “adult education and the arts,” in context of adult education: canadian perspectives, ed. tara fenwick et al. (toronto: thompson educational publishing, 2006), 243. 51 helen k. ball, “subversive materials: quilts as social text,” the alberta journal of educational research 60(3) (2002): 2. 52 j. gary knowles and ardra l. cole, “arts-informed research,” in handbook of the arts and qualitative research: perspectives, methodologies, examples, and issues, by j. gary knowles and ardra l. cole (thousand oaks, california: sage publications, inc., 2008), 59. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 293 statement about social justice and control over the production and dissemination of knowledge. by calling upon artful ways of knowing and being in the world, arts-based researchers…bring both arts and social inquiry out of the elitist institutions of academe and art museums and relocate them within the realm of the local, personal, everyday places and events” 53. a/r/tography emphasizes the emotive and affective domain of understanding, which fits beautifully when engaging with an emotive topic such as peacebuilding. furthermore, it fosters inclusion and empowerment through an aesthetic voice that creatively show-cases both individual and collective community knowledge. it encourages imagination and creativity; focuses on creative representation and interpretation; and is at once rigorous but dynamic and innovative 54. in arts-based research, attention is paid to the aesthetic and there is a commitment to how the aesthetic elements of an art form can inform research. arts-based educational research can construct and generate counter-narratives and stories through an aesthetic medium because as the people engaged in the study create and analyze their artwork they draw on their own lives, knowledge, and experiences. also, these counter narratives can be used to address inequalities and “to advance a subversive political agenda that addresses issues of social inequality” 55. furthermore arts-based educational research can be participatory, critical, practical and transformative, and support the empowerment of participants, collaboration through participation, acquisition of knowledge, and social change. sharing of research findings during the iipe workshop, i shared some findings from my master of art research on the role of participatory artistic quiltmaking in supporting peacebuilding among grade 4-7 youth56. one of the findings was that participants developed different understandings of each other which supported the development of new and deeper friendships. for example, when speaking about a classmate, *colin an eleven year old male participant said “when i saw the quilt i’m like oh wow….he’s a human being like us” (colin, lines 318-320). participants also developed individual understandings of the concepts of inclusion and exclusion and what they look like in practice (based on gender, age, race, culture, religion, sexual orientation). for example, kristina a ten year old female participant said “i learned about exclusion because sometimes….people doesn’t include other people and i see a person getting left out and inclusion is like you get that 53 susan finley, “arts-based research,” in handbook of the arts and qualitative research: perspectives methodologies, examples, and issues, by j. gary knowles and ardra l. cole (thousand oaks, california: sage publications inc., 2008), 71. 54 sharon deacon, “creativity within qualitative research on families: new ideas for old methods,” the qualitative report 4(3 & 4) (2000): accessed november 10, 2010, http://www.nova.edu/ssss/qr/qr43/deacon.html 55 finley, “arts-based research,” 71. 56 roselynn verwoord, “‘building peace’ through quiltmaking: the role of participatory artistic quiltmaking in supporting peacebuilding among grade 4-7 youth,” (ma thesis, university of british columbia, 2011). volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 294 one person that’s not allowed to play with one group and ask them if they want to play with this group” (kristina, lines 113-117). furthermore, both the art teacher and classroom teacher experienced the value of fabric arts and will be integrating them into the regular classroom curriculum in september 2010. participants also developed pride and attachment to the quilt and to their artistic creations and were able to articulate similar understandings of the concept of peace, despite not being “taught” what peace was. for example, henry, a ten year old male participant mentioned that peace meant “no war, stuff like that, everybody’s happy” (henry, line 47) and david a twelve year old participant said peace meant “everyone’s happy” (david, line 115). these research findings support the idea that the arts, particularly participatory artistic quiltmaking, can influence children’s behaviour in a way that is not influenced by a classroom teacher or formal teaching. furthermore they support the finding that participatory quiltmaking is a way to “initiate strong kinship bonds, develop intricate networks of friendship, and support personal growth” 57. *pseudonyms have been used to protect the identity of all research participants. modelling the participatory artistic quiltmaking process at iipe in order to allow iipe participants to experience the participatory artistic quiltmaking process, i led participants through a condensed version of the process. the instructions they received were to individually make a quilt block (some examples shown in figures 1 and 3) depicting what peace education means to them. they were to work individually but they could chat and engage with others. participants were given approximately twenty minutes to make a quilt block. we then stood in a circle with a blanket on the floor (to represent a quilt), and shared our quilt blocks, as shown in figure 2. we collectively decided how to bring our blocks together to make a quilt. participants one by one spoke about their quilt blocks and placed them on a blanket, to simulate a quilt. next we engaged in a discussion about their experience. questions included “what was your experience making the quilt block like? what surprised you about yourself and the process? how might arts-based research inform the work that you do? what might some of the possible benefits and challenges be?” the workshop concluded with a summarizing of the power of participatory artistic quiltmaking as a tool for peace education. at the end of the workshop, participants eagerly asked “what is going to happen to the quilt?” as a facilitator of the participatory artistic quiltmaking process, i posed the question back to the participants and said “what would you like to do with it?” there was some discussion about keeping it together as a quilt, and even some suggestions that i should take it back to canada and sew it together. the participants decided that they would like to share it at the iipe culture night celebration and that i should keep it until then. at iipe culture night, the quilt was presented by two participants (one spanish speaking and one english speaking) from the workshop, who had agreed to speak about 57 ettinger and hoffman, “quilt making in art education,” 45. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 295 the experience of making the quilt blocks. they asked participants from the workshop to each briefly speak about what their block was about, in order to allow each person to feel that they were being represented. at the end of iipe culture night, i packed up the quilt and it was eventually brought to canada. figure 1: a quilt block made during the iipe workshop volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 296 figure 2: placing the quilt blocks on the “quilt” during the iipe workshop volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 297 figure 3: a quilt block made during the iipe workshop the power of participatory artistic quiltmaking in the context of research the participatory artistic quiltmaking process begins with a research question as identified by the researcher. participants are asked to engage in a participatory artistic quiltmaking process by individually making a quilt block representative of their response volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 298 to the research question. although this process is done individually, it is also done collectively as participants work in a shared or collective space where conversations, sharing, and assisting each other naturally occur. during the quiltmaking process, the researcher draws out themes related to the research question. depending on the qualitative research methods and methodology being employed, the researcher may engage in formal and informal observations of participants, group and individual interviews, an analysis of the quilt, etc. in order to focus on the participatory aspect of the process, it is important to ensure that participants make decisions from the start of the project. these decisions can include what to include in the quilt, what materials to use, how they want to work together as a collective group (i.e. establishing group guidelines or agreements), when their work is “done”, how the quilt should be put together, and who owns the quilt. as a researcher, it can be challenging to both facilitate these processes (be a teacher), engage in the collective project (be an artist), and conduct research simultaneously (be a researcher). participants can become quite attached to their creative work and may decide that they want to keep their quilt block. as a researcher, one needs to be prepared to deal with these kinds of situations throughout the participatory process and to be ready to support the collective process. the collective process helps foster group decision making skills, participant ownership, and helps participants develop an awareness of the “other” (i.e. other participants) through the attainment of new perspectives. privileging the artistic aspect of the process is also important. many individuals, particularly those from the western formal education system have had their artwork assessed and thus have particular perceptions of what “good” and “bad” artwork looks like. by privileging the artistic process and staying away from traditional notions and dichotomies of “good” and “bad” art we can help to re-shape peoples’ experiences with art and support creativity. lastly, the artistic process in the context of quiltmaking can help participants and society in general challenge conceptions about who quiltmaking is for and why quiltmaking is done (i.e. for middle-aged caucasian women who want to pass down family traditions). the aesthetic element that is generated through the artistic process can help disrupt common conceptions of quilts (i.e. that they are soft, warm, comfortable) as the messages, particularly if they are focused on issues of social justice, that can be portrayed through quilts can be disturbing and shock-inducing. conclusion my research and my work with participatory artistic quiltmaking within the context of peacebuilding, is situated in theories of transformative learning, which are based on the assumption that education for personal change and growth is critical to social transformation. theories based on the relationship between the arts and transformative learning, are centrally located in hooks’ work, who espoused that “the arts remain one of the powerful, if not the most powerful, realms of cultural resistance, a space for awakening folks to critical consciousness and new vision” 58. in support of art 58 bell hooks, “yearning: race, gender, and cultural politics,” (boston, ma: south end press, 1990), 39. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 299 as a vehicle for promoting understanding among individuals, greene stated that “to perceive, to imagine new possibilities of being and action is to enlarge the scope of freedom for the individual; and, when people work to open new perspectives together, they may even discover ways of transforming their lived worlds” 59. miller suggests that “an education that is relevant to our time cannot simply aim for transmission, but must support cultural reconstruction or transformation” 60. therefore, if we choose not to involve youth in “reconstructing our societies, in building a culture of peace, justice, compassion, their future looks bleak indeed, no matter what marketable skill their school provides them” 61. like freire, i believe in education that supports youth to critically examine their personal and social reality through interactions with others. for example, freire (as cited in cruikshanks) stated that “every human being no matter how submerged in the ‘culture of silence’ he or she may be, is capable of looking critically at the world in a diagnostic encounter with others62. participatory artistic quiltmaking creates a space for this individual yet shared encounter with others. furthermore, participatory artistic quiltmaking can act as a tool or vehicle for exploring individuals’ lived realities which is supported by cruikshanks’ belief that when individuals are given the “proper tools and environment, [they] can become conscious and aware of personal and social realities as well as the contradictions within it, and ultimately play a part in the radical reconstruction of oppressive structures and situations”63. the importance of the arts in fostering youth understanding of community and global citizenship has not only been articulated by educational theorists, but is also currently expressed by the british columbia ministry of education, which supports fine arts as an essential element for social responsibility and democracy. as indicated by the rationale outlined in the k-12 fine arts curriculum: “the fine arts are important to our understanding of society, culture, and history, and are essential to the development of individual potential, social responsibility, and cultural awareness…. an understanding of the fine arts fosters respect for and appreciation of the diverse cultural heritages and values found within canada and around the world” 64. i do not believe that the arts are merely ornamental aspects of human production and experience but believe that they have a more significant role to play in enlarging human understanding. similarly, according to bohm, “to awaken to the creative state of mind…is for each of us 59 maxine greene, “aesthetic literacy,” in aesthetics and arts education, ed. ralph a. smith et al. (urbana, il: university of illinois press, 1991), 158. 60 ron miller, “educating a culture of peace,” in child honouring: how to turn this world around, ed. raffi cavoukian et al., (westport, connecticut: praeger publishers, 2006), 63. 61 miller, “educating a culture,” 64. 62 paulo freire, pedagogy of the oppressed (new york: the continuum international publishing group inc, 2002), as cited in nadine cruikshanks, “tales of transformation through children’s global arts” (phd diss., university of victoria, 2007), 33. 63 nadine cruikshanks, “tales of transformation through children’s global arts” (phd diss., university of victoria, 2007), 33. 64 british columbia ministry of education, ministry of education service plan 2008/09 2010/11 (victoria: queen’s printer, 2008), 9. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 300 individually and society as a whole the most important thing to be done in the circumstances in which humanity now finds itself” 65. i believe that art is the vehicle that youth need to be able to engage in meaningful conversations about cross-cultural relationship building, and “the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world” 66. bibliography ball, helen k. “subversive materials: quilts as social text.” the alberta journal of educational research 60(3) (2002): 1-27. barbera, robin. “the language of ‘text’iles: the literary practices of the boise peace quilt project.” phd diss., hofstra university, 2006. bickmore, kathy. “discipline for democracy? school districts’ management of conflict and social exclusion.” theory and research in social education 32(1) (2004): 75-97. bohm, david. on creativity. edited by lee nichol. new york: routledge, 1998. british columbia ministry of education. ministry of education service plan 2008/09-2010/11. victoria: queen’s printer, 2008. butterwick, shauna, and jane dawson. “adult education and the arts,” in context of adult education: canadian perspectives, edited by tara fenwick, tom nesbit, and bruce spencer, 281-292. toronto: thompson educational publishing, 2006. cruikshanks, nadine. “tales of transformation through children’s global arts.” phd diss., university of victoria, 2007. davies, lynn. “global citizenship education: abstraction or framework for action?” educational review 58(1) (2006): 5-25. ______. “global citizenship education,” in encyclopedia of peace education, edited by monisha bajaj, 109-114. charlotte, nc: information age publishing, 2008. deacon, sharon. “creativity within qualitative research on families: new ideas for old methods.” the qualitative report 4(3 & 4) (2000). accessed november 10, 2010. http://www.nova.edu/ssss/qr/qr4-3/deacon.html 65 david bohm, on creativity, ed. lee nichol (new york: routledge, 1998), 24. 66 hooks, yearning, 34. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 301 devaul, diane. “mother work – quilts and art: a material culture study.” phd diss., university of maryland, 1998. elsley, judy. quilts as text(iles): the semiotics of quilting. new york: peter lang publishing, 1996. ettinger, linda f. and elizabeth hoffman. “quilt making in art education: toward a participatory curriculum metaphor.” art education 43(4) (1990): 40-47. finley, susan. “arts-based research,” in handbook of the arts and qualitative research: perspectives, methodologies, examples, and issues by j. gary knowles, and ardra l. cole, 71-82. thousand oaks, california: sage publications inc., 2008. freire, paulo. pedagogy of the oppressed. new york: the continuum international publishing group inc, 2002. greene, maxine. “aesthetic literacy,” in aesthetics and arts education, edited by ralph a. smith and alan simpson, 149-161. urbana, il: university of illinois press, 1991. ______. “diversity and inclusion: towards a curriculum for human beings.” teachers college record 95(2) (1993): 211-221. helm, jeanne, huebner, alice, and becky long. “quiltmaking: a perfect project for preschool and primary.” young children 55(3) (2000): 44-49. holland, marna m. “using quilts and quilt picture books to celebrate diversity with young children.” early childhood education journal 32(4) (2005): 243-247. hooks, bell. yearning: race, gender, and cultural politics. boston, ma: south end press, 1990. irwin, rita. “communities of a/r/tographic practice,” in being with a/r/tography, edited by stephanie springgay, rita l. irwin, carl leggo, and peter gouzouasis, 71-80. rotterdam, the netherlands: sense publishers, 2008. irwin, rita and alex de cosson, eds. a/r/tography: rendering self through artsbased living inquiry. vancouver, bc: pacific educational press, 2004. irwin, rita and stephanie springgay. “a/r/tography as practice-based research,” in being with a/r/tography, edited by stephanie springgay, rita l. irwin, carl leggo, and peter gouzouasis, xix-xxxii. rotterdam, the netherlands: sense publishers, 2008. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 284-302 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 302 klein, reva. citizens by right: citizenship education in primary schools. great britain, uk: trentham books and save the children, 2001. knowles, j. gary and ardra l. cole. “arts-informed research,” in handbook of the arts and qualitative research: perspectives, methodologies, examples, and issues by j. gary knowles, and ardra l. cole, 55-70. thousand oaks, california: sage publications, inc., 2008. mccraken, janet b. valuing diversity: the primary years. washington, dc: naeyc, 1993.   miller, ron. “educating a culture of peace,” in child honouring: how to turn this world around, edited by raffi cavoukian, and sharna olfman, 62-66. westport, connecticut, usa: praeger publishers, 2006. reed, ronald f. and tony w. johnson, eds. philosophical documents in education. new york: addison-wesley longman, inc., 2000. stalp, marybeth. “women, quilting, and cultural production: the preservation of self in everyday life.” phd diss., university of georgia, 2001. verwoord, roselynn. “‘building peace’ through quiltmaking: the role of participatory artistic quiltmaking in supporting peacebuilding among grade 4-7 youth.” ma thesis, university of british columbia, 2011. homage to gandhi volume 5 number 3 (2011): 305-06 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 305 volume 5 number 3 (2011): 305-06 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ homage to gandhi what do you really need? for gandhi it was the dirt floor, the bowl for food, the eyeglasses, the staff, the verses from the bhagavad-gita imprinted on the brain, the countless visitors. the skill of enduring dust, long hot train journeys third class, conversations conversations conversations prayer, silence . . . and a wry, patient joy in seeing you and i volume 5 number 3 (2011): 305-06 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 306 let fall whatever cords bind heart and mind and will. --andrew moss, 2010 oluwaseun bamidele volume 7 number 2 (2013): 113-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review candice c. carter (ed.) conflict resolution and peace education transformations across disciplines, new york: palgrave macmillan, 2010. isbn: 978-0-230-62063-6. 237pp. oluwaseun bamidele department of liberal arts and social sciences, faith academy, canaanland ota, nigeria. oluwaseun.bamidele@gmail.com if there ever was a book written about conflict resolution and peace education that offers prospects for hope on such a grim subject, then it is this one. the book resulted from the work of numerous authors who have ably assisted the editor, and whose expert views on the conflict and peace education are fresh, provide food for thought, and urge scholars to awake from slumber and seize their moment. the grafted olive tree bearing many types of fruit, depicted on the cover of this book, represents ongoing variety in peace education which is a contextually responsive pedagogy throughout the world. the authors in this book contribute information about such cross-disciplinary instruction in higher education in the field of conflict resolution and peace education. in this new context of conflict-focused peace education, there are several pedagogical questions that need to be answered, including the following: what are the variations in conflict analysis across disciplines? what notions underlie responses to conflict in each of the disciplines? in what ways are the same ideas about conflict applied in different fields of work? (p.3). it is important for use in the formation of local and global policies. through a multidisciplinary lens, the contents of this book inform peace education and development. the contributors to this book describe conflict and peace education in the disciplines in which they provide adult education. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 113-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     114   in chapter one, wynn, wilburn, and west-olantunji discuss techniques of mental health counseling. the cases they present describe culturally sensitive, therapeutic, and artistic responses to their clients’ conflicts. their recommendations for counselor preparation include intrapersonal work for transformation within their field, which is truly important in the resolution of many types of conflict. to their analysis sum up, these authors opine that counselors are uniquely positioned to assist individuals and groups with intrapersonal and interpersonal conflict transformation because of their extensive training in effective communication, identification and expression of feelings, and multiculturalism (p.7) their strengths-based focus, aids clients in moving from conflict to greater awareness and improved relationships. they also seek that counselors need to understand how culture influences conflict, and be able to think systemically in order to understand individual needs within a broader cultural context. in chapter two, welch and baker describe the historical context of justice and systems of social control before they present analytical conflict transformation and examples of its use in sociology. they highlight the multiple points from into which conflict can be analyzed, at any time, and avenues of inquiry, among other techniques, for use in that process and explore the theoretical foundation of act, map out the formal act strategy, and describe how we have introduced act into the college classroom and how it impacts students outcomes. the theoretical foundation of act draws from the history of justice, ct, and sociology. the principal idea is that conflict can usually be traced back to the knowledge and interpretation of the parties involved. people often enter conflict because of what they know about the situation and because they are part of collectively identifying something as harmful. after they lay out the foundation, they present an act matrix, or template, that encourages the systematic analysis of conflict and social problems. in this matrix the parties involved in the situation, the knowledge each party espouses, their interpretation of the situation, and their actions are explicitly identified. using inductive and deductive analysis, the knowledge and interpretations are deconstructed and alternative actions are identified (pp.35-53). in chapter three, frank identifies communication and civic responses to conflict. his examples of public conversations about a “culture of peace” illustrate methods of political talk that have been useful in community as well as school contexts. frank frames peace education within the disciplines of communication, adult education, and the broader discipline of political science. it addresses how adult peace education occurs informally in the context of nongovernmental institutions, and specifically the role of nonprofit organizations that comprise civil society and the third sector of the economy (p.64). at the same time, public civic talk can stimulate increased awareness, vibrant democracy, and equality, all of which are prerequisites for peaceful transformation of systemic social and political conflict. more specifically, frank addresses the responsibility of nonprofits for promoting such talk in public space, and how that stimulates informal peace education. nonprofits can create venues for these conversations that can substantially contribute to the advancement of peace. citizens can come to a greater recognition and valuing of difference that contributes to building resilient bonds of community. this has much significance for the ongoing experiment of democracy in an increasingly multicultural and global community where value-based (moral) political talk can positively engage diverse participants. in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 113-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     115   diacoff in chapter four, focuses on many vectors of comprehensive law that centers on transformation of legal responses to clients’ conflicts. she then identifies skills that attorneys use in the new non-litigious work with their clients’ conflicts (p.5) and discusses the historical background, philosophical underpinnings, and definition of these vectors of the comprehensive law movement which open a debate issues in the development of this movement. and also, provides methods for and challenges in training lawyers, judges, and other legal personnel to conduct these forms of conflict resolution along with the promise of the comprehensive law movement for improved conflict resolution in the future. according to her, future of the legal profession is encouraging; whereas in the last two decades (p.117) the results of traditional criminal trials and the securities scandals cast doubt on the legal system and on lawyers generally, the promise of a better way of resolving legal matters and disputes exists. the vectors of the comprehensive law movement provide that promise. in chapter five, tuason explores the link between transformation efforts in response to poverty and encourages awareness of human resilience along with personal responsibility in the change process. he establishes the foundation with all these salient questions: what kinds of conflicts do individuals, communities, and countries go through under debilitating conditions that are exacerbated by poverty? how can peace be attained in circumstances of economic hardship?(p.127) the answers to these questions come by citing developing countries such as the philippines, where levels of poverty are extremely high and paralyzing, peacebuilding and peacemaking necessarily involve an extensive understanding of the direct and structural violence to basic needs.(pp.128-151). he ends with the consequences of poverty to the psyche of human beings, that is, perceived causes, ways of coping, emotions, dreams, and hopes, are paralyzing because they are cyclical and vicious. peace efforts, therefore, do not only include the empowerment of the poor. the next chapter, russell and ty start by tracing conflict work in the fields of anthropology and political science before they describe their transformational approaches to conflict in the same region tuason analyzed. they provide insights into how the disciplines of anthropology and political science offer important ethnographic, cross-cultural, and holistic perspectives on conflict resolution and peace education in making use of elicitive approaches of both paulo freire and john paul lederach and their perspectives on conflict resolution and transformation techniques closely resonate with our project approaches (p.157) and recognize that ready-made formulas in peace education are least responsive to the actual needs of participants. consequently, they assert that facilitators and participants should be treated as colearners in the educational process (p.160). the editor, in the final chapter, carter describes challenges in teacher preparation for peace education and needs of teachers who are highly motivated, although unequipped, for such instruction carter then explains the roots of a conflict in the advancement of peace education for children (p.193). to him, preparation of teachers for peace education occurs throughout their entire training program. integrating the theme of peace into program policy and courses enables comprehensive education of teacher candidates and returning teachers who advance their formal education. carter opines that motivated teachers find support for peace education in their in factis pax volume 7 number 2 (2013): 113-116 http://www.infactispax.org/journal     116   preparation programs and sites of practice or communities, they do overcome challenges they face and they serve as needed role models for their students (p.200). this book provides the growing interest in learning, teaching, and working for peace development and provides questions for further research which include, what are the lessons learned in implementing peace programs? what makes a peace program successful? in short, what are inductively derived (not predetermined) indicators of success? what are the best practices? what issues are involved in the question of the relationship between specific historical-social contexts and transferability of lessons learned and best practices? to what extent are programs with established peace and conflict organizations more capable and successful at engaging in sustainable peace promotion than those without organizational structures? carter suggests that ‘with these questions, our search and work for peace continues unabated’ (p.180). conflict resolution and peace education transformations across disciplines is detailed, succinctly written. the report is well researched and provides ample background knowledge of the origin of conflicts and how they can be stopped. the book is a concerted effort of authors who are equipped not only to analyze but also to provide prospects for future reconciliation. the book is not a mere rhetoric, but shows the peace building capacities developed and in action in developing countries. microsoft word finley ifp v 11.1 final.docx in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 1 volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal examining the depiction of domestic violence in popular adult fiction: a review of six novels laura l. finley, ph.d associate professor of sociology and criminology barry university introduction popular culture is a powerful teacher about a variety of peace, conflict and justice-related issues. as such, it is a tool for peacebuilding education (brantmeier, 2007). scholars have long recognized the importance of using literature and music to critique war, to draw attention to inequalities, and alternately, to promote peace (ahlkvist, 1999, 2001; brkich, 2012; brozo, walter, & placker, 2002; franzak & noll, 2006; noddings, 2006; wolk, 2009; wright & kowalczyk, 2000). as an alternative or augment to traditional text books, popular culture can help reach students who learn in different ways (gardner, 2006), and can help to develop emotional intelligence (goleman, 2006). students who are bored with typical texts and lectures may not only find popular culture more interesting, but they may also be able to learn more from it because they see its’ relevance in their lives (buckingham, 2014). violence is ubiquitous and is not only reflected in popular culture but generated through it as well (giroux, 2013). it is imperative, then, that peace educators help promote media literacy that examines various forms of popular culture through a critical lens (buckingham, 2014). in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 2 one subject that has received a great deal of attention in both the field of peace and conflict studies as well as in film, television, music and other forms of popular culture is domestic violence. the u.s department of justice’s office on violence against women (ovw) defines domestic violence as “a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner” (what is domestic violence, 2014). domestic violence can take many forms, including physical abuse, emotional and verbal abuse, sexual assault, financial control, manipulation of children, isolation, and more (what is domestic violence, 2014). numerous studies have identified domestic violence as one of the most frequently occurring crimes across the globe. an estimated one-third of the world’s women will endure an abusive relationship during their lifetimes, while in the united states, one in four women and one in seven men will be victims of domestic violence. every nine seconds a woman is physically assaulted by an intimate partner, and some 1,300 people are killed each year by abusers. according to a study by the world health organization (who), women are at greater risk in the home than in any other location (garcia-moreno et al., 2005). while males are also victims, most studies find that women are at greater risk, and that female victims of domestic violence generally experience more frequent and severe physical injuries more than do males (foshee, 1996; molidor & tolman, 1998). studies have also reported an increase in popular culture coverage of domestic violence. mccall (2009) noted a 120 percent increase in the number of portrayals of domestic violence in prime-time television between 2004 and 2009, with a concomitant increase in the graphic nature of these depictions. unfortunately, many of the storylines and depictions of abusive relationships are problematic in that they reinforce myths and misconceptions about victims and perpetrators, the forms abuse may take, how victims can obtain safety, and the short and long-term effects of domestic violence. domestic violence is typically depicted in crime-related tv shows that provide narratives to help viewers understand, or in some cases, misunderstand, this social problem. victims are often presented in such dramatic ways that viewers see them as dissimilar to themselves. it is posited that this increases people’s propensity to blame victims (best, 1999; berns & schweingruber, 2007). likewise, films disseminate images and narratives about abuse. rafter (2000) notes that popular movies often reinforce dangerous stereotypes about who commits crime, as well as about the best ways to respond to it. britto, hughes, saltzman and stroh (2007) explain that the typical formula for crime dramas--, an evil offender who commits a violent crime and a zealous police officer who does what it takes to apprehend the in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 3 perpetrator—“can create powerful ideological images of crime, the efficiency of the criminal justice system, and characteristics of offenders and victims” (p. 40). feminist scholars have argued that the violence typical in pornographic films especially has created unrealistic expectations about what an intimate relationship should include (dines, 2010). literature has the potential to more accurately depict healthy and unhealthy relationships than other forms of popular culture, as the length of a book allows for more nuanced discussion and character development. as such, fiction novels can be an important tool for teaching about domestic violence, not only in a formal, classroom manner but also informally to readers. rybakova, piotrowski, and harper (2013) discuss the merits of using fiction to teach about social justice issues, noting that “literature allows us to see people as they truly are: complex, good, evil, and sometimes contradictory in their words and actions” (p. 39). leavy (2012) noted the importance of fiction as a qualitative research source, describing it as offering a different view on social experiences and people’s real lives, an opportunity to address multiple meanings, and a source of deep reflection that is accessible to a wide array of audiences. fiction taps into emotions in a way that other sources sometimes do not or cannot. dunlop (2001) describes fiction novels as “exploratory, explanatory, hopeful, and generative” (p.12), while others express the importance of analyzing fiction as a form of public scholarship (leavy, 2012). as banks (2008) explains, fiction is not entirely “fictional,” given that it is written by real people, rooted in the human experience. further, as leavy (2012) explains, most novelists draw on social science data and immerse themselves in social science experiences--through interviews, observations, and other methods--in order to write stories that are at least somewhat plausible. author joyce carol oates, whose novels address many social issues including domestic violence and sexual assault, once told an interviewer that she sees herself as not just a writer but as a witness to history (germaine, 1989, p. 137). mcdaniel (2013) explains, “fiction is a rich resource for examining beliefs about partner violence…the popularity of some fiction extends its reach considerably farther than that of policy, advocacy or even the law in its likelihood to influence social expectations, norms and values, and beliefs about what is or is not acceptable behavior ” (p. 18). much has been written about young adult literature and abusive relationships. for instance, studies have assessed the misconceptions and potentially dangerous stereotypes promoted in young adult novels like the twilight series. in those four novels by stephenie meyer, bannar (2010) found 172 examples of unhealthy relationship behavior. critics contend that young adult in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 4 novels tend to feature abusive protagonists who are sexy and dangerous, and thus readers may find them likeable despite their behaviors (bannar, 2010). yet there are other popular young adult novels that have been applauded for their depiction of abusive relationships. several non-profit organizations that focus on dating violence recommend using young adult fiction to teach youth about healthy and unhealthy relationships. break the cycle provides curricula regarding use of several popular young adult fiction novels to teach about dating violence. futures without violence has a website and curriculum devoted to lessons from literature. many schools use laurie halse anderson’s speak for this purpose. malo-juvera (2014) conducted an experiment examining the effect of classroom activities about speak on middle school students. he found that both boys and girls who completed the unit were significantly less likely to accept rape myths. it is somewhat surprising, then, that few studies focus on popular adult fiction and how it might be received by readers. bonomi et al. (2013) conducted a content analysis of the 50 shades of grey trilogy. they found that emotional abuse dominated the relationship between the main characters, anastasia and christian, and that it was this form of power and control that set the stage for stalking, isolation, intimidation, humiliation, and sexual violence. further, they determined that anastasia’s reaction to christian is consistent with those of battered women, who attempt to keep the peace, alter themselves to please their abusers, yearn for happier times, and ultimately feel trapped and disempowered. finally, they found that sexual violence permeated all of the couple’s 13 sexual encounters. psychologist susan quilliam, in an interview with rettner (2011), maintains that romance novels such as these can lead female readers to have unrealistic expectations for relationships. it is through the telling of new stories and the use of new narratives that a deeper understanding of and improved responses to domestic violence will result, according to stark (2007) and polletta (2009). stories can result in lasting attitudinal change on social issues, although the most compelling are not those that are too explicit but instead highlight the daily challenges of enduring an abusive relationship (polletta, 2009; slater, rouner & long, 2006). since the 1980s, domestic violence storylines have essentially been told as tragedies, emphasizing battered woman’s syndrome and the most violent, often deadly, cases. victims who appear too angry or aggressive don’t work with this narrative, as women who fight back are only doing so, the story goes, because they are at their wits end. other stories use a quest theme, which better illustrates victims’ agency but over-emphasizes their efforts to escape. polletta (2009) explains that in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 5 this can result in unreasonable expectations regarding victims and their ability to go to such great lengths to leave abusers. as a result, readers may judge or express less sympathy for victims who are unable, emotionally, physically or otherwise, to plot such escapades. this paper seeks to fill a gap in the literature about popular culture and domestic abuse by providing a review of its depiction in six popular adult fiction novels. novels were selected using a search on goodreads for the terms “adult fiction and domestic violence.” only those written since 2005 were included. any novels that were more focused on young adults were excluded from the review. the books reviewed include: big little lies (2014), the girl who played with fire (2009), secrets of eden (2010), hush little baby (2013), into the darkest corner (2013), and the girl on the train (2015). the paper describes the ways that the books accurately depict victims, abusers, the dynamics of abuse, its effects, and barriers to safety. it also discusses concerns with the depiction of domestic violence, noting where the books may miss important aspects of the dynamics of abuse or otherwise reinforce misconceptions about it. connections to the literature on domestic violence are woven through the analysis of each selected novel and implications for readers are included in the conclusion. analysis of selected novels big little lies liane moriarty’s (2014) big little lies offers a nuanced perspective on domestic violence involving an affluent woman. one of the main characters, celeste, is known for having it all—she is beautiful and rich and she and her husband, perry, seem to make the perfect pair. little does anyone know that behind closed doors, perry has what celeste at first calls a “temper problem.” each time he slaps her he apologizes, and she, like so many victims, wants desperately to believe him. perry always buys her expensive gifts afterwards, and celeste has observed that once an “eruption” passes, the power shifts in their relationship, at least for a short time. as is the case with many victims, celeste grapples with what she must be doing wrong to make this “perfect” man act violently toward her, and for the longest time she cannot dream of leaving him because she really doesn’t want to: she merely wants that portion of their relationship to end. she believes perry is a good father, and she loves their good times. perry is careful to ensure that the physical signs of his abuse are minimal and easily hidden or explained, even to celeste’s closest friends. research shows that middle and upper class women like celeste experience abuse, but it is difficult to gauge the true frequency given that they are far less likely to report it to police or seek help through domestic violence hotlines or shelters. in not to people like us, therapist susan weitzman (2000) discusses in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 6 what she calls “upscale violence.” on her website, weitzman (2008) described the following characteristics: a combined marital income of at least $100,000 per year; marital residence in a neighborhood ranked in the top 25 % of its statewide area, according to census data; or in some cases, neighborhoods highly ranked according to commonly held reputation; a self-perception of being upper-middle class or upper class; and a minimum of a bachelor's degree. these women are often used to being successful and thus try to fix things. they may feel trapped by their own privilege and are often disbelieved by others.” like big little lies, studies have shown that coverage of white, upper class victims is more likely to depict them sympathetically, while those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are more portrayed as deeply flawed and even at fault for the abuse (ardovinibrooker & caringella-macdonald, 2002; berns, 2004). celeste also naively, but again, like so many victims, believes that her twin boys have no idea about the abuse. she believes that perry is a good father to the boys. the final straw, however, is when celeste learns that one of the twins, max, has been bullying girls at the school. another boy, the son of newcomer jane, has been taking the blame for the bullying, and many of the mothers at the school have ostracized jane and encouraged their kids not to play with her son, ziggy. celeste realizes that the boys have indeed seen at least some of the abuse, and max is replicating what his father does. it all comes to an end when a scandalous secret about perry’s past is revealed and celeste publicly outs him as an abuser. research is clear that, like celeste’s boys, children see and hear most of what is happening in abusive relationships, although it is often difficult for them to make sense of it. estimates vary as to how many children are victimized by or who witness violence in their homes each year, but the numbers are in the multiple millions (grossman & degaetano, 2014). child witnesses or victims often blame themselves, and suffer from a host of emotional and other challenges. they may be angry at the abuser but also at the victim for staying in the relationship. groves (2002) explains that domestic violence is the most toxic type of violence children are exposed to, as it teaches them that threats and force are acceptable tools for getting what one wants. studies of childhood trauma have found that it is very similar to that of adults, and that children can also suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as well asnightmares, insomnia, and gastrointestinal problems (riger, raja & camacho, 2002). child victims and witnesses feel that their world is unpredictable, dangerous, and hostile, and many take on a constant watchfulness for bad things, a type of hypervigilance that can affect their neurochemical stress responses (groves, 2002). one of the biggest concerns is that children who are exposed to in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 7 violence in the home learn and begin to imitate that behavior, as did max. boys who witness their mothers being abused are 700 times more likely to become perpetrators of violence than boys who never observed domestic violence in their homes (walker, 2009). as is often the case, perry’s abuse escalates until the injuries are much more pronounced, and celeste finally starts to accept that she might be a victim of domestic violence. she eventually sees a counselor in a town some distance away, lest anyone see her. it is clear that when she walks in she is grappling with feeling simultaneously superior to the other victims (and even the counselors) while also feeling guilty because she feels that way. this rings true to the literature on upper class victims, who often take longer or never seek help because they feel that they will be judged extra harshly due to their social status. as is typical, the thought that she plans to leave escalates the abuse, and perry beats celeste way worse than he ever had. even still, celeste is wracked with guilt, as perry apologizes and takes care of her. the girl who played with fire the second in stieg larsson’s trilogy, the girl who played with fire, follows protagonists lisbeth salander and mikael blomkvist as they seek to expose a sex trafficking ring involving sweden and several eastern european countries. the two met in the first book, the girl with the dragon tattoo, when blomkvist hired salander to do some research for him. in the process, the two unravel a major mystery, salander saves blomkvist’s life, and they begin an odd, sometimes on, sometimes off, relationship. in the second book, blomkvist and his magazine millenium are set to publish a major story that will expose a huge sex trafficking ring that runs between eastern europe and sweden and that involves influential members of sweden’s police, government, and business owners. before they can run the story the two investigators who worked on it are murdered. simultaneously, readers learn that salander’s state-appointed guardian, nils erik bjurman, who sexually assaulted her in the first book, has been stewing with hatred for salander since she tattooed his body with the words “i am a sadistic pig, a pervert and a rapist” after videotaping the assault. she has been using the tape as blackmail to ensure that bjurman will file reports that keep others from investigating how she is doing and her whereabouts. bjurman wants revenge, and hires a group of thugs to kill salander. in the process of trying to figure out what he is doing and how the many pieces are connected, salander steals his gun and it is found, with her fingerprints on it, at the murder site. not long after, bjurman is murdered by the very thugs he hired to kill salander, and a massive manhunt ensues to find her and charge her with the murders. in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 8 blomkvist and others doubt she is guilty, and as the story shifts between her perspective and that of other key players in the novel, readers learn that the head of the trafficking ring is actually her father, alexander zalachenko, known as zala, and the thug who does his bidding is her half-brother, ronald neidermann, who has a genetic condition that makes him virtually immune from pain. zala was a high-ranking member of the soviet military and defected to sweden, where for years its secret police, sapo, has protected him. it is also revealed that salander was institutionalized and placed under the care of the state because she tried to kill her father when she was twelve. zala was horribly abusive to her mother, agneta, and lisbeth and her twin, camilla, heard and saw most of it. while camilla always took her father’s side, lisbeth tried to defend her mother and, knowing he would kill agneta at some point, lit his car on fire. zala ended up seriously injured and, through his influence with the swedish government, convinced psychologists to declare her legally incompetent. the book concludes with salander, helped by blomkvist, apprehending zala and neidermann and calling emergency services. although most of the novel is devoted to the plot, the abuse of agneta and salander (as a child witness to zala’s abuse and at the hands of bjurman and the other representatives of the state) is a significant factor in that it explains her motivations and, in all likelihood, a significant part of salander’s personality (hitchens, 2009). the book even opens with the description of what readers learn salander calls “all that evil.” when she found her mother unconscious on the kitchen floor after all the prior incidents, she lit him and his car on fire. salander’s response to her childhood trauma is atypical. data shows that girls are more likely to internalize the trauma, resulting in higher levels of depression and an increased likelihood for disordered eating and self-mutilation. it is more common for boys to act out aggressively, as salander does (groves, 2002). as blomkvist and her previous, good-hearted advocate holger palmgren, try to find salander and convince the authorities she is not responsible, palmgren shares what she had told him about her childhood. he explains to blomkvist the abuse of agneta that lisbeth and camilla witnessed. despite the fact that agneta was hospitalized multiple times, no social welfare agencies ever took lisbeth and camilla, which readers learn is due to zala’s influence with high-ranking members of the police and government. salander does have supporters. the fact that her supporters are generally males is interesting and potentially problematic, given that many victims, and especially female child victims, distrust males (groves, 2002). salander does have a girlfriend, miriam wu, who provides her with affection and believes in her, but in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 9 blomkvist definitely takes up more of the story time. the limited support, however, is indeed consistent with the literature. friends often blame the victim, family members often live in denial, and even therapists and service agencies may ask what the victim did to provoke the abusers (nicarthy, 2004). salander is, unlike many of the other victims in these novels, out for revenge against those who assailed her and her mother. most victims prefer to get far away from their abusers, sometimes taking great length to do so. even child victims rarely seek revenge against the assailing parent (groves, 2002).the degree to which she seeks revenge on bjurman and zala is graphic and disturbing, and even victims who kill their abusers in self-defense tend not to torture them as salander does. this is more hollywood than reality, which loves its revenge plots, especially those involving female avengers (heller-nicholas, 2011; projansky, 2001). while salander’s actions help her and perhaps prevent some future victimization at the hands of zala and his thugs, they do nothing to challenge the dominance of males in this culture or the corruption that allowed the abuse and trafficking to continue. yet the fact that salander sees no other way to hold zala accountable than her own efforts is not surprising, either. chemaly (2012) explains about the books, “every permutation of gender-based violence accurately and graphically featured in that trilogy thrives in the real world justice systems that fail women.” this lack of official response is, unfortunately, not atypical (finley, 2016). hush little baby suzanne redfearn’s novel tells the story of jillian and gordon, who with their two children appear to have the perfect family. yet for nine years gordon abused jillian, who went to great lengths to hide the injuries. she knew that if she ever left gordon he would do whatever it took to destroy her and to ensure she never saw her children again. gordon is a police officer and jillian has learned that he will stop at nothing to maintain control. that gordon is a police officer is important, given that law enforcement officers are over-represented as abusers. according to the national center for women and policing, some 40 percent of police officer families experience domestic violence, compared to ten percent of the general population (police family violence fact sheet, 2013). this, of course, presents all manner of unique difficulties for victims seeking to escape abuse, as the abusers have access to weapons, know the location of shelters and other services for victims, and know how to avoid sanction, all of which are depicted in the novel. like gordon, who faces no repercussions until the end for his behavior, studies have shown that police-perpetrators face light, if any, sanctions, and many police agencies do not in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 10 have specific policies when faced with an officer-involved incident of domestic violence (police family violence fact sheet, 2013). gordon routinely disparages jillian and sexually assaults her. one particularly brutal outburst occurred when gordon found a box of the morningafter pill jillian had hidden. gordon wants more children, and jillian knows that is a terrible idea. the morning after the assault, they continue to put on the façade of happiness for the children. she struggles to understand the attack, which came after months of calm. jillian explains how she copes, noting that for several weeks after an attack she will dote on gordon in an attempt to prevent another one. jillian’s feelings of shame are typical of victims, who feel guilty for staying but also for leaving abusers. women who are psychologically abused often feel as though there is something wrong with them, first for choosing the partner who abuses them and also because their abuser typically tells them it is their fault. similarly, "crazy-making"…involves making the victim feel as though she is imagining things. abusers are often adept at identify particular traits that their victim is pleased with and using those against her" (nicarthy, 2004, p. 277). the sexual abuse jillian endures is not atypical, either, nor is the reproductive coercion. an estimated 45 percent of women who are victims of physical forms of domestic violence also endure sexual assault by their abusers (vagianos, 2015). miller, decker, mccauley, tancredi, levenson, waldman, schoenwald, silverman (2010) found that 35 percent of victims who had experienced sexual abuse also experienced reproductive coercion. twenty percent reported coerced pregnancy, and one in seven reported birth control sabotage. forty percent of those women experienced at least one unintended pregnancy. gordon’s ownership of weapons legitimately increases jillian’s fears, as women are eight times more likely to be killed by an intimate partner when there are firearms in the home (vagianos, 2015). as the story continues, readers learn that jillian’s son drew is doing poorly in school and has been in minor troubles, all of which she has hidden from gordon because he is already overly pushy with drew. that their son is showing signs of trauma at school is consistent with data on children’s exposure to domestic violence. children and adolescents may be distracted and unfocused at school, may become disruptive, or have other difficulties related to their lack of concentration. they are more likely to be suspended or expelled. some drop out of school or begin using illicit substances (groves, 2002). after he again attacks her, jillian realizes that she must leave gordon and must do so with the kids. she confides in a colleague that she needs a divorce but at that point does not explain in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 11 her reasons. as with celeste in big little lies, the discussion of children is important, as it shows readers that abuse affects them even when parents believe it does not. although not always, gordon is often drunk when he beats jillian. she, like many victims, spends a lot of time blaming alcohol for his behavior. his police friends have covered for him and helped ensure he didn’t get a dui. this is realistic, as alcohol and other drugs are highly correlated with abuse, both by abusers and victims. brookoff and colleagues (1997) found that 83 percent of assailants had consumed alcohol on the day of an assault, and 45 percent of victims reported that their abuser consumed alcohol to the point of intoxication on a daily basis in the year prior to the assault. fals-stewart (2003) found that men in batterer’s intervention programs were eight times as likely to assault their partners on days they had been drinking. between 25 percent and 50 percent of the women receiving services for domestic violence have substance abuse problems (sullivan et al., 2012). advocates do caution, however, against the conclusion that drug or alcohol use causes domestic violence. while the correlations are significant, the relationship is definitely not causal. the ways that jillian discusses this make it clear that gordon’s abuse is worse when he drinks, but that it does not cause his violence. jillian also found out that gordon had bankrupted the family. financial abuse is very common and serves as yet another means of making it nearimpossible for victims to escape. abusers sabotage victims’ employment, control access to funds, credit cards and other finances, ruin victims’ credit, and otherwise make them dependent (jeltsen, 2014). in assessing why she has endured abuse for nine years, jillian lists “pride, obstinancy, vanity, arrogance” (p. 68). when jillian rationally tells him she wants a divorce, gordon cuts off her access to bank funds and locks her out of the house, inviting to stay with him the woman with whom he has been having an affair. eventually jillian does tell her colleague everything, and as she describes the abuse it becomes clear that it will be difficult to prove, given that she has no hospital records and no one saw the bruises. after she files for divorce, gordon drums up bogus allegations in his claim for sole custody of the children, yet another tool for controlling jillian. jillian confides in jeffrey, a man with whom she has had an affair and loves deeply. gordon finds out and kills him. no one believes gordon is the perpetrator but jillian knows and she takes the kids and flees, with no plan other than to get away. as she knew he would, gordon eventually finds them. jillian is arrested for taking the kids against court order, although both her mom and dad support her and she learns that a neighbor, michelle, had also been abused. jillian in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 12 knows that the only thing she knows is keeping her from being killed is the fact that she is pregnant, although she is unsure whether the baby is gordon’s or jeffrey’s. gordon has been suspended from work because he beat claudia, the woman living with him, and despite his horrific behavior, demands that jillian go back to work so she can support him. if she does not, he threatens that she will never see the kids again. things appear to swing in jillian’s favor when during the custody hearing gordon is revealed as a liar, and the judge orders that gordon is denied custody of the kids. jillian is issued a restraining order prohibiting him from further contact with any of them. gordon makes good on his promise, however, grabbing the kids and fleeing so that no one can find him. jillian knows, though, that he won’t leave her completely until the baby is born, and when he comes to attack her she kills him. that gordon is so determined to find them is also consistent with research about abuse. many abusers go to great lengths to track down victims who have fled. the risk to victims is often worse when they are leaving their abusers. some 75 percent of domestic violence homicides occur as the victim is attempting to leave, or the abuser perceives his or her actions as a sign of ending the relationship (tjaden & thoennes, 2000). a woman is seventy times more likely to be murdered by an abuser in the first few weeks of leaving than at any other time in the relationship (vagianos, 2015). secrets of eden chris bohjalian’s (2010) novel describes what appears to be the murdersuicide of alice hayward and her abusive husband, gordon. it is told from several characters’ perspectives, including alice’s pastor and former lover, stephen drew, heather laurent, a novelist whose father killed her mother in a murder-suicide, a prosecutor, catherine benincasa, and alice’s daughter, katie. as the story unfolds, it is clear that while gordon was indeed horribly abusive and he did murder his wife, he did not kill himself. readers eventually learn that it was katie who killed her father after finding her mother dead. stephen drew helped cover it up, and in the course of doing so was blamed for the murder although never found guilty. the story also revolves around issues of faith, given stephen drew’s role as a pastor and the novelist, heather laurent’s, work on angels. the story opens from stephen’s perspective, revealing that he has tremendous guilt that he and others in the congregation knew that alice was suffering and didn’t do enough to prevent the atrocity. stephen reveals that he had in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 13 an affair with alice, noting that he knew she was emotionally damaged and that he may have taken advantage of her. early on, bohjalian notes that murdersuicides are rare in vermont, where the book is set, and that abusers usually go to jail for their assaults or for murders but do not kill themselves. he also says that frequently abusers turn themselves in, a fact not supported by data. in reality, few abusers are convicted and they rarely admit guilt. additionally, domestic violence murder-suicides are actually quite common across the u.s. more than one-third of female homicide victims in the u.s. are killed by intimate partners (rosenberg, 2015). unlike this story, many times the murders do not occur behind closed doors but rather in public places, and sometimes they result in additional fatalities. for instance, between 2011 and 2015, 17 women in six different beauty parlors were murdered by abusers (rosenberg, 2015). readers learn through stephen’s reflections that george hayward was emotionally abusive and controlling in many ways that are typical of abusers. stephen recalls alice telling him how george would ask her questions, and whatever answer she gave was going to get her into trouble. yet, like most abusers, george is generally liked in the community, with many even considering alice lucky to have the handsome and charming entrepreneur as a husband. similarly, people have difficulty believing when celebrities are accused of abuse because their public personas are different than their private ones (patterson & sears, 2011). katie’s reflections are typical of children and teens who witness abuse. she describes her mom’s cagey answers to various questions, noting how her mom always kept secrets. when alice allowed george to return to their home and the two attempted to reconcile, katie observed that her mother didn’t seem happy but instead was resigned to the idea. katie also recalls that when george injured alice’s arm the night she demanded he leave, he didn’t want her to go to the hospital because he was worried about his reputation. further, katie knows that alice blames the abuse on george’s drinking but she believes otherwise, observing that there were times when he was abusive while entirely sober. these discussions are consistent with the data on child witnesses and the role of alcohol that was described earlier in the paper. this book presents the important component of faith, as many victims do turn to spiritual leaders for guidance about their abuse. although alice was not really seeking that type of help from stephen, his failure to assist her in any meaningful way is also consistent with research that shows how frequently faith leaders still give inappropriate and dangerous counsel to victims (fortune & enger, 2006). into the darkest corner in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 14 elizabeth hayne’s novel follows catherine/cathy before and after her boyfriend, lee, goes to prison for attacking her. it documents the way abuse can change victims emotionally, showing how cathy went from fun-loving, life-of-the party to withdrawn and suffering from panic attacks and ocd as a result of lee’s horrifying verbal, physical and sexual assaults. readers learn that she is right to be wary, as lee has killed a woman before and, upon his release from prison, comes after cathy. cathy has a difficult time getting out of her flat to go to work or anywhere else, as she feels compelled to routinely check the locks and make sure everything is secure. she rarely goes out with co-workers, and readers learn that her best friends all took lee’s side when she revealed that he was abusing her. her friend sylvia even lied during the trial, claiming that cathy’s injuries were the result of self-harm, which likely resulted in lee’s relatively short sentence and in cathy being institutionalized briefly. as a result, cathy distrusts everyone, and for a long time resists the advances of her kind neighbor, stuart, although he perseveres and the two end up in a happy relationship. a psychologist, stuart is eminently patient and gets cathy in touch with counselors who really help her. readers also learn that it is cathy’s compulsions that save her and stuart. her detailed observations of the security of her flat are what make her realize that someone has been inside, changing minor things, like lee used to do when they were together as a way of messing with her mind. again, no one believes her at first. like all abusers, lee justifies his behavior and argues any problem is cathy’s fault. when he first begins engaging in rougher sex than she wants, for example, and cathy tells him he hurt her, lee responds that all women like it “rough.” he calls her names, and, like most abusers, his behavior escalates over time. he starts assaulting her first in places where the marks aren’t visible, then eventually hurts her in ways that are so obvious she has to miss work for a week. cathy tries to leave but ends up succumbing to lee’s apologies. cathy tries to flee and makes elaborate plans, but lee catches her. making matters worse is the fact that lee, like gordon in hush little baby, is a police officer. his abuse goes to a new level after her attempt to leave. lee forces her to perform oral sex after beating her, cuts her skin in multiple places with a knife, urinates on her, and eventually locks her in her home. richards and restivo (2015) note that sexual violence in intimate partner relationships has been linked to many physical and mental problems that can require extensive and long-term healing. studies indicate that domestic violence victims whose abuser rapes them typically suffer from greater physical injury than in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 15 do women who were only physically abused (mcfarlane et al., 2005). common effects include depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (ptsd), bladder infections, vaginal and anal tearing, pelvic pain, urinary tract infections, sexually transmitted diseases, unintended pregnancies, and sexual dysfunction (richards & restivo, 2015). further, that cathy had to miss work due to the injuries lee inflicted is not at all surprising. women lose 8,000,000 days of paid work annually, the equivalent of 32,000 full time jobs, due to domestic violence (vagianos, 2014). cathy describes how difficult the trial was, noting that it was in some ways worse than the actual abuse. this is a realistic depiction in that many victims feel similarly about their experience in court. many victims don’t even call police because they fear retaliation and doubt that they will be believed. even fewer go all the way through with a prosecution. deep into the story, cathy sees sylvia, who reaches out to her. it turns out sylvia was in a relationship with lee, had been since before the trial. she learns that sylvia, too, is being abused by lee and fears for her safety. cathy contacts sam hollands about her concerns. shortly after, lee shows up in her flat, and attacks stuart. he is upset because cathy lost their baby after his last attack and he didn’t know she was pregnant. the book ends with a letter lee wrote to cathy, claiming that he loves her and won’t rest until they can be together. lee’s stalking of cathy is common, with 81 percent of victims who have been physically assaulted also experiencing stalking by their abusers (vagianos, 2015). cathy does have a powerful ally in sam hollands, a victim advocate assigned to her case. she does take cathy seriously and encourages her to call whenever she needs anything. the girl on the train paula hawkins’ novel is a thriller about a woman who has gone missing and another who thinks she may know something about it. the protagonist, rachel, is an unemployed drunk who watches a couple out the train window every day. she notices the woman, megan, kissing another man, then megan goes missing. no one wants to believe that rachel might have anything useful to say because, readers learn, she has been a mess since learning that her husband, tom, had an affair with a woman whom he subsequently married. the couple has an infant daughter, something megan could never provide her husband. in fact, rachel has had a hard time leaving them alone, and her constant calls and visits to their home even make her a suspect at one point. tom claims he cheated on rachel because she had been drinking and was verbally and occasionally abusive to him. as the story unfolds, however, readers learn that it was tom who was the in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 16 abuser, and he took advantage of rachel’s weak emotional state and drinking to make her feel crazy. it turns out that megan had been having an affair with her psychiatrist, but before that, she had one with tom when she worked as a nanny in his home. when he found out she was pregnant, tom killed megan. through hazy recollections, rachel shares moments of tom telling her how she supposedly behaved. she came to believe him, since she was typically too drunk to remember clearly. she saw tom the night of the murder, but she was drunk and presumed that he was with his wife, anna. rachel can’t really recall what happened that night, but she believes tom, as she always does, when he tells her some story about what happened to her, even though there’s a glimmer of memory that it might have happened differently than he is describing. she blames herself for tom having left her, telling people that it was her fault because her drinking made him stop loving her. later, she tells a therapist about an experience when she believes she attacked tom with a golf club. at least that’s the story tom tells, but readers learn later it was actually tom who attacked rachel. she recalls that she woke up the next morning and tom would not talk to her. this disclosure helps rachel remember an odd emotion from the incident: terror. she recalls another time he told her she attacked him but it was rachel who woke up with blood on her pillow, a headache, and the inside of her mouth hurting. in essence, she has relinquished her voice to tom so that he controlled the narrative of their relationship. as the story continues, anna starts to realize that tom might not be so perfect, but she still distrusts rachel. she learns that he has been lying to her and manipulating her. rachel tries to warn her, but anna is in denial that tom could be as brutal as he is. when rachel confronts him in front of anna, accusing him of killing megan, he resorts to the same techniques of discrediting her because she is a drunk. rachel ends up killing tom in self-defense. discussion these novels accurately depict many aspects of domestic violence. first, they show the many forms of control employed by abusers, including verbal, emotional, physical, sexual, financial, and manipulation of children second, they showcase victims of different social classes, depicting both affluent women and those with little financial stability. third, they avoid the pitfall of most popular culture in that victims are not all portrayed as purely loveable but instead are flawed yet still believable. even rachel, a drunk, ends up being depicted as believable. fourth, the novels also nicely illustrate the effects of witnessing abuse on children, including the ways abuse impacts both little children and teens and its in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 17 effects on their behavior with others as well as in school. fifth, the selected books show the many barriers victims face in trying to leave abusers, such as financial dependence, lack of support, and abusers who are committed to tracking them down. sixth, two of the selected novels highlight the unique difficulties for victims whose abusers are law enforcement officers. seven, the fact that only one of the victims, cathy, is ever involved in a trial of her abuser is also realistic, as is the fact that it was someone else, not cathy, who actually contacted the police. data show that only 25 percent of physical assaults are reported to law enforcement (vagianos, 2015). there are a few things that were missing from these depictions, however. first, although it is not always clear the racial or ethnic background of characters, the context in which these stories are presented seems to suggest that all the victims are caucasian. this stands in stark contrast to the statistics that make it clear that women of color are at far greater risk for victimization (domestic violence by race and ethnicity, 2016; sugarman, 2013).in some native american communities, women are killed by intimate partners at rates ten times the national average. yet few cases are reported to police, and when they are, few result in arrest, prosecution, and conviction (chemaly, 2012). research also shows that immigrants are at greater risk than are non-immigrants, a fact that received no attention in these books (the facts on immigrant women and domestic violence, n.d). second, lesbian women are at greater risk for experiencing an abusive relationship, with some 50 percent reporting domestic violence during their lifetime (vagianos, 2014). yet none of these popular novels featured a lesbian couple. while salanger was in a female-female relationship, it was generally a healthy one. third, while data does show women are more frequently the victims of domestic violence, one in seven men also experience abusive intimate partner relationships (vagianos, 2015). no male victims were depicted in these novels. fourth, these novels tend to depict victims who are struggling in silence. while that is indeed realistic, as many never tell family, friends, or others about their abuse, it might result in readers believing it is on victims alone to escape abusers. only one, cathy, has a victim advocate who supports her. for readers who may be experiencing abuse, this could reduce the likelihood that they would reach out to supporters or to law enforcement or shelters that could offer assistance. for readers who are not victims, it may reinforce a type of victimblaming whereby the ownership for ending the abuse falls on the victim. berns (2004), kettrey and emery (2010), and others have noted that typical coverage of domestic violence focuses on individual responsibility, rather than on collective in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 18 change. yet victims have long reported that their calls to police and service agencies go unanswered and thus they sometimes feel compelled to act alone. one study of female inmates in a california prison found that 93 percent who were incarcerated for killing their significant other had endured abuse from that individual, and 97 percent of those women reported that they wounded or killed their partner while trying to defend themselves or their children. another study in new york found that 67 of the women who were imprisoned for killing someone had been abused by that individual (law, 2014). law (2014) interviewed several domestic violence survivors who were imprisoned for defending themselves. each woman reported that she had defended herself only after repeatedly trying to seeking help. child welfare investigators do not always do their jobs well, either, such as in the case of florida, where 477 children in just six years died in homes the department of children and families (dcf) had investigated and found to be safe. most of these cases involved domestic violence (innocents lost, n.d.). even service-providers have been critiqued for their lack of attention to class, race, and cultural differences, and because of their hierarchical nature that is individual, not collective, focused (finley, 2016; projansky, 2001). fifth, the fact that only one of the women was murdered despite all the signs of very serious escalation is potentially problematic. clearly domestic violence homicides are not desirable, but by over-representing victims’ ability to evade the most committed abusers, these novels run the risk of minimizing the red flags of lethality posed by the abusers. this is true of hollywood as well, which loves films like enough and sleeping with the enemy, in which victims prove more clever than their abusers and willing to face potentially lethal abuse head on (finley, 2016). although revenge films like the girl who played with fire suggest that the action is empowering, rebecca stringer (2011) notes “that the lone female vigilante is actually anti-feminist due to the focus on individualism over community.” further, stringer argues “lone vigilantism is the very opposite of the actual strategies advocated in feminist anti-violence efforts, which have primarily assumed the form of collective political struggle” (in stache, 2013, p. 93). sixth, none of the novels really sought to explain the behavior of the abusers. this is not necessarily atypical, as popular culture rarely offers detailed explanation for the actions of criminals, and when it does it tends to overemphasize characters who are “born evil” or who are mentally ill (rafter, 2001; rafter & brown, 2011). yet by failing to in any way discuss what might be the causal factors for abuse, the sole attention remains on the victim in a potentially objectifying fashion. in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 19 in sum, while there are some possible limitations or concerns with the way these novels present domestic violence, there is also much that is accurate. educators in peace and conflict studies may find it useful to utilize narratives like these as a means of teaching about domestic violence. students can relate more easily to the characters than to statistics presented in a text of lecture, which can not only increase their learning but also enhance their empathy for victims and interest in remedying the problem of domestic violence. thoughtful and critical discussion can help students understand the ways that the depictions of abuse are consistent with reality as well as when they are not. most readers of novels like those selected for this analysis will not be involved in a classroom discussion, however. book clubs in communities, hosted by libraries or other institutions, could also analyze these novels as tools for understanding domestic violence. given the extent of domestic violence in the u.s, it is likely that some victims will read these novels. these novels may be helpful to victims in identifying the many ways their abuser is controlling them. they may also help victims understand the effect of witnessing abuse on their children. of potential concern, however, is the fact that these novels make it seem as though there are few supports for victims and that it is solely their own responsibility to leave the abuser. particularly problematic is the implication that self-defense or revenge against abusers is recommended, as such behaviors can place victims at tremendous risk. further research is recommended to assess how victims interpret novels like these, as well as other depictions of abuse in popular culture. it is possible that reading these books might educate readers who are not victims, but it might also misinform them about particular facets of abuse. it would be useful for authors of novels like these to include debriefing segments or discussion guides so that non-readers can not only understand the accurate and inaccurate depictions but also learn where they can get more information and obtain assistance, if needed. peace and conflict studies educators and students could provide this type of resource online and via review tools on websites such as goodreads and amazon. this would be helpful in numerous ways, including as a way of showing that academics’ knowledge is relevant and has community utility, rather than being solely for the academy (buckingham, 2014). in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 20 references ahlkvist, j. 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(2006). critical lessons: what our schools should teach. boston, ma: cambridge university press. ogle, r.l. & baer, j.s. (2003). addressing the service linkage problem: increasing substance abuse treatment engagement using personalized feedback interventions in heavy-using female domestic violence shelter residents. journal of interpersonal violence, 18(11), 13111324. patterson, n., & sears, c. (2011). letting men off the hook? domestic violence and postfeminist celebrity culture. genders, 53. pennington, l. (2014). everyday victim blaming. london: evb press. police family violence fact sheet. (2013). national center for women & policing. retrieved may 10, 2016 from http://womenandpolicing.com/violencefs.asp polletta, f. (2009).how to tell a new story about battering. violence against women, 15(12), 1490-1508. projansky, s. (2001). watching rape: film and television in post-feminist culture. new york: nyu press. rafter, n. (2000). shots in the mirror: crime films and society. new york: oxford. rafter, n., & brown, m. (2011). criminology goes to the movies: crime theory and popular culture. new york: nyu press. redfearn, s. (2013). hush little baby. new york: grand central publishing. rettner, r. (2011, july 11). romance novels bad for women’s health and psyche, psychologist says. livescience. retrieved march 10, 2016 from http://www.livescience.com/14985romance-novels-bad-women-healthpsyche-psychologist.html richards, t., & restivo, l. (2015). sexual violence among intimates. in t. richards and c. marcum (eds.) sexual violence: then and now (pp.69-81). thousand oaks, ca: sage. riger, s., raja, s., & camacho, j. (2002). the radiating impact of intimate partner violence. journal of interpersonal violence , 17, 184-205. in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 26 rosenberg, m. (2015, december 30). “if you leave me, i will kill you”: the gutwrenching truth about guns, abuse, and murder in america. alternet. retrieved may 11, 2016 from http://www.alternet.org/sex-amprelationships/if-you-leave-me-i-will-kill-you-gutwrenching-truthabout-guns-abuse-and rybakova, k., piotrowski, a., & harper, e. (2013). teaching controversial young adult literature with the common core. wisconsin english journal, 55(1), 37-42. slater, m. d., rouner, d., & long, m. (2006). television dramas and support for controversial public policies: effects and mechanisms. journal of communication, 56, 235-252. stache, l. (2013). the rhetorical construction of female empowerment: the avenging-woman narrative in popular television and film. theses and dissertation, university of wisconsin, milwaukee. retrieved january 6, 2016, from http://dc.uwm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1167&context=etd stark, e. (2007). coercive control: how men entrap women in personal life. new york: oxford university press. stringer, r. (2011). from victim to vigilante: gender, violence, and revenge in the brave (2007) and hard candy (2005). in h. radner and r. stringer (eds.) feminism at the movies: understanding gender in contemporary popular cinema (pp. 268-282).new york, ny: routledge. sugarmann, j. (2013, october 24). black women face a greater risk of domestic violence. huffington post. retrieved september 13, 2015 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joshsugarmann/black-women-face-agreate_b_4157659.html sullivan, t., ashare, r., jaquier, v., & tennen, h. (2012). risk factors for alcohol-related problems among victims of partner violence. substance use & misuse, 47(6), 673-685. tjaden, p., & thoennes, n. (2000). full report of the prevalence, incidence, and consequences of violence against women. ncjrs. retrieved may 19, 2016 from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/183781.pdf in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 1-27 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 27 vagianos, a. (2015, february 13). 30 shocking domestic violence statistics that remind us it’s an epidemic. huffington post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/23/domesticviolencestatistics_n_5959776.html walker, l. (2009). the battered woman syndrome (3rd ed.). new york: springer publishing. what is domestic violence? (2014). u.s. department of justice office on violence against women. retrieved september 13, 2015, from http://www.justice.gov/ovw/domesticviolence weitzman, s. (2000). not to people like us: hidden abuse in upscale marriages. new york: basic. weitzman, s. (2008). what is upscale violence? not to people like us. retrieved may 19, 2016 from http://www.nottopeoplelikeus.com/body/whatis.html wolk, s. (2009). reading for a better world: teaching for social responsibility with young adult literature. journal of adolescent & adult literacy, 52(8), 664-673. wright, m.f., & kowalczyk, s. (2000). peace by piece: the free-ing power of language and literacy through the arts. english journal, 89(5), 55–63. rinker.jar final edits9.2.12 in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 85 volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ vowing to end injustice: a buddhist social movement’s narrative construction of social change1 jeremy a. rinker, ph.d. rinkerja@guilford.edu introduction in philip gourevitch’s 1998 tome on the rwandan genocide he writes: “power largely consists in the ability to make others inhabit your story of their reality.”2 placed upon the structurally violent backdrop of centuries of caste-based marginalization and injustice, such a statement has a familiar resonance for the oppressed of modern india. such an understanding of power provides one important key to unlocking the nested intersectionality3 of caste-based forms of personal, cultural and structural violence. but to many dalits4 (ex-‘untouchables’) in india, breaking away from the powerful ‘caste 1 this article provides summary findings from the author’s 2009 dissertation. rinker, jeremy. “justpeace prospects for peace-building and worldview tolerance: a south asian movement’s social construction of`justice” (ph.d. diss., george mason university, 2009). 2 gourevitch, phillip. we wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families (new york: picador, 1998), 181. 3 crenshaw, k. demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: a black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics (university of chicago legal forum, 1989), 139-67. 4 the word ‘dalit’ means ‘broken’ or ‘downtrodden’ in sanskrit and was “used as far back as 1931 in journalistic writing.” michael, s.m., ed. dalits in modern india: vision and values (new delhi: vistaar publications, 1999), 99. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 86 hindu’5 story has required more than this understanding of power. for many dalits the creation of a new ‘narrative identity’ as socially engaged ambedkar buddhists6 has become the only path to liberation from caste oppression. while dalits’ creation of an ambedkar buddhist identity is, at least in part, an attempt to make others (especially ‘caste hindus’) inhabit dalits’ own story of their reality, it is also a radical move towards self-awareness and awakening to a creative vision of social change which aims to foster a new self-image for victims of marginalization. this process of fostering “critical consciousness”7 is fraught with dialectic paradoxes, which attention to narrative structure can help clarify and demystify. much dialectic uncertainty arises as the result of what i would call ‘identity interpellation,’8 a process by which narrative deployment and usage creates a new identity as ambedkar buddhist, while also reifying a sense of victimization. narrative’s ‘auto-catalytic’ ability to create and reify both a unique self-aware identity and hold onto the identity of victimhood acts as both resource and constraint for activists from oppressed communities, including ambedkar buddhists. while this interpellated identity creation happens through story, or narrative, it is through structural analysis of the narrative that broader understanding of the social meaning of differing identity positions can be exposed. this approach to narrative structure and identity construction has been under-addressed in ambedkar buddhist movement literature. this paper aims to recalibrate focus on a critical aspect of ambedkar dalit mobilization against oppression. in an effort to expose and understand one ambedkar buddhist movement’s unique vision of social justice, this paper analyzes the narrative structure of the triratna bauddha mahasangha, sahayaka gana (tbmsg) member’s narratives about injustice. tbmsg as one organization of the wider ambedkar movement provides an ideal expression of what some have called a “neo-buddhist”9 identity. tbmsg movement narratives were chosen as the unit of analysis because, as more manageable constituent 5 the term ‘caste hindu’ is used here to denote those hindus (of both high and low caste) that benefit in social, economic, and/or political ways from the current caste-based status quo in indian society. 6 ambedkar buddhists consist of the original converts of dr. b.r. ambedkar’s 1956 mass-conversion to buddhism (somewhere between 380 and 800 thousand people), these converts’ descendants, as well as a number of more recent followers of his prolific thoughts and writings on buddhism and social change. for a better understanding and description of ambedkar buddhists see the following, among others: beltz, j., & jondhale, s., eds. reconstructing the world: b.r. ambedkar and buddhism in india (new delhi: oxford university press, 2004). kantowsky, detlef. buddhists in india today: descriptions, pictures, and documents trans. by h.-g. tuerstig (new delhi: manohar, 2003). queen, christopher, and sallie king, eds. engaged buddhism: buddhist liberation movements in asia (new york: suny press, 1996). zelliot, eleanor. dr. ambedkar and the mahar movement (ph.d. diss., university of pennsylvania, 1969). zelliot, eleanor. from untouchable to dalit: essays on the ambedkar movement (new delhi: manohar, 1992). 7 freire, p. pedagogy of the oppressed (new york: continuum, 1970), 183. 8 here i am connecting althusser’s (1971) ideas of interpellation and ideology with ideas of social identity formation. althusser, l. "ideology and ideological state apparatuses (notes towards an investigation)" in lenin and philosophy and other essays (new york: monthly review press 1971). 9 see queen, c. “dr. ambedkar and the hermeneutics of buddhist liberation” in queen, c. and king, s. eds., op. cit. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 87 parts of wider discourses, narratives provide an ideal means to access movement meaning and learning and expose actors’ normative commitments.10 unmasking the power of narrative structures to subtly control normative constructions, i resource labov (1972) to provide an analytical framework. labov’s insights into both defining and analyzing the structure of narrative, provides a straight-forward and uniform means to approach the complexity of selected activist stories. in particular, labov’s concept of the “fullyformed narrative”11 provides a helpful starting-point for discerning patterns in the storylines of tbmsg members. narratives, in this sense, can be seen as moving through non-linear stages exhibiting abstract, orientation, complicating action, evaluation, result or resolution, and coda (or some sort of stated or unstated point). of critical importance in using labov for structural narrative analysis are the evaluative statements that lace any transcribed narrative. these evaluative statements point not only to an “ideal character”12 as labov adeptly illustrates narratives often do, but to an ideal society, or more simply put in this case, tbmsg’s social justice ideal. specifically, in focusing on the evaluative statements embedded in tbmsg narrative structures this work focuses on the way in which narrative structures meaning.13 from this analytical frame, comparative analysis of collected movement narratives underscores the normative assumptions inherent in activists’ theories of social change. unmasking activist’s theories of social change, in turn, provides opportunities for structural change and conflict transformation. through underscoring this particular movements’ unique conception of social justice via an analysis of narrative structures, the contention will be made that this vision supports inter-group identity relations and, thus, presents a counter to those bent on seeing either religious mobilization as only conflict generative or, more broadly, narrative as an unreliable agent of assessing critical processes of social meaning making.14 a number of important sub-claims invariably accompany this broader argument for the promise of ambedkar buddhists’ theory of social change; chief among these sub-claims 10 see riessman (1993) for more on narrative and narrative analysis. riessman, c. narrative analysis (vol. 30) (london: sage publications, 1993). 11 often beginning with an abstract of what the story is about such narratives are more completely developed than a minimal narrative. following the abstract, they often cycle through “complex chainings and embeddings of these elements”: orientation, complicating action, evaluation, result or resolution, and coda. labov, w. language in the inner city: studies in black english vernacular (philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press, 1972), 363. these six characteristic stages of a ‘fully-formed narrative’ provide a uniform means to approach seemingly disparate narrative threads and weave them into a uniform structural pattern for developing understanding. in appendix a you can see how this understanding of narrative structure was used as an analytical framework to break-up and code tbmsg narratives for comparative analysis. 12 labov (1972), op. cit., 368. 13 see ashley, b. the study of popular fiction: a source book (london: pinter publishers, 1989). 14 this paper takes to heart the concern of monk and winslade in their work on narrative mediation, in which they argue that during processes of traditional mediation “what might be missed is the work done by stories to construct realities, not just report them [emphasis in the original].” monk, g. and winslade, j. narrative mediation: loosening the grip of conflict (san francisco: jossey-bass, 2008), 2. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 88 is both a foregrounding of social justice in buddhist hermeneutics15 and the development of an awareness of the ways in which in-group positioning16 reifies marginalized narrative constructions of social change among the marginalized. in working to create a “dhamma revolution,”17 the ambedkar buddhists of the tbmsg, the indian wing of a worldwide buddhist sangha (community), are reconstructing what it means to be a buddhist, and in the process they are deploying a new understanding of social change in the indian context. tbmsg’s distinctive vision of social justice appears most visibly in the dialectic between members’ expressions of an injustice identity and their articulation of a new buddhist identity incarnate upon conversion. in continually choosing the narrative frames of both victim and buddhist, tbmsg activists proactively re-position the narrative identity of dalits as agents of both spiritual and societal change. it is in this constant choosing that the movement’s theory of social change is actively negotiated. tbmsg’s newly created narrative identity as ambedkar buddhists is more than just the opportunistic power struggles of the dispossessed determined to force others to inhabit their reality it is representative of a pragmatic epistemology of social justice that blends political discontent with a belief in the need for “literate”18 and accepting religious identity. who are the ambedkar buddhists of the tbmsg? as kantowsky (2003) explains “buddhists in india today can be appropriately understood only as a diverse multitude of groups, each with its own peculiar characteristics.”19 the sub-group of indian buddhists who converted to buddhism following dr. b.r. ambedkar’s 1956 conversion20 displays one such unique worldview. 15 especially helpful in this regard is king, s. being benevolence: the social ethics of engaged buddhism (honolulu, hi: university of hawai'i press, 2005). 16 i take the term ‘positioning’ from social psychological positioning theory developed by rom harre and colleagues. see, among others, harre, r., & langenhove, l. positioning theory: moral contexts of intentional action (malden, massachusetts: blackwell publishers, 1999), and; harre and moghaddam, eds. the self and others: positioning individuals and groups in personal, political, and cultural contexts (westport, ct: praeger publishers, 2003). positioning theory can be said to “view action as the setting up of positions, for oneself and others, through the performance of socially meaningful (often discursive) acts within an ongoing storyline (comprising narrative understandings of the context and the contingent rights and obligations of participants).” bartlett, t. "linguistics and positioning theory within conflict analysis and resolution: work in progress" unpublished paper presented at the first annual positioning theory conference (george mason university institute for conflict analysis and resolution, 2006), 3. 17 see sponberg. a. “a dhamma revolution in contemporary india” in queen, c. and king, s. eds., op. cit., 73. dhamma is the pali equivalent of dharma in the sanskrit and in buddhism has many meanings, the most common of which is as a referent for the buddhist teaching or tradition. 18 appleby, s. the ambivalence of the sacred: religion, violence and reconciliation (lanham, md: rowman and littlefield publishers, inc., 2000), 77. 19 kantowsky, d., op. cit., 58. 20 for more on this mass religious conversion to buddhism, perhaps the largest ever in human history, see the following among others: jaffrelot, christophe. dr. ambedkar and untouchability: fighting the indian caste system (new york: columbia university press, 2005); omvedt, gail. ambedkar: towards an enlightened india (new york: penguin, 2004); queen, c. "dr. ambedkar and the hermeneutics of in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 89 a further subset of these navayana (new-vehicle) buddhists, the tbmsg (literally ‘the association of friends of the buddhist order of the three realms’21) conveys its idiosyncratic understanding of buddhism through a blending of social and spiritual praxis. as the largest indigenous buddhist organization on the indian sub-continent, tbmsg’s combination of social activism and spiritual conversion is uncharacteristic in both reach and scale. still, despite the growing scale of tbmsg as a social movement22 little scholarly research has been done on this influential sub-set of indian buddhist dalit rights activists. in a cultural context where hindu polytheistic pluralism all but limited religious difference to hindu sectarianism, and islam has remained on the constant guard of the hindu majority since at least the 14th century, the opportunity for a modern mass resurgence of buddhism would have been impossible if not for the political and religious vision of three dynamic leaders. the lives of dr. ambedkar, an english buddhist monk named sangharakshita, and one of his early disciples, lokamitra, all intertwine to create the unique story of the tbmsg as a social movement organization. while dr. ambedkar, as the catalyst of a new mode of thinking about the connection between spiritual commitments and social change in india, must be the starting point for any dalit rights discussion, he is also the most studied of these three foundational characters.23 since dr. ambedkar’s life and thought are handled extensively elsewhere24 attention here will be paid to the legacy of his choice of buddhist conversion. if we take ambedkar’s historic conversion as the catalyst for the movement of dalits to buddhism, sangharakshita’s dhamma teaching was the catalyst for the formation of tbmsg as a social movement organization. sangharakshita, a british-born monk, buddhist liberation" in queen, c. and king, s. eds. op. cit., 47-71.; sponberg, alan. "tbmsg: a dharma revolution in contemporary india" in queen, c. and king, s. eds., op. cit., 73-120., and; zelliot, e., op. cit. 21 see sponberg. a. “a dhamma revolution in contemporary india” in queen, c. and king, s. eds., op. cit., 76.; ganguly, d. caste, colonialism and counter-modernity: notes on a postcolonial hermeneutics of caste (new york: routledge, 2005), 156. kantowsky (2003) translates tbmsg slightly differently as the “union of the helpers of the buddhist great order of the three worlds.” kantowsky, d., op. cit., 135. in 2010, the worldwide movement changed the beginning of its name, upon the request of english leadership, from the trailokya to triratna; this significant change established the focus of the community on the three jewels (buddha, dhamma, sangha) as opposed to a more numinous conception of the three realms or worlds. 22 see baumann, m. "work as dharma practice: right livelihood cooperatives of the fwbo" in queen c., ed. engaged buddhism in the west (boston: wisdom publications, 2000), 372. 23 see zelliot (1969) and jaffrelot (2005), op. cit. for a good starting point to understand the prolific life and work of dr. b.r. ambedkar. 24 see the authors mentioned in footnote # 23 above, as well as, keer, d. dr. ambedkar: life and mission (mumbai: popular prakashan, 1991); omvedt, gail. dalits and the democratic revolution: dr. ambedkar and the dalit movement in colonial india (thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, 1994); omvedt, gail. ambedkar: towards an enlightened india (new york: penguin, 2004), and; rodrigues, v., ed. the essential writings of b.r. ambedkar (new york: oxford university press, 2002), among others, for further discussion of ambedkar’s life and work. also see jaffrelot, c. india's silent revolution: the rise of low castes in north indian politics (delhi: permanent black, 2003), among others, for discussion of ambedkar’s appropriation by various political entities in modern india. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 90 was ordained in 1949 as a shramanera, or novice monk. in 1964, sangharakshita returned to england after nearly 20 years in india25 and in 1967 founded the friends of the western buddhist order (fwbo). ordaining nine men and three women as the nucleus of the western buddhist order (wbo), the stated purpose of the fwbo was, and remains, “to encourage and facilitate the growth of real individuals,” and to “create a new society in the midst of the old.”26 as the parent organization of the tbmsg, the fwbo provided a broad and radical vision of buddhist life in the modern world one in which like-minded spiritual friends live and work together for the betterment of society. the tbmsg was founded in 1979 by one of sangharakshita’s english disciples. while both ambedkar and sangharakshita planted the seeds of the tbmsg’s ‘exuntouchable’ base of support, it took the leadership of dharmachari lokamitra to organize and empower the local dalit buddhists to act. lokamitra joined sangharakshita’s western buddhist order (wbo) in 1972, and became ordained in 1974. in 1977, lokamitra, by then one of sangharakshita’s most senior disciples, decided to embark on a six-month yoga tour to india. a rally in nagpur on the 21st anniversary of ambedkar’s conversion became the catalyst for lokamitra’s interest in the ambedkarite ex-untouchable community. writing from pune, maharashtra, lokamitra frames the overall importance of this buddhist community in india as “the fastest growing area of our [fwbo] activities”27 and encourages others within the fwbo to help support these distant spiritual kin. upon the tbmsg’s inauguration in india, the organization began a new wave of ex-untouchable conversions to the newly formed trailokya bauddha mahasangha (tbm), the indian ordinal branch of sangarakshita’s wbo. adopting the fwbo’s hierarchical ordination system, the tbmsg began as a spiritual movement dedicated to the betterment of dalits in and around pune. for this new organization, conversion to the sangha was seen as the lynch-pin for wider societal change, and from its’ inception tbmsg members have been both critical of other buddhist movements that have failed to draw on buddhism’s social import, and adamant about conversion (or taking refuge). from the start, much attention was paid to the “lifelong commitment”28 of the ordination process and the dhamma education associated with the maintenance of this system. kantowsky (2003) succinctly outlines tbmsg’s ordination system (the path to becoming 25 while it is impossible here to outline all of the people and events that molded sangharakshita’s specific understanding of buddhism, his interactions with dr. ambedkar, on three separate occasions, seem to have been influential to later developments of the tbmsg as an organization with claims to the heritage of ambedkar’s conversion. see sangharakshita, dh. facing mount kanchenjunga (london: windhorse publications, 1991) for further discussion. see also subhuti, dh. bringing buddhism to the west: a life of sangharakshita (birmingham: windhorse publications, 1995) for more detail. 26 baumann, m., op. cit., 372. 27 shubuti, op. cit., 147. 28 http://www.fwbo.org/fwbo/order_members.html (accessed december 23, 2008). in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 91 a dharmachari feminine dharmacharini an ancient buddhist term that literally means ‘dharma-farer’) as steps to approaching the “inner circle.”29 in shepherding the legacy of dr. ambedkar’s conversion, the tbmsg seeks to put their vision of the dhamma into practice in three specific ways: 1.) by giving dhamma course lectures, 2.) through retreats of intensive buddhist practice, and 3.) through the creation of dhamma communities in which members work together for the common good.30 the first of these institutional goals were immediately embraced by the tbmsg movement, while the third goal was a bit more problematic, both culturally and monetarily. in order to overcome these problems, and to achieve the goals of this third practice of the dhamma, the indian tbm decided to create a social work arm of the organization. thus, the bahujan hitay ‘for the welfare of the many’ was created, and the first public heath project was started in pune in the early 1980s. today with twenty dhamma centers across india (mostly in maharashtra), tbmsg is the setting for the community-based social work of bahujan hitay, which includes community heath projects, educational hostels, kindergartens, and vocational training instruction for dalits. in 1999, lokamitra, aiming to increase donor diversity, founded a new indian trust called jambudvipa. jambudvipa, the ancient buddhist name for the indian sub-continent, represents for tbmsg members “the transformation of society and culture through the ethical and spiritual values.”31 the jambudvipa trust runs a number of inter-related movement programs that are aimed at two areas of societal transformation: the support of “disadvantaged sections” of indian society and “bringing people together through spiritual practice to transcend barriers.”32 these two broad aims, geared at helping the underprivileged to “participate fully”33 in society, find life in the work of the manuski center, the pune-based home of jambudvipa’s largest and most fully staffed project. run by local members of various scheduled castes, the manuski center has been instrumental in organizing a network of activists in response to castebased atrocities and aims to cultivate dalit buddhist activism. taken together, jambudvipa, manuski, tbm, and the bahujan hitay make up the tbmsg movement. as one can see, tbmsg is a diverse spiritual family of “engaged buddhist”34 organizations and projects aimed at empowering both indian buddhism and oppressed 29 kantowsky, d., op. cit., 144. 30 http://www.tbmsg.org/index1.html (accessed december 22, 2008). tbmsg’s website further explains their institution by describing sangharakshita as “well known and appreciated by dr. ambedkar” and as a “translator between east and west, between [the] traditional world and [the] modern, between principles and practices.” 31 from padmapani: annual review of the jambudvipa trust, 2007-2008 (pune, maharashtra: jambudvipa trust, 2008), 4. 32 ibid., 3. 33 http://www.jambudvipa.org/ accessed june 24, 2010. 34 a mahayana approach to buddhism akin to the 1970s liberation theology movements in christianity, engaged buddhism advocates a focus on practice in this world coupled with a “new awareness of the social and institutional dimensions of suffering.” queen, c. "introduction" in queen, c. and king, s. eds. op. cit., in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 92 dalit communities. while the tbmsg claims to be on the vanguard of turning all of india buddhist, this polemical rhetoric does not subtract from the fact that the movement has indeed helped to develop, at least on a small scale, the ‘dharma revolution’ that ambedkar’s conversion first triggered. if judged by its strength in places like pune and nagpur, the tbmsg movement has accomplished a great deal in nearly 30 years. still, the tbmsg represents only one ambedkar dalit activist response to oppression.35 while dr. ambedkar’s life-work acts as the basis for much low-caste political and religious organizing, nagpur (ambedkar’s chosen place of conversion) has become the focal point of both dalit identity politics and the rise of the influential right wing hindutva (hindu nationalist) youth organization, the rashtriya swayamsevak sangh.36 this paradox that nagpur is the historical center of the ambedkar buddhist conversion movement and rss hindutva activism draws attention to the shared discursive space of these broad cultural movements. despite no direct interaction, both these movements remain in discursive public encounter with the other and unwittingly their narratives structure their mutual interactions. counter-acting the exclusive rhetoric of the sangh parivar (family of hindu radical right religious parties) provides an important social justice context for newly converted ambedkar buddhists’ of the tbmsg. the tbmsg discursive landscape outright expression of hindu nationalism and chauvinism, in tandem with a buddhist conception of community (or sangha), provides the motivation for an inclusive ambedkar buddhist discourse. indeed, it is upon this broad discursive terrain that ambedkar buddhists are constantly negotiating with both dalits and non-dalits over the legitimacy of their reality. in such a discursive contention, the conversion identity of ambedkar buddhists positions dalits as capable of making their own decisions and puts dalit buddhists in direct conflict with fundamental hindu forces in society. but more importantly, as a major purveyor of a narrative storyline of buddhist self-reliance, tbmsg fills an important opportunity space within the wider dalit rights movement. ambedkar buddhists’ ability to offer a newly self-aware conversion identity is an important counter to the exclusive rhetoric of the hindu right, as well as, the ubiquitous injustice stories of many ambedkar followers. 10. for a complete discussion of the historical and soteriological implications of engaged buddhism see chappell, d., ed. buddhist peaceworks: creating cultures of peace (boston: wisdom publications, 1999); queen, christopher, and sallie king, eds., op. cit., and; kraft, k. the wheel of engaged buddhism: a new map of the path (new york: weatherhill, 1999), among others. 35 important research remains to be done on many of these organizations, like for example, the samata sainik dal (ssd), a youth organization that was originally begun by dr. ambedkar in 1927 and that is still politically active today, or the bharatiya bauddha maha sabha (buddhist society of india), an organization that ambedkar founded in 1955 over his disdain for the brahmin-controlled maha bodhi society. these organizations are only touched on in indian buddhist literature (see kantowsky, d., op cit. for example). 36 see ram-prasad, c. "being hindu and/or governing india? religion, social change and the state" in g. ter haar, ed., the freedom to do god's will: religious fundamentalism and social change (new york: routledge, 2003), 159-196. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 93 in this discursive topography, the language of the tbmsg privileges a notion of social justice that implies often competing conceptions of social identity, social positioning, and power relations. while narratives of victimization and injustice are common among movement members, the dialectic created by an identity narrative of newly self-aware buddhists often complicates the expression of such narratives. conversely, the victim narrative often works to qualify the use and deployment of the newly self-aware buddhist narrative. the storylines of both the identity of victim of caste-based injustice and newly self-aware buddhist are in discursive competition and the story of the tbmsg movement is a continual balancing of these two identities. it is in finding a balance between these identity dialectics, and the power and social positioning opportunities and limitations they entail, that the tbmsg movement actively engages ambedkar buddhist converts in constructing justice. while this attempt to ‘find balance’ is not always apparent to tbmsg members, the power of both these narrative storylines (both individually and in tandem) is exhibited in a diversity of tbmsg social contexts. still, the embedded nature of these narratives conspires to replicate power and status conditions despite tbmsg members’ attempts to eradicate them. tbmsg’s internal movement bias towards a focus on creating the identity of newly self-aware buddhists does, at times, constrain the voice of activist narratives of injustice, just as the opposite is true in the external discursive terrain. the critical implication of such context-dependent rhetorical bias is that the tbmsg movement recurrently reifies the boundaries of its own responses to caste-ism. by not fully noticing the assumptive starting points of the narratives they weave tbmsg’s bias towards buddhist practice and self-cultivation acts to focus the movement inwardly. simply not engaging castes from ‘higher’ social strata, the tbmsg movement, thus, misses an opportunity to have the full extent of its social justice narrative realized. given the many complexities of engaging ‘higher’ social strata, which does not have the same experience of tbmsg members’ suffering, focusing too exclusively on a newly self-aware dalit buddhist identity narrative does not allow tbmsg members the space to fully explore new means of engendering empathy in non-dalits. as cobb (2008) has cogently argued “narratives are material…without narrative intervention, efforts to redress marginalization operate on the basis of accusation that do little to build new relationships, and on the contrary, deepen relational fractures.”37 while such a critical assessment of tbmsg is not meant to discount its important work of providing a new positive narrative identity to a delegitimized mass of dalits, such assessment is intended to foster critical self-reflection on the processes of constructing this narrative identity. neither simply a buddhist nor simply an oppressed victim identity provides the full social legitimacy needed by tbmsg to create and maintain social justice for dalits. for tbmsg activists, balancing these broad narratives is tricky, yet critical. the 37 cobb, sara “narrative analysis” in cheldelin, s., druckman, d., and fast, l. eds. conflict: from analysis to intervention, second edition (new york: continuum, 2008), 106. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 94 complexity of this dialectic dance can be seen in the following statement made by tbmsg founder, lokamitra, during a 2006 celebration at a tbmsg’s girls’ hostels near nagpur: “the government of india must not want girls to learn. all this would lead one to think there must be some discrimination here… sixty to seventy years ago these girls would have had absolutely no chance at any education due to their status as ‘untouchables,’ but look now at what we have done!”38 such a statement simultaneously highlights both a narrative of past victimization and a present narrative of success that is repeatedly attributed to dalit constituents’ acceptance of buddhism and ambedkar buddhist identity. remaining positive in his stress of the accomplishment that ‘untouchables’ have made against structural violence, lokamitra keenly positions dalits as both sufferers of social inequality and important agents of social change. his use of the term ‘untouchables,’ rare in dalit circles, is simultaneously a nod to foreign listeners like me, and to the agency of dalits themselves. but tbmsg members’ real sense of agency clearly comes from a collective buddhist identity (emphasized in the ‘we’ that lokamitra stresses). lokamitra’s statement points to an ambedkar buddhist worldview that stresses the crucial role of collectivist culture in actualizing a new status and identity necessary for social justice. lokamitra’s narrative construction provides a cursory view of tbmsg’s discursive landscape. the complex positioning of their narrative identities calls for further detailed illustration of how the movement’s narrative structure and storyline deployment informs tbmsg activists’ normative commitments to justice, as well as, supports a more general lack of critical reflective attention to meanings of justice. mapping commitments to justice movement leaders and activists, though rarely forthcoming with their uncertainty about social justice or its application for contemporary society, do exhibit an implicit hesitancy in the narrative structures they deploy. though many of the tbmsg leaders and activists at the manuski center express a sense that the movement as a whole did not have a very good sense of what social justice looks like, the dharmacharis and dharmacharinis involved more directly in tbmsg spiritual activism seem less concerned that such lack of a clear conception is problematic for their work. as a continual balancing of both injustice narratives39 and a socially constructed identity of 38 personal notes, september, 30th, 2006. 39 the concept of injustice narratives, here, is an elaboration of what cobb (2008) describes as “essentially stories that elaborate a history of victimization, often at the hands of the others.” cobb, sara “narrative analysis” in cheldelin, s., druckman, d., and fast, l. eds. conflict: from analysis to intervention, second edition (new york: continuum, 2008), 105. even though justice narratives are understood as the stories that people tell about fairness, equality, justice, injustice narratives are more then simply their logical opposite. it is important to note that injustice narratives are distinguished from justice narratives by their retrospective as opposed to projective quality. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 95 newly converted buddhists, the narrative structures of tbmsg activists expose confusion over the creation of a unified ambedkar buddhist conception of social justice. it is within tbmsg narrative structures that the ideal of social change is recursively undergoing a process of construction by tbmsg activists, yet most activists are unaware of this process of construction. to illuminate both the construction process and the dynamic potential of tbmsg movement narratives the six-part narrative structure outlined by labov (1972) proves useful.40 even though such a framework is constrained by an almost total structural emphasis, the systematic insights it empowers about actor’s and storyteller’s underlying assumptions will help to develop a new idiom to understand tbmsg activist’s narrative identities of self aware buddhist and victim of caste injustice. this ‘new’ language relies on traditional language rules and conventions, but it is through the analysis and reflection of such rules and conventions that clarity about tbmsg’s social justice ideal gets re-negotiated. during such negotiation processes, rhetorical ambiguity, especially apparent in evaluative statements, provides dynamic opportunities for movement actors narrating for change.41 the amorality induced by a thousands-year-old caste structure has left a deep legacy of psychological pain that conditions social action. within this context, buddhist hermeneutics of spiritual friendship and co-dependent origination develop a unique basis for dalit agency. these social aspects of buddhism challenge common assumptions that buddhist practice is purely an inner endeavor. in highlighting the interplay between structure and agency, scholars of engaged buddhism have long attempted to refute this basic assumption of buddhism’s interiority. still, while tbmsg activists view themselves as making dalits aware of how caste structures have conditioned a lack of individual responsibility, these activists’ unquestioned acceptance of an engaged buddhist hermeneutic is not free of narrative dependency. like the dependency inherent in dominant victim narratives, unquestioned acceptance of buddhism’s self-actualizing potential conditions the available responses to marginalization. overcoming collective identity assumptions that have positioned social actors in dualistic opposition either for or against caste oppression, or oblivious to its reach, will require more than a collective identity shift to ambedkar buddhism. tbmsg activists at the manuski center, realizing the interdependence of identities,42 aim to re-negotiate the conditioned dualism of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ in making converted ambedkar buddhists aware of their own agency in systems change, but their symbolic speech acts do not always provide the full range of trappings necessary to overcome the amorality of structural violence. tbmsg activists are only in the preliminary stages of a very long and complex process of re-constructing identity to overcome past victimization. while not in any way intended to blame the victim, attention to narrative structure draws awareness to the power of narrative choice 40 see: labov, w., op. cit.; toolan, m. narrative: a critical linguistic introduction, second ed. (new york: routledge, 1988). 41 see polletta, f. it was like a fever: storytelling in protest and politics (chicago, university of chicago press, 2006). 42 see sen, a. identity and violence: the illusion of destiny (new york: w.w. norton & company, 2006) for a detailed discussion of the levels of identity inherent in human interaction. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 96 in the construction of identity and highlights the fact that tbmsg members (like many traditionally marginalized activists) are often critically un-reflexive in making these choices. by mapping reality using tbmsg’s own narrative creations structural patterns of tbmsg’s social justice commitments are exposed. still, exposure to patterns does not, in itself, overcome the popular resistance to the creation of theories about suffering. as political philosopher brian barry writes: “in the poorest countries, people do not need a theory to tell them that there is something wrong with [the] world.” 43 yet, the practical utility of a map or model which demystifies the often “hidden transcripts”44 of structural violence cannot be overlooked as simply theory-building. rather, such a map/model can provide some practical grounds for building an active response to injustice. the remainder of this paper illustrates, through select narrative examples, the complex importance of mapping the narrative structures of tbmsg activists via recourse to both labov’s six-part structure of a fully formed narrative (labov, 1972) and the basic tenets of a positioning analysis45 of these narrative structures. as such a structural analysis of the narrative is used to expose positioning assumptions and hidden transcripts, the two key narrative storylines that emerge – one of victim of an oppressive caste structure and the other of a newly self-aware buddhist – reveal a narrative structure inseparable from the movement’s core conceptions of social justice. the following section provides a map of tbmsg narrative structures and unmasks some of their implications. a dialogue on caste: selected narratives from a fishbowl of suffering the representative activist narratives46 chosen for inclusion here were collected with the assistance of the staff at the manuski center during a two-day workshop conducted on july 3, 2008 entitled “a dialogue on caste: what does a caste-less and socially just community look like?” fifty to sixty calls were made to announce this facilitated dialogue to both tbmsg/manuski members and friends/supporters in and around pune’s manuski center offices. relying upon the manuski center to identify and contact the participants for this workshop had both advantages and disadvantages. manuski’s calling of activists gave the researcher legitimacy with local activists that, as 43 barry, b. why social justice matters (malden, ma: polity, 2005), 3. 44 scott, james. domination and the arts of resistance: hidden transcripts (new haven: yale university press, 1990), 183. scott (1990) juxtaposes public and hidden transcripts of subordination and domination, writing “if subordinate discourse in the presence of the dominant is a public transcript, i shall use the term hidden transcript to characterize discourse that takes place ‘offstage,’ beyond direct observation of the powerholders” (4). 45 this involves the use of positioning theory as discussed in footnote #16 above. harre, r., & langenhove, l., op. cit., and; harre and moghaddam, eds., op. cit. 46 names of dalit activist have been changed in the text to protect their identity, despite the fact that some dalit activists argue that given names should be celebrated as a means of social activism. see for example: valmiki, omprakash. joothan: an untouchables life. (new york: columbia university press, 2003). in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 97 an outsider to this community, would have been much more difficult otherwise. at the same time, relying upon movement activists to decide whom to call allowed manuski activists to define whom they considered ‘activists.’ in total, 19 people participated in the two-day workshop, eagerly sharing their experiences and ideas on social justice. though participants were predominantly those working within the manuski center’s network of activists, some pune university graduate students and ambedkar buddhist pensioners living in the area also participated. the discussion in this two-day workshop provided a means to collect diverse movement narratives. as such, the workshop, and particularly the fish-bowl dialogue on personal experiences of discrimination, was invaluable to the development of this research.47 beyond sounding cliché, these narratives reflect a certain everyday livedexperiences often hard to express non-emotionally in public settings. such narratives often do not enter the public sphere because secure public space necessary for their open discussion is severely lacking. the two short narratives, transcribed in appendix a and analyzed narratologically below, express not only the suffering of injustice, but the psychological inferiority that continued marginalization creates. while the chosen narratives provide a general thematic overview of the hour and a half fish-bowl dialogue on day two of the workshop, they also exhibit a sort of reflection-in-action (common in group storytelling) among movement activists. during the course of this fish-bowl dialogue participants were asked to share personal experiences of discrimination. if participants were uncomfortable doing so, they were instructed to instead explain why they had become involved with the tbmsg movement. each response represents an engaged buddhist perspective on suffering that exhibits a unique emphasis on the impermanent nature of the oppressive and endemic structures of caste. taken together they also represent an activist desire to move beyond simple victimization and stake claim on the importance of collective responsibility. the analysis of such narratives shows that narrative assertiveness and victimization merge to develop identity positions that are both constitutive and reconstitutive of successful social and structural change. narrative one: the importance of being assertive having traveled eight hours by train from where he works as a civil servant with the indian rail service, arjun was an eager dialogue participant. openly sharing personal experiences with other participants, arjun clearly exhibited a leadership quality that was fairly common among young ambedkar buddhists. in the narrative excerpt chosen for analysis here, he entered the dialogue in an attempt to illustrate his agreement with another participant’s statement that the dalit problem is largely one of self-esteem. arjun’s narrative is a testament to the fact that the social-psychological effects of 47 for more on the structure of the 2-day workshop see the author’s dissertation (op. cit. in footnote #1 above). in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 98 oppression, though impermanent, are doggedly lasting. in orienting48 his narrative around references to dr. ambedkar’s advice on overcoming caste (line 1, appendix a), arjun, now in his mid-thirties, quickly launches into a personal story of assertion from his university days. he explains that during a discussion of ‘reservations,’ people were “visibly stunned” (line 4, appendix a) when he said that he was from a scheduled caste community. the break with normative convention described in this line leaves the others in his narrative not only surprised, but visibly uneasy. employing an evaluative statement embedded within the complicating action of the story, he then says in the following lines that “i was not disturbed by what i said… but, it is other people who were disturbed…”(lines 5 and 6). such evaluative statements validated and reinforced a group dynamic among fish-bowl participants that was primarily concerned with feelings of not being heard in modern indian society; expressing well the concept of “hidden transcripts.”49 such statements convey the apprehension among movement activists over how much to portray themselves as victims and how much to evaluate the progress they have made through being assertive. some have called this the “positioning paradox”50 and activists within the tbmsg are continually engaged in justifying either progress or hardship. the evaluative statements of arjun emphasize the point of his story, but they also reveal an important dialectic within the movement. should activists frame their contention from the perspective of a victim or a newly self-aware buddhist? it is arjun’s evaluative statements51 that form the core of his story – they illustrate, or model, a confident scheduled caste identity, something that is stunning and “bothering” (line 10) to others. in making these evaluative statements arjun is taking a stance on the victim versus newly self-aware buddhist dialectic, placing himself squarely on the side of those emphasizing buddhist self-awareness and assertiveness. here buddhism provides the best means to eradicating caste through providing a space for critical reflective analysis. but since such statements reveal an individualistic hermeneutic of buddhism, they miss an important opportunity to foster a collective conception of social change. such statements also expose an elite interpretation of social reality – one to which others in the fish-bowl can relate. as taylor, caouette, usborne, 48 labov, op. cit., 363. note again that throughout the narrative analysis in this paper reference will be made to labov’s six part structure of narrative: abstract [a], orientation [o], complicating action [ca], evaluation [e], resolution [r], and coda [c]. for ease of reference the narrative transcripts in appendix a are coded according to this basic conception of narrative structure. 49 scott, op. cit., footnote # 44. 50 taylor, d., caouette, usbourne, and king. "how disadvantaged groups members position themselves" in f. moghaddam, harre´, rom, & lee, naomi, eds. global conflict resolution through positioning analysis (new york: springer, 2008), 154. in defining this paradox, the authors’ state: “in order to maximize group advantage, group members may feel compelled to focus on the group’s state of disadvantage.” 51 as toolan (1988) describes labov’s six stages of the well-formed story he writes: “evaluation consists of all the means to establish and sustain the point, the contextual significance and tellability, or reportability, of a story.” toolan m., op. cit., 151. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 99 and king (2008) have argued “further investigation into the unique experiences of elite disadvantaged group members is warranted”52 by highlighting the social-psychological biases inherent in elites’ narrative constructions. arjun’s evaluative statements point to often-neglected meanings within elite disadvantaged sub-groups – meanings that privilege the self over the group. such evaluative statements represent one illustration of the complex variation of narratives of social justice within the tbmsg movement. explaining in line 6 that others “were disturbed” by his assertiveness as a scheduled caste represents arjun’s point in this narrative. the fact that the narrator stumbles with how he will express his reflection of his past action (of being assertive) is telling of the deep-rooted psychology of oppression apparent within the ambedkar dalit community. arjun’s narrative is a series of evaluative statements that at times provide a “temporary suspension of the action”53 and are aimed at re-constructing and repositioning the narrative agency of listeners. this ‘temporary suspension’ provides the ability to embed evaluation as coming from another person (or persons in this case) and, therefore, strengthen the import and legitimacy of the narrative. arjun’s evaluative statements point to a means to overcoming oppression – being assertive. in arjun’s view, dalit assertiveness and self-confidence are the crucial aspects needed for the creation of a socially just community. by providing corrective to the current unjust reality (e.g. “what we have come across is generally people hiding that they are from a scheduled caste” – line 8), arjun’s assertion and confidence must be characteristic of any dalit community that attempts to actualize social justice. further, the narrative position of victim so visible in narratives of other tbmsg leaders interviewed is, in this context, virtually absent. the narrative position of victim, though certainly a familiar milieu to these activists, forms a sort of un-spoken backdrop to the entire fish-bowl discussion. the tacit knowledge of the communities’ victimization, though ever-present, is secondary to and de-emphasized in relation to a narrative position of assertive self-awareness. arjun’s continual re-construction and re-position of self-assertiveness provides valuable reinforcement of the power of the conversion experience. narrative two: success and ensuring universal dalit commitment to the cause another important characteristic of the just community apparent during the fishbowl dialogue was a need for what one activist described as “intellectual honesty” (individual interview with patel bare, july 2008) among dailts. tbmsg activists shared knowing-glances when a particular episode was used to illustrate their frustration over how successful dalits often forget their roots once they succeed. among workshop participants there was general agreement that this was a key missing element of the just community. one participant, patel, in drawing attention to the discourse of a recent debate he attended at pune university, pointedly oriented other fish-bowl listeners to this problem within dalit community. during this debate, the proposed creation of a separate 52 taylor, d., caouette, usbourne, and king., op. cit., 160. 53 toolan, m., op. cit., 153. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 100 hostel to house scheduled caste students at the university was discussed (line 12, appendix a). patel complicates the action of his story by informing his listeners that this “was a discussion under the chairmanship of vice-chairman of pune [university], dr. narendra jadhav” (line 13). the invocation of dr. jadhav presents the chance for the predominantly mahar dalits participants to weigh-in on a familiar issue the communities’ expectations of those dalit elites who have become successful in indian society. as an educated and powerful dalit, dr. jadhav is revered, but also held under critical scrutiny by his own mahar dalit community. the status he has acquired as vicechancellor at pune university seems to make him a lightening rod for dalits’ questions about justice and fairness. dr. jadhav is clearly a controversial figure, who has simultaneously become a symbol of both dalit uplift and betrayal. yet, despite the fact that dr. jadhav is well know in the dalit community, patel (in lines 18 and 19) feels the need to explain dr. jadhav’s relevance as a dalit writer and intellectual. the showing of some deference and respect for dr. jadhav’s 2003 book untouchables: my family's triumphant journey out of the caste system in modern india54 is aimed at highlighting the import of patel’s evaluative question delivered in broken english (in line 15): “why he is thinking like that?” in explaining what dr. jadhav should think, patel is making the case that dr. jadhav, though the beneficiary of others’ past suffering, is out of touch with the current needs of his community. positioning dr. jadhav as both from the community and standing outside it, patel is able to argue that he is disconnected and undeserving of the status he holds. in fact, the invocation of jadhav’s name is a signal to the community a means to make clear that increased status alone is not the full answer to the legacy of caste injustice. for patel, and undoubtedly many other scheduled castes, invoking dr. jadhav elicits anger; anger over the sense that he is not being, in patel’s words, ‘intellectually honest.’ in other words, there is a feeling among many scheduled castes that dr. jadhav has, in all his success, not lived up to his dalit roots, but rather succumb to sanskritization.55 where the line between anger and jealousy lies remains an open question in such interpretation, but such critical anger is readily apparent in many young tbmsg activists. in lines 14 and 15 of patel’s narrative the sense of anger and betrayal shows in the way that patel struggles to find the words to express his feelings. speaking of the university of pune discussion on opening a scheduled caste hostel he says: “and he was involved… ahh…he was in support that …ahh…ahh…to be… ahh …found …ahh… 54 this book was originally published in india as i and my father. further discussion of dr. jadhav’s book can be found in the author’s dissertation (see footnote #1 above). 55 “sanskritization is the process by which a ‘low’ hindu caste, or tribal or other group, changes its customs, ritual, ideology and way of life in the direction of a high, and frequently, ‘twice-born’ caste. generally such changes are followed by a claim to a higher position in the caste hierarchy than that traditionally conceded to the claimant caste by the local community.” srinivas, m. n. social change in modern india (new delhi: orient longman, 1966), 6. for a good discussion of the process of sanskritization and its’ effect on identity see also jaffrelot, c. "sanskritization vs. ethnicization in india: changing identities and caste politics before mandal" asian survey, 40 (2000), 756-766. in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 101 separate hostel for scheduled caste students… and i was shocked that…” (lines 14 and 15, appendix a). this combination of orientation and evaluation helps to exhibit the frustration and helplessness that patel feels as a member of the ‘lower level’ of a disadvantaged subgroup of scheduled castes. in other words, relative to the “elite disadvantaged subgroup”56 (i.e. what indians might call the ‘creamy layer’), patel is expressing a common dalit value judgment about how many of those now a part of the ‘creamy layer’ have forgotten their community. this is a particularly relevant issue within the tbmsg community as they trace their origins back to dr. ambedkar, the model of compassionate giving back the disadvantaged. as indicative of the ‘positioning paradox’ described above, the within-group element of status further complicates tbmsg activists’ narrative decisions. motivation for narrative choice may depend more on a person’s identification of what their in-group is, than on outsiders’ attempts to position that person as a part of a particular primary identity group. so as dr. jadhav may see himself as a vice-chancellor of pune university first and foremost, those within the dalit community are likely to see him as dalit and then only after that as a vicechancellor. patel’s categorizing this as an issue of intellectual honesty underlines an attempt re-position jadhav’s statements as a betrayal of the mahar dalit community, but it misses important self-reflexive aspects of narrative’s power. in line 16 patel uses a type of internal evaluation that labov sub-classifies as what he calls a “comparator.”57 in saying: “instead of [thinking that way] he should…ahh…he should have think that scheduled caste students should…should stay with another students,” patel alludes to a desired state of casteless-ness. later in the narrative (lines 25 and 26 in particular) he goes on to paint a picture of what dr. jadhav’s vision in actuality creates, but it is the hint of what dr. jadhav’s vision ‘is not’ that is patel’s point. this is the crux of what patel sees as missing from the dalit community and crucial to the creation of a just society. patel is expressing the need for a unified and integrated community. but the diversity of experiences and identities within such a large community, coupled with a lack of clear markers for creating the integrated society, conspire to make dalit unity extremely illusive. this diversity seems to be largely overlooked by activists like patel. so as dr. jadhav considers himself part-of the indian elite, patel believes that his position as a scheduled caste (dalit) should come before any other identity. the activist assumptions about identity’s role in complex systems here are important to emphasize. placing a relative importance on a collectivist dalit identity, tbmsg activists assume sub-groups (and individuals) to be less important than the wider identity distinction acquired through birth. as a consequence of this initial collectivist assumption, the correlate presumption that being intellectually honest requires obedience to the wider 56 taylor, d., caouette, usbourne, and king, op. cit., 159. 57 toolan, op. cit., 156. as toolan further describes: “evaluations are grouped by labov into four subtypes: intensifiers, comparators, correlatives, and explicatives… comparators evaluate indirectly by drawing attention away from what actually happened by alluding to what might have but didn’t happen” (155-157). in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 102 group goals easily takes root among dalits. inversely, any expression of individual interest for maintaining elite status becomes quickly understood as subordinate to collective obedience. in a society that is captivated with status, these altruistic sentiments may be a set of assumptions that are hard to legitimize in social reality. given india’s chronically communal social stratification, balancing group needs with individual wants muddies the waters of any attempt to create a casteless society. patel’s call for intellectual honesty highlights a set of normative assumptions that activists often profess, but rarely reflectively scrutinize. what are the implications of adopting a collectivist worldview in the context of arguing for secular democratic social change? does a worldview pregnant with individualist assumptions fit in with a buddhist worldview? further reflection on such questions is certainly needed for the development of social change, but such questions in practice appear to go unattended by tbsmg activists. further, calls for ‘intellectual honesty’ also reveal the ever-present underlying dialectic between victim and buddhist identities within the tbmsg movement. betrayal, or disregard, by elite sub-group members is seen as a kind of re-victimization. the feelings of betrayal and anger that this re-victimization ignite do not appear to be approached from an identity position of buddhist non-attachment, or loving kindness, as might be expected from buddhists. on the contrary, the kind of re-victimization patel’s narrative highlights seems to be handled from a more familiar perspective of the raw emotions associated with being victimized. as many research subjects expressed, a legacy of dalit psychology of oppression has crippled and stunted the development of dalit buddhist activism. the underlying psychology of narratives such as patel’s, point to a motivation for activism that is not based-on some buddhist identity or ideology, but rather on an identity as victim. overcoming the constraints of this victim narrative requires much inter-group reflection and work. compared to arjun’s identification of assertiveness as a means to the creation of just society, charging others as ‘intellectually dishonest’ places dalits in the familiar identity position of victim. tbmsg activists could look more deeply into collective buddhist hermeneutics for the tools needed to address this psychology of oppression, but they do not seem to do so. buddhist psychology of no-self and non-attachment provides practical resources to help unlock the root causes of dalit marginalization; resources that seem to be under-utilized. patel’s narrative highlights the need to continue to reflect on the underlying assumptions inherent in uncritically combining the identity of victim and that of ambedkar buddhist. while jambudvipa and manuski activists are beginning to do this work, they are only scratching the surface. conclusion in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 103 “[those who become interested in the tbmsg movement] find that there is some model which can be worked out, or run through, by using buddhism as a tool or a means for social transformation.”58 the above quote is telling of the important role that buddhism plays in tbmsg activists’ lives. neither simply ideology nor dogma, buddhism acts as a model, for improving both self and society. seen as a map by which to not only understand, but realize, the ideal, buddhist teaching provides tbmsg members a guide from which to practice and theorize about change on many levels. as a model, there is little doubt that buddhism is powerful; early buddhists, indeed, described their task with reference to a metaphor (a complex and ambiguous model in its own right). the buddha, as a doctor for the ills of the world, is said to have ‘turned the wheel of dharma’ in order for others to overcome suffering. this awakening of the self to the reality of the world happens through practice. but of course “the self is not reducible to mere introspection.”59 as complex and contingent, selves are constantly engaged in processes of modeling to attempt to understand the ideal; for ambedkar buddhists this modeling process assumes living as both the archetypes of the buddha and ambedkar would as both beyond and within the social world. thus, a buddhist ideal of no-self and a new assertive narrative identity of collective self are simultaneous aspirations for tbmsg activists. but, what does this ambedkar buddhist model provide to individual selves in need of a collective conception of social justice? while buddhist teaching provides the primary grounding for individual tbmsg activists, a structural analysis and reflection on the social constructionist processes inherent in tbmsg’s own narratives helps to better articulate the tbmsg movement’s collective sense of social justice. a lack of such analytical selfreflection internally in the movement has led the tbmsg to an inadequate grounding from which to pursue social change. it is as if the idea of practice is evident, but fully applying the theory of buddhist practice to the world remains in its infancy. tbmsg’s conception of social change can only be actualized through activist’s open and critical collective self-reflection. such collective self-reflection requires the pro-active engagement of counter narratives that challenge activist’s vision of applied theory. agency in such a process resides within the movement and appears as socially constructed narrative opportunities to create dialogue with ‘others,’ however these ‘others’ might be defined. failure to engage with the diversity of others makes lasting change impossible. but, beyond traditional contact hypothesis,60 such dialogue with the ‘other’ also entails confronting injustice in the creation and sustenance of new narrative identities that are both inclusive and accepting of a diversity of expressions of marginalization. while creating an ambedkar buddhist identity is fine, developing a 58 brown bag talk by manoj dahiwale and dharmachari maitreyanath, george mason university’s institute for conflict analysis and resolution, may 15, 2007. 59 rothbart, d., ed. modeling: gateway to the unknown, a work by rom harre vol. 1, studies in multidisciplinarity. (amsterdam: elsevier, 2004), x. 60 for a nice overview of contact hypothesis see abu nimer, m. dialogue, conflict resolution, and change: arab-jewish encounters in israel (new york: suny press, 1999). in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 104 sense of understanding of non-buddhists’ reality is just as critical. despite much emphasis on learning buddhism, tbmsg overlooks opportunities to teach about ‘others.’ awareness of narratives’ ability to construct reality is critical to developing religiously ‘literate’ understanding of others. such pluralism is often hard to create within social movement organizations given their tendency for in-group polarization, but some evidence points to religious organizations as among the most fertile ground for such authentic value exchanges and identity re-positioning to occur.61 in short, the narrative structure of tbmsg stories reveals a great deal about how to foster lasting solutions to caste inequality, but activists must first be attentive to narrative process. still, the solution to enriching un-reflexive conceptions of social change is not solely an issue of obtaining economic or political power as some suggest.62 true transformation of society entails a collective re-construction of social change that arises from engagement with others. in following habermas: “as long as we do not free ourselves from the naïve, situation-oriented attitude of actors caught up in the communicative practice of everyday life, we cannot grasp the limitations of a lifeworld that is dependent upon, and changes along with, a cultural stock of knowledge that can be expanded at any time.”63 beyond simply economic or political power, renewed social position (or even a new identity) what oppressed dalits of the tbmsg must strive for is a self-reflective engagement with ‘others’ of all castes and religious identities. while true that this sense of “cosmopolitanism” is brought on by the work of political, economic, and social change,64 it is the collective engagement with our own narrative identities that ushers and maintains broad-based transformation and sustains inclusive social justice methodologies within society. tbmsg leadership stands in an ideal place to mediate this reflective engagement. 61 for some discussion of this in the american context see swarts, h. organizing urban america: secular and faith-based progressive movements (minneapolis: university of minnesota press, 2008). further, while there have been very interesting studies on cosmopolitanism from below [see for example kurasawa, f. the work of global justice: human rights as practices (cambridge: cambridge university press, 2007), and; rajagopal, b. international law from below: development, social movements, and third world resistance (new york, ny: cambridge university press, 2003) as particular examples that have hinted at the religious nature of human rights contention from below] there has been little comparative study of effectiveness of secular versus religious expressions of social movement organization and discourse. 62 see the comments of dalit writer chadra bhan prasad on the role of capitalism in "in an indian village, signs of loosening grip of caste," the washington post, 31 august 2008, a1. also see prasad, c. b. dalit diary: 1999-2003; reflections on apartheid in india (chennai: navayana publishing, 2004). for an important reading of marxist movements in india see omvedt, g. reinventing revolution: new social movements and the socialist tradition in india (armonk, new york: m.e. sharpe, 1993). 63 habermas, j. the theory of communicative action: lifeworld and system a critique of functionalist reason (boston: beacon press, 1987), 133. 64 kurasawa, f. op. cit., 157. in arguing for the cosmopolitan approach, kurasawa cogently argues: “cosmopolitan solidarity stands as the culmination of the work of global justice” (157, emphasis added). in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 105 tbmsg’s competing narrative identities of newly converted ambedkar buddhist and victim of injustice provide an untapped ambiguity and ambivalence from which to understand the movement’s social justice ideal and make that ideal real. it is through recourse to social actors’ narrative constructions that multiple identities can be mediated, power asymmetries can be explained, and collective re-positioning realized. in finding that ambedkar buddhist’s narratives are aimed at creating and maintaining a social identity in which a particular social justice ideal becomes the central storyline from which to transform the persistent reality of discrimination, the vague outlines of an integrated model to create the casteless society (i.e. social justice) can be seen. in clearly mapping the broad lines of this model much work remains to be done, even as processes of narrative construction provide some clarity. appendix a: fish-bowl narratives (july 3, 2008) participant narratives are numbered consecutively even though they did not occur in straight succession. at the end of each transcribed line, labov’s six-part structure: abstract [a], orientation [o], complicating action [ca], evaluation [e], resolution [r], and coda [c] has been added as a means to make visible narrative structure. in addition, lower-case [p] has been added when short pauses were transcribed and capital [p] inserted in places where a longer pause were detected. words placed in [brackets] are also added for clarity, including [inaudible] when recorded speech was inaudible. arjun’s narrative (1) looking forward from what [manoj, another tbmsg activist, quoted from ambedkar] i think being assertive is a very very important tool. [o, e] (2) when i joined my penning [i.e. studies in university] we were about 15 professionals [a] (3) …[p] so there was a discussion going on about reservation and this and that – and…ahh…my professors were sitting together [o] (4) so then i said that i come from a scheduled caste category and everybody was so visibly stunned [ca] (5) …and as you said…ahh…i was not at all disturbed by what i said in that gathering – that i am a scheduled caste [e] (6) but it is the other people who were disturbed by the very thought that i had…i had… been so assertive in arguing that i am a scheduled caste [e] (7) …and as long as three, four months later people came and told me that this was the first time in our lives that we found someone who can tell openly in a gathering of about 15 odd people that he came from a scheduled caste. [e] (8) what we have come across is generally people hiding that they are from a scheduled caste [e] (9) and this was the first time…[p] and people are telling me after four, five months of what i said… [o] in factis pax volume 6 number 2 (2012): 85-106 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 106 (10) …so they are still stunned by[p]…by [p]… my telling was bothering them and not me actually [e, c]. patel’s narrative (11) yes, i would like to share one same thing, but differently [a]. (12) some days before in pune university there was an advertisement of one discussion going on that …ahh…there should be a separate… [p] ahh… hostel for scheduled caste students at pune university [o]. (13) …and…ahh…it was a discussion under the chairmanship of vice-chairman of pune, dr. narendra jadhav [o, ca] (14) and he was involved…[p] ahh…he was in support that …ahh…ahh…to be…ahh…found…ahh…separate hostel for scheduled caste students [o] (15) and i was shocked that…ahh… why he is thinking like that? [e] (16) ahh… instead of [thinking that way] he should…ahh…he should have think that scheduled caste students should…should be stay with another students…[p] [e] (17) …ahh so many other hostels are there [o] (18) ahh…i couldn’t understand that narendra jadhav is also dalit, from a scheduled caste, and he wrote many books that…ahh… he is very famous [ca] (19) [p]…he has one very famous book that “i and my father” and he has written this about [how] he came to this stage [ca] (20) and he knows that… how caste system works… and how caste system degrades or how caste system takes backward people of …ahh…downtrodden of people of the lowest state of this social system… [ca] (21) and…ahh…i have one question with…ahh…professor of…ahh… pune university and i asked him “why you people are thinking like that?” [e] (22) “this indian caste system…[p] you [are] establishing new type of caste system within pune university, which is…you call…[p] this is the oxford of…[p]… india… [others in the fishbowl add: the east]… the oxford of the east… or the oxford of india… [e] (23) and he [the pune university professor] has no answer at that time [e] (24) this is the quite different thing than brahmin wanted to try this person to bring…[p]..ahh… upward [arjun: “right!”]… here is the scheduled caste person who is…ahh…who is … vice-chancellor, but he is in support of form separate hostel for scheduled caste people… to keep away or keep beside them… [e, c] (25) …and if you see…ahh [p]…i have good experience in bihar and maharashtra also that every scheduled caste hostels with students being... ahh... scheduled castes living in that hostel, they are neglectable [neglected]. [e] (26) if you can… if you see that information college, which is very famous college in history at pune, and there is a hostel for scheduled castes, a different hostel, and it is nearby garbage… there is garbage everywhere… [e, c] cotto-interculturalidad y educación-exploración de una paidea para el sur editado final             in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  24-­‐38   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     24   volume 8 number 1 (2014): 24-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal interculturalidad y educación: exploración de una paidea para el sur el proyecto: interculturalidad y culturas de paz con justicia liliana cotto morales cátedra unesco de educación para la paz, universidad de puerto rico no es hora de llantos ni de miedos, es hora de actuar. con la confianza que aporta saber hacia dónde se hace más diáfano el camino. (sampedro, et al., 2012:12). del 19 al 30 de octubre de 2012 un colectivo de mujeres residentes en puerto rico1 celebramos en san cristóbal de las casas, del estado de chiapas, méxico, el taller de arte y comunicación para la paz, un proyecto educativo intercultural.2. concebimos el mismo como una paideia para el sur. la experiencia constituyó un modelo para desarrollar culturas de paz con justicia social y equidad. tuvo como misión construir la reflexión y la acción (personal y colectiva) para que ésta (la paz) fuera proactiva, en un contexto de soberanía económica y de desarrollo sustentable. concebimos el trabajo con, para y entre jóvenes de sectores excluidos/marginalizados por razones de clase, etnia, género y raza. la visión guía para lograr la misión fue la de generar experiencias de arte y comunicación, utilizando como herramientas, la fotografía y el video, además de técnicas teatrales y la danza. todo lo anterior, enmarcado dentro de un concepto de la educación como formación integral.             in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  24-­‐38   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     25   el objetivo particular de este modelo de paideia para el sur fue, primero, crear una herramienta que ayudara a reducir los niveles de conflictividad social y promover la no violencia en contextos de exclusión. segundo, preparar jóvenes para ser promotores de paz construyendo con el grupo, destrezas que les permitan documentar violaciones a los derechos humanos; socializar saberes sobre la negociación de los conflictos y proveer para la sustentabilidad económica y cultural de sus comunidades. para ello resultaba fundamental identificar y comprender los factores estructurales y regionales/globales que les afectan. los objetivos del taller fueron: 1. proveer herramientas para preparar jóvenes como promotores de paz y modelos de agentes de cambio social. 2. fortalecer las relaciones entre organizaciones que capacitan jóvenes en los temas de paz. 3. privilegiar una perspectiva de género en la teoría, la metodología y en la composición de los participantes. en el taller incorporamos, elementos fundamentales de la paideia clásica enriquecida a través de siglos. utilizamos además, los contenidos de educación para la paz desarrollados en el seminario intercultural mayense de san cristóbal de las casas, los de fundeconp (fundación de una convivencia pacífica), de santa cruz, bolivia, fundación promotora de estrategias educativas para la paz y las experiencias de la cátedra unesco de educación para la paz de la universidad de puerto rico. rearticulamos estos elementos con una metodología basada en las técnicas de educación popular para propiciar el empoderamiento de grupos marginados. el trabajo culminó con una exposición de fotografías, videos y dramas que son la base de las acciones que hoy realizan. escogimos priorizar el trabajo en san cristóbal como la primera experiencia del modelo, en atención a las violaciones continuas de los derechos humanos en chiapas3. laboramos mayormente con jóvenes seminaristas del seminario intercultural mayense, centro educativo ecuménico de reflexión-acción radicado en san cristóbal de las casas. se invitaron, además, otro/as jóvenes de la región: jóvenes de acteal (sociedad civil de las abejas), una comunidad indígena católica y pacifista; de los grupos de estudio de la universidad de la tierra (cideci) centro de estudio y práctica católico y zapatista y se contó con la colaboración de si-paz, organización no gubernamental que promueve prácticas de paz en san cristóbal. el propósito de esta diversificación radicó en estimular los vínculos solidarios entre grupos de discursos y tácticas diferentes pero             in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  24-­‐38   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     26   convergentes en el objetivo de caminar hacia una cultura de paz fortaleciendo la interculturalidad, la autonomía, la dignidad y la soberanía alimentaria. comenzamos con jóvenes de chiapas 4 como proyecto piloto. aspiramos a obtener financiamiento para reproducir el modelo haciendo los cambios pertinentes, con jóvenes de puerto rico. por medio de las experiencias comparativas se pretende empoderar a lo/as jóvenes para que generen acciones interculturales que transformen su realidad. el modelo se diseñó para jóvenes que tuvieran procesos previos de exposición al tema y a la reflexión sobre la paz como camino. jóvenes que estuvieran preparados para convertirse en promotores de paz entre otras poblaciones. para lograr los objetivos se les proveyó a lo/as participantes equipos y materiales educativos que les han permitido continuar aplicando lo aprendido. ¿por qué paideia? la posesión que nadie puede quitarle al ser humano es la paideia. menandro el principio espiritual de los griegos no es el individualismo, sino el humanismo... lo cual significó la educación del hombre (sic) de acuerdo con la verdadera forma humana, con su auténtico ser. tal es la genuina paideia griega. werner jaeger ¿por qué es pertinente la noción de paideia para una experiencia educativa intercultural en chiapas? entre otras razones porque compartimos la convicción de los griegos de que la educación y la cultura no son distintas de la vida espiritual de una nación. por lo cual pusieron al servicio de la educación como fuerza formadora el conocimiento y la conciencia de las leyes naturales y de los principios que rigen lo corporal y lo espiritual en la vida humana. la educación se concibió como un proceso de construcción consciente del cuerpo y del espíritu. una formación para ejercer el servicio y la responsabilidad a la comunidad, es decir a la polis. por lo cual es una gestión política, como dijo varios siglos después el filósofo de la educación paulo freire. en términos contemporáneos la educación es             in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  24-­‐38   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     27   una práctica de saber–poder que tiene la potestad de cambiar las relaciones sociales. sin embargo, el ideal de paideia durante el período clásico griego, fue aristocrático. estaba dado por la estructura específica de la polis griega, en que una casta relativamente reducida de ciudadanos, exentos de las necesidades manuales con la excepción de la guerra, dedicaban su vida a la participación en los asuntos cívicos. se distinguían de los forasteros, esclavos e inmigrantes por el cuidadoso dominio de la lengua griega, requisito obligado para ser reconocidos como refinados oradores en el ágora. en el ágora las habilidades persuasivas resultaban cruciales. otra cualidad deseable para un posible legislador era el interés por el conocimiento o las ciencias ya que indicaba un ánimo objetivo e indiferente a los asuntos triviales de lo cotidiano. el perfil aristocrático se completaba con las proezas gimnásticas. estas confirmaban el ideal antropocéntrico de belleza, el dominio de sí y el carácter viril necesario para la guerra. la paideia griega no fue homogénea. a través de sus diversas transformaciones desde el ideal homérico hasta sus diferentes expresiones helenísticas conservó elementos comunes. se transmitió a la cultura romana, como humanitas, a través de los filósofos estoicos. de ahí que se le llamara estudios humanísticos o humanidades a los estudios vinculados a la cultura y al humanismo que caracterizaron al renacimiento grecolatino en europa. el humanismo de la civilización occidental llega a los pueblos del sur, con todas sus contradicciones, a través de las conquistas. al cristalizarse definitivamente significó todas las formas y creaciones espirituales y el tesoro entero de la tradición, lo que los romanos llamaron cultura. el concepto implicaba por tanto la construcción del hombre (sic) civil que vive y opera en la sociedad humana. a lo largo de la historia occidental la noción ha sido rescatada, a veces, por movimientos educativos de tendencias aristocráticas. la herencia que honramos de la noción paideia en esta experiencia intercultural es la mirada de la educación como formación integral de los seres humanos. los aspectos que deseamos transformar son sus orígenes aristocratizanes y la tendencia eurocéntrica de algunos de sus intérpretes contemporáneos. nos convocó también la visión del humanismo como la autovaloración que el ser humano hace de sí mismo y que implica confianza en sí y en el otro sin discriminación alguna: el nuevo humanismo de la alteridad (rojas osorio, 2013:89).             in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  24-­‐38   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     28   paideia/net, cyber movimientos enseñar no es transferir el entendimiento del objeto al educando sino instigarlo para que como sujeto cognoscente, sea capaz de entender y comunicar lo entendido. es en ese sentido como se impone escuchar al educando en sus dudas, en sus temores, en su incompetencia (sic) provisional. y al escucharlo, aprendo a hablar con él. (freire, 1997:114) la paideia ha conservado su núcleo central aún en medio de los cambios que la transformaron a través de los siglos. las sociedades de la modernidad y pos-modernidad han enfrentado nuevos retos frente a ese núcleo. en estas sociedades, las nuevas tecnologías de la comunicación y de la información han llevado a una verdadera mutación antropológica. han dado origen al homo informaticus, que será el signo de la humanidad del siglo xxi (gubern, 2003; the fifth wave, 2012). ¿podrá ser el homo informaticus el fundamento para la construcción en nuestra américa de sociedades basadas en los principios de la solidaridad, el humanismo y el aprendizaje constante, socialmente productivo? en el contexto de esta problemática ha surgido la paidea net o la visión cibernética de la paidea: construcción conceptual filosófica, que subyace la formulación y operación de modelos pedagógicos cibernéticos. este constructo es el faro orientador de nuevas estrategias de formación, de aprendizaje y de enseñanza escolares. estos modelos novedosos de generación y comunicación del conocimiento han cambiado radicalmente la manera de aprender y de enseñar. por lo tanto han cambiado los supuestos de los modelos pedagógicos actuales. el acceso a múltiples recursos de información y de enseñanza: la fotografía, el video, las artes teatrales y la danza obliga a que redefinamos los fundamentos conceptuales de los modelos pedagógicos. como hecho adicional estos modelos se ven transformados por el conocimiento interactivo entre comunidades virtuales y las redes sociales. al elaborar cualquier proyecto educativo nos enfrentamos a las siguientes preguntas: ¿cómo promover una educación humanística integral y unas acciones colectivas apoyadas en los desarrollos sociales, culturales, antropológicos y políticos de la sociedad de la información o del aprendizaje? ¿cómo usar las tecnologías, productos del espíritu humano, para avanzar la humanización de las personas en un espíritu de inclusión e igualdad? un espíritu democrático que no excluya personas y/o grupos. un espíritu que incorpore la reinserción de lo humano a la naturaleza, la integración genuina del placer/goce, la valoración de las diferencias, la equidad, el apoderamiento. en fin, la promoción de los derechos humanos para todos5 lo cual implica el desarrollo de culturas de paz en las que se practiquen nuevas formas de democracia. esas son metas de la educación humanizante, de la formación plena de cuerpos y espíritus, de la nueva paideia, de la sociedad del conocimiento; la paideia del homo             in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  24-­‐38   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     29   cibernauticus (caracterizado también como homos informaticus, cibernéticus o digitalis). hoy algunos hablan de la paideia/net y otros de los cyber/movimientos sociales como generadores de nuevas estrategias de resistencia (palczewski, 2001; tilly & wood, 2010). nuestro proyecto incorporó y amplio esas metas y esos contenidos. por lo cual usamos como referencia modelos de paideia no euro céntricos, orientados a validar nuestra américa, nombrada abya yala por los pueblos originarios, empoderando a sus jóvenes herederos, mestizos, mulatos, y coletos, cuyas subjetividades están hoy marcadas por la colonialidad del poder (quijano, 2003).6 la raza, la etnia, la clase, el género y otras opresiones son el eje de este patrón de poder en sus países, en el planeta y veces al interior de sus mismas colectividades. los marcos institucionales y espaciales del proyecto además de enseñar sociología,…tú deberías también enseñar como conocer…a pensar correctamente. si enseñar y aprender forman parte del mismo proceso de conocer, en el momento en que tú enseñas sociología tú debes revelar a los estudiantes cómo estudias, cómo te aproximas al objeto de tu conocimiento, lo que significa para ti la búsqueda de conocimiento. (freire, 2007: 135-6). los principios educativos mencionados enmarcaron el proyecto del taller. los centros educativos relacionados al mismo fueron: el seminario intercultural máyense, institución que lo organizó y la universidad de la tierra (cideci), institución amiga que facilitó las instalaciones donde se llevó a cabo.             in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  24-­‐38   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     30   estas instituciones educativas, al igual que otras en mexico7 son herederas de la mirada de la educación como cultura integral y humanizante. estas instituciones educativas se han constituido en modelos de paidea descolonizadora orientada a la autodeterminación y la soberanía de sus educandos.8 en ambos casos se valora la espiritualidad como factor básico para hacer este camino de formación.9 marco de referencia con una población de cuatro millones de habitantes, chiapas es uno de los estados mexicanos con mayor presencia de las culturas originarias vivas de méxico. la población indígena representa el 26% del total de la población. los herederos de la cultura maya anhelan el lekil kuxlejal, la vida plena. este imaginario de los pueblos maya encuentra un paralelo en el de otros pueblos originarios de nuestra américa (abya yala). el sumak kawsay, (buen vivir) de los quechuas, el suma qamaña (vivir bien) de los aymaras, el ñande reko, (vida armoniosa) y el espíritu supremo de los sioux oglala (lakotas) (fuller, 2012). estas aspiraciones fueron parcialmente destruidas a raíz de la conquista. hoy hay grupos organizados de algunas naciones indígenas que luchan contra la violencia cultural que desvirtuó lo indígena ante lo occidental, contra la violencia estructural que les excluyó de la buena salud, la educación, los territorios y sus economías y la violencia de la guerra que aún agrede a quien resiste. el imaginario del lekil kuxlejal de los mayas y los imaginarios paralelos mencionados representan un concepto de paz proactiva, para la cual es preciso “revolcar el polvo”10, metáfora que expresa que la paz con justicia implica procesos conflictivos de transformación social. el estado chiapaneco es el segundo estado con mayor grado de marginación en méxico. las inequidades educativas, económicas, del entorno, de salud y políticas causan la seminario intercultural mayense universidad de la tierra (cideci)             in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  24-­‐38   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     31   migración de entre 30,000 y 50,000 chiapanecos. por lo cual existen múltiples iniciativas internacionales promovidas por las naciones unidas o por organizaciones no gubernamentales y centros universitarios. esta multiplicidad de colaboraciones responde al convencimiento de que las luchas del movimiento indígena de chiapas son justas demandas de respeto y solidaridad. sin embargo, algunos estudiosos (hooks, 2003; yoshioka, 2010) recomiendan cautela frente a las colaboraciones de organizaciones del “primer mundo”. las llamadas políticas de apertura de las mencionadas instituciones en las sociedades dominantes, a veces se inscriben dentro de una visión de multiculturalidad neoliberal. cuando eso ocurre convierten las culturas originarias en mercancías. como resultado contribuyen a la desaparición de los idiomas autóctonos, no a su enriquecimiento; a la reducción de la autoestima personal y colectiva de la gente, no a su apoderamiento y, en consecuencia, al deterioro de las identidades personales y colectivas de los grupos que dicen favorecer. estas estrategias impiden el surgimiento de acciones colectivas y movimientos sociales y de cualquier gestión de-colonizadora. contenidos por tal razón decidimos que el taller fuera desde su planificación, una herramienta para contribuir a generar capital humano que ayude a crear estructuras sociales y económicas, inclusivas, auto gestionado y pertinente para los participantes. para lo cual aprovechamos la presencia de redes entre las instituciones locales existentes y el fortalecimiento de las nuevas. el taller fue un proceso de inmersión en que las educadoras convivimos con lo/as educandos durante 12 días en las instalaciones de la universidad de la tierra. la enseñanza-aprendizaje se llevaba a cabo alternando las charlas y los conversatorios de contenidos teóricos con las explicaciones y los ejercicios prácticos de los componentes de fotografía, cine, artes escénicas y baile. todo lo anterior se trabajó de manera interactiva y haciendo ejercicios prácticos. las facilitadoras presentaban los materiales y los educandos aportaban sus reflexiones que transformaban y en ocasiones rechazaban el material ofrecido. a continuación presentaré una selección de los temas y las imágenes que se utilizaron en el componente teórico del taller. cada tema se contextualizó a partir de una perspectiva macrosocial (capitalismo, colonialidad, interculturalidad) y microsocial (impactos en las subjetividades y en las identidades colectivas). • paz/guerraeste tema se analizó a partir del principio de que la injusticia y la desigualdad crean las condiciones para la guerra, por lo cual para que haya paz permanente tiene que haber igualdad. el eje de la discusión fueron las siguientes preguntas: ¿qué es la guerra? y ¿por qué peleamos?             in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  24-­‐38   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     32   • diversidadel tema de la diversidad se desarrolló alrededor de la pregunta ¿es malo ser diferente? ¿qué nos hace diferentes? ¿cómo podemos manejar nuestras diferencias? • análisis de conflictosal reflexionar sobre este tema concluimos que siempre existirán conflictos en la sociedad; que somos generadores de éstos; pero que las personas no son el conflicto. por lo cual, no hay personas conflictivas sino personas que viven conflictos. • la negociaciónse conceptuó como una herramienta de conciliación, se analizó como el proceso a través de la cual dos personas o grupos en conflicto puedan aumentar sus posibilidades de resolver el conflicto por vía de la satisfacción de sus intereses y necesidades. • reconciliaciónfue discutida como el proceso por el cual las partes en conflicto o lucha se reconocen, se respetan unos a otros y logran convivir con sus diferencias.             in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  24-­‐38   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     33   • culturas de pazimplica reconocer los conflictos como espacios en los que se encuentran, se trabajan y armonizan los diversos intereses y miradas de personas, grupos o comunidades. • agendas de pazpara construirlas se requiere la práctica de una tolerancia proactiva la cual no significa indiferencia. incluye la responsabilidad de educar para la tolerancia proactiva; un enfoque positivo hacia la diferencia de etnias; pensar de manera integradora; combatir el racismo y practicar una educación intercultural. todo lo anterior contribuye a generar un clima positivo en el que se prioricen las convergencias y las similitudes. estos y otros temas se integraron a los contenidos de los talleres de fotografía, artes teatrales y video. la palabra de los participantes en las culturas mayas la palabra es compromiso. todo apalabra miento es vinculante. en el taller se generaron espacios para que los participantes expresaran sus visiones de los temas discutidos. el proceso enseñanza aprendizaje se enriqueció ya que la mayoría de los participantes eran mayas de las etnias tzeltal y tzotzil. por lo cual el ejercicio de interculturalidad incluía el intercambio y la mutua comprensión de aspectos tales como costumbres, éticas, sensibilidades, la traducción de palabras y la mutua exploración de sus significados en nuestras lenguas maternas.             in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  24-­‐38   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     34   este ejercicio de diálogo intercultural fue un comienzo de un tipo de proceso que vale la pena sistematizar. los significados de nuestros conceptos en castellano adquirieron mayor complejidad y profundidad en el intercambio con los educandos. una muestra de la riqueza del mencionado intercambio son los conceptos de reconciliación y tolerancia. en tzeltal la palabra reconciliación es ‘yax lekub kotantik’ que significa “se contenta nuestro corazón”. en tzotzil se le dice ‘xlaj k’on tontik’, que significa “volver a mirar”; “se borra lo que se tenía guardado”. aurelia, estudiante del taller, cuestionó mi crítica a la frase “perdono pero no olvido”, señalando que si se olvidaba se podían repetir las injusticias, pues sin justicia no es posible la reconciliación ni la paz. “lo que debemos superar es el resentimiento” y eso se logra conociendo las causas de las injusticias. para que se dé la reconciliación debe existir la empatía “ponerse en el zapato del otro”, la verdad, la misericordia y la justicia. a la tolerancia se le llama ‘kich jbatin ta muk’ en tzotzil, lo que significa “respetar lo que tú eres y lo que yo soy”. no es la indiferencia que resulta de la descalificación o de la invisibilización. es la cualidad esencial mínima de las relaciones sociales que permite descartar la violencia. la tolerancia no es un fin sino un medio. sin tolerancia, la paz no es posible, con tolerancia es posible hacer realidad numerosas posibilidades humanas y sociales y en particular la evolución de una cultura de paz. el componente teórico del taller concluyó con una sencilla agenda para el manejo creativo de conflictos. planificación diagnóstico compromiso con la construcción de la paz compromiso con la comunidad disposición para hacer acuerdos decisión para tomar acciones gestionar los recursos necesarios distribuir responsabilidades acordar los criterios de evaluación             in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  24-­‐38   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     35   comentario final una consecuencia inesperada de este proyecto fue que, además de la formación de promotores, se desarrollaron artistas. los espacios físicos y sociales donde practicaron las nuevas destrezas conceptuales y de comunicación les estimularon para mirar y admirar sus entornos naturales y sociales. contaron con la hermosura y la excepcionalidad de los predios del cideci; la sencilla voluptuosidad de los campos de la comunidad de cachacal, y la tranquila familiaridad del sim. todo lo cual, unido a la tenaz generosidad de la gente, potenció la creatividad. misma que fue desplegada al cumplir con las responsabilidades artísticas (fotografiar, escribir libretos para videos, hacer dinámicas de grupos y bailes) y las cotidianas (repostería, cocina, tareas domésticas). una energía creativa que también se reveló en la habilidad de apropiarse de las nuevas tecnologías y en el dominio de las redes sociales, destrezas muy valoradas por las juventudes mayas. todo lo anterior quedó evidenciado en la exposición de fotografía, en la que los participantes también presentaron sus videos y dramatizaciones; llevaron a cabo una rigurosa evaluación de la experiencia y acordaron de un plan de trabajo que ya se está implantando. ¡enhorabuena! aurelia filmando en cachacal selección de la exposición fotográfica             in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  24-­‐38   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     36   referencias freire, p. (1997) pedagogía de la autonomía. méxico: siglo xxi. freire, p. (2007) la educación en la ciudad. méxico: siglo xxi. fuller, a. (2012, august). in the spirit of the crazy horse, rebirth of a sioux nation. national geographic. gubern, r. (2003). el simio informatizado. españa: los libros de fundesco. disponible en http://www.quadernsdigitals.net/index.php?accionmenu=biblioteca.leerlibroiu.leer &libro_id=262 hooks, b. (2003) rock my soul: black people and self-esteem. new york: washington square press. jaeguer w. (1942) paideia: los ideales de la cultura griega. méxico: fondo de cultura económica. palczewski, c. cyber-movements, new social movements. in robert atsen and david brouwer (eds.) counterpublics and the state (pp.161-186). new york: suny press. quijano, a. (2003) colonialidad del poder, eurocentrismo y américa latina. en: edgardo lander (ed.), la colonialidad del saber: eurocentrismo y ciencias sociales (pp. 201-246). buenos aires y caracas: perspectivas lationoamericanas. rojas osorio, c. (2013). humanismo y soberanía de betances a mari brás. puerto rico: universidad de puerto rico, humacao. sampedro, j. l., mayor zaragoza, f., garzón, b., escobar, i. , berzoza, c., artal, r., recio, a. . . . (2012) actúa. españa: debate. the fifth wave (2012, march 5). homo informaticus: a theory of political influence. http://thefifthwave.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/homo-informaticus-a-theory-ofpolitical-influence/ tilly, c. & wood, l. (2010) los movimientos sociales 1768-2008. barcelona: editorial crítica. yoshioka, h. (2010) indigenous language usage and maintenance patterns among indigenous people in the era of neoliberal multiculturalism in mexico and guatemala. en: latin american research review 45, 5-4.             in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  24-­‐38   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     37   páginas electrónicas: http://unescopaz.uprrp.edu/ http://www.sipaz.org/ http://www.edificarlapaz.org/ http://www.letterofpeace.org http://cartadelapaz.org                                                                                                                           1  el colectivo estuvo compuesto por la dra. doris garcía mayol, coordinadora general; la dra. liliana cotto-morales, coordinadora en puerto rico; la lcda. dalia juárez fernández coordinadora del seminario intercultural mayense en san cristóbal de las casas. la preparación del contenido teórico estuvo a cargo de: liliana cotto morales, doris garcía mayol y vanessa castedo. la docencia en fotografía, rosimar rivera; en artes teatrales y video, elisa sánchez; y en los componentes teóricos de educación para la paz, liliana cotto morales y doris garcía mayol.   2 el concepto interculturalidad describe la interacción entre dos o más culturas de forma horizontal, favorece el respeto mutuo entre individuos y grupos. supone el respeto a la diversidad y la solución de conflictos a través del diálogo y la concertación. 3 ver “apuntes sobre la situación de los derechos humanos de los pueblos indígenas de chiapas” comisión estatal de derechos humanos de chiapas (ceddhh), san cristóbal de las casa, chiapas (septiembre de 2003). ver además, “tortura, práctica recurrente contra pueblos indígenas en chiapas” centro de derechos humanos fray bartolome de las casas (26 de diciembre, 2011) http://www.frayba.org.mx/archivo/boletines/111226_25_tortura_vdh_busilja_ok.pdf ; “persisten violaciones a derecos humanos de personas indígenas” el informador http://www.informador.com.mx/mexico/2011/322973/6/persisten-violaciones-a-derechoshumanos-de-personas-indigenas.htm 4 el taller recibió apoyo económico del board baptist peace fellowship of north america y una donación para las memorias de las cámaras por las acuaeróbicas de piñones, puerto rico. 5 foro social mundial: “para todos, todo”. la consigna zapatista “un mundo en el que quepan muchos mundos”. 6 la colonialidad organiza a la sociedad a partir del concepto raza, noción que codifica la diferencia entre el colonizador y el colonizado. implica la imposición de jerarquías de poder basadas en las diferencias entre las etnias y sus culturas. establece que lo producido por occidente es superior a lo producido por las culturas subalternas estas             in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  24-­‐38   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     38                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             deben seguir el camino lineal de progreso establecido por la civilización occidental dominante. (quijano, 2003). 7 como por ejemplo la universidad autónoma indígena de méxico, programa de maestría y doctorado en estudios para la paz, la interculturalidad y la democracia. 8 en la universidad de la tierra (cideci) en san cristóbal de las casas, se rechaza la noción de pedagogía pues la identifica con un “corpus de conocimiento normativo” (sic). en cideci se parte del supuesto de que el conocimiento es un proceso, (studium) en el que prevalece una tensión entre lo que se sabe y lo se ignora. lo que importa es el aprendizaje significativo, con consciencia de sí: mundo, espacio, historia, eternidad. entrevista 29 de octubre 2012. 9    sobre el tema de la espiritualidad un miembro del cideci nos expresó la importancia de la espiritualidad citando a walter benjamín: “la única forma de restituir el materialismo histórico es teológicamente, con el tema de la redención. sin la dimensión teológica la victoria no tiene sentido alguno.” 10 frase de eleazar, educando en el taller (21 de octubre, 2012) tanabe_v_8_2 in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 122 volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal buddhism and non-violent world: examining a buddhist contribution to promoting the principle of non-violence and a culture of peace juichiro tanabe coventry university juichiro.tanabe@coventry.ac.uk introduction this paper examines a buddhist contribution to promoting the principle of non-violence and culture of peace. the opposition to violence has been one of the cardinal principles of buddhism, which is stated in the dhamapada1: “all tremble at violence; all fear death. seeing others as being like yourself, do not kill or cause others to kill. all tremble at violence; life is dear for all. seeing others as being like yourself, do not kill or cause others to kill.”2 further, buddhism since its beginning has developed the analysis of psychologically-oriented suffering including violence by means of eradication of its cause and achievement of internal serenity3 and this paper 1 dhamapada is a collection of sayings of the buddha. 2 fronsdal, g. (2005). the dhammapada: a new translation of the buddhist classic with annotations. boston: shambala: 35. 3 burton, d. (2002). knowledge and liberation: philosophical ruminations on a buddhist conundrum. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 123 explores how the buddhist analysis of human mind deepens the psychological dynamics of violence and unfolds internal dimension of peace for more humane world. to this end, three sections constitute this paper. the first section expounds the four noble truths doctrine that is the core of buddhist teaching. based on the analysis, the second section examines a buddhist view of dynamics of violence. the upshot of this section is to delve into how our socially/culturally conditioned mind turns into a root cause of violence. and the third section unfolds a buddhist path to overcoming violence and promoting a culture of peace. methodological considerations there are two things that should be considered before the discussion. firstly, as widely recognized, buddhism is categorized into three major schools – theravada, mahayana, and vajrayana. each of these schools further has sub-schools that have developed distinct teachings and traditions along with the shared objective, that is, uprooting suffering. it is beyond the scope of this paper to examine all of those schools in detail and to take up all their teachings to analyze their contributions to the development of the principle of non-violence and culture of peace. therefore, the paper employs the following texts and teachings to develop the research: dhamapada, surangama-sutra4, nagarjuna5’s seventy stanzas on emptiness, catustava or four hymns to absolute reality, and mahasatipatthana sutta or the greater discourse on the foundations of mindfulness. however, it must be emphatically noticed that although it embraces those texts and teachings to unfold the argument, it does not represent the entire buddhism. rather, it is merely one of the possible ideas of buddhist contribution to the principle of non-violence and culture of peace as other texts and teachings would lead us to develop the arguments distinct from philosophy east and west, 52 (3): 326-345. 4 surangama sutra is a sutra in mahayana buddhism. especially it has been influentian in chinese chan buddhist school. 5 nagarjuna is one of the most important buddhist philosophers, who lived between the second and third century. nagarjuna is a founder and exponent of madhyamaka philosophy that centers on sunyata (emptiness) doctrine to achieve liberation from suffering. regarding the details of nagarjuna’s works and madhyamaka philosophy, murti’s the central philosophy of buddhism: a study of madhyamika system would be helpful. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 124 the one explored here. second point that needs to be deliberated is the meaning of violence. this paper takes up johan galtung’s three types of violence to examine. direct violence refers to hurting somebody directly. war, deadly armed conflict are good examples. structural violence can be defined as “the cause of the disparity between the potential and actual, between what could have been and what is.”6 the potential level of realization is what is possible with a given level of insight and resources.7 so, if insight and resources are dominated by a group or class or used for other objectives, the actual level is below the potential level and violence is present in the system.8 in short, the violence is built into unequal power relations in the social structures, which causes uneven life opportunities between/among individuals or groups of individual. 9 cultural violence is characterized as any kind of symbols such as religious dogma, political ideology, language, art, science, law, media, education and so on that provides self-serving justification for direct and structural violence.10 based on the galtung’s view of violence, this paper considers violence as any form of dehumanizing behavior – whether it be direct, physical, structural, or cultural – that harms another and hampers his/her seeking for self-actualization. this paper analyzes how our own minds can become a root cause of such violence. 1 introduction to buddhism and analysis of the four noble truths doctrine buddhism is a religion and philosophy founded by the buddha, gautama and developed by other subsequent masters throughout its history. the central aim since the buddha, who according to bhatt and mehrotro, “was led to philosophizing by an intense longing for the eradication of suffering” is to analyze and overcome the problem of suffering.11 especially, its main focus is on human mind and its relation to suffering 6 galtung, j. (1969). violence, peace, and peace research. journal of peace research, 6 (3): 168. 7 ibid. 8 ibid. 9 lawler, p. (1995). a question of values: johan galtung’s peace research. boulder, colorado: lynne. 10 galtung, j. (1996). peace by peaceful means: peace and conflict, development and civilization. london: sage. 11 bhatt, s. r. and mehrotra, a. (2000). buddhist epistemology westport, connecticut, greenwood press: 2. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 125 and its resolution. mind as the core of buddhism is stated in the dhamapada: “all experience is preceded by mind, led by mind, made by mind. speak or act with a corrupted mind, and suffering follows as the wagon wheel follows the hoof of the ox.”12 it also states, “all experience is preceded by mind, led by mind, made by mind. speak or act with a peaceful mind, and happiness follows like a never-departing shadow.”13 further, the surangama sutra states, “the tathagata has always said that all phenomena are manifestations of mind and that all causes and effects including (all things from) the world to its dust, take shape because of the mind.”14 these statements do not mean there are no objects outside our minds. rather, they imply that “the qualities of the things come into existence after the mind, are dependent upon mind and are made up of mind.”15 the state of the world around us, which we tend to believe exists external to us, is a reflection of the condition of our mind.16 therefore, we need to look into our own mind, not external world to overcome suffering facing us, which is stated by nagarjuna’s hymns to the jewel of the mind: “the essence of happiness and suffering does not exist at all outside the mind.”17 on a buddhist view, the cause of violence of any kind lies in our own minds and so making a critical analysis of the nature of one’s mind or the principles of epistemic function allows us to deepen internal dynamics of violence: knowing, first of all, reality as a mind-construct, critically reflecting how mind turns into the root cause of suffering and contemplating and enacting the way to resolve it constitute the core of buddhism.18 and the four noble truth doctrine assumes the fundamental role in the analysis. 12 fronsdal, g., the dhammapada: 1. 13 ibid. 14 luk, c. (2001). the surangama sutra. new delhi: munshiram manoharlal: 16. 15 lai, w. (1977). the meaning of “mind-only” (wei-hsin): an analysis of a sinitic mahayana phenomenon. philosophy east and west, 27 (1): 66. 16 ramanan, v. (1978). nagarjuna’s philosophy as presented in the maha-prajnaparamita-sutra. delhi: motilal banarsidass. 17 tola, f. and dragonetti, c. (1995). on voidness: a study on buddhist nihilism. delhi: motilal banarsidass: 135. 18 matsuo, h. (1981). the logic of unity: the discovery of zero and emptiness in prajnaparamita thought. (translated by inada kenneth). tokyo: hokuju shuppan. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 126 analysis of the four noble truths doctrine the four noble truths doctrine is the buddha’s first and foundational teaching19 and the core of every school of buddhism.20 the four noble truths are truth of suffering, origin of suffering, overcoming of suffering, and the path to overcome suffering.21 the first noble truth is that our life is basically filled with suffering and trouble.22 however, the central aim of the first noble truth is not to reveal a pessimistic and hopeless view of life. recognition of our existence being filled with suffering requires us to comprehend it in terms of what suffering actually is or what is the nature of the state of suffering. put differently, the statement emphasizes the importance of knowing the fundamental unsatisfactory and agonizing feature of reality, which inspires us to engage in a deeper and more profound question of “what is the cause of suffering?” the second truth proposes the cause of suffering.23 it is attributed to craving, that is, a mental state leading to attachment, which is characterized as the tendency of mind to cling to certain specific objects or views.24 besides that, ignorance is proposed as a fundamental cause of suffering. 25 it is understood as our basic 19 geshe tashi tsering (2005). the four noble truths: the foundation of buddhist thought volume 1. boston: wisdom publications 20 yun, h. (2002). from the four noble truths to the four universal vow. hacienda heights, california: buddha's light publishing. 21 pereira, j. and tiso, f. (1988). the evolution of buddhist systematics from the buddha to vasubandhu. philosophy east and west, 38 (2): 172-186. 22 rahula, w. s. (1974). what the buddha taught. new york: grove. 23 rubin, j. b. (2003). close encounters of a new kind: toward an integration of psychoanalysis and buddhism. in segall, s. r. (ed.) encountering buddhism: western psychology and buddhist teachings (31-60). albany, new york: state university of new york press. 24 burton, d. (2002). knowledge and liberation: philosophical ruminations on a buddhist conundrum. philosophy east and west, 52 (3): 326-345. 25 cho, s. (2002). the rationalist tendency in modern buddhist scholarship: a revaluation. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 127 misapprehension of the nature of reality26 or lack of self-awareness and correct knowledge of reality.27 the basic feature of ignorance is that we tend to see things including human beings as having permanent, or unchanging nature and stick to anything that reinforces our concept or view of permanence, pushing away or rejecting those views or ideas that deny or threaten it.28 on buddhist view, suffering or trouble facing us is mainly of psychological and subjective nature in its cause. human mind itself is the locus wherein the gap between reality and the human hermeneutical reality represented in conceptual or linguistic rendering accompanied by desire, takes place, which brings out suffering including violence.29 the third truth claims by awakening to the root cause of suffering, human beings will be empowered to overcome its cause.30 what is proposed here is since it stems from our own craving and ignorance, suffering can be resolved if they are properly addressed.31 as both the causes of suffering and liberation from suffering are two different states but are created by minds,32 the solution is up to us, which is stated in the dhamapada: “evil is done by oneself alone; by oneself is one defiled. evil is avoided by oneself; by oneself alone is one purified. purity and impurity depend on oneself; no one can purify another.”33 the fourth truth shows the way to overcome suffering and achieve mental well-being and serenity, which is generally called the noble eightfold path.34 it is: right view35, right thought36, right speech37, right action38, right livelihood39, right effort40, philosophy east and west, 52 (4): 426-440. 26 geshe tashi, the four noble truths. 27 (cho, the rationalist tendency in modern buddhist scholarship 28 geshe tashi, the four noble truths. 29 park, jin y. (2008). buddhism and postmodernity: zen, huayan, and the possibility of buddhist postmodern ethics. plymouth, united kingdom: lexington books. 30 yun, h. (2002). from the four noble truths to the four universal vow. 31 ibid. 32 park, jin y., buddhism and postmodernity. 33 fronsdal, g., the dhammapada: 44. 34 rubin, j. b., close encounters of a new kind. 35 yun characterizes it as a correct view of reality, that is, mutual interdependence and ultimate empty nature. 36 it refers to a correct perception that our bodies will eventually decay and disappear and that our emotions and thoughts are temporal and impermanent. 37 according to rubin, it means speaking trustfully, sincerely, and compassionately. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 128 right mindfulness41, and right concentration.42 the upshot of the fourth truth is the synergistic effect of three core angles – ethical conduct (right speech, right action, right livelihood, and right effort), mental discipline (right mindfulness and right concentration), and wisdom (right view and right thought) need to be appreciated and practiced to overcome suffering.43 this threefold approach to liberate ourselves from suffering is stated in the dhamapada: “like a good horse alert to the whip, be ardent and alarmed. with faith, virtue, effort, concentration, and discernment, accompanied in knowledge and good conduct, mindful, you will leave this great suffering behind.”44 when wisdom – an insight into the nature of things and events, that is, interdependence, impermanence, and ultimate emptiness of fixed, or unchanging attribute, mental discipline – the development of the ability to focus our minds on whatever object, view, standpoint we choose, which heightens the level of awareness of our internal dynamics, and ethical conduct – practicing a moral life with honesty, altruism, and compassion that lead us to take into account others’ feelings, perspectives, rights, suffering, and well-beings as well as our own are well integrated, we can overcome suffering and construct a harmonious relationship.45 through self-observation, introspection, philosophical analysis of reality, and the practice of virtuous conduct, buddhism strives to achieve mental transformation and psychological well-being. philosophy, for buddhism, is not a theoretical discipline detached from daily life but the very foundation of how we live our daily life.46 how we view the nature of reality or how we understand the concepts and knowledge 38 it refers to refraining from needless killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct, rubin, j. b., close encounters of a new kind. 39 it means living a reasonable economic life, an altruistic life, and a harmonious communal life. 40 it means correct diligence in developing wholesomeness that not yet arisen, increasing wholesomeness that has already arisen, and preventing unwholesomeness from arising. 41 it signifies constant awareness of phenomena that are happening at present and careful recollection of phenomena that occurred in the past, rubin, j. b., close encounters of a new kind. 42 it refers to spiritual concentration and mental tranquility achieved through the act of meditation to recall the actions and thoughts in the past, perceive the dynamics of mind at present and cultivate goodwill and compassion. see rubin, j. b., close encounters of a new kind, and rahula, w. s., what the buddha taught. 43 loizzo, j. (2006). meditation, self-correction and learning: contemplative science in global perspective (presented to conference on mind and reality) 44 fronsdal, g., the dhammapada: 38. 45 geshe tashi, the four noble truths. 46 szkredka, s. (2007). reason as employed by the buddha: its originality and mystical foundations. hsi lai journal of humanistic buddhism, 8: 181-200. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 129 framing it affects how we speak, how we behave, and how we live a life. we participate in reality with our bodies, our speech, and our minds47 and enhancing wholesome conducts along with transformation of mind becomes imperative. ethics and mental transformation as a result of gaining a correct view of reality and sharpening the abilities to observe and control our mind dynamics are complementary to overcome suffering. 2 a buddhist analysis of the dynamics of violence the implication of the four noble truth doctrine is that the main cause of problems facing us is mainly internal. though external causes or conditions must not be ignored, looking at them alone and seeing them as exclusively externally created impedes us from deepening our understanding of the problems: examining the dynamics of our mind and its role enables us to grab the inner cause of violence to explore what kinds of mind or mind-state we should achieve to resolve it.48 therefore, this section delves into a buddhist view of violence dynamics based on the idea that violence of any kind begins with our thinking or thought process.49 from time immemorial, human beings have developed conceptual thought as the main tool to make sense of the world of experiences in abstraction and to communicate them with fellow human beings.50 as social beings, we are shaped by the beliefs and forms of truth conventionally accepted as valid and effective in the practical matter of social or cultural life-world.51 we build and accept frame of reference – certain patterns of worldviews, cultural values, political orientations and ideologies, religious doctrine, moral-ethical 47 luisi, l. p. (2008). the two pillars of buddhism – consciousness and ethics. journal of consciousness studies, 15 (1): 84-107. 48 geshe tashi, the four noble truths. 49 park, jin y., buddhism and postmodernity. 50 ichimura, s. (1997). contemporary significance of chinese buddhist philosophy. journal of chinese philosophy, 24: 75-106. 51 wright, d. (1986). language and truth in hua-yen buddhism. journal of chinese philosophy, 13: 21-47. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 130 norms, and so on – to construct conceptually framed reality to lead a meaningful life.52 relying on socially embedded habits of mind, we project certain pattern of conceptual categories upon reality and make experience conform to our systems of thought.53 any kind of collective circumstance molds our minds to conform to certain norms and determines the appropriateness or acceptability of a given state of awareness or communication in the social settings.54 social conditionedness or acceptance of certain frame of reference is connected to a human eagerness for the establishment of sense of security and stable identity. according to loy, security refers to “the conditions where we can live without care, where our life is not preoccupied without worrying about our life”55 and that involves stabilizing ourselves by controlling and fixating the real including human beings with certain attributes or qualities. in our anxiety and quest for reassurance and security, we tend to reify situations and things and cling to and manipulate those reified conditions.56 however, on a buddhist view, the potential danger lurks within the establishment of socially patterned frame of reference. the root cause of violence lies in our propensity to absolutize any particular frame of reference as universal or complete.57 once we build certain conceptual thoughts socially conditioning us and cling to them as complete, it causes us to fixate the real – objects, persons, groups of people, events, and so on – with some supposedly permanent or unchanging attributes or qualities.58 forming the sedimented and habitual ways of seeing the real with fixed 52 mezirow, j. (2003). transformative learning as discourse. journal of transformative education, 1(1): 58-63. 53 mcevilley, t. (1982). early greek philosophy and madhyamika. philosophy east and west, 31 (2): 141-164. 54 goleman, d. (1993). psychology, reality, and consciousness. in walsh, r. and vaughan f. (eds.) path beyond ego: the transpersonal vision (18-21). new york: penguin putnam. 55 loy, d. (2002). on the nonduality of good and evil: buddhist reflections on the new holy war accessed 15 august 2012: 8. http://www.thezensite.com/zenessays/mescellaneous/nonduality_good_and_evil.htm 56 mipham, j. (2002). introduction to the middle way: candrakirti’s madhyamakavatara with commentary by jamgon mipham boston: shambhala. 57 gomez, l. (1976). proto-madhyamika in the pali canon. philosophy east and west, 26 (2): 137-165. 58 chang, c. c. g. (1971). the buddhist teaching of totality: the philosophy of hwa yen buddhism. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 131 perspectives on what and how things are and are not restricts patterns of awareness and limits our intentional range and capacity for meaning-making commitments.59 further, when we build some particular thoughts or standpoints and claim completeness for the perspectives constructed, that causes us to be dogmatic, exclusive of other views or thoughts.60 as fixed idea of identity becomes strong and extreme, it tends to be exclusive of other identities, or views of identity and drives us toward extreme behaviors against those with distinct attributes of identity. the extreme attachment to our own views can elapse into polarity or negation of other views, values and ultimately of people who are different from us.61 once the views or perspectives socially conditioning us have come to be clung to as absolute, we are prone to feel threat, fear, anger, or hatred to those with distinct frames of reference, which can provide us with self-serving justification for creating or sustaining asymmetric relationship, which leads to social injustice or discrimination,62 wherein disparity between/among groups or individuals with regard to the access to political, economic, and social activities to gratify their basic needs and seek self-actualization becomes normalized. what should be discussed further is the basic mode of thinking in committing violence. though becoming conditioned by social frame of reference is natural and essential to us, as wade63 insightfully claims, it is fundamentally of dualistic nature of thought (right/wrong, good/bad, black/white, to name a few) and divides the world into ‘in-group’ and ‘out-group’. further, those in dualistic thought are informed by the principle of the excluded middle64 or ‘either-or’ stance.65 this logical stance in nature prioritizes one over the other by sharpening dichotomous relationship between in-group university park: the pennsylvania state university press. 59 hershock, p. d. (2006). buddhism in the public sphere: reorienting global interdependence. london: routledge. 60 ramanan, v., nagarjuna’s philosophy as presented in the maha-prajnaparamita-sutra. 61 der-lan yeh (2006). the way to peace: a buddhist perspective. international journal of peace studies, 11 (1): 91-112. 62 ibid. 63 wade 1996 64 fenner, p. (1994). spiritual inquiry in buddhism. revision, 17 (2): 13-25. 65 nagatomo, s. (2000). the logic of the diamond sutra: a is not a, therefore it is a. asian philosophy, 10 (3): 213-244. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 132 and out-group, whereby an imbalanced attitude invested by extreme in-group self-interest and desire is favored and promoted. the subject, relying on the strong in-group consciousness, becomes the generative factor for creating the discriminatory and oppositional relationship.66 once we see the other as something disconnected from us, it becomes easier to propagate violence upon those outside the boundary. 67 in dualistic logical and epistemological structure, we tend to project negative qualities upon the outside and see them objectively belonging to them,68 which promotes self-righteousness to take discriminatory attitude and commit violence to them. further, the mind in dualistic stance swings from extreme to extreme, which drives us to cling to dead-ends,69 whereby the values, ideas of one’s group are not viewed as one of many alternatives, but the only right one; other possibilities are dimly conceived or denied as wrong,70 which leads to cultural violence. as explained, cultural violence is seen as any form of socially/culturally constructed discursive thought that legitimates and rationalizes direct and structural violence. as our frame of reference becomes absolutized and clung to and dichotomous in-group and out-group relations sharpen, the purview of social/cultural discourse comes to be restricted and our range for building discourses that bridge inter-group division becomes limited, which ends up aggravating divisive and discriminatory discourses. the upshot of a buddhist analysis of violence dynamics is not to reject the social conditionedness. rather, the main target that needs to be critiqued is our tendency to become enmeshed in a specific conceptual position or frame of reference and cling to it as complete.71 social conditionedness, though essential to our lives, in its 66 ibid. 67 hart, t., nelson, p. l. and puhakka, k. (2000). “introduction.” in hart, t., nelson, p. l. and puhakka, k. (eds.) transpersonal knowing: exploring the horizon of consciousness (1-9). albany, new york: state university of new york press. 68 wilber, k. (1993). the spectrum of consciousness. wheaton, illinois: quest books. 69 ramanan, v., nagarjuna’s philosophy as presented in the maha-prajnaparamita-sutra. 70 wade, j. (1996). changing of mind: a holonomic theory of the evolution of consciousness. albany, new york: state university of new york press. 71 muller, c. (1998). innate enlightenment and no-thought: a response to the critical buddhist position on zen. paper presented at the international conference on son, paekyang-sa, kwangju, korea, august 18-22, 1998. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 133 dualistic nature, can cause us exaggerate differences between people, create supposedly firm boundaries between ‘in-group’ and ‘out-group’ and reify those into fixed and independent entities segregating from one another by imputedly intrinsic and insurmountable differences,72 which leads us to violence and impedes constructing a harmonious and constructive relationship. 3 examining a buddhist path to a culture of peace mindfulness as a method to address violence since our socially conditioned minds that have been absolutized as complete turn into the root cause of violence, the methods need to be sought to break the absolutized conditioned state.73 once we become conditioned by certain frame of reference, we tend to remain identified with it and kept imprisoned in the state, which constricts the purview of our thought and hampers constructive interaction with out-groups.74 so the first step is to disidentify ourselves from the conditioned state to make it conscious and reflect on it. mindfulness is proposed as a practical method. mindfulness refers to disciplining the mind by focusing on a certain object of thought and be letting go of all thoughts and emotions, and witnessing whatever arises in consciousness.75 for instance, mahasatipatthana sutta shows, “a monk abides contemplating body as body, ardent, clearly aware and mindful, having put aside hankering and fretting for the world; he abides contemplating feelings as feelings; he 72 waldron, w. s. (2003). common ground, common cause: buddhism and science on the afflictions of identity. in wallace, a. (ed.) buddhism and science: breaking new ground (145-191). new york: columbia university press. 73 muller, c., innate enlightenment and no-thought. 74 welwood, j. (2000). reflection and presence. in hart, t., nelson, p. l. and puhakka, k. (eds.) transpersonal knowing: exploring the horizon of consciousness (85-111). albany, new york: state university of new york press. 75 kabat-zinn, j. (1994). catalyzing movement towards a more contemplative/sacred-appreciating/non-dualistic society accessed 15 august 2012 http://www.contemplativemind.org/programs/academic/kabat-zinn.pdf in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 134 abides contemplating mind as mind; he abides contemplating mind-objects as mind-objects, ardent, clearly aware and mindful, having put aside hankering and fretting for the world.”76 the practice of mindfulness means the practice of objectifying the contents of our consciousness, thoughts, feelings and reactions flowing from our minds to observe without being absorbed or controlled by them.77 by steadying the mind, the abilities are developed for moment-to-moment awareness of internal states such as feelings, emotions, thoughts, attitudes, and so on.78 the practice of mindfulness cultivates our first-hand awareness and experience of social conditionedness of our thinking and knowing, which helps us become less identified with our habits of mind and standpoint.79 mindful disengagement enables us to create a space in our own minds for the development of enlarged awareness, attentiveness to broader dimensions of how mind can work by going beyond socially built presuppositions and sedimented habits of thinking and knowing.80 developing the abilities to observe our minds leads us to temporarily mute external factors so that we can be awaken to the role of our mental and emotional habits in framing our perceptions of reality. the development of mindful practices empowers us to discover the contents of reality depend not so much on what happens to us, but on what attitudes, understandings, feelings and reactions we give to those events.81 further, mindfulness plays a significant role in promoting dialogue. arguably, dialogue, the need for which emerges from the increasing acknowledgement that our changing reality demands a new global ethic and a new perception of one another has 76 walshe, m. (trans). (2012). the digha nikaya – the long discourses of the buddha. boston: wisdom publications: 335. 77 hart, t. (2001). teaching for wisdom. encounter; education for meaning and social justice, 14 (2): 3-16. 78 brantmeier, e. j. (2007). connecting inner and outer peace: buddhist meditation integrated with peace education. journal of peace education and social justice, 1(1): 120-157. 79 gunnlaugson, o. (2007). shedding lights on the underlying forms of transformative learning theory: introducing three distinct categories of consciousness. journal of transformative education 5 (2): 134-151. 80 hart, t., teaching for wisdom. 81 chappell, d. w. (1999). buddhist peace principles. in chappell, d. w. (ed.) buddhist peacework: creating cultures of peace (199-231). boston: wisdom publications. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 135 become one of the core methods to transform violent and antagonistic relationship into harmonious one. the main objective of dialogue is not just to share information; rather, it is to uncover the processes that are shaping us and the struggle we are having, which, it is assumed, will lead us to mutual respect and a sense of solidarity.82 dialogue seeks to go beyond dichotomous debate to promote mutual understanding and transformation.83 however, what needs to be claimed from a perspective of mindfulness is the intimate connection between dialogue with others and that with ourselves: only those who are capable of a sincere encounter with themselves can engage in an authentic dialogue with others.84 the practice of dialogue requires the openness to be challenged and transformed by encountering others’ viewpoints or values as well as the willingness and ability to engage in active listening and understanding of them.85 dialogue demands us to let ourselves be changed in our point of view, attitude, value, mode of thinking and this requires internal and reflective dialogue with ourselves while engaged in dialogue with others.86 engagement in mindful observation of our own mind-state slows down our stream of consciousness and enables us to suspend impulsive and automatic reaction in encountering distinct ideas, values, or identities. mindful suspension of habitual reaction facilitates the transition from being focally embedded with our thoughts and feelings to being free to witness them consciously, which gives us a preview of a different self-sense and more complex and multi-faceted form and order of consciousness to appreciate distinct views and ideas. 87 the practice of internal observation of ourselves empowers us to expose and deconstruct socially conditioned positions of belief, value, thought and so on and frees our minds to notice and 82 ibid. 83 said, abdu’l-aziz., lerche, c. and funk, n. c. (2006). for the need for new thinking. international journal of peace studies, 11 (2): 105-120. 84 hadot, p. (1995). philosophy as a way of life: spiritual exercises from socrates to foucault. oxford: blackwell. 85 ferrer, j. (2002). revisioning transpersonal theory: a participatory vision of human spirituality. albany, new york: state university of new york press. 86 hadot, p., philosophy as a way of life. 87 gunnlaugson, o., shedding lights on the underlying forms of transformative learning theory. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 136 appreciate multiple perspectives and unexpected insights,88 which inspires us to listen sincerely to those with different or even opposing views and identities to construct a harmonious relationship. dialogue requires internal awareness and mindfulness that undergirds mutual appreciation and transformation.89 learning to be less embedded or reified in the perspectives or thoughts as a result of mindful observation, we can develop a deeply different basis or relationship to our modes of thinking and emotional processes,90 which makes new interpersonal and intergroup relationships and connections possible.91 enacting a perspectival transformation as we develop mindfulness practice to monitor how our mind works and control emotions, a deeper and more profound intellectual understanding or development of wisdom that enables us to gain an insight into the nature of reality can be embodied to address absolutized conditioned state that causes negative feelings and dogmatism.92 contemplative practice that enables us to disidentify ourselves from frames of reference that socially condition us and create ‘in-group’ and ‘out-group’ boundaries and observe mind dynamics leads us to realize an inherent interdependent and interpenetrating nature of reality or conceptual thought framing our reality.93 the reason for transforming our view of conceptual thought is that, since conceptual thought construction provides us with a sort of lens to view and organize our world and build our lived experience, it becomes imperative to correct our misunderstanding of it as it causes us suffering including violence. 88 hart, t. (2004). opening the contemplative mind in the classroom. journal of transformative education, 2 (1): 28-46. 89 chappell, d. w., buddhist peace principles. 90 gunnlaugson, o., shedding lights on the underlying forms of transformative learning theory. 91 chappell, d. w., buddhist peace principles. 92 danesh, h. b. (2006). towards an integrative theory of peace education. journal of peace education, 3(1): 55-78. 93 apffel-marglin, f. and bush, m. (2005). healing the breach of faith toward everything that is: integration in academia 2005. accessed august 15 2012. http://www.contemplativemind.org/programs/academic/summer05/apffel-marglin_bush.pdf in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 137 interdependent and interpenetrating nature of any kind of conceptual thought forming our reality is, for instance, expounded by nagarjuna. in his seventy stanzas on emptiness, he states, “without one there cannot be many and without many it is not possible to refer to one. therefore, one and many arise dependently and such phenomena do not have sign of inherent existence.”94 he also states in the catustava or four hymns to absolute reality, “if there is existence, then is non-existence; if there is something long, similarly (there is) something short; and if there is non-existence, (there is) existence; therefore, both (existence and non-existence) are not existent.”95 he also states, “unity and multiplicity and past and future, etc., defilement and purification, correct and false – how can they exist per se?”96 these statements neither aim to abandon thinking nor deny having frame of reference. rather, the objective is to make our own minds free from attachment to any form of conditioned state even when we are engaged in it, which makes us more flexible in approaching our reality including peace and conflict.97 the essential dependent-originated nature of any conceptual or linguistic framework enables us to understand any form of symbolic knowledge that shapes dichotomous human relation cannot be seen as existing outside of the purview of interdependency.98 this does not mean total erasure of difference or demise of all distinctions into an all-frozen sameness, but advocates a reformulation of dualistic thinking. what should be recognized is that dualistic either-or thinking, though important in some circumstance, is “only one product of the total functioning of the mind.”99 it is a perspectival shift from the dualistic stance to non-dualistic stance, wherein prima facie opposing views are not seen as fixed pair of opposites, but as inter-relational constructs.100 exploring a buddhist culture of peace 94 komito, d. r. (1987). nagarjuna’s “seventy stanzas”: a buddhist psychology of emptiness. ithaca, new york: snow lion.: 80. 95 tola and dragonetti, tola, on voidness: 128. 96 ibid. 97 muller, c., innate enlightenment and no-thought. 98 ibid. 99 tart, c. (2000). states of consciousness. lincoln, nebraska: iuniverse: 28. 100 nagatomo, s., the logic of the diamond sutra. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 138 how can the practice of mindfulness and transforming our understanding of conceptual thought framing bounded or dichotomous relationship contribute to changing the dynamics of violence? and how can a culture of peace be characterized as a result of that? perspectival transformation from dualistic stance empowers us to hold multiplex, complementary both/and dialectical thinking, which leads us to appreciate the opposite of a deep truth is another deep truth.101 the integrative expansion of experiential range as a result of the practice of mindfulness and perspectival shift enables us to engage the world in a more extensive and inclusive manner.102 the awakening to the inherent interdependent and interpenetrating nature of reality and of conceptual or linguistic knowledge framing boundaries separating human beings deconstructs the thought-wall of seeming difference in values or perspectives between self and others to reveal an ultimate interdependent and interpenetrating relation.103 recognizing interdependent and interconnected nature of human relations makes us aware we need to approach the phenomenon of violence from a perspective different from conventional dualistic or dichotomous logic. what needs to be acknowledged is that those in violence are interdependent and interconnected with each other. they are interwoven on a fundamental dimension despite their conflictual and dichotomous relationship on a visible level. 104 with dualistic view of violence transcended, it comes to be realized that violence against others or out-group becomes an act of violence against ourselves and is understood as an undesirable and unrealistic option or course of action.105 it is to be recognized that any form of violence, whether it be direct, structural, or cultural, hurts both those who are committing it and those who 101 braud, w. and anderson, r. (1998). transpersonal research methods for the social sciences: honoring human experience. london: sage. 102 firman, j. and gila, a. (2002). a psychology of the spirit. albany, new york: university of new york press. 103 makransky, j. (2005). buddha and christ as mediators of the transcendent: a buddhist perspective. in schmidt-leukel p. (ed.) buddhism and christianity in dialogue: the general weisfeld lectures 2004 (176-199). norwich, norfolk: scm press. 104 park, jin y., buddhism and postmodernity. 105 brantmeier, e. j., connecting inner and outer peace. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 139 are committed and that no one single individual or group can gain benefit from committing any kind of violence. with transcending dualistic and dichotomous relationship in violence, how can peace be characterized? awakening to the interdependent and interpenetrating nature of relations empowers us to realize nondualistic peace based on compassionate mind. compassion is an acknowledgement of shared humanity and the commonalities in both suffering and aspiration among people.106 it is a capacity to feel others’ pain, sorrow, despair or suffering as our own, but at the same time an ability to have clear awareness of interdependent origination of phenomenon of any kind. 107 developing compassionate mind, which is often associated with the development of a quality of loving kindness, a universal and unselfish love that extends to ourselves, to friends, family, and ultimately to all people, inspires us to take action to care for and serve others.108 recognition of an ultimate nondualistic relationship makes us realize that our happiness comes through others’ happiness.109 awakening to the interdependent and interpenetrating nature of relations enables us to appreciate that our well-being and others’ are inseparable: without considering and acting to promote others’ peace, our own peace would be impossible.110 nondualistic peace is to be understood as a transition from self-centered, dichotomous tensions of in-group and out-group processes to an all-inclusive state of awareness of our fundamental interdependence and interpenetration, which drives us to satisfy basic human needs of all, to take action to promote freedom, justice of those with distinct identities as well as our own somehow, and to resort to peaceful methods to resolve conflict constructively. 106 pruitt, i. t. and mccollum, e. e. (2010). voices of experienced meditators: the impact of meditation practice on intimate relationships. retrieved on may 4 2014, from http://portal.idc.ac.il/he/main/research/aware/research/documents/social/attachment/voices%20_of%20_e xperienced%20_meditators%20_the%20_im 107 hoyt, m. (2014). engaging bodhisatva compassion in pedagogical aporias. paideusis, 21 (2): 24-31. 108 pruitt and mccollum, voices of experienced meditators. 109 luisi, l. p. (2008). the two pillars of buddhism. 110 vaughan, f. (2002). what is spiritual intelligence? journal of humanistic psychology, 42 (2): 16-33. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 140 the second characteristics of a buddhist view of peace is, as a consequence of nondualistic relationship, the achievement and practicing unity and diversity of those with distinct cultural, racial, religious, and ethnic values and identities. and here comes a need for understanding the meaning of diversity in the context of an expanded awareness of interdependent and interconnected nature of human relations, which opens up for wider range of possibilities in interpersonal and intergroup relationships. diversity does not merely mean that differences exist. touching diversity and differences makes the rise of complex and coordination-enriching interdependence:111 diversity can only be enhanced by realizing and practicing patterns of completely meaningful interdependence and interpenetration. human relationship involves “continuous, relationally-expanding and interdependent enhancing improvision”, 112 whereby we can experience difference and diversity not as a threat or a subject for attack or hatred but as an opportunity to mutual insight and inspiration to explore something new to all participants. improvising, the ethos of which is “lived, enacted performance of being different in the world,”113 is the ongoing development of new views and meanings from within things as they have come to be. it does not refer to denying or abandoning distinct values, worldviews, or norms that socially or culturally condition us. rather, it is their meaningful revision and reorientation so that we can add new understandings or views to them according to interdependent and nondualistic relations. though two features of a buddhist view of peace have been examined, how can a culture of peace be characterized? it is to be understood as an exploratory, ongoing and ever-lasting process that explicates or unfolds new values and meanings to achieve and sustain interdependent, mutually liberating and transformative relational dynamics between/among those with distinct identities, values, worldviews, or frames of reference: continuous co-emergent and co-creative value and truth construction 111 hershock, p. d. (2012). valuing diversity: buddhist reflection on realizing a more equitable global future. albany, ny: state university of new york press. 112 hershock, p. d. (2013). diversity matters: buddhist reflections on the meaning of difference. in emmanuel, s. m. (ed.) a companion to buddhist philosophy (675-692). new york: wiley-blackwell: 683. 113 ibid,, 688 in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 141 accompanied by reflective self-awareness and self-transformation inspired by encountering differences. conclusion this paper has examined a buddhist contribution to advancing the principle of non-violence and culture of peace. as has been delved into, a foundational nature of a buddhist peace is the outcome of our epistemological (contemplative practices), ontological (understanding reality as interdependent, interpenetrating, and ultimately nondualistic), emotive (compassion), and conative (choosing) capacities. stated otherwise, it is recognition and enacting of multiple functions of our own mind. truly, the practice of mindfulness, transforming our understanding of conceptual thought, enacting compassionate mind for nondualistic peace and embodying unity in diversity are not easy and can be seen as a special activity located outside the domain of daily life. however, the constitution of the unesco (united nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization) states that “since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.” furthermore, since how we act and how we speak are derived from our own mind-state, we need to monitor and control our own minds to act and speak constructively and harmoniously. 114 as we are creating our subjective and intersubjective realities every day,115 our daily life can be an opportunity to experience the potential and value of mindfulness and perspectival transformation to embody internal self-transformation and interdependent and interconnected nature of peace. however, as peace lies at the nexus of interdependencies and interconnections among psychological, social, cultural, structural, economic and political realities,116 it could be morally problematic to ignore issues of social, structural justice while pushing 114 venerable kosan sunim (1999). my way of pilgrimage to peace. in chappell, d. l. (ed.) buddhist peacework: creating cultures of peace (121-128). boston: wisdom publications. 115 vaughan, f. (1979). awakening intuition. new york: doubleday. 116 groff, l. (2008). contributions of different cultural-religious traditions on different aspects of peace – learning to a holistic, integrative view of peace for a 21st century interdependent world. futuretakes transcultural futurist magazine, 7(1). in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 122-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 142 spiritual and internal development as inner dimensions of peace and outer or social/structural dimensions are interdependent human experiences.117 the challenges for promoting sustainable peace is to strive to satisfy basic human needs of all global citizens and to transform social and even global structures that create asymmetric relationships and train or educate the potential of human mind in terms of developing multiple perspective and epistemologies such as rational consideration, reflection, intuitive knowing, contemplative practices, creative imagination and so on to achieve a positive change. 117 cabezon jose ignacio (1999). the unesco declaration: a tibetan buddhist perspective. in chappell, d. w. 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(2010). voices of experienced meditators: the impact of meditation practice on intimate relationships. retrieved on may 4 2014, from http://portal.idc.ac.il/he/main/research/aware/research/documents/social/attachment/voic es%20_of%20_experienced%20_meditators%20_the%20_im rahula, w. s. (1974). what the buddha taught. new york: grove. ramanan, v. (1978). nagarjuna’s philosophy as presented in the maha-prajnaparamita-sutra. delhi: motilal banarsidass. rubin, j. b. (2003). close encounters of a new kind: toward an integration of psychoanalysis and buddhism. in segall, s. r. (ed.) encountering buddhism: western psychology and buddhist teachings (31-60). albany, new york: state university of new york press. said, abdu’l-aziz., lerche, c. and funk, n. c. (2006). for the need for new thinking. international journal of peace studies, 11 (2): 105-120. suzuki, d. t. 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(2003). common ground, common cause: buddhism and science on the afflictions of identity. in wallace, a. (ed.) buddhism and science: breaking new ground (145-191). new york: columbia university press. walshe, m. (trans). (2012). the digha nikaya – the long discourses of the buddha. boston: wisdom publications. welwood, j. (2000). reflection and presence. in hart, t., nelson, p. l. and puhakka, k. (eds.) transpersonal knowing: exploring the horizon of consciousness (85-111). albany, new york: state university of new york press. wilber, k. (1993). the spectrum of consciousness. wheaton, illinois: quest books. wright, d. (1986). language and truth in hua-yen buddhism. journal of chinese philosophy, 13: 21-47. yun, h. (2002). from the four noble truths to the four universal vow. hacienda heights, california: buddha's light publishing. microsoft word fisher et al english ifp 11.2.docx in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 133 volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal youth leaders and the arts: from conflict to strategic community building beth fisher-yoshida columbia university bf2017@columbia.edu joan lopez columbia university aldo civico columbia university introduction: a state of peace, just like a state of conflict, is not an event; it is a process in a recent public gathering, while discussing the challenges of post-conflict colombia, humberto de la calle, the lead negotiator of the colombian government in the havana peace talks with the revolutionary armed forces of colombia (farc), claimed that it is imperative that we conceive peace “not as an event, but as a process” (2017). with this being said, de la calle alluded to the complexity embedded not only in peace, but also in the state of conflict itself. the armed conflict between the colombian government and farc has a long and complex history. in fact, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 134 according to the the center for justice and accountability, “colombia has endured the longest-running internal conflict in the western hemisphere” (cja, 2017). many players, from all spheres of social life, have been part of this conflict from its origin, its sustainment, to its ever-morphing reproduction; but of course, and most importantly, of its dissolution and transformation into a peaceful society. individuals and social groups experience seemingly insignificant everyday conflicts, such as disputes over power in the workplace, quarrels between football fans in the pub, and fights between drug-dealers over product distribution spaces on street corners, on a regular basis. what they do not readily see is that these everyday local conflicts are part of the social network that sustains conflict patterns of larger impact around the world. the guerrilla warfare in colombia and international armed and cyber conflicts we witness today in some of the most “advanced” countries of the world are examples of this impact. most people experience these seemingly insignificant conflicts closely on a more personal level in their everyday lives, causing them not to recognize the larger global ones as connected in any way or that they affect their way of life at all. it is important to understand that we live in complex and dynamic social contexts, and that the presence of conflict of any order, large or small, is both the cause and result of social relationships, and the cultural patterns they produce, at all levels of our society. the seemingly insignificant everyday conflicts previously described are intertwined at different levels with larger more macro conflicts. at the same time, sunday community kitchens in the inner cities of the united states, the artistic collectives in rio de janeiro, and the youth organizations in medellin, colombia, are all part of the same dynamic and complex social fabric that act toward subverting these conflicts, not sustaining them. thus, it is in the strategic distribution in a given society of seemingly insignificant actions, either of conflict or not, that a dynamic and complex social context can lean towards patterns that sustain conflicts, or towards patterns that have the potential to produce and sustain states of peace. the objective of this paper is to suggest that conflict, peacebuilding and states of peace are the products of the intimate social relationships that are at work in a society between individuals and social institutions, such as governments, armed forces (legal and illegal), grassroots in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 135 organizations, gangs, and so forth; and most importantly, that it is the social imagination that we attach to such relationships that produce and reproduce the patterns that can, on the one hand produce and sustain conflict, or on the other hand, produce and sustain conditions upon which a process of peacebuilding can be constructed. in sum, we want to suggest that within the intricacy of the social networks that produce patterns of conflict, exist the elements to transform these patterns into those of its sustainable resolution. we will exemplify one situation in which a community rife with conflict and violence came together to initiate peacebuilding. we will draw from the testimony of some of our colleagues in medellin about a community organized event held in 2013 in a conflict-ridden zone that produced a peacebuilding model with strong potential for sustainability. to do this, we will situate this event in the historical social and political conflict that began in the city of medellin during the end of the 1970’s and that escalated to previously unimaginable levels. thus, we will first provide a historical description of medellin to set the context and then describe convidarte, the community organized event of peacebuilding that we will use as a case study. after describing the case study we will analyze this event through several theoretical lenses from the fields of conflict resolution and peacebuilding, which we also refer to as “strategic community building.” the context: medellin, colombia for a long time, medellin has been associated with drug trafficking, and especially to the kingpin, pablo escobar. in the 1990s, it was known as the most violent city on earth. in fact, the city had a murder rate of 300 killings every 100 thousand residents (civico, 2006); today, the rate is 19, less than chicago or newark in the united states. medellín is the second largest city in colombia and it has been the commercial capital. it is a city where paternalism, civic duty, a tradition of nonpartisan public service, and ascent based on merit have always coexisted with exclusion, discrimination, parochialism and selective repression (roldan, 2003). in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 136 the capital of the department of antioquia, medellin was founded in 1675 by aristocratic families tired of paying high royal dues to support the bureaucracy of santa fe, then the departmental capital and center of the gold mining industry. these families were joined by a new wave of immigrants from spain attracted by the favorable climate and the fertile terrain of the aburrá valley, mainly occupied by indians at that time. thus, merchants made up the ruling class of the city, which soon became the most important center for commerce in colombia. medellín’s trading imprint is a distinguishing feature of the city and its residents even up until the present time (civico, 2006). over the decades, the elite in medellín pushed the working class people out of town towards the suburbs growing in the northeastern and northwestern slopes of the city. to this day most people of the lower socioeconomic classes and the internally displaced persons live in these areas. thus, also because of the civil war, known as la violencia, in the 1950s, and the growth of medellin’s textile industry, those neighborhoods became densely populated with people from every corner of colombia (civico, 2006). there are invisible boundaries running through medellín, and invisible walls fencing off one sector from the other, that divide the city into poor and wealthy barrios or neighborhoods. the well-to-do withdrew into the private enclaves of the el poblado section of medellin, where they live in fortified villas or luxurious condominiums. as anthropologist teresa caldeira (2000) noted in her study of crime and segregation in the brazilian capital sao paolo, “the upper classes have used the fear of violence and crime to justify new techniques of exclusion and their withdrawal from traditional quarters of the cities” (p.1). she also noted how these private enclaves, “incorporate racial and ethnic anxieties, class prejudices, and references to poor and marginalized groups” (idem). at the beginning of the 1970s, in the wake of a major decline in textile manufacturing, first the trafficking of marijuana and then cocaine, marked the fate of medellin. the trading of these commodities gave the criminals from the lower and middle classes chances to mimic the life of the privileged class. drug trafficking allowed the unleashing of a deep desire for material wellbeing and the access to power, which historically had been denied to everyone but the aristocratic families. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 137 with the surge of cocaine and powerful cartels, like escobar’s legendary medellín cartel, came also extreme and spectacular violence. in the late 1970s, gangs formed in the marginal barrios of the city and that eventually pablo escobar turned into his private army. in consecutive waves of violence, medellin’s peripheries were dominated by guerrilla militias and paramilitary groups. eventually, they demobilized in 2003, as part of the national disarmament of the self-defense united of colombia, an umbrella of paramilitary groups that had formed in the late 1990s under the leadership of the castaño brothers (civico, 2006). in spite of several attempts to reduce violence through urban peace talks with militias and armed groups, violence always found a way to recycle itself. thus, today, armed groups linked to a still powerful network of drug trafficking are keeping a stronghold of medellin’s peripheries, especially the most remote ones, far up in the hills, that are the gateways to the drug routes that lead to the city from the northern coast of colombia. it is in these marginal areas that violence is still experienced, though with far less intensity than in the 1990s and the first years of the new millennium. it is also in these same areas that with courage and creativity citizens have been resisting this violence, transcending reality and generating spaces of peace, often using forms of urban art, from murals to the rhythms, moves and beats of hip-hop. an experience of strategic peace building: convidarte the first sunday of february in 2013 was not going to be a normal day. altavista, a remote sector on the southwest region of medellin, had been immersed in conflict. on this day, over ninety cultural agents, from musicians, painters, poets, and clowns, to social organizers and community leaders, gathered at altavista. through a creative, poetic and melodic political action, the violent conflict between two armed groups (gangs) that were inflicting pain and terror on the community, was suspended. initially, this temporary truce was to hold for two days. we became familiar with this story of community action and peacebuilding through one of our colleagues1, who was an organizer of the event. as we became more familiar with what transpired through in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 138 testimonies, the nuances of this event, its origin, the motivation behind it, and its outcome, marked a major shift in the way we understood the relationship between peacebuilding and strategic community building. it would also enable us to conceive of the arts as a transgressive and transformative aesthetic form. it gave us a tangible situation as a data point to analyze, in order to identify and understand the role of youth leadership, strategic community building and the arts in processes of peacebuilding. rafael augusto restrepo, a social leader, musician and community organizer, since the 1980’s in medellin, tells us that this event was organized as a way to confront the violence that was permeating the social and economic texture of the family and community life of altavista. it was also a way to show support to innocent community members who played no part in the conflict, but who were in the middle of the confrontation between these two gangs. the conflict between the two major gangs of altavista was claiming many lives, especially of children and youth. it was the murder of julian bedoya, “cresty,” a young mime artist, on january 9th, that sparked the massive mobilization of youth leaders and “engaged artists” (as they self-identify) from all over medellin. rafael augusto, who played a pivotal role in the organization and execution of this experience, claims that this event was informed by the sense of collective consciousness that is formed when many people are affected by something in common: in this case, violence. “i was many and the many were one…that was the key to making this successful…this allowed us to combine our individual forces and become a united transformative force,” claims augusto (2015). the negotiation convidarte was only possible due to the existing citywide network of youth leaders, artists and social activists. the little clown, cresty, belonged to corporacion casa arte of altavista, a community organized space where members of the community have access to artistic formation, mostly on performing and visual arts, and mentoring. cresty was know in the city both for his membership at corporacion casa arte and for his skills as a mime. thus his death, which was the result of a crossfire in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 139 between the two major gangs of altavista, moved social activists from across the city to join forces to act instead of only lamenting, this all too common type of death. camilo bahena, a masterful clown, was the director of corporacion casa arte at that time. he and augusto, after a long conversation about the murder of cresty, and reflecting on whether they were “condemned to attend to funerals of little clowns, as rituals of sacrifice, to pay for the cost of being, or dreaming to be artists,” took action to put into motion the network of youth leaders in a call for collective action (2016). camilo and augusto with the support of masses of youth that were fed up with the violence all around the city, took up the challenge to negotiate a ceasefire, at least for a couple of days, between the gangs--including the one responsible for the death of cresty. the “excuse” they used to begin the negotiation was to ask members of the community, the armed actors included, to join them for a gigantic artistic festival: convidarte2. the community, as well as the combatants, were tired of so many deaths and of the incessant bloodshed of the past months and were ready to suspend the conflict--at least for a few days. camilo and augusto found a way to meet with the leaders of the two gangs and, thereby, to serve as negotiators for a ceasefire between them. as the result of various conversations between camilo and augusto, who were representing a whole community of youth leaders and artists, and the leaders of the two gangs, the latter understood their role in this act of solidarity, or mourning if you will, but above all of peacebuilding. these gang leaders were not asked to put men at the disposal of the festival for protection; rather, their role was to put their arms away and join the festivities, to dance, and forget about their armed conflict for a few days. given that the two gang leaders showed willingness to participate, the two brave negotiators exposed the feelings of sorrow that the community was experiencing due to the conflict between these two gangs. the sense of humanity began to be visible in the faces of these “poor warriors,” augusto recounts (2016). one of the gang leaders received a call from an ex-lover that, according to him has always asked him to leave the armed conflict, and this prompted him to confirm his participation saying “count on us...tell them they have my word that we will suspend our fire as of now.” this happened on a thursday, two days before the festival, which meant that if the other gang leader was to agree, the in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 140 ceasefire would not be for two days, but actually for four days. he agreed. all day saturday augusto, camilo, and many more dreamers and peacemakers spent the day at altavista preparing the stages for what was going to be a spectacular expression of peace, and not of war, in a conflict zone. reflections on convidarte one of the key elements that made this negotiation possible was the leadership capacity of leaders that learn by doing, and that let their intuition and their lived experiences in conflict zones guide their actions. for the most part, the youth leaders we know in medellin have spent all of their lives in neighborhoods where conflict lays at the base of the social dynamics of the community and, thereby, conditions the way community members act and interact with each other. it is important to understand that in conflict zones, such as some of today’s urban neighborhoods, there is no presence of an “other” within the community, as conventionally referenced. the gang members, the youth leaders and social organizers, the girls and boys that play on the streets, and the elderly that gossip while playing dominoes in front of their homes, all belong to the same community. be it in one way or another, they are all embedded in the conflict and are part of the dynamics that sustain it. but as the convidarte experience shows, not only are members of conflict zones “sustainers” of the conflict, they are also powerful transformative agents. when their efforts are combined they can represent a threat to the culture and dynamic of violence that saturates these communities. augusto, camilo and all the youth leaders and social organizers that planned convidarte recognized this; they conceived of the gang members as “one among them” and let themselves be guided by this finding. they helped the gang members identify themselves as part of the community, and the community as part of them. by everyone recognizing that they were one and that “one was all,” they stopped the armed conflict between the two gangs that were inflicting pain to the altavista community--themselves included. after this event, the two armed groups found a way to resolve their conflict without the piercing sound of rifles. as of today, no instance of armed conflict activity between these two gangs has been evidenced in altavista after convidarte. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 141 from conflict to peace conflicts persist embedded in webs of relationships. our world is built of relationships and our relationships are built in communication (fisher-yoshida, 2014). our relationships consist of a series of episodes and the quality of these episodes creates the quality of our relationships. as noted in the story of convidarte, these webs of relationship are what made the event and process of transformation from armed conflict to peace possible. we can have relationships that are overall healthy and peaceful or we can have relationships that are rife with conflict. lederach (2003) differentiates between episodes of conflict, which are the visible expressions of conflict and issues within a particular time frame, whereas the epicenter of the conflict is the web of relational patterns where these issues emerge, revealing the history of the relationship. the boundaries of an episode are not always apparent to us until there is a change that distinguishes one episode from another. so we may be in a relationship with a particular pattern or rhythm that becomes disturbed when an episode of conflict emerges. in this case the conflict becomes explicit to us. it brings certain energy to it that may differ from the nature of the relationship we had previously. in order to change this pattern of conflict we need to change the pattern dynamics and create new episodes with better patterns of relationship. this is an ongoing process as peace is dynamic because it is embedded in the patterns of our relationship and these are ever changing (lederach, 2003). and since we created the episodes and dynamics of our relationships whatever the quality they are, we also have the agency to change them. in the convidarte case described above, we see that the initiators of the event to celebrate the life of cresty the mime artist, and other artists who made the festivities, interrupted the pattern of violence that was so typical to life in altavista. the event of cresty’s murder was a disorienting dilemma (mezirow, 2000) for the community and artists. it shifted their perspective of continuing to accept the violence that had become the norm, to taking a creative turn and making something different. they questioned their taken for granted assumptions that violence was the in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 142 norm and they wanted something different. these artists were able to create new episodes as they began changing the nature of the relationships they had even if for only a few days. the experience of these new episodes would create new patterns of relationship. peacebuilding and the state of peace require us to use our imaginations to emerge from the conflict we are living to enter into the mystery of the unknown, which in this case is peaceful existence (lederach, 2005). our knowledge base is from our experience and these experiences form the current frames of reference we have. these frames make the lenses from which we understand our worlds and our relationships. in order to shift from a conflict frame to a peace frame that can be sustained, we need to change the practices we use to engage with others. pearce (1989) identifies resources as the stories, images and symbols that we use to make our worlds meaningful; and practices as the actions we take based on these resources. through reflexive processes our resources are expressed through our practices and our practices construct or reconstruct our resources. this is an iterative cycle and learning takes place when we are able to make explicit this process so we can be more intentional in how we act and how we shape our beliefs. transforming the stories we tell ourselves about who we are and who we are in relation to others, changes the quality of the relationship we have to be in a conflict relationship or in a relationship of peace (wasserman & fisher-yoshida, 2017). peacebuilding framework there is a framework of peacebuilding that lederach (2005) suggests, which is built on four principles: quality of relationship, paradoxical curiosity, space for the creative act, and willingness to take risk. in this next section we will apply these four principles forming the basis of peacebuilding to the case study of convidarte to see the qualities they captured in their experience according to this framework. after analyzing the case we will highlight the main take aways we gleaned from this peacebuilding process. first principle, relationship. in the first principle, relationship, lederach (2005) posits that, “peacebuilding requires a vision of relationship” (p. 35). conflict is embedded in the web of relationships we in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 143 have with others both those known to us and the greater community at large, therefore, peacebuilding as well is embedded in our relationships. “the centrality of relationship provides the context and potential for breaking violence, for it brings people into the pregnant moments of the moral imagination: the space of recognition that ultimately the quality of our life is dependent on the quality of life of others” (p.35). noticing the interdependence we have with others allows us to think beyond the boundaries of our own existence to recognize that we live in relation to others and these relationships are what constitute our communities and social worlds. deutsch (2014) discusses the nature of our interdependence as sinking or swimming together. if we boost others up with us then we are entering into a cooperative relationship considered win-win, whereas, bringing others down even though we go down as well is more of a loselose relationship. sustainable peace needs to be a web of relationships in which we have a series of win-win dynamics realizing we are all in this together and what affects one will ripple across the community. in addition, each community consisting of a web of relationships has certain types of energy provoking specific types of actions. these energies are known as logical forces that stimulate certain types of communication over others (pearce, 2007). this communication presents itself as practices we take up as we are socialized into these communities. it creates a sense of what we “ought to do in situations such as these with the relationships we have with these types of people.” in order to change the resulting practices in which we partake because of the logical forces leading to these actions, we need to change the episodes creating these logical forces. if we create episodes that prefigure, with prefigurative forces, different practices, we are potentially shifting the nature of our relationship from conflict to peace. the implications, or implicative force, this generates calls for different behaviors (wasserman & fisher-yoshida, 2017). the forces are strong and embedded in the episodes of our relationship history, so it takes determination and strong consistent support to challenge existing forces toward new relational dynamics. in the case of convidarte, there were relationships between the two main gangs, between the artists, between the community and the in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 144 gangs, community and the artists, and all of them with the mime artist, cresty, who was murdered. they took the status of the normed relationships that had developed over the years, and decided to transform them so that they could all come together on those days to celebrate life, celebrate art, and celebrate the coexistence in the community. this meant they had to do something different to challenge the existing relationships and logical forces that led them into the pattern of behavior under which they had been living. one example of this is when augusto and camilo engaged in conversation with the gang leaders to secure their support in creating the truce, so this event could occur. the contextual forces of altavista suggested that the gangs were in charge and the community members were mere witnesses and subjects to this rule. engaging the gang leaders into a different type of dialogue created implicative forces that changed what happened next, convidarte (wasserman & fisheryoshida, 2017). second principle, paradoxical curiosity. the second principle, paradoxical curiosity, lederach (2005) describes as being able to suspend judgment to explore the contradictions that appear. he talks about using face value and heart value to go beyond what is apparently contradictory. “face value is the simple and direct way that things appear and are presented. . . .heart value goes beyond the presentation of appearance and ventures into the way these things are perceived and interpreted by people. it explores where meaning is rooted” (p. 36). the paradox is the contrast between knowing what is, which is the face value and based on experience, as compared to the heart value of anticipating where it could be. there are three principles in coordinated management of meaning (cmm), a social constructionist theory and practice that takes a communication perspective (pearce, 2007). one of these principles is mystery and that is realizing that there are many unknowns in the world in which we live and sometimes we need to take leaps of faith into the abyss of what is unknown and potentially better than what currently exists. this resonates with the heart value lederach (2005) speaks of in this principle of peacebuilding. the face value aspect of peacebuilding resonates with the principles of coherence and coordination in cmm (pearce, 2007). coherence is the sense making that we do to understand our social worlds, while coordination is what we do to be in sync within our in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 145 relationships. the resources and practices from our experience and the historical episodes we have had with others provide the foundation that determines the quality of our relationships. it is in this space that our personal and social narratives become intertwined as well. we live in stories that we tell about ourselves and the world in which we live (wasserman & fisher-yoshida, 2017). change one story and it is a change to the resources we draw upon, which in turn has a ripple effect to change other stories as well. in terms of how this applies to convidarte, there were contradictions here in that two rival gangs were willing to support a temporary truce in order for there to be celebration in the streets for life and the arts. they were taking time out of their perpetuation of violence to put a hold on it in order to allow this event to occur. and even though there were high levels of violence in the area of altavista, there was a profound love of this mime cresty, so that even perpetrators of violence were upset with the violence on him. an interesting development from the event is that although the gangs placed a temporary truce on violence in order for the festival to occur, the community residents who now tasted freedom again were not as willing to accept the gangs rule over their living conditions any longer. they of course had not directly supported the violence, but their not openly challenging it in the past gave implicit permission for the gangs to remain relevant and in charge. this was no longer to be the case as the community members ran the gangs out of their powerful positions once the festival and truce took place. the gangs did not have as strong a chokehold on the community after the event and perhaps they were ready for this change, too. third principle, find space for the creative act. providing space requires a predisposition, a kind of attitude and perspective that opens up, even invokes, the spirit and belief that creativity is humanly possible. fundamentally, this requires a belief that the creative act and response are permanently within reach and, most important, are always accessible, even in settings where violence dominates and through its oppressive swath creates its greatest lie: the lands it inhabits are barren. artists shatter this lie (lederach, 2005, p. 38). for convidarte it was artists who came out to celebrate the life of one of their own that was taken from them by this violence. they had the in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 146 vision and wherewithal to take a risk because for them the beauty of what they do, how they express themselves in relationship to others, is life giving and this was more important for them to communicate than to be fearful for that day. they allowed themselves to be in the creative moment and suspend any apprehension they may have previously held. “creativity and imagination, the artist giving birth to something new, propose to us avenues of inquiry and ideas about change that requires to think about how we know the world, how we are in the world, and most important, what in the world is possible” (lederach, 2005, p. 39). from a cmm perspective they were creating new contextual forces to bring about new realities of what could transpire in that community (pearce, 2007). the context we are in puts forth certain logical forces of the types of activities that should occur in this type of environment. the artists were changing the dynamics of the context of the altavista community so that celebrations of life could take place, rather than the dominant narrative of violence. through their artistic initiatives they were transforming the stories of violence and inhibition to stories of life and artistic expression. fourth principle, the willingness to risk. “to risk is to step into the unknown without any guarantee of success or even safety. risk by its very nature is mysterious. it is mystery lived, for it ventures into lands the are not controlled or charted” (lederach, 2005, p. 39). there is a certain irony here in that when we work with people in communities that have known violence for so long, it is living in peaceful co-existence that is the mystery, the unknown. this means there are new ways of communicating and being with each that need to be learned because the known is relating to each other through violence. these are the stories we want to transform. new framing questions could be, “what does it mean for me to live in peace with other members of my community? what does it look like? what do i have to do differently to change my life narrative from one of a violent existence to one of a peaceful existence?” in convidarte the artists were willing to take risks and re-story the violence of altavista into a new story of creativity, artistic expression and community building. the mystery for them was how would it be for them to be in peaceful coexistence when all they had known for an extended period of time was violence and fear? was it something stored in a in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 147 recessive part of their memory that they were able to call upon or would it be experienced as a new phenomenon? this would imply that if it were a new phenomenon, to live in peace, then they would have to learn these behaviors and ways of being. they did this by trusting the process and presence of their artistic expression. they did not need to think through every detail, but instead to believe their art was a natural human expression and one that would bring healing to a divided community. in cmm the role of mystery allows for the space of our imagination and responding to questions beginning with “what if?” it opens up doors and paths to rewriting our personal and social narratives as we continue to make new social worlds of peaceful communities. once these new ways of being in relation to one another begin to be formed, they develop new resources that inform our practices of how we engage one another. and these new stories and ways of being are generative and continue to develop over time until they become deeply embedded into our psyche and are no longer new. these four principles of peacebuilding that lederach (2005) puts forth offer us a framework that can demonstrate that when these principles exist then we have strategic community building. this type of community building is intentional and at the same time this intentionality creates spaces for the imagination to take root and for community members to work in tandem to create environments they can call home in which they take pride. conclusion in thinking through the convidarte experience as a bottom-up, grassroots experiment in transforming communities of conflict into communities of peace, certain elements surface. these are ripeness, creativity and relationships. for the first one, there seemed to be an element of ripeness or readiness that pushed the citizens of the communities and fellow artists of cresty into action. we might ask ourselves then, what are the conditions that bring communities to conditions of ripeness? if we can identify some of these characteristics, then perhaps we can foster ripeness in situations in order to push them toward action. four methods were identified as being applicable to in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 148 bringing parties toward ripeness to engage in constructive conflict resolution (coleman, fisher-yoshida, stover, hacking & bartoli, 2008): 1. increasing awareness of the mutually shared problems and interests the parties have. there is an interdependence amongst them that may not be recognized, which can foster initiatives for change. in the case of convidarte, the humanity of all involved parties was highlighted and they recognized that they all suffer or rejoice together. 2. reducing the fear the parties had of each other and their environment. once the organizers were able to recognize the humanity in all parties and bring them together in celebration of life and the arts, previous barriers of “us and them” faded. 3. engendering trust is one factor that is critical, but takes time to build. after so many years of the relationships in altavista being prone to violence, many felt under threat. the initial trust was given to allow convidarte to happen, first from each of the gang leaders toward the other, and then from the community members and artists. 4. eliciting and responding to needs of the community members. when cresty was killed people all around were grieving. they needed solace and they needed closure. convidarte was a way to foster that and in turn, begin rebuilding the community. constructively engaging parties in episodes that build positive relationships shifts the mindsets of the parties to want to continue engaging in this manner. the parties in convidarte began creating new episodes that fostered different stories about each other and how they are in relation to one another. these became the building blocks for new and constructive relational dynamics. this sentiment of ripeness was also felt by the more active perpetrators of violence, the two rival gangs. they, too, were feeling tired from the demands of being on constant alert to spring into violence at any moment, in addition to, losing some of their loved ones as well. perhaps they were looking for an excuse to create new episodes of cooperation to end the violence and this invitation of having a truce for the festival was that opening. the rewriting of the personal and social stories of all involved in making convidarte happen allowed them to continue the truce in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 149 long after the festival came and went. the more they lived without conflict, in a peaceful, thriving community, the more they were able to continue along that trajectory reinforcing these new narratives. a second element that surfaced, is the role of the arts and imagination. altavista was a community where people walked in the streets only if they needed to get from point a to point b. no one lingered in the streets and there were no signs of life in the streets, such as playgrounds and parks filled with children or food venders along the road. however, convidarte changed all that. for the first time in many years food vendors came to the streets to sell their wares to all of the participants and attendees at the festival. once the population experienced this new sense of freedom, they did not want to go back into hiding. the community was also reminded of what it means to be alive and enjoy the arts and culture. this is very much in alignment with the four principles of peacebuilding lederach (2005) put forth, especially the principle of finding space for the creative act. convidarte, from conception to how it was carried out, was one creative act in a creative space that had long lasting ripple effects on the community. the third element, relationships, cannot be underestimated. we are all part of social webs of relationships and every nuance is felt throughout the system. when these relationships are embedded in conflict all of the characteristics of destructive interactions are highlighted. we lose sight of each other’s humanity and our own suffering becomes greatest. however, when given opportunities to transform these relationships to ones filled with constructive engagement, we recognize the humanity in each other. this brings forth different sets of resources and practices, so that we develop more empathy toward each other. these positive engagements create new stories and new episodes that foster other episodes. our stories of each other change and the nature of our social worlds change in turn. we can then tell stories of cooperation that we could not previously tell. we are all social beings and live in relation to one another although at times we lose sight of these dynamics. in order for any peacebuilding to be sustainable there needs to be glimpses into what the possibilities might be. this calls forth a willingness on the part of parties involved in conflict to let go of the familiar and venture into experiencing the mystery of peace. this requires a leap of in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 150 faith and for those involved to engage their imaginations in considering what if? in present day colombia these are just the types of questions they could be asking, as they have agency in designing their post-conflict future. endnotes 1 all the quotations in this section are part of our field notes drawn from conversations we have had with augusto restrepo about convidarte between 2014 and 2017. 2 convidarte is a spanish compound words that was created for the purpose of this event that combines the following words: coexistence, life and art. references caldeira, t. (2000). city of walls: crime, segregation, and citizenship in sao paolo. berkeley, ca: university of california press. civico, a. (2006). the para-state: an ethnography of colombia’s death squads. berkeley, ca: university of california press. coleman, p. t., fisher-yoshida, b., stover, m. a., hacking, a. g. and bartoli, a. (2008). reconstructing ripeness ii: models and methods for fostering constructive stakeholder engagement across protracted divides. conflict resolution quarterly, vol. 26, no. 1, fall 2008. deutsch, m. (2014). cooperation, competition and conflict. in p. t. coleman, m. deutsch & e. marcus (eds.) handbook of conflict resolution: theory and practice, 3rd edition. san francisco: josseybass. fisher-yoshida, b. (2014). creating constructive communication through dialogue. in p. t. coleman, m. deutsch & e. marcus (eds.) handbook of conflict resolution: theory and practice, 3rd edition. san francisco: jossey-bass. lederach, j. p. (2003). the little book of conflict transformation. intercourse, pa: good books. lederach, j. p. (2005). the moral imagination: the art and soul of building peace. new york: oxford university press. mezirow, j. (2000). learning to think like an adult: core concepts of transformation theory. in j. mezirow and associates (eds.). learning as transformation: critical perspectives on a theory in progress. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 133-151 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 151 pearce, w. b. (1989). communication and the human condition. carbondale, il: southern illinois university press. pearce, w. b. (2007). making social worlds: a communication perspective. malden, ma: wiley-blackwell. roldan, m. (2003). wounded medellin: narcotics traffic against a background of industrial decline. in j. schneider and i. susser (eds.). wounded cities: destruction and reconstruction in a globalized world. new york: berg. the center for justice and accountability. transnational justice in colombia. n.p., n.d. http://cja.org/what-we-do/transitional-justiceinitiatives/colombia/ (2 june 2017) wasserman, i. c. and fisher-yoshida, b. (2017). communicating possibilities: a brief introduction to the coordinated management of meaning (cmm). chagrin falls, oh: taos institute. revised book review-philosophy of peace education[1] in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 147-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 147 volume 3 number 1 (2009): 147-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ recasting classical and contemporary philosophies to ground peace education: a review essay of james page, peace education: exploring ethical and philosophical foundations (charlotte, nc: information age press, 2008) david ragland the university of toledo one semester, my doctoral advisor and i planned a course entitled “global and philosophical perspectives of peace education.” along with a number of graduate students, we embarked on a journey to study the cultural context and philosophy of peace education in another country. graduate students from the host peace program happily joined us as we explored the philosophical roots of peace education and local contexts. the reoccurring sentiment from the graduate students, who joined us, was that philosophy of peace (education) was the missing element of their peace education program curriculum. dr. james page has provided an important text “ peace education: exploring ethical and philosophical foundations” which is, in a part an answer to critiques pertaining to the lack of and call for philosophical grounding in the field of peace education. page’s project is necessary both practically in the development of the emerging field of peace education, but philosophically to continue the exploration of philosophical thought which provides essential articulation of a framework for this robust, essential field of experience and action. dr. page begins by questioning some key assumptions about peace, and addressing criticisms targeting peace studies, research and education. one such notion is in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 147-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 148 the presumed need for peace and what peace is. many have misused the term peace, to paint it as ineffective, idealistic and to justify the need for war. criticism of peace education ranges from accusations of political and ideological indoctrination to a field that is unscholarly and missionary in nature. to be fair, some who claim to do peace education fit this description. page describes how peace education has developed in response to global wars, key thinkers, instruments, and institutions. page approaches the philosophy of peace education through engagement in the question of indoctrination. page utilizes philosophy of education methodology, which he suggests is based upon the respect of student autonomy. autonomy in this context does not mean the disregard for inquiry into controversial issues and subject matters1. page suggests that since violence is pervasive, deeply engrained in human culture, education for peace is a necessary alternative to that violent norm. according to the author, peace education is the exploration of peace moments and educational movements2 as well as a challenge to authority.3 peace education connects the political violence to the personal. since meaning is derived from such violence and conflict, page rightly questions how might we derive meaning from peace? thus, this book is partly phenomenological, in that it describes what peace education is, by examining some philosophies that might uncover and inform our thinking on peace. dr. page takes up the challenges of peace researchers and educators to engage in philosophical exploration of peace education. page’s stated aim is “to investigate and enunciate ethico-philosophical foundations for peace education”4. this aim results from the taken for grantedness of a philosophy of peace education. just as peace has assumed meaning, the philosophy of peace education is assumed. page frames his argument as dialectic, and postfoundationalist in his exploration of how virtue ethics, consequentialist ethics, conservative political ethics, aesthetic ethics, and care ethics might represent the possibilities for foundations of peace education. virtue ethics the chapter on virtue ethics describes an agent centered ethical stance concerned with being, and the good, while rejecting duty and utopian ideals as characterized in the enlightenment project5. page briefly mentions virtue ethics of confucianism, buddhism and islam, but focuses on christian theological arguments explaining its underlying aspects as rooted in nonviolence and peace itself as a virtue. page explores virtue ethics from the perspective of aristotle’s moral philosophy. aristotle presents a praxiological perspective, which connects just acts with peaceful ones. this connection is essential, for justice is a necessary condition for peace. the concept of eudemonia, expressed by 1 james page, peace education: exploring ethical and philosophical foundations. charlotte: information age press, 2008 p 14. 2 ibid., p. 15 3 ibid., p. 16 4 ibid., p. 18 5 ibid., pp. 23-24 in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 147-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 149 aristotle as happiness or human flourishing, is connected with un documents articulating the need and actions necessary for a culture of peace. aristotle’s thinking about means and ends connects with the process orientation of contemporary peace educators6. other philosophical concepts within the virtue ethics frameworks come from erasmus’ humanism and spinoza’s disdain for war. page suggests that the theological commitments of dietrich bonhoffer provide an example of moral courage. some modern thinkers on virtue ethics and peace education include such prominent figures as gandhi and martin luther king. alasdair macintyre ‘ after virtue provides a powerful argument for the reclamation of virtue described by the ancients to be revived in our every day practice of living and attainment of the good life and common good. in the discussion of virtue ethics (and thinkers attributed to this perspective) and peace education, page gleans it as a kind of positionality, or way of being in the world, that can be learned and must be educated, for it to take hold. he describes how certain virtues are used to justify war and violent tendencies, and traces how violence is not virtuous and or the desired end, unlike peace. he suggests that nonviolent virtues cannot be reasoned away in the face of social pressure.7 consequentialism ethical positions are based on the consequences of particular acts. page delineates but finds many similarities between consequential and utilitarian ethical arguments (utilitarianism is a prominent type of consequentialism). consquentialism attempts to give equal weight to everyone’s interests. yet the act, which provides the greatest good, within this system is given preference.8 consequentialism, according to page can be indirect, motive, qui bono, egoistic, altruistic and universal. page finds francis hutcheson (1725/1755), whose work focuses on international law, war and peace, compatible with peace education because of hutcheson’s believe that the advantages of peace are the most beneficial to society. jeremy bentham’s work on what would bring about the greatest happiness and least amount of suffering is applied to his plan for peace through international politics and law. page argues that bentham’s ethics is a basis for political education to produce peace. john stuart mill (1861) furthers the utilitarian project, but focuses on the idea of liberty to imply agency and obligation for individuals to act for the greatest good. mills also suggests that education about international law be a significant part of liberal education. page argues that the work of karl marx, by virtue of worker revolution to remedy injustice, has a consequentialist utilitarian outlook. page counts social reconstructionism in american educational theory as consequentialist. based on normative values espoused by educational theorists, john dewey (1897/1916), and george counts (1932), education ought transform society into one that is truly democratic, cooperative and peaceful. page discusses critical literacy and pedagogy in terms of paulo friere work to help individuals read oppressive 6 ibid., pp. 27-30 7 ibid., p. 55 8 ibid., p. 67 in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 147-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 150 conditions for liberation, for the sake of the entire society. elaine scarry looks at how some use language to hide the social reality of violence (indirect and direct), to mislead the public. bringing this reality to light is part of the work of critical literacy. page suggests that martin luther king ‘s (1968) work goes beyond the nonviolent principles and civil rights to education about the connections of economic, political and social injustice as well as violence (as manifested in american involvement in vietnam) to a peaceful social order. if there is no justice, there is no peace. all of the aforementioned theorists fall within the consequentialist framework because they advocate transformation and reform (action) for the greatest good (effect) of all society. conservative political ethics page traces conservative ethics from sources like plato, aristotle, hegel, michael oak shot and anthony quinton, not as beginnings of ideologies, but retrieval of true conservativism. true conservativism sees the quick movement into war as radical and unthoughtful. violence itself disrupts the social order. for instance, page points out that much conservative political ethics were a response to the violence of the french revolution, not the injustices the revolution attempted to change. page suggests that conservatism can be identified in terms of the empiricism of aristotle’s moderation, morality between excess and defectthe two extremes; and plato’s rationalism, in which the concept of peace might be considered a form. grounded in the same rationalism, michael oakshot, like gandhi suggests that peace is the way.9 anthony quinton suggests conservative political ethics, establishes the customs of nonviolence within world religions, as well as skepticism needed to question political ideologies and dogmatic approachessuch as militarism in nationalism.10 to conserve does not preclude change, but requires thoughtful strategy and careful tactics. conservatism in this light is not inconsistent with long-term social transformation. in this section, page is involved in a retrieval of conservative political values to recast what might be considered a misinterpretation of what it means to be conservative. conservativism, in this light, values peace, cooperation and nonviolence, as the opposite to direct and indirect violence, which is disruptive to all forms of social life. this exploration into conservative ethics is important for public examination, especially since they present an alternative view of the impetus for political conservatism. modern conceptions have veered far from page’s recapitulation of conservative ethical grounding to mindless, unexamined political ideologies that are aimed at disrupting peace, making war and wasting natural resources. aesthetic ethics the aesthetic ethical aspects of philosophy in peace education are based on what things; actions, ideas, and material are found to be beautiful, attractive and or pleasing. page finds aesthetic ethical values emanating from judeo-christian, non-legalistic 9 ibid., p.102 10 ibid., pp.107-108 in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 147-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 151 perspective. for instance, planetary consciousness fostered by peace educators is desirable. the possibilities for aesthetics as an ethical framework hold greater possibility, as a result of the failure of enlightenment obligatory ethics arising from duty. traditional ethical systems fail to deal with human suffering and have been used to justify direct and indirect violence. classical notions of aesthetics are beauty, symmetry, taste and judgment. plato’s form of beauty refers internally to one’s character and externally to the state. religious traditions equate aesthetic beauty to god, justice and peace. all of which are related. in this section, page deals with buddhism, christianity, islam11, david hume, adam smith, kant, kierkegaard, dewey and albert schweitzer. the analysis of adam smith is extremely important in light of his thought in the wealth of nations. smith’s thoughts on morality are profound. adam smith suggests that individuals ought to experience displeasure for the pain experienced by others. smith also argues that people are less likely to feel for others when they are wealthy.12 page describes as aesthetic ethics in a histo-linear movement from classical, religious, enlightenment, to modernity, ending with contemporary perspectives. page includes elise boulding’s work on imagining preferred futures, as well as maxine greene’s work in moral imagination. work toward a culture of peace (education) is especially at home in aesthetic ethical ideas of tolerance and educating the senses to respect the beauty of humanity and justice. care ethics care is the final and most critiqued source for peace education philosophy in this document. care ethics comprise a major aspect of thinking about peace education. care has been described as a women’s way of knowing, and as relational (existential) in nature. page deals with the work of carol gilligan (1982/1985), nel noddings (1996/2008), and heidegger (1975). this reading considers care as problematically situated as a contextualfeminist ethics and in need of expansion. page argues that the aspect of care, focusing on women as natural peacemakers reinforces dichotomies. men, he suggests also participate in nurturing and activities. page calls for a universal ethic of care, without qualification. these critiques are understandable, but ignore the strong influence of patriarchy on most of the women (and men) of the world. thus, reinforcing women as peacemakers is necessary for the purposes of empowerment, and affinity. to argue for universal care ethics (non-gendered), and its expansion beyond immediate relations is important, but one cannot deny the importance of women’s ways of knowing and contributions to peace making. the fact that many women are involved in a culture of violence does not negate the need for women’s affinity groups in peacemaking. page rightly includes the expansion of an ethic of care to the environment. analysis 11 ibid., pp. 123130 12 ibid., pp. 134136 in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 147-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 152 the work of plato, aristotle, augustine, aquinas kant, hume, dewey and judeochristian theology, are reoccurring fixtures in each of the ethical perspectives. in focusing on these western thinkers and theologies, james has articulated the nuanced interpretations supporting peace education, while debunking some thought used to justify war and structural inequities. james is masterful in his retrieval of classic ideas to ground us in thinking peacefully. page is honest in his description of the limitations in scope of this project. it is acknowledgement that this study is, for the most part, from a western eurocentric, epistemological framework. this is helpful in terms of realizing what needs to be articulated in the philosophy of peace education. the focus on judeo-christian ethics is often juxtaposed with a few references to world religion. yet, although the mention of islam, buddhism, and gandhi shows that ‘positive cultural contributions’ to the philosophy of peace education are present, these contributions need further, nuanced development. in our articulation of various worldviews through ‘world religions’, we should be careful of essentializing global philosophies into religions that correspond with various cultures. sen writes “wellmeaning attempts at pursing global peace can have very counterproductive consequences when these attempts are founded on fundamentally illusory understandings of the world of human beings.”13 page’s philosophy of peace education is mostly positive in terms of his annunciation of classical, enlightenment and philosophical thinking. this is necessary. there is much value in this kind of project. in "prophetic thought in postmodern times", cornell west14 suggests that we should have discernment. we should understand the complexities of the past. because we are thinking humans, we cannot help but connect with ideas, but we must their track hypocrisy (colonialism, enlightenment, and patriarchy etc…), reintroducing ourselves to old and new knowledge in order to expand the progression of our understanding. finally, west suggests that we must have hopeby facing the skeletons of histories as a challenge, not as a conclusion. page’s imaginative recasting of philosophy, that has, at times, been used to justify the horrors of war and structural violence, is necessary. this capacity has been lost, social imagination for peace is not matched by our collective capacity for destruction. yet, inquiry might be continued through ongoing examination and deconstruction of patriarchy, and the overlapping hierarchies, racism, and sexism found in western intellectual history. the exclusion of thinkers and experiences from members of oppressed groups and classes are foundations of contemporary exclusion that the philosophy of peace education must explore. some possibilities for expansions of a more 13 ibid., p.13 14 cornell west, prophetic thought in postmodern times (monroe me: common courage press, 1993), p.5 in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 147-153 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 153 holistic philosophy of peace education include confucius, mary wollstonecraft15, sojourner truth (1851) “ain’t i a woman”, w.e.b. du bois (1903) souls of black folk, simone de beauvior (1953) second sex, franz fanon’s (1961) wretched of the earth, chinua achebe’s (1951) things fall apart, senegalese president léopold sédar senghor, and martinican poet aimé césaire senghold work in the negritude, hannah arendt’s work on moral imagination in eichmann in jerusalem , cornell west (1993), howard zinn’s (2003) a people’s history of the united states; and both abdullahi ahmed an-na’im (2001), and jack donnelly’s (2001) discussion about lgbtq issues in the philosophy of human rights. even this listing is grossly incomplete.16 martin berlowitz (2006) writes about the exclusion of african american perspectives in peace education.17 this work is necessary and important. the philosophy of peace education is planetary and cosmopolitan. it is especially important to recognize the voice of those excluded, not only to redress past exclusions, but also to begin to address how much we don’t know about humanity, because of the forced silencing of the oppressed since the beginning of human history. as alistair macintyre suggests in after virtue, we only have fragments of morality. dr. page is involved in a recasting of well-known thought to begin gathering, filling in and connecting those fragments. our author explains how social theory, political philosophy, ethics and educational theory, contribute to the peace educational enterprise, whether explicit or not. peace education: exploring philosophical foundations reveals how the envisioning, proposing, planning, teaching (of numerous schools of thought) for a better world all correspond with explicit goals of the field, as well as encouraging the good in the individual, community, through values and norms. despite the difficulties in any articulation that philosophy of peace education will have, this book is an impressive piece in the development of intellectual foundations for peace education. it should be a used as a primary source of curriculum and research for peace educators, students, advocates and scholars. i plan to use it in my courses. 15 wollstonecraft, vindication of the rights of women, 1792 16 jack donnelly, non-discrimination and sexual orientation: making a place for sexual minorities in the global human rights regime. in patrick hayden. eds. the philosophy of human rights. st. paul, mn. :paragon press, 2001 (p.574). 17 marvin berlowitz; long, nathan a.; jackson, eric r. the exclusion and distortion of african american perspectives in peace education. educational studies: journal of the american educational studies association; v39 n1 p5-15, 2006. anto paper presentation[1] in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 140-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 140 volume 3 number 1 (2009): 140-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ peace channel: a channel for human rights education and peace in nagaland. fr. rev. c.p. anto director peace channel post box. no. 03, dimapur, nagaland india: 797112 www.peacechannel.in context of conflict or development situation of the naga society nagas are a group of tribes of southeast asian origins culturally distinct from the indo-aryan cultural mainstream. they live in relative independence from one another scattered over large tracts of hills in the northeastern region of india adjoining myanmar. naga tribes in the present state of nagaland became part of india only after indian independence in 1947 – a case which is still contested by armed naga nationalist groups who also simultaneously declared independence and run a parallel underground government throughout naga inhabited areas. according to 2001 census 19,88,639 naga population live in nagaland state with an area of 16,579 sqkm. the state is situated between 93°20'e and 95°15' e and between 25°6' and 27°4' n. the state has common boundaries with myanmar in the east, assam in the west; arunachal pradesh and a part of assam in the north with manipur in the south. nagaland is home to 16 major tribes who are known for their own distinct character and identify of each tribe in terms of tradition, custom, language and attire. about 90% of the state’s population is christian and there are a good many number of churches located in all parts of the state. for this reason nagaland is popularly known as the “most baptist state in the world’. christianity began to set food among the naga tribes in 1839; by 1930 there were 60,000 members in several churches. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 140-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 141 the state of nagaland was created in 1963 as a negotiated settlement of the conflict following 9 years of bloody war with the indian army. it was a great achievement for independent india but a great compromise for the naga national council (nnc). under article 371a of the constitution of india, naga enjoys relative freedom in social, cultural and religious affairs. the nnc rejected the settlement and established a federal government of nagaland with it’s own constitution and army. they fought wars of independence, which were settled by the shillong accord in 1975. the expectation of the accord was absolute independence and unification of all naga tribes from the neighboring states of assam, arunachal, manipur and myanmar in the form of an independent country called “nagalim”. against this aspiration the shillong accord turned out to be a total sell-out for staunch nationalist groups as it included acceptance of the indian constitution. this led to fission in nnc resulting in the formation of national socialist council of nagaland (nscn) which split up again in 1988 into nscn (im) and nscn (k). in 1997 nscn (im) struck another ceasefire agreement to reach a negotiated settlement on the core issue: nagalim. unfortunately, the aspirations of and demands for nagalim on the part of the collective naga leadership negotiating in govt of india has earned bitter relations and distrust with all the non-naga neighboring states surrounding them. the peace talks still continue for over a decade with intermittent factional killings among the armed groups. amidst the cycle of war and brief periods of peace younger generations of naga people grew up in the situation of lawlessness, violence, and corruption without a sense of direction and purpose. since its inception the state government of nagaland has been functioning under a series of popularly elected governments, whose aim has been the socioeconomic welfare of the people and the state. the churches are caring for other development and welfare needs of the poorer sections of the population. serious divisions among the people are resulting in frustration and confusion among the younger generation. drug use and the incidence of hiv and aids in the community have become among the highest in india. a recent opinion survey of school/college students in nagaland revealed that a lack of economic opportunity and employment, broken families and lack of guidance, and social inequality and corruption are among their primary concerns. new shoots from the ashes of violent devastations with periodic cycles of war and peace the naga conflict has undergone five stages.1 the fifth stage which falls in the post-conflict scenario is a stage of reconciliation, regeneration and renewal. studies have shown that it takes decades, even generations, to reform and rebuild systems and change people’s opinions of each other even after dramatic political change. with over four decades of bloody war and factional violence, the armed naga conflict with india and factions within the community are in a state of agreed ceasefire and are engaged in a series of peace talks with the government of india. naga civil society, particularly the churches based on gospel truth, have been instrumental in bringing about the ceasefire and peace talks. however, over the last decade and a half naga women across tribes and neighboring states, based on their common experiences of sufferings over decades of armed violence, emerged as a formidable non-violent force in naga society. the collective efforts of churches and women organizations having been able to bring all factions for reconciliation also ensure continuation of the processes through constant vigil and persuasion; they have created their own safe space and legitimacy in the society. naga women in collaboration with the international indigenous forum and network of women work 1 caritas  international,  peacebuilding:  a  caritas  manual,  vatican  city,  2002 in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 140-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 142 as effective pressure groups on both sides, talking about human rights and non-violence, and peace education to rebuild relations within the community and also with neighboring communities. naga peace talks are over a decade old but a sense of negative peace prevails as opposed to positive peace. naga society seeks to undergo a transformation from a model of militarized, fragmented and exclusive society to one of unique and prosperous people living in harmony and peaceful coexistence with its neighbors and natural environment. usaid recognizes that conflict is an inherent and legitimate part of social and political life, and is often precursor to positive social change. the recognition of the unique history of naga by the government of india, as a result of the ongoing peace talks in this regard, is a positive indication of future promise of the dialogue. as the peace process has established their identity in the international community and average naga people, women in particular, feel more secure, as possibilities of relapse to armed violence become less likely, every naga today is proud of being naga. but the path to reconciliation between factions, regions, tribes and with neighbors in naga society is beset with huge challenges and problems. human rights situation: impediments to human rights education in a region known for it’s racial, religious traditions, linguistic cultural diversities and hostilities, where people lived in relative isolation for better part of their history with sporadic contacts through war and /or barter or trading activities, human rights, as defined in the universal declaration of human rights (1948), is a new concept. our diversities, tribal and factional differences have been great barriers to realization of human rights within communities and across. furthermore, when different tribes and communities across and within india began to interact or slowly come together from their relative isolation they began with hostilities and wars that caused bitter experiences in the minds of the people. when independent india began to wage an internal war with the armed forces special power act (1958) giving swiping power to even non-commission officers with full legal impunity it sparked cultural and racial prejudices. any one can guess the level of cultural and racial prejudices with which the forces operated in the region. human rights movements, organizations and institutions in the region are most often mutually perceived as anti-state or anti-national or racial movement from both sides. if a naga is killed, it is a human right issue, but if a non-naga is killed it is non-issue. human rights movements in the region are also closely linked to community identity rather than individual rights. every ethnic community or tribe has a human rights organization to protect the rights of their own people. the strongest and most influential human rights organizations have also been those that are closely associated with a political or community identity. the naga people’s movement human rights as one of the most pioneering, effective and influential organizations, among many others, has played a crucial role in the naga national movement at international forums. there is also a regional level human rights network organization but it is weak in its effects and influence. these factors further compound the human rights situation with presence large number of armed groups representing different tribes and ethnic groups who do not tolerate opposition and differences. thousands of lives are already lost in in-fighting, political assassinations and factional killings among different armed groups. the memories of mutual destruction, violence and killings and sufferings between factions, the growing social and economic divides between advance and backward tribes, in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 140-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 143 competition over leadership, tribe identities and religious and ideological differences, and the emerging gender dimensions can prove to be major hurdles. outside the naga community how do we relate with neighboring communities without intimidations or mutual threats and violence, so as to have peaceful co-existence where every naga, and for that matter people from different neighboring communities, feels safe and secure where ever s/he moves in nagaland and the region? how do we at the same time re-orient the younger generations from an a situation of war-ravaged acutely dependent economy to a new work culture to engaged in productive activities, from white color job to farming activities, and lead a dignified life with a sense of community responsibility and duty for making naga a secureself reliant community? how does naga position and respond to india’s look east policy frame and development processes, with its diversely rich natural forest, minerals, herbal, natural and cultural resources, and contribute to the growing south east and south asian economy, reaping benefits from it for greater development and advancement of its people? how do we change people’s attitude from the belief that “violent pays” of the war economy to “peace pays” of the peace economy of local resource based sustainable development? these are some of the questions/ challenges facing the naga society. it is in this context that the peace channel is set to shape and prepare the young generation of naga society to actively participate and manage the post-conflict rebuilding processes through human rights education. human rights education essentially brings about dialogue between individuals and groups, but the danger is in leaving it in the hands of militant organizations alone. the onus of peace building in naga society can neither be nor should it be left in the hands of ex-combatants and militant leaders. the third millennium must belong to church and civil society, women organizations in particular less a hard earned peace should fizzle out into another cycle of war.2 church and women: human rights foundation in naga society human rights education must equip the present generation with life skills for self protection, preservation, progress building goodwill and relations with different cultural identities in the manner that mutually ensures and enriches human rights awareness and practices. human rights education must overcome factional differences and inter-tribal feuds, and transcend tribal, communal, racial and cultural barriers, embrace diversities to transform the culture of violence. naga society has a solid foundation for human rights in the church that has become part of every naga family. although feminists look at church as masculine gender or a male domain, the naga church, unlike the european church, has always played a softer role in naga armed struggles as mid-wife and intermediary for peaceful solutions to naga political issues. the naga church neither approved nor directly participated in the armed struggles. the church has rather been exploited and abused by the nationalist armed organizations at times by adopting “nagaland for christ” as a motto of the armed struggles; women in naga society have been affected in the same manner.3 2 matthew hughes & matthew s. seligmann, does peace lead to war? peace settlements and conflict in the modern age, (sutton publishing, england, 2002). 3 triveni goswami, role of women as peacebuilder with special reference to nagaland, peace studies paper 06, okdiscd, assam, india, 2006. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 140-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 144 moreover, church is described as having a feminine character. church is a mother and a teacher. the church has been established by jesus christ as mother and teacher of nations, so that all who in the course of centuries come to her living embrace may find salvation as well as the fullness of life.4 it further says, the church, as a loving mother should try to protect a better the living conditions of her people. this is a mandate, she cannot remain ignorant of. church therefore is in the likeness of women – the mother, nurturer and provider. therefore, in naga context church and women institutions provide the only foundation for human rights education. these institutions provide the strength and opportunity for human rights education in naga society. however, to prepare the present generation of youth as channels of peace through human rights education and life skills we needed an alternative discourse, a space to experience a culture of peace nurtured with our own local resources. the project peace channel is all about this alternative discourse and living new experiences. “adequate protection of human rights depends on the individuals concerned about knowing what their rights are. …education should also include teaching people how to defend their rights. if human rights awareness is successfully instilled into a society, this can help to prevent violations. human rights education is therefore a useful shield from human rights abuse.”5 the hostile past has to be abandoned in favor of peace and stability. church has a clear mandate to be a peacemaker and get fully involved in the process of peacemaking. conflict reduction management has to begin with the preaching of peace. new dreams of collective well-being will serve the purpose of healing the wound of hatred and animosity.6 peace channel: a theoretical consideration upholding human dignity is essential for order and peace in society. “the dignity of the person is manifested in all its radiance when the person’s origin and destiny are considered: created by god in his image and likeness as well as redeemed by the most precious blood christ … from this very reason every violation of the personal dignity of the human being cries out in vengeance to god and is an offence against the creator of the individual” (christifideles laici, n. 37). theologically trained concerned senior naga christians have been in search of a theological statement (1995) through the years to transform naga society when they realized there unholy and worldly alliance between the church and state government giving rise to evils; they also lament that the church has failed to be prophetic in her mission.7 expressing firm believe that we have no right to take away anyone’s life, they stated that the church 4 lazar  jeyaseelan,  conflict  resolution  in  northeast  india:  becoming  advocates  of  peace  and   justice,  catholic  manipur  publication,  manipur,  india,  2007. 5 amnesty  international,  1987 6 lazar  jeyaseelan,  conflict  resolution  in  northeast  india:  becoming  advocates  of  peace  and   justice. 7 in search of theological statements, a group of naga theologically trained concerned people, vision press, dimapur, nagaland, india, 1995. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 140-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 145 should move beyond a mere neutral theological stance to a radical theology or transformation. human rights echo the sentiments of pro-life. life is a precious gift of god. ethnototalitarianism or ethno-centricism is the main culprit. any human society, if it is to be wellordered and productive, must lay down as a foundation of this principle, namely, that every human being is a person, that is, his nature is endowed with intelligence and free will. indeed, precious because he is a person, he has rights and obligations flowing directly and simultaneously from his very nature. and these rights and obligations are universal and inviolable, so they cannot in any way be surrendered. (pacem in terries, n.9). war originates in the minds of the people and so peace must also be sought in the minds of the people. similarly, generations of youths have been resources for violent culture through education, training, role modeling and acculturation processes. it is believed that the youths can be resources for peaceful co-existence and social harmony through human rights education, training, role modeling and acculturation processes in institutional and social environment. given the existing structures and institutional setup that promote culture violence an alternative discourse must be sought that has local relevance and existential realities. out of 50 years of suffering, the impact of violence directly on their body and soul, women as mothers and active members of church have begun to respond to the conflict situation with an alternative paradigm. naga mothers association in unequivocal terms outlined the foundation of human rights education in their campaign shed no more blood. in order to implement their theory women have been physically reaching out between fighting groups; between factions; between naga army and security forces. by shuttling between faction camps and between naga nationalist leaders and indian leaders they have also been putting pressure to keep dialoguing about the issues. peace channel began in september 2006 in the state after it took shape and matured from a culture of violence in nagaland through personal experiences of suffering in the hands of armed nationalist youths. peace channel is reaching out to children in nagaland and across states in india and nations making each child a channel for peace. objectives of peace channel are promotion of peace, love, and justice in conflict; empowerment marginalized sections of society to live in harmony with god, nature, and bringing out the potentials in each of being responsible, transparent, honest and diligent leaders; staying clean of drugs and pre-marital sex; facilitating collective learning, sharing for development; accelerating socio-economic sustainable development for the poor and facilitating collaboration and networking across boundaries. peace channel promotes belief in one supreme god: all are his children; relationship; mutuality; co-sharing; inner peace; return to the source; union and righteousness; forgiveness and reconciliation; concerns for other while being self responsible; compassion with adversaries; working for justice and healing. propagate spirit of sacrifice for peace; honoring inherent dignity and worth of every body; keeping aside petty interests for common good and being enthusiastic and committed. voluntary service and radical commitment to genuine human services; readiness to accept individuals and communities as they are; embracing differences and valuing others and being open to oneself and others; hospitality to strangers; pastoral care for all; reaching out to poor, weak and marginalized; non-discrimination and rediscovery of solidarity long-term goals include transformation of nagaland to a place of peace and making india a model for peace in south asia. short-term goals include setting up peace channel in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 140-146 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 146 units to form model peace zone; nagaland people forum for peace (npfp) and model peace region. preparing the young generation of children and people in communities towards a transformed society is done through several activities, such as formation of peace clubs in schools/colleges and villages; inter-religious dialogue and harmony; action for locality development; promoting art and technique of living together with immediate neighbors; training for youths, students, employees, and professionals; seminars, symposium, training on life skills; outreaching to education to less privilege sections of society and advocacy and human rights awareness. it is believed that through these activities there shall be peaceful minds; ecumenical harmony through inter-religious dialogue; creating peace at homes and workplaces; dealing with lust, anger, greed, hatred, envy, jealousy, ill-will, worry, stress and strains; participation in national events and protection of environment. peace club and its processes: peace clubs in school/ community is the basic foundation for social transformation at grass roots level. it comprises of 15 members with local contributions and lifetime membership and conducts fortnightly regular meeting. peace clubs engages in advocacy and awareness; conflict transformation; addressing local conflicts and violence and promoting peaceful co-existence. the club meets 2-3 times a month regularly. whenever members of club meet they start by greeting one another “peace to you” and “peace to you, too.” before sitting in a circle with a light candle in the middle. one among the member in the circle leads a peace prayer in any faith tradition of one’s pursuance and then followed with 7-step group processes. it begins with a common peace prayer with each member touching the head of the person on the right. second step is a short meditation which involves silent self awareness, and through breathing seeking reconciliation. third step is life skills session on the any important situation/ issue/theme. in the forth step members identify a local issue, discuss and come up with a response action plan for implementation. members then together evaluate the day’s process for further improvement as fifth step. saying a peace pledge and singing a peace anthem is the sixth and seventh steps, which end the regular peace club meeting. to conclude, a peace channel is a project for social transformation that is inspired by human suffering and higher values of life; it employs such methodologies and beliefs harnessed in the deeper philosophies of religious scriptures to respond to the contemporary situation of a violent culture. the project is a long term engagement with younger generations and civil society in participatory learning and change processes. the project will be successful when one day young people confidently say, “peace pays better in my life”. sheffield et al revised final in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 198   volume 5 number 2 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ emotion, reflection, and activism: educating for peace in and for democracy eric c. sheffield missouri state university ericsheffield@missouristate.edu yolanda medina borough of manhattan community college ymedina@bmcc.cuny.edu jeffrey cornelius-white missouri state university jcornelius-white@missouristate.edu introduction we, the authors, are emotionally and physically disturbed. the disturbance we are experiencing is most particularly sourced in our nation’s collective resistance to speaking out against our various and ongoing military actions worldwide. this specific emotional and physical disturbance has given rise to a more general educational concern: when we do not meet our democratic educational obligation to nurture the embodied emotional seed that is essential to critical reflection, peaceful civic activism can and will wither on the vine. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 199 as evidence of this civic withering, we point to our current “standing” or “position” in the world and ask why more of our citizens have not engaged in debate and activism to stop our morally questionable collective actions. for example, in iraq there have been more than 4,000 american military fatalities and over 31,000 of our soldiers wounded in action (excluding “emotional” injury); as many as 20% of those are serious spinal and/or brain injuries. psychologically speaking, it is estimated that 30% of our soldiers returning from combat develop serious emotional problems within 3 to 4 months after returning and upon their return find very little medical or emotional support.1 aside from american losses, a fall 2007 british study suggested that at the time, somewhere between 600,000 and 1.2 million iraqis had been killed since the invasion; and, as one of our students recently suggested, most of those have probably been the youngest, most vulnerable of its citizens.2 in addition, we have spent well over 700 billion dollars directly on the iraqi war, and more comprehensive figures estimate three to five trillion dollars when factoring in veteran benefits and lost wages of those killed—or $12,000-$20,000 per american citizen—not including long-term costs or benefits such as changes to the price of oil or political stability.3 these statistics are emotionally troubling enough, and do not include what will certainly be growing casualty and cost numbers from afghanistan as we begin the new “push” (30,000 additional soldiers) requested by president obama. given these numbers, we wonder why the american public isn’t completely irate and marching, albeit peacefully, in the streets demanding a change of course— yet precious little of this kind of activism has occurred since the civil rights/vietnam war era, nearly 40 years ago. unfortunately, relatively few of our citizens understand the important role emotions play in this regard, tending instead toward a conception of education (and thinking) that is cold and emotion-less, and therefore, often action-less. as medina explains, in disregarding the embodied emotions of both teacher and student, a dis-embodied form of education typically emerges—one that displaces emotions from their rightful place as mediator of past experiences.4 such disembodied, emotionless educational experiences might be recalled intellectually, but sans the embodied feelings that accompany a truly “educative” experience, the experience itself becomes one that is more often than not, “miseducative.” 1 deborah white, “iraq war facts, results & statistics at january 6, 2010: 4,374 us soldiers killed, 31,616 seriously wounded,” about.com: liberal politics, http://usliberals.about.com/od/homelandsecurit1/a/iraqnumbers.htm 2 opinion research business, “september 2007 – more than 1,000,000 iraqis murdered,” http://www.opinion.co.uk/newsroom_details.aspx?newsid=78 3 stiglitz, steven mufson & mark medish, the three trillion dollar war: the real cost of the iraq conflict, carnegie endowment for international peace, http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/0408_transcript_stiglitziraq.pdf 4 yolanda medina, critical aesthetic pedagogy: toward a theory of self and social understanding (dissertation abstract international, 2006: umi no. 3242396). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 200 in answer, we posit that one cause for our collective reluctance to speak out regarding our various ongoing engagements around the world can be found in a system of public education which assigns embodied emotion a less-than-meaningful secondary status—a status that denies the role of emotion its rightful place in reflective thinking thereby limiting the critical reflection and subsequent action that a vibrant democracy requires. this disembodied type of education creates in teachers and students what stanley milgram calls an “agentic state,” one “in which he [or she] defines himself [or herself] in a manner that renders him [her] open to regulations by a person of higher status.”5 we urge in response that educational policy should reflect, and that teachers should incorporate into their practice, the emotional element essential to thought and action and therefore to a vibrant democracy. as the means to re-engage students at the catalytic, embodied emotional level essential to learning of all kinds and to the survival of democracy, in what follows we make several general educational suggestions: first, the overriding essential educational goal of our time is to convince our students that thoughtful, peaceful, yet vehement, activism, in its various forms, and for various causes, is a democratic obligation. secondly, understanding what we can about what nel noddings calls the “psychology of war,” both when we are in a time of war, and maybe more importantly, when we are not in a time of war, must become and then remain an essential educational aim in our schools.6 thirdly, we need to offer educators specific educational frameworks wherein students feel empowered to discuss the justice and/or injustice of war (and other contentious issues) and which encourage civic action in regard to these issues. only then can students (our future/present citizens) be released from the agentic state that is the cause for our collective reticence to action. more specifically, we first take up a discussion of the role of embodied emotion in educational practice. next, we provide an outline of the characteristics necessary for any pedagogical framework or practice to be “democratic,” including two important restrictions on democratic education suggested by amy gutmann—non-discrimination and non-repression.7 subsequent to sketching out the structure of viable forms of democratic education, we take up a brief conceptual discussion of what possibilities are entailed in a just-war curriculum (or a peace curriculum). finally, we present three specific frameworks that we believe can be vehicles for incorporating such an embodied/emotionally-sourced curriculum: critical aesthetic pedagogy as understood by medina;8 the project method as explained by william h. kilpatrick and commonly practiced in community service learning;9 and, the constructive controversy model put forth by johnson and johnson.10 5 stanley milgram, obedience to authority: an experimental view (new york, ny: harper and row, 1974), 54. 6 nel noddings, critical lessons: what our schools should teach (cambridge, ny: cambridge university press, 2007), 36. 7 amy gutmann, democratic education (princeton, n.j: princeton university press, 1999). 8 medina, critical aesthetic pedagogy. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 201 the centrality of “felt-difficulty” in democratic education john dewey argued that emotionally embodied disequilibrium and/or discomfort indicate a “felt difficulty” and as such are the catalysts for critical reflection.11 in his analysis, dewey explained that suggestions for resolving the felt difficulty emerge organically from within the troubling situation.12 the degree to which these suggestions-for-acting succeed in reconstructing the emotionally embodied discomfort depends greatly on one’s past experience, natural abilities, and education, both formal and informal; and as such, this reconstructive process is the locus for learning. robert r. sherman describes, with great familiarity, how human beings react when we “feel” something is amiss. he writes, the fact of the matter is that we do have such feelings. we are surprised or intrigued or revolted or elated by experiences. we like the recommendations that one essayist has, or dislike the proposals put forward by some legislator. our “guts” are tense, our heads ache, we pace the floor, and our voices rise. these all are indications that we have an “interest” in the matters at hand. alas, instead of using these as a motive to thought, to elicit the interests, we suppress the feelings; we believe they are in competition with thought and always should be judged the loser.13 we think both dewey and sherman have it right: emotion, as an indication of a deep and abiding interest, is an essential aspect of critical reflection and by implication a complete act of educating; in fact, genuine emotional/bodily discomfort is the catalyst without which critical reflection, sound action, and learning simply will not (or even cannot) occur. truly important learning comes from the developed interests derived from lived experience; and though one has to be on guard that the emotion-as-catalyst does not become the sole basis-for-action, it is essential to understand that embodied emotion is the source for thought, rather than relegate it, as sherman suggests is often the case, to “loser” status. this disembodied, emotionless type of educational practice is particularly troublesome in a democracy where, in theory, individual citizens, acting communally, are the ultimate decision makers. certainly the agentic state described above is dangerous to democratic decision making; additionally, such an education can lead to citizen paralysis as we become convinced that learning has little to do with lived experience and reasonably acting in a democracy, and everything to do with transmitting already established modes of official knowing to young 9 william h. kilpatrick, “the project method,” teachers college record, xix:4 (1918): 319-323; eric c. sheffield, strong community service learning: philosophical perspectives (new york, ny: peter lange, 2011). 10 d.w. johnson & roger t. johnson, “energizing learning: the instructional power of conflict,” educational researcher 38:1 (2009): 37-51. 11 john dewey, how we think (mineola, ny: dover publications, inc., 1997/1910), 72. 12 ibid., 74. 13 robert r. sherman, robert r., “philosophy with guts,” journal of thought 20:2 (1985): 7. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 202 people with little regard to its construction via experience. emotionally sourced and developed interests become subsumed under practices that encourage rote memorization over understanding and static knowledge over civic activism. to see this danger to democracy more clearly, we now turn to the structure demanded of any educational practice understood as democratic. the general characteristics of a democratic education on the question of what necessary constituents are entailed in a democratic form of education, and the degree to which current educational policy encourages or discourages democratic activism, one does well to remember that teaching and learning does not occur in a social vacuum. in fact, education in this country remains essentially and historically a social and moral endeavor that aims to achieve valuable social and moral public ends.14 the educational arena is where important ideas should be considered, put to the test, and in so doing, their worth evaluated: bad ideas jettisoned, replaced with better ones to be tested for their own worth, and testing them by actually using them. to paraphrase george counts, it is not enough in a democracy to simply contemplate civilization in schools; we should be building civilization via our schools.15 the core mechanism for building our society is, historically, politically, and philosophically, a democratic one which relies not on the artificially constructed discourse found in oppressive historic birthright hierarchies, but, as dewey said it, one based on “varied points of shared common interest” and the “continuous readjustment through meeting the new situations produced by varied intercourse.”16 as to the necessarily democratic nature of schooling in a democracy, dewey writes: a society which makes provision for participation in its good of all its members on equal terms and which secures flexible readjustment of its institutions through interaction of the different forms of associated life is in so far democratic. such a society must have a type of education which gives individuals a personal interest in social relationships and control, and the habits of mind which secure social changes without introducing disorder.17 that is, for educational practice to foster democracy, it should at the very least provide students the opportunity to develop and utilize the democratic habits of reflective-deliberation, peaceful social activism, and informed (rather than ignorant) decision-making. ignoring or relegating personal and national feelings to secondary status and avoiding uncomfortable disagreement, stops (as dewey and sherman suggest) this democratic reflective 14 carl kaestle, “moral education and common schools in america: a historian’s view” journal of moral education 13:2 (1984): 101-111. 15 george s. counts, dare the school build a new social order? (carbondale, il: southern illinois university press, 1978/1932). 16 john dewey, democracy and education (new york, ny: the free press, 1916), 86-87. 17 ibid., 99. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 203 deliberation in its tracks: there is no catalyst to thought, nor, therefore, to action, because there is no problem or developed personal and/or national interest. to be sure, there is danger at both ends of the reflective spectrum: relegating emotions to a secondary status thereby paralyzing thought and appropriate action or allowing emotions to overwhelm thought thereby leading to foolish, dangerous, or even deadly action are equally tenuous means of solving felt difficulties. the important point is to eliminate the separation that relegates one or the others (emotion, reason, or action) to a less important status. this, we believe, is a goal that must be pursued in public schools. reconstructing experience to regain personal and national emotional comfort is a democratic obligation that can only be accomplished via morally and practically sound action— action most successfully seen (politically speaking) in the form of peaceful citizen activism. we suppose it should be no surprise that particularly young americans have gotten very adept at ignoring painful national problems given the nearly non-existent portion of their public school experiences spent discussing emotional discomfort openly with teachers, other adults, and classmates. as examples, there is little time devoted to discussing real problems and real solutions that might come out of our initial emotional discomfort, much effort put into avoiding rather than engaging in disagreement, and large amounts of time spent prepping for and taking standardized tests rather than evaluating the practical value of our ideas by putting them into action. nor is it surprising in light of the pressure that current educational policy puts on teachers relative to increasing student test scores that there exists a credible fear on the part of teachers (our graduate students) and pre-service teachers (our undergraduate students) to allow valueand emotion-laden problems such as war into their classrooms, much less to encourage their inclusion, because it might very well mean the loss of their jobs (even, it seems, at universities and colleges). on the other hand, sans emotionally developed interests, there is no catalyst for reflection much less public deliberation. as such, it is no real surprise to find many americans feeling marginalized, powerless, and increasingly ignoring and/or sedating our personal and national emotional discomfort. as to the current epistemology underlying this testing regimen (the epistemology of regurgitation as we at times think of it), we caution our students that the tests themselves are not inherently evil; the evil exists in the way standardized tests are used and the degree to which they are an example of the tail wagging the educational dog. we cannot expect the reflectivedeliberative process of democracy as outlined here to proceed well with an ignorant public. and though we do not believe the current regurgitative epistemology is developing an informed public as it sorely lacks any connection to life itself, the aim of eliminating ignorance remains a democratically crucial one and cannot be overlooked or discounted. on this point, we agree with alfred north whitehead who famously proclaimed, “a merely well-informed man is the most useless bore on god’s earth;”18 on the other hand, we also know that an ignorant reflective 18 alfred n. whitehead, the aims of education and other essays (ny: the free press, 1929), 1. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 204 deliberative, active, democratic citizen or worse, national/world leader, is clearly one of the most dangerous individuals on god’s earth. we would be remiss in not mentioning two specific and necessary democratic limitations that must be explicitly imbedded in the informed, reflective-deliberative, socially active democratic education we advocate: non-discrimination and non-repression as explained by amy gutmann.19 taken together, non-discrimination and non-repression prevent our system of public education from becoming an institutional tyranny that stifles student voice and action; these two essential restrictions protect reflective-deliberative interaction, or as gutmann calls it, our “conscious social reproduction.”20 gutmann argues that non-discrimination “prevents the state, and all groups within it, from denying anyone an educational good on grounds irrelevant to the legitimate social purpose of that good.”21 that is, no educable child can be denied an education on democratic grounds. as important as non-discrimination is to a democratic form of education, it is gutmann’s second principle, nonrepression, which strikes at the heart of our concerns stated above: nonrepression prevents the state, and any group within it, from using education to restrict rational deliberation of competing conceptions of the good life and the good society. nonrepression is therefore compatible with the use of education to inculcate those character traits, such as honesty, religious toleration, and mutual respect for persons that serve as foundations for rational deliberation of differing ways of life. because conscious social reproduction is the primary ideal of democratic education, communities must be prevented from using education to stifle rational deliberation of competing conceptions of the good life and the good society.22 that is, the principle of nonrepression requires that no rational discussion of what constitutes the good life and the good society is off limits in a democratic form of education and those are the very deliberations, born out of emotion, which lead to sound action; and they are the self-same issues that prevent an “agentic” state or paralysis from developing as a result of “miseducative” experiences in public schools. war as a curricular matter in her widely-read book, critical lessons: what our schools should teach, nel noddings argues that though we spend quite a bit of time asking students to memorize the dates of wars, learn the names of our famous warriors and the battles they fought, and use the current 19 gutmann, democratic education. 20 ibid., 10. 21 ibid., 45. 22 ibid., 44-45. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 205 epistemology of regurgitation to support patriotism education, we do little or nothing to engage our students in discussions of what war really entails for those who are directly involved in it, nor for those of us who sit at home and read about it.23 as noddings points out, many social studies and history texts we use in schools are actually organized around war and she suggests, “if we claim to educate, we must encourage young people to reflect on what war does and might do to the human beings engaged in it.”24 and, we would add, to those of us who are not directly engaged in war. noddings goes on to argue, and we think rightly so, that instead of ignoring the emotionally challenging aspects of war in lieu of glorifying it via an emotion-less and supposedly “objective” presentation of our war history, we and our students should question all aspects of war, including the all-too-commonly heard phrase from american politicians, “no one wants war.” someone wants war or why would we be at war and clearly there is great potential for creating careers, consolidating personal power and gathering wealth via war—our current wars being perfect examples.25 these kinds of questions, on noddings’ count (and we certainly agree), must be addressed as the means to encourage critical thought and reasonable action as, again, the means to recover our personal and national comfort. toward the goal of psychologizing war, or as we would prefer to say, emotionalizing war, noddings lists the following topics that are rarely, if ever, incorporated into our classroom curriculums, but certainly should be: the psychology of warriors particularly military leaders; the male orientation war has; the public change in attitude about military people during times of war (from mere tolerance to hero worship); the question of what force and aggression are and why they are so often relied upon; pacifism and how its study might impact patriotism; conscientious objection to war; non-violent solutions to political problems; the numbing effect war has on imagination; war-grown passions against immigrants and political outliers (japanese internment, socialists, pacifists, just-war activists, quakers); propaganda; nationalism; mob mentalities; the use of torture; individual resistance to group atrocities; and, maybe the most emotionally powerful on her list, the loss of self that can occur from being in combat situations—one so often found and then ignored in our soldiers returning from afghanistan and iraq.26 though we have some concern with noddings’ use of “psychology” (as well as her stance on neutrality suggested in critical lessons and elsewhere) in this context, the crucial point is to remember the dewey/sherman notion that it is only through an emotionally embodied engagement that reflective consideration, and ultimately, reasonable action to solve personal and national problems will ever happen. certainly the above list includes some very emotionally difficult topics bound to lead to emotionally-charged discussions—discussions that might result in 23 nel noddings, critical lessons: what our schools should teach (cambridge, ny: cambridge university press, 2007), 36. 24 ibid. 25 we would suggest the following as possible examples: haliburton, exxon, bush family, dick cheney. 26 noddings, critical lessons, 36-63. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 206 reasonable student-developed alternatives to war—if we will only muster up the courage to have the discussions, provide our students with reasonable and constructive ways to direct the emotion, and encourage them to act on their ideas or, as maxine greene says, on the “imagined possibilities.”27 again, we ask our readers to remain mindful of noddings’ earlier assertion: “if we claim to educate, we must encourage young people to reflect on what war does and might do to the human beings engaged in it” and again we would add, what it does to those of us not directly engaged in it, for as pacifist henry david thoreau maintained long ago, it is all of us who bear ultimate moral responsibility for the actions of our government.28 as a pedagogic issue, there certainly is no shortage of curricular material for a study of pacifism—though this type of material is rarely incorporated into emotionally engaging classroom practice—particularly as it is so closely tied to civil disobedience as suggested by henry david thoreau and practiced by gandhi, the british labor movement, early suffragists, feminists, prohibitionists, and civil rights activists, among numerous others. in fact, pacifism, as enacted in instances of civil disobedience, epitomizes the peaceful, yet vehement activism we suggest must be encouraged within a truly democratic form of education; and, as history tells us, peaceful demonstration has been the single most effective means to recovering individual and national emotional comfort—it successfully encourages policy changes. likewise, the just war tradition has a long history and is reflected more recently in the work of such scholars as richard j. regan and michael walzer, which is regularly taken to task by pacifists such as john howard yoder as well as feminist thinkers including sara ruddick, nel noddings, and maxine greene.29 when you add the various non-western scholars who write about just war theory, including hilmi zawati who takes up islamic notions of just war, david r. loy who discusses war from a buddhist perspective, and, of course, the work of gandhi, you can begin, we think, to get a sense of how such a curriculum might be very valuable in developing well-informed, emotionally sensitive, reflectively wise, and peacefully, yet vehemently active, democratic citizens—but only if couched in a pedagogy grounded in emotion that lends itself to action, and such pedagogies are seen rarely, if ever in our contemporary classrooms.30 27 maxine greene, “education and disarmament,” teachers college record 84:1 (1982): 130. 28 noddings, critical lessons, 36; henry david thoreau, civil disobedience and other essays (ny: dover publications, 1993/1849). 29 richard j. regan, just war: principles and cases (washington, d.c.: the catholic university of america press, 1996); michael walzer, arguing about war (harrisonburg, va: r.r. donnelley, 2004); howard yoder, when war is unjust: being honest in just-war thinking (eugene, or: wipf and stock publishers, 2001); sara ruddick, maternal thinking: toward a politics of peace (new york, ny: ballantine, 1990); nel noddings, critical lessons; greene, disarmament. 30 hilmi zawati, is jihad a just war?: war, peace, and human rights under islamic and public international law (lewiston, n.y.: e. mellen press, 2001); david r. loy, money, sex, war, karma: notes for a buddhist revolution (somerville, ma: wisdom publications, 2008); mahatma gandhi, the collected works of mahatma gandhi. http:// www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/cwmg.html in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 207 nevertheless, pacifism represents a dogma; to say that violence can never be justified is strangely closed-minded. and though this dogmatic position, by its very nature, is not directly dangerous, it is dogma and just like any other dogma, must be analyzed for its value rather than simply accepted for it to fit into a democratic form of education—it must be reflected and deliberated upon. finally, we want to point out that pacifistic “dogma” is the only basis upon which a conscientious objector can be relieved of combat duty in this country: we find it interesting that individuals who take a critical, reflective stance as to whether or not each particular war, with its particular causes and characteristics, is justifiable cannot be released from combat duty, but a committed pacifist can. while we believe that all of the above curricular topics can make for a rich and emotionally engaging democratic education these traditions do not provide specific enough examples of how teaching for emotional engagement might be accomplished. we now turn our attention to three pedagogical “vehicles” that might utilize the above curriculum in an emotionally sourced pedagogy of democratic action. teaching from and for democratic emotional engagement engaging students is as much about the “way of being” of the teacher as is the methods she employs.31 teacher dispositions like curiosity, respect for students, admiration, and trust in students’ ability to meaningfully learn provide a foundation for teachers to make most subjects engaging by their personable investment. these dispositions must be conveyed in ways that students perceive. its not enough to have teachers believe in the learner or the learning process, neither is it sufficient to be genuinely present unless the students perceive these qualities.32 hence, teachers need to engage in a developmental process about how they interact and are perceived so that their intentions and others’ perceptions have some congruence. while the development of the teacher-as-person and how she interacts with her students is important for establishing valuable student-student and student-teacher relationships, there are, as well, specific teaching methods and interesting developmentally relevant topics that can engage students at an emotional level, and in so doing, develop both the teacher’s and her students’ democratic dispositions and ways of interacting. before getting specific methods, we would be remiss in not reminding us all that there are clear implications for classroom (and out of classroom) structure entailed in the above democratic educational framework. democratic classroom framework a democratic classroom practice contains several elements that we consider crucial. the first critical element is the establishment of a classroom environment in which students feel comfortable sharing their personal experiences. this requires pedagogical guidelines designed to as 31 jeffrey h. cornelius-white & adam p. harbaugh, learner-centered instruction: building relationships for student success (thousand oaks, ca: sage, 2009). 32 jeffrey h. cornelius-white, “learner-centered teacher-student relationships are effective: a meta-analysis,” review of educational research 77: 113-143. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 208 sure that the dignity of every person present will be preserved, no matter how unusual their opinions might be, or how uncomfortable they may make the other students feel.33 a democratic classroom must be a place of interaction and engagement, where students’ worldviews and opinions are considered the most valuable resource for learning. this requires that the educator’s pedagogical method remain fluid and open to continuous transformation. there must be room for flexibility and change because each day and each topic discussed will reveal a new set of experiences and interests that may or may not allow us to move on to the next topic. each encounter will present a new approach to the subject, depending on the students’ experiences and how they interpret them. a democratic classroom assures all students of the fundamental right to participate and to be heard—a framework grounded in non-discrimination and non-repression as explained above. the students must also be free to make decisions about their own learning process by determining when it is time to move on, and when to explore a topic of particular interest in greater depth. a democratic classroom is one that encourages emotionally sourced, nonrepressive, development of deliberative-reflection. a sound teaching method that will engage these student interests is not so easily constructed and so we present below three “methods” of varying structural rigidity that we suggest provide the means to achieve the emotional engagement vital to democratic education with particular reference to war. these three specific methodological approaches are oriented around three emotionally engaging notions: art (broadly construed); purposeful activity; and, conflict. art: critical aesthetic pedagogy relying on critical pedagogy (as represented by such scholars as peter mclaren, bell hooks, and michael apple) as her starting point, medina has suggested a critical aesthetic pedagogy (cap) that utilizes art to engage students at a “catalytic” emotional and physical level supplying the impetus for reasoned reflection and, ultimately, the confidence to act in reasonable ways to solve difficult, personal and national felt difficulties such as war.34 in enriching the critical educational tradition with the specific act of engaging with art, cap brings the emotional/bodily aspect of human experience into play and bridges the chasm between emotion, thought and action decried by sherman above. as medina suggests, critical educational theory, as a liberating pedagogy, stresses the importance of using students’ experience as an important curricular tool to help create meaning and to understand the world. however, this pedagogical practice perpetuates the cultural imperative of 33 medina, critical aesthetic pedagogy. 34 peter mclaren, life in schools: an introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education (new york, ny: longman, 1989); bell hooks, teaching to transgress: education as the practice of freedom (new york, ny: routledge, 1994); michael apple, ideology and curriculum (new york, ny: routledge falmer, 2004). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 209 body/mind separation by failing to recognize our bodies as the site where these experiences are shaped, manipulated, and marked by culture and how our bodies serve as vehicles to interpret these experiences. thus it ignores the body as a primary site for shaping knowledge. accustomed to learning what is just and unjust from outside sources, we tend to assume that change is beyond our realm of capability, and our capacity to see ourselves as agents of change thus becomes limited or incomplete. what is worse, this sense of disconnection atrophies our ability to imagine change. if one cannot even imagine what a different world would look like, one cannot believe in one’s own capacity to create it. no matter how much we as critical educators may intend to empower our students to create social change, if they cannot imagine the possibility of change, then as educators we are not doing enough to help them engage emotionally in this critical process.35 art, then, is the source for the initial physical/emotional engagement that in turn leads to critical discussions and ultimately, sound action. as we stated earlier, we believe the emotional engagement necessary for strong teaching and valuable learning can be accomplished with all students at all ages and developmental levels. to illustrate this we suggest two pieces of art—in this case one documentary film and one fictional book—appropriate to the two extremes of school age and intellectual/emotional development: iraq in fragments for older high school students and/or college students; and, the butter battle book, by the venerable dr. seuss, for the very young. the 2006 film, iraq in fragments by american director james longley, is a study of iraq in three parts: the film documents the daily life of a fatherless 11 year-old who is apprenticed to the domineering owner of a baghdad garage; moktada al-sadr followers in two shiite cities who rally for regional elections while enforcing islamic law at the point of a gun; and a family of kurdish farmers who welcome the u.s. presence that has allowed them a measure of freedom previously denied.36 dr. seuss’classic (which was subsequently made into a movie), the butter battle book, is the story of the yooks and the zooks, two peoples separated by a large wall who are bitter enemies because the yooks butter their bread butter-side up and the zooks butter theirs butter-side down.37 the story follows the ideological hostility between the two and the arms race they pursue until they are ready to destroy the whole planet to protect their sacred way of buttering bread. we leave it to the reader to imagine the possibilities that each provides for engaging students emotionally as the catalyst to reasonable consideration of war and sound action or even activism. 35 medina, critical aesthetic pedagogy, 7-8. 36 james longley, iraq in fragments (seattle, wa: typecast pictures, 2006). 37 theodor s. geisel (dr. seuss), the butter battle book (new york, ny: random house, 1984). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 210 before moving onto a discussion of the project method, we want to emphasize that within the theoretical structure of cap, art is construed broadly and might include film, literature, painting, graphic art, performing art, etc—just so long as students and teachers engage with the art in such a way as to engender an emotional/embodied experience; and, the stronger the engagement the stronger the potential for envisioning new possibilities and ways of creating those possibilities.38 to that end, medina and sheffield have a “working list” of art they suggest can accomplish just such an engagement with the problem of war that includes suggestions appropriate for a variety of ages and developmental levels.39 purposeful activity: the project method a second, though much older, pedagogical approach we believe can engage students in such a way as to engender democratic dispositions of emotion, thought, and action is generally known as the project method and is often seen within the larger conception/practice known as community service learning. however, as sometimes conceived and practiced, “projects” of this kind are no better with engaging students than, say, a lecture, “book work,” or other activities that are not genuinely student-centered because the projects often do not take into account and rely on student “interest” at the catalytic, emotional level. this common shortcoming of student projects is explained in the work of several progressive educators, particularly william h. kilpatrick. in kilpatrick’s essay, “the project method,” he warns teachers that if a project is not grounded in what he calls a “purposeful act,” it is no improvement over more traditional, teacher-centered, methods of teaching.40 however, when a project is initiated by student interest (an authentic “emotional” need) rather than by teacher coercion, the project becomes “life itself” and takes on a distinctly democratic character: with this general introduction, we may, in the first place, say that the purposeful act is the typical unit of the worthy life. not that all purposes are good, but that the worthy life consists of purposive activity and not mere drifting. as the purposeful act is thus the typical unit of the worthy life in a democratic society, so also should it be made the typical unit of school procedure. if the purposeful act be in reality the typical unit of the worthy life, then it follows that to base education on purposeful acts is exactly to identify the process of education with worthy living itself. the two become then the same.41 38 for an interesting example in teacher education, see barbara a. clark, “aesthetic education and masked emotions: a model for emancipatory teacher preparation,” critical questions in education vol. 1, issue 1 (2010): 40-50. 39 this working list is available by email request: ericsheffield@missouristate.edu or ymedina@bmcc.cuny.edu 40 william h. kilpatrick, “the project method,” teachers college record, xix:4 (1918): 319-323. 41 ibid., 320. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 211 when, according to kilpatrick, educational activity is based on purposeful activity, it relies on student interest (the emotional), leads to purposeful plans of action (thought), and results in reasonably acting in the world (activity or activism). additionally, projects derived from student interest/emotion can have both an individual and social character. as an example of a project based on the historic problem of war (and a project suggestion that might work for students of all ages), one could imagine a group of students developing an interest not only in war itself, but the actual experiences of real, live, veterans. the students might also find, as is the case with most communities in this country, that their neighbors, friends, and families are, in fact, veterans of various wars and might set out to interview them as to their experiences and opinions of the particular wars in which they served. learning what they can through these “interviews,” might, in turn, lead the students to create articles, films, books, art, etc. (either as individual or group creations) based on the experiences and opinions the students collect and chronicle from their community’s veteran population. and this is just one among an endless number of possible student-centered, student-suggested, studentimplemented projects that can meet both the curricular and the conceptual requirements for a democratic form of education. conflict: constructive controversy a third, more rigidly construed approach to engaging students emotionally by inviting, rather than resisting, controversies in teaching, is known as constructive controversy. johnson & johnson have discussed, repeatedly tested, and researched (in a meta-analysis), the constructive controversy approach to instruction.42 they have found their approach is superior (with medium to large effect sizes) to other structured methods of approaching (e.g., debate, concurrence seeking) or avoiding (individualistic processes) conflict for a variety of outcomes including traditional academic achievement, quality of cognitive reasoning, perspective taking, motivation, interpersonal outcomes, and self-esteem. johnson and johnson view conflict as both inevitable and beneficial arguing that if a constructive and structured approach is taken, “conflict is to student learning what the internal combustion engine is to the automobile.”43 constructive controversy is defined as existing “when one person’s ideas, information, conclusions, theories, and opinions are incompatible with those of another and the two seek to reach an agreement.”44 the steps of constructive controversy can be paraphrased as preparing the best case for a position, persuasive presentation, open discussion, reversing perspectives, and creating an integrated joint position. 42 d.w. johnson & roger t. johnson, “energizing learning: the instructional power of conflict,” educational researcher 38:1 (2009): 37-51. 43 ibid., 37. 44 ibid., 38. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 212 such a structured approach to conflict is born of those “gut” feelings described by sherman above and can result in a reconstruction of one’s own conceptual understanding through integrating the ideas of others. it might, as well, be appropriate for students of all ages, given developmentally appropriate topics, and reflects the democratic process and the democratic education described above. one might imagine the constructive controversy model being employed at a school with a variety of student-centered problems. as an example related to the topic of war, issues of school violence might be addressed via a discussion of such conceptual notions as conflict resolution, peaceful activism, and even larger notions entailed in just war theory. inviting that conflict rather than avoiding it might, if structured well, lead to an activism wherein school violence (fights, bullying, harassment, etc.) might be eliminated because the students themselves learn better means of solving problems than by resorting to violence. this then might become an opportunity to move to the conceptually larger problem of war. before concluding our discussion of possible teaching “methods” to engage with our students on the problem of war, we make two “disclaimers” on the three approaches presented here: firstly, these approaches certainly do not exhaust the pedagogical possibilities—there must exist a broad spectrum of creative student-centered approaches to teaching and learning that might reengage students emotionally and lead us out of the paralysis inherent in current educational policy. secondly, these approaches are not mutually exclusive and, we believe, lend themselves well to combining approaches, wherein art, purpose, and controversy might come together in some incredibly robust ways to reinvigorate both educational practice and democratic activism— particularly in reference to when, if ever, war is justified. conclusion and so we come full circle: we believe american democracy has become weaker over time and we believe educational policy and practice shoulders much blame in this weakening. we have suggested that one of the keys to reinvigorating this political experiment of ours is to emotionally engage students of all ages, encourage them to reflect seriously, and provide opportunities for them to act reasonably thereby fomenting democratic activism. additionally, we believe one of the most important educational issues of our time is our current and ongoing military actions as well as the problem of war more generally. we have suggested that there exist valuable conceptual frameworks (i.e., just war theory and pacifism) that, when put to use in pedagogically valuable teaching practices (critical aesthetic pedagogy, purposeful projects, and constructive controversy), can emotionally engage our students with the “psychology of war” and lead them to sound and peaceful forms of war-related activism—activism which can indeed “reconstruct” our democracy back to emotional health. finally, we strongly encourage those of us who teach in colleges of education to get to the important work of convincing future and current teachers that though there is risk in engaging their students at an emotional, catalytic level, in not doing so we risk losing something much larger, democracy itself. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 213 references apple, michael. 2004. ideology and curriculum. new york, ny: routledge falmer. aquinas, thomas. summa theologiae. fathers of the 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typecast pictures. loy, david r. 2008. money, sex, war, karma: notes for a buddhist revolution. somerville, ma: wisdom publications. lutz, charles p. 2001. forward to john howard yoder. when war is unjust: being honest in just-war thinking. eugene, or: wipf and stock publishers. mclaren, peter. 1989. life in schools: an introduction to critical pedagogy in the foundations of education. new york, ny: longman. medina, yolanda. 2006. critical aesthetic pedagogy: toward a theory of self and social understanding. dissertation abstract international (umi no. 3242396). milgram, stanley. 1974. obedience to authority: an experimental view. new york, ny: harper and row. noddings, nel. 2007. critical lessons: what our schools should teach. cambridge, ny: cambridge university press. opinion research business. 2007. september 2007 – more than 1,000,000 iraqis murdered. http://www.opinion.co.uk/newsroom_details.aspx?newsid=78 (accessed march 20, 2009). regan, richard j. 1996. just war: principles and cases. washington, d.c.: the catholic university of america press. ruddick, sara. 1990. maternal thinking: toward a politics of peace. new york, ny: ballantine. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 198-215 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 215 sherman, robert r. 1985. philosophy with guts. journal of thought 20:2: 3-11. sheffield, eric c. 2011. strong community service learning: philosophical perspectives. new york, ny: peter lange. stiglitz, joseph, steven mufson & mark medish. 2008. the three trillion dollar war: the real cost of the iraq conflict. carnegie endowment for international peace. http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/0408_transcript_stiglitziraq.pdf (retrieved march 23, 2009). thoreau, henry d. 1993/1849. civil disobedience and other essays. ny: dover publications. walzer, michael. 2004. arguing about war. harrisonburg, va: r.r. donnelley. white, deborah. 2010. iraq war facts, results & statistics at january 6, 2010: 4,374 us soldiers killed, 31,616 seriously wounded. about.com: liberal politics. http://usliberals.about.com/od/homelandsecurit1/a/iraqnumbers.htm (accessed february 8, 2010). whitehead, alfred. 1929. the aims of education and other essays. ny: the free press. yoder, howard j. 2001. when war is unjust: being honest in just-war thinking. eugene, or: wipf and stock publishers. zawati, hilmi. 2001. is jihad a just war?: war, peace, and human rights under islamic and public international law. lewiston, n.y.: e. mellen press. microsoft word cromwell ifp v 11.1.cromwell comments.docx in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 32-34 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 32 volume 11 number 1 (2017): 32-34 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review encyclopedia of peace education, edited by monisha bajaj, charlotte, information age publishing, 2008, 177 pp., us $39.99 (paperback), us $73.99 (hardcover), isbn 978-1593118983 reviewed by alexander cromwell american university cromwell@american.edu in the encyclopedia of peace education, monisha bajaj draws on the field’s leading scholars to offer diverse perspectives on what peace education is and to provide a comprehensive understanding of the field’s historical foundations, key perspectives, central concepts and frameworks, and its future. the volume begins with an introductory chapter from bajaj, followed by four sections: ‘the historical emergence of and influences on peace education’, ‘foundational perspectives in peace education’, ‘core concepts in peace education’, and ‘frameworks and new directions for peace education’. each section contains an introduction and questions to guide the focus of the reader. many of the anthology’s contributors are well respected in the field and have written books on the topics they address in the volume. these contributors include prominent peace education scholars like johan galtung, ian harris, h.b. danesh, and nel noddings. chapters summarizing the impact of john dewey, maria montessori, and paulo freire on peace education are also important additions to the anthology. the volume’s 16 chapters that follow the introductory chapter are compiled from an online encyclopedia with over 40 entries. bajaj explains that chapters were selected because they identified “critical points of engagement” (3) relevant to scholars, students, and teachers in peace education. in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 32-34 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 33 in her introduction to the volume, bajaj specifies two key elements of peace education: 1) positive social values and skills can be imparted through education and 2) the transformative nature of education can provide spaces where students are inspired to take action for peace. she argues that peace education’s purpose is to cultivate critical consciousness of direct and structural violence that merges “hope and action towards peace” (141). throughout the volume’s chapters, contributors advocate for educators to support students in connecting peace education content to the various forms of violence they experience, to help them work towards action for peace. davies, for example, emphasizes action as one of four key components of global citizenship education for peace. an important contribution of the volume is its critical engagement with the problematic nationalistic orientation in education systems and its argument for challenging them through instruction that emphasizes human rights, disarmament, and a global culture of peace. this approach is evident in howlett’s description of dewey’s focus on subverting nationalism through the study of geography and history that emphasizes understanding other cultures. it is also clear in snauwaert’s analysis of political realism as an ideology valuing morality only within the borders of nations and the importance of peace education that transcends borders. noddings emphasizes expanding people’s circles of care beyond just their inner circles (i.e. the nation) through the use of dialogue and discovery of common interests, and mirra focuses on global human needs instead of militarism that glorifies the strength of the nation. davies also argues that education systems should encourage students to recognize their nation’s role in conflict and explore actions they can take to address this role, rather than prevent them from protesting against it. this theme is critical for peace education because it encourages action for peace that is for the betterment of human beings throughout the world, not just the nation where students live. the target audience of the volume is “students, scholars, and practitioners of peace education” (2), and it appeals to each of these three groups. students will appreciate the concise and accessible writing style of the contributors and the short summaries on key thinkers and concepts in the field. the glossary of terms and the more than 70 suggested further readings at the back of the anthology are also great resources. scholars will find the volume useful because it synthesizes various bodies of literature related to peace education and extends the breadth of the peace education field by including chapters on similar fields such as global citizenship education, comparative and international education, and futures education. for practitioners, the book is an important reminder to match the form of peace education with its content by providing space for dialogue, and that in factis pax volume 11 number 1 (2017): 32-34 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 34 students’ informed action for peace should be the final outcome of peace education. where the volume falls short is in its top-down approach, evident through its focus on the un, human rights, and disarmament education. bajaj critiques this tendency in her chapter on “critical” peace education and argues for generalizations to be built from the bottom up on localized effective peace education practices. however, in spite of her critique on the overly top-down and western orientation of peace education, the only example in this volume of localized peace education is h.b. danesh’s chapter discussing his unity-based model used in schools throughout bosnia. the volume would have been strengthened by generalizing from a few examples of specific conflict contexts to build the core content of the encyclopedia. another shortcoming was the absence of conflict resolution education from the discussion of core concepts in the volume. although conflict resolution was briefly addressed in a few chapters, it would have added value to the volume to have a chapter devoted to this topic and its role and compatibility with peace education, as many scholars consider conflict resolution to be a key part of peace education (e.g. harris 2004; reardon and cabezudo 2002). in summary, the encyclopedia of peace education is an excellent resource for understanding the foundations of peace education from some of the top thinkers in the field. it describes a number of key concepts and maps the relationship between various similar fields. it advocates for the importance of matching peace education’s form with its content, a global focus for building peace rather than a national one, and the need to cultivate agency in students to support them in actions that address structural or personal violence. these are all valuable contributions to peace education. references harris, i. 2004. peace education theory. journal of peace education 1(1): 5-20. reardon, b., and cabezudo, a. 2002. learning to abolish war. new york: hague appeal for peace. microsoft word colins ifp 12.14.docx in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 172 volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal integrated approach to human rights in a post conflict niger delta imoh colins edozie the university of toledo introduction citizens of the niger delta have been subjected to human rights violations, characterized by the political history of nigeria prior to 1999 dominated by military dictatorships that suppressed opposition. this area has been plagued by years of environmental degradation and abject poverty. it is one of the world’s top oil-producing regions and has been the center of violent conflict, despair, neglect, poverty and poor environmental conditions for many years (o'neill, 2007). according to onuoha (2005) and okonta & oronto (2001), the conflict in the area is intractable between various parties: community against community, youth against elders, community against oil companies, militants against government forces, etc. the niger delta is within the south-south geopolitical zone in nigeria. it is an area of approximately 70,000 square kilometers comprising of swamps, rainforests, rivers, and creeks. it accounts for almost ninety-five percent of the country oil export1. figure 1 shows the states considered as part of the niger delta states, a close-up map of the niger delta showing 1 dulue mbachu, the poverty of oil wealth in nigeria’s delta. in for isn security watch (03/02/06). in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 173 streams, creeks, etc. the niger delta region is rich in human and natural resources, arts and culture. the area has a population of 31.2 million people, speaking 250 languages and dialects comprising more than 40 different ethnic group, representing 13,329 settlements in 185 local government areas (lga) in 9 out of the 36 states of the nigeria. (akpomuvie, 2011; emmanuel, olayiwola, & babatunde, 2009; uyigue & ogbeibu, 2007; imoh, 2008). figure 12: map showing nigeria within africa & niger delta terrain ukpong (2017)3 in a report sponsored by the natural resource governance institute described life in the niger delta. in his description of a school in akwa ibom state, he said: the man wearing a t-shirt on a wrapper lowers his head and frame slightly, to enable him to step out of a small opening 2 http://www.waado.org/nigerdelta/maps/nigerdelta_rivers.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/niger_delta#/media/file:nigerdeltastates.png, http://www.waado.org/nigerdelta/maps/nigerdelta_westafrica.html 3 http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/221870-special-report-nigerias-oil-rich-communities-abandoned-shocking-povertydespite-huge-wealth.html in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 174 that serves as the entrance door to his thatched house. he identifies himself simply as fingesi. “i teach in that school over there,” fingesi says, pointing at a makeshift structure with a zinc roof, near his house, which serves as the community’s only primary school. apart from two chalkboards nailed loosely onto wooden pillars, nothing suggests this is a place for learning. a goat lies on the only school desk, and what would have been the second desk is broken. as many as 40 pupils sometimes cram into the small space to receive lessons in mathematics, english, social studies and her subjects from fingesi and one other teacher who also serves as the school head. figure 1: school in niger delta picture courtesy of cletus ukpong in the situation described, it is clear that decent schooling/education is not working in the community. considering jeffrey sachs definition, it will be acceptable to conclude that the people live in extreme poverty with other hardships including lack of sanitation, clean water, shelter, etc. in ibenao another community in akwa ibom state of niger delta described in the report, the situation is not any better. the government provided a school in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 175 that is under lock and key because there is no teacher posted to the school. the people live in huts close to a polluted pond, which is their only source of water. the figure 2 below shows the situation. figure 2 ibeno community in akwa ibom state picture courtesy of cletus ukpong ukpong, (2017) claimed that ibeno got an allocation n8.645billion from 2010 to 2106 which is equivalent to $28 million from the federation government. in his analysis, the amount is little compared to the resources generated by the oil companies operating from the area. however, he concluded that there is nothing to show how the funds were judiciously used. it is a pathetic situation of lack in the midst of plenty. in this case of extreme poverty in the niger delta should be an essential priority: cp or esc rights? how then can we approach the cp and esc rights? shue’s (1996) concept of basic rights lays the foundation for discussion of this integration. the people lack necessary infrastructure in the midst of the immense wealth exploited from the region and the vast amount budgeted in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 176 for the development of the area. the population (majority women and children) live in rural communities and are involved in subsistence farming. they cannot afford a good education for their children due to their lowincome levels, lack of facilities, and destruction of their means of livelihood. the failure of the government to provide for the people results in growing frustration resulting in series of protests, violence, and militancy. according to imoh (2008) ‘the most commonly held view is to attribute the causes to a potent cocktail of violence, underdevelopment, abject poverty in the area, a lure for quick money, environmental damage and failure of government leading to a growing frustration and circle of violence.' in 2009, then president musa yar'adua proclaimed an amnesty with the following words: "i hereby grant amnesty and unconditional pardon to all persons who have directly or indirectly participated in the commission of offenses associated with militant activities in the niger delta" (adunbi, 2015, p.222). this proclamation brought a stop to hostility, there is still insecurity, the kidnapping has reduced, but it has not stopped. this period can, therefore, be classified as a post-conflict situation. the hostility has ended; it is time to face the developmental challenges as well as the human right issues. this post-conflict era provides an opportunity for discussing the issue of human rights in the niger delta. what approach of human rights, therefore, should be appealed to in articulating and solving the problems in the niger delta? the establishment of democratic government has not brought the expected dividend of peace and development. the mantra of upholding human rights as the panacea for solving all the problems of the region brings to question which form of human rights is being articulated. to this end this paper will be appeal to the universal declaration of human rights (udhr) as the basis of the consideration of a human rights approach to addressing the problems outlined above. the udhr was unanimously adopted by the united nations general assembly on 10th december 1948. the aim of the udhr is to facilitate decent living conditions and protection from the oppressive powers of governments. the undhr is a resolution and therefore its provisions are not legally binding. it is, therefore, not enforceable. however, its general recognition as a set of moral imperatives renders it a part of international law as a matter of custom. the office of the high commissioner for human rights defines human rights as “rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 177 color, religion, language, or any other status. we are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. these rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.”4 inherent in resolutions and treaties are obligations and duties of states to enforce the protection of rights; they assume responsibility to protect their people from abuses and ensure a fulfillment of the enjoyment of the benefits. this paper will be exploring the extent of fulfilling these rights in a post-conflict niger delta. the acceptance of udhr led to a movement for a relativist conception. this normative understanding draws on the difference between respect among nations and cultures in the interpretation of. do rights have the same meaning in all nations, to all people and at all times? at the time of udhr in 1948, hayden (2001) claimed there were only 60 countries; today there are 195. the states that conceived and developed udhr based it on their vision and cultural/social worldview, even accommodating the cold war rivalry. felice grouped udhr articles into three groups: the first group of articles 1-21 linked to the french and us revolution, which emphasizes life, liberty, freedom, and security. the second group of rights in articles 22-27 connected to the russian revolution, which was welfare, oriented. the last group reflected in articles 28-30 strives for global interdependence and solidarity. the various parties to the enactment had different views of what constitute human rights; these differential views have not changed. human rights are broadly conceive to encompass both civil and political (cp) rights on the one hand and economic, social and cultural (esc) rights on the other hand. the problem is that the land resources of the niger delta have been devastated by years of environmental degradation, a lack of duty of care by the government, and militancy, thereby preventing the people from achieving their potential. there is a constant call for upholding the rights of the people of the niger delta. however, this has mostly focused on cp rights; with neglect or less attention to esc rights. there exists irrefutable documentation of human rights violations in the niger delta and other resource-rich areas (ikelegbe, 2001; watts, 2005; frynas & pegg, eds. 2003; wettstein, 2012). the actions of repression and suppression of peaceful protests, as well as the use of armed security 4 http://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/pages/whatarehumanrights.aspx in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 178 forces to disperse and intimidate citizens is well documented (bassey, 2008; ezeudu, 2011; manby, 1999). others include violations of health, environmental, fraud, accountability issues, land, etc. within the framework of cp rights. it is essential to bring the atrocities and violations to the attention of the general public and call for better protection of human rights, including a conscious effort to address the causes which can be traced to a denial of sufficient resources required for subsistence. the cases of ogoni, choba, okirika, umuechem, odi among others in the niger delta are well documented (nwaja, 1999). these are reactive, responding to actions of government and its security agents, not proactive to prevent and empower the people. there are other cases of lack of responsibility by the government to enforce its regulations and the multinational oil companies taking corporate social responsibility as a tokenism given to communities (watts, 2005; ezeudu, 2011). the implication is that the duty of the companies to operate responsibly and ensure the survival and well-being of the people are neglected (wbcsd, 2000). there is the constant blame game while people suffer and die. the reactive nature of current actions has not solved the problem nor improved the situation; there is a need for a conscious change in the way human rights are discussed and implemented in the niger delta. what is lacking is a perspective that understands esc and cp rights as integrated components of human rights. the economic survival and subsistence of the people is a necessary condition for appreciating and enjoying political and civil rights. there has to be a clear plan of articulation of a human rights discourse that should begin with a right to subsistence. it is those whose basic subsistence needs are provided that can lay a fair claim to cp rights. this paper, therefore, calls for an integrated approach to human rights in the niger delta. this paper highlights the implications for human rights in a post-conflict niger delta. it argues that over time, an evolution in the appreciation of human rights has occurred; however, the reality is that living conditions as seen in niger delta reaffirm that cp rights should not be separated from esc rights. as such, a relative concept of human rights that affirms the citizens of the niger delta protection, provision, and survival is necessary. the enforcement of the cp rights of the citizens of the niger delta is not feasible without first ensuring the safeguard of the environment that in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 179 supports the people’s means of livelihood. this implies that subsistence should be first on the agenda, which falls within the sphere of esc rights. for sustenance makes life possible, people need to be alive to enforce their cp rights. these include clean water, clothing, shelter, food, and healthcare, among others. the failure or inability of the state to provide these amenities is a human rights violation. the enforcement of the right to subsistence is the foundation of other rights; the failure to provide and defend it will lead to failure of other rights. building on the foundations of basic rights as postulated by shue (1996) is a unity of cp and esc rights. this paper appreciates the dynamics of the niger delta situation and reaffirms that protection and provision for the survival of the people should be imperative before people can effectively claim their civil and political rights. therefore, the continuing conflict in the nd is the failure of the state to uphold this principle (okonta & douglas, 2003; onuoha, 2005). the paper is divided into an introduction and two parts. the first part explores the concept of human rights drawing from its historical roots in the united nations declaration of human rights. it presents philosophical discourses and ideas concerning cp and esc rights, while maintaining the thesis that cp and esc rights should be integrated to solve the human rights plights in the niger delta. the human rights situation in the niger delta is presented with a vivid description of poor social and environmental conditions. this is followed by an explication of the concept of cp and esc rights and its applicability in the niger delta with a focus on the integration of these conceptions of human rights in a post-conflict niger delta. the paper concludes with recommendations on the way forward in the niger delta human rights situation. historical context of human right: civil and political rights versus economic, social and cultural rights the concept of human rights has undergone significant modifications over time (nussbaum, 1997). human rights can be defined as ‘ethical duties’ not necessarily constituting a legal framework but nevertheless indispensable because of the freedom it gives to the people to do and to be that which they cherish (sen, 2004). within the social contract tradition locke, kant, and paine, for example, argue that the state has a duty and moral obligation to protect the human rights of its citizens. historically, the in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 180 discourse on human rights endeavoured to put a mechanism in place to ensure individual’s protection from the state. the perception of the state as all-powerful and oppressive led to the need for a mechanism to ensure that rights are respected (locke, 1764/2001; paine, 1894/2001; kant, 1891/2001). felice (1996) suggests that the moral protection of human rights is value-based, thereby reflecting the socio-economic situation of the country. the america revolution, for example, embraced civil and political rights as inalienable, but it did not consider the provision of means of livelihood as rights. however, in most communities in developing countries like the niger delta, via the extended family, tribes, and association as the face of the government, economic and social rights are paramount. they provide the basis for protection and providence. therefore, the expectation of the people is that the government will regulate the oil companies in order to protect the people from the environmental damage that destroys their livelihood. these expectations are about the survival of the people hinged on their ability to thrive within their community without hindrance. the people of the niger delta are victims of inadequate enforcement of environmental regulations, government inability to rein in powerful multinational oil corporations, who in exploiting the resources, violate the rights of the people to a healthy environment that sustains them and upholds their dignity as humans. why then should we differentiate between the cp and esc rights? hart (1955) argued that if there are any natural rights, it is the right of people to be free. the right to be free should be inalienable. cranston & raphael (1967) contend that human rights are only applicable to cp rights like the liberty, freedom, life, etc. they claimed that esc rights do not fall within the spectrum of human rights; because it pertains to a particular class of people not all humans. the implication, for example, is that a right to work is only applicable to those who can work, not to all humans. they defined human rights within the contexts of moral rights stating: ‘human rights are a form of moral rights, and they differ from other moral rights in being the rights of all people at all times and in all situations.' the implication is the application to all in every situation; there are no conditions attached to it. the fact that a person is human entitles the person to human rights. he claims that esc rights do not meet such criteria, and therefore, should not be considered as rights. pogge (1995/2001) disagrees and argues that the in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 181 difference in implementation and who has the duty of care should be the guiding focus. he claims that ‘all human beings have the same human rights, and human rights violations do not vary with whose human rights are at stake; as far as human rights are concerned, all human beings matter equally.' the argument is that everybody should be treated equally, and no human life is higher than another. however, for an act to be a violation, government, her agencies or a state supported corporation must be involved. the implication is that human rights duty is addressed to those who are in a position to solve it. however, donnelly (2013) reasoned that cp rights might seem easy, simpler, and cheaper to maintain because it has been a tradition in most western countries as cp rights require ‘only forbearance’ from others while esc rights ‘requires others to provide goods, services or opportunities’ (p.30). it will be presented that negative and positive dimensions of rights could apply to both cp and esc. donnelly contention is that it is easier to enforce the violation of cp rights in the niger delta than esc rights, as it would require less from the stakeholders. this concept described as negative and positive rights will further be explicated in the later part of this paper within the framework of shue (1996) basic rights. this violation in the niger delta denies the people the right to be humans which is a combination of both cp and esc rights. improvement of cp rights in the niger delta cannot be successfully achieved in an atmosphere lacking esc rights. the two rights should be integrated; at least within the niger delta (if not universally) cp rights should not be conceived and enacted separately from esc rights. neither a right to civil and political freedom nor a right to basic economic, cultural and social goods can effectively be actualized without the other; these two basic sets of human rights presuppose each other and thus are designed to guarantee each other (shue, 1996). however, their protection and realization is not merely a matter of conceptual coherence; rights call for a basic structure of political and legal protections. the dichotomy between the cp and esc rights has been a source of debate. which should come first? which is more important? are they a part of a continuum? these questions will be explored as we articulate the form of human rights in the niger delta. it can be argued that cp and esc rights should be embodied in one basic conception of rights aimed at protecting the lives of the people. the lack of civic and political rights can be an infraction while the inability to provide social and economic rights is in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 182 explained as an omission. however, this goes against the explicit provision of article 25 of the udhr, which states: everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. article 25. shue (1996) calls for basic rights as the means of advancement of society. he argues for subsistence, which is part of the esc rights. he defined subsistence as “available for consumption what is needed for a decent chance at a reasonably healthy and active life of more or less normal length, bearing tragic interventions (p.23).” this definition is open-ended giving room for a lot of deliberation and possibility of reaching agreements. the basis for the enforcement of economic rights will rest on subsistence. the integration of aspects of the cp and esc rights gives what shue calls “basic rights.” basic rights are the rights that are essential for the enjoyment of other rights. it serves as the building blocks for other rights that should not be surrendered for rights that are non-basic. these basic rights are the security of person, subsistence, and liberty. shue argues, “basic rights are the morality of the depths. they specify the line no one is allowed to sink.” (p. 18). he further contended that basic rights are the minimum humanity expects to live a life of dignity nothing short of that is acceptable. nussbaum (1997/2001) concurs that human right is based on our humanity and a clear linkage to the capability approach. she stated that human right involves an especially urgent and morally justified claim that a person has, simply by being a human adult, and independently of membership in a particular nation, or class, or sex, or ethnic or religious or sexual group (p.228). nussbaum adds an elucidation that this right has no relationship to the station in life, implying that all are treated equally. however, there is a need for a clear linkage to combined capability, which usually involves both an internal component and an external component: a citizen who is systematically deprived of information about religion does not have religious liberty, even if the state imposes no barrier to religious choice. therefore, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 183 what is essential is the element of choice. nussbaum further argues that on human rights combined capability is necessary for achieving the full potential of the individual. it is the provision of ‘environment that is favorable for the exercise of practical reason and other major functions’ (p. 227). she suggests that decisions are a product of social realities not made impulsively or autonomously of their conditions. she stated that: “if one cares about people’s powers to choose a conception of the good, then one must care about the rest of the form of life that supports those powers, including material conditions…” (p. 227). how can one talk of the good in an atmosphere of environmental degradation, poverty, and neglect? the niger delta is a classic case of the element of choice not available for the people. if the capability is not possible, therefore the right to choose and be that which they cherish is lacking. nussbaum is advocating for the complete restoration of the capability of the person to be that which they cherish. the cp rights do not guarantee the ‘environment that is favorable for the exercise of practical reason and other major functions’ without the esc rights. if that combined capability is negated by agents of the state or corporate entities by commission or omission the people’s rights are violated. is it a question of positive or negative conceptions? pogge (1995/2001) argues that human rights should encompass both positive and negative duties. this involves the art of protecting and the obligation to avoid conditions that might make it impossible for a person to live to their full potential. this is in line with the argument enshrined in the right of sustenance as articulated in article 25. pogge interpretation means that: it involves no duty on everyone to help supply such necessities to those who would otherwise be without them. it rather involves a duty to citizens to ensure that the social order they collectively and coercively impose upon each of themselves is one under which each has secure access to these necessities, insofar as this is feasible (p. 203). the essence is the need to build institutions that will make it possible, remove barriers and impediments. it is not a call for government intervention but a case of removing the obstacles that make it impossible for people to achieve their potential. shue (1996:52) supported this argument when he argued that cp and esc can both have positive and negative duties. for example, that the rights to food remain realized if the government does not intervene by encouraging export crops. the argument here is that social in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 184 and economic rights are accomplished without interference. he introduced three scenarios on duties as follows 1. duties to avoid depriving duties not to eliminate a person’s only available means of subsistence 2. duties to protect from deprivation obligations to safeguard individuals against denial of the only possible means of living by other people. 3. duties to aid the deprived obligations to provide for the subsistence of those unable to provide for their own. this argument implies that esc rights can be negative rights imposing duties on government and others not to take actions that make people unable to have means of subsistence. the growth of the market economy and its degree of freedom means that to enforce a duty one should not make a profit or gain at the expense of other people. therefore, there is a duty of government not to make policies or take actions that might affect the people negatively. thus, the ‘ultimate guardian’ of human rights is the people. citizens must be vigilant and act as a check to those who have the power to violate their rights and those who are responsible for protecting those rights (pogge, 1995/2001). the irony of the niger delta is that when people are pauperized and are barely able to sustain themselves, then their ability to check government is significantly impeded. there is a need therefore to begin the process of guaranteeing the people’s subsistent needs. this will take the burden out of daily striving to scrap a living and replace it with a commitment to engage for both cp and esc. it is argued in this paper that both are important. hayden (2001) supported the importance of esc when he stated that there had been arguments that a right to a healthy environment is necessary to enjoy the dignity and other rights. he further said the case that: human life exists within the context of a natural environment and therefore that human rights depend upon the continued existence of a safe, healthy environment. while this may seem an obvious point, nevertheless, the destruction and degradation of the environment by human begins continue at a ferocious pace. ……environmental degradation contributes either directly or indirectly to violations of human rights (p. 375). in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 185 the degradation of the environment, depletion of scares resources, and exploitation by corporations in the niger delta increases poverty and dependence. the inaction of the government made the people powerless and subjected to more human rights abuse. this becomes like a cyclic process of doom. hayden (2001) concluded that unless a right to a healthy and sustainable environment is recognized and advocated, “other basic rights” (p.375) cannot be protected. how can an area (a group of people whose area) produces the wealth of a country be subject to extreme poverty and environmental degradation? the lack of a duty of care by the government is a significant factor (sach 2015). the lack of empowerment exemplifies government offer to the poor what is political expedient thereby neglecting their plight. the many interventions which have not improved a lot of the people in the niger delta is a classic example of this attitude of platitude (gledhill, 2003). on a global scale, the individualization of the udhr makes it difficult to advocate for collective rights. however, that might be a lame excuse not to intervene because the victims are a poor minority in an ethnically divided nation. the problem is the lack of political will. therefore, there is need to muster the political will to enforce certain fundamental rights which are essential to the enjoyment of other rights. shue (1996) captures this in the transitivity principle: “if everyone has a right to y, and the enjoyment of x is necessary for the enjoyment of y, then everyone also has a right to x” (p. 32). the basic right is constitutive of, an essential component of other rights; they establish the conditions for the enjoyment of other rights. the substance is that fundamental rights are the building blocks for the attainment and satisfaction of other rights. these basic rights as stated above have an element of both cp and esc. the contention of cp and esc rights also goes with the implementation across the niger delta considered as a group. the udhr in article 29 imposes both a duty and a right. it states: “everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.” the recognition of the importance of the person within the community shows a distinct relationship. therefore, how can the people prosper and be that which they cherish if the support base of the community is systematically destroyed? how do we apply human rights in the niger delta? niger delta, an integral approach to human rights human rights sustain life on earth; it a shield against political and economic forces that threats life. it is the limit beneath one should not sink. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 186 however, the entitlement to the right is not complete if the rights cannot be enjoyed. therefore, the existence of rights implies the establishment of a mechanism to enjoy such rights. the identification and documentation of rights violation in the niger delta has not led to improvement in the condition of living of the people. this paper explores an articulation of integrated human rights practices that can make a difference. economic rights are essentials for people to survive, it is likened to physical security, and lack of the support structure can lead to an inability to live life to the full (shue, 1996). the example by shue is quite illustrative that while people might be able to fight off a physical attack, it might be terrible fighting off economic issues by sheer force. the financial wealth generated in the niger delta has not translated into prosperity for the people; the ardent environmental disasters and poverty make the people constant victims of human rights abuses. cp rights will not be attainable if the esc rights are not enforced. shue emphasized this when he argued that the enjoyment of the economic rights should not be just on paper, but there should be institutions that should make it possible. in the niger delta, these organizations are weak, and its impact and effectiveness are not felt in the region leaving the people vulnerable. these rights cannot be in a vacuum; it has to sit within the confine of the people and their identities and cultures; which is not static but subject to change. bobbio & cameron (1997) stated that “the fundamental problem concerning human rights today is not so much how to justify them, but how to protect them. this issue is political, not philosophical (p.10).” esc rights remain a subject of debate, especially the specification of who should have the duty to provide for and protect these rights. the implication is that cases of violations of human rights should be addressed instead of continuous discourse on the philosophical contents of human rights. sachs (2015) argues that the interactions between the global society, economy, and environment, will not lead to better life for the people without the importance of governance. good governance provides the social services that can lift people out of poverty making the role of government imperative. however, sachs also acknowledged the role of multinational corporation who have a duty of care to operate in an environmentally sustainable manner. they have a social responsibility to eradicate poverty in the area they work. the multinational companies in the niger delta have not adequately fulfilled this need. instead, there are allegations of instigating community violence, polluting the environment, and involvement in corrupt practices that in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 187 compromise both government officials and community leaders; all of these practices lead to the existence of extreme poverty. sachs (2015) defines extreme poverty as the inability of individuals to meet basic human needs for food, water, shelter, sanitation, education, and livelihood. he further stated that some of the characteristics include no decent school, and where there are schools, no qualified teachers or facilities. life in these situations is a daily struggle for dignity and survival he concluded. a careful reflection shows that majority of the people in the communities of niger delta live in the situation as described by sachs. jover (2001) contended that the movement from cp to esc is a continuum and changes cannot be uniform but based on the realities of the people. it is a framework that people should aspire. habermas provided some guidance in the book: time of transitions; he explained that human rights concept of equality, liberty, and freedom have a european origin, providing sources of hope, comfort, and mobilization for the activist in most developing countries. however, he supports the interpretation based on the reality of the people. in his words: notwithstanding their european origins, human rights today represent the universal language in which global relations can be normatively regulated. in asia, africa, and south america, they constitute the sole language in which the opponents and victims of murderous regimes and civil wars can raise their voices against violence, repression, and persecution, and against violations of their human dignity. but as human rights have won acceptance as a transcultural language, disagreements between cultures over their proper interpretation have also intensified. insofar as this intercultural discourse on human rights is conducted in a spirit of reciprocal recognition, it can also lead the west to a decentered understanding of a normative construction that is no longer the property of europeans and may no longer exclusively reflect the particularities of this one culture (habermas, 2006; p. 155). there are more than 5000 ethnic groups with a different interpretation of reality; which affects the conception of rights (kymlicka, 1995). the traditional concept of human rights focuses on the dignity of the individual, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 188 but the advocates of group right seem to suggest that individuals are custodians of the characteristics and identities of the group. the quest for an integrated approach for human right in the niger delta is perceived through the lens of the people as a group. felice (1996) argue that in a society where groups struggle to get recognition and access, the weaker suffers. the elites in any society and the dominant powers monopolize power to their advantage. the configuration of nigeria with the fight for control and resources leaves the less dominant group at a significant disadvantage. the people of the niger delta being a minority in a multiethnic country like nigeria places them at a disadvantage. the basis of collective rights is to ensure that groups can benefit from the power to a decent living and development in their community in conformity with article 29 of the udhr which imposes a duty and responsibility. the situation in the niger delta calls for the collective rights of the people respected and protected. rights are socially constructed, there are products of events which can be historical, political, religious, economic or social. the reaction, outcomes, and effect of those affect shapes and define the rights established. the suffering and degradation of the environment of the niger delta necessitate a particular attention to the need of the people. this paper agrees with shue that esc should be framed within the context of subsistence rights. if one reflects critically on the situations in the niger delta, the conflict and militancy could have been avoided if one agrees with shue where he argues that if respect for possession should be considered, then those who have no recourse should be provided for: if people are prohibited by law from taking what they need to survive, and they are unable within existing economic institutions and policies to provide for their own survival (and the survival of dependents for whose welfare they are responsible). are they entitled, as a last resort, to receive the essentials for survival from the remainder of humanity whose lives are not threatened? (p.25). the militancy in the niger delta is a failure of the government to provide for the people. this argument is essential in the articulation of the survival of the people of the niger delta, for if the wealth from the region is used to develop the whole country, it makes decent sense that provisions are made for individual who has no means. this extended as that no one can enjoy civic and political rights if they have no way of enjoying a healthy in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 189 and active life. a person who has no home or means of livelihood cannot have the ability to exercise the civil and political rights. take for example the right to vote. if the polling booth for voting is far from a person who has no means of livelihood or income, how can the individuals afford to transport to vote? therefore, the ability to perform civic responsibilities depends on the economic rights of means of subsistence. shue argues further that the inability to meet those needs can be “as fatal, incapacitating or painful as violations of physical security.” a person that does not have funds to buy medication when sick might not be alive to benefit from cp rights because the illness might increase leading to death. shue contended that it would be likened to “firmly an arbitrary execution.” therefore, if one is considering the situation in the niger delta where conditions are terrible, it will be fair to say that the lack of the economic rights that will encourage sustenance is equivalent to arbitrary condemnation to death for the people. there is a possibility of fighting off against anyone that wants to harm you, but who will you fight against when you are hungry or sick. this situation has led to repeated vandalization of government properties and oil installation as a means of venting anger and frustration. the violent confrontation with security agents leads to death for the people. these acts of violence have further compounded the situation in the region. this scenario enhances the need to make the esc rights a predominant feature in the area. it should be linked to the rights to development. article 28 of the udhr calls for an equal opportunity for each to develop to their full potential, it assists in the reduction and elimination of human suffering caused by both state and non-state actors. the people of the niger delta are not necessarily asking for charity but for equal opportunity to be that which they want. the concept of development should not always be defined and articulated within the prisms of economics terms, but social justice should play a prominent role. the systemic and structural impediment should be removed to enable the people to have a higher quality of life. felice (1996) stated that “justice requires that to treat each other as equals, we must recognize, and then alter, the mechanisms, including the economic structures, which cause suffering for particular groups” (p. 102). the duty to respect, protect, and aid the people will prevent the oppressive and unjust situation in the niger delta from continuing. the policies of the oil companies inhibit the people of the niger delta from achieving their full potential. the number of people living in poverty is alarming; esc rights should be protected as an urgent matter of in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 190 human security. the people need to be empowered for collective action for change. conclusion the people of the niger delta are not lazy nor lack wiliness to improve their lot, but the situation is based on the unique circumstances of being a minority in a multi-ethnic country; they have no choice. felice, (1996) stated that “a genuinely democratic state would not only provide means for all peoples and groups to voice their claim but would also be responsive to the needs of those who suffer (p. 182).” the people of the niger delta are suffering, and there is a need for succor to come their way for them to be empowered to be that which they want and cherish in this post-conflict era. all human beings pass from this earth, however, when their death is avoidable, then violence and injustice have occurred. when people are sick, there should be the provision of health facilities to treat them; this is the role of society in transforming the lives of the citizens. there should be the necessity of living with clean water, health, housing, food, etc. the provision of these will enhance the quality of life of the people. it will ensure life fulfillment, and its absence will lead to the inability to enjoy other rights. these are esc linked; policies should be established to provide and sustained it, this gives impetus to esc rights as the driving force. the mere thought of the absence of these rights is enough to destabilize people. therefore, it is imperative that they are protected. thus, pc and esc should be enforced for the quality of life of the people. shue (1996) argues that “to claim to guarantee people a right that they are in fact unable to exercise is fraudulent, like furnishing people with meal tickets but providing no food (p.27).” this is akin to government signing and agreeing on udhr, but no substance to ensure that the people have a quality of life that the udhr meant to enable. it is the same with government lip service to the protection of the citizens in the niger delta when the people are left with the vicissitudes of life and nature without any assistance. it is the responsibility of government to provide social guarantees protect the rights of all citizens; the weak and vulnerable in the niger delta should not be victims of social forces, which they have no control over. shue summarized this argument with the transitivity principle; he stated: “if in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 191 everyone has a right to y, and the enjoyment of x is necessary for the enjoyment of y, then everyone has also had a right to x” (p.32). the implication and adaptation of this argument to the niger delta situation should be that the people of the niger delta has a right and desire political rights, but the enjoyment of the political rights depends on the availability of subsistence. it then follows from the transitivity principle that everybody to enjoy political rights need to have economic rights as well as a right to environmental sustainability. therefore, as a matter of human rights and social justice the fundamental rights should be urgently addressed in the niger delta. the journey of transformation in the post-conflict niger delta should be in the integration of the cp and esc rights. priority should be given to esc rights. there is a need for a proactive engagement, speaking out against violation is not enough, there has to be a concerted effort at empowerment to achieve and sustain an integrated structure of human rights in the niger delta. references adunbi, o. (2015). oil wealth and insurgency in nigeria. indiana university press. akpomuvie, o. (2011). tragedy of commons: analysis of oil spillage, gas flaring and sustainable development of the niger delta of nigeria. journal of sustainable development, 4(2), p200. bassey, n. (2006). trade and human rights in the niger delta. bassey, n. (2008). the oil industry and human rights in the niger delta. united states senate juciary subcommittee on human rights and the law, 1-29. bobbio, n., & cameron, a. (1997). the age of rights. cerna, c. (1994). universality of human rights and cultural diversity: implementation of human rights in different socio-cultural contexts. human rights quarterly, 16(4), 740-752. doi:10.2307/762567 cranston, m., & raphael, d. d. (1967). human rights, real and supposed. donnelly, j. (1984). cultural relativism and universal human rights. human rights quarterly, 6(4), 400-419. doi:10.2307/762182 donnelly, j. 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(2001). two treatises of government. in hayden, p. the philosophy of human rights. paragon house, original work published (1764) manby, b. (1999). the price of oil: corporate responsibility and human rights violations in nigeria's oil producing communities (vol. 2156). human rights watch mcleod, s. (2007). maslow's hierarchy of needs. available from internet: http://www. simplypsychology. org/maslow. html. nussbaum, m. c. (1997). capabilities and human rights. fordham l. rev., 66, 273. nwaja, o. (1999). obasanjo condemned for the situation in nigeria. the news. nwajah, o. (1999). a tale of military massacres: from ogoniland to odi town okonta, i., & douglas, o. (2003). where vultures feast: shell, human rights, and oil in the niger delta. verso onuoha, a. (2005). from conflict to collaboration. adonis & abbey publishers ltd. paine, t. (2001). the rights of man. the writings of thomas paine, collected and edited by moncure daniel conway, new york: knickerbocker press, n hayden, p., the philosophy of human rights. paragon house, st. paul. original work published (1894) pogge, t. w. (1995). how should human rights be conceived? jre, 3, 103. sachs, j. d. (2015). the age of sustainable development. columbia university press. sen, a. (2004). elements of a theory of human rights. philosophy & public affairs, 32(4), 315-356. shue, h. (1996). basic rights: subsistence, affluence, and us foreign policy. princeton university press. taylor, c. (1996). a world consensus on human rights? (embattled minorities around the globe). dissent, 43, 15-21. teson, f. r. (1984). international human rights and cultural relativism. va. j. int'l l., 25, 869. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 172-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 194 ukpong, cletus. (2017) special report: nigeria’s oil-rich communities abandoned in shocking poverty despite huge wealth http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/221870-specialreport-nigerias-oil-rich-communities-abandoned-shocking-povertydespite-huge-wealth.htm uyigue, e., & ogbeibu, a. e. (2007). climate change and poverty: sustainable approach in the niger delta region of nigeria. in 2007 amsterdam conference on the human dimensions of global environmental change, may (pp. 24-26). vincent, r. j. 1986. human rights and international relations. cambridge: cambridge university press watts, m. j. (2005). righteous oil? human rights, the oil complex, and corporate social wbcsd, a. (2000). eco-efficiency. creating more value with less impact. world business council for sustainable development, geneva, 32. wettstein, f. (2012). silence as complicity: elements of a corporate duty to speak out against the violation of human rights. business ethics quarterly, 22(1), 37-61 mcgregor-ifp with corrections by author volume 7 number 1 (2013): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ human responsibility movement initiatives: a comparative analysis   sue l.t. mcgregor, ph.d. professor faculty of education mount saint vincent university 166 bedford highway halifax ns canada b3m 2j6 sue.mcgregor@msvu.ca http://www.consultmcgregor.com introduction   this paper examines the topic of universal human responsibilities. the united nations claims that "human rights simultaneously entail both rights and obligations."1 this statement implies that if human beings have fundamental rights by virtue of their personhood, they also have fundamental responsibilities to other persons.2 a right is something to which an individual has a just claim, a morally correct demand for something that is due or believed to be due. responsibility refers to the duty (a moral or legal obligation) of being answerable for the consequences of an act or function.3 the underlying premise of this paper is that people acting responsibly will create an environment where it is less likely their rights will be violated; responsibilities complement rights. yet, although worldwide conversations about the concept of human rights have been ongoing for centuries, the conversation about a universal declaration for corresponding responsibilities is                                                                                                                 1 united nations. 2013. “the foundations of international human rights law.” http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/hr_law.shtml accessed january 13, 2013, web citation. 2 see martinez, miguel alfonso. 2003. promotion and protection of human rights: human rights and human responsibilities (e/cn.4/2003/105). united nations. http://www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/(symbol)/e.cn.4.2003.105.en?opendocument accessed january 12, 2013; küng, hans. 1998. don’t be afraid of ethics! why we need to talk of responsibilities as well as rights. in h. küng and h. schmidt, eds., global ethic and global responsibilities two declarations. (pp. 104-122). suz, switzerland: smc university press. 3 mcgregor, sue l. t. 2010. consumer moral leadership. rotterdam, the netherlands: sense publishing.   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   2 much more recent (the last 15-20 years). the united nations’ (1948) declaration of human rights (udhr) was created 65 years ago. meanwhile, there is still no universal declaration of human responsibilities. this incongruence exists despite that article 1 says all “human beings... should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood," intimating responsibilities to each other.4 article 29(1) recognizes the inherent link between rights and duties; that rights cannot exist without people acting responsibly towards each other. article 29(1) says, "everyone has duties [emphasis added] to the community in which alone the free and full development of his (sic) personality is possible."5 suter agrees that article 29(1) was "overshadowed by the preceding rights and so very little attention was paid to [responsibilities] in comparison with the rights set out in the same document."6 the central thesis of this paper is that human rights will be better protected or ensured when people assume their duties to the each other and to the local, regional, national and global community, per article 29(1) of the udhr. there is a well-established human rights framework. a responsibility framework would complement the current focus on rights. gladstone agrees that many people believe responsibilities can complement the rights in the universal declaration of human rights.7 to complement means to add extra features so as to enhance, improve or make complete. human responsibilities would complete the other half of the human rights coin. responsibilities need not be seen as a threat to the already entrenched rights.8 appreciating this fact, there are several initiatives around the world striving to foster and scaffold a global, intercultural dialogue about a possible universal declaration of human responsibilities. those involved anticipate that declarations of human responsibilities will lead to responsible behaviour toward the different cultures of humankind.9 this eventuality will entail intercultural dialogue. the latter comprises an open and respectful exchange or interaction between individuals, groups and organisations with different cultural backgrounds and notions of rights and responsibilities. amongst other things, intercultural dialogue strives to increase the                                                                                                                 4 united nations. 1948. the universal declaration of human rights (a/res/3/217a). http://www.un-documents.net/a3r217a.htm accessed january 12, 2013, p. 4 5 ibid., p. 4 6 suter, keith. 2010. the quest for human responsibilities to complement human rights. medicine, conflict and survival, vol. 26, no. 3, p. 201. 7 as cited in clapham, andrew. 1999. globalization and rule of law. review of the international commission of jurists, vol. 61, pp. 17-33. 8 the following authors argue that rights are threatened if responsibilities are codified at the global level: amnesty international. 1998. muddying the waters the draft universal declaration of human responsibilities: no complement to human rights [ior 40/02/98]. london, england. http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ior40/002/1998 accessed january 12, 2013; knox, john h. 2008. horizontal human rights law. the american journal of international law, vol. 102, no. 1, pp. 1-47; saul, ben. 2001. in the shadow of human rights: human duties, obligations and responsibilities. columbia human rights law review, vol. 32, pp. 565-624; suter, the quest for human responsibilities to complement human rights. 9 club of rome. 1996. a brief history of the club of rome. http://www.uow.edu.au/~sharonb/sts300/limits/writings/corinfo2.html accessed january 13, 2013.   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   3 freedom and ability to make choices and to take responsibility for those choices,10 an exercise that can become complicated due to different understandings of the concept of responsibility.11 suter observes that the current human responsibility initiatives have evolved separately, with little coordination (as will be demonstrated in this paper). he envisions a future time when more and more people would identify with the movement and encourage others to follow. this involvement will entail intercultural dialogue enriched by "a sense of human responsibility."12 indeed, suter explains that “a development is slowly emerging that is also worth following."13 this international movement is focused on conceptualizing what might constitute a declaration of human responsibilities.14 this paper will provide a chronological overview of four of these efforts: the interaction council, the unesco/valencia, the parliament of the world’s churches, and the human rights commission (now the human rights council). they are repeatedly recognized as the key architects of this movement. the architects of these and other approaches draw on a range of approaches to structure their arguments around human responsibilities. the review of the literature revealed five such dimensions, used to scaffold the discussion shaping this paper (see figure 1). they are discussed first, followed by a chronological overview of the four initiatives (a case study of sorts) and then a comparative analysis of this case. a chronological approach was taken because “attention to history, especially how ideas evolve over decades," is important for understanding the human responsibility movement.15 the intent of the comparative analysis is to both (a) bring these initiatives to people’s attention, and (b) provide clarity on how they are similar and different, yet all focused on human responsibilities. as a caveat, it is beyond the scope of this paper to address the many issues that arise when people are made aware of these initiatives, such as (a) obstacles to their adoption, (b) education surrounding their merit and adoption, and (c) the political and practical plausibility of adopting such declarations. what is certain is that the idea of bills or declarations of responsibilities has received international attention. it has powerful support from luminary world leaders (politicians, faith leaders, scientists, artists, philosophers and nobel laureates), 16 along with strong                                                                                                                 10 council of europe. 2008. white paper on intercultural dialogue. cedex, france. http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/intercultural/whitepaper_interculturaldialogue_2_en.asp accessed january 13, 2013. 11 küng, don’t be afraid of ethics! 12 suter, the quest for human responsibilities to complement human rights, p. 205 13 ibid., p. 200 14 international council on human rights policy. 1999. taking duties seriously: individual duties in international human rights law. versoix, switzerland. http://www.ichrp.org/files/reports/10/103_report_en.pdf accessed january 12, 2013; knox, horizontal human rights law; lazarus, liora, benjamin goold, rajendra desai and qudsi rasheed. 2009. athe relationship between rights and responsibilities. united kingdom ministry of justice. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2022270 accessed january 12, 2013; saul, in the shadow of human rights: human duties, obligations and responsibilities. 15 suter, the quest for human responsibilities to complement human rights, p. 204. 16 kostakidis-lianos, lara and george williams. 2005. bills of responsibilities. the alternative law journal, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 58-62.   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   4 opponents, mainly from the legal field and non-government organizations, 17 in particular amnesty international.18 five dimensions distinguishing human responsibility initiatives   the architects of the many initiatives striving to articulate their rationale and suggested elements of declarations for human responsibilities tend to draw on a range of constructs, thereby distinguishing one initiative from another. they tend to reflect some combination of these five dimensions: (a) communitarian versus faith-based rights critiques, (b) converse versus correlative duties, (c) an ethic versus ethics approach, (d) legal versus ethical responsibilities, and (e) transcultural understandings of the concepts of duty, obligation and responsibility (see figure 1). each of these dimensions is described below, followed by an overview of the aforementioned four initiatives (case study) and then a comparative analysis of their commonalities and differences. figure 1                                                                                                                   17 cf. saul, 2001; knox, 2008 18 amnesty international. 1998. “muddying the waters the draft: universal declaration of human responsibilities: no complement to human rights [ior 40/02/98].” london, england. http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ior40/002/1998 accessed january 12, 2013. dimensions  of   human   responsibility   initiatives     communitarian   versus  faith-­ based  rights   critiques   converse   versus   correlative   duties   an  ethic  versus   ethics   ethical  versus   legal     responsibilities   trans-­cultural   understandings   of  concepts     in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   5 communitarian versus faith-based rights critiques human responsibility initiatives can be predicated on one of two approaches: (a) the communitarian rights critique and (b) the international faith-based rights critique. 19 the communitarian approach claims that a strong focus on western notions of individualism has neglected individual responsibilities and undervalues the social dimension of human life. the second claim is that a failure to give duties equal footing with rights has caused many modern social problems. the faith-based approach strives to establish a global ethical standard informed by ethical principles entrenched in the collage of world religions. it also takes issue with the western notion of rights that allegedly informed the creation of the udhr, maintaining that other cultural notions of rights should be considered. converse versus correlative duties as well, the philosophical foundations of the human responsibility movement reflect a shared belief that the world is experiencing a decline in community and moral responsibilities toward each other.20 to address this moral slippage and chaos, proponents of human responsibilities can either advocate for converse duties (responsibilities owed by individuals to society) or for correlative duties (responsibility of individuals to respect the rights of other individuals). correlative duties are viewed as horizontal because they run between actors, representing the duty they have to one another. converse duties are viewed as vertical because they run upwards from the person to society and the state.21 opponents to the human responsibility movement argue that converse duties are dangerous because governments may rely on them to offset their own duties. as a result, human rights law generally refuses to list converse duties opting instead for correlative duties, and then only a few of these.22 proponents of the human responsibility movement embrace a broad notion of converse duties, understanding them to refer to duties that humans have to society at large, other species and the planet. to that end, arias23 suggests that a code of “human duties or obligations" should comprise at least four dimensions: obligations between persons and between nations and obligations toward planet earth and toward ourselves. between means into or across the space separating two things. toward means in the direction of or in relation to.24 in essence, arias proposes that people need to respect (a) the quality of the space separating persons and nations and (b) the impact of personal actions on ourselves and planet earth.                                                                                                                 19 lazarus et al., 2009; saul, 2001 20 saul, 2001 21 knox, 2008 22 ibid.; saul, 2001 23 arias sanchez, oscar. 1997. some contributions to a universal declaration of human obligations. berlin, germany: the interaction council. http://interactioncouncil.org/sites/default/files/1997%20udhr.pdf accessed january 12, 2013, p. 1. 24 oxford english dictionary (2nd ed.) 1989. oxford, england: oxford university press.   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   6 an ethic versus ethics   furthermore, human responsibility initiatives can be characterized as universal ethical manifestos rather than enforceable legal norms; in essence, a global ethic.25 küng explains that the globalization of problems calls for a global ethic (singular) rather than global ethics (plural) the latter refers to a uniform ethical system (like a code of ethics).26 the challenges facing the 21st century require, at the minimum, "shared ethical values, basic attitudes and criteria (ethic) to which all regions, nations and interest groups can commit themselves. in other words, there is a “need for a common basic human ethic."27 an ethic of responsibility calls for understanding as well as conformity; it looks at ideals as well as obligations. this ethic is based on an inner sense of rightness; individuals are guided by duty and not by costs, threats or penalties.28 ethical versus legal responsibilities   küng further distinguishes between ethical responsibilities and legal responsibilities, the former being the essence of any declaration on human responsibilities. he maintains that ethical responsibilities apply to the wider sense of conscience, love and humanity, and are directly grounded in the dignity of the human person.29 the ichrp argues that a legal duty is imposed by an external authority and an ethical duty is strongest when it is felt personally by the individual, who is self-motivated to accept the duty.30 the ichrp also maintains there is overlap between laws and ethics, claiming there are three types of duties, primarily legal in nature but each with ethical obligations: (a) a duty on state authorities to respect and protect citizens’ human rights, (b) a duty to exercise one’s own rights responsibly, and (c) a duty towards others and the community. it is the latter duty, with additional moral overtones, that concerns proponents of the human responsibility movement. küng affirms that “human beings have original responsibilities, which are already given with their personhood and are not grounded in any [legal] rights." 31 the bottom line is that without a basic and necessary sense of responsibility, humane society could not operate and flourish, especially in our current state of global interdependence. trans-cultural understandings of concepts   finally, these declarations can contain one or more of the following nouns: duty, obligation or responsibility. küng identifies the conundrum created when people of different languages and                                                                                                                 25 saul, 2001 26 küng, hans. 2005. aglobal ethic and human responsibilities. paper presented at the high-level expert group symposium on human rights and human responsibilities in the age of terrorism, 05 april, santa clara, california. http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/focusareas/global_ethics/laughlin-lectures/global-ethic-human-responsibility.ht ml accessed january 12, 2013. 27 ibid., p. 3 emphasis added. 28 selznick, philip. 2000. reflections on responsibility. the responsive community, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 57-61. 29 küng, 1998. don’t be afraid of ethics! 30 international council on human rights policy. 1999. taking duties seriously. 31 küng, 1998. don’t be afraid of ethics, p. 7.   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   7 cultures try to agree on how to define and translate these words.32 saul also comments on the “shades of linguistic meaning complicating these definitions, and a global discussion... necessarily involves trans-cultural interpretations and evaluations of the concepts."33 küng observes that people tend to agree on the term responsibilities because it (rather than duties) emphasizes inner responsibility (an ethic) rather than external law (ethics).34 "responsibility exerts a moral pressure but it does not compel... it follows from ethical reason, which encourages and urges human beings ... to act morally."35 a counter argument proposed within this movement is that duties are requirements, not moral aspirations; by not making duties mandatory, human responsibility declarations fail. without a legal motivational structure, they lose the force that is needed for an approach based on duties.36 consequently, these declarations “become a pale shadow of what is needed for a framing document to complement the udhr."37 chronological overview of four declarations of human responsibilities four initiatives were chosen for discussion in this paper (see figure 2):38 (a) the 1993 parliament of the world’s religions initiative, (b) 1997 interaction council initiative, (c) the 1998 unesco-sponsored valencia initiative, and (d) the 2003 united nations human rights commission initiative. they are repeatedly recognized as the major initiatives shaping this movement.39 virtually all of these initiatives clarify that their intent is to enumerate and extend the responsibilities mentioned in article 29(1) of the universal declaration of human rights.                                                                                                                 32 ibid. 33 saul, 2001 34 küng, 1998. don’t be afraid of ethics, p. 6; see also küng, 2005. 35 küng, 1998. don’t be afraid of ethics, p. 6. 36 kuper, andrew. 2007. reconstructing global governance. in david held and anthony mcgrew, eds., globalization theory (pp. 225-239). cambridge: polity press. 37 kuper, andrew, ed. 2005. global responsibilities: who must deliver on human rights? london, routledge, p. 116. 38 other initiatives for a declaration of human responsibilities include but are not limited to (all websites cited here were active at time of writing): (a) a charter of human responsibilities (http://www.charter-human-responsibilities.net (the alliance for a responsible, plural and united world 2007), (b) the carta of human duties http://www2.units.it/~ichd/ (international council of human duties 1993), (c) the earth charter http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/ (the earth charter initiative 2000), (d) the universal declaration of a global ethic http://globalethic.org/center/declarel.htm (temple university 1998), (e) a common framework for the ethics of the 21st century http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001176/117622eo.pdf (unesco 1999), (f) our global neighbourhood http://www.gdrc.org/u-gov/global-neighbourhood/index.htm (commission on global governance 1995), (g) the universal declaration of human responsibilities http://www.hartcentre.demon.co.uk/udhr.htm (the former hart centre in the uk 2000), and (h) the club of rome’s declaration of human responsibilities and duties (1991), no website available. 39 lazarus et al., 2009; saul, 2001.   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   8 drawing on the five dimensions in figure 1, the author deduced that two of the initiatives focus on communitarian rights and two others focus on faith-based rights (figure 2). all four initiatives assume converse duties, a global ethic, and ethical responsibilities (instead of, respectively, correlative duties, global ethics (plural) and legal responsibilities). there is conceptual slippage regarding the use of the words duty, obligation and responsibility (evidence of diverse trans-cultural understandings of associated concepts). the four initiatives are discussed below, in chronological order, generating a case study of sorts, which will then be analyzed. figure 2   four human responsibility initiatives examined in this study   declaration toward a global ethic (1993) at its 1993 meeting in chicago, the council of the parliament of the world’s religions adopted a declaration toward a global ethic.40 the declaration is an attempt to articulate principles common to the ancient guidelines for human behaviour found in the teachings of the religions and spiritual traditions of the world. the parliament is 120 years old and seeks to promote harmony by respecting the particularities of each religious tradition. the declaration was signed by more than 200 leaders from over 40 different faith traditions and spiritual                                                                                                                 40 küng, hans. 1993. declaration toward a global ethic. chicago, il: parliament of the world’s religions. http://www.parliamentofreligions.org/_includes/fckcontent/file/towardsaglobalethic.pdf accessed january 12, 2013. communitarian rights critique 1998 unesco/valencia universal declaration of human duties and responsibilities 2003 united nations human rights commission declaration of human social responsibilities international faith-based rights critique 1993 parliament of the world's religions delaration toward a global ethic 1997 the interaction council universal declaration of human responsibilities   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   9 communities. the major religions that were represented include buddhism, christianity, islam, hinduism and judaism. 41 the global ethic was never intended to make these religions superfluous.42 it is more than a secular declaration and is not intended to be negotiable or to be the subject of legislation.43 this initiative become known as the global ethic project,44 and has emerged as a significant document in the continuing process of creating a global ethic. the declaration clarifies that a global ethic refers to "a fundamental consensus on binding values, irrevocable standards, and personal attitudes instead of a global ideology or a single unified religion... and certainly not the domination of one religion over all others."45 the declaration identifies four essential affirmations that represent shared general ethical principles essential to a global ethic (küng); these are called “irrevocable directives" and “irrevocable, unconditional ethical norms" intended to resonate in the hearts of individuals: • a commitment to a culture of non-violence and respect for life (humans, other species); • a commitment to a culture of solidarity and a just economic order; • a commitment to a culture of tolerance [respect] and a life of truthfulness; and, • a commitment to a culture of equal rights and partnership between men and women. these four broad, ancient guidelines underpin the overriding principle that “selfdetermination and self-realization are thoroughly legitimate so long as they are not separated from human self-responsibility and global responsibility, that is, from responsibility for fellow humans and for the planet earth."46 woven throughout the declaration are the universal ideas of being authentically human, serving humanity, serving the truth, transforming consciousness, changing the hearts of people, and treating everything humanely with untouchable dignity. küng reports that the global ethic project is an ongoing process that has made tremendous progress. it has since been signed by thousands of leaders and individuals from around the world.47 he asserts that "the search for a global ethic will find its expression in both human rights and human responsibilities."48 the intent of the declaration is to keep the sense of responsibility alive, deepen it and pass it onto future generations (küng). the interaction council declaration (1997) the interaction council (iac), formed in 1983, originally comprised some 30 former heads of government or state from all continents and different political orientations (see this site for current and past members http://www.interactioncouncil.org/associate-members). their longstanding objective is to balance human rights with human responsibilities. their universal declaration of human responsibilities was published in 1997. it was drafted by hans küng and                                                                                                                 41 saul, 2001 42 küng, 2005 43 ichrp, 1999 44 küng, 2005 45 küng, 1993, p. 6 46 küng, 1993, pp.7-8 47 küng, 2005 48 ibid., p. 6   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   10 a group of experts.49 upon its completion, the then 30-member council sent a letter to all heads of states and governments and to the un secretary general asking them to support the draft declaration.50 their intention was to have it adopted by the united nations general assembly in 1998, the year of the 50th anniversary of the declaration of human rights. saul reports that their intent to have it adopted by the united nations was modified to have it discussed within the united nation.51 "the draft was discussed in the ... unesco and the un human rights commission, with a view to potential adoption by the un general assembly. it did not, however, receive sufficient state support and never proceeded to a formal vote."52 since then, it has never been sponsored to the united nations by a member country, although “a number of governments have indicated a willingness to sponsor [it] in the u.n. if a major western government is involved, but this willingness has not been forthcoming."53 the interaction council continues to reaffirm and promote the merit of the declaration, arguing “governments around the world should take this document and introduce it into the un system. a debate in the general assembly about the necessary balance between freedom and license, rights and responsibilities, is an urgent public need."54 in a 2009 speech, its founding author comments, "our first attempt failed largely due to oppositions voiced by human-rights advocates. it has largely been ignored in the u.s so far. in the meantime, however, the notion that rights and responsibilities are mutually complementary has found greater acceptance. it is broadly recognized today that human rights are not undermined by human responsibilities but rather they support one another."55 the declaration comprises 19 articles, divided into six main topics: (a) fundamental principles of humanity (4 articles); (b) non-violence and respect for life (3 articles); (c) justice and solidarity (4 articles); truthfulness and tolerance (4 articles); and, mutual respect and partnership (3 articles). as with human rights, the final article says that no one can take any one of the responsibilities out of context and use it as an excuse to violate other responsibilities in the declaration, and that every single person, group, organization and government is responsible for making the declaration work. in more detail, the principles of humanity relate to treating everyone in a humane way and to the notions of self-esteem, dignity, good over evil, and the golden rule (do unto others as you                                                                                                                 49 kim, yersu. 1999. a common framework for the ethics of the 21st century. paris, france: unesco division of philosophy and ethics. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0011/001176/117622eo.pdf accessed january 12, 2013. 50 ichrp, 1999 51 saul, 2001; see also martinez, miguel alfonso. 2002. promotion and protection of human rights: human rights and human responsibilities (e/cn.4/2002/107). united nations. http://www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/(symbol)/e.cn.4.2002.107.en?opendocument accessed january 12, 2013. 52 lazarus et al., 2009, p. 8 53 saul, 2001, p. 578 54 the interaction council, 2006, p. 1 55 schmidt, helmut. 2009. keynote speech: present state of the world. berlin, germany: the interaction council. http://interactioncouncil.org/keynote-speech-present-state-world-0 accessed january 12, 2013, p. 7.   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   11 would have done to you). non-violence and respect for life also encompass responsibilities related to acting in peaceful ways, and respecting intergenerational and ecological protection. justice and solidarity encompass honesty, integrity, fairness, sustainability, meeting one’s potential and not abusing wealth and power. truthfulness and tolerance embrace the principles of privacy, confidentiality, honesty, and a respect for diversity and these apply to all people, politicians, business, scientists, professionals, media, and religions. finally, the responsibility of mutual respect and partnerships includes caring for others’ well-being, and appreciating and being concern for the welfare and safety of others, especially when it comes to children and spouses but also to all men and women in partnerships. as an aside, it is noteworthy that, although the united nations did not adopt the 1997 interaction council’s request for a declaration about responsible human beings, the latter’s declaration prompted the un to complete and approve a different declaration dealing with the right and responsibility of people to be able to promote and protect human rights.56 its short title is the declaration on human rights defenders. although deliberations on this declaration began in 1984, it was not released until december 1998, timed to coincide with the 50th celebration of the udhr. the declaration reframes the issue, arguing that human rights organizations have a responsibility to defend and promote human rights.57 unesco sponsored valencia declaration (1998) the universal declaration of human duties and responsibilities (dhdr) was commissioned by unesco, and eventually was coined the valencia declaration. this 1998 initiative was developed and adopted by a high-level group chaired by richard goldstone58 under the auspices of unesco and the city of valencia, spain (the foundation valencia tercer milenio). more than 100 nations were involved in its drafting. as did the interaction council, the group also timed the release of its declaration to coincide with the 50th celebration of the united nations declaration of human rights, and to commemorate the arrival of the new millennium. they presented the declaration to unesco in april 1999.59 in november 2008, goldstone was quoted as saying the document never went                                                                                                                 56 united nations. 1999. declaration on the right and responsibility of individuals, groups and organs of society to promote and protect universally recognized human rights and fundamental freedoms (a/res/53/144). http://www.unhchr.ch/huridocda/huridoca.nsf/(symbol)/a.res.53.144.en accessed january 12, 2013; united nations office of the high commissioner for human rights. 2007. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/defenders/declaration.htm accessed may 18, 2011. 57 clapham, 1999; judge, anthony. 2007. universal declaration of responsibilities of human intercourse. laetus in praesens. http://www.laetusinpraesens.org/docs00s/respon.php accessed january 12, 2013. 58 goldstone, richard. 1998a. declaration of responsibilities and human duties. ottawa, on: human rights research and education center. http://globalization.icaap.org/content/v2.2/declare.html accessed january 12, 2013; goldstone, richard. 1998b. introduction by richard goldstone to the declaration of human duties and responsibilities. ottawa, on: human rights research and education center. http://www.onlineunesco.org accessed january 12, 2013. 59 kim, yersu. 2000. philosophy and the prospects for a universal ethics. in max stackhouse and peter paris, eds., god and globalization. harrisburg, pa: trinity press international.   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   12 anywhere.60 a year later, in november 2009, the helsinki españa-human dimension ngo (based in madrid, spain) held a conference in new york with a focus on celebrating the 10th anniversary of the valencia declaration. 61 international sessions were held, intent on resubmitting the declaration to the united nations in 2010 as an international reference document. an email seeking its current status went unanswered. the high-level working group in valencia tendered a comprehensive text consisting of a preamble, 12 chapters and 41 articles. the text spells out in great detail the duties and responsibilities of different players in different sectors of the international community.62 the drafters of the declaration believe that people have an abiding responsibility to promote and protect the human family by recognizing the contributions of all cultures, traditions and civilizations. individuals have responsibilities and duties towards their communities for the security of all humankind. the valencia declaration defines a duty as “an ethical or moral obligation” and responsibility as “an obligation that is legally binding under existing international law."63 the titles of the twelve chapters purposely mirror the rights housed in the unhr, proposing to make explicit the duties and responsibilities that are implicit in the udhr (see table 1). the valencia declaration does not contain any responsibilities pursuant to people having the right to be a person before the law (udhr article 6) nor to being able to claim, move around or change nationalities (udhr articles 13 and 15). otherwise, there is fairly strong congruency between the two declarations. table 1 comparison of valencia 1998 declaration and the united nations 1948 declaration of human rights valencia chapter title reflecting corresponding human right(s) (12 chapters) number of corresponding human duties (# of articles per chapter, 41 articles in total) corresponding human rights= article numbers general provisions (definitions) 2 (articles 1-2) proclamation life and human security 7 (articles 3-9) 3, 14, 28 human security and an equitable world order 6 (articles 10-15) 28 meaningful participation in public affairs 1 (article 16) 21                                                                                                                 60 ireland, corydon. 2008. rights champion goldstone speaks. harvard gazette online, november 13. http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/11/rights-champion-goldstone-speaks/ accessed january 12, 2013, p. 3. 61 helsinki-españa human dimension. 2010. aeuro-american project 2008-2009. madrid, spain. http://www.humandimension.net/useruploads/files/euro-american_project.pdf accessed january 12, 2013. 62 kim, yersu. 2000. philosophy and the prospects for a universal ethics. 63 goldstone, richard. 1998a. declaration of responsibilities and human duties, p. 29.   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   13 freedom of opinion, expression, assembly, association and religion 4 (articles 17-20) 12, 18, 19, 20, 21 personal and physical integrity 5 (21-25) 4, 9, 10, 11 equality 5 (articles 26-30) 1, 2, 7, 16, 17 protection of minorities and indigenous peoples 2 (articles 31-32) 2 child and the elderly 2 (articles 33-34) 12, 25 work, quality of life and standard of living 2 (articles 35-36) 22, 23, 24, 25 education, arts and culture 2 (articles 37-38) 26, 27 right of remedy 3 (articles 39-41) 8, 29 united nations human rights commission declaration (2003) for clarification, the united nations human rights commission (unhrc) was replaced by the human rights council in 2006.64 in its last few years of existence, the commission gave increased attention to the role of duties and rights. the commission asked its sub-commission on the promotion and protection of human rights to consider the topic of human rights and human responsibilities. to that end, in 2001, miguel alfonso martinez was appointed as a special rapporteur. his work culminated in a final report and a pre-draft declaration on human social responsibilities.65 martinez cited the interaction council declaration as his inspiration.66 at its last full meeting (in 2005), the human rights commission adopted a request that martinez prepare a new version of the declaration for its re-consideration. but, this revision was not supported at the subsequent 2005 un economic and social council meeting, where it was rejected by a narrow margin of two votes.67 among the countries that voted against the pre-draft declaration were canada, the united states, the european union and japan (northern countries) as well as brazil, costa rico, mexico and turkey (southern countries).68 some sense of their                                                                                                                 64 knox, 2008 65 ibid.; lazarus et al., 2009; martinez, 2003 66 martinez, 2003 67 united nations. 2005b. rejects text on human rights and responsibilities... (press release ecosoc/6174). http://www.un.org/news/press/docs/2005/ecosoc6174.doc.htm accessed january 12, 2013. 68 lazarus et al., 2009   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   14 respective positions on the pre-draft declaration are available at a 2005 united nations report.69 the human rights council, constituted in 2006, has not yet considered the declaration.70 knox reports that the declaration continues to receive support from several countries, however, and “it seems likely that its proponents will continue to pursue the adoption of its principles in one form or another."71 the united nations declaration of human social responsibilities is premised on principles of social ethics and morality. martinez refers to “the need to find a solid balance between the rights of the individual and his/her social duties or responsibilities."72 there are 29 articles. three articles relate to governments’ role. they are charged with creating the international social order within which responsibilities can be enacted, with ensuring the development of southern countries, and with not supporting initiatives that contravene the responsibilities set out in the declaration. no articles relate specifically to the obligations of corporations, except for an inferred reference in article 20 do not abuse economic power. specific mention is made of media’s responsibility and of the supra-responsibility of those involved in human rights work (two articles). there are seven generic articles, with two referring to the inability to opt out of being responsible and to not being able to have rights without responsibilities. notions such as globalization, the common good and families as democratic units are mentioned in these articles. the remaining 17 articles are directed to every person. people are tasked to take actions that ensure that rights can be respected. they are charged to take their own initiatives and to cooperate with state authorities as each promotes, brings into effect and protects human rights. individuals are said to have a duty to make sure a principled human rights process is followed. all are charged with creating international peace, with supporting the common good, protecting against terrorism, and with being friendly and brotherly with others. people are tasked with intergenerational ecological sustainability, with respecting religious doctrines and with being politically involved in their community. people have a duty to be responsible with their economic power (to ensure human solidarity and progress) and to protect and contribute to the vulnerable in society. people are to strive for a conflict free, harmonious coexistence and to foster and protect their cultural heritage. they are supposed to find gainful employment (to work as permitted by their abilities) and to strive to reach their full potential. finally, people have a duty to respect their partner and to provide for, and meet the basic needs of, their family, the basic democratic unit in society. comparative thematic analysis and results                                                                                                                   69 united nations. 2005a. acompilation of the essential aspects of replies received on the pre-draft declaration of human social responsibilities (e/cn.4/2005/99). http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/g05/106/60/pdf/g0510660.pdf?openelement accessed january 12, 2013. 70 knox, 2008 71 ibid., p. 1. 72 martinez, 2003, p. 3   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   15 using the chronological overview of the four initiatives as a case study, the author conducted a comparative thematic analysis of the four initiatives, looking for insights into how they are the same and different. six themes emerged pertaining to (a) degree of global coordination and nature of participants, (b) the scope of the initiative, (c) differences in organizational principles, (d) commonalties and differences in what constitutes a collection of human responsibilities, (e) intentions for adoption at the united nations, and (f) political and legal pushback. these thematic observations about four exemplars of the global movement for human responsibilities can shed insights on where the movement can go in the future. degree of global coordination and nature of participants the four initiatives profiled in this study each developed independently of each other, and were presented in their final version in four different years, spanning 1993-2003. there has been no coordinated effort to amalgamate the initiatives into one declaration (see also suter73). the 1993 global ethic was developed and adopted by faith leaders, coordinated by the council of the parliament of the world’s religions (cpwr) led by hans küng. the intent of the cpwr was to use the ethic document to keep the sense of human responsibility alive. a committee of former heads of states and governments, also headed by hans küng, prepared the 1997 interaction council declaration. the intent was to have the declaration adopted by the united nations, so there would be balance between rights and responsibilities at the united nations. it is noteworthy that hans küng was lead author on both of these declarations, likely explaining the similarities in the respective sets of duties (see table 2). perhaps the other differences are due to one initiative stemming from faith leaders and the other by former heads of states or because the latter purposefully focused on a human responsibility declaration that would complement the undr. in a separate initiative, initiated by unesco, with interest from the un high commissioner of human rights, more than 100 nations meet to draft and adopt the 1998 valencia declaration (so named because of where the meeting was held in spain). it was purposely released in the same year that the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of the udhr. the architects of the valencia document were a group of experts including nobel laureates, scientists, artists and philosophers. the work of the experts was chaired by justice richard goldstone.74 the final document, that prepared for the un human rights commission, was developed by one person, miguel alfonso martinez. but, to prepare his report, he carried out two field missions, and analyzed the responses to a questionnaire to member states and to a considerable number of ngos.75 universal and global in scope                                                                                                                 73 suter, 2010 74 wikipedia encyclopaedia. 2013. declaration of human duties and responsibilities. san francisco, ca: wikipedia foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/declaration_of_human_duties_and_responsibilities#see_also accessed january 13, 2013. 75 martinez, 2003   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   16 the title of most of the four initiatives contained either the word universal or global. the word universal means worldwide in scope and global means involving the entire earth, rather than being limited in scope to local concerns. two declarations prefaced their work with the adjective universal and a third initiative chose the adjective global. the title of the united nation’s declaration did not contain either of these adjectives. all four initiatives called for recognition of some form of a code of human duties or obligations to ensure the future security of humanity and the planet. their hope was that a more equitable global order could emerge if people assumed universal responsibility for meeting basic human needs and for the security of humankind through reciprocal responsibilities. 76 the valencia declaration recognized that “managing globalisation requires equitable global and regional solutions based on the precepts of both joint and individual responsibility and solidarity."77 "all argue that an international agreement is required to supplement existing international human rights standards."78 organizational principles   all four declarations contained a preface, preamble or an introduction setting out the context and rationale for the respective approach (as did the udhr). the architects of the declarations tended to use a common approach to organize their ideas, similar to the udhr, which used numbered articles. three declarations had a collection of articles (averaging 29 articles) and one had a collection of affirmations or principles (i.e., the global ethic). one declaration organized its collection of articles into themes (i.e., the interaction council) and the valencia declaration used chapters. the un declaration (led by martinez) did not have any overarching themes; it simply contained a list of numbered articles. two declarations provided an extensive amount of supportive text with each theme/chapter (i.e., respectively, the global ethic and the valencia declaration) and the other two provided shorter descriptions with each article, although it is worth noting that martinez was specifically tasked with “providing succinct reasoning for each responsibility he consider[ed] necessary to include in the articles of the pre-draft declaration."79 common responsibilities/duties   table 2 profiles the main responsibilities/duties contained in all four initiatives. the initiatives were arranged in the table chronologically and then, starting with the 1993 global ethic, they were coded one after the other. once the global ethic document was coded, the interaction council document was coded, and so on until all four were coded. if a duty had already been entered into the table, a checkmark was placed in that cell. any new duties were added to the far left column, and coded if they appeared in the next document. using this                                                                                                                 76 arias sanchez, oscar. 1997. some contributions to a universal declaration of human obligations. berlin, germany: the interaction council. http://interactioncouncil.org/sites/default/files/1997%20udhr.pdf accessed january 12, 2013; saul, 2001. 77 goldstone, 1998a, p. 2 78 ichrp, 1999, p. 12 79 martinez, 2003, p. 15   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   17 approach, thematic patterns and outliers can become evident, over time (horizontal) and among initiatives (vertical). a rudimentary content analysis of table 2 revealed 31 distinct duties entrenched in the four declarations. three of the initiatives contained 22-23 responsibilities each and one contained 16, averaging 21 responsibilities per initiative. seven duties appeared in all four declarations (22%): a just economic/social/world order, ecological sustainability, respect, dignity, justice, diversity, and preserving peace. thirteen duties appeared in three declarations (42%): non-violence, respect for life, solidarity, tolerance, truthfulness, responsible parenting and support of the family unit, promote good over evil, develop one’s potential, use wealth responsibly, ensure human security and integrity, equity/equality, protect the vulnerable, and support becoming educated. in total, 20 of the duties appeared in three or more declarations (65%). five duties appeared in two declarations (16%): equal partners in marriage, treat everyone humanely, participate in political life, protect freedom of religion, and foster art and culture. six duties appeared once in the declarations (19%): the golden rule, alleviate usurious debt, ensure responsible technological developments, promote quality of life and standard of living, protect the common good, and behave in a fraternal manner toward each other. in total, one third (35%) of the duties appeared twice or less in the declarations. these duties appeared mainly in the communitarian based rights approach. finally, there seemed to be a slightly different collection of duties for the faith-based approach versus the communitarian approach, with the latter containing twice the number of duties than the former (see table 2). indeed, the focus shifted midway through the decade (19932003) from a faith-based approach to communitarian. heading into the new century, the focus moved to a concern for how the western focus on individualism has undervalued individual responsibilities to others, placing too much emphasis on individual rights, leading to social and environmental ills. before that, at the end of the twentieth century, the focus had been on the desire to entrench a global ethical standard, developed with due consideration of other cultural notions of individual rights in addition to those held by western societies when the udhr was written 65 years ago. table 2 comparison of responsibilities tendered in four human responsibility initiatives (1993-2003) 1993 the global ethic 1997 the interaction 1998 the valencia initiative 2003 united nations   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   18 4 affirmations council 19 articles, 6 themes 41 articles, 12 chapters martinez 29 articles faith-based rights communitarian rights non violence * * * respect for life * * * solidarity * * * just economic order * * and social order * equitable international order * achieve internation al and social order tolerance * * * intergenerational equity (ecological sustainability) * * * * respect (mutual) * * * mutual not in declaration * mutual not in declaration ensure dignity * * * (of elders and disabled) * (of human family) equal partners (in marriage) * * truthfulness * * * responsible parenting and support of family unit * * * treat everyone humanely * *   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   19 promote good not evil * * * (protect against evil of terrorism) justice * * * * respect diversity * * * * preserve and foster culture of peace * * (act peacefully) * * golden rule * develop potential and talents (especially through work) * * * use wealth responsibly * * * human security and integrity * * * (security of society) equity and equality * * * protect the vulnerable * * (includes indigenous) * support becoming educated * * * alleviate usurious debt * responsible scientific and technological development * participate in political affairs * * protect freedom of religion * *   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   20 promote quality of life and adequate standard of living * foster arts and culture * * the common good/interest * behave in fraternal (brotherly) manner * the global ethic the interaction council the valencia initiative united nations martinez total n = 31 different duties n=16 n=22 n=22 n=23 intended adoption by the united nations   the drafters of two declarations purposefully prepared their initiative for eventual adoption by the united nations (i.e., the interaction council and the valencia initiative). indeed, the valencia initiative was commissioned by unesco. the united nations did receive draft versions from both of these initiatives but has not endorsed either of them. (a) the interaction council withdrew its declaration in 1998 because it did not receive sufficient state support (although it is now lobbying for its reconsideration) and (b) the valencia initiative “did not go anywhere after it was presented to unesco in 1998."80 for that reason, the drafters of the valencia declaration are again lobbying for its reconsideration by the united nations. the united nations actually commissioned one initiative (via martinez81); yet, in 2005, it voted not to accept it. no member country will sponsor it. the global ethic developed by the council of the parliament of the world’s religions was never intended for submission to the united nations. political and legal resistance and critique whether spurious or not, it is interesting to observe that the global ethic declaration and the valencia declaration seemed to generate less political and legal resistance and pushback than the other two. the interaction council and the united nations’ (martinez) declarations, on the other hand, have received fierce public and legal critique because of their perceived adoption of                                                                                                                 80 ireland, 2008, p. 3 81 martinez, 2003   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   21 converse duties.82 their critique exists despite that both declarations clearly state their intent to complement article 29(1) of the human rights declaration, not contravene it. critics appear to be leery of the stated focus on ethical responsibilities, worrying that, in reality, the duties will morph into legal responsibilities that will weaken human rights. as well, one faith-based declaration (the global ethic) seemed to be skimming under the critics’ radar while the other faith-based declaration (the interaction council) received the full brunt of legal interpretations of its failure as a declaration (e.g., saul). a similar scenario seemed to be happening for one communitarian declaration versus the other. the valencia declaration has not captured international attention from a critical perspective. on the other hand, the human rights commission's declaration has been deemed to have failed83 because it has the potential to become an unwanted, enforceable legal norm, which will dilute the power of the human rights declaration. to stave of such criticisms, martinez purposefully noted that his declaration was a statement of non-binding principles (e.g., extralegal responsibilities) intended to mirror the udhr. he believes that enshrining responsibilities is necessary for the protection of rights.84 discussion the analysis revealed that there was no global coordination amongst the four initiatives, although the main architects were aware of each other’s work, sometimes involved in parallel initiatives. as well, one would think that with such a diverse collection of people involved in preparing these documents, there would not be much congruency in what constitutes a collection of human responsibilities. one document was developed by faith leaders, another by members of states, a third by a combination of scientists, artists, philosophers and nobel laureates, and a fourth by one man drawing upon his own experience as well as survey results from leaders of states and ngos. nonetheless, 20 of the 31 duties appeared in three or more declarations (65%) (see table 3). this result (more than two-thirds) represents considerable correlation among the four declarations in regards to which duties merit universal acceptance and application. it seems that finding a moral ground for a globalized world has become a prevailing theme among proponents of human responsibilities. as suter observed, “a development is slowly emerging that is... worth following."85 the collection of ideas in table 3 is a compelling platform from which people could coalesce into a global collective focused on human responsibilities. table 3responsibilities/duties appearing in three or more declarations (n=20, 65% of all possible duties, n=31)                                                                                                                 82 knox, 2008; saul, 2001 83 knox, 2008 84 martinez, 2003 85 suter 2010 (p. 200).   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   22 < a just economic/social/world order < ecological sustainability < respect < dignity < justice < diversity < preserve peace < non-violence < respect for life < solidarity < tolerance < truthfulness < responsible parenting and support of the family unit < promote good over evil < develop one’s potential < use wealth responsibly < ensure human security and integrity < equity and equality < protect the vulnerable < support becoming educated in 1999, goldstone (involved with the valencia initiative) proposed that four different positions have evolved within the movement about the role of responsibilities vis-à-vis rights: (a) responsibilities complement the rights in the universal declaration of human rights, (b) responsibilities infringe on existing rights; (c) responsibilities should take precedence over rights, for the good of humanity; and, (d) new norms are needed to reflect the compelling impact of globalization and technological advances.86 the four initiatives profiled in this paper align with the notion that responsibilities complement rights. using the valencia declaration as a working example (see table 1), the declarations seem to have a close parallel to the rights set out in the hdhr (see also table 3). this conceptual internal consistency is inspiring, because it supports the notion that human declarations can complement human rights, not supplant them or usurp them, as some fear. the various initiatives profiled in this paper strived to reconcile ideologies, beliefs, political views and cultural differences, for the good of humanity. they concurred that 'agreement that responsibilities matter' is necessary for the creation of a better social order and the realization of human aspirations and progress. this reality necessitates a balance between rights and responsibilities, assuming that responsibilities complement rights. suter’s interpretation of the situation differs from the insights emergent from this comparative analysis.87 from a much more pessimistic stance, he concludes that despite no lack of ideas on what a declaration of human responsibilities might contain, little has been achieved. he tenders several reasons for this lack of progress, including the lack of global determination to take any action on being responsible humans, and the mechanics and global politics of creating a new text (unlike the human rights declaration that was developed in 18 months, by a committee). a third reason for a lack of progress is the absence of a consistent campaign; there is no largescale coordinated action. fourth, there is a growing diversity of how people interpret the concepts of rights and responsibilities, intimating less agreement. finally, he recognizes the declining, world-wide acceptance of human rights ("the change in the public mood"88), further arguing that the notion of responsibility has not taken its place.                                                                                                                 86 as cited in personal correspondence to clapham, 1999 87 suter, 2010 88 suter, 2010, p. 204   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   23 conclusion   in all fairness, suter’s critique is valid.89 but, the results of the analysis shared in this paper support a more optimistic outlook. despite being developed independently, there is encouraging congruency, intimating movement towards a common declaration. and, despite there being a diverse collection of voices, the disparate initiatives, when compared, have strong correlations (62% agreement). pulling the initiatives together might not be as daunting as anticipated. given the expectation that the united nations will eventually adopt a universal declaration of human responsibilities, it is encouraging that three of the initiatives already have links to the united nations (either sponsored by or intended and have been considered by). as well, the faith-based global ethics declaration aspires to keep the sense of human responsibility alive (serving as a catalyst). it is normal to anticipate resistance to a longstanding institution the 65-year old human rights framework. two initiatives have been well vetted by those concerned that responsibilities will threaten the enshrined human rights (i.e., the interaction council and the martinez-led human rights commission initiative). on the other hand, two initiatives seem to be under the critics’ radar (i.e., the global ethic and the valencia declaration), meaning they are not yet controversial. this situation paves the way for less resistance to a future declaration of human responsibilities, because opponents have had a chance to register their objections, opening the door for more informed dialogue and deliberations. finally, the congruency amongst initiatives, and the longstanding commitment to adopt a collection of principles in some form or another, lends hope to the enterprise. future initiatives to foster an intercultural dialogue around an eventual universal declaration of human responsibilities can (a) build on the international determination to adopt human responsibilities and (b) avail themselves of the well-reasoned critiques of existing initiatives to inform deliberations and dialogue. to reiterate, people acting responsibly as humans will create an environment where it is less likely that their inalienable human rights will be violated. as anticipated by suter,90 the time is coming when more and more people will identify with this movement. fraser agrees, stating "the goals of [similar initiatives] are quite converging, whether coming from scientific, religious, ethical, and philosophical. time will come for the broad acceptance of the notion that a sense of responsibilities are (sic) essential."91 the ideas shared in this paper are intended to serve as a catalyst and a scaffold for this eventuality.                                                                                                                   89 suter, 2010 90 ibid. 91fraser, malcolm. 1998. dissemination of the universal declaration of human responsibilities. berlin, germany: the interaction council. http://www.interactioncouncil.org/dissemination-universal-declaration-human-responsibilities accessed january 12, 2013, p. 5   in  factis  pax   volume  7  number  1  (2013):  1-­26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   24 bibliography   amnesty international. 1998. muddying the waters the draft: universal declaration of human responsibilities: no complement to human rights 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(press release ecosoc/6174). http://www.un.org/news/press/docs/2005/ecosoc6174.doc.htm accessed january 12, 2013. united nations. 2013. the foundations of international human rights law. http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/hr_law.shtml accessed january 13, 2013. united nations office of the high commissioner for human rights. 2007. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/defenders/declaration.htm accessed may 18, 2011. wikipedia encyclopaedia. 2013. declaration of human duties and responsibilities. san francisco, ca: wikipedia foundation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/declaration_of_human_duties_and_responsibilities#see_al so accessed january 13, 2013 udi adiv in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 268-281 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 268 volume 2 number 2 (2008): 268-281 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ political pedagogy vs coexistance education: the case of israel\palestine udi adiv it seems that there is a well-high harmony of opinion within the critical portion of the israeli scholars, according to which peaceful coexistence is, indeed, the only enlightened educational solution for the israeli-palestinian conflict. however, one cannot be sure that this harmony is not somewhat the harmony of spheres to the ears of mainstream israelis. my claim is that a coexistent education is impuissance at best, or perpetuation of the israeli situation at worst, as, in the end, it rather accepts, consciously or unconsciously, the fundamentals behind the hegemonic zionist ideology. that is, the exclusivist unmediated jewish patriotism, which taking apart the mainstream israelis from the palestinians, and subsequently put them at a distance/ a distance which is the real driving force and the quintessence of the conflict. on the contrary, political pedagogy really declares a war to the knife against the conventional jewish patriotism. hence, as things stand, it is not to bemuse anyone of sound mind that very little attention has been paid to the radical political perspective and to the political pedagogy in particular, within israeli educational systems. this paper presents the israeli education system as a case study for examining and suggesting political perspectives of education in what erik hobsbawm called “the age of the extreme”. i will consider the general implications of the radical political approach vs. the critical and coexistence education, discussing how and to what extent they both trying to challenge the zionist ideological message of the educational system. by that, i hope to elaborate on the advantage of the political idea of republicanism regarding education in general and the israeli education system in particular. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 268-281 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 269 the israeli education system historical developments have created a unique and complicated situation in the country. hence, the most dramatic events, the expulsion of 700,000 palestinians during the 1948 war1 and the demolishing of more than 400 of their villages, have given rise to hostile relationships between the two nations.1 this is the core majorityminority relationship, which obviously comes into play in the educational system and spirit. two societies with two different political and cultural orientations live in the same state. these are the zionist-israeli immigrant society, who speaks hebrew, though this language is not necessarily their mother tongue, and the local palestinian society, whose mother tongue is arabic, though most of them also speak hebrew. in the course of time, various populations with different mother tongues and backgrounds have joined the israeli society. thus, a set of complicated relationships exists between the two main societies in israel – the immigrant and the indigenous of the arabic speakers: these two societies live separately and together at the same time. there are separate cities, small towns and villages for each community. only a few cities have both populations, and even those generally inhabit separate neighborhoods, and community life also includes separate schools. nevertheless, although the two societies interface in some areas – at work, in public institutions (hospitals, government offices, football stadiums, universities, etc.), through cultural events or, in some cases, in political activities – the basic general status is one of segregation. the educational system in israel is basically public, and schools are controlled by the ministry of education2. under this control and supervision there are two separate systems one for arabic speakers and one for hebrew speakers. there are very few private schools for hebrew speakers. those for arabic speakers are usually established by the churches and attached to them. this means that palestinian citizens of israel and the israeli pupils are educated in separate schools, each with its own particular culture, religion and linguistic heritage. a few arabicspeaking families choose to send their children into hebrew schools (this appears to be on the increase), but the reverse is unheard of. however, there is no official record of numbers in respect of this phenomenon.2 there is also a variety of streams and divisions within each main sector. the israeli (hebrew) sector’s main division is of secular (state) and religious streams, while the religious schools are also divided into orthodox and state-religious. as concerns the palestinian schools – their situation is one of divide et impera: druze and bedouin are separated from the general arab sector. additionally, for many years arab teachers and educators were questioned by the security services in israel about their political attitudes and activities before receiving permission to teach in the state system. obviously, the separation also applies to teachers, parents and regular staff in schools, and impinges on the courses in teacher-training colleges. education in israel cannot be defined only by its degree of adherence to purely jewish nationalism. there is, for example, a network of “democratic schools” across the country. to date, there are about thirty schools of this kind, two of which are arabic l1 (first language). although these schools claim their educational innovativeness from a democratic point of view and as respecting people on the basis of the universal 1 (svirsky et al. 2007) 2 (mor-sommerfeld et al. 2007) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 268-281 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 270 declaration of human rights, they work and act within the current system that separates hebrew and arabic speakers. the concept of segregation according to identities dominates education. borders are, however, sometimes crossed, so that this division is not absolutely rigid. the school curricula: the ideology of zionism educational policies and curricula in israel are derived from the zionist origins of the state of israel, and this is true for all sectors. hence, israeli school curricula identify zionism and the state of israel as the “telos” of the jewish history. that is to say, israeli history is read “teleological”, i.e., is read as a linear process, instead of being read bottom up, as an historical process that could be interpreted differently. the relevance and importance of this issue lie mainly in the context of mainstream israeli education, according to which it was the jewish people who single-mindedly determined the zionist history and consequently established the state of israel. a short survey of the israeli historiographical and educational books, reveals that they claimed for zionism what hobsbawm (1989) calls “the status of a nation a priori”, or what smith (1991) defines as “a community of common descent”. the state of israel was thus classified as a spontaneous revival of the ancient people, by itself and for itself, independently of the social and political conditions of the first half of the 20th century. consequently, israel is represented as a national revival deriving from east european jewish conditions at the turn of the century. to use max weber’s typology, the establishment of the state of israel is mainly defined there as a “value-rationale action”, i.e. is motivated by conviction of an absolute end “regardless of possible cost” (weber, 1995). accordingly, the israeli settlers were portrayed as halutzim (pioneers) precisely because they acted on their jewish national convictions regardless of possible cost to themselves and, what is worst, to others. one of the earliest textbooks to put forward the zionist ideological perspective was toldot hatzionut: tnuat hatekhiya vehageula beisrael (history of zionism – the movement of revival and redemption in israel) published in 1940. the author, baruch ben-yehuda, was a prominent figure in the zionist educational system. in 1947-8, he headed the educational department of the va’ad leumi (the national council) and later became the first director of the ministry of education and culture. in fact, ben-yehuda, both as scholar and as a political activist, played a major role in what hobsbawm (1989) and gellner (1983) called “the invention” of jewish nationalism, i.e., the jewish nationalist doctrine of the state. he was among those who created the nationalist ideology as a writer, and practiced and disseminated this ideological invention as a pedagogue, headmaster and director of the zionist-israeli education system. as such, his study represents the nationalist-ideological orientation of the israeli education system, shaping the jewish nationalist viewpoint of further generations of israeli scholars. other examples are david vital’s the origins of zionism (1975), and zionism, the formative years (1982). vital’s studies epitomize the “value-rationale” paradigm of the israeli historiographical textbooks according to which zionism is the fulfillment of the jewish past. his first chapter is “exile, return and redemption”. zionism is perceived by vital in terms of jewish messianism, the return of the jews after years of exile, and their consequent redemption. he traces the origin of zionism in jewish history rather in the historical context of the zionist movement itself. “the history of the jewish people”, he argues in his preface, “is long and complex and does not lend itself to discussion in the terms in which the histories of other nations, however in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 268-281 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 271 ancient, are, by conviction, conceived”. vital obviously considers only the jewish past, and consequently overlooks the autonomous involvement of the zionist movement itself. in other words, israeli history is glorified in the israeli education system as the national revival of east european jewry. thus, its subject matter is the jewish origins of israel, rather than israel\palestine as a modern political society. yet the difficulty with the presentation of these books is the modern invention of israel as a metaphysical teleology of jewish history. zionism’s concern was to reconstruct the semi-feudal decentralized ottoman province of palestine, and transform it into a modern centralized nation-state. the historical past, inasmuch as it determines the present, is simultaneously determined by it. hence, as a political phenomenon, israel is inevitably the jewish historical past articulated and rearticulated in terms of the historical context of ottoman and mandate palestine in the first half of the 20th century. post factum it is evident that, in reality, the zionist settlers’ attitude could be better defined in terms of “rational expedient”, i.e. a type of action which corresponds rather more to a modern capitalist society than to the oldnew jewish community. the categorical falsity lies here, in trying to explain israeli society in terms of jewish ethnic identity and biblical historical past. however, from a rather more critical point of view it is quite clear that it was the zionist hardliner militaristic leadership that prevailed in the unique historical circumstances of the second world war, the power struggle against the forces of the palestinian national movement, as well as against the other more enlightened and moderate zionist currents. israeli history should thus be read politically, i.e., in the context of what gramsci (1991) called “the unity of the historical process”, rather than ideologically, in terms of the dominant jewish national discourse indeed, the founders of zionism were inspired by the notion of a jewish nationalism. but, jewish national identity, “like everything which is historical” should inevitably be interpreted and reinterpreted objectively, i.e., in terms of its realization in mandat palestine, rather than by its initial subjective idea. following 1967 war, there has been an on-going attempt by the mainstream writers to revive and reconstruct the old zionist ethos, and simultaneously, an attempt by the critical writers to undermine that ethos. that is to say, a critical attempt to redefine the israeli identity as it became after 1967 vis-à-vis the palestinians. thus, the 1967 war aroused an internal dispute that has ever since divided the israeli intelligentsia. mainstream still defines the state of israel in the spiritual terms of jewish historical past while the critics see it the other way round, i.e., they explain israeli identity in the light of the new military occupation that was created by the 1967 war. critical approaches to the israeli education since the early 1980s, critical approaches – humanist pedagogy, critical or resistant pedagogy and multiculturalism – to education in israel have been discussed by researchers and educators.3 let us examine these approaches. aloni (1997) tries to suggest the humanist idea, as a trans-historical setting as well as a transcendental telos and\or an utopian scope for the israeli education. such a normative high standard seems to be a critical perspective, indeed. quite certainly 3 (e.g., aloni 1997; gur-ze’ev 1999 yona 1998 and others) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 268-281 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 272 vis-à-vis the positivist utilitarian realization of neo-liberalism as well as against the subjective unmediated self-love of multiculturalism. however, in one way or another, aloni fails to notice that his criticism should also and mainly applies to the hegemonic idea of zionism as another type of the unmediated appearance of patriotism. instead, he mainly argues against the absence of the love of wisdom, and subsequently, the unmediated particularism of the post-modernist school. moreover, aloni pays tribute to all the humanist philosophers since plato and aristotle. yet, he overlooks the main difficulty of the philosophers since the days of socrates, vis-à-vis the real world. likewise, his humanist idea is not reflective enough and is presented in too general and quite naïvely. however, the main problem has remained – after more than 60 years in which israel is still in a constant state of war and conflictas plato once asked, who would educate the people? certainly, one cannot humanize and enlighten israeli society single handedly. it seems that instead of describing the humanistic perspective as the “must” and “ought” of the israeli education or its telos, the best thing would be to analyze and to explain the “is” of the israeli political circumstances, that is, the circumstances which determine the education and prevent it to realize the humanist ideal. the “resistant pedagogy” or critical pedagogy is advanced as a kind of radical critique of the current state of the israeli affairs. following adorno (1970), gur-ze’ev (1997) criticizes israel’s political practice from a theoretical standpoint. that is to say, he views the very existence of education as the manifestation of the primacy of theory over politics, and consequently as a negation of the existing israeli circumstances. however, we have to remember that adorno’s negative dialectics (1990), which propose criticism for the sake of criticism, as an end in itself, led socrates to an inevitable tragic end precisely because politics, and especially republican politics, does matter. yona proposes multi-culturalism to challenge the hegemony of the zionist ideology with the cultural identity of the orient (yona 1998). alony and gur ze’ev at least try to play the socratic role by using the philosophic elenchus to put the kibosh on the unmediated patriotism and the simple, false-happiness of the israeli people. yona, on the contrary, not so much engaged in the philosopher role. instead, following said and gayatri spivak, he simply calls upon the oriental jews to represent themselves, quite in accord with spivak (1988) who asks, “can the subaltern speak?” similarly, in his orientalism, or with edward said (1978) that criticizes marx for disregarding the “subalterns’” ability to represent themselves. the main difficulty with this approach lies in the absence of the philosophical dimension as a normative standard by which one would be able also to value what the “ subaltern speak?”. hence, in spite of some radical tones, yona just replacing the hegemonic jewish patriotism with jewish orientalism, as just another type of jewish cultural patriotism. it is quite simplistic distinction which is presented as the arbitrariness of the state ideology from above and the authentic unmediated jewish oriental identity from below3. the coexistence education for quite a number of years, and especially since oslo agreement in 1993, a lot of common activities and gathering between israeli and palestinian youth, citizens of the in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 268-281 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 273 state of israel, have been taking place4. one could say, quite certainly, that these meetings and common activities have reflected the political developments during that period. apparently, they were an attempt to reconstruct and to carry out the political message of peace in the field of education in order to create a model of coexistence between the two people. simultaneously with the educational activities has been developed and expanded the theoretical research in the field of peace education.(smooha, 2004; white stephan, hertz-lazarowitz, zelinker and g. stephan, 2004; bar-tal, 2004 ; salomon, 2004 ;halabi and sonneschein 2004). according to these researchers and scholars, the root of the conflict is the very existence of two different national groups, namely, the jewish and the arab peoples, which assemble and sit on the same piece of land. subsequently, in the light of this assumption, they try to suggest their model of coexistence that will help the two peoples to live together to the degree of optimal harmony and peace. sammy smooha of haifa university seems to be the main scholar who has reconstructed and recommended the sociological background for the idea of coexistence education. the starting point and the basic assumption of all his many articles and books is the definition of israel as a state with a predominant “jewish majority” and a small intransigent “arab minority”. the problem, as he sees it, is that “the arabs and the jews demanded almost exclusive rights over the same strip of land5.” however, the solution he suggests is what he calls “ethnic democracy”. that is to say, israel is still defined by him as a democratic state which takes account of “the status of the arab minority in israel”6 and subsequently guaranty the peaceful coexistence between the two people. the main difficulty with smooha’s “solution” is that it simply reiterates the official definition of israel as a “jewish state”. that is, the very national definition which, in actual fact and ipso facto, just instigated the conflict and continue to sustain it ever since. more over, theoretically speaking, smooha’s definition is an obvious case of a particular unmediated type of “speech action” rather than what habermas calls “a communicative action”, that is, an autonomous mediated type of action by means of which one could communicate the palestinians and consequently solve the conflict in moral universal terms. to put it differently, smooha starts from his particular zionist definition of the state. yet, he does not seem to notice that the main thing is to test his definition vis-à-vis the palestinians, rather than only to declare it in and for itself. smooha, certainly fails to provide evidence for his definition by means of “a communicative action”, and subsequently, as a positivist sociologist, he validates it by empirical facts. smooha, again does seem to be familiar with what edward h carr said about the historical facts, that “it is he (the historian) who decide to which facts to give the floor and in what order and context.7” quite obviously, smooha gives the floor to the dominant facts, rather than to the critical and the latent ones. besides, what is exactly a socio-political fact. quite certainly not only what smooha hears ,impromptu from his 500 intervieweds about their identity. 4 until 2002 about 300 such program existed and over 150,000 were engaged in structured coexistence activities within israel. (abraham fund, 2002). 5 sami smooha, inddex of arab-jewish relations in israel 2004 (haifa: unuiversity of haifa, 2005), p. 11. 6 smooha sami, "minority status in an ethnic democracy: the status of the arab minority in israel", ethnic and racial studies, 13,3 (july), 1990,pp. 389-413. 7 e.h carr, what is history (new york: vintage books, 1961),pp. 9. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 268-281 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 274 in the light of smooha’s definition, white stephan, hertz-lazarowitz, zelinker and g. stephan, also starts with “a brief history” of the conflict, i.e., with the historical facts, rather than with a reflective analysis of their own zionist ideological discourse. thus, in their terms of reference, they describe 48 war as “the first open military clash between the two national movements, zionism and arab nationalism8.” in another place, with regards the origin of the palestinian refugees, they propose that “many arabs were forced to or chose to leave their home and land9.” as to the very definition of the palestinian people in israel, “we label the israeli arabs to distinguish it from the other palestinian people in the region [as] partners with the israeli jews in arab-jewish coexistence efforts.” needless to say that none of the above is purely historical facts that could be a common point of reference, or an introduction to a genuine coexistence between the israelis and the palestinians. quite the opposite, it is rather more a brief illustration of the unmediated israeli hegemonic discourse, which is the main root and the quintessence of conflict as it is. certainly, the writers can not transcend the conflict in terms of reference of the dominant israeli side. daniel bar-tal of tel aviv university is another well-known scholar who strongly maintains for coexistence education. he begins with the definition of the concept of coexistence as a theoretical model as well as an educational tool, as a gradual way out of the conflict. according to his definition coexistence requires mainly “a recognition in the full equality of the other groups.” yet, he admits, that after a long history of bloodshed, exploitation and discrimination coexistence is only the necessary condition and an important phase in a long continuous process towards a real reconciliation between the conflicting groups. in consequence of his theoretical model of coexistence he comes back to the reality of israeli-palestinian conflict. thus, he points out that at the peak of the conflict “neither the israeli jews nor the palestinians recognized the other’s self determination10.” it is therefore the challenge of the education for coexistence to raise the society members of both groups to the higher phases, “that are in line with the ideas of coexistence.” it is quite clear that bar-tal, too, still views the conflict in accordance with the israeli mainstream, mainly because he seems to be so familiar with the zionist discourse about two essentially different national groups which happened to live on this land. for this reason, his “ideas of coexistence” do not seem to be so relevant to the reality of the conflict, and therefore they are by no means historical, since eventually he does not tell us how and in which way these two antagonistic national groups could rise above their historical and geographical enmity without relinquish and underestimate their very existence as essentially different national groups who live one on the land of the other11. in addition, he does not seem to notice that in the beginning of all history there was a conflict and that coexistence 8stephan c. w, hertz-lazarowitz r, zelinker t, stephan w. g, "introduction to improving arabjewish relations in israel: theory and practice in coexistamce educational programs", journal of social issue, vol. 60, no. 2, 2004, p. 239. 9 ibid. 10 d. bar-tal, "nature, rational, and effectiveness of education for coexistance",journal of social issue, vol. 60, no. 2, 2004, p. 259. 11 in the autumn of 1997 i guided two reporters of the bbc who prepared then a program about israel\palestine towards the 50th anniversary of the state of israel . at the time of the independent day, in april 1998, the program was broadcasted and was entitled "your land is my land." in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 268-281 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 275 and reconciliation came always at the end of day. likewise, the celebrated hegelianmarxist scholar alexander kojev explains that “in his nascent state, man is never simply man. he is always, necessarily, and essentially, either master or slave.” hence, historically, it is only by the dialectic of master and slave, that man could, by means of synthesis, to transcend his initial particular position as either master or slave and became “a self-conscious man who recognizes another man and is recognized by him12.” the difficulty with bar-tal’s model of coexistence lies as well in its theoretical and ahistorical character, in the sense that he completely overlooks the modernist context of the israeli-palestinian conflict. that is to say, the root of the conflict is not simply, as bar-tal put, the domination of one nation over the other national group. all together it should be viewed in the historical context of modern european colonialism. as r. inden put: it: to became modern is to be emancipated from the constraints, inhibitions, whims, exploitation and oppressions of the mediaeval or traditionalism[..] the problem with so-called third world countries is that they have not yet attained the permanent and absolute transcendence possessed by the “advanced” nations13. to paraphrase r. inden, the fundamental problem of the palestinian people at the time was that it had not yet attained that modern transcendence possessed by the zionist settlers. subsequently, as for today, the palestinians should fully attain that level of modern transcendence by political means, as a sine qua non for any real coexistence and reconciliation with the israelies. gavriel salomon, the head of the center for peace education, haifa university is another advocate of coexistence education. in an article entitled “a narrative-based view of coexistence education” he put forward the concept of “collective narrative” as the major explanatory category as well as the main driving force of the conflict. however, concurrently, he argues that as such it “can play an equally central role in facilitating coexistence14.” in the beginning he did mention also what he calls “the sociopolitical aspect”, that is, the real historical causes of the conflict, such as land, independence and military might. yet, on the whole he relates mainly to the “sociopsychological aspect”, that is, to the subjective ideological motives of the conflict. thus, he seems to argue that the conflict is primarily a matter of the way the two peoples think and envisage each other. accordingly, the solution is impromptu, a self amendment of the two respected collective identities and the ensuing sublimation of their attitude towards each other. the main difficulty with the concept of “collective narrative” is precisely the attempt to define it separately from the “sociopolitical aspect” of the conflict. as if a collective could amend its thoughts and feelings as well as sublimate its attitude, only by and for itself, independently of its “sociopolitical aspects.” in one of his early writings, young marx criticized the rightwing hegelians for quite the same kind of idealistic argument. he wrote: 12 alexander kojeve, introduction to the reading of hegel (ithaca: cornel university press), p. 8. 13 r.enden, "identity and transcendence in mediaeval india and the modern and postmodern world", a draft apaper sumitted by the auther in a conference on identity, modernity and politics at the department of political studies, soas, september 1994, p. 37. 14 salmon gavriel, "a narrative-based view of coexistance education", journal of social issue, vol. 60, no. 2, 2004, p.274. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 268-281 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 276 once upon a time a valiant fellow had the idea that men were drowned in water only because they were possessed with the idea of gravity. if they were to get this notion out of their heads, say by avowing it to be a superstitious, a religious concept, they would sublimely proof against any danger from the water.15 however, one should not be a marxist in order to recognize the difficulty that lies in salomon’s attempt to give “the collective narrative” a-priority over the political attitude of the collective itself. the solution is rather to set the two aspects dialectically together, as two element of a single political whole16. halabi and zonnenschein seem to be well aware that their intergroup encounters in neve shalom\wahat al-salam cannot change the reality of the conflict. nevertheless they still argue “that the intergroup encounters can change the participants’ awareness of the reality in which they live17.” yet, i wonder what is, after all, the advantage of awareness if it does not allow people to change the reality which they live in? halabi and zonnenschein seem to overlook marx’s well known phrase written on his tombstone, in which he criticized the philosophers who tried only to understand the world, but not to change it. moreover, the very idea of coexistence education relates, in one way or aother to the mainstream american theories about conflicts management and conflicts resolution (dahl,1956;schelling, 1967; lijphart, 1977). the underline assumption of these, mainly american, theories is taken from the hobbsian philosophy, according to which there are, as a natural given, only individuals and particular groups, who try hard to improve their fortune. however, hobbes himself simultaneously suggested a way out of this wolfish world. hence, in his leviathan state low and order are prevail and the people live in peace. on the contrary, according to the mainstream american political scientists people are destined to live in a wolfish world. that’s why the role of the scholars is mainly to provide the people with the rational ways how to manage and to do better in this world, rather than to teach them how to transcend it18. quite the opposite, i mean to suggest a genuine solution to the israeli 15 karl marx, the german ideology (moscow: progress publishers, 1976) p.30. 16 salomon seems to overlook the whole discussion about the origin of the modern "collective narrative" which relate to what gustave le bon call the "psychology of the mass". as an educator he should, at last mention, the well known interpretation of freud in which he highlight the role of the leader as he stimulates the libidinal impulse of the mass. if this is the case, that collective attitude is determined by a libidinal impulse, how on earth it could be amended and transformed? beside, it seems that "collective narrative" is not that simple as it has been literally presented. it is rather more the power elite who introduced its authority over the mass by means of the narrative. another quotation could illustrate my point: "the vested interests if we explain the situation by their influence can only get the public to act as they wish by manipulating public opinion, by playing either upon the public's indifference, confusions, prejudices, pugnacities or fears. and the only way in which the power of the interests can be undermined and their maneuvers defeated is by bringing home to the public the danger of its indifference, the absurdity of its prejudices, or the hollowness of its fears; by showing that it is indifferent to danger where real danger exists; frightened by dangers which are nonexistent." sir norman angell 1872 1967 17 halabi. rabah and sonnenschein nava, "the jewish-palestinian encounter in a time of crisis, journal of social issue, vol. 60, no. 2, 2004' p. 374. 18 shlomo avinery, perhaps the most well known spokesman of the mainstream israeli political science, argues, in a spur of moment, that the transformation of the paradigm from "conflict in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 268-281 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 277 palestinian conflict. a solution which will transcend the two separate ethnic nationalisms and will put them politically together on the higher level, in a political state as a realization of the “idea of good”. coexistence education is certainly an expression of good will. even so, as kojeve teaches us, at the beginning, at least in its origin, man is either master or slave. as such, the fundamental question is still how and who will educate man to be in line with this level of initial good will? or, as marx put it, in his well known thesis, “who will educate the educators?” political pedagogy a person is a political animal, and the polis, the modern state, is the realm in which s/he can express her/his potential as a self conscious being. historically, it was by means of popular culture and religious belief that people raised themselves to higher levels. it was by the religious medium, as plato explains us in the protagoras, that people were able to transcend their hobbesian individuality and to find some self-satisfaction within the political world. however, religion became, in the course of time, but a “false consciousness” to what hegel calls “unhappy consciousness”, i.e., a lack of recognition and ipso-facto of objectification”, under the leviathan state. as tacitus summarized it, “slavery brings always slavishness” and “civil religion” (in some of its manifestations) is but the manifestation of slavishness. today, like then, people appears to be subjectively free; now, it is culture in and for itself that takes the place of religion. now, the illusive “freedom” is not of the “i” against the state, via the all-importance of god; now, it is rather the imaginary “freedom” of the “i” against the state, via the all-importance of culture. these words of the great commentator of hegel are applicable to the critical, cultural option of nowadays as well: in the past, people were still only conscious “in-themselves”, precisely because individuals were only subjectively and spiritually “free” and consequently were not recognized as such (hippolyte, 1971). in opposition to the cultural and religious subjectivism of the past and the present, i consider the old-new idea of republicanism, by means of which people could transcend their subjective unmediated “self love” by the conscious political realization. the modern nation-state, or, as gellner (1983) called it, “the marriage of politics and culture”, is simultaneously, philosophically speaking, the historical unity of subject and object. to rephrase hegel, politics is the real incorporation of being with thought, the finite with the infinite. towards a political approach in education in israel this paper presents the israeli education system as a case study for examining and suggesting the political republican perspective, rather than zionist ideology, as the single alternative way, to transcend the oppressive hegemony of neo-liberalism and globalization.. education, as i see it, can be the medium by which republican resolution" to "conflict management" does not mean necessarily approval of the status quo. it rather means a continuation of the effort to minimize the conflict between the two sides ( ha'aretz, 8\7\08). in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 268-281 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 278 orientation can and should happen; and for israel, this transformation is most urgent and crucial. evidently, what is lacking in israeli education, and in the world at large, is that republican political perspective as the realization of the “idea of good”. thus, the jewish-arab dichotomy, as the dominant discourse in israeli education, is indeed specific and divisive as compared to macdonald’s and toyota. however, only an israeli\palestinian republicanism could be a unifying and a progressive force against the antagonisms of jewish and arab patriotism on the one hand, and the hegemonic power of american globalization on the other. thus, political education means constant efforts to rear our children in the rational critical spirit, manifesting itself in the republican political perspective. indeed, historically and conceptually, it is only the social-states in the second half of the 20th century that succeed in controlling the capitalist system and to set it in harmony with a moral-political perspective. as hebermas (1991) put it, against the “instrumental” and “strategic” action which characterized the capitalist globalization, these states represent a communicative rationality action that is aimed at mutual understanding, conceived as a process of reaching agreement between speaking subjects to harmonize their interpretations of the world4. likewise, coexistence education is not a synthesis, but consists rather of thesis and antithesis which negate and oppose each other as either-or, but not as an aufhebung. as such, it is not a critical, but a conservative theory, precisely because of the absence of any truly universal political perspective by means of which the two side could bring themselves together. in israel, the task is to create a palestinian\israeli patriotism for which the state embodies “communicative action”, a realization of the “idea of good”, a patriotism that replaces both american globalization and the particularism of jew versus arab nationalism. a “no” to segregation in education could be a first step towards this goal. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 268-281 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 279 bibliography benedict anderson, immagined communities, (london: verso, 1991) udi adiv, "the challenge of globalization for the left: marxism, postcolonialism or republican nationalism", discourse of sociological practice, 7, no, 1/2 (2005). theodor adorno, negative dialectics (london: roputledge, 1973 ). homi k. bhabha, location of culture: discussing post-colonial culture (london: routledge, 1996). ake clod, "dangerous liaisons: the interface of globalization and democracy" in hadenius, a. (ed.). democracy's victory and crisis ( cambridge university press, 1997). gavriel almond, "comparative political systems," journal of politics, xviii, 3 (1956). bar-tal daniel, "nature, rational and effectiveness of education for coexistence, journal of social issue, vol. 60, no. 2 (2005). benjamin barber, jihad vs. macworld: how globalism and tribalism are shaping the world (new york: times book, 1995). edward. h carr, what is history? (new york: vintage books, 1961). robert a. dahl, "development and democratic culture" in l. diamond et.al,.(eds) consolidating the third wave democracies (the john hopkins university press, 1997). helena s.desivilya, "promoting coexistance by means of conflict education: the macbe model", journal of social issue, vol. 60, no. 2 (2004). enden r, "identity and transcendence in mediaeval india and the modern and postmodern world", a draft paper submitted by the author in a conference on identity, modernity and politics at the department of political studies, soas, september 1994. frantz fanon, wretched of the earth. new york: grove press, 1968). michel foucault, the archeology of knowledge (new york: pantheon books, 1972). thomas freidman., the lexus and the olive tree.( port moody, canada: anchor publishing, ltd, 1998). paolo freire pedagogy of the oppressed (new-york: seabury press, 1970/1990). ernest gellner, nations and nationalism (oxford: blackwell, 1983). shafir gershon, land, labor and the origins of the israeli palestinian conflict (cambridge: cambridge university press, 1989). hans h. gerth & c. wright mills (eds.) from max weber (london: routledge & kegan paul, 1974). antonio gramsci, prison notbook (new york:: columbia university press, 1991). in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 268-281 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 280 -------------------selections from the prison notebooks (london: lawrence and wishart, 1991). jurgen habermas, communication and the evolution of society (cambridge: polity press, 1991). stuart hall, the hard road to renewal (london: verso, 1988). eric hobsbawm. nation and nationalism since 1789 (cambridge: cambridge university press, 1989). jan hippolyte, figures de la pensee philosophique.. quadrige: presses universitaires de france, tome 1 (1971). ----------------------, "identity politics and the left", new left review, (1996). hans kohn prelud to nation states:the french and german experience, 1789-1815 , (princton: van nostrad company, inc, 1967) alexander kojev, introduction to the reading of hegel, (ithaca: cornell university press, 1967). arend lipjhart, democracy in plural societies (new haven: ct, 1977). karl marx, the german ideology (moscow: progress publishers, 1976). ralph miliband, “debates on the state”, new left review 138, (1983). mor-sommerfeld, aura, azaiza faisal, and hertz-lazarowitz rachel, "into the future – towards bilingual education in israel – manifesto", education, citizenship, society journal. vol 2(1) 5–22 (2007). plato, the republic (new york: mineola, 2000). rabah halabi and nava sonnenschein, "the jewish-palestinian encounter in a time of crisis, journal of social issue, vol. 60, no. 2 (2005). richard rose, northeren irland: a time of choice.(london:press ltd, 1976). edward said,. orientalism (new york: vintage book, 1978). salomon gavriel, "a narrative-based view of coexistance education", journal of social issue, vol. 60, no. 2 (2005).. sami smooha, “class , ethnic and national cleavage and democracy in israel”, in l, diamond and shprinzak, e (ed.) israel democracy under stress, (boulder: lynne rinner publishers, 1993). -----------------. israel: pluralism and conflict (berkeley: university of california press, 1978). schelling t.c "what is game theory?" in j c. charlesworth (ed.)(1967) contemporary political analysis (new york: free press). anthony a. smith, national identity (london: penguin books, 1991). spivak, c. giatri, can the subaltern speak? in nelson, c. and grossberg, l. (eds). marxism and the interpretation of culture (chicago: university of illinois press, 1988). stephan c. w, hertz-lazarowitz rachel, zelinker t and stephan g, "introduction to improving arab-jewish relations in israel: theory and practice in coexistence educational programs, journal of social issue, vol. 60, no. 2 (2005). in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 268-281 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 281 svirsky marselo, mor-sommerfeld aura, azaiza faisal, hertz-lazarowitz rachel. bilingual education and practical interculturalism in israel. the discourse of sociological practice, 8 (1) (2007). taylor charles, "the dynamics of democratic exclusion", the journal of democracy, vol.9, no. 4 (1998). uri ram,.the changing agenda of israel society (new york: state university of new york press, 1995). david vital, zionism, the formative years (oxford: clarendon, 1982). david vital, the origins of zionism ( oxford: clarendon, 1975). yiftachel. oren, “ethnocracy: the politics of judaizing israel/palestine”, constelations, vol. 6, no. 3 (1999). bekerman zvi, complex contexts and ideologies: bilingual education in conflictridden areas. journal of language, identity & education, 4 (1), 2005. ------------------, "potential and limitations of multicultural education in conflictridden areas: bilingual palestinian-jewish schools in israel". teachers college record, 106, 3, (2004). jenkins-ifp-tj volume 7 number 1 (2013): 27-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ reflections on kenneth e. boulding’s the image: glimpsing the roots of peace education pedagogy tony jenkins national peace academy introduction the march/april 2013 issue of the global campaign for peace education newsletter features a reflection on the evolution of the field of peace education in the spotlight of the nomination of betty reardon, renowned peace educator, for the 2013 nobel peace prize. the article notes that the field of peace education, in its early years, “was viewed by research scholars and peace activists as a positive complement to, but not an essential and integral part of the larger movement.”1 this marginalization of the field, and general separation of areas of peace knowledge (research, studies, education, activism), is a major obstacle impeding possibilities for transdisciplinary efforts to cooperatively and collaboratively affect and transform systems and cultures of violence. fortunately, in the past decade, peace education scholars have been slowly moving the field out of the shadows, and, as the global campaign for peace education newsletter goes on to note, these scholar/practitioners have ”illuminated learning itself as the essential peace process, seeking ways to design and deliver peacelearning experiences most appropriate to particular learning audiences and the substance to be learned.”2 pedagogical methods and strategies for personal and social transformation have emerged as critical realms of knowledge and action in peace scholar and activist communities. it is the hopeful observation of the author that the discrete separation of realms of peace 1 global campaign for peace education (2013). peace education in the spotlight of a nobel nomination. global campaign for peace education newsletter, issue 103, march/april 2013. retrieved from http://www.peace-ed-campaign.org/newsletter/archives/103.html 2 ibid. in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 27-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 28 knowledge, essentially pervasive since the beginnings of the formal organization of peace fields as academic disciplines, are slowly beginning to dissolve. this evolution was in large part the vision of pioneering peace researcher and economist kenneth e. boulding. boulding believed that to effect change on the magnitude of scale required to confront and transform global issues of violence would require a new approach to problem solving; for new knowledge and possibilities to emerge all academic disciplines – from physics to psychology had to enter into a transdisciplinary conversation for the common good. in 1956 boulding published the image: knowledge in life and society, his outline of a general, transdisciplinary theory of knowledge and human, social, and organizational behavior.3 an almost forgotten volume in scholarly peace studies, the image articulates many essential conclusions, strategies, and realms of inquiry that the academic peace community has taken the 50+ years since to reach. as it concerns peace educators, the image provides one of the earliest, integrative and holistic theories of knowledge, knowledge creation and knowledge transformation. how ideas, images, and concepts are nurtured, sustained and transformed is the general substance of inquiry in transformative peace education pedagogy. as the field of peace education has grown and matured many perspectives on pedagogy have emerged. for the sake of this discussion, the author draws upon the transformative pedagogical perspectives of betty reardon, paulo freire, dale snauwaert, jack mezirow and educators from the international institute on peace education4 and global campaign for peace education5 networks. from these perspectives, peace education pedagogy can be understood as a value informed philosophy and practice of teaching and learning directed toward personal, social, political and institutional change and transformation. it is a learner-centered pedagogy that is transformational in nature, transdisciplinary in scope, and comprehensively and holistically presented and explored so as to be oriented toward capacitating learners to transform the culture of violence and nurture a culture of peace. boulding’s the image offers an early glimpse at many of the component parts of this 3 boulding k., the image: knowledge in life and society (ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press, 1956). subsequent quotations and references from the image are referenced in the body of the text by page number. 4  the international institute on peace education (iipe) was founded in 1982 by betty reardon and colleagues at teachers college, columbia university. the iipe is an annual, week-long intensive program hosted in a different country each year that brings together educators, professional workers and activists in the field of peace education from around the world to exchange experiences and learn with and from each other in an intensive, short-term learning community that embodies the practices and principles of critical, participatory peace pedagogy. 5 the global campaign for peace education (gcpe) is a campaign to facilitate the introduction of peace and human rights education into all educational institutions that was established at the hague appeal for peace civil society conference in may 1999. an initiative of individual educators and education ngos committed to peace, it is conducted through a global network of education associations, and regional, national and local task forces of citizens and educators who will lobby and inform ministries of education and teacher education institutions about the unesco framework and the multiplicities of methods and materials that now exist to practice peace education in all learning environments. the goal of campaign is to assure that all educational systems throughout the world will educate for a culture of peace.   in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 27-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 29 pedagogy and offers a past perspective and guiding voice that should continue to influence the evolution of peace education pedagogy far into the future. envisioning the image: contextualizing knowledge and shaping the individual the image: knowledge in life and society is kenneth boulding’s effort at articulating a new science he labels “eiconics,” an interdisciplinary field that attempts to define a general theory of knowledge and action. although primarily trained as an economist, boulding frequently treaded across the disciplines. the image was published after boulding spent a year as a fellow at stanford university’s center for advanced study of the behavioral sciences in the company of anthropologist clyde kluck-hohn, political scientist harold lasswell, and biologists anatol rapoport and ludwig von bertalanffy. together they founded the society for general systems research, of which boulding served as its first president (“kenneth boulding general systems theory,” n.d.).6 the image is boulding’s personal articulation of a general systems theory, a unique perspective that reflects his moral and values position as a quaker as well as his fundamental belief in empirical science. as a theory of knowledge and behavior, the image is of particular importance to peace education. historically, boulding’s image theory has quietly had a significant influence to the field of peace research. the field was slowly beginning to emerge at the time and boulding was rigorously involved in academic inquiries into the problematique of war, pursuing understanding of its origins, influences and possible transformation. given the pervasive concerns of war and the launch of the nuclear arms race, peace research was particularly welcoming to an interdisciplinary and systems approach. the image has also had significant influence on the partner field of futures studies that examines the psychological and sociological phenomena related to the creation of shared knowledge, worldviews and paradigms with the goal of identifying processes that might be used to nurture alternative, more preferred futures. kenneth’s wife elise boulding, also a prominent peace researcher and peace educator, conducted futures workshops using imaging processes to help participants image a future world without nuclear weapons. thus, as it concerns peace education, the image provides a particularly important theory and perspective as to the creation of knowledge and knowledge’s association with behaviors, illuminating processes by which educators might transform violent beliefs and ideologies. boulding describes the “image” as a subjective conception one possesses of the world that also simultaneously informs one’s behavior. the concept of the “image” could be considered an early predecessor to jack mezirow’s (1991) “meaning perspective” and transformative learning theory.7 in his effort to understand the complexity of system 6  kenneth boulding general systems theory. (n.d.) retrieved from: http://www.economictheories.org/2008/08/kenneth-boulding-general-systems-theory.html 7 mezirow, j., transformative dimensions of adult learning (san francisco, ca: jossey-bass, 1991). in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 27-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 30 change, boulding was especially concerned with the question of how the image is created and changed. he suggests that the image may be altered or transformed through “messages”: encounters with information, symbols, experiences, and other inputs. depending upon the nature of these messages and the receiver’s present image, these messages may potentially transform the subjective image and modify future behavior, or as boulding suggests the “meaning of a message is the change which it produces in the image” (p. 7). boulding describes three possible impacts messages might have on the image. the first possibility is that it might have no impact at all. such messages are generally filtered out as they have little or no potential of modifying the existing image. these messages are akin to background noise. the second possible impact of a message is that it “may change the image in some rather regular and well defined way that might be described as simple addition” (p. 7). these might be understood as clarifying messages, new inputs that add to our image of the world but do not alter it in a radical way. the third possible impact is more radical, resulting in a revolutionary change or reorganization of the image. this third possibility is of greatest relevance to peace education pedagogy, where understanding how to facilitate learning for personal and social change and transformation might be considered the fundamental pedagogical task. messages of type two and three have direct parelells to the concepts of change and transformation as used in peace education. change can be understood as a ”process of becoming different in a particular way without fully losing one’s previous characteristics”.8 change, as thus described, would be synonomous with messages of type two. transformation, on the other hand, is more synonomous with type three messages. as described by betty reardon, transformation can be understood as a deeper change that affects ways of thinking, world views, values, behaviors, relationships, and social structures.9 an example from every day life can be used to illustrate the difference between these concepts: when a light bulb burns out the bulb can be easily changed. a transformative approach would be to remove the lamp all together, replacing it with a skylight, thereby eliminating dependency on the light bulb and electricity. a key principle of boulding’s image is that knowledge is subjective. he submits that the “image is built up as a result of all past experience of the possessor of the image. part of the image is the history of the image itself” (p. 6). paulo freire shares elements of this perspective in his conception of emancipatory education, where pedagogy is rooted in theories and modes of learning in which “…to teach is not to transfer knowledge, but to create the possibilities for the production or construction of knowledge”.10 freirean pedagogy puts more emphasis on helping learners to think critically and does not dictate 8 jenkins, t., community-based institutes on peace education organizer’s manual: a peace education planning guide (new york: international institute on peace education, 2007). [available online at www.c-i-p-e.org] 9 reardon, b., comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility (new york: teachers college press, 1988). 10 freire, p., pedagogy of freedom (new york: rowman & littlefield, 1998). in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 27-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 31 what to think. freire assumes that the learner is not a blank slate or an empty vessel, and thus emancipatory pedagogy should be principly elicitive in form. here boulding and freire share a similar conception of authentic learning, or modification of the image. freire’s conception of emancipatory education is essentially transformation in nature, similar to the impact of type three messages in boulding’s framework. the epistemological congruence here at the level of the understanding of the creation of new knowledge is significantly important. new knowledge emerges when messages intersect and communicate with the image. messages do not replace the image, but rather modify or reorganize it. the individual, subjective learner is the most important element in this equation. this is a particularly important principle in the formulation of pedagogy: it requires the educator to take into consideration the existing experiences and worldview of the learner. it is this principle that contests the misguided assumption that the role of peace educators is to help students ”unlearn” violence. in this framework it is impossible to ”unlearn,” and thus the pedagogial approach is rather contrary to this popular rhetoric. the approach, from the perspective of boulding and freire, is to find processes for bringing new messages into communication with the existing image with the hope of alterning, reorganizing, or transforming it. if one’s pedagogical approach is to replace the image this will only be met with resistance. in addition to the pedagogical concerns, a question of values needs to be considered when examining these two approaches. peace education, as a values explicit field, should abandon the concept of ”unlearning” as it stands in direct contradiction to the conept of human dignity. a person’s subjective experience and worldview cannot be dismissed – it is their lived reality regardless of our agreement with it. the above argument is directly supported by boulding’s concept of the value image. ”the subjecitve knowledge structure or image of any individual or organization consists not only of images of ’fact’ but also images of ’value’” (p. 11). the value image is the filter through which messages are ascribed to a scale of good or bad, better or worse. boulding argues that the values image plays the most significant role in determining the impact of any given message. boulding posits two very significant observations in regards to the values image that frame his ontological and epsitemological position. his first observation is that ”we do not perceive our sense data raw; they are mediated through a highly learned process of interpretation and acceptance” (p. 14). this axiom pertains to our ability to interpret contradictory observable data and make sense of it. observations of the physical world are abound with examples of the application of this axiom. boulding suggests that ”we only get along in the world because we consistently and persistently disbelieve the plain evidence of our senses. the stick in the water is not bent; the movie is not a succession of still pictures; and so on” (p. 14). these sensory messages are interpreted through our values image. boulding’s second observation is more startling. he proclaims that ”what this means is that for any individual organism or organization, there is no such thing as ’facts.’ there are only messages filtered through a changeable values system” (p. 14). thus, boulding sees values as playing a very significant role in his theory of knowledge. he sees values as shaping our perception of the world and as the gatekeepers of our larger conception of the in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 27-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 32 image. boulding’s own summation is that his theory of the image ”might well be called an organic theory of knowledge. its most fundamental proposition is that knowledge is what somebody or something knows, and that without a knower, knowledge is an absurdity” (p. 16). this subjectivity might suggest that boulding’s ontological disposition could be found in subjective idealism. however, boulding directly states that ”on the question of the relation between the physical and chemical structure of an organism and its knowledge structure, i am quite prepared to be agnostic” (p. 17). benton and craib suggest “for some philosophers, the apparent difficulty of being sure about the nature of anything beyond the limits of our own conscious experience leads them to 'agnosticism'. this is not just the don't-know option in the philosophers' public opinion poll. rather, it is the positive doctrine that the nature of the world as it exists independently of our subjective experience just cannot be known“.11 from these arguments alone it remains difficult to pinpoint where boulding falls on the ontological and epistemological spectrum. benton and craib further observe that “so-called 'methodological individualists' argue against this. for them, society is nothing over and above the collection of individual people who make it up”.12 it might therefore be prudent to explore boulding’s conception of the image in society before probing deeper into these ontological and epistemological assumptions. the image: shaping society boulding’s role of the image in society follows from the above arguments. he emphasizes that the image “is a property of the individual person. it is only by way of metaphor and analogy that we can speak of organizations or of society as a whole as possessing an image” (p. 54). he observes that social organizations and institutions are extensions of individual images, often originating in the creative mind of an individual. while these social images are often shared and can indeed impact the individual image, their origins lie wholly within the individual images of those comprising a particular social organization. boulding puts forward the following analogy: the correct analogy to the image of the organization in the organism is what might be called the genetic image. as far as the genetics of organisms is concerned, it is the image of the cell that is important, not the image of the organization as a whole. because of this fact, an organization, although it is an open system, is an open system of a very different and much more complex character than that of the biological organism. (p. 60) here boulding’s theory follows the social constructionist tradition, the ontological assumption that “what happens in the course of our action, and our interaction, is that we negotiate (or construct) the meanings of the objects in our world” (p. 87). however, boulding’s position may be a bit more hybrid. at one point he argues: 11 benton, t. & craib, i., philosophy of social science: the philosophical foundations of social thought (new york: palgrave, 2001), p. 5. 12 ibid., p. 5 in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 27-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 33 out of our image we predict the messages which will return to us as a result of our acts. if this prediction is fulfilled the image is confirmed, if it is not fulfilled the image must be changed. this is the essence of the logical-positivist view that definitions must be operational and hypotheses must be testable. (p. 169) epistemologically, his theory of knowledge draws from both rationalist and empiricist traditions. the cogency in his theory to rationalism can be interpreted through the emphasis he gives to the values image as the gatekeeper of reason in the individual image. we find hints of empiricism in the phenomena of the “message” as an observable symbolic interaction or experience that has the potential to alter the image. however, rationalism still seems to pervade due to self-consciousness and the reflective nature of human beings, that is that we “not only know, but we know that we know” (p.25). to elaborate further: because of the extended time image and the extended relationship images, man is capable of ‘rational behavior,’ that is to say, his response is not to an immediate stimulus but to an image of the future filtered through an elaborate value system. his image contains not only what is, but what might be. (p. 25) the historical context in which the image was written, and the particular place in which kenneth boulding found himself at the forefront of the emergence of a general systems theory, it would seem probable that this ontological and epistemological elusiveness had a highly political and strategic rationality. boulding was pursuing the possibility that establishing a general systems theory could bridge the disciplines in an effort to address common societal problems, especially the issues of war and nuclear disarmament. in his conclusion, boulding overtly states that he avoided addressing the epistemological question in philosophical terms by exploring the “image” as an abstract concept. as such, he argues, he has not “considered the question, whether the image is ‘true,’ or how, if it is true, we know that it is true” (p. 164). boulding elaborates: within the confines of my abstraction, for instance, it is clear that the problem of truth and validity cannot be solved completely, if what we mean by the truth of an image is its correspondence with some reality in the world outside it. the difficulty with any correspondence theory of truth is that images can only be compared with images. they can never be compared with any outside reality. the difficulty with the coherence theory of truth, on the other hand, is that the coherence or consistency of the image is simply not what we mean by its truth. (p. 165). it could be argued that his intent in such elusiveness lies with his aims to situate his theory of the image within science, and not purely in the realm of philosophy. further, boulding somewhat rejects solipsism, reasoning that “our image includes within itself, as it were, the notion that the common sense world which we see around us is actually in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 27-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 34 ‘there,’ and it certainly does not include the idea that all we see around us is an illusion” (p. 166). the image is ambitious in its scope to articulate a general theory of knowledge in life and society, providing ample openings for discourse across disciplines and paradigms. for boulding this may have been a direct and intentional effort to open up the disciplines to cooperation – and more importantly to agency. the image: pedagogical form as impetus for agency there should be little doubt as to the pedagogical intentionality of the image. the book was dictated over the course of approximately 8 days, giving it a very opening and dialogical structure that invites the reader into a place where their own image of the world might be reorganized and restructured. as much as boulding was a scientist he was also a quaker, and agency, in whatever form, was something he highly valued. these values are peppered throughout his theory as exemplified in the statement: “the rise in the self-consciousness of the image of society and organization is of great importance in interpreting the dynamics of social change and of the change in the social image” (p. 61). here again, this emphasis toward agency is particularly relevant to peace education pedagogy. boulding alludes to and describes the processes by which the image can be changed and transformed, however he does not articulate a general theory of a relationship between processes and image transformation. in my own work in transformative peace pedagogy i have developed a general theory of this relationship of process to learning outcome and agency: how you come to know (the process), what it is that you know and how you know it (epistemology and claims of truth), has a significant impact on how you will use or act upon that knowledge in the world.13 as mentioned previously, how to facilitate learning for personal and social change and transformation is the fundamental challenge at the core of peace education pedagogy. facilitating learning for peace requires an educator to have an intentional and acute awareness of the relationship between the values that are being articulated and the processes through which those values are disseminated. different processes can have different outcomes on the shaping of the image. for example, the ethos of much of the world’s formal education is hierarchal and top down, in which teachers tell students what to think at the expense of developing critical thinking, information processing and problem-solving skills.14 implicit in such hierachal learning models is that knowledge is validated by authority (the teacher) and that knowledge can be used as a power to increase ones social mobility and enable them to climb the social ladder. knowledge, when learned hierarchicly, results in knowledge being used to establish power over others, and not power with. thus, the typical individual outcome of hierarchal learning is 13 jenkins, t., ”rediscovering education for a better world: illuminating the social purposes of education through peace education pedagogy and content.” in: lin, j., brantmeier, e., & bruhn, c. transforming education for peace (charlotte, n.c.: information age publishing, 2008). 14 ibid., in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 27-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 35 that a student will only value the knowledge learned to reproduce and establish power over others. the social outcomes of such heirarchal learning approaches are a reproduction of social and power inequities. critical, participatory peace pedagogy, on the other hand, is concerned with nurturing ways of thinking that permit the learner to develop a critical awareness of their own individual, social and political reality so that they might autonomously move toward agency within their subjective reality. betty reardon describes pedagogy as the “determinant of human relationships in the educational process. it is itself the medium of communication between teacher and learner, and that aspect of the educational process which most affects what learners receive from their teachers”.15 pedagogy is therefore more than just methodology and approach; it also carries values and models principles of relationships to knowledge, other human beings, and the world around us. developing an awareness of the values associated with process and by becoming pedagogically intentional, educators can support autonomous learners in the transformation of their individual images and the collective public images. the social purposes of peace education are oriented toward social change and transformation, in which transformation implies deep change affecting ways of thinking, worldviews, values, behaviors, relationships, and social structures. peace education, in this sense, seeks to nurture the types of changes in thinking, attitudes and behaviors that will help learners to understand, confront, resist, transform and ultimately eliminate violence in all of its multiple forms. such changes require radical alterations of private and public images. the processes through which they are pursued are intended to inspire learners to actively pursue the transformation of elements of a culture of violence through considerations of alternatives. the consideration of future alternatives has a slow affect on the image, but an important one nonetheless. boulding argued that: a symbol, therefore, may have no effect and indeed ordinarily will have no effect on the image of the immediate future around one. it does produce an effect, however, of what might be called the image of the image, on the image of the future, on the image of the past, on the image of the potential or even of the image of the possible. (p. 44) boulding’s wife elise similarly observed: people have to be encouraged to image, taught to exercise a capacity that they indeed have but are unaccustomed to using in a disciplined way. the obstacles to imaging lie partly in our social institutions, including schools, which discourage 15 reardon, b., ”pedagogy as purpose: peace education in the context of violence.” in cremin, p. (ed.), education for peace (ireland: educational studies association of ireland and irish peace institute, 1993, p. 101-113). in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 27-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 36 imaging because it leads to visualizing alternatives which challenge existing social arrangements.16 kenneth boulding’s theory of the image provides a solid foundation for a theory of transformative peace pedagogy that might be used to help shape and reorganize individual and public images toward the common good. historically, the image provides a somewhat radical conception and general systems theory of knowledge in life and society. it’s impacts on the development of interdisciplinarity in academia might not be easily traceable, but the theory’s fingerprints can be found all over the fields of peace research and peace education, both fields with an intentional values focus, emphasizing agency and personal and social change and transformation. the scope of boulding’s theory provides an ever-widening opening for the inclusion of multiple or parallel paradigms to co-exist within science. in grappling with the philosophical implications of his theory, boulding proudly prompts that his theory might lead in “the direction of a broad, eclectic, organic, yet humble epistemology looking for processes of organization rather than specific tests of validity and finding these processes in many areas of life and experience” (p. 175). this emphasis on the processes of organization over finding the truth demonstrates the pragmatic nature of boulding and his view of science as contributing to the betterment of human kind. these social values, and the agency required to make a better world, are perhaps best summarized in the last few and hopeful sentences of the book: “most of all, perhaps, it [the theory of the image and the discipline of eiconics] brings the actor into the act; it looks beyond mechanism without falling into vitalism. it represents, i hope, one small step toward the unknown goal of human history” (p. 175). 16 boulding, e., building a global civic culture: education for an interdependent world (new york: teachers college, columbia university, 1998) p. 105. in factis pax volume 7 number 1 (2013): 27-37 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 37 bibliography benton, t. & craib, i., philosophy of social science: the philosophical foundations of social thought (new york: palgrave, 2001). boulding, e., building a global civic culture: education for an interdependent world (new york: teachers college, columbia university, 1998). boulding, k., the image: knowledge in life and society (ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press, 1956). freire, p., pedagogy of freedom (new york: rowman & littlefield, 1998). global campaign for peace education (2013). peace education in the spotlight of a nobel nomination. global campaign for peace education newsletter, issue 103, march/april 2013. retrieved from http://www.peace-edcampaign.org/newsletter/archives/103.html kenneth boulding general systems theory. (n.d.) retrieved from: http://www.economictheories.org/2008/08/kenneth-boulding-general-systemstheory.html jenkins, t., ”rediscovering education for a better world: illuminating the social purposes of education through peace education pedagogy and content.” in: lin, j., brantmeier, e., & bruhn, c. transforming education for peace (charlotte, n.c.: information age publishing, 2008). jenkins, t., community-based institutes on peace education organizer’s manual: a peace education planning guide (new orky: international institute on peace education. [available online at www.c-i-p-e.org], 2007). mezirow, j., transformative dimensions of adult learning (san francisco, ca: jossey bass, 1991). reardon, b., ”pedagogy as purpose: peace education in the context of violence.” in cremin, p. (ed.), education for peace (ireland: educational studies association of ireland and irish peace institute, 1993, p. 101-113). reardon, b., comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility (new york: teachers college press, 1988). microsoft word hrynkow & creamerv2.docx   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 1     volume  9  number  1  (2015):  1-­‐26   http://www.infactispax.org/journal   transformative praxis at work in loreto day school sealdah: a remarkable fostering of positive peace   christopher hrynkow st. thomas more college, university of saskatchewan chrynkow@stmcollege.ca david creamer, sj st. paul’s college, university of manitoba creamer@cc.umanitoba.ca “if you are thinking about revolutionary change, then you are thinking of violence. i want my change to be transformative in practice with the children”. -sister cyril mooney, principal emerita, loreto day school sealdah, interview at altringham, england, october 2013.1 introduction this article employs edmund o’sullivan transformative learning theory to map the remarkable educational programming at loreto day school sealdah in kolkata, india. drawing on the authors’ personal experience of the school over                                                                                                                           1 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 2     several years, supplemented by a two day in-depth interview conducted near manchester, england (october, 2013),2 it will illustrate how loreto day school’s praxis-based work sets significant challenges for educational practice intent on fostering the realization of substantive peace in this world. more specifically, this article will highlight pedagogical insights discerned by o’sullivan and some of his interlocutors, which can help nurture positive peace through discussions organized around the transformative learning areas of (1) personal and social transformation, (2) contextual education, (3) education for social justice, and (4) participatory education. it will end by situating loreto day school sealdah as a location of active hope. 3 an overview of edmund o’sullivan’s perspective on transformative learning transformative learning, as presented in the work of edmund o’sullivan (professor emeritus at the ontario institute for studies in education, university of toronto), builds on the insights of people such as the self-described “geologian,” thomas berry, and the buddhist peace educator, joanna macy.4 it seeks to clarify areas in which the educational project can participate in the “great turning”5 towards a sustainable, just, and peaceful future. o’sullivan’s work encourages educators to form critical but normative commitments, supportive of social justice, substantive peace and ecological health. from a transformative learning perspective, the task of an educator is consequently expanded to include activism and advocacy for a greener, more peaceful and socially just world.                                                                                                                           2 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014. 3 unless otherwise noted, the general information about loreto day school sealdah is drawn from the authors’ experience in place in kolkata, visiting and guest teaching at the school. moreover, the authors draw on their personal interaction with edmund o’sullivan as a teacher and mentor during their studies (1980s and 2000s, respectively) in toronto. although sister cyril and edmund o’sullivan have yet to meet, this article is an attempt to bring the lifework of two people who have greatly influenced the authors into conversation. 4 see macy, j. (2000) widening circles: a memoir. gabriola island, bc: new society publishers. 5 see korten, d.c. (2006) the great turning: from empire to earth community. bloomfield, ct: kumarian press.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 3     in the spirit of encouraging the type of dialogue associated with peace education, 6 o’sullivan and his collaborators offer the following summative description, “not as a fixed definition but as a way to stimulate discussion,” around his landmark term: transformative learning involves experiencing a deep, structural shift in the basic premises of thought, feelings, and actions. it is a shift of consciousness that dramatically and irreversibly alters our way of being in the world. such a shift involves our understanding of ourselves and our self-locations; our relationships with other humans and with the natural world; our understanding of relations of power in interlocking structures of class, race and gender; our body awarenesses, our visions of alternative approaches to living; and our sense of possibilities for social justice and peace and personal joy.7 o’sullivan’s deep commitment to fostering socio-political equality is firmly located within his sense of the larger cosmological context, which he labels “the big picture,” and is simultaneously sustained by “emancipatory hope”.8 such a perspective is well poised to question cultural values that are ultimately destructive of positive human relationships. building on o’sullivan’s method of media and social analysis, transformative learning perspectives, for instance, question structurally violent aspects of societies on social, cultural and ecological levels. in light of such issues, transformative learning praxis strives to establish sets of more substantively peaceful nourishing cultural stories. in this regard, it is also deeply respectful of socio-cultural diversity, and indigenous peoples’ contributions in particular, because of the way integrated cultures often represent a sustainable model of deep relationality. a principle focus of transformative learning is on the celebration of hope and joy—here understood as existing in multi-faceted relationships between individuals, across cultures and with the larger natural world. as indicated by the nomenclature of o’sullivan’s                                                                                                                           6 cf. goodman, a. (2002). transformative learning and cultures of peace. in e. o’sullivan, a. morrell and m. a. o’connor (eds.), expanding the boundaries of transformative learning: essays on theory and praxis (pp. 185-198). new york, palgrave. 7 collaborative definition quoted in morrell, a. and o’connor m.a. (2002) introduction. in e. o’sullivan, a. morrell and m. a. o’connor (eds.), expanding the boundaries of transformative learning: essays on theory and praxis (pp. xv-xx). new york, palgrave, p. xvii. 8 o’sullivan, e. (2005) emancipatory hope: transformative learning and the strange attractors. in s. karsten, d. denton, d. orr and i. colalillo kates (eds.), holistic learning and spirituality in education: breaking new ground (pp. 69-78). albany, ny: university of new york press.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 4     methodological approach, an essential goal is the nonviolent transformation of systems and relationships to bring them in line with creative functioning. following thomas berry’s lead, this goal is cast as bringing the human establishments (e.g., education, politics, law, economics and religion)9 to a place where they foster creative, not destructive, tension in the support of truly sustainable and just societies. 10 as such, transformative educators actively promote and seek to establish the cultural conditions necessary for ecological health, social justice and substantive peace.11 the transformative learning centre at the ontario institute for studies in education emphasizes that this teacher-activism is centered on a grounded hope for positive social change: in sum, transformative learning makes us understand the world in a different way, changing the way we experience it and the way we act in our day-to-day lives. transformative learning has an individual and a collective dimension, and includes both individual and social transformation. in the transformative learning centre we are inspired by the notion of grounded hope. we believe that one of the best ways to predict the future is to actively create it, moving together towards our collective visions by developing viable alternatives that recognize the limitations and possibilities (especially the possibilities!) of each particular context.12 such grounded hope, focused on integral possibilities, can be usefully employed in the normative educational task of fostering substantively peaceful positive social change in order to support mutuality-enhancing relationships for all persons in human societies. further, it sets a cogent challenge for educators hoping to provide foundations for positive peace, equity, and social flourishing at the current moment in planetary history. in the remainder of this article, the authors will employ four areas of transformative learning to map the educational efforts at loreto day school                                                                                                                           9 berry, t. (1988) the dream of the earth. san francisco: sierra club books. 10 see hrynkow, c. and d.p. o’hara (2013) earth matters: thomas berry, the pacifism of religious cosmology and the need for ecojustice. journal for peace and justice studies, 22 (2), 328. 11 o’sullivan, e. (1999) transformative learning: educational vision for the 21st century. toronto: university of toronto press. 12 transformative learning centre staff (2013) about the transformative learning centre. available at: http://tlc.oise.utoronto.ca/about.html (accessed february 20, 2014).   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 5     sealdah. we will begin by describing this remarkable school and its pedagogy in conversation with dynamics of personal and social change, which are so central to transformative learning. next, the authors will move to map loreto sealdah’s teaching and outreach activities in terms contextual education, education for social justice, and participatory education, which they take as representative of the nourishing content of positive peace (i.e., peace that is understood to be at once inclusive of, but constituted by far more than, the mere absence of war).13 the article will conclude with a brief synthesis which highlights how loreto sealdah school can be understood as a location of active hope. sister cyril mooney and loreto sealdah: personal and social transformation loreto day school does not look much like a school from the outside. the building is easy to miss walking along ajc bose road by the pedestrian flyover to sealdah railway station. yet, after passing through a battered green gate that is never closed, one enters into a bustling, child-centric, equality-based, transformative educational experience that is both personal and social on multiple levels. founded by the irish sisters of loreto in 1847 as an exclusively upper class private school for anglo-indian girls, loreto day school sealdah in kolkata continued to serve girls from affluent indian families even beyond the days of the raj. but, with the arrival of sister cyril mooney as principal in 1979, the once exclusive enclave began to more fully open itself to poor children from the slums and streets around sealdah station. since then, it has been transformed into what is widely recognized as a model for equality-based educational change in india.14 sister cyril mooney was prepared for her task of transforming loreto day school sealdah by her own upbringing as a child in ireland. she recalls growing up in the 1940’s: “ireland was not an affluent country; it was a very poor country. in school, i sat with children who were without shoes and i remember one girl who had lice in her hair and nobody would sit beside her. i told my mother about                                                                                                                           13 cf. reardon, b. a. (1988) comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility new york: teachers college press; galtung, j. transcend and transform: an introduction to conflict work. boulder: paradigm publishers, 2004. 14 see, for example, doggett, r. (2005) enabling education for girls: the loreto day sealdah, india. in s. aikman and e. unterhalter (eds.), beyond access: transforming policy and practice for gender equality in education (pp. 227-244). oxford: oxfam; bajat, m. (2012) human rights education in small schools in india. peace review: a journal of social justice, 24 (1), 6-13; gifford, z. (2007) confessions to a serial womaniser: secrets of the world’s inspirational women. east grinstead, uk: blackner.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 6     this and she said, ‘you will sit beside her’”.15 she further recalls her mother’s role in shaping an approach to social justice on a personal level: i was very aware that there were very poor children in class as it was during the second world war. in the school they offered us a big mug of milk and slice of bread and butter. my mother said that i could have the milk because there was lots of it but not take the bread which should be left for the poor children.16 sister cyril’s awareness extended to issues surrounding class division in this context: my friends went to a private primary school [run by the loreto sisters] but i was educated in the state run free-school. i grew up in a situation where the girls going up to the [loreto] private primary school would walk on the other side of the avenue from us. i tried to walk with them but they told me that i had to walk on the other side of the street....that kind of thing happened.17 from many such experiences, carried forward as she discerned a vocation to the sisters of loreto, sister cyril felt a call to be an overseas missionary. in india, while doing graduate work in zoology in lucknow (1964), she observed eerily similar patterns of poverty and class division.18 these insights, coupled with compassion, resulted in her becoming “very concerned about the poor children about whom nobody seemed to be bothered very much. we were running our lovely schools and i felt very uneasy at this”.19 she recalls how she first embarked on the transformative project of getting the schoolgirls under her charge interested in the plight of the poor, who lived within the students’ local geography but were beyond their moral horizon: “i said we’re                                                                                                                           15 mooney, m.c. (2012) quoted in: sit beside me, dvd. a. nedrelid, l. jandejskova and j. mango (directors). london: taskovski films. 16 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014. 17 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014. 18 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014. 19 mooney, m.c. (2012) quoted in: sit beside me, dvd. a. nedrelid, l. jandejskova and j. mango (directors). london: taskovski films.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 7     here inside of this beautiful convent building…. so i took the children and we went outside of the convent gates. here we found such poverty”.20 the resultant experiences proved to be transformative not only personally but for sister cyril’s entire career trajectory. instead of pursuing a career as a university lecturer in the biological sciences, sister cyril convinced her superiors to allow her to undertake socially transformative educational programming with girls. as a result, in 1979, sister cyril became principal of loreto day school, sealdah. she recollects that, historically, the sisters “had two schools running at loreto sealdah. one was the free-school for children from very financially deprived backgrounds and the rest of the school was used for children who could pay fees”.21 over the years, however, the poor had been virtually excluded from the school, so sister cyril took upon herself the task of bringing back the poorest children.22 her goal was “to have one section 50 percent for poor children and one section 50 percent for the well-off”.23 this goal has been actualized for more than three decades. however, it was not always clear in sister cyril’s early days at loreto sealdah how she was going foster transformation in the girls under her charge— help to give them eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to feel the plight of the poor in their midst. drawing on her successes at lucknow, sister cyril began this task by accompanying the students out into the villages.24 still today, once a week, regular students from loreto sealdah board mini-buses and journey to a number of schools in the villages surrounding kolkata. there, they act as peer teachers and mentors in bengali medium schools. sister cyril explains how the outreach work to the villages led organically to loreto sealdah’s rainbow program, which brings approximately 250 street children into the school to live (sleeping in a multi-use area) and learn, and further contributed to the                                                                                                                           20 mooney, m.c. (2012) quoted in: sit beside me, dvd. a. nedrelid, l. jandejskova and j. mango (directors). london: taskovski films. 21 mooney, m.c. (2012) quoted in: sit beside me, dvd. a. nedrelid, l. jandejskova and j. mango (directors). london: taskovski films. 22 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014. 23 mooney, m.c. (2012) quoted in: sit beside me, dvd. a. nedrelid, l. jandejskova and j. mango (directors). london: taskovski films. 24 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 8     empowerment of the regular-stream schoolgirls at loreto sealdah: now after the children had been going to the villages week by week, a group of them came to me one day and said ‘you know we’re going so far to the villages, why don’t we try to help the children around the school on the streets?’ they hadn’t seen those same children in 1979 because their eyes were closed. it was when they went out to the villages and began to get more and more experienced with the poverty of the children that they then saw the children outside our gate....our girls went over towards the [sealdah railway] station and all along the footpaths. they talked to the parents. they talked to the children and said ‘we’re only children ourselves but we’ve come to invite you to come to our school in the afternoon so we can teach you.’ and so the children began to come in and then they began to come earlier. and they were out in the playground playing with the little ones coming to the day school. our parents were standing there watching; nobody raised an objection. so gradually i encouraged them to come in earlier and earlier. slowly, then, i felt we could have them in school the whole time.25 summarizing her role in fostering interconnected personal and social transformation, sister cyril emphasizes a substantively peaceful and noncoercive human dimension to change that is inseparable from her contribution to the educational project: i call it agents of human change not agents of social change because for me the human element is the most important and we can get bogged down on technicalities and we can lose sight of our hearts when we go into this other business of social change. so, for that reason, i prefer to call what i have been doing as transforming children into agents of human change so as they go out into society they bring that mental set with them to transform society; not by violence and not by forcing people, but by a slow inner emotional transformation which                                                                                                                           25 mooney, m.c. (2012) quoted in: sit beside me, dvd. a. nedrelid, l. jandejskova and j. mango (directors). london: taskovski films.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 9     takes place from within us and where our whole mental vision, our whole attitude…reaches out beyond us to other people.26 deliberatively undertaking such processes of transformative human change in order to foster substantive peace can be a daunting task for both educators and students. contemporary social and ecological crises can seem too large or too entrenched. the difficulties associated with achieving tangible results when working to transform these situations can lead to despair unless persons who engage in these processes have ways to nourish transformative practices. in considering how to respond to such despair, yuka takashi emphasizes the importance of four aspects of personal transformation: “movement beyond modernist worldview; awakening our whole persons; reconnecting ourselves with the rest of the world; and affirmation of ourselves in the process of social transformation”.27 all of these factors are alive in the approach to transformative human change at loreto sealdah. the narrative of modernity and, in particular, its version of personal success, is problematized by the loreto students’ engagement with transformative projects. through this process they awaken to themselves as simultaneously agents and persons in relationship to others, which in turn offers a path to making substantive connections to the world within and outside of the school gates. these students then develop a sense of themselves in parallel with ann goodman’s delineation of the importance of the voices of women. goodman asserts “i see becoming more fully human as a key aspect of our evolution toward a culture of peace”. 28 in this regard, the school offers a nurturing environment for young women to come into their own as agents of human change. this is a particularly important development in light of the dual challenge identified by dorothy ettling and lulesa guilian: “achieving agency in one’s life is a challenging task for many women. on the one hand it necessitates that we discover and claim our inner power as a person of worth. on the other hand, it demands that we understand the political implications of powerlessness and find                                                                                                                           26 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014. 27takahashi, y. (2004) personal and social transformation: a complementary process toward ecological consciousness. in e. o’sullivan and m. taylor (eds.), learning toward an ecological consciousness: selected transformative practices (pp. 169-182). new york: palgrave macmillan, p. 179. 28 goodman, a. (2002). transformative learning and cultures of peace. in e. o’sullivan, a. morrell and m. a. o’connor (eds.), expanding the boundaries of transformative learning: essays on theory and praxis (pp. 185-198). new york, palgrave, p. 196.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 10     ways to challenge the operations of power to which we have been acculturated”.29 building on ettling and guilian’s delineation of agency, loreto sealdah can be understood as a place of “mutual midwifery”,30 where agents of human change are birthed into the world via a process that links the dynamics of personal and social transformation in the service of what o’sullivan names as “the cultivation, nourishment and development of a cultural mythos that builds on a faith in the human capacity to participate in the creation of a world of justice, compassion, caring, love and joy”. 31 as it acts in support of such a cultural mythos, we can shade sister cyril’s approach to creating agents of human change as a prime example, wherein: “the divide between social and personal transformation becomes false: personal transformation is social transformation, and social transformation is personal transformation”.32 contextual education in line with o’sullivan’s transformative perspective, contextual education seeks to fill in what might be termed the nourishing content of positive peace; bringing learning into dialogue with particular, local cultures. in orientation it tends to be anti-colonialist, viewing the local culture as valuable and, therefore, not something to be replaced, for example, with a “superior” european culture. rather, contextual education values the local and particular as integral sources of knowledge. it is education done in place, where the local people and geography influence the curriculum to the benefit of both teachers and students. in general terms, within o’sullivan’s transformative learning theory, such a contextual approach is underpinned by the notion of an ecological consciousness in which the social and ecological worlds are understood to be characterized by a web of connectivity, wherein the self is nested variously within the universe,                                                                                                                           29 ettling, d. and l. guilian (2004) midwifing transformative change. in e. o’sullivan and m.taylor (eds.), learning toward an ecological consciousness: selected transformative practices (pp. 115-131). new york: palgrave macmillan, p. 115. 30 ettling, d. and l. guilian (2004) midwifing transformative change. in e. o’sullivan and m.taylor (eds.), learning toward an ecological consciousness: selected transformative practices (pp. 115-131). new york: palgrave macmillan, p.120. 31 o’sullivan, e. (1999) transformative learning: educational vision for the 21st century. toronto: university of toronto press, p. 274. 32 takahashi, y. (2004) personal and social transformation: a complementary process toward ecological consciousness. in e. o’sullivan and m. taylor (eds.), learning toward an ecological consciousness: selected transformative practices (pp. 169-182). new york: palgrave macmillan, p. 180.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 11     earth, nation, people, community and family. 33 it is within these universeembedded relationships that transformative learning seeks to make present a “common context on which we depend for understanding and survival”.34 here we can witness another sense in which the boundaries of transformative learning extend beyond schools, to such an extent that educators are understood to be “those who enable our learning—colleagues, friend neighbors, parents, children, organizational leaders, spiritual leaders, artists, researchers, teachers, mentors”.35 the goal of transformative learning in relation to context is thus multifaceted: inquiry, openness and discernment of diverse knowledge sets in support of the normative elements that we have named above as social justice, ecological health and substantive peace. connecting context specifically to the central concerns of peace education and writing with eimear o’neill, o’sullivan maps considerations for violence intervention and prevention from a transformative learning perspective. notable in this discussion is the premise that cultural context should not be taken as a given. rather, o’neill and o’sullivan assert that a sustained effort must be made to discern and transform patriarchy as one of the key ways to overcome institutionalized violence and war in line with the contextual imperative to foster ecological consciousness and to craft structures for a wide egalitarian participation among women and men.36 it is in this sense of ensuring ecological integrity and valuing holistic participation seeking cultural transformation that o’sullivan’s reflection on the importance of context within a pedagogy for peace is best read: “there are no pat prescriptions for peace education given the complexity of local and regional situations. peace education and conflict resolution must be tailored to the contours of the region or locale where it is initiated”.37 employing multiple strategies, sister cyril seeks to                                                                                                                           33 o’sullivan, e. and m. taylor. glimpses of an ecological consciousness. in e. o’sullivan and m. taylor (eds.), learning toward an ecological consciousness: selected transformative practices (pp. 5-23). new york: palgrave macmillan, p. 14. 34 o’sullivan, e. and m. taylor. glimpses of an ecological consciousness. in e. o’sullivan and m. taylor (eds.), learning toward an ecological consciousness: selected transformative practices (pp. 5-23). new york: palgrave macmillan, p. 21. 35 o’sullivan, e. and m. taylor. glimpses of an ecological consciousness. in e. o’sullivan and m. taylor (eds.), learning toward an ecological consciousness: selected transformative practices (pp. 5-23). new york: palgrave macmillan, p. 22. 36 o’neil, e. and e. o’sullivan. transforming the ecology of violence: ecology, war, patriarchy, and the institutionalization of violence. in e. o’sullivan, a. morrell and m. a. o’connor (eds.), expanding the boundaries of transformative learning: essays on theory and praxis (pp. 173-184). new york, palgrave. 37 o’sullivan, e. (1999) transformative learning: educational vision for the 21st century. toronto: university of toronto press, p. 172.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 12     activate these dynamics within the cultural context of kolkata through her participatory pedagogical methods that serve to empower women and schoolgirls. a prime example of a contextual approach at loreto sealdah is the barefoot teacher training program, which taps into local potential in the service of the educational project. as part of her exposure to the west bengali context, sister cyril learned that in many villages and neighborhoods in and around kolkata there were a number of people with educational experience that was underutilized. their credentials were not sufficient to enter government-run teacher training programs. however, their knowledge sets and experience, when combined with basic pedagogical training from the loreto sealdah learning community, could be used as the basis for an alternative way to ensure quality education for the children living in these contexts. this alternative was needed because school buildings and government provision of teachers, in many ways based on a british colonial model, were failing to reach a majority of the children in marginalized rural and urban contexts. as a result of the way personal and social transformation connect at loreto sealdah, sister cyril felt compelled to use her privilege, which was in part generated by the legacies of that colonial system, to address this situation by challenging the myth that schools necessarily require complex infrastructure and staff with formal credentials to achieve success for all learners. in this light, the title of the barefoot teacher training program takes on other layers of meaning. for example, sister cyril emphasizes that “the term ‘barefoot’ refers to the course, not the teachers! we need only our feet to walk. shoes are a luxury! ... our goal is to give the essential inputs through a very thorough practical experience... so our training does not include the shoe”.38 today, the loreto program has trained educators from other regions of india, bangladesh and nepal. sister cyril estimates that in excess 15, 000 teachers have been trained by the program, influencing the education of some 350, 000 children. she contrasts her work in this area with another, a more rigid, colonizing and universalist approach to education still present to a certain degree in her own religious order: we basically began with the irish loreto primary school model and did not transform it.... much to my horror we [loreto sisters] are still doing that. so what i was trying with our barefoot teacher training program                                                                                                                           38 mooney, m.c. (1995) barefoot teacher training. unpublished handout, p. 2.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 13     was to get the people not to think in terms of jack and jill and those kinds of things but to get them to think about their own background stories, the kind of stories their mothers told them when they were being put to bed at night, their tribal stories that come to them from their own culture and background, tribal folklore, and utilize those in order to teach the children. maybe with english they would get jack and jill and all these other ones but ultimately it would be what comes out from their own culture that they should be learning. so my idea was to look at the current situation and see how we could educate the children by using the local materials, using the local folklore, the local songs—whatever was local—to use that, rather than to deform them by trying to fit them into a culture which is not their culture.39 the connection between local culture and geography, so important to realizing transformative learning from o’sullivan’s perspective, is very active at both loreto sealdah and in the barefoot teacher training program. in kolkata, this approach transfers into innovative school programming wherein, for example, rainbow children were given the task of making art out of material discarded around the sealdah neighborhood. sister cyril recalls the origins of an art show viewed by the authors: “that was a day there was some sort of function and they took a whole lot of lunch boxes out of the garbage bin and they made a robot out of it and they made a television and a crab from garbage. that was something we had them do quite often; to get them to use their imaginations”.40 sister cyril repeatedly emphasizes the importance of local knowledge and geography in such endeavors, seeking to “tailor” education in dialogue with the local context so that the socio-ecological “environment becomes the child’s textbook”:41 it is very important that children use what is local. i went out to train some teachers who live about two hours by jeep from patna. we got down off the jeeps and walked across the bihar desert about another two hours to get there. earlier, we had trained some fellows and they went back into villages that were so poor that they couldn’t pay them but they would feed them and they built little houses for them to live in.                                                                                                                           39 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014. 40 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014. 41 mooney, m.c. (1995) barefoot teacher training. unpublished handout, p. 2.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 14     and we went to see this fellow who had his children under a tree. while in our school, this young man had seen our notice boards. he had seen children making pictures out of torn bits of paper, and sticking them onto a sheet that was tacked up on the wall. what he had done there, in the bihar village, was put twine around from tree to tree to tree so he could hang up the kids work. every child had collected leaves and things. he had cut sections of bel fruit [hard with a mushy centre] which has sticky juice to provide them with glue and he had taken bits of bamboo and shredded the ends of them to make them into brushes. so he had a complete set of local materials, having seen what he saw with us, but it was not contaminated. my fear was that when they came into our place they would pick up the grandeur. i didn’t want the place, loreto sealdah, to be grand because the barefoot teachers [in the training program] can’t reproduce the school out in the village─so there is no point. but when you bring them into a place that is a bit grubby and scrubby, they say ‘we can do this in our place too.’ so this chap had reproduced everything we were doing in the school. he had the children doing the same activities but using local materials. they were sticking the leaves together and they were making elephants and tigers and all kinds of things with the sticky bel fruit. what struck me was the fact that it was all local materials.42 education for social justice as noted above, o’sullivan’s vision for transformative learning is highly normative, encouraging teachers to be activists working for particular outcomes, both in terms of the consciousness of their students and in the larger world. a parallel can be drawn here to what ken booth names as peace studies’ characteristic approach of “critical normativity”.43 one of the main commitments highlighted in this regard, in both schools of thought, is praxis-based work for the actualization of social justice. indeed, social justice features as a prominent theme in the work of o’sullivan and his interlocutors. for o’sullivan, social justice is characterized by transforming the nexi of privilege that coalesce to make people like him (and the authors of this article) white, (now) middle class,                                                                                                                           42 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014. 43 booth, k. (2005) critical explorations. in k. booth (ed.), critical security studies and world politics (pp. 1-20). london: lynne rienner publishers.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 15     male professors. as he states poignantly: “in my position of privilege i am spared, for this most part, from being a victim. because of my position, i am frequently a victimizer without being conscious of the effects of my position of privilege”. 44 social positions such as these are maintained through what o’sullivan refers to as “dominator cultures”. they are supported by structures like patriarchy, racial superiority, class and anthropocentricism,45 which serve to hurt people in their bodies, limit human potential and otherwise harm members of the earth community. in line with the moral imperatives associated with mitigating against a dominator culture and building a positive peace characterized by the actualization of social justice, many features of loreto sealdah’s programming include a deep concern to transform the realities of those living in poverty. for example, the streetwise rainbow children were enlisted to reach out to elderly people who were abandoned by their families and living on the railway platform at sealdah station. the rainbow children would bring food to the station and sit, eat and chat with their elders in a spirit of solidarity. this programming later expanded to include other railway stations and the streets. the school even built a couple of residences for once-abandoned elderly women who now are treated like grandmothers by the students. the role of the loreto sealdah learning community as social activists is perhaps best represented in the hidden domestic child labour initiative, which seeks to advocate, educate and, in extreme cases, rescue children caught in unjust social arrangements hidden from public view in homes. sister cyril explains the basic methodology of the program: around class five, at about age 11, they are instructed to look around wherever you are and if, in the same high rise building or close by, you find a family employing a child laborer, you go and make friends with that child laborer and if you can, go to the employer and knock on the door and say ‘madam there is a little boy/girl living here’—we would warn them, don’t say ‘working,’ say ‘living.’ because these parents know it is against the law (to employ child workers) and will deny it, [the loreto sealdah students will ask]: ‘will you please allow them out                                                                                                                           44 o’sullivan, e. (1999) transformative learning: educational vision for the 21st century. toronto: university of toronto press, p. 133. 45 o’sullivan, e. (1999) transformative learning: educational vision for the 21st century. toronto: university of toronto press, p. 133.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 16     once a week because we are making a club for children in the neighborhood.’ mostly because these employers are of the same social class as the parents of the kids asking, they will let the child out to play with them.46 further fostering the exercise of their agency in the service of human change, the students are also trained to deal with resistance on the part of the employers and to assess and document the situation of the child laborer: in some cases where the employer wouldn’t let them out, the [loreto] girls would come back with their games (snakes and ladders or whatever) and say ‘madam just one hour we’ll come in and play—she needs an hour.’ they got very capable and when i think of their capacity to argue and demand at their age, they kept on and in most cases they were allowed in to play with the child and talk with her and find out what was going on. in some cases the child would be allowed out on a saturday afternoon when things were slack in the house. they would take her out and talk to her and get to know about the family and ask ‘did she want to write home? was she able to write? did she have a toothache? is anything wrong? how can they help?’ they wrote down their stories and we accumulated them all in a little book.47 this methodology has expanded to other loreto schools. in one case, the program precipitated the adoption of further transformative educational initiatives at the institution: in a particular loreto school, when the principal took a survey she found that 72 of the families of the children in the school employed child slaves. she wrote a letter to the parents and said that this was no longer acceptable and ‘your child will not be welcome in my school unless your daughter brings the little girl working in your home to school with her. please employ her parents.’ and she got the whole 72 kids into schools. that was the beginning of their program with poor children. that was elliot road and they built a lovely big roof onto the                                                                                                                           46 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014. 47 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 17     school and there is a big rainbow program now at elliot road. five loreto schools in kolkata now have rainbow programs.48 the students at loreto sealdah have also sought to raise awareness about the issue of underage servitude amongst their peers in public schools. they undertake this work for human change creatively; employing the performing arts, and fostering spaces for the exercise of the children’s own agency in the service of nonviolent social transformation: the [loreto sealdah] rainbows made up a skit about child labor including indian dance. they went around and did this in different school assemblies to as many as 20,000 to 30,000 students in secondary schools. they went and acted it out and then had a kind of discussion on it. it was very effective. in many cases the other children who were watching cried because it came across to them so strongly. it was about a little girl who was working in a house scrubbing floors and the child of the house comes in and flings her school bag in a corner and then said to the little one ‘come on and play with me’ but the servant was frightened and was afraid she would get scolded so she doesn’t play. the mother comes in and scolds her own child for wasting the other one’s time and slaps this servant child. then her own child stands up to the mother and says, ‘the little one has to come to school with me.’ the mother says no and there was a big row. in the end the mother gives in and the little servant goes off to school with the child of the house.49 in this manner, the hidden domestic child labour program has directly reached more than one thousand child laborers and rescued more than 60 of them from dire situations of malnourishment and abuse. more than 300 of these children have been enrolled in local schools and more than 200 have entered vocational training.                                                                                                                           48 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014. 49 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 18     participatory education in line with what has long been a key imperative for many peace education theorists and practitioners, 50 o’sullivan’s methodology for transformative learning holds a view of political, social and ecological citizenship that emphasizes the value of participation on multiple levels. this potential, as the authors can personally attest, is realized in o’sullivan’s seminars, wherein his personal pedagogical approach encourages students to interact with complex material in a critical manner that serves to foster consciousness of issues and discursive skills necessary for transformative practices. connecting such experiences of safe, enriching and critical discourse in university learning with the larger context, daniel schugurensky argues that “a relationship of reciprocity exists between transformative learning and participatory democracy”.51 here, schugurensky sees participation in transformative politics as entailing educative process and the results of transformative learning spilling over into the political realm. in similar terms, hierarchical pedagogical approaches so common in domineering imperial structures (inclusive of the british educational style associated with the times of the raj, which many indian schools appropriate to this day), are transformed in the case of loreto sealdah’s learning community with positive implications for socio-political relationships. for example, one of the basic myths that sister cyril frequently names loreto sealdah as challenging is that: “freedom is dangerous. teacher and pupils will often take advantage of it”.52 as part of that challenge, she attempts to foster emancipatory learning in various aspects of the programming at loreto. that freedom transfers, in turn, into a participatory responsibility for the wellbeing of the larger society. through their diverse tutoring and instructing roles, to cite one example, students are able to activate the dynamics of learning that only become present when teaching a concept. in this way they participate in their own learning, rather than merely “receiving” an education as if they were empty vessels without cultural identities and skills of their own.53 thus, loreto sealdah                                                                                                                           50 cf. wulf, c. [ed.] (1974) handbook on peace education. frankfurt: international peace research. 51 schugurensky, d. (2002) transformative learning and transformative politics: the pedagogical dimension of participatory democracy and social action. in e. o’sullivan, a. morrell and m. a. o’connor (eds.), expanding the boundaries of transformative learning: essays on theory and praxis (pp. 59-76). new york, palgrave, p. 67. 52 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014. 53 cf. friere, p. (1999) pedagogy of the oppressed. new york, ny: continuum.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 19     pupils take an active role and responsibility in integrating concepts. more substantively, as described above, the school fosters experiences which directly engage the socio-political realities of kolkata, west bengal and the rest of india, which serves to move that that integration beyond the theoretical. as a result, the students are given tangible insight into how they can shape those socio-political realities as active participants through their work for positive and nonviolent social transformation. this is education driven by values. for example, on one visit to the school with other canadians in 2008, the authors observed a loreto sealdah student dialoguing with a person in our group about the dangerous nature of participating in the hidden domestic child labour programming. in response to concerns expressed by the canadian national, the student emphasized: “but madam, it is the right thing to do”. this student, like so many others the authors have interacted with at loreto sealdah, was clearly empowered in her learning and displayed an active concern for the future of her polity. this ethic of participation is fostered by the very structure of the school, which transforms caste, class and religious divisions that might otherwise divide the loreto sealdah learning community. this ethic extends across the teaching, support, domestic and social work staff to the students and their families. the goal is to realize that all involved are essential to the successful running of the school. 54 this insight is fostered by students and teachers taking turns completing caretaking duties, including days when sister cyril leads by example and cleans the toilets. at the same time, the custodial workers share in the joy of students at positive exam results: in most schools, the domestic staff were sort of downtrodden; they would never be invited to be part of the whole enterprise. in other schools you wouldn’t have one of the bearers coming up to ask about how many girls got a ‘first division.’ there was an interest in them which you wouldn’t find in other places (even in our other loreto schools) and there was also a confidence in them because they knew that if they were hard up and they needed ... some extra help they                                                                                                                           54 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 20     would always get it.55 loreto sealdah’s organizational structure includes the parents of the children, with reasonable accommodations made to allow all parents to participate in their child’s education and attend meetings about their progress. these accommodations are made as a matter of principle: another thing that is important with regard to social justice is that most of these people were daily laborers. if you expect a daily laborer to come into school during the day, you are depriving them of a day’s wages. i would not just call parent teacher meetings. first of all, if i needed to see the parents, i would ask the child ‘when is your daddy free, when can your mother come?’ i have two sets [of meetings], one for those who can come [during the day] and another for those who can’t come at that time.56 the end result of these accommodations is that the transformation fostered by the participatory nature of the students’ education also spreads to their parents: another thing that is important to record is that the parents are also undergoing a transformation because everything i did in the school, i would meet the parents and explain it to them. the bengalis wanted good values, sense of patriotism, sense of service and responsibility. i would put it all up on the board and i would explain how each program related to these things. the result is that they themselves had a mission. they could see it. many of them would say they saw a difference between their children and others because they go out [of the school] and they see the poverty. my sense is that a great proportion of parents were happy with these programs. i had more well-off parents coming in at puja time and wanting to share with the                                                                                                                           55 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014. 56 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 21     rainbow children. say somebody in the family died, i had parents come in and say they wanted to give a meal for the children.57 the loreto community also tries to foster the base conditions that will allow for greater levels of participation in the wider society. a poignant set of examples in this regard are found in the school’s partnerships to encourage human rights education, which have taken various forms over the past few decades. partners have included other school leaders from across india; e.g., the institute for human rights education (madurai) and the united nations world programme for human rights education. loreto sealdah’s approach to human rights education is experience-based and integrates both secular and spiritual approaches to human dignity as represented in the we are the world series of books designed for classes 1 to 10, for which sister cyril served as general editor. the books, which also have accompanying teachers’ editions are now employed in schools across india. each installment in the series promotes student participation in shaping a positive value-based society characterized by a respect for the human person.58 sister cyril recalls the origins of the first run of the books in 1989 and how both students and teachers were recruited to spread the human rights ethos in a participatory manner: the west bengal government printed the books for us (in bengali and english) and they are being used now in 600 government schools all over kolkata.... we had developed a whole lot of materials for accelerated learning and we began bringing in nine children from each school and three teachers. they were sitting with our children and studying human rights. in this way, in each school we built up a little core team of nine children and three teachers who would propagate human rights into the schools.59 as this section can only partly demonstrate, in such an experience-based manner, participatory values extend both inward and outward from the loreto sealdah learning community.                                                                                                                           57 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014. 58 see, for example, mooney, m.c. and n. bir (2005) we are the world 6: experience-based value education for schools. hyderabad: orient longman. 59 mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 22     conclusion: loreto sealdah as a location of active hope in considering the daunting task of responding to interrelated social and ecological challenges in our world, joanna macy, one of o’sullivan’s aforementioned interlocutors, has been drawn to the concept of active hope to sustain her work for the nonviolent transformation of the world. writing in partnership with chris johnstone, she explains the transformative practice as follows: active hope is about becoming active participants in bringing about what we hope for. active hope is a practice. like tai chi or gardening, it is something we do rather than have. it is a process we can apply to any situation, and it involves three key steps. first, we take in a clear view of reality; second, we identify what we hope for in terms of the direction we’d like things to move in or the values we’d like to see expressed; and third, we take steps to move ourselves or our situation in that direction. since active hope doesn’t require our optimism, we can apply it even in areas where we feel hopeless.60 a notable example of this is the organic growth of active hope emanating from loreto sealdah day school. as situated by the rendering of o’sullivan in our introduction, this is an emancipatory hope,61 which promotes cultures of peace62 by actively fostering paths for the students and teachers to become involved in positively influencing the world in an actively nonviolent manner. the school’s expansive pedagogical programming follows macy and johnstone’s three key steps. in terms of the first step, it encourages students to bring a full spectrum of the realities of poverty and marginalization into the students’ moral horizons. regarding the second step, it gives students a framework for direct action to help improve the life prospects and otherwise empower those on the margins, a framework that is buttressed by the school’s active promotion of human rights. incarnating the spirit of macy and johnstone’s third step, those direct actions are engaged in substantive and empowering ways by the students.                                                                                                                           60 macy, j. and johnstone, c. (2012) active hope: how to face the mess we’re in without going crazy. novato, ca: new world library, p. 3. 61 o’sullivan, e. (2005) emancipatory hope: transformative learning and the strange attractors. in s. karsten, d. denton, d. orr and i. colalillo kates (eds.), holistic learning and spirituality in education: breaking new ground (pp. 69-78). albany, ny: university of new york press. 62 cf. boulding, e. (2000) cultures of peace: the hidden side of history. syracuse: syracuse university press.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 23     loreto sealdah thus moves far beyond shallow optimism to a grounded hope that exists in symbiotic relationship with the local context and in the service of a greater common good. that such a hope is positively incarnated through loreto day school sealdah, a school that once represented something of a microcosm of the colonial project in india, reinforces the dynamics of transformation so important to o’sullivan’s pedagogical framework. this learning community has been able to overcome a colonialist past to challenge a narrow definition of what a school can and ought to be. loreto sealdah accomplished this feat by radiating transformative praxis out into its wider context. such concrete results, when combined with o’sullivan’s methodology of grounded hope, point to the possibility that many institutions can undergo a nonviolent transformation to come more fully into the service of the common good through actively fostering positive peace.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 24     references bajat, m. (2012) human rights education in small schools in india. peace review: a journal of social justice, 24 (1), 6-13. berry, t. (1988) the dream of the earth. san francisco: sierra club books. booth, k. (2005) critical explorations. in k. booth (ed.), critical security studies and world politics (pp. 1-20). london: lynne rienner publishers. boulding, e. (2000) cultures of peace: the hidden side of history. syracuse: syracuse university press. doggett, r. (2005) enabling education for girls: the loreto day sealdah, india. in s. aikman and e. unterhalter (eds.), beyond access: transforming policy and practice for gender equality in education (pp. 227-244). oxford: oxfam. ettling, d. and l. guilian (2004) midwifing transformative change. in e. o’sullivan and m. taylor (eds.), learning toward an ecological consciousness: selected transformative practices (pp. 115-131). new york: palgrave macmillan. friere, p. (1999) pedagogy of the oppressed. new york, ny: continuum. galtung, j. (2004) transcend and transform: an introduction to conflict work. boulder: paradigm publishers. gifford, z. (2007) confessions to a serial womaniser: secrets of the world’s inspirational women. east grinstead, uk: blackner. goodman, a. (2002). transformative learning and cultures of peace. in e. o’sullivan, a. morrell and m. a. o’connor (eds.), expanding the boundaries of transformativelearning: essays on theory and praxis (pp. 185-198). new york, palgrave. hrynkow, c. and d.p. o’hara (2013) earth matters: thomas berry, the pacifism of religious cosmology and the need for ecojustice. journal for peace and justice studies, 22 (2), 328.   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 25     korten, d.c. (2006) the great turning: from empire to earth community. bloomfield, ct: kumarian press. macy, j. (2000) widening circles: a memoir. gabriola island, bc: new society publishers macy, j. and johnstone, c. (2012) active hope: how to face the mess we’re in without going crazy. novato, ca: new world library. mooney, m.c. (1995) barefoot teacher training. unpublished handout. mooney, m.c. (2012) quoted in: sit beside me, dvd. a. nedrelid, l. jandejskova and j. mango (directors). london: taskovski films. mooney, m.c. (2013/2014) multi-day interview in altringham, england, conducted by david creamer, october 2013. transcribed by authors. transcript checked, corrected and returned to authors by m.c. mooney, december 2014. mooney, m.c. and n. bir (2005) we are the world 6: experience-based value education for schools. hyderabad: orient longman. morrell, a. and o’connor m.a. (2002) introduction. in e. o’sullivan, a. morrell and m. a. o’connor (eds.), expanding the boundaries of transformative learning: essays on theory and praxis (pp. xv-xx). new york, palgrave. o’neill, e. and e. o’sullivan. transforming the ecology of violence: ecology, war, patriarchy, and the institutionalization of violence. in e. o’sullivan, a. morrell and m. a. o’connor (eds.), expanding the boundaries of transformative learning: essays on theory and praxis (pp. 173-184). new york, palgrave. o’sullivan, e. (1999) transformative learning: educational vision for the 21st century. toronto: university of toronto press. o’sullivan, e. (2005) emancipatory hope: transformative learning and the strange attractors. in s. karsten, d. denton, d. orr and i. colalillo kates (eds.), holistic learning and spirituality in education: breaking new ground (pp. 69-78). albany, ny: university of new york press. o’ sullivan, e. and m. taylor. glimpses of an ecological consciousness. in e. o’sullivan and m. taylor (eds.), learning toward an ecological consciousness:   in factis pax volume 9 number 1 (2015): 1-26 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 26     selected transformative practices (pp. 5-23). new york: palgrave macmillan. reardon, b. a. (1988) comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility. new york: teachers college press. schugurensky, d. (2002) transformative learning and transformative politics: the pedagogical dimension of participatory democracy and social action. in e. o’sullivan, a. morrell and m. a. o’connor (eds.), expanding the boundaries of transformative learning: essays on theory and praxis (pp. 59-76). new york, palgrave. takahashi, y. (2004) personal and social transformation: a complementary process toward ecological consciousness. in e. o’sullivan and m. taylor (eds.), learning toward an ecological consciousness:selected transformative practices (pp. 169-182). new york: palgrave macmillan. transformative learning centre staff (2013) about the transformative learning centre. availableat:http://tlc.oise.utoronto.ca/about.html (accessed february 20, 2014). wulf, c. [ed.] (1974) handbook on peace education. frankfurt: international peace research.     trejo-profesionalizando líderes comunitarios final   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  10-­‐23   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       10   volume 8 number 1 (2014): 10-23 http://www.infactispax.org/journal profesionalizando a líderes comunitarios en el diplomado nacional en cultura de paz nathalie carrillo gómez walter trejo urquiola cátedra de la paz y derechos humanos “mons. oscar a. romero” universidad de los andes, mérida, venezuela “la cultura de la paz se logrará cuando los ciudadanos del mundo comprendan los problemas mundiales, tengan la capacidad de resolver los conflictos y luchar por la justicia en forma no violenta, observar las normas internacionales de derechos humanos y de justicia, apreciar la diversidad cultural y respetar a la tierra y al prójimo. sólo es posible lograr ese aprendizaje mediante una educación sistemática para la paz” (agenda de la haya por la paz y la justicia en el siglo xxi, 1999).     in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  10-­‐23   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       11   origen y fundamentación del diplomado de cultura de paz cátedra de la paz y derechos humanos “monseñor oscar arnulfo romero” es una organización comunitaria de desarrollo social, adscrita a la universidad de los andes. desde 1987 se dedica a generar acciones de promoción, formación y protección de los derechos humanos y cultura de paz de la infancia, adolescencia y juventud con enfoque de desarrollo local sustentable e interculturalidad. trabaja con los actores sociales (familia, escuelas y comunidad) en el estado mérida de la república bolivariana de venezuela. estos últimos años, por la intensa actividad formativa que se ha desarrollado en las comunidades, instituciones u organizaciones sociales y ante la necesidad y solicitud de los propios participantes, se determina conformar un espacio académico de mayor nivel del conocimiento e intercambio de saberes avalados desde la universidad de los andes. en el 2012, se presenta en el seminario internacional de cultura de paz, realizado desde cátedra de la paz la propuesta para formación de líderes comunitarios, que fue enriquecida con los aportes de los/as ponentes y participantes de once (11) estados de venezuela. así nace esta iniciativa de educación para la paz, diplomado nacional en cultura de paz. el diplomado nacional en cultura de paz, surge de la necesidad de ofrecer un espacio formativo que permita a las/los participantes comprender y consolidar valores, herramientas y acciones en pro del respeto a los derechos humanos, la justicia, la tolerancia, la solidaridad, la igualdad, la no discriminación, entre otros. para ello, nos apoyamos en la trayectoria educativa que como organización tenemos y donde la cultura de paz es el centro de nuestro quehacer cotidiano. siendo el mismo, todo un proceso interno de reflexión, construcción colectiva, investigación y consulta. amparados además, en nuestra concepción de cultura de paz que no es más que la posibilidad de todas las personas de recibir educación sistemática, amplía y de calidad. una educación que responde a los principios de la educación para la paz, es decir, capaz de informar, formar y transformar desde y para la acción como sujetos partícipes en la construcción de la paz. por otra parte, la constitución de la república bolivariana de venezuela (1999) en el artículo 102 establece el derecho a la educación fundamentada en “…el respeto a todas las corrientes del pensamiento, con la finalidad de desarrollar el potencial creativo de cada ser humano y el pleno ejercicio de su personalidad en una sociedad democrática basada en la valoración ética del trabajo y en la participación activa, consciente y solidaria en los procesos de transformación social consustanciados con los valores de la identidad…”. asimismo, la ley orgánica de educación (2009) establece en su artículo no. 3 como principios de la educación “… la formación en una cultura para la paz, la justicia social, el respeto a los derechos humanos, la práctica de la equidad y la inclusión;   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  10-­‐23   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       12   el derecho a la igualdad de género…” siendo los valores educativos fundamentales: “…el respeto a la vida, el amor y la fraternidad, la convivencia armónica en el marco de la solidaridad, la corresponsabilidad, la cooperación, la tolerancia y la valoración del bien común, la valoración social y ética del trabajo, el respeto a la diversidad propia de los diferentes grupos humanos…” (artículo nº3, ley orgánica de educación, 2009). este contexto jurídico representa la base para “…fundamentar el desarrollo de la paz como fin mismo de la educación en todos los niveles y modalidades del sistema educativo venezolano” (cátedra de la paz, 2011). ello, encuentra concordancia con los tratados internacionales suscritos por venezuela relativos a la paz como son: el manifiesto de cultura de paz (2000), el informe de sociedad civil del decenio internacional de una cultura de paz (2001-2010), los principios del año internacional para una cultura de paz (aicp) como la base para decenio internacional de una cultura de paz y no violencia para los niños, las niñas y adolescentes del mundo (2001-2010) y el movimiento global para una cultura de paz, entre otros. para cátedra de la paz, “…la cultura de paz [es] un componente del derecho a la educación, como condición necesaria para el ejercicio de todos los derechos humanos, la paz y la democracia en los ciudadanos y ciudadanas” (cátedra de la paz, 2011). siendo esta educación enmarcada en el paradigma de la educación para la paz, como un proceso integral y multidimensional que consiste en: • informar, a través de los principios de la pedagogía de la paz y la educación en derechos humanos, donde el conocimiento previo de los y las participantes, es el punto de partida de los procesos formativos. • formar, en base al enfoque socio afectivo y los aportes de la educación popular, que facilitan la comprensión y desarrollo del pensamiento en el marco de los principios de la carta de las naciones unidas. • transformar, bajo la premisa de que toda acción desde la cultura de paz debe cambiar el entorno y cada persona, en última instancia, debe ser un agente transformador con valores democráticos y autodefinirse como constructor/a de paz. afirmamos además que educar para la paz implica educar en valores desde la concepción de paz positiva, es decir, la potenciación del proceso de construcción de conocimientos traducida en relaciones fundamentadas en la paz entre los alumnos, padres y profesores; entre ciudadano y poder. igualmente, significa una educación desde y para la acción como sujetos partícipes en la construcción de la paz, “…educar desde y para la no violencia, educar contra el conformismo y para la justa desobediencia; educar para entender el conflicto como vehículo de cambio; educar para una nueva sensibilidad ética hacia los derechos de cada persona” (cátedra de la paz, 2011).   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  10-­‐23   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       13   de allí, la naturaleza participativa de esta propuesta de formación dirigida a hombres y mujeres, líderes comunitarios, activistas sociales, estudiantes, servidores públicos, docentes y demás actores sociales interesados en emprender acciones que permitan la transformación de escenarios de violencia en escenarios de paz. como objetivo principal nos planteamos: formar promotores y promotoras con conocimientos teóricos y prácticos en cultura de paz con el propósito de ampliar los espacios para la promoción de comportamientos y actitudes de paz que permitan el fortalecimiento de una pacífica convivencia ciudadana. un promotor/promotora (líder o lideresa) que participe en esta propuesta debe alcanzar las siguientes competencias: 1. la identificación y definición de los principios de la cultura de paz, así como su incidencia en la dinámica social en general, en el marco de la carta de las naciones unidas. 2. descripción, comprensión y aplicación de estrategias dirigidas hacia el desarrollo de la cultura de paz en los propios contextos de actuación. 3. análisis basado en argumentos razonables bajo el enfoque de la cultura de paz las situaciones de la vida cotidiana, social, etc. de sus propios contextos de actuación. 4. el uso de manera oportuna y pertinente de los medios de resolución pacífica de conflictos en diversas situaciones, sin menoscabo de su naturaleza. 5. el planteamiento y desarrollo de propuestas creativas de promoción e intervención (desde los contextos de acción de cada participante), que permitan establecer canales de comunicación entre los diversos actores de la sociedad en aras de promover e instalar cultura de paz en venezuela. 6. el compromiso para asumir roles importantes en la generación de alternativas que permitan optimizar la dinámica propia de su contexto de actuación. 7. la reflexión y evaluación permanente de su desempeño para optimizar su rol de educador o educadora de la paz. en definitiva, personas con capacidad de generar espacios de debate, reflexión, concienciación y ejecución de acciones de paz. acciones planteadas desde lo micro hasta lo macro, en el sentido de procurar incidencia pública y favorecer la participación ciudadana en las diversas instancias creadas para ello y desde la propia iniciativa civil.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  10-­‐23   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       14   desarrollo del diplomado de cultura de paz: contenidos, metodología y participantes a continuación, compartimos brevemente la experiencia derivada del desarrollo de la i cohorte (marzo a octubre 2013) del diplomado nacional en cultura de paz desde lo que fue su diseño, convocatoria y perfil de las/los participantes. incluyendo aprendizajes y aspectos a mejorar. la plantilla curricular empleada en el diplomado nacional en cultura de paz estuvo inspirada, evidentemente, en los principios de la cultura de paz: 1. respeto a todas las formas de vida. 2. rechazar la violencia. 3. liberar mi generosidad. 4. escuchar para comprender. 5. preservar el planeta. 6. reinventar la solidaridad. también, en las ocho acciones que los estados y personas deben realizar para crearla como son: educación, derechos humanos, desarrollo económico y social, igualdad entre hombres y mujeres, democracia, comprensión, tolerancia y solidaridad, libertad de información y de comunicación; y, paz y seguridad (unesco, 2000). teniendo en claro los temas a desarrollar y conforme a las necesidades formativas que como organización hemos recopilado en cada una de nuestras actividades, comenzamos un proceso de análisis y depuración. en este punto, cuestionamos no sólo los títulos, rótulos de cada sesión sino también el fondo, es decir, el enfoque y lo que queríamos lograr en cada participante. se trataba de generar impacto, reflexión y en lo posible lograr la transformación, para lo cual el método de enseñanza – aprendizaje era clave. luego de largos periodos de investigación, análisis, discusión y reflexión seleccionamos, con sus respectivas adecuaciones la propuesta pedagógica realizada por rezende (2006). de manera que, los contenidos quedaron estructurados en cuatro módulos que, a su vez, están conformados por dos talleres o sesiones para un total de 200 horas teóricoprácticas1 módulo taller módulo i: cultura de paz duración: 40 horas (24 horas teóricas 16 horas ! taller nº 1: cultura de paz y educadores para la paz. (12 horas teóricas 08 horas prácticas).   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  10-­‐23   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       15   prácticas). objetivo: describir y profundizar los principios básicos de la cultura de paz. ! taller nº 2: facilidades para la preparación y administración de actividades didácticas en cultura de paz. (12 horas teóricas 08 horas prácticas). módulo ii: temas de cultura de paz duración: 40 horas (24 horas teóricas 16 horas prácticas). objetivo: analizar y reflexionar sobre los temas básicos de la cultura de paz que permita la apropiación de sus contenidos y prácticas. ! taller nº 3: educación en derechos humanos (12 horas teóricas – 08 horas prácticas). ! taller nº 4: resolución pacífica de conflictos (12 horas teóricas – 08 horas prácticas). módulo iii: haciendo cultura de paz (24 horas teóricas – 16 horas prácticas) duración: 40 horas (24 horas teóricas 16 horas prácticas). objetivo: aplicar métodos de educación para la paz. ! taller nº 5: la diversidad nos lleva a la paz (12 horas teóricas – 08 horas prácticas). ! taller nº 6: eco cultura de paz (12 horas teóricas – 08 horas prácticas). módulo iv: construcción del perfil del promotor / promotora de cultura de paz (40 horas teóricas) duración: 40 horas (24 horas teóricas 16 horas prácticas). objetivo: construir el perfil del promotor y promotora de cultura de paz. ! taller nº 7: mis emociones y la inteligencia emocional a favor de la paz (12 horas teóricas y 08 horas prácticas). ! taller nº 8: democracia y participación ciudadana para la cultura de paz (12 horas teóricas 08 horas prácticas). trabajo final ! sistematización: historia de vida (40 horas). cada sesión de trabajo estuvo diseñada y desarrollada bajo la metodología de taller, como espacio de reflexión, creación y construcción del conocimiento que reafirma el consagrado concepto pedagógico del “aprender haciendo”. así, las estrategias de enseñanza-aprendizaje se elaboraron bajo el modelo de la investigaciónacción, el cual privilegia la reflexión sistemática de los participantes en torno a los conceptos, enfoques, métodos e instrumentos impartidos por el facilitador. previo al inicio de cada encuentro, nos permitimos invitar especialistas en los temas correspondientes a fin de introducir los contenidos y ofrecer otra perspectiva del mismo. no necesariamente esta visión era contraria, más bien complementaria y con un matiz de experiencia, acción y aportes derivados de la reflexión sobre lo vivido. conforme la propuesta de rezende (2006), los talleres o sesiones respondieron a la siguiente estructura: 1. integración: tiene por objeto la creación de una comunidad de trabajo y convivencia. 2. sensibilización: busca despertar interés respecto de la temática a trabajar. 3. profundización de la temática: cuya finalidad es descubrir todos los detalles.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  10-­‐23   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       16   4. reconstrucción de la práctica y síntesis: refiere a la construcción grupal del conocimiento sobre la temática, sistematizando su saber sobre el tema trabajado. momento además, para la aplicación del conocimiento adquirido en la búsqueda del cambio social. es el espacio para que los participantes piensen y dialoguen acerca de sus compromisos con la temática estudiada. 5. evaluación: ejercicio de participación en el que se da la oportunidad a los participantes de expresar sus sentimientos y opiniones, no solamente en relación con el desarrollo del taller, sino, fundamentalmente, sobre el sentido y el significado de los procedimientos en sus vidas. 6. conclusión y puesta en común: es el cierre de la vivencia, en la que el grupo tiene la posibilidad de expresar los compromisos asumidos, sus descubrimientos, inquietudes y compartir las perspectivas vislumbradas, de manera tal que el taller se integre a la trayectoria y el desarrollo de cada persona como un momento realmente significativo. finalmente, cada taller contó con varias estrategias evaluativas: algunas de tipo teórico – reflexivo, el denominado “¿qué aprendí?” elaborado al final de cada sesión, donde las/los participantes sistematizaban su experiencia y aprendizajes derivados de la misma. otras evaluaciones de tipo práctico y mayormente desarrollado fuera del contexto de aprendizaje. aparte, como evaluación final se promovió la sistematización de la experiencia individual, donde cada participante tuvo la libertad de comprender, comparar y reflexionar su propia historia de vida con los contenidos desarrollados a lo largo del diplomado. el proceso de captación de personas interesadas en la cultura de paz, se realizó por diversas vías: 1. online: correo electrónico y redes sociales. 2. radio: publicidad en una emisora local y espacio en los noticieros. 3. medios impresos: visita a los principales periódicos locales (frontera y pico bolívar). 4. instituciones: visita a diversas instituciones públicas y privadas, principalmente educativas y de seguridad ciudadana. 5. afiches: colocados en puntos clave de la ciudad. 6. volanteo: en la universidad de los andes, específicamente en las facultades de ciencias jurídicas y políticas; y, humanidades y educación. el período de convocatoria tuvo duración de un mes, desde el 15 de febrero hasta el 15 de marzo fecha en la que inició el diplomado nacional en cultura de paz. para la selección de las/los participantes, el criterio se basó en una planilla de postulación2 donde cada aspirante respondía a una serie de interrogantes dirigidas a indagar su formación, experiencia y perspectiva sobre la cultura de paz. una vez recibida, se analizaba su contenido y se decidía su aceptación o no. un total de 45 personas se postularon, de las cuáles se seleccionaron 30 y se inscribieron 25. de estos 25 participantes, sólo 20 culminaron exitosamente el proceso de formación y los cinco restantes por razones varias (personales) se retiraron del diplomado.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  10-­‐23   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       17   las edades oscilaron entre 20 y 62 años, siendo el 60% de sexo femenino y el 40% masculino. la procedencia de los mismos fue diversa, estados como zulia, táchira, trujillo, barinas y monagas se unieron con los citadinos de mérida. el perfil de las/los participantes estuvo dominado por docentes de varios niveles de la educación: desde primaria hasta universitaria y de instituciones tanto públicas como privadas. también, profesionales en áreas como la ingeniería, arquitectura y enfermería. importante es mencionar la participación de funcionarios públicos, miembros de organizaciones no gubernamentales y estudiantes universitarios. las expectativas iniciales de las/los participantes se centraron básicamente en “aprender”, “compartir experiencias” y obtener “herramientas” de la cultura de paz (cátedra de la paz, 2013a). ello, con el propósito de “crecer como persona y ser capaz de transmitir lo aprendido”; “mejorar las relaciones inter personales en la institución y basar las nuevas en un ambiente de paz y compañerismo”; y, [reflexionar] “acerca de nuestra cultura para poder transformarla en una de paz”. conforme se desarrollaba la formación, nos encontramos reflexiones y comentarios que iban validando los contenidos y su pertinencia: 1. sobre la sesión cultura de paz y educadores/educadoras para la paz: “la pertinencia del tema y la aplicación más que fortalecerla es continuarla como hasta ahora” (participante) (cátedra de la paz, 2013b). 2. sobre la sesión facilidades para la preparación y administración de actividades didácticas en cultura de paz: “un taller práctico que no solo un docente puede usar en un aula de clase, sino cualquier activista con ánimos de comunicar una información de suma importancia, no solo es académico sino práctico a todas las carreras y áreas de trabajo, comunicando de forma didáctica las informaciones” (participante) (cátedra de la paz, 2013c). 3. sobre la sesión educación en derechos humanos: “el espacio para la coincidencia y diferencias permite que crezcamos cada día más son olvidar que lo diferente de lo común y lo común es diverso” (participante) (cátedra de la paz, 2013d). 4. sobre la sesión resolución pacífica de conflictos y cultura de paz: “que el conflicto es totalmente diferente de la violencia… descubrí que percibo el conflicto como negativo aunque sé que representa una oportunidad, en la práctica me cuesta asumirlo” (participante) (cátedra de la paz, 2013e). 5. sobre la sesión la diversidad nos lleva a la paz: “reconocí la discriminación desde la infancia como una manera de exclusión… asumí principios y criterios personales para no afectar la discriminación. ver y tolerar al otro” (participante) (cátedra de la paz, 2013f).   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  10-­‐23   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       18   6. sobre la sesión eco cultura de paz: “que el abordaje de la temática ambiental desde una cultura de paz no solo debe considerar los riesgos y problemas, sino también las soluciones que existen muchas probabilidades de hacer y actuar con responsabilidad social, e individual en relación a la temática ambiental” (participante) (cátedra de la paz, 2013g) 7. sobre la sesión mis emociones y la inteligencia emocional a favor de la paz: “debo aprender y practicar a identificar las emociones ya que inconscientemente las enmascaramos” (participante) (cátedra de la paz, 2013h). 8. sobre la sesión democracia y participación ciudadana en la cultura de paz: “ la temática es sumamente importante para que estando organizados o no entender y en consecuencia podamos participar de manera planificada en el diseño, ejecución, evolución de las políticas públicas que nos interesan y en todos en general para generar cambios y transformaciones de manera más efectiva y eficaz” (participante) (cátedra de la paz, 2013i). impacto del diplomado en los y las participantes es importante resaltar, el impacto a nivel personal entre los y las participantes, que fueron sistematizados en el trabajo final de historia de vida donde debían contrastar su recorrido personal con los hitos vivenciales que permitieron la construcción del conocimiento previo y la consolidación de una identidad hacia la paz, que les permite posterior al diplomado nacional, reafirmarse cada uno/a como “educadores/as para la paz”. algunos de esas expresiones, recogidas de los trabajos finales3, nos dan fe de este impacto: • “muchas gracias por los conocimientos adquiridos y aún más gracias por demostrar que aunque se tenga el corazón como una piedra se puede ablandar como una almohada. sin obligación de hacer algo obtuve mejorar mi comunicación con los demás. muchas gracias” (participante). • “con la llegada de cátedra de la paz a mi vida y a la vida de mi organización he podido canalizar muchísimas situaciones difíciles. la cultura de paz, me ha ensenado que el camino es tan difícil como tú lo veas porque siempre hay una opción positiva, porque en mi hay un ser de paz de prosperidad. y es que como dije antes nada es casual, cátedra de la paz era una de las piezas destinadas a complementar mi organización pues que mejor guía y modelo a seguir” (participante). • “desde mi perspectiva de formación integral, en discapacidad, ya que he trabajado, convivido y estudiado con personas con cualquier discapacidad, estudiado y revisado documentos filosóficos, legales, políticos, programáticos, técnicos de dimensiones mundiales, regionales, nacionales y   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  10-­‐23   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       19   locales de las diferentes áreas sociales, he logrado entender, luego de culminado el diplomado en cultura de paz, que cualquier misión social que tengamos que emprender debe estar acompañada por la cultura de paz como herramienta indispensable para el logro del respeto a los derechos humanos, sea de cualquier grupo vulnerable en el que nos enfoquemos, y que el acompañamiento de los otros que luchan igual que nosotros, la sinergia, potencia el trabajo de todos” (participante). • “otra experiencia de la que no tengo forma de describir lo maravillosa que ha sido para mí, es precisamente ésta que estoy culminando, la sistematización de mi historia, porque cuando uno hace un recuento de su propia vida, ve desde otra perspectiva todo lo ocurrido y se da cuenta que todo, absolutamente todo fue necesario para llegar a donde estoy. quizá en otro momento hubiese querido que varias de las experiencias no hubiesen pasado pero precisamente esas experiencias fueron las que me dieron la fuerza, el empuje y el combustible para seguir abriendo caminos” (participante). • “este diplomado fue una experiencia de vida, los viajes, la dinámica de los encuentros, el interactuar con todos los participantes venidos de tan diferentes lugares y de tan diferentes quehaceres, de forma de ser y de actuar particulares, el conocimiento de cada uno de los facilitadores, sus propias experiencias de vida, la expectativa de cómo iba hacer cada encuentro, porque siempre había algo nuevo que sorprendía en las clases. aunque quizás una de las experiencias para mí que más me movió el piso, fue la dinámica “un paso al frente”, nunca había podido observar tan claramente la situación social de este país y particularmente eso me hizo comprometerme más en mi deseo de hacer algo positivo en favor de esta sociedad” (participante). • “fue hasta el diplomando nacional en cultura de paz con la gente de la cátedra de la paz de la ula que retomé el tema y profundicé un poco más este asunto cuando se me presenta la democracia no sólo como un sistema de gobierno sino como una forma de vida. desde esta perspectiva y al echar un vistazo a mi pasado caigo en la cuenta de que en mi hogar la vivencia era muy democrática” (participante). • “estoy tan motivado en esta corriente de derechos humanos, justicia y paz que hasta mi trabajo final de postgrado está orientado hacia la sistematización de los principios jurídicos, pedagógicos y lasallistas del derecho al libre desenvolvimiento de la personalidad en los jóvenes, como un aporte a la construcción de la cultura de paz en los centros educativos…. mi   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  10-­‐23   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       20   gran desafío es cómo potenciar cada vez más todo este equipamiento desde mi ámbito familiar” (participante). aprendizajes a lo largo de los seis meses de encuentros presenciales con las/los participantes, aunado a su seguimiento diario por vías virtuales y el intercambio con las/los facilitadores encargados de las sesiones del diplomado nos permitieron acumular una serie de aprendizajes, con aciertos y algunos elementos susceptibles de mejoría. en primer lugar, se validó la estructura del diplomado. los contenidos desarrollados y la secuencia de los mismos lograron ir de lo general a lo particular, de lo teórico a lo práctico y con la coherencia pertinente para que una sesión dejara un eslabón que encajara, con su respectiva profundización, en el encuentro siguiente. como segundo aprendizaje, destaca la validación del método de rezende (2006) cuyo diseño por momentos de trabajo iba garantizando la aprehensión de lo teórico y su aplicabilidad práctica. además de promover la integración no solo de las/los participantes entre sí, sino también con las/los facilitadores y los temas a tratar. acerca del método de rezende (2006), vale mencionar su validación por parte de las/los facilitadores que elaboraron sus sesiones de trabajo siguiendo su propuesta. esto simplificaba el trabajo, dado que conforme iban organizando los temas también iban planificando las actividades asociadas al desarrollo de los mismos, las lecturas y asignaciones adicionales. en tercer lugar, la diversidad de facilitadores/facilitadoras los cuales con sus experiencias y enfoques enriquecieron las jornadas, debates, análisis y reflexiones. si bien, cada uno/una siguió la pauta antes mencionada tal patrón no era limitativo, ya que se circunscribía a la estructura del taller y no a los recursos, materiales de apoyo, etc. las evaluaciones presenciales como no presenciales, nos permitieron medir el grado de compromiso de cada participante y los cambios que el curso de la formación iba generando. las presenciales abrían el abanico reflexivo, la capacidad de tolerar posiciones contrarias y negociar bajo principios de respeto, reconocimiento y aceptación del otro/otra. además de motivar la sistematización de aprendizajes con el “¿qué aprendí?”, donde cada quien compartía lo que más le impactó y le servía de base para su posterior trabajo final. por su parte, las evaluaciones no presenciales midieron la real comprensión de los contenidos y sus posibles formas de aplicabilidad en contextos reales. sin olvidar las experiencias derivadas de estas actividades en términos de validación teórica, manejo de información e interacción con la realidad.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  10-­‐23   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       21   respecto a las/los participantes, la selección se apoyó básicamente en su experiencia laboral/social y empleo actual, como indicativos de factibilidad en el ejercicio de acciones pro cultura de paz. de allí la presencia de buen número de docentes y funcionarios públicos, también algunos integrantes de organizaciones no gubernamentales. no obstante, la visión de estos tres grupos dominantes con formación y labores diferentes, terminaban en un mismo punto de encuentro: la labor docente y su respectiva problemática. en ocasiones, las discusiones se centraban en ello y redirigirlas en pro de un abordaje más amplio era difícil. incluso los estudiantes se hacían eco de ello, encasillando las reflexiones en un solo quehacer social. otro de los aprendizajes obtenidos corresponden al tema logístico, por ejemplo, el horario estaba pautado de la siguiente forma: viernes de 3:00pm a 7:00pm y sábados de 8:00pm a 5:00pm. establecido así para garantizar el máximo aprovechamiento de los temas y el traslado de algunos participantes desde otros estados4, esto resultó ser agotador especialmente en la jornada del sábado por la tarde. aunado al gasto en refrigerios, agua, café y comidas. también, en insumos como servilletas, vasos, papel higiénico, cucharillas, etc. finalmente, esta experiencia nos ha hecho reflexionar sobre el próximo paso a seguir en el fortalecimiento y acompañamiento de las/los egresados del diplomado. para ello, hemos empleado las diversas evaluaciones completadas por cada participante y las inquietudes más destacadas, repetitivas dentro de cada sesión de trabajo que ameritan del abordaje de nuevas temáticas. en este sentido, identificamos tres áreas que permitirán complementar los saberes ya promovidos y profundizar el auto conocimiento, manejo de técnicas y herramientas dirigidas hacia la consolidación del promotor/promotora de paz. estas son: programación neurolingüística, constelaciones familiares y un componente de yoga, específicamente del yoga para la risa como ese aparte que permite el manejo de la respiración y de la risa como técnica transformadora de actitudes frente a la vida, que permiten soltar el pasado y conectarnos con lo que se puede cambiar. tales contenidos serán ofrecidos como un componente de actualización, a realizarse en el primer trimestre del año 2014. con ello, podremos reencontrar al grupo y examinar cuáles han sido sus acciones, fortalezas y aspectos que requieran reforzamiento.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  10-­‐23   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       22   referencias cátedra de la paz y derechos humanos “monseñor oscar arnulfo romero” (2013a) cultura de paz y educadores/educadoras para la paz, sistematización de las expectativas de las/los participantes. mimeo – mérida, venezuela. cátedra de la paz y derechos humanos “mons. oscar arnulfo romero” (2013b) cultura de paz y educadores/educadoras para la paz, sistematización del “¿qué aprendí?” de la sesión por parte de las/los participantes. diplomado nacional en cultura de paz, mimeo – mérida, venezuela. cátedra de la paz y derechos humanos “mons. oscar arnulfo romero” (2013c) facilidades para la preparación y administración de actividades didácticas en cultura de paz, sistematización del “¿qué aprendí?” de la sesión por parte de las/los participantes. diplomado nacional en cultura de paz, mimeo – mérida, venezuela. cátedra de la paz y derechos humanos “mons. oscar arnulfo romero” (2013d) educación en derechos humanos, sistematización del “¿qué aprendí?” de la sesión por parte de las/los participantes. diplomado nacional en cultura de paz, mimeo – mérida, venezuela. cátedra de la paz y derechos humanos “mons. oscar arnulfo romero” (2013e) resolución pacífica de conflictos, sistematización del “¿qué aprendí?” de la sesión por parte de las/los participantes. diplomado nacional en cultura de paz, mimeo – mérida, venezuela. cátedra de la paz y derechos humanos “mons. oscar arnulfo romero” (2013f) la diversidad nos lleva a la paz, sistematización del “¿qué aprendí?” de la sesión por parte de las/los participantes. diplomado nacional en cultura de paz, mimeo – mérida, venezuela. cátedra de la paz y derechos humanos “mons. oscar arnulfo romero” (2013g) eco cultura de paz, sistematización del “¿qué aprendí?” de la sesión por parte de las/los participantes. diplomado nacional en cultura de paz, mimeo – mérida, venezuela. cátedra de la paz y derechos humanos “mons. oscar arnulfo romero” (2013h) mis emociones y la inteligencia emocional a favor de la paz, sistematización del “¿qué aprendí?” de la sesión por parte de las/los participantes. diplomado nacional en cultura de paz, mimeo – mérida, venezuela. cátedra de la paz y derechos humanos “mons. oscar arnulfo romero” (2013i) democracia y participación ciudadana en la cultura de paz, sistematización del “¿qué aprendí?” de la sesión por parte de las/los participantes. diplomado nacional en cultura de paz, mimeo – mérida, venezuela.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  10-­‐23   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       23   cátedra de la paz y derechos humanos “monseñor oscar arnulfo romero” (2011) iv plan estratégico 2011 – 2013. mimeo: mérida – venezuela. organización de la naciones unidas (1999) agenda de la haya por la paz y la justicia en el siglo xxi. [documento en línea] disponible: http://guiagenero.mzc.org.es/guiagenerocache/pagina_cortepenal_000377.ht ml [consultado 2012, marzo, 24]. unesco (2000) manifiesto 2000 para una cultura de paz y no violencia. [documento en línea] disponible: http://www3.unesco.org/manifesto2000/sp/sp_manifeste.htm [consultado 2013, mayo, 28]. república bolivariana de venezuela (1999) constitución de la república bolivariana de venezuela. república bolivariana de venezuela (2009) ley orgánica de educación. rezende, marcelo (2006) aprender a educar para la paz: un desafío a afrontar. buenos aires, argentina: consejo latinoamericano de iglesias (clai).                                                                                                                           1  los contenidos del diplomado en cultura de paz, son el resultado de una revisión bibliográfica nacional e internacional, aunada a la experticia de cátedra de la paz y a los principios establecidos en el manifiesto cultura de paz (2000). uno de los principales referentes, es la obra de rezende, marcelo (2006) y su libro aprender a educar para la paz: un desafío a afrontar, editado por el consejo latinoamericano de iglesias (clai) en buenos aires – argentina.   2  solicítela en asesoriaenpositivo@gmail.com 3  las expresiones aquí citadas son confidenciales, dado que fue uno de los principios del trabajo final. de allí que no se identifique el autor/autora del mismo.   4 el tiempo de viaje más largo que recorría un participante era de 24 horas, seguido de ocho (08) horas y cinco (05) horas. iieptoneff-cotner ifp-1 final for publication in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 55-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 55 volume 9 number 2 (2015): 55-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal the political and structural exclusion of student voice in the school closure process glenda toneff-cotner cleveland state university g.toneffcotner@csuohio.edu introduction school closure in the united states is steeped in educational policy and has historically been associated with declining student enrollment, limited financial resources, and consolidation of schools and/or districts (tyak, 1974). since the early 1980’s, an increase in neoliberal and neoconservative ideology reflecting market-driven reforms has resulted in educational policy grounded in standards-based curriculum, high-stakes testing and school choice. the school choice movement, which really gained momentum in the 1990’s and continues to garner support, is an identified contributor to the recent increase in the number of school closings in the united states (mcmillin, 2010). however, the most recent policy associated with school closure is the race to the top (rttt) federal grant program initiated in 2009 by the obama administration. school closure is listed as one of the intervention models found in the rttt federal grant in which rigorous interventions are required in each of the state’s lowest-performing schools, creating a tiered accountability system (united states department of education, 2009). per rttt, the lowest performing schools in the state must implement one of the following four intervention models: transformation model, turnaround model, restart model, or school closure model (u.s. department of education, 2009). the intervention model specific to this study is the “school closure model.” in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 55-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 56 according to fast, neufeldt and schirch (2002), “the inherent worth and dignity of all people sets the stage for the capacity and necessity of all people to be involved in community decision-making” (p.185). however, nowhere in the rttt competitive grant program is the issue of human dignity addressed as it relates to the stakeholders. the top-down, policy-driven process in which lowperforming schools are closed is counterintuitive to the idea of “community decision-making” in which the interveners and the stakeholders would have equal value. the decision to close schools is actually regulatory language and part of a predetermined intervention in rttt. current school reform policy ignores the importance of trusting relationships and does not consider the long-term social and emotional effects (toneff-cotner, 2015). urban communities that are already feeling the ramifications of the school closure process have organized in an effort to request federal action to stop school closings, which they say disproportionately affects poor and minority students. as a result, the education department is investigating complaints filed under the 1964 civil rights act. since 2010, 27 complaints have been investigated, none of which were found to be a civil rights violation (as cited in layton, 2013). one of the cities most significantly impacted by this policy is chicago, where activists in the community have voiced their belief that school closure associated with academic accountability should be viewed as a human rights violation (layton, 2013). according to fanjul (2012), politicians are not spending enough time talking about the needs of children. in 2011, a report documented that only two percent of the questions addressed in the first 10 republican debates focused on children. professionals are joining with parents and the larger community in an effort to push back against the number of school closures. professionals have an obligation to inform the community at large about the policy issues affecting children and their families. according to royea and appl (2009) advocating is “an essential responsibility” of professionals working with young children and families, stating, “taking action as an individual person or as part of a group can have monumental effects in the lives of children, families, and the professionals serving them” (p. 90). this essay explores the long-term impact of the school closure experience with a focus on the political and structural processes as they relate to social and psychological issues. i begin with a description of my own research that examined school closure as described by adults who experienced the closing of their high school in the early 1990’s. through this retrospective phenomenological study, participants identified issues around student voice and student agency as important factors needing attention in the school closure process. findings suggest that there is a need to treat those going through the school closure process with human dignity (toneff-cotner, 2015). in the in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 55-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 57 discussion section of this essay, i summarize the potential harm to students experiencing school closure in the absence of human dignity and i contextualize these findings within the framework of peace education pedagogy. objectives or purposes in may 2015, i completed my dissertation on the topic of “school closure.” the purpose of this research was to understand the long-term impact of school closure among those who experienced the process of school closure two decades ago as an important and understudied phenomenon. in particular, the study explored the social and psychological dimensions of school closure such as identity, social capital, relational trust, community connectedness and engagement, school and community pride, tradition, and the sense of belonging. the study investigated the experiences of students who lived through a school closure in one northwest ohio urban community, who transitioned to a neighboring school, and who are now grown adults. of specific interest was how the participants make meaning of the experience of school closure, given time and distance from the event and now speaking in the voice of mature adults with substantial life experience. the principal research question for this study was: how do adults, who as teenagers attended a school that closed during their high school career, describe the impact of school closure on their lives? methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry empirical phenomenology was chosen as the most suitable methodology for this research because it involves “a return to experience in order to obtain comprehensive descriptions that provide the basis for a reflective structural analysis that portrays the essences of the experience” (moustakas, 1994. p. 13). the study used purposive sampling and included five participants. participants were students in grades nine through eleven at jefferson (pseudonym) high school during the 1990-1991 school year. they experienced the process of the closing of jefferson high school in 1991, followed by assignment to a receiving area high school. data sources, evidence, objects or materials the closing of jefferson high school in 1991 was documented through an archival review of newspaper articles, the school yearbook from 1990-1991, and a videotape of the final days of jefferson high school. semi-structured interviews provided multiple opportunities for participants to explore and describe their experiences (creswell, 2007). the data analysis methods for this study included bracketing, intuiting, and describing (moustaka, 1994). analysis was guided by theories identified within a review of the literature. in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 55-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 58 results and/or substantiated conclusions there are two key areas in which this study contributes important information. first, the study reveals the impact of school closure at the individual level emphasizing the importance of relational factors, not easily captured in quantitative studies. these “intangible” relational factors contributed to the participants’ long-term view of themselves and their school experience. second, the study reveals the impact of school closure at a broader level, where individuals interact with public institutions. these broader contextual issues are explored in terms of political and structural processes related to school closure. grief, loss and identity. “it was very hateful and hurtful and i will never forget it.” (participant, january, 2013) the experience of school closure, displacement, and transition results in many of the same psychological reactions and processes as those that surface when people grieve the loss of a loved one. the fear of losing jefferson high school surfaced after the school levy failed in november of 1990. emotions associated with grief surfaced as early as the fall and increased as the participants described how they tried to save jefferson from closure, followed by the announcement and finally, the process of letting go of jefferson and moving on. as the participants moved through the grieving process, they experienced a lack of control or voice, often expressing how things were happening to them in which they had no input. communities were fighting for the survival of their neighborhood high school, creating an emotionally charged environment that became a part of the school culture at jefferson as early as december of 1990. the threat to close jefferson combined with activism within the larger community created an “us versus them” feeling between neighborhoods. the greatest task for the displaced students was forming relationships in order to reestablish a degree of social capital and ultimately students had to redefine themselves within a new or revised identity (marcouyeux & fleury-bahi, 2011; spencer, 2005). the issue of relationships also surfaced as students reflected on their transition year and grieved for the loss of relationships with friends who were not assigned to the same high school, feeling torn apart by the process (kirshner, gaertner, & pozzoboni, 2010). sense of belonging and connectivity. “…there was always this feeling that something was taken away…” (participant, january, 2013) in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 55-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 59 in addition to “grief and loss,” a large percentage of the dialogue that occurred regarding school closure and transition centered around the theme, “sense of belonging.” in order for participants to feel that they belonged, they needed to have established relationships within their social system, whether it was at jefferson or later at their receiving school. when asked what helped them navigate through the transitional year, each participant responded that it helped them to have some familiar teachers who followed them to the receiving school from jefferson high school. one participant, who was a senior during the transitional year, discussed in great length her disappointment with the guidance counseling experience at her receiving school. while attending lincoln high school (pseudonym) her senior year, this participant did not feel she had the relationship necessary to work with a counselor on personal matters such as career planning and/or the college application process. when referencing the guidance staff at her receiving school, lincoln high school, she stated, “and you didn’t really not necessarily trust them, but you didn’t know them” (participant, november, 2012). in contrast, a participant who attended washington high school (pseudonym) reported how “lucky” she felt because one of the jefferson administrators followed her to her receiving high school. she later compared this familiar jefferson high school administrator to the “north star” in reference to how he guided his displaced jefferson students through their transitional year (participant, january, 2013). mistrust in the process. “we were asked absolutely nothing. we had no control.” (participant, november, 2012) two decades of time and distance from the event have not completely healed wounds that occurred as a result of the school closing. most participants demonstrated a cognitive understanding of why jefferson high school closed, but emotionally and psychologically are still left questioning the decision (kirshner et al., 2010). in this study, only one participant remembered her experience of school closure and transition as a positive experience. this same participant provided narratives that suggest that she has pride and trust in her community and within the public school institution. the participants who associated negative memories with the school closure experience appear to have developed a suspicious view of the democratic process. research associated with disaster capitalism has found that when decisions are made under duress, it undermines the collaborative process (klein, in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 55-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 60 2007; saltman, 2008). the rapid speed in which the decision was made to close jefferson high school left stakeholders feeling devalued, believing that the administration had made its mind up to close the school well before the initial announcement that jefferson high school was being considered for closure (galletta & ayala, 2008; gustafson, 2009; kirshner et al., 2010). there is evidence in the narratives that participants have been left with a mistrust of those in decision-making positions when it comes to public policy (fullilove, 2004). student agency/advocacy. “…let me control what i can kind of control.” (participant, december, 2012) intertwined in dialogue pertaining to the experience was a sense of lack of control and power by participants as decisions occurred from the top down and forced upon the stakeholders (fullilove, 2004; galletta & ayala, 2008). one participant reported that she believes the lack of control she experienced as a result of school closure has impacted her as an adult as evidenced by her inability to become rooted in any one community and her distrust of elected officials to make decisions in good faith (fullilove, 2004). the participants who enrolled at washington high school, a receiving school made up of a majority of white students, reported that racial issues surfaced the first year. according to the participants, washington high school was being integrated for the first time through the enrollment of displaced black students from jefferson. racial graffiti surfaced on the outside of the school building, leading to disciplinary action against white students. this caused further dissention within the washington community in regard to the newly enrolled jefferson high school students. one participant in the study provided an example in which he and other students used agency to effect change. he reported that the principal of washington high school refused to allow an “afroclub” to form, even though it had existed at jefferson high school. this participant remembered that the principal believed such a club would be exclusive and promote prejudice and discrimination. in protest, several boys attended meetings of an all-girl’s club that existed for the purpose of community social service projects. discussion examining school closure in the context of peace education. “why does everyone have to have a piece of the pie? why can’t we all come together and go to one school and one church?” (participant, august, 2013) in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 55-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 61 under the current school reform model, a school identified as “lowperforming” can be closed and the displaced students forced to enroll in other area schools in the district. ideally, the schools receiving the displaced students would be higher-performing than the school that was closed; however there are mixed reviews in terms of whether students from closed buildings are being strategically placed in significantly higher performing schools, as well as a vague definition of what constitutes “significantly higher performing” (de la torre & gwynne, 2009). peter senge (2007), who specializes in systems theory, believes that adequate time and distance is needed after the initial implementation of a policy in order to understand its long-term impact. peace educator, tony jenkins (2013), addresses the importance of systemic thinking when he uses the term, “wholeness” as the recognition of the interdependent parts of the system, stating, “when parts of a system are out of harmony, the system begins to break down” (2013, p.179). the idea of “wholeness” is interesting to consider within the context of market-driven educational reform, specific to the reliance on competition, which could not have a stronger inference than within the most recent reform initiative, race to the top (rttt). according to jenkins (2013), wholeness is the preferred state as opposed to conflict resolution and that conflict “may produce winners and losers and exacerbate ongoing tensions in relationships between individuals, groups and the community as a whole” (p.180). there is evidence that the closing of schools does exactly that, it produces winners and losers, breaking down existing relationships between individuals, groups and within the community. while resolving a conflict or solving a problem may partially satisfy stakeholders, it fails to address the needs of each individual. in this case, disagreements may be addressed at the surface level, but never at the root of the problem (fullilove, 2003; jenkins, 2013). the retrospective study of school closure discussed earlier provided evidence that participants were not made whole after jefferson closed, resulting in various levels of disengagement while at their receiving school. approaching school closure as if it is a problem in urgent need of resolution will never result in a transformative process; thus, leaving stakeholders feeling disenfranchised. what is required is a systemic view of all the parts, both at the macro and micro levels, together with community engagement. a predominant theme associated with rttt is the idea that lowperforming schools must be transformed. transformation is the process of making meaning of new information and is only complete in the presence of empathy and understanding (jenkins, 2013). there is a discourse between the desire for a “humane society” in which school-age children’s social, emotional and psychological needs are recognized and prioritized versus the mandated implementation of market-driven policies that almost always result in unintended outcomes that often go unnoticed in an era of high-stakes accountability in which in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 55-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 62 standards and testing have become the focus of attention. an example would be the disparity between wealthy districts and those that serve poor communities in terms of the number of children experiencing the effect of current school reform policies. the lowest-performing schools tend to be found in the poorest areas, often urban and rural communities that serve the most marginalized populations (rothstein, 2004). thus, closing schools under the guise of academic failure has the potential to impact poor urban and rural communities at an accelerated rate when compared to the general population. reardon (2009) stated, “we live in a world of disparities where few enjoy advantages, a world of peacelessness” and that “peace can only be obtained under the existence of the fundamental precondition of mutually advantageous circumstances” (p.398). peace educators believe that violence in society should be recognized so that non-violent methods can be used in order to acquire a level of connectivity that transforms conflict, replacing violence with harmony (standish, 2015). according to jenkins (2013), the transformative process cannot be driven by external forces, stating, “to transform something is to change its very nature or essence” (p.178). it occurs through the acquisition of knowledge and lived experiences associated with human psychology, sociology, culture and history. the process invites inquiry and reflection as well as an ongoing process for social, cultural and institutional analysis. conflict and differences will exist within and between relationships; however, if such relationships protect the dignity of others, skills can be developed so that there is the capacity to manage and transform. school closure is driven by external political and economic structures that fall well outside of human psychology, sociology, culture and history. the urgency in which the decision occurs to close schools, followed by the immediacy of the transition process as displaced students are reassigned to their new receiving school does not allow for a prioritization of the dignity of those going through the process, nor does it value or protect existing relationships. in fact, within the rttt policy, it is implied that the existing relationships within the low-performing schools contribute to the poor academic outcomes, requiring radical reform measures even if it means shuttering the school doors. conclusion the findings of the retrospective study of school closure lead one to the conclusion that left unchanged current school closure policies and practices offer inadequate support to those marginalized students who often comprise the majority of students impacted by school closure (galletta & ayala, 2008; goldin & katz, 2008; kirshner et al., 2010; ravitch, 2010; rebell & wolff, 2008; rothstein, 2004; steinberg, allensworth, & johnson, 2011). unfortunately, rarely when one of these school closures occur do the resulting school closure actions address the importance of human dignity or student voice in the decision making in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 55-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 63 process (galletta & ayala, 2008; gustafson, 2009; kirshner et al., 2010). a devaluing of this human element, or intangibles, within an organization leads to a failing system (jenkins, 2013; senge, 2007). when schools are closed, the transition experience can only be viewed favorably if students are actually assigned to a school that is significantly of higher quality than the school they left (de la torre & gwynne, 2009; galletta & ayala, 2008; kirshner et al., 2010). what constitutes “higher quality” depends on the perception of the individual student; in some cases, it may refer to the academic programming, but in most cases, it is likely to be associated with the social-emotional environment they find themselves in when the dust settles (toneff-cotner, 2015). it is hard to measure the social loss or the psychological hardship these students experience by being forced from their school. when making reform decisions, policymakers need to understand that they must consider every child within the system, which requires not just looking at one particular group of students and how they might benefit, but looking at the academic performance or potential performance among all students from all social classes who will be impacted by the closing. it is for this reason that it is imperative to contextualize the process of school closure within multiple theoretical frameworks, for example peace education theory, rather than relying solely on the market-driven theory most closely associated with the current educational reform movement. only when we do this will we come to understand that there is a more sustainable approach to transforming the educational system, while at the same time preserving human dignity. in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 55-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 64 references creswell, j.w. 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(2008). schooling in disaster capitalism: how the political right is using disaster to privatize public schooling. in d. boyles (ed.), the corporate assault on youth: commercialism, exploitation, and the end of innocence (pp. 187-217). new york, ny: peter lang publishing, inc. senge, p. (2007). the fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. new york, ny: doubleday/currency publishers. spencer, c. (2005). place attachment, place identity and the development of the child’s self identity: searching the literature to develop an hypothesis. international research in geographical and environmental education, 14(4), 305-309. standish, k. (2015). the critical difference of peace education. in factis pax, 9(1), 27-38. steinberg, m.p., allensworth, e., & johnson, d.w. (2011). student and teacher safety in chicago public schools: the roles of community context and school social organization. consortium on chicago school research at the university of chicago, 1-60. retrieved from http://ccsr.uchicago.edu/content/publications.php?pub_id=151. toneff-cotner, g. (2015). transformation or tragedy? a retrospective phenomenological study of school closure (doctoral dissertation, cleveland state university, 2015). proquest dissertations publishing. tyack, d. (1974). the one best system: a history of american urban education. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. u.s. department of education (2009). race to the top executive summary. retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html marloes youth as actors in peace and human rights education_infactispax volume 5 number 3 (2011): 258-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 258 volume 5 number 3 (2011): 258-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ youth as actors in peace and human rights education marloes van houten1 course director for the utrecht university summerschool ‘peace and human rights education’ former program coordinator and management team member of united network of young (unoy) peacebuilders and vera santner2, former asia desk and project officer of united network of young (unoy) peacebuilders, participant in the summer school course ‘peace and human rights education 2010’ tomorrow's leaders are today's youth. their education and participation is key to the world's future, yet they have not been accorded the attention that is required. -federico mayor, president fundación cultura de paz (mid-term youth report 2006) 1 marloes van houten (1982), msc. hon., email: marloesvanhouten@utrechtsummerschool.nl, mrls.vanhouten@gmail.com, 2 vera santner (1984), mag. , email: santner.vera@gmx.at volume 5 number 3 (2011): 258-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 259 introduction speaking of violence, youth are often perceived as perpetrators of violence3 and are therefore seen as the perfect target group for peace and human rights education projects. however, more recently, voices from the field and from academia, highlight that “peace and conflict research has insufficiently considered youth as relevant actors in [development and] peacebuilding processes” (del felice & wissler 2007: 4; fischer 2004). therefore, as is stated in the european charter on the participation of young people in local and regional life, youth should be given “the rights, the means, the space, the opportunities for participation in decision-making and for influencing decision-making processes, […] and active involvement in activities that contribute to the positive forming of society”. in line with this, the youth mid-term report on the un decade for a culture of peace and non-violence for the children of the world from 2006 voices the wish of youth to be more involved in decision-making processes. besides youth being relevant actors for peacebuilding processes, some argue the futureoriented nature and activism of pro-peace youth makes it unlikely to negotiate with them, and makes them in some cases reckless and easy recruits for political activism (cairncross 1994; mcevoy-levy 2001). that is why it is necessary to go beyond creating opportunities for youth to be actively involved in pro-peace action. as happens when different people/organizations become partners in pro-peace decision making processes and actions, they give feedback on each other and are shaped by each others knowledge, insight and experience. in the same way, youth as serious partners in decision making processes concerning pro-peace policies, projects and research, can learn from the other actors involved and their feedback given as a reaction on the ideas and action proposed by the youth partners. the united network of young (unoy) peacebuilders learned from working for more then 20 years with youth peace builders all around the world, that it would help if youth are encouraged by ‘adult’ actors (politicians, international non-governmental organisations, the media, etc) to continue to focus their potential (characteristics, abilities, skills) on the peace agenda. to give the first remark about youth as overlooked peace potentials some more flesh to its bones, let us exemplify that young people are the prospective leaders, facilitators and stakeholders and the involvement of young people in “peace processes/peacebuilding and the shaping of their political attitudes and skills […] will have important long-term implications” (mcevoy-levy 2001: 5). youth may in the end for a great part determine the future of a country, neighbourhood, or family. moreover, del felice and wissler (2007) emphasize that youth possess certain characteristics and skills which give them a unique power and potential to urge positive social change. in sum, youth “are future-oriented”, “flexible”, “innovative/creative in their use of communication means”, and they are “knowledgeable about their peers' realities” (ibid). in november 1998, the united nations (un) proclaimed the period 2001-2010 as the international decade for a culture of peace and non-violence for the children of the world (a/53/l.79). eight characteristics were identified to operationalize the concept: i.e. to foster a culture of peace through education; promote sustainable economic and social development; promote 3 brett & mccallin, 1996; cohn & goodwin-gill, 1994; klare, 1999; machel, 1996; wessells, 1998; identify an increase in the number of children and youth participating in armed conflict. cook and laub (1998) speak of an explosion or epidemic of youth violence, based on the fact that “from 1983 to 1994 the united states experienced a tripling of homicide victimization rates for black males between the ages of thirteen and seventeen, an approximately 70 percent increase in youth arrest rates for violent offences, and a nearly 300 percent growth in youth homicide arrest rates (snyder and sickmund 1999). volume 5 number 3 (2011): 258-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 260 respect for all human rights; ensure equality between women and men; foster democratic participation; advance understanding, tolerance and solidarity; support participatory communication and the free flow of information and knowledge; promote international peace and security (adams 2002). the mid-term youth report (2006) and the final civil society report (2010) on the un international decade for a culture of peace and non-violence for the children of the world show that youth have been important players who applied their knowledge, skills and abilities to work towards a realisation of the culture of peace. when looking at the first characteristic of the culture of peace; to ‘foster a culture of peace through education’, it is remarkable that peace and human rights education programs have mainly been developed for children and youth, and not together with or by them. the mid-term youth report, which is based on a survey among 475 youth organisations from 125 countries, for example indicates that youth are not given much decisionmaking power and that their efforts to promote a culture of peace are often not recognised and taken seriously. the programme executive of the world council of churches world youth programme, to take out one of many examples, argues: “we need to pick up on and recognise what youth are already doing, to give them acknowledgement and encouragement. too often the work of young people is not taken seriously.”(mid-term youth report 2006: 32) with regard to the youth's wish to be more involved in decision making processes on the local, national and global level, especially when decisions affect their lives directly, the participating african organisations for instance suggest the creation of a “national commission with youth representations to coordinate and support peace initiatives and a youth platform to respond to issues like poverty reduction strategies designed for youth by policy makers” (ibid: 42). from the authors experience working together with young peace workers from all around the world, this also applies to the involvement of youth in developing peace and human rights education curricula. in the paragraphs to follow, a case study will be presented in which the characteristics, knowledge and skills of youth contributed to the development of a peace and human rights education curricula. even more specifically it promoted the creation of an open and inviting learning atmosphere and the adoption of more interactive educational methods. the development of the summer school program the project of the utrecht summer school course on peace and human rights education was mainly inspired by two initiatives. the already above mentioned un decade for a culture of peace and non-violence for the children of the world (2001-2010) and the eured project for european peace and human rights education, an initiative by a network of scholars and teachers promoting peace education in every school. the declaration by the united nations general assembly of the international decade for a culture of peace and non-violence for the children of the world (resolution a/res/53/25) inspired several traditional and new peace groups in the netherlands to cooperate as a platform to promote its acceptance and elaboration within the country. within this platform for a culture of peace, a group was started that focussed primarily on peace education. some dutch peace educators were part of the second incentive, the education for europe as peace education (eured) project. with the support of the european unesco committees, this initiative from european educators intended to promote peace education in european schools by schooling teachers in peace education issues and strategies. implementing this initiative in the netherlands turned out to be difficult. teachers were not able to get funds for eured courses, teacher volume 5 number 3 (2011): 258-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 261 education institutes showed hardly any interest and did not see peace education as a priority, and school counselling had their own priorities. looking for other possibilities, the dutch peace educators of the platform for a culture of peace started to cooperate with the university of utrecht. shortly after, the idea was born to start with an international summer school on peace and human rights education. after initial difficulties to begin – the first time the course was offered it did not attract enough participants – the course began in 2006 with 12 participants and the following years had a continuous number of about 20 to 30 participants from all over the world. over the years, the participants' feedback and the facilitators' experiences were used to continuously develop the course program. all six years of summer school were located in utrecht, the netherlands. in this period a total of 130 young professionals and students from over 45 different countries were introduced to concepts, skills and values of peace and human rights education. the participants consisted of international students from a broad variety of disciplines (e.g. law, social sciences, economics, natural sciences, chemistry, and arts), as well as (future) educators and young professionals from various working backgrounds such as lawyers, artists, ngo workers, an army officer, people working in public health institutions, people in public administration and government posts. the overall aim was to increase the capacity of the individual participants, as well as create networks of co-operation among participants, trainers and the organisational team. one of the specific objectives was to build knowledge, motivate and train young people to become non-violent agents of social change and thus active ‘global citizens’. special focus was placed on how to use peace and human rights education as a tool for transforming violent elements of societies to create a culture of peace. before we focus our attention on the involvement of the youth, and in particular that of unoy peacebuilders, in the summer school project, we will elaborate in the next section the educational approach of the summer school for peace and human rights education. the summer school courses' educational approach the summer school course builds on the ideas of education for peace and human rights, as formulated by the un decade for a culture of peace and non-violence for the children of the world (2001-2010) as well as by the eured project. according to these approaches, learning peace is a very complex process. it includes all levels of the human condition; it expands the levels of macro (politics/society), meso (institutions/organisations) and micro life (personal violence/inner peace) (ceo 2010). hereby, the utrecht summer school challenges the common western idea of learning as a pure rational cognitive strategy, which does little to support young people in their social learning and the development of their personality; to grow in wisdom and experience in their interaction with “essential human phenomena of the affective domain, like friendship, love, hate, involvement in human values, creativity, intuition, etc.” (vriens 2004: 27 30). in such an approach education for peace and human rights is not understood as a guarantee for peace and a just world. but peace education can offer young people, and to a certain extent, their educators: a concern for the world; an ability to judge political and social situations and understand where their choices can make a difference; as well as competencies to contribute to peace in their own environment (navarro-castro & nario-galace 2008: 21, 22). human rights education similarly aims primarily at equipping learners with knowledge, skills and understanding – towards tolerance and to value diversity – so that they can defend their own human rights as well as those of others. in sum, peace and human rights education has the potential to challenge and change people's volume 5 number 3 (2011): 258-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 262 perspectives of the world. it can prepare people to take responsibility for the future of the world and in their personal life and surroundings. to do so, peace education aims at empowering and promoting self-respect of both the educator and the learner as a step forward to further a culture of peace and non-violence. in this way peace education is firstly oriented to peace as a positive quality of the human condition, and only secondly, as education against war and violence. the concept of education entails two dimensions that are interlinked but also have their own demands: teaching and learning. teaching peace and human rights. teaching peace and human rights is not only a matter of the content taught, but also of how and where this happens. all three dimensions, content, form, and context convey an explicit and an implicit message which should not contradict each other. therefore attention should be paid to the environment in which peace and human rights takes place. and with regard to the educational process: a careful selection of strategies and an awareness of their underlying values and norms is necessary. as for the contextual factors in which an educational project takes place that are of great importance to its successfulness, one can think of: how the teaching and learning happens; and what can be done to create a peaceful contextual situation, e.g. by stimulating a safe, inviting, and positive learning environment and by preventing a hierarchical class room setting and the use of violent language (vriens, 2003: 79 ; coe 2010: 20). learning peace and human rights. as peace and human rights education is also about moral learning and the development of values, learning peace asks for a broad concept of learning that includes affective and social dimensions of learning to the same extent as cognitive strategies. applied to the summer school's curriculum, the focus was not only on knowledge, but also on values, skills and action. hence, knowledge about peace and human rights issues formed just one part of the program. here, the program also dealt with the basic values of human rights and justice, social competences and tried to offer its participants opportunities for transformation. personal experience was put at the centre and students (and teachers) were challenged to develop their own values, norms, and skills. during the two weeks of summer school, the organisers strove to create an atmosphere of openness, trust, shared responsibility and co-operation; the students were invited to learn with their brains, their heart, and – as far as possible for each person – with their whole body and soul. for example, the course opened with an informal dinner and some interactive games and stories to introduce the students to each other, to the organisational committee and to the topic of the summer school. each morning started with an exercise to summarise the experiences of the day before and a short reflective introduction of the topic(s) of the day. the educational philosophy of the summer school course recognised: the specific knowledge of each participant; the importance of group dynamics to the learning process; each person’s uniqueness; and the different cultural backgrounds. from the beginning, the students were thus invited to share their work, life and study experiences. since every person is different and has her/his own cultural background, the students were stimulated to build up their own frame of mind regarding education for peace, social justice and human rights, and to integrate this into their own situation. methods. there was a mixture of methods employed combining methodologies developed by youth work, peace education, community development and inter-cultural learning to facilitate cognitive, affective and action learning. participatory youth work is one of the areas where we included educational methods and techniques form. participatory youth is carried out in partnership with young people: the participants were seen as full and equal partners in determining their own volume 5 number 3 (2011): 258-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 263 development and progress towards achieving their own aspirations. the methods and techniques used aimed at establishing an interactive learning environment for all parties involved. a participatory and inclusive way of teaching ensures that the participants can contribute actively to the process and learn about different methods of education by experiencing them themselves. we used movement based learning to led students ‘experience by doing’ what affirmative learning means. one of the movement based learning exercises which we used was the blind folding game where one student was leading another around who was blindfolded, without being allowed to talk. in this exercise students experienced to receive and give trust, to cooperate, to take responsibility for a collective learning experience. this reflected the ideas of the summer school that it is important to facilitate a collective process of learning instead of a unidirectional way of teaching – learning, in the sense of a ‘co-construction of knowledge’. however, due to the academic setting of the course, a compromise between traditional lectures and the above mentioned interactive methods needed to be reached. one way of doing so, was to invite trainers and experts who would facilitate parts of the program. to give an example, the day on prejudices and discrimination was facilitated by prof. ido abram an expert in holocaust education and director of the stichting leren (learning foundation) who works a lot with identity circles. he prepared the group for a visit to the anne frank house in amsterdam. with his guidance the participants were able to experience inter-cultural learning methods and to reflect upon how to prepare a group for a visit to a place like the anne frank house. the participants’ involvement. the open atmosphere and the non-hierarchical relations between the facilitators and the participants ensured that participants could easily ask questions and give comments about the content of the summer school, the educational methods used and on any other element. while the participants were free to do as such during the course, there were also moments where they were explicitly invited to reflect and evaluate. a mid-term evaluation was held in the middle of the course, using interactive methods, where students were asked how they had felt during the first week of the course and they were invited to evaluate the course based on several keywords like physical space, educational methods, group dynamics, lectures/organisers, etc. it was important to the facilitators to have a mid-term evaluation as to react to problems and to adjust the course as far as possible to the wishes of the participants during the second week. flexibility was a core value the organisational committee aimed at, while adapting the program, the educational approach, the class room setting to the suggestions of the participants. for the final evaluation at the end of the course, the open space technique was used. this technique creates a relaxed atmosphere where participants are invited to reflect on their individual learning experience according to their personal expectations and learning goals identified in the beginning of the course. we will now turn to the involvement of youth, and especially that of unoy peacebuilders, to elaborate on what the added value can be of integrating youth in the development and implementation of peace and human rights curricula and projects. youth as actors in peace and human rights education: the case of unoy and the international summer school in 2007, the participants’ evaluation of the program led to the conclusion that the program needed some younger faces to prevent it from the image ‘the older peaceniks with old stuff’. the united network of young peacebuilders, a global network of youth peace organisations, had already provided a guest lecturer to the program in 2007. as a youth organisation, unoy could volume 5 number 3 (2011): 258-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 264 give the program a younger face. and as a global network of practitioners in youth peace work, unoy added practitioners' knowledge to the content and methods of the summer school program. in 2008, unoy peacebuilders became a co-operating partner and it has since then played an active role in both the logistic organisation and the development and implementation of the content of the program. unoy’s involvement as a serious partner in the organisation committee provides us with the opportunity to see what the added value can be of including youth in the development and implementation of peace and human rights education curricula and projects. according to the senior members of the organisation committee: the integration of unoy into the organisational team was “an enrichment for the program in all its aspects: unoy peacebuilders brought in new themes, methods and a lot of young idealism”. the united network of young peacebuilders. as an ingo, unoy peacebuilders connects different young peace actors and organisations from all over the world with each other and builds up their capacities. it organises trainings, study sessions, job shadowing projects, and develops toolkits and manuals on all kind of topics that are related to the concept of ‘conflict transformation’. in its work, unoy peacebuilders uses training methodologies and techniques developed by youth work, peace education, community development, and intercultural learning. with this background, unoy was introducing new methods and techniques to the summer school program that made the approach more interactive, informal and inclusive. since unoy was used to organise practical trainings focused on learning skills, it took some time to find the best way to incorporate its knowledge and expertise and to work within the boundaries set by the academic setting in which the summer school took place. new methods and techniques. examples of new methods and techniques added to the program are: youthful introduction games; creative group team building exercises; group and individual reflection exercises using dialogue, body language and artefacts; experiential learning activities from the compass handbook on human rights education of the council of europe; discussion, dialogue and work group methods which unoy developed in the 20 years of working with youth. during the discussion, dialogue and group work methods participants were often asked to be facilitators; internet and drawing material was made available to the working groups; working group formats were tailor-made to the learning objectives and focused on inviting all participants to be actively involved. sometimes multimedia (e.g. a music video, documentary, etc.) was used to illustrate a case study or the introduction of a theoretical concept. a practitioner’s perspective. unoy peacebuilders, as an international ngo, provided a practitioner’s perspective on the topic of peace and human rights education and on working with a culture of peace. the global connections with its 49 member organisations and its 350 affiliated individuals and organisation, working on the same topic, made it possible to provide a lot of case study material to the summer school participants. insights were shared of the applicability of the newest peace and human rights educational methods and of tools that aimed to measure the progress made in working towards more peace worldwide (for example the global peace index). with every characteristic of the culture of peace and the culture of war, examples were given from situations and projects world wide unoy was somehow involved with. both the examples provided by unoy from youth active in peace building around the world and the active involvement of youth in the organisation and facilitation of the summer school provided the participants with concrete ideas how they could get active themselves. as was stated by youth organisations active in building peace from the americas in the survey done for the decade for a culture of peace and non-violence youth report from 2006: “seeing youth actively involved in projects is very inspirational and volume 5 number 3 (2011): 258-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 265 motivational for youth” (youth report 2006: 63). this citation shows how important role models for motivating youth. youth’s specific power. as outlined above, youth are “innovative/creative in their use of communication means”, and “knowledgeable about their peers' realities”. both these elements are interesting to exploit for those trying to tailor-make peace and human rights education to the language of today’s youth population and the societal challenges they are faced with. their innovative mindset and creativeness can contribute to the development of interactive educational methods. furthermore, considering youth as ‘flexible and future-oriented’, means that it is easier for youth to accept approaches that go beyond traditional rationalistic theories of current western learning psychology. this is definitely an asset of youth, since peace and also human rights education ask for a more complex theory of learning, which includes the cognitive, the affective and the action domain of human understanding, which each have their own rationality (vriens, 1987; 2005; coles, 1997). to take things a step further, the flexibility and future-orientationedness of youth can help reform prevailing education philosophy and methods that generate a hierarchical learning atmosphere. the flexibility and creativity of young people can be an incentive to create an atmosphere where learning about peace (cognitive, affective, and action oriented) becomes a collective responsibility of all; teachers and students alike. as mentioned initially, the future-oriented nature and activism of youth makes them not only potential actors for positive change, it also makes them in some cases easy recruits for destructive forces in society. as de felice and wissler (2007) put it: “[y]outh need to be supported as builders of peace and democracy. their potential and power needs to be developed in order to sustain a process of change.” this is not an easy task. involving youth actively in the development and implementation of peace and human rights education curricula and projects might be one way of doing so, as it trains their skills necessary to build up a positive future. youth can highly profit from such an experience. besides a skill training opportunity including youth as actors in peace and human rights education also shows youth they are taken seriously and attention is paid to their interests and qualities, which highly motivates them. for the mid-term youth report on the un decade for a culture of peace and non-violence youth organisations were also asked about ways of reaching and motivating youth. one argument that was given by youth from many different parts of the world is the following “what highly motivates youth is the recognition of their capacities to organise, of their constructive power and their ability to offer social solutions”. conclusion youth is a heterogeneous group with multiple needs, (political) ideas and capacities which are important for the successfulness of pro-peace and development processes.3 research and practice shows that youth are often the primary producers of violence in the period after the signing of the peace accords, because: 1) youth victims of violence have learned using violence is a way to approach conflicts. 2) there is a lack of alternatives for former combatants. 3) political exclusion and marginalisation of youth during and after peace and development processes leads to frustration among youth. 4) of the thin lines between politically active youth and youth criminality (mcevoylevy 2001:10-14). these four arguments indicate the need to value youth for their positive potential and to give them opportunities to be involved in pro-peace decision-making and development processes. which means, to recognise youth as agents of positive change and to invest in developing their power and potential to work for a peaceful and just society. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 258-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 266 to offer youth the possibilities to be included in projects that work towards a culture of peace and non-violence, such as peace and human rights education, may contribute to the quality of these projects because of the following skills and characteristics of youth: innovativeness, flexibility, the abilities to use creative means of communication, and the knowledge they have of their peers’ reality. with the successful inclusion of a youth organisation, the summer school course 'education for peace and human rights' shows that youth can be an important partner, particularly, but not only in peer-to-peer education. the above outlined skills and characteristics of youth can be resourceful when aiming to: develop a non-hierarchical learning atmosphere; connect the content of educational projects to the language of young people; invent and implement new and inspiring education methods and techniques. the summer school course brought together institutions from different levels of society (such as an academic institution -the university of utrecht-, peace educators from the dutch platform for peace culture and unoy peacebuilders) drawing on their specific capacities. what makes this partnership exceptional is the inclusion of a youth organisation (unoy peacebuilders) as a serious partner, this, while youth are often perceived solely as beneficiaries or ‘students’ of peace and human rights education projects. the involvement of unoy peacebuilders in the international summer school ‘education for peace and human rights’ bestows that youth can be co-creators of knowledge and be even more effective in reaching their peers than ‘adult actors’. moreover, as a culture of peace also entails a good and respectful being and working together of all generations, the inter-generational summer school team shows how existing boundaries between different generations can be overcome. references adams, d., 2002. moving 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"environmental pragmatism." foreign policy 95: 35-52. cohn, ilene and guy goodwin-gill, 1994. child soldiers. the role of children in armed conflicts. new york: clarendon/oxford up/henry dunant institute coles r., 1997. the moral intelligence of children. random house, new york. cook, p.j., and j.h. laub, 1998. “the unprecedented epidemic in youth violence.” in m. tonry and m.h. moore (eds.), youth violence. crime and justice: a review of research, 27 64. chicago: university of chicago press. council of europe (2010), global education guidelines. concepts and methodologies on global education for educators and policy makers, north-south centre of the council of europe, lisbon 2008, updated version 2010, pp.1-87. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 258-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 267 council of europe (2002), compass a manual on human rights education with young people. strasbourg 2002. del felice, celina, and andria wissler, 2007. “the unexplored power and potential of youth as peace-builders”, in: journal of peace conflict & development, 11 (11), november 2007 final civil society report on the un international decade for a culture of peace and nonviolence for the children of the world (2001-2010). 2010. fischer, m., 2004. youth development as a potential and challenge for the peace process in bosnia and herzegovina, berghof working papers, appeared in german in berliner osteuropa info 21/ november 2004, p.31-37. klare, michael, 1999. ”the kalashnikov age”, in: bulletin of atomic scientists 55(1): 18-22. mcevoy-levy, s., 2001. youth as social and political agents: issues in post-settlement peace building, kroc institute, occasional paper #21, december 2001. revised european charter on the participation of young people in local and regional life, may 2003 (http://www.salto-youth.net/downloads/4-171510/revised%20european%20charter%20on%20the%20participation%20of%20yp.pdf) snyder, h.n., and sickmund, m., 1999. juvenile offenders and victims. national report. ncj 178257. washington, d.c.: u.s. department of justice, office of justice programs, office of juvenile justice and delinquency prevention. united nations, the machel original study, 1996. the impact of armed conflict on children, (http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n96/ 219/55/pdf/ n9621955.pdf?openelement) vriens, lennart, 2005. the affective nature of learning and the problem of violence. in: karppinen, s., katz, y, & neill, s. (eds.). theory and practice in affective education; essays in honour of arja puurula. helsinki: university of helsinki. research report 258. vriens, lennart, 2004. peace education: cooperative building of a human future. in: pastoral care in education. 15 (4), p. 25-30. vriens, lennart, 1988. pedagogiek tussen vrees en vrede. een pedagogische theorie over vredesopvoeding. (pedagogy: between fear and peace. a pedagogic theory on peace education.) antwerp/utrecht: international peace information service (diss., utrecht university 1987) wessells, michael, g., 1998. 'children, armed conflict and peace', journal of peace research 35(5):635-646 youth report on the un international decade for a culture of peace and nonviolence for the children of the world (2001-2010). 2006. youth for alliances of civilizations: promoting dialogue, building a culture of peace. september 2006. (http://decade-culture-of-peace.org/) templin and sun   volume 5 number 3 (2011): 353-361 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   353   volume 5 number 3 (2011): 353-361 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ a cultural approach to peace education carl templin the university of toledo carl.templin@bex.net and jing sun the university of toledo euphrosyne.sun@gmail.com introduction as we endeavor to develop as completely and comprehensively as possible the relatively new field of peace education it is important that we, as teachers, prepare ourselves to facilitate learning within and related to a diverse multiplicity of people. central to our ability to be effective facilitators is a capacity to make intellectually attainable ideas that originate in cultural context with which students are unfamiliar. equally important is the attainment of a proper command of strategies that may be used to relate this and other information to the culture or cultures of which students are a part. offering the opportunity for students to gain a broader cultural awareness and validating the cultural background from which students come has been one of the many foci of our work and our research at the community center where we conducted the activities to be described. the result of this work and research can go a long way towards an answer to the question – why is culture an important facet of peace and peace education, and what role does it play? an answer to this question will provide future peace educators with a   volume 5 number 3 (2011): 353-361 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   354   well-developed theoretical basis for their lessons, practical methods for teaching peace in a way that students can understand, and a deeper appreciation for the approaches that many different cultures take to solve problems in just and equitable ways. the field of peace education has only just begun to have a well-developed presence in the 20th and 21st centuries. as a direct result of the horrors of world war ii including nazi concentration camps, the abuse of prisoners of war in japanese territory, and the invention of the atomic bomb, the united nations felt it necessary to attempt to ensure peace by officially declaring the absolute rights of every human being on earth. “one of the first major achievements of the newly formed united nations was the universal declaration of human rights (udhr) adopted by the united nations general assembly on 10 december 1948”1. this event led to the development of peace education as both a field of study and as an important facet of school curriculum. over the years peace education has been modified and expanded to respond to concerns such as the cold war, gang violence, and terrorism but even so it is safe to say that peace receives far less attention than other subjects within education. whether on an international or domestic scale, it is important to continue to create new responses to the ever evolving nature of conflict. we (the authors) have been engaged in the project of teaching students from a lowincome predominantly african-american neighborhood the importance and benefits of peaceful action. in doing so we have used a vast number of different methods to allow students to connect with new and culturally different concepts and even invented a few of our own. our goal in this course of action is and has been to offer students a chance both to broaden their understanding of the world in which they live and which we must share, and to use these new understandings to solve the problems with which they are confronted in their own culture and society. bateson once said, “children develop through concentric worlds, gradually able to move further from home but always seeing each larger sphere through the lens of the previous stage”2. in other words, the new ideas children encounter will always be seen from the perspective of the culture from which they came. therefore, it is of vital importance that students both have access to information from multiple cultural traditions and know that their own culture or cultures are valued in an interactive space. in this essay we will explain the theoretical background that has guided us throughout our work on this project and share the methods and results of our original research with the scholarly community. we do these things in the hope that the ideas presented here may be specified or generalized to respond to unique situations at all levels of cultural interaction as they occur. literature review right relationship with other cultures                                                                                                                 1  united nations. abc: teaching human rights: practical activities for primary and secondary schools. (new york: author, 2003). 3.   2 bateson, c. m.. peripheral visions: learning along the way. (new york, ny: harper, 1994). 170.   volume 5 number 3 (2011): 353-361 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   355   one of the important documents is the earth charter, which was created by the independent earth charter commission and was convened as a follow-up to the 1992 earth summit in order to produce a global consensus statement of values and principles for a sustainable future. the mission of the earth charter initiative is to promote the transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework that includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. it respects a diversity of opinions in that it is generated from cross-cultural deliberations and agreed upon by citizens from around the globe. it has been formally endorsed by thousands of organizations, including unesco and the iucn (world conservation union). the educational purposes underlie itself as a cosmopolitan ethical framework for the pedagogy of peace. the purposes include the following: “awareness of basic values, cultivation of the moral attitudes of respect and care, understanding and application of the moral principles, and the development of the moral capacities necessary for right relationship with self, other persons, other cultures, other life and the earth”3. the attitudes of respect and care applied to the relationship with other cultures are shaped by the recognition of human dignity inherent in collectivities of people. thus, the basic moral attitude on this level is respect and care for peoples. furthermore, as it is required in the charter, “our cultural diversity is a precious heritage and different cultures will find their own distinctive ways to realize the vision”4. to realize these aspirations, we future educators be universally responsible for the communities in which we live. given this framework, our research pays close attention to the values that each culture brings to the table and attempts to identify effective ways to teach aspects of each cultural code to members of other cultures. inseparable from this process is identification of the ways in which the customs and conventions of one culture are best learned by members of other cultures. orienting our research toward these goals has provided us with much insight into the views of the cultures from which our students come as well as a frame of reference from which to more closely examine our own cultures. thus, the methodology of our research incorporates cultural ideas that are unfamiliar to our students while at the same time utilizing different strategies for making the information interesting and relevant to our students. possible solutions of cultural conflicts nowadays, with globalization and immigration becoming growing trends, children are living and growing up in more diverse communities. it is our responsibility to teach them how to manage conflict nonviolently and to understand and value the pluralistic society they are living in. one of the most feasible solutions of cultural conflicts is to promote a sense of cultural diversity and tolerance, leading to a win-win situation in which the solution will meet the                                                                                                                 3  snauwert, d. t. “the cosmopolitan ethics of the earth charter: a framework for a pedagogy of peace.” in factispax, 2 (1), (2008): 97   4  the earth charter. (2000) http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/.     volume 5 number 3 (2011): 353-361 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   356   interests of everyone. “it’s not necessarily our first choice, but it’s one we can all live with. it makes us feel like all parties are winners”5. to achieve the goal of win-win situation, students need to know how to negotiate with each other. one of the effective methods to solve conflicts is to teach them the core skills. those skills include defining the conflict and then identifying approaches, such as, avoiding, diffusing, and confronting violently or nonviolently to solve conflicts. as communication is an essential part of conflict resolution, active listening requires that people have their hearts fully present and engage themselves in others’ feelings. after that, people can express their feelings through peaceful means such as i-messages or the “i care rules”. students should be encouraged to explain their positions clearly so as to gain a better understanding of the problem and then work to solve a problem in a peaceful manner and in a way that is acceptable for everyone involved. likewise, conflict resolutions also relate to the concept of going to a safe place, such as in meditation or a stepping back and counting to ten before we respond to negativity. encouraging the adoption of such techniques provide students with a practical understanding of the material as opposed to it being mere factual knowledge. facilitating peaceful action requires, in addition to a sophisticated theoretical basis, a set of practical strategies for handling real-world situations. the ways in which these strategies are learned are bound up with cultural norms regarding what information is considered relevant and thus the way in which a simple artifice such as an i-message is taught ought to be in adjustment to the perceptions of the culture that the student is representing. doing so allows the student to grasp just how the strategies can be employed within a cultural context of their own lives. make a peaceful classroom in order to have students learn to be more receptive to the cultural diversity and more tolerant to interact with each other, a peaceful classroom must be encourage by creating a democratic environment where students can cooperate, develop moral sensitivity, think critically and feel empowered. harris6 suggests five important facets of a peaceful classroom. first, the classroom must be a democratic community where students can feel dependable, safe, and agreeable to the group. second, cooperation should be taught and promoted in the classroom so that students are more willingly to work and communicate in cooperative groups and establish strong, close relationships with each other. the third component is developing moral sensitivity, that is, students are explored to the real-life situations of diversity and allowed to experience the issues and to solve the problems. another consideration is to emphasize and foster critical thinking in a peaceful classroom. finally, self-esteem should be developed through the teachers deliberate efforts to encourage and affirm their students. therefore, in such a peaceful                                                                                                                   5  lantieri, l. & patti, j. waging peace in our schools. (boston: beacon press,1996). 65.   6  harris, i. m. the peaceful classroom. in peace education. (jefferson, nc: mcfarland & company,1988). 121-138.     volume 5 number 3 (2011): 353-361 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   357   classroom, “…students rely on each other. they learn together, and the success of learning activities depends upon the cooperative contributions of all”7. analysis of cultural differences and conflicts “dragons as the symbol of power” – a comparative approach culture refers to a set of shared values, norms, and beliefs held by the members of a group, such as a nation or organization8. recognizing and understanding differences in cultural patterns provides individuals with a framework for interpreting the goals and behaviors of others9. this is especially relevant when individuals are in conflict and must work towards common goals10. culture is likely to establish strong expectations about the type of relationship that will be created, the goals that the parties are working towards and how the conflict will be resolved. then such expectations are violated, individuals risk escalating the conflict. thus, the challenges of globalization and the complexity of cultural differences mean that international negotiation skills will be of increasing relevance and importance for international management and cross-cultural interactions in general11. the united nations even recognizes the promotion of peaceful cross-cultural interaction in education as a human right. the “universal declaration of human rights” states, “education shall be directed to full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. it shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the united nations for the maintenance of peace”12. as evidenced previously, increasing such cultural awareness and interaction is also one of the basic                                                                                                                 7  harris, i. m. the peaceful classroom. in peace education. (jefferson, nc: mcfarland & company,1988). 126: 121-138.   8  hofstede, g. cultures and organizations: software of the mind. (london: mcgraw hill, 1994).   9  hofstede, g. cultures and organizations: software of the mind. (london: mcgraw hill, 1994).   10  jonsson, c. communication in international bargaining. (london: pinter, 1990).   11  kremenyuk, v. a. the emerging system of international negotiation. (san francisco: josseybass, 1991).   12  united nations. (1948). universal declaration of human rights. http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/humanrights/resources/universal.asp.     volume 5 number 3 (2011): 353-361 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   358   principles of “the earth charter”13 and is therefore of crucial importance to both our project as a whole and the lesson to be explained here. the cultural differences we encountered manifested themselves in some of our tutoring activities. when i (sun) was about to lead the lesson entitled “dragons as the symbol of power”, i deliberately enlightened the students that the dragon is the symbol of power in both western and chinese cultures, but they are portrayed and treated in different ways due to their choice of using their power, thus, leading to good or bad relationships with people. by contrasting different cultures, i was intended to give the students a wider perspective to understand the following themes: identifying and keeping your inner power, using power for kindness, respecting the power of others, respecting other cultures, and establishing right relationships with others. meanwhile, i attempted to guide the students to establish right relationships with others and promote a sense of tolerance of other cultures. i began the lesson with asking the kids about their impressions of dragon. the two male students present that day responded, “they are big, terrible, and powerful”14. i compared the symbolic significances of dragons in both western and chinese cultures. western dragons are portrayed as evil because they would eat people or destroy villages; so there is much folklore about the fighting between heroes and dragons. by contrast, i explained to them that dragons play an important role in china and are traditionally considered to be the governors of rainfalls in chinese culture. they have the power to decide where and when to have rainfalls. they are lucky creatures that can bring happiness and power, and are even worshiped as gods. the chinese often consider themselves to be the descendants of the dragon. by saying these things, i attempted to make it known to the students that both western and chinese dragons are symbols of power but they are portrayed in different ways due to their choice of using their power. the western dragons abuse their power to hurt people so that people are afraid of them and hate them; while the chinese dragons use their power to benefit people by controlling the rainfalls. in doing so the dragon causes people to respect and worship them as gods. with my interpretation, the kids responded in a different way when i asked them about dragons again. l stated “the chinese dragon is good and the western dragon is bad because the western dragon hurts people but the chinese dragon helps people.” based on the difference in responses, i am convinced that it is helpful and necessary to provide students culturally diverse perspectives during their perception of knowledge. through the activity of contrasting the same object from the perspectives of different cultures, the students will not only take cognizance of cultural differences but also gain a chance to have a different set of experiences and a potentially new and wider perspective for perceiving knowledge that can expand their capacities of conflict resolution in a peaceful manner during their studies and lives.                                                                                                                 13  the earth charter.(2000) http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/.   14  all quotations from fieldnotes are meant to represent the general kinds of situations encountered and observations made on a regular basis. they are not intended to single-out or comment on the behavior of specific individuals. hence, no names or information that could be used to identify individuals will appear in this article.     volume 5 number 3 (2011): 353-361 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   359   “peace dollars” – a relational approach a major challenge that has faced us since the beginning of our project was finding ways of exposing the students who come to this program to culturally different ideas while at the same time making the new knowledge relevant and potentially useful within the cultural context of the lives of the students. one mechanism that we have utilized for making such new ideas engaging and understandable for students is to take an artifact that is significant to the culture from which the students come and use it in a different way in order to demonstrate a culturally different idea. theoretically this relational strategy is to have a three-pronged effect. first, because the artifact is something that the culture of the students holds to be important and is something of which the students would almost certainly have an understanding, the students will be more likely to find the lesson culturally validating and consequently will take an interest in it. second, the use of an already culturally significant artifact in a different way allows the student to conceptualize the incorporation of other cultural ideas into their own culture as a possibility. third, the fact that this learning experience takes the form of a concrete activity allows students to actually practice this incorporative process. in short, this strategy encourages students to take an interest, see the utility of, and actively practice positive culture interaction. by maintaining a solid grounding in peaceful cultural interaction and demonstrating the possibility and practical use of ideological cultural interconnectedness this strategy also shows great consistence with the tenets of the earth charter. “… we must decide to live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole earth community as well as our local communities. we are at once citizens of different nations and of one world in which the local and global are linked”15. it is this rationale that constitutes the basis for the following activity conducted at the center as part of our research. over the course of our research it became apparent that the importance of money and the significance of economics in general was, as a matter of culture, very different. this culture difference initially manifested itself in a moment of subtle conflict. during a previous lesson (“dragons as the symbol of power”) two of our students, rather than focusing their attention on the content of the lesson, began, at one point, to focus on a laptop computer on which we were displaying the material for the lesson of the day. the facilitator (sun) records in her fieldnotes from that day, “l listened to me attentively and nodded her head; the boys attempted to touch my laptop, but carl helped to stop them”. this incident illustrated for us a difference in the way our respective cultures viewed the objects of economics and thus the conflict (i.e. the lack of attention on the lesson and the undue attention given to the laptop itself) was actually a conflict of cultural ideas about what the laptop represents. to us educators, coming from white culture and chinese culture respectively, the laptop represented a common tool with the purpose of storing and displaying information. to the students, coming from the culture of an impoverished mostly african-american neighborhood, we theorized that the laptop represented an economically valuable object with the purpose of empowering and conferring status upon the owner. this was the topic of a short discussion that took place between us educators after this lesson. second author goes on to write in her notes,                                                                                                                 15  the earth charter. (2000) http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/content/.   volume 5 number 3 (2011): 353-361 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   360   carl noticed that the kids paid much attention on [sic] my laptop and they might easily get appeal to valuable things. that may be because their family culture that values things concerning money, which may lead them to work for them. we should help them to realize that money is not that powerful and each of them has their inner power that can help them fulfill their dreams and make an impact on others. it was this insight that inspired the use of a new relational strategy for teaching about peace. a history of slavery, disenfranchisement, and a struggle for civil rights as well as the fact that money is scarce in this particular neighborhood all serve to inform the cultural attitude towards economics that we witnessed during our research. therefore, in order to more effectively engage the students it became apparent that what was required was a lesson that would speak to their culture directly. exactly two weeks after the occurrence of the incident described above, we returned to the center and i (templin) was to facilitate in the teaching of a lesson of my own designed entitled “peace dollars”. using the insights gained from the lesson of the previously described session, i designed this lesson specifically to relate to the culture form which our students come while at the same time presenting them with a culturally different idea about the purpose of money, and by extension economy, as being an instrument for conveying a message of peace to the people of this country and possibly to the people of other countries. the lesson involves examining the symbols that appear on both american coins as well as coins from other countries from various points in history. for, example, the olive branch, a commonly used symbol for peace, appears on many coins and other monetary units in this country. the fact that money is constantly changing hands means that such symbols are seen by many different people and are meant to remind them of the peaceful values of their country. by using money as the medium by which to transmit the point about peace, we were able to create an environment that was much more conducive to learning not only a lesson about peace but also a new and culturally different conception of the purpose of money. sun records in her fieldnotes from this day, “k and m responded actively and k offered her answer that famous people could appear on coins and those figures made people to [sic] remember them…”. here we can see the positive results of this educational strategy. whereas in the previous session different cultural ideas of economic objects led to conflict and disengagement from the lesson, in this session students became actively engaged – feeling as though they could express their ideas and apparently taking something away from the experience. on a broader level, the effective execution of this relational strategy confirms the validity of harris’s16 suggestion that peace in best learned by experiencing it as a worldly reality and not first and foremost by authoritarian instruction. “an irony of peace education is that an educator need not necessarily teach the topics of peace education in order to conduct a peaceable                                                                                                                 16  harris, i. m. the peaceful classroom. in peace education. (jefferson, nc: mcfarland & company,1988). 121-138.     volume 5 number 3 (2011): 353-361 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   361   classroom”17. in our case, the “peace dollars” activity served the purpose of creating a peaceful classroom twice over. in the short term the students were more responsive to a lesson that took their own cultural background into consideration while simultaneously allowing them access to the knowledge of another culture. while the long-term effect is beyond our capability to experience directly, our hope and intent was that the students would leave with a new understanding of and appreciation for their own ability to learn from other cultures that can have a positive impact on the culture of which they are a part. through the attainment of a newfound efficacy students will be able to take what they learn from this experience and use it to effect positive change in the classrooms at the school or schools to which they return. conclusion the research we have carried out implies that culture differences can be either a barrier or an advantage to learning peaceful principles and actions depending on how they are approached by educators. explicit comparison of cultural conceptions allows students to see that the same ideas, objects, and entities have different applications and meanings depending on context – cultural or otherwise. diversity in perspective allows students to recognize that they have a choice in how to act and react in certain situations as well as providing them with a sense of the options open to them. just as important, there must be a feasible plan in place for educators to relate the information being taught to students in a manner that they find culturally affirming and relevant. therefore, it is our finding that both approaches – i.e. comparative and relational – have advantages that prove very effective at cross-cultural communication under the right circumstances. in any case, the cultural identity of students cannot simply be ignored; rather it must be addressed in an appropriate way. generally speaking, the strategies outlined in this essay and develop throughout our research indicates what these appropriate ways of addressing culture might be. comparison promotes an explicit understanding that there are differences between cultures by offering concrete examples of such differences in pointing out how the same objects or situations can mean different things to different people. relation allows educators to actively engage students in the incorporative process by examining a familiar object or situation from the point of view of another culture. each of the strategies takes cultural difference into consideration and each is designed to encourage a dialogical encounter rather than a conflict between cultures. furthermore, the use of such strategies demands that the educator be aware of his or her own cultural identity and recognize that his or her own viewpoint is not necessarily the only one. that is, the educator has to have formed the project of imagining other viewpoints as being able to be other than they seem to himself or herself before he or she is able to teach others the same skill. failure to do so risks devaluing students as fellow human beings and encourages dismissal of the information offered as irrelevant and devoid of practicality. as peace educators it is our duty to do everything within our power to keep such a state of affairs from becoming reality.                                                                                                                 17  harris, i. m. the peaceful classroom. in peace education. (jefferson, nc: mcfarland & company,1988). 122: 121-138.     moses chikwe civic ed [1] in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 1 volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ civic education and global citizenship: a deweyan perspective moses chikwe university of california at los angeles mchikwe@ucla.edu introduction the idea of citizenship, according to the “the penguin dictionary of sociology”, can be traced back to the classical period of greece and rome through the renaissance. in modern times citizenship is the product of revolutions, especially the french revolution. “citizenship is a politico-juridical status that confers an identity, and determines the distribution of resources within society”.1 it involves some notion of contribution to the common good of the nation state. webster’s dictionary defines citizenship as “the state of being vested with the rights, privileges, and duties of a citizen”.2 whereas it refers to a citizen as one who inhabits a city and is entitled to its privileges or franchises. lacking in these definitions of citizenship is the interesting conceptualization and understanding of citizenship in the global and multicultural context.3 this lack is also evident in the current understanding of civic education, which is framed around the formation of the democratic ideals and values of a particular nation state in the individual members of the society. nevertheless, civic education does hold the promise of expanding the narrow goal of traditional citizenship to the global perspective, due to the organized capacity of civic education and schooling in general in communicating the civic ideals. 1 the penguin dictionary of sociology (london: penguin books ltd, 2006). 2 webster’s unabridged dictionary (usa: barnes and nobles publishing inc., 2003). 3 martha c. nussbaum, patriotism and cosmopolitanism. in cohen, j., ed. for love of country: debating the limits of patriotism (boston: beacon, 1996); james a. banks, diversity and citizenship education (san francisco: jossey-bass, 2004). in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 2 the transmission from one generation to another of public knowledge, values, attitudes, and group identification which are perceived as necessary for public life and the stability of society falls within the purview of public education.4 public schools were established to preserve the ideals of democracy and civic identity. thus, benjamin r. barber, states: “public schools are not merely schools for the public, but school of publicness: institutions where we learn what it means to be a public and start down the road toward common national and civic identity. they are the forges of our citizenship and the bedrock of our democracy”.5 undoubtedly, through public schools the civic culture and unity can be handed down from generation to generation. but this formation of responsible citizens and promotion of national identity seem to be framed around the narrow and nationalistic understanding of civic education and couched in the traditional definition of citizenship. it is narrow and nationalistic because it makes us feel a sense of connection and responsibility, for instance, to only fellow americans as opposed to the rest of the world. the rest of the world becomes faceless and less of value to us due to our patriotism and strong attachment to national interest. but with the shrinking of the world into a global village as a consequence of technological advancement and improved transportation, it seems necessary to adjust our understanding of civic education to include the entire human community. the question then is: how can we expand the traditional notion and understanding of civic education which is nationalistic in orientation to the more globalized understanding? this is the central question that this paper will be addressing. using the framework provided by dewey in his articulation of the public this article seeks to challenge the understanding of civic education held by the “civic mission of schools”, which is framed around the traditional notion of citizenship. it will demonstrate the need to both reconceptualize and restructure this traditional notion of civic education to encompass the global idea of citizenship. this will be done both by drawing on the meaning of education and the phenomenon of globalization. let us explore the meaning of education in general and civic education in particular. what is education? the etymology of the word ‘education’ is from two latin words: ‘ex’ and ‘ducere’ meaning ‘out’ and ‘lead’. therefore, the word education means ‘leading out’ or ‘bringing out.’ mcmannon6 perceives education as embracing all of those experiences of the individual through which knowledge is gained, the intellect is enlightened, and the will is strengthened. it is the process of adjustment to one’s environment and assimilation of one’s cultural heritage. education is not only an intellectual, physical and moral activity, but also a process of transmitting customs, laws, traditions and standards of living. it is a process of cultivation of the mind through which a person learns the best way to live with others in a civil society. for bourdieu education becomes a process of forming our habitus (our predisposition) the lens by 4 james a. banks, diversity and citizenship education (san francisco: jossey-bass, 2004). 5 benjamin r. barber, “public schooling: education for democracy,” in the public purpose of education and schooling, eds. john i. goodlad and timothy j. mcmannon (san francisco: jossey-bass, 1997). 6 timothy j. mcmannon, “introduction: the changing purpose of education,” in the public purpose of education and schooling. in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 3 which we see the world or reality. the voir (the capacity to see) he said is only a function of the savoir (concept or knowledge).7 education is considered to be a lifelong experience by ancient cultures. people are taught the best way to live with others by institutions like the community, the family and the church. but according to dewey this domesticated view of education changed because the needs of the society became more complex and sophisticated. public schools were established to better fulfill this charge of training every member of the society. he argues that like parents schools should give the very best to the whole students. what the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy. all that society has accomplished for itself is put, through the agency of the school, at the disposal of its future members.8 this was what dewey saw as the rationale for establishing schools, to well educate every member of the society for the success of democracy. one of the key functions of education is to form productive citizens who can function well in a democratic society. throughout history, this concept of education has been strongly supported by different schools of thought. the ancient greek philosopher, plato, emphasized the need for this form of education in society. for plato, the continuity and strength of any society depends on an education that can help shape future members to its ideal purposes. later philosophers also acknowledged the importance of education to form an enlightened citizenry that will contribute meaningfully to the growth of the society. in the u.s, this ideal coheres with the vision behind the founding of public schools, held by many scholars and politicians. horace mann considered as the “patron saint” of public education also shares this understanding and sees public schools as “balance wheel”, the great equalizer between the rich and the poor. equally, horace mann, thomas jefferson, and others emphasized the need for public education for the survival of democracy. through education, people are taught the best way to live in harmony with other human beings. it breaks one out of his/her micro-world to gain a broader understanding that he/she is simply a mitsein (being-with-others). the individuals in the society become able to engage and inquire together for the common good, sharing ideas and influencing each other’s thinking in this act of intellectual intercourse. schools are therefore, places of social settlements where individuals gather to not only share ideas but ideas that are incarnated in human form.9 the human interaction among students helps to build up future community among them, a society where each will learn to be both responsible for himself/herself and responsive to others. dewey placed a permanent stress on this formation of community among students and teachers in the process of education or inquiry. 7 pierre bourdieu, distinction: a social critique of the judgment of taste (massachusetts: harvard university press, 1984). 8 john dewey, school and society (chicago: university of chicago press). 9 john dewey, the school as a social center (elementary school teacher, 1902). in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 4 this harmonious living with others, or rather mutual regard, makes democracy successful. in such a community, people learn to give mutual respect and regard to one another in order to maintain a relationship that is free of domination and subservience. this is the purification of the person and the education of character. according to martin buber, “education worthy of the name is essentially education of character.”10 little surprise then why every nation has attached great importance to education, for it is an essential means of forming and maintaining responsible citizenship. civic education plays a critical role in building and supporting responsible citizenship in any nation. however, the formation and maintenance of responsible citizenship is accomplished not only through civic education per se but through the entire educational process. this is because one cannot claim to be educated if he/she does not possess the basic civic ideals of knowing his rights and duties, respect for others as possessing equal human value and dignity. as barber points out, “lawyers and doctors are no more likely to make good citizens than dropouts if their training is limited to the narrrow and self-interested world defined by vocational preparation and professional instruction.”11 education should inform and form the very being of its students, to mold their identity and agency – who they are and how they live. it is not just interested in what the students know and are able to do but also who that knowledge makes them to become. unfortunately, much of modern education has fallen prey to the epistemological reductionism that separates “people’s knowing from their being and reduces knowledge to just technical rationality, a ‘know how’ for productivity.”12 this split stretches back to the french rationalist, rene descartes. the pervading assumption is that knowledge is objective and valuefree, as if it is not supposed to engage persons as persons or influence their ethic. but the ancient philosophers both plato and aristotle would argue that to know the good is to become good, and that knowledge shapes ones being in the world. within the institution of schooling, policymakers, teachers, parents, and students often emphasize the intellectual development of students as the principal (or only) function of education and thus depict learning as an instrumental means to an end, for instance, good grades, educational certificates, full-time employment opportunities, and access to higher incomes.13 however, education is not limited to the development of knowledge, academic or otherwise. it will have to engage the entire being of the student and make him/her a well-rounded person who is able to live in society with others. education for social change requires students and teachers to actively transform social injustice and not just study them, it should be the tool for liberation from oppression.14 this is why many social justice theorists argue that reducing the 10 martin buber, “the education of character” in between man and man (new york: macmillan, 1965). 11 ibid., 6 12 thomas groome, “what makes a school catholic,” in the contemporary catholic school: context, identity, and diversity, eds. mclaughlin, t; o’keefe, j & o’keefe, b. (london: the falmer press, 1996). 13 kathleen lynch & john baker, “equality in education: the importance of equality of condition,” theory and research in education 3, no. 2 (2005):131-164. 14 paulo freire, pedagogy of the oppressed (new york: the continuum international publishing group inc. 1970); colleen larson & khaula murtadha, “leadership for social justice,” in the educational leadership challenge: redefining leadership for the 21st century, ed. joseph murphy (chicago: university of chicago press, 2002). in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 5 curriculum of students from low socioeconomic homes to basic reading and math is highly problematic. those who are experiencing numerous injustices on a daily basis also need more from education than test preparation or access to “progressive” curricula and teaching techniques if they are to develop the skills, knowledge, and commitment required to tackle those injustices.15 therefore, educators are challenged to provide an education that is more holistic and empowering to their students. differential education in the u.s. the u.s. is used as a focus here because it is the leading nation of the world and whatever happens here in some ways may be reflected in greater or lesser degree in the rest of the world. additionally, the us seems to be the ‘boiling point of the world’ due partly to its founding spirit as the land of immigrants where people from all cultures, races, and nationalities are welcome. but to narrow the focus even more in order to capture a clear and distinct picture, i shall look at a state in the u.s. that seems in my estimation the most reflective of this global trend. let’s turn our gaze to california; the golden state, known to host a diverse population. the state of california holds a strategic spot in the global community because of its bourgeoning economy and its growing and diverse population. it is the most populated state in the u.s. and bigger than many countries in the world. but it ranks among the lowest performing and underfunded state per pupil expenses in k-12 education16 and there are many reasons for this, which include but not limited to opportunity gap among the different racial groups. there is a steadily widening gap between the rich and the poor in the u.s. today especially in california. according to manuel pastor there are multiple californians, with the state increasingly divided by race, class, and residential location. the demographic divergence has been matched by increasing inequality. while white households share of ethnic composition income, during the period 2002-2004, maintained a steadily rising higher deciles, peaking at 71 percent of households in the top decile; “african americans have a very high representation in the lowest decile, the asian american community is bifurcated with significant representation at the lowest and highest deciles, and latino households peak in the second, third and fourth deciles.”17 the rising margin between the rich and poor has created racialized and concentrated poverty in california. moreover, it has also widened the geographic segregation of the racial and ethnic groups encouraging localization of spending both for education and social amenities. this chasm is also conspicuous in the schools in poor and working-class neighborhoods. in such schools there are overflowing sense of dilapidation and shortage of quality teachers. the instructional materials and textbooks are severely lacking. this lack of resources and qualified 15 jean anyon, radical possibilities: public policy, urban eduaction, and a new social movement (new york: routledge, 2005); lisa delpit, other people’s children: cultural conflict in the classroom (new york: the new press, 1995); gloria ladson-billings, the dreamkeepers: successful teacher of african-american children (san francisco: jossey-bass, 1994); linda mcneil, contradictions of school reform (new york: routledge, 2000); fairtest, k-12 testing. retrieved may 15, 2006, from http://www.fairtest.org/k-12.htm. 16 school funding (us census bureau, 2011). 17 manuel pastor, “a state united or a state divided: can multiple pathways bring together multiple californians? in multiple perspectives on multiple pathways (ucla idea, 2007). in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 6 faculty have been to blame for the underachievement of black and latino students who populate those schools.18 the evidence is clear and shocking that a subgroup of us public school population experience negative and inequitable schooling on daily basis.19 according to the research by michelle fine, et al. under-education and dropout rates of the poor and working class students are growing and far more severe today than in the past. it seems instead of improvement and progress we are regressing and dipping down into the mud of discrimination.20 african american and latino students seem to be overrepresented in least successful groups on standard tests e.g., measures of literacy and numeracy.21 by these measures it seems that these students do not have the same academic achievement as the white and asian students. both the state and national standardized test scores indicate overall low performance, and many of the students do not make it to college or dropout of high school. approximately 1.23 million of public high school class of 2008 in the u.s. failed to graduate with a diploma.22 for at least five years now, one in four high school students in the u.s. drop out and more than one in three minority students drop out.23 these most often are students of color in urban areas. the dropout rate looks even gloomier for minorities in california where approximately 80% and 92% of whites and asians respectively graduate as compared to about 59% and 60% of african american and latino students in 2006-07 school year.24 therefore, there seems to be a fairly well described differential patterns of achievement, with african american and latino students, significantly falling behind the other ethnic groups.25 while we hear daily about test scores and achievement gap of this underrepresented population, it seems those scores are not connected to the challenging conditions that these students had to grapple with on daily basis. environmental and social conditions have been identified as influencing and shaping the academic achievement of african american and latino students. myron orfield describes the problems mostly associated with inner cities and at-risk suburbs as concentrated poverty, racial segregation, crime, and community disinvestment.26 susan easton paints a similar picture of the type of neighborhoods that exist in inner cities. she talks of jeremy, a puerto rican boy who was exceptionally bright but lived in the ghetto of 18 jeannie oakes, keeping track: how schools structure inequality (new haven: yale university press, 1985). 19 gloria ladson-billings, the dreamkeepers: successful teacher of african-american children (san francisco: jossey-bass, 1994); jim scheurich & julie laible, “the buck stops here,” educational administration quarterly 31, no.2 (1999): 313-322; angela valenzuela, subtractive schooling: u.s.-mexican youth and the politics of caring (albany: state university of new york press, 1999). 20 michelle fine et al., “civic lessons: the color and class of betrayal,” teachers college record 106, no.11 (2004): 21932223. 21 california department of education 2004. retrieved oct. 7, 2010 from http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us. 22 editorial projects in education research center, school to college: can state p-16 councils ease the transition? (washington, dc: u.s department of education, 2008). 23 anna habash, counting on graduation (washington, dc: the educational trust, 2008). 24 russell w. rumberger & susan rotermund, “ethnic and gender differences in california high school graduation rates,” in california dropout research project (uc santa barbara, 2009). 25 national center for education statistics, the condition of education 2008 (washington dc: u.s department of education, 2008). 26 myron orfield, american metropolitics (massachusetts: the brookings institution, 2002). in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 7 harford connecticut: “jeremy lived with frequent gunshots and street slayings. he could watch daily drug dealing out his window.”27 this type of environmental conditions seems characteristic of many black and latino neighborhoods. peter dreier names the symptoms of american decaying cities, which include; “growing poverty, homelessness, violent crime, and infant mortality; widening racial and economic segregation; crumbling infrastructure, and deepening fiscal traumas.”28 african american and latino students daily traverse a geography of danger in order to get to school. there is severe spatial limitation, whereby children are more and more restricted from using some of the neighborhood spaces because they are dangerous zones. according to massey and denton, more than half of all blacks in the united states, and 60% of black urban dwellers, live in the thirty metropolitan areas described as dangerous and ghettoized.29 brilliant as these students are their environment seems to stymie their academic progress and promise. the high dropout rate and achievement gap are perpetuated and reinforced by myriads of interrelated and overlapping factors. the three key factors: poverty, segregated neighborhoods, and school quality, are linked and a vicious cycle is created by their confluence.30 the united states has the incredible distinction of having the highest poverty in the industrialized world despite having one of the highest average incomes.31 from 2001 – 2003 the number of people in poverty rose from 32.9 million to 35.9 million and 37 million in 2004.32 with the current global economic crises these figures will be considerably higher. evidence shows many of those living in poverty are blacks and latinos who are working poor.33 poverty entails daily significant compromises of the basic necessities of living and developing one’s potentials. the lack of a proper diet, shelter, and education compromises individual development, with negative effects on children’s cognitive development, verbal ability, early school achievement, and mental health.34 when this is combined with poor neighborhoods and less stimulating home environment the odds for dropping out and underachievement increase. this is a socially unjust condition that has been created by unjust economic and social structures. almost always the poor are those who live in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, and blacks and latinos are in the majority. residential location determines your chances and future. 27 susan eaton, the children in room e4 (north carolina: algonquin books of chapel hill, 2006). 28 peter dreier, “america’s urban crisis: symptoms, causes, solutions,” north carolina law review 71, (1993): 1351-1401. 29 douglas massey & nancy denton, american apartheid: segregation and the making of the underclass (massachusetts: harvard university press, 1993). 30 gary orfield & nancy mcardle, the vicious cycle: segregated housing, schools and intergenerational inequality. report prepared by harvard civil rights project in 2006. 31 david berliner, “our impoverished view of educational research,” teachers college record 108, no.6 (2006): 949-995; timothy smeeding, lee rainwater & gary burtless, “u.s. poverty in a cross-national comparison,” in understanding poverty, eds. sheldon danziger & robert haveman (new york: russell sage foundation, 2001). 32 center on budget and policy priorities, economic recovery failed to benefit much of the population in 2004 (washington, dc: matrix group international, inc., 2005). 33 ibid., 15(i) 34 joel f. handler & yeheskel hasenfeld, blame welfare, ignore poverty and inequality (new york: cambridge university press, 2007); kim nauer, andrew white & rajeev yerneni, strengthening schools by strengthening families (new york: the new school, 2008). in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 8 if you live in concentrated poverty then things happen in relation to teaching, school funding and opportunities including networking. research shows that concentrated poverty is strongly associated with both school opportunities and achievement levels.35 schools in low-income areas tend to have high turnover of teachers and students, untreated health problems, lower involvement by parents, less experienced teachers, less challenging curriculum, relative availability or absence of ap classes, lower per student expenditures, high dropout rates and lower test scores.36 there is severe lack of resources in schools in low-income areas. students attending these schools tend to have weaker networks to college and jobs. on the contrary, suburban schools tend to provide a more college-oriented curriculum, have experienced teachers, and offer competitive curriculum.37 highly discriminated neighborhoods produce highly deprived schools and high dropout rates. this lack of resources leads to low academic achievement, which has been consistently associated with high dropout rate.38 there seems to be an unbreakable social mechanism that has perpetuated and reproduced this system of neglect and corresponding poor performance of students of color. vincent roscigno argues that race and class shape school attendance patterns and contribute to highly segregated school contexts. family background shapes residential options. where one resides in turn, has large impact on the school one attends and consequently achievement. social class and race are important in patterning the schools children attend.39 gary orfield and nancy mcardle agree that the most profound form of inequality is location-based inequality of educational opportunity. residential location structures and shapes educational opportunity and success.40 added to this structural inequality that students of color live through on daily basis in school are the curriculum instructional practices. the school curriculum is a serious factor in the students’ academic achievement. it has been based historically on the european american perspective. as christine sleeter and carl grant noted, minority cultures have been represented in fragmented ways, such as the celebration of black history month or cinco de mayo. textbooks, an important component of the school curriculum, also represent minority cultures 35 ibid., 31(i); ibid., 33; ibid., 20. 36 jean anyon, ghetto schooling: a political economy of urban educational reform (new york: teachers college record, 1997); linda darling-hammond, “the flat earth and education: how america’s commitment to equity will determine our future,” education researcher 36, no.6 (2007): 318-334; marvin p. dawkins & henry j. braddock, “the continuing significance of desegregation: school racial composition and african american inclusion in american society,” journal of negro education 63, no.3 (1994); susan eaton, the other boston busing story: what’s won and lost across the boundary line (new haven, ct: yale university press, 2001); erica frankenberg, chungmei lee, & gary orfield, a multiracial society with segregated schools: are we losing the dream? report prepared by civil rights project, harvard university, 2003; ibid., 30; ibid., 18; gary orfield & chungmei lee, why segregation matters: poverty and educational inequality. report prepared by civil rights project, harvard university, 2005; gary orfield, et al., losing our future: how minority youth are being left behind by the graduation rate crisis. report prepared by civil rights project, harvard university, 2004; janet schofield, “review of research on school desegregation’s impact on elementary and secondary school students,” in handbook of research on multicultural education, eds. james a. banks & michael c. banks (new york: simon & schuster macmillan, 1995); stuart a. wells & robert l. crain, “perpetuation theory and the long-term effects of school desegregation,” review of educational research 64 (1994). 37 ibid., 30. 38 ruth b. ekstrom, et al., “who drops out of high school and why? findings from a national study,” teachers college record 87, no.3 (1986): 356-373. 39 vincent j. roscigno, “family/school inequality and african-american/hispanic achievement,” social problems 47, no. 2 (2000): 266-290. 40 ibid., 37. in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 9 and people in a limited fashion. these textbooks, they also pointed out, often limit descriptions of diverse people’s contributions and perpetuate stereotypes. the limited and fragmented representations of minority cultures may have a negative impact on minority students’ opportunities to acquire the skills needed to succeed in mainstream society.41 arguably, moving communities towards a situation where all cultures are recognized and respected may be one way of removing barriers to equality and social justice.42 the lack of connection of the school curriculum to the cultural background of the minority students has been identified as responsible for the low school performance and high dropout rates of black americans and hispanics.43 teachers have the responsibility to critically evaluate and improve the curriculum for all students. this can be achieved by their knowledge of the students’ cultural/ethnic backgrounds. shirley heath typified this in her landmark ethnographic study of african american working-class students in the trackton community. she revealed that teachers who understood their students’ cultural/ethnic backgrounds were able to engage the students by asking questions that followed the form and function of questions asked in the students’ homes and communities. and this, according to the teachers who participated in heath’s research, enhanced their students’ academic performance.44 this idea of making the curriculum responsive to the needs of all students from different cultural backgrounds was also central to tiedt and tiedt.45 apart from enhancing students’ academic achievement, this will help every student to understand who he/she is, thereby building a self-esteem and identity. from this knowledge base he/she will extend learning to include other cultures, hence remove the fear of others, which is the product of ignorance. cultural diversity is recognized today as an asset rather than a liability. the various groups contribute to the national culture while maintaining their distinct identity. as a result, individuals can be proud of their cultural identity and heritage instead of being ashamed of their difference. this will challenge the students to acquire a multicultural and global perspective on life. there is need to have highly qualified teachers, who will be both culturally sensitive and proficient, to teach students from various cultural groups. however, having these highly qualified teachers who are culturally proficient sometimes appears to be a tough sale for schools in poor neighborhoods due to the lack of sufficient funding. there is a general agreement among scholars that access to high quality teachers is one 41 christine sleeter & carl grant, empowerment through multicultural education (albany: state university of new york press, 1991). 42 alison taysum & helen gunter, “a critical approach to researching social justice and school leadership in england,” education, citizenship and social justice 3, no.183 (2008). 43 pamela l tiedt & iris m. tiedt, multicultural teaching: a handbook of activities, information and resources (massachusetts: simon & schuster, 1990). 44 shirley b. heath, ways with words: language, life, and work in communities and classrooms (new york: cambridge university press, 1983). 45 ibid., 43. in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 10 of the key factors at the school level that influences student achievement.46 research reveals that students of color and students from low socioeconomic status have access to teachers with less experience, less education, less training and without content area certification.47 in such schools also there are serious shortage of resources including poor quality instructional materials and textbooks. this lack of resources and qualified faculty has been blamed for the underachievement of students of color who populate those schools.48 it is socially unjust to have these students go through this important level of schooling under such conditions. but with this differential and disproportionate educational opportunity for our children, what then is the meaning of civic education for students in the underprivileged schools? do these students feel themselves belonging to the same nation as their white counterparts? does this unequal social conditions generate love and patriotism for the nation they perceive as having betrayed them or fill them with anger and resentment? these are some of the questions that simmer in my mind as i examine the emphasis that dewey and other scholars placed on the education of every citizen as a pathway to stable democracy and citizenship. examples from the research by fine, et al., for williams v california case were quite revealing on how the students in the plaintiff schools score their values and worth by the poor and decrepit facilities. the study explored the social, psychological and academic impact of structurally deficient facilities, high rates of teacher turnover, and uncredentialed/unqualified faculty and, inadequate instructional materials. they studied one elementary, one middle and nine high schools in san francisco, oakland and los angeles areas. the social and psychological influence that the conditions at the school make on the students was phenomenal. one of the students interviewed had this to say regarding the squalid condition at her school. it makes me, you know what, in all honesty, i’m going to break something down to you. it make you feel less about yourself, you know, like you sitting here in a class where you have to stand up because there’s not enough chairs and you see rats in the buildings, the bathrooms is nasty, you got to pay. and then you, like i said, i visited mann academy, and these students, if they want to sit on the floor, that’s because they choose to. and that just makes me feel real less about myself because it’s like the state don’t care about public schools. if i have to sit there and stand in the class, they can’t care about me. it’s impossible. so in all honesty, it really makes me feel bad about myself.49 it seems that the students are analyzing and understanding their perceived value in the social hierarchy. they understand and see the level of discrimination, which intentionally or 46 ibid., 36 (ii); 37; 18. 47 richard m. ingersoll, “the problem of underqualified teachers in american secondary schools,” educational researcher 28, no.2 (1999): 26-37; hamilton lankford, susanna loeb, & james wyckoff, “teacher sorting and the plight of urban schools: a descriptive analysis,” educational evaluation and policy analysis 24, no.1 (2002): 37-62; linda skrla, kathryn b. mckenzie & james j. scheurich, using equity audits to create equitable and excellent schools (thousand oaks, ca: corwin press, 2009). 48 ibid., 18; 36 (ii); 20 49 ibid., 20 in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 11 unintentionally, the society puts them through and this makes a very powerful and lasting impression on them. though, as a society we may not have intended to teach them what they learn from their situation (hidden curriculum), and this might even be the only and most important lesson that students learn that they are stratified and disenfranchised in the society. they understand the message implied in what we have failed to provide them, in the differentiated treatment and school conditions that we as a society place them. they know and understand how the society values them. the students see and feel the pulverizing weight of race, class and ethnic discriminations and they live through these social relations. they learn very quickly and at a very early age their social ‘disposability’. in other words they read different political and civic texts, which we as a society have supplied them.50 dewey would see this as a mis-education, and all of us as negative educators who supply the ‘killer toxin’ to our future citizens. “the belief that all genuine education comes about through experience does not mean that all experiences are genuinely or equally educative. experience and education cannot be directly equated to each other. for some experiences are mis-educative.”51 hence, in the u.s, the common national and civic identity of liberty, equality, fairness and justice have not always been taught by our public schools. rather students learn differential civic education due to the privileges or lack of privileges they experience in their educational process. because of this poor and unequal educational opportunity some students from such neighborhood schools disengage from school, which supposed to be citizenship formation ground, and dropout. the consequences of this neglect to educate all our children are immense. those who dropout may end up becoming ‘nuisance’ to society and are railroaded to the prison industry, which receives more funding than schools. for instance, in new york state the budget for public universities within a 10-year period (1988-1998) fell by 29% while state spending on prisons rose by 76% during the same period.52 henry giroux, talking about the immediate past administration’s hype on war and domestic militarization, observes with contempt this prison expansion pointing out the irony of bush government who made claims of war in order to make the world safe for “our children’s future” only to turn around and build more prisons where our children are incarcerated. “what is so troubling about the current historical moment is that youth no longer symbolize the future. and yet, any discourse about the future has to begin with the issue of youth because, more than any other group, youth embody the projected dreams, desires, and commitment of a society’s obligations to the future.”53 if we take seriously what giroux and others have said, what hope then has a nation that ignores the education of some of its youth? dewey always maintained that education should not 50 ibid., 49. 51 john dewey, experience & education (new york: touchtsone books, 1938). 52 robert gangi, vincent schiraldi, & jason ziedenberg, “new york state of mind?: higher education vs. prison funding in the empire state, 1988-1998,” justice policy institute (washington dc, october 1998). 53 henry giroux, “war talk and the shredding of the social contract: youth and the politics of domestic militarization,” in critical theories, radical pedagogies, and global conflicts, eds. gustavo e. fischman, peter mclaren, heinz sunker, & colin lankshear (new york: rowman & littlefield publishers, inc., 2005). in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 12 be limited to certain members of the society. because it is the way of forming new members into the citizenship of any nation, therefore, no one should be excluded from being educated. it pays the nation more than anything else to have its citizens well educated in order to participate responsibly in the affairs of the country and the world. with this in mind, i would like to juxtapose dewey’s concept of civic education with that of the report produced by the center for information and research on civic learning and engagement (circle) and carnegie corporation of new york, in consultation with the corporation for national and community service which was titled: “civic mission of schools.” i would like to draw some parallels between the two to better understand how civic education can help in forming both national and global responsible citizens. dewey’s civic education vis-à-vis civic mission of schools the following quote is from the report by a group of experts from wide variety of disciplines (education, developmental psychology, political science, history and others) who were convened in late 2002 by the center for information and research on civic learning and engagement (circle) and carnegie corporation of new york, in consultation with the corporation for national and community service. the group was convened to examine the problem of civic disengagement by our present youth and how schools could be used as center for dissemination of civic knowledge and skills. the report was titled: civic mission of schools.   we, the scholars and practitioners who have jointly produced this report, believe that the overall goal of civic education should be to help young people acquire and learn to use the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will prepare them to be competent and responsible citizens throughout their lives….we recognize that being a competent and responsible citizen is not easy. it can take courage, sacrifice, and passion to be civically and politically engaged. engagement is especially difficult for disadvantaged young people, who lack resources and are often discouraged from participating. thus, an essential goal of civic education is to provide skills, knowledge, and encouragement for all students, including those who may otherwise be excluded from civic and political life.54 according to the above report, civic education should help young people acquire and learn to use the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will prepare them to be competent and responsible citizens throughout their lives. for dewey, civic education is the primary business of education; it is what education is about, that of forming citizens who are able to engage critically with others in a common inquiry for the common good and survival of democracy. the civic mission of schools has a sprinkling of dewey’s concept of civic education by way of forming competent and responsible citizens who are able to engage critically in the democratic process with others. yet it seems too broadly stated and does not address the issues of civic life and the power relations in the society. if we are to take seriously the question of how society is 54 the center for information & research on civic learning & engagement, “the civic mission of schools,” (new york: carnegie corporation of new york, 2003). full report can be accessed through: http://www.civicyouth.org/popups/civicmissionofschools.pdf. in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 13 structured to enable some and undermine the ability of other members then we have to address some issues of civic life and how students should participate in that life in order to bring change. equally, civic mission of schools definition of civic education seems to be narrow and nationalistic. it does not address the issues of students being participants in the global politics and economy. how the students will be able to engage in and with the rest of the world to build up the human society. it does not point the students beyond the boundaries of the u.s, every thought and engagement seems to be limited within the american society. dewey rather invites us to look beyond the frontiers. i shall now discuss at some length dewey’s views on civic education. dewey’s view on civic education the educated citizen is one who is able both to “read the word and the world.”55 in this way this citizen is able to participate responsibly in the affairs of the nation and the entire globe. otherwise such an education ended up in rote memorization that does not empower the person to live critically and responsibly outside of the classroom. as benjamin barber observed, education without the proper skills to live with others in a civil society will not be education at all.56 civic education should train students to be able to read in between the lines and ask pertinent questions, examining critically why things are the way they are today and to seek reform or engage in political action. dewey in “education as politics” states clearly what the gain of education is: “…the ability it gives to discriminate, to make distinctions that penetrate below the surface.”57 here he talks of the importance of being educated. it saves one from being manipulated and controlled by others, and helps him/her to be responsible in the choices and actions one takes. education would serve no good for the one who is unable to discriminate facts from fancy, who is not able to subject what he sees as real under the regime of reason and inquiry. that one is educated who is able to engage critically in social life and not be controlled by the opinion of others. “control opinion” dewey asserts, “and you control, for the time being at least, the direction of social action.”58 with the political gerrymandering and the hype on fear and other unguarded human emotions, which we saw in our recent past administration, an educated citizenry can never be more important in our world. civic education should do the work of engaging the students on how to navigate the political terrain, empowering them to probe into the power relations, the social and structural inequalities and how these hegemonies are perpetuated. it should train them to be media literate as those in power and corporations increasingly are using the media propaganda to control the public. we live in the society of the spectacle (to use chomsky) where the media create and 55 ibid., 14 (i) 56 ibid., 11. 57 john dewey, “education as politics” [essay, first published in new republic 32 (1922): 139-41. republished in characters and events, ed. joseph ratner (new york: henry hold and co., 1929), and in education today, ed. joseph ratner (new york: g. p. putnam’s sons, 1940), pp.157-63.] 58 ibid., 57. in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 14 dictate what is real. we suck them in without proper inquiry. dewey advocates seriously for an educated citizenry who can discriminate the real from the media creation, who are able to read both the word and the world. “doubtless the regime of propaganda brought on by the war has had much to do with forcing upon us recognition of the dominant role in social control of material put in circulation by the press.”59 this is the hegemonic control of the public by the ruling class through dominant ideologies, which antonio gramsci sees as a powerful mechanism of dominance.60 dewey suggests ways of how schools can avoid making students the dupe of others when they come out to take up their roles as responsible citizens in the wider society. “clearly they will have to cultivate the habit of suspended judgment, of skepticism, of desire for evidence, of appeal to observation rather than sentiment, discussion rather than bias, inquiry rather than conventional idealizations. when this happens schools will be the dangerous outposts of humane civilization.”61 this is well stated, education must have to challenge and empower the students to be critically conscious, be shrewd in a world that is constantly changing and more sophisticated than ever before. it must have to arouse critical consciousness of students, what freire calls epistemological curiosity.62 this will enable them to participate in common inquiry for the good of the society and survival of democracy. yes, communal inquiry, very important deweyan concept. dewey always emphasized and encouraged community search for knowledge as a way to improve both the individual and society at large. by this type of communal search the students will realize their interdependency and their need for one another for no one is a scit omnia (knows everything). dewey recognizes the power of participatory inquiry, by which students develop character, skill and intelligence necessary for democratic society. one of the major purposes of civic education is to enhance cooperation and collaboration among students. through the schools we build communities and bonds among students who will later become responsible citizens. “classes for study may be numerous, but all are regarded as modes of bringing people together, of doing away with barriers of caste, or class, or race, or type of experience that keep people from real communion with each other.”63 in this way students learn how to respect and tolerate each other in a participatory democracy. education should enlighten the students to the basic humanity and equality that we all share.64 but the regret of dewey is that schools have not always been able to achieve this basic human equality among students, just as i demonstrated above in the inferior education offered to 59 ibid., 58. 60 antonio gramsci, selections from the prison notebooks of antonio gramsci, ed. quintin hoare and geoffrey nowell-smith (london: lawrence & wishart, 1971). 61 ibid., 59. 62 ibid., 55. 63 john dewey, “the school as social centre” [an address delivered before the national council of education, minneapolis, minn., july, 1902. first published in elementary school teacher 3 (1902): 73-86, and in proceedings and addresses of the national educational association, 1902, pp. 373-83.] 64 martha c. nussbaum, “patriotism and cosmopolitanism,” (essay published in boston review, october/november 1994). in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 15 most of the american youth. rather schools have become sites of competition that the sense of community is lost. the only measure for success in many schools is a competitive one, in the bad sense of the term – a comparison of results in the recitation or in the examination to see which child has succeeded in getting ahead of others in storing up, in accumulating, the maximum of information. this, for dewey, has become the prevailing atmosphere in most of our schools. he discountenances the idea of rugged individualism (horatio) that spirals into capitalism which perniciously stands in the way of democracy. where an individual continuously acquires and accumulates both knowledge and wealth for oneself and never thinks of others. “acquiring has replaced inquiring”, dewey laments.65 the notion of acquiring depicts individualism while that of inquiring connotes community. “dewey was looking for average citizens who could recognize their common interests and organize themselves into publics capable of “forming and directing” public policies.”66 and this public is not only a nationalized and localized public but the public that will include the global public, the entire human family. how do we then educate our students to look beyond the national frontiers? civic education in the global sense globalization, according to martin albrow, “refers to all those processes by which the peoples of the world are incorporated into a single world society, global society.”67 hence, as jan nederveen pieterse notes, in social science there are many conceptualizations of globalization as there are disciplines. in economics, globalization refers to economic internationalization and the spread of capitalist market relations. in international relations, the focus is on developing a global politics.68 in cultural studies as durham & kellner noted, the concern is with global communications and worldwide cultural standardization as in mcdonaldization, and on postcolonial culture. in many noted conceptualizations, globalization is the corollary of modernity.69 globalization has been one of the most hotly debated phenomena for more than two decades. for defenders of globalization it marks the triumph of capitalism and its market economy, it is the continuation of modernization and a force of progress, increased wealth, freedom, democracy, and happiness. while for critics it is the emergence of a new transnational ruling of the elite, domination and control by the wealthier overdeveloped nations over the poor underdeveloped countries and thus increases the hegemony of the haves over the have-nots. it engenders the undermining of democracy, a cultural homogenization and increased destruction 65 john dewey, the school and society (chicago: university of chicago press, 1897). 66 jeannie oakes & john rogers, learning power (new york: teachers college university press, 2006). 67 martin albrow, “introduction,” in globalization, knowledge and society, eds. martin albrow & elizabeth king (london: sage, 1990). 68 jan nederveen pieterse, “globalization as hybridization,” in media and cultural studies: key works, eds. meenakshi g. durham & douglas m. kellner (massachusetts: blackwell publishing ltd, 2006). 69 meenakshi g. durham & douglas m. kellner, eds. media and cultural studies: key works (massachusetts: blackwell publishing ltd, 2006). in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 16 of natural environment.70 there are many forces playing a role in the opposing conceptualization and understanding of globalization. living through these contradictions is there a way we can use education to empower our children to overcome the negative forces of globalization and build human community and become global citizens? this question is critical because certain things, which i will point out in the following paragraph, have made this need necessary in our global present. the world as we see it is become a global village where what happens in one part affects the other. “globalization thus poses new challenges for citizenship, both in established western democracies and in the emerging nation-states of eastern europe, asia, latin america, and africa.”71 citizenship is no longer circumscribed within one’s national boundaries as many people today possess flexible citizenship. for instance some children born in the u.s are sent to their parents’ native countries to learn their culture and language. many of them end up becoming citizens of those countries as well and they go back and forth the two or three nations. some from europe, asia, latin america and africa come over to the u.s to study and they go back and forth the two nations and consider themselves citizens of both. to this phenomenon paul ong raises a very interesting question, “when foreign subjects leverage money and brains to take advantage of american education in transnational circuits, when many american citizens still experience exclusionary pressures from attending college, what does that do to our notions of democratic citizenship?”72 certainly, it does challenge the traditional idea of citizenship and civic education that is focused on building national identity and patriotism in the citizens. because these foreign subjects do not consider themselves entirely u.s citizens, building national identity and patriotism may be very weak. even the children born and raised here who live in those squalid conditions and neglect, mentioned above, not only have negative educational experience but are filled with anger and resentment loosely directed at the government, the nation and themselves. thus, the schools in poor and working class neighborhoods end up not just reproducing race and class inequality but also civic alienation. this can also result in driving a wedge between two oppressed communities: immigrant students and native born students, which may further result in xenophobia and nativism. these classes of citizens who are disenfranchised by the oppressive conditions may disindentify from the u.s. and seek other ways to describe themselves. additional reasons why the traditional civic education should be reconceptualized have been supplied by martha nussbaum: the first reason is because of self-knowledge. when we come to know and understand other people we know and understand ourselves even better. otherwise we feel that our way is the only way, the justified way. second is that when we understand ourselves better through the other, we become better equipped to solve international 70 peter mclaren & ramin farahmandpur, teaching against global capitalism and the new imperialism (new york: rowman & littlefield publishers, inc., 2005); ibid., 69; leslie sklair, the transnational capitalist class (massachusetts: wileyblackwell, 2001); samuel p. huntington, the clash of civilizations (new york: simon & schuster, 1996); kevin robins & frank webster, times of the technoculture: from the information society to the virtual life (new york: routledge, 1999). 71 james a. banks, ed. diversity and citizenship education (san francisco: jossey-bass, 2004). 72 paul ong, edna bonacich, & lucie cheng, eds., the new asian immigration in los angeles and global restructuring (philadelphia: temple university press, 1994) in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 17 problems. third reason is that we come to assume our moral responsibility to the entire humanity by having a cosmopolitan ideal. we enjoy a special privilege of high standard of living here in the u.s and we owe the rest of humanity for this privilege and we cannot discharge this global responsibility without global ideal. the fourth reason is that global identification with humans across the world is more real and morally binding than national identification that compels us to feel closer to fellow americans.73 thus there is need to rethink the meaning of citizenship through civic education. education for dewey was central for the forming and shaping of a democratic nation by forming in the citizen-subject the moral responsibility of living with others and contributing to the upkeep of the nation. he already signaled to the role of education in forming in everyone the idea of global citizenship by inviting us to look beyond the frontier of the nation.74 hence in educating the young we are not just to be concerned with the national spirit but the entire human community (global village). “on the other hand, education has a major role in forming social and political identity and giving young people the tools they need to become active citizens.”75 this tool will help the students to understand and live the new reality today, the reality of globalization and concern for every human being. for such is become a sine qua non in our new world. the tragedy of 9/11 has remained a constant reminder of this need. we live today in a world where the economic decisions and policies of our nation and corporations affect other nations at different spots of the globe. the current global economic crisis which started in wall street is spread throughout the world with very wrenching consequences for even poorer nations. therefore, as james a. banks puts it: citizenship education should have as major goals helping students to develop understandings of the interdependence among nations in the modern world, clarified attitudes toward other nations and peoples, and reflective identifications with the world community. it should also help students to develop a reflective commitment to justice and equality throughout the world.76 furthermore, the global power of technology has made it easy for people to form transnational communities and be able to connect with their homeland. nestor canclini refers to this as teleparticipation. he referenced roger rouse who studied the inhabitants of aguililla, a rural town in southwestern michoacan in mexico, apparently only accessible by a dirt road. its two main activities continue to be agriculture and raising livestock for subsistence, but the emigration that began in the forties was such an incentive that almost all families there now have members who live or have lived abroad. the declining local economy is sustained by the flow of dollars sent from california, especially from redwood city, that nucleus of microelectronics and 73 martha nussbaum, “patriotism and cosmopolitanism,” in for love of country: debating the limits of patriotism, ed. joshua cohen (boston: beacon, 1996) 74 john dewey, the public and its problems (new york: holt & company, 1927). 75 ibid., 71. 76 ibid., 75. in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 18 post-industrial north american culture in silicon valley, where the michoacanos work as laborers and in services. there are so many outside of aguililla, and so frequent are their connections with those who remain there, that one can no longer conceive of the two wholes as separate communities, they are better understood as forming only one community dispersed in a variety of places.77 we have advanced from traditional societies made up of peasant communities that are separated from each other with traditional, local, and homogeneous cultures to a largely urban scheme with heterogeneous symbolic offering renewed by the constant interaction of the local with national and transnational networks of communication. equally, the asymmetry relationship between first and third world is made complex by the decentralization of corporations, the planetary simultaneity of information, and the adaptation of certain international forms of knowledge and images to the knowledge and habits of each community. it seems then that culture has lost natural geographical and social territories. the multidirectional migrations are the other factor that relativizes the binary and polar paradigm in national relations. the latin american internationalization was accentuated in the last few decades by migrations which included persons from all social layers. the migrants carry with them the movement of cultures. as the mexican popular culture interacts with modern and postmodern symbolism, it is incorporated into the north american mainstream culture. with these cross-cultural intersections engendered by migrations nestor canclini notes the collapse of two conventional notions. one is the notion of community. it was assumed that the links between the members of those communities would be more intense inside than outside of their space, and that the members treat the community as the principal medium to which they adjust their actions. this is no longer the case today. this is because members of the same community living outside of the community still maintain strong ties with each other and their community by means of modern technology (e.g., telephone, internet, etc). the second notion is that of concentric distribution of power and wealth, meaning that the closer you are to the center the more power and wealth you have. this too is no longer valid today. people have power and control from far away countries. most of the buildings in many capitals and centers of commerce of many countries are owed by foreign nationals. they participate in the stock market and other investments that shape and control the life of the people in the particular country. so, even if they are many miles away from the center they still play a decisive role in the economic life of the people. there is the implosion of the third world in the first and that reorders society and social theories.78 consequently, individuals today are capable of having multiple identifications and attachments, including that of their cultural community, nation of origin, naturalized nations, and the worldwide human community.79 living this multiple, complex, interactive and contextual 77 nestor garcia canclini, “hybrid cultures, oblique powers,” in media and cultural studies: key works, eds. meenakshi g. durham & douglas m. kellner (massachusetts: blackwell publishing ltd, 2006). 78 ibid., 77. 79 martha c. nussbaum, “capabilities and disabilities,” philosophical topics 30, no. 2 (2002): 133-165. in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 19 identities can be very challenging. for instance, those who invest in foreign countries may well encounter moral conflict in terms of their loyalty and attachment to the country of business. do they base it on their economic interest and gain or feeling of connection to the people of that country? equally, many of the youth from asia, south america, africa etc, who migrate to the u.s find themselves caught in this complex web of identities. while they consider themselves citizens of both countries many feel no longer or entirely accepted in either. there is then the need to teach students this new and multiple ways of being. thus the goal of citizenship education in such a democratic and multicultural society will be to support them to gain knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to make intelligent decisions and choices that will not only be just and fair for their nation-state but the entire human community.80 too much attachment to the cultural community can impede the attachment to the nation, while too much attachment to the latter can also have a damning effect on one’s concern and relationship to the entire human community. there should always be a balance and this balance can be very delicate. kathleen abowitz commenting on the need for this evenhandedness with regard to issues concerning other humans observes how our national imagination and compassion for victims of 9/11 has been stirred by the news media, which at the same time neglected to value the sufferings of afghans. “the outpouring of compassion from around the country for the victims of the tragedy has been compelling and inspirational. however, our imaginations and compassions seem to have national boundaries; there have been far fewer documented cases of students or teachers attempting to imagine the lives, fears, and sufferings of afghanistan citizens or of muslims around the globe.”81 in her work, cosmopolitan and patriotism, martha nussbaum worries that too much nationalistic interest and patriotism can erode the u.s feeling of moral responsibility to the rest of humanity. it can make us have lesser value and respect for people of other countries.82 but the problem is that this is already the case as is obvious in our news media reporting of the war in iraq and afghanistan. unfortunately, even here in the u.s, as demonstrated above in the differential education, there is less concern of the rich for the poor and the underrepresented student groups are not given the fair attention and value. the hope then is that civic education or rather education in general should be able to engage students in communal critical inquiry of understanding their civic responsibility to the entire humanity. in many states and schools in our nation it seems this type of education is made possible for students. hope for the future? while i have these analyses of some of the past failures of our educational system to critically engage our students in civic education that will help them value and appreciate themselves and others, there is still great hope for the future. in the study by fine, et al., they 80 james a. banks, educating citizens in a multicultural society (new york: teachers college press, 2007). 81 kathleen knight abowitz, “imagining citizenship: cosmopolitanism or patriotism?, teachers college record, august 12, 2002. 82 ibid., 73. in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 20 acknowledged the effort made in small public schools in new york, philadelphia, chicago and new jersey. these schools have quality faculty and instructional materials, dedicated to rigorous education for students, including poor and working-class youth and youth of color. students in these schools learn about social stratification by researching history, economics and social movements with the possibilities and movements for social change and their responsibilities to participate in creating change.83 this is what civic education supposed to be and do for students. equally, it is important to acknowledge the effort that is being made by organizations like teaching to change la (tcla) sponsored by ucla idea office. in one of the workshops that teachers in these urban or working-class neighborhood schools had at ucla, they shared how they have engaged in communal and critical inquiry that dewey recommends. the students were engaged in a common critical search for meaning. it was a very empowering moment for the students who were engaged in such an inquiry. this was a way of entrenching the democratic principle of equal participation on the students. “the creation of citizens “in the fullness [sic] of their capacities” in turn demands that “free human beings [associate] with one another on terms of equality.” relating to fellow citizens on the basis of equality does not imply a “mathematical equivalence” in which all must participate in the same way. rather, it means that hierarchical understandings of individuals as “greater and less, superior and inferior,” must give way to a “metaphysical mathematics of the incommensurable in which each speaks for itself and demands consideration on its own behalf.”84 this is a very heartening practice since these students are the future of society. and by learning how to participate with others in a relationship of equality and common search for meaning, the students are empowered to live as well-informed citizens who are able to engage in a democratic system. this is a very noble project to say the least. how i wish every american student is empowered the same way so that everyone is given the tools to participate in that common inquiry where divisions of race, gender and class do not stratify the society, where everyone is considered equal. for in these divisions lie the bane of democracy as dewey would agree. there is then the need to liberalize this critical engagement of students in every american school, especially in california where the racial, class and ethnic gap is continuously widening, so that no one is left behind in the democratic process. with these efforts, it seems there is hope for our democracy! this will in turn increase students’ awareness and sensitivity of the human community beyond our borders, thereby engendering the global responsibility and responsiveness. conclusion civic education as this paper has demonstrated is what education is about for no one would claim to be educated without those skills that would enable him/her to collaborate with others in building both the national community and the human world. if this is true the quality of education we give to our children matters. using dewey’s ideas as framework, i have tried to 83 ibid., 50. 84 ibid., 66. in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 21 highlight the importance of education in forming responsible citizens for the survival of democracy and the human family. a great disservice is done both to the individual, the society and indeed humanity at large when certain population of our nation is served with poor quality education. those students learn a different civic text and may score their values and that of other humans differently. they learn rather to feel powerless, alienated, shameful, angry and betrayed than being empowered. “their alienation seems to stretch from schooling denied, to governments that betray and democratic promises that remain unfulfilled.”85 instead of learning to become responsible citizens they learn to disengage in any civic participation. it is therefore important to have an educational system that offers equal opportunity to all of our students. this equality of opportunity at home can only be the starting point for the global responsibility we have to the entire humanity. because of globalization, our educational system and civic education should no longer focus on forming the national identity and national citizenship alone but to look beyond our frontiers to the global public. students should be taught this new way of being in the world and the way to deal with the accompanying complexities. possessing multiple identities by no means is easy and we owe our children the obligation to empower them to step beyond the boundaries of race, nationality, privilege, first world, third world, black, white and all the other binaries. education can do this! i would like to close with this quote from howard mehlinger: the world is different from what it was fifteen or twenty years ago. global interdependence is a fact of life. . . . what does this have to do with civic education? civic education has traditionally been concerned with promoting nationalism. while nation-states will not suddenly disappear or lose their influence, nevertheless students must increasingly find identification with the species as a whole and not with american citizens only, be loyal to the planet as well as to the fifty states, and be committed to policies and goals intended to ensure the survival of the species rather than merely increasing american power and prestige at the expense of others.86 references: abowitz knight kathleen, “imagining citizenship: cosmopolitanism or patriotism?, teachers college record, august 12, 2002. albrow martin, “introduction,” in globalization, knowledge and society, eds. martin albrow & elizabeth king (london: sage, 1990). anyon jean, ghetto schooling: a political economy of urban educational reform (new york: teachers college record, 1997). ______radical possibilities: public policy, urban eduaction, and a new social movement (new york: routledge, 2005). banks a. james, ed. diversity and citizenship education (san francisco: jossey-bass, 2004). ______educating citizens in a multicultural society (new york: teachers college press, 2007). 85 ibid., 83. 86 howard d mehlinger, “the crisis in civic education,” education for responsible citizenship: the report of the national task force on citizenship education (new york: mcgraw-hill book company, 1977), 69. in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 22 barber r. benjamin, “public schooling: education for democracy,” in the public purpose of education and schooling, eds. goodlad i. john and mcmannon j. timothy (san francisco: jossey-bass, 1997). berliner david, “our impoverished view of educational research,” teachers college record 108, no.6 (2006): 949-995; bourdieu pierre, distinction: a social critique of the judgment of taste (massachusetts: harvard university press, 1984). buber martin, “the education of character” in between man and man (new york: macmillan, 1965). california department of education 2004. retrieved oct. 7, 2010 from http://www.eddata.k12.ca.us. canclini garcia nestor, “hybrid cultures, oblique powers,” in media and cultural studies: key works, eds. meenakshi g. durham & douglas m. kellner (massachusetts: blackwell publishing ltd, 2006). center on budget and policy priorities, economic recovery failed to benefit much of the population in 2004 (washington, dc: matrix group international, inc., 2005). darling-hammond linda, “the flat earth and education: how america’s commitment to equity will determine our future,” education researcher 36, no.6 (2007): 318-334. dawkins p. marvin & braddock j. henry, “the continuing significance of desegregation: school racial composition and african american inclusion in american society,” journal of negro education 63, no.3 (1994). delpit lisa, other people’s children: cultural conflict in the classroom (new york: the new press, 1995). dewey john, school and society (chicago: university of chicago press, 1897). ______experience & education (new york: touchtsone books, 1938). ______the public and its problems (new york: henry holt and company, 1927). ______“education as politics” [essay, first published in new republic 32 (1922): 139-41. republished in characters and events, ed. joseph ratner (new york: henry hold and co., 1929), and in education today, ed. joseph ratner (new york: g. p. putnam’s sons, 1940), pp.157-63.] ______“the school as social centre” [an address delivered before the national council of education, minneapolis, minn., july, 1902. first published in elementary school teacher 3 (1902): 73-86, and in proceedings and addresses of the national educational association, 1902, pp. 373-83.] dreier peter, “america’s urban crisis: symptoms, causes, solutions,” north carolina law review 71, (1993): 1351-1401. durham g. meenakshi & kellner m. douglas, eds. media and cultural studies: key works (massachusetts: blackwell publishing ltd, 2006). eaton susan, the other boston busing story: what’s won and lost across the boundary line (new haven, ct: yale university press, 2001). __________ the children in room e4 (north carolina: algonquin books of chapel hill, 2006). editorial projects in education research center, school to college: can state p-16 councils ease the transition? (washington, dc: u.s department of education, 2008). in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 23 ekstrom b. ruth, goertz e. margaret, pollack m. judith & rock a. donald, “who drops out of high school and why? findings from a national study,” teachers college record 87, no.3 (1986): 356-373. frankenberg erica, lee chungmei, & orfield gary, a multiracial society with segregated schools: are we losing the dream? report prepared by civil rights project, harvard university, 2003. freire paulo, pedagogy of the oppressed (new york: the continuum international publishing group inc. 1970). fine michelle, burns april, payne a. yasser, & torre e. maria, “civic lessons: the color and class of betrayal,” teachers college record 106, no.11 (2004): 2193-2223. gangi robert, schiraldi vincent, & ziedenberg jason, “new york state of mind?: higher education vs. prison funding in the empire state, 1988-1998,” justice policy institute (washington dc, october 1998). giroux henry, “war talk and the shredding of the social contract: youth and the politics of domestic militarization,” in critical theories, radical pedagogies, and global conflicts, eds. gustavo e. fischman, peter mclaren, heinz sunker, & colin lankshear (new york: rowman & littlefield publishers, inc., 2005). gramsci antonio, selections from the prison notebooks of antonio gramsci, ed. quintin hoare and geoffrey nowell-smith (london: lawrence & wishart, 1971). groome thomas, “what makes a school catholic,” in the contemporary catholic school: context, identity, and diversity, eds. mclaughlin, t; o’keefe, j & o’keefe, b. (london: the falmer press, 1996). habash anna, counting on graduation (washington, dc: the educational trust, 2008). handler f. joel & hasenfeld yeheskel, blame welfare, ignore poverty and inequality (new york: cambridge university press, 2007). heath b. shirley, ways with words: language, life, and work in communities and classrooms (new york: cambridge university press, 1983). ingersoll m. richard, “the problem of underqualified teachers in american secondary schools,” educational researcher 28, no.2 (1999): 26-37. ladson-billings gloria, the dreamkeepers: successful teacher of african-american children (san francisco: jossey-bass, 1994). lankford hamilton, loeb susanna, & wyckoff james, “teacher sorting and the plight of urban schools: a descriptive analysis,” educational evaluation and policy analysis 24, no.1 (2002): 37-62. larson colleen & murtadha khaula, “leadership for social justice,” in the educational leadership challenge: redefining leadership for the 21st century, ed. joseph murphy (chicago: university of chicago press, 2002). lynch kathleen & baker john, “equality in education: the importance of equality of condition,” theory and research in education 3, no. 2 (2005):131-164. massey douglas & denton nancy, american apartheid: segregation and the making of the underclass (massachusetts: harvard university press, 1993). mehlinger d. howard, “the crisis in civic education,” education for responsible citizenship: the report of the national task force on citizenship education (new york: mcgrawhill book company, 1977), 69. in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 24 mclaren peter & farahmandpur ramin, teaching against global capitalism and the new imperialism (new york: rowman & littlefield publishers, inc., 2005). mcmannon j. timothy, “introduction: the changing purpose of education,” in the public purpose of education and schooling. mcneil linda, contradictions of school reform (new york: routledge, 2000); fairtest, k-12 testing. retrieved may 15, 2006, from http://www.fairtest.org/k-12.htm. national center for education statistics, the condition of education 2008 (washington dc: u.s department of education, 2008). nauer kim, white andrew & yerneni rajeev, strengthening schools by strengthening families (new york: the new school, 2008). nussbaum c. martha, “patriotism and cosmopolitanism,” (essay published in boston review, october/november 1994). nussbaum c. martha, “capabilities and disabilities,” philosophical topics 30, no. 2 (2002): 133-165. oakes jeannie, keeping track: how schools structure inequality (new haven: yale university press, 1985). oakes jeannie & rogers john, learning power (new york: teachers college university press, 2006). ong paul, bonacich edna, & cheng lucie, eds., the new asian immigration in los angeles and global restructuring (philadelphia: temple university press, 1994). orfield gary & mcardle nancy, the vicious cycle: segregated housing, schools and intergenerational inequality. report prepared by harvard civil rights project in 2006. orfield gary & lee chungmei, why segregation matters: poverty and educational inequality. report prepared by civil rights project, harvard university, 2005. orfield gary, losen daniel, wald johanna, swanson b. christopher, losing our future: how minority youth are being left behind by the graduation rate crisis. report prepared by civil rights project, harvard university, 2004. orfield myron, american metropolitics (massachusetts: the brookings institution, 2002). pastor manuel, “a state united or a state divided: can multiple pathways bring together multiple californians? in multiple perspectives on multiple pathways (ucla idea, 2007). pieterse jan nederveen, “globalization as hybridization,” in media and cultural studies: key works, eds. meenakshi g. durham & douglas m. kellner (massachusetts: blackwell publishing ltd, 2006). robins kevin & webster frank, times of the technoculture: from the information society to the virtual life (new york: routledge, 1999). roscigno j. vincent, “family/school inequality and african-american/hispanic achievement,” social problems 47, no. 2 (2000): 266-290. rumberger w. russell & rotermund susan, “ethnic and gender differences in california high school graduation rates,” in california dropout research project (uc santa barbara, 2009). scheurich jim & laible julie, “the buck stops here,” educational administration quarterly 31, no.2 (1999): 313-322. in factis pax volume 6 number 1 (2012): 1-25 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 25 schofield janet, “review of research on school desegregation’s impact on elementary and secondary school students,” in handbook of research on multicultural education, eds. james a. banks & michael c. banks (new york: simon & schuster macmillan, 1995). school funding (us census bureau, 2011). sklair leslie, the transnational capitalist class (massachusetts: wiley-blackwell, 2001); samuel p. huntington, the clash of civilizations (new york: simon & schuster, 1996). skrla linda, mckenzie b. kathryn & scheurich j. james, using equity audits to create equitable and excellent schools (thousand oaks, ca: corwin press, 2009). sleeter christine & grant carl, empowerment through multicultural education (albany: state university of new york press, 1991). smeeding timothy, rainwater lee & burtless gary, “u.s. poverty in a cross-national comparison,” in understanding poverty, eds. sheldon danziger & robert haveman (new york: russell sage foundation, 2001). taysum alison & gunter helen, “a critical approach to researching social justice and school leadership in england,” education, citizenship and social justice 3, no.183 (2008). the penguin dictionary of sociology (london: penguin books ltd, 2006). the center for information & research on civic learning & engagement, “the civic mission of schools,” (new york: carnegie corporation of new york, 2003). full report can be accessed through: http://www.civicyouth.org/popups/civicmissionofschools.pdf. tiedt l. pamela & tiedt m. iris, multicultural teaching: a handbook of activities, information and resources (massachusetts: simon & schuster, 1990). valenzuela angela, subtractive schooling: u.s.-mexican youth and the politics of caring (albany: state university of new york press, 1999). webster’s unabridged dictionary (usa: barnes and nobles publishing inc., 2003). wells a. stuart & crain l. robert, “perpetuation theory and the long-term effects of school desegregation,” review of educational research 64 (1994).   action ideas yudkin_pascualfinal] volume 3 number 1 (2009): 1-28 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ action ideas in educating for human rights and towards a culture of peace in puerto rico1 anita yudkin suliveres and anaida pascual morán2 unesco chair for peace education university of puerto rico embracing the dream of a better world and adhering to it imply accepting the process of its creation. it is a process of struggle that must be deeply anchored in ethics. it is the process of struggle against all forms of violence – violence against the life of trees, of rivers, of fish, of mountains, of cities, against the physical marks of historical and cultural memories. it is also the process of struggle against violence toward the weak, the defenseless, the wounded minorities, violence toward those who are discriminated against . . . . the dream for a better world requires all these struggles, with only moments of rest, but without ever losing hope.3                                                                                                                 1 this paper is a revised and shortened version of the chapter “pensando el quehacer de la educación en derechos humanos y para una cultura de paz en puerto rico” to be published in: abraham magendzo, ed. ideas fuerza de la educación en derechos humanos en iberoamérica. (santiago, chile: unesco y oei, in press). it is also the paper upon which we based the workshop offered at international peace research institute (iipe), (budapest, hungary, august 2, 2009). we wish to acknowledge the editor of the forthcoming book, abraham magendzo, who originated the idea of researching and reflecting about actionideas in human rights education for the iberoamerican region.   2 anita yudkin suliveres and anaida pascual morán are both professors in the faculty of education at the university of puerto rico, in the foundations and graduate studies departments respectively. they have both served as coordinators of the unesco chair for peace education at the university of puerto rico. before, they both worked for over a decade in the teaching for freedom project of amnesty international, puerto rico section.   3 paulo freire, pedagogy of indignation (boulder: pardigm publishers 2004), 121-122.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     2   our starting point for this paper we engaged in the task of thinking about the field of education for human rights and peace in puerto rico. the existing ties between human rights education, peace education, and a culture of peace were our starting point. five actionideas constitute the pillars for research and reflection in this paper: (1) equity and diversity, (2) quality of life, (3) intergenerational equity, (4) self-determination, (5) culture of peace and human rights. when we speak of action-ideas, we refer to forms of conscience that liberate, move, and motivate towards action.4 these are fundamental principles that not only incorporate an extreme social force, but constitute by virtue of their intensity, ethical nature, and potential for action, an enormous energy that is dynamic and transformative. action-ideas tend to establish the grounds for ordering tensions in our social imaginary and articulate ideas of diverse movements in the social and political realm.5 conceptually, we understand human rights education as a core element of peace education conducive to values for a culture of human rights. in this broad and diverse field, human rights constitute the integrating axis, and peace is considered a human right of synthesis, essential for educating towards a new ethics of solidarity. contextually, both human rights education and the diverse approaches concerning peace education, come together in the movement towards a culture of peace. this vision-movement aspires to construct the framework for a new culture conducive to a just and positive peace. it is not aimed at educating for a negative peace characterized by the absence of war and direct violence. neither, towards a utopian, everlasting, “perpetual peace”. but rather, towards an “imperfect peace”,6 an unfinished joint project that continuously seeks to approximate our personal and collective human right not only to live, but to live together in peace. it is a culture clearly defined by the united nations                                                                                                                 4 in our reflection we have sought to rescue the original meaning of the philosophical expression (idéesforce), created at the end of the xix century by alfred fouillé (1832-1912), and later developed in several works, such as evolucionismo de las ideas-fuerza (1880), psicología de las ideas-fuerza (1893), and moral de las ideas-fuerza (1908).   5 antonio garcía-trevijano, “tres ideas-fuerza”. la república constitucional-blog de antonio garcíatrevijano, 2007, http://antoniogarciatrevijano.com/2007/0627/tres-­‐ideas-­‐fuerza; gustavo bueno, “proyecto para una trituración de la idea general de solidaridad”. separata de el catoblepas: revista crítica del presente, abril 2004, http:nodulo.org/ec/2004/no26p02.htm.   6 josé tuvilla rayo, cultura de paz; fundamentos y claves educativas (bilbao, españa: editorial desclée de brouer, 2004).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     3   education, science and culture organization (unesco), one that is closely tied to the respect of all human rights.7 in this sense, as we studied the evolution of human rights education in puerto rico, it became imperative for us to examine this trajectory within the conceptual framework of peace education and in the context of the culture of peace vision-movement. as such, we assumed the task of thinking about this field starting from the action-ideas we prioritized. for this research we conducted a systematic reflection8 about the field of education for human rights and towards a culture of peace in puerto rico, looking at its trajectory during the past two decades. with this purpose, we studied documents and publications, carrying out a content analysis. congresses and events that have given form to this educational effort were also identified. we held interviews with leading thinkers and activists so as to identify and clarify the central themes, tensions, and challenges of this educational endeavor. we appreciate their collaboration, since their knowledge and first hand experiences were key to the elaboration of this reflective-systematization.9 we point out that in addition to being the authors, we have also been active participants of this process, and as such, privilege from our viewpoint and experience as educators, determined school, university, and community contexts. action-ideas: evolution, tensions and challenges as previously mentioned, five action-ideas emerge from the field of education for human rights and towards a culture of peace in puerto rico. we elaborate these fundamental ideas on the basis of other normative complementary principles, and deepen our analysis as we look at the contexts, movements, and educational achievements that characterize its evolution. at the same time, we address the challenges and tensions present in this educational process. even though many of these challenges and tensions are universal, we explore from our puerto rican reality those that particularly respond to each one of the action-ideas we have identified and examined.                                                                                                                 7 from a culture of violence to a culture of peace (paris: unesco publishing, 1997); onu, declaración y programa de acción sobre una cultura de paz (resolución 53/243 de la asamblea general, 6 de octubre de1999); unesco and a culture of peace (paris: unesco publishing, 1995).   8 oscar jara, para sistematizar experiencias. (san josé, costa rica: alforja, 1994).   9 the authors wish to acknowledge several persons for their contribution to this reflexive research. our thanks to ana grimaldi colomer, former director of the office of unicef in puerto rico, for an extensive interview which allowed us to reconstruct part of this history. to josé raúl cepeda, professor and activist for human rights, for his timely input that helped us to consolidate some of the ideas expressed herein. we also thank josé santiago, student at the faculty of education and assistant to the unesco chair for peace education, for his help in locating publications and materials pertinent to education for human rights and peace in puerto rico.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     4   first action-idea: equity and diversity the respect for human dignity and the identities and subjectivities that converge in the otherness of each person, constitute the necessary components to reach a commitment towards equity and diversity. this commitment is the driving force for change in diverse educational scenarios and propitiates a greater reciprocal respect for civil, social, political, and cultural human rights in puerto rico. both notions imply the respect for human dignity, the reaffirmation of multiple identities, and the valuing of difference.10 in a culture that respects equity and diversity, the particularities of every human being and of every collective ethnic group or people, are legitimized.11 particularly pertinent to puerto rico, are the differences of origin, race, culture, language, age, values, sexual orientation, ideology, religion, and a diversity of marginalized populations such as students with special needs, migrants, indigents, elderly, homeless, and prisoners. the education for human rights and culture of peace in puerto rico arises from movements and organizations that seek to defend and promote human rights, or to prevent their violation. it also emerges from movements that vindicate civil rights, as for example, women’s rights, or the need to attend to some group whose rights are not respected, like those of the imprisoned population. in many cases the initiatives are part of international struggles for equity, like the abolition of the death penalty; struggles that take on a national and contextual character as in working against racial discrimination and in favor of gender equality, or in the recognition of the rights of the homosexual population. in this sense, education for equity and diversity has been carried out by nongovernmental organizations like amnesty international and paz para la mujer in the non-formal sector, and governmental entities such as the comisión de derechos civiles and the procuraduría de la mujer. these themes have also been addressed at the higher education level in various projects, courses, congresses and publications. amongst the university study programs, we identified the programa de estudios de la mujer y el género at the faculty of general studies at the university of puerto rico and the proyecto de estudios de las mujeres of the university of puerto rico, cayey campus. recently, the universidad del sagrado corazón established a master of arts program in justice systems, with two specialties: (a) conflict mediation and transformation, (b) human rights and anti-discrimination processes.                                                                                                                 10  abraham magendzo, “alteridad y diversidad: componentes fudantes de la educación en derechos humanos” in de miradas y mensajes de la educación en derechos humanos, ed. abraham magendzo kolstrein (santiago, chile: lom ediciones, 2004), 73-91.   11  aap, escuela y multiculturalidad (conclusiones del congreso internacional “educar para la diversidad en el siglo xxi, 15 de noviembre, 2000). http:www.educaweb.com/esp/servicios/monografico/multiculturalidad/article1.asp.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     5   educating for equity and diversity is inserted in our educational system by means of the professional development of teachers, the elaboration of educational materials, and the creation of study units. these deal with racial discrimination, the understanding of and relations with migrant populations, the inclusion of students with special needs, and gender equity, among other contents. given the increasing diversity and the struggle for equity of marginalized populations in puerto rico, we face the challenge of developing competencies, as well as producing curriculum and didactic materials geared towards educating for equity and diversity. this type of educational effort is at the same time tensioned by a series of excluding public policies, mindsets and fundamentalist attitudes prevalent in our country, which do not recognize each and everyone as a bearer of human rights. in order to create a culture of respect of human rights we must educate for an ethical commitment towards equity with a diversity of populations traditionally discriminated against in puerto rico, such as the homeless, prisoners, members of the gay community, elderly persons, and migrant populations. it is indispensable to recognize the racial and ethnic prejudices that are ignored or silenced and continue to encourage exclusion, especially when these are tied to matters of class. it is important to point out the tension that is present due to our intolerance towards migrants from the dominican republic, particularly given the increasing student population from this country in our schools. also, the challenge posed by the controvertible migration reform that is being discussed in the united states congress, in terms of its impact in puerto rico. the recognition of otherness and the respect for diversity constitute essential components to bring to life a culture of human rights, capable of transcending the manifestations of intolerance and prejudice that occur in puerto rico. in order to promote the recognition of alterity, we have to legitimate the face and voice of “the other” and thus establish the base for a non-discriminatory life together. in this sense, the educational experience should begin from the real life experiences of students, so that they can comprehend the prejudices that exist in our society. at the same time, openness and collaboration should characterize learning, so as to learn to work with “others” in the practice of tolerance and respect for their rights. to educate for equity and diversity also calls for a certain rupture with our identity scheme and the commitment to coexistence with a plurality of identities.12 as we assume these challenges and tensions, we educate to reach commitment with a puerto rican culture respectful of human rights. second action-idea: quality of life integral health and wellbeing, sustainable development, social justice and human rights constitute the key concepts in understanding and promoting our quality of life. this action-idea provides the foundation for educating in social, economic, political,                                                                                                                 12 magendzo, “alteridad y diversidad”, 2004.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     6   cultural and environmental rights, particularly as they pertain to health, environmental deterioration, economic disparities, crime, and the diverse manifestations of violence. we consider this notion an action-idea in our formation as a people, since the concerns and contributions which result from it enable a better understanding of our reality, understanding which is necessary for social transformation.13 as we study the context and evolution of education for human rights and towards a culture of peace, it is important to notice the increasing presence of violence as a defining element in interpersonal and group relationships in our nation.14 the prevalence of violence is evident in the high number of murders among youth, the abuse and murder of women by their partners, the alarming rate of child abuse, and the complex problem of drug addiction and crime, as well as in acts of police brutality against citizens and other forms of governmental abuse of power.15 as the multiple manifestations of violence become an everyday problem, these give shape to, and provide content for, educational action towards a better quality of life. these efforts, contrary to the public policy of “mano dura contra el crimen” which took hold in the 1990’s and has recently been retaken, seek to minimize violent and unjust relationships as they promote respect for human rights and peaceful coexistence. many of these initiatives stem from nongovernmental organizations, universities or research centers, like for example, iniciativa comunitaria, centro agenda puertorriqueña para la calidad de vida, and the comisión para la prevención de la violencia (coprevi). at the same time, education for a better quality of life is provided in the non-formal sector by environmental organizations such as casa pueblo in the mountain region of adjuntas. at the university level, there are note worthy projects such as escuela de asuntos ambientales de la universidad metropolitana, and the asociación nacional de derecho ambiental, that conduct research and generate alternatives for sustainable development. educating towards a better quality of life in puerto rico, requires that we assume the challenge of attaining integral health, sustainable development, social justice, and human rights, with quality of education as basis. furthermore, we face the tension of doing so in the context of a lack of social cohesion, the existence of repressive anti-crime                                                                                                                 13 garcía-trevijano, “tres ideas-fuerza”, 2007; bueno, “proyecto para una trituración”, 2004.   14 virgen cáceres & maría ríos la violencia nuestra de cada día (san juan, puerto rico: centro de investigaciones sociales, universidad de puerto rico, 2002); perfil de la violencia en puerto rico 1984-2004 (san juan, puerto rico: centro agenda para la calidad de vida, universidad interamericana de puerto rico, 2006); segundo encuentro de prevención de violencia (san juan, puerto rico: comisión para la prevención de la violencia, 2007).   15 la violencia, la isla y el área metro (san juan, puerto rico: tendencias/universidad de puerto rico, 2005); dora nevares-muñiz, el crimen en puerto rico (san juan, puerto rico: instituto para el desarrollo del derecho, 1996); “sistema de vigilancia epidemiológica de muertes violentas” (cayey, puerto rico: coprevi) http://www.coprevi.org/sistema_vigilancia.html.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     7   policies, and the manifestations of violence, crime, and socioeconomic marginalization that we face on a daily basis. given the lack of citizen participation in those matters that affect our quality of life, we also have to struggle to promote and give form to true citizenship by means of participation, dialogue and consensus based action proposals. educating for a better quality of life requires that we propitiate integral health and well being in a country with a high rate of mental health and addiction problems, where addicts are criminalized, and the health system is in decay. it demands that we educate for economic and social sustainable development, in contrast to the prevailing high incidence of inequality, consumerism, corruption, environmental degradation, and arms and drugs trafficking. it also implies that we educate to safeguard our national patrimony, the enjoyment of nature and the access to public spaces, where unbounded urbanization, blatant individualism, social conformism, and profit seeking are destroying our beautiful lands and shores. third action-idea: intergenerational equity fulfilling the rights of children and youth demands a commitment of solidarity with the incoming generations from the outgoing generations so as to foster their full participation as citizens and intergenerational equity. we consider the notion of intergenerational equity -promoted by unicef as “the new ethics for the new millennium” and guaranteed by the convention on the rights of the child -a key actionidea in the evolution of education for human rights and peace in puerto rico. this notion has internationally transformed the collective consciousness, and puerto rico is no exception. during the past two decades, from diverse educational scenarios, this actionidea has given way to the recognition, prioritization and defense of children’s rights for their full citizen participation as an essential commitment of solidarity between generations. the approval of the convention on the rights of the child in 1989, and the movement generated internationally for the promotion and defense of these rights, have had a noticeable effect in educating for human rights and peace in puerto rico. during the 1990’s, unicef, the proyecto educando para la libertadamnistía internacional, and the colegio de abogados, leaded a coalition effort for the promotion of the rights of children and youth, educating for intergenerational equity. this work comprised the non-formal and formal educational sectors through a wide range of activities, including congresses, children’s festivals, professional development for teachers, workshops for parents and students, and development of educational and didactic materials.16 the university of puerto rico’s faculty of education provides fundamental support, joining the university, schools, and community in this educational endeavor.                                                                                                                 16  isabel freire de matos, los derechos del niño (guaynabo, puerto rico: ediciones santillana, 1996); andrea husler, henry y su amiga especial (san juan, puerto rico: comité de puerto rico de unicef, 1994); anaida pascual morán, ¡nuestros derechos! (san juan, puerto rico: amnistía internacional, 1993).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     8   at the same time, the rights of children and youth serve as driving force for governmental actions, like for example the promotion of legislation.17 in the formal educational sector, curricular materials are produced and some concepts are inserted into the elementary school curriculum. the most recent significant government action is the commitment established by the city of caguas by joining the unicef child friendly cities initiative. educating for intergenerational justice requires that the outgoing generations take on as a priority the rights of the incoming generations, as a commitment of solidarity that promotes the optimal development of children’s potentials, their autonomy, and their full participation as citizens. to educate in this direction is not an easy task in puerto rico, where the understanding of the rights of children and youth is lacking, while we have a high incidence of child abuse and neglect, “juvenile delinquency”, “school drop-outs”, and the tragic loss of talents and lives of youth involved in arms trafficking and the culture of drugs. as we educate about and for the rights of children and youth, we face the challenge of teaching about, and complying with, the convention on the rights of the child, in a country that paradoxically lacks international juridical standing to ratify and monitor said convention. this is further aggravated when puerto rican children and youth are invisibilized in international reports and legal documents.18 we must also temper our juvenile justice system to international norms as recorded in the convention, since juveniles are treated punitively and as transgressing adults, instead of providing for prevention, mediation, and conciliation.19 similarly, we must aim to close the existing gap between the educational and legal worlds of those who work for the rights of children and youth, so that educators participate in related legislative procedures and those who legislate are nourished by our educational efforts. we also face the challenge of educating to surpass the existing mindsets that assign greater importance to the rights to survival, to develop to the fullest, and to protection from harmful influences, thus neglecting their rights to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. another obstacle is provided by some ultraconservative and fundamentalist entities, which see only dangers and threats in the convention, perceiving                                                                                                                 17 carta de derechos del joven en puerto rico (ley num. 167 del estado libre asociado, 2003); carta de derechos del niño (ley num 338 del estado libre asociado de puerto rico, 1998), declaración de derechos y deberes de la persona menor de edad, su padre, su madre y del estado, (ley num. 89 del estado libre asociado de puerto rico, 2000).   18 jaime conde, “la invisibilidad de los niños, niñas y adolescentes de puerto rico” (ponencia presentada en el congreso cuidades amigas de la niñez: una estrategia para puerto rico y el caribe, caguas, puerto rico, 2007).   19 alfonso silva sernaqué, derechos humanos de los niños y adolescents y la legislación internacional: reflexiones sobre la legalidad y la realidad (lima, perú: fondo editiorial de la universidad nacional mayor de san marcos, 2005).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     9   it as conducive to restricting and challenging “parental authority” and thus publicly oppose it. given these challenges, we must assume a vigilant position and evaluate the activities we develop so that they foster the authentic participation of children and youth and promote their decisions and initiatives.20 with this in mind, we must engage the tension of building participatory spaces in an educational context where autonomy, dialogue and mutual trust are not generally fostered. this situation worsens when conflicts, instead of being perceived as learning opportunities, are considered to be a problem from a punitive and authoritarian view of discipline. we also face the task of documenting and rescuing the history of two decades of initiatives and alliances in favor of the rights of children and youth, stemming from the approval of the convention. it is important that we build on what has been constructed, not from lack of knowledge of the road already traveled. fourth action idea: self-determination the decolonization and demilitarization of puerto rico constitute inalienable political rights in order to reaffirm our national identity and reach our selfdetermination. given our colonial subordinated reality, we consider the notion of selfdetermination a key action-idea that is a driving force for our decolonization and demilitarization from diverse educational paths and positions of militancy. this actionidea is conducive to a greater conscientization about the violations of human rights and persecutions of a political nature. furthermore, it drives us a nation with “emerging consciousness” that is “prevented of being”, to reinforce our inalienable right to reaffirm our own destiny, our sovereignty, and our national identity.21 the relationship of political subordination between puerto rico and the united states provides the context, and constitutes the central tension, that drives struggles for the defense of our national identity, decolonization, demilitarization, and selfdetermination. historically, the actions undertaken towards decolonization and selfdetermination include diverse scenarios and strategies. these include nonviolent actions like the participation before the united nations decolonizing committee, and the national political organization in favor of independence of puerto rico. at the other extreme, are armed interventions, including attempts against individuals and installations representative of the united states government. in many cases those who have headed                                                                                                                 20 anaida pascual & anita yudkin, “educar para la convivencia escolar pacífica: principios y pautas en torno a por qué, para qué y cómo” (conferencia inaugural del primer congreso para la convivencia pacífica escolar del sindicato puertorriqueño de trabajadores, carolina, puerto rico, 2005) http://unescopaz.rrp.upr.edu/act/conferencias/convpacificaescolar.html.   21 paulo freire, “pedagogía de la esperanza – diálogo con paulo freire” américa libre, la habana cuba (abril-mayo, 1993); anaida pascual morán, “pedagogías del destino nacional” casabe – revista puertorriqueña de teología (1999), 51-88.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     10   actions for decolonization and demilitarization have been criminalized and have faced political persecution, by both the united states federal government in puerto rico, and puerto rican governmental institutions.22 what we have called education for self-determination emerges from this context and evolves in two main strands: political education to promote understanding of the colonial relationship in order to overcome it, and educational efforts in favor of those who have suffered political persecution and imprisonment. the first of these has been undertaken mainly by organizations of civil society, such as the comité de puerto rico en la onu (copronu), and the colegio de abogados, and by political entities with training initiatives. the second has been assumed, going against the current, by organizations such as the comité de derechos humanos, that defend our right to self-determination and the freedom of puerto rican political prisoners as a matter of civil and human rights. this task has been conducted mainly by means of campaigns of conscientization using mass media like radio, television, and the internet. parallel to the struggle for the political right to self-determination, and in an interrelated fashion, for the past forty years an antimilitarism movement that questions, resists, and opposes the military presence of the united states in puerto rico has evolved. this movement is nourished by the activities opposing the vietnam war, in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and recently in iraq, as well as the development of pacifism internationally. the leading actors in this movement include ecumenical coalitions, political parties, and student organizations. the educational efforts towards demilitarization are mainly conducted by civil society organizations, for example pax christi, madres contra la guerra, and proyecto caribeño de justicia y paz. recently, given the increasing presence of military recruiters from the united states armed forces in our public schools, the department of education has authorized access and “equal time” to pacifist organizations to educate about the disadvantages of militarism and the alternative nonmilitary alternatives. the topic of demilitarization is also analyzed at the formal educational university level, mainly through symposiums, research studies, and publications.23 when educating for self-determination, we face the challenge of assuming the decolonization, demilitarization, and affirmation of our national identity as inalienable political rights in a nation that paradoxically has not attained sovereignty. the notion of                                                                                                                 22 ramón bosque pérez & javier colón morera, eds. puerto rico under colonial rule: political persecution and the quest for human rights (new york: suny press, 2005); ramón bosque pérez & javier colón morera, eds. las carpetas: persecución política y derechos civiles en puerto rico (san juan, puerto rico: centro para la investigación y la promoción de los derechos civiles, 1998); josé paralitici, sentencia impuesta: cien años de encarcelamientos por la independencia de puerto rico (san juan, puerto rico: ediciones puerto, 2004).   23 anita yudkin suliveres, comp., universidad y (anti)militarismo: historia, luchas y debates (san juan, puerto rico: universitarios por la desmilitarización, 2005).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     11   “national identity” immediately brings forth a series of tensions from various sectors. in the first place, an ideological sector wants to be incorporated as a state to another country with an identity dramatically different from ours, and alleges that our identity is only cultural in nature. then, an intellectual sector questions the existence and pertinence of the “puerto rican nationality” as a referent in our social imaginary in a time of vanishing national boundaries. a third sector, recognizes the continually redefining “new identities scenario”, yet affirms the national identity that differentiates and gives us cohesion as nation.24 educating for decolonization requires a de-conditioning , by means of an “authentic thought” and rupture with the “culture of silence” and the “delusive voice”, which results from our colonial relationship of dependence to the united states. furthermore, it presents us the challenge to educate for the transformation of our “ingenuous” and “oppressed” colonial conscience to a society with “emerging consciousness”.25 it is not an easy task to educate for demilitarization in a dominated nation that is at the same time immersed in the culture of war and violence sustained by the dominating nation. towards this aim, it is necessary to create and affirm those cultural and educational ways typical of dependent people’s struggle for autonomy.26 in order to visualize a different future, it will also be necessary to “unlearn war” and “demilitarize thought” from a critical, creative and problematizing education.27 in puerto rico, we also face challenges and tensions that are particular to our idiosyncracy and to an education that has fostered docility and the devaluing of ourselves. according to the puerto rican educator isabel freire de matos, given our colonial situation that demands “double allegiance”, we possess a “divided consciousness” – two national anthems, two flags, two languages.28 this divided consciousness emerges, particularly, amidst the void faced by the lack of a national educational philosophy in harmony with the formation of a citizenship capable of forging its own destiny.29                                                                                                                 24 jorge benítez nazario, reflexiones sobre la cultura política puertorriqueña (san juan, puerto rico: insituto de cultura puertorriqueña, 2001).   25 freire, “pedagogía de la esperanza-diálogo con paulo freire”1993; pascual morán, “pedagogías del destino nacional”, 1999.   26 ricardo nassif, teoría de la educación (bogotá, colombia: editorial cincel, 1985): pascual morán, pedagogías del destino nacional”, 1999).   27 ana bastida, desaprender la guerra (barcelona: ediorial icaria, 1994); vincenc fisas, la paz es posible (barcelona: intermón/oxfam, 2002); betty reardon & alicia cabezudo, learning to abolish war (new york: hague appeal for peace, 2002); unesco and a culture of peace, 1995.   28 isabel freire de matos, “la escuela elemental puertorriqueña”, claridad, 17-23 de febrero, 1997).   29 pascual morán, “pedagogías del destino nacional”, 1999).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     12   ideological polarization also has led us towards fragmentation, and generated excessive political/ideological affiliations and polarization of our public school and university educational systems. our identity is also tensioned and divided in “two shores”, since almost half of our population is in the diaspora. so it is not easy to shape a pedagogy that gives meaning to our existence. in our judgment, we must configure a national pedagogy capable of uncovering our colonial path. an authentic pedagogy that leads us to reinterpret our history and culture, in order to forge our own destiny in solidarity with other peoples and nations.30 fifth action idea: culture of peace and human rights some action-ideas have the potential of harmonizing worldviews and currents of thought that appear impossible to reconcile to the point of propelling radical change and laying the foundations for transforming history.31 in our judgment, such is the case of the notion of culture of peace and human rights. this conception provides a suitable paradigm to transform the diverse manifestations of direct violence, cultural violence, and structural violence. the vision/movement towards a culture of peace, leaded by unesco, that underlies and guides this action-idea, provides for the coming together of efforts from diverse ideologies and scenarios worldwide. the goal is always clear – to promote an education leading to a holistic peace and overcoming the prevailing culture of violence. this vision/movement, that takes shape worldwide during the decade of 1990, has an important influence in education for human rights and peace in puerto rico. at the university level, we distinguish the work done by the cátedra unesco de educación para la paz-universidad de puerto rico, in the promotion of activities and publications around the action spheres of the decade for a culture of peace (2001-2010), contextualizing and “puerto-ricanizing” the topics studied.32 for over ten years, we have educated, within and from the university, in order to surpass the relationships of violence, foster critical understanding and action for human rights and a positive peace. education for a culture of peace also takes place in the training of educators and other professional, as it is selected as a central theme in the professional development                                                                                                                 30 ibid.   31 garcía tervijano, “tres ideas-fuerza”, 2007; bueno, “proyecto para una trituración”, 2004.   32 fernando picó, a la universidad desde la cárcel (san juan, puerto rico: cátedra unesco de educación para la paz, universidad de puerto rico, 1999): robert rabín, miriam sobá & carlos zenón, de vieques a la universidad (san juan, puerto rico: cátedra unesco de educación para la paz, universidad de puerto rico, 2003; luis rivera pagán, entre el terror y la esperanza (san juan, puerto rico: cátedra unesco de educación para la paz, universidad de puerto rico, 2004); anita yudkin & anaida pascual, eds. educando para la paz en y desde la universidad: antología conmemorativa de una década (san juan, puerto rico: cátedra unesco de educación para la paz, universidad de puerto rico, 2008).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     13   programs and congresses of diverse organizations, including the asociación puertorriqueña para la educación en la niñez temprana, the asociación de colegios privados, and the asociación puertorriqueña de consejería profesional. in addition, the public media, tutv-canal 6, and radio universidad, conduct programming around the topic of a culture of peace, and adopt it as slogan beginning in the year 2000, international year for a culture of peace. in recent years, departments of education in various universities create courses on education for human rights and peace, and nonviolent conflict resolution for schools. at the río piedras campus of the university of puerto rico for example, two elective courses are offered: peace education, for the undergraduate level, and culture of peace and liberating education: principles and emerging pedagogies for graduate students. these contribute towards the goal of forming reflexive educators, committed to a culture of peace and respect for human rights.33 the creative projects generated for the completion of their master’s degree by the graduate students from the school of education at the university of puerto rico, deserve to be noticed for their contribution to this educational endeavor. the projects provide for research and creation of curriculum and activities that allow for the development of knowledge and attitudes conducive to a culture of peace and human rights.34 at the same time, the prevalence of violence in the country is also evident in schools, where incidents of physical violence and aggression between students are on the rise, as are acts of vandalisms, and other problems that affect learning and peaceful coexistence.35 for the past fifteen years, the government’s response to the problems of violence, including those in schools, has followed a predominantly punitive, police, and                                                                                                                 33 marco conceptual de los programas profesionales de la facultad de educación, (facultad de educación, recinto de río piedras, universidad de puerto rico 2003).   34 judith conde pacheco, “diario con nombre de mujer” (proyecto de maestría, facultad de educación, universidad de puerto rico, 2004); joan figueroa rivera, “escuelas por una paz activa” (proyecto de maestría, facultad de educación, universidad de puerto rico, 2006); marisol kavetsky cora, “ alforja de semillas emocionales y esprituales” (proyecto de maestría, facultad de educación, universidad de puerto rico, 2005); carlos muñiz osorio, “ecopaz” (proyecto de maestría, facultad de educación, universidad de puerto rico, 2000); luis rivera pastrana, “¡cámara por favor!” (proyecto de maestría, facultad de educación, universidad de puerto rico, 2006).   35 incidentes de violencia en las escuelas, (datos provistos por la policía de puerto rico y el departamento de educación, 2007) http://www.tendenciapr.com/educacion/educacion.html#anchor_279; margarita moscoso, juan reyes, héctor colón & magdalena lópez, “la violencia entre adolescentes puertorriqueños” (trabajo presentado en segundo encuentro de prevención de violencia, san juan, puerto rico, 2007).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     14   militaristic approach.36 on the other hand, legislation37 and school programs38 have been promoted that cite the promotion of a culture of peace and learning to live together in schools, as their basis and ultimate goal. unfortunately many of these programs are short lived and are subject to change or elimination with changes of governmental administrations. in response to the problems of violence, there are diverse nongovernmental initiatives that focus on the nonviolent resolution of conflicts. during the 1990’s, several schools that share collaborative projects with the university of puerto rico, such as nueva escuela juan ponce de león, escuela elemental antonio s. pedreira, escuela elemental abraham lincoln, integrate children’s rights and conflict resolution to their educational programs. during the past years, several organizations including the fundación golsdtein levis, the centro para la prevención de violencia en jóvenes hispanos, and the sindicato puertorriqueño de trabajadores, generate initiatives for the mediation and nonviolent resolution of conflicts in public schools, thus educating for peaceful coexistence.39 in educating towards a culture of peace and human rights, we face the challenge of educating in a society characterized by an atmosphere of polarization and intolerance and a culture of direct, cultural and structural violence. it is important to point out that there is a lack of consciousness on behalf of political and educational authorities of the legitimacy and urgency of educating in this direction, and as a consequence we lack educational policies and scarcely have programmatic initiatives aimed towards these goals. an exception is found in the renovated social studies curricular framework for the public schools.40 it incorporates “ethics and civics” at all levels (k-12), integrating across the                                                                                                                 36 sheila rodríguez madera & beliza torres nárvaez, “conociendo la violencia, (conferencia presentada en la 9na conferencia anual de la asociación de psicólogos escolares de puerto rico, san juan, puerto rico, 2007); salvador santiago negrón & sheila rodríguez madera, “la violencia y la criminalidad en puerto rico”, (conferencia presentada en la cumbre multisectorial contra la criminalidad, san juan, puerto rico. 2007).   37 carta de derechos y responsabilidades de la comunidad escolar para la seguridad en las escuelas (ley num. 110 de 2006).   38 “experiencias del programa de convivencia pacífica del departamento de educación”, (presentación realizada en el primer congreso educativo psicosocial, universidad interamericana, san juan, puerto rico, 29 de febrero de 2008).   39 rafael juarbe pagán, “la mediación escolar comunitaria como proyecto de gerencia social hacia el aumento del capital social comunitario” en anita yudkin suliveres y anaida pascual morán, eds. educando para la paz en y desde la universidad: antologiía conmemorativa de una década, (san juan, puerto rico: cátedra unesco de educación para la paz, universidad de puerto rico, 2008).   40 marco curricular del programa de estudios sociales, (san juan, puerto rico: instituto nacional para el desarrollo curricular, depto. de educación, 2003).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     15   curriculum the concepts of civics, democratic participation, duties, rights and responsibilities, among others. educating for a culture of peace and human rights also faces the question of who should be responsible for this education – the state or the nongovernmental organizations and civil society. this tension is real, given that we understand that both share this responsibility of educating the incoming generations. we therefore ask ourselves about the desirability of government assuming this obligation when, in determined moments of our history, the state has violated the civil rights of certain populations, and has strong political ties to particular parties and ideologies.41 we have also had governments that assume hard-line repressive and punitive policies of “mano dura”, “cero tolerancia”, and “castigo seguro”, and lately justify more severe penalties on behalf of the “war against terrorism” called forth by the metropolis. thus, if a particular government assumes this task, we must be vigilant that this process is not distorted. in other words, that we do not educate from a reductionist, complacent, trivial or “light” paradigm, but from a critical and preventive paradigm that assumes the centrality of human rights and justice in this process. another challenge we face, given the political polarization that is prevalent in our society, is the appropriation of the discourse of human rights and peace by “pseudo leaders” who precisely represent the opposite. this challenge is in marked contrast with the marginality that often characterizes the work for peace and human rights and the lack of recognition towards this committed endeavor. we must also face the apparent contradiction that exists in some organizations in puerto rico when they oppose activism and education when engaging in human rights and peace work. when educating towards a culture of peace and human rights, we must assume these as curricular content and educational practice, within an educational system that is conventional in its subject matter and ways of teaching. to this end, we must identify programmatic, curricular, and didactic means to incorporate principles, contents, and especially values that are pertinent to our reality. we must also contextualize, particularize, and “puertorriqueñizar” the values that underlie the manifesto 2000, as a puerto rican agenda for a culture of peace.42 these values: respect for all lives, rejection of violence, liberation of generosity, listening for                                                                                                                 41 osvaldo burgos pérez, “¿y qué cuando al violencia viene del estado?” (presentación para el segundo encuentro sobre la violencia, comisión para la prevención de la violencia, san juan, puerto rico: 2007); hiram lozada in abraham magendzo, conversaciones y tensiones en torno a la educación en derechos humanos (san juan, puerto rico: cátedra unesco de educación para la paz, universidad de puerto rico, 2006).   42 “agenda puertorriqueña para una cultura de paz” (san juan, puerto rico: cátedra unesco de educación para la paz, universidad de puerto rico, 2000).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     16   understanding, preserving the planet, and reinventing solidarity, provide us with an ideal platform. in order to internalize these values it is necessary to articulate the cognitive, affective, and experiential dimensions of education. harmonizing these dimensions requires that at the same time we prioritize perceptions, feelings, intuitions, and sensations that constitute authentic and vital experiences in any learner. we also need to create a secure educational environment and construct a learning community built on trust, respect, and support.43 we must also open the educational experience to the fields of artistic, linguistic, metaphorical and corporal expressions in the construction of knowledge.44 this is not a simple task in the context of our educational system that privileges a cognitive, disciplinary, fragmented paradigm. it is also not easy when our surroundings – from the most immediate like families, neighborhoods and cities, to the most distant war scenarios – seem to provide “socially toxic environments” of vigilance and control for our children and youth.45 when educating towards a culture of peace and human rights, we must recognize that our schools and other educational centers clearly reflect the culture of violence that prevails in our country. furthermore we must acknowledge that the culture of violence is intertwined in many of our educational policies and practices. this “systemic violence in education” which we must face directly, promotes a repressive and punitive climate as it assumes authoritarian pedagogies and particular teaching and evaluation methods that are antidemocratic and discriminatory.46 our own teachers express that it is ironic to have such a centralized, politicized, and authoritarian educational system in a society that claims to be democratic.47 this reality claims that we reflect upon human rights, live their interdependence and indivisibility in every educational realm. we encounter the need to convert daily events that take place in schools, communities, social and global spheres into primary didactic elements.48 this challenge demands that we organize our educational structures in a                                                                                                                 43 xesús jares, “los retos de la educación para los derechos humanos” en abraham magendzo, ed. de miradas y mensajes en torno a la educación en derechos humanos (santiago, chile: lom ediciones, 2004) 285-297; pascual & yudkin, educar para la convivencia escolar pacífica, 2005.   44 abraham magendzo, patricio donoso, caludia dueñas, maría t. rodas & luis sime, para recrear la cultura escolar (santiago, chile: corporación nacional de reparación y conciliación y programa interdisciplinario de investigación en la educación, 1994).   45 james garbarino, raising children in a socially toxic environment (san francisco: jossey bass, 1995); pascual & yudkin, “educar para la convivencia escolar pacífica”, 2005).   46 pascual & yudkin, “educar para la convivencia escolar pacífica”, 2005; juanita ross epp & alisa watkinson systemic violence in education (new york: suny press, 1997).   47 benitez, reflexiones sobre la cultura política puertorriqueña, 2001.   48 jares, “los retos de la educación en derechos humanos”, 2004.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     17   participatory fashion so as to democratize them. it also implies that we must view all educational processes as conflictive contexts, so as “to educate from and for the nonviolent resolution of conflicts”.49 in other words, we must seek the time and space to engage all tensions and emerging contradictions, recognizing the conflictive nature of life, peace, and learning. in addition, it requires that we learn to engage conflicts by means of mediation, consensus building, and reconciliation as counterpoints to our traditional education that evades and sanctions them.50 to educate for human rights and a culture of peace calls for a greater commitment and effort from the institutions of higher education to provide future educators the knowledge and experience to face these challenges. at the same time, we must adopt a systematic policy that promotes the lifelong learning of educators in this direction. we must also face the challenge of adopting a theoretical framework and a problematizing pedagogy coherent with educating for a culture of peace and human rights.51 this also entails articulating diverse contemporary currents of critical and liberatory pedagogies, as scaffolds, since they are ideal for transforming education in puerto rico and for the creation of new generations capable of appropriating and fighting for human rights and peace. to educate in this direction also demands that we “educate from and for commitment and hope”.52 this entails recuperating the value of utopia, overcoming the fatalist and determinist ideology that has taken shape in the past decade in puerto rico and in the world. it is about courageously assuming a pedagogy of hope, that dreams with reflecting and acting in our world, from indignation and love, against all situations of injustice.53 as we encounter the lack of coherence and articulation between initiatives of research, education, and action for human rights and a culture of peace in puerto rico, we face the task of assuming new nonviolent paradigms leading to harmonizing and making visible these three trends that share the same agenda.54 this agenda implies building a puerto rican culture of reduced violence and elevated justice. it also claims that our words lead to actions, in a transition towards a research of social pertinence, and a curriculum where we learn to share and live together.                                                                                                                 49 ibid.   50 pascual & yudkin, “educar para la convivencia escolar pacífica”, 2005.   51 magendzo, “human rights education as critical pedagogy” (human rights education listserve, june, 2002). http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-education/markup/msg00963.html   52 jares, “los retos de la educación en derechos humanos”, 2004; xesús jares, educar para la verdad y la esperanza (madrid: editorial popular, 2005).   53 paulo freire, pedagogía de la esperanza,(méxico: siglo xxi, 1993).   54 anaida pascual morán, acción civil noviolenta (san juan, puerto rico: publicaciones puertorriqueñas, 2003).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     18   ethics of solidarity in vieques: testimony of a driving idea of synthesis from the harmonious synthesis of several action-ideas, it is possible that an allencompassing idea emerges; an idea with such an energy that is capable of reconciling oppositions, tensions, and resistances in a particular society. this is a “supreme actionidea” that drives us to act collectively in favor of a determined cause, whose fundamental ethics coincides with universal values. this is the case for example of the notion of “social solidarity”, evidenced in diverse ways through the history of humanity.55 in our judgment, a similar action-idea of synthesis56 takes shape in particular moments of our history: the ethics of solidarity. this ethics encompasses the actionideas we have proposed and constitutes a framework for change. this “ethics of responsibility” aspires to construct a new rationality, another paradigm that guides us through a path of commitment and reciprocity characterized by the nonviolent resolution of conflicts. we wish to point out, that peace being a “human right of synthesis” of our fundamental rights and liberties, education for human rights and a culture of peace is key in leading to this “action-idea of synthesis”. thus, we understand that our mayor challenge is to educate transversally for this “new ethics”. to this end it is important to be aware of the immense possibilities offered by the current solidarity networks in cyberspace that are committed to human rights and peace, as a primary pedagogic source for didactic materials and action. amongst the features of this new “ethics of care” that is profoundly humanistic and feminine, the “conscience of the responsibility for the whole” emerges. this is the expression of a “consciousness for the wellbeing of society in equality and reciprocity”, “before the values of the strongest”.57 according to liberation theologian leonardo boff, it is about educating for an “ethics of responsibility”, justified by the threat to environmental balance and by the injustices faced by the majority of humanity. it is about educating for an inclusive moral duty of solidarity (ecología integral) that propitiates unity amidst diversity as a priority value.58 the ethics of solidarity challenges us to educate for the transformation of the globalized neoliberal system that “normalizes” and fragments us. it is about building a new paradigm of a “dialogical ethics” for the common good, one that calls for the vindication of the marginalized and dispossessed and the promotion of a better quality of                                                                                                                 55 bueno, “proyecto para una trituración”, 2004).   56 we have chosen the term action-idea of synthesis to name this type of supreme action-idea.   57 boff, “¿qué etica va a prevalecer?” (koinonia, rebelión, foro mundial de alternativas, 2008) http://www.forumdesalternatives.org/es/readarticle.php?article_id=1740   58  boff, “¿qué ética va a prevalecer?”, 2008; vicente romano, “por una ética de solidaridad” (rebelión, 2002). http://www.rebelion.org/cultura/romano091002.html     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     19   life. it also entails the incorporation of an “ethics of justice” of rights and duties, an “ethics of care” that rescues human sensibility, thus becoming an “ethics of the heart”.59 in the words of the brazilian theologian leonrado boff, “we must leave behind the current cultural paradigm based on power as domination, and adopt a paradigm of coexistence, cooperation, synergy, and tenderness towards everything that exists and lives”.60 we must urgently face this change of paradigm in the context of exclusion and asymmetrical relationships in which we live, both in puerto rico and in the rest of the world. it is about building a new ethical paradigm, that is sustained by the pillars of tolerance and social responsibility; to educate in order to build it based on “imaginative knowledge” and “feeling from the heart”, so as to overcome “the perverse individualism so characteristic of modernizing societies”. at the end, it is about assuming the challenge of educating for an ethics of solidarity that ties the educational, to the political, makes possible a feeling of belongingness and “plural coexistence”, and propitiates a democratic culture and “a life of quality”.61 certainly, the concerted struggle for the demilitarization, reclaiming and cleanup of lands, and sustainable development for our island of vieques provides a powerful example of the ethics of solidarity in our recent history. the arduous struggle for dignity and justice engaged in by the heroic people of vieques constitutes a vivid testimony of this action-idea of synthesis in favor of equity, justice, quality of life, selfdetermination, human rights and peace of a subjugated people. in april 1999, the death of the viequense civilian guard david sanes, due to a falling bomb used in target practice by the united states navy, triggered an unprecedented movement in solidarity with the people of vieques. this struggle unleashed a series events and actions that lead to the departure of the united states navy from vieques in may 2003, putting an end to sixty years of military occupation of the lands and sea of vieques. the comité pro rescate y desarrollo de vieques, the alianza de mujeres viequenses, the asociación de pescadores de vieques, among others, were key protagonists in this process. the coordinadora todo puerto rico con vieques and the coalición ecuménica                                                                                                                 59  roberto  aguirre, “la ética como alternativa al modelo neoliberal” (buenos aires: agencia periodística del mercosur, 17 de febrero de 2008) http://www.prensamercosur.com.ar/apm/nota_completa.php?idnota=2418; boff, “¿qué ética va a prevalecer?”, 2008; vicente romano, “por una ética de solidaridad” (sao paulo: rebelión, 2002) http://www.rebelión.org/cultura/romano091002.html; félix población, “leonardo boff en salamanca” (españa: diario del aire, 2008) http://www.piensachile.com/content/view/2617/6/.   60  boff, “¿qué ética va a prevalecer?”, 2008.   61  victoria camps, “en camino hacia la ética solidaria” (mundo filosofía / filosofía en femenino, 2008)http://mundofilosofía.portalmundos.com/victoria-camps-en-camino-hacia-laetica-solidaria     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     20   por la paz de vieques, gave unconditional and massive support to this struggle. in addition, civil disobedience camps were established in solidarity in the restricted areas utilized for target and military practice. hundreds of those engaged in civil disobedience suffered severe prison sentences for trespassing the lands occupied by the navy. there were diverse scenarios of nonviolent actions, being civil disobedience key in the reclaiming of land and in attaining an end to the bombing and military maneuvers. in just four years, diverse social, political, and ecumenical sectors were main actors in this struggle of solidarity. research and educational initiatives also flourished, amongst these, the publications generated by the grupo de apoyo técnico y profesional de vieques are noteworthy.62 the governor also appointed a special commission to investigate the effects of the military presence in vieques. as a result of this study, and the social movement stemming from civil society, the slogan “ni un tiro más, ni una bomba más para vieques” was adopted as public policy and cry of the collective consciousness in puerto rico. to put an end to the practices of war, we also had the support and solidarity of key people and entities from other nations and continents who understood that the struggle for peace in vieques, where military interventions against other peoples were rehearsed, was also the struggle for peace in a wider and broader world.63 we wish to recognize the brotherhood of puerto ricans in the diaspora, especially the puerto rican elected members of the united states’ congress – luis gutiérrez, nydia velásquez, and josé serrano – who recognized that coalitions and united fronts were needed between puerto ricans from “here” and “there”, as was affirmed by congressman gutiérrez. furthermore, the historical juncture claimed for the purposeful reaffirmation that we are all part of” the same puerto rican nation” by means of “diverse acts of solidarity” with the people of vieques.64 given the departure of the united states navy from vieques and the transformation of the military practice range into a zone of peace, the struggle in solidarity with the people of vieques continues and evolves. according to the comité pro rescate y desarrollo de vieques, at the present time the struggle is for the environmental cleanup of the contaminated lands and seas. the catastrophic health conditions of the people of vieques caused by the rehearsals for war must also be attended. the fight is also against the speculation of land and traditional views of economic development, in order to promote projects that are suitable to the geographic reality, respectful of cultural and archeological patrimonies, and in line with the values of holistic health, cooperation, participative democracy, and sustainability.                                                                                                                 62 grupo de apoyo técnico y profesional de vieques, guías para el desarrollo sustentable de vieques (san juan, puerto rico: publicaciones gaviota, 2002).   63 rabín, sobá & zenón, de vieques a la universidad, 2003).   64 luis guitérrez, solidaridad y paz: compromiso de los congresistas puertorriqueños (san juan, puerto rico: cátedra unesco de educación para la paz, 2006).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     21   with equity, diversity, and self-determination as struggle banners, and intergenerational equity as an aspired legacy, we continue to forge a culture of peace and human rights for vieques, so that the incoming generations of children and youth may have a better quality of life. in this struggle the action-idea of synthesis, whose energy is capable of conscientizing and moving us to joint action, beyond ideologies, beliefs, and frontiers, has been and continues to be, the ethics of solidarity. in vieques there is a dramatic crystallization of the interdependence and wholeness of human rights and the ethics of solidarity. the nonviolent resistance for the fundamental rights to development, justice and peace of our “isla nena”, drove puerto ricans from “here” and “there” to collective action and to establish alliances of solidarity with nations, entities, and people of all ideologies and beliefs. so, the struggle for peace in vieques provides us with lifelong learning, not only to continue researching, thinking and deepening our understanding of education for human rights and peace in puerto rico, but also to continue building a culture of human rights and peace. epilogue…. it has been two years since we initiated the systematic reflection leading to this paper. these two years have brought some dramatic changes to the social fiber and consciousness of the puerto rican people due to several factors. key amongst these is a change of elected government officials in an administration that holds extremely conservative views and policies regarding education and development; policies which, at the time we write this revised paper, have had a negative impact on the right to education, on human rights in general, and are thus not conducive to a culture of peace. for example, over 20,000 public employees have been fired from their government jobs, with no alternative employment available. basic services for children with special needs, the elderly, women, poor families, and other vulnerable groups have been drastically reduced or eliminated. the university of puerto rico, the main public institution of higher education, has suffered budget cuts, and overall changes in its administrative officials, leading to uncertainty at a time when educational and research efforts are more necessary in order to promote equity and understanding of diversity, intergenerational justice, quality of life and sustainable development, all essential elements of a culture of peace and human rights. once again we face the imperative of working together in an ethics of solidarity to overcome a situation that is larger and more diffuse than the physical presence of the military. nevertheless, there is hope… people from all ideologies and walks of life in the island, more and more are coming together in solidarity in a permanent asamblea de pueblo conducive to a demand for positive social transformation.   in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     22   references aap [asociación aragonesa de psicopedagogía] . 2000. escuela y multiculturalidad. conclusiones del congreso internacional “educar para diversidad en el siglo xxi”. monográfico. suplemento del boletín de educaweb, 15 de noviembre, http://www.educaweb.com/esp/servicios/monografico/multiculturalidad/article1.asp agenda puertorriqueña para una cultura de paz 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talleres dialógicos para problematizar las prácticas escolares cotidianas. proyecto para obtener el grado de maestría en educación del niño, facultad de educación, universidad de puerto rico. rodríguez madera, sheila & beliza torres narváez. 2007. conociendo la violencia. conferencia presentada en la 9ª conferencia anual de la asociación de psicólogos escolares de puerto rico, san juan, puerto rico. http://www.coprevi.org/educacion_prevencion.html romano, vicente. 2002. por una ética de solidaridad. sao paulo: rebelión. http://www.rebelion.org/cultura/romano091002.htm ross epp, juanita & alisa watkinson, eds. 1997. systemic violence in education: promise broken. albany, ny: suny press. santiago negrón, salvador & sheila rodríguez madera. 2007. la violencia y la criminalidad en puerto rico: consideraciones para la salud pública y los derechos humanos. conferencia presentada en la cumbre multisectorial contra la criminalidad, san juan, puerto rico. http://www.coprevi.org/presentacion_cumbre_salvador.pdf segundo encuentro de prevención de violencia-ponencias. 2007. san juan, puerto rico: comisión para la prevención de la violencia. http://www.coprevi.org/presentaciones_encuentro.html sistema de vigilancia epidemiológica de muertes violentas. mantenido por la comisión para la prevención de la violencia (coprevi)/universidad de puerto rico, recinto de cayey. http://www.coprevi.org/sistema_vigilancia.html silva sernaqué, alfonso. 2005. derechos humanos de los niños y adolescentes y la legislación internacional. reflexiones entre la legalidad y la realidad. lima, perú: fondo editorial de la universidad nacional mayor de san marcos   in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  1-­‐28   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     28   tuvilla rayo, josé. 2004. cultura de paz: fundamentos y claves educativas. bilbao, españa: editorial desclée de brouwer. unesco and a culture of peace: promoting a global movement. 1995. paris: unesco publishing. yudkin suliveres, anita, comp. 2005. universidad y (anti)militarismo: historia, luchas y debates. san juan, puerto rico: universitarios por la desmilitarización. yudkin suliveres, anita & anaida pascual morán. 2008. educando para la paz en y desde la universidad: antología conmemorativa de una década [cd]. san juan, puerto rico: cátedra unesco de educación para la paz, universidad de puerto rico. junkins & narvaez final revised in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 66-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 66 volume 5 number 1 (2011): 66-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   habitat for humanity and the support of civic participation todd junkins habitat for humanity coordinator@habitat-for-humanity.org darcia narvaez university of notre dame dnarvaez@nd.edu what is the best way for individuals to develop skills for civic participation? too often civic participation skills are described and/or memorized without real understanding. the integrative ethical education model is a comprehensive approach to ethical education that focuses on skill development within context. 1 it uses a novice-to-expert approach to developing the kind of ethical skills that any successful ethical agent must have available for moral action. we describe the model briefly and then use this model to assess habitat for humanity’s systematic attempt to bring disenfranchised members of society into the community as full participating members. we also address the areas in which further work can be done to assist 1 narvaez, darcia. "how cognitive and neurobiological sciences inform values education for creatures like us," in values education and lifelong learning: philosophy, policy, practices, edited by aspin d. and j. chapman (springer press international, 2007): 127-159. narvaez, darcia. "human flourishing and moral development: cognitive science and neurobiological perspectives on virtue development," in handbook of moral and character education, edited by l. nucci and d. narvaez (mahwah, nj: erlbaum, 2008) 310-327. narvaez, darcia. "integrative ethical education" in handbook of moral development, edited by m. killen and j. smetana (mahwah, nj: erlbaum, 2006): 703-733. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 66-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 67 habitat in achieving greater success as an agent of civic change. integrative ethical education (iee) in recent years it has been apparent to researchers that learning is a matter of expertise development.2 individuals begin as novices and develop skills and capacities towards expertise. thus in every domain one can structure instruction for expertise development based on what is known about how expertise is generated.3 narvaez has brought this approach into the realm of moral or ethical development with the integrative ethical education (iee) model.4 development towards ethical expertise requires the right context and for maximal success. overall ethical expertise development is designed to occur within a set of caring relationships, a supportive climate, and a community that fosters self-development. integrative ethical education emphasizes five aspects. first, it is vital to establish a caring relationship with the client or student in a way that fosters a secure attachment, a factor that leads to a greater sense of belonging and promotes greater motivation and accomplishment.5 a secure bond may be difficult for participants who have a history of poor parental bonding or come from abusive or neglectful environments, but a patient and constant approach can foster a secure relationship.6 what this kind of relationship looks like may vary by ethnicity and culture, so leaders need to be sensitive to the appropriate and perhaps alternative ways to show care and respect. as seen below, habitat seeks to set up relationships of respect and support. second, for learning and change to occur, the climate or culture must be supportive. group leaders and members convey a general climate of support through the expectations for growth and development, ethical excellence, and high achievement. classroom studies show that these characteristics of climates are particularly beneficial for persons from at-risk environments who need to develop assets that support resiliency.7 as described below, habitat creates a caring 2 bransford, john d., ann l. brown, and robin r. cocking, how people learn: brain, mind, experience, and school (washington d.c.: national academy press, 1999). 3 hogarth, robin m. educating intuition (chicago: univerity of chicago press, 2001). 4 narvaez, darcia. "how cognitive and neurobiological sciences inform values education for creatures like us;" narvaez, darcia. "human flourishing and moral development: cognitive science and neurobiological perspectives on virtue development;" narvaez, darcia. "integrative ethical education." 5 klem, adena m., and connell. "relationships matter: linking teacher support to student engagement and achievement," journal of school health 74, no. 7 (2004): 262-273. mcneely, clea a., james m. nonnemaker, and robert w. blum. "promoting school connectedness: evidence from the national longitudinal study of adolescent health," journal of school health 72 (2002): 138-146. roeser, robert m., carol midgley, and timothy urdan. "perceptions of the psychological environment and early adolescents' psychological and behavioral funcationing in school: the mediating role of goals and belonging," journal of educational psychology 88, no. 3 (1996): 408-422. 6 watson, marilyn, and laura eckert. learning to trust (san francisco: jossey-bass, 2003). 7 benson, peter, nancy leffert, peter c. scales, and dale blyth. "beyond the "village" rhetoric: creating healthy communities for children and adolescents." applied developmental science 2, no. 3 (1998): 138-159. wang, margaret c., geneva d. haertel, and herbert j. walberg. "building educational resilience." phi beta kappa fastbacks 430 (1998): 7-61. zins, joseph e., roger p. weissberg, margaret c. wang, and in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 66-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 68 climate through a network of support. third, one of the key ancestral ways to learn was through apprenticeship, an approach that has been adopted in education and is considered appropriate for learning across domains.8 in an apprenticeship model, the mentor demonstrates, guides, and supervises learning and performance. the learner is immersed in real-life learning with good feedback that helps develop good intuitions about what works. at the same time, the mentor provides explanation to foster deliberate understanding about why things are done as they are done.9 in this fashion, a novice moves towards expertise with extensive, focused practice.10 we discuss below how habitat uses an apprenticeship model when it brings together community mentors with client families to accomplish mutual goals. fourth, as a sign of true learning and understanding, individuals become autonomous within a domain.11 they learn enough skills to be able to monitor their own progress, and to change strategies and actions when they are not successful in meeting goals. habitat understands autonomy to be essential for successful home ownership and civic participation, as demonstrated below. finally, individuals do not flourish alone but require the surrounding community to continually provide the support needed.12 the community is where skills are practiced and honed according to the context. habitat establishes several layers of community support for the long-term well-being of client families. we look at more details of habitat’s approach. habitat for humanity as a context for mentoring civic skills democratic education is usually discussed as a school-based activity. but community organizations and nonprofit groups can also contribute to the promotion of civic skills.13 habitat for humanity is one such organization. habitat is a nonprofit, christian organization whose primary missions are to eliminate substandard housing and foster neighborhoods. its strategies are to build homes and communities. habitat’s general approach is to bring people into the community of homeowners, involving fellow citizens in their welcoming, and using the herbert j. walberg. building academic success on social and emotional learning (new york: teachers college press, 2004). 8 rogoff, barbara. apprenticeship in thinking: cognitive development in social context (new york: oxford university press, 1990); rogoff, barbara, and jean lave. everyday cognition: its development in social context (cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 1984); bransford, john d., ann l. brown, and robin r. cocking, how people learn: brain, mind, experience, and school (washington d.c.: national academy press, 1999). 9 hogarth, robin m. educating intuition (chicago: univerity of chicago press, 2001). 10 ericsson, karl a., and jackie smith. toward a general theory of expertise (new york: cambridge univeristy press, 1991). 11 zimmerman, barry j. "academic studying and the development of personal skill: a self-regulatory perspective," education psychologist 33 (1998): 73-86. 12 bronfenbrenner, urie. the ecology of human development (cambridge: harvard university press, 1979). 13 hart, daniel, and robert atkins. "civic development in urban youth," applied developmental science 6 (2002): 227-236. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 66-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 69 encounter to foster civic participation. first we discuss the habitat context, and then assess habitat’s approach based on iee principles. the founding mission of habitat was the elimination of substandard housing within a community context. “habitat is an ecumenical christian housing ministry, eliminating substandard housing through partnership with individuals from every corner of our community.”14 through building “simple, decent, affordable homes with lasting value” and then selling them to qualified families at a reduced cost through 0% interest loans, families are moved from substandard housing into new, yet affordable housing, a solution made possible through a creative combination of financing and volunteerism.15 we discuss the mission in two parts, eliminating substandard housing and building community. eliminating substandard housing. habitat accomplishes its first goal through providing an opportunity for homeownership. families qualify for habitat home ownership if they meet several qualifications: (a) their income is 25-60% of the local average income; (b) they demonstrate a need for housing; (c) they prove their ability to pay for the home; and (d) they show a willingness to become a partner in building their own home and a responsible neighbor to others in the new neighborhood. once the family becomes a habitat partner, the process of financing and building begins. community building. habitat’s second goal is to build communities and it does so through several means. community and family stability are fostered within the network of relationships that arises through the homebuilding process. the homebuilding process includes habitat staff, the partner family, local volunteers, sponsor groups, neighbors, and local city and state officials. initially habitat functions as a mediator, bringing all the groups together and coordinating their efforts, but ultimately as a networker, where each partner begins to address one another individually. the common goal of home building brings the partners together. when the members of a family have a network of neighbors who support them it increases the possibility of success—families who are thriving. in the face of stress, perceived social support is related to greater resilience.16 for instance, habitat integrates the greater community into the work of forging a new homeowner. habitat collaborates extensively with multiple organizations and government agencies. it fosters good relationships with county and city officials (e.g., seeking high marks on inspections, quality home design). good relationships with city officials generate greater interest and investment in the success of habitat families in homeownership and financial development. when the relationship between officials and the family is positive, the city can provide habitat, and thereby future families, with land, infrastructure, connections with neighborhood affiliations, and inclusion in revitalization plans. 14 froberg, jenna. orientation manual (south bend: habitat for humanity of st. joseph county, 2009). 15 junkins, todd. project manual (south bend: habitat for humanity of st. joseph county, 2010). 16 lowe, sarah r., christian s. chan, and jean e. rhodes. "pre-hurricane perceived social support protects against psychological distress: a longitudinal analysis of low-income mothers." journal of consulting and clinical psychology, (2010): 551-560. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 66-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 70 as a result of its practices, habitat promotes transformational and sustainable community development. the coordination of relationships places habitat and partner families squarely within public and civic life. the family is provided a neighborhood that is stable and open to new families and committed to remain in partnership with the family. but the family needs more than a home, supportive relationships and community. the family also needs skills. the development of skills for success although habitat and its families actively seek civic support through participation in the democratic process, sometimes the families lack the requisite skills for democratic participation, as is common among the poor.17 the culture of poverty may not encourage the types of skills that are required for mainstream success, including home ownership.18 thus, habitat seeks to build particular skills through immersion and mentorship, in other words, apprenticeship. these skills fall into two main categories, partnership and ownership. habitat partnership skills habitat starts with relationships. as a christian organization, habitat “works in partnership with god and people everywhere, from all walks of life, to develop communities with people in need by building and renovating houses so that there are decent houses in decent communities in which every person can experience god’s love and grow into all that god intends.”19 the principle value then, is partnership. partnership underlies every aspect of habitat’s work and extends to every member of the community. habitat expects participating families to value partnership “in a way that influences their attitude, decisions, and reactions” as they complete program requirements.20 habitat fosters a positive culture in its “spirit of partnership.” the spirit of partnership involves a web of interpersonal skills that support a disposition of partnership. habitat staff attempts to model these skills —trust, communication, honesty, and “faithfulness”— and encourage them in volunteers and families. the spirit of partnership is a necessary disposition in partner families for meeting the goals of financial assessment and stability, maintaining and developing financial and communal relationships, and the hard work of constructing a home. financial transparency. financial transparency is vital to the initiation of a partnership between habitat and the family. as habitat is the mortgage holder, habitat must be sure the 17 "center for information and research on civic learning and engagement." the 2006 civic and political health of the nation. http://www.civicyouth.org/?author=10, 2006. levinson, meira. "the civic achievement gap (circle working paper no. 51)." civic youth. 2007. http://www.civicyouth.org/popups/workingpapers/wp51levinson.pdf (accessed march 15, 2010). 18 payne, ruby. a framework for understanding poverty. 3rd ed. (highlands, tx: aha! process, inc., 2003). 19 froberg, jenna. habitat for humanity of st. joseph county. 2010. http://www.habitat-for-humanity.org/apply/training.php (accessed january 23, 2010). 20 froberg, jenna. orientation manual. (south bend: habitat for humanity of st. joseph county, 2009). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 66-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 71 family has the ability to pay. therefore, as habitat does extensive financial investigation to confirm ability to pay, it is important that families do not give a false view of their finances in the hopes of being accepted. the families must trust habitat to make fair choices and develop financial plans which are in the best interest of the family, maintain open communication regarding their financial standing, honestly engage with the investigation and continued assessment, as well as remain ‘faithful’ to the financial plan established with habitat. if trust and honesty are missing, the family will either fail in being accepted into the program or fail as the program develops. if at the final closing habitat’s assessment of the families financial situation is one where they will not be able to pay, habitat cannot provide the loan. relational skills. families need the skills to maintain and develop both financial and communal relationships. sponsor groups, who collaborate with habitat on a regular basis, work closely with the families on the job site. they offer support to the community, including the partner family, through physical labor and financial donation. if a family proves incapable of relating with sponsor groups, then the family will have difficulty successfully completing the program. respect for mission. many people come together to work hard both physically and logistically to build a habitat home. the family’s equally hard work demonstrates a respect for the mission of the group in making their home possible. as the family and the community work together, trust is built in the family’s ability to manage and maintain a home. moreover, the family is expected to support habitat and its overall mission. for instance, “[w]hile habitat does not require partner families to share our faith, we do expect respect for the way in which this foundation of faith permeates our partnership.”21 habitat collaborates with various religious groups and christian churches, and uses language and ceremonies reflecting a commitment to the christian faith. respect then is understood within the context of faith and mission. conflict management. whenever individuals work together, conflict can arise. habitat has expectations for families in regards to conflict. conflicts do arise throughout the habitat home building process, and habitat holds “each family accountable to operating in a spirit of partnership as a representation of how they will react once within their habitat home.”22 habitat views the ability to resolve conflicts as “critical” to success, and encourage families to develop the skills to confront issues and negotiate with others. according to habitat, the family’s ease in dealing with conflict derives from a disposition of partnership, maintaining trust, open communication, honesty, and faithfulness. hard work. the work the family contributes to house-building not only supports the overall mission of habitat and the community effort but it helps the family from a psychological perspective. the family will feel more “ownership” of the house, part of the “sunk cost” that usually keeps people engaged in an activity.23 with the work the families put into their habitat 21 ibid. 22 ibid. 23 bornstein, brian h., and gretchen b. chapman. "learning lessons from sunk costs." journal of experimental psychology: applied 1 (1995): 251-269. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 66-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 72 homes, they will psychologically be more resilient in facing setbacks in regards to the home. home ownership skills the second category of necessary skills is the disposition of ownership. this web of skills is required due to the rights and responsibilities conferred by property ownership. stewardship. a property owner is expected by the community to show stewardship of their property. this keeps property values high and neighborhoods stable and safe. habitat attempts to build in stable neighborhoods. if a family fails to take care of the yard, or goes into foreclosure due to poor management, this can hurt habitat’s mission of “building homes, building hope, building community,” creating instability in the neighborhood, affecting both the neighborhood and habitat’s relationship with that neighborhood.24 leadership. leadership is needed to maintain a property appropriately. this means striking a balance between self-initiative, a “do-it-yourself” mentality, and asking for help from others in the community. without both of these skills, a home falls into disrepair or complicated problems arise. both issues result in unwanted ‘curb appeal’ and again create undesirable instability. when property is neglected, difficulty with neighbors and the city continue to increase resulting in unsuccessful ownership and deleterious communal participation.25 following rules. finally, respect for and understanding of home ownership is demonstrated through understanding and living within the rules of civic life. these rules encompass understanding both what is due from and owed to every property owner. for example, paying taxes, involvement in the city planning process, and maintaining an income to pay for home ownership expenses are all part of respecting the community and its practices. habitat and the integrative ethical education model when we examine habitat’s approach in light of the empirically-derived integrative ethical education model, we see that there are several things that habitat does well. first, it fosters caring, respectful relationships with partner families and among all constituents. second, it tries to establish a community spirit of support (spirit of partnership). third, it fosters skill development within the community context. fourth, it tries to get partner families to stand on their own and use their perhaps newly-developed skills for civic participation after habitat withdraws. fifth, it tries to ensure the continued involvement of the larger community in the support of the family. according to our quick analysis, habitat is largely using an approach that builds ethical participatory skills and civic virtue. the future of civic development in habitat 24 junkins, todd. project manual. 25 harding, john p., eric rosenblatt, and vincent w. yao. "the contagion effect on foreclosed." federal housing finance agency (2009). www.fhfa.gov/webfiles/15046/website_rosenblatt.pdf (accessed august 12, 2010). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 66-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 73 although the goals and structure of habitat support civic development, several challenges impede habitat in achieving even greater success as an agent of civic change. we discuss these and some options for improved success. challenges to learning and adopting civic skills habitat’s goal to foster communities is more difficult than it appears. although home ownership increases social capital within a neighborhood and is linked to improved outcomes for children, it turns out that having a home is not enough for increased and successful participation in the community.26 from our experience in habitat it is evident that, whereas habitat has been successful in providing the opportunity for home ownership, new home owners do not necessarily develop enough skilled knowledge about how to care for the home or how to relate to neighbors. there appear to be multiple obstacles to learning partnership and ownership skills as well as the community participation skills that are required within the habitat context. one of the greatest challenges is poverty and a culture of poverty.27 a culture of poverty puts an emphasis on short-term goal attainment and taking advantage of the here and now, with little concern about self-development for future success. poverty forces a restricted focus on the immediate needs rather than on developing skills for providing future needs, such as goal setting and planning. moreover, many have had negative experiences associated with education in a classroom setting and avoid learning settings. further, the increased life-stress of poverty, single parenthood, working long hours, and insufficient social support leave little psychological room for continuing education, let alone the personal transformation habitat encourages. in addition, most of the families have never owned a home before, and the skills they have developed in dealing with rental property may be unhelpful or even detrimental. finally, unfortunately there are conflicts between the family and others working with the family due to the different expectations of the socio-economic classes.28 this tension extends to the volunteers and sponsors as well. families are placed in a complex social context at every construction and learning site throughout the program. the culture of poverty is intergenerational, passed from one generation to the next making it very difficult for those born into poverty to break out of it.29 habitat families often 26 dipasquale, denise, and edward glaeser. "incentives and social capital: are homeowners better citizens?" journal of urban economics 45 (1999): 354-384. green, richard, and michelle white. "measuring the benefits of homeowning: effects on children." journal of urban economics 41 (1997): 441-461. boehm, thomas, and allan schlottmann. "does homeownership by parents have an economic impact on their children?" journal of housing ecomomics 8 (1999): 217-232. haurin, donald, toby parcel, and r. jean haurin. "does homeownerhip affect children's outcomes?" real estate economics 30 (2002): 635-666. 27 payne, ruby k., philip e. devol, and terie d. smith. bridges out of poverty: strategies for professionals and communities (highlands, tx: aha! process, inc, 2006). 28 payne, ruby. a framework for understanding poverty. 29 corcoran, mary. "rags to rags: poverty and mobility in the united states." annual review of sociology 21 (1995): 237-267. harper, caroline, rachel marcus, and karen moore. "enduring poverty and the conditions of childhood: lifecourse and intergenerational poverty transmissions." world development 31 (2003): 535-554. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 66-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 74 have experienced generations of personal, familial and social deterioration. psycho-neurological studies clearly indicate the need for early proper nurturing and nutrition for healthy brain development and accompanying cognitive-emotional functioning, e.g. cognitive-emotional regulation.30 yet the stresses of poverty limit parents’ ability to provide for the many needs of a child.31 and so the cycle continues. other challenges include time. habitat only works with a given family for a limited amount of time, which may not be enough for turning around various troubled life patterns or the full development of civic skills. the time challenge is accompanied by the daily pressures described above that the family faces beyond the habitat context. habitat provides only one context among many within which partner families live from day to day. options for improving the habitat model habitat has been successful in laying out the goals for partnership and ownership within the context of house and community building. it has been proactive in setting up respectful, caring relationships and climates for participating families. however, analyzing several of the challenges that remain provides the opportunity to find ways to make improvements. first, habitat can continue to refine its context to provide ever more support and care. in creating this environment of trust, families can perhaps have the psychological space to address some of the greatest stresses in their lives, including finances and housing. second, education needs to occur at all levels of interaction with partner families, in formal classes, and informally on the job site and in the office. habitat can more consciously develop an education system based on an apprenticeship model. this will assist in alleviating the difficulties of the classroom for the poor. this not only includes construction and home management skills, but also civic skills such as commitment. habitat can help foster a long term vision through staging commitment to homeownership. the first layer of commitment is the process of acceptance into the program. this is followed by the longer commitment to fulfilling the obligations of the program. the longest commitment is the payment of the home loan. but there are many other civic skills that could be emphasized, which we discuss below. third, habitat can both expand the definition of the ‘surrounding community’ to include generations of families and more actively involve themselves in civic institutions. in working with generations of families, habitat can further work to influence the generational affects of poverty. additionally, it is clear that the greater community needs to convey civic values for habitat and it families to foster. habitat can actively work for and with local school education programs, neighborhood associations, and supportive civic spaces such as parks and libraries to promote a broad interest in civic values. 30 felitti, vincent j., and robert f. anda. the adverse childhood experience(ace) study (atlanta: centers for disease control and kaiser permanente, 2005). 31 duncan, greg j., and jeanne brooks-gunn, consequences of growing up poor (new york: russell sage foundation, 1997). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 66-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 75 finally, skills for partnership and civic participation must be possessed not only by participating families but by volunteers and sponsors. for example, volunteers and sponsors need to learn to get along with people from a different background, to express themselves in ways that are respectful to the family. without a body of volunteers and sponsors willing and able to partner, habitat could not provide housing at a cost families could afford. this means there needs to be a broad-based education of civic and ethical values for all participants. see table 1 for a list of skills from integrative ethical education. based on experience in habitat, we think these skills could be fostered in all habitat constituents. this could be done by agencies across the community, including schools, businesses, and youth and religious organizations. table 1 sample ethical skills that constituent groups may need ethical components and skills ethical sensitivity understand emotional expression take the perspective of others connecting to others responding to diversity controlling social bias interpreting situations communicate effectively ethical judgment understanding ethical problems using codes and identifying judgment criteria reasoning generally reasoning ethically understand consequences reflect on the process and outcome coping and resiliency ethical focus respecting others cultivate conscience act responsibly help others finding meaning in life valuing traditions and institutions developing ethical identity and integrity ethical action resolving conflicts and problems assert respectfully taking initiative as a leader in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 66-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 76 planning to implement decisions cultivate courage persevering work hard note: skills are from integrative ethical education 32 conclusion habitat began with goals to embrace the poor through the concrete outreach of home development. its efforts at building homes have been successful. for example, over 2000 homes were built across the usa between 2005-2010 (http://www.habitat.org/). however, much more needs to be done to teach democratic skills and values in the context of home and community building. including a stronger citizenship education component in the habitat program would support partner families in the shift from renter to homeowner, from disenfranchised to citizen. moreover, implementing research that explores the effectiveness of the suggested solutions above would continue the process for development both for habitat specifically, and the education of democratic values more generally. 32 narvaez, darcia. 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"perceptions of the psychological environment and early adolescents' psychological and behavioral funcationing in in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 66-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 79 school: the mediating role of goals and belonging." journal of educational psychology 88, no. 3 (1996): 408-422. rogoff, barbara. apprenticeship in thinking: cognitive development in social context. new york: oxford university press, 1990. rogoff, barbara, and jean lave. everyday cognition: its development in social context. cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 1984. wang, margaret c., geneva d. haertel, and herbert j. walberg. "building educational resilience." phi beta kappa fastbacks 430 (1998): 7-61. watson, marilyn, and laura eckert. learning to trust. san francisco: jossey-bass, 2003. zimmerman, barry j. "academic studying and the development of personal skill: a self-regulatory perspective." education psychologist 33 (1998): 73-86. zins, joseph e., roger p. weissberg, margaret c. wang, and herbert j. walberg. building academic success on social and emotional learning. new york: teachers college press, 2004. kopninaconsumptionc2c4factispaxmanuscriptclean volume 5 number 3 (2011): 362-373 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 362 volume 5 number 3 (2011): 362-373 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ consumption in environmental education: developing curriculum that addresses cradle to cradle principles helen kopnina university of amsterdam introduction. the body of literature on ‘responsible’, ‘ethical’, or ‘green’ consumption, as well as barriers to it, has been growing (for a recent reviews and case study of barriers to sustainable consumption, see kollmuss and agyeman, 2002 and isenhour, 2010). recent research suggested that the contemporary emphasis on green consumerism might also be driving more consumption as they aim to absolve consumers of their guilt by offering ‘responsible’ products (zizek, 2011). scholars have also warned of the ‘‘rebound effect’’(greening et al., 2000), when consumers rationalize buying ‘green’, ‘ecological’ etc. products advertised by companies expert in the art of green washing marketing. as environmental educators struggle to integrate ‘responsible’ consumption into the school curriculum, questions related to what is ‘responsible’ consumption and how it can be best achieved remain. based on the distinction between private and public sphere environmentalism (stern, 2000), many environmental education scholars have argued for the need to distinguish between private actions in regard to consumption, such as buying volume 5 number 3 (2011): 362-373 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 363 green products and recycling; and public actions such as public lobbying and boycotting actions targeted at governments and corporate elites. drawing on the structuralism perspectives critics of private sphere environmentalism question that consumers can effectively drive significant change given their small sphere of influence relative to the immensely more powerful interests of political and corporate elites with a stake in sustained consumption levels and continued economic growth (chawla and cushing, 2007; isenhour, 2010). the emphasis on responsible consumption and expressed hopes for behaviour change by individual citizens making more sustainable choices, fails to recognize many of the structural constraints on individual choice (death, 2011) as well as unwillingness of many to adapt to sustainable lifestyles unless coerced to it by the government or corporate policies limiting consumption choices. some authors have argued that the focus on consumer choice and market-based solutions makes perfect neoliberal and political sense as it does not restrict personal choice or the market and is not explicitly anticonsumption (hobson, 2002). in regard to environmental education, this implies that along with learning ‘the facts’ and personal responsibility in regard to environment, pupils should be encouraged to learn how to engage at collective, social and political citizenship levels (davies et al, 2002; chawla and cushing, 2007; amsel, 2009). participation, social and engaged learning in relation to environment were also advocated (rickinson, 2001; wals, 2007; reid, et al 2008; rickinson, et al 2009), yet collective effects of consumption or public actions in regard to consumption, such as boycotting, were not discussed. upper-elementary school students reasoning about environmental issues such as global warming and climate change (shepardson, et al 2009) was examined without any reference to the negative effects of consumption. children’s understanding of economic (sevón and weckström, 1989) and marketing forces is another growing line of inquiry (leiser and halachmi, 2006), normally not directly associated with consumption. we may ponder how the potential conflicts, contradictions and dilemmas of responsible consumption are dealt with at the level of environmental education. at present, there is little known about the connection between environmental education and current theoretical debates as well as practical dilemmas associated with consumption. consumption study, while sometimes implicit in environmental education curriculum at the upper elementary school level in the netherlands, nor is it explicitly addressed. in this article, one specific aspect of responsible consumption, related to the notion of ecoeffectiveness and the cradle to cradle framework is discussed in relation to upperelementary school curriculum. first, i shall address the cradle to cradle (or c2c) framework, then i shall discuss environmental education in the netherlands in relation to consumption, and finally i will draw some recommendations for the curriculum on responsible consumption derived from c2c framework. cradle to cradle framework. up till now little has been said about how ‘responsible’, ‘sustainable’, ‘ethical’ or ‘green’ consumption can be conceptualized at the level of the curriculum. this article aims to volume 5 number 3 (2011): 362-373 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 364 establish a framework for addressing social and environmental responsibility with the aim of incorporating the subject of eco-effective consumption into the upper-elementary school curriculum. the subject of eco-effective consumption derives from the book by the american architect william mcdonough and the german chemist michael braungart ‘cradle to cradle: remaking the way we make things’ (2002). the cradle to cradle framework (or cradle 2 cradle or c2c for short) does not reach for sustainability as it is usually defined in terms of the popular maxims of ‘reducing, reusing and recycling’, but provides an ideological framework that seeks to create industrial systems that are not just efficient at minimizing waste but essentially waste free. mcdonough and braungart ask us to contemplate not just about minimizing the damage, but rather about taking a revolutionarily approach to the problem and imagine how contemporary waste no longer needs to exist. the c2c approach that mcdonough and braungart propose, suggests that being less bad is not good enough. going on with a system that generates massive amounts of waste in the endless spiral of production and consumption, the authors argue, will only prolong the bad system. the familiar reduce, reuse, recycle and regulate adage serves to maintain the cradle to grave production rather then stimulating fundamental change towards eco-effectiveness. mcdonough and braungart suggest that each and every product can be designed from the outset so that after its lifetime is over, the product will then continue to live while providing nourishment for something new, by becoming a nutrient within either a biological or technological cycle. cradle to cradle identifies three key design principles which inform human design from a cradle to cradle perspective: 1. waste equals food 2. use current solar income 3. celebrate diversity waste equals food refers to the idea that non-usable waste does not exist in nature because the processes of each organism contribute to the health of the whole ecosystem. using the metaphor of the cherry tree's blossoms that fall to the ground and decompose into food for other living things, and using examples of bacteria that feed on the organic waste of both the trees and the animals that eat its fruit, depositing nutrients in the soil, mcdonough and braungart emphasize the idea that organism's waste is food for another and nutrients flow indefinitely in cycles of birth, decay and rebirth. this idea should be easily translatable into elementary biology curriculum of the upper-elementary school children. the idea of using current solar income largely overlaps with mainstream sustainability’s discourse supporting renewable energy. the authors argue that despite the current dependency on non-renewable energy sources, human energy systems can be nearly as effective as the sun and wind. cradle-to-cradle systems -from buildings to manufacturing processestap into current solar income using direct solar energy collection or passive solar processes, which makes effective use of natural light. again, this idea seems well-suited within the upper-elementary school level. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 362-373 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 365 celebrating diversity maxim does not necessarily refer to the popular idea of cultural or social diversity, but to respect of diversity in natural systems. the authors approach diversity from a holistic perspective, arguing that healthy ecosystems are complex communities of living things, each of which has developed a unique response to its surroundings that works in concert with other organisms to sustain the system as a whole. this idea is similar to the ideas expressed in bionics (defined in webster dictionary in 1960 as "a science concerned with the application of data about the functioning of biological systems to the solution of engineering problems") and biomimicry, inspired by janine m. benyus’ book biomimicry: innovation inspired by nature (1997). biomimicry is defined as a "new science that studies nature's models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems" (benyus, 1997). similarly to the bionics and biomimicry, c2c takes nature's diversity as a prototype for many models for human designs, tailoring designs to maximize their positive effects in order to "fit" within local natural systems and to enhance the local landscape where possible. mcdonough and braungart have designed a number of urban areas and buildings taking into account local climate, materials and both human and ecological needs. products designed for consumption – buildings, objects, or food – need to be made or designed to be eco-effective rather than eco-efficient. while efficiency of the ‘bad’ system that produces waste in the first place is suspect (why should a bad system be sustained), c2c proposes a fundamentally different way of conceiving consumption. to simplify the message at the level of upper-elementary school children, in c2c terms, consumption does not have to be ‘bad’ if it is done ‘right’. environmental education in the netherlands and the subject of consumption. environmental education in the netherlands followed similar path to the developments of ee in other (particularly, west european) countries since the definition of the goal of ee formulated in the belgrade charter: ‘to develop a world population that is aware of, and concerned about, the environment and its associated problems, and which has the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations and commitment to work individually and collectively toward solutions of current problems and the prevention of new ones’ (unesco–unep 1976). as environmental education was shown to be affective in raising ecologically concerned citizens (miller, 1975) the tbilisi declaration (1977) outlined the aim of environmental education in people’s active involvement in working toward the resolution of environmental problems. countering the optimism of ecological modernization theory (mol and sonnenfeld 2000), from the time of the publication of the limits to growth and the belgrade charter, ee seen as education ‘aimed at producing a citizenry that is knowledgeable concerning the biophysical environment and its associated problems, aware of how to help solve these problems, and motivated to work toward their solution" (stapp et al, 1969). gough and scott (2007) described the goals of higher education in general in fostering the development of creative, resourceful, independent, critical individuals and fulfill a range of broad policy goals. reflecting european developments, the early nineteen sixties ee in the netherlands is dominated by nature study and learning about the physical systems that support plants and animals. the science volume 5 number 3 (2011): 362-373 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 366 oriented styles of education were aimed at promoting awareness of environmental problems and the scientific or technical solutions for them, based on the assumption that when students are taught about these issues they will learn to care about the environment. the outdoor, wilderness or adventure field study centers fostered the use of natural environment for first-hand experiences. nongovernmental organizations (ngos), and especially international conservation groups have been some of the most active promoters of environmental education since the 1970s and continue to stimulate ee programs in the netherlands to the present day. in the nineteen seventies, conservation education targeted at teaching about conservation of species and dangers posed to the environment emerges, alongside with the urban studies of built environments, and city planning. the nineteen eighties are characterized by the emergence of multiple forms of environmental education, including global education and earth education which recognizes the wider vision of environmental issues. action research involved community and pupil-led problem-solving through fieldwork, typically addressing local level environmental issues such as waste, pollution and recycling. other types of approaches included community of partners including pupils, students, teachers, ngo’s, politicians: all working together to identify and resolve socio-ecological problems. following decade sees a rise in different educational trends or forms including empowerment education, which focuses on communication, capacity-building, problemsolving and action, aimed at the resolution of socio-environmental problems. new concepts and scope of work of environmental educators resulted in new labels such as “sociallycritically environmental education” or “grassroots environmental education” (e.g. barratt hacking, et al 2007; andrezejewski, et al 2009). following decade sees a rise in different educational trends or forms including empowerment education, which focuses on communication, capacity-building, problemsolving and action, aimed at the resolution of socio-environmental problems. new concepts and scope of work of environmental educators resulted in new labels such as “sociallycritically environmental education” or “grassroots environmental education”. schools and community groups started to take a more active role in promoting environmental topics, either through activities in the classroom or outside the school walls. in the late 1980s the links between environmental management, education and society were made explicit. environmental education that used to be seen as an equivalent to science education or nature study, was now expanded to encompass peace education, population education, and human rights education. all these types of education translated into different school levels, as well as at the level of pre-school children (evans, et al 2007). by now, esd with its focus on social issues such as poverty, inequality, human rights, etc. starts to take over from traditional ee with its focus on environmental protection. unesco’s decade for education for sustainable development (desd) served to instruct the dutch branch of esd (heideveld and cornelissen, 2009; kopnina, 2011b). in the netherlands efforts at development of environmental education have been primarily coordinated by the dutch association for educations – the so-called vereniging educaties nederland (ven). ven is an umbrella organization whose goal is to link adjectival volume 5 number 3 (2011): 362-373 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 367 educations such as environmental education, health education, peace education, culture education, and education for sustainable development or esd and to serve as an interest group for environmental educators (wesselink and wals, 2011:71). however, while the word ‘consumption’ is sometimes mentioned in the documents pertaining to the development of environmental curriculum in the netherlands, little explicit mention of what is actually meant by ‘responsible’, ‘sustainable’, ‘ethical’, or ‘green’ consumption is made. another organization involved in environmental education programs and curriculum is called natuur en milieu educatie (nme) platform, or nature and environment education. at the elementary school level, dutch school curriculum involves outdoor activities, such as ‘bosweek’ (‘forest week’) or ‘schooltuinen’ (‘school gardens’) as well as curriculum related to science education. nme, together with the dutch testing and assessment company cito, has developed guidelines for the development of ee in elementary schools, such as nature education for elementary schools (thijssen, 2002) and sustainable development for the elementary schools (wagenaar, 2007). the dutch ministry of education also supports sustainable teacher’s colleges foundation (dho), ‘working on sustainable development in education; either through separate modules or by means of an incorporated view’ and seeking to integrate socially and environmentally relevant knowledge into existing curriculum for subjects such as geography, botany, biology and history. dho developed an on-line forum called (plado), in which professionals involved in ee can contact each other and share knowledge on issues of sustainable development in education. one of the themes developed by plado is responsible consumption but it is not (yet) discussed in relation to school curriculum. other private initiatives at the level of elementary schools include project natuurwijs (www.natuurwijs.nl), sponsored by dutch bank triodos. yet another initiative is that of the inespo (international environment & scientific project olympiad). this international olympiad is intended for students between 13 and 18 years from secondary high schools and high schools (the so-called havo and vwo-schools) in the netherlands. ‘by organizing inespo, the cosmicus foundation wants to bring attention to environmental problems in schools in the netherlands. cosmicus involves students in this important matter in order to bring communal consensus on social environmental values and eventually to eliminate the environmental problems through education (http://www.inespo.org). recently, university of utrecht research group took part in inespo’s program to develop problem-solving capacities in regard to environment in upper-elementary and secondary high schools (http://www.uu.nl/nl/actueel/pages/internationalescholierenzoekenoplossingenvoormilieu vraagstukken.aspx). according to the analysis of environmental education and esd in the netherlands (kopnina, 2011b), neither of these programs involved the subject of consumption in any explicit way. one of the recent on-line publications of dutch ‘learning for sustainable development’ (in dutch, leren voor duurzame ontwikkeling) platforms was the ‘inspired by cradle to cradle: c2c practice in education’ brochure containing a number of business cases and company examples relevant to the development of ‘environmental awareness’ in school and college students (boer et al, 2011). in his chapter on cradle to cradle in primary volume 5 number 3 (2011): 362-373 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 368 education, geisen (2011) describes the reaction of group of upper-elementary school children’s (sample size is not specified) to the viewing of the documentary ‘afval=voedsel” (‘waste=food’) about consumption and c2c principles. the children were them asked to collect the ideas into the drawn ‘thought bubbles’ and asked to do a presentation of ideas for c2c designs, products, objects, or ideas, such as designing a new school building that will use local and natural materials or designing a special roof garden. children were also asked to reflect upon themselves, using the c2c framework, addressing the central question: ‘what can i do to maintain the strength within myself and even to let it grow into something more beautiful?’ the environment, the system in which children live, plays a key role in developing this potential. the children are made aware of this by asking ‘who or what do i need to allow this strength to grow within me, both now and in the future?’ but also the question: ‘what can you offer?’ is essential for this process (geisen, 2011:30). in order to make the above questions more concrete, the children were also asked to perform a number of practical tasks related to the idea of c2c, such as growing a tree from a seed. detailed information on this project is available via cradle to cradle introduction film and power point available via http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jp8cc2rkj4. the children learned not only grow the seeds but also to articulate answers to questions like ‘what could this seed contribute to you, others, environment, world, both now and in the future?’ the children were also asked to make behavioral pattern diagram (botg) of the growth and shared their experience with each other (geisen, 2011:31-32). the children were then asked to provide feedback on the process, share tips for growth with others and take seeds home to plant. aside from a few ad hoc experiments with introducing lessons and lectures about c2c and consumption into curriculum, little practical recommendations are made in relation to development of upper-elementary school curriculum. dutch curriculum development organizations did not make any explicit link made between learning about consumption and environmental education and/or education for sustainable development. as appeared in the recent studies, c2c framework could provide such a theoretical and practical link. recent case-study of attitudes towards consumption in upper-elementary school children in the netherlands indicated a need for the development of school curriculum addressing ‘responsible’ consumption at schools (kopnina, 2011, 2011a). the study conducted between january and may 2010 involved dutch upper-elementary school children and their parents. the total number of 91 children participants (31 from the montessori school, and 60 from the regular public school) and 59 adult family members (20 from the first school, 39 from the second school) participated. this study comparing consumption knowledge and attitudes in dutch children and their parents have identified a number of themes relevant to the study of consumption within the school curriculum. for example, parents identified knowledge of ‘health benefits and risks of consumed items’ as most important followed by ‘social responsibility’ including interest in consumption of fair trade products. children, however, have identified ‘food should not damage nature’ and packaging that is not good for nature’ as the most important categories in responsible consumption (kopnina 2011). volume 5 number 3 (2011): 362-373 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 369 evaluative focus group meetings held with pupils, parents and teachers after completion of this research between may and december 2010 have demonstrated the need for 1. addressing consumption as part of school curriculum; 2. discussing implications of ‘responsible’ consumption; 3. developing concepts and practical ideas at the upperelementary school level of how the children – the citizens of the future – can contribute to ‘positive consumption’; 4. develop channels of communication about what constitutes ‘responsible consumption’. this research has indicated the need for a conceptual framework addressing consumption at the upper-elementary school level. in this article, such a framework is established using the notion of eco-effective consumption derived from the so-called ‘cradle to cradle’ philosophy. application of cradle to cradle framework to the consumption curriculum. aside from being an inspirational philosophy, c2c book and its authors have inspired many students of business, architecture, design and construction to by model their designs on nature's operating system -generating materials that are "food" for biological or industrial systems, tapping the renewable energy sources, celebrating diversity. in other words, c2c design created a not only a new paradigm for industry, one in which human activity generates a wide spectrum of ecological value but also the one that appeals to more pragmatic powerful elites by offering practical social and economic benefits as well. c2c is particularly useful in the case of conceptualizing consumption at the upper-elementary school level because of a number of features. 1. the framework is based on simple to understand ideas such as nutrient cycle – something elementary school children learn in science classes as part of their regular curriculum; 2. while critical of the current state of production (or industrial capitalism), the framework is essentially positive and does not put stress on negative effects, but rather solutions understandable to young children; 3. the framework uses practical easy-to-explain design and product ideas to complement its theoretical or ethical underpinnings. upper-elementary school children can be asked to come up with ideas for their own design based on c2c framework; 4. cradle to cradle framework can serve as a bridge to high school education, with its emphasis on citizenship, politics, and history education as it provides an overview of historical industrial developments and capitalism; 5. practical labour courses are well suited for children learning to ‘make things’; 6. c2c framework can be easily combined with existing courses including outdoor education (in dutch case, ‘forest week’ or ‘school gardens’). thus, the c2c framework could be integrated at a number of levels in the existing curriculum – as part of existing courses on history (e.g. industrial development), biology (e.g. nutrient cycles), and applied labour courses (e.g. practical hand-on learning). c2c could also be taught as a separate course, with the goal of enabling critical understanding of modern system of production and consumption. particular emphasis on both negative – as it is at present – and potentially positive – as it can be in the future – aspects of volume 5 number 3 (2011): 362-373 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 370 consumption would provide an excellent learning environment for children to complement their environmental knowledge about the distant places and issues where environmental problems may occur. c2c framework would allow children to both critically think about the existing system of production, and to encourage them to think of solutions. both inspiration and practical lessons from c2c could be easily carried into high school curriculum – perhaps not only in the dutch but in most (west european or international) schools. conclusion this article aimed to establish a framework for addressing social and environmental responsibility with the aim of incorporating the subject of eco-effective consumption into the upper-elementary school curriculum. eco-effective consumption’ may be included as part of the existing course curriculum at the upper-elementary school level, notably within biology and history courses; as well as given as a separate subject (requiring teacher education). the results of this study could be used by teachers in the ee field by integrating consumption into the existing ee courses or for development of a specialized program on consumption. essentially, c2c framework could be used at upper-elementary school level to address the questions related to what present mechanisms of production and consumption are, what can be improved, what can a child (according to the stage of life) realistically, do, and, perhaps more metaphorically – c2c framework could be used as a means of planting the seeds of consciousness about the modern world of consumption and early awareness of possibilities of addressing problems associated with consumption. bibliography. amsel, s. 2009. ways to live green for kids: saving the environment at home, school, or at play-every day! massachusetts: avon media. andrezejewski, j., m. p. baltodano, and l. symcox. 2009. social justice, peace, and environmental education: transformative standard. new york: routledge. barratt hacking, r. barratt e., and w. scott. 2007. engaging children: research issues around participation and environmental learning. environmental education research 13, no. 4: 529-544. benyus, j. m. 1997. biomimicry: innovation inspired by natur. quill: new york. boer, p. van heeswijk, j., heideveld, a., den held, d. and maatman, d. 2011. inspired by cradle to cradle: c2c practice in education. hiteq: hilversum, the netherlands, on-line: http://www.lerenvoorduurzameontwikkeling.nl/content/publicatie-inspired-cradle-cradlebiedt-onderwijs-inspiratie volume 5 number 3 (2011): 362-373 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 371 chawla, l., and d. cushing. 2007. education for strategic environmental behaviour. environmental education research. 13, no 4: 437-52. davies, p., h. howie, j. mangan, and s. telhaj. 2002. economic aspects of citizenship education: an investigation of students’ understanding. the curriculum journal 13: 20124. death, c. 2011 'summit theatre: exemplary governmentality and environmental diplomacy in johannesburg and copenhagen', environmental politics, 20: 1, 1 — 19. evans, g. w., g. brauchle, a. haq, r. stecker, k. wong, and e. shapiro. 2007. young children's environmental attitudes and behaviors. environment and behavior 39 (5): 635658. geisen, g. 2011. c2c and education: en educational perspective. primary education. in inspired by cradle to cradle: c2c practice in education. edited by boer, p. van heeswijk, j., heideveld, a., den held, d. and maatman, d. pp. 28-32. hiteq: hilversum, the netherlands, on-line: http://www.lerenvoorduurzameontwikkeling.nl/content/publicatieinspired-cradle-cradle-biedt-onderwijs-inspiratie gough, s. and scott, w. 2007. higher education and sustainable development: paradox and possibility, abingdon, routledge. greening, l.a., greene d.l., difiglio c. 2000. energy efficiency and consumption—the rebound effect—a survey. energy policy 28(6/7): 389–401. heideveld, a. and cornelissen, s. 2009. netherlands national commission for unesco and the dutch institute for vocational and adult education (cinop). learning for sustainable development: exploring learning strategies across the lifespan. report by unesco, the netherlands. hobson k. 2002. competing discourses of sustainable consumption: does the ‘rationalization of lifestyles’ make sense? environmental politics, 11(2): 95–120. kollmuss, a., and j. agyeman. 2002. mind the gap: why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior? environmental education research 8 (3): 239-60. kopnina, h. 2011. "what is (responsible) consumption? discussing environment and consumption with children from different socio-economic backgrounds in the netherlands." accepted in the environmentalist. open access. kopnina, h. 2011a. ‘what about that wrapper? using consumption diaries in green education’. in environmental anthropology today. edited by h. kopnina and e. shoreman-ouimet, new york and oxford: routledge. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 362-373 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 372 kopnina, h. 2011b. revisiting education for sustainable development (esd): examining anthropocentric bias through the transition of environmental education to esd’. in sustainable development. accepted. leiser, d., and r. b. halachmi. 2006. children’s understanding of market forces. journal of economic psychology 27 (1): 6-19. louv, r. 2005. last child in the woods: saving our children from nature-deficit disorder, north carolina: algonquin books of chapel hill. mcdonough, w., and m. braungart. 2002. cradle to cradle: remaking the way we make things. new york: north point press. miller, j. d. 1975. the development of pre-adult attitudes toward environmental conservation and pollution. school science and mathematics 27: 729-37. mol, a. p. j., and d. a. sonnenfeld. 2000. ecological modernisation around the world: perspectives and critical debates. essex, england: frank cass. natuurwijs www.natuurwijs.nl sponsored by triodos bank: www.triodosfoundation.nl reid, a., b. jensen, j. nikel and v. simovska. 2008 participation and learning: perspectives on education and the environment, health and sustainability. new york: springer. rickinson, m. 2001. learners and learning in environmental education: a critical review of evidence. environmental education research 7 (3): 207-320(114) rickinson, m., c. lundholm, and n. hopwood. 2009. environmental learning. dordrecht: insights from research into the student experience; springer. shepardson, d. p., d. niyogi, s. choi, and u. charusombat. 2009. seventh grade students’ conceptions of global warming and climate change. environmental education research 15, no. 5: 549-570. sevón, g., and s. weckström. 1989. the development of reasoning about economic events: a study of finnish children. journal of economic psychology 10: 495-514. stapp, w.b., et al. 1969. the concept of environmental education. journal of environmental education, 1(1), 30-31. stern, p. c. 2000. toward a coherent theory of environmentally significant behavior. journal of social issues 36: 407-24. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 362-373 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 373 thijssen, j. 2002. nature education for elementary schools [natuuronderwijs voor de basisschool], cito. arnhem, the netherlands. unesco school profile documents http://www.unesco.nl/documents/documentennatcom/brochure%20unesco-schoolprofiel.pdf united nations, 1992. unced. agenda 21, the united nations program of action from rio wagenaar, h. 2007. sustainable development for the elementary schools: domain description and lesson examples [duurzame ontwikkeling voor de basisschool: domeinbeschrijving en voorbeeldlessen], cito. arnhem. wals, a. e. j. 2007. social learning: towards a sustainable world: principles, perspectives and praxis. wageningen academic publishers. wesselink, r. and wals, a. e. j. (2011) 'developing competence profiles for educators in environmental education organisations in the netherlands', environmental education research, 17: 1, 69 — 90 zizek, s. 2011. http://fora.tv/2011/04/04/slavoj_zizek_catastrophic_but_not_serious. public programs for the public mind. the city university of new york. selwyn final in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 97   volume 5 number 2 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ on wrestling with alienation and producing more progressive mental conceptions that remake our world: doing democracy adam renner bellarmine university august 18,1970-december 19, 2010 nancye e. mccrary university of kentucky nmccr@bellsouth.net doug selwyn plattsburgh state university doug.selwyn@plattsburgh.edu in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 98 given rapidly increasing economic, environmental, political, and socio-cultural changes in what might be called a new global era, we examine the possibilities and challenges of democracy-in-action through education. we focus on empowering students to embrace justice and realize democracy-in-action by discussing civic-minded pedagogies and modeling student-centered techniques. our primary aim is to engender discourse on teaching and learning social justice through student-centered pedagogical approaches that employ dialogic interaction and experiential learning to stimulate critical reflection and empower students. recently, christine sleeter1 argued, “teachers who are committed to democratic teaching are faced with two tasks: negotiating increasingly undemocratic systems in order to find space for democratic teaching, and critically examining what democracy is, including gaps between its ideals and actual practice.”1 we agree. as the educational terrain, mirroring other social institutions like media, government et al, tips toward what sleeter terms “corporatocracy,” and away from democracy, we maintain there are few other locations beside schools and its resident workers and students, which have the power to tip the balance in the other direction. well, it is at least one of the few nonviolent and more constructive and hopeful options we have. and, frankly, there is little time to waste. our work in this essay occurs at two levels. at one level we deal with teacher education. what are the democratic experiences and possibilities that we need to promote which ensure a teacher force poised to reenact such experiences and possibilities in their own classrooms? the k-12 classroom represents the second, but no less important, level of focus. while we certainly treat these issues, practically, we position them against a theoretical backdrop in order to bring the whole picture into sharper relief. along with the multi-level consideration of teacher education and k-12 classroom, we frame the struggle for democratic teachers and teaching with the notion of (1) alienation and (2) the formation of more progressive mental conceptions of the world. in other work adam renner, along with milton brown,2 offer their construction of the “hopeful curriculum,” which is anchored by a belief that the perpetuation and 1 christine sleeter. “teaching for democracy in an age of corporatocracy.” tc record online (2008). accessed january 12, 2010. http://www.tcrecord.org/content.asp?contentid=14562. 2 adam renner and milton brown. “a hopeful curriculum: community, praxis, and courage.” the journal of curriculum theorizing 22 (2006): 101-122. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 99 proliferation of social injustice is foundationalized by a breakdown of community. that is, as we focus more on the individual and less on the collective, more on getting ahead than getting together, we travel an inexorable path toward chaos and conflict. alienation, then, is the extent to which our community is broken down. it is the condition in which we find ourselves dislocated from self, society, and the environment mentally, emotionally, and/or physically. barry padgett3 divides alienation in the contemporary society into four parts: (1) the relation of the employee to the product of labor; (2) the relation of the employee to the activity of production; (3) the relation of the worker to humanity writ large; and (4) the relation of individual employee from every other worker. a few examples that bridge padgett’s notion of the gap to schooling and the lives of students and teachers might help. given alienating forces in our lives as students, we experience existential dislocation by the very nature of more utilitarian and technical forms of education, by the promotion of the economic purposes for getting an education, by competition for perceived scarce economic resources through testing, by competing against classmates for grades and scholarships, by surveillance technologies that inform students that someone is always watching, by vying for entrée into ‘good’ schools, and by the yoke of student loan debt. likewise, as workers/teachers, we are alienated by the constant threat of job/benefit loss; the distancing of us from our students by artificial and scripted curricula; as well as mediating discussion technologies like live text, blackboard, etc.; and the distancing of us from colleagues by the mechanism of merit pay. finally, we experience alienation as citizens. we see this trend in the amplification of nationalism, in the relatively banal choices of our theatrical federal elections for which we choose the one who may oppress us the least, in the rather unconscious drive to consume—whether we need the products or not and/or whether or not we might go into debt purchasing them, and in the disconnection from the natural world as we continue to live out of sync with the rhythm of our planet. patrick shannon, providing a specific school example, puts it this way: alienation is the process of separation between people and some quality assumed to be related to them in natural circumstances. this process can be consciously recognized (subjective alienation) or be beyond the control of the individual (objective alienation). if you begin with the assumption that reading, teaching and learning are human processes, which are natural 3 barry padgett. marx and alienation in contemporary society (new york: continuum, 2007). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 100 qualities of teachers and students, then, the rationalization of reading instruction requires both types of alienation. the script's standardization of teachers' actions requires that the totality of teaching someone to read is "divided, fixated and synchronized," objectively separating teachers from teaching reading. the definition of learning as test scores separates students from the totality of their learning. reducing teachers and students to factors in the scripted system of test score production requires that they lose, at least officially, emotional, cultural, and social attachments to the process of teaching and learning and to each other. such detachments demand a subjective separation of teachers from teaching and students from learning. this does not mean that alienated teachers are uncaring or that alienated students lack engagement. rather it means that the nature of that engagement is subsumed under the process of rationalization and the possibilities of teaching and learning are artificially directed and severely restricted.4 given all of the proceeding, if we do not arrive at a renewed consciousness about the nature of reality, then our very existence is up for grabs. we are easy fodder for the alienating forces. our search for truth is short-circuited or replaced with other’s truth. our search for meaning and self-actualization is reconfigured to suit the profit motives of capitalists, convinced by corporate schools and media to pursue a path of least resistance. teacher education must help our students come to better grips with the alienating forces in their lives. students often live at the vortex of the student-worker-citizen identity. thus, they may most easily be poised to notice and come to grips with a more liberating way to learn, teach, and live. however, this will take a deepened consciousness in order that more progressive mental conceptions of the world might emerge. in the german ideology, marx submits: the class which has the means of material production at its disposal has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. the ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas.5 4 patrick shannon. “a marxist reading of reading instruction.” cultural logic (2000). accessed january 12, 2010. http://clogic.eserver.org/. 5 karl marx. “the german ideology.” in the marx-engels reader, ed. robert tucker, (new york: ww norton & company, 1978), 172. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 101 in place of mystical explanations or postmodernist apologies for injustice, we must widen the possibilities toward an apprehension of material reality and reason. rather than ‘natural’ conceptions of difference and the presumed fear that ensues about the ‘other’, we must consider instead how difference is socially constructed and see, historically, how manufactured difference has been used to divide and conquer. additionally, we must interrupt the distortion of reality offered by the ruling class and their corporate media, which produces meaning based on consumption (profit for the media shareholders) or spectacle (so-called reality tv that distracts citizens from true material reality). as a consequence, we may have a chance to conceive of more hopeful possibilities for transformation and liberation from the present crisis. of course, what prompts this alienating tendency and more restrictive/dogmatic mental conceptions of the world is capitalism. coming to grips with this reality is a necessity to ultimately overcome alienation, to deepen our consciousness, and to finally work toward community and democracy. we must find our connections to others. we must come to more constructive conceptions of reality and truth. else, we will live other people’s truths. and, we will complicate any possibility for community and democracy. we will need to act decisively and with conviction. therefore, our interest is in doing democracy. this is sort of an anarchist position; one that promotes the notion of pre-figuration. that is, if we want peace, justice, democracy, then we will have to live (that is, teach) peacefully, justly, and democratically. in the examples to follow—the teaching and learning studio at the university of kentucky, the international service learning work in jamaica, and the more critically-literate research approach at plattsburgh state university—we explain how we have taken to this democracy work in our respective locations. we talk about them in light of the two levels we want to address: teacher education and k-12 schools. and, we consider to what extent they reduce alienation and foster more fluid and agency-inducing mental conceptions of the world. to these ends, we allow the following questions to drive our examination: how do we overcome alienation? what analytical tools are necessary? what school experiences are critical? and, what are the signs of real hope (i.e., how will we identify the turning points and what will we be prepared to do when we notice them)? fostering democracy in her research on teaching for democracy, sleeter (2008), again, points out one of the many contradictions happening in the classrooms of teachers she taught, observed, and interviewed. in the case of nancy, who was to spend a class introducing a unit on ancient greece by covering the five forms of government, her former student was caught between the place of teaching democratically and teaching about democracy: in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 102 there is a profound irony in what happened during those 45 minutes. the textbook and content standards nancy was to follow teaches that the u.s. is based on democracy, and that u.s.-style democracy is the world’s best form of government. but despite that message as well as nancy’s commitment to participatory democracy, she was told to follow directions from others over what to teach, transmitting content to students they would be able to reproduce on tests. in other words, the context of teaching had become distinctly un-democratic, an irony that was not lost on her. further, neither the standards nor the textbook offered extensive analytical tools for examining power and decision-making as it actually functions, particularly connections between political processes and the economic structure. sympathetic to nancy’s plight and sleeter’s frustration, we offer the following possibilities from our locations of local control, spaces we have carved out either programmatically, pedagogically, or personally. they are, at best, imperfect and, almost certainly, works in progress. they are a testament, however, to what is actually happening; what is possible when we commit to undoing the impacts of alienation and helping form more progressive mental conceptions of the world. dialogues of respect: the teaching and learning studio at the university of kentucky there are major distinctions between teaching students to think for themselves and teaching them to achieve high scores on standardized tests; between improving existing systems of education and rethinking the foundations of those systems; and, as has been suggested, between the rhetoric of better education for all and the realities of public education in a pluralist participatory democracy. indeed, there is no other form of government that so thrives on citizens thinking for themselves. standardization of thought, knowledge, or performance does not serve such a democracy but rather an authoritarian, totalitarian or fascist structure. yet, standardization is too often touted as a measurable prescription for improving education for all in the united states. were we to learn from history, our own as well as that of other nations, we might know better. were we to pay attention to our own history of public education, our rich legacy of educational research, and the knowledge of experienced teachers, we might better understand that standardizing educational outcomes for the purpose of measurement and ranking is more authoritarian than democratic. for purposes here, we define democratic education as teaching and learning primarily aimed at gaining knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to participate actively in a pluralist and participatory democracy. while there remains some debate about how we interpret our form of democracy in the united states, this work hinges on membership in our diverse society and citizenship in a country designed to be governed by the people for [the common good of] the people. furthermore, choules suggests that promoting reflection on issues of power and privilege in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 103 in education is “an important strategy to engage people to act for social change.”6 most of us, however, have had little reason to think critically about the ways their own socioeconomic and cultural privileges may be complicit in maintaining social injustices. as a result, we may remain at a comfortable distance from different others, viewing them as spectacle rather than community partners. without modeling reflective practice and collaboration, our pre-service teachers are likely to resort to reproduction of the ways they were educated. they are more likely to view themselves as normal and different others as deviations from an assumed norm. recall maria montessori, grounded in medical science, deeply religious, and herself a victim of the italian fascism of mussolini, suggested we should prepare teachers by cultivating the spirit “rather than toward mechanism.”7 likewise, john dewey8 insisted that teachers respond to the natural interests of the child rather than weakening intellectual curiosity or suppressing initiative through prescribed subject matter. in 1932, george counts argued that teachers should reach for power in determining what and how children learn in our public schools. he spoke of teachers representing “the common and abiding interests of the people, not the interests of the moment or of any special class.” counts believed that teachers would not “act as selfishly or bungle as badly as have the… politicians, the financiers, the industrialists.”9 in teacher education, it seems our choices are clear, teach teachers to employ standards and teach children to achieve high scores on standardized tests in service of the goals of politicians and corporate interests or educate teachers toward “the common and abiding interests of the people.”10 the latter liberates learners from serving corporate or political whims and supports democratic ideals. educating toward common and abiding interests of the citizenry is also consonant with widely accepted epistemological views that revolve around knowing as a matter of constructing meaning in concert with others. such epistemological perspectives, however, are rarely implemented in pedagogical contexts that facilitate integration, interaction, and collaboration. more often, both teacher education and p-12 schools attempt to employ liberating student-centered pedagogies in contexts designed for teacher-centered instruction. in elementary teacher education we often emphasize the benefits of collaborative learning, interdisciplinary approaches, and integrated curriculum rhetorically, while teaching separate content-based 6 kathryn choules. “the shifting sands of social justice discourse: from situating the problem with them, to situating it with us,” the review of education pedagogy & cultural studies, 29 (2007), 478. 7 maria montessori. “the montessori method,”, . in the curriculum studies reader, ed. david j. flinders et. al. (new york: routledge, 2009), 25. 8 john dewey. “my pedagogic creed,” in the curriculum studies reader, ed. david j. flinders et. al. (new york: routledge, 2009), 34-41. 9 george counts. “dare schools build a new social order,” in the curriculum studies reader, ed. david j. flinders et. al. (new york: routledge, 2009), 45. 10 ibid., 45. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 104 methods courses in language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. we often do so to protect pedagogical content knowledge from elimination in school curricula, as though its rhetorical existence assures preservation of its conceptual understandings. although this model has dominated education, particularly at the postsecondary level, it originates from theoretical perspectives that no longer reflect what we know about teaching and learning. for instance, traditional stand & deliver instruction is based on assumptions that teachers possess essential knowledge and can deliver it both verbally and textually with the expectation that students will be able to remember, understand, and articulate it as delivered. this one course/one instructor model requires limited space, students produce no artifacts or products unless those are done elsewhere, and students rarely, if ever, collaborate. most instructional interactions involve a single instructor and one or more students. students’ interpretations and ideas are judged against the instructor’s perspective. literally, all construction of knowledge occurs, individually. the ongoing learning process is obscured because most students’ products are rarely seen by anyone other than one instructor, resulting in curricular alienation discussed earlier. in teacher education, course products, such as papers, lesson plans, unit plans, behavior charts, and presentation materials are assigned by one instructor, evaluated by the same instructor, and rarely subjected to public critique or formative feedback, except when coinciding with field experiences. as an alternative, the university of kentucky teaching and learning studio (uktls) is designed to align what we teach pre-service teachers with how we teach them. it is a more democratic approach to teacher education and more consonant with social constructivist epistemologies. it is designed to be a collaborative learning environment where teacher education students more often work together to design, develop, and evaluate instruction with an emphasis on interdisciplinary connections. in the uktls model, students employ critical thinking and reflective application of educational research in the design of authentic p-5 learning experiences in literacy, social education, and stem disciplines. it is an effort to reach beyond the confines of the traditional one-teacher/one-class model to provide students with opportunities to interact with and learn from their peers, as well as multiple faculty members, practicing teachers, clinical staff, and doctoral students. it is based on the belief that teacher preparation should employ the most effective instructional approaches, facilitate learning communities in socially just and democratic ways, and emphasize both human and disciplinary connections. it is designed as an environment where theoretical and practical discussions among faculty take place openly and students are invited to participate when appropriate. within the studio, faculty teaching responsibilities are collaborative and integrated such that instructors are individually responsible for the pedagogical content in their areas of expertise, while also co-teaching seminars on content integration, learning technologies, and applications of theory and research. as one student remarked, “i like the ability to hear and experience different views of theory and their applications from a wide array of professors.” in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 105 as the program develops, there is evidence of promising outcomes, particularly in relation to building collaborative teaching and learning communities. the extent to which students are doing so is evidenced in the ways they talk about their experiences in the uktls. for example one student said, “we collaborate a lot; we work in groups a lot; we are like what are you doing for this assignment, and okay that makes sense…. i depend on them [peers] a lot.” additionally, in the former model undergraduate students were rarely seen in the department when not attending classes or voicing concerns. at present, students in the uktls spend most of their day in the department, meet in inquiry learning groups over lunch and discuss pedagogical content informally, as well as during formal class meetings. one student commented that it was nice to see faculty collaborating during weekly meetings in the studio space. another voiced satisfaction that studio faculty had to do as much or more work than students. of course, faculty had always worked quite hard but much of their effort was not visible to the students. whether or not this is relevant for other programs of study, in teacher preparation it seems especially important for students to see ongoing collaboration among their instructors. indeed when asked to reflect on their experiences in the teaching and learning studio, students often comment on the ways they depend on each other. one said, “it made me open my mind and think i don’t have to be set in this one way. it’s just a lot different and i feel more confident that i can be creative.” another spoke of her personal development in the program as follows. that’s something that i’ve learned this semester too. i’m never going to know everything. i’ve learned that i’m just going to have to not be backward about it and shy and go i need to know this, i need help with this. it’s okay. you learn as you go. …this has made me be just a little more relaxed…. and you need to be that way as a teacher. a phenomenon that has occurred during both faculty planning meetings and in the integrated sessions is faculty disagreement or divergent perspectives, particularly related to issues of theoretical stance, research methodology, and content appropriateness for elementary learners. for instance, a science education professor objected to a social studies faculty suggesting that religion might be appropriate to discuss with young children. following the objection, the science faculty provided evidence of his own experiences teaching elementary students, describing a case in which a student made an inappropriate comment about religion and parents complained about his teaching. the social studies faculty countered with an argument that social education, particularly history, might be difficult to teach without including some discussion of religion. in this case, pre-service teachers observed faculty disagreeing, supporting arguments with realworld evidence, understanding opposing viewpoints, yet maintaining individual perspectives. as one student wrote, “it was nice in the afternoon classes that there’d be two professors from completely different classes [disciplines] that would come together. really neat [because] you’ve got completely different viewpoints.” in the more traditional model, students may have experienced divergent perspectives without being in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 106 privy to important discourse among faculty. in that case, students would have observed opposing views and been left with little to stimulate deeper thinking about the issue. in that case, what would have been missed is what greene calls the in-between or dialogic space that she argues is necessary for an ideal education.11 in a real sense, the uktls may be replacing dualisms of public and private, self and others, what is and what ought to be with dialogue aimed at understanding differing perspectives. such dialogic space can exist externally in conversations among learners or internally between new insights and pre-existing understandings thereby achieving more expanded mental conceptions of the world. according to freire dialogic interaction involves, among other things, critical thinking, a sense of equity that consists of both self-efficacy and humility, and mutual trust.12 as faculty model critical thinking, mutual respect, and equity, students relax and respond with comments like the following. “you don’t hold anything back. you’re not shy to answer questions or give your opinion, and so that was awesome.” educating new and practicing teachers to be knowledgeable leaders in the art and science of learning is far more complex than training them to follow prescribed instruction and standardized assessment. it requires teaching them to think critically and reflectively about their practice, to know their students, to assess students’ needs, and to respond to cultural and learning differences. as a social process that is enhanced by interaction and dialogue (hatano & inagaki; jonassen; vygotsky),13 learning can be constrained by educational settings that have institutionalized positivistic pedagogies to effect didactic instruction.14 in teacher education, restricting interaction among learners may limit the very understandings that are necessary for teaching and learning in novel, varied, or unexpected situations so common in the real world of public education. the uktls provides a platform to prepare new teacher candidates to address the needs of diverse learners and provide them with skills necessary for full participation as citizens of our democracy. rather than focusing on political whims and continually changing 11 maxine greene. releasing the imagination: essays on education, the arts, and social change (san francisco: jossey-bass publishers, 1995). 12 paulo freire. pedagogy of the oppressed (new york: continuum, 1970). 13 g. hatano and k. inagaki. “desituating cognition through the construction of conceptual knowledge,” in context and cognition: ways of learning and knowing, ed. p. light et.al. (hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates, publishers, 1993) 115-133; d. jonassen, “objectivism versus constructivism: do we need a new philosophical paradigm?,” educational technology research & development 39 (1991): 5-14; lev vygotsky. mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes (cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 1978). 14 u. ruf and n. badr goetz. “problem-based and dialogic learning in complex learning and teaching environments in upper secondary education,” accessed september 8, 2006. http://www.research-projects.unizh.ch/p3070.htm. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 107 standards and assessments, teachers are taught to ask questions, to be critical consumers of packaged instruction, to build among themselves a community of practice, and to be reflective about the education of their own students. so, while managing the impositions of high-stakes testing or other corporate models, the aim is to prepare teachers to teach well, to inspire in their students the hope for a better world, and insure they possess the skills and efficacy to work for “the common and abiding interests of the people.”15 international service learning: education for liberation or domination service learning has enjoyed a nice run in the academy and in k-12 education, especially in the social studies, providing a critical and reflective enhancement beyond traditional community service projects.16 but, like its predecessor, service learning is losing some of its critical edge. in many spaces, it has become little more than check-inthe-box-sign-off-on-the-sheet service projects in which students engage the community through traditional ‘server’ / ‘served’ roles, providing charitable work for those ‘in need’. launching from david miller’s conceptualization of “solidaristic partnerships” in democratic theory, nel noddings’s theory of care, and seyla benhabib’s notion of the “generalized and concrete other,” adam renner crafted a theoretical frame for service learning that considers the formation of a caring solidarity between ‘server’ and ‘served’, merging individualistic notions of care with structural considerations of social justice.17 this caring solidarity, seeks to (1) overcome boundaries, (2) promote transparent and transformative dialog, (3) build trusting, reciprocal relations, (4) seek long term effects, (5) bridge the gap between the structural/theoretical and the individual/practical toward more critical consciousness, and (6) democratize server/served roles. these emergent notions provided the backdrop against which a partnership with jamaican schools and social service agencies began in 1998. and, that work continues to evolve.18 as part of this evolution, a course on international service learning was most recently taught at bellarmine university with two critical colleagues in 2009. titling their 15 counts, “dare schools,” 45. 16 a good history of community service and the emergence of service learning can be found in carolyn o’grady’s (2000) integrating service learning and multicultural education in colleges and universities. 17 david miller. principles of social justice (cambridge: harvard university press, 1999); nel noddings. caring: a feminine approach to ethics and moral education (berkeley: university of california press, 1984); seyla benhabib. situating the self: gender, community, and postmodernism (ny: routledge, 1992); adam renner. “butterflies, boundaries, and breadfruit: the shared story of a service learning experience in jamaica” (phd diss., the university of tennessee, 2002); adam renner, “caring solidarity: evolving a theoretical and practical agenda for service-learning and pedagogy,” kentucky journal of excellence (2005): 19-39. 18 for some background on the history of the developing partnership in jamaica, see “a decade of work in the global south: social service or social change?” at http://www.richgibson.com/rouge_forum/2008/decadework.htm, by gina stiens and adam renner, and the north-south partners blog at http://northsouthpartner.wordpress.com. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 108 interdisciplinary course, “education for liberation or domination?” they explored the possibilities of a more critical education experience, which helped extend a more authentic partnership with their jamaican partners. the class, in fact, explored the complexities of power relationships, such as those between the teacher/student and the global north/south. questions examined included: what is education? why do we need it? who benefits from education? and, what would a truly solidaristic and liberatory relationship look like? the class pursued a social justice agenda foundationalized in community and recognized that their lives were intimately intertwined with the lives and conditions of the jamaican partners. while a good deal of theory contextualized the course experience, one example of the theoretical framework may suffice to illustrate the path they followed. paul farmer, 19a medical doctor and an anthropologist, conceives of work with the disenfranchised/marginalized/oppressed as falling into one of three categories: charity, development, or social justice. in terms of charity, farmer suggests that the ‘server’ operates on the ‘served’ using a deficit model--‘they’ are intrinsically inferior. this approach presupposes there will always be those who have and those who have not. freire asserts, similarly, “in order to have the continued opportunity to express their ‘generosity,’ the oppressors must perpetuate injustice as well.”20 in other work with matt masucci, renner calls this an evangelistic approach to service in which the ‘server’ essentially serves one’s self.21 even more provocatively, perhaps, eduardo galeano suggests, “charity consoles but does not question. ‘when i give food to the poor, they call me a saint,’ brazilian bishop helder camara said. ‘and when i ask why they have no food, they call me a communist.’ unlike solidarity, which is horizontal and takes place between equals, charity is top down, humiliating those who receive it and never challenging the implicit power relations. in the best of cases, there will be justice someday, high in heaven. here on earth, charity doesn’t worry injustice, it just tries to hide it.”22 in terms of development, this approach implies that ‘they’ too can share ‘our’ standard of living (while ignoring, of course, that our standard depends on their substandard). this approach tends to blame the victim—that is, it places the problem with the poor themselves, rather than on the structure that forces them to live a particular 19 paul farmer. pathologies of power (ny: routledge, 2004). 20 paulo freire. pedagogy of the oppressed. ny: continuum, 1970. 21 matt masucci and adam renner, “reading the lives of others: the winton homes library project—a cultural studies analysis of critical service learning for education,” the high school journal 84 (2000): 36-47. 22 eduardo galeano. upside down (ny: henry holt, 2000). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 109 way: the growth of poverty is dependent on the growth of wealth. masucci and renner call this a missionary approach to service for which ‘servers’ serve perceived needs.23 lastly, in terms of social justice, work begins from a premise that the world is deeply flawed. ‘servers’ believe that the condition of the poor is not only unacceptable, it is the result of structural violence that is human made, perhaps self-made. relative to this notion, fr. juan segundo offers, “the world that is satisfying to us is the same world that is utterly devastating to them.” thus, we are all implicated in the creation or maintenance of structural violence so a posture of penitence and indignation is critical. this sort of approach implies not a working for, but a working with—a humble, more contextual, more connected approach. ultimately, then, ‘servers’ seek something more just, more democratic, what staughton lynd and andrej grubacic liken to “accompaniment.”24 accompaniment often involves the pairing of the relative privileged with the relative oppressed in a freirean sort of “dialogical action.” in this action, the theoretical knowledge of the relative privileged (of the system and how to navigate it) is connected with the lived experience of the relative oppressed. though service-learning is fraught with problematics and, in its most cynical analysis, is exploitative, the intention in the more than ten years of this work has been to join the work of others, leveraging their privilege for the benefit of others toward some liberatory goal. lynd says it this way: “the idea of working side by side with another [is] a common journey. the idea is that when a university-trained person undertakes to walk beside someone rich in experience but lacking formal skills, each contributes something vital to the process. accompaniment presupposes, not uncritical deference, but equality.”25 it is at once mutual aid and revolutionary practice. while the work remains far from the liberatory goal and only touches the fringes of a transformative sort of practice, they consistently witness this struggle from as emic a perspective as possible and continually hone their analytical capabilities toward more critical action in the future. to this end, lynd considers the length of this journey, “sometimes all you can do for another person is stand in the rain with him/her . . . .i feel the need for a trade. i feel the natural way to relate to others is by unselfconsciously offering a service of unquestioned usefulness” (p. 177). so, sometimes we wait for the sunshine, and act the best we can while it’s raining. course experiences at bellarmine, then, included multiple performative assessments which included group preparation of lessons to be taught at the jamaican school. in fact, since 1998, the work has better involved the teachers at the jamaican 23 matt masucci and adam renner,“reading the lives of others: the winton homes library project—a cultural studies analysis of critical service learning for education,” the high school journal 84 (2000): 36-47. 24 staughton lynd and andrej grubacic, wobblies and zapatistas (oakland, ca: pm press, 2008). 25 lynd and grubacic, wobblies and zapatistas, 177. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 110 school such that all partners co-construct the lessons. the particular course at bellarmine university also contained a large participatory element, which evaluated students on their engagement of the theoretical components early in the semester as well as their engagement with the jamaican partners. finally, students were assessed on their reflective capabilities, demonstrating, praxistically, how they had woven the theoretical and practical pieces of the experience together. by way of wrapping up this section, let’s consider what has happened practically in terms of these student reflections on the trip, the responses of the partners in jamaica, and in the k-12 classrooms of some of the students who have completed this work. prompted by the theoretical examinations, the experience in jamaica, and a collection of poetry selected by one of the instructors, students offered the following, which are representative of student responses. one student reflected, “i can honestly say that this course was a liberating experience for me…i want to own my life and my work and that is where this experience has taken me. education for liberation is about owning yourself and your experience. thank you all for making this a democratic class and allowing, even pushing us to own the experience in jamaica.” another commented, “i really have been searching inside myself to figure out who i am since we’ve returned. while i have not come to a conclusion, i hope that i never completely do. i hope that i continually grow, change, and question who i really am… challenging myself to become more knowledgeable, to use critical literacy in the classroom, and to start taking action for the community is what evolved from this trip.” and another asserted, “i have many more questions now, after returning and reflecting. and for me, that is an extremely uncomfortable position to be in. i enjoy having answers and solutions. and the issues we were exposed to in jamaica are far too complex to be able to have finite answers. the overwhelming nature of the work is daunting but the rewards of dialogue and understanding are far greater than i ever imagined.” from the jamaican side, tremendous strides were made toward a more horizontal, democratic partnership in 2009 at a community dinner, hosted by the us team. wanting to simply break bread and talk about their lives as teachers, the staff of the school along with a few prominent jamaicans were invited to dinner to discuss one generative theme: education, particularly the purposes of education. the jamaican partners generated an impressive and provocative list of reasons, topped by (1) to prepare individuals to enter the society and wider world; (2) to gain knowledge about emotional, social, and spiritual selves; (3) to acquire good financial sense; and (4) to learn skills, not just for occupation, but also ones that help us to live in families, work in communities, and operate within the government. (talk about progressive mental conceptions of the world!) the teacher candidates making the trip learned much from their jamaican peers. as well, the jamaican partners finally felt enough confidence to begin directing the us team as they made preparations for subsequent visits. the jamaican partners suggested that the us team begin to build plans around the jamaican curriculum, such that the lessons brought in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 111 might merge with what they already teach. this way, they can model instruction for each other and “grasp the most valued things,” as mrs. althea kaye, a teacher at the jamaican school suggests. finally, these experiences in jamaica have impacted the teacher candidates in terms of their own pedagogy in k-12 schools. modeling much of what they learned in the course and in jamaica, students have implemented a much more intentional critical literacy approach in the social studies classes at their student teaching placements. their cooperating teachers and university supervisors have been most impressed by their immense and concentrated efforts to prepare and enact a more democratic curricula in schools, even as inexperienced teachers. because of their experience with a more constructive and democratic approach to pedagogy in at least one university class and because of their willingness to grapple with alienating forces and form more critical mental conceptions of the world, they have been able to translate this into more progressive pedagogical possibilities in k-12 schools.26 researching our lives: toward a more critical literacy related to alienation driven by the hidden curriculum, freire and macedo note, curriculum in the broadest sense involves not only the programmatic contents of the school system, but also the scheduling, discipline, and dayto-day tasks required from students in schools. in this curriculum, then, there is a quality that is hidden and that gradually incites rebelliousness on the part of children and adolescents. their defiance corresponds to the aggressive elements in the curriculum that work against the students and their interests.27 our most essential task is to recover those elements in the curriculum that help young people to develop the skills they need to become effective learners, and citizens. if we do our work successfully our students will be able to identify and shape good questions about issues, problems, and concerns they have, to gather information about those questions from relevant sources, to critically analyze the information gathered, and 26 the evolution of this experience continues. what started as a high school service learning experience in 1998 later developed into this interdisciplinary university course. now, back in the k-12 classroom at the june jordan school for equity in san francisco, ca (www.jjse.org), author 1 endeavors to develop the international service learning experience with high school students once again. what is also important to note is the number of us participants over the last 13 years who remain a part of the experience either through their financial assistance or as adult leaders for new groups of students who participate. 27 paulo freire and donaldo macedo, literacy: reading the word and the world (westport, ct: bergin and garvey, 1987), 121. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 112 to act on what they have found. they will be able to critically evaluate information and claims that others are making, and to recognize the flaws, inaccuracies, and inconsistencies in them. how else do we prepare our students to become responsible and involved citizens if we do not help them to gain and to practice the skills they need to make a difference? a story might suffice. when somalia teenagers were in the news in the spring of 2009 for hijacking a us ship and holding the captain, there was virtually no coverage on the context in which the event was taking place. no mention of somalia’s history, of the colonization and piracy that has been going on for a very long time, no mention of the dumping of nuclear and other hazardous waste off the waters of the country once the government virtually disappeared, no mention of the over fishing of those same waters by countries from around the world, and no mention of the fact that these young men were viewed by their communities as a volunteer coast guard, acting in the absence of a functioning government to protect the resources of the country. so, doug selwyn introduced his students to articles that presented some context, some background information about these young people who were/are approximately the same age as his university students, and the account gave some historical background. all well and good, and the students were all over it. it was not evident, though, that they were any more thoughtfully “all over it” as they had been all under it before the additional articles. they trusted the articles introduced because they basically trusted the teacher, and assumed he wouldn’t lie to them. that’s not good enough, and we should work to do better. how can we help our students to approach the world with a critical and skeptical eye that leads them to look for context, evidence, and a deeper understanding of issues rather than to blindly accept the analysis of someone else? if we simply replace “their” information (texts and the canon) with “our’ information, we are not doing much of value, because we are just preparing them to mindlessly follow the next sales pitch, the next snake oil salesman who tries to sell them a bridge, or a war…. while it may be true that many of our students have been trained away from their own questions and interests and critical thinking, it’s not our intention to curse the damage that has been done. instead, we have to teach them how to function differently. our focus is on identifying what we do want for our students, and how we will help them find their way to their power and strength, so they won’t get fooled again, and again, and again, to quote mr. townsend. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 113 so, we want to talk a bit about some research [author 3] has been doing about what goes into an effective research task in the classroom, and then provide a couple of examples, to get us talking about how we might do this well. selwyn interviewed researchers and classroom teachers to find out how they approach their own questions and concerns. he wanted to find out how they pose questions and pursue them in hopes that it might help to suggest how we can do this work in our classrooms. those interviewed were clear that each researcher has to work in ways that suit him or her. none were willing to provide a fool proof recipe that would apply to everyone. having said that, there was considerable overlap about what they had to say, and those areas of agreement are listed below. while the nature of the list may seem simplistic, or obvious, we can’t say that we see it happening in many classrooms, on either coast, at university or in public schools. so, here are some basic elements of an approach to conducting research that might guide us as we consider assignments in our classrooms. these elements certainly guarantee nothing, but they improve the odds of students succeeding in gaining the skills and some content knowledge they can take with them as they move out into k-12 classrooms. again, with another brief apology for the modesty of these points, here they are: • do something that matters. • know that behind the headlines there are the real stories, of the real people and the work that has been done. often history looks at what is dramatic, violent, what makes good pictures, what captures the moment. but behind those moments were the bedrock stories that more accurately communicate about who we are and how we got here. it takes time to do research. if there is an interest in surfacing the voices not commonly heard, it requires other sources, other ways of accessing information than what is commonly available, or commonly used. how you communicate is intricately linked to what you want to communicate and to whom. what is the purpose and what are your skills and interests, and what do you want to have happen as a result of your work? • having a well formed question that you keep revisiting, with a “what do i know now, what do i need to know and how can i find out,” runs the process. • a crucial set of questions centers on asking how do we know about others, how do we tell our stories and how do we learn to hear the stories of others? how do we stand in the shoes of others and understand their lives and their questions? what does it mean to understand something, to know about it beyond a surface level? • we have to be clear about our intentions, and know that our worldviews and beliefs shape how we approach our work. this is not a problem, but it is something we have to be aware of if we are to truly ask our questions and pursue them. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 114 • pursuing questions means moving past artificial boundaries, and going where we need to go to answer the questions. in pursuing his research, selwyn brought the following assumptions. first, schools are currently organized around the needs of the adults, or more properly the systems and governing agencies of our local, state, and national governments. these systems are less interested in individuals or in justice than they are in being able to say, with some confidence that the schools they are administering are functioning well, and that they are able to continue feeding off the fat of the land. second, many children in our classes are marginalized in many ways throughout their school careers. what they learn in our schools is that they are not really part of american history, and that their future is really destined to be on the margins of society. they don’t matter, and the schools are not really for them. they will not go to college, they will not be leaders, and they will not be a part of history. third, students are strongly encouraged to learn to do what they are told. they learn not to question teachers, texts, tests, or the essential history they are taught. they are not to do anything that will slow down the train. fourth, students learn that their own interests, experiences, culture, family, questions, and ways of knowing have no place in school. they are more likely to cause problems, and their task is to learn how to perform according to school culture. and, fifth, the primary purpose of schools is to socialize students so that they can enter into the current society in the least disruptive way possible. the largest percentage of students are trained to serve in menial positions, to be ruled and managed by the few. we also assume that the above list, as cynical as it is, is the antithesis of what education should be, and a negation of what we hope to advocate for through the social studies. we want the following for our students, for all students: • that they feel loved, honored, capable, and included in what we do at school, in how we are as a learning community, and in what we study. • that they become aware of themselves as learners in their current context. they learn about who they are, where they come from, how they view the world, and to appreciate that others view the world according to their own contexts. one is not better than the other, nor is it worse. • that they learn how to learn. they learn how to question, to read critically, to reason, to argue and debate, to listen to others, and to come to their own understandings based on evidence, on experience, and on information. they learn to identify and challenge their own assumptions and the assumptions made by others, to engage in the kind of revisionist scholarship that leads them to revisit in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 115 and move past what they’ve been taught, in search of the deepest understanding they can come to. • that they learn to live in a way that brings honor and justice to themselves and others. the subtext attached to this set of assumptions and practices is that those who are most likely to succeed are those most like those in power, for whom the system is designed to work. and, in fact test scores around the country bear this out. those who are most likely to succeed on standardized tests share some or all of the following characteristics: they are white, they are from families whose home culture is similar to that of school culture; the primary language spoken at home is english; their family income places them in what we might call the middle class; and their parents, especially their mothers, are educated. these are primary predictors of success, and none of them have anything to do with what goes on at school. the dice are loaded, and that’s no accident. overcoming alienation and producing more progressive mental conceptions of the world: doing democracy so, how do we unload the dice? we finish the discussion here by reconsidering the questions we posed at the outset: how do we overcome alienation? examples provided show how the uktls connects faculty and students in a dialogical space and connects students to the curriculum as they conceive of it with their professors. as well, the international service learning experience connects students with their world, helping form a more global consciousness. what analytical tools are necessary? at plattsburgh state university, they are undertaking an evolved approach to research, which intimately connects the students with that which they research. similarly, through the bellarmine service learning course, intensive theoretical study and an international experience pushed students out of their comfort zone to work with partners on a joint educational experience across broad chasms of race, class, and nation. what school experiences are critical? learning that how we see our world and how we investigate it matters is an important consideration at plattsburgh state. likewise, at uk, students witness the formation of curriculum so that they may understand the process that will be necessary in their future schools. moreover, it is hoped that the process learned here may lead to such co-development of curriculum with the future students of these teacher candidates. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 116 and, what are the signs of real hope? from the reflective comments of the students at uk, we can see that they are learning the value of such a studio model. in the international service learning experience, these are seen in at least a couple of ways. as was mentioned, the teacher candidates who have made the trip abroad have been using more progressive pedagogies in their student teaching placements. for example, one candidate, following the lesson suggestion of rethinking schools had the courage to put columbus on trial with her 5th grade social studies students during the week of columbus day. also, a majority of the students who made the last service trip to jamaica continue to meet on a twice-monthly basis to break bread and discuss not only plans for next year, but more local work that can be taken up immediately. these examples, of course, provide only a sample of what is possible. we hope that they provide some roadmap toward possible consideration in other’s classrooms. we have witnessed the reduction of the alienating tendencies often found in education and have begun to see the production of a more critical consciousness, which we continue to nurture. ________________________________________________________________________ note: portions of this paper are adapted from following the threads: bringing inquiry research in the classroom, by doug selwyn, published by peter lang, 2010. bibliography benhabib, seyla. situating the self: gender, community, and postmodernism (ny: routledge, 1992). choules, kathryn. “the shifting sands of social justice discourse: from situating the problem with them, to situating it with us.” the review of education pedagogy & cultural studies 29 (2007): 461-481. counts, george. “dare schools build a new social order.” in the curriculum studies reader, edited by david j. flinders and stephen j. thornton, 45-51. new york: routledge, 2009. dewey, john. “my pedagogic creed.” in the curriculum studies reader, edited by david j. flinders and stephen j. thornton, 34-41. new york: routledge, 2009. farmer, paul. pathologies of power. ny: routledge, 2004. freire, paulo. pedagogy of the oppressed. ny: continuum, 1970. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 117 freire, paulo and donaldo macedo. literacy: reading the word and the world. westport, ct: bergin and garvey, 1987. greene, maxine. releasing the imagination: essays on education, the arts, and social change. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers, 1995. hatano, g. and k. inagaki. “desituating cognition through the construction of conceptual knowledge.” in context and cognition: ways of learning and knowing, edited by p. light and g. butterworth, 115-133. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates, publishers, 1993. jonassen, d. “objectivism versus constructivism: do we need a new philosophical paradigm?” educational technology research & development 39 (1991): 5-14. lynd, staughton and andrej grubacic. wobblies and zapatistas. oakland, ca: pm press, 2008. marx, k. “the german ideology.” in the marx-engels reader, edited by robert tucker, 22-33. new york: ww norton & company, 1846/1978. masucci, matt and [author 1]. “reading the lives of others: the winton homes library project—a cultural studies analysis of critical service learning for education.” the high school journal 84 (2000): 36-47. miller, david. principles of social justice (cambridge: harvard university press, 1999). montessori, maria. “the montessori method.” in the curriculum studies reader, edited by david j. flinders and stephen j. thornton, 22-33. new york: routledge, 2009. noddings, nel. caring: a feminine approach to ethics and moral education (berkeley: university of california press, 1984). o’grady, carolyn. integrating service learning and multicultural education in colleges and universities (mahwah, nj: lea, 2000). padgett, barry. marx and alienation in contemporary society. ny: continuum, 2007. renner, adam. “butterflies, boundaries, and breadfruit: the shared story of a service learning experience in jamaica.” phd diss., the university of tennessee, 2002. renner, adam. (2005). “caring solidarity: evolving a theoretical and practical agenda for service-learning and pedagogy.” kentucky journal of excellence (2005): 19-39. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 97-118 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 118 renner, adam and milton brown. “a hopeful curriculum: community, praxis, and courage.” the journal of curriculum theorizing 22 (2006): 101-122. ruf, u. and n. badr goetz. „problem-based and dialogic learning in complex learning and teaching environments in upper secondary education.” accessed september 8, 2006. http://www.research-projects.unizh.ch/p3070.htm. selwyn, doug. following the threads: bringing inquiry research into the classroom. new york: peter lang. 2010. shannon, patrick. “a marxist reading of reading instruction.” cultural logic (2000): http://clogic.eserver.org/ (accessed january 12, 2010). sleeter, christine. “teaching for democracy in an age of corporatocracy.” tc record online (2008): http://www.tcrecord.org/content.asp?contentid=14562 (accessed january 12, 2010). vygotsky, lev s. mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes. cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 1978. carracosa   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               62     volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     on the ‘dia-tekhnē • dialogue through art’ methodology alex carrascosa it is a matter of communication and participation in the values of the life through the imagination, and artworks are the most intimate and energetic means of helping individuals to participate in the arts of living. (john dewey, art as experience, 1934). introduction this essay presents the ‘dia-tekhnē · dialogue through art’ methodology, a tool for group or community facilitation created autonomously from the field of plastic and visual arts in response to different needs arising in the field of peace education such as transitional justice processes (research on truth and symbolic reparation), memory, positive conflict transformation, direct democracy and councilism, community regeneration, intercultural dialogues and non-violent resistance. the text is structured in two parts: the first part describes and analyzes the main theoretical and practical components of the ‘dia-tekhnē’ methodology, including an application guide, and the second reviews the main “large group intervention methods” (as classified by bunker and alban, 1997) exploring the present relationship and similarities of ‘dia-tekhnē’ with them and, above all, suggesting potential complementation in the future. 1. on the ‘dia-tekhnē • dialogue through art’ methodology presentation the ‘dia-tekhnē • dialogue through art’ methodology is a technique for group facilitation which provides communication between different people by complementing logos —the word— with tekhnē —art—.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               63   since its earliest experiment in spring 2001, the ‘dia-tekhnē’ methodology has been developed at and from the basque town of gernika, double symbol of the denunciation of war through picasso's guernica and of the announcement of peace through the holy oak of civil liberties —“europe's oldest democracy”, george steer's words. supported by the gernika gogoratuz peace research center, the gernika peace museum and local ngos, this methodology has served many communities, mostly in indo-afro-latin-america.1 ‘dia-tekhnē’ was initially created in the field of plastic and visual arts as a conceptual and participative tool related to the contemporary trend of “lifelike art” (so called by the creator of the happening, allan kaprow), and has grown very close to militant research, a meeting point between activism and academia.2 the ‘dia-tekhnē · dialogue through art’ methodology is applied in a double format of laboratory and workshop (“labshop”): a laboratory for analysis and scientific research and an artistic workshop. the ‘dia-tekhnē’ labshop provides the structure and media, but not the theme and content, and can therefore be adapted to any human group or community and enable them to manage their conflicts creactively (with creativity and in action) and contribute positively to their empowerment. in other words, a group or a community raises a question, a problem or a conflict that needs to be addressed and the methodology provides an appropriate aesthethical (ethical and aesthetic) structure for the cohesion of the people concerned, and also suitable for the analysis of the problem and the design and implementation of the transforming steps: “the community provides the theme and the ‘dia-tekhnē’ methodology provides the canvas, paints and brushes.” the ‘dia-tekhnē · dialogue through art’ methodology runs along two consecutive phases: relational painting and the creactive assembly. in the first phase, relational painting, the art is literally put into the hands of every person, regardless of their artistic ability or skill. with some simple instructions, anyone will be able to express themselves through the elementary language of drawing and painting. at this stage, the expression language on paper is purely pictorial and, as such, it is subject to some rules that are explained below (see point 1.3). this does not mean we cannot speak verbally. of course, the participants can talk during the labshop, only not (yet) about the general topic that brings us together, but about the pictorial codes and elements that will be the basis for both each person’s expression and our interpersonal and collective dialogues. relational painting precisely takes its name from the fact that it provides a “plastic (or visual) record of human relationships.” the second phase, the creactive assembly, directly addresses the issue that the group or community is interested in, be it a concern, a problem or a conflict. this                                                                                                                           1  so  far,  ‘dia-­‐tekhnē’  has  been  performed  in  colombia  (11  intensive  trainings),  guatemala  (2  intensive   trainings  and  one  workshop),  bolivia  (4  intensive  trainings),  venezuela  (a  single  workshop)  and  puerto   rico  (3  workshops).   2  the  militant  research  handbook  (new  york  university):     http://www.visualculturenow.org/wp-­‐content/uploads/2013/09/mrh_web.pdf     in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               64   topic will be the subject of verbal dialogue, but this dialogue will be mediated and catalyzed by aesthethical structures and plastic and visual procedures that will contribute to both visibilizing all the aspects involved in the issue and the design and representation of the different responses from the group or the community. for the launch of the ‘dia-tekhnē’ labshop, we need a minimum of three days: one day for the relational painting phase and at least two days for the creactive assembly phase. it would be ideal do it in three or more consecutive sessions, but if not possible, given that at the end of each day (6-8 hours) we generate a plastic or visual artwork, we could also do it separately, resuming the process from the last artwork, which serves both as a time record and as a permanent catalyst of the dialogue process. in short, the purpose of relational painting is the cohesion of the group or community prior to addressing the issue that calls for intervention, while the purpose of the creactive assembly is the visual and, therefore, ‘literal’ analysis of the different points of view regarding this theme and the design of transformation scenarios where all parties win. relational painting promotes an affective change and the creactive assembly, an effective change. 1.1. background: evolution of visual arts in relation to violent conflicts from the age of enlightenment to the present day, plastic and visual arts have served as an instrument for denunciation and reflection against the use of violence, whether this be direct (in the form of explicit aggression), structural (in the form of relations of oppression) or cultural (in the form of conventions and attitudes) by offering three sorts of responses over time: 1) figurativism; 2) informalism (and abstract expressionism), and 3) conceptual and performative practices. figurativism provides direct denunciation, not only against the consequences of war ―disaster chronicles from callot (17th century) and goya (19th century) to sue coe’s tragedies (19992000) including dix, kollwitz, castelao, rodríguez-luna, moore, akamatsu, maruki and so many others; but also by addressing its causes ―daumier, kupka, grosz, arnz, heartfield, renau, siqueiros, guayasamín... informalism brought the invention of new imaginaries, of unknown languages as an alternative to rationalism, which put reason and science at the disposal of war. conceptual and performative formats free art from its traditional stands and disciplines and take it to everyday life. the latest proposals, called lifelike art by allan kaprow, take place between the late 50s and the early 70s. many of them voluntarily enroll in the tradition of the appropriation of nonart elements―practice canonized by duchamp and later developed by the surrealists and neorealists― for art, going as far as to consider everyday experiences, both personal ―kaprow’s activities, ukeles’ maintenance art― and interpersonal ―vostell’s or beuys’ happenings, demattio’s encounters, lacy’s performances― as art. other proposals, however, question art entirely, mainly in its commercial and entertainment aspects, and exclude themselves from this. this is the case of the situationist international (1958-1969), a cultural worker’s council for the review and renewal of daily life on a laboratory scale, in accordance with other emancipatory experiences of the time such as culture circles in brazil, from which paulo freire   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               65   promoted critical transitivity as “the progressive appropriation by a person of its position in the context”; or the new york radical women’s awareness raising groups, which popularized the slogan “the personal is political”. in the last decades, the analysis of one’s problems in order to overcome them has led to the creation of different strategies for social innovation, be them theories, methodologies (processes), services (products), institutions or relational and transactional systems. more specifically, militant research is being developed since 2001 in the context of evident structural violence. it is research because it “recognizes, connects and co-produces both underground knowledge operating in the down of all power relationship, as the modes for an alternative sociability” (colectivo situaciones) and it is militant because it completely engages the researcher’s thoughts and work. thus, militant research can be carried out in action and be purely informative, for example, by reporting in situ civil rights violations, or else it can systematize testimonials and develop new contents through a more productive workshop format. in this sense, as the workshop is a space for collective work, the obvious need to harmonize the various experiences and knowledge has motivated a complementary activity to research: facilitation. this essay tries to highlight the figure of the militant facilitator as well as the practice of facilitation, in particular through the ‘dia-tekhnē’ methodology, by meeting “a vital necessity of which the great majority find themselves deprived: artistic creation.”   3 1.2. sistematization of the ‘dia-tekhnē’ methodology 1.2.1. variables and formats of relational painting (1st phase of ‘dia-tekhnē’) relational painting comprises several formats and, in all of them, a group of people gather around a large sheet of paper which is ruled into three types of spaces: individual areas for personal expression (the “house”), intermediate areas for interpersonal dialogue (the “street”) and central areas for collective dialogue (the “plaza”). we are all given crayons, ink and paintbrushes and allocated the same amount of space. using the language of painting we all simultaneously activate our empty spaces, inventing our own discourse, which will be abstract or non-referentially figurative, in order to avoid the conventional duality of “right or wrong” (see point 1.3.2.). then, in the intermediate areas, and always by drawing and painting, we establish relationships with the people adjacent to us, mutually learn our languages and invent a new common language in pairs. and in the central areas everyone ends up creating a common frame that enables collective synergy (or sum of equal energies).                                                                                                                           3  the  manifesto  of  the  network  of  alternative  resistance:  colectivo  situaciones  (argentina),  mothers   of  plaza  de  mayo  (argentina),  amauta  collective  (peru),  collectif  malgré  tout  (paris,  france),  collectif   che  (toulon,  france),  collective  against  expulsions  (liège,  belgium),  social  center  (brussels,  belgium),   buenos  aires,  1999.  http://www.voiceoftheturtle.org/library/nar_manifesto.php   http://www.nodo50.org/colectivosituaciones/articulos_01.htm     in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               66   the different formats of relational painting are divided into three families or variables: paper plazas, interculturareas, and interritories. each variable meets a specific need (detailed below) of the group or community, and since relational painting is a preparation for dialogue and lasts only one day, it is recommended not to use more than one format per ‘dia-tekhnē’ labshop. 1.2.1.1.paper plazas: the formats of this variable can hold 8 to 10 people. the plazas have one individual area and two interpersonal areas per participant and only one collective area for the whole group. these formats can be quadrangular or circular, like the mandala-circus, whose development we will explain below as a generic example of relational painting (see point 1.4.1.). this variable is useful for uniting groups and creating affective circles. example 01 of paper plaza: mandala-circus (picture 01). this format is a mandala —the sanskrit word for “circle”— because a space is provided for ritual drawing that orients “the field of psychic vision and all the resources at the periphery towards the centre that symbolizes identity” (c. g. jung); in this case it is a circle for progressing from the expression of personal identities to the construction of a collective identity. and it is a circus both in the sense of a roundabout onto which various streets converge and in the sense of an area for performances and play with some rings. dimensions: outside diameter: 150 cm; inside diameter: 90 cm; diameter of the interpersonal circles: 30 cm. 1.2.1.2.interculturareas (or intercultural areas): in this variable, each space —always subdivided into personal, interpersonal and collective areas— holds a small group of four people and is integrated with other similar spaces in wider wefts, so that even if they start from a single individual area, each person can come up with up to four interpersonal diatekhnēs or dialogues through art —as in the cases of the mixed wiphala (pictures 02-05) and bilbobilbea (picture 06) formats, suitable for work in large groups and whenever participants join in at different times— or even four collective dia-tekhnēs, in quartets —case of the mixed wiphala—, or successively broader, beginning with quartets and extending to 8, 16 and 32 participants —case of the extreme-stream (picture 07), appropriate format for the meeting of conflicting sides.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               67   example 01 of interculturarea: mixed wiphala (pictures 02-05). wiphala is an abacus comprising 7 rows of 7 squares used in andean nations as the flag of the original inhabitants of the continent of awya-yala (america). it shows the colors of the kürmi (rainbow) arranged lengthwise or in strips around a central diagonal or achanqara of 7 white squares, graded from yellow to green [picture 02]. for dia-tekhnē, we further explored the harmonic potential of wiphala: we maintained its squared proportions as a sign of community equality but we synthesized and completed the rainbow in a new framework of reference: the chromatic circle. this results in a checkerboard of 6 x 6 (36) circular spaces where colors are combined in such a way that they stand next not only to the adjacent colors in the scale —a multicultural area— but also, to all other colors horizontally and vertically —an intercultural area—. the achanqara or white diagonal is distributed throughout the space, enabling empty intersections between colors [picture 03]. in wiphala, 36 performers (one for each circle of color) pivot from their personal identities, meet with their neighbors around and work, in groups of 4 people, on the intermediate collective plazas [picture 04]. pictures 04 and 05 show the construction of a mixed wiphala in la paz on the occasion of the 1st conference on art and peace culture organized by the spanish embassy in bolivia (2009). dimensions: 4.85 x 4.85 m. example 02 of interculturarea: bilbobilbea (picture 06). bilbobilbea is a variation of the mixed wiphala. it is divided into one-square-meter «floor tiles» and each tile holds four participants. once each quartet has completed its personal expressions and interpersonal and collective dialogues, quartets swap positions with those next to them (first sideways and then forwards and backwards) and create an unlimited weft together.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               68   example 03 of interculturarea: extreme-stream (picture 07). from opposite sides, the participants build a stream that is activated by the encounter and confluence of all of them in the center through wider and wider dialogues. 1.2.1.3.interritories: this third variable consists of maps both of the smallest administrative unit — district, parish, town or community— and of the whole country, whose contour is kept symbolically for its identification, but whose internal configuration has been altered in order to create common spaces for participation and meeting, such as interpolarity and intersecting borders. the purpose of interritories is the symbolic and diatechnical institution of the republic (understood not only as a set of common goods but also as the set of individuals benefactors of the commons) as a prelude to the analysis and the direct action on the real territory. examples of interritories (pictures 08-09): interritories on township maps of ea (biscay, basque country, 2012) and venadillo (tolima, colombia, 2013). we can observe how in the first picture (08), the circles correspond to the individual areas and the spaces between the circles to the interpersonal areas. this layout is corrected in subsequent workshops (09), so that the centripetal force of each circle, instead of marking personal positions, holds and facilitates interpersonal dialogue. dimensions: ea, 180 x 110 cm, personal circles: ± 25 cm; venadillo (depending on the size of the map traced), ± 140 x 100 cm.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               69   1.2.2. formats and variations of the creactive assembly (2nd phase of ‘diatekhnē’) in relational painting, the issue at hand is pictorial language itself. during the creactive assembly, however, it's the concern that brings the group or the community together for its analysis and processing: a problem or a challenge. the creactive assembly meets a triple goal: 1) translating the abstract (and often vague) theme to the particular experiences of the people who participate in the labshop (from global to local, from the context to the text); 2) interrelating the set of individual experiences in a common skein (from local to glocal, from the text to the hypertext); 3) representing the common skein by plastic and visual media, and 4) identifying, designing and projecting the processes of transforming the problem, of approaching the challenge or of achieving the goal from that common skein. for this purpose, the creactive assembly runs over two stages with their corresponding formats. during the first stage, we resume the format of relational painting that was used in the previous session (paper plazas, interculturareas or interritories), replicating the “house-street-plaza” process; and at the second stage there are two formats to choose from depending on their respective applications and on how they are suited to the purpose of the labshop: inter-stories and polyhedral maps, described below. the first stage of the creactive assembly lasts a day and the second stage, between one and four days, depending on the format and on the purpose. 1.2.2.1.inter-stories: inter-stories are basically interrelated accounts, both real and imaginary, told by one or more persons. put another way, an inter-story could be the script for a “multi-plot film” in which several actors play different stories that are woven together creating the narrative knot (the highlight of the drama, the evidence of a collective story, the subject matter that links all the characters together) that raises the need for an outcome.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               70   the subject of the inter-story ―the title of the “multi-plot film”― is the same that calls the creactive assembly: a matter of common interest agreed by the group, be it a latent concern, an overt conflict or a wish. depending on the nature of the theme, there are different types of inter-stories. applied to transforming collective conflicts, inter-stories help broaden our view of reality and address it in an affective and effective way: outwards, inter-stories show the different experiences of a situation of explicit violence (or latent conflict); inwards, they reveal the structures of oppression common to all violence for them to be deconstructed, never destroyed (under the same sign of violence) but dismantled and reversed into structures for caring. on an even deeper level, they help us discover the cultural violence imprinted in our own subconscious. • variation i of the inter-stories, “con-sequences”: the object (or subject of knowledge and sensitivity) of the con-sequences is the subject itself. the purpose of this format is the display of our transitive position in a context of conflict, with three main applications: a) overcoming episodes of violence (especially in the context of armed conflicts); b) mapping conflictive experiences within a common environment, and c) collective and agreed planning of scenarios for sustainable peace. through con-sequences we work on the three principles of transitional justice: truth, reparation and justice itself. based on personal testimonies, we elaborate interpersonal stories and, from there, by decanting grief and sublimating the experience, we create inter-stories. finally, we delve into the objective causes ―truth― of the inter-stories and project the corresponding measures of satisfaction ―reparation― until we converge on a justice scenario. picture 10: “con-sequences” • variation ii of the inter-stories, «emptying the sphere»: the object of emptying of the sphere is conflict itself and its purpose, the analysis and the opening of potential vicious circles, with two main applications: a) preventing recidivism, and b) overcoming chronicity.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               71   picture 11: “emptying the sphere” 1.2.2.2.polyhedral maps: we can represent the full complexity of the earth in a single object, a planisphere or geosphere: physical maps (all geographic and tectonic landforms), isobar maps (atmospheric pressure) or political maps (border grids and sets of visible and invisibilized countries). therefore, shouldn’t it be easier to map out the reality of our community? accordingly, polyhedral maps are geospherical representations for displaying the creactive potential of both individuals and a given human community; that is, “planets” or “world globes” at community level. they are polyhedral and not purely round and spherical, because each creactive person represents one side or polygon, so that all the creactive people make a figure of many sides, a living and dynamic sculpture of the instituting group through their joints. polyhedral maps are useful for visualizing processes of community cohesion and for multiskilling and entrepreneurship. picture 12: “polyhedral maps”   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               72   the formats and variations just mentioned are the most appropriate based on their object and purpose. however, any of the possible actors and beneficiaries of the creactive assembly —groups of victims, victimizers, demobilized or imprisoned people, communities and neighborhood, indigenous people, youth and educational forums, cooperatives, etc.— can choose whatever format they like depending on their circumstances or on the stage of their process. 1.3. democratizing art for building democracy: the ‘dia-tekhnē’ methodology promotes two simultaneous ways of broadening access to art in order to boost democracy: • firstly, it makes the structures, procedures and creative resources that make up an artwork available to every person and group, only these are empty or neutral, that is, lacking a fixed content so that everyone can contribute their story on a topic of personal affection and common interest, and then, through these means, the group can visualize different stories, blend them in a group composition and build on it to design new, transforming stories. • secondly, it introduces democratic values into the very use of art techniques and media. 1.3.1. democratization of art formats all formats of relational painting, the first phase of ‘dia-tekhnē’, are regulated depending on three space-time areas: • the “house” for individual expression. • the “street” for interpersonal dialogue (double dia-tekhnē or “plastic dialogue” with contiguous people). • the “plaza” for collective synergy and osmosis (group and intergroup dia-tekhnē). in turn, each of these areas corresponds to the three basic principles of democracy: • participation, which within the “house” means ensuring the integration of each and every person. • tolerance, which within the “street” means mutual empathy and otherness. • social contract or coexistence agreement, which within the “plaza” means the osmotic and synergistic interaction between all people.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               73   picture 13: generic picture of the three areas the three areas are delimited on the work surface, and foster an optimal transition from the space-time of individual expression to the space-time of interpersonal diatekhnē or dialogue through art and from there, to collective dia-tekhnē. hence, we characterize relational painting formats as diatechnical because, strictly speaking, they serve dialogue through tekhnē, “art”, and also because, in a more open way, they are a dialogue technique in itself. actually, at the beginning of the creactive assembly the “house-street-plaza” process is an effective method to articulate the different (and purely verbal) stories around the issue at stake, as is the case of the inter-stories as well as to make a ‘map’ of each person and integrate all of them in a group or community map, as is the case of polyhedral maps. picture 14: adaptation of the diatechnical structure to the two formats of the creactive assembly 1.3.2. democratization of art procedures as relational painting uses pictorial language and the creactive assembly uses verbal language, democratization strategies vary from one phase to the other.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               74   1.3.2.1.relational painting: in relational plastic, democratic values are introduced into the very components of language: line and stain, technique, modality and chromaticism. • awareness of limits: all relational painting formats consist of limited areas (the “house”, the “street” and the “plaza”), and within these areas, by means of drawing —line, outline, shape— and painting —stain, color, filling—, each person constructs figures that, precisely because of their boundaries, get their own entity. through limits, we interiorize respect to others and we develop our creating capability. • basic techniques: any painting technique on paper is valid, but in order to experience the relationship between drawing and painting, form and color, container and content, it is recommended to use a combination of oil pastels or crayons (manley®) with water-based inks (ecoline®). basically, crayons will be useful to draw outlines, and inks to fill them. as the crayon is oily, it repels water, which cannot cover the drawing and thus the color is contained within the outline. • non-referential language: each person creates its own language, a genuine one, free from any intention to copy, imitation or representation of the given reality. we can draw straight or curved lines, organic or geometric figures, simple or polymorphic, flat or volumetric, but we cannot draw numbers, signs, ideograms, logos or symbols of any kind, or write words or single letters, because even though they are abstract, they have a recognizable meaning. this is because our eyes always look for an element that evokes or reminds us of something known to us, a reference that gives us security, and that will catch our eye. then we will prioritize the recognizable figure or sign above the rest, which will automatically become subordinate or diffuse. however, if everyone draws abstract figures, the set of inputs —the joint input— will flow continuously in view, without hierarchies, focuses or vertices. moreover, by failing to refer our languages to the visible reality, we avoid inhibitions, which may be indirect, caused by prejudices associated with visual arts —creative genius, technical virtuosity— that result in stale reactions such as “i am bad at drawing or painting”, “that's not for me”, “i got stuck at the age of 12”, or direct by comparison —“i'm doing it better or worse than my partner”—. • basic colors: thanks to the trichromatic structure of our retina we can reproduce all colors from only a triad of phosphor dots on a black screen — blue, green and red— or from three pigments on white paper —yellow, magenta and cyan—. on the black screen the sum of all colors produces white, whereas on the white paper, by successive dimming, it produces black or approaches it. on conventional paper, white is not only provided by unpainted areas, as a silence —“passive white”—, but it can be applied in pigment to create new figures —“active white”—. as for black, as on paper it attracts all the energy from any other color towards itself, it subjects all other colors to its centripetal influence. that is why we advise against its direct use. however, we allow for an approach to black by successive color mixtures as a result of a process, whether intentional or not. if we worked with colors of light, we   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               75   would get the opposite result: over darkness, white would absorb the other colors and blind their nuances. 1.3.2.2.creactive assembly: at the second stage of the creactive assembly, once the group has written its inter-story (first format) or has outlined the interpersonal and collective mapping (second format), we must re-present the content through plastic or visual media. we propose four plastic or visual educational resources: • media diversity and criteria uniformity: on the same framework design (same structure, same materials, same or similar dimensions), different graphic and plastic media are applied. for example, to represent an inter-story, we will turn the written story into a script and then we will draw (only by pencil on paper) a storyboard. afterwards, so as to transfer the storyboard to a plastic or visual format, we will use the media in the same order: first, by performing each scene; secondly, by recording living scenes with a camera, printing the set of pictures and gluing it onto the framework. the standard procedure of the media on framework uniformity promotes the tangibility of the set of contributions (see image 24). • “demo-demo”: in order to transmit whatever graphic, plastic and dramatic tool at our disposal to the group or the community, the facilitator will democratize by demonstrating.4 moreover, since at the creactive assembly any common subject is visualized and embodied from the specific experience of the participants themselves, there are two other graphical teaching resources so that each person can draw herself/himself. • elementary drawing of the human figure: it is a diagram of human body structure with its head, rib and pelvic cages, limbs and its thirteen major joints. all the parts drawn can be cut out and then framed composing a mannequin. this model will serve to represent different attitudes. later on, in a virtual circle within its forearm's reach, we provide this schematic figure with the tools that each one has or can have to transform their surroundings.                                                                                                                           4  democratize   and   demonstrate   do   not   have   the   same   etymology   (democratize   comes   from   democracy,  by  joining  the  greek  words  δ�μος  –d�mos  or  «people»–  and  κράτος  –krátos  or  «power»–;   and   demonstrate,   from   the   latin   demonstrāre)   but   it   is   symbolic   and   significant   that   the   first   two   syllables  coincide.     in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               76   picture 15: elementary drawing of the human figure • icon lab: to represent the tools around each person, we can devise icons or immediately understandable pictograms. in the polyhedrons (second format of the creactive assembly), each person chooses some icons and places them in the scope of her/his figure, creating a mapping of herself/himself. picture 16: icon lab 1.4. ‘dia-tekhnē’ tutorial – the basics 1.4.1. first phase of ‘dia-tekhnē’: relational painting for this tutorial, we offer the generic format of relational painting, the most basic and easily standardizable or applicable to any context or situation: the mandala-circus. below, we describe fulfillment and completion step by step.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               77   first space and time, “house” (picture 17): 01. each mandala-circus holds 8 people that gather around the spaces between the circles. in these spaces, each person creates their own language by drawing abstract figures or figurative ones, but not referring to the visible reality (see point 1.3.2.1.). second space and time, “street”: 02. we join one of the people next to us across the circle and swap places. firstly, we expand our partner's drawing, learn and interpret its language [a+b=ba], and as we approach the center of the circle we merge our mutual interpersonal interpretations into a common creation [a+b=c]. example: the person occupying position (1) swaps places with (8) and vice versa. they do not paint over their mutual drawings, which should be respected as a record of the first space-time, but they expand their respective drawings into their common empty circle (picture 18). 03. the participants who swapped places with the one on their left now move further to the left across the first empty circle and those who swapped places with the one on their right do the same about their current right circle: (1) moves further to the right across the next empty circle and meets (6), who comes across from the left. the resulting pairs meet at the alternate interpersonal circles, next to the drawings of third parties (picture 19). third space and time, “plaza”: 04.1. we continue moving as we did in the previous stage and thus «braid» our positions. our aim is to make people aware of multipolarity, that is, we learn to see «reality» from different points of view, taking advantage of the cardinal layout of the mandala-circus. as the interpersonal circles are already full with the interpersonal dia-tekhnēs, we go on swapping places in the same direction as before. in the example: (1) jumps to (6)’s place, (7) to (4)’s, (5) to (2)’s and (3) to (8)’s. and vice versa: (8) jumps to (3)’s place, (2) to (5)’s, (4) to (7)’s and (6) to (1)’s. therefore, we observe how participants exchange their viewpoints from   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               78   almost opposite angles. thus, we transcend the multipolarity or static position of different points of view and reach interpolarity, that is, a dynamic position of such views (picture 20). 04.2. from these opposite positions (or complementary, according to the pictorial nomenclature) we propose to draw—on a separate, small piece of paper—the silhouette or open line—without the filling—that we consider most significant out of the work done by our current partner. once the eight figures are arranged around the central circle, we set up a collective dia-tekhnē (picture 21). all of us together, we create a structure that combines the eight figures into a group figure. the group should discuss how to do this. the figures may overlap (as in the example), link together or merge; any option is suitable as long as it makes room for new areas of participation, encounter and dialogue, which have now been created by the group. thus we create a coexistence framework: a regulated structure with its own limits, which integrates all viewpoints and coordinates every contribution arising from it (picture 22). 1.4.2. second phase of ‘dia-tekhnē’: creactive assembly as stated above, the creactive assembly consists of two stages and their corresponding formats. at stage one we resume the format of relational painting that was used in the previous session (mandala-circus for this tutorial), replicating the “house-street-plaza” process. at stage two there are two different formats from which we will choose one depending on our interests: inter-stories and polyhedral maps. 1.4.2.1.format 1: inter-stories. variations: applications: description (step by step): [for steps 01, 02 and 03 we resort to the mandalacircus structure (pictures 13 and 14)] “consequence” application 1: overcoming episodes of violence. step 01 story: each person tells an experiential or eyewitness testimony of violence, which may be direct (physical or psychological aggression), structural (military, political or economic oppression) or symbolic (cultural   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               79   and media deterrence). step 02 simple inter-story: in alternate pairs (firstly, cross-like; then, saltire-like) they mutually share their experiences, and together, they make up a fictional interstory that combines the two personal stories. the use of fiction, although obviously based on actual grief, is due to two main reasons: first, respect for each person's privacy, preventing the individual from showing his/her wound to the entire group; and second, equanimity within the group and their feelings, preventing one or more people from attracting all attention to themselves or to their testimony, however poignant or shocking it may be. step 03 collective inter-story: the four pairs (firstly, cross-like; then, saltire-like) share their inter-stories and combine them into a collective inter-story by way of a movie script, always fictional but based on real events. in a group, the eight people make a storyboard —with characters, a plot and an outcome— out of that collective story. then, the group performs the scenes and make up a graphic sequence. conclusion of steps 01, 02 and 03: personal grief is decanted and experience is sublimated. picture 23: the «effective circles» of the inter-stories are based on the «affective circles» of the mandala-circus.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               80   step 04 con-sequence: among the scenes that make up the sequence, the group notices those that are indicative of a structural problem. from each of these scenes the group unfolds some other double sequences, downward and upward. downwards, each problem is deconstructed down to its root. upwards, as the understanding of the problems gets deeper, the group envisages the corresponding solutions and, where necessary, the appropriate satisfaction measures. thus, the sequence is doubly a «con-sequence»: first, because some scenes show the consequence or result of a structural problem; second, because as each scene is in itself a sequence towards both its root and its solution, the set of sequences is also a consequence. application 2: mapping conflictive experiences within a common environment. the steps follow the same order —stories, single and collective inter-stories and con-sequences—, except that in this case the protagonist is not the victim (in its many possible facets) of an episode of violence in the context of armed conflict, but anyone affected (experientially or morally) by a community-level conflict. application 3: collective and agreed planning of scenarios for sustainable peace. step 01 story: each person imagines (and visualizes) “the world they want to live.” it is not a static description (a photography), but a dynamic narrative (a ‘movie’ starring each creactive and instituting person). step 02 simple inter-story: in alternate pairs (firstly, cross-like; then, saltire-like) they share their “imaginary worlds”, dialogue about them, agree on what features are positive for the common good and then, combine them. step 03 collective inter-story: the four pairs (firstly, cross-like; then, saltire-like) share their inter-stories and combine them into a collective inter-story by way of a multi-plot movie.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               81   example 01 of inter-story: “con-sequence” (picture 24). the group performs each scene and makes up a graphic sequence. in this case, each scene is a socio-drama which is photographed and printed by using an ordinary camera and printer. the group then paints the scenes, adds iconic-verbal elements or text boxes and, if necessary, enhances its symbolism or its expressiveness through collages or photomontages. the picture shows one of the three consequences that were built during the «expresarte» workshops organized in santa cruz (bolivia, 2013) by cilaj (training and job placement assistance program for young and teens) and cdehsc (episcopal commission on foster homes in santa cruz). 1.4.2.2.format 2: polyhedral maps. variations: applications: description (step by step): [for steps 01, 02 and 03 we resort to the mandala-circus structure (pictures 13 and 14)] «eikosaedron mundi» (regular polyhedron). / «free application 1: community cohesion (from creactive person to instituting group). step 01 each creactive person represents herself/himself and the issues that she or he considers must be addressed by the group (see 1.3.2.2. and pictures 12, 14, 15 and 16).   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               82   polyhedron» step 02 the instituting group (all creative people) looks for potential relationships among the issues proposed and organizes them by composing a net. this net is inscribed within the development (or polygonal and flat unfolding) of a given polyhedron, which may be regular (identical sides and angles) or irregular (faces and angles that are not all equal). then, each creactive person chooses an issue and plays a transformative role according to her/his interests and possibilities. from here, the creactive people will take a position in the labshop space so that they can reproduce their location (and correspondences to other peers) in the flat development of the polyhedron. as the workshop progresses, they will move their dialogues to a 3d replica of the polyhedron in order to see how those dialogues «take shape» and become a progressive ‘dia-tekhnē’. step 03 polygon: first, each creactive person sketches out, both graphically and in writing, one issue and the tools at his/her disposal, and then proposes one or several actions to address it. step 04 edges and dihedrons: on the connections between polygons, the creactive people talk and negotiate among themselves (in pairs) and agree on how to combine their actions. these ideas are moved to the corresponding dihedrons and edges on the replica of the polyhedron. step 05 vertex and polyhedron: joints are grouped around hexa-pentagonal vertexes (hexagonal in planar dimension and pentagonal [or pentahedral] in volume) and from these vertexes, the creactive people project joint actions: outwards, in connection with other groups or nodes; and inwards, by channeling the actions towards the rest of   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               83   the group and by interconnecting such actions. application 2: multiskilling and entrepreneurship. step 01 arts: each person represents themselves through their “circle of skills.” step 02 simple inter-arting: on the edges, creactive people mutually share their arts or skills and analyze how to combine them or, in other words, what they can contribute to each other, even if their knowledge and skills are related to different or opposite fields. step 03 collective inter-arting: on the vertexes, creactive people share their inter-arts and project them to themselves —by building domes—or to other nodes —by creating networks—. 2. large group facilitation methods and correspondences with ‘dia-tehnē’: 2.1. large group interventions 2.1.1. introduction large group interventions (lgi) are methods for involving the whole system in a change process within an organization or a community. for large group interventions to be effective, they must address challenges and problems in a systemic way, involving a critical mass of people and allowing them to participate in “understanding the need for change, analyzing the current reality and deciding what needs to change, generating ideas about how to change existing processes, and implementing and supporting change and making it work” (bunker and alban, 1997: xvi). the main methods of working with large groups arose from the confluence of social psychology, psychoanalytic theory, and systems theory (bunker and alban, 1997: 11). most lgis were conceived to produce effective changes in the business sector, such as ‘search conference’ (first tried for bristol siddeley aero-engine manufacturer), ‘real time strategic change’ (set up at ford motor company) and its parallel, ‘large scale interactive event’, or general electric company’s ‘work out’; as well as ‘conference model®’, ‘fast cycle full participation work design’, ‘real time work design’, ‘participative design’, and ‘simu-real’, all of them launched to redesign work processes for both the workers’ and the company’s benefit.   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               84   other methods were designed for both the business sector and the not-for-profit sector; such is the case of ‘appreciative inquiry’, ‘change lab’ and ‘u-procedure’, ‘future search’, ‘open space’ and ‘world café’. in the case of scenario planning, although it was initially related to military intelligence, this method would be also meaningfully used to facilitate the mont fleur dialogue process in south africa. the rest of those lgis that compose this list have exclusively been created for social innovation: few of them, such as peerspirit’s ‘circle’, ‘deep democracy’ and ‘sustainable dialogue’, were aimed to improve dialogue; others, such as ‘ica strategic planning process’ and ‘human centered design’, for community development. 2.1.2. systematization of the ‘lgi’s all lgi methods “get the whole system into the room at one time” (marvin weisbord). however, attending to their functionality, those methods can be classified into two groups: system-wide processes and system-wide applications. system-wide processes may include all the stages of change: 1) definition of the purpose concerning the issue at stake; 2) analysis and insight of the organization or community; 3) design of solutions (if the issue is a problem) or possibilities (if the issue is a future intention), and 4) implementation of those solutions or possibilities as appropriate. meanwhile, system-wide applications can serve to boost one or more of the stages of change, or as transversal tools that help each stage or the whole process to be successfully completed. picture 25: cycle (spirals) of systemic change. 2.1.2.1. system-wide processes the main ‘system-wide processes’, according to this classification and chronologically set, are as follows: search conference, scenario planning, appreciative inquiry, top® strategic planning, future search, sustained dialogue, change lab, human centered design, and the specific methods for work design. in turn, this group can be subdivided into methods for solving problems, that can be   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               85   contextual ―scenario planning―, organizational ―change lab―, or both external and internal ―sustained dialogue―; forward-looking methods, such as search conference, appreciative inquiry, future search and human centered design; and ‘solving-for-futuring’ methods as top® strategic planning. methods for solving problems (from outside to inside): scenario planning (herman kahn, 1960s) was conceived for addressing complex and uncertain social and political contexts, even though it is linked to reflection and imagination rather than to action. to deal with complexity and uncertainty, scenario planning is based on a two-axis chart: the horizontal axis goes from certainty (1) to uncertainty (2), and the vertical one from control (a) to lack of control (b). thus, the process elapses across the four in-between spaces. in the first space (1-b) the hidden, tacit and overt rules of any given context are analyzed. in the second space (b-2) the key uncertainties are mapped out and selected attending to their level of predictability and impact. in the third space (2-a) the chosen scenarios are depicted in great detail. and in the final space (a-1) measures―prevention and provention5―are taken in accordance with future scenarios. sustained dialogue (harold saunders, 1960s6) is also focused on solving a contextual problem, but in its current condition of affecting two or more parties. this process is carried out along five stages. at stage one participants identify themselves and agree on the purpose and basic rules of dialogue. stage two is the time to name the problem, to map the related underlying relationships out and to identify patterns and major issues: there is a shift from individual vision to common perspective. at stage three participants test the dynamics of troublesome relationships and identify ways to change them. afterwards, at stage four, the participants design the practical steps to be taken and, then, at stage five, they implement them. the change lab (joseph jaworski and otto scharmer, early 2000s) addresses problems already embodied by a group of people. with this purpose, the change lab process (based on “u” change management procedure) draws a three-stage ‘inverted arch’: “sensing” (on the top), “presencing” (down to the bottom) and “realising” (back to the top). in sensing, stakeholders share their different perspectives about the problem (sometimes even visiting each one's place) and compose a systemic view of it. in presencing, stakeholders descend from outlook to introspection, transforming each one's ‘self’ and will towards the common purpose. and in realising, stakeholders come up with solutions and build prototypes that are tested in real life. forward-looking methods: the search conference methodology (fred emery and eric trist, 1959) is aimed at engaging the members of a given organization or community to identify, plan, and                                                                                                                           5  provention  means  “equipping  individuals  and  groups  with  the  skills  they  need  (towards  oneself  and   towards  others)  to  confront  conflict:  active  listening,  understanding,  appreciation,  trust,  dialogue,  and   cooperation”  (source:  escola  de  cultura  de  pau).   6  although   it   was   established   as   a  method   of   dialogue   in   the   early   90s,   sustained   dialogue   has   its   precedent  in  the  “dartmouth  conferences”  between  the  us  and  the  ussr,  which  began  in  1960.     in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               86   implement their most desired future. first, participants analyze the characteristics of the organization that should be kept, dropped, or innovated. next, participants design the most desirable futures, develop them into strategic goals, select those they want to work on and form self-managing teams to develop action plans. finally, participants implement the action plans on the assumption that the people concerned can create their own future. the appreciative inquiry (david cooperrider, mid 80s) brings people together around an affirmative topic choice. the process consists of four steps, better-known as the “4 ds”: discovery, dream, design and destiny. the ‘discovery’ phase focuses on the strengths of the group (either an organization or a community). the ‘dream’ phase transcends from “what the group already is” to “what the group might be”. the ‘design’ phase settles “how the dream should be put into practice”. the last phase, ‘destiny’, creates the conditions for change to be effective. future search (marvin weisbord and sandra janoff, early 90s) doesn’t concern itself with problem solving. the process is divided into three days: on day one, participants first analyze the history at three levels―global, local and personal―, next they call out the key factors of the issue at hand and post it all on a wall-sized mind map. between day one and day two there is a “soak time” to absorb the contents of the session and reflect on them. day two runs along other three phases: the insight of “prouds and sorries” in relation to the conference theme, the skit performing about desirable future, and the recognition of common issues. on day three, participants translate common issues into plans for action. human centered design (hcd, ideo, 2001) is a set of techniques to create new solutions (products, services, environments, organizations, modes of interaction) for communities. the hcd process (led by the co-participatory design team, a tandem of ngo and community members) goes through three phases: 1) hear, 2) create, and 3) deliver. the aim of phase 1 (‘hear’) is to identify a concise design challenge by analyzing and mapping of the relational dynamics between people, places, objects, and institutions. phase 2 (‘create’) consists in turn of four stages: first, the coparticipatory design team collects stories that will help identify the key issues; second, the team selects solutions according to the triangle of desirability, feasibility and viability; third, ideas are transferred to prototypes that allow for testing the solutions in real contexts; and finally, these prototypes are contrasted with the community. the third and final phase of the hcd process, ‘deliver’, is about designing mini-pilots to try out the technical and organizational feasibility of the solution and its financial viability. ‘solving-for-futuring’ methods in the case of the ica strategic planning process (institute of cultural affairs international, late 80s; nowadays known as top® technology of participation), it consists of five steps. at the first step, the group focuses on the key question: “what the community or the organization wants.” at the second step, the group maps out a practical future vision. at the third step, the group probes ideas to find out the causes of the underlying contradictions that do not let people advance. at the fourth step, the group sets the strategic directions or broad actions that face or bypass the underlying   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               87   contradictions and lead the group toward its vision. and at the fifth and last step, the group writes out the definitive goals, designs the systematic actions to be taken and sets a one-year term agenda.7 completing this classification, the methods specifically created for redesigning both workflow and business ―conference model®, fast cycle full participation work design, real time work design and participative design―agree on proposing four basic stages, with different accents in each, namely: 1) vision, which may be focused on defining likings or goals or on resetting the current points of view; 2) analysis, both internal (aimed to the staff) and external (aimed to the customer); 3) design of more desirable work and service patterns, and 4) implementation of the changes needed. 2.1.2.2. system-wide applications lgis such as simu-real, circle (restored by peerspirit, inc.), deep democracy, open space technology, and world café constitute an entirely different group. these methods are also conceived to get the entire system in one room, so they are used autonomously. however, they are not ‘all-stage processes’ (which comprise vision, analysis, design and implementation), but tools that may strengthen one or several key elements of the process, which are staging (mise-en-scène) and convening, dialogue, decision-making and prototype-testing. in this group, instead of presenting the methods chronologically (by creation date), these are presented according to their functionality in the different phases of a process. placing on stage: the ‘circle’ is the oldest tool of meeting and dialogue and the commonest to all peoples. since the mid 90s, christina baldwin and ann linnea (peerspirit, inc.) have restored the circle’s nine essential requirements: a welcoming gesture that invites centering; a common symbol or a set of symbols for the center; the check-in to insure that everyone is truly present; the agreements on confidentiality, compassion, trust and moderation; the intention, which determines who will come in, how long it will last and what outcomes are expected; the three principles―rotating leadership, shared responsibility and reliance on wholeness―; the three practices―to speak with intention, to listen with attention and to tend to the well-being of the circle―; the guardian who looks after the circle's process; and the check-out for each person to express the feelings they bring from the circle.8 dialogue: deep democracy (myrna lewis, mid 90s) is designed to bring to the surface those underlying emotional dynamics that prevent the group from solving a problem or reaching a decision. therefore, conflict is never avoided; indeed, deep democracy promotes a dialogue-through-conflict process consisting of five steps. the first step is to hearten the minority voice and not to practice majority democracy. the second step                                                                                                                           7  http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.ica-­‐usa.org/resource/resmgr/top/top_brochure_8-­‐4-­‐09.pdf   8  http://www.peerspirit.com/gifts/peerspirit-­‐circle-­‐guidelines2010.pdf     in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               88   is to make people feel safe to express their dissent. the third step is to spread the “no” and to encourage others to subscribe it. when disagreement persists, the fourth step is to ask the dissenting part what it would require to come along with the group. if resistance persists, a fifth step is needed, in which the facilitator intervenes to help the tough part to clarify its message. decision-making: open space technology (harrison owen, 1992) was conceived as a conference that was “all coffee breaks”. the open space is conducted along four spaces―the general circle, the “community bulletin board” (panel of issues), the group circles and the newsroom―and five stages: opening round to explain the purpose of the meeting; proposal and disposal (on the board) of interesting topics; setting the agenda; group meetings regarding topics of interest; and closing round. transversal to those spaces and stages, open space is based on four principles: “whoever comes is the right people”; “whatever happens is the only thing that could happen”; “whenever it starts is the right time”; and “when it is over, it is over”. in addition to this, there is an only rule, the “law of two feet”, which encourages people to engage their energy where they want to, whether flitting from group to group, cross-pollinating the conference or attracting others who feel the need for a “time-out” from the intensity of the discussions. the world-café (juanita brown and david isaacs, 1995) is a method that convenes large groups of people for dialoguing on issues of concern. people sit at tables of foursix participants among which they can move creating a dynamic network of conversations. four conditions are required to celebrate a world café: intention (a clear purpose motivated by a relevant question); hospitality (a safe and cozy space to meet); insight (the double importance of asking good questions and listening respectfully), and inquiry (the willingness to move among tables, meeting new people each time, cross-pollinating ideas and linking discoveries). prototype-testing: simu-real (donald klein, mid 70s) is a reproduction of the whole system of one organization “into the room” in order to better understand its structure (departments and units) and functioning (tasks) and thus determine what should be improved. simu-real is a day-long process divided into 4 periods: current action, stop-action, analysis and decision making. in the ‘action’ period, participants work in their respective positions for one hour. in the ‘stop-action’ period, they reflect for half an hour on what they have done. back to work, in the analysis period, they diagnose, with the help of a consultant, the way the organization functions. the last period is devoted to decision making, which may be binding or advisory. 2.2. correspondences between ‘dia-tekhnē’ and other lgis the ‘dia-tekhnē · dialogue through art’ methodology was created and is being improved workshop after workshop for individuals and communities (eight to one hundred people per labshop) to better understand the context in which they live and therefore, to effectively interpret both the causes of their problems and the feasibility   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               89   of their desires. as such, ‘dia-tekhnē’ hosts the entire system―the ‘planispheres’ of relationships, the skeins of stories or the community ‘globe’―into a single room. moreover, the ‘dia-tekhnē’ methodology has been designed to address the main stages of a change process. the first stage is the definition of the purpose (the solution or vision that calls for a labshop) which, in the case of dialogues through art, is twofold: the process as an opportunity to change, and the object, the issue at stake, embodied by the experience and potential of each person. the second stage is the analysis of the current situation, in this case, through ongoing relational processes (relational painting) and by object representation of the individual stories or skills and the potential relationships between stories or between skills, respectively (creactive assembly). the third stage is the design of solutions or visions, where the plastic and visual format for experimentation and analysis plans comes before prototype making. the fourth stage is the implementation of solutions or visions, for which the prototype―let us imagine a static film, a frame sculpture (scenes and sequences) in multiple interrelationship―serves us as a relational and operative map in the real world. back to the main lgi methods, it should be noted that they all make use of creative devices or formats (either verbal, graphic or plastic) in any of their corresponding phases: storytelling, mapping and prototype-making. storytelling: search conference, scenario planning, appreciative inquiry, top® strategic planning, future search, sustained dialogue, change lab and human centered design resort to story-telling and story-designing. stories are useful to identify both the different views on the same topic and the relationships (alike, unalike and antagonistic) between these views. for human centered design, “stories are accounts of specific events, not general statements, and provide us with concrete details that help us imagine solutions to particular problems.” stories can also serve to identify changing trends and define alternative scenarios or preventive ones, as appropriate. indeed, in scenario planning, it is advised to depict scenarios of low predictability and high impact. besides, story-telling may be verbal (written or oral), visual or objectual. in those methods, whenever possible (due to the program and the location) to leave the room and carry out field studies, participants may be provided with cameras, camcorders, or journals to document their everyday life within the organization or community. mapping: so as to grasp the whole systems (the organization or the community) and the ongoing changes within them, many lgis resort to mapping. particularly, human centered design considers mapping as a “great way to express how ideas [or stories themselves] relate to each other, and how the experience changes over time.” mapping is based on graphic and visual frameworks. future search and open space use both mindmapping and graphic recording, even though these techniques are suitable for all lgis. examples of system-wide graphic frameworks are the following: venn diagrams, process sequences (linear, cyclic, and spiral), maps of nodes and connections (relational map) and cartesian coordinate systems (two-by-two matrix).   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               90   prototype-making: prototypes are useful for representing changing trends and defining (prior to reality) preventive or alternative scenarios (as has been noted about storytelling). common prototype forms are sketches and storyboards, role-play, relational maps, and mockups. in fact, since the stories or roles are related in different ways on a community or an organization, the representation of these different ways on a visual support (sequences of photographs on frameworks of flexible cardboard, for example) results in random formal joints, true relational sculptures. conclusion: compared to other lgis, the ‘dia-tekhnē’ methodology is a participative standard process with variable modules able to hold from 8 to 100 people and whose outcomes are system-wide issue generation and exploration, problem sensing and solving, trying out new structures and processes and agreements about future directions. however, the three main creative techniques proposed by the different lgis (storytelling, mapping and prototype-making) would make up the most complete creactive assembly. in any case, ‘dia-tekhnē’ is in itself an ongoing project and this essay is an approach to dewey's statement, quoted at the beginning: “artworks are the most intimate and energetic means of helping people to participate in the arts of living”. let's try it! references natalie bookchin et. al., militant research handbook (new york university, 2013). marianne bojer, marianne knuth, colleen magner, mapping dialogue. a research project profiling dialogue tools and processes for social change, (johannesburg, pioneers of social change and the german technical co-operation-giz, 2006). barbara b. bunker and billie t. alban, large group interventions. engaging the whole system for rapid change, (san francisco, jossey-bass publishers, 1997). alex carrascosa: dia-tekhnē. diálogo a través del arte, (bilbao, bakeaz / gernika gogoratuz, 2010a). dia-tekhnē: artearen bitartezko elkarrizketa · diálogo a través del arte · dialogue through art · dialogue a travers l’art, (gernika-lumo, gernikako bakearen museoa fundazioa, 2010b). «de la lona de guerra al tapiz de selva: dialogando a través del arte en la amazonía colombiana», in fernando cruz; aníbal quiroga; guillermo león (coordinators): garidka: construcción de paz en la amazonía colombiana. experiencias locales en cultura de paz, (bilbao, bakeaz / gernika gogoratuz, 2012). john dewey, art as experience, (new york, perigee books. the berkley publishing group, [1934] 1980).   in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  62-­‐91   http://www.infactispax.org/journal               91   ideo, human-centered design toolkit: an open-source toolkit to inspire new solutions in the developing world, (palo alto, ideo, 2011). carl gustav jung: «sobre el simbolismo del mándala», in los arquetipos y el inconsciente colectivo, vol. 9/1 of his complete works (madrid, trotta, [1938/1950] 2002). english version: «concerning mandala symbolism», in the archetypes and the collective unconscious (collected works of c. g. jung, vol. 9, part 1, herbert read (editor), michael fordham (editor), r.f.c. hull (translator), princeton (nj): princeton university press, [1938/1950] 1969). allan kaprow, essays on the blurring of art and life, (berkeley, university of california press, 2003). robin murray, julie caulier-grice, geoff mulgan, the open book of social innovation (the national endowment for science, technology and the arts nesta and the young foundation, 2010)   anna verhoye-final in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  101-­‐103   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       101     volume  8  number  1  (2014):  101-­‐103   http://www.infactispax.org/journal     homology a human rights poem anna verhoye conceived from a homosocial bond, born into oppression, i traversed the symbolic boundary leaving behind an identity that was not even my own. my story is not mine you see; it is yours. the illusion you hide behind with your revisionist history is but a fragmented delusion you will into being at your leisure; the tapestry of my identity is woven together with fraternal imperialistic thread you spun. no, i silently scream, i am not an agent of nationalism; i am the subject of patriarchy. hybridity will not define me; i am not a blend, an object to be manipulated at your whim, i am me. in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  101-­‐103   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       102   me. a child of that place; i come from a long trail of blood; but i tell you so do you. if i am not free though, nor are you. the diaspora renegotiates my identity without my consultation. traumatic memories are fragmented morsels that live on the vapor of every breath i take; they form the identity i know, the identity of me you fashioned so that you could be you; yet, i am a paradox. my, yes, my lived experience is painfully inaccessible by day. the only way i know i exist despite your attempts at eraser, are in reference to the grimaces on the faces of those who peer at my now deformed, disgraced and reimaged body. by night, however, the hallucinations of my experience that you say do not exist, terrorize me, i am paralyzed. i am, yet i am not. i can no longer associate my physical pain and mental anguish with reality; i, like the voyeur, leave my body to watch the horror the inanimate object below endures. is this real? only my bloodied, deformed body overtly evidences the intrusion yet i cannot access the proof you demand that i have been violated. a threat am i you claim. a threat am i you claim. me, a threat to you? my battered body, bloodied face is a necessary consequence of your fear; because you are afraid, i, it appears, must be scary. the fantasy of my elimination informs your identity and fuels your imperialistic prowess; i am your prey. i am object; i question, “am i though?” in  factis  pax   volume  8  number  1  (2014):  101-­‐103   http://www.infactispax.org/journal       103   the words i cannot, nay i say will not utter, you command from my lips. yet no beating, no threat, will compel me to succumb to the insanity of your pustuous infection that demands i prove who i am, that i prove, prove who you are not. i am only foreigner so that you cannot be foreign. my story, sister irony says, may be revisionist with your words replacing my experience; but the horror that you struggle to reframe and to deny is not just my story, it is also yours. peer deeply into my wounded being and you will see yourself, bloodied and beaten; if i am not free, nor are you. much to your chagrin, homologus are we. mcgregor_v_8_2 in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 150 volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal prospective philosophical foundations of peace education sue mcgregor there are many attributes of an effective peace educator,1 including having a philosophy of peace.2 and, while “a peace philosophy without practicability is imperfect and incomplete”,3 having no peace philosophy at all (or having an unexamined or unarticulated philosophy) is even worse. its critical absence compromises a peace educator’s ability to formulate responses to life and reality. educators who live life without a philosophy tend to act out their opinions without examining them, which is an untenable approach for peace educators. the main power of a philosophy is its ability to help people better understand and appreciate what they do and why they do it.4 the concern is not so much about what people do, but why they do it what is the philosophical underpinning of their actions.5 philosophies help educators obtain, interpret, organize, and use information while making pedagogical decisions.6 1 navarro-castro, l., & nario-galace, j. peace education: a pathway to a culture of peace. quezon city, philippines: center for peace education, miriam college, 2008. 2 page, j. s. “peace education.” in peterson, p., baker, e., & mcgaw, b. (eds.), international encyclopaedia of education. oxford, england: elsevier, 2010, 850-854. 3 carter, c., & kumar, r. (eds.). peace philosophy in action. new york, ny: palgrave macmillan, 2010. 4 brockett, r. g. (ed.). (1998). ethical issues in adult education. new york, ny: columbia university press, 1998; merriam, s. b. “some thoughts on the relationship between theory and practice." new directions for continuing education, 15 (1982): 87-91. 5 maddux, m., dong, b., miller, w., nelson, k., raebel, m., raehl, c., & smith, w. “a vision of pharmacy's future roles, responsibilities, and manpower needs in the united states.” pharmacotherapy, 20 (2000) 991-1020. 6 boggs, d. l. “philosophies at issue." in b. w. kreitlow (ed.), examining controversies in adult education (pp.1-10). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass, 1981; macfarland, k., cartmel, j., & nolan, a. early childhood care in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 151 “philosophy is a perceptual tool that aligns one’s referential axis.”7 from this reference point, educators can assess a situation (e.g., their peace pedagogy), come to an informed decision or set of beliefs about the situation, and act accordingly. gorski coined the term “philosophical warrant,” akin to philosophical permission to dig deeper and wider into what constitutes one’s philosophy of peace.8 this process should lead to philosophical acumen and more responsible pedagogy. nonetheless, despite the importance of philosophical acumen, most peace education initiatives are not based on philosophical elaboration or reflection because peace educators view philosophical work as unnecessary, artificial or even dangerous for the cause.9 such lacunae, worse yet, philosophical avoidance and resistance, cannot be tolerated if peace educators want to be responsible pedagogues. the premise of this paper is that peace educators must be cognizant of their own peace philosophy,10 because it affects why and how they teach peace. more important, they should be aware of any discussions in the literature around peace philosophies. these have the potential to impact their philosophical musings and professional peace philosophy. to that end, this paper shares an overview of several prospective foundations for peace philosophies. it culminates with a critique of western peace philosophies (per the musings of ilan gur-zéev), accompanied with his suggestions for a counter philosophy of peace education. taken together, these six approaches provide a rich foundation for personal musings about one’s philosophy of peace. an overview of six philosophical foundations of peace a related and pressing issue is the dearth of peace education literature focused on a philosophy of peace.11 page explained that “there have been recent attempts to develop a coherent philosophy of peace education,”12 but gur-zéev described these as “very modest first steps toward a serious conceptualization and reflections concerning the fundamentals of the field of peace education.”13 not surprisingly, peace educators do not yet associate their practice, and education leadership modules module 3 – philosophy, 2010. retrieved from the early childhood care and education website, http://www.ecceleadership.org.au/module3.html http://www.ecceleadership.org.au/node/14 7 a philosopher. (2012, october 21). re: what is the purpose of philosophy? [web log comment]. retrieved from http://forums.philosophyforums.com/threads/what-is-the-purpose-of-this-universe-57045.html 8 gorski, p. s. “special essay: what is critical realism? and why should you care.” contemporary sociology, 42 (2013): 668. 9 gur-zéev, i. “philosophy of peace education in a postmodern era.” educational theory, 51 (2001): 315-336; gur-zéev, i. “beyond peace education: toward co-poiesis and enduring improvisation.” policy futures in education, 8 (2010): 315-339; gur-zéev, i. “philosophy of peace education in a postmetaphysical era.” in gavriel, s., & cairns, e. (eds.), handbook on peace education. new york, ny: taylor francis, 2010, 171-186; page, j. s. “peace education: exploring some philosophical foundations.” international review of education, 50 (2004): 3-15. 10 gorski, “special essay: what is critical realism? 11 gur-zéev, “beyond peace education”; page, “peace education;” page, peace education. exploring ethical and philosophical foundations. charlotte, nc: information age publishing, 2008. 12 page, “peace education,” 853. 13 gur-zéev, “beyond peace education”, 317. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 152 pedagogy or theories with any particular philosopher.14 taking advantage of this philosophical and pedagogical opportunity, six prospective philosophical foundations of peace are now profiled: calleja’s kantian-inspired philosophy of peace, daisaku ikeda’s philosophy of peace, harris and morrison’s philosophies of peace, reardon’s cosmopolitan philosophy of peace, page’s ethics-based philosophies of peace, and gur-zéev’s counter-education philosophy of peace (see figure 1). these approaches were chosen because they appear most often in the scarce literature on philosophies of peace. 14 synott, j. “peace education as an educational paradigm.” journal of peace education, 2 (2005): 3-16. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 153 figure 1 -six prospective philosophical foundations of peace education in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 154 calleja’s kantian-inspired philosophy of peace joachim calleja analyzed immanuel kant’s writings and discerned four major conditions that are prerequisites of peace: human nature, the power of reason, the rule of law, and the principles of morality.15 in essence, this is kant’s philosophy of peace. respectively, kant believed that the features of people’s minds, their ability to reason, the unconditional observance of law and freedom of others (with a heavy focus on ends and means, and rights and duties), and morality in politics are necessary conditions for the emergence of peace. calleja especially focused on kant’s categorical (duty) imperative as a key contender for any philosophy of peace.16 this duty forces people to act in accordance with morality. the basic tenets of this imperative are that: (a) the categorical duty is an end in itself; (b) people have to fulfil the duty regardless of the circumstances (cannot beg off due to dislikes, inabilities or lack of opportunities); (c) the ends to fulfilling the duty can never justify the means, especially if the means involve exploiting people’s bodies, labour and talents without their consent; (d) human rights are acknowledged and are inviolable; and, (e) the categorical duty emphasizes the respect of persons.17 subsequent to an intense analysis of kant’s musings, calleja then developed his own agenda for a philosophy of peace. calleja deduced that “communication, cooperation and confidence are the three main pillars that emerge from kant’s ... philosophy of peace.”18 first, communication between humans requires that peace education teach people to think critically, to actively integrate themselves into society, and to strive for greater solidarity amongst humans. second, peace education must teach that cooperation is a natural human urge, the basic element in human co-existence. third, calleja believed that where communication and cooperation exist, trust comes into play, leading toward confidence. trust in each other (a sign of maturity) is the absolute ground for confidence building. in summary, calleja asserted that “peace is not the ultimate objective of human coexistence but the daily driving force towards more cooperation, more confidence and more communication.”19 daisaku ikeda’s philosophy of peace daisaku ikeda tendered another approach to a philosophy of peace, deftly articulated by urbain.20 ikeda is the founder of the toda institute, and the leader of the buddhist organization, 15 calleja, j. j. a kantian epistemology of education and peace: an examination of concepts and values. unpublished doctoral dissertation. bradford university, 1991. 16 ibid. 17 mcgregor, s. l. t. consumer moral leadership. the netherlands: sense publishers, 2010, chapter 1. 18 calleja, a kantian epistemology of education and peace, 520. 19 ibid., 532. 20 urbain, o. daisaku ikeda's philosophy of peace: dialogue, transformation and global civilization. london, in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 155 soka gakkai international (sgi). his peace philosophy is based on 13th century japanese, nichiren buddhism21 and centers on three main concepts: (a) human revolution (each person’s decision to effect a change in their life inner transformation); (b) genuine, productive and enriching dialogue, made possible because of empowerment from inner transformation; and, (c) global citizenship and civilization (based on interdependence, community and collaboration), realizable because of both inner transformations and inter-human dialogue. goulah and urbain explained that movement from inner peace to global peace includes progression through these three fundamental phases (i.e., inner transformation, dialogue, and global citizenship).22 respectively, ikeda places special emphasis on people’s belief in the potential to strengthen their courage, wisdom and compassion so they can bring out their best self thorough meaningful exchanges and dialogue, better ensuring their engagement with the global world. guha further explained that ikeda’s philosophy unified three truths, namely (a) emptiness, (b) temporary reality, and (c) mean (or the middle path).23 by this ikeda meant, respectively, that empty truth entails detachment without essence; this truth is non-sustainable. temporary truth does exist (lasting for a limited time), and has the property of action. the middle truth (mean) exists between emptiness and reality and is called the truth of the middle way. guha further clarified that (a) emptiness is an ideal or a goal; (b) temporary reality or truth is materialism; and, (c) mean (the middle way) is existentialism, the intermediary stage between idealism and materialism. in more detail, ikeda considers empty truth to be idealism (the pursuit of ideas and the ideal) and temporary truth to be materialism (the pursuit of wealth and possessions). these truths are viewed as “two big forces opposing and confronting each other,” each with independently strong opinions and preferred directions.24 ikeda understands the middle way to be a path laying between these two forces, paving a way to put the public interest, practical policy, morality and ethics at the forefront so that people can find prosperity and happiness (the third truth, existentialism). presuming that the middle way is the essence of human life, ikeda argues that people should not get attached to either of the two big forces, because such attachment ignores too many fundamentals of the essence of human life.25 guha clarified that “human life [the middle way] is the bridge between (a) the earthly existence (or [temporary, material] life) and (b) the cosmic entity or emptiness (infinity).”26 england: i. b. tauris, 2010. 21 kobayashi, m. “nichiren’s philosophy of peace.” journal of oriental studies, 18 (2008): 149-154. 22 goulah, j., & urbain, o. (2013). daisaky ikeda’s philosophy of peace, education proposals, and soka education: convergences and divergences in peace education. journal of peace education, 10 (2013): 303-322. 23 guha, a. “buddhist cosmic philosophy and daisaku ikeda’s concept of peace cosmology.” journal of oriental studies, 13 (2003): 160-176. 24 jingsong, h. “the lotus sutra and sgi president daisaku ikeda.” journal of oriental studies, 10 (2000); 48. 25 ibid. 26 guha “buddhist cosmic philosophy and daisaku ikeda’s concept of peace cosmology,” 170, italics in original. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 156 harris and morrison’s philosophies of peace ian harris and mary lee morrison argued that “peace education is currently considered to be both a philosophy and a process... . the philosophy teaches non-violence, love, compassion and reverence for all life.”27 contingent upon various doctrines of what constitutes peace, they proposed that peace can be achieved through one of six strategies: military strength, justice, sustainability, transformation, politics, or education. first, peace through military strength entails one side building up massive armaments as a deterrent. guided by a desire for a balance of power, people on the other side can be convinced to not go to war because they may not win against the other side. this philosophy entails a well maintained and prepared armed forces, thought to provide security in a dangerous world. this approach assumes the world is competitive, that humans are violent, and that deterrence is a viable peace philosophy. second, peace through justice assumes peace can be reached by getting rid of structural violence, eliminating oppression and economic exploitation, and ensuring human rights and human security. this philosophy assumes peace can be achieved if humans’ basic needs are protected and preserved.28 third, the philosophy of peace through sustainability assumes peace can be achieved by non-violent relationships with, and commitment to, the human and natural worlds. people embracing this philosophy assume that people are spiritually and materially connected to others and nature, and that there is enough for everyone. fourth, some people hold the belief that peace can be achieved through pacifism and transformation. this philosophy assumes people can face confrontations, using non-violence to resolve conflict and to deal with human aggression. pacifism holds great confidence in the infinite possibilities of the human spirit. this philosophy further assumes humans are capable of love and personal transformations.29 a fifth philosophy is peace thorough politics or institution building. this approach assumes peace can be achieved (maintain order in society) by working through political channels to provide alternatives for resolving conflicts aside from all out war and violence (e.g., through a department of peace, united nations, diplomats, international law, treaties, laws, courts). it also assumes that humans can be rational, and can successfully appeal to the common interest. finally, peace education is a philosophy that posits people can be taught to gauge which philosophical orientation or foundation is appropriate given the situation.30 this philosophy 27 harris, i., & morrison, m. l. peace education (2nd ed.). jefferson, nc: mcfarland & co., 2003, 9. 28 ibid. 29 ibid. 30 see also ragland, d. “recasting classical and contemporary philosophies to ground peace education: a review essay of ‘james page, peace education: exploring ethical and philosophical foundations’.” in factix pax, 3 (2009): 147-153. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 157 assumes humans are capable of changing their behaviours and beliefs as a result of the education process. education is latin educare, to draw or lead out; hence, it is assumed that peace education can draw out people’s instincts to live peacefully with others.31 reardon’s cosmopolitan philosophy of peace betty reardon maintained that the articulation of a philosophy of peace education is predicated on the critical task of defining the meaning of peace.32 she drew on both negative and positive conceptions of peace, ultimately calling for authentic peace (grounded in international human rights and global justice). she understood authentic peace to mean the abolition of the war system and the establishment of global justice and a global civic community.33 reardon’s philosophy of peace is “grounded in a cosmopolitan and transformative moral and political orientation, [which] provides a powerful framework for the development of a philosophy of peace education.”34 reardon positioned peace education within the broader issue of citizenship, enabling her to suggest that any philosophy of peace should be concerned with the political efficacy of future citizens (i.e., their ability to engage in transformative political action). she linked this idea with cosmopolitanism, conventionally defined as familiar and at ease with many different cultures and countries. in a nice intellectual twist, snauwaert suggested that “the cosmopolitanism perspective finds it's moral grounding in a basic commitment to equal respect for persons, a respect that transcends cultural and political boundaries.”35 in her peace philosophy, reardon accordingly defined cosmopolitanism as people valuing universal moral inclusion, grounded in respect for human dignity.36 her philosophy of peace embraced the “cosmopolitan ideal of universal respect for human dignity and moral inclusion [grounded in] the value of universal moral equality... each person is a morally equal member of the human moral community.”37 at the core of cosmopolitanism is a deep ethical dimension, with reardon maintaining that the political dimension logically follows from the ethical. appreciating the principle of universal moral equality, her philosophy holds that “the rights of equal political consideration and equal political participation constitute political equality.” 38 in summary, reardon’s philosophy of peace holds that “the basic purpose of peace education should be the 31 harris, i., & morrison, m. l. peace education. 32 reardon, b. a. comprehensive peace education. new york, ny: columbia teachers college press, 1988. 33 snauwaert, dale t. "betty reardon’s conception of “peace” and its implications for a philosophy of peace education." peace studies journal 5, no. 3 (2012): 45-52. 34 ibid., p. 45. 35 ibid., p. 50. 36 reardon, betty a, and dale t snauwaert. "reflective pedagogy, cosmopolitanism, and critical peace education for political efficacy: a discussion of betty a. reardon’s assessment of the field." in factis pax: journal of peace education and social justice 5, no. 1 (2011): 1-14. 37 ibid., p. 4. 38 ibid., p. 4. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 158 transformation of the social order and its implicit patterns of thought in the direction of authentic peace, a conception of peace that is grounded in a cosmopolitan ethical and political orientation.”39 page’s ethics-based philosophies of peace james smith page also drew on ethics in his approach to a philosophy of peace.40 “a formal philosophy of peace education [can] undergird both individual and institutional commitments to peace education.”41 he proposed five strands of ethics that may serve as philosophical foundations for peace education: virtue, consequentialist, conservative political, aesthetics, and care. these ethical philosophies have the potential to “uncover and inform our thinking on peace.”42 page reasoned that a peace educator’s approach would be different, depending on which combination of these philosophies was in use. his approach draws from a western eurocentric epistemological framework.43 regarding virtue ethics, any educator embracing this philosophy would assume that peace is a virtue, a morally good or right thing. peace is a character orientation for a person, rather than a set of actions or a state of affairs. indeed, from this philosophy, peace educators focus on whom you are as a person, assuming that who you are will shape what you do (action). this peace philosophy assumes that the purpose of peace education is to empower individuals at a time when society does not see individuals as significant. this assumption is paramount because we live in a time when people sense a loss of social civility, an increase in personal aggression, and an overall decline in ethical conduct. informed by this philosophy, people would gain empowerment through peace education that is focused on the conscious development of people’s character and personality. in this process, peace education would foster peace-focused virtues such as non-violence, respect for others, diversity, harmony, solidarity, and cooperative relations.44 instead of focusing on a person’s character and virtues, consequentialist ethics focuses on the consequences of their (in)actions. embracing this philosophy means peace educators would accept that their pedagogy has consequences; how they teach and what they teach (or not) affects 39 snauwaert, dale t. "betty reardon’s conception of “peace” and its implications for a philosophy of peace education," 51. 40 page, “peace education: exploring some philosophical foundations;” page, peace education. exploring ethical and philosophical foundations; page, j. s. “philosophy of peace education.” in m. bajaj (ed.), encyclopaedia of peace education. charlotte, nc: information age publishing, 2008. retrieved from http://www.tc.edu/centers/epe/pdf%20articles/philosophy%20of%20peace%20education.pdf 41 page, “philosophy of peace education,” 3. 42 ragland, “recasting classical and contemporary philosophies to ground peace education ,” 148. 43 ibid. 44 page, “peace education: exploring some philosophical foundations;” page, peace education. exploring ethical and philosophical foundations; page, “philosophy of peace education.” in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 159 the society that is formed. consequently (pun intended), educators inspired by this philosophy would teach students that the morality of their actions is assessed by the consequences. this philosophy, not surprisingly then, assumes an implied hope of betterment. hope is a connection to the future. if teachers educate students about dangers looming in the future, it follows that critically literate students can choose to avert those dangers (avoid or mitigate consequences) by challenging social structures in society. students are encouraged to think about the world they want, and peace education would strive to empower them to create such a world. they would learn that there are alternatives to conflict and suffering, violence and injustice.45 a peace philosophy informed by conservative political ethics would focus on the evolution of social institutions, a stable nation state, and the importance of ordered and lawful social change. conservatism means to maintain the status quo and to only move forward with orderly change (not violent change), ensured through a stable nation state. using this philosophy, educators would teach for continuity with the past because continuity ensures orderly change and stable social structures, which better mitigates violence. if people can commit to an orderly nation state, there can be orderly, peaceful social change.46 aesthetics ethics assumes that peace is a beautiful and valuable thing, worthy of being a clearly stated objective within any curriculum. peace is accepted as a defensible value orientation. indeed, peace education grounded in an aesthetic ethics philosophy would be value laden (not value free), with a focus on aesthetic judgements. the latter concern judgements of the rightness or wrongness of a situation or action, and such judgements are made with limited information, within a time line. peace education would teach students that their actions are based on their judgements about what is desirable and considered to be of value (defensible); these become worthwhile activities that respect the beauty of humanity and justice.47 finally, an ethics of care philosophy of peace would focus on trust and engagement with others. it assumes that nurturing and care ought to be the dominant guiding principles of how people act toward others. actions should be relationship-based and focused on kindness instead of focused on rights, duties, and what is just. this care approach is based on the assumption that peace is all about establishing and nurturing a supportive network of relationships through which people can learn and practice peace. therefore, peace education should teach students to act out of an altruistic concern and care for others and their welfare because the latter are necessary for trusting and nurturing relationships.48 challenges to western philosophies of peace burns and aspeslagh observed that the concept of peace education, and what it should 45 ibid. 46 ibid. 47 ibid. 48 ibid. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 160 comprise, was developed in western countries and then projected onto the wider world.49 page acknowledged the resultant slippery slope of peace education and the threat of indoctrination, necessitating an exploration of non-western sources for peace education.50 ilan gur-zéev stands out in this regard with his powerful critique of westernized peace education. gur-zéev argued that present day peace education glorifies, enables, serves and conceals the hegemonic power relations that threaten humanity and the planet.51 he felt that western peace educators needed to face up to and critique the existential, philosophical and political settings that lead to the false promises stemming from contemporary western peace education. in more detail, gur-zéev claimed that western peace education is based on flawed assumptions, namely that: (a) peace should be taught, longed for, and struggled for; (b) peace is the opposite of violence and conflict; (c) it is possible to educate for peace or the promotion of peace; and, (d) it is justifiable and desirable to invest resources to educate for peace as understood from the western viewpoint. he challenged these assumptions, arguing they are informed by humanistic, universalistic, essentialist, and fundamentalist philosophies from the western world.52 in more detail, the humanistic philosophy assumes people can become enlightened, increase their human capacities, and realize their potential. this personal growth leads to social change that would prevent the conditions for war. univeralism refers to religious, theological and philosophical concepts that are presumed to apply to everyone (e.g., human rights). essentialism holds that there are invariant (constant) truths about the world and that humans have characteristics that are universally valid. their potential is conceived as rooted in their essence. finally, fundamentalism pertains to unquestioning submission to an absolute authority, leading to an intolerance of alternative view points. fundamentalism is perpetuated through religious dogma and distortions of history, philosophy or both. gur-zéev vehemently argued that western peace education fails because it is based on these aforementioned philosophical premises.53 to illustrate, he asserted that students are not taught to critique the western hegemonic culture, or to resist the power of this apparatus. this hegemony allows conflict and violence to become invisible; although it is very real, it remains hidden because it is normalized. peace education formed within the grip of this hegemonic power acts as a normalizing agent. normalizing refers to the social processes thorough which 49 burns, r., & aspeslagh, r. “concepts of peace education: a view of western perspectives.” international review of education, 29 (1983), 311-330. 50 page, “philosophy of peace education;” page, “peace education.” 51 gur-zéev, i. “philosophy of peace education in a postmetaphysical era.” in gavriel, s., & cairns, e. (eds.), handbook on peace education (pp. 171-186). new york, ny: taylor francis, 2010. 52 gur-zéev, “philosophy of peace education in a postmodern era;” gur-zéev, i. (2010). beyond peace education: toward co-poiesis and enduring improvisation. policy futures in education, 8(3/4), 315-339. 53 ibid. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 161 ideas and actions come to be seen as normal and taken-for-granted (i.e., not critically examined or questioned). normalized peace education conceals its own foundations, making it impossible for students to see the real education they are receiving. they are misled and indoctrinated into reproducing the western hegemony. also, gur-zéev argued that western peace education fails to teach students to be critical of the western metanarrative or grand narrative (i.e., competition, capitalism, individualism, success and progress, science and technology, and patriarchy).54 since even on a good day, most citizens are not aware they are being influenced by a societal grand narrative (the collection of modern ideas that shape how society is organized, ruled and how power is shared), it does not bode well that students are being taught peace through the western philosophy. grand narratives tend to reflect universal truths that help people make sense of their world; without a deep critique of the grand narrative, peace educators inadvertently legitimize the narrative, making it appear as moral, right and reasonable (i.e., normalized). gur-zéev’s counter philosophy of peace gur-zéev actually argued that peace educators who are using western philosophies are complicit in perpetuating violence and injustices because they do their job so well. he urged people to challenge the dialectics of peace education; that is, to challenge their philosophy of peace. gur-zéev’s critique was not empty. he articulated a compelling counter-education that would challenge the western approach. it would be based on contingencies, localism, differences, uniqueness, and an anti-fundamentalist pedagogy. this approach would also replace universal truths and rights and universal solidarity and responsibility.55 in more detail, first, gur-zéev envisioned a philosophy of peace that would teach that peace is a negative utopia (instead of a positive utopia). this approach is based on the assumption that there are no universals (like justice and rights); instead, there are transcendent negative imperatives (such as being open to responding to injustice and to worthy suffering). instead of being committed to universal truths, students would be taught to transcend the truths that serve the hegemonic culture.56 with transcendence, they would learn to give way to the sovereignty of entrenched truths, thereby creating space to surmount the weight of universal western truths, leading to the formation of new insights and new truths.57 second, this counter-education would reject the pleasure principle for the principle of reality. peace education would validate the presence, and possibility, of transcending pain into 54 ibid. 55 ibid. 56 ibid. 57 somerville, m. a., & rapport, d. transdisciplinarity: recreating integrated knowledge. montreal, qc: mcgill-queens university press, 2002. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 162 worthy suffering (i.e., do not waste the suffering, learn from it become more worthy).58 instead of just suffering while in or facing a painful situation, people would face the truth of their painful reality and, after reflection upon the situation, they would move onto a worthier way of life; that is, worthy suffering. they would avail themselves of the opportunities to attain the moral values that a painful situation can afford them whether or not they do this decides whether or not they are worthy of the suffering.59 gur-zéev characterized this as “right, just, beautiful and meaningful suffering.”60 worthy suffering, therefore, is seen as helping people transcend pain, creating a space for reflections on society’s production of identities, meanings and life quests. in particular, violences (painful realities) would be viewed as possibilities for counter-ethics and counter-responsibilities because there is rebirth within violence.61 third, in reference to normalized peace education, gur-zéev argued that counter-education would challenge the politics of western peace education, especially the core idea of consensus as way to resolve conflict.62 western approaches to peace education assume that consensus is predicated on the notions of rationality, good intentions, openness to others, and universal truths. a counter-education would reject this approach, calling it an illusion because the grand narrative would distort any dialogue attendant to consensus. what is needed instead is peace education that teaches people to challenge the hegemonic order. only when the distortion is revealed can true dialogue emerge and consensus take place. fourth, gur-zéev maintained that this counter-education would assume that peace involves learning to live with conflict in a constructive manner; peace is not just about the absence of conflict.63 the latter assumption enables the western approach to conflict resolution, which actually perpetuates the conflict instead of resolving it. this happens because western-based peace education assumes that there can be co-existence in a safe collective. counter-educators would ask instead “what kind of togetherness is possible, bearable, or longed-for and what are the ways to approach such a future?”64 as well, counter-education would have people pose compelling questions about what is worthy of a life-and-death struggle; that is, they would actively problematize the kind of peace longed for instead of assuming 58 gur-zéev, “philosophy of peace education in a postmodern era;” gur-zéev, i. “philosophy of peace education in a postmetaphysical era.” in gavriel, s., & cairns, e. (eds.), handbook on peace education (pp. 171-186). new york, ny: taylor francis, 2010; gur-zéev, “philosophy of peace education in a postmodern era;” gur-zéev, i. (2010). beyond peace education: toward co-poiesis and enduring improvisation. policy futures in education, 8(3/4), 315-339. 59 peters, m. a. (ed.) heidegger, education and modernity. oxford, england: rowman and littlefield, 2002. 60 gur-zéev, “philosophy of peace education in a postmodern era,” 333. 61 ibid. 62 gur-zéev, “philosophy of peace education in a postmodern era;” gur-zéev, i. “philosophy of peace education in a postmetaphysical era.” in gavriel, s., & cairns, e. (eds.), handbook on peace education (pp. 171-186). new york, ny: taylor francis, 2010; gur-zéev, “philosophy of peace education in a postmodern era;” gur-zéev, i. (2010). “beyond peace education: toward co-poiesis and enduring improvisation.” 63 ibid. 64 gur-zéev, “philosophy of peace education in a postmodern era,” p. 333. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 163 western notions of peaceful co-existence in a positive utopian state replete with universal truths (rights and justice), and realized human potential.65 summary and implications the main premise of this paper was that effective peace educators need a philosophy of peace because philosophies have a profound impact on pedagogies; however, achieving philosophical acumen is compromised because of the dearth of literature about what constitutes a peace philosophy and what could be the foundational underpinnings of such a philosophy. to address these issues, this paper identified and profiled six prospective philosophical foundations for peace education, mostly western in their orientation (see figure 1), and, in the process, discovered and recounted a powerful counter-education to a perceived western hegemony in peace education. several implications are now addressed. first, it appears that the literature around philosophical foundations for peace philosophies is not as deficient as page (2004, 2008a) assumed. six distinct approaches were identified, and they proved quite rich in their own right as well as collectively. peace educators so inclined to ponder and reflect upon what might inform their peace philosophy have quite a range of ideas from which to choose. interestingly, these ideas are not new. to illustrate, cajello drew on kant’s philosophy of peace, articulated nearly 250 years ago. urbain recounted ikeda’s philosophy, which was inspired by a form of japanese buddhism more than 800 years old. page drew on longstanding ethical philosophies, some of them centuries old. gur-zéev critiqued peace education that was informed by philosophical tenets from the enlightenment and modernism eras, going back hundreds of years. reardon drew on the centuries-old idea of cosmopolitanism (from the times before christ (400bc), and now experiencing a renaissance). harris and morrison’s approach to peace is grounded in contemporary conversations about different kinds of peace aside from negative peace (absence of war). second, there are many commonalities amongst the six approaches, including: personal transformation, political channels and politics, communication and dialogue, cooperation and collaboration, citizenship, morality, and relationships. third, there are intriguing outliers as well, such as: aesthetic judgements, care to balance duties and rights, confidence and trust, sustainability (connectedness), military strength as a deterrent, challenges to hegemonic power of any context (avoid fundamentalism), peace as non-utopian and as self-problematized, and worthy suffering as part of inner transformation. peace educators exploring what could constitute their philosophy of peace have a rich collection of ideas from which to draw, including familiar and not so familiar concepts. finally, future philosophical musing about what could constitute a philosophy of peace 65 ibid. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 164 should consider the merit of gur-zéev’s counter-argument, which happened to challenge the western hegemony of peace education. insights from likeminded critiques have the potential to shape peace education philosophies and pedagogies. resisting centric approaches to peace education opens the door to deeper insights into the hegemonic influence of foundational underpinnings for a peace philosophy, regardless of the source. the more transparent people make the foundations upon which they base their philosophies of peace, the more responsible they are as peace pedagogues. references a philosopher. (2012, october 21). re: what is the purpose of philosophy? [web log comment]. retrieved from http://forums.philosophyforums.com/threads/what-is-the-purpose-of-this-universe-57045.html boggs, d. l. (1981). philosophies at issue. in b. w. kreitlow (ed.), examining controversies in adult education (pp.1-10). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. brockett, r. g. (ed.). (1998). ethical issues in adult education. new york, ny: columbia university press. burns, r., & aspeslagh, r. (1983). concepts of peace education: a view of western perspectives. international review of education, 29(3), 311-330. calleja, j. j. (1991). a kantian epistemology of education and peace: an examination of concepts and values. unpublished doctoral dissertation. bradford university. carter, c., & kumar, r. (eds.). (2010). peace philosophy in action. new york, ny: palgrave macmillan. gorski, p. s. (2013). special essay: what is critical realism? and why should you care.” contemporary sociology, 42(5), 658-670. goulah, j., & urbain, o. (2013). daisaky ikeda’s philosophy of peace, education proposals, and soka education: convergences and divergences in peace education. journal of peace education, 10(3), 303-322. guha, a. (2003). buddhist cosmic philosophy and daisaku ikeda’s concept of peace cosmology. journal of oriental studies, 13, 160-176. gur-zéev, i. (2001). philosophy of peace education in a postmodern era. educational theory, 51(3), 315-336. gur-zéev, i. (2010a). beyond peace education: toward co-poiesis and enduring improvisation. policy futures in education, 8(3/4), 315-339. in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 165 gur-zéev, i. (2010b). philosophy of peace education in a postmetaphysical era. in gavriel, s., & cairns, e. (eds.), handbook on peace education (pp. 171-186). new york, ny: taylor francis. harris, i., & morrison, m. l. (2003). peace education (2nd ed.). jefferson, nc: mcfarland & co. jingsong, h. (2000). the lotus sutra and sgi president daisaku ikeda. journal of oriental studies, 10, 47-55. kobayashi, m. (2008). nichiren’s philosophy of peace. journal of oriental studies, 18, 149-154. macfarland, k., cartmel, j., & nolan, a. (2010). early childhood care and education leadership modules module 3 philosophy. retrieved from the early childhood care and education website, http://www.ecceleadership.org.au/module3.html http://www.ecceleadership.org.au/node/14 maddux, m., dong, b., miller, w., nelson, k., raebel, m., raehl, c., & smith, w. (2000). a vision of pharmacy's future roles, responsibilities, and manpower needs in the united states. pharmacotherapy, 20(8), 991-1020. mcgregor, s. l. t. (2010). consumer moral leadership. the netherlands: sense publishers. merino, e. s. v., & solbes, v. m. m. (2011). philosophy of education and culture of peace in the pedagogical discourse. revista innovación educativa, 11(55), 68-75. merriam, s. b. (1982). some thoughts on the relationship between theory and practice. new directions for continuing education, 15, 87-91. navarro-castro, l., & nario-galace, j. (2008). peace education: a pathway to a culture of peace. quezon city, philippines: center for peace education, miriam college. page, j. s. (2004). peace education: exploring some philosophical foundations. international review of education, 50(1), 3-15. page, j. s. (2008a). peace education. exploring ethical and philosophical foundations. charlotte, nc: information age publishing. page, j. s. (2008b). philosophy of peace education. in m. bajaj (ed.), encyclopaedia of peace education. charlotte, nc: information age publishing. retrieved from http://www.tc.edu/centers/epe/pdf%20articles/philosophy%20of%20peace%20educatio n.pdf page, j. s. ( 2010). peace education. in peterson, p., baker, e., & mcgaw, b. (eds.), international encyclopaedia of education (pp. 850-854). oxford, england: elsevier. peters, m. a. (ed.). (2002). heidegger, education and modernity. oxford, england: rowman and littlefield. ragland, d. (2009). recasting classical and contemporary philosophies to ground peace education: a review essay of ‘james page, peace education: exploring ethical and philosophical foundations’. in factix pax, 3(1), 147-153. reardon, b. (1988). comprehensive peace education. new york, ny: columbia teachers college press. reardon, b., & snauwaert, d. (2011). reflective pedagogy, cosmopolitanism, and critical peace education for political efficacy: a discussion of betty a. reardon’s assessment of the field. in factix pax, 5(1), 1-14. snauwaert, d. t. (2012). betty reardon’s conception of ‘peace’ and its implications for a in factis pax volume 8 number 2 (2014): 150-166 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 166 philosophy of peace education. peace studies journal, 5(3), 45-52. somerville, m. a., & rapport, d. (2002). transdisciplinarity: recreating integrated knowledge. montreal, qc: mcgill-queens university press. synott, j. (2005). peace education as an educational paradigm. journal of peace education, 2(1), 3-16. urbain, o. (2010). daisaku ikeda's philosophy of peace: dialogue, transformation and global civilization. london, england: i. b. tauris. shavkat kasymov[1]   in  factis  pax   volume  6number1  (2012):  26-­‐35   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/       26     volume  6  number  1  (2012):  26-­‐35   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   the applicability of the strategic killing model to the case of the armenian genocide in the ottoman empire by shavkat kasymov1 comparing empirical studies of the antecedents of genocide in the course of human history, most wars and revolutions have resulted in the enormous loss of civilian life, often due to the intentional elimination by power elites of ethnical and political diversity within the territorial confines of their nation-states and beyond. genocide is the term coined by raphael lemkin in 1944 to define the deliberate elimination of a national, political, ethnical, or religious group, in whole or in part, whether by a state or a non-state power group. while genocides have taken place throughout the history of human civilization, only recently had the academia begun to investigate the causal factors of mass killing. political theorists assess the significance of both micro and macro-scale factors conducive to violent behavior and genocide in societies. however, a more precise approach is critical to enhance the understanding of the mechanisms that generate acts of mass killing in various spatio-temporal settings and to develop adequate and timely policy measures to avert and cease mass killing in any part of the world. the atrocities committed by the nazi regime against civilian populations in germany and across europe, the ethnic cleansing campaigns and mass murder of ethnical communities perpetrated by the khmer rouge regime and pol pot in what is now cambodia and in the former yugoslavia by the milosevic regime; the hutu-led killing of the tutsi population in rwanda and the recent events in darfur have all stressed the leading role of ruling elites in the organization and implementation of genocide. developing a proper approach that conforms to                                                                                                                           1shavkat kasymov is an independent policy analyst. he holds a degree in peace studies from the university of notre dame, usa. he can be reached at: 2 mosfilmovskypereulok, dom 3, apartment 17, moscow 119285, russia. e-mail: shavkatik@gmail.com.   in  factis  pax   volume  6number1  (2012):  26-­‐35   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/       27   these dramatic historical experiences is not only an academic objective but also an ethical priority that will lay the foundation for effective policy mechanisms to prevent genocide and bring about justice and peace for future generations. the attempt of power groups to achieve their narrow-interest objectives through the radical transformation of a society is at the core of the strategic killing theory. when adversary ethnic and religious communities become the obstacles of materializing these aims and they often do, they get rid of, whether by deportation or extermination. in an attempt to transform a society, the ruling elites often rely on acts of mass killing. benjamin valentino provides a convincing explanation of how the decision-making process and specific policy issues of power elites serve as starting points of massacre. valentino contends that a strategic killing model needs to be the reference point of studies that seek to identify the primary circumstances leading to genocide. this approach can help identify the driving forces of a mass killing campaign. valentino maintains that the main preconditions leading to mass murder are not so much related to the “structure, form of government or collective psychology of the societies in which they take place,” as they are the products of specific goals and strategies of high political and military leadership.2 he argues that “these killings were not driven by the ‘bottom-up’ public discontent or a popular desire to blame others, but rather by powerful political and military interests working from top down.”3 according to valentino, the idea of mass killing is conceived not in the minds of the populace, but among a narrow group of political and military leaders. the strategic killing model suggests that mass murder should be regarded as a goal-oriented policy, which is aimed to achieve leaders’ most important political and military objectives. valentino argues that macroscale factors form the context for the execution of genocide by elite groups that spearhead a violent ideology. national upheaval and preexisting social cleavages can be brought into play by political groups to incite hatred and violence against adversary communities and encourage public participation in mass killing. setting up a powerful administrative system and centralized governance ensure the realization of violent policies against a target group. it would be wrong to conclude empirically that a political upheaval is the main starting point of massacre. i am convinced that the adverse socio-political conditions that exist prior to genocide create an adequate atmosphere for ego-centric political groups that seek power to bring to fruition their plans to destroy a political or ethno-religious community. in doing so, the groups maximize their political power potential and secure the survival of their regime in the long run. most often, negative social perceptions are introduced and enhanced by elite groups to aggravate intrasocietal contention. they encourage and even enforce mass participation in violent action against target communities in order to distort the notion of guilt in the event of their defeat and avoid post-war trials. in her study, harff identifies six causal factors that are essential for the initiation of a genocidal campaign:                                                                                                                           2benjamin valentino, “final solutions: the causes of mass killing and genocide,” security studies 9:3 (2000): pp. 1 59. 3ibid.   in  factis  pax   volume  6number1  (2012):  26-­‐35   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/       28   the risk factors include the extent of political upheaval and the occurrence of prior geno/politicides. the probability of mass murders is highest under autocratic regimes and is most likely to be set in motion by elites who advocate an exclusionary ideology, or represent an ethnic minority, or both. international economic interdependencies sharply reduce the chances that internal war and regime instability will have genocidal consequences.4 harff explains that a political upheaval, engendered by the “formation of a state through violent conflict, when national boundaries are reformed, or after a war is lost” as well as the presence of pre-existing social cleavages, play the most significant role in instigating mass murder.5harff believes that cultural and socio-economic differences are likely to induce genocidal tendencies and groups which are most different from the dominant group have a higher chance of being targeted. however, she further states that in some cases cleavages are introduced by the new elite.6harff argues that: the beginning point is political upheaval, a concept that captures the essence of the structural crises and societal pressures that are preconditions for authorities’ efforts to eliminate entire groups. political upheaval is defined as an abrupt change in the political community caused by a formation of a state or regime through violent conflict, redrawing of state borders, or defeat in international war. types of political upheavals include defeat in international war, revolutions, anticolonial rebellions, separatist wars, coups, and regime transitions that result in the ascendency of political elites who embrace extremist ideologies.7 harff contends that a national upheaval provides the major context for the translation of some popular social perceptions and grievances into the political sphere. so, if the armenians were resented before, the challenges brought about by the defeat of the ottoman empire in the war as well as internal political pressures created fertile soil for the initiation of the young turks’ genocidal campaign. when a state is in the midst of a crisis, whether economic or political, or combined, gathering popular support for extreme policies against certain groups by means of a scapegoating campaign is not difficult because of the widespread discontent with the existing social and political order, and confusion with regard to making a proper and wise political choice. revolutionary policies and groups rapidly gain popularity in the wake of wars and crises. extreme groups take advantage of the political disorder and resentment towards the old regime; propose new solutions to intractable problems. they promise a drastic improvement in the socio-economic situation, especially for the titular group, by way of transforming the old order. a second factor leading to the development of genocide is the existence of sharp cleavages combined with a history of struggle between groups prior to the upheaval. the stronger the                                                                                                                           4barbara harff, “no lessons learned from the holocaust,” american political science review,97,(cambridge up, 2003): p. 70. 5barbara harff, “the etiology of genocides,” in genocide and the modern age: etiology and case studies of mass death,eds. isidor wallimann et al. (syracuse up, 1987): pp. 41-58. 6ibid. 7barbara harff, “no lessons learned from the holocaust,” american political science review,97,(cambridge up, 2003): p. 62.   in  factis  pax   volume  6number1  (2012):  26-­‐35   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/       29   identification within competing groups the more likely that extreme measures will be undertaken to suppress the weaker groups. polarization is usually intensified by such factors as the extent of differences in religion, values, and traditions between contending groups, and their ideological separation. there are numerous examples from past genocides in which group polarization provided the background to genocides.8 valentino’s standpoint is different in that he places a primary emphasis on elite group interests. he asserts that a national upheaval in the ottoman empire was aggravated by the policies of the young turks’ regime and social cleavages rarely lead to genocide.9 if national upheaval, to which harff points, played a role in the annihilation of the armenian minority, it was used by the cup as a pretext in order to implement new policy objectives more effectively. valentino underscores the finding that genocide normally occurs between similar social groups with a long history of peaceful co-existence.10 this, to a degree, contradicts the so-called scapegoat theory, which suggests that mass killing is the result of resentment toward certain national groups that are seen as culprits in time of crises and wars. scapegoating is generally regarded as a strategy used by power groups to accumulate public support for a violent action against another community which is seen as a threat to them. many cases of genocide were preceded and accompanied by a strong propaganda that contained elements of scapegoating and the subsequent victimization of political or ethno-religious communities. however, valentino believes that victims of mass killing tend to serve as scapegoats only for a small number of highranking political and military figures, but not for the majority of the populace.11 these events encourage genocide not because they prompt societies to seek scapegoats, but because these events provide the incentives, opportunity and cover for revolutionary elites seeking to consolidate political power or implement genocidal ideologies.12 the decision to eliminate a certain community, whether religious, ethnical or political stems from a belief that a large-scale societal transformation is only possible when a rival group is physically removed through deportation, isolation and extermination. when deportation cannot help achieve the groups’ political ends, extermination is deemed as a final solution. thus, power elites believe they can achieve their primary political objectives through the extermination of a rival group. melson claims that “the perpetrators of the armenian genocide were motivated by a variant of nationalist ideology. the victims were a territorial ethnic group that had sought autonomy, and the methods of destruction included massacre, forced deportations, and starvation.”13 this dramatic shift in ideology and identity, from ottoman pluralism to an integral                                                                                                                           8barbara harff, “the etiology of genocides.” in genocide and the modern age: etiology and case studies of mass death,eds. isidor wallimann et al. (syracuse up, 1987): pp. 41-58. 9benjamin valentino, “final solutions: the causes of mass killing and genocide,” security studies 9:3 (2000): pp. 1 59. 10ibid. 11ibid. 12ibid., p. 18. 13robert melson, “the paradigms of genocide: the holocaust, the armenian genocide, and contemporary mass destructions.” annals of the american academy of political and social science, vol. 548, the holocaust: remembering for the future (nov. 1996): p. 157.   in  factis  pax   volume  6number1  (2012):  26-­‐35   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/       30   form of turkish nationalism, had profound implications for the emergence of modern turkey. nevertheless, pan-turkism had tragic consequences for ottoman minorities, most of all for the armenians. from being once viewed as a constituent millet of the ottoman regime, they suddenly were stereotyped as an alien nationality. despite all attempts to conceal the scale of the young turks’ atrocities and the ultimate goal of their actions, the consuls of foreign countries and missionaries constantly sent messages about the events in the ottoman provinces. this forced the young turks to act cautiously. in august 1915, on the advice of the germans, turkish authorities banned the public killing of armenians. astouryan suggests that “the resentment of the turkish masses cannot be explained on political, religious, and cultural grounds alone. the lootings that accompanied all of the massacres suggest that hatred had also economic roots. indeed, even before the establishment of the ottoman empire, armenians played a role in international trade that was quite disproportionate to their number.”14 in her analysis of the armenian genocide perpetrated by the turkish government, rae argues “that the genocide was aimed at fundamentally reshaping the remains of the empire into a homogenous national state.”15 the turkish regime that took power in 1908 embodied chauvinist and authoritarian nationalism and encouraged popular hatred of armenians. by stressing the primary role of elite group interests, valentino offers a substantive and convincing explanation of the principal driving forces of mass killing and their relative significance. genocide generally occurs when power groups seek to consolidate their power base and bring about a large-scale societal transformation by eradicating adversary communities. barbara harff, respectively, does not provide a sufficient and convincing explanation of the armenian genocide in the ottoman empire. by asserting that a structural change and preexisting cleavages are the primary factors that lead to mass killing, she fails to focus on the strategic motives of power elites that instigate genocide. the strategic killing model proposed by valentino examines the roles of power elites and their policies. his study reveals and explains the essence of the most significant factor that leads to genocide, namely, the elite group interest. this leaves no doubt about the fact that the genocidal policy towards the armenians was implemented consistently and ruthlessly by the young turks regime. this eventually led to the complete elimination of the armenian presence in most parts of their historical homeland. valentino claims that deep pre-existing cleavages between ethnic groups are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for mass killing.16 cleavages between ethnic groups can contribute to the evolution of the process that would eventually lead to genocide so long as power elites have their vested interests in it. however, cleavages alone cannot drive the process leading to massacre, because there needs to be a moving force above one that is capable of channeling any preexisting discontent into a new political idea. elite groups organize the forces and resources around this idea against a certain group that is seen and presented as a threat to the prosperity and security of the titular group. valentino stresses that deep social cleavages are                                                                                                                           14stephan astourian, “the armenian genocide: an interpretation.” the history teacher, vol. 23, no. 2 (feb., 1990): p. 126. 15heather rae, state identities and the homogenization of peoples,(cambridge: cambridge up, 2002),p. 127. 16benjamin valentino, “final solutions: the causes of mass killing and genocide,” security studies, 9:3 (2000): pp. 159.   in  factis  pax   volume  6number1  (2012):  26-­‐35   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/       31   more the result than the cause or precondition of mass killing.17 furthermore, he suggests that ruling elites can enhance social cleavages between groups and augment the dehumanizing attitudes toward their adversaries even in homogeneous societies.18 the existence of economic links, mentioned by harff, cannot completely eliminate the potential for internal or interstate warfare and genocide. economic interdependencies can be hampered by warfare. moreover, economic ties can trigger conflicts and even genocidal campaigns, especially when external economic or political interests are linked to rebellion movements, terrorist groups or radical regimes. in such instances, economic links between foreign states and titular groups increase the prospect of war, rather than reduce it. minority communities might be alienated from such economic activities and subjected to discriminatory policies. therefore, in some instances, the intrusion of an alien power or presence of foreign economic interests can not only provoke a conflict but also increase the likelihood of genocide. economic interdependencies do not always reduce the likelihood of conflict, but in some cases aggravate social stratification, create class tensions and ultimately lead to inter-group warfare and even mass killing of an ethno-religious and political community. the economic benefits of cooperation are often not equally dispersed across societies. many communities are excluded from benefit-sharing processes and subjected to structural discrimination by revolutionary and authoritarian regimes, in which case violence is most likely to occur. however, even deep social divisions and wide economic disparities between social classes cannot fully explain and do not always lead to cleavages, let alone violent measures to bring about a structural social change and eliminate a rival group. there is ample evidence that social stratification does not always generate contention, violence or mass murder. most importantly, it was the perception of economic inferiority and backwardness relative to the armenian population that was spread by the elites among the turks. the violent ideology was spearheaded by the young turks and directed against the armenians thereafter. there is no doubt that for violence to occur there must be some form of contention between societal strata; yet in mann’s view “class conflict has always been important in the development of modern society. it has tended to result in liberal and social–democratic institutions.”19 this perfectly fits into valentino’s claim about how elites influence the social and psychological atmosphere in societies prior to genocide. had it not been for the revolutionary and anarchist nature of the young turks’ regime and their determination to annihilate the armenians, the genocide in the ottoman empire would never have occurred and the tensions might have been resolved by means of political negotiations. in democratic polities, national crises of any kind are generally approached collectively for which a consensus-based solution is sought. in authoritarian states, only a narrow group of key political actors who belong to the ruling class or, sometimes, even one leader determines which nationalities policies to adopt. only in the latter case genocide is most likely to occur because of the absence of checks on the leadership.                                                                                                                           17ibid. 18ibid. 19michael mann, the dark side of democracy: the modern tradition of ethnic and political cleansing,(london: new left review, 1999), pp. 18-45.   in  factis  pax   volume  6number1  (2012):  26-­‐35   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/       32   interestingly, genocides have never occurred in democratic polities where there is greater latitude for political discussion and participation. the role of the millet system in the execution of the armenian genocide why were the armenians and not other minority groups within the ottoman empire made targets for violence? in other words, what characteristics of the armenians relative to other ethnic groups made them targets for victimization? in addition to the cleavages on religious and linguistic grounds, certain segments of the armenian population were differentiated from the turks on the basis of professional affiliation, cultural traits, mindsets, and political orientations. like other minorities, the armenian populace was organized in millets, which were governed by their leaders.20 the institution of the millet system is indicative of how the turkish leadership sought to transform the society in the ottoman empire. the inception of the millet system marked the beginning point of the process that eventually led to the genocide of the armenian population. initially the intention then was for the state to get a handle on diversity within its realm, to increase ‘legibility’ and order, enabling administration to run smoothly and taxes to flow unhindered. the concept of legibility relates to the need of the state to map its terrain and its people, to arrange the population of a country or empire in ways that simplify important state functions such as taxation, administration, conscription and prevention of rebellion.21 following the institution of the millet system, the discriminatory attitude towards the armenians as well as their social and cultural exclusion from muslim groups became the norm. practices of social differentiation nurtured by the millet system provided the context for the successful execution of genocide by the young turks regime thereafter. though initially the millet system provided the minorities a degree of legal autonomy at the local level, de facto the legislation ensuring their autonomy was ignored and they were barred from holding high government office. barkey suggests that “in its broad outlines the ottoman state organized and administered a system of religious and communal rule that instituted religious boundaries, marking difference, yet allowing for enough space, movement and parallel alternative structures to maintain a divided, yet cohesive and tolerant imperial society.”22 despite the fact that intergroup grievances existed long before the institution of the millet system; the introduction of new norms helped to proliferate and entrench preexisting perceptions and sentiments even further. the armenians were extensively resented given their relative prosperity, liberal outlook, and educational attainment. the millet system provided a normative framework for the translation of those negative social perceptions into the legal, religious and political plane. indeed, many armenians were actively engaged in education, banking and commerce, traveled extensively in europe, and were economically successful. however, most armenians were peasants, but even they differed                                                                                                                           20lewy guenter, the armenian massacres in ottoman turkey: a disputed genocide,(salt lake city: university of utah press, 2005), pp. 3-89. 21karen barkey, “islam and toleration: studying the ottoman imperial model,” international journal of politics, culture and society, vol. 19, no. ½, the new sociological imagination (dec. 2005): p. 16. 22ibid.   in  factis  pax   volume  6number1  (2012):  26-­‐35   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/       33   significantly from others. as they were inclined to adopt western entrepreneurial methods, they were more prosperous than their turkish counterparts, and because of this, resented.23 the differences in religion and language are important in accounting for the hostility that the armenians encountered in the ottoman empire. they were the first to embrace christianity as a nation. within the ottoman empire they were divided from the turks by both language and religion. they lived in relative peace with other ottoman ethnic groups so long as the empire prospered. however, once internal cohesion diminished and the empire began to contract rapidly, the armenians increasingly became targets of violent massacres. rae also finds that the turkish regime’s “hostility toward the armenians had its origins in the religious/cultural attitudes that were widespread in the ottoman empire at the turn of the century.”24 the strategy was a response to the disintegration of the ottoman empire and the rulers’ desire to compete with european nations. notions of differentiation that were widespread in the ottoman empire prior to the rise of the cup paved the way to the aggravation of hostility and resentment and led to the ultimate execution of genocidal policies against the armenians. the millet system played one of the key roles in the process that made the success of the young turks’ policies inevitable and significant. the millet system provided the young turks regime with institutional tools for the initiation of genocidal policies against non-muslim minorities – primarily armenians. astouryan suggests that: in accordance with islamic law, non-muslim monotheistic believers, including the monophysite armenians, were considered in the ottoman empire as belonging to the “peoples of the book.” they were, therefore, granted the status of the “dhimmi”, or protected non-muslim subjects of a muslim state. although this status was quite tolerant by the standards of the late middle ages and the early modern era, it was nonetheless defined by many discriminatory measures that indicated the inferior position of the nonmuslim monotheistic subjects of the empire.25 between 1908, when the young turks and the cup came to power as a result of a coup against sultan abdul hamid and the outbreak of world war i in 1914, extreme turkish nationalism, stemming from new state policies, prevailed over the multinational ottomanism. the young turks’ government became confronted with the dilemma of how to consolidate the state and sustain the fragile ethno-national balance in the ottoman empire. it became clear for the young turks that a solution to the so called “armenian question” that had hindered the unification of all turkic peoples for centuries and undermined the expansion of the ottoman empire would inevitably pave the way to the creation of a new and strong turkish homeland. as the government and party merged, the young turk dictatorship even created the so-called “special organization” to monitor the execution of the measures to be undertaken against the                                                                                                                           23lewy guenter, the armenian massacres in ottoman turkey: a disputed genocide,(salt lake city: university of utah press, 2005),pp. 3-89. 24heather rae,state identities and the homogenization of peoples,(cambridge: cambridge up, 2002),p. 163. 25stephan astourian, “the armenian genocide: an interpretation,” the history teacher, vol. 23, no. 2 (feb., 1990): p. 117.   in  factis  pax   volume  6number1  (2012):  26-­‐35   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/       34   armenians.26 it gradually transformed into a full-scale state-sponsored campaign whose main objective was to diminish or eliminate the presence and influence of the armenian minority in the ottoman empire. national upheaval, to which harff points, played a role in the extermination of the armenians, but it was not the principal driving force of mass murder, as she suggests. the ruling elites used it in such a way as to manipulate the social consciousness to their own advantage and implement their narrow-interest policies more effectively. to instigate violence and resentment against the armenians, the young turks resorted to discriminatory policies, cultural alienation and aggressive ideology. astouryan argues that “genocides follow a clear pattern. they result not only from short-term military difficulties or a racist ideology carried by a revolutionary, centralized party, although both of those conditions are necessary, but from a long process of discriminatory relationships between a dominant and a dominated group.”27 the young turks created a false perception among muslims that the armenians posed a deadly threat to their territorial integrity. it is important to mention that no such notion of the armenian threat was ever present or expressed when the young turks came to power after the revolution. furthermore, the armenians saw it as the beginning of a new era of liberal reforms and an end to decades of oppression. by 1914, the ottoman government became a dictatorship of three men from the committee of union and progress. it became evident that the triumvirate and its leaders were extreme turkish nationalists and military modernizers whose wish was to expand their influence eastward and rid the country of all minorities, primarily armenians, who were seen as the supporters of the russian empire.28 the jihad or holy war against “nonbelievers” that the cup issued following the engagement of the empire in world war i alongside other central powers was another attempt to instigate hostility toward the armenians. yet, it never had the influence over the masses that the cup leaders hoped for. it created an atmosphere of distrust toward christian minorities across the ottoman empire.29 barkey finds that prior to the rise of cup the millet system could maintain at least some societal cohesion. many recurring examples show the degree to which each community leader was eager to preserve relations across communities as peaceful and bounded as possible, knowing that the outbreak of violence was dearly punishable by the state. upholding peaceful relations across the communities was in the interest of both the state and its chosen state-community brokers.30                                                                                                                           26lewy guenter, the armenian massacres in ottoman turkey: a disputed genocide,(salt lake city: university of utah press, 2005), pp. 3-89. 27stephan astourian, “the armenian genocide: an interpretation,” the history teacher, vol. 23, no. 2 (feb., 1990): p. 143. 28lewy guenter, the armenian massacres in ottoman turkey: a disputed genocide,(salt lake city: university of utah press, 2005),pp. 3-89. 29ibid. 30karen barkey, “islam and toleration: studying the ottoman imperial model,” international journal of politics, culture and society, vol. 19, no. ½, the new sociological imagination (dec. 2005): pp. 5-19.   in  factis  pax   volume  6number1  (2012):  26-­‐35   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/       35   another important aspect of a situation conducive to mass killing considered by many theorists is the perceived threat to the successful realization of the perpetrators’ strategic goals caused by a rebellious activity of a target group or the actual attempt to change the existing political order by force of arms, which harff describes as one of the causes of genocide. “in all the cases considered here genocides were preceded by some attempt to change the existing power structure. it should be obvious that any attempt to change existing power relations carries a certain amount of risk for the challenger.”31 while some armenian resistance movements in the form of political parties and moderate nationalist groups were present in the ottoman empire, they never sought to challenge the existing oppressive power structure. they were too disorganized and devoid of a strong leadership to conduct a military resistance. rather, they pursued their goals by non-violent, political, and diplomatic means such as seeking foreign protection against turkish and kurdish massacres, which they never received. furthermore, the armenians never posed any real threat to the turks’ military might. valentino views these two factors as essential to contributing to the ruling elites’ decision to exterminate the armenians.32 he believes that the less the perpetrators of mass killing are constrained in the implementation of their violent policies by the external political and military pressure, the more likely that they will succeed. harff also asserts that “in all cases external support for either the dominant group or a rebellious faction added significantly to the success or failure of the undertaking.”33 modern turkish and pro-turkish authors justify the policy of the young turks to destroy the armenian population of the ottoman empire by the fact that the armenians sympathized with the russians and prepared to revolt against the turkish authorities. however, many facts suggest that the destruction was being prepared long before the war. the war only gave the young turks the opportunity to freely carry out their plans. though one can assume that when rebellions are supported by a major power or another neighboring state, the likelihood of genocide is lowered because of the risks that such policies carry to instigators of mass killing and those involved in the organization and execution of violent measures against identity groups. the execution of genocide in that case implies an enormous amount of threat to the regime, rather than certain benefits that such actions may entail. nonetheless, the young turks were not restrained in the execution of their policies toward the armenians who had longstanding ties with the russian empire. moreover, the position of the armenian population in the ottoman empire deteriorated day by day. the turkish government had accused the armenians in an attempt to revolt. most of the armenian conscripts in the army were sent to special labor battalions and subsequently destroyed. in early december 1914 the turks began their offensive on the caucasus front in the war against russia. suffering a crushing defeat, the turks were forced to retreat. retreating turkish troops poured out the anger of their defeat on the christian populations of front-line areas the armenians,                                                                                                                           31barbara harff, “the etiology of genocides,” in genocide and the modern age: etiology and case studies of mass death,eds. isidor wallimann et al. (syracuse up, 1987): p. 56. 32benjamin valentino, “final solutions: the causes of mass killing and genocide,” security studies 9:3 (2000): pp. 42-43. 33barbara harff, “the etiology of genocides,” in genocide and the modern age: etiology and case studies of mass death,eds. isidor wallimann et al. (syracuse up, 1987): p. 58.   in  factis  pax   volume  6number1  (2012):  26-­‐35   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/       36   assyrians and greeks. simultaneously, arrests of prominent armenians and attacks on armenian villages continued across the country. finally, the young turks envisioned the future of the ottoman empire without the armenian minority, whose successes in trade and education, liberalism, and western outlook simply did not fit into a new concept of a turkish polity. the young turks saw it as a threat primarily to their own political survival. conclusion benjamin valentino’s strategic killing perspective represents an innovative approach to understanding the ultimate causes of mass killing. rather than focusing on the wider structural conditions or the societal cleavages that exist prior to genocide, valentino offers a convincing explanation of how adverse structural conditions, such as wars, political upheavals, or any forms of inter-group cleavages serve as vehicles of outright political campaigns of power elites aimed to transform a society and build a new national identity through the deportation, and, ultimately, the extermination of “inappropriate” social, ethnic, or political groups. contrary to the national upheaval thesis brought forward by harff, valentino’s strategic approach provides a conceptual framework for understanding the leading forces of mass killing. it is not popular resentment, economic and political crises, or the concentration of political power in the hands of the militarists, but it is their intent to rid the country of entire population groups in an effort to bring to fruition a new political vision and create a new national identity that leads to mass killing of civilian populations. francesco pistolato in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 185-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 volume 2 number 2 (2008): 185-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/
 hans-peter dürr’s thought as a source for peace work francesco pistolato1 a remarkable pupil of the great physicist werner heisenberg, the german hans-peter dürr, born 1929, was granted the alternative nobel prize in 1987 for his work in favor of peaceful use of high technology and is also one of the members of the pugwash group of scientists that received the nobel prize for peace in 1995. his scientific experience as a quantum physicist of the highest rank is the departure point of a philosophical thought with revolutionary consequences. this article tries to present the lines along which this very sophisticated philosophy develops, hinting at connections with modern and ancient thinking. the transformative character of dürr’s teachings opens the way to further elaborations in almost any field. this article is an invitation to anyone, but especially to peace workers, to join in this demanding but promising and highly enriching task. dürr’s great regret, and one of the main reasons why he travels around the world giving lectures, is the fact that despite the successful scientific history and profound technological impact of quantum physics the ground-breaking view of the world that quantum physics entails has not been widely acknowledged. as dürr constantly recalls,2 after over 80 years since quantum physics started, the majority of today’s scientists still think in terms of 19th century knowledge. this has consequences even for the understanding of the layman, whose mentality and way of living in today’s modern world is significantly influenced by the discoveries and the general attitude of science. 




























































 1
co-ordinator of the centro interdipartimentale di ricerca sulla pace irene, università di udine (italy) – irene@uniud.it
 2 s. for instance h.-p. dürr, physik und transzendenz. reflexionen über die beziehung zwischen naturwissenschaft und religion, in das netz des physikers. naturwissenschaftliche erkenntnis in der verantwortung. münchen, dtv, 2000, p. 105. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 185-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 the ichthyologist’s net and the lack of an objective world of matter to explain the resistance of many of his colleagues meaning not only physicists, but also scientists in general – dürr quotes the example of the famous astrophysicist sir arthur eddington in his the philosophy of physical science (1939):3 let us suppose that an ichthyologist is exploring the life of the ocean. he casts a net into the water and brings up a fishy assortment. surveying his catch, he proceeds in the usual manner of a scientist to systematise what it reveals. he arrives at two generalisations: (1) no sea-creature is less than two inches long. (2) all sea-creatures have gills. these are both true of his catch, and he assumes tentatively that they will remain true however often he repeats it. in applying this analogy, the catch stands for the body of knowledge, which constitutes physical science, and the net for the sensory and intellectual equipment, which we use in obtaining it. the casting of the net corresponds to observation; for knowledge, which has not been or could not be obtained by observation is not admitted into physical science. an onlooker may object that the first generalisation is wrong. “there are plenty of sea-creatures under two inches long, only your net is not adapted to catch them.” the ichthyologist dismisses this objection contemptuously. “anything uncatchable by my net is ipso facto outside the scope of ichthyological knowledge, and is not part of the kingdom of fishes which has been defined as the theme of ichthyological knowledge. in short, what my net can’t catch isn’t fish.” or—to translate the analogy—“if you are not simply guessing, you are claiming a knowledge of the physical universe discovered in some other way than by the methods of physical science, and admittedly unverifiable by such methods. you are a metaphysician. bah!” this habit of restricting science to what falls under our capability of interpreting, measuring and understanding, appears to be the product of a wrong way of thinking. according to dürr, its mistake lies first of all in the assumption of the existence of an objective world, the world of matter, that quantum physics has demonstrated there is not as such. werner heisenberg, niels bohr, max born and wolfgang pauli finally resolved the paradox of this “quantum physics” in 1925 with a radical re-interpretation of the dynamics. it demanded a revolution in what had been the classical view of the world, with the surprising recognition that matter is not really material at all, but a web of relationships, a kind of gestalt, or in a certain way “information” without any carrier. the assumed fundamental ontic structure of the world, based on a primally existing substance, was rendered invalid. it must be replaced by a “cosmos” where the first questions to ask are no longer “what is? and “what exists?”, but “what happens?” and “what binds?” more precisely: instead of the world assumed until then, a 




























































 3 h.-p. dürr, das netz des physikers. op. cit. münchen, dtv, 2000, pp. 26 ff. for the original quotation see http://www.questia.com/pm.qst?a=o&d=62000178 (november 2008) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 185-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 mechanistic, thing-filled, temporally determined “reality” (lat. res = thing), the actual wirklichkeit (a world that wirkt, that effects or affects!) turned out to be “potentiality”: an indivisible, immaterial, temporally essentially undetermined network of relationships that determines only probabilities, differentiated capacity (potency) for a material-energetic realization. the classical “reality” of material/object-like separated things emerges only through a coarsening averaging of the potential, thus turns into a holistic, temporally essentially open, immaterial, inseparable omni-connectedness.4 let us paraphrase the astonishing assertions of the above quotations one by one: 1) matter is no matter, but a web of relationships. this means, we are actually mistaken, if we try to look at single things as separated from the more general context (so general, that includes the whole cosmos), but 2) we are wrong even if we look at the cosmos as a fixed unity functioning according to certain rules (that we just need to progressively discover), like a giant clock as 3) everything is essentially undetermined, because constantly changing in a way that is only partly predictable (potentiality instead of determinism). this other “reality” needs a new vocabulary to be expressed. the german word wirklichkeit stresses the character of something indefinite, ever changing and capable of effecting/affecting an apparent solid world, a world that is essentially different from the one we perceive and on which we build our whole life, including our scientific assumptions. in fact, we need another language to describe a world of constant becoming and we need another set of mind to develop such language. the task is so huge that the copernican revolution brought about by quantum physics is still being resisted and marginalized: the new world it tells us about is being dealt with by many scientists as “existing”, that is effective, only on the level of the smallest particles. on the plane of our perceptions, instead, the newtonian laws appear to most researchers to function well enough to justify our going on as if things actually are as they appear to be. scientists seem to have little need for this paradoxical “new world”, that for non-scientists is even unconceivable. yet this is not always possible: … most people regard quantum physics and its new insights as a phenomenon solely of the micro-world and whose consequences need not concern us in the comparatively huge mesoworld of our daily life. but this is generally not permissible when the collections of atoms (or better: ‘haps’) are not in proximity to their stable (thermodynamic) balance. if they are very far away from these states of balance, especially in proximity to instabilities (chaos points), then the averaging is foiled usually on a number of levels; this makes the immaterial, informationbearing, pre-living connections that dominate the micro-world more or less effective on the 




























































 4 h.-p. dürr, d. dahm, r. prinz zur lippe potsdam “denkschrift” 2005, berlin, vereinigung deutscher wissenschaftler, 2005, münchen, ökom-verlag, 2005, also downloadable from: http://www.vdwev.de/manifest/denkschr_en.pdf, p. 3 (quotations here are from the online version). in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 185-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 meso-level. instability functions as an enormous amplifying factor. this situation characterizes animate nature as we encounter it in everyday life.5 in simpler words: when change takes place (in fact it takes place every single moment!) this is in some way the consequence of what happens at the quantum physics level, where everything appears in a context of a general interconnectedness. therefore, the micro-level does concretely matter; it is high time we start taking it into account. science and beyond dürr sees, like some other great physicists, that science has got to its limits, especially after the discoveries in the field of quantum physics. in the introduction to an anthology of writings called physik und transzendenz6, in which he collected contributions of the greatest physicists of the 20th century, he writes: physics and transcendence are now seen in the mind of today’s physicists no longer in an antagonist, but in a complementary way… “natural science without religion is paralyzed, religion without natural science is blind” says albert einstein.7 but even a conciliation of the two, science and religion, will not allow us to understand everything: the wirklichkeit is not unlimitedly knowable. for this reason, also physics, as the foundation of every natural science, like other disciplines and forms of interpretation, ultimately can speak only in parables and analogies about a wirklichkeit that is fundamentally ungraspable, not object-like, but describable mathematically (in terms of relations).8 and quoting an image of his colleague david bohm: the world corresponds… more to… a stream of consciousness, that you cannot catch; only some waves, whirls… in it, that reach a certain independence and stability, are understandable for our fractionating thinking and become for us “reality”.9 the idea of a “fluid” world that we cannot fully understand, for which neither science nor religion are possible clues even if the “cooperation” of both can take us somehow further is rather frustrating for the average researcher. frustration is a psychological, subjective element that slips into the sanctuary of “objective” scientific attitude. yet it is more and more becoming clear that “in the name of science” (as well as “in the name of god”) is a dangerous justification, often hiding an omnipotent will, well defined by the ancient greek word hybris. scientific research is not holy in itself and must be accompanied by a sense for values and for limits: … this discovery of the character of the wirklichkeit… forces upon us a modesty about what can be known in principle.10 




























































 5 idem, p. 5. 6h.-p. dürr (ed.), physik und transzendenz. die großen physiker unseres jahrhunderts über ihre begegnung mit dem wunderbaren, münchen, knaur, 1990. 7 ibidem, pp. 11 and 12. 8 dürr et al., potsdam “denkschrift” 2005, quoted, p. 4. 9 dürr (ed.), physik und transzendenz, quoted, p. 17. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 185-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 modesty also does not belong to conventional scientific tools, it is another unwelcome guest in the still much too closed and narrow world of science. accepting it as a value would mean for science even rehabilitating ancient and traditional forms of knowledge: the modesty demanded by the new insights teaches us that, in a certain sense, the new natural scientific knowledge and its consequences can hardly be called “revolutionary”, as it might appear to many modern people whose patterns of thought are oriented toward important partial aspects of the enlightenment and the reductionist science based on it. we find this “new knowledge” confirmed in one way or another in the broad spectrum of cultural knowledge, in the diversity and forms of expression of human life in history, and in the broad variance of living and cultural realms. we can thus regard the “new” knowledge presented here as an additional scientific confirmation of the diverse ethical and moral value systems.11 and so must the new thinking necessarily be much more open than the one of the ichthyologist in the example of sir arthur eddington quoted above: a “new” thinking requires us to discover behind the apparent laws of nature, which were necessarily strict in the old thinking, precisely this pre-living diversity and openness that we lose in the coarsened, graspable oversimplification of statistical averages. such a new way of viewing opens up the possibility of believing in a genuine creativity and gift for intentional action in relationship to the community. it provides the basis, on the one hand, for our striving for freedom and the development of individuality, and allows us to be different. and this, on the other hand, without losing the underlying omni-connectedness, which is expressed in a deepseated tendency to contribute our specially developed abilities, in cooperation with others and “organismically”, to a higher ‘whole’ – and to do so of our own accord and of our own free will. modesty and acknowledgment of our limits in understanding the world then, not as a giving up of legitimate human striving for knowledge, but as means for freedom and personal and collective improvement, is essential. the “underlying omni-connectedness” clearly refers not only to other human beings, but even to nature, with evident consequences to be drawn as to our relationship to it. it makes a big difference to regard the natural world as a part of us or only something to be exploited for commercial purposes (and this we are going to learn – see for instance climate change whether we want it or not). the dramatic actuality and urgency of this new thinking confirms and reinforces what natural science has discovered even without any reference to quantum physics, that we cannot destroy the world without destroying ourselves. 









































































































































































































 10 idem. 11 ibidem, p. 5. some would object here (as giuliano pontara, a philosophy professor and foremost expert of gandhi made in a private conversation, may 2008), referring to a judgment of hume, that one cannot draw any moral conclusions based on reason, but on sentiment. on the one hand, the purpose of such a writing as the potsdam denkschrift is certainly to move human’s sentiment, but also a higher form of reason, given the fact that our reason (erasmus would call it “folly”) is destroying the world. on the other hand, hume’s judgment is a methodological one, based on what in the potsdam denkschrift is called “reality”, a dimension in which things are separated (reason versus feeling, matter versus spirit), not interconnected and basically undistinguishable from one another and even not “existing” in the traditional sense as in the wirklichkeit (a rather puzzling situation for our mind, that is true!). in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 185-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 the dualism between matter and mind is… rendered obsolete. the alternative in the 19th century was between a “positivistic explanation of nature” and a “christian creator-god and world ruler”. in both systems, humankind was contrasted with nature, which he could and was permitted to subjugate, whether justified by divine destiny or by evolutionary superiority. we leave this false alternative behind us, clearly also in the sense of the new access to a consciousness of omni-connectedness, a consciousness that the natural sciences open up for a non-dualistic view of the world. this makes it possible to recognize humanity in fundamental commonality with the rest of nature, without thereby falling into a conventional naturalism or simply invoking cosmologies that may have corresponded with the worldviews and ways of life of cultures that remain close to nature.12 in traditional thinking of different cultures we already find the fundamental unity of man and nature. the difference, or the enrichment given by quantum physics, lies in its uncovering how deep this interconnectedness is and in confirming the wisdom of mystics of all ages. the confluence of science with mysticism dürr’s view is definitely one of non‐dualism.13 dualism is for him more a consequence of our inability of conceiving and verbally expressing a unity in what appears to be different. he sees no opposition between spirit and matter and considers the latter to be a condensation of the former.14 this condensation happens continuously,15 “in creative processes of a continuous differentiation and simultaneous or successful integration of differences”,16 therefore: “many other worlds are possible”.17 here we are in a tradition that goes back ages:18 he is within and without all that exists, the animate and the inanimate; near he is, and far; imperceptible because of his subtlety. he, the indivisible one, appears as countless beings; he maintains and destroys those forms, then creates them anew.19 dürr’s philosophy is then one leading to the infinite and therefore a religious and – in a very modern sense – a mystical one. his collection physik und transzendenz has been already mentioned as a book exposing the reflections of great scientists on the borderline between physics and 




























































 12 dürr et al.: potsdam “denkschrift” 2005, op. cit., p. 6. 13 s. h.-p. dürr, m. österreicher, wir erleben mehr als wir begreifen, freiburg i.b., herder, 2007, pp. 128 ff. 14 ibidem, p. 129. 15 ibidem, p. 103. 16 potsdam denkschrift, op. cit., p. 9. 17 idem. 18 unknown is the period in which the bhagavad gita, the verses of which are quoted here, was composed, certainly centuries before christ. 19 the bhagavad gita, chapter xiii, vv. 15 and 16 quoted in: p. yogananda, god talks with arjuna. the bhagavad gita. los angeles, self-realization fellowship, 1996, p. 888. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 185-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 metaphysics. he more recently discussed the topic in a conversation with the theologian raimon panikkar. 20 a colleague of dürr, the austrian physicist fritjof capra, became famous discussing the same subject in a book that brings together eastern thought and modern science. particularly interesting is the fact that capra, a learned scientist, has been lead to the study of eastern thought by a personal mystical experience: i was sitting by the ocean one late summer afternoon, watching the waves rolling in and feeling the rhythm of my breathing, when i suddenly became aware of my whole environment as being engaged in a gigantic cosmic dance. being a physicist, i knew that the sand, rocks, water and air around me were made of vibrating molecules and atoms, and that these consisted of particles which interacted with one another by creating and destroying other particles. i knew also that the earth’s atmosphere was continually bombarded by showers of ‘cosmic rays’, particles of high energy undergoing multiple collisions as they penetrated the air. all this was familiar to me from my research in high-energy physics, but until that moment i had only experienced it through graphs, diagrams and mathematical theories. as i sat on that beach my former experiences came to life; i ‘saw’ cascades of energy coming down from outer space, in which particles were created and destroyed in rhythmic pulses; i ‘saw’ the atoms of the elements and those of my body participating in this cosmic dance of energy; i felt its rhythm and i ‘heard’ its sound, and at that moment i knew that this was the dance of shiva, the lord of dancers worshipped by the hindus.21 capra’s tao of physics opened the way to a series of books, the strength of which is that are the work of a scientist. in capra’s books we find other subjects dealt with by dürr: the necessity of a new thinking,22 as well as the interconnectedness.23 




























































 20 h.-p. dürr, r. panikkar, liebe – urquelle des kosmos. ein gespräch über naturwissenschaft und religion, münchen, herder, 2008) deals extensively with the topic of the relationship between natural science and religion. in the title we find dürr’s favored word for interconnectedness: liebe, t.i. love, which he actually prefers to express by the verb lieben, to love, to convey the idea of dynamic liveliness (so in a private conversation, march 2008) as the primal source of cosmos. how easy for italians to recall dante: l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle (the love which moves the sun and the other stars). 21 f. capra, the tao of physics. an exploration of the parallels between modern physics and eastern mysticism, london, fontana, 1976, p. 11. let us also take the strikingly similar testimony concerning another modern western thinker, richard maurice bucke (1837-1901): “he and two friends had spent the evening reading wordsworth, shelley, keats, browning, and especially whitman. they parted at midnight, and he had a long drive in a hansom. his mind, deeply under the influence of the ideas, images and emotions called up by the reading and talk of the evening, was calm and peaceful. he was in a state of quiet, almost passive, enjoyment. "all at once, without warning of any kind, he found himself wrapped around, as it were, by a flame-colored cloud. for an instant he thought of fire--some sudden conflagration in the great city. the next (instant) he knew that the light was within himself. "directly after there came upon him a sense of exultation, of immense joyousness, accompanied or immediately followed by an intellectual illumination quite impossible to describe. into his brain streamed one momentary iightningflash of the brahmic splendor which ever since lightened his life. upon his heart fell one drop of the brahmic bliss, leaving thenceforward for always an aftertaste of heaven." (in: proceedings and transactions of the royal society of canada, series ii, vol. 12, pp. 159-196, quoted in: r.m. bucke, cosmic consciousness, new york, e.p. dutton & co., 1969, in: “the man and the book”, no page indication). 22 f. capra, the turning point, new york, simon & schuster, 1982. 23 f. capra, the web of life, new york, doubleday-anchor book, 1996. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 185-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 practical and pedagogical consequences of the new thinking the question now is: given the fascinating (and, most important, scientifically based) ideas proposed by dürr, how can we apply them in our lives? we might in principle agree with the view of omni-interconnectedness, i.e. being one with nature, universal brotherhood, peace, but how should we become capable of practicing and sharing them with others? who has had the chance of meeting dürr knows that he walks his talk and this very fact has already a transformative impact on those that are somehow prepared for it. however, the task of finding actual ways of living the new/old thinking he speaks about has to be fulfilled. there are possibly two dimensions of the problem: 1) how to dive into such a deep view of life and make it part of ourselves; 2) how to convey it to others. the first one concerns everyone interested in it, the second perhaps mostly (peace) educators. 1) how to dive: yogic and buddhist meditation are the most practical methods, with a history of thousands of years. they aim at detaching the mind from outer appearance (matter) and making aware of the fundamental unity of everything. it is a long process, but definitely shorter than trying to put into practice ideas not properly “digested”. for the ones who do not feel comfortable with the idea of meditating, it remains gandhi’s recommendation: “you must be the change you wish to see in the world”. so the point is: let us first change ourselves. it is essential to keep in mind that we have been born and have grown up in a one-sided deterministic world ignoring the subtler and more true level, the wirklichkeit. by opening our eyes to a broader view of life and becoming familiar with it, we have the chance of living more fully and finding a way out of the quite difficult situation we, as human kind, are in. 2) how to convey: the methods of education for peace and nonviolence are best suited for this task. they are being continuously developed and can be applied to transmit at least some of dürr’s main ideas: • openness of life (potentiality, not determinism, future to be construed) and therefore: • confidence in the possibility of change (many other worlds are possible) • basic freedom within a much wider concept of natural laws • omni‐interconnectedness
(racism
and
any
selfish
behavior
as
self‐damage)
 • …?
 is 2) above ever possible without 1)? dürr’s philosophy gives peace studies a deep foundation, the job has but to be done, starting with ourselves. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 185-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 an interview with hans-peter dürr24 q.: you are a physicist, yet you maintain that matter, which is the subject of your work, does not exist. could you explain this paradox? dürr: when we say that something exists, we normally think of something we can touch or which has mass. but if for example we ask ourselves if music exists and take a cd loaded with music and analyse it, we cannot find the music. therefore that which we say exists does not exist in that sense, but behind the scenes there is something quite different. this is valid for all things we consider to be material. q.: therefore you ask us to doubt all that is part of our everyday experience and which we consider normal, and that in reality it is not what it seems. that it is a convention, perhaps the fruit of the way we are used to see things, a perception born of custom. dürr: that’s substantially a rough approximation: if we speak of the” italian man” and say that he earns so much, that “man” is only a representation of a statistical average. and so it is with matter, it is a statistical average value of something which in itself is not matter , which is in between, which can be defined as a structure of relationships, like a electromagnetic field, which is not made up of matter, nor of mass, but of energy. and what could “something in between” possibly mean? to us there is “something in between” when we have two things, a and b, and between them there is a third. but in this case there is only that something in between, and our language is unable to express this phenomenon, or rather it could but only up to a certain point. if we say perception, hope, life, language cannot help as all these have no existence, but if we use the verbs: to perceive, to hope, to live, we then understand that there is something, certainly intangible. a verb is intangible but we can understand what is being said, what it means. it is from that which is in-between, from behind the scenes that is born the vitality, which changes at the very moment that i try to describe it, without any causal links, but at the same time being a link between all things. there is nothing in the world that is divided. at the most we think that this indivisibility is limited to physical exchange, but behind the scenes there are no physical exchanges, there is the primigenial, the primitive link and that which i call “me” does not reside in my body, but is spread out to everything, like a gravitational field. in religious parlance, yet within the limitations of language, of words, i would say there is no matter, there is only the spirit, which i simply call love, embryonic love, which gives shape to all the forms we see, just as the software in a computer, a simple sequence of symbols, generates the images that we can see. q.: your exposition seems to be a proposal for reconciliation between religion and science. dürr: in principle, science and religion do not differ, but both of them make the mistake of taking themselves too seriously, that is they understand everything they have discovered in a fundamentalist manner. scientific fundamentalism consists in declaring that objective reality is reality in all senses. and religions make the mistake of declaring that what has been written is the truth. it is this fundamentalism, which is mistaken. that which is written and the conclusions of classical physics are only a kind of symbols, something indicating how things are, but not in an 




























































 24 in: “messaggero veneto”, udine, 3/3/2008. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 185-194 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 exact manner. what should be said to both of them is: keep it in mind that, that of which you speak is a symbol, which refers to something which in itself we cannot grasp. the circumference i draw with a pen is neither blue nor green; your being muslim or christian the circumference has no color, it is you who have put in the color, one blue the other green. therefore the advice to both science and religion is: be humble, neither one nor the other of you can speak about what “is”, you only speak of a mental construction, linked to language, which can only express that which is comprehensible. microsoft word strauss & black ifp 11.2.docx in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 121-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 121 volume 11 number 2 (2017): 121-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal "we say, when we've reached one we've reached the world...but what if we missed one?" jill strauss, ph.d. borough of manhattan community college, cuny jstrauss@bmcc.cuny.edu michelle black michelleblack1@gmail.com i met michelle black in january 2017 when she was a student in my conflict resolution class at borough of manhattan community college, cuny1 where i am an assistant professor. on the first day of class when we introduced ourselves, michelle said that she was from northern ireland (a region in the north-east corner of the island of ireland), her family was protestant (in other words british), and that her dna analysis showed that she was of irish descent. she mentioned her irish heritage several times with joy and pride. i was somewhat confused by this initially because it seems incongruous given the eight-hundred plus years of conflict and war and most recently the troubles maintaining deep divisions between the protestant / english and catholic / irish communities for generations. perhaps it was a result of living outside of the region for over a decade, first in dublin and then in london before moving to new york city? meanwhile, in her absence northern ireland has gone through a remarkable transformation from violent conflict to relative peace since the 1998 good in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 121-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 122 friday agreement that set up a power-sharing government of equal numbers of catholics and protestants along with a great deal of hard work at the civil society level. could michelle’s desire and even pride to selfidentify as both of these formerly irreconcilable identities be a product of these reconciliation efforts? ‘the troubles’ is a euphemism for a period or periods of conflict and violence in ireland. the origin date and duration of the troubles are also contested history in the north of ireland. for some, the troubles began “almost a millennium ago” or with partition followed by the establishment of the republic of ireland in the mid-twentieth century, or in 1969 (santino, 2001) or the civil rights movement in 1968. generally speaking, the term is used to refer to the period 1968/9 1998 and the signing of the good friday agreement. it was this successful peace process that holds till today that originally inspired me to want to spend time in the region to understand better what was required for this kind of societal transformation. from 2006 to 2009 i lived in northern ireland while working on my phd at ulster university, so i felt an immediate affinity with michelle. it was not until nearly the end of the semester, though, that i finally heard michelle’s story. given the course theme of conflict resolution, she offered to give a presentation to the class on her life growing up during the troubles in one of the worst affected areas, the shankill road in belfast, which is the capital of northern ireland. the shankill road, often called simply “the shankill”, is a working class, predominantly loyalist 2 area. we arranged for her to give her presentation on the same day as coincidentally, there was a screening on another cuny campus of a documentary called how to defuse a bomb: the project children story3 (2016) about a program that took protestant and catholic youth out of northern ireland to the united states during the troubles for homestays of six weeks during the summer “on holiday schemes” or “community relations holidays” as they are called there. until today, most children in urban areas in north of ireland live in neighborhoods segregated by religious or political identity and more than ninety percent attend schools segregated by religion and for the most part so are their teachers. this lack of meaningful daily contact with “the other” protracts the distrust and fear that goes along with conflict. to address this and other challenges around coexistence, equity and equality, there is peace education and conflict resolution programming during and after in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 121-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 123 school and summers designed, according to the northern ireland central community relations unit, to foster “cross-community contact, mutual understanding, and awareness of cultural diversity.” 4 many crosscommunity (the term used to describe co-existence initiatives) activities bring similar age groups of protestants and catholics) together in the schools, first through education for mutual understanding (emu) and since 2007 through citizenship curriculum mandates (mcevoy, 2007). in addition, there are many non-formal education programs and organizations focusing on cross-community programming such as the verbal arts centre and the junction in derry/londonderry, and wave trauma centre that implement cross-community programs for youth or adults across the region. in addition, institutions like the ulster folk and transport museum, r.e.a.c.h. across, and public achievement and youth action northern ireland focus on civic engagement.5 however, the “community relations holidays” aimed to go even further by taking at-risk youth out of the more violent areas in northern ireland, especially during the summer “marching season”6 when there was increased tension and conflict. there were over twenty different initiatives in the 1970s through the early 1990s taking equal numbers of catholic and protestant children to europe, great britain, the republic of ireland, and other parts of northern ireland for anywhere from five days to six weeks. the circumstances varied along with the location; some of the youth lived in summer camps while others were hosted by local families. also, depending on the program, they were sightseers or required to participate in structured programs involving games, sports, or hiking. as all the trips were short term, reconciliation between the two religious identity groups was not considered by the funding bodies. nevertheless, the trips were spoken of as a positive worthwhile experience and this is reflected in the literature (riley & trew, 1994; smith & murray, 1993; trew, 1989). however, until i met michelle, to the best of my knowledge, i had not known anyone who had personally taken part. prior to seeing the documentary, michelle was very excited and told me that she was in contact with the filmmakers because she had been on a similar program run by the irish children’s fund when she was twelve years old and again at age sixteen. when the documentary was over i looked for her, but she was already gone. i found out later that she had felt very emotional and left quickly. since the screening, we have spoken in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 121-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 124 several times about her reaction and response and this educational reflection is an outcome of this ongoing conversation. as an educator, i have always believed that when i reach one i have reached the world. at the same time, michelle’s response to the documentary, as someone who has experienced the direct violence of the troubles, has compelled me to pause and reflect on whether reaching one is enough and whether i need to think more about those whom, unintentionally perhaps but nevertheless, i may have missed. michelle’s story i was born in the early 80’s in belfast, northern ireland at the height of the ‘troubles.’ i was born into the protestant community and spent the early part of my childhood living in one area, mixing with only protestants, attending an all protestant school with only protestant friends. i knew northern ireland was at war and it wasn't unusual to see the army patrolling the streets day in and day out, bomb scares happened on a regular basis and my community was built upon the protection of its families inside the barricade that surrounded us. i lived on a street with one of the most dangerous interface walls7 in belfast. i witnessed my uncle get shot by the irish republican army (ira) in 1991 and then another uncle was shot in 1993 so i had really become effected by the continuing troubles in belfast. i was only 13 years old on 23rd october 1993, when a bomb went off on the shankill road8 in belfast, northern ireland, killing nine people and also killing one of the bombers. i remember vividly being on the shankill road at the time of the bomb as i worked in a local shop nearby and seeing the rubble, the smoke, the men with dirty hands and scrunched up faces after having had to search through the rubble to help find bodies and rescue survivors. i remember hearing them speak about people that they knew who they had helped pull from the debris. later that day i was to find out that amongst the dead was my good school friend, leanne murray. i had attended two years of school with leanne and on july of that year i was involved in a cross-community project and leanne was also part of my group. i was extremely sad and felt deeply traumatized by the death of leanne murray and it still has a massive effect on me today. the project was called the irish children’s fund and it set out to place children together from the opposite side of the community in a mutual environment in chicago in order to help with rehabilitation and to try and grow a deeper understanding for the opposite side. i was placed with in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 121-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 125 children from the other side of the barricade from me which happened to be ardoyne. the experience was one that has stayed with me for many years. along with leanne, i was given the opportunity to meet catholics for the first time in a neutral environment. i was soon to find that these children lived just like me, had similar lives to me, had relationships just like me and literally lived a stones’ through away beyond a tall 10-foot high wall. it really was eye opening for me. but then i remember thinking that the idea i would be able to keep in contact with these girls once i returned home was crazy. how could i? yes, these girls were just like me, but they were also from troubled backgrounds, families heavily involved in the conflict, and also lived in communities where hatred for the other side was rife. i felt that i almost lived a different existence in america, one where religion didn't exist. but i always knew that this was not the case back home. if i wanted to remain friends in belfast, where would be able to meet once back home? how could we ever integrate and build on our relationships? even if we wanted to, how could we? i lived in an area where families were regularly burned out of their houses for committing such crimes. i remember meeting one girl called theresa and i remember leaving the project thinking that i would never see her again. in fact, i knew that i would never be allowed to see her again. this was the reality of it. so twenty-four years after my initial trip to chicago, i was then invited to watch a documentary on a similar project named “project children”, this program was based in new york in the early 80’s and like my project, invited children to america with the hope to connect them with the opposite side of the community, i was excited about being able to watch the documentary as i would have loved to understand their project and find out the details of how these projects change our society and the people in it. i hoped that it would show me great things that they had done and i felt proud as i was also part of a similar project. watching the documentary on the cross-community project was very emotional for me so i had asked a friend of mine to join me as i thought the footage would be extremely difficult to watch. i had seen the trailer and it had scenes of the violence that took place in northern ireland and briefly in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 121-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 126 showed the shankill bomb, which i didn't think was weird as it was indeed a massive attack that changed lives including mine. when i sat down to watch it, i felt an extreme sense of emotions as i was in a room of people watching real footage of my growing up in belfast. then as soon as i heard the name thomas begley, i froze. for twenty-four years that name had terrified me, a name that i had pushed to the back of my mind, one that i hoped would never be repeated he was a killer, a terrorist, the evil person who killed my friend back in 1993.9 then it hit me harder. i was in shock -he was part of that program. twentyfour years after my friend was murdered, i was sitting in a room listening to people talk about how he was involved in the cross-community project. these people had actually met thomas begley and were talking about him like he was a normal person. i wanted to stand up and shout “murderer.” i felt ultimate betrayal at even being in the same room with so many of these people. i really wanted to leave straight away. i thought of leanne and the other victims of the bomb. my mind drifted back to that awful day. how would my friends and family feel back home about me even giving this project a minute of my time? what was i doing here? i felt so sick. then i realized, of course, this was proof that the project didn't work and couldn't work. thomas begley did the complete opposite to what they could have ever imagined a child could do. he murdered innocent people. this was all very emotional and really too ironic. i was indeed watching a documentary on a cross-community project started by a man from a bomb disposal unit in upstate new york who housed thomas begley for a summer with the hope of rehabilitating him only to find that he did the uttermost betrayal and blew himself up in a bomb a few years later which killed my friend. i couldn't believe the events that had unfolded. over the next few days, i really got to thinking about the effects of the project. i thought of myself and how i was faced with challenges on my return to belfast. for example, i couldn't meet up with any of my other friends from the other side of the community. how would thomas begley have ever been allowed to do that. i felt bad that i was even trying to put myself in his shoes. but, begley was from ardoyne, the other side of the in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 121-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 127 barricade from me. i knew what my area was like back then, we couldn't have catholic friends, we were not allowed to go into catholic communities. like me, he would have returned to a community filled with prejudice and hatred for protestants even though he had just spent a summer mixing with them and making friendships, how could he have ever been allowed the chance to turn around his hatred. even, if he had wanted to keep up a relationship with any of his protestant friends i am sure it would have been extremely difficult. i also feel that maybe this program let thomas begley down, it made me think about why, unlike me, thomas begley didn't get a chance to go back to the states when he was slightly older, why this cross-community trip was a one off (a one-time opportunity) for him. had the organizers followed through and monitored begley, would the outcome have been the same? did begley just become another boy who they hoped to help or was it that when they realized he couldn't be helped they just gave up? why did begley go on to commit such crimes? did the program have an effect on him so much so that he found it necessary to turn extremist to prove his loyalty to his side? either way, as someone who is deeply affected by the troubles but also someone who has been given the opportunity to take part in one of these programs, i feel confident enough to say that begley was indeed missed, he slipped through the net, he was let down. and for me to say that is a statement i thought that i would never ever hear myself say. reflections on youth peace building efforts during our conversations about the shankill bombing and michelle’s reaction to the documentary, i noticed that michelle became better able to articulate her feelings and also, became more empathetic towards thomas begley as for instance when she says that project children failed begley by not providing the support he needed given the amount of family and peer pressure that in all likelihood he would have faced after participating in a project intended to bring him together with catholics. to what degree her ability to think critically and empathize can be attributed to her experience with the irish children fund is impossible to say. at the same time, she says she also feels some sense of betrayal to her friend and her community for no longer seeing him as only a villain. these are very real issues michelle raises about sustainability of the potential transformative experience these projects afford. for instance, she told me that as a participant of the irish in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 121-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 128 children’s fund programs, she went with the other protestant youth to corrymeela, 10 northern ireland’s oldest peace and reconciliation organization, several times to check-in and reinforce the experience of the summer holiday trips. in addition, the protestant youth met monthly in belfast so that while they may not have been maintaining relationships with ‘the other’ they were not becoming involved in the violent conflict or other trouble, either. this is called single identity work the purpose of which is to enable open discussion within an identity community to further enable cross-community engagement.11 unfortunately, in practice these initiatives do not go to the next phase. this is in part because in many instances there is no desire to take the risks involved such as fear of entering the other’s territory. this also occurs because of segregated schooling throughout northern ireland (noted above) and segregated communities in urban areas. as a result, those who need most to hear what the other has to say are unwilling or unable to because of structural divisions within the society (galtung, 1990). perhaps recognizing these limitations, dennis mulcahy, the cofounder of project children, notes that the intention of this summer away program was not to “bring peace to northern ireland”12 but to give the children another perspective of what is possible in terms of people with different backgrounds and ethnicities living and working side by side. project children, it seems did not offer this kind of follow up support for the young people upon their return home. however, in collaboration with the psychology department at queens university, belfast an extensive and thorough research project evaluating attitudes of the project children youth and their parents prior and post summer holiday program was done in 1987 and a report issued.13 i found most telling that many of the parents reported that their children were doing better in school and cared more for their surroundings after their summer away (trew, 1988). this may be an indication that they saw possibilities for a future that they had not considered before. furthermore, from the documentary and what michelle has told me, it seems that in both organizations, many of the young people stayed in touch with their ‘american families’ even if they did not or could not across religious identity lines. at least that is what they write on their facebook pages. my students at an urban public community college are very similar demographically to the young people growing up during the troubles in northern ireland. i know that i do not reach them all and this is for many in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 121-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 129 reasons ranging from not trying hard enough myself to meet them where they are to indifference on their part. to what extent am i responsible for this? to what extent is the systemic injustice of our education system? in preparation for writing this educational reflection, i have been in touch with karen trew of queens university belfast, one of the primary researchers on the effects of the holiday scheme (project) on the youth participants. in our email correspondence about the ethical dilemma of whether reaching one is enough, she wrote: [t]he fact that at least one of the 2000 (sic) children who followed the project became involved in the violent conflict is not surprising i am sure there are many more who were directly or indirectly involved in what was part of the fabric of life for them what is wonderful is to see how such a small scheme developed and grew so that many were involved and at least experienced the benefits of a break from the conflict and also were inspired to continue their education.14 at this point i am no closer to an answer to the question of whether missing one makes meaningless the otherwise effective education for peace i do... or try to do. i tell my students that answers are great, but the important thing is to be critical thinkers and continue asking questions. with this in mind, i think it is worthwhile keeping the question as a rhetorical reminder to not be satisfied to merely reach one but to strive to reach the world. endnotes 1 the city university of new york (cuny) is a public university made up of twenty-four colleges on separate campuses across the five boroughs of new york city. 2 in the northern ireland context, loyalist refers to those who give “tacit or actual support [for] the use of force by paramilitary groups” to remain part of britain (http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/glossary.htm l) 3 https://www.facebook.com/project-children-documentary383132658521387/ 4 http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/ccru/relations/relations.htm 5 education for mutual understanding (emu) http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/csc/reports/mutual.htm / verbal arts centre http://theverbal.co / the junction http://www.thejunction-ni.org / wave in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 121-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 130 trauma centre http://www.wavetraumacentre.org.uk/home / ulster folk and transport museum https://www.nmni.com/our-museums/ulster-folkand-transport-museum/home.aspx / r.e.a.c.h. across http://www.reachacross.co.uk / public achievement http://www.communityni.org/organisation/publicachievement#.wdqjvtbrxpy / youth action northern ireland http://www.youthaction.org / 6 the annual loyalist parades are held between easter monday and the end of september and commemorate victories of the colonization of ireland by england. for this reason and because the parades often go through catholic neighborhoods, there can be violence; http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/csc/reports/parade3.htm. 7 what michelle refers to as an interface wall are also called peace walls that separate predominantly republican and nationalist catholic neighborhoods from predominantly loyalist and unionist protestant neighborhoods in urban areas like belfast. their purpose is to limit intercommunal violence but they also limit opportunities for people to meet each other. they range in height and length and some have gates that are open during the day but closed at night. according to the belfast interface project, as of 2012, there were nearly one-hundred barriers separating different protestant and catholic areas in belfast alone.; www.belfastinterfaceproject.org. 8 the shankill bombing as it has come to be known, was a bomb planted by the irish republican army (ira) in a shop on the shankill road on october 23, 1993. the bomb exploded prematurely killing ten people including one of the bombers, thomas begley. loyalist paramilitaries took revenge shooting two catholic men one of whom died. http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/events/peace/pp9398.htm. 9 thomas begley (age 22) brought a bomb into a fish store on the shankill road on october 23, 1993. although he died when the bomb exploded prematurely, also killing nine other people including two children, it was not an intentional suicide bombing. 10 http://www.corrymeela.org/ 11 http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/ccru/research/crc/fitzduff93.htm 12 the 1987 project children brochure cited by trew (1988). 13there is little published on the summer holiday projects between northern ireland and the united states. however, karen trew, researcher in the psychology department at queens university, belfast has done several research projects and written about the programs, but they have not been in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 121-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 131 published. dr. trew has been helpful sending reports to me and her willingness to discuss her personal opinions of the efficacy of the projects. 14 email correspondence between jill strauss and karen trew 7/5/2017. references institute for conflict research, (2017). interface barriers, peacelines, and defensive architecture. retrieved from belfast: http://www.belfastinterfaceproject.org/ coles, r. (1980). ulster's children: waiting for the prince of peace the atlantic online; https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/unbound/flashbks/ireland/col eul.htm. galtung, j. (1990). cultural violence. journal of peace research, 27(3), 291-305. jarman, n., dominic bryan. (1996). parade and protest: a discussion of parading disputes in northern ireland. retrieved 30 september 2009, from center for the study of conflict http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/csc/reports/parade3.htm kappmeier, m. (2016). trusting the enemy—towards a comprehensive understanding of trust in intergroup conflict. peace and conflict: journal of peace psychology, 22(2), 134-144. doi:10.1037/pac0000159 mcevoy, l. (2007). beneath the rhetoric: policy approximation and citizenship education in northern ireland. education, citizenship and social justice, 2(2), 135–157. research, i. f. c. (2017). interface barriers, peacelines, and defensive architecture. retrieved from belfast: http://www.belfastinterfaceproject.org/ retzinger, s., thomas j., scheff. (2000). emotion, alienation and narratives: resolving intractable conflict. mediation quarterly, 18(1), 71-85. riley, s., & trew, k. (1994). an evaluation of the long-term effects of participation in the children’s project northern ireland. retrieved from belfast: santino, j. (2001). signs of war and peace. new york: palgrave. shriver, d. w. (1995). an ethic for enemies: forgiveness in politics. new york: oxford university press. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 121-132 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 132 smith, a., & murray, d. (1993). the chance of a lifetime, an evaluation of project children. retrieved from centre for the study of conflict, university of ulster: tonge, j. (1998, 2002). northern ireland: conflict and change. essex: pearson education ltd. trew, k. (1988). project children 1987 evaluation. retrieved from queens university, belfast. trew, k. (1989). evaluating the impact of contact schemes for catholic and protestant children. in j. harbison (ed.), growing up in northern ireland. belfast: stranmillis college. ronni alexander 2009.12 final in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 46 volume 3 number 1 (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ human rights, popoki and bare life ronni alexander kobe university the theme of this year’s iipe was ‘human rights learning as peace education: pursuing democracy in a time of crisis,’ and participation gave me an opportunity to explore further the relationship between human rights learning and my work for peace with the popoki peace project. in particular, it raised questions about human rights and human rights learning in the context of the so-called “zones of exception,” those bare life zones1 and “othered” places that provide evidence for governments and concerned citizens alike that good governance and democracy are necessary and desirable. some scholars suggest that ngos and others engaged in humanitarian action play an important role in the creation of such zones, although one can hardly think they do so 1 agamben discusses bare life zones in terms of homo sacer: “one of the essential characteristics of modern biopolitics ...is its constant need to redefine the threshold in life that distinguishes and separates what is inside from what is outside…separating life from death in order to identify a new living dead man, a new sacred man. (giorgio agamben, homo sacer: sovereign power and bare life, translated by daniel heller-roazen. stanford: stanford university press, 1998, p.131).. agamben 1998:131) in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 47 intentionally.2 (see for example duffield, 2008). in our commitment to human rights learning, do we fall into that category? in reflection, i realized that if we are to engage in critical human rights learning, we need to be critical of ourselves and the way humanitarian efforts, our own included, often serve to replicate many of the contradictions they seek to solve. the symbol of the popoki peace project is that cat popoki, who also serves as the catalyst and energy behind the project. our work takes a holistic approach to peace, seeking to be a celebration of life and diversity, and emphasizing the use of our entire bodies to imagine, express and create peace. the presence of popoki reminds us that life is not exclusively human and communication is more than the use of human languages, while at the same time encouraging us to explore all of the modes of expression available to us as humans. popoki of course is not human, and communicates in different ways. his presence helps to politicize the borders of human and non-human life, as well as human diversity and difference. in our work with popoki, we aim to not only look from the outside to find the ways in which bodies, human and otherwise, are understood, governed and controlled but also from the inside, to see what kinds of expression are possible. in the following pages, i will use popoki and the work of the popoki peace project to suggest some ways to take a critical look at human rights learning from the perspective of biopolitics, bodies and life. as i am interested in the interstices of the personal and political, the essay will make use of story-telling as a technique for expression; a story of popoki and human rights will be used to pose the questions of most concern. the first part of this essay will look at the way popoki first became directly involved in human rights learning through a human rights poster project, and relate the story of his posters. as this experience provided the basis for my workshop at iipe, a brief description of that workshop will also be included. the next part will be a consideration of the questions raised by the story, primarily in the context of biopolitics and bare life. in so doing, i will attempt to expose some of the contradictions that not only underlie human rights in today’s world, but are often replicated in humanitarian efforts for human rights learning and work for peace, democracy and social justice. it will also expose the tension between the need for theory and analysis and the needs of people, particularly those in bare life zones, to survive. the essay will conclude with a story about a hiroshima hibakusha (a-bomb survivor). her story reflects the 2 see for example mark duffield, development, security and unending war: governing the world of peoples (malden, ma: polity press, 2008). in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 48 meaning of the above discussion for further work in human rights learning in general, and the popoki peace project in particular. the popoki peace project and human rights the popoki peace project3 is a grass roots effort in japan which uses popoki’s peace books4 to question and politicize the meaning of peace, and to encourage people to find and implement ways to be involved in peace-making. using a dialogic methodology, the project seeks to create learning spaces that are inclusive and democratic ‘oases of peace’ in which not only critical thinking, but also critical imagination and expressions of peace can occur. ultimately, it is hoped that the experience gained in these oases of peace will be taken back and incorporated into the lives and work of each individual and community, contributing on many levels to the building of a culture of peace. human rights are an essential aspect of a culture of peace, and as such, respect for human rights has from the beginning been a basic component of the work of the popoki peace project. the idea of creating inclusive and democratic spaces for peace learning relies on an understanding of human rights and commitment to their implementation. however, the first work of the project in direct relation to human rights learning as such was through my participation in the creation of a poster exhibit in commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the universal declaration on human rights.5 the poster exhibition is comprised of 31 posters, one for each of the thirty articles of the declaration and one with the text of the preamble, including the phonetic reading of all the chinese characters to make it accessible to children and others who may not have fluency in reading japanese. the other thirty posters contain the text of each article and an illustration by one of six local artists. the title for each article is a simplified version of the text, easily read and understood by primary school children, and includes an english translation. below each illustration is the full text. i was asked to make posters to illustrate four articles: articles 4 (slavery is despicable), 11 (all are presumed innocent until proved guilty), 14 (seeking refuge abroad is also a right) and 20 (freedom both to get together and to stay home). (see appendix) 3 see for example, ronni alexander, “popoki, what color is peace? exploring critical approaches to thinking, imagining and expressing peace with the cat, popoki,” in factis pax, volume 2 number 2 (2008), pp. 211-228. http://www.infactispax.org/volume_special_iipe/alexander.pdf 4 ronni alexander, popoki, what color is peace? popoki’s peace book 1 (kobe: epic 2007) and popoki, what color is friendship? popoki’s peace book 2 (kobe: epic 2009). 5 this poster exhibit was created by the yasashii kara hito desu ten part 20 committee in cooperation with hyogo buraku liberation and human rights institute 2008 in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 49 in the process of creating these posters, i made two important discoveries. one was that i found my understanding was greatly enhanced when i created a story about the meaning of each article as presented in its simplified form. the other was that i was only able to make these four posters after first using the four themes to create a story that was meaningful for me. in creating that story, i moved from being a spectator of human rights to an actor in my own story about human rights. in creating my story, i made changes, including the order in which i used the articles. unknowingly, i was engaging in the aesthetics of the oppressed; the experience allowed me to further develop my metaphoric world – to think, imagine, dream, create parables, and to distance myself sufficiently from the reality of what i know as ‘human rights’ to allow me to be critical.6 popoki’s human rights story slavery is despicable, and here are the slave cats, chained and threatened by their guard cat. these are the bare life cats; existing in the space of sovereign exception, invisible and without value to the world outside the wall, where we see the dancing, playing carefree cats. the technology of government based on liberalism and a doctrine of human rights, has made slavery illegal, and all people (but not cats) have the right to seek refuge abroad. some of the stronger cats are able to break their chains and escape over the wall, leaving the world of exception behind and enabling them (if they survive) to try to exercise their right to seek refuge. in this story, some are successful and they are welcomed with open paws, and given food and shelter. (what happens after this first warm welcome is a matter for discussion. will they be judged suitable for welcome, detained, or sent back to the world from which they have so recently escaped? they are, after all, not human…). the smaller, weaker cats remain chained and beaten, and seem to have been forgotten in the jubilation over the escape of their companions. do some strong cats stay behind to help their weaker friends? do the ones who escaped revel in their own good fortune and leave the others to their fate? do they escape, but then lobby for the release of their companions? if they raise their voices to reveal the ‘truth’ about the zone of exception they have left behind, does anybody listen? do they change their stories in order to get an audience? does anybody care? they are, after all, not human…. no answers are provided here to these questions, but they provide the basis for the next poster: the right to get together and to stay home. here, cats have gathered in front of the wall in 6 augusto boal, the aesthetics of the oppressed. translated by adrian jackson. (oxon: routledge, 2006), pg.41. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 50 protest of the slavery within. popoki leads the march and there, in the gray zone between inclusion and exclusion, he is arrested and taken away. many of his friends have also gathered; others choose to stay home. perhaps they are involved in this protest in other ways, perhaps not. we do not know what happens after popoki’s arrest; the success or failure of their efforts is again a subject for discussion and conjecture. perhaps his fate remains on the front pages of newspapers; perhaps it is never mentioned and he just disappears. in my story, popoki does have a trial, which is the subject of the final poster. this depicts his right to be considered innocent until proven otherwise. in the happy ending of this particular tale, popoki is released and celebrates his freedom joyfully. why did the tiny judge in his huge chair release him? was he just lucky? what will he do with his regained freedom? we are left to create and re-create our own endings for this story. popoki’s human rights workshop when i was asked to present a workshop on human rights and posters at iipe, the experience of questioning and story-telling in the context of creating the human rights posters was still fresh and i wanted to find a way to share it with others in the context of human rights learning. since my work centers on popoki, he would of course have to be present at the workshop. his presence would not only make it easier to raise human/non-human life issues, but in the context of the work of the popoki peace project, the use of popoki would allow for emphasis on creative imagination and expression. as workshop participants tend to emphasize verbal communication, i needed to find a gentle and interesting way to emphasize forms of non-verbal expression without denying words. the solution was to use kamishibai, a story-telling technique from japan in which the story-teller stands behind or next to picture boards (traditionally in a special story-telling frame), and the attention of the listener is focused on the pictures. this technique is still used frequently today in schools and other situations where stories are told to groups of children. i learned about kamishibai techniques from a traditional story-teller.7 for my workshop, i used a variation on his work, asking participants to make a five-page ‘silent kamishibai.’ they were given the option of providing a 7 my interest in kamishibai came originally from musubi, a group of former homeless men who perform wonderful original stories. later, i was introduced to yuji yasuno, a master who gives performances at the kyoto international manga museum. yasuno-san also runs workshops for children where he has them make individual kamishibai. yasuno-san began his work in the days when licensed kamishibai masters performed on street corners for the local children. this is no longer practiced. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 51 title for their work, but otherwise no words were to be used in the story. in this way, emphasis was shifted from the words to other modes of expression. the five-page length requirement may at first seem like a lot of pages for a limited time. in fact, it is an easy number to work with; the first page is for the title/introduction and the fifth for the ending/conclusion. that leaves three pages, or three steps, for the body of the story. in the iipe workshop, i asked participants to work in groups to create a story about human rights and added the further requirements that popoki be present in some form and that the story contain a critical, open-ended question. it was hoped that the questions raised would then lead to further discussion of the issues raised and provide another layer of human rights learning which would continue after the end of the workshop. needless to say, the first half of the workshop involved exercises in preparation for the creation of the kamishibai including the introduction of popoki and the work of the project, and group exercises to help participants think more deeply about human rights. i believe the workshop itself was both enjoyable and a learning experience for all of us. in this workshop, as well as subsequent similar ones held in japan, participants struggled with the requirement that they not use words, and also had difficulty with the final open-ended question. partly this is a function of not having sufficient time, but i think it also speaks to how difficult it is to break away from our reliance on words. moreover, it shows how difficult it is, even for experienced and dedicated people, to be critical of something which we firmly believe to be good: the importance and value of human rights. biopolitics, stories and bare life as indicated above, in the course of making my contribution to the poster exhibit, i was very impressed by the experience of story creation, both in the ways in which i found myself being led by my story, rather than leading it myself and in the way the story-telling process encouraged me to engage in critical thinking. from the beginning i planned to have my posters feature popoki, so i knew that in the creation of the posters i would on some level have to grapple with the issue of human/non-human rights. is popoki merely a substitute human, a cat in human clothes or something else? does the presence of popoki, rather than a human figure, allow us to tell this story not only as it is outlined above, but also perhaps in the context of the abuse of nature? can the natural world and environment escape from enslavement by humans in zealous pursuit of ‘development’? how does the idea of bare life in which freedom for some is contingent on continued enslavement for others apply to the non-human inhabitants? what is the meaning of the in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 52 human/non-human line in a world where bioscience is bringing radical changes in the ways we think about life in general and human life in particular? in the context of the posters, if the area within the wall represents bare life, is there any place for human (and perhaps animal) rights either within or outside? what possibilities are there for resistance within and without? can the enslavers within the walled area be put on trial from without, and if so, how might that occur? is it possible that they might have a fair trial within, and if so, in what ways must conditions change in order for that to happen? it is clear that the creation and telling of popoki’s story has enabled me to create a whole range of difficult and important questions which i cannot hope to answer in these pages. i include them more to demonstrate the power of stories to help us think in new and different directions, and to suggest some of the issues that might be addressed in this context. at the same time, as here we are looking at the question of human rights and zones of exception, let us take a deeper look at the idea of bare life and biopolitics. unlike popoki, who is interested in the ways individuals act upon their environment, michel foucault and others following him are primarily interested in populations and the political techniques and practices that comprise the art of government. at the end of the first volume of the history of sexuality, michel foucault discusses bio-power, and looks briefly at the way in which natural life began to be incorporated in the mechanisms of state power, turning politics into ‘biopolitics.’ here he holds that when the fate of the species is dependent on a society’s own political strategies, that society can be said to have crossed the ‘threshold of modernity.’ “man,” says foucault, was for millennia “a living animal with the additional capacity for political existence; (but) modern man is an animal whose politics calls his existence as a living being into question.”8 in other words, modernity begins with the incorporation of the biological into the political, when “the ancient right to take life or let live was replaced by a power to foster life or disallow it to the point of death.9 although the concept remained undeveloped, foucault was interested in the ways in which biological life or the ‘state of population’ has become a problem of sovereign power and of the art of government. this, he claims, makes it “possible to both protect life and to authorize a holocaust.”10 wars, says foucault, “are waged on behalf of the existence of 8 michel foucault, the will to knowledge: the history of sexuality: 1. translated by robert hurley, (penguin books, 1976), p.143. 9 ibid,., p.138 10 michel foucault , security, territory, population: lectures at the college de france 1977-1978. michel senellart, ed., translated by graham burchell. (palgrave/macmillan, 2009). cited in op. cit. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 53 everyone; entire populations are mobilized for the purpose of wholesale slaughter in the name of life necessity: massacres have become vital.”11 patel and mcmichael applied this thinking to colonialism, describing it in terms of the exclusive sovereignty over biological and political existence.12 colonial practice relied on biopolitics, forcing people to change their behavior, dress, knowledge, ways of communication, work and other ways of engaging with the world. development was an integral part of colonialism for both colonizer and colonized. even in the post-coloniai condition, development has continued to be subsumed within this sovereign right of exception, the ‘right’ to both destroy and protect life, “assigning statuses that are despised, dispossessed and, as agamben would describe these, ‘bare’.”13 the value of the work of foucault and others in the context of this essay is to expose the contradictions of liberal technologies of government that violate human rights with impunity, while at the same time insisting that human rights be protected and maintained. this work does not offer any solutions, or at least any immediate ones, although patel and mcmichael express their hope for the global justice movement. similarly, in a short essay on human rights, foucault exhorts that, “the will of individuals must make a place for itself in a reality of which governments have attempted to reserve a monopoly for themselves, that monopoly which we need to wrest from them little by little and day by day.”14 popoki, as a critical and expressive cat, invites his friends to join him in engaging in this struggle following foucault, many scholars have taken up this question of biopolitics and modern societies which, in becoming managers of life, have at the same time become managers of death and destruction. it is this management of both life and death that allows for societies where human rights are protected to exist simultaneously with zones of exception where very existence is denied. as indicated earlier, giorgio agamben discusses this in terms of bare life zones of exception, while duffield looks at the role of surplus life in the context of the liberal problematic of development, agamben, p.3. 11 op. cit. foucault 1976, p.137 12 rajeey patel and philip mcmichael, “third worldism and the lineages of global fascism: the regrouping of the global south in the neoliberal era.” third world quarterly vol.25, no.1, 2004, pp.231-254. 13 sylvester, christine. “bare life as a development/postcolonial problematic.” the geographical journal, vol.172, no.1, march 2006, pp.67. 14 michel foucault, power: essential works of foucault 1954-1984. vol.3, faubion, james., ed. (penguin books, 1994), p.745. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 54 discussing the ways in which liberalism serves to reproduce emergencies and zones of exception. judith butler looks at the problem in terms of precarious life and grievability. here we will ask whether one can both acknowledge bare life and recognize the possibility for life within bare life zones. from the perspective of the individual, bare life can be death, but it can also be bare life as life, and as living. giorgio agamben describes a politics of sovereign exception which allows for the construction of bare life zones of ‘homo sacer,’ “a zone of indistinction between sacrifice and homicide. the sovereign sphere is the sphere in which it is permitted to kill without committing homicide and without celebrating a sacrifice and sacred life – that is, life that may be killed but not sacrificed – is the life that has been captured in this sphere.”15 in homo sacer, there is no justice or hope, and individuals’ lives can be taken without a need for justification. for agamben, the extreme example of this are the nazi concentration camps, described as the “pure space of exception.”16 in ‘homo sacer,’ there is no convergence between the biopolitics of bare life and the ideal of human rights as expressed in liberalism; rather it is the exclusion of “exception” that allows for “the rule” of human rights to be applied to those on the inside. homo sacer, or bare life, reflects the way in which biopolitics forms both the strength and the contradiction of modern democracy; democracy places bare life at the core of each individual body. such bodies, as sovereign subjects and bearers of rights, “can only be constituted as such through the repetition of the sovereign exception and the isolation of the … bare life in himself.17 bodies become what is at stake in political conflict, and it is only through the defining of the exception that democracy and human rights can assume their present form. patel and mcmichael discuss this in relation to decolonization, suggesting that “colonized subjects appropriated the democratic discourse of the colonizers in fuelling their independence movements,” and newly established states appropriated the legitimating ideals of the development era through such claims for equality as the universal declaration of human rights. they note that in making states the exclusive guardians of human rights, the un was sanctioning a form of biopolitics and sovereignty which originated under colonial rule.18 foucault and agamben are concerned with the processes of power over life. returning once more to the posters, this ‘power over life’ became a central question as my story of cat oppression 15 op. cit. agamben, p.83. 16 ibid,., p.134. 17 ibid, agamben, p.124. 18 op. cit. patel and mcmichael, p.241. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 55 and liberation took me to the borders of the realm of sovereign exception in both a human and non-human context. in particular, it raised for me three questions: (1) are there distinguishable borders outlining where bare life begins and ends? (2) to what extent are those borders permeable? is it possible to both go in and come out? (3) is bare life truly devoid of all emotion and expression, human or otherwise? for agamben, the decisive moment in modernity occurred when natural life (zoe) began to enter the sphere of the political life (polis), but this is a purely human biopolitics.19 the homo sacer of concentration camps is devoid of many kinds of life. if a clear distinction between human and non-human life is maintained, there is perhaps no need to consider the condition of non-human life in the context of human bare life. however, if we suggest that certainly outside of the zones of exception, non-human life is an integral part of human life, then perhaps we must also pay attention to the relationship between human bare life and the life of the rest of the living world. it is here that another possible connection can be found between human rights defined in terms of human dignity and the essence of our existence as human beings, and biopolitics in the form of what didier fassin terms ‘biolegitimacy,’ or recognition of the value of life itself.20 fassim is interested in why some lives are saved and others not, and distinguishes between what he terms the ‘power of life’ or biolegtimacy from foucault’s concept of bio-power or power over life. the idea of biolegitimacy allows us to focus on the quality of particular lives, rather than on the manipulation of life itself in the political arena. fassin uses this idea to discuss humanitarian assistance, a mechanism of government which is based on particular kinds of biological fragility (disease, bio-contamination, particular physical threats to survival, etc.) and legitimated through the right to survival/life. this biological fragility becomes in turn the basis for not only continued existence (as the threat is removed and/or treatment provided) but also the basis for legitimate citizenship (biocitizenship) in a new society. this idea of biolegitimacy adds another dimension to our discussion, in that it recognizes certain types of vulnerability and conditions under which it might be possible for individuals to move from zones of exception into zones of life. this thinking can be applied to why some receive refugee status and others are denied, or to the fate of those who donate organs and/or are trafficked. yet it, too, fails to deal adequately with the question of borders; the area where one zone ends and the other begins. a further hint comes from judith butler and her discussion of precarious life, vulnerability 19 ibid, agamben, pp.2-4. 20 didier fassin, “another politics of life is possible.” theory, culture & society, 2009, vol.26 (5): p.50. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 56 and grievability butler begins her consideration of biopolitics and power over life with the idea that “specific lives cannot be apprehended as injured or lost if they are not first apprehended as living.”21 determinations of who deserves to be grieved and in what ways, and who does not deserve such recognition reveals aspects of power over life and death. they also entail recognition of precariousness and precarity of life, where the former refers to the vulnerability of all life and the latter to the politically created circumstances under which certain lives are put at risk.22 here butler is dealing with not only power over life, but also power of life. as such, her thinking conveys for me the possibility of a flexibility and dynamism absent from agamben and fassin. in addition, the idea of grievability provides a way to respond to some of the questions about human and non-human lives. it can, for example, explain why many environmentalists in perfectly good faith and with great dedication work to preserve the lives of certain species such as whales or polar bears, while at the same time completely ignoring the plethora of insects that become extinct practically every day. relative grievability might also be a factor in the tendency of the media to focus on particular animals rather than humans in situations of disaster, such as the attention paid to pandas in the recent sichuan earthquake. this is not to suggest that attention should not be paid to animals; popoki would never forgive me! rather, it helps to explain the possibility for animals beyond the zones of exception to co-exist in zones of human bare life. within bare life, it may, under certain circumstances and in certain capacities, be possible to create ‘zones of exception’ within the zones of exception for humans as well as animals; life and liberation may indeed be possible even under the most difficult of circumstances. the introduction of the idea of liberation within this context in some ways takes us back to the fundamentals of liberalism and democracy. as we have seen, the creation of, and respect for, human rights is based on a liberal technique of government which establishes the separation of the citizen and sovereign subject and the ‘rules’ to which agamben’s ‘exception’ applies. christine sylvester considers how bare life politics continue in post-colonial transitions and in development in africa. in post-colonial settings, the rights of the now independent citizen/subject may continue to be threatened. she describes the case of one aids patient who, unable to access proper medication, succumbs to the disease joyful in the knowledge he will be spared death by the “chop of a triumphant machete.” this story shows how, even in the homo sacer, it is possible to experience bare life as life through the substitution of one biopolitics for 21 judith butler, frames of war: when is life grievable? (london: verso, 2009), p.1. 22 ibid, p.25. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 57 another.23 of course, in the homo sacer, the far more frequent experience is of bare life as death; in rwanda, for example, “…the fate of girls depends on the perceived identities and politics of their families…biopolitics all the way down.”24 the assertion of the possibility of experiencing bare life as life, rather than as death or perhaps nothingness, is an assertion of the possibility for liberation; a claim to the legitimacy and value of life where no such claims are perceived or recognized. it is here that we return to popoki and human rights. popoki, in urging the use of not only our minds but our bodies and entire range of sensibilities, is suggesting liberation from a biopolitics of separation of mind and body. in applying this to human rights learning, he is seeking transformation through breaking the bonds of the liberal tradition in which human rights were created. he is asserting bare life as life in the intellectual bare life that denies validity to those who engage in other forms of expression and those who do not qualify for ‘citizenship’ in that world. he is, in the words of a philosopher from a very different genre, urging people to engage in acts of ‘trespassing.’ augusto boal urges that, “if we do not trespass (not necessarily violently), if we do not go beyond our cultural norms, our state of oppression, the limits imposed upon us, even the law itself (which should be transformed) – if we do not trespass in this we can never be free. to free ourselves is to trespass, and to transform. it is through a creation of the new that that which has not yet existed begins to exist. to free yourself is to trespass. to trespass is to exist. to free ourselves is to exist. to free yourself is to exist.”25 here is another story about popoki, trespassing and the potential for freeing oneself and for bare life as life. one time, popoki met a man working with children in his country, liberia. after meeting and getting to know popoki, the man asked whether it would be possible to take popoki home with him. his reason was both simple and radical. the children he worked with, he said, have never known peace. they have never experienced it; their parents do not know what it is; they have no knowledge of, or experience with, the concept and/or reality of peace. how can those children, in the homo sacer of their everyday lives, learn to do anything other than recreate the violence into which they have been born? popoki, he said, might provide them with a clue for taking the first step toward bare life as life or perhaps even bare life as living. 23 op. cit., sylvester, p.73. 24 ibid, p.74. 25 augusto boal, the theatre of the oppressed. (london: pluto press, 2008), pp.xxi-xxii. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 58 conclusion: crossing the borders of bare life in looking at human rights in the context of biopolitics, we have seen that human rights exist in their denial; the unpunishability of killing and the ban on sacrifice lie at the base of homo sacer and the ability of modern governments to at the same time protect and destroy. we have seen this repeated when colonized territories attain independence and take up the sovereign entitlement of exception, often incorporated in the rhetoric of ‘development.’ moreover, it has been suggested that in our own work for human rights, we are at risks of inadvertently re-creating zones of exception even as we try to change them. human rights and human rights learning are possible outside of the ‘zones of exclusion,’ but what about inside? agamben’s portrayal of homo sacer allows for bare life as death, but not for bare life as life. if, however, we accept the possibility of bare life as life, then we find areas within bare life for possible transformation and liberation. here we suggest that popoki, in blurring the distinctions between human and non-human and posing the possibility for critical imagination and expression, offers one possible tool for creating the space for such transformations. this potential exists in the physical space of bare life, but perhaps is more visible and more easily achieved in the intellectual spaces of bare life that exist in the academy, and perhaps even in those of mass culture. we will conclude with a final story, one that gives both hope and reason for despair. it is a story about a woman who has been a friend and strong supporter of popoki (and ronni) for many years. her name is suzuko numata.26 numata-san was twenty-one years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on hiroshima, and on that day, she lost her left leg and her innocence. on the same day, although she did not know it at the time, her fiancé was killed on the front lines in china. she says that for the first two years after the bombing she was so filled with hate that it began to take over her entire person. then she met the aogiri (chinese parasol tree), a tree that like numata-san had been so poisoned and disfigured by the bomb that it was not expected to survive…but it did. seeing the green shoots beginning to form on the tree gave numata-san the hope she needed to begin to start her life again. it took a long time, but she really did learn not to hate. when asked why it was possible, she replied, “i don’t know why i survived when everyone else was killed, but there has to be a reason. as long as i am alive, i have to work to prevent this 26 i first met numata-san in 1978. she is the first hibakusha with whom i truly became close, and over the years she has been like an older sister, inspirational, strict and always there for me. read more of her story in diana wickes roose, teach us to live: stories from hiroshima and nagasaki, (pasadena: intentional productions, 2007). . in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 59 from happening again. my life was spared so i can work to make the world a better place.”27 numata-san’s story is one of human dignity. as the ‘enemy’ in the context of us strategic bombing in wwii, her life was expendable. as it turns out, she remained a number on the list of the survivors rather than on that of the victims, but in fact, no one knows the exact numbers of those incinerated in the ‘homo sacer’ that was hiroshima and nagasaki. in the face of the horror of surviving nuclear attack, numata-san’s story of overcoming hatred and ultimately of forgiveness inspires us with hope. at the same time, as becomes clear below, when numata-san began to share stories not only of her own pain, but that others, she encountered bare life in a different form in the creation of a peace discourse which privileges one type of victim over another. her story continues. in the course of our conversation that day, i told numata-san about a documentary about children in vietnam i had seen recently. even three and four generations later, children are still being born with serious birth defects as a result of dioxide poisoning from defoliants used during the vietnam war. numata-san said she knew about the problem and had visited a museum in vietnam, where she took many photos of deformed fetuses. then she told me how she had brought them with her to a talk she was giving to high school students in tokyo because she wanted them to learn not only about radiation poisoning, but about other kinds of poisons, too. when she began to show the photos, the principal rushed over and told her to stop. he said, “we want to learn about how you suffered in the war, not about these other things.” this principal, in asking numata-san to speak, was recognizing the grievability of the hibakusha and appreciating their lives. at the same time, he was re-creating zones of exception through not extending that recognition to other victims of ‘extraordinary’ weapons and biotoxins. in so doing he was both denying, and re-creating, bare life. a long time ago, i asked numata-san why she liked popoki. she replied that in addition to her love of cats, she spoke to many groups of children about her experiences. it is difficult for the children to relate to experiences that happened so long ago in a world so different from their own. popoki helps her to convey to them her most urgent message: the importance of life, friendship, respect for one another and being at peace with oneself, nature and the world. for numata-san, life is important, even in the bare life zones of homo sacer. her work shows us that it might be possible to have bare life as life, and perhaps bare life as living. taking inspiration from people like numata-san, popoki continues in his journey to discover 27 quoted from a conversation with suzuko numata and marie tsuruda at numata’s home in hiroshima on 27 august 2009. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 60 hope, and in so doing celebrate life as living, and as life. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 61 appendix the four human rights posters, shown in the order used in popoki’s story. 1. article 4: slavery is despicable 2. article 14: seeking refuge abroad is also a right in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 62 3.article 20: freedom to both get together and to stay at home 4.article 11: all are presumed innocent until proved guilty . references agamben, giorgio. translated by daniel heller-roazen. homo sacer: sovereign power and bare life. stanford: stanford university press, 1998. alexander, ronni. “popoki, what color is peace? exploring critical approaches to thinking, imagining and expressing peace with the cat, popoki.” in factis pax, volume 2 number 2: 211-228, 2008. http://www.infactispax.org/volume_special_iipe/alexander.pdf ..... popoki, what color is peace? popoki’s peace book 1 kobe: epic, 2007. …. popoki, what color is friendship? popoki’s peace book 2 kobe: epic, 2009. boal, augusto. the theatre of the oppressed. london: pluto press, 2008. …. the aesthetics of the oppressed. translated by adrian jackson. oxon: routledge, 2006. butler, judith. frames of war: when is life grievable? london: verso, 2009. …. precarious life: the powers of mourning and violence. london: verso, 2004. dean, mitchell. governmentality: power and rule in modern society. london: sage, 1999. duffield, mark. development, security and unending war: governing the world of peoples. malden, ma: polity press, 2008. fassin, didier. “another politics of life is possible.” theory, culture & society, 2009, vol.26 (5): 44-60, 2009. foucault, michel. the will to knowledge: the history of sexuality: 1. translated by robert hurley. penguin books, 1976. …. power: essential works of foucault 1954-1984. vol.3 faubion, james., ed. penguin books, 1994. …. security, territory, population: lectures at the college de france 1977-1978. michel senellart, ed., translated by graham burchell. palgrave/macmillan, 2009. patel, rajeev and philip mcmichael. “third worldism and the lineages of global fascism: the in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 46-63 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 63 regrouping of the global south in the neoliberal era.” third world quarterly vol.25, no.1, pp.231-254, 2004. roose, diana wickes. teach us to live: stories from hiroshima and nagasaki, pasadena: intentional productions, 2007. sylvester, christine. “bare life as a development/postcolonial problematic.” the geographical journal, vol.172, no.1, march 2006, pp.66-77, 2006. masters versus stewards degree 2015wpd (2) with mcgregor edits in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 66 volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal master or steward degree designations: implications for cultures of peace sue l. t. mcgregor phd, professor emerita mount saint vincent university mcgregor consulting group 11565 peggy’s cove road seabright nova scotia, canada b3z 2y1 sue.mcgregor@msvu.ca http://www.consultmcgregor.com 902-823-2625 acknowledgment: an earlier version of this paper was published in the 2007 culture of peace online journal, 3(1), 5-10. introduction universities offer graduate programs in education (both master and doctoral) that prepare people for peace education, peaceful schools, social justice, and conflict management, resolution, and transformation. this paper is about the possibility of a stewardship paradigm being adopted into these mainstream graduate programs. it was prompted by personal reflections about what paradigm is behind the label master’s degree? what does the word master connote? what would a steward’s degree look like, and how would one go about convincing mainstream graduate education of its merit? how would people react if they encountered someone in education with an sed or saed rather than a med or in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 67 maed (with the a referring to a degree with a thesis)? indeed, why do people call the product of graduate school a thesis, instead of a synthesis? these are some of the questions shaping this discussion. critically analyzing the import of the labels master and steward is a way to unhook people from their tacit assumptions about control, compliance and dominance, notions that are embedded in the current graduate school infrastructure. after discussing the history of why university degrees are called bachelors, masters and doctorates, the paper critically analyzes the import of the labels master and steward. a principle-based case is made for the merit of creating a steward of education degree designation. history of three levels of academic degrees there is an interesting history behind why degrees obtained from universities are called bachelors, masters, and doctorates. although this paper is concerned with the master label, it is interesting to place it in the context of the other two labels. one usually obtains these degrees in a certain order: bachelor, master, and then a doctorate (knowles, 1977; spurr, 1970). there are reasons for this sequence, stemming from the middle ages, when trade guilds emerged. people moved through being an apprentice, a journeyman, and then a master. the whole history of regulated professions is entwined with the history of the guilds in europe (james, 2002; wikipedia encyclopedia, 2015e). bachelor degree traditionally, bachelor was the name given to a younger, inferior member of a trade guild, a yeoman, or to the lowest, poorest grade of knighthood. the term bachelor also referred to someone who was inferior, which means belonging to a lower rank or class. junior, which also means inferior, is still used to refer to first year students enroled at a university in a bachelor degree. baccalaureus is latin for bachelor’s degree, first appearing in the 13th century at the university of paris. it referred to the preliminary degree needed to proceed to a master level so that people could become teachers; that is, become masters. chilton (1998) explains that someone with a bachelor degree has an interest in a particular field and some understanding of, and facility with, its methods (and i would add familiarity with its principles, theories, and content). the student starts out as an apprentice, and is willing to forgo wages for the opportunity to study with the masters of the field. apprentice stems from the latin root apprendensus, meaning to seize or apprehend (harper, 2015). to apprentice someone is to bind them into the care of a master for the purpose of in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 68 instruction. apprentices are in training for a future time when they may become a master. the system of apprenticeship dates at least to the medieval days of guilds. it is a traditional way to train a new generation of skilled practitioners. when someone actually graduates with a baccalaureate degree, this person becomes more of a journeyman (the question about the gender neutrality of this term is acknowledged). the person is able to do routine work in the field, and is interested enough in the field to find this work. the word “journeyman” comes from the french word journée, meaning a period of one day (harper, 2015). the journeyman was expected to train in the master’s workshop without pay. the journeyman was allowed to charge others for any work done on sundays, or in the evenings. so, this term refers to the right to charge a fee for each day’s work (wikipedia encyclopedia, 2015g). also, once a term of apprenticeship was completed, former apprentices traveled from employer to employer earning wages as journeymen (journeying from one employer to another). when, or if, they accumulated enough capital, journeymen could set up shop as independent masters, and became members of craft guilds (jacoby, 2001), defined as an association of artisans or merchants who controlled the practice of their craft in a particular town or jurisdiction (wikipedia encyclopedia, 2015e). also of interest to this discussion is the link between the terms degree and graduate. in the 12th and 13th centuries in europe, anyone who completed three to four years of university received a bachelor’s degree, a practice still continued today. degree stems from the latin gradus, for step (harper, 2015). a degree is only a step on the way to becoming a fully-qualified master; hence, we now have the english word graduate for higher learning. universities still echo the apprenticeship/journeyman/master schema in their production of scholars. bachelors can choose to move onto a master’s degree, a doctorate or both (wikipedia encyclopedia, 2015a,b). master degree the term masters stems from magister, latin for teacher or license to teach (harper, 2015). it was first applied to the field of education as a noun in the middle ages. magister was a title given to someone with a license from a university to teach philosophy and the liberal arts (which at that time comprised grammar, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, music, and astronomy). originally, there were two basic types of master degrees: magister artium (masters of arts), and magister scientiœ (master of science). later, it became popular for master degrees to be named for a particular discipline. masters now exist for education, law, family and consumer sciences (home economics/human ecology), fine arts, engineering, divinity, business, public administration, peace, conflict studies, et in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 69 cetera (wikipedia encyclopedia, 2015h). in principle, people with a master’s degree learn all they can about what has been written in a field to date. with this knowledge, they are supposed to be able to do original work. the term original comes from the time of the guilds, and does not mean that an original work as it is understood today; rather, it means the application of existing techniques in new ways. from the guild perspective, being able to replicate the same thing, using the same technique, with each one being a little bit different because there is no mold, is not being original. these works would not be masterpieces. being original means being able to take what one has learned and use it in different settings, with no supervision (i.e., use it in new ways). then, one would have mastered the ability to create new pieces of work. masters are always improving their mastery of the foundations and principles of the field, continuing to learn from their experiences, but not necessarily from additional study. someone with a master’s degree is continually trying to find new ways to use the principles of the field, whereas someone with a doctorate of philosophy (phd) is continually trying to find new principles (chilton, 1998). doctoral degree less than 1 percent of the population attains a doctorate degree (comer, 2011). only half of those who enter a doctoral program actually complete their studies (elgar, 2003). although people with a master degree learn all they can about what has been written in a field, the doctorate extends the knowledge in the field by conducting research; that is, they explore, investigate, contemplate, interpret, and gain deep understanding. the search is to uncover principles that can be applied in new ways. the research is intended to further human understanding, and further the body of knowledge already compiled in the profession or discipline. indeed, the key difference between a masters and a doctorate is that a master is learning the field while a doctorate is learning the profession or discipline, with intentions to continually learn the profession or discipline. chilton (1998) explains that the phd can be taken quite literally to mean that the person with this qualification can doctor (minister to, repair and foster) the philosophy, the underlying tenets, of the discipline, and profession. the person both knows, and stands apart from, the philosophical underpinnings of the field. the phd cuts deeper than a master because it examines the very tenets of the discipline with the intention of improving or redesigning them. also, awarding (note the competitive paradigm term) someone an ‘earned’ doctorate implies that the person is seen as an equal by the university faculty in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 70 under whom the person studied. in order to qualify to hold a doctorate, the person has to complete a thesis or dissertation of publishable standard, or has to publish a coherent body of literature, usually in the form of two to three separate, but sequential, papers. the older style of honorary doctorates is rare. called honoris causa (latin ‘for the sake of the honor’), they are usually given to people who have shown themselves to be leaders in their field, and have contributed considerably to society, not necessarily through academic study but more through their lived experiences. this degree is known as hon causa (e.g., doctorate of peace studies hon causa) (wikipedia encyclopedia, 2015 d,f). the paradigm behind the label of master degree the previous section teased out three degrees, and the meaning of their labels. the discussion now continues, based on the assumption that the master’s label is the most problematic of the three. while it may have been appropriate for the middle ages, using the label masters for graduate work is not in tune with the leading edge trends in educational reform. what is assumed when people leave graduate school with a master? what have they mastered? what assumptions does this term connote? what images are created in peoples’ minds? how does the mental perception that one is a master of education translate into one’s daily practice? how does it affect one’s pedagogy? the word master has many meanings, as an adjective, verb and noun. as an adjective, it can mean: • something that is principle or paramount (a master plot), • something that controls all other parts of a mechanism (a master switch), • being highly skilled or proficient (a master thief), and • being an original from which copies are made (a master recording). as a verb it can mean: • being an expert of something, proficient in something (mastering a language); • overcoming or defeating something (master an addiction); • reducing to subjugation (master an animal); and, • being seasoned or aged (dyed goods or alcohol). as a noun, it can refer to: • the captain of a ship (master mariner); • a man who serves as head of a household; • someone who defeats another (masters them in tennis); • an employer (of a slave); and, • a title for young boys, male officers in the royal households, the male head of service clubs, or titles for military ranks and male court officers (dictionary.com, 2015). • just stop for a moment, and examine the words being used in association with being a in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 71 master: control, domination, ownership, defeat, binding, copying, victory, lower rank, inferior, subject (subjugation or subordination), competition, expert, proficiency, skill, head up, or have charge over. these are all words stemming from the mechanistic, scientific, social darwinism, neoliberal, positivistic, and competitive paradigms and ideologies (mcgregor, 2006). in a nut shell, these paradigms hold that humans have dominion over the earth, and others. people who cannot compete and succeed deserve what they get when they fail and lose survival of the fittest. everything in a neoliberal, capitalistic, consumer-oriented world can be commodified and put up for sale even intellectual property and indigenous knowledge. there are experts, and there are those who are dependent on them for their well-being. people running schools see students as empty vessels waiting to be filled up with information from the master the teacher. then, students are expected to master the material and pass the tests, or they have failed. any other type of learning is not valued because it cannot be empirically measured. it is presumed that people do not have free will. there is no such thing as chance or fate; everything is determined by past events (cause and effect). things and property are more important than relationships. things and people are seen as separate, disconnected and fragmented, meaning they are easily manipulated and controlled. only knowledge gained from the scientific method is true. there is no room for narrative, stories, myth, spirituality, or the mystery of life because these cannot be proven true or valid. there is no room, in these paradigms, for sharing, caring, compassion or stewardship because these get in the way of the competition, survival-of-the-fittest, winner-take-all mind set. if the label master is used for the middle layer of graduate school, universities implicitly, sometimes explicitly, perpetuate this world view, this set of assumptions about the world, and our place in it. the following text teases out several deeper issues attendant to this situation, setting up the discussion of how graduate school could be labeled and done differently, under a stewardship paradigm. association with control and manipulation the meaning of masters that has most significance to this part of the discussion is that of a master being someone who has control over, or ownership of, someone or something. indeed, the latin root of masters is the prefix dominus, meaning lord or master, domineer (harper, 2015). dominion means control; it means the power (authority) or right (ownership) to use or dispose of property. in an information society, knowledge is seen as property. people can hold intellectual property rights via patents, trademarks, and copyrights. if there is even the slightest chance of graduate students perceiving that they are in control of the knowledge and the learning process, then there is no room for the voices of the children, adults, or co-learners in the in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 72 classroom. people are familiar with the metaphor of the student being the empty vessel waiting to be filled up with information from the teacher, the master who is the expert. this phenomenal teacher-control can lead to unintended, or intentional, manipulation of the learning process, to cooption of students into the control paradigm. association with expert mode if educators leave graduate school with the label masters of education, there is the possibility they may see themselves as the experts with all of the answers. an expert has a high degree of knowledge and expertise or skill in a field of study. if educators approach their teaching role assuming they are the experts holding all of the knowledge and information that matters, then the knowledge that students have gained from their lived experiences is deemed not valid because it has not come from an expert. the students may have no say in the creation of knowledge, or of the learning environment. in these cases, they become the receptor of information, expected to memorize it (master it), and spit it back on normative tests (comparing one test taker to another). this socialization to be experts can cripple them as learners because they learn it is alright not to critically analyze power relationships in society. they can become complacent and complicit in oppression and marginalization. they can become apathetic citizens who feel powerless, and may not even know it. things are just supposed to be this way. an expert told them. association with competition and failure if educators think they are masters of education, it is natural for them to expect others to master what they know, too. the aforementioned concept of normative testing stems from the competitive paradigm. normative testing refers to all students learning the same thing, and then taking the same test. their results are then compared against the other students; that is, they are compared against the norm (the teacher-determined acceptable answers). any deviation from this norm is interpreted as either a failure, or a great success. being in the middle is not enough because it is too close to failing, and too far away from succeeding. in light of all of this, the atmosphere in the classroom can become very competitive. there is no room for celebrating independent student advancement when their learning is gauged against other students. instead, students are expected to overcome their failures by defeating others who have beaten them (i.e., obtained a higher score). some teachers go so far as to post grades on classroom doors. awards are given for the highest grade in topics, best improvement in marks, et cetera. competition is deeply entrenched if teachers think they have mastered the field of education, and feel a responsibility to teach others how to master things as well. students can easily become alienated from other students, and become dependent on the teacher for more in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 73 knowledge so that their individual success is assured. the competitive paradigm is perpetuated. association with maleness another issue with the word master to identify a graduate degree is the common association of the word master with man (versus a woman). these automatic masculine connotations, in an educational setting, are counterproductive to the trend toward gender neutral writing and gender inclusiveness in education. not to make too big an issue of it, but it is a component of the larger ideology of patriarchy, and its entrenchment in society and world views. although most educators are women (71% in the united states and 65% in canada), if they progress to graduate studies, they leave university with a label with masculine connotations. this unbidden mental link with patriarchy can perpetuate the notion of men being superior to women. furthermore, because the majority of university educators are men (catalyst inc., 2015), the use of the label masters compounds this problem. roadblock to further studies the canadian association for graduate studies [cags] (2004) reports that 79% of masters’ students finish their degree. but, once students finish their master’s degrees, most stop there, and do not move onto doctoral studies. comer (2011) notes that less than 1 percent of the population holds a phd. if they continue with professional development, graduates tend to do another master’s degree. this last statement is anecdotal in nature. there is a paucity of information on this issue, partly because only 32% of the deans and faculty offices of graduate studies in canada (for example) compile completion rate information on a comprehensive basis, or compare rates across time (elgar, 2003). this paper offers another interpretation of these statistics. maybe students get multiple masters degrees, instead of a doctorate, because they feel they want to master something else, instead of discovering new principles and advancing a whole field of knowledge, or a profession. maybe they get a sense of power from the control implied from having a master degree. remember that to master something is to be able to control it, to bind something to you, to be highly proficient, or to be an expert. maybe, albeit stretching the idea a bit, graduates do not complete doctoral studies because they feel they have mastered the field already. they do not see themselves as finding new principles, just using existing ones. this is all speculation, of course. but, it does raise the same interesting point. would approaching graduate education from another paradigm change this scenario? thesis as proof of mastery in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 74 historically, one became a master within a guild by producing a “masterpiece” a set of assigned tasks demonstrating one’s mastery of the techniques in the field. one would be an apprentice, working for an expert to learn a trade, an art, or an occupation. in graduate education today, one is expected to complete a thesis a masterpiece if you will to show that one has mastered the arts of the field, and understands the major approaches, or at least those used in one’s specialty (chilton, 1998). from the master’s paradigm, educational institutions have relied upon hegel’s thesis, antithesis, synthesis triad (i.e., dialectic system of inquiry). this approach works in contradictions. an idea is presented, countered by its opposite, and then followed by the creation of a new hybrid of the two ideas a new entity that did not exist before the conflict was resolved. the conflict is resolved when the two opposing ideas can be appreciated for their interdependency. this approach to building a field of knowledge inherently involves a never-ending sequence of contradiction, conflict, and a temporary resolution (spencer & krauze, 1996). one problem with using the thesis as an indicator of mastering the foundations and principles of a field of study is that it perpetuates a never-ending sequence of contradictions and conflict, assuming that the answer the ultimate truth is out there somewhere. the person who finds it, wins. also, a thesis involves a search for information from other experts. although a good academic thesis will entail the student providing a critique of the underlying assumptions that shape existing literature in the field, many students simply criticize or find fault with what has already been written. finding fault sets the student up for more conflict and contradictions. this is not a healthy way to see oneself master of a flawed field of study. again, this idea may be stretching things a bit. but, it also raises that interesting question again, namely, ‘how could graduate school be done differently, outside the master’s paradigm?’ the answer might be found in the stewardship paradigm. stewardship a different paradigm the carnegie foundation supported work that explores the role of stewards at the doctoral level (golde & walker, 2006). this paper brings the stewardship paradigm to bear on the step or level of learning before the doctorate, historically known as the master’s level. stewardship can apply to both (a) stewardship of the earth and each other, and (b) the world of ideas (ford, 2004). stewardship stems from the medieval times, guilds again, when a “steward’ was assigned to hone the skills and development of a young prince to prepare him for his reign. the steward held the prince in trust so that he could be a successful ruler. today, the term steward has taken a different turn, less about preparing a man to be a ruler, and more about preparing people for their destiny, usually for the betterment of society. making a positive difference in the future is the mark of a steward, and the mentality of stewardship (greenleaf, 2002). in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 75 stewardship means holding a vision for oneself, community and the world, and being committed to the actualization of that vision (mg taylor corporation, 1997). this task should be easy enough in principle, if humans perceived themselves as stewards, responsible to themselves, other human beings, the earth, and the world (pelcovitz, 2003). stewardship is a balance between recognizing that people: (a) are created with special powers and the potential for their personal mastery; and, (b) have the responsibility and humility to live in ways such that their mastery is not their undoing, or the undoing of nature (redfield, 2003). it encompasses caring for what one values, for one’s creativity, personal growth, the growth of others, the health of communities, and the natural environment. stewardship arises from the philosophy that all life is sacred, rather than everything is for sale (mg taylor corporation, 1997). some argue that a stewardship approach to graduate school is too idealistic, too principled, and not enough about results. ford (2004) and block (2003) suggest that the primary function of a steward is to balance the pragmatic results in the system with a principled dedication to ideals. stewards must constantly encourage the broader, more conservative, masterful elements of society toward the higher ground. and, they must take up the tasks with which others will not bother. this principled stance is very different from the perception that one has mastered a body of knowledge. it sets educators up to instill in pupils (i.e., co-learners) a principled approach. then, there is a chance that they will be less vulnerable to the competitive nature of the market, economy, and state, and will speak up as citizens against less principled approaches. they will speak up for compassion, caring, peace, justice, and ethics. the challenge is that these principles are beyond what the world is ready to accept, so the world continues to suffer, more so under a master mind set. the following discussion assumes a principled approach, sharing upwards of 10 guiding principles of stewardship. sharing and gifting principles stewardship is about being a caretaker or keeper of gifts. from this perspective, graduate students would be socialized to be caretakers of the educational knowledge base the gift to society. they would be taught to nurture it, to hold it in wonder and awe, and to spread it widely. this approach is so different from mastering, controlling, binding and exploiting knowledge in order to dominate classrooms, and society. from the stewardship perspective, knowledge in one person’s possession does not have a separate existence from the profession of education. it is emergent. it requires dialogue, community, and time to develop and evolve. to make this happen, the knowledge has to be shared, rather than hoarded and protected as intellectual property (grey, 1999). that way, it can be preserved, nurtured and stewarded. graduates from educational programs would be caretakers of the intellectual assets of the profession of in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 76 education, of its professional knowledge base, even of peaceful cultures. when educators commit to stewarding the knowledge base of education, they commit to: discussing novel ideas, working together on problems (rather than sharing best practices), and keeping up with developments inside and outside the field. they do not assume they have mastered anything. they recognize their kinship with others, and choose to teach in such a way that they foster the strength of future generations. this is a form of conscious stewardship over their own life in order to support and nurture life. the result is stewardship of life instead of mastery over life, or mastery of life. personal mastery principle some people even suggest that people must have personal mastery before they can be a steward. this means that people have to know who they are a person, so they can be true to the principles of stewardship (personal communication, marlene ruck-simmonds, october 7, 2004). educators who are trained in a program where they learn to compel and direct students in all things, something a master degree might do, may end up teaching in such a way that pupils never gain the strength and growth they need, because they did not have a chance to exercise their own agency find their inner power. if graduate schools decided to prepare stewards, they would have to socialize educators to the importance of being accountable for their actions. personal growth comes from dealing with the demands that people place upon one’s life. preparing educators to be stewards would entail providing them with opportunities to find their inner power, exercise that power, and take responsibility for their actions (smoot, 2002). if educators perceived themselves as stewards, they may be more inclined to prepare pupils to be stewards, and to be more accountable citizens. cooperation and progressiveness principles stewards are bound by their own sense of responsibility to cooperate (ford, 2004). cooperation is the antithesis of competition, which can be a hallmark of a master’s degree (discussed earlier). preparing graduates to be stewards of education entails the collaborative approach to learning, rather than the practice of dominion over knowledge and learning. collaborative learning is an umbrella term for a variety of approaches in education that involve joint intellectual efforts by students and teachers. this approach negates the assumption that the teacher is the expert, the master of the learning process. it assumes that everyone has something to bring to the learning table. the stewardship approach can help people gain a degree of autonomy that allows them to be educators who feel comfortable expressing and exhibiting progressive beliefs (ford, 2004). in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 77 the basic progressive vision is that of community as family, a caring, responsible family. progressives envision a community where people take care of each other, not just themselves (the antithesis of survival of the fittest). they act responsibly with strength and effectiveness for each other. basic progressive principles include: equity, equality, democracy, a government acting in the name of community, and the presence of ethical business (wikipedia encyclopedia, 2015i). responsibility principle ford (2004) offers the useful idea that to be a steward is to assume responsibility for oneself, and to hold others accountable for their actions. in meeting these responsibilities, stewards would be called upon to act in one, or a combination, of four roles: (a) decision maker exerting influence in the course of events (arbiter); (b) ambassador and advocate; (c) activist; and, (d) a shield, as well as a sword, in the face of human or earth suffering (guardian). he argued that as long as the ultimate objective is the pursuit of truth and ethics, these four roles are justified. non-violence principle this paper takes issue with the guardian role as ford (2004) defines it. he says that an arbiter has to be willing to make the hard decisions, which include using force and violence. because this suggestion is grounded in the master’s paradigm, it is necessary to recommend that non-violence be a perspective shared by a steward. non-violence is a set of assumptions about morality, power and conflict that leads its proponents to reject the use of violence in efforts to attain social or political goals. from this perspective, a steward of education would appreciate that there are techniques for social struggles that rely on the collective power or a mobilized citizenry rather than on access to wealth, property, or weapons (sharp, 1973). peaceful pedagogies and non-violent classrooms would be the underpinnings of a steward degree. of special interest to this discussion is the meaning of power from a non-violent perspective. while the competitive and war paradigms assume that power over someone comes with the possession of armies and politicians willing to carry out a ruler’s (master’s) commands, non-violence assumes power depends on the cooperation of others. if people do not cooperate with the master, the master loses power. this loss can readily happen is a classroom when pupils do not cooperate with the teacher who is in control of the learning process. the teacher loses position power, feels threatened, and responds back with sanctions, disciplinary actions, and threats. the cycle of master over student is perpetuated, even when this is not the intention. abundance, voice, and sustainability principles in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 78 good stewardship requires careful consideration of the needs of others, and respect for their voices and contributions. it involves encouraging everyone to give generously of their time, talents and treasurers, rather than hoarding them, and assuming that things are scarce, and in demand. the former promotes sharing and collaboration while the latter promotes competition and isolation. stewardship is the experience of having one’s basic needs met in spite of scarce resources. it involves socializing people to believe that stewardship means being treated fairly while they assume responsibility for their membership in a moral community, one that seeks to care for the most people over the longest time (engel, 2000). this approach to socializing pupils is in direct contrast with the mastery notions of survival of the fittest, the economic concept of scarcity and the competitive paradigm winners get all, losers get what they deserve. knowledge management and relationship principles stewards are not concerned with information, per se. they have a special conception of knowledge. gottschalk (2002) provides a very useful distinction between information and knowledge. he notes that, while information can be stored on paper or in computers, knowledge can only be stored in the human brain. information becomes knowledge when the human brain processes it knowledge is what the knower knows. knowledge is information combined with one’s experiences, the context, one’s interpretation of that information, critical reflection on the information, and one’s intuition and creativity. stewards are not the owners of knowledge; rather, they are acting on behalf of others, to maintain and assure their future. they are holding the future in trust (sheldon, 2004). this is a very different approach than the assumption that humans have dominion over earth and others (i.e., the master’s paradigm). if educators were prepared to be stewards of knowledge, they would see themselves as caretakers of learning and teaching, rather than masters of information and facts. they would assume the responsibility of maintaining and enhancing the quality of knowledge shared with pupils in the school system, and in other learning environments. they would know that knowledge does not belong to anyone. it is meant to be shared, nurtured, and communicated widely. indeed, stewardship is a practice of giving back to others, because stewards know that relationships sustain everything. masters would assume that the relationship is one way, with the master being in control. trust, transparency, and letting-go principles stewardship is about the responsibility for taking good care of something or someone that is entrusted to one. to entrust is to hand over to someone for care. it is common for parents to see themselves entrusting their children to the school system, and for teachers to perceive in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 79 themselves as a trustee. while teachers are not trustees in the true sense (they are not unpaid volunteers), they can be perceived as holding a fiduciary position, requiring them to act for the pupils’ benefit within the scope of their relationship. in this role, educators acting as stewards are not looking for blind obedience, as is a master. they are looking for people with initiative who are doing what they do because they consider it a worthy objective for societal well-being. rather than controlling, the steward uses persuasion, openness, and transparency. rather than using one’s positional authority (e.g., a teacher in front of a class), the steward facilitates consensus building through convincing instead of using coercion, threats and punishment (spears, 2002). stewards rely on bravery, and forgiveness. they believe in letting go of control, letting go of ego, and involving those affected by the work. educators prepared to be stewards would create very empowering learning environments. they would create pupils (citizens) who are healthier, wiser, freer, and more autonomous (wheatley, 2004). stewards as leaders principle greenleaf (2002) developed the concept of servant leadership. one of the 11 characteristics of a servant leader is stewardship. he maintains that people are driven to be leaders so they can serve society better, not so they can increase their power over events, things and people (as would a master). they eschew the top-down hierarchical leadership style (so prevalent in today’s school system and classroom), and opt for collaboration, trust, empathy, listening, foresight, and the ethical use of power. their objective is to “serve others” while staying focused on achieving results in line with society’s, or an institution’s, values and integrity. graduate school could be designed so that educators have a chance to reflect on this leadership philosophy. a strong sense of stewardship would mean that educators (in their role as leaders) would appreciate that their idealistic vision of the future works even in today’s competitive world. summary and conclusion this paper assumed that, to build cultures of peace, people have to confront the issues of dominance, power, control, and dependency that perpetuate society. part of this process involves examining the labels used for graduates within the higher education system. this paper purposely took issue with the use of label masters of education. the intent was to unhook people from the tacit assumptions that are embedded in the current graduate school infrastructure. stewardship was offered as an alternative designation (destination?) to mastery. stewardship provides new language, metaphors, values, and principles. it opens the door for dialogue about how people “label” graduates from higher education institutions, and the power this label holds over them, and society. stewardship has ethical and moral dimensions. it implies a fiduciary role. a fiduciary acts with honesty and care, which are so urgently needed in society. stewards are entrusted to imaginatively generate new knowledge, and to critically conserve valuable and in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 80 useful ideas, the intellectual assets of a discipline, even a peaceful culture (golde & walker, 2006). this idea will not be palatable to everyone. block (1993) agrees, noting that stewardship is, simultaneously, a radical treatise as well as a useful lens from which to revise educational practices. in order for people to embrace this idea, they must be convinced that it is a welcomed ideal, but also that it can muster the test of the marketplace; it must be practical and economical. it must inspire educators to be citizens of the world. if recent work commissioned by the carnegie foundation (golde & walker, 2006) is any indication, the academy may be ready to bring the notion of stewardship to bear on the emergent dialogue in higher education about the meaning of degree designations. imagine people lining up to enroll in stewards of education degrees with the intent to build sustainable cultures of peace. a whole new generation of citizens would be socialized to value the principles of a culture of peace, simply by being taught to be stewards instead of masters. they would respect and value the principles of: sharing, personal mastery, cooperation, care, peace, progressiveness, responsibility, non-violence, justice, abundance, sustainability, voice, transparency, relationships, and trust. as fiduciaries of the stewardship ideal, holders of a steward of education degree would be models to be emulated as leaders for the 21st century. references block, p. (2003). stewardship: putting service ahead of self-interest. san francisco, ca: berrett-koehler. canadian association of graduate studies. (2004). the completion of graduate studies in canadian universities: report & recommendations. ottawa, on: author. retrieved from http://www.cags.ca/documents/publications/working/completion_grad_studies_2004.pdf catalyst inc. (2015, july 9). women in academia [web log post]. retrieved from http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-academia chilton, s. (1998, december 22). how do the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees differ? retrieved from university of minnesota website: http://www.d.umn.edu/~schilton/articles/bamaphd.html comer, d. (2011). notes on the phd degree. retrieved from purdue university website: http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.phd.html dictionary.com. (2015). masters. retrieved from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/masters?s=t elgar, f. (2003). phd degree completion in canadian universities. edmonton, ab: graduate students association of canada. retrieved from http://careerchem.com/career-info-academic/frank-elgar.pdf engel, j. r. (2000). earth spirituality is a many splendored thing. the journal of liberal religion, 1(2), in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 81 http://www.ibrarian.net/navon/paper/earth_spirituality_is_a_many_splendored_thing__ j_.pdf?paperid=3441352 ford, o. t. (ed.) (2004). the stewardship site: introduction. retrieved from the stewardship project website: http://the-stewardship.org/introduction.htm golde, c., & walker, g. (eds.). (2006). envisioning the future of doctoral education: preparing stewards of the discipline carnegie essays on the doctorate. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. gottschalk, p. (2002). a stages of growth model for knowledge management technology in law firms. online journal of information, law & technology, 7(2) http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/2002_2/gottschalk/ greenleaf, r. k. (2002). servant leadership (25th anniversary edition). mahwah, nj: paulist press. grey, d. (1999, march). knowledge mapping: a practical overview. talking culture, talking knowledge electronic journal. retrieved october 19, 2006, from http://www.smithweaversmith.com/knowledg2.htm and december 31, 2015 from http://www.360doc.com/content/06/0901/13/10199_196012.shtml harper, d. (2015). online etymology dictionary. lancaster, pa. retrieved from http://www.etymonline.com jacoby, d. (2001). apprenticeship in the united states. in r. whaples (ed.), eh. net encyclopedia. tucson, az: economics history association. retrieved from https://eh.net/encyclopedia/apprenticeship-in-the-united-states/ james, b. (2002). craft, trade or mystery. victoria, australia: takver. retrieved from http://www.takver.com/history/benefit/ctormys.htm knowles, a. s. (ed.). (1977). degrees, diplomas and certificates. in international encyclopedia of higher education, 4 (pp.1230-1241). san francisco, ca: jossey bass. mcgregor, s. l. t. (2006). transformative practice. okemos, mi: kappa omicron nu. mg taylor corporation. (1997). the learning path: five points of mastery. louisville, kt: author. pelcovitz, r. (2003). the jewish view of ecology. new york, ny: the coalition on the environment and jewish life. retrieved from http://www.coejl.org/resources/the-jewish-view-of-ecology/ redfield, j. (2003). october 5 sermon. retrieved october 19, 2006 from christ church grosse pointe website: http://www.christchurchgp.org/archive-sermon01.html sharp, g. (1973). the politics of non-violent action. manchester, nh: porter sargent. sheldon, j. k. (2004). christian stewardship, endangered species and the environment. retrieved from grinning planet website: http://www.grinningplanet.com/2004/07-13-2x/christian-stewardship-environmental-article.htm smoot, c. e. (2002). principles of stewardship [video]. retrieved from brigham young university web site: in factis pax volume 9 number 2 (2015): 66-82 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 82 https://video.byui.edu/media/calvin+e.+smoot+%22principles+of+stewardship%22/0_d is091cp/14336572 spears, l. c. (2002). on character and servant leadership. concepts & connections, 8(3) reprinted at http://www.regent.edu/acad/global/publications/jvl/vol1_iss1/spears_final.pdf spencer, l., & krauze, a. (1996). hegel for beginners. london, england: icon books. spurr, s. h. (1970). academic degree structures: innovative approaches, the carnegie commission on higher education. new york: ny: mcgraw-hill. wheatley, m. (2004). the servant-leader: from hero to host: an interview with margaret j. wheatley. in l. spears & m. lawrence (eds.), practicing servant-leadership (pp. 241-268). indianapolis, il: jossey-bass. wikipedia encyclopedia. (2015a). academic degree. san francisco, ca: wikipedia foundation. retrieved october 29, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/academic_degree#_ref-oxb_0 wikipedia encyclopedia. (2015b). apprenticeship. san francisco, ca: wikipedia foundation. retrieved october 29, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/apprenticeship wikipedia encyclopedia. (2015c). bachelor. san francisco, ca: wikipedia foundation. retrieved october 29, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bachelor wikipedia encyclopedia. (2015d). doctor of philosophy. san francisco, ca: wikipedia foundation. retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/phd wikipedia encyclopedia. (2015e). guild. san francisco, ca: wikipedia foundation. retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/guild wikipedia encyclopedia. (2015f). honorary degree. san francisco, ca: wikipedia foundation. retrieved october 29, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/honorary_doctorates wikipedia encyclopedia. (2015g). journeyman. san francisco, ca: wikipedia foundation. retrieved october 29, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/journeyman wikipedia encyclopedia. (2015h). master’s degree. san francisco, ca: wikipedia foundation. retrieved october 29, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/masters_degree wikipedia encyclopedia. (2015i). stewardship. san francisco, ca: wikipedia foundation. retrieved october 29, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stewardship havvakokrevisedpaperoverviewofunitybasedapproach   in  factis  pax    volume  2  number  2  (2008):  195-­206   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/         195     volume  2  number  2  (2008):  195-­206   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   overview of unity-based peace education and its possible implicatons for the cyprus conflict havva kök abstract this article examines the unity-based peace education approach as a new solution to the conflict in cyprus between turkish and greek communities. this approach may be helpful to the conflicting parties on the island with its premise that peace building can be reached and practiced through ‘building unity’. this assertion makes the unity-based peace approach unique among other peace/conflict resolution methods. in the first part, the cyprus conflict will be explained briefly. in the second part, the paper will provide a presentation of the unity-based peace approach and its comprising programs. the paper will conclude with an assessment of possible implications arising from the application of the unity-based peace programs to the cyprus conflict. cyprus conflict in brief   in  factis  pax    volume  2  number  2  (2008):  195-­206   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/         196   after its independence from britain in 1960, cyprus has continually faced problems between turkish and greek communities on the island. both sides have their own opposing stories and opinions regarding the conflict. the greek side argues that turkey unlawfully invaded the island in 1974 and illegally captured their territory. greeks also argue that they have sovereignty over the whole island, including the turkish administered north, but excluding british sovereign military bases. the turkish side believes that they were expelled from the administration of the republic of cyprus in 1963 by the greeks. turks also argue that turkey legally intervened and saved the turkish population as a guarantor state against the fascist military greek regime. although not internationally recognized the turks have their own administration in the north. given this situation we will focus not on political or military conflicts but on the relationships between the two communities. turks settled in the island after the 1571 conquest of the ottoman navy. ottoman administration liberated the greek orthodox population from the oppression of catholic administration they were experiencing at that time. it revitalized the greek orthodox church and gave authority to the church for the administration of the greek orthodox population. this administration style is known as the millet system in the ottoman empire. turkish and greek communities on the island lived peacefully during the ottoman (1571-1878) and the british (1878-1960) administrated periods. unfortunately between 1963 and 1974 the situation between the two communities deteriorated and a phase of armed conflicts between civilians began. after the 1974 intervention by turkey, the turkish and greek populations started to live separately on the divided island. it is important to recall that as a result of the ottoman millet system the two communities were not integrated. they always had their own schools, education and jurisdiction systems. british administration and the 1960 constitution kept this situation for the sake of maintaining a balance between the two communities. however, greek and turkish nationalism was the dominant ideology in the community schools and students were educated according to the dreams of these nationalists. the results were unsurprisingly hatred, armed conflict, mass killings, ethnic cleansing and separatism.   in  factis  pax    volume  2  number  2  (2008):  195-­206   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/         197   it is important to note that the two communities in cyprus, and their motherlands, have completely different perceptions of the conflict i.e. ‘the struggle for liberation’ ended in 1974 for the turkish cypriots and began then for greek cypriots. since 1974, numerous attempts at mediation by the un to achieve a reunified state on the island have failed. there is still a deep distrust between the two communities (see richmond, 1999; eralp & beriker, 2005, hadjipavlou, 2007). therefore it is proposed that the unity-based peace approach, with its unique worldview approach, may be useful in providing a solution to the conflict. what is unity-based peace education? unity-based peace education is a model developed by h.b. danesh (2008)i which aims to build a “civilization of peace” (p. 147). defining conflict as “the absence of unity”, danesh & danesh 2002 postulate that peace results from a full application of a unity-based worldview to all aspects of life (p. 63). the unity-based peace education model offers two critiques of other peace and conflict theories. one is that since most current approaches to conflict “focus on conflict as an inherent and, therefore, an unavoidable and even necessary aspect of human life”… their primary “raison d'etre—to study the nature of peace and the dynamics of peace building” is abandoned. (danesh & danesh, 2002, p. 64). the second critique is that “most theories of peace do not place adequate emphasis on the process of peace building and the development of the inherent capacities of individuals, institutions, communities, civil society, and governments, both to prevent violence and to create harmonious relationships” (p. 65). danesh (2006) writes, “we teach our children much more about conflict and war than harmony and peace. consequently, every new generation repeats the mistakes of former generations, and conflict and violence become permanent facets of human societies” (p. 58). basic premises of unity-based peace education there are three basic premises of unity-based peace education: the concept of unity, worldview, and individual and collective human development (danesh, 2008).   in  factis  pax    volume  2  number  2  (2008):  195-­206   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/         198   1-concept of unity: the first premise is that unity, not conflict, should be understood as the main force in human relationships. it is defined as “(…) a purposeful integration of two or more unique entities in a state of harmony and cooperation, resulting in the creation of a new, evolving entity, usually of a higher order” (danesh & clarke-habibi, 2007, p. 4). unity-based peace education claims that if unity is applied to all aspects of biological, psychological, social, moral, and spiritual life, “conflicts are often prevented or easily resolved” (danesh, 2006, p. 69). 2-worldview: the second premise relates to the role of worldviews in conflict. according to a unitybased peace education approach, “our worldviews shape how we perceive, interpret, understand and respond to the realities around us. worldviews shape all that we think, do, or consider to be normal or abnormal and acceptable and unacceptable” (danesh & clarke-habibi, p. 30). danesh (2006) states that there are three main worldview categories: the survival-based (authoritarian), identity -based (adversarial) and unity-based (integrative) worldviews. they “are identified within the parameters of psychosocial developmental stages roughly corresponding to those of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. both survival-based and identity-based worldviews revolve around the issue of power—dominance and power-struggle, respectively—and are highly prone to conflict and violence” (danesh, 2008, pp. 5-6). these two worldviews have predominated in global politics to date and are strongly defended as a necessity by those who adhere to them. they are, however, basically conflictual and foster more conflict, aggression, violence, poverty, and injustice. therefore, humanity needs a new more mature worldview (danesh, 2006). the unity-based worldview, as its name suggests, considers cooperation rather than conflict to be the fundamental law operating in healthy human relationships. it is based on the underlying belief in the integrity of humanity and, according to danesh, it symbolizes the age of maturity of human societies and allows them to follow the principle of “unity in diversity”   in  factis  pax    volume  2  number  2  (2008):  195-­206   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/         199   (danesh & clarke-habibi, 2007, p. 5). it is very rigorous in that it requires the application of universal ethical principles at all levels of governance and leadership, ensuring that the basic human needs are met through the rule of law and moral/ ethical principles. the unity-based worldview creates an environment in which the proper use of power and empowerment of people—both essential for survival and formation of identities—take place within the framework of unified and caring personal and group relationships (see danesh & danesh, 2004, pp. 55–84). 3individual and collective human development the third premise of unity-based peace education is that “human development takes place on the axis of consciousness and matures in response to our ever-increasing understanding about the nature of self and others in the context of life. consciousness shapes both our worldview and the manner in which we engage in the task of creating a civilization based on this worldview” (danesh, 2007, p. 14). all human beings and societies pass through the stages of infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood and evolve towards a collective maturity (danesh, 2007a, p. 15). according to danesh & danesh (2004) conflict, insecurity, power-struggles and competition indicate the early stages in the development of human beings and societies (survival and identity based worldviews). the acquired capacity to create unity in the face of diversity, to establish relationships based on truthfulness and respect, and to provide administration with the aims of service and justice, is indicative of a mature society. with increasing awareness comes the development of more integrative and peace-oriented worldviews. this process alters not only ourselves, but also the nature of all of our relationships. “the unity-based (integrative) worldview considers unity rather than conflict to be the primary law operating in human life and relationships” (danesh, 2007a, p. 10), which transforms not only ourselves, but also the nature of all of our relationships. in other words, a peace-oriented worldview requires us to start by establishing peace within ourselves and in our relations with others, in order to be able to contribute constructively to create peace and unity in our cultures and societies.   in  factis  pax    volume  2  number  2  (2008):  195-­206   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/         200   why is changing worldviews so important in the quest for peace? given that the cyprus problem seems to be at an impasse due to the intransigence of the two parties and their different perceptions of the problem, it seems that changing the individual and collective worldviews from conflict-based to peace-based orientations needs more elaboration. diederik aerts et al. (2007) defines a worldview as “a frame of reference” (p. 9) that allows us to coordinate different aspects of the world in a meaningful way. it is like “a geographic map” (p. 7), which provides a way for us to act logically and conscientiously  in this world. models have to be built that integrate our values and aspirations with our knowledge of both human nature and the natural world. where an effort to create integration is not applied, events take their own path, by default, and responsibility for obtaining positive outcomes is effectively abdicated. such integration of the personal with the political can “also give a new dimension to our emotional, aesthetic and spiritual connection with the whole” (p. 11). if we look at the twenty three project proposalsii collected by aerts et al. (2007), we can understand that the construction of worldviews is not an easy enterprise. worldview construction consists of the attempt to develop worldviews that take into account as much as possible all aspects of our experience. what we also see from such a collection of various worldview construction proposals is that despite pointing in many directions, they “all look for the unity of the universe in order to discover the meaning of life” (diederik aerts et al., 2007, p. 40). according to danesh & danesh (2002, p. 67), our worldviews reflect how people, as individuals or groups, “(a) shape the conflicts they experience and (b) impact their behavior and choices in attempting resolution. however we are only partially conscious of them, even though they very much influence everything we think, feel and do”. van slyck, stern and elbedour (1999 in clarke-habibi, 2005) assert that the predominant outlook of most people is conflictoriented. “indeed, conflict-oriented worldviews are so firmly positioned as the norm in our societies that they pass undetected even when interwoven into peace education lessons, let alone   in  factis  pax    volume  2  number  2  (2008):  195-­206   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/         201   other issues, discussions and activities that occupy us on a daily basis. the result is a perpetuation of cultures of conflict in which people feel themselves to be conflicted, engage in conflicts at home and at work, prepare themselves and their children for future conflicts, and recount their past conflicts in cultural and historical narratives (clarke-habibi 2005, p. 40). if turkish and greek communities want a peaceful outcome to the cyprus conflict, they must address the issue of their personal worldviews and, more importantly, aim to transform the social and political environment from a conflict-oriented to a peace-oriented one. how to change worldview? according to g. bateson (1972), one’s worldview transforms through a process of reflection which “question[s] the data and assumptions used to conduct one’s life, whether consciously or unconsciously, [in order] to adopt new constructions of reality, life goals, and moral obligations. such questioning may produce broad changes in a person’s life, leading to quite different worldviews. however, frequently people and organizations make changes and adopt new learning without recognition of the process by which they have chosen new worldviews” (cited in clarke-habibi, 2005, p. 40). the challenge of worldview transformation can be both accelerated and facilitated by considering the nature and dynamics of human individual and collective development. “the formation of a worldview is a process that usually takes place at a subconscious level through our life experiences at home, in schools and within our respective cultures. thus, in every generation the majority adopts the worldview of the previous generation, and only a small percentage of individuals consciously attempt to adopt a different worldview" (danesh, 2007a, p. 11). unity-based peace education offers to change worldviews through two interrelated ways. the first is a process of reflection related to four key elements of all worldviews which is then applied to the four levels of human experience: self, family, society and world. the key questions in the process of reflection are: what is reality? what is human nature? what is the   in  factis  pax    volume  2  number  2  (2008):  195-­206   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/         202   main purpose of human life? what are the laws governing human relationships? it claims that simple and profound questions that direct the learners to think critically about their identity, purpose in life, assumptions about the world around them, and their role in creating a peaceful civilization will form a foundation for constructive peace building (danesh & clarke-habibi, 2007, pp. 340-346). the second process is through the implementation of unity-based peace programs (known also as education for peace or “efp” programs) to cultivate the application of a comprehensive unity-based peace vision within a community. through the international education for peace institute (efp-international), founded by h. b. danesh, and its sister institutes, the following four interrelated unity-based programs have been implemented in various contexts since 1997: a) conflict-free conflict resolution (cfcr): “cfcr is a dynamic process that encourages the participants to adopt new thinking and understanding of the nature of conflict along with actions and efforts taken to resolve it peacefully. it is a peace-based, non-adversarial, consultative process of decision-making that moves beyond traditional methods of conflict resolution by fixing unity as its goal” it. (efpinternational, p. 5) it offers training opportunities in the principles and skills of conflict prevention and peaceful conflict resolution for citizens and leaders at local, regional, national, international, and global levels. this peace-based approach to conflict resolution has been implemented in many governmental, non-governmental, and business institutions in africa, europe, india, and north america. cfcr has been and is being taught in universities and institutions of higher learning in austria, switzerland, canada, and bosnia herzegovina (efpinternational). b) education for peace (efp): this program aims to educate current and subsequent generations of the world’s children and youth with the help of their parents, teachers, and other educators (e.g. the media)—to   in  factis  pax    volume  2  number  2  (2008):  195-­206   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/         203   become peacemakers. it has been implemented in bosnia-herzegovina by the international education for peace institute (efp-international) and its sister agency, the education for peace institute of the balkans (efp-balkans) since june 2000 and has yielded significant positive results (for case studies see clarke-habibi, 2005; danesh, 2007b).iii c) leadership for peace (lfp): lfp aims to create forums for the leaders at all levels, from local to global, to study and implement the principles of peaceful governance in their respective communities and institutions (efp-international, p. 2). this program complements and reinforces the efforts of school communities that are engaged in the education for peace program. it has been used for training of governmental and civic leaders and administrators in bosnia herzegovina, hungary, canada, switzerland, and the united states. in 2005, efp-international together with the undp/saci program in southern africa held a number of executive leadership training workshops for middle and high-level officials of the malawi civil service, civic leaders, and elected government representatives at local and national levels (efp-international, p. 3). d) youth peacebuilders network (ypn) ypn is an emerging network of youth, mobilized as leaders to their peers, with the goal of creating violence-free, peaceful schools, neighborhoods, and communities. ypn has been implemented in schools in new york, washington dc, boston, boulder, and seattle in the united states and vancouver, burnaby, abbotsford, mission, victoria, and iqualuit in canada (efp-international, pp. 2-5). what is unique about these programs (cfcr, efp, lfp and ypn) is that they fix unity as their ultimate goal by providing participants with new insights and tools founded on worldviews and approaches that are peace-based, non-adversarial, and consultative. in doing so, they move beyond traditional methods of peace creation and conflict resolution (efpinternational, p. 7) and suggest the creation of unique communities characterized by a “culture of   in  factis  pax    volume  2  number  2  (2008):  195-­206   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/         204   peace, healing and excellence” which together comprise the essentials of “a civilization for peace” (danesh & clarke-habibi, 2005, p. 276). conclusion the success of the unity-based peace education approach so far has been due to its allencompassing and ambitious aims to work through the process of human development. this perspective is based on what danesh & danesh (2002, p. 66) call a “unity paradigm”. a unitycentered paradigm is one that recognizes the truth that “we, as human beings, are simultaneously psychological, social, political, ethical, and spiritual beings; that human nature is essentially developmental; and that the primary challenge of life is to increase our capacity to create unityin-diversity within ourselves, our relationships and the world-at-large” (clarke-habibi, 2005, p. 40). the comprehensive approach offered by the unity-based peace programs provide a new and promising method to build peace and trust between greeks and turks in cyprus. by transforming personal worldviews through these programs, it opens a new way to look at strategies and solutions which will take all needs, on both sides, into account. references aerts, d., apostel, l., de moor, b., hellemans, s., maex, e., van belle, h. (2007). worldviews from fragmentation to integration, brussels: vup press, http://www.vub.ac.be/clea/pub/books/worldviews.pdf. bar-tal, d. (2002). “the elusive nature of peace education”. in g. salomon and b. nevo (eds.), peace education: the concept, principles and practices in the world, pp. 27-36. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum. bateson, g. (1972). steps to an ecology of the mind. new york: ballantine in s. clarke-habibi (2005) “transforming worldviews: the case of education for peace in bosnia and herzegovina”. journal of transformative education. 3(1), pp. 33-56.   in  factis  pax    volume  2  number  2  (2008):  195-­206   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/         205   brabeck, k. (2001). justification for and implementation of peace education. peace and conflict: journal of peace psychology. 7, pp. 85-87. clarke-habibi, s. 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(october 2008), epu leadership for peace course materials, european peace university (epu). danesh, h.b. and clarke-habibi, s. (2007). education for peace curriculum manual: a conceptual and practical guide, vol.1, vancouver: efp press. danesh, h.b. and danesh, r.p. (2002). “has conflict resolution grown up?: toward a new model of decision making and conflict resolution”. international journal of peace studies. 7(1), pp. 59-76. danesh, h.b. and danesh, r.p. (2004). “conflict-free conflict resolution (cfcr): process and methodology”. peace and conflict studies. 11(2), pp. 55–84.   in  factis  pax    volume  2  number  2  (2008):  195-­206   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/         206   deutsch, m. (1993). educating for a peaceful world. american psychologist. 48, pp. 510-517. efp-international (international education for peace institute), (no date). efp brochure, towards a civilization of peace. eralp, d. u. and beriker, n. (2005). “assessing the conflict resolution potential of the eu: the cyprus conflict and accession negotiations”. security dialogue. 36, pp. 175-192. hadjipavlou, m. (2007). “the cyprus conflict: root causes and implications for peacebuilding”. journal of peace research. 44( 3), pp. 349–365. johnson, m.l. (1998). trends in peace education. eric digest. ed417123. reardon, betty a. (2000). “peace education: a review and protection”. in bob moon, b. a. reardon. education for a culture of peace in a gender perspective. unesco: geneva, pp.5-197. richmond, o. (1999). “the cyprus conflict, changing norms of international society, and regional disjunctures”, cambridge review of international affairs. 13 (1), pp. 239-253.                                                                                                                             i i was honored to be the student of hossain and roshan danesh at european peace university in 2008 during my peace and conflict studies education.   ii proposal i: invariants, symmetries, and constants; proposal ii: variation: the arrow of time; proposal iii: unitary theories; proposal iv: holisms; proposal v: pluralisms; proposal vi: one and many systems; proposal vii: fundamental categories; proposal viii: organisation and self-organisation. cybernetics; proposal ix: comparative study of origins: cosmogenesis, biogenesis, and anthropogenesis; proposal x: topology of world views; proposal xi: world views and value systems; proposal xii: purposes and externality-principles; proposal xiii: nature and value; proposal xiv: order or chaos. determinism or indeterminism; proposal xv: consciousness and group as models of reality; proposal xvi: world views and the history of science; proposal xvii: praxiology: theory and action; proposal xviii: the control of complexity; proposal xix: the dialogue of language games; proposal xx: models of the future; proposal xxi: general anthropology; proposal xxii: in search of an integrated medicine; proposal xxiii: psychiatry and our image of man. for brief explanations see pp.29-39.     in  factis  pax    volume  2  number  2  (2008):  195-­206   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/         207                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           iii education for peace in bosnia herzegovina is has been very successful. “it began its work in june 2000 by launching a two-year pilot project of education for peace in three primary and three secondary schools in bosnia and herzegovina (bih), with the participation of more than 400 teachers and school staff, 6,000 students and their parents/guardians. the project had the support of education ministries, municipal leaders, and international authorities. the primary aim of the project was to create a culture of peace, a culture of healing, and a culture of excellence within and among the participating school communities representing the three main ethnic populations— bosniak (muslim), croat (catholic), and serb (orthodox christianity)—in the highly conflicted post-war bosnia and herzegovina. the pilot program yielded significant positive results and gained the recognition and endorsement of all stakeholders: participating school communities, all thirteen ministries of education and eight pedagogical institutes, as well as the international community in bih. since 2004 several of the efp programs have been introduced into schools in both canada and in the united states: a ministry approved efp course for grades 10, 11, and 12 in schools in the fraser-cascade school district of british columbia. “efp-comprehensive” program is being applied to the whole school community in bolder prep high school in boulder colorado”. efp brochure (no date) international education for peace institute (efp-international), towards a civilization of peace, p.2-5.   williams in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 152-165 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 160 volume 2 number 1 (2008): 160-165 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ book review bajaj, m. (ed.) (2008). encyclopedia of peace education. charlotte, north carolina: information age publishing, inc. isbn: 978-1-59311-898-3 reviewed by hakim a. williams, m.a., ed.m. international educational development, concentration in peace education teachers college, columbia university. peace education itself is a contested term; its conceptions, and thus its manifestations, are quite varied. this is why this succinct volume proves to be so timely; it aims to “provide greater nuance to debates around peace education” (p. 2). despite its daunting title, this volume is not presented as an authoritative stranglehold, but rather, as a way of historicizing the field of peace education, highlighting major conceptual threads and identifying the exciting prospects for the future of the field. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 152-165 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 161 the volume is divided into four sections: i) the historical emergence of influences on peace education, ii) foundational perspectives in peace education, iii) core concepts in peace education and iv) frameworks and new directions for peace education. within section i, ian harris chronicles the advent of the modern peace movement from the 19th century onwards. it singles out the prominent impact that world wars i and ii have had on the evolution of the peace movement, and on the creation of peace research and peace education. although harris admits that peace education has not achieved mainstream status in schools, he does acknowledge that its conceptualization has so sufficiently widened that it stands very viable for future expansion. john dewey and his role in peace education is the focus of the second article by charles howlett. dewey’s instrumentalist and progressive view of education as per its role in the global creation of peace is well illumined in his focus on curricular contextualization as a way of deflating nationalism and domestic intolerance, while augmenting “world patriotism” (p. 29). maria montessori’s contribution to peace education is detailed by cheryl duckworth. she notes montessori’s ardent belief in the benefits of child-led learning and a focus on the equal vitality of the spiritual and moral dimensions of the educative enterprise: global citizenship, the fostering of imagination, and the acquisition of problem solving skills; all of which are necessary to democratic peace building. the final article of section i by lesley bartlett highlights the immense impact that paolo freire has rendered upon the field of peace education. the characterization of education as a form of politics, the problematization of the ‘banking model’ of education, the centrality of dialogue to critical consciousness and the in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 152-165 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 162 inextricable bonding of reflection and action to engender praxis all speak to the freirean influence on contemporary peace education. section ii commences with johan galtung’s article on the form and content of peace education. he states the epistemological consequences for peace education’s ‘lagging behind’ peace research and peace action, while also highlighting a major conundrum for the field by addressing the fact that peace education’s advances toward societal transformation may be dimmed because many ‘forms’ of peace education are still structurally violent despite the progressive evolutions in ‘content’. he posits that peace education, research and action have to work in tandem so as to foster a “strong formula for content” (p. 53). magnus haavelsrud, in the next article, addresses three components of the “educational problematic” that may assist in dispelling some of the wide conceptual disagreements over what is ‘peace education’: content, method of communication and organizational structure of the educational program (p. 59). through the classic ‘which came first? the chicken or the egg?’ lens, haavelsrud frames the debate of whether structural transformation must precede the introduction of peace education content or vice versa. dale snauwaert addresses the moral and spiritual aspects of peace education by commencing with political realism’s myopic denial of morality in international relations; he posits that peace education challenges this orthodoxy to enlarge the view of “human flourishing” (p. 68). this deeper perspective therefore has global implications for a set of correlative duties and obligations, as per human rights. james page rounds out section ii by focusing on how peace education’s basic premises, goals and aims are all in synchrony with, and in some cases, even emanated from or informed, the united nations charter, subsequent in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 152-165 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 163 covenants, declarations and member organizations. despite the un’s mostly symbolic power, page acknowledges the influence that the un has wielded in the global dissemination of peace education. nel noddings, in section iii, elaborates on the role of caring theory in peace education. in focusing on the boundedness of the dyadic ‘cared-for’ and ‘carer’, she susses out the dialogical necessity of fostering and sustaining a healthy relationship; the constancy of dialogue is always guided by reciprocity and mutuality. carl mirra pays special attention to ‘militarism’ in his article. militarism’s exclusion of alternative solutions to the world’s problems presents opportunities for peace education; peace research can assist in countering the seemingly irrefutable claims that violence/war is instinctual to humans, allowing peace education to boldly re-define “human security” (p. 96). felisa tibbitts’s article notes possible explanations for the global spread of human rights education (hre): increased globalization, united nations promotion of human rights and democratic citizenship, prior movements (such as the disarmament movement) and the increase in number and influence of non-governmental organizations. she notes that hre has both normative and legal dimensions, and can be transmitted through diverse kinds of pedagogy. lynn davies tackles an equally contested subject as peace education: global citizenship education (gce). she posits that gce implies an ethics of “rights and responsibilities, duties and entitlements” (p. 110) which overrides artificial national boundaries, despite the fact that human rights standards, although created at a global level, are still enacted at a local level. gce directed towards peace becomes inherently political; its success requires knowledge, analysis, skills and action, all working together. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 152-165 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 164 section iv commences with robin burns’s theorizing peace education’s linkage with and location within the field of comparative and international education (cie). by tracing the bifurcated history of comparative education and international education to their contemporary, multidisciplinary configuration, she notes how absent peace education has been from official cie journals. cie’s critique of globalization offers peace education an opportunity to gain increased prominence. david hicks posits that peace education can benefit from futures education by asking “where do we want to get to?” and “how do we get there?” (p. 128); futures education, with both its technical (predictive) and humanist inclinations, challenges peace educators to envision “probable and possible futures” (p. 132). monisha bajaj argues for a “reclaimed critical peace education” (p. 135), one that is focused on structural inequality and how people can harness transformative agency towards the dissolution of such inequity. she calls for increased peace research on power, domination and symbolic violence, which would in turn tender the field of peace education more scholarly rigor. h. b. danesh concludes this volume with a call for a unity-based peace education; one that displaces ‘conflict’ and conflict management as the core raison d’être of peace studies. he makes the claim for an integrated peace theory, which has already been implemented in a few areas around the world. this encyclopedia is quite readable and offers a panoramic view of peace education; it makes a good starting point, but because of its size, one would have to refer to other texts/sources to secure ‘deeper knowledges’ about the various topics covered. however, therein lies the pedagogical genius of this volume: it practices what it preaches. in offering such a wide conceptual view of the field of peace education and offering readers a set of questions before in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 152-165 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 165 each section, the volume simultaneously challenges you to engage its text critically and to subsequently embark upon an expedition to seek out further answers, in true freirean style! thayer-bacon manuscript -#v5.5-4 volume 5 number 3 (2011): 307-319 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 307 volume 5 number 3 (2011): 307-319 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ maria montessori: education for peace barbara thayer-bacon introduction the year i earned my elementary montessori teaching license is the same year i became a single mother with three children, ages 2-7, living in a home i could no longer afford on my meager income.1 i could only afford to stay in my large victorian home if i rented out a bedroom or two, so i advertised in the local paper and had a college athlete inquire about renting a room, for at $100/month including utilities, two blocks from campus; it was a steal! this american soccer (football) player was excited about the possibility of living in our home as we interviewed each other, however, he returned the next day to inform me his coach had forbidden him from renting a room from me. “really?” i responded, incredulously. “why?” “because you are a montessori teacher,” he informed me, sheepishly. i was dumbfounded! most american’s associate montessori schools with pre-school age children, or maybe children with special needs, and neither association causes concerns. i asked, “who is your coach?” the soccer player informed me he was an elderly man from germany. i searched my memory for what i had recently learned about dr. montessori’s history in my training program and asked: “was he worried about me being a liberal or a fascist?” the answer was, “fascist.” i thanked him for coming by and at least letting me know the reason i’d lost a renter. the german college soccer coach’s strong response to my being a montessori teacher was such a surprise at the time. i didn’t consider what i was doing to be very dangerous. however, clearly he did! it’s that danger i want to explore in this paper. i plan to describe the history of the montessori education movement, in the context of the political times within which she worked. they are extraordinary times as montessori became the first licensed female volume 5 number 3 (2011): 307-319 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 308 medical doctor in 1896, she opened the first casa dei bambini in 1907, and was nominated for a nobel peace prize the last three years of her life, before she passed away in 1952. during her lifetime of work, she proceeded to try to establish schools and train teachers throughout the world with the aim of helping children reach their full potentials and learn how to live together in harmony and peace, while war was raging all around her [world war i (1914-18), the spanish civil war (1936-39), world war ii (1939-45)]. montessori considered her schools to be like extensions of home, and she thought she could separate education (in the home and in the school) from the politics of governments. she sought to not take a political stand or get involved in the political issues of her times, but suffered continually the affects of that declared neutrality. it was her belief in separation of children’s education from politics that caused her to spend most of her adult life moving from place to place, and to find herself having to be rescued from a civil war in spain by a british cruiser in 1936, working for mussolini’s ministers of education between world war i and ii, and interned in india in 1940 throughout the rest of ww ii as an enemy alien when india entered the war while she was there to conduct teacher training courses. she lived out the end of her life with holland (today’s netherlands) as her home base while she continued to offer training programs and attend conferences in various locations. i seek to further develop a concept of democracy-always-in-the-making that underscores the transactional relationship that exists between the public and private, and between the political and the educational worlds in which we live. sharing montessori’s story will help me demonstrate the impossibility of her position, that put her in a situation where the germans associate her with mussolini and fascism, yet one of the first things the nazis did as wwii broke out was close down the montessori schools in germany and austria for they were perceived as a national threat; they taught children to be independent, self-assured, self-directed, caring, critically thinking, democratic citizens. the soccer coach was right, i was a potential dangerous influence to his athlete, but not for the reasons he held, that i might be a fascist, instead because being around me might have encouraged his student to think for himself.2 maria montessori and la casa dei bambini maria montessori’s (1870 1952) public story of becoming the first female in italy to graduate from the university of rome’s medical school in 1896 and become a licensed medical doctor is well known (kramer 1976, standing 1957/1998). upon graduation from medical school, dr. montessori replaced a surgical assistant at santo spirito, where the previous year she had worked as a medical assistant. she also continued doing research at the university of rome, started a private practice, and during this time (1896-1906) occupied the chair of hygiene at one of two women’s colleges in italy (magistero femminile, in rome), and served as a permanent external examiner in the faculty of pedagogy there. in 1897 dr. montessori joined the staff at the university of rome as a voluntary assistant doctor at the psychiatric clinic (because she was a woman she was only allowed to be in a voluntary role). part of dr. montessori’s duty at the psychiatric clinic was to visit rome’s asylums for the insane in order to select subjects that were suitable for the clinic. her interest in “idiot children” was triggered by her exposure to the conditions with which they lived, for they were housed with the adults in the asylums and no effort was made to care for them, beyond keeping them alive.3 montessori offered medical care for the “feebleminded children,” based on a strong interest in children’s diseases that had volume 5 number 3 (2011): 307-319 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 309 developed for her while in medical school. however, the more she came in contact with the children and had the chance to observe them, the more she began to view their problem of mental deficiency as a pedagogical problem rather than a medical one. during the 1897-1900 time frame dr. montessori searched for information concerning efforts by other doctors to try to educate “feebleminded children.” it is important to note that she approached this search for educational advise through the field of medicine, not through the field of education. montessori was a scientist first and foremost, and only came into the field of education through the back door of science. throughout her career she approaches the education of the child as a scientist, observing children intently and making intuitive hypotheses about their behavior that she proceeds to test out in the classroom, treating the classroom like a laboratory. her insights about special education and early childhood education are often credited to the fact that she was not encumbered by preexisting educational assumptions that she avoided because she was not trained as a teacher, but instead as a doctor. she discovered work in france by two doctors, jean-marc-gaspard itard (1775-1838) and edouard seguin (1812-1880), itard’s student, who wrote about their efforts to educate deaf children. itard, as a young medical student at the national institute of the deaf in france, worked with a very famous student, victor, the wild boy of aveyron, and he published reports about his efforts to civilize victor and teach him language. montessori translated their work into italian by hand, so that she could absorb their lessons. dr. montessori worked with another assistant doctor at the psychiatric clinic, dr. giuseppe montesano, who also shared her interest in “deprived children,” and they published some reports together about the lack of adequate care for “retarded and disturbed” children. montessori was invited to give a series of lectures in rome on the education of the feebleminded, as a result of her publications, and she used these lectures as a chance to urge for special courses for teachers in pedagogical methods designed for “the retarded.” the success of these lectures earned her invitations to give more lectures on similar topics in turin, milan, padua, venice, and genoa, and even in london. during the time period 1898-1900 dr. montessori was writing articles and giving lectures to help raise awareness of the need for better care for the children in the asylums, as well as maintaining a private practice, dr. montesano became chief physician of the rome mental asylum. in 1900 drs. montessori and montesano were appointed co-directors of a new school, the orthophrenic school, where children from the asylums were placed. the two doctors worked closely together developing a teacher-training program for the education of “feebleminded children” that became highly successful. the school was set up like a teaching hospital. montessori began designing materials similar to what itard and seguin described that she would test out to see if the children in the school were drawn to them or not, and at what age. the materials were designed to be attractive, self-correcting, and sequential, with basic concepts isolated for ease of understanding. the basic concepts such as rough/smooth, long/short, were taught through materials that relied on the children’s senses, such as sight, taste, smell, and especially touch. to everyone’s surprise, the education program montessori developed worked so well that several of the “defective children” learned how to read and write and were able to volume 5 number 3 (2011): 307-319 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 310 pass the state examinations with above-average scores. montessori became famous for this educational feat. for dr. montessori, her successes with educating “idiot children” caused her to wonder about the education system “normal children” were experiencing in italy. she knew her children who scored so well on the state exams were mentally challenged, and so she wondered, what was wrong with the normal children’s education system that they were not doing better? this became the problem that absorbed her. for dr. montessori, this was a scientific question, which became a hypothesis she sought to test out: will my teaching methods that i have used with “defective” children help “normal” children learn more as well? montessori resigned her position at the orthophrenic school of rome in 1901 and returned to school to study the mind instead of the body, and to educate herself about normal children. she enrolled in anthropology, where the new field of psychology was housed. she also studied educational philosophy, all that she thought would help her understand the reasons why schools were failing normal children. in 1904 she was offered a job teaching as a professor of anthropology at the university of rome. a building society in rome that was backed by the principal banks in italy built a housing project for lowincome level families in the san lorenzo slum district and discovered they had a problem. while most of the parents were away during the day working, their younger children not yet in school were not being supervised. they were free to roam the buildings and they were defacing the property. the authorities that owned the buildings decided to bring all sixty children together in one room and pay someone to supervise them. one of those responsible for the san lorenzo project recalled reading about dr. montessori’s work in a magazine and decided that she would be the best person to direct the supervision of the young children. montessori accepted the offer as she saw this as an opportunity to work with normal children and test out her pedagogical theory with them. to montessori (1912, p. 43), “the work seemed to offer tremendous possibilities of development,” however her friends couldn’t understand how she could involve herself in such insignificant work and her medical colleagues were equally disapproving, equating this job to child care, not science (kramer 1976). in january, 1907 montessori opened the first casa dei bambini which served as an extended home for the children as they spent the entire day there, including for the main, midday meal. she hired a young woman with no training as a teacher to be the teacher in the classroom, wanting someone who would not bring her own preconceptions of what a teacher is suppose to do to the classroom. montessori charged the “directress,” as she preferred to call her, with the task of observing the children instead of trying to be an authority in charge of the children. the children were free to move around the room at will and choose what they wanted to do. the directress’s task was to note the children’s interests and behavior, what material they were attracted to and how they functioned in the room. montessori had a friend make child size tables and chairs for the room, instead of using desks, and she introduced the children to the selfcorrecting didactic materials she had developed for the “feebleminded” children. several of her patron friends donated toys for the children to play with, but the children chose to work with the didactic materials over playing with the toys. the children were like little explorers, hungry to learn, and they settled right in and began to work in earnest. montessori began testing out more academic materials that she designed, as well as introducing more practical life activities, such as volume 5 number 3 (2011): 307-319 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 311 teaching the children how to tie their shoes and dress through the manipulation of button, zipper, and snap frames, and prepare and serve their mid-day meal. much to everyone’s surprise, montessori discovered that preschool age children have a strong desire to learn, and that they can learn on their own, if placed in an environment that allows them the opportunity to do so. montessori’s school became so successful and well known that heads of state and royalty traveled to italy to see her school where young children were learning to care for their environment, themselves, and each other, as well as learning how to read and write. by 1908 dr. montessori was world famous, “for having discovered the world within the child” (standing 1957). she resigned her position in anthropology at the university of rome in 1908 because the demands on her time were becoming so great, and she thought that if she was not under university obligation she would have more freedom to develop her pedagogy as she thought it should be. she began training teachers, opening more schools for low-income children in italy, and writing books. her first book, the montessori method, written in italian in 1909, appeared in english in 1912 and sold out the first edition of 5,000 copies in four days. by summer it was on its sixth edition and was a best-seller. her book was translated into chinese, danish, dutch, french, german, japanese, polish, romanian, russian, and spanish. in january, 1913 montessori ran her first international teacher training program with students from all over the world (germany, switzerland, ireland, australia, africa, india, and england, including 67 students from the u.s.) who went back to their home countries to start montessori schools. by the end of 1913 there were nearly 100 montessori schools in america and the system of education was well known enough to be the subject of controversy. from montessori’s perspective, she was deeply concerned about those who wrote about her method of education without understanding of it, those who started montessori educational associations without her authorization, and those who opened schools with teachers who had not been trained by her in the methodology. the excitement about her work was beyond her ability to control, as much as she tried, in an effort to assure quality schools. mr. mcclure, a publisher from the u.s., helped to introduce dr. montessori to the u.s. public through several essays he commissioned for publication in mcclure’s magazine during 1911-12 year. in december 1913, mr. mcclure hosted and escorted her for a speaking tour in america. the first woman licensed as a medical doctor began to find herself bombarded by requests from people like mcclure who sought to make money from her discoveries. over and over she was promised support for the establishment of an institute or college, teacher training program, as well as schools, in order for her to continue her research efforts, only to have personal and/or political events get in the way of patrons meeting those promises, or, when the patrons sought to take control over her work, montessori would withdraw from the agreement. when montessori left the usa to return to italy on christmas eve from a three-week lecture tour in 1913, it seemed that america would be the first country to experiment with the montessori system on a large scale, but it was not to be, america’s interest in her work was at its height in 1913-14 and “would never again in her lifetime be as great” (kramer 1976, p. 203). in 1915 there were over 100 montessori schools in the usa and many more opened in the rest of the world, however the combination of several political events (wwi started in 1914) as well as a critique of her work published by a disciple of john dewey’s, william kilpatrick (1914), had a significant impact on america’s reception to montessori schools. kilpatrick wrote volume 5 number 3 (2011): 307-319 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 312 the montessori system examined in 1914, based on an examination of the english translation of montessori’s (1912) the montessori method, and an observation of a montessori classroom in rome.4 kramer (1976) dedicates a chapter of her biography of montessori to kilpatrick, due to his negative influence on montessori’s reception in america. she reminds us that dr. montessori was a woman, a catholic, and an italian, all of which positioned her as an outsider to america. her strongest followers were all women too, without great influence, whereas “her critics were some of the leading scholars and educators in the country” (p. 227). as a disciple of dewey’s who became a professor at columbia university’s teacher college as well, kramer describes kilpatrick as “the best-known teacher of education in his generation. … his influence on an entire generation of educators was enormous”(p. 227). one cannot help but note that while john dewey started one school, the chicago lab school, in 1896, which grew to enroll 1400 students by 1990, maria montessori started one school, la casa dei bambini, in 1907 and there are now over 3,000 montessori schools in over 80 different countries. let me turn now to a look at the political context of montessori’s work in europe that influenced her impact there. private background of montessori and political connections while dr. montessori’s public life is well known, her private life is not, yet it is necessary to know this in more detail in order to better understand the decisions she made that impacted her career and were influenced by the political events swirling around her. while we can hail maria montessori for being the first woman to become a licensed medical doctor in italy, feminist scholarship warns us never to forget that for women one’s private life is political too.5 maria was the only child to alessandro montessori, a traditional, military man who served italy as a soldier and civil servant, and renilde stoppani, a well-educated woman eight years his junior (kramer 1976, standing 1957/1998). her mother came from a highly regarded, landed family and her family’s wealth, reputation, and the education it afforded her positioned renilde to be able to broker her daughter’s way. renilde used her empowered position to stand up to her more traditional husband’s protests concerning her childrearing practices and she fought for her daughter’s right to an education. from today’s perspective, renilde can be described as someone very much ahead of her times, who managed to raise a first wave feminist daughter who was head-strong and determined to use her talents in math and science to improve conditions in the world somehow. maria graduated from technical school in 1886 (today’s technology high school), earning high marks in all of her subjects and a high exam score, thus qualifying her to attend regio instituto techico leonardo da vinci from 1886 – 1890. there she studied modern languages and natural sciences, but again her favorite subject was math, to which she excelled. ironically, as her father was just beginning to concede she might be able to have a career as a teacher, maria was contemplating becoming an engineer, like the boys in her school. upon graduation from regio instituto techico (today’s college), at the age of twenty montessori changed her mind and decided she wanted to study the biological sciences and become a medical doctor. in 1896 montessori presented her thesis to a board of eleven men, who were highly impressed with her work and granted her the degree of doctor of medicine, thus making her the first woman to graduate from medical school in italy. she was twenty-six years old. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 307-319 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 313 however, maria fell in love with her lab partner, dr. montesano, who worked with her at the psychiatric clinic, and she had an illegitimate child with him, mario, born in 1898, two years after her graduation from medical school. the couple did not marry, and they kept the birth of their child a secret. if montessori had married, her career would have been over. the social norm at the time was that a married woman’s first loyalty must be to her husband and she would have been required to give up her medical career. abortion would not have been an option for a catholic woman, and a child born out of wedlock would have ruined her reputation irreparably. that would have ended her career as well. dr. montessori was faced with having to give up her child in order to maintain any hopes for her career, and the possibility for her to make a contribution that she had come to believe was the purpose of her life. her mother also held ambitious dreams for her only daughter and encouraged her not to give up on those dreams. her family and his protected dr. montessori’s reputation, the child was born in secrecy, and another family raised mario, their son. mario grew up not knowing whom his real mother or father was. the couple promised each other to never marry, or ever reveal the baby’s existence, and they continued to work together. unfortunately for dr. montessori, in 1901 dr. montesano chose to break his promise to her and he married another woman. this change in their circumstances made it no longer possible for the two of them to work together and be in daily contact. that is why montessori resigned her position at the orthophrenic school of rome in 1901. dr. montessori never lost track of her son, even though she could not publically recognize him as her child. mario montesano grew up thinking dr. montessori was a strange, beautiful woman who would come to visit him occasionally. yet in his fantasies, he imagined she was his mother. when he was seven he was sent to boarding school near florence (1905), where this unusual woman, maria, still visited him occasionally. dr. montessori’s mother passed away in 1912, and that seems to have opened up the possibility of maria being able to embrace mario as her son, privately, for mario confronted dr. montessori when he was almost fifteen (march, 1913) with the declaration that he knew she was his mother and told her he wanted to go with her, according to his daughter6 and kramer (1976). montessori made no objection, and mario got in her vehicle and went to live with her. dr. montesano had agreed to give the child his name only on the condition that he was sent away and the facts of his birth were kept secret. when mario went to live with his mother he assumed her last name instead of his father’s, “as though symbolically denying that he belonged to anyone but her” (kramer 1976, p. 185). mario lived at the montessori home with his grandfather, alessandro montessori, and was looked after by old friends when dr. montessori traveled to the u.s. in december, 1913. having just claimed him as hers, privately, she never seriously considered living in the u.s. and accepting mr. mcclure’s invitation, for it would have meant leaving her family behind. mario began to travel with dr. montessori soon after, and was presented publically to the world as her distant nephew when she returned to the u.s. in 1915. he eventually became his mother’s most valued assistant, her translator and traveling companion, rarely leaving her side. they lived together the rest of her life, with mario always her devoted son, so that while she was not able to raise her own child, she was able to share his adult life. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 307-319 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 314 knowing about mario explains why dr. montessori left italy in 1917 when the spanish government invited her to open a research institute. her main concern was to avoid mario (age 19) being drafted into italy’s army during ww i. mario married in 1917 and he and his wife joined his mother in spain. the catalan government in barcelona was interested in developing its own language, schools, and government, and saw montessori as a means to that goal. a little school that began in barcelona in 1915 with just 5 children “evolved into the escola montessori, with infant and primary departments for 3-10 year olds, and the seminari laboratori de pedagogiá, an institute for teaching, research, and training in the montessori method founded and supported by the catalan government” (kramer 1976, p. 249). it is here that dr. montessori was able to develop her elementary age curriculum as well as her plan for secondary education, while she waited out the war, and began giving international teacher training courses again, in london in 1919, and in amsterdam in 1920, in london in 1921, back in italy by 1922, in vienna in 1923, etc. even though spain withdrew its official support for the institute in 1920, montessori was able to continue to fund the institute privately and barcelona remained montessori’s headquarters until the outbreak of the spanish civil war in 1936. it had become her home where mario and his family lived, and for twenty years montessori had the joy of watching her four grandchildren grow up. however, catalonia, and in particular barcelona, became the main battlefield for postwar economic and social struggle in spain (kramer 1976, p. 269). montessori was expected to join in and publicly declare her support for the independence of the catalans but she refused to do so. “the reason she gave was not lack of sympathy for the catalans but an insistence on not involving herself in politics under any circumstances. the only cause to which she subscribed, she told them, was the cause of the child” (kramer 1976, p. 249). kramer tells us that during the years leading up to ww ii, nowhere were local conditions more volatile than in spain. in an effort to save the monarchy, a military dictatorship was declared in 1923. in 1924 the government closed montessori’s schools, in an effort to crush the catalanian threat to its authority. the military was ousted in 1930, the monarchy collapsed in 1931, and barcelona became the stronghold. montessori schools were back in business. but this only lasted until the revolution of 1936, when general franco took over. kramer tells us: “friends in england with government connections arranged for montessori to leave barcelona on a british battleship, and with only a few hours’ notice, leaving behind most of her personal possessions, she quit the country that had been her home for twenty years and the educational laboratory she had dreamed of for so many years before that” (kramer 1976, p. 333). italy came out of ww i a weaker and poorer country then when the war began. the fear of communism and the extreme political left led italian conservatives and businessmen to turn to the extremists on the right, the fascists (similar to what is going on today in the usa after obama was elected president, and the tea party gained more strength). in 1922 mussolini and his black shirts marched on rome and took over the government, at the king’s request. the minister of education in 1921 was the philosopher benedetto croce, and in 1922 he was replaced by a professor of history, doctor of medicine, and friend of montessori’s, antonino anile, who invited montessori to return to italy and give a course of lectures in naples. while in italy, anile requested that montessori inspect the nursery and elementary schools in rome where her method was being used, and then he extended her inspectorate to the whole of italy. in 1923 volume 5 number 3 (2011): 307-319 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 315 anile was replaced as minister of education by the philosopher giovanni gentile. mussolini was able to entice many respected intellectuals to his cause, in the beginning, for they all wanted to see italy recover and rebuild. when montessori’s accomplishments in education were drawn to mussolini’s attention, and the successfully impact she was having in other countries but not her native italy, he set up a meeting with her and pledged his support for montessori schools in italy. by summer 1924 there were official montessori schools in italy. in 1926 montessori began offering 6-month training courses in italy with her in full charge, first in milan for italian teachers, and later in rome for a wider audience. in 1930 montessori, sixty years old, was officially welcomed home to italy. kramer (1976) tells us: “it would have taken more political acumen than montessori possessed … to resist such a homecoming …” (p. 313). with the minister of education making “a public statement describing the kinship between fascism and the montessori method,” it is no wonder a youth from germany who would eventually become a soccer (football) coach in the usa would associate dr. montessori with fascism (kramer 1976, p. 302). by 1926 italy was a police state and the stage was set for mussolini’s eventual partnership with hitler. montessori was not alone in being blind to mussolini’s brutality, like many others she was hopeful that her presence and activity might make a difference (p. 303). she truly believed that her system of education properly carried out under her own supervision would accomplish good results for individual children and in the long run for all of society. she declared herself apolitical, not existing to any political party, and did not openly oppose the fascist regime until it began to interfere with her own activities as a teacher, and those of her teachers. when mussolini ordered dr. montessori to turn the children in her schools into soldiers for italy, montessori refused, and montessori schools were suddenly closed in italy by the fascist regime. the last montessori congress that was held in rome before the closing of the montessori schools took place in 1934. the association of montessori international (ami) was founded in 1929 and housed in berlin until 1935, even though berlin gave dr. montessori a lukewarm reception and there was only one montessori school in germany as late at 1922, and 34 schools in germany by 1932. by 1933 all montessori schools in germany were forced to close. dr. montessori’s reception in holland was very different, and by the mid-1930’s there were over 200 montessori schools there. consequently, ami was moved to amsterdam in 1935, to a much more stable and receptive location, where it remains today. when the montessori family left spain in 1936 on the british battleship, they had no plans on where to go next. but, where they ended up settling was in holland (today’s netherlands). during this timeframe montessori continued to lecture and write about “a revolutionary freedom for the child” (kramer 1976, p. 324). she traveled to peace conferences throughout the 1930’s, in geneva, brussels, copenhagen, utrecht, and paris giving speeches that have been published as education and peace (1949). in 1939, at the age of sixtynine, she and mario left for india to give a training course in madras, expecting to return to europe by the summer of 1940 in order to continue her work in holland. mario was traveling with dr. montessori in india at her invitation, helping her with her teacher training programs and serving as her secretary, when ww ii broke out. italy entered the war on the side of the germans in june, 1940 and the british immediately interned all italians residing in their colonies as enemy aliens, including the montessori family. when the word got volume 5 number 3 (2011): 307-319 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 316 out that the montessoris were interned in india, many wrote letters on their behalf. dr. montessori was released, but not mario. montessori informed the indian authorities that mario was her son, and that is how her secret was revealed to the rest of the world. on august 31, 1940, she received a telegram from the viceroy of india that read: “we have long thought about what to give you for your seventieth birthday. we thought the best present we could give you was to send you back your son” (kramer 1976, p. 344). kramer says this is the first public reference to mario as dr. montessori’s son. they were reunited and spent the rest of the war years in india (1939–1947), where montessori taught more than 1,000 teachers her pedagogy. the montessoris lived the rest of their lives in the netherlands, with dr. montessori heading up the ami until her death in 1952, and mario then heading up ami until his death in 1982. in her last will and testament, “montessori bequeathed to mario not only all her possessions and the legacy of her work, but the unequivocal statement that he was her only son” (kramer 1976, p. 368). mario’s eldest son, his namesake, followed in his grandmother’s footsteps and became dr. montessori as well, a psychologist. the ami continues today as well as the ams (american montessori society). democracies-always-in-the-making kramer (1976) thinks that dr. montessori should not have resigned her academic position at the university of rome, as this caused her to have to continually worry about her source of income, which supported not only herself but her extended family as well. kramer views montessori’s insistence on control over the teacher training programs as her way of maintaining her main source of income, but at the cost of limiting the spread of her ideas and the growth of montessori schools across the continents. however, one could argue that it is because of dr. montessori’s efforts to maintain the quality of schools that used her method of education that montessori schools still exist today at the level and standard they do. there is no copyright protection for montessori schools, anyone can hang up a sign and call themselves a montessori school. the only protection of quality lies in the school’s hiring of teachers licensed by the ams and ami certified teacher training programs and the purchasing of materials designed by her. in america, it is often the case that administrators hired to run montessori schools have no training as montessori teachers and have little or no experience in the classroom. it is also not unusual to find schools that are full of montessori materials that sit on the shelves gathering dust while the students are given workbook assignments to do. it is up to the school owners/boards to hire administrators who are certified teachers with experience, and it is up to the parents enrolling their children and the teachers applying for jobs to investigate and determine the quality of the program being offered there. my experiences have taught me that dr. montessori had a valid concern in how to maintain quality programs that use her name. the problem still exists today. montessori schools seem to have survived the turbulent times within which dr. montessori lived and worked because she insisted on remaining politically neutral, however one can also argue that the growth of the schools suffered do to her efforts to maintain neutrality. because she left italy and accepted spain’s invitation to make barcelona her home, her schools became associated with the catalonia uprising and the spanish civil war, with both sides of the civil war angry with her for not taking a stand. because she accepted mussolini’s invitation to have her schools become italy’s state-sponsored schools, her schools became associated with volume 5 number 3 (2011): 307-319 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 317 mussolini’s fascists. and, when mussolini joined forces with hitler, her schools became associated with hitler, even though her schools were closed down by mussolini and hitler long before wwii erupted. again, both sides, the fascists and nazi’s as well as the citizens opposed who supported the liberation armies, ended up angry at her for not taking a stand. i’m not sure if italians have forgiven her yet. that montessori regularly offered training programs all over europe, in america, in india, and was planning a trip to parts of africa the year she passed away, that people from all over the world enrolled in her teacher training programs wherever they were offered, that she spoke more and more in her senior years about how her educational method connected to the possibility of world peace, this legacy is what earned her three nominations for a nobel peace prize (1949, 1950, 1951), prior to her death in 1952. it is a shame that thirty years later a german soccer coach at a small college in the usa would still carry concerns about montessori schools to the level that he would refuse to let one of his players rent a room in the home of a montessori teacher. he clearly had never had the opportunity to visit such a school, and have his fears proven wrong. i learned what an inclusive classroom looks like, one that is full of diverse students, multi-aged and with multi-abilities, from varied cultural and religious backgrounds, with their love of learning very much alive, when i became an elementary montessori teacher. every year i taught i had an age range of at least three years mixed together (6-9, sometimes 6-10, 9-12, sometimes 8-12), and there were always gifted children as well as children with learning disabilities (sometimes those were the same children), and every ability level in-between. in a montessori classroom the children work at their own pace, and can choose what they want to work on, where they want to work, as well as with whom they want to work, or if they want to work alone. thus, they have much opportunity to learn how “to be the master of their own force of will” as well as how to cooperate with others (montessori, 1949, p. 40). the structure of the classroom (physically as well as in terms of pedagogy) does not support competition against each other. it’s a mastery learning approach, where each child works on a task until they have mastered it. there is always someone who probably knows more than a particular child about some subject, but someone else who knows less whom that particular student can help teach. the montessori directress tries to find something that each child can claim mastery of, so they can experience being teachers for others. this opportunity to share authority with others is affirming to every child in the classroom. marty struggled with reading and math due to his learning disability, but could fix anything mechanical that broke down in our classroom. he’s a firefighter now, rescuing others in need. damon was our snake expert who regularly brought live snakes into the classroom that he found in his yard. he would identify and study them, and then teach us what he learned, including how to handle and care for snakes. he works in a nature center today teaching people how to live in harmony with their natural environments. alex learned all the ends and outs of cleopatra’s love life, as part of her research of ancient egypt, and proceeded to teach the rest of us what she was finding out about women’s rights during that time period. she went on to college to earn an art/art history degree with a minor in women’s studies. i learned how a classroom becomes a community when children come back to the same room for three years, and they move from being the youngest to oldest in that classroom in the course of those three years. in a classroom space where the teacher is not the authority, but instead that authority is shared by all in the room who are all viewed as teachers as well as volume 5 number 3 (2011): 307-319 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 318 students, and where the children learn that with the freedom they enjoy in that physical space also comes the responsibility to help care for it as well as for each other, and where we had to learn how to communicate and relate to each other peacefully in order to be able to co-exist and look forward to another year in the same classroom with each other, that’s where i learned what a classroom looks like that teaches children the skills they need to become citizens in a democracy-always-in-the-making. we became like an extended family in our classroom, and i am still in touch with the parents and children who were in those classrooms today, as well as in touch with my co-directresses. many of the students i taught have become parents themselves, and a few of them are montessori teachers now too. if that coach had let his student rent a room in my house, he might have found his player would have learned more about shared responsibility and shared identity, both qualities that enhance team sports. however, he would have also learned more about shared authority, something the coach did not care for his athlete to know. come to think of it, maybe he didn’t really fear that i was a fascist or a liberal, but instead feared that i might be someone seeking to encourage radical democracy in my classroom and my home. if that was his concern, then he would have been right. conclusion we recognize john dewey’s significant contributions to democratic theory but not maria montessori’s, and it is my hope that i can help to right that wrong, for montessori’s school design, pedagogy, and curriculum strongly support the themes of shared responsibility, authority, and identity that i recommend for a pluralistic, relational democratic theory and educational model (thayer-bacon, 2008). her educational plans serve as an illustration of my democratic theory even though her individual child-centered philosophy of education is more in agreement with rousseau’s (1970) in many ways, someone whom i have argued developed a democratic theory that undermines the possibilities of democracies (thayer-bacon, 2006). teaching in a montessori school gave me a way to experience a pedagogical approach that recognizes the importance of cultural diversity, while helping children learn how to be active, engaged, critically aware, self-assured, -directed, and -disciplined citizens of democracies-always-in-themaking. i share montessori’s hope that through education we can help more and more children grow up in a world that welcomes them and what they have to offer and helps them learn how to live in peace together. notes 1. i attended the elementary training offered at barrie day school, silver springs, maryland, in 1981-1982, with harvey hallenberg as the director. in 1980 an elementary training program began in the nyc area, before then the elementary training was only offered in europe and required americans to spend a year living abroad. there are many americans who did just that. nancy m. rambusch, founder of the american montessori society in 1960, is an example of someone who went to london for the training, came back to the u.s. and shared what she learned, helping to revitalize interest in the montessori method of education in america. montessori trained claude claremont, from england, and later in his life he moved to the los angeles area where he trained harvey hallenberg, who trained me. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 307-319 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 319 2. i taught in three different montessori schools, the growing concern in tannersville, pa where i taught 6-10 year olds for 3 years, montessori center school in santa barbara, ca, where i taught 9-12 year olds for 1 year, and old mission montessori school in oceanside, ca, where i taught 8-12 year olds for 2 years. between my teaching and my children attending montessori schools, i have twenty-seven years of experience with montessori education. for those interested in knowing more about montessori schools, contact the american montessori society (281 park ave., new york, ny 10010) or the association of montessori international (1095 market st., suite 405, san francisco, ca 94103). 3. the terms in quotes are scientific terms used at the time of montessori’s work for children who are mentally challenged. 4. i discuss kilpatrick’s critique of montessori’s educational ideas in (in press). “maria montessori, john dewey, and william h. kilpatrick,” education and culture. 5. i discuss dr. montessori’s gendered story more in “maria montessori’s gendered story,” paper submitted for acceptance at the research on women and education fall conference, 2012. 6. mario’s daughter, marilena henny – montessori, has written a tribute to her father. (http://www.montessori-ami.org/montessori/mario.htm) [accessed june 8, 2010]. references kilpatrick, w. h., (1914). the montessori system examined. new york: houghton mifflin co. kramer, r. (1976). maria montessori: a biography. new york: g. p. putman’s sons. montessori, m. (1909/1912). the montessori method. new york: random house. montessori, m. (1949). education and peace. oxford, england: clio. rousseau, j. j. (1970). emile. in s. m. cahn (ed.), the philosophical foundations of education (pp. 155-176). new york: harper & row. standing, e. m. (1957/1998). maria montessori: her life and work. plume, penguin group. thayer-bacon, b. (2006). beyond liberal democracy: diverse educational relations, paideusis 15(2), 79-91. thayer-bacon, b. (2008). beyond liberal democracy in schools: the power of pluralism. new york: teachers college press. wiggins final ifp   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     216   volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   the search for balance: understanding and implementing yoga, peace, and democratic education joy l. wiggins university of texas at arlington   joywiggins@globalpeacefulpaths.com “yoga claims freedom from suffering as its primary objective. it is also from these realizations that our spiritual, ethical, and contemplative practices originate and mature. wherever there is imbalance and suffering, yoga shows up” michael stone1 introduction barack obama’s presidential campaign promoted the idea of hope for change and it seemed that the nation desperately wanted that, but somehow the hope waned and the pessimism crept back. what diminishes our sense of hope and self-empowerment? fear? loss of control and power over our lives? once we lose that power, we begin to live in a space of mere survival, rather than a space of possibility and creation. this survival mode depletes our energy, and                                                                                                                           1 michael stone, yoga for a world out of balance: teaching on ethics and social action (boston & london: shambhala, 2009).   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     217   hinders the ability to create new possibilities of hope, love, compassion, honesty and empathy. the daily reality becomes a sense of complacency for what is… rather than what can be. students and teachers alike are at the bottom of the school hierarchy, thus diminishing their sense of power and efficacy in their teaching and learning. “having been taught not to question authority, students may accept passively what teachers say….in this way schools may reproduce conditions in the larger society, some of which are conducive to the creation of an obedient work force that produces the economic goods that provide the basis for social wealth”2. even teachers feel disempowered based on teaching to the high-stakes tests, rather than teaching culturally relevant curriculum.3 because of this, both students and teachers begin to lose their sense of self-empowerment, efficacy, and ability to enact social change. students drop out, start to bully others, withdraw, become overly stressed, or act out. teachers conform to standards they disagree with, feel beaten down or leave the profession altogether4. jing lin states, we limit the vision of our young people to using education mainly to find a wellpaid job, failing to enlighten them to see that our life is a precious gift with which we can expand our ability to love and care, to bring light to this world and kindle hope in others. we strive to meet external criteria for success and neglect reflection and inner transformation.5 in order to cultivate the possibility of social change, we must first start from within ourselves. in this paper, i explore how the principles of peace, democracy, and yoga are not only interconnected, but enhance and promote the ideals of civic engagement, social justice and peaceful pedagogy. i then provide a list of ten pedagogical beliefs that must be upheld in order to embody these interconnections. peace and democratic pedagogy advocate for self-reflection and inner peace. this promotes a sense of balance that is crucial to the principles of peace, democracy and yoga. michael stone speaks of the nature of balance, “wholeness is not oneness but the dynamic balance of difference among systems. when we can respect and explore difference, intimacy arises”. 6 balance is also essential in sustaining peace and democracy. when we start to understand the interconnectivity of human life, nature and other species, we start to re-envision the world that allow others to flourish without taking away from ourselves, in fact when we give to others, we are giving back to ourselves.7                                                                                                                           2 ian harris and mary lee morrison, peace education (jefferson, north carolina: mcfarland & company publishers, 2003), 89. 3 carl grant and lavonne j. williams, “what is the language of care and social justice that we use in schools?”, in educating for a culture of peace, ed. riane eisler and ron miller (portsmuth, nh:heineman, 2004), 208. 4 as a former 6th grade teacher, i can attest to this sentiment in several of my communications with fellow teachers. 5 jing lin, love, peace, and wisdom in education: a vision for the education in the 21st century (lanham, maryland: rowman & littlefield education, 2006), xi. 6 stone, yoga for a world out of balance, 134. 7 tim murithi, the ethics of peacebuilding. (edinburgh: edingburgh university press, 2009); lin, love, peace and wisdom in education; stone, yoga for a world out of balance   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     218   the main purpose of yoga is to calm a stressful mind, bringing inner peace and providing gentle stretching to engage the body/mind connection8. yoga is not only a form of physical exercise but a path to spiritual awareness and social action. michael stone links yoga practice specifically with democratic ideals and practices, “today, our personal, ecological, and social situations present unique and direct challenges to every one of us to respond to the great existential questions of life and death, to look deeply into interdependence, and to fully actualize our awakening in a world distressed and in need.” 9 to be healthy both physically and mentally implores our compassionate, humane, and conscience selves, allowing for a critical transformation of the way we interact with others. multicultural and critical educators also espouse the notion of first understanding one’s self in order to examine the impact one’s biography has on others. carl grant and lavonne williams suggest, “examining their own biography and interrogating their beliefs” 10 first before being able to discuss social justice with others. inner peace is necessary for political peace and justice because one cannot blindly go into action without understanding the social, cultural and political dimensions in which one experiences the world. yoga emphasizes the need to eradicate the habitual pattern of attachment to material things, mental ideas and constant reaction to the world. yoga allows for the detachment of these ideas so that one can observe the world rather than constantly react from our experience to it. michael stone states, “yoga occurs when our inner works manifests in the world around us”.11 in my experience teaching yoga in schools, i am constantly telling my students to take what they learn on the mat and out into the world. that’s where the real work of yoga begins. this paper has three sections. first, i give an overview of the principles of peace, democracy, and yoga education and how they serve as a foundation for peaceful pedagogy in schools. second, i explain why self-empowerment belief systems are imperative to necessitate the possibility of peace in our life and in our classroom. after each belief, i provide the physical and mental skills necessary for a democratic and peaceful school environment. finally, i discuss the implications for aligning this kind of pedagogy within the school curriculum by training teachers, gaining administrative support in providing a peaceful agenda for the school, and how to get the community involved. exploring peace, democracy, and yoga in education peace can be described in several different ways.12 peace in different countries depends on the kinds of violence they address and the way peace is promulgated. peace is more than just the absence of war, but the balance of forces on the macro and micro levels. much like the balance of yin and yang, light and dark, male and female; each balances the other. peaceful                                                                                                                           8 sudheer deshpande, hr nagendra, and nagarathna raghuram, “a randomized control trial of the effect of yoga on verbal aggressiveness in normal healthy volunteers,” international journal of yoga 1, no. 2(2008). 9  stone, yoga for a world out of balance, 4. 10 grant and williams, “what is the language of care and social justice that we use in schools?”, 213. 11 stone, yoga for a world out of balance, 5. 12 paul smoker and linda groff, “spirituality, religion, culture and peace: exploring the foundations of innerouter peace in the twenty-first century,” international journal of peace studies, 1, no. 1 (1996): 313.       in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     219   relations on the micro level are when countries are not in conflict, but may focus on interpersonal relations, the sharing of resources, a focus on unity and diversity, defending freedom of expression and civil rights, sustainable living on earth and finally, inner peace. peace essentially “strives for the means to resolve disagreements without resorting to warfare or physical force, and for justice where human beings are treated with the dignity afforded them by their human rights. peace has an individual context which implies peace of mind and the absence of fear.”13 these individual contexts may be the workplace, friendships, families, schools, and communities to uphold justice and well being for all. contextualizing peace education and peaceful pedagogy the definitions of peace education and peaceful pedagogy vary depending on personal conviction and context. this kind of pedagogy allows schooling to be personal, compassionate, moral, participatory, holistic, and civic-minded. contested notions of what peace is and what it is not have been under discussion in peace education and research circles and cultural groups.14 peace education is described as, “a responsive pedagogy that develops knowledge, skills and dispositions for peace-building, for transformation of conflicts to prevent or stop violent responses to them, as well as for resolution of conflicts”15 more specifically, carter states that peace building “occurs through learning how to maintain peaceful interactions in the face of conflicts. it also helps students acquire dispositions such as acceptance of diversity, which reduce cross-cultural conflicts”. carter continues to note the lack of specific curriculum focus on peace and that even democratic focus on decision-making, “fails to advance peace for the outvoted minority whose needs can be left unsatisfied”. she continues that it’s important to include “instruction in methods that bring about consensus in decision-making, for the good of everyone through processes such as deliberation and active listening”.16 the hague appeal for peace describes peace education as a, “participatory holistic process that includes teaching for and about democracy and human rights, nonviolence, social and economic justice, gender equality, environmental sustainability, disarmament, traditional peace practices, international law, and human security”17. traditional peace theory is a knowledge-based, skills and attitudes approach, but not pedagogically descriptive and transformative. the skills and attitudes are a starting point but change agency and participatory action is necessary for real transformation in peace education.18 schools can be the place where social awareness and participatory action starts.                                                                                                                           13 harris and morrison, peace education, 13. 14brigit brock-utne, feminist perspectives on peace and peace education (new york: pergamon press, 1989). 15candice carter,” voluntary standards for peace education,” journal of peace education 5, no. 2 (2008): 141-143. 16 candice carter, “whither social studies? in pockets of peace at school”, journal of peace education 1, no 1 (2004): 78 17 hague appeal for peace, 1 18 anya jacobson, “nonviolence as a way of knowing in the public school classroom,” in factis pax 1, no. 1 (2007).   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     220   three kinds of peaceful pedagogy are, a) peacekeeping, b) peacemaking and c) peacebuilding. peacekeeping focuses on the “get tough” policies of peace through strength in which schools and governments alike build strong defense systems. peacemaking incorporates conflict resolution and anti-bullying techniques. finally, peacebuilding provides a context for “how non-violence can provide the basis for a just and sustainable future…which is proactive and seeks to avoid violence and conflict.” peacebuilding also has its roots in inner peace. inner peace is not just about thinking about oneself and ignoring the plight of others. it’s the beginning of a journey in order to help others in a more compassionate and socially conscious way. inner peace and nonviolence promotes empathy, compassion, and understanding the multiple perspectives of truth, “educators committed to nonviolence in education encourage students to discover the ways they think about themselves and others, replacing fears, hostilities, negative statements, and prejudices with nonviolent ways of thinking about self and others that respects the truth that can reside within each of us”. 19 peace education also fosters communication, civic and virtuous education and appreciation and promotion of diversity. learning about peaceful leaders, movements, and the impact they have had on the united states and international societies allows students to see the amazing results of one person or idea. it’s important for students to know how they can actively achieve peace through self-reflection of their own biases that allow them to understand the construction of those biases that lead them to social understanding and action. jing lin terms this “peace intelligence” which is “associated with a deep love for all lives, a deep compassion for all existences, a courage and conviction for unconditional forgiveness and reconciliation”.20 the term “nonviolent epistemology” suggests that “thinking of violence as the symptom of a system rather than a natural and inevitable condition and creates a space for the educator to make change, for by studying peace and removing knowledge that assumes violence, we can change an aspect of the system that legitimizes and perpetuates violence”. violence emerges when the act of dehumanization is present and nonviolence is the work of re-humanizing oneself and others.21 furthermore, peace education has to provide a framework for all educational activities, not just as extracurricular or a separate topic reserved for the social studies classroom. peaceful pedagogy that provides the kind of transformation to a nonviolent epistemology that involves the entire school and educational system. school communities can start with taking a long look at what they promote in their school. do they have positive ways in which the students can create a community of choice and autonomy? how does the curriculum incorporate models of peace both within the school and community? not only do we need to discuss peaceful leaders, but incorporate peace into our daily lives. interactions with students should be focused on the behavior and direct communication of expectations to allow space for positive solutions and forgiveness. sometimes as teachers we forget to forgive our students and ourselves for simply being human. peaceful relations start with the very skills needed in cultivating democratic principles.                                                                                                                           19 harris and morrison, peace education, 11, 136. 20 lin, love, peace, and wisdom in education: a vision for the education in the 21st century, 68. 21 anya jacobson, “nonviolence as a way of knowing in the public school classroom,” in factis pax 1, no. 1 (2007). 40-42.   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     221   democratic principles and overcoming the culture of complacency in this section, i discuss how the united states has cultivated what i believe to be a “culture of complacency” when it comes to civic engagement. then, i describe what a democracy is and the principles that undergird it. i use this idea of a “culture of complacency”22 reflected in united states society not to blame citizens for not caring about their government, but in the context of a paralyzing disempowerment based on a lack of power and voice. it seems that government officials do not adhere to the principles of democracy in such situations as undemocratically bringing democracy to iraq, the ways in which our health care system is being debated, and our interactions with north korea and iran. howard zinn discusses how schools may teach democratic ideals, but don’t give students the information and analytical tools to see the discrepancies in our current system, much less to rectify it. he continues that schools don’t tell students the truth about how corporate power and money rule every aspect of our society especially in our class and racial divides.23 durkheim describes society as existing as an “ongoing, organic collectivity, created historically, and the individual can only be educated within the parameters of this collective achievement.”24 knowledge circulated within a society is then constrained through educational processes. only when that knowledge is challenged and critiqued can it change. our history books and curriculum tend to ignore the contributions of ordinary citizens, women, and persons of color. war is usually discussed as the pinnacle of human achievement. citizenship is taught in social studies but sometimes as a distant concept that students might not really understand or think applies to them. “the rights of citizenship for all americans include freedom, diversity, property, privacy, human rights, and due process. the responsibility of citizenship includes justice and equality, adherence to authority when it comes from the people, participation in the democratic process, speaking the truth about all people, and patriotism in the democratic process”.25 democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience.26 this communicated experience has to come from a collective union of empowered people and institutions that are focused on peace for all, not just for a few. a democratic principle such as freedom promotes democracy where every voice is equally represented in a compassionate, healing, and socially responsible way. however, many students see their voice being squelched in the classroom and their oppression permeating                                                                                                                           22 charles j sykes also uses the term “culture of complacency” in his article “culture of complacency: the growing disconnect between the schools and the workplace” in which he discusses wisconsin’s racial learning gap. 23 howard zinn and donaldo macedo, howard zinn on democratic education, (boulder: paradigm publishers, 2005) 21. 24 emile durkheim, “the nature of education”, in schooling the symbolic animal: social and cultural dimensions of education, ed. bradley a.u. levinson (lanham: rowman & littlefield), 57-61. 25 grant and williams, “what is the language of care and social justice that we use in schools?”, 206. 26 john dewey, democracy and education, (toronto: collier –macmillan, 1966).   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     222   across all areas of social marginalization such as race, class, sex, and homophobia in order to fortify “interlocking justifications the dominant group maintains to continue their dominance”.27 shaking up the culture of complacency starts with education and empowering students through not only academics, but social and personal skills as well. democratic principles can be achieved through peace education and yoga by respecting all forms of life, students develop positive self images, a sense of responsibility for self and others, a capacity to trust others and a caring for the well-being of the natural world…and contributes to the social growth of all children if it helps develop characteristics essential for the attainment of peace-a sense of dignity and self-worth, a confidence to question their values, communication skills, an ethical awareness, and an empathy for others.28 this furthers the agenda for peace education, democracy and the ability for inner peace to extend to outer peace. yoga’s quest for peace and social justice what better way to advocate for going beyond just the knowledge-based approach of “doing” peace but “being” peace. one of our problems in the united states is that youth have been sold a bag of secular individualism, one that encourages the worship of money and power. youth can be taught to understand that spirituality is about the greater, larger picture of the universe…spirituality is not about a religion. spirituality is based on our interconnection and interdependence with each other and the earth.29 so far, i’ve discussed how peace education advocates for inner peace, a calm mind, the absence of fear, and the furthering of democratic principles of social justice. in this section, i will describe the physical and spiritual practice of yoga. then, i provide the research foundation for the mental, emotional and physical benefits of yoga. finally, i link its connection to the foundations of peace and democratic education in their mutual quest for social harmony and justice. yoga in sanskrit means, “union” and its goal is to calm the mind. yoga is a series of postures and gentle stretching that bring about a total development at the physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual levels. the purpose is also to calm emotions in order to make better decisions, to be mindful and develop compassion for ourselves and others. there are hundreds of styles of yoga, but they all follow similar characteristics called the eight limb path, 1) injunctions for social and personal behavior (yama niyama), 2) body postures (asanas), 3)                                                                                                                           27 grant and williams, “what is the language of care and social justice that we use in schools?”, 213. 28 harris and morrison, peace education, 35. 29 linda bynoe, “strategies for teaching caring and empowerment: drawing from african american, mexican american, and native american traditions,” in educating for a culture of peace, ed. riane eisler and ron miller (portsmuth, nh:heineman, 2007), 194.   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     223   breathing (pranayama), 4) meditation (pratyahara), 5) withdrawal of the senses (pratayahara), 6) concentration (dharana), 7) meditation (dhyama), and 8) super-conscious state (samadhi).30 the first limb is the moral discipline that involves social and personal behavior, which falls in line with peace and democratic principles. 31 this limb contains the characteristics: a) non-harming and nonviolence, b) truthfulness, c) non-stealing, d) moderation in all things, and e) non-possessiveness. the five characteristics to observe are, a) purity, b) contentment, c) determined effort, d) self-study, and e) surrender to the divine. b.k.s iyengar, the founder of iyengar yoga, states that in india the qualities of “violence, dexterity instead of honesty, libertinism and greediness and the potential for stealing anything and everything, with no respect for our fellow beings” is considered to be the god of death.32 the physical practice of yoga aims to eliminate distractions from the mind, allow deeper breathing, help release tension and stress, and calm the mind. by calming the mind, negative feelings such as anxiety, anger, fear and depression begin to go away opening the mind to positive feelings of patience, acceptance, and compassion. the most important part of yoga is to allow deep breathing and to listen to the body and mind to open the path to peaceful living. micheline flak introduced yoga techniques to the french educational system and created research on yoga in education (rye) in 1978. she states that yama “promotes living in peace, observing moral rules and learning to live as a part of a group, respecting and listening to oneself and others. another stream or element is niyama, which “eliminates toxins and negativity by maintaining health of the body and mind, and by promoting positive thoughts, self-image and good humor”. breathing is also very important in yoga. it enhances control over your thoughts and can lead to “inner self-confidence, purification and an enhanced ability to resolve conflicts and monitor aggression”.33 yoga has proven to calm verbal aggression, relieve stress which enhances academic performance, increases concentration, attention, coordination, relaxation, reduces body weight, increases vitality, improves memory and aids in diseases such as anxiety, depression, insomnia and cancer.34 it also slows down the nervous system and mind giving it room to examine thinking, acting and reacting engendering respect for self and others. gamma-aminobutyric acid (gaba) is a neurotransmitter in your brain. if someone has high levels of gaba, it has a calming, relaxing effect and it increases ability to focus, and                                                                                                                           30 nancy gerstein, guiding yoga’s light: lessons for yoga teachers, (champaign, il: human kinetics, 2008). 31 svi shapiro, “toward a critical pedagogy of peace education,” in peace education: the concept, principles, and practices around the world, ed. gavriel salomon and baruch nevo, (mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates, 2002), 63-71. murithi, 2009; stone, 2009; lin, 2006; reardon, 2001. 32 b.k.s. iyengar, foreword to yoga for a world out of balance, by michael stone (boston & london: shambhala, 2009) foreword. 33 rachael jefferson-buchanan, “an introduction to research on yoga in education”, physical education matters summer (2006). 34 amit kauts and neelam sharma, “effect of yoga performance in relation to stress”, international journal of yoga 2 no. 1 (2009): 39-43; sudheer deshpande, hr nagendra, and nagarathna raghuram, “a randomized trial of the effect of yoga on verbal aggressiveness in normal healthy volunteers”, international journal of yoga 1 no. 2 (2008): 76-82. shirley telles, satish kumar reddy, and h.r. nagendra, “oxygen consumption and respiration following two yoga relaxation techniques” applied psychophysiology biofeedback 25 (2000): 221-227.   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     224   decreases irritability and stress. low levels are associated with anxiety, stress and insomnia. research studies have shown that yoga may increase gaba (y-aminobutyric acid) to creatine ratios and could help improve symptoms in low gaba levels associated with depression, anxiety disorders, and epilepsy.35 another study on intervention strategies involving massage, yoga, and relaxation for children with emotional and behavioral difficulties indicated that the intervention group showed improvements in “self-confidence, social confidence, communication and contribution in the class.” the children in the intervention group displayed “decreases in negative behaviors such as bullying, being disruptive and rule breaking, and increases in positive behaviors such as obeying instructions, joining in with a group and asking for help in class.”36 in my own ethnographic research on incorporating peacebuilding and yoga with fourth graders into the schools, i asked self-reflective questions in the student surveys. i wanted to know if students were internalizing the skills, attitudes, and beliefs necessary for peaceful living and interactions. when the students first started the program, they constantly talked, fidgeted and couldn’t stay still in both the yoga and peace class. the peace class was taught during social studies and yoga was taught during physical education. whenever the students left yoga class, the teachers stated they noticed a significant difference in the way they walked to class and interacted with each other. both the boys and girls discussed what it means to take responsibility for their actions. when students think about constructing ideas of peace in ways that are normalized and not demonized, it’s only natural that their perceptions of peace and war will change. students learned how to use “i” statements such as, “i feel angry when you take my pencil” and how to enlist calm yogic breathing when they get angry. they also learned listening skills and basic breathing techniques and yoga postures. there were 78 students who participated. one question that proved significant was, “do you think learning about peace and yoga has helped you with your relationship with others?”. students said: • “yes, because me and my brother used to fight but now we help each other”. • “i talk with people about taking responsibility for my actions” • “yes, because i was a mean girl before i did peace and yoga. now i’m a peace girl. i’m not getting in trouble a lot”. • “i do not yell at my cousin anymore, i take responsibility for my actions”. • “learning to talk about my problems. i know how to do yoga. learning how to react with my family members and looking in the person’s eyes when they are talking and asking questions”. • “i’ve learned that when i have an argument i have to understand the other person. i use yoga method so i don’t burst”.                                                                                                                           35 chris c. streeter, eric jensen, ruth perlmutter, howard cabral, hua tian, devin terhune, domenic ciraulo and perry renshaw, “yoga asana sessions increase brain gaba levels: a pilot study”, the journal of alternative and complementary medicine 13, no. 4 (2007): 419-426. 36lesley powell, “a journey of self-discovery: an intervention involving massage, yoga, and relaxation for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties attending primary schools”, european journal of special needs education 23, no. 4 (2008): 403.   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     225   • “the students are much calmer and focused since they started yoga. i’m even more calm” (teacher a). the students also listed important aspects such as taking responsibility, developing better relationships with family and friends, using positive communication, and not yelling or getting angry as much anymore. students stated how much they enjoyed the yoga sessions because they “learned new postures, and felt more relaxed, calm, and could breathe better.”37 when asked if the students would like to see this curriculum in their daily classes, they excitedly said yes, and that they were tired of not talking about things that are important to them. the students listed famous peacemakers, like martin luther king and even people in their family that were peacemakers. they began to see the qualities that these peacemakers had and why they were effective in promoting peace. the students also saw a demonstration by a young latino national yoga champion from their community. they kept asking him if he really was from their community and where he first learned about yoga. they were intrigued by him and it made such a difference that he was from their community. yogis believe that peace starts from within. then and only then can it be extended outward to others and the community. when we suffer, we tend to be more willing to inflict pain and misery upon others and ourselves, whether through words, actions, and energy. creating a practice of non-violence towards oneself and others allow each individual to gain a stronger sense of well being, thus reducing their negative impact on the world. the ultimate impact is the realizations that we can each contribute to creating a more peaceful, healthy global society by becoming more peaceful and healthy.38 most importantly, the skills learned and practiced in yoga are essential in supporting peace and democratic principles. in my yoga practice, the instructor discusses healing and forgiving ourselves for creating stress and tension in our lives. they discuss how the inner peace and harmony we get in our yoga practice can be taken out to the real world and given to others in ways that leave them peaceful and harmonious. as a whole class, we end our practice saying, “namaste”. “nama” means bow, “as” means i, and “te” means you. this literally means “i bow to you” but in yoga it can mean a variety of things such as, “may the peace/divine that is within me, also be within you.” palkhivala states that, “namaste allows two individuals to come together energetically to a place of connection and timelessness, free from the bonds of egoconnection. if it is done with deep feeling in the heart and with the mind surrendered, a deep union of spirits can blossom. this allows the basic yoga truth that we are all one when we live from the heart.”39 by seeking to understand and feel compassion for ourselves first, then we are more apt to view others without criticism and judgment, but with understanding and love, creating spaces for authentic social justice and action. self-empowered value and belief systems                                                                                                                           37 wiggins, forthcoming 38 gerstein, yoga’s guiding light; stone, yoga for a world out of balance; lin, love, peace and wisdom in education. 39 “the meaning of namaste,” rita geno, http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/822   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     226   in this section, i intertwine the above-mentioned peace, democratic, and yogic theories to form a belief system that undergirds a more holistic form of peace education with the skills needed to carry out those beliefs. these beliefs need to have balance and harmony in order to be truly effective. balance is essential in yoga, for instance if you lean too far on one side, the other side has to try harder and you end up falling out of a posture. this is indicative of being out of balance and one group is taking on more responsibility or burdens and the other group isn’t helping to balance the load. peace education moves people away from apathy, seclusion, cynicism, and ignorance toward increasing their awareness, consciousness, engagement, and ability thus increasing their power to act and engage in finding solutions to violent social realities. 40 peace education and yoga allow for a sense of balance and harmony to reengage students and teachers alike. the following ten descriptions of a peaceful belief system is not mutually exclusive and certainly has room to grow and overlap, but it’s a start to linking the value of yoga to peace and democracy in schools. these descriptions are based on a number of theoretical principles such as moral development41 and the interconnections between justice and care,42 peace education, 43 democratic principles,44 and yoga45. for instance, carol gilligan’s research on moral development counters and expands on lawrence kohlberg’s theory by examining it from an ethic of caring standpoint in which relationships are contextual. according to gilligan the preconventional stage allows the actor to dissipate any conflict between caring for oneself and the care of others. 46 this ethic of care has to be agreed upon within the community and when empathy and forgiveness are needed, then the moral boundaries need to be redrawn to include previous enemies. however, a universal notion of justice and the ethic of care must be concurrently established to be effective and socially transformative.47 a belief system is a shared system of beliefs and values that systematically define a way of perceiving the social, cultural, physical, and psychological world. to incorporate yoga practice, each value should engage breathing techniques. inhaling is allowing the life force to infiltrate body and mind and exhaling lets go of the physical and emotional toxins such as anger, fear, frustration, tension, and stress. constantly focusing on the present moment allows one to stay focused on your practice and meditation. meditation enhances qualities of gratitude, contentment, mindfulness, and patience.                                                                                                                           40 harris and morrison, peace education. 41 lawrence kohlberg, the philosophy of moral development: essays on moral development, vol 1. (san francisco: harper & row, 1981); carol gilligan, in a different voice: psychological theory and women’s development (cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 1982). 42 murithi, the ethics of peacebuilding. 43 lin, love, peace and wisdom; carter, “voluntary standards for peace education”; betty a. reardon, education for a culture of peace in a gender perspective, (unesco publishing, 2001): 85-86. 44 greene, the dialectic of freedom; anna s. ochoa-becker, democratic education for social studies: an issuescentered approach 2nd ed. (greenwich, ct: information age publishing, 2007); grant, what is the language?; shapiro, toward a critical pedagogy of peace. 45 stone, yoga for a world out of balance. 46 gilligan, in a different voice. 47 murithi, the ethics of peacebuilding.   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     227   first, democracy, peace and, civic engagement principles need to be embedded in all facets of our culture i.e. home, communities, schools, politics, economics, and international relationships. the ethic of care and hope and a commitment to nonviolence has to be included. “the arts and skills of care are learned…and must become as important a factor in the public realm as in the private.” hope, “can be elicited and developed through practicing the skills of visioning, imaging and modeling.”48 secondly, sharing from all members of the group is essential. one can respect experiences from both novice and experts, young and old, male and female. this respects the balance needed in a democratic society and reflects the taoist principle of yin and yang. one must allow for new thinking and new ways of doing things in order to truly grow. each individual has the ability to work cooperatively by listening, sharing, being open-minded, and being confident to question the values of the others in the group. cross-cultural relationships have the ability to compromise, accept the majority vote, and find sustainable solutions. allowing several perspectives to infiltrate and span across cultures is essential in an open democratic society.49 third, humility, gratitude, forgiveness, compassion, and honesty are virtuous qualities of a peaceful and harmonious life. humility is cultivated in yoga by being noncompetitive and not seeking to create the perfect posture, but to admit fragility and taking care of your body and mind, rather than to impress others. having gratitude that you can practice yoga with a group of like-minded peaceful individuals with a common goal. one can learn to forgive oneself and others. it’s very difficult to forgive others if you are not willing to forgive yourself. tim murithi explains that in order for forgiveness to occur, enemies must seek a common moral community based on a framework that acknowledges our common humanity.50 compassion includes both sympathy and empathy. both qualities are essential in truly being compassionate. finally, honesty is important in speaking the truth about any situation and accepting responsibility if you made a mistake or did something wrong. these qualities are at the heart of daily yoga practice. as michael stone emphasizes, “as we still the distractions of mind and body and settle into a more authentic way of being in and of the world, we also awake to a larger responsibility, namely, serving and supporting others where they are suffering”.51 fourth, the importance of believing in yourself and your word is essential to social action. if you are committed to being a change agent, then seeking the action towards change is imperative if you are to keep your word. you must believe you can make the change as this leads to self-empowerment and integrity. the ability to self-reflect, be responsible and accept the consequences of your actions is also essential. another approach to becoming critical and truly democratic is the notion of autonomy. to be autonomous is to understand your influence in the world and the constructions that compose the way you are categorized, “to be autonomous is to be self-directed and responsible; it is to be capable of acting in accord with internalized norms                                                                                                                           48 reardon, education for a culture of peace in a gender perspective. 49 ochoa-becker, democratic education for social studies. 50 murithi, the ethics of peacebuilding. 51 stone, yoga for a world out of balance, 80.   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     228   and principles; it is to be insightful enough to know and understand one’s impulses, one’s motives, and the influences of one’s past.”52 these characteristics are essential to knowing one’s place in the constructing of self and others. fifth, the belief in the power of practice and the acceptance of new challenges allows you to grow as a person, citizen, and yogi. yoga practice can be seen as a metaphor for life. steady, patient practice allows you to have greater concentration and focus, thus making you slow down and be mindful of both your yoga practice and daily life. you will gain access to new knowledge, be critical and thoughtful of what you hear, read and see. “authentic expressions of citizen criticism and political interest are not acts of disloyalty. quite the contrary, they have a very strong attachment to democratic principles that they hope to stretch ever closer to the democratic ideal.”53 sixth, sharing a sense of purpose is integral to growth. most people want peace in their lives even though they can create turmoil very easily. the essence of humanity is based on peace. it’s our culture that indoctrinates us to the apparent necessity of violence.54 the global community can start within the classroom by students and teachers bringing about social change through their actions as a community with purpose. svi shapiro suggests that, “more than ever we need an education that will address why we make wars, destroy lives, brutalize and devalue others, and follow those who lead us into the blind rage of ethnocentrism or other forms of hatred and bigotry.”55 we must understand that the policies we make affect others. we must take care to hear marginalized voices as well as dominant ones. as i stated earlier, at the end of yoga practice, the class turns to the teacher in their final meditation and says, “namaste”“may the peace/divine that is within me, also be within you”. one must seek the divine peace in every person you meet. seventh, the power of self-love, self-worth, and dignity that supports inner peace allow for social transformation to the outside world. it takes great strength to address and resolve feelings of anger, desperation, fear, stress, and feelings of self-righteousness. we need to first love ourselves in order to truly love and respect others. we also have to have the strength to be willing to put ourselves on the margins in order to grow. to examine the fluidity of our own privilege and marginalization in addition to deconstructing race, class, gender, sexuality, religions and ablism and how each is represented in both the official and hidden curriculum is a part of the ethic of care curriculum. carl grant and lavonne williams explain that care and the practice of caring must affirm one’s cultural constructions and illuminate how care is conceived and distributed.56 we are then able to adapt to change and understand the potential change in power dynamics. this takes great courage. like the warrior pose in yoga, it takes great concentration and balance to stay focused and not fall to one side or the other.                                                                                                                           52 maxine greene, the dialectic of freedom (new york: teachers college, 1988), 118. 53 ochoa-becker, democratic education for social studies: an issues-centered decision making curriculum, 4. 54 ibid. 55 shapiro, “toward a critical pedagogy of peace education”, 65. 56 grant and williams, “what is the language of care and social justice that we use in schools?”.   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     229   eight, we can believe in our personal growth and learning from challenges and missteps. we are all human. “accepting feelings of fear and vulnerability as normal human reactions frees people to share those feelings with others and explore common links that provide the basis for joining together to address these problems. people make connections with others based on fear for their own survival and that of others, and concern for the future.”57 unfortunately, the culture of intolerance isn’t fixed on one country or culture; it’s everywhere. we must first seek to understand and deconstruct the roots of this oppression to better work through and overcome it. “a benevolent or tolerant interpretation of care mutes and silences discussions of power, privilege, and oppression, and leave the discourse on care unproblematized.”58 ninth, believing that truth can be based on multiple realities engenders a feminist perspective according to gilligan, but a universal notion of justice and care can be intertwined to create a more equitable belief system. “educators committed to nonviolence in education encourage students to discover the ways they think about themselves and others, replacing fears, hostilities, negative statements, and prejudices with nonviolent ways of thinking about self and others that respects the truth that can reside within each of us.”59 communication is an important skill when seeking to subvert unjust practices in the promotion of social justice. solving interpersonal conflicts comes from trying to understand another point of view. one must understand the power of the word. paulo freire emphasized the impact the word has on the world and how it is intertwined and inherently connected to praxis through reflection and action. in order for praxis to have efficacy, it must be embedded in authentic dialogue. for freire, dialogue is crucial to the subversion of the status quo and dominant practice of the oppressors. dialogue must be accompanied with qualities of a true revolution. the truest revolutionary act is infused with love, hope, humility, having faith in humankind and critical thinking. thus, these qualities bridge a “mutual trust between the dialoguers,”60 and create “well-developed communication skills that include reflective listening, participatory hearing, articulate speech and the ability to clarify.”61 finally, everyone must believe that once you reach “nirvana” or a sense of peace, then you turn around and help others along a similar path to peace. one can be participatory, actively committed in the peace process, and seek ways of restorative justice. “increasingly, peace education is being seen as having its essential roots in the work necessary for “inner peace.” inner peace does not mean merely a state of inner being, which ignores the reality of human suffering. rather, holistic peace is seen as encompassing an individual compassion for human need, coupled with a sincere attempt at identifying with and helping to transform the suffering of others.”62                                                                                                                           57 harris and morrison, peace education, 93. 58 grant and williams, “what is the language of care and social justice that we use in schools?”, 212. 59 harris and morrison, peace education, 136. 60 paulo freire, pedagogy of the oppressed (new york: continuum, 1970), 91. 61 reardon, education for a culture of peace in a gender perspective, 101. 62 harris and morrison, peace education, 134.   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     230   in yoga, daily intentions should adhere to these values and students need to constantly seek the interconnection between what they are discussing in the classroom and how their yoga practice informs and enhances those social understandings. the idea of taking it off the mat and into the world is part of this kind of social action. curricular implications for yoga, peace, and democracy making our curriculum culturally relevant, empowering, peaceful, and socially sustainable grants access to the knowledge and skills needed to overcome the culture of complacency. this is imperative if we really want students to create an accurate democratic system reflective of social justice and equitable human rights. teacher training, classroom environment, and administrative and community support are all essential elements in implementing peaceful pedagogy. in this section, i’ll provide some guidelines to start a culture of peace in schools. cultivating peaceful citizens begins with teacher training, program and curricular implementation, and involving the community allowing spaces for libratory dialogue and peaceful, nonviolent social action. teacher training in order to create a peaceful school environment, teachers have to first address their own biases, limited expectations of students, and their ability to let go of control and allow the students a sense of autonomy. i was a teacher for many years and i know the feeling of being stressed out, tired, and on the edge when students start acting out. they pick up on the energy of the teacher and school, whether it’s positive or negative, and they move forward based on that energy. educators may unconsciously perpetuate the status quo if they are not provided the opportunity to take a critical lens to the ways in which society rejects true democracy and freedom by its very insurgence of dehumanizing others. thich nhat ninh focuses on holistic approaches emphasizing, wholeness, a union of mind, body, and spirit. knowing oneself in ways that reveal holistic, critical reflection, and action is to understand one’s identity better63. teachers must model a culture of peace by addressing those issues of healing, forgiveness, and conflict resolution and their vision of a peaceful world and classroom. in return, students can share their visions. if respect is maintained between students and teachers then making democratic decisions and reparative attempts when a project or activity doesn’t go the way you planned is imperative. in creating a democratic classroom, boundary setting is also necessary to allow for differences in opinions and room for compromise. finally, a teacher’s expectations must be tempered between love, care and compassion and a consistent expectation of excellence. students must be held accountable for their actions, but we can aid them in their journey of self-discovery and intrinsic motivation. schools of peace program, support groups, and school-wide promotion of peace have to be a permanent part of the curriculum and school culture in order to fully embrace a self-empowering peaceful                                                                                                                           63 thich nhat hanh, peace is every step (new york: bantam books, 1992).   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     231   culture. programs should be set in place for anger management and conflict resolution for both peer and faculty support groups. the promotion of peace should be presented throughout the year through peaceful assemblies, social debates, and opportunities for action. awards should be presented for peaceful action in the community, state, and national levels. peace should also be a theme throughout the content areas and certainly in the fine arts. famous citizens like gandhi and martin luther king jr. should be studied as well as ordinary citizens. ordinary citizens can be people from the community that have made strides toward creating peace and improving public policy. they can also be people that students know and admire for making peace in their homes and families. many times, when high-stakes testing season is near, the fine arts and social studies get left out to allow more study time for the test. this takes key elements of learning away from students. the curriculum has to be culturally relevant and embrace student experiences. community action finally, the community must be involved through newsletters, hosting peaceful functions, and workshops on peaceful living that promote positive communication, yoga practice, increased awareness, and critical deconstruction of racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia. this can help to open a dialogue with a variety of other communities in and around the area. when implementing peace skills into the community, we need to have the initial social skills, then we can manifest these skills into action such as, a) taking an active role in defining community problems and framing questions from a community perspective, b) the ability to make difficult decisions by mastering public deliberation, articulating a sense of common good and recognizing a shared sense of purpose and direction, and c) creating efficient relationships among constituents to achieve mutual purposes. other active skills are the ability to identify resources, work as a team, identify goals, and resolve interpersonal conflicts. we must connect our sense of humanity to the decisions we make about our communities and global lives. conclusion peace, yoga and democracy share a vision of freedom, truth, and justice to promote both individual and societal transformation. barack obama created a vision of hope in 2008; students should be allowed to carry out that vision of freedom and democracy in their homes, schools and communities with curricular implementation across the content areas. allowing the community and the school to interact and makes strides for change are essential if peace is ever to be a possibility.   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     232   bibliography brock-utne, brigit. feminist perspectives on peace and peace education. new york: pergamon press, 1989. bynoe, linda. “strategies for teaching caring and empowerment: drawing from african american, mexican american, and native american traditions,” in educating for a culture of peace, ed. riane eisler and ron miller portsmuth, nh:heineman, 2007. carter, candice.” voluntary standards for peace education,” journal of peace education 5, no. 2 (2008). carter, candice. “whither social studies? in pockets of peace at school”, journal of peace education 1, no 1 (2004). deshpande, sudheer, hr nagendra, and nagarathna raghuram, “a randomized trial of the effect of yoga on verbal aggressiveness in normal healthy volunteers”, international journal of yoga 1 no. 2 (2008). durkheim, emile. “the nature of education”. in schooling the symbolic animal: social and cultural dimensions of education, edited by bradley a.u. levinson. lanham: rowman and littlefield, 2000. freire, paulo. pedagogy of the oppressed. new york: continuum, 1970. geno, rita. “the meaning of namaste” http://www.yogajournal.com/basics/822 gerstein, nancy. guiding yoga’s light: lessons for yoga teachers. champaign, il: human kinetics, 2008. grant, carl and lavonne j. williams, “what is the language of care and social justice that we use in schools?”, in educating for a culture of peace, ed. riane eisler and ron miller. portsmouth, nh: heineman, 2004. greene, maxine. the dialectic of freedom. new york: teachers college, 1988. hague appeal for peace, (2005) http://www.haguepeace.org/ hanh, thich nhat. peace is every step. new york: bantam books, 1992. harris, ian and mary lee morrison. peace education. jefferson, north carolina: mcfarland & company publishers, 2003. iyengar , b.k.s. foreword to yoga for a world out of balance, by michael stone. boston & london: shambhala, 2009. jacobson, “nonviolence as a way of knowing in the public school classroom,” in factis pax 1, no. 1 (2007).   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     233   jefferson-buchanan, rachael. “an introduction to research on yoga in education”, published in physical education matters (2006), http://www.ryeuk.org/articles.htm#intro kauts, amit and neelam sharma, “effect of yoga performance in relation to stress”, international journal of yoga 2 no. 1 (2009). lin, jing. love, peace, and wisdom in education: a vision for the education in the 21st century. lanham, maryland: rowman & littlefield education, 2006. murithi, tim. the ethics of peacebuilding. edinburgh: edinburgh university press, 2009. ochoa-becker, anna. democratic education for social studies: an issues-centered decision making curriculum. greenwich, ct: information age publishing, 2007. powell, lesley. “a journey of self-discovery: an intervention involving massage, yoga, and relaxation for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties attending primary schools”, european journal of special needs education 23, no. 4 (2008). reardon, betty a. education for a culture of peace in a gender perspective. unesco publishing, 2001. shapiro, svi. “toward a critical pedagogy of peace education”. in peace education: the concept, principles, and practices around the world, edited by gavriel salomon and baruch nevo, 63-71. mahwah, nj: erlbaum, 2002. smoker, paul and linda groff, “spirituality, religion, culture and peace: exploring the foundations of inner-outer peace in the twenty-first century,” international journal of peace studies, 1, no. 1 (1996). stone, michael. yoga for a world out of balance: teaching on ethics and social action. boston & london: shambhala, 2009. streeter, chris c., eric jensen, ruth perlmutter, howard cabral, hua tian, devin terhune, domenic ciraulo and perry renshaw, “yoga asana sessions increase brain gaba levels: a pilot study”, the journal of alternative and complementary medicine 13, no. 4, 2007. shirley telles, satish kumar reddy, and h.r. nagendra, “oxygen consumption and respiration following two yoga relaxation techniques” applied psychophysiology biofeedback 25, 2000. telles, shirley, satish kuman reddy and h. r. nagendra. “oxygen consumptions and respiration following two yoga relaxatino techniques” applied psychophysiological biofeedback 25 2000. http://www.vivekanandayoga.com/research_papers/20000101_ocrftyrt.pdf   in  factis  pax     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  216-­‐234   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     234   liz jackson final in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 39 volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     democratic citizenship, critical multiculturalism, and the case of muslims since september 11 liz jackson liz@lizjackson.org key to democratic citizenship is understanding in a basic sense other people and groups in society. in the united states there has been a lively debate regarding how educators and students should set about doing this, however—how they should respond to differences from mainstream norms, inside and outside their classrooms, and the presence of minorities in society. in this essay, i want to illuminate specific aspects of the challenges public school educators face in constructively and accurately teaching about controversial groups in their classrooms by exploring the case of educating about muslims since september 11 (9/11). i argue that in this particular instance the ability of multicultural educators1 to provide students with accurate, balanced understandings of the religion and group is hindered by limitations internal to the traditional approaches to multicultural education in the united states, as well as by expectations set by current 1 terms used here such as “multiculturalism,” “pluralism,” and “assimilationism” have a long history, and their meanings typically vary according to context.throughout this text i use “multiculturalism” to indicate any attitude sensitive in any way to difference in society, including pluralism or assimilationism. i discuss strategies for optimizing minorities’ experiences in the public sphere through tolerating them in their “difference” as “pluralism,” while by assimilationism i refer to the attitude that “different” groups should be encouraged to adapt to majority culture. of course the types described here refer less to easily identifiable, self-described communities, and more to broad theoretical approaches to difference. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 40 educational standards and related constraints set by typical teacher education programs. i examine the challenges multicultural educators face in this case to clarify within a concrete context what is involved in and necessary to adequately educating students about groups considered “different,” or controversial in contemporary society. after critically exploring common multicultural education theories and practices, i will flesh out a strategy i discuss here as “critical multiculturalism,” which i argue is more apt for representing controversial minority groups in a balanced and accurate way in classroom settings, toward the end of enabling democratic citizenship. in the final section i consider the training teachers would need to prepare for these practices in pre-service teacher education programs. my ultimate aim then is to provide a more contextualized understanding of multicultural education in the united states, students’ needs in learning about difference and minorities, and the options we face in relation. the limitations of assimilationism and pluralism, and the possibility of critical multiculturalism assimilationism a nation-state of immigrants, the united states has long encouraged assimilation of different ethnic groups, which involved both changes in norms and moral standards, through common schools and other institutions. both mainstream society and the minority member within it were seen to benefit, according to those advocating for it, including many of its recipients.2 those deemed too different, or thought of as unwilling to assimilate to political majority norms⎯particularly during times of national crisis⎯were frequently held as inferior, dangerous, disruptive, or threatening to society, however; even the european-descended “hyphenated american” (identifying, for instance, as “italian-american,” rather than as “american”) was seen as a potential threat during the first world war, carrying with his hyphen “a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this republic,” according to former president woodrow wilson.3 while an attitude of minimal respect or toleration toward minority cultures is broadly embraced as part of american tradition today, many educators today continue to emphasize that minority markers of difference obstruct their equal participation in society, which has a dominant cultural tradition that should be taught appreciatively to all young people. diane ravitch for instance denounces “ethnic cheerleading”⎯the more substantive cultural recognition pluralists demand⎯as undermining social stability by needlessly perpetuating a politics of divisiveness over an emphasis on what makes u.s. society more universally distinctive. she disdains, in one particular instance, pluralistic educators who have “seized upon the mayan contribution to mathematics as key to…boosting the ethnic pride of hispanic children,” in favor of teachers “attempting to 2 akam, everett helmut, transnational america (lanham: rowman & littlefield, 2002). 3 ibid., 47. see also the caroline slave code of 1712, in gutman, herbert g., who built america? (new york: pantheon, 1989), 387; and akam, transnational america, chapters 5-6. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 41 change the teaching of their subject so that children can see its uses in everyday life.”4 here ravitch emphasizes that “everyday life” in the united states is neither mayan nor hispanic, but american, assuming a “melting” of minority identities as ideal. others have identified a false dichotomy within such rhetoric, however, which suggests that supporting america’s commitment to individual freedom and equality requires forsaking absolutely minority affiliation(s). against assimilationists’ emphatic claims that recognition of personal origins and group identities is a potential source of harm to minorities and/or society, one can identity meaningfully as female, or black, for instance, without brandishing in any substantial sense a commitment to a broader social field. and teachers need not participate either in “ethnic cheerleading” or nation building, but can do both, at least in a minimal sense, without incomprehensibility or incoherence, as walter feinberg suggests in his discussion minimal multicultural recognition: if a student felt bad because classmates looked down on her because of cultural or racial affiliation, the teacher may become more active in promoting the selfesteem of the child. this could entail encouraging her to bring in cultural items that speak to the accomplishments of the group. recognition here is still minimal, however. it is provided in order to aid the child’s performance or comfort in the classroom, and it may or may not have any importance for the culture itself.5 while it is possible that ravitch and other like-minded thinkers would not see the harm in teachers boosting students’ self-esteem in this sense, they often suggest in their texts that this sort of recognition could hardly take place in classroom settings without wasting valuable time that could be devoted to apparently more important matters: of social reproduction (teaching the skills needed to participate in society), assimilation (teaching students to identify with the larger, u.s. society), and nation building (teaching students to support the nation-state). indeed, they commonly paint positive minority recognition and learning what is needed to participate in society as mutually exclusive. this trend is illustrated in assimilationist educators’ discussions of muslims since 9/11. for example, in the recent fordham foundation publication, september 11: what children need to know, the editor chester finn describes the collection as a critical response to pluralistic pedagogy that emphasizes in the context of the attacks of 9/11 the equality and toleration the united states can afford to its minority citizens, including muslims, some of whom were attacked and victims of hate crimes after 9/11. as finn puts it, the pluralist pedagogy “was long on multiculturalism, feelings, relativism and tolerance but short on history, civics, and patriotism,” and its antidote, he claims, are voices whose “reverence for tolerance [does not dwarf] their appreciation of other compelling civic values.” 4 ravitch, diane, “multiculturalism: e pluribus plures,” american scholar 59 (1990): 337-54. 5 feinberg, walter, common schools/uncommon identities (new haven: yale university press, 1998), 169. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 42 finn gives an indication of which civic values he finds more compelling by choosing al shanker’s “side of this pedagogical divide,” and his commitment “to teach the common culture, the history of democracy and centrality of freedom and its defense against aggressors.”6 one must take a side, suggests finn: either promote toleration of diversity and difference, or nation building and patriotism in the classroom. finn implies that if one is oriented toward the latter goals, as he is, then interest in inculcating toleration and the like are little more than a waste of energy⎯a detractor from education for nation building (and national defense), as he sees it. likewise, ravitch suggests that history textbooks’ financially based concessions to pro-muslim and/or islamic groups desiring positive recognition have led to “their omission of anything that would enable students to understand conflicts between islamic fundamentalism and western liberalism.”7 as we saw in finn’s editorial, promoting tolerance in this case is cast as at odds with teaching “anything that would enable understanding,” or “what children need to know”…. what makes muslims too different is not explicated; it is merely assumed that they should not be treated as an internal or similar group, but as an outside, different group, that conflicts with the western liberal tradition that ravitch sees undergirding u.s. society. any potential harms done to muslim students through representing them and their beliefs in this basically negative way is not viewed as important relative to the need to educate about an american ideal apparently incompatible with islam. when it comes to educating about muslims, assimilationists thus pit against each other positively recognizing difference and developing and sustaining a distinctive and coherent u.s. society, seeing the former as unnecessary for, if not disruptive to, the latter goal. in accepting the premise that the difference islam makes is too great for toleration of muslims to be tenable, such thinkers follow the political theory known as the “clash of civilizations.” defended recently by samuel huntington, its thesis is that western societies face significant challenges today particularly from muslims, whom are cast as members of a fundamentalist, pre-liberal culture that developed in relative isolation from western civilization and is thus a world apart socially today.8 likewise suggesting that the development of islam and the norms of muslims are simply too dramatically different from those of u.s. mainstream society to be positively recognized in the classroom, ravitch and finn promote an education about muslims and islam that is cautionary rather than pluralistic or tolerant. yet as critics of this view point out, there is no real, empirical boundary between muslims and the west to justify the view that these are completely separate entities that cannot coexist peacefully. demographically, muslims are of the west, europe, and the 6 finn, jr., chester e., ed., september 11: what our children need to know (washington, d.c.: thomas b. fordham foundation, 2002). 7 ravitch, diane, the language police (new york: vintage, 2004). 8 huntington, samuel p., “the clash of civilizations?” foreign affairs (summer 1993). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 43 united states, as well as of the east, arab, or islamic “world.” historically, most muslim cultures have developed side by side with those of “westerners.” and the challenges some particular contemporary muslim groups pose to western societies need not cause wide-scale prejudice or bias toward a much larger and more diverse cross section of the world’s population, that includes as well a significant population of muslims living peacefully and successfully within the united states. others critiquing the “clash” thesis argue that its perspective on cultural difference is limited by its traditional anthropological conception of culture. as edward said and renato rosaldo observe, western european and north american cultural anthropologists have traditionally studied particular aspects of a group⎯the common language and behavior, physical artifacts, and religious and other beliefs and norms, as observed and as described by group members⎯to compare and contrast features between groups, describing this sum of contrastable things as the group’s culture.9 however, this can obscure other aspects of a group’s culture that are not simply different or unique. although the classic vision of unique cultural patterns has proven merit, it also has serious limitations….by defining culture as a set of shared meanings, classic norms of analysis make it difficult to study zones of difference within and between culture…cultural borderlands.10 educational assimilationists such as ravitch and finn nonetheless assume the logic of the “clash” view when it comes to educating about muslims, concluding that muslims are too different from and threatening to u.s. society to be positively recognized in schools. yet there is no compelling justification for this logic, or for this educational approach to islam⎯no reason to ignore the need for tolerance to teach instead only of “the conflicts between islamic fundamentalism and western liberalism,” and nothing of what is shared, or of the vast majority of muslims who are more moderate and peaceful than those who come to mind when one thinks of 9/11, or recent u.s. endeavors in iraq and afghanistan. as we will see, pluralistic approaches to educating about difference also have significant limitations, however. pluralism as previously mentioned, pluralists differ from assimilationists in viewing differences from mainstream norms as potential social goods, generally worthy of toleration and recognition in the public sphere, rather than as barriers to equal participation. after it was observed in brown vs. board of education that black children were psychologically harmed by a lack of positive representation in educational materials and in society, many educators became aware that classroom strategies for including ethnic and racial minorities meaningfully in curricula could help enable minority youth to access equal educational opportunities, thereby enhancing minority groups’ relative 9 said, edward w., orientalism (new york: vintage, 1979), pt. 1. 10 rosaldo, renato, culture and truth (boston: beacon press, 1989), 27. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 44 positions in society. by exploring ethnic and racial diversity as significant factors throughout the curriculum, james banks argued that minorities would be able to access universal cultural knowledge without alienating themselves from their cultures of origin, while privileged group members could learn to appreciate the essentially diverse nature of their society. thus, “multiethnic” education was promoted as beneficial to all members of the classroom community.11 banks’s latest textbooks advocate special educational attention to muslims.12 teaching about islam and muslims in the public school classroom: a handbook for educators similarly promotes a pluralist interpretation of muslims’ place in u.s. society, stressing that all students should learn about this group in a more celebratory than derogatory manner, to recognize minority citizens adequately and increase equality and justice throughout society: dr. martin luther king, in his famous 1963 “i have a dream” speech, talked about “my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice.” indeed, possibly the last barrier to the “palace of justice” lies in our lack of understanding and tolerance of religions other than our own. it is through material such as this handbook that we can celebrate our diversity, eliminate stereotypes, and build respect for our fellow humans. thus while assimilationists tend to frame muslims as separate from the american story, vividly portray islam and the united states as if mutually exclusive, and regard the teaching of tolerance toward muslims as antithetical to education for patriotic citizenship, pluralists promote positive recognition of muslims in schools to debunk stereotypes, celebrate national and international diversity, and decrease injustice in education and elsewhere in society toward muslims. the pluralist approach to difference seems preferable in this instance, as muslims need not be portrayed as antiamerican, unworthy of empathy, or separate from america or the west, to promote civic values such as patriotism, equality, and freedom. yet some remain more cautious in representing controversial groups, including muslims, substantively and positively in the schools. while there is little need to treat muslims or islam as threats in the classroom, pluralist discourses as expressed strategies toward boosting minority self-esteem, increasing social equality, and preserving traditional cultures remain questionable. that is, it is not clear that positive recognition of difference in the aim of these goals is particularly effective, educationally sound, or even necessarily beneficial to minorities in society. additionally, when the difference being addressed is religious, as in the case of muslims, pluralist approaches are particularly worrisome as the united states aims to maintain neutrality in public institutions toward religious groups, aiming neither to diminish nor enhance their meaning in individual’s 11 banks, james a., multiethnic education (upper saddle: allyn & bacon, 1993). 12 banks, james a., and cherry a. mcgee banks, eds., multicultural education: issues and perspectives (hoboken: john wiley & sons, 2004). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 45 lives. treating the minority individual as distinguished in relation to his or her minority affiliation need not and frequently does not aid students’ self-esteem, as critics point out. kwame anthony appiah observes for instance that a pluralist education that aims to develop personal pride about things that mark individuals as minorities can limit one’s options for self-understanding, tying one’s sense of self needlessly to markers of historical stigma, rather than opening up new possibilities for growth and development: the large collective identities that call for recognition come with notions of how a proper person of that kind behaves: it is not that there is one way that gays or blacks should behave, but that there are gay and black modes of behavior. these notions provide loose norms or models, which play a role in shaping the life plans of those who make their collective identities central.… demanding respect for people as blacks and as gays requires that there are some scripts that go with being an african-american or having same-sex desires….it is at this point that someone who takes autonomy seriously will ask whether we have not replaced one kind of tyranny with another. if i had to choose between the world of the closet and the world of gay liberation, or between the world of uncle tom’s cabin and black power, i would, of course, choose in each case the latter. but i would like not to have to choose. i would like other options.13 as appiah points out, being taught with regard to one’s presumed, apparent, or actual ethnic or minority identity does not simply fail to secure that students’ self-esteem needs are met, but can restrict one’s sense of options by emphasizing one as a member of a minority group over other sources of selfhood. others charge additionally that positive recognition of minorities in the classroom does not necessarily meet the complex needs of minorities for greater equality, the second goal expressed by pluralist educators. classroom recognition of minorities can be at odds with their treatment in the hallways and elsewhere within mainstream society, such as in the mass media, and thus pluralists’ ease in regarding classroom recognition as crucial to mainstream representation is idealistic, after several decades of pluralist educational reform and continued injustice and prejudice toward minorities in society. as bhikhu parekh writes, educational recognition and social equality are simply two different things, which require different processes: misrecognition has both a cultural and a material basis. white americans, for example, take a demeaning view of african americans partly under the influence of the racist culture, partly because this legitimized prevailing systems of domination, and partly because the deeply disadvantaged blacks do sometimes 13 appiah, k. anthony, “identity, authenticity, survival: multicultural societies and social reproduction,” in gutmann, ed., multiculturalism, 159 and 163. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 46 exhibit some of the features that confirm white stereotypes. misrecognition, therefore, can only be countered by both undertaking a rigorous critique of the dominant culture and radically restructuring the prevailing inequalities of economic and political power.…cultural self-esteem cannot be developed and sustained in a vacuum and requires appropriate changes in all major areas of life.14 here parekh articulates a divide between the inequalities of classroom representation and those of economic and political power, to caution against conflating the two in the hopes of resolving macro social injustice through micro, classroom interventions. injustice is not based merely in ideology, and cannot be fought effectively with only ideology. the critique of pluralism as a means toward self-esteem building and increasing equality both hit home in the case of muslims, who often express a desire for maintaining a normal, rather than different, classroom identity in public schools,15 and whose religious identities are represented elsewhere, in the media, in ways that can effectively undermine pluralist pro-muslim classroom recognition as a means toward decreasing social stigmatization.16 but the final goal of pluralists, cultural preservation, is particularly problematic when considering the case of muslims. in the case of a pluralist education that deals with religion, positive recognition implies that the schools should not remain neutral toward various religions, but support them substantively as traditions informing students’ sense of self and self-esteem, which goes against the ideal of neutrality regarding religion in the public sphere held in u.s. society. in the last few decades, self-professed patriots have scoured school texts and resources for positive portrayals of islam and muslims, which they frequently regard as evidence of a pro-islamic bias.17 while it seems unlikely that there is any large-scale, concrete effort toward such at work today, critiques of pro-islamic bias raise an important point about the end of education in a liberal democratic society: the goal is not to teach students only that information that aligns with or complements that provided at home. rather, the end is to expand student’s horizons and understandings of their opportunities and potential in society, to enable their capacity for meaningful and autonomous decision making in life. 14 parekh, bhikhu, rethinking multiculturalism (cambridge: harvard university press, 2000), 343. 15 rizvi, fazal, “representations of islam and education for social justice,” in cameron mccarthy and warren crichlow, eds., race, identity, and representation in education (new york: routledge, 2005). 16 jackson, liz, “images of islam in u.s. media and their educational implications,” educational studies 46, no. 1: 3-46. 17 see for instance, stillwell, cinnamon, “islam in america’s public schools: education or indoctrination?” sfgate, june 11, 2008, http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/06/11/cstillwell.dtl&type=printable; bennetta, william j., “how a public school in scottsdale, arizona, subjected students to islamic indoctrination,” the textbook league, http://www.textbookleague.org/tci-az.htm; and sewall, gilbert t., islam and the textbooks: a report of the american textbook council (new york: american textbook council, 2003). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 47 while one’s home community and ability to learn may be linked, making discriminatory or ethnocentric representations of minorities ineffective when teaching minority students, as discussed previously, educators are nonetheless not charged with preserving, protecting, or maintaining different groups in society, but with educating youth to function autonomously in the public sphere: public schools often have good educational and political reasons to acknowledge a child’s cultural meanings. for example, many children learn better where they feel they are respected and their background honored.…the obligation, however, involves the instructional aid required to enable the student to become a functioning citizen of this country. the obligation is not primarily to the child’s original community.18 as feinberg writes, texts or teachers that respect their students’ backgrounds, including religious backgrounds, and honor their students’ cultural meanings, rather than deny, dismiss, or mock these, move rightfully away from the assimilationist approach to difference in order to more effectively teach students, in ways that do not burden them as members of the classroom community. such education may include developing some recognition and understanding throughout the classroom community of different groups in society, to sanction classroom differences and inform about social differences. however, such educational adaptations must be distinguished from promoting groups more generally in the classroom, which neither serves the minority student’s autonomy and development, nor that of other members of the classroom community. and when the student is from a traditional cultural group whose norms and values are commonly seen as going against the grain of mainstream u.s. society, such as a minority religious community, one must emphasize the individual’s interests in autonomy over the group’s interests in cultural preservation, in order to maintain his or her commitment to education for equal opportunity. as feinberg reminds, as educators “we do not respect a tradition as such. we respect the availability of a tradition given a situation in which the individual has the ability to choose otherwise.”19 for this reason, controversial practices of minority groups⎯such as the wearing of hijab or head covering by some muslim females upon entering adulthood⎯should be the subject of minimal rather than substantial recognition, regarded in the case of covered students as worthy of minimal recognition and toleration, but otherwise with neutrality⎯recognized as tolerable, but not promoted, for instance, in the context of both covered and non-covered students.20 none should be expected to wear, or to not wear, 18. feinberg, common schools/uncommon identities, 122. 19. ibid., 143. 20. interestingly, the materials discussed here that promote islam⎯multicultural education and teaching about islam and muslims in the public school classroom⎯sidestep hijab as a controversial issue, perhaps aiming to provide a generally positive perspective. this case illustrates how negative issues are obscured by the pluralist educator, however, in such a way that makes positive classroom recognition distinct from in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 48 hijab, and educators may discuss various perspectives on hijab—that it is a sexist practice, or a source of cultural or religious pride, for instance—in upper-level classes, as relevant, but must not favor one perspective or another on the issue as right or correct. otherwise, the preservation of particular traditions may be prioritized over individuals’ educational interests, future autonomy in society, and personal practices and beliefs, and the public school educator fails to be neutral toward religious expression. in addition, as we saw in the case of pluralists tying minority self-esteem to markers of difference, the internal diversity and dynamism of communities reveals that there is no single correct way to participate within a cultural community⎯in this particular case, to be muslim. for an educator to substantially recognize a minority group or tradition, however, he or she must make claims about that group, which carry with them expectations for behavior, as appiah notes, that need not align with a minority student’s a priori self-image or vision for his or her future. thus, the case of muslims indicates a problem with pluralist education generally: it aims to shape the self with regard to minority cultural identity in unnecessary, limiting, and potentially harmful ways, and as such goes against the primary interest of education for equal opportunity and personal liberty. an approach to difference is needed that is responsive to the limitations of these traditions of multicultural education, and can better address the needs of controversial minority groups such as muslims in u.s. schools today. critical multiculturalism as we saw previously, assimilationists typically regard expressions of cultural difference from mainstream society as barriers to social success, thereby accepting a view of difference as stigma, while pluralists view differences from majority norms within minority communities more positively, as a priori legitimate and worthy of recognition. thus assimilationists and pluralists take different perspectives on the difference divergences from mainstream majority norms make. yet neither encourages students to see social differences as context-based and socially constructed, or equips them to effectively make up their own minds about what differences matter and the situations of concrete prejudice elimination, as discussed previously: if examples of sexist muslims are discussed in the media, for instance, failing to deal with the controversy associated with hijab today in the classroom is highly ineffective, as a disconnect is apparent between classroom knowledge and the “real world.” an excellent example of the controversy associated with hijab is found in the case of french public schools recently banning hijab⎯along with all other forms of religious expression⎯in classrooms. for an analysis of this debate that highlights the diversity of perspectives involved within and outside muslim (and feminist) communities, see jackson, liz, “choice versus equal opportunity: on what toleration requires in the case of the hijab in french schools,” in howe, ed., philosophy of education 2005; gereluk, dianne, “‘why can’t i wear this?!’ banning symbolic clothing in schools,” in vokey, ed., philosophy of education 2006; and . todd, sharon, “unveiling cross-cultural conflict: gendered cultural practice and meta-discursive analysis,” in vokey, ed., philosophy of education 2006. for an argument elaborating the miseducative effect of hijab bans in public places like schools as an act of intolerance through misrecognition that harms student achievement, see ruitenberg, claudia w., “b is for burqa, c is for censorship: the miseducative effects of censoring muslim girls and women’s sartorial discourse,” educational studies 43, no. 1 (2008): 17-28. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 49 minorities in society. instead, they obscure the process of framing social difference from students, expecting or desiring that students take their perspective on minorities and difference, regardless of the availability of, or student intuitions regarding, alternative plausible views. in the case of muslims, assimilationists expect students to view muslims with a critical eye, while pluralists require their toleration or appreciation⎯neither presents the other perspective as worthy of serious consideration. critical multiculturalism does not substantively recognize nor reject minority norms or particular expressions of difference in society, but remains more critically oriented, in classroom settings, emphasizing how social differences and norms are actively constructed, accepted (or rejected), and maintained by meaning-making individuals, including their students. ultimately, each person, and each student, is held as responsible for the views they accept, support, or promote, and as accountable members of society, students are expected to learn how to be skeptical toward others’ claims, including those that seem basic or able to easily take for granted. normalized conceptions of difference are critically investigated, rather than merely accepted and responded to, highlighting possibilities for ideological and social change as the products of individual critical thinking processes, and the contingency of today’s norms, which are obscured by both assimilationist and pluralist treatments of difference as more concrete phenomenon, or facts, to be disseminated. regarding their students firstly as meaning-making individuals, then, critical multiculturalists seek to enable their students to see the bases of their own beliefs about difference, and hold them up to a critical analysis of related evidence, counterevidence, and additional sources and facts. as kincheloe and steinberg note, “critical theorists want to promote an individual’s consciousness of himself or herself as a social being.…how and why his or her political opinions, socio-economic class, role, religious beliefs, gender role and racial self-image are shaped by dominant perspectives.”21 as popular culture is seen by many critical educators as significant influences on personal opinions among youth, a sort of critical media literacy that encourages critical inquiries into representations within media is an important part of a critical multicultural approach to understanding difference in society. as a large-scale group, muslims would be explored as a social entity, rather than taught about, by the critical multiculturalist (this point will be elaborated upon in the next section). rather than evaluate the religion and its believers in predominantly positive or negative ways, the critical multicultural educator would ask students to identify, explore, and evaluate different view points and sources of evidence about muslims for themselves. unlike assimilationists, they would expose students to views counter to the “clash” view regarding their difference from majority norms, to bolster student objectivity, but unlike pluralists, they would not sanction de facto positive assessments of muslim beliefs and practices, but remain substantively neutral, as is required in public 21 kincheloe, joe, and shirley r. steinberg, changing multiculturalism (buckingham: open court press, 1997), 23. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 50 schools and to emphasize students’ active role in understanding others in society. reactive to both idealistic and romantic and negatively stereotypical portrayals of muslims, then, the end of critical multiculturalists’ examinations of such a group would be to provide students with experience evaluating predicaments involving difference in society, by analyzing a variety of evidence, rather than to provide one-sided information or a preferred perspective, which may additionally seem to students far removed from the information they receive elsewhere. while critical multiculturalism seems preferable to assimilationism or pluralism for educating students accurately and objectively about difference in society, its approach to difference contrasts greatly with the lessons traditionally taught in high school courses today dealing with difference in society (social studies classes), which frequently emphasize facts and knowledge claims about groups, rather than their socially constructed nature or their interrelatedness with other groups. to implement a critical multicultural approach, then, we would need to change the way we typically regard the social studies teacher, along with social studies teacher education, away from the popular conception of teacher as standards-bearer, accountable for teaching specific social facts to students. for instance, teachers in illinois are held accountable for teaching students in eighth grade to “identify causes and effects of turning points in world political history” including “the rise of the islamic empire.” this sole reference to islam or muslims in the illinois standards suggests a preferred interpretation of the causes and effects of the rise of islam, rather than, as would be advocated in critical multiculturalism, students weighing out and evaluating different factors framed as relevant, rather than merely identifying those suggested by the teacher or textbook. standardization may be useful in fields such as english and math, but beyond the locations of today’s continents, cities, and states, one would be hard-pressed to identify many similarly objective and universal facts, or standard knowledge, in social studies, a field dealing most substantively with most complex phenomenon: human social relations. diverse perspectives have developed on the causes and effects of the rise of the islamic empire⎯there is no single, correct position on such a complex subject matter, or any sound way to choose one answer over another as official school knowledge on this and all other complex social questions. and given the quantity of standards, time does not allow for a critical classroom examination of different perspectives, or for students to develop nuanced points of view on this or other subjects. even teachers who encourage interpretation, reflection, and exploration of the historical process are pressured into teaching history as isolated facts by the tyranny of tests and standards.…fragmented, content-driven history programs often run students through a series of memorizations, barring them from a deeper exploration into an event or a period of history. excluded from such experiences on the basis that they take too much time, students fail to learn how to understand in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 51 the flow of a stream of events, construct a compelling picture of life in a specific historical era, or conceptualize the complex and subtle nature of social, cultural, political, and economic change.22 additionally, given standardization of curriculum, teachers are viewed and prepared as managers of content learning or knowledge retention rather than as developers of cognitive skills, and are therefore typically ill-equipped to effectively teach how knowledge is constructed, or critically explore with students the origins or validity of commonplace beliefs and norms. to implement critical multiculturalism in social studies classes, then, social studies teacher education would need to change to better enable teachers to understand methods in social sciences and share these with students, engaging them in critical social inquiry. as i will elaborate subsequently, teachers need to be seen as skilled workers, and students as ultimately skilled participants in society, rather than as retainers of standard facts chosen by someone outside the classroom: deskilling has involved taking jobs that demand skill and decision-making and dividing them into simplified actions.…[this logic] precludes the need for teachers to analyze the materials that should be taught, understand the backgrounds and needs of individual students, or adapt certain subject matter and certain methods of informational delivery.…the job of teaching is reduced to merely executing plans that are made elsewhere.23 resistance to these ideas is often framed politically by conservative educators, who typically respond by arguing that problem-based, critical approaches to social studies knowledge such as critical multiculturalism are unsound educationally, and/or inappropriately political, aiming to show students negative things about society and influencing them to fight for changes rather than preserve the united states for “democracy.” that students need to learn to walk before they can run is often suggested by assimilationists as well, who frequently regard “basic” facts, or “what one needs to know,” and tolerance toward difference and more nuanced views as mutually exclusive options. yet few deny today that social studies education must engage students to be effective, and that rote memorization of basic facts fails to inspire or develop students’ abilities. teaching social studies as facts neither enables student retention, nor engages students, and does not aid student cognitive development. as joe kincheloe argues, while teaching facts uniformly to students may increase test scores, it results in “deskilled students” who can collect “technical skills and atomistic bits of knowledge which can be measured,” but have been discouraged from thinking about “the relationship of one fact to another, the connection between what one learns and how such knowledge might affect 22 kincheloe, joe l., getting beyond the facts (new york: peter lang, 2001), 596. 23 ibid., 192. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 52 his or her fellow human beings, the kinship between the school curriculum and what constitutes a good society.”24 the latter is clearly more appropriately the end of social studies education within a liberal democratic society. in the case of religion, social studies education that relegates religious beliefs to a facts-only domain strips religion of its practical significance to students who live in a world made up largely by diverse interrelated religious believers. yet because of standardization practices and controversies surrounding religious difference, very few standards consider islam or muslims since the medieval ages, despite its tremendous growth and influence on civilizations worldwide since. by aiming to avoid controversy or sensitive, subjective content, the minimally religious curriculum is unimportant and irrelevant in today’s world, while it is widely recognized as crucial “in a democracy to help children and young people gain the capacity for interpretation and critique by examining the beliefs”25 of others around them. students can hardly learn to weigh in on important policy issues regarding religion, such as religious expression in public settings (like wearing hijab), when they do not learn much if anything about it. while a social studies education that employs a critical multicultural approach may seem a distant possibility today, taking stock of what is needed to enable young people to take responsibility for improving society, and think and analyze, leads to this more critical than “basic” approach, which can be made possible by changing our conceptions of the proper role and necessary training of social studies educators. it is clearly a better route than assimilationism or pluralism for teaching students about minorities today in an accurate and balanced manner, and for aiding their greater, more democratically informed understanding of how cultures and differences are variously interpreted and how they make a difference in our society and our world. as i discuss in the next section, the changes required to the teacher education curriculum to enact such an approach are not in themselves overwhelming, when one recognizes, crucially, that social studies teachers must be adequately trained to perform one of the most important and necessary social functions: educating future citizens to participate meaningfully in a democratic society. fundamentals of a critical multicultural approach ideal practices using a critical multicultural approach in this section, i want to explore in a bit more detail what would be required to enact a critical multicultural approach to educating about difference in the case of islam and muslims, both in terms of ideal educational practices, or educator capabilities, and teacher education. starting with the former, i argue that in order to enact a critical multicultural approach to understanding difference in the classroom, educators must (1) grapple with difference democratically in the classroom, and (2) critically model and 24 ibid., 51. 25 ibid., 61. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 53 teach students critical literacy skills. let us consider each of these ideal practices in turn. as discussed previously, critical multiculturalism does not accept traditionally or normally conceived categories of difference as valid a priori, or as absolute truth, but assumes that these views are the results of people’s choices and perspectives. in turn, they see their students as active, independent thinkers, whose ability to explore and consider various points of view and sources of evidence they aim to develop and enhance in the classroom. when it comes to teaching about muslims and islam, critical multiculturalists then question the normal conception of difference by considering the diversity of muslims today and comparing and contrasting islam with other religions. both of these practices are facilitated not to simply argue against mainstream conceptions, or discover the “real truth” of the matter, but to ensure that students develop independent points of view, informed by their critical and reflective analyses of various knowledge sources, rather than their acceptance of what their texts or teachers claim. in one recent study of teaching practices since 9/11, one educator in particular makes considering the diversity of muslims the goal of one lesson: “he pointed out that islam was not a uniform religion that could be understood without the proper ‘cultural’ context in which it was practiced around the world. he made this point by saying ‘what do i know about islam in bangladesh? nothing!’”26 the teacher then asks his students to conduct research and find information about different historical and present-day muslim communities to increase diverse representations of muslims in the classroom. teachers can additionally discuss the differences and similarities among islam, judaism, and christianity in their classrooms, highlighting what they share, as well as the things that may divide them. while some may view it as inappropriate since 9/11 to identify islam and christianity as similar religions, one need not communicate that it is a “fact,” for instance, that these religions have much in common, particularly if one perceives this as a contentious perspective. rather, in cases where claims may cause upset or be contrary to widely held views (such as the “clash” view), an educator can teach about this alternative view of the religions’ similarities and consider with students its merit, without putting forward the claim as a fact or truth. the point here is not necessarily to change a point of view or steer it one way or another, but to ensure that it has been systematically developed rather than intuited from the teacher, society, or popular culture. indeed, one need not frame their personal beliefs or perspectives as relevant or correct in discussing such topics, to be effective in exposing students to a variety of points of view from which they can better make up their own minds. many teachers are highly effective in such contexts in leaving their personal beliefs at the door, and it is in line with a critical multicultural perspective on difference for the educator to not have the right answer, as there is no essential truth about social difference⎯just different points of view that may make more or less sense depending 26 kaviani, khodadad, “teachers’ gatekeeping of the middle east curriculum,” phd diss. (university of washington, 2007), 133. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 54 upon one’s perspective, knowledge, and experience. when one remains focused on developing students’ critical thinking skills rather than teaching them certain interpretations of difference, it makes little sense to privilege one perspective in the classroom above others, unless, of course, that perspective is more informed by the critical examination of multiple factors and points of views…which students simply aiming to consent to their teachers’ views necessarily fail to develop. “…i don’t necessarily want my kids to have the same views as me. i want them to come to their own decisions in a valid way, and what i mean by ‘valid’ i mean understanding the issue, learning about it, figuring it out, and then coming to an educated decision. because if you reflect the way your parents think and it’s because it’s the way your parents think, it’s not educated.”27 as this educator expresses, if the students think as you do because it is how you do, you are not teaching them to think for themselves, the fundamental aim of a critical multicultural approach that prepares students for democratic citizenship by developing their independent critical thinking skills and decision making capacities. one need not obscure their own perspective from the classroom to teach with a critical multicultural approach, but one should at least emphasize how it has been informed by personal experiences and independent reasoning, and should not be taken as the truth. sherry revealed her opinions on selective issues.…“whatever i have to say, i can tell them my opinion, if i can back it up.” if students disagreed with what she was saying, then she gave them “newspaper articles” to read that supported her views and encouraged them to find evidence to back up their views too. she also told her students that she was “still learning. there are things that are difficult for me. i might be leaning one direction⎯and i don’t want to say that i’m wishy-washy.” she recalled that at some point in the past she was “100 percent pro-israeli.” however, she no longer felt that way.28 marking one perspective as the correct one should not be the teacher’s aim, as much as illustrating how intelligent decision making involves independently weighing different options, engaging in democratic interpersonal deliberation, and scrutinizing one’s sources of evidence. that it is wrong, for instance, to view islam as more terroristic or threatening than christianity, or to regard islam and christianity as completely unrelated belief systems, can be expressed as a point of view requiring student exploration, without identifying it as a knowledge claim about which students must concur to academically succeed. in line with the critical multicultural viewpoint, then, the truth should not be determined beforehand with regard to controversial issues, so that students can learn to develop their perspectives more independently, as necessary to be prepared for democratic citizenship and personal autonomy in society. 27 ibid., 79. 28 ibid., 167. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 55 while some have raised concern that such an approach does too little to interrupt injustice,29 it is helpful to realize here that students do not normally view their teachers’ role as a moral one in their lives, and are likely to separate their teacher’s attitudes in such cases from their own ethical and social views. i try to explain to my pupils that envy is despicable, and at once i feel the secret resistance of those who are poorer than their comrades. i try to explain that it is wicked to bully the weak, and at once i see a suppressed smile on the lips of the strong. i try to explain that lying destroys life, and something frightful happens: the worst habitual liar in the class produces a brilliant essay on the destructive power of lying. i have made the fatal mistake of given instruction in ethics, and what i said is accepted as current coin of knowledge; nothing of it is transformed into character-building substance.30 admonishments do not encourage democratic deliberation by students. of course, controversial issues are issues that matter to individuals, and thus discussing controversial subjects democratically in the classroom is no easy, simple, or straightforward task. for one, these topics tend to be highly complex: not easy for informed adults to sum up accurately and broadly in the course of a class period, let alone effectively communicate interpersonally with their students about. in the case of education about muslims, one is dealing with a highly complex “community” that is hard to make blanket assertions about. in addition, such emotional topics can cause a teacher or student to act rashly under pressure if they sense the importance of the subject in the world. even the frustration of not having the appropriate knowledge or background, or of being unable to express oneself can create significant tension. finally, many educators see religious issues as something that should not be discussed at length in the classroom. however, it is not pedagogically effective or in the aim of students’ development of critical thinking to claim that contentious views put forward more abstractly about difference, such as those about the qualities or behaviors of different groups of people, are matters of black and white, or right and wrong, because in real life these are often very complex and controversial issues that do not readily lend themselves to matter-offact analyses. as thinkers publicly identified as experts, from huntington to said, have very different beliefs, to foreclose discussion on one of their points of view in the classroom demonstrates to students a lack of willingness to consider different perspectives⎯hardly a model practice in democratic deliberation. thus, helping students to understand why people think the way they do, 29 boler, megan, ed., democratic dialogue in education (new york: peter lang, 2004); applebaum, barbara, “social justice, democratic education, and the silencing of words that wound,” journal of moral education 32, no. 2 (2003): 151-62. 30 martin buber, quoted in gordon, mordechai, “engaging student disengagement,” in stengel, ed., philosophy of education 2007, 346. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 56 scrutinizing their sources of evidence, and the orientation or perspective from which they see the world, enables student engagement and critical thinking far more than does morally educating them to agree a priori with certain perspectives on highly complex, dynamic issues. to repeat, the goal is not to teach a certain point of view, but to develop a disposition or attitude toward one’s own point of view, which requires a reflective consideration of alternative orientations and their sources of evidence. there are numerous reasons why democratic dialogue among students has become suspect.…nevertheless…it is hard to imagine how one might sustain democracy in its absence.…central to democracy’s enactment is a will to the common good, or “good will,” and while there may be disagreement about exactly how we cultivate good will sufficient for democratic citizenship, it is recognized that there is a kind of relatedness integral to it.…we cannot compel moral goodness; we can only nurture it. in this regard, adopting a certain generosity toward human frailty and mistakes is a more likely route to success.…education is an arena where, nominally at least, we learn what our mistakes might be and how to correct them. if we discourage dialogue about these matters in schools, education risks losing even the possibility of transformative value.31 while constructively grappling with difference in the classroom can be difficult and stressful, one nonetheless cannot teach in a balanced and accurate way about controversial subjects and groups by pretending to have all of the answers, or by precluding examinations of alternative points of view, if their aim is developing student criticality and autonomy in learning to deal with the tough situations they inevitably will face and citizens in a democratic society. there is no single truth to be had, and democratic societies require autonomous citizens in order to sustain themselves. the second necessity of a critical multicultural approach is to model and teach a sort of critical media literacy. a first important component of teaching critical media literacy within a critical multicultural approach is modeling the search for a variety of perspectives within supplementary resources. modeling critical media literacy by providing for diverse points of view in the classroom is fundamental to a critical multicultural approach, because the presentation of alternative views illustrates to students that a variety of perspectives exist beyond that privileged in their textbooks, and that each should be considered in turn as one develops an informed position on a subject. for instance, essays from said and huntington could be used together by teachers to help students understand how different people view and treat muslims and islam, and how their reasoning and information related to a given topic, such as islam and terrorism, or muslim women’s lives, differs. multiple perspectives, both internal and external, should be provided, to model for students how effective reasoning is carried out through a thorough examination of sources of evidence. 31 houston, barbara, “democratic dialogue: who takes responsibility?” in boler, ed., democratic dialogue in education, 106-7. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 57 hijab, or head-covering, is a common contemporary issue related to islam for students to consider using multiple perspectives, given that it is connected to negative associations of muslim societies with gender inequality and female oppression, and also constitutes a cultural norm seen as different within a western context, that many students are ignorant about. comparing it to similar phenomena and considering alternative perspectives on it is one effective way to help students gain more balanced and less partial perspectives, while also modeling skills of critical media literacy: for her contemporary world problems class, hilda used newspaper and magazine articles and surfed the internet for news that “pushed the button… her students visited a photo bank of images on the internet, showing muslim women in various degrees of body covering and they compared those images to clothing for traditional catholic women and explained how traditions influenced fashion and in turn, the islamic fashion could be seen as a form of political statement.32 hilda finds media that is both critical and positive toward hijab, from muslim women and others, as well as images of religious dress more generally, to provide a wide variety of personal, political, and more large-scale and broad perspectives about this topic in the classroom. by using this method, hilda helps her students realize that whether one views hijab as a marker of cultural distinction, as an expression of faith common to many belief systems, or as a symbol of female oppression depends on one’s frame of reference. such an approach is clearly preferable to discussing any one of these perspectives on its own for enabling students to learn to be critical toward media messages. while many educators use a variety of resources in the classroom, not all use of media is effective for modeling and teaching critical media literacy. for instance, some teachers use media as a reward for students, presenting popular films at the end of a term, while others simply replace historical lessons with documentaries or other televised or film accounts, letting their producers do the task of educating their students for them.33 while such uncritical uses of media may help build classroom community or create learning incentives, such should not be regarded as a critical multicultural learning activity without an analytic or critical aspect⎯not just a list of basic comprehension questions, but an evaluation of both content and methods. in addition to selecting resources encompassing a wide variety of viewpoints, teachers modeling critical media literacy in their classrooms have to be critical about the resources used. the type of critical media literacy education recommended for dealing with controversial minorities should be analytic, tracing the path from the “real world” to its mediation, and critical, foregrounding comparisons of materials and sources, and critical judgments of their relative validity and usefulness as representations of reality. 32 kaviani, “teachers’ gatekeeping of the middle east curriculum,” 116. 33 hobbs, renee, “media literacy in the k-12 content areas,” in schwarz and brown, eds., media literacy, 78. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 58 such analyses can develop not merely students’ critical media literacy skills, but their more general critical thinking skills, enabling students to evaluate difference knowledge claims, perspectives, and sources of evidence wherever they may find them, to arrive at more autonomous view points. the journalistic questions of who, what, when, where, how, and why can be asked in comparative explorations of mainstream media presentations, such as movies, television series, and newspaper editorials. by comparing educational resources with mainstream media, or mainstream media with alternative and international media sources, students can see how different groups choose different images, use different words, and quote different people, and evaluate the effects of these choices on the audience. analyzing how an article about muslim anti-americanism in a newspaper compares to a related discussion in a textbook can enable students to be more critical about media as a source of information. to make media literacy programs critical, then, students must learn to engage in evaluation activities and debate with others which perspectives on a topic are most compelling and why. being critical here does not mean that one learns to recognize mediated information as susceptible to bias and therefore develop a tendency to reject news media or popular culture as a whole.34 rather, it means asking students where they, and their sources, got the information informing their perspectives, and isolate and evaluate independently the information their sources use as evidence for their claims. comparing two sources on one issue, or multiple perspectives on a more general situation, from one form of media, or from a variety, are all very easy ways to add critical media literacy as a component of one’s lessons about controversial subjects. in summary, using resources encompassing a wide variety of views is more effective within a critical multicultural approach to education for modeling critical media literacy…so long as these materials are accompanied with guidance and instruction to develop critical media literacy, the last component fundamental to a critical multicultural approach to teaching about difference in a balanced and accurate way in public schools discussed here. to engage in projects involving multiple perspectives and weighing alternative viewpoints, students must be encouraged to explore various perspectives and knowledge claims, and teachers also should be equipped to judge the validity of various sources available for use in classroom discussion. teachers need not cull from classroom discussions perspectives and data they view as unreasonable or poorly argued, but they must educate their students to evaluate sources using critical media literacy, and actively engage with the viewpoints themselves. in the next section i will expand upon these practices as they relate to teacher preparation. teacher preparation for a critical multicultural approach 34 because media is unavoidable in much of social life, teachers do a disservice by merely rejecting media in their classrooms; see semali, “what media literacy matters in american schools.” in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 59 while i have identified democratically discussing difference in the classroom and modeling and teaching a particular form of critical media literacy as the essential components of teaching about controversial groups and subjects such as muslims and islam using a critical multicultural approach to difference, common teacher preparation hardly prepares teachers to engage effectively in these practices. thus i explore here what is needed to enable teachers to better provide students with more balanced understandings of controversial minorities today. paralleling the previous discussion, i will explore current and ideal teacher preparation for facilitating classroom discussions democratically and modeling and teaching critical media literacy. i argue that while the changes required may be substantial, they are nonetheless necessary for educating students in preparation for democratic citizenship in a diverse society today, leading to their more objective and accurate understanding about minorities and social difference more generally. as a disposition and orientation toward considering multiple perspectives, there is no particular method required for discussing difference democratically in the classroom, in line with a critical multicultural approach. yet while teachers need not learn specific practices to facilitate democratic discussions, they should be aided in developing insights on their own strengths and weaknesses as a discussant, through experience with controversy and debate in classroom settings, gaining an understanding of the philosophical underpinnings and practices involved in applying a critical multicultural orientation toward difference in the classroom, and experience meaningfully engaging in inquiries about minorities and social difference, which goes beyond that minimally required today in most teacher education programs today. perhaps the most important things one needs to learn to facilitate democratic discussions concern one’s own temperament and personal strengths and weaknesses in communicating with others. it is doubtful one can learn these things from anyone else; however, through experience with democratic dialogue in educational settings one can begin to reflectively explore and study one’s own habits and ways and common tendencies of interacting, and find out what does and does not work for himor herself as an individual educator in leading discussions. in the course of developing such reflective teacher practices educators should also be taught that it is acceptable, if not in a sense obligatory, to discuss controversial, difficult issues in the classroom. though gaining experience with facilitating discussions of controversial issues takes few resources except time, there is no real place to develop reflective discussion practices in the teacher education curriculum. while methods courses and classroom training may provide suggestions about how to not “lose control” of one’s classroom during discussions, there is no better way to enhance future teachers’ abilities to grapple with controversy in the classroom than to allow and encourage them to practice these activities. a second, more formal way to prepare teachers to engage in reflective classroom discussion practices is to critically explore with them methods and ideologies of in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 60 multicultural education within a social foundations setting. in learning about the approaches of assimilationism, pluralism, and critical multiculturalism, pre-service teachers can consider for themselves the merits and limitations of various philosophies of education, and connect these theories to their own ideals of classroom practice. additionally, they should learn of debates regarding religious and moral education in schools to gain a better understanding of what is at stake in putting forward one view over another in the classroom, thereby learning about the value of educator neutrality. in this context, teachers’ right to discuss religion and ethics in a neutral way in the classroom can additionally be clarified, given the contemporary context where discussing religion in schools is often regarded as taboo.35 for those comfortable with discussing controversial issues and groups in the classroom generally, another challenge specific to exploring the case of controversial minorities can arise when teachers lack experience with the topic of difference and the case of minorities in society. teacher programs should therefore require coursework in sociology, cultural or political anthropology, religious studies, or in areas studies (such as asian american studies, african american studies, gender studies, and the like), that requires in-depth, disciplinary exploration of particular cases of difference and/or minority issues, to ensure educators develop the skills needed to approach difference objectively. while educators cannot easily prepare to learn much about many groups in society from such courses, learning about one case of social difference can lend itself to more critical and systematic explorations of others kinds, thereby enhancing teachers’ abilities to independently study the situations of minorities in the future in a more objective way. while pre-service social studies teachers often have a handful of courses required in social sciences, these tend to be lower-level classes in history or psychology, which provide a breadth of knowledge but few opportunities for gaining experience with social research. additionally, while educators may pursue academic majors in social science disciplines simultaneously or as required to complement their pre-service coursework, these range from economics and political science, history, psychology, and philosophy, and in many of these majors issues related to social difference will not necessarily be studied at length.36 in the case of educating about islam, this means that most teacher enter classrooms without any background knowledge about the religion or any others, or even much knowledge about any minority group in the past or today, in society. while mandating study of islam or of world religions would clearly also help in this particular case, 37 more essential is simply providing pre-service teachers with substantial 35 noddings, educating for intelligent belief or unbelief, 137-9. 36 for more information contemporary teacher education practices and on the importance of training teachers more systematically in disciplinary methods, see kincheloe, getting beyond the facts. 37 see nord, religion and american education; noddings, educating for intelligent belief or unbelief; and kincheloe, getting beyond the facts for the importance of training educators in religious education. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 61 experience exploring social difference in any particular case in society, which can prepare them to go on to study various other minority groups more objectively and critically: culture is a complex concept, and few teachers have an opportunity to learn about it. most teacher education programs are founded on the social science discipline of psychology (and some sociology). rarely do prospective teachers examine…the discipline of anthropology. and although it is important for teachers to understand their students’ culture, the real benefit in understanding culture is to understand its impact on our own lives.…38 as gloria ladson-billings notes, teachers can hardly teach their students to understand different groups in society without some formal experience with such inquiries, themselves. in summary, while there is no way to train teachers to grapple with dialogue most effectively, through providing educators with experience facilitating discussions, in school classrooms or college courses, teacher education programs can help teachers develop more reflective practices for discussing difference in their classrooms. additionally, by learning different educational philosophies, including the critical multicultural approach to difference and debates related to teaching about religion in public schools, social studies teachers can develop an understanding of how helping students to think about complicated and controversial topics is connected to their role of preparing students for citizenship in a diverse society. finally, some area study that focuses on a social group, minorities, or social difference will provide educators a final bit of training essential to their being able to collaboratively teach others about minorities and difference in an informed way, enabling their students in turn to develop critically reasoned understandings despite the imbalance of representations of difference often provided in their textbooks, in the media, and elsewhere in society. such coursework also helps develop teachers’ research and critical literacy skills, the final components of their ideal education as preparation for teaching students using a critical multicultural approach. because the “decisions that teachers make about their curriculum influence student learning,”39 teachers must be trained systematically to both model and teach critical media literacy, to ensure they bring forward in a balanced and critical way multiple points of view in their classroom explorations of controversial minorities, and not just interesting, readily available, and/or easily engaging materials. one particular problem many teachers face in modeling critical media literacy in social studies is their feeling limited in selecting diverse resources by low student reading abilities. often, reading abilities dictate the materials brought to the classroom as it 38 ladson-billings, gloria, “teaching and cultural competence,” rethinking schools 15, no. 4 (2001). 39 kaviani, “teachers’ gatekeeping of the middle east curriculum,” 190. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 62 makes little sense to require students to read materials they cannot understand.40 however, students can be aided to understand topics through collaboratively reading materials with their classmates and educators, and increasing reading literacy should go hand-in-hand with teaching difficult materials, as primary sources, historical documents, and other alternative resources can be productively used. this means that social studies teachers should be taught as english teachers are how to track student reading abilities, as well as how to guide students in analytically and more critically comprehending materials as messages and perspectives. finally, to model and teach critical media literacy skills in the classroom, teachers need to learn critical literacy themselves, as well as how to impart such to students at various levels. while one might imagine that critical media literacy is developed in preservice teachers’ coursework, such is not always the case, given that learning of public school curriculum often takes place in education courses rather than in social science or literature coursework and as, additionally, teacher education students frequently fail to take many upper-level courses in social science disciplines. thus, whether as a course within educational studies or elsewhere in universities (such as in english or communications), a class on critical media literacy that teaches pre-service educators the components of critical media literacy and how to teach them in social studies classes, is essential to preparing teachers to model and teach critical media literacy. as sandra goetze, diane brown, and gretchen schwarz note, “media literacy could well enrich the entire preservice teacher education curriculum”: in a social studies methods course, preservice teachers can study the ways the media interpret history, from film to newspaper to the history channel, and how students learn from the media.…all content knowledge can be influenced by the mass media. even future teachers’ own notions about teaching may have been partly formed by seeing such films as dangerous minds or mr. holland’s opus.41 while many teachers are interested in gaining critical media literacy skills, and while such could be easily provided in one term or less, critical media literacy is fairly uncommon in teacher education undergraduate programs in the united states (except for in english/communications education), though it does appear to be on the rise in professional development classes and graduate study.42 nonetheless, gaining experience and skills with critical media literacy is fundamental to providing students with the same, and critical media literacy is, as i have argued here, a basic prerequisite to critically incorporating resources encompassing multiple perspectives in the classroom, as well as for learning to come to independent positions on important social issues surrounding difference and minorities in society. 40 goetze, sandra k., diane s. brown, and gretchen schwarz, “teachers need media literacy, too!” in schwarz and brown, eds., media literacy. 41 ibid., 172-3. 42 ibid. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 63 i have considered here what is necessary for preparing teachers to engage in the practices fundamental to providing a critical multicultural approach to difference in their classrooms, which provides students with accurate and balanced understandings of controversial groups in society such as muslims. in order to engage in discussions of different viewpoints democratically in the classroom, teachers must be provided with opportunities to develop reflective practice, including study of multicultural educational philosophies. and while teachers cannot be expected to know a great deal about every minority group relevant to or part of society, they must nonetheless learn to conduct social research to develop transferable practical experience with studying difference in society. finally, teachers must be trained in critical media literacy, to model and help their students develop critical media literacy skills, in turn. while each of these capacities and experiences is necessary for enabling teachers to effectively teach about difference and minorities in society, none are fundamental within social studies teacher education programs today, however. yet it would not be difficult to add on to the pre-service teacher curriculum in ways that better prepare social studies teachers to grapple with controversial issues objectively with their students, if we perceive teachers’ role, as i discussed earlier, as that of a better informed or trained guide. as such, we would reasonable require of teachers more coursework, and more academic training, than is typically required today. while some may see this as an unreasonable burden to place upon teachers, such represents an ideal education to prepare them to guide the next generation in developing autonomous thinking and decision making skills. and i am far from alone in coming to these sorts of conclusions regarding the need for teachers to be more rigorously prepared for the tasks they face as guardians of the next generation within a democratic society. people who are preparing to teach at the high school level need to study the high school curriculum in great depth. just as physicians must study anatomy, and lawyers torts, teachers need to study the curriculum. it is the backbone of their work.… the objection might be raised that such preparation would require that people identify teaching as their goal upon entry to college. true. but engineering students are also required to make their choice early, so teachers would not be unique.…under the plan i am suggesting here, students would study material directly relevant to their career choice.43 if we perceive the social studies teacher as a guide to students for developing the capacities required for autonomous democratic citizenship⎯including democratic deliberation skills and critical media literacy skills as key among them⎯then requiring of them more rigorously academic study is neither impossible, nor unreasonable. rather, as 43 noddings, nel, educating for intelligent belief or unbelief (new york: teachers college, 1993), 135-6. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 64 teachers’ development of democratic discussion and critical media literacy skills is essential to their preparing students for the demands of democratic citizenship in a diverse society, social studies teacher education must incorporate coursework toward these ends, to better meet the larger goal of enabling students as future citizens to develop balanced and accurate understandings of controversial topics and minorities in society today. conclusion here i have explored some of the challenges teachers face in educating about difference and the case of minorities in society, a crucial activity for cultivating autonomous democratic citizenship in schools, by examining some challenges in educating about muslims since 9/11. exploring the limitations of traditional discourses of multicultural education, i considered as a means to increasing students’ capacity for developing well-informed, balanced, and accurate understandings about this minority group a critical multicultural educational approach that involves democratic deliberation about diverse points of view and sources of evidence in the classroom. i argued that while this approach remains distinct from educational practices encouraged by standards, common doctrines, and the realities of today’s teacher training programs, it nonetheless is the best way to meet students’ needs for better, more accurate and substantive information about difference and minorities than the others available, in particular assimilationism and pluralism, ultimately crucial for the sustenance of democratic society. focusing finally on ideal teaching practices for putting forward a critical multicultural education about difference in the aim of preparing students for democratic citizenship within social studies classrooms, i argued that teachers need to be prepared to democratically facilitate difficult discussions about difference and minorities in society, and to model and teach critical media literacy. while such is not typical in teacher preparation programs today, these innovations are nonetheless fundamental to ensuring students develop accurate and balanced understandings of minorities, such as muslims, today, which is crucial to their critical autonomy as citizens within a diverse democratic society today, who must possess critical media literacy and the ability to make informed judgments. there are, of course, potential pitfalls to implementing a critical multicultural approach to classroom practice which require some careful thinking through, such as not adequately preparing students to learn with a critical multicultural approach during lower levels of education. additionally, a great deal more policy work remains to be done to confront realistically and effectively the challenges of implementing more democratic approaches to difference and the subject of controversial minorities in public schools. however, it is hoped these considerations can help those involved in the fields of policy and curriculum planning by fleshing out more and less effective classroom strategies for teaching about difference and understanding minorities, topics which all citizens must in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 39-65 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 65 grapple with to participate effectively within a diverse democratic society. here i offer a presentation of different options, and hope to compel future research continuing this and related projects, recognizing such as fundamental to enhancing education for democratic citizenship and for personal autonomy, both of which are vital to the continued flourishing of democratic society. kester & huggins in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 30 volume 2 number 1 (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ the earth charter: peace education and values for a shared world karen huggins peace education consultant 327 – 40 street s.w. calgary, alberta t3c 1v9 403-246-2765 karenahuggins@gmail.com kevin kester university of colorado at colorado springs (yeungjin college project) yeungjin college attention: international affairs center, room #112 #218 bokhyun-dong, buk-gu daegu, south korea 702-721 kevinajkester@yahoo.com “the most important new frontier for redressing environmental crises and healing the earth community now is the frontier of the mind and spirit, the realm where ethics are shaped and responsibility taken for the state of our world.”1 1 patricia mische, “the earth as commodity or community?” (paper presented at the international symposium on cultivating wisdom, harvesting peace, multi-faith centre, griffith university, brisbane, australia, august 10-13, 2005). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 31 now, more than any other time in our history, technology has connected cultures, radically increasing the opportunities for contact between peoples across the globe. religions are converging as never before, corporate conglomerations are multiplying, and differing economic and political systems are increasingly pitted against each other. earth’s resources are siphoned, patented, and commodified. this modern menagerie of cultures and worldviews creates for many an incomprehensible atmosphere of multiplicity and chaos that demands increasingly adapted ethics and values. in the shadow of this reality, the earth charter’s preamble opens with the proclamation: ‘we stand at a critical moment in history.’2 what is this critical moment? it is a globalindustrial society aborting its vital umbilical connections to the earth. it is a greed-driven consumer culture that abandons humanity in search of wealth, and in doing so starves others in so-called ‘third-world’ conditions. where are we3 now? how did we get here? and where do we go? the earth charter emanates from a planetary movement following the 1992 rio earth summit. it is a new vision for an equitable and just global society. it is a call for respect of all life (earth charter principle 1). the charter is a declaration of 16 2 earth charter initiative, http://www.earthcharter.org. 3 the authors intentionally employ the pronoun ‘we’ throughout the text when wishing to emphasize the interconnectedness of humanity, including our shared history and ‘common destiny’ (earth charter preamble: paragraph 1). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 32 fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable, and peaceful4 international community, that the authors contend advocates for the reconnection of respect for nonhuman life to a re-humanization of the other and care for succeeding generations. the earth charter, thusly, represents a holistic and comprehensive approach to peace building and peace education through an interdependent awareness of the social, political, ecological, economic, spiritual, and ethical realms of life. during the un decade of education for sustainable development (2005-2014),5 the earth charter operates as an international normative document for integrating values of sustainability into education. kamla chowdhry affirms: “at the heart of the earth charter is the need to consider and strengthen the inner spirit of humans, to make moral and ethical choices, to move towards a technology with a human face, and toward non-violent economics that would cooperate with earth and with nature rather than exploit it.”6 thus, between each of these interlocked dimensions, between all species, at all times, and in all spheres of life, exists 4 the earth charter defines peace as “the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part” (subprinciple 16f). 4 the un decade for education for sustainable development may be visited online at http://www.unesco.org. 6 kamla chowdhry, “the spiritual way, the gandhian way.” in the earth charter in action: toward a sustainable world, ed. peter blaze corcoran, mirian vilela, and alide roerink, (amsterdam: kit publishers, 2005), 180. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 33 entry points into the study of peace, the creation of peace building institutions, and education that fosters peaceful personal behaviors and choices. in order to realize a culture of peace, justice, and sustainability, our societies must reflect on the values that form a sociological commitment to each other and to all life. leo tolstoy said, “tradition…tells me that i should do unto others as i would that they should do unto me. my reason shows me that only by all men acting thus is the highest happiness for all men attainable”7 — words from the judeo-christian tradition that resonate with sentiments expressed across the globe by most religions. this golden rule — to do unto others as i would that they should do unto me — is the core principle that guides the earth charter in its call for respect of all life (principle 1). cultures of war and violence fragment, divide, and monopolize resources, rather than unite people. noam chomsky asks in hegemony or survival — echoing the research of ernst mayr who argued that only one species of fifty billion had evolved to the human form of intellect and stated that humanity is reaching the point in history when most species become extinct — “whether it is better to be smart than stupid?”8 mayr claimed that earth’s history of life shows that human intellect is not favored for survival, and chomsky is pondering whether humanity’s care and commitment to life has grown as 7 leo tolstoy, “nonresistance to evil: letter to ernest howard crosby. in nonviolence in theory and practice, ed. robert l. holmes and barry l. gans. (long grove, illinois: waveland press, inc., 2005), 71. 8 noam chomsky, hegemony or survival. (new york: metropolitan books, 2003), 1. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 34 quickly as our capacities of science. steeped in decades of global arming and weapon development and distribution, these points no doubt evoke thoughts of nuclear proliferation, concentration of wealth in corporate hands, and the concomitant abandonment of social services — noting that nuclear and eco-violence threats are exponentially more destructive in an increasingly urban-centric and high-tech warring world. humanity must return to contemplation on its ethics, economics, and politics to rethink values for a future of sharing, caring, sustainability, and justice. where do we want to go? and how do we get there? this dire call for reflection and action on our social, cultural, and technological values seems yet one more dystopian proclamation. doomsday statements are seen and heard everywhere, and it seems that our media wallows in its spirit, capitalizing on the fear and violence across our globe. our cultural productions, books and films continue to deliver violent and dehumanizing art. rather than address our society’s dysfunctions, the media often promotes and revels in them. thomas wolfe9 described this process as porno-violence, where the media delivers gratuitous violence to an audience increasingly placed in the shoes of the aggressor. (the viewer is thereby empathizing with the use of violence, positively reinforcing violence as a source of conflict resolution.) the earth charter, however, is not a doomsday statement. it is the sentiment of millions of people 9 thomas wolfe, “pornoviolence.” in mauve gloves and madmen, clutter and vine. (new york: farrar, straus, and giroux, 1976). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 35 around the world who are voicing their concerns and teaching that ‘another world is possible.’10 violence against any form of life, and the claim to own certain life-forms, is a threat to global civil society and a functioning democracy. while our collective culture has a very opinionated and value-laden stance on issues concerning nuclearization, global warming, war and violence — the citizens of the nation are usually encouraged to disengage from politics. there is constant tension between what people want and what elites want. following 9/11, the preferred bush-led response to the attacks was for people to be spectators as the government and ‘experts’ handled the situation.11 while discouraging citizens to express opinions counter to those held by the elite, citizens were encouraged to spend, spend, spend — in order to keep the war economy booming and viable. allowing a few voices and so-called experts to lead unquestioned dismantles a democracy. the apex of successful manufactured consent is the creation of a politics of disengagement and spectatorship: watching events unfold from television sets in living rooms. however, democracy in its very essence is shared responsibility, the charge of all to respond to issues and attempt to problem-solve. at this juncture in history, there is a 10 william f. fisher and thomas ponniah. another world is possible: popular alternatives to globalization at the world social forum. (london and new york: zed books, 2003). 11 jeremy earp and sut jhally, hijacking catastrophe: 9/11, fear, and the selling of american empire. (northampton, ma: media education foundation, 2006). the foundation may be visited online at http://www.mediaed.org. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 36 need to reframe our perspectives away from the promotion of violence toward ourselves, toward others, and toward nature. these intertwined exploits against each other and against nature must be recognized and addressed in dialogue on our social values. making this point, the earth charter articulates our ‘universal responsibility’ (preamble: paragraph 5) to preserve “the present and future well-being of the human family and the larger living world.” this is a strong statement, relaying in no uncertain terms that the impetus is on each of us to do our part in transforming our highly interdependent world into one that is humane, just, respectful, and ultimately sustainable for the generations to come. the earth charter provides a framework that is conducive to integration into peace education curriculum for creating an equitable, nonviolent world for all. the earth charter: beyond silent complicity many of us in the global north are inundated with images of violence every day, and in many instances have become inured to and apathetic about it. we say: ‘it was his vocal provocation that instigated my vendetta. it was his aggressive nature that caused me to unleash my fists. it was either he to hit the ground or me. life is a darwinian competition of the fittest. in dropping the bomb, we saved countless lives.’ these acts of violence are considered by many to be necessary to realize peace and democracy in the world. if, by this account, many of us expend our lives rationalizing violence, which is often justified by the very values — underscoring our cultures, religions, and politics — in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 37 that are antithetical to violence, we have intentionally undermined efforts toward a better and more humane society. many of us rarely use our time making excuses for peace, except when appropriating the use of silence to connote a false sense of harmony when wishing not to confront agitations in our life. yet is this peace? peace is an active process. it is a process that requires patience, creativity, and cooperation. in this light, when do government officials, academicians, parents, and merchants, among others, dare explore the notion of peace in earnestness? in our governance? in our media? in our schools? many educators let such a challenge, which some consider the paramount task of humanity, pass us by in history class when someone declares such constructions of peace are idealistic, not real, a utopia of dreams. in so doing the educator allows naïve understandings of peace to be reinforced — then peace becomes passive and weak. in the same breath we allow others to exclaim violence as natural, innate, buttressed by claims of evolution from our animal ancestors. yet, these claims are pretexts for other interests. the seville statement on violence,12 a document drafted by medical doctors and psychiatrists and adopted by unesco, challenges these very notions of innate violence. as bjorkqvist states: “…there is no innate programming for clenching fists, beating, kicking, or shooting others. these patterns or scripts of behavior are learned, especially by watching aggressive models.”13 12 david adams, editor, the seville statement on violence. (paris: unesco, 1989). 13 kaj bjorkqvist, “the inevitability of conflict, but not of violence: theoretical considerations on conflict and aggression.” in cultural variation in conflict in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 38 toh, floresca-cawagas and durante have addressed the issue of violence when they speak about how “the ‘civilizing’ of violence in north[ern] contexts means the need for patient peeling away of layers of consciousness that rationalize domestic violence and external violent conduct in terms of individual, community, and global ‘well-being.’”14 the primary experience of the authors in the schools they attended in kentucky and ohio reflect that religion and politics are not to be discussed, in order to prevent critical inquiry into power relations and identity issues, as a means of personal and community conflict prevention. conflict in this context is considered a negative phenomenon, leaving little room for students to learn about conflict resolution, peaceful settlement of disputes, mediation, and the means of transforming conflict into positive outcomes for all parties involved. are we not doing students a grave disservice by discounting the importance of conflict in creating healthy, vibrant, democratic societies? conflict is not synonymous with violence, yet that is what is portrayed in our school systems. don’t question. don’t argue. don’t ask the difficult questions. don’t rock the boat. unquestioning obedience to authority is rewarded. ignoring or turning a blind eye to another’s identity, or to a corporation’s social and ecological policies, and never journeying with them to understand their being, is resolution: alternatives to violence, ed.douglas fry and kaj bjorkqvist. (mahwah, new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates, 1997), 35. 14 swee-hin toh, virginia floresca-cawagas, and ofelia durante, 1992. “building a peace education program: critical reflections on the notre dame university experience in the philippines.” in peace education miniprints no. 38. (malmo: preparedness for peace, 1992), 34. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 39 pedaled as the refined and enlightened course of public conversation in many schools. no doubt the issues must be dealt with delicately and facilitated by a skilled practitioner; yet, rather than skill teachers in such processes, the schools espouse silence as the best measure and taking positions is viewed as destructive. once again we return to the beginning enigma, of peace as passivity and silence in an increasingly multicultural world, where discourse for consciousness-raising, sensitivity, and respect of others’ identities is invaluable to peace building and ecological stewardship. the use of this tactic to silence dissenters allows the status quo and the powerful to maintain their leadership while claiming neutrality. martin luther king wept in his ‘letter from birmingham jail’: …i must confess that over the past few years i have been gravely disappointed by the white moderate. i have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the white citizen’s counciler or the ku klux klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice….15 15 martin luther king. letter from birmingham jail. in holmes, r.l. 1990. nonviolence in theory and practice. (belmont, ca: wadsworth, inc., 1963), 72. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 40 the reverend dr. king went on to express his disheartenment with the silence of the moderates through these bold words: “history will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”16 it is often that same moderate constituency that maintains education is a neutral act, that fails to recognize that the values being taught in schools are in fact their values. however, when alternative values are presented, education becomes an ‘indoctrinating’ space. refusing critical discussion of values is complicity with ignorance and betrayal of truth-knowledge. this silence supports myriad forms of oppression and contemporary violence. federico mayor says, “democracy and non-violence require the security of peace and not the peace of security; not the peace of imposition, of fear, of silence…the key to any democratic system is interaction, listening, and participation.”17 the earth charter on democracy and shared responsibility as governance has been changing dramatically over the course of the past century, moving, in general, from overtly authoritarian systems, monarchies, totalitarian dictatorships, and communism to an ostensibly freer and less controlled representative 16 ibid, 341. 17 federico mayor, “democracy, nonviolence, and peace.” in the earth charter in action: toward a sustainable world, ed. peter blaze corcoran, mirian vilela, and alide roerink, (amsterdam: kit publishers, 2005), 119. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 41 democracy, one is led to believe by the cheerleaders of this process that this represents progress towards eliminating institutionalized systems of oppression. oppression remains, although with the complicity of corporate media largely controlled by multinational corporations (mncs), it may be more difficult to observe by many standards today than it was one-hundred years ago. the complexities of these politics and the stratification of societies have been exacerbated by the rise of powerful mncs. these corporations confuse the borders between nation, state, and power. in fact, for nearly 40 years, many mncs have had capital greater than states.18 the most powerful mncs are from leading industrialized nations, who perpetuate their global domination upon the modern landscape. take, for instance, policies of corporate ownership, patenting of life-forms, and the stealing of indigenous knowledge (in violation of earth charter subprinciple 12b), such as the patenting of the indian neem tree by the us department of agriculture and w.r. grace.19 how far has society regressed to allow the patenting and ownership of life? 18 richard j. barnet and ronald e. muller, global reach: the power of multinational corporations. (new york: simon and schuster, 1974). 19 the patent on the neem tree was revoked after a 10-year legal battle. see vandana shiva, earth democracy. (cambridge, ma: south end press, 2005), 145-147. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 42 with the increased power and wealth of the mncs also comes increased responsibility. brenes describes this phenomenon as ‘differentiated responsibility,’20 which he extrapolates from the earth charter (subprinciple 2b): “affirm that with increased freedom, knowledge, and power comes increased responsibility to promote the common good.” brenes states that while we all share a universal responsibility to each other and to the protection of earth’s ecological systems, those whom are privileged with greater power and freedom must also make greater strides toward ensuring the security of the environment and of all life. this stands in direct contradiction to the corporate value of the ‘bottom line’ and its duty to maximize profits. like the mncs, the idea of representative democracy as accountable and infallible presses on in the minds of those who argue that peace invariably accompanies democracy, yet the authors fear democracy in this context has been reduced to a euphemism for free trade and market ideology. friedman, for example, argues in his golden arches theory that any two nations who have mcdonald’s have not gone to war with each other since getting mcdonald’s.21 friedman correspondingly defends the use of military power to maintain the market — that to have a successful democracy based on free-market ideologies, nations must have military strength to enforce that ideology. he 20 abelardo brenes, “universal and differentiated responsibility.” in the earth charter in action: toward a sustainable world, edited by peter blaze corcoran, mirian vilela, and alide roerink. (amsterdam: kit publishers, 2005), 35-37. 21 thomas friedman, the lexus and the olive tree. (new york: anchor books, 2000), 248-275. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 43 argues that the us military is the “hidden hand” behind successful globalization. globalization, through open markets, is again being propelled as a conflict prevention measure by means of greater economic interdependence. “sustainable globalization requires a stable power structure, and no country is more essential for this than the united states…the hidden hand of the market will never work without a hidden fist,” he writes.22 again the lines between corporation, state, and power are blurred. when considering these politics within an educational framework, this has tremendous implications for the need of educators to distinguish between competitive and cooperative education and the role of each in forming a conscious, informed and democratic citizenry. however, the position that it is the responsibility of the united states to lead nations into a new era of democracy is a position grossly exaggerated by leaders of the project for the new american century (pnac). donald rumsfeld, paul wolfowitz, and william kristol, masterminds behind the pnac and prominent leaders of the bush administration, proclaim that it is the responsibility of the united states to maintain hegemony over other states in the name of peace, justice, and democracy (prados 2005, shiva 2005, media education foundation 2004), along with fellow associate fukuyama who posits that “western liberal democracy is the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution.”23 the pnac writes: “american leadership is good both for america and for 22 ibid, 464. 23 francis fukuyama, the end of history and the last man. (new york: avon books, inc., 1992), intro, xi. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 44 the world; and that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy, and moral principles.”24 this position asserts ‘peace’ through imposition of u.s. values and military strength. representative democracies today, however, are undermined by the extreme wealth and power of corporations and ideological groups, such as the pnac, whose charge it is to lead the world into a future crafted by elites under the pretext of humanitarianism. maj. john nagl says of the war in iraq, as written in marilyn b. young quoting peter maass, “almost inconceivable to most of them [iraqis], i think, is that what we want for them is the right to make their own decisions, to live free lives.”25 on representative democracy, shiva writes that though democratic governments change through direct elections, corporate ceos and boardrooms do not change through popular vote. so, although leadership is transformed at the federal and state levels, the policies of corporate control, privatization, and economic liberalization are not changed.26 thus, what the few elites want in boardrooms and powerful special-interest groups, they get through un-democratic corporate policies and lobbying of interests, accompanied by excessive military force. 24 project for the new american century, http://www.newamericancentury.org. 25 marilyn b. young, “imperial language.” in the new american empire, edited by lloyd c. gardner and marilyn b. young. (new york: the new press, 2005), 35. 26 vandana shiva, earth democracy, 73-107. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 45 while the pnac is planning its global dominance through military strength and economic control, or hard power, the earth charter leads an international movement using people power, or soft power. the pnac is imposing us values on the rest of the world. the earth charter borrows values from global cultures and shared aspirations. these values are innately attractive and intrinsically representative, giving people hope and faith in democratic processes — while under the guise of democracy, many ‘democratic’ world leaders are currently pursuing hegemonic power. in a bid to engineer true peace, scholars and academics have studied the complexities of peaceful behaviors and mechanisms to get to the root causes of violence and the nature of power relations behind those who control states, corporations, and the syntax of peace. galtung developed the notion of structural violence to expose the social injustices that continue in times of ‘peace’, what is now commonly referred to as a negative peace, the absence of war. (positive peace, by contrast, is the presence of social justice.) by highlighting the realities that structural violence pervades our lives in socalled times of ‘peace’, galtung challenged the notion that these were in fact periods of social harmony.27 peace and war are, in the view of peace scholars, not dichotomies whereby when one is absent the other is present. no. it is violence—defined as 27 johan galtung, peace and social structure: essays in peace research, volume six. (copenhagen: christian eljers, 1988). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 46 intentional harm28—in its broad and varied manifestations that is considered the gross hurdle to peaceful societies. war is but the macro-manifestation of organized violence within and between states. those working toward a world free from want and intentional harm have constructed a repertoire of theories, activities, films, and books to address the hindrances to the full self-realization of the individual. through techniques such as futures imaging, participants imagine more peaceful societies29 and prepare for a future, as freire says, “in which it is easier to love.”30 in progressive learning contexts, theatre activities and nontraditional education is used to question the status quo, construct solutions together, and prepare for alternative actions.31 these multiple techniques focus on the social agency of the individual and the group. these strategies and activities are discussed in length hereafter in relation to the relevancy of the earth charter in education for peace and justice. 28 betty reardon explains: “in peace education violence is considered to be avoidable, intentional harm, inflicted for a purpose or perceived advantage of the perpetrator or of those who, while not direct perpetrators, are, however, advantaged by the harm,” education for a culture of peace in a gender perspective. (paris: unesco, 2001), 35. 29 elise boulding, building a global civic culture: education for an interdependent world. (syracuse, ny: syracuse university press, 1990), and david hicks, educating for the future. (london: world wild life fund, uk, 1994). 30 paulo freire, pedagogy of the oppressed. (new york: the continuum international publishing group inc., 2006), 40. 31 augusto boal, games for actors and non-actors. (london: routledge, 1992). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 47 values for a shared world the earth charter preamble states: “we urgently need a shared vision of basic values to provide an ethical foundation for the emerging world community.” while the earth charter does not proclaim that it has arrived at the definitive ethics that should guide our global community, it has laid the cornerstone of the project for creating a better, shared future, and articulating the values of a global civic culture that will allow us to realize a common destiny of peace and justice. as leonardo boff states, “[the earth charter] embodies the best and most established ecological institutions, making them fertile in the elaboration of a new vision….”32 building this vision is central to education in the 21st century, teaching children the values involved in maintaining and restoring the integrity of the many ecosystems that support all life. the earth charter provides a blueprint for actions and values that, used effectively, can change our current course of ecological and social destruction. steven rockefeller, in his essay called “the transition to sustainability”, states that: the earth charter views the great transition to sustainable patterns of development locally and globally as essential to the survival and flourishing of human civilization in the twenty-first century. it also 32 leonardo boff, “respect and care for the community of life with understanding, compassion and love.” in the earth charter in action: toward a sustainable world, ed. peter blaze corcoran, mirian vilela, and alide roerink, (amsterdam: kit publishers, 2005), 43. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 48 considers a sustainable future as a real possibility that human beings may achieve if they have the will, courage, and vision.33 employing the earth charter in the classroom will assist us in forming a sustainable future, but it will also produce resistance from some educators, parents, administrators, politicians, business leaders and commercial media. these professionals may feel that such a process of values exploration is indoctrinating, because the principles enunciated within the charter are in conflict with the underlying neoliberal assumptions of the consumer-oriented world of mnc’s in which we are immersed. this exact situation often happens in schools that teach the values of meritocracy, economic globalization, and ‘survival of the fittest’ to be historically deterministic. more troubling is that these values are taught through the pretext of neutral, objective education. gro harlem brundtland, the chair of the world commission on environment and development, spoke strongly about the importance of the teacher and education in creating societal transformation when she said: teachers play a very important role in the transition between generations, in the knowledge from one generation to the next. consciousness-raising is vital for change. teachers can convey to 33 steven rockefeller, steven, “the transition to sustainability”. in the earth charter in action: toward a sustainable world, ed. peter blaze corcoran, mirian vilela, and alide roerink, (amsterdam: kit publishers, 2005), 165. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 49 children a sense of respect and responsibility for nature and for the global environment….34 advancing on this trans-generational relationship and our responsibility as educators and today’s generation for the next, brenes writes: the case for differentiated responsibility could rest on a principle of trans-generational justice. it can be argued that those individuals and groups who have accumulated more power throughout history by exploiting earth’s resources and the fruits of human labor have a proportionate debt to present and future generations within the context of our common good.35 to bring together the generations through education, however, teachers must facilitate a dialectical education with ideas that flow both to and from students. a central criticism of traditional education, hence, is that its didactic practices do not expose students to the dialogical processes of democratic decision-making, position-taking, and problemsolving. more cooperative and dialogical models of education do, and as dialogical education opens channels of communication both ways between the generations, youth become empowered to transform their world. shiva, kester, and jani write: “for too long children have been used as tokenism and symbolism in public discourses, but this -34 john fien, “learning to care: education and compassion.” australian journal of environmental education 19 (2003): 6. 35 abelardo brenes, “universal and differentiated responsibility,” 35. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 50 must change for they are as much part of building the future as adults are.”36 they continue: “youth under the age of 25 across our globe now represent nearly half the global population…and it is their future at stake in which education demands to have students active in the preparation of a common future.”37 paulo freire is a pioneer in the educational field for his insistence on the importance of critical thinking, the ability of the educator to reflect, and the use of interactive and dialogic techniques within teaching and learning contexts. he uses the word ‘conscientization’ to describe what he feels is one of the most important aspects of education: a critical social consciousness that develops within civil society when its members are allowed to learn the mechanisms by which social systems truly work. he speaks about these concepts and their relation to democracy when he says: one defends democracy by leading it to…“militant democracy” – a democracy which does not fear the people, which suppresses privilege, which can plan without becoming rigid, which defends itself without hate, which is nourished by a critical spirit rather than irrationality.38 36 vandana shiva, kevin kester, shreya jani, the young ecologist initiative. water manual: lesson plans for building earth democracy. (new delhi: navdanya, 2007), forward. 37 ibid, 2. 38 paulo freire, education for critical consciousness. (london and new york: continuum, 1974), 9. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 51 freire’s work, for example, presents a model for dialogic, transformative education. he states that education is “…a specifically human experience…a form of intervention in the world.”39 freire goes on to explain what he means by intervention: when i speak of education as intervention, i refer both to the aspiration for radical changes in society in such areas as economics, human relations, property, the right to employment, to land, to education, and to health, and to the reactionary position whose aim is to immobilize history and maintain an unjust socio-economic and cultural order.40 freire believes that there is no avoidance of instilling values in students. indeed, he believes that is the aim of education — to develop citizens who can think critically, create change, step outside of their oppression. he posits that the job of the teacher is to instill these values — that teaching is a political act, an act of transformation. freire said, “i cannot be a teacher without exposing who i am…without revealing…the way i relate to the world, how i think politically.”41 john fien, in his article “learning to care: education and compassion” similarly states that “education, like all social institutions and processes, is a human creation, its 39 paulo freire, pedagogy of freedom: ethics, democracy, and civic courage. (lanham, maryland: rowman & littlefield publishers, inc., 1998), 90-91. 40 ibid, 99. 41 ibid, 87-88. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 52 nature and purpose determined by human values, history and changing patterns of power.”42 he stresses especially the importance of differentiating between values and attitudes, noting that “attitudes are derived from values and are value-expressive for particular situations.”43 fien states: teaching for values and not particular attitudes is a practical and ethical approach to issues in environmental education because it resolves many of the questions concerning indoctrination. it acknowledges the inevitability of values in the curriculum by advocating the promotion of the values in an ethic of care but does not dictate how students should respond to particular issues.”44 the exposing and forming of values in education presents a platform for social transformation. educators can responsibly facilitate the right for each individual to understand and consciously choose his or her own life perspectives and values through critical inquiry into social morality, and by working together to construct local and global ethics that guide our human and environmental interaction. peace pedagogy and the earth charter 42 john fien, “learning to care: education and compassion,” 11. 43 ibid, 12. 44 ibid, 13. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 53 the earth charter illuminates the relationships between spheres of our community by highlighting the multiple dimensions of life through which we all live and learn, as well as the responsibility of the community, individuals, and schools in cultivating a culture of peace and respect. edgar gonzalez-gaudiano asserts in the earth charter in action, evoking the contemplation of mayr and chomsky, that society has become too fragmented and insensitive toward its wholeness and the beauty of life: …we seek to take advantage of the deep meaning of the earth charter by transcending conventional pedagogic activities…principally to try to dissolve the unfortunate, protective shell that the process of modern civilization has burdened us with, making us more and more insensitive, and less and less sympathetic, to the whole of life’s value and beauty.45 calling for holism over fragmentation, the process that formed the earth charter, and that which legitimizes the very document, is the collaborative, participatory, global theatre of dialogue that was used to realize the charter. respectful communication, values exploring, brainstorming, problem-solving, consensus building, and action-oriented decisions were necessary to direct the extensive international consultative process that brought together cross-disciplinary scholars. these cooperative techniques, suggested as 45 edgar gonzalez-gaudiano, “the earth charter in action: experiences and perspectives for education in values in mexico.” in the earth charter in action: toward a sustainable world, ed. peter blaze corcoran, mirian vilela, and alide roerink, (amsterdam: kit publishers, 2005), 121. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 54 pedagogies when employing the earth charter in education,46 underscore sustainable development and peace education as holistic and comprehensive education. in peace education learners are participants in the selection of learning topics, materials, and facilitation processes. this, peace educators contend, is an educational practice consistent with the values of democracy, freedom, and autonomy espoused through the content of our schools. reardon and cabezudo write on education: “if, as would be the presumption of the widely proclaimed principles of democracy, the citizenry is to be actively involved in the design and pursuit of solutions, then the whole society must be educated for that purpose.”47 correspondingly, the pedagogy of democratic engagement used at the peace education center of teachers college columbia university is an exemplary model for participatory and just peace education.48 a pedagogy of democratic engagement is described as “active and participatory engagement of students in the learning process initiated by peace curricula…[it is] the 46 earth charter international, using the earth charter in education: summary of guidelines and suggested pedagogies. (costa rica: earth charter center for sustainable development, 2007). 47 betty reardon and alicia cabezudo, learning to abolish war: teaching toward a culture of peace. book 1: rationale for and approaches to peace education. (new york: hague appeal for peace, 2002), 17. 48 the peace education center at teachers college columbia university may be visited online at http://www.tc.columbia.edu/peaceed/index.html. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 55 most relevant and effective pedagogy to prepare students for active participation in the global change process….”49 jenkins explains a pedagogy of democratic engagement: a pedagogy of engagement fosters student reflection on reality and possibilities for action at the level of the individual learner; critical engagement with and analysis of existing knowledge; and engagement with the community around the issues under study toward the achievement of change.50 using the pedagogy of democratic engagement to incorporate the earth charter into learning contexts allows teachers and learners alike to explore global diversity and the role of international normative documents in constructing and maintaining peaceful societies. jenkins further clarifies the relationship between peace pedagogy, diversity, and learner autonomy: peace education is based in such values as democracy, nonviolence, community, cooperation and social justice. philosophically it embraces difference and diversity and also recognizes and values the autonomy of the individual learner. in consistency with these values peace education learning is often pursued through critical, reflective 49 betty reardon and alicia cabezudo. learning to abolish war: teaching toward a culture of peace. book 1: rationale for and approaches to peace education, 70. 50 tony jenkins, “learning for transformative and structural change: the cipe model for community based learning.” (paper presented at the international peace research association conference, calgary, alberta, canada, june 29-july 3, 2006), 3. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 56 learning modes. in such learner-centered methods authentic values are autonomously developed by and within the learner, not inculcated by instructors.51 peace education programs are designed to be comprehensive and interdisciplinary in the range of content covered and the methodology used. this approach to educating is akin to the earth charter’s emphasis of interdependence, which deliberately counters the compartmentalization of knowledge. burns and aspeslagh state peace education “express(es) global awareness in terms of ‘holism,’ which can link the individual directly, rather than through stages, to the wider environment.”52 furthermore, realizing that all dimensions of living are interrelated, peace education transcends the common expression of ‘the real world,’ a term used to suggest that schooling is not applicable in the competitive, job-oriented, production-consumer society. this sentiment is simplistic and fails to recognize the broader personal and social purposes of education beyond mere job applicability and corporate services. in the same regard, shiva, kester and jani write on the link between ecological and social problems and the challenge of education in addressing societal issues: 51 tony jenkins, community-based institutes on peace education (cipe). organizer’s manual. (ny: international institute on peace education, 2007), 29-30. 52 robin burns and robert aspeslagh, three decades of peace education around the world. (new york: garland publishing, 1996), 11. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 57 …ecology is deeply linked to social justice and environmental care. the discourse often centers on the mismanagement and privatization of [resources], yet this single issue has numerous consequences including the health of communities, degradation of the environment, and increased poverty of the disadvantaged…it is clear that the resolution of these concerns will need a comprehensive and cooperative approach…[including] motivating within and with the young the engagement in possibilities of creating peaceful personal lifestyles and a commitment to preventing and resolving conflict….53 including learners in the process of envisioning learning, as well as preparing them for problem-solving, takes the preventative approach to conflicts and is driven by the belief that all people, particularly youth, should be empowered and equipped with the knowhow to transform their world. developing critical thinking, employing interactive educational pedagogy, focusing on the interdisciplinary nature of education, emphasizing citizenship education, and education for gender equality are just a few of the areas of importance in developing pedagogy that is in tune with the principles espoused in the earth charter. teaching these principles demands that the educator be reflective and flexible in terms of content, pedagogy and context, constantly developing creative and interactive ways to engage their students. 53 vandana shiva, kevin kester, shreya jani, the young ecologist initiative. water manual: lesson plans for building earth democracy, 2. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 58 john fien, in his article entitled “education for a sustainable future,” discusses the parameters for a new vision of education, inclusive of “seek[ing] to empower people of all ages to assume responsibility for creating a sustainable future”; providing “basic education as the foundation for all future education, [which] is a contribution to sustainable development in its own right”; “reorienting existing education” so that “policies, programs and practices…build the concepts, skills, motivation and commitment needed for sustainable development”; and promoting lifelong learning, “…including adult and community education, appropriate technical and vocational education, higher education and teacher education [as] vital ingredients of capacity building for a sustainable future.”54 conclusion “we stand at a critical moment in earth’s history, a time when humanity must choose its future” (earth charter preamble). mayr and chomsky ask, “is it better to be smart than stupid?” humanity must choose its future wisely, and, as brenes points out, it is the ‘universal responsibility’ of all to work toward a shared future based on respect for human needs and rights to life, human dignity, equality, and equal access to resources. it 54 john fien, “education for a sustainable future: achievements and lessons learnt from a decade of innovation from rio to johannesburg”. international review of environmental strategies. vol. 4, no. 1 (2003): 3-11. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 59 is additionally the ‘differentiated responsibility’ of those with greater privilege to employ that privilege to the sustainability of earth’s resources and the protection of all life. though democracies are flourishing and autocratic states are weakening, one thing remains for certain: oppression continues. it especially continues through undemocratic corporate ecological and social policies. how do we address such oppression? how do we create peace? for one, we must learn to distinguish between democracy, peace, and competitive economics. practitioners around the world have been working to counter and transcend such indignant and inhumane situations for many years. we, as educators, must learn to practice peace education as education for values awareness, student autonomy, and cooperative decision-making. reardon, cabezudo, and jenkins present a pedagogy of democratic engagement that is conducive to democratic classrooms, and the earth charter functions as an educational tool for cultivating democratic citizenship in this un decade of education for sustainable development. representatives from across the globe have contributed to the earth charter as a foundation for building peace. the authors would like to encourage educators to experiment with peace education as a mode of democratic and ‘consciousness-raising’ education. peace education is a discipline that specifically addresses issues of violence, sustainable development, and human rights, and aims to develop a citizenry open and able to resolve conflicts and build peace in their communities, and by extension, throughout the world. it is therefore of critical importance that educators become aware in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 60 of this alternative approach to education that has so much to contribute to all areas of education for the building of a just, equitable and humane global society. educators can make a positive contribution in assisting the current generation to deal in a constructive way with the problems we are all facing, and thereby give us hope for peaceful and productive resolutions to the geopolitical and ecological chaos of our current world. accordingly, the authors have included hereafter a lesson plan to assist educators in tackling global issues in their classrooms, to foster peace with each other, peace with ecology, and a sustainable future constructed on shared values. the lesson plan is but one small step for educators on their road to integrating values of peace and sustainability into their educational practice. a peace education lesson: global spending and social inequities the choice is ours: form a global partnership to care for earth and one another or risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life. fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living. we must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more. --earth charter preamble: paragraph 4 introduction: it seems in our modern world that priorities become reversed, and sometimes quite perverse. we often end up spending much time and money on matters that are trivial and less important than the more humane issues of our daily lives. we spend extravagant amounts of monies on fine jewelry, name-brand clothing, tennis shoes, vacations, and holiday homes, despite that across the globe many of our contemporaries are simply struggling to survive. per assessing our personal, corporate, and government global expenditures, what is reflected in spending priorities presents some ghastly in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 61 surprises. what things do we value as a global society? do we place a higher emphasis on education or the military? do we place more importance on ice-cream or sanitation and water? this lesson plan delineates the products and human needs upon which peoples and governments place care and concern according to the proportion of monies allotted each. level: high school/university core subject: social sciences, history, english, math, economics, peace studies materials: global inequity cards timeframe: 1 hour objectives: students will do the following by the end of the lesson:  analyze the effect of global values on our societies, peacelessness, and conflicts  grapple with the notion of diversity and empathy for others  reflect on gender relations, government and global concerns guiding inquiry:  what are the greatest government expenditures?  what concerns does the government spend the least on?  what are the values behind these expenditures?  how does gender relate to these national and global expenses? procedures followed activity 1 ask students to write on a piece of paper a number between 1-10 (1 being of lowest importance and 10 highest), reflecting the importance they give to basic health and nutrition. then have each student write the issue/product/concern they give the most importance in their life beside the number 10. elicit responses. activity 2 value cards: what are the priorities of global spending (i.e. sewage management, cosmetics, education, narcotics)? students are given a set of cards and asked to put them in order from “most amount of money spent on” to “least amount of money spent on.” this should take about 20 minutes. after the groups finish their order, the teacher reveals the actual order according to country data. debrief with a series of questions: in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 62 what is surprising from this order? what beliefs and national/global order lead to such emphasis? then ask students to place the cards into the order in which they believe the cards should fall, and to develop potential action plans to make this a reality. what values and behaviors need to be realized to create this world? the cards: • pet food in europe and us • cigarettes in europe • basic health and nutrition • perfumes in europe and us • women’s reproductive health • military spending in the world • narcotics in the world • business entertainment in japan • alcohol in europe • ice cream in europe • water and sanitation for all • cosmetics in us • basic education the correct order and spending: 1. military spending in the world (780 billion usd) 2. narcotics in the world (400b usd) 3. alcohol in europe (105b) 4. cigarettes in europe (50b) 5. business entertainment in japan (35b) 6. pet food in europe and us (17b) 7. basic health and nutrition (13b) 8. perfumes in europe and us (12b) 9. women’s reproductive health (12b) 10. ice cream in europe (11b) 11. water and sanitation for all (9b) 12. cosmetics in us (8b) 13. basic education (6b) (source: united nations development program, human development report 1998:37) reflection wrap-up debrief the activities with a series of questions: what is surprising from this order? what beliefs and national/global order lead to such emphasis? what could be misleading about these numbers? who funded the report? what agency completed the report? what in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 63 could change the outcome of the priorities? what if another agency, with different politics or constituency leaning, had written the report? then ask students to place the cards into their preferred order, and to develop potential action plans to make this a reality. what values and behaviors need to be realized to create this world? for a gender analysis, consider which points are more masculine and which are more feminine. accordingly, where do the masculine and feminine cards fall in the order? (we find that the top expenses are masculine and the lower feminine.) what does this say about our societies? supporting documentation earth charter, subprinciple 6e: avoid military activities damaging to the environment. subprinciple 7e: ensure universal access to health care that fosters reproductive health and responsible reproduction. subprinciple 9a: guarantee the right to potable water, clear air, food security, uncontaminated soil, shelter, and safe sanitation, allocating the national and international resources required. subprinciple 9c: recognize the ignored, protect the vulnerable, serve those who suffer…. subprinciple 16c: demilitarize national security systems to the level of a non-provocative defense posture, and convert military resources to peaceful purposes, including ecological restoration. instructor’s reflection: what worked what didn’t suggestions for next time handout: global inequity cards in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 64 narcotics in the world pet food in europe and us women’s reproductive health basic education cosmetics in the us alcohol in europe ice cream in europe military spending in the world water and sanitation for all basic health and nutrition perfumes in europe and us business entertainment in japan cigarettes in europe in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 65 bibliography adams, david, editor. the seville statement on violence. paris: unesco, 1989. barnet, richard j. and muller, ronald e. global reach: the power of multinational corporations. new york: simon and schuster, 1974. bjorkqvist, kaj. “the inevitability of conflict, but not of violence: theoretical considerations on conflict and aggression.” in cultural variation in conflict resolution: alternatives to violence, edited by douglas fry and kaj bjorkqvist. mahwah, new jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates, 1997. boal, augusto. games for actors and non-actors. london: routledge, 1992. boff, leonardo. 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threshold of a new decade. ed. by clayborne carson, ralph luker and penny a. russell. berkeley, california: university of california press. 1992. mayor, federico. “democracy, nonviolence, and peace.” in the earth charter in action: toward a sustainable world, edited by peter blaze corcoran, mirian vilela, and alide roerink, 117-119. amsterdam: kit publishers, 2005. mische, patricia. “the earth as commodity or community? paper presented at the international symposium on cultivating wisdom, harvesting peace. multi-faith centre, griffith university, brisbane, australia. august 10-13, 2005. prados, john. “the drums of war.” in the new american empire, edited by lloyd c. gardner and marilyn b. young, 50-71. new york: the new press, 2005. reardon, betty, and cabezudo, alicia. learning to abolish war: teaching toward a culture of peace. book 1: rationale for and approaches to peace education. new york: hague appeal for peace, 2002. rockefeller, steven. “the transition to sustainability”. in the earth charter in action: in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 30-68 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 68 toward a sustainable world, edited by peter blaze corcoran, mirian vilela, and alide roerink, 165-170. amsterdam: kit publishers, 2005. shiva, vandana. earth democracy. cambridge, ma: south end press, 2005. shiva, vandana, kester, kevin, and jani, shreya. the young ecologist initiative. water manual: lesson plans for building earth democracy. new delhi: navdanya, 2007. toh, swee-hin, floresca-cawagas, virginia and durante, ofelia. “building a peace education program: critical reflections on the notre dame university experience in the philippines.” peace education miniprints no. 38. malmo: preparedness for peace, 1–25, 1992. united nations development programme. human development report 1998. new york: oxford university press, 1998. wolfe, thomas. “pornoviolence.” in mauve gloves and madmen, clutter and vine. new york: farrar, straus, and giroux, 1976. young, marilyn b. “imperial language.” in the new american empire, edited by lloyd c. gardner and marilyn b. young, 32-49. new york: the new press, 2005. ronni alexander in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 211 volume 2 number 2 (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ popoki, what color is peace? exploring critical approaches to thinking, imagining and expressing peace with the cat, popoki ronni alexander professor of transnational relations graduate school of international cooperation studies kobe university, japan e-mail:alexroni@kobe-u.ac.jp the popoki peace project is a celebration of life in all its richness and variation. it uses the cat popoki as a metaphor for life that is viable and possible, a radical democratic politics which allows for subjects to “performatively assert their right to livable life where there has been no such prior authorization.”1 begun in japan in 2006, the project attempts to address the need to delve into the meaning of peace in a contemporary context and to find new ways of promoting critical thinking, critical imagination and critical expressions of peace. in its work, the project attempts to create ‘oases of peace,’ non-violent, alternative spaces in which all participants are active partners in celebrating life and diversity, and creating positive peace. 1 salih, sara, with judith butler, eds. (2004) the judith butler reader. blackwell publishing, p.12 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 212 participation and a politics of inclusion are essential components of the popoki peace project’s goal of peace, defined here as a dynamic set of social relations that not only involves the negation of all kinds of violence, but also requires the imagination and creation of new sites of peaceful expression. as such, peace is a process which is constantly being created and transformed, and which is tangible in a variety of contexts, including material space, conceptual space, chronological space and others. the popoki peace project approach rests on the belief that our ability to create peace lies in our ability to feel peace not only in terms of how our own life experiences and perceptions have been shaped in and through our bodies, but how our embodied existence allows us to connect with other lives. in so doing, it also enables us to create a space for the expression and recognition of a wide variety of ‘livable lives,’ including queer and other alternatives. creating peace in today’s world requires addressing issues of diversity and identity, both collective and individual. as identity is rooted in our bodies, in educating for peace we must address body memories, the “record of the felt world of self and other in all its sensuous and relational qualities.”2 at the same time, we must develop democratic approaches to problem solving which allow for both diversity and inclusion. inclusion, in its most public form, can be defined as a means of collective problem-solving. as such, it is a condition of democratic legitimacy.3 social inclusion or, in young’s terms ‘differentiated solidarity,’ is an essential part of democracy; ideally ‘citizens’ both take part in decision making and are open to having their ideas challenged and their views change. critical thinking provides an important tool for engagement in this type of debate. at the same time, the popoki peace project sees inclusion as more than an objective strategy or methodology; it rest on the ability to draw from our embodied lives and memories to find the energy and courage necessary for compassion and empathy. for inclusion at this level, not only critical thinking, but also critical imagination and critical expression are essential. this paper focuses on the way these skills are fostered by the popoki peace project in the context of a critical pedagogy of peace. it will both discuss the theoretical bases of the 2 shapiro, sherry. (2002) “the commonality of the body: pedagogy and peace culture.” solomon, g. and b. nevo, eds. (2002) peace education: the concept, principles and practices around the world. ny: lawrence erlbaum associates, p.150. 3 see young, iris marion. (2000) inclusion and democracy. oxford: oxford university press. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 213 project as critical pedagogy and offer some tools to educators and others who might want to use popoki in their own contexts. the paper will begin with a brief introduction of the popoki peace project, followed by a discussion of the underlying ideas and methodology. the final section gives some concrete examples from the work of the project, including a brief consideration of some of the responses in japan and other countries and contexts, such as in palestine and timor leste. the popoki peace project based in kobe, japan, the popoki peace project promotes the use the entire body and mind to celebrate life and difference and to delve into the various meanings of ‘peace.’ it seeks to challenge conventional views about the definition and making of peace, and to allow people to discover their own potential as ‘peace makers.’ the activities of the group are based on a bilingual (japanese/english) picture book published in 2007 entitled popoki, what color is peace? popoki’s peace book 1.4 each of the book’s 47 pages describes a situation from the life of a cat named popoki and poses a related question about peace. the first half of the book uses the body and senses to help the reader to ‘feel’ peace as it is rooted in our bodies.5 it begins, for example, with color. “when popoki was a kitten, he had bright blue eyes; blue like the ocean or the sky on a clear day. i wonder if the color of peace is blue.”6 in the following pages, readers are asked the sound, taste, feel and smell of peace. in the second half of the book, popoki’s life is used to illustrate questions about peace in different settings, encouraging the reader to think about aspects of peace in three broad areas: peace with the self, peace with nature and peace with others. for example, the first page of the second half reads as follows. “soon after popoki was born, he was thrown away in a trashcan in a park. fortunately he met ronni and she took him home with her. is a society with disregard for living things a peaceful one?”7 the reader is taken on a journey of discovery, beginning with imagining peace in terms of his/her own body and continuing on to 4 alexander, ronni. 2007. popoki, what color is peace? popoki’s peace book 1. epic. the book has sold about 3500 copies and the third printing was released in japan in july 2008. while not in published form, the book has been translated and files are available in the following languages: arabic, bengali, chinese, hebrew, indonesian, khmer, korean, tetun and thai. 5 an interesting discussion of this with relation to dance can be found in opt. cit. shapiro. 6 alexander op cit. p.4 7 ibid., p.27 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 214 finally question whether one can have peace if others do not. a short dvd version, “popoki’s peace message,” is also available.8 the popoki peace project uses the book and dvd in workshops and other activities, all of which are interactive and emphasize creative expression through use of the body, senses and emotions as well as the intellect. the methodology is based on questioning, dialogue, creative expression and sharing in an attempt to involve teacher and learner in a joint production of knowledge and to include all voices, allowing for diverse modes of expression and promoting the ideals of inclusion and differentiated solidarity. through this approach, the project hopes to not only provide access to the tools necessary for active participation in collective problem solving, but to develop empathy and understanding of our shared vulnerability as humans. most workshops begin with a reading of part of popoki, what color is peace? and include a joint creative project which encourages participants to use not only their intellect but their entire body to engage in critical imagination and expression of ‘peace.’ the need to pool and share experiences fosters the learning about inclusion and democratic methodologies. the creative expression of peace which comes out in workshops is always different from that which is expressed in discussions, evidence that our imagination of peace is in fact rooted in our bodies and physical experience as well as in our minds. similarly, when popoki questions the color, taste, smell, etc. of war or other negative experiences, it produces a different array of descriptions from those usually given in oral histories and testimonies. popoki peace workshops have been held throughout japan and in many other countries, involving audiences of all ages. they usually last for about two hours, with an average of about 30 participants per session. each workshop has a theme （images of peace and/or war, current political issues, human rights, sexual minorities, gender, food security, environment, etc.）which is generally based on the needs of the participants and/or sponsoring organization. popoki has been used in formal education (junior and senior high school, university) as well as for staff training in organizations such as the ymca and faculty development at the university level. in addition, scholarly presentations and/or workshops about the work of the 8 iwanami dvd book peace archives international museum for peace, (2005), iwanami shoten publishers. the dvd also includes data about the museum collection and a 25 min. documentary about war, peace and violence in the 20th century entitled “popoki’s peace machine journey,” narrated by the cat popoki and his kitten friend, mimi. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 215 popoki peace project have been made at conferences of organizations such as the international institute for peace education (2008), international peace research association and the peace studies association of japan. the popoki peace project as critical pedagogy the project was begun at a time in japan when political attitudes were moving rapidly in the direction of changing article 9 of the japanese constitution in order to, among other things, create a full-fledged military force rather than the current self-defense force and allow for full military participation in peace keeping and other overseas operations.9 much of this takes place within a discourse for ‘peaceanddemocracy’ that does not problematize peace or democracy, and which seeks to normalize the use of force, military action and violence. this discourse uses rhetoric from the ‘war on terror’ and the global culture of violence in an attempt to de-legitimize the post-war japanese abhorrence of war and nuclear weapons, characterizing such thinking as unrealistic and old-fashioned. in may ways the term ‘peace’ has thus become synonymous with ‘war,’ and we see virtually on a daily basis how militarization is encroaching on not only social institutions such as universities, but also on the minds and values of individuals. the popoki peace project was begun as a strategy for confronting this usurpation of ‘peace’ through critical peace education. in other words, it grew out of the perceived need to question and clarify of the meaning of ‘peace’ and to seek social transformation in the direction of building a culture of peace. generally, critical thinking is defined as “a search for the social, historical, and political roots of conventional knowledge and an orientation to transform learning and society,” and critical thinkers “focus on social inequities and probe the disparities between democratic principles and undemocratic realities.”10 critical pedagogy is similar to feminist, queer and other liberation pedagogies that seek to 9 article 9 of the japanese constitution renounces war and prohibits the use and/or threat of the use of force in international relations. it reads, “aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes. (2) in order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. the right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.” 10 benesch, sarah. “critical thinking: a learning process for democracy.” tesol quarterly, vol.27, no.3, special-topic issue: adult literacies, (autumn, 1993), p.546. susan gabel has contributed an interesting argument to the topic of critical pedagogy in education with her claim that it does not address the issue of ‘disabled’ people and their alternative ways of communication. “some conceptual problems with critical pedagogy,” curriculum inquiry, vol.32, no. 2 (summer 2002), pp.177-201 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 216 “challenge systems of domination, question social construction of knowledge and power, generate consciousness and critical thinking, and to promote social change.”11 as such, critical pedagogy should encourage social participation and involvement to challenge the status quo, seeking to identify and resist injustice at all levels. at the same time, it should create new local sites of resistance and difference, promoting non-violent conflict intervention and social transformation. the popoki peace project engages in work for social transformation using methodologies such as creative expression and questioning in workshops, seminars and other activities. in general, we attempt to provide necessary information in a non-threatening way, and allow participants to at least contribute to, and preferably take the lead in their own learning experiences. unlike positivist approaches which try to separate mind and body and give priority to the rationality of the mind over the ‘natural’ aspects of the body, we begin with the belief that our bodies lie at the root of how and what we experience, and what we know. focusing on the mind and body together allows us to engage more dynamically in the fostering of critical imagination and creative expression. these comprise a fundamental part of critical peace pedagogy because they acknowledge and encourage imagination and expression of emotions and sensations which are essential for the envisioning of a multiplicity of possible lives, ranging perhaps from mundane to fantastic, and the creation of alternative futures. creative expression takes “distinguishable qualities the various ‘nesses’ of experience,” and orders, manipulates, and refashions them toward still further qualities.12 art and creative expression thus defined become essential to all educational endeavors, giving substance to the qualitative side of intelligence and allowing for alternative modes of expression and participation. through giving voice to alternative methods of challenging the status quo, this can play an important role in social transformation. work for peace should take place in peaceful environments which respect diversity and allow for inclusion. we try not only to teach ‘peace’ but to do it in an inclusive and ‘peaceful’ way. workshops and other presentation spaces are envisioned as healing spaces or ‘oases of peace’ in which teachers and learners become partners in a journey to discover and realize peace. 11 chow, esther ngan-ling, chadwick fleck, gang-hua fan, joshua hoseph, deanna m. lyter. “exploring feminist pedagogy: infusing dialogue, participation, and experience in teaching and learning.” teaching sociology, vol.31, no.3, july 2003, p.260 12 villemain, francis t. “democracy, education, and art.” the journal of aesthetic education, vol.1, no.1 (spring 1966), p.30 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 217 these oases can be described as material spaces in what foucault calls ‘heteropia,’ in other words, social sites in relation with all others “but in such a way as to suspect, neutralize, or invent the set of relations that they happen to designate, mirror or reflect.”13 these spaces allow for reconfiguration of relations in an inclusive and democratic way both in terms of physical space and in cognitive and imaginative processes. when we first began out work, we used the four pillars for learning suggested by unesco as a basis for our work. these are: learning to know (concepts and knowledge), learning to do (preparation for peace and non-violence), learning to live together (inclusion, mutual assistance and solidarity) and learning to be (creating a peaceful and non-violent learning environment).14 the emphasis on critical thinking, imagination and expression described above is linked to the first two pillars and the goals of inclusion and creating ‘oases of peace’ are related to the latter ones the experience of the past two years has shown that while these pillars are important, they are insufficient to achieve the kind of critical space we are hoping to create. as a result, we have added three more pillars: learning to imagine and express the imagined, learning to remember (seeking alternative pasts and histories) and learning to have hope. (see figure 1) figure 1 learning peace with the popoki peace project (source: the author based on unesco 1996) 13 according to foucault, social space can be divided into three aspects: real space, utopian space and heterotopia, the space in between. heterotopias can be both “counter-sites, a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found in the culture, are simultaneously represented, contested and inverted,” and also an “image of thought.” they can be material, as well as conceptual, virtual, urban and geopolitical. fischman, gustavo e. and peter mclaren, “expanding democratic choices: schooling for democracy: toward a critical utopianism.” contemporary sociology, vol.29, no.1 utopian visions: engaged sociologies for the 21st century, (jan. 2000), pp.168-179 and foucault, michel. “of other spaces (1967), heteropias. (accessed 2008.6.23) (http://foucault.info/documents/heterotopia/foucault.heterotopia.en.html) 14 unesco (1996). this report stresses lifelong learning and “learning how to learn.” a later unesco report (2001) held that of the four pillars, learning to live together and to be were related to peaceful living, and as such were not essential to name in peace education. (p.5) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 218 critical imagination figure 1 is meant to show that these pillars are linked and both foster, and are based on, critical thinking, imagination and expression. the dissonance between the order of the numbers and the direction of the arrows is meant to symbolize that the flow is multi-directional and multi-dimensional. the three additional pillars are described below: learning to imagine and express the imagined for most of us, education has taught us that in order to discover ‘objective reality’ we must be ‘scientific.’ this means we must transcend the body, distancing ourselves from the ‘natural’ and seeking instead to make rational and reasoned assessments of what we experience. as a result, for many adults, particularly those who have been successful in tertiary education, intellectual pursuits and imagination are related only in so far as imagination is necessary for the scholarly expression of ideas. these people have learned to lock their imaginations away, and many have forgotten how to consciously express themselves without words. in japan and elsewhere, this inability and/or reluctance to use alternative forms of expression is also true for many young people. this tendency is reinforced by social hierarchies which give priority to verbal expression and apply standards of ‘excellence’ to alternative forms of expression which often leave individuals feeling they are “unable” or “not good at” creative expression. at another level, the separation of the natural and rational leads people to deny their ability to be imaginative and to be reluctant to engage in activities which require them to express the world of their imagination, perhaps out of fear of being criticized for not being ‘realistic.’ this becomes an obstacle to peace activism, as we can not create a world that we are unable and/or unwilling to imagine. after encountering this reluctance to engage with creative and imaginative work in a wide 1 3 2 7 6 5 4 critical thinking critical expression （1）learning to do; （2）learning to know; (3) learning to be; (4) learning to live peacefully; (5) learning to imagine and express the imagined; (6) learning to remember (seeking alternative histories); (7) learning to have hope in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 219 range of situations and cultural settings, we came to recognize that what is needed is more than just a non-threatening learning environment. we thus seek to help people to re-learn how to imagine, and to express what they experience through acknowledging and legitimizing their embodied experience and knowledge. learning to remember (seeking alternative pasts and histories) one objective of critical theory is to give voice to those who have been silenced and to make visible those who have been made invisible. remembrance, as a political act, gives legitimacy to those who have been lost and allows for a transcendence of time, incorporating past, present and future. on the one hand, it allows for the sharing and/or creation of collective memory. on the other, it also provides opportunities for acknowledgement of our own vulnerability. remembrance and the related act of grieving takes place in political spaces which determine the relative importance of those who are to be remembered and those who are not. judith butler discusses the process whereby grievability is publicly distributed, making grieving and/or mourning acceptable for some deaths but not for others.15 those most likely to be denied grievability are those who in life were least able to performatively assert their right to livable lives. they are the most invisible among the invisible. in this context, the recognition of how our bodies lie at the core of our experiences and perceptions is particularly important, as it allows us to explore a wide variety of experience and sensation. the embodied view of the world also allows us to discover our physical frailty and dependence on one another. grief can be transformative in that it makes us recognize our vulnerability and allows us to assert our shared humanity, acknowledging both sameness and difference in a way that overcomes the duality of mind versus body. it allows us, perhaps, to overcome the political spaces in which remembering, and grieving, take place. it is in such spaces that true inclusion and participation become possible, and new sites of resistance created. through our work with popoki peace project, we have learned the power of embodied memory with regard to the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki, as well as the great hanshin-awaji earthquake (1995). we are currently working to develop our ability to use 15 butler, judith. (2004) precarious life: the powers of mourning and violence. london: verso, p.34 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 220 this to make our learning environments more inclusive and to continue to find new subjects and methods of remembrance. learning to have hope one objective of peace education is to eliminate and/or reduce direct violence. as solomon (2002) and others point out, this can be a very different process depending on whether it occurs in the context of intractable conflicts or regions of relative tranquility. this may be particularly true when the focus of peace education is the recognition of differing collective narratives. the popoki peace project grew out of the need to address the situation in japan. in japan, there is little space for alternatives to the mainstream japanese collective narrative, making it difficult to assert one’s right to a ‘livable life’ outside of that narrative. at the same time, due to changing economic and social circumstances, life within that collective narrative has become much less ‘livable’ for a growing number of people. some of them choose violence toward others; many of them instead engage in violence toward themselves. peace education often uses the stories of suffering as a means of communication with, and ultimate acceptance of, the other. valuing that suffering is an important way of generating a sense of shared humanity and vulnerability. placing the body at the center of our understanding of such experiences allows us to explore not only the intellectual harm, but the emotional, sensual and relational suffering that took place. understanding the body as not only the most intimate of spaces but also as part of the public arena enables us to further explore the depth of human suffering, also opens up possibilities for exploring other emotions and shared experience. the popoki peace project has begun to explore the role of peace education in situations of extreme isolation and lack of hope. life experiences have taught people how abandon hope and how to despair. it is thus necessary to (re-)learn how to have hope. in our work, we have discovered in addition to an understanding of shared vulnerability, shared laughter is extremely important in this process. taking popoki home: hints for conducting popoki peace lessons the purpose of this section is to share some of the basic workshop techniques. as was indicated earlier, the basic popoki workshop lasts for about two hours. most workshops in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 221 begin with an outline of the content and objectives of that particular program and some type of introductory questions or quiz related to the particular theme of the workshop. as one purpose is to create an atmosphere conducive to participation, these should be non-threatening questions such as “what color is peace?” or done in such a way as to promote interest in the theme but also surprise participants at their shared lack of knowledge in a non-threatening way. an effort is made at all times to encourage participation in a variety of ways, not only in terms of the ‘correct’ answer. the next phase of the workshop is usually a reading of some pages from popoki, what color is peace? the purpose of this is to help participants to think about peace at different levels and in different contexts (peace with self, nature and others) and to imagine themselves in different situations. one goal is to encourage participants to take a broad view of ‘peace’ as involving not only direct violence but also structural and cultural violence. ultimately, the project asks whether a positive view of peace might be created that does not rely only on the negation of violence. the use of the book is done in one of several ways. it might be an interactive reading, interactive performance or group reading where everyone reads one page. in the former, pages are selected in advance on the basis of their relation to the overall theme and participants are asked to respond. the reading of one page apiece allows for impromptu discussion and emphasizes personal difference in expression. of course, people are allowed to opt out of reading, and to participate in a different way.16 most workshops incorporate movement. for example, sometimes participants are asked after the reading to do their own version of popoki taking a walk, and everyone goes around the room as popoki. another exercise involving movement is the use of a ‘yes/no rope.’ participants are asked a ‘yes/no’ question and they must position themselves along the rope according to the degree to which they either agree or disagree with the question. this allows for them to physically experience the range of opinion and allows for each person to express her/himself, giving equal weight to each one. once people have positioned themselves, they are asked to explain their choice. all ideas are accepted as valid, although the facilitator might also provide additional information or ideas. positions along the rope are not 16 sometimes cards are made of selected pages and participants are asked to discuss the meaning of the page and then rank them in terms of importance for achieve peace, etc. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 222 permanent and sometimes people opt to change. by this time in the workshop, people are generally fairly relaxed and ready for some group work. often they are asked to give examples from their own experience of ‘non-peace’ or to discuss a list of concepts in terms of what might be most important for peace (or to that day’s theme, etc.). these exercises foster critical thinking, participation and learning from one another’s experiences, all of which are important skills for the participatory democracy. in these groups, generally someone will take a leadership role. if that leadership becomes too dominant and some members become excluded, the facilitator might intervene to allow for full participation by all group members. important aspects of this work are to acknowledge diversity and to negotiate different modes of active participation. once this work is accomplished, the groups are ready for their art and/or creative expression project. they are generally given a choice of two or three projects, as well as the choice to make their own original creation. the content is selected according to the overall workshop theme. all projects include popoki. the most simple might be to draw a peace garden to walk in with popoki. another might be to plan a peace meal to be eaten with popoki or make a mobile expressing the group’s image of a world that is peaceful for both the group and for popoki. other drawing projects might entail such topics as the road to peace or gender equality, human rights issues, or configurations of peaceful lifestyles. often, the finished projects do not include the group members themselves. in that case, at the end they are asked to go back and include themselves in the drawing. this is one way to encourage them to think concretely about what they might do to contribute to peace (or the solution to whatever problem they are addressing). the program concludes with sharing of the different projects and comments, questions and general discussion. popoki in action over the past two years, popoki has been used in a variety of settings and the response has been extremely positive.17 one key to this success lies in popoki himself. popoki is everybody’s friend. in psychological terminology, this means that participants use popoki to project. he becomes teacher, parent, child, student, friend, or whatever the person wants 17 for a discussion of responses to different programs see alexander (2006). an on-line version is available at the kobe university library repository http://www.research.kobe-u.ac.jp/gsics-publication/jics/alexander_14-3.pdf in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 223 him to be. popoki manages to make friends even in cultures where cats are not particularly valued (e.g. palestine, timor leste) and with individuals who claim to dislike cats. for people who do like cats, popoki of course makes things more fun. popoki was present at an international camp held in japan for primary school children from japan, korea, thailand, china and taiwan. large popokis with name tags in each language decorated the cafeteria. a popoki question box was set up, and the questions submitted by the campers were answered during a special popoki time after each meal. in the evening, a page or two might be read at the campfire; some art and other projects might include popoki. in the course of the 4-day camp, popoki became everybody’s friend, and there were tears at the end when they had to say good-bye. “popoki” was the first word that everyone learned at camp that was the same in all languages. at first, the questions submitted were about popoki’s physical characteristics, but gradually they changed to contain questions and/or expressions of campers’ feelings and desire for peace. for example, one taiwanese camper wrote about how she had become friends with a chinese camper and her disappointment and confusion about why they could not remain friends after leaving. similarly, at an international youth peace camp in timor leste, popoki not only became everyone’s friend but he also provided a way to discuss difficult topics such as personal loss (friends and relatives killed in the conflict), the legitimacy of violence and non-violence, and other controversial political issues/positions. popoki made it possible to talk about these otherwise explosive topics in a safe way. a second reason for the acceptance of popoki is the flexibility of the material. popoki’s basic questions are applicable to almost anything one would want to address in peace education. while it is possible to discern the normative position of the author from reading between the lines the text, the use of questioning allows readers and facilitators to use the book freely and to provide their own answers. popoki has been used in japan in workshops on the constitution or alternative life styles. in japan, war and armed conflict are not an immediate problem; workshops in timor leste addressed direct violence because that was the most significant reality for the participants. although the stance of the popoki peace project is non-violent, the approach allowed participants to discuss the relative merits of the use of violence and come to their own conclusions without having non-violence forced on them. the popoki peace project uses popoki, but in reality popoki is just an entry point to a peace in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 224 education pedagogy which stresses critical imagination, expression and thinking. popoki makes these activities seem more accessible and perhaps less threatening; the use of humor makes difficult subject matter more enjoyable. with popoki we are serious and at the same time able to laugh at our serious selves. there are several points in every workshop when the atmosphere in the room changes. the most noticeable one is when groups become engaged in their creative project. so far this has been true regardless of location, topic, age, gender, language, etc. although of course it is easier to achieve with some groups than with others. the moment comes when the intellectual aspects connect with movement, imagination and creative expression. people relax and enjoy themselves. they become excited and express their passion. they laugh. sometimes their voices get louder; sometimes their physical stance and position change. we believe that this is the result of the way in which the workshops acknowledge and give an opportunity for expressing embodied memory and knowledge. the respect for diversity combined with the emphasis on inclusion at workshops is also important in their success because allows for a variety of modes of participation. everyone participates, but not necessarily in the same way. this is especially important in intercultural settings, where verbal communication might be difficult. when some people have difficulty with language, discussion can be exhausting. popoki allows for other ways of communication. not only does it take the pressure off those with fewer skills in the language of communication, but it can change group dynamics in cases where those with strong language skills dominate. there are of course differences and surprises. in drawing popoki’s peace garden, an american group of children each made their own drawing on the common paper. this is not unusual. what was surprising was that they each made a wall around their space. we have yet to see that in japan. when asked to draw the road to peace, an international group of peace educators created a board game. in response to the same project, a group of palestinian youth workers drew the road but not the goal. another group of palestinians drew both, with barbed wire on the road to indicate the difficulty of arriving at peace. a group of japanese teachers were unable to agree on a joint goal, but their road was filled with symbols of peace and joy. another japanese group had each individual use one sheet of paper to express their view of their section of the road, and then linked all the sections in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 225 together. each section had different symbols, but they were primarily happy and/or peaceful ones rather than indications of struggle. an exception from japan was an all-day project by a group of teenagers, who chose to look at why young people do not want to be engaged in political struggle. their work showed such issues as apathy, refusal of adult society to take them seriously and bullying. in timor leste, a workshop was held during a time of violence. the participants at an international peace camp were divided into groups based on shared language, and were asked to first draw non-peace in their lives and then draw the situation where that non-peace is solved. some of the timorese participants were at first unable to draw the non-peace and instead drew ‘peace.’ after they were finished, a discussion ensued about why that particular peace was desirable. this discussion enabled them to eventually draw ‘non-peace’ in their country. the japanese at the same camp drew non-peace with no difficulty, but were unable to come up with a satisfactory (to them) version of peace. one of the difficulties for that group was how to address individual versus collective peace. at this workshop, japanese, korean and hong kong chinese participants all addressed the problem of suicide. this proved very difficult for timorese youth to comprehend and led to serious discussions about the meaning of life. popoki was present in all of these drawings and discussions, but the young people were talking about themselves and their own friends, families, lives and futures. sometimes there are surprises in the ways people react to the text. when asked whether their peace was related to that of others, a palestinian participant immediately asked whether the question pertained to individuals or groups. at that workshop, the palestinians were divided into those who answered ‘yes’ and those who answered ‘no.’ in japan, many people remark on this question, but there is rarely strong disagreement about the answer, and the question of individual versus group does not arise. sometimes people can not reply when asked about the color, taste, etc. of peace; other times they are delighted by the questions. the most interesting and challenging part of using popoki in different settings is that raises different questions. recently in israel and palestine, two questions were raised repeatedly. one was whether hope comes before social change, or if instead social change is a prerequisite for hope. another was about the meaning of discussing peace in places/situations that are not peaceful. particularly in palestine, the question of the meaning in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 226 of peace and peace education under occupation was raised. personally i am grateful for these difficult questions and the discussions that ensued. i am convinced that popoki is useful in different places and situations, but the issues and presentation must be adjusted. a goal of the popoki peace project is to have many popokis in many countries, all engaging in their own versions of popoki’s work. conclusion the popoki peace project uses a critical peace pedagogy which emphasizes use of the body, senses, emotions and imagination as well as the intellect. ultimately, it is hoped that the emotional and sensual part will fuse with the intellectual part into new expressions of, and action for, peace. the combination of critical thought, imagination and expression underlying the work of the popoki peace project contributes to social transformation in five ways. the first involves modes of participation. in allowing for a broad range of expression, the emphasis on alternative modes of expression makes space for those who might be uncomfortable with discussions to participate in other ways. the second aspect involves who participates. by emphasizing inclusion and constantly questioning norms of exclusion, the project seeks to be open to all expressions of ‘possible life.’ the third aspect concerns what in fact is discussed. the emphasis on critical imagination and expression, coupled with the inclusive stance, allows for a greater (and perhaps different) range of alternatives, both in terms of content and in terms of presentation. the fourth aspect involves a challenge to western liberal ideas of ‘reasoned judgments’ through the emphasis on the body, senses and emotions. this affords the ‘soft’ and ‘human’ side of decision-making such as caring, emotion and sensation a place in the decision-making process. as a result, it allows for a disorderly and vibrant democracy, in which multiple modes of expression are both reasonable and desirable.18 the fifth aspect involves the creation of hope, or at least the attempt to do so. to the extent that this is successful, it contributes to the formation of a community which is grounded in understanding of our shared humanity, vulnerability and life. it is hoped that this community will grow and that popoki and his friends will spring up all around the world, each with his/her unique take on the work of the popoki peace project. 18 see for example young, iris marion. “activist challenges to deliberative democracy.” political theory, october 2001, p.688 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 227 the experience of participation in one popoki peace project workshop will probably not create a peace-maker, but it certainly provides an entry point for envisioning and creating peace. as an educator, popoki (and the project) see their role as standing beside each participant, challenging the unique real and imaginary worlds they bring to the workshop, respecting their diversity, curiosity and desires, and helping them to understand, expand and perhaps re-invent their ‘worlds.’ popoki, project members and participants all grow, learn and experience together in the course of a workshop. as such, each workshop is unique and we all find ourselves a little bit different after each one. popoki, what color is peace? ends with the following: “popoki is in ronni’s heart, and in the hearts of everyone seeking peace. take a good look. maybe you can find popoki in your heart, too.” it is believed that the discovery of popoki in one’s own heart gives one the impetus and confidence for hope and for action to create, in the words of gabriel garcia marques, “a new and overwhelming utopia of life, where nobody can decide for somebody else, even the way to die, where love can be certain and happiness possible, and where the generations condemned to a hundred years of solitude will have once and for all a second chance on earth.”19 19 marques, gabriel garcia. nobel lecture: ‘the solitude of latin america.’ http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1982/marquez-lecture-e.html (accessed 2008.6.22) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 211-228 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 228 references alexander, ronni. 2007. popoki, what color is peace? popoki’s peace book 1. epic. …. 2006. “the popoki peace project: creating new spaces for peace.” journal of international cooperation studies, kobe university, vol.14, no.3, pp.17-50 benesch, sarah. “critical thinking: a learning process for democracy.” tesol quarterly, vol.27, no.3, special-topic issue: adult literacies, (autumn, 1993) butler, judith. (2004) precarious life: the powers of mourning and violence. london: verso chow, esther ngan-ling, chadwick fleck, gang-hua fan, joshua hoseph, deanna m. lyter. “exploring feminist pedagogy: infusing dialogue, participation, and experience in teaching and learning.” teaching sociology, vol.31, no.3, july 2003 fischman, gustavo e. and peter mclaren, “expanding democratic choices: schooling for democracy: toward a critical utopianism.” contemporary sociology, vol.29, no.1 utopian visions: engaged sociologies for the 21st century, (jan. 2000) foucault, michel. “of other spaces (1967), heteropias.” (accessed 2008.6.23) (http://foucault.info/documents/heterotopia/foucault.heterotopia.en.html) gabel, susan. “some conceptual problems with critical pedagogy,” curriculum inquiry, vol.32, no. 2 (summer 2002) hague appeal for peace (1999) the hague appeal for peace and justice in the 21st century. (accessed 2008.6.14) http://www.haguepeace.org/resources/hagueagendapeace+justice4the21stcentury.pdf marques, gabriel garcia. nobel lecture: ‘the solitude of latin america.’ http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1982/marquez-lecture-e.html (accessed 2008.6.22) popoki peace project url: http://popoki.cruisejapan.com salih, sara, with judith butler, eds. (2004) the judith butler reader. blackwell publishing salomon, gavriel and baruch nevo, eds. (2002) peace education: the concept, principles, and practices around the world. ny: lawrence erlbaum associates unesco. (1996) “learning: the treasure within.” report to unesco of the international commission on education for the twenty-first century. unesco publishing …. (2001) “learning the way to peace. a teacher’s guide to peace education.” new delhi. http://www.ncte-in.org/pub/unesco/unesco.htm (accessed 2006.1.2) villemain, francis t. “democracy, education, and art.” the journal of aesthetic education, vol.1, no.1 (spring 1966) young, iris marion. (2000) inclusion and democracy. oxford: oxford university press …. (2001) “activist challenges to deliberative democracy.” political theory, october 2001 rinah sheleff 381 volume 2 number 2 (2008): 381-382 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ the origins of critical pedagogy, or the freirization of paolo rinah sheleff a judge was asked by two people to settle a dispute between them. the first one presented her argument, and the judge said: “you are right!” the judge’s assistant whispered that justice required that the other side be heard. the second person presented his argument, and the judge said: “you are right!” the assistant was astounded: “how can both of them be right?!” the judge replied: “you are right!” this folktale comes in many forms: sometimes the judge is nasruddin, sometimes a hassidic rabbi, sometimes a tribal chief. but the truth is (if there is a “truth”) that the situation described originated with the mother of the renowned philosopher/educator, paolo freire. paolo’s mother was a wise woman to whom people in the community turned for advice and mediation. one day two people in dispute presented their arguments to her, and to both of them she replied: “you are right!” “mama,” cried paolo, “how can both of them be right?” this was her reply: “my son, i’m no expert with pre-fabricated correct-ic my job is to promote a dialectic through listening most empathetic. “the discourse must be dialogic never hegemonic or even pedagogic. 382 “the issues we must problematize and always, always contextualize. we must not ever dichotomize and never, never demonize. for then we would be fragmentized and, god forbid, marginalized. “this will give rise to exploitation and the evils of globalization with its attendant structural oppression to be countered with an activist coalition. “the key is in the narrative which always must be generative, providing multiple perspectives upon which we can be deeply reflective. “so never judge, never say “wrong!” let our shared vision empower us to be strong as we search for our commonality in a world of subjective reality. “’hope springs eternal in the human breast.’ we must be vigilant, never allow ourselves to rest. “now go and do your homework and remember what i say: don’t dare to bring home a report card with less than an ‘a’.” upon which we can be deeply reflective. microsoft word cabezudo ifp 11.2.docx in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 97 volume 11 number 2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal acerca de la identidad y particularidad educación para la construcción de cultura de paz. aportes para colombia profesora alicia cabezudo, ph.d. escuela de ciencias de la educación, universidad nacional de rosario rosario, argentina international peace bureau (ipb), ginebra universidad de cartagena, cartagena de indias, colombia introducción en la historia de américa latina podemos reconocer una línea histórica en la cual aparece la reivindicación sistemática de identidades vinculada a la región geográfica en la que se habita y a la dimensión cultural con la que nos representamos, tanto desde el punto de vista continental como nacional posicionándonos en alguno de los diversos países del inmenso territorio que habitamos. en el continente se comparte además entre muchas otras cosas un estado de “reivindicación permanente” desde el momento en que el territorio en su totalidad y por ende los actuales estados-nación fueran in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 98 conquistados por los imperios español y portugués poniendo fin a las dinastías autóctonas y a las comunidades nativas organizadas. estado reivindicativo que busca en primer lugar el conocimiento y respeto al profundo y milenario desarrollo cultural pre-existente a la conquista europea. que reclama el reconocimiento de libertades individuales y colectivas con la práctica de procesos democráticos participativos y sustentables y que exige por sobre todo justicia social y económica para la población en su conjunto sin diferencias de ningún tipo. esta línea de reivindicaciones que aparece atravesada por avances y retrocesos marca también la historia de colombia y siendo una impronta de indudable importancia, debería reflejarse como consecuencia de ello en los objetivos, los contenidos y la planificación pedagógica del país tanto a nivel nacional como regional y local. sorprendentemente no han sido éstas las metas educativas prioritarias en colombia, permaneciendo desligado el sistema formal escolar de la realidad político social, económica y cultural del país, así como de las demandas de las comunidades, de las regiones y de amplios sectores y grupos de la sociedad civil. en contraposición a ello, las prácticas y experiencias de educación en el campo no formal asumieron las problemáticas de la realidad circundante y de los diversos territorios del país, así como la necesidad de aprendizajes vinculados a la circunstancia histórica nacional y a la sostenida violencia armada en que vivió colombia por espacio de más de 60 años. a lo largo de este extenso período y mediante la constitución de gran número de organizaciones, fundaciones, asociaciones, grupos de interés y corporaciones, se convocó a todos y todas los actores del proceso de aprendizaje a reflexionar sobre temas de actualidad; a organizar actividades observando la realidad cercana; a desarrollar capacidades, habilidades y aptitudes que claramente promovieran principios in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 99 democráticos, construcción de ciudadanía, reconocimiento de derechos y participación de la sociedad civil en la toma de decisiones. desde una perspectiva pedagógica estos procesos pueden interpretarse también como intentos de construir una realidad menos violenta, abordar la resolución de conflictos mediante recursos innovadores y promover una cultura de paz sustentable así como generalizar el aprendizaje de estrategias para superar las confrontaciones de diversa intensidad que produjeron en colombia un sistemático enfrentamiento armado durante al menos tres generaciones. es verdad que el rol de la educación y del sistema formal es el de reproductor. rol que desarrolla mediante contenidos específicos (diseño curricular), en espacios acotados (escuelas, colegios, universidades, centros de enseñanza) y en tiempos específicos limitados (“tempo áulico”). desplegando contenidos o “saberes”, valores y actitudes que una sociedad dada situada en un territorio geográfico y en un momento histórico determinado considera fundamentales y decisivos para su construcción como país y como estado político. el aprendizaje a través del sistema formal es regulado en todas las regiones del mundo, sea cual fuera su ideología y latitud geográfica: tanto cuba como japón, e.e.u.u o australia, colombia, noruega, bolivia, rusia presentan una regulación oficial que es obligatoria y otorga créditos para continuar los estudios a un grado superior siguiendo la secuencia establecida en cada país. la obligatoriedad, regulación y sistematización constituye “la razón de ser” de la estructura educativa formal a partir de sus orígenes históricos en la lejana babilonia la primera civilización que organizó una educación sistemática y regulada con objetivos pedagógicos y contenido graduados por grupos de edad (etáreo) y categorización de objeto de estudio (lammana , 1970). pero la educación tiene también un rol transformador promoviendo pensamiento independiente, juicio crítico y metodología participativa en el proceso de aprendizaje así como una paulatina concientización acerca de los contextos ideológicos, culturales, sociales y económicos en que nos in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 100 desarrollamos como personas, como sujetos políticos y como sujetos de derechos (cabezudo, 2016; haavelsrud, 2010; monteiro & tavares, 2010). este rol transformador permite construirnos en ciudadanos activos de un mundo complejo donde somos habitantes de una región específica, ciudadanos de un país, portadores de una cultura o culturas y al mismo tiempo nos desarrollamos como ciudadanos conectados con un sistema global cada vez más interrelacionado que necesita de todos los habitantes del planeta y de la práctica de solidaridad, fraternidad y cooperación entre ellos. el rol transformador de la educación para la paz el rol transformador de la educación es el que corresponde a la educación para la paz donde el respeto a la dignidad de las personas y a su esencia como sujetos políticos se coloca en el centro de los contenidos, de las prácticas de aprendizaje, de la metodología de enseñanza y de las estrategias pedagógicas en el momento de planificar su abordaje didáctico. desde este rol transformador, la educación para la paz y el respeto a los derechos humanos adquieren una particular actualidad en el continente latinoamericano, al contrastar los valores que esta educación implica con los horrores de la violencia, guerra y destrucción que diariamente nos conmueven. resulta difícil y aún incomprensible en el discurso educativo explicar la violencia indiscriminada en todos los niveles, los enfrentamientos armados, las masacres y las operaciones militares y/o para-militares ante la indagación atónita y sorprendida de estudiantes y alumnos. resulta aún más difícil clarificar estos procesos cuando la supuesta solución para acciones de esta categoría son a su vez ataques y agresión sistemática sobre población civil desarmada o entre grupos militares o militarizados que utilizan la violencia extrema para dirimir conflictos. in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 101 en forma permanente, al analizar la desigualdad y la injusticia de nuestra realidad socio económica donde la violencia es cotidiana tanto a nivel doméstico como a nivel institucional o al observar la violencia brutal de sociedades “modelo” donde los adolescentes masacran a sus maestros y compañeros; donde el peligro acecha a cualquier hora en cualquier calle; donde la convocatoria a la guerra es una práctica habitual para dirimir conflictos internacionales, nos estamos enfrentando ante situaciones de violencia extrema muchas veces institucionalizada. todas son guerras, de distinta naturaleza, con similar contenido de violencia y destrucción. aquí las respuestas del docente se encuentran vacías de contenido. las explicaciones se agotan y la práctica de construcción del conocimiento mediante metodología reflexiva, activa y moderna no es ni eficaz ni suficiente. en situación de conflicto armado o de lo que ha sido dado en llamar “violencia directa” todo es casi inexplicable y resulta pedagógicamente complejo hacer comprender el origen de este tipo de acciones habituales en su mundo circundante a seres humanos que se encuentran en procesos de aprendizaje formal o no formal proceso de extraordinaria importancia en su constitución como personas, como miembros de una comunidad determinada y como sujetos políticos. el caso de colombia es emblemático en este aspecto. pese a su incuestionable importancia, la educación para la paz y los derechos humanos eje didáctico transversal de muchos diseños curriculares internacionales ha sido concebida como una temática subsidiaria en la selección de contenidos del sistema educativo formal. eje didáctico necesario pero aleatorio. importante pero no esencial. presente pero ausente. la educación para la paz se presenta como un discurso curricular que ennoblece sin modificar ni concebir alternativas nuevas en la formación in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 102 ética y ciudadana de docentes y alumnos formación cada vez más necesaria en el mundo en que vivimos y particularmente en territorios donde el conflicto armado ha sido permanente y la violencia impera en todos los niveles. para johan galtung (1997) la educación para la paz debe articularse desde una perspectiva más amplia que la meramente escolar y esta educación debe incluir el estudio, la investigación y la resolución de conflictos por vía pacífica como objetivos fundamentales en un proceso de aprendizaje integral que trasciende el ámbito de la educación formal y se convierta en un imperativo pedagógico y ético a la luz de los acontecimientos del mundo actual. de allí la relevancia que galtung otorga al estudio de los diferentes niveles y tipos de violencia, caracterizando la “violencia directa” como aquella que proviene de una agresión directa tanto en el aspecto físico como psíquico. la “violencia estructural” es definida como un producto de las estructuras sociales y económicas básicamente injustas que presionan sobre la población en forma tal que “llamar paz a una situación en la que impera la pobreza, la represión y la alienación es una parodia de paz” (galtung, 1997) aun cuando no haya conflicto armado, enfrentamiento entre partes o guerra declarada. en américa latina y también en colombia debe reelaborarse el concepto educación para la paz ya que ha prevalecido la asociación de este campo disciplinar pedagógico a programas y aprendizajes promovidos en zonas de guerra, situaciones de conflicto armado o post conflicto. lo cual no responde con exactitud a los objetivos del mismo. la educación para la paz es hoy un término pluridimensional e incluye un conjunto de conceptos, ideas y actividades que se desarrollan desde las acciones de sensibilización y divulgación tendientes a la promoción de una cultura de paz hasta prácticas pedagógicas concretas en el ámbito de la educación formal, no formal e informal. prácticas cuyos objetivos específicos se vinculan a valores esenciales de la convivencia humana tales como la solidaridad, la equidad, la cooperación, la in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 103 participación, el respeto y defensa de los derechos los que deben ser garantizados por las autoridades del estado en toda sociedad democrática. educación para la paz y los derechos humanos en américa latina la situación de américa latina a principios del siglo xxi muestra una clara tendencia general hacia los regímenes cívico democráticos, hecho particularmente favorable para el desarrollo y la aplicación de programas en educación para la paz, derechos humanos y desarme. sin duda, la presencia de gobiernos democráticos en la mayoría de los países latinoamericanos luego de largos períodos de guerra interna o dictaduras militares1 ha abierto espacios que ponen a prueba nuestra capacidad de desarrollar propuestas educativas favorables a estos temas y objetivos. por otra parte, la aplicación y desarrollo de una propuesta de educación para la paz implica sin duda la responsabilidad del estado en asegurar una educación que promueva tanto el desarrollo integral del individuo como su inclusión en la sociedad a través de la creación de una conciencia social abierta al cambio y la participación. a su vez colombia asolado por décadas de violencia armada extrema a partir de los acuerdos de la habana de noviembre de 20162 inicia un complejo proceso de paulatina pacificación que será determinante en su historia política, económica y social estableciendo las bases de una construcción de paz estable y duradera ejemplo de extraordinarios alcances para procesos similares en otras latitudes. la educación para la paz, para los derechos humanos y el desarme debe hacer uso de esos espacios disponibles introduciendo sus metas en el sistema educativo formal e involucrando a todos los niveles del aprendizaje. por otra parte, es imposible hablar acerca de educación para la paz sin superar los métodos autoritarios de la gestión institucional educativa, adoptando en su lugar ideas de autonomía, responsabilidad y in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 104 diálogo en todos los espacios pedagógicos dedicados a ello así como en los programas y actividades del campo no formal. el concepto actual de educación para la paz incluye perspectivas vinculadas a educación en derechos humanos, educación para el desarrollo y cooperación internacional, educación para el desarme, para la sustentabilidad económica , para la ciudadanía y buena convivencia, para el diálogo intercultural, educación en derechos del niño y de género entre otras (naciones unidas, 1999) . particularmente en américa latina y áfrica se amplía su marco de referencia, contenidos y metodología adquiriendo un sentido concreto y cotidiano vinculado a la vida diaria y a las prácticas sociales y políticas de cada región y país. por otra parte, la dimensión en derechos humanos, incorporada a educación para la paz, no se refiere únicamente a aspectos tradicionales relacionados con las violaciones a los derechos individuales suspensión de libertad, desapariciones, detención arbitraria, tortura, secuestros sino que se compromete con el análisis y monitoreo del cumplimiento de estos derechos, así como el reconocimiento y aplicación de los derechos sociales, culturales y políticos por parte de los estados nacionales. es un capítulo particularmente importante para la construcción de paz, la investigación y el estudio de todas aquellas situaciones de emergencia que crea la omisión o falencia de derechos por parte de la población, realidad habitual en américa latina aún en regímenes democráticos. asistimos entonces, a una revisión pedagógica de conceptos tradicionales y la noción de paz se expande en un sentido amplio, contraponiéndose a aquella más limitativa que la relegaba a sinónimo de “ausencia de guerra”, “ausencia de conflicto armado”, “suspensión de actos e violencia” o “silencio de los cañones”. se trata además de una noción más abarcadora y compleja, remitiéndonos también a los conceptos de equidad y justicia, dignidad y solidaridad, integración y desarrollo humano, in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 105 participación y diálogo, respeto a los derechos de los pueblos y a la diversidad cultural, entre otros (lederach, 2006). por ello es fundamental el rol de la educación para la paz en américa latina y colombia ya que se trata del campo pedagógico disciplinar que encara y desarrolla las demandas más urgentes de la sociedad. en europa estas demandas se vinculan a la preocupación por el riesgo nuclear, los complejos militares industriales, el desarrollo tecnológico sin control, el fundamentalismo religioso, la contaminación ambiental y el desarme, además de aspectos relacionados con problemas concretos de derechos humanos, tales como la migración, el desempleo, la desigualdad, el racismo y la xenofobia creciente. en américa latina la educación para la paz contempla diversos enfoques, desde aquellos que surgen en particular de regiones que han vivido o viven conflictos bélicos colombia, el salvador, guatemala, nicaragua hasta aquellos que consideran este campo pedagógico como una respuesta activa de los gobiernos ante la presión de la sociedad civil por la impunidad imperante y las graves violaciones a los derechos humanos que los mismas autoridades seudo -democráticas ejecutan. para américa latina y para colombia específicamente el problema fundamental radica no sólo en la existencia de conflictos armados internos3 sino también en la omisión sistemática de los derechos económicos, sociales y culturales por parte de las autoridades democráticamente constituidas, derechos que no son ni reconocidos ni respetados pese a su status constitucional en la mayoría de los países de la región. en realidad se produce muy frecuentemente la violación u omisión por parte del estado de derechos civiles y políticos reconocidos en la historia moderna como los derechos fundantes o derechos de primera generación, lo cual presupone una incorrecta cualificación política de estos in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 106 ya que se impone el término de “gobierno democrático” a aquellos que practican sistemática violación e incumplimiento.4 por lo tanto, la acción educativa en todo el continente, y por supuesto en colombia, debe ser absolutamente imperativa y urgente en lo que respecta a estos temas, donde los diferentes países en tiempos democráticos se han comprometido tibiamente con los principios de no violencia, construcción de paz y defensa de libertades, y donde las organizaciones de la sociedad civil como en muchos otros temas se han responsabilizado en forma casi excluyente de su desarrollo y promoción. en las dos últimas décadas algunos sistemas educativos latinoamericanos5 han intentado crear diseños curriculares en este sentido, desarrollando temas vinculantes a la construcción de paz, el respeto a los derechos humanos y la noción de libertades individuales garantizadas por el estado. pero en muchos casos se ha omitido la premisa fundamental vinculada al aprendizaje de la noción de libertad que es su relación directa con la práctica de una participación cívica individual y colectiva en continua expansión, como resultante de un compromiso activo con la realidad social (pichón riviere, 1988). en este sentido, la enseñanza de principios conectados a la construcción de cultura de paz, desmilitarización, seguridad humana, derechos y libertades, desarrollo y cooperación internacional así como la resolución de conflictos por vía pacífica, proveen de herramientas eficaces para reflexionar sobre nuestra realidad cercana y lejana (cabezudo y haavelsrud, 2007) posibilitando el análisis del mundo en que vivimos y la producción de proyectos para mejorarlo y modificarlo en el sentido que aquí proponemos. por otra parte, la enseñanza de la paz, los derechos humanos y el desarme tiene en los países latinoamericanos una particular relevancia como respuesta a la historia de violaciones sistemáticas producidas a partir del establecimiento de gobiernos antidemocráticos y dictaduras militares in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 107 desde mediados de la década de los ´60 y hasta bien avanzada la década de los ´80 del siglo pasado. se suma a esto, el indudable avance de las propuestas de paz y los tratados regionales e internacionales, los que han actuado como marco jurídico de presión y obligación de cumplimiento expandiendo información acerca de los problemas que nos ocupan y promoviendo cambios en la legislación de los países latinoamericanos. estos factores esenciales allanaron el camino para la introducción de temas vinculantes a los conceptos de paz, desarme, derechos humanos y derechos del niño en los sistemas constitucionales, jurídicos y educativos de algunos países latinoamericanos. por otra parte, en este proceso de consolidación democrática continental y en las etapas de post conflicto armado, como la que está viviendo colombia, los sistemas educativos no sólo deberían promover el conocimiento acerca de los principios de paz, desarme y la necesidad de avanzar en la defensa de los derechos humanos sino desarrollar posibilidades prácticas de su implementación a través de proyectos, campañas y acciones concretas en y con la comunidad. de esta manera las actividades educativas operarían como un vínculo entre el sistema jurídico formal existente y la práctica real de principios y derechos muchos de los cuales no son garantizados por las instituciones del estado. si el objetivo de la educación es la preparación para la vida (faure et al., 2005), promoviendo una actitud crítica y transformadora de quienes estudian es fundamental la sensibilización acerca de la validez de la paz y la solidaridad en el seno de la sociedad reflejándose en un aprendizaje realista y consustanciado con los temas y problemas que enfrenta esta misma sociedad y sus miembros. ¿qué puede hacer la educación de acuerdo a este panorama? in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 108 en primer lugar sostener, desarrollar y educar para la democracia, ya que la democracia es el sistema político en el cual son respetados los principios de los derechos humanos esenciales y la dignidad de todos los hombres y mujeres. por lo tanto, la paz, la justicia y la solidaridad deberían ser objetivos específicos a lograr desde la supra-estructura política y, por supuesto, desde la estructura educativa oficial del estado. a su vez, es bien probado que los contenidos curriculares del nivel escolar formal reflejan estos principios sólo cuando gobiernos democráticos respaldan y promueven el modo de vida democrático. hablamos aquí de democracia descartando la perspectiva de un modelo abstracto. nos referimos a una democracia entendida como aquel sistema que involucra procesos complejos de construcción política, social, económica y cultural y que estructura líneas de pensamiento y comportamientos reflejados en los sistemas educativos y los contenidos desarrollados en las instituciones. este modelo político integral debe ser fortalecido para lograr la promoción de programas, proyectos, actividades y estrategias en temas vinculados a la paz, los derechos humanos y el desarme, entre otros lo que presupone las siguientes aseveraciones en el campo pedagógico (cabezudo, 2013, 2015): • la paz, los derechos humanos y el desarme, así como otros temas vinculantes, constituyen premisas racionales y objetivos viables para la educación; • los educadores en el campo formal y no formal deberían formarse en estos conceptos y sus prácticas, tanto en la enseñanza de grado como de post grado y especialización; • la justicia, el respeto mutuo y el respeto a las diferencias pueden y deben ser enseñados y aprendidos; • la población sujeta a procesos educativos debe construir pensamiento crítico y ser apoyados en la adquisición de conocimientos que enriquezcan su visión de asuntos y problemáticas regionales, nacionales e internacionales; in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 109 • debemos desarrollar contenidos, actitudes, habilidades y los medios necesarios para transformar el continente en un mundo que solucione los conflictos de forma pacífica y no apoye medidas que conduzcan a la violencia en todas sus manifestaciones, conflictos armados o a una carrera armamentista; • debemos darles a los niños, jóvenes y población en general la oportunidad de vivir en una región donde la paz, la justicia y la democracia sean valores prioritarios y todas las políticas conduzcan a este sentido; • debemos desarrollar un proceso de concientización (freire, 1970) acerca de la violencia de las estructuras socio-económicas en que vivimos, ya que estas estructuras son tan peligrosas como la violencia directa en todos sus grados, el conflicto armado interno o la guerra la educación para la paz debe ser incluida como un objetivo general en todas las estructuras educativas de nuestros países, como consecuencia de una búsqueda permanente por la justicia, la igualdad y la seguridad para la sociedad en su conjunto. esta sensibilización debe ser obtenida en forma práctica y operativa, a través de un análisis crítico de la realidad que nos rodea, planificando acciones concretas a través de proyectos educativos con la comunidad, los vecinos y las organizaciones no gubernamentales, así como otros actores en el proceso de enseñanza aprendizaje. consideramos que aquellas afirmaciones que reducen la perspectiva del mundo a una visión meramente teórica y declarativa son insuficientes. por desarrollo práctico y operativo entendemos que los participantes en procesos educativos sea en el campo formal o no formal deben tener un rol activo al trabajar los temas propuestos, vinculándolos con sus actividades diarias, aprendiendo y practicando sus derechos desde la práctica cotidiana y compartiendo esta experiencia y la adquisición de nuevos conocimientos con los demás actores del aprendizaje. in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 110 aprendizaje que se convierte en un saber y una práctica social de extraordinaria importancia ya que puede ser transferida a nuevas situaciones problemáticas para buscar soluciones posibles desde una perspectiva individual o colectiva. abordaje para colombia en el proceso de post conflicto armado la educación para la paz en colombia significa hoy un desafío pedagógico sin precedentes ya que se trata de iniciar en forma inmediata dos procesos urgentes y necesarios,6 deconstruir la cultura de violencia imperante desde la violencia directa armada a todas las manifestaciones de la misma en el ámbito doméstico, interpersonal, escolar, comunitario, urbano, rural, institucional y gubernamental. construir claros procesos, vías o herramientas de cultura de paz recogiendo las innumerables experiencias, tradiciones, “usos y saberes” existentes en las comunidades rurales de las regiones del país y practicadas por los diversos grupos étnico culturales de colombia, inclusive en poblados y ciudades. al mismo tiempo se debería investigar, cuantificar y cualificar estas experiencias desarrolladas mediante la educación no formal en temas vinculantes a la paz, derechos humanos, diálogo intercultural, reconciliación y resolución de conflictos por vía pacífica, así como otros referidos a aspectos sanitarios, medio ambientales, económicos y relacionados con prácticas de justicia no convencional. estas prácticas, usos y costumbres no formales en las regiones fueron instrumentadas durante años en forma paralela al conflicto armado y gestadas por múltiples y diversos actores. es el caso de ciertas políticas públicas locales; las de algunos grupos religiosos, comunidades y poblados, corporaciones, fundaciones, asociaciones de la sociedad civil, sindicatos, universidades, empresas privadas y organizaciones no gubernamentales nacionales e internacionales. in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 111 en suma, proponemos aquí una pedagogía innovadora territorial aplicando procesos de deconstrucción / construcción / utilización de saberes existentes aplicando un exhaustivo análisis territorial. es decir una pedagogía por sobre todo – en la construcción de una cultura de paz basada en las regiones, recogiendo el histórico trabajo de todas y todos los actores sociales comprometidos en un proceso educativo mayoritariamente ignorado y desconocido por la historia oficial. proceso en el que se construyó colectivamente solidaridad, vida, esperanza y un futuro diferente a la cruenta realidad cotidiana que parecía condenar a un destino de persistente violencia al pueblo colombiano. actualmente las investigaciones comienzan a profundizar los estudios sobre paz territorial (jaramillo, 2014) y quizás deberíamos referirnos a “paces territoriales” (martínez, 2001) concepto que podría operar como marco referencial básico para la aplicación sistemática y el total cumplimiento de los acuerdos de paz de la habana.7 me atrevo a proponer aquí y comenzar a iniciar reflexiones sobre el concepto de pedagogía territorial, el que unido al de paz territorial intenta repensar y organizar la educación para una construcción de cultura de paz en colombia , desde un cuerpo de conocimientos comunes tales como: • la constitución del país; los acuerdos y pactos nacionales, regionales e internacionales que avalan los deberes y libertades de la población en su conjunto y de todos los habitantes del estado. • los documentos específicos existentes que justifican las demandas de la población tanto desde su realidad cultural y socio económica como de la diversidad humana y biológica de la región que habitan. • los problemas y temas esenciales de la historia y la actualidad colombiana, considerados como núcleos de aprendizaje para su conocimiento, reflexión, y abordaje pedagógico. • las habilidades, aptitudes y capacidades necesarias para promover la paz y la resolución de conflictos por vía pacífica construidas colectivamente por todos los actores sociales en cada región colombiana. in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 112 • la sensibilización acerca de un cuerpo de valores compartidos que prioricen la justicia social, dignidad y equidad de todas y todos los colombianos. se propone, por lo tanto, una construcción social del currículo, con una perspectiva participativa democrática asociada a la territorialidad y a la diversidad de colombia propuesta de un currículo de educación para la paz en colombia educar para la paz y los derechos humanos debe realizarse desde un enfoque crítico de la actualidad que compartimos y de la época y lugar histórico en que nos ha tocado actuar. hecho incontrastable que parecieran haber desconocido los programas ministeriales, las instituciones educativas y muchas de las plataformas político pedagógicas colombianas, al menos hasta el momento en que los acuerdos de la habana abren una nueva etapa histórica y pedagógica en el país. fundamentalmente, el objetivo de esta propuesta curricular se basa en construir saberes a partir del conocimiento de los problemas concernientes a paz, ciudadanía, desarme, reconciliación, diálogo intercultural, economía solidaria y derechos humanos partiendo de cuestiones emergentes de la propia realidad colombiana (realidad micro) la que luego se debe relacionar a realidades más complejas y lejanas (análisis macro) (haavelsrud, 1996). análisis y reflexión que tiende a la concientización acerca de las características del mundo en que vivimos y la búsqueda de alternativas de cambio desde una participación socio política individual y colectiva con el objetivo construir un país más justo, equitativo y pacífico. un país en el cual la resolución de conflictos por vía pacífica, el diálogo constructivo, la participación y la solidaridad se consideren como mecanismos de transformación hacia una sociedad democráticamente madura y responsable. in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 113 en consecuencia, la educación basada en estos principios debería ser una meta pedagógica global y transversal de indudable impacto en todos los niveles y modalidades de la enseñanza y no sólo un compendio de objetivos direccionales para organizar la enseñanza. la propia comunidad educativa, así como todas las áreas del conocimiento reflejadas en diseño curriculares específicos permiten y requieren de la incorporación de principios vinculados a la paz, el desarme y los derechos humanos. esta incorporación debería desarrollarse como un eje integrador para actividades conjuntas entre la escuela, la sociedad y las instituciones. en realidad la educación para la paz propone en primer lugar la reflexión y el aprendizaje de la resolución de conflictos por vía pacífica y su transformación operativa mediante técnicas no violentas, las que posibilitarían el camino hacia sociedades donde los conflictos y problemas se aprendan a discutir / resolver / transformar desde los sistemas educativos formal, no formal e informal (lederach, 2006; iglesias, 2006). la educación para la paz es también constructora de ciudadanía mediante métodos participativos de enseñanza; análisis de la realidad; reflexión crítica sobre diferentes temas y problemas; conocimientos de derechos y aprendizaje de valores vinculados al respeto a la dignidad humana, la diversidad, las diferentes culturas y la justicia social promoviendo al mismo tiempo una progresiva democratización del sistema educativo. sin duda el sistema educativo formal como parte del estado colombiano debe responsabilizarse por la promoción, le enseñanza y la práctica de una educación sistemática por la paz, los derechos humanos y el desarme desde una perspectiva interdisciplinaria y transversal en toda planificación curricular e institucional. proceso que conlleva el estudio y planificación de un programa de políticas públicas educativas en el que creemos debería presentar las siguientes características (cabezudo, 2013): in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 114 • ser progresivo es decir evolutivo, lento y profundo, teniendo en cuenta los conflictos sociales potenciales y sus resoluciones • ser sistemático coherente con un programa político general claramente definido • ser global acompañando a todas las otras políticas públicas que se apliquen • debe implicar la recuperación de las identidades históricas y culturales del país lo que permite a la población ser protagonista de la historia • debe dar lugar a una serie de transformaciones en las estructuras y en los modos de vida de la sociedad transcendiendo la cultura de violencia imperante hacia una cultura de paz temáticas como la vida urbana y rural en las diversas regiones colombianas; la realidad de los diferentes grupos socio económicos y su problemática convivencia; las soluciones y los desencuentros ante los conflictos; la situación de los desplazados y su desamparo ante la ley; las nuevas propuestas sobre participación política; la solución al problema de la drogas ilícitas; la reforma rural y fiscal; el proceso de desarme; las nuevas modalidades de justicia son fundamentales para una sociedad en post conflicto armado y deben extenderse pedagógicamente en un alcance mayor que el mero conocimiento. extenderse pedagógicamente significa imperiosamente que estos temas sean objeto de reflexión, discusión, investigación y crítica. en un ejercicio permanente de búsqueda de la verdad, de intercambio de opiniones, de aprendizajes individuales y colectivo , donde se plantean puntos de vista diversos y se aprende a respetar a todos aquellos que piensan diferente. sin embargo la profunda desigualdad social, la carencia de recursos vitales por gran parte de la población, el desempleo y la miseria, la concentración de la propiedad de la tierra y una débi o casi inexistente reforma agraria así como la persistencia de problemas crónicos que desencadenaron la guerra crean desesperanza y desconfianza en las autoridades gubernamentales y sus decisiones.y es verdad que in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 115 mecanismos autoritarios, control de información, crímenes e impunidad forman parte de la vida política contemporánea colombiana. en este sentido, la guerra no está tan lejos y no sólo en términos de conflicto armado. es una guerra cotidiana vivir en pésimas condiciones de salud, educación, empleo y vivienda, menoscabándose diariamente principios básicos inherentes a la dignidad humana en gran parte del territorio colombiano y sobre todo en las áreas rurales así como en barrios densamente poblados de las grandes ciudades sujetos al impacto de los desplazamientos internos y la movilización del campo a la ciudad. la tarea educativa debe obligatoriamente vincular las dos situaciones: los conflictos directos y “las guerras” de otras características pero no menor intensidad ya que sólo un análisis integral de la violencia puede llegar a posibilitar una reflexión crítica educativa y transformadora que genere cambios reales y posibles en la sociedad. de acuerdo a esta propuesta los temas vinculantes a la educación para la paz, el desarme y los derechos humanos, ciudadanía, reconciliación y diálogo intercultural entre otros se desarrollan en el formato de núcleos significativos desde las diferentes áreas y disciplinas curriculares, basándose en el concepto holístico de que no existe ninguna situación de paz y derechos humanos ajena a cualquier tipo de conocimiento. los contenidos de las distintas áreas son organizados alrededor de ejes problemáticos donde debe constar la bibliografía básica, los recursos potenciales y las actividades que conducen al aprendizaje. al mismo tiempo, estos ejes problemáticos no se presentan como estructuras impuestas sino como alternativas temáticas que se analizan, discuten y seleccionan dentro de un proceso de trabajo conjunto entre todos los actores del aprendizaje maestros, alumnos, padres, miembros de la comunidad de pertenencia. in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 116 en el área de las ciencias sociales, los problemas presentados se resuelven en forma interdisciplinaria a través de la aplicación sistemática de una perspectiva histórica y por medio de un aprendizaje basado en actividades de reflexión, crítica y creación de alternativas. esta estrategia educativa se instrumenta no sólo para analizar los contenidos curriculares sino para asumir un compromiso fundamental con los problemas que caracterizan al territorio que se habita, la región en su conjunto, a los diferentes países y también al mundo. en toda américa latina las asignaturas vinculadas a la formación cívico-ciudadana y denominadas en diferentes formas: educación democrática, educación cívica, instrucción cívica, formación ciudadana, conocimiento de la realidad, etc. fueron consideradas ejes integradores para la implementación de este tipo de contenidos como modelos de innovación pedagógica desde las dos últimas décadas del siglo pasado. otra propuesta para la introducción en la comunidad del trabajo educativo relativo a los principios de paz, desarme y derechos humanos, así como temas vinculantes, se sustentó en el trabajo conjunto de estudiantes, padres y maestros. con la participación, de organizaciones de la sociedad civil, asociaciones religiosas y sindicales, organizaciones no gubernamentales y gobiernos municipales. modelo que también se propone aquí para colombia. en esta instancia la actividad consiste en la ejecución concreta de miniproyectos sobre problemáticas de la realidad cercana, lo que conduce a los actores educativos a establecer un contacto directo con la temática estudiada obteniendo consecuentes ventajas: clara detección de problemas, búsqueda de alternativas válidas y realistas y puesta en práctica de acciones concretas con el objetivo de resolver el problema inicial. subrayamos la importancia de esta tipología de aprendizaje en el proceso educativo ya que constituye la fase operativa la praxis de paulo freire (1970) en la educación formal y no formal. en realidad la educación por y para la paz no tendría sentido, ni sería efectiva ni suficiente sin la ejecución de actividades que apelen a la in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 117 participación de los actores educativos en este tipo de prácticas en la que asumen un rol activo como agentes colaboradores y transformadores de la comunidad. así, el aprendizaje atraviesa las paredes de la escuela, contribuyendo a la sensibilización de la opinión pública y mejorando las relaciones humanas mediante el diálogo y la participación colectiva en actividades pedagógicas de significación social. proponemos que estas prácticas conducentes a temas de paz, derechos humanos y desarme en la etapa de post conflicto armado en colombia deberían cumplir las siguientes condiciones, • ser experiencias colectivas dentro de un marco de igualdad en las relaciones grupales • ser experiencias que conduzcan a la discusión y resolución de problemas y no simplemente a la mera acumulación de datos. • estar basadas en una relación educador educando democrática, representando o anticipando la relaciones democráticas de la sociedad en su conjunto y las de las instituciones políticas del país que se habita. • deben construir una conciencia pluralista, defensora de mecanismos no violentos en resolución de conflictos y sostén de los principios constitucionales de un estado que se debe caracterizar por la observancia y respeto a los derechos humanos. a modo de síntesis la educación para la paz, los derechos humanos y el desarme es hoy una obligación ética, una necesidad social y un imperativo incuestionable en el campo de la educación colombiana. para ello es necesario articular sólidos puentes de trabajo y cooperación desde las instituciones del estado con la sociedad civil, con las organizaciones no gubernamentales y con todos los actores educativos. debe además revisarse conceptos pedagógicos tradicionales, evaluar las prácticas de aprendizaje realizadas y crear alternativas nuevas, in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 118 elaborando proyectos desde cada uno de los espacios de vida y de trabajo y partiendo de la convicción que los esfuerzos para producir cambios y transformaciones no son antagónicos sino complementarios. como educadores involucrados en el proyecto de construir y promover la paz, los derechos humanos y el desarme en américa latina comprometidos hoy con el proceso de paz en colombia creemos que se requiere una educación que no apunte solo al conocimiento sino que promueva la acción, el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico, la adquisición de métodos de reflexión intelectual y herramientas para un trabajo colectivo trascendente. la incorporación y desarrollo de educación para la paz en colombia implica además una posibilidad de mayor democratización del sistema educativo y múltiples caminos de empoderamiento social y político, así como el aprendizaje de lógicas estrategias de transformación. este empoderamiento social y político es histórico y contextualmente variable. no sabemos con anticipación cuán lejos podemos ir en esta trayectoria hoy en colombia, pero si sabemos que debe darse ya. que es urgente y que es necesario. iniciemos este camino todos y todas, con el acompañamiento de los pueblos hermanos de américa latina quienes comprenden claramente el proceso iniciado en colombia, lo apoyan y sostienen. el continente se solidariza con colombia y está dispuesta a trabajar por la paz en este país al que todos respetamos y queremos tanto como los colombianos. en rosario, argentina. junio 2017 in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 119 endnotes 1 ver ejemplos. guerra interna en nicaragua, el salvador, honduras y colombia. dictaduras en paraguay, uruguay, argentina, brasil y chile. 2 ver acuerdo final para la terminación del conflicto y la construcción de la paz estable y duradera, la habana, 13 de noviembre de 2016. 3 la república de colombia es un ejemplo paradigmático en nuestro continente en este sentido, pese a su excelente constitución reformada en el año 1995. 4 insistimos en que aquí estamos refiriéndonos a gobiernos democráticamente constituidos. 5 ver programas de brasil, argentina, bolivia, uruguay, costa rica. 6 a partir de aquí el texto desarrolla la perspectiva de la autora para colombia y la propuesta en cuanto a la planificación de una pedagogía para la educación para la paz de acuerdo a los artículos de los acuerdos de la habana y los anuncios realizados recientemente. 7 los acuerdos continúan profundizándose y desarrollándose, lo que significa que pueden aparecer nuevas perspectivas que deberían ser tenidas en cuenta en una planificación de pedagogía para la educación para la paz, ampliando y/o modificando lo aquí suscripto. referencias cabezudo, alicia (2013). acerca de una educación para la paz, los derechos humanos y el desarme. educação 36 (1), 44-49. http://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/ojs/index.php/faced/article/view/123 13/8739 cabezudo, a (2015). educación de las comunidades en el espacio de la ciudad educadora. revista tarea 90, 28-33 lima, perú. http://tarea.org.pe/wpcontent/uploads/2016/04/tarea90_28_alicia_cabezudo.pdf cabezudo, a. & haavelsrud, m. (2007). rethinking peace education. en charles webel and johan galtung (eds.) handbook of peace and conflict studies. london: routledge/taylor and francis book ltd. in factis pax volume 11 number2 (2017): 97-120 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 120 faure, e., herrera, f., kaddoura, a.r., lopes, h., petrovski, a, rahnema, m., champion ward, f. (2005). aprender a ser. ediciones unesco. madrid: editorial alianza. freire, p. (1970). pedagogía del oprimido. méxico: siglo xxi editores. galtung, j, (1997). manual para el entrenamiento de programas de las naciones unidas. parte i. manual para los participantes, parte ii la cultura de la paz en acción (pp 87 -119). nyc: editorial naciones unidas. haavelsrud, m. (1996). education for developments. torndheim, norway: arena. haavelsrud,m. (2010) el poder de la educación. aprendizajes para vivir en libertad. tromso, noruega: ed.arena. iglesias, c. (2006) educar pacificando. una pedagogía de los conflictos. santiago de compostela, españa: ed. cultura de paz. jaramillo, s. (2014, 13 de marzo). la paz territorial. conferencia en la universidad de harvard. lamanna, paolo (1970).el pensamiento antiguo. en historia de la filosofía. tomo 1.buenos aires, argentina: librería hachette s.a. lederach, j.p. (2006) educar para la paz. barcelona, españa: ed. fontamara. martínez, v. (2001) filosofía para hacer las paces. barcelona: icaria. monteiro, a. & tavares,c. (2010) el papel de la educación en derechos humanos en la formación de la ciudadanía activa. pernambuco, brasil: editorial cortez. naciones unidas. (1999). resolución a/res/53/243 declaración y programa de acción sobre una cultura de paz. pichón riviere, e. (1988) el proceso grupal. buenos aires, argentina: ed. losada. weinstock-infactispax-final volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 56 volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ epistemic understanding and sound reasoning skills that underlie effective democratic engagement michael weinstock ben-gurion university of the negev beer-sheva israel epistemic understanding and sound reasoning skills that underlie effective democratic engagement a voice in government, mostly through voting in elections, is commonly considered one of the hallmarks, if not the central activity, of citizenship in a democracy. however, the mere act of voting is a minimal expression of democracy. this point is made all too clear in countries with elections but without freedom of expression that cannot rightly be called democratic. what stands behind voting as a true democratic act is deliberation about for whom and what to vote. such deliberation depends not just on the freedom to do so, but the ability to think critically and provide valid justifications of choices. deliberation in a democracy has relevance beyond voting in elections. many of the tasks required of citizens involve complex reasoning about everyday, non-schooled problems. one might imagine that reasoning ability would influence one’s effectiveness in a range of civic functions such as the advocacy and evaluation of policies and juror decision making. this paper reviews research on the relationship between epistemic understanding and skills of argument construction and evaluation. as defined by perkins1, epistemic understanding is knowledge of knowing how to apply justification and explanation in subject matter. the research reviewed here demonstrates how such understanding underlies skills in 1 see david n. perkins, “reasoning as it is and could be: an empirical perspective,” in thinking across cultures: the third international conference on thinking, eds. donald m. topping and doris c. crowell (mahwah, nj: erlbaum, 1989, and david n. perkins, smart schools: from training memories to educating minds (new york: the free press, 1992). volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 57 knowledge justification that are essential in effective deliberation. although there are many arenas in which such skills are important, the emphasis here will be how they are essential in the realm of citizenship in a democracy. in particular, epistemic understandings that there may be multiple, competing, possibly legitimate knowledge claims, and that knowledge claims can and need to be justified in the context of alternative claims would be particularly relevant to deliberation in a democracy. moreover, such epistemic understandings have been found to be related to intellectual values that dispose people to engage in considering complex, uncertain social problems.2 such values would clearly contribute to effective citizenship. so as not to overstate the case by claiming that personal epistemologies underlie democracy, it should be made clear that this paper is confined to the deliberative process that contributes to effective democratic engagement, and is not concerned with other important characteristics and values of democracy such as the protection of equal rights and the rule of law. nevertheless, there is a view within political science and philosophy that places deliberation at the center of democracy.3 among the proposed outcomes of the process of deliberative democracy are increased tolerance for others’ views and positions that are better thought through and justified. from the perspective of the development of epistemic understanding, these outcomes may well be developmental outcomes from engagement in deliberation, such as in educational contexts as well as the necessary antecedents to the sound reasoning required for effective deliberation.4 epistemic understanding and its development the field of epistemology is concerned with how we come to know things, the source of knowledge, standards of knowledge justification, the limits of knowledge, and disagreements about knowledge. as the topic of concern of here is the everyday reasoning capacity of ordinary citizens, the forms of personal epistemology discussed is distinct from the worked-out and carefully articulated positions of philosophers concerned with epistemology. regarding the nature of personal, or folk, epistemology, richard kitchener wrote:5 2 kuhn, deanna, and seung-ho park, “epistemological understanding and the development of intellectual values,” international journal of educational research 43 (2005): 111-124. 3 regarding deliberative democracy see benhabib, seyla, the claims of culture: equality and diversity in the global era (princeton, nj: princeton university press, 2002); cohen, joshua, “deliberative democracy and democratic legitimacy,” in the good polity, eds. alan hamlin and philip pettit (oxford: blackwell, 1989); dryzek, john, deliberative democracy and beyond: liberals, critics, contestations (oxford: oxford university press, 2000); fishkin, james, the voice of the people: public opinion and democracy (new haven: yale university press, 1995); gutmann, amy, and dennis thompson, why deliberative democracy? (princeton, nj: princeton university press, 2004); habermas, jürgen, between facts and norms: contributions to a discourse theory of law and democracy, trans. william rehg (cambridge ma: mit press, 1996); mansbridge, jane, beyond adversary democracy (chicago: university of chicago press, 1983). 4 kuhn, deanna, and wadiya udell, “the development of argument skills,” child development 74 (2003): 1245-1260; kuhn, deanna, and michael weinstock, “what is epistemological thinking and why does it matter?” in personal epistemology: the psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing, eds. barbara k. hofer and paul r. pintrich (mahwah, nj: erlbaum, 2002), 121-144; warren, joshua, deanna kuhn, and michael weinstock, “how do jurors argue with one another?” judgment and decision making 5 (2010): 6471. 5 kitchener, richard f., “folk epistemology: an introduction,” new ideas in psychology 20 (2002), 89. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 58 folk epistemology may be defined to be the ordinary (“folk”), common sense theory of knowledge present in the average person. like its earlier counterparts—folk psychology, folk physics, folk biology, etc.—folk epistemology may be considered to be our “untutored” views about the nature of knowledge. just as folk psychology is our ordinary, common sense theory of the mind, so folk epistemology is our ordinary, common sense theory of knowledge. the question addressed here is how such theories of knowledge come into play when people are confronted with knowledge claims or evidence in which the task is to construct a knowledge claim. although this is the situation of people in many contexts—school, personal medical and health decisions, consumer choices—the focus here is on how personal epistemologies come to play in tasks relevant to effective participation in democratic deliberation. personal epistemologies are “theories in action” in the sense that we enact them when making knowledge judgments in our everyday lives.6 these are the epistemologies of lay people and not philosophers. one of the approaches to research on personal epistemology focuses on how people understand the nature and source of discrepant claims.7 the roots of the interest are in research about college student development8 that found that a salient issue among students was the realization that there were no certain truths because of the disagreements they had with other students about ideas, beliefs, and values and disagreements among experts (i.e., professors) about what is known. this approach to personal epistemology, thus, has relevance to development in educational institutions and the issue of primary focus in this article, deliberation between people with different perspectives. researchers from this approach have found that people’s epistemic beliefs tend to group around three positions. the “absolutist” position is one in which knowledge and knowing are conceived as objective and absolute. disagreements about knowledge occur because we do not yet have access to the right facts, or because all but one view is distorted, incorrect, or biased. knowledge is seen as self-evidently when true when justified by presenting the correct facts. for instance, an absolutist would explain the discrepant accounts of historians by saying that one is right because of access to the right information, and the other is wrong with that access, or because the historian has distorted the information because of error or bias. the correct account would be considered as certain knowledge. the “multiplist” position regards all knowledge as subjective and relative and, therefore, indeterminate, because of there are multiple idiosyncratic points of view. disagreements arise because knowledge is essentially opinion, and everyone has a right to his or her own opinion. as knowledge is seen as subjective construction, a multiplist may understand that knowledge needs to be justified, but might not value the effort of making arguments from evidence to justify a point of view as such points of view are ultimately biased opinions. for example, a multiplist would say that two historians give discrepant accounts because each is biased. an american historian of the vietnam war, for instance, 6 kuhn and weinstock, 2002. 7 king, patricia. m., and karen s. kitchener, developing reflective judgment: understanding and promoting intellectual growth and critical thinking in adolescents and adults (san francisco: jossey-bass, 1994); kuhn and weinstock, 2002. 8 perry, william g., forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years (new york: holt, 1970). volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 59 might be motivated to selectively choose or distort information to support the american side, whereas a vietnamese historian would inevitably be biased to support the (north) vietnamese side. the “evaluativist” position is characterized by the acceptance and integration of subjective and objective aspects of knowledge that would permit a degree of evaluation and judgment of knowledge claims. disagreements arise because people’s perspectives have them emphasize different information and employ different knowledge construction and evaluation methods. thus, an american historian of the vietnam war might give a different account than a vietnamese historian of same war, which is tellingly called in vietnamese, the american war. no matter what their personal views of the war or their countries, they emphasize different information because they segment historical periods differently, they come with different knowledge bases and historical archives, they address different issues particularly if they are writing for american or vietnamese audiences. in short, their accounts are based on their best interpretations of the evidence from different historical and cultural perspectives. characteristics of epistemic understanding in each position, with particular attention to competing knowledge claims and knowledge justification, are outlined in table 1. table 1 characteristics of levels of epistemological understanding epistemological level characteristics absolutist multiplist evaluativist 1. nature of knowledge absolute, objective subjective, relative integration of objective and subjective aspects 2. knowledge claims description of reality opinions, biased perspectives construction from knower’s’ perspective 3. source of discrepant claims one claim is incorrect or biased multiple viewpoints, different opinions different evaluations, interpretations and emphases on evidence 4. adjudication of discrepant claims with appeal to objective reality not possible; people have a right to their opinions with evaluation of how claim explains evidence within a perspective 5. certainty possible? yes no, multiple possible opinions no, as knowledge is constructed, not given 6. nature of justification report of facts assertion of opinion evaluation of evidence and perspective volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 60 these positions have been suggested to be developmental levels.9 that is, people start as absolutists, become multiplist as they lose their belief in objective knowledge and, in its place adopt very relativist beliefs, and then some move on to the more conceptually relative evaluativism. importantly, education to a greater degree than age has been found to be a factor in epistemic development.10 it should be noted that although evaluativism is seen as the endpoint of the developmental trajectory, attainment of this level is hardly universal with some studies showing that it is typical only of those with some graduate school education.11 however, other studies, using more age appropriate assessments have found that by the end of high school, a substantial number of students can be characterized as evaluativist.12 lest the story line which has been referred to—that a type of epistemic development best enables effective democratic citizenship—sounds too perfectly prescriptive, research on cultural differences in epistemic understanding challenges the universality of proposed course of development. epistemic positions might reflect cultural values,13 and such some cultural values might not be consistent with western values of liberal democracy that champions individual rights and equal opportunity. the apparent relationship between epistemology and democracy might reflect a particular epistemology that can develop in a liberal democracy. if the claim is that a relativist or evaluativist way of thinking is a necessary basis for effective democratic citizenship, would this mean that cultures that do not aim toward such an epistemology cannot be democratic? for instance, research on bedouins in israel shows that they are decidedly less multiplist than americans or more western jewish israelis.14 an assessment of cultural values found that bedouins value autonomous decision-making, personal independence, and egalitarianism less than those from western cultures and those in western liberal democracies.15 there is a greater value of respect for authority. nevertheless bedouin israelis 9 hofer, barbara k., and paul r. pintrich, “the development of epistemological theories: beliefs about knowledge and knowing and their relation to learning,” review of educational research 67 (1997): 88-140; kuhn and weinstock, 2002. 10 hofer and pintrich, 1997; king and kitchener. 1994; kuhn, deanna, richard cheney, and michael weinstock, “the development of epistemological understanding.” cognitive development 15 (2000): 309-328; perry (1970). 11 weinstock, michael, and matthew a. cronin, “the everyday production of knowledge: individual differences in epistemological understanding and juror reasoning skill,” applied cognitive psychology 17 (2003): 161-181: king and kitchener, 1994; kuhn, deanna, the skills of argument (new york: cambridge university press, 1991). 12 kuhn et al., 2002; weinstock, michael p., yair neuman, and amnon glassner, “identification of informal reasoning fallacies as a function of epistemological level, grade level, and cognitive ability,” journal of educational psychology 98 (2006): 327-341. 13 kuhn and park. 2005; tabak, iris, and michael weinstock, “a sociocultural exploration of epistemological beliefs,” in knowing, knowledge and beliefs: epistemological studies across diverse cultures, ed. myint swe khine (netherlands: springer, 2008) 177-195. 14 weinstock, michael, “cultural values and epistemological development,” (paper presented at the seminar of the developmental forum of the department of psychology, university of california at los angeles, los angeles, usa, april 26, 2010); weinstock, michael, “epistemological development of bedouins and jews in israel: implications for self-authorship,” in refining understanding of the development and assessment of self-authorship, eds. marcia b. baxter magolda, elizabeth g. creamer, and peggy s. meszaros, (sterling va: stylus, 2010), 117-132. 15 schwartz, shalom h., gila melech, arielle lehmann, steven burgess, mari harris, and vicki owens, “extending the cross-cultural validity of the theory of basic human values with a different method of measurement,” journal of cross-cultural psychology 32 (2001): 519-542; weinstock, michael, “cultural values and epistemological development,” 2010. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 61 are active participants in a democracy at both local and national levels. moreover, among bedouin participants in a recent study, those with evaluativist epistemologies were more likely to identify argument fallacies and value engagement in consideration of complex social issues.16 thus, underlining the essential cautiousness of the claims in this article, epistemic understanding might be one factor in effective democratic engagement as far as deliberation contributes to the process. but, the type of citizenship, and the types of social interactions characteristic of different cultures also may well influence the type of public, political, and democratic decision-making that takes place. as most of the research on the types of epistemic positions and the course or their development, and on aspects of schooling and argument that will be described, has been performed in with populations characterized by western cultural values, the validity of my conclusions can only extend to western democracies until more research has been performed on the argumentation and epistemologies of non-western cultures. education, democratic citizenship, and argument a commonly stated, often official goal of schooling is to train students to participate effectively as citizens.17 like many well-intended, but vague platitudes that make up mission statements of schools, the goals are not widely implemented,18 expressions of the goal of educating for citizenship generally are accompanied by neither suggested means for achieving that goal, nor any clear statement of behavioral objectives that would allow teachers to enact the education or evaluate whether the goal has been achieved.19 moreover, although stated as the goal of schooling in general, often no one has the specific task of carrying out this goal. in american schools, fostering civic participation is deemed the job of all teachers with possible special attention in regular social studies classes.20 there are some guidelines for what social studies and other teachers must teach to educate students to become effective citizens,21 although it is not clear how widely these are implemented. in this paper, i propose that beyond knowledge of democratic values and the nature and function of governmental institutions, an important aspect of effective participation in democratic society is informal reasoning ability and skilled argument, the implication being that this should be the focus of schools’ efforts to promote active, effective citizenship. one aspect of argument skills is the construction and evaluation of sound knowledge claims that are necessary for critical discussion aimed at producing the best fit between theoretical 16 weinstock, michael, “cultural values and epistemological development,” 2010. 17 for example, cogan, john j., and patricia v. pederson, “the development of civic values: case study of the united states of america,” international journal of educational research 35 (2001): 61-76; glickman, carl, “educating for citizenship,” the school administrator 65 (2008): 18-23; h. res. 1804, 1994;; wade, rahima c., and susan everett, “civic participation in third grade social studies textbooks,” social education 58 (1994): 308-11. 18 glickman, 2008; haynes, charles, c., and terry pickeral, “renewing the civic mission of schools,” the school administrator 65 (2008): 10-15; wade, rahima c., “social action in the social studies: from the ideal to the real,” theory into practice 40 (2001): 23-28. 19 allen, lew, “from plaques to practice: how schools can breathe life into their guiding beliefs,” phi delta kappan 83 (2001): 289-293. 20 cogan and pederson, 2001. 21 torney-purta, judith, and britt s. wilkenfeld, paths to 21st century competencies through civic education classrooms: an analysis of survey results from ninth-graders. (a technical assistance bulletin) (chicago: american bar association division for public education, 2009). volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 62 propositions and evidence for those propositions. although this should be a part of the construction and discussion of any policy proposal, the research described is confined to the function of juror decision-making as an exemplar of a complex reasoning task that many citizens from countries with roots in the english legal system (e.g., the united states, canada, the united kingdom, ireland, australia, new zealand, jamaica, belize, malawi, etc.), as well as other countries, (e.g., spain, brazil, and russia), might be called upon to perform. another aspect of argument skill that will be considered here concerns the ability to criticize fallacies in argument. politicians and advocates for positions do what they can to persuade others of the merits of their viewpoints. arguments for positions might be persuasive, but fundamentally unsound. hopefully, citizens in a democracy will be equipped to think critically about arguments. juror reasoning the empirical claim i test is that skills of argument underlie effective participation in one institution, the jury, found in a number of democratic countries. the research presented here investigates how differences in the general cognitive skill of argument might influence performance on a task that is, on one hand, a specific instance of democratic participation and, on the other, representative of complex, everyday reasoning tasks that people perform without the benefit of specific education. complex tasks that impact on democratic participation would include evaluating the statements of politicians or arguments about public referendums that accompany sample ballots and appear in the media before an election. argument skills the cognitive skills directly relevant to juror reasoning tested in the studies are defined in table 2. they are illustrated with examples taken from the protocols of interviews used in this research project. the interviews consisted of participants’ justifications for their verdicts in two abridged jury trials that were based on actual cases. the reference to “richards” in the table concerns a case in which a teenage boy killed his abusive father after getting in a fight with him in their house. the reference to “johnson” concerns a case about a killing in the parking lot of a bar in which the victim and defendant allegedly fought with blades. table 2 definitions, examples, and explanations of argument skills in the juror task skill and definition example and explanation a. representation of verdict and evidence representation of verdict [as this is a numerical variable summarizing the whole correct identification of category interview, there is no example given. it consists of a verdict choices. count of the number of verdicts referred to by the verdict criteria named in the judge’s instructions.] evidence coverage [as this is a numerical variable summarizing the whole amount of testimony accounted interview, there is no example given. it consists of a volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 63 for. count of every piece of testimony mentioned in the course of the participant’s verdict justification] b. argument skills simple argument [participant 22 in the richards case refers to piece of testimony related to verdict testimony in relation to a category criterion for m1] category criteria it would be 1st degree. i’d say he really had intention to kill his father, because he went out and brought a gun in the house. counterargument [p44 in the richards case chose sd—but here reference to evidence that supports spontaneously offers evidence in support of m1] an alternative verdict choice or i was tempted to say that it could be murder in the 1st discounts one's own verdict choice. degree because the fact that he did have a gun, and the (table continues) skill and definition example and explanation fact that it seemed like he had a kind of a plan because he had put the dogs in the basement. discounting of alternative verdicts [p170 in richards, who chose m1, discounts a criterion explanations of why alternative for sd referring to evidence] verdicts were not chosen. the only problem with self-defense is he didn’t leave. in other fights that he had with his father, he ran to the girlfriend’s house. justification of alternative verdicts [p58 in richards, who chose sd, uses evidence in anticipating how other jurors relation to category criterion and offers an argument that might argue for alternative someone might make for m1] verdict choices i think that someone might choose1st degree because of the hatred in the1st degree. definitely the boy would have hated his father for the bad things he had done. . and the gun that was there before it happened. i guess those two would lead someone to choose 1st degree. judgment of evidence [plausibility: p90 in johnson, judges the plausibility of evaluation of the plausibility or testimony that the victim threatened the defendant with credibility of pieces of testimony. a razor, was stabbed, and then put the razor in his pocket]: it’s not self-defense. the razor was inside his pocket, i can’t see him, if he gets stabbed, that’s a bad stab (table continues) skill and definition example and explanation volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 64 wound. going down, you don’t have time to have a razor and put it back in your pocket. [credibility: p160 in johnson, judges the credibility of testimony]: the policeman was 75 feet away, the bartender said there was a neon light there and they couldn't exactly see what really happened, so everybody really had a little problem focusing in on what really took place. note. sd = self-defense, ms = manslaughter, m1 = murder in the 1st degree. underlined words in the examples are statements of verdict category criteria. words in italics in the examples are references to testimony. the inclusion of each skill has justification in the literature on juror or informal reasoning. as for the representation of the verdict choices and evidence (“a” in the table). pennington and hastie22 posit that in the first step of juror decision making, one adopts a story of what happened. the chosen story is determined in part by the amount of evidence a particular story covers (i.e., “evidence coverage” in table 2). the next step of the process is the representation of the criteria of each of the possible verdicts (called “representation of verdict” in the table). these two steps are necessary to the final step of matching story to the most appropriate verdict choice. although presented as relatively unproblematic by pennington and hastie, how much evidence is covered may depend on the skills of generating evidence and distinguishing evidence from explanation.23 although it is expected that jurors consider all the evidence, whether they do so is open to question, as they are not necessarily expert reasoners. the representation of verdict choice has also been found problematic. smith24 found that people do not always represent the legal definitions of verdicts correctly. they may call upon their knowledge of verdicts gleaned from the media rather than as instructed by a judge in a specific case. the argument skills (under “b” in table 2) are derived primarily from the literature on informal reasoning. reasoning about ill-structured problems—that is, problems that typically lack established problem-solving procedures and verifiable single solutions25 such as that faced by a juror—has been conceptualized as informal reasoning in which people must 22 pennington, nancy, and reid hastie, “evidence evaluation in complex decision making,” journal of personality and social psychology 51 (1986): 242-258; pennington, nancy, and reid hastie, “the story model for juror decision making,” in inside the juror, ed. reid hastie (cambridge: cambridge university press, 1993), 192-221. 23 kuhn, deanna, 1991; weinstock, michael, and robin a. flaton, “evidence coverage and juror-reasoning skill as mediating factors in a juror’s verdict choice,” journal of behavioral decision making 17 (2004): 191212. 24 smith, vicki l., “prototypes in the courtroom: lay representations of legal concepts,” journal of personality and social psychology 61 (1991): 857-872; smith, vicki l., “when prior knowledge and law collide: helping jurors to use the law,” law and human behavior 17 (1993): 507-536. 25 galotti, kathleen, “approaches to studying formal and everyday reasoning,” psychological bulletin 105 (1989): 331-351. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 65 build arguments rather than resort to formal logic or scientific or mathematical proof.26 the recognition that evidence can be used to argue in support of a claim, against other claims, and against one’s own claim underlies the skill of sound argument. that is, one engaging in argument must recognize its two-sided nature.27 if argument were not at least two sided, there would be no need to argue or justify one’s claims—the truth of a claim would be self-evident. kuhn28 argues that the sound justification of claims involves coordinating evidence with theoretical explanation within a framework of alternative claims, which are the possible verdict choices in the case of juror decision making. thus, a juror should be able to present evidence in relationship to a verdict criterion (“simple argument” in table 2), present evidence that might be used to argue against one’s own verdict choice (“counterargument”), explain why the other verdicts were not chosen (“discounting”), and anticipate arguments that others might make in favor of other verdicts (“justification of alternative verdicts”). in addition, one engaged in reasoning needs to assess the quality and credibility of the information as part of determining whether it can support a claim.29 some, but not all jurors typically engage in evaluating the plausibility of testimony in relation to their real-world knowledge,30 called in table 2 the “judgment of evidence.” for instance, in a jury case used in both those studies as well as the current study, jurors evaluated whether the defendant’s claim that the victim had a knife out is (a) credible given that the knife was found in the victim’s pocket, or (b) whether the victim could plausibly have put the knife in his pocket after being stabbed, as claimed by a defense witness. perhaps more important than the derivation of the skills from literature on informal reasoning, each of the argument skills is essential to the work of the juror and should be assumed to part of a juror’s understanding of the nature of the task. one would assume that a juror comes to the juror decision-making task knowing that he or she would need to justify a verdict choice with reference to the evidence (simple argument in table 2). moreover, a juror most likely comes to the task knowing that jurors do not always agree with one another. each of the skills of justification of alternative verdicts, discounting of other verdicts, and counterargument concern different uses of the evidence to reach different conclusions. finally, at least anybody who has seen a courtroom drama on would know that the credibility of witness and the plausibility of claims are open questions. in sum, jurors not only come to their task with a range of argument skills and general understandings of the nature of knowledge and knowing, but particular epistemic understandings of the juror task.31 26 kuhn, 1991; means, mary l., and james f. voss, “who reasons well? two studies of informal reasoning among students of different grade, ability, and knowledge levels,” cognition and instruction 14 (1996): 139-178; paul, richard w., “dialogical thinking: critical thought essential to the acquisition of rational knowledge and passions,” in teaching thinking skills: theory and practice, eds. jonathan b. baron and robert j. sternberg (new york: w. h. freeman and company, 1987), 127-148; perkins, 1989. 27 see baron, jonathan. “myside bias in thinking about abortion,” thinking and reasoning 1 (1991): 221-235; kuhn, 1991; perkins, 1989; walton, douglas n., informal logic: a handbook for critical argumentation (cambridge: cambridge university press, 1989). 28 kuhn, 1991; kuhn et al., 1994. 29 kuhn et al., 1994; pepper, stephen c., world hypotheses (berkeley: university of california press, 1942). 30 kuhn et al., 1994; pennington and hastie, 1986. 31 weinstock, michael, “like an expert: representing the problem, epistemic requirements, and competence in an everyday reasoning task,” learning and individual differences 19 (2009): 423-434. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 66 verdict choice the jury system rests on an assumption that jurors should engage in sound reasoning and effective consideration and evaluation of the evidence. not only does our sense of justice depend on the belief that all verdicts have been considered with the best evaluation of all the evidence, but variation in reasoning skills might have an effect on the verdict someone could arrive at. of course, to some degree this question is unanswerable because, as an informal reasoning problem, there may be no knowable right answer in the juror’s task as a standard by which to measure the success of an argument. however, kuhn et al. found that there is a relationship between juror reasoning skill and the verdict chosen.32 in that study, the participants were presented with four possible verdicts in a murder trial, two of which— maximum guilt (first-degree murder) and innocence (self-defense)—had arguments laid out by the prosecution and defense respectively, and two of which (manslaughter and seconddegree murder) were not addressed directly in the attorney’s cases. accepting a verdict argued for by the attorneys (first-degree murder and self-defense) would demand less construction of a verdict from evidence and less consideration of alternative verdicts. indeed, those less skilled in argument did tend to choose one or the other of the verdicts argued for by an attorney in both cases. in contrast, those who successfully discounted alternative verdicts or made plausibility judgments of evidence were more likely to choose manslaughter or second-degree murder in at least one case. juror reasoning and epistemic understanding a study of juror reasoning33 examined the relationship between personal epistemological beliefs and juror reasoning. the purpose of the study was to see if epistemological level when determined by assessing a broader range of epistemological dimensions than in previous studies would be related with the argument skills in the participants' verdict justifications. the sample for the project consisted of people serving jury duty in brooklyn, new york at the kings county supreme court or civil court. they were selected from the jury pool in the same random manner that prospective jurors are selected for impaneling. as such, they represented the wide diversity of ethnic groups, education levels, and income levels characteristic of that community. one hundred and eighty people (91 males and 89 females, ranging in age from 19-73) participated. self-report of education levels showed 40% not continuing past high school, 25% with some college, 21% with a ba, and 14% having had some graduate or professional school education. although unavailable for impaneling for part of a day, people returned to the pool after their participation for the remainder of their jury duty. the epistemological level of the participants was assessed by presenting them with two discrepant accounts of the obscure (actually unreal) fifth livian war between north and south livia. each one-page account was said to be written by an historian from the respective country. the accounts differed in the stated starting date of the war, which country was the aggressor, the underlying causes of the war, and which side seemed to have the upper hand when a third country intervened to stop the war. the participants were asked the following 32 kuhn et al., 1994. 33 weinstock, michael, “cognitive bases for effective participation in democratic institutions: argument skill and juror reasoning,” theory and research in social education 33 (2005): 73-103; weinstock and cronin, 2003. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 67 questions: 1. can you summarize what the fifth livian war was about and what happened? 2. are the two historians' accounts of the war different in any important ways? probe: in what ways are they different? 3. could both of the historians' accounts of the fifth livian war be right? probes: if no–why not? if yes–how can that be? is one of the historians' accounts of the fifth livian war more true than the other? 4. could anyone be certain of what happened in the fifth livian war? probe: if yes–how? if no–why not? 5. would another historian's account of the fifth livian war be different from the accounts of the historians you heard? probe: if yes–why? from the responses it was possible to designate participants reliably as absolutist, multiplist, and evaluativist. a complex scheme34 was used to code the responses according to a range of epistemological issues such as the source of knowledge, the source and reconcilability of discrepancies, the need and standards for justification, the possibility of multiple accounts, and the role of bias and perspective in addition to certainty. although, the questions did not ask the participants to address these issues directly, they emerged in the course of their responses. the description of the epistemic positions given in the introduction and table 1 indicate the types of understandings that were included in designating which level was represented by an interview. in order to assess the argument skills, the participants heard short audio-taped enactments of two murder trials, complete with attorneys’ opening and closing statements, examination and cross-examination of six witnesses, and judge’s instructions to the jury. the participants were asked to choose among four verdicts, and to justify their choices before deliberating. their justifications were coded for the argument skills described above and for their level of certainty about the verdict choice. significant statistical relationships were found between each of the argument skills: the ability to justify alternative verdicts as well as to discount alternative verdicts, offer counterarguments, and evaluate evidence. moreover, except for evidence evaluation, the level of skill was found to be associated across cases, indicating that generalized skill was a more important factor in the construction of argument than the specific content of the cases. in addition, those with absolutist epistemologies were the least skilled in each of the argument components (see table 3). consistent with the expected important shift between objectivist absolutism and subjectivist multiplism, less than half of the absolutists were skilled in each of the argument components, whereas a good deal more than half of the multiplists were skilled and displayed only slightly less skill and consistency between skills than the evaluativists. whereas both epistemic understanding and educational level accounted for differences in argument skill, epistemic understanding was the predominant factor,35 and as indicated by table 3. table 3 34 see kuhn and weinstock, 2002. 35 weinstock and cronin, 2003. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 68 tests for relationships of epistemological level and educational level with the argument skills developmental factor skills epistemological level educational level verd f(2, 158) = 3.68, η2 = .04* f(3, 156) = 3.25, η2 = .06* evid f(2, 158) = 5.55, η2 = .07** f(3, 158) = 2.76, η2 = .05* sa f(2, 157) = 5.32, η2 = .06** f(3, 157) = 0.67, ns ca χ2 (4, 166) = 11.68*, γ = .35** χ2 (6, 165) = 3.69, ns disc f(2, 158) = 5.66, η2 = .07** f(3, 158) = 2.42, η2 = .04+ just f(2, 157) = 7.25, η2 = .09*** f(3, 157) = 1.21, ns judge χ2 (4, 171) = 16.91**, γ = .42**** χ2 (6, 170) = 8.90, ns, γ = .20* note. verd = verdict choice over two cases (both extreme or at least one moderate); evid = the amount of evidence covered; sa = success at using evidence in relation to verdict criteria in arguments; ca = counterargument; disc = discounting alternative verdict choices; just = justification of alternative verdict choices; judge = judgments and evaluations of evidence credibility and plausibility. continuous skill variables are tested with one-way anovas with skill as the dependent variable. categorical skill variables are tested with chisquare tests of association. epistemological and educational level are categorical variables. + p = .068 *p < .05 **p < .01 *** p < .001 **** p < .0001 of particular interest, the response to the certainty questions in the epistemological assessment (#4 above) was found to be correlated with certainty expressed about verdict choice.36 this justifies the assumption of an earlier juror study37 that personal certainty appears to be a function of personal epistemology and not particular content. like in the other study, those most certain tended to choose one of the verdicts argued for by the attorneys in both cases.38 that is, those with less skill and most certain about their own point of view, and most likely to believe that one can be certain, apparently could consider only a narrow range of arguments for alternatives. following their individual justifications of their verdicts, the participants deliberated in dyads to reach a verdict. analyses of the dyadic interactions in deliberation found that those with more sophisticated epistemologies were more likely than absolutists were to control the discourse, making more statements, and to make meta-discourse statements that indicated reflection on the process of deliberation.39 moreover, the quality of the discourse was higher among those with more sophisticated epistemologies. they referred more to verdict criteria than did absolutists, and they were more likely to question the claims of the other. on a group level, dyads consisting of two people with different epistemologies had 36 weinstock, 2009. 37 kuhn et al., 1994. 38 weinstock, michael, and robin a. flaton, “evidence coverage and juror-reasoning skill as mediating factors in a juror’s verdict choice,” journal of behavioral decision making 17 (2004): 191-212. 39 warren et al., 2010. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 69 lower quality of discourse, further suggesting how epistemic understanding might impact on democratic deliberation. these findings, and others that show some polarization when people engage in debate about social issues,40 perhaps lend support to political theorists41 who worry that deliberation by less competent reasoners may not lead to effective democratic discussion, and may, in fact, lead to greater conflict and polarization than to resolution of competing claims. as applied to the larger political arena, the findings also echo those of philip tetlock who studied the speeches of us senators. similar to the jurors who chose the extreme verdicts of maximum innocence or guilt in both cases, and also tended give no real consideration to alternative verdicts, tetlock found that american senators with right-wing ideologies presented issues with less integrative complexity and focused on simple conceptions of good vs. bad. liberal and moderate senators displayed greater integrative complexity, pointing to different perspectives and comparing them to make the case for their own perspective.42 conclusions: epistemology and juror reasoning the studies reviewed make a strong case that people’s epistemic understandings of the requirements of knowledge justification and of the nature of knowledge are implicated in their reasoning and judgments about jury cases. those with absolutist epistemic understandings are less likely to use make arguments from evidence for their own verdict choices, to explain why they did not choose other verdicts, to explain how others might have reached other verdicts, to found evidence that did not fit with their verdict choices, or to judge evidence. they were more likely to be certain about their verdict choices and more likely to have chosen one of the verdicts given an articulated argument by one of the attorneys. evaluativists accounted for more of the evidence presented in the trials then either of the other multiplists or absolutists. educational level also accounted for some of the differences in argument skills, but to a lesser degree than did epistemic position. in sum, the epistemic understandings that juror bring to their task seems to underlie the quality of their own deliberations and their deliberations with a partner. the lessons go beyond describing people’s approaches to complex reasoning task because the juror reasoning task is one that exists in many democracies and concerns social interactions and deliberations with serious social consequences. moreover, the evidence about the relationship between epistemology and the quality of deliberation might be applied to deliberative processes that are parts of other aspects of democratic institutions. so as not to overstate the case, it should be clear that there are other aspects of deliberation that are not part of the limited juror's task. for instance, jurors do not need to seek out relevant information, and 40 felton, mark, and deanna kuhn, “the development of argumentive discourse skills,” discourse processes 29 (2001): 135-153; lao, joseph, and deanna kuhn, “cognitive engagement and attitude change.” cognitive development 17 (2002): 1203-1217. 41 bohman, james, and william rehg, eds., deliberative democracy: essays on reason and politics (cambridge, ma: mit press, 1997); dahl, robert, democracy and its critics (new haven: yale university press, 1989). 42 tetlock, philip e., ”cognitive style and political ideology,” journal of personality and social psychology 45 (1983): 118-126. it should be noted that his focus was on authoritarian political thinking, in which the ideological left might resemble the right, but in the case of the us senate, there were no representatives of the ideological left to test this point. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 70 their task is to consider the specific case and not consider possible long range effects or larger social implications. the task of best prediction in policy making is one filled with even greater uncertainty and is arguably more difficult. moreover, it might be argued that the specific critical thinking skills that apply to the juror task may not be transferred to other deliberation tasks.43 however, the meaning of the relationship found between epistemic understanding and argument skills is that people's understandings about knowledge construction and evaluation—their theories-in-action— and not specific learned skills that guide them when they confront tasks that involve knowledge. in an extended experiment, people who developed an understanding that coordinating theory and evidence was an aspect of knowledge justification on one task indeed applied that understanding to a different domain task.44 moreover, as will be shown in the next section, epistemic understanding also plays a role in a very different type of knowledge evaluation task. argument fallacies informal reasoning fallacies are arguments that are “psychologically persuasive but logically incorrect; that do as a matter of fact persuade but, given certain argumentative standards, shouldn’t.”45 as a case in point, relative to the issue of an informed, effective citizenship, william safire wrote an opinion piece46 in order to argue against the claim of concocted evidence used in presenting the case for war against iraq: no; the opponents of this genocidal maniac's removal now accuse president bush and prime minister blair of a colossal hoax. because saddam didn't use germs or gas on our troops, they say, that proves iraq never had them. if we cannot find them right away, they don't exist. they believe saddam sacrificed tens of billions in oil revenues for no reason at all. a strong majority of americans believe he did have a dangerous program running, as he did before. this brief excerpt contains four nameable argument fallacies. the first sentence is an ad hominem argument, implying that those who belief the evidence was concocted support a genocidal maniac. this is a fallacy in that it imputes the character of the claimants without addressing the substance of their claims. the next two sentences are instances of ad ignorantiam argument, in which the existence of something is inferred from the lack of proof that it does not exist. in this statements (in the context of his argument elsewhere in the opinion piece), safire argues that the lack of proof that that weapons of mass destruction did not exist, and lack of proof regarding the reasons for saddam’s policy, is proof that they do (or could) exist or that there are particular reasons for the policy. his argument is echoing the belief that the lack of proof that there were or were not weapons is evidence that they were destroyed or hidden right before the war and does not acknowledge that one cannot conclude positively from a lack of proof. 43 for an argument against the possibility of transferring critical thinking skills see mcpeck, john e., “stalking beasts, but swatting flies: the teaching of critical thinking.” canadian journal of education 9 (1984): 28-44. 44 kuhn, deanna, mercé garcia-mila, anat zohar, and christopher andersen, “strategies of knowledge acquisition,” monographs of the society for research in child development 60 (1995). 45 copi, irving m., and keith burgess-jackson, informal logic (upper saddle river nj: prentice hall, 1996), 97. 46 safire, william, “you lied to us,” new york times, june 2, 2003, editorial page, national edition. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 71 the first sentence of the next paragraph makes an ad populum argument in which a claim is justified by stating that most people believe it is true. here safire is arguing that there must have been weapons of mass destruction because a majority of americans believed it was the case. again this is a fallacy because what a majority believes is actually irrelevant to sound evidence in support of the claim. he evades the issue of whether most americans might have been wrong. it might said that safire also makes an ad antiquarian argument in stating what was believed in the past is a justified reason for believing something now. he ignores the fact that saddam had since lost a war and there had been decade of supervision and weapons inspections that may have produced changes in the situation and provided new evidence. it is possible that, nevertheless the weapons program continued. evidence of this would have been a sound argument; just because it had been one way in the past is not. it should be noted that william safire was performing his job, and perhaps doing a service in democratic debate whether or not one agrees with him, by trying to persuade as best as he could to move the public toward an ethical public good. although i would hope that he, a noted language expert, could have done so according to the norms of critical discussion aimed at constructing sound knowledge, my concern is whether readers of this article could criticize the argument. to engage in democracy, citizens must engage in arguments such as this applying their best critical thinking. as much of the information regarding public policy issues and candidates’ platforms might come from the editorial pages or politicians’ speeches, it is important that people know how to evaluate the soundness of the claims made.47 a series of studies demonstrated that the ability to identify informal reasoning fallacies was related to epistemic understanding. weinstock, neuman, and tabak48 presented adolescents with a number of scenarios in which, in the course of a critical discussion, someone makes a fallacious argument in support of a claim. the scenarios mostly included social and political issues, such as whether drugs should be legalized, special needs children should be mainstreamed in schools, the payment of taxes, and the sale of weapons to nondemocratic countries. the participants were also assessed for their understanding of the norms of rational argumentation designed to construct knowledge. it was found that awareness of these norms was related to the ability to identify the specific problems in the arguments. a follow-up study49 investigated whether differences in grade-level and epistemic understanding could predict the identification of argument fallacies. the participants were presented with similar scenarios as in the earlier study with the addition of other social issues such as global warming, whether violence on tv promotes children’s violence, and whether children should be allowed to participate in the lottery. a couple of fallacy-free scenarios 47 as for politicians’ speeches, it should be noted that safire was richard nixon’s chief speech writer in what was the first white house office created for the purpose of writing speeches, the writing and research department, which nixon called the "pr group." see gelderman, carol, all the presidents' words: the bully pulpit and the creation of the virtual presidency, new york: walker and company. 1997. 48 weinstock, michael, yair neuman, and iris tabak, “missing the point or missing the norms? epistemological norms as predictors of students’ ability to identify fallacious arguments,” contemporary educational psychology 29 (2004): 77-94. 49 weinstock et al., 2006. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 72 were included to determine if adolescents could distinguish between fallacious and sound arguments. their epistemic understanding was assessed with a paper-and-pencil assessment, in which there was a two-sentence “discussion” between two people who presented competing claims.50 the participants were asked to indicate of one of the claims had to be right and the other wrong (coded as “absolutist”), if both could be right and it could not be determined that one claim was more right than the other (coded as “multiplist”), or if both could be right to a degree, but one could be found to be more right than the other (coded as “evaluativist”). the assessment allowed for assignment to these three epistemological levels. first, it was found that most adolescents could distinguish between fallacious and non-fallacious arguments. but it is important to note that about one quarter could not. moreover, only half could identify the specific fallacies. with each of the three fallacies used in the study (ad hominem, ad populum, and ad ignorantiam) grade level predicted the ability to specifically identify the fallacy with 11th graders doings so more than 7th or 9th graders. epistemological level also significantly predicted the ability to identify the ad ignorantiam fallacy, controlling for grade level and cognitive ability as assessed with the raven’s matrices, which is a widely used test for abstract reasoning and non-verbal intelligence, such that evaluativists were the most likely to identify the fallacy. in all fallacies, the absolutists had the smallest percentage that could identify the specific problems with the arguments. conclusion: argument fallacies in sum, it appears that adolescents are not all that bad recognizing problems in arguments, although there is clear room for improvement. there are differences that are related with educational level and the understanding of epistemic norms of knowledge justification. but, we are not such clever writers as william safire. although i do think that the results of the studies are valid, it is not hard to imagine that arguments that are not presented in the isolated manner of experiments would be harder to pick out in the contexts in which they do occur. in turn, in such non-experimental contexts, it would be harder to apply critical thinking. there are plenty of examples of straw person arguments, appeals to fear, and the above-named fallacies in political discourse. it might be that epistemic understanding of the norms of argument discourse and the standards of sound knowledge justification could be a basis for combating or criticizing the techniques of irrational persuasion commonly practiced in the political sphere. short of—or even with—changing the discourse, a critically competent citizenship would benefit deliberation in a democracy. and as implied by the juror study, the ability to produce, and not just evaluate, sound arguments is important in democratic decision-making. the juror of citizen peers make decisions about whether to send people to jail, or whether to make substantial financial rewards in the case of civil wrongs. the ability to justify such socially-important decisions made about complex problems is essential for effective citizenship in a democracy. the evidence of the studies reviewed here indicates that understandings of the standards of knowledge justification and the recognition of multiple perspectives are important for critical, rational debate in a society. educational implications schools could contribute such understandings by the implicit teaching of or 50 see kuhn et al., 2000. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 73 supporting sound argument. as argued by walter parker,51 by virtue of their social diversity and the part they play in public life, schools are ideal contexts in which to teach the “art of deliberation.” however, neither standards-based education nor common current pedagogical practices in which students are encouraged to express their opinions52 and, in the name of “tolerance,” to withhold criticism because everyone has a right to his or her opinion provide teaching opportunities with true deliberation. as blythe clinchy points out, such tolerance is vacuous because accepting everyone's opinion as equally valid and without judgment precludes really listening to what the other is saying.53 an evaluativist perspective, which is critical, is necessary for true deliberation. but at all levels of education, argumentation among students does not commonly take place and it is not encouraged. commentators on college students in the last decade54 have noted how students seem unwilling to engage in debate and deliberative argument with other students; they are unwilling to defend their own positions or criticize or discuss others’ opinions. the literary critic, michiko kakutani55 quotes jeff nunokawa, an english professor at princeton: "debate has gotten a very bad name in our culture. it's become synonymous with some of the most nonintellectual forms of bullying, rather than as an opportunity for deliberative democracy." however, placing a high value on “tolerance” for multiple perspectives, or encouraging deference to the other's perspective may not lend itself to developing critical thinking rooted in an understanding that an answer’s quality can be judged.56 despite this, there is evidence that with some attention, students can learn to be more effective at deliberation and argument. kuhn57 compares how two teachers use a debate format in the context of a history class. one of the teachers uses debate as a means of allowing the students to express the words and ideas of others in order to have them present the facts of the historical topic and to understand which side of the debate prevailed in history. the other teacher was less concerned with echoing the historical outcome, and more concerned with how well the students’ supported their arguments with the information available to them. the students with the first teacher were less engaged in the activity, and tended to argue their assigned point of view without truly responding to the other side’s arguments. such was not the case with the second teacher. with an argument intervention, kuhn and udell demonstrated that students at a low-performing secondary school could improve their argument skills through a course on argument with the goal of a debate.58 51 parker, walter c., “the art of deliberation,” educational leadership 54 (1997): 18-21. 52 berland, leema kuhn, and brian j. reiser, “making sense of argumentation and explanation,” science education 93 (2009): 26-33; kuhn, deanna, education for thinking (cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 2005). 53 clinchy, blythe m., “revisiting women’s’ ways of knowing,” in personal epistemology: the psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing, eds. barbara k. hofer and paul r. pintrich (mahwah, nj: erlbaum, 2002), 63-88. 54 anderson, amanda, the way we argue now: a study in the cultures of theory (princeton: princeton university press, 2005); graff, gerald, clueless in academe: how schooling obscures the life of the mind (new haven: yale university press, 2004); kuhn and weinstock, 2002. 55 kakutani, michiko, “critic's notebook; debate? dissent? discussion? oh, don't go there!” new york times, march 23, 2002, books section, national edition. 56 anderson, 2005; kuhn, 2005; kuhn and weinstock, 2002. 57 kuhn, 2005. 58 kuhn and udell, 2003. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 74 felton, garcia-mila, and gilabert59 demonstrated that simply manipulating the goal of argument influenced the quality of students’ argument. those given the goal of the argument about a social issue as one of deliberation learned more content information and had higher quality argument than those given the goal of the argument as one of disputation or those given the content materials but who did not engage in discussion with another person. in sum, by providing some regular support in the practice of argument, knowledge of argument skills, and understanding of goals of argument can improve argument quality and prompts students to engage in deliberation. it is assumed, but should be tested in future research, that either engagement in such activities will promote the development of epistemic understandings of the standards of knowledge justification and the recognition of multiple perspectives, or that those at particular epistemological levels are more likely to benefit from such activities. these examples provide a glimpse of what types of activities could take place to promote the development of deliberation skill and epistemic understanding. however, as argued in the introduction to the paper, such examples are unfortunately few and far between. even those articles that point to examples of activities to promote effective citizenship are pointing to relatively singular examples60 or the ideal rather than the common reality.61 interestingly, most of the promotion of the development of argumentation has been taking place in science classrooms, but as a means to improve scientific reasoning. with regard to argumentation as a means to promote epistemic development and effective citizenship there is a small but promising subfield on the inclusion of debates about socio-scientific issues in the classroom reasoning.62 if schools are to take their explicit or implicit goals of fostering the citizenship skills of their students seriously, they should build on the examples of the inclusion of argumentation in the classroom and formalize the development of argumentation skills and epistemic understanding as essential outcomes of schooling. 59 felton, mark, mercé garcia-mila, and sandra gilabert, “deliberation versus dispute: the impact of argumentative discourse goals on learning and reasoning in the science classroom,” informal logic 29 (2009): 417-446. 60 for example, glickman, 2008. 61 for example, wade, 2001. 62 see sadler, troy d., “informal reasoning regarding socioscientific issues: a critical review of the literature,” journal of research in science teaching 41 (2004): 513-536; zeidler, dana l., and bryan h. nichols, “socioscientific issues: theory and practice,” journal of elementary science education 21 (2009): 4958; zeidler, dana l., troy d. sadler, scott applebaum, and brendan e. callahan, “advancing reflective judgment through socioscientific issues,” journal of research in science teaching 46 (2009): 74-101. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 75 bibliography allen, lew. “from plaques to practice: how schools can breathe life into their guiding beliefs.” phi delta kappan 83 (2001): 289-293. anderson, amanda. the way we argue now: a study in the cultures of theory. princeton: princeton university press, 2005. baron, jonathan. “myside bias in thinking about abortion.” thinking and reasoning 1 (1991): 221-235. benhabib, seyla. the claims of culture: equality and diversity in the global era. princeton, nj: princeton university press, 2002. berland, leema kuhn, and brian j. reiser. “making sense of argumentation and explanation.” science education 93 (2009): 26-33. bohman, james, and william rehg, eds. deliberative democracy: essays on reason and politics. cambridge, ma: mit press, 1997. 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weinstock, michael. “cultural values and epistemological development.” paper presented at the seminar of the developmental forum of the department of psychology, university of california at los angeles, los angeles, usa, april 26, 2010. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 56-77 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 78 weinstock, michael. “epistemological development of bedouins and jews in israel: implications for self-authorship.” in refining understanding of the development and assessment of self-authorship, edited by marcia b. baxter magolda, elizabeth g. creamer, and peggy s. meszaros, 117-132. sterling va: stylus, 2010. weinstock, michael, and matthew a. cronin. “the everyday production of knowledge: individual differences in epistemological understanding and juror reasoning skill.” applied cognitive psychology 17 (2003): 161-181. weinstock, michael, and robin a. flaton. “evidence coverage and juror-reasoning skill as mediating factors in a juror’s verdict choice.” journal of behavioral decision making 17 (2004): 191-212. weinstock, michael p., yair neuman, and amnon glassner. “identification of informal reasoning fallacies as a function of epistemological level, grade level, and cognitive ability.” journal of educational psychology 98 (2006): 327-341. weinstock, michael, yair neuman, and iris tabak. “missing the point or missing the norms? epistemological norms as predictors of students’ ability to identify fallacious arguments.” contemporary educational psychology 29 (2004): 77-94. zeidler, dana l., and bryan h. nichols. “socioscientific issues: theory and practice.” journal of elementary science education 21 (2009): 49-58. zeidler, dana l., troy d. sadler, scott applebaum, and brendan e. callahan. “advancing reflective judgment through socioscientific issues.” journal of research in science teaching 46 (2009): 74-101. schraw-infactispax-final volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 78 volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ teachers’ epistemological stances and citizenship education gregory schraw lori olafson university of nevada, las vegas, usa michelle vander veldt jennifer ponder california state university, fullerton, usa teachers’ epistemological stances and citizenship education this research explored differences among teachers’ epistemological and ontological world views and how their world views are related to their personal views on citizenship with respect to curriculum, pedagogy, and consistency over time. several previous studies have examined changes in epistemological beliefs across time1 however, none of these studies examined change in both epistemological and ontological world 1  joanne brownlee, "teacher education students' epistemological beliefs," research in educaton (2004): 72, 1-17. rose marra, “teacher beliefs: the impact of the design of constructivist learning environments on instructor epistemologies,” learning environments research, 8 (2005): 135–155. deborah trumbull, grace scarano, and rick bonney, "relations among two teachers' practices and beliefs, conceptualization of the nature of science, and their implementation of student independent inquiry projects," international journal of science education, 28(14) (2006): 1717-1750. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 79 views simultaneously, or whether changing world views are linked to changing beliefs about citizenship and citizenship education. we begin with a discussion of epistemological and ontological world views, and continue with an overview of citizenship education prior to presenting the results of the current study. defining epistemology and ontology world views epistemology is the study of beliefs about the origin and acquisition of knowledge.2 we use the term epistemological world view to refer to an individual’s collective beliefs about the nature and acquisition of knowledge. we use the term synonymously with similar terms used in the literature such as personal epistemology3 and epistemological stances4 that collectively refer to a set of beliefs or a personal theory about knowledge and knowledge justification. we assume that an epistemological world view includes all of one’s explicit and implicit beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions about the acquisition, structure, representation, and application of knowledge.5 2  babara hofer, "exploring the dimensions of personal epistemology in differing classroom contexts: student interpretations during the first year of college," contemporary educational psychology, (2004): 29, 129-163. 3  kwok-wai chan and robert g. elliot, "relational analysis of personal epistemology and conceptions about teaching and learning," teaching and teacher education, (2004): 20, 817-831. barbara hofer, "personal epistemology research: implications for learning and teaching ," educational psychology review, (2001): 13, 353-384. 4    peter  johnston, haley woodside-jiron, and jeni day, "teaching and learning literate epistemologies," journal of educational psychology, (2001): 93(1), 223-233. 5 robert audi, the cambridge dictionary of philosophy. cambridge, england. cambridge university press 1995). james cunningham and jill fitzgerald, "epistemology and reading," reading research quarterly (1996): 31, 36-60. barbara hofer andpaul r. pintrich, "the development of epistemological theories: beliefs about knowledge and knowing and their relation to learning," review of educational research (1997): 67, 88-140. anna-maija pirttila-backman and anna kajanne, "the development of implicit epistemologies during early and middle adulthood," journal of adult development, 8, (2001): 81-97. gregory schraw and lori olafson, "teachers' epistemological world views and educational practices," issues in education, 8, (2002): 99-148. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 80 ontology refers to the nature of reality and being6 and addresses the question of “what is the form and nature of reality and what can be known about that reality?” (ponterotto 2005).7 we use the term ontological world view to refer to an individual’s collective beliefs about the nature of reality and being. previous research found that ratings of epistemology and ontology ratings were correlated in the .50 to .60 range; thus, we assume that these world views each affect an individual’s beliefs about learning and instruction.8 epistemology and ontology refer to abstract concepts that are encountered rarely in everyday life. for this reason, we provide definitions and examples in the appendix of two ends of the epistemology and ontology continuums, which we refer to as realist versus relativist world views. these examples describe prototypical teachers who represent these endpoints. we also describe what we mean by realist and relativist in more detail in the materials section below. previous epistemology research research over the last three decades has focused primarily on the structure and development of college students’ epistemological beliefs9 most studies have measured 6    merricks, trenton. truth and ontology, (oxford, england: oxford university press, 2007". donna mertens. research and evaluation in education and psychology: integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods (2nd edition), (thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, 2005). joseph g. ponterotto, "qualitative research in counseling psychology: a primer on research paradigm and philosophy of science," journal of counseling psychology, 52 (2005): 126-136. 7 ponterotto. 8 gregory schraw and olafson, l., “assessing teachers’ epistemological and ontological worldview.”, in knowing, knowledge, and beliefs: epistemological studies across diverse cultures. edited by myint khine, (new york: springer, 2008): 25-44. lori olafson, gregory schraw, g. and michelle vander veldt, “consistency and development of teachers’ epistemological and ontological world views,” learning environments research, in press. 9 marcia b. baxter-magolda, "epistemological reflection: the evolution of epistemological assumptions from age 18 to 30.” in personal epistemology: the psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing. edited by barbara k. hofer & paul r. pintrich. (mahwah, nj: 2002): 89-102. lisa d. bendixen, "a process model of epistemic belief change. in personal epistemology: the psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing. edited by barbara k. hofer & paul r. pintrich. (mahwah, nj: volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 81 epistemological beliefs using self-report scales that assess multiple, independent dimensions such as the certainty, complexity, or origin of knowledge10, although some have used interview techniques to determine a holistic epistemological or ontological stance11. researchers have begun investigating teachers’ epistemological beliefs in the last decade. many of these researchers have argued that teachers’ epistemological beliefs influence teaching practices12. for example, teachers with more sophisticated epistemological beliefs and world views were more likely to endorse student-centered instructional practices that emphasize critical reasoning. in contrast, teachers with less sophisticated beliefs were more likely to focus on traditional curriculum, student testing, erlbaum, 2002): 191-208. deanna kuhn, richard cheney, and michael weinstock, "the developmental of epistemological understanding," cognitive developmental (2000): 15, 309-328. william g, perry, jr. forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years (new york: academic press,1970). 10    gregory schraw, lisa d. bendixen, and michael e dunkle, "development and validation of the epistemic belief inventory (ebi). in personal epistemology: the psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing. edited by barbara k. hofer & paul r. pintrich. (mahwah, nj: erlbaum, 2002): 261-275. 11 deanna kuhn. ." the skills of argument. (new york: cambridge university press, 1991). william perry, jr. james d. slotta and michelene chi, "helping children understand challenging topics in science through ontology training," cognition and instruction, 24 (2006): 261-289. 12    joanne brownlee and donna berthelsen, "personal epistemology and relational pedagogy in early childhood teacher educaton programs,” early years (2005): 26, 1729. chan and elliott, 2004. s. asli ozgun-koca, and ahmet illhan sen, "the beliefs and perception of pre-service teachers enrolled in a subject-area dominant teacher education program about "effective education," teaching and teacher education, 22 (2006): 946-960. fang-ying yang, "student views concerning evidence and the expert in reasoning a socio-scientific issue and personal epistemology," educational studies, (2005): 31, 65-84. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 82 and mastery of basic science concepts. lidar, lundquist, and ostman (2005)13 found that teachers with more sophisticated personal epistemologies used a greater number of epistemological moves in their science classrooms, where moves consisted of cognitive activities designed to promote deeper learning and reflection, including generating, constructing, and re-constructing. they also reported that the relative success of different epistemological moves depended in large part on contextually specific factors such as student knowledge, complexity of activity, and sophistication of students’ conceptual understanding. teachers’ epistemological beliefs may also have an impact on student epistemological development and learning14. in their study of two contrasting classrooms, johnston et al. (2001)15 found that students held different views of what it meant to be competent in literacy. in the classroom where the teacher’s goals included controlling the discussion and ensuring that students had the correct meaning of the text, students viewed literacy as a technical matter. in contrast, in the classroom where the teacher’s goal was that students become “thinkers” students viewed literacy as a meaning-making activity. according to johnston et al.16, these differences “illustrate that, in particular classrooms, students literate epistemologies can be traced from teacher to student through the discursive practices of the classroom”. the development of teachers’ epistemological beliefs is another area of study within the field. brownlee (2004)17, for example, found that pre-service teachers who were enrolled in a program based on relational pedagogy experienced more growth in sophisticated epistemological beliefs as compared with pre-service teachers in a tutorial group. marra (2005)18 reported similar findings in a study of how constructivist instruction affected the development of graduate student teachers at a university. 13  milina lidar, eva lundquist, and leif ostman, "teaching and learning in the science classroom: the interplay between teachers' epistemological moves and students' practical epistemologies," science education (2005): 90, 148-163. 14 johnston, woodside-jiron and day. loucas louca, andrew elby, david hammer, and trisha kagey, "epistemological resources: applying a new epistemological framework to science instruction," educational psychologist (2004): 39(1), 57-68. marra. 15 johnston, woodside-jiron and day. 16 johnston, woodside-jiron and day. 230. 17  joanne brownlee, "changes in primary school teachers' beliefs about knowing: a longitudinal study," asia-pacific journal of teacher education (2003): 31(1), 87-98. 18 marra. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 83 teachers reported a variety of changes after the course, but especially changes in epistemological and pedagogical beliefs. teachers adopted constructivist beliefs that emphasized the role of student interactions. unlike epistemological beliefs, few studies have investigated teachers’ ontological beliefs, nor have any studies examined the joint contribution of epistemological and ontological beliefs. we believe it is important to examine teachers’ ontological beliefs to determine if they have explicit awareness of their beliefs and if these beliefs are related to epistemological beliefs and classroom practice. consistent with this view, recent review articles19 addressed the importance of personal ontology. packer and goicoechea (2000)20 called for the reintroduction of ontology as topic in research on learning and development. the ontological processes of schooling they described illustrates how children are actively engaged in the ongoing reproduction of the classroom community of practice and how schools operate as sites for the production of persons. packer and goicoechea (2000, 235)21 noted that “the shift from family member to student is already an ontological transformation” as it fundamentally changes the “being” of the child. citizenship education historically, the primary motive for establishing public schools was for the implementation of civic learning, its aims being to equip its students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required for effective civic engagement. civic learning includes a variety of teaching and discovery methods that enable citizens to participate in and sustain democracy. most schools today still have mission statements that list civic education as a top priority, but with the push for higher test scores, civic education in the united states is often “left behind.”22. the national alliance for civic education 19    martin packer and jessie goicoechea, "sociocultural and constructivist theories of leanring: ontology, not just epistemology," educational psychologist, 34(4) (2000): 227-241. ponterotto. joe l. kincheloe, "critical ontology: visions of selfhood and curriculum," journal of curriculum theorizing (2003): 19(1), 47-64. 20 packer and goicoechea 21 ibid. 22    walter parker, social studies in the elementary school. (new jersey: merrill prentice hall, 2005, 2008). volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 84 (2008)23 believes it is time that people come together to support future generations understanding of democracy and actively engage in building this democracy in america. it is not surprising that schools are identified as the logical place for students to learn about civic participation and responsibility. if school is where children acquire their civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions, then it is crucial for teacher educators to help teachers become knowledgeable, civic-minded citizens. civics education prepares students to understand the roles and responsibilities of democratic citizens24. unfortunately, many teachers initially reject the idea of a civics-centered curriculum because it does not support their district’s curriculum goals. since the implementation of the no child left behind, teachers often report that their curriculum has been sharply narrowed to focus on mathematics and language arts. real world experiences and meaningful curriculum projects are obsolete because their format does not support the test preparation regimen mandated by their school districts. as a result, any request to deviate from the script is often met with resistance from the administration. this is why the importance of civics curriculum must be considered in social studies education. civics curriculum since civic competence is the goal of social studies25 and citizenship is usually mentioned in most school mission statements, then what does democracy looks like when 23    national alliance for civic education. expectations of excellence: curriculum standards for social studies. 2008. http://www.cived.net/tioce.html (accessed june 8, 2009). 24    terrence mason and diane silva. "beyond and methods course:civics as the program core in elementary teacher education. in principles and pratices of democracy in the education of social studies teachers: civic learning in teacher education: volume i. edited by john patrick, & robert s. leming (eds.). bloomington, in: eric clearing house for social studies (2001): 65-86. john patrick and thomas vontz, "components of education for democratic citizenship in the preparation of social studies teachers. in principles and practices of democracy in the education of social studies teachers: civic learning in teacher education: volume i. edited by john patrick, & robert s. leming (eds.). bloomington, in: eric clearing house for social studies (2001): 39-64. 25 national council for the social studies. expectations of excellence: curriculum standards for social studies. 1994. http://www.socialstudies.org/standards (accessed january 18, 2009). volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 85 translated into a common curriculum? it is essential that teacher educators find curricula to help students understand that civic education is not a list of mechanical skills for a test, but knowledge for "creating a public."26. patrick (2002)27 developed a framework that defines components of common education for citizenship in a democracy: 1) civic knowledge, 2) civic dispositions, and 3) civic skills. these three components guided the development of civics-infused social studies methods course and this research study. civic knowledge, dispositions and skills if active civic involvement is necessary to promote civic competence, it is crucial that citizens are knowledgeable about democracy. with any discussion about knowledge, it is inevitable that the issue of what knowledge should be deemed important will arise. this will depend on the nature of the project and the meaningful connections the students will find as they examine the issue. natural connections related to the knowledge of the concepts, principles, practices, contexts, and history of democracy and institutions of representative democratic government28 emerge through the curricular experience. the second aspect of civic education critical to quality civic curriculum is the development of attitudes and values regarding the roles and responsibilities of citizenship. these civic dispositions are the elements of civic education concerned with the habits and inclinations that summarize an individual’s behaviors and values in relation to democracy. these virtues include responsibility, civility, honesty, courage, fairness, and lawfulness29. wynne (1986, 4)30 emphasizes the importance of civic dispositions by stating that “the transmission of moral values has been the dominant educational concern of most cultures throughout history”. this transmission of civic dispositions continues through the current filtering of character education through public 26   neil postman. the end of education: redefining the value of school (new york: alfred a. knopf, 1995, 18). 27  john patrick, "defining, delivering and defending a common education for citizenship in a democracy. in principles and practices of democracy in the education of social studies teachers: civic learning in teacher education: volume 2 edited by john patrick, george hamot, & robert s. leming, (2002): 5-21. 28 patrick and vontz. 29 parker. 30  edward wynne, "the great tradition in education: transmitting moral values," educational leadership (1986): 43(4), 4-9. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 86 school domains31. qualities such as promoting the common good, recognizing and supporting equality for all people and responsible civic participation are all traits necessary to sustain a representative democracy. civic skills, or the skills necessary to “empower citizens to influence public policy decisions and to hold accountable their representatives in government,” are a crucial piece to civics curriculum32. this encourages students to actively engage in thoughtful deliberations that encourage the consideration of multiple perspectives before decisions are made. types of citizenship civic participation can be examined through different levels of involvement. westheimer and kahne (2004)33 identify three categories of citizenship: personally responsible, participatory, and justice-oriented. personally responsible citizenship requires individuals to act responsibly in the community. such action involves the individual: working, paying taxes, obeying laws, recycling, and volunteering. participatory citizenship centers on organizing community outreach for those in need. these citizens are active members of community organizations and work to accomplish collective tasks. finally, justice-oriented citizenship focuses on critically assessing the social, political, and economic circumstances surrounding the surface conditions. these types of citizens seek to identify areas of injustice in the world. they have knowledge of democratic social movements, which informs how these citizens effect systemic change. the present study this goal of this research was to examine the relationship between teachers’ epistemological and ontological beliefs and citizenship education in a methods course that emphasized civics education. four research questions were of interest: 1. is there a change between preand post-test scores for epistemology, ontology civic education perspectives, and civic development scores? 2. is quadrant placement correlated with other variables such as the three civic education perspectives and civic development questionnaire described below? 3. what do written essays reveal about participants’ epistemological and ontological beliefs? 31  thomas lickona. educating for character. (new york: bantam books, 1991). 32 patrick and vontz 2001, 42. 33  joel westheimer and joseph kahne, "what kind of citizen? the politics of educating for democracy," american educational research journal (2004): 41(2), 237-269. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 87 4. what aspects of the social studies methods course, with an emphasis in civic education, had an impact on participants’ beliefs and learning experiences? method research design the current study utilized a mixed-model design with both quantitative and qualitative methods throughout all stages of the research process34. these data were collected sequentially, which is a common approach in mixed methods research35. setting and participants the study occurred in a graduate class at a large university in southern california. participants were graduate students enrolled in a course taught by one of the authors called graduate studies in elementary education: social studies. the class met once a week for 2 ½ hours for a total of 15 weeks in the spring 2009 semester. the goal of the course is to help the participants reflect on and self-assess areas of need, growth, and strength in teaching elementary social studies. within the course, teachers learn teaching techniques that support social studies aims and content and examine a standards-based approach to teaching social studies. a major portion of the class is devoted to looking at goals and objectives, instructional materials, teaching strategies, curriculum development, and assessment/evaluation techniques. the objectives of the course included: 1) create a democratic classroom that will support students’ development of knowledge, skills, and dispositions for good citizenship, 2) effectively design and teach lessons for the elementary grades using a variety of instructional methods, resources, and assessment strategies that provide access to the core curriculum for all learners, and 3) engage in the profession of education by (a) collaborating with others via technology and in person and (b) by analyzing and reflecting on social science education practices, materials, and teaching practice. the major assignment for the class was an action research assignment. this action research, described to the participants as research “conducted by people who want to do 34  burke johnson and anthony onwuegbuzie, "mixed methods research: a research paradigm whose time has come," educational researcher (2004): 33(7), 14-26. 35  john creswell. research design: qualitative, quantitive, and mixed methods approaches. (thound oaks, ca: sage, 2003). volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 88 something to improve their own situation” (sagor 1992, 5)36, provided steps for the participants to involve their students in an social action curriculum project while documenting connections between their academic learning and their civic knowledge, dispositions, and skills related to their involvement with the project. participants were also required to collect data and reflect at various stages of the project. to introduce the assignment, participants watched a clip from the movie pay it forward 37. in the featured movie clip, the classroom teacher introduced social studies to a group of 7th grade students on the first day of class by asking them to identify their roles and responsibilities as citizens of the world. to encourage the kids to become active citizens, the teacher introduced a social studies assignment for the whole year that challenged the students to think of a way to change the world and put it into action. after watching the clip, the study participants were asked to reflect on the assignment presented in the movie and discuss how it connected to their personal definition of social studies. this led to a discussion about the dimensions of citizenship education and connections to social studies. next, the participants were asked to define the characteristics of a good citizen. after examining the categories of citizenship defined by westheimer and kahne38, they were challenged to engage their students in activities that require active civic involvement on a participatory or justice-oriented level. after sharing examples of different projects completed by children in the past, they were provided with a handout to guide the facilitation of an active citizenship project in their classrooms. in addition to this semester-long project, activities were conducted in class each week related to topics including, but not limited to, deliberation, patriotism, historical inquiry, community involvement, and global interdependence. one such class assignment required participants to conduct a book review on pledging allegiance: the politics of patriotism in america’s schools edited by joel westheimer. the participants were instructed to read the book, take notes, participate in an on-line book club discussion, and prepare a book review. the purpose of the assignment was for participants to articulate their own ideological position in regards to patriotism, as well as consider the ideas presented by their classmates. after having participants identify their own stances, the next questions revolved around how they could address the complexities associated with patriotism in their own classrooms. do they simply go through the motions by reciting the pledge of allegiance every morning with their students, display a flag at the front of the room, and celebrate patriotic holidays with superficial activities? or do they strive to create democratic communities in their classrooms where students are encouraged to explore controversial issues, raise questions, engage in dissent, and examine multiple 36  richard sagor, how to conduct collaborative action research. (alexandria: va: association of supervision and curriculum development, 1992). 37  mimi leder, (director), et al. pay it forward[dvd], 2000. 38 westheimer and kahne. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 89 perspectives before making a decision, all the while respecting one another’s ideas and viewpoints on important issues? according to a recent study, such classroom practices are among those that predict higher levels of civic participation by high school students39. another example of a class activity was involvement in a mock congressional hearing. in class, the participants evaluated and discussed instructional strategies that could be used in conjunction with the constitution and the rights of american citizens. after participants became familiar with the structure of our government and the implications of the constitution, they participated in a mock congressional hearing to apply these ideas to current issues and events. this graduate course on social studies focused on citizenship and citizenship education through a format that assumed that learners construct shared understanding in collaborative contexts in which teachers serve as facilitators40. within this learning environment, reflection played a central role as participants investigated their views about citizenship and citizenship education, their views of learners and how learning occurs (ontological aspects of teaching), their beliefs about how citizenship knowledge is acquired (epistemological aspects of teaching), and their actual teaching practices. the 19 participants held degrees in a content area and were working toward a graduate degree in education. sixteen participants completed the instruments at the 39  joseph kahne and susan sporte, "developing citizens: a longitudinal study of school, family, and community influences on students' commitment to civic participation. paper presented at the r. freeman butts institute on civic learning and teacher education, (2007). 40  michael cole, cultural psychology: a once and future discipline. ( harvard, ma: harvard university press, 1996). david wei l hung, "activity, apprenticeship, and epistemological appropriation: implications from the writing of michael polanyi," educational psychologist (1999): 34, 193-205. mary mccaslin and daniel t. hickey, "educational psychology, social costructivism, and educational practice: a case of emergent identity," educational psychology (2001): 133-141. barbara rogoff, apprenticeship in thinking: cognitive development in social context (new york: oxford university press, 1990). volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 90 beginning and end of the semester, of which 15 were female and one was male. participants ranged in age from 22 to 40, with an average age of 27.45 years. the majority were caucasian (75%); three were hispanic and one was bi-racial. participants had between 0 and 12 years of teaching experience with an average of 2.85, and taught a variety of grade levels, from primary to high school. data sources four data sources were utilized. the participants completed three pre and post test surveys designed to elicit information about their world views and beliefs about citizenship. additionally, participants were interviewed by two of the authors at the end of the semester. materials the four quadrant scale participants completed the four quadrant scale (schraw & olafson 2008)41. this instrument was developed to assess the strength of epistemological and ontological beliefs. this instrument partitions epistemological and ontological world views into two axes at right angles to each other that range from realist to relativist on each axis (see figure 1). this yields four quadrants, including realist-realist (quadrant 3), realistrelativist (quadrant 4), relativist-realist (quadrant 2), or relativist-relativist (quadrant 1). individuals first read a brief summary of each quadrant and then selected a point in the four-quadrant array that best corresponded to their personal epistemological and ontological world views about teaching (see appendix). this enabled participants to record the degree to which they endorsed realist versus relativist epistemological and ontological beliefs. we refer to this as the four-quadrant scale because there are four distinct quadrants into which a person can be classified based on self-report of external judgment by a researcher. the results are used in two ways. the first is quantitative, which examines the coordinate along each of the epistemological and ontological scales. the second is a qualitative interpretation based on the quadrant placement of the score (14) as well as relative position within the quadrant. previous research has reported significant correlations between the coordinate measures and scores on the epistemological belief inventory (ebi)42. 41 schraw and olafson (2008). 42 olafson, schraw and vander veldt volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 91 figure 1: the four-quadrant scale quadrant 4 quadrant 1 quadrant 3 quadrant 2 along the epistemological continuum, teachers’ world views can be located between the two endpoints of epistemological realist and epistemological relativist. an epistemological realist would believe that there is an objective body of knowledge. from a teacher’s perspective, this position would hold that curriculum is fixed and permanent and focuses on fact-based subjection matter. an epistemological relativist, on the other hand, would describe curriculum as changing and student-centered. problem-based or inquiry curricula are examples at the relativist end of the continuum from the perspective of a one-size-fits-all curriculum. epistemological relativist epistemological realist ontological relativist ontological realist volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 92 along the ontological continuum, an ontological realist assumes one underlying reality that is the same for everyone. instructionally, this means that all children should receive the same type of instruction at the same time regardless of their individual circumstances, achievement, or context. an ontological relativist, on the other hand, assumes that different people have different realities, and that these realities are constructed in social settings. from an instructional perspective, teachers are seen as collaborators, co-participants, and facilitators of learning who work to meet the individual needs of students. participants read the information in the appendix prior to making their ratings, which defines epistemology and ontology, and provides an example of realist versus relativist perspectives on both dimensions. the four quadrant scale yields a strong realist quadrant (realist-realist; quadrant 3), a strong relativist quadrant (relativist-relativist; quadrant 1), and two mixed quadrants (realist-relativist; quadrant 4), and (relativist-realist; quadrant 2). conceptions of citizenship participants also completed a ten-item instrument that was designed to elicit conceptions of citizenship43. the citizenship survey assessed beliefs about personally responsible citizenship (i.e. i think people should assist those in their lives who are most in need or help); participatory citizenship (i.e., i think it is important to get involved in improving my community); and justice-oriented citizenship (i.e. i think it’s important to challenge inequalities in society). participants read each statement and indicated the extent to which they agreed with each of them using a five-point scale, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. civics survey. participants completed a 57-item questionnaire adapted from the civic development inventory44,developed by the center for civic education at calabasas, california to assess various civic dispositions, skills, and propensity to participate in future political life, which reported acceptable reliabilities and predictive validity evidence. the final survey used in this study incorporated the aforementioned civics inventory statements and organized them into the following categories related to patrick and vontz’s45 components of education for citizenship in a democracy: civic knowledge (people expressing their opinions on political issues influence what happens in government), civic dispositions (i would like to know more about how political parties work), civic skills (i am skilled in explaining problems in my community or country) and civic classroom climate (i feel it is important to teach about democracy). participants 43 westheimer and khane. 44 patrick and vontz. 45 vontz. 41 volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 93 read each statement and indicated the extent to which they agreed with each of them using a five-point scale, ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. interviews nineteen students also consented to an interview. these interviews were conducted at the end of the semester and were designed to allow participants to further discuss their epistemological beliefs and their beliefs about citizenship and citizenship education. the interview protocol consisted of two broad, open-ended questions: 1) did your ideas about “what is a good citizen” change over the semester?, and 2) what does civics education look like in your classroom? all interviews were audio-taped and transcribed. results a number of quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted. research questions 1 and 2 listed above were addressed with quantitative analyses; research questions 3 and 4 were addressed in the qualitative analyses. quantitative results research question 1 addressed whether there was change between the preand posttest means for epistemological and ontological beliefs, three citizenship composite subscores (personal responsibility, participatory, justice oriented), and five composite subscores from the civics survey (knowledge, dispositions, skills 1, skills2, classroom climate) (see table 1). factor analyses were not conducted due to the low sample size: however, reliabilities were computed for each scale and were above .70 in most cases (see table 1). dependent t-tests comparing post-pretest differences were conducted for each variable in table 1. there was a significant increase in the justice oriented citizenship perspective, t (15) = 2.31, p < .05, and civics knowledge scores from preto posttest, t (15) = 2.14, p < .05. we attribute the significant increase in justice oriented citizenship scores to a focus on social justice throughout the semester. table 1 reveals that justice scores were low compared to personal responsibility and participatory views. discussion of these views appeared to increase awareness and commitment to them. we attribute the significant increase in civics knowledge scores to instructional content studied throughout the semester. table 1 means and standard deviations for preand post-test variables variable pretest mean, standard deviation, and reliability pretest mean, standard deviation, and reliability mean s. d. reliability mean s. d. reliability epistemology 63.56 33.28 na 56.78 26.34 na volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 94 ontology 59.75 20.23 na 57.44 18.87 na quadrant 1.68 1.40 na 1.81 1.47 na personal responsibility 12.18 1.905 .47 12.12 2.06 .63 participatory 14.00 3.22 .62 14.87 3.00 .72 justice oriented 10.18 3.250 .72 12.56 2.06 .79 civics knowledge 37.54 7.95 .81 40.81 6.22 .83 civics dispositions 65.31 5.84 .75 65.21 8.91 .79 civics skills 1 38.37 6.17 .73 30.54 6.97 .81 civics skills 2 22.56 7.43 .71 22.71 5.68 .67 civics classroom climate 48.62 8.56 .72 50.62 6.83 .77 we conducted follow up repeated measures analysis of the citizenship subscales to examine whether the three perspectives of citizenship changed as a function of the semester long course. a 2 (time: pre vs. posttest) x 3 (perspective type: personal responsibility, participatory, justice oriented) analysis of variance revealed a significant time x perspective interaction, f (2, 30) = 5.49, p < .01, that was due to the fact that scores on the personal responsibility and participatory perspectives did not differ significantly between pre and posttest, whereas scores on the justice oriented perspective increased significantly. this result suggest that the course activities increased participants’ justice oriented worldviews, which were significantly lower than other views at the beginning of the semester. research question 2 addressed whether quadrant placement (i.e., the intersection of epistemological and ontological beliefs) was related to other variables. as described above, those is quadrant 1 had strong relativist epistemological and ontological beliefs, whereas those in quadrant 3 has strong realist epistemological and ontological beliefs. table 2 shows correlations among the posttest variables that support three findings. one is that quadrant placement was correlated with personal responsibility citizenship. those in quadrants 3 and 4 were more committed to this perspective than those in quadrants 1 and 2. a second finding was that relativist quadrants (e.g. quadrant 1) were correlated with higher scores on the skills 2 subscale. a third finding was that citizenship subscales are highly intercorrelated, as are civics subscales. in addition, we correlated the volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 95 epistemology and ontology coordinate scores at pretest (r = .56) and posttest (r = .57), which were significant at p < .01. this indicated that relativist epistemological beliefs were associated with relativist ontological beliefs at both occasions. similarly, quadrant placement at pretest and posttest was correlated r = .59, which was significant at p < .01. table 2 correlations among posttest variables quad. p.r. part. just. know. dispt. skil1 skil2 clim. quadrant 1.00 pro .43 1.00 po .15 .48 1.00 jo .25 .86 .59 1.00 knowledge .02 .41 .43 .43 1.00 dispositions .19 .19 .45 .25 .29 1.00 skill 1 -.12 .23 .00 .11 .74 -.09 1.00 skill 2 -.45 .39 .27 .42 .68 -.02 .72 1.00 classroom climate -.25 -.06 .22 -.06 .43 -.03 .67 .62 1.00 note: values of r > .42 significant at p < .05; values of r > .55 significant at p < .01. pro= personal responsibility orientation; po = participatory orientation; jo = justice orientation. qualitative results research questions 3 and 4 addressed whether a social studies methods course affected classroom practice and whether epistemological and ontological beliefs relate to a broader set of instructional activities in the classroom. transcribed interviews and participants’ essays from the four quadrant instrument were imported as primary documents into atlas.ti. atlas.ti is a software program that facilitates many of the activities involved in qualitative data analysis and interpretation, but does not automate these processes (muhr 2004)46. rather, it supports coding according to a scheme of categories (alexa and zuell 2000)47. it offers an exploratory, yet systematic approach to qualitative analysis. 46  thomas muhr, atlas.ti v5.0 user's guide and reference, 2nd edition. (berlin, germany: scientific software development, 2004: 417). 47    melina alexa and cornelia zuell, "text analysis software: commonalities, differences and limitations: the results of a review," quality and quantity (2000): 34, 299-321. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 96 essays during open coding, an initial list of codes was developed as we began the analysis of the structured essays. this initial list was refined as we analyzed each subsequent essay. the majority of the participants (70%) demonstrated consistent epistemological and ontological beliefs the semester. eight participants, for example, indicated that they were ontological and epistemological relativists (quadrant one) at both data collection points. individuals in this quadrant were characterized primarily by their overwhelming support of student-centered practices that included constructivist approaches, projects/presentations, group work, student-directed learning, inquiry, and critical thinking that were consistent with a relativist view of teaching. in addition, there was an awareness of the importance of individual differences, and the belief that curriculum is not static. carol, for example, wrote at the beginning of the semester: i’d say that i am an ontological and epistemological relativist. i believe that curriculum is not fixed and permanent. the content of the curriculum should be responsive to the needs of the community/students. teachers should plan and instruct materials/lessons to meet the needs of all students. at the end of the semester, she again indicated that she viewed herself in quadrant one and wrote: i’d say i am an ontological and epistemological relativist. i think teachers should be flexible and responsive to the students’ needs. we teach effectively when knowing what the students need to learn and that sometimes would make us change our lesson plans in order to teach students. six of the participants (30%) changed their quadrant placement between pre and post. the majority of participants who indicated a change became more relativist epistemologically. at the beginning of the semester nancy wrote, “i do feel epistemologically that there is a mandatory curriculum that must provide the foundation for knowledge in social studies,” and at the end of the semester she said, “i believe that the curriculum should be current and valuable and that there is more than one scripted way of understanding and gaining knowledge of a topic.” two participants moved to a more realist position epistemologically. chrissy, for example, wrote that she considered herself an epistemological relativist at the beginning of the semester and at the end of the semester she wrote, “teachers are the vessels of information that students draw/learn from.” volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 97 overall, two thirds (68%) of the participants stayed or became more relativist over the course of the semester, while one-third stayed or became more realist. interviews we were interested in determining participant’s personal views of citizenship and citizenship education, in addition to exploring whether or not their beliefs changed over the semester. conceptions of citizenship about half of the participants (47%) expressed views consistent with the personally responsible kind of citizen. the personally responsible citizen is someone who acts responsibly in the community: the core assumption of this view of citizenship holds that “to solve social problems and improve society, citizens must have good character; they must be honest, responsible, and law-abiding members of the community.”48 this view was expressed by jean when she noted, “i think being a good citizen is, you know, abiding by the laws and kind of doing what you’re supposed to.” participatory citizens “actively participate and take leadership positions within established systems and community structures” (westheimer and kahne 2004, 240). four participants indicated a participatory view of citizenship. none of the participants expressed views primarily consistent with the justice-oriented view of citizenship, with its emphasis on question, debate, and changing unjust systems and structures49. nevertheless, participants’ views increased significantly on the justice dimension throughout the semester. this is due in part to significantly lower scores for the justice orientation at the pretest compared to other views, and to discussion throughout the semester that increased the perceived importance of the justice perspective. changing conceptions of citizenship in response to the question “did your ideas about what is a good citizen change over the semester?” most participants (63%) indicated that their beliefs had not changed. laura, for example, said, “i think i was pretty firm in what i thought what a good citizen was and it hasn’t really changed.” several participants noted that although their ideas about citizenship had not changed, their beliefs were reinforced and clarified: “i think my ideas were always there but it just made me think of more ideas, that i maybe didn’t think about before” (grace). over a third (38%) of the participants, however, discussed how their beliefs changed. chrissy said that her beliefs “definitely” changed, not only within herself but also “in looking at my students and knowing that they can be good citizens as well, no matter what the age is.” 48 westheimer and kahne, 240 49 ibid. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 98 with respect to change, we were interested in exploring the impact of various learning activities within this graduate level social studies methods course. even for those students who had not experienced a change, there were course experiences that seemed to have a significant impact on their thinking. in particular, the action research project pay it forward was mentioned by all participants as being an important component of the course. several participants noted that although they were resistant to the project initially it had a tremendous impact on them. sarah said, i think the biggest eye opener for me was the pay it forward project. for me i was really not wanting to do it at the beginning and really against it and i didn’t see how my kids could do it and then i saw how they progressed and they could take that on themselves. participants were surprised at the engagement of their students. after a guest read the picture book version of three cups of tea during read across america week, nancy’s second graders decided to become involved in the pennies for peace program and raised $645. nancy explained how the project benefitted her students as well: they saw they could make a difference in other people’s lives and they saw that they have a lot to be thankful for. they have so many things that those kids in afghanistan and pakistan don’t have. and my 8 year-olds were coming into class saying “we heard pakistan on the news yesterday” or, “my dad was reading about afghanistan in the newspaper.” just the fact that they were picking up on that was just amazing to me. another class activity that had an influence on participants’ beliefs about citizenship and citizenship education were the structured small and large group discussions. discussion topics included deliberation, patriotism, historical inquiry, community involvement, and global interdependence. mona described the value of these discussions: you know, we talked so much about patriotism and what it means to be a good citizen and hearing everyone’s different, you know, perspectives on how they view things. so it wasn’t necessarily the textbook but i think more of class discussion and hearing people’s points of view. the discussion topic that generated the most comments from participants during the interview was the book review on pledging allegiance: the politics of patriotism in america’s schools edited by joel westheimer. kim said, “you know the thing that really made my ideas differ was the book that we read, the pledging allegiance book.” the common theme related to the discussions about pledging allegiance was related to how “eye-opening” it was to read about different perspectives on patriotism: volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 99 there were several essays that helped me see what it meant to be patriotic and a citizen because so many people in the book said, you know i have no reason to be patriotic, to love this country, because of the prejudices that i’ve had against me but you know even though i criticize my country and i voice my opinions, i still do love it. civics education and, finally, we were interested in how participants viewed civics education after experiencing a semester long course that focused on the development and articulation of their positions with respect to citizenship and patriotism. we wondered if the participants would describe any connections they had made between their own learning in the university setting and their teaching practices. all of the participants agreed that civics education was an important part of the social studies curriculum, and that it was their “duty” to teach civics education: “it just made me realize that even though i’m strapped for my time it is my responsibility and it’s really important to try and teach those things to my kids” (mona). participants also spoke at length about the changes they experienced in the classroom as a result of their participation in the course. jane described how she made this theory to practice connection: “this class helped me to explore all the different ways that we can encourage students to be good citizens in their school community, where they live, and all the way up to their nation and how they can give back.” another participant described how her approach to civics education in the classroom had changed: the big change is with my students and with my approach with them and talking more about it instead of like, “okay let’s stand and say the flag salute,” or “oops, we forgot to say the flag salute today,” it’s more of like, “well why are we doing this? what’s the purpose of doing this?” just because i want them to know so that they have that choice. (gail) discussion the goal of this research was to examine the relationship between teachers’ epistemological and ontological beliefs and citizenship education in a methods course that emphasized civic education. we posed four research questions that focused on whether beliefs, knowledge, and dispositions changed over the 15-week semester. question 1 addressed change between preand posttest scores for epistemology, ontology civic education perspectives, and civic development scores. quantitative results showed hat civic knowledge and justice oriented citizenship scores increased. increased knowledge was attributed to course content, while the change in justice orientation was attributed to extended discussion of justice-related issues throughout the semester that raised initially low scores. question 2 examined whether quadrant placement was correlated with other scores. table 2 revealed a significant correlation between quadrant volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 100 and a preference personal responsibility citizenship. specifically, individual in quadrant 3 and 4 (i.e., epistemological realists) reported a stronger commitment to personal responsibility. question 3 considered what written essays reveal about participants’ beliefs. most participants reported consistent epistemological beliefs. of the 30% who reported change, most of these reported becoming more relativistic due to increased awareness of their personal beliefs and course activities. question 4 addressed which aspects of the social studies methods course had an impact on participants’ beliefs and learning experiences. results from the interviews found that the action research project, group discussions, and a greater explicit awareness of the link between theory and practice each played an important role in increasing participant awareness of their beliefs and classroom practices. these findings further our knowledge of epistemological and ontological beliefs in three ways. the first is that epistemological and ontological coordinate scores from the four quadrant scale were correlated positively at both pretest (.56) and posttest (.57). this revealed that individuals tended to adopt either a realist or a relativist perspective on both dimensions. this finding replicated previous research50 and suggested that epistemological and ontological beliefs are linked, perhaps due to some common dimension such as commitment to relativism. a second contribution was the finding that beliefs tended to be consistent over time, as measured by the correlation between quadrant placement at pretest and posttest (.59), and data from the interviews. this supported the idea that beliefs among graduate students are stable, consistent, and change slowly (wilcox-herzog 2002; wilson 2000)51. a third contribution was that changes in beliefs tended toward an increase in relativism52. based on interviews, these changes were facilitated through reflection on beliefs, classroom discussions, and the action research project that that promoted greater awareness of personal beliefs and relationship between beliefs and classroom practices. our findings further knowledge of how graduate coursework affects beliefs and knowledge about citizenship education. individual interviews revealed that most participants found the course extremely helpful with respect to increasing knowledge, clarifying personal beliefs, and understanding new perspectives about citizenship. three types of events were highlighted as particularly important. one was a comparison of different theoretical perspectives of citizenship, including the personally responsible, 50 schraw and olafson, 2008. 51  amanda wilcox-herzog "is there a link between teachers' beliefs and behaviors?" early education and development (2002): 13, 79-106. barbarawilson, "the epistemological beliefs of technical college instructors," journal of adult development (2000): 7, 179-186. 52 olafson, schraw and vander veldt. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 101 participatory, and justice-oriented citizenship approaches. a second was the action research project, which helped many participants bridge the gap between theory and practice, and also better understanding the motivating impact of participation with their students. a third was classroom discussion, which prompted reflection and resolution of new information and unresolved issues regarding personal beliefs. this finding is consistent with previous research on reflection in teacher education (brownlee and berthelsen 2006; lidar et al. 2005; schon 1983; van manen 1992)53. educational implications our findings suggest three benefits of the 15-week class. one is that civics knowledge increased significantly as a result of instruction. this suggests that individuals who take the course are better prepared to teach and promote civics education because the civics curriculum has a strong impact on teachers (patrick and vontz 2001). a second benefit was that the course promoted reflection and reflection on action that helped participants increase awareness of their beliefs (brownlee 2003), even though personal epistemologies did not change for most participants during the semester. in contrast, participants reported an increase in relativist beliefs and attitudes about the classroom. there also was a significant increase in commitment to the justice-oriented citizenship perspective as well. a third benefit was that the course and course activities such as pay it forward had a strong impact on participants’ ability to bridge he gap between theory and practice. many individuals in the interviews discussed the difficulty of translating complex beliefs into tangible classroom practices. however, using relevant classroom-based activities appeared well suited to help participants bridge this gap. this finding is consistent with previous research54 who reported that meaningful activities promote reflection and translating theory into instructional practice. 53  brownlee and berthelsen. lidar, lundquist and ostman. donald a. schon, the reflective practitioner. (new york: basic books, 1983). 54 olafson, schraw and vander veldt. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 102 appendix instructions, definitions and examples shown to research participants instructions we want you to rate and explain your epistemological and ontological world views. please read the following description of terms used in this study. then indicate with an “x” where you would place yourself in the four quadrants shown on the rating sheet. to make your x, find the point where your ratings intersect on the epistemology dimension and the ontology dimensions. please note that the descriptions provided below represent endpoints on each of the scales. your own beliefs may lie anywhere between these two endpoints. you may use any part of the four quadrant area. after you make your rating, please describe in as much detail as possible on the explanation sheet your reasoning for your self-rating. epistemology epistemology is the study of what can be counted as knowledge, where knowledge is located, and how knowledge increases. the personal epistemology of teachers is characterized by a set of beliefs about learning and the acquisition of knowledge that drives classroom instruction. epistemological realist an epistemological realist would believe that there is an objective body of knowledge that must be acquired. from a teacher’s perspective, this position would hold that curriculum is fixed and permanent and focuses on fact-based subject matter. an epistemological realist might believe the following: there are certain things that students simply need to know. i am teaching information that requires memorization and mastery. there are specific basic skills that need to be mastered. epistemological relativist an epistemological relativist would describe curriculum as changing and studentcentered. problem-based or inquiry curricula are examples at the other end of the continuum from a perspective of a one size fits all curriculum. one of the central features of curriculum from this position is the notion that curriculum is not fixed and permanent. an epistemological relativist might agree with the following statements: volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 103 the things we teach need to change along with the world. the content of the curriculum should be responsive to the needs of the community. it is useful for students to engage in tasks in which there is no indisputably correct answer. students design their own problems to solve. ontology ontology is the study of beliefs about the nature of reality. the personal ontology of teachers is characterized by a set of beliefs regarding whether students share a common reality and what a classroom reality should look like. ontological realist a teacher who is an ontological realist assumes one underlying reality that is the same for everyone. instructionally, this means that all children should receive the same type of instruction at the same time regardless of their individual circumstances and context. an ontological realist would agree with the following: student assignments should always be done individually. it’s more practical to give the whole class the same assignment. the teacher must decide on what activities are to be done. ontological relativist an ontological relativist assumes that different people have different realities. from an instructional perspective, teachers are seen as collaborators, co-participants, and facilitators of learning who work to meet the individual needs of students. instructional practices are less teacher-directed, such as: students need to be involved in actively learning through discussions, projects, and presentations. students work together in small groups to complete an assignment as a team. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 78-107 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 104 bibliography alexa, melina, and cornelia zuell. 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"student views concerning evidence and the expert in reasoning a socio-scientific issue and personal epistemology." educational studies, 2005: 31, 65-84. spirituality and democracy(3) in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 80-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 80 volume 3 number 1 (2009): 80-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ spirituality: an approach to freedom and democracy jalka since learning has often more to do with identification rather than with a simple transfer of information, i believe that teaching demands not only that one knows theoretically what the subject is about, but also that one intends to live up to what is being taught. this is especially the case in all teachings of social competence, as in the fields of human rights and peace education. in the following paper i would like to discuss this with a focus on spirituality, hence presuming that spirituality is a neglected factor in our western culture in the field of human rights education and peace and democracy pedagogic. furthermore i will establish a link between spirituality and freedom. i want to reflect on the idea and concept of freedom, asking whether a specific concept of freedom could be related to spirituality as its basic source. i would like to start with an attempt to gain greater clarity about the term ‘spirituality’. for my understanding and experience spirituality describes the moments of rich in awareness, fused with knowledge and confidence, when one arrives at the direct and intimate consciousness of unity and wholeness. spirituality does not mean believing something. it is not dependent on religion as defined by churches or other institutions. spirituality is an inward power, an unfailing energy which has its own criterion of certitude in itself. spirituality is concerned with values that engage with reality, it strives for unity and wholeness and connects life on the outside and life on the inside. rufus jones (1863-1948), a quaker, a professor of philosophy at haverford college, pennsylvania, who was a pioneer in the english-speaking world in the study of in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 80-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 81 mysticism, described beautifully what he had encountered as spiritual energies in daily life.1 far from dulling us into sentimental acceptance, spirituality offers a kind of awakening. one of the things we are likely to recognise in an awakened state is that the outside and the inside of life cannot be separated in any convenient way. when we spend time in stillness, listening to our inner deeper knowledge, pulling ourselves away from the business of daily existence, we are making room for much more than daily existence – we make room for our own spirituality. that is why withdrawing from hectic life speeding through tasks is never a luxury, never a waste of time. listening to the deep inside knowledge is some of the best that we can give ourselves, and any time we spend accordingly reinforces a sense of life`s deeper meaning. now it seems to be necessary to clarify the idea of wholeness. our normal way of understanding wholeness tends to deceive us, leading us to think of wholes as made up of many parts, the way a house is made up of walls and a roof and an interior space. this way of thinking originates in the fact that our lives are dominated by things and machines. things and machines work as an effective assemblage of parts. however, living systems are different. they are continually growing and changing and creating themselves. how has our normal way of understanding developed into losing the idea of an inseparable wholeness? the basic problem is “fragmentation”. this is a way of thinking that creates divisions in order to avoid the incomprehensible whole. it was developed as a mechanism to attain security amidst the escalation of modern sciences, but has become the hidden source of the social, political and environmental crisis facing the world. the problem is the loss of a balance for valuing what can be separated and what cannot. when the whole of creation and humanity is at the service of producing things, we risk seeing our purpose only in human terms: what we want and how to ‘make things better’ for us with the help of ‘things’. the necessary insight that should penetrate our innermost understanding is that relations are more fundamental than things. spirituality is an energy that expands intelligence, because it connects us, strengthens the understanding of wholeness and hence makes us aware of all creation’s inseparable relations. being a mental status, it is not possible to measure spirituality. and since quantitative measurement has become a cornerstone of western thinking and understanding, sensations which are obstinate to being measured have been classified as less important. framing the world into numbers and categories is a well functioning method against fear or anxiety. at best we become better at separating, categorizing and counting. we remain “secure” in the cocoon of our own worldview. a new way of thinking, seeing freshly, integrating inner work and overcoming separations is urgently required. challenging inputs for this new kind of perceptions are described in “presence”, 1 rufus m. jones, spiritual energies in daily life (new york: macmillan, 1924). in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 80-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 82 a book written by peter senge et al., for me this is a very important book on the necessity of change. results of many emerging studies suggest a level of interdependence between thought and reality that defies our conventional worldview. in these studies the capacity of experiencing the power of thoughts and feelings grows, proving again and again that mind and world are not separate, they are aspects of the same underlying field.2. when anxiety and fear dominate our minds and thinking, reality proves us right and we continue to sacrifice at the altar of security. we have to acknowledge that the immeasurable if chimerical longing for security is a mental model which originates from the assumption that we, as human beings, are the crowning of evolution and god’s image, while the whole creation around us is nothing more than our natural resources that exist and were given to mankind solely for us to use. the assumption of this basic separatedness has become so deep, so utterly self-evident, that we have, at least in our rational thinking, lost the capacity of experiencing us as a part of the whole. the lonely position of being separate, being more valuable produces a dark abyss of fear. as long as we fear we will invent more and more methods of separation. it needs courage to see freshly, to overcome separations and to integrate into the process of the greater whole of creation. spirituality can be the bridge to overcome the abyss of fear. since spirituality, compared to rational thinking, originates in a different level of awareness, it allows the mind to re-enter memories of mankind, arising from a deeper knowledge of interdependence of all with everything. at these moments we are aware of the dynamic between conserving essential features of our existence, and also seeking to evolve and grow, thus overcoming the framing borders of the status quo. at these moments we are able to see with the eyes of the soul and to listen with an open heart, becoming aware of what is emerging, letting go and letting come. in spiritual moments the capacity to envision that which is not is in its most transformative and revelatory ability. it is the fount of invention and innovation, the power that enables us to empathize with all of the creation, whose experiences we have never shared. this is, i presume, where imagination and creativity are born. this is where a new understanding of peace can grow. peace, not as the opposite of violence and war but as the “beyond”. we all possess some kind or other of creative energy, which opens the door to a sensual understanding and to a listening, which is not focusing on any given objective. had mother theresa been asked what she was thinking while praying to god, she may have responded: “i am listening to god”. and if we wanted to learn what god was saying to her, in all likelihood she would have answered: “he is listening too”. to reach such openness requires, of course, some practice. true spiritual awareness cannot be switched 2peter senge, otto scharmer, joseph jaworski and betty sue flowers, presence, human purpose and the field of the future (london, uk: doubleday, 2005). in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 80-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 83 on like canned energy. in its innermost experience, i think that this spiritual experience of wholeness is an equivalent of freedom: the freedom of being which exists only in relation to the other. may i name this freedom peace? here it becomes necessary to discuss the contemporary concepts of freedom. in my understanding i feel close to the philosophical definition and ethical concept of emmanuel lèvinas.3 historically our concept of freedom refers to the beginning of modern science and the revolutionary idea of freedom of thought, or “cogito”. cogito was the main dignity of freedom, from descartes to husserl, from kant to sartre. immanuel kant’s philosophy defined this idea of freedom into the “project of modernism”. for kant the sovereignty of reason and the moral law were the fields of individual freedom. the individual is defined by the law, and its freedom emerges from the correspondence between free will and reason.4 theodor w. adorno’s critical further development of the idea of freedom focuses on social conditions. since he defines moral as dependent on social conditions, freedom is never independent of social development. adorno challenges kant’s abstract idea of morality and defines kant’s concept of will as a kind of “moral narcisism”. his criticism of kant’s idea of freedom is a criticism for freedom, a freedom which, as he sees it, has been never realized yet and will only be realizable after the end of capitalism.5 emmanuel lèvinas, on the other hand, questions all existing definitions of freedom, and his criticism is that they miss the main point, which is ethical responsibility. lèvinas’ radical criticism of freedom has its origin in his definition of ethics, which demands the search of “the other”. beyond the concept of freedom for the individual lies the responsibility for the other, a responsibility without reciprocity. this is the centre and the origin of freedom in lèvinas’ definition: the responsibility for the other, which solely constitutes the subject.6 when i recall what i described as the level of awareness in spirituality and the possibility of opening towards the perception of the larger whole, lèvinas’ concept of responsibility becomes obvious. any evidence of the being depends on a reference to the other, which comes prior to becoming a subject. as a consequence, thought and speech can only follow after referring to the other, just as thinking and speaking are bethinking of the desire for the other. this is the true origin of freedom. 3 emmanuel lèvinas, jenseits des seins oder anders als sein geschieht (freiburg, germany: alber, 1998). 4 immanuel kant, kritik der praktischen vernunft (hamburg, germany: meiner 1952). 5 theodor w. adorno, probleme der moralphilosophie (frankfurt/main, germany: fischer 1996). theodor w. adorno, negative dialectics (new york: seabury press, 1973). 6 emmanuel lèvinas, jenseits des seins oder anders als sein geschieht. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 80-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 84 lèvinas criticizes the existing definitions of freedom as expressions of a certain way of thinking, which leads and lead us to fascism. he unmasks the totalitarian power of reason, of commands and announcements coming from the centre and vindicating truth. lèvinas’ thinking arises from the edges and finds its words beyond conscious reasoning. it insists on ethics as the only means to answer the questions about the other. returning to the initial thesis of this paper, i want to emphasize the importance of spirituality in human rights and peace pedagogy. i assume that the critical view towards churches and religion, and the growing refusal to submit to questionable sermons, may erroneously lead to a general loss of spiritual practice. especially so in the scientific world, where spirituality has become suspicious, leaving reason far behind and opening up to another light rather than the one of enlightenment. nevertheless, if we search for change, considering that crisis means opportunity, i do recommend to introduce the search for spirituality into the fields of “human rights learning as peace education”. my hope for our process at the iipe 2009 “pursuing democracy in a time of crisis” is we will promote actions which will then become part of alternative futures. i believe we should emphasize democracy (besides political theories and structural analysis) as an inward-bound journey, seeing with the heart, overcoming separations and connecting to what emerges from the inner primary knowledge. we should encourage the discovery of spirituality as a thoroughly and radically different concept for becoming democratic subjects. and, as i stated at the beginning, teaching demands that we live up to what we teach. post scriptum: one morning, as we were working on the development of questions after the presentations, our small group formed a question which i want to cite: “given the existence of systems of control, should authentic freedom be a concern, a subject to peace education?” it came to me a bit later to see, what a wonderful deep question we had produced. may i add the thought, that – given the existence of systems of control it might be too late to make ‘authentic freedom’ a concern of peace education? my workshop at the iipe when i proposed a workshop at the iipe, i knew that this would not be about giving a lecture on my ideas or readings. therefore i prepared a hand out with a short explanation about a special way of communication, which i wanted to suggest as a reflection upon the connection between spirituality and democracy. for the discourse i promoted the format “dialogue” as a form of creative communication which emphasizes careful listening and leaving a pause after each given statement, as to let the information arrive fully at the listener. this way of talking also asks not to focus on one’s own remarks while someone is speaking, but to really open up to the speaker. it might sound quite simple to communicate in this way, but unfortunately it is not so. on the contrary, listening without at the same time designing one’s own statement is not at all the general format of discourse. it is the traditional form of communication in quaker meetings, where the decision making process emphasizes listening to what is being said and also to an inner voice, which should not be the voice of the ego. quaker in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 80-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 85 decision meetings always need a common assent, hopefully following a higher knowledge than human ratio. this format has lately become a highly recommended so called “dialogue” format for discussions, especially in relation to conflicts. i prepared some questions which followed linda seger’s “questions to reflect” out of her last book on spirituality. linda seger is a quaker whose work is an attempt to bridge the gap between the spiritual and the professional aspects of life. for the second part of my workshop i prepared some art supplies, suggesting that after the discourse we could transform our understanding into collages. often my own approach to gain understanding aims to transform the objective into a creative activity, like music, painting, writing, dancing. it seems to me that this leads to “active conception”, an understanding of the necessary input of emotions, sensual energy and intellect. and besides, creative handling of conflicts is fundamental to both peace education and human rights learning. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 80-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 86 workshop hand out (august 2009): future thinking in times of crisis times of opportunity we’ll discuss and question connections between spirituality and democracy; working in the format of dialogue as a form of creative communication, also producing collages; addressing deeper levels of learning, which create increasing awareness of the larger whole and options for actions that become part of alternative futures; emphasizing democracy as inward bound journey, overcoming separations, connecting to what emerges from inner primary knowledge. one basic problem is “fragmentation”. this thinking creates divisions, avoiding the incomprehensible whole. as main step into modern sciences, attaining security, it has now become a source of the crisis facing the world. spirituality as empowerment, from the viewpoint of democracy could be called: seeing with the heart. what constitutes a true spiritual path? questions to consider: have you experienced a call or leading to your work? who has supported you or helped you? have there been adversaries? how have you overcome them? has it been difficult (or is it still?) to continue, to maintain? have you ever thought that the results of your activities were not the results that were most important spiritually? what would you consider as the difference between competitive thinking and collaborative thinking? what are the negatives you have had to confront in your work? what is their source? have you ever felt being blessed? have you ever blessed others? ------------- let us create collages which visualize what we desire in our lives. in this exercise we should produce affirmations about what we really want, true representations of our real goals. we could deepen our understanding of this reality by asking “where do we come from? what are we? where are we going?” -------------- 90 minutes is a rather short time span for what was to be introduced and developed, moreover since my workshop was scheduled for the last afternoon after a long and inspiring week, the limiting enthusiasm for punctuality shortened quite some of the available time. nevertheless, the participants contributed from their point of view to the given introduction. the understanding of the connection between spirituality and democracy developed, even if at the beginning these two notions seemed to have nothing to do with each other. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 80-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 87 in the second part of the workshop, when we were painting and producing collages, we tried to transform our understanding of the subject into the creative process. i attach herewith the photo of a painting one of the participants. he drew a river with lots of colored fishes swimming in the water. he wrote: “spirituality is the river where we take what we need. democracy and spirituality are like fishes in the river”. references theodor w. adorno, probleme der moralphilosophie (frankfurt/main, germany: fischer 1996). theodor w. adorno, negative dialectics (new york: seabury press, 1973). rufus m. jones, spiritual energies in daily life (new york: macmillan, 1924). immanuel kant, kritik der praktischen vernunft (hamburg, germany: meiner 1952). emmanuel lèvinas, jenseits des seins oder anders als sein geschieht (freiburg, germany: alber, 1998). linda seger, spiritual steps (oxford, uk: monarch books, 2009). peter senge, otto scharmer, joseph jaworski and betty sue flowers, presence, human purpose and the field of the future (london, uk: doubleday, 2005). stan steiner in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 229 volume 2 number 2 (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ teaching about peace through children's literature stan f. steiner, ph.d. boise state university, boise, idaho, usa overview historically children’s literature has always been used as a teaching tool with children, but today the choices of literature has grown and the audience expanded. teaching moral messages was an underlying foundation for making books available for children. early children’s books were often tied to religious teachings and folklore that had implied messages of staying close to home, listening to elders, caring for others over oneself, and traditional gender roles to name a few. many adults have identified other subliminal messages as they critically analyzed some of the literature from the past. some messages you will find are passive women needing to be rescued by a courageous prince (rapunzel, sleeping beauty), distrust of stepmothers or strangers (hansel & gretel, cinderella), and ethnic stereotyping (five chinese brothers, little black sambo). as a result, adults have become more critical of the literature selected for children. educators are expected to be more aware of stereotypes touching on ethnicity, gender, social status, religion and cultural identity. at the same time we must ask how much is too much or not enough when it comes to cultural sensitivity or more specifically, social consciousness? this is a question i wrestle with every time i teach a class on literature for youth to college students at the undergraduate or graduate levels and in my literature work with children. there are some choices i make that influence my thinking. i recognize teaching as a political act and therefore the choices of literature i choose to present reflects my underlying agenda. i often work through literature themes as i did for the international institute on peace education conference in haifa, israel during the summer of 2008. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 230 i recognize that not everyone comes to class or workshops with the same knowledge base so i must provide a variety of literature within the theme that varies in complexity of text and content. an obvious variation is picture books and novels, but i must also take into account my audience. not everyone is going to respond to the literature in the same way. i must think about the diversity of students reflected in my classroom or audience. people’s thinking is influenced by their life experiences. the socio economic class you were raised in influences your view of the world. your place of origin influences the way you think about the world around you. a person’s ethnic and religious background also plays a role in their view of life. gender is also a factor not to be overlooked. given all of these variables i also recognize that i cannot predict the outcome of an individual’s reaction to the books i choose to use in my teaching. i recognize this as a good thing and give way to louise rosenblatt’s transactional theory of readers bringing their own meaning to the text.1 this means responses should not be perceived as right or wrong, but more of a way for each of us to learn more. we can deepen our understanding of a story or text when a student’s response differs from our thinking or preconceived correct answer. we expand our understanding by asking more questions. how did you arrive at your answer? what caused you to think about the narrative/text in that way? by asking these questions i recognize the student’s initial response to be worthy and welcomed. this inquiry approach helps everyone in the class better understand the person who responded and opens another view of the literature never considered before. the beauty of this open-ended response is the teacher or instructor also learns from the students. i don’t think of the teacher as the only knowledge base. we become a community of learners when we all share the stage. this is an example of paulo freire’s idea of a cultural circle at work. we all have an opportunity to contribute and have a voice in the discussion.2 given this overview of my philosophical stance on using literature to teach about peace related social justice issues for this conference i will share the following in the remainder of this paper: why i use children’s literature, some background on the literature choices, format for the workshop, questions driving the reading, and discussion results. why children's literature? as mentioned above children’s literature has the potential for teaching concepts to children and adults. today there is even greater potential to do so with the quality and amount of children’s literature accessible to teachers and parents. the choices cover all genres of literature and the topics and themes found within the body of literature is only limited by our thinking and choices. personally, i have yet to find a social justice theme that has not be addressed through children’s literature. this wide range of topics crosses picture books and novels. for this workshop i focused on using picture books because of the short amount of time allowed. you could compare this workshop time to any given school classroom period. picture books are useful because they can be read in a short amount of time without consuming all of your teaching time. they provide visual clues along with the text for different learners. reading them aloud 1 louise m. rosenblatt, the reader, the text, the poem (carbondale: southern illinois university press, 1978) and louise m. rosenblatt, “viewpoints: transaction versus interaction--a terminological rescue operation,” research in the teaching of english 19 (1985): 96-107. 2 paulo freire and myra bergman ramos, pedagogy of the oppressed (new york: continuum, 1970). in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 231 reaches many students at one time and also sends a subtle message about you as a reading role model. picture books can appeal to a wide age range. when read aloud at first, books can act as a catalyst to a lesson on social justice themes such as peace education. and perhaps one of the best reasons i chose to use them in my workshop is the books naturally lead to dialogue and discussion. but this does not happen without careful selection of books for a focused theme. for the past 10 years, i have been collecting and reviewing a specific type of multicultural literature that depicts the interaction of characters who represent a variety of ethnic backgrounds. within the genre of multicultural literature i have kept an eye out for children's literature that reflects not just the portrayal of single ethnic groups or insight into distinct cultures, but books that depict people from multiple cultures and ethnic groups interacting with one another in various capacities. an example of this type of story would be princess grace by mary hoffman used in the workshop.3 in this story grace and her multiethnic classmates research and discover that many real princesses rarely wore frilly dresses and led delicate lives. the children in the story solve their problem by working together and expanding their definition of princess. such a mosaic of characters depicts our changing world. the interaction of young people across ethnic lines is increasingly prevalent and will become commonplace as long as adults allow and encourage this interchange. multicultural literature offers subtle and effective ways to promote the interaction of young people across ethnic lines. stories can generate an attitude that does not see race as a barrier, but as a natural identity contributing to the beauty of our world. exposure to multicultural literature can encourage students to seek change that does not discriminate against any individual regardless of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and other differences.4 multicultural literature, both factual and fictional, is a viable medium for teaching about cultures beyond the students' own cultures. using multicultural literature may help teachers, counselors, administrators, and policy makers gain greater understandings of the challenges children of diverse backgrounds face.5 steiner notes that students of all cultures will benefit from multicultural literature in the classroom for numerous reasons: 1. it provides an opportunity for all children to see themselves in literature. 2. it fosters development of positive self-esteem. 3. it prevents people from feeling isolated. 4. it cultivates respect, empathy, and acceptance of all people.6 with the exception of a couple of books i used for this workshop i tried to put most of my focus on multicultural peace related books that were currently available. the bibliography in this paper will reflect those books. for those who attended the workshop i also shared a larger bibliography of books within the multicultural theme mentioned earlier which i have included at 3 mary hoffman, cornelius van wright and ying hwa hu, princess grace (new york: dial books for young readers, 2008). 4 vivian maria vasquez, getting beyond i like the book: creating space for critical literacy in k-6 classrooms (newark, de: international reading association, 2003). 5 nina l. nilsson, “how does hispanic portrayal in children's books measure up after 40 years? the answer is “it depends,” the reading teacher 58, no. 6 (2005): 534-548. 6 stan f. steiner, promoting a global community through multicultural children's literature (englewood, co: libraries unlimited, 2001). in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 232 the end of this article. attendees also received a copy of an article entitled, “multicultural literature that brings people together” appearing in the september 2008 issue of the reading teacher further discussing this theme as an example of raising awareness to the need for more multicultural literature.7 if you choose to seek this article out and read it you will find some text excerpts included in this manuscript. workshop format and questions when i use children’s literature i cannot assume two things. first is that participants have already read some of the books and second, participants have access to these same books. therefore i must select books that are available in the market place, include more books than participants, and provide time within the workshop/class to read books. availability of books is crucial for participants to conduct follow-up work in their setting. providing more books than participants insures choice, a key factor in motivating reluctant readers. one guarantee that i can count on is a rich discussion will follow if some of the books i select to use have a social consciousness theme with meaningful and thought provoking content. time to read books is critical groundwork prior to any book discussion. length of time for your workshop or class period should also be factored into your decisions when conducting the next steps. with book selection ready to go i feel it is necessary to focus the reading. the best way to focus is through guiding questions. these are questions i often use for any workshop using literature. who is your audience? what personal connections do you have to the story? what are the critical questions we should be asking? by raising the questions prior to reading participants are given a purpose to their reading. given this purpose for reading and the likelihood that participants are sitting at desks or tables there is one more facilitator role that i feel is important. since there are more books than participants and the books vary in length and complexity you must keep the books circulating. as a participant finishes one book you as group facilitator bring them other books to choose from. keeping the books flowing insures active involvement. this also wards off any nonengagement in the follow-up discussion. when participants only read one book the likelihood of not personally connecting to the story increases, potentially making it difficult for them to participate in the discussion. more books than participants, initial choice, and opportunity to read multiple books will increase the odds of total participation. after reading time the next action to take is to begin the discussion. it is always better to work in small groups prior to the large group discussion. multiple groups should be formed be with three to five people in a group if possible. using the guiding questions as a framework the members of the group should sit facing each other. by doing small groups everyone will participate. you eliminate the intimidation that goes with being the only person talking in front of a group of strangers. you will also enrich the dialogue because everyone will participate in a small group. each member of the group is given the task of sharing their thoughts on the book(s) they read. each person is expected to have a turn in the group. i encourage the participants to not give a play by play on the book and to be conscious of not dominating the discourse. if there is a 7 stan f. steiner, claudia peralta-nash and margaret chase, “multicultural literature that brings people together,” the reading teacher 62, no. 1 (2008): 88-92. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 233 common book read among the participants others can add their comments. as facilitator you can move from group to group listening to the individual group discussion, choose to interject a comment or two, ask a question or just listen. in my listening i like to make mental notes about comments i heard from various groups or individuals. these insights can often be used in the large group discussion. prior to making the transition to large group discussion i like to set up some parameters. first i go around to each group and ask if everyone in the group had a chance to share a book. i ask each group to select one book that seemed to generate the most discussion that they would like to share with the large group. it is necessary to provide a little time to select the book and determine who will be the spokesperson for their group. i encourage the spokesperson to state the title and author of the book along with having the book as a visual aide as needed. which group shares first can be at random. the spokesperson can use the initial questions as a beginning point if necessary. if there is time you can encourage one or more of the small groups to indentify another book worth sharing with the large group. in my experience there is always more to talk about than time. discussion results earlier i stated a good discussion would ensue if some of the books were thought provoking. true to my predictions a lively discussion did take place and best of all i learned some things about the books along with the participants. when readers are allowed to bring their own life experiences and meaning to the stories we all learn. let me try to explain this through some examples from the workshop. as mentioned i preselected the books to use in this workshop. the books varied in several ways including the amount of vocabulary, by genre from biographical to poetry, through visual representation from stick figure illustrations to intricate detail and by the book’s physical size and page numbers. fortunately i had brought more books than the number of participants. i specifically planted some books that contained thought provoking content expecting to generate some discussion. included were: alice walker’s, why war is never a good idea, which provided a provocative look at side effects or collateral damage from war.8 mary hoffman’s, princess grace, which confronted issues of gender.9 ilene cooper’s, the golden rule, raises a common thread through many world religions of treating others as you would like to be treated.10 what does peace feel like by vladimir radunsky and peace one day: the making of world peace day by jeremy gilley11, elicits some thinking about what peace means to people around the world.12 louise fitzhugh’s bang bang you’re dead, connected readers with childhood memories of playing war games.13 there were many other books available in the workshop that i have included in the bibliography at the end of this manuscript. 8 alice walker, and stefano vitale, why war is never a good idea (new york: harpercollins, 2007). 9 mary hoffman, cornelius van wright and ying-hwa hu, princess grace (new york: dial books for young readers, 2008) 10 ilene cooper and gabi swiatkowska, the golden rule (new york: abrams books for young readers, 2007). 11 vladmir radunsky, what does peace feel like?.(new york: atheneum, 2004). 12 jeremy gilley and karen blessen, peace one day: the making of world peace day (new york: g. p. putnam, 2005). 13 louise fitzhugh and sandra scoppettone, bang bang you’re dead (new york: harper & row, 1969). in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 234 the response and discussions in the small groups and large group were lively. it was evident that participants enjoyed the variety of books, the opportunity to read them as part of the workshop, and talk about them with new friends attending the conference. you can expect this type of reaction when you have more books than participants, you use short length books or stories that can be read in the limited time, and most importantly you allow time for them to talk about the books in small groups. all too often we as teachers want to control the dialogue by only reading one book aloud and directing the discussion. remember choice (more books than participants) and purpose for reading (three open ended questions posed prior to reading) will give participants a non-threatening way to participate from the beginning. as a teacher you still control the choice of books by the theme you select, but you let the participants have a lot of say over which books they choose to read among the theme. another way to see the benefits of letting go of being the sole knowledge base as teacher is the rich discussion that will follow because multiple books have been read. reading multiple books with one theme versus one common read will prove itself in the follow-up discussion. everyone can participate because the book choices vary in vocabulary for a range of learners and each one brings expertise to the group from the book(s) they read in the designated time. in many cases they might be the only one in their group who read a particular book. participants’ talking about a particular book is sure to generate interest among other people in the group who often want to read the book too. on one level you go from only reading one book to multiple in the same class/workshop period. on another level you will discover that the content you may want to discuss using one book will get covered and beyond in this community of learners approach. our community of learners addressed points in the discussion through the critical questions they developed from their reading and small group discussion. examples include the following: does peace always have to be associated with war? it may be a conflict resolution in a friendship or classroom or a period after a thunderstorm to name a few. is war always bad? another critical question raised that caught several participants off balance. war may be necessary and good if people are freed from oppression and tyranny. does the portrayal of war always have to be from the victim’s perspective? why do the images in the book appear to be from one side? should these books be read to children? at one point i asked if we needed to share some critical questions generated from the small groups. a quick response by a participant passionately blurted, “we already have.” exactly! this is what comes from creating a community of learners. a safe cultural climate where input is encouraged and valued. conclusion children's literature has many applications, and one of the greatest accomplishments we can achieve is using books to bring people together regardless of culture. books can engage readers in discussions about social consciousness, the interconnections of people on this earth and help them understand the complexity of their individual actions. through this workshop and all of the iiep conference we came away with a broader definition and understanding of peace. we collected new tools and ideas to use in our own setting. we discovered a new network of friends across the globe who share a passion for making this world a better place for all. we left with a renewed sense of knowing we are doing the morally right thing and a heartfelt obligation to continue our work. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 235 references cooper, ilene, and gabi swiatkowska. 2007. the golden rule. new york: abrams books for young readers. fitzhugh, louise, and sandra scoppettone. 1969. bang, bang, you're dead. new york: harper & row. freire, paulo, and myra bergman ramos. 1970. pedagogy of the oppressed. new york: continuum. gilley, jeremy, and karen blessen. 2005. peace one day. new york: g.p. putnam's sons. hoffman, mary, cornelius van wright, and ying-hwa hu. 2008. princess grace. new york: dial books for young readers. nilsson, nina l. 2005. "how does hispanic portrayal in children's books measure up after 40 years? the answer is “it depends.” reading teacher. 58 (6): 534-548. radunsky, vladimir. 2004. what does peace feel like? new york: atheneum books for young readers. rosenblatt, louise m. 1978. the reader, the text, the poem: the transactional theory of the literary work. carbondale: southern illinois university press. rosenblatt, louise m. 1985. viewpoints: transaction versus interaction--a terminological rescue operation. research in the teaching of english. 19 (1): 96-107. steiner, stanley f. 2001. promoting a global community through multicultural children's literature. englewood, colo: libraries unlimited. steiner, stanley.f., claudia p. nash, and margaret chase. 2008. multicultural literature that brings people together. reading teacher. 62 (1): 88-92. vasquez, vivian maria. 2003. getting beyond "i like the book": creating space for critical literacy in k-6 classrooms. kids insight. newark, del: international reading association. walker, alice, and stefano vitale. 2007. why war is never a good idea. new york, ny: harpercollinspublishers. bibliography on books that bring people together in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 236 the following bibliography is not part of the above manuscript, but a more complete list of books fitting a multicultural theme of ethnic diversity within the story or book. everyday events ajmera, maya. children of the u.s.a. watertown, ma: charlesbridge, 2008. aliki. ah, music! new york: harpercollins, 2003 cruise, robin, and margaret chodos-irvine. 2007. only you. orlando: harcourt. gershator, phillis, david gershator, and sophie blackall. summer is summer. new york: henry holt, 2006. johnson, g. francis, and dimitrea tokunbo. has anybody lost a glove? honesdale, pa: boyds mills press, 2004 latifah, queen and frank morrison. queen of the scene. new york: laura geringer books, 2006. lin, grace. lissy's friends. new york: viking, 2007. marx, trish, and ellen b. senisi. steel drumming at the apollo: the road to super top dog. new york: lee & low books, 2007). millman, isaac. moses sees a play. new york: farrar, straus, and giroux, 2004. milord, susan. happy school year! new york: scholastic, 2008. moss, peggy and dee dee tardif. our friendship rules. gardiner, me: tilbury house, 2007. pollak, barbara. our community garden. hillsboro, or: beyond words publishing, 2004. roth, susan l. hard hat area. new york: bloomsbury, 2004. senning, cindy p. and peggy post. emily’s sharing and caring book. new york: harper collins, 2008. thomas, eliza. the red blanket. new york: scholastic press, 2004. families bennet, jill. granddad's tree: poems about families. cambridge, ma: barefoot in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 237 books, 2003. carlson, nancy. my family is forever. (new york: viking, 2004. christensen, bonnie. in my grandmother’s house: award -winning authors tell stories about their grandmothers. new york: harpercollins, 2003. isadora, rachel. what a family! a fresh look at family trees. new york: putnam, 2006. kinkade, sheila. my family. watertown, ma: charlesbridge books, 2006. kroll, virginia. especially heroes. grand rapids, mi: eerdmans books, 2003. kuklin, susan. families. new york: hyperion, 2006. simon, norma. all families are special. morton grove, il: albert whitman publishers, 2003. thomas, eliza. the red blanket. new york: scholastic press, 2004. young, ed. my mei mei. new york: philomel, 2006. gender chin-lee, cynthia. amelia to zora: twenty-six women who changed the world. watertown, ma: charlesbridge, 2005. clinton, catherine, and stephen alcorn. a poem of her own: voices of american women yesterday and today. new york: harry n. abrams, 2003. cummins, j. women daredevils: thrills, chills, & frills. new york: dutton, 2008. gourse, leslie. sophisticated ladies: the great women of jazz. new york: dutton, 2007. harness, cheryl. rabble rousers: 20 women who made a difference. new york: dutton, 2003. hoffman, mary, cornelius van wright, and ying-hwa hu. princess grace. new york: dial books for young readers, 2008 murphy, claire meghan n. sayres, mary c. farrell, sarah conover, betsy wharton. daughters of the desert: stories of remarkable women from christian, jewish, and muslim traditions. woodstock, vt: skylight paths publishing, 2003. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 238 mutén, burleigh. goddesses: a world of myth and magic. cambridge, ma: barefoot books, 2003. smith, jada pinkett. girls hold up this world. new york: scholastic, 2005. tchana, katrin hyman. changing women and her sisters: stories of goddesses from around the world. new york: holiday house, 2006. language bunting, eve. one green apple. new york: clarion books, 2006. ichikawa, satomi. my father’s shop. la jolla, ca: kane/miller publishers, 2006. katz, karen. can you say peace? new york: henry holt, 2006. pak, soyung. sumi’s first day of school ever. new york: viking, 2003. moments in history bunting, eve. pop’s bridge. new york: harcourt, 2006. fleming, candace. boxes for katje. new york: farrar, straus & giroux, 2003. golding, theresa martin. memorial day surprise. honesdale, pa: boyds mill press, 2004. hall, bruce edward. henry and the kite dragon. new york: lee low books, 2004. hopkins, deborah. sweet land of liberty. atlanta, ga: peachtree, 2007. kroll, virginia. especially heroes. grand rapids, mi: eerdmans books, 2003. russell, barbara timberlake. maggie’s amerikay. new york: farrar, straus &giroux, 2006. outstanding people (check gender also) adler, david. heroes for civil rights. new york: holiday house, 2008. adler, david. enemies of slavery. new york: holiday house, 2004. burleigh, robert. american moments: scenes from american history. new york: henry holt publishers, 2004. govenar, alan. extraordinary ordinary people: five american masters of traditional in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 239 arts. cambridge, ma: candlewick press, 2006. deborah hopkins, sweet land of liberty. atlanta, ga: peachtree, 2007. keenan, sheila. outstanding americans: profiles of more than 450 famous & infamous figures in u.s. history. new york: scholastic, 2003. krull, kathleen. the book of rock stars: 24 musical icons that shine through history. new york: hyperion, 2003. lewis, j. patrick. heroes and she-roes: poems of amazing and everyday heroes. new york: dial, 2005. nikola-lisa, w. how we are smart (new york: lee & low books, 2006). rappaport, ken. ladies first: women athletes who made a difference. atlanta, ga: peachtree publishers, 2005. rappaport, ken. profiles in sports courage. atlanta, ga: peachtree publishers, 2006. roop, connie & peter. tales of famous americans. new york: scholastic, 2007. shetterly, robert. americans who tell the truth. new york: dutton, 2005. zalben, jane breskin. paths to peace: people who changed the world. new york: dutton, 2006. people around the world ajmera, maya, and john d. ivanko. be my neighbor. watertown, ma: charlesbridge, 2004. maya ajmera , and john d. ivanko, to be an artist. watertown, ma: charlesbridge, 2004. disney enterprises, inc., our world: people, celebrations, amazing discoveries, place. new york: disney press, 2005. hollyer,beatrice. let’s eat! what children eat around the world. new york: henry holt publishers, 2003. lewin, ted. how much? visiting markets around the world. new york: harpercollins, 2006. martin jr., bil, and michael sampson. love our earth. watertown, ma: charlesbridge, 2006. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 240 mason, antony. people around the world. new york: kingfisher, 2002. steckel, richard and michele. the milestone project: celebrating childhood around the world. berkeley, ca: tricycle press, 2004. poetry bennet, jill. granddad's tree: poems about families. cambridge, ma: barefoot books, 2003. chernaik, judith. carnival of the animals: poems inspired by saint-saëns’ music. cambridge, ma: candlewick press, 2006. clinton, catherine, and stephen alcorn. a poem of her own: voices of american women yesterday and today. new york: harry n. abrams, 2003. gilchrist, jan spivey. my america. new york: harpercollins, 2007. greenberg, jan. side by side: new poems inspired by art from around the world. new york: abrams books, 2008. lewis, j. patrick. vherses: a celebration of outstanding women. mankato, mn: creative editions, 2005. lewis, j. patrick. heroes and she-roes: poems of amazing and everyday heroes. new york: dial books, 2005. nikola-lisa, w. how we are smart. new york: lee & low books, 2006. prelutsky, jack. me i am! new york: random house, 1983/2007. race, peace & identity brown, tricia. salaman: a muslim american boy’s story. new york: henry holt, 2006. cole, heidi & nancy vogl. am i a color too? bellevue, wa: illumination arts publishing, 2005. gilley, jeremy. peace one day: the making of world peace day. new york: g. p. putnam, 2005. hoffman, mary, cornelius van wright, and ying-hwa hu. princess grace. new york: dial books for young readers, 2008. hooks bell. skin again. new york: hyperion, 2004. hopkins, deborah. sweet land of liberty. atlanta, ga: peachtree, 2007. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 241 katz, karen. can you say peace? new york: henry holt, 2006. kroll, virginia. especially heroes. grand rapids, mi: eerdmans books, 2003. lester, julius. let’s talk about race. new york: amistad of harpercollins, 2005. mobin-uddin, asma. my name is bilal. honesdale, pa: boyds mills press, 2005. parr, todd. the peace book. new york: little, brown publishers, 2005. radunsky, vladimir. what does peace feel like? atheneum: new york, 2004. timberlake, barbara. russell. maggie’s amerikay. new york: farrar, straus & giroux, 2006. schertle, alice. we. new york: lee low books, 2007. shore, diane, and jessica alexander. this is the dream. new york: amistad/harper collins, 2006. singer, marilyn. face relations: eleven stories about seeing beyond color. new york: simon & schuster, 2004. smith jr., charles. i am america. new york: scholastic, 2003. uegaki, chieri. suki’s kimono. tonawanda, ny: kids can press, 2003. walker, alice. why war is never a good idea. new york: harpercollins, 2007. zalben, jane breskin. paths to peace: people who changed the world. new york: dutton, 2006. religion brown, tricia. salaam. a muslim american boy’s story. new york: henry holt, 2006. buller, laura. a faith like mine: a celebration of the world’s religions through the eyes of children. new york: dorling kindersley, 2005. cooper, ilene. the golden rule. new york: abrams books, 2007. mobin-uddin, asma. my name is bilal. honesdale, pa: boyds mills press, 2005. murphy, claire, meghan n. sayres, mary c. farrell, sarah conover, betsy wharton. daughters of the desert: stories of remarkable women from christian, jewish, and muslim in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 242 traditions. woodstock, vt: skylight paths publishing, 2003. stories from around the world barton, bob. the bear says north: tales from northern lands. toronto, canada: groundwood books, 2003. climo, shirley. monkey business: stories from around the world. new york: henry holt, 2005. christensen, bonnie. in my grandmother’s house: award-winning authors tell stories about their grandmothers. new york: harpercollins, 2003. jackson, ellen. it’s back to school we go!: first day stories from around the world. brookfield, ct: millbrook, 2003. macdonald, margaret read. three minute tales: stories from around the world to tell or read when time is short. little rock, ar: august house publishers, 2004. mutén, burleigh. goddesses: a world of myth and magic. cambridge, ma: barefoot books, 2003. mutén, burleigh, retold by. the lady of ten thousand names: goddess stories from many cultures. cambridge, ma: barefoot books. 2001. norman, howard. between heaven and earth: bird tales from around the world. new york: harcourt, 2004. pirotta, saviour. around the world in eighty tales. boston: king fisher, 2007. tchana, katrin hyman. changing women and her sisters: stories of goddesses from around the world. new york: holiday house, 2006. universal themes albaut, corinna. the nights of the world. la jolla, ca: kane/miller publishers, 2005. aliki, ah, music! new york: harpercollins, 2003. barnwell, ysaye m. we are one. new york: harcourt, 1993/2008. bosak, susan v. dream: a tale of wonder, wisdom & wishes. toronto, canada: tcp press, 2004. cooper, ilene. the golden rule. new york: abrams books, 2007. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 243 hollyer, beatrice. let’s eat! what children eat around the world. new york: henry holt publishers, 2003. jackson, ellen. it’ s back to school we go! first day stories from around the world. brookfield, ct: millbrook press, 2003. lewin, ted. how much? visiting markets around the world. new york: harpercollins, 2006. martin jr., bill, and michael sampson. i love our earth. watertown, ma: charlesbridge. 2006. mcginty, alice b. thank you, world. new york: dial, 2007. mckinley, cindy. one smile. bellevue, wa: illumination arts publishing, 2002. menzel, peter. what the world eats. berkeley, ca: tricycle press, 2008. mora, pat. join hands! the ways we celebrate life. watertown, ma: charlesbridge, 2008. moss, peggy, and dee dee tardif. our friendship rules. gardiner, me: tilbury house, 2007. pfeffer, wendy. a new beginning: celebrating the spring equinox. new york: dutton, 2008. reynolds, jan. celebrate! connections among cultures. new york: lee & low books, 2006. ruurs, margriet. my librarian is a camel: how books are brought to children around the world. honesdale, pa: boyds mills press, 2005. rylant, cynthia. baby face: a book of love for baby. new york: simon & schuster, 2008. scott, thomas. the yawn heard ‘round the world. berkeley, ca: tricycle press, 2003. steckel, richard & michele. the milestone project: celebrating childhood around the world. berkeley, ca: tricycle press, 2004. tobias, tobi. wishes for you. new york: harpercollins, 2003. other in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 229-244 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 244 disney learning. our world: people, celebrations, amazing discoveries &. places. new york: disney press, 2005. edelman, marian wright. i can make a difference: a treasury to inspire our children. new york: harper collins, 2005. gallo, donald r. first crossing: stories about teen immigrants. cambridge, ma: candlewick, 2004. golding, theresa martin. memorial day surprise. honesdale, pa: boyds mills press, 2004. locricchio, matthew. the international cookbook for kids. new york: marshall cavendish, 2004. naidoo, beverley. making it home: real-life stories from children forced to flee. new york: puffin books, 2005. nielsen, laura f. mrs. muddle’s holidays. new york: farrar, straus & giroux, 2008. singer, marilyn. block party today! new york: knopf, 2004. smith, david j. if the world were a village: a book about the world’s people. tonawanda, ny: kids can press, 2006. steiner, stanley f. promoting a global community through multicultural children’s literature. golden, co: libraries unlimited, 2001. thomas, scott. the yawn heard around the world. berkeley, ca: ten speed press, 2003. donahue ifp[1] in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 119 volume 5 number 2 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ fostering social, emotional, ethical, civic and academic learning (seecal) through constructive controversy: what are the implications for the professional development of high school teachers? deborah donahue-keegan tufts university – department of education deborah.donahue_keegan@tufts.edu as teachers have a key role in organizing constructive and meaningful experiences for the students in citizenship education, it is important to explore how they make sense of this work both personally and professionally, as it affects their role as a teacher. such understanding is important in the search for effective ways to support teachers in their work with students on citizenship issues. s. adalbjarnardottir1 high school teachers, particularly those who teach history and/or social studies, subjects where issues of civic concern are central, have an increasingly complex “explicit pedagogical responsibility for promoting their students’ social, moral and emotional growth”2. this is especially so given changed national and global realities post-9/11, 1 sigrun adalbjarnardottir, “citizenship education and teachers’ professional awareness,” citizenship education and the curriculum, edited by d. scott & h. lawson, pp. 131-149. westport, ct: ablex publishing, 2002 2 sigrun adalbjarnardottir “’i feel i have received a new vision’: a developmental analysis of teachers’ professional awareness of their work with children on interpersonal issues,” teaching and teacher education 13(4): 409-28, 1997. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 120 including the concomitant swell of ongoing controversy in the u.s. vis-a-vis the meaning and implications of patriotism. in their efforts to facilitate “constructive and meaningful” citizenship education experiences – specifically, experiences that foster a long-term sense of efficacy and purpose with regard to active civic engagement – history and/or social studies teachers invariably confront complex pedagogical and curriculum challenges in their work with high school students. concomitantly, this approach to teaching demands complex pedagogical skills; because teachers who aim to foster students’ socialemotional, moral, and civic learning inevitably face complex teaching dilemmas. such dilemmas often mirror complex systemic challenges. in this paper, i explore what the demands of this process mean to/for teachers, specifically in terms of their personal and professional development. the following overarching questions have guided my inquiry: how do history/social studies teachers describe and make sense of constructive controversy as a way to promote adolescent students’ social-emotional, ethical, civic and academic learning? what does this teaching and learning process demand of teachers, particularly in terms of their own cognitive, social and emotional competencies? conceptual framework from a developmental perspective, high school teachers’ “explicit pedagogical responsibility for promoting their students’ social, moral and emotional growth” is particularly complex, because they work with adolescent students who are developing capacity to reason in abstract ways, while simultaneously experiencing more varied and complicated sources of conflict in their interpersonal and intragroup relationships.3 at the heart of the “constructive and meaningful experiences” teachers can foster, is the cultivation of social perspective-taking, a core competency that is fundamental to the promotion of citizenship awareness and participation. this skill entails the ability to distinguish between one’s own perspective and that of another and/or others while coordinating multiple perspectives with greater self-awareness and flexibility.4 the process of delving into conflict is a key avenue for cultivating perspectivetaking capabilities. history and/or social studies teachers who embrace this belief actively seek opportunities to help students approach conflict and controversy constructively in their study of history and current social and political issues; they do so by encouraging students to consider differing viewpoints, values and/or needs. this instructional practice of constructive controversy exists, as johnson and johnson assert, “when one person’s ideas, information, conclusions, theories, and opinions are 3 sigrun adalbjarnardottir, “citizenship education and teachers’ professional awareness,” citizenship education and the curriculum, edited by d. scott & h. lawson, westport, ct: ablex publishing, p. 132, 2002; w.l. carruthers, b.j.b. carruthers, n.l. day-vines, d. bostick, & d.c. watson, “conflict resolution as curriculum: a definition, description and process for integration in core curricula,” the school counselor, 43(5), p. 356, 1996. 4 robert selman, the growth of interpersonal understanding: developmental and clinical analyses. london, new york: academic press, 1980. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 121 incompatible with those of another and the two seek to reach an agreement” – be it on an interpersonal, intragroup or intergroup level.5 in guiding students to think critically, and consider issues from multiple perspectives – by first establishing a cooperative learning context – teachers promote a process that can “energize learning” within the classroom community. as johnson & johnson assert, “by structuring intellectual conflict within a lesson, instructors can grab and hold students’ attention and energize students to learn at a level beyond what they may have intended.”6 constructive controversy is a pedagogical approach that can promote solid social, emotional, ethical, civic and academic learning (seecal), and concomitant competencies, among members of a classroom learning community.7 exploring the social-emotional dimensions of human behavior via consideration of multiple, divergent perspectives can foster the development of civic skills, dispositions, and knowledge.8 moreover, integrated social, emotional, ethical, civic, and academic learning helps equip adolescents for “the tests of life” over “a life of tests” – via the development of core social and emotional competencies: self awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and decision-making – as a foundation for efficacious civic engagement in a rapidly changing, pluralistic democratic society.9 however, with the increased pressures that have come with the academic accountability movement in recent years, public schooling’s attention to the promotion of civic engagement has waned. whilst the majority of school districts have mission statements identifying citizenship education as an overarching goal, often missing are specific objectives and accountability mechanisms for cultivating citizenship participation.10 what is usually emphasized instead is acquisition of knowledge in relation to the institutions, concepts, and rights of democracy. cultivating the skills and dispositions of democratic citizenship (e.g. principles of equality, civil/human rights, personal and social responsibility, etc.) is generally not a priority in public high schools, particularly since the modus operandi in such systems tends to center on “avoiding 5 david johnson & roger johnson, “energizing learning: the instructional power of conflict,” educational researcher, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 37-51, 2009. 6 ibid., p. 37. 7 jonathan cohen, “social, emotional, ethical, and academic education: creating a climate for learning, participation in democracy, and well-being,” harvard educational review, 76:2, 2006; david johnson & roger johnson, “energizing learning: the instructional power of conflict,” educational researcher, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 37-51, 2009. 8 kathy bickmore, “teaching conflict and conflict resolution in school: (extra-) curricular considerations,” paper presented at connections 1997 international social studies conference, university of sydney, australia, 1997; jonathan cohen, “social, emotional, ethical, and academic education,” 2006. 9 maurice elias, “prepare our children for tests of life, not a life of tests,” education week, 21(4), 40, 2001; collaborative for academic, social and emotional learning (casel), http://www.casel.org/basics/skills.php; jonathan cohen, “social, emotional, ethical, and academic education,” 2006. 10 mark hugo lopez and emily hoban kirby, “u.s. civics instruction: content and teaching strategies” fact sheet, the center for information and research on civic learning and engagement (circle), august 2007. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 122 divisive [issues], and the teaching of critical thinking”11; consequently, curricular content and teaching methods generally tend to avoid conflict as a learning avenue.12 this is why, as asserted in adalbjarnardottir’s opening excerpt, “teachers have a key role in organizing constructive and meaningful experiences for students in citizenship education.”13 essentially, the onus is on those teachers committed to initiating and facilitating such learning experiences; yet, they usually lack adequate in-school support. given this lack of in-school support, many teachers who aim to facilitate “constructive and meaningful” citizenship education experiences for their students rely on outside education-focused professional development programs to bolster their content knowledge and skills (initially via workshops, institutes, etc.), and to provide critical ongoing support and sustenance. research focus my research centers on teachers who are actively involved with two such professional development programs – as vehicles for fostering adolescents’ socio-moral and civic learning, with the goal of preparing them for effective and responsible civic engagement: facing history and ourselves and workable peace. while facing history and workable peace involve distinctly different structures towards the promotion of such learning, what they broadly hold in common are pedagogical strategies for approaching historical and current conflicts and controversy, in ways that encourage adolescents to think in complex ways that foster the development of moral reasoning skills. to follow are introductory synopsis website excerpts that convey the essence of the respective missions and philosophies of these two programs: v facing history and ourselves: facing history and ourselves is devoted to teaching about the dangers of indifference and the value of civility. our programs and resources help educators confront the complexities of history in ways that promote critical and creative thinking about the challenges we face and the opportunities we have for positive change…by studying the historical development and the legacies of the holocaust and other instances of collective violence students learn to combat prejudice with compassion, indifference with ethical participation, myth and misinformation with knowledge… meaningful civic education must be rooted in a moral component in which students are taught to confront the choices about right and wrong, rights and 11 kathy bickmore, practicing conflict: citizenship education in high school social studies. unpublished dissertation, stanford university, palo alto, ca, 1991. 12 kathy bickmore, “teacher development for conflict participation: facilitating learning for difficult citizenship‟ education,” chapter 36 in j. arthur & i. davies (eds.), citizenship education, volume 3, september 2008. 13 sigrun adalbjarnardottir, “citizenship education and teachers’ professional awareness,” 2002, p. 132. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 123 obligations, and fairness and justice that underlie responsible participation in democratic societies.14 facing history’s scope and sequence pedagogical method is comprised of the following five sections: individual and society; we and they; history; judgment, memory & legacy; and, choosing to participate.15 v workable peace: workable peace is an innovative high school humanities curriculum and professional development project for teachers and students. using new teaching materials and strategies, workable peace integrates the study of intergroup conflict and the development of critical thinking, problem solving, and perspective-taking skills into social studies and humanities courses. it provides academically rigorous training and tools for teaching the major themes and key events of history in ways that enliven the imagination, awaken moral reasoning, and impart social and civic skills that students can use throughout their lives.16 the workable peace framework presents key steps that group members need to take in order to build a workable peace. these steps synthesize academic research and practitioners' experience to make patterns of intergroup conflict and strategies for peacemaking accessible and intelligible to teenagers.17 to be clear, the purpose of this research has not been to evaluate these curriculum projects, nor study participants’ professional competencies. i chose to work with teachers affiliated with facing history and/or workable peace primarily because they are solid curricular vehicles through which to explore my guiding inquiry: how do history/social studies teachers describe and make sense of constructive controversy as a way to promote adolescent students’ social-emotional, ethical, civic and academic learning? what does this teaching and learning process demand of teachers, particularly in terms of their own cognitive, social and emotional competencies? to explore these questions for my small-scale interpretive qualitative study, i conducted in-depth interviews with a sample of ten history/social studies teachers, with varying years of teaching experience (three novice teachers; four teachers with four to eight years of experience; and, three veteran teachers), and in different public high school settings (representing a demographic range in terms of socio-economics, and racial/ethnic composition of student populations). all of these teachers had been trained to use, and were actively using, the curricular frameworks of facing history and ourselves and/or workable peace. my assumption was/is that teachers who are actively involved with either or both programs – via participation in intensive training institutes, use of 14 www.facinghistorycampus.org 15 http://www.facinghistory.org/taxonomy/vocabulary/1 16 http://www.workablepeace.org 17 http://www.workablepeace.org/curriculum.html in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 124 curriculum resource materials, and on-going participation in professional development opportunities – tend to be highly motivated, and committed to fostering the socialemotional and civic learning of their students, despite myriad school system-based dilemmas and/or barriers. engaging in a series of three in-depth interviews with each teacher participant allowed me to carefully listen to their contextualized accounts of how they make sense of their respective work to promote students’ social-emotional, ethical, civic, and academic learning – given inherent teaching dilemmas, as well as intrapersonal and interpersonal demands. this exploration centered on a grounded theory methodology.18 through indepth interviewing, i elicited participants’ perspectives on the intrapersonal, interpersonal, intragroup and external context dimensions of their respective classroom teaching experiences in relation to facing history and ourselves and/or workable peace, as curricular vehicles and/or for pedagogical guidance. in analyzing and presenting this interview data, my goal has been to deepen understanding of the kinds of support history and/or social studies teachers need in their work to promote students’ social-emotional, ethical, civic, and academic learning, via constructive controversy, in their classrooms. in this paper, i present and juxtapose the narratives of four of the ten teachers, in pairs: ann and cesar, then alexa and andre. i have chosen to focus on these teacher participants because their paired, juxtaposed interview data highlights the following two main themes of this interpretive qualitative study: first, the interview data of teachers participating in my study suggests that the different ways in which they make sense of their respective teaching experiences is guided more by varying levels of conceptual complexity than years of experience in the classroom. along with the variations among their experiences – in terms of high school context and years in the classroom – there is a range regarding the ways in which each teacher works through the conceptual challenges inherent to the promotion of social-emotional, ethical, civic, and academic learning; this is particularly so in terms of how each approaches the “thorny question” that comes with “ethical dilemmas that arise” in their classroom teaching: “the question of what to do about one’s own opinions and beliefs,”19 as william damon puts it. secondly, teachers who were more forthcoming and reflective in their respective descriptions of the influence of formative life experiences, particularly those of disequilibrium-inducing nature, expressed their sense of purpose and vision as educators in greater depth. these teachers conveyed evidence of a relational orientation, the more complex awareness 18 kathy charmez, “grounded theory: objectivist and constructivist methods,” in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research (second ed., pp. 509-535). thousand oaks: sage publications, 2000; a. strauss, & j. corbin, basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (second ed.). thousand oaks, ca, 1998. 19 william damon, “teaching as a moral craft and developmental expedition. in f. oser, a. dick, & j-l patry (eds.), effective and responsible teaching: the new synthesis (pp. 139-153). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass, 1992. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 125 dimension level in robert selman & sigrun adalbjarnardottir’s developmental lens schema.20 a description of this framework follows, in the next section. guiding conceptual frameworks in this section, i provide brief overviews of the three main conceptual frameworks that have guided and informed my interpretive analysis of participants’ interview data: magdalene lampert’s perspective on classroom teaching dilemmas; robert selman and sigrun adalbjarnardottir’s developmental lens; and, nona lyons’ concept of nested knowing. lampert’s perspective on classroom teaching dilemmas magdalene lampert asserts that teaching dilemmas call to be managed rather than solved. towards managing dilemmas well, lampert emphasizes that teachers must “accept conflict as endemic and even useful to [their] work, rather than seeing it as a burden that needs to be eliminated.”21 her related research inquiry centers on the following purposes: to understand and evaluate “what teachers actually do when they manage dilemmas;” and, to understand “what kinds of resources [support] teachers need to cope with contradictions within themselves and their work.”22 selman and adalbjarnardottir’s “developmental lens” building on the three fundamental psychosocial components — “understanding, strategies, and awareness of the personal meaning of events and interactions”23 — of the group for the study of interpersonal development’s risk and relationship framework, selman and adalbjarnardottir re-conceptualized this conceptual lens for application in the domain of teaching (at the elementary level), specifically in terms of “teachers’ professional awareness [in] promoting”24 their students’ social and ethical awareness. the following excerpts from the promotion of social awareness (selman, 2003) present a summary description for each of the three levels of professional awareness identified by selman and adalbjarnardottir, representing, in order (as listed below), less complex to more complex conceptual capacities: 20 robert selman and sigrun adalbjarnardottir, “promoting and analyzing teachers’ understanding of students’ social awareness: lessons from iceland.” in the promotion of social awareness: powerful lessons from the partnership of developmental theory and classroom practice, by robert selman, new york: russell sage foundation, 2003. 21 magdalene lampert, “how do teachers manage to teach? perspectives on problems in practice,” harvard educational review, 55, 1985, p. 192. 22 ibid., p. 194 23 robert selman, the promotion of social awareness: powerful lessons from the partnership of developmental theory and classroom practice, new york: russell sage foundation, 2003, 149. 24 ibid, in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 126 v the external orientation an external pedagogical vision of social competence tends to focus on the importance of teaching “good social behavior” so that students are able to learn academic subjects. the teachers’ aim is to “control” students’ individual behavior (impulses, attention) so that they can learn the academic content. management strategies at this level are focused on eliminating negative behavior in a reactive way: the teacher reacts to the students’ poor behavior. strategies to improve students’ behavior tend to be unilateral regardless of the context.25 v the internal orientation — the internal view of academic and social competence is based on an awareness that learning in school must include promoting the understanding of social and societal relationships. the aim, as expressed at this level, is to educate students to ‘get along’ with one another and to provide them with life skills and the ‘inner strength’ to manage the societal issues they will face in and outside of school. teachers with a classroom management focus work to promote students’ social understanding and skills in a proactive way. they strive to improve classroom atmosphere by using strategies that improve students’ ability to be interactive. teachers who practice an internal pedagogy emphasize teaching students how to resolve conflicts with peers and authorities.26 v the relational orientation — teachers at this level of awareness see that strong academic and social competence is necessary in the service of educating students to be able to maintain and improve society. as they gain a broad perspective on the educational and cultural system within which students and teachers operate, teachers at this level of awareness strive to empower students to participate actively in society by fostering their capacity for autonomy and caring. these teachers focus on fostering relational competencies and skills in a transactional way. their strategies employ their own capacity to listen to students’ perspectives on social issues (at any level) as they express their own. they also work to develop students’ competence in autonomous self-control and expression of personal concern about social issues. these teachers train students in taking collaborative approaches to debate (where developmentally and contextually appropriate) and foster communicative and relational competencies in students that enable them to develop trusting relationships beyond individual instrumental gains – in both social and societal contexts.27 these developmental awareness levels reflect “increased differentiation in teachers’ reflections”28, essentially ranging from a primary focus on concrete classroom 25 ibid., p. 158. 26 ibid. 27 ibid., p. 159. 28 ibid. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 127 environment benefits to an emphasis on “students’ improved perspective-taking ability and conflict resolution for an active participation in society.”29 nona lyons’ concept of “nested knowing” lyons’ research focuses on “the interaction between a teacher’s perspective on knowledge and knowing and students’ ways of knowing.”30 this is a phenomenon she characterizes as “nested knowing” in that “students and teachers are considered to have nested, interacting epistemological perspectives.”31 this concept is informed by vygotsky’s position that “development occurs only in and through the [inter-subjective] social interactions between people – like student and teacher,”32 along with [his] focus on “two aspects of development: actual achievements and potential development – what he calls a zone of proximal development…as an emerging epistemological capacity.”33 lyons also focuses on such growing edge movement; in her exploration of teachers’ narratives, she explores the edges of teachers’ thinking and sense making. lyons’ focus on the “growing edges” of teachers’ thinking and sense making further illuminates the varying epistemological stances and conceptual capacities in the way teachers in my study seem to approach “contradictions within themselves and their work.” in illustrating “how the individual and the context shape the particular nature of a dilemma”34, lyons offers the following assertion: “practical choices, with ethical uncertainties, which can be part of teachers’ everyday interactions, may, in turn, involve their growth and development as practitioners. here ethical and epistemological issues – issues of knowers and ways of knowing – merge in the web of teachers’ work.”35 as i consider lyons’ analysis and conceptions, i think about the link between what she posits here, and the epistemic stance toward knowledge reflected in the narratives of teachers in my study. in particular, i think about the story of ann36, one of the participants in my study. during our second interview, ann talked about “being stopped in her tracks” in response to a provocative question posed by one of her students. in my analysis of interview data, ann reveals a sense of “growing edge” movement in the way that she portrays her set of interactions with this student as an “illuminating” dilemma with moral dimensions. in the way that she describes being “stopped her in her tracks” ann reveals this growing edge in terms of her thinking and meaning-making. in the words of lyons, “[she] comes to a new way to conceive of [herself] as a teacher...in relationship to [her] students.”37 ann’s portrayal of and reflections on these particular interactions with her 29 sigrun adalbjarnardottir, “citizenship education and teachers’ professional awareness,” 2002, p. 132. 30 nona lyons, “dilemmas of knowing: ethical and epistemological dimensions of teachers’ work and development,” harvard educational review, 60(2), 1990, 162. 31 ibid. 32 ibid., p. 174. 33 ibid. 34 ibid., p. 166. 35 ibid., p. 161. 36 ann is a pseudonym, as are all other teachers’ names in this paper. 37 lyons, dilemmas of knowing, 1990, p. 161. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 128 student evidence the phenomenon of “nested knowing” – from her perspective as teacher – as an integral component of the complex endeavor and moral craft that is teaching. to illustrate this finding more substantively, i present and juxtapose the narratives of four paired teachers in my study, including ann in one pair, in the sections to follow. i first juxtapose my interpretations of the narratives of cesar and ann, and then, those of alexa and andre. in doing so, i integrate the above-described conceptual lenses. in the concluding section, i discuss how theories of transformational learning are implicitly embedded in my interpretations. juxtaposing cesar and ann’s narratives cesar and ann’s juxtaposed narratives illustrate lyons’ point that “the individual and the context shape the particular nature of a dilemma”38. at the time of interviews for my study, both cesar and ann had been classroom teachers for the same amount of time (5 years), both taught in similar large urban high schools, and both were actively integrating facing history and ourselves’ scope and sequence materials/pedagogy, with the guidance of fhao staff. along with these similarities, both cesar and ann reveal, through their respective narratives, how they experience “contradictions within themselves and their work”39 as they face complex and messy teaching dilemmas; the dilemmas they each describe are anchored in their use of facing history’s resources and methodology, as content that is layered with moral questions. with the juxtaposition of their respective descriptions of identified dilemmas, the moral questions are also about how they as teachers think about responding to situations that involve their own well being, and the well being of their students, given how complex societal/systemic issues are mirrored in their schools and classrooms. while both cesar and ann teach a facing history elective course – as white teachers in their respective, racially/ethnically diverse urban high schools environments and share very similar commitments and overarching purposes as educators, juxtaposing their respective interview data reveals palpable epistemological differences. cesar with the accompanying ramp up of support, and access to “a wealth of resources,” via the closer ties he reports having with the facing history organization due to his newly assigned, “very supportive” program associate, cesar contends that it is “like hitting the lottery” in his teaching of the facing history elective course. in our interviews, he refers to this person’s words of affirmation and encouragement as a “validation” of his approach. he explains, “i’m self-taught in this subject. i think i’m 38 ibid., p. 166. 39 magdalene lampert “how do teachers manage to teach? perspectives on problems in practice,” harvard educational review, 55, 178-194, 1985. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 129 okay at it; but i don’t know if i’m doing things incorrectly. and, i rely on [the project associate] to be the content expert.” what accentuates cesar’s sense of satisfaction and affirmation regarding his newly forged connection with this support person is linked, in a curious way, to the following teaching “pressure” he names as most salient for him, with regard to his facing history course: curricular content about the eugenics movement, a subject that is an important component of facing history’s teacher professional development and resource support, as evidenced by one of the program’s main resource books, race and membership in american history: the eugenics movement.40 in reporting how “previous associates had pushed” him to attend a race and membership institute, towards helping him to consider delving into the issue of eugenics in his course, cesar emphatically states that he “[chooses] not to teach that.” in the excerpt to follow, he explains why he views addressing the issue of eugenics in his particular school context as problematic, given the demographics and racial/ethnic make up of the students at his high school, and in his classes. he expresses a sense of relief that his assigned facing history program associate communicates what cesar perceives as a stamp of approval, so to speak, regarding his position on this: i shared with [facing history program associate] my own theory that i think eugenics might work well in homogeneous, middle class communities, but it doesn’t fly here. and, he agreed! he felt that i was probably right on, on that, and that if i’m uncomfortable with it, don’t use it…it’s tough to have kids of color read some of that stuff; and they see that they’re bottom of the rung by many people’s scientific research. that’s a tough pill to swallow, when they’ve been downtrodden their entire existence. i just have a hard time with that. i just look at crestfallen faces, and hope being shot right out of them. i’m not going to do it. in response to probing on my part, for specifics around his sense that particular students might experience the “hope being shot right out of them,” cesar explains: with i.q., they look, and they see, you know, asians, in america have an i.q. average of 107; and whites in america have an i.q. of 102; and, african americans are around 95; that kills them. that’s a stark number for them. there’s no way to make that look good. when they look at people with ph.d.s after their names, and they see some of the research that they’ve come up with, then they have a hard time arguing against that, you know, statistically or intellectually. in explaining his rationale, cesar communicates a caring and protective stance towards his students. as he talks about his refusal to delve into material he views as “a tough pill 40 facing history and ourselves foundation, race and membership in american history: the eugenics movement, 2002. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 130 to swallow” for “kids of color…[who] have been downtrodden their entire existence” cesar conveys his sense of being in touch with and sympathetic to the life situations of his african american students. at the same time, his words suggest a view that knowledge may be sanctioned as “right” by an external authority. for example, as embedded in the above excerpt, vis-à-vis “the i.q. issue” cesar asserts, “there’s no way to make that look good. when they look at people with ph.d.s after their names, and they’ve seen some of the research that they’ve come up with, they have a hard time arguing against that…statistically or intellectually.” he does not frame this statement with talk (neither explicitly, nor in the subtext) about the social construction of knowledge. again, cesar seems palpably relieved that his position – to sidestep the eugenics movement in his teaching – is met with approval by the facing history program associate, as his “external authority.” while his words could be interpreted as merely conveying the developmental perspective of his adolescent students, and how he observes they could react by, in his words, “seeing that they’re bottom of the rung by many people’s scientific research,” it is the absence of talk about the relativism of knowledge, and the construction of race that leaves me wondering what cesar’s resistance might be about in developmental terms. in view of selman and adalbjarnardottir’s third, most complex, developmental indicator, involving “the integration of [a teacher’s] own professional interests with…the long-term educational aim of promoting students’ active and effective participation in a democratic society,”41 it seems that cesar’s resistance to delve into the subject of the eugenics movement, and therefore his resistance to engage in the “energized learning” of constructive controversy, reflects an external, rather than a relational, orientation. in bypassing the opportunities for learning via the constructive controversy realm of the eugenics movement – particularly in terms of students’ development of moral reasoning, and perspective-taking skills – cesar’s conceptual approach, as articulated during interviews, falls short of the relational orientation. yet, cesar’s interview transcripts, like ann’s, are replete with evidence of sophisticated pedagogical vision which, to repeat, is defined by selman and adalbjarnardottir as the “integrative meta-issue” of their framework. yet, while both teachers “take into consideration the perspective of the larger society,” they reveal differing approaches to controversy and the role of conflict in their classrooms, specifically in terms of the eugenics movement – a subject area that very palpably “raises significant ethical questions and uses emotionally powerful material [that is] academically challenging and morally profound.”42 while both teachers convey having 41 robert selman, the promotion of social awareness: powerful lessons from the partnership of developmental theory and classroom practice, new york: russell sage foundation, 2003, 149. 42 sheldon berman, the development of social responsibility. unpublished doctoral dissertation, harvard university graduate school of education, cambridge, ma, 1993, p. 115. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 131 “nested, interacting epistemological perspectives”43 with regard to the students they teach, they simultaneously reveal qualitatively different epistemic commitments. ann unlike cesar, ann has made a decision to enter the controversial realm of the eugenics movement with her students. she explains, facing history has a new curriculum called race and membership in the u.s. i want to use that as the basis for this class…[it] is centered on the eugenics movement, and how this testing craze sort of came out of this movement…i think it’ll be a good way to set the ground work…the purpose of doing it would be to have a deeper understanding and more background, and do some reading, and be able to talk about it intelligently. during all three of our interviews, ann speaks substantively about the meaning of this in terms of her own identity, both personally and professionally. in describing her experiences, ann injects the following phrases repeatedly: “i’ve been wrestling” and “i’m torn”in relation to a pressing dilemma concerning difficulty reconciling her “tendency to want to deal with issues that kids will be able to look at and learn from, and apply in their daily lives so that we don’t make the same mistakes we’ve made in the past” with her tendency to “not want a group of inner-city kids who think that the only thing they can learn about is race.” during our final interview, with the distance from the fray of school-life that midsummer brings, ann includes, in her talk about this dilemma, reflections on what she recounted during our previous interview session: the experience of being “stopped in her tracks” in response to her student’s intervention via a genuine, poignant question during class (as briefly described earlier). while re-visiting the thoughts she had while reading the transcript from our second interview, ann conveys insights gained with regard to her dilemma. this is captured in the following excerpt: how do i help them make sense of what they see in the media; what they hear on the news; and [help them] not feel when they look at that, that it’s those people’s fault, and that black people are inherently stupid, or black people are inherently chumps; but to understand the construction of race in our country; and to understand the construction of poverty in our country, and how it has been created, and what we can do to tear it down. but, then i’m torn, thinking, ‘i don’t want them to think that this is the only thing i think that they can wrestle with.’ so, while ann and cesar both demonstrate having “nested, interacting epistemological perspectives”44 with regard to the students they teach, they simultaneously reveal 43 lyons, “dilemmas of knowing,” 1990, p. 162. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 132 qualitatively different epistemic commitments. cesar communicates a seemingly unilateral choice not to delve into the issue of eugenics in his course largely because of a protective concern around the emotional dimension of this issue, specifically in terms of his african american students. during our interviews, he does not hint of questioning this assumption; nor does he indicate a sense of openness to self-challenge his position by attending, and participating in, a race and membership institute. he presents his choice as a “done deal.” ann, on the other hand, conveys a sense of “the relativism of all knowledge, that is, that all knowledge is a human construction”45 in the way she talks about addressing the history of and issues relating to the eugenics movement with her students. she communicates a sense of responsibility to guide students to “see the construction of race in our country, and to understand the construction of poverty in our country, and how it has been created, and what we can do to tear it down.” she wants them to delve into “this muck” in order to face it, and move through it towards “not feeling…that black people are inherently stupid, or black people are inherently chumps.” at the same time, with her demonstrated willingness to engage in practice-based reflection, she reveals a complex growing edge – seemingly on the threshold of transformation – in the way that she presents her dilemma, not as a “done deal” choice, but with a sense of profound internal “wrestling” that reflects a relational orientation. juxtaposing alexa and andre’s narratives viewing and analyzing the narratives of alexa and andre side-by-side offers a compelling example of how the teachers in my study who were more forthcoming and reflective in their respective descriptions of the influence of formative life experiences also expressed their sense of purpose and vision as educators in greater depth, in a way that reflects a relational orientation. besides the fact that both alexa and andre teach in urban schools that are, as they each describe, organizationally dysfunctional in similar ways – and that both teachers articulate commitments to foster student civic learning – they have differing perspectives. this is so not only in terms of background, years of experience, and teaching approach, but also, perhaps, in terms of their awareness dimension levels; this seems particularly so vis-a-vis their respective epistemic stances in relationship to/with their students. in juxtaposing the narratives of alexa (a caucasian female in her mid-forties who has been a classroom teacher for thirteen years, and has actively integrated facing history and ourselves in her teaching/curriculum), and andre (a latino male in his mid-twenties who as a new classroom teacher was/is and actively integrating workable peace in his teaching/curriculum), i aim to highlight how they each talk about formative experiences; in doing so, i present the palpable differences i see, regarding their respectively conveyed epistemic stances. 44 ibid. 45 ibid., p. 163 in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 133 alexa alexa’s narratives reveal an approach different from what the other teachers in my study communicated, in myriad different ways, in terms of “putting [oneself] out there every day” in addressing the social, emotional, and moral dimensions of students’ learning. unlike the others, alexa did not indicate openness to self-reflection during our in-depth interviews. according to my across data analysis, her guarded interview responses have a qualitatively different tone than all of the nine other teachers. her extensive use of facing history materials and methodology seems linked to pragmatic external orientation type teaching goals. concomitantly, based on my interpretations of her interview reflections, alexa brings herself into her teaching in a more pragmatic way. along these lines, she stresses that she is a “reliable role model” for the urban students she teaches, given her business background, and the fact that she “was the first person in her family to attend college.” her emphasis on self-reliance is a key part of her overarching teaching purpose for her students “in the urban environment.” for example, alexa describes her overarching teaching goals as such: to help kids become self-reliant, and to train them to take on responsibility for their actions, and for the choices that they make, and to feel confident and competent about the choices that they make in their lives… i’m going to try my best to get them ready to be functional, and participatory. consistently, in various ways throughout our interviews, alexa boils down “what facing history is about” to “choices and decision-making.” she asserts that facing history’s materials influence her pedagogy in a way that “allows kids to think about all the different choices that can be made, and think about all the possible consequences of those choices.” yet, her interview descriptions convey a sense of guardedness in terms of presenting multiple viewpoints, delving into controversial issues, and “bringing herself into her teaching.” rather than “fostering [students’] relational competencies and skills in a transactional way”46 – a key component of a relational orientation, alexa consistently evidences (across all three interviews) an approach more focused on “providing students with the tools to function in society.”47 this is indicative of an orientation that falls short of being “integrated and context-based” as a relational orientation in selman and adalbjarnardottir’s schema. two examples stand out from our interviews. one is connected to alexa’s description of her response to two students’ respective commentaries during a class period. the second has to do with her communicated resistance to address issues concerning u.s. involvement in wars, in the middle east, with her students. 46 robert selman, the promotion of social awareness: powerful lessons from the partnership of developmental theory and classroom practice, new york: russell sage foundation, 2003, 149. 47 ibid. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 134 first, in response to my open-ended question about the ways in which she approaches conflict with her students, alexa depicts a specific situation that transpired in one of her classes. she describes how two african american students, after reading the assigned first two sections of michael patrick macdonald’s memoir, all souls: a family story from southie (1999), joined each other in declaring, in their respective ways, “[the author is] a white racist!” alexa explains that she responded by telling these students: “you need to be able to learn how to put yourself into somebody else’s shoes, and see what is happening in that person’s life at the time…to help understand where that person is coming from.” comparatively interesting, is her subsequent commentary on the sequence of events that followed: like, after section 4 [of all souls], they finally got it. i didn’t hear anything else about him being racist…i kind of made their thinking a little bit straighter, and to be more receptive to the work…they totally had like a ‘slap across the face.’ it kind of woke them up a little bit; how awful this guy’s life had been…and, we didn’t talk about him being racist ever again kind of thing. while she does describe encouraging her students to engage in perspective taking in this instance, she indicates that the main purpose in doing so – in a more one-dimensional way as indicated – was to “make their thinking a bit straighter.” alexa does not hint at, in any way, being “stopped her in her tracks” in the way that ann described experiencing what she viewed as “illuminating,” albeit “loaded” student interventions. instead, alexa describes responding to her students’ remarks in a way that essentially short-circuited potential for a related discussion, generated by questions, with consideration of multiple perspectives. again, the second example has to do with alexa’s candidly communicated resistance to address controversial issues pertaining to the role of the u.s. in war – in iraq and afghanistan – with her students. when i invite her, during our first interview, to elaborate on how she approaches conflict with her students, and in particular how she had addressed the controversial war in iraq, given evident nation-wide tensions, felt at almost every level, she unabashedly expresses her view that “it is not the place in [her law and justice classes] to have those conversations about war:” it is not the place in my classroom to have those conversations about war. i mean i’ll give a class period to enlighten these guys [so] everybody’s clear about the players, and the issues. but, really, there are so many other things that are more pertinent to the content at hand, and [this law and justice class] is not a place for it…i have too much that i am more interested in, and things that i need to cover specifically, to get through the content that i deliver. during our final interview session, alexa elaborates further on her stance vis-à-vis controversy surrounding the war in iraq: in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 135 i don’t think it was a political issue for me; why i didn’t talk about the war. it was more content driven…i wasn’t anti-war. i wasn’t pro-war. it didn’t seem to me that it was the place to have the conversation about it. my politics don’t enter my classroom. i try to give them whatever issue we’re studying; as many sides of that issues, or as many perspectives about this that i can give them. i allow them to draw their own conclusions, but be able to tell me why. based on alexa’s explanation of her approach in the above two excerpts, it seems clear that her position on this issue – specifically, “it is not the place in [her law and justice] classroom to have those conversations about war” – is driven by her own persuasions. this is evidenced in the following embedded statements: “i have too much that i am more interested in;” “i would rather use my materials in other ways;” and, “i didn’t go into a whole lot of stuff, because…it wasn’t on my radar screen.” while it can certainly be argued that a course focused on law and justice is a fitting arena for discussions – however limited, time-wise – around the legal and justice dimensions of the war in iraq, the superseding issue for alexa seems to be resistance to delve into this particular controversial inter-group conflict, laden with palpable social, moral, and political dimensions. as she explains several times during our interviews, “my politics don’t enter my classroom.” whilst alexa asserts, at the conclusion of the above excerpt, that she “tries to give as many sides of issues, or as many perspectives that [she] can give them, [to] allow them to draw their own conclusions, [and] be able to tell [her] why,” it seems that such a process tends to be controlled, according to her bounded purposes. the following excerpt, from our second interview, is illuminating in terms of her underlying, pragmatically focused approach: i’m much more of a leveler, and a reality check for them. i’m not a bleeding heart liberal. i’m like a socialist. i’m like a very hard core…i’m like a very liberal republican! i’m a big conservative. but, i try not to let my politics enter into the classroom. i just try to be tough, and have expectations for them, because nobody has any expectations of them. and, nobody has any guidelines, or rules or regulations at home. in terms of formative experiences in connection with alexa’s approach, and her guiding philosophy as an educator, she is markedly more guarded than the other participants. when i invite her, in different ways over the course of our interviews, to talk about such formative experiences/influences vis-à-vis her shift into the field of education (after five years in the business world), and her decision to teach in an urban environment, she responds with a variation on the following statement, at every turn, “that’s a really interesting question; because i really don’t know…i really can’t say.” after furthering probing, she asserts, in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 136 you know, people will ask me, ‘why did you go work in this urban environment? do you have some great passion to commit yourself to the urban student cause?’ and, i’m like, ‘no! not really.’ i don’t know if i thought i could make a difference. but, i knew i had experience that i could bring to the table that could be of some assistance to them. they’ll be the first ones to tell you that i have high expectations, and i work them to the bone. i don’t have a social justice bleeding heart, at all. when i ask alexa to explain what she means by “a social justice bleeding heart,” she responds via continued elaboration on her self-perceived role as a teacher in the same urban high school over the past ten years: there’s so many people that go into education because they think that they want to, you know, solve the problems of urban blight and poverty …and the unheard, and the downtrodden, and stuff like that. and, i’m like, if you create excuses, and you create experiences, or you want to save somebody, then you immediately victimize them…i have kids who love to tow the color line, the poverty line any chance they can get. and, i’m like, “this is the land of opportunity. you know, what kind of opportunity are you going to make for yourself?” i’m not going to listen to the complaints. so…i’m not a bleeding hearted liberal. andre unlike alexa, andre spoke forthrightly and substantively about his background and direct life experiences during our interviews; in doing so, he identifies what most influenced his decision to move into high school teaching. while the profound influence of his parents, certain teachers, and his high school upward bound program provided nurturing guidance towards this pathway, it was the weight of his direct experiences with racial discrimination, conflict and violence – both in and outside of formal schooling – that have informed, and drive, his overarching goal to “empower [young people] to have agency” through teaching. knowing first-hand, through his own painful experiences, about the “calamities…of inner-city schools” he expresses a deep commitment, as a “young man of color,” to work with adolescents in urban areas, because he believes he is “needed there:” i had already been in and had heard about all the calamities with schools, especially inner-city schools; about how poor they are, and about how we don’t have good teachers, especially teachers of color, and young men of color. so, i figured, well, i’m needed there. i mean, i’m needed there to…because there are few people that are like me, that are in these situations, and few people who feel that education is the key to empower to youth, not just to like have them memorize content and data; i mean, it’s about empowering them to have agency…and, so i decided to teach. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 137 andre talks reflectively about his purposes as a teacher, including his draw to workable peace, with depth and a sense of passion. coupled with his overarching goal “to empower [young people] to have agency” is his commitment to guide his students to approach conflict constructively, in terms of their self-awareness and skills, in the realms of both social interactions and academic discourse. this commitment is deeply rooted in his own painful, personal experiences with violence, and his own journey towards selfrealization and agency: so, violence was always like a very real thing. it wasn’t like an imaginary thing. so, i could see how it can happen. i had been engaged in several fights, and several friends of mine had been in fights. so, i saw my friend die, and i had my own life threatened. and, i think by then i was also just maturing more and more, and just having more self-awareness of my own self, and feeling more confident, and being able to talk about conflict, and to talk about altercations, and being comfortable in my own voice. throughout andre’s interview transcripts, there is ample evidence of how his commitment to the socio-moral and civic dimensions of learning and teaching are rooted in his own life experiences, and are integral to his sense of purpose as an educator. the following excerpt captures the essence of this multi-layered and deep-rooted driving purpose: the goal to me of being a teacher is to allow the person to really be able to understand the society around them, and that meaning like the laws, that meaning what the responsibilities are as a citizen – not only to their families, but their communities, and to the nation as a whole. and, if they should choose to do so, be able to have the ability to act …well, i think along with that, i think it is also important for them to develop a social consciousness; in other words, understanding what their social location is in relation to, in relationship to other people, and what kind of…having them understand, in their own way, what those responsibilities are to other people. and, you really can only do that by understanding what your political rights are, and understanding what the socialpolitical system that you live in…so, as a teacher, how can i develop that understanding of society and politics that’s engaging them on a daily basis? how can they develop that consciousness? and, then, secondly, how can they develop the skills that will give them the agency to act within that sphere, within that circle, within that world? in “the kind of classroom [he wants] to have” andre leans towards experiential learning where students have the opportunity to “take on the role of the different perspective, or different person” because “it becomes more emotional” and “allows for greater depth of understanding.” this is what draws him to the workable peace curriculum. yet, regardless of whether it is workable peace or other “kinds of activities and teaching methodology” andre reveals a strong commitment to encourage his students “to have in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 138 some sort of struggle with some ideas” through “exposing [them] to other perspectives.” quite dissimilar from what alexa suggests evidence of in her interview responses, andre believes it is important, in terms of his philosophy of teaching, to “let his perspective come out” as part of the process: i have no issue with the fact that my views may not be the most popular ones or they may be very strong. i think i can only express to them that this is my personal opinion if they ask me, sometimes even if they don’t ask me, i’m going to say it, but it’s all in the context of having them be exposed to other perspectives as well. if not then, even if i say it’s my opinion it’s still going to dominate, i think, what they think about these issues because they are going to respect me and they’re going to look up to me so that would once again, to me, be a responsibility. andre’s statements in the above excerpts are actually part of his response to my questions around how, if at all, issues surrounding the war in iraq were addressed in his classes. unlike alexa, he explains how he delves into this controversial subject with his students: “in so many different ways…just talking about historical conflict. i mean, these were the questions that the students would pose. so, it went many different ways.” he posits that this ongoing situation is an “obvious example” of a “teachable moment where you can really connect with something that is contextual and really in your life.” in his view, addressing this current conflict on the world stage “has to do with [a teacher] wanting to find a place for it.” on this point, andre asserts, “a responsible teacher would try to find a way in which you can interject at least some of the reasons why something [e.g. the war in iraq] is happening within the historical time period, which is what i try to do.” moreover, in his view, “not shying away from conflict,” but instead, “working through issues” – whether in terms of current issues or the realm of intra-group social interactions in the classroom – “allows [his students] to grow more in the long run.” he elaborates: i guess what i’m talking about is just patience…in other words, like keep coming back to the same issues, not avoiding them. and, because the initial reaction from a lot of students who deal with issues that they’re uncomfortable with, or that they feel will cause trauma in the class choose to not speak, and say, “okay, if we’re going to talk about race, then i won’t talk today.” and, i think, just continuing to encourage them to still wrestle with it. and, even if it is uncomfortable, to be all right being uncomfortable with it, and keep wrestling with that topic. and, you do that by continuously bringing it up, and not shying away from it; not shying away from conflict in other words. in our second interview, while elaborating further on this point, andre adds, “it goes back to your own values and your own understanding… you have to be comfortable with in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 139 making students uncomfortable, i think, sometimes. [this] goes hand-in-hand only if you are supportive and only if you already have a good relationship with them.” though andre is a neophyte teacher, with just one full-time teaching year under his belt, his interview narratives consistently evidence a deeply reflective relational orientation. in contrast, alexa, who has been a classroom teacher for thirteen years, consistently evidences in her talk, a less reflective, less complex orientation – specifically in terms of selman and adalbjarnardottir’s schema, and lyons’ “nested knowing” conceptualization. making sense of juxtaposed narratives in comparing the narratives of cesar and ann, as well as alexa and andre, i illustrate how in relation to different degrees of “nested knowing” awareness, there are concomitant differences in terms of “professional awareness” complexity. again, the teachers in my study who were more forthcoming and reflective in their respective descriptions of the influence of formative life experiences also expressed their sense of purpose and vision as educators in greater depth, articulating a commitment to foster socio-moral and civic learning in transactional, “nested knowing” ways. this is most clearly illustrated via the juxtaposition of alexa and andre’s interview data. the juxtaposition of narratives i present also conveys teachers’ differences with regard to their approaches to conflict and controversy in the classroom. ann and andre both suggest (albeit in their own particular ways) a view of “accepting conflict as endemic and even useful” in their descriptions around experiencing “contradictions within themselves and their work.”48 cesar and alexa, in very different ways and for different reasons, suggest a tendency to view classroom, curriculum-oriented controversy – at least in terms of the specific controversial issues they respectively name and describe – more as “a burden that needs to be eliminated.”49 this is particularly so for alexa, especially in terms of her approach to the following “thorny” issue of whether or not to be transparent about her own beliefs and opinions. in alexa’s case, her assertion that her “politics don’t enter [her] classroom,” and her stated refusal to address the controversial war in iraq evidence her view of such conflict as a burden. essential implications for teachers’ personal/professional development my study findings point to the critical importance of professional development that supports and encourages teachers to manage teaching dilemmas, and controversy, in constructive ways – in relation to and for the benefit of their students. indeed, the 48 magdalene lampert “how do teachers manage to teach? perspectives on problems in practice,” harvard educational review, 55, 1985, p. 192. 49 ibid. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 140 complexity of the challenges that come with teachers’ work to foster social-emotional, ethical, civic, and academic learning are not “technical challenges” to be confronted via “informational learning,” but “adaptive challenges”50 that “require not merely knowing more but knowing differently.”51 it follows that such teachers “are in need of supports to transformational learning.”52 when transformative learning occurs, according to jack mezirow, “we transform our frames of reference through critical reflection on the assumptions upon which our interpretations, beliefs, and habits of mind or points of view are based”53. it effects changes, as kegan elaborates, not only in the behavior of a person, and “not just the way he feels, but the way he knows – not just what he knows but the way he knows”54. such a profound consciousness shift involves one’s understanding of self as well as one’s selflocations in the broader community/world. the import of a transformative learning process is reflected in mezirow’s following assertion: “in contemporary societies we must learn to make our own interpretations rather than act on the purposes, beliefs, judgments, and feelings of others…transformative learning develops autonomous thinking.”55 the development of – including, importantly, the movement towards – “autonomous thinking” is essential for teachers who strive to approach with competence the complex nature of the myriad challenges and teaching dilemmas they face in their work. the “multiple and competing role expectations” that come with the complex dilemmas inherent to the “moral craft” of teaching – particularly for those committed to fostering students’ social-emotional, ethical, civic, and academic learning – “demand” as kegan asserts, “something more than mere behavior, the acquisition of specific skills, or the mastery of particular knowledge. they make demands on our minds, on how we know, on the complexity of our consciousness.”56 therefore, professional development approaches should provide teachers with a “holding environment” that offers a balance of support and challenge;57 such a 50 ronald heifetz, leadership without easy answers. cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 1995. 51 robert kegan, “what “form” transforms? a constructive-developmental approach to transformative learning,” in j. mezirow (ed.), learning as transformation. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass publishers, 2000, p. 65. 52 ibid. 53 jack mezirow, "transformative learning: theory to practice." in: transformative learning in action: insights from practice. new directions for adult and continuing education. no. 74, edited by p. cranton, san francisco, ca: jossey-bass, 1997, p. 7. 54 robert kegan, in over our heads: the mental demands of modern life. cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 1994, p. 17. 55 mezirow, “transformative learning,” 1997, p. 5. 56 robert kegan, in over our heads, p. 5. 57 transformational learning is nurtured via a “holding environment” – a learning environment that provides a balance of challenge and support (winnicott, 1960; cited in, kegan, 1982:115). as kegan asserts, this environment "provides both welcoming acknowledgment of exactly who the person is right in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 141 support/challenge balance can nurture teachers to competently and “readily express the capacity to reflect on how the psychosocial needs of both students and teachers relate and interact”58. to be effective, intentional professional development “holding environments” need to consider teachers’ varying tendencies towards reflection, and differences in terms of self-complexity, vis-à-vis conceptual capacity. such varying tendencies are illustrated in my study, particularly via the qualitatively different approach of alexa in comparison to others, such as ann and andre’s. whereas alexa’s narratives focus more on “providing students with the tools to function in society,”59 ann and andre’s are more “integrated and context-based” as a relational orientation in selman and adalbjarnardottir’s schema. while ann’s narratives are presented as viewing classroom issues/interventions that “stop [her] in [her] tracks” as illuminating, and conducive to an interactive exploration of multiple perspectives, alexa instead describes responding to loaded student interventions in a way that essentially short-circuits potential for such discussions. professional development programs such as facing history and workable peace need to also take into account these varying tendencies and capacities. this is particularly so for facing history and ourselves, given that this program transparently purports the following key aspect of its philosophy: “teachers are adult learners who creatively construct the specifics of what and how they teach”60. concomitantly, different teachers experience the program’s content, resource materials, and methodology differently. indeed, this is illustrated by the described experiences of the teachers in my study. the clearest example is found in the juxtaposition of cesar and ann’s narratives regarding their different approaches to the subject of the eugenics movement via the race and membership scope and sequence. again, cesar communicates a seeming unilateral choice not to delve into the issue of eugenics in his course largely because of a protective concern regarding the emotional dimension of this issue. ann, on the other hand, conveys a sense of “the relativism of all knowledge, that is that all knowledge is a human construction.”61 such are the different epistemological stances that professional development programs such as facing history and workable peace need to approach intentionally – for all teachers who participate in their respective summer institutes, ongoing workshops, now…and fosters the person's psychological evolution. as such, a holding environment is a tricky transitional culture, an evolutionary bridge, a context for crossing over” (kegan, 1982:115). 58 sigrun adalbjarnardottir, “citizenship education and teachers’ professional awareness,” citizenship education and the curriculum, edited by d. scott & h. lawson. westport, ct: ablex publishing, 2002, p. 132. 59 robert selman, the promotion of social awareness: powerful lessons from the partnership of developmental theory and classroom practice, new york: russell sage foundation, 2003, p.149. 60 www.facinghistory.org 61 lyons, dilemmas of knowing, 1990, p. 162. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 142 and one-on-one pedagogical support. such intentional awareness, among supporting program associates can provide essential “holding” – with a balance of support and challenge – for teachers according to their different awareness level orientations, à la selman and adalbjarnardottir’s developmental lens schema. such awareness can help programs to distinguish between support that enables less complex awareness levels, and that which is conducive to transformational learning and development. concluding perspective: transformational learning potential this [professional development] course has been emotionally challenging and intellectually stimulating…[it] has pushed me to redirect many of my personal and professional goals. it has begun a change in who i am as a person, which will inevitably transform what i do in my classroom.62 facing history online course participant in the above quote, this cited anonymous teacher points to the transformative learning potential fostered by professional development programs like facing history and ourselves (and certainly workable peace, one can infer). more specifically, this statement, particularly the “it has begun a change” part, points to the threshold of transformational learning potential for teachers, in terms of their epistemological growing edge. in other words, as conveyed in the above quote, there can be a palpable feel of shifting in terms of “frame of reference” – towards a teacher becoming “more critically reflective of [his or her] assumptions and aware of their context”63. this critical reflection component is at the heart of transformational learning. so, how can professional development programs more effectively support teachers to engage in “transformational reflection” as they work to transform what they do in their classrooms? how can these programs better recognize and support teachers at the growing edge of their thinking and meaning-making? echoing the above teacher’s excerpt, the findings from my study palpably point to the need for qualitatively more effective professional development support for teachers who engage in the “moral craft” of fostering social-emotional, ethical, civic, and academic learning. the complexity of the multiple challenges the high school teachers i interviewed describe experiencing point to the inextricable cognitive and emotional demands that come with teaching to foster social-emotional, ethical, civic, and academic learning among adolescent students. furthermore, the interview data from my study also points to a range in how teachers a) make sense of these demands, and b) whether they “see” and interact with these demands in ways that promote transformational learning. as sprinthall et al. assert, teachers’ professional and personal “competence will grow through qualitatively distinct stages when there is positive interaction in a supportive environment;” yet, as they continue, new teachers “as well as experienced teachers will 62 www.facinghistory.org 63 mezirow, “transformative learning,” 1997, p. 19. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 143 vary in their capacity and ‘willingness’ to engage in reflection.”64 therefore, professional development programs that aim to foster “positive interaction in a supportive environment” in order to promote transformational shifts among teachers, must be mindful of this capacity-for-reflection range, along with the epistemological dimensions of teachers’ learning. in his chapter, what “form” transforms? a constructive-developmental approach to transformative learning, kegan clearly delineates the core distinctions between learning processes that are transformational – with focus on epistemological change and those that are informational, while at the same time recognizes the value of each. he underscores this distinction for the purpose of countering the all too frequent misuse of transformation language to denote any change process: learning aimed at changes not only in what we know but changes in how we know has an almost opposite rhythm about it and comes closer to the etymological meaning of education (“leading out”). “informative” learning involves a kind of leading in, or filling of the form. trans-form-ative learning puts the form itself at risk of change (and not just change but increased capacity)…both kinds of learning are expansive and valuable, one within a preexisting frame of mind and the other reconstructing the very frame65. kegan explains how learning shifts such as “changes in one’s fund of knowledge, one’s confidence as a learner, one’s self-perception as a learner, one’s motives in learning, one’s self-esteem,” while any/all are certainly important, and worthy of being facilitated, they do not necessarily involve transformation, “because they could all occur within the existing frame of reference”66. the complexity of the challenges that come with teachers’ work to foster socialemotional, ethical, civic, and academic learning are not, in the words of heifetz, “technical challenges” that can be confronted via “informational learning,” but “adaptive challenges” that, as kegan asserts, “require not merely knowing more but knowing differently”67 – with need of “supports” for transformational learning. such transformational reflection “supports” are key in helping teachers to confront, rather than avoid, the inevitable conflicts, ambiguities and tensions, and contradictions within 64 n. sprinthall, a. reiman,, and l. thies-sprinthall, “teacher professional development,” in handbook of research on teacher education (2nd edition), new york: macmillan, 1996, p. 689 65 kegan, “what ‘form’ transforms? a constructive-developmental approach to transformative learning,” 2000, p. 47. 66 ibid., p. 51. 67 ibid., p. 65. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 144 themselves and their work”68 – towards working through “conceptual issues…in order to assume an effective stance towards ethical dilemmas that arise in the classroom.”69. conclusion who is the self that teaches? …this is the most fundamental question we can ask about teaching and those who teach – for the sake of learning, and those who learn.70 parker palmer, the courage to teach: exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life this “most fundamental question” is an essential one for history/social studies teachers who have an increasingly complex “explicit pedagogical responsibility for promoting their students’ social, moral, and emotional growth.”71 as asserted at the outset of this paper, such teachers “have a key role in organizing constructive and meaningful experiences for students in citizenship education.”72 indeed, those who hold an intentional commitment to reflectively promote their students’ social-emotional, ethical, civic, and academic learning are persistently summoned to a place of inner exploration. this is particularly so with regard to conflict, a perennial and critical dimension of teaching to promote social-emotional, ethical, civic, and academic learning. again, the process of delving into conflict and controversy is a key avenue for cultivating perspective-taking capabilities; and, the cultivation of social perspective-taking –a core capacity for citizenship awareness and participation – is at the heart of “constructive and meaningful experiences for students in citizenship education”73. as evidenced by the narratives of the teachers in my study, delving into conflict and controversy is complicated and challenging. palmer writes candidly about how dealing with conflict in the classroom is an “ancient angst” that he himself still sinks into, despite the fact that his “stockpile of [teaching] methods is substantial.” regarding this pivotal phenomenon, he offers the following admission: 68 magdalene lampert “how do teachers manage to teach? perspectives on problems in practice,” 1985, p. 194. 69 william damon, “teaching as a moral craft and developmental expedition,” 1992, p. 145 70 parker palmer, “the heart of a teacher: identity and integrity in teaching,” in the jossey-bass reader on teaching. san francisco: jossey-bass, 2003, p. 7. 71 sigrun adalbjarnardottir “’i feel i have received a new vision’: a developmental analysis of teachers’ professional awareness of their work with children on interpersonal issues,” 1997, p. 409 72 sigrun adalbjarnardottir, “citizenship education and teachers’ professional awareness,” 2002, p. 132. 73 ibid. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 145 the techniques i have mastered do not disappear, but neither do they suffice. face to face with my students, only one resource is at my immediate command: my identity, my selfhood, my sense of this “i” who teaches – without which i have no sense of the “thou” who learns.74 palmer’s admission reveals a profound, sage insight; it is one that resonates with many of the narratives shared by the teachers in my study, as variations on a theme. while there is a range of consciousness among them, with regard to this “i” sense as a “resource…at immediate command,” all of the teachers in my study convey growing edge movement, albeit in varying ways, in relationship to this fundamental, vital resource. in this paper, i have attempted to illustrate the different ways in which the teachers who have participated in my small-scale interpretive qualitative research study all communicate deeply held commitments to engage in the complex and moral craft of guiding students towards personally/socially responsible citizenship awareness and participation. in presenting the complex interplay of issues and choices that these teachers describe encountering, as dilemmas with conflict and morally-laden dimensions, i also portray how, in lyons’ words, “practical choices, with ethical uncertainties [as part] of teachers’ everyday interactions… involve their growth and development as practitioners”75. again, as asserted at numerous points in this paper, a teacher’s potential “growth and development” hinges on his or her capacity for engaging in reflective practice. 74 parker palmer, “the heart of a teacher: identity and integrity in teaching,” 2003, p. 4. 75 nona lyons, “dilemmas of knowing: ethical and epistemological dimensions of teachers’ work and development,” 1990, p. 161. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 146 references sigrun adalbjarnardottir, “citizenship education and teachers’ professional awareness,” citizenship education and the curriculum, edited by d. scott & h. lawson, westport, ct: ablex publishing, pp. 131-149, 2002 sigrun adalbjarnardottir, “tracing the developmental processes of teachers and students: a socio-moral approach in school.” scandinavian journal of educational research, vol. 43 (no. 1), pp. 57-79, 1999. sigrun adalbjarnardottir, “’i feel i have received a new vision’: a developmental analysis of teachers’ professional awareness of their work with children on interpersonal issues,” teaching and teacher education 13(4): 409-28, 1997. jennifer g. berger, exploring the connection between teacher education practice and adult development theory. unpublished doctoral dissertation, harvard university graduate school of education, cambridge, ma, 2002. jennifer g. berger, “dancing on the threshold of meaning: recognizing and understanding the growing edge.” journal of transformational education, 2(4), pp. 336-351, 2004. sheldon berman, “the bridge to civility: empathy, ethics, and service,” school administrator, 55(5), pp. 27-32, 1998. sheldon berman the development of social responsibility. unpublished doctoral dissertation, harvard university graduate school of education, cambridge, ma, 1993. kathy bickmore, “teacher development for conflict participation: facilitating learning for difficult citizenship‟ education.” chapter 36 in j. arthur & i. davies (eds.), citizenship education, volume 3: towards practice. (original published in international journal of citizenship and teacher education 1:2, september 2005; republished by request), 2008. kathy bickmore, practicing conflict: citizenship education in high school social studies. unpublished dissertation, stanford university, palo alto, ca, 1991. w.l. carruthers, b.j.b. carruthers, n.l. day-vines, d. bostick, & d.c. watson, “conflict resolution as curriculum: a definition, description and process for integration in core curricula,” the school counselor, 43(5), p. 356, 1996. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 147 kathy charmez, “grounded theory: objectivist and constructivist methods,” in n.k. denzin & y.s. lincoln (eds.), handbook of qualitative research (second ed., pp. 509-535). thousand oaks: sage publications, 2000; a. strauss, & j. corbin, basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (second ed.). thousand oaks, ca, 1998. d. clandinin, & f. connelly, “teachers’ personal knowledge: what counts as ‘personal’ in studies of the personal.,” journal of curriculum studies, 19 (6), pp. 487-500, 1996. jonathan cohen, “social, emotional, ethical, and academic education: creating a climate for learning, participation in democracy, and well-being,” harvard educational review, 76:2, 2006. jonathan cohen, ed., educating minds and hearts: social emotional learning and the passage into adolescence; foreward by howard gardner. new york: teachers college press, 1999. william damon, “teaching as a moral craft and developmental expedition. in f. oser, a. dick, & j-l patry (eds.), effective and responsible teaching: the new synthesis (pp. 139-153). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass, 1992. deborah a. donahue-keegan, fostering the socio-moral and civic learning of high school students: what does it mean to/for teachers? unpublished doctoral dissertation, harvard university graduate school of education, cambridge, ma, 2005. maurice elias, “prepare our children for tests of life, not a life of tests,” education week, 21(4), 40, 2001; collaborative for academic, social and emotional learning (casel), http://www.casel.org/basics/skills.php b. glaser & a. strauss, the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. new york: aldine, 1967. maxine greene, “teaching as possibility: a light in dark times,” in the jossey-bass reader on teaching. san francisco: jossey-bass, 2003. andrew hargreaves & michael fullan, introduction to understanding teacher development, edited by a. hargraeves & m. fullan, pp. 1-19. new york: teacher's college press, 1992. ronald heifetz, leadership without easy answers. cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 1995. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 148 david johnson & roger johnson, “energizing learning: the instructional power of conflict,” educational researcher, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 37-51, 2009. david johnson & roger johnson, “constructive conflict in the schools,” journal of social issues, 50(1), pp. 117-137, 1994. robert kegan, “what “form” transforms? a constructive-developmental approach to transformative learning,” in j. mezirow (ed.), learning as transformation. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass publishers, 2000 robert kegan, in over our heads: the mental demands of modern life. cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 1994. robert kegan, the evolving self: problem and process in human development. cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 1980. p. king & k. kitchener, developing reflective judgment: understanding and promoting intellectual growth and critical thinking in adolescents and adults. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers, 1994 magdalene lampert “how do teachers manage to teach? perspectives on problems in practice,” harvard educational review, 55, 1985. mark hugo lopez and emily hoban kirby, “u.s. civics instruction: content and teaching strategies” fact sheet, the center for information and research on civic learning and engagement (circle), august 2007. e. lowenstein, teachers transformed? exploring the influence of “facing history and ourselves” on teachers’ beliefs about citizenship and civics education. unpublished dissertation, the steinhardt school of education, new york university, new york, ny, 2003. nona lyons, “dilemmas of knowing: ethical and epistemological dimensions of teachers’ work and development,” harvard educational review, 60(2), 1990. joseph maxwell, qualitative research design: an interactive approach. thousand oaks:sage publications, 1996. jack mezirow, "transformative learning: theory to practice." in: transformative learning in action: insights from practice. new directions for adult and continuing education. no. 74, edited by p. cranton, san francisco, ca: jossey bass, 1997. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 119-149 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 149 nel noddings, educating moral people: a caring alternative to character education. new york: teachers college press, columbia university, 2002. parker palmer, the courage to teach: exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass, 1998. parker palmer, “the heart of a teacher: identity and integrity in teaching,” in the jossey-bass reader on teaching. san francisco: jossey-bass, 2003. robert selman, the promotion of social awareness: powerful lessons from the partnership of developmental theory and classroom practice. new york: russell sage foundation, 2003. robert selman and sigrun adalbjarnardottir, “promoting and analyzing teachers’ understanding of students’ social awareness: lessons from iceland.” in the promotion of social awareness: powerful lessons from the partnership of developmental theory and classroom practice, by robert selman, new york: russell sage foundation, 2003. robert selman, the growth of interpersonal understanding: developmental and clinical analyses. london, new york: academic press, 1980. kathy simon, moral questions in the classroom: how to get kids to think deeply about real life and their schoolwork. new haven, ct: yale university press, 2001. a. strauss, & j. corbin, basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (second ed.). thousand oaks, ca, 1998. thayer_ellison final   in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 15 volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ learning to trust our teachers barbara j. thayer-bacon and scott ellison university of tennessee bthayer@utk.edu introduction we have a friend who is a secondary teacher from china and she asked us a hard question. after a couple of years of taking courses about american education, where she read much of the current research and critical analysis of schools in the u.s., and after spending time observing in american schools and listening to americans talk about their schools and teachers, hongmei peng asked one day, “why do you americans not trust your teachers?” how insightful for her to notice, and how intriguing it is to hear that we are obvious in our mistrust, and that people in other parts of the world may not feel the same way about their teachers. she further asked: “why are you willing to send your children to be with teachers you do not trust?” good question!   in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 16 the case can be made that in america we used to trust our teachers and respect them, as able to share knowledge of their subject material and maintain control over their environment. yet, we trusted them in a way that we will find in this essay is problematic for democratic theory. we viewed teachers as having authority and stood in awe of their abilities to handle a tough but very important job, the educating of our young. the role trusted teachers participated in historically could be compared to acting like shepherds, taking care of their flock, the students. teachers were viewed as adult authorities, some more benevolent, some more authoritarian, but all deserving of respect and deferential treatment by their students.1 however, it can be argued that america’s trust of their teachers as shephards has been eroding for some time and that this can be seen through the tracing of educational policies developed by various u.s. presidents. some argue that distrust of u.s. teachers began with the launching of sputnik by the russians during the cold war, and the concern that american students were behind their international peers in science and math skills. this distrust continued to build during the johnson and nixon years, with the closing of black schools (whose teachers were judged to be incompetent, even though there is much evidence to the contrary). most agree that at least beginning with ronald reagan’s presidency, social concern for the need to compete economically at an international level and the worry that america’s students were falling behind japanese students, for example, triggered a distrust in u.s. teachers that they were not doing their jobs as well as the country needed. this distrust continued to build with george bush sr.’s goals for the year 2000, which were written by bill clinton, as chair of the governors association before he became the next u.s. president, and with george w. bush jr. and his “no child left behind” policy (nclb), to today, with barack obama’s appointment of arne duncan, as head of the department of education and their “race to the top” policy. unfortunately, there is plenty of educational research of teachers in the past fifty years to show that america’s mistrust of teachers is not without warrant. educational researchers have collected data on teachers in terms of their discriminatory practices against african american, latino, and native american students, immigrant students in general where english is not their first language, and children whose parents are poor and/or lacking in schooling themselves. in the 1950’s-60’s researchers turned their spotlight on the issue of racial discrimination, in the 1960’s-70’s social class and gender 1   michael w. apple, “teaching and ‘women's work': a comparative historical and ideological analysis,” teachers college record, 86 (1985): 445-473; w. elsbree, the american teacher: evolution of a profession in a democracy (new york: american book, 1939); d. c. lortie, schoolteacher: a sociological study (chicago: university of chicago press, 1975); don warren (ed.), american teachers: histories of a profession at work (new york: macmillan, 1989).     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 17 became more of a focus, and in the 1970’s attention to the lack of education for children with special needs such as physical disabilities drew researchers’ attentions too. in the 1980’s new sociology work uncovered more evidence of inequality and further criticized teachers. in the 1990’s the reports and criticism continued in such forms as kozol’s savage inequalities, and in the 2000’s kozol’s shame of the nation.2 one can argue that critique of teachers from scholars who are politically aligned on the left (influenced by marx, gramsci, freire for example) has been made in an effort to achieve equality through better public education. this same critique of teachers has been used by scholars who are politically aligned on the right (influenced by classical liberalism and laissez-faire capitalism for example) in an effort to improve public education, and has resulted in encouraging the privatization of schools through proposals for more competition and choice in schools, in the forms of charter schools and vouchers for private school attendance. both efforts have led to a push for more accountability with teachers and have resulted in a de-professionalization of teachers as the teachers are not being allowed to hold themselves accountable to their own standards as other professions do. where we sought to professionalize teachers in the 1970-80’s and recognize they should be able to judge themselves in terms of their qualifications and their ethical behavior, we are now de-professionalizing them through our imposed, topdown accountability system (nclb, race to the top) that demonstrates our lack of trust. there are international models we can turn to for evidence that teachers can be trusted and treated as professionals (finland and japan for example), but it’s important that americans examine our lack of trust for teachers in the u.s. we want to argue that positioning teachers, principals, and superintendents in shepherd roles, or even the national president in a similar role, is contrary to democracy as an ideal. democracy must be built on relationships of equality. we need to model democracy in our schools so that our children/students can grow up to become good democratic citizens having had much opportunity to practice the needed skills for active participation as citizens. it is through teachers trusting that students want to learn that students are emancipated and obliged to use their own intelligence, rather than stultified by their teachers. it is through administrators, legislators, and citizens trusting that teachers want to be the best teachers they can be, and are capable of being intelligent, ethical professionals, that teachers are emancipated too. modeling democracy in our schools means learning to trust our teachers and our students. for this essay our attention will be on teachers. jacques rancière is a current french political philosopher who is contributing 2jonathan kozol, savage inequalities (new york: crown, 1991). jonathan kozol, shame of the nation (new york: crown, 2005).     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 18 much to democratic theoretical discussions. in this essay we plan to begin with a description of rancière’s definition of democracy and his explanation of the eurowestern world’s long-standing hatred of democracy. his example of the stages of development french education policy has gone through in the past thirty years are very similar to what the u.s. has experienced and will make for an easy comparison. we will describe his stage one and two theory and then demonstrate how the current case is being made for democracy’s failure in the u.s., using as our example research on public schools that think tanks are using to make the case for a need to assess students with high stakes tests that hold teachers accountable for what they are (not) teaching american students. rancière makes the case that we must start from the point of view of equality, asserting equality, assuming equality as a given in order to have the hope of achieving democracies someday, treating democracy as an ideal, always-in-the-making. “by contrast, anyone who starts out from distrust, who assumes inequality and proposes to reduce it, can only succeed in setting up a hierarchy of inequalities, a hierarchy of priorities, a hierarchy of intelligences – and will reproduce inequality ad infinitum.”3 we want to argue, in agreement with rancière, that if we want to have a public education system that supports a democracy we need to trust our teachers and view them as equally intelligent and capable (equal to administrators, researchers, and policy makers), for democracy and education both depend on relationships of equality. democracy in the hatred of democracy, rancière helps us understand that democracy is based on a fundamental belief in equality, not a reign of excess or individual satisfaction, as it has been framed since the days of ancient greece by plato or aristotle.4 much of the hatred of democracy is devoted to showing plato’s and aristotle’s continued influence on what we think of as ‘democracy’ and the problems their influence has caused for democracy. contrary to the idea that democracy is a form of life of individuals dedicated to their private pleasure, rancière argues democracy is a process of struggle against this privatization. he sees democracy as the process of enlarging the public sphere. for rancière, democracy does not strictly designate either a form of society or a form of government, “it is specifically this ungovernable on which every government must ultimately find out it is based” (p. 49). the power of the people is always beneath and beyond particular forms of political government. 3   jacques rancière, on the shores of politics, liz heron (trans.) (london & ny: verson, 1995), 52.   4 jacques rancière, hatred of democracy, steve corcoran (trans.) (london & ny: verso, 2006). page numbers for quotes will appear directly in the text.     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 19 rancière describes that the heart of the problem and fear of democracy is that “democracy is the whim of the god of chance” (p. 41). democracy is a ‘law of chance’ that undermines titles of birth (first born, highborn, parents over their children, old over the young), master over slave, and titles due to nature (strongest over the weakest, those who know over those who are ignorant). democracy is based on the type of title considered most just, the one who has “the favor of heaven and fortune,” “the choice of the god of chance” (p. 40). with democracy comes politics, hand-in-hand, for “politics is the foundation of a power to govern in the absence of foundation” (p. 49). this is where politics begin; this is the scandal for those who fear democracy, to bow before the law of chance. politics begin when the power of birth is undermined, and that is what democracy stands for, an equality that cannot be undermined due to one’s family position, one’s race, class, or gender for example. “this is what the democratic process implies: the action of subjects who, by working the interval between identities, reconfigure the distributions of the public and the private, the universal and the particular” (p. 61-62). for rancière, the democratic process is a process of inventing forms of subjectification and cases of verification that counteract the perpetual privatization of public life. rancière originally published hatred of democracy in 2005, during past president g. w. bush’s second term in office, with the u.s. involved in the iraq war, which bush said he committed the u.s. to in an effort to stir up democracy in the middle east. rancière uses bush’s iraq war policy as an example of the potential that is there for leaders to take a “shepherd” role when they do not trust the stirring of passions and disorder that democracies create and consequently they make compromises with democracy. as a social and political form of life, rancière argues that many leaders view democracy as the reign of excess. when we do not trust the idea of everyone being free and equal, and all differences being respected, we seek to find ways to maintain order through our constitutions (such as the u.s.’s constitution where the framers set up a republican government with an electoral college choosing the president, instead of the majority votes of its citizens) and our military (such as the u.s. bringing freedom to the iraqis by using the u.s. military to topple the iraqi leader, saddam hussein). from the perspective of distrust of leaders, a good government is a pastoral government, similar to plato’s republic and the guardians. rancière shows us that a hatred of democracy is not new by tracing the distrust and what he calls a “hatred of democracy” back to plato, where “democracy” was originally used in ancient greece “as an insult by those who saw in the unnameable government of the multitude the ruin of any legitimate order” (p. 2). he argues that what we have today is a new form of hatred of democracy, an equation of democracy that collapses the political, the sociological, and the economical into one plane. rancière worries that when we reduce democracy to a form of society, and define this form of   in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 20 society as the reign of the egalitarian individual, we create this equation: mass individualistic society = democracy = the pursuit of limitless growth. this equation is supported by the logic of the capitalist economy. some have placed the latest antidemocratic discourse as beginning in the 1980’s (for the u.s., when ronald reagan was president, for the u.k., when margaret thatcher was prime minister) when the classical liberal view of democratic citizens as ‘egoistic individuals’ was replaced by a more capitalist view of democratic citizens as ‘greedy consumers.’ however, rancière shows how marx described this process quite well 150 years ago in the communist manifesto. “the thesis of the new hatred of democracy can be succinctly put: there is only one good democracy, the one that represses the catastrophe of democratic civilization” (p. 4). we do not necessarily agree with rancière on his position that the problem of democracy is that we have collapsed the political, social, and economic together. in fact, in other works of ours, we have argued that a key problem with democracy is that we don’t understand how interconnected the political, social, and economic are.5 however, we do share with rancière his concern that there is a general distrust (his term is stronger, hatred) of democracy, and there is currently a troubling effort to shrink the public spaces that are so vital to the continuing development of democracy, one of those vital public spaces being public schools. stage 1: the case for failure – cynicism in hatred of democracy rancière lays out the stages describing how the new form of hatred of democracy developed in france from the 1980’s to present. we can find the same stages in the u.s., following the same historical timeline. for rancière, stage one took place in the 1980’s, starting with the pessimistic accounts of our social institutions. in terms of educational research, this decade marks a time of significant critique of our public school systems as being inept and discriminating against children and families who are poor, working class, have limited education levels, have minority status, and/or are girls. critical theory scholars in the u.s. such as henry giroux, peter mclaren, michelle fine and lois weiss critiqued america’s public school systems for their inequality, as part of the new sociology of education, relying on work by 5   barbara thayer-bacon and scott ellison, beyond liberal democracy in schools: the power of pluralism (ny: teachers college press, 2008). barbara thayer-bacon, “in the shadow of hegel: toward a methodology appropriate to the sociological consciousness of philosophic inquiry,” education & culture 26, no. 1 (2010), 44-66.     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 21 sociologists such as pierre bourdieu, and anthropologists such as john ogbu.6 rancière demonstrates how sociologists win every round in terms of being able to show that the public schools have not fulfilled their egalitarian promises. however, he argues that their research causes democracy to lose every round, as a result, for the research turns us into cynics who no longer believe in the quality of the work of our teachers in our public schools. if we no longer feel that we can trust our teachers and our public schools, we lose a major public space needed for a democracy. we want to show how this has occurred in america through research on think tanks and their influence on educational policy. a recent book by canadian journalist naomi klein entitled the shock doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism points its readers toward an often overlooked political strategy articulated by milton friedman in the preface to his famous book capitalism and freedom, and it is this political strategy that provides us with a powerful hermeneutical tool for understanding the trajectory of the political right with regard to education policy over the past three decades. there is enormous inertia – a tyranny of the status quo – in private and especially governmental arrangements. only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. when that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. that, i believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible become politically inevitable.7 what friedman details here is a long-term political strategy in which the political right 6 henry giroux, ideology, culture and the process of school (barcombe, england: falmer, 1981); henry giroux, theory and resistance in education: a pedagogy for the opposition (south hadley, ma: bergin & garvey, 1983); henry giroux, schooling and the struggle for public life (minneapolis: university of minnesota press, 1988); peter mclaren, schooling as a ritual performance (london & ny: routledge, 1986); peter mclaren, life in schools (new york: longman, 1989); michelle fine, framing dropouts: notes on the politics of an urban high school (ny: suny, 1991); lois weis (ed.), class, race, and gender in american education (albany, ny: suny press, 1988); pierre bourdieu and jean claude passeron, reproduction in education, society, and culture (beverly hills, ca: sage, 1977); pierre bourdieu, distinction: a social critique of the judgment of taste (cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 1984); john ogbu, minority education and caste: the american system in cross cultural perspective (ny: academic press, 1978).   7   milton friedman, capitalism and freedom: fortieth anniversary edition, 1st ed. (university of chicago press, 2002), xiii-xiv.     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 22 constructs a foundation of knowledge and policies to lie in wait for an inevitable crisis to create opportunities for achieving its political goals. friedman's capitalism and freedom is a foundational text of the modern conservative movement in the u.s. just as much as william buckley's god and man at yale, and it has provided the right with a road map for overturning what conservatives have long seen as the legacy of fdr's social and economic policies. looking back at the recent history of american politics and education policy, friedman's legacy is evident. throughout the late 1960's and the 1970's, the right took this political strategy to heart and began constructing an elaborate web of think tanks and policy institutes funded by philanthropic foundations created by business groups and wealthy individuals that actively worked to create a flexible framework of political and education policy solutions in search of crises. the result has been the rise of an industry of knowledge production and political advocacy that seeks to exploit socio-political crises – actual, perceived and manufactured – to advance corporatist policies and to chip away at the edifice of the liberal welfare state. the history of the think tank can be traced back to the early 20th century. reflecting the progressive era's faith in expertise, these early think tanks were research institutions in the truest sense. think tanks carved out a niche in the american political system between academic knowledge production and policy formation. selling themselves as bridges between the academy and government, think tanks were to provide the “scientific knowledge” needed to make government more efficient and to formulate practical policy capable of achieving its intended purposes. these early institutions may have been funded by large endowments provided by the industrial philanthropists of the era, but their ability to gain access to both policy makers and continued sources of funding were closely linked to their perceived credibility and the neutrality of the research they produced.8 however, a shift in federal budgetary priorities during the 1960's and an increased assertiveness by philanthropic foundations on the research they funded fostered a shift of think tanks away from the government model that characterized their institutional models throughout the first half of the century toward a more politicized model where institutions developed identifiable ideologies and policy agendas.9 the increasing assertiveness of the business community in the political sphere, the re-emergence of neo-liberal economic theory and shrinking government monies created the perfect environment for an 8   andrew rich, think tanks, public policy, and the politics of expertise, (cambridge: cambridge university press, 2005), 39-40.   9 ibid, 44-49.     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 23 explosion of politicized research institutions whose audiences were no longer policy makers exclusively but the average voter. the corporations and individuals who provided huge sums of money to an ever increasing number of policy centers, research institutes, and advocacy groups did so with strings attached. funding came with restrictions that were project specific, short term and examined issues that reflected the “interests” of the donor[s] with the intent of advancing a specific political agenda.10 with an increase in targeted funding coming from corporate donors, think tanks adopted modern business practices to market their research to the larger public in order to achieve specific political goals that overwhelming reflect center-right and right political ideologies.11 it was a shift in the modus operandi of the modern political think tank toward the construction and advocacy of government policies that serve explicitly corporate interests. this new political constellation of think tanks, philanthropic foundations and business lobbies established the intellectual foundation for a rightward shift in american politics that achieved its first major political victory in the election of ronald reagan as president in 1980. this rightward shift [re]introduced into the national lexicon the concepts of an “education crisis” and a “teacher union monopoly.”12 these concepts became the subject of countless policy briefs and books published by think tanks and their resident scholars, such as the heritage foundation13 and the hoover institute14, and they provided the reagan administration with a powerful message frame to undermine public confidence in public schools and teachers in order to push for a greater private sector role in public schooling.15 shortly after taking office, the reagan administration created a blue ribbon panel 10 james g. mcgann, think tanks and policy advice in the united states (new york: routledge, 2007), 58-59.   11 donald e. adelson, “from policy research to political advocacy: the changing role of think tanks in american politics”, canadian review of american studies, 25, no 1 (1995): 93-126.   12   interestingly, these concepts were reminiscent of those employed during the post-sputnik era of education reform.   13 for example: thomas ascik, “department of education” (heritage foundation policy brief, april 23, 1979).   14 for example: milton friedman and rose d. friedman, free to choose (harcourt brace jovanovich, 1980). milton friedman was a resident scholar at the hoover institute from 1976 until his death in 2006.   15 charles l heatherly, edwin j feulner, and heritage foundation, mandate for leadership: policy management in a conservative administration (washington, d.c.: heritage foundation, 1981).     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 24 of experts and business leaders called the national commission on excellence in education to evaluate the state of public schooling and the challenges facing the institution. in april of 1983 the commission published an open letter entitled a nation at risk: the imperative for educational reform.16 advocating tougher academic standards, an emphasis on 'the new basics' and increased teacher training and merit pay, a nation at risk adopted many of the concepts from earlier periods of education reform, such as the need for rigorous standards and the professionalization of teaching. however, what made a nation at risk unique is the manner in which the commission chose to frame public debate and make its case for reform. published during the 1983 recession and coming on the heels of a decade of economic shocks, risk successfully linked education reform to public concerns over the economy and generated a wave of reform proposals and education reports across the nation. “in literally every major report, school reform [was] considered to be the key corrective to america's failing economy, and a more productive u.s. worker [was] heralded as the 'missing link' in recouping our global domination and supremacy.”17 taking its cue from friedman's strategy, the reagan administration sought to utilize an economic crisis to advance policy proposals crafted in think tanks and, as in the case of secretary of education bill bennett, it often employed think tank scholars to carry out those policy initiatives.18 however, the reagan administration was not just simply capitalizing on an economic crisis in a passive sense but was also actively manufacturing a crisis, an education crisis.19 couched in alarmist language, risk introduced into popular discourse the idea of an education crisis that worked to undermine public perceptions of both public schools and teachers, even going so far as to state that had another foreign power forced such a school system on the u.s. from without it would have constituted an “act of war.”20 framed in a narrative of economic competitiveness, the overarching education 16 national commission on excellence in education, a nation at risk: the imperative for educational reform, (april 1983).   17   christine m. shea, ernest kahane, and peter sola, the new servants of power: a critique of the 1980's school reform movement, (new york: greenwood press, 1990), 45.   18 prior to his 1985 appointment in the reagan administration, bennett was a scholar at the heritage foundation and the committee for the free world.   19 relation to sputnik and “educational defense” see: david b. tyack and larry cuban, tinkering toward utopia (harvard university press, 1995).   20 national commission on excellence in education, a nation at risk.     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 25 policy goal of the reagan administration was its pursuit of a policy of de-centralization first articulated by milton friedman and advocated by a plurality of conservative think tanks: school vouchers, tax credits and competition.21 the idea behind the school voucher movement was to essentially privatize public education by encouraging states to create an educational marketplace in which public schools would compete against private schools [forand non-profits] for students and resources by linking funding to individual students. the assumption of these school voucher proposals was that the inherent superiority of the private sector over the bureaucratic public sector would mean that any such competition would result in the elimination [or at least significant reduction] of publicly operated schools. however, pushing through such an ambitious reform policy required that the reagan administration and the political right mount a public relations campaign to convince a plurality of american voters that public schooling is a failed institution. i'd like to talk with you today about a subject of paramount concern to every american family -the education of our children. you may have heard the disturbing report this week by the national commission on excellence in education that i created shortly after taking office. their study reveals that our education system, once the finest in the world, is in a sorry state of disrepair. we're a people who believe that each generation will stand upon the shoulders of the one before it, the accomplishments of each ever greater than the last. … yet today, we're told in a tough report card on our commitment that the educational skills of today's students will not match those of their parents. about 13 percent of our 17-year-olds are functional illiterates and, among minority youth, the rate is closer to 40 percent. more than two-thirds of our high schoolers can't write a decent essay. our grade is a stark and uncompromising ``u'' for unsatisfactory. we must act now and with energy if we're to avoid failing an entire generation.22 a common refrain of reagan administration officials and think tank experts alike was 21 for example: ronald reagan, “remarks to members of the national catholic educational association,” http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/40783b.htm; clint bolick, “solving the education crisis: market alternatives and parental choice,” in beyond the status quo: policy proposals for america, ed. david boaz and edward h. crane (cato institute, 1985), 312; eileen marie gardner, “the education crisis: washington shares the blame” (heritage foundation policy brief, may 11, 1984).   22   ronald reagan, “radio address to the nation on education,” http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/43083b.htm     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 26 that american public schools were failing and that this failure constituted a threat to the american way of life, an expression that often refers to a perceived threat to the continuance of u.s. political and economic dominance on the world stage. importantly, one of the chief villains that emerged from these political narratives were public school teachers. it was during the 1980's that the specter of teachers' unions emerged as an educational establishment obstructing academic excellence, rewarding mediocrity, and protecting ineffective teachers. indeed, teachers were the subject of a great deal of criticism from the political right throughout the 1980's often portrayed as being academically weak and ill-prepared to teach challenging subject matter, especially in areas deemed important for global economic competition such as math and science. many of those entering teaching today do so because they either cannot or will not succeed in more demanding careers. this, in turn, depresses the quality of teacher colleges and education departments.... teacher colleges and education departments stress education and methods courses rather than those with substantive discipline content. in the case of science, such emphasis could produce science teachers who may know something about teaching methods but who could know little about science. … the present process of acquiring a teaching certificate effectively removes education from consideration by many--probably most-of the brightest and the best.23 from a purely political perspective, targeting teachers as being a root cause for the “education crisis” makes perfect sense. one of the most politically powerful institutions in the nation involved in public education policy is the national education association (nea). representing millions of public school teachers, the nea constituted a major roadblock to policies designed to undermine the public role in education and was a natural target for a political bloc already antagonistic to organized labor. further, one of the key elements of political message framing is the construction of a unified object of critique with which to compare and contrast the pressing educational needs of the protagonist nation against the antagonistic interests of the status quo.24 thus, 'teachers' and 'teachers unions' became one of the primary antagonists of a larger political narrative of education crisis and reform. 23   eileen gardner, “closing the math and science gap” (heritage foundation policy brief, may 6, 1983).   24 james carville & paul begala, buck up, suck up… and come back when you foul up (new york: simon & shuster, 2002), 108-109.     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 27 in the end, the 82'-83' recession and the manufactured education crisis accompanying it proved to be an insufficient crisis to spark the kind of sweeping reforms envisioned by the political right. however, looking at the long-term trajectory of national education policy since then, the reagan years made a solid contribution to the general erosion of trust in public education and public school teachers. it was during the 1980's that the political right cemented the idea of an educational crisis related to global economic competition into american political discourse, and it established the narrative of inadequate teachers represented by bureaucratic unions as being one of the greatest barriers to achieving the kind of quality education system the nation needs to be “competitive.” this public distrust of teachers fostered by the political right has since become one of the central tenets of modern educational policy. stage 2: appropriation the critiques of the public schools that were so strongly developed during the 1980’s from the left as well as the right, helped to develop a “syllogism of suspicion,” as rancière describes this development in hatred of democracy. added to the critiques of our social institutions were a push for mass consumption and a growth of consumer narcissism, both aimed to put individual satisfaction and collective rule in perfect harmony. in america, we can see this in how the 1980’s decade was labeled “the me decade.” ‘democratic individualism’ meant burying an earlier critique of consumer society that had developed during the 1960’s and instead creating a favorable identification of democracy with consumerism, which developed during reagan’s term as president in the u.s. according to rancière this is how democracy was reduced to a state of society instead of a political state, with the equation looking like this: the ‘consuming individual’ = ‘salaried worker’ = ‘democratic man (sic).’ this logic explains how it was possible that by the time george w. bush was president of the u.s. in the 2000’s, he could advise americans to go shopping, as their patriotic duty, in response to 9/11 and the terrorist attack made by al qaeda on u.s. soil. the ultimate logic of the argument is that democracy is a fraudulent regime that presumes luxury is a possibility for the poor. this consumerism focus makes ‘democratic man’ (sic) a person abused by the forms of society whereby division is at once perpetuated and disguised.25 25   rancière ignores the topic of gender completely and imposes a male perspective as if it is universal in the works cited here. it could be that part of the problem is due to translating his work from french to english, but language alone does not take care of our discomfort. he neglects to address gender in his examples, and there is no evidence of feminist influence on his thinking, when there is evidence that he seeks to address race and class as basic social categories of importance to democratic theory. since feminist theory is used to help us move forward in the final section, it’s important that rancière’s   in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 28 if stage one is where the case for failure is made, turning us into cynics who no longer believe in the quality of the work of our teachers in our public schools, stage two turns democracy, defined as a state of society, into an anthropological catastrophe – a self-destructive humanity. this stage took place in the u.s. (and in france, according to rancière) with the quarrel over education and the case made by scholars on the right and the left describing our public schools as places of educational underachievement (bourdieu’s sociological thesis and ogbu’s anthropological thesis). the debate seemed to be about the means of achieving equality – and forms of inequality, and what public authorities could and should do to remedy social inequality. the root of evil that was eventually identified was ‘democratic individualism.’ the denouncement of ‘democratic individualism’ works to bring together two theses: the classic thesis of property owners (the poor always want more), and the thesis of refined elites (there are too many individuals claiming the privileges of individuality). “(i)ndividuality is a good thing for the elites; it becomes a disaster for civilization if everybody has access to it” (p. 28). the issue used to be about transmitting the universality of knowledge and its egalitarian power. today, as a result of stage one’s success at achieving cynicism, and stage two’s convergence and colonization success, we are back to perceiving good government as pastoral government, a view, contrary to democracy, that goes back to plato’s republic and the guardians. how has this stage played out for teachers in america’s public schools? the 1990's were a period of convergence in education policy in which both political parties adopted similar policy approaches albeit from different directions. the election in 1992 of 'new democrat' bill clinton hailed a shift in the american political left that would quickly become manifest in the administration's education policy. 'new democrats' were decidedly more business friendly than the more liberal base (e.g. mcgovern, kennedy) that dominated the party during the 1970's and 80's. influenced by the business community's continuing concerns over educational attainment and economic competitiveness, concerns grounded in the alarmist ideas of the 1980's, the clinton administration shifted the focus of education policy away from issues explicitly related to equity, such as inadequate funding for impoverished schools, toward a focus on innovation.26 a new consensus began to emerge on the left that public schools were under-performing and that this failure was not simply an issue of resource allocation but was, instead, systemic. at the same time, growing frustration over the continued neglect of urban and impoverished schools among many civil rights groups and activists led to androcentrism be exposed in the text.   26   elizabeth debray-pelot and patrick mcguinn, “the new politics of education: analyzing the federal education policy landscape in the post-nclb era,” educational policy 23, no. 1 (january 1, 2009), 23.     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 29 the development of grassroots support for policies traditionally associated with the political right, such as school choice and vouchers.27 the result of these shifts within the political left became manifest in the clinton administration's goals 2000 which increased pressure on states to raise standards, develop assessments, construct rigorous accountability regimes and increase school choice options for parents, such as the voucher programs that began in milwaukee and washington d.c. at first glance, the republican take-over of congress in 1994 would appear to have been a major setback for a democratic administration attempting to increase the role of the federal government in what the republican party platform had consistently framed as being a task best left to individual states, not to mention the republican's continued advocacy for the privatization of the institutional mandate of public schooling. indeed, the new republican majority initially set about the dismantling of the federal role in education policy, for example elimination of the department of education, only to be met with public distrust and political failure. the outcome of this development was profound. as a result, congressional republicans accommodated themselves to the continued existence of federal education programs but set out to reform them in line with conservative principles. this shift was enormously important because it created an opening for republican policy entrepreneurs inside and outside of government to advance an alternative policy agenda in education for the first time.28 the political right's response to public support for federal involvement in education policy was a practical “if you can't beat them, join them” approach that led not to the abandonment of its long-term political goals but to a re-branding of policy from 1996 forward that shifted its strategy for achieving those political goals. the political right shifted its strategy away from policies designed to de-centralize the provision of public schooling to individual states to a decidedly top-down approach that constructed a rigid federal structure that would make the ultimate privatization of the institutional mandate of public schooling a fait accompli. george w. bush's signature education policy no child left behind passed into law in 2002 with broad bi-partisan support, including noted liberals such as ted kennedy, and it appropriated much of the legislative agenda of the new democratic approach of the clinton era. however, the underlying policy goals remained little changed from the reagan era. nclb constructed a policy framework of increasingly impossible academic goals and accountability 27 ibid., 26.   28 ibid., 24.     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 30 regimes coupled with loosely regulated charter school programs that institutionalized crisis and privatization. it institutionalized friedman's method of utilizing crises [actual, perceived or manufactured] to advance a decidedly corporatist approach to education policy. perhaps, what is most notable about nclb is the shift in narrative it represents. as in the 1980's, a powerful force driving education policy at the turn of the new century was and continues to be the ever expanding number of think tanks and policy-centers now actively lobbying policy-makers, publishing popular books and op-eds, and participating on expert panels for television news shows. the expanding scope of philanthropic organizations funding think tank-based research projects and charter school programs has had a significant impact on shaping policy debates and popular discourse over schools, and they are now able to exert significant influence on policy formation across the political spectrum, democratic and republican.29 the convergence in education policy that emerged in the 1990's created the political space for a new articulation of power to be constructed around the familiar themes of educational crisis and economic competitiveness dating back to a nation at risk and the colonization by business interests, philanthropic organizations and the political right of one new theme traditionally associated with the political left: equity.30 convergence opened the door for colonization, and the antagonists written into this new political narrative were familiar ones. the nclb era has been marked by the political narrative of an educational crisis linked to larger discourses of economic competition and now equity. think tank scholars have published numerous books whose central theses are built around the assumption of failing public schools; and a general consensus on policy has emerged among institutions associated with the political left, such as the brookings institution and the center for american progress, and the political right, such as the american enterprise institute and the hoover institute. most often framed by international comparisons, this narrative of an on-going educational crisis is being constructed as an economic issue that disproportionately affects minority and low-income communities.31 likewise, one of the 29   janelle scott, “the politics of venture philanthropy in charter school policy and advocacy,” educational policy 23, no. 1 (2009): 106-136; christopher lubienski, peter weitzel, and sarah theule lubienski, “is there a "consensus" on school choice and achievement?: advocacy research and the emerging political economy of knowledge production,” educational policy 23, no. 1 (2009): 161-193.   30 for example: frederick m. hess, revolution at the margins, january 1, 2002, http://www.aei.org/book/466   31   for example: david t. kearns and james harvey, a legacy of learning (brookings institution press, 2000); kevin r. kosar, failing grades: the federal politics of education standards (lynne rienner   in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 31 chief antagonists that has emerged from this political narrative is again public school teachers and teachers unions. teachers are consistently portrayed as being underqualified,32 under-prepared33 and aligned with institutions that have strong incentives to act as a barrier to needed reforms. the most common articulation of this narrative goes as follows: teachers unions are in the business of protecting member jobs, and they would like to ensure that all of their members are deemed highly-qualified and remain employed. the education schools stay in business by certifying teachers, so they oppose policies by which teachers could become certified without graduating from an ed school, and they oppose rigorous tests that large numbers of their graduates might fail.34 indeed, this political narrative of institutional failure, ill-prepared teachers, resistant unions and entrenched colleges of education shaped public debate over nclb and has become cemented in contemporary education discourse. the obama administration's “race to the top” initiative is but the latest incarnation of friedman's political method of using crises as a tool for policy reform, and it employs the same tried and true political narrative. elected in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the great depression (2008), the obama administration has adopted and sought to extend the policies of nclb by wringing concessions out of states suffering severe budget crises to further open the door to private actors in public schooling, construct standardized curricula and assessments, and implement rigorous accountability measures to hold teachers and administrators accountable for results in exchange for billions of dollars in funds appropriated by the economic stimulus package passed by congress in spring of 2009. and, again, these policies are wrapped in the publishers, 2005); herbert j. walberg and joseph lee bast, education and capitalism (hoover press, 2003); frederick m. hess, common sense school reform, 1st ed. (palgrave macmillan, 2004); national center on education and the economy, tough choices or tough times: the report of the new commission on the skills of the american workforce (jossey-bass, 2006).   32 frederick m. hess, with the best of intentions: how philanthropy is reshaping k-12 education (harvard educational pub group, 2005), 158.   33 frederick m. hess, a qualified teacher in every classroom?: appraising old answers and new ideas (aei press, 2004), 140.   34 ibid., 180.     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 32 political narrative of economic competition,35 educational inequity36 and ill-prepared teachers.37 as we write this essay, our local paper’s news is a push by our state governor to approve sweeping educational changes in a special session he’s calling to occur in one week’s time that will seek to legally allow the state to link performance evaluations and tenure decisions for teachers and principals to student testing results. the governor is surprised that the state’s main teachers' union is opposed to some of the proposals. these legislative changes are necessary for the state to have a chance to qualify for a share of the $4 billion in federal “race to the top” money obama’s administration has set aside. the teachers are not opposed to annual assessments, but they are opposed to having 50% of their annual evaluation be based on “a snap-shot test score of one day.”38 refusing to cooperate positions the teachers as if they don’t want to be evaluated (they’re afraid they will be found lacking) and they don’t care that the state is in a financial crisis and the schools will suffer if they don’t qualify for the federal funding. taken from this perspective, we can see that the erosion of trust in public schools and teachers hasn't simply been cultivated; it has been institutionalized. the nihilist interpretation of the argument of suspicion, which in america is best represented by conservative republican views, is countered by a positive political interpretation based on ‘reduction of inequalities,’ which in the u.s. is best represented by the u.s. congress’s passing of “no child left behind” (nclb) legislation for the public schools. enough time has passed in the u.s. since the passing of nclb and enough research has been accomplished now to support rancière’s claim in hatred of democracy that “supposed efforts to make inequality explicit have rigidified it” (p. 54). the nihilist vision of school as a form of reproduction of inequality and the progressive vision of schools as an instrument for reducing inequalities concur in their effects and in their principles: “both start with inequality and end up with inequality” (p. 54). that certainly has been the case with nclb, where we started with the assumption that all students were not receiving the same high quality education and the very students we claimed we were seeking to help by holding their teachers more accountable, through 35   “u.s. secretary arne duncan issues statement on release of the u.s. students' rankings on international assessments of student achievement,” press releases;, august 18, 2009, http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/08/08182009.html   36 “secretary arne duncan speaks at the national science teachers association conference,” speeches and testimony, march 20, 2009, http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2009/03/03202009.html   37 “u.s. secretary of education arne duncan says colleges of education must improve for reforms to succeed,” press releases;, october 22, 2009, http://www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2009/10/10222009a.html   38 eric schelzig, “bredesen pushes school reform,” knoxville news sentinel, jan. 5, 2010.     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 33 testing the students and judging teachers’ abilities based on their students test scores, are losing ground after initially looking like they were improving. the students have lost a curriculum designed to meet their interests and needs, as their teachers are forced to teach to the tests since that is how they are being evaluated, and they have lost the dedicated teachers who had the most experience working with them, as their schools have been reconstituted when they failed the bench marks set up by nclb. in the place of seasoned teachers who were critical of the nclb policy, with reconstitution young, inexperienced teachers who are “moldable” are hired to take their senior colleagues’ places. many students whose needs were being met before nclb have found themselves removed from the schools altogether; special education and non-native english speaking students drop out rates have risen significantly since nclb went into effect for example, with those higher drop out rates benefitting the school test scores by removing their potential low scores and thereby raising more schools’ scores into the range of passing.39 trusting our teachers rancière has spent his life work meditating on equality and its connection to democracy. he has learned that we must start from the point of view of equality, asserting equality, and assuming equality as a given in order to arrive at democracy, after proving that if we start with assumptions of distrust and inequality, we can only continue to reproduce inequality. in the ignorant schoolmaster rancière makes the case for treating students as having equal intelligence, and trusting that students want to learn.40 it is through teachers trusting that students want to learn, are able to be attentive, and are willing to put in the effort to learn (they have the will), that students are emancipated and obliged to use their own intelligence, rather than being stultified by their teachers. rancière uses the fact that we all learn a native language, we all have the intelligence and 39   linda darling-hammond, “standards, accountability, and school reform,” teachers college record 106, no. 6 (2004): 1047-1085; michelle fine, reva jaffe-walter, pedro pedraza, valerie futch, and brett stoudt, “swimming: on oxygen, resistance, and possibility for immigrant youth under seige,” anthropology & education quarterly 38, no, 1 (2007): 76-96; kris sloan, “high-stakes accountability, minority youth, and ethnography: assessing the multiple effects,” anthropology & education quarterly 38, no. 1 (2007): 24-41; linda valli and marilyn chambliss, “creating classroom cultures: one teacher, two lessons, and a high-stakes test,” anthropology & education quarterly 38, no. 1 (2007): 57-75; linda valli and daria buese, “the changing roles of teachers in an era of high-stakes accountability,” aer j 44, no. 3 (2007): 519-558.   40 jacques rancière, the ignorant schoolmaster: five lessons in intellectual emancipation, kristin ross (trans.) (stanford, ca: stanford university press, 1991). page numbers for quotes will appear directly in the text.     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 34 will to learn how to communicate with others, to support his argument of equality of intelligence. he recognizes that intelligence cannot be isolated and measured and that we can never say: all intelligence is equal. “but our problem isn’t proving that all intelligence is equal. it’s seeing what can be done under that supposition. and for this, it’s enough for us that the opinion is possible – that is, that no opposing truth be proved” (p. 46). for rancière, intelligence and equality are synonymous terms, just as reason and will are synonymous terms. reason begins when equality is recognized. and, only an equal understands an equal. “equality is not given, nor is it claimed: it is practiced, it is verified.” (p. 137, emphasis in original). at the heart of rancière’s idea of emancipation is the notion of equality of intelligences, as the common prerequisite of both intelligibility and community. just as no knowledge is imparted without teachers and students speaking together as equals, no democracy is established without multitudes of egalitarian relations. our schools are places where students can experience this equality and learn how to be good democratic citizens, if we can learn to trust our students. however, creating a place where students experience equality is dependent on having a place where teachers experience equality as well, which means learning to trust our teachers, a topic rancière does not address but we are seeking to do so here. rancière’s significant contribution to democratic theory and educational theory is helping us understand that both democracy and education depend on relationships of equality. democracies are dependent on citizens who are able to make informed decisions because they are educated and view themselves as knowers.41 teachers who are able to share their authority with their students, or as rancière would describe, relate to their students as equals, and begin to view their students as teachers too, they will find that by sharing authority they empower their students, help them develop courage, teach them to be persistent and resilient, encourage their desire to learn, feed their curiosity and keep their love of learning alive. sharing their authority and treating their students as equals will also encourage their students to learn from their mistakes, develop the ability to be self-reflective, and help them recognize their own limitations (what they do not know). sharing authority also means that communities, even nations, need to trust their teachers as well, and recognize them as authorities, giving them the respect societies give to those who are viewed as knowledgeable and have valued skills that enable them to share with others what they know. in japan teachers enjoy a great deal of respect and are recognized as authorities in their subject areas, as well as valued for their skills in 41   barbara thayer-bacon, beyond liberal democracy in schools. these paragraphs are rewritten from chapter 5 and 7.     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 35 working with students. the japanese society trusts their teachers to do a good job and expects their children to work hard for their teachers. the japanese society in general values the work teachers do and recognizes their work as an important contribution to the society’s well-being. this respect and trust of teachers is expressed in all asian cultures influenced by confucianism, which explains our chinese friend’s perspective we shared in the introduction. confucianism stresses moral perfection and the important role education plays in helping us achieve moral perfection. a teacher at the elementary level is just as respected as a professor in higher education, and is given the same honorary title of sensei in japan.42 in the u.s., we say we value our public school teachers, but there are many things we do that undermines their authority, treats them as inferior, and shows a lack of trust. we demonstrate lack of respect for them as scholars as well as in terms of their skills in working with their students. the most obvious examples are the ways administrators in our public schools treat teachers: making teachers clock in and clock out of their work days, interrupting their teaching time with announcements and unscheduled tasks they need them to do (monitor the halls, proctor exams, escort their class to an assembly meeting), holding teacher meetings where administrators do all the talking and use it as an opportunity to make announcements, without asking for teachers’ input and suggestions and without giving them a chance to discuss their concerns. continually in the u.s. teachers are given the message that they are not trusted as authorities in their subjects, as skilled in working with their students, or at understanding the needs that must be considered in running a school. they are told what to teach, when to teach it, how to teach, and how to assess their students’ knowledge to be sure they learned what was taught. they are treated as part-time employees (9 month contracts) who work less than 40 hour weeks, with salaries that reflect these beliefs, not giving teachers credit for all the preparation work they do for their classes, as well as all the grading, and all the continual learning they do to stay current in their fields of study. we are all guilty, legislatures, community members, parents, students, and fellow teachers, of undermining teachers’ authority and treating them as inferior in america. in order for teachers to share authority in their classrooms with their students they need to first have authority to share. we need to offer them the respect they deserve for the important work they do, the degree of difficulty involved, and the significant level of knowledge needed to successfully teach. we are arguing that democratic theory depends on a concept of shared authority, equality as rancière describes this, which encourages the use of power in generative ways as well as protects us from the abuse of power in 42   h. w. stevenson, and j. w. stigler, the learning gap: why our schools are failing and what we can learn from japanese and chinese education (ny: summit books, 1992).     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 36 harmful, oppressive ways. a recommendation of shared authority in school settings assumes that the teachers have authority to share with their students. their authority comes from their claims of knowledge, they must have something they know and the student is the one who wants/needs to know. students gain in their authority as they become knowers as well, and are able to share what they know with others who wants/needs to know too. classical liberalism (the roots of u.s.’s democracy) is based on a distrust of others, a feeling that they cannot be counted on, that they might harm us, that they will not do their jobs unless we check on them and monitor them, and even threaten them if we need to, to make them work. it is based on inequality. we cannot build a democracy on individualism or egocentrism, we are in agreement with rancière on this point, for such a foundation positions the individual in contrast to others, and sets up a binary logic where we find ourselves having to choose either one or the other. distrust of others is not a good foundation upon which to grow a democracy. we must begin with valuing others and treating them with respect and dignity. we begin by practicing equality. fortunately we can look around us and see examples of societies that do trust their teachers to pass on what the society has determined is vital information for their young to have, and do offer their teachers a great deal of respect for their abilities to teach the future members of their society. in societies where teachers enjoy authority, as knowers, they can be places where authority is shared with their students, and their students are inspired and empowered as a result to become active participants in their society and help it thrive. darling-hammond identifies investment in teacher knowledge and skill-sets as being critical to increasing student learning and considers it a prime target for reform efforts.43 investments in the recruitment, hiring, and support of highly-qualified teachers help to build stable communities of teachers and make significant contributions to student achievement. reforms that set high standards for teacher qualifications are certainly necessary, however it is just as important to provide financial and professional incentives for attracting and keeping qualified candidates. darling-hammond places particular emphasis on providing structural supports for continued teacher learning and professional development as a key area for targeted investment. [s]chools and districts need to provide systematic supports for ongoing teacher learning in the form of time for shared teacher planning, opportunities for assessing teaching and learning, more exposure to technical expertise and resources, and opportunities for networking with 43   darling-hammond, “standards, accountability, and school reform,” 1078-1079.     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 37 other colleagues.44 investments in continuous teacher learning and capacity building requires structural supports that are now largely absent in the united states, however there is ample evidence suggesting that on-going, school-based, collaborative professional development projects make significant contributions to student achievement45 and teacher learning.46 re-structuring school schedules and resources to provide more opportunities for shared planning among teachers and building the professional capacity of school staff has been demonstrated to have positive impacts on teacher efficacy and is a common facet of public schooling in nations with successful education systems, such as japan and finland. “[w]hereas teachers in many other countries have as much as 15 to 20 hours per week for joint planning and learning, u.s. teachers have only 3 to 5 hours weekly for class preparation, usually spent alone.”47 in short, community-building policies designed to foster professional relationships among teachers’ present clear avenues for would-be reformers to proceed. indeed, much of the recent praise afforded to the educational achievements of finland are largely attributed to the significant investments the nation made during the 1990's to professionalize teaching and utilize those investments to drive educational innovation at the schooland classroom-levels.48 as a national policy, finland embraced the idea of research-based teaching and teacher training is university-based and geared toward producing teachers “who have the capacity to use research and research-derived competencies in their on-going teaching and decision-making.”49 once teachers enter the classroom, they work in small classroom settings situated within schools that provide ample space for professional development, information sharing, and collaboration among 44    ibid., 1079.   45 carla c. johnson, jane butler kahle, and jamison d. fargo, “a study of the effect of sustained, whole-school professional development on student achievement in science,” journal of research in science teaching 44, no. 6 (2007): 775-786.   46 milbrey mclaughlin and joan e. talbert, building school-based teacher learning communities: professional strategies to improve student achievement (teachers college press, 2006).   47 darling-hammond, “standards, accountability, and school reform,” 1080.   48 author. “hard-wired for innovation? comparing two policy approaches toward innovative schooling,” international education 39, no. 1 (2009), 30-48.   49 ian westbury et al., “teacher education for research-based practice in expanded roles: finland's experience,” scandinavian journal of educational research 49, (2005), 477.     in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 15-38 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 38 teachers.50 the lesson that emerges here is that instead of institutionalizing a distrust of teachers policy-makers should be making significant investments in the professional development of the teaching profession and, perhaps most importantly, policy-makers should seek to foster a “culture of trust” that affords teachers the high degree of autonomy commonly associated with being a “professional.”51 in the near term, this means that policy-makers must recognize that there is a great deal of institutional knowledge already present in the education system as it is presently constituted. thus, it would seem wise that policy-makers create a space for teachers to contribute to the formulation of education policy at the national level and to empower teachers to become change agents and innovators at the local level. in the long term, this analysis indicates that a wise course for policy-makers to follow would be to increase the institutional capacity of public schooling by making significant investments in university-based teacher education programs that emphasize content knowledge, pedagogical expertise and the skilled use of practice-based research in the classroom. 50 pasi sahlberg, “education policies for raising student learning: the finnish approach,” journal of education policy 22, (2007): 147-171.   51   ibid.     candice marie nasir final edit   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     320   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   contextualizing peace in islamic traditions: challenging cultural hegemony candice marie nasir joan b. kroc school of peace studies university of san diego representations of islam and muslims, perpetuated in popular media and elsewhere, continue to paint a picture of a people and religion plagued by violence, oppression, and fanaticism. these dominant images often include various groups and individuals who have resorted to extreme forms of violence in the name of ideological interpretations of islam, or subservient, shrouded women in dark veils. there is a stark contrast, however, between the dominantly projected hegemonic discourse on islam, and the realities of the strides being made by individuals in the field of peacebuilding who derive impetus for the transformation and negation of violent conflict from an interpretation of islamic faith, which locates peace as central to the goal of human history. the purpose of this paper is to offer a contextualizing framework for evaluating this incongruity. the first section seeks to conceptualize peace in an islamic context by exploring the relationship between islam and salam, as well as the significance of the associated elements and sources of truth informing both. section two will locate this understanding of peace in the foundational dimensions of islamic faith that provide a hermeneutic for discerning moral imperative, as enacted and reflected in the works of secular and religious-oriented peacebuilders. the third section examines this interpretation of faith in praxis as exemplified in the lives and contributions of four muslim builders of peace who appeal to a common vision of human dignity, peace, and unity as central to their religio-cultural traditions respectively. the conclusion will look at some of the conditions and constructs, which have significantly influenced the predominantly western assumption that islamic faith and traditions are   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     321   compatible with neither peace nor the transformation of conflict, and propose the preconditions for any approach to sustainable peace as demystification, education, and solidarity. i towards a conceptualization of salam “peace, unity, and equality...when we are in one place, when we live in one place, eat in one place, sleep in one place, disappear in one place, die in one place, when our final judgment is given in one place, and when we finally join together in heaven in one place, that is unity. even when we go to that (final) place, we all live together in freedom as one family, one group. in this world and in the next world we live together in freedom, as one family of peace. this is islam. if we find this way of peace, this is islam.” m. r. bawa muhaiyaddeen, god’s psychology: a sufi explanation despite the abundance of literature on the islamic values consistent with peace, there are not many works that explore the historical and contemporaneous contributions made by muslim peacebuilders. both secular and religious-oriented1 muslim actors represent a significant demographic within the field of peacebuilding. rarely, however, do we hear about the individuals and institutions that are working towards the creation of peace, inter-faith dialogue, the documentation of human rights abuses, and the efforts to raise awareness of the need for gender equity both inside and outside of islam.2 there are several reasons for this. a primary factor may concern the challenges of defining peace in an islamic context and thus, how peace is being achieved and by whom.3 contributing to the difficulty of conceptualizing peace are the dominant models and frameworks,4 which relying on the universality of reason and absolutist perspectives of the abstract – tend to resist alternative approaches to truth.5   ______________________________________________ 1. the terms ‘secular-oriented’ and ‘religious-oriented’ muslim peacebuilders in this paper are borrowed from rebecca barlow’s, “prospects for feminism in the islamic republic of iran,” human rights quarterly 30, no.1 [2008]: 38-39), in which she explains, the terms ‘islamic feminists’ and ‘secular feminists,’ “can be problematic as they tend to suggest that these streams of activism occur with static, definite, and mutually exclusive boundaries.” within a similar context, the terms used in this article – “religious-oriented” and “secular-oriented” feminists, “are more conducive to conveying the fact that although it may be possible to identity women as belonging to one or the other of these schools, they should be thought of as ideological starting points for activism, rather than as a strict indication of the confines of that activism and where it is intended to lead.” 2. abu-nimer, nonviolence and peace building in islam: theory and practice, [florida: university press of florida, 2003], 129; jack shaheen, and jeremy earp, “reel bad arabs: how hollywood vilifies a people,” vhs, directed by jeremy earp and sut jhally [northampton, ma: media education foundation, 2006]. here, “secular and religious-oriented muslim individuals,” refers to the actors in section three of this paper. 3. s. ayse kadyifaci-orellana, “critical approaches to religion and peacemaking: the case of muslim peace building actors,” [paper presented at the international studies association's 50th annual conference, new york, ny, february 29, 2009]. http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p313243_index.html; michael patrick lynch, “alethic pluralism, logical consequence and the universality of reason,” in midwest studies in philosophy: truth and its deformities, xxxii, ed.p. a. french and h. k. wettstein [oxford: blackwell publishing ltd., 2009], chapter 8.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     322   approaches to truth: the challenge of defining peace in the context of religious faith truth is grounded in a very specific appeal to authority, one which reflects an interpretation of the sacred, relative to the individual making the truth claim.6 the principles and practices of religious faith, including how peace is understood, are conveyed in the sacred and authoritative literature to which the faithful are connected. they are also significantly informed by often varying interpretations and thus, may not be accurately quantified through the narrow lens of any single worldview.7 the challenge of discerning how peace is being achieved is further complicated by the underavailability, or limited access to, ‘fair and balanced’ information in our nation, which is already plagued by under-education. this view is exemplified in the often sensationalist and politically charged discourse on islam and the ‘muslim world,’8 portrayed as systematic research and analyses by the media. the creation of dichotomies, like ‘fundamentalist muslim’ – ‘moderate muslim’ or ‘bad muslim’ – ‘good muslim,’ not only represent an overly simplistic perspective, but stimulates the animosity and negative imagery, which lead to the escalation of conflict and   __________________________________________________________ 4. abu-nimer, “nonviolence and peace building in islam,” 6-8. 5. ali shariati, “an approach to an understanding of islam,” [lecture given for ‘islamic sources of conflict resolution,’ at the american university, department of international relations and conflict resolution, washington d.c., spring 2009]. www.shariati.com/lesson1.html; lynch, “alethic pluralism, logical consequence and the universality of reason,” chapter 8. 6. ibid., lynch; andrew bernardin, “four types of truth,” the evolving mind. http://evolvingmind.info/fourtypes-of-truth/ [accessed december 2010]. 7. cf. 1; anthony h. johns and abdullah saeed, “nurcholish madjid and the interpretation of the qur’an: religious pluralism and tolerance,” in modern muslim intellectuals and the qur’an, ed. suha taji-farouki [new york: oxford university press, 2004], 79-80; “reason and revelation are interdependent. reason by itself cannot provide adequate guidance for humankind without the support of revelation (the qur’an). revelation, however, is necessarily in human language, and reason is the instrument by which revelation may be properly understood and put into good effort;” mohammad hashim kamali, “human dignity in islam.” international institute of advanced islamic studies (iais). www.iais.org.my [accessed december 2010]. “the western liberal tradition and its strong advocacy of individualism is thus manifested in a greater emphasis on rights, whereas islam’s emphasis on spirituality and ethics, and how rationality and human interpretation understand the guidelines of the revealed text impact its conception of justice. the emphasis here tends to be more on duties and respect for the rights of the other more than that of one’s own. islamic law has consequently leaned more toward duties than rights.” 8. here, and throughout this paper, i will continue to use quotations for the term ‘muslim world.’ perhaps contrary to the popular imagination, which views ‘islam’ in synonymy with ‘middle east;’ eighty percent of the world’s muslim population is not arab. the three largest muslim populations are found in indonesia, india and pakistan. there is no more need for the distinction ‘muslim world,’ than there is for ‘atheist world.’ ‘fair and balanced:’ in reference to the popular slogan coined by the fox news network in san diego, ca. satirical inflection intended; abu-nimer, “nonviolence and peace building in islam,” 41-42.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     323   ultimately violence.9 in addition to a growing number of news outlets, both scholarly and popular academicians in the united states and europe have done little to refute this monolithic image of islam.10 etymological and derived meaning: peace as embedded in islam requisite to understanding how peace is conceptualized, and thus, identifying the aspects of islamic faith consistent with or dissimilar to dominant models and discourse, is a need to appreciate the diverse nature of the religio-cultural world views informing islamic traditions.11 contrary to the images, with which islam has come to be associated, islamic faith and traditions are rich with values and practices that encourage tolerance and peacemaking dialogue. the arabic word islam, is in fact derived from the tri-consonantal root sa-la-mim meaning peace.12 depending on the long and short vowels employed, the root from, which the word islam derives, yields a set of words, which are closely related to its semantic meaning.13   9. kadyifaci-orellana, “critical approaches to religion and peacemaking,” 5-6. 10. taji-farouki, “introduction,” in modern muslim intellectuals and the qur’an, 7-15; abu-nimer, “nonviolence and peace building in islam,” 1-15. 11. ibid., kadyifaci-orellana, 3. “to understand and work effectively with these agents of peace in the muslim world, there is a need to understand the religio-cultural worldviews of these actors.” abu-nimer, “nonviolence and peace building in islam,” 3-7. 12. see table 1. 13. the hans wehr dictionary of modern written arabic, 4th ed., s.v., sa-la-mim. literally meaning ‘whole,’ or ‘safe,’ the semantic meaning(s) of sa-la-mim, peace, is discussed further; united religious initiative, “the etymology of salam: an insight into the arabic word for peace,” http://www.uri.org/the_latest/2010/10/the_etymology_of_salam [accessed december 2010]; mohamed altantawy, nizar habash, owen rambow, and ibrahim saleh, “morphological analysis and generation of arabic nouns: a morphemic functional approach,” new york: center for computational learning systems at columbia university, and cairo: the arabic and translation studies division at the american university in cairo, 2010. www.lrecconf.org/proceedings/lrec2010/pdf/442_paper.pdf [accessed december 2010]; syamsuddi arif, “preserving the semantic structure of islamic key terms and concepts: izutsu, al-attas, and al-raghib alisfahani,” islam & science 5, no. 2 [2007]: 1-11. http://i-epistemology.net/philosophy/92-preserving-the-semanticstructure-of-islamic-key-terms-and-concepts-izutsu-al-attas-and-al-raghib-al-isfahani-.html [accessed january 2011]; and kristen brustad, mahmoud al-batal, and abbas al-tonsi, al-kitaab fii ta'allum al-'arabiyya with dvds: a textbook for beginning arabic, 2nd ed. [washington d.c.: georgetown university press, 1995], part 3. table 1: words related to the semantic of the root s-l-m salam سالمم well-being/peace (broadest context) silm ِسلم peacetime, absence of wartime, interim saleem سليیم whole, unbroken, safe islam إإسالمم (v., n.) submission, (to) submit       volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     324   islam is a verbal noun meaning submission; in an islamic context, the words, salam, islam and muslim, derive their lexical meanings in relation to god.14 the concept of peace includes elements of wholeness, security, and reconciliation. the common root for the words ‘reconciliation’ and ‘development’ exemplifies this relationship.15 in the context of islamic faith then, islam, ‘submitting one’s wholeness to god,’ involves elements of development, reconciliation, well-being, safety, surrender, submission, and good intention. an important aspect of etymological studies, involves tracking how the basic elements of a word changes and informs its lexical meaning(s). though the history and origin of a word may tell us something about its current meaning in a given context, it would be a fallacy to hold a word’s etymological meaning in synonymy with its lexical significance in relation to, for example, abstract concepts such as religious belief. “etymology is not and does not profess to be a guide to the semantic value of a word in its current usage; such value has to be determined from the current usage and not from derivation.”16 the qur'an significantly influenced the meanings of select arabic words, particularly those associated with elements of religious principles and practices, such as compassion, reconciliation, and forgiveness.17 in an islamic context, the significance of the words salam, and islam, is grounded in a specific claim to truth, i.e. god, and therefore, relative to islamic faith. because “etymological investigation studies the past of a word, but understands that the past is   ___________________________________________________ 14. submitting one’s wholeness to god, making peace/well-being with, [attaining] safety, security, [becoming] unharmed; cf. 13., s.v. salam, islam, muslim. 15. see table 2; cf. 13., s.v., sa-la-ha 16. saleh walid, “the etymological fallacy and quranic studies: muhammad, paradise and late antiquity,” toronto: university of toronto, 2009. www.safarmer.com/indoeurasian/walid_saleh.pdf [accessed december 2010], 12-13. ‘etymological fallacy’ refers to “the belief that the etymology of a word is a statement about its meaning rather than about its history.” 17. david herbert, “islam and reconciliation: a hermeneutical and sociological approach,” in explorations in reconciliation: new directions in theology, ed. david tombs and joseph liechty [vermont: ashgate publishing, 2006], 34; 43; qur’an, “the believers are a single brotherhood: so make peace and reconciliation between your two(contending) brothers: and fear allah, that ye may receive mercy,” sura 42:40; “ the recompense for an injury is an equal injury thereto [in degree]: but if a person forgives and makes reconciliation; his reward is due from allah,” sura 49:10. table 2: words related to the semantic of the root s-l-h islah ااٍصالحح transform, develop, improve sulh صلح peacemaking, reconciliation musalaha مصالحة to be reconciled (reconciliation)       volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     325   not an infallible guide to its present meaning,”18 any attempt to determine their lexical meanings and associated elements such as reconciliation, transformation and oneness, requires not only extensive analysis of where these words occur in the qur’an, but the context of each occurrence, as well their respective relationships to other verses. discerning moral imperative: sources of truth religious faith reflects a belief that truth may manifest in different ways in the lives of the faithful. if truth is the notion that ‘something is the case,’ then there are certainly different types and even hierarchies of truth. perhaps the closest one may come to a unified theory of truth, in any context, is acknowledging truth’s functional purpose. however, how that role is satisfied the method of verification and thus, realization of that purpose is not static and varies considerably. 19 islam is not a monolithic religion grounded solely in the gnostic feelings of human beings in relationship to the ‘otherworldly;’ an important dimension of islamic faith concerns its manifestation during one’s earthly life. understanding the truths of this dimension requires appreciating the significance of islamic principles and praxis, as well as the underlying intention behind both: the desire to enact and reflect god’s will for humanity.20 the islamic faith derives its legitimacy primarily from the qur’an, (the recitation of god’s word) and secondarily from the hadith (the sayings of the prophet muhammad) and the sunnah (the deeds of the prophet), which are believed to contain sacred and authoritative truths. the qur’an, recitation in arabic, contains a code of moral and ethical principles, and divine prescriptions and injunctions. the meccan verses emphasize the oneness, mercy, and providence of god, as well as the unity of humanity, and social duties. the medinan verses emphasize personal and family law, as well as the nature of oaths, contracts, wars, and treaties.21   _____________________________________ 18. ibid 19. cory d wright, “on the funcationalization of pluralistic approaches to truth,” synthese 145, no. 1 [2005]: 1-28. http://www.springerlink.com/content/h824r820806741q9/ [accessed january 2011]. “alethic functionalism asserts that there is a single, general, and unified concept of truth – a concept, which names a functional role; what varies from discourse to discourse [however] is how that role is satisfied, what kind of particular properties of propositions realize that role.” 20. tafsir al-jalalayn, “tafsir al-qur’an,” sura 2:21-22; 17:44; 99:7-8 www.altafsir.com/al-jalalayn.asp [accessed december 2010]. tafsir al-jalalayn’ is one of the most significant tafsirs for the study of the qur’an. 21. abu-nimer, “nonviolence and peace building in islam,” 54. (abu-nimer, quoting zaman who noted) “other methods of promoting economic justice and equity are implemented through various islamic laws that encourage mutual support and cooperation. for example: (1) al-musa ‘adah (the law of mutual aid); (2) bayt al-mal (the public treasury); (3) diyah (blood money [reparations]) in which the family of the offender is obligated to pay money to the victim’s family; (4) al-diyafah (law of hospitality), which is based on the prophetic tradition outlining the social obligation to treat guests graciously; (5) al-musharakah (the law of sharing), which obligates muslims to share their harvest of crops with those who cannot afford to buy them; (6) al-ma‘un (the law of acting in kindness), which re ___________________________________________   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     326   in addition to the qur’an, the hadith and sunnah form a basis for the dimensions of islamic faith, a unified community, and provide secular and religious-oriented builders of peace with a common vocabulary. ii locating salam in the essence of islam “prophets came to have people compete in doing good (khayr). let us compete in making world peace, and making a global community where everyone is equal before the law, for in so doing we will have fulfilled the will of god and the wish of prophets.” jawdat said, the role of religious actors in peace-building the dimensions of islamic faith include: islam (praxis), iman (principles), and ihsan (the reflection of both in one’s intentions). while islam encompasses the pillars of islamic faith; iman, belief, refers to the articles of islamic faith, reflecting muslims’ beliefs about the nature of god, angels, scripture, prophetic messages, the day of judgement, and the afterlife. iman is both informed by and informs the external and internal dimensions of islamic faith, islam and ihsan. islam praxis the practices associated with the first dimension, islam, include: shahada; (declaration of god’s oneness and of the prophet muhammad as god’s messenger) salah; (prayer) zakat;22 (charity) sawm; (fasting) and hajj (pilgrimage). these external dimensions of worship are not merely rituals but serve to enrich all that, which is considered valuable in muslim life, i.e. family, community, and humility. not only do they facilitate the building of peace; they shun disunity, the marginalization of human beings, and violent conflict. equally important elements of islam are khayr, (doing good) and ihsan (grace, beneficence, kindness, and compassion). peace advocate and author of, “nonviolence and peacebuilding in islam,” muhammad abunimer, writes, “good deeds are associated with [sirat] al-mustaqim, the straight path, which is central to justice and thus, peacebuilding.23 one component of shahada speaks to the sacredness and interconnectedness of god’s creation as the divine is believed to dwell within it. implicit is the goal of harmony between humanity, nature and god. the purpose of zakat is the equitable distribution of wealth.   _________________________________ quires that muslims not only give to charity but also lend their tools and equipment ot the needy, who cannot afford them; and (7) al-irth (the islamic law of inheritance), which promotes economic justice and equality by distributing an estate equitably among all members of the family; cesar adib majul, george k. tanham, and ralph h. salmi, islam and conflict resolution, [new york: university press of america, 1998], 1-38; 50-56. 22. as distinguished from sadaqah, voluntary alms. abu-nimer, “nonviolence and peace building in islam,” 50; 53-54. 23. ibid., 55.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     327   economic justice and equality are central to this pillar. acts of charity are also indicative of the belief that all humans are dignified, endowed with certain rights and thus, equal in value. hajj has been interpreted as symbolizing the equality of all muslims, as a unified community, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic background, language, etcetera.24 and the struggle to reconcile the incongruity between intention (ihsan) and action describes a form of jihad, or struggle, in that a muslim struggles to transform the world into one, which god might recognize as of god’s own creation. jihad as esoteric struggle some scholars have suggested that were there a sixth pillar of islam it would be jihad, given its significance and connection to the intention behind wholly submitting to god’s will. the word jihad has historically and erroneously been interpreted in synonymy with ‘holy war.’ its semantic meaning is derived from the root ja-ha-da, meaning struggle,25 however, the word jihad has acquired meaning beyond that of its qur’anic influence.26 informing the notion that jihad is synonymous with holy war are the monolithic interpretations of jihad perpetuated both inside and outside of islam. professor of qur’anic studies and author of, “jihad in the qur’an,” dr. louay fatoohi, notes that the qur’anic meaning of jihad is not synonymous with qital, war; rather, acting for the ‘cause of god’ is synonymous with pursuing adl, justice.”27 in the context of certain verses in the qur’an, the struggle for   ________________________________________ 24. adib majul, “islam and conflict resolution,” 1-44. 25. see table 3 26. for more on this, see mohammad shafi’s, “jihad – sacred struggle,” dar al-islam institute alumni, [fall, 2005]. http://www.daralislam.org/notesonquran/jihadsacredstruggle/tabid/121/default.aspx [accessed january 2011]. 27. abu-nimer, “nonviolence and peacebuilding in islam,” 49-50. “the noun adl, justice, is associated with qist, asd, istiqamah, wasat, nisab, hissah, and mizan. based on such dictionaries such as ibn manzur, lisan al-arab, and al fayurzabadi, al-qamus al-muhit, the verb adala (in its various forms) means 1. to straighten or fix; 2. to straighten up or sit straight; 3. to amend or modify; 4. to run away, depart, or deflect from one (wrong) path to the other (right) one; 5. to be equal or equivalent, to match, or to equalize; 6. to balance or counterbalance, to weigh, or to be in a state of equilibrium,” 50. table 3: words related to the semantic of the root j-h-d jihad جهھادد struggle, strife, exertion, effort jihad al-nafs جهھادد االنفس inner struggle, struggle with the soul mujahid مجاهھھھد who undertakes struggle (struggler) ijtihad ااجتهھادد the struggle to derive meaning     volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     328   divine justice or faith is peaceful jihad. “jihad in the qur’an,” fatoohi explains, “may not be equated with qital; verses make it absolutely clear that ‘fighting in the way of allah’ is stated only when it is kutiba (ordained). jihad is never used in a similar way.”28 in an islamic context, jihad al-nafs, inner struggle, pervades every aspect of muslim life, with the goal of attaining “a state of physical, mental, spiritual and social harmony, [meaning] living at peace with god through submission, and living at peace with one’s fellow human beings.”29 the word jihad came into its english usage during such a period of intense struggle, when many muslims appealed to an interpretation of jihad as a struggle for liberation from oppressive colonialists, against whom some jurists had sanctioned fighting.30 however, labeling a violent conflict jihad projects no more moral or ethical legitimacy than does labeling an occupation or invasion ‘an operation of freedom.’ the word jihad has also been used in association with mahatma gandhi’s satyagraha for indian independence, and has been applied to the contemporaneous struggle for women’s liberation and gender equity, both inside and outside of islam.31 some scholars have even suggested that “the goal of jihad is to attain a harmony between islam, iman and ihsan.”32 however, there continues to exist a stark contrast between the interpretation of god’s revelation, and what is carried out in god’s name, a phenomenon, which is neither unique to islam narrowly nor abrahamic traditions broadly. the tendency of certain muslim leaders and organizations to justify violent conflict in religious terms is no more uncommon than the various idolatries of ideology outside of islam, which have more to do with individual and group motivations than the sacred.   _________________________________________ 28. louay fatoohi, “the distinction between jihad and qital,” rev. ed. [united kingdom: luna plena publishing, united kingdom, 2009], under jihad in the qur’an http://www.quranicstudies.com/louay-fatoohi/jihad/ [accessed january 1, 2011]. 29. abu-nimer, “nonviolence and peacebuilding in islam,” 49-50; 60. “the main virtues espoused in the qur’an include “piety, i.e. humble obedience and fear of god; honesty in dealings; justice and avoidance of all wrongdoing; and chastity. love of god and fellow is implied by the other virtues;” ibid., 51. (social justice and equity) qur’an, surah 2:143; 55:9; 60:8. next to shahada, “no other moral principles are emphasized more in the qur’an than justice, uprightness, equity and temperance.” 30. webster’s english dictionary, s.v. jihad, first english usage 1869. shafi, “jihad – sacred struggle,” [accessed january 2011]. late 19th century, early 20th century: marked the beginning of the struggle against british colonialists in india, egypt and sudan after the fall of their respective governments. “foe’ of the british hero ‘lord gordon of khartoom,’ mohammad ahmed, the mahdi, of sudan was recorded as having waged a vigorous jihad against the british to liberate sudan. thus, the word jihad comes into english usage at the time some muslims were mobilizing under this slogan to expel the external conquerors.” 31. for more on the subject see: amina wadud, inside the gender jihad: women’s reform in islam, [united kingdom: oneworld press publications, 2005]. 32. mahmoud m. ayoub, islam, faith and history, [united kingdom: oneworld publications, 2005], 68-69.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     329   several verses in the qur’an and hadith distinguish between a lesser and greater jihad.33 a greater jihad refers to the struggle against oneself, “to control the tendencies of selfcenteredness, and rebellion, and to bring about justice, equity and balance in his/her life, in the society in which he/she lives, and in the world.”34 a lesser jihad comes with the strictly limited condition that physical struggle is to be utilized purely in defense of faith or divine law. given muslims’ beliefs about the oneness of god and the unity of humanity, this stipulation is significant; to violate it would result, not only, in harm to oneself but to the community, or ummah, of which one is apart. “the believer to another believer is like a building whose different parts [r]enforce each other.”35 ihsan as perfection of faith the third dimension of islamic faith is ihsan, a concept, which has been understood differently by various islamic scholars. some interpret ihsan as being the internal dimension of islamic practice, while shari’a is seen as the external dimension. many islamic scholars believe ihsan to be one of the most important principles of islamic faith; there are over sixty six verses in the qur’an related to the concept.36 “the whole quran (in fact) guides to ihsan, which means doing things in an excellent manner, [intention] and acts of charity and kindness,”37 as conveyed in the hadith of gabriel:38 “what is ihsan,’ (perfection)? allah's apostle replied, ‘to worship   ___________________________________________ 33. abu-nimer, “nonviolence and peacebuilding in islam,” 43; herbert, “islam and reconciliation: a hermeneutical and sociological approach,” in explorations in reconciliation: new directions in theology ed. david tombs and joseph liechty [vermont: ashgate publishing, 2006], 41-44. 34. fatoohi, “aspects of peaceful jihad,” [accessed january 1, 2011]. 35. cf. 42; adib majul, “islam and conflict resolution,” 37-38. 36. abu-nimer, 69; hassan el-najjar, three dimensions of islamic faith, www.aljazeerah.info/islamiceditorals/2007/may/threelevelsoffaith [accessed december 2010]. professor hassan elnajjar has a phd. in sociology and an m.a. in cultural anthropology from the university of georgia. 37. ibid., el-najjar, “three dimensions of islamic faith,” [accessed december 2010]. 38. sahih al-bukhari, hadith no. 47, narrated by abu huraira, http://www.sahihalbukhari.com/sps/sbk/ [accessed january 1, 2011]. the complete saying reads: “one day while the prophet was sitting in the company of some people, (the angel) gabriel came and asked, ‘what is faith? allah's apostle replied, 'faith is to believe in allah, his angels, (the) meeting with him, his apostles, and to believe in resurrection.’ then he further asked, ‘what is islam?’ allah's apostle replied, ‘to worship allah alone and none else, to offer prayers perfectly to pay the compulsory charity (zakat) and to observe fasts during the month of ramadan.’ then he further asked, ‘what is ihsan (perfection)?’ allah's apostle replied, ‘to worship allah as if you see him, and if you cannot achieve this state of devotion then you must consider that he is looking at you.’ then he further asked, ‘when will the hour be established?’ allah's apostle replied, ‘the answerer has no better knowledge than the questioner. but i will inform you about its portents: (1) when a slave (lady) gives birth to her master; (2) when the shepherds of black camels start boasting and competing with others in the construction of higher buildings. and the hour is one of five things which nobody knows except allah. the prophet then recited, ‘verily, with allah (alone) is the knowledge of the hour. then that man (gabriel) left and the prophet asked his companions to call him back, but they could not see him. then the   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     330   allah as if you see him, and if you cannot achieve this state of devotion then you must consider that he is looking at you” (sahih al-bukhari, book 2: vol. 1, hadith no. 47). the lexical meaning of ihsan has come to mean two things: (1) to worship god as if god is perceived everywhere; and (2) to worship god with the thought that god may perceive everything. in an islamic context, the purpose of life is to worship and serve god; thus, also central to ihsan are patience, compassion, humility, empathy and love. many muslims consider ihsan: perfect compassion, as well as (the greater) jihad: esoteric struggle, to be significant components of worship. informing individual and group interpretations of islamic faith are: tradition, culture, ethnicity, gender, geographic location, and socio-economic status among other factors. muslims comprise several different nations and sects; they also adhere to different schools of thought. similar to other religious traditions, there exists a significant diversity of belief both among and between secular and religious-oriented muslims. however, also similar to all other religious traditions, there are certain principles and practices, which all muslims agree are fundamental to their faith: the oneness of god; unity of humankind, and community of believers. spiritual leader and co-founder of the ‘interfaith mediation center,’ imam muhammad ashafa, posits, “because we see ourselves as a single global community, the ummah, if something happens in iraq it affects us. if something happens at guantanamo bay or afghanistan or palestine, we react; it is because of the level of consciousness of islam that we do.”39 thus, despite the sometimes divisive elements informing contrasting interpretations and traditions, which may lend to the idea that muslims lack a homogeneous population, the islamic ummah is a moral collective, which, at least ideologically, transcends these differences.40 the principles and elements associated with peace, reflected in the dimensions of islamic faith, include: humility, solidarity, interdependence, social responsibility, and transformation (islam); compassion, forgiveness and tolerance (ihsan); and the unity of god and faith in god’s determined plan for diversity and multiplicity (iman). interpretations of various verses in the qur’an affirm these values, as well as the notion that the different ummah, by which human beings will always be characterized, is purposeful and exists as a consequence of god’s divine plan.41 “the qur’an does not say, “oh, only you muslims;’ allah says, ‘oh mankind, we make   __________________________ prophet said, ‘that was gabriel who came to teach the people their religion.’ abu 'abdullah said, ‘he (the prophet) considered all that as a part of faith.” 39. imad karam, “the imam and the pastor,” dvd, directed by allan channer. london, uk: ftl films, 2006. 40. abu-nimer, 73-76. 41. qur’an, sura 21:16; 38:27; 51:56; 49:13; 11:118; 16:93; adib majul, “islam and conflict resolution,” 3738.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     331   you all different colors, races and languages, so that you may know one another;’ the message is that diversity is a source of strength.”42 similar to the lexical meanings of the words, islam, salam, and muslim, the semantic meaning of jihad is not necessarily reflected in its current usage, particularly through politically and emotionally charged mediated imagery and discourse. however, given the number of elements associated with peace which are reflected in sacred, and authoritative literature and enacted in the dimensions of islamic faith a clearer picture of how many muslim peacebuilders interpret the ‘greater struggle’ begins to emerge. if the role of human beings on earth is that of khalifah, or agent of god, then the duty is the establishment of peace and its sustainment.43 iii faith in action – waging peace “you will not enter paradise until you have faith; and you will not complete your faith until you love one another.” – sahih al-muslim, book 1, hadith no. 96 perhaps the greatest challenge to the identification of peacebuilding strategies, in some of the world’s most volatile regions, is the assumption that islamic traditions and cultures are not compatible with the transformation of conflict. nobel peace prize recipient and human rights advocate, shirin ebadi, notes that this historical and contemporaneous justification by “despotic governments” points to the erroneous notion that “democracy and human rights are not compatible with islamic teachings.”44 the peacebuilders highlighted in this section clearly challenge this dominantly projected world view. both religious and secular-oriented, these women and men come from different cultural, ethnic, geographic and socio-economic backgrounds. the roles they’ve assumed range from nonviolence education and human rights advocacy, to interfaith mediation and activism at both the grassroots and top levels of political leadership. the diversity of their foci, however, appeals to a common vision of human dignity and peace, and the contributions of each reflect a recognition of the complexities associated with the transformation of violent conflict, as well as a   ___________________ 42. karam, “the imam and the pastor,” imam ashafa, referring to sura 49:13, ““o mankind! we have indeed created you from a male and a female that you may come to know one another, that you may acquire knowledge of one another and not to boast to one another of noble lineage, for pride lies only in fear of god. truly the noblest of you in the sight of god is the most god-fearing among you. truly god is knower, of you, aware, of your inner thoughts.” 43. adib majul, “islam and conflict resolution,” 37-39; qur’an, sura 51:56; 2:30; 35:39; 17:70; 43:60. 44. ahmad iftikhar, “shirin ebadi: a muslim woman nobel peace laureat,” social education 68, no. 4 [june 2004]: 260-263.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     332   commitment to exploring how the concept of peace and its creation may be understood in an islamic context. abdul ghaffar khan – utmanzi, india (b. 1890 – d. 1988) a pakhtun45 from the north-west frontier province, (contemporary, khyber pakhtunkhwa, pakistan) abdul ghaffar khan was born into a wealthy land owning family, during a period when india was still under the rule of british colonial authority.46 having completed a religious education in his home province, khan was given the opportunity of receiving an extended education abroad. however, unlike his siblings, he declined both a western education and military service. despite the risks associated with teaching at the time, khan chose instead to become an educator, and dedicated his life to the service of god and the impoverished people of india.47 for khan, educating the people was as sacred a duty as prayer.48 abdul ghaffar khan, badshah khan,49 as he was known by his followers, was a devote muslim, passionate nationalist, and the renowned leader of over one hundred thousand, nonviolent pakhtuns – a people viewed historically as ‘fierce warriors.’50 khan was committed to the idea of a liberated india, dedicated to the service of his people, and determined to create opportunities for education and unity by embodying a unique path to peace. practitioner and proponent of principled nonviolence, he believed “that no peace or tranquility [would] descend upon the people of the world until nonviolence [was] practiced; because nonviolence is love and it stirs courage in people.”51 he was jailed repeatedly for his association with india, and opposition to governmental authority including the muslim league’s support for the country’s partition.52 just twenty years after his first arrest, however, he would be nominated for the nobel peace prize.   ___________________________________________ 45. this term varies in usage between pashtun, pathan, pushtun, and pakthun depending on the author. here, and throughout this paper, i will use the latter. 46. palwasha hasan kakar, “tribal law of pashtunwali and women’s legislative authority,” [master’s thesis, harvard divinity school, 2002], http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/ilsp/research/kakar.pdf [accessed january 2011], 5. “khans’ are the larger landowning class in afghanistan;” eknath easwaren, nonviolent soldier of islam: badshah khan, a man to match his mountains, [california: nilgiri press, 1999]. 10-11; 27-28. 47. easwaren, “nonviolent soldier of islam,” 55-58; 60-61; 63-64; 66-72. 48. ibid, 84, “to my mind, educating the people and serving the nation is as sacred a duty as prayer.” 49. ibid, 79, ‘king of kings.’ 50. ibid, 17-20. 51. ibid, 7, “i am a believer in nonviolence and i say that no peace or tranquility will descend upon the people of the world until nonviolence is practiced, because nonviolence is love and it stirs courage in people” abdul ghaffar khan.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     333   in 1912, khan began teaching and working to establish schools throughout both the peshawar and mardan districts.53 nearly a decade later, he joined the gandhian movement after first meeting the renowned sage at congressional session in 1919 at nagpur. khan describes what drew him to gandhi as his unwavering “ability to submit his will to god.”54 his work with gandhi included the organization of civil disobedience movements, the reconstruction of local villages, and various other undertakings including women’s empowerment projects. in 1941, while speaking out against the subjugation of women, at a conference in togh, kohat district after which he was arrested khan is quoted as saying, “let me assure you that when freedom has been won, you [women] will have an equal share and place with your brothers in this country.”55 during his imprisonment, khan describes having spent much of his time immersed in the verses of the qur’an, the bhagavad gita, granth saheb, and the bible, seeking solace and inspiration.56 in may of 1928, he organized khudai khidmatgar, servants of god, composed of thousands of pakhtuns committed to waging a nonviolent struggle against british colonial authority in india. the first movement of its kind, khudai khidmatgar aimed to educate, mobilize, and empower men and women in the north-west frontier province.57 like most successful   _______________________________________ 52. ibid, 19-20; 81-81; 84; after a peaceful demonstration, during which gandhi had encouraged the people of the frontier to engage in a day of fasting and prayer, khan was arrested and sentenced to six months in jail for urging nonviolent resistance against british government. in 1920 he was arrested again for his involvement in the reopening of schools and educating in his home province. in 1930, during a campaign to educated and organize the people, led by khan’s ‘servants of god,’ khan was again arrested after responding to a british commissioner than the work they had undertaken was not political but a social in nature, which should have been completed by the gov ernment. in 1931, he was arrested yet again for civil disobiedience. in 1934, at congressional hearing where khan had been encouraged by gandhi to deliver an apology in order to avoid imprisonment. khan reluctantly expressed regret that his speech at a previous really was perceived as sedation but that he had spoken the truth none the less. he was jailed for two years that time. cumulatively, khan spent fifteen years of his life in jail, often in solitary confinement. 53. ibid, 66-68. 54. ibid, 10; 107. some of khan’s earliest influences were maulana azad, (born maulana abul kalam muhiyuddin ahmed) an indian muslim scholar, and senior political leader of the indian independence movement; haji abdul wahid sahia, a spiritual leader and regarded as a saint, who encouraged khan to begin establishing schools near his home district of utmanzai; vinoba bhave, (born vinayak narahari bhave) an indian advocate of nonviolence and human rights; and mohandas gandhi, spiritual sage, passionate embodiment of ahimsa, proponent of nonviolence, and regarded as liberator of the indian people. 55. d.g. tendulkar, “abdul ghaffar khan: faith is battle,” gandhi peace foundationwww.mkgandhi.org/associates/badshah.htm [accessed january 2011]. after the death of his father, and upon returning home from hajj – where his second wife died after falling off a ladder – khan began working to launch a reformed educational and social program (1925-1930). easwaren writes, “one of his first concerns was the role of women,” 104-106. 56. the sacred scriptures of islam, hinduism, sikhism and judeo-christianity, respectively. rajmohan gandhi, “introduction,” in ghaffar khan: nonviolent badshah of the pakhtuns [new delhi: penguin viking, 2004]. 57. easwaren, “nonviolent soldier of islam,” 109-113.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     334   liberation movements, khan’s ‘servants’ were organized and led by the very individuals affected by oppression and marginalization. speaking to the people at a preliminary demonstration, he professed, “i am going to give you such a weapon that the police and the army will not be able to stand against it. it is the weapon of the prophet, but you are not aware of it. that weapon is patience and righteousness;”58 no power on earth can stand against it.”59 khan’s army appealed to the islamic principles of universal brotherhood, (ummah) submission to god, (islam) and the worship of god through the service of humankind (ihsan). he struggled to free his fellow pakhtuns from badal, revenge,60 stating, “it is my inmost conviction that islam is amal, yakeen, and muhabat (selfless service, faith, and love).”61 by the end of the 1940’s, and after the partition of india, khan’s khudai khidmatgar had dissolved, but was not forgotten; their message would be ingrained in the hearts of like minded individuals for decades to come.62 spiritual teacher and author of, “nonviolent soldier of islam,” eknath easwaren writes, “khan based his life and work on this profound principle [of nonviolence]; raising an army of courageous men and women who translated it into action.” after a series of setbacks, including a succession of arrests and nearly a decade of exile, khan returned to his homeland and resumed his work. upon his death more than forty years later, then, soviet occupied afghanistan would open its borders to pakistan for the first time since the occupation to allow for the thousands of people mourning khan’s death. carried nearly one hundred miles, the body of abdul ghaffer khan was laid to rest in jalalabad, afghanistan, and buried in the garden of his home.63 badshah khan’s concept of nonviolence was a reflection his religious faith, and pakhtun traditions of honor and hospitality. human rights advocate and deputy minister of the ministry of women’s affairs in afghanistan, palwasha hasan kakar, explains, “honor [which is central to the   _______________________________________ 58. emphasis mine. 59. ibid, 117. in 1929, khan organized and led the movement, ‘khudai khidmatgars’, (servants of god) mobilized to organize village project, open schools and pushed for the use of pashto language native to the region, campaigned for the release of political prisoners and implementation of land reforms, and nonviolently opposed british authority in , then, india’s northwest frontier province. khan’s movement inspired pakhtuns, historically viewed as aggressive warriors, to abandon violent means of waging war, instead using nonviolent civil resistance to challenge british rule (what khan is quoted as referring to as ‘the weapon of the prophet’). 60. ibid 61. ibid, 12; 63. 62. ibid, 63. after the patrician of india and creation of pakistan, the pakistani government arrested many of the remaining members and leaders of the ‘servants of god,’ movement. however, “not before achieving many of its political goals,” easwaren writes, “such as increased pashtun autonomy and concessions to pashtun identity, although it fell short of the complete independence until 1947. 63. ibid, 12; 232-233.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     335   traditional pakhtun code] is buttressed by hospitality in that it increases the number of social networks one has access to; the more people who see one being honorable, the greater one’s honor.”64 khan’s life and commitment to nonviolence represented a vision of islamic faith, which is rarely reflected in popular media or hegemonic discourse on islam. “were his example better know,” easwaren reflects, “the world might come to recognize that the highest religious values of islam are deeply compatible with a nonviolence that has the power to resolve conflicts even against heavy odds.”65 palwasha hasan kakar – nangarhar, afghanistan as an educator and human rights advocate, palwasha hasan kakar has always believed education to be the path to empowerment, equality, and thus, peace. after graduating from the university of kabul, afghanistan, she began teaching in some the country’s most volatile areas, reaching out to young afghan women. however, “it soon became too dangerous to continue teaching,”66 and in the years that followed, kakar’s family would experience death threats, imprisonment, and finally exile.67 like the multitude of others who fled afghanistan after the pro-soviet coup at the end of the 1980s, kakar and her family were forced to leave kabul, in 1987, joining the thousands of refugees who found a temporary homestead in the bordering regions of pakistan.68 “much has been written about the oppression of women in afghanistan, which is often attributed to pakhtun tribal practices,” 69 or pashtunwali. however, the challenges faced by women in light of these tribal codes so embedded in the collective conscience of pakhtun culture is an oft neglected and largely misunderstood issue. confronting this historically embedded perspective in much of rural afghanistan, is what kakar points to as the widespread   ___________________________________________ 64. hasan kakar, “tribal law of pashtunwali and women’s legislative authority,” 1-4. 65. easwaren, 15. 66. women peacemakers program, “palwasha kakar of afghanistan,” institute for peace and justice at the university of san diego, ca http://www.sandiego.edu/peacestudies[accessed january 2011]. 67. ibid 68. ibid., women peacemakers program, “palwasha kakar of afghanistan,” [accessed january 2011]; cultural survival, “resettlement pattern: the afghan refugees in pakistan,” http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications [accessed january 2011]. 69. kakar, “tribal law of pashtunwali and women’s legislative authority,” 1-3. “the role of women in pashtunwali is little studied and even less understood. much has been written about the oppression of women in afghanistan, and it is often attributed to pashtun tribal practices, such as male elders having say over marriages of young women; high bride prices, walwar, given to the father of the bride and suggesting the sale of women into marriages; honor killings of women for sexual misconduct.”   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     336   institutionalization of patriarchy and “tokenism,”70 which interprets aspects of pashtunwali to justify discrimination and violence against women. “pashtunwali’s relationship with islam,” kakar writes, “has been a complicated one.” at the time of afghanistan’s independence in the late 18th century, the majority of pakhtuns identified as sunni muslim, adhering to shari’a law as interpreted through the hanafi school of thought. however, it was the pre-islamic, traditional tribal code that dominated all matters of legislation,71 and is thus, grounded in pakhtun identity. central to pashtunwali is honor, (bravery, chivalry and courage) hospitality, gender boundaries, and council (the legislative authority composed almost exclusively of men).72 perhaps the greatest implications concerning women’s’ rights depend on how these codes are interpreted by individual councils. after the turn of the century, following afghanistan’s independence in 1747, two primary socio-economic categories were identified. one either belonged to the large group of urban landowning pakhtuns or the more rural pastoral population.73 historically, the legislative councils for either have derived culturally relevant meaning from the pashtunwali codes. however, contemporaneously the rights of women have been significantly affected by an additional set of factors, which has also helped to shape both the political and economic climate in the region.74 for centuries, western nations have projected a hegemonic perspective upon formerly colonized countries, one which views the intellectual and scholarly pillars of societies fluent in the language and knowledge of their respective traditions, but not english as illiterate, uncivilized, and thus, far too underdeveloped to entertain notions of continued autonomy.75 in the aftermath of multiple partitions, and perhaps in response to the cultural imperialism, which now pervades nearly every aspect of afghan life, the region has experienced overwhelming   _____________________________________ 70. ibid, hasan kakar, 20. “namus’ can be defined as that which is defended for honor to be upheld, instead of acted upon to achieve honor (such as hospitality). in pashtu expressions it is recommended that both men and women conceptually apply purdah, and doing so is a sign of dignity for both men and women. despite its applying to both genders, however, anthropologists have found that pashtuns commonly identify namus as “defense of the honor of women and men often think of purdah as a way of controlling women, even though it also controls men,” 4; ‘tokenism,’ quoted on: women peacemakers program, “palwasha kakar of afghanistan,” [accessed january 2011]. 71. cf. 69. 72. ibid., 1-4 73. ibid, 2-3. 74. ibid., 1-7. 75. donaldo macedo, et al., “the colonialism of ‘english only,” in the hegemony of english, [colorado: paradigm publishers, 2003], chapter 3.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     337   ethno-religious conflict and devastating socio-economic disparity in the decades following the soviet invasion. much of “the legal process of customary law seems to be in the control of men,” thus, bridging the gap between constitutionally sanctioned policy and its enforcement continues to present significant challenges.76 kakar, like her male counter parts at the ministry of women’s affairs who have utilized their “position and patronage to assist women,”77 has dedicated her life to the promotion and protection of women’s rights in afghanistan, working with various local and international entities in some cases, personally intervening in domestic disputes documenting human rights abuses and cases of violence against women.78 nearly two decades after fleeing kabul with her family, kakar has successfully established the first girls school in a zone previously dominated by the taliban, she has worked on several united nations sponsored programs for the promotion of civil rights, and continues to advocate for gender equity on behalf of all afghan citizens.79 as deputy minister for the ministry of women’s affairs, kakar has sat before the afghan government on several occasions.80 during an april 2010 interview conducted with other afghan woman leaders, nongovernmental organization staffers, and activists, kakar explained, “we are a policymaking ministry, but no one accepts our policy. they accept it (on face value) but they don’t take action to implement our policy.”81 during the 52nd ‘session on the commission of the status of women’ attended by leaders around the world, kakar expressed the belief that sustainable reconstruction and development in afghanistan hinges the on the equal participation of women in the economic, social, political spheres.82 in the context of pashtunwali, the honor of women is directly related to that of men in   _______________________________________ 76. cf. 72. 77. quoting an interview taken with hasan kakar, university of notre dame, report for enhancing security and human rights in afghanistan: afghan women speak, 3; 7-8. 78. cf. 75. 79. women peacemakers program, “palwasha kakar of afghanistan,” [accessed in january 2011]. 80. palwasha hasan kakar, fine-tuning the nsp: discussions of problems and solutions with facilitating partners. november 1, 2005. http://www.areu.org.af [accessed january 2011], 2; women peacemakers program, “palwasha kakar of afghanistan,” [accessed january 2011]. 81. cf. 75. “while mowa officials have been able to use their positions and patronage to assist individual women — in some cases, personally intervening in domestic disputes— the ministry has struggled to advance the interests of women across government.” 82. hasan kakar, “permanent mission of afghanistan to the united nations: follow up to the fourth world conference on women, with a focus on financing for gender equality,” [statement by h.e. palwasha kakar, depu   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     338   society.83 by working to negate instances of violence against women, and pushing for gender equity, and equal access to education, women like palwasha hasan kakar exemplify their commitment to seeing this honor upheld. currently, kakar serves as the local governance research officer, at the ‘afghanistan research and evaluation unit,’ working on a national solidarity program in afghanistan, and was nominated a ‘woman peacemaker,’ by the joan b. kroc institute for peace and justice studies in 2006.84 imam muhammad ashafa and pastor james wuye – kaduna state, nigeria imam ashafa and pastor wuye are passionate advocates of the idea that every religion, although sometimes appealed to as a justification for violence, have resources for building peace, which are drawn from the traditions, principles, and practices of each respectively. both men are prominent figures internationally for their leading roles in negotiating an historic peace accord in nigeria, and for founding the religious-oriented, grassroots organization, ‘interfaith mediation center,’85 which aims to negate violent conflict, and facilitate reconciliation through inter-faith dialogue, between muslims and christians. however, neither started out as peacebuilders; at one time they were sworn enemies. nigeria, not unlike afghanistan, is still struggling to regain some semblance of national identity. established as the capital of nigeria in 1912 by colonial authority, the city of kaduna in northern nigeria has been an epicenter of violence since the early 1980’s, when ethnoreligious tensions reached a boiling point as a result of economic decline and political   ______________________________ ty minister of the ministry of women’s affairs for the government of afghanistan, new york, ny, march 3, 2008]. 1-4. 83. hasan kakar, “tribal law of pashtunwali and women’s legislative authority,” 8-9. “a woman’s honor is closely tied to that of a man in pashtun society. it is often said that pashtun men customarily see women as comprising the essence of the family.” 84. hasan kakar, “fine-tuning the nsp,” [accessed january 2011]; women peacemakers program, “palwasha kakar of afghanistan,” [accessed january 2011]. 85. established in 1995 by imam ashafa and pastor wuye, the interfaith mediation center aims to “to create a peaceful society through non-violent and strategic engagements in nigeria and beyond.” imam ashafa and pastor wuye have received several awards for their peacebuilding work including: the ‘tanenbaum center for interreligious understanding’ peace activities award in 2000; the ‘kaduna junior chambers,’ peace-humanitarian award in 2004; the ‘search for common ground international peace building award’ in 2004; the ‘heroes of peace award’ in burundi in 2004; the peace makers and preventing inter-religious conflict award by the ‘nigerian people’s forum’ in 2005; the ‘bremen peace award’ in germany in 2005; the ‘apostle of peace award’ by ‘catholic youth denary,’ in kaduna in 2005; the ‘ambassador of peace’ by the ‘inter-religious and international federation for world peace,’ in 2005; the ‘pan commonwealth nigeria role model award,’ in abuja in 2005; and the ‘ashoka fellows award,’ in 2006. the two have also written voraciously on the subject of peacebuilding including: “training manual on interfaith guide for good governance,” 2003; “forgiveness and reconciliation: islamic and christian perspectives,” 2001; “the pastor and imam: responding to conflict,” 1999; “peace education manual for senior secondary schools in christians and islamic religious knowledge,” 1998; and “faith-based advocacy on the rights of women,” [forthcoming].   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     339   corruption.86 it was also during this period that ashafa and wuye were both members of rivaling militia groups. describing himself as “vehemently religious,” muhammad nurayn ashafa, son of an islamic spiritual leader, comes from a family with a long tradition of islamic custodianship.87 james movel wuye, the son of a soldier in kaduna state, found his vocation later in life as an evangelical preacher for the pentecostal, ‘assemblies of god’ church. the two men would meet violently for the first time, in tudin wada province in kaduna, the location of a 1992 religious crises,88 and base of the muslim militia group, of which imam ashafa was formerly a member. after two days of violent conflict, the christian militia group, of which pastor wuye was a member, would be responsible for the death of two of ashafa’s cousins, as well as a prominent muslim spiritual leader from his community. individuals from the muslim hausa majority would leave wuye for dead after severing his right arm. the two would continue fighting for three years following the incident, in the name of their respective ideologies, after which time, each man described reaching a ‘turning point.’89 meeting again in 1995, at gathering of community leaders to discuss prospects for peace and strategies for countering recent violent conflict in the area, imam ashafa and pastor wuye shared their respective concerns, as well as the chance encounters, which led them to the decision to “lay down their arms and work together to end the destructive violence plaguing their community.”90 ashafa recalls going to mosque to pray, where his community’s spiritual leader was preaching about the power of forgiveness: “it is written in the law, that you can avenge an evil done to you. you have a right to take redress; however, the qur’an teaches that it is better to turn the evil towards, that which is good.”91   _______________________________________ 86. hussaini abdui, “urban dynamics, ethno-religious crises and youth violence in kaduna” [phd diss., department of political science and defence studies nigerian defence academy, kaduna], 3; 5. 87. karam, “the imam and the pastor,” imam ashafa states, “we have a zeal of protecting, reviving, and reformatory spirit about bringing back islam, the glory of islam.” 88. ibid, in february and again in may 1992, in what became known as the ‘zangon-kataf crisis,’ were violent conflicts in zangon-kataf between the muslim hausa and the predominantly christian kataf tribes. imam ashafa states, the incident was triggered by a dispute over the relocation of a market. 89. ibid., “i had a conviction in my heart, that god was speaking to me, and that i needed to change;” that was my turning point,” pastor wuye 90. an african answer, “imam muhammad ashafa & pastor james wuye,” the imam and the pastor, http://anafricananswer.org/info.html [accessed january 2011]. 91. cf. 41, imam muhammad ashafa, quoting his community’s imam, quoting sura 49:9-10: “if two parties fall into a quarrel, make ye peace between them: but if one of them transgresses beyond bounds against the other, then fight ye (all) against the one that transgresses until it [he] complies with the command of allah; but if it [he] complies then make peace between them with justice, and be fair; allah loves those who are fair (and just).” emphasis mine.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     340   similar to the struggle described by abdul ghaffar khan, to free his fellow pakhtuns from badal, revenge,92 imam ashafa describes being in “an ocean of confusion, of war, between [his] desire for revenge and the reality of [his] standards.” when asked to explain the reconciliation between them to the community, both ashafa and wuye describe their turning points as the realization that love cannot be preached from a place of hate; without forgiveness there cannot be peace.93 central to the concept of peace for both men, is forgiveness, compassion, and transformation. shortly after their meeting in 1995, they began working together to establish the ‘interfaith mediation center,’ in kaduna state. commenting on the sometimes challenging relationship between the two, ashafa describes, “although we differ on some theological issues, i never want to compromise the principles of islam; islam says create a space for others.” traveling to high conflict areas, in a white van with the words, ‘peace is divine,’ painted across the back window, imam ashafa and pastor wuye work with other religious leaders in their respective communities to facilitate muslim-christain dialogue, forgiveness, and ultimately healing. in 2001 the men brought together community and prominent religious leaders to work on a joint peace agreement, which all twenty two members (eleven muslim and eleven christian) signed. on august 22, 2002, the ‘kaduna peace declaration of religious leaders,’ a symbol of the community’s enduring commitment to peace, was unveiled before nigeria’s president, olusegun obsanjo. in 2004, imam ashafa and pastor wuye returned to yelwa shendam province, for the ‘yelwa festival of peace,’ where individuals and leaders of both militia groups agreed to read apologies for past atrocities before the entire community.94 apologies mark significant turning points in the lives of victims, survivors and their families. professor of law and author of “between vengeance and forgiveness,” martha minow, suggests that in the context of peacebuilding,   _______________________________________ 92. cf. 60 93. cf. 41, imam ashafa. however, this transformation did not happen overnight; the militia groups to which both men previously belonged had considerable ties to the religious community. the lives of both men were threat ened more than once during the course of their several meetings. imam ashafa describes finally gaining pastor wuye’s trust after visiting having visited wuye’s mother several times in the hospital, and again after her death, in a show of solidarity. gradually, the men began meeting more publicly, often at ashafa’s mosque or wuye’s church. 94. considering the extent of the recently religio-ethnic violence experienced in yelwa, these acts of solidarity and forgiveness were significant.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     341   “apologies explicitly acknowledge wrongdoing and afford victims the chance to forgive; [they] are most effective when accompanied by immediate action.”95 since the time of their first meeting in 1992 imam ashafa and pastor wuye continue working locally to create peace in their communities, and travel internationally to speak at conferences on conflict resolution. “we are grateful to god that we’ve learned this ability to hear one another and create a safe space for dialogue, without which we will always be assuming things from afar, and you can kill somebody based on assumption.”96 shirin ebadi – hamadan, iran a staunch advocate of human rights, gender equity, and education, shirin ebadi is also the first muslim woman to have received to the nobel peace prize for her internationally recognized contributions to the field of peacebuilding.97 just two years early, in 2001, ebadi also received the ‘rafto human rights foundation’ prize, and was presented with the book of the year award by the ‘cultural and islamic guidance ministry,’ for her legal study entitled, “the rights of the child.”98 ebadi has published voraciously on various aspects of human rights including, women’s legal rights in the islamic republic of iran, children’s rights, and family law (much of which, she describes as having been written during a period when women were prevented from practicing law in iran).99 at the age of twenty-five ebadi began practicing law, and has since served as a human rights attorney, dedicated to representing the survivors of torture and violence, including several journalists and their families, and taking on several cases involving individuals from iran’s minority bahai community.100   _____________________________________ 95. martha minow, “truth commissions,” in between vengeance and forgiveness, [massachusetts: beacon press books, 1998], chapter 4. 96. cf. 41. imam ashafa. 97. ahmad iftikhar, “shirin ebadi: a muslim woman nobel peace laureate,” social education 68, no. 4 [june 2004]: 260-263. 98. ibid 99. pars times, “shirin ebadi: autobiography,” http://www.parstimes.com/books/ebadi_bio.pdf [accessed january 2011]. 100. the baha’i community of iran, numbering about 300,000 people, is the largest non-muslim religious minority in the country. founded at the turn of 19th century by bahá’u’lláh revered as one of a series of prophets; the baha’i faith teaches that all humans united and that the purpose of human life is the creation of unity and peace; cf. 95 iftikhar explains, ebadi’s pro-bono cases include but are not limited to: “representing several journalists, and their families, who were accused or sentenced in relation to freedom of expression: habibollah peyman (for writing articles and delivering speeches on freedom of expression); abbas marufi, the editor-in-chief of the monthly gardoun (for publishing several interviews and poems); faraj sarkuhi (editor-in-chief of adineh monthly); representing families of serial murder victims (the foruhar family); representing the family of ezzat ebrahiminejad, murdered in the 9 july 1999 attack on the university dormitory; and representing the mother of arin golshani, a _____________________________   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     342   describing her childhood as filled with kindness and affection, and her family as both highly educated and practicing muslims; ebadi left hamadan with her family in 1948 and traveled to the city of tehran.101 after completing both her primary and secondary studies, she graduated from the university of tehran’s faculty of law.102 however, in the decades that followed, the socio-economic, political and cultural changes in country would result in revolution, and the subsequent installation of a theocratic government.103 during reza shah’s sixteen year rule and campaign to modernize iran, the majority of women enjoyed relative social, political, and economic autonomy in contrast to the current government.104 inviting a widespread westernization of everything iranian, and hailed by many as both ‘puppet and pawn’ of the united states’ political agenda at the time, some of the shah’s more popular policies included granting women’s suffrage, and installing certain civil codes advantageous to women and children in the context of divorce legislation.105 however, after the installment of another regime, ebadi, and women like her would be subject to new laws restricting many previously enjoyed freedoms, particular those pertaining to women and children.106 under the new government rule, women were forced to resign from their judicial posts. despite the multitude of civic and economic restrictions imposed upon women and rather than immigrating like thousands of other disenfranchised citizens ebadi, along with many women in her profession, remained in iran and struggled to reclaim their human rights.107 in the years that followed, ebadi would eventually establish a law practice committed to defending the rights of women and children, voluntarily representing several high profile cases   _____________________________ child separated from her mother as a consequence of the child custody law. she was found tortured to death at the home of her stepmother.” 101. cf. 97, “my [father, sisters, and brothers] were academics and practicing muslims. i spent my childhood in a family filled with kindness and affection. i have two sisters and a brother all of whom are highly educated. my mother dedicated all her time and devotion to our upbringing.” 102. ibid, in 1975, not only did ebadi become the president of bench 24 of the tehran city court; she was the first woman in the history of iranian justice to have served as a judge. 103. cf. 96; gheissari, “iranian intellectuals,” 66-68; 75. 104. ali gheissari, “critiques of westernization and debates over modernity,” in iranian intellectuals in the 20th century, texas: university of texas press, 2004, chapter 5. 105. ibid. 106. ibid. 107. cf. 97, “they made me a clerk in the very court i once presided over. we all protested. as a result, they promoted all former female judges, including myself, to the position of "experts" in the justice department. i could not tolerate the situation any longer, and so put in a request for early retirement. finally, in 1992 i succeeded in obtaining a lawyer's license and set up my own practice.”   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     343   of individuals tried as political dissidents before a shari’a court in iran.108 in the last decade alone, she has worked to establish programs aimed at supporting the rights of the marginalized in iran in association with the ‘united nations children’s fund,’ and the ‘association for the support of children’s rights.’ in 2001 ebadi co-founded the ‘human rights defence center.’ with multiple awards and publications to her credit, shrin ebadi’s life and works exemplify an unwavering dedication to peacebuilding. during her 2003 nobel peace prize acceptance speech, ebadi stated, “"there is no other way [to peace] except by understanding and putting into practice every human right for all mankind, irrespective of race, gender, faith, nationality or social status."109 contemporaneously and despite reports of increased threats against her life, security, and that of her family ebadi continues ‘putting into practice’ her own principles as a vocal opponent of injustice and discrimination. lecturing at universities and conferences internationally, she continues to push for the abolition of laws, which facilitate violence and discrimination in the name of ideological interpretations of islam.110 iv confronting cultural hegemony – reimaging islamic comm-unity “assist your brother or sister muslim, whether he be an oppressor or an oppressed. ‘but how shall we do it when someone is an oppressor?' muhammad said, 'assisting an oppressor is by forbidding and withholding that person from oppression.” sahih al-muslim, book 1, hadith 96 the contributions made by these muslim women and men reflect an interpretation of the fundamental dimensions of islamic faith, as not only compatible with peacebuilding, but as embedded in the heart of their religio-cultural traditions respectively. how peace is envisioned – though enacted and manifest in differing yet culturally relevant ways – does not appear to hinge on the secular or religious orientation of one’s identity. the ‘ties that bind’ these muslim builders of peace, is the belief that human beings are united by a common origin, that education is key to overcoming injustice, that modernity may be embraced in light of not in spite of tradition, and that the creation of sustainable global peace necessitates the equal involvement of both women and men in every facet of society. in addition to gender equity, religious diversity   ______________________________ 108. ibid; cf. 99. 109. iftikhar, “shirin ebadi,” 260-263. 110. cf. 99. in 2002, ebadi sat before an islamic consultative assembly (majlis) in iran, proposing the ratification of a law “prohibiting all forms of violence against children; as a result the law was promptly debated and ratified in the summer.” she has delivered “over 30 lectures to university and academic conferences and seminars on human rights. the lectures have been delivered in iran, france, belgium, sweden, switzerland, britain and america.” for a list of publications see ahmed iftikhar’s, “shirin ebadi: a muslim woman nobel peace laureat,” pages 260-263.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     344   is not only tolerated, but is embraced as a source of strength, divinely ordained precisely for the purpose of promoting unity. the elements associated with the concept of peace in an islamic context resemble exactly those, which nearly all builders of peace regardless of religious orientation, or geographical location recognize as essential. submission to god, islam, involves a struggle for balance between humility and the divisive qualities of egotism. salam is not possible without solidarity, transformation, development, and reconciliation. faith is meaningless without righteousness, which includes integrity, accountability, honor and courage; and actions are merely superficial unless congruent with ones intentions, underscored by forgiveness, patience, compassion, healing, and love. thus, when attempting to identify the underlying reasons for the dominant projections of islam as ‘inherently violent,’ which pervade popular media and hegemonic discourse, there are other factors which must be considered. deconstructing rhetoric – mass mediated images to a large extent, americans rely on popular media as a primary source of information about events occurring locally and globally. news media particularly televised news yields considerable influence over how individual and group perceptions are informed, including, which issues affect whom, which events are significant, and which individuals are ‘news worthy.’ considering the central role of the united states in the ‘muslim world,’ and associated conflicts, media coverage is crucial to shaping the west’s dominant image of islam. controlling the types of images and language used, i.e. to dehumanize one group of individuals, or fully explore the humanity of another, is also critical to the role played by the media. another factor to consider when evaluating media is not only the language and images used, but the language and images, which are not. in terms of how individual and group perceptions are shaped, absence is as important as presence; context is everything. and it is context that is overwhelmingly lacking in both popular media and academic discourse on islam. what both fail to mention is the ‘why.’ contemporary islamic revivalist movements, which are a direct response to the global changes that constitute ‘modernity,’ derive legitimacy not from islam itself but from the narrow interpretations and broad applications of islamic law most advantageous to patriarchy, power, and the propagation of fear. despite the dominant images of gun wielding religious fanatics, and muslim women shrouded in oppressive subservience, the main challenge faced – by both sexes, globally – is the legacy of both post-colonialism and cultural imperialism. discerning identity – the legacy of post-colonialism in a world that often reduces tradition to backwardness, and equates modernity with westernization, the challenge of understanding peace in an islamic context includes a struggle to retain the very identities and cultures, which inform islamic traditions, while simultaneously fighting to transcend the dominantly projected images of islam as inherently violent and archaic. in the context of religious peacebuilding, the consequences associated with the internalization of this projected perspective are devastating.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     345   in countries dominated by western governments, which apply hierarchal differentiation according to economic status, race and ethnicity, rather than cultural or social norms, muslim individuals and institutions have often demonstrated one of two social responses. one either embraces an extreme, reactionary interpretation of islam or exhibits a degree of rejection of the tradition and culture associated with practicing one’s religion. for individuals and societies residing in regions previously ruled by colonial authority, (then granted so-called autonomy, in an ‘independent’ country whose established boundaries have often divided individual families, as well as entire communities) the challenges associated with daily life alone present significant obstacles to the propagation of peace. many communities struggle not only to maintain the intraspecific ethnic traditions, which so inform their cultures and history respectively, but are also faced with the challenge of reestablishing some semblance of identity in light of a projected nationality seething with cultural imperialism. modernity and tradition the challenge of cultural imperialism the very question, “are islamic traditions compatible with peace,” presupposes a stark opposition between the west and islam as if the two are disparate; the notion that peace and peacebuilding is unique to western construct is erroneous. many muslims interpret islamic faith as grounded in a fundamental tradition of passivity, non-violent strategies, and principles of nonkilling, as discerned from the qur’an, hadith and sunnah respectively. furthermore, considering the historical and contemporaneous atrocities committed and culture of fear created in the name of western political tradition, modernity and democracy one may wonder if the question is not more accurately, ‘how much of tradition must be abandoned, and how much of the present is worth imitating?’ the greater struggle – conditions for sustainable peace there are both violent and non-violent reactions to the affects of post-colonialism and cultural imperialism, which starts the moment after colonization occurs not after independence is obtained. when one’s life is shaped by oppression, both immediate and structural, when one’s freedom is violated every day, when the individuals and institutions violating that freedom do so by systematically violent methods, often, the only way out of that situation is perceived as a path of violence. however, when the underlying causes, e.g. the motivation of political power over natural resources remain hidden, then violent acts of ‘religious extremism’ appear to be unprovoked attacks of terrorism, the ‘war on terror’ seems reactive and justified, and islam is portrayed as embodying a ‘hatred of freedom,’ and ‘everything american.’ additionally, the institutions and individuals who do react in peace are rarely considered ‘news worthy.’ thus, the work of muslim actors specifically is even more significant in the field of peacebuilding, insofar as it includes a two-fold struggle to navigate the existing paradigms of external construct, while simultaneously working to transform internal conflicts impeding the facilitation of peace within the wider islamic community itself. if that, which we fear most is often of our own creation, then transforming the violent conflict, which overwhelms our world, necessitates contextualizing peace within a diversity of religious and cultural traditions, with the goal of establishing a common ground. peace in any context may only occur when the   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     346   divisive constructs and paradigms designed to facilitate its negation, are demystified and confronted. education, equality, and solidarity can strengthen this great struggle; however, without unity there can be no sustainable peace. glossary of terms al-adl: [arabic n.] (1) justice [v., adala]; (2) to straighten or fix; to straighten up or sit straight; to amend or modify; to run away, depart, or deflect from one path to the other one; to be equal or equivalent; to match, or to equalize; to balance or counter balance, to weigh, or to be in a state of equilibrium al-mustaqim: [arabic n., sirat al-mustaqim] (1) the straight path; (2) [in the context of interpretations of islamic faith] the ‘correct’ path amal: (arabic v.) work, service, labor, create, make, (in the context of islamic faith) divine service/undertaking badal: [pashto n.] (1) exchange, change, substitution; (2) [in the context of pashtunwali] revenge gender equality: (1) equality, among the sexes/genders; (2) in religious terms and within predominantly patriarchal interpretations of revelation, scripture, and sacred and authoritative literature equality has been understood in the context of value, (as gender roles/norms are believed to be divinely prescribed) and not necessarily in the economic, political and social spheres. gender equity: (1) fairness, justice, among the sexes, genders; (2) in religious terms ‘gender equality’ grassroots: (adj.) at a local or community level greater jihad: [arabic n., jihad al-akbar/al-nafs, v., ja-ha-da] (1) ‘personal, internal struggle,’ to conquer one’s passions/against oneself/to attain one’s essence, in congruity with god’s desire hadith: [arabic n., pl., ahadith] (1) narrative; (2) [in the context of islamic faith] the recorded sayings attributed to the prophet muhammad hegemony/hegemonic: economic/political/cultural power, asserted or projected by one dominant group over another. human dignity: [in a religious context] (1) the divinely derived, innate value and freedom of human beings, often understood as accompanied by   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     347   responsibility in the service of god; (2) in a secular context, human dignity or human freedom may be understood in natural terms. human rights: (ideologically) the rights and freedoms with which, all humans are endowed and to which all humans are entitled identity: (1) that which, establishes an individual or group as definable and recognizable in a given context; (2) that to which, an individual or group appeals, to establish definition/recognition in a given context. identity is often understood in pluralistic terms. interpretation: perspective, understanding, knowledge derived from subjective experience of the natural world. in religious terms, interpretation may be understood in a hierarchal context, i.e. ordained, inspired, authoritative, etc. islam: [arabic n., derived from the root, sa-la-mim, translated as whole, safe, intact] (1) submission; [v.,] submission: entrusting one’s whole to another; (3) one of four monotheistic traditions that identify with abrahamic religions, whose dimensions of faith include principles and practices associated with and grounded in beliefs concerning the oneness of god and muhammad as the last messenger of god, and the unity of humankind jihad al-nafs: (in the context of islamic faith) struggle with the soul/self jihad: [arabic n., v.] (1) struggle, strife, effort, exertion; (2) al-jihad struggling, striving, exerting khalifah: [arabic n.] (1) successor; (2) [in the context of islamic faith] god’s representative/agent on earth khayr: (arabic n., v.) good; (v.) al-khayr, doing good khudai khidmatgar: (pashto/urdu n.) servants of god kutiba: (arabic n.) prescribed, ordained meaning: significance: etymological: in the context of origin and historical development; lexical: in relation to either the subjective, the superlatively objective, or both;   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     348   semantic: relative to that of similar origin and historical development monolith/monolithic: (1) static, single, unified whole; (2) constituting a single, unified whole; (3) [in the context of hegemony] devoid of context, character, personality, unique quality(s), etc. muhabat: (arabic/urdu n.) love, affection nonviolence: [broadly] (1) both philosophy and strategy involving the negation of the intention to do harm. practitioners of nonviolence adhere to various sets of principles and utilize strategies relative to the interpretation of those principles respectively; (2) gandhian nonviolence (principled nonviolence, ‘ahimsa’) includes belief about the unity of ‘life;’ the pluralistic nature of truth; the distinction between actions and actors; the necessity of congruity between intentions and actions; and the process driven purpose of life nonviolent struggle: see nonviolence non-violent: (1) absent of violence; (2) both philosophy and strategy; (3) [practical or strategic nonviolence] practitioners committed to principled nonviolence often utilize non-violent methods pashtunwali: a traditional tribal code of moral and ethics unique to ethnic pakhtun culture and identity, the dimensions of which, include elements of honor, hospitality, gender boundaries, and legislative councils that interpret and deem culturally relative/relevant, elements of pashtunwali, through a lens of patriarchy. sabr: [arabic v., from the root s-b-r, meaning to bind, to restrain] (1) patience, endurance; (2) [in the context of islamic faith] unwavering spiritual commitment/dedication/resolve pillars of islam: practices associated with, what is commonly understood as, the first dimension of islamic faith, including: declaration of god’s oneness and muhammad as the last messenger of god; prayer; alms giving; fasting during the month of ramadan; and pilgrimage to mecca during the islamic month zilhajj qital: (arabic v.) fighting, war, battle qur’an: [arabic n., v.] (1) recitation; (2) [in the context of islamic faith] the immutable, everlasting word of god as revealed to muhammad through the angel gabriel during a period of twenty three years   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     349   bibliography books abu-nimer, mohammad. nonviolence and peace building in islam: theory and practice. florida: university press of florida, 2003. adib majul, cesar, george k. tanham, and ralph h. salmi. islam and conflict resolution. new york: university press of america, 1998. ayoub m. mahmoud. islam, faith and history. united kingdom: oneworld publications, 2005. brustad, kristen, mahmoud al-batal, and abbas al-tonsi. al-kitaab fii ta'allum al-'arabiyya: a textbook for beginning arabic. 2nd ed., part 2. washington d.c.: georgetown university press, 1995. eknath, easwaren. nonviolent soldier of islam: badshah khan, a man to match his mountains. california: nilgiri press, 1999. gandhi, rajmohan. “introduction.” in ghaffar khan: nonviolent badshah of the pakhtuns. new delhi: penguin viking, 2004. gheissari, ali. “critiques of westernization and debate over modernity.” in iranian intellectuals in the 20th century, chapter 5. texas: university of texas press, 2004. righteousness: (in the context of islamic faith) closely related to understandings of patience; steadfastness, honesty, courage, truth, etc. satyagraha: [sanskrit/hindi n., v., from the words satya, meaning truth, and agraha, meaning force] (1) associated with gandhian nonviolence, satyagraha (n.) may be understood as: truth-force, love-force; (v.) persuasion through truth, love shari’a: [arabic n.] (1) road, path, street; (2) [in the context of islamic faith] divine law; (3) divine law as interpreted in exegesis on the qur’an; (4) divine law implemented at the state and local levels of islamic societies through the lenses of different religious schools of thought and patriarchy. sunnah: [arabic n. pl., sunan] (1) habit, practice, custom, procedure; (2) [in the context of islamic faith] the recorded deeds attributed to the prophet muhammad ummah: [arabic n.] (1) community, nation; (2) [in the context of islamic faith] community of believers (ummat al-mu’minin) westernization: see hegemony/hegemonic yakeen: [arabic v., yaqeen] (1) certainty, belief, faith, dedication, commitment, etc.; (2) [n the islamic context] closely related to understandings of patience, righteousness, and justice   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     350   herbert, david. “islam and reconciliation: a hermeneutical and sociological approach.” in explorations in reconciliation: new directions in theology, edited by david tombs and joseph liechty, 34-56. vermont: ashgate publishing, 2006. lynch, michael patrick. “alethic pluralism, logical consequence and the universality of reason.” in midwest studies in philosophy: truth and its deformities, xxxii, edited by p. a. french and h. k. wettstein, chapter 8. oxford: blackwell publishing ltd., 2009. macedo, donaldo, panayota gounari, and bessie dendrinos. “the colonialism of ‘english only.” in the hegemony of english. colorado: paradigm publishers, 2003, chapter 3 minow, martha. “truth commissions.” in between vengeance and forgiveness. massachusetts: beacon press books, 1998, chapter 4. saeed, abduallah. interpreting the qur’an: towards a contemporary approach. new york: routledge 2006. taji-farouki, suha. “introduction.” in modern muslim intellectuals and the qur’an, edited by suha taji-farouki, 1-15. new york: oxford university press, 2004. electronic books fatoohi, louay. jihad in the qur’an. rev. ed. united kingdom: luna plena publishing, united kingdom, 2009. http://www.quranicstudies.com/louay-fatoohi/jihad/ [accessed january 2011]. journals iftikhar, ahmad. “shirin ebadi: a muslim woman nobel peace laureate.” social education 68, no. 4 [june 2004]: 260-263. journals published online arif, syamsuddin. “preserving the semantic structure of islamic key terms and concepts: izutsu, al-attas, and al-raghib al-isfahani.” islam & science 5, no. 2 [2007]: 1-11. http://i epistemology.net/philosophy/92-preserving-the-semantic-structure-of-islamic-key-terms-and concepts-izutsu-al-attas-and-al-raghib-al-isfahani-.html [accessed january 2011]. shafi, mohammad. “jihad – sacred struggle.” dar al-islam institute alumni, [fall, 2005 http://www.daralislam.org/notesonquran/jihadsacredstruggle/tabid/121/default.aspx [accessed january 2011]. wright, cory d. “on the funcationalization of pluralistic approaches to truth.” synthese 145, no. 1 [2005]: 1-28. http://www.springerlink.com/content/h824r820806741q9/ [accessed january 2011]. lectures/papers presented at a conference hasan-kakar, palwasha. “permanent mission of afghanistan to the united nations: follow up to the fourth world conference on women, with a focus on financing for gender equality.” statement by h.e. palwasha kakar, deputy minister of the ministry of women’s affairs for the government of afghanistan, new york, ny, march 3, 2008.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     351   http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/csw52/statements_missions/afghanis.pdf [accessed january 2011]. kadyifaci-orellana, s. ayse. “critical approaches to religion and peacemaking: the case of muslim peace building actors.” paper presented at the international studies association's 50th annual conference, new york, ny, february 29, 2009. http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p313243_index.html. shariati, ali, “an approach to an understanding of islam.” lecture given for ‘islamic sources of conflict resolution,’ at the american university, department of international relations and conflict resolution, washington d.c., spring 2009. www.shariati.com/lesson1.html online public documents (pdf) altantawy, mohamed, nizar habash, owen rambow, and ibrahim saleh. “morphological analysis and generation of arabic nouns: a morphemic functional approach” new york: center for computational learning systems at columbia university, and cairo: the arabic and translation studies division at the american university in cairo, 2010. www.lrec conf.org/proceedings/lrec2010/pdf/442_paper.pdf [accessed december 2010]. pars times. “shirin ebadi: autobiography.” http://www.parstimes.com/books/ebadi_bio.pdf [accessed january 2011]. walid, saleh. “the etymological fallacy and quranic studies: muhammad, paradise and late antiquity” toronto: university of toronto, 2009. www.safarmer.com/indo eurasian/walid_saleh.pdf [accessed december 2010]. reference works cowen, j. m. ed., the hans wehr dictionary of modern written arabic, 4th ed. urbana: spoken language services, inc., 1993. reports and documents hasan kakar, palwasha. fine-tuning the nsp: discussions of problems and solutions with facilitating partners. november 1, 2005. afghanistan research and evalution unit http://www.areu.org.af/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&gid=223&ite mid=26 [accessed january 2011]. university of notre dame. report for enhancing security and human rights in afghanistan: afghan women speak. october 2010. http://www.nd.edu/~jfallon2/womenafghanistanreport.pdf [accessed january 2011]. theses and dissertations abdu, hussaini. “urban dynamics, ethno-religious crises and youth violence in kaduna.” phd diss., department of political science and defence studies nigerian defence academy, kaduna.   volume  5  number  3  (2011):  320-­‐352   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     352   hasan kakar, palwasha. “tribal law of pashtunwali and women’s legislative authority.” ma diss., center for middle eastern studies at harvard divinity school, boston, ca. http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/ilsp/research/kakar.pdf [accessed january 2011]. video recordings karam, imad. “the imam and the pastor.” dvd. directed by allan channer. london, uk: ftl films, 2006. shaheen, jack and jeremy earp. “reel bad arabs: how hollywood vilifies a people.” vhs. directed by jeremy earp and sut jhally. north hampton, ma: media education foundation, 2006. websites cultural survival. “resettlement pattern: the afghan refugees in pakistan.” http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival quarterly/afghanistan/resettlement-pattern-afghan-refugees-pakistan [accessed january 2011]. an african answer. “imam muhammad ashafa & pastor james wuye.” the imam and the pastor. http://anafricananswer.org/info.html [accessed january 2011]. bernardin, andrew. “four types of truth.” the evolving mind. http://evolvingmind.info/four types-of-truth/ [accessed december 2010]. d.g. tendulkar. “abdul ghaffar khan: faith is battle.” gandhi peace foundation, www.mkgandhi.org/associates/badshah.htm [accessed january 2011]. el-najjar, hassan. “three dimensions of islamic faith.” www.aljazeerah.info/islamiceditorals/2007/may/threelevelsoffaith, (accessed december 2010). hashim kamali, mohammad. “human dignity in islam.” international institute of advanced islamic studies (iais). www.iais.org.my [accessed december 2010]. sahih al-bukhari. http://www.sahihalbukhari.com/sps/sbk/ [accessed january 1, 2011]. search truth. “salam.” qur’an and hadith search. http://www.searchtruth.net/ [accessed december 2010]. tafsir al-jalalayn. “tafsir al-quran.” altafsirs. www.altafsir.com/al-jalalayn.asp [accessed december 2010]. united religious initiative. “the etymology of salam: an insight into the arabic word for peace.” http://www.uri.org/the_latest/2010/10/the_etymology_of_salam [accessed december 2010]. women peacemakers. “palwasha kakar of afghanistan.” http://www.sandiego.edu/peacestudies [accessed january 2011]. reardon in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 123-136 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 131 volume 2 number 1 (2008): 131-136 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ a pedagogy of alternatives: a peace education comment on mark webb’s “letter to naomi klein” betty a. reardon founder, international institute on peace education founding director emeritus, peace education center, teachers college, columbia university a major characteristic of the pedagogy of peace education as i have practiced it, is positing, assessing, and strategizing alternatives to the current world order, i.e. transforming reality. the pedagogy of alternatives derives from a basic assertion about the world order and the suffering that is integral to it. the assertion can be summed up in a phrase i’ve used trying to break through the sense of the inevitability of violence and injustice that so profoundly affects the thinking of citizens and is an ever present shadow over class discussions, the specter of realism. it is that specter that lies at the heart of mark webb’s critique of naomi klein’s the shock doctrine and her theory of disaster in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 123-136 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 132 capitalism, which per se neither he nor i would refute.1 it is the core of the policies we who inquire into ways of learning to build peace decry. it is the essence of the thinking that must be confronted by any pedagogy of peace education. in essence realism, the belief that the world is, indeed, the way it appears, hostile and dangerous and cannot be significantly changed. at best we can only manipulate it to serve whatever ends and values motivate us. should those values be justice and peace and the ends social and economic equity and a non violent world order, those who hold those values and pursue those goals are deemed naïve idealists. even those who put forth clear analyses of well documented evidence, challenging the appearance of conditions and/or the way they are presented to the public, risk not being taken seriously, deemed unrealistic. thus the tendency is to challenge what “doesn’t have to be that way” within the realist paradigm, offering counter realistic arguments, rather than challenge the paradigm itself. we have tended to challenge what is by telling more about it than has been previously known, impugning motives and veracity of the powerful who have taken control of reality. such exposure is a long tradition of american journalism. “muck raking” has lead to reforms but never to reconstruction. policies and consequences may change, but the system and the paradigm within it is it constructed and viewed are seldom altered. i think this is the case with the very important and essential work done by naomi klein. more citizens will be more acutely aware of the abuses of human well-being perpetrated by contemporary capitalism and the neo-liberal global market economy, but 1 naomi klein, the shock doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism, 1st ed. (new york: metropolitan books/henry holt, 2007). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 123-136 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 133 until they are also able to reflect upon and think of alternatives to the core principles driving the economic system, they are not likely to be able to effect change that could steer the world toward justice and equity. the encouragement and facilitation of reflection on alternative possibilities toward transformative change is an essential element of peace education. mark webb in his affirming, constructive critique of the shock doctrine calls klein, and more significantly her readers to engage in and exercise of the pedagogy of alternatives by grounding his criticism in a very cogent and provocative work that describes and alternative to the global market system. the dilemmas of social democracy by howard richards and joanna swanger offers the alternative of social democracy in terms that realists should find hard to refute. they claim that what has been could be. “it doesn’t have to be that way” because there is another way, a way that has been undertaken and whose limitations and failures are far from un-resolvable, as is evident in the circumstances of its successes. what it takes primarily for the alternative, or any system, to work is a commitment to principles. this is the focus of webb’s critique, a comparison of the basic principles of market capitalism and social democracy, the imperative of accumulation and private profit as opposed to that of sharing and cooperation. in so doing, he also illuminates another important aspect of peace pedagogy, the identification of principles and the assessment of the values that principles articulate. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 123-136 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 134 were we too take the international convention on economic, social and cultural rights as the standards by which to assess economic conditions in the world, asking what principles of social organization might be necessary to realize these standards, sharing and caring would certainly be among them, if not the primary ones. we can assume then that the diplomats who drafted the standards, practitioners of international politics thought sharing and caring could become viable social principles. this assumption stands in stark contrast to the realist assumptions which produced the practice of disaster capitalism which reaps profits from rather than seeks to relieve the human suffering brought by such disasters as wars, tsunamis and floods. the assumption that accumulation and private profit in “the real world” requires “cut throat competition” in which the loser – regrettably but necessarily loses all underlies most the realist economic practices highlighted by klein. another device of the pedagogy of alternatives, analyzing and assessing assumptions is made possible by a reading of the webb critique. reading the three works, the shock doctrine with the dilemmas of social democracy and letter to naomi klein would make an excellent exercise in the pedagogy of alternatives, considering one alternative to “the way it is”, identifying organizing principles, analyzing underlying assumptions and several other aspects of this approach to developing alternatives to thinking within the dominant paradigm. one of these others is the form in which webb offers the critique, a letter inviting klein to dig deeper into the conditions and mechanisms which facilitate disaster capitalism. it is a significant step away from the adversarial argument and negative refutation that comprises the common in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 123-136 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 135 discourse of difference in our culture. instructors might observe the significance of this approach, inviting students to consider still other alternatives to constructive critique in which the goal is not to reject through refutation, but to clarify ways to an alternative, preferred reality through the identification not only of the differences to be clarified but, especially of the complementarities that further illuminate the need for and possibilities of positive alternatives to the negative problematic. a question might be raised to move us toward a more constructive discourse of difference, how could we pose differences and contradictions in a manner which clarifies a way to finding the complementarities and commonalities which could strengthen a movement toward a preferred condition and, ultimately, to a transformed reality. most essential to a pedagogy of alternatives is the illumination of reality as a constantly changing situation perceived from different perspectives. in a culture of the adversarial argument these differences of perspectives tend to lead to a discourse of refutation to “win the argument” characteristic of the realist paradigm, close kin to the “winner take all” ethos of disaster capitalism. that paradigm, i believe, is at the root of webb’s differences with klein, a dimension equally important as the differences in principle he presents, tending to point out where klein might have gone wrong. a pedagogy of alternatives would dig deeper into assumptions and paradigms toward illuminating the roots of the differences. it would, as well, ask, how can these differences be arranged in a common analysis combining diagnosis of the problem the cause of the human suffering, resulting from the exploitation of disaster as identified within the in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 123-136 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 136 paradigm with a possible alternative – policy based on community sharing in disaster and benefits prescribed within a vision of a transformed reality. mark webb has given us the basis of a rich inquiry into alternatives, by basing his response to klein on one of the most promising and overlooked alternatives to an unjust global economy. he has given us a lens through which to view both the problem of inequity and the realist paradigm that rationalizes it. it is a tool that i hope many peace educators will use. may 27, 2008 klein, naomi. the shock doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism. 1st ed. new york: metropolitan books/henry holt, 2007. factispaxbendixen volume 4 number 1 (2010): 108-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 108 volume 4 number 1 (2010): 108-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ argumentation, anger, and action: citizenship education in and out of the classroom lisa d. bendixen university of nevada, las vegas introduction this special issue brings together four articles that examine various frameworks and research on knowledge, skills, and dispositions associated with democratic citizenship education. the perspectives represented include developmental psychology, educational psychology, educational philosophy, psychoanalysis, and curriculum and instruction. overall, the message from these viewpoints comes together with remarkable clarity in terms of generating ideas and evidence for the improvement of citizenship education. my goals for the current discussion include a description of four themes gleaned from the articles’ commonalities and differences, thoughts regarding educational implications, and suggestions for future considerations and research). themes considering, developing, and assessing students’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions are aspects of a longstanding and common framework in education.1 more specifically, civic knowledge, civic skills, and civics dispositions (i.e., attitudes and 1 l. anderson and d. krathwohl, a taxonomy of learning, teaching and assessing: a revision of bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. (new york: longman, 2001). volume 4 number 1 (2010): 108-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 109 beliefs) are considered key components of democratic citizenship education.2 in the following section, i focus mainly on the latter two components of citizenship education (i.e., civics skills and civics dispositions) because they are more of a focus of the articles and are often underemphasized in schools.3 for the sake of clarity, the themes of: 1) argumentation and deliberation, 2) affect and anger, 3) civic action (or a lack thereof), and 4) imagining a “good” citizen are discussed as separate entities but, overall, they are considered interrelated and reciprocal. argumentation and deliberation what are some civic skills that should be emphasized in citizenship education? the articles in this special issue give us a number of insights into this question. weinstock provides a review of several of his empirical studies that focus on informal reasoning and skilled argumentation within the context of democratic engagement.4 informal reasoning focuses on building sound arguments (as opposed to formal logic) about what individuals encounter in everyday controversial issues such as juror decisionmaking and the evaluation of political campaign speeches. with this framework in mind, weinstock also walks us through the various steps of juror decision-making; an important aspect of participatory citizenship. in addition, the ability to recognize fallacies in informal reasoning (persuasive yet logically flawed arguments) is also considered in social and political issues in the weinstock article. in terms of this skill development, it was also found that a majority of adolescents were able to distinguish between fallacious and non-fallacious statements (but a fourth of them could not and only half could point out specific fallacies). the main message here is that for citizens to be effectively engaged in a democracy they must possess these skills of argumentation. similar to weinstock, ruitenberg argues convincingly that “democratic deliberation” is a corner stone of a healthy democracy.5 more specifically, disagreement about the interpretation of political values and the like should be at the heart of politics. this is in contrast to the more current overvaluing of political procedures and the views of consensus at all costs. she states that the skills of disagreement are a necessary “communicative capacity” (along with affect which will be discussed in a later section) that political education should cultivate in individual citizens and society.6 2 john patrick, “defining, delivering and defending a common education for citizenship in a democracy.” in principles and practices of democracy in the education of social studies teachers: civic learning in teacher education: volume 2. edited by john patrick, g. hamot, and r. leming (bloomington, in: eric, 2002): 5-21. 3 anderson and krathwohl. 4 michael weinstock, “epistemic understanding and sound reasoning skills that underlie effective democratic engagement” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 56-77. 5 claudia ruitenberg, “conflict, affect and the political: on disagreement as democratic capacity” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 40-55. 6 ibid., 1 volume 4 number 1 (2010): 108-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 110 in her article, olafson gives an additional view into particular informal reasoning skills that are associated with citizenship.7 an in-depth and mixed-method investigation of vietnam war resisters and veterans revealed significant differences in their moral reasoning. for example, veterans were more conventional (i.e., follow rules and laws unquestioningly) in their moral reasoning than resisters who demonstrated more postconventional reasoning (i.e., disobey laws if they are deemed unjust). again, more developed and complex reasoning skills about the moral dilemmas citizens face are advocated for in this piece. schraw, olafson, vander veldt and ponder’s article focuses on research with teachers in a social studies methods course that emphasized civic education.8 one of the central skills that emerged from the study (and also consistent with the other articles in this issue) was that of reflection. teachers reported that in-class activities that promoted discussion with peers and reflection on their own practice and beliefs were considered influential factors on their knowledge and views of civics education. affect and anger this theme considers the civic dispositions of democratic citizenship. as was stated previously, attitudes and beliefs of students has been a focus in education for a number of years but most would agree that knowledge or cognitive goals for students has been the main focus and not the affective side.9 in general, the field of educational psychology seems to be more open to the important role of emotion in learning and instruction in recent years (e.g., pekrun, schutz) but is far from the psychoanalytic perspective on affect described by ruitenberg in the current issue.10 affect and anger. as was discussed previously, deliberation that includes disagreement is a key to healthy democracy.11 generally speaking, terms associated with affective educational goals for students include developing an “appreciation for,” or a “valuing of,” a certain subject of study.12 although emotions and feelings are often included, rarely does one see such descriptors for emotions such as anger, joy, or pleasure as specific goals for students. according to ruitenberg’s framework, “democratic disagreement is a passionate affair” it is not only “a detached exchange of rational argument…”.13 disagreement without this affective engagement undermines the chance 7 lori olafson, “’good’” americans and ‘bad’ americans: personal epistemology, moral reasoning, and citizenship” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39. 8 gregory schraw, lori olafson, michelle vander veldt, and jennifer ponder, “teachers’ epistemological stances and citizenship education” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 78-107. 9 l. anderson and d. krathwohl, a taxonomy of learning, teaching and assessing: a revision of bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives (new york: longman, 2001). 10 paul schutz and reinhard pekrun, emotion in education (london, uk: elsevier, inc., 2007). 11 ruitenberg, conflict, affect, and the political and weinstock, epistemic understanding. 12 anderson and krathwohl. 13 ruitenberg, conflict, affect, and the political, p. 44. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 108-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 111 of developing this capacity and a strong political identity and sense of belonging to a group (which is a basic human need). part of this identity development is imagining (or reflection upon) a better society. once students are asked to do this, they may become angry and/or disappointed with the current political situation but, according to ruitenberg, this is a sign of healthy political engagement and these strong emotions should not be suppressed but encouraged. similarly, perry (1978) discusses this disenchantment as a loss of innocence that accompanies growth or gain in development and teachers, in particular, should be aware and compassionate about it for their students experiencing it.14 this combination of civic affect with civic cognition and skill may be an important component of the informal reasoning/argumentation that olafson and weinstock describe as well. as opposed to the detached, rational, and formulaic approach of formal reasoning, informal reasoning that is required of socio-political issues should include argumentation skill, and openness to disagreement, and emotional engagement (and that certainly includes “political anger”15). personal epistemology. in three of the articles in this issue, students and teachers’ beliefs about knowledge and knowing (i.e., their personal epistemology) were a focus within the context of citizenship education (and it is often considered a disposition).16 important empirical links between personal epistemology and aspects of democratic citizenship including moral reasoning, views of citizenship, and argumentation were found. for example, more advanced personal epistemology, or evaluativism17 (i.e., integrating objective and subjective views of knowledge and the belief that differing views can be evaluated based on some criteria), was associated with more advanced moral reasoning in war resisters, reasoning and judgments about jury cases and fallacious arguments, and justice-oriented views of citizenship (i.e., citizens should question, debate, and change the social order). the affective side of personal epistemology development has also been a more recent topic of theory and research.18 in sum, the evidence is certainly building that 14 william perry, “sharing in the costs of growth.” in encouraging development in college students. edited by c. a. parker (minneapolis, mn: university of minnesota press, 1978): 267 273. 15 ruitenberg, conflict, affect, and the political, p. 51. 16 olafson “’good’americans”, schraw et al. “teachers’ epistemology” and weinstock, “epistemic understanding”. 17 deanna kuhn and michael weinstock, “what is personal epistemological thinking and why does it matter?” in personal epistemology: the psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing. edited by barbara hofer and paul pintrich (mahwah, nj: erlbaum, 2002): 121 – 144. 18 lisa bendixen, “a process model of epistemic belief change.” in personal epistemology: the psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing. edited by barbara hofer and paul pintrich (mahwah, nj: erlbaum, 2002): 191 208. see also lucia mason, “beliefs about knowledge and revision of knowledge: on the importance of epistemic beliefs for intentional conceptual change in elementary and middle school students.” in personal epistemology in the classroom: theory, research, and implications for practice. edited by lisa bendixen and florian feucht (cambridge, uk: cambridge university press, 2010): 258 – 291. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 108-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 112 personal epistemology and its advancement should have a specific place in educational settings including citizenship education.19 civic action (or a lack thereof) effective civic engagement includes social and political activism and is a goal of citizenship education.20 an important question is what psychological processes and educational opportunities lead to civic action? the articles in this special issue have much to say about this aspect of civic engagement. ruitenberg describes the current apolitical or disengagement of democratic citizens and the underlying mechanisms for this behavior, or a lack thereof.21 without “political emotions,” citizens lack a clear political identity and essentially choose to go elsewhere to meet their needs of belonging (e.g., the popularity of “traditional” family values in certain groups in the u.s.). more specifically, political anger may be a catalyst for civic action (e.g., she gives us critchley’s quote: “it is often anger that moves a subject to action.”22). she argues that students should be educated about the emotions related to self and emotions related to society and that “educating the political emotions thus requires the development of a sense of solidarity.”23 another line of reasoning centers on the role of commitment in a relativistic political world full of differing opinions. olafson and weinstock describe the necessary weighing of conflicting views and evidence in the political arena and the making of choices or commitments that then influence behavior (e.g., an aspect of evaluativism in personal epistemology). choosing to participate or resist in the vitenam war certainly falls under the category of civic action. the precursors that lead to these choices and behavior are described in olafson’s article in a number of ways.24 for example, she includes james rest’s25 four-component model of moral psychological processes (moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral motivation, and moral character) to interpret her participants’ reasoning and behavior and also william perry’s26 model of ethical and intellectual development (the higher levels include commitment with relativism that is synonymous with evaluativism discussed previously). these models, in conjunction with her findings, are quite reflective of the how higher levels of argumentation skill, strong affect, and advanced personal epistemology coalesce into civic action. interestingly, the 19 lisa bendixen and florian feucht. personal epistemology in the classroom: theory, research, and implications for practice (cambridge, uk: cambridge university press, 2010). 20 the center for civic education, we the people: project citizen (calabasas, ca: website, 2009). 21 ruitenberg “conflict, affect, and the political.” 22 simon critchley, infinitely demanding: ethics of commitment, politics of resistance (london: verso, 2007), 130. 23 ruitenberg, “conflict, affect, and the political,” p. 51. 24 olafson “’good’ americans” 25 james rest, muriel bebeau, and joseph volker, “an overview of the psychology of morality.” in moral development: advances in research and theory (new york: preager, 1986): 1-39. 26 william perry, jr., forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years: a scheme (new york: holt, reinhart and winston, 1970). volume 4 number 1 (2010): 108-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 113 war resisters also described how they have continued social activism efforts in their later years (while the war veterans did not engage in these types of activities). in the schraw et al. article they describe how social studies teachers’ views changed in terms of viewing the civic action of their students (their students participated in service learning projects).27 the teachers were at first skeptical but in the end of their graduate course were surprised at the positive engagement of their students in these activities. in addition, all of the teachers in their study realized the value of civics education and considered it to be a high priority and would include it in their future social studies teaching. imagining a “good” citizen in some of my own work i have discussed and asked others how personal epistemology (and critical thinking) is related to effective and engaged citizenship, or what makes a “good” citizen?28 to help summarize the three themes just discussed and in the spirit of ruitenberg’s article specifically, and the other articles more generally, i will imagine and describe what a good citizen could look like in an engaged democracy. a good or effective citizen would: be informed with civic knowledge and current socio-political events feel comfortable with disagreement and conflict in political issues have a clear and emotionally engaged political identity recognize sound arguments and not fall prey to fallacious statements be able to produce sound arguments about socio-political issues have supporting skills and beliefs to question, debate, and change the social order have an evaluativist perspective on knowledge and knowing would find joy and pride in their political system yet could still be critical of it participate in social and political activism be skilled in informal reasoning about everyday controversial issues imagine/desire a better society within the realistic confines of that social structure as has been discussed, more clearly imagining what could be in terms of engaged citizens can facilitate reform in citizenship education. 27 schraw et al. “teachers epistemological stances” 28 lisa bendixen, lori olafson, robert mattson, and florian feucht, the skills of citizenship: epistemic beliefs, moral reasoning, and critical thinking. (paper presented at the annual meeting of the jean piaget society, st. louis, mo, june, 2010). see also joel westheimer and joseph kahne, “what kind of citizen? the politics of educating for democracy,” american educational research journal 41 (2004): 237 – 269. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 108-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 114 educational implications if we can envision the goals that we have for citizens and citizenship we can also make clearer our expectations for education and its role. in this section, i consider the educational implications that stem from this special issue both within and outside of the classroom. overall, i think that both areas of education working together with common goals for citizenship education have the greatest chance of success. ruitenberg recommends a more inductive approach to political education that would start with students responding (both cognitively and emotionally) to a real/concrete socio-political situation (e.g., a person experiencing a social injustice).29 from there, emotional responses and explicit discussion would ensue including a critique of various levels and perspectives in the socio-political environment (e.g., schools, community, government). in other words this approach allows students to consider and react to the “stickier”30 or messier side of politics from the ground up (stavarkis, 2005). in my view, this approach has great potential both in and out of the classroom. in the classroom a number of quality recommendations are given throughout the articles in terms of recommendations for citizenship education in the classroom. for example, parker (1997) proposes that schools could teach the “art of deliberation” and/or “argument instruction.”31 for this to be successful, education needs to move beyond some of its “nervousness” regarding the conflict and strong emotion that comes from discussion of controversial issues.32 where does this hesitation in education come from? deanna kuhn discusses this issue.33 in her view, a too-narrow of a focus on tolerance and the idea of equality in that everyone has a right to their own opinion has overshadowed critical thought and true deliberation. this sentiment regarding the roots of avoiding political disagreement is echoed in the ruitenberg article as well. i also think that this discomfort with discussing difficult issues comes from a more teacher-centered view of education that is still predominant in many classrooms. in this view, the teacher is in control of every aspect of the classroom including student emotions (as opposed to a more student-centered classroom).34 more open-ended discussion that may elicit conflict and disagreement are, of course, more unpredictable and this may conflict with the goals of a teacher-centered classroom. if this is the overall message that students consistently receive in education, it is no surprise that students (and 29 ruitenberg “conflict, affect, and the political.” 30 as cited in ruitenberg, “conflict, affect, and the political”p. 48 (this issue). 31 as cited in weinstock, “epistemic understanding,” p. 73 . 32 ruitenberg “conflict, affect, and the political.” 33 deanna kuhn, education for thinking (cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 2005). 34 d. daniels and l. shumow, “child development and classroom teaching: a review of the literature and implications for educating teachers,” applied developmental psychology 23 (2003): 495 – 526. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 108-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 115 adults) tend to turn away from disagreements or socio-political discussions that may incite conflict and strong emotion – they may not be equipped with the skills and dispositions to navigate these types of discussions or see the value in them. along these same lines, the importance of student debate is mentioned explicitly in three of the four articles and implicitly in the fourth (i.e., schraw et al., the significance of in-class discussions). most likely due to the reasons just described, “debate has gotten a very bad name”35 in education and this needs to be overcome and given a higher priority in the classroom.36 similarly, olafson recommends more epistemologicallybased classrooms in which students are encouraged to explore the complexities of knowledge and knowing especially within the context of socio-political issues. the significant role of the teacher and teacher training in citizenship education cannot be overlooked.37 for example, schraw et al. discuss the importance of teacher reflection in terms of teachers’ beliefs about civics education. teacher education that espouses views similar to that of citizenship education portrayed in this special issue would certainly have an impact on effective (and affective) democratic engagement of citizens. out of the classroom because of the constraints of the classroom and formal education, ruitenberg recommends that political education and disagreement “space” should be provided more in the community (e.g., local political groups).38 service learning opportunities (e.g., organizing and participating in a neighborhood food drive) such as the ones schraw et al. describe for elementary students are other important opportunities for civic engagement beyond the classroom.39 the more “training” mentality that was described by miller in terms of military education falls outside of the typical k-12 experience as well along with its more potentially negative consequences on democratic citizenship (i.e., stifling of discussion, debate, and/or disagreement).40 as i stated previously, opportunities for advancing citizenship have the greatest potential if formal and informal educational contexts work together with common goals in mind. more specifically, a “systems perspective” to citizenship education wherein individual students and teachers (i.e., individual system), their classroom climates (i.e., 35 weinstock, epistemic understanding”, p. 73 36 see also d. zeidler and b. nicholls, “socioscientific issues: theory and practice,” journal of elementary science education, 21 (2009): 49 58. 37 florian haerle and lisa bendixen, “personal epistemology in elementary classrooms: a conceptual comparison of germany and the united states and a guide for future cross-cultural research.” in knowing, knowledge and beliefs: epistemological studies across diverse cultures. edited by m.s. khine (new york; springer, 2005): 151-176. 38 ruitenberg “conflict, affect, and the political.” 39 schraw et al. “teachers epistemological stances” 40 as cited in olafson “’good’ americans”. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 108-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 116 microsystem), curriculum and schools (i.e., exosystem), and broader social and cultural (i.e., macrosystem) are assumed to impact one another reciprocally seems advantageous.41 this framework could guide future citizenship educational objectives, practice, and policy. future considerations to conclude this discussion i offer two areas in which future dialogue and research could focus to further expand what this special issue has initiated. the first issue is the rapidly-increasing importance of the internet as a source of knowledge for citizens. how individuals evaluate the quality and credibility of information in general and socio-political issues in particular should be examined empirically. bromme, kienhues, and porsch point out that students and adults rely on the knowledge of others or “second-hand” knowledge most of our lives (e.g., medical information).42 the knowledge, skills, and dispositions (e.g., evaluativist beliefs) needed to navigate this vast information space should be a top priority in citizenship education. for example, both mason and boldrin and braten and colleagues have found that beliefs about knowledge and knowing influence the way in which students think about and make choices when searching for information on the internet.43 secondly, weinstock raises the important question of what culture we are indeed considering in terms of democratic knowledge, skills, and dispositions.44 is this a western ideal of democratic engagement only or does it apply to other conceptions of democracy and cultures as well (e.g., eastern cultures)? in addition, more recent theory and research associated with the role of culture in personal epistemology makes it clear that more work needs to be done in this regard.45 education has a unique and powerful position in regard to determining what is and isn’t important for students to think about.46 the valuing of citizenship knowledge, skills, and dispositions both in and out of the classroom needs to be at the forefront if an engaged and healthy democracy is the goal. 41 bendixen and feucht, 555. 42 rainer bromme, dorothe keinhues, and torsten porsch, “who knows what and who we can believe? epistemological beliefs about knowledge (mostly) to be attained from others.” in personal epistemology in the classroom: theory, research, and implications for practice. edited by lisa bendixen and florian feucht (cambridge, uk: cambridge university press, 2010), 163 193. 43 lucia mason and angela boldrin, “epsitemic metacognition in the context of information searching on the web,” in knowing, knowledge and beliefs: epistemological studies across diverse cultures. edited by m. s. khine (new york; springer), 377 404. see also ivar braten, “personal epistemology, understanding of multiple contexts, and learning within internet technologies,” in knowing, knowledge and beliefs: epistemological studies across diverse cultures. edited by m. s. khine (new york; springer), 351 376. 44 weinstock “epistemic understanding”. 45 barbara hofer, “personal epistemology and culture,” in knowing, knowledge and beliefs: epistemological studies across diverse cultures. edited by m. s. khine (new york; springer), 3 22. 46 deanna kuhn, education for thinking (cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 2005). volume 4 number 1 (2010): 108-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 117 to sum up what i see as the potential of this special issue and the message it conveys regarding effective democratic citizenship, i end with a quotation from a thirtyeight-year-old woman responding to the question “who am i?”: “i am the anger that will change the world.”47 bibliography anderson, l. and d. krathwohl. a taxonomy of learning, teaching and assessing: a revision of bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. new york: longman, 2001. bendixen, lisa d. “a process model of epistemic belief change.” in personal epistemology: the psychology of beleifs about knowledge and knowing, edited by barbara hofer and paul pintrich, 191 – 208. mahwah, nj: erlbaum, 2002. bendixen, lisa d. and florian c. feucht, eds. personal epistemology in the classroom: theory, research, and implications for practice. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press, 2010. bendixen, lisa, lori olafson, robert mattson, and florian c. feucht, “the skills of citizenship: epistemic beliefs, moral reasoning, and critical thinking (paper presented at the annual meeting of the jean piaget society, st. louis, mo, june, 2010). braten, ivar “personal epistemology, understanding of multiple contexts, and learning within internet technologies.” in knowing, knowledge and beliefs: epistemological studies across diverse cultures, edited by m. s. khine, 351 – 376. new york; springer. bromme, rainer, dorothe keinhues, and torsten porsch. “who knows what and who we can believe? epistemological beliefs about knowledge (mostly) to be attained from others.” in personal epistemology in the classroom: theory, research, and implications for practice, edited by lisa d. bendixen and florian c. feucht, 163 – 193. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press, 2010. critchley, simon. infinitely demanding: ethics of commitment, politics of resistance. london: verso, 2007. daniels, d. and l. shumow. “child development and classroom teaching: a review of the literature and implications for educating teachers.” applied developmental psychology 23 (2003): 495 – 526, haerle, florian c. and lisa d. bendixen “personal epistemology in elementary classrooms: a conceptual comparison of germany and the united states and a guide for future cross-cultural research.” in knowing, knowledge and beliefs: epistemological studies across diverse cultures, edited by m.s. khine, 151 – 176. new york; springer, 2005. 47 author unknown, class activity, lifespan development (2001). volume 4 number 1 (2010): 108-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 118 hofer, barbara k. “personal epistemology and culture.” in knowing, knowledge and beliefs: epistemological studies across diverse cultures, edited by m. s. khine, 3 – 22. new york; springer, 2005. kuhn, deanna. education for thinking. cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 2005. kuhn, deanna and michael weinstock. “what is personal epistemological thinking and why does it matter?” in personal epistemology: the psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing, edited by barbara k. hofer and paul r. pintrich, 121 – 144. mahwah, nj: erlbaum, 2002. mason, lucia. “beliefs about knowledge and revision of knowledge: on the importance of epistemic beliefs for intentional conceptual change in elementary and middle school students.” in personal epistemology in the classroom: theory, research, and implications for practice, edited by lisa d. bendixen and florian c. feucht, 258 – 291. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press, 2010. mason, lucia and angela boldrin. “epsitemic metacognition in the context of information searching on the web.” in knowing, knowledge and beliefs: epistemological studies across diverse cultures, edited by m. s. khine, 377 – 404. new york; springer, 2005. miller, j. “squaring the circle: teaching philosophical ethics in the military” journal of military ethics 35 (1999): 478 488. olafson, lori. “good” americans and “bad” americans: personal epistemology, moral reasoning, and citizenship.” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39. parker, walter “the art of deliberation.” educational leadership 54 (1997): 18 – 21. patrick, john. “defining, delivering and defending a common education for citizenship in a democracy.” in principles and practices of democracy in the education of social studies teachers: civic learning in teacher education: volume 2, edited by j. patrick, g. hamot, and r. leming, 5 – 21. bloomington, in: eric, 2002. perry, william g. “sharing in the costs of growth.” in encouraging development in college students, edited by c. a. parker, 267 – 273. minneapolis, mn: university of minnesota press, 1978. ---. forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years: a scheme. new york: holt, reinhart and winston, 1970. rest, james, muriel bebeau, and joseph volker. “an overview of the psychology of morality.” in moraldevelopment: advances in research and theory, edited by james rest, 1 – 39. new york: preager, 1986. ruitenberg, claudia “conflict, affect and the political: on disagreement as democratic capacity” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 40-55. schraw, gregory, lori olafson, michelle vander veldt, and jennifer ponder. “teachers’ epistemological stances and citizenship education” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 78-107. schutz, paul and reinhard pekrun. emotion in education. london, uk: elsevier, inc., 2007. stavarkis, yannis. “passions of identification: discourse, enjoyment, and european volume 4 number 1 (2010): 108-119 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 119 identity.” in discourse theory in european politics: identity, policy and governance, edited by david howarth and jacob torfing, 68 – 92. new york: palgrave macmillan, 2005. the center for civic education. we the people: project citizen. calabasas, ca: website, 2009. weinstock, michael “epistemic understanding and sound reasoning skills that underlie effective democratic engagement.” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 56-77. westheimer, joel and joseph kahne. “what kind of citizen? the politics of educating for democracy.” american educational research journal 41 (2004): 237 – 269. zeidler, d. and b. nicholls. “socioscientific issues: theory and practice.” journal of elementary science education, 21 (2009): 49-58. daisuke anti-discrimination education in japan in factis pax in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 112-125 http:/ /ww w.infactispax.org/ journal/ 112 volume 3 number 1 (2009): 112-125 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ anti-discrimination education in japan: buraku sabetsu simulation daisuke nojima1 teacher in senri international schools foundation in osaka, japan student in doctoral course in ritsumeikan university, graduate school of international relations email: haebaruryoji@sutv.zaq.ne.jp; dnojima@senri.ed.jp introduction (1) vignette: in a family context here is a sample vignette between a father and a son, in conflict concerning the possible marriage of the son with a woman from the buraku community. the family is faced with a dilemma between love and established custom. some volunteer performers are asked to read in a skit style, as an introduction of realizing buraku sabetsu problem in japan.2 son: “father, i would like to marry…” father: “oh, yes! it’s a good news! is she your nice girlfriend, hanako?” s: “yes!” 1 ma with thesis of international humanitarian law at international christian university, tokyo, japan; former committee member of osaka private school's association of researching human rights education; transcend japan, board 2 this vignette is extracted from essences of the real stories described in a book written by a buraku coming-out writer. kadooka, nobuhiko, hisabetsu buraku no seishun (youth in buraku community)” kodansha 2003 in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 112-125 http:/ /ww w.infactispax.org/ journal/ 113 f: “she is a good lady! you’re lucky! what a good news!” s: “father, and…i have to tell you, about…” f: “what?” s “…about her origin.” f “what is it?” s “she’s from buraku community.” f “…oh, no, my son!” s “she says she wants you to know it, before our marriage.” f “no, it’s impossible!” s “why impossible?” f “it will damage our family’s reputation! absolutely, no!!” s “why does it damage our family?” f “because, our family blood cannot be mixed with theirs!” s “it’s an old-fashioned way of thinking. wrong belief!” f “…though i would say ok, our relatives must be angry! it might damage their reputation, too. do you want to cause any disadvantage at your cousin’s marriage and employment?” s “you cannot predict it!” f “no, public is not easy. and i know buraku people are doing strong human rights movements, and i hear some of them are very challenging. i don’t want our family to be involved in such complicated matters! ” s “well, give us a time..? we didn’t think you would become furious.” f “mmmm…, who on earth does keep such silly discrimination system?! we are annoyed!” s “….father, it’s you!” through this vignette, the facilitator encourages participants to be interested in thinking about the buraku sabetsu. if this dialogue continues, the possible result could be: to overcome the difficulty, they marry with all family’s conviction this could be the happiest solution, but they all need strength. they marry, but keep her origin secret to the relatives; being afraid of the disclosure. the original book shows the interview of this case; superficially happy, but not the complete solution. they marry and break off the relationship with their family. very independent and separated, and they cannot be given any support from their family. semi-gathered marriage ceremony (wedding ceremony with only one family side) the famous enlightening movie “hashi no nai kawa (river without bridge)” demonstrates this sorrowful scenario. separate ways probably, the most cases have been terminated in this category. -judicial action, a coming-out reporter told her own case in a court in a publication. runaway, suicide, …etc. these sorrowful cases happen, still. here, the workshop defines buraku sabetsu as：discrimination against people from “outcaste” community in japan. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 112-125 http:/ /ww w.infactispax.org/ journal/ 114 these phenomena have been found in personal and social stages. as in personal stage, it is mostly found at marriage cases and employment cases. as in social stage: social burden is concentrated and unluckiest role is enforced. (2) simulation: in a community context next, to realize the social structural context of the discrimination, participants are asked to do a role-play in an imaginary community. this is a simulation of group negotiation and decision-making in a community about burden sharing, which are necessary to keep modern living standards. in this simulation, cards are prepared as bellows: (for example, in case of 15 participants, as in iipe): at stage 1: serene cards (9), burden cards (6), are prepared and taken as a lottery. serene card means to own the privilege to live without being asked to carry any social burden. on the other hand, burden card indicates: isolated ward, nuclear powerplant, humble house, 3d-jobs, no chance of higher education, and garbage disposal facilities. all these 15 cards’ tops are designed in the same color. at stage 2: elite cards (2), “happy?” cards (12), and change cards (3), are prepared to construct social classes. the simulation study has three stages. stage 1: fair burden-sharing community at the first stage, everybody in the community draws a card from two types of form. type one is a “serene” card, this ensures the person will live in calm and “normal” life. the other type requires the person to own some kind of burden, which is necessary for the community; for examples, “garbage disposal facility,” “isolation ward,” “crematory,” “nuclear powerplant,” etc. people are requested to sit together in those two groups. people with the “serene” card automatically earn the “happy?” card, which symbolizes happy life to live (without sharing social burden). stage 2: community with social class in each group, people are asked to become competitive with paper-rock-scissors; serene group selects two elite people, who are responsible for managing the whole community. burden group does a race to grasp “change” card, which ensures changing the burden card into “happy?” card. the winner earns the second chance to live without social burden, while the loser should own more “burden” cards, which are given up by the winner in this group. as the result of the races in two groups, the whole community is divided into four social classes: 1) elite with elite cards and “happy?” cards 2) serene (“normal” citizen) and “happy?” cards 3) ”climber” with change cards and “happy?” cards 4) burden bearers in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 112-125 http:/ /ww w.infactispax.org/ journal/ 115 < chart 1: simulation > then, people are required to make a decision as a community, whether going to back to the stage 1, where all social burdens are shared in lottery base; or just to keep the stage 2 with four social classes. the decision should be basically adopted through the vote by everybody. of course, other proposal or suggestion could be discussed. during the negotiation before the final vote, the facilitator asks some key questions. samples of possible inquiries are:3  who seems the most responsible?  who has the power to change?  does each social class share common opinion inside?  why this situation is kept?  who gains from the system? stage 3: community with fixed position (forever, even for descendants) whatever the community’s decision is, everybody is asked to imagine that the social class era continues into the future for centuries. further, people are asked how they feel about it. i. “buraku sabetsu” -origin and status 4 the central aim of the role-play is to realize the structural dimension of “buraku sabetsu.” the imaginary community, however, is a metaphor of one of the most serious and historic discriminations in japan. there are many excellent teaching practices that encourage empathy in individual learners; however, buraku sabetsu becomes more invisible in the japanese social framework as the reasons discussed later. therefore, we need a study of structure-orientated simulation studies, as well as moral education for transforming this severe discrimination. 3 “inquiry” method, to ask neutral questions to the learners in order to seek deeper problematique, is often used in peace education pedagogy. betty reardon, in order to create peaceful worldhuman rights, gender, and education” (workshop) held at seisen university, tokyo, japan, may 16-17, 2009. 4 the following description is based on and is synthesized from many books and articles, listed in the bibliography. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 112-125 http:/ /ww w.infactispax.org/ journal/ 116 a. “kegare (穢れ: impurity in mind)” to realize the deep structure of buraku sabetsu, the concept of “kegare” should be understood. as there are many theories analyzing its origin, they agree at least; in 8th century, noble people privatize the lands and social classes were generated. until modern age, “kegare” exists in the deep structure of japanese people’s minds, as to form a kind of deep culture. “kegare” means impurity in mind, which can never be purified by physical actions. for example, if a container which carries a cow’s feces and urines could be washed and disinfected a thousand times, japanese people might still feel some impurity remains with it. the idea of “kegare (impurity in mind)” results in prejudice against people with specific occupations, such as funeral workers, executioners, sweepers, leather producers, drum makers, etc. people with those occupations are regarded impure, since they touch daily the dead human or animals, or dirty things like feces or dead skin. b. fixed social classes 17th century samurai shogunate fixed social hierarchy: samurai (warrior), farmer, merchant, and craftsperson. it also defined outcast people:“eta (extreme filth)”and “hinin (non-human)” classes. the shogunate fixed social classes in order to maintain the samurai’s privileged status. outcasted people were regulated in social manners and communication with other classes. c. social structure < chart 2 : social hierarchy in edo period> the chart indicates how the samurai (warrior) class designed the social hierarchy. absolute majority was the farmer class, and the critical point was how to control the society by 8% of population of warriors. the people with power utilized the prejudice against the outcaste classes (thick arrows in the chart below), eta and hinin, to preserve this unstable hierarchal pyramid. perhaps, many discriminatory systems in the world share common characteristics with the edo class system. d. kegare impurity lasts forever buraku people were discriminated against even after they passed away. for example, their gravestone was in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 112-125 http:/ /ww w.infactispax.org/ journal/ 117 caved with discriminatory posthumous name as with letters of animal name or slave. the posthumous name (戒名: kaimyo) is named by a buddhist priest, to spend their time after-death, in another dimension of space. e. potential of continued discrimination in 19th century, the new meiji government prohibited any social class ranking, however class discrimination continued. in the era of introducing capitalism and industrialization, capitalists required low cost workers, and weak classes were forced into a competitive battle with each other. the idea of “kegare” was even strengthened with new western idea of hygiene and eugenics, introduced in this period. f. the enforced “role” of accepting social disadvantages in 20th century, in the era of modernization, social burden such as: garbage disposal facilities, isolation ward, crematory, nuclear powerplant, were often constructed in or near the buraku areas. “3d-jobs,” unemployment, humble houses, uneducated, etc. were often found in buraku commnunities. in another way to explain the situation, buraku sabetsu has been utilized by the modern government to put social burdens on this group of people. if, for example, 10% of the population automatically accepts those social burdens, the rest majority of 90% of the population could live without owing any risks of social disadvantages (as shown in the simulation, at the beginning of this workshop). g. “invisible people” -why does it continue over the centuries? buraku people are “invisible” in a certain sense, however, they are still discriminated against. there are no physical distinctive features that distinguish them from other japanese people. buraku people cannot be identified in normal communication, and foreign observers often ask why the discrimination is possible. this discrimination is not the remains of past bad legislation, nor the habit of the past of feudal era alone; it is being re-produced even in the current modern era. what explains this discrimination? it is caused by the perceived need of modern society for the sacrifice of the good of a minority for the benefit of society. it is a utilitarian calculation wherein the overall benefits to society out weigh the harm done to a minority. if fixed group of people carry any social burden, the others would feel safe from the risk to carry them. there are three ways through which discrimination is sustained: “koseki (戸籍: permanent address system),” ”buraku chimei soukan (部落地名総鑑:underground publishing of buraku community address list) ,”and “koshinjo (興信所: private detective agencies).” first one, japanese historic custom, “koseki,” has played to identify the buraku people. it is a legal custom among east asian society, the permanent address registering system. though people move from their original place, the koseki remains, while address is changed. second, underground publishing of ”buraku lists” was purchased by famous companies and serene people, which indicates which permanent address is categorized as buraku community. third,”koshinjo,” private detective agencies, have worked to find somebody’s permanent address or family status. recently, new legislation regulates these inhumane actions, however the discrimination has not totally been overcome. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 112-125 http:/ /ww w.infactispax.org/ journal/ 118 ii. to learn deeply from the reality of discrimination to learn deeply from the reality of discrimination (「差別の現実に深く学ぶ」: sabetsu no genjitsu ni fukaku manabu) is a common slogan of anti-discrimination educators in japan. the shape of buraku sabetsu in the modern age looks as follows: pressure to marriage, pressure to employment, bullying, harassment, graffiti, discriminatory description in internet bulletin board, and so on. a. statistics (1990’s) 5 unfortunately, statistics still indicate the difference between the “average” people’s living standard and the standard of buraku people. for example:  rate of long time absence in school: average 2.4%, and buraku 4.5%  rate of entry into university and junior college: average 40.7%, and buraku 28.6%  rate of households on welfare: average 1.4%, and buraku 7.0%  rate of company executive: average 6.0%, and buraku 1.9%  annual income less than 0.5 million yen: average 4.7%, and buraku 10.3% nowadays, these situations seem to be improved a little, however, the gap still stands. b. ms. hatsue kobayashi’s (coming-out writer) talk in a tv session6 a sensational tv discussion program broadcasted a challenging topic of buraku sabetsu, and a coming-out writer, ms. hatsue kobayashi introduced how buraku people are discriminated against. she cited many examples, such as: bullying against her child in school (excluded from lunch serving duty, locked in the toilet, etc.) newcomers desperately explain they have no relatives in the area. a small girl took her grandmother to ms. kobayashi’s home and explained how evil she is, by pointing at the doorplate. at the same program, mr. kenzo tomonaga, the head researcher from “buraku kaiho kenkyusho (部落解放研究 所research institute for liberating buraku)” introduced a statistic: 70% of nuclear powerplants in japan are located in or near the buraku communities. ms. kobayashi reveals as well that other public facilities have also been constructed in buraku zones, and there have been serious power struggles between buraku residents and the public administration. due to the public power to oppress, the apathy of the majority of ordinary people, and customs that regard self-help actions as crude, she found no way to ensure their own human dignity. 5 imadr, imadr-jc, buraku liberation league, and blhrri, “reality of buraku discrimination in japan” 2001 6 “jinken to buraku sabetsu (human rights and buraku discrimination),” ‘asa made namaterebi (all-night discussion tv series)’, tbs, 1989 in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 112-125 http:/ /ww w.infactispax.org/ journal/ 119 c. current main cases of discrimination buraku sabetsu shows its face in the modern society, and for examples, the main cases are: (1) about 1600 companies, including big-names, bought private information from 2 detective agencies (1998). 7 by the investigation of two detective companies, many companies had a contract to check individual information such as place of origin, personal beliefs, and political activities, when they recruit new staff members. the information was sent by fax, and disposed of immediately, in order to destroy the evidence. (2) a student was compelled to rewrite the report of a mal-interview at an enterprise. (2005) for the improvement of recruiting students from buraku community, schools requests students to report what was asked at the interview. for examples, place of origin, landmarks nearby their home, personal beliefs, are regarded mal-questions and could be discussed later. however, a teacher instructed students to make false statements, in order to save them from discriminatory treatment. (3) computerized buraku lists were found. (2006) as technology developed, buraku lists became computerized and it became more difficult for people in anti-discrimination activities to find such mal-publication. many violent words are found on the internet bbs, as well as bad words against foreign people and countries. (4) defamation in internet communication (recent) the main method of bullying in school is internet or mobile phone e-mail communication. the attackers use fake names, and the bullied person cannot identify who has committed the humiliation. bullying against buraku people is also moving to electronic communication. iii. anti-discrimination movements by buraku people buraku people, after the long struggle, started their own anti-discrimination movements. a. the fruits of the movements a world-wide famous declaration of human rights, “suiheisha declaration (水平社宣言)” was adopted in 1922, when “suiheisha (水平社: the levelers association, 1922-1942) was founded. the declaration stipulated the principles of: self-help, solidification, being proud of self, etc. the symbol flag of the movement (荊冠旗: keikanki) was designed from a crown of thorns. the establishment of suiheisha was an epoch-making incident in anti-discrimination movement history. during the war period it faced extinction due to unification of all parties in the war effort; this collaboration has been subsequently regretted by the movement. they regarded unificatnion as a significant opportunity to be recognized, through contributing to overcoming the national crisis. after the world war ii, national committee for buraku liberation (部落解放全国委員会: buraku kaiho zenkoku iinkai, 1946-1955) was founded and the movement was succeeded by other organizations. 7 this matter is not reported through the main mass-media, since some of the mass-media companies also were involved, and only reported by human rights movement’s periodicals. local governmental chief, for example minoo city mayor and chairperson of the municipal congress touched this incident in their speech at the public human rights over-viewing meeting. the facilitator learned about this from a veteran instructor of shigaku jin ken office. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 112-125 http:/ /ww w.infactispax.org/ journal/ 120 b. problems in anti-discrimination movements unfortunately, the movements have faced some difficulties in recent decades. first, the movement became fragmentized in its relationship with political parties. second, there were reported some scandal cases by human rights organizations and the administration of the human rights department. third, the recent globalization of economy has generated poorer people than traditional buraku people and focus seems to be weakening on buraku.8 iv. anti-discrimination laws a. special legislation the japanese government has proposed legislation (同和対策事業特別措置法: douwa taisaku jigyou tokubetsu sochi hou, special law for anti-discrimination measures), mainly focusing on the improvement of the economic status and living standards of buraku communities, including nominating special areas and supplying better social infrastructure. the special legislation has been postponed several times: 1969-1982, 1982-1987, 1987-1997, and 1996-2001. in education, the law for human rights education and the promotion of enlightenment of human rights (人権教育及び人権啓発の推進に関する法律: jinken kyouiku oyobi jinken keihatsu no suishin ni kansuru houritsu ) was envisaged in 2000. as this law had a background of united nations’ campaign of decade of human rights, connection with international laws and movements in the world gradually became to recognize. b. problems the end of special legislation in 2002 however, this special legislation finally ended in 2002, with the reason that buraku sabetsu had become less obvious and seemed to have recovered at least in the economic field. recent movements of thought maintain that it should have been a basic law of liberation of buraku people and community. after the expiring of the special legislation, anti-discriminatory lectures became no longer mandatory for teaching license programs at university, and about 40% of new teachers in osaka private schools have not learned about buraku sabetsu.9 the recent published book, written by a buraku writer, tells us the discrimination became less severe in the general context, but still exists and violations of human rights continue.10 vi. anti-discriminatory education 11 anti-discriminatory education has made efforts in empowering and supporting buraku pupils and students, through developing such devices as literacy education (識字教育:shikiji kyouiku:), free school textbook (教科書無 8 a city hall staff from local government in shikoku area, interviewed at the workshop of jinken kyouiku keihatsu suishin center（人権教育啓発推進センター、the center for human rights affairs）, january 17, 2008 9 this is found at a meeting for new teachers in shigaku jin ken, in the year of 2003, when the lecturer, mr. ninomiya takashi, asked to the all new teachers in osaka private schools. 10 kadooka, nobuhiko, ibid. 11 this paragraph is mainly based on “tomoni” and “manabi” by shigaku jin ken. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 112-125 http:/ /ww w.infactispax.org/ journal/ 121 償化: kyoukasho mushouka), and changes in the philosophy of scholarship (奨学金基準の変更: shougakukin kijun no henkou). as in course guidance support: general format of cv (統一応募用紙: touitsu oubo youshi: only prefecture name on permanent address item, without ideology check items, etc.) it has also carried out enlightenment education for the majority. many teaching materials, readings, movies, etc., have been produced and these educations have been introduced in the schools’s human rights education curriculum. recent human rights education has attempted a connection with current trends in international education: introducing the treaty of the right of the child, the un year for human rights education, and the universal declaration of human rights, etc. a. education of empathy with literature among many human rights education teaching materials, the original handbook of “ningen (にんげん、 human)” is, for example, widely-introduced in the osaka area. it contains various stories within such topics as: people with visual disabilities, hansen’s disease, antipersonnel landmine, ainu (indigenous people in japan), zainichi people (korean people living in japan), people with special needs, hiv carrier, okinawan people, buraku discrimination, etc.12 these themes in the handbook, used mainly in long homeroom time or moral education, aims to develop learners’ empathy with minorities or people in a discriminated situation. the book was distributed around many schools in the osaka area, and had an established reputation. however, the structural aspect of discrimination has not been focused on very much. this handbook has mainly been taught from the standpoint of humanities, not in a social science context. b. problems in anti-discriminatory education those kinds of humanistic ways of teaching has a good effect on reflection of daily life and the mindset produced by prejudice of each learner. however, some problems arise. first of all, official support for human rights education is weakened due to the reduced budget, under the background of the expiration of special legislation for empowering buraku people and community. the handbook “ningen” is no longer published and practitioners should distribute a copy version. the osaka governor has taken the policy of minimizing total expenses for the osaka prefecture, and has reduced support for educational activities. second, the expiration of the legislation also affects teachers’ lack of knowledge about the buraku issue, since university study of the issue is no longer a mandatory requirement for the teacher’s license. third, many non-buraku issues come together in the category of human rights education and the buraku issue has thereby lost its status as a central issue. the expansion of the range of human rights education has many merits, however traditional practitioners regret that the buraku issue has become to be seen much less important. v. my trial of structural approach and the viewpoint of transformation (simulation study) reviewing those reflections, human rights education of the buraku issue urges more effective ways of teaching. the social-scientific view should be centralized to overcome difficulties, which still lie behind the superficial improvement. while traditional education mainly focuses on the aspect of cultural violence of buraku 12 ningen editing committee, ningen : hito, kibou, meiji tosho shuppan, 2006: “ningen” used to have been published with supports by local government, until 2008. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 112-125 http:/ /ww w.infactispax.org/ journal/ 122 issue, the perspective of structural violence of the buraku sabetsu should be focused on. any actions and reactions around buraku sabetsu must be included to find the aspect of structural violence, in the new human rights education. to observe the structural contradiction of conflict, simulation-styled class has become prominent. in the structural approach of learning, four social classes are defined in the simulation, negotiating the possibility of change. then the discussion stage should be performed for re-evaluating traditional society. the community will discuss the important decision-making issues, whether going back to the stage of fair burden sharing or not. other plans are of course welcomed. human rights, especially the buraku issue, should be taught, not just as a matter of personal ethics, but focusing on the transformation of the social structure, in terms of a peace education perspective. that study method should also have a connection with other anti-discrimination issues -learning through participation. a. review of iipe 2009 simulation the simulation presented at iipe 2009 was the first time the simulation was introduced to multicultural participants. paper-rock-scissors competition was too difficult for some participants from different cultures; however, many people cooperated in the explanation; which has never been seen in my classroom. the discussion before voting produced various ideas for the solution; everybody should own some parts of the social burdens, responsibility shared in rotation basis, and so on. in the serious scene, one participant voluntarily owned some of the burdens of friends. after the simulation, the main discussion topic was the possibility of simulation method in teaching discrimination or human rights issues. my proposal was still a prototype and needed improvements, however major opinions maintained the participatory method of human rights learning was worth trying. to explore this simulation study of discrimination through the iipe 2009 theme: human rights learning as peace educationpursuing democracy in a time of crisis, the tension regarding the sharing of social burdens among participants -modified from real discriminationwas presented as a crisis, as well as questioning crisis for whom. pursuing democracy, the process of discussion involves: to discuss, to solve, to transform in democratic ways. of course, this simulation study aims at human rights learning to protect minorities from structural violence, and how to transform the distorted structure into a peaceful one, by peaceful means. especially, it was very meaningful to be promoted among a multicultural situation, to pursue human rights as common language among people from many cultures. b. to review my class i have practiced this simulation for 15 years, as a conclusion and a chance to review the whole learnings of improving social problems in japanese society. the students’ conclusions vary by group. some classes were very positive, and they adopted almost unanimous agreement to change the situation into stage 1. other classes were negative toward the change of the stage, expressing an unsympathetic decision to choose. it was young people’s flexibility that many alternatives have been heard in discussions. for examples of ideas for transformation: rotating basis for burden sharing (as seen in iipe 2009), introducing compulsory human rights education for people with “happy ?” cards, cutting the burden into smaller pieces to be shared by everybody, abandoning some industry or economic progress, etc. in all cases, the facilitator can enter the learners into deeper understanding of discrimination, with techniques of comparing with realities, finding the same phenomena in real disputes, etc. i did not expect, but effects for empathy education were revealed through the simulation study; for example, deeper understanding of the victimized people, stronger motivation to know the realities, and so on, while readings-oriented approach has attracted only sensitive students in my class. in the process of developing this structural approach, i asked two expert teachers outside our school to review it. one very traditional teacher with rich experience gave a critical comment: it could be a little rude to simulate real wrenching discrimination like a “game,” it should be dangerous if student from real buraku in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 112-125 http:/ /ww w.infactispax.org/ journal/ 123 community to play a role of victim; teacher cannot always expect fruitful discussion among learners especially among very young students, etc. the other middle-aged teacher told that this is rather necessary in buraku community, to overcome the situation by advocating appropriate concept of real system of the discrimination. both comments are very efficient to review this way of teaching. further, i had a couple of opportunities to demonstrate at teachers’ workshop in japan, and had many comments of encouragement, and a few criticisms that they are afraid of the possibility, that discussion could become unwillingly very serious. considering all the comments, i set a little competitive game before the simulation, as a warm up to stimulate shy learners and brace enthusiasm, as an improvement. and more affirmative response toward any voice in the discussion should be done in the facilitation. i haven’t practiced this simulation study among buraku community, however, i asked two well-known researchers from buraku community, as described later. conclusion buraku sabetsu has been realized mainly individually, for example, in overcoming prejudice as an individual challenge, in traditional methodology of human rights study. however, the structural approach is necessary; people with normal sensitivity or normal living standard should be involved in the process of overcoming social injustice and transforming the social structure. simulation studies could evoke those kinds of positive attitudes among many people, especially the silent majority. learners could realize that democracy needs a wise majority, including resect for the human rights of minorities, and understanding what the total social system produces. this approach has the same orientation as conflict resolution in peace education, to find the ideas for transforming the contradictory deep structure. the traditional approach of human rights education in japan has often utilized humanistic methods of appreciation of written works of minority people. it has aroused empathy for the victimized people and their situation. this approach aims to transform the individual’s mindset, values and way of thinking through reflection and change of perspective. on the other hand, the structural method emphasizes the total view of the framework of discrimination objectively, and encourages learners to understand the ideas of how to transform the entire system of the society. to educate to overcome structural violence, like discrimination or oppression, the structural approach is preferable. through participation as a player, winner, loser, bystander, etc., the learners have a chance to experience the victims perspective. after the simulation, learners have a chance to look at the total system of discrimination. there are some critics opposed to the participatory method of human rights education as a kind of indoctrination,13 however, the process of discussion can include all types of values. with any conclusion of each simulation, learners have a chance to review the whole structure. further, i find that the structural approach also nurtures empathy with marginalized people very much. epilogue when i tried to introduce the structural study of discrimination of simulation into the school’s education, there were pros and cons. a famous professor in international education warned me to stop writing reports about this issue in a thesis contest. i told him i am ready for any kind of criticism; however, he still cautioned me again that the contest institute could be involved in difficult matters, if my thesis got some prize. i protested that he could discount 13 for example, eiji yagi and osamu umeda, ima jinken kyouiku wo tou (now the time to ask human rights education) (japan: otsuki shoten, 1999); eiji yagi and osamu umeda, jinken kyouiku no jissen wo tou (to ask practices of human rights education) (japan, otsuki shoten, 2002) in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 112-125 http:/ /ww w.infactispax.org/ journal/ 124 my points in the committee discussion if he thought my trial produced any harmful result. but he regarded his own warning as a form of kindness, since he knew his researcher friend became unable to continue his research by facing very severe criticism by buraku liberation movements. a school educator in traditional pedagogy criticized the simulation method that my methodology is too objective and not on the side of discriminated people. therefore, i felt very encouraged that many iipe participants gave me very positive suggestions, and some of them even would try structural simulation method in their own educational fields. prof. betty reardon advised that this trial needs some more improvement to include gender perspectives. behind many phenomena of discrimination, gender is there. in buraku cases, father often plays the most decisive role in marriage. there are differences between the case a buraku woman marries non-buraku man and a buraku man marries a non-buraku woman. therefore, i should develop the opening dialogue between father and son, for example, to suggest the existence of a gender problematique as the next important task. i thank again to the iipe participants and really appreciate all the comments, which should enrich this trial. i was glad to know some professors would test the structural simulation learning in their class activities. references “tokushu 1sankagata gakushu (special edition for participatory learnings)” kaihatsu kyouiku vol. 42 (2002) workshops and lectures of osaka-fu shiritsu gakkou jinken kyouiku kenkyuukai (osaka private school’s association of researching human rights education), 1999-2009 betty reardon, in order to create peaceful worldhuman rights, gender, and education (workshop) held at seisen university, tokyo, japan, may 16-17, 2009. eiji yagi and osamu umeda, ima jinken kyouiku wo tou (now the time to ask human rights education) (japan: otsuki shoten, 1999) eiji yagi and osamu umeda, jinken kyouiku no jissen wo tou (to ask practices of human rights education) (japan, otsuki shoten, 2002) imadr, imadr-jc, buraku liberation league, and blhrri, reality of buraku discrimination in japan (japan: published by those allied organizations, 2001) johan galtung, transcend and transform: an introduction to conflict work (paradigm pub, 2004) johan galtung, “deep culture” in transcend peace university course, fall 2003 kazuhiko nojima, encounter group no facilitation (facilitation of encounter group), (japan: nakanishiya, 2000) ningen henshu iinkai, ningen (human) (japan: 2006) with its instructor-oriented version. nobuhiko kadooka, hajimete no buraku mondai (buraku issue for the beginners) (japan: bungei shunju, in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 112-125 http:/ /ww w.infactispax.org/ journal/ 125 2005) nobuhiko kadooka, hisabetsu buraku no seishun (youth in buraku) (japan: kodansha, 2003) osaka-fu shiritsu gakkou jinken kyouiku kenkyuukai (osaka private school’s association of researching human rights education), tomoni (together) -human rights education handbook(japan: 2001) and its revised version, manabi (learn), (japan: 2009) * buraku issue has many publications, and these two collaborative works of practitioners are written through study of many books and articles. richard dukes and constance seidner (eds), learning with simulations and games (biverly hills and london, uk: sage publications, 1978) satoshi uesugi, korede wakatta ! buraku no rekishiwatashi no daigaku kouza (this explains the history of buraku! -my course in university) (japan: kaiho-shuppan sha, 2004) shitte imasuka? buraku mondai ichimon ittou henshu iinkai, shitte imasuka? buraku mondai ichimon ittou (do you know the buraku issue?q&a) (japan: kaiho shuppan, 2002) tbs, jinken to buraku sabetsuasa made namaterebi (all-night discussion tv series) (japan: tbs, broadcasted in january 1989) and its extended versions in july 1989, may 1992, and october 1993 william nesbitt, simulation games for the social studies classroom (foreign policy association, 1971) ruitenberg-infactispax-final volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 40 volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ conflict, affect and the political: on disagreement as democratic capacity claudia ruitenberg department of educational studies university of british columbia claudia.ruitenberg@ubc.ca introduction educational and political theorists have argued that education for democratic citizenship, whether at the k-12 level or in adult or higher education, should focus on fostering communicative capacities. for example, jack mezirow has used the work of jürgen habermas to emphasize the importance of fostering communicative reason in democratic and emancipatory adult education.1 john dryzek argues in general terms that “literacy and education facilitate deliberative capacity inasmuch as they influence the communicative competence of political actors and ordinary citizens.”2 amy gutmann argues that all levels and types of education— education within the family context, k-12 schooling, higher education, and adult and informal education—should “aim … to teach the skills and virtues of democratic deliberation.”3 and 1 stephen brookfield, “learning democratic reason: the adult education project of jürgen habermas,” teachers college record 107, no. 6 (2005): 1127-1168. 2 john dryzek, “democratization as deliberative capacity building,” comparative political studies 42, no. 11 (2009): 1394. it should be noted that, for dryzek, “deliberative capacity” is a social, not an individual, capacity. 3 amy gutmann, democratic education (princeton, nj: princeton university press, revised edition 1998), xiv. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 41 tomas englund draws on a neopragmatist interpretation of john dewey’s work to argue for “the need to develop deliberative capabilities in schools.”4 these views are based on deliberative conceptions of democracy: ideas about democracy that emphasize deliberation both in formal democratic institutions and in the public realm more generally. however, some political theorists worry that the emphasis on reasonable communication and consensus-building in many of the arguments for deliberative democracy carries risks for democracy itself. of course, deliberation is important and even its critics would agree that deliberative democracy is to be preferred over other models that could be called democratic, such as “aggregative democracy”—in which voters’ preferences are tallied in elections, but which lacks a normative theory for moderating competing interests5—or “delegative” democracy—in which there are “competitive elections, but winners rule without any constitutional checks, accountability, and respect for the rights of their people.”6 when concern is raised about some aspects of deliberative conceptions of democracy, therefore, the point is not that we should not deliberate at all or that we should not foster any deliberative capacities, but that certain capacities required for democratic deliberation have been overemphasized at the expense of other capacities that are also important for a healthy democracy. one of the theorists who have been critical of deliberative conceptions of democracy is the belgian philosopher chantal mouffe, who has proposed an alternative conception of democracy she calls “agonistic pluralism.”7 another is the french philosopher jacques rancière, who has proposed a conception of democracy he calls “sporadic”8 and which has also been called “episodic.”9 while there are differences between rancière’s and mouffe’s perspectives, they share an emphasis on disagreement as a constitutive aspect of democracy. i wish to examine how a conception of democracy that treats disagreement as necessary and fundamental to democracy, rather than as a problem to be overcome, would change political education. elsewhere i have done this by comparing the conceptions of democracy and politics in the work of chantal mouffe with the rawlsian conceptions of democracy and politics in the work of eamonn callan.10 in this paper i will focus on the role of affect in political disagreement and argue that political education ought to provide opportunities to foster affective attachments to political identities. this paper, then, is not an analysis of quantitative or qualitative data through a particular theoretical framework, but rather an argument for a particular theoretical framework. 4 tomas englund, “rethinking democracy and education: towards an education of deliberative citizens,” journal of curriculum studies 32, no. 2: 306. 5 chantal mouffe, “deliberative democracy or agonistic pluralism,” political science series 72 (2000), 1-2. 6 dryzek, “democratization as deliberative capacity building,” 1380. 7 mouffe, “deliberative democracy or agonistic pluralism.” 8 jacques rancière, on the shores of politics (new york: verso, 1995), 61. 9 sheldon wolin, “fugitive democacy,” constellations 1, no. 1 (1994): 11. 10 claudia ruitenberg, “educating political adversaries: chantal mouffe and radical democratic citizenship education,” studies in philosophy and education 28, no. 3 (2009), 269281. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 42 in order to build this framework, i will first examine the work of chantal mouffe and jacques rancière. then i will examine in greater detail how mouffe’s work relies on a psychoanalytic understanding of political identity formation. the work of psychoanalyst yannis stavrakakis will help me explain the central role of affective attachment to political identities. in the final section of the paper, i will sketch a political education that recognizes and incorporates affect and fantasy. through the work of cornelius castoriadis i will bring together affect and fantasy in a view of political education that focuses on social imaginaries. in response to one of the central questions posed for this special issue, “what skills, values, and beliefs are necessary for democratic participation, and what kind of citizenship education best develops these democratic capacities?” i will answer that citizenship education ought to focus on fostering a capacity for disagreement, and that it ought to do so in a way that recognizes that democratic disagreement is a passionate affair. agonistic pluralism and sporadic democracy politics, for mouffe, is “the ensemble of practices, discourses and institutions which seek to establish a certain order and organize human coexistence in conditions that are always potentially conflictual because they are affected by the dimension of ‘the political’.”11 this dimension of “the political” is the opposition or, in mouffe words, “antagonism that is inherent in human relations”12 and “constitutive of human societies.”13 the reason that the political is unavoidably antagonistic is that the social order is, at any given time and in any given place, the result of a decision, in the literal sense of de-cision as a cut: “properly political questions always involve decisions which require us to make a choice between conflicting alternatives.”14 each choice for one alternative involves a choice against another alternative, and any given social order is the contingent result of decisions that antagonize the side of the alternative that was excluded. “by bringing to the fore the inescapable moment of decision—in the strong sense of having to decide in an undecidable terrain—what antagonism reveals is the very limit of rational consensus.”15 because the antagonisms that emerge, certainly in a society characterized by great diversity, are not politically workable, mouffe argues that antagonistic relations must be transformed into agonistic ones: while antagonism is a we/they relation in which the two sides are enemies who do not share any common ground, agonism is a we/they relation where the conflicting parties, although acknowledging that there is no rational solution to their conflict, nevertheless recognize the legitimacy of their opponents. they are ‘adversaries’ not enemies.16 11 mouffe, “deliberative democracy or agonistic pluralism,” 15. 12 chantal mouffe, on the political (new york: routledge, 2005), 9. 13 mouffe, “deliberative democracy or agonistic pluralism,” 15. 14 mouffe, on the political, 10. 15 ibid., 12. 16 mouffe, on the political, 20. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 43 like political theorists who emphasize deliberation, such as rawls and habermas, mouffe acknowledges that some common ground is required in the political process. however, she believes this common ground consists only of the recognition of the other’s right to hold an opposing view, and a commitment to the fundamental “ethico-political values of liberty and equality for all.”17 disagreement about the interpretation of those values is at the heart of politics. mouffe does not relegate other commitments to the private (non-political) sphere, nor does she require a particular type of rationality or reasonableness in the political process. mouffe’s main critique of deliberative conceptions of democracy is that they do not, or not sufficiently, recognize that the relations that structure a society are relations of power, and that such a hegemonic order is open to contestation by those whose vision of a different way to structure society has been excluded. moreover, such contestation will and should involve people’s passions. according to mouffe’s analysis, a political landscape from which conflict has largely been removed does not produce a more successful democratic sphere but rather a deflated one, one from which citizens turn away because it does not offer them a compelling political vision and identity with which they identify. turning now to rancière, he argues that the ethico-political value of equality has wrongly been held up as ideal to aspire to. instead, he argues, equality should be assumed; it should be the premise from which we proceed: equality is not a goal that governments and societies could succeed in reaching. to pose equality as a goal is to hand it over to the pedagogues of progress, who widen endlessly the distance they promise they will abolish. equality is a presupposition, an initial axiom—or it is nothing.18 as i have explained in some more detail elsewhere,19 “democracy” for rancière is not a form of government or a state of affairs but the enactment of equality by a group of people who were not considered to be equal. democracy, on this view, creates a break in the existing order—hence rancière’s own characterization of democracy as “sporadic” and wolin’s characterization of it as “episodic,” to which i referred earlier. the “ensemble of practices, discourses and institutions” that order a society at any given moment and which mouffe calls “politics,” rancière provocatively titles “the police.”20 politics, for rancière, does not happen until this police order is disrupted by a dispute about who is included in and excluded from the common sense of the dominant social relations: “politics is primarily conflict over the existence of a common stage 17 ibid., 121. 18 jacques rancière, “afterword,” the philosopher and his poor, trans. andrew parker, corinne oster and john drury (durham, nc: duke university press, 2002), 223. 19 claudia ruitenberg, “what if democracy really matters?” journal of educational controversy 3, no. 1 (2008), http://www.wce.wwu.edu/resources/cep/ejournal/v003n001/a005.shtml (accessed may 25, 2010). 20 jacques rancière, disagreement, trans. julie rose (minneapolis: university of minnesota press, 1999), 28. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 44 and over the existence and status if those present on it.”21 rancière calls this conflict dissensus, which illustrates that his views of politics are directly opposed to those aiming for consensus. mouffe’s conception of democracy, in allowing for democratic change to happen within and through the institutions and discourses of politics, is not quite as radical as rancière’s, which rejects this possibility and insists that the political can occur only in the act of redrawing the boundaries of politics.22 paulina tambakaki, a colleague of mouffe at the centre for the study for democracy at the university of westminster, argues that “by entangling democracy’s refoundation with an episodic politics, rancière cuts off, or at least does not explore, the channels available to reinvesting in a democratic politics.”23 in other words, rancière’s perspective, in turning away from the channels of existing political processes and institutions, is not only more radical but, arguably, more pessimistic than mouffe’s. rancière’s work can preserve this radical perspective by focusing on accounts of historical political change and refraining from any recommendations or prescriptions for the present or future, but this leaves educators somewhat empty-handed. mouffe and rancière agree that disagreement is constitutive of politics but if we are to take this idea seriously, tambakaki argues, we need some idea, or at least indication, of where we might start off. … for what exactly would dissensus and disagreement, if acknowledged, do for politics (today), if we start from the presupposition [of] and in effect acquiesce to its rarity?24 i do not want to acquiesce to the rarity of disagreement, even the kind of disagreement that calls into question the fundamental premises of the social order. for this reason i will, in the final section of this paper, in which i discuss the educational implications of the theoretical framework i have outlined, focus more on mouffe’s than on rancière’s perspective. in spite of their differences mouffe and rancière agree that the currently dominant framework of deliberative democracy does not sufficiently recognize the constitutive nature of disagreement. the deliberative conception of democracy and democratic citizenship emphasizes rational deliberation leading to political consensus. for mouffe and rancière, however, “consensus does not mean simply the erasure of conflicts for the benefit of common interests. consensus means erasing the contestatory, conflictual nature of the very givens of common life.”25 in addition, both mouffe and rancière recognize the affective nature of political engagement. while most explicitly articulated in mouffe’s work, it is also evident in rancière’s work that disagreement is not a detached exchange of rational arguments but rather a dispute that has emotional force because a fundamental value is being violated. as i stated previously, for rancière this fundamental value is the equality of everybody and a political disagreement arises when this equality is denied. the american political philosopher todd may translates this affective investment in rancière’s axiom of equality very well when he writes: 21 ibid., 26-27. 22 i am indebted to gert biesta on this point. 23 paulina tambakaki, “when does politics happen?” parallax 15, no. 3 (2009): 109. 24 ibid., 108. 25 jacques rancière, “introducing disagreement,” trans. steven corcoran, angelaki 9, no. 3 (2004): 7. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 45 in political action, the … weaving together of cognitive and affective elements around the presupposition of equality has a name, although that name is rarely reflected upon. it is solidarity. political solidarity is nothing other than the operation of the presupposition of equality internal to the collective subject of political action.26 i now turn to a more in-depth analysis of this affective nature of the political. the affective nature of the political mouffe argues that individuals need to feel affectively attached to collectivities, and both parts of this argument are significant: the identification with collectivities and the affective nature of that identification. i will address these separately, beginning with the need for identification with collectivities. in spite of the emphasis on individual autonomy that has shaped ideas about human flourishing since the enlightenment, philosophers from plato to derrida have agreed that human beings do not thrive as atomistic individuals: they need each other, hence live together in groups. but mouffe’s claim is more specific than that: human beings are not merely dependent on collectivities such as family or nation for their general security and well-being, but they need to be able to identify with collectivities (based, for example, on nationality or political ideology) for a sense of self and a motivating sense of direction. writes mouffe: “the need for collective identifications will never disappear since it is constitutive of the mode of existence of human beings.”27 mouffe’s claim about the constitutive nature of identification is a psychoanalytic one. mouffe’s point is not that identifying with collectivities is a good idea because it contributes to a more fully flourishing life, but rather that human beings need to identify with collectivities simply because, as human beings, they lack identity in and of themselves. political theorist ernesto laclau explains, “one needs to identify with something because there is an originary and insurmountable lack of identity.”28 paradoxical as it may sound, what laclau is getting at is that one needs others in order to “be oneself,” in the sense of having an identity. without being able here to provide a full introduction to psychoanalysis, i should point out that mouffe’s and laclau’s insistence on the centrality of identification is based on the fundamental psychoanalytic insight of the “split subject”: a subject that is divided into ego and unconscious and that seeks to overcome the gap or lack this leaves: the idea of the subject as lack cannot be separated from the subject’s attempts to cover over this constitutive lack at the level of representation by affirming its positive (symbolic 26 todd may, “jacques rancière and the ethics of equality,” substance 36, no. 2 (2007), 33. 27 mouffe, on the political, 28. 28 ernesto laclau, “introduction,” in the making of political identities, ed. ernesto laclau (london: verso, 1994), 3, cited in yannis stavrakakis, “laclau with lacan: comments on the relation between discourse theory and lacanian psychoanalysis,” in jacques lacan: critical evaluations in cultural theory, vol. 3: society politics, ideology, ed. slavoj žižek (london: routledge, 2003), 318. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 46 imaginary) identity or, when this fails, through continuous identificatory acts aiming to reinstitute an identity.29 lacanian psychoanalysis does not attribute a particular substance or essence to human subjectivity, but rather considers lack “the defining mark of subjectivity.”30 the subject, confronted with its intrinsic lack, constantly seeks “traits of identification” outside of itself with which it can identify and, thus, construct its identity.31 mouffe observes that in many postindustrial societies, and in line with anthony giddens’ suggestion of “third way” politics, the boundaries between political parties and concomitant “left” and “right” identities have blurred considerably.32 both tony blair’s “new labour” in the uk and the “purple coalitions” between social democrats and liberals in the netherlands have been examples of such blurred boundaries. the result has not been a greater engagement of citizens with a more unified political field but rather a disengagement of citizens who no longer discern clear political ideals and imaginaries with which they can identify. the problem is that when politics does not offer opportunities for collective identification, people will seek such identification elsewhere, for example in ethnic, religious, or populist groups. as mouffe argues, “the lack of ‘agonistic channels’ for the expression of grievances tends to create the conditions for the emergence of ethnic, religious, and other antagonisms which, as recent events indicate, can take extreme forms and have disastrous consequences.”33 rancière expresses a similar concern, cautioning that the reduction of political spaces “means opening up another battlefield, it means witnessing the resurgence of a new, radicalized figure of the power of birth and kinship.”34 human relations are inherently antagonistic as their collective identifications require the definition of a “we” that, by definition, presupposes a “they” in the sense that one cannot define with whom or what one identifies without defining with whom or what one does not identify. moreover, this collective identification has affective force. since mouffe uses the concept of “affect” in the way in which it has been developed in psychoanalytic theory, i should explain briefly that affect is feeling, but feeling that “arises from within”35 and is bound up with basic human drives and desires, such as the need for collective identifications that both mouffe and laclau identify. affect, then, can be understood as “the primary sensory modality through which 29 jason glynos and yannis stavrakakis, “lacan and political subjectivity: fantasy and enjoyment in psychoanalysis and political theory,” conference proceedings of the 2008 annual meeting of the political studies association, http://www.psa.ac.uk/journals/pdf/5/2008/glynos1.pdf (accessed may 25, 2010), 6-7. 30 stavrakakis, “laclau with lacan,” 317. 31 ibid., 7. 32 see, for example, anthony giddens, beyond left and right (cambridge: polity, 1994) and the third way (cambridge: polity, 1998). 33 chantal mouffe, “the limits of john rawls’s pluralism,” politics, philosophy & economics 4, no. 2 (2005): 230. 34 jacques rancière, hatred of democracy, trans. steven corcoran (london: verso, 2006), 95. 35 mark solms, “what is affect?” in unconscious mental life and reality, ed. richard ekins (london: j. karnac books, 2002), 54. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 47 we perceive the internal (subjective) world of psychic reality… just as vision, hearing, somatic sensation, taste, and smell are primary sensory modalities through which we perceive the external (objective) world of material reality.”36 the identification with a collectivity is not a decision based on purely rational considerations; people need to feel moved, inspired, affectively compelled by a political identity. in this view, mouffe aligns herself with sociologists jeff goodwin, james jasper and francesca polletta, who write that it is “difficult to imagine … an identity that is purely cognitive yet strongly held. the ‘strength’ of an identity, even a cognitively vague one, comes from its emotional side.”37 mouffe draws on the work of lacanian psychoanalyst yannis stavrakakis to support the idea that identification with a collectivity is affective. stavrakakis writes that “the problematic of enjoyment helps us answer in a concrete way [that] what is at stake in socio-political identification and identity formation … is not only symbolic coherence and discursive closure but also enjoyment, the jouissance animating human desire.”38 jouissance is the term lacan uses to refer to the powerful, bodily enjoyment that drives human desire; an obvious example is sexual orgasm, but jouissance refers also to the excessive and transgressive joy that can be seen in, for example, the wild celebrations of sports fans after their team’s win, or the frenzy of music fans crying and screaming at the sight of their idol. everyday, socialized life presents few opportunities for such jouissance but, as stavrakakis writes, the fact … that this enjoyment is excised during the process of socialization does not mean that it stops affecting the politics of subjectivity and identification. on the contrary. … [i]t is the imaginary promise of recapturing our lost/impossible enjoyment which provides the fantasy support for many of our political projects and choices.39 slavoj žižek argues that theorists who seek explanations of political identification and cohesion in purely rational and discursive processes of deliberation and symbolic representation miss the point that cohesion and identification cannot be explained without reference to enjoyment: “the element which holds together a given community cannot be reduced to the point of symbolic identification: the bond linking together its members always implies a shared relationship toward a thing, toward enjoyment incarnated.”40 moreover, ignoring this affective dimension means that the emergence of ethnic, nationalist and xenophobic groups is misunderstood, for one’s identification with a group that shares a particular kind of enjoyment—or, at least, the fantasy of 36 ibid., 56. 37 jeff goodwin, james jasper and francesca polletta, passionate politics: emotions and social movements (chicago: university of chicago press, 2001), 9. 38 yannis stavrakakis, “passions of identification: discourse, enjoyment, and european identity,” in discourse theory in european politics: identity, policy and governance, eds. david howarth and jacob torfing (new york: palgrave macmillan, 2005), 72. 39 ibid., 73. 40 slavoj žižek, tarrying with the negative: kant, hegel, and the critique of ideology (durham, nc: duke university press, 1993), 201. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 48 that enjoyment—is, at the same time, the rejection of another group that shares another kind of enjoyment or its fantasy. provocatively, žižek asks, what are fantasies about the other’s special, excessive enjoyment—about the black’s superior sexual potency and appetite, about the jew’s or japanese’s special relationship toward money and work—if not precisely so many ways, for us, to organize our own enjoyment?41 the central role of jouissance in identification explains why political identities that are constructed rationally and dispassionately lose when alternative identities that do appeal to this dimension of enjoyment and emotional investment are available. in order to identify with a political program or group, that identification must have affective force and provide a motivating enthusiasm. that motivating enthusiasm is generally not galvanized by the democratic procedures that have been emphasized in the deliberative approach to democracy. the denial of the centrality of affect in politics literally leads to dis-affected citizens: “too much emphasis on consensus and the refusal of confrontation lead to apathy and disaffection with political participation.”42 passions are mobilized when the fundamental values and commitments that shape the practices, discourses and institutions of a society are at stake. for that reason, stavrakakis argues that, in order to account in a coherent and effective way for identification it is necessary to redirect our attention from the formal to the substantive/affective dimension, from discourse to enjoyment, from a drier to a stickier conception of the politics of subjectivity.43 such a redirection of attention to the “stickier” side of collective identification is important especially because a denial of this “stickiness” does not eliminate but only displaces it. in other words, when an identity in which we are emotionally invested is repressed, for example through a cognitive understanding of the undesirability of this identity, the force of the emotional investment remains. “it implies that the more we repress the affective dimension of political subjectivity and identification …, the more this dimension will seek expression through substitute political formations (‘social symptoms’).”44 this mechanism of repression and displacement explains the surge in europe of fierce ethnic and nationalist attachments in the face of the “dry,” formal and institutionally oriented alternative of a “european identity.” as stavrakakis analyzes, the “european identity” as it has been constructed in the past decades has focused on the common market for a freer flow of people and goods, the streamlining of industry standards, policies and laws, and the convenience of a common currency. not surprisingly, this identity has failed to generate a real sense of commitment and passion because, as stavrakakis puts it, “the substance behind the projected image of europe is missing” and “this lack of substance can clearly be associated with the 41 ibid., 206. 42 mouffe, “deliberative democracy or agonistic pluralism,” 16. 43 stavrakakis, “passions of identification,” 75. 44 ibid., 79. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 49 libidinal/affective dimension of identification.”45 in the us, a parallel can be seen in the appeal of “focus on the family” and other evangelical groups who offer an affective collective identity, the jouissance of a celebration of the traditional family, that is for many more compelling than the “drier,” more rational appeals to abstract ideas such as tolerance, equality, and civil rights made by groups arguing for the permission of same-sex marriage. fostering democratic capacity based on the preceding analysis, i propose that disagreement ought to be fostered as a democratic capacity, not neutralized or suppressed. in fact, i would consider it a failure of democratic political education if young people learn to avoid conflict or regard it as a breakdown of democracy, as i agree with mouffe that “a well-functioning democracy calls for a vibrant clash of democratic political positions.”46 so how does one go about fostering such a capacity for disagreement? in “educating political adversaries” i argued for the development of political literacy, in the sense of the ability to read the political landscape both in its contemporary configuration and its historical genesis.47 such literacy also involves a historical understanding of party politics in various contexts and the changing nature of the political left and right. the shifts that have occurred in the meaning of “left” and “right” offer an instructive glimpse into the different social imaginaries that have driven political struggle: from the inception of the terms “left” and “right” in the french revolution and their association with republican (left) and monarchist (right) politics in france, to the more general association of the left with socially progressive and the right with socially conservative policies, to contemporary confusing blends of socially progressive advocates of small government, and socially conservative advocates of “green” politics. i should explain what i mean by the “social imaginaries” that i just spoke of as driving political struggle. this concept was most famously elaborated by cornelius castoriadis48 as “an enabling but not fully explicable symbolic matrix within which a people imagine and act as world-making collective agents.”49 it is the set of collective meanings and desires that allows a group of people to forge a social order from random togetherness. as both mouffe and castoriadis observe, the political order of practices, discourses and institutions is a contingent order, that is to say, it has been wrought by people, and people can change this order in smaller or bigger ways. castoriadis, who was not only a political theorist and economist but also a psychoanalyst, understands the importance of the affective commitments and attachments involved in social imaginaries. the desire for political change involves an affective engagement with both the current and an alternative social imaginary. this means that the social imaginary 45 ibid., 82. 46 chantal mouffe, the democratic paradox (london: verso, 2000), 104. 47 ruitenberg, “educating political adversaries,” 278-279. 48 cornelius castoriadis, the imaginary institution of society, trans. kathleen blamey (cambridge, ma: mit press, 1987). 49 dilip parameshwar gaonkar, “toward new imaginaries: an introduction,” public culture 14, no. 1 (2002): 1. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 50 that shapes the existing social order must be recognized, that a disagreement with this existing social imaginary is perceived, and that an alternative social imaginary can be created. this is a challenge, especially in contemporary postindustrial societies, because citizens have grown used to political attention being paid to democratic procedures rather than to the substantive social values and desires that inform them. castoriadis’ assessment is that, whatever the philosophical window dressing, a purely procedural conception of “democracy” itself originates in the crisis of the imaginary significations that concern the ultimate goals [finalités] of collective life and aims at covering over this crisis by dissociating all discussion relative to these goals from the political “form of the regime,” and, ultimately, even by eliminating the very idea of such goals.50 castoriadis thus agrees with mouffe that the desire to eliminate debate and disagreement about what a just society looks like and how a society’s defining practices and institutions should be organized, is detrimental to democracy itself. castoriadis emphasizes that we imagine a form of collective life that seems desirable to us or, conversely, a form of collective life that seems undesirable to us, and that these “imaginary significations” then guide our participation in the political struggles to bring about or prevent that form of collective life. this underscores the role of fantasy that žižek described and i quoted earlier: “what are fantasies about the other’s special, excessive enjoyment … if not precisely so many ways, for us, to organize our own enjoyment?”51 glynos and stavrakakis argue that, while the concept of fantasy has played some role in political theory in the form of utopian thinking, it has generally been undervalued. they argue that fantasy is what links the subject affectively to socio-political reality, and “can serve as a way of trying to give content to the obstacles to and/or direction of political contestation and mobilization.”52 i will return shortly to the role fantasy can play in political education. castoriadis argues that “there can be no democratic society without democratic paideia.”53 this might be taken as a general statement that there can be no democratic society without democratic education, but it is important here to look at the particular conception of education castoriadis puts forward with the concept of paideia. while the greek noun paideia is generally translated as “education” or “childrearing,” castoriadis uses it to refer specifically to the democratic education that prepares all for an active role in the polity. it is not primarily a matter of books and academic credits. first and foremost, it involves becoming conscious that the polis is also oneself and that its fate also depends upon one’s mind, behaviour, and decisions; in other words, it is participation in political life.54 50 cornelius castoriadis, “democracy as procedure and democracy as regime,” constellations 4, no.1 (1997): 1. 51 žižek, tarrying with the negative, 206. 52 glynos and stavrakakis, “lacan and political subjectivity,” 10. 53 castoriadis, “democracy as procedure and democracy as regime, 10. 54 cornelius castoriadis, “the greek polis and the creation of democracy,” in the castoriadis reader, ed. david ames curtis (oxford: blackwell, 1997), 281. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 51 in other words, the ability to engage with alternative social imaginaries as a way of seeking political change requires not only that one recognize the social imaginary that shapes the existing social order, but also that one become aware of one’s own implication in this existing social order, and of this social order in oneself. furthermore, paideia is not limited to schooling but includes all social institutions through which individuals are formed.55 as a psychoanalyst castoriadis understands that paideia inevitably provokes a tension between the constraints imposed by the social order, and the desires of the individual. as philosopher of education sharon todd explains, “what it means to learn, for castoriadis, is to learn to become an ego, and it is in this process of learning where the subject is both shaped by and yet resists the forces of social circumstance.”56 castoriadis’ work on the social imaginary and paideia suggest a political education that balances an understanding of the constraints of socio-political reality with room for fantasy and desire. students should gain an understanding of the institutions and discourses of the social order in which they live, but they should also be encouraged to imagine other, more desirable forms of collective life. an explicit engagement with students’ fantasmatic desires is, of course, an engagement with their current fears and frustrations. for example, a student whose home life is shaped by a parent who is unhappy with her or his job may well imagine a society in which nobody has to do a job they don’t like; a student whose reality is dominated by fears of the deportation of a parent without legal immigrant status may well imagine a society in which there are no national borders and therefore no question of the legality of immigration. asking students to imagine the society in which they would like to live can lead them to be disappointed with or angry at the current order, but this disappointment and anger are signs of affective engagement with an alternative social imaginary, and should not be feared or ruled out of bounds. in a previous discussion of the education of political emotions i focused on political anger, as i agree with simon critchley that “it is often anger that moves the subject to action.”57 i argued that students should “learn to distinguish between emotions on behalf of themselves and emotions on behalf of a political collective, i.e., on behalf of views for the social order” and that “educating the political emotions thus requires the development of a sense of solidarity.”58 solidarity, as may points out and i quoted earlier in this paper, cannot be based only on a rational decision; it involves affective elements. based on my psychoanalytic explanation in this paper of the importance of affect in political identification, let me elaborate here on affect in political education. it is an educational challenge to overcome the discomfort many feel when discussing their substantive commitments with anyone other than close friends and family; discussions will get “heated”—an apt expression that highlights the motivational energy of affective investment— 55 david wallace, “the otherness of castoriadis,” topia: canadian journal of cultural studies no. 3 (2000): 112. 56 sharon todd, “’bringing more than i contain’: ethics, curriculum and the pedagogical demand for altered egos,” journal of curriculum studies 33, no. 4 (2001): 432. 57 simon critchley, infinitely demanding: ethics of commitment, politics of resistance (london: verso, 2007), 130. 58 ruitenberg, “educating political adversaries,” 276-277. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 52 and the differences between the “us” with whom one agrees and “them” with whom one does not will become more pronounced. one of the beliefs necessary for democratic participation as i have outlined it is, therefore, the belief that political disagreement contributes to, rather than detracts from, a healthy democracy. those who are averse to, perhaps even fearful of, disagreement and who have a strong desire to preserve or restore harmony and congeniality should learn that disagreement between political adversaries is not a breakdown of social relations but, quite on the contrary, their enactment. young people should be given opportunities to experience this kind of disagreement and the affective commitments that drive it. when trying to engage people in something as abstract as a “social imaginary,” i would like to propose here an inductive approach, based on simon critchley’s description of “situated universality.” we respond, explains critchley, to concrete situations in which we perceive an injustice, such as a labour strike, an act of police brutality, or the discriminatory treatment of migrant workers.59 the educational challenge is coming to see that the demand for justice that arises in a particular situation exceeds the particularity of that situation because it violates a more general substantive commitment. an inductive political education, then, would begin not with political theories or the abstract request to “imagine a desirable society” but with discussions of concrete perceptions of injustice. for example, it was a tragedy that, in december 2008, a 47-year old woman burnt to death when she lit candles in her makeshift shelter under a shopping cart on davie street in vancouver, canada. it was also a stark reminder of the injustice faced by homeless people whose only choice seems to be the cold street, where they can stay with their few belongings, or a shelter in which their shopping cart is not welcome. to take this tragic event as the point of departure for a discussion of social imaginaries would involve a discussion of broad political values and commitments—to individual liberty, social equality, and individual and collective responsibilities for mental health care and housing. different from approaches that might focus on the procedural or policy aspects, the emotional responses to this event would be an explicit part of the discussion. of course these emotional responses are what make some educators nervous to discuss “charged” events such as the one i described above. when students are asked to respond to a concrete situation of injustice and to imagine a society in which such a situation would not occur, this is not an “innocent” education. “there is,” as todd recognizes, “something profoundly at risk in coming to know, involving renunciations and sacrifices sometimes too great to bear.”60 students may want to turn away from such situations, because they perceive them as too upsetting, but the educational moment, from the perspective i have outlined, is the discussion about what, in their turning away from the injustices in society, they turn toward. if identification with a collective is, as mouffe argues and i endorse, not optional but rather constitutive of human beings, then the identifications that students choose—for example with sports teams, rock bands, ethnic organizations or religious groups—are telling about the jouissance they seek. in political education worthy of the name, we have to engage students in these difficult discussions. they 59 critchley, infinitely demanding, 42-43. 60 todd, “’bringing more than i contain,’” 433. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 53 may well reveal how apparently apolitical identifications have, at their core, a desire or fantasy that can also be channeled in political ways. one important question that remains to be answered is where the kind of political education that i have advocated could take place. although above i have used the term “student,” thus suggesting a more or less formal educational context, elsewhere i have expressed my misgivings about institutionalized schooling as an appropriate place for truly democratic education, especially if “democracy” is taken in the disruptive sense that rancière proposes.61 schooling as social institution is part of what rancière calls “the police,” a social order based on assumptions of inequality, and democracy, in the way in which rancière conceives it, can only be an interruption of that order. i retain misgivings about the formal education offered in schools as a suitable venue to foster the democratic capacity for disagreement. however, and as i stated earlier, i am cautious about accepting rancière’s premise of democracy’s sporadic nature, and believe that, in addition to democratic disagreement that breaks into and disrupts the existing order, there is a need for democratic disagreement that makes use of existing institutional channels. furthermore, the physical spaces of schools also offer non-formal (extra-curricular) and informal education. there, as well as in community-based organizations, including student unions and nonpartisan political organizations such as the league of women voters in the us, opportunities should be created for youth to engage passionately with existing and alternative social imaginaries. while the formal curriculum can include basic knowledge of political processes and institutions, and while a belief in the value of disagreement and the ability to perceive and imagine political imaginaries can be fostered both within and outside of formal education, the key will be to offer youth spaces where they can experience the enjoyment and excitement of political identification. such opportunities for affective investment will be the linchpin for active political engagement. bibliography brookfield, stephen, “learning democratic reason: the adult education project of jürgen habermas,” teachers college record 107, no. 6 (2005): 1127-1168. castoriadis, cornelius, the imaginary institution of society, trans. kathleen blamey (cambridge, ma: mit press, 1987). castoriadis, cornelius, “the greek polis and the creation of democracy,” in the castoriadis reader, ed. david ames curtis (oxford: blackwell, 1997), 267-289. castoriadis, “democracy as procedure and democracy as regime,” constellations 4, no. 1 (1997): 1-18. critchley, simon, infinitely demanding: ethics of commitment, politics of resistance (london: verso, 2007). 61 ruitenberg, “what if democracy really matters?” volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 54 dryzek, john, “democratization as deliberative capacity building,” comparative political studies 42, no. 11 (2009): 1379-1402. englund, tomas, “rethinking democracy and education: towards an education of deliberative citizens,” journal of curriculum studies 32, no. 2: 305-313. gaonkar, dilip parameshwar, “toward new imaginaries: an introduction,” public culture 14, no. 1 (2002): 1-19. giddens, anthony, beyond left and right (cambridge: polity, 1994). giddens, anthony, the third way (cambridge: polity, 1998). glynos, jason and yannis stavrakakis, “lacan and political subjectivity: fantasy and enjoyment in psychoanalysis and political theory,” conference proceedings of the 2008 annual meeting of the political studies association, http://www.psa.ac.uk/journals/pdf/5/2008/glynos1.pdf (accessed may 25, 2010). goodwin, jeff, james jasper and francesca polletta, passionate politics: emotions and social movements (chicago: university of chicago press, 2001). gutmann, amy, democratic education (princeton, nj: princeton university press, revised edition 1998). may, todd, “jacques rancière and the ethics of equality,” substance 36, no. 2 (2007), 20-36. mouffe, chantal, the democratic paradox (london: verso, 2000). mouffe, chantal, “deliberative democracy or agonistic pluralism,” political science series 72 (2000), 1-17. mouffe, chantal, on the political (new york: routledge, 2005). mouffe, chantal, “the limits of john rawls’s pluralism,” politics, philosophy & economics 4, no. 2 (2005): 230. rancière, jacques, on the shores of politics, trans. liz heron (new york: verso, 1995). rancière, jacques, disagreement, trans. julie rose (minneapolis: university of minnesota press, 1999). rancière, jacques, the philosopher and his poor, trans. andrew parker, corinne oster and john drury (durham, nc: duke university press, 2002). rancière, jacques, “introducing disagreement,” trans. steven corcoran, angelaki 9, no. 3 (2004): 7. rancière jacques, hatred of democracy, trans. steven corcoran (london: verso, 2006). volume 4 number 1 (2010): 40-55 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 55 ruitenberg, claudia, “what if democracy really matters?” journal of educational controversy 3, no. 1 (2008), http://www.wce.wwu.edu/resources/cep/ejournal/v003n001/a005.shtml (accessed may 25, 2010). ruitenberg, claudia, “educating political adversaries: chantal mouffe and radical democratic citizenship education,” studies in philosophy and education 28, no. 3 (2009), 269-281. solms, mark, “what is affect?” in unconscious mental life and reality, ed. richard ekins (london: j. karnac books, 2002), 45-81. stavrakakis, yannis, “laclau with lacan: comments on the relation between discourse theory and lacanian psychoanalysis,” in jacques lacan: critical evaluations in cultural theory, vol. 3: society politics, ideology, ed. slavoj žižek (london: routledge, 2003), 314-337. stavrakakis, yannis, “passions of identification: discourse, enjoyment, and european identity,” in discourse theory in european politics: identity, policy and governance, eds. david howarth and jacob torfing (new york: palgrave macmillan, 2005), 68-92. tambakaki, paulina, “when does politics happen?” parallax 15, no. 3 (2009): 102-113. todd, sharon, “’bringing more than i contain’: ethics, curriculum and the pedagogical demand for altered egos,” journal of curriculum studies 33, no. 4 (2001): 431-450. wallace, david, “the otherness of castoriadis,” topia: canadian journal of cultural studies no. 3 (2000): 110-115. wolin, sheldon, “fugitive democacy,” constellations 1, no. 1 (1994): 11-25. žižek, slavoj, tarrying with the negative: kant, hegel, and the critique of ideology (durham, nc: duke university press, 1993). imoh colins edozie in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 307 volume 2 number 2 (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ peace education in marginalised communities in nigeria: the ‘protect our future’ project imoh colins edozie in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 308 “the niger delta holds some of the world's richest oil deposits, yet nigerians living there are poorer than ever, violence is rampant, and the land and water are fouled. what went wrong? --- oil fouls everything ... it spills from the pipelines, poisoning soil and water. it stains the hands of politicians and generals, who siphon off its profits. it taints the ambitions of the young, who will try anything to scoop up a share of the liquid riches—fire a gun, sabotage a pipeline, kidnap a foreigner. nigeria had all the makings of an uplifting tale: poor african nation blessed with enormous sudden wealth. from a potential model nation, nigeria has become a dangerous country ….everything looked possible—but everything went wrong. the cruelest twist is that half a century of oil extraction in the delta has failed to make the lives of the people better. instead, they are poorer still, and hopeless.” tom o'neill national geographic, february 2007 figure 1: map of nigeria numerically showing states typically considered part of the niger delta region: 1. abia, 2. akwa ibom, 3. bayelsa, 4. cross river, 5. delta, 6. edo, 7.imo, 8. ondo, 9. rivers this paper explores the conflict in the niger delta area of nigeria and the effect of the ‘protect our future’ project. the conflict in the area has taken various dimensions. there have been various schools of thought on the reason for the continued spate of conflict, violence and recently now kidnapping in the niger delta1. the most 1 o'neill t, nigerian oil, curse of the black gold. national geographic magazine (february 2007 edition). onuoha in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 309 commonly held view is to attribute it to a potent cocktail of violence, underdevelopment, abject poverty in the area, lure for quick money, environmental damage and failure of government leading to a growing frustration and circle of violence among the people. however, in spite of the effort of the government and various stakeholders, the situation does not seem to be abating. this paper analyses the situation and proffers likely solutions to this age-long problem in the region that have taken a new dimension. these include the contribution of funds by persons who benefit from the community to a central fund to be used for education of members of the community. it finally reflects on the role the ‘protect our future’ peace project is contributing and likely to contribute to the process of achieving peace in the niger delta. introduction nigeria is located in sub sahara africa. figure 2 shows the location nigeria within west africa and africa. nigeria got independence from britain on 1st october 1960. the various ethnic nationalities in the country have been existing independently with their different cultures and styles of leadership before the intervention of the colonial masters. the first group of foreign influence were the portuguese navigators in 1472. there was also the slave trade in the 16th to 18th century. the british set up presence in the country and between 1861 and 1914 it established what it called the colony and protectorate of nigeria. it therefore governs the people through the indirect role. in this model the local leaders still have some influence on their people. however, the final authority rest with the colonial masters. the merger of the colony of lagos and the various protectorates in 1914 gave birth to nigeria. this merger was without the consent or consultations with the people. it was based on the convenience of the british. nigeria has witnessed various forms of government from the parliamentary system of government in 1960 to the present presidential system of government; in between the country has witnessed various austin, from conflict to collaboration: building peace in nigeria’s oil-producing communities. london, adonis and abbey, and 2005. okonta, i., & oronto, d., where vultures feast: shell, human rights and oil in the niger delta. san francisco, sierra club books and 2001. human rights watch, the price of oil: corporate responsibility and human rights violations in nigeria's oil producing communities (human rights watch, 1999) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 310 forms of military dictatorship. nigeria is the most populous nation in africa, with a population of about 130 million people. the mainstream of the economy at independence was cocoa, palm products, groundnuts and other agricultural products. however, the discovery of oil in 1958 has changed the economic fortune of country and the people. the bulk of the country revenue as of today comes from oil, which accounts for about 80%. the revenue from oil since the 1970s has glossed more than $400 billion dollars, yet there is nothing to show for it. the majority of the people live in desolation and abject poverty. nigeria is africa's leading oil producer and the world's seventh largest exporter. nearly all its 2.5 million barrels a day production comes from the niger delta2. the niger delta is within the south south geo political zone in nigeria. it is an area of approximately 70,000 square kilometres comprising of swamps, rain forests, rivers and creeks. it accounts for almost ninety five percent of the country oil export3. figure 1 shows the states considered as part of the niger delta states. figure 2 shows a close up map of the niger delta showing streams, creeks, etc. the people in the oil communities live in abject poverty with no electricity, potable water, and health amenities. however, the oil facilities in the area are guarded by government troops. the workers are provided with comfortable air conditioned apartment with all amenities. the author recalls his trip to one of the oil platform of shell. ‘as we sailed on the river we touched the water and felt the oil film. this is the water the people drink. as we passed thatch houses in various stages of disrepair, children came out of the houses to wave at us. at other times we passed by parents in canoes carrying firewood. they must have gone a long distance to collect those woods for cooking. yet, when we got to the shell platform it is like a different country. here we are offered bottled water; air conditioned facilities, electricity, 2 international crisis group, various africa report in 2006 3 dulue mbachu, the poverty of oil wealth in nigeria’s delta. in for isn security watch (03/02/06). in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 311 television and every modern amenity to make life comfortable”.4 figure 2: map showing nigeria within africa & niger delta terrain the election of president umaru yar’adua and his deputy goodluck jonathan, an ethnic ijaw and former governor of bayelsa state, in april 2007 raised the hope of an early resolution of the crisis in the niger delta region. however, a year after their inauguration, the situation is still as pathetic as before. violence and criminality is intertwined in an unholy alliance. the kidnapping of expatriate workers as a tool for agitation, which is also a lucrative ransom yielding business, has taken a turn for the worse with local politicians families now victims. how did we get to this point? to understand the conflict in the niger delta region, it is critical for us to appreciate the history of the country and the niger delta region in particular. history of protects in the niger delta the political history of nigeria since independence has been dominated by military dictatorships5 this has suppressed opposition especially in the niger delta area which has been plagued by years of environmental degradation and abject poverty. the 4 personal experience of author working in the area in october 1999. 5 ben nwabueze, military rule and social justice in nigeria. saros international publishers and 1993. bayo oloyede the press under military rule in nigeria (1966-1993): an historical and legal narrative (african studies) .edwin mellen press and 2004 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 312 resulting hardship and the inability of the government to provide services to the people resulted in a series of protests. the history of the struggle for the emancipation of the area has not always been violent. there are various documented cases of non violent protest that various government crushed with ample violence. the case of the movement for the survival of ogoni people (mosop) in 1990 and ken saro wiwa is a case study. the demands of mosop articulated in the bill of rights asked for compensation for the degradation of ogoni land. it is claimed6 that the establishment of mosop can be linked to other ethnic groupings at that time like: odua peoples’s congress (opc), arewa peoples congress (apc) and movement for the actualisation of the sovereign state of biafra (massob). the difference however, lies in that mosop was seen as a threat to the oil industry, which lays the golden egg that sustains the economy. the government of general sani abacha could not tolerate their agitation and ken sarowiwa and the others were framed for murder and hanged.the suppression of that protest violently by the government and the hanging of saro-wiwa and eight other ogoni minority rights activists set a terrible precedent in the niger delta. the odi and choba massacres are also cases where protests were crushed with heavy military might with huge casualties and cases of rape. an interesting but sad aspect of the odi and choba massacres was that it was ordered by a civilian president. it can be argued that the violent suppression of dissent led to the present situation in the area. the demise of general abacha ushered in a new political dispensation. in 1998 the ijaw youth council (iyc) was formed as an amalgamation of various youth groups in the ijaw speaking areas of the niger delta. one of the highpoints of the iyc was the kaiama declaration: "all lands and natural resources (including mineral resources) within the ijaw territory belong to the ijaw communities and are the basis of our survival…we cease 6 ike okonta, mend: anatomy of a peoples’ militia. (2006-11-02). http://www.pambazuka.org in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 313 to recognise all undemocratic decrees that rob our peoples/communities of the right to ownership and control of our lives and resources, which were enacted without our participation and consent. these include the land use decree and the petroleum decree…" (excerpt from kaiama declaration, 11 december 1998) this declaration articulated the injustice done to the ijaw nation and the methods to alleviate the problem. however, the leadership crisis in the iyc led to the formation of the asari dokubo led niger delta peoples volunteer force (ndpvf). this can be claimed to be the beginning of change in tactics and mobilization for the groups. the formation of militant groups in the niger delta is therefore constantly linked to the inability of government and the various stakeholders to resolve the issues of the degradation of the environment that had led to destruction of various sources of livelihood for the people leading to frustration and abject poverty. the response has been various forms of protest, sabotage of facilities for oil production and of recent kidnapping of oil workers for ransom. the various groups are relatively obscure and their tactics are unconventional. the impact of their activities has generated attention to them. there is a high level of coordination and organisation, the era of non violent protest seem gone. the militants seem well trained in sophisticated guerrilla war fare which is supposedly funded by proceeds from illegal oil bunkering as well as the ransom paid for the kidnapped. the sophistication of their firepower makes them no match for the conventional police force. the state has therefore deployed the military to the area. the method can be likened to the guerrilla tactics in iraqi where various groups carry out activities to create fear and cripple activities of the intended victims7. the present situation has gone through various circles and levels of conflict. the question that the people constantly ask is when will the situation will come to an end? this question is quite ambiguous, because there are two situations here: the situation of lack of development 7global guerrillas, nigerian evolution. 16 january 2006 globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2006/01/nigerian_evolut.html in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 314 in the niger delta and the resultant militancy and kidnapping. which should end first? it can be likened to the chicken and the egg scenario. however, while it can be argued that the reason and how the situation got to this level are well known. the question for consideration should then be why is the situation still not under control? this paper attempts to answer the question why the militant situation is now part of the story of the niger delta. it will remain part of the history and folk fore of the people. the paper is divided into three parts. the first part looks at the general situation of the country with reference to the niger delta area. it explores the militants’ situation and the factors that led to the present impasse. it examines the issues of resources control, land use act, ransom payment, etc. the paper will focus on the movement for the emancipation of the niger delta (mend) as an umbrella group for the various militant groups in the niger delta. the second part of the paper analysis and reflects on the effect of the ‘protect our future’ project. the conclusion explores various initiatives to solve the problems. this paper is based on a number of qualitative interviews conducted between august 2007 and march 2008 in port harcourt rivers state and warri delta state. the author interviewed and held formal and informal discussions with various stakeholders such as the media community leaders, community persons, local persons, youth leaders, militants, lawyers and government officials. however, because of the highly sensitive nature of the situation, they have asked not to be named. the author has referred to them as ‘schools of thought’ without having to give a direct quote. this conforms to the ‘emic’ perspective in conflict analysis. in the words of jayne docherty: “…the perception of the parties and this implies that we must understand how the parties think about their relationship/ conflict, in order to grapple with what is going on.”8 history of militancy in the niger delta the term militants is used in it most general sense to refer to either individuals or a group that champion a cause selflessly. the purpose of the struggle is to achieve a goal. the supposedly militants uses all means to achieve their vision which include 8 jayne seminare docherty, pax 533. introduction to conflict transformation. basic research methods for conflict transformation practice, harrisonburg, eastern mennonite university and 2006 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 315 been aggressive or perceived to be aggressive. an aspect of militancy is the presumption that the militant is rigid and does not tolerate difference in opinion. this implies that the militants do not normally follow conventions or established laws. they are can be prune to violence either directly or indirectly and do justify this based on their ideology.9 in the niger delta, there are various groups that can be called militants in a most general sense. these groups are but not limited to: • the coalition for militant action in the niger delta (coma), • martyr's brigade. • niger delta people’s volunteer force (ndpvf), • south-south liberation movement (sslm), • movement for the sovereign state of the niger delta (mssnd), • de gbam, • niger delta vigilante, • meninbutus, • the movement for the emancipation of the niger delta (mend), etc this paper as stated earlier will focus on mend as a reflection and an umbrella group for the various militant groups in the niger delta. mend announced their resolve to be a major player in the unfolding drama that is the crisis in the niger delta by organising high profile attacks on oil installation in nigeria in january 2006. they issued a tense statement: "it must be clear that the nigerian government cannot protect your workers or assets. leave our land while you can or die in it.... our aim is to totally destroy the capacity 9 webster online dictionary http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/militant in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 316 of the nigerian government to export oil."10 mend can be described as a major group in the region; however, there are various armed groups loosely linked and associated with them. they share a common anger at the level of under development and abject poverty in the area as well as the lure for quick money through ransoms paid for the kidnapped victims. the groups get their weapons from sales of illegal oil in the high seas as well as proceeds from ransoms. the various groups have carried out series of high profile kidnapping of oil workers from bulgaria, britain, usa, honduras, pakistan, india, korea, malaysia, indonesia, romania and the philippines. even nigerians are not spared. politically, it is difficult to ascertain the political inclinations of the groups; the situation is based on the loose nature of the organisations that are afflicted to mend. this creates a situation where various persons speak at different times. there is apparent disagreement on even participation in government processes. mend can be described11 as “an idea, a general principle underlying the slew of communal, civic and youth movements that began to proliferate in the niger delta, and particularly in the ijaw-speaking areas”. mend will want to describe themselves as revolutionaries striving to free their people from the shackles of oppression and the exploitation and degradation of their environment by the multinational oil companies with active connivance of the government. they therefore advocate compensation for the degradation and pollution of their natural environment. however, will it be fair to assume that this is the only purpose for their actions? there is some opinion that the actions much as it serves the general interest of the people of the region, there are a lot of self preservation and interest in the actions of the various groups. these groups argue that the concept of putting the niger delta in the front page of the agenda has been done and the subsequent actions border on criminality. this paper will strive to highlight and create a balance opinion. 10 excerpt from an e-mail mend claiming responsibility for some attacks. http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13121 11 ike okonta, mend: anatomy of a peoples’ militia. (2006-11-02). http://www.pambazuka.org in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 317 how did the situation reach this level? there are schools of thoughts reflected in the various interviews conducted on how and why the situation has reached this alarming stage. it is commonly stated that the niger delta people’s volunteer force (ndpvf) led by mujahid dokubo-asari was in the forefront of the struggle until he was arrested and in prison while standing trial for treason. he was the symbol of the struggle, however, with his incarceration various groups sprang up to feel the gap. in this category is mend, which learnt apparently from the experience of ndpvf. this experience is illustrated later in the various tactics employed by mend. the tactics of mend was remarkably different from groups that preceded them. the group seems to be led by university educated youths. they were prepared and seem to know what they want to do. nnamdi k. obasi, west africa senior analyst at the international crisis group stated: “mend seems to be led by more enlightened and sophisticated men than most of the groups in the past” 12 .the success of mend can be attributed to various factors: the sympathy they enjoy in the communities enabling them to maintain secrecy of its operation and movement of it operatives as well as their knowledge of the terrain. government crackdowns have only bolstered that sympathy and driven more recruits. another aspect that has bolstered recruits is the supposedly financial benefit from kidnapping and illegal oil bunkering. the organisation is loosely coordinated, and each unit plans its operation independently, the effective use of the media to fight their course has served as a source of protection for mend. the groups routinely advocate for resource control. resource control and land use act the federal government has direct control of oil resources which is operated through 12 quoted in: stephanie hanson, mend: the niger delta’s umbrella militant group march 22, 2007. council on foreign relations http://www.cfr.org/publication/12920/ in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 318 the various joint venture agreements with the foreign multinationals mainly chevron texaco, shell, exxonmobil, elf, etc. the group’s articulation of resource control has various interpretations. however, it has not been adequately defined, clarified nor is there a common vision on what resource control means and the various steps to actualize it. in a simplistic use of the term, it connotes the resolve of a people to have power to make decisions over their lives which includes over resources in their area. this involves the access, ownership, control and management of resources in an area for the collective good of the people in the particular area. the other notable demands of the groups can be adduced to be political such as the freedom of two ijaw leaders mujahid dokubo-asari who is standing trial for treason and chief diepreye alamieyeseigha the former governor of oil rich bayela state charged with corruption. both of these men have been released from custody, but yet the situation has not abated. the issue of resource control can be appreciated by understanding it relationship to the land use act and the issue of land ownership in nigeria. the land use act of 1978 addresses the issue of ownership of lands in the country. the act vested the ownership of all land to the state to be used for the benefit of the people. the act excluded family, groups from trusteeship of lands but only as occupants. the implications are that people who occupy land are issued with certificate of occupancy, showing occupation not ownership of the land. the act13 states: subject to the provisions of this act, all land comprised in the territory of each state in the federation are hereby vested in the governor of that state and such land shall be held in trust and administered for the use and common benefit of all nigerians in accordance with the provisions of this act. the land use degree vested land to the federal government for the good of the whole 13 laws of nigeria, land use act, 1978 excerpts from the land use act 29th march 1978 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 319 citizens of the country irrespective of where the land is located. the implication is that whatever resources available in any part of the country belong to the whole country. the people of the area might bear the brunt of the exploitation of the resources in the area, yet the revenue does not accrue to them. it is in this respect that the agitations for resource control do not find a lot of favourable audience among people outside the region. it is argued that the derivation allocation14 is enough to cater for the mineral producing areas. there have been various arguments for and against the 13% allocated for mineral producing area15. the positions of different persons depend on the various factors, however, that is outside the scope of this paper. resource curse oloibiri is a village in present day bayelsa state in the niger delta. it is here in 1956 that the first oil drilling started. the discovery of oil ideally could be a source of blessing and wealth for the people. however, the situation in nigeria is different, in the words of o'neill 16: “the cruelest twist is that half a century of oil extraction in the delta has failed to make the lives of the people better. instead, they are poorer still and hopeless” resource curse refers also to the paradox of plenty. it is a situation where places rich in natural resources have less growth and development than places without such resources. there are various factors for this development such as volatility of revenues from the natural resource, government mismanagement, corruption, etc. looking at the present situation in the niger delta, it can safely be said that oil has not brought development or prosperity to the people, rather, it has increased their 14 derivation principle in revenue allocation means 13% of all revenue from an area will be given to the area that produces it. 15 edevbie, david. the politics of 13 per cent derivation principle. (2000). http://www.waado.org/environment/fedgovt_nigerdelta/revenueallocation/13percentallocation.htm . chibuike u. uche &. ogbonnaya c. uche, oil and the politics. of revenue allocation in nigeria. asc working paper 54/2004. african studies centre, leiden. john boye ejobowah. who owns the oil? the politics of ethnicity in the niger delta of nigeria. africa today volume 47, number 1, winter 2000, pp. 29-47. ike oguine, (2000). nigeria´s oil revenues and the oil producing area. the centre for energy, petroleum and mineral law and policy. http://www.dundee.ac.uk/cepmlp/journal/html/vol4/article4-10.html 16 o'neill t, nigerian oil, curse of the black gold. national geographic magazine (february 2007 edition). in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 320 hardship and destroyed their fragile ecosystem that supports their livelihood. it is a classic example of the people suffering in the mist of plenty. the situation of resource curse leads to conflict within societies as different groups agitate for a share and control of the resources. these conflict takes various factors either openly such as in the agitation in the niger delta or though passive resistance. the purpose of the agitation serves various purposes for example: it can bring the attention of the wider community including the international community to the plight of the people. it can also be a forum to agitate in order to right the wrong from the past. the case of the niger delta can be attributed to the destruction of the livelihoods of the people through pollution and degradation of their environment. this has led to farm land and fishing resources destroyed leaving the people in a terrible state of poverty. ransom payment the issue of ransom payment is quite disputed. mend claim that it collects no ransom for releasing the kidnapped expatriates’ workers. this assertion is supposedly confirmed by the negotiators and various government officials. however, the claim that ransom is not paid does not see to be supported by the facts on the ground which tells a different story. the present all comers affairs in the hostage sage proves that there is profit in the business. okonta17 stated that mend hostage taking strategy is “to exploit the blaze of publicity thus generated to announce their grievances and demands of the nigerian government” might not be the whole truth. the assertion18 “though kidnapping of oil workers for ransom is a favoured tactic of the militants, abuse and killing are rare” ; seem to be more reflective of the situation in the niger delta. the strategy certainly is to put pressure on the government, but most especially to protect themselves from attacks and military intervention. the scars of odi are still 17 ike okonta, mend: anatomy of a peoples’ militia. (2006-11-02). http://www.pambazuka.org in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 321 fresh in the minds of the people. therefore, the publicity puts international pressure on the government to intervene, as the announcement that ransom was not paid builds on their credibility. however, the question bothering most objective minds is what are the details of the negotiations? what is the trade off? the more intriguing question is how is the group financed? how are the sophisticated weapons acquired? if not ransom from kidnapping then it will be from oil bunkering. these activities borders on criminality, therefore it will be safe to assume that the source of the wealth used in acquiring the weapons is not from legitimate source and even acquiring such weapons is illegal. actors in the niger delta crisis the actors in this conflict play vital roles, their actions explicate why the conflict, violence and kidnapping issue has lasted this long and why it might likely continue into the near future. we will be exploring their interests, relations, capacities and the incentives. this explores the attitudes, behaviours and context, the analysis also looks at the needs, interests and position of the various actors. the significant actors are as follows: • federal government • state government • various government agencies • various government security agencies • government negotiators • community negotiators • community leaders • community people • militants leaders • militants followers • media • oil companies • businesses 18 ike okonta, mend: anatomy of a peoples’ militia. (2006-11-02). http://www.pambazuka.org in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 322 • citizens of the country • non governmental organisations • international community federal government the federal government is responsible for maintaining security in the country. it must guarantee and protect life and property. however, the issue of kidnapping has exposed and brought the government to ridicule. the attitude of the federal government was to deploy the military to the area to engage the militants. the behaviour stems from the concept that the action of the militants is illegal. therefore, government will not engage an illegal group in negotiation. the vice president comes from the niger delta; it will not be good publicity that he supports the use of excessive force against his people. the government position of not negotiating with militants seems hypocritical and is not helping the situation. while the government negotiates to release hostages, it will not negotiate the demands of the militants. the situation might not be won militarily because of the peculiar nature of the niger delta and the huge casualty if it is attempted. however, the military has showed disrespect and disregard for civilian casualty like in the cases of odi and choba. therefore it can safely be argued that what’s preventing the military from a full assault is their lack of complete knowledge of the terrain. the unpredictable and difficult terrain is an advantage to the militants who knows the terrain better. in the unlikely event of a military invasion, the defeat of the militants will not solve the problem, but will rather create more bad blood in the region. there is also the fear that a military option might led to a greater disruption in oil production with its serious consequence for the world. the position of the government is that kidnapping must stop before any talk can happen. the interest of the government is to guarantee the safety of the citizens and be seen to be in control of the situation. it also need a peaceful coexistence and non disruptions of oil production. state government and various government agencies in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 323 the various state governments of rivers and delta states are directly responsible for security in their various states. kidnapping affects the socio economic activities in the states. night life in port harcourt was creped for a long time. presently most of the expatriates have relocated outside the niger delta states. the effect is telling on government revenue. the attitudes of the state governments are that the kidnapping must stop, but they do not want to be seen to be against the legitimate agitation of the people of the area. the kidnapping also provides illegal funds for government officials. it is alleged that government provides the ransom money. however, much as governments will denial this, it is a common fact in the streets that government officials inflate the demands of the militants into line their pocket. the story is like this: if the militants demand 20 million naira, the government officials collect 50 million naira and the difference goes into their pocket. this explains again the reluctance to engage with the militants. there is even a bigger problem in the niger delta states. huge revenue accrues to the states in the niger delta from oil revenue. however, the reality on the ground does not justify the funds. there are allegations of massive corruption on the parts of the elected representatives. the general feeling is that the officials support the militants to divert attention from their misrule and corruption. it is assumed that when the problems of the militants are finally resolved, the people will hold their leaders accountable. various government security agencies the security agencies are tasked with protecting the life and property of the citizens. the security agencies are handicapped by their lack of knowledge of the terrain. it will be hazardous to attempt to dislodge the militants from the creeks where they hide after each operation. however, the security operatives feel if given a free hand they can carry out a successful operation. the danger is that government does not want to risk another odi or choba massacre. the political terrain is very volatile and government wants to be on the side of the people, therefore it is frustrating for the operatives. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 324 government negotiators and community negotiators these are key players in the unfolding drama in the niger delta. there are always called upon to negotiate the release of hostages. these negotiators are from different works of life. the perception is that the negotiators have links and are respected by the militants. however, there is a different school of thought to this situation. this school believes that the negotiators are part of the problem. they get assurances from the government that the militants will not be attacked. government therefore strives to honour the agreement and also to fulfil the demands of the militants. this demands include ransom money, in the channel of communication between the militants and the government / oil companies is through the negotiators. therefore it is safe to assume that there is a possibility that the negotiators make some profit from the ransom money. the perception in the streets of the niger delta is that the negotiators inflate the demand of the militants before telling the government and oil companies. the interest of the negotiators is the freedom of the hostages as well as ensuring that no harm is done to the militants. the negotiators are from the niger delta communities. community leaders and community people the people of the community live in abject poverty with little or no government presence. they have lived through series of broken promises. they have witnessed the systematic destruction of their sources of livelihood. they have watched helplessly as peaceful protests are crushed with the full might of the military. the have watched as resources from their area is used to develop other parts of the country. therefore their attitude to this conflict is that they have nothing to lose since there are already on the lowest ebb, struggling and not able to make ends meet. there will only be casualty if the governments decide to attack the community; however, since there is ample assurance there will not be any attack, the communities support the militants. the community people actually see the militants as the last hope to bring their plight to the outside world. the community leaders mostly have been compromised through the various inducements from the oil companies. their moral authority has eroded in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 325 considerably. there are therefore not able to execute their leadership role, this created a vacuum that the militants have filled. the issue of leadership in the oil communities is a very thorny issue; there are always changes in leadership. there is hardly continuity; this is based on the compromises they make, which is against the spirit of the wishes of the community, but to better their private interest. in a training workshop for community leaders, the author interacted with community leaders; one informed him that most of the leaders put personal interest at 65% and community interest 35% during the negotiations. with this behaviour the situation never changes in the niger delta. most leaders see leadership as a opportunity to alleviate their poverty. this also confirms the nature of the various tussles for leadership position. it also explains why there is a high turn over of leaders in the area. militants’ leaders and militants followers most of the militants live among the community. they are not in hiding, most interested parties know them. however, since the cause they are fighting is supposedly for the benefit of the niger delta they are supported. however, when the kidnapping switched to non expatriates, the support has considerably declined. in analyzing the militants’ situation, the leadership plays a vital function in controlling and directing its followers. the organisation of the militants is quite secret, each leader has a group of followers. this leader demand absolute loyalty and respect from his followers. he earns the respect by providing for the material benefits of his followers. there is an agreed formula for the sharing of ransom money and proceeds from oil bunkering. the leader takes the bulk of the money and the rest is share among the followers. the leader must be able to keep the ‘boys’ happy and their needs taken care of. the implication of this is that from time to time, there must be ‘action’ for the followers. the action provides money. it makes the ‘boys’ to live above their means and look like heroes in the communities. therefore for the kidnapping to stop there must be an alternative source of livelihoods for the ‘boys’. the question is: will it be as lucrative as the kidnapping business? it will be recalled that most of the ‘boys’ do not invest this money but use it to have a ‘good life’. therefore there is constant pressure to have more money. the leadership in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 326 of the militant groups are under pressure to stop the kidnapping; however, the problem is not the leadership, but the followers. the general impression from the various interviews is that the leadership is not the problem but the followers. it is speculated that the leaders of the groups are very rich and are keen to legitimize their activities, but making the ‘boys’ happy is a difficult task. for each of the follower dreams of been a leader and getting a bigger share of the loot. it is argued that the present constant low level kidnapping of nigerians, including children is a reflection of the above situation. the followers of the various leaders are breaking free and carrying out independent operations. the danger presently is not the leadership of the militant groups but the followers who feel that they can successfully carry out an operation. eliminating the leadership of the group will worsen the situation, instead of helping it. what then is the need of the militants? there want their community to be developed, but they also want to have a very good life style. media the role of the media in this crisis is different from their role in other crisis. there is the perception among government functionaries that the media seen to be the public relations outfit for the groups. the groups are able to use the mass media effectively. as stated earlier the present crop of militants seen to be highly educated, they have been able to articulate their views and generate sympathy from various stakeholders. the objectivity of the media might not be questioned; the age long degradation of the environment and the government attitude to the area might have aided the militant cause and made the media to support the groups. the eight years of president obasanjo administration generated much bad blood with various segment of the media and stakeholders. it is therefore assumed that anything against president obasanjo or make him look bad should be supported. it is argued that the effective use of the media is a safety net for the groups. their demands and messages are passed on to the international community and other groups. these groups put pressure on the government not to attack the militants and to in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 327 try to reason with them. the motivation of this group is discussed later. the media can be said to be playing their constitutional role of bring information to the public. oil companies and businesses the tactics of the oil companies contributed immensely to the situation today. the apparent lack of transparency in the handling of situations in the niger delta through the bribing of traditional rulers, setting up one community against another, refusing to clean up spill site and not carrying out environmental impact assessment for their various projects is bane of the situation today. the oil companies have constantly been protected by the federal government because of the strategic nature of the industry to the country. the oil industry has tremendous influence in the country. in the various communities where they operate, they use various methods to tactics to make sure their operation is not disrupted. these methods include setting up one community against another, paying for protection services. the position of the oil companies is that sabotage of oil facilities is not good for business; therefore everything possible should be done to stop it. they insist that they pay tax and therefore it is the role of the government to provide amenities and development for the people. they argue that their role is to compliment government effort and as part of social responsibility. the spite of kidnapping has affected business in the region greatly. the hospitality business has almost collapsed. the places that are patronized by the expatriates have virtually closed shop. these have led to unemployment and lose of revenue for the people as well as government. the interest of the business community is that they do not want to interfere in government, however, their business is gradually dieing and something need to be solve the problem and bring things back to normal. citizens of the country the role of the citizens of the country is quite diverse as the country is diverse. the author interaction with some young professionals creates the impression that the in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 328 impasse created opportunities for them to show what they can do. with the kidnapping saga most expatriate workers left the area giving room for the nigerian workers to show their skills. the people of the niger delta are in support of the militants, however, the other part of the country do not share the same sentiments. therefore it is very difficult to determine and accommodate the vast interest. however, there is a general consensus that the problems of development in the area need to be solved and the kidnapping have to stop. non governmental organisations and international community the international communities are interested in what happens in the niger delta from both economic and social persuasions. the region produces oil. nigeria is one of the major producer and exporter of oil. the activities of the militants have led to disruption of supply and increase in oil price. the international community wants the situation to return to normal to enable oil price to fall back. the militant’s threats to destroy the oil installations in the area, leads to panic in the oil market and they have showed their capacity to do that. the media have been able to show this to the world. this scenario scares the international community because with the problem in the middle east, another dangerous situation in nigeria will not serve their interest. they therefore put pressure on the government to solve the plight of the area. the various non governmental organisations and the international community are worried and bothered by the neglect of the niger delta. the environmental degradation and the continued gas flaring do not conform to their perception of how business should be run. these groups’ puts pressure on government and the oil companies to meet the demand of the communities. dynamics of the conflict as stated above there is a strong possibility that this conflict will continue well into the future. this assessment is based on the lucrative nature of the kidnapping business as the perceived reluctance of the government to arrest and persecute any of the perpetrators of the crime. the possibility of escalation of kidnapping is limited based on the militarization of the in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 329 niger delta. this has not has prevented the militants from carrying our kidnappings. this support the analysis above, that there is a possibility that most of the recent kidnappings are carried out by followers of the militants leaders who see themselves as capable of making some quick money. the role of the negotiators is shrouded in controversy; this role has increased the possibility of further kidnappings because of the monetary incentive. the perception is that the security vote and other resources of the oil companies are used as ransom money which is spread across the board. for example, if the militants demand 20million naira, the negotiators might inform the state government that the demand is 40 million naira; there is a possibility that what might be accounted that was paid out was 80million naira from the security vote. however, since security votes are not accounted for, it is not subject to scrutiny, the kidnapping business can be a source of funds for different people in the government. the militants are most likely not to willing give up arms for amnesty as promised by the government. the various highly published returns of arms by confessed militants have been a charade because the arms returned are mainly locally made pistols not the sophisticated weapons that are used in the operations. the end point of the game is for the government and oil companies to stop paying ransom money. there is the danger that some kidnapped persons might be killed, that might be a big prize, but continuing payment of ransom and denying it only makes kidnapping more lucrative. a second scenario which has played out it self twice within the last one month is the possibility of the kidnappers been traced and a rescue mission carried out. there is the possibility of arrest or killing in the shootout that might follow. the reason for the success of this scenario might be that the various leaders have made considerable money from the kidnapping and the pressure is on them to stop. they have decided then to stop, but their followers have not heeded the advice and have continued without the support of the leadership. another likely explanation is that the communities are not in support of kidnapping of nigerians to settle personal issues. most of the kidnapped nigerians are family members of politicians. this raises a totally different issue, which the communities are not too in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 330 keen to support. finally, the international community needs oil from nigeria. the vice president is from the niger delta. the various state governments are gradually being accountable to the people, unlike in previous dispensation where the government do not listen to the people. the fear of economic, finance crime commission (efcc)19 is the beginning of wisdom for most government officials. the efcc is on the tail of government officials who steal state funds; this has changed the attitude in the various government houses. the federal government is going to budget and pump a lot of funds into the niger delta to develop the area and meet the needs of the people. the state government is going to channel and use the funds of the people judiciously for the good of the people, thereby developing the area. the international community will put pressure on government to achieve the above as well as the oil companies to operate within acceptable international framework. the communities will be happy because their environment will be better and their quality of life improved. the militants will be folk heroes in their communities. they will have achieved tremendous wealth and will have a stake in the affairs of the communities. the implications of the above is that militancy will gradually fade and become part of history, there will still be pockets of conflicts, militancy, kidnapping here and there, but not as what it was in 2007. protect our future peace project: a new beginning it is in the above scenario of uncertainty that the protect our future project was born in 2005. the programme presently has two broad focuses: • peace and civic education in schools • traditional conflict prevention and management in communities the various undemocratic political practices in nigeria combined with the deterioration of traditional values and structure have created a situation in which the nigerian people do not believe that democracy is possible, neither are they able to 19 effc is a government agency that probes and persecutes corruption in various government establishments and businesses. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 331 envision credible alternatives. there is then a growing sense of disillusionment among the populace and a growing cycle of violence. this has led to unprecedented ethnic & religious violence. the country’s integration and corporate existence is threatened and raises questions about the ability of the country to survive. nigerians now see themselves as members of ethnic groups instead of citizens of a country. consequently, there is a shift from community values and thus the collective aspirations of the people of nigeria are being abandoned. peace and civic education in schools the youth form a significant majority of the population of nigeria (the united nations human development index estimated the population below 15 years to be about 46% of the total population). students, being part of the society, are affected by the situation. the average age of students in the secondary schools is 10-17 years. it is obvious that students who are presently in secondary school have no much experience of a democratic culture. they do not know what is expected of them and neither do they know what they can expect. it is necessary to have a program to educate the students on their civic responsibility and how to live peacefully. the centre for human development and social transformation research to determine student behaviours showed that students were prone to act in a violent way at the least provocation instead of respecting and allowing the rule of law to take its place. the protect our future peace and civic education project is based on the premise that if students / youths who form a significant majority of the population know their right and cultivate a culture of democracy and skills of living peacefully, they will be a powerful voice in sustaining democratic values and a culture of peace. it is an invaluable way we can safeguard our future. the strategy is to train teachers in both primary and secondary schools, who in turn will assist in training students on a culture of peace. the desire is that this peace education project given in schools will have an effect in the wider community. the project begins by examining internal school practices and using these as forums to discuss student rights, responsibilities, and to provide training on basic skills in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 332 needed in a functioning democracy (such as statue drawing, election conduction and monitoring). the teachers will be trained to impact the skills of peace education and civic responsibility to the students. thereby beginning the process of empowering students to elect their own representatives and leaders. this is based on observations that class representatives and prefects (leaders for special functions) are appointed by teachers and by the school principal. this practice is undemocratic as it denies the students the right to choose their leaders. the students trained forms a network of “peace clubs” in the various schools to continue to share ideas and to involve more students in the training. a manual is been developed for that purpose as well as a guide for the teachers to use. the centre for human development and social transformation will coordinate the programme of social transformation. and will facilitate constant training at the centre. traditional conflict prevention and management in communities the protect our future training workshops on traditional african conflict prevention and management has the vision to empower and strengthen the traditional mechanism for conflict prevention and management in the niger delta. the concept of the workshops normally consists of a training of trainers of about forty (40) community leaders (various stakeholders) for a specific local government area. this workshop is held outside the local government area and a workshop for 100 150 persons held in the local government area. the trainers normally assist in training the larger group. the aim of the project is to train community leaders on how to prevent and manage conflict in the community. it explores the various potentials to prevent conflict and when there is conflict to ensure that it does not escalate but that it is curtained and properly managed. the premise is that if the community leaders cultivate a culture of peace and skills of living peacefully, they will be a powerful voice in sustaining democratic values and a culture of peace. the strategy is to train community leaders who will be able to train others in their community on a culture of peace. the desire is that this peace training on: culture of peace, conflict prevention, transformation and management will have a multiplier effect in the community. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 333 the training workshop explored the dynamics of community conflict, the various sources of the conflict and how it can be prevented and managed. it used community scan to identify various causes of conflict in the community and how early warning mechanism can be used in conflict prevention and management. the second day of the workshop is designed to be a strategy day, where the participants will develop an action plan on how to transform their communities. the concept is to examine the structure of the community and what causes conflict in the community with community scan. thereafter, the structure and traditional method of conflict resolution in the communities will be examined, thereby leading to an action plan. the workshop normally ends with the design of action points which will be a means of taking the lessons learnt to the wider community. the vision of the programme is that community leaders should be able to conduct training for those within their sphere of influence. conclusion and strategies for conflict reduction there is need to implement a master plan for the area. the newly created ministry of niger delta, might be able to facilitate the process. this projects into the future and ensures that the area is sustainable. this will involve different stakeholders. the following options are proposed: there is need to increase the derivation funds derivation from 13% to 25% in the first phase and subsequently to increase it to 50%. this has to be negotiated with other stakeholders in the nigeria project. this is in line with various recommendations of various study groups on the niger delta. secondly, the land use act and petroleum act that strips the locals control over their lands should be reviewed to right the wrong caused by that act. thirdly, the niger deltans need to be more proactive in solving problems. the problem of shortage of skilled manpower is quite evident in the area. the oil in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 307-334 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 334 companies give employment to some of the indigenes of the area. it is argued that this helps the person involved and his or her immediate family. however, the question to be considered is how this translates to solving the bigger problem of the area. the author feels that each community should set up a trust fund to be managed by credible members of the community. each person that gets employment through the community help because they are indigenes of the area pays a specific percentage a month for a certain number of years into the fund. the fund will be used specifically for educating more persons in the community. the more people that are educated, the more persons are employable and the more money into the fund and more wealth to the community. another source of funding for the trust funds should that any indigenous contractor that gets project with the help of the community pays a specific percentage into the trust fund. these two sources of funding will help alleviate the problem of manpower shortage in the oil producing communities. the complex question of leadership in the niger delta needs to be addressed, the people should select leaders they can trust who should put the needs and interests of the communities above their personal needs. in this respect, ngo’s operating in the niger delta need to begin a process of leadership training and orientation. finally, the issue of militancy is a product of the circumstances of the time and if the justification are no longer there, then ideally militancy will soon be a part of the stories of the niger delta. the author is of the view that the niger delta area with its beautiful natural features will be the tourist hub of nigeria. however, the government and the various stakeholders need to be a brace to their responsibility. david netzer in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 282-291 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 282 volume 2 number 2 (2008): 282-291 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ painful past in the service of israeli jewish-arab dialogue: the work of the center for humanistic education at the ghetto fighters house in israel david netzer1 the centre for humanistic education (che) within the museum of ghetto fighters’ house (gfh) in israel, engages high-school students and teachers from the arab and jewish sectors in an examination of connections between the holocaust; personal and social morals; and implications for present israeli society. its action can be related to several domains: history of the holocaust; moral education; civic education; and peace-education through intergroup dialogue. livne, che pedagogical director since its beginning, categorizes and characterizes these subjects as follows: che engages in three subjects: the holocaust as a universal formative crisis; humanistic social and political values, manifested in the concept of democracy; jewish-arab dialogue as a leverage to social and political coexistence. since 1997 che has been working regularly with about 25 jewish and arab schools. with groups numbering an average of 15 participants, the project has been engaging about 350 participants annually. the educational process progresses in three sequential stages: 1 based on my phd thesis: the work and impact of the center for humanistic education at the ghetto fighters house, israel: a case study (brighton, uk: university of sussex. 2008). for a full pdf copy mail request to: netzerd@netvision.net.il in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 282-291 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 283 1. the basic workshop, focusing on in-depth study of selected issues grounded in the holocaust. this part is done in school-based groups, hence culturally and nationally considerably homogenous. 2. a multicultural, binational seminar – dealing with perceptions of the other along with historical and sociopolitical issues relating to jewish-arab relations. the working-groups are mixed, co-facilitated by an arab and jewish staff-member. 3. an ongoing multicultural, binational dialogue-group, which focuses on implementations of the democratic concept of shared citizenship. participation in all parts of the program is voluntary. the schools serve mainly as organizational platforms for recruiting participants. che staff is made up of about 15 jewish and arab members. they include qualified teachers, social workers, students and informal-education professionals. the type of work is mainly group-facilitating. the long shadow of the regional conflict che process is situated in a setting dominated by a long and deep national conflict between the jews and the palestinian arabs, both citizens of israel. this conflict emanates from three main sources: history and narratives: outcomes and memories of past traumas experienced by the two collectives, namely the jewish holocaust; and the palestinian nakba. these are formative traumatic events which are rooted deeply in the collective narratives of both groups, and have a deep impact on their perceptions and behaviours. the israeli-palestinian conflict: this perpetual, violent, unresolved conflict plays a central role in every israeli's life and mobilizes huge resources in all spheres of life. the political border-line between the state of israel and the palestinian authority, as fragile and vague as it is, is virtually non-existent in terms of perceptions of identity: most israeli arabs identify themselves as palestinians; to most israeli jews the palestinians are the enemy. thus the conflict is not limited to the borders or the disputed territories; it also resides within the israeli body politic. jewish-arab power relations: israel's definition as a jewish state projects on the power relations between the jewish majority and arab minority in all walks of life. the arabs are alienated and excluded from the basic state ethos; their disproportionate representation at the bottom of all major socio-economic scales, in other words their discrimination – is a concrete manifestation of the deeply structured asymmetry between jews and arabs in israel. all three sources are intertwined and connected in a vicious cycle of victimhood and fear; hatred and suspicion; rejection and frustration. past memories fuel present emotions, present experiences reaffirm narratives rooted in past traumas. che is working in one of the deepest splits within the israeli society – the jewisharab split. this split can be summarized as national majority-minority split, in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 282-291 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 284 embedded in an active historical-political conflict. the che project brings together youth from the two national groups, jews and arabs, and engages them in what it calls 'humanistic dialogue'. conceptual frameworks metaphorically speaking che operates within a triangle, the angles of which are collective narratives – mainly the holocaust and the nakba; discourse of democratic and humanistic values; and personal impact – mainly change of perceptions. in structural analytical terms these can also be associated respectively with peaceeducation through narrative-based dialogue; moral education denoting democratic humanism; examination and re-evaluation of social and personal identity. the metaphor of a triangle serves to represent the interrelationship between the three fields, forming a holistic entity: che is an educational institution, a place where collective narratives play an essential role in the discourse, and an ideological public body – all at once. che conceptual triangle drawing on the metaphorical che triangle, the following conceptual frameworks are deployed. education there are five education-related aspects of che rationale: (i) pedagogical aspects of peace education [pe] che engages in pe in the socio-political context of an intractable conflict. this particular branch of pe aspires to change perceptions of the other side by focusing on four main goals: • acknowledgment and legitimization of their collective narrative. • critical examination of our contribution to the conflict and to its resolution. • empathy for their suffering. • adoption of values conducive to coexistence. 2 2 salomon, 2004; salomon, 2002:9, emphasis in original peace education identity construction moral education in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 282-291 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 285 this is implemented by integrating process and content. the process denotes interpersonal interaction in an intimate setting which characterizes frameworks of informal education.3 the content denotes the narrative of the other – familiarizing with it, acknowledging and respecting it. 4 (ii) the psychological aspect of intergroup encounters. observing palestinian-israeli encounters, researchers identify a tension between two levels of interaction: interpersonal and intergroup interaction, side by side. this tension is regarded as one of the main dilemmas in these encounters, “the perception of the political person versus the psychological one”.5 jewish-arab youth encounters in israel could be categorized to two major educational approaches, which correspond to a personal-collective continuum6 as in identity, where che takes an integrating path of personal and social, the approach relating to goals and methods in the intergroup encounters is a synthesis of the two. (iii) the sociological aspect of identity. identities, personal and social, are social constructs. che operates in a society governed by 'politics of identity' 7. the external threat accompanying the violent conflict fuels this pattern of politics of identity. insecurity commonly feeds suspicion and intolerance towards others. che has developed an educational methodology which confronts and challenges these tendencies. as with intergroup encounters, che integrates two opposite approaches on the personal-collective continuum, implementing a third – the 'interactionist approach'.8 the essence of this approach is providing equal space for socio-political contents and group, interpersonal and personal dynamics. (iv) holocaust education one of the defining features of che rationale is its approach to holocaust education. from the 1980s onwards the national israeli rationale of holocaust education stresses the uniqueness of the holocaust as a means of reinforcing jewish and israeli identity.9 che implements an alternative rationale, the essence of which is twofold: first – historical perspective: a universal perception, substituting a predominantly jewish one. 3 colley, hodkinson, malcolm, 2002 4 salomon, 2004; bar-on, 2002 5 katz and kahanov, 1990, in suleiman, 2004:326 6 maoz, 2002 7li-on, 2007, bar-tal, 2000, rouhana, 1997 8 sagy, 2002 9 porat, 2004 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 282-291 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 286 second educational goal: mobilizing history to enhance multicultural dialogue, overriding construction and reinforcement of national identity. (v) moral education humanism, denoting democratic pluralism and human compassion, provides participants from various social sectors a common ideological framework with which all can identify and feel comfortable. this framework is established from the first part of the process, in the basic workshop dealing with the holocaust, and throughout the following parts. the holocaust is studied as a universal extreme event, from which lessons can be drawn in relevant contexts across time and place. that universalistic value-oriented approach is implemented in later sequences when dealing with historic landmarks, such as the palestinian nakba and other burdened events concerning jews and arabs in israel. as any ideology, it can be regarded as subversive in the sense that it upholds in word and in practice values that are essentially political; and as such not necessarily consensually accepted in the surrounding society. illustrative observations at selected activities following are eyewitness accounts of three different che activities. in each case the factual description of the event is followed by my interpretation and conceptualization in reference to che practice. (i) the environment's reactions to involvement in che towards the end of the graduate-group activity-year of 2004/2005, a meeting was devoted to dealing with attitude among family and friends towards che activity. these represent the closest and most relevant social environment, the home-base of the participants. the participants were asked to quote on posters things they're told. most were negative, and strikingly similar on both sides – jews and arabs – like mirror reflections. following is a thematically-edited collection of the quotes presented: minimizing, ridiculing: naïve, dream on are you bored, don't you have anything better to do? a waste of time, nothing good can come out of it. it's all talk, what's the point? (an arab quote) criticizing, making accusations: jew/arab lover! the jews will brainwash you. they teach you about the holocaust so you'll feel sorry for them and forget what they're doing to us! you're forgetting who you are and to which side you belong! positive reactions: "go get them", tell them everything! we live together in this place, we have to talk. well, it might do at least some good… in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 282-291 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 287 well done! only the youth can bring change. after reading aloud all these quotes, accompanied by imitations and laughter, participants were asked how they react, what do they reply. the following were the dominant reactions cited: avoidance: i don't talk about it, try to avoid the subject. persuading : i tell in details what we do, to show that it's different than what they think recruitment of ideals and convictions: "there are good people on the other side"; "any little step in the right direction can help"; "we must work together to bring change"; "there's no other way, if we want a better future". besides avoidance, the other two strategies require emotional identification with che, to some extent having to choose between two 'significant others'. this conflict, however, should not be taken to extremes: the participants are required to get their parents' consent to attending the activities. so, the quotes reflect scepticism, cynicism, apprehension – but not adamant objection. those who face that are probably not among the participants. engaging in che activity is for most participants "rowing upstream", as put by kalisman, che founder and director. it is not the normative thing to do in the present israeli social and political climate – in both the jewish and the arab sectors. che process challenges deep-rooted conventions in three topics: • involving arabs in issues of the holocaust – conventionally a jewish area. • learning and discussing the palestinian perspective of 1948 – a charged topic closely associated with the present conflict, therefore political and rarely touched in binational encounters. moreover, it is rarely addressed in formal classrooms in both sectors for various political reasons. • promoting interpersonal (personal) dialogue between jews and arabs – where more commonly the dialogue, if occurs, is channelled to the intergroup (collective) level. (ii) "can you ever feel you belong?" this episode took place in a session on culture, in the spring seminar of 2002. it was filmed and is included in a che presentational film called circle of neighbours. the participants, about 20 jews and arabs from a variety of places in the first of a three-day seminar, are handed a list of public days and holidays: historical, religious and others. facilitator: choose one or two dates or holidays which are meaningful to you; explain what they mean to you; and what goes on in your family on these days. after some time is given, a round of short presentations takes place. after some religious holidays are described, one of the jewish boys tells about his choice: in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 282-291 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 288 independence day festivities. facilitator: can one of the arabs here describe what this day is for him/her? nadra (arab girl): we all sit at home. this day was a disaster for our family. facilitator: what if you want to go out – to the dances, fireworks and all that? iman (arab girl): once, my parents told me: you want to go out – go; but remember that on that day we all lost lives, homes…think about it. since then i don't go to the festivities. i can't. julnar (arab girl): for me it's like a day of mourning – the memories of 1948, but also the results which we still suffer until today: your independence day is not mine, this isn't really my state. matan (jewish boy): our day of joy is your day of mourning. that's sad. it's something that happened in the past and still divides us… (to julnar) do you imagine, though, that some day, some time in the future, you can feel that you belong? julnar: only if they'll put some other mind in my head… facilitator: you mean that only if you became somebody else you could feel differently about this? so long as you are you – julnar – you'll feel that way about independence day , israel, your place in it? julnar nods in approval. this episode brings to the surface two major components of the social dynamics that are active in the che encounter: the historical ethos of both sides; and the personalcollective identity interplay. the teenagers sitting in the room are the third generation after 1948, some of them may even be the fourth. their construct of 1948 and of their connection to the collective state is the mediated product of their families, schools, surrounding society – not direct personal experience. julnar demonstrates the profound effect these mediating agents have on her personal consciousness and identity as an arab in israel. (iii) "so much pain! what are we to do with it?!" about twenty 16-17 year olds are sitting in a circle. they come from different places in the north – villages, kibbutzim, towns and cities. they are jews and arabs – christians, muslims and druze. they constitute quite a good representation of the social stratification in this part of the country. in the invitations to the seminar, the participants were asked to prepare a presentation of a past-story that runs in their family and to bring an object that is related to the family history. the facilitator invites anyone willing to start with the family story. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 282-291 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 289 maayan, a jewish kibbutz girl, volunteers: 'my grandmother is a holocaust survivor. she was a teenager at the time of the war. with her sister, my aunt, they managed to survive the ghetto and the camps. they are the only survivors from their family. in 1946, right after the war, they joined a youth group planning to make aliyah [hebrew: jewish immigration] to palestine. the british intercepted their illegal ship and held them in a detention camp in cyprus for another year. they were then allowed to come here. my grandmother joined a kibbutz not far from here. the kibbutz was attacked by arabs in the independence war of 1948. some of her friends were killed, she was injured.' maayan pulls a necklace out of her pocket. 'when i told my grandmother about this seminar, she gave me this: the only physical remain of her family’s past.' maayan sits down. there's heavy silence in the room. issam, an arab boy from the village jedaide: 'my grandfather lived in village called birwe. it’s not far from here, but even if you pass near it – you won’t see it. it no longer exists. in the nakba [arabic: disaster; the name commonly used by palestinians for the 1948 war] it was captured and later wiped out by the israeli army. its inhabitants are now dispersed in neighbouring villages in the galilee. many fled across the borders at the time and are still living in refugee camps in lebanon and syria. in my family the stories that run are about life in birwe that is no more. i was already born in jedaide. but when asked where i’m from i always say “i come from birwe, now i live in jedaide”.' issam pauses, then takes out from his pocket a rusty iron key: 'this is a key that my father got from his father – my grandfather who’s no longer alive. when he gave it to me he said: when the time comes – you must pass this to your son. this is the key of the house in birwe. the only thing that remained from the house which they left for what they thought was only for a couple of days.' issam turns to maayan, pointing his finger at her: 'this is what you have done to my family and my village!' the facilitator approaches him: 'issam, can you tell maayan what you want, in a way that she can relate to? you remember, of course, that she was not in that army; and you did not flee from the village. so, what do you want to say to maayan herself?' issam is quiet for some time. then he says: 'yes, of course it is not maayan who did it… the only thing i want to tell her and the rest of the jewish participants here is – you should recognize our painful story. you didn’t do it, we didn’t do those things to you – but it hurts that you don’t even know about us.' maayan looks at him. she gets up and approaches him. they hug. maayan looks up, her hands spread in desperation, and sighs: 'so much pain! so much pain – what are we to do with it?!' the outcome of this confrontation of personal histories may be a fresh dialogue between equal victims of history, as reflected upon by some graduates. this dialogue is not instrumental in any practical end-product sense of the word: its objective is not to arrive at a solution, rule for one side or another, or likewise. its goal is the dialogue itself: exchange of knowledge and acknowledgement as an expression of recognizing the other. this incident highlights three aspects of the dialogue promoted by che: in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 282-291 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 290 1) active elicitation of the past, referring to it as a major element of one's identity. 2) acknowledgment of coexisting historical narratives – personal and collective. 3) cultivation of a person-to-person dialogue – overriding group-to-group, which is the more common practice in conflict-related encounters. che has carved a new path in connecting two domains traditionally considered antagonistic like oil and water: holocaust education, and jewish-arab dialogue. che has developed an educational methodology which lowers the wall between two alien, even hostile israeli groups the jews and the arabs in israel. it does so by integrating two main educational strategies into a comprehensive ideological framework. 1. narrative-based dialogue: through establishing a dialogue which gives room for both collective trauma-ridden narratives – the holocaust and the nakba – participants develop empathy with each other. this is made possible because the painful narratives are presented from a personal angle: participants contribute their own connection to the collective narrative, through family and community stories. 2. movement from politics of identity to personalization of identities: through activities aimed at encouraging expressions of various aspects of personal identity, participants' identity is expanded. collective identity, as an exclusive feature, gives way to other aspects of identity – more personal and individuated. on these grounds different persons can find common language, bridging over divisive group affiliations. humanism, as described above, constitutes an ideological framework which connects the cultural, religious and national variety of participants. in adhering to this ideological framework; and by applying the educational strategy of dialogue through narratives and personalization of identities, che implements peace education in the difficult context of an intractable conflict. che participants' accounts of their experience, elicited in questionnaires and interviews, indicate that it constitutes a profound way to bring the two distant groups of israeli citizens closer; change perceptions of self and of each other; and look differently at the complex situation in which they live. bibliography dan bar-on, "conciliation through storytelling: beyond victimhood.," in peace education: the concept, principles, and practices around the world, ed. gavriel salomon & baruch nevo (new-jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates, 2002). daniel bar-tal, shared beliefs in a society: social psychological analysis (thousand oaks, ca: sage publications, 2000). helen colley, phil hodkinson, and janice malcolm, "non-formal learning: mapping the conceptual terrain. a consultation report," university of leeds lifelong in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 282-291 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 291 learning institute (2002). also available in the informal education archives: http://www.infed.org/archives/e-texts/colley_informal_learning.htm. lee li-on, the politics of community mediation, thesis (phd), (brighton, uk: university of sussex, 2007). ifat maoz, (2002), "conceptual mapping and evaluation of peace education programs: the case of education for coexistence through intergroup encounters between jews and arabs in israel.," in peace education: the concept, principles, and practices around the world, ed. gavriel. salomon & baruch nevo (new-jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates, 2002). dan a. porat, "from the scandal to the holocaust in israeli education," journal of contemporary history 39, no. 4 (2004). nadim rouhana, palestinian citizens in an ethnic jewish state: identities in conflict (new haven: yale university press, 1997). shifra sagy, "intergroup encounters between jewish and arab students in israel: towards an interactionist approach.," intercultural education 13, no. 3 (2002). gavriel salomon, "a narrative-based view of coexistence education.," journal of social issues 60, no. 2 (2004). gavriel salomon, "the nature of peace education: not all programs are created equal", in peace education: the concept, principles, and practices around the world, ed. gavriel. salomon & baruch nevo (new-jersey: lawrence erlbaum associates, 2002). ramzi suleiman, "planned encounters between jewish and palestinian israelis: a social-psychological perspective.," journal of social issues 60, no. 2 (2004). poetry as peace pedagogy format to daledec09   in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  88-­‐98   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     88   volume 3 number 1 (2009): 88-98 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ poetry and peace: explorations of language and “unlanguage” as transformative pedagogy mary lee morrison out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. i’ll meet you there. out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. i’ll meet you there. when the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. ideas, language, even the phrase each other, doesn’t make any sense. (adaptation of rumi poem)1                                                                                                                           1  david  wilcox  and  nancy  pettit,  "adaptation  of  a  rumi  poem,"  fellowship  magazine,  no.  summer-­‐fall  2008  (2008).       in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  88-­‐98   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     89   poetry makes us human. without poetry and other art forms, the survival of global, planetary consciousness and, indeed, our very existence as a species is called into question. poetry, through words, reduces our experiences to their essence and, at the same time, uplifts our souls to their highest. the poet and peace activist denise levertov (1923-1997) wrote that poets, more than any others, “recognize language as a form of life and a common resource to be cherished and served as we should serve and cherish earth and its waters, animal and vegetable life, and each other”2. levertov believed that the poet’s task is to hold in trust that knowledge that language is considered power (my italics). quoting ibsen, levertov noted that the task of the poet is to “make clear to himself [sic], and thereby to others, the temporal and eternal questions which are astir in the age and community to which he belongs”3. poetry can be transformative. the inexplicable tears that can come when a poem is heard touches something deep within us . the explanation for this, it would seem, lies not only in the didactic process of the hearing, despite the importance many poets place on the power of language. i believe that there are deeper processes that occur within the listener of poetry as the words are incorporated, resulting in a deep communion between poet and listener. i coin these deeper processes the unlanguage of poetry. unlanguage is the point at which the listener’s authentic self emerges, silently, as we hear a poem, and is the pathway in which we agree with the poet that their truth and our truth are in harmony. when our own, authentic self emerges, transformation can begin. in this essay i explore some of the interplay between the concepts of language and unlanguage. i also make the claim that poetry is a form of peace pedagogy. though i will refer most often to the hearing of poetry, both the hearing of and the writing of poetry can have the power to be transformative, though the hearing carries, i believe, more potential, at least for the present purposes of analysis. i am referring here to the interaction between poetry being read (ideally by the writer) and a listener hearing. one can also read poetry aloud to oneself. the silent reading of poetry has, in my estimation, transformative potential, but to a lesser extent than the other two. the idea for this analysis has its roots many years ago, when i began writing poetry as a child. as i entered my middle years, i began to seek out local poetry readings. our community hosts a wonderful outdoor summer poetry festival, in which listeners are treated to the wonders of the spoken word, in tune with bird songs and the occasional buzzing of an insect. my adult religious practice as a quaker has deepened my understanding of the power of “unwords” and the importance of stillness as a discipline and a pathway to a deeper listening, to hear both the spiritual and the temporal, to listen “beneath words”. hugh ogden, a well-known poet and professor at trinity college, sadly recently deceased, frequently spoke extemporaneous poetry in our local meeting for worship as a spiritual message for the congregation. as i listened to his words and then pondered during the silence following, i often found my own sense of the divine                                                                                                                           2  denise  levertov,  the  poet  in  the  world  (new  york:  new  directions  books,  1973),  53.   3  ibid.,  111.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  88-­‐98   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     90   heightened, in ways different from and more powerfully enhanced, than when hearing other spoken messages. following a january 2009 trip to turkey and my subsequent research into the work of thirteenth century mystical poet jalal al-din rumi, who spent the greater part of his adult life in the region that became part of that country, i began thinking about the possibility of presenting this nescient work on poetry at the summer 2009 international institutes on peace education in budapest hungary. the participants in our workshop were kind and gentle “guinea pigs” as, together, we explored some of these ideas. during the workshop, participants shared their own conceptions of poetry and we explored some queries and ideas related to the ideas of language and unlanguage, which are detailed below. my no means do i consider myself an accomplished poet. my interest in, and experience with both the listening to and the writing of poetry is a continual journey, one in which i take much delight. rumi, called the west’s most widely read poet, was born in a province of the persian empire in 1207 a.d., in what is now the border area between afghanistan and tajikistan. his early childhood was marked by much upheaval and loss. his family, of the intellectual class, was forced to migrate from place to place within the empire, due to frequent wars and civil disruptions. rumi spent the first part of his life wandering between mecca, syria, anatolia (modern day western turkey), baghdad, and samarkand. biographers of rumi have attributed these experiences, both his encountering different peoples and cultures in his wanderings and his experiences of loss, as strong contributors to the depth of his poetry. rumi laid the foundation for the mystical practice of islam known as the whirling dervishes, though his son, sultan valad, is considered to be the actual founder of the movement. rumi’s six volume masterpiece, mathnawi, was inspired by his love relationship with his master, shams al-din, which led him to abandon his previous life as a scholar and devote his life to mysticism and to the writing of poetry, using the evocation of the power of love as the “root of all outwardly that we see in the world”.4 leslie wines, one of the biographers of rumi, believes that the reason for the appeal of rumi’s poems to westerners is their ability to evoke ecstasy, coming both from the world of nature and from everyday life. in wine’s words “rumi attempted to put into language the nature of the invisible universe”.5 following is an excerpt from a rumi poem given to me by a friend. in simple wording, it is powerful and evocative.                                                                                                                           4  franklin  d.  lewis,  rumi  past  and  present:  the  life.teachings  and  poetry  of  jalal  al-­‐din  rumi  (oxford,  england:   one  world  publishing,  2000),  406..   5  leslie  wines,  rumi:  a  spiritual  biography  (new  york:  crossroad  publishing  co.,  2000),  17.       in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  88-­‐98   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     91   on a day when the wind is perfect the sail just needs to open and the love starts today is such a day what is poetry? we began our workshop at the 2009 iipe with some brainstorming of what words came to mind when we thought of the word “poetry”. several individuals in the group , at first, expressed anxiety around poetry, citing their early educational experiences as giving them messages that poetry is hard to understand and that, if you write poetry, it must be done just “right”. coming to the workshop was, for at least one participant, a way to address these fears. here are some words we shared about poetry: “express in-between, association of time, finding new words, inspires, way of singing in words, symbolism, insider language, twisted, rhyme, subjective”. one participant quoted heiddeger’s words ”language is a house of being”. heidegger, as denise levertov notes in the poet in the world, wrote that to be human is to be rooted in conversation. levertov expands on this notion to say that the poet develops this basic need for dialogue in ways that are audible to others. through listening, the hearer is awakened to take up his or her own inner dialogue, all too often neglected in a world of constant outer stimulation.6 louis untermeyer, author of a consise treasury of great poems, claims that poetry is the most potent form of communication. he goes on to note that poetry is also conversation as a craft. 7 that is, the purpose of a poem is to create something that was not there before. we may conclude that to make, therefore, implies a form of action in the creation. poetry, according to levertov, sets in motion elements in the listener that would otherwise remain stagnant. levertov makes the claim that language is a form of life itself (my italics). i believe that it is necessary to distinguish between that poetry that has the power to truly transform and that which is merely “words on paper”, a distinction that is fraught with analytical difficulties, as what might be deeply evocative for one reader could be less so for another. for the sake of argument, i distinguish between that poetry that is the free form thoughts of a writer, perhaps for emotional release or autobiographical writing as a form of therapy, and words and poetry which employ the frequent use of metaphor which, i believe, can lead to a greater depth of silent communion between the poet and the listener. the latter can awaken the deeper, more universal truths within the reader, writer or listener which is the lifeline to “life itself”. deep poetry relies on the use of metaphor as the pathway between language and unlanguage to help us reach our inner core. poetry as peace pedagogy                                                                                                                           6  levertov,  the  poet  in  the  world.   7  louis  untermeyer,  a  consise  history  of  great  poems  (new  york:  simon  and  schuster,  1953).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  88-­‐98   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     92   poetry asks questions about the deepest issues related to the human condition. peace education does the same. wordsworth wrote of the task of poetry as binding together, by passion and knowledge, “the vast empire of human society, as it is spread over the whole earth and over all time”.8 louis untermeyer notes that the aim of a poem is to make the hearer or reader feel and see with new acuteness and awareness. the poet is the bearer of everything that humanity holds dear and uplifts, the keeper and transmitter of all that humans work for.9 thus it can be concluded that one of the tasks of poetry is to bring forth, those transformative potentials in listeners that can be the basis for deep social and structural change. the poet jane hirschfield notes that “poetry can help you find your way to a larger life that otherwise would be yours to live”.10 in the words of walt whitman allons! we must not stop here. let us press on together, my friends and companions. and let us sing songs of praise of life’s beauties and wonders as we go. conversation is at the heart of peace pedagogy. it is the task of peace educators to help instill values in our students that create the conditions for individuals’ understanding one another across so much that divides us. the basic human need for dialogue is also captured in good poetry. poetic dialogue initially takes place between the poet and the listener/reader. as the words “sink in”, the processes of unlanguage begin and the dialogue is then begun between the listener and him/herself. if we agree with betty reardon that the word “conversation” connotes a more thorough, interactive process than does “dialogue”, then levertov’s conceptions of the power of poetry to engage us in conversation with the deepest questions of our human existence and with ourselves comes to life. conversation is related to, as reardon writes, “a community of inquirers, sharing questions and insights, mutually responsible for creating the changes needed”.11 levertov writes that conversation is made audible by the hearing of a poem, freeing the listener or reader to then take up his or her inner dialogue.12 humans are rooted in conversation. yet to be fully human is also to withdraw from conversation for periods of time, giving honor to reflection and appreciation for all that is human, including appreciation for the others with whom we converse and to those with whom we may find deep disagreements. in order to be peacemakers and                                                                                                                           8  ibid.,  13.   9  ibid.   10  william  ayers,  teaching  toward  freedom:  moral  commitment  and  ethical  action  in  the  classroom  (boston:   beacon  press,  2004),  106.   11  betty  reardon,  comprehensive  peace  education:    educating  for  global  responsibility  (new  york:  teachers   college  press,  1988),  49.   12  levertov,  the  poet  in  the  world.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  88-­‐98   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     93   effective change agents, in order to create the values necessary to transform the world into one in which human development, human rights and human economies flourish, it is essential to, in the biblical tradition, “withdraw into our wilderness” from time to time. it is in the rhythm of hearing/understanding/contemplation and then moving outward that a holistic framework for changing our thinking, the bases of peace pedagogy, can best occur and then we are called to act on this thinking. conversations with others and conversations with ourselves are key. poetry is a powerful path in this process. i believe that one of the reasons rumi’s poetry has touched so many westerners is that the words go to the deepest places we all hold, touch our spiritual hearts and help connect us, not only with ourselves, but to a larger sense of the holistic world. i agree with denise levertov that at the root of good poetry is a reverence for life. jane hirschfield notes that, to fully appreciate poetry, one must travel inward as well as outward in imaging. she writes “provoking the imagination, on the inward journey, is at the heart of change”.13 levertov notes that both the meditative and the socially active are interrelated. similarly, making peace is a process of both inward discernment and outward action. a poem of levertov’s, about political action in which each individual acts from the heart, evokes in the reader/hearer the vision of the interplay between contemplation and action. when solitaries draw close, releasing, each solitude into its blossoming, when we give to each other the roses of our communion a culture of gardens, horticulture not agribusiness, arbors among the lettuce, small terrains when we taste in small victories sometimes the small, ephemeral yet joyful harvest of our striving great power flows from us, luminous, a promise. yes!....then great energy flows from solitude, and great power from communion14                                                                                                                           13  ayers,  teaching  toward  freedom:  moral  commitment  and  ethical  action  in  the  classroom,  106.   14   michael   true,   to   construct   peace:     30   more   justice   seekers,   peace   makers   (mystic,   ct:   twenty-­‐third   publications,  1992).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  88-­‐98   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     94   michael true, in his short biography of denise levertov, makes the point that the activities of making a new language (here he is referring to peace poetry) and making a new social order are parallel activities. 15 in levertov’s poem making peace (from breathing the water, 1984), we read a line of peace might appear if we restructured the sentence our lives are making, revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power, questioned our need, allowed long pauses… peace, according to levertov, is more than the absence of war, echoing the conceptual definition of peace researchers such as johan galtung and elise and kenneth boulding and others who have focused on structural peace as opposed to negative peace. levertov believed that it is the duty of the artist (and here i add the peace educator) to reflect the value of the importance of individuals taking responsibility for society. poets must give us their (and ours to claim) imagination, the images of peace, to replace those of disaster and war, in order to foster hope for a better world. the japanese buddhist philosopher and peace educator daisaku ikeda writes that the poet creates “portals of hope and entranceways for exchange in the massive walls that divide us”.16 good peace pedagogy must do the same, with the power to evoke our imagination toward the deepest possibilities for human existence. all too often we can despair at the hope for change if we see only our present world and the structural violence in which we are embedded. elise boulding began in the 1980s, with warren ziegler, to create imaging workshops in which participants, through a series of imaginary steps both backwards and forwards in their own personal sense of time, communally designed the world they wished to see and, at the end of the workshop each participant created action steps to move into the world he/she wished to see. boulding’s ideas were based, in part, on the work of the dutch futurist, fred polak, who believed that educators and activists cannot work for a world they cannot imagine. so it is with the artists, who, by their trade, are closer than many of us to the imaginings of both inner truths and outer good. it is important to give credence to where we have been as much as where we hope to go. boulding uses the term “the 200-year present” to depict the long view of history. if we use this approach, we see that, in many ways, there is cause for hope for the future as human progress has, in actuality, been                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           15  ibid.   16  daisaku  ikeda,  "on  the  occasion  of  the  publication  of  creating  waldens:  report  on  the  occasion  of  publication,"     (ikeda  center,  cambridge,  ma,  september,  2009).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  88-­‐98   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     95   occurring through the millennia.17 good poetry captures the essence of this hope and, in ikeda’s words, creates a sense of “spiritual openness” to new possibilities. thus we can see that both poets and peace educators can contribute to the deepening of this spiritual essence within each of us so that we can create possibilities for new ways of thinking and acting. levertov takes this concept further by telling us, in making peace, that we must go beyond even static imagining and that, in the writing and speaking of the very words themselves, poems and the poet, and, in turn, we the readers and listeners, become the makers of peace. a voice from the dark called out, “the poets much give us imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar ‘imagination of disaster’. peace, not only the absence of war” but peace, like a poem is not there ahead of itself, can’t be imagined before it is made, can’t be known except in the words of its making, grammar of justice syntax of mutual aid. peace educators believe, as does william ayers, that “teaching at its best, is an enterprise that helps human beings to reach the full measure of their humanity. education helps teachers and students become more self-consciously alive”.18 good poetry and good peace pedagogy both ask the deepest questions of our human existence. betty reardon has written that peace learning is linked to the processes of internalized change, “through which individuals and societies become who and what we are”.19 peace pedagogy is dialogic, reflective and integrates new knowledge within the structures of existing experiences. all of these descriptions are also true of good poetry. good poetry, just as good teaching, seeks to draw out the “inner learner” of both student and teacher (hearer and reader/writer) toward a process of humanization.20 if we believe that poetry can touch the heart of the human condition, can engage the listener, writer, reader in dialogue, can help us with the spiritual transformation and vital imaging necessary, we conclude that poetry is a form of peace pedagogy. indeed, we might consider it is one of the                                                                                                                           17  elise  boulding,  "building  a  global  civic  culture,"  in  twentieth  century  thought,  ed.  r.p.  and  king  cuzzort,  edith   (new  york:  harcourt,  brace  college  publishers,  1989).   18  ayers,  teaching  toward  freedom:  moral  commitment  and  ethical  action  in  the  classroom,  1.       19  betty  reardon,  "human  rights  learning:  pedagogies  and  politics  of  peace,"  in  unesco  chair  for  education  for  a   culture  of  peace  (university  of  puerto  rico:  2008).   20  paulo  freire,  pedagogy  of  the  oppressed  (london:  continuum  international  publishing,  2000).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  88-­‐98   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     96   highest forms of peace pedagogy if we believe, as does hirschfield, that great poetry is “a bird of prey, tearing open whatever needs to be opened”.21 as peace educators, we can agree with ralph waldo emerson, who believed that poets are “seers”, better equipped than most, because of temperament and training, to give expression to the world and beyond it. we can teach our students to be such “seers”, through the values we model, the conversations we hold and the honor we give to the spiritual and temporal selves of each of those with whom we come in contact. we can help our students to “become themselves”, as the poet may sarton so eloquently expresses now i become myself. it’s taken time, many years and places; i have been dissolved and shaken, worn other people’s faces, run madly, as if time were there, terribly old, crying a warning, “hurry, you will be dead before—“ (what? before you reach the morning; or the end of the poem is clear? or love safe in the walled city?) now to stand still, to be here, feel my own weight and density! the black shadow on paper is my hand, the shadow of a word as thought shapes the shaper falls heavily on the page, is heard all fuses now, falls into place from wish to action, word to silence, my work, my love, my time, my face gathered into one intense gesture of growing like a plant. as slowly as the ripening fruit fertile, detached, and always spent, falls but does not exhaust the root, so all the poem is, can give, grows in me to become the song, made so and rooted so by love. now there is time and time is young. o, in this single hour i live all of myself and do not move. i, the pursued, who madly ran,                                                                                                                           21  ayers,  teaching  toward  freedom:  moral  commitment  and  ethical  action  in  the  classroom,  ix.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  88-­‐98   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     97   stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!22 conclusion-some comments on language and unlanguage rumi claimed that all language is a longing for home. home is, as i define it, that which we can, both physically and metaphorically, claim is rightfully ours. coleman barks, well known rumi biographer, writes that rumi was less interested in language itself and “more attuned to the sources of it”.23 for rumi, words themselves were only resonators for a center (my italics). rumi wrote that “there is a way between voice and presence where information flows”.24 peace pedagogy is, in good part, working, through educational processes, for our “human home”, claiming those rights which we, as humans, universally own. it would seem that to educate for and to claim these rights that we need powerful language as a vehicle for social change, such as that produced by poetry. if, however, as rumi believed, language is not enough, what more is needed? despite the claim of some poets, such as levertov, that language is the most potent vehicle for change, i conclude that language is not enough for both the “tearing open” and the potential for transformation. it is not just in the hearing of the words, the reading or writing of the words, but in that space between the words and the “unwords”, between the language and the unlanguage, as we hear a poem, or write a poem or read a poem, it is in that space during which the reflective processes of moving inward and outward occur, as we both hear the words and “still the words”, that the transformative educational process begins. here, also, is the heart of educating for peace. references ayers, william. teaching toward freedom: moral commitment and ethical action in the classroom. boston: beacon press, 2004. barks, coleman. the essential rumi. new york: harper collins, 2004. boulding, elise. "building a global civic culture." in twentieth century thought, edited by r.p. and king cuzzort, edith. new york: harcourt, brace college publishers, 1989. freire, paulo. pedagogy of the oppressed. london: continuum international publishing, 2000. ikeda, daisaku. "on the occasion of the publication of creating waldens: report on the occasion of publication." ikeda center, cambridge, ma, september, 2009. levertov, denise. the poet in the world. new york: new directions books, 1973. lewis, franklin d. rumi past and present: the life.teachings and poetry of jalal al-din rumi. oxford, england: one world publishing, 2000.                                                                                                                           22  source  unknown.     23  coleman  barks,  the  essential  rumi  (new  york:  harper  collins,  2004),  17.   24  ibid.,  32.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  88-­‐98   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     98   reardon, betty. comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility. new york: teachers college press, 1988. ———. "human rights learning: pedagogies and politics of peace." in unesco chair for education for a culture of peace. university of puerto rico, 2008. true, michael. to construct peace: 30 more justice seekers, peace makers. mystic, ct: twenty-third publications, 1992. untermeyer, louis. a consise history of great poems. new york: simon and schuster, 1953. wilcox, david, and nancy pettit. "adaptation of a rumi poem." fellowship magazine, no. summer-fall 2008 (2008). wines, leslie. rumi: a spiritual biography. new york: crossroad publishing co., 2000. broadening_horizons_final-1[1] in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 99-111 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 99 volume 3 number 1 (2009): 99-111 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ broadening horizons: is there a place for peace education in the american legal system and more specifically in family law ? by: mialisa mcfarland1 introduction the united states legal system is generally perceived by the public both in the national and international arena in a discouraging light. the perception is that litigation is not only expensive and time consuming, but it also furthers contention between parties. there are other methods, referred to as alternative dispute resolution that are being employed by the court system in order to provide solutions to disputes with a greater focus toward “peace and justice 1 mialisa mcfarland is a ph.d. student at the university of minnesota and formerly worked as an associate attorney at spangler and de stefano, pllp. the author wishes to provide gratitude to evon spangler, managing partner at spangler and de stefano, pllp, for providing editing support and suggestions for this paper. in addition, amy dupont, student at william mitchell college of law and j.d. candidate may 2010 provided research support for this paper. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 99-111 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 100 simultaneously through the use of a variety of different forms of dialogue, policy-making, rule development, dispute settlement and conflict management.”2 this article asks the question: since new techniques are being employed by the legal system is there space to reframe legal education through the lens of peace? this article first outlines the united states legal system in a basic way in order to provide a common understanding for this article. it is not meant to be a comprehensive analysis of the legal system, but rather a broad overview to provide a framework for the discussion that follows. second, the article focuses on family law practice in the united states, specifically within minnesota. it discusses the traditional practice of family law through litigation and also details some alternative dispute resolution methods that are commonly used in minnesota. this is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all adr but rather a sampling of tools used by practitioners in the family law arena to facilitate settlement of cases. third, the article addresses the current state of legal education within the united states and discussions of legal education reform. finally, the article discusses the potential for including peace education as a part of legal education. part i: background of the american legal system the american legal system is comprised of the federal and state court systems. article iii of the constitution invests the judicial power of the united states in the federal court system.3 section one creates the supreme court and allows congress to create other lower courts.4 the ninety-four u.s. district courts all of which together are the federal court system are organized into the u.s. court of appeals.5 the state court system is different within each of the fifty united states.6 each state has its own constitution and the laws of each state establishes the state courts system.7 in each state, there are circuit or district courts (generally the lowest level in the state court system). court of 2 carrie menkel-meadow, practicing “ in the interests of justice” in dispute resolution: beyond the adversarial model 53 (menkel-meadow, love, schneider & sternlight ed., 2005). 3 u.s. const. art. iii§1, available at http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_ transcript.html 4 id. 5 u.s. court of appeals available at http://www.uscourts.gov/courtsofappeals.html 6 national center for state courts, available at http://www.ncsconline.org/d_ kis/info_court_web_sites.html#state 7 mn consti. art vi § 1. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 99-111 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 101 appeals and one state supreme court.8 state courts generally handle civil and criminal matters. generally, a party starts a case in the lowest court and the dissatisfied party can appeal to the next court up. the supreme court has the option to hear or turn down a case. decisions in legal matters are left to judges. there is a vast difference in the way that judges come into their position depending on the system in which they work. federal judges are appointed by the president for life and approved by the senate.9 state court judges are either elected or appointed depending on the rules of the state in which they work.10 the legal decisions rendered by judges are based on a variety of different sources including the court rules, state statutes, federal codes, and case law. ii. family law a. what is family law and which system governs family disputes? family law is practiced within the state court system when there is a conflict within a family and a lawsuit is filed asking the court to resolve the conflict. the umbrella term family law indicates a broad practice of law that includes divorce (marital dissolution), paternity, adoption, and in some cases domestic violence.11 although the practice is confined to state court,12 there are both international and national laws that protect the family unit.13 on an international level, the family unit receives special 8 national center for state courts, available at http://www.ncsconline.org/d_ kis/info_court_web_sites.html#state 9 understanding the federal court system, available at http://www.uscourts.gov/understand03/ content_5_0.html 10 league of women voters, the state of democracy, minnesota, available at http://stateofdemocracymn.org/judicial_independence.html#jud2 11 in minnesota each county is set up a little bit differently. in some counties in minnesota domestic violence is dealt with in a separate court system called harassment court. 12 the practice of family law takes place primarily in state court. however in the event of an appeal, it is possible that a family law case could make it up to the u.s. appellate and or u.s. supreme court system. 13 the author understands that there are numerous ways to define family and does not necessarily agree with the definition of family drawn forth by the supreme court—but nevertheless acknowledges that that is a definition that is a part of u.s. american case law history. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 99-111 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 102 attention as the universal declaration of human rights states in article sixteen that “the family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the state” and is further recognized in other international treaties as well.14 on the national level, while the united states constitution does not explicitly refer to “family,”15 the family unit is defined within case law as “a unit with broad parental authority over minor children.”16 therefore, the judiciary has chosen to protect the concept of family by firmly rooting the definition of family within united states case law history.17 therefore, both international and national laws carve out special definitions and rules for the family unit. further, not only does case law define family, but it also clarifies familial rights including the right to remain free from government interference. in examining case law, the supreme court recognized a protected liberty interest “[o]f parents in the care, custody, and control of their children [as] perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty [interest].”18 because of that interest parents are allotted great range of authority and responsibility under due process rights for their minor children who lack the ability to make certain choices alone. rights afforded to people under the due process protections of the constitution, include: right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children, to worship god according to the dictates of his own conscience, and generally to enjoy those privileges long recognized at common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.19 many of these 14th amendment rights are directly tied to how parents choose to raise their children. in order to protect family integrity it is established that the parent-child relationship should be free from governmental 14 universal declaration of human rights art. 16(3), g.a.res. 217a, at 71, u.n. doc a/810 (dec. 12, 1948) available at http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/eng.htm; international covenant of civil and political rights art. 23(1), 999 u.n.t.s. 171 (dec. 19, 1966), available at http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_ccpr.htm; see also international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights art. 10(1), 999 u.n. u.n.t.s. 3, u.n. doc. a/6316 (dec. 16, 1966), available at http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/a_cescr.htm. 15 see david b. thronson, choiceless choices: deportation and the parent-child relationship, 6 nev. l.j. 1165, 1174 (2006). 16 id. at 1175 (quoting parham v. j.r. 442, u.s. 584, 602 (1979)). 17 moore v. city of east cleveland, 431 u.s. 494, 503-04 (1977); see also griswold v. connecticut, 381 u.s. 479, 496, (1965) (holding that the state is excluded from the right to family life). 18 troxel v. granville, 530 u.s. 57, 65 (2000). 19 meyer v. nebraska, 262 u.s. 390, 399 (1923); accord pierce v. soc’y of sisters, 268 u.s. 510, 534-535 (1925) (holding that parents and guardians have the right to bring their children up the way they see fit). in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 99-111 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 103 interference.20 therefore, the states’ ability to regulate the family unit is limited through case law.21 while there is broad protection of the family unit under national and international laws, the state still retains the right to intervene in familial matters where necessary and given the fact that this involves families, the judge has great discretion in that intervention. when parents cannot amicably agree on the basics of how to raise their children and present their dispute to a court the state intervenes through the judiciary. familial disputes are one of the areas that are most sensitive because of the personal nature of the family unit and broad range of rights afforded to parents in regard to their children. b. what role does the court system play in family disputes? in a court system, there are many ways that parties could come to a decision in regard to a family law matter. for example, if parents are involved in a custody dispute and cannot find an amicable settlement, the minnesota courts will intervene and provide a custody determination22 in the best interest of the minor child which is the legal standard laid out by the minnesota legislature to determine custody.23 the factors that are weighed in determining custody include: 1) “the wishes of the child's parent or parents as to custody; 2) the reasonable preference of the child, if the court deems the child to be of sufficient age to express preference; 3) the child’s primary caretaker; 4) the intimacy of the relationship between each parent and the child; 5) the interaction and interrelationship of the child with a parent or parents, siblings, and any other person who may significantly affect the child's best interests; 6) the child's adjustment to home, school, and community; 7) the length of time the child has lived in a stable, satisfactory environment and the desirability of maintaining continuity; 8) the permanence, as a family unit, of the existing or proposed custodial home; 9) the mental and physical health of all individuals involved; 20 thronson, supra, note 1 at 1174. 21 annette ruth appell, virtual mothers and the meaning of parenthood, 34 u.mich. j.l. reform 683, 688 (2001). 22 custody determination is defined as “ a court decision and court orders and instructions providing for the custody of a child, including parenting time, but does not includes a decision relating to child support or any other monetary obligation or services, domestic abuse and paternity.” see minn. stat. § 518.003 subdiv.3 (f) (2008). 23 see minn. stat § 518.17 subdiv.1 (2008). in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 99-111 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 104 10) the capacity and disposition of the parties to give the child love, affection, and guidance, and to continue educating and raising the child in the child's culture and religion or creed, if any; 11) the child's cultural background. (12) the effect on the child of the actions of an abuser, if related to domestic abuse, as defined in section 518b.01, that has occurred between the parents or between a parent and another individual, whether or not the individual alleged to have committed domestic abuse is or ever was a family or household member of the parent; and (13) except in cases in which a finding of domestic abuse as defined in section 518b.01 has been made, the disposition of each parent to encourage and permit frequent and continuing contact by the other parent with the child.”24 minn. stat. § 518.17 (2008). these factors that comprise the legal standard of the best interest of the child were created with the intent of being malleable when applied to each individual situation. therefore, if the parents are unable to agree on custody of the children the court will use the best interests of the child to determine which parent should have physical custody25 of the minor child and which parent should have legal custody26 or if the parents should share custody of the minor child. further, the courts will, in the event that parents cannot determine a parenting time schedule for the minor child or children, determine a schedule for the noncustodial parent to visit the child or children and will determine whether that parenting time should be supervised or unsupervised. this process wherein the court determines custody and parenting time for the parents is part of the process of litigation and would be determined in a court room setting at a bench trial in minnesota. thus, parental rights are protected unless it is necessary for the court to intervene.27 it is necessary for the court to intervene when the parties ask the court for assistance. b. alternative dispute resolution employed in courts there has been an increase in the demands placed on courts making it more difficult to resolve the vast number of disputes. the courts cannot continue to effectively respond to 24 id. 25 the physical custody and residence is defined as “ the routine daily care and control and the residence of the child.” see minn. stat. § 518.003 subdiv. 3 (2008). 26 legal custody is defined as “the right to determine the child’s upbringing including education, health care, and religious training.” see minn. stat. § 518.003 subdiv. 3 (a) (2008). 27 thronson, supra, note 1 at 1165. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 99-111 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 105 accelerating demands without alternatives.28 considering the (1) strains placed on court systems; (2) the uniquely personal nature of family law; and, (3) the serious implications for children and parents, many family courts have tools in place to attempt to settle matters and to avoid litigation.29 while litigation provides one possible solution to the problems facing a family, there are alternative methods that have been utilized by the parties. alternative dispute resolution (adr) is an umbrella term that encompasses a number of methods and practices for quickly resolving disputes.30 some examples of adr in the family court area include but are not limited to: mediation; initial case management conferences; early neutral evaluation (ene); and, collaborative law. mediation is a process that has been used for thousands of years in many different communities, families and governments.31 in the legal process mediation is a process that is voluntary where disputing parties have a neutral third party assist in coming to a settlement. although under minnesota law, the judge may require parties to attend mediation. while the parties may be required to attend, they are not required to come to a resolution. mediation is a confidential process32 and the mediator has no power to come to a resolution for the parties. in fact, the mediator is generally charged with extracting information from both parties and engaging in a dialogue. there are two different styles of mediation employed by different mediators given the circumstances and the mediator’s style.33 there is evaluative mediation, where the mediator renders an opinion in order to facilitate settlement and there is facilitative 28 frank e. a. sander, varieties of dispute processing, 70 f.r.d. in dispute resolution: beyond the adversarial model 79 (menkel-meadow, love, schneider & sternlight, ed., 2005). 29 this article addresses ways in which the court system handles disputes that have already occurred. however there is an acknowledgement that perhaps the best ways to avoid litigation would be a greater emphasis on alternative dispute resolution. 30 center for public resources, the abc’s of adr: a dispute resolution glossary in dispute resolution: beyond the adversarial model 42 (menkel-meadow, love, schneider & sternlight, ed., 2005). 31 carrie menkelmeadow, mediation: theory, practice and policy in dispute resolution: beyond the adversarial model (menkel-meadow, love, schneider & sternlight, ed., 2005). 32 this means that the parties may not use information discovered or procured through mediation in a later court action. the idea is to promote an open and honest conversation without the concern of creating future problems by disclosing information. 33 center for public resources, supra at 44. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 99-111 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 106 mediation where the mediator does not render an opinion on any issue but works to facilitate the parties coming to their own resolution of the issues.34 the concept is that if the parties come to a resolution on their own, then they have a greater probability of upholding that agreement and retaining a workable relationship. this is particularly important in family law because frequently the negotiation involves the children and it is important the parties are able to continue to communicate with one another as they co-parent their children. some of the advantages to mediation include avoiding litigation. litigation may be expensive, cause undue delay, create the risk of adjudication whereas mediation allows for the participants voices to be heard and allows for the generation of creative ideas to solve the problem. mediation can be a more holistic process because it creates a setting where part of the conflict and dispute may be addressing the underlying feelings behind it. initial case management conferences35 are the opportunity to sit down with the judicial officer assigned to the case. it allows the parties to tell the judge the contested issues within a case and it provides the opportunity for the judge to suggest a case go through an additional alternative dispute resolution process prior to litigation. early neutral evaluation (ene) is another tool that is frequently utilized in family court systems to procure a settlement from parties. in ene, a neutral evaluator, who may be a private attorney or may be a trained social worker holds a session with both parties early on in the dispute. the evaluator listens to both parties and obtains their perspectives on the issues at hand. the ene may have a specific focus depending on the situation. for example in a divorce, the ene may be focused toward financial issues, or the ene may be focused toward parenting and custody issues. the evaluator listens to the facts presented by the parties or by their attorneys and then identifies the weaknesses and strengths of the parties’ positions. further, the evaluator makes a recommendation based on the information that has been provided. the parties have the option of adopting the position of the evaluator or of continuing on to litigation. collaborative law is yet another process that provides for an alternative to litigation. in collaborative law the parties retain attorneys to represent their interest throughout the divorce process but agree that the case will not go to litigation. collaborative law may draw on professionals from a variety of different fields to assist the parties in coming to a solution to the dispute. some of the professional that may be drawn into the discussion include: mental health 34 murray s. levin, “the propriety of evaluative mediation: concerns about the nature and quality of an evaluative opinion,” in dispute resolution: beyond the adversarial model 53 (menkel-meadow, love, schneider & sternlight ed., 2005). 35 initial case management conferences are only used in counties that have a one case one judge policy. in many counties throughout minnesota each time the parties go to court there is a different judge. however, in a few counties the parties retain the same judge throughout the proceeding which allows the judge to become familiar with the facts of the case and to get to know the parties a little bit better. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 99-111 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 107 professionals; financial professionals; and, mediators who all work together to attempt to find a solution for the parties in the dispute.36 the concept is that the parties exchange their financial information so that each party has a well-informed decision. confidentiality is the cornerstone of the process so that each party can express their feelings and so that emotions can be addressed as well. finally, the parties authorize the attorneys to use the written parties’ agreement to obtain a final court decree. in the event that the parties decide to pursue litigation, the attorneys that they worked with throughout the collaborative law process are disqualified—therefore, there is a financial incentive for both parties to settle outside of the litigation process.37 in short, there are numerous tools that are available to potentially reach a settlement on issues within a dispute. mediation, initial case management, early neutral evaluation and collaborative law are just a few tools available to practitioners and clients who determine that litigation is not the right option based on the facts and circumstances of the case. iii. is there space for peace education in the legal profession? a. doesn’t a paradigm shift in practice require a paradigm shift in education? given the fact that there are so many different forms of alternative dispute resolution available to practitioners, legal education and lawyers have been far too single sighted in resolving disputes.38 “the work of the lawyer as a conflict resolver is to explore not only legal, but also other ends and interest of the parties (including economic, social, psychological, political, religious, moral and ethical concerns).”39 the shift from litigation to alternative dispute resolution requires attorneys to use different skill sets. litigation requires a strategizing hard-nosed approach so that the other side does not use bullying techniques. these newer forms of alternative dispute resolution may put attorneys in unfamiliar territory. with adr there is a shift in focus from the battle plan to win the case to a more collective—how can we solve the problem while i advocate for your rights? 36 steven s. yasgur, collaborative practice: non adversarial issue resolution, the hennepin lawyer, 14, 32 (may 2007). 37 collaborative practice: resolving disputes respectively, available at http://www.collaborativelaw.org/index.cfm/hurl/obj=aboutcollaborativelaw/aboutcollaborative law.cfm 38 sander, supra at 79. 39 carrie menkel-meadow, practicing “ in the interests of justice” in dispute resolution: beyond the adversarial model 53 (menkel-meadow, love, schneider & sternlight ed., 2005). in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 99-111 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 108 alternative dispute resolution requires a shift in mindset for the advocate. adr is a more collaborative style of solving a dispute and it is not successful if both attorneys are not able to make a paradigm shift from litigation to collaboration. the shift in family law practices by incorporating more alternative dispute resolution into the field begs the question—shouldn’t there be a shift in pedagogy to adequately prepare law students for this legal arena? b. what kind of teaching methods are utilied in law schools? most traditional legal education is structured in such a way that socratic dialogue is utilized. a typical class requires students to read numerous cases and brief the cases by providing the facts of the case, the procedural posture of the case, the analysis of the court and finally the decision rendered or rule of law. frequently professors use the technique of cold calling students rather than requesting participation. the theory is that this will prepare students for questions from the judge and require students to think on their feet. while this method does ensure preparedness by the vast majority of students, it also creates a culture of individualism in law schools rather than a culture of collaboration. one idea is to reach beyond the traditional bounds of legal pedagogy and to try different methods and tools to engage students in a different way. c. what is peace education? peace education is difficult to define because it is multi-disciplinary in nature. “peace education is the transmission of knowledge about requirement of, the obstacle to and possibilities for achieving and maintaining peace, training in skills for interpreting the knowledge, and the development of reflective and participatory capacities for applying the knowledge to overcoming problems and achieving possibilities.”40 although it is currently a marginalized field, it represents the culmination of subjects which all began independently across the world but has cohered into a study we now call peace education. while the polygenesis of the field makes it difficult to define, peace education is unanimous in its goals: a more humane, peaceful, caring and non-violent society. this is created through a transformation in the critical consciousness of society.41 peace education works toward that transformation by encompassing and focusing on the following disciplines: war prevention; non-violence; world order studies; nuclear education; comprehensive peace education; and, ecological and cooperative education.42although that sounds quite narrow in scope, there are many forms of education that fall under the umbrella of peace education. some of them include: international education; multicultural education; environmental education; human rights education; and conflict resolution education. regardless of the kind of peace education used, the discipline is founded on the belief that it is possible to 40 betty a. reardon, title, publication, 6 (1999). 41 betty a. reardon, comprehensive peace education, teachers college press, x (1988). 42 betty a. reardon, peace education: a review and projection, peace education reports, 17, 17 (1999). in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 99-111 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 109 stop the cyclical violence in society through education, and that education holds peace as the ideal.43 betty reardon, the founder of the field, defines peace as “possible when society agrees that the overarching purpose of public policies is the achievement and maintenance of mutually beneficial circumstances that enhance the life possibilities of all.”44 there are two categories that peace education can fit into: negative peace and positive peace. negative peace is defined as a “conceptual category encompassing research and education about wars, arms races and violent conflict.”45 this negative peace is instituted after the dispute or conflict and is implemented to resolved problems after they have occurred. on the other hand, positive peace is a proactive kind of peace education that works ahead of the conflict. in positive peace there is forethought in prevention of negative conflict. reardon provides a definition of positive peace as “the reduction or elimination of poverty, disease, illiteracy, marginalization and other conditions that lower the economic and material quality of life for the poor and oppressed of the world.”46 positive peace works toward upholding human rights standards—civil and political, economic and social. in order to enhance the possibilities of all and strive toward the aforementioned goals, there is a fundamental need for a universal respect for human rights. the concept of human rights is one of the most important components of peace education because it provides the concrete international standards that apply universally to all people. some of the documented standards include the universal declaration of human rights (udhr), the convention on the rights of the child (crc), and the convention on the elimination of discrimination against women (cedaw). the most important document is the udhr because it encompasses all people—regardless of race, sexual orientation or gender—and provides people with equitable rights for human dignity in the civil, political, economic and social capacities. aside from the concrete standards, peace education uses tools that are essential to creating a non-violent society. these tools are care, empathy, envisioning, gender awareness, holism, and conflict resolution. most peace educators believe in the introduction of comprehensive peace education which takes place at all levels through an interdisciplinary approach of formal education.47 43 betty a. reardon, comprehensive peace education, teachers college press, x (1988). 44 betty a. reardon, peace education: a review and projection, peace education reports, 5 (1999). 45 betty a. reardon, comprehensive peace education, teachers college press, 6 (1988). 46 id. at 6-7. 47 id. at xi. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 99-111 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 110 d. can peace education be used in the legal classroom? this conversation has already started amongst practioners within the family law field. while it has not been heralded as infusing peace education pedagogy into the legal classroom, the center principles described are the same in essence. in 2004 various professionals and family law professors came together to discuss how family law is practices and whether traditional legal education adequately fits the way in which schools prepare students to practice family law. family law education reform project (fler) determined that in fact one of the primary concerms was that family law teaching within law schools was not reflective of family law practice. fler set out three primary goals in their reform project including: (1) teaching law students about the interdisciplinary nature of family law; (2) emphasizing alternative dispute resolution processes and treating litigation as an alternative rather than the only way; and (3) continued grounding in the law with a greater focus on competence and skills.48 while each professor addresses the concept of family law in a different and unique way based on their own experiences and scholarly interests, the fler report indicates that certain basic “methodologies and content dominated but fail to capture the reality of contemporary family laws.49 most of family law is taught by analyzing case law that has reached some of the higher courts in the land, which lends itself to coloring students perceptions that family law is primarily litigation and not primarily settlement based.50 fler also indicates that the interdisciplinary nature of family law that draws professionals from the mental health field, parent educators, custody evaluators, parenting consultants, guardian ad litems as well as the multiplicity of processes available render a field that requires new pedagogical techniques.51 peace education provides a pedagogy that encompasses conflict resolution and takes an interdisciplinary approach to learning. by infusing peace education principles into legal education, a practitioner could better understand the human rights issues clients are facing and empathetically engage clients in restorative dialogue that may partially repair broken relationship such that people can more adeptly co-parent. 48 mary e. o’connell and j. herbie difonzo, the family law education reform project final report, 44 family court review, 524 525 (2006). 49 id. at 527. 50 id. at 528. 51 id. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 99-111 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 111 v. conclusion peace education is a holistic human rights based education that needs to be infused into the practice of law. by teaching legal professionals, in particular family law students, to work collaboratively, practice dialoging and teaching them to listen and engage professionals, law schools would better prepare future lawyers and serve future clients. infactispax_scherling_final_article[2] in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 64 volume 3 number 1 (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ international humanitarian law and human rights education: an exploration of differences and complementarity josefine scherling universitat klagenfurt, austria this article is meant as a small attempt to deal critically with humanitarian law within human rights education. after a quick glance at the nature of humanitarian law, its relation to human rights education will be discussed and possibilities for linking it to human rights education will be contemplated. the article’s intention is to initialize a discourse which, after further intensive analysis, should contribute to clarifying the relation between human rights education and education in humanitarian law. 1. short introduction of humanitarian law humanitarian law is part of international law. as a so-called lex specialis it determines the minimal standards for international and partially also domestic armed conflicts and is therefore also called ius in bello. it is applied in all cases of declared war as well as “any other armed conflict […], even if the state of war is not recognized by one of them”.1 article 3 describes the minimal standards that also apply in non-international conflicts. some of the clauses are also valid in times of peace, like the protection of the red cross symbol. humanitarian law includes – first – regulations for the protection of persons who are not or no longer partaking in the conflict and – second – limitations of means and methods of war. humanitarian law is concerned with the protection of human dignity in the extreme situation of war. its regulations are intended to limit violence in armed conflicts and to ease human suffering. 1 common article 2 of the four geneva conventions, 1949. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 65 humanitarian law holds absolute validity; none of its regulations may be overridden in times of its application. neither does the principle of reciprocity apply. this means that a party is obligated to uphold humanitarian law, even if the opposing party is acting in violation of its rules. the reasons for war are irrelevant in humanitarian law; it must be adhered to by all parties regardless of who started the hostile acts. due to the martens clause (named after fyodor martens 1899) there are no legal loop holes in humanitarian law: ”(...) civilians and combatants remain under the protection and authority of the principles of international law derived from established custom, from the principles of humanity and from the dictates of public conscience.”2 it is complemented by the international law of human rights. universal and most written humanitarian law can be traced back to two people: francis lieber and henry dunant. without being aware of the other, both simultaneously contributed considerably to the conception and content of today’s humanitarian law.3 in 1863, by assignment of the united states of america, francis lieber, a german-american lawyer, drafted the so-called “lieber-code,” a domestic decree for american soldiers during the american civil war. it was a first attempt to codify existing orders and customs of war. henry dunant is seen as the founding father of modern humanitarian law. by accident, he became witness of the immense dimensions of suffering on the battlefield of solferino in 1859. at that time, not even medical care existed for the wounded soldiers in the field. in his book “a memory of solferino” he offers two suggestions: the first concerned the creation of private organizations to tend to the wounded soldiers, the second envisioned an international treaty declaring medical aid for the wounded a neutral enterprise and effectively protecting medical personnel. his first suggestion led to the founding of the international committee of the red cross in 1863; the second brought about the drafting of the first geneva convention in 1864 and thus represents one of the foundations of modern international law.4 the main instruments of humanitarian law are the four geneva conventions 1949 together with their additional protocols from 1977 and 2007. content-wise, these four conventions encompass the “amelioration of the condition of the wounded and sick in armed forces in the field” (1.), the “amelioration of the condition of wounded, sick and shipwrecked members of armed forces at sea” (2.), the “treatment of prisoners of war” (3.), and the “protection of civilian persons in time of war” (4.). the two additional protocols formulate in detail protective provisions for international (1st additional protocol) and non-international (2nd additional protocol) armed conflicts. the 3rd additional protocol 2007 introduces a new symbol of protection – the red crystal – which is equal to the red cross and the 2 international committee of the red cross, humanitarian law: answers to your questions (genf: 2002), 7. 3 cf. hans-peter gasser, „das humanitäre völkerrecht,“ in menschlichkeit für alle – die weltbewegung des roten kreuzes und des roten halbmonds, ed. hans haug, hans-peter gasser and francoise perret (bern: haupt verlag, 1991), 5. 4 cf. hans-peter gasser, humanitäres völkerrecht – eine einführung (zürich/basel/genf: schulthess juristische medien ag und nomos verlagsgesellschaft, 2007), 36. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 66 red crescent. it was devised as a neutral emblem that leaves no room for religious interpretations. humanitarian law has universal validity. the four geneva conventions have been signed and ratified by 194 states as of 2009. like human rights law, humanitarian law is not static; it is constantly being developed. it must respond to new challenges that originate from the “new wars.” some recent developments that humanitarian law has undergone were through the treaty of ottawa in 1999, which banned anti-personnel-mines, through the treaty of oslo in 2008 with its regulations concerning cluster munitions, and through the montreux document in 2008 which covers the issue of the role of private security organizations and military organizations, but which does not constitute a binding document. 2. purpose the question here is not one of the legitimacy of humanitarian law or of human rights in education, for the proliferation of both is mandated by international law. the mandate to propagate all human rights can be found in the universal declaration of human rights, which reads, whereas common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge, now, therefore, the general assembly proclaims this universal declaration of human rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of member states themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.5 the duty of states, to proliferate humanitarian law is asserted in all four geneva conventions and in both additional protocols from 1977. article 47 of the first geneva convention formulates this mission thus: the high contracting parties undertake, in time of peace as in time of war, to disseminate the text of the present convention as widely as possible in their respective countries, and, if possible, civil instruction, so that the principles thereof may become known to the entire population, in particular to the armed fighting forces, the medical personnel and the chaplains. this resolute call for proliferation of understanding demonstrates the importance of the awareness of these rights for society and the basic education of each individual, while at the same time it appeals to the responsibility of instances of the state to carry out this mission accordingly. 5 preamble of the universal declaration of human rights (1948). in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 67 the purpose of this article is not to emphasize the bigger relevance of the one or other rule of international law; the question that will be discussed here is, in what form the proliferation of human rights and humanitarian law, especially of the latter, should be carried out, which is still little known among the population. as guardian and promoter of humanitarian law, the red cross is particularly endeavoring to close this educational gap and to raise awareness on humanitarian law. should proliferation efforts focus on presenting humanitarian law as a fullfledged part of human rights education to be taught accordingly, or should they try to establish humanitarian law as an independent field of education? 3. starting point for a critical analysis in their final document, which was drafted during the international congress on the teaching of human rights in vienna in 1978, the unesco unmistakably defined humanitarian law as a part of human rights education. it states: “considering that the teaching of human rights should also be concerned with securing the observance of human rights in cases of armed conflict, and should include the teaching of international humanitarian law, […].”6 the first reaction would probably be to completely agree with this statement by saying, “of course humanitarian law is part of human rights education! after all, it is about people’s rights and the preservation of human dignity in armed conflicts. they must be protected. in human history, there will always be wars, which is why it is so important to let the teaching of humanitarian law enter human rights education in order to be able to perceive and demand the human-rights dimension even in such extreme situations.” however, if we contemplate what an integration of humanitarian law into human rights education would entail, the answer is no longer that clear. the differences and commonalities are so entangled that it is difficult to take a clear stand. the whole issue of armed conflicts lies in a triangular tension between humanitarian law, prohibition against violence and human rights.7 (the actual goal of international law is to create and maintain an order based on peace, justice and the realization of human rights. in certain situations, however, the use of military force is permitted. regulations pertaining to the legitimate use of force are recorded in the united nations charter of 1945, in which an international military use of force is only permitted, first, in the case of a state’s right of self-defense and, second, as a forceful means “to maintain and restore international peace and security”, based on a resolution of the un security council.8) this tension in the relations between humanitarian law and human rights naturally also affects the relation of the education of these two concepts towards one another. 6 unesco, „international congress on the teaching of human rights, vienna, austria, 1978,“ unesco.org, http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.phpurl_id=1686&url_do=do_topic&url_section=201.html. 7 cf. daniel thürer, „kriegerische gewalt und rule of law,“ in humanitäres völkerrecht – eine einführung, ed. hans-peter gasser ((zürich/basel/genf: schulthess juristische medien ag und nomos verlagsgesellschaft, 2007), 4. 8 cf. charter of the united nations, chapter vii (action with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace and acts of aggression) (1945). in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 68 4. common goals? it must be reasserted that human rights and humanitarian law are two different kinds of international law; though they are interconnected and sometimes cover the same areas, they must still be systematically distinguished.9 a clear distinction is necessary in order to retain a clear image of the respective law with its intentions and goals as well as in order to uphold its autonomy and to communicate it to the people. otherwise, the term would run the danger of ambiguity. only a detailed knowledge of the purpose of these two laws can show that an unreflected mingling of humanitarian law and human rights law would considerably lessen the acceptance and, as a consequence, the effectiveness and strength of both international laws as important instruments for the preservation of human dignity under different circumstances and with different means. after all, their purpose is the subject of education on these laws. if, however, they do not completely correspond, how can humanitarian law be a full-fledged part of human rights education? that way, human rights education would end up as an education of contradictions that causes confusion instead of clarity, and which paralyzes instead of motivating action. 4.1 aims of the law of human rights vs. aims of humanitarian law while both laws pursue the goal of protecting human dignity, they do so under different circumstances and with different means. humanitarian law was particularly created for protection in times of armed conflict. with its regulations it attempts to set limits to violence in the extreme situation of war and thus to prevent, the “degeneration of humankind into complete savagery” [my translation].10 the main goal is thus to limit the negative effects of war. suffering in war cannot be completely eliminated, but it can be alleviated by upholding the rules. humanitarian law is in a constant state of tension between military needs and humanitarian elements, which leads to profound ethical dilemmas. it has no place for asking for the meaning, or the reasons, or the prevention of war. it is a lex specialis that was developed exactly for such situations of war. this is why it consists of regulations which only apply in times of war. the prior goal of human rights, too, is to preserve human dignity. human rights were created “to protect the dignity of humans […] from the threat of disregard by granting all humans the same liberty rights” [my translation].11 the 9 manfred nowak, einführung in das internationale menschenrechtssystem (wien/graz: neuer wissenschaftlicher verlag, 2002), 50. 10 „abgleiten der menschheit in die absolute barbarei“ hans-peter gasser, „das humanitäre völkerrecht,“ in menschlichkeit für alle – die weltbewegung des roten kreuzes und des roten halbmonds, ed. hans haug, hans-peter gasser and francoise perret (bern: haupt verlag, 1991), 4. 11 „die würde des menschen [...] vor drohender missachtung zu schützen, dass allen menschen gleiche freiheitsrechte garantiert werden“ heiner bielefeldt, „die würde als maßstab – philosophische überlegungen zur menschenrechtsbildung,“ in menschenrechtsbildung, bilanz und perspektiven, ed. claudia mahler and anja mihr (wiesbaden: vs verlag, 2004), 24. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 69 objectives formulated in the preamble of the universal declaration of human rights show that the observance of human rights should result in liberty, justice and peace as well as social progress and improved living conditions. it describes a world in which people can experience freedom of speech and faith and freedom from fear and need as the highest aspiration of humankind. human rights bear within them an altering, revolutionary force which does not content itself with the status quo, but wants to track down acts against fundamental freedoms and human rights and to change it into acts in accordance with human rights that serve the “protection and guarantee of elemental interests of life, of basic freedoms and elemental political opportunities of participation” [my translation].12 it is obvious that the regulations of humanitarian law cannot refer to these goals directly. war is a symbol of fear, hardship and restriction of liberties and it will remain so despite humanitarian law. ”oh, happiness is a warm gun ... reality killed life, deleted memories and put romance into dark alleys, between houses without light.“ [my translation]13 it is not the purpose of humanitarian law to include regulations for times of peace. this is the essential purpose of human rights law, which, in these times, once again reclaims its original meaning and might as a universal system of values. humanitarian law was not conceived for an ideal world of peace. the usefulness of humanitarian law ends as soon as military conflict has come to an end and the humanitarian problems have been solved. prisoners of war are protected by the 3rd geneva convention “until their final release and repatriation“.14 peace and social progress, in the way that human rights envision and pursue them, are only a part of considerations in humanitarian law in that by complying with the regulations of humanitarian law a normal life in peace becomes possible more quickly after an armed conflict has ended because, for example, hospitals and schools have been saved from destruction, families were reunited etc. 4.2 aims in education these differing aims are also reflected in the content of the respective education. the un describes human rights education accordingly, [...] as education, training and information aiming at building a universal culture of human rights through the sharing of knowledge, imparting of skills and moulding of attitudes directed to: a) the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms; 12 „schutz und der garantie von elementaren lebensinteressen, basalen freiheiten und elementaren politischen partizipationschancen“ georg lohmann and arnd pollmann, „menschenrechte,“ in handbuch der politischen philosophie und sozialphilosophie, band 1, ed. stefan gosepath, wilfrid hinsch and beate rössler (berlin: walter de gryter, 2008), 806. 13„oh, happiness is a warm gun ... die wirklichkeit tötete das leben, löschte die erinnerungen aus und stellte die romantik in düstere gassen, zwischen häuser ohne licht.“ maruša krese, alle meine kriege. happiness is a warm gun (graz: leykam, 2006), 9. 14 article 5 of the 3rd geneva conventions (1949) in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 70 b) the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity; c) the promotion of understanding, tolerance, gender equality and friendship among all nations, indigenous peoples and racial, national, ethnic, religious and linguistic groups; d) the enabling of all persons to participate effectively in a free and democratic society governed by the rule of law; e) the building and maintenance of peace; f) the promotion of people-centered sustainable development and social justice.15 human rights education, thus, should serve as a contribution to the preservation of peace, to continuity, social order, and to combating of behavior and attitudes that disturb social order.16 the vienna world conference on human rights in 1993 ”[...] considers human rights education […] essential for the promotion and achievement of stable and harmonious relations among communities and for fostering mutual understanding, tolerance and peace.”17 human rights education with its peace-pedagogical claim wants to assist with its commitment in the creation of a world without violence, in the sense of a process “of promoting knowledge, skills, attitudes and values needed to bring about behaviour changes that will enable children, youth and adults to prevent conflict and violence, both overt and structural; to resolve conflict peacefully; and to create the conditions conducive to peace, whether at an intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergroup, national or international level.”18 in human rights education questions about the meaning and the origins of wars are discussed, war as a means for problem solving is questioned, strategies for solving conflicts nonviolently are developed, and a world is aspired to in which humanitarian law becomes an unused law. utopias are developed and all steps are taken to the realization of these goals. sobhi tawil, the leader of the project “discover humanitarian law” of the international red cross from 1999 to 2001 makes clear that education in humanitarian law only indirectly pursues peace as its goal. “[it] is not explicitly about peace, tolerance, mutual understanding, violence prevention or conflict resolution; it is about the ethical issues related to the shared human experience of armed conflict.”19 and he continues: “although education for young people in humanitarian law is not explicitly about conflict prevention, and even less about conflict resolution, it definitely helps to create conditions conducive to peace. in 15 unesco, plan of action. world programme for human rights education (new york/ genf: 2006), 12. 16 cf. nancy flowers, „how to define human rights education? – a complex answer to a simple question,“ in international perspectives in human rights education, ed. viola b. georgi and michael seberich (gütersloh: bertelsmann foundation publishers, 2004), 108. 17 a/conf.157/23 (12.07.1993): world conference on human rights: vienna declaration and programme of action, paragraph 78. 18 unicef, „peace education in unicef,“ working paper series, education sector (new york: 1999), i. 19 sohbi tawil, „international humanitarian law and basic education,“ interantional review of the red cross no. 839 (2000): 4. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 71 situations of acute social and political tension […] education in humanitarian law may have a potential indirect pacifying effect.” 20 education in humanitarian law focuses on humanitarian issues that derive from times of armed conflict, and for that context attempts to develop understanding and readiness to act. the focus is on the question: “how can human dignity be best protected in times of armed conflict?” the aim is to propagate the principle of humaneness through the regulations of humanitarian law. an important concern of education in humanitarian law lies in limiting and preventing violations of humanitarian law and with it, of the inner core of human rights. thus, tawil formulates the goals of humanitarian law: awareness of limits and of various forms of protection applicable to situations of armed conflict; understanding of the multiple aspects of international humanitarian law, of the complexity of its application, and of humanitarian issues; interest in international current events and humanitarian action; capacity to view conflict situations at home and abroad from a humanitarian perspective; active involvement in community service or other forms of mobilization to protect and promote humanitarian attitudes.21 the search for origins and reasons for conflicts of this kind are deliberately excluded, since they are not an issue in humanitarian law. the importance of education in humanitarian law, according to tawil, is based on three observations: the first is that the tendency of armed conflicts around the world to multiply and change in nature does not seem to be abating. secondly, it is becoming ever more difficult to distinguish between armed conflict and non-conflict settings, as all societies appear to be increasingly prone to various forms of violence. […] finally, young people are increasingly exposed to greater media coverage of these different forms of violence, and are more and more affected by and involved in both urban violence and armed conflict.22 education in humanitarian law must adhere to these observations because such violent situations are closely related to the application of humanitarian law. while human rights essentially apply to all people at all times and under any circumstances, humanitarian law was exclusively conceived only for times of armed conflict. human rights are more or less only used to fill gaps in legal protection.23 the provisions of this section are additional to the rules concerning humanitarian protection of civilians and civilian objects in the power of a party to the conflict contained in the fourth convention, […], as well as to 20 ibid., 4. 21 ibid., 4. 22 ibid., 3. 23 cf. hans-peter gasser, humanitäres völkerrecht – eine einführung (zürich/basel/genf: schulthess juristische medien ag und nomos verlagsgesellschaft, 2007), 28-9. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 72 other applicable rules of international law relating to the protection of fundamental human rights during international armed conflict.24 bernhard schäfer sees the mutual relation of these two legal areas towards one another in the “interpretation of not closely defined terms of humanitarian law”25 [my translation]. to give an example, he refers to the “guarantees of rights which are seen as indispensable” [my translation]26 in humanitarian law, which are more closely defined by the human-rights-guarantees for procedural fairness in law (international covenant on civil and political rights, art. 14), or the prohibition of torture, which is strengthened by the regulations of the convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (art.1, par.1).27 the conventions for the protection of human rights are poorly prepared for domestic violent situations that do not cross the threshold of an armed conflict subject to humanitarian law. „for example, they do not mention under which circumstances and in what ways public authorities may use force.” [my translation]28 for this reason, limits for the containment of violence are not present in human rights documents.29 herein lies the great importance of humanitarian law; it is its goal to set limits to violence in armed conflicts, that is what it was developed for. as a lex specialis it essentially has priority over human-rights-regulations in international armed conflicts.30 the difficulty lies in defining exactly at what point a conflict has reached the size and strength so that humanitarian law applies to fill the gap in the regulation structure of human rights. the attribute of the always valid human rights can, on closer scrutiny, only be awarded to some of them, for within some of the human rights documents there is actually an emergency clause which, under certain conditions, permits the overriding of several human rights. the so-called inner core of human rights is exempted from this rule; it is absolute. the rights that cannot be overridden include: prohibition of discrimination based an race, colour, sex or religion, the right to life, prohibition of torture, the prohibition of cruel treatment, prohibition of humiliating or degrading treatment, prohibition of slavery, prohibition of retroactive application of the law. these are regulations that the human rights law shares with humanitarian law. at this point and in the common documents like the convention on the rights of the child, the optional protocol on the participation of children in armed conflict, 24 article 72 of the 1st additional protocol (1977). 25 „auslegung allgemeiner, nicht näher bestimmter begriffe im humanitären völkerrecht“ bernhard schäfer, „zum verhältnis von menschenrechten und humanitärem völkerrecht,“ in menschenrechtseinbindung bei auslandseinsätzen deutscher streitkräfte, expertengespräch, menschenrechtszentrum potsdam, ed. norman weiß (2006), 7 26 „’als unerlässlich anerkannten rechtsgarantien’“ ibid, 7. 27 cf. ibid., 7. 28 „sie sagen z.b. nichts aus zur frage, unter welchen umständen und in welcher art und weise die staatlichen behörden gewalt anwenden dürfen.“ hans-peter gasser, humanitäres völkerrecht – eine einführung (zürich/basel/genf: schulthess juristische medien ag und nomos verlagsgesellschaft, 2007), 30. 29 cf. ibid., 30. 30 cf. ibid., 28-9. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 73 the rome statute of the international criminal court, the close relation between these two legal areas becomes clearly visible – they complement one another in times of armed conflict. of special importance is their interplay in cases of domestic conflicts, because conflicts have to reach a certain intensity for humanitarian law to be applied. 5. images of hope – with or without boundaries through a series of ethical explorations relating to the common human experience of armed conflict, education in humanitarian law is an important contribution to positive attitudinal change fostered by ideas such as respect for life and human dignity, civic responsibility, and solidarity.31 humanitarian law seeks to turn the looking other way from the suffering of others into a perception of it and into an active commitment to alleviate this suffering. it appeals to the responsibility of each individual to let themselves be touched by the face of the other. by attempting to ease suffering, it takes up the element of hope and tries to bring light into the darkness of war. this light, however, will always be connected and fueled by war and its cruelty. the light that human rights education should convey must go beyond this. human rights education has its goal in a world without war. it is working towards the elimination of war as a means to carry out or solve conflicts. human rights education acts according to the motto: “the human being is capable of peace, otherwise it wouldn’t exist” [my translation]32, and builds its concept on the basis of a person that is willing to both learn and evolve, whom it leads on the way to becoming real human. this “utopia of peace with a claim to reality” the un pledges itself to in its aims where we read, “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and […] to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security.”33 the basis of this pledge is a holistic image of humankind, which is free of prejudice and political or economic interests that are accompanied by hatred and violence.34 this is why the efforts of human rights education are focused on seeing “behind the secrets of violence” to demystify violence and war. [my translation]35 humanitarian law, on the other hand, communicates the image of a hopeless and incorrigible humankind that has always been waging war and will continue to do so. war, in humanitarian law’s view, will always be part of humankind. “who 31 sohbi tawil, „international humanitarian law and basic education,“ international review of the red cross no. 839 (2000): 3. 32 „der mensch ist zum frieden fähig, sonst gäbe es ihn nicht.“ werner wintersteiner, pädagogik des anderen. bausteine für eine friedenspädagogik in der postmoderne (münster: agenda verlag, 2000), 162. 33 charta of the united nations, preamble (1945). 34 cf. benedict xvi, the human person, the heart of peace. message for the celebration of the world day of peace (2007). 35 „hinter das geheimnis der gewalt“, „die gewalt und den krieg zu entmystifizieren“ werner wintersteiner, pädagogik des anderen. bausteine für eine friedenspädagogik in der postmoderne (münster: agenda verlag, 2000), 118. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 74 believes today that war can be abolished? no one, not even pacifists. we hope only (so far in vain) to stop genocide and to bring to justice those who commit gross violations of the laws of war (for there are laws of war, to which combatants should be held) […].”36 humankind has not learned its lesson from history; on the contrary, it develops ever more cruel methods for waging war, and weapon systems to which humanitarian law must respond. it is the bitter burden of war that humankind is carrying and from which there is seemingly no escape. through its regulations, humanitarian law attempts to tame the culture of violence, but it does not try to transform it into a culture of peace. this transformation is the fundamental mission of human rights laws. humanitarian law focuses in on the realities of war and attempts to “improve” them as far as possible, which does not mean that it does not call for a universal prohibition of war. at the very beginning of the preamble to the first additional protocol it states, the high contracting parties, proclaiming their earnest wish to see peace prevail among peoples, recalling that every state has the duty, in conformity with the charta of the united nations, to refrain in its international relations from the threat or use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the united nations, believing it necessary nevertheless to reaffirm and develop the provisions protecting the victims of armed conflicts and to supplement measures intended to reinforce their application, […].37 6. „communication problems“ in practical communication the systematic differences of these two legal areas become very clear. lubell describes his experiences thus: anyone who has been involved in teaching ihl to human rights professionals or speaking of human rights law with military personnel is aware of the acute difficulties that at times make it seem like speaking dutch to the chinese or vice versa. a military officer schooled in the rules determining whom he has licence to target might find discussion of „a right to life“ slightly vexing. a human rights professional is often equally baffled by the definition of a military objective. communication breakdown in theses situations can be rapid.38 what is interesting is the comparison that lubell undertakes afterwards when he compares the two laws to two distinct languages. “the difference between languages includes not only words and terms, but encapsulates conceptual differences that can lead to contrasting ways of thinking and differing approaches to situations“.39 36 susan sontag, regarding the pain of others (new york: picador, 2003), 5. 37 preamble, 1st additional protocol (1977). 38 noam lubell, „challenges in applying human rights law to armed conflict,“ international review of the red cross, vol. 87, no. 860 (2005): 744-5. 39 ibid., 745. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 75 sometimes, one term can be translated, while others only exist in one of the two ‘languages’, and are thus not translatable. as an example lubell mentions the term „military objective“ and says, “such terms must be explained and taught in their native form”.40 it becomes problematic when some terms exist in both ‘languages’ but have different denotations, like the principle of proportionality: in both of them it denotes a balancing relationship: x in relation to y. in substance, however, it is not always the same and can indeed cause confusion. for example, under human rights law and the rules of law enforcement, when a state agent is using force against an individual, the proportionality principle measures that force in an assessment that includes the effect on the individual himself, leading to a need to use the smallest amount of force necessary and restricting the use of lethal force. under ihl, on the other hand, if the individual is for instance a combatant who can be lawfully targeted, then the proportionality principle focuses on the effect upon surrounding people and objects, rather than upon the targeted individual, against whom it might be lawful to use lethal force as a first recourse.41 therefore, it is essential to make clear which of the two ‘languages’ is being used and not to conflate them. this is the only way that misunderstandings can be prevented which lead to reactions like: “it is not good trying to see something human in war.” 7. closing thoughts in order to reach a decision concerning how to position humanitarian law inside human rights education, human rights education as well as education in humanitarian law have to be seen in their entirety of goals, contents, principles etc. were they to be propagated under the one roof of human rights education, both types of international law would lose value and substance, because contents and principles would become intermingled by unclear, ambiguous definitions of terms. additionally, humanitarian law as a part of human rights education would never be able to gain the attention and importance that it would have through an education on its own. in dealing with humanitarian law, the question for the meaning of war surfaces frequently. why do they have to exist? why do we not put more energy into work of peace pedagogy? if there is no clear distinction between the actual contents of humanitarian law and similar issues, there is the danger that humanitarian law might be called into question, to even misunderstand it as a justification for war and thus to lessen its importance. however, the preamble of the 1st additional protocol clearly indicates that humanitarian law by no means justifies war: “expressing their conviction that nothing in this protocol or in the geneva conventions … can be construed as legitimizing or authorizing any act of aggression or any other use of force inconsistent with the charter of the united nations, […].”42 human rights, then, would lose their power as a peace-creating force by being mixed with 40 ibid., 745. 41 ibid., 745-746. 42 preamble of the 1st additional protocol (1977). in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 76 humanitarian law, because the latter has a strong focus on acts of war, when many of the human rights can be suspended. a clear distinction between them is essential so that the importance and power of human rights in their entirety are not diminished. war as an extreme exception to carrying out conflicts must not weaken the image of indivisible human rights. present human suffering can be overcome and future suffering prevented by adhering to human rights in their wholeness. human rights education must convey an image of strong human rights, an image that depicts human rights as an effective instrument against feelings of helplessness and for the blossoming of hope with respect to a world of peace. human rights education does not content itself with war as a part of reality and normality, and it does not see war as “an event that happens inevitably like a natural catastrophe” [my translation].43 how, then, could a mutually fruitful working relation between humanitarian law and human rights education look like? what is important is that they are perceived as two distinct areas which, through their common contents, should strive for cooperation, while each international law is being treated with denotational correctness. humanitarian law can serve as a valuable bridge and supplement to human rights education: its intense preoccupation with the cruelties of war and their devastating consequences for individuals and for the whole of humankind shows an urgent need for a stronger work in peace pedagogy, for development of concepts of a future without war, and for the observation of all human rights in their completeness. the preoccupation with humanitarian law shows us very vividly the necessity of adhering to human rights as universal, indivisible and mutually complementing rights. the work of humanitarian law can, in a way, pave the way for a mobilization towards an active human rights culture. 43 „ereignis, das mit der unvermeidlichkeit einer naturkatastrophe kommt” werner wintersteiner, pädagogik des anderen. bausteine für eine friedenspädagogik in der postmoderne (münster: agenda verlag, 2000), 118. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 77 references auswärtiges amt, deutsches rotes kreuz, bundesministerium der verteidigung (ed.). dokumente zum humanitären völkerrecht/ documents on international humanitarian law. st augustin: academia verlag, 2006. benedict xvi. “the human person, the heart of peace. message for the celebration of the world day of peace 2007.” vatican: the holy see. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/peace/documents/hf_benxvi_mes_20061208_xl-world-day-peace_en.html. bielefeldt, heiner. „die würde als maßstab. philosophische überlegungen zur menschenrechtsbildung.“ in menschenrechtsbildung, bilanz und perspektiven, edited by claudia mahler and anja mihr, 19-27. wiesbaden: vs verlag, 2004. „charter of the united nations, 1945.“ http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/index.shtml. flowers, nancy. “how to define human rights education? a complex answer to a simple question.” in international perspectives in human rights education, edited by viola b. georgi and michael seberich, 105-127. gütersloh: bertelsmann foundation publishers, 2004. gasser, hans-peter. humanitäres völkerrecht. eine einführung. zürich/basel/genf: schulthess juristische medien ag und nomos verlagsgesellschaft, 2007. gasser, hans-peter. „das humanitäre völkerrecht.“ in menschlichkeit für alle, die weltbewegung des roten kreuzes und des roten halbmonds. edited by hans haug, hans-peter gasser and francoise perret. bern: haupt verlag, 1991. hampson, francoise j.. “the relationship between international humanitarian law and human rights law from the perspective of a human rights treaty body.” international review of the red cross, 90, no. 871 (september, 2008), http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/review-871-p549/$file/irrc-871hampson.pdf. heintze, hans-joachim. “on the relationship between human rights law protection and international humanitarian law.” international review of the red cross 86, no. 856 (december, 2004), http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/692eua/$file/irrc_856_heintze.p df. krese, maruša. alle meine kriege. happiness is a warm gun. graz: leykam, 2006. lohmann, georg and arnd pollmann. “menschenrechte.“ in handbuch der politischen philosophie und sozialphilosophie, band 1, edited by stefan gosepath, wilfrid hinsch and beate rössler, 806-813. berlin: walter de gryter, 2008. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 78 lubell, noam. “challenges in applying human rights law to armed conflict.” international review of the red cross, 87, no. 860 (december, 2005), http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/review-860p737/$file/irrc_860_lubell.pdf. novak, manfred. einführung in das internationale menschenrechtssystem. wien/graz 2002: neuer wissenschaftlicher verlag, 2002. international committee of the red cross. humanitarian law: answers to your questions. genf: 2002, http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/p0703/$file/icrc_002_0703.pdf !open. international committee of the red cross (advisory service on international humanitarian law). “international humanitarian law and international human rights law. similarities and differences.” fact sheet (january, 2003), http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/57jr8l/$file/ihl_and_ihrl.pdf. international committee of the red cross (advisory service on international humanitarian law). “what is international humanitarian law?” fact sheet (july, 2004), http://www.ehl.icrc.org/images/resources/pdf/what_is_ihl.pdf. schäfer, bernhard. „zum verhältnis von menschenrechten und humanitärem völkerrecht.“ in menschenrechtseinbindung bei auslandseinsätzen deutscher streitkräfte, expertengespräch, edited by norman weiß, 5 – 8. potsdam: universitätsverlag potsdam, 2006, http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2006/1047/pdf/menschenrechtsbindung_final.pdf. sontag, susan. regarding the pain of others. new york: picador, 2003. tawil, sobhi. “international humanitarian law and basic education.” international review of the red cross, no. 839 (september 30, 2000), http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/57jqq4. thürer, daniel. „kriegerische gewalt und rule of law.“ in humanitäres völkerrecht. eine einführung, edited by hans-peter gasser, 1-15. zürich/basel/genf: schulthess juristische medien ag und nomos verlagsgesellschaft, 2007. un-document: a/conf.157/23 (12.07.1993): world conference on human rights: vienna declaration and programme of action. unesco. plan of action. world programme for human rights education. first phase, new york/genf: 2006. unesco. “final document – international congress on the teaching of human rights, vienna, austria, 1978.” unesco.org. http://portal.unesco.org/shs/en/ev.phpurl_id=1686&url_do=do_topic&url_section=201.html. in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 64-79 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 79 unicef. “peace education in unicef.” working paper series, education sector, new york: 1999, http://www.unicef.org/girlseducation/files/peaceeducation.pdf. wintersteiner, werner. pädagogik des anderen. bausteine für eine friedenspädagogik in der postmoderne. münster: agenda verlag, 2000. andy on the powers of writing   in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   29     volume 3 number 1 (2009): 29-45 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ on the power(s) of writing: what writing studies can offer to peace and human rights educators andrew moss california state polytechnic university, pomona aimoss@csupomona.edu for many – if not most – peace and human rights educators, writing is an indispensable part of being a change agent. as an instrument for reflection, communication, and persuasion, writing is a daily site of encounter between one’s loftiest goals and the particulars of one’s own life. the encounter may take many forms: reports, applications, proposals, scholarly articles and books, blogs, e-mails, websites, social network entries – even the daily “to do” list with its hierarchy of values embedded in the order of jotted items. for educators working within formal settings, there are the additional genres that powerfully define the quality of a learning environment: the syllabus, the written assignment, the power point presentation and lecture notes, the comments on students’ written work. each in its own way, these forms and genres sustain the inquiry and critical thinking needed to transform violent, unjust social orders into cultures of peace, human rights and dignity. with this perspective in mind, i’d like to suggest a “widening of the conversation” in the fields of peace and human rights education, offering the work of writing scholars and researchers from the past forty years as resources that can enhance our roles as writers, educators, and agents of change. by way of personal disclosure, i’d like to mention that my own history as teacher of   in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   30   writing and rhetoric has been deeply influenced by the profound developments in the field of writing studies over the past several decades. ever since i faced my first freshman composition class as a teaching assistant in 1971, i knew i wanted to devote a good part of my career to helping people improve their writing and to find gratification in the difficult, rewarding processes of making meaning in written language. and i was fortunate to enter the profession at a time when new insights were emerging into the nature of the composing process and the broader contexts in which writing occurs. but i don’t wish to burden you with a bibliographic essay on the development of composition studies over the past forty years. rather, my intent is to highlight certain findings and perspectives that have helped writers become more reflective, resourceful, and imaginative in composing texts. in particular, i’ll touch on four areas that may be of greatest interest to fellow peace educators and students: the writing process; the concept of audience; the uses of “mixed” discourse and narrative; and two key concepts in literacy studies – the extracurriculum and literacy sponsorship. from writer’s block to “writing as becoming” in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, writing researchers began asking a new set of questions: not just “what makes writing good?” or “”what makes writing good in this or that context?” but, “how do experienced and novice writers compose texts differently?” or, what kinds of cognitive problem-solving do writers bring to the composing and revising processes?” other questions dealt with the origins and cures of writer’s block, with the relationships between writing and learning, and with the effects of instructors’ comments on students’ written work. new research methods were devised or adapted to explore writers’ processes as they engaged in the act of composing. and the results of this result poured out in a stream of articles and books with titles like “writing as a mode of learning,” “teach writing as a process not product,” “revision strategies of student writers and experienced adult writers,” and writer’s block: the cognitive dimension. the research led to new classroom practices, not only in composition classes but across the curriculum: assigning papers in multiple drafts, not simply as final versions; encouraging students to talk about their composing processes and to see multidraft writing as a good thing, not a sign of deficiency; and the use of various kinds of freewriting and journal writing. these last two items – freewriting and journal writing – may perhaps be the most useful results of the process movement for peace educators, not only for our own work as writers but for our work with students. the technique of freewriting actually grew out of one man’s struggle with writer’s block. the case was so severe, in fact, that this particular man, peter elbow, dropped out of a phd program in literature at harvard in the mid-1950’s because of it. his frustration and sense of failure led him on a lengthy quest to rediscover himself as a writer, and in the course of his personal journey he eventually became an influential author and teacher in the field of composition studies. one of the practices that elbow developed, the technique of “freewriting,” simply involves writing for a specified period without stopping and without   in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   31   judging. i have used this technique for many years as a way of “getting going” as a writer, and i introduce it to all my students: in my writing classes, in my nonviolence studies classes, and in other courses i teach. i begin by distributing and reading aloud a brief excerpt from a freewrite that elbow himself composed as a tool for developing an article for publication, and i include a part of this excerpt below to illustrate three concepts: i’ve got to get going. how late can i get? i’ve got to get going. where to start. i did have an idea for a structure. first pragmatic reasons and arguments: fw [freewriting] gets you going, gets you the main thing you need – words on the page – the end of a blank sheet – getting going. (it didn’t seem to succeed in making me start on time, however.). second. second. what was it? something medium – yes, now i remember, voice. it gets a voice into the language. makes the language be alive, not dead. makes it so that readers feel some energy or some life in the language. careful writing is so often dead and horrible to read. what i like to say: i’ve never met a piece of freewriting i couldn’t understand – and i’ve met lots of careful writing that i couldn’t understand. though understanding is not the same as life. but i care so much about both. but voice is the theoretical issue that’s closest to my life. there’s something so pleasing about reading words on a page where you hear a sound come up off the paper; where you sense there’s someone home inside there – where you knock it and it gives off a solid sound; where you can hear a bit of the drama of the mind at work. (a crucial distinction: the difference between words that are the record of a mind having been at work – the summary of past action; vs. words that are the dramatization or enactment of a mind at work [in the present]. of course there’s a trade-off: the reasons for using writing for a record of past activity is that it can be cleaned up and made neat – that the mind at work is not a pretty thing – messy and confusing; yet on the other hand there is an energy and drama that comes [interruption; household duties for more than an hour]. where was i . . .1 this selection illustrates well the idea of “letting judgment go:” of allowing oneself to write without concern for form or structure. it also illustrates the “situated” nature of writing: how elbow’s interruption by household chores calls attention to writing as a social practice that takes place in specific times and places. there is always a writer – and there is always a literal body – associated with the act of composing. but most important, the passage underscores a central finding of the process movement: the idea of writing as thinking, as discovery – not simply a process of transcribing pre-formed thought. if we are open to the possibility, writing                                                                                                                 1  peter  elbow.    “freewriting  and  the  problem  of  wheat  and  tares,”  in  everyone  can  write:     essays  toward  a  hopeful  theory  of  writing  and  teaching  writing,  ed.  peter  elbow  (new   york:    oxford  university  press,  2000),  89.         in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   32   even short texts (e-mails to colleagues and friends, letters of recommendation) can lead us to unexpected places – new ways of understanding experience, new ways of understanding ourselves. this is why donald murray, one of the most influential teachers in the process movement, declared, “we become what we write.”2 for peace educators, this insight into writing is crucial to the intense and challenging processes of peace education. as betty reardon has noted, these processes are transformative, not simply formative,3 and writing serves can serve as a critical tool on behalf of such change. in addition to assigning various kinds of essays and research papers, i ask my students to generate many kinds of informal writing: reading journals, in-class freewrites, and reflection entries on the formal writing they submit. in-class writing is particularly useful. since the act of composing texts, unlike speaking, generates a verbal artifact, students have a means of reviewing and analyzing what they’ve written. informal freewrites can serve as springboards for discussion at the beginning of a class and can help students reflect on their learning at the end of a class session. sometimes, to stimulate or redirect a discussion midway, i’ll ask students to write (for their eyes only, of course) on such questions as “what do you understand now?” “is there anything that still perplexes you? what is it, and why?” this kind of writing supports highly active, critical learning and gives students a space to think through troubling and difficult concepts. when we have discussed the poetry of world war i, for example, freewriting has given a number of my students to grapple with the difficult conflict between the powerful anti-war vision of, say, wilfred owen, and the values they grew up as members of military families. and the power of in-class freewriting is that every student is engaged in it; every student is a significant contributor to a learning community. audience addressed and audience invoked as powerful as process pedagogy has been in opening up the generative and epistemic dimensions of writing, its focus has primarily been on the individual writer. yet since writers operate in complex social environments, many other scholars began examining the relationships between writers and their environments. one of the most important concepts to emerge from this work – a concept with significant implications for peace and human rights education – concerns the question of audience. certainly audience has been a principal concern of rhetoricians for centuries. in his treatise on rhetoric, aristotle devoted extensive space to the kinds of values and emotional                                                                                                                 2  donald  m.  murray,  “all  writing  is  autobiography,”  college  composition  and   communication  42  (1991):    71.   3  betty  a.  reardon,  “human  rights  learning:    pedagogies  and  politics  of  peace”  (paper   presented  as  the  annual  “leccion  magistral,”  university  of  puerto  rico,  april  15,  2009):    3.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   33   appeals that would move audiences, acknowledging that without sufficient knowledge of one’s audience, no speaker can succeed in reaching and persuading his or her listeners. in the past few decades, the concept of audience has become more sophisticated, accounting for the complex rhetorical situations posed by written, as opposed to oral, communications. one of the most useful of these conceptions – and of particular value to peace educators – is the concept of “audience addressed/audience invoked “ developed by contemporary rhetoricians andrea lunsford and lise ede.4 the term “audience addressed” refers to the reader one actually knows. an example would be the close friend or colleague to whom the writer sends a text message or e-mail. the communication is “audience-based” insofar as the writer knows this individual’s interests and personal qualities – and doesn’t really need to imagine this person. on the other hand, the term “audience invoked” refers to the person one doesn’t know. perhaps the writer is composing a text of some kind – a grant proposal, an application, an article – intended for an individual or group she has never met and knows little or nothing about. the task of “invoking” or imaginatively constructing this reader becomes a crucial rhetorical problem to solve, and the writer’s skill in accomplishing this task is critical to her success in communicating. what is of particular significance to peace educators is that lunsford and ede describe, then go beyond, the critical distinction between audience addressed and audience invoked. they note the complex, fluid, and dynamic relationship between these two elements as a rhetorical situation shifts and changes. to illustrate with a simple example from my own recent experience with the 2009 international institute for peace education, i found that developing workshop materials for a presentation i was to make required my reliance on “audience invoked” insofar as i had never participated in such an international institute before and needed to envision who the possible participants in my workshop might be. i gradually constructed, or invoked, my imagined workshop participant from a variety of sources: communications with the iipe education director janet gerson and global coordinator tony jenkins, a careful reading of online participant bios from the preceding year’s iipe, and my acquaintance in my home city of los angeles with an attorney and human rights activist working in the field of immigration law. after returning home and beginning to reflect on the article i would write for in factis pax, i saw the rhetorical situation becoming more complex: more of a mixture of audience invoked and audience addressed. some of my readers may well be my colleagues in iipe – perhaps some who participated in the writing workshop. the personal knowledge i gained of my colleagues from my workshop and from many other interactions throughout the week informed my writing – made it in many ways a process of addressing people i came to know, including dale snauwaert, the editor, whom i met at iipe. on the other hand, i found myself engaged in a new process of invoking a new and different reader: members of the editorial board for the journal, perhaps iipe participants from prior years, and, of course, the many peace educators around the world.                                                                                                                 4  lisa  ede  and  andrea  lunsford,  “audience  addressed/audience  invoked:    the  role  of   audience  in  composition  theory  and  pedagogy,”  college  composition  and  communication   35  (1984).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   34   by positing this shifting, fluid nature of audience, ede and lunsford remind us not only of the complexity of written communications in a digital, globalized world – but also the value of being resourceful, supple, and imaginative as our audiences vary and grow. i am reminded of both the nobility and the immensity of the goals associated with the global campaign for peace education (gcpe): 1. first, to build public awareness and political support for the introduction of peace education into all spheres of education, including non-formal education, in all schools throughout the world. 2. second, to promote the education of all teachers to teach for peace.5 these goals clearly require extensive and complex forms of communication across many spheres of education and civil society – and written communications are very much a part of this process of transformation. over the coming years and decades, peace educators will continue to address readers in discourse communities they are familiar with, and they will increasingly need to invoke readers – citizens, educators, officials – whom they have much less knowledge about. the concept of “audience address/audience invoked” can help us be more reflective and intentional in our written communications – and can thereby be empowering to us in many ways. on the power of narrative over the past few decades, academic writing – particularly in the united states – has gradually opened up in the humanities and social sciences to incorporate a much wider spectrum of discourses: various genres, personal narratives, different dialects and languages, poetry. a number of factors have driven this transformation: the increasing cultural diversity of students and faculty, the privileging of new approaches in feminist discourse, and changing concepts of subjectivity in such fields as literary studies, writing studies, ethnography, and history. more and more academics have come to value the way that genres like narrative and poetry can illuminate personal experience and subjectivity in ways that abstract analytic prose cannot. what is significant for peace educators is the academic affirmation of the great potential of alternative, or “mixed,” discourse. narratives, for example, can be used effectively to illustrate and dramatize arguments – and also to re-frame and transform understandings. let me illustrate the first value – the ability to dramatize an argument – with a brief narrative from michael nagler’s the search for a nonviolent future: a promise of peace for ourselves, our families, and our world. nagler concludes his book with an “action guide” which offers readers not only practical steps but also an argument that the “war system . . . is weak from its own internal contradictions,” and that “peace has friends everywhere . . .”6                                                                                                                 5  hague  appeal  for  peace:    global  campaign  for  peace  education,   http://www.haguepeace.org/index.php?action=pe   6  michael  n.  nagler,  the  search  for  a  nonviolent  future:    a  promise  of  peace  for  ourselves,   our  families,  and  our  world  (novato,  ca:    new  world  library,  2004),  286.         in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   35   a friend of mine was in washington not long ago to lobby for the proposed department of peace (hr 1673). one evening she stepped into a hotel elevator to find four men in military garb, obviously there on a similar but opposite mission. they fell to talking, and the men explained what they were lobbying for – a new weapons system; what was she there for? when she told them brightly it was for a department of peace, one of the men, who had been silently staring at the floor the whole time, looked up and said, with much emotion, “please hurry.”7 though only a paragraph long, this narrative has all the elements of a story: a storyteller, a setting, characters, action, and a theme. it also works aesthetically with the element of surprise. but there is also another element that enriches and deepens nagler’s argument: identification. as described by the influential 20th century rhetorician kenneth burke, this element of identification is essential to the power of language in persuading others: “you persuade a man only insofar as you can talk his language by speech, gesture, tonality, order, image, attitude, idea, identifying your ways with his.”8 for burke, identification is a crucial element that enables the workings of rhetoric, which he describes as “the use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols.”9 though the brevity of nagler’s story precludes much development of character, there is still a sufficient brush stroke to evoke a personality, a uniformed man who pleads, “please hurry.” his presence and action in this short narrative speak far more eloquently on behalf of nagler’s claim – i.e. that “peace has friends everywhere” – than extensive exposition, analysis, or recitation of data. this is one of the great powers that narrative affords us. the power to frame and re-frame but there is another, equally important value of narrative: its power to frame and reframing our understandings of reality. we live worlds of narrative, from our personal stories to the familial, communal, and cultural narratives that help define our individual and collective identities – and that help to imbue our lives with meaning and purpose. often it is the work of peace educators to re-interpret or re-frame old stories – or to weave new stories, new patterns of meaning, from unfolding experiences. our skill in accomplishing these creative tasks – of narratizing and re-narratizing—is one of the most powerful transformative tools available to us, for it helps provide direction and understanding as we seek to find our way to a more just and peaceful world order. let me provide another example to illustrate this idea. when rosa parks was arrested in montgomery, alabama, on december 1, 1955, for violating the city’s segregation ordinance by refusing to give up her seat on a city bus, her cause led many african american citizens in the                                                                                                                 7  ibid.     8  kenneth  burke,  a  rhetoric  of  motives  (berkeley:    university  of  california  press,  1969),  55.   9  ibid.,  43     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   36   city, most of them women, to initiate a bus boycott in protest. from the very beginning, the boycott proved highly effective in reducing ridership, and the organizers quickly came to a crossroads as to whether they would discontinue the boycott – i.e. having demonstrated their power – or continue it with the intention of overthrowing the ordinance altogether. they chose the latter course of action, creating a new organization – the montgomery improvement association (mia) – and electing a leader, a young pastor named martin luther king, jr., as their spokesperson. king had been involved with the boycott but hadn’t assumed any kind of civil rights leadership in the montgomery community prior to his election as president of the mia. on december 5, 1955, he delivered a speech to the mia and the broader community at a packed meeting in the holt street church in montgomery. in his speech, king recounted the story of rosa parks’s solitary protest and her arrest – as well as the long history of indignities and injustices that african americans had suffered on the city buses. then he framed the narrative in the following way: we are here this evening for serious business. we are here in a general sense because first and foremost we are american citizens and we are determined to apply our citizenship to the fullness of its meaning. we are here also because of our love for democracy, because of our deep-seated belief that democracy transformed from thin paper to thick action is the greatest form of government on earth . . . you know, my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over the iron feet of oppression. there comes a time, my friends, when people get tired of being plunged across the abyss of humiliation, where they experience the bleakness of nagging despair. there comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s july, and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine november. and we are not wrong. we are not wrong in what we are doing. if we are wrong, the supreme court of this nation is wrong. if we are wrong, the constitution of the united states is wrong. if we are wrong, god almighty is wrong. if we are wrong, jesus of nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer that never came down to earth. and we are determined here in montgomery to work and fight until justice runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream. i want to say that in all of our actions we must stick together. unity is the great need of the hour, and if we are united we can get many of the things that we not only desire but which we justly deserve. and don’t let anybody frighten you. we are not afraid of what we are doing, because we are doing it within the law. there is never a time in our american democracy that we must ever think we’re wrong when we protest. we reserve that right.   in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   37   we, the disinherited of this land, we who have been oppressed so long, are tired of going through the long night of captivity. and now we are reaching out for the daybreak of freedom and justice and equality. may i say to you, my friends, as i come to a close . . . that we must keep . . . god in the forefront. let us be christian in all of our actions. but i want to tell you this evening that it is not enough for us to talk about love. love is one of the pivotal points of the christian faith. there is another side called justice. standing beside love is always justice and we are only using the tools of justice. not only are we using the tools of persuasion but we’ve come to see that we’ve got to use the tools of coercion. not only is this thing a process of education but it is also a process of legislation. as we stand and sit here this evening and as we prepare ourselves for what lies ahead, let us go out with a grim and bold determination that we are going to stick together. we are going to work together. right here in montgomery, when the history books are written in the future, somebody will have to say, “there lived a race of people, a black people, ‘fleecy locks and black complexion,’ a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights. and thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and of civilization.”10 a close look at this speech reveals the precise way in which king widens the scope of the narrative, enlarging the participants’ sense of their role and purpose – and transforming the situation by imbuing it with new meaning. he identifies in physical terms with his audience: “as we stand and sit here.” but he also enlarges the identification to address the issue of fear head on. he speaks to a people against whom lynching and other forms of terrorism had been used for decades as a way of “keeping them in line.” now he reminds his listeners of deep affiliations that empower them from within: we are americans, we are christians, we are the disinherited claiming our dignity and rights as human beings. king widens the perspective on the boycott itself, describing it as one of two primary instruments – i.e. coercion and persuasion – needed to effect change. and he redefines the nature of the change itself. he tells his listeners that the boycott is not only a matter of achieving justice; it is a necessary step in redeeming all of american society. the present moments – the mass meeting, the boycott itself – are now understood in relation to the promises of american history and biblical narrative – the prophecies of amos, the teachings of jesus. and, like a skillful cinematographer, king concludes his speech by scanning forward to the image of another generation: writers of a history that will acknowledge the historical, political, and moral significance of a moment in 1955. the sweeping, redemptive vision now provides meaning and direction to a new movement and a newly empowered people.                                                                                                                 10  martin  luther  king,  jr.,  the  autobiography  of  martin  luther  king,  jr.,  ed.  clayborne  carson   (new  york:    grand  central  publishing,  2001),  60-­‐61.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   38   counter-narrative and the power of fiction but peace educators may not simply be needed to write new narratives for new movements. we may also find ourselves writing and interpreting the counter-narratives that help to lessen the grip of the powerful cultural stories that legitimate violence and injustice. these dominant stories, in many ways, constitute one of the greatest impediments to peace precisely because – as stories – they capture the imagination and vividly define reality for millions of people. the use of atomic weapons against japan in 1945 is a case in point. when president harry s. truman published a press release announcing the dropping of the atomic bomb on hiroshima on august 6, 1945, he didn’t simply describe the nature of the bomb and his rationale for using an atomic weapon against a japanese city. he also offered what historian paul dower has called a “heroic narrative.”11 this narrative celebrated a unique triumph of scientific collaboration: but the greatest marvel is not the size of the enterprise, its secrecy, nor its cost, but the achievement of scientific brains in putting together infinitely complex pieces of knowledge held by many men in different fields of science into a workable plan. and hardly less marvelous has been the capacity of industry to design, and of labor to operate, the machines and methods to do things never done before so that the brain child of many minds came forth in physical shape and performed as it was supposed to do. both science and industry worked under the direction of the united states army, which achieved a unique success in managing so diverse a problem in the advancement of knowledge in an amazingly short time. it is doubtful if such another combination could be got together in the world. what has been done is the greatest achievement of organized science in history. it was done under high pressure and without failure.12 the narrative was a story of redemption. truman told of triumph over perilous foes and of great restraint in the use of deadly force: “it was to spare the japanese people from utter destruction that the ultimatum of july 26 was issued at potsdam.”13 and it was a story of discovery and promise: the discovery of the “basic power of the universe” and of the promise to                                                                                                                 11  john  w.  dower,  “three  narratives  of  our  humanity,”  in  history  wars:  the  enola  gay  and   other  battles  for  the  american  past,  ed.  edward  t.  linenthal  and  tom  engelhardt  (new   york:  metropolitan  books,  1996),  63-­‐96.       12  harry  s.  truman.    “statement  of  the  president  of  the  united  states.”    press  release  by  the   white  house,  august  6,  1945.    harry  s.  truman  library  and  museum.   http://www.trumanlibrary.org/index.php   13  ibid.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   39   make the atomic energy “a powerful and forceful influence towards the maintenance of world peace.”14 the story embedded in the white house press release of august 6, 1945 has been the dominant narrative in american culture for almost sixty-five years. when the smithsonian national air and space museum planned an exhibit marking the fiftieth anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on hiroshima, fierce opposition from veterans’ groups forced the museum to revise the exhibit substantially, deleting exhibits that showed the devastation wrought by the bomb. but most important – and most dangerous – this narrative has enabled a continuing discourse about the need for continued development of nuclear weapons and about the potential use of nuclear weapons as part of national strategic and military policy. when, in my “war and peace in literature” class, i have my students read fiction about the atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki, i also introduce them to the work of historians who have challenged this dominant narrative. we examine evidence used by these historians: accounts showing that u.s. officials knew of the japanese willingness to surrender prior to the dropping of the bomb – and other accounts lending weight to the argument that the soviet entry into the war, not the dropping of the atomic bombs, proved to be the decisive factor in leading to the japanese surrender. there is also the evidence pointing to president truman’s determination to use the bombs as a way of ending the war prior to the soviet entry. and we consider other perspectives, like president dwight d. eisenhower’s view that dropping the bomb “was completely unnecessary” and was not “mandatory as a measure to save american lives.”15 but it is the fiction, the stories of individual human beings, which helps students engage most critically and multi-dimensionally with counter-narratives. using kenzaburo oe’s collection, the crazy iris and other stories of the atomic aftermath,16 i provide my students with opportunity of reading historical documents like truman’s alongside works of fiction, many of them written by survivors of the atomic bomb explosions over hiroshima and nagasaki. one such survivor, yoko ota, was born in 1906 and lived through the atomic bombing of hiroshima. after the war she continued writing about that experience until her death in 1963. one of her most powerful stories, “fireflies,” recounts the experiences of a writer who survived the bombing and returns to hiroshima seven years later.17 the writer describes a series of encounters. there is her half-sister, struggling to cope with the physical hardships of a city recovering from the bomb. there is a doctor who treats victims of the bomb. and there are two severely disfigured individuals, an older man and a young girl, who cope with their disfigurements and the social isolation it imposes upon them. the story alternates between the                                                                                                                 14  ibid.   15  dwight  d.  eisenhower,  the  white  house  years:  mandate  for  change:  1953-­1956:  a   personal  account  (new  york:  doubleday,  1963),  312-­‐313.   16  kenzaburo  oe,  ed.  the  crazy  iris  and  other  stories  of  the  atomic  aftermath  (new  york:     grove  press,  1985).   17  yoko  ota,  “fireflies,”  ibid.,  85-­‐111.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   40   writer’s accounts of these encounters and her own reflections about them. the story deals with injustice, with grief, and with the burden of bearing witness in the face of catastrophic destruction and loss. when they read a story like “fireflies,” many of my students begin to see in personal terms the power of language to cover up or reveal, to dehumanize or rehumanize. michael nagler has observed that “the all-important issue in violence is dehumanization,”18 and in reading a story like yoko ota’s, many of these students begin to consider the “heroic” narrative in truman’s press release as a narrative of erasure. they note the invisibility – in the official language – of the thousands of civilians who died instantly in the blast. and they begin to consider invisibility as an ultimate form of dehumanization. it is only through story – through the counter-narratives of creative writers – that they can see the face, hear the thoughts, and begin to understand the life of the other. it is only through story that we can begin to assume responsibility for the enormous destructive powers we have unleashed upon the world. what might these perspectives mean to us as peace as peace educators? certainly, at one level, we can see writers like yoko ota as doing the work of peace education, seeking truth about the past and present, offering insights into our own potentials and capacities. but for those of us who don’t write fiction, there are still ways of drawing on the power of imaginative literature. if we teach courses in any kinds of formal or informal settings, we can use works of imaginative literature alongside of, and in relation to, texts in philosophy, history, anthropology, political science, or economics. our students will only benefit from the connections that can deepen their experience and their understanding. and whether we teach such courses or not, there is still value in seeking out such works and reading them ourselves: renewing our imaginative capacities to see, to understand, and to feel. our own writing, after all, can become – if we let it – an unfolding reflection and expression of everything we experience and read. new directions: the extracurriculum and literacy sponsorship up to this point i have focused on what might be called the instrumental and transactional functions of writing and reading in peace education. i have looked at ways in which knowledge of research on the composing process, on audience, and on mixed discourse and narrative can enhance one’s effectiveness as a writer and peace educator. but there is another way of looking at literacy learning as itself a form of peace education. to illustrate this alternative perspective, i turn again to a narrative – this time to a brief biographical sketch of a contemporary poet named jimmy santiago baca. born in 1952 in santa fe, new mexico, baca was abandoned by his parents at the age of seven. raised for a while by a grandmother and then in a series of detention centers, he worked at a variety of jobs before becoming a drug dealer – and getting arrested, and sentenced to a five-to-ten year prison sentence at the age of 21. in prison baca began receiving correspondence from a man who wrote to inmates without families as part of a church program. the correspondence awakened a                                                                                                                 18  michael  n.  nagler,  the  search  for  a  nonviolent  future:    a  promise  of  peace  for  ourselves,   our  families,  and  our  world  (novato,  ca:    new  world  library,  2004),  214.       in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   41   hunger for literacy in baca. he slowly taught himself to read and write and in the process discovered a gift for poetic expression. writing and publishing poems in prison, he saw his own first collection, immigrants in our own land, published the year of his release. baca went on to publish several more poetry collections, an award-winning autobiography (a place to stand), a book of short stories, and screenplay for the 1993 film, blood in, blood out. along the way, he discovered a talent for helping others develop their own gifts as writers. baca’s experiences point to ways that transformative literacy is itself a form of peace education. as baca explained in the prologue to his autobiography, “language gave me a way to keep the chaos of prison at bay and prevented it from devouring me. it was a resource that allowed me to confront and understand my past . . . and it opened a way toward the future that was based not on fear or bitterness or apathy but on compassionate involvement.”19 describing his own writing workshops, baca explains that “my job is simply to keep the light inside [my students] burning. that’s it. my job is to make sure they do not fall into despair. and i guess that’s the answer to why i work with unwed mothers. i go to prisons. i work with homeless and gang kids, because their light’s starting to go off, to dim, and i have to come in there and fire it up, and i do that with poetry, and i do that with commitment, and i do that with compassion.”20 baca’s work underscores paolo freire’s arguments for pedagogies that help give people greater control over their own lives: “resignation gives way to the drive for transformation and inquiry, over which men feel themselves to be in control.”21 baca’s experiences are also significant for peace educators because they exemplify two crucial concepts in literacy learning: the idea of the extracurriculum and the concept of literacy sponsorship. in describing the former, writing studies scholar anne ruggles gere explains that it refers to far more than “the extra-curricular activities” normally associated with schools and colleges: athletics, student government, literary magazines and student newspapers, and student clubs. instead, the extracurriculum “extends beyond the academy to encompass the multiple contexts in which persons seek to improve their own writing; it includes more diversity in gender, race, and class among writers, and it avoids, as much as possible, a reenactment of professionalization in its narrative.”22 baca’s literacy learning in prison and the workshops he now conducts are examples – and by no means aberrant ones – of the extracurriculum at work. there are countless other examples: thousands of informal writing workshops taking place all over the united states and in other countries: workshops and gatherings not connected to any schools and colleges and existing entirely to support the writing of their participants. in her groundbreaking article,                                                                                                                 19  jimmy  santiago  baca,  a  place  to  stand  (new  york:    grove  press,  2002).   20  rob  baker,  “jimmy  santiago  baca:    poetry  as  lifesaver,”  the  council  chronicle,  national   council  of  teachers  of  english,  september,  2008,  24.   21  paolo  freire,  pedagogy  of  the  oppressed  (new  york:    seabury,  1970),  73.   22  anne  ruggles  gere,  “kitchen  tables  and  rented  rooms:    the  extracurriculum  of   composition,”  college  composition  and  communication  45  (1994):    80.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   42   “kitchen tables and rented rooms: the extracurriculum of composition,” gere described the enormous variety of informal writing groups and workshops, from the tenderloin women’s writing workshop in an impoverished area of san francisco to a writers’ group in a rural part of iowa. in the united states, such groups have had long history of supporting and reaffirming people as writers and contributing members of their communities. such groups have also played a significant, if heretofore unacknowledged, role in promoting human rights: women’s writing clubs, african american writing groups in northern states working for abolition, and secret schools in the antebellum south in which slaves taught literacy to one another. the second concept, that of literacy sponsorship, has been defined by writing scholar deborah brandt as referring to “any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, who enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress, or withhold literacy – and gain advantage by it in some way.”23 the man who corresponded with jimmy santiago baca while the latter was in prison became a literacy sponsor to the young man, just as baca, in turn, became a sponsor to the many individuals he helped in his writing workshops. in both cases the sponsorship enabled profound growth and transformation. in her influential article, “sponsors of literacy,” brandt describes the many different kinds of sponsors that can play significant roles in people’s lives. these can include employers, family members, labor unions, and religious institutions, to name only a few. one can now also include the many kinds of groups and networks associated with the internet as literacy sponsors. what is important about the extracurrriculum and literacy sponsorship is the way that both remind us of the enormous personal, political, and economic powers of literacy – its potential for transforming human lives. in a world in which more than 800 million people are non-literate (over 60% of them women), it is critical for peace educators to recognize not only this transformative potential but also the way that literacy learning can be viewed in exclusive or inclusive terms – as a form of gate-keeping or as an avenue to self-determination and freedom. the work of scholars like gere and brandt has been important to writing specialists not only as research – helping them acknowledging heretofore “under-the-radar” phenomena – but also for encouraging literacy teachers to go “outside the walls” of formal learning, to valorize different approaches to literacy learning, and to form new and creative kinds of partnerships and initiatives. in closing: a personal note at the outset of this article, i invoked the metaphor of conversation to suggest ways in which scholarship on writing, rhetoric, and composition can enrich the field of peace education. certainly new publications on peace curricula, such as the seventh edition of peace, justice, and                                                                                                                 23  deborah  brandt,  “sponsors  of  literacy,”  college  composition  and  communication  49   (1998):    166.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   43   security studies,24 point to the growing number of disciplines adding to the fields of peace studies and peace education. incorporating the research findings, theoretical perspectives, and other insights from writing studies will only extend this outward, inclusive trend in peace education. but the powerful metaphor of conversation suggests the need for at least a two-way exchange – the notion that research, ideas, perspectives, and attitudes can flow in different directions. when i began teaching writing in 1971, the vietnam war was still raging, and many undergraduate and graduate students – myself included – were actively involved in anti-war protests on our campuses. at the time, however, i had never heard of peace studies – there was no such program at my university – and i didn’t become familiar with such programs for at least another fifteen years. and it took another twenty years for peace education to become a significant part of my own professional life: as a teacher, as an advisor, and as a colleague involved in curriculum and program development. yet throughout this time, a conversation of sorts never ceased for me: sometimes with sympathetic colleagues in writing and literary studies, sometimes within my own heart. as i became more regularly and systematically involved in the work of peace education, i began considering not only how my professional background in writing and literature would be of use in this field – but also how the discoveries and insights of peace education might begin permeating the other work i do at my university. slowly the fragmented view of education in which i had been socialized (my “peace studies work” over here, my “other teaching and committee work” over there) began to dissolve and be replaced by a more holistic vision of learning and teaching. as i continued to deepen my understandings of nonviolence, human dignity, positive peace, and inner peace, i saw more clearly how peace education occurs everywhere – not simply within classroom walls or within the temporal window of an office hour. the values underlying this holistic vision imbue every perception, every understanding, every judgment and decision, every human encounter. i came to understand that the great project of the gcpe – to introduce peace education “into all spheres of education” and to “promote the education of all teachers to teach for peace” – must begin within the self of every peace educator (or every potential educator). writing is a most powerful tool for carrying out this work: for promoting the reflection, the inner conversation, and the communication necessary to bring about change. understanding writing – what it is, how it works, what its potentials are – can only serve to clarify the needed change and help empower the change agents striving to actualize it. bibliography baca,  jimmy  santiago.    a  place  to  stand.  new  york:    grove  press,  2002.                                                                                                                   24  timothy  a.  mcelwee  et  al.  peace,  justice,  and  security  studies:    a  curriculum  guide,   seventh  edition  (boulder:    lynne  rienner  publishers,  2009).     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   44     baker,   rob.     “jimmy   santiago  baca:     poetry   as   lifesaver,”  the   council   chronicle,  national   council  of  teachers  of  english,  september,  2008.     brandt,   deborah.     “sponsors   of   literacy,”   college   composition   and   communication   49   (1998):    165-­‐185.     burke,  kenneth.    a  rhetoric  of  motives.    berkeley:    university  of  california  press,  1969.     dower,  john  w.    “three  narratives  of  our  humanity.”  in  history  wars:  the  enola  gay  and   other   battles   for   the   american   past,   edited   by   edward   t.   linenthal   and   tom   engelhardt,  63-­‐96.    new  york:  metropolitan  books,  1996.     ede,   lisa   and   andrea   lunsford.   “audience   addressed/audience   invoked:     the   role   of   audience   in   composition   theory   and   pedagogy.”   college   composition   and   communication  35  (1984):    155-­‐71.     eisenhower,  dwight  d.    the  white  house  years:  mandate  for  change:  1953-­1956:  a  personal   account.    new  york:  doubleday,  1963.     elbow,  peter.     “freewriting  and  the  problem  of  wheat  and  tares,”   in  everyone  can  write:     essays  toward  a  hopeful  theory  of  writing  and  teaching  writing,  ed.  peter  elbow,   85-­‐92.    new  york:    oxford  university  press,  2000.    originally  published   in   joseph   moxley,  ed.,  writing  and  publishing  for  academic  authors  (lanham  md:    rowman  &   littlefield,  1997).     freire,  paolo.    pedagogy  of  the  oppressed.    new  york:    seabury,  1970.     gere,   anne   ruggles.   “kitchen   tables   and   rented   rooms:     the   extracurriculum   of   composition,”  college  composition  and  communication  45  (1994):    75-­‐92.     hague   appeal   for   peace:     global   campaign   for   peace   education.   http://www.haguepeace.org/index.php?action=pe     king,  martin  luther   jr.,  the  autobiography  of  martin  luther  king,   jr.,  edited  by  clayborne   carson.  new  york:    grand  central  publishing,  2001.     mcelwee,  timothy  a.,  b.  welling  hall,  joseph  liechty,  and  julie  garber.    peace,  justice,  and   security   studies:     a   curriculum   guide,   seventh   edition.     boulder:     lynne   rienner   publishers,  2009.     murray,  donald  m.    “all  writing  is  autobiography.”  college  composition  and  communication   42  (1991):    66-­‐74.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  29-­‐45   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   45     nagler,  michael  n.  the  search  for  a  nonviolent  future:    a  promise  of  peace  for  ourselves,  our   families,  and  our  world.    novato,  ca:    new  world  library,  2004.       oe,   kenzaburo,   ed.  the   crazy   iris   and   other   stories   of   the   atomic   aftermath.    new  york:     grove  press,  1985.     ota,  yoko.  “fireflies,”  in  the  crazy  iris  and  other  stories  of  the  atomic  aftermath  edited  by   kenzaburo  oe,  85-­‐111.    new  york:    grove  press,  1985.     reardon,   betty   a.   “human   rights   learning:     pedagogies   and   politics   of   peace.”   excerpts   from  paper  presented  as  the  annual  “leccion  magistral”  sponsored  by  the  unesco   chair  for  education  for  a  culture  of  peace,  university  of  puerto  rico,  april  15,  2009.     truman,  harry  s.    “statement  of  the  president  of  the  united  states.”    press  release  by  the   white   house,   august   6,   1945.     harry   s.   truman   library   and   museum.   http://www.trumanlibrary.org/index.php   ffeucht-intro20101010p-2dale   in  factis  pax  4(1)  (2010):  1-­‐10   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     1   volume 4 number 1 (2010): 1-10 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ information seeking, decision making, and action taking in social and political contexts – an introduction to psychological aspects of democratic citizenship florian c. feucht, ph.d., guest editor assistant professor for educational psychology department for educational foundations and leadership the university of toledo, usa a vital aspect of democracy is the ability of individual citizens to engage in knowledge creation and evaluation in a critical manner. in today’s controversy and information-rich society developing one’s own beliefs and values, evaluating a constantly growing body of new knowledge, and having an understanding of current politics is becoming an increasingly complex and demanding challenge. in this context, education for citizenship is an important undertaking to provide individuals with skills, values, knowledge, and beliefs needed to successfully participate in democratic processes and to foster a culture of active civic engagement. under this conceptual umbrella, a call for contributions to a special issue went out to the fields of peace and democratic education seeking manuscripts from educators, practitioners, and researchers to explore questions, such as: what is the nature of the skills, values, and beliefs necessary for democratic participation, and in what situations do they occur and matter? what role does (citizenship) education play in addressing such skills, values, knowledge, and beliefs?   in  factis  pax  4(1)  (2010):  1-­‐10   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     2   what pedagogical methods best develop these democratic capacities? do current educational frameworks account for the demands of today’s democratic citizenship? in response to this call, a large amount of quality manuscripts was received from a diversity of disciplines ranging from psychology to teacher training and development, to democracy, health and environmental education, and to philosophical foundations of education. due to the quality and diversity of the submissions, the decision was made to publish not one special issue, but a sequence of three, a trilogy entitled “skills, values, and beliefs for today’s democratic citizenship” – with the first issue subtitled “psychological competencies”, the second “teacher training and development”, and the third “philosophical foundations of education”. because these three categories are fairly broad, some articles roam in their overlaps. furthermore, i would like to note that only the first issue entails discussions of its article contributions because it is much smaller in scope than the consecutive issues. in the following sections of this introduction to the special issue on psychological competencies of today’s democratic citizenship, i will first provide a very brief and limited chronological overview of how civic competencies were formulated and translated into specific learning objectives for civic education. second, i develop a framework (figure 1) on psychological aspects and civic competencies accounting for the everyday living and learning environments of citizens. the aim of this framework is to provide a more comprehensive and dynamic picture of the psychological competencies citizens need to successfully seek information, make decisions, and take action that are specific to, and dependent on, their social and political contexts. third, the articles and their discussions will be introduced (see preview below). lori olafson   “good” americans and “bad” americans: personal epistemology, moral reasoning, and citizenship.   claudia ruitenberg   conflict, affect and the political: on disagreement as democratic capacity.   michael weinstock   epistemic understanding and sound reasoning skills that underlie effective democratic engagement.   gregory schraw, lori olafson, michelle vander veldt, & jennifer ponder   teachers’ epistemological stances and citizenship education.   lisa bendixen (discussant)   argumentation, anger, and action: citizenship education in and out of the classroom.   dale snauwaert (discussant)   democracy as public deliberation and the psychology of epistemological world views and moral reasoning: a philosophical reflection.     in  factis  pax  4(1)  (2010):  1-­‐10   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     3   the previously introduced framework will be used to contextualize the different contributions and to provide a joined platform for the audience to ask questions and draw conclusions within and across the different themes. finally, the introduction will conclude with a note of appreciation for the support i received in completing this issue. psychological competencies for civic education – a look back knowledge, skills, values, and beliefs relevant to today’s democracy are often identified as psychological competencies in curriculum standards for citizenship education. what exactly are the psychological competencies an individual needs to acquire to successfully participate in democratic processes and to appreciate a culture of active civic engagement? what competencies need to be taught and what can be entrusted to develop on their own? this section briefly describes the evolution of civic competencies as learning objectives of curriculum standards in civic education. three cornerstones within the last 100 years were selected to illustrate how civic learning objectives grounded in philosophical thought shifted towards research-based strands of psychological competencies. about 100 years ago, john dewey1 provided broad ideas of competences relevant for individuals to participate in democracy. as a philosopher and functional psychologist, he emphasized civic competencies that concerned psychological principles of action and application relevant for individuals to successfully function in their living and learning environments.2 more specifically, he described the ability of critical thinking and decision making in response to personal experiences and the social and political context of individuals as civic core competencies. for example, dewey’s idea of public journalism stressed the need for citizens to become active news users and contributors.3 from an epistemological perspective, he questioned the (world) view that the news should be a static and certain source of knowledge that is provided by an elitist authority and passively read by citizen. instead, he strongly believed that the news should be a dynamic stream of tentative knowledge informed by common citizens who contribute their own news, alternative views, and discussions of social conditions and political and consequences. essentially, dewey’s democratic expectations require individual citizens to be competent in seeking information, making decisions, and taking action within their own social and political context.                                                                                                                           1  john dewey, how we think. (lexington, ma: d. c. heath, 1909); john dewey, democracy and education: an introduction to the philosophy of education. (new york, new york: macmillan, 1916). 2 john dewey (1896). “the reflex arc concept in psychology", psychological review (1896): 3, 357-370. 3 john dewey. the public and its problems. (new york: holt, 1927).   in  factis  pax  4(1)  (2010):  1-­‐10   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     4   about 50 years later, edward glaser4 developed a psychological framework to describe critical thinking as a cognitive requirement and grounded it in dewey’s work 5 on good citizenship. glaser described critical thinking as (…) a persistent effort to examine any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the evidence that supports it and the further conclusions to which it tends. it also generally requires ability to recognize problems, to find workable means for meeting those problems, to gather and marshal pertinent information, to recognize unstated assumptions and values, to comprehend and use language with accuracy, clarity, and discrimination, to interpret data, to appraise evidence and evaluate arguments, to recognize the existence (or non-existence) of logical relationships between propositions, to draw warranted conclusions and generalizations, to put to test the conclusions and generalizations at which one arrives, to reconstruct one's patterns of beliefs on the basis of wider experience, and to render accurate judgments about specific things and qualities in everyday life. (p. 5-6) he summarized these competencies in three strands: “ ( 1 ) an attitude of being disposed to consider in a thoughtful way the problems and subjects that come within the range of one's experiences, (2) knowledge of the methods of logical inquiry and reasoning, and (3) some skill in applying those methods.” (p. 5). clearly, glaser’s critical thinking competencies are described on the basis of psychological constructs and terms. furthermore, he emphasized attitudes, affect, motivation, and values as an important, dispositional strand of competencies in their own right. recently, judith torney-purta and susan vermeer lopez developed citizenship competencies for learners specifically in educational settings ranging from kindergarten to high school.6 these competencies are informed by existing standards of different school systems and civic associations, like the center for civic education,7 and are based on different international                                                                                                                           4  edward m. glaser. an experiment in the development of critical thinking. (teacher’s college, columbia university, 1941). 5 alec fisher. critical thinking: an introduction. (cambridge: cambridge university press, 2001) 6 judith torney-purta and susan vermeer lopez. developing citizenship competencies from kindergarten through grade 12: a background paper for policymakers and educators. (denver, co: education commission of the states, national center for learning and citizenship, 2006). 7  center for civic education. national standards for civics and government. (calabasas, ca: center for civic education, 1994)   in  factis  pax  4(1)  (2010):  1-­‐10   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     5   research studies that assessed the civic competencies of high school students8 as well as identifying the best practices to effectively teach these competencies.9 similar to glaser, these competencies are based on the three strands of civic knowledge, civic skills, and civic dispositions and target the content areas of a) democracy and law, b) citizenship and human rights, and c) civil society. interestingly, the strands of civic skill and civic disposition are divided into sub-strands focusing on internal competencies (i.e., civic thinking skills and core civic disposition) and participatory competencies (i.e., civic participation skills and participationrelated dispositions). the explicit acknowledgement of the participatory sub-strands of civic competencies reflects dewey’s action and application driven understanding of good citizenship and, therein, reassures the philosophical grounding of the current, research-based competence model for citizenship education. information seeking, decision making, and action taking in a social and political context while curriculum standards for civic education are crucial in pinpointing learning objectives for students in pre-k-12 classrooms, the described competencies appear often as fragmented and fail to portray a more holistic and dynamic picture of civic engagement as the overall learning outcome. in this section, i develop a conceptual framework with the purpose to better describe civic engagement as a whole (that is more than the sum of its parts). the framework is a synthesis of literature from the fields of cognitive psychology, action research, and ecological system theory. based on the previously reviewed literature, problem solving and critical thinking are based on philosophical principles and entail psychological competences of civic engagement. dewey and torney-purta and vermeer lopez in particular speak to the ability of action taking as a civic competence of participatory citizenship, which is described in the field of civic education as the more advanced from of citizenship.10 the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required to ‘solve a civic problem by taking action’ can be described as steps in a cyclical process of                                                                                                                           8 judith torney-purta, rainer lehmann, hand oswald and walter schulz. citizenship and education in twenty-eight countries: civic knowledge and engagement at age 14. (amsterdam: international association for the evaluation of educational achievement, 2001); judith torneypurta, john schwille, and jo-ann amadeo, j. (eds.). civic education across countries: twentyfour case studies from the iea civic education project. (amsterdam: international association for the evaluation of educational achievement, 1999). 9 judith torney-purta and britt wilkenfeld. paths to 21st century competencies through civic education classrooms: an analysis of survey results from ninth-graders. (chicago, il: american bar association division for public education: 2009). 10  joel westheimer and joseph kahne, "what kind of citizen? the politics of educating for democracy," american educational research journal (2004): 41(2), 237-269.   in  factis  pax  4(1)  (2010):  1-­‐10   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     6   information seeking, decision making, and action taking (see figure 1). interestingly, a considerable overlap can be identified when comparing the cyclical nature of a problem solving script in the field of cognitive psychology with the action-reflection cycle in the field of action research. figure 1: processes of information seeking, decision making, and action taking in a social and political context for example, a problem solving script is part of an individual’s procedural knowledge and describes a sequence of logical steps to solve a problem.11 these steps include: 1) identify the problem, 2) present the problem, 3) select a solution, 4) evaluate the solution, and 5) if the solution fails, return to step 1 or 2 and continue with the script in a cyclical manner (see figure 1; black labels). a problem solving script is an internal, cognitive process and reflects the internal competencies that torney-purta and vermeer lopez refer to as civic knowledge, civic thinking skills, and core civic dispositions. similarly, the action-reflection cycle in the literature on research methodologies describes steps a researcher typically follows when conducting an action research study.12 these steps include: 1) identify, 2) reflect, 3) act, 4) evaluate, and 5) modify, if the desired outcome is not achieved, by restarting a new cycle of action-reflection (see figure 1; blue labels). unlike in other research methodologies, action researchers (and their context) are the research objects                                                                                                                           11  gregory schraw “knowledge: structures and processes”. in patricia alexander and phill winne (eds.), handbook of educational psychology, mahwah, nj: erlbaum (2006): 245–263. 12 jean mcniff and jack whitehead. all you need to know about action research. (london: sage, 2006). jack whitehead and jean mcniff. action research living theory. (london: sage, 2006).   in  factis  pax  4(1)  (2010):  1-­‐10   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     7   themselves. in other words, action research means to pursue a self-study for the sake of selfimprovement. this goal directed ‘action taking’ is often described as professional development, and political empowerment at best. when comparing the general cognitive problem solving script with the action reflection cycle, it becomes evident that the procedural steps overlap, are cyclical in nature, and promote a person-centered approach to solving a problem by taking action. a closer look reveals that the action-reflection cycle, in comparison to the script, is more extroverted in its nature as it requires competencies that allow for interaction with the surrounding context. it is important to note that the internal and external cycle of information seeking, decision making, and action taking are intertwined and influenced by the individuals’ surrounding social and political context. the ecological system theory13 provides a framework that can be applied to categorize the political and social context of citizens in different systems and to explain the reciprocal influences among citizens and their environment.14 the framework describes four nested systems: 1) micro system (i.e., internal environment; e.g., family, sorority student chapter, regular customers in a coffee house), 2) meso system (i.e., the overlap and interaction of two or more micro systems), 3) exo system (i.e., external environment; e.g., work place of spouse, neighborhood community, local politics), and 4) macro system (i.e., larger socio-cultural environment; e.g., national politics, recession, war, cultural values). all four levels are reciprocally connected, and, therefore, changes in one system cause changes in other systems, like a stone creates circles when it falls into water (see figure 1, red labels). finally, the crono system describes how systems change over time (e.g., the historical differences of protesting and campaigning strategies between 1968 and 2009). in accordance with the ecological system theory, the cyclical process of information seeking, decision making, and action taking differs from citizen to citizen, system to system, and time to time. for example, different parenting styles at the micro level can foster different civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions in children.15 children who are not part of decision making and are subjects to strict rules and punishments without knowing their rationales behind them (i.e., authoritarian parenting style) are less likely to engage in democratic process than students who are part of family decisions, receive explanations for rules, and understand the reasons for                                                                                                                           13 urie bronfenbrenner, the ecology of human development. (cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 1979). 14 florian haerle (feucht) and lisa bendixen, “personal epistemology in elementary classrooms: a conceptual comparison of germany and the united states and a guide for future cross-cultural research”. in knowing, knowledge and beliefs: epistemological studies across diverse cultures. edited by myint khine (ed.). dordrecht, netherlands: springer (2008): 165-190. 15 carol sigelman and elizabeth rider. life-span human development. (belmont, ca, wadsworth cengage learning, 2009).   in  factis  pax  4(1)  (2010):  1-­‐10   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     8   the encouragement and punishment of their behavior (i.e., authoritative parenting style). a second example is the democratic election of representatives at different system levels of the environment, such as the president of a sorority student chapter (i.e., micro level) and the president of the federal government (i.e., macro level). in both cases, it can be assumed that individuals follow the same democratic principle, but would apply somewhat different strategies and sources to identify information (e.g., sorority bulletin boards and news paper vs. national news papers, tv, and election campaigns), apply different criteria when making a decision for whom to vote (i.e., student life vs. national security, health care, and economic revitalization), and take different actions in the election process (e.g., using a hat as ballot box vs. electronic voting system). in essence, participating in democracy requires citizens to have different civic knowledge, skills, and attitudes that work together in a cyclical process and that differ based on the nature and system level of their social and political context. introducing and contextualizing contributions of the current issue the first issue of the trilogy on skills, values, and beliefs for today’s democratic citizenship focuses on psychological competencies, such as processes of deliberation, informal reasoning in a variety of context, moral development, anger and conflict as an affective drive to identify and engage with political entities, and beliefs about the nature of knowledge and processes of knowing. each of these aspects can be linked back to previously discussed civic competences (i.e., knowledge, skills, and dispositions) and identified in the framework of information seeking, decision making, and action taking in a social and political context (see figure 1). lori olafson investigated in her article entitled “good” americans and “bad” americans: personal epistemology, moral reasoning, and citizenship” the reasoning of war resisters and veterans about the choices they made to participate in, or to refuse military service involving armed combat in the vietnam war. using a mixed method approach, olafson examined the moral development, beliefs about knowledge and knowing (i.e., personal epistemology), and civic engagement of her participants. she identified overlapping matters that were typical to war resisters and veteran, respectively; war resisters holding more advanced levels of personal epistemology and moral development. when looking at the introductory framework (figure 1), both war resisters and veterans sought information at the national personal and national level (micro and macro system), but came to different conclusions and followed through with contrary actions. veterans chose to serve their country (exo and macro level) by going into combat invading all levels of the vietnam eco system (i.e., families, neighborhoods country, etc.) and to return to the us eco system after their deployment ended. war resisters, in contrast, left their original ecosystem because they felt that their values and beliefs at the micro level were not compatible with the values and beliefs hold at the exo and macro level of the us society and decided to permanently ‘transplant’ their own micro system into the eco system of a foreign country, canada, where their beliefs and values were accepted by the canadian society and government (exo and macro level). claudia ruitenberg in her article on “conflict, affect and the political: on disagreement as democratic capacity” develops a conceptual argument grounded in political   in  factis  pax  4(1)  (2010):  1-­‐10   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     9   philosophy with a psychoanalytical perspective of the importance for citizens to form an affective attachment to political parties and initiatives and not only to seek out a rational, emotion-free process of decision making and action taking in a political context. ruitenberger makes the case that the opportunity to have feelings of solidarity, anger, excitement is a crucial competencies for citizens to imagine alternative political perspectives, identities, and forms of civic engagement. when looking at the introductory framework (figure 1), ruitenberg’s contribution focuses on the affective, dispositional side of the problem-solving and action reflection cycle. the affective attachment or identification with a political entity can occur at within all four eco system levels. michael weinstock addresses in his article entitled “epistemic understanding and sound reasoning skills that underlie effective democratic engagement” the importance of deliberation skills as a core competence for civic engagement. he reviews research on people’s ability to perform informal reasoning, evaluate knowledge sources and arguments, and identify fallacies. weinstock in particular focuses on these reasoning skills in jurors. he found that jurors who have more advanced epistemic understanding (i.e., knowledge is made up of objective facts and subjective opinions, are more sophisticated in their reasoning skills than jurors who hold a more naïve epistemic understanding (i.e. knowledge is objective and certain). when looking at the introductory framework (figure 1), juries made up of several jurors constitute micro systems that reach verdicts on the defendants’ decision making and action taking. interestingly, the juries’ micro systems represent the socio-cultural values and beliefs of their countries exo and macro systems. gregory schraw, lori olafson, michelle vander veldt, and jennifer ponder who contributed an intervention study entitled “teachers’ epistemological stances and citizenship education” were interested if the beliefs of social studies teachers about knowledge, knowing, and teaching as well as about civic knowledge and education change during the duration of a graduate study course in elementary social studies. schraw et al. measured these psychological and civic competencies (i.e., knowledge, skills, and attitudes) before and after the 15 week course. they found that the course promoted teachers’ learning about civic knowledge and education and increased their awareness of their beliefs about knowledge, knowing, and teaching. however, these beliefs did not change. when looking at the introductory framework (figure 1), schraw and colleagues used a graduate course (micro system) to improve the civic competencies of teachers in elementary social study classrooms. the underlying assumptions of the teacher training was that the participating teachers would apply and teach their new acquired civic competencies to the students in their own classrooms (micro systems). this would be a multiplicative effect of one micros system (graduate course) into many new micro systems (elementary classrooms) on behalf of society and its education system (exo and macro system). two discussants volunteered to provide carefully deliberated thought pieces to round up this special issue. lisa bendixen contributed a discussion entitled “argumentation, anger, and action: citizenship education in and out of the classroom” and focused on the importance and development of civic skills and disposition as two competencies of civic education. from an educational psychology perspective, bendixen discusses four themes which she identified across   in  factis  pax  4(1)  (2010):  1-­‐10   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     10   the four different articles. the themes are: “1) argumentation and deliberation, 2) affect and anger, 3) civic action (or a lack thereof), and 4) imagining a ‘good citizen’”16. dale snauwaert, in contrast, provides a philosophical reflection from a peace educator perspective, entitled “democracy as public deliberation and the psychology of epistemological world views and moral reasoning”. snauwaert introduces three fundamental elements of democracy – equality, fairness, and deliberation – and contemplates their meaning for, and relationship to, the different psychological competences put forth in the four articles. under the umbrella of public deliberation, he speaks about freedom and political self-determination, ethics and peace, and the need for sociability, emotional sentiment, and empathy. furthermore, he calls for research to illicit links between these democratic principles and psychological competencies for good citizenship and civic education. overall, all contributions in this issue, articles and discussions alike, address important implications as they pertain to civic education in formal and informal learning settings. it is hoped that the introductory framework (figure 1) will provide a useful platform for the readers to ask questions and draw conclusions within and across the different contributions and themes. a note of thank you i would like to thank dale snauwaert, the editor of in factis pax, for entrusting me with the opportunity to be the guest editor of this special issue and for collaborating with me on completing the review process after we decided to publish not one, but a sequence of three special issues. furthermore, my gratitude goes out to over 50 reviewers who volunteered their time and efforts in providing critical and constructive feedback in a double blind peer review process to improve the quality of individual articles and, therein, of the trilogy as a whole. with respect to the current issue, i would like to also express my sincere appreciation for the discussion pieces that lisa bendixen and dale snauwaert contributed as they further expand its educational value, practical application, and empirical insight. florian c. feucht, ph.d. the university of toledo, usa october 2010                                                                                                                           16 lisa bendixen, “argumentation, anger, and action:citizenship education in and out of the classroom. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 108-119.   volume 18 number 1 (2024): 46-48 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 46 volume 18 number 1 (2024): 46-48 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 book review of dale t. snauwaert: teaching peace as a matter of justice: toward a pedagogy of moral reasoning, pjsa book series, cambridge scholars publishing, 2023, 239pp., isbn 978-1-5275-1866-7 bomi park seoul national university dianne.bomi.park@gmail.com in an era where the concept of peace is often relegated to the cessation of hostilities, teaching peace as a matter of justice redefines the field of peace studies. snauwaert presents a compelling argument for understanding peace not merely as the absence of violence but as a state defined by the ‘presence of justice’ and the active participation of citizens in its maintenance, the ‘political efficacy of citizens’ (2). this book is a profound contribution to the discourse on peace education, asserting that the foundation of a peaceful society is predicated on the development of moral reasoning and justice-oriented citizenship. structured in two parts, the book offers both a normative framework for conceptualizing peace and a practical pedagogy for its realization in educational settings. in the first section, the author lays the philosophical groundwork, drawing on the rich traditions of moral and political philosophy. the exploration begins with the articulation of a normative ethical framework, advocating for a shift from empirical studies of peace to an approach rooted in the principles of justice. through the lens of moral and political philosophy, the book posits that peace is not just the negation of war but a holistic state where justice permeates social structures and individual actions. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax mailto:dianne.bomi.park@gmail.com volume 18 number 1 (2024): 46-48 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 47 this redefinition of peace education is timely and critical. as the book highlights, traditional approaches to peace studies have often failed to address the underlying ethical dimensions of peace and justice. the author’s thesis is built on the premise that peace education must go beyond conflict resolution and address the moral foundations of society. it must encourage students to become not just knowledgeable about peace as a concept but also capable agents of change who can understand and address the structural roots of violence and injustice. the author draws from the educational philosophies of john dewey, paulo freire, and betty reardon to propose a pedagogical approach that centers on moral reasoning. this approach is not a passive acquisition of knowledge but an active process of engagement with the philosophical underpinnings of justice. the book argues that students must be taught not just to think about justice but to apply these thoughts in shaping a just society. the second part of the book transitions from theoretical underpinnings to tangible applications, presenting moral reasoning as a critical skill in addressing complex societal issues. in particular, the peace constitution project is a key pedagogical innovation in peace education, linking theory to practice. it engages students in the creation of a peace constitution, actively involving them in the justice process and moral reasoning. this approach cultivates agentic citizenship as students tackle real issues of justice and societal governance. by addressing power dynamics, inclusivity, and resource allocation, the project enhances students' skills in ethical deliberation. it underpins the book's concepts, transitioning students from passive learners to active participants in societal development, embodying the book's core inquiries of inclusion and decision-making. for each chapter, the author poses pivotal questions about security, belonging, truth, distribution, and power— these questions serve as a springboard for deeper exploration into the ethics of societal structures and individual responsibilities. in ‘who belongs?’ (chapter 5), the text delves into the dynamics of societal inclusion, emphasizing the importance of community membership to our identity. snauwaert asserts, “membership in a community is a basic aspect of our humanity; belonging to social groups is fundamental to being human” (92). this principle of belonging sets the stage for his examination of the distribution of political power in ‘who decides?’ (chapter 8), where he tackles the foundational aspects of democracy and justice. snauwaert scrutinizes the conditions under which a political system can be considered just, stating, “from within the moral point of view of the elements of fairness, the recognition of reciprocal equality suggests that there is no person with authority that is morally superior to any other person... no one can claim political power/authority without the consent of others; that is, there is a valid reason to reject non-consensual claims of power” (146). building on this foundation, ‘who gets what?’ (chapter 7) further explores the concept of distributive justice as “what each person is due and what we owe others as matters of good and right” https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 46-48 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 48 (143), asserting that “the meaning of a just and peaceful society is contingent in part upon how distributive justice is conceived” (144). this perspective is critical to understanding that fairness in resource distribution is essential to avoiding structural violence and oppression, integral to achieving a positive peace. principles of corrective justice and resistance to injustice’ (chapter 9) is particularly insightful. it contrasts corrective justice with ideal principles, situating nonviolence as a normative philosophy and a political strategy. this chapter presents a nuanced discussion of the moral duty to resist injustice and examines nonviolent resistance as the preferred approach while considering the ethical complexities of the use of force. snauwaert argues, “the principles of corrective justice are grounded in the moral duty to resist and transform injustice” (196), highlighting the active role required to uphold justice. the book's discourse on corrective justice is essential, especially in the context of nonideal theory. the author suggests that nonideal theory, which recognizes the imperfections of human society, offers a more pragmatic approach to justice. it acknowledges the role of nonviolence as both a moral and practical strategy for addressing and transforming social injustices. the examination of the use of military force in response to injustice presents a balanced view, recognizing the moral quandaries inherent in real-world conflicts and the ethical considerations that should guide post-conflict scenarios. this text also excels in its global perspective. it acknowledges the diversity of societal contexts and the need for principles of justice that are adaptable to various cultural and social realities. the book underscores the importance of a pedagogy that is not only globally aware but also sensitive to local nuances of injustice and conflict. in conclusion, the author has not only critiqued the existing paradigms of peace education but also a blueprint for an alternative approach. the book is a comprehensive guide for educators, policymakers, and activists who are committed to nurturing just societies through education. it is a persuasive argument for the necessity of a comprehensive educational framework that integrates the principles of justice into everyday learning. with its in-depth analysis and visionary outlook, teaching peace as a matter of justice serves as a crucial resource for all those dedicated to the pursuit of a peaceful society grounded in justice and active citizenship. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 256 volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 widening and wilding toward a regenerative peace education: socio-ecological reflections on iipe nepal 2025 janet c. gerson, stephanie knox steiner, and dani*el*a pastoors introduction a regenerative peace education involves reweaving relationships, of human and more-than-human; relearning how to be good participants in the earth community; repairing and healing from harm of centuries of colonialism and its myriad ongoing effects through justice and accountability; and growing new seeds for new possibilities from what we are able to compost (knox steiner, forthcoming) in this reflective article, we consider how the relational socio-ecological dimension of peace might be called regenerative peace education and discuss how these insights might open peace pedagogy and practices for cultivating dynamic webs of caring relations and generosity of spirit among humans, other living systems and the natural world upon which our survival depends and of which we are a part. we hope that in deeply exploring these considerations using the example of the iipe, the insights might inform other peace education contexts and endeavors. we begin by naming the threads that brought us to this collaboration and build toward a description of our participation in a workshop at iipe nepal 2025. we review foundational concepts in this pursuit, engaging with modernity, peace, interbeing, and sentipensar. we then describe the learning ecosystem of the iipe and delve into the mosaic thinking that forms the substrate to stabilize this ecosystem. mosaic thinking is contrasted to the mutable dynamic aspects within the liminal spaces – interstices, intersubjectivity, and interbeing. next, we engage in a detailed description of a “hospicing modernity” workshop, our roles, and our https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 257 reflections on the hospicing and regenerative immersion. finally, we consider how iipe might enhance, deepen, or further emphasize the socio-ecological dimensions of peace through our relationships with each other, the inner workings of the institute, and the institute’s location in more intentional ways. the threads of our interconnectedness this co-writing emerged from an intense shared learning experience during an iipe ritual-workshop on hospicing modernity (machado de oliveira, 2021) and our intergenerational dialogue, that is weaving the threads of our encounters and experiences over the years, bringing us closer together. our relational starting point is our shared and overlapping experiences from the international institute on peace education and deep love and care for the earth. we choose to write together because relationality is at the heart of what we are investigating – the pedagogical dimensions of a socio-ecological peace practice. we three authors have shared iipe, most recently in the summer of 2024 in nepal. janet is the education director of iipe, which she has been involved in since 1997, when she began working with betty reardon, iipe founder at teachers college, columbia university. her roles include theme development and organizing the program in collaboration with each participant. she oversees the program as it unfolds in a kind of meta facilitator role. stephanie is an assistant professor and academic coordinator of the university for peace in costa rica and has attended iipes in 2022 in mexico and 2024 in nepal. at iipe nepal she served in several space-holding and leadership roles beyond her workshop on hospicing modernity, including reflection group facilitator, plenary panel facilitator, and world cafe table host. dani*el*a is postdoc at the center for interdisciplinary sustainability research (zin) at the university of münster, where she is building an innovation hub on socio-ecological sustainability. at iipe nepal, she was also a workshop presenter. foundational concepts: modernity, interbeing, and sentipensar in this section, we explore the conceptual foundations we engage throughout this article: modernity, peace, interbeing, and sentipensar. at the outset, it is important to note, however, that each of these ideas is more than a “concept” or a theory they are ideas that live in our bodies and shape the world, which is why they are relevant to the social-ecological dimensions of peace. later in the article, we will explore the way mosaic thinking is used to build the schedule and flow of iipes; for now, you might imagine these concepts in a mosaic together, brushing up against each other, placed together to create a vivid picture. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 258 modernity problematized one way to understand the multiple intersecting planetary crises of our time is through the lens of modernity/coloniality, a term which underscores the fact that violence and unsustainability are necessary for modernity to exist (machado de oliveira, 2021). as vanessa machado de oliveira (2021) explains in her book hospicing modernity, [modernity/coloniality] functions as a reminder that the benefits we associate with modernity are created and maintained by historical, systemic, and ongoing processes that are inherently violent and unsustainable. in other words, this term underscores the fact that modernity cannot exist without expropriation, extraction, exploitation, militarization, dispossession, destitution, genocides, and ecocides (p. 18). modernity, as machado de oliveira describes it, is more than a concept or theory. she writes modernity is a ‘who’ rather than a ‘what’ it is presented as a multifaceted, living entity. in this sense, modernity is not a concept, label, or object of analysis. rather, it is a worlding story, a complex adaptive living system that actively does things, including conditioning the habits of knowing and being of those whose lives and livelihoods are intertwined with it (p. 16). at the root of the violence embedded within modernity is separation, or what machado de oliveira refers to as separability, and particularly the separation of humans from “nature,” as if we are outside of nature rather than an integral part of it. this separation, which occurs at ontological, epistemological, and metaphysical levels, makes possible the violence of humans against each other and against nature. this separation has enabled both hierarchies and erasures. through colonization and the process of land theft, there have been attempts to erase indigenous peoples and their ways of knowing and living. these continue as evidenced by living examples such as chief ninawa hurii kui, who has collaborated with vanessa machado de oliveira. chief kui, international indigenous scholar from the amazon in brazil, articulates how this separation has diminished our abilities to feel and relate: the climate catastrophe and biodiversity apocalypse are not technical, but relational problems created by a sense of separation from the land/planet imposed by colonialism. from this perspective, colonialism presents a cognitive, affective, relational, and neurological impairment based on illusions of separation and superiority that have damaged our relationships with our own selves, with each other, with other species and with the https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 259 land/planet we are a part of, with deadly consequences for all involved (moving worlds report, 2023, 90). chief kui invites us to consider these illusions of separation and superiority as causing neurological impairment that results from damaged sensitivities to others with whom we share the earth, the inability to feel in connection to others. the neurobiological impairment creates dis-ease in our collective body, with symptoms of human greed, vanity, arrogance, and indifference. these symptoms are driving destruction of ecosystems that are essential for survival, like the amazon rainforest, and placing humanity on the path of premature extinction (moving worlds report, 2023, 90). relating to our peace education efforts, it is important to note that modernity is both the foundation of and perpetuated through compulsory modern formal schooling, such as national and private formal schooling systems. given these understandings of modernity at ontological, epistemological, metaphysical, affective, relational, and neurobiological levels, our peace education efforts attempt to address these levels of violence and separation, as well as integrating indigenous wisdom without appropriation. furthermore, we acknowledge the ways that modernity’s related forms of violence and separation are woven into the fabric of the institutions we are a part of and consider how to weave otherwise. to more deeply engage the socioecological dimensions of peace, we propose to expand reardon’s call for a holistic vision of peace to go further. we therefore embrace interbeing and sentipensante approaches to counter the illusion of separation put forward by modernity. peace there are myriad ways to define and describe peace, and peace is ultimately a plural (paces) or pluriversal concept. peace is fundamentally about relationships: with ourselves, one another, and the earth, as the earth charter succinctly puts forward. the earth charter (2000) is an ethical document, a vision of hope, and a call to action, that “seeks to inspire in all people a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the well-being of the whole human family, the greater community of life, and future generations” (earth charter website). the earth charter commission (2000) describes peace as “the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part.” the earth charter vision of peace resonates with the interrelatedness that we aim to explore. by defining peace this way, we begin to move beyond the dominant paradigm of the war system in which patriarchy and violence are intertwined, and even beyond reardon’s paradigm of peace as “transformative response to the war paradigm”. for reardon the peace paradigm is transformative based on cultivating and educating for a foundation of an https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 260 interdependent web of values and understandings that foster the universal actualization of human dignity….and just peace” (snauwaert, 2019, p. xvii). our vision is similar to reardon’s, building upon it. we look forward to developing this further to include all living systems. interbeing given the centrality of separation to modernity, a path through modernity towards something and beyond it is remembering our interbeing with all of life. we live in an interconnected, entangled world that can be characterized by interbeing, the term coined by zen master thich nhat hanh to articulate beyond interconnectedness. the word interconnected still implies some sense of separation separate entities that are connected. but interbeing articulates that we do not and cannot exist without everything in the universe, and that everything is interdependent. as thich nhat hanh explained, “interbeing is not a theory; it is a reality that can be directly experienced by each of us at any moment in our daily lives” (2012). it is important to recognize that many indigenous, religious, and spiritual traditions share this understanding and worldview, though many may use different words to describe it (such as interconnectedness, oneness, unity, etc.). interbeing is thus an ontological counterpoint to the separability put forth through modernity. interbeing is a reality, an awareness, and something we can experience in any given moment through our bodies, our relationships, and the world around us. for example, in each breathe, we can bring our awareness to how we are breathing with the plant life around us; with each inhale, we breathe in oxygen that the plants have produced, and with each exhale of carbon dioxide, we contribute to the air that the plants around us absorb. in a very real, visceral (not theoretical) way, we are breathing together. we don’t need to be sharing proximate physical space to experience interbeing, however; even on zoom, we can experience interbeing knowing that we are indeed sharing the physical space of our planetary home and that the lands that we are on, while distant, remain connected through ecological phenomena, and that the technological infrastructure that connects us is still of the earth. the technological platforms and server farms, while reliant on highly extractive industries, many located in conflict zones, are still part of the earth. dwelling in this reality is very much a practice of interbeing we inter-are with beauty and magnificence, and we inter-are with all of the destruction and violence that has been perpetuated through modernity. sentipensar interbeing is an ontological understanding and experience of reality as interconnected, and we might consider sentipensar as its embodied, affective expression, one that reaches beyond an intellectual understanding. academically, colombia anthropologist orlando fals-borda first named the concept, which was https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 261 further developed by colombian-american arturo escobar (2015), though the sentiment of sentipensar stretches far beyond the academy. mexican-austrian tlaltenanguense researcher from a pre-community within mexico city, alejandra barrera brought it to the forefront of iipe learning in mexico 2023. sentipensar invites an opening of capacities and sensibilities, informing not only human-to-human relations, but importantly expanding human relations’ potential for recognizing and valuing the well-being of all earth’s living systems (barrera and gerson, in process). sentipensar is a relational method of integrating sensing, feeling, and thinking rather than splitting them apart. sentipensar brings forward an indigenous way of knowing and connecting in contrast to modernity’s methods of separating, categorizing, and analyzing. rationality and thinking are prioritized in modern education, as are verbal communication. if we are to value and engage in a deep ecological way, we also need to allow for the wild, spontaneous, serendipitous, and organic ways of knowing. in fact, we do use these feeling, sensing, and intuiting capacities in all our encounters. our main intention in this article is to further how we are always already engaging sentipensante in experiential learning, and how we might bring it more into the light in iipe pedagogy. as peace educators, we are finding and feeling our way, beginning with the question of how we might educate for a more loving, generous and peaceful engagement with the earth, air, soil, water and other living beings with whom we share and depend upon these aspects of our ecosystem. focused on peace education, we consider these relations and how we might open our sensing, feeling and thinking toward deeper relations in peace learning. to engage these ideas further, we will explore iipe as a peace learning ecosystem. iipe as a learning ecosystem: mosaic stability and wild filament web-building iipe as a pedagogical form each iipe brings together sixty participants, half of whom are from around the world and the other half are from the identified region of the co-sponsor. the iipe secretariat seeks out co-sponsors with an institutional organization to gather participants from that locale with special focus on the peace education issues of that region and the sponsors. in dialogue, the iipe secretariat and the co-sponsors generate a guiding theme. our topic derives from one strand of the iipe nepal 2024 theme as restated in janet’s plenary presentation, “mosaic thinking: the substrate of iipe programming” (gerson, 2024 iipe). the ecological and climate crisis, and the transgression of the planetary boundaries present a clearly global, shared problematic for exploring https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 262 tensions between indigenous and scientific knowledge ways of knowing and the ways of being with the challenges and necessities of modernity and the technological approaches to life. the iipe theme statement provided a focus for invitations to apply and proposed related contributions. in the week-long intensive residential learning experience, all the participants have both contributing and learning roles. this is one way that iipe aims to diminish hierarchy. those who give plenary presentations will also be at breakfast with you or be a participant in your workshop. the program is woven from participants’ proposed contributions: workshops, plenary presentations, and sometimes films, cultural sharing, author talks, or other special activities. in addition, every day participants join an assigned reflection group. for workshops, each person can choose one out of five concurrent offerings according to their interests in the content and the presenter. the reflection group participants are assigned, but there is no predetermined content. this way participants get to know some people better and to share their experiences from each day throughout the week. to maximize diverse encounters and have an open space for spontaneity, each group has at least one person from the region, a mix of genders, ages, and at least one experienced iipe person. one or two facilitators are responsible for each group. these facilitators make up an informal communication network, which can speed up problem-solving and solutions. iipe form is similar to and yet different from a learning intensive or a retreat. participants must commit to staying all week. like spores (barrera and gerson, in process), participants carry the seeds of their environment – cultural, linguistic, their conflicts, questions, and experiences as peace educators from all over. in cyprus, for example, the topic was “divided societies”. in nepal, it was developing the education system throughout the country with rural traditional villages and the aspirations for modernization in conjunction with building postwar reconciliation. in colombia, it was bringing different groups together from across the difficult, war-torn country to connect as co-citizens and learn to appreciate their different conditions. the intentional convergence aims to fertilize a web of relations, each participant-spore bringing their special knowledge and their particular needs to spin a web of connections – the red (or net) as our spanish speaking friends say, toward building a pluriverse. we intend to generate fertile ground in the iipe space to cultivate openness, like peeling back protective seed pods, to bring a sense of commonality amongst these diverse people, or to give a sense of safety and alternative hominess. in this sense, each iipe is conceived to cultivate the growth of connections, generating a web of relations that make up global civil society. global civil society is loosely constituted through an expansive network cross-cutting through national borders, singular, and local concerns. this web of relations grows with encounters https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 263 with peace educators and others. iipe’s pedagogical form is woven to cross-fertilize peace thinking, learning, and action beyond each person’s easily touched connections. this stretching growth feeds into a network of peace activists who support each other’s activism across global times and spaces. this worldwide human web aspires to be as fertile as what fungi botanist merlin sheldrake describes in his book the entangled life (2020). entangled life refers to mycelium networks, fungi webs of growing root fibers called hyphae (pronounced hi-fee), each reaching toward resources and relationships they need. this metaphor reflects the iipe peace pedagogy that aims to generate a dynamic global relational network of individuals engaged in peace practices that simultaneously preserve individuality while forming non-hierarchical, flexible, and transforming interconnections (barrera and gerson, forthcoming). how is this done? each iipe is a unique configuration of humans in a unique place, there is some repetition and reconvening over time as participants return to iipe. this allows relationships to strengthen and build and deepen over time. iipe is both short-term (one week) and long-term (taking place over 40 years, with some participants having joined across many of those years). with respect to a socio-ecological dimension for peace, this invites us into a consideration of time, and deep time, which means time beyond linearity and human time scales – the time of mountains and rivers. it is the deep time of the places we inhabit in iipe – the himalayas being a beautiful example. relating to the iipe nepal theme, considerations of time highlight the tension of tradition and modernity, as we consider the linear time of our one week together, the flight schedules needed for us to arrive together, in contrast to deep time, spiral time, circle time, that often characterizes our lives and learning journeys more precisely. another leveler is that there is a certain shared disorientation – almost no one is “home,” as even those from the host country do not live in the exact place where the meeting takes place, and the shared experience of disorientation creates an opening for possibilities that aren’t visible when there is shared context. our experience draws from different forms of alternative ways of humanto-human learning. our shared learning space is the international institute on peace education (iipe). the pedagogical approach includes inquiry, dialogue, reflection, and experiential learning, bringing together learners from across the globe. the snugness of the intensive intends to warm people up to reciprocal learning and open them to a pluriverse of sentient understandings of our complex world. by reflecting on the pedagogical forms and processes of the iipe, we explore the ways in which inclusivity, reciprocity and mutuality are already present. when we consider the iipe as a learning ecosystem, we can expand the learning environment beyond the presentations and workshops as content. the elements of the learning ecosystem include the iipe structure itself; the https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 264 participants; the content they offer and bring in the form of workshops, plenaries, etc.; the site (hotel, lodging, meals, excursions, cultural performances) and the land and region. the setting and location very much inform and shape the learning that takes place and add to a richness and complexity that shift shape as the institute moves location over the years. the seeds from one iipe carry across to others for example, sentipensar was a central concept brought forward in iipe 2022 in mexico, which has been carried forward into iipe 2024 and beyond. the place, the food we are nourished by, the coffee conversations, and hot tub swims, field excursions and walks, all contribute to the rich learning ecosystem that is iipe, and the global network of peace educators who have been a part of it over its 40-plus years. mosaic thinking in the iipe formation: substrate, interstices, and intersubjectivity envisioning a common home, and reconstructing a common humanity calls for entering liminal spaces, crossing borderlines, and venturing into borderlands and thinking of unknown-knowing (teresa sacco, 2024). in this section, we add a layer to the ecosystem metaphor through mosaic thinking, the approach that janet, as the educational director, takes in building and weaving the cohesive program structure for each iipe. substrate mosaic thinking is a metaphor for bringing together the iipe theme and the accepted participants’ proposals with the substrate, the basic program form that is the same every year. in the craft of mosaic making, a substrate is the foundational layer, a firm, stabilizing base upon which the mosaic is built (gerson, 2024). the substrate may become invisible or only somewhat visible, as for example, in the construction of a building. the program/substrate as a structural element may be more visible early on. it serves as an important reference that helps us to orient ourselves and coordinate the group. as the week continues, the program/substrate recedes from consciousness as the patterns become more familiar to all. this happens as people feel more that they know what’s happening, feel more relaxed, and happily, the programming too becomes more alive. participants’ contributions can be an experiential workshop or a short plenary presentation. each proposal is like a tessera, a mosaic piece to be worked into the program, which is janet’s special contribution. the contributions are intact in this process like mosaic stones. each has multiple facets that could fit into the program puzzle in several alternative ways. in experimenting with their placement during the planning phase, sub-themes emerge as either vertical “day” themes or horizontal themes that run through the program week. when this process is done, it looks neat and doable. yet it is flat! it’s a map, a plan. what dynamizes the material https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 265 program plan are the sources of energy the organizers, the presenters, and the others taking part bring to each activity. what happens in how we connect? what makes the experiences alive, people encounters memorable, and learning insights profound? this is what takes place dynamically between and among us. three levels of depth can be described as interstices, intersubjectivity, and interbeing (as described above). these signify three levels or types of cross fertilization relating to socio-ecology and to peace pedagogy. these are three understandings of bridging the liminal spaces. they contrast with the stabilizing mosaic thinking used in planning and sustaining the iipe program. applicants and those accepted to iipe have been asked to present themselves as peace educators in both their education and their professional positions. they are asked to draw on those identity elements to offer contributions for the shared learning of those others who will attend. this shared learning does offer a relational aspect. in janet’s experience, these self-identifying aspects act as stabilizing identities that help people move into a disorienting situation, disorienting in locale and encounters. they provide a grounding given the widening flood of new encounters juxtaposed to narrowing activities as the institute starts. interstices what helps on the sunday, arrival day, is a process of introduction through turntaking in facilitation movement-sound-embodied activities. this can be initiated with a name game, such as going around a circle from which participants step out, “sing” their name while moving in a rhythm. an additional adjective may be added to help everyone remember that person in a multi-sensory way. the group then repeats what the individual said while repeating the movement. this is also humorous – silliness being a great diffuser of anxiety. the opening games are facilitated by one person after another so that everyone has an opportunity. the first people are the ones who are familiar with iipe. as new people arrive, they can join in. what is amazing is that every person there is experienced with these kinds of activities. this is stated explicitly from the beginning so that experienced educator-leaders also practice letting others, more and less experienced, lead activities. this is a communal practice in empowerment through turn-taking, through shifting into different roles with each other, a very simple practice in understanding and responding to the (rotating) presenter. this is the beginning of shifting from an identity on paper – my name is…. i am from…my language is…my work is…i am here because i want to learn…and share…, find work, etc. this shifting also dynamizes a sensory reaching out, not unlike the biological hyphae, the root hair filaments making connections in mycelial webs. in mosaic thinking, if each person and their stated on-paper https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 266 identities are seemingly intact, these are the starting points for generating connections. the spaces between each person-as-piece in the program begins to morph across to others through the spaces in-between, the interstices. interstices in mosaics are the spaces between the tesserae, the individual tiles or stones that are combined to make a mosaic whole greater than its individual parts. in human encounters, the interstices are the spaces for serendipitous, surprising, or new actions and dynamics. the roles assigned – plenary moderator, plenary presenter, workshop presenter, reflection group facilitator, workshop participant, are also forms of tesserae, of pieces in the as -yet un-dynamized, about-to-be-realized, unfolding in co-constructing our learning community. each iipe learning community takes on a uniqueness in the fertile ground of each place, the co-sponsors, and the participants. each is a convergence of past participants, new people, and the context of local and global concerns. the convergences invite cross-fertilization of the subjectivities of those present. one might say that the stated identifications each person offers is a material, a concrete, or an objective way to begin to know someone. as the week unfolds, the subjectivities will emerge. intersubjectivities the intersubjectivities entail the opening of ourselves to others in ways that allow for new growth, expandedness, or sometimes, an upheaval. the concept of intersubjectivity is used in various social sciences, psychology, philosophy and sociology. the phenomenological philosopher edmund husserl described as “selfdetermination through ‘position-taking’, in the form of ‘judgment’ or ‘will’, that the subject constitutes itself as an individual person” (beyer, 2022 on husserl, p. 17). according to husserl, intersubjective experience plays a fundamental role in our constitution of both ourselves as objectively existing subjects, other experiencing subjects, and the objective spatio-temporal world. transcendental phenomenology attempts to reconstruct the rational structures underlying—and making possible—these constitutive achievements. from a first-person point of view, intersubjectivity comes in when we undergo acts of empathy. intersubjective experience is empathic experience; it occurs in the course of our conscious attribution of intentional acts to other subjects, in the course of which we put ourselves into the other one’s shoes (beyer, 2022, p. 18). there is a certain wildness -unpredictable, emergent, organic -in these opening encounters with each other, wild in the sense of the unknown, and within this https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 267 unknown are potential specks of transformation. this is what south african professor teressa saco refers to as “entering liminal spaces, crossing borderlines, and venturing into borderlands and thinking of unknown-knowing” (2024). in experiencing a moment, conversation, interaction, shared activity in a way that changes your sense of the world and yourself in it. in this sense, the iipe experience is not so much one of learning what we might understand as objective or factuality. learning facts is an important part. however, the main generative component is intersubjectivity. intersubjectivity captures the experience with another of experiencing new sensitivities, new understandings, unexpected turn-arounds in your worldview, and in the sense of others as well. gift economy intersubjectivity is exemplified by empathy, the capacity to understand and/or identify with another person’s feelings, experiences, and positions. all these dimensions of intersubjectivity are related to the peace values of inclusivity, reciprocity, and mutuality. these values are significant in cultivating a spirit of generosity, another pragmatic element of iipe. not only does a spirit of generosity make the interrelatedness of iipe’s week go more smoothly; it also relates to an as-yetunidentified dimension, a gift economy. robin wall kimmerer is an indigenous scientist who explains a healthy, sustaining, ecological model using a berrying bush and its eco-relational interactions. in the serviceberry: abundance and reciprocity in the natural world (2024), she elaborates on the work of genevieve vaughn (2016) and lewis hyde (2019) on the concept of a gift economy. she explains that “serviceberries are part of indigenous foodways wherever they grow.” (p. 6). as a member of the potawatomi nation, tells us that its name is “bozakmin”. for me, the most important part of the word bozakmin is ‘min’, the root for ‘berry’…that word is a revelation because it is also the root word for ‘gift’. in naming the plants who shower us with goodness, we recognize that these are gifts from our plant relatives, manifestations of their generosity, care, and creativity (2024, p. 6-7). kimmerer speaks with warmth, clarity, insight and a poetic, sensuous spirituality which is an increasingly recognized necessity for a true interrelated, interconnected, and holistic ecological perspective. to use these words so familiar in the ecological peace world is not enough. they are so familiar that their felt meaning needs elaboration as we aim to do here. kimmerer goes on to say that her indigenous traditions cultivate a “culture of gratitude” (p. 11). https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 268 in a gift economy, the currency in circulation is gratitude and connection, rather than goods or money. a gift economy includes a system of social and moral agreements for indirect reciprocity rather than a direct exchange…the prosperity of the community grows from the flow of relationships, not the accumulation of goods” (p. 34). this understanding of mutuality and reciprocity, where inclusiveness recognizes how soil, air, water, plants and creatures are important to acknowledge as gifts of life to all of us. betty reardon referred to iipe as a moveable feast referring especially to the rich encounters with people, even more than the delights we have with food. the idea of the gift economy helps us to understand ourselves as not only inextricably connected to each other. it also brings home how our very existence depends on so much from life around us and we each have a role in contributing to the well-being of others. inside of the web: our learning experience with the ritual-workshop on hospicing modernity in this section, we will deeply explore one pedagogical intervention as an example of engaging sentipensar and intersubjectivity in our efforts to bring forward a socioecological dimension of peace. on day 4, thursday the day's subtheme was decolonialization and critical pedagogy which preceded stephanie’s workshop. next, the whole group split up, each person choosing one of five workshops to attend. stephanie facilitated a workshop on “hospicing modernity”. dani*el*a and janet chose to attend. in the workshop, we role-played the idea of being doulas with one person acting out the role of modernity passing away. dani*el*a took that role and janet was one of two doulas. stephanie’s perspective as the facilitator i proposed to offer the ritual-workshop on hospicing modernity as an expression of regenerative peace pedagogies (brandmeier, 2024) and as a way of relating to the conference theme of “navigating the tensions between tradition and modernity” (iipe, 2024). it was also intended to build upon and extend my facilitated offering at the previous iipe in mexico city, in which i guided an activity around the co-sensing with radical tenderness poem by vanessa andreotti and dani d’emilia, vanessa andreotti, and the gesturing towards decolonial futures collective (2018). i have described regenerative peace education in the following way (knox steiner, 2025, forthcoming): https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 269 a regenerative peace education involves reweaving relationships, of human and more-than-human; relearning how to be good participants in the earth community; repairing and healing from harm of centuries of colonialism and its myriad ongoing effects through justice and accountability; and growing new seeds for new possibilities from what we are able to compost. one of the most pressing tasks of our time becomes what vanessa machado de oliveira (2021) calls hospicing modernity, of learning to compost these toxic, violent, destructive systems, cultures, and ways of being and from this composted soil, growing ways of being that are regenerative, just, peaceful, loving, and grounded in care. fundamentally, education transformation requires remembering ourselves as a community, and i see reweaving community (human and earth) as a fundamental task of a regenerative peace education. the workshop i offered was based on vanessa machado de oliveira’s book hospicing modernity and connected to ideas around creating a regenerative peace education a peace education that is rooted in an awareness of our interbeing and sees the main tasks of education as being unlearning separation and remembering interbeing (knox steiner, 2023). my curiosity became: if we think about peace education as a regenerative practice, what might happen if we practice hospicing modernity together? one of the very generative and rich aspects of iipe is the encouragement of experimentation. in developing this workshop, i was playing with themes that were alive for me, both as a human being trying to navigate my way through modernity and seed other possible ways of being and living, and as a facilitator-professor. with this workshop, i was able to play beyond the bounds of what i might be able to do in a graduate-level classroom, where there is some expectation of the professor delivering content, even within a highly participatory, co-creative, elicitive space of our peace education master’s program. at iipe, experimentation is the expectation. the experiment was very much informed by my experience with studying, teaching, and dwelling with the book, and as noted, an extension of my previous iipe mexico offering. the experiment was also informed by my own experience of being in hospice with my mother, who died unexpectedly of complications from type 1 diabetes in the depths of the covid-19 pandemic of january 2021. this was prevaccine covid times (vaccines were just starting to become available for the most vulnerable, but at least where we lived, had not become available yet). she went into a coma on january 1, entered hospice on january 13, and passed away on january 16, 2021. for those three days, my immediate family and i held vigil in the hospice, where we were allowed to be in the room with her, two at a time, masked, unlike the intensive care unit at the hospital, which we were not able to enter due https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 270 to covid precautions and the high rate of hospitalizations at that time. in hospice, we sat with her, meditated, sang, breathed, laughed, cried. we watched her body flailing, coughing (this is my daughter’s clearest memory of that time that “gaga was coughing a lot”), writhing, and then…stillness, quiet. we sat and witnessed life leaving her physical body. as much as the workshop was inspired by the book, it was also deeply informed by bearing witness, singing to, praying to, speaking to, and loving my mother in the final breaths of her earthly life. given this personal experience in hospice, i wondered how it might inform hospicing modernity. with that in mind, i designed the workshop as a ritual-roleplay-ceremony. i took on the role of host and ceremony leader, and as we began, i announced that modernity had begun its demise, and we were gathered to engage in the act of hospicing. (you will hear from participants who played the role of hospice caregiver and a dying modernity below). the intention was to treat modernity as a dying being not a dimension, or a concept, or a paradigm, but an actual living being (as described in the quote shared earlier in the paper) and offer him/her/they/it the care any dying being deserves to relieve suffering as much as possible, to listen, to witness. along these lines, i offered invitations to participants, such as: • to stay with the trouble (haraway, 2016) of watching and witnessing this world dying, and the discomfort that might bring up • to use this time to put down the question, “what can i get out of this workshop?” or “how can i apply this in my context?” in the spirit of disrupting transactional ways of relating to educational experiences. the invitation is to just be present without expectation of what you will receive, although i hope you do receive a lot from our time together. • there is a way in which over-intellectualizing and even dialogue can be a form of bypassing our sensefulness and being in touch with what is going on in our mind-body-hearts. so, the invitation here is to also be aware of that. through the workshop, as we role-played the ritual of hospicing modernity, we were also trying to hospice modernity within ourselves and the way it can show up through habits of transaction, separation, and extraction. this workshop was offered in the spirit of experimentation that is encouraged at iipe at the edges of peace education. i designed it for the specific setting of iipe and the audience of global peace educators, had never offered it before, and invited us to be in the messiness and experimentation together through the process. i was very forthcoming with participants in this experiment that i didn’t know how it would go. in short, i was prepared for it to fail. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 271 we began with a song, oh death by rising appalachia (add link), and i offered a brief overview, and the aforementioned invitations about the work we were about to do together. it is worth noting that participants chose to be there and chose this topic, and i offered a warning at the beginning that the workshop was about hospicing and death, and that these can be heavy and triggering themes, and to take care of themselves and each other (and they really did). we then built an altar to honor the gifts that modernity had offered us, such as the technological developments such as airplanes and smart phones that allowed us to find out about the iipe, apply, and travel there. the next stage involved getting into roles. participants chose whether to be a hospicing doula or modernity. we had three groups of four, with three doulas and one person acting as modernity. to begin, groups spent a little time getting into their roles with the others who were taking the role on. then we divided into groups. i guided participants through a hospicing experience of three stages: stage 1: modernity has been given the terminal diagnosis but is still conscious. you are able to converse with modernity. see what happens. stage 2: modernity enters the next stage of the death process and is no longer conscious or able to speak. modernity is invited to act this out, and the doulas are invited to bear witness, and take in the teachings of this moment. stage 3: modernity takes its last breath and comes to stillness if they weren’t there already. we are all invited to sit with this stillness. modernity is a part of us, and when modernity dies, a part of us dies with them. in the final stage of the workshop, i invited participants to grieve modernity, just asking the question, “how would you grieve modernity?” there was open time and space for this, and then a closing round of reflections (had we had more time, i would have invited participants to write a eulogy for modernity, and then we would have built an altar to seed the new world that is being birthed after modernity). this workshop was intended and i believe it met this aim of being a regenerative peace pedagogy a pedagogical act that directly engaged participants in feeling themselves as part of the larger earth metabolism that we are a part of. it was an example of a transrational (cremin, kester, & echevarria, 2018) and sentipensante pedagogy (rendon, 2009), and thus meant to be a transrational, embodied, and affective exploration of the theme of decolonial peace education. janet’s experience role-playing doula https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 272 my acting as a doula in the workshop role-play necessitated deep attentiveness. the doula is a responsive role. modernity dying as enacted by dani*el*a, was played without words, or without any direct responses to me or oschan, the other doula. i opened my senses to take in the external cues from oschan and from dani*el*a’s actions. i simultaneously listened carefully to what my body felt in response to this situation. i re-experienced the times i have been a kind of midwife to the deaths of people very dear to me. i remembered the success of feeling-with, being present, and breathing with those dear ones. i aimed to do this with dani*el*a’s character. their curled-in shape, lack of talking, and lack of eye or hand contact gave us no directives. responses as doulas required patience, creativity, not unlike talking to a tree. oshan or i sporadically asked them a question. some of their movements could be taken as responses, but not definitely. as they let go, we two also had to let them go. their stillness signaled a powerful emptiness. in witnessing dani*el*a’s painful state, i had to be very patient with myself. i had to remember that they were the focus. our presencing their passage was for them primarily. as a witness, i also had to attend to my own pain in being with their experience. though painful, and frightening, i found solace and patience in my breathing. i hoped that my breathing would find its way into their consciousness. i imagined myself as a huge protective presence, taking care to bring a sense of safety from outside. i hoped that they could feel this, although they could not say it to me. they were being diminished before our eyes, i thought, on their own journey, taking leave of us. i was relieved after the role-play ended when we could actually comfort dani*el*a, thankful that they were not actually dying, but rather their own lively self-reviving. dani*el*a’s experience as a participant in the role of the dying modernity i raised my hand to take on the role of modernity that is dying. there were three of us and we discussed how we understood this role and how we would shape it. the image of a drug addict dying of an overdose had arisen in my mind. i tried to get into this reality and go into the role, play with this basic idea, and at the same time be open to what would emerge in the process, what would feel coherent and authentic at that particular moment. it started directly with the death struggle. i lay twitching on the floor in stage 1, my body was cramped and twitching at the same time, full of strength and vigor, the remaining life energy culminating in these last moments with unimagined intensity. i was completely introverted and had almost no contact with the outside world. my sensory channels were largely closed. at the very foggy edge of my perception, i sensed that the two doulas were there, but i couldn't understand their attempts to make contact and their offers of care, let alone respond to them. on the one hand, i was wrestling with death, fighting an agony death struggle to keep https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 273 breathing and moving; on the other hand, i was floating completely in my intoxication, melting in the ecstasy of delirium and dissolving in elation. in stage 2, i breathed my last breath, my movement ended in a standstill in the embryonic position, and i died. the dissolution and fusion came to completion; it was an abyss and a redemption at the same time. the calm of the standstill formed an indescribable contrast to the frenzy of before. i let myself fall and was carried by the emptiness, depth and vastness, by nothingness. i wasn't there in stage 3. i was dead. and i don't know what happened after my death. and then the role play was officially over. the group was invited to come back together and share what it was like in a final round. voices came to me, i perceived them and was thus in contact, in connection, without knowing how or who i was. without feeling whether i had my own materiality or knowing how i was in the world. i lay on the ground, motionless and blind. but little by little, i felt and heard the other living beings: i heard a bird chirping, felt a breeze on my skin, heard the voices of the other workshop participants and felt sunbeams on my body. in the end, it was the sun that brought me to life: the warmth i could feel gave me the energy to make my first small movement. still curled up in the embryonic pose, i stretched and turned my head a little so that some of the sun's rays touched my face directly. it was a magical moment. i was lying there; there was nothing but me and the sun in the universe. i was one with everything. i lay there and enjoyed the moment of complete dissolution and intense aliveness at the same time. i felt the life pulsating inside me, felt myself materializing and, like a plant sprout that sticks its head out of the ground and unfolds its leaves, i was able to move my limbs bit by bit. full of wonder, marvel and amazement, and filled with trust, love and gratitude, i made contact with the world through more and more channels: sensing, listening, sniffing, skimming. finally, i opened my eyes. sitting in front of me were two fellow creatures, my doulas were still there! with joy and complete surrender, i fell into the care of these beings who sat there smiling at me. i felt like a newborn baby perceiving its first counterparts. i looked up at them from the floor, stretched out my arms and they took them gently, helped me up, and were close to me. simply there. i felt their presence. i was filled with wonder and amazement. i was handed a bottle of water and i made contact with the water: i wet my lips, let a little steel run into my mouth, drank my first sip, felt it run down my throat until the water became one with me. i dripped water onto my hands, touched it with my fingers, stroked it into my face and enjoyed getting to know this element through direct contact and interaction. amazement and awe accompanied me as i took my first clumsy steps through the world and the reflection circle welcomed me like a safe womb. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 274 dani*el*a’s digesting and reflecting on the experiences of the workshop. these experiences in the workshop were so intense and so vividly embodied that they completely blew me away. at the same time, it was not easy to digest them, to process them, and to make them communicable in language. on the embodied level, the insights were there, could sink deep into my cells, be felt, experienced and metabolized. on the relational level, in connection, in conversation with others, i was able to begin to describe what i had experienced and to clarify how strongly the learning moment had expressed itself. but there remained a large gap between what i could express linguistically and the depth of what i had experienced. i carried with me for several months the desire to digest this learning experience more intensively and to make it more accessible to the cognitive level and thus shareable. finally, two things helped to make it possible: reading the book and the intensive, diverse, mycelial and lively exchange about the conglomerate of experiences and insights from the book and workshop. it feels like the conversations contribute to the microorganisms that then support the digestion and composting process. all our spores contribute something and in my inner compost heap much more moves when i am in contact with others, in lively exchange or encounter. now writing is about looking at the compost, turning it over and taking the soil into my hands. when i look back on the iipe and the workshop and try to summarize my learning in language, it begins with the conference title, which, nourished by the insights of the workshop, changes in this way: “the hospicing and midwifing of change: navigating the tensions between modernity and the world to come”. it is no longer just about the tension between tradition and modernity, but i can clearly sense the tension between the world as it is dominant at the moment and the world that is not yet there. between the world that is dominated by various forms of violence, is based on the exploitation of all living things and is therefore deeply unsustainable and un-peaceful, and the world that recognizes that everything on the planet is interwoven and part of each other and in which all living entities can live and thrive. the world that brings up so much pain, anger, sadness and despair in me and the one that i so deeply long for and desire and that brings up an intensive longing, a sense of connectedness, an empowering stillness and a loving, caring feeling inside of me. the experience with “hospicing modernity” makes me realize the dualism that lies in these words and in this juxtaposition. shows me that there is a form of violence in this splitting that also perpetuates the illusion of separateness: a basic modern assumption that cuts us humans off from the fullness of life and the interconnectedness of the living web. and which thus sows fear and insecurity in us and feeds the spirals of violence. instead, the workshop and the book have clearly shown the attitude that the doulas propose and embody: an attitude of being there, being awake, holding, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 275 accompanying and caring. it is not about silent, passive witnessing or approving acceptance. but it is about being there with decelerating calm. and about a deep recognition of what is and has been. to hold on and endure, to be in connection with the beauty of life, with the horror of destruction, with the gifts of modernity, with the costs of exploitation that these entail. this attitude is at the heart of hospicing modernity. and in the same qualities, there is already a part of the new world that i wish for! and it is precisely these qualities of the doula that accompany not only dying and death but also birth and life! we do not plan and create this vivid, regenerative world, we enable it to be born, to give birth to itself. decomposition processes take place in the compost heap, while at the same time seeds begin to germinate, absorb the nutrients of the humus-rich soil and strive towards the light. widening and wilding: arising questions we have explored how iipe can be considered a learning ecosystem. this learning ecosystem is organized by mosaic thinking for program structure. the program form then serves as a stabilizing substrate. in contrast, we have explored the dynamic concepts of liminal space, the space of unknowing and learning as sentipensar, interbeing, interstices, and intersubjectivity in order to delve deeper into how to amplify iipe’s pedagogical potential for cultivating socio-ecological dimensions of peace. for us, regenerativity forms an umbrella concept over the dynamic concepts that form the core of the socio-ecological relational dimensions for peace. in this last section, we ask how we can enact this pedagogically and relationally? this hospicing modernity workshop was one such attempt to enact this at iipe. moving towards a regenerative peace education is to remember ourselves as part of the larger planetary metabolism of cycles of birth and death, of seasons, digestion, ebbs and flows. we now consider how to expand iipe’s pedagogical potential as a regenerative eco-learning system with these reflective inquiries: 1. how might the site that holds the iipe be engaged as a peace educator? following the reflections of patel & ehrenzeller (2023), we note that engaging place as a more-than-human teacher (abram, 2017) can be fruitful. the nagarkot hotel where we stayed sat on a hilltop with a magnificent panoramic view of the kathmandu valley, nearby hills, and, on a clear day, the snow peaks of the himalayas. the surrounding, the place, the environment around us, was intensely part of the learning journey – as space is always the “third pedagogue” as italian early childhood educator and philosopher, loris malaguzzi would have reminded us, although it was not mentioned explicitly in the iipe program. this was apparent in stephanie’s april 2025 post-iipe zoom-from-costa rica, repeat of the https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 276 hospicing modernity workshop for tony jenkin’s classroom group in washington, dc. with a nearly identical script and flow, the substantial difference in setting made it obvious how much this shaped the experience. 2. how might we further engage interstices? minna kim and stephanie wrote after iipe mexico about community dreamwork as intercultural peacelearning. from a socio-ecological and regenerative peace learning perspective, they call for reconsideration of the overfilled week structure. when we design a schedule to be completely filled, where is the time for emergence, rest, and play? when we have formal sessions from morning until night, what does this communicate about our perceptions about the relationship between informal spaces and peace learning? might we need to allow for the interstices to expand rather than scheduling every waking moment, so that within these intentionally carved-out open spaces, something new, unforeseen, and emergent might sprout? how might we find this balance of content exploration, integration time, and unstructured space where unplanned learning can flow? (kim and knox steiner, 2023). 3. how might rewilding be materialized in iipe as a regenerative socioecological peace learning? in nature, life grows in cracks, in the liminal spaces between. at iipe, there is a tension between allowing space for organic learning to emerge and making the most of the short time we have together, all while considering the minimalized budget and the valuing of giving a space for everyone’s voice and contributions. this could be understood as the tension between in an objective-driven, forward progressing modernity and the organic mycelial web of feeling, sensing, thinking relations, between what is to accomplished and what is emerging, striving to be born. we might acknowledge that learning is wilder than anyone can fathom or plan for, and that a critical part of allowing space for wild learning is to not control, to allow for experimentation, and to leave open spaces for wildness to grow. 4. how might we allow unlearning modernity’s transactionality and engage more intersubjectively? to engage in intersubjectivity, we need to encourage moving beyond the instrumentation of others (and nature). at the heart of regenerative peace pedagogies is tending to our relationships, moving towards greater reciprocity, and engaging in the spirit of generosity. in the hospicing modernity workshop, stephanie invited participants to set aside the oftentransactional question, “what can i get out of this workshop?” and try to just be present intersubjectively to allow for its unfolding. there is a value in every participant giving a presentation, especially when remembering that iipe was originally organized to include local teachers who could not afford to travel to other locales. iipe was formed to include local people https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 277 in global peacelearning discussions. this also enable further reciprocity and insights that global elites could not otherwise know. now, almost all the iipe participants are “global citizens” with graduate degrees in peace education and with traveling and presenting opportunities. that said, how might we value other ways of presenting and contributing so that sentipensante may exist and breathe with the week of programming? 5. how can responsibility, feedback, and accountability be enhanced? how do we both offer and receive feedback in ways that are life-affirming and honor the whole community? feedback is a mechanism that strengthens voice and intersubjective relational dimensions of peacelearning. it is interrelated with responsibility and accountability. responsibility held by each individual and collectively are vital for socialecological relations as a basis for learning peace. and how can accountability be activated? at iipe nepal community guidelines were elicited from the community in response to some conflict that flared up among the group. other mechanisms are surely available. holding onto the principle of interconnectedness through intersubjectivity and even interbeing may light up alternatives as situations occur in the eco-learning of iipe. life is feedback! 6. what does iipe seed? modernity as stated separates us and emphasizes individuality. what more might we do to enhance the sense of ourselves within our collectivity? the web of peace educator relations is a network. collaborative projects like this help us bring our unique diversity into deeper learning-relationships, and these cases vibrations through the whole network and beyond to diverse global learning environments. returning to the idea of hospicing modernity, and this tension between tradition, modernity, and the world waiting to be born, the question that arises is: when is it time to compost old structures and let something new be born? what comes next, and how will we recognize it? ultimately, tension between stability and flexibility/flow the stability, consistency, and continuity that old structures provide, and the emergent, organic way that life is here already wanting to spring forth. we know from our own experiences that iipe seeds numerous relationships that deepen over time, such as this very one we are writing our way through. it has seeded projects and initiatives around the world. modernity might have us try to quantify or codify this in some way (and a research project along these lines could indeed be worthwhile), and yet the seeds of iipe are far wilder than could be captured in data or, as dani*el*a writes above, in words. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 278 conclusion in this reflective article, we considered how the socio-ecological dimension of peace might be intertwined with regenerative peace education. given the ecological and climate crisis, education for and about peace must deeply rethink socio-ecological relations considering humans’ relationships to the natural world, starting with acknowledging our interdependence. peace requires deep attention to the collapse of ecosystems due to human actions, especially the mindset of modernity which encourages separation and domination, extraction, and objectifying of nature. we must discuss how these insights can widen peace pedagogy toward cultivating dynamic webs of caring relations and generosity of spirit among humans, other living systems and the natural world upon which our survival depends. in pursuit of socio-ecological dimensions of peace, we have reflected on the dynamic yet amorphous intersubjective experiences most fully described in a workshop “hospicing modernity”, led by stephanie knox steiner at the international institute on peace education (iipe) nepal 2025. iipe has been explained as a pedagogical form, a weeklong residential experiment in building a peacelearning community. using an intersubjective method, we came to see both iipe and our collaborative effort of co-writing as two forms of regenerative peace education. we speak from our experiences in traditional formal education and from our efforts to widen and wild -to open through intersubjectivity, sentipensante, and creative processes -the how and what that we teach. in this effort, we start with foundational concepts of modernity, peace, interbeing, and sentipensar. iipe is presented as a form using janet gerson’s art-based metaphor of mosaic thinking, that is, by explaining the material aspects of the substrate (base) and the tesserae (pieces), the liminal spaces as interstices, and the dynamic relating as intersubjectivities with the regenerative dimensions of mycelium networks from botany, and the gift economy from indigenous traditional and feminist regenerative thinking. dan*iel*a pastoor has generously shared a deep subjectivity in their roleplay experience of dying, being hospiced, and (fortunately) regenerating. we hope that our modest exploration here will inspire and motivate others to collaborate even when the results remain wild by the standards of traditional scholarly writing. iipe was founded in 1982 by educators in response to the potential of nuclear weapons to end human life. this collaboration similarly closes with unresolved issues and questions. these questions are the seeds and spores for the regenerative dimensions of peace education to grow, so that iipe may continue to evolve, despite darknesses descending. we invite dialogue with other peace educators. may these insights boost your dedication to lifelong learning for a more peaceful world. at minimum, may the foundational concepts —modernity problematized, peace, interbeing, and sentipensar -and the organizing concepts – https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 279 substrate, interstices, and intersubjectivity -inform other peace education contexts and endeavors. we close with a poetic invitation to join us in widening and wilding the mosaic and peace learning ecosystem. invitation to widening and wilding the mosaic as we leave this space, what whispers will you carry with you, and what seeds will you plant in our shared learning ecosystem? for you too, dear reader, are now a part of it, in this ever-widening and wilding vast web of connection. in the quiet interstices between our words, where learning is wild and unplanned, what new forms might emerge not bound by time, but nurtured by peace and place and presence? how will you widen and wild this mosaic of peace learning? let us listen to the land that holds us, the trees that teach us patience, the air that breathes life into our dreams, the mountains that remind us of deep time. the intercultural language of laughter. let us remember that peace grows in cracks, in the unstructured spaces, where our hearts and minds can wander freely, without the weight of schedules or expectations. may we find new ways of being, in the rhythm of reciprocity, in the dance of responsibility and accountability, in the sacred feedback loops of our shared journeys. and may we honor this mosaic, this living, breathing ecosystem we are all a part of, and together, may our peace learning contribute to co-creating a world where peace is not just taught, but felt, and made whole through our relationships and collective wisdom. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 280 may our collective learning for peace from, with, and as the earth be far wilder, deeper, and wider than we can imagine through the stuckness of modernity reaching beyond it, rooted in the earth, soaring through our shared dreams. stephanie knox steiner, 2025 references abram, d. (2017). the spell of the sensuous. new york: random house. barrera, a. and gerson, j. c. (in process). blue maize pollinates iipe’s network by feeling and thinking. brandmeier, e. j. (2024 17 june). we need to forge peacebuilders to tackle ‘wicked problems.’ university world news. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20240614145203787 d’emilia, d., andreotti, v., & the gtdf collective. (2018). co-sensing with radical tenderness. https://decolonialfutures.net/rt-recording/ earth charter commission. (2000). the earth charter. https://earthcharter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/echarter_english.pdf gerson, j. c. (2024). mosaic thinking: presentation, international institute on peace education, nagarkot, nepal. haraway, d. j. (2016). staying with the trouble: making kin in the chthulucene. duke university press. hanh, t. n. (2012). fourteen mindfulness trainings. https://plumvillage.org/mindfulness/the-14-mindfulness-trainings hyde, lewis. (2019. the gift: how the creative spirit transforms the world international institute on peace education, (2024). iipe 2024: nepal. https://www.i-i-p-e.org/iipe-nepal/ kim, h. m., and knox steiner, s. m. (2023). community dreamwork as intercultural learning. in factis pax (17)1, pp. 92-108. kimmerer, r. w. (2024). the serviceberry: abundance and reciprocity in the natural world. new york: scribner. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20240614145203787 https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20240614145203787 https://earthcharter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/echarter_english.pdf https://earthcharter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/echarter_english.pdf https://plumvillage.org/mindfulness/the-14-mindfulness-trainings https://plumvillage.org/mindfulness/the-14-mindfulness-trainings https://www.i-i-p-e.org/iipe-nepal/ in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 256-281 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 281 knox steiner, s. (2024). peace education: unlearning separateness and remembering interbeing. mindfulness bell (magazine, print edition), fall. machado de oliveira, v. (2021). hospicing modernity: facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism. berkeley, ca: north atlantic books. moving with storms report cne climate and nature emergency (2024). retrieved april 12, 2025, from https://www.academia.edu/104047301/moving_with_storms_report_climate_an d_nature_emergency_catalyst_program oh death by rising appalachia (www.risingappalachia.com/oh-death) opotow, s., gerson, j. and woodside, s. (autumn, 2005). from moral exclusion to moral inclusion: theory for teaching peace, pp. 303-318. theory into practice, vol. 44, no. 4, peace education. or, y. (2023). praxisbuch transformation dekolonisieren. ökosozialer wandel in der sozialen und pädagogischen praxis. 1. aufl. basel: beltz juventa. patel, j., & ehrenzeller, c. (2023). nature as a peace educator: toward inner peace through learning and being in natural environments. the journal of environmental education, 54(5), 294–305. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2023.2261389 sacco, t. m, (may 15, 2024). reaching for peace and searching for home in liminal spaces. in mtandao wa amani na maendeleo afrika (mama) online: africa peace and development network. snauwaert, d. t. (2019). introduction, pp. xv-xxix. in snauwaert, d. t. (ed.) exploring betty a. reardon’s perspective on peace education: looking back, looking forward. cham, switzerland: springer. vaughan, g. (ed.), (2007). introduction, pp. 1-37. in pp. 1-37. vaughan, g. (ed.), women and the gift economy. toronto: inanna publications and education, inc. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.academia.edu/104047301/moving_with_storms_report_climate_and_nature_emergency_catalyst_program https://www.academia.edu/104047301/moving_with_storms_report_climate_and_nature_emergency_catalyst_program blenkinsop & beeman in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 69 volume 2 number 1 (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ the earth charter, a radical document: a pedagogical response by: sean blenkinsop (simon fraser university) and chris beeman (queen’s university) the earth charter the earth charter is, for several reasons, a radical document. first, the earth charter is a people’s document intentionally created outside the usual context for international agreements and, initially, not formally adopted by the united nations general assembly. it proposes solutions that are transnational and that address people and their personal interactions with their environment rather than setting an agenda for political bodies, national or international. thus the earth charter is non-formal in its mode of creation and readily accessible to the public. its consensual nature allows it to have a broad appeal, and its publication represents an alternative to conventional ways of producing such international documents. in short, there is an intent in this process to do things differently. some words from the brief history of the document (history of the earth in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 70 charter) make this clear. the earth charter commission made a decision to draft the charter first and foremost as a people’s treaty rather than as an intergovernmental instrument for two reasons. first, during the 1990’s most state governments were preoccupied with the promotion of economic growth, and they failed to meet the challenge of adopting patterns of sustainable development…they were not prepared to embrace new and stronger ethical commitments. it was clear that an intergovernmental drafting process would not produce a strong document. second, the collapse of russian communism and the end of the cold war has led to a renewal of civil society in many nations. the result has been the emergence of an increasingly influential global civil society involving a worldwide network of ngos linked together by the new communications technologies. (history of the earth charter) this new civil society has provided a forum in which the proposals contained in the earth charter are accessible and meaningful to the average, informed citizen of any country and, as will be seen later, a pedagogical response to the charter needs to be similarly radical, accessible and informal. second, the earth charter places the earth front and centre and insists upon the interrelatedness of environmental and human well-being. “the resilience of the community of life and the well-being of humanity depend upon preserving a healthy biosphere with all its ecological systems, a rich variety of plants and animals, fertile soils, pure waters, and clean air.” (earth charter) though the conceptual separation between humans and their natural environment is acknowledged in the very making of this statement, the charter recognizes that any such separation needs to be reconciled. this is made clear in a later passage, which is, at the very least, a step towards eco-centrism. “to realize these aspirations, we must decide to live with a sense of universal responsibility, identifying ourselves with the whole earth community as well as our local in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 71 communities” and, in a similar vein, one ought to “treat all living beings with respect and consideration.” (earth charter) it follows, then, that, when making choices on issues related to ecological safety, one ought to employ the precautionary principle that suggests, in the absence of certain knowledge, do not proceed. “place the burden of proof on those who argue that a proposed activity will not cause significant harm.” (earth charter) third, the earth charter calls for a shift in thinking and in the way we live. this is perhaps the broadest and most radical aspect of the document. it states: “we must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more.” (earth charter) though it is not stated what “being more” means, we can assume that, rather than amassing more material goods, humans should seek to enrich themselves in terms of their relationship to others and to their environment, by increasing their understanding of the world around them, their respect for it, and their awe of it. the charter states that “this requires a change of mind and heart” (earth charter) and that, of course, necessarily implies the involvement of education. a fourth reason that the earth charter is a radical document involves the narrative that seems to be partially implicit in the text. discussions of non-violence, caims that “every form of life has value”(earth charter), and questioning the “dominant patterns of production and consumption” (earth charter) all suggest that this document is positioning itself as being substantively different. this is an attempt to imagine other possibilities and to open the space for another narrative that is obviously distinguishable in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 72 from the “dominant patterns”. here to we see education implied in function as well as in position. how does education currently reify those dominant discussions and what things can education do to respond? how might education situate itself in order to tell, and allow for the telling of, this different narrative? we believe that an educational response to the earth charter should be as radical as the charter itself. but also, being teacher educators, that response needs to understand the current reality in many schools and offer an immediately implementable component, build a practical bridge between two separate paradigms. our challenge is to offer practical tools that are positioned within the radical, thus giving teachers something that will, at the very least, become the seeds for ongoing sustainable change. it is not enough that such a curriculum simply introduce ecological content (evernden, 1986), it must also integrate and exemplify the fundamental principles of the charter, those of universal accessibility, a change in narrative and narrative emphasis, interdependence with and respect for the environment, and the need for new values and relationships attuned to ecological balance. the charter proposes a paradigmatic shift in the way we understand our environment and, if we are to take its message seriously, a similar shift is required of our classes, schools and education systems. the earth charter confronts the way we currently think about the environment and makes a convincing case that we need to change. if our schools are to be major players in this process of change, -and undoubtedly this will be expected of them -then we need, first, to examine our current assumptions and practice, then to develop new in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 73 ways of thinking about, integrating and presenting a fundamentally different world-view into our schools. a major problem, and a very immediate one, that will arise when educators are faced by such a profound change to current practice is how this can be effected in the classroom; what models exist, what resources are available to help teachers as they confront this daunting challenge. what follows are six pedagogical responses which, if incorporated into the curricula, will begin the process of “a change of mind and heart” (earth charter) and allow the greater change called for by the earth charter to occur. a pedagogical response: taking root in the earth charter “this requires a change of mind and heart. it requires a new sense of global interdependence and universal responsibility.” (earth charter) in an upcoming article, blenkinsop (2008) addresses concerns teachers might have in preparing a curriculum that better aligned itself with the philosophical position we see undergirding the earth charter. the goal of that paper was to offer teachers a series of components that might begin the process of changing attitudes towards the environment and providing concrete examples of how that might be done and current programmatic examples. these components were, then, both practicable and potentially subversive of the mindset that has led us to the current environmental crisis. here, we propose a condensed synopsis of those six components, the purpose of which is to offer immediate suggestions for teachers to consider but, more importantly for this discussion, to draw connections between those pedagogical tools and the more radical project for in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 74 change reflected in the earth charter. as such, this paper will focus less on exemplifying each component in practice1 and more on situating each within the larger paradigmatic discussion it appears the earth charter is having. #1: involving the body. “we must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more.” (earth charter) descartes, especially in the meditations, drew a clear distinction between mind and matter. though his sole responsibility for this distinction has been contested, he was certainly a major contributor to a perspective in which the body is seen as no more than a machine that carries out the directions of the mind but contributes nothing to the mental process. it seems fair to suggest that this separation between mind and body has had some less than desirable results, and that it may be more useful to think about the mind as being intimately connected too, influenced by, and reliant upon the body. through this lens the body becomes not only a “container of” or “tool for” the mind, but also as a “partner in” and “contributor to” the process of making sense of the world. it makes a difference that we have an affect, that we have senses, systems of gestures and non-verbal communication, and that we have a particular physical structure. for example, our understanding of the world is profoundly affected by the structure and location of our 1 for more specific practical and programmatic examples the reader is encouraged to find the above mentioned article. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 75 eyes2 or our nervous system, which gathers information from across the body. philosopher and deep ecologist arne naess (2002) makes a useful distinction between being active and activeness, which is helpful when thinking about engaging the body in learning rather than simply getting the body to do things and assuming that learning is happening. activeness, in the sense naess uses the term, “is applied to the process of developing our essential nature” (2002, 76), it is about “being more”(earth charter). so, too, the argument we are making about getting the body involved is not just about being active. for naess, being active is externally manifest but lacking in relationship to self-understanding. without this relationship naess, following spinoza, suggests that our emotions become/are passive which limits our ability to change and allows ill will and apathy to flourish. the claim here being that those who are engaged in activeness have a wholeness of self-understanding that allow them, and their political structures, to change in positive ways. thus, if the earth charter is advocating for positive, more fulfilling change then according to naess that requires feelings, the body and activeness as an internal form of relationship that can alter our understanding of ourselves and of nature. “to do a great many things is not enough; what is important is what we do and how it happens. it is those of our actions which affect our whole nature that i call activeness” (naess, 2002, 76). teachers need to consider how to introduce “activeness” into their classes and how to involve those bodily functions -emotions, gestures, intentions, senses, etc.-in 2 for an interesting discussion about the “despotism of the eye”, objectivity, and a historical move away from the kind of relationship between mind and nature but better reflects the earth charter’s call for “global interdependence” please see evernden (1999, pp 88-106). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 76 their students’ learning. such a new approach implies moving away from recycling projects and collecting garbage, activities in which the body is a treated as an instrument and the emotions are “pacified” to perform ideas generated by the mind, towards an activeness in which the body becomes a partner in the learning and students have a chance at “being more”. #2: telling stories “our cultural diversity is a precious heritage and different cultures will find their own distinctive ways to realize the vision. we must deepen and expand the global dialogue that generated the earth charter, for we have much to learn from the ongoing collaborative search for truth and wisdom.” (earth charter) for thousands of years the story has played an important role in community. prior to the written word it was the primary means of organizing information that any community wished to store and potentially disseminate to future generations. the story played a role as a vehicle to assist us in better understanding our positioning with regard to our society and environment. this occurred not only through the content of story but also in the very structure of the story itself. there is a qualitative difference in the way i come to understand my world if it comes through reading the napoleonic code or listening to elders recount how the world came to be. educational philosopher kieran egan has discussed at length the educational role of the story (egan, 1997). he argues that, in much of education today, we ignore the fact that our culture provides tools (e.g. stories, emotions, dramatic images, metaphors, etc.) that assist students in the process of making sense of the world, and that one of the most powerful tools of understanding is in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 77 the story. along with this, eco-theorists bowers (1995) and abram (1996) suggest that literacy itself, because of its greater level of abstraction, is one step further removed from the natural world and can run contrary to the goals of interdependence, community, and relationship. bowers argues that many oral cultures are more attuned to the principles espoused by the earth charter, and that literacy, data, or “high status knowledge” is a manifestation of the abstraction that has played an important role in the ecological crisis. russian psychologist lev vygotsky has argued along similar lines as bowers in suggesting that the technology of literacy, which has drawn us away from the oral story, has changed the shape of what it is to think (vygotsky, 1962). when the earth charter asks us to “transmit to future generations values, traditions, and institutions that support the long-term flourishing of earth’s human and ecological communities”(earth charter), we hear a cry for the story. the story “raven brings colour to the world” is an excellent example.3 once, in times long ago, the world was completely black. all the animals and plants, everything was black, and the only time colour was seen was on the rare occasions when two perfect rainbows appeared side by side in the sky. now raven decided that there was something here worth exploring and so, when the next rainbow appeared, raven flew into the sky and up to the rainbows in order to get a better look. unfortunately, in his desire to get close he ran into one of the rainbows, and it shattered into millions of pieces which were scattered all over the land. that is why today there is colour everywhere. it is also why 3 this story was given to me by two first nations boys from northern ontario in canada. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 78 raven is still completely black and why, on days when there is a particularly bright rainbow, you can see the ends or outline of a second rainbow close to the first. to use such a story as a means to enter a curriculum related to colour and light rather than to have them memorize roygbiv4 is to change the underlying understanding of how we engage with and are related to our world. we might begin to see that the “earth, our home, is alive” and develop a “reverence for the mystery of being”(earth charter). the story does not act as a hook to catch the interest of the students before worksheets appear, but provides an overarching theme, a rich context, for the students’ work, and can act as a resource upon which to draw repeatedly. the story shapes the way students encounter the natural world and allows wonder and inquiry to engage together: where else do rainbows appear? what are moon and sun dogs? what is the halo effect? what are the conditions necessary to form a rainbow? learning through the medium of the story allows greater scope for the imagination, which is not only valuable in itself, as a means towards open-mindedness and thoughtful awareness, but also serves as a stimulus to students to pursue answers to questions raised by the story. #3: establishing a relationship “the spirit of human solidarity and kinship with all life is strengthened when we live with reverence for the mystery of being, gratitude for the gift of life, and humility regarding the human place in nature.” (earth charter) interdependence is a critical concept if we are to understand how the natural 4 red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 79 world, including ourselves, works. it also appears to be fundamental to the earth charter. there are no fewer than 5 references to some manifestation of it (community of life, one human family, larger living world) in the preamble alone. relationship has long been seen as a key to education with the focus being on those relationships between teacher and learner, learner and learner, and between teacher or learner and the subject matter. the relationship between teachers and students with the environment has been largely overlooked. eco-theorists cobb (2004), tomashow (1996), and nabhan (1994) have all argued, often using the biographies of well known environmental figures, that the key to leading environmentally conscious lives is to allow children to establish a sound relationship with their own environment. if one of the aims of the earth charter is to have us “imaginatively develop and apply the vision of a sustainable way of life”(earth charter) then students need that opportunity to enter into relation with each other, with their teachers, and, most importantly, with the non-human world. those theorists argue that deep relationships, extended immersion, positive and ongoing encounters with nature become the source for continuing interest in and care for the environment, they become the stuff of interdependence. for teachers the implication of the need for a closer relationship with the environment is that we bring students frequently into contact with the natural world around them. over the years, teachers we have worked with have been doing this. in one instance some teachers in northern british columbia, working with grade three and four students, assigned each student a site of about a square metre in a nearby forest. when a in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 80 new project was introduced, students went to their sites to observe and record. thus far, they have drawn maps and taken photographs of their special spots. they are keeping lists of animals and plants found, doing experiments on soil and detritivores, and they are keeping journals about their discoveries. as a result the students are building an affinity for a particular place and coming to see the extraordinary diversity of life that exists even in a small space. #4: getting an early start. “4. secure earth's bounty and beauty for present and future generations.” (earth charter). another important factor that emerges from the lives of those who have a deep connection to the natural world is that their experience began at an early age. their biographies reveal that some of their earliest memories are of moments when parents or others showed them a plant, an animal, or even a rock and talked to them about it. as we have seen above, sobel (2005) and others have suggested that there is something important about coming to know a particular spot really well, but it is also important that this knowledge be sustained over a long period. plants look dramatically different at different stages of their growth, from seed through first shoots and on into flowering. it is only through immersion, or by returning repeatedly over time that the fine distinctions appear and, at the same time, it is only through such repetition that the skills of observation, comparison and differentiation develop. what is also likely to develop is a greater understanding and appreciation of the natural world as well as a sense of in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 81 connection to it. these skills and deep connection might be necessary building blocks, if those theorists are to be believed, to bring to fruition the earth charter’s project of bringing “forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace”(earth charter). nabhan (1994) and louv (2006) suggest that part of becoming fully human is having opportunities to encounter the world around us. this “full humanness” may not be what is directly implied by the earth charter in references to “being more”, or “sacred trust”, or the conscious and explicit choice to combat poverty and violence whilst preserving diversity, community, and wisdom however, the parallel exists. in his book arctic dreams, barry lopez, tells about the innu people’s skill in discerning and then discussing a range of snow typologies of which he was woefully unaware. he continues by telling of hunters caught outside during whiteout type blizzards and being able to find their way home due to the sophistication of this ability and their historical situatedness in that particular place.5 however, this skill need not be confined to the arctic but is one that exists as a possibility for all of us. we could share in it should we either choose to, or need to, develop it. it may, to push the discussion a little farther, be part of our “capacity” as members of the human species. but the development of sensitivity of this sort takes time, and suggests that we should start to become aware of nature early in life, and start to work on projects to develop skills early in the school year. the need to start early is also supported by research which indicates 5 lopez acknowledges that this is simply an assumption on his part since situating oneself in one’s place is not a skill which he possesses with regard to the arctic nor is it one easily described across between people of different places. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 82 that as small children we have a proclivity for the non-human world as something we both want to make sense of and have relationship with (buber 1970, blenkinsop 2005). the key to relationship is not the ability to connect initially so much as the ongoing opportunity to continue to connect over and over again. for teachers the point is to arrange for connections to happen early and to happen often. #5: integrating the curriculum “14. integrate into formal education and life-long learning the knowledge, values, and skills needed for a sustainable way of life. -b. promote the contribution of the arts and humanities as well as the sciences in sustainability education.” (earth charter) in order to understand the world as interdependent, interconnected, and democratic we need to have opportunities to experience it as such and this goes beyond simple early immersion in the natural world. if our experiences in school are such that they indicate the world is atomized, individualized, and open to ongoing reductionism then it will be difficult to sustain the “myths” of interdependence or global responsibility. our students need to experience, practice, and learn about that interdependent world in a structure, system, or “semiotic soup” that undergirds the concept and normalizes those experiences. if integration is consistently the way in which we experience the world then several things might begin to occur. first, students will begin to possess “habits of mind” that are themselves more systematic, they will see things more holistically. it is this ability to consider a larger holism that is implied in section b. above and in concepts such as “diversity”, “community”, and “reverence for life” that are littered throughout the in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 83 earth charter. the second thing that will occur is the reduction in the alienations we experience. eco-psychologist theodore roscak (1972) has suggested that the modern world is suffering from three serious alienations: from the natural world, from each other, and from ourselves and this has allowed us to shamefully exploit each other and the resources of the world and to so shamefully misuse them. for roscak, it would be these alienations that allow us to ignore all four of the principles of the earth charter. being immersed in and developing habits of mind through an integrated curriculum offers a response to this challenge. #6: demythologizing nature “earth, our home, is alive with a unique community of life.” (earth charter) demythologizing nature implies making use of the preceding five pedagogical tools, but it also means that we need to change current “myths” about the natural world around us. the argument being, these myths tend to put a distance between ourselves and the natural world, a distance that makes it a challenge to meet the explicit principles and implicit spirit of the earth charter. thus, by identifying and putting to shame these myths a wall crumbles and the potential to draw closer in genuine relation appears. the first important myth is that which depicts the natural world as “red in tooth and claw” and filled with potential dangers. most of us recognize that ignorance is the major reason for our fear of the unknown or unfamiliar, yet we don’t seem to be conscious of our own ignorance or the role we play in furthering that fear for others. in sharing stories of summer campintg trips, how long is it before the conversation turns to bugs or, in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 84 especially, bears? and how news reports love those bear stories. getting students outdoors regularly begins to break down these barriers of fear, so that they can begin to form a realistic view of nature and to feel comfortable in this unfamiliar environment. i have worked with many teachers who see getting outside as a large project requiring hours of organization. this is because of a second myth that associates being outside with a major expedition into a wilderness area. however, there are a tremendous number of experiences to be had right next to the school. school yard greening projects, abandoned lot or stream bed reclamation, community gardening, heritage seed cultivation, bird counts are all things that require significant time spent outdoors, but that can happen close to home and without a lot of paperwork. furthermore, an advantage of such local activities is that they bring students into contact with the immediate community. yet another benefit is that such projects lend themselves to an integrated curriculum.6 the third myth do be debunked is slightly more abstract but is related to education’s seeming unwillingness to consider that where the learning/experience occurs might have an effect on the what of learning. to push this idea even further, education does not seem to want to consider that the place itself might teach us things separate from, in parallel with, below, or beyond what we think we are doing. all the things that form what might be called a semiotic background, a metaphorical and literal window of containment that shapes and influences what and how learners make sense of course 6 organizations such as evergreen and greenteacher are excellent sources of information for teachers wishing to create an environmentally aware classroom. (www.evergreen.ca\en\, www.greenteacher.ca). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 85 content and, by extension, of their world. this “backgrounding” (plumwood, 1997) of the environment of learning probably has its roots in a subtle anthropocentrism and is something that the earth charter seems to tacitly recognize and be concerned about. ultimately, the goal of pointing out these myths is to allow teachers to thoughtfully mitigate these real inhibitors of our ability to genuinely encounter the non-human world. conclusion the purpose of this paper was to throw six small pebbles into a pond in the hope that the resultant splash and ripples cause a dissonance that impels the larger pond of education to change shape in response. the earth charter is a radical and non-formal document that points towards and sets a framework for a paradigmatic position that resists dominant discourses of consumption, economic resourcism, isolationism and, by implication, the resulting social and environmental disenfranchisement and violence. it is a document that, by its nature, implicitly asks educators to think differently about their pedagogy. by using six pedagogical tools aligned with the earth charter educators have the opportunity to set in motion the beginnings of a radical response to those dominant patterns. these tools are intended to align themselves with the spirit of the earth charter while also being immediately implementable thereby avoiding the incredible challenge of trying to bridge across theoretical paradigms and their corresponding praxes. but this is just the start of a much larger project that we believe involves deep philosophical work and substantially extended practice. the hope is that we can contribute, in our own ways to the final sentiment expressed in earth charter. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 86 “let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace, and the joyful celebration of life.” (earth charter) bibliography: abram, david. the spell of the sensuous: perception and language in the more-than human world. new york, ny: pantheon books, 1996. blenkinsop, sean. “martin buber: educating for relationship.” ethics, place, and environment, 8(3), (2005): 285-307. blenkinsop, sean. “imaginative ecological education: six necessary components.” in teaching 360°: engaging learners imaginations, edited by gillian judson, 147156. rotterdam, the netherlands: sense publishing, 2008. bowers, chet. educating for an ecologically sustainable culture. albany, ny: suny press, 1995. cobb, edith. the ecology of imagination in childhood. putnam, ct: spring publishing, 2004. egan, kieran. the educated mind: how cognitive tools shape our understanding. chicago: university of chicago press, 1997. evernden, neil. the natural alien. toronto: university of toronto press, 1985. jackson, wes. becoming native to this place. washington, dc: counterpoint, 1996. leopold, aldo. a sand county almanac. new york, ny: oxford university press, 1949. louv, richard. last child in the woods: saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. chapel hill, nc: algonquin books, 2006. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 69-87 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 87 nabhan, gary and stephen trimble. the geography of childhood: why children need wild places. boston, ma: beacon press, 1994. naess, arne, and per ingvar haukeland. life’s philosophy: reason and feeling in a deeper world. roland huntford (trans.). athens: the university of georgia press. 2002. plumwood, val. feminism and the mastery of nature. new york, ny: routledge, 1997. roscak, theodore. where the wasteland ends. garden city, ny: doubleday press, 1972. rowe, stan. home place. edmonton, ab: newest press, 2002. sale, kirkpatrick. dwellers in the land: the bioregional vision. athens, ga: the university of georgia press, 2000. sobel, david. place-based education: connecting classrooms and communities. great barrington, ma: the orion society, 2005. thomashow, mitchell. ecological identity: becoming a reflective environmentalist. cambridge, ma: mit press, 1996. vygotsky, lev. thought and language. boston, ma: mit press, 1962. worster, donald. nature’s economy: a history of ecological ideas. new york, ny: cambridge, 1994. webb in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 137 volume 2 number 1 (2008): 137-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ dear naomi klein, i recently finished reading your latest book, the shock doctrine.1 your detailed account of the connections between neoliberal economic policy and the use of violent repression, the decline of welfare states, and the rise of corporatized war and disaster capitalism is compelling. you thread together the recent histories of military brutality in the southern cone of south america, union busting in margaret thatcher’s england, and the tiananmen square massacre in china. through these histories you make explicit that acts of violent political repression against leftist organizers were not chance occurrences during periods of economic transition. on the contrary, you show that they were deliberate acts of “shock therapy” used by governments to numb and eliminate those opposed to the implementation of neoliberal policies such as the privatization of public services, the elimination of spending on social programs, and the deregulation of industry wage, safety and environmental standards. 1 naomi klein, the shock doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism, 1st ed. (new york: metropolitan books/henry holt, 2007). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 138 you demonstrate the “constricted freedom” of post cold-war governments in poland, russia, and south africa, who, in spite of initial aspirations to build social democratic welfare states, ended up implementing neoliberal economic reforms with disastrous consequences for the majority of their people. you then bring your analysis of neoliberalism to the united states, describing the rise of the privatized war machine and the parallel emergence of the occupation of iraq as a profitable market for investments in military technology, homeland security, and the rebuilding of basic infrastructure destroyed by the aforementioned military technology. finally, you tie it all together by concluding that the neoliberal economic model, in its thirst for new markets, is now preying upon areas struck by natural disasters to accumulate the profits it desires. “disaster capitalism,” as you aptly name it, was evident in new orleans after hurricane katrina and in sri lanka after the tsunami when large numbers of poor people were prevented from returning to their weather damaged homes in order to create lucrative new investment opportunities on the land they previously inhabited. the most sinister part of neoliberalism’s trajectory, as you note at the end of your book, is that when war and disaster are profitable enterprises, there are increased incentives to start wars and allow natural phenomena to deteriorate into social catastrophes. to begin, i want to say that i learned a lot from reading your book. i was continually impressed by your ability to organize complex historical events into easily understandable patterns. you have clearly demonstrated neoliberalism’s historical dependence on political, economic, and physical “shock.” i am writing you, however, because despite my deep appreciation for the work you have done, i also have a major in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 139 concern. you do an excellent job of describing many of the problems that come with neoliberalism, but i am afraid your analysis does not give a good account as to why neoliberal ideas are being implemented in the first place. without a clear understanding of why neoliberalism is the policy of choice for many governments and economists today, you fail to put forward a comprehensive vision for how neoliberalism can be transformed. for these reasons, i am concerned that many people will read your book and become motivated to make change, but will not be equipped with the right tools to do so. i am concerned that without the right tools, these motivated people will continue to focus on pressuring governments and/or economists to make change but will have little success persuading them to do so. i am concerned that these motivated people, after not having much success, will start to believe those who say that the fall of the berlin wall and the collapse of the soviet union prove that free market capitalism is the final stop on the train of economic history. moreover, i am concerned that these motivated people, frustrated by their inability to make change, will reluctantly give into the idea that capitalism (and the neoliberal ideology that now accompanies it) is the only way to organize economies after all. with these concerns in mind, i would like to suggest that you take a look at another book that maps the rise of neoliberalism in the latter half of the twentieth century. the book is the dilemmas of social democracies by two peace studies professors at earlham college, howard richards and joanna swanger. instead of focusing on the violence and repression associated with neoliberal economics, richards and swanger in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 140 focus on rules. they would argue that your book takes a wrong turn on the second to last page of the introduction when you make the claim that there is no reason that marketbased economies are incompatible with decent wages, free health care, and quality public education. they would say that there is a very good reason that markets and government led social welfare programs do not mix: the basic cultural rules that shape our current economy do not allow them to. they would explain that until the basic rules of our economy are changed, governments have few options for making economic policies that serve the needs of all of their people. fearing that people might understand this explanation to mean that capitalism is here to stay, richards and swanger would then enthusiastically proclaim that effective strategies for ending the problems of neoliberalism do exist. there is no reason that the basic rules of our current economy cannot be changed or that concerned people can work collectively to change them so that everyone’s needs can be met in ecologically sustainable ways. in the following pages, i will explain some of these strategies as i more fully articulate my concern with your book. i will start by describing what richards and swanger mean by “basic cultural rules of capitalism.” i will then summarize a few of their case studies of nations whose experiments with social democracy failed as a result of these basic cultural rules. one such case study, that of south africa after mandela rose to power, is particularly illuminating. both you and richards and swanger give detailed accounts of how mandela’s south africa ended up implementing neoliberal economic policy, but have very different explanations as to why this happened. the conclusion of this letter will explain how your differing analysis of south africa, and the in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 141 rise of neoliberalism in general, lead to vastly different approaches to transformative social and economic change. according to richards and swanger, the basic cultural rules that shape and sustain our current economic system are made up of a couple of interconnected parts. first, as marx explains in capital, capitalism is based upon a culture of accumulation through commodity exchange. commodities are not produced in order to meet people’s needs directly, but to sell to make profit that is then reinvested in the production of even more commodities. second, a simple set of ethics exists that produces, protects, and makes normal both the right to own property and the freedom to do with it whatever one wishes. this minimalist set of ethical values emerged in western culture as the romans sought to create a basic system of rulesa common economic languagethat could facilitate commerce between the vastly different cultures that had been conquered in their quest for empire. enlightenment philosophers, such as immanuel kant, and classical economists, such as adam smith, would later adopt this emphasis on property and freedom to construct the ethical foundations of free market capitalism. focusing on the two interconnected parts of capitalism’s basic rules allows richards and swanger to provide a simple explanation as to why capitalist markets and welfare states usually cannot coexist peacefully. this simple explanation, preceded by another brief summary of capitalism’s interconnected parts, now follows. first, the summary: at the core of capitalist culture is the accumulation of profit through investment. at the same time, the ethical values of property and freedom give investors the right to do what they want with their capital because it is their capital. the freedom in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 142 to invest in whichever market one chooses, the freedom to remove investment from one market and place it in another, and the freedom to not invest in any market at all, are guaranteed by the rules of the system. now, the simple explanation: in a capitalist economic system where the purpose of investment is to make profits, and the basic rules of the system give investors the freedom to choose where they invest, investors inevitably choose markets where profit can be made. one is unlikely to find profitable markets in countries with high wages and a large tax base to support government funded health care and education. thus, investors do not usually choose markets in these countries. based upon the second to last page of the shock doctrine’s introduction, where you make the claim that there is no reason that market-based economies are incompatible with social welfare states, i imagine that you might now offer this rebuttal, “but what about all of the countries that have combined social welfare with capitalist systems of production?” moreover, it is also very possible that you are asking, “but what about swedish social democracy!?” anticipating such responses, richards and swanger use several case studies to support their argument that the basic rules of capitalism are causes of poverty and economic instability. they examine spain’s failed attempts at socialism before and after the franco dictatorship. they explain why nelson mandela had to forgo the peoplecentered economic principles of the freedom charter when he became president of south africa. they note how even the brutal end to communism and imposition of neoliberalism in post-colonial indonesia still could not entice investors to stay for very long. they lament venezuela’s missed opportunity to organize their economy around in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 143 social democratic principles when the country amassed great wealth during the oil booms of the seventies. and yes, they describe the rise and fall of swedish social democracy. i will now focus on a few of these case studies in greater detail, starting with sweden, and then making a few comments about their writings on indonesia. finally, i will show how their analysis in general, and of south africa in particular, is different, and more useful towards effecting transformative social change than the one you present in the shock doctrine. for the twenty or so years following world war ii, explain richards and swanger, sweden was hailed by the world as a social and economic utopia. wages were high, unemployment was practically non-existent, and government funded education and health care met the needs of the swedish people. things began to change, however, with the dramatic increase in oil prices and other global economic shifts in the early 1970’s. the swedish economy began to run a deficit, unemployment began to rise, and overall economic productivity went down. as a result of these growing economic failures, and their inability to fix them, the social democrats were voted out of power in the early nineties. a government more willing to adopt neoliberal policy replaced them. for the last four decades, the welfare state that had once made sweden a shining model for those working to create more just economies, has been in serious decline. if one looks at the rise and fall of swedish social democracy with richards and swanger’s understanding of the basic rules of capitalism, it is not hard to understand what happened. social democracy in sweden was not a project aimed at changing capitalist economic rules, it was an attempt at carefully working within them. even in the in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 144 glory days of social democracy, the swedish economy was based upon production for exchange and the reinvestment of profits to initiate further production. what made the swedish welfare state possible was a beautifully orchestrated dance between labor and business during a time when sweden was able to export enough of what the world needed in order to maintain steady economic growth. for the first two decades after the second world war, labor and business were able to fairly divide the profits of this economic growth. when rising oil prices made production more expensive, and when the markets that sweden had been previously exporting to no longer needed their products, swedish social democracy began to stumble. there was no longer enough profit to stimulate growth. in order to get investors to choose to keep their investments in sweden, sacrifices had to be made. wages had to be reduced. government spending on social programs had to be cut back. the welfare state had to be diminished. swedish social democracy did not change the basic rules of the capitalist system, so the basic rules of the capitalist system changed swedish social democracy. the plight of indonesia is a similar story through which richards and swanger give other important insights about the basic rules of the capitalist system. when indonesia achieved independence from dutch colonial rule in 1949, its people had social democratic aspirations. when in the 1960’s their aspirations turned into a communist government attempting to nationalize foreign companies, these foreign companies exercised their freedom and property rights and left the country. the economy then collapsed, chaos ensued, and a military dictatorship rose to power that systematically eliminated leftist organizers and union leaders. the dictatorship enacted government in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 145 policy that favored profit over social welfare; investment then returned and the economy began to thrive. at this point in indonesia’s history, without peering further into their tumultuous future, it may seem logical to conclude that violent state repression against leftist social movements, while not pretty, was worth the struggle to “fix” indonesia’s economy. two responses can be drawn from richards and swanger’s work to refute this conclusion. first, while indonesia’s economy did grow during the dictatorship, the result was not the end of poverty in indonesia. investing in ending poverty is not usually profitable, and investors do not usually choose to do it. in this way, the argument that free market capitalism is good because it leads to economic growth ignores two important points with regards to ending poverty: the widening of income gaps between the rich and poor that accompanies capitalist economic “development,” and the impoverished masses exploited by and/or excluded from this “development.” second, indonesia’s economy, in spite of its military government’s hard work to create a climate favorable to investment, collapsed multiple times as a result of investors collectively moving their investments elsewhere. the basic rules of capitalism allow investors to come and go as they please. regardless of how favorable to investment a government makes their country, investors, for whatever reason, may still choose to leave or never come at all. hopefully, these brief overviews of richards and swanger’s case studies of sweden and indonesia have brought more clarity as to how the basic cultural rules of capitalism can be understood as both a cause of the failures of social democracies, as well as many government’s decisions to implement neoliberal economic policy. to further in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 146 demonstrate this concept, as well as to explain why focusing on rules is more useful than focusing on “shock” with regards to building movements for transformative change, i will now compare your analysis of what happened in south africa during mandela’s presidency with richards and swanger’s. let us began this comparison of perspectives on what happened in post-apartheid south africa by focusing on the points where you both agree: nelson mandela, upon his release from a twenty-seven year prison term, was still firmly in favor of the peoplecentered economic principles of the freedom charter. these principles included collective sharing of resources through nationalization of major industries and land redistribution, freedom to unionize, minimum wage standards, employment for all, and the right to health care and housing. you both make it fairly clear that mandela had every intention to make radical changes to the south african economy that for many years had short-changed and excluded the majority of black south africans. history has since shown that these radical changes were never made and that the majority of black south africans are still being short-changed and excluded by the south african economy. explaining exactly why that happened is where your two perspectives diverge. according to your analysis in the tenth chapter of the shock doctrine, while mandela’s party, the african national congress (anc), was in important and heated discussions about the political transition to a post-apartheid south africa, the country’s economic future was being decided in back room deals. you claim that through these covert economic negotiations, a constricting net began to fall upon mandela and the anc, limiting their options to make radical economic changes. you note that last minute in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 147 changes were made to the constitution protecting private property and preventing land distribution; industry subsidies that would have created millions of jobs had to be removed because the anc had already signed on to free trade agreements that prohibited them; money could not be printed because the central bank was still a private institution run by its apartheid owners; and funds originally destined to build houses for the poor ended up being used to pay off south africa’s massive international debt that had been incurred by the previous apartheid government. your explanation of what happened in south africa is that as a result of the shock of political transition, not enough people were paying attention to what really mattered: planning the future of the economy. you thus infer that had the anc been more aware of the decisions being made about their economy at the time, they could have escaped the constricting net that began to fall on them and gone ahead with their radical plans to change the south african economy. by now it should come as no surprise that richards and swanger’s analysis of what happened with post-apartheid south african economy starts with the basic cultural rules of capitalism. their analysis is rather simple and strikingly similar to what they argue about sweden and indonesia. post-apartheid south africa was a poor country with high unemployment, few resources, and great debt. ending unemployment requires creating jobs, and creating jobs requires investment. according to the current economic rules, investment occurs in a country when investors choose it to occur, and frequently only after that country has demonstrated that it has created an environment where profits can be made. creating an environment where profits can be made usually means discarding values based in social welfare, like those of the freedom charter, and in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 148 adopting neoliberalism. based on this analysis, richards and swanger would probably agree with you that a net constricting economic policy options covered south africa during this time. they would most certainly disagree, however, with your analysis that this net fell upon south africa while the anc was focused on negotiating the countries political transition. they would say that this net was there before the anc came into office. furthermore, they would say that this net is the basic cultural rules of capitalism. by ignoring the basic cultural rules of capitalism and concluding that the anc could have acted differently in its economic negotiations, you are stating implicitlyas you stated explicitly in your introductionthat governments still have the ability to build social welfare states within a capitalist economic framework. this sentiment is seen throughout your book from south america’s southern cone to england and china, to south africa and poland and russia. you seem to be saying that if governments had only implemented more socialist policies or not had neoliberalism violently imposed upon them, they could have met the needs of all of their people. you ignore the cultural rules of the capitalist system that leave governments in need of resources with few choices but to adopt neoliberalism in order to attract investment. you ignore the fact that most socialist economies have struggled and declined in the face of the basic rules of capitalism, and that those who violently imposed neoliberalism on these countries usually did so with the intention of stopping that decline. in sum, you ignore the current cultural fact that given the basic rules of capitalism, neoliberalism is a logical choice for governments in need of foreign investment, and that the violent repression of leftist organizers is a logical choice for governments who want to retain or attract this in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 149 investment. as an activist and community organizer, my major problem with your failure to ground your analysis of neoliberalism in an understanding of the basic rules of capitalism is that you are unable to provide your reader with a clear framework to guide work for transformative change. according to your analysis, governments and/or concerned citizens would be able to stand up to investors and neoliberal economists if it were not for the physical or economic “shocks” that leave them stunned and disoriented. from this analysis it would follow that concerned people need to become more “shock resistant” so they can elect or create new governments with better, less neoliberal economic policies that are also more resistant to “shock”. as a result of this line of thinking, the conclusion of your book places high hopes on the growing number of left-leaning presidents now in latin america. chávez in venezuela, lula in brazil, evo in bolivia, ortega’s return in nicaragua, and (former president) kirchner in argentina, are evidence to you that “shock” is wearing off and the people of latin america are ready to stand up again to the neoliberal policy that was so brutally imposed upon them in the last four decades. i, too, am pleased that the left is gaining a strong foothold in the americas, but i am doubtful these presidents hold the golden key to unlocking the door of economic change. the current economic independence felt by many of these left-leaning governments is in many ways a result of the large number of natural resources that they now control. the large revenues generated by oil in venezuela or natural gas in bolivia provide these countries with a temporary buffer against the whims of investors, but if oil and natural gas prices go in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 150 down, or when these resources run out, venezuela and bolivia will once again have to face the consequences of the basic cultural rules of capitalism. that is, unless they can use this buffer period to build alternative economies that would release them from the constraints of those rules. this brings me to a second part of your conclusion. it is a part that doesn’t exactly line up with the rest of your book, but a part i find much more hopeful than looking to presidents and governments to make social and economic change. this is the part where you talk about people organizing to meet their own needs, from the landless people’s movement in brazil and the number of growing co-ops in argentina, to the indigenous fishers who rebuilt their own communities after the tsunami in 2005 and the hezbollah-organized and locally led construction of beirut after the 2006 israeli missile assault on lebanon. i mentioned above that these examples of alternatives to neoliberal economic development do not exactly line up with the rest of your book. i say this because throughout most of your book you seem to be arguing that it was the presence of some form of “shock”whether economic turmoil or violence or a period of political transitionthat led governments to impose neoliberalism. you do not seem to be arguing that governments imposed neoliberalism in the absence of an alternative economic system that could meet people’s needs based on other basic cultural rules. it therefore comes as a surprise, albeit a pleasant one, when you also conclude that that above peopleled movements, that are in fact meeting their needs using different rules, are also examples of ways to resist and transform neoliberalism. the problem is, though, that when talking about alternatives to neoliberalism, in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 151 listing examples of community organized systems of meeting needs in the same breath as the return of leftist governments in latin america makes it sound like both examples are equally effective paths towards social transformation. the problem isthat after an introduction and twenty-one chapters that more or less explain the rise of neoliberalism as a mistaken choice made by governments after periods of “shock”your claim that leftist governments can resist and transform neoliberalism holds a bit more weight in your conclusion than the idea that communities can work to overcome neoliberalism as well. the problem isthat particularly in north america, where much energy of concerned people is already spent on criticizing conservative politics and working to elect more progressive politicianspeople will think that if they only did more of what they are doing now, we would eventually have more people-centered economic policies. finally, the problem iswhen you describe these communityled movements that have built economies independent of the current basic cultural rules of capitalism without having previously talked about these rules in your bookyou do not make clear what makes these community-led movements an effective alternative to neoliberalism. when you do not make clear what makes these movements effective alternatives to neoliberal capitalism, you do not help concerned people build similar movements. working with concerned people to organize movements that build alternative economies is, in my opinion, the most important thing those who desire social change need to be doing today. the conclusion of this letter will, for this reason, focus on some concrete strategies for doing just that. as richards and swanger lay out their numerous case studies of countries that in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 152 have thus far failed to build long-lasting social democracies, they also put forward numerous ideas for constructing better, sustainable models. based upon these ideas, i have created a series of interconnected tools that can be used to help us organize alternative economies. these tools are symbols, metaphors, and simple reminders that help guide our collective work for transformative change. the first tool i have created from richard and swanger’s analysis is a pair of glasses that allow us to see more clearly what we need to change in order to improve our world. these glasses bring into focus what most economists, social scientists, and even many well-intentioned progressives ignore or take for granted: the basic cultural rules that organize capitalism. without these glasses, these rules rarely come in to the view of those thinking academically about capitalist economics. richards and swanger support this idea by making the point that you can learn more about these rules by pretending to be homeless on a park bench for an afternoon than spending a semester in a university economics seminar. according to the basic rules of our capitalist culture, the people who pass you by as you sit on the bench have no obligation to help you. they may or may not stop to give you money or food. somebody might hire you to do a job at a decent wage, but since nobody has a duty to do so, there is a good chance they will not. having no money to pay rent, you will continue to sit on the bench until someone offers you an alternative. no one has to offer you an alternative, however, so it is very likely you will continue to sit on the bench. i have already spent a great deal of time talking about the basic cultural rules of capitalism, and it should be relatively clear how the plight of the homeless person is in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 153 mirrored on the larger scale of international investment relations. in today’s economic culture, poor countries, poor communities, and poor people on park benches frequently find themselves without resources and no one obligated to help them do anything about it. the tool of the glasses is important because it allows us to clearly see what we need to be working to change: the basic rules of this economic culture. as we now move on from this first tool, it is important to note that these glasses also give us the focus we need to work with the other tools that now follow. the second tool is a holster without a gun. in this metaphor, the holster represents activists and movements working to change neoliberal capitalist economic culture. here, both the holster and activists/social movements can be understood as carrying containers; where the holster typically carries a gun, activists/social movements carry an approach for effecting change. the gun thus represents one common, but often ineffective, approach to social change work carried by activists and movements: focusing on taking control of state power and/or the economic means of production whether by force or even through the ballot box. allow me to reiterate why carrying such an approach is ineffective. as previously noted, governments in need of resources, even those with the most progressive intentions, can do very little to build people-friendly economies in the face of investors backed by the cultural rules to make free decisions about where to place their investments. similarly, a labor-friendly owner of the means of production will not be able to pay higher wages to her workers, and sell her products at competitive market prices, and accumulate a profit, and have enough money left over to start the production in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 154 cycle over again. as long as the rules of the economy are organized around competition, profit, and reinvestment, the ability to pay workers high wages will often be the first casualty of the systemregardless of who owns the means of production. in each of these examples, the outcome remained the same both before and after progressive people took power. the tool of the empty gun holster thus shows us the importance of dropping our guns, that is, our focus on taking state and economic power when working to change capitalist economies. while carrying an approach to social justice work that focuses on taking power is not usually effective, carrying one that focuses on changing the basic rules of capitalism is. again, the above case studies of sweden, indonesia, and south africa have shown that even when there are governments in power that strive to meet the needs of all of their people, the basic rules of capitalism that demand economic growth and privilege the freedom and property rights of investors, frequently prevent them from accomplishing this goal. the problem is not that the “right” people aren’t in power, but that the options of those in power are limited by the rules of capitalist culture. for this reason, we need drop our focus of working to take power, and begin to carry a new approach that focuses on changing rules. this change in what we carry can be symbolized by placing our first tool, the glasses that help us see the basic cultural rules of capitalism, into the holster that was previously occupied by the gun. dropping the gun and carrying the glasses in our holsters is a visual representation of this shift in how activists and movements should approach transformative social changemoving the focus of our work away from taking state and economic power, and towards changing the basic cultural rules of capitalism. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 155 for richards and swanger, changing rules involves two parts: having a clear idea of what new rules should guide our cultural economic systems, and having a method for how to make those new rules a reality. continuing with the theme of organizing to build alternative economies, i will describe the “what” and the “how” of changing rules as two more tools useful for our jobs as cultural construction workers. richards and swanger suggest that the rules of our new economy should be based on a culture of solidarity. the tool of cooperative games is helpful towards understanding what is meant by “a culture of solidarity.” cooperative games are games organized around the theme of working together towards a common goal. they are different than competitive games because the object is not to win by defeating another team, but to win by achieving something together. a brief, personal reflection about cooperative games will help describe this tool further. i am currently an organizer in the dominican republic with a grassroots organizing school based out of santo domingo called justicia global. during our leadership formation process of new organizers, we lead groups through a sequence of games that challenges them to reflect upon the difference between cooperation and competition, and how these games represent different models for organizing society. we will usually begin by playing musical chairs. this is the classic children’s party game where the group will walk in a circle around a row of chairs as music is being played. there is always one less chair than the number of people walking, so when the music stops, and after the mad dash and the pushing and shoving, one person is always left without a place to sit. the game continues until there is just one person, the “winner,” in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 156 sitting in one chair, while the rest of the group, the “losers,” watch chair-less from the sideline. not surprisingly, this game often results in tears at birthday parties for younger children. after we play the original version of musical chairs in our leadership formation workshops, we teach the group a different, cooperative, way to play the same game. in this second version the group walks around the row of chairs to music as before, but instead of working against each other to leave one person out each round, they work together to get the whole group on the chairs without anyone touching the floor. the game continues like normal musical chairs and each round another chair is taken away. the result is that the group must work harder and more collectively each round to get everyone on the chairs without touching the ground. quite the opposite of the original version, cooperative musical chairs usually ends up with a pile of tangled people, laughing hysterically on the floor. cooperative games, understood in relation to competitive ones, are a useful tool for understanding what sort of rules might help us build an alternative culture to capitalism that would meet everyone's needs in ecologically sustainable ways. the rules of the current economic culture that emphasize freedom and property are echoed in competitive musical chairs. in our current economic culture, investors are free to do what the want with their investment. exclusive control of property is encouraged while sharing is not. likewise in competitive musical chairs, all participants are responsible only for themselves and have the right to claim sole ownership of a chair if they can get there before someone else or push hard enough while the parents are not looking. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 157 cooperative musical chairs, however, provides a model for what can happen when the rules of the game are shifted towards principles of solidarity, togetherness, and sharing of resources. keep in mind (and keep those glasses handy in their holsters) that the only basic difference between competitive musical chairs and cooperative musical chairs is the rules. the number of people starting the game is the same. the number of chairs in each round is the same. the difference is that the rules of the game were changed to serve a different purpose. similarly, changing the basic cultural rules of capitalism so that they are organized around cooperation and sharing of resources means changing the very purpose of economics. capitalist economics will never meet everyone’s needs because the purpose of capitalist economics is not meeting needs, but the accumulation of capital. investors invest to make more money than they started with. they do not invest to end poverty, or pay workers a living wage, or provide tax revenue to local governments to pay for schools and health care. fortunately, investing in order to accumulate more money is but a cultural practice, made possible by cultural rules. cultural practices can be changed. new cultural rules can and should be constructed. if it were the cultural norm to create meaningful jobs with high wages for all, then everyone would have meaningful, high paying jobs. if it were the cultural norm to fund quality education and health care for everyone, everywhere, then health care would exist universally. moreover, if it were the cultural norm for people to share their resources and work collectively to end poverty, then, working together, poverty would be ended. it is both that simple and that complicated. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 158 so, how do we change the basic cultural rules of capitalism? what is the magical tool that will help transform our current economic system that, as you described so well in the shock doctrine, relies on all sorts of nasty practices to keep profits flowing? the tool is us. we are the ones we’ve been waiting for. it is up to us to build cultures of solidarity, to think about our property in new and creative ways, to share the resources we can share with others, to organize communities that meet their own needs independent of the current cultural rules of capitalism. it is not enough to write letters to our governments or work to elect more progressive presidents. it is not enough to take the streets in protest of economic summits where a small group of elites makes decisions about the future of the global economy. it is not even enough to bring the current economic system to a halt through coordinated strikes. we can, and should also organize alternative economies together, nourish the alternative economies that already exist, and practice, teach, and promote the alternative cultural rules needed to build these economies within our families and communities. we can, and should also organize alternative economies, not just to meet everyone’s needs in ecologically sustainable ways, but because there is great joy in working collectively to improve our own lives. sincerely, mark porter webb in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 129-159 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 159 klein, naomi. the shock doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism. 1st ed. new york: metropolitan books/henry holt, 2007. reflective pedagogy reardon-snauwaert copy in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 1-14 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 1 volume 5 number 1 (2011): 1-14 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ reflective pedagogy, cosmopolitanism, and critical peace education for political efficacy: a discussion of betty a. reardon’s assessment of the field betty a. reardon international institute on peace education and dale t. snauwaert the university of toledo dale.snauwaert@utoledo.edu in a recent publication entitled ”concerns, cautions and possibilities for peace education for political efficacy” betty reardon reflects on the state of peace education and offers a brilliant reaffirmation and further elaboration of the central importance and nature of a pedagogy of reflective inquiry for a comprehensive/critical peace education.1 betty reardon is an internationally renowned peace scholar and peace educator. she has been instrumental in the establishment of peace education institutions and programs around the world. her work has defined the fields of peace studies and peace education. 2 1 betty a. reardon, "concerns, cautions and possibilities for peace education for political efficacy," in critical peace education: difficult dialogue, ed. bryan wright and peter trifonas (springer, 2011). 2 reardon’s collected papers is housed at the university of toledo – see http://www.utoledo.edu/library/canaday/guidepages/education.html the following are examples of her work: betty reardon, comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility (new york: teachers college press, 1988); betty reardon, educating for global responsibility: teacher-designed curricula for peace education, k-12 (new york: teachers college press, 1988); betty reardon, educating for human dignity: learning about rights and responsibilities, pennsylvania studies in human rights (philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press, 1995); betty reardon, sexism and the war system, 1st syracuse university press ed., syracuse studies on peace and conflict resolution (syracuse, n.y.: syracuse university press, 1996); betty a. reardon, "peace education: a review and projection," (sweden: school of education, malmo university, 1999). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 1-14 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 2 the purpose of this paper is to discuss her recent assessment and elaboration. in particular, the connection between cosmopolitanism and reflective pedagogy will be explored in greater detail, in addition to the posing of further questions for inquiry related to the relationship between dialogue, conceptual clarity, philosophical frameworks, diversity and reflective pedagogy. snauwaert’s reflections reardon situates peace education within the broader issue of citizenship and argues that peace education should be fundamentally concerned with the development of the political efficacy of future citizens. she writes: starting from the long held premise that peace education is education for responsible global citizenship, our task in general terms is educating toward political efficacy in the formation and pursuit of citizen action and public policy intended to move the world toward the achievement of a more just and less violent global order.3 political efficacy is not necessarily a matter per se of what to think; it is more fundamentally about how to think. in other words, political efficacy is dependent upon “sound political thinking,” “for inquiry into obstacles and possibilities for transformation should form the core of peace pedagogy, so as to provide learning in how to think and to act for political efficacy in peace politics . . .”4 learning how to think concerns conceptual clarity, thinking within conceptual frameworks, posing questions, rationality, and most importantly reflective inquiry. from an ethical perspective, political efficacy is grounded in the normative framework of cosmopolitanism, defined by reardon as the value of “universal moral inclusion”5 grounded in respect for human dignity. she maintains that cosmopolitanism “best articulates the normative goals of our evolving field . . . the vision of universal moral inclusion that inspires the normative goals of peace education; a vision in which all human beings are accorded respect of their fundamental human dignity.”6 from this perspective, political efficacy is driven by the values of universal human dignity and moral inclusion. political efficacy thus involves “complex learning that requires pedagogies of multiple forms of reflective inquiry.”7 peace learning and thus reflective practice is both cognitive and normative, pertaining to both the discernment of the sociopolitical world and value-based ethical assessment. reardon’s basic presupposition is that political 3 ibid., 2 4 ibid., 3 5 ibid., 3 6 ibid., 3 7 ibid., 3 in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 1-14 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 3 efficacy, the capacity to engage in transformative political action, is contingent upon the cognitive, ethical, and self-reflective capacities of citizens. transformative action is a reflective-practice. being a reflective practice it requires both the capacity and space for authentic open reflective inquiry in dialogue with the diverse range of other citizens. it requires “authentic open inquiry.” reardon writes: “all peace learning at whatever academic level in whatever learning setting should be directed toward developing a range of reflective capacities relevant to political efficacy.”8 reardon articulates three forms of reflective inquiry: critical/analytic; moral/ ethical; and contemplative/ruminative. critical/analytic reflection pertains to the discernment of power, an understanding and critique of the functioning of social institutions, knowledge and analysis of the structural dimensions of social life, and the impact of power, institutions, and structures on the quality of life. reardon writes: “it is more directly political than the other two as its primary inquiry is into the nature, functions and distribution of power, the political institutions and social structures through which it is mediated and the consequences of these circumstances to human lives and relationships.”9 “moral/ethical reflection addresses questions of fairness and moral inclusion with queries focused on issues of the goodness, distribution of advantage and harm, the justice and potential detriments and benefits of relationships, effects upon quality of life and the biosphere. transformative moral/ethical reflection is guided by normative principles consistent with the values designated as the indicators of what is considered to be socially good and humanly enhancing.”10 moral/ethical reflection involves the principled application of practical reason to the many moral and ethical issues inherent in the political and social realms. she makes an important distinction between the moral as precepts to guide life and the ethical, as principled practical reason. it is the latter that is most fundamental to political efficacy and the education of cosmopolitan citizens. “contemplative/ruminative reflection is a process consistent with the breadth of thought inspired by a cosmopolitan view. it is a wider sphere of reflection, which facilitates perception of the full scope of the complex systemic, dynamic interrelationships comprising our natural and humanly constructed environments. it makes space for affect and intuition as more complex forms of reason. it is the deeper thought through which persons gain the forms of self awareness from which to develop capacities to lead not only humanly fulfilling lives, but even more to the point, to live personally, socially and politically so as to be agents of social and political transformation.”11 contemplative reflection is thus conceived as critical self-examination regarding our internal motivations and moral capacities. it pertains to a reflection on 8 ibid., 6 9 ibid., 8 10 ibid., 8 11 ibid., 9-10 in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 1-14 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 4 what is meaningful and valuable. it is essential for ethical commitment and for the empathic moral response to the dignity of other persons. although reardon does clearly posit the interconnection between the three forms of reflective inquiry and cosmopolitanism, arguing that they constitute capacities that make possible the transformative action necessary for the actualization of the cosmopolitan ideal, i believe that the relationship between cosmopolitanism runs even deeper than reardon suggests. reflective inquiry is not only a means to the actualization of cosmopolitanism; reflective inquiry is an ethical requirement, and thus a constitutive element, of cosmopolitanism. it can be argued that the cosmopolitan ideal of universal respect for human dignity and moral inclusion itself necessitates open reflective inquiry and in turn its reflective capacities, and that the three forms of reflective inquiry mirror the three dimensions of cosmopolitanism. the ethical dimension of cosmopolitanism consists of universal respect for human dignity and moral inclusion. this ethic proclaims the equal inherent dignity and value of each and every human being as a human being. this value of universal moral equality in turn bestows moral standing to each person. each person is a morally equal member of the human moral community and thus each person has a right to equal moral consideration. as a matter of basic justice, moral consideration includes recognition (recognition of all persons as moral equals, regardless of difference), fairness (impartial treatment and respect for persons), and inclusion (all persons have equal standing (membership) in the moral and political community). the ethical imperative of cosmopolitanism mandates that we see the other as a person; it demands that we transcend the objectification of persons in favor of the recognition of their humanity. thus, woven into this dimension is the ethical requirement of reflective inquiry into the moral standing of persons and the forces of objectification that deny them their humanity and rightful standing in the moral community. the political dimension logically follows from the ethical. if all human beings are morally equal, then they possess a right to have their interests equally considered in the political process as well as the right to participate equally in that process. the rights to equal political consideration and equal political participation constitute political equality. the aim of political equality is the institutionalization of individual political empowerment. critical/analytic reflection is a constitutive imperative of political equality and thus of cosmopolitanism, for the sustainable institutionalization of individual political empowerment is based upon individual awareness and knowledge of one’s rights to consideration and participation and the internal capacities to effectively participate in the political process. the self-reflective, contemplative dimension of cosmopolitanism consists of the internal moral resources of the individual that provides the consciousness and capacity to be aware of and to ethically respond to the inherent dignity of every human being. cosmopolitanism thus entails an internal disposition and capacity to respond to others in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 1-14 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 5 empathetically with respect and care. it also entails a moral commitment to the ideals of human dignity and inclusion, which makes cosmopolitanism a deliberative choice. these dispositions emerge out of critical self-examination and contemplative reflection wherein their meaning and value are contemplated and affirmed by each individual citizen.12 in addition, if we take into consideration the almost incomprehensible scope of human diversity, the ideals of universal human dignity and moral inclusion, including the principles of recognition, inclusion, and fairness as well as equal political consideration and participation, require open impartial public deliberation.13 it requires that everyone submit their values and ideas to open impartial scrutiny as a test of their objectivity, value, and validity. given that our perspectives tend to be confined, exposing our positions to open impartial scrutiny is a means of transcending our positional confinement. this call for impartial scrutiny is central to reardon’s advocacy of reflective inquiry and her critique of the narrowness and partiality of the positioning of critical, reflective pedagogies as ideologies rather than as methods of inquiry and educational liberation. my main point is that open reflective inquiry in general, and the three forms of reflective inquiry in particular, are constitutive elements of the cosmopolitan ethic. the cosmopolitan ethic is instantiated educationally through the pedagogical application of the three forms of reflection. from this perspective, peace education is the enactment of the cosmopolitan ethic. by enacting it pedagogically the school becomes the incubator, and the peace educator the midwife, of a cosmopolitan society. reardon offers a very insightful analysis of the nature of reflective inquiry, however, further questions into the nature of reflective inquiry can be posed as a means of further developing a reflective perspective: a. what is the general methodological orientation of reflective inquiry? is reflective inquiry a process of discovery, invention, or interpretation? b. what is the place of dialogue in reflective inquiry? is reflective inquiry dialogical? c. is mastery of conceptual frameworks necessary for conceptual clarity and critical thinking? is a substantial degree of background knowledge necessary for reflective inquiry? 12 dale snauwaert, "human rights and cosmopolitan democratic education," philosophical studies in education 40 (2009); dale snauwaert, "the ethics and ontology of cosmopolitanism: education for a shared humanity," current issues in comparative education 12 (2009). 13 martha c. nussbaum, frontiers of justice: disabliity, nationality, species membership (cambridge, massachusetts: the belknap press of harvard university press, 2006); john rawls and erin kelly, justice as fairness : a restatement (cambridge, mass.: harvard university press, 2001); amartya sen, the idea of justice (cambridge, massachusetts: the belknap press of harvard university press, 2009). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 1-14 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 6 d. can justice and peace be defined, and can reflective inquiry proceed, without the adoption of a political and moral philosophy? can an exposure to a variety of philosophies be sufficient for reflective inquiry? reardon’s responses to snauwaert’s queries on reflective inquiry dale snauwaert has offered an excellent and incisive encapsulation of my proposals for reflective inquiry as an appropriate and effective pedagogy through which to pursue the political/social purposes of comprehensive critical peace education. this encapsulation prefaces some very significant challenges for the further explication and development of the proposals and arguments put forward in ”concerns, cautions and possibilities for peace education for political efficacy”. snauwaert, an education philosopher has been a ground-breaker in articulating the moral and ethical dimensions of peace education and has situated the field within the philosophy of cosmopolitanism. his reflections deepening the inquiry into these dimensions offer a particularly provocative extension of the discussion i sought to open about current problems and possibilities in the pedagogies of peace education. the following responses to his challenging queries attempt to bring further clarification and put a bit of meat on the bones of my propositions concerning reflective inquiry as peace pedagogy. the responses are represented in the order in which prof. snauwaert posed questions as means to explore further the pedagogic characteristics of reflective inquiry, and are articulated in thematic fashion around the core concepts of his questions. i need to note here that these responses as are the assertions in the original essay – are subjectively based on my own experience as a practitioner supplemented by observations of current practice. judgment on the degree to which my assertions and suggestions are transferable to the practice of others, is left to the readers. methodological orientation: a purposeful interrogatory process the general methodological orientation of reflective inquiry is the nurture and development of the human curiosity and wonderment that is the font of learning. the starting point of authentic learning is not an instruction, but a question. the task of education is to guide the human attributes of curiosity and wonderment toward the achievement of the complementary, mutually reinforcing purposes of development of the self and of socially relevant knowledge and humanly enhancing skills and values. reflective inquiry comprises a pedagogy of questions and queries as tools of learning facilitation. the art of this pedagogy is in the formation of the questions and queries that instigate reflective responses from learners. instruction is designed to meet the needs of learners to develop skills for the interpretation of questions, to establish the relationship of the subject of the question to the social and learning environment in which a peace learning inquiry is pursued, and to illuminate particular dimensions of the subject of the in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 1-14 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 7 inquiry or problem being addressed. the sequence and mode of instruction most effectively emerge from the learners’ question, “what does this subject have to do with me, my life and the society in which i live?” in a peace learning inquiry that question will ultimately evolve to the query, “what has the subject to do with us as a community, our common welfare and the kind of society in which we would prefer to live?” the great need in the implementation of reflective pedagogy is to elicit and refine the capacities for such question formation and modes of posing those questions of teachers at all levels and of the learners whom they guide. in that reflective inquiry can be pursued in analytic, ethical and contemplative modes, it is practiced through various thinking processes including discovery, invention, interpretation, explication and others. reflection can lead to discovery in the sense of revealing elements of a subject of study not perceivable through surface observation. reflection in the sense of careful and detailed thinking to fully examine all elements and aspects of a subject of study that can be “seen” as through a kind of intellectual magnification is, in fact, an effective route to learning as discovery or as in deductive reasoning. reflection toward discovery is elicited by questions specifically designed to reveal the less obvious aspects of the subject, questions rather than queries as per the distinctions made in the original essay questions about specific aspects of the subject to which there are answers in the form of particular material attributes of the subject that can be observed by closer more thoughtful examination. reflective inquiry in the modes of invention and interpretation is more likely to be facilitated through queries, more open questions to which sufficient response is not one particular observable attribute or validated facts, but a range of responses revealing various possibilities in regard to how the subject might be dealt with (i.e. invention) or to its meaning to the larger realms to which the subject is or might be related (i.e. interpretation). the place of dialogue: communal reflection building learning communities reflective inquiry initiated by the posing of questions is deepened through the consideration of queries. in that it is in essence a process of thinking by interrogation, it is thus essentially dialogic, beginning with focusing on and encountering the subject of the inquiry as the entry point into the process of examination of what is to be further explored. in this respect, reflective inquiry begins with an inner process of confronting and questioning toward a basic understanding of the subject or issue. while it is possible for the process to remain inward and still be productive of learning, the practice of reflective inquiry as peace education learning toward social and political change – must become outwardly dialogic in the form of a learning discourse through posing queries to elicit the individual reflections of all who comprise the learning community (or class). the social purposes of comprehensive critical peace education are best achieved through communally conducted reflective inquiry. because it is a process of posing and considering questions, the instructional dimension – the intentional construction of in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 1-14 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 8 learning experiences to achieve planned objectives – must be dialogical.14 if it were simply questioning for comprehension rather than for the elicitation of multiple reflected responses, it might remain as retention of content, or in the absence of multiple views, easily slip into indoctrination, the antithesis of critical peace education. were it to be left at the inward without the communal sharing, it might become meditative rather than ruminative, remaining personal, not becoming a social learning process, preparatory to the public political discourse for change. further, dialogue serves to develop conceptual clarity through communal explication of individual reflections, and contributes, as well, to honing the skills of articulation particularly necessary in the contentious discourse through which meaning is negotiated and peace and justice are pursued. in the sense of its application as intentional preparation for contentious discourse as critical peace education pedagogy reflective inquiry is dialogic in its confrontation of contradictions and disputations. most essential in discussions of controversial and contentious social and political issues is to be cognizant of the need for reflected exchanges in lieu of the mutual vaulting of predigested, ideological positions. in fact, reflective inquiry is stressed as a possible antidote to the ideological reductionism that infects present political discourse. one other aspect of the dialogic dimension of reflective inquiry is that dialogue is the process through which validation of arguments can be achieved by offering and testing of evidence, data, prior experience or related matters, and assessing its relevance to the problematic. dialogue is the realm in which reasoning of the type metcalfe advocated is the arbiter, the means through disputed differences are resolved. it is an outward manifestation of the reflective thinking metcalf argued to be essential to the democratic process. the near total lack of reasoning and reasonable discourse in contemporary american politics impels me to advocate reflective inquiry as a common pedagogy in peace education. conceptual frameworks: tools for shaping and plotting the inquiry conceptual frameworks are important to reflective inquiry as pedagogy. i hesitate to advocate that we strive for it as the measure of capacity to engage in reflective inquiry. mastery, to me, means attaining the level of practice of the master (the teacher/facilitator).15 within this concept of the term, there is an assumption that the master is the main – often sole arbiter of the learning, and usually involves primary learning assessments being made by and agent or agents outside the learner, or even 14 i have written elsewhere about the functions of social purposes, educational goals and learning objectives in curriculum design, planning for the elicitation of intentional learning. 15 the concept of mastery is one that originates in such achievements under the direction of an experienced practitioner. certainly, it is a process with social merit that has a place in comprehensive critical peace education. it is not, however, appropriate to the open quality of reflective inquiry pedagogy. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 1-14 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 9 outside the learning community (i.e. education authorities.) i hold that authentic assessment of learning, its quality, significance and relevance is most truly and usefully performed by the learner, not the teacher or those who have authorized her. we as educators have the responsibility to enable learners to develop skills of assessment and encourage them to so value learning that self assessment becomes to them an integral part of the learning experience. in assessment, as well as in pedagogy, the formulation of questions and queries that are appropriately indicative of the desired learning and effective to the purposes of both learners and teachers is of prime importance. this is not to say that educational authorities should not evaluate the learning that is acquired in our schools, but to note that such assessment would be primarily indicative of a degree of mastery as determined by an outside agent. these outside assessments are perfectly legitimate and often necessary. they do not however, substitute for autonomously assessed, personally integrated learning to which reflective inquiry as peace education aspires. the learning experiences that form the world views and citizenship capacities of learners comprise more than knowledge of government and organized politics and such that can be evaluated by authorities outside the learning selves of our students. some but not all elements of the effective application of conceptual frameworks to reflective inquiry can be assessed by a teacher. a teacher can ascertain if learners are including all components of a framework and applying them appropriately to the problem at hand, but she is not likely to be able to adequately assess the degree to which the framework deepens and clarifies learners’ conceptual understanding of the problematic. the best test of such comprehension is the communal conclusions and problem resolutions developed in consensus by the learning community. comprehending the full significance of a framework to the illumination of a problematic is primarily a communal and dialogical process requiring the insights and reflections of all participants in an inquiry. there are areas in all learning situations that outside agents cannot apprehend. at later stages of judgment and action some indicators may be apparent, but they tend not to be of a nature that might be subject to the kind of surface assessment broadly applied in formal education. conceptual frameworks as constructions of thoughts and ideas that are often abstract and amorphous are instruments for defining and clarifying the core concepts relevant to the problematic that produces an inquiry. they illuminate the nature of and the relationships among components of a problematic. thus, they are essential tools of reflective inquiry in peace education. peace educators need to be alert to learners’ comprehension of a concept as illustrated by how they use it in oral and written reflections. indeed, they need to determine if students comprehend what a concept is. i have encountered significant lack of understanding among adult learners, not only of the learning uses of concepts, but even of how concepts function in thinking about peace and other social and political issues. conceptual abstractions are in many ways the very essence of the peace education problematic, abstract ideas that can take various concrete forms (or be still without concrete form) and that serve many functions of meaning and description. communal reflective inquiry can be used to clarify and determine a common in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 1-14 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 10 meaning for concepts that comprise a framework for the study of a problematic or of proposals to respond to one. indeed, in case where the community has had sufficient experience of reflective inquiry, it can be use to communally construct the conceptual framework for study of the focus problem. this is process through which a common vision of some of the potential features of the actualization of the concepts can be derived by the learning group. peace building is a process of transforming the conceptual abstractions of our visions of peace into the material descriptions of the actual realization of the vision. frameworks make possible the use of holism, the means to a comprehensive view of any peace problematic. frameworks serve both to delineate the problem and to discern patterns of relationships to be explored and analyzed through reflective inquiry. these functions apply to the understanding of the material nature of a problematic and to comprehension of proposed theoretical explications. i have found that learners sometimes confuse the functions of conceptual and theoretical frameworks, perhaps because there is little consideration given to theory at the level of general citizenship education; and as noted in the original essay where theory is addressed in university peace studies courses, it is often limited to the consideration of the work of the recognized theorists, and not to theory making per se. all citizenship education should include experience with theory making, as preparation to be critically reflective in consideration of the rationales given for public policies. political efficacy for change would capacitate citizens to formulate their own alternative theories, ones more likely to produce the peace directed policies we seek. one role for instruction can be in making these distinctions as part of the foundational substance that is provided as the content of an inquiry. in simplest terms, it can be postulated that conceptual frameworks work as descriptions of a problematic and theoretical frameworks as explications; the first is an attempt to describe what the subject comprises and how the components relate to each other; the second explains why it is as described and how the set of relationships came to be. effective peace learning calls for practice in the use of conceptual and theoretical frameworks where and in the manner appropriate to the purposes of the inquiry, constructing knowledge that prepares us for effective political action for peace. background knowledge: substance is constitutive to reflective inquiry the primary functions of frameworks in this pedagogy are the ordering and organization of knowledge, and providing a directional map for inquiry. designating an order and delimiting a map as guiding functions for inquiry emphasizes the centrality of substance in critical reflection. the term “background knowledge” could be used to indicate the core substance or curricular content in the form of data of various kinds from sources such as student research, assigned readings, films, lectures, the web and prior discussions as guided by the initiator and/or facilitator of the inquiry – in schools, the teacher. this is instruction in the sense of building a basic, initial content into the common learning experience. relevant knowledge produced by agents outside the learning community is always necessary, especially so when the community (or the class) in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 1-14 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 11 itself has not identified the subject or the problem source of the core queries of the inquiry usually the case with course syllabi. in instruction to initiate reflective inquiry, it should be stipulated that the knowledge provided is necessary but not sufficient to the inquiry. a core goal of the learning process is the creation of new knowledge, using, but going beyond the background provided. (this is another factor that influences my opinion on mastery.) as we would encourage learners to be independent theory makers, so too, we would guide them toward being autonomous builders of knowledge. in all peace education, we need to make clear that all the knowledge necessary for the making and building of peace is not yet available to us; that our task as peace learners and peace makers is to contribute to the building of the fundamental peace knowledge base, involving all existing fields of human knowledge and perhaps inventing new ones. peace learning is a creative rather than a primarily receptive/retentive process. retention, however, is essential if knowledge building is to be a continuous process of adding to the store of peace information to which learners and their societies have ready access. even in the age of info-tech, disciplined human memory has an important role to play in all social learning. the discipline to which i refer is a conscious process of mental review of what is known at a particular stage in a given inquiry, retrieving the relevant (a process of judgment making) and relating it to other knowledge even to other inquiries as a way of strengthening the retention capacity by identifying a previously integrated knowledge hook to hang it on. a similar function is served by applying information to another mental process or application to any thinking task. it is for this reason that i have taught through learning exercises that assess background knowledge through a task that requires its application rather than simply its recitation or repetition. these exercises put background knowledge through a process of review and retrieval that provides the essential substantive foundation for reflective inquiry. knowledge, i have found, is best retained through the integration process of use, especially so when it is used to make new knowledge. reflective inquiry emerges from a concept of learning that includes the building and as well as the acquisition of knowledge. justice and peace: defining concepts, describing conditions, honing conceptual tools defining the core and most cogent concepts for peace learning is both essential and problematic. definitions make for the clarity needed to construct the framework of the discourse. however, they also may limit the degree of openness necessary to the creative forms of reflective inquiry that hold the possibility of producing the essential new learnings. adding to this complexity is the widely held general perception of peace as being “a time between wars” or an indefinable and thereby an unsustainable or an unachievable abstraction. it raises the profound philosophically daunting issue of “what is is”. peace is or will be – what we think it is. it is the destination toward which our values lead us. we will know it when we see it. if we are committed to seeing it, we need to be able to envision it. visions of the unprecedented lend themselves more to description than to definition, i.e. “it would look like or be like this…..” in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 1-14 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 12 from a common comprehension of the vision/description, a definition of the abstract concept we might agree is peace, can be derived, the derivation coming from the social values that are our ideas about the good. defining the concepts of a discourse directed toward change, especially within a learning experience, is a process of negotiation toward an agreement on what the term will mean within the communal inquiry. thus, we can propose for these purposes such conditional definitions as, “peace is a condition in which justice is assured and violence is abjured.” (a definition, i have used at various times) while i find that the widely used terms “negative peace” as the absence of organized political violence and “positive peace” as the presence of social and economic justice – i.e. conditions that could prevent organized violence has been a useful device in widening thinking about what might actually constitute peace, i find them to have been used sometimes in ways that are definitive in the sense of closing the inquiry into the conditions of peace i see as necessary to making it possible to abjure violence. so, my argument is that peace can and should be conditionally defined as a tool of the inquiry at hand and continually reviewed as the inquiry produces new insights and knowledge. it is in this way that peace may be understood as a dynamic and socially creative process,16 that those convinced of the need for social transformation intuit it to be. indeed, were we to have been in the habit of such constant review of the concept of democracy, we would probably not now be in the political circumstances that so threaten democracy as dewey and metcalf conceptualized it in their notions of education for democratic citizenship. open inquiry: formulation of cogent questions; expectations for replies direct questions call for definitive, descriptive answers. queries call for conditional, speculative responses.17 verbs are crucial in the formation of questions. for example “can” implies that something is or is not possible, “can we do so and so?” the expected reply is an affirmation or negation of the possibility (usually one or the other) imbedded in the question, i.e. an answer which may or may not be elaborated or subject to further questioning. questions require primarily recall, or at best, reasoned deduction, rather than careful reflection. queries are formed to initiate individual and group reflection intended to produce multiple responses from which a communal inquiry can be further elaborated. questions might become queries when we substitute “can” with “might” or “could.” the expected replies are more likely to be reflective speculations that could suggest possibilities and provoke further queries and questions as both would be required for deepening the exploration of proposed possibilities. queries are a way of putting the “quest” into questions and the “search” into research. it is the questing after and searching for the learning that will best prepare us to be makers and builders of peace that actually. it is the questing and the search that “opens” an inquiry. 16 john f. kennedy in his commencement address at american university in june 1963 defined peace as, “a process, a way of solving problems.” 17 query is a term borrowed from a quaker tradition, the form in which issues of concern are put before a meeting, expecting all to share their reflections toward making communal decisions. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 1-14 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 13 raising issues for reflection as queries rather than questions, i believe, helps to makes it possible for all members of the community to contribute to the inquiry, and to have their responses validated as indicative of individual thinking that is valued by the group. limiting learning exchanges to definitive or “closing” questions tends to perpetuate the atmosphere of hierarchical valuing of replies, offering affirmation only to those who present the “right answer,” closing possibilities for further reflection for all who fail to produce the answer, not a situation that contributes to self esteem and respect for the individual capacities of all in the community. the moral and political philosophies of open reflective inquiry reflective inquiry as pedagogy is itself a political philosophy grounded in a set of ethical principles, functioning as a moral philosophy to guide our judgments of what comprises a social good. it is premised upon undertaking the responsibility to contribute to a form of education that will serve to advance the development of an authentically democratic political order committed to human equality, nonviolence as the core guideline of individual and social relationships, and respect for the integrity of earth, the components of what i have earlier referred to as universal moral inclusion. it assumes that all human beings who enjoy unimpaired mental capacities – whatever their ranking on the various limited assessments of human intelligence – are capable of moral agency on behalf of justice and the reflective inquiry into social good that comprises ethical judgment making. this is a philosophy which obliges education to strive toward releasing and developing that capacity in all learners, no matter what life roles they are being prepared for. it is the core of the political philosophy of that which i believe to be authentic democracy. it would suggest that all political philosophies be reviewed and assessed for their potential for guiding principles for judgments in peacemaking and peace building. the motivating argument for such study lies in the assertion that all political philosophies should be assessed primarily in terms of their compatibility with the sine qua non principle of what i intuit to be peace and what i assert to be the fundamental social purpose of peace education, contributing to the achievement of universal moral inclusion. snauwaert’s concluding reflections an intimate connection between cosmopolitanism and reflective pedagogy is at the heart of a comprehensive, critical peace education. from this perspective, reflective inquiry is not only a means to the actualization of cosmopolitanism; reflective inquiry is an ethical requirement, and thus a constitutive element, of cosmopolitanism. the political efficacy, including political knowledge and skill, required for transformative social and political agency is based upon complex peace learning. this learning is in turn facilitated by a pedagogy of reflective inquiry. reardon’s complex and insightful inquiry into the nature of reflective inquiry and its pedagogy points to the insight that a pedagogy in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 1-14 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 14 of reflective inquiry central to a critical peace education must not only engage and develop the inward reflection of the student; it must constitute a social and political dialogue. the pedagogy of reflective inquiry that leads to political and social transformation mirrors the nature of public reason and democratic deliberation.18 the classroom, as do democratic public spaces of freedom, is site of open, impartial deliberation wherein the reflective responses, proposals, visions, and ideals of citizens, present and future, are subjected to open (fully inclusive and cosmopolitan), impartial scrutiny. the responses that “survive” such scrutiny are authentically reflective and dialogical, and qualify as potential transformative propositions. through this process students develop the capacities of public reason and become adept at democratic deliberation. this pedagogy enacts the processes and substantive issues of democratic public deliberation in the classroom. from this perspective, critical peace education is authentic democratic education. references nussbaum, martha c. frontiers of justice: disabliity, nationality, species membership. cambridge, massachusetts: the belknap press of harvard university press, 2006. rawls, john, and erin kelly. justice as fairness : a restatement. cambridge, mass.: harvard university press, 2001. reardon, betty. comprehensive peace education : educating for global responsibility. new york: teachers college press, 1988. ———. educating for global responsibility : teacher-designed curricula for peace education, k-12. new york: teachers college press, 1988. ———. educating for human dignity : learning about rights and responsibilities, pennsylvania studies in human rights. philadelphia: university of pennsylvania press, 1995. ———. sexism and the war system. 1st syracuse university press ed, syracuse studies on peace and conflict resolution. syracuse, n.y.: syracuse university press, 1996. reardon, betty a. "concerns, cautions and possibilities for peace education for political efficacy." in critical peace education: difficult dialogue, edited by bryan wright and peter trifonas: springer, 2011. ———. "peace education: a review and projection." sweden: school of education, malmo university, 1999. sen, amartya. the idea of justice. cambridge, massachusetts: the belknap press of harvard university press, 2009. snauwaert, dale. "human rights and cosmopolitan democratic education." philosophical studies in education 40 (2009): 94-103. ———. "the ethics and ontology of cosmopolitanism: education for a shared humanity." current issues in comparative education 12 (2009): 14-22. 18 sen, the idea of justice. microsoft word intro s-e ifp.docx in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 38-40 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 38 volume 11 number 2 (2017): 38-40 http://www.infactispax.org/journal introduction: peace building in post-conflict contexts, a special issue of in factis pax janet gerson international institute on peace education anita l. yudkin suliveres unesco chair for peace education university of puerto rico this special issue is inspired by the 2016 peace accords in colombia to end the fifty years’ war. peace negotiations took place between the government and the farc guerilla leadership. despite this major achievement, serious concerns remain for how colombians can actualize this accord into an authentic transition from deadly civil war to alternative, non-violent, constructive relations. much has been written on post-conflict reconciliation especially in social psychology. issues of transitional justice have been reflected upon in the law theory literature. often the primary actors considered are governments and/or international organizations such as the united nations, the international court of justice, and the international criminal court. this issue on peace building in post-conflict contexts brings together diverse perspectives and actions in peace education and social justice studies. recognizing both the dangers and the potential, multi-level efforts for peaceful transformations are in process within colombia with other warring in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 38-40 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 39 groups, regional communities, and with external forces -corporate, transnational, and international. these efforts are taking place through civil society initiatives, peace education in formal educational settings, and among public groups, toward empowering citizens and transforming the civil and social cultures of colombia from war to cultures of peace. although focused on the colombian process, the articles included in this special issue address other topics related to peace building in post conflict contexts as they contribute to better understanding the complex realities in which these take place. evidence for the global relevance of peace education and civil society initiatives is evinced by the contexts and nationalities of the contributors to this special edition -primarily colombia, but also from and about argentina, lebanon, northern ireland, and the niger valley, with authors additionally from portugal, puerto rico, italy, and the united states. we are most fortunate to have this wide range of experience, region, and expertise represented in this issue. latin american expert, boaventura de sousa santos, a portuguese scholar and activist, presents a sophisticated political perspective on the forces that compete for the peace and pieces of colombia’s post-conflict transition. latin american scholars and activists, anaida pascual morán from puerto rico and alicia cabezudo from argentina, each bring that overview to their peace educational understanding of colombian transitional efforts. us professors and conflict specialists pair with colleagues and students: jill strauss and michelle black question the gaps in impact of contact programs for northern ireland. beth-yoshida, joan lopez, and aldo civico present their research on how youth leaders used arts to restore a community in colombia. us doctoral candidate imoh colins edozie grapples with how to integrate human rights theory into transforming poverty in his homeland, the niger delta. finally, professors from argentina and lebanon use university classrooms for cultivating and assessing peace. andrea arce-trigatti and florencia beatriz santucho discuss how teaching literature can serve as space for transformation and peace pedagogy. ghada chehimi and nadine joudi discuss the challenges of educating teachers for peace in post-conflict beirut. thanks to our latin american network, most especially to co-editor anita yudkin suliveres, for the spanish as well as english language articles, and in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 38-40 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 40 to joan lopez whose translation made possible the dual language versions of the article he co-authored. special appreciation to amada benavides de pérez, fundación escuelas de paz, for her vision and dedication in leadership for peace education in colombia. she has worked tirelessly within colombia as well as with multiple international networks, through which many of us have learned about colombia and have contributed what we could. through our mutual work with the international institute on peace education (iipe), the global campaign for peace education, the hague appeal for peace, and the international peace bureau, amada inspired this issue. fran russell banks in factis pax 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 volume 2 number 2 (2008): 292-306 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ youth initiatives in conflict zones: focus northern ireland fran russell banks introduction in this paper i am looking at the role of youth work in the conflict zone which was northern ireland. firstly, by way of context i will give a brief overview of historical relationship between the jurisdictions. this is necessary in order to understand the way the jurisdictions focus began, with some common sense of purpose, and how this focus began to change as the conflict developed. the second part of the paper looks more closely at the origins and processes of youth work development within the conflict zone and the thinking’s behind the change of emphasis. here too reference will be made to several organisations which began, from different impulses, and how they were interlinked with one another as the conflict progressed. one programme initiative which involved all three jurisdictions is highlighted to illustrate this linkage and also the journey from tragedy to understanding. this youth focused initiative was designed to educate, challenge and ideally change perspectives of the participants so that they might become instruments of change themselves. a case study of one young man, mark, is taken to highlight the fact that change can and does happen through these initiatives. the final focus of this paper looks at northern ireland youth initiatives in a post conflict framework and how the process are being re-evaluated and revised. in conclusion this paper addresses the continual struggle and competition for funding and also the paucity of written studies and long term evaluation of many programmes. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 292-306 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 brief historical overview the island of ireland is composed of four provinces, leinster, munster, connaught and ulster. the island was divided in 1922 with the signing of a treaty between britain, and the newly formed free state of the south of ireland (the current republic of ireland). the catalyst for this occurred after the easter rising of 1916, and following war of independence in ireland against britain. although home rule had been promised and passed in westminster it was deferred prior to world war one. this treaty of 1922 divided the island of ireland into the 26 counties , known then as the free state, and the six (6) counties of ulster which would remain as part of the uk. the free state had its own government, made laws and governed the people. the six counties (6) counties of the province of ulster were to remain within the jurisdiction of the united kingdom, although they were given a measure of devolved power and their own parliament in stormont. it is important to note three factors here: northern ireland did not include the entire province of ulster. forty per cent (40%) of the population of the newly formed northern ireland did not agree to this treaty, were catholic, and had an allegiance to the free state in the south from which they were now cut off. sixty per cent (60%) of the population were of planter stock (settlers from 17th century), protestant and loyal to and identified with britain. the six county northern ireland state was set up to secure the protestant/unionist population in what would become a protestant state for a protestant people. the ensuing years, from 1922 to 1969 when the conflict began, resulted in the forty per cent (40%) catholic minority being excluded from all the main organs of the state in terms of voting rights, housing, employment and education. seen as a permanent threat to the existence of the northern ireland state, they were often harassed, sometimes ignored by the overwhelming protestant/unionist police force (ruc). the division of ulster itself into just the six counties of ulster ensured this majority situation. had the entire province of ulster been accommodated this 60/40 population divide would not have applied. the free state continued to claim the entire island (that is northern ireland) as part of the national territory but it was for the most part just rhetoric. as a poor, newly formed entity there was much that needed to be done and the northern ireland situation began to be less important. from a british perspective, after hundreds of years of an off and on conflict with the irish, there was a relief that ireland was finally off the agenda. britain had much to do on the home front too after the devastation of the first world war. so it is that the two groups nationalists and unionists of northern ireland are often characterised as the errant children of neglectful parents. that is to say, that in reality both jurisdictions, the free state and britain, basically ignored northern ireland and what was happening there, while paying lip service to the two groups of protagonists. youth work in britain and northern ireland & republic of ireland the very early movements in terms of youth work can be linked to the protestant sunday schools of the late 18th century. it was an informal way of educating and learning, by working through activities with the young. by the first half of the 19th century there were in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 292-306 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 what was known as ‘ragged schools.’ these schools were aimed at those who were too poor to access education. the ymca or young men christian association were also set up but also had an evangelical bias. by the 1890’s theories on adolescence were being discussed. by the 1880s girls were being brought into the process, for example, the girls friendly society was set up in 1875. there were the beginnings of the recognition of the social and political dimensions of youth work. the boys brigade, had the youth uniformed, drilled and given instruction and this was further developed under baden powell, who began the scouting movement and later the guides for girls. this brought this type of group activity and learning to an even wider group as the value of adventure was also celebrated. in the post first world war period there was some funding available for youth work but it would be the late 1950s and early 1960s before it began to really flourish as a concept. the youth club had its best period in britain during the late 1950s and 1960s. in britain and northern ireland free education was given to all young people as a right in 1948 which gave more people opportunities for social as well as educational interaction. the 1960s, however, began an era of major change not least in demographics in britain, where the population declined. in ireland, the isolationist doctrine of de valera pursued since the early days of the state was abandoned and an opening up of society began at many levels. in the early 1960s free education was given to all children up to the age of 18 years in the republic. in both jurisdictions by the 1970s, the advent of home entertainment in the form of television and then video had begun, and computers would follow. this meant that much entertainment was available in the home setting, and young people shared much greater participation in the formal education sector at all levels, and also many new leisure options came on stream. the result was that the youth club option of earlier times began to diminish as a option for young people. in 1969 the violent conflict in northern ireland erupted. the effect of the northern ireland conflict perhaps at his point it is worth defining what is meant by youth work in general terms by the late 1960s. it was • a planned programme of education designed for the purpose of aiding and enhancing the personal and social development of the young through their voluntary involvement, and which is • (a) complementary to their formal, academic or vocational education and training; and • (b) provided primarily by voluntary youth work organisations. in broad terms this definition applied to all three jurisdictions. when the conflict began in northern ireland, however, there was a realisation that the attraction of the ‘riot’ and or of becoming involved in one or other of the violent organisations was increasingly becoming more of an option for the young. this was particularly true in working class areas although not exclusively so. the civil rights agitation of the late 1960s was initially an avowed non violent movement, but events and incidents and some infiltration by those with a violent agenda, meant that it was overwhelmed. then, there in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 292-306 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 were atrocities like bloody sunday and bloody friday, tit for tat random killings of one side or the other, fears that britain was going to ‘sell out’ the unionist community to the irish in the south, and internment without trial which was aimed at catholic nationalists solely. all of these factors contributed to the involvement of young people in violent paramilitary organisations, on both sides of the unionist/nationalist divide there was some resentment too; that the catholics (while not recognising the northern ireland state) had taken advantage of the education act (free education) of 1948, and also of the generous welfare options which the state provided. in addition, in the 1970s in particular, there was a belief by the ira and violent republicanism that once they kept the pressure on the british, they would go from northern ireland sooner rather than later. from the foregoing the breeding ground for the radicalisation of the young and impressionable in both communities catholic/nationalist and protestant/unionist is clear. at another level, many in the unionist community had had job security passed from father to son in the shipyards and other industries for generations, which lead them to become less engaged in academic education. then in the 1960s, the shipyards began to be less secure or prosperous, and new industries shied away from setting up in northern ireland because of the violence. unemployment increased. there were those, also, who fuelled fears and promoted certain beliefs and agitated for their cause within both northern irish communities, so that young men, listening to their rhetoric were moved towards violence as the only real answer to the problems. the need for other ways of focusing young people’s energy and resourcefulness became more acute in northern ireland. one of the earliest organisations, which was ready when the conflict began, and assisted in practical and useful ways was the corrymeela community. the corrymeela community founded in 1964, a christian community was set up before the ‘troubles’ began, to ‘counter apathy and complacency and open up new possibilities.’ the centre in the early days when the premises in ballycastle was founded required volunteers for their work camps. then as the violence erupted corrymeela adjusted its programmes ‘to meet the new challenges of people and families at risk in troubled areas, with intimidation, injury and bereavement.’ today there continue to be programme initiatives available to young people which assist them in the post conflict adjustment period, as they have all through the years of the conflict. corrymeela was and is a safe haven. many youth organisations came into existence in the north throughout the ongoing years of the conflict and increasingly linkages were made to each another. in the south which escaped the worst ravages of the northern ireland conflict, except on a few occasions down the years, the emphasis of youth councils went along the more traditional lines of education and re education, skills and adventure training, lobbying on relevant youth related issues and youth wings of political parties. one of the most pervasive youth organisations in the republic is the gaa (gaelic athletic association). this organisation, voluntary and amateur in status, has a foothold in almost very small town in ireland. formed to reclaim irish sports in the years just prior to the easter rising and war of independence in the early 1900s ‘ it promotes and controls the national games of hurling, gaelic football,’ amongst others. it is at once a family and youth focused organisation. the gaa also had local organisations in northern ireland but it there it was seen as a strictly nationalist organisation and serving one side of the community only. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 292-306 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 in the south of ireland, ten years on from the beginnings of the conflict, cooperation north as it was then, was set up. the originators believed that ‘ a lack of communication and understanding between the people of northern ireland and of the republic of ireland had bred a deep mistrust and suspicion, between the two communities and had contributed to the violence on the island of ireland.’ cooperation north known now as cooperation ireland has been involved with cross border youth programmes for many years since its inception. as the conflict raged in northern ireland, the bonds between the republic of ireland and britain deepened. this occurred at a political and at a social level. this was in part due to the intractable nature of the conflict, the difficulty in finding agreed strategies with the respective groupings in northern ireland, and a general puzzlement and eventually irritation with both groups in the province. further, people in the south of ireland rarely travelled to northern ireland and began to weary of the conflict and the effect it was having on the perception of ireland internationally, and in the areas such as tourism, a vital component of the economy. the conflict initially detracted from the business of attracting international companies opening up in the republic of ireland but a vigorous and long term strategy countered this perception over time. bit by bit many in the south began to turn away from the northern troubles. in britain, for the most part, the british people did not feel any allegiance to northern ireland and did not understand why bombs were going off in england, in the name of irish freedom. another factor in the uk, was the large number of first and second generation irish, who had made their lives in england and who sometimes experienced an anti-irish backlash after some ira attack. with the foregoing in mind, and realising that those involved in the problem must get involved with the finding of a solution, many youth organisations in the three jurisdictions began to work together. before illustrating that, however, it is worth noting how the process of working with youth in conflict evolved in northern ireland in particular. how initiatives evolved there was in northern ireland a realisation that young people from each community, protestant/unionist, and catholic/nationalist more often than not, met for the first time, when they attended college , if that option was open to them. the societal structure in the pre college years meant that many young people in northern ireland lived in separate orbits, with separate schooling, separate traditions and celebrations. further these very traditions and celebrations were often seen by one side or the other as antagonistic. the young people may have looked the same, talked with the same accents and dressed in whatever the conventional or rebellious fashion of the times was, but in essence they did not know each other. this lack of knowledge about each other and the need to offer an alternative to the violent option, became the essential challenge for youth work initiatives. the early programmes in youth work during the conflict often focused on letting the groups simply get together, perhaps around some task, such as football or adventure training etc. here the young people interacted freely and got to know each other at a fairly basic level. the next stage which began to evolve was to be to have them engage as before around a task, but to include something about the way they worked together, team building, leadership and perhaps some reflection on the reality of their own lives, sharing their experiences in a safe environment.in northern ireland during the conflict one of the more well known phrases was, ‘whatever you say, say nothing’ and another was ‘lose talk costs lives.’ in the light of this type of thinking it is easy to surmise that contentious issues were most likely avoided. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 292-306 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 as the conflict progresses and with the onset of other organisations, often born out of grim tragedies, such as the peace people in the mid 1970s, the two options alluded too, began to have another dimension added, which was to question the society, the history, the myths and reality of this society, which they as young people had inherited. the inching forward with dialogues with one another enabled them to question more seriously their own beliefs and prejudices, and begin the journey of understanding, of seeing other’s perspectives, relating to each others’ hopes and fears. these early explorative workshops were the change factor in youth work in the conflict, and led them inevitably to question who the other actors in the historic drama were; who needed to be talked to and with. at the same time opportunities to engage with other conflict areas worldwide began to grow. exchanges took place which helped to lessen the isolation and sense of hopelessness as new ideas, possibilities and options began to develop. a natural progression was inevitable from the examination of what had gone wrong in the society, the causes and effects of conflict, to what is required to create a ‘just society.’ here initiatives which involved politics and human rights began to develop, so, for example, the youth forum had a group working on a bill of rights, while other organisations developed resource packs on various issues. another component in the development and sustainability of the many youth initiatives which happened, as the conflict raged, was the training of young people as leaders and peer educators. key organisations in northern ireland corrymeela and cooperation ireland have already been mentioned, but there were other youth organisations which became active throughout the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s in northern ireland. some were born out of a developing need, from a grassroots basis. the youth forum set up in 1979 was the first cross community initiative funded by the department of education. they also developed an international dimension and later became involved in political education. they are active in schools, communities and with government and ‘believe that all young people have ideas and opinions worth listening too.’ the youth council and the community relations council funded projects which met certain criteria and youthnet in addition had a strategic networking and advocacy function. smaller more locally based organisations came into being also. organisations which identified a local need, such as the base. this organisation, set in a loyalist working class area, specifically targeted young people who were likely to become involved with some paramilitary organisations. youth action northern ireland also addressed young people struggling to find their place in an ever changing society. they focused on maximising skills and education in a variety of contexts including, youth arts, gender and equality, rural and urban issues. they also identified young men as a group which needed special attention. they carried out research and lobbied the government. the prince’s trust northern ireland, an offshoot of the british version, had a focus on unemployed youth and offered ways of building confidence, esteem and skills, through courses and education and also funded start up businesses. some youth work organisations developed out of particular tragedies including the peace people, the spirit of enniskillen and the warrington peace centre in the uk. in the south of ireland, the glencree centre for reconciliation just outside dublin which was set up originally in the 1970s,was active throughout the conflict, although it fell away somewhat for a number of years. in the early 1990s, after the spontaneous eruption of protest in 1993, in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 292-306 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 against the ira warrington bombing, glencree began several programmes including a youth programme which encompassed northern ireland, southern ireland and britain. it also began a schools peace studies programme aimed at 15/17 year old students. both, of these programmes were successful and constantly developing and growing right through the 1990s up to 2008. emu the education for mutual education schools programme in northern ireland has had mixed reviews on its effectiveness down the years. the objective of the programme was for the young ‘to learn, respect, and value themselves and others; to appreciate the interdependence of people in society.’ it also focused on understanding cultural diversity and taught new ways of handling conflict. in a university of ulster report of 1992 it was noted that less than one third of schools implemented emu; teachers’ perceptions differed and wider issues such as gender, human rights and ethics needed to be included. nevertheless figures do show that contact between the two communities had increased though the emu programmes. for example, contact between catholics & protestants in primary schools (age approx 5 to 12/14 years) had risen from 13% in 1987 to 42% in 1994. in the secondary school system (12/14 years to age 18 years), contact had risen from 24% in 1987 to 59% in 1994. this report also noted that there was a lack of participation in the political process. this was deemed to be important at the time of the report ,as the move away from violence solution to politics was underway in society. the emu schools project, limited as it was, still had value as it acknowledged that diversity existed in the northern ireland society and it needed to be addressed, rather than ignored or glossed over, as heretofore. obstacles to participation one of the main obstacles to getting young people involved in youth work initiatives was often simply that it was seen as rather ‘worthy and uncool.’ this is where the peer education process was particularly useful. peer education made the connection between attracting and respecting young people’ issues and values and just being young. in the glencree centre it was often the case that young people involved in a one or two day schools peace studies programme would cross over to the youth group. then they might become interested in training as a peer educator themselves. they were also encouraged to take part in other programmes, or in designing and planning the annual youth summer school programme, for example. time was also a factor for young people, often overloaded in the mid teens with school exams and all the other diversions which apply to teenagers, getting people to commit time to weekends away, unless the combination of fun and development was right, could be difficult. key organisations in the republic in the republic, much of the youth work focus was on supporting young people in their own community. so for example, the roscommon youth service ‘provides information and assistance when needed, a friendly ear to listen.’ it operates a drop in centre and offers practical advice on amongst other things, college prospects, health, passport applications, cv design, rates of pay etc. leargas, another youth organisation ‘is responsible for the delivery in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 292-306 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 of programmes, services and non formal education.’ it runs regional workshops, offers european youth exchange opportunities and also has a british /irish exchange programme. youthreach is a ‘second chance’ education and training organisation. it is aimed at unemployed youth who may have left school early, or not obtained any school certificate or never transferred from the primary to the secondary school system at all. it is state funded and in an ‘out of school setting ‘offers support and encouragement to often disadvantaged youth. it is locally managed. it is seen as a key intervention strategic organisation with a holistic approach to educational training, and offers a safe environment which meets the young people at the place they are in at the time. one of its aims is to promote independence and active citizens who are socially included in the society. an evaluation has shown that a 75% success rate applies, as they progress into the labour market. there are many other organisations active in the south including the ymca, church related youth groups, projects to divert youth from possible involvement in crime (example youth project) and lucca a leadership training programme linked to the john scotus school. the national youth council is an umbrella organisation with programmes in politics, arts, sports, citizenship, information technology, health, and international and intercultural arenas. they have also produced several resource packs. the glencree centre for reconciliation became very active again in the early 1990s. in march 1993 a short-lived, but important peace movement was born called peace’93 in the wake of an ira bombing in warrington in england in which two young children were killed. i will return to this when i discuss the tim parry scholarship. the glencree centre, having just had an evaluation and review, was poised to take up the intense interest in the northern ireland conflict which came about in the wake of this bombing and the political manoeuvres which were also taking place at that time. they began a series of programmes including schools and youth programmes, to which i have already referred. in youth organisations in general there was a wish to have young people empowered, to see them develop and grow. in northern ireland, in addition to the application of the normal youth work criteria , a focus slowly developed on the conflict itself; its causes and resolution, the actors who could influence or change the conflict situation, and their own role in helping to bring about that change. youth programmes , north and south of the border became more and more involved. youth began to insist on being heard and to suggest new and better options to violent conflict and/or denial. the challenges and possibility for change will be illustrated in one such programme. the tim parry scholarship which ran in this format for 5 years was designed to educate, challenge and to change perspectives. it still continues but the programme design has changed. the tim parry scholarship: an outline history in 1993 an ira bomb was placed in a metal litter bin in a shopping street in warrington one saturday morning. it killed a two year old boy jonathan ball instantly, and critically injured tim parry, a twelve year old boy, who was exiting a shop having as he searched for a new football shirt. he died a few days later, when his parents had to turn off his life support machine. in the republic of ireland, the pain of the two families and their dignity and bewilderment struck a deep cord. it was a seminal moment in the republic and meetings and in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 292-306 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 peace rallies and marches resulted. the world media descended on dublin as the realisation grew that the majority of the people of the republic of ireland were totally opposed to the tactics of the ira in bombing and killing others for some idea of a united ireland. in britain, the protests in dublin were warmly responded too, and the irish living there, were not seen as suspect in terms of the ira, perhaps for one of the first times in all the years of the conflict. the parents of tim parry began a journey in which they tried to understand what the irish issue was all about, and why their son had to die for something they did not understand or relate too. within s short time they had set up the tim parry scholarship, as a way to break down stereotypes and create new understandings and to assist the young people of warrington, many who had known tim parry, to meet other irish and northern young people and spend a week together in the republic and northern ireland. selection of participants schools in the three cities of dublin, belfast and warrington were approached to take part in the scholarship. participants were required to write an essay/letter expressing why they should be selected. on selection, a parents meeting was held to explain the process which the young people also attended. the northern ireland group were selected to reflect the two communities there. the organisations involved were the peace people, belfast, the glencree centre for reconciliation, near dublin and schools in warrington under the peace centre umbrella. programme design the programme was designed to challenge all the participants’ perceptions and pre conceptions of the ‘other.’ the process began with workshops which enabled them to explore their own beliefs and prejudices, fears and misunderstandings. a safe space was created to enable all this to take place. it involved intense workshops with each other in the first instance, and then with very many representatives of the main structures of the state and key people in power. the group visited an ruc (police station) in northern ireland, an army barracks, community centres with young people like themselves. they had workshops with ex ira men and ex uvf men, with other survivors or organisations; they visited historical sites and heard different accounts of histories, ancient and personal. they also met the president of the republic and secretary of state for northern ireland as well as many other politicians from various parties. they were prepared before hand, enabled to ask any question they wished, and the encounters were also processed thereafter. it was an intense and hugely rewarding week, although difficult at times. the sister of tim parry, and tim’s father also did the week at different times. the week ended with a presentation by all the participants to colin and wendy parry. outcomes the outcomes were often profound and in warrington today there is a peace centre for young people that continue the work of reconciliation and peace building in many areas of society, including schools and with victims and survivors of war, including today the iraq and afghanistan wars. individual evaluations, of the effect of the scholarship which began in 1995 have not been written up but, anecdotally, many gained from this one week, when they were in their middle teens. mark’s story is one such example. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 292-306 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 mark’s story mark grew up in a very working class nationalist area. he was handsome, bright eyed, warm, funny and very intelligent. as a participant in the tim parry scholarship he was noticeable for his clear and strong views, his fearlessness in standing against the crowd, as he justified the violent war of the ira. although such opinions were difficult for some to hear, such was the charisma of the boy, that, the others were able to separate the person from his ideology and he was very popular. as programme director, i had been involved in designing and organising the programme and was also facilitating all the workshops and was with the group at all times. the day we left for belfast, mark, sat with me for a while on the bus. we talked and laughed for a while then, looking at me very seriously, he told me that he knew his fate was ‘to be a dead hero’ for his country. he was telling me that he would be joining the ira. we talked at some length and at many different times over the week as i suggested to him that he might re consider that option and ‘become a live hero’ for his community and country. the week brought many challenges for him; meeting the police whom he saw as partisan and anti his community; talking with british soldiers whom he felt should not be on his native soil, hearing an ex ira man talk about the realities of such a life, of the 18 years he had spent in prison, of the many people he had seen die. it was a difficult week in many ways for him. on the last night of the scholarship, mark asked me to read a prose poem which he had written, explaining the effect the week had had on him. i was moved to tears when i read it, and i told wendy parry about the journey the boy had made. he read the poem to the group, explaining that he had now, after the week, resolved to become a ‘live hero for his community and his country.’ wendy who was deeply touched asked him if she might have a copy of this poem, to which mark replied, ‘wendy, you can have the original.’ today this poem is framed on the wall of the peace centre in warrington. the young man, mark is now a lawyer. the terrible sadness is that it was possibly someone just like him who planted the bomb that fateful saturday in warrington which killed tim parry and jonathan ball, in the first place. post conflict northern ireland, after the good friday agreement of 1998, is rebuilding itself. the process of healing and reconciliation goes on and after a thirty year conflict; this process will take much time and effort and may falter from time to time. nevertheless, stormont is operational with a power sharing executive in place. reforms in many of the organs of state are also ongoing and working well. the relationship between northern ireland and the republic of ireland is positive as it is between the republic and the united kingdom. in terms of youth work then, whereas some of the usual cross community and international work continues, a certain emphasis on building new visions of citizenship is evident. a report entitled ‘a strategy for the delivery of youth work in northern ireland 2005/2008’ has as a mission the ‘development, rights and participation of four to twenty-five year olds’. as before the emphasis is on ‘development’ with the encouragement of volunteers and with a series of constructive planned programmes which will be continuously monitored and evaluated. citizenship in terms of not just politics, and respect for law is being developed and there is also encouragement becoming evident for ‘independent thought’ which can bring about ‘reflective debate.’ the notion of active citizenship is also being fostered, encouraging participation in the societal process. participation is seen as the ‘key’ to the in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 292-306 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 individual and collective decision making process. the emphasis in citizenship is broadening out from the usual sectional interest’s model to one which reflects ‘communities of interests’. the role of the youth worker is also being more clearly examined and defined. in northern ireland 36% of the population is under 25 years old and this report suggests that 75% will have come in contact with some branch of the youth services by the age of 25 years. the different development needs of the three age bands, 4 to 10 year, 10-16 years, 16 to 25 years is also recognised as is the reality of rights. strategies for the more transient and vulnerable young people are also recognised. underpinning the changes required in youth work is the need to ‘start with the reality of their lives’ which includes identifying exclusion and causes, poverty, the nature of a divided society and discrimination. youth work has be responsive to these realities and be adaptable and specific and flexible. the education and library boards has a remit to ensure adequate facilities and services are provided while the youth service ni supports’ and encourages children and young people to mature and reach their potential as valued individuals and responsible citizens.’ the youth service includes all organisations and projects, which aim at the personal development of young people. as part of this overall aim there is a curriculum development unit also. there is an awareness also, that the school system has a large responsibility in character and identity formation. silvia massano of the university of ulster ,states in the paper entitled’ youth citizenship & education: policies in northern ireland’ that the influx of eu nationals is changing the demographic makeup of the island as the economy draws in more and more people. new initiative finally an example of an organisation in northern ireland with a commitment to ‘building democratic communities together’, called public achievement. it began in 1999 after a visit to the university of minnesota by civic educators from northern ireland. as citizenship education began in schools post the good friday agreement, building on the emu programmes which had gone before, the public achievement organisation became involved in schools as well as in the communities. one of the critical focus points of the organisation is to give young people the opportunity to get practical experience in directing and implementing their own work ‘around real and important issues.’ they are also encouraged to challenge perspectives, and ‘the social and political division in their society,’ to develop non violent strategies as a conflict response and to focus on societal issues and campaign for and against them. funding a constant refrain with youth organisation is that of funding. programmes are often ‘pilots’ or run out of funds after a short time. there is endless time and red tape involved in making applications and often the funders write the script for the programmes with little reference to the needs of the organisations on the ground. another issue is that organisations often have overlapping aims and objectives and compete against each other for funds. all organisations in the area of peace and conflict understandably focus on survival. this is especially true in the post conflict period when the problems are all deemed to be solved. this is a very short sighted approach, as much healing and re building can only take place after the guns have stopped. nevertheless it is a reality. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 292-306 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 evaluation organisations in the field, focused as they are on the conflict and building trust and relationships, often neglect the long term evaluation of the programmes which have gone before. this is very understandable too, as the pressure is conflict driven. the result however is a paucity of recorded programmes, responses and results, generally, although short term evaluations have happened. nevertheless, many understandings and insights gained from programmes have been lost and cannot be used and adapted by others in their own contexts. funding for such evaluations is hard to obtain also. finally, perhaps linked to the previous point, an audit of organisations, in this case youth focused, might be useful every five or ten years, to see if some could be either consolidate or be encouraged to change direction. conclusion youth work has come a long way from the early tentative initiatives of the mid 1880s to the present day. that said, there was a basic commonality of purpose which had something to do with the improvement of and education of the young, which might lead to a better society at some level. this core value is still valid. in a conflict zone, as in northern ireland, another dimension gets added as the young, who have not created the situation, react and respond. it is hardly any surprise that young men (not exclusively but predominantly), first instinctive reactions is to fight the ‘other’. they are often encouraged in this by older and supposedly wiser people in the community. this reinforces the’ rightness’ of the fight response. in addition, young people, as they begin the separation process from parents, crave a ‘peer group’ and have a need to belong. the foregoing plays into the hands of those who espouse the violent response and they use it to good effect. the attraction of this is often seriously underestimated in my view. this was the case in northern ireland where young boys of fifteen and sixteen years were brought into paramilitary organisations. they were given increasing responsibilities, from getting a secret message from one person to another; to carrying a gun, to driving a car; to placing a bomb in a bar or restaurant, to shooting someone. they were preyed on, while being reassured that they were soldiers, heroes, and part of something very important. suicide bombers are one and the same today. the challenge for youth work in a conflict zone is to undermine this model, to suggest another way, a slower less instantly visible way of waging peace, but worth the effort in the longer term. change can and does happen, if the circumstances are right as was the case with mark. organisations need to be funded to encourage this way of thinking before, during and post conflict. schools have a major role here also. it is critical to build up the notion of citizenship, of community, that involves and respects youth with their ideas and enthusiasm. despite all the obstacles, and given time, resources and imagination, well thought out, planned and organised youth focused programmes, even in a conflict zone, can bring rich rewards. to conclude and in a spirit of optimism, i quote a northern irish nobel literature laureate when he says; history says, don’t hope on this side of the grave in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 292-306 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 but then once in a lifetime the longed for tidal wave of justice can rise up and hope and history rhyme. so hope for a sea change on the far side of revenge believe that another shore is reachable from here. (the cure of troy p77) bibliography johanthan bardon, a history of ulster (belfast: blackstaff press, 1993). diarmuid ferriter, the transformation of ireland 1900-2008 (london uk, 2008). websites northern ireland youth forum youth council for northern ireland public achievement in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 292-306 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 princes trust northern ireland youthnet corrymeela community cooperation ireland the spirit of enniskillen trust the peace people education and library boards of northern ireland national youth council of ireland youthreach leargas ymca lucca leadership ireland youth project roscommon youth work ireland/roscommon & galway reports youth work: an introduction by saul alinsky strategy for the delivery of youth work in northern ireland 2005/2008 dept of education youth citizenship education: policies in northern ireland and the recognition of ethnic and racial diversity. sylvia massano, university of ulster corrymeela publication autumn/winter 2007 education for mutual understanding: alan smith & alan robinson. university of ulster other personal experience as in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 292-306 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 
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 founder member of peace ’93, anti violence movement in the wake of the warrington bombing by the ira, in which two children died. & programme director of glencree reconciliation centre, wicklow, nr dublin. & research undertaken for my thesis on victim of the conflict 1969-1999 for mphil trinity college dublin in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 142-145 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 142 volume 18 number 2 (2024): 142-145 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 book review of jolyon mitchell, suzanna r. millar, francesca po, and martyn percy, eds., the wiley blackwell companion to religion and peace, the wiley blackwell companions to religion series, wiley blackwell, 2022, 656 pp., €152.60 (hardcover), isbn: 978-1-119-42434-5. zachary r. dehm, ph.d. loyola university maryland zdehm@loyola.edu jolyon mitchell, suzanna r. millar, francesca po, and martyn percy have shepherded a substantial and tremendously valuable resource to publication in the wiley blackwell companion to religion and peace. the collection embodies the very purpose of a “companion to” its topic of interest. it maps the state of the subfield such that a first-time reader would grasp central concerns raised, questions asked, and challenges faced therein. moreover, the volume is as exhaustive as a singular resource could be. with a canon of fifty essays covering a broad spectrum of topics, it offers students and junior scholars a point of entry that is sure to pique their interest. simultaneously, it contains innovative works that could enrich the thought of even the most senior scholar. all told, the volume constitutes a thorough and timely review of the state of academic work on religion and peace. while complete as a standalone collection, this work also serves as a followup to the blackwell companion to religion and violence, edited by andrew r. murphy (2011). in fact, the two share many of the same authors. compiled just a https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax mailto:zdehm@loyola.edu in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 142-145 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 143 decade following the attacks of 9/11, the earlier volume was prompted, according to murphy, in large part by the nuance vacuum and extreme polarization that characterized post-9/11 discourse surrounding religion, violence, and peace. to illustrate, murphy noted the ongoing interrogation of religion’s supposed inherent tendency “toward violence, irrationality, and destruction,” an accusation made by the prominent “new atheists” of the time (2011, p. 1). this indictment and responses by notable religion apologists have shaped public discourse in the present millennium. both volumes offer some attempt at a more comprehensive and balanced approach to the questions at hand, each directed toward the particular concerns of their own cultural moment. this volume is divided into six sections. the group of chapters in the first, entitled “religion and the search for peace,” set the stage for the volume as a whole with a broad examination of religion and its relationship to violence and peacebuilding. chapter 2, for instance, includes overviews of six different religions, though with varying specificities of focus. chapters 3 and 4 by ian s. markham and atalia omer offer solid studies of the categories for evaluating religious thought and action with regard to peace. a fascinating interview with scholar and peacebuilder john paul lederach rounds out the section in chapter 5. the second section on “religion and peace in local contexts” crosssections the globe with a look toward a diverse set of religious traditions. several essays are based on field work or personal experience. works from this section address questions that remain regrettably under-explored and propose novel and innovative approaches. that includes chapter 6 by victoria biggs, which is subtitled “listening to young people in israel/palestine.” she offers a unique analysis of innocence as a concept in public discourse between and about two communities “that lay in such close proximity but whose contact [is] circumscribed by ongoing violence and oppression” (p. 81). similarly, chapter 8 by maryam ahmad and james deshaw rae as well as chapter 16 by monica mcwilliams and avila kilmurray challenge established presupposition surrounding gender norms and the role of women in social change. chapter 11 by farah mihlar too defies common tropes by highlighting non-violent movements in islam in contrast to violent ones within religions often portrayed as more peaceful. in chapters 13 and 15, john w. de gruchy and george r. wilkes, two senior scholars, examine reconciliation as a site of both transformation and contested meaning. the volume’s third section centers on specific “practices and embodiments” that exemplify religion’s potential for the promotion of peace. hence, while less focused on theory, it stands out for bearing qualities that make it useful for scholar-activists. for instance, in chapter 18, helen m. hintjens https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 142-145 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 144 highlights the ethical, legal, and practical dilemmas frequently faced by religious organizations aiding undocumented persons. similarly, in chapter 19, clive barrett examines museums as spaces for preserving narratives of justice and fostering a more peaceful future. like several other works in this section, these are genuinely original, exceptionally well-researched, and valuable for their historical overviews and concrete recommendations. the essays of the fourth section narrow their focus to “lived theologies and building peace.” this section brings to light christianity’s long history of culpability for violence, which is held in fraught tension with the resources for peacebuilding found within its rich traditions. that dichotomy is made clear, for instance, in chapter 27’s reexamination of the civil rights movement. there, dean j. johnson calls for the abandonment of any simplistic or nostalgic vision of the legacy of martin luther king, jr. such whitewashing fails to reflect king’s belief, to quote johnson, that “revolution is possible […] only through radical nonviolence” (p. 331). additionally, alastair mcintosh’s chapter 29 on “spiritual activism, atomic theology, and ‘the bomb’ in scotland” stands out among the section’s essays. it incorporates advocacy, scholarship, and biography all at once, and it is especially apropos, given the renewed concern over nuclear arms ethics that has accompanied revived interest in the life and work of j. robert oppenheimer. the fifth section, entitled “just war, just peace,” offers fresh perspectives on an established tradition with ancient roots. its reflection is prompted by “the profound ambivalence occasioned in this area by religion” (p. 15). chapter 34 by marc livecche and nigel biggar gives an overview of the topic that is both original and well-written. jason a. springs’ essay, “can restorative justice transform structural and cultural violence?” (chapter 37) stands out as one of the best in the volume thanks to the balance met between clear articulation of theory, helpful examples, and new insights surrounding concerns far from exhaustively addressed. like many of the essays in the volume, it also flaunts an impressive bibliography. tobias kelly’s brief essay in chapter 38, “the humanitarian conscience between war and peace,” explores an original question while parsing out a genuine dilemma. this penultimate section closes with a predictably excellent essay from r. scott appleby, one of the contemporary “fathers” of the subfield of religion, violence, and peace. the final section on “religion and peace on a global stage” considers, among other things, religion’s role in peace agreements and genocide prevention as well as its resources for future efforts. megan shore provides an especially valuable overview in chapter 41. in the next chapter, john d. brewer’s sociology-based https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 142-145 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 145 essay places this important topic in a new light that seems to offer a complement to some of the volume’s more descriptive pieces. chapter 44 by robert forster and christine bell on “divine intervention: invoking god in peace agreements” feels uniquely actionable among the volume’s essays. lastly, with its focus on “religion and peacebuilding in the ukraine-russia conflict,” the final chapter by jolyon mitchell gives the volume a forward thrust toward emerging dilemmas the subfield is sure to face. overall, the strength of this volume lies in the urgency, breadth, and quality of its subject matter. it brings together thinkers from anthropology, archeology, ethics, history, journalism, law, philosophy, political science, religious studies, sociology, and theology, among others. it does, however, suffer from occasional pitfalls inherent to such a mammoth project. at times, for instance, the jargonheavy nature of certain chapters fails to reflect its broad, interdisciplinary audience. similarly, the specificity of some essays to their own discipline assumes a level of expertise the likes of which no singular reader could possess in all cases. for example, there was often mention of relatively obscure, discipline-specific figures—sometimes by last name alone—without contextualization or explanation. finally, it was clear that not every chapter was as essential as the next. the volume would have been made stronger by excluding some extraneous chapters, ones more fit for peer-reviewed journals. what remains true is that, despite any shortcomings, this companion would be a valuable addition to any library or collection. in the short period since this volume’s publication, events have almost certainly reshaped our understanding of religion’s relationship to violence and peace for the foreseeable future. just one year later, on october 7, 2023, hamas launched a series of terrorist attacks on israel. these actions prompted the subsequent israeli occupation of gaza that has claimed tens of thousands of lives, combatant and non-combatant alike. the onslaught of heart-wrenching stories that have emerged from this and other global conflicts will keep those devoted to the cause of peace on a righteous path. as many head to mosques, synagogues, churches, and the halls of government in pursuit of a fragile ceasefire or, better yet, a sustainable peace, volumes like this one can offer a resource for the trials of that great mission additional references murphy, andrew r. (ed.). (2011). the blackwell companion to religion and violence. blackwell publishing. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax nilsu goren in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 365 volume 2 number 2 (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ weapons of mass destruction: challenges towards nonproliferation in the middle east nilsu goren instructor, college of arts and sciences koc university turkey introduction this article aims to develop a fundamental understanding of the theoretical background to nonproliferation; by defining concepts, i.e. deterrence, disarmament and arms control; discussing the role of culture in shaping security culture, thus approaches to nonproliferation; and focusing on the middle east in relation to nonproliferation regimes, through the middle east peace process, challenges, obstacles and the role of united states as an external player. it is relevant to argue that nonproliferation regimes (as a response to the nuclear proliferation during the cold war and to weapons of mass destruction (wmd) proliferation in post-cold war era) face political, economic, cultural and strategic challenges. these challenges, in the form of non-compliance and non-participation, are especially acute in the middle east. they need to be addressed through regional and global security arrangements. deterrence, arms control and disarmament in january 1952, united nations assembly established a disarmament commission to prepare proposals to be embodied in a draft treaty for effective international control of in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 366 atomic energy and elimination of all major weapons, adaptable to mass destruction.1 implying “wishful thinking” rather than enforcement, these proposals articulated the goal of disarmament not to regulate, but to prevent war, the elimination of instruments adaptable to mass destruction, the establishment of an effective system of international control to insure compliance. the un disarmament commission was the best attempt to reach consensus between us and ussr. however, during the cold war and postcold war era, the global arsenal has kept growing quantitatively and qualitatively. therefore, the question of nuclear deterrence needs to be defined and addressed. within the theoretical debate on nuclear deterrence, there are essential propositions that a near-consensus is achieved in the realist camp:2 a. principal purpose of nuclear weapons is not to wage but to preclude large-scale war among major powers. b. nuclear deterrence can not prevent most forms of conflict; i.e. guerrilla insurgencies, civil wars. c. effective nuclear deterrence requires constant and costly technological advancement. d. nuclear deterrence is both a psychologicalpolitical and militarytechnological concept. an adequate military capability has to inflict “an unacceptable level of damage” on the adversary; stated by henry kissinger as: “deterrence requires a combination of power, the will to use it and the assessment of these by the potential aggressor”.3 e. in order to be effective, a deterrent capability can not be kept secret. a certain amount of knowledge has to be reflected to the adversary, so that the interpretation of data causes fear. f. a nuclear power relies on deterrence, by preventing a nuclear attack on its own allies and vital interests, thanks to the conventional defense capabilities that can confront any non-nuclear military threats. g. the distinction between “preventive war” and “preemptive war” should be considered. preventive war indicates a premeditation to be carried out at a preferred time; whereas preemptive war is resorted by a government, under the pressure of the assumption that the outbreak of nuclear war is inevitable and it must strike first, not to lose the advantages of executing disarming blow. building on top of nuclear deterrence; nuclear disarmament and nuclear arms control are distinct concepts that are generally used interchangeably. disarmament is the reduction or elimination of armaments and the prohibition of any future production, either completely or partially. for instance, german disarmament at the end of world war ii was complete disarmament, as nazi germany was defeated and surrendered unconditionally. no government has ever achieved general/complete disarmament on a voluntary basis. hence, strategic arms reductions have been negotiated for deterrence and strategic stability of lowerlevel nuclear systems. arms control, on the other hand, implies the management of arms to enhance security, promote political and strategic objectives; to prevent the weapons 1 anatol rapoport, “the origins of violence: approaches to the study of conflict.” in arms races (new jersey: transaction publishers, 1997), 366-92. 2 paul dougherty and robert pfaltzgraff, “chapter 8: theories of deterrence; arms control and strategic stability,” in contending theories of international relations, (longman, new york, 2001), 344415. 3 ibid. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 367 technology from reducing security and predictability of the international environment.4 arms control imposes restraints, regulations and limitations to the qualitative design, quantitative production or deployment of planned, transferred or threatened military forces and weapons. these processes necessitate formal agreement or informal collaboration between adversaries. thus, not all states can agree to cooperate on arms control. the central aim of both disarmament and arms control is to minimize the tension and risks of weapons without weakening deterrence of any party involved. but states might perceive deterrence as a zero-sum game, not being willing to comply with norms in order to pursue their vital interests. for instance, western powers, for long, have resisted accepting the cessation of nuclear testing without a comprehensive nuclear disarmament; based on the perception that as long as nuclear weapons were an integral part of deterrence, they would need nuclear testing to pursue their deterrent capabilities. great powers, except france and china, have finally agreed on the nuclear test ban, only when it was in their interest to prevent radioactive fallout.5 in spite of the urge for a comprehensive test ban, superpowers have continued the arms race and nuclear proliferation, with no reduction in their lethal arsenal. in the aftermath of the cold war, during the early 90s, the concern for proliferation of wmd and non-state actors has increasingly become vital. nonproliferation has centered on the intention of blocking the acquisition and production of wmd as well as deterring its use. however, it is relevant to ask whether the disarmament/ arms control regimes and treaties codify an existing situation that is acceptable to all parties involved, and to what extend and under which circumstances they can contribute to the emergence of new normative standards to shape the international system. obviously, different paradigms within the international relations theory; i.e. neo/realism, neoliberal institutionalism, constructivism, explain the role of norms in the international system through distinctive lenses. the 1990s have contributed to strengthen nonproliferation through new agendas, such as chemical weapons convention for the intrusion of on-site inspection provisions; non-proliferation treaty (npt) that was signed for 25 years initially and has been extended indefinitely in 1995, as an international effort to prevent the further spread of nuclear weapons.6 at the turn of the century, despite such arms control constraints, the major concern of the us, reflected in us foreign policy, has become additional states, i.e. rogue states, acquiring wmd and missile capabilities of striking the united states, such as north korea being able to deploy nuclear warheads as an emerging nuclear state. as of 1999, the us declared that it would face a threat sufficiently great to justify the deployment of a limited national missile defense, as soon as it was technically possible. the “preemptive strike” and “war on terror” arguments have gone hand in hand with the non-proliferation concerns, i.e. at the hands of non-state actors such as al-qaeda. the “unholy alliance” between transnational terror elements and middle eastern regimes has become the central cause of fear in usa.7 comparing cold war deterrence, where states rested upon the prospect of retaliation in response to aggression, to postcold war deterrence; it is argued that an adversary could be denied its goal because of its negated or blunted military capabilities.8 4 paul dougherty and robert pfaltzgraff, “nuclear disarmament, arms control and deterrence,” in contending theories of international relations, (longman, new york, 2001), 37478. 5 lawrence scheinman, “comprehensive test ban treaty (ctbt),” nti: nuclear threat initiative, april 2003, http://www.nti.org/e_research/e3_9a.html (accessed august 29, 2008) 6 george bunn, “the nuclear nonproliferation treaty: history and current problems,” arms control association, december 2003, http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2003_12/bunn.asp (accessed august 29, 2008) 7 beverly milton and peter hincliffe, “after the storm,”in conflicts in the middle east (routledge, 2004), 120. 8 ibid. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 368 strongly tied to nuclear deterrence, disarmament and arms control issues; international terrorism has become a significant global concern. international terrorism cuts across several layers of analysis; such as psychology of individuals, religious and ideological beliefs of groups, international politics within states, governments and non-state actors. categorizing states; there are governments that officially sponsor international terrorism, governments of targeted countries and governments that support, host, train and shelter terrorist organizations. with respect to the proliferation of wmd, several organized terrorist groups have sophisticated access to modern weapons technology, electronic communication, globally computerized operations between subsidiaries and international transportation facilities as well as logistics. the danger of such a systematized establishment is often called “catastrophic terrorism” of groups possessing wmd (nuclear, chemical, biological-nbc) and computer viruses.9 terrorism, among many definitions, involves the use of violence by non-state actors against the institutions or citizens of states for ideological purposes, to produce a shock and fear. in the atmosphere of trauma, chaos, and fear of the unknown, these groups aim to make people feel vulnerable and undermine their confidence in the governments to protect them. thus, terrorist groups put pressure on the governments to negotiate with them and take specific actions to satisfy their desires. what makes nonproliferation of such groups challenging is basically the legitimacy crisis; states do not want to negotiate with terrorist groups, for such negotiation constitutes a recognition of their legitimacy. even though there are multilateral efforts to combat terrorism through united nations, there are political, ideological, cultural and religious factors that cause frustration and impact the policy implementations of states. hence, intergovernmental cooperation is complicated in the effort to curb international terrorism. rouge regimes, that are acquiring wmd and the means of delivering them by clandestine infiltration and missile technologies, constitute a perceived threat to american national security. richard k. betts argues that, united states has destroyed its biological weapons arsenal through the biological weapons convention of 1972, and it will have destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile by 2008 as required by the chemical weapons convention that came into force in 1997.10 betts concludes that united states will have no wmd capability to threaten retaliation except nuclear weapons. hence, working on the case scenarios about terrorist attacks with wmd, which indicate middle eastern oriented terrorist organizations and middle eastern states that host or sponsor these groups at most, the us has defined two challenges that are inseparable: challenges from terrorists that operate on their own and rogue states with wmd programs and/or support international terrorists. betts does not recommend a neo-isolationist policy, but argues that the us should scale its commitments down not to make the “world’s policeman” as the terrorists’ number one target. betts asserts that: “american activism to guarantee international stability is, paradoxically, the prime source of american vulnerability”.11 betts’ article has been published in the foreign affairs journal in 1998, prior to september 11th and us war on terror/ operation iraqi freedom to “disarm” iraq. but, when his argument is applied to these developments, it is relevant to explain the “hatred” against american interventionism. at the beginning of the 21st century, american policy priorities have shifted from economic prosperity to concern for military security against international terrorists and wmd 9 paul dougherty and robert pfaltzgraff, “international terrorism,” in contending theories of international relations, (longman, new york, 2001), 38690. 10 richard k. betts, “the new threat of mass destruction,” foreign affairs 77 (jan-feb 1998): 26-41. 11 ibid. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 369 proliferators, deterrence and defense. wmd have created “balance of terror” between uneasily existing adversaries. despite nonproliferation attempts, rouge states that are not proficient in cyber-war operations might resort to wmd threats. nuclear weapons can enable smaller states to neutralize us information technologies. thus, wmd are not obsolescent or obsolete either for great powers or regional rouges completely. yet, discussed elsewhere in this article, there are arguments of wmd as a “diminishing currency”, especially among middle eastern states, due to the american “preemptive strike” doctrine. moreover, the global public opinion shapes the wmd taboo as illegitimate, excessively destructive, inhumane and obsolete. nowadays, the development of wmd does not necessarily enhance the status or rank of a nation in the international power hierarchy; instead it does cause active hostility, i.e. the case of iran’s nuclear ambitions in global arena, and deteriorates national security. culture, disarmament and arms control does culture matter, while explaining the underlying conditions for multilateralism of disarmament and arms control? keith krause explains the multi-lateralization and regionalization of security in the middle east and asia-pacific regions, as a result of global change and interdependence of states, leading to cross-cultural aspects of contemporary security in policy debates.12 he gives huntington’s “clash of civilizations” proposition as a challenge for global security. krause defines security culture as the “cultural dimension of multilateral security-building and arms control dialogues”. culture, as it refers to nonproliferation, arms control, disarmament and security-building issues, consists of widely shared beliefs, traditions, attitudes in which a state’s interests and values with respect to security, stability and peace are perceived. in this sense, krause provides a scheme of cultural influences on multilateral arms control, non-proliferation and security-building dialogues as follows:13 in this diagram; strategic culture refers to role of armed forces, threat perceptions and security doctrines, i.e. enemy images; political culture refers to institutions, stance towards multilateralism, attitudes towards violence and conflict resolution; diplomatic culture is the international standing and negotiation strategies. all of these sub-cultures intersect with the security culture defined above. based on this culture-based theoretical framework, krause and latham argue that, the attempts by western states to construct a global non-proliferation, arms control and 12 “cross-cultural dimensions of multilateral non-proliferation and arms control dialogues: an overview,” in culture and security: multilateralism, arms control and security building, ed. keith r. krause, (london; portland, or : frank cass, 1999), 1-23. 13 ibid. strategic culture political culture security culture diplomatic culture in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 370 disarmament regime (nacd) have resulted from the end of cold war.14 military technologies, i.e. wmd, delivery systems and certain conventional weapons, have destabilized the international environment, by proliferation risks. to reduce the uncertainty, it is assumed that the western nacd policies have aimed to provide the global “public good” of international peace and security, due to their “benign” and “rational” orientation. in krause and latham’s formulation; western and northern approaches to nonproliferation, arms control and disarmament on security-building issues are integral parts of the “western security culture”. it is argued that “arms control” has been “invented” during the cold war as a response to “nuclear revolution” as an attempt to regulate and stabilize the east-west conflict, by reducing the risk and destructiveness of war, as well as redirecting resources devoted to armaments to other ends. on top of arms control, development of “verification” and “compliance-monitoring norms” has preceded simple enforcement. reinforcing the architecture of east-west nacd cultures, it is argued that confidence and security building measures (csbms) have reached further transparency. but, to what extend have these “western”, “benign” propositions worked in different cultural settings, i.e. in the middle east? if there is a possibility of cheating, thus a need for “verification” and “monitoring”, how can both sides develop enough trust to sign an arms control agreement? historical evidence shows that there have been many cases, where the states have actually signed the nonproliferation treaties but have obviously violated them. thus, the issue of “trust” has been deeply challenged. the post-cold war international security environment has been dominated by the threat of rogue states and their proliferation of wmd. krause and latham quote michael klare’s definition of the “rogue doctrine”; as the “characterization of hostile third world states with large military forces and nascent wmd capabilities, as nuclear outlaws sabotaging the prevailing world order”.15 literally and in terms of perceptions, “rogue” refers to dishonesty, irresponsibility, immorality and danger. hence, krause and latham agree that this doctrine indicates a new form of “strategic orientalism”. for instance, huntington formulates confucian-islamic connection in opposition to the west, as “designed to promote acquisition by its members of the weapons and weapons technologies needed to counter the military power of the west”.16 through culture-oriented explanations, contemporary western nacd culture targets the “east”, where proliferation of wmd is the threat and nonproliferation is the solution. the clearest expression of this consensus was, first, 1993 declaration of “counter-proliferation policy” by american secretary of defense les aspin as: “diplomacy, treaty restrictions, security assurances, export controls, non-military sanctions and economic cooperation would remain the primary us means of preventing and coping with the proliferation of wmd”.17 throughout the 90s, four principal strategies have been developed:18 a. denial; preventing rogue states from acquiring wmds, by construction of export control regimes such as missile technology control regime (mtcr), chemical weapons convention (cwc) and non-proliferation treaty (npt), 14 “constructing non-proliferation and arms control: the norms of western practice,” in culture and security: multilateralism, arms control and security building, ed. keith r. krause, (london; portland, or : frank cass, 1999), 23-55. 15 ibid. 16 samuel huntington, "the clash of civilizations," foreign affairs 72, no.3, (1993): 22-49. 17 “constructing non-proliferation and arms control: the norms of western practice,” in culture and security: multilateralism, arms control and security building, ed. keith r. krause, (london; portland, or : frank cass, 1999), 23-55. 18 ibid. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 371 b. disarmament; forcibly disarming rogue states by internationally supervised destruction of wmd capabilities, which was the case in iraq after the gulf crisis, c. deterrence; using nuclear and high-technology conventional weapons to deter rouge states, d. defence; developing capabilities, i.e. anti-ballistic missile systems to defend against wmd. second clearest expression and experience would be george w. bush’s statements on disarming the wmd in iraq, “operation iraqi freedom” and labeling this challenge as “war on terror”, as well nonproliferation of “inhumane weapons” at the hands of international terrorist organizations. the dominant us strategy has become preemptive strike, i.e. to iraq in 2003. the “national security strategy of usa”, released in september 2002, states that “usa must be prepared to stop rogue states and their terrorist clients before they are able to threaten or use wmd against usa and its allies”.19 regarding the web of conflicts in the middle east, gabriel ben-dor extends the culture-based arguments to the nacd within regional political processes.20 ben-dor depicts conflicts in the middle east with four superimposed concentric circles, each surrounding one another: the israeli-palestinian conflict sits at the innermost circle, next comes the israeli conflict with the arab states on territory and strategy. the following larger circle is the conflict between zionism and arab nationalism. the largest circle is jewish aspirations confronting islamic political doctrines. analyzing the political and strategic culture in the middle east, ben-dor associates “nacd culture” with the “conflict culture”. as part of the arab-israeli conflict, he lists cultural factors as religion; both judaism and islam providing total ideologies and civilizations, history; arab states identifying israel as the “agent of imperialism”, political structure; israel as a western parliamentary democracy against arab monarchic dynasties and military autocracies, mentality; arab mentality vs. jewish mentality in global orientations. all of these cultural factors, according to ben-dor, pave the way to an asymmetry in nonproliferation that makes negotiation uneasy. the major source of asymmetry is caused by israel’s official policy of nuclear ambiguity, which is the world’s worst-kept secret. within the cultural framework, for many arab states, the israeli nuclear deterrent is proof of jewish inherent aggression, threatening the security of its arab neighbors. substituting for the nuclear capabilities they lack, several arab states have chosen to acquire chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. furthermore, in terms of monitoring and verification to increase the transparency of nonproliferation, middle eastern cultural orientation has contradicted with the “western” norms. since monitoring and verification implies that the parties can not be trusted to keep their word, the honor code and infringement of sovereignty of the party have been deteriorated. this honor orientation has been considered as one of the causes of the united nations monitoring, verification and inspection commission (unmovic)’s weaknesses in conducting on-site inspections in iraq, prior to operation iraqi freedom; due to the sensitivity of presidential sites,’ iraqi pride and obsessive concern with humiliation, preconditions for inspections such as 15-minute delays or accompaniment of iraqi officials to inspection sites the effectiveness of inspection regime was undermined.21 19 hans blix, disarming iraq: the search for weapons of mass destruction, (great britain: bloomsbury publishing plc, 2004), 70. 20 “regional culture and the nacd in the middle east,” in culture and security: multilateralism, arms control and security building, ed. keith r. krause, (london; portland, or : frank cass, 1999),189-219. 21 hans blix, disarming iraq: the search for weapons of mass destruction, (great britain: bloomsbury publishing plc, 2004) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 372 middle east and non-proliferation a. overview the expectations that the end of the cold war would bring stability and peace to the international environment have been blown, with respect to the non-conventional arms control and disarmament in particular. since most of the middle eastern conflicts were considered as local conflicts corollary to superpower rivalry, it was believed that middle east would get purified in the absence of cold war tension. but, in the post-cold war era, a new form of “pax americana” has become dominant in shaping the middle eastern arms control, us being the external player. nuclear ambitions of the middle eastern leaders go back to egyptian president gamal abdel nasser’s search for regional hegemony through the nuclear idea. as early as 1955, egypt had founded its atomic energy commission and center for nuclear research as of 1957.22 following egypt, nuclear ambitions of the iranian shah muhammad reza pahlavi, paved the way to the exchange of nuclear information with the united states, launching a nuclear programme in 1970s that allowed iran to produce 21 nuclear plants in two decades.23 even though the shah was dethroned in 1979 revolution, the strategic rationale was maintained by the ayatollahs that seized power. ayatollah ruhollah khomeini, as part of the iranian islamic revolution, carried the hegemonic nuclear ambitions of the shah further. the most symbolic figure seeking a nuclear bomb “brighter than the baghdad sun” is saddam hussein.24 rafsanjani would state that: “it was made very clear during the iran-iraq war that chemical, bacteriological and radiological weapons are very decisive. we should fully equip ourselves both in the offensive and defensive use of chemical, bacteriological and radiological weapons”.25 seen in this statement, the role of wmd in the middle east has long been perceived as the pre-requisite to symbolizing technological progress, regional hegemony and the guarantee of the survival of personal rule. for instance, the fatal blow to the iraqi nuclear programme by the israeli destruction of the osirac reactor challenged saddam hussein to accelerate his efforts to establish a nuclear empire. this strong incentive lead to violations of the non-proliferation treaty (npt). other regional actors, such as syria and israel, are also considered to have sizable and sophisticated arsenal out of the need for deterrence based upon claims of “insecure” regional dynamics. clearly seen in ahmadinejad’s statement: “with reliance on almighty god no one can prevent us from attaining such a success... making use of nuclear technology has been turned into our national will...” 26 overall, middle east has witnessed the militarization of its societies and economies, acquisition of massive conventional weapons arsenals, proliferation of ballistic missiles and wmd, growth of military research and development as well as production. b. middle east peace process 22 “nuclear weapons and the post-cold war middle east: business as usual,” in alternative nuclear futures : the role of nuclear weapons in the post-cold war world, ed. john baylis and robert o'neill, (new york: oxford university press, 2000), 87-101. 23 ibid. 24 shyam bhatia and daniel mcgrory, saddam’s race to build the bomb: brighter than the baghdad sun, (great britain: little, brown, 1999), 11, 149-158. 25 ibid. 26 “president: nuclear iran, a national goal,” http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iran/2007/iran070121-irna01.htm, january 21, 2007, (accessed august 29, 2008) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 373 a conflict caused by military instability arising from arms races, changes in the balance of power or perceived vulnerabilities, can be solved by developing an arms control regime to create stability and reduce uncertainty. but, since there are direct linkages between armament conflict, high levels of military spending and economic problems in the middle east; spiegel and pervin argue that there is a need for gradualism, referred as the strategy of graduated and reciprocated reduction in tensions (grit), to transform the psychological environment and public opinion by implementing confidence-building measures (cbms).27 there have been a number of arms control initiatives and proposals for the middle east; such as the tripartite agreement of us, france and uk in early 50s to limit arms in the region; 1974 nuclear weapon free zone (nwfz) proposal put forward to united nations general assembly by egypt and iran; and us arms control initiatives of 1991.28 none of these initiatives have resulted in complete disarmament. within the bilateral and multilateral processes of the middle east peace process, initiated at madrid, arms control has become an integral part of the measures to resolve the conflicts. arms control aims to reduce the likelihood of war as an instrument of policy; thus it is not only technical but also political. arms control can be operational or structural. structural arms control consists of the efforts to limit and reduce conventional/non-conventional military capabilities; whereas operational arms control involves implementation of confidence and security building measures (csbms), which was the case in the conference on security and cooperation in europe (csce). it is argued that declaratory principles that address the proliferation of wmd and the need to establish a wmd free zone generate technical and military cbms as well as structural arms measures, i.e. eventual elimination of delivery systems such as ballistic missiles. the multilateral path towards arms control and regional security is depicted by the following diagram, in relation to the bilateral economic, political and security arrangements:29 during the establishment of political and military csbms, issues to be addressed in the form of declarations and applied in measures are; a. the dangers of an uncontrolled arms race, b. proliferation of wmd, c. regulation of arms production in the middle east, d. urgency to sign npt and international atomic energy agency (iaea) safeguards, 27 “the middle east peace process, arms control and regional security,” in practical peacemaking in the middle east , ed. steven l. spiegel and david j. pervin, (new york: garland publishing, 1995), 21-43. 28 ibid. 29 ibid. interaction bilateral multilateral full implementation of measures negotiations transitional phase declaratory principles technical/structural measures final status in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 374 e. need for a wmd free zone (wmdfz) for all nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, f. freezing the acquisition, production and testing of ballistic missiles by middle eastern countries, research on enrichment of uranium and separated plutonium, g. creating or strengthening regional institutions and conflict prevention/ resolution centers, inter-regional verification and monitoring agencies. spiegel and pervin conclude that, in the final status phase, long-term arrangements in both structural and operational arms control can pave the way to the initial implementation of a weapons of mass destruction free zone (wmdfz) in the middle east. c. middle eastern challenges to nonproliferation referring to the global nonproliferation regimes as the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (npt), biological weapons convention (bwc), chemical weapons convention (cwc) and missile technology control regime (mtcr); barletta argues that these regimes face a “dizzy array of challenges” in the middle east.30 due to the sensitivity of the nbc weapons as well as missile technologies, the high level of commercialization and diffusion make international cooperation less likely to work efficiently; since the diffusion creates high levels of new proliferation threats, motivating more actors to violate or avoid such regimes. focusing on the middle east; barletta categorizes regional dynamics as the following:31 1. security and political factors; outweighing the influence of global regimes in the east asia, the middle east and south asia, 2. nonproliferation policies and security arrangements that are designed to address particular regional circumstances; undermine the credibility and effectiveness of the regimes in different contexts or at the global level. barletta claims that the political will of the leaders in the international community, as well as confronting tactics, strategies, and goals, hinder the international cooperation that is indispensable to sustain nonproliferation regimes. these confronting tactics can be exemplified with various middle eastern states; i.e. egypt versus israel.32 this argument necessitates the condition that states of the middle east lack a comprehensive security architecture or regional nonproliferation regime. based on the ambition to acquire wmd and non-participation in global nonproliferation regimes, the middle east has solidly restricted the scope and effectiveness of cwc, bwc, npt and mtcr. for instance, israel is one of the four states of the international community that has refused to sign/ ratify the npt; many of the middle eastern states have rejected to sign/ ratify the cwc, and eight states have armed with scud-b or longer-range ballistic missiles.33 furthermore, non-state actors such as islamic jihad and al qa’ida reportedly have threatened to employ biological and chemical weapons. 30 michael barletta, “middle east challenges to global nonproliferation regimes,” in new challenges in the spread of weapons of mass destruction, proceedings of the viii castiglioncello conference, (milano: unione scienziati per il disarmo, 2000). 31 ibid. 32 gerald m. steinberg, “middle east peace and the npt extension decision,” nonproliferation review (fall 1996) 33 ibid. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 375 barletta formulates challenges emerging from the middle east region that threaten international nonproliferation regimes as:34 1. non participation: israel is the only state in the region not to sign the npt. algeria, israel, and the sudan have not signed the bwc.35 egypt, eritrea, iraq, lebanon, libya, and syria have failed to sign the cwc. no state in the region except turkey is a formal member of the mtcr. 2. subversion: iraq has subverted the purpose of the npt, complying with the accord and engaging in a nuclear weapons production program. iran may be likewise subverting, although there is no unequivocal evidence. 3. defiance: iraq has aimed to prevent the implementation of un security council resolutions mandating verification of its disarmament of wmd, not providing the necessary “change or heart”. 4. demonstration effects: widespread acquisition of wmd has motivated and legitimated further acquisition of wmd capabilities, due to deterrence. global nonproliferation regimes reduce the uncertainty about states’ intentions and capabilities, promoting greater stability in military balances, reducing the potential lethality of military conflict, and providing political and institutional frameworks for addressing proliferation threats. but, there are also obstacles to promote nonproliferation in the middle east. barletta states four general problems that hinder cooperation:36 1. weak international opposition to wmd acquisition and u.s. interest in the military utility of nuclear weapons to confront biological and chemical threats, 2. nonproliferation efforts in the middle east, subordinated to foreign policy objectives, to gain advantages in military capability and prestige more than nonproliferation: for instance; china, north korea, and russia have been willing to export wmd-related technology or equipment to gain access to large sums of capital, i.e. oil markets. 3. states’ chemical weapons and ballistic missile programs, aiming to match or compensate for their rivals’ military capabilities, to enhance their security and regional prestige: wmd and missile acquisitions have become legitimate security concerns; i.e. israeli nuclear proliferation, stimulating egyptian and especially syrian interest in acquiring chemical weapons and ballistic missiles. 4. effective veto, giving the states the power over the prospects for nonproliferation regimes and other regional security arrangements; where religious, ethnic, and geopolitical rivalries have created regional security dilemmas. however, is there any hope? are there changing perceptions of the value of wmd in the middle east? cohen and graham address this issue by questioning, whether or not wmd have become a “diminishing currency”.37 they propose that most of the middle eastern leaders, i.e. gadafy in libya, have realized the fact that wmd stand in the way of western 34 michael barletta, “middle east challenges to global nonproliferation regimes,” in new challenges in the spread of weapons of mass destruction, proceedings of the viii castiglioncello conference, (milano: unione scienziati per il disarmo, 2000). 35 jenni rissanen, “the biological weapons convention,” nti: nuclear threat initiative (march 2003), http://nti.org/e_research/e3_28a.html (accessed august 29, 2008) 36 michael barletta, “middle east challenges to global nonproliferation regimes” 37 avner cohen and thomas graham, “wmd in the middle east: a diminishing currency,” disarmament diplomacy 76 (march/april 2004) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 376 economic assistance and provoke active hostility; based on the experience of the removal of the saddam regime. libya has abandoned its wmd programme. as a response to american hegemonic policies on the commitment to preemption against states that pursue wmd programmes, wmd have lost the “ethos” of tools for becoming regional powers. yet, a reaction to american economic and military power has outweighed the effectiveness of multilateral arms control. iran, resistant to european union multilateral sanctions, rejects compliance with the international atomic energy agency (iaea) inspection protocol and the demand to suspend its uranium enrichment activities. according to the arab states, one of the major obstacles regarding nonproliferation in the middle east is the perceived “double standards” in npt,. this is a point of fairness. these states argue that the wmd of israel have been tolerated, which has deteriorated the universality of npt. israel has not ratified the 1972 bwc or 1993 cwc either. none of the international prohibitions have prevented israeli ambiguity and its invented, unique form of “opaque mode of going nuclear”; the “taboo” of american foreign policy. the solution can be israel complying with npt, cwc and bwc; which will all enhance its security as well. in a realistic fashion, nuclear programmes can be retained, prohibiting further development. following steps towards the final phase can be; cooperation with the international nuclear export control system, prohibiting the explosive testing of nuclear devices, calling for the phased elimination of fissile material production, prohibiting the first use and the threat of first use of nuclear weapons. d. role of the united states the most important external player that is operating in the middle east is undoubtedly united states. in 2000, victor a. utgoff , deputy director of strategy, forces and resources division of institute for defense analyses (ida); asked a challenging question, which would be answered through u.s military action in iraq 2003 onwards: “what changes might the proliferation of nuclear, biological and chemical (nbc) weapons create in the long run for international relations?”.38 his possible outcome is nbc-backed aggression and accelerated proliferation, paving the way to the breakdown of international cooperation. utgoff’s account can be analyzed within the upcoming “encouraging the spread of democracy (2001)” pillar of us foreign policy. according to this approach, the united states is the world’s strongest power, which has the capability to preserve and improve the aspects of the global order that it believes are right. does this “superpower” capability give us the right to overrule international law, by any means necessary, i.e. military force? this question has arisen in the aftermath of operation iraqi freedom. us manifestations, traditionally, follow the “liberty for the individual” discourse, since individual liberty has been perceived as the fundamental key to us success to create wealth, democratic institutions and values. united states present its domestic history, as a role model of pursuit of “perfect liberty”. hence, united states preserve the right to distribute “perfect liberty”. utgoff quotes tony smith, in his “america’s mission: the united states and the worldwide struggle for democracy in the twentieth century”, claiming that “world should be composed of democracies that cherish liberty and human rights”.39 this argument reminds one of “white man’s burden”, by rudyard kipling, to bring civilization to “primitive” 38 victor a. utgoff , “the coming crisis: nuclear proliferation, us interests, and world ordera combined perspective,” in the coming crisis: nuclear proliferation, u.s interests, and world order, ed. victor a. utgoff, (cambridge, massachusetts: mit press, 2000), 279-303. 39 ibid. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 377 societies. in this metaphor, the uncivilized societies are the rouge states that lack democracy and preservation of human rights. thus, us exports and defends democracy to these societies; just like president wilson taking us into world war i to “make the world safe for democracy”.40 the problematic component of this foreign policy structure is apparent; does the us fulfill its international role as the exporter of rule of law by utilizing legitimate methods recognized/approved by international law? barry r. posen, professor of political science at the massachusetts institute of technology (mit), posits a hypothetical experiment to test what us security policy would call for in a nuclear-armed world.41 his argues that the us would have to act forcefully, confronting an expansionist state with modest nuclear retaliatory capability. taking the risks of “inaction” into consideration, he proposes three possible policy solutions: an intensified “counter proliferation” policy, a military build up to allow the us confidently to defend allies against conventional aggression, and lastly a “fortress america” policy. if the non-proliferation treaty (npt) is abandoned, us could lead a “preventive”, conventional war against wmd proliferators. the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons (npt) entered into force on march 1970.42 in terms of its nuclear safeguards, each non-nuclear weapon state party to the treaty would undertake to accept international atomic energy agency (iaea) safeguards to all fissionable material in all nuclear activities within its territory. nevertheless, npt, as a non-proliferation preventative is highly fragile due to non-participation. many important states such as india, israel, pakistan, south africa, argentina and brazil have not associated themselves with npt.43 as a second alternative; us policy could create “little natos”, which would be forward-deployed us capabilities to institutionalize nuclear guarantees, wherever us would be threatened by a nuclear state, i.e. “desert shield” as the little nato in the middle east. in this case, us strategy would require stronger force structures, which would mean increasing the standing forces, i.e. in turkey, south korea, and persian gulf. as soon as the “preventive war” scenarios would be revealed, additional “strategic reserve” offensive force would back up little natos. last policy option; namely the “fortress america” model, would mean that us policy would divert nuclear competition, moving the risks of nuclear war away from its own territory, which would mean minimizing over-atlantic relations. staying out of overseas political competition by a us foreign policy towards disengagement, would indicate that us would rely more tightly on its own nuclear deterrent power –as the “superpower”-. posen argues that the last foreign policy option would require a major challenge to the traditional us foreign policy since world war ii, due to its passions and idealism that would block disengagement from world politics and political disputes. predicting the future, as of 2000 –prior to the operation iraqi freedom-, barry r. posen believes that us effectiveness in dismantling iraq’s nuclear weapons program and limiting north korea’s nuclear materials production capability, us policy strengthens the nonproliferation treaty (npt), in line with pentagon’s “counter proliferation initiative”. he suggests that, one day, us would face a crisis caused by aggression of a nuclear-armed regional power against us interest, when any of the scenarios of “preventive war”, “little natos” or isolationism through “fortress america” theory could not be implemented. the 40 ibid. 41 barry r. posen, “us security policy in a nuclear-armed world, or what if iraq had had nuclear weapons?” in the coming crisis: nuclear proliferation, u.s interests, and world order, ed. victor a. utgoff, (cambridge, massachusetts: mit press, 2000), 157-91. 42 frank barnaby, and ronald huisken, “the nuclear future,”in arms uncontrolled / sipri, stockholm international peace research institute (cambridge, mass. : harvard university press, 1975), 173-216. 43 ibid. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 378 possible solution could be developing new diplomatic strategies, i.e. “unusually creative diplomacy”. these predictions have partiallyto a great extendforeseen united states’ “preemptive action” policy that has paved the way to iraqi “liberation” and “disarmament” through “preemptive” military intervention, which would guarantee the flow of gulf oil, prevent the proliferation of iraqi wmd and encourage “the spread of democracy” by overthrowing the saddam tyranny. conclusion attaining global nonproliferation regimes is the only solution to prevent further acquisition of wmd; this however challenges the balance of power at the international level, including military interventions of the “superpowers”. the international community needs to create and strengthen international norms against the acquisition and use of wmd, even though these international norms will not be sufficient to meet the challenges emerging in the middle east. tangible security, political, and economic benefits for participation and compliance with nonproliferation regimes have to be promoted to the middle eastern states, through regional or sub-regional frameworks. the universality and legitimacy of international treaties, i.e. npt, need to gain strength through middle eastern participation. this participation might pave the way to a progress within the middle east peace process, reducing the tensions between israel and arab states on nuclear dilemmas. the evolving trend of devaluing wmd, as inhumane weapons that destabilize world order and promote hostility, must be supported by regional and global security arrangements to cope with proliferation and international terrorism. bibliography barletta, michael. “middle east challenges to global nonproliferation regimes.” in new challenges in the spread of weapons of mass destruction, proceedings of the viii castiglioncello conference. milano: unione scienziati per il disarmo, 2000. barnaby, frank and huisken, ronald. “the nuclear future.” in arms uncontrolled / sipri, stockholm international peace research institute, 173-216. cambridge, mass. : harvard university press, 1975. betts, richard k. “the new threat of mass destruction.” foreign affairs. vol. 77 (jan-feb 1998): 26-41. bhatia, shyam and mcgrory, daniel. saddam’s race to build the bomb: brighter than the baghdad sun. great britain: little, brown, 1999. blix, hans. disarming iraq: the search for weapons of mass destruction. great britain: bloomsbury publishing plc, 2004. bunn, george. “the nuclear nonproliferation treaty: history and current problems.” arms control association. december 2003. http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2003_12/bunn.asp in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 379 cohen, avner and graham, thomas. “wmd in the middle east: a diminishing currency.” disarmament diplomacy 76 (march/april 2004). _________________“constructing non-proliferation and arms control: the norms of western practice.” in culture and security: multilateralism, arms control and security building, edited by keith r. krause, 23-55. london; portland, or : frank cass, 1999. “cross-cultural dimensions of multilateral non-proliferation and arms control dialogues: an overview.” in culture and security: multilateralism, arms control and security building, edited by keith r. krause, 1-23. london; portland, or : frank cass, 1999. dougherty, paul and pfaltzgraff, robert. “chapter 8: theories of deterrence; arms control and strategic stability.” in contending theories of international relations. new york: longman, 2001. dougherty, paul and pfaltzgraff, robert. “international terrorism” in contending theories of international relations. new york: longman, 2001. dougherty, paul and pfaltzgraff, robert. “nuclear disarmament, arms control and deterrence” in contending theories of international relations. new york: longman, 2001. huntington, samuel. “the clash of civilizations.” foreign affairs. vol. 72, no.3. (1993): 2249. milton, beverly and hincliffe, peter. “after the storm.” in conflicts in the middle east. routledge, 2004. “nuclear weapons and the post-cold war middle east: business as usual.” in alternative nuclear futures : the role of nuclear weapons in the post-cold war world, edited by john baylis and robert o’neill, 87-101. new york: oxford university press, 2000. posen, barry r. “us security policy in a nuclear-armed world, or what if iraq had had nuclear weapons?” in the coming crisis: nuclear proliferation, u.s interests, and world order, edited by victor a. utgoff, 157-91. cambridge, massachusetts: mit press, 2000. “president: nuclear iran, a national goal.” global security. january 21, 2007. http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iran/2007/iran-070121-irna01.htm rapoport, anatol. “the origins of violence: approaches to the study of conflict.” in arms races. new jersey: transaction publishers, 1997. “regional culture and the nacd in the middle east”. in culture and security: multilateralism, arms control and security building, edited by keith r. krause, 189-219. london; portland, or : frank cass, 1999. rissanen, jenni. “the biological weapons convention.” nti: nuclear threat initiative (march 2003) http://nti.org/e_research/e3_28a.html scheinman, lawrence. “comprehensive test ban treaty (ctbt).” nti: nuclear threat initiative. april 2003. http://www.nti.org/e_research/e3_9a.html in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 365-380 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 380 steinberg, gerald m. “middle east peace and the npt extension decision.” nonproliferation review (fall 1996). “the middle east peace process, arms control and regional security.” in practical peacemaking in the middle east , edited by steven l. spiegel and david j. pervin, 21-43. new york: garland publishing, 1995. utgoff, victor a. “the coming crisis: nuclear proliferation, us interests, and world order a combined perspective.” in the coming crisis: nuclear proliferation, u.s interests, and world order, edited by victor a. utgoff, 279-303. cambridge, massachusetts: mit press, 2000. final lundholm if. jan 11_2 in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 80-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 80 volume 5 number 1 (2011): 80-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ society’s response to environmental challenges: citizenship and the role of knowledge cecilia lundholm associate professor centre for research on teaching & learning in the social sciences department of education stockholm resilience centre frescativägen 54 stockholm university se 106 91 stockholm sweden introduction as human beings we ultimately depend on the services that ecosystems provide, such as food production, nutrient recycling and flood buffering1, hence, current losses of such ecological goods and services and necessary ecological conditions constitute a real threat2. the interdependence of society and nature, the inherent complexity of such social-ecological systems3 and the rapid deterioration of ecosystem services across the globe provide the 1 millennium ecosystem assessment, ecosystems and human well-being: general synthesis (washington, dc: island press, 2005). 2 johan rockström, will steffen, kevin noone and åsa persson … j. foley, “a safe operating space for humanity,” nature 46 (2009). 3 fikret berkes and carl folke, linking social and ecological systems: management practices and social mechanisms for building resilience (cambridge, united kingdom: cambridge university press, 1998). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 80-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 81 rationale for a growing body of literature focused on sustainability4 and the importance for societies to build capacity in dealing with these issues5. consequently, current times are demanding in that they ask us and our societies to address these challenges the best possible way, and also at some speed. it is against this background that i will discuss the concept of citizenship and knowledge and point to a need for addressing societal (economic and political) along with ecological understanding, while also raising concern for understanding of the relation between society and nature as being unpredicted, non-linear and complex. the paper is outlined as follows. it starts with picturing environmental education and learning, its aims and purpose, followed by particular work relating to environmental education, learning and citizenship. how societies different ‘actors’ are dependent on each other in responding to environmental challenges is described and specific focus is on the interactions of government, business and the individual (as citizen, voter and consumer). the paper then addresses what knowledge could help citizens understand environmental problems and society’s ways of responding. environmental education and learning environmental education developed during the 60’s and 70’s in response to a growing awareness of environmental deterioration of that time. a book that became en eye opener for many was silent spring by rachel carson in 1962. since its start, environmental education has developed in many different directions and is today a diverse field (see for an overview see lucie sauvé6), which serves different goals and purposes and has increasingly generated interest as sustainable development and acute issues such as climate change are on the agenda. the interest dates back to the 1977 unesco conference in tbilisi to the current decade of education for sustainable development, which in 2009, reached mid term. in recent years there is evidence of a growing research interest in environmental education and learning, which is reflected in publications such as participation and learning: perspectives on education and the environment, health and sustainability (reid, et al. 2008); environmental learning. insights from research in to the student experience (rickinson, lundholm and hopwood 2009), and resilience in social-ecological systems: the roles of learning and education (krasny, lundholm and plummer, 2011). it is noted that environmental learning has many different objectives and a range of foci and outcomes. william scott and stephen gough, for example, identify ‘nine categories of interest which capture, albeit in a rather tentative way, a range of different focuses and 4 sustainability and sustainable development are used as synonyms in this article, and defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (world commission on environment and development, 1987). 5 carl folke, steven carpenter, thomas elmqvist, lance gunderson, crawford holling and brian walker, “resilience and sustainable development: building adaptive capacity in a world of transformations,” ambio 31 (2002). 6 lucie sauvé “currents in environmental education: mapping a complex and evolving pedagogical field,” canadian journal of environmental education 10 (2005). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 80-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 82 objectives of those who espouse and promote environmental learning’7. this can be seen as clarifying some of the foci (e.g., nature, conservation and social change) and desired outcomes (e.g., values and feelings, understanding, skills, behaviors, social justice and democratic citizenship skills) of learning associated with different kinds of environmental education. paul vare and william scott identify two complementary approaches to ‘learning for a change’ in education for sustainable development8. the first (esd 1) promotes learning that focuses on informed and skilled behaviors and ways of thinking in circumstances where needs are clear and agreed. the second (esd 2) is described as ‘building capacity to think critically about what experts say and to test ideas, exploring the dilemmas and contradictions inherent in sustainable living’9. the authors stress that both the approaches are necessary and are not incompatible. on the one hand, without knowing the facts, one cannot cast value judgments or critically analyze what measures are appropriate to take at a specific time and place. on the other hand, the ‘uncertainty’ of facts in light of a future that is largely unknown, highlights the need for critical thinking and open-ended learning. the later relates to the complexity and uncertainty of ecological systems; we are dealing with planetary systems, along with local ecological systems, their inter-linkages, and the many variables (known and un-known) that have non-linear effects. however, while stressing complexity and uncertainty, we must also acknowledge environmental problems (causes and effects) that are known, and identify possible and adequate responses in terms of governmental policies, regulations and other means, and i will return to this aspect later. looking at environmental education, its aims and purpose, other writers have distinguished between education with vocational purposes from more general fostering of knowledge and understanding10. it is suggested that environmental learning serves purposes of raising awareness, promoting moral understanding and developing meta cognitive skills (and systems dynamics thinking), or, intellectual developments alongside more activist outcomes, hence aiming at developing students’ knowledge and critical thinking so as to enable them to participate and take action as citizens, voters, and consumers. such ideas have, for example, informed bjarne jensen and karsten schnack’s notion of ‘action competence’ in environmental education11. louise chawla and debra cushing provide an overview of research on education aiming at enhancing behavior or action that decrease individual’s / individuals’ negative impact on nature and increases life sustaining actions (including new procedures and management). the authors present a typology of different foci within this body of research and conclude on the emphasis in environmental education to focus on the ‘private sphere’: “[…] environmental education, as well as measures of behavior in environmental education research, typically emphasize private sphere environmentalism at the 7 william scott and stephen gough, sustainable development and learning: framing the issues. (london: routledge, 2003), 54. 8 paul vare and william scott, “learning for a change: exploring the relationship between education and sustainable development,” journal of education for sustainable development 1 (2007). 9 ibid., p. 191 10 see for example karsten schnack, “participation, education, and democracy: implications for environmental education, health education, and education for sustainable development,” in participation and learning: perspectives of education and the environment, health and sustainability, edited by alan reid, bjarne jensen, jutta nikel, and venka simovska (london: springer, 2008). 11 bjarne jensen and karsten schnack, “the action competence approach in environmental education,” environmental education research 3 (1997). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 80-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 83 expense of preparing students for public action, and environmental educators often fail to engage students in a strategic analysis of the most effective way to address problems. because such an analysis shows that big institutions like government and industry are major sources of solid waste, pollution and the consumption of nonrenewable resources, as well as structural barriers against more conserving lifestyles, it is critical for schools and out-of-school environmental programs to prepare students for political action” 12. citizenship, environmental education and learning given this introductory summary of the field of environmental education and learning, i discuss the connections among the concepts of citizenship, education and the environment. joel westheimer and joe kahne pose the question of what kind of citizen do we need to support an effective democratic society? as a starting point for elaboration on three different typologies in relation to visions for teaching and learning: the personally responsible, the participatory citizen, and the justice-oriented citizen13. they conclude that teachers’ different conceptions of what citizenship means has consequences as these conceptions are related to the outcomes of students’ learning. the findings show that teaching with a vision of citizenship as being participatory did not raise students understanding of root causes i.e. structural, economical, political to social problems, while a justice-oriented vision did. these results can be compared to stephen gough and williame scott’s discussion of citizenship in relation to environmental education14, where type 1 and 2 (cf. esd 1, paul vare and william scott 2007) and type 3 (cf. esd 2, paul vare and william scott 2007) of environmental learning can be compared with the terminology used by joel westheimer and joe kahne. education aiming at the ‘participatory citizen’ corresponds with esd 1 in that students take part in actions that enhance or sustain the environment, but does not mean that they understand the ‘rote causes’ of environmental problems in terms of them being economical, political or social. esd 2 and ‘justice-oriented’ citizen highlights both a knowledgeable and reflective view of environmental problems, and the governance thereof, but, i would add, stresses that problems (causes and effects) are not clear-cut and the relation between individual(s), society and nature is complex (as is nature and society per se). when looking at the field of environmental education it is worth noticing current debates on what role environmental education can play15. discussions concern for example 12 louise chawla and debra cushing, “education for strategic environmental behavior,” environmental education research 13 (2007), p. 448. 13 joel westheimer and joe kahne, “what kind of citizen? the politics of educating for democracy,” american educational research journal 41 (2004); ibid., p. 239 14 stephen gough and william scott, “promoting environmental citizenship through learning: towards a theory of change,” . in environmental citizenship, edited by andrew dobson and bell (boston: mit press, 2005). 15 william scott, environmental education research: 30 years on from tbilisi,” environmental education research 15 (2009); marianne krasny, ”a response to scott's concerns about the relevance of environmental education research: applying social-ecological systems thinking and consilience to defining research goals,” environmental education research 15 (2009); marianne krasny, cecilia lundholm and ryan plummer. resilience in social-ecological systems: the role of learning and education (london: routledge, 2011); cecilia lundholm and ryan plummer, ”resilience and learning: a conspectus for environmental education. special issue resilience in social-ecological systems: the role of learning and education,” environmental education research 16, no. 5-6 (2010). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 80-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 84 education as ‘behavior change vs. democratic participation’16. the interest in the topic of (democratic) participation and environmental education has mainly attracted scholars in northern europe17. however, with the term ‘civic ecology’ used by schusler, tania, m.arianne krasny, scott peters and daniel decker proponents enquire into, and sustain practices, which engage youth in for example gardening projects, enhancing their understanding of the ecological and societal dimensions of environmental issues, along with creating knowledge of ‘action’ (as citizens). this leads to a direct influence of sustaining nature, and, also learning about the society and ways of dealing with environmental problems. another example of environmental education that includes this participatory and learning aspect is where students are involved in local environmental projects such as watershed management. society’s response to environmental challenges understanding interdependence for action in order to understand the nature of responses and actions that are appropriate when facing environmental problems, we need to recognize that we are dealing with the ‘tragedy of the commons’18, which elinor ostrom has researched extensively19. also, in socialpsychological terms, environmental problems are ‘social dilemmas’20. a social dilemma means that people attach more weight to their private interests than to what is best for the common good in a long-term perspective; hence, private interests are at odds with common interests. they are also examples of ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ as each individual and citizen probably wonders whether others are taking action or not, and pondering: ‘well, if no one else is taken action, my change of behavior will not have any impact’. the other problem is the socalled ‘sucker effect’; a person deciding not to fly for holidays in order to reduce carbon emissions find that friends and others still are21. thus s/he is looses out on a holiday abroad, while also ending up being alone in doing something positive with regard to the environment; hence the term ‘sucker effect’. these dilemmas and problems need to be highlighted in the times we are living in; trying to raise awareness and mitigate climate change in the context of international (cop 15) and national negotiations and strategies for moving forward. more fundamentally, there is also a clear need for critical discourses about difficult tradeoffs. robin grove-white writes about social learning in times which “signal that we are now well and truly into burke’s era of the ‘hard politics’ of the environment an era in which meaningful initiatives aimed at correcting destructive trends will incur costs to, and hence strong resistance from, major groups in society. /.../ the creation of political consensus around 16 tania schusler, marianne krasny, scott peters and daniel decker, ”developing citizens and communities through youth environmental action,” environmental education research 15 (2009); jeppe læssøe, ”education for sustainable development, participation and socio-cultural change,” environmental education research16 (2010). 17 see for example alan reid, bjarne jensen, jutta nikel and venka simovska, participation and learning: perspectives on education and the environment, health and sustainability (dortrecht: springer, 2008). 18 garret hardin, ”tragedy of the commons,” science 162 (1968). 19 see for example elinor ostrom, governing the commons: the evolution of institutions for collective action (cambridge: cambridge university press, 1990). 20 samuel komorita and craig parks, social dilemmas (boulder: westview press, 1996). 21 ibid. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 80-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 85 meaningful government action on matters of central environmental policy significance is becoming ever more difficult”22. andreas duit observes that democracy may be hard pressed to make these decisions because “there is somewhat of an environmental protection catch 22 at work here, or perhaps an institutional paradox institutions are required to create norms, but these institutions can only be established if they are considered normatively appropriate” 23. this point can be illustrated by recent governmental policy in europe (sweden, england and the netherlands) on congestion charges, which unfortunately has not yielded much positive response among the public, on the contrary, despite the fact that a congestion charge is a successful mean to enhance collective action. figure 1 illustrates this point: governments (2 in figure 1) in democracies need the support of the citizens for such policy decisions to be made, and, individuals (1 in figure 1) as citizens need governments to take such decisions in order to create action that has real positive (or reduces negative) environmental impact. also, when considering the environment in relation to production and consumption, business (3 in figure 1) need clear defined goals from the government, possible subsidies, etc., while simultaneously being dependent on the knowledgeable consumer’ making informed decisions and purchasing environmentally-friendly goods and services. figure 1 22 robin grove-white, ”uncertainty, environmental policy and social learning. environmental education research 11 (2005), p. 22. 23 andreas duit, “staten och hållbarheten/the state and sustainability. i att handla rätt från början. en kunskapsöversikt om hur konsumtionsoch produktionsmönster kan bli mer miljövänliga,” in doing the right thing. a review of environmentally friendly ways for consumption and production (stockholm: environmental protection agency, 2002), p. 31. 3. business 2. government in place or to be elected 1. individual(s) 4 5 6 in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 80-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 86 figure 1. the relationships and interdependence of the individual (as citizen, voter and consumer), the government and business in dealing with environmental problems and sustaining nature’s services in democratic states. thus, in democracies, in relation to the description above of research and interest in participation and environmental education, it is not enough to pursue an agenda that i) describes and talks of the environment (or environmental problems) in very simplistic, stable ways, or, in a general sense; bundling all kinds of problems together (local water problems, climate change, recycling, etc); and, ii) does not consider the wider political and economical context of participation, and, iii) advocates a simplistic discourse where top-down equals bad, and bottom-up equals good24. naturally, this does not mean that social movements or bottomup initiatives are not needed, on the contrary, they might be the actors on the societal stage making governments push such agendas, or help the public realize and understand important issues. but, ‘democratic participation’ must include the many various forms in which a society and its citizens take measures in dealing with environmental problems and sustain its resources. naturally, taking account of context suggests that other ways for change would be prevalent or necessary in for example communist countries with a one-party system and a communist economic system and not a market economy25. it is equally important to recognize that individual(s)’ behavior change due to environmental education is not straight forward, on the contrary26, and, also, it is difficult to see as a way for change resulting in reasonable environmental impact (because of the prisoner’s dilemma that people find themselves in). however, some environmental issues seem to be solvable with information alone (as in recycling batteries, etc.) while others, demanding that we pay (more), seem challenging in that people are caught in the social and prisoner’s dilemma, and, may lack necessary economic understanding to grasp the reasons and rationales for taxations. ‘in what circumstances should something be made available to people for free?’ is, for example, a question of relevant interest to ask in the context of governments struggling with their responsibilities in the face of environmental pressure and the aftermath of the global financial crisis. as mentioned, transport costs illustrate this point. economic growth is accompanied by a greater than proportionate use of roads which produces a range of social and environmental costs (congestion and pollution) that are not borne by the individual road user. hence, government actions in the face of this problem are taken in the light of the reactions of the median voter. it therefore matters how citizens judge the circumstances in which goods and services should be made available for free, and what knowledge they have in assessing such issues. with an interest in students’ understanding of price and the question posed initially, ‘in what circumstances should something be made available for free’, davies 24 cecilia lundholm, ”review of participation and learning: perspectives on education and the environment, health and sustainability by alan reid, bjarne jensen, jutta nikel and venka simovska. eds.,” children, youth and the environment 19, no. 1 (2009). 25 li sternäng and cecilia lundholm, ”climate change and morality: students’ conceptions of individual and society,” international journal of science education (2010); li sternäng and cecilia lundholm, ”climate change and costs. investigating students’ reasoning on nature and economic development (under review). 26 anja kollmuss and julian agyeman, ”mind the gap: why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior?” environmental education research 8 (2002). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 80-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 87 and lundholm investigated 11 to 23year olds reasoning on these issues in england27. students discussed the question in relation to private and public goods (roads), and natural resources like water and beach. the results show that the majority of the students either answered, ‘yes/no, it should, because that’s the way it has been’, hence, the questions were answered in relation to what was perceived as ‘normal’. the students who elaborated on price in terms of, for example, merit good (people need water, hence it should be free) or as an incentive for behavior (water should be priced or it will be over consumed) retreated to the government when considering who should pay and cover the costs. the students seem to lack an understanding of the relationship between taxation and government spending, which is in line with a previous investigation by davies et al showing that students’ understanding of the relationship between taxation and government spending is poor28. although there are studies of students’ political understanding and political socialization29few studies have paid particular interest to the economic understanding of students, yet this is of importance in regards to the understanding of society; the individual and the collective – and the social, economical and environmental consequences. drawing on earlier work on empirical studies on students’ economic understanding by davies et al. (2002), the authors conclude that: “citizens who understand how their own economic interests are bound up with the interest of other citizens are more likely to support government actions that take all citizens’ economic interest into account. they are also more likely to appreciate longer-run implications of economic policy and this may reduce scope for governments to secure short-term support at the expense of long term disadvantages”30. implications for teaching in the following i discuss what i see as implications for teaching with regards to citizenship, environmental education and knowledge. the section starts discussing content and subject knowledge, followed by considering environmental education that provide students with situations where their actions have a direct and positive effect on nature. finally, some words on the aspect of complexity and systems understanding. content and subject knowledge it is necessary that environmental education aims at helping students gain societal understanding (the interdependence of different actors as outlined above and the social dilemma of environmental problems) and the ways society can respond to environmental challenges. this entails economical and political domain specific knowledge. it should be noted, however, that the vast majority of studies of students’ understanding in environmental education have focused on natural scientific understanding, in for example understanding 27 peter davies and cecilia lundholm, ”students’ conceptions of price: some issues in the development of understanding of socio-economic phenomena,” unpublished manuscript. 28 peter davies, helen howie, jean mangan and shqiponja telhaj, “economic aspects of citizenship education: an investigation of students’ understanding,” the curriculum journal 13 (2002). 29 see for example lawrence saha, laurence, murray print and kathy edwards, youth and political participation (rotterdam: sense publishers, 2007). 30 peter davies, ”educating citizens for changing economies,” journal of curriculum studies 38 (2006), p. 20. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 80-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 88 climate change as a problem in the natural sciences31 and thus not as a societal, economical or moral problem. firstly, economics understanding is an important aspect as it allows students to understand the ‘relationship between the private and social well-being’32 and i would add, the environment. i concur with davies in that economics for citizenship includes two dimensions: “it should focus on choices in the way that markets, government, and other means of social engagement are deployed. secondly, students should be taught to understand the relationships between private and social benefits and costs and to evaluate outcomes in terms of the relationship between social costs and benefits”33. however, economics understanding can help students assess and elaborate on means for dealing with environmental problems and sustain resources, thus not only social benefits or social costs needs to be considered, but also the environmental benefits and costs. secondly, ecological understanding is of importance. the understanding of for example photosynthesis and chemical processes are necessary for coming to understand natural science and successfully progress in the subjects. however, from a citizenship point of view, detailed understanding of nature might not serve the purpose of helping students understand how nature works and why we need it. it is therefore important to consider nature in terms of the services it provides and develop an understanding of why nature is essential, and, how we affect ecosystem services in different ways (e.g. climate change). this focus generates another way of entering, and possibly ‘categorizing’, nature, as in looking at ‘eco systems services’ that are supporting (e.g. nutrient cycling), provisioning (e.g. food, fiber, fuel), regulating (e.g. climate, flood), and cultural (e.g. recreational, aesthetical).34 31 for example, björn andersson and agneta wallin, ”students’ understanding of the greenhouse effect, the societal consequences of reducing co2 emissions and the problem of ozone layer depletion,” journal of research in science teaching 37 (2000); debbie batterham, martin stanisstreet and eddie boyes, ”kids, cars and conservation: children’s ideas about the environmental impact of motor vehicles,” international journal of science education 18 (1996); eddie boyes and martin stanisstreet, ”the greenhouse effect: children’s perceptions of causes, consequences and cures,” international journal of science education 15 (1993); daniel shepardson, dev niyogy, soyoung choi and umarporn charusombat, ”seventh grade students’ conceptions of global warming and climate change,” environmental education research 15 (2009). 32 davies ”educating citizens for changing economies.” 33 ibid., pp. 20-21, italics in original 34 www. millenniumassessment.org in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 80-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 89 figure 2 figure 2. different aspects and relations of environmental and sustainability issue (lundholm, 2008; see also rickinson, lundholm and hopwood, 2009. adapted from steiner, 1993). in sum, environmental knowledge for citizenship is comprised of different aspects, and relations, that are illustrated in figure 2. these include: • individual – this aspect focuses on the individual; human behavior, interest, and moral views. (behavioral sciences, education). (1 in figure 2). • nature – this aspect focuses on nature. (ecology, biology, chemistry, geology, physics, meteorology). (2 in figure 2). • society – this aspect concerns societal systems and structures, as in economic systems, political organization and the functioning of institutions, as mentioned. it also includes prevalent norms, worldviews and discourses. (political science, economics, geography). (3 in figure 2). • the relationship between individual and nature includes students’ conceptions of how individuals’ attitudes and behavior affect nature, and, in turn, how environmental changes affect individuals, their attitudes and behaviors. (4 in figure 2). • the relationship between nature and society includes the students’ conceptions of both societal effects on nature, and the effect of nature on society. for example, students’ conceptions of the way institutional decisions affect nature, and, ways of institutional adjustments due to environmental changes. (5 in figure 2). • the relationship between individual and society focuses on how the students perceive issues such as responsibility and democracy, in relation to themselves and other 3. society 2. nature 1. individual(s) 4 5 6 in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 80-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 90 people, and how they perceive that individuals are influenced by society’s norms and regulations, and vice versa. (6 in figure 2). in the context of discussing citizenship, environmental education and knowledge, it is of interest to consider environmental education that aims at creating interactions among environmental education, youth development and sustainable development. as mentioned, tania schusler and colleagues, and krasny and roth provide nice examples of students gaining knowledge of both the ecological and societal aspects (and their linkages) when working in gardening projects or water management35. however, with regards to the framework introduced by westheimer and kahne on citizenship, it is necessary to realize that such sustainable action might be limited to the ‘here and now’ (the present and local environment), whereas much of our environmental impact as citizens today is global (due to international consumption and production), and also that climate change is a global and planetary process and phenomena, which is caused by local action and will have different impact locally. uncertainty and complexity systems dynamics and meta cognition climate change has been mentioned in this paper as a challenging problem, not the least because we are unsure of the exact consequences. we know of draught, the melting north pole, drastic reduced effect of bio-diversity, but, since there are so many variables interacting with regards to the climate, there is great uncertainty as to what will really happen. in sweden, we hear of warmer summers, and the possibility of harvesting twice. but, that is if all other aspects stay the same (same amount of rain, same soil conditions, etc.). however, our ecological system might change more dramatically (flip in to a new state), and, more importantly, it would be difficult to know if we were close to such a threshold. this suggests that what we know at present is uncertain, and, what we know of the future as well. understanding systems dynamics in general, which is part of both ecology and economics, has raised increasing interest in recent years36. understanding that causal relations are non linear and work in dynamic ways in complex systems can be helpful, but not necessarily an easy way of looking at and considering this uncertainty. this also leads to the aspect of meta cognition – our thinking about our thinking – and considering what we know, and how we view knowledge, that is, our epistemological understanding37. 35 tania schusler, marianne krasny, scott peters and daniel decker, ”developing citizens and communities through youth environmental action,” environmental education research 15 (2009); marianne krasny and wolff-michael roth, “environmental education for social-ecological system resilience: a perspective from activity theory,” environmental education research. special issue resilience in social-ecological systems: the role of learning and education 16, no. 5-6 (2010). 36 see for example anne dale and lenore newman, ”sustainable development, education and literacy,” international journal of sustainability in higher education 6 (2005); david wheat, the feedback method: a system dynamics approach to teaching macroeconomics. phd diss., university of bergen (2007). https://bora.uib.no/handle/1956/22wheat 2007; diana garavito and cecilia lundholm, ”systems dynamics thinking and conceptual development: a case of fishermen’s understanding of eco systems.” paper presented at the 7th international conference on conceptual change, european association for research in learning and instruction, leuven, belgium, 24-26 of may, 2010 37 lucia mason and fabio scirica, ”prediction of students’ argumentation skills about controversial topics by epistemological understanding,” learning and instruction 16 (2006). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 80-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 91 conclusion and discussion current times are demanding, in that they ask us and our respective societies to address environmental challenges the best way possible and also at some speed. it is against this background that i have discussed citizenship and knowledge and in particular the role of socioeconomic understanding, and, also raised concern for understanding relationship between society and nature as being unpredictable, non-linear and complex. in this final section i summarize the main points and provide recommendations for environmental education. • student perspective. as part of any recommendation on education and teaching it is important to take a student perspective and view students as subjects of education, thus considering environmental learning from the perspective of those who are doing it. rickinson, lundholm and hopwood provide a comprehensive description of students’ environmental experiences and learning and summarize empirical work in the field. their findings stress the need to acknowledge that students enter educational settings with experience, knowledge, interests and concerns. baring this in mind, environmental issues often contested and complex will have different meanings, and result in differences with regard to engagement and interest on the students’ part. • content. an overview of the different aspects that environmental education deals with is provided in figure 2; for further elaboration on the figure please consult rickinson, lundholm and hopwood (2009). it highlights the necessity of considering nature, society, and the individual in environmental instruction. as i have argued in this paper, it is particularly necessary to bring into focus a societal and economic content as part of environmental education. this is important as it allows students to recognize what are best possible solutions and a ‘societal toolkit’, in dealing with various environmental problems. figure 1 highlights the interdependent nature of the relationships between individuals and institutions within society. this needs to be part of a curriculum that aims to help students understand the complexity of dealing with environmental problems. looking at solutions is in focus when considering the relationship between society and nature; however, it is important to acknowledge what kinds of environmental problems are considered and what kinds of solutions or management is required in each case. for example, it is necessary to consider the difference between local, regional and global environmental effects (ecosystems/services) and resource depletion (oil, minerals, etc). this paper has also pointed to the fact that we are facing problems that are inherently complex and un-predictable. it is therefore recommended that students are introduced to systems dynamics thinking, which is at the core of subjects like ecology and economics, helping them generate insights that the worlds works in non-linear and unforeseen ways. • pedagogy. the term pedagogy is here used to address the design the how of environmental education. research findings conclude that dialogue, among peers and teacher-student, is an important way for enhancing learning. as environmental topics are contested and complex, allowing for multiple perspectives in the classroom is important. however, as rickinson, lundholm and hopwood show, students can be reluctant to share their views with teachers and peers for various reasons. this, along in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 80-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 92 with the fact mentioned, that students are different, and the importance of being attentive to this aspect, calls for variation and use of multiple tasks and design. it is further recommended that education be provided that engages students in current, local (but with global consequences) societal issues that student find meaningful (cf. schusler et al. 2009; krasny and roth, 2010) (see also scott 2010, for further recommendations congruent with these). • time. a few words on the aspect of time are warranted. learning is in itself a complex, difficult and unpredictable process. if we further acknowledge that what is to be learnt in environmental education is often challenging (because of emotionally charging topics and being abstract as in multiple perspectives and complex relations) we need to allow for the learning process to take time. a recommendation, although general for much of today’s curricula, is therefore to design environmental education so it considers the longitudinal aspect, that is, instruction that takes into account conceptual development over 12 years of compulsory education and beyond. this means that important environmental content should be considered and introduced with a long time perspective in mind, allowing for real progression due to both education and maturation38. references andersson, björn and wallin, agneta, ”students’ understanding of the greenhouse effect, the societal consequences of reducing co2 emissions and the problem of ozone layer depletion,” journal of research in science teaching 37 (2000): 1096-1111. batterham, debbie, martin stanisstreet and eddie boyes, ”kids, cars 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374-388 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ applying the new ecological paradigm scale in the case of environmental education: qualitative analysis of the ecological worldview of dutch children helen kopnina university of amsterdam introduction greater interest in environmental education or ee has emerged as even short educational programs were proved to stimulate environmental awareness in children (manoli et al, 2007) and college students (rideout, 2005). however, the efficacy of environmental education was rarely tested. while the measurements tackling environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviour were developed in publications of the journal of environmental education, journal of environmental psychology, environment and behavior and environmental education research, practically none have been applied to the case of environmental education. state-of-the-art in environmental education research is dominated by quantitative studies characterized by uniform, standardized models that do not take socio-cultural context in which education occurs into account. various scales were used for the study of environmental values and behavior, measuring what a person states he is willing to do regarding ecology and pollution issues (verbal commitment), what a person actually does do (actual commitment), how he feels about such issues (affect), and what relevant knowledge he has (knowledge) (maloney and ward, 1973; maloney et al 1975). other scales included environmental concern scale (wiegel and wiegel, 1978); general environmental behavior scale (geb) (kaiser, 1998 volume 5 number 3 (2011): 374-388 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 375 and 2004; kaiser & biel, 2000); scales based on translation from beliefs, attitudes, views and values to actual behavior based on the value–belief–norm (vbn) model of environmental concern and behavior (stern et al., 1995 and 1998); connectedness to nature, or ‘inclusion of nature in the self’ scale (ins) (schultz, 2001); the implicit associations test (ias) (schultz et al. 2004); connectedness to nature scale (cns) (mayer and frantz, 2004:504); behavior-based environmental attitude scale (kaiser et al 2007). one of the most popular measures of ecological beliefs in studies that use theoretical models predicting environmental attitudes and behaviors is the new environmental paradigm (nep) scale developed by dunlap and van liere (1978). the scale is a widely used measure of people's shifting worldviews from a human dominant view to an ecological one, with humans as part of nature. the dominant social paradigm (dsp), positing endless progress, growth, abundance and attitudes contributing to environmental degradation, is then opposed to the new environmental paradigm (nep), which highlights the disruption of ecosystems caused by modern industrial production. in nep, nature is seen as a limited resource, delicately balanced and subject to deleterious human interference. however, none of these scales, including nep, were consistently applied in the case of environmental education. with few exceptions (e. g. rideout, 2005), very few of the environmental attitude and behaviour measures were focused on evaluation of ee, nor have there been longitudinal studies examining the influence of education on the environmental attitudes of children or students' knowledge. given the diversity of approaches to ee as well as great variability of national context in which ee is presented, standard quantitative measurements, such as the aforementioned scales, might not always be best-suited for evaluating ee either. the goal of ee is to be defined in the formulation of the belgrade charter ‘to develop a world population that is aware of, and concerned about, the environment and its associated problems, and which has the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations and commitment to work individually and collectively toward solutions of current problems and the prevention of new ones’ (unesco and unep, 1975) the measurement of the efficacy of environmental education programs takes on a new importance. given the fact that nep scale is one of the most popular measures of environmental beliefs and attitudes, the author proposes that it might be a good measure to address the efficacy of ee – if it can be shown to be sensitive to the socio-cultural contexts in which ee takes place. the aim of this article is to complement the new ecological paradigm (nep) scale developed by dunlap and van liere by a more culturally sensitive model whereby the specifications of social and cultural contexts can serve as a starting point for evaluating the efficacy of ee. arguing that disparate social and cultural contexts require equally distinct approaches towards ee, this article aims to produce a ‘social context-sensitive nep’. in this article, the author argues that if nep scale could be combined with the more socio-culturally specific qualitative methodology, the useful evaluative tool for addressing the efficacy of ee programs could be developed. to heed the recent calls for a more qualitative approach to environmental education, qualitative approach to tackling environmental values and attitudes is advocated (zarger, 2002 and 2010; anderson, 2011; baines and zarger, 2011; efird, 2011; kopnina, 2011, 2011a and 2011b; storksdieck et al 2011; zanotti 2011). volume 5 number 3 (2011): 374-388 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 376 the nep scale. the original nep scale consisted of three dimensions: the balance of nature, anthropocentrism, and limits to growth (dunlap and liere, 1978). the nep scale was aimed to capture ‘… beliefs about humanity’s ability to upset the balance of nature, the existence of limits to growth for human societies, and humanity’s right to rule over the rest of nature’ (dunlap et al., 2000:427). the scale has been used by social psychologists (e.g. stern, 2000), political scientists (e.g. dalton et al., 1999), sociologists (e.g. albrecht et al., 1982), and geographers (lalonde and jackson, 2002), and more recently anthropologists (shoreman-ouimet and kopnina, 2011) generally indicating widespread acceptance of environmental attitudes and beliefs. many revisions have followed, and new environmental paradigm was renamed new ecological paradigm (dunlap et at, 2000). additional elements were added to the scale, including human exemptionalism (the idea that human beings are exempt from constraints of nature), and ecocrisis (concerns about the occurrence of potentially catastrophic environmental changes (dunlap, 2008). the 15-item nep scale consisted of eight items assessing an ecological, and seven items assessing an anthropocentric view. the nep scale was correlated with a wide range of national characteristics and national-level scores on several socialpsychological characteristics obtained from prior cross-national studies (hawcroft and milfont, 2010). central aspects of nep (adapted from lundmark, 2007) included human domination over nature * humans have the right to modify the natural environment to suit their needs dsp * plants and animals have as much right as humans to exist nep * humans were meant to rule over the rest of nature dsp human exemptionalism * human ingenuity will insure that we do not make the earth unliveable dsp * despite our special abilities humans are still subject to the laws of nature nep * humans will eventually learn enough about how nature works to be able to control it dsp balance of nature * when humans interfere with nature it often produces disastrous consequences nep * the balance of nature is strong enough to cope with the impacts of modern industrial nations dsp * the balance of nature is very delicate and easily upset nep the risk of an ecocrisis * humans are severely abusing the environment nep * the so-called ‘ecological crisis’ facing humankind has been greatly exaggerated dsp * if things continue on their present course, we will soon experience a major ecological catastrophe nep limits to growth * we are approaching the limit of the number of people the earth can support nep volume 5 number 3 (2011): 374-388 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 377 * the earth has plenty of natural resources if we just learn how to develop them dsp environmental education and nep scale. none of these environmental or ecological scales, including nep, were used consistently to measure the efficacy of environmental education programs. while environmental education or ee has become internationally prominent since the nineteen sixties, few efforts have been made to apply measurements of environmental attitudes, etc. to evaluate educational programs. ee, which was originally ‘aimed at producing a citizenry that is knowledgeable concerning the biophysical environment and its associated problems, aware of how to help solve these problems, and motivated to work toward their solution" (stapp et al, 1969) has rather been presented as a ‘given’, following the general prescriptions formulated in the belgrade charter (unesco–unep 1976) and later agenda 21 (unesco 1992) without the support of either quantitative – or qualitative methods of addressing environmental attitudes, awareness, concern, knowledge developed. due to the fact that nep is the most popular measure of environmental beliefs and attitudes, the author would like to propose that nep scale needs to be critically examined as a possible measurement of the efficacy of environmental education programs. however, as the author has argued on the basis of a recent study of comprehension of nep items in dutch upper-elementary school children (kopnina, 2011c), applicability of nep scale first needs to be critically examined. kopnina’s study also showed that qualitative test of comprehension of nep scale is necessary in order to establish nep’s applicability in a dutch context. this article will address the application of the nep scale in children and will provide a reflection on cross-cultural applicability of the scale. the author will propose that qualitative testing of the scale is helpful and necessary if meaningful results of the measurements are expected. in the following section, the author will address application of the nep scale in children, criticism of the nep scale and will present the qualitative case study of comprehension of nep scale items in the dutch upper-elementary school children. applying nep scale in children. based on the adult nep scale, williams and mccrorie (1990) and leeming and dwyer (1995) developed the scale for measuring children’s behavioral commitments, affective states and knowledge about the environment. however, this scale was based on outdated notions of environmental issues and included that falls outside of children’s volitional control (e.g., for example, driving a car or choosing to take a bus) and might have difficulty comprehending (evans et al, 2007: 638). musser & diamond (1999) have developed an assessment tool for young children that use drawings to supplement verbal probes. this nep scale for children was further adapted by translating key themes of the nep into games appropriate for firstand second-grade children (evans et al., 2007). evans end colleagues developed interactive games derived from dimensions of the nep model and an adoption of kaiser’s general environmental behavior (geb) scale for adults. these games included felt board construction, a board game, and an adjustable worry thermometer. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 374-388 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 378 manoli, johnson, & dunlap (2007) suggested that a 3-dimensional modified nep scale for the use with children aged 10-12 years. these items, listed in manoli et al (2007:9) were: 1. plants and animals have as much right as people to live. 2. there are too many (or almost too many) people on earth. 3. people are clever enough to keep from ruining the earth. 4. people must still obey the laws of nature. 5. when people mess with nature it has bad results. 6. nature is strong enough to handle the bad effects of our modern lifestyle. 7. people are supposed to rule over the rest of nature. 8. people are treating nature badly. 9. people will someday know enough about how nature works to be able to control it. 10. if things don’t change, we will have a big disaster in the environment soon. in investigating cross-cultural environmental worldviews in children, van petegem and blieck (2006) used the revised nep scale for children aged 13-15. by administering the scale to children in belgium and zimbabwe, the authors found statistical differences between the two subgroups in their perspectives on human-environment interactions. while in the study applying revised nep scale for children aged 10 to 12, manoli et al. (2007), examined children’s comprehension of the scale through interviews (words that the children didn’t understand were replaced by easier and more familiar synonyms, with 672 american children validating the revised nep scale), no such rigorous validation occurred for this study. van petegem and blieck, having conducted the study among 613 belgian and 524 zimbabwean pupils, have only tested the comprehensibility of the scale ‘with only a few children’, reflecting that in future research this should be validated more widely (van petegem and bliek, 2006:629). in van petegem and blieck’s study, respondents in belgium believe in human-nature equality, whereas zimbabwean youngsters feel more dominant over nature and emphasize a utilitarian view of the environment. unlike the belgians, the zimbabwean respondents displayed faith in the problem-solving abilities of science and technology and in the strength of nature to recover from human interference. van petergem and blieck consider no theories about the influence of social context (the influence on children’s world views of parents, peer groups) or political and institutional context (the role of the government-sponsored information, media, and the education itself). relating this to the case study of the west european children, most of which grew up in a country that lost most of the original forest hundreds of years ago due to agricultural developments, we would expect that their environmental values and attitudes will be low. we may speculate that the developed-country children grow up with a very different kind of environmentalism, based on distant knowledge, rather than experience: as a boy, i was unaware that my woods were ecologically connected with any other forests. nobody in the 1950s talked about acid rain or holes in the ozone layer or global warming. but i knew my woods and my fields; i knew every bend in the creek and dip in the beaten dirt paths. i wandered those woods even in my dreams. a kid today can likely tell you about the amazon rain forest—but not about the last time he or she volume 5 number 3 (2011): 374-388 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 379 explored the woods in solitude, or lay in a field listening to the wind and watching the clouds move (louv, 2005:1). the lack of contextual and cultural analysis of the differences in nep scale responses in children is particularly surprising because the differences in perceptions between west european and african nation can be very large (korhonen and lappalainen, 2004). deeper ethnographic study focusing on socio-cultural factors influencing the children’s comprehension of the items scale as well as analysis of the nep scale itself seem warranted. criticism of nep critics asserted that nep is a poor predictor of environmental behaviors (scott and willits, 1994) and that the nep scale were overly simplistic and outdated (lalonde and jackson, 2002). nep was also criticized for measuring cognitive beliefs based on learned facts rather than affective experience, based on emotional bond with nature (mayer and franz, 2004:505). additionally, nep was criticized for the lack of unidimensionality as the nep scale produced three distinct dimensions consisting of the balance of nature, limits to growth, and anti-anthropocentrism items (nooney et al, 2003). in retort, dunlap has argued that sets of 12 to 15 items will nearly always yield more than one factor—factors that are often sample specific—and a more realistic measure of a scale’s utility is its degree of internal consistency (dunlap et al., 2000). another criticism of the nep scale is related to nep’s compatibility with the general environmental ethics theories. lundmark’s study (2007) showed that the nep scale is insufficient in addressing the fundamentals in human–nature relationships and in elaborating upon ways to deal with the environmental situation that follow from shallower or deeper variants of present-day environmental ethics. while pronounced forms of anthropocentrism are well captured by the scale, the environmental position is ‘shallow’ rather than ‘deep green’ and misses crucial elements of the contemporary environmental ethics debate (lundmark, 2007:343). another critique stems from the cross-cultural applicability of the nep scale as the conceptualization of ecological worldviews may not be applicable outside of the developed nations (e.g., chatterjee, 2008). while some studies supported cross-cultural validity of nep scale (kahn, 1999; bechtel, et al 1999 and 2006; vikan, et al 2007; hawcroft and milfont, 2010), others seem to suggest that the items are not always ‘translatable’ outside of western countries. a number of studies in eastern european nations (gooch, 1995) and latin american nations (e.g., schultz & zelezny, 1998) have found lower levels of internal consistency and more difficulty with respondents’ understanding of some items than have studies in the united states and western european nations. in the case of nep scale for children, manoli and colleagues concluded that nep results cannot be generalized until other researchers have conducted further studies with children from other backgrounds and in other locations (manoli et al, 2007:11). dunlap (2008) eloquently responded to these criticisms by asserting that many other researchers have demonstrated the utility of analyzing the dimensionality of the nep crossculturally (e.g. bechtel, et al 1999 and 2006), and that the belief-systems approach volume 5 number 3 (2011): 374-388 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 380 regards the potential multidimensionality of the nep not as a problem but as a means of documenting variation in the structure and coherence of an ecological worldview across cultures. however, the essential problem of interpretation of items on the nep scale, taking cultural context into account, has not been discussed. another issue is that despite the great political and academic interest in the efficacy of environmental education (ee) programs, no adequate measure of the success of ee has been developed. as the author will argue, since it is the most popular scale of environmental beliefs up to date, the nep scale could be used for zero-measurement (at the start of ee program) and consequent measurement (after the ee program has been completed) of environmental attitudes in children. in the context of ee, applicability of nep scale cross-nationally takes up a new importance. environmental education in the netherlands. in the netherlands, we may distinguish between international, european union, and national levels of environmental education guidelines. for example, there are teachers guides that are used for broad preparation of educators for the task of teaching ee (milieu educatie) in general that combine both international, eu and national initiatives (http://www.leraar24.nl/dossier/286). there are three professional organisations focusing almost exclusively on environmental education (deursen et al 2003) and more recently on education for sustainable development (wagenaar, 2007). ee educators at the school level normally have a background in natural science, and in higher education, in general education and communication (broens 1999; wesselink and wals, 2011). dutch school curriculum typically involves a number of nation-wide ‘nature activities’, such as ‘bosweek’ (‘forest week’ when pupils are camping and performing scouting activities) or ‘schooltuinen’ (‘school gardens’ when pupils are allocated small plots of land to learn basic gardening) (thijssen, 2002; kopnina 2011, 2011a). in the report published by the netherlands national commission for unesco and the dutch institute for vocational and adult education (cinop), ‘learning for sustainable development: exploring learning strategies across the lifespan’ (heideveld and cornelissen 2009) define esd aim in the dutch context as ‘learning to change: contribute to a sustainable world’ (p. 19) and the development of vision and purpose directed at the three pillars of sustainable development: economic, social, ecological’ (p.28). the dutch program learning for sustainable development is the focal point of the un decade on education for sustainable development (desd) in the netherlands. in practice, education for sustainable development (esd) programs in the netherlands at show a great amount of variability and flexible pedagogical tools and strategies are used. unesco-initiated programs, for example, include selection of the so-called unesco schools with special curriculum addressing sd (school profile documents) or extending general recommendations on esd to local curriculum at dutch schools (http://www.duurzamepabo.nl/). ee or esd programs are not necessarily structured according to one or other type of guideline but happen somewhat ad hoc, as in the sample for the present study, where educators are free to structure their own curriculum around science and nature education, as well as more specific esd related to for example history programs (kopnina, 2011). while many education professionals decry volume 5 number 3 (2011): 374-388 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 381 the lack of consistent evaluation tools of the efficacy of ee programs in raising pupils’ environmental awareness, nep scale could provide a way of measuring such awareness. but first, applicability of the nep’s scale items in the dutch context needs to be tested. discussing item 6. nature is strong enough to handle the bad effects of our modern lifestyle. the study was conducted among 59 students between the ages 10 and 12 recruited at two select schools in amsterdam area between april and june 2010. the focal question of the focus groups and interviews was comprehension and discussion about 10 items of the nep scale, presented above. the items were read out one by one by the discussion leader. in group discussions, having explained the goal of an exercise, the researcher herself stayed ‘away’ from discussion and just recorded the speakers. the goal of the discussion was, in the case of focus group, to generate peer-group dynamic and discover common as well as divergent views; in the case of interviews individual differences in perceptions were sought. during the interview, the interviewer took a more active role, specifically focusing on the question of how does the child himself (thinks) to arrive at certain opinions. in this article, shall discuss only one item, as anthropological notes are beyond the scope of this article. selected item was chosen because they are representative of the various attitudinal/affective sub-themes supposedly evoked by the scale. preliminary results of this study are reported in the recent article (kopnina, 2011c), reporting on discussion of items 2 and 4 of the scale. in this article, the author will present abridged qualitative data and discuss the implications of discussion of item 6 of the nep scale. item 6, is originally formulated as ‘the balance of nature is strong enough to cope with the impacts of modern industrial nations’ and adopted for children to be phrased ‘nature is strong enough to handle the bad effects of our modern lifestyle’. this item is related to two separate notions. one is that of the ‘impact of modern industrial nations’ or ‘effects of our modern lifestyle’ (both perceived to have a negative effect on the environment). another notion is that of nature being ‘strong enough’ to cope with or handle these negative effects. below, excerpts from focus group discussion and interviews are presented. extract from the focus group discussion, 8 children: [suzanna, 11]: we pollute nature, we through garbage out, it cannot be good… [max, 11]: also factories, all the bad air…. [joost, 10]: nature is used for our… technology and… to make things… [fgm]: but is the nature strong enough to handle all this? [joost]: yes! [tijn, 10]: no. look at all the mess!... [joost]: what mess, nature’s handling it!... [tijn]: no, we are handling it, people are handling it, nature is just… polluted. [fmg]: can nature handle all this without our help? [suzanna]: no. [joost]: what do you mean [addressing fmg]? [tijn]: she means can nature handle pollution… [fmg]: i need to clarify: the question was not just about pollution, but about the bad effects of our modern lifestyle. volume 5 number 3 (2011): 374-388 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 382 [joost]: but pollution is part of our modern lifestyle… right? [max]: pollution is our modern lifestyle. [tijn]: ah, smart guy, you are the professor now…. [fmg, addressing the two children that haven’t spoken yet]: what do you think is ‘modern lifestyle’? what relationship does it have to nature? [nova, 12]: i don’t know. [sanne, 12]: i think it depends… depends on where we live… [joost]: you mean, if you live in rotterdam you have a different lifestyle? [sanne]: i mean, if you live in a poor country you don’t use that much electricity and other things. modern lifestyle is things like cars and mobile phones, but you don’t have them everywhere… [joost]: in which country there are no phones? [sanne]: that’s not the point. [fmg] asked about modern lifestyle, what it is, i say it’s not the same everywhere. so the influence on nature isn’t the same everywhere. [tijn]: nature’s also not the same everywhere… [tijn]: look, if you live in a desert and have your… i don’t know, car or whatever, that’s different from in amsterdam. i mean, if you have just desert, sand…. [joost]: she’s [fmg] asking about nature in general, right? nature on earth. i think it doesn’t matter where you drive or what you do, because it’s one earth, and it’s not just here and there… nature can handle something here and something there, but if it’s too much… if it becomes too much that the whole planet is… endangered. extract from the interview, sarah, 11. i think nature can handle almost anything… it can take a lot of time though. like with some trash you throw out. like plastic, that can take a long time to… disintegrate… but other things can be – like… absorbed by nature, like paper. if you throw away newspaper it will eventually become earth. it doesn’t take that long. […] i heard that here [in holland] a lot of trash gets burned. this is not so good for nature because nothing is going back to the ground… burning makes for bad air… how you call it? pesticides? no, pollution, parts of the air, like particles… but this burning can also be used for making energy, like electricity that we use… so it can be useful… reflection. we have mentioned that item 6 is related to two separate notions, one of the negative ‘effects of our modern lifestyle’; and another is that of nature being ‘strong enough’ to cope with or handle these negative effects. in both cases, closer examination of the dutch context, particularly the educational curriculum addressing the knowledge of facts about the human effect on environment as well as the ability of certain elements in this environment to absorb or resist certain ‘shocks’ might be crucial in order to interpret children’s responses. another contextual factor could be the influence of the parents, peers and the media in formation of dutch children’s knowledge and attitudes towards nature. it would be interesting to know, for example, how and where sarah learned about incinerating garbage and generation of energy in the netherlands, and how her beliefs about nature’ ability to absorb garbage are formed. it seems that the definitions of ‘nature’ and ‘modern lifestyle’ are contested in the group. in this particular fragment modern lifestyle was equated with pollution and consumption of global items like cars or telephones. in the focus group fragment a question of scale is volume 5 number 3 (2011): 374-388 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 383 raised – whether the effects of ‘modern lifestyle’ are local or global, whether the ‘modern lifestyle’ itself extends to the whole planet or to specific localities, and whether nature has the uniform or differential capacity to ‘handle’ the bad effects of the modern lifestyle. depending on what the children learned at school during the ee programs, or from their peers, or at home from parents or television, interpretation of the effects of ‘modern lifestyle’ and indeed the belief in the strength or resilience of nature might be very different. furthermore, in line with lundmark’s (2007) critique of nep as an inadequate tool of addressing core debates in environmental ethics, particularly the division between anthropocentric and ecocentric approaches, belief about the strength of nature is not necessarily related to the case of the intrinsic value of nature vis a vie humans. moreover, the notion of nature’s strength of weakness does not address the children’s effective state or emotional bond with nature. both the knowledge of scientific facts and their effective interpretation appears ambiguous in dutch children. quantitative tools for eliciting and evaluating environmental attitudes like nep can be somewhat reductive and confusing unless supported by in-depth ethnographic, context specific studies. however, when strengthened by qualitative studies, nep can be a crucial starting point for deeper understanding of environmental attitudes in children in general and for developing educational programs that could strengthen the development of environmental values. in line with the recent anthropological work on environmental education (zarger, 2010; anderson, 2011; baines and zarger, 2011; efird, 2011; kopnina, 2011 and 2011b; zanotti 2011), the author needs to stress the need for qualitative methodology sensitive to socio-cultural contexts in order to complement standardized quantitative measurement scales of environmental attitudes, beliefs and knowledge. conclusion. in this article, the author has argued that very few of the environmental scales, including nep, were consistently applied to evaluate the efficacy of environmental education. it has been argued that given the great variability of the socio-cultural contexts in which ee is presented, standard quantitative measurements, might not always be best-suited for evaluating ee either. instead, the author proposed that a socio-culturally sensitive evaluative tool, based on the given the most popular measures of environmental beliefs and attitudes, nep scale, needs to be developed in order to address the efficacy of environmental education. in the study described in this article, and based on the study results presented in other publication (kopnin 2011c), interpretation of the nep scale can be shown to be sensitive to the socio-cultural contexts. so while nep scale might be a good standard tool for measuring general environmental beliefs and attitudes, it needs yet to be adapted to serve socio-culturally specific settings in which environmental education programs occur. in order to develop the socio-culturally sensitive nep scale, theories about the influence of social context (the influence on children’s world views of parents, peer groups) or political and institutional context (the role of the government-sponsored information, media, and the education itself) need to be further addressed. qualitative approach, volume 5 number 3 (2011): 374-388 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 384 probing children’s beliefs as well as socio-cultural context in which such beliefs are being formed, including sources of knowledge, may add a great deal of depth to the nep scale. bibliography albrecht, d., bultena, g., hoiberg, e. & nowak, p. 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(eds) the anthropology of learning in childhood, lanham, md: altamira. volume 19 number 1 (2025): 192-212 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 revitalizing regional landscapes, redefining peace:  satoyama and satoumi as models for eco-relational justice in japan raquel navarro caparrós abstract the present article examines how the restoration of traditional landscapes through the practices of satoyama (a japanese term referring to rural areas where humans and nature coexist, fostering biodiversity and cultural heritage) and satoumi (a japanese term describing productive coastal areas that integrate human livelihoods with rich marine ecosystems) in japan can serve as practical models for an ecological and relational conception of peace. using an interdisciplinary approach that combines peace studies, ecological justice, and sustainable pedagogies, the article explores local efforts to revitalize the regional landscape after decades of environmental degradation. these efforts include community-led reforestation, sustainable management of water and agricultural resources, and the conservation of native species. the study of satoyama and satoumi in japan demonstrates how these practices promote relational justice, extending beyond human conflicts to address the health of soil, water, and biodiversity. furthermore, these models enable the integration of traditional knowledge and contemporary strategies, challenging dominant extractivist paradigms. it is argued that these initiatives foster ecological regeneration and enhance social cohesion by engaging multiple stakeholders—local governments, communities, and ngos—in collaborative practices. the cases examined in this research, particularly the one of the totoro furusato foundation, provide a concrete foundation for rethinking peace education from a sustainability perspective, bridging local and global dimensions of the ecological crisis. keywords: satoyama, satoumi, ecological and relational peace, social cohesion, totoro furusato foundation. introduction scholarly interest in the relationship between environment and peacebuilding has grown in recent years, driven by increasing awareness of the impact of environmental conflicts on social stability and sustainable development. the japanese concepts of satoyama and satoumi serve as compelling real-world examples of this dynamic. these traditional approaches to land and coastal management demonstrate how a harmonious relationship between humans and nature can foster both ecological resilience and social cohesion. satoyama (里山) represents the dynamic landscapes between cultivated land and forested mountains, shaped by centuries of agricultural and forestry practices. far from being untouched wilderness, these areas embody a careful balance between human livelihood and biodiversity. by maintaining shared responsibility over resources, rural communities have historically mitigated disputes over land use, reinforcing cooperation and social stability. in an era of increasing ecological challenges, satoyama principles offer a model for conflict prevention through sustainable stewardship. while satoyama speaks to the land, satoumi (里海) extends these principles to the coastal realm, where traditional fishing villages have long practiced a form of marine stewardship that enhances, rather than depletes, ocean biodiversity. by actively managing fish stocks, restoring seagrass beds, and minimizing pollution, these communities ensure both environmental health and economic stability. this localized, cooperative approach contrasts with exploitative resource extraction, offering an alternative path where ecological sustainability and social peace go hand in hand. the study of these practices is a matter of global interest. recognizing the value of these traditional models, the satoyama initiative—launched by unesco in 2009—seeks to integrate satoyama and satoumi principles into broader sustainability efforts worldwide. similarly, regions such as japan’s noto peninsula and shiretoko peninsula have been designated as globally important agricultural heritage systems (giahs) by the food and agricultural organization (fao), emphasizing their role as living examples of coexistence between humans and nature. as interest in sustainable practices grows, this article examines how traditional japanese approaches to managing rural landscapes and coastal areas—satoyama and satoumi—promote biodiversity and ecosystem productivity through sustainable practices. far from being isolated techniques, these practices are deeply embedded in japan’s cultural fabric, influencing land and marine management in ways that reflect broader social values. here, i contend that their emphasis on balance and coexistence resonates with key principles in peace studies, where harmony is cultivated through collaboration rather than pressed upon through external control. at the heart of these initiatives lies a confucian model of social organization, where collective responsibility and mediation take precedence over confrontation. confucius argued that a well-ordered society functions like a family, bound by reciprocal care rather than rigid authority (callister and wall 1997, p. 313). this principle underpins japan’s environmental stewardship: satoyama and satoumi are not enforced through top-down regulations but maintained through communal responsibility and long-standing social ties. conflict, when it arises, is resolved through consensus-building mechanisms that emphasize listening, trust, and moral suasion. this confucian logic is reflected in tangible practices. in shiretoko peninsula, local fishing cooperatives self-regulate seasonal bans through mutual agreement rather than government mandates. in the noto peninsula, the restoration of terraced rice fields depends on intergenerational knowledge transfer, mirroring the confucian teacher-disciple relationship. these examples illustrate how japan’s approach to mediation extends beyond social interactions to environmental care, reinforcing the idea that social and ecological harmony are interconnected. to explore this further, i first analyze satoyama and satoumi through a cultural lens before introducing the concept of furusato, which evokes a deep emotional connection to one’s hometown. i then examine case studies such as the totoro furusato foundation, the noto rice terraces, and shiretoko’s sustainable fishing practices. as i aim to demonstrate, japanese community mediation prioritizes understanding and empathy over direct confrontation, relying on information-sharing, active listening, and perspective-taking rather than imposed concessions (callister and wall 1997, p. 317). here, i contend that this community-driven approach has been key to the success of satoyama and satoumi. beyond conservation: a blueprint for peacebuilding satoyama and satoumi represent traditional japanese approaches to land and coastal management that contribute to ecological balance and social cooperation. in particular, satoyama historically referred to carefully managed rural landscapes that were integral to japanese agriculture, providing essential resources such as firewood, fertilizer, and fodder for farming communities in suburban and rural areas. these human-shaped forests were adapted in size to meet the agricultural and family needs of local communities. for example, japan’s steep terrain and heavy monsoons once made flooding inevitable, but satoyama landscapes acted as natural water management systems, regulating flow and protecting downstream urban areas (hasan 2010, p. 102). during the late edo (1603–1868) and meiji (1868–1912) periods, modernization led to rapid urbanization, large-scale construction, and changing economic priorities. as a result, the widespread adoption of commercial fertilizers reduced reliance on satoyama’s natural resources, which led to a decline in the active management of these landscapes (kobori and primack 2003, pp. 307–308). particularly, the post-war economic boom concentrated development in industrial hubs, leading to rural depopulation and the neglect of these once-thriving ecosystems, resulting in many satoyama areas either vanishing or becoming semi-wild spaces. despite this, and recognizing their crucial role in biodiversity conservation, efforts to sustainably manage and restore satoyama landscapes have gained renewed attention in recent years. today, the concept of satoyama has expanded beyond forests to include the entire agricultural ecosystem—rice paddies, waterways, and grasslands—all of which continue to sustain rural livelihoods, highlighting the interconnectedness of human and natural systems in traditional japanese land management. the satoyama initiative builds on this foundation, aiming to revitalize these landscapes by integrating local knowledge with modern sustainability strategies. by examining global examples, the satoyama initiative identifies common principles, encourages collaboration between ecological and agricultural approaches, and develops adaptable frameworks for sustainable management. more than just a conservation effort, it envisions a globally applicable model that balances environmental preservation with cultural and economic resilience (secretariat of the convention on biological diversity 2009, p. 6). a key determinant of this initiative is a consensus-driven decision-making process, as it is believed that sustainable resource management is most effective when decisions are made collaboratively, incorporating the perspectives of all stakeholders. by facilitating dialogue among local authorities, environmental groups, businesses, and residents, communities can develop policies that balance economic needs with ecological responsibility. this is largely due to shared governance through councils and zoning regulations, which ensures that development aligns with conservation, promotes environmental awareness, and protects natural resources for future generations while meeting current demands (secretariat of the convention on biological diversity 2009, p. 7). to illustrate how this principle is applied in practice, here are two case studies demonstrating satoyama and satoumi approaches in action: the noto peninsula, located in ishikawa prefecture, japan, is a prime example of how the satoyama model has been successfully implemented through cooperation between local communities, government bodies, and environmental organizations. this traditional landscape, consisting of forests, terraced rice fields, and managed grasslands, had been declining due to rural depopulation and urban migration. to reverse this trend, several collaborative decision-making initiatives were introduced (qiu et al. 2014; ishikawa prefectural government 2020): · restoration of traditional terraced rice fields: farmers’ associations, urban volunteers, and local authorities have revitalized rice terrace farming, enhancing biodiversity and helping the recovery of species like the black-eared kite. · sustainable forest management: the community has revived traditional forestry practices to prevent land abandonment, promoting reforestation and sustainable firewood harvesting. · ecotourism and local craft industries: rural tourism and traditional crafts such as wajima-nuri lacquerware and artisan’s sake production are encouraged to generate income while maintaining ecological balance. thanks to this multi-stakeholder approach, both biodiversity conservation and economic activities have been successfully sustained in the region. this collaborative model is not limited to terrestrial landscapes; it also extends to coastal and marine ecosystems under the satoumi framework. one such example is found in shiretoko peninsula, a unesco world heritage site located in the northernmost part of japan, in hokkaido. the region is known for its rich marine resources, including salmon and king crab, which have been vital to the local economy. however, in the mid-20th century, overfishing led to a sharp decline in these species. to address this issue, fishers, scientists, and policymakers have joined forces to implement sustainable fisheries management and marine conservation strategies (matsuda et al. 2012): · marine zoning and seasonal fishing bans: protected marine areas and fishing moratoriums were introduced through agreements between local fisheries cooperatives to allow fish stocks to recover. · collaborative scientific monitoring: fishers and researchers work together to study climate change impacts and adjust harvesting practices based on marine ecosystem conditions. · economic diversification: beyond fishing, the community has promoted eco-tourism activities, such as guided wildlife tours to observe the ezo brown bear, encouraging habitat conservation. through this participatory satoumi-based management, salmon populations have significantly rebounded, ensuring long-term economic stability while preserving marine ecosystems. while the success of collaborative management in shiretoko peninsula demonstrates the effectiveness of the satoumi approach, the relationship between human activity and coastal ecosystems is often less immediately visible compared to terrestrial landscapes. as akimichi (2012, p. 163) notes, whereas satoyama visibly reflects human influence on the landscape, satoumi appears indistinct, revealing its connection to human activity only upon closer examination. this distinction highlights a broader ecological principle: the visibility of human influence on a landscape does not determine whether it has been shaped by human activity. even when changes are not immediately apparent, landscapes are often the product of long-term interactions between human intent, culture, and history. in this light, satoumi serves as a reminder that human influence extends beyond what is easily observable, reinforcing the idea that ecosystems are not just natural spaces but also socio-ecological constructs. this idea is consistent with jackson’s (1984, p. 8) argument that landscapes are “a space deliberately created to speed up or slow down the process of nature.” his perspective suggests that landscapes are not just passive natural environments but spaces actively shaped by human intervention, whether to enhance, regulate, or preserve natural processes. satoyama is an evident example of this, as it functions both as an ecological space and as a cultural and social landscape where human activities—such as agriculture and forestry—are deeply woven into the natural world (hasan 2010, p. 103). understanding this relationship between nature and human influence is key to grasping the broader role of satoyama and satoumi. satoyama woodlands, for instance, naturally sequester carbon, and their conservation enhances this function while also providing renewable resources like woody biomass, reducing carbon emissions (yokohari and bolthouse 2011, p. 211). similarly, satoumi highlights the role of seagrass meadows and oyster reefs as natural carbon sinks that also support biodiversity and local fisheries. the restoration of zostera seagrass beds along japan’s coasts has improved water quality, provided nursery habitats for fish, and promoted sedimentation (kirihara 2013, p. 1)—a process that mirrors the role of well-managed forests in maintaining carbon balance on land. these examples illustrate that ecosystem health is not about rigid control but about recognizing and maintaining the relationships that sustain long-term productivity (davidson-hunt and berkes 2001, p. 80). however, reducing satoyama and satoumi to products of human intervention overlooks their deeper cultural and emotional significance. while jackson’s interpretation frames landscapes as synthetic spaces, japanese conceptualizations extend beyond functionality. in japanese, the term keikan (景観) refers to modern, man-made landscapes, but as gehring and kōshaka (2007, p. 278) highlight, fūkei (風景) embodies a deeper connection between nature and culture. unlike keikan, fūkei reflects japan’s traditional landscapes—mountains, rice fields, and sacred sites—that hold personal and collective meaning. fūkei is closely tied to furusato (故郷), a term evoking nostalgia, warmth, and a sense of belonging—which i explore further below. because of this emotional connection, satoyama and satoumi are not merely physical environments but lived experiences embedded in japanese cultural identity. the way people perceive and interact with these landscapes is also shaped by language, which not only describes the environment but influences how communities engage with it. in japan, the vocabulary surrounding landscapes carries generations of ecological knowledge and principles of sustainable coexistence. allow me to introduce a linguistic approach that can deepen our understanding of how these two models reflect cultural practices that offer valuable insights for building sustainable societies in the future: the terms satoyama and satoumi reflect the deep linguistic ties between culture and nature in japan. these landscapes have long been shaped by human activities that integrate work, festivals, and traditions in harmony with the environment. through this interaction, people have learned from nature, developed cooperative systems for sustainable resource management, and preserved biodiversity. as honda and nakamura explain: first of all, the japanese word “bunka” [文化] is a translation of the english word “culture.” culture is a derivative of the word “cultivate.” “cultivating” activities include involvement and interaction with nature. satoyama and satoumi have been created through these activities with nature. hence, it would be fair to say that satoyama and satoumi, as well as human activities within them, comprise satoyama and satoumi culture. human activities in connection with rice paddies are the most familiar satoyama and satoumi cultures in japan (honda and nakamura 2012, p. 40). incidentally, the character sato (里) is no random construction; it merges the radicals ta (田, rice paddy) and tsuchi (土, soil), a reflection of japan’s deep-rooted connection to rice cultivation. additionally, the prevalence of ta in japanese surnames further proves this agricultural heritage (honda and nakamura 2012, p. 40). this linguistic and cultural link is reinforced by the myōji hisshō gimu-rei (平民苗字必称義務令) edict of 1875, which mandated that all japanese citizens adopt a surname—an edict that emerged when japan was still largely agrarian (tsunekawa 2003, p. 41). after this edict, many commoners, having previously gone without family names, chose surnames that reflected their immediate surroundings, occupations, or local geography. as a result, nature-inspired surnames became widespread, drawing from mountains (yama 山), rivers (kawa 川), forests (mori 森), and fields (ta 田) which became not just identifiers but reflections of place, livelihood, and an unspoken reverence for nature. while japanese surnames reflect nature’s cultural significance, these agrarian traditions run deeper, shaping rituals, practices, and the collective memory of a modernizing nation. take the concept of furusato (故郷) as an example to understand the deep emotional and ecological ties between people and landscapes. unlike the english word “home,” furusato does not refer to one’s current place of residence but rather to a place of origin—one that is only fully recognized as such once it has been left behind. however, furusato is not merely tied to nostalgia; it also carries a future dimension, symbolizing an eventual return, whether as an imagined refuge or a final homecoming after personal achievement (morrison 2013, p. 2). this cyclical relationship with place—departure and return, separation and reconnection—reveals not just a cultural attachment to land but an underlying ecological bond. the longing for furusato is not solely about human settlements but also about the landscapes that once sustained a way of life. this sentiment aligns with wilson’s (1984) biophilia hypothesis, which suggests that humans have an innate affinity for the natural world. in japan, this connection is evident in traditional land-use practices that shape satoyama and satoumi, where landscapes are not just backdrops to rural life but dynamic environments where human activity and biodiversity thrived in balance. in satoyama regions, managed forests provide timber and fuelwood, rice paddies sustain amphibians and waterfowl, and grasslands supply fertilizer, fostering a biodiverse mosaic ecosystem. in a similar manner, satoumi areas support seagrass beds, coral reefs, and tidal flats through sustainable fishing and aquaculture, maintaining critical marine habitats. predictably, then, the enduring appeal of furusato is not just emotional but ecological, as it serves as a reminder that human well-being is intricately linked to the health of the landscapes we leave behind yet feel compelled to return to. that said, while biophilia may be a natural tendency, it is not purely instinctual. unlike animals, whose behaviors are driven by innate impulses, human connections to nature are influenced by lived experience and education. this implies that furusato is more than a place; it is a space where biophilic tendencies are cultivated (and learned) through direct engagement with the land. as barbiero and berto (2021, p. 4) argue, biophilia—a term derived from the greek bios (life) and philia (love), meaning “love of life”—flourishes through exposure to nature, and without meaningful interaction with landscapes like satoyama and satoumi, this connection risks being weakened. this reveals the need for immersive environmental education to maintain and reinforce biophilic bonds across generations. one example of such education is mori no gakkō (森の学校, forest school) in nagano prefecture, where students participate in hands-on activities such as forest thinning, mushroom gathering, and charcoal-making. these experiences, organized in collaboration with local npos like the nagano satoyama trust, not only transmit traditional ecological knowledge but also foster emotional and embodied relationships with the land—precisely the kind of engagement biophilia depends on (mori no gakkō n.d.). the 20 indicators of resilience in socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes (sepls) offer a framework for fomenting such connections while strengthening resilience in ecological, agricultural, cultural, and socio-economic systems. these indicators, developed through community observations and experiences, emphasize adaptability, sustainable biodiversity use, and collaborative innovation (international partnership for the satoyama initiative 2024). distinct from rigid policy tools, these indicators provide accessible and community-driven strategies that serve several important functions: they help assess resilience by tracking the health of landscapes and the stability of socio-ecological systems, guiding communities in identifying areas that need attention. based on these assessments, communities can develop strategies to improve sustainability efforts, prioritize urgent issues, and adapt to changing conditions. this process encourages knowledge exchange, facilitating collaboration among communities by providing a shared platform for discussing challenges and solutions (secretariat of the satoyama initiative 2015). ultimately, this framework aims to empower communities, strengthening their role in decision-making and adaptive management, ensuring that those most affected by environmental changes have a say in how to respond—arguably the most crucial aspect of this ecological participatory journey. this is because the way humans engage with landscapes—whether through furusato nostalgia, biophilic tendencies, or structured resilience frameworks—shapes perceptions of security and stability. human security is, indeed, deeply connected to environmental conditions, as disruptions in ecosystems can threaten fundamental needs and rights, influencing dynamics of peace and conflict (ide et al. 2023, p. 6). security, peace, and the socio-ecological balance of satoyama and satoumi understanding security through an ecological lens requires moving beyond conventional, state-centric definitions. peace is not merely the absence of war but a condition actively cultivated through ecological and social harmony. johan galtung (1969) differentiates between negative peace—the mere absence of direct violence—and positive peace, which ensures long-term stability through justice, sustainability, and social cohesion. in this context, satoyama and satoumi exemplify positive peace by promoting sustainable resource management, reducing socio-ecological tensions, and ensuring equitable access to natural wealth. more fundamentally, these landscapes function as socio-ecological contracts, reinforcing cooperation and resilience across generations. specifically, they align with galtung’s four core pillars, providing a comprehensive framework for peace: · survival (access to food, water, and shelter). · welfare (health and a clean environment). · identity (cultural belonging and tradition). · freedom (autonomy and participation in decision-making). by maintaining biodiversity and ecological balance, satoyama and satoumi ensure survival and welfare. at the same time, they preserve cultural heritage through traditional knowledge and participatory governance, reinforcing identity and freedom. however, what truly defines these landscapes is not just sustainability but socio-ecological resilience—the ability of human-environment systems to adapt and transform in response to change while maintaining their core functions (folke et al. 2016). unlike static conservation models that seek to preserve landscapes as untouched relics, satoyama and satoumi are dynamic, evolving systems that reflect the shifting relationship between human societies and nature. as yokohari and bolthouse (2011, p. 215) emphasize, these landscapes are not “fossils” of the past but living environments where adaptation and reciprocity shape long-term sustainability. this adaptability aligns with the idea of active peace, which is cultivated not through isolation or rigid control but through continuous interaction, learning, and cooperation. in this regard, instead of viewing sustainability as the mere prolongation of existing conditions, these systems frame it as an ongoing negotiation with time itself. this means that landscapes are not only preserved but actively reinterpreted with each generation. the totoro furusato foundation (トトロの故郷と基金委員会, totoro’s hometown foundation) is an excellent example of this philosophy in action. the totoro furusato foundation: a model of participatory conservation the successful implementation of the totoro furusato foundation in japan illustrates how grassroots environmental efforts can foster both ecological sustainability and social resilience. located in the sayama hills, near tokyo, this initiative does not rely solely on top-down policies but thrives through participatory engagement. this approach aligns with lederach’s (1997) concept of peacebuilding from below, which argues that sustainable peace emerges from local initiatives rather than being enforced by state institutions. scholars have termed the integration of top-down and bottom-up approaches hybrid peace, recognizing it as the most effective model for conflict resolution and sustainable governance (verheij 2021, p. 7). beyond conservation, the totoro furusato foundation promotes hybrid peace by strengthening community bonds, ensuring environmental justice, and reinforcing intergenerational stewardship. this approach reflects restorative environmentalism (conca and dabelko 2002), where ecological cooperation acts as a mechanism for peacebuilding by bringing diverse actors together toward a shared goal. by mitigating socio-ecological tensions and ensuring equitable access to resources, the totoro furusato foundation exemplifies this principle through six main activities (totoro no furusato foundation n.d.): · national trust activities: acquiring land to protect it from development. as of april 2022, the foundation has secured 57 plots totaling approximately 108,279 square meters, collectively known as totoro no mori (トトロの森, totoro’s forest). · fundraising and community engagement: encouraging donations to purchase land for satoyama conservation, with significant contributions from young donors. · restoration work: volunteers and local farmers collaborate to rehabilitate paddy fields, reservoirs, and forests, allowing urban participants to reconnect with traditional agricultural practices. · research and documentation: citizens and researchers monitor endangered species and cultural heritage to support conservation efforts. · environmental education: offering educational programs in schools, seminars for teachers, and hands-on activities in the sayama hills, and organizing guided tours, wildlife watching, and seasonal harvest events to deepen children’s connection to nature and tradition. · public awareness: publishing newsletters, managing a website, and organizing events like totoro no furusato osouji (トトロの故郷お掃除, totoro’s hometown cleanup) to educate the public about the area’s ecological and cultural significance. crucially, this ecological initiative embodies ostrom’s (1990) principle of common-pool resource management, demonstrating that local communities are often best equipped to sustain shared landscapes. in distinction to rigid top-down conservation policies that can alienate local populations, its decentralized approach guarantees long-term sustainability by aligning ecological care with cultural identity and economic livelihoods. echoing saunders (2014, p. 636), it can be argued that while conservation projects often rely on government and ngo mediation, true resilience emerges when communities actively shape the rules governing their own resources. the totoro furusato foundation, led by volunteers, researchers, and farmers, exemplifies this bottom-up governance model, proving that strong local engagement leads to more resilient environmental management systems. easily discernible, the totoro furusato foundation demonstrates that conservation, when driven by local communities, is not just about protecting landscapes—it is about reclaiming agency over shared resources (kobori and primack 2003, p. 310). this challenges the assumption that centralized environmental governance is the most effective approach. instead, it reveals that community-led conservation fosters adaptive, enduring systems that integrate ecological restoration with social cohesion, cultural continuity, and economic stability. moreover, this model suggests that peacebuilding and environmental restoration are not separate endeavors but deeply interconnected. environmental degradation often exacerbates social instability, but the inverse is also true—when communities have a stake in their ecosystems, they foster stability through cooperation rather than conflict over dwindling resources. as opposed to conventional environmental peacebuilding frameworks that prioritize conflict mitigation, the totoro furusato foundation demonstrates that proactive community empowerment is the key to long-term sustainability. by making conservation an inclusive, participatory process, the foundation not only preserves biodiversity but actively prevents the conditions that lead to environmental and social crises. in this sense, as exemplified by this particular case, satoyama—and satoumi—offers a compelling vision for sustainability—one that does not treat nature as an external entity to be protected but as an integral part of human society. its success lies in balancing ecological health with social and economic well-being, proving that conservation is most effective when it emerges organically from the communities that depend on and shape these landscapes. animating peace: miyazaki’s ecology as a model for peace naming the totoro furusato foundation after my neighbor totoro (1988) is more than a tribute to a cultural icon; it reflects the film’s deep environmental and peace-oriented themes. in essence, miyazaki’s works are not merely about conservation; they propose a vision of peace where human well-being and ecological health are inseparable. his narratives challenge the dichotomy between nature and civilization, instead portraying landscapes as spaces of memory, resilience, and reconciliation. in this particular story, the focus is on sisters satsuki and mei, who move to the countryside, where their bond with the forest spirit totoro helps them cope with their mother’s illness. in my neighbor totoro, the satoyama is not a mere scenic backdrop; rather, it is a living, breathing entity that nurtures both the characters and the audience’s understanding of coexistence. the film captures the concept of ecosophy, which refers to the ways individuals engage with one another and the environment through an understanding of sustainable practices (cavalcante 2018, p. 26). it highlights that the restoration of peace goes beyond ending violence—it is about healing the relationships between people, their history, and the land they inhabit. the evolving relationship between satsuki, mei and their new rural surroundings illustrates this interconnected healing process. satsuki and mei’s ability to see and interact with totoro symbolizes an uncorrupted perspective, one that has not yet been severed from nature by industrial modernity—in contrast with the loss of connection seen in miyazaki’s other works, such as princess mononoke (1997), which often leads to ecological and social crises. initially unsettled by the move, the sisters gradually rebuild their sense of stability through their interactions with satoyama and its guardian spirit, totoro. their growing bond with nature parallels the emotional mending of their family as they navigate their mother’s illness, highlighting how ecological restoration and social resilience are deeply intertwined. just as satoyama requires care and continuity, so too do human relationships, suggesting that peace is cultivated not through isolation or domination, but through attentive, reciprocal engagement with both the environment and one another. in this way, totoro is not just a symbol of nature; he becomes a guardian of ecological peace, reminding us that sustainability is not only about protecting biodiversity but about preserving the cultural and emotional landscapes that sustain human relationships with the natural world. interestingly, and in contrast to conventional depictions of nature spirits as either benevolent protectors or forces of retribution, totoro is neither. instead, he is a figure that does not dictate balance but responds to it, appearing only when the human-nature relationship is in flux. his presence reflects an essential truth about satoyama and satoumi: peace is not the absence of disturbance but the ability to navigate change without collapse. seen this way, totoro does not enforce harmony but facilitates the unspoken negotiations between human and non-human worlds. his silence is significant; instead of delivering wisdom or intervening with force, totoro embodies wa (和)—term defined not as a static harmony, but as a fluid state of coexistence that requires continuous adjustment. peace, in this sense, is not an imposed ideal but an ability to move with, rather than against, through trust, adaptation, and silent understanding. conclusions the gradual transformation of japan’s traditional landscapes due to economic, technological, and demographic shifts poses a critical challenge not only for conservation but also for social stability. the abandonment of rural lands, habitat fragmentation, and urban expansion all signal a weakening of the long-standing relationship between communities and their environment. yet, initiatives like the totoro furusato foundation and broader satoyama and satoumi models remind us that environmental preservation is not just an ecological concern, but a peacebuilding strategy. satoyama and satoumi embody a form of peace rooted in reciprocity, where human and ecological well-being are mutually reinforcing. contrary to conventional peace models that focus solely on the absence of violence, these landscapes illustrate that sustainable coexistence between people and nature is fundamental to long-term stability. when environmental degradation fuels social tensions, resource scarcity, and displacement, the principles embedded in satoyama and satoumi offer a compelling alternative: a world where peace is cultivated not through control or avoidance of conflict, but through active stewardship, shared responsibility, and intergenerational resilience. the satoyama and satoumi systems promote relational justice by embedding fairness into ecological interdependence rather than relying on static human frameworks. justice emerges not through abstract principles but through adaptive reciprocity or, in other words, a continuous negotiation between human practices and environmental responses. this dynamic allows for accountability, as individuals must adjust their actions to maintain balance, not just socially but ecologically. by making justice a lived, responsive process rather than a fixed structure, these systems ensure that fairness is not imposed but naturally sustained through the very logic of coexistence. in this sense, these practices are more than conservation efforts. they are living blueprints for peace, demonstrating that true stability lies in the delicate balance between land, sea, and community. references akimichi, t. 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(2012). rice cultivation and culture. in a. k. duraiappah, k. nakamura, k. takeuchi, m. watanabe, & m. nishi (eds.), satoyama–satoumi ecosystems and human well-being: socio-ecological production landscapes of japan (pp. 40–41). united nations university press. ide, t., johnson, m. f., barnett, j., krampe, f., le billon, p., maertens, l., von uexkull, n., & vélez-torres, i. (2023). the future of environmental peace and conflict research. environmental politics, 32(6), 1077–1103. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2022.2156174 international partnership for the satoyama initiative. (2024). indicators of resilience in socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes. satoyama initiative. https://satoyamainitiative.org/featured_activities/indicators-of-resilience/ ishikawa prefectural government. (2020). satoyama and satoumi of noto: 2020 report on the noto giahs initiative. https://www.pref.ishikawa.jp/satoyama/noto-giahs/pdf/pdf/2020_satoyama_satoumi_en.pdf jackson, j. b. (1984). discovering the vernacular landscape. yale university press. kirihara, s., kon, n., fujita, d., & notoya, m. (2013). distributions of zosteraceae species along the coasts of aomori prefecture, locating at the northernmost of honshu, japan. algal resources 6(1), 1–13. kobori, h., & primack, r. b. (2003). participatory conservation approaches for satoyama, the traditional forest and agricultural landscape of japan. ambio a journal of the human environment, 32(4), 30 7-301. lederach, j. p. (1997). sustainable reconciliation in divided societies. united states institute of peace press. matsuda, h., makino, m., & tomiyama, m. (2012). biodiversity and fisheries resource management in the satoumi. global environmental research, 16, 181-187. mori no gakkō. (n.d.). about us. https://morinogakko.net/english/ morrison, l. r. (2013). home of the heart: the modern origins of furusato. icu comparative culture, 45, 1–27. neumann, k., tobin, b., & smith wright, c. (2004). the central asia and mongolia bioresources and biosecurity network: capacity development on access to genetic resources, benefit-sharing, and biosafety in central asia and mongolia. united nations university institute of advanced studies. ostrom, e. (1990). governing the commons: the evolution of institutions for collective action. cambridge university press. qiu, z., chen, b., & takemoto, k. (2014). conservation of terraced paddy fields engaged with multiple stakeholders: the case of the noto giahs site in japan. paddy and water environment, 12(2), 275–283. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-013-0387-x saunders, f. p. (2014). the promise of common pool resource theory and the reality of common projects. international journal of the commons 8(2), 636-656. secretariat of the convention on biological diversity. (2009). the satoyama initiative: socio-ecological production landscapes for biodiversity and human well-being. convention on biological diversity. https://www.cbd.int/sustainable/doc/satoyama-initiative-brochure-en.pdf secretariat of the satoyama initiative. (2015). indicators of the satoyama initiative: a tool for assessing and monitoring socio-ecological production landscapes and seascapes. united nations university institute for the advanced study of sustainability. https://satoyama-initiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/indicators-brochure-cover-lr.pdf totoro no furusato foundation. (n.d.). home. https://www.totoro.or.jp/english.html tsunekawa, a. (2003). transition of satoyama landscapes in japan. in k. takeuchi, r. d. brown, i. washitani, a. tsunekawa, & m. yokohari (eds.), satoyama: the traditional rural landscape of japan (pp. 41–51). springer. verheij, t. (2021). reaching across a closed divide: peacebuilding from below—a phenomenological study on the csos of cyprus and the impact of regional tensions and covid-19. [master’s thesis, university of gothenburg]. gupea. wilson, e. o. (1984). biophilia. harvard university press. yokohari, m., & bolthouse, j. (2011). keep it alive, don’t freeze it: a conceptual perspective on the conservation of continuously evolving satoyama landscapes. landscape and ecological engineering, 7(2), 207–216. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11355-010-0116-1 1 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 192-212 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax image1.png microsoft word archer ifp 11.2.docx in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 252-255 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 252 volume 11 number 2 (2017): 252-255 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review pedagogy, politics and philosophy of peace: interrogating peace and peacemaking, edited by carmen borg & michael grech, bloomsbury, 2017, 256 pp. reviewed by tim archer university of cambridge current chair, cambridge peace education research group dta30@cam.ac.uk in the foreword to pedagogy, politics and philosophy of peace, peter mayo notes that in a world where social contacts, equality, justice, and general stability, are being eroded, there is a call among critical educators “for a pedagogy of social solidarität that emphasises the collective and communal in addition to the ecologically sustainable” (p. xvi). in response, carmen borg and michael grech offer this edited book to contribute to the call and provide what they hope will be a coherent vision of ‘authentic peace’ beyond the “growing cynicism and fatalism that blocks possibilities for transformative thinking and action” (p. 2). borg and grech’s book consists of twelve authored chapters with perspectives on the nature of peace, myths relating to peace, logistics of peace and peacemaking, and the relationship between peace and pedagogy (p. 1). borg and grech argue these chapters highlight the differences between genuine peace based upon justice and equality, and false peace based on perpetuated common-sense notions and pacification. each chapter promotes the importance of critical education to in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 252-255 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 253 disentangle the hidden asymmetrical power relations that create taken-forgranted assumptions and prevent genuine peace. they argue that within these asymmetrical power relations peace is achieved through pacification and imposed exogenous solutions that propagate western ideals that are beyond critique. instead more endogenous enriched approaches that account for contextual complexities are encouraged. for borg and grech, critical pedagogy offers dialogical opportunities for consciousness building around these taken-for-granted power relations contained in western approaches to peace. in total, the book consists of three parts: ‘the contents of peace’, ‘challenges to peace education’, and ‘peace pedagogy’. part one includes a chapter by marianna papastephanou, who discusses western pax romana approaches to peace that seek to pacify the wilderness of the world. papastephanou argues peace must be more radical and have contemptus mundi (p. 26) to these taken-for-granted pacifying approaches. joseph gravina’s chapter also discusses pacification. looking at historical revolutions he discusses differences between revolutions based upon critical consciousness and community-oriented action, and revolutions buttressed from outside. revolutions must create relations of justice and equality otherwise they will only promote selective adaptation and appeasement. simone galea’s chapter focuses on the taken-for-granted patriarchal and phallocentric approaches to peace. drawing from irigaray, galea endorses incorporating feminine ideas of maternity and breath into peace. these principles open a third space where the teacher breathes “the life of education onto others, with the aim of having them eventually able to breathe on their own” (p. 57). arsalan alshinawi’s and trimikliniotis and trimithiotis’ chapters close the first section by discussing exogenous euroand western-centric liberal peace approaches that often increase instability. alshinawi encourages endogenous approaches that account for the complex internal “constellations of historical and geographical factors” (p. 75). trimikliniotis and trimithiotis argue for a critical-sociological reconstruction of peace where peacemaking is “read in the context of the livelihoods, the socialities, solidarities and connectivities long experienced in the global south, the east and that was thought of as the ‘backward rest’” (p. 90). in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 252-255 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 254 part two discusses the challenges to peace education commencing with antonia darder’s chapter on dreaming of a bold and brave peace. war is taught in the us in ‘common-sense’ notions that promulgate ideas that citizens cannot experience freedom unless the state exercises permanent aggression. this only reinforces dependency on the existing hegemonic structures, and must be challenged. clive zammit discusses the myth of the inevitability of war. he suggests such myths collude to give illusions they are factual when they are not. awareness of how these myths operate is crucial in critical education “to see through their mythic force, and thus loosen the grip of a myth that keeps us enslaved to a constructed reality” (p. 125). finally, carmen sammut discusses the media’s potential for creating dialogical learning spaces. discussing jyllands-posten and charlie hebdo, she notes how media, however, often fails to consider its own power relations. sammut endorses a social responsibility approach that brings sensibilities of the other to the forefront for dialogical exploration. part three then discusses the pedagogy of peace starting with zembylas and bekerman, who challenge a fideistic unquestioned foundation to peace education praxis. for peace education programmes to move beyond perpetuating hegemony, they claim four pillars need to be present: reinstating the materiality of things and practices; reontologizing research and practice in peace education; becoming critical experts of design; and engaging in critical cultural analysis. elias mazawi’s chapter discusses how textbooks reproduce hegemonic discourses by creating certain a priori assumptions that normalize learners’ perceptions of reality. these realities, however, contain biases that if remain unchallenged reinforce specific worldviews and ‘us’ and ‘them’ polarities. michael zammit’s chapter draws on advaita philosophy as an alternative epistemological approach to peace based on non-dualism. crucial elements to this philosophy are practices of re(an)nunciation and participation. this philosophy moves beyond prioritizing mental functions, to praxis dependent on interactions with the other that provide an “enlightening transformation of mankind’s awareness of itself” (p. 197). finally, linda herrera, discusses how humanistic pedagogies, such as music, can solicit critical spaces of intraand inter-cultural understanding. focusing on osman el-mahdi in egypt, herrera discusses how music in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 252-255 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 255 assisted his students to become not only better musicians but better people based on inclusive ‘open’ humanistic principles found in music. it is not entirely clear to this reviewer for what purpose the three sections have been divided from each other. taken in totality the book achieves its goal in signifying the importance for critical peace praxis to challenge its own assumptions before action, and engage endogenous voices towards potentials for authentic peace. indeed, as noted by the authors, critical education is about pedagogies of hope. this places pedagogy at the very heart of politics and philosophy and not as a separate compartmentalized element, as may be suggested. in conclusion, the book will be a useful resource for anyone interested in the associations between asymmetrical power relations and society. more specifically, it will be particularly useful for educators and others interested in critical approaches to education that challenge hegemonic structures of peacebuilding. theobald review in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 154-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 154 volume 3 number 1 (2009): 154-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ reclaiming a democratic political community: a review of paul theobald, education now: how rethinking america’s past can change its future (boulder: paradigm publishers, 2009). dale t. snauwaert the university of toledo in his new book, education now, historian of education paul theobald offers a deeply insightful and historical rigorous exploration of the interconnection between the political, economic, ideological, and educational spheres of society. his nuanced historical and philosophical analysis focuses on the assumptions that underlie and shape american culture, including the existence of interrelated political, economic, and educational arrangements. the basic premise of the book is that american culture is a manifestation of interrelated assumptions that underpin these arrangements. therefore, theobald argues that cultural change, and in turn educational change, requires a critical examination and transformation of these assumptions. situated within the social reconstructionist and communitarian traditions of educational studies, theobald illuminates the complex historical relationship between education and the social forces that shape it. speaking of the interconnection of these spheres, he writes, “changing one sphere requires change in all three (p. 5).” in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 154-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 155 it has long been recognized that education is contingent upon the specific social and political organization of the society within which it is situated.1 for example, aristotle maintains that citizenship and civic education are logical expressions of the constitutional order (politeia) of the society.2 the politeia is not merely the formal juridical structure of the legal system; it comprises the basic structure of values and institutions that define the society’s social organization. this orientation is of critical importance to peace studies and peace education as well. the recognition that there exists an intimate relationship between education and society is of fundamental importance to the field of peace education. in his historical analysis theobald demonstrates that there are at least two prominent ideological traditions, streams of thought, that underlie and shaped american culture and in turn education: (1) the lockean, essentially libertarian, tradition -the “l-stream” and (2) the montesquieu, essentially, communitarian, tradition -the ”mstream.” the l-steam maintains that human nature and life are essentially economic and only secondarily political. it constitutes the tradition of economic libertarianism, premised upon individualism, free markets, and the pursuit of property. from this perspective, life is predominantly economic, and politics is reduced to protecting the pursuit of private property. this political philosophy is founded upon a right to negative liberty, a basic right to define and pursue one’s own conception of the good life consistent with the equal right of others to define and pursue their own good. implicit in this right is an assumption of about that the nature of freedom, that it constitutes selfownership.3 if we are self-owning, then we have an exclusive claim to the ownership of all that we produce. in other words, as free, self-owning individuals, we have a basic right to unlimited property. this understanding of liberty and property defines the lstream and it has exerted enormous influence on american culture. theobald documents the rise and eventual hegemony of the l-stream in european and american history, which has placed economic individualism and the endless pursuit of property at the core of american life, including its education institutions. this ideological assumption can be understood in terms of our orientation to life and identity. at the roots of language are the two verbs: “to be” and “to have.” these 1 john dewey, democracy and education: an introduction to the philosophy of education, text-book series in education (new york: the macmillan company, 1916); paulo freire, pedagogy of the oppressed (new york: continuum, 1970); amy gutmann, democratic education, revised edition ed. (princeton: princeton university press, 1999); werner jaeger, the greeks and the education of man (annadale, ny: bard college papers, 1953); plato, the republic, trans. r. larson (arlington heights, il: harlan davidson, 1979). 2 aristotle and stephen everson, the politics, cambridge texts in the history of political thought (cambridge [england] ; new york: cambridge university press, 1988). 3 robert nozick, anarchy, state, and utopia (new york: basic books, 1974). in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 154-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 156 verbs represent the basic dimensions of our existence: having and being.4 they constitute two different orientations toward identity and relationship. having defines the identity and relationship to the world in terms of possession. this orientation is expressed by the phrase: “i am what i have.” under the influence of l-stream assumptions our culture and identity assumes a deep having orientation. there is a strong tendency, often unconscious, to define our worth and the worth of others in terms of possession. even our conceptions of educational equity and excellence are dominated by the having orientation. from this perspective, the purpose of education is the accumulation of a body of cultural artifacts that serve as background knowledge necessary for functional, predominantly economic, membership in the society. there is little concern for the inner life of the student, whether or not she will realize authentic selfhood, wide-awakeness, imagination, or critical judgment, nor, as theobald maintains, an authentic experience of community. the chief concern is whether the appropriate body of information has been transmitted, assimilated, and regurgitated. the having orientation perpetuates a system of distributive justice that is based upon exclusive self-interest masked by claims to liberty and property. this system undermines the democratic hope of a public educational system as the great equalizer, rendering it a subtle and complex mechanism for social class reproduction. as theobald demonstrates, this orientation leads to social dysfunction and individual unhappiness. the logic here is simple: if i am what i have, and if what i have can, in principle, be lost, then i live in a constant state of insecurity and anxiety. from the perspective of having, the source of self-worth is found in owning the right property. our worth here is contingent upon possession. however, being contingent our self-worth is based upon a very shaky foundation. if our self-worth is based upon ownership, then we are constantly faced with an immanent threat to our worth as a human being, for all of that can be lost at any moment. to cover our cultural and existential anxiety, we seek to possess more, grasping and craving an endless consumerism. the “m-stream,” however, offers an alternative orientation. it maintains that human nature and life are primarily social and political, and only secondarily economic. from this perspective, sociability is the measure of justice and authentic political community the core of a republic. this tradition is essentially communitarian. human well-being is centered in a life lived in community with others. the communitarian, mstream tradition issues from a being, rather than a having, orientation. it maintains that we find our authentic identity and in turn our fundamental happiness in authentic relationship with others. human life finds it’s meaning in community; participation in 4 stephen batchelor, alone with others: an existential approach to buddhism. (new york: grove press, 1983); erich fromm, man for himself: an inquiry into the psychology of ethics (new york: rinehart and company, 1947); erich fromm, the art of being (new york: continuum, 1992); erich fromm, the essential fromm: life between having and being., ed. rainer funk (new york: continuum, 1995); erich fromm, to have or to be? (new york: continuum, 1976; reprint, 2000). in factis pax 3(1) (2009): 154-157 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 157 the political community is thereby a basic element of the good life. an education for reasoned judgment, for, in theobald’s terms, “genius and virtue,” is primary. as theobald demonstrates, this communitarian tradition is also deeply grounded in our history. it, however, has been eclipsed in our cultural life. it can though, as theobald suggests, be reclaimed. perhaps theobald’s most important insight in this book is that there exist critical historical junctures, often periods of social instability, wherein alternative assumptions and world views compete for primacy. the orientation that emerges in these moments profoundly shapes the future constitutional order of the society. libertarianism has triumphed over communitarianism in keep moments of our history. however, theobald argues that we are currently immersed in a critical historical juncture. he is hopeful, and he makes concrete economic, political, and education recommendations to propel a shift in our political, economic, and educational assumptions toward a communitarian perspective. he maintains that there exists a profound path, present in our history, but yet taken, that offers a brighter, more fulfilling future. he asks us to contemplate whether to continue down the path of economic libertarianism or whether to change course toward a democratic alternative. he asks us to contemplate whether economic materialism trumps all, or whether a life lived in robust political community offers the greatest chance of human fulfillment. education now is an important book, deeply grounded in history and philosophy. it offers insight into our past as it has shaped our present, and contemplates rich alternatives for political and educational renewal. nicoletta mantziara in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 245 volume 2 number 2 (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ the unesco schools cooperation network health education programme nicoletta mantziara nickymantz@yahoo.gr introduction my purpose in submitting this article is to give a comprehensive description of the work which i carried out for the human education programme, a presentation for which i gave at the iipe (international institute of peace education) conference held at the university of haifa in israel at the end of july and beginning of august 2008. thus the following report seeks to give a description of a unesco schools cooperation network health education programme which took place and was entitled: “human rights education and children’s rights though different, girls are equal to boys”, conducted at marasleio second experimental state primary school in athens, greece. this project has been conducted during the last two successive academic years among a group of twenty-four year three primary school pupils from greece in 2006-07 and in 2007-08, among twenty-three year four primary school pupils from greece and for a period of five weeks, nineteen year four primary school pupils from germany via e-twinning. the programme has been a combination of projects comprising “health education” and “human rights education” respectively, and has taken place over a period of four months during each of the last two academic years. key features of the health education project from the beginning, it was pointed out to the pupils that there is a correlation between education and a state of well-being and freedom from illness, insofar as the former can make an important contribution to the latter. it was then pointed out that another contribution to a person’s state of well being can also be made by eating nutritious in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 246 food which is free from artificial preservatives. the contribution made by breathing fresh air and regular exercise was also stressed. in addition to these factors, other factors contributing to a state of well being were underscored, such as the importance of being treated by human beings with the necessary respect regardless of country of origin, colour of skin, sex or age, on the basis of the understanding that we are all individuals and “different”1. in turn, there was also emphasis on human co-operation and its contribution to the notion of “sustainable development” in the light of universal environmental concerns and the impact of the environment on our health and its importance to peace and human rights education. in terms of methodology, the teaching was child-centered. activities engaged took into consideration the educational theory of multiple intelligences put forth by psychologist howard gardner2, whereby he identifies eight different kinds of intelligence. dialogue and co-operation between the pupils was encouraged in order to elicit joint decision making. through the use of role-play activity and group work, the pupils were encouraged to engage in a variety of multidisciplinary activities linked to key nationally prescribed lesson subjects including among others greek language studies, environmental studies, religious education, and from dorothea sir’s audio visual material3. the intended outcome was that pupils would acquire faster and more effective learning skills. key features of the human rights education project more than ever before, the importance of international co-operation and peace throughout the world has become an essential learning aspect in the school education experience4. beginning with nursery schools and primary schools, respect for human rights must be incorporated into the education system and offered at all levels. indeed, the correlation between peace and human rights can be compared to a living body, where peace represents the “skeletal structure and muscle fibre” and human rights represent the “nervous system and circulation of the blood”. human rights can also act as guidelines to make it possible for humans to live together in peace.5 nevertheless, it must be taken into consideration that no provision as yet has been made for thirdand fourth-year primary pupils in greece to receive instruction in citizenship education as a subject lesson per se. consequently, our project in essence represents a specifically designed project as well as an introduction to a wide variety of extracurricular activities. among the aims of the project were to gain knowledge of certain human rights documents, create an awareness among the pupils of specific human rights charters, help them understand that all the rights are necessary for human well-being and development, make them aware of human rights issues, give them instruction on prejudice and tolerance, help them develop a sensitivity to injustice, help them 11 sir,d. (2004). pp. 1-2 2 smith, mark k. (2002, 2008), frantzy, a. (2005) 3 sir,d. (2004). pp. 2-3 4 1st unesco / eured. (2005) 5 van eeden, p. (2004). p.9 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 247 develop the skills and attitudes necessary to stand up for the rights of others as well as take action in defence of human rights per se.6 in terms of methodology, my human rights education project sought to elicit pupils’ stimulation and input by basing the activities on their own needs, interests, personal experiences, background, age and level7. moreover, a holistic approach of the world was adopted. in addition, the project was student-centered and orientated towards problem-solving; it was open to real life, orientated towards the future and applied psychologist howard gardner’s eight types of intelligence educational theory. moreover, the project was multi-disciplinary in nature, covering a wide scope within prescribed lesson subjects gleaned from the national curriculum, such as greek language studies, mathematics and art, with the implementation of role-play activities and games.8 activities and examples (2006-07) section one: preliminary activities 9 for third-grade pupils from greece. beginning in the 2006-7 academic year, the first part of the project got underway with a set of twelve games and activities to elicit mutual co-operation among the year three pupils. (a) to begin with, the whole class was split into six groups and a preliminary cooperating game was conducted. (b) the second activity, entitled “graffiti”, got pupils engaged in writing down salient individual characteristics. by way of example, one of the pupils, panayota, wrote: “my name is panayota vaidani. i am good at volleyball and history”. c) the third activity, called “this is me”, elicited pupils engagement in thinking of and writing down other salient characteristics, such as “something positive about myself: i am good at all subjects”, “something i have succeeded in: in my first term report, i got a grades in everything”, “someone i admire: i admire my mother and father”, and “something i like doing: i like playing volleyball and playing with my sister” (i.e. angelina). (d) the fourth activity, called “in my grandmother’s trunk, i found…” had the pupils in one group engaged in a game in which they had to think of and remember the names of objects in sequence. by way of example, one of the pupils, natalia, remembered “…a poppy, a horse, a juice, a drawing, a daisy, a pencil, a vole”, and added “a pussy-cat”. (e) the fifth activity was a game called “pass the balloon” and had the class arranged into two groups. (f) the sixth activity, called “searching for…” involved pupils engaged in individual writing. for the one of the tasks the pupils were to “write down the name of someone who has the same colour eyes as you” (one reply being “marianna”). another task was to “write down the name of someone to whom last week a person told him/her that he/she loves him/her, or that he/she is unique” (i.e. one reply being “nefeli”). a further request was to “write down the name of a person who walks to school” (e.g. one response being “nobody”). other tasks included 6 cdvec. (2004) p.1 7 1st unesco / eured. (2005) 8 sir, (2004). pp. 2-3 9 gouvra, m. (2004) pp. 5 – 21 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 248 were “write down the name of someone who was born in the same town or city as you” ( “rafael”), “write down the name of someone who thinks it is o.k. to cry” (“our teacher, sometimes)”, “write down the name of someone who has the same star sign as you” (“angelina”), “write down the name of someone who likes the same sweets as you do”: “rafael”, “write down the name of someone who loves laughing”: “ion and evangelos”, “write down the name of someone who needs someone’s help”: “ilias” and “write down the name of someone who lives in a house where nobody smokes”: “yiorgos” (i.e. iasson’s answers). (g) the seventh activity, called “meet your match”, had the pupils in pairs engaged in a speaking activity in which they had to think of, find and name two different things that are commonly used together, for example “olive oil” (lefteris) and “vinegar” (rafael). (h) the eighth activity, called “find someone who…” had the pupils arranged into groups for a speaking activity “in which they had to think of and name someone who “has the same colour hair as you”, for example “dark hair” (sofia, andreas, chryssa, michalis). (i) the ninth activity, called “touch” had the pupils arranged in one group for a speaking activity where they had to think of, name and touch, for example, “something blue” (“the walls in our classroom”: andreas). (j) the tenth activity, a game called “walking when you are blind” had the pupils arranged in pairs – e.g. ilias and me. (k) the eleventh activity involved drawing jointly together in pairs somebody else, e.g. yiorgos and ion. (l)the twelfth activity involved a game called “the mirror”, played in pairs, which was connected with symmetry in mathematics, e.g. sofia and angelina. section two: skills the third-grade pupils should acquire 10 (a) “learning how to communicate” the following writing and speaking activities were intended to elicit responses which would lead to the acquisition of communication skills: an individual writing activity involving the relating of a funny incident brought about by poor communication; a guided discussion on different ways of communicating; an individual or group writing activity where a short message was to be sent either to parents, friends, head-teacher or to myself, for example, a short message from marianna to lefteris was: “lefteris, do you want to come to the cinema with us? katerina, trifon, andreas, and marianna are coming too”. a further activity was conducted via role-playing with a piece of string attached to two plastic beakers attached to both ends to form a hand-made telephone (i.e. iasson and rafael). another guided activity was the non-spoken relating of an event, e.g. “i lost my watch”, presented in pairs as a game of ‘charades’. there was also an activity engaging pupils in drawing in pairs under guidance where pupils had to communicate without talking to each other. (b) “me, a special person”, “uniqueness” and “people i love” 10 skills for children – basic programme (1999) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 249 the following drawing, writing and speaking activities were intended to elicit responses: firstly, a guide discussion, then an individual self-portrait drawing activity and a portrait drawing of other favorite people or objects, followed by a guided discussion with the whole class as a single group, based on “a photograph of myself”; an individual writing activity on personal features/skills, “what i have achieved” and “what i would like to do in the future but haven’t done yet”. for instance, kostas wrote “i’ve got brown eyes. i’m not that patient. i’ve done very well at drawing. i’ve done very well at running, too. i can kick a ball far. when i grow up, i want to learn how to drive a car” and an interview of a specific person (individual writing), e.g. nefeli interviews her sister thalia: • “what’s your name?” • “thalia” • “how old are you?” • “i’m five and a half years old” • “what’s your favorite game?” • “i like playing with dolls” • “what do you want to do when you grow up?” • “i’d like to be a schoolteacher or a cardiologist” • “which foreign language would you most like to learn?” • “i’d most like to learn french” • “which country would you like to visit the most?” • “i’d really like to go to the north pole”. (c) “me: one amongst many others: similarities and differences” the following activity was intended to elicit appropriate responses a writing activity in pairs on the subject of similarities and differences: for example, evangelos and marianna wrote, “similarities: we sit at the same desk, we have the same t-shirt size and we’ve both got thick hair” – “differences: we don’t own any pets. we don’t have the same colour eyes. we don’t wear the same size shoes”. (d) “feelings and emotions expressing them” the following drawing and writing activities were intended to elicit appropriate responses: making an individual drawing of a happy or sad face and writing down individual emotions (i.e. evangelos) and individual writing “i felt happy when…” – “i felt sad when…”. for example, chryssa wrote “i felt happy when our school teacher told us there would be a trip to the beach” and “i felt sad when our teacher told us there wouldn’t be a beach trip”. section three: activities connected with the subjects of greek language studies, mathematics, environmental studies, history and religion studies: (a) greek language studies for year three pupils from greece11 among activities enacted in this section included a guided discussion based on the reading of greek literary and language texts in which the third year pupils were asked to give responses to questions set, followed by a guided discussion on the subject of 11 intzidis et al. (2006). pupil’s book pp. 50-62 and activity book pp. 60-67 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 250 children of the world, in particular those children suffering under difficult circumstances in countries such as afghanistan, pakistan and so on, the various problems currently being faced there and the things that might be done to solve them, as well as the various rights that these people there have. a further activity sought to elicit a number of written responses from the pupils, who on this particular occasion were split into six groups in which they were asked to note down five human rights that they could cite, among which the most important ones emerging from one particular group were “the right to food, water, clothing, medicine and school”. further guided discussion activities involved fact-finding for more information on the role and work of the unicef and action aid organizations, as well as what type of difficulties japanese and cypriot children are currently facing in their respective countries. a further activity entailed making doves of peace by cutting out and folding paper and then writing individual wishes on the paper doves of peace, for example evridiki wrote down “i wish for peace throughout the whole world. i wish for health and happiness for all the world’s children”. another guided discussion activity together with an individual written task elicited responses from pupils on the subject of children who are living in extreme povertystricken areas of the third world and who as a result are compelled or forced to work by circumstances beyond their control. pupils’ individual messages were written to be sent to unicef, action aid and so on: for example, “there should be peace all over the world and no war”, “to: bush, who we hate. p.s. we are offering a reward of 15 billion euros – from: greece, natalia, kostas and ion”. (b) mathematics (third–year pupils from greece): there was just one activity, which entailed the game of “the mirror” as presented above, connected with the subject of symmetry and played out in pairs12. (c) environmental studies (third-year pupils from greece): these activities included a guided discussion based on the question “what are our needs?”, plus a drawing and writing activity on “what do we know about children’s human rights?” in which at least one out of “education, peace, water, love, care, rest, clothing, medicine, etc” was to be elicited. (“i have the right to play and exercise” kimon). another guided discussion was held in which the pupils sought out more information on the subject of unicef, the greek ombudsman and the ombudsman for children13. there followed an individual written task based on a fact-finding mission in search of more information via the internet on the subject of young children in various countries around the world, such as brazil and mexico in latin america, pakistan and india in asia and so on. one further talking point concerned the declaration of children’s human rights charter as part of a guided discussion in which it was mentioned that women, although different to men, have the same general and specific rights in greece as well and then there followed a guided discussion and a role 12 lemonidis et al. (2006) activity book part 3, pp.15-16 13 children’s ombudsman leaflet (2006) pp.10-11. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 251 playing activity, with the subject being women and men enjoying the same rights and being equal14. (d) history (third–year pupils from greece): this consisted of individual written exercises linked to the subjects of peace and war.15 (e) religious studies (third–year pupils from greece): a group speaking task, a game of ‘human rights’, where pupils were asked to read out key words connected with human rights which were written on matchbox tops, such as “peace and war”, “company and loneliness”, in order to elicit an oral response from each pupil in the form of a complete phrase or sentence16. then there followed an individual drawing and writing task based on the subject of war and peace, followed by the pupils being asked to make written notes of their feelings related to war and peace, for example, ilias wrote “war, blood, hunger, fear, poverty, orphans, tears – we want peace, not war”). there was also individual interviewing (optional) of pupils’ grandparents. section four: human rights of children two activities based on the unicef book (third-year-pupils from greece) a game entitled: “wants, needs and rights: a few people living in a city” was played where there were 20 cards describing needs and rights. in pairs, pupils were asked to choose and write down the 4 most important ones, and then later on, to add another 4 needs cards – for example, ioanneta and katerina chose “water, friends, recreation, quiet” and then “…fresh air, clothes, water, education, religion, nutritious food, home, medical care” – and to follow there was another speaking game with percentages: “statistical ranking”, more difficult than the previous game, with the whole class this time in one group17. section five: consolidation a visit to the theatre (third-year pupils from greece: 2006-07) ‘animal farm’ the pupils were taken to see a children’s play entitled “the animal-farm” at a local theatre. this play was a special theatrical adaptation for a young children’s audience and based on the novel of the same name written by the prominent english political novelist george orwell18. a ”fairy story” in the style of aesop’s fables, orwell’s animal farm uses talking animals on an english farm as his main characters in order to parody soviet historical developments and paint an ominous picture of a totalitarian world in which personal freedom is nonexistent 19. 14 kokkotas et al (2006) pupil’s book, pp. 92-97 and activity book, p.37). 15 maistrellis et al (2006). activity book, p. 45. 16 zouras et al. (2006). p.87. 17 fountain (1994) pp. 9 – 14 and pp.28 – 30. 18 orwell, g. (1979) 19 moran, d. (2008) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 252 at the end of the academic-year (june, 2007): end-of-year celebration performances (by third-year pupils from greece: on the 14th of june 2007) to celebrate the end of the school year, year three pupils enacted performances of the following children’s stories, and we filmed it on video. (1) “the happy meadow”20. once upon a time there was a beautiful field resplendent with daisies. suddenly one day, up sprouted a poppy in the middle of the daisy field. what were the daisies to do? some daisies said that they should pull out the poppy and get rid of it, as a poppy had “no business” being in their field of daisies they said. the other daisies disagreed and wanted to leave the poppy alone. life in the daisy field would never be the same again. through this ‘flowery’ parable, nikoloudi talks to children about the importance of showing tolerance and understanding for otherness. (2) “elmer”, based on the illustrated children’s story by david mckee21, is a lovable patchwork elephant who loves to play with his friends in the jungle. elmer is different – he is wonderfully multicolored and though this makes him a very special elephant, he thinks everyone is laughing at him simply because he is different, so elmer tries to make himself the same as all the other elephants. this is another message to children about the importance of a sense of self and the ability to retain one’s self-esteem while at the same time holding on to the individual qualities which make one unique22 . (3) “something else”, written by kathryn cave and illustrated by chris riddell23, is a children’s story about a lonely creature called ‘something else’ who is left out of everything because he looks and behaves differently. but when an even stranger creature comes along and tries to make friends with him, something else doesn’t want to know until he realizes that the stranger is perhaps not so different after all. in 1997, for “something else” cave was awarded the first international unesco prize for children’s and young people’s literature in the service of tolerance. the story, much like “the happy meadow” and “elmer the patchwork elephant”, gives the pupils a chance to think about and personally relate to similar situations or emotions in their own lives, and indicates acceptable behaviors and ways to prevent bullying or exclusion24 . activities and examples (2007-08) section one: preliminary activities (year four pupils from greece and from germany via e-twinning) two brainstorming sessions were held amongst the year four pupils: the aim being firstly to ascertain what the pupils knew about ‘human rights’, by means of a guided discussion with the whole class staying in one group. the second question asked was 20 nikoloudi, f. (2000) 21 mckee, d. (1997) 22 andersen press. (2008) 23 cave, k and riddell, c. (1997) 24 penguin books ltd (2008) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 253 what the pupils knew about ‘children’s rights’ also conducted orally with the whole class in one group. section two (activities for both sets of fourth-year pupils from greece and from germany via e-twinning) the first activity was a guided discussion and subsequent written and drawing task on the universal declaration of human rights and a brief summary of its articles. pupils were asked to come up with at least five human rights and sketch one of them in groups25. examples of responses elicited include: “healthy food, school and education, to be treated well, to be rescued first, freedom” (group: “the checkers of the neckar”, from germany). with regard to the subject of children’s human rights, a guided discussion and written task was conducted with a unicef poster as the stimulus, in which pupils were asked to come up with at least more than five human rights and one drawing one of which in groups, based on the unicef poster of 2005. examples mentioned were “we have the right to play, to education, to have food and water, to rest, to be taken care of and to be loved, to have friends and to kill rafael” – (group: “dolphin of the ocean”, from greece). to consolidate the above, a crossword puzzle was given to fourth-grade greek pupils to solve to provide stimulus for the whole class put into one group to elicit some discussion of human rights: the crossword clues: 1. …… and rest are also two children’s rights. 2. no hitting and no slapping in the face! i have the right to live without….! 3. my ….., surname and nationality are features of my identity. 4. my private space, my personal belongings, what i think and …. is part of my private life. 5. i have the right to be …… 6. children with special needs need special ……7. if i am abused, i have the right to ask for help and …..8. i have my own personality and i have the right to be….. 9. when i don’t feel well, i have the right to call the …. to get well. 10. i have the right to talk about anything that concerns me. thus, people have to listen to my ….. and pay attention to me. 11. nutritious …. is also one of my rights, because it helps me to grow. 12. all children have the right to live in a safe ….. 13. i have the right to go to school and ….. . 14. all children, both boys and girls, no matter what language they speak, no matter what their religion is, the color of their skin or their appearance, are …. (key: “play, violence, name, write, well-informed, care, protection, respected, doctor, opinion, food, home, learn, equal”. activities and examples (for the fourth-year pupils from greece only)26 a words and pictures matching activity was conducted with a set of forty cards and involved pupils matching pairs of these cards. half of these cards showed pictures of 25 cdvec. (2004) p. 2 26 united nations (2004) pp. 53-77 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 254 human rights and the pupils had to match them up to the other twenty cards which described these rights in phrases or sentences. at the end of the game, pupils were put in groups and asked to write: “which human rights were the easiest to match up?”, “did you find some of the symbols difficult to match up”, “can you draw a better symbol?” among responses elicited were “we found human right (1), to own things, difficult (2) to take part in elections and (3) to own a home”, (group: “the informers” – from greece). pupils were then asked to bring to school a picture from a magazine or newspaper illustrating a human right they wanted the class to remember .this was given as a homework task27. following this was an individual writing activity linked to children’s literature: a fairy-tale linked to the subject of human rights and based on a greek fairy tale by angeliki varella28 about a child with special needs: the fairy-tale tells the story of a poor shoemaker and his wife who had no children of their own and as a result were very unhappy. the tale goes as follows: “one day, a basket was left outside their house with a foundling inside it. a note was left in it which read, “my name is ilias. please love me….”. naturally, the shoemaker often made shoes for all the other children, but as ilias started to grow, the shoemaker realized that the poor child couldn’t walk. the shoemaker would often go to the river and cry: “why oh why god, why did this happen to me? why can’t ilias run about just like the other kids?” ilias’ mother was also very sad about it and kept saying to him “when you were baptized, the angels from heaven didn’t hear your name very clearly and as a result, you fell down. this is the reason that you can’t walk”. ilias would listen to this tale and felt better, but obviously the problem wouldn’t go away: he was a child who couldn’t walk. since then, ilias himself started to make up a tale about every pair of shoes his father made. some of the tales were funny, and some of them wise. when ilias was 6 years old he started school. however, the poor shoemaker was still sad because ilias couldn’t walk. one day another boy’s father said to him at the school “you don’t need to worry too much about ilias because my son, to take an example, is not a good pupil, just like ilias. just read the fairy-tale ilias wrote at school about the gardener”. from then on, the poor shoemaker changed. he realized that it was no good for him to go down to the river and cry. he realized that there were many poor children who felt miserable because they were poor and could not even afford a pair of shoes. thus he started making many pairs of shoes and giving them away to poor children. “yes”, he kept telling himself, “ilias cannot walk but there is strength in him and he can make it”. all his classmates loved ilias. in the morning they helped him get to school and in the evening they wrote fairy tales with him together. in this way, ilias would write tales about every pair of shoes his father made. at the ending for each fairy-tale he put “my name is ilias. please, love me…”29. 27 cdvec. (2004) pp. 3 9 28 varella, a. (1998) 29 varella, a. (1998) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 255 after reading this fairy tale aloud and talking about it with the fourth-grade-students, each pupil was asked to make up their own fairy tale about a pair of shoes. by way of example, one of our ablest pupils, rafael, wrote: “…once upon a time there was a tiny little shoe called little rafael. it lived in a small village called rafaelio. it was a remote little village. there was only one grocer’s shop and a butcher’s shop there. at school, tiny little shoe little rafael was quiet, except for one cold day when the teacher got angry with him and told him to leave the classroom for a little while. when the bell rang, poor little rafael picked up his school bag and went home feeling really sad. after this incident, tiny little shoe little rafael left the village called rafaelio, leaving behind his twin brother. so they called him the tiny little odd shoe. from then on, he lived very unhappily”. to follow up, a guided discussion was conducted which engaged pupils on the subject of peace: to kick off, pupils were asked “in a world of local conflicts and the threat of war, why do you think “peace” is important?” plus writing activity in groups on the definition of “peace” and what the relationship is between peace and human rights, for example, ilias, andreas and angelica’s responses (“the snow group”) elicited “peace deters us from war and many other bad things. peace is a human right for all the people”. there followed a guided discussion on child soldiers prompted by the following questions: “why would armed forces want to use children in warfare?”, “which of the children’s human rights are being violated in particular?”, “how might being a child soldier affect girls and boys differently?”, “if a child manages to survive and return home, what are some of the readjustment difficulties that she/he might face?”. our students also wrote group letters to urge the government to ratify the optional protocol on the convention on child rights banning the involvement of children in armed conflict. for instance, one letter read as follows: “dear mr. president, we would like to talk to you about the optional protocol on the convention on child rights banning the involvement of children in armed conflict. we believe that children deserve a better future. children do not deserve the future of a soldier. we would like children to be treated by society in a different way. children deserve a home, care and attention, love, a family and not involvement in armed conflict and war. yours sincerely, group: “the detectives of mystery”: nefeli, maria, iasson, katerina, ioanneta fourth-year pupils of marasleio experimental primary school”. subsequent guided discussions were conducted which elicited pupils’ responses on the subject of ‘government and the law’, prompted by the questions “what is the “law?” and “who makes it and why?” as well as prompting from article 12 of the convention on child rights which gives children the right to have an opinion on matters affecting them. “has this right been recognized in the courts of our country?”, “are women given equal status before the law?” “how many women lawyers are in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 256 there in our country?”, “how do these numbers affect the way women are treated in law?” subsequent guided discussion activities were based on other universal declaration of human rights articles such as: equality before the law, discussion of article 7 of the universal declaration (“everyone is equal before the law…”) and questions were put to the pupils: “is everyone equal before the law in our society or are some people treated differently?”, “what factors might give some people an advantage over others?” the children’s answers were: “money, social status” and “why is equality before the law essential for a culture of human rights?” and among the children’s answers were: “otherwise there will be chaos”. freedom of thought, conscience, religion, opinion and expression: a writing activity where pupils were split into groups and asked to list adjectives that generally describe boys or girls, for example, boys were qualified as: “good, lively, smart, “emo”, disobedient dogs”, whereas girls were qualified as: “good, pretty, trendy, naughty pussy cats” by the group: “the dead bulls”: evangelos, rafael, evridiki, yiorgos and kostas. article 16 of the convention on child rights, the right to privacy, provides a child the right to protection from interference in privacy, family, home, correspondence and from libel or slander. naturally a seven-year-old may not be mature or old enough to challenge for the same rights and responsibilities as a seventeen year-old. the following is a case study read out to the class to illustrate the above point: “when is old considered to be old enough?” “eku and romit first met when they sat next to each other at primary school. they soon made friends, but their friendship hit a problem. their families belonged to rival social factions that had a long history of mutual mistrust of each other. so when romit asked his parents if eku could come round to his house for a visit, both of them firmly refused. eku’s family had a word with his teacher and had the two boys moved to separate desks. however, the two boys’ friendship continued until the day eku was sent away to attend secondary school in another town. the friends promised to write to each other, but whenever a letter from eku arrived, romit’s parents would shred it before romit could even get his hands on it. romit understood his parents’ feelings but also thought that at sixteen you are old enough to choose your own friends and entitled to receive letters and be able to keep them private”. there followed an individual writing task, “what rights does romit have according to the convention on child rights?” and, “what rights do romit’s parents have?” and a discussion on how this conflict might be resolved. among the replies elicited from pupils were natalia’s: “romit has the right not to do what he is told to do, and has the right to express his opinion and decide for himself without being put under pressure by his parents. this is not right. romit’s parents have the right to give romit advice and guidance, but they do not have the right to in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 257 separate him from his friend and to send him to attend secondary school in another town”. interview: we invited the father of lefteris, a boy from our class, to come and talk to the pupils about what rights are now guaranteed by the convention on child rights that were lacking in his childhood. we compared and discussed: “how is the pupils’ family life today different from what it was like when their parents were children?” “what has brought about these changes?”, “do these changes represent changes in values, culture, technology or other kinds of change?”, “which ones have been beneficial and which ones have not?” and “have the human rights of family members improved over the last few generations?”. some questions stemming from the interview: “when you were our age, did you have the same rights as us?” “if not, can you tell us which human rights you did have in particular?”, “when you were young, did boys and girls have the same human rights?”, “in the workplace, did men and women have the same human rights?”, “did you have the right to play, live in peace and freedom and enjoy yourself?”, “when you were young, did you have the right to express your opinion?”, “starting from what age did you have the right to vote?”, “when you were young, was it only compulsory for boys to go to school? what about girls?” and “how long was military service?” etc. there ensued role-play and discussion activity entitled “they are alike”, which dealt with the subject of discrimination and stereotyping: we started off by pointing out that essentially we are all equal and equally entitled to our human rights. equal, yet not identical: each pupil was given an object, such as a mandarin, and asked to make “friends” with it and really get to know it. a few pupils were asked to introduce their “friend” to the class and to tell a story about how old it was, whether it was sad or happy, or how it got its shape. they also wrote individual essays, songs or poems of praise on the subject. then all the items were put back into a bag and mixed them up together. we then tipped them out and had the students find their “friend” from amongst the common lot. i pointed out the obvious parallel: any group of people seem to be alike at first, but once you get to know them, they are all different, they all have different life histories and they are all potential friends. this means though suspending any stereotypes long enough to get to know them. it means not prejudging them. an example of a pupil’s response: “i’d say that my “mandarin” is approximately 10 years old, exactly the same age as me. it is full of light and feels very happy. i don’t think that it feels lonely because it has me to keep it company. i think i can write a poem for this beautiful “mandarin”: the poem goes as follows: “my sweet mandarin i have fallen in love with you because you are so sweet, you cannot imagine. it doesn’t bother me that you’ve got freckles. i care about you, because you have a kind heart. my sweet “mandarin”, i love you so much. my sweet “mandarin”, i will always cheer. i have also given my “mandarin” a name “phani”(angelina)”. to follow, a brainstorming session was held where pupils identified “minority groups”: “do these minority groups, based on class or ability, experience discrimination?” next, i set a piece of individual writing to have the pupils come up with an example of discrimination or racism. chryssa wrote: “racists are people who do not know and have not understood that all people are equal, which means they do not know it in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 258 doesn’t matter if someone is from a different country or has a different color skin or is a woman or a man! the first time i heard the word “racism” i was with my mother and i asked her: “why have the albanians come to live in greece?” and she replied “you mustn’t be racist, whether we like it or not, all people are equal”. we finished this activity by role-playing an example of discrimination or racism. we also looked at the local community and i elicited a guided discussion: “are there cultural minorities?”, “is their culture respected?” and “does our school encourage respect for the culture of minority groups?” i then touched on discrimination and gender: the difference between “sex”, which is determined by biological factors, and “gender”, which is determined by cultural factors, was pointed out. the class was divided into four groups and asked to make a list of differences between males and females, some based on “sex” (“men have beards; women live longer”) and other based on “gender” (“men are better at mathematics”). disagreements arose (“are men naturally more aggressive?”), but the discussion helped students recognize gender stereotypes: “men: sex: beard, penis, gypsies, smart, handsome, monks – gender: better at mathematics, football players”. “women: sex: long or short hair, breasts, pretty – gender: more graceful, better at drawing” – (group: “the red group of the black society”: ion, lefteris, and kimon). we briefly looked through pupils’ books and media for examples of gender stereotyping: students discussed these and other materials they came across at school. issues arising were: “are there an equal number of references to males and females?”, “are females featured depicted as decision makers, physically able, creative and interested in a range of careers?”, “are male characters shown as humane, caring, helpful, willing to express emotions and unconcerned about “manly” stereotypes?” “do the men and women respect each other as equals?”, “are the men depicted in parenting and housekeeping?”, “are the women depicted as active outside the home beyond traditionally female occupations (teachers, nurses, secretaries) or do they have low paid jobs?”. then we treated a familiar story from a tv series, ‘ugly maria’, we discussed its bearing on beauty when switching genders. we also talked about the effects of this gender switch. a writing activity entitled “what i like / what i do” ensued: the class was asked to write down personal responses – three things that boys are supposed to like doing: “football” (kostas), “swimming” (evangelos) and “having my photo taken with all the olympiakos players” (lefteris) and three things that girls are supposed to like doing: “playing the psychologist” (chryssa), “volleyball” (natalia) and “reading” (panayota)30 . section three: activities connected with the subjects of greek language studies, anthology of greek literature and religious studies: 30 united nations. (2004). pp. 53-77 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 259 (a) greek language studies for fourth grade pupils from greece 31. these activities included guided discussion and answering questions prompted by readings in greek literature, for instance a poem reading related to the subject of children from countries worldwide with different skin colour and different names, followed by a drawing and writing activity in pairs entitled “children drawing for children” where a pair of pupils drew a boy and girl hugging each other and wrote “children draw for children – give a hug to all the world’s children” (panayota and kimon). to follow, there was a paired writing game entitled: “we are the same – we are different”, where fourth grade pupils wrote down two or three similarities and differences between one of their friends. similarities elicited: “same colour eyes, similar style, athletics, acrobatics, gymnastics, mole on left ear; differences elicited: height, hair colour, nose, arm length, hair style, taste in earrings” (sofia and katerina). the pupils also learned about a multicultural school in paris via a guided discussion and then wrote individually a passage in relation to their own school (i.e. where is it, what they think of their school teachers and classmates, what they do every day at school and so on). for consolidation, an individual acrostic and writing was based on the above text: clues 1. we also have a …….. for physical education. 2. we update our notice board when we are in a good ……… 3. choose one …… from our country who helped our world to become a better place. 4. we also have a teacher from our own ……. 5. we show our work as a ….. to the other groups. 6. we also learn a few …… from each language. 7. even if we wear the ….. clothes, we do not look alike. 8. not everyone can go to school in their own …… 9. every group learns the language and ……… of its own country. 10. some school teachers have slit eyes, and other school teachers have …….. eyes. 11. we are being taught only a few …. all together. 12. we know that we are all ……… 13. a school teacher once went as ….. as a beetroot. 14. some of the children will become scientists when they grow up, artists or ……. (key: “teacher, mood, person, country, group, words, same, country, history, round, subjects, equal, red, leaders”.) a guided discussion followed accompanied by unicef’s poster32 on children’s human rights. then one of the two groups in class made a poster connected with children’s human rights highlighting “the right to leisure, open opinion, education, to be clean, to live in peace, to play, to equality, to food, the right to speak, the right to freedom, the right to play, to sleep”. we also decided to retrieve more information about unicef on the internet. other consolidating activities included: a cryptic crossword puzzle (we must find the sentence “all children are equal”) with the whole class in one group; a speaking activity about children with special educational needs and their rights, how we must 31 diakoyiorgi et al (2007). pupil’s book. pp. 3348. activity book, pp. 41-50. 32 unicef (2005) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 260 respect these children and their rights and a discussion with ilias, a paraplegic, and the problems he faces. our students also wrote group letters to the mayor of athens to mention solutions to make the life of children with special needs easier. for example: dear mr kaklamanis (mayor of athens), we would like to say that in order to assist people and children with special needs in our city in making their lives easier, we need to change a few things: first of all, we need schools for deaf and blind children. regarding public transport, bus stops should not only have written signs, but oral ones too. also, citizens should not drop litter but use bins provided. it is wrong. as you can understand, this is a problem for blind people, who may trip and fall (group: “the hysterical laughters”: angelina, evridiki, natalia, yiorgos, ion). our school has also been designated a unicef defender. the whole class collected and donated 100 euros to unicef. (b) anthology of greek literature for fourth-year pupils from greece activity: a guided discussion on a passage connected with friendship and peace in cyprus.33 (c) religious studies for fourth-grade-pupils from greece 34. activity: writing an individual letter to unesco or to “médecins sans frontières”: for example: “dear sirs, i would just like to tell you we appreciate what you do. to be honest, i would like to help you by giving you food as i am alone at home and i do not have a problem. if you want, you can call me in case of earthquake, flood, fire and i can help you. i would appreciate it if you could call me and collaborate with me. from: sofia bleka, to: “médecins sans frontières” (sofia) section four: going on a visit to the maragopoulou foundation (fourth-year pupils from greece) this was scheduled three times, but unfortunately had to be cancelled in the end. at the end of the academic-year (june 2008): end-of-year celebration performances (by fourth year pupils from greece: on the 12th of june 2008) pupils performed a version of “the animal-farm” by george orwell35, which we filmed on video. 33 katsiki – ghivalou, a. (2006) pp. 115-118 34 zouras et al. (2006) p. 93 35 orwell, g. (1979) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 261 general comments possible spelling, grammar mistakes or errors of expression (i.e. syntax and lexis) have not been unduly assessed or penalized throughout this study. possible anagrams or occasions in which in certain cases pupils omitted certain punctuation marks (full stops, commas and so on) have not been unduly assessed or penalized either. assessment, evaluation and reflection it must be said that a majority of the aims were met at least partially. in my opinion this was an encouraging sign of progress achieved, nevertheless owing to certain time constraints our pupils have not been able to fully digest the entire spectrum of skills and attitudes necessary to stand up for the rights of others. nevertheless, it would represent perhaps too ambitious an aim to expect all pupils to grasp all aspects all of the time. thus it is worth perhaps reemphasizing that citizenship as a subject is not required to be taught at the first grades of primary schools, but marasleio experimental school recognises the importance of encouraging a thoughtful awareness in children of the rights and responsibilities borne by all members of society, themselves included. being able to value cultural diversity, promoting mutual respect and consideration between people, and developing a selfconfident but responsible independence are all aspects of good citizenship. the fundamental principle which i have repeatedly tried to encourage in all the children is that they should treat others in the same way as they would like to be treated themselves. to see pupils working together, cooperating with each other is an insight into a new style of teaching. i have become more open to trying new teaching methods. one thing i have also noticed is how valued every pupil felt their opinion was. for example, in the group work children wrote very insightful comments and they didn’t seem to be self-conscious and clearly felt that their opinion was valid. this freedom and self confidence has infiltrated into all subjects. i have observed that they understand and appreciate that although there might be a right or wrong answer, there are many alternative ways of arriving at one, and that every avenue was worth venturing into and every opinion useful and relevant. moreover, the children’s level of maturity, co-operation and teamwork were impressive for their age. what i have discovered from the process: feedback from the pupils: the pupils generally felt that all the instructions which had been given were clear and that the games and activities had been interesting, their meaning or intention fairly easy to grasp, though at times rather difficult to grasp depending of course on what nature of task the pupils were asked to do. overall it was felt that doing something different to what they did routinely in a conventional classroom was stimulating. as a result the pupils felt happy and had a lot of fun in the process. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 262 difficulties: admittedly there were a few behavioral problems, which is perhaps to be expected at this level and age. first of all there was the aspect of a few pupils’ inattention, whereby pupils displayed difficulties in focusing on a task, were easily distracted by outside stimuli (i.e. looking to see what is happening in the school yard through the window, exhibited problems in organizing and completing their homework, often lost things unnecessarily for tasks or activities (e.g., paper, pencils, sharpeners)), and so on. another problem was hyperactivity, where some pupils had difficulty in staying in their seat while in the classroom, often fidgeted when in their seat and talked excessively, ran around or climbed up onto desks at inappropriate moments such as when the teacher wanted to begin the lesson. furthermore, among the behavioral problems also observed was impulsivity. impulsive pupils acted without reflection, did not display sufficient patience in waiting their turn, often interrupted, and blurted out answers before questions had been completed. conversely, an allowance was made for what gardner terms as intrapersonal intelligence36, which by way of a reminder is a type of intelligence which has to do with introspection and self-reflection capacities. those who are strongest in this type of intelligence are typically introverts and prefer to work alone. confident in their own cognitive abilities, these pupils learn better when allowed to concentrate on the subject by themselves. they would rather undertake tasks alone and are independent and self directed. traditional understanding of intelligence assumes that our ability to learn and do things comes out of a uniform cognitive capacity, thus binet a century ago formulated the iq test, which could be used to analyze a child’s intelligence in order to uncover his or her weaknesses. yet students should not be judged by what they cannot do, but what they can do, and education should of course focus on bringing out the individual’s potential. what our pupils have learned: they have learned to appreciate the importance of helping each other, being cooperative towards each other, and working in groups. pupils most able at or willing in given tasks were found to be more extrovert / sociable human beings / talkative / confident. this could indeed be attributed to gardner’s educational theory, whereby one kind of intelligence has to do with interpersonal skills and interaction with others. people in this category according to gardner are usually extroverts and are characterized by their sensitivity to others’ moods, feelings, temperaments, and motivations and their ability to cooperate in order to work as part of a group. they communicate effectively and empathize easily with others, and can be leaders or followers. they typically learn best by working with others and often enjoy discussion and debate37. what i have learned from the process: on fellow teachers: 36 plucker, j, dr. (2007) 37 smith, m. k. (2002, 2008) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 263 other colleagues rarely showed interest in my work unless compelled to engage in the process. generally, the lack of interdisciplinary co-operation, consideration and coordination meant that i conducted the project individually. how the school structure and social environment influence peace education processes: there is a difference between the present era and that of twenty years ago. place also makes a difference – in the social composition of pupils when teaching and learning in the centre of athens, the administrative, economic and social capital of greece, compared to small, less populated or economically and socially deprived areas in the provinces. then we must also consider facilities available, which can make a difference between state schools and private schools. about myself: i discovered that the best possible design strategy for a project is not to opt for a rigid, inflexible design for the whole year. no two classes were the same, and it was not enough simply to strictly adhere to curriculum guidelines. with the new school textbooks, learning has rightly become more “stimulating”. during the first three years of primary school there should be an emphasis on playing games, reading fairy tales, conducting activities such as puzzles, crosswords, jokes and so on. all pupils can learn more effectively and tend to feel more content and relaxed. as school teachers, we also go through a learning process with our pupils through our relationship with them. in this way we derived achievement and satisfaction. the difficulty among teachers was the lack of cooperation and assistance. this might be explained in that historically it is difficult for professionals in greece, educators included, to join forces effectively. there is a suspicion that ‘co-operation’ has an association with ‘collaboration’ and perhaps treason or betrayal. (in the political lexicon “co-operation/collaboration” (the same word in greek) since the second world war occupation of greece by the axis and the ensuing civil war, has implied an element of collaborating with the enemy and betraying one’s homeland38. as a result, each member of the educational staff jealously guarded territory and resources and did not willingly concede anything. any effort to co-ordinate and cooperate was seen as relinquishing individualism and resources. about peace education: there was also an emphasis on “sustainable development”, which is largely related nowadays to environmental and health education. it is necessary first to learn how to respect everybody and to accept people as different, yet at the same time as an equal member of a multicultural society. the central core of all skills that peace education imparts must be the skill of good communication. communication lies at the heart of mutual trust. this does not mean communication through words only, but also through actions. (how will my actions be understood?). communication is the condition for mediation, contracts, and all sorts of agreements. other skills are: organizing groups, nonviolent action, humanitarian intervention, speaking different languages, moving in different cultures, and development of inner peace through meditation, yoga, various activities and 38 de bernieres, l. (1993). ch. 4. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 264 mutual help. peace education39 is based on a philosophy that teaches non-violence, love, compassion, trust, fairness, cooperation, respect, and a reverence for the human family and all life on our planet. it is an interdisciplinary field embracing the development of peace consciousness on all levels and dimensions of being. recommendations there should be an emphasis first on projects related to “human rights education” and teacher training. there is a widely held international belief that learning about human rights is the first step toward respecting, promoting and defending the rights of all people. teaching human rights above all means both conveying ideas and information concerning human rights and nurturing the values and attitudes that lead to the support of those rights. children and young people must be helped to respect cultural and racial diversity. there must at all times be tools available for educators to cultivate a culture of peace and promote respect for human rights. special thanks to: 2006-7 headmaster mr. yannis papanikolaou and 2007-8 headmistress maria korfiati for giving me permission to carry out the project . i would also like to thank health education officer yiorgos katsaounos, ms. sotiria tsiotra from the drug rehabilitation centre, mrs. papayianni, school advisor, mrs. delari from the greek branch of unesco, mrs. makri from unicef, ms. stavroula avramopoulou, our music teacher, ms. klairi kolovou, our english teacher, mrs. karavela, mrs. gasparinatou, mr. gregory cooper and of course all our students and their parents for their assistance. bibliography books cave, kathryn. riddell, chris. (1997). something else: athens, greece: patakis publications: greek translation from the english original de bernieres, louis. (1993). captain corelli’s mandolin: london: vintage editions diakoyiorgi, kleopatra. baris, theodoros. steriopoulos, haralambos. tsilighirian, ermioni. (2007): flying with words, pupil’s book part 3: athens, greece: ministry of education publications for third year primary school, greece: greek language diakoyiorgi, kleopatra. baris, theodoros. steriopoulos, haralambos. tsilighirian, ermioni. (2007): flying with words, activity book part 2: athens, greece: ministry of education publications for fourth year primary school: greek language gouvra, marianna (2004). health education: athens, greece: dardanos publications intzidis, evangelos. papadopoulos, athanassios. siourtis, aristotelis. tiktopoulou, ekaterini (2006): the incredible pencils, pupil’s book part 3: athens, greece: 39 united nations (2008) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 265 ministry of education publications for third year primary school, greece: greek language intzidis, evangelos. papadopoulos, athanassios. siourtis, aristotelis. tiktopoulou, ekaterini (2006): the incredible pencils, activity book part 2: athens, greece: ministry of education publications for third year primary school, greece: greek language katsiki-ghivalou, anda. papadatos, yiannis. patsiou, viki. politis, dimitris. pylarinos, theodosis. (2006): anthology of literary texts – school of the world: athens, greece: ministry of education publications for fourth year primary school, greece: greek language kokkotas, panayiotis. alexopoulos, dimitrios. malamitsa, ekaterini. mantas, gheorghios. palamara, maria. panayiotaki, panayiota. (2006). environmental studies, pupil’s book and activity book: athens, greece: ministry of education publications for third year primary school, greece: greek language lemonidis, charalambos. theodorou, efterpi. nikolandonakis, constantinos. papagakos, ioannis. spanaka, adamantia. (2006). mathematics mathematics in nature and life, activity book part 3: athens, greece: ministry of education publications for third year primary school, greece: greek language maistrellis, stratis. kalivi, eleni. michail, marina. (2006). from mythology to history, activity book: athens, greece: ministry of education publications for third year primary school, greece: greek language mckee, david. (1997). elmer, the patchwork elephant: athens, greece: patakis publications: greek translation from the english original nikoloudi, fillio. (2000). the happy meadow: athens, greece: ellinika grammata publications: greek original version orwell, george. (1979). animal farm: athens, greece: kaktos publications: greek translation from the english original varella, angeliki. (1998). the shoes that tell tales: athens, greece: anghira publications: greek language original ζouras, pantelis. thermos, dimitrios. panagakis, antonios. voukanou, mary. mastromichalaki, angeliki. (2006). religious studies – god in our lives, pupil’s book: athens, greece: ministry of education publications for third year primary school, greece: greek language ζouras, pantelis. thermos, dimitrios. panagakis, antonios. voukanou, mary. mastromichalaki, angeliki. (2006). religious studies – the course of life, pupil’s book: athens, greece: ministry of education publications for fourth year primary school: greek language in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 266 documents / lesson plans cdvec curriculum development unit, trocaire and the civic, social and political education support service with funding from the irish national committee for educational development (2004) basic human rights and responsibilities, a human rights education module for first year primary pupils: dublin, ireland: human rights education project lesson plan. fountain, susan. (1994). it’s my right! – a practical guide for learning about the children’s rights charter: new york: education section for unicef development, greek language edition: education and information department for development, greek commission for cooperation with unicef, athens poort – van eeden, janne. (2004). human rights and peace education in europe: hilversum, the netherlands: 1st unesco / eured in-service teacher training course publication sir, dorothea. (2004). the intercultural kindergarten – communication: an intercultural project document for primary school years five and six: athens, greece: center for intercultural education: university of athens, greece: greek language skills for children – basic programme (1999) therapy center for dependent minors document approved by the pedagogical institute: salonica, greece: schima and hroma publications: tacade advisory council for alcohol and drugs education teaching human rights – a,b,c practical activities for primary and secondary schools (2004). new york, geneva: united nations publications courses and seminars attended continuing teacher training (july 2004). lectures, seminars and teaching practice: human rights and peace education in europe: basque country, spain: 1st unesco / eured in-service teacher training course continuing teacher training (february/march 2005). lectures, seminars and teaching practice: human rights and peace education in europe: magdeburg, germany: 1st unesco / eured in-service teacher training course continuing teacher training course (july 2006). lectures, seminars and teaching practice: human rights and peace education in europe: budapest, hungary: 1st unesco / eured in-service teacher training course continuing teacher training course (february 2007). lectures, seminars and teaching practice: human rights and peace education in europe: brixen, italy: 1st unesco / eured in-service teacher training course continuing teacher training course (july 2008). lectures, seminars and teaching practice: human rights and peace education in europe: stadtschlaining, austria: 1st unesco / eured in-service teacher training course european seminar (april 2004): authentic assessment of civic competencies of students: margineanca, romania: council of europe in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 245-267 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 267 journals antiopi, frantzy (2005). non-governmental organizations and human rights. in “anoihto sxoleio”, no 95, january-february-march 2005, pp. 5 – 11, athens: greece other media “children’s rights”. (2005). unicef poster: athens, greece: greek language version “i have, you have, he has, and we all have rights!” (2006): athens, greece: leaflet from the children’s ombudsman websites andersen press. (2008). http://www.andersenpress.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3 1565&itemid=88. retrieved on august 30 2008 moran, daniel. (2008) critical essays animal farm and the russian revolution, cliffsnotes. p. 39, http://www.cliffsnotes.com/wileycda/litnote/id-12,pagenum39.html. retrieved on september 4 2008 penguin books ltd (2008) http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/author/authorpage/0,,1000051954,00.html. retrieved on september 2 2008 plucker, jonathan, dr. (2007) human intelligence. http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/gardner.shtml. retrieved on september 3 2008 smith, mark k. (2002, 2008) ‘howard gardner and multiple intelligences’, the encyclopedia of informal education, http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm. retrieved on august 29 2008 united nations. (2008) peace education. http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/peace/index.asp. retrieved on september 4 2008 sc.) e-mail: nickymantz@yahoo.gr peace playground[1] volume 3 number 1 (2009): 126-135 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 126 volume 3 number 1 (2009): 126-135 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ peace playground1 éva blénesi (the prospects of developing community based creative partnerships on human rights, peace education and cultural practices in hungary and elsewhere) play as an essential human need play has been long recognized as an essential aspect not only of childhood but also of human development. some of the earliest studies in the related field started in the 1890s with g. stanley hall, founder of the child study movement that sparked a special interest in the developmental, mental and behavioral world of children. the american academy of pediatrics (aap) published a comprehensive study in 2006 entitled: “the importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds”. the above mentioned study states that “free and unstructured play is healthy and in fact – essential helping children reach important social, emotional, and cognitive developmental milestones as well as helping them manage stress and become resilient.”2 many of the prominent researchers in the field of psychology (including jean piaget, carl jung, sigmund freud, william james, lev vygotsky) have viewed play as endemic to human beings. childhood ‘play’ is also considered by sally jenkinson, author of the genius of play, to be an integral part of childhood development. “in giving primary to adult 1 a substantial part of this paper is based on my presentation at the iipe 2009 conference entitled: human rights learning as peace education. pursuing democracy in a time of crisis. budapest, hungary july 26 – august 2, 2009. 2 ginsburg, clinical report, doi10.1542/peds.2006-2697 (http://dx.doi.org/10:1542%2fpeds.2006-26979). volume 3 number 1 (2009): 126-135 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 127 knowledge, to our ‘grown-up’ ways of seeing the world, have we forgotten how to value other kinds of wisdom? do we still care about the small secret corners of children’s wisdom?”3 contemporary research in the field of ‘affective neuroscience’ has uncovered important links between role playing and neurogenesis in the brain4 while sociologist roger caillois coined the word “ilinx” to describe the momentary disruption of perception that come from the physical play that disorient the sense, especially balance. stevanne auerbach mentions the role of play therapy in treating children suffering from traumas and other emotional problems.5 in addition sudbury model of democratic education schools assert that play is a big part of life at their schools where it is seen as a serious business. they consider that play is always serious for kids, as well as for adults who haven’t forgotten how to play, and much of the learning going on at these schools is done through play. therefore they don’t interfere with it. hence play flourishes at all ages, and the graduates who leave these schools go out into the world knowing how to give their all to whatever they’re doing, and still remembering how to laugh and enjoy life as it comes.6 according to some experts in the field play is a rite and a quality of mind in engaging with one’s worldview. play refers to a range of voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities that are normally associated with pleasure and enjoyment.7 i am confident that everybody has already had experienced the kind of magnificent state of being when one feels like singing and dancing of happiness. children have no problems with sharing this experience with others in contrast to adults who feel rather shy about showing any manifestation of this kind of outburst of overwhelming inner feelings. now, try to imagine yourself a place where you find an atmosphere of such spiritual comfort that you can truly be yourself with your playfulness and happiness and you can share it with others without any constraints and barriers. having lots of fun. for the sake of feeling well and sharing with others and keeping that spirit alive. do you think that only yawning is catching? i don’t think so. i am dreaming of a place where one would feel safe and happy and enjoys playing and sharing the ability of being happy and creative. this place would be rather different from the social realistic style playgrounds from my childhood, made of the from the combination between rusty iron and concrete, and they would probably be quite different even from those that i came across later: those made of polished, shiny ready made elements, uniform in their aspect wherever you go, the so called eu-conform ones. the playground i am dreaming of is much more closer to the one designed by an artist friend of mine called jános sándor originally from szováta/sovata (transylvania, romania) now based in fót (hungary). his playground differs in some relevant aspects from other already existing playgrounds: even children using wheel chair may have an access to it, it is made of environmentally friendly materials and above all the design is unique. 3 jenkins, sally (2001) the genius of play. celebrating the spirit of childhood. melbourne, hawthorn press 4 panksepp, affective neuroscience 98 5 aurebach, stevanne (2004) dr. tony’s smart play smart toys (how to raise a child with a high pq (play quotient). 6 greenberg, d. (1987) „play”, free at last – the sudbury valley school. 7 garvey, c. (1990). play. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. volume 3 number 1 (2009): 126-135 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 128 volume 3 number 1 (2009): 126-135 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 129 “the image of god creating the world playing and dancing as the well known hungarian sociologist, elemér hankiss puts it is the product of the mythic imagination. it may, however, express something important about the universe. it may express its eternal and calm indifference; it may express a divine freedom and serenity of which we are hardly capable in our lives. it may have the message for us that we could achieve the bliss of real freedom and of genuine, though mortal, existence if only we could escape from the servitude of our needs and interests, which harass and chase us to death. play may help us ‘switch of’ from this murderous struggle for survival and domination; it may help us relax and achieve the divine serenity and seriousness that is the essence of play. although we live in a consumer society, saturated with ‘entertainment’, we have lost our genuine ability to play, we have lost ‘the divine gracefulness of a child’ at play. we should relax. we should let things happen. we should admit chance and freedom into our lives and let the world create itself. instead of feverishly and perpetually doing something, we should learn simply to be. we should learn from the profound absorption and tranquility of the playing child. the goal of life is “not to win the game (we are to loose the game of life anyway), but simply to play and to play simply.“8 8 hankiss, elemér (2001) fears and symbols: an introduction to the study of western civilization.ceu press volume 3 number 1 (2009): 126-135 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 130 human rights aspects play and creativity is of such importance for a child’s health and development that it is recognized as a fundamental right in article 31 of the crc (convention on the rights of the child, adopted in 1989 entered in force in 1991). according to the international association for children’s right to play, “...playing is a fundamental activity for the development of every child’s potential…because playing is a way to learn to love and to invent life and not merely a way to spend time.” play is explicitly recognized in article 31 of the convention on the rights of the child which states: 1. parties recognize the right of the child to the rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts. 2. parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shell encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activities. starting from the recognition that everyone has the right to education and human rights begin with children rights the project will make use of indirect methods (creative practices) aiming at fostering human rights and peace education in general and in particular for challenged children, for roma and for non-roma children as well. the state should guarantee equal access to genuine quality education. unfortunately, too often the current system exists with one kind of schooling for the haves with well-trained staff and a high-profile infrastructure, and another for the haves not without the necessary technical and human resources. however, quality education cannot be limited to increasing material inputs into the school system or enriching school effectiveness. quality education also defined by unesco, must be based on human rights approach and address areas including cultural diversity, multilingualism in education, peace and non-violence, sustainable development and life skills. through play and art children can experience key principles of human rights such as respect, dignity, equality, inclusion, justice and fairness and cooperation. towards creative learning in the knowledge age creative learning – as a uk based organization called creative partnerships defines it is “a particular type of learning that occurs when collaborative relationship between teachers and creative professionals is established. by brokering individual partnerships between schools and cultural practitioners, new ways of working are emerging which , it is believed, will be replicable over time in different contexts.” although many types of arts and cultural education have areas of overlap, in our proposed project creative learning has certain characteristics which differentiate it. it should be long term collaborative in nature in nature; it should demand a joint commitment, a volume 3 number 1 (2009): 126-135 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 131 shared vision and a willingness to embrace open-ended outcomes, challenge and risk. it is aimed at helping to equip young people with the skills, ability, confidence and the attitudes to enable them to work creatively, to transfer and apply knowledge in different contexts towards new and valuable goals. first of all it encourages creative, critical and reflective thinking and produces excited, enthusiastic, enquiry-driven learners. according to kathy hirsch – pasek and roberta michnick play is central for school and school performance. “it might also play an important role in preparing children for the global world beyond the classroom. business leaders suggest that in the knowledge age, success will depend on children having a toolkit of skills that include collaboration (teamwork, social competence), content (e.g., reading, math, science, history), communication (oral and written), creative innovation, and confidence (taking risk and learning from failure). each of these ‘five cs’ is nurtured in playful learning. in sum: play = learning. as children move from the sandbox to the boardroom, play should be the cornerstone of their education.”9 specificity and uniqueness of the peace playground project however, the idea of peace playground as such is not unique, since there are similar initiatives of the kind. the one in sarajevo10 for instance is aiming at restoring play spaces for children where war has robbed them of this basic human need and right. yet, the proposed peace playground project differs from other similar initiatives by the very fact that it aims at incorporating and harmonizing 5 key elements as key values: 1. community building aspect and the aspect of inclusiveness (both at macro and micro levels, that is cross community and cross family level) 2. environmentally safe and harm safe aspect 3. the aspect of incorporating diverse cultural traditions (both local, regional and international) 4. the aspect of sensitiveness towards challenged children (e.g.: providing possibility for the use of wheel chairs, creating special surface with braille writing system, the use special audio and visual effects for those who have problems with hearing) 5. the aspect of learning through creativity and playing (involving artists, art professionals from diverse fields) broad goalsfor overall change • empowering local commitment and action by using creative methods in promoting indirectly human rights education with special focus on challenged children rights. • fighting back exclusive attitudes in school settings and everyday practices • creating a climate of acceptance for the disadvantaged of all kind, for distinctive values belonging to different cultures 9 http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/documents/hirsh-pasek-golinkoffangxp.pdf 10 http://artscapeweb.com/peace_playground.html volume 3 number 1 (2009): 126-135 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 132 objectives – specific changes • developing cooperative attitudes in pluralistic society • developing young people’s capacities for original ideas and action forms that enable them to engage positively with growing complexity and diversity ofsocial values and wasy of life in order to realize that creativity is not the preserve of the gifted few , the so called elite, but something inherent, something that, given the right conditions, can be developed in anybody. • integration of human rights and peace education through creative learning into current educational frameworks. impact – how achieving these objectives is going to help the human rights situation in general • it is expected that young people will have a greater self-esteem, they will take more risk and will be more tolerant • the range of creative experiences offered will enable children to learn about different cultures • singling out comments will not be heard in the playground, at school or in the wider community • the play require children working together, to share ideas, develop joint projects, improvise, articulate ideas, develop new vocabulary, ask for clarification, develop the ability to debate, contribute to joint decision making and work for common goals. • teachers will be enjoying teaching and will be drawing more creatively on personal skills and knowledge • the school will increase opportunities for making new partnerships • the wider community will become increasingly involved in the school activities • it is expected to raise public awareness for human rights and minority rights • contribute to social cohesion and inclusive community building • it has the potential to build models of creative learning practice that impact throughout the educational system and cultural and creative sectors to the benefit of wider society. • children and adults are expected to demonstrate increased self-confidence and emotional literacy, as well as engagement and developing ability to work, and respect others. • contribute to a more inclusive society activity – to achieve these objectives seminar series e.g.: inspiring play (creating a common space) • facilitated by local and other invited artists and a landscape architect children reshape the aspect of the playground with the help of observational drawings, of outdoor space, explore how people move between different spaces, how they make use of space at all. who will be the beneficiaries? • challenged children, roma and non-roma children, teachers, artists, the community volume 3 number 1 (2009): 126-135 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 133 • children become more confident with learning challenges, and the staff more experienced in developing creative opportunities, parents and adults will be more engaging. what are the opportunities for change – and how to utilize them? in terms of its impact on young people: • building self-esteem and confidence • raising the standards of learning achievements • improving school attendance • developing language and behavior • supporting different learning style • providing potential career paths • supporting young people of all abilities to realize their potential and on schools in terms of impact on the immediate community and on the society at large. • changing teaching and learning practice • motivating teachers and parents • stimulating whole school change • help schools to become the focus for wider, creative and community involvement • developing constituency for creative partnerships • contributing to the development of the sense of local patriotism what are the risks – and how to avoid them? main tensions facing the world that effects education in general: • tension between the universal and the particular • tension between the extraordinary expansion of knowledge and the capacity of human beings to assimilate them • tension between the spiritual and the material • tension between the local and the global • tension between learning for the future and learning for the forgetting sources of tension characteristic also to the national (in our case the hungarian) environment • tension caused by social distance • tension caused by preconception and stereotypical thinking • tension between long-term and short-term considerations • tension between competition and equal opportunities • tension between the traditional forms and fear from the new and unusual strategies that could help address these challenges • learning to live together: education should strengthen in students the skills and abilities necessary for them to accept their interdependence among other people; to plan together common objectives • learning to know: education should help children to acquire the instruments of problem solving, ability to understand rights and responsibilities and learn how to learn • learning to do: education should learn children to acquire occupational skills, social and psychological competencies to make appropriate decisions about different life volume 3 number 1 (2009): 126-135 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 134 situations; to meet their basic needs and to improve the quality of their lives and others’ lives. • learning to be: education should help developing critical, analytical and analogical thinking; contribute to developing the personality and enabling children to act with greater autonomy, personal responsibility, it should develop all aspects of potential: an aesthetic sense, spiritual values, communication skills, memory, reasoning, appreciation of one1s own culture and of the others’, ability to argue and debate, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship, cultural awareness and expression. risks • skepticism • disinterest • resistance from the part of the teachers • resistance from the part of the parents • unexpected events that hinder participation • lack of human and material resources • lack of community constituency strategies to overcome the above mentioned risk factors • briefing the audience about the importance of the kind of educational approach • explaining the potential long-term benefits of the program, its innovative character, its benefits in the everyday life of the community and its inbuilt potentials in the future labor market • help participants become psychologically comfortable in the new situation • mediate between the different interest parties • create a climate of acceptance for the participants • motivate them for participation through concrete cases of positive examples • try to provide right from the beginning of the program additional human and material resources in order to eliminate deadlock or failure caused by unexpected problems (health, overlapping activities) instead of concluding remarks: real life learning and cultural practice firstly i would like to refer to david l. miller: life is a kind of hit and run game – according to those who cannot see that life is the game of life. for them it is the end, the purpose, that has value… why not hit and run just to hit and run…? what did you do today? i played. what did you play? i just played. why did you do that? just for fun. the overall framework of the project will be divided into successive phases. the work of each phase will be designed to build the previous one, encouraging children to explore their identities, the school, the local community and their relationship to the wider world, presenting the work within and outside the playground. according to elemér hankiss “to achieve this freedom, this serene lightheartedness “may be a fascinating strategy against our own fears in this world. but it is not an illusion? a self-deception? can we cross the street in happy blindness, not caring about the cars rushing by? can we pass through the traps and minefields of our lives with a happy nonchalance? volume 3 number 1 (2009): 126-135 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 135 certainly not. but anxiety and panic, and the convulsive urge to succeed, to become and to achieve something, may reduce our chances of survival in a difficult world.”11 indeed, it may reduce it especially in the time of economic and moral crises. “for the first time in history, knowledge is the primary source of ‘economic productivity’ and a core resource for organizations. progress and global competition have driven a shift from manual work to ‘thinking’ jobs, which require skills such as problem solving and communication to information and risk management and self-organization. the knowledge-based economy relies on the individual to be constantly updating their knowledge as an integral part of the work. the essential difference is that the individual will be required to apply their knowledge in a range of creative ways, as innovation is key to the economy. in response to this shift, education has to meet the challenge of equipping our society with the ‘tools’ to develop these skills, and change its concerns from ‘what’ students know, to ‘how’ they can use knowledge. it needs to find new ways of embedding learning in a range of meaningful contexts therefore equipping students with the ability to use their knowledge and skills creatively in order to have impact on their worlds.’12 (‘the creative age’, t. bentley and seltzer, demos, 1999.) 11 hankiss, elemér ibidem 12 bentley, t. – seltzer, demos (1999) the creative age, demos [cited in creative partnerships arts england (2005): first findings. policy, practice and progress: a review of creative learning 2002-2004]. son ninsri in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 335 volume 2 number 2 (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ thailand’s anti-trafficking in persons act b.e. 2551 (2008): a new development in human rights protection and justice son ninsri naresuan university, thailand centre for peace and reconciliation studies, coventry university, united kingdom in response to the problem of trafficking in persons, the twin tasks are to protect including prevent the victims and to punish the perpetrators. both require critical transdisciplinary framework; the first with respect to the principle of human rights, the second with respect to the norm of law. thailand’s previous 1997 anti-trafficking law is counter productive. concerted efforts have been advocated to the promulgation of anti-trafficking in persons act 2008. this comparative study between the two laws will focus on new developments in human rights protection of victims and bringing justice to them in four main areas; 1. definition, 2. measures on protection of human rights of victims, 3. mechanisms for implementation, and 4. penalties. human trafficking, a modern form of slavery, is one of serious human rights violations; it is also an example of transnational organised crime a new type of global slave trade. it is estimated that approximately 500,000 – 2,000,000 people worldwide per year fall prey of traffickers, approximately 80 percent are women and children being exploited in prostitution and forced labour1. thailand has long been the country of origin, transit, and destination for human trafficking. thailand attracts a great number of illegal migrants from poorer, neighbouring countries who are trafficked to the country. it is also an important transit route for people being trafficked in the east asian region and other parts of the world. the thai government enacted an anti-trafficking law in 1997, the measures in prevention and suppression 1 http://www.unescobkk.org (selected estimated figures by the author.) in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 336 of trafficking in women and children act b.e.2540, but it proved to be ineffective as the police often refused to recognise those abused migrants as victims of trafficking. the police argued that they were illegal immigrants, jailed and then deported them. the united nations defines a trafficking victim as anyone who is transported for purposes of exploitation. the protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children adopted by the united nations in palermo, italy in 2000, defines ‘trafficking in persons’ as: ‘the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.’2 exploitation in the trafficking protocol include, at a minimum, the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs. according to the definition set forth by this protocol, the migrants who are smuggled and abused in thailand are considered as victims of human trafficking. thailand has come under strong international pressure, especially from the united states, to improve its treatment of migrants and its practice on anti-trafficking. both concerted external pressure and domestic efforts have led to the promulgation of new anti-trafficking law. in response to criticism that it is too lenient in cracking down on human trafficking, thailand introduces the anti-trafficking in persons act b.e. 2551 which came into force on 5 june 2008.3 this law strengthens protection for victims of trafficking and complies with the trafficking protocol to prevent and combat trafficking in persons, also protect and assist the victims of such trafficking with full respect for their human rights. human trafficking relates to various issues for instances; globalisation; labour migration; human rights of migrant workers, women, and children; child labour; sexual exploitation, hiv/aids and other communicable diseases; security and crime; citizenship; corruption; environment; labour standard, and wage issues, etc. trafficking in persons is one of the most important transnational crimes which post a significant threat to peace, human development and human security in the country, the region, as well as the world. as thailand is the country of origin, transit, and destination of the trafficking, the problem has become very challenging and complex and solution is very difficult to reach. conceptual framework this paper will depict human trafficking in the context of a global capitalist economy. in order to achieve economic growth, the freedom of movement of capital, finance, labour, and information are indispensable.4 businesses try to gain more profits by enhancing outputs and minimizing their production cost. one way of cost reduction is 2 http://www.ungift.org/ungift/en/humantrafficking 3 http://www.humantrafficking.go.th 4 summary of seminar on ‘human trafficking’, chulalongkorn university, thailand, may 2008 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 337 to seek cheap labour, especially in the labour intensive industry. in this case, the free movement of cheap labour is important for economy in globalisation milieu. state’s failure to address appropriate policy on freedom of movement of labour will result in trafficking in human beings. another competing concept to globalisation is the concept of national sovereignty. since globalisation creates the cross border issues or circumstances which require transnational action, the state may sense that its sovereignty is under threat. as a result, the state will impose strict control over its land and subjects on the issues of nationality, citizenship, national security, and freedom of movement or migration for fear of national security being threatened by ethnic minorities. if the state gives emphasis to national security, it may jeopardize economic interests and lead to human rights violations of persons being trafficked.5 trafficking in persons is a transnational organised crime which violates the human rights of victims. the fight against this malpractice requires international cooperation and international law. transnational and local perspectives must be employed. human traffickers involve many people in large and highly influential networks with an enormous amount of money. in response to the problem of trafficking in persons, the twin tasks are to protect the victims and punish the perpetrators. both require a critical transdisciplinary framework; the first with respect to the principle of human rights, the second with respect to the norm of law. methodology this study is qualitative. the method of research is documentary and textual analysis. it is a comparative study between the two thailand’s anti-tarafficking laws which are the measures in prevention and suppression of trafficking in women and children act b.e. 2540 (1997) and the anti-trafficking in persons act b.e. 2551 (2008). the focus highlights new developments for the protection of victims and bringing perpetrators to justice. background on human trafficking in thailand 1. causes of human trafficking thailand has long realized the importance of the problem and been working to curb with human trafficking. however, in the trafficking in persons report 2008 launched by the department of state, united states of america, on 4 june 2008, thailand is grouped in the tier 2 country which does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.6 there are many factors contributing to this predicament. those factors can be categorized as pull factors and push factors. in the case of thailand, pull factors for trafficking in persons are economic incentives and demand of labour. as for push factors, armed conflict, statelessness, and corrupted state officials are major causes for human trafficking problem in thailand. on economic incentives, poverty and lack of economic opportunity are largely contributed to human trafficking. many thais fall prey to false promises of job 5 summary of seminar on ‘human trafficking’, chulalongkorn university, thailand, may 2008 6 http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2008 in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 338 opportunities, which may appear legitimate in other countries, but turn out to traps designed to stripped them of their documentation to impose debts that they have no ability to repay.7 women and girls from thailand are trafficked for sexual exploitation internally, as well as externally to japan, malaysia, south africa, bahrain, australia, singapore, united kingdom, europe, canada, and the united states. in addition, regional economic disparities drive significant illegal migration into thailand. women and children are trafficked from myanmar, cambodia, laos, people's republic of china (p.r.c.), russia, and uzbekistan for sex industry in thailand. it is found that a considerable number of women and girls from myanmar, cambodia, and vietnam transit through thailand's southern border to malaysia for sexual exploitation primarily in johor bahru, across from singapore.8 widespread sex tourism in the region encourages trafficking of women and young girls for sexual exploitation. massive profit from trading in persons is also incentive for traffickers and transnational criminal or terrorist groups. as for the demand of labour especially in low paying, dirty, and dangerous work, there have been a great number of economic migrants, both males and females, young and old, from the neighbouring countries – mostly from myanmar to do the job which thai people disapprove of. following voluntary migration to thailand, they however end up being forced or trafficked into involuntary servitude in agricultural work, sweatshop factories, construction, commercial fisheries, domestic work, and begging. the biggest group of victims is women and children. many of whom are forced into indentured servitude or the sex industry, bounded by debt or physical constraints. children from myanmar, laos, and cambodia are trafficked to thailand for begging and labour exploitation under physical constraint in sweatshops that restrict their freedom.9 it is also reported that thai labourers working abroad in taiwan, south korea, malaysia, israel, the united states, and the middle east countries often pay excessive recruitment fees prior to departure, which tie them to debt bondage another form of trafficking.10 some are subjected to conditions of forced labor and debt bondage after arrival. traffickers usually promise victims lucrative legitimate employment or make false agreements regarding wages, working conditions, or the nature of the work. once they are with “employers” in another country, their travelling documents, if any, are often confiscated. employers repeatedly force them to work in order to pay off their “purchase” or debt and their own living expenses. victims are constantly threatened and abused or fined for “misbehaviors”.11 there are many cases reporting that the working and living conditions are deplorable. moving on to push factors, the armed conflict in thailand’s neighbouring country, myanmar, accounts for an essential push factor on massive group of people fleeing to seek refuge and employment for the betterment of their lives in thailand. military suppression in myanmar also adds on its people being trafficked. some vulnerable minority groups in myanmar such as rohingya are inevitably victims of trafficking in 7 international organization for migration report 2007, bangkok, thailand 8 http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2008 9 international organization for migration report 2007, bangkok, thailand 10 http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2008 11 international organization for migration report 2007, bangkok, thailand in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 339 persons. other groups of victims who suffer from political suppression such as hmong minority from laos and people from north korea have also been reported. statelessness is another significant cause of trafficking in persons.12 ethnic minorities in northern thailand are not allowed to hold thai nationality. they are not citizen of thailand which results in the violation of thailand’s immigration act b.e. 2522 (1979). they will be arrested and deported if they fail to present the thai national identity card. also, they are not eligible to have access to basic public services such as healthcare and education. however, recently a change in the law has granted eligibility for basic public education to stateless children. moreover, they are deprived of the freedom of movement, which prohibits them from taking employment. the loss of protection of their human rights makes them prone to exploitation by traffickers. the denial of thai citizenship to ethnic minority women and girls who reside in thailand's northern hills makes them more vulnerable to trafficking and delays repatriation due to lack of citizenship.13 the most common phenomenon in less developed countries is corruption. corrupted state officials add up to the serious problem of human trafficking in thailand. since the trafficking in persons is a transnational organised crime, it connects with massive amount of money and influential networks. sometimes corrupted police force which activists say is itself involved in the business of trafficking illegal migrants.14 2. thailand’s response on human trafficking thailand has been attempting to fight against trafficking in persons over the past decades. however, there are tremendous cases of victims being mistreated by law enforcement agencies who perceive them as criminals or violators of thailand’s immigration law. as illegal immigrants, victims are often detained or deported. it is actually important that victims are provided assistance: appropriate housing, counseling, medical treatment, employment training, and opportunities to facilitate transition and reintegration. protection of their privacy, identity, and safety measures are crucial to effective prosecution of human traffickers.15 as the problem grows severe, thailand has been condemned by international community due to its poor practice on anti-trafficking and pressed for improvement. in 1997, the country had enforced the measures in prevention and suppression of trafficking in women and children act. international cooperation plays a vital role in reaching a viable solution. thailand has signed some international treaties concerning the matter so far, including: • un convention on transnational organised crime • un protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children • un protocol against the smuggling of migrants by land, sea and air16 12 http://www.vitalvoices.org/files/docs/vitalvoicesstatelessandvulnerabletohumantrafficking 13 http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2008 14 http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7437016.stm 15 international organization for migration report 2007, bangkok, thailand 16 ibid. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 340 however, thailand has not yet ratified the trafficking in persons protocols17 which means that the thai state is not legally bound by those protocols. since 2004, thai government agencies have signed a series of memorandum of understandings with domestic non governmental organisations (ngo) to provide some detailed police procedures to assist with the problem of trafficked persons being detained by the authorities. officers have been trained to treat trafficked people as victims rather than illegal migrant workers. however, due to insufficient control and misunderstanding among authorities, the implementation of the memorandum of understandings has not been most effective.18 under the 1997 anti-trafficking law, children and women victims of trafficking are rescued by thai authorities and transferred to one of seven shelters for trafficking victims run by thai government. thailand has also collaborated with various ngo partners to provide counseling and support services such as shelters, educational and vocational training, job placement, and financial assistance for women and children who have been victims of trafficking, especially those involved in prostitution. but most boys or male victims are deported as illegal migrants.19 these days not only women and children are trafficked, but also men are increasingly at risk. many cases have been reported in the fishing industry, as men are deceived to work in extremely harsh and inhumane conditions on fishing vessels.20 the measures in prevention and suppression of trafficking in women and children act b.e. 2540 (1997) only imposes penalties on trafficking for sexual exploitation. the measures to combat labour trafficking and to provide protection for male victims have been lax. in october 2007, a draft law to allow prosecution of all forms of trafficking in persons and provide greater protection and compensation to the trafficked persons in thailand was proposed and considered by the national legislative assembly during the interim government following september 2006 military coup. the bill appeared to be the country’s first comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation, outlawing all forms of trafficking and also providing protection to male victims of trafficking. thailand passed new comprehensive anti-trafficking legislation, anti-trafficking in persons act b.e. 2551, in november 2007 which came into force on 5 june 2008. thailand’s anti-trafficking in persons act b.e. 2551 (2008) the new law will criminalize all forms of trafficking in persons, covering labor forms of trafficking and prescribes penalties that are sufficiently stringent. this new legislation complies with the united nations protocol to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons in that it addresses protection of the human rights of victims and measures for the physical, psychological, and social recovery of victims of trafficking. the new law will broaden the definition of victims to include men, for the first time, and make it easier to prevent them from being deported. the comparative study between two thailand’s anti-trafficking laws, measures in 17 http://www.unodc.org 18 international organization for migration report 2007, bangkok, thailand 19 http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2008 20 ibid. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 341 prevention and suppression of trafficking in women and children act b.e. 2540 (1997) and anti-trafficking in persons act b.e. 2551 (2008) 21 is detailed in the table. overall, the measures in prevention and suppression of trafficking in women and children act b.e. 2540, which will be referred to in this paper as the “antitrafficking act 1997”, consists of 15 sections. the anti-trafficking in persons act b.e. 2551, which will be referred to as the “anti-trafficking act 2008”, consists of 6 chapters and 57 sections. these two anti-trafficking laws will be compared on four main areas; 1. definition, 2. measures on protection of human rights of victims, 3. mechanisms for implementation, and 4. penalties. anti-trafficking act 1997 anti-trafficking act 2008 1. definition (i) this act does not provide definition and scope of human trafficking. it provides definition of child, competent official, and minister, and covers only women and children on sexual exploitation. section 4. “child” means any person under eighteen years of age. “competent official” means a government official holding a position not lower than level 3 of an ordinary civil servant or a superior administrative or police official, appointed by the minister, to perform the duty under this act. “minister” means the minister having charge and control of the execution of this act. 1. definition (i) this act provides definition and scope of human trafficking which includes women, children, and men and covers all forms of exploitation according to the protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children, supplementing the united nations convention against transnational organised crime. section 4. “exploitation” means seeking benefits from the prostitution, production or distribution of pornographic materials, other forms of sexual exploitation, slavery, causing another person to be a beggar, forced labour or service, coerced removal of organs for the purpose of trade, or any other similar practices resulting in forced extortion, regardless of such person’s consent. “forced labour or service” means compelling the other person to work or provide service by putting such person in fear of injury to life, body, liberty, reputation or property of such person or another person, by means of intimidation, use of force, or any other means causing such person to be in a state of being unable to resist. “organised criminal group” means a structured group of three or more 21 http://www.no-trafficking.org/content/laws_agreement/thailand.htm in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 342 (ii) even though this act does not clearly define trafficking, it states that whoever does the followings is guilty on trafficking ground. section 5. in committing an offence concerning the trafficking in women and children, buying, selling, vending, bringing from or sending to, receiving, detaining or confining any woman or child, or arranging for any women or child to act persons, notwithstanding being formed permanently or existing for a period of time, and no need to have formally defined roles for its members, continuing of its membership or a developed structure, acting in concert with the aim of committing one or more offences punishable by a maximum imprisonment of four years upwards or committing any offence stipulated in this act, with the aim to unlawfully obtain, directly or indirectly, property or any other benefit. “child” means any person under eighteen years of age. “fund” means the anti-trafficking in persons fund. “committee” means the anti-trafficking in persons committee. “member” means a member of the antitrafficking in persons committee. “competent official” means a superior administrative or police official including a government official holding a position not lower than level 3 of an ordinary civil servant, appointed by the minister, from the person who possesses qualifications specified in the ministerial regulation, to perform the duty under this act. “minister” means the minister having charge and control of the execution of this act. (ii) this act states clearly the acts which are guilty of trafficking in persons. section 6. whoever, for the purpose of exploitation, does any of the following atcs: (1) procuring, buying, selling, vending, bringing from or sending to, detaining or confining, harboring, or receiving in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 343 or receive any act, for sexual gratification of another person, for an indecent sexual purpose, or for gaining any illegal benefit for his/herself or another person, with or without the consent of the woman or child, which is an offence under the penal code, the law on prostitution prevention and suppression, the law on safety and welfare of children and youths, or this act, the official is authorized to enforce power under this act. any person, by means of the threat or use of force, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power, or of the giving money or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person in allowing the offender to exploit the person under his control; or (2) procuring, buying, selling, vending, bringing from or sending to, detaining or confining, harboring, or receiving a child; is guilty of trafficking in persons. 2. measures on protection of human rights of victims (2.1) provision of assistance (i) this act provides basic assistance on food, shelter, and repatriation for trafficked woman and child. if there is need to confine trafficked woman and child for the purpose of preventing and suppressing of trafficking or providing assistance to such person on legal proceedings against the offender of this act, appropriate shelter must be provided. section 11. (paragraph 1 and 2) the official shall use his/her judgement in giving appropriate assistance to the woman and child, who is the victim of the offence as specified in section 5, in providing food, shelter and repatriation to her/his original country or residence. in providing assistance according to the first paragraph, the official may arrange for the woman or child to be in the care of a “primary shelter” provided by the law on prostitution prevention and suppression, a “primary shelter for children” provided by the law on child and juvenile safety and welfare, or other 2. measures on protection of human rights of victims (2.1) provision of assistance (i) this act develops measures to protect and help victims of trafficking regarding physical, psychological, and social recovery. moreover, this act allows participation from trafficked person on legal proceedings with full respect of such person’s decision. in addition, the victims will be fully informed of their right to compensation for damages resulting from the commission of trafficking in persons and the right to the provision of legal aid. also their dignity and principle of human rights will be taken into account. section 33. the ministry of social development and human security shall consider to provide assistance as appropriate to a trafficked person on food, shelter, medical treatment, physical and mental rehabilitation, education, training, legal aid, the return to the country of origin or domicile, the legal proceeding to claim compensation according to the regulations prescribed by the minister, providing that human dignity and the difference in sex, age, nationality, race, and culture of the trafficked person shall be taken into account. the right to receive protection, whether it be prior to, in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 344 governmental or non-governmental welfare institutions. section 10. (paragraph 3) in detaining the woman or child in accordance with this section, the woman or child shall stay in an appropriate place, which shall not be a detention cell or prison. (2.2) protection of safety (i) this act does not provide measures to ensure that the safety of victims and their family members has been met both in thailand and in the country of residence of such persons. during and after the assistance providing, including the time frame in delivering assistance of each stage, shall be informed the trafficked person. in this connection, the opinion of trafficked person is to be sought. the competent official, in providing assistance under paragraph one, may place the trafficked person in the care of a primary shelter provided by the law on prevention and suppression of prostitution, or a primary shelter provided by the law on child protection, or other government or private welfare centers. section 34. for the benefit of the assistance to a trafficked person, the inquiry official or public prosecutor shall, in the first chance, inform the trafficked person his right to compensation for damages resulting from the commission of trafficking in persons and the right to the provision of legal aid. section 35. in case where the trafficked person has the right to compensation for damages as a result of the commission of trafficking in persons and express his intention to claim compensation thereof, the public prosecutor, to the extent as informed by the permanent secretary for social development and human security or any person designated by him, shall, on behalf of the trafficked person, claim for compensation thereof. (2.2) protection of safety (i) this act develops measures to ensure that the physical safety of victims and their family members has been met both in thailand and in the country of residence of such persons. if the trafficked persons are aliens, this act permits them to stay and work in thailand temporarily for legal proceedings and rehabilitation on humanitarian ground. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 345 section 36. the competent official shall provide for the safety protection to the trafficked person under his care regardless of where such person stays, whether it be prior to, during or after the proceeding. in so doing, the safety of the family members of trafficked person shall also be taken into account. in case where the trafficked person will make statement or testify as a witness in the offence of trafficking in persons under this act, the trafficked person, as a witness, shall be under the protection according to the law on the protection of witness in a criminal case in all respects. if the trafficked person has to return to the country of residence or domicile or if the family members of the trafficked person live in other country, the competent official shall coordinate with the agency in such country whether it be a government or a private agency and whether it be done via the embassy or consular office of such country, with a view to continuously provide safety protection for the trafficked person and family members in that country. section 37. for the purpose of taking proceedings against the offender under this act, or providing medical treatment, rehabilitation for the trafficked person, or claiming for compensation of the trafficked person, the competent official may assist the trafficked person to get a permission to stay in the kingdom temporarily and be temporarily allowed to work accordance with the law. in so doing, the humanitarian reason shall be taken into account. section 38. subject to section 37, the competent official shall undertake to have the in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 346 (ii) this act does not establish procedures on safety return from abroad to country of residence of the trafficked person. (iii) this act does not protect trafficked victims especially aliens from being charged on the offence of immigration, labour, or prevention and suppression of prostitution laws. trafficked person who is an alien return to the country of residence or domicile without delay except such person is allowed the permanent residence in the kingdom according to the immigration law or has been granted a relief, in an exceptional case, to stay in the kingdom from the minister of interior, with evidence and documents under the law on census registration or the law on alien registration. in the undertaking under paragraph one, the security and welfare of such person shall be taken into account. (ii) this act establishes procedures on safety return from abroad to country of residence of the trafficked person. section 39. (paragraph 1) in case where a person of the thai nationality falls as trafficked person in a foreign country, and wants to return to the kingdom or residence, the competent official shall undertake to clarify whether such person is a thai or not. in case where such person is a thai national, the competent official shall undertake, whatever as necessary, to have such person return to the kingdom without delay, considering accordingly to the safety and welfare of such person. (iii) this act protects trafficked victims especially aliens from being charged on the offence of immigration, labour, or prevention and suppression of prostitution laws. section 41. unless the minister of justice grants a permission in writing, the inquiry official is barred from taking criminal proceeding against any trafficked person on the offence of entering, leaving, or residing in the kingdom without permission under the law on immigration, giving a false information to the official, forging or using a forged travel document under the in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 347 (iv) this act does not protect privacy and personal identity of the trafficked person from being disclosed or exploited by the media. penal code, offence under the law on prevention and suppression of prostitution, particularly on contacting, persuading, introducing and soliciting a person for the purpose of prostitution and assembling together in the place of prostitution for the purpose of prostitution, or offence of being an alien working without permission under the law on working of the alien. (iv) this act protects privacy and personal identity of the trafficked person from being disclosed or exploited by the media. the offender of individual rights will be imprisoned up to 6 months and a fine up to sixty thousand thai baht, or both. section 56. whoever commits or undertake to have the following acts been committed shall be liable for the punishment of imprisonment not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding sixty thousand baht, or both; (1) taking a picture, circulating a picture, printing a picture, recording or airing voice of any person, at any stage, which may lead to the identification of the trafficked person; (2) publishing or disseminating the content appearing in the course of inquiry of the inquiry official or the course of hearing of the court, which may make the other person to know the first name and last name of the trafficked person, or the family members of such trafficked person, through whatever type of information communication media; (3) publishing or disseminating the content, picture or voice, through whatever type of information communication media, disclosing history, place of living, place of work or place of education of the in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 348 trafficked person. the provision of paragraph one shall not be applied to the acts committed for the interest of government affairs in protecting and assisting the trafficked person or the trafficked person honestly gives the consent thereto. 3. mechanisms for implementation (3.1) anti-trafficking in persons committee (i) this act does not establish mechanism for working on prevention and suppression of human trafficking at national level. 3. mechanisms for implementation (3.1) anti-trafficking in persons committee (i) this act establishes mechanism for working on prevention and suppression of human trafficking. the antitrafficking in persons committee is the national entity overseeing and directing the policy on this issue. the gender balance is taken into consideration. section 15. there shall be an anti-trafficking in persons committee to be called “atp committee” in brief, consisting of the prime minister as chairman; the deputy prime minister, who acts as chairman of the cmp committee, as vice chairman; the minister of defense; the minister of foreign affairs; the minister of tourism and sports; the minister of social development and human security; the minister of interior; the minister of justice; the minister of labour; and four qualified persons appointed by the prime minister from experts who have had no less than seven years demonstrable professional experiences in the fields of prevention, suppression, rehabilitation, and international cooperation on the issues of trafficking in persons, one from each field, provided that not less than one half appointed from the private sector, as members; and the permanent secretary for social development and human security shall be the secretary and the director-general of department of social development and welfare and the director-general of the office of welfare promotion, protection and empowerment of vulnerable groups shall be the in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 349 assistant secretaries. no less than one half of the qualified members in paragraph one must be female. section 16. the committee shall have powers and duties as follows: (1) to make recommendations to the cabinet concerning the policy on prevention and suppression of trafficking in persons; (2) to make recommendations to the cabinet on the revision of laws, rules, regulations or the restructuring of any governmental agency responsible for prevention and suppression of trafficking in persons to enable a more effective implementation of this act; (3) to lay down strategies and measures for prevention and suppression of trafficking in persons; (4) to prescribe guidelines and monitor the implementation of international obligations, including cooperating and coordinating with foreign bodies in relation to the prevention and suppression of trafficking in persons; (5) to direct and supervise the arrangements of study or research projects and the development of an integrated data base system for the benefit of prevention and suppression of trafficking in persons; (6) to issue regulations relating to the registration of a nongovernmental organisation with a view to preventing and suppressing of trafficking in persons, and to prescribe rules for assistance such organisation in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 350 (ii) this act does not develop mechanism for monitoring and cooperating all organisations working on prevention and suppression of human trafficking. in carrying out its activities; (7) to lay down rules, with the consent of the ministry of finance, concerning the receipt, payment, keeping, fund raising, and the management of the fund; (8) to lay down rules concerning the report on financial status and the administration of the fund for the purpose of implementing this act; (9) to give instruction and supervise the performance of duties of the cmp committee; (10) to perform any other acts as entrusted by the cabinet. (ii) this act develops mechanism for monitoring and cooperating all organisations working on prevention and suppression of human trafficking. the coordinating and monitoring of antitrafficking in persons performance committee is the national entity to liaise and follow up the implementation on this issue. the gender balance is taken into consideration. section 22. there shall be a coordinating and monitoring of anti-trafficking in persons performance committee to be called “cmp committee” in brief, consisting of the deputy prime minister, being assigned by the prime minister, as chairman; the minister of social development and human security, as vice chairman; the permanent secretary for foreign affairs; the permanent secretary for tourism and sports; the permanent secretary for social development and human security; the permanent secretary for interior; the permanent secretary for justice; the permanent secretary for labour; the permanent secretary for education; the permanent secretary for public health; the attorney general; the commissionergeneral of the royal thai police; the in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 351 director-general of the department of provincial administration; the directorgeneral of the department of special investigation; the secretary-general of the anti-money laundering board; secretary-general of the national human rights commission; secretary-general of the national security council; the governor of bangkok metropolitan administration; and eight qualified persons appointed by the minister from experts who have had no less than seven years professional experiences in the fields of prevention, suppression, rehabilitation, and international cooperation on the issues of trafficking in persons, two from each field, provided that not less than one half appointed from the private sector, as members; and the deputy permanent secretary for social development and human security shall be a member and the secretary. the cmp committee shall have power to appoint a government official or anyone from the private sector to serve as assistant secretary of the committee. the qualified members in paragraph one must be female not less than one half. section 23. the cmp committee shall have power and duties as follows: (1) to prepare and monitor the performance according to the implementation and coordination plans of the agencies concerned, whether they be at the central, regional or local level, or in the community and civil society, to ensure the consistency with the policies, strategies and measures on the prevention and suppression of trafficking in persons; (2) to prepare and monitor the implementation of plans and guidelines regarding the in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 352 (iii) this acts does not address that the committee and the cmp committee may set up any sub-committee or working group for the purpose of preventing and suppressing of trafficking. capacity building for personnel responsible for prevention and suppression of trafficking in persons; (3) to formulate and monitor campaigns to inform and educate the public in relation to the prevention and suppression of trafficking in persons; (4) to monitor, evaluate and report to the committee the performance according to the policies, strategies, measures, together with the performance under this act; (5) to follow up and report to the committee the performance under the international obligations, cooperation and coordination with the foreign bodies on the issues of the prevention and suppression of trafficking in persons; (6) to lay down rules and approve the payment and disposal of property of the fund under section 44(4); (7) to prepare and monitor the implementation plans under this act with a view to achieve the highest efficiency of law enforcement and to be in line with the law on anti-money laundering, the law on the national counter corruption and any other related laws including international obligations; (8) to perform any other acts entrusted by the committee. (iii) this acts allows that the committee and the cmp committee may set up any sub-committee or working group for the purpose of preventing and suppressing of trafficking in persons. section 25. the committee and the cmp committee may appoint a sub-committee or a working group to consider, give advice, in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 353 (iv) this act sets up competent official to perform duties on preventing and suppressing of trafficking in women and children. section 9. in order to prevent and suppress the commission of the offence as specified in section 5, the official shall have authority as follows: (1) issue a summons to any person to give statement, deliver documents or evidence; (2) examine the body of a woman or child, with a reason to believe that she/he is the victim of the offence as stipulated in section 5, if the victim is a woman or girl the examiner shall be another woman; (3) search any place or vehicle, but the search shall be done between sunrise and sunset; in case there is a reason to believe that if the action is not immediately taken the woman or child may be assaulted, or the offender may relocate or conceal that woman or child, the official may search the place at night with the permission of the director general of the police department or person designated by the director general in the jurisdiction of bangkok, or the provincial governor or person designated by the provincial governor in the provincial jurisdiction for the search in such province. (v) this act does not address the antitrafficking fund. and execute any matter entrusted by the committee and the cmp committee. (iv) this act sets up competent official to perform duties on preventing and suppressing of trafficking in persons. section 27. for the purpose of prevention and suppression of the commission of trafficking in persons, the competent official shall have the following powers and duties: (1) to summon any person to give statements, or submit documents or evidence; (2) to search the body of any person, with his consent, where there is a reasonable ground to believe that such person is a trafficked person, in case such person is a woman, the researcher shall be another woman; (3) to search any conveyance with a reasonable ground to suspect that there is an evidence or a person falling the trafficked person therein; (4) to enter any dwelling place or a premise, to search, seize or attach, when there is a reasonable ground to believe that there is an evidence of the commission of trafficking in persons therein, and that by reason of delay in obtaining a search warrant, such evidence is likely to be removed, concealed or destroyed, or such person is likely to be assaulted, relocated or concealed. (v) this act initiates the anti-trafficking in persons fund to be used for any activities on assisting and rehabilitating in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 354 the victims, preventing, and suppressing of trafficking in persons. section 42. there shall establish a fund in the ministry of social development and human security to be called “the antitrafficking in persons fund” to be used as capital for the prevention and suppression of trafficking in persons and the management of the fund. the fund shall consist of: (1) initial capital contributed by the government; (2) subsidy from the government, distributed from the annual budget; (3) money or property received as a donation; (4) money contributed internationally or by an international organization; (5) interest or other benefits accruing to the fund; (6) money received from the sale of property of the fund or received by means of fund raising; (7) money or property vested in the fund or received by the fund under the other law. section 44. money and property of the fund shall be used for the following purposes: (1) providing assistance to the trafficked person under section 33; (2) providing safety protection of the trafficked person under section 36; (3) providing assistance to a trafficked person in a foreign country to return to the kingdom or domicile under section 39; (4) preventing and suppressing of trafficking in persons according to the regulations prescribed by the cmp committee; in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 355 (vi) this act does not address the fund management committee. (vii) this act does not address the monitoring and evaluation of fund performance committee. (5) managing the fund. (vi) this act establishes the fund management committee to control and oversee the payment of the fund. section 45. there shall be a fund management committee to be composed of the permanent secretary for social development and human security, as the chairman; the permanent secretary for foreign affairs; the permanent secretary for justice; a representative from the bureau of the budget; representative from the controller general’s department; and three qualified persons appointed by the committee, provided that at least two qualified persons must be the representatives from the private sector active in social development, social work, prevention and suppression of trafficking in persons, or financing, as members; and the deputy permanent secretary for social development and human security assigned by the permanent secretary shall be a member and the secretary. section 47. the fund management committee shall have powers and duties as follows: (1) to consider the approval of the payments stipulated in section 44; (2) to manage the fund in accordance with regulations specified by the committee; (3) to report to the committee on the financial status and performance of the fund in accordance with regulations prescribed by the committee. (vii) this act sets up the monitoring and evaluation of fund performance committee to investigate and assess the use and management of the fund. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 356 (viii) this act does not address mechanism to review and monitor the overall achievement of prevention and suppression of trafficking. section 49. there shall be a monitoring and evaluation of fund performance committee consisting of five persons, comprising a chairman of the committee and qualified members appointed by the committee from those with knowledge and experiences in the field of finance, social work and evaluation, one frm each field, and the deputy permanent secretary for social development and human security assigned by the permanent secretary shall be a member and the secretary. section 50. the monitoring and evaluation of fund performance committee shall have powers and duties as follows: (1) to monitor, inspect, and evaluate the performance of the fund; (2) to report to the committee on the performance of the fund, together with any recommendations; (3) to have the power to request the provision of documents or evidence in connection with the fund from any person or to summon any person to give statements to further complement its evaluation of the fund. (viii) this act lays down mechanism to review and monitor the overall achievement of prevention and suppression of trafficking in persons in thailand. the annual report must be produced by the ministry of social development and human security. section 40. the ministry of social development and human security shall prepare an annual report in connection with the situation, number of cases, the performance of various agencies concerned, and guidelines for future performance in relation to the prevention and suppression in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 357 of trafficking in persons and submit it to the cabinet. 4. penalties (i) this act imposes punishment for the offence of trafficking in woman and child. the offender will be liable to imprisonment for up to 5 years, or a fine of up to ten thousand thai baht, or both. the conspirators will be punished as the offenders of the act. section 6. whoever makes preparations for committing any of the offences as specified in section 5 shall receive the same punishment as attempting to commit such offence. section 7. whoever, from two persons upwards, conspire to commit any of the offences as specified in section 5 shall be punished with imprisonment not exceeding five years, or a fine not exceeding ten thousand baht, or both. if any one of the offenders in the first paragraph has committed the conspired offence, all the offenders in the conspiracy shall be punished, as an additional count, with the punishment as stipulated for the committed offence. in the case that the commission of the offence is in process, but because of the opposition by the conspirator, the offence cannot be carried through, or the offence is carried through but does not achieve its 4. penalties (i) this act evidently imposes punishment for the offence of trafficking in persons and intends to prosecute offenders seriously. the offender of this act will be liable to imprisonment for 4 – 10 years and a fine from 80,000 – 200,000 thai baht. the maximum of 12 years imprisonment and 1,000,000 baht fine is imposed on offender who is juristic person. moreover, the conspirators and supporters in offence of trafficking in persons will be punished severely as the offenders of this act. the maximum of 10 years imprisonment is imposed on the conspirators and supporters in offence of trafficking in persons. section 52. (paragraph 1) whoever commits an offence of trafficking in persons shall be liable to the punishment of an imprisonment from four years to ten years and a fine from eighty thousand baht to two hundred thousand baht. section 53. any juristic person commits an offence of trafficking in persons shall be liable to the punishment of a fine from two hundred thousand baht to one million baht. in case where the offender is a juristic person, if the offence of such juristic person is caused by an order or an act of any person, or the omission to issue an order or perform an act which is the obligation of the managing director, or any person who is responsible for carrying out the business of the said juristic person, such person shall be liable to the punishment of imprisonment from six years to twelve years and a fine from one hundred twenty thousand baht to two hundred forty thousand baht. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 358 goal, the conspirator, opposing the wrong doing act, is liable only to the punishment as stipulated in the first paragraph. if the offender, according to the first paragraph, changes his/her mind and provides information on the conspiracy to the official before the conspired offence is committed, the court may punish such offender less than the punishment specified, or may not punish such offender at all. section 54. whoever obstructs the process of investigation, inquiry, prosecution or criminal proceedings on the offence of trafficking in persons so that the process is unable to be conducted in a wellmanner, by doing any of the following acts, shall be liable to the punishment of an imprisonment not exceeding ten years and a fine not exceeding two hundred thousand baht: (1) giving, offering or agreeing to give property or other benefit to a trafficked person or other witness for inducing such person not to visit the competent official, inquiry official, public prosecutor or not to attend the court for giving facts, statement or testimony, or inducing such person to give facts, statement testimony that is false, or not to give facts, statement or testimony at all, in the criminal proceedings against the offender under this act; (2) using of force, coercing, threatening, compelling, deceiving, or using any other means causing a trafficked person or other witness not to visit the competent official, inquiry official, public prosecutor or not to attend the court for giving facts, statement or testimony, or inducing such person to give facts, statement testimony that is false, or not to give facts, statement or testimony at all, in the criminal proceedings against the offender under this act; (3) damaging, destroying, losing or rendering useless, taking away, altering, changing, concealing or hiding any document or evidence that is false in the criminal proceedings against the offender under this act; in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 359 (ii) this act lays down that punishment for the offender of trafficking in women is as same as that of the offender of trafficking in children. (4) giving, offering or agreeing to give property or other benefit to the committee member, the cmp committee member, subcommittee member, any member of the working group or to the competent official under this act, or to judiciary official, public prosecutor, or inquiry official or demanding, accepting, or agreeing to accept a property or any other benefit in order to induce such person to do or not to do any act, or to delay the doing of any act contrary to the duty of such person under this act; (5) using of force, coercing, threatening, compelling or using any other wrongful means to the committee member, the cmp committee member, subcommittee member, any member of the working group or to the competent official under this act, or to judiciary official, public prosecutor, or inquiry official to induce such person to do or not to do any act, or to delay the doing of any act contrary to the duty of such person under this act. (ii) this act evidently lays down the offence of trafficking in children and intends to prosecute such offenders seriously. the heavier punishment is imposed on the offence of trafficking in younger children. the offender of trafficking in children will be liable to imprisonment from 6 – 15 years and a fine of 120,000 – 300,000 thai baht. the conspirators and supporters in offence of trafficking in children will be punished severely as the offenders of this act. section 6. whoever, for the purpose of exploitation, does any of the following acts: (1) procuring, buying, selling, vending, bringing from or in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 360 sending to, detaining or confining, harboring, or receiving any person, by means of the threat or use of force, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power, or of the giving money or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person in allowing the offender to exploit the person under his control; or (2) procuring, buying, selling, vending, bringing from or sending to, detaining or confining, harboring, or receiving a child; is guilty of trafficking in persons. section 52. (paragraph 2 and 3) if the offence under paragraph one [trafficking in persons] is committed against a child whose age exceed fifteen years but not yet reaching eighteen years, the offender shall be liable to the punishment of an imprisonment from six years to twelve years and a fine from one hundred twenty thousand baht to two hundred forty thousand baht. if the offence under paragraph one [trafficking in persons] is committed against a child not over fifteen years of age, the offender shall be liable to the punishment of an imprisonment from eight years to fifteen years and a fine from one hundred sixty thousand baht to three hundred thousand baht. section 7. whoever commits any of the following acts, shall be punished likewise as the offender of an offence of trafficking in persons: (1) supporting the commission of an offence of trafficking in persons; (2) aiding by contributing property, procuring a meeting place or lodge, for the offender of in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 361 (iii) this act does not address heavier punishment for member of an organised criminal group on the offence of trafficking. trafficking in persons; (3) assisting by any means so that the offender of trafficking in persons may not be arrested; (4) demanding, accepting, or agreeing to accept a property or any other benefit in order to help the offender of trafficking in persons not to be punished; (5) inducing, suggesting or contacting a person to become a member of the organised criminal group, for the purpose of committing an offence of trafficking in persons. section 8. whoever prepares to commit an offence as aforesaid by section 6, shall be liable to one-third of the punishment stipulated for such offence. section 9. whoever, from two persons upwards, conspires to commit an offence as aforesaid by section 6 shall be liable to no more than one-half of the punishment stipulated for such offence. if anyone of the offenders in paragraph one has committed in furtherance of the conspiratorial objective, each member of the conspiracy shall be liable, as an additional account, for the punishment stipulated for the committed offence. in case the commission of an offence is carried out up to the stage of commencement, but because of the intervention of any conspirator, the offence cannot be carried through, or the offence is carried through but does not achieve its end, the conspirator so intervening is liable to the punishment as stipulated in paragraph one. (iii) this act addresses heavier punishment for member of an organised criminal group on the offence of trafficking in persons. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 362 (iv) this act does not address that the offenders commit trafficking outside the kingdom will be punished inside to the kingdom. (v) this act does not address that heavier punishment will be imposed on state officials who commit an offence under this act. section 10. in case where an offence stipulated in section 6 is accrued by the commission of person as from three persons upwards or of the member of an organised criminal group, such offenders shall be liable to heavier punishment than that prescribed in the law by one-half. whenever an offence provided in section 6 is committed by any member of an organised criminal group, anyone being the member of such organised criminal group at the time of commission of such offence, knowing and conniving at such commission, shall be liable to the punishment prescribed for such offence, even though he has not personally committed such offence. if an offence under paragraph one is committed in order that the trafficked person taken into or sent out of the kingdom to be under the power of the other person unlawfully, the offender shall be liable to twice of the punishment prescribed for such offence. (iv) this act adopts that the offenders commit trafficking in persons outside the kingdom will be punished once return to the kingdom. section 11. whoever commits an offence mentioned in section 6 outside the kingdom shall be liable for the punishment stipulated in this act in the kingdom. the provision of section 10 of the penal code shall apply mutatis mutandis. (v) this act lays down that heavier punishment will be imposed on state officials who commit an offence under this act. section 13. whoever, in the capacity as a member of the house of representatives, member of in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 363 (vi) this act does not refer that the offence of trafficking is considered as the offence under the anti-money laundering act b.e. 2542 (1999). the senate, member of a local administration council, local administrator, government official, employee of the local administration organisation, or employee of an organisation or a public agency, member of a board of any organisation under the constitution, commits and offence under this act shall be liable to twice the punishment stipulated for such offence. any member of the committee, member of sub-committee, member of any working group and competent official empower to act in accordance with this act, committing an offence under this act, shall be liable to thrice the punishment stipulated for such offence. (vi) this act refers that the offence of trafficking in persons is considered as the offence under the anti-money laundering act b.e. 2542 (1999). section 14. all offences under this act shall be predicate offences under the anti-money laundering act b.e. 2542 (1999). conclusion in summary, the anti-trafficking in persons act b.e. 2551 (2008) provides better protection of human rights of the victims covering children, women, and men. it imposes more serious punishment on the offenders of trafficking in persons. the mechanisms and governing bodies are established to ensure that the prevention and suppression of trafficking in persons is effective. the new law demonstrates transdisciplinary, such as human rights, justice, gender, human security, and human development. this new anti-trafficking legislation focuses on the victims in all aspects including protection, assistance, rehabilitation, and reintegration. the intention is to help them back home to resettle, start a new life and become, once again, productive members of their communities. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 335-364 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 364 bibliography international organization for migration report 2007, bangkok, thailand summary of seminar on ‘human trafficking’, chulalongkorn university, thailand, may 2008 http://www.humantrafficking.go.th http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7437016.stm http://www.no-trafficking.org/content/laws_agreement/thailand.htm http://www.unescobkk.org http://www.ungift.org/ungift/en/humantrafficking http://www.unodc.org http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2008 http://www.vitalvoices.org/files/docs/vitalvoicesstatelessandvulnerabletohumantra fficking woodfinal in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   235     volume 5 number 2 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ teacher development as deliberative democratic practice: a precursor to educating for democratic citizenship diane r.wood initiatives in educational transformation, george mason university dwood7@gmu.edu elizabeth k. demulder initiatives in educational transformation, george mason university edemulde@gmu.edu stacia m. stribling initiatives in educational transformation, george mason university, sstribli@gmu.edu   “i had never made a direct connection between education and democracy before taking this class. (i’m actually ashamed to admit this because it now seems so obvious.)” this is only one among many similar comments from the students—all practicing teachers—whom we teach. what is it about teachers’ professional lives that so obscures the democratic mission of schools? in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   236   the answer lies, at least in part, beyond school walls. since the inception of public schools in the united states, at least three fundamental goals for them have vied for ascendency in the social imagination. one, inspired by the rhetoric of our country’s founders, particularly thomas jefferson, exhorts the schools to educate for a participatory democratic citizenry. another, rooted in america’s can-do pioneer spirit and emersonian self-reliance, urges schools to prepare economically self-sufficient and productive workers. a third harkens to the greek notion of paidiea, educating each individual in his/her own unique way to contribute to the common good of the culture. all of these goals hold considerable merit, and there is obviously clear overlap among them. in fact, preparing students for democratic citizenship, economic viability, personal development and moral responsibility are all crucial to their future lives as adults. nevertheless, for too long public rhetoric on education, heavy with references to economic competitiveness and changing workplace demands, has highlighted economic concerns and conflated them with the common good, eclipsing a focus on personal development and moral citizenship. despite scholarly voices like michael apple and james beane, john dewey, john goodlad, roger soder and bonnie mcdaniel, maxine greene, amy gutmann, richard rorty, and michael rose who caution that the quality of democratic life depends on a participatory, engaged public and that such a public is unlikely to emerge unless society supports the teaching of democratic ideals and practices1, citizenship goals for education often fade to the background. recently, however, there has been a hopeful resurgence of calls for schools to take seriously their role in preparing students for democratic citizenship, and those calls seem to be getting louder and better heeded. martha nussbaum, for instance, has argued powerfully that educators need to prepare students for self-reflective, empathic citizenship.2 in doing so, she has joined a chorus of others reminding the american people that critically reflective citizens whose own humanity is cultivated sufficiently to ask the best of and for themselves while also recognizing the humanity in others are the sine qua non of a democracy.3                                                                                                                           1 michael apple and james beane, democratic schools: lessons in powerful education (portsmouth, nh: heinemann press, 2007); john dewey, the public and its problems (athens, oh: swallow press, 1954); john goodlad, roger soder, and bonnie mcdaniel, education and the making of a democratic people (boulder, co: paradigm publishers, 2008); maxine greene, the dialectic of freedom (new york: teachers college press, 1988); amy gutmann, democratic education (princeton, nj: princeton university press, 1999); richard rorty, philosophy and social hope (new york: penguin group, 2000); michael rose, why school?: reclaiming education for all of us (new york: the new press, 2009). 2 martha nussbaum, cultivating humanity: a classical defense of reform in public education (cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 1998). 3 apple and bean, democratic schools; goodlad, soder, and mcdaniel, democratic people; amy gutmann and dennis thompson, why deliberative democracy (princeton, nj: princeton, university press, 2004); lorraine mcdonnell, p. michael timpane, and roger benjamin, rediscovering the democratic purposes of schools (lawrence, ks: university press of kansas, 2000); deborah meier, in schools we trust: creating communities of trust in an era of testing and standardization (boston, ma: beacon press, 2003); norman nie, jane junn, and kenneth stehlik-barry, education and democratic citizenship in america (chicago, il: the university of chicago in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   237   we concur with martha nussbaum. schools ought to help students learn to participate in civic life and to contribute to the common good. moreover, we agree with john dewey that actually engaging students in democratic experiences and practices is the best possible approach.4 it is simply not enough to teach students about democratic life; they must experience it. and yet, before asking teachers to be responsible for creating these opportunities and imbuing these values in their students, it is essential to recognize that teachers are not afforded similar opportunities in the schools where they work. unfortunately, most teachers live their professional lives in hierarchical, bureaucratic institutions and have little say in political and institutional policies that affect their work. while being exhorted to teach for democracy, most have precious few opportunities to be engaged in democratic practices in their schools. thus, students witness the adults in the schools where they spend so much of their young lives following orders and customs rather than participating in democratic life.5 as john dewey and amy gutmann have so effectively argued, teaching for democratic citizenship should be undertaken by those actually committed to democratic ideals that they embed in their daily educational practices.6 thus, any call for democratic education for k-12 students simply must be accompanied by a similar call for democratic approaches to the inservice and pre-service education of teachers as well as more democratically structured public schools. moreover, a serious and daunting obstacle is the current educational policy context emphasizing standardization and testing. such a political agenda narrows the curriculum in order to emphasize content that can be easily tested. it discourages teachers from focusing on the overall development of their students, including their critical thinking skills and civic involvement. this 2nd grade teacher’s reflection serves to highlight the conundrum many teachers face: when i first began my teaching career, teaching was about exploration, discovery and excitement for learning. my class and i could happen upon a butterfly or a group of workers fixing electrical lines outside of school. we could then take time to think, discover and learn about what we had encountered. it was pertinent to my students’ lives and personal experience. maybe we would become entomologists and learn more about butterflies or maybe we’d be electrical engineers and discover how electricity is made and how it is transported from house to house. we would spend time questioning, researching, thinking, recording data, reporting, discussing, and problem solving. today,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         press, 1996); walter parker, teaching democracy: unity and diversity in public life (new york: teachers college press, 2002). 4 john dewey, democracy and education (carbondale, il: southern illinois university press, 1916). 5 deborah meier, the power of their ideas (boston, ma: beacon press, 2002). 6 dewey, public and its problems; gutmann, democratic education. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   238   education has been reduced to memorizing facts and bubbling in circles with a number two pencil. the amount of curriculum pounded into the head of a seven year old second grader is disturbing. . . high stakes standardized testing, such as that mandated in no child left behind legislation, does not measure learning. it measures memorization and children are being left behind all over this country. the children being brought up in this era of no child left behind testing are not going to be able to solve the problems of our country and world, such as the energy crisis, because they are not being taught to be problem solvers or thinkers. they are not being taught civic responsibility to their community or country. they are not being taught democratic thinking, the foundation of education. this teacher sees clearly the connection between teacher agency and voice, on the one hand, and teacher responsibility to educate students for democratic participation, on the other: …teachers need to have voice in the education of their students. educational reform should start with the ideas and philosophies of those working directly with students, not administrations or agencies that have little hands-on experience with children and what happens daily in the classroom… students need to be taught to be productive members of society. they need to learn democratic thinking and how to serve and be a responsible member of the community. students need to be involved in the community that they live. students need to be taught how to be problem-solvers. they need to learn to question issues and problems found within their community and school. they need to learn how to name, reflect and act. in this article, we begin by providing a theoretical framework that makes a case for why ideals and practices of deliberative democracy ought to be a primary aim of teacher education and public schooling. next, we describe two different teacher education programs designed around principles of deliberative democracy and ground our arguments in the realities we’ve faced and new possibilities we’ve opened. subsequently, we elucidate persistent constraints and obstacles in grounding these programs in deliberative democratic practices. we end on a hopeful note drawing on words of several teachers for whom this approach made a telling difference. deliberative democracy for both students and teachers we, the three authors of this paper, teach veteran teachers in cohort-based master’s programs. committed to reminding teachers of the democratic mission of the public schools, we have been struck repeatedly with how easily this mission gets lost in the whirlwind of demands on teachers’ lives. the reasons are myriad and culturally-entrenched. certainly, the conflict over goals for public schools, discussed above, contributes to the problem. the history of the teaching profession itself provides further clues. public school teaching evolved as “women’s work” once the u.s. system began educating for the masses. women who entered teaching were drawn into the profession because of their “natural” affinity for children and then were in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   239   expected to obey the policies of their supervisors and school boards, both of whom were predominately men.7 this hierarchical structure of public schools has endured, and most teachers, whether men or women, are still expected to implement decisions rather than make them. such a structure melded nicely with a “technical rationality” model for teaching practices, an ideology developed by frederick taylor at the turn of the 20th century.8 this model set up a linear relationship with theoreticians at the top as knowledge constructors, practitioner educators as “middlemen” and translators, and teachers as implementers of the strategies. accordingly, teachers were not only divorced from decision-making but also from professional knowledge. based on principles of expert knowledge, efficient operation, and faithful implementation, technical rationality made of the educational system an ideal vehicle for the standardized test movement that emerged in the 20th century. currently, in fact, accountability translates to fulfillment of standards, measured by test scores, which are imposed from outside the profession. as a result, teachers have little input into expectations for their profession. worse, they continue to be denied the opportunity to affect policy, and policy-makers continue to be denied the inside knowledge built from teaching practice that could significantly inform their work. for several decades now, standards themselves have been created in response to “manufactured crises”, which rally the public’s concern about the performance of public schools while simultaneously discrediting the teaching profession.9 all the while, the resultant controversy serves specific political agendas. consequently, trust is eroded among stakeholders, schools and the teaching profession. accountability ought to be rooted in authentic democratic communities whose members actually account to one another regarding their contributions toward shared values and goals—that is, toward the common good of their students, their profession, and the community.10 that kind of accountability requires that teachers and the general public engage in the deliberative democratic practices that they will need to navigate legitimate controversies about public schooling.11 we ascribe to amy gutmann and dennis thompson’s definition of deliberative democracy, “a form of government in which free and equal citizens (and their representatives), justify decisions in a process in which they give one another reasons that are                                                                                                                           7 madeleine grumet, bitter milk: women and teaching (amherst, ny: university of massachusetts press, 1988); gutmann, democratic education; nancy hoffman, woman’s “true” profession: voices from the history of teaching (cambridge, ma: harvard education press, 2003). 8 donald schon, the reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action (farnam, surrey, uk: ashgate publishing, 1995). 9 david berliner and bruce biddle, the manufactured crisis: myths, fraud, and the attacks on america’s schools (new york: basic books, 1996). 10 gutmann, democratic education; deborah meier and george wood, many children left behind: how the no child left behind act is damaging our children and our schools (boston, ma: beacon press, 2004); diane r. wood, “teachers’ learning communities: catalyst for change or infrastructure for the status quo?” teachers college record 109: 3 (2007). 11 dewey, democracy and education; gutmann, democratic education; meier, schools we trust; parker, teaching democracy. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   240   mutually acceptable and generally accessible, with the aim of reaching conclusions that are binding in the present on all citizens but open to challenge in the future.”12 thus, citizens ought to hold an authentic concern for the public good, form opinions about furthering it, make reasons for their opinions public, listen in humility to others’ opinions and reasons, and deliberate in good faith toward resolution.13 citizens committed to deliberative democracy understand that conclusions and decisions are binding in the short run for the sake of the public good, but that they must remain open to reasonable challenges and better ideas. such citizens also understand that deliberative dialogue must be as inclusive and respectful as possible. walter parker concurs, arguing eloquently that dialogue across human differences is particularly important: deliberation with diverse others hopes to bring into existence a wise decision to act, certainly wiser than what results when people do not think together about the problems they face. this is its point. a ‘we’ is deciding an issue, and each member will be bound by it.14 in a similar vein, patrick jenlink, in making a case for the revitalization and recommitment to deweyean educational principles, explains: dewey believed that communication is what holds a democracy together. the process of people discussing their individual and group desires, needs, and prospective actions allows them to discover their shared interests in the consequences of their actions. this is what generates “social consciousness,” or “general will,” and creates the ability to act on collective goals. it is this process of communication and deliberation over collective goals that constitutes a democratic public.15 thus, deliberative democratic practices, aimed at fulfillment of shared aims, produce wiser, more informed ways for human beings to be and act together; but they will not and cannot develop in a vacuum. our hope is that these practices might also lead to wiser, more purposeful, and better informed decisions about public education. opportunities to engage in the messiness of democracy ought to be a part of everyone’s education, and it is our hope that teachers who experience democratic learning environments will afford similar opportunities for their students.                                                                                                                           12 gutmann and thompson, deliberative democracy, p. 7. 13 ibid. 14 parker, teaching democracy, p. 86. 15 patrick m. jenlink, dewey's democracy and education revisited: contemporary discourses for democratic education and leadership (maryland: rowman & littlefield education, 2009), p. xx. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   241   in our work with teachers, therefore, we strive to set up an environment where teachers experience democratic practices, realizing all the while that it is an environment that runs quite counter to those found in many k-12 schools. thus, we ask teachers to mount opinions about what they are learning; to offer justifications for those opinions; to attend respectfully to multiple and diverse perspectives on various topics; to develop criteria for credibility and trustworthiness; to evaluate contradictory opinions and justifications; to dig deeply for understandings by weighing perspectives different than their own; to work with colleagues using democratic practices, such as negotiation, critique, conflict resolution, consensus building, compromise, and dissent. all of the above demands that we demystify expertise and theory and encourage teachers to see themselves as builders of knowledge and theory and not simply purveyors and/or consumers of them. in other words, we ask teachers to be citizens in our programs, as we strive to create “small d” democratic communities. of course, we recognize that graduate school is, by nature, hierarchical and that we wield more power than our students. nevertheless, we try to de-center ourselves as experts and authorities, highlight teachers’ practitioner knowledge, engage them in collegial deliberation, and encourage them to reflect on democratic pedagogical approaches. teachers’ voices, perspectives, and colleagueship are highlighted throughout the curriculum; but we also encourage throughout an “inquiry stance”16 by immersing them in the centerpieces of our curriculum: critical pedagogy and teacher research. an “inquiry stance” helps them to recognize the contingency of human knowledge, motivates them to continue seeking answers, and opens them to perspectives of those quite different from themselves—all characteristics of deliberative social practices. creating a democratic curriculum for teachers the structure and curriculum design of both programs incorporate collaboration as a central feature: teachers work in school teams and a team of faculty co-construct curriculum in ways that provide continual opportunities for critical dialogue and collaboration among the participants. because we believe that the individual and collaborative skills necessary to engage in a deliberative democracy are similar to those at the core of teacher research and critical pedagogy, the latter have become centerpieces of our curriculum. teachers develop as teacher researchers and critical educators guided by democratic principles such as shared purpose, shared vision, transparency, fairness, dialogue, listening, and reflection. as they engage in critical reflection, critical dialogue, and informed and thoughtful social action and participation, deliberative practices (i.e., giving reasons for opinions, weighing those opinions against others’ perspectives, holding them open for critique and new knowledge, and so forth) become habits of mind. working with others toward the common goal of improving the educational experiences of all awakens shared purpose for and deep commitment to these principles and practices in their                                                                                                                           16 marilyn cochran-smith and susan lytle, inquiry as stance: practitioner research in the next generation (new york: teachers college press, 2009). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   242   own classrooms (see figure 1). thus, teachers have an opportunity to live democracy and, as a result, have the skills and the motivation to create similar opportunities for their own students.17 figure 1. we encourage teachers to develop as teacher researchers and critical educators guided by democratic principles. working with others toward the common goal of improving the educational experiences of all awakens shared purpose for and deep commitment to these principles and practices in their own classrooms. since teacher research is a core, ongoing component of the curriculum that supports the development of a teacher’s critical pedagogy, the goals and processes involved in teacher research need further description. teacher research is fundamentally research that evolves from and orients toward teaching practice. it is a form of qualitative research, usually naturalistic                                                                                                                           17 diane r. wood, “teacher as citizen: professional development and democratic responsibility.” in transforming teacher education: lessons in professional development, eds. hugh t. sockett, elizabeth k. demulder, pamela c. lepage, & diane r. wood (santa barbara, ca: greenwood press, 2001) p. 33-47. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   243   inquiry, with a basic purpose: to create more constructive, productive, and generative learning experiences for students.18 teacher research can take many forms – some of which emanate from the social sciences and others from the humanities. the best teacher research involves systematic and critical reflection and dialogue, and it requires a systematic plan and process of inquiry. teacher research, while technically a methodology, is actually grounded in the paradigm of action and social change. it addresses questions such as: what is understood about the teaching and learning process, but more importantly what is not understood about the process? what actions can be taken to learn more about what students need and to create more meaningful learning experiences for and with them? how can teachers and students transform the teaching and learning process in the classroom? much of the literature on teacher research is driven by this call to action and change.19 while teacher research is often viewed as a means toward identifying “best practices,” we imagine this process as going well beyond the development of effective teaching strategies. in accord with wilfred carr and stephen kemmis, our approach emphasizes that the essential aim of teacher research, as in other forms of action research, is to improve social practice with the participation of those involved in the practice.20 the “cycle of action research” is seen as an “embodiment of democratic principles in research, allowing participants to influence, if not determine, the conditions of their own lives and work, and collaboratively to develop critiques of social conditions which sustain dependence, inequality or exploitation.”21 this cycle of research supports teachers to develop “inquiry as stance”; in other words to develop: a way of knowing and being in the world of educational practice that carries across educational contexts and various points in one’s professional career and that links individuals to larger groups and social movements intended to challenge the inequities perpetuated by the educational status quo.22 in our curricula, the inquiry process is grounded in critical reflection, which, according to stephen brookfield, is reflection that has two essential purposes: to understand issues of power in educational processes and interactions and to question assumptions and practices that on the                                                                                                                           18 cynthia a. lassonde and susan e. israel, eds. teachers taking action: a comprehensive guide to teacher research (newark, de: international reading association, 2008); geoffrey e. mills, action research: a guide for the teacher researcher 2nd ed. (upper saddle river, nj: merrill prentice hall, 2003). 19 cochran-smith and lytle, inquiry as stance; cher hendricks, improving schools through action research: a comprehensive guide for educators (new york: pearson, 2006); stacia m. stribling, elizabeth k. demulder, and elavie ndura. “introduction to the case studies” accompanying teachers taking action: a comprehensive guide to teacher research (newark: international reading association, inc., 2008), http://www.reading.org/downloads/publications/books/463/bk463-os-intro.pdf 20 wilfred carr and stephen kemmis, becoming critical: education, knowledge, and action research (london: falmer, 1986). 21 ibid, p. 164. 22 cochran-smith and lytle, inquiry as stance, viii. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   244   surface seem to make teaching easier yet in actuality work against our intended educational goals and interests.23 it is through this critical reflection that teachers can then take informed action, develop a rationale for their practice, enliven their classrooms, and increase democratic trust.24 the inquiry process of teacher research as enacted in our curricula is also dependent on critical dialogue with peers, colleagues, students, parents, and community members. as teachers develop trusting and respectful relationships with others through the teacher research process, critical reflection and critical dialogue can lead to informed and thoughtful action. thus the teacher research process has the potential to impact teaching and learning practices that support critical pedagogy and deliberative democracy as teachers and students learn to: • express their values and opinions while remaining open to those of others • raise and discipline their voices, and • take informed and thoughtful action, "going public" with knowledge, ideas, and concerns in order to participate in making needed changes in their classrooms and school communities. we do require that our teachers keep written documentation of their critical reflections as they engage in the inquiry process and in critical dialogue with others. written reflections can take many forms: weekly journal entries, on-going stance papers, end of semester reflections, autobiographical narratives, research memos, and end-of-class day reflections are just a few of these forms. these reflections might be in the form of a paper shared with the instructor or might be posted in an on-line environment for consideration within the larger class community. the online postings extend the audience for teachers’ reflections, serving to strengthen public voices and to spark public dialogue. sometimes we assign a topic for reflection and other times teachers are free to choose their own pressing issue or topic. examples of these written reflections are used throughout the paper as powerful evidence of teachers’ engagement with deliberative democratic practices as they and their students begin to develop their voices, consider multiple viewpoints, and take thoughtful action toward the development of more inclusive and just school communities. challenges teachers and teacher educators face lest we give the impression that the potential of these deliberative democratic practices is easily realized, we want to impose a critical frame to highlight some of the impediments (structural and otherwise) that challenge the efforts of teachers and teacher educators to work toward deliberative democracy in their classrooms. as was discussed earlier, the culture of schools is such that teachers now expect to be told what is important to know and what they are expected to do. thus, a deliberative democratic curriculum design that de-centers faculty                                                                                                                           23 stephen d. brookfield, becoming a critically reflective teacher (san francisco, ca: jossey bass, 1995). 24 ibid, p. 22-25. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   245   expertise and authority challenges some participants. teachers are quite familiar and therefore comfortable with the more traditional didactic methods of instruction with the teacher as “sage on the stage” (often experienced throughout their own education and in their teacher training). in contrast, a deliberative, constructivist approach such as ours leaves open opportunities for participants, individually and collaboratively, to drive their own learning with the teacher as “guide on the side” and the learning outcomes do not have a preordained result; the results are necessarily negotiated. for many teachers, the common initial and sometimes long term reaction to this unfamiliar educational experience is a sense of discomfort, as illustrated here: what pops out the most to me is my comfort level with the structure of the class. on the first few days i said more than once, "i want to hear your expertise." now i get it! it became clearer to me with the discussion in the class meeting on relationships. i now better understand that you were trying to guide us to our own learning in order for us to feel empowered and connected to our learning. a common theme that i see going across the two weeks is the power and importance of teaming. i mentioned several times about how successful occasions of learning were enhanced by working with my team. in a hierarchical school culture, teachers have been socialized to follow rules, policies, and standards with little expectation that their knowledge and experience will or should guide practices in their classrooms and schools. thus, even when a teacher’s careful research reveals strong evidence of a need for changes in practice, some teachers worry that if they voice concerns or change accepted practice, they are in jeopardy of getting fired. a teacher expresses her frustration with her peers who have this concern: i get so frustrated constantly hearing people say they can't take action because it puts their job in jeopardy. i do not believe your job will be in jeopardy if you have a discussion with your class about accepting and respecting people for who they are. i wish teachers would realize that they are not as powerless as some would have them believe. it is not as easy for a teacher to lose their job as they might think. i have taken a stand in a number of controversial situations at my school/class this past year and have either been respected/applauded for them or ignored. not everyone has agreed and i directly butted heads with my principal on one matter, but never has anyone threatened to remove me from my position. teachers recognize not only the power wielded over them but the power they wield over their students and they grapple with the cost and benefits of giving up some of that power in the service of creating more democratic classrooms, as a teacher indicated in this reflection: it is easy for the teacher to be the dictator of the classroom. however, it takes a much stronger and more confident teacher for them to take a step back and put the power in the hands of the students. i plan on trying to follow this philosophy as much as possible. not only will this help my students grow as learners, but it will help me grow as a teacher. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   246   cost-benefit analyses are also evident when teachers come up against perspectives and world views that challenge their own. many teachers respond to cognitive dissonance (the discomfort experienced when a new perspective or experience conflicts with long held beliefs or prior experiences) with an open-minded attitude and an enthusiasm for critical dialogue. others feel so threatened or uncomfortable by the experience that they use resistance strategies (e.g., rationalization, avoidance, and so forth) to shut down dialogue and opportunities for learning, as this reflection suggests: the most unsettling thing for me as we continue to explore this topic [race and racism] and grapple with the feelings and issues that arise, is the complete and total unwillingness of some people to even consider true participation. i'm actually disgusted by some of the responses of a few people in particular who are just too cool for school when it comes to these topics... it just really, really disappoints me as we continue to try and develop relationships with each other as a community of critical moral professionals in an effort to better the whole of our vocation and ourselves, that people are just turning up their noses and refusing to be bothered. as teacher educators, we need to respond appropriately and sensitively to teachers as they face their own challenges, supporting them as best we can so that they can move forward as full participants and as empowered educators. we are not impervious to other challenges, including biases and narrow-thinking. we need to critique ourselves and each other and ask ourselves hard questions about our own practices and the culture in which we practice. we are aware that our commitments to deliberative democratic practices and to social justice are ideological frames that may eclipse the voices of others, and, particularly when challenged, we need to be careful to practice the deliberative democratic practices that we “preach.” another important challenge involves the disconnection between the classroom culture we attempt to co-construct with teachers and the wider university culture in which we teach. while k-12 teachers work in a hierarchical culture in schools, so too do teacher educators in universities, and that culture necessarily impacts the power dynamics of the environment we create with teachers. teachers receive grades from us for the work they do in graduate school that serve as a measure of their “performance.” however much we profess to attempt a leveling of the hierarchy, the university structure, particularly the requirement that we impose grades, limits our abilities to create environments that emphasize deliberation and collaboration among all participants. in turn, our work as teacher educators is evaluated by our students through required standardized university faculty evaluations that emphasize qualities of traditional classrooms. as noted above, the unfamiliar, less “clear” learning environment and the dialogue around important yet controversial topics often involves discomfort, and this discomfort is sometimes reflected in faculty evaluations, particularly in the early months of the program. these evaluations have important implications for promotion and tenure at the university. thus, ironically, a challenge for faculty is to engage in deliberative democratic teaching practices that in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   247   may negatively affect their ability in the long term to continue the work. the overwhelming evidence from participants suggests that it is valuable work to continue. this reflection written at the end of the program highlights the ways that many teachers, over time, re-orient their goals, come to understand and appreciate the curriculum, and incorporate ideas into their own practice: when i entered the program, i knew that i wanted to be a better teacher. i was looking for techniques/lesson ideas that i could use in my classroom. then the questions that i brought with me were answered with even more ideas and questions with [the program]. now as i look back at my time over the past two years, i have become more comfortable with questioning and working toward answers. the black and white ideas are no longer valid, instead i search out multiple perspectives and want to think about the issues in a more complex way. i also encourage the students who i teach to do the same. questioning leads to understanding and helps your ideas evolve. using this questioning/reflective mentality is a goal that i have for the rest of my teaching career. as suggested here, despite the challenges that teachers and teacher educators face, evidence suggests that efforts to create learning environments that support teachers’ engagement in deliberative democratic practices can reap huge benefits for teachers and their students. the following case studies illustrate two of the transformative paths teachers have taken. case 1: andrea’s engagement with deliberative democratic practices andrea is a teacher whose story illustrates how engagement with our teaching philosophy and practices helped her to express her values and opinions while remaining open to those of others, to raise and discipline her voice, and to take informed and thoughtful action in order to make needed changes in her own classroom. these then became skills that she sought to foster in her own students through her teacher research project. andrea had been teaching for six years before joining the initiatives in educational transformation (iet) master’s program. the iet program was developed in large part to address the disconnect that often exists between degree programs and the work teachers do in their classrooms. through a focus on collaboration, deliberative democratic practices, reflective practice, school-based inquiry, and continuous improvement, faculty use teachers’ experiences to draw out their collective knowledge and subsequently scaffold their growth as critical educators. teachers join in school teams, with other teachers from their schools or from neighboring schools. faculty model the collaborative process by working in teams of three to five. each team consists of a combination of full-time, tenure-track faculty and part-time instructors who co-plan and co-teach the curriculum for the 30-credit, two-year program. in the beginning, there were aspects of the program that challenged andrea. she was a “good” student who had succeeded in her educational endeavors in the past by following the rules and doing exactly what was asked of her. in this new democratic environment, she in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   248   articulated “struggling at times” with aspects she felt were “unclear in the program.” one of these “unclear” aspects was the grading process. andrea was used to a grading system that laid out very specific learning objectives with clear and instrumental procedures for meeting them. however, we introduced broad themes and asked students to find relevance and meaning for themselves, which required open-endedness and continuing dialogue as we nudged for deeper, more critical responses. this emphasis on personal growth was often in tension with the traditional school emphasis on meeting specific objectives. andrea reflected on this tension: “i will admit that i am working to accept the grading structure within the class…i am pledging to work to get over that feeling, and be content with doing the best i can.” even though the structure of the program was a challenge, andrea remained committed to engaging in democratic practices and learning from them. although andrea struggled with open-endedness regarding grades, she learned to be far more comfortable with it as she engaged in collegial dialogue. one of the more powerful aspects of the program for andrea was the collaborative structure. her teammate was another elementary teacher with whom she had taught for several years. she identified her teammate as “a great source of information and discussion” who held her “accountable” to the work and to her goal of improving her practice. having the opportunity to collaborate with peers in the class was also beneficial for andrea. as she stated, “i always process better when i am able to talk things out with other people. listening to other people's ideas in cohort was powerful in providing direction and clarity to my thoughts.” of course, not all of andrea’s classmates were comfortable in a dialogue process that introduced multiple perspectives. she sometimes expressed her frustration with those who struggled to engage in conversations that challenged their thinking. as she reflected, “i feel that we are all in this course to grow as people and as educators. in order to do that we have to open our minds up to the opinions of others.” the deliberative democratic practices that were explicitly tied to the teacher research process proved powerful learning experiences for andrea. before asking the teachers to take on a teacher research project, we engaged them in activities that helped them better understand different research methods and develop valuable data collection skills. in an exploration of interviewing and case study methods, we asked andrea and her classmates to read several case studies about special education students and their families that captured the importance of developing cultural reciprocity with families.25 one of the cases was about a high school student named silvia whose family was intent on adding reading goals to her individualized education plan (iep) even though the school system wanted to focus on social skills and job skills. through the process of cultural reciprocity, the researchers and teachers examined their own beliefs, values, and assumptions in order to create a “third space” where they could engage in dialogue with the family about their beliefs, values, and assumptions resulting in a deeper                                                                                                                           25 beth harry, maya kalyanpur, and monimalika day, building cultural reciprocity with families: case studies in special education (baltimore, md: paul h. brooks, 1999). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   249   understanding of how to best meet the needs of the student. andrea connected with the power of this process and reflected on her developing ability to express her values and opinions while remaining open to those of others: it was interesting for me to try to separate and understand the difference between my beliefs, values, and assumptions. for me it is learning to be aware of these and how they are a bias in certain situations. i still struggle with looking to find the "right" answer and am now working to value and understand the opinions of others. discussing silvia's situation furthered my appreciation in understanding the value conflicts we struggle with everyday. it is trying to hear and understand the opinions of others without viewing that as "wrong" simply because it is different…my way isn't better, it is just different and another way. i feel like working harder to understand parents will allow me to create a third space with those parents from my class. when she then had an opportunity to conduct her own mini-case study, andrea used the dialogue process with her colleagues in order to come to a better understanding of how engaging in dialogue with her student’s family could be beneficial. she reflected on this new insight: honestly, i am still struggling with the delivery of my perspective with the family of the child for my case study. however, after discussions today with colleagues and my advisor, i saw a little more clarity in the benefit of this discussion. feeling almost certain that my student falls within the autism spectrum and knowing that her parents don't want a label, i was struggling with where to go next. i respect their decision not to label her, but was lacking direction in the benefit of further discussion. i have made decisions about structuring group work and facilitating positive peer relationships with other students she is getting closer to. after discussion today i have been convinced to share this action plan with the parents. in the process of disciplining her own voice and determining how that voice could work in collaboration with the voices of others, andrea recognized how powerful it would be to engage her own students in deliberative democratic practices. she decided to embark on a teacher research project that explored ways to give her students voice by creating a student centered classroom community. she instituted classroom meetings where students were able to “open up about their thoughts and feelings about the processes and systems” that were in place in their classroom. for students who might not be comfortable with jumping right into dialogue, andrea provided them opportunities to journal about their concerns in order to organize their thoughts before sharing with the group. using this classroom meeting forum, she and the students reorganized the structure of the classroom; students helped identify essential classroom “jobs” that would contribute to the betterment of the community. in one of her research memos, andrea noted how powerful this space for dialogue became. she wrote, “students are connecting to each other through discussions and are truly beginning to listen and understand each other and the different needs that exist within these walls.” in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   250   this understanding was best illustrated in what unfolded with one of the students in andrea’s class. shannon was a student who struggled with peer relationships at the beginning of the year and had a difficult time with many academic concepts. as the school year progressed, however, the other students found ways to make shannon feel like an integral part of the community and to address her unique needs. andrea noted, “on numerous occasions i have overheard students giving shannon gentle reminders to complete tasks that seem redundant to the rest of us. the girls often drew pictures for her at recess and the good deed catchers worked extra hard to make sure she was caught doing well.” as time went on, shannon relied less on physical violence to express her feelings and more on the power of her words. part way through the year, shannon was found eligible for special education services, and the team of evaluators thought it would be best for her to receive these services in a selfcontained setting at another school. balancing her concern for shannon’s education with her commitment to considering multiple perspectives, andrea requested that she visit the setting to determine whether or not it would be an appropriate fit for shannon. after visiting the other classroom, andrea realized that the strong democratic community she had created in her own classroom was really what shannon needed. andrea compiled the data she had collected for her research project that highlighted shannon’s growth and developed an argument to present to her administration for why shannon should remain in her current setting. the administration agreed, and shannon was able to finish out the year in an environment that supported her growth as a vital member of a democratic community. case 2: “we’re just trying to learn to do our jobs better” when alan, dan, and jeremy began a three-year, cohort-based program with a new england university where one of the authors taught, they were grateful to have the chance to get a head start on their master’s degrees. eager to attend classes at a learning center much closer to their homes and schools than the main university campus, they were happy about earning the twenty-one graduate credits, which the program offered them. they liked the idea of being only twelve credits away from degree completion by the end of the program. besides convenience of location, another real draw for them was the idea of working in teams; their particular school sent six teachers. other reasons for enrolling in the program ranged from moving up on the district salary scale to seizing an opportunity for professional development. all taught courses at a regional vocation center housed in a large, comprehensive high school, and all were committed teachers. as dan put it, “we’re just trying to learn to do our jobs better.” the program was more than they bargained for, however. during two very intense summer weeks at the beginning of their experience, they chafed at the disparity between their own internalized expectations of what an innovative masters program should be doing for teachers and the actual experiences they were having in the program. imminently practical, all three had committed to experiential education for their students, and the amount of writing and in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   251   reading required for their summer course “seemed like too much.” moreover, they thought the course focused too much on “pie-in-the-sky ideas” about democracy that had little direct relevance to what they were trying to accomplish for their students. dubbed “the professional teacher in a democratic society,” the program cohered around themes of teacher professionalism and democratic aims for education, as well as the intersections between the two. not only did alan, dan, and jeremy doubt the relevance of the program’s goals to their teaching, they also began to lose some of their teammates. one of their colleagues dropped out after the first course because he deemed the program “too demanding,” and another left a semester later when she relocated to another state. yet another colleague who was part of the team also left, deciding about halfway through to transfer his credits to an educational administration program. he wrote “this experience has made me want to become a principal so i’ll be in a better position to change things.” alan, dan, and jeremy stayed the course, however. ultimately, they would come to see teachers can make changes as well. the curriculum of the professional teacher in a democratic society built on the foundation of critical reflection, dialogue, reading, and inquiry. as is true in many masters programs for teachers, students read philosophical and research texts on education, discussed them with professors and colleagues, and wrote reflections on them. but the two keystones of the curriculum were: 1) an educational platform and 2) teacher research. the platform was an evolving document that students worked on throughout the three years they worked with us. in that document, they stated, revisited and revised their latest stand on a variety of educational issues which unfolded over time in their courses, e.g., education and democratic aims, effective and inclusive pedagogies, equitable learning environments, role of educational research, curriculum controversies, professionalism, accountability, and so forth. by the end of the program, they had created a well thought out philosophy of education, honed by their reading, collegial dialogue, critical reflection, and action research. we hoped that document would provide tangible evidence of how knowledge, commitment, and understanding can shift and deepen with intellectual discipline and a continuing stance of inquiry. teachers also conducted two action research projects, one in the second year, and the other in the third. the first one they conducted as individuals and the second in collegial teams. that first summer alan, dan, and jeremy ho-hummed their way through gerald grant and christine murray’s award-winning book teaching in america, which traces the historical roots and cultural conditions of teaching in the u.s. and argues for its professionalization.26 although they criticized dewey’s dense prose, the three teachers did resonate with his view on pedagogy in experience and education, but said “he’s not telling us anything new.” their first real breakthrough came as they struggled to land on a question for their individual research                                                                                                                           26 gerald grant and christine murray, teaching in america (cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 2002). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   252   project. admirably committed to their students, they looked around their classrooms and schools to figure out what they might study that would make a difference. many of their students were from working class and poor families and found themselves routed into vocational courses because they weren’t performing well enough in their home high schools to be in college preparation courses. as they thought about educational equity, alan, dan, and jeremy took a hard look at their students’ present and future lives. they began to observe their students more closely in their classrooms. increasingly, they became disturbed by what seemed to be a serious lack of reading and writing skills. dan said, “they can’t really read manuals, and they can’t really express themselves. jobs are going to be changing a lot. these kids have to be able to read and write reports.” the team had landed on their first research project. their question became, “how can vocational education teachers incorporate the teaching of literacy skills in their courses?” alan, who teaches landscaping and horticulture, dan, who teaches electrical engineering, and jeremy, who teaches videography, worked for a year as individuals on that question, while regularly coming together to report on their progress. they shared data, read books on literacy (“very unusual for us,” said jeremy), and tried new methods like explicitly teaching reading comprehension skills and asking students to keep journals about their learning. in addition, they brought their research to the larger group on cohort days as a part of each of those days was structured so teams would come together; report on their status; and discuss problems, obstacles, and emerging understandings. teams were to provide encouragement and support but also rigorous critique. by the end of that year, the three teachers had read scores of student journal entries, and they had interviewed a number of students about their experiences working on reading and writing in vocational education classes. an unintended consequence for them was learning a lot about students’ perspectives about school. their focus began to shift as they realized how much they were assuming about their students without really asking them. they became convinced that raising students’ voices and then really hearing what they had to say was extraordinarily important. moreover, they began to frame this argument in democratic terms. alan said, “i’m a good teacher and i care about kids. but i didn’t really know about what’s going on with these kids. they don’t think anybody cares much what they’re thinking so they’re learning just to shut up—not to be citizens.” jeremy added, “and it’s not just about being citizens; these kids don’t think they matter much and they’re not putting much thought into their futures. they don’t really think they can ever be somebody important.” according to their supervisor, something quite dramatic was happening to these three teachers, especially in terms of their relationships with colleagues. for one thing, as they worked to incorporate reading and writing strategies in their curricula, they found themselves consulting with a reading specialist and an english teacher in the high school (their vocational education center, though not directly affiliated, was housed in a high school). they found themselves bringing their research up at the vocational center’s faculty meetings and in casual conversation in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   253   with counselors and other teachers, always highlighting students’ perspectives and what they were learning from them. before long, many of the staff at both the high school and at the vocational education center got wind of what they were doing; some offered suggestions and encouragement while others asked what they were learning. as their supervisor said, “their interdisciplinary project became part of the culture at the center.” she went on to explain that even some of the high school teachers were expressing respect for what “three guys are doing over there.” meanwhile, news spread among the students in the vocational education center about the research project. students who had been interviewed talked about the experience with other teachers and students. they granted permission for their words to be used at faculty meetings. some began to express appreciation to alan, dan, and jeremy—all popular teachers from the beginning—for taking so much interest in them and representing their views to other teachers. as they wrote in the conclusion of their research project: • “students do not seem to understand how their actions or inactions can affect their future.” • “for all the interventions we tried, we feel none of them would have worked if it wasn’t for the individual attention each student received from the teachers as well as the guidance counselors…. with so many people checking up on each student, it seems that they realized that we care and wanted them to succeed.” • “more should be done in the school to understand generational poverty. by learning more about our students, we will increase our chances of success with more students.” thus, alan, dan, and jeremy, as is indicated in the above bulleted points, had learned for themselves the crucial importance of observing students closely and listening to them, of collegial collaboration for the sake of students, and of ongoing professional learning. professional success had become for them a deliberative process between themselves and their students and between themselves and their colleagues. over the summer session between their second and third year in the program, the teachers were asked to develop some ideas for their second research project, this time a team project. despite the insights they had gained from their individual literacy projects, they wanted to move to bigger issues. they kept focusing on voice and participation; but they also continued to be worried that so many students seemed to have few plans for life after high school. dan put it succinctly, “i’ve been hearing a lot about kids and aspirations. these kids don’t have aspirations.” ultimately, they designed an action research project to engage tenth and eleventh graders in developing aspirations for post-secondary education. they introduced them to web-based personality inventories. they found career counseling sites and introduced them to their students. they met with their school-based counselors regularly and actively involved them in their work, in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   254   which pleased the counselors a great deal. they asked their students to keep logs about emerging ideas, hopes, and dreams. the three teachers met with parents and provided parent programs. they made a requirement of their courses filling out an application to a postsecondary educational experience and a financial aid application. most important of all, they held regular meetings with their students to ask about their plans. once again, news of the project spread throughout the vocational education center and into the high school. several high school counselors crossed the divide to the center to ask the men directly what they were doing. the three teachers’ supervisor started boasting about their important work at the district office, and an official there recommended they write a grant, which they did and got. within months, the men were presenting their project not only to their colleagues in the masters program but they were on the road, presenting to state education officials and other schools. throughout, they involved students asking them to speak for themselves and for their classmates. one member of the team, dan, began serving on an “aspirations committee” for his county and eventually the state. he said, “it became clear that i could be a leader and still be a teacher . . . once i learned how to be a leader in the school, it is hard not to be one.” he went on, “the defining characteristic of a professional teacher is one that continually looks for ways to improve not only their teaching but also to look at the bigger picture and find ways to improve the school environment.” in a reflection at the end of the program, one of the teachers wrote, “this program helped me believe that i have the ability to help all students to succeed. i am more apt to find a way to help a student. before i may have gotten frustrated, but now i feel better able to ask questions that help me to understand the student.” a year and a half after the program ended, dan wrote about other ways he had found to exercise his professionalism in deliberative processes: i have been extremely active in school renewal. i have participated in a visioning process that helped create a concept for a new kind of school and out of that process i am leading a pilot project to have academic teachers team with vocational teachers to teach math and english to vocational students using applications from the vocational programs. jeremy concurred and has decided to enter an educational administration certificate program. all three of these teachers had decided to “go public” and to contribute as much as possible to the policy direction of their school and district—all for the sake of students. conclusion both master’s programs we have described immersed teachers in deliberative discursive practices so that they could experience for themselves the power of democratic forms of collaboration. both programs supported teachers as they developed stronger voices as advocates for productive, humane, and effective learning environments for their students. we, the authors of this paper, found most of the teachers in our program invigorated by the opportunity to in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   255   develop critical lenses for viewing educational policies, theories, and practices, as well as their own grounded and contextualized theories and practices, while participating in a challenging and yet supportive collegial community. the journey has not always been easy. we have met with some resistance. we remain committed to this work because most teachers, in time, resonate with the learning environment and the curriculum, and they indicate through their research, reflections and feedback to us that the experiences profoundly transform their thinking and their teaching practice for the better. while they too sometimes meet with resistance as they attempt to improve their practice and their school, they too say that they remain committed to the work for their own sake and for the sake of their students. we end as we started with the voice of a teacher reflecting on her experience: i feel now that i am so much more conscious of meeting the needs of each individual student. finding my own voice more has given me the courage to let them also use their voices. i approach my classroom with a completely different perspective, and i'm not so afraid to be "out there" and take risks with trying something new. i'm not so fearful of what is different from me, and i'm more curious and open to finding out differing perspectives and not being so stinkin' judgmental of them! i'm not so afraid to be vulnerable with others, knowing it's ok to mess up, and i don't have to wear the perfect teacher face all the time. it's ok to hurt, and wonder, and question, and not know the answers, and it's ok for my students to know that about me. it gives them the freedom to do that too, i think. i guess in the end, my goal is to keep growing, keep transforming, keep learning, keep this journey going...........even though the formal experience has ended, in my heart and mind, it will never end. bibliography apple, michael and james beane. democratic schools: lessons in powerful education. portsmouth, nh: heinemann press, 2007. berliner, david and bruce biddle. the manufactured crisis: myths, fraud, and the attacks on america’s schools. new york: basic books, 1996. brookfield, stephen d. becoming a critically reflective teacher. san francisco, ca: jossey bass, 1995. carr, wilfred and stephen kemmis. becoming critical: education, knowledge, and action research. london: falmer, 1986. cochran-smith, marilyn and susan lytle. inquiry as stance: practitioner research in the next generation. new york: teachers college press, 2009. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   256   dewey, john. democracy and education. carbondale, il: southern illinois university press, 1916. dewey, john. the public and its problems. athens, oh: swallow press, 1954. goodlad, john, roger soder, and bonnie mcdaniel. education and the making of a democratic people. boulder, co: paradigm publishers, 2008. grant, gerald and christine murray. teaching in america. cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 2002. greene, maxine. the dialectic of freedom. new york: teachers college press, 1988. grumet, madeleine. bitter milk: women and teaching. amherst, ny: university of massachusetts press, 1988. gutmann, amy. democratic education. princeton, nj: princeton university press, 1999. gutmann, amy and dennis thompson. why deliberative democracy. princeton, nj: princeton, university press, 2004. harry, beth, maya kalyanpur, and monimalika day. building cultural reciprocity with families: case studies in special education. baltimore, md: paul h. brooks, 1999. hendricks, cher. improving schools through action research: a comprehensive guide for educators. new york: pearson, 2006. hoffman, nancy. woman’s “true” profession: voices from the history of teaching. cambridge, ma: harvard education press, 2003. jenlink, patrick m. dewey's democracy and education revisited: contemporary discourses for democratic education and leadership., maryland: rowman & littlefield education, 2009. lassonde, cynthia a. and susan e. israel, eds. teachers taking action: a comprehensive guide to teacher research. newark, de: international reading association, 2008. mcdonnell, lorraine, p. michael timpane, and roger benjamin. rediscovering the democratic purposes of schools. lawrence, ks: university press of kansas, 2000. meier, deborah. in schools we trust: creating communities of trust in an era of testing and standardization. boston, ma: beacon press, 2003. meier, deborah. the power of their ideas. boston, ma: beacon press, 2002. meier, deborah and george wood. many children left behind: how the no child left behind act is damaging our children and our schools. boston, ma: beacon press, 2004. mills, geoffrey e. action research: a guide for the teacher researcher 2nd ed. upper saddle river, nj: merrill prentice hall, 2003. nie, norman, jane junn, and kenneth stehlik-barry. education and democratic citizenship in america. chicago, il: the university of chicago press, 1996. nussbaum, martha. cultivating humanity: a classical defense of reform in public education. cambridge, ma: harvard university press, 1998. parker, walter. teaching democracy: unity and diversity in public life. new york: teachers college press, 2002. rorty, richard. philosophy and social hope. new york: penguin group, 2000. rose, michael. why school?: reclaiming education for all of us. new york: the new press, 2009. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 235-257 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/   257   schon, donald. the reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. farnam, surrey, uk: ashgate publishing, 1995. stribling, stacia m., elizabeth k. demulder, and elavie ndura. “introduction to the case studies” accompanying teachers taking action: a comprehensive guide to teacher research, newark: international reading association, inc., 2008, http://www.reading.org/downloads/publications/books/463/bk463-os-intro.pdf wood, diane r. teacher as citizen: “professional development and democratic responsibility.” in hugh t. sockett, elizabeth k. demulder, pamela c. lepage, & diane r. wood (eds.) transforming teacher education: lessons in professional development (pp. 33-47). santa barbara, ca: greenwood press, 2001. wood, diane r. “teachers’ learning communities: catalyst for change or infrastructure for the status quo?” teachers college record. 109: 3 (2007): 699-739. roberto bahruth in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 175-186 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/
 
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 volume 2 number 2 (2008): 175-186 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/
 persistence of vision: hegemony and counterhegemony in the everyday robert e. bahruth boise state university, boise idaho, usa. sitting in carmel above haifa watching the receding orange-pink globe sink into the mediterranean, it suddenly dawned on me that my sunset is someone else’s sunrise, and someone else’s noon in between. and we are all in this together.1 conference of the walking birds2 once upon a time an entire population of birds had forgotten how to fly. so they walked everywhere, generation after generation. every one complained about sore feet and how 























































 




1
robert bahruth, “problematizing persistence of vision: a demonstration activity” (paper presented at international institute on peace education at kibbutz beit oren, haifa israel, july 28-august 4, 2008). 
 




2
oral tradition in mexico, version written by roberto bahruth.
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 long it took to go anywhere. finally, one bright bird made the suggestion that they bring in an expert for a weekend long conference on flying. they found such an expert and soon the arrangements were made at a beautiful hotel on a mountaintop. the expert arrived and all joined in singing such lovely songs as “we can fly, we can fly.” they sat and went through the motions, flapping their wings to the instructions of the expert. at the end of the conference, they were all led to the hotel terrace and encouraged to follow the expert as he jumped off and flew around and around. first, only the bravest among them followed, but eventually all were encouraged and took the leap of faith. for an hour they all rode the thermals and glided through the air. some even sang with delight the songs they had learned. finally, one by one, they landed on the terrace and took their seats for the closing ceremony. awards were handed out and praise was heaped upon the expert. after saying farewell, all the birds then walked home. a gathering of subjects of history, activists who are engaging in the struggle for humanization, provides the ideal circumstance for pedagogical explorations that are generative and organic. contrary to state-sponsored schooling, where inductees are treated as objects, receptacles of what gabbard3 refers to as “the secular gospel,” participants in the international institute of peace education (iipe) 2008 held in haifa, israel demonstrated the power of critical pedagogical encounters to move people to act not only with clarity and determination in, but also if necessary, against the everyday. after years of cultural work in a variety of terrains of engagement, i learned that a persistent, generative question regarding hegemony deserved an activity, which i designed to problematize the inertia of the status quo and neutralize the effects of hegemonic encounters. implemented at iipe, the effort was to promote a mindset to counter-respond by exposing inertia as a hegemonic practice. during the opening panel introducing the central notions of critical pedagogy, numerous breakout groups worked separately, yet composed in different ways the question of how to resist conforming to the pressures of hegemony. in my response to this question, i pointed to my session later in the week as a direct response. i call it “persistence of vision,” a scientific concept that explains the double exposure that occurs in our vision naturally and allows us to see a continuous flow of movement rather than a staccato of snapshots. it is what makes movies work, for example, and which provides, more generally, coherence. persistence of vision can be both positive and negative in determining how we perceive our worlds and our places in them. in the negative sense, we can begin to explore the hegemony of our received cultures and how we have been programmed to be in the world, accepting structures of inequality and injustice as inevitable, normal, and often invisible. patriarchy and privilege are normalized rather than critically questioned. traditional gatherings for conventions, conferences and workshops usually do more to 























































 3 
david gabbard, “the prairie is wide: conrack comes to ‘the rez,'” in cultural circles (boise: boise state university, 1997), 31. 
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 reinforce these structures than to challenge them. this is why i introduce my arguments with the folktale of the conference of the walking birds. upon leaving a conference, energized and awakened to new ways of seeing our worlds, the threat still looms that we will succumb to the seductive bombardments of the media and our well-programmed ways of being. our families, friends and fellow citizens will still be marching through the everyday in rhythm to the corporate beat of capitalism and consumerism, tuned in to their televisions and cell phones more than to us, or their surroundings. we are left with a problem: explaining what we have just experienced in a “you just had to be there” situation while maintaining our focus not to be dragged back into the dance of death that is killing the planet, experienced as a struggle that distracts us from living richer lives. a pedagogy of invitation practicing a pedagogy of invitation 4 demonstrates a conscious recognition of the forces of hegemony and received culture that promote conformity to the status quo, normative thinking--what foucault termed “governmentality”5, an internalization of the “secular gospel”6 that fosters well-behaved thinking and acting in the everyday. an invitation can be extended to participants in any critical pedagogical space for them to engage in a process that questions the logic of hegemonic structures that foster injustices based upon the “isms” (e.g. gender, class, race, etc.) of society, while promoting greed and selfinterest as positive dispositions. such an invitation recognizes that consciousness cannot be forced, and that the abandonment of received culture cannot simply and abruptly be foisted upon learners. it requires a “pedagogy of question”7 so that a dialectical engagement of learners can begin to make the connections between the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few and the resulting abject poverty of the many. critical pedagogues can invite learners to examine issues of social justice and the human conditions of others, but they must not bash learners over the head for their own participation in reproducing the status quo. ultimately, as the saying goes, “you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink.” 























































 




4
robert
bahruth, 2005. “critical literacy versus reading programs: schooling as a form of control,” international journal of learning 11 (2005): 509. 
 




5
michel
foucault et al., the foucault effect: studies in governmentality : with two lectures by and an interview with michel foucault (chicago: university of chicago press, 1991). 
 




6
david gabbard, “the prairie is wide: conrack comes to ‘the rez,'” in cultural circles (boise: boise state university, 1997), 31. 
 




7
paulo
freire, “foreword,” in an unquiet pedagogy : transforming practice in the english classroom, ed eleanor kutz and hephzibah roskelly (portsmouth, nh: boynton cook/heinemann, 1991), ix-x. 
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 perhaps the best way to accomplish change is to begin by making the horse aware of his thirst. according to chávez chávez8 what kosík explicates as the “doctrinaire systemization of ideas (ideology)”, freire, it seems, operationalizes by his notions of reading the word and reading the world, thus our theories of dialogical action based on the initial work by freire are revealed when we as critical pedagogists, pursue to interrogate pedagogical and cultural tools of oppression and pedagogical and cultural tools of liberation. participation in the everyday of capitalistic logic has produced many dissatisfied customers, but often they are unaware of their own dissatisfaction because they are unable to imagine how life could be any different. stress, partial attention to those around them, postponement of their own pleasures, chasing after new possessions predicated upon the faulty logic that this signifies happiness, all leave us with a sense of emptiness. media bombardments portray ideals for the images of men and women that few of us can measure up to, so we feel dissatisfaction with our bodies. this is reflected in the diet and fitness industries springing up in modern societies. how ironic that we watch television and are programmed to crave foods that are not healthy for us, then we pay to burn off the calories we should not have consumed in the first place. food photographers are hired to make hamburgers look irresistible for television and on menu boards in the fast food chains. i invite my students to take a careful look at the photo in juxtaposition to what they are actually served. this is an invitation to do what i call “the algebra of life.” what equals what, and what does not? i watch a sports event on television and soon i have an incredible urge to buy a six-pack of beer and a muscle truck! factoring for x becomes an exercise in counterhegemony. my happiness is on one side of the equal sign and all of the distractions from it, assaulting me in the everyday of hegemony, i try to isolate on the other side. when students are invited to critically examine the hypocrisies and contradictions of the distractions that well-trained propagandists and snake oil merchants are paid to produce, students can begin to do the math for themselves. through juxtapositions and critical questions they begin to see that what you see is not what you get. they can unpack the lies of “waging a war for peace.” they can see that the defenders of freedom are really the defenders of corporations and globalization. to see such things displays a skill set of critical literacy that makes it increasingly difficult not to notice the inconsistencies; they begin to pop out at us at an alarming rate. they were always there, but through the successful normalization of our received culture, we were taught not to see and, therefore, not to question. 























































 




8
rudolfo chavez-chavez, “the direct and indirect influence of karel kosík on paulo freire’s work” (computer printout, department of curriculum and instruction, new mexico state university, 2008), 2. 
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 students may refuse the invitations to read the world critically. our received culture is deeply embedded into our ways of being. some may refuse to engage in the critical examination of modern society. non-engagement is common, especially from those who are heavily invested and materially benefitting from the status quo. the spiritual bankruptcy they may be vaguely feeling is offset by their material comforts and distractions. like-minded friends and associates support and reaffirm their continued investment in the system. perhaps the best we can hope for with such students is to plant seeds of doubt, and hope a few sprout to make their participation in oppressive or exploitative practices a bit unnerving. here, too, the idea of invitation is important: when too forceful an approach is used, we tend to alienate and further entrench people in hegemony that might otherwise have considered our ideas. we should not make it easy for anyone to dismiss our ideas as ludicrous. iipe as a counterhegemonic gathering: audre lorde9 forewarned us, “you cannot dismantle the master’s house using the master’s tools.” unlike most academic conferences, at iipe, rather than following traditional formats and arrangements of time and space, pedagogical spaces were provided for critical encounters where all participants were included through a pedagogy of invitation. while extremely productive and useful, further improvements in the structure of the gathering are possible. as i had stated in my panel address, critical pedagogy is critical of the status quo, but it must also be critical of itself. one structure that was not provided is central to critical pedagogy: a complete cultural circle of all of the participants conducted by a person with experience in running such a structure. room for many smaller circles and debriefing groups was productive, but a complete circle maximizes the effects of the experience as the smaller groups come together. a closing circle at the end of the conference would have an exponential effect on the new vision we all hope will persist as we return to our everyday situations. this then is the positive side of persistence of vision that i hoped to create through my session. commitment is born out of deep theoretical and philosophical understandings that must be arrived at through generative and organic critical encounters. the damaging effects of hegemony must be problematized to establish a sense of “what against”10 in order to understand what we are “for” in composing a counterhegemonic response. the connecting of the dots experience of a critical encounter should illustrate the destructive elements of the present neoliberal agenda of globalization in order to understand the consequences for all life on this planet. this should promote an urgency to act with clarity of purpose, rather than to conform to the insistent pressures of hegemony upon return to our everyday lives. the theme on the first day that several groups generated begged the question: how can we resist the tug of hegemony after a critical pedagogical experience? my response is that a new persistence of vision must replace the hegemonic one we were programmed to accept through our received cultures. this requires “revision” or seeing things again, but 























































 9 audre lorde, sister outsider: essays and speeches (trumansburg, ny: crossing press, 1984), 112. 
 10 paulo freire, paulo. pedagogy of the oppressed (new york: herder and herder, 1970), 24.
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 in new and critical ways. this amounts to a skill set that i refer to as “critical literacy.” as freire so often stated, before you can write upon the world you must learn to read the world critically. while hegemony has written upon us all as objects of history, to write upon the world is to act as historical subjects. history is not dead, as the powerbrokers would have us believe. history is being made in the everyday by people who choose to act, rather than to be acted upon. i grew up with one foot in my parent's generation and one foot hovering over my own which was still in the making. my stability and perspective in the world derives from my anchoring in both worlds. the generation of the microchip is moving so fast that there is little time for reflection and response. this has led to an "on demand" culture that has both benefits and disadvantages. i would argue that the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages and would propose that this distinction at least be engaged as a point of dialectical encounter in a form of critical pedagogical problematizing. i see egocentrism and a sense of powerlessness and nonengagement as acts of fatalism and conformity among those born into the world of the microchip. from my view, the on demand culture is being swept away on the currents of popular culture without criticity and media literacy that might provoke agency. according to giroux11: against the encroaching forces of militarization, corporatism, and ideological intolerance, educators have the difficult task of matching their sense of engaged scholarship with a meaningful and critical pedagogy, one that enables students to engage in debate and dialogue about pressing social problems and to believe not only that civic life matters but that they can make a difference in shaping it. what follows is a brief description of an activity that works in an on demand culture. it was designed and implemented at iipe12 in a cultural circle of approximately thirty engaged activists from around the world and from all walks of life. problematizing persistence of vision: a demonstration activity seated in a circle, our group began with a brief overview of what was to come. walking around the circle, i twirled the strings of a thaumatrope, a two-sided cardboard device with a sketch of a bird on one side and a cage on the other. it has been used for centuries to demonstrate the scientific concept of “persistence of vision.” when twirled quickly, the images become superimposed on the retina making it appear as though the bird were 























































 11 henry a. giroux, the university in chains: confronting the military-industrial-academic complex (boulder, co: paradigm publishers, 2007), 5. 
 12 robert bahruth, “problematizing persistence of vision: a demonstration activity” (paper presented at international institute on peace education at kibbutz beit oren, haifa israel, july 28-august 4, 2008). 
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 in the cage. through a series of questions we reached a scientific understanding of the concept, and then explored the metaphorical nature of the images, to provoke through questions, how received culture puts all of us in cages that aren’t immediately visible. the saying in anthropology is “the last thing a fish would discover is the water in which it swims.” without further explanation, i introduced the next activity described as the lowest budget documentary in the world. rather than just using two images, a collection of images would be used. i told the group i was the producer, director and editor of the film. i asked for silence as we “watched the movie.” a series of pictures circulated, one by one, around the circle with nothing more than an invitation to ponder the meanings and to write a quick response to general impressions of the photographs. the first picture was of a family farm with curved furrows of fields, surrounded by woods left intact. the next picture was a housing tract of identical houses in straight rows, followed by another picture of a “sanitary landfill” (euphemism for a dump). in the next picture, two men are bathing in the waters warmed by the thermal pollution of a factory, apparently oblivious to possible pollutants in the water. the following picture shows a worker in ultraprotective gear, wearing a hardhat, gas mask and rubber gloves, while handling a long steel pole to maneuver a dangerous substance. next, a miner is digging through ore with a pickaxe. next in the sequence is a man with a chainsaw cutting down a huge old growth tree. then, comes a photo of two people covering their faces with their t-shirts as they walk through what appears to be a violent dust storm. the next photo is of a black person’s feet wearing sandals handmade from bits of cloth and empty plastic soda bottles. next is a photo of a young boy with an assault rifle. finally, the dramatic ending of the documentary shows a field where numerous men on crutches are playing soccer; all are missing a leg, apparent victims of landmines. as a documentary, it is through the overall cumulative effect of the series of photos that i hope to create a response. the participants and i write our general impressions for a few minutes and then they are invited to share in pairs what they have written. once time has been allowed for sharing, i ask the group for one of two ways to engage. first, when invited, someone may be more than willing to share. second, someone may wish to nudge the person they shared with, encouraging them to share. i do not nominate my students. nomination is a misuse of power and the affirmation of an authoritarian, patriarchal approach to schooling that reinforces the very structures of hegemony i am attempting to problematize. nomination is one of the “master’s tools,” while invitation is an alternative pedagogical response. it is through the dialectical interaction of the group that we can collectively make meanings from the common experience of the documentary. my goal is to guide the discourse in ways that help people to connect the dots and to see that this is far from a random assortment of photos. instead, it is a deliberately arranged collection of photos thoughtfully selected and positioned to reflect the connectedness of daily actions and the direct or indirect consequences of lifestyles in consumer cultures, within those cultures, and on powerless people caught in the wake of a globalized neoliberalism. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 175-186 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/
 
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 it is humbling and encouraging to be among a critical mass of people working consciously and conscientiously to humanize the everyday in a world under pressure to be globalized into an increasingly antihumane experience for the bulk of humanity. such gatherings and interactions offer hope, which the encounter just described practices as a critical pedagogy of invitation. all such engagements provide opportunities for cultural workers to hone their ontological clarity, an important project in order to increase the effectiveness of our work. they require persistence of vision. conclusion freire was clear that one cannot provide the circumstances for others to become liberated if one is enslaved to a system of indoctrination. the first moment of embarking on a journey away from the “pseudoconcrete”13 is to recognize the big lies inherent in the invented reality bestowed upon us through our received culture. the internal logic of hegemony is kept unexamined by providing a “banking” experience in schools where the necessary skills to write upon the world, rather than to be written upon, are systematically taken away. critical pedagogical considerations begin through the interrogation of the unseen hegemonic structures that depend upon “the ‘innocence’ of the exploited.”14 understanding begins through a process of naming, where language used in new ways reveals the elephant in the room that no one has yet recognized, but all have felt the weight of in the everyday experiences of stress, hunger, inhumane treatment of people, violence and other forms of oppression. kosík was instrumental in naming the faulty logic of the received hegemonic culture and structures that promote the exploitation and oppression of people in capitalist orientations to reality. once the sources of inhumane and unjust social relations are identified, the cultural work necessary to respond pedagogically requires a praxis of transformation. working with students it is also necessary to comprehend the tendency for them to succumb to the consistent and insistent pressures of hegemony beyond the classroom. the concept “persistence of vision” is useful. received culture runs deep and is not undone over night. this is why the idea of lifelong learners is so vital as a disposition of curiosity and criticity toward received definitions of reality. freire advised a practice of patientimpatience15 as we work with students to generate new understandings after deconstructing the dialectical relationships between the social, economic, historical and political contexts of pseudoconcrete hegemonic constructions of reality. denouncing the dehumanizing practice of banking requires the announcing of a humanizing praxis where power relations in the classroom replace dominance and oppression with inclusion and edification of the learners as intellectuals and subjects of history prepared to engage in the continuous project of agency in a history which is always unfinished. 























































 13 karel kosik, dialectics of the concrete: a study on problems of man and world. dordrecht, holland: d. reidel, 1976), 1. 
 14 paulo,freire, teachers as cultural workers: letters to those who dare teach (boulder, co: westview press,1998), 85.
 15 paulo freire, and ana maria araújo freire, pedagogy of the heart (new york: continuum, 1997), 64. 
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 that critical pedagogy is political is undeniable, but all education is political. discovering the hidden agendas of hegemonic schooling is an important first step towards transformation. as freire16 stated: “the defenders of neutrality of literacy programs do not lie when they say that the clarification of reality at the same time as learning to read and write is a political act. they are wrong, however, when they deny that the way in which they deny reality has no political meaning.” just as there has been a persistence of vision driven by war, so too there has been a quieter persistence of vision of peace. the media give most of the play to war since it sells, is more dramatic and spectacular and fits well into --and promotes-the “secular gospel”17 of militarism and capitalism. however, peace has been a constant among many enlightened human beings throughout history as well. signs of the masses of the world awakening to peaceful consciousness shine through the haze of war-minded media, but it takes critical literacy to avoid the distractions, to peel away at the propaganda, and to connect the dots. a good example is the fact that world wide protests occurred before the war on terrorism was launched following nine eleven. this is the first time in human history that a war was protested before it began, rather than to end it. unfortunately, the arrogance of ignorance (i consider these synonymous) insisted upon the agenda of globalization and the will of capital to hoard the world’s energy resources. iraq was not blessed with oil, but cursed for having it. no one is invading the sahara, but if they discover oil beneath the sand, the shit will hit the fan there too. just look a bit to the south to nigeria, a country that had made gains in reclaiming the desert for agricultural purposes only to let the desert reclaim the lands once oil was discovered. powerbrokers often claim that terrorists are attacking the american way of life, and they are not entirely wrong. the hazy vision of neoliberalism can only focus on profit through a warped lens that does not wish to see the futility of destroying the planet through excessive consumerism. greed, ambition and moral decay are served by distractions, destructive ego and ethnocentrism, and patriotism as destructive nationalism when the lives of one country or group are valued more than the lives of any other. media literacy should help students to protect themselves from the barrage of propaganda that creates compulsive consumers of products they do not need. a major difference between buying something and being sold something should be part of our proficiency in negotiating the everyday. many people are materially wealthy while spiritually poor, and unhappiness in the land of plenty is common. buy, spend, consume, borrow for material gain. the latest model makes the one we own no longer desirable even when it still functions. planned obsolescence is in the deliberate design of products. we have been raised in a throw away culture, where identity is tied to possessions and work rather than to peacefulness, nature, and consciousness. 























































 16 in moacir gadotti, reading paulo freire: his life and work (albany: suny press, 1994), 59.
 17david gabbard, “the prairie is wide: conrack comes to ‘the rez,'” in cultural circles, (boise: boise state university, 1997), 31.
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 chomsky18 refers to schooling as “the social construction of not seeing.” the indoctrinated ways of seeing, or not seeing, the world through received culture burn/etch perceptions onto our mind’s eye and corrupt our ways of seeing and being. according to bruner,19 “formal structures may get laid down early in the discourse of family life and persist stubbornly in spite of changed conditions.” when a critical educational experience is provided, often the new ways of seeing are superimposed on old images that persist. hegemony is so thorough it seems necessary for multiple counterhegemonic experiences for a breakthrough to occur. otherwise, the students may have profound experiences that shake their confidence in received worldviews, but once they return to the many surrounding experiences provided by the bombardments of hegemonic signs, symbols, media and schooling practices, the old image becomes restored and a central tendency toward mediocrity wins out. students must be equipped with a set of critical literacy skills and profound humanizing experiences that will allow them to recognize the oppressive and antihumane nature of hegemony, therefore to resist succumbing to it. they must be prepared to continue to broaden and deepen, on their own, the cultural work started in a critical classroom. they must be taught to see in new ways, what bruner20 refers to as a “metaphysical assist,” that will enable them to defend themselves from the persistence of vision of what kosík refers to as the “pseudoconcrete”21 version of reality tainting their vision. the next generation must understand that every time we spend a dollar, it is a political act. we are financing the destruction of the planet instead of boycotting products, industries and corporations whose excess profit maintains destruction of the environment as a set of deliberate calculations. in the spirit of resistance, this amounts to what huffman22 identified: “the key element was noncooperation with the colonial infrastructure.” as freire (1970) stated, they must learn well, through critical literacy, “what for and what against”. these lessons are not learned through banking, one of “the master’s tools,” but through dialectical engagements with history as an unfinished project to which we can all contribute through a pedagogy of invitation. 























































 




18
noam
chomsky and donaldo p. macedo, chomsky on miseducation (boulder, co: rowman & littlefield, 2000), 19. 
 




19
jerome
bruner, “life as narrative,” in the need for story: cultural diversity in classroom and community, ed. anne hass dyson and celia genishi (urbana, il: national council of teachers of english, 1994), 36. 
 20 ibid, 36.
 




21
karel kosik, dialectics of the concrete: a study on problems of man and world. dordrecht, holland: d. reidel, 1976), 1.
 22 vern huffman, “stories from the cha cha cha,” in the impossible will take a little while: a citizen's guide to hope in a time of fear, ed. paul rogat loeb (new york: basic books, 2004), 161.
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 bibliography bahruth, robert. 2005. critical literacy versus reading programs: schooling as a form of control. international journal of learning 11: 509-515 bahruth, robert. 2008. problematizing persistence of vision: a demonstration activity. paper read at international institute on peace education, at kibbutz beit oren, july 28-august 4, in haifa, israel. bruner, jerome. 1994. life as narrative. in the need for story : cultural diversity in classroom and community. ed. anne hass dyson and celia genishi. urbana, il: national council of teachers of english. chávez chávez, rudolfo. 2008. the direct and indirect influence of karel kosík on paulo freire’s work. computer printout, department of curriculum and instruction, new mexico state university. chomsky, noam, and donaldo p. macedo. 2000. chomsky on miseducation. boulder, co: rowman & littlefield. foucault, michel, graham burchell, colin gordon, and peter miller. 1991. the foucault effect: studies in governmentality : with two lectures by and an interview with michel foucault. chicago: university of chicago press. freire, paulo. 1970. pedagogy of the oppressed. new york: herder and herder. freire, paulo. 1991. foreword. in an unquiet pedagogy : transforming practice in the english classroom, edited by eleanor kutz and hephzibah roskelly. portsmouth, nh: boynton cook/heinemann. freire, paulo. 1998. teachers as cultural workers: letters to those who dare teach. boulder, co: westview press. freire, paulo, and ana maria araújo freire. 1997. pedagogy of the heart. new york: continuum. gabbard, david. 1997. the prairie is wide: conrack comes to ‘the rez'. in cultural circles, 2948. boise: boise state university. gadotti, moacir. 1994. reading paulo freire: his life and work. albany: suny press. giroux, henry a. 2007. the university in chains: confronting the military-industrial-academic complex. boulder, co: paradigm publishers. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 175-186 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/
 
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 huffman, vern. 2004. stories from the cha cha cha. in the impossible will take a little while: a citizen's guide to hope in a time of fear. ed. paul rogat loeb, 161-162. new york: basic books. kosik, karel. 1976. dialectics of the concrete: a study on problems of man and world. dordrecht, holland: d. reidel. lorde, audre. 1984. sister outsider: essays and speeches. trumansburg, ny: crossing press. brenes in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 1 volume 2 number 1 (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ education for sustainable development based on the earth charter abelardo brenes, ph.d. special advisor to earth charter international member of monitoring and evaluation expert group (meeg), united nations decade of education for sustainable development mailing address: apartado 95 barrio méxico 1005 san josé, costa rica e-mail: abrenesca@racsa.co.cr in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 2 the earth charter, educational change and pedagogy introduction this is an essay of hope in humanity’s moral and intellectual capacity to envision, jointly plan, and carry-forth a concerted effort to meet the historically unique challenges we face and also to create opportunities for fulfilling the potential of our evolutionary heritage. it assumes that to achieve the above, it is imperative to strengthen the effectiveness of education, training and information sharing guided by common values and principles that buttress and foster ways of living in an integrally peaceful way. this will entail protecting and promoting fundamental human rights and freedoms, particularly the right to education. the essay will start by stating basic assumptions concerning the concepts of ‘integral peace’ and “sustainable human development”. bearing in mind the main internationally mandated education action movements related to the united nations, the case will be made that the united nations decade for education for sustainable development offers a critically needed opportunity for a worldwide educational and cultural movement that can harness the wonderful qualities of humans to meet our challenges and fulfill our evolutionary potential, which if achieved will manifest an integral way of living peacefully, in three fundamental dimensions: persons living peacefully and sustainably as members of the web and community of cosmos, earth and life; with one another as equal members of the human community; and on the personal level, as a self-appreciative and self-directed personal evolutionary unfoldment. such a process can be carried-forth if humans develop a common vision of a desirable and possible world and an understanding of the path required to achieve it by transforming reality wisely and intelligently, on the basis of shared values, norms and principles. this is expressed as a soulfully deep commitment to a shared covenant with in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 3 one another and the community of life, that is, a cosmopolitan ethical covenant. the earth charter is an international document that is now a core instrument of the united nations decade for education for sustainable development. it already has been adopted as a covenant of this nature by myriad individuals and organizations around the world and it also provides a framework that contributes key elements for an educational philosophy and pedagogy adequate to fulfil these tasks. explicating these elements is the main import of the essay. culture of peace the forging of a global movement for a culture of peace has become an urgent pursuit of humanity, as acknowledged by the united nations in various declarations and programs of action. in its declaration and programme of action on a culture of peace1 it defines a culture of peace as “…a set of values, attitudes, traditions and modes of behavior and ways of life based on…” a set of principles and calls for actions by governments, intergovernmental organizations, and civil society organizations. these principles are: (a) respect for life, ending of violence and promotion and practice of nonviolence through education, dialogue and cooperation; (b) full respect for the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of states and non-intervention in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state, in accordance with the charter of the united nations and international law; (c) full respect for and promotion of all human rights and fundamental freedoms; (d) commitment to peaceful settlement of conflicts; (e) efforts to meet the developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations; (f) respect for and promotion of the right of development; (g) respect for and promotion of equal rights and opportunities for women and 1 united nations general assembly, declaration and program of action on a culture of peace, resolution a/53/243 (new york: united nations, 1999), 2-3. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 4 men; (h) respect for and promotion of the right of everyone to freedom of expression, opinion and information; (i) adherence to the principles of freedom, justice, democracy, tolerance, solidarity, cooperation, pluralism, cultural diversity, dialogue and understanding at all levels of society and among nations, and fostered by an enabling national and international environment conducive to peace. these actions, according to the 1999 plan of action, are to be pursued in eight domains of action: 1. actions to foster a culture of peace through education 2. actions to promote sustainable economic and social development 3. actions to promote respect for all human rights 4. actions to ensure equality between women and men 5. actions to foster democratic participation 6. actions to advance understanding, tolerance and solidarity 7. actions to support participatory communication and the free flow of information and knowledge 8. actions to promote international peace and security.2 elsewhere,3 the author of this essay has argued that this educational action framework has been considered a failure and proposes explanatory hypothesis of why on the basis of geopolitical, ideological, and psychological considerations. the crux of these hypothesis is the predominance of the security paradigm over an integral and positive approach to peace. in these essays, brenes also argues that the concept of sustainable human development offers an alternative approach to fostering a global culture of peace by 2 ibid, pp. 5-11. 3 see: (1) abelardo brenes-castro, “an integral model of peace education,” in educating for a culture of social and ecological peace, ed. anita l. wenden (albany: state university of new york press, 2004), 77-98 and (2) abelardo brenes, “personal transformations needed for cultures of peace,” in handbook on building cultures of peace, ed. joe de rivera (cambridge: springer, 2008, in press). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 5 tapping into the positive dimensions of an integral peace concept in which the imperatives of the human rights framework are subsumed within a broader shared ecological imperative towards the integrity of earth and the community of life. this concept is the cornerstone of the united nations decade for education for sustainable development (2005—2014) and the earth charter constitutes a normatively-based integral explication of it. sub principle 16f states the earth charter’s concept of peace. it is the last of the sub principles of the document and was inserted in that position to serve as a synthesis of the whole vision that the charter is proposing: 16f. recognize that peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part. this principle opens significant potentials for developing a holistic integrative pedagogical rationale, through which the positive psychological potentials and needs of learners for a sense of belongingness to a vital community of life, can provide the direction and energy for reaching a common understanding of the implications of living with a consciousness of respect and care for the community of life. the broader international context: the united nations decade of education for sustainable development (2005—2014) the vision of education that gave rise to the decade is: education as the foundation of sustainable development was reaffirmed at the johannesburg summit, as was the commitment embodied in chapter 36 of agenda 21 of the rio summit, 1992. the plan of in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 6 implementation establishes the linkages between the millennium development goals on universal primary education for both boys and girls, but especially girls, and the dakar framework for action on education for all. the creation of a gender-sensitive education system at all levels and of all types – formal, non-formal and informal – to reach the unserved is emphasized as a crucial component of education for sustainable development. education is recognized as a tool for addressing important questions such as rural development, health care, community involvement, hiv/aids, the environment, and wider ethical/legal issues such as human values and human rights.4 goals of the decade the primary goal for the desd is laid out in the united nations general assembly resolutions 59/237 in which the general assembly ‘encourages governments to consider the inclusion…of measures to implement the decade in their respective education systems and strategies and, where appropriate, national development plans’. furthermore, the general assembly ‘invites governments to promote public awareness of and wider participation in the decade, inter alia, through cooperation with and initiatives engaging civil society and other relevant stakeholders, especially at the beginning of the decade’.5 the subgoals at national levels are to: • provide an opportunity for refining and promoting the vision of and transition to sustainable development—through all forms of education, 4 unesco, portal for education for sustainable development, united nations decade, “concepts,” http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php url_id=23292&url_do=do_topic&url_section=201.htm. 5 unesco, united nations decade of education for sustainable development (2005-2014): internationa implementation scheme (paris: unesco, 2005), 6. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 7 public awareness and training. • give an enhanced profile to the important role of education and learning in sustainable development.6 the objectives of the decade’s action international implementation scheme are to: • facilitate networking, linkages, exchange and interaction among stakeholders in esd; • foster an increased quality of teaching and learning in education for sustainable development; • help countries make progress towards and attain the millennium development goals through esd efforts; • provide countries with new opportunities to incorporate esd into education reform efforts.7 this is to be achieved through four major thrusts of education for sustainable development: • improving access to quality basic education • reorienting existing education programs • developing public understanding and awareness • providing training8 finally, the implementation scheme proposes seven interdependent strategies: 1. vision-building and advocacy 2. consultation and ownership 3. partnerships and networks 6 ibid 7 ibid 8 ibid., p. 7. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 8 4. capacity-building and training 5. research, development and innovation 6. use of information and communication technologies 7. monitoring and evaluation9 the importance of the earth charter in the context of the decade the earth charter10 is an international document developed through the broadest international consultation process undertaken for any contemporary soft law document, which presents a set of ethical principles for orienting human action to face the challenges for sustainable development in the 21st century by building a just, sustainable, and peaceful global society. it seeks to inspire in all peoples a new sense of global interdependence and shared responsibility for the wellbeing of the human family, the larger living world, and the integrity of earth. it is an expression of hope and a call to help create a global partnership at a critical juncture in history. the earth charter's inclusive ethical vision recognizes that environmental protection, human rights, equitable human development, and peace are interdependent and indivisible. it provides a new framework for thinking about and addressing these issues. the result is a fresh, broad notion of what constitutes a sustainable community and sustainable development. the charter integrates concepts from various ngo declarations; scientific worldviews; major religions; and social movements that promote human rights, democracy, gender equality, civil society, disarmament, and peace. in addition, it distils recommendations and goals set by seven of the key united nations summits and conventions of the 1990s: convention on the rights of children (new york, 1990), environment and development 9 ibid., pp.17-23. 10 see http://www.earthcharter.org in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 9 (río, 1992), human rights (vienna, 1993), population and development (cairo, 1994), social development (cairo, 1994), women (beijing, 1995), and habitat (istanbul, 1996). the earth charter was adopted by the unesco general conference in 2003 as a significant framework for united nations decade for education for sustainable development (desd)11 which is effective from 2005 to 2014, and is being coordinated by unesco. in a resolution of the unesco executive board of 2005, it was further determined that: at the same time, unesco’s undertakings in the context of the decade on education for sustainable development will offer another opportunity to further promote the principles of the earth charter. in this regard, the text of the charter will be made available and distributed to all stakeholders, including individuals, organizations, businesses and governments, involved in the implementation of the decade on education for sustainable development.12 the fundamental ethical principles of the earth charter: universal and differentiated responsibility the principle of universal responsibility, stated in paragraph five of the ‘preamble’ of the earth charter, is of fundamental importance in meeting the critical challenges of the 21st century. it provides a necessary complementation to the universal declaration of human right’s recognition of each person as a global citizen worthy of equal respect and dignity on the part of the universal community of nations. from an ethical perspective, ‘universal responsibility’ can be interpreted as having two key implications: a) each and every person is equally responsible to the whole earth community and b) the scope of our 11 see http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php url_id=27234&url_do=do_topic&url_section=201.html 12 unesco executive board, “report by the director-general on the follow-up of decisions and resolutions adopted by the executive board and the general conference at their previous sessions, 174 ex/5”, http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001390/139029e.pdf. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 10 ethical responsibility impinges on our relationship to the universe as a whole. in principle 2b the charter states as an imperative the principle of ‘differentiated responsibility’: “affirm that with increased freedom, knowledge, and power comes increased responsibility to promote the common good”. how can responsibility be common yet differentiated? on face value, it seems contradictory. the intended meaning of ‘responsibility’ in this context seems to be ‘capacity to respond’, given that the sub principle states that the basis of differentiation is freedom, knowledge, and power. this meaning is different from the shared ethics approach of the preamble of the charter.13 these two meanings, moreover, are complimentary and of equal importance within the rationale of the charter for it to have practical utility in a world confronting the current ‘global situation’ (paragraph three of the preamble) and the ‘challenges ahead’ (paragraph four of the preamble). they pose, however, distinct implications, particularly from political and educational points of view. in particular, the political dimension of differentiated responsibility poses the challenge of transmuting ‘power through domination’, which is culturally hegemonic in the world system, to generative power. education for cultural transformation can play a key role in achieving this fundamental transformation. the charter proposes a principle which suggests a pedagogical approach appropriate for education to fulfil this role: “principle 2. care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love”14 elsewhere15 the author has developed pedagogical implications of this principle following buddhist science of mind approaches for cultivating a lifestyle based on 13 for more on these principles see abelardo brenes, “universal and differentiated responsibility,” in toward a sustainable world: the earth charter in action, ed. peter. corcoran, mirian vilela, and alide roerink (amsterdam: kit publishers, 2005), 35-37, available at http://earthcharterinaction.org/pdfs/tec-eng-pdf/eng-brenes.pdf. 14 principle 2 of the earth charter (see www.earthcharter.org). 15 abelardo brenes-castro, op. cit., 2004; abelardo brenes, op. cit., 2008. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 11 simplicity in recognizing and meeting legitimate needs and flourishing of one’s potential for love, compassion, and tolerance as members of the community of life and earth. educational applications of the earth charter16 the earth charter can be used for at least four interrelated educational purposes that can be considered as fundamental to meet the goals and objectives of the u.n. decade of education for sustainable development. these are: (1) consciousness-raising. the first educational challenge is to motivate people to act in more environmentally and socially responsible ways. here the earth charter can be used to help raise people's consciousness about the massive environmental, social and economic problems facing the world, their interdependencies, and the overarching need to live with a sense of global responsibility; (2)personal development. consciousness-raising needs to be manifested in life goals based on values and principles such as those of the earth charter. this can entail developing an awareness of our legitimate needs and satisfiers to lead a healthy and dignified life as a basis for the fulfilment of one’s mission. it also implies cultivating those virtues and character strengths consistent with a sustainable way of living, as well as the knowledge, competencies and skills for an ethics of universal responsibility. this purpose also serves to give meaning to the concept ‘sustainable human development’, thus highlighting the conviction of the author that the murky concept of ‘sustainable development’ does not refer to a 16 purposes 1, 3, and 4 were agreed upon in the discussion forum of the earth charter education advisory committee held in 2001 (see brendan mackey, “synthesis: summary of the earth charter education advisory committee inaugural online forum,” international journal of curriculum and instruction, iv, no. 1 (2002): 84. purpose 2 is an additional one proposed by the author of this essay. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 12 common interpretation of development as economic growth, but rather to the development of each and every person’s human potential and life purpose. (3) application of values and principle. the main body of the earth charter is action orientated and functions as a guide to more sustainable ways of living. the charter can serve as a framework for people to critically compare their reality with their ideals. this kind of analysis in turn provides the basis for identifying action goals for bringing about positive transformations; (4) call for action the earth charter concludes with a call for action through, among other things, new partnerships between civil society, business and government at all levels. the educational challenge here is to help foster a culture and networks for collaboration aimed at promoting justice, sustainability and peace, consistent with the charter's values. the earth charter’s potential role in the strategies of the decade of education for sustainable development bearing in mind the seven strategies of the international implementation scheme of the decade of education for sustainable development which were described earlier, it is proposed that the earth charter can be used to fulfil key educational and public awareness tasks. 1. vision-building and advocacy visioning in relation to preferred, probable, and possible futures is a key pedagogical approach. following the rationale of the preamble of the earth charter, it is proposed that in diverse educational and communication contexts and through various means activities be conducted to foster awareness that: in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 13 • we live in a critical time in the history of the planet • we are a single human family and earth community with a common destiny • we must unite to create a global sustainable society • dominant patterns of production and consumption are devastating • benefits of development are not equitable • we need fundamental changes in our values, institutions and ways of life • once basic needs are met, human development is about being more • we need to live with an ethics of universal responsibility, guided by • the principle of differential responsibility 2. consultation and ownership educational institutions can contribute to activities of multi-stakeholder consultation and public-awareness campaigns for creating the momentum required for the goals and principles of the desd to be adopted by governments, civil society constituencies, and private sectors. the earth charter provides a set of normative principles, derived from diverse international and nationally adopted policy frameworks, which can be used to strengthen processes of democratic participation and governance towards sustainable development. 3. partnership and networks educational institutions can contribute to international, regional, national and local networks and partnerships, acting as bridges and spaces for collective reflection, involving national and local governments, other educational institutions, communities, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. the earth charter, given its broad thematic structure, fundamental ethical principles which have been derived from consultations between diverse cultures and interest groups, and its basis in agreed-upon policy frameworks, offers a promising framework for creating and strengthening in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 14 partnerships and networks. moreover, there already are many networks at these different levels which have in common a recognition of the charter’s value for these purposes. 4. capacity-building and training in this strategic area, educational institutions can make substantial contributions to educational, social, and cultural change through sustainable development education. programmes should be designed to enable citizens to effectively engage in such an education at all levels and modalities, from the design of educational policy to the development of effective and culturally relevant programmes, to the actual skills of teaching for sustainability both in and out of the classroom. by providing learners with the practical skills and knowledge needed to make positive impacts on formal and nonformal educational systems, service-learning and outreach programs, educators can contribute to educational development and reform within broader social and cultural contexts. people should be inspired to act as leaders for local and national educational reform for sustainable development education—formal, non-formal and informal. a useful strategy is also to design pre-service and in-service training activities to meet the goals of the desd. the earth charter movement, through the activities of the earth charter initiative17 has already accumulated valuable experience in these areas. 5. research, development, and innovation educational institutions, in particular institutions of higher learning, in which research and outreach are integral to their activities, should be committed to the development, implementation, and evaluation of those pedagogies, contents, methods, and learning materials that can provide effective learning and cultural sharing in education for sustainable development. cooperation within broad networks of universities, schools, and organizations are important for this purpose, given that the challenges of creating 17 for educational resources see http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/resources/. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 15 sustainable futures are planetary and the contributions of diverse cultures are critical for mutual learning and creating a global learning community. thus local learning communities can benefit from and also contribute to this broader challenge by creating organic linkages with other learning communities. 6. use of information and communication technologies the sharing of knowledge and exemplary practices of sustainable living and participating in the global discussion of how we can create sustainable futures is critical. for this purpose it is recommended that continuous exchanges of information be fostered, utilizing multiple channels and technologies, to reach populations living in diverse cultural and educational contexts. such sharing includes acknowledging the value of diverse cultures that demonstrate the values and principles of sustainable living, as well as the academic knowledge necessary to the achievement of the decade’s goals. 7. monitoring and evaluation it is of utmost importance that we rigorously and continually assess and evaluate all of our activities and support communities in doing so, thus contributing to the monitoring and evaluation that is necessary for the fulfilment of the desd’s goals with efficiency and efficacy.18 strategies for educational reform in this section, these seven strategy areas will be explored in an attempt to propose a more systematic approach leading to a planetary social learning model for sustainable development. 18 earth charter international has already developed tools for use of the charter for assessment. see http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/2007/06/ec_assess_pictures.html. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 16 within the context of education, there are many pedagogical developments and paradigms of educational change that can contribute to create the needed vision and strategy for the policies and practices needed for education to live up to the extraordinary challenges and opportunities of our time. many of them are converging in a relatively new family of approaches to education for sustainable development that are called ‘social learning’ or ‘societal learning’. wals and van der leij make the case for social learning in the following way: …after two decades of talk about sustainability and sustainable development, it appears easier to identify what is unsustainable (i.e., ecologically, socially, economically, ethically, culturally and environmentally) than to identify what it is to be sustainable. what is clear by now is that to break deeply entrenched, unsustainable patterns (assumptions, behaviours and values) requires a new kind of thinking inspired and informed by powerful learning processes that simultaneously lead to individual and collaborative action and transformation…the nature of sustainability-challenges seems to be such that a routine problem-solving approach falls short, as transitions towards a sustainable world require more than attempts to reduce the world around us into manageable and solvable problems. instead, such transitions require a more systemic and reflexive way of thinking and acting with the realization that our world is one of continuous change and ever-present uncertainty…19 the past record of substantial large-scale educational change does not provide sufficient theoretical guidance for the development of the policies, strategies, and pedagogies that are needed to fulfil the goals and objectives of the united nations decade of education for sustainable development. according to goodson the international historical record of 19 arjen e. j. wals and tore van der leij, introduction to social learning towards a sustainable world, ed. arjen e.j. wals (wageningen: wageningen academic publishers, 2007), 17. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 17 successful educational change initiatives demonstrates that: educational change proposals resemble political parties. they represent a ‘coalition’ of interests and projects brought together under a common name at a particular point in time. when these separate segments of projects and interests are harmoniously organized, the social movement behind the political party or the educational change gains direction and force.” 20 goodson distinguishes three key segments of educational change processes which need to be harmonized for effective educational change: a) the internal change agents working within schools who promote change; b) an external framework, such as educational laws, policies and mandates, which often are imposed top-down; and c) the personal life missions of the individuals involved in the change. he believes that in the 1960s and 1970s, internal change agency was more dominant, followed by a period of dominance of external interests—many of them linked to economic and political dimensions. educational change in our time, if it is to meet the requirements of the united nations decade of education for sustainable development, entails that learners (teachers and students as learners in dialogue) can find meaning in dedicating their personal life missions to the kind of education required for the great work at hand. the challenge is to reach a harmonization of life missions with the internal qualities of educational communities and the external societal interests and policies that compete for influence in the other two segments. one implication of these considerations is the importance of emphasizing emancipation and empowerment of educators to find meaning in and creatively learning how they can devote their life missions to the quality of educational reform that is needed. to achieve this, it is of paramount importance to develop effective processes to synergize 20 ivor f. goodson, “social histories of educational change,” journal of educational change 2 (2001): 45. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 18 formal, non formal and informal education as complementary dimensions of a planetary social learning approach in which, ultimately, all humans should have the opportunity and means of participating. how can this be achieved? hargreaves21 makes a good case for bearing in mind seven strategic geographies in the planning of educational reform. these distinctions are relevant to the arguments of this essay. they are: market geographies, which “…define and distribute differences of status and opportunity between schools through complex processes of consumer choice.”22 network geographies. “…social and professional networks connect people through complex webs of interaction and relationship in ways that develop shared knowledge as well as professional support over time”.23these can be virtual and electronic as well as face to face. virtual geographies. “virtual geographies harness the power of computer and other technologies to vanquish the tyranny of space. virtual geographies…open up access to knowledge far beyond the set curriculum and its recommended texts.”24 geographies of scaling up. “the intensity of interest in educational reform at the turn of the century, and in ‘scaling it up’ so it affects very many schools, not just an innovative few, has created new governmental geographies of educational change (as well as resurrecting some older ones)…geographies of scaling up have received mixed reviews in the literature).”25 21 andy hargreaves, “sustainability of educational change: the role of social geographies.” journal of educational change 3 (2002): 189-214. 22 ibid., p. 202. 23 ibid. 24 ibid., p. 203. 25 ibid., pp. 203-204. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 19 standardized geographies. “in response to the problems of scaling-up, inpatient governments have imposed a “new orthodoxy” of educational change on their schools, insisting on widespread and wholesale compliance with detailed national, or state-wide curricula, tightly prescribed performance standards, and closely aligned, high-stakes assessments on which the futures and even survival of teachers and schools depend…”26 differential geographies. “the differential approach to school improvement takes the strategic geography of educational change beyond the unenforceable voluntarism of networks and scaling on the one hand up, and beyond the inflexibilities of enforced standardization on the other. but in doing so, it underpins social division with educational differentiation. it offers freedom to change to the affluent and fear of failure to the rest.”27 geographies of social movements. “all of the social geographies of educational change described so far encounter serious difficulties in achieving large-scale success, especially in relation to goals and principles of social justice and equity as well as sustained standards…social movements are an especially creative strategic geography of social and educational change…[they] have a wide-ranging repertoire of strategies incorporating informal networks, lobbying, protest marches, media campaigns, lifestyle choices, sometimes formal organizational bodies and much more. relationships are at the heart of them…they are rooted not in self-interest but in a clear moral purpose which ultimately benefits the universal good of all…what better candidate for a social movement than public education? when governments remain under the sway of market fundamentalism and have minimal commitment to public education and public life—then teachers and others can by-pass governments, and capture the public imagination about education and teaching today, on which governments and their electability ultimately depend.”28 26 ibid., p. 204. 27 ibid., pp. 205-206. 28 ibid., pp. 206-208. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 20 paul hawken has attempted to count the number of social movements in the world today and reached the conclusion that there are currently over one million organizations working for ecological sustainability and social justice. a key passage conveys how he characterizes this unique movement: the movement has three basic roots: the environmental and social justice movements, and indigenous cultures’ resistance to globalization—all of which are intertwining. it arises spontaneously from different economic sectors, cultures, regions, and cohorts, resulting in a global, classless, diverse, and embedded movement, spreading worldwide without exception. in a world grown too complex for constrictive ideologies, the very word movement may be too small, for it is the largest coming together of citizens in history.29 the relationship between cultural change, the role of education, and social movements is of critical importance in determining the viability of arresting the critical unsustainable patterns30 we are currently involved throughout the planet and fulfilling the aspirations of a sustainable and integrally peaceful world in which all humans can flourish as part of a grander evolutionary process. hawken makes an interesting analysis concerning the chronologies and differential rates of change in nature and human organizations, distinguishing in the latter three key domains of our globalized present situation: international capital flows and commerce, culture, and governance.31 he believes that “…nature has the greatest inertia but the most resilience.”32 commerce has the most rapid pace of change, followed by governance, and culture. he also believes that 29 paul hawken, “to remake the world. something earth-changing is afoot among civil society,” orion magazine, may/june (2007) http ://www.orionmag azi ne .org/i ndex.php/articl es/articl e/265/. 30 a valuable historical análisis of our current situation is given by patrick hossay, unsustainable. global environmental and social justice (london & new york: zed books, 2006). 31 paul hawken, blessed unrest. how the largest movement in the world came into being and why no one saw it coming (new york: viking, 2007). 32 ibid., p. 134. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 21 “…sustainability is about stabilizing the currently disruptive relationship between earth’s two most complex systems—human culture and the living world. the interrelation between these two systems marks every person’s existence and is responsible for the rise and fall of every civilization.”33 if these assumptions are valid, then educational reform for deep cultural change, even if effective, will require that local, national, and global citizen movements find ways of synergizing their struggles for human rights and earth imperatives through democratic participation. hawken believes that this global movement cannot be characterized in the traditional ideological sense: “ideologies exclude openness, diversity, resiliency, and multiplicity, the very qualities that nourish life in any system, be it ecosystem, immune system, or social system.”34 he adds that “…it is a body of thought that coheres into a values system but not a belief system; it is a confluence of evolving ideas that never ceases; a creator of choice, actions, and solutions that confront suffering and degradations visited upon people and the earth... just as life organizes with information, the most powerful instrument wielded by the movement is an unimpeded flow of information, for that directionless communication is the only way the whole of humanity can reorganize itself.”35 hawken also believes that there is a common core ethical intent that drives this movement: “…first is the golden rule; second is the sacredness of all life. whether it be a creature, child, or culture.”36 these are nurtured, hawken believes, by the goodness of the human heart: “…compassion and love of others are at the heart of all religions, and at the heart of this movement.”37 it is relevant to note that this is essentially the same 33 ibid., p. 172 34 ibid., p. 162. 35 ibid., pp. 176-177. 36 ibid., p. 186. 37 ibid., p. 188. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 22 point that the earth charter is stating, particularly in what this author considers to be it’s foundational ethical and pedagogical principle, namely, principle 2, already quoted above. is it possible to harness the collective will, wisdom, and expertise of scientists, policymakers, informed citizen movemnts, educators, and communicators to design a planetary social learning system and movement to synergize this global citizen movement into an effective governance for earth? the earth charter, if approached as a living document which is itself the fruit of a vast social movement and which collects the essence of the ethical consciousness of civil society organizations and governments, has the potential to provide the architecture needed to integrate the moral consciousness of humanity with transformative action through deep democratic participation at all levels of governance. this approach assumes as important learning goals understanding how the earth charter principles and sub-principles were distilled from agreed-upon ethical and policy commitments by governments in the main u.n. international conferences and conventions of the 1990s and to appreciate their ethical and legal power. specifically, the author is proposing that the international educational community committed to the goals and objectives of the united nations decade of education for sustainable development create a social learning model and system that uses the earth charter as a framework for a multi-stakeholder participatory educational strategy. many of the key charter principles and sub principles can serve as categories and be linked to the ongoing follow-up policies and action frameworks to which diverse u.n., other ingos, ngos (at different levels), universities, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders are committed to within a broad understanding of what is sustainable development (sd). educators and learners need easily accessible updated information on the status of these policy frameworks, have opportunities for forums, and for sharing educational resources and experiences, particularly of those peoples and organizations who are modelling sustainable ways of living. this rationale can provide a framework for the strengthening of the international in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 23 multi-lateral governance framework, through dialogic participation of these diverse stakeholders. strategic networking and virtual geographies for educational change can constitute a key component of a planetary social learning model, provided that vigorous policies are set in motion to overcome the digital divide in the world. there are already in operation valuable portals based on social networking principles that are partially fulfilling these needs. a noteworthy example is http://www.wiserearth.org/ developed by paul hawken’s natural capital institute, which currently has 108,842 organizations.38 in 2007 hawken39 announced two other websites that would complement this one, wiserbusiness and wisergovernment. to date these have not been developed. moreover it is telling that these were foreseen as separate portals. the argument being made in this essay is the need for civil society-based networks, including educational ones, to have linkage capacity to governmental and inter-governmental sources of information. specifically, the author is arguing for the creation of a broad website based on the earth charter as its architecture. it could explicate how most of the principles are based on ongoing mandates emanating from major u.n. international conferences, conventions and declarations. in this way, its use as a 'living document' could take on a very concrete, dynamic meaning. the website could host multiple forums, have all kinds of linkages to orient educators on education for sustainable development (esd), and be a dynamic space for cycles of visioning, monitoring, evaluation and revisioning in relation to the diverse policy domains of sd and esd. people need to know not only what these policy commitments entail, but also have the means of understanding their on-going status, the reality of the situations they are meant to address, and how they can participate as citizens in democratic ways to assure effective governance at local, national, and international levels. 38 acessed on may 31, 2008. 39 paul hawken, blessed unrest, op. cit., p. 193. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 24 given the complexity and dynamism of earth processes, the critical thresholds that emergent trends have reached or are being reached—for example climate change, loss of biodiversity, peak oil, food scarcity—all pertinent knowledge needs to be shared and opportunely applied at all earth system dimensions and levels to attempt to mitigate and reverse these and other interrelated trends. this proposal is also justifiable by the goals, objectives, and strategies of the desd. earth system sustainability, human development, and education/learning for sustainable living are intrinsically related. shared fundamental values, knowledge, and policies for action are required for earth system governance, which requires maximum ecocentric synergy between human political entities and all members of societies. as stated in the desd international implementation scheme:40 “governments and civil society should maintain a permanent dialogue in which issues are aired and where common agendas are forged through ongoing conversation, debate, and mutual learning.” further-on it states that the desd is about building momentum: “…such momentum will be built and maintained to the extent to which stakeholders at every level create and own the vision for esd.”41 and further-on, it adds: “…the effectiveness of the desd will depend on the strength and inclusiveness of the partnerships, networks, and alliances that develop among stakeholders at all levels.”42 the inclusive quality of the desd implies that all humans, all members of the community of life, and all earth systems are stakeholders in sustainable human development and have a role to play in education for sustainable development. visioning, planning, acting, monitoring, evaluation, and revisioning are cyclical cognitive and connative processes all stakeholders are continuously engaging in at multiple levels and time scales. as stated by the desd international implementation scheme: “ownership by stakeholders depends on consultation and wide participation in visioning, 40 op cit., p. 17. 41 ibid., p. 18. 42 ibid. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 25 policy formulation, planning, and implementing.”43 given that the united nations decade for education for sustainable development is an educational policy action framework that has been agreed-upon by governments and is not mandatory, it is vulnerable to the will of often divergent and competing interests of nation-states. therefore it is pertinent to ask if a planetary monitoring and learning system should be centralized by governments and the united nations? or should the system be fully participative and multi-centred such as www.wiserearth.org? the position of this essay is in favour of the latter approach. ethical principles, such as those espoused by the earth charter, if given a foundational position in such a system, can provide the link required between shared values, policies, and action. this is also the import of the desd: a world in which the values inherent in sustainable development are integrated into all aspects of learning in order to encourage changes in behaviour that allow for a more sustainable, economically viable and just society for all, a world where everyone has the opportunity to benefit from education and learn the values, behaviour and lifestyles required for a sustainable future and for positive societal transformation.44 in sum, this is a challenge and opportunity for all those individuals and organizations who identify and feel a commitment to the four main principles of the earth charter to come together as one human family, in deep respect and in resonance with the greater community of life, to: 1. respect earth and life in all its diversity. 2. care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love. 43 ibid. 44 ibid., pp. 8-9. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 26 3. building democratic societies that are just, participatory, sustainable, and peaceful. 4. secure earth’s bounty and beauty for present and future generations.45 45 earth charter, op. cit. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 27 bibliography brenes-castro, abelardo. “an integral model of peace education.” in educating for a culture of social and ecological peace, edited by anita l. wenden, 77-98. albany: state university of new york press, 2004. brenes, abelardo. “universal and differentiated responsibility.” in toward a sustainable world: the earth charter in action, edited by peter corcoran, mirian vilela, and alide roerink, 35-37. amsterdam: kit publishers, 2005. available at http://earthcharterinaction.org/pdfs/tec-eng-pdf/eng-brenes.pdf (accessed on may 30, 2008). brenes, abelardo. “personal transformations needed for cultures of peace.” in handbook on building cultures of peace, edited by joe de rivera. cambridge: springer, 2008, in press. earth charter international, “earth charter”. http://www.earthcharter.org accessed on may 29, 2008. goodson, ivor f. “social histories of educational change.” journal of educational change 2 (2001): 45-63. hargreaves, andy. “sustainability of educational change: the role of social geographies.” journal of educational change 3 (2002): 189-214. hawken, paul. blessed unrest. how the largest movement in the world came into being and why no one saw it coming. new york: viking, 2007. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 28 hawken, paul. “to remake the world. something earth-changing is afoot among civil society,” orion magazine may/june (2007), http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/265/ (accessed may 31, 2008). hossay, patrick. unsustainable. global environmental and social justice. london & new york: zed books, 2006. mackey, brendan. “synthesis: summary of the earth charter education advisory committee inaugural online forum,” international journal of curriculum and instruction iv, no. 1 (2002): 84. unesco. “concepts.” portal for education for sustainable development, united nations decade. http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php url_id=23292&url_do=do_topic&url_section=201.htm (accessed on may 29, 2008). unesco, united nations decade of education for sustainable development (2005 2014): international implementation scheme. paris: unesco, 2005. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001486/148654e.pdf (accessed on may 30, 2008). unesco executive board. “report by the director-general on the follow-up of decisions and resolutions adopted by the executive board and the general conference at their previous sessions, 174 ex/5”. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001390/139029e.pdf (accessed on may 30, 2008). united nations general assembly, declaration and program of action on a culture of peace. resolution a/53/243. new york: united nations, 1999. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 1-29 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 29 wals, arjen e. j.and leij, tore van der. introduction to social learning towards a sustainable world, 17, edited by arjen e.j. wals. wageningen: wageningen academic publishers, 2007. in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 106 volume 19 number 1 (2025):106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 solidarity in an eco-relational paradigm for peace and justice melissa marini švigelj, ph.d. james madison university svigelmm@jmu.edu introduction in the spring of 2024, a discussion among a small group of colleagues about a social justice concentration option available to undergraduate university students majoring in justice studies prompted reconsideration of key terms associated with the program of study. according to the department’s website description, this social justice concentration in justice studies at a u.s. public university is designed to investigate what is fair, equitable, and just in society. it promotes sustainable and just solutions to social, political, and economic ills and an end to the exploitation of traditionally targeted populations. when the discussion concluded, “oppression,” “liberation,” “intersectionality,” and “equity” remained key terms for the program’s social justice concentration, and the group of colleagues agreed to add the word “solidarity” as a fifth. as with many conceptual terms, the addition of “solidarity” compelled further contemplations. what kind of solidarity is necessary for students to learn so they can contribute to making our world more just and peaceful? what https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax mailto:svigelmm@jmu.edu in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 107 epistemological and paradigmatic shifts and resources does this type of solidarity require? this conceptual essay emerged from my participation in that spring 2024 discussion. it explores mainstream understandings and expressions of solidarity and how public education strikes have demonstrated more expansive solidarity over the last ten years in their demands and actions. then, what eco-relational solidarity encompasses and how and why it should appear in university classrooms are discussed. next, indigenous epistemologies and practices as resources and the dismantling of predominantly western anthropocentric solidarity perspectives that include human exceptionalism, domination, and equivalent reciprocity are discussed. ultimately, i suggest that constructing a broader scope of solidarity and with whom and what we pledge solidarity are crucial for addressing the current climate crisis and integral to an eco-relational paradigm striving for peace and justice. solidarity since its evolution, the term solidarity has inspired many definitions, levels, forms, interpretations, categorizations, and material enactments. early meanings related to current mainstream understandings of solidarity have been described as conveying an anthropocentric horizontal cohesion among equals seeking civil and human rights, often with expectations of reciprocity (metz, 1999; tava, 2021). in general, traditional western understandings of solidarity have emphasized the intersubjective relations that emerge during shared experiences of confronting interlocking systems of domination. this type of solidarity often occurs when people commit to acting for collective well-being, arises from necessity during times of crisis, and highlights human interdependence and responsibilities to one another (nielsen, 2017). labor union members across industries and professions have typically exemplified this traditional understanding of solidarity. labor union solidarity between the 1930s and 1970s, for example, provided much of the political muscle behind the social democratic programs of the new deal and great society, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 108 which significantly decreased vast wealth disparities among some demographics that began during the industrial revolution in the united states (casey, 2023). some have argued and noted that “solidarity has become a mere symbolic gesture, that contemporary expressions of solidarity are ironic articulations of individualist self-making that avoid political action and commitments in the interest of preserving a sense of personal moral high ground, and that the feminist movement continues to marginalize black women despite the invocation of solidarity” (gaztambide-fernández, p. 252). of course, groups such as fascists, religious zealots, or nations at war can also unite in solidarity to advance their agendas or mobilize solidarity for destructive purposes (barbara ehrenreich in tolentino, 2020). although these critiques of mainstream solidarity merit attention, this essay proceeds from conceptualizations of solidarity beyond often narrow, dominant western expressions of solidarity that emphasize human dominion. instead, it focuses on solidarity’s capacity for contributing to movements aiming to achieve peace and justice when solidarity is considered through an eco-relational paradigm. instead of specific commonalities across identities spurring solidarity, eco-relational solidarity emphasizes the interconnectivities associated with existing on earth from the level of the intimate to the unnoticeable or unimagined. solidarity in and as education over the past ten years, k-12 public school teachers and support staff in different regions of the united states engaged in union-sanctioned and wildcat labor strikes with some impressive accomplishments, such as halting school privatization, lowering class sizes, and earning pay increases for teachers and support staff (blanc, 2020). these strikes succeeded because they considered and proactively portrayed their struggles as fights for the common good. they communicated and collaborated with students, families, and the larger public. educators expanded on traditional forms of solidarity. they fought for better pay and working conditions for themselves and support staff in addition to demanding more nurses and counselors, more school funding, and an end to racial profiling in schools (blanc, 2019b). https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 109 gaztambide-fernández & matute (2014) describe solidarity as pedagogical because it involves relationships, intentions, and ethical commitments and is driven by a desire to transform. the solidarity exhibited in public education strikes is particularly pertinent because teachers often consider their jobs a calling to develop students into the best versions of themselves and to engage in pedagogical practices that produce responsible, democratically engaged global citizens. one high school student who observed teachers striking stated, “‘our teachers are setting an example of bravery by standing up to ignorance and inaction… our teachers have set a better example than our legislators have for the past decade’” (quoted in blanc, 2019a, p. 4). those at universities who educate future educators and students pursuing other studies are also in exponentially fertile environments to set examples, transform, and inspire capacious forms of solidarity that extend our understanding of what and who is included in the common good. we should honor and learn from the sacrifices and accomplishments of ongoing labor and social solidarity movements, such as the ones just mentioned, without foreclosing the possibility of forging more critical, expansive, and inclusive solidarity formations in the present and future. solidarity requires deliberate attention to relationships, intentional and critical engagements, and a desire to transform oppressive conditions. an embrace of solidarity as one of five keywords for a social justice concentration in a justice studies undergraduate program compels further critical contemplation regarding what and whom solidarity omits and on what premise and to assess how exclusions that perpetuate harm might be remedied. if a collective goal is for students to contribute to making the world more just and peaceful, then these critical considerations are essential to determining what kind of solidarity is required to meet these objectives and accomplish our goals. i suggest that solidarity in an ecorelational paradigm is a necessary component. eco and relational for constructing eco-relational https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 110 from an earth systems perspective, “eco” (from the greek οἶκος: house) reflects an entire house and all its inhabitants and contents. the prefix “eco” is attached to relational with a hyphen to conceptually position humans in relation to everything and everyone within ecosystems on earth rather than at their center and surrounded by environments. instead of specific commonalities across identities spurring solidarity, eco-relational solidarity emphasizes the interconnectivities associated with existing on earth from the level of the intimate to the unnoticeable or unimagined. the term more-than-human indicates the entangled relationality among humans, multiple species, natural and artificial objects, and ecosystems. more-than-human is inherently relational and embeds connection into language, thought, and, potentially, action (lambert, 2024). neglecting the term nonhuman is an intentional choice to avoid reinforcing the dominant western dualistic thinking that often creates oppositional binaries between humans and the more-than-human world. this dualism and a false binary between humans and animals contribute to the often-unquestioned daily violence and subjugation characteristic of the anthropocene. yet, admittedly, there is still room for unresolved critiques that using more-than-human problematically reifies the human as an eminent benchmark and for how language is implicated in manufacturing forms of classification and ontologies of separateness (celermajer et al., 2021). western understandings and enactments of solidarity with an emphasis on subjectivity and the conscious individual's body and mind in interaction with another's body and mind have encouraged an unquestioning acceptance of the human as the most significant and perhaps only species or entity capable or worthy of solidarity efforts. this predominantly western anthropocentric perspective of solidarity results in excluding many of earth’s inhabitants from the common good. longstanding approaches outside western paradigms explore human relationships with living beings and non-living objects, both natural and artificial (puzio, 2024). these approaches typically contextually understand more-than-human interdependencies with a more-than-human awareness and earth system perspective-taking. critical attention to the relationships across differences that solidarity demands (morgensen, 2015) means considering more-than-human relations and articulating the violence that endures when solidarity’s scope is rigidly https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 111 narrow. a more comprehensive approach to solidarity anchors us in ecosystems thinking and helps us recognize the infinite interconnections we share beyond those with fellow humans. human relationships with the more-than-human are intricately and intimately connected to what it means for humans to exist in the world. heidegger (1927/1996) uses the concept of being-in-the-world (in-der-welt-sein) to describe humans’ inseparable entwinement or relationship with the world. human relationships offer a broad starting point towards articulating conduct for a type of solidarity that begins with critically examining the impacts of the moments when humans fail to act and the effects human actions have on other living and non-living beings (and oneself). a relational approach is not a default to anthropocentrism, nor is this a starting point for constructing edicts. instead, this perspective emanates from indigenous epistemes and contributions that center on contextualized mutually beneficial interplace and interspecies relations. it compels practices of solidarity that encompass others beyond sentient animals-such as microorganisms, forests, rivers, oceans, icebergs, the air, and layers of earth, and a relationality of respect that rejects expectations for identical or parallel reciprocity and the belief that humans are the central or most important beings on the planet (coulthard & simpson, 2016; deloria, 1992; pierotti & wildcat, 2000). dismantling human exceptionalism a first step toward introducing more-than-human solidarity in classrooms is to dismantle human exceptionalism and dismiss the false binary between humans and animals. rather than pushing for the "humanization" of anyone or anything as if engaging intra-human hierarchies that inform racism, sexism, classism, ableism, and other oppression will provide a form of relief, we must confront and be honest with ourselves and students about the daily and often unquestioned violence of anthropocentrism, or the belief that human beings are the central or most important things on the planet. this deeply internalized belief in human exceptionalism or what others have referred to as speciesism, humanocentrism, or human supremacy, and violence against other animals and our planet has been so normalized across https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 112 time and space that it does not even occur to most people to question human entitlement to other animals’ bodies or anything else produced by the earth (tschakert, 2020). clark (2011) argues, “‘speciesism’ is so fundamental and allpervasive that it is still hard to imagine what society would be like without it” (p. 190). however, we must imagine and act. before an embrace of broad, more-thanhuman solidarity can manifest, a paradigm shift concerning humans must occur in classrooms. beyond merely rejecting the belief that humans alone merit ethical or political consideration, more-than-human solidarity requires a cease to cognitive dissonance about the harms excessive human consumption and extractive capitalism cause, some unlearning/unteaching of human hierarchies, and the rejection of three related ideas central to human exceptionalism described by celermajer et al. (2021): “a) that humans are physically separate or separable from other species and non-human nature, b) that humans are unique from all other species because they possess minds (or consciousness) and agency and c) that humans are therefore more important than other species” (p. 3). approaching solidarity with assumptions of multi-species agency rather than solely humans’ agency in understanding solidarity assists with shifting anthropocentric knowledge traditions toward more-than-human perspectives and eco-relations (lambert, 2024). additionally, approaching classroom inquiry from a multi-species or morethan-human position can generate new perspectives and understandings of morethan-human embeddedness. it offers a way to practice taking more-than-human perspectives and to understand and re-situate eco-relational solidarity as an essential part of human responsibility and relationships with more-than-humans regardless of capacities for reciprocity. rethinking and expanding solidarity to confront individualism’s deeply entrenched ideology and material consequences and the untenable acceptance of human exceptionalism can direct attention to the fragile ecological array of relationships that sustain life and the earth. often through engaging with indigenous peoples, whose ontologies regarding the human and more-than-human represent not only different knowledge systems but various ‘worlds’ (blaser and https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 113 cadena, 2018; omura et al., 2018; wildcat & voth, 2023), scholars across disciplines have confronted conceptualizations of earth’s inhabitants’ complex coexistence, agency, and unequally dispersed suffering beyond a human-nature dichotomy. yet, classroom paradigm shifts remain lacking when preparing students for confronting justice issues if they are not introduced to solidarity efforts immersed in more-than-human realms and predicated on the deep inter-relationality between humans and more-than-humans. existing instructional designs introducing and discussing issues of justice and solidarity can be adjusted so that the educational process includes activities that contribute to developing and expanding eco-relational solidarity. reviewing instructional materials and practices already used to find authentic moments for inserting more-than-human relationality, decentering humans, and eliminating human exceptionalism can be foundations for developing and establishing an ecorelational solidarity paradigm. importantly, eco-relational solidarity cannot be simply about redefining or acknowledging relationships, nor should it be a movement to focus on changing individual habits rather than transforming fundamental epistemologies and paradigms. it must be integrated in ways that guide students to the critical consciousness needed to engage and leverage a more comprehensive solidarity praxis while navigating politically contentious contexts. critical advances toward an eco-relational solidarity paradigm and episteme in university classrooms might be novel. however, conceptualizations of ecorelational solidarities unconstrained by western dualisms and hierarchies have manifested for tens of thousands of years among indigenous philosophies that have “posited the world, human and nonhuman alike, as animated, agential, knowing, feeling, and relational” (celermajer et al., 2021, p. 11) and have been acknowledged in some contemporary educational contexts although with mostly unimpressive implementations (da silva et al., 2023). in south africa, educational policies such as the indigenous knowledge systems policy adopted by the cabinet in 2004 highlight the need to incorporate indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge into education (hay, 2025). in peru, the federal ‘bilingual intercultural indigenous education’ program promotes environmental knowledge and agricultural traditions, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 114 enabling science classes to respect local knowledge and convey to children that they can be subsistence farmers as well as indigenous scientists (da silva et al., 2023). hay (2025) suggests that an ecological-relational ontology rooted in indigenous and traditional knowledge systems offers a more relational and potentially more effective environmental pedagogy than common reductive environmental education instructional designs that prioritize economically driven sustainable development and a calamitous “unidimensional obsession with economic growth as a panacea for human betterment” (p. 18). dissolving dominion for a global more-than-human solidarity in the climate crisis scientists have demonstrated irrefutably that humans are responsible for virtually all global heating over the last 200 years. in november, the world meteorological association issued its state of the climate 2024 update, issuing another red alert because of the pace of climate change in a single generation, which accelerates increases in greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change and harm, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, which cause greenhouse gases that are warming the earth faster than at any time in at least the last two thousand years (world meteorological association, 2024). the warmest ten years on record were 2015-2024. glacier ice loss, sea-level rise, and ocean heating increased while extreme weather caused by human-induced climate change decimated inhabitants and environments (world meteorological association, 2024). humans (predominantly in the global north) have subjugated and burdened the earth’s resources, including land, soil, water, air, and living beings, including plants and microbes (tschakert, 2020; van wichelen, 2020). of course, humans also have remarkable accomplishments to tout, but the ruins, devastation, and suffering caused by human dominion in the age of the anthropocene demand serious scrutinization of the obligations and entanglements between humans and the morethan-human realm.while prevalent portrayals of certain animals and other charismatic creatures as vibrant, adorable, and innocent can prompt sympathy and draw attention to the climate emergency, this tactic conceals power, depoliticizes https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 115 climate change, and falls short of communicating the intricate causes, connections, and responsibilities that demand attention and action (tschakert, 2024). developing an eco-relational solidarity paradigm and praxis that includes overcoming current beliefs about human exceptionalism provides a meaningful opportunity in classrooms to interrogate more inclusive modes of connecting across differences and to critically examine human responsibility and complacency in the climate crisis. this type of solidarity is described by rock et al. as “more-thanhuman solidarity” (p. 790) and refers to human activity directed toward carrying costs and making tradeoffs of various kinds with the intent of assisting others, whenever cared-for others include non-human animals, plants, objects, or places. approaching classroom instruction from a more-than-human solidarity perspective moves students away from the “fiction of individualist primacy, toward an ecological reality where humans actually exist: in a larger set of material relationships” (celermajer et al., 2021, p. 15) to which they bear great responsibility. many students already experience the aesthetic, affective, and embodied ways some humans connect with the more-than-human (todd 2016). solidarity with the more-than-human is achieved when conservation and preservation are not merely for human welfare or satisfaction but because the ecorelationship demands protection. instead of the traditional expectations of members in solidarity movements to reciprocally shoulder the burdens that pursuing common goals might entail (tava, 2021), more-than-human solidarity emphasizes relationships and equity over equality. given that some populations of humans have caused the climate crisis, those humans have more responsibility to end totalitarian practices and exploitative and extractive human domination of the earth and all that exists on it. similarly, countries with the most responsibility for global ecological harms, such as china and the united states (paddison & choi, 2024), need to acknowledge the burdens and violent deprivation and oppression they have inflicted on those with less power. acknowledgments should be accompanied by clear, actionable steps to remedy harm and heal instead of expecting any form of reciprocity. eco-relational solidarity epistemologies can “exhibit ways of becoming ‘other-than-the-human as we know https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 116 it’ without collapsing differences and homogenizing responsibilities” (tschakert, 2022, p. 278). again, indigenous epistemologies serve as a reference. indigenous ethical systems are not extractive but are premised on relations between species and the land and are based on a reciprocity principle that nourishes mutual flourishing (tomateo & grabowski, 2024; wildcat & voth, 2023). mutual flourishing among group members is often embedded in traditional understandings of solidarity. morethan-human solidarity in an eco-relational paradigm insists on the need to account for all components and other beings in ecosystems “with their own radically diverse life projects, capacities, phenomenologies, ways of being, functionings, forms of integrity, and relationalities” (celermajer et al., 2021, p. 15). this eco-relational solidarity creates possibilities for alternative ways of knowing and being, overcoming ontological human exceptionalism, and developing the collective praxes required to significantly address the climate crisis. classrooms can be spaces that call for humans to enter into an eco-relational solidarity with the more-than-human and exchange human exceptionalism's violence and devastation for a praxis that aims for and moves toward universal healing and peace. an eco-relational solidarity is not trying to do too much borderlands theorists and others have long understood the complicated process of developing solidarity across identity differences (douthirt-cohen et al., 2023). what sort of audacity is required to demand more expansive solidarities when humans have yet to overcome “the difficulties in working with and across particular identity-related differences, working across geographic separation and coerced segregation, and contending with structures of power that function to divide us both materially and ideologically” (coulthard & simpson, 2016, p. 250)? others have argued that solidarity cannot “be realized if tethered to impossible expectations leaving us coming up forever short of an unexamined ideal” (roediger, 2016, p. 225). although these points are well reasoned, sacrificing moral clarity, capacious solidarity, justice, or potential peace for current constructions of reality or political expediency is unnecessary and perhaps counterproductive. additionally, ecohttps://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 117 relational solidarity is grounded in relationships, not identities. furthermore, ideas are a dialectical part of reality (and therefore shape reality), even if their broad conditions of possibility appear impenetrably constrained by the prevailing forms of cultural hegemony, oppression, and daily existence (sanbonmatsu, 2024). the best chance of prevailing on issues that require solidarity is “showing up and reaching out” (roediger, 2016). educators who start by showing up and including eco-relational solidarity in classroom instruction can create opportunities for students in education systems constructed on reductionist western paradigms to consider the eco-relational harm humans unequally disperse and more informatively reach toward eco-relational solidarity on behalf of human, morethan-human, and ecological well-being. an urgent shift to an eco-relational solidarity paradigm and episteme is required to challenge the ecological crises that earth and its inhabitants are experiencing as humans exacerbate the harm even though these attitudes and practices are self-destructive. conclusion the history and traditions of solidarity are not definitive. the relational nature of solidarity means that its permeable contours hold possibilities and limitations that are ever-evolving and re-imaginable. new epistemologies and praxes of solidarity can emerge to induce necessary moves toward justice and peace and significantly address the human-caused climate emergency. when solidarity in an eco-relational paradigm is pursued in the context of concrete university classroom relationships (while attending to how power defines and shapes those relationships), solidarity can become an essential dimension of any educational project committed to peace, justice, and averting further climate catastrophe. although the achievement of mass eco-relational solidarity is a large and long task, we can begin to introduce an ecorelational paradigm in university classrooms by being critical of constructed binaries between nature and humans and the false binary that humans are separate from animals. at the very least, students should know that humans are animals and belong to the biological kingdom animalia and that humans are not separate from nature. human exceptionalism and domination resulted in an ongoing climate https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 118 emergency and ecologically destructive relations. paradigmatic and epistemological shifts that emphasize characteristics of eco-relational solidarity can dismantle human exceptionalism and domination and encourage practices for the mutual flourishing of all. to create solidarity and make the public education strikes in west virginia and arizona a success, rank-and-file educators “were obliged to step up in dozens of ways” (blanc, 2019a, p. 4) because of the particularly egregious conditions imposed upon them. western ideas and practices characteristic of dominant groups during the anthropocene have created extremely egregious conditions that burden fellow beings and the earth’s resources. there are dozens of ways we need to step up. i propose solidarity in an eco-relational paradigm as one fertile opportunity. references blanc, e. 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(2025). towards an indigenous and traditional “pedagogy of repair”: an ecological approach to environmental education. south african journal of philosophy, 44(1), 17–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/02580136.2025.2462431 heidegger, m. (1927/1996). being and time. trans. by j. stambaugh. albany, ny: state university of new york. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2020.1827608 https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2023.2184200 https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2022.2082733 https://doi.org/10.1080/02580136.2025.2462431 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 120 lambert, l. m. (2024). ecological empathy: relational theory and practice. ecosystems and people, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2024.2396919 maurizi, m. (2021). beyond nature: animal liberation, marxism, and critical theory. brill. metz, k.h. (1999). solidarity and history. institutions and social concepts of solidarity in 19th century western europe. in: bayertz, k. (eds) solidarity. philosophical studies in contemporary culture(5), 191-207, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9245-1_10 morgensen, s.l. (2015). a politics not yet known: imagining relationality within solidarity. american quarterly 67(2), 309-315. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/aq.2015.0023. nielsen, c. r. (2017). gadamer and scholz on solidarity: disclosing, avowing, and performing solidaristic ties with human and natural others, journal of the british society for phenomenology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00071773.2017.1303117 omura, k., otsuki, g.j., satsuka, s., & morita, a. (eds.). (2018). the world multiple: the quotidian politics of knowing and generating entangled worlds (1st ed.). routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429456725 paddison, l., & choi, a. (2024, january 2). as climate chaos accelerates, which countries are polluting the most? cnn. https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2023/12/us/countries-climate-changeemissions-cop28/ pierotti r, and wildcat d. 2000. traditional ecological knowledge: the third alternative (commentary). ecol appl. 10(5), 1333–1340. doi: 10.1890/1051-0761(2000)010[1333: tektta]2.0.co;2. puzio, a. (2024). not relational enough? towards an eco-relational approach in robot ethics. philos. technol. 37(45). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347024-00730-2 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://doi.org/10.1080/26395916.2024.2396919 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9245-1_10 https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/aq.2015.0023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00071773.2017.1303117 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429456725 https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2023/12/us/countries-climate-change-emissions-cop28/ https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2023/12/us/countries-climate-change-emissions-cop28/ https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-024-00730-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-024-00730-2 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 121 rock, m.j., degeling, c. and adams, c.l. (2020), from more-than-human solidarity to multi-species biographical value: insights from a veterinary school about ethical dilemmas in one health promotion. sociol health illn, 42, 789-808. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13065 roediger, d. (2016). making solidarity uneasy: cautions on a keyword from black lives matter to the past. american quarterly 68(2), 223-248. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/aq.2016.0033. sanbonmatsu, j. (2024). solidarity between beings. society & animals, 32(5-6), 663-668. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-bja10096 tava, f. (2021). justice, emotions, and solidarity. critical review of international social and political philosophy, 26(1), 39–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2021.1893251 todd, z. (2016). an indigenous feminist's take on the ontological turn: ‘ontology’ is just another word for colonialism. journal of historical sociology, 29(1), 4-22. doi:10.1111/johs.12124 tolentino, j. (2020). barbara ehrenreich is not an optimist, but she has hope for the future a conversation with the author and activist about class, reporting, the coronavirus, and socialism. the new yorker. retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/barbaraehrenreich-is-not-an-optimist-but-she-has-hope-for-the-future tomateo, c & grabowski, z. (2024). indigenous justice frameworks for relational ethics in land-based design, ecosystems and people(20)1. doi: 10.1080/26395916.2024.2409165 tschakert, p. (2020). more-than-human solidarity and multispecies justice in the climate crisis. environmental politics, 31(2), 277–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2020.1853448 van wichelen, s. (2020). more-than-human biopolitics. in s. vint (ed.), after the human: culture, theory and criticism in the 21st century (pp. 161–176). chapter, cambridge: cambridge university press. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13065 https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/aq.2016.0033 https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-bja10096 https://doi.org/10.1080/13698230.2021.1893251 https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/barbara-ehrenreich-is-not-an-optimist-but-she-has-hope-for-the-future https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/barbara-ehrenreich-is-not-an-optimist-but-she-has-hope-for-the-future https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2020.1853448 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 106-122 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 122 wildcat, m., & voth, d. (2023). indigenous relationality: definitions and methods. alternative: an international journal of indigenous peoples, 19(2), 475483. https://doi.org/10.1177/11771801231168380 world meteorological association (wma), (2024). state of the climate 2024 update. united nations climate action. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://doi.org/10.1177/11771801231168380 tony jenkins in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 166-174 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 166 volume 2 number 2 (2008): 166-174 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ the international institute on peace education: twenty-six years modeling critical, participatory peace pedagogy tony jenkins co-director, peace education center at teachers college, columbia university program coordinator, global education associates global coordinator, international institute on peace education jenkins@g-e-a.org introduction in 2005 the international peace bureau nominated the international institute on peace education (iipe) for the unesco peace education prize. in the nomination it described the iipe as “probably the most effective agent for the introduction of peace education to more educators than any other single nongovernmental agency.”1 in a world where far too few opportunities exist for teacher training in peace education, for 26 years the iipe has been providing unique short-term, residential, cooperative learning experiences in peace education. held annually, the iipe brings together educators and professionals from around the world to learn with and from each other in short-term learning communities that model principles of critical, participatory peace pedagogy. the iipe has two primary goals: 1) to provide learning experiences and exposure to formal and non-formal educators to the content, pedagogy and 1 cora weiss, nomination of the international institute on peace education for the unesco peace education prize (international peace bureau, 2005). in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 166-174 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 167 teaching and learning methods of peace education as practiced by educators from around the world; and 2) to assist in the promotion and development of peace education in the host region and globally. this article will describe the pedagogy, structure and cooperative organizing model of the iipe which work holistically together toward achieving these goals. a brief history in 1982 the first iipe was held at teachers college, columbia university. it was organized by professors betty a. reardon, willard jacobson and douglas sloan in cooperation with the united ministries in education. each of these professors, working in different fields and disciplines, came together to apply their collective knowledge, wisdom and experience toward a problem that threatened the extinction of the human race and all life on the planet nuclear proliferation. this first iipe experience examined the practical and theoretical contributions of education to world order and nuclear and general and complete disarmament. in doing so it addressed the political and personal dimensions of the task of disarmament, inquiring into worldviews, beliefs and attitudes that sustain and make possible a highly militarized system of global security. from 1982 the institute evolved in parallel to other developments in the peace research and peace studies fields and the work of the iipe founder, dr. reardon.2 rather than an exclusive focus on disarmament education, the iipe began to examine peace and violence more holistically. in the broadest sense, it became concerned with addressing the system or culture of violence that has been taught and passed on from generation to generation through schools, communities and governments; this system is seen as reinforced and supported by sets of institutions, rules and laws, and most cogently a widely shared belief system that suggests that war is an acceptable solution to human conflict. complementing this systemic and holistic view, the institute organically developed into an annual, international program that is hosted, cooperatively planned and co-coordinated by a partner academic or non-governmental institution. this internationalization of the iipe enables it to be inclusive of cultural contexts. furthermore, it has enabled the institute to be adaptive and flexible in its form and in the content chosen that frames each year’s program. while the social purposes of the iipe are directed toward the development of the field of peace education in theory, practice and advocacy, the objectives of each particular institute are rooted in the needs and transformational concerns of the host region. the institute seeks to build strategic, international, institutional alliances among ngos, universities and agencies involved in peace education with the goal of increasing the benefits of shared expertise on substance and practice as well as advancing educational reform initiatives. it also encourages regional cooperation toward the maximization of resources, cooperation in pedagogical and substantive developments, and increasing regional perspectives on the global issues that comprise the content of peace education. this is accomplished through significant involvement of regional organizations and participants with an annual goal of 50% of the participants coming from the region. 2 ian harris and mary lee morrison, peace education (north carolina: mcfarland, 2003). betty reardon, “peace education: a review and projection,” in international companion to education, eds. moon, b., brown, s. & peretz, m.b. (new york: routledge, 2000). in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 166-174 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 168 pedagogical principles as is illuminated above, the iipe philosophy of peace education is both holistic in nature and comprehensive in scope in which the social purposes of peace education are oriented toward social change and transformation, in which transformation implies deep change affecting ways of thinking, worldviews, values, behaviors, relationships, and social structures.3 peace education, in this sense, seeks to nurture the types of changes in thinking, attitudes and behaviors that will help learners to understand, confront, resist, transform and ultimately eliminate violence in all of its multiple forms. such changes are intended to inspire learners to actively pursue the transformation of the present culture of violence through considerations of alternatives. the iipe offers participants a learning experience in peace education in which participants begin illuminating and assessing possibilities for overcoming various forms of violence. the iipe recognizes that the central change that must take place as part of a process of transformation toward a culture of peace is acknowledging the futility of violence and recognizing the practicality of alternatives. betty reardon describes the transformation that must occur as “a change in the human consciousness and in human society of a dimension far greater than any other that has taken place since the emergence of human settlements.”4 as most any educator will tell you, such transformations are not easily facilitated, nor can they be forced, mandated, or dictated. how to facilitate learning for personal and social change and transformation is the fundamental challenge at the core of peace education pedagogy. facilitating learning for peace requires an educator to have an intentional and acute awareness of the relationship between the values that are being articulated and the processes through which those values are disseminated. the ethos of much of the world’s formal education is very hierarchal and top down, in which teachers tell students what to think at the expense of developing critical thinking, information processing and problem-solving skills.5 the peace pedagogy of the iipe is essentially critical pedagogy with roots in the tradition of dewey, freire, and montessori. it puts more emphasis on helping learners to think critically and does not dictate what to think. emphasis is given to capacitating learners with relevant skills and knowledge for active engagement in civil and political society. with what issues and to what degree a student is engaged is ultimately of his or her own choice. parker palmer astutely observes that “the way we interact with the world in knowing it becomes the way we interact with the world as we live in it.”6 in other words: “how we come to know, what it is that we know, largely influences how we will use or act upon that knowledge in the world.”7 magnus haavelsrud further describes the integral interrelationship between form, content and context in peace education.8 he argues that for peace education to be relevant and valuable to a given population the content and form of that education must take into consideration the social, cultural, political and 3 betty reardon, comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility (new york: teachers college press, 1988). 4 ibid., p. x 5tony jenkins, “rediscovering education for a better world: illuminating the social purposes of education through peace education pedagogy and content,” in transforming education for peace, eds. lin, j., brantmeier, e., & bruhn, c. (charlotte, n.c.: information age publishing, 2008). 6 parker palmer, to know as we are known: education as a spiritual journey (ny, ny: harper collins, 1993, p. 21). 7 tony jenkins, community-based institutes on peace education organizer’s manual: a peace education planning guide (ny, ny: international institute on peace education, 2007. available online at www.c-i-p-e.org, p. 29). 8 alicia cabezudo & magnus haavelsrud, “rethinking peace education,” in handbook of peace and conflict studies, eds. webel, c. & galtung, j. (new york: routledge, 2007). in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 166-174 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 169 educational context of the learner. haavelsrud’s theory complements the educational philosophies of freire, dewey and montessori who each call for autonomous and learner centered approaches to teaching and learning.9 the importance of relevance in educational content and process that each of these theorists describe illuminates the necessity for multiple approaches for peace education.10 essentially they are describing that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to peace education. as an international learning experience the iipe has to take this into consideration in facilitating exposure to various content and multiple pedagogical forms and educational approaches. in doing so, the iipe utilizes a unique and inclusive pedagogical form that is largely informed by the mutually reinforcing principles of community and cooperation. these principles manifest themselves in both the form and structure of the iipe which will be further elucidated below. the iipe might best be described as a learning community. a learning community is an intentionally designed space in which individuals become engaged in learning toward a common purpose. at the iipe this common purpose is framed by two inquiries. the first is an inquiry into the substantive theme of the institute. this theme is typically process or issue/problem based. in 2005 in rhodes, greece the theme was process oriented, focusing on the approaches and methods of “educating for peace through the arts.” in istanbul, turkey in 2004 the theme was issue oriented, inquiring into the concept of human security as an alternative to the highly militarized nation-state model. in conducting this inquiry participants shared and examined the concepts, obstacles to, possibilities for, and practical applications of human security in their various contexts. the second inquiry, building upon the dialogue generated in the first, examines the form, possibility for, and role of peace education in contributing to social change based upon the conceptual theme. in the case of human security, participants began by reflecting upon and observing the deeply held worldviews about security that were manifest in their home contexts. they then had to consider the relevant content and form of education that might transform those worldviews and the conditions that sustained them. from this example, we can see that the learning community model of the iipe is utilized both for the benefits of learning from and with each other and for the political and action possibilities. betty reardon describes the idea of a learning community quite nicely: “a learning community is built upon the base of common concern and is developed through mutual respect, attentive listening and vigorous participation. …participants are engaged with each other in a common engagement with the issues intended to devise proposals to engage the larger community in addressing the social problems of concern.”11 one of the intended political outcomes of learning in community is to foster community values and practices, such as cooperation, sharing, participation and fellowship. this is in direct contrast to typical 9 paulo freire, pedagogy of freedom (new york: rowman & littlefield, 1998). john dewey, how we think (mineola, ny: dover publications, inc., 1997). c. duckworth, “maria montessori and peace education,” in encyclopedia of peace education, ed. monisha bajaj (charlotte, nc: information age publishing, 2008). 10 daniel bar-tal, “the elusive nature of peace education,” in peace education: the concept, principles and practice in the world, eds. g. salomon & b. nevo (mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum, 2002). gavriel salomon & baruch nevo, peace education: the concept, principles, and practices around the world (mahwah, nj: lea, 2002). 11 betty reardon, freedom of religion and belief: an essential human right – a learning manual (new york: peoples movement for human rights education, 2006, p.18). in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 166-174 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 170 political and learning processes that fragment and divide, rather than bring people together.12 parker palmer notes that “good teachers also bring students into community with themselves and with each other – not simply for the sake of warm feelings, but to do the difficult things that teaching and learning require.” he goes on to explain that “intellectual rigor depends on things like honest dissent and the willingness to change our minds, things that will not happen if the ‘soft’ values of community are lacking.”13 the iipe is intentionally designed this way. it is a learning experience rooted in community values and processes in which it is emphasized from the very beginning that every participants´ experience, knowledge, and the questions they bring are equally relevant. as a community experience, the iipe asks participants to recognize that they all have something to contribute and that they all have something to learn from one another. the iipe is a space in which there are no experts who drop in, give us the answers, and then disappear. in building community, the iipe experience is largely influenced by this notion of learning with and from one another. this idea of learning with and from each other seems simple enough, however it is a process considerably foreign to most people’s experiences. consider for a moment how the problems of the world are typically solved. the practice of politics, as it has come to be defined, has little interest in change. it is conducted in a mode of competition, of winners and losers. the political institution has become one of, if not the largest contributor to the system of violence; it often exemplifies and magnifies all that is bad in our social relations and classifies citizenry into power relations, robbing individual citizens of their uniqueness as human beings and depriving their dignity. around the world, most formal educational experiences have prepared students to engage in the world in a similar fashion. the challenge educators are confronted with is how to prepare people to conduct the politics of change in a different mode; in a learning mode.14 nurturing a space for authentic communal learning is how the iipe approaches this problem. this is based in the observation that social change is a process best arrived at and sustained communally.15 the iipe emphasizes learning processes, which help nurture individuals capacities of reflection, openness, listening, social & political engagement, empathy, and action. when people utilize these skills and engage in this process of communal learning the possibility emerges that they will challenge and inquire into their worldviews; the community may finds new ways to communicate and new ways to relate to one another; and new, collective forms of wisdom and knowledge may emerge. the iipe also seeks to capacitate educators as active agents in this transformative process by nurturing capacities of critical thinking and cooperation. nurturing these capacities is essential for fostering the autonomously arrived at knowledge and skills necessary for the possible engagement of learners with society. these essential capacities of critical thinking and cooperation enable students to reflect upon reality and possibilities for action at the individual level; to critically engage and analyze existing knowledge; and most significantly nurturing these capacities significantly increases the possibilities for student engagement with their communities and society at large.16 12 jenkins, “rediscovering education for a better world.” 13 palmer, to know as we are known, p. xvii. 14 jenkins, community-based institutes on peace education organizer’s manual. 15 palmer, to know as we are known; jenkins, community-based institutes on peace education organizer’s manual. 16 tony jenkins, “disarming the system, disarming the mind,” peace review: a journal of social justice vol. 18, no. 3 (july-september 2006). in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 166-174 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 171 iipe form and structure: program components the structure of the iipe helps to manifest the principles of community and cooperative learning by providing interactive opportunities through all phases of the program. each component of the program serves a particular function in the learning experience of the institute: the orientation, the plenaries, the workshops and seminars, community-based excursions and the reflection groups. the orientation introduces participants to the purposes and process of iipe, beginning the process of acquaintance from which the learning community is built. the plenaries provide a common substance for all in the community and a basis for the specific consideration of some of the workshops and seminars. the excursions permit participants to have some direct experiences with the host country, its landscapes and the issues of justice and peace that its citizens are addressing. the reflection groups are the heart of the learning and community building experience, the base at which daily learnings are shared. reflection groups provide a space for assessing learning, challenging assumptions, and integrating new knowledge and experiences into participants’ professional and personal lives. the plenary, workshop and reflection group sessions are further described below. plenary sessions. each day the iipe begins with a plenary panel that briefly introduces perspectives and practices on theme issues. plenaries are moderated by skilled facilitators who work to make the sessions as participatory as possible through a variety of different strategies. the iipe organizers have adapted a technique for large groups in various professional settings and have found the technique described below helps to facilitate more meaningful learning experiences than the typical question and answer format.17 each plenary speaker (typically no more than 3 in total) is asked in advance to speak for no more than 1520 minutes regarding their experience or research on a thematic issue. panelists are also encouraged to organize their presentations in an engaging way so that they are communicating with the audience rather than lecturing or reading from a paper. the speakers are not considered experts, but rather facilitators of the learning community. they share their own experience and knowledge as a way of contributing to the inquiry of the sub-theme being explored on a particular day. they provided a starting point for a larger community discussion. conducting the inquiry into the theme is considered a community process and it is emphasized that each participant has unique ideas and experiences to contribute. the specific process for the discussion session following the plenary presentations is designed to be as interactive and participatory as possible. participants are asked to form small groups of three or four by turning to their seated neighbors. groups are given approximately 15 to 20 minutes to discuss their reflections on the plenary panel with the goal of producing a single question that might contribute to the entire iipe community inquiry on the theme of the plenary. this is a critical part of the community building process. the groups are asked to produce questions that will be given back to the entire community to explore. this process also averts a reliance on experts (i.e. the panelists) for determining solutions to our questions and gives that responsibility to the community at large. 17 jenkins, community-based institutes on peace education organizer’s manual. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 166-174 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 172 after the allotted time for discussion, questions are taken from several groups at once. taking more than one question at a time helps to reveal the overlapping and interconnected concerns of the entire community. this also aids the plenary panelists in forming their responses more conversationally. as the questions posed are intended as inquiry for the entire community, these questions are often written down on chart paper and posted in a common area for further reflection. workshops/seminars. nearly every participant contributes to the program by conducting a practical workshop or seminar. unlike a typical conference, proposals for workshops are not submitted in advance. as part of the program planning process, organizer’s work closely with each participant to develop a workshop that will reflect their unique experiences and knowledge so as to complement the overarching theme of the iipe and the contributions of others. this process is slow and deliberate, taking many months to complete, however it helps in forming a more holistic and comprehensive program. workshop facilitators are asked to make their 90 minute sessions as participatory as possible so other participants may gain first hand experience in the teaching methods used in the facilitator’s home context. reflection groups. during the iipe small “reflection groups” of eight to ten people meet daily to allow participants to share what they learned and help each other think of how to apply what they learned to their respective situations. participants meet with the same reflection group throughout the entire length of the iipe and present group reports in the last plenary session. reflection groups are facilitated discussions that engage participants in both an integrative and cumulative learning process. the objectives of this process are to deepen and reflect upon the knowledge, skills and practices developed throughout the iipe and to collectively develop new communal knowledge while nurturing learning community cohorts. the process focuses on reflection and integration, drawing upon the daily themes of the iipe as different frameworks or lenses for exploring the learning and providing unique perspectives. as such, each session models a cooperative group learning process, providing all participants opportunities to share their personal learnings, perspectives, concerns, and questions while contributing to and developing a larger group dialogue. this process is intended to maximize the participation of all involved. conclusion: learning to learn together learning with and from one another may seem a simple idea, but in so many ways it is foreign to our experience in highly individualized and competitive educational systems. learning to learn together requires much more than sitting in the same space, conference or classroom together. it requires a broad set of skills and capacities that are useful in the classroom setting and extremely practical as capacities for societal engagement. to be able to learn together, iipe participants are charged with the responsibilities of deeply listening to one another; temporarily putting aside their own ideas to consider another persons perspective; slowing down, quieting their minds and reminding each other and themselves that they don’t know everything; and, to as frequently as possible, remind themselves that they are part of a bigger living system and as such are dependent upon each-other for their collective survival. looking at these responsibilities holistically, participants are reminded that learning how to learn together is essential for social change and transformation and that social transformation is a process that has little possibility for success unless it is pursued and sustained cooperatively and communally. coming to understand how a community can work, learn and grow together to affect change on an issue of common concern is perhaps the primary learning objective of each iipe. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 166-174 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 173 as an international initiative, the iipe is challenged to present relevant learning experiences for a diverse population of educators coming from different cultures, with distinct socio-political situations, and diverse experiences of conflict and violence that require unique educational interventions for their transformation. no learning experience can address every given possibility. the principles of community and cooperation that are the backbone of the iipe experience take this into consideration. by nurturing skills of community and cooperative learning, the iipe is able to capacitate educators for the necessary ongoing learning they will need to do, together, as they mutually construct contextually relevant educational strategies for social change and transformation. for more information about the history, pedagogy, principles or practices of the international institute on peace education please visit www.i-i-p-e.org. in factis pax 2 (2) (2008): 166-174 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 174 bibliography daniel bar-tal, “the elusive nature of peace education,” in peace education: the concept, principles and practice in the world, eds. g. salomon & b. nevo (mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum, 2002). alicia cabezudo & magnus haavelsrud, “rethinking peace education,” in handbook of peace and conflict studies, eds. webel, c. & galtung, j. (new york: routledge, 2007). john dewey, how we think (mineola, ny: dover publications, inc., 1997). c. duckworth, “maria montessori and peace education,” in encyclopedia of peace education, ed. monisha bajaj (charlotte, nc: information age publishing, 2008). paulo freire, pedagogy of freedom (new york: rowman & littlefield, 1998). ian harris and mary lee morrison, peace education (north carolina: mcfarland, 2003). tony jenkins, “rediscovering education for a better world: illuminating the social purposes of education through peace education pedagogy and content,” in transforming education for peace, eds. lin, j., brantmeier, e., & bruhn, c. (charlotte, n.c.: information age publishing, 2008). tony jenkins, community-based institutes on peace education organizer’s manual: a peace education planning guide (ny, ny: international institute on peace education, 2007. available online at www.c-i-p-e.org). tony jenkins, “disarming the system, disarming the mind,” peace review: a journal of social justice vol. 18, no. 3 (july-september 2006). parker palmer, to know as we are known: education as a spiritual journey (ny, ny: harper collins, 1993). betty reardon, freedom of religion and belief: an essential human right – a learning manual (new york: peoples movement for human rights education, 2006). betty reardon, “peace education: a review and projection,” in international companion to education, eds. moon, b., brown, s. & peretz, m.b. (new york: routledge, 2000). betty reardon, comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility (new york: teachers college press, 1988). gavriel salomon & baruch nevo, peace education: the concept, principles, and practices around the world (mahwah, nj: lea, 2002). cora weiss, nomination of the international institute on peace education for the unesco peace education prize (international peace bureau, 2005). snauwaert in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 88 volume 2 number 1 (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ the cosmopolitan ethics of the earth charter: a framework for a pedagogy of peace dale t. snauwaert the university of toledo the purpose of this paper is to philosophically explore the earth charter as a cosmopolitan ethical framework for a pedagogy of peace.1 the earth charter constitutes a powerful articulation of a framework of cosmopolitan ethical principles for a just, peaceful, and ecologically sustainable society. it is a deliberative product of a global civil society, derived from cross-cultural dialogue. it constitutes an “actually existing” cosmopolitan ethic. this paper will articulate the cosmopolitan ethics of the earth charter and as well as exploring it’s potential as a foundation for a pedagogy of peace. 1 earth charter, the earth charter (earth charter initiative www.earthcharter.org 2000). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 89 the paper will focus on the definition of peace articulated in principle 16f of the charter: “recognize that peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part.” this conception of peace will serve as the organizing framework for the articulation of the cosmopolitan ethic and corresponding pedagogical framework. it is argued that the ethical principles of the earth charter provide a framework for a corresponding pedagogy of peace as right relationships. the political context: peace and international order there are four dominant paradigms of international order: realism, internationalization, imperialism, and cosmopolitanism. realism is a theory of international relations that denies the existence of morality in the international arena. it maintains that relations between nation-states are purely political, in the sense that they exclusively concern interests and power, not what is right or good per se.2 realism asserts an international moral skepticism: the belief that ethics has either dubious or no relevance to the action of states. this skepticism is based upon the understanding that the international arena is an anarchy, a condition wherein there exists no higher legal or moral authority than individual states and thus states act out of exclusive self-interest. for 2 duane l. cady, from warism to pacifism: a moral continuum (philadelphia: temple university press, 1989); michael w. doyle, ways of war and peace (new york: w.w. norton, 1997); michael joseph smith, realist thought from weber to kissinger (baton rouge, la: louisiana state university press, 1986). f. h. hinsley, sovereignty, second edition ed. (cambridge: cambridge university press, 1986). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 90 the realist, therefore, the interstate arena is anarchy, a state of relations without the existence of a sovereign power to enforce morality and law.3 under the conditions of anarchy, power (and fear) takes precedence over law and morality. in fact, the international anarchical system is in a continual state of war, in the sense that war is always imminent. under the conditions of anarchy self-defense is rational. others, however, not knowing one’s intentions with certainty, will respond out of self-defense with an increase in arms. the result is escalation, leading to an increased probability of the outbreak of conflict. this phenomenon is referred to as the “security dilemma:” to defend one’s self is to increase the probability of conflict: defense, pursued in order to be secure, leads to insecurity.4 thus, given the anarchical assumption a state of war is generated -an inevitable and perpetual state of insecurity. the only way to maintain negative peace or a state of cold war under these conditions, that is, a state of relations free from actual fighting in the context of a state of perpetual insecurity, is through a balance of power. if power is balanced between states, wherein no one state or group of states is dominant, then a state of cold war or negative peace can be maintained without the actual outbreak of hostility, for the balance of power deters aggression by posing a 3 hinsley, sovereignty. 4 robert jervis, "the spiral of international insecurity.," in perspectives on world politics, ed. richard little & michael smith (new york: routledge, 1991). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 91 significant retaliatory threat. hence, to avoid war a balance of power must be maintained.5 the basic premise of realism, anarchy, however, can be questioned. empirical evidence suggests that there exists a complex international and transnational network of interdependence. the existence of interdependence constitutes a world system with an international and perhaps a global scope. this interdependence has existed at least since the 17th century.6 from this perspective the world system is not an anarchy; it is politically organized. one view of this organization is that the world system constitutes an “international society.” this is a society of nation-states. the international organization of nation-states constitutes a practical association rather than a purposive one, in that there does not exist a common good between nations, pursued in their relations with each other. rather nations coexist and attempt to conduct their relations with each other in terms of basic moral and legal principles that allow for their peaceful coexistence. from this perspective, there exists an agreed upon equality between states, a state right to selfdetermination, and the universal obligation of nonintervention. in this case justice is procedural. it is constituted by a mutual respect for the equal sovereignty of each society. 5 doyle, ways of war and peace; r. o. keohane and joseph s. nye, power and interdependence (boston: little, brown, 1977); smith, realist thought from weber to kissinger. 6 alex macgillivray, a brief history of globalization: the untold story of our incredible shrinking planet, 1st carroll & graf ed. (new york: carroll & graf, 2006). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 92 injustice is defined as the crime of aggression, the violation of nonintervention. from this perspective, peace is not achieved through a balance of power per se but through adherence to the above principles of international procedural justice.7 another view of international political organization is imperialism. imperialism posits domination of a single power as the means of international order. in the post-cold war era there has been a shift to a kind of imperialism in american foreign policy. this shift was precipitated by, and constitutes a particular response to, globalization.8 the new american imperialism is based upon the belief in the superiority of american liberalism as form of moral and political order and the use of unilateral military power to transform illiberal societies (e.g., iraq) into liberal republics, replicas of american liberalism. it is assumed that peace will be achieved through the spread of liberalism by force.9 cosmopolitanism maintains that peace can only be achieved through the establishment of a shared moral, legal, and political transnational order that guarantees the rights of all human beings and the protection of life in general. it transcends but includes the principles of international society – internationalism – by including the moral considerability of every human being. it posits a global moral community. 7 hedley bull, the anarchical society (london: macmillan, 1977); terry nardin, law, morality, and the relations of states (princeton, nj: princeton university press, 1983). 8 chalmers johnson, the sorrows of empire: militarism, secrecy, and the end of the republic (new york: owl books/henry holt, 2004). 9 jurgen habermas, the divided west, trans. ciaran cronin (cambridge: polity, 2006). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 93 cosmopolitanism asserts the sovereignty of human dignity and reverence for life. it posits the existence of a transnational ethical framework that supersedes the authority of individual nations.10 from the perspective of these paradigms of international order, there is a plurality of means of achieving peace: the imperative of maintaining a balance of power, the imperative of an international legal order of states, the imperative of the domination of american liberalism, and the imperative of a cosmopolitan order. the earth charter posits the cosmopolitan imperative of peace as right relationships. the earth charter: an ethical framework the earth charter is a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society.11 the charter constitutes an actually existing cosmopolitan ethic in the sense that it is generated from cross-cultural deliberation; it is not merely a philosophical ideal, but a deliberative agreement of citizens around the globe. it is a democratic response emanating from global civil society; the citizens of the 10 sissela bok, common values (columbia: university of missouri press, 1995); chris brown, international relations theory: new normative approaches (new york: columbia university press, 1992); richard a. falk, human rights horizons: the pursuit of justice in a globalizing world (new york: routledge, 2000); habermas, the divided west; david held, democracy and the global order (stanford, ca: stanford university press, 1995); stanley hoffman, duties beyond borders: on the limits and possibilities of ethical international politics (syracuse, ny: syracuse university press, 1981); immanuel kant, perpetual peace and other essays, trans. ted humphrey. (cambridge: hackett, [1795]1983); terry nardin & david r. mapel, ed., traditions of international ethics (cambridge: cambridge university press, 1992); jacques maritain, the rights of man and natural law (london: geoffrey bles, 1958). 11 charter, the earth charter. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 94 world posit, in the form of the earth charter, a global political framework founded upon the ethical imperative of peace. it constitutes a cosmopolitan conception of international society. the charter articulates principles in four broad areas: respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, social and economic justice, and democracy, nonviolence, and peace. however, it can be argued that the central organizing principle of the charter, which provides a unifying framework, is principle 16f: “recognize that peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part.” this conception of peace is based upon the recognition of interdependence and interrelationship, and it posits a holistic relational ethic. “wholeness” implies the interrelationship and interdependence of each level of relationship. “right” implies that the network of relationships is ethical. when all the levels of relationship are taken together, it constitutes a cosmopolitan conception of peace, in the sense that its intent and scope are global. each level of relationship, however, implies a different kind of ethical of relationship; from this perspective it can be inferred, therefore, that peace involves multiple ethical considerations. any ethical system is comprised of the following basic elements: a system of beliefs, including basic values and goods (that serve as premises), ultimate moral attitude(s), a set of principles (rules) which define moral rights and obligations, and standards and capacities of character . the basic values of the charter are enumerated in in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 95 principle 1: 1. respect earth and life in all its diversity. a. recognize that all beings are interdependent and every form of life has value regardless of its worth to human beings. b. affirm faith in the inherent dignity of all human beings and in the intellectual, artistic, ethical, and spiritual potential of humanity. this principle asserts the basic values of the ethical system of the charter: that all living beings have intrinsic value (a value independent of their instrumental value to humans) and that human beings possess an equal inherent dignity. each being is understood to be a “teleological center of life;” an individual living being is a “unified system of goaloriented activities directed toward their preservation and well-being . . . an entity whose ‘world’ can be viewed from the perspective of its life.”12 these two basic values constitute the premises of the ethical system of the charter. the moral attitudes that logically follow from these values/premises are enumerated in principles 1 and 2. principle 1 asserts respect for life and the inherent dignity of persons, and principle 2 asserts care, “care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love.” respect and care for life and human dignity are the two fundamental moral attitudes required by the charter. a moral attitude is an understanding and outlook toward other beings that structure specific moral responses and relationships. the values of intrinsic value and dignity require the moral attitudes of 12 paul w. taylor, respect for nature : a theory of environmental ethics, studies in moral, political, and legal philosophy (princeton, n.j.: princeton university press, 1986). (p. 79) in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 96 respect and care for life in general and for specific manifestations of life on different levels of relationship (e.g., on the human level, respect and care for persons). what follows from moral attitudes are duties to respond to others in particular ways. principles pertain to rights and duties that follow from, are necessary to actualize, one’s values. these duties are codified in terms of moral principles. the moral principles are abstract expressions of forms of conduct, of moral responses to the call of the other, which one commits to with the adoption of a moral attitude. the moral attitudes of respect and care commit one to certain modes of conduct embodied in principles on each level of relationship. a central part of the articulation of the cosmopolitan ethics of the earth charter is the explication of principles on each level of relationship. the four categories of principles in the charter speak to these different levels of relationship. standards of character, in turn, pertain to dispositions and/or character traits that pre-dispose one toward particular choices and actions. they constitute moral resources that comprise one’s moral sensibility, which enables one to act in accordance with what one understands in principle to be right. one can understand what the right thing to do is but not have the will to do it. dispositions pertain to the will, the character, to do what is right. a disposition is a character trait that enables one to fulfill one’s responsibility, as defined in principle. in addition, standards of character also entail capacities to respond. as jonathon glover posits there are two broad categories of moral capacities: restraint from doing harm and sympathy (a reaching out to others in need). these moral resources in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 97 are capacities and dispositions of consciousness and of natural human inclination that enhance our capacity to morally respond to others.13 what follows from the ethical system (comprised of values, attitudes, principles, and standards of character) are educational purposes. educational purposes define the orientation of an education consistent with the imperatives of the ethical system. the purposes that follow from the ethical system of the earth charter include the following: awareness of basic values, cultivation of the moral attitudes of respect and care, understanding and application of the moral principles, and the development of the moral capacities necessary for right relationship with self, other persons, other cultures, other life, and the earth. the educational purposes provide a foundation for the stipulation of a pedagogy of peace. from this perspective, a pedagogy of peace is based upon the imperatives of the ethical system. the pedagogical principles that follow from the ethical imperatives of the charter are: self-reflection, dialogical encounter with persons, border crossing and diplomacy, encounter with nature, and ecological systems thinking. the pedagogical principles articulate the general process of learning through which the capacity (including understanding) for right relationships on each level is developed. the following table summarizes the framework: table 1 -the ethical and educational framework of the earth charter principle 16f: “recognize that peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, earth, and the larger whole of which all 13 jonathan glover, humanity: a moral history of the twentieth century (new haven: yale university press, 2000). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 98 are a part.” right relationship with basic values moral attitudes moral principles standards of character pedagogical principle self human dignity respect & care for self duty to care for and develop self self awareness presence self-reflection other persons human dignity respect & care for persons human rights dialogue integrity judgment dialogical encounters with persons other cultures human dignity respect & care for peoples justice ethics of self defense tolerance border crossing and diplomacy other life intrinsic value of life respect & care for life moral consideration humane treatment awareness of unity with life encounters with nature earth intrinsic value of life respect & care for earth’s biosphere ecological integrity awareness of the biosphere as a whole ecological systems thinking what follows below is an outline of the levels of right relationship in accordance with the above ethical framework, followed by a discussion of the pedagogical principles based upon this ethical framework. this discussion constitutes an outline, not a full explication of the framework. a full explication is beyond the scope of this short article. however, what follows does offer a template for a comprehensive articulation of pedagogy of peace founded upon the charter’s ethical imperatives. right relationship with self in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 99 on this level of relationship the attitudes of respect and care apply to the self. right relationship with the self is the foundation of all other relationships, for it is the quality of our being that determines the quality of our relationships. what constitutes the right relationship with the self? in the preamble of the charter the following is stated: “fundamental changes are needed in our values, institutions, and ways of living. we must realize that when basic needs have been met, human development is primarily about being more, not having more.” (paragraph 4) this perspective constitutes a “being orientation.” at the roots of language are the two verbs: “to be” and “to have.” these verbs represent the basic dimensions of our existence: having and being. having defines the self and relationship to the world in terms of possession. it is a horizontal relation. this orientation is expressed by the phrase: “i am what i have.” the being dimension defines the self in terms of one’s inner center and relationship to the world in terms of being-with rather than possession and/or control. it is a vertical relation. this orientation is articulated by the phrase: “i am that i am.” the having orientation objectifies and commodifies life, a being orientation recognizes the sacredness, the intrinsic value of life. the latter orientation defines the self as one’s authentic being and right relationships as awareness of our authentic being and living from, relating to other beings from that awareness. respect and care for the self, in turn, entails a duty to care for and develop the self; this duty invokes the imperative of a shift to a being orientation. in turn, the central moral capacity needed to fulfill the duty of care for the self is a capacity for self in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 100 reflection and self-examination. self-reflection requires what can be called presence, the capacity of being aware in the moment. when one is present in an experience it is that very presence, that consciousness of being, of existing in that moment, which is the authentic self. that self is consciousness itself, a consciousness that lies deep within and emerges when we free our selves from egoic attachment. with development this sense of self becomes an abiding presence. it isn’t a self-image, a self-concept, or a personality. it is personalized being in the form of individualized conscious presence. in addition, as one’s awareness of presence expands the fundamental interconnection between one’s own consciousness and the being of others emerges. one becomes aware of ones’ interrelationship, one’s being-with, others.14 right relationship with other persons on this level of relationship the attitudes of respect and care apply to the 14 masao abe and william r. lafleur, zen and western thought (honolulu: university of hawaii press, 1985); a. h. almaas, essence: the diamond approach to inner realization. (york beach, maine: samuel weiser, inc., 1986); stephen batchelor, alone with others: an existential approach to buddhism. (new york: grove press, 1983); martin buber, i and thou, trans. walter kaufman (new york: scribners, 1970); dalailama, ethics for the new millennium (new york: riverhead books, 1999); erich fromm, man for himself: an inquiry into the psychology of ethics (new york: rinehart and company, 1947); erich fromm, the art of being (new york: continuum, 1992); erich fromm, the essential fromm: life between having and being., ed. rainer funk (new york: continuum, 1995); erich fromm, to have or to be? (new york: continuum, 1976; reprint, 2000); pierre hadot and aurelius marcus, the inner citadel : the meditations of marcus aurelius (cambridge, mass.: harvard university press, 1998); thich nhat hanh, being peace (berkeley, calif.: parallax press, 1987); hazrat inayat khan, the alchemy of happiness (london: east-west publication, 1996); robert a. f. thurman, inner revolution : life, liberty, and the pursuit of real happiness (new york: riverhead books, 1998). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 101 relationship with other persons; the attitudes are shaped by the recognition of inherent human dignity. the attitudes of respect and care for persons can be expressed as a postulate of what one is entitled to as a human being: all individuals are morally equal qua individuals ... [and] are entitled to equal autonomy and equal respect as subjects of moral choice capable of devising and pursuing their own respective life plans.15 or it can be expressed as an obligatory imperative as in kant's second formulation of the categorical imperative: act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.16 or it can be expressed as the basic sacredness of the human person: . . . each and every human being is sacred -each and every human being is 'inviolable,' has 'inherent dignity and worth,' is 'an end in himself, or the like.17 the ideal of human dignity answers the moral limit question: why be moral? why respect and care for other human beings? one could answer the limit question by asserting that moral principle demands that we treat others with respect and care. adherence to moral principle is necessitated by the fact that the principle reflects respect for the intrinsic dignity/value of other human beings. we should be moral, not out of 15 michael rosenfeld, affirmative action and justice: a philosophical and constitutional inquiry (new haven: yale university press, 1991). (p. 20-22). 16 immanuel kant, groundwork of the metaphysic of morals (new york: harper torchbooks, 1964). (p. 429) 17 michael j. perry, the idea of rights: four inquiries (new york: oxford university press, 1998). (p. 5) in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 102 adherence to the moral law, moral principle, or divine command per se, but out of respect and care for the intrinsic value and dignity of others. this is an ethic that is based in the existence of others who possess an equal dignity to our own. it is an ethic that is emanates from what levinas referred to as “the call of the other.”18 the very existence of other human beings contains a universal moral imperative to respond to human dignity with care and respect. what follows is the principle of respect and care for persons: . . . because every human being is sacred . . . certain choices should be made and certain other choices rejected; in particular, certain things ought not to be done to any human being and certain other things ought to be done for every human being.19 this perspective invokes the idea of human rights. the idea of human rights is the dominant way of articulating the demands of morality in the modern world . rights talk has become the lingua franca of ethics. the language of rights and duties give expression to or reflect a moral substance that is indispensable, namely imperative responses to human dignity. in essence rights and duties are a way of expressing what one must do or can never do to another human being who possesses an equal inherent dignity . it is a way of articulating what is right and wrong grounded in human value. by virtue of their dignity all human beings have rights. however, rights entail responsibilities. therefore, the moral principles applicable to the right relationship with 18 emmanuel levinas and nidra poller, humanism of the other (urbana: university of illinois press, 2003). 19 perry, the idea of rights: four inquiries. (p, 5) in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 103 other persons can be articulated in terms of human rights and their correlative duties.20 the following rights are enumerated in the earth charter: 11. affirm gender equality and equity as prerequisites to sustainable development and ensure universal access to education, health care, and economic opportunity. a. secure the human rights of women and girls and end all violence against them. b. promote the active participation of women in all aspects of economic, political, civil, social, and cultural life as full and equal partners, decision makers, leaders, and beneficiaries. c. strengthen families and ensure the safety and loving nurture of all family members. 12. uphold the right of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health, and spiritual well-being, with special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities. a. eliminate discrimination in all its forms, such as that based on race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion, language, and national, ethnic or social origin. b. affirm the right of indigenous peoples to their spirituality, knowledge, lands and resources and to their related practice of sustainable livelihoods. c. honor and support the young people of our communities, enabling them to fulfill their essential role in creating sustainable societies. d. protect and restore outstanding places of cultural and spiritual significance. protecting, promoting, and aiding the human rights of other persons is based, in turn, upon the following standards and capacities of character: “thinking,” discernment, and sympathy. what capacities, dispositions, consciousness equip us to respond to the 20 norberto bobbio, the age of rights (cambridge, uk: polity press, [1990] 1996); falk, human rights horizons: the pursuit of justice in a globalizing world; michael ignatieff, human rights as politics and idolatry, ed. amy gutmann (princeton, nj: princeton university press, 2001); maritain, the rights of man and natural law; perry, the idea of rights: four inquiries; r. j. vincent, human rights and international relations (cambridge: cambridge university press, 1986). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 104 inherent dignity of the other? the discussion below will focus on the following basic moral resources: the capacity for dialogical relationships, presence, thinking, judgment, authentic self-hood, and conscience. as jonathon glover posits there are two broad categories of moral capacities: respect and sympathy. respect is a negative capacity in that it is what restraints us from doing harm, while sympathy is a positive capacity in the sense that it defines our capacity to respond to the other.21 the moral resources can be understood in this way. capacity for dialogical relations: morality rests upon an awareness of our fundamental interconnection and our capacity to relate and respond to the other authentically as a subject. integrity -capacity for thinking: hannah arendt conceives “thinking” as a soundless, internal dialogue. thinking is a dialogue with one’s self. thinking is thus a reflective activity wherein one literally stops and steps back within one’s self to reflect upon the meaning and value of the thought. from a moral perspective it is “better to suffer wrong than to do wrong.” why? the moral stand here is the coherence of the self. we could call it “integrity.” the two-in-one structure of thinking, the internal dialogue, is a capacity of awareness and memory of self-consistency. if i do x, can i live with myself? in plato’s gorgias socrates states metaphorically: “it would be better for me that my lyre or a chorus i direct were out of tune and loud with discord, and that most 21 glover, humanity: a moral history of the twentieth century. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 105 men should not agree with me and contradict me, rather than that i, being one, should be out of tune with myself and contradict myself (482b-c).” if i do x, then i will not be able to live with my self and therefore i can’t do it. the internal discord, disharmony, contradiction is too much to bear. as arendt writes: “morality concerns the individual in his singularity. the criterion of right and wrong . . . depends in the last analysis neither on habits and customs . . . nor on a command . . . but on what i decide with regard to myself. in other words, i cannot do certain things, because having done them i will no longer be able to live with myself.”22 in a negative sense the moral standard here is self-contempt or internal discord. the inevitability of self-contempt, if i commit certain acts, stops me. the positive side of the moral standard of self-contempt is being-peace, is being at peace with one’s self. (p.108). however, it is the threaten loss of internal peace that stops me from causing harm to others. thinking in this sense does not tell one what to do; it only prevents one from acting in harmful ways. it is negative in that it restraints action. it is the internal moral resource correlative to negative rights and the duty to avoid causing harm.23 judgment -from the perspective of arendt’s reading of kant’s critique of judgment, judgment pertains to the determination of value and of right in particular cases, cases wherein general principles are not readily applicable. these are cases 22 hannah arendt and jerome kohn, responsibility and judgment, 1st ed. (new york: schocken books, 2003). (p. 97) 23 hannah arendt, eichmann in jerusalem: a report on the banality of evil (new york: penguin books, 1994); hannah arendt, the life of the mind (new york: harcourt, 1971); arendt and kohn, responsibility and judgment. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 106 wherein the general is found within the particular. this situation defines the context of every day moral decision-making. there is valid moral principle, but the application of these principles within the unique contexts comprised of divergent particulars requires judgment. judgment is akin to taste. there is no logical rule that can determine beauty in all cases, just as there is no general rule that will determine what is right in all situations.24 judgment is contingent upon the enlargement of the mind. one enlarges one’s mind, one’s perspective and capacity for judgment, by taking into consideration the judgments of others. this what kant refers to as “impartiality.” one’s own judgment is informed by the judgments of others. one therefore does not make a judgment in isolation from others, but in communion with them. judgment is a function of multiperspective taking – taking into consideration the perspectives of others to inform your own determination. this capacity depends upon one’s ability of empathy, to take the other’s perspective, and imagination, to hold that perspective in one’s mind in the abstract. the greater the enlargement of the mind the greater one’s judgment will be informed by others, the sounder the judgment. this moral capacity is thus also dialogical, entailing the necessity to communicate one’s judgments in public. judgment 24 hannah arendt, "lectures on kant's political philosophy," in hannah arendt lectures on kant's political philosophy, ed. ronald beiner (chicago: the university of chicago press, 1992). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 107 ultimately requires a public space, a public forum, wherein opinions and perspectives can be communicated.25 right relationship with other cultures on this level the attitudes of respect and care apply to the relationship with other cultures; these attitudes are shaped by the recognition of human dignity inherent in collectivities of people. thus, the basic moral attitude on this level is respect and care for peoples. there are two dimensions and corresponding moral principles to this level of relationship. as sissela bok maintains: certain basic values necessary to collective survival have had to be formulated in every society. a minimalist [i.e., thin] set of such values can be recognized across societal and other boundaries. these basic values are indispensable to human coexistence, though far from sufficient, at every level of personal and working life and of family, community, national, and international relations. 26 these basic values pertain to rights, duties and norms in three areas: (1) positive duties of mutual care and support, (2) negative duties of no harm to others, and (3) norms of rudimentary fairness and procedural justice.27 bok maintains that these values are necessary for the kind of trust that underlies all social relations and thus are essential for societal order on all levels, including international and intercultural. the principle of no harm invokes the ethics of self-defense and self-determination; the positive duties of mutual care and support require international distributive justice (i.e., a right to a fair 25 ibid. 26 bok, common values. (p, 13 and 19) 27 ibid., p. 14-16. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 108 share of the world’s resources and the economic value of their productivity), and norms of fairness (e.g., rules of coexistence; rights to diplomatic deliberation). principle 16c of the earth charter states: “demilitarize national security systems to the level of a non-provocative defense posture, and convert military resources to peaceful purposes, including ecological restoration.” this principle posits an ethic of selfdefense. the ethics of self-defense is based upon a right (morally justified claim) to selfdetermination, entailing freedom from the coercive interference of other peoples. from the perspective of international society, there is inherent moral equality between states, a state right to self-determination, and the universal obligation of nonintervention. in this case justice is constituted by a mutual respect for the equal sovereignty of each society. injustice is therefore defined as the crime of aggression, the violation of nonintervention.28 from a cosmopolitan perspective, it can be argued that state right is a manifestation of individual right. states, democratic and non-democratic, derive their sovereignty, their rights and duties, from the consent of the people.29 the principle of nonintervention thus rests on the individual right of security of person and 28 bull, the anarchical society; nardin, law, morality, and the relations of states. 29 hinsley, sovereignty; stanley hoffman, "sovereignty and the ethics of intervention," in the ethics and politics of humanitarian interventin, ed. stanley hoffman (notre dame, in: university of notre dame press, 1996); kant, perpetual peace and other essays; gene sharp, the politics of nonviolent action (boston: porter sargent, 1973). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 109 self-determination, which in turn is based upon the recognition of the equal inherent dignity of each person.30 while there exists a prima facie moral presumption against the use of force , when the integrity of a people is threatened or violated, the aggrieved party has a right to protect itself and to restore a just peace, and others, friends and allies, are justified in intervening to protect or restore that peace. this intervention often entails a justified use of force. the obligation to act for the protection of peace is founded upon a right of selfdefense and an obligation to help defend others.31 30 held, democracy and the global order; hoffman, duties beyond borders: on the limits and possibilities of ethical international politics; martha nussbaum, "kant and cosmopolitanism," in perpetual peace: essays on kant’s cosmopolitan ideal, ed. james bohman and matthias lutz-bachmann (cambridge: mit press, 1997); michael walzer, on toleration (new haven: yale university press, 1997); michael walzer, thick and thin: moral argument at home and abroad (south bend, in: notre dame university press, 1996). 31 joseph l. allen, war: a primer for christians (dallas: first maguire center/southern methodist university press, [1991] 2001); u.s. catholic bishops, "the challenge of peace: god's promise and our response," in just war theory, ed. jean bethke elshtain (new york: new york university press, [1983] 1992); joseph boyle, "just war thinking in catholic natural law," in the ethics of war and peace: religious and secular perspectives, ed. terry nardin (princeton, ny: princeton university press, 1996); cady, from warism to pacifism: a moral continuum; jean bethke elshtain, ed., just war theory (new york: new york university press, 1992); john finnis, "the ethics of war and peace in the catholic natural law tradition," in the ethics of war and peace: religious and secular perspectives, ed. terry nardin (princeton, ny: princeton university press, 1996); sohail h. hashmi, "interpreting the islamic ethics of war and peace," in the ethics of war and peace: religious and secular perspectives, ed. terry nardin (princeton: princeton university press, 1996); robert l. holmes, "can war be morally justified? the just war theory," in just war theory, ed. jean bethke elshtain (new york: new york university press, [1989] 1992); robert l. holmes, on war and morality (princeton, nj: princeton university press, 1989); terry nardin, ed., the ethics of war and peace: religious and secular perspectives (princeton, nj: in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 110 in recent thinking concerning just cause an additional justification has emerged, one that we will discuss more thoroughly below: humanitarian intervention.32 this justification is not centered on inter-state aggression; it concerns intra-state aggression. if a government engages in or allows heinous violations of human rights, attacks its own people (e.g., genocide), then the violation of the principle of nonintervention is justifiable in order to protect the rights of the citizenry against threats perpetrated or allowed by their own government. in turn, if national sovereignty is thereby contingent, then the principle of nonintervention is not absolute. if a sovereign national government commits or allows clear and significant violations of the human rights of its own citizens, committing crimes against humanity (e.g., genocide), then its claim to sovereignty is no longer legitimate, for it has failed to perform its primary duty as a government, the protection of the human dignity of its citizens; through its own actions it has invalidated the social contract. in such cases the international community is morally justified, perhaps even obligated, to intervene. such a nullification of sovereignty and the principle of nonintervention must be confined to heinous actions, to crimes against humanity recognized by the princeton university press, 1996); paul ramsey, the just war: force and political responsibility (new york: university press of america, [1968] 1983); james turner johnson, just war tradition and the restraint of war: a moral and historical inquiry (princeton: princeton university press, 1981); james turner johnson, morality and contemporary warfare (new haven: yale university press, 1999); michael walzer, just and unjust wars: a moral argument with historical illustrations (new york: basic books, 1997). 32 oliver and woodhouse ramsborth, tom, humanitarian intervention in contemporary conflict: a reconceptualization (cambridge: polity press, 1996). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 111 international community to prevent the idea of humanitarian intervention from devolving into a specious justification for aggression.33 the legitimacy of humanitarian intervention is indicative of a cosmopolitan order. the moral principles for moral decision-making concerning both self-defense and the right conduct of that defense has been developed by the just war tradition: the moral principles of jus ad bellum and jus in bello respectively. the just war tradition has established criteria for deciding whether or not the use of force is justifiable. these criteria comprise what is traditionally referred to as jus ad bellum. these criteria assume a positive presumption for a just peace and a basic prima facie presumption against violence. historically jus ad bellum criteria have included the following principles: just cause, right authority, right intention, proportionality, reasonable hope of success, and last resort. the above criteria of jus ad bellum constitute the elements of a morally justified use of force. self-defense and humanitarian intervention are the only just causes. if the end of just war theory is the protection of human dignity, including the protection of social orders consistent with dignity, then the use of force itself, the levels, means, and targets of force, must also be consistent with the imperative to protect human 33 bishops, "the challenge of peace: god's promise and our response."; deen k. chatterjee and don e. scheid, ethics and foreign intervention, cambridge studies in philosophy and public policy (cambridge; new york: cambridge university press, 2003); hoffman, "sovereignty and the ethics of intervention."; ramsborth, humanitarian intervention in contemporary conflict: a reconceptualization; walzer, thick and thin: moral argument at home and abroad. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 112 dignity. this is the consideration of jus in bello, or the right conduct of war. at issue in the consideration of the war convention is the question of the human rights of both combatants and noncombatants. the first principle of jus in bello, proportionality of means, pertains to the law of war. it specifies limits on the level and means of force in an attempt to avoid unnecessary harm, that is, to maintain a proportionate degree of harm done to combatants relative to the good achieved. this concern for the limiting warfare through a concern for proportionality is founded upon the recognition of the human rights a combatants . the second principle of jus in bello, the principle of discrimination, mandates noncombatant immunity. the intentional killing of innocents as a military strategy is never justifiable. the intentional killing of noncombatants is a war crime.34 these principles define the parameters of an ethics of self-defense as well as the basic relationship between peoples in terms of their right to sovereignty (selfdetermination) and freedom from the coercive interference of others. the peoples of the world also have a right, a morally justifiable claim, to a fair share of the world’s resources and the economic value of their productivity. this claim 34 john c. ford, "the morality of obliteration bombing," in war and morality, ed. richard a. wasserstrom (belmont, ca: wadsworth publishing company, 1970); roy and david rieff gutman, ed., crimes of war: what the public should know (new york: w. w. norton & company, 1999); paul ramsey, war and the christian conscience: how shall modern war be conducted justly? (durham, nc: duke university press, 1961); michael walzer, "moral judgment in time of war," in war and morality, ed. richard a. wasserstrom (belmont, ca: wadsworth publishing company, 1970); richard a. wasserstrom, ed., war and morality (belmont, ca: wadsworth publishing company, 1970). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 113 calls for global distributive justice. global distributive justice is a manifestation of individual economic and social human rights. the obligations inherent in these rights define the moral principles of distributive justice.35 the following principles of the earth charter illuminate a conception of global distributive justice: 3a. ensure that communities at all levels guarantee human rights and fundamental freedoms and provide everyone an opportunity to realize his or her full potential. b. promote social and economic justice, enabling all to achieve a secure and meaningful livelihood that is ecologically responsible. 7 e. ensure universal access to health care that fosters reproductive health and responsible reproduction. 8 c. ensure that information of vital importance to human health and environmental protection, including genetic information, remains available in the public domain. 9. eradicate poverty as an ethical, social, and environmental imperative. a. guarantee the right to potable water, clean air, food security, uncontaminated soil, shelter, and safe sanitation, allocating the national and international resources required. b. empower every human being with the education and resources to secure a sustainable livelihood, and provide social security and safety nets for those who are unable to support themselves. c. recognize the ignored, protect the vulnerable, serve those who suffer, and enable them to develop their capacities and to pursue their aspirations. 10. ensure that economic activities and institutions at all levels promote human development in an equitable and sustainable manner. a. promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations and among nations. b. enhance the intellectual, financial, technical, and social resources of developing nations, and relieve them of onerous international debt. c. ensure that all trade supports sustainable resource use, environmental 35 charles r. beitz, political theory and international relations (princeton: princeton university press, 1979); henry shue, basic rights: subsistence, affluence, and u.s. foreign policy (princeton: princeton university press, 1980); peter singer, one world : the ethics of globalisation (melbourne: text pub., 2002). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 114 protection, and progressive labor standards. d. require multinational corporations and international financial organizations to act transparently in the public good, and hold them accountable for the consequences of their activities. since the intercultural and international level of right relationship is also based upon human dignity and entails respect and care for persons codified in human rights, the standards of character and capacities for moral response on this level of right relationship also include the capacities for respect and care for persons. there is, however, an additional capacity on this level: tolerance. toleration is the basis of peaceful coexistence in the face of difference. tolerance is a graded, dynamic reality, moving along a continuum from resigned acceptance (indifference generated from exhaustion in the face of battling difference, throwing up of one’s hands and giving into the inevitability of difference in spite of every effort to suppress it), to benign indifference (the position that it takes all kinds, a general kind of neutrality), to moral stoicism (a formal recognition of the other’s rights), to openness (a genuine respect for the other), to enthusiastic endorsement of difference (recognition and support of the value of the other’s beliefs).36 as one becomes more tolerant one moves in the direction of mutual respect and beyond to endorsement. intolerance denotes a fundamental lack of capacity to respect the other’s humanity. right relationship with other cultures, respect and care for peoples, is contingent upon a capacity for tolerance, including at least openness, to the other. 36 walzer, on toleration. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 115 the cosmopolitan position maintains in turn that common humanity manifests differently in terms of the plurality of human cultures. the social construction of culture and the dialogical formation of identity are respectively founded upon a common humanity. each person is both a member of a particular culture and the human community. thus, equal respect yields a high tolerance for cultural diversity, for equal respect demands that one be open to the other’s culture in order to respect them as a human being, since their culture is a manifestation of their humanity. not being open to the other’s culture is to disrespect their humanity and thus violate the principle of equal respect for persons.37 in terms of community, to maintain this level of tolerance one must recognize a common humanity with others of different cultures. toleration is based in an understanding of human commonality. they are mutually inclusive. in this perspective respect/toleration and commonality are not only compatible but require each other. respect/toleration and commonality are not antithetical or in tension as in the three perspectives above; in the cosmopolitan view one does not have to be sacrificed for the other. the recognition of human commonality provides the foundation upon which multicultural tolerance is achieved. right relationship with other life on this level of relationship the attitudes of respect and care apply to the 37 martha nussbaum, cultivating humanity: a classical defense of reform in liberal education (cambridge: harvard university press, 1997). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 116 relationship with non-human beings; the attitudes are shaped by the recognition of the intrinsic value of all life forms. from an anthropocentric perspective, human flourishing requires ecological sustainability, and thus there is a human right to environmental sustainability. from an ecological perspective, are other non-human beings morally considerable? do human beings have moral duties to aid, protect, and avoid harming other living beings? the inclusion of the natural world in the moral community is necessary for its moral consideration. what follows from this premise is the proposition that the construction of an environmentally sensitive ethic must be founded upon the establishment of criteria for the extension of moral consideration to nonhuman beings. anthropocentric theory defines the value of nonhumans instrumentally as being valuable only insofar as they have value to human beings. ecocentric theory defines the value of nonhumans intrinsically as possessing value independently of human judgment. if an individual is deemed not to have intrinsic value, then that individual cannot in principle be a member of the moral community. the individual may possess value, but it is contingent upon its utility to the members of the moral community. thus, if the expansion of moral community to include nature is based upon the recognition of its intrinsic value, and if anthropocentric theory rejects the proposition of intrinsic value, then the expansion of moral community, and therefore the moral consideration of nature, cannot be achieved anthropocentrically. the strongest argument for the establishment of moral consideration is intrinsic value, for it establishes the inviolability of moral in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 117 consideration rather than resting it on the contingent grounds of instrumental value.38 what follows from intrinsic value and in turn the moral considerability of life is the fundamental moral principle of humane treatment. humane treatment invokes an obligation to prevent undue harm to all living beings and protect and sustain their well being whenever possible. this obligation requires a moral calculus for the adjudication of conflicts of interest between human beings and other species. if all beings have intrinsic value and are morally considerable, on what grounds do we adjudicate the inevitable conflict between their interests? moral consideration does not imply that justifiable discriminations cannot be made nor does it imply equal treatment per se. moral considerability does not negate the possibility of articulating principles for justifiable discrimination, and therefore, the grounds for the adjudication of conflict. at a minimum however, humane treatment is obligatory. the following earth charter principles articulate the right relationship with other life: 1. respect earth and life in all its diversity. a. recognize that all beings are interdependent and every form of life has value regardless of its worth to human beings. 5c. promote the recovery of endangered species and ecosystems. d. control and eradicate non-native or genetically modified organisms harmful to native species and the environment, and prevent introduction of such harmful organisms. 38 eugene c. hargrove, foundations of environmental ethics (denton, tx: environmental ethics books, 1996); andrew light and holmes rolston, ed., environmental ethics (oxford: blackwell publishing, 2006); holmes rolston, environmental ethics: duties to and values in the natural world, ethics and action (philadelphia: temple university press, 1988); taylor, respect for nature : a theory of environmental ethics. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 118 e. manage the use of renewable resources such as water, soil, forest products, and marine life in ways that do not exceed rates of regeneration and that protect the health of ecosystems. the moral capacities already discussed on the other levels of relationship can be enlarged to encompass relations with other living beings. self-reflection, presence, dialogue, integrity, judgment, and tolerance are all capacities that are necessary for right relationships with non-human beings. there is, however, an additional capacity on this level: awareness of the unity of life. in the buddhist tradition this existential interrelatedness is referred to variously as interbeing, dependent co-origination, symbios, causal origination, among others.39 from the perspective of the i-thou relationship and existential interconnection, morality rests upon an awareness of our fundamental interconnection. right relationship with earth (the biosphere as an integrated ecological whole) on this level of relationship the attitudes of respect and care apply to the relationship with the biosphere as an integrated ecological whole; these attitudes are shaped by the recognition of the intrinsic value of the earth’s biosphere. from this perspective the fundamental moral principle is ecological integrity. this principle is expressed in aldo leopold’s “land ethic:” “a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. it is wrong when it tends 39 dalai-lama, ethics for the new millennium; hanh, being peace. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 119 otherwise.”40 the integrity of the biosphere, its well being as a whole is the primary moral concern. this concern in turn requires an awareness of the biosphere as an integrated whole. this awareness is the fundamental moral capacity on this level of relationship. pedagogy of peace what is the process of learning though which the capacity (including understanding) for right relationships on each level is developed? the pedagogical principles that follow from the ethical imperatives of the charter are: self-reflection, dialogical encounter with persons, border crossing and diplomacy, encounter with nature, and ecological systems thinking. these pedagogical principles articulate the general process of learning through which the capacity (including understanding) for right relationships is developed. the educational purposes that follow from the ethics of the right relationship with one’s self are awareness of one’s own human dignity, the cultivation of respect and care for self, an understanding and application of the duty to care for and develop one’s self, and the cultivation of the capacity for self awareness and presence. the process of learning through which these values, attitudes and capacities are developed is selfreflection. right relationship with one’s self is fostered through critical self-examination, an internal reflection on one’s inner life, including one’s values, choices, understandings, 40 aldo leopold, "the land ethic," in environmental ethics, ed. andrew and holmes rolsoton iii light (oxford: blackwell publishing, 2006). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 120 motivations, emotions, conscious and unconscious. care of the self requires continual self-examination. the “unexamined life is not worth living.” it is the primary process through which we care for and develop the self.41 the educational purposes that follow from the ethical imperatives of the right relationship with other persons are awareness of the human dignity of others, cultivation of respect and care persons, understanding human rights, and the development of capacity for dialogue, integrity, & judgment. the understanding of rights includes knowledge of the scope and content of human rights, the range of justifications for rights, the nature and politics of institutions designed to enforce rights, the multidimensional nature of human relationships, the nature and origins of violence (both direct and indirect), among many other understandings. the process of learning through which these values, attitudes and capacities are developed is dialogical encounters with other persons. human beings are social by nature; we live in a web of relationships with each other.42 morality is 41 dalai-lama, ethics for the new millennium; michel foucault, the hermeneutics of the subject: lectures at the college de france, 1981-82, ed. frederic gros, trans. arnold i. davidson (new york: picador, 2005); pierre hadot, what is ancient philosophy? (cambridge, mass.: harvard university press, 2002); pierre hadot and arnold ira davidson, philosophy as a way of life: spiritual exercises from socrates to foucault (new york: blackwell, 1995). 42 batchelor, alone with others: an existential approach to buddhism; mary field belenky, blythe mcvicker clinchy, nancy rule goldberger and jill mattuck tarule, women's ways of knowing: the development of self, voice and mind (new york: basic books, 1986); buber, i and thou; nel noddings, caring: a feminine approach to ethics and moral education (berkeley: university of california press, 1984); the-dalailama, ethics for the new millennium (new york: riverhead books, 1999). in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 121 dialogical. the logic of reciprocity inherent in morality represents, is a manifestation of, that web of relations. duty to others is not merely a logical function but an imperative that follows from our interrelation with others as moral agents. we live in relation with other beings who possess equal dignity and these relations entail certain obligations to others. if we violate our duty, the transgression is not merely that the laws of logic or reason have been violated but that someone’s dignity has been violated. this violation is the contradiction, the hypocrisy that constitutes the moral transgression. as michael perry suggests, the language of principle, of rights and duties, can be foregone, what is important is what they are intended to protect: human dignity. following levinas, it is the call of the other, the call of the other’s dignity that defines responsibility. from this perspective, the structure of morality is dialogical. in his classic book i and thou martin buber articulates a conceptualization of human relationships, in terms of his notions of the i-it and i-thou relationships, which forms the basis of a dialogical understanding of morality.43 the i-thou relationship is an encounter, a meeting of subjectivities. in this relationship one is able “to meet and know the other in his concrete uniqueness and not just as a content of one’s experience.”44 this encounter constitutes a direct experience of the other in-itself. the thou is the subjective interiority of the other. one is apprehending the other as a subject, as one who possesses a subjective interiority and dignity and not merely as an object. the i-thou encounter is 43 buber, i and thou. 44 maurice friedman, "introduction," in between man and man, ed. martin buber (new york: macmillan, 1965). p. xv in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 122 one that transcends a surface perception of the other as an object. it is a way of relating that opens one to an apprehension of the subjectivity, the interiority of the other. a dialogical encounter entails the extension of one’s subjective presence to meet the subjective presence of the other being one is encountering, without losing the distinction of one’s own individuality. in this experience one becomes aware of the interrelated and interdependent nature of being. on an existential level there exists a fundamental interconnection between one’s self and other beings. as buber suggests, “we live in the currents of universal reciprocity.”45 the i-thou encounter constitutes an awareness of that reciprocity. this encounter is made possible by the maintenance of the i as a selfconscious subjectivity, in the sense that only a self-conscious subject can meet a subject. it is only in self-consciousness that we can be authentically present to another and only in presence is the you revealed. the process of learning through which the capacity for dialogical relationships with other persons is developed entails first, the direct experience of being treated as a subject by others and second, being engaged in various forms of dialogue with others. the pedagogical practice of dialogue throughout the curriculum cultivates a capacity for dialogical relationships and thus fosters the capacity for right relationships with other persons. 45 buber, i and thou. p. 67 in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 123 the educational purposes that follow from the ethical imperatives of the right relationship with other cultures and peoples are awareness of the dignity of other cultures, cultivation of respect and care peoples, understanding justice and the ethics of self defense, and the development of the capacity for tolerance. these purposes entail an understanding of world history, comparative culture, the ethics of war and peace, the nature and causes of aggression and injustice, and the nature of economic globalization and global distributive justice, among other understandings. in addition, intercultural knowledge entails an understanding of cosmopolitan multiculturalism. cosmopolitanism posits the existence of a human commonality, which extends the moral community, and thus, equal respect, to all human beings. the process of learning through which these values, attitudes and capacities are developed is border crossing and diplomacy. it is through encounters with other peoples consistent with the imperatives of cosmopolitan ethics that the capacity for right relationships with other peoples can be cultivated. the pedagogical approach here is to place the student in the role of an ambassador who needs to develop a range of attitudes, skills, understandings, and capacities to cross borders diplomatically consistent with the imperatives of cosmopolitan ethics. the educational purposes that follow from the ethical imperatives of rights relationships with other life forms are awareness of the intrinsic value of life, cultivation of respect and care for life, understanding the moral principle of humane in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 124 treatment, development of capacity for awareness of the unity of life. the process of learning through which these values, attitudes and capacities are developed is encounters with nature. open, sustained, wide encounters with the natural world, consistent with the ethical imperative of moral consideration and humane treatment, is the means to develop the capacity for rights relationships with other living beings. encounters with nature will lead to understanding and empathy, revealing the intrinsic value of life and the imperative to treat other living beings with care and respect. the purpose of education from the perspective of the right relationship with earth is the awareness of the intrinsic value of the biosphere, a cultivation of respect and care for the biosphere, an understanding of ecological integrity and the development of awareness of the biosphere as an integrated whole. the process of learning through which these values, attitudes and capacities are developed is ecological systems thinking. how do we develop in students an awareness and understanding of the interconnection and interdependence of the biosphere? a first step is to expose them to a mode of thought that understands reality in terms of process and systems. we need to learn to see the interconnections, the integration, the unity of the whole. we live in and are an integrated part of an interdependent ecological system. it is through engagement with systems thinking that helps cultivate the awareness of the whole and in turn the capacity of right relationship with it. this set of pedagogical principles are a means to develop the capacity of right in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 125 relationships on each respective level consistent with the cosmopolitan and ecological ethical imperatives of the earth charter. they point us in a particular educational direction that emphases dynamic processes of learning as the key to the development of the capacity for moral responsiveness and thus right relationships. conclusion in conclusion, the earth charter offers a comprehensive and holistic framework for a cosmopolitan ethic and a pedagogy of peace. it constitutes an alternative ethical response to globalization that is centered in justice, peace, and environmental sustainability. it also provides a powerful articulation of the core principles of pedagogy of peace as right relationships. in contrast to the imperative of maintaining a balance of power, the imperative of an international legal order of states, and the imperative of the domination of american liberalism, the earth charter posits a cosmopolitan imperative of peace as right relationships and a holistic pedagogy of peace. this article offers an outline of the levels of right relationship in accordance with the ethical framework of the charter, including the articulation of educational purposes. what is needed is a full explication of the framework as well as the articulation of a complete philosophy of peace education based upon it. however, this article attempts to 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"the land ethic." in environmental ethics, edited by andrew and holmes rolsoton iii light, 15-37. oxford: blackwell publishing, 2006. levinas, emmanuel, and nidra poller. humanism of the other. urbana: university of illinois press, 2003. macgillivray, alex. a brief history of globalization: the untold story of our incredible shrinking planet. 1st carroll & graf ed. new york: carroll & graf, 2006. mapel, terry nardin & david r., ed. traditions of international ethics. cambridge: cambridge university press, 1992. maritain, jacques. natural law: reflections on theory and practice. edited by william sweet. south bend, in: st. augustine's press, 2001. ———. the rights of man and natural law. london: geoffrey bles, 1958. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 129 nardin, terry. law, morality, and the relations of states. princeton, nj: princeton university press, 1983. ———, ed. the ethics of war and peace: religious and secular perspectives. princeton, nj: princeton university press, 1996. noddings, nel. caring: a feminine approach to ethics and moral education. berkeley: university of california press, 1984. nussbaum, martha. cultivating humanity: a classical defense of reform in liberal education. cambridge: harvard university press, 1997. ———. "kant and cosmopolitanism." in perpetual peace: essays on kant’s cosmopolitan ideal, edited by james bohman and matthias lutz-bachmann, 2558. cambridge: mit press, 1997. nye, r. o. keohane and joseph s. power and interdependence. boston: little, brown, 1977. perry, michael j. the idea of rights: four inquiries. new york: oxford university press, 1998. ramsborth, oliver and woodhouse, tom. humanitarian intervention in contemporary conflict: a reconceptualization. cambridge: polity press, 1996. ramsey, paul. the just war: force and political responsibility. new york: university press of america, [1968] 1983. ———. war and the christian conscience: how shall modern war be conducted justly? durham, nc: duke university press, 1961. rolston, andrew light and holmes, ed. environmental ethics. oxford: blackwell publishing, 2006. rolston, holmes. environmental ethics: duties to and values in the natural world, ethics and action. philadelphia: temple university press, 1988. rosenfeld, michael. affirmative action and justice: a philosophical and constitutional inquiry. new haven: yale university press, 1991. sharp, gene. the politics of nonviolent action. boston: porter sargent, 1973. shue, henry. basic rights: subsistence, affluence, and u.s. foreign policy. princeton: princeton university press, 1980. singer, peter. one world : the ethics of globalisation. melbourne: text pub., 2002. smith, michael joseph. realist thought from weber to kissinger. baton rouge, la: louisiana state university press, 1986. taylor, paul w. respect for nature : a theory of environmental ethics, studies in moral, political, and legal philosophy. princeton, n.j.: princeton university press, 1986. the-dalai-lama. ethics for the new millennium. new york: riverhead books, 1999. thurman, robert a. f. inner revolution : life, liberty, and the pursuit of real happiness. new york: riverhead books, 1998. turner johnson, james. just war tradition and the restraint of war: a moral and historical inquiry. princeton: princeton university press, 1981. in factis pax 2 (1) (2008): 88-130 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 130 ———. morality and contemporary warfare. new haven: yale university press, 1999. vincent, r. j. human rights and international relations. cambridge: cambridge university press, 1986. walzer, michael. just and unjust wars: a moral argument with historical illustrations. new york: basic books, 1997. ———. "moral judgment in time of war." in war and morality, edited by richard a. wasserstrom, 54-62. belmont, ca: wadsworth publishing company, 1970. ———. on toleration. new haven: yale university press, 1997. ———. thick and thin: moral argument at home and abroad. south bend, in: notre dame university press, 1996. wasserstrom, richard a., ed. war and morality. belmont, ca: wadsworth publishing company, 1970. yoder, john howard. when war is unjust: being honest in just-war thinking. minneapolis, mn: augsburg publishing house, 1984. volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 28 volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 jewban diaspora narratives on identity, belonging, resilience, privilege and community laura finley, phd immigration, migration, and diasporas are growing areas of study for scholars of peace and conflict. such studies address reasons for migration and displacement, the experience of emigrating, treatment of immigrants, relevant policies and more (see, for example, toivanen & baser, 2020; vertovec, 2005). cuban american jews, or jewbans, as they are called (and call themselves), are a unique diaspora. they reside in many places in the us, although south florida is home to the largest group. on the large, the jewbans are a highly successful demographic in miami and other locations. many factors contribute to this success and are part of jewbans’ narratives that have been passed down intergenerationally. other factors, however, do not seem to be part of jewbans’ narratives yet may be equally relevant to their success. as much research has shown, immigrant narratives shape how subsequent generations identify, socially, economically, and politically. this in turn is connected to how and in what ways they build community. this paper begins with a brief discussion of the jewban diaspora, emphasizing key milestones and timelines. it focuses largely on the wave of jewbans known as exiles and their families who were raised in south florida. the paper then highlights themes related by one family of jewbans, most of whom https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 29 currently live in south florida and all of whom lived there for many years. i am a participant researcher, as the family that i interviewed are all members of my husband’s immediate or extended family. although much has been written about the jewbans, most was authored by persons who are themselves jewban. i am not jewish nor cuban. further, this paper adds to the literature about the jewban experience by identifying themes that emerged across three different generations related to identity, belonging, resilience, privilege, and community. ten members of the family were interviewed for 30-60 minutes each, some of them multiple times. this includes members who were born in cuba and left as castro came to power, their children who were born in the us, and their grandchildren, also born in the us. interview transcriptions were analyzed using grounded theory to identify themes that were particularly redundant, emphatic and those that might be expected but were limited or absent. as a participant researcher, i recognize that these stories were relayed to me not just in an academic context but in a family one as well. i did not seek to fact check the narratives expressed to me, as it was the stories that were of interest. with their permission, i identify the individuals by their first names. the review of literature and literature related to each themes gives an additional layer of nuance. several primary themes emerged and are illustrated below. themes that were redundant and emphatic include jewish identity, community, family/belonging, work ethic, and resilience. themes that would be expected to be part of the family’s narratives given social, political, and cultural history but that were minimal if not absent in my interviews include privilege, victimization, and idealization of pre-revolutionary cuba. the paper concludes with recommendations for future research and implications for immigrant community building and belonging. the jewban diaspora: a brief history according to the merriam-webster dictionary, a diaspora is “the movement, migration or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral home.” the term has long been associated with jews, who have been displaced many times historically. the jewbans are unique in that they are “a diaspora within a diaspora” (siegel, 2012). others call the second wave of cuban jewish migration outmigration, or “to leave one region or community in order to settle in another especially as part of a large-scale and continuing movement of population.” according to steinberg (2007), there are three waves of the jewban diaspora to south florida. the first wave began in the 1920s and lasted until about the mid-1950s. it was largely comprised of jews from the northeast united states due to a continued economic boom that helped develop miami, especially the south https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 30 beach area. the second wave began in 1959 and lasted through the mid-1960s, when approximately 5,000 cuban jews sought refuge in south florida after fidel castro came to power. the third wave, which is still occurring today, has been taking place since the late 1970s, when many latin american immigrants came to miami as a result of war or economic hardship in their own countries. the focus in this paper is on the second wave and their families that were born in the us. the second wave are referred to, and often refer to themselves, as exiles. most are ashkenazi jews who trace their family heritage to eastern europe, largely poland, romania, russia, and belarus. a smaller group are sephardic, whose families are traced to spain, morocco, and other more central european countries. this wave is considered exiles because their genesis for leaving cuba was the revolution that brought fidel castro to power and instituted a communist government. most self-identify this way and have passed that terminology along to subsequent generations (bettinger-lopez, 2000). exiles migrated to other cities but the vast majority came to south florida due to its proximity to cuba and its similar climate. the us government admitted 248,100 cuban immigrants between 1959 and 1962, with some 14,000 minors admitted between december 1960 and october 1962 in what is known as operation pedro pan. things might have gotten difficult when, on january 3, 1961, the us broke diplomatic relations with cuba, but it extended benefits to cuban migrants in the form of visa waivers. upon arriving to the us, cubans could be paroled or gain refugee status, claiming they were fleeing communist oppression. the history of the us, and miami in particular, is intertwined with cuban history in numerous ways (eckstein, 2022; ferrer, 2021). exiles were largely white-skinned and middle or upper class. the first to leave after the revolution were military officers, government officials, landowners, and businesspersons, many of whom were associated with the batista regime (steinberg, n.d). this is in contrast to the third wave, which involves a different demographic, one that is browner-skinned and lower in socioeconomic status on the whole. the third wave includes very few jews, as 90 percent, perhaps up to 96 percent, of jews left the island during the second wave. bettinger-lopez (2000) found that the cuban-jewish community tends to view more recent cuban emigres as different and does not engage much with the newer arrivals. in cities like miami, exiles set up grocery stores, shops, restaurants, and other small businesses and “created a milieu where island-born mingled, shopped, ate, drank, and ‘talked cuba.’ calle ocho, southwest eighth street, and bergenline avenue because the hubs of little havana and union city (new jersey), respectively. the areas maintained their cuban flair and ethnic import, exilehttps://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 31 defined, even after they were no longer majority cuban and after the cuba-born became enmeshed in broader city life” (eckstein, 2009, p. 54). miami was given the nickname of “the southern borscht belt” and many joked that it had turned into a suburb of new york city. this jewish-sounding nickname and association with new york underlined the sense of connectedness that the newcomers felt with their old homes, which contradicted the drastic change in their relocation (moore, 1992, pp.108-9). description of participants exile generation lilia is almost 80 and left cuba immediately after marrying jack, who passed away in 2021. she was 16 when she left the island and he was 23. ester is lilia’s cousin on her mother, consuelo’s, side. she is a professor emeritus who is the only family member to have extensively studied the jewban experience and has been to cuba several times. she was 6 when she left the island. rachel s. is ester’s sister, also lilia’s cousin on her mother’s side. she is a social worker and, being not yet 4 when the family left the island, has more impression of it than distinct memories. enrique/henry is jack’s brother. he is ten years younger so is in his mid1970s. he and his family left cuba after the bay of pigs invasion. he was a teenager and has quite distinct memories of living in havana and the passage to the us. second generation david, my husband. is lilia’s middle child and is 57. he was born in new york and moved with his family to miami when he was 10. davis is the most interested in the family history of anyone in his immediate family, likely due to the fact that he grew up hearing stories from his maternal and paternal grandmothers about their lives in eastern europe and then cuba. lisette is lilia’s youngest child. she barely remembers their time in new york, as she was just 5 when the family moved to miami. she admits she is not very “political” nor has she had that much interest in the family history but is proud to be jewban. jeff is david and lisette’s cousin, son of lilia’s brother leon. born in miami, he is one of the few who left the geographic vicinity of his family, never to return. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 32 gregg is jeff’s brother, another cousin of david and lisette. he, too, was born in miami but left as an adult and has not returned to live near the family. he maintains a significant interest in the jewban story. third generation rachel b. is david’s only daughter. she was born in broward county, florida. her parents divorced when she was just one year old, so the way she was raised differed somewhat from the others in her generation. dylan is lisette’s oldest son. of this generation, he is the most knowledgeable about family history and the most interested in the jewban experience. interview themes jewish identity (more than jewban) unlike other research about the south florida jewbans (bettinger-lopez, 2000; eckstein, 2009), this family retains very little of its cuban-ness. this is interesting, given that all the interviewees said they are proud to call themselves jewbans, not just jews. this theme is consistent, however, with portes and rumbaut (2006), who asserted that religion is the most important factor in the “development of ethnic communities and the reassertion of national cultures” (p. 304), as it can help mitigate the trauma of migration. all of the interviewees in the first two generations emphasized that most of their friends were jewbans, as they lived near, went to school, and often worked with other jewbans, not cubans nor necessarily american jews. the only things i was told about the cuban heritage that they integrate today is spanish-speaking (for all, at least minimally) and in their food traditions. even noting the passing down of spanish, all the interviewees emphasized that what they learned includes hybrids of spanish and yiddish. i recall laughing when we were discussing some politician lilia did not like and someone asked why. she responded “porque un putz.” a spanish-yiddish compilation meaning he's an idiot, roughly. many noted that on jewish holidays the family has traditional jewish food but usually with a cuban flair, like brisket with beans and rice. they occasionally go to cuban restaurants or order cuban food. but none visit the many cuban historical sites in south florida. no one celebrates important dates in cuban history, for example, jose marti’s birth date. only one of the individuals i interviewed really embraced being jewban. ester is an exile who moved with her family when she was a child. today she is a https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 33 retired college professor who has been to cuba several times and has written extensively about the jewban experience. she also noted that because of her background, she is most comfortable in mixed race and mixed religious groups. others did not express that and seem to largely be connected to fellow jewbans or, for the later generation, american jews. community even in cuba, the jewbans mostly kept to themselves, as these interviewees described. this is consistent with levine (2010), who reported that cuban jews coming to maturity between 1945 and 1959 (this included my mother-in-law and now deceased father-in-law), “maintained strong ties to their jewish roots; they socialized within jewish groups and selected marriage partners from within their religious community. their immigrant parents and grandparents had found things much more arduous” (levine, 2010, p. 7). in south florida, jeff and gregg noted that their mother, an exile, still maintains friendships with other exiles. lilia and enrique are still connected to classmates with whom they went to school in cuba, some in south florida and others in different locations. likewise, david described growing up with family friends who were virtually all jewbans in the neighborhood and in their hebrew school. it seems, then, that the exiles and their progeny maintained strong community ties with other jewbans. lisette, jeff, and gregg said the same of their youth, although jeff and gregg, having moved away from south florida, are less connected to the jewban community today. the third generation appears not to have developed the same jewban community. having studied in wisconsin and colorado, dylan noted that it was hard for people to understand what jewbans are, so he mostly expressed himself as jewish. he said even in south florida he does not interact much with cubans who were not jewish. similarly, rachel b has a large circle of friends, most of whom are jewish but none are jewban or cuban. this is consistent with bettinger-lopez’s (2000) findings in that jewbans discussed the difficulty in keeping the vibrant community across the generations, given the social, political, and economic changes in south florida at the same time period. family every one of the people interviewed emphasized that they were taught, and that they taught their own kids, the importance of family. while this is not unique to jewbans, the degree to which the jewbans have stayed in geographic proximity is remarkable. those who grew up in cuba recall that their families all lived in close proximity there and family members also worked together. it was family that helped one another migrate, first to cuba and then to the us. enrique recalls that https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 34 his father, david bekerman, emigrated from warsaw, poland in the 1920s as a young man. he worked at various hobs and married his mother eva before moving enrique’s grandmother and aunts to cuba as well, before the outbreak of world war ii. family members started business together on the island and again in the us. their children recall being told about this, and growing up in the us, only a few of the members of the family live outside of a 30-minute radius of their immediate family. even blended families worked together, with many starting businesses together. enrique, who came to the us just after the bay of pigs invasion, described the closeness of his family, even though his brother jack was ten years older than him and his sister, sarita, was 17 years older. enrique described tagging along with his brother and his friends in havana, sharing a room with him, and having similar interests in boxing and baseball. further, he notes that jack would take his father to and from the family factory and do the same with his paternal grandmother, as they all worked together. she was frail and could not do much but watch the people go by. he also recalled jack carrying her, supermanstyle, up and down steep stairs at her apartment. another story was about jack’s defense of his family. enrique explained, “one time when we still lived in old havana when there was a tumult in the store. i later found out that my brother had punched a guy on the street for calling our father a “baldy bean.” everyone was very proud of ishe (note: one of many nicknames given to jack), at the time, except my mom.” jack had taken some courses in civil engineering and architecture at the university of havana when it was not closed due to student activism. his mother begged him to go to the states so he could continue his studies but he did not want to leave his mother alone. enrique also described his mother eva’s large extended family and the effort she went to in order to stay in contact with some who ended up in brazil, venezuela and elsewhere. he recalls her writing letters, sending pictures, and inviting them to stay if they were in cuba. in the us, those who “left” the area faced the wrath of many of their family members. ester and rachel s., who were children when they arrived in south florida, said that when they decided to leave miami to go to college in boston, their father would not speak to them for years. ester and rachel also expressed that their father was always “difficult” and that gossip and talking about others was the norm in cuba and once they arrived in the us. there was great pressure to be at family affairs despite the tensions. jeff and gregg, born to a very successful exile, leon (lilia’s brother), had a strained relationship with him, as he was also described as “difficult.” money was a significant source of family tension, according to ester, who was very vehement about that. she expressed that her mother was the favorite of their grandmother, more-so than her grandmother’s own daughter, consuelo, because she was shy and https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 35 meek and she married into the family, bringing with her significant dowry money. at the time of her wedding in 1951, her dowry was $10,000, which would be equivalent to $125,000 today. although it is not always expressed in this way, the emphasis on family also included family financial and labor support to make their businesses successful. the story detailed above highlights this point, as that dowry money was used by the ester and rachel’s father and her mother’s brothers to start a hardware business that became very successful in cuba. although i have been told since i became part of the family how many started businesses together and/or worked together, the part that was not often expressed was that the capital to start these businesses was also typically provided by a family member. in new york, lilia’s parents consuelo and isaac established a jewelry business, invited jack and lilia to work in it, and even brought jack’s mother eva, who had immigrated to miami, to work in the business. the business then moved to south florida, and at one point lilia, jack, both grandmothers, and david and his brother perry and his wife worked in the business, with enrique occasionally helping and other grandchildren assisting in later years. although the business is now mail-order only, at the time they had several storefronts and even built a playroom in one of them in which the grandmothers could watch their grandkids while the other adults worked. both rachel and dylan recall playing there. this i see as connected to several of the other themes and will be discussed in greater detail later. work ethic as is recalled in historical records, these respondents discussed that one of the main reasons for their success is their work ethic. lilia, enrique, rachel s., and ester noted that their family in eastern europe did not have many employment options due to discrimination against jews, so they were forced to become entrepreneurial. similarly, when the eastern european jews arrived in cuba there were few options available to them. most began as peddlers (see bettinger-lopez, 2000; levine, 2010), as did the members of this family. this meant working hard, all the time. yet they did just that, and as levine (2010) explained, the work ethic of all the immigrants to cuba at the time (not just the jews) made them stand apart from native cubans, who had a more relaxed attitude. indeed, all four exiles recalled that their families started as peddlers in cuba, and all the second and third generation interviewees were familiar with this narrative. when my jack passed away in august of 2021, the family met with the rabbi who would be performing the service. he asked what one thing really stood out to everyone about jack, and his three children all simultaneously stated, “he was always working.” his own father, david, was not well-liked by the extended family because he struggled with https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 36 various health ailments and did not do well in the cuban heat, according to enrique. lilia tells it a bit differently, saying that he did not work hard, instead relying on his wife, eva, to largely run their business, modas ethel, which eventually became quite successful. all four exiles reported that their mothers also worked, usually within family businesses. when they settled in miami in 1962, enrique recalls that his mother finally found work in a shoe factory in hialeah. she had to get up at 4 am in order to make it to work by 7 am. she did that for two years, while he, as a high school senior, worked 30 hours per week at a shoe store. further, all of the exiles and their children largely expressed that, while education was important, work was more-so. jeff and gregg, children of exile parents, did go to college but said they believed their parents would not have cared if they did not and that they only did because they were in school with students of a certain social class in which higher education was expected. yet all of the interviewees of the second and third generation did go to college and all have or are going free of any debt. this is due to their hard work but also to the family’s economic success that has allowed them to pay for all or part of their kids’ higher education without the need for loans. more important than education in general was the passing along of their jewish heritage via hebrew school and other means. all of the generation who grew up here attended hebrew school as did their kids. almost all studied at some point in israel through birthright or another program. this is consistent with what levine (2010) wrote: “in the united states, immigrants learned to discard their foreign mannerisms and to seek americanization while at the same time preserving and even strengthening their identity as jews within a pluralistic society. cuban ashkenazim not only clung to their yiddish culture when they arrived but worked communally to strengthen it, teaching yiddish to children, supporting yiddish theater and newspapers, and maintaining contact with yiddish-speaking movements in the united states and europe” (levine, 2010, p. 290). resilience a large part of the family narrative, and that of many jewbans according to previous research (see bettinger-lopez, 2000; behar, 2007; levine, 2010), emphasizes the importance of resilience. part of the family’s success was definitely due to being entrepreneurial and taking risks, often during rough times. ester expressed that “capitalism comes easily to jews, especially those like her family with tight family connections.” even those with strained family relationships acknowledged that their parents or other relatives thrived in large part due to the willingness to try different businesses and bounce back if they failed. none of the https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 37 interviewees attributed this quality to their cuban roots, however. rather, all defined it as part of being jewish, noting how the jews have always been a “wandering” people and who, despite tremendous antisemitism and persecution, have tenacity that allows them to persevere. similarly, one miami jewban who was interviewed by bettinger-lopez (2000) expressed that “i would say there is a difference between the jewish people and the rest of the world. we are more able to detach ourselves from where we are and move on…i mean, we are cubans, but we were able to detach ourselves, and now we’re here. and if we have to move from the states someplace else, we will do it [unlike gentile cubans]” (p. 16). the exiles with whom i spoke talked about the stories they learned from their parents, grandparents and other relatives about how difficult things were in eastern europe. they provided rich stories about the challenges these emigres faced in cuba, adapting to a new climate, a new language, and a new culture, and starting out with nearly nothing. many had to change their names. lilia’s mother became consuelo in cuba. enrique’s mother was born eta lederman kusherman but became known as eva. this trend continued in the us, where isaac became jack and enrique is often referred to as henry. while there were jews in cuba prior, more were sephardic so the ashkenazi emigres had to virtually forge their own synagogues and community organizations. as noted, most of the men became peddlers, as there was little else for them to do given the language barrier and their lack of education prior to arrival on the island. yet, within a fairly short time, most became middle class or even more affluent, owning or managing a variety of businesses ranging from garments to shoes, rope to sugar. then came the revolution. so, the wandering jews wandered once more, again leaving with little and headed to a country where they had to learn a new language and culture and in some cases, navigate a very different climate. my husband’s aunt on his father’s side, sarita, had previously left cuba and was living with her husband in kansas city. lilia was 16 when castro took over and the family, hearing rumors about the government sending children and teens to labor camps, were very concerned for her and her brother’s safety. at the time she had started dating jack, who was 7 years older, and the two were pretty serious. when lilia’s parents said they wanted to send her to the us, jack insisted that they get married and he go with her. so. they did, never to set foot in cuba again. they moved to kansas city and jack worked with his sister sarita’s husband selling insurance, but it was not for him. at that time his brother-in-law, barney, was very “americanized” and convinced jack to go by that, rather than his birth name. kansas city was a far cry from the tropical paradise of cuba. after that they moved to los angeles where another relative owned a liquor store at which jack worked, but lilia’s parents, consuelo, and isaac, were unhappy about their living situation https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 38 and, having themselves emigrated to new york, had the couple and their new baby, david’s brother perry, move to new york. with lilia’s dad isaac, they established a successful jewelry store, then several others, enduring another change of location and lifestyle. privilege the jewbans i have met and those i interviewed for this research are some of the warmest, most welcoming people. using the word privilege, then, may sound demeaning. i do not mean it that way, but instead am referring to the work of several scholars, most notably eckstein (2009, 2022). her book cuban privilege generated great controversy, especially in the setting of miami’s exile community, but she used historical data to show that the cuban exiles received the most generous federal welfare programs in us history. while not an exhaustive recounting of these privileges, this segment includes some that were likely beneficial to these families and were not noted. the stories emphasized family and working hard to make it, but not really the many help services that were available through nongovernmental organizations in addition to federal programs. starting with president eisenhower and through eleven different presidencies, policies have been put in place that make it easier for cubans and their families to come to the us, to obtain legal permanent residency status, to become naturalized citizens, and to bring over family members. for some time, cubans were even privileged at the expense of other immigrants, as they received essentially first dips among quotas set for western hemisphere immigrants. congress even gave cubans their own quota, independent from other immigrants in the region, via an amendment to the immigration and nationality act in 1976. further, until recent times, even cuban immigrants who were unauthorized were accepted and given many of the same privileges. this is in stark contrast to other immigrant groups, for example, haitians, who were largely detained and deported if they attempted to enter the us unauthorized. additionally, cuban immigrants were able to receive significant public benefits, including food assistance, job training, language instruction, help finding housing and more. as eckstein (2022) noted, many cuban immigrants in the first post-revolution wave were transported to the us at taxpayer expense, through freedom flights. nearly a third of a million cubans, “most of whose lives were not at risk,” were transported to the us in this way during the kennedy, johnson, and nixon administrations (eckstein, 2022). not only did this type of assistance not come up in the interviews, saving ester, no one even knew about the many immigration and federal aid advantages the exiles, and by extension their families, had in developing successful lives in the us. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 39 in previous research, exiles who came to miami largely reported an unsympathetic and unhelpful community, although there is some discrepancy in the data. many cuban jews reported to bettinger-lopez (2000) that the jewish community in miami was not very welcoming to them when they arrived by the thousands in 1959 and the early 1960s. reportedly they provided no financial aid or moral support. rabbi mayer abramowitz explained that american jews thought the cuban jewish emigres were wealthy and not in need of help. even the greater miami jewish federation did not immediately help, some reported, so cuban jews established their own synagogues and groups. also, american jews were aware of federal support being offered so did not feel it necessary to add to that. abramowitz also said that the american ashkenazi jews at the time held anti-latin sentiments and in particular anti-castro and anti-cuban ideologies. as siegel (2012) wrote, “the general anti-cuban sentiment in miami at the time paralleled (and perhaps affected) the jewish community. ironically, the discrimination suffered by cubans in the 1960s is similar to the antisemitism suffered by the jews in the 1920s, including signs posted in buildings saying, “no pets, no kids, no cubans” (siegel, 2012). cuban jews who emigrated to other parts of the country, especially new york, reported better experiences. yet others paint a rosier picture of the reception of jewbans in miami. levine (2010) reported that the greater miami jewish federation (gmjf) set up a reception center at the airport and were joined by other welfare agencies. help was also provided by the hebrew immigrant aid society (hias) as well as the national council of jewish women (ncjw). garcia (1996) explained that many of miami’s poor, working class people resented the cuban migrants for the various supports they received. local media outlets expressed the position that the cuban influx was a burden and a drain on resources. in contrast, national media as well as government and religious leaders treated the cuban migrants as heroic refugees (bettingerlopez, 2000). in miami, the only established congregation that sought to welcome the ashkenazi from cuba was the conservative temple menorah on miami beach. only two of the interviewees arrived directly in miami after leaving cuba and both were children, so they do not recall the reception they received or that their parents received. both admitted in retrospective that they are pretty certain their father received both family and other kinds of assistance in starting a business when he arrived. victimization the family narrative tends to stress hardship. fairly so. no one in this family used the word “victim,” but many talked about being refugees from first https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 40 antisemitism and then from communism, and thus the stories emphasize being from a victimized status. rok (ester), a little girl when her family left cuba after the revolution explained, “in our family psyche, leaving and losing cuba was unremarkable in the many lifetimes of diaspora, moving like gypsies wherever we might not be punished for being ourselves. on the rare occasions in my childhood when i mentioned to my family my profound sense of loss, of intense curiosity and deep longing for cuba, they would inevitably reply: you don’t have any idea how easy you had it as an immigrant, compared to what we endured in leaving russia and poland” (rok, 1995, pp. 90-91). yet, historical documents and some of the family members who were more students of history note that it was not really victimization that prompted the leaving of cuba. it was economic. that is not in any way a bad reason, but it is interesting that it does not fully capture the actual situation. even in eastern europe, where antisemitism was a bigger issue, the ashkenazi largely left for economic opportunity. this is perhaps in significant part due to the way that us officials talked about, and as noted above, privileged, cuban exiles. they were accepted as refugees despite legislation that explicitly said they did not qualify. the second generation and third generation who grew up in the us all used the word refugee to describe their grandparents and never questioned that it was not necessarily the most accurate term. stories of difficulties leaving the island were abundant, again, despite evidence that in 1959 and the early 1960s, it was generally easy for cubans to immigrate to the us. the privileges afforded to cubans had a positive payoff, as cubans thrived in places like miami and have helped turn it into a dynamic city. cubans in miami, especially the earlier waves, hold many high-income jobs and influential positions (eckstein, 2022). idealized cuba of old the island seems to stand as a static one amongst these exiles and their families. the jewban exiles i interviewed all discussed the beauty of prerevolutionary cuba and noted the lack of discrimination (although this is not entirely accurate, if one reviews scholarly writing). eckstein (2009) found a similar theme. in their new land, exiles continued to filter their homeland memories through shared, pre-revolution lenses. this was especially true of adult emigres, who were old enough when they left to have interpreted life for themselves. the wealthiest and most politicized exiles tended to set the tone and norms for them all. they remained fiercely anti-castro even though https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 41 their conception of the country under castro became mainly a construct of their imagination, given how little of the revolution they had personally experienced. they imagined their homeland through rose-colored, prerevolution lenses that blinded them to injustices which had prevailed in their midst. the little they experienced in cuba under castro they interpreted critically, with political spin, many claimed to have suffered for their political convictions partly because they considered victimization under castro a badge of honor (p. 22). castro was the big evil, and not only did he take away their livelihoods he took away their beautiful existence. at least, that is the story they have passed down to their families. for instance, when asked what interest, if any, his family seemed to have in cuba post-revolution, gregg responded “none. castro=bad. cuba=bad. communist=bad. that’s what we were taught.” this is similar to previous research. the myths about cuba are even stronger among the younger generations, bettingerlopez (2000) found, because they lack direct knowledge or experience “so they know only the most important—‘legendary’—aspects of jewish life in cuba, which translate into much of their understanding of what life in cuba was like for their parents, as well as what judaism was in cuba” (p. 158). only enrique had anything much to say about the actual experience of leaving cuba for the us. lilia always says she was “just a little girl” (16) and that they landed at ellis island and that’s about it. enrique recalls that his father had a heart attack the day they were supposed to leave cuba. his family left cuba on april 30, 1961. they had previously stood in line to obtain tourist visas based on his father’s disability, claiming to need to see specialists in the us. they received permits to leave cuba temporarily and were originally scheduled to leave on april 17, the day of the botched bay of pigs invasion, which closed down the airports. in the climate on the island at the time, returning home was scary because you could be seen as counter-revolutionary agitators. the family then had to wait several more weeks to get new airline reservations and his mother’s travel visa was close to expiration. with the help of friends, they got new airline tickets for april 27. they were waiting at the gate when they heard an announcement about new regulations prohibiting foreign currency from leaving the country. this was a challenge, as the cuban peso was not well accepted internationally. passengers were called at the gate to declare their possessions. he, his mother, and his father each had $3 in us dimes, and when enrique and his father were called, they declared their possessions and placed the dimes on the table. when eva’s turn came, she tried to plead with the agents, explaining their need for the money. he thought she meant what enrique and david had declared, so said “lady, just sit down.” she interpreted that to mean https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 42 she did not need to declare her own $3. they then began loading the airplane. david and enrique got on, but when eva was set to load, she was asked to open her purse and they found the money. she was not allowed on the plane, and david and enrique had to disembark. their passports were suspended, they were stripsearched by cuba’s secret police, the g-2, and their baggage was confiscated. a trial date was to be set. david had what enrique described as a “mild heart attack” upon hearing the news, and the family stayed at the airport hotel so a doctor could check him out. they were only able to get through it with the help of lilia’s parents, isaac, and consuelo, who had a contact who intervened on their behalf. their trial for having “contraband” was suspended and their passports returned. had they not made it out on april 30, eva’s visa would have expired. one thing i repeatedly hear from lilia is that there was no racism in cuba. again, reality paints a slightly different picture. the rosy account of cuba’s lack of racism was likely due to the fact that the constitution prohibits it, but also the fact that the jews were largely a tightknit community who mostly interacted with other jews. ester, who has traveled and studied cuba explained that there was racism in cuba in terms of the types of work people had and their financial situation, but not the firm residential segregation that was and still remains in the us. people tended to live in mixed race communities but had their own schools, places of worship, and businesses based on race. at the time the exiles came to the us deep racism was (and remains) structurally a part of the us. separate water fountains and other facilities were not a part of cuban life but were so in the states. this part of the story has been passed down, as the exiles recall being surprised and appalled at seeing the stark racial separation in the us and told their children and grandchildren how “opposite” this was from cuba. lilia was particularly surprised about the racial segregation she and jack saw when they first moved to kansas city. further, other things were a little less perfect in pre-revolutionary cuba than the somewhat affluent jewbans acknowledge, perhaps of which they were unaware. working class people struggled to pay rent, have food, and educate their children. the revolution promised something entirely different to them, although obviously to this day it did not provide. only ester mentioned that socialism tends to improve the lives of some people, especially women. pre-castro the island was awash with mobsters and prostitution, which castro pledged to (and by most accounts, did) reduce. it was the glitz and glamour that is so fondly remembered by many exiles and all that were interviewed. not that these family members were mob-involved or endorsed prostitution, but they did enjoy the luxuries of the casinos and the “vegas” culture without questioning its toll on working class people. as levine (2010) noted, the cuban jews largely accepted the graft on the island, as it was https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 43 generally good for business. as risech (1995) wrote, “the fossilized rhetoric of anorada cuba, the lament for a pre-castro cuba that never really existed, a mythical cuba where everyone had wealth, health, and high culture, where there was no racism, was the constant refrain at the dinner table. always in counterpoint was the theme of the communist evil which had despoiled our island paradise.” (p. 62). additionally, many in the second and third generations believe that the jews were oppressed in cuba and that this was part of the reason why they left. for instance, rachel b. and dylan both said they thought their grandparents left cuba mostly because of religious intolerance. many historical accounts state otherwise, in particular under castro. there were documented times of antisemitism (see levine, 2010) that surely lilia’s grandparents would have experienced when they emigrated from poland in the 1930s, yet that story was not shared by anyone i interviewed. again, the exiles i interviewed had passed along the narrative that things were perfect pre-castro and horrible thereafter. according to levine (2010), castro never discriminated purposely against jews, and the jews who remained in cuba were largely treated with solicitude. jewish holidays and events received coverage in havana newspapers and on tv and radio, and castro even declared a three-day mourning period in late-april 1963 after the death of israeli president yitzhak ben-zvi. interestingly, only ester expressed any real interest in the actual status of cubans today, who have a stronger case for victimization than the exiles and their progeny. consistent with what bettinger-lopez (2000) found, most of these interviewees admitted they pay very little attention to what is happening on the island outside of what makes the headlines. when asked about the controversy around the fate of elian gonzalez in 1999, the young cuban boy rescued after his mother died trying to escape to the us, again all but ester expressed that the oppression was so bad in cuba that the boy should have been required to stay with extended family instead of with his dad in cuba, again reaffirming this notion of cuba as a place of victimization. that perspective seemingly stands in stark contrast to their emphasis on the importance of family. conclusion the jewbans remain a fascinating group for many reasons, but in particular for experiencing double-diaspora and yet surviving and even thriving, for the most part. this research has uncovered some of the reasons for their success, and in doing so, can help better understanding of issues faced by other diasporic people as well as factors contributing to their resiliency and success. this research has also https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 44 identified narratives that have been passed down about identity, community and belonging as well as some that perhaps later generations should become more aware, for instance, immigration privilege given to cubans and the reality of cuban pre-revolution and now. for jewbans and for scholars of cuban studies and similar fields, perhaps this research indicates a need to broaden the understanding of historical, social, and political trends and their impact. how people identify shapes how they build and maintain community and belonging within any given family and space, and this research has shown that narratives provide a basis for identity among these jewbans. subsequent research, currently in progress, should continue to uncover what narratives get passed along multiple generations of jewbans. further, comparing the narratives discussed herein from exile jewbans to those of the smaller group of jewbans who left cuba in later waves would be a useful and interesting examination of identity, community and belonging. further, comparing the experience of exiles with those who were part of the pedro pan exodus of children sent to the us can highlight different dimensions of the diaspora. this research is also under way. as was noted, researchers who are differently positioned (such as i am, as non-jewish and american-born) can give perspective on immigrant communities. all of these topics are of great interest to peace and conflict studies scholars and educators who seek to understand diasporas and their social, political, and cultural importance. research that identifies the positive contributions of immigrants is especially important today, given the anti-immigrant rhetoric that has been incendiary during and after the trump presidency. immigrants have been depicted as criminals who threaten americans’ safety, as freeloaders who soak american resources, and as overall threats to the health of the us economy. of course, all of these myths have been repeatedly debunked, but providing positive counternarratives about the successes of immigrants, and what elo, taube and volovelsky (2013) call “diaspora entrepreneurs,” can contribute to painting a more accurate picture of those who migrate to the us (see for example finley & esposito, 2020). references behar, r. (2007). an island called home: returning to jewish cuba. new brunswick, nj: rutgers university press. bettinger-lopez, c. (2000). cuban-jewish journeys: searching for identity, home, and history in miami. knoxville, tn: university of tennessee press. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 28-45 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 45 eckstein, s. (2022). cuban privilege: the making of immigrant inequality in america. cambridge: cambridge university press. eckstein, s. (2009).the immigrant divide: how cuban americans changed the u.s and their homeland. new york, ny: routledge. elo, m., taube, f.,& volovelsky, e. (2013). migration “against the tide”: location and jewish diaspora entrepreneurs. regional studies, 53(1), 95-106. ferrer, a. (2021). cuba: an american history. new york, ny: simon & schuster. finley, l., & esposito, l. (2020). the immigrant as bogeyman: examining donald trump and the right’s anti-immigrant, anti-pc rhetoric. humanity & society, 44(2), 178-197. levine, r. (2010). tropical diaspora: the jewish experience in cuba. princeton, nj: markus weiner publishers. moore, d. (1992). jewish migration in post-war america: the case of miami and los angeles. studies in contemporary jewry, 8, 102-117. portes, a., & rumbaut, r. (2006). immigrant america, a portrait, 3rd edition. oakland, ca: university of california press. rok, e. (1995). finding what had been lost in plain view. in e. behar (ed.) bridges to cuba/puentes a cuba, pp. 85-95. ann arbor, mi: university of michigan press. siegel, a. (2012). why is this wave different from all other waves? jewish miami: the changing face of institutional interaction in three phases. fiu electronic theses and dissertations. https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1807&context=etd steinberg, j. (2007). an ongoing cuban diaspora—the story of the cuban jews. emory university. http://history.emory.edu/home/documents/endeavors/volume1/jackies.pdf toivanan, m., & baser, b (2020). diasporas’ multiple roles in peace and conflict: a review of current debates. migration letters. https://migrationletters.com/ml/article/view/753 vertovec, s. (2005, june 1). the political importance of diasporas. migration policy institute. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/political-importancediasporas https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1807&context=etd http://history.emory.edu/home/documents/endeavors/volume1/jackies.pdf https://migrationletters.com/ml/article/view/753 olafson_infactispax_paper_final in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 11 volume 4 number 1 (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ “good” americans and “bad” americans: personal epistemology, moral reasoning, and citizenship lori olafson university of nevada, las vegas the title for this paper comes from a participant in a study that i recently conducted comparing war resisters and war veterans from the vietnam era. hardy, a war resister, moved to canada in 1967 in opposition to the vietnam war. when i was interviewing hardy about his decision to move to canada, he made a distinction between “good” americans and “bad” americans. he described a good american as “someone who is proud of their country and it’s my country right or wrong,” and a bad american as one who will “question and will want to debate and would follow principles as opposed to policies.” his description of good and bad americans in the context of the vietnam war has relevance for today’s society, especially when considering the values and beliefs for democratic citizenship. the 27 million men who came of draft age during the vietnam war had to choose from among a number of unpleasant choices, and these alternatives – combat, avoidance in or out of service, evasion, desertion, or exile – “involved the possibility of sacrifice, punishment, or moral guilt.” 1 although previous generations experienced times of war, conscription, and the draft, the participation of the united states in earlier wars had not been widely regarded as immoral and illegal as was the case for the vietnam war. questions about the morality and legality of the war gave rise to unparalleled debates across the nation. “vietnam tore at the nation as a whole,” wrote levy, “and the dilemma ripped at the social fabric and imperiled the civility and mutual respect” of the united 1 lawrence baskir and william strauss, chance and circumstance: the draft, the war and the vietnam generation (new york: random house, 1978), 250. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 12 states. 2 at the heart of these debates was the question of what constituted effective participation in a democratic society. do engaged citizens question their government or do they believe that the primary responsibility of effective citizens is to accept the policies of a democratically elected government? how do these views of citizenship develop, and how are they related to other cognitive processes? these are some of the questions that this paper will explore. the purpose of the larger study from which this paper is drawn was to examine the connection between personal epistemology and moral reasoning. in particular, i was interested in the differences between vietnam war resisters and veterans, given that these two groups had made such different decisions regarding their involvement in the war. the purpose of this paper is to extend these previous results by including perspectives on citizenship and considering their relationship to moral reasoning/behavior and epistemic beliefs. this paper has three main sections. the first section describes the theoretical framework. the second section compares war resisters and veterans on two dimensions: moral reasoning/behavior and epistemological beliefs. the final section of the paper considers these results and their implications for beliefs about citizenship. theoretical framework as creswell notes, some researchers use social science theory to guide their inquiry and all researchers begin a study “with some hunches, ideas, and frameworks from past experiences and readings.”3 this section of the paper describes the social science theories that guided the study (i.e. the theoretical framework). literature related to the psychology of morality and the construct of worldviews is discussed and then combined to construct the theoretical framework that framed the study. the psychology of morality lawrence kohlberg’s work on the psychology of morality has provided major ideas for research in morality for decades.4 one of the key contributions of kohlberg’s work was the differentiation between stages of moral judgment. at the highest level of moral judgment (i.e. the postconventional level), for example, “there is a clear effort to define moral values and principles that have validity and application apart from the authority of the groups or people holding these principles and apart from the individual’s own identification with these groups.” 5 in response to some of the criticisms directed at kohlberg’s work, another group of scholars developed a “neo-kohlbergian approach” to 2 daniel levy, the debate over vietnam (baltimore, md: the johns hopkins university press, 1995), 66. 3 john creswell, research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (thousand oaks, ca: sage, 2003), 74. 4 james rest, darcia narvaez, muriel bebeau, and stephan thoma, postconventional moral thinking: aneo-kohlbergian approach (mahwah, nj: earlbaum, 1999). 5 ibid., 18. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 13 moral understanding.6 the core ideas of this cognitive-developmental approach are derived from kohlberg and include: an emphasis on cognition (i.e. understanding how a person is making sense of the world); the construction of the basic structures of morality by the individual; moral development from simpler ideas to more complex; and a developmental shift from conventional to postconventional moral thinking.7 instead of conceptualizing development as movement through stages, the neokohlbergian approach views the cognitive structures of moral judgment as moral schemas. there are three structures in moral thinking: the personal interest schema, the maintaining norms schema, and the postconventional schema. the personal interest schema “justifies a decision as morally right by appealing to the personal stake the actor has in the consequences of an action.” 8 in the maintaining norms schema, morality is defined as maintaining the established social order, wherein law is connected to order in a moral sense. four elements comprise the postconventional schema: “primacy of moral criteria, appeal to an ideal, shareable ideals and full reciprocity.9 the four component model another limitation of kohlberg’s work, according to rest and his colleagues, is that it focused on moral judgment, which is only one component of moral psychology. rest, bebeau, and volker (1986) conceptualized the four component model to account for the entire domain of moral psychology.10 within this model there are four psychological processes that represent the production of moral behavior in a specific situation. the first component, moral sensitivity, involves interpreting a particular situation and being aware of different possible lines of action. “component 1 involves identifying what we can do in a particular situation, figuring out what the consequences to all parties would be for each line of action, and identifying and trying to understand our own gut feelings on the matter.”11 moral judgment is the second component, and involves an individual judging which possible line of action is morally right. how people decide what is right or wrong, from a cognitive developmental perspective, depends in part on different senses of 6 rest, narvaez, bebeau, and thoma. 7 ibid. 8 james rest, darcia narvaez, stephan thoma, and muriel bebeau, “a neo-kohlbergian approach to morality research,” journal of moral education 29 (2000): 381 – 395. 9 ibid., 388. 10 james rest, muriel bebau, and joseph volker, “an overview of the psychology of morality.” in moral development: advances in research and theory (new york: praeger): 1-39. 11 ibid., 7. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 14 fairness. this sense of fairness is conceptualized as a stage of moral development, and stage schemes “reside in long-term memory and are invoked to help make sense of problematic social situations in arriving at a judgment of what is morally right.”12 the third component is moral motivation: prioritizing moral values over other personal values. there are many theories that attempt to explain why some individuals choose the moral alternative. for example, blasi maintained that concern for self identity is what motivates moral action: “intentionally acting against one’s core values and commitments is then experienced as self-betrayal and as a loss of one’s self.”13 the fourth component, moral character, refers to the strength of one’s convictions to execute and implement a course of action and to overcome obstacles. “component 4 involves figuring out the sequence of concrete actions, working around impediments and unexpected difficulties, overcoming fatigue and frustration, resisting distractions and allurements, and keeping sight of the eventual goal.”14 world view the construct of “world view” provides an opportunity to explore how individuals’ beliefs, attitudes, and values are integrated, impacting their decision-making and behavior in the social world. world views, according to pepper (1942) are “internally consistent epistemological systems used to organize information about the world…the major proposition of the world view construct is that each individual makes assumptions about the nature of the social world with some consistency.”15 in the context of the current study, there are two particular aspects of worldviews that are relevant: epistemological beliefs and moral reasoning. epistemology is the study of beliefs about the origin and acquisition of knowledge.16 epistemological beliefs, in the framework of worldviews, collectively refer to a set of beliefs or a personal theory about knowledge and knowledge justification. similar terms used in the literature include personal epistemology 17 and epistemological stances.18 12 ibid., 12. 13 augusto blasi, “moral functioning: moral understanding and personality.” in (moral development, self, and identity. edited by daniel lapsley and darcia narvaez (mahwah, nj: erlbaum, 2004), 343. 14 rest, bebeau, and volker, 15. 15 as cited in patricia kalhbaugh and deidre kramer, “brief report: relativism and identity crisis in young adulthood,” journal of adult development 2 (1995): 64. 16 barbara hofer, “exploring the dimensions of personal epistemology in differing classroom contexts: student interpretations during the first year of college,” contemporary educational psychology 29 (2004): 129-163. 17 see, for example, kwok-wai chan and robert elliot, “relational analysis of personal epistemology and conceptions about teaching and learning,” teaching and teacher education, 20 (2004): 817-831, and barbara hofer, “personal epistemology research: in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 15 research over the last three decades has been based on the work of william perry.19 the continuum of development first proposed by perry in 1968 viewed young adult development through a framework that included both ethical and intellectual development. perry recognized the relationship between the development of structures of assumptions about knowing and about valuing. in perry’s framework, the progression of development in which participants construed their experiences included both the nature and origins of knowledge and of values. that is, perry believed that moral development assumptions about values and responsibility were inherent in any consideration of human development in a given cultural setting. perry hypothesized a developmental scheme consisting of nine positions along a continuum. development through the nine positions moved through the characteristics of simple dualism, complex dualism, relativism, and then commitment to relativism. position 1, for example, is basic dualism representing the simplest set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and values. in position 5, by contrast, a person “perceives man’s knowledge and values as relative, contingent, and contextual.”20 relativism, according to perry, refers to a plurality of points of view and frames of reference that are subjected to various sorts of analysis, comparison, and evaluation. at the other end of the spectrum is position 9, where the individual sees the world in complex terms and undertakes to affirm his own commitments in a “world of contingent knowledge and relative values.”21 from this position, the individual realizes the necessity of personal commitment in a relativistic world. perry’s ideas about position are closely related to the construct of worldview. he notes, for example, that “the notion of ‘position’ is happily appropriate to the image of ‘point of outlook’ or ‘position from which a person views his world.’”22 for example, position 1 is indicative of a view of the world in which a person construes the world in polar terms of absolute right-wrong, good-bad, and position 5 is characterized by a view of the world that recognizes the importance of specific context when weighing the reasonableness of various points of view. methodology the study utilized a mixed methods approach to the research design, and can be characterized as a mixed-model design because both quantitative and qualitative implications for learning and teaching,” educational psychology review 13 (2001): 353-384. 18 peter johnston, haley woodside-jiron, and jeni day, “teaching and learning literate epistemologies,” journal of educational psychology 93(2001): 223-233. 19 william perry, forms of ethical and intellectual development in the college years (san francisco: jossey-bass, 1999). 20 ibid, 64. 21 ibid., 3. 22 ibid., 54. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 16 approaches were included throughout all stages of the research process. 23 qualitative and quantitative data were collected sequentially; a common approach in mixed methods research.24 participants participants were solicited through the use of recruitment flyers, newspaper and on-line ads, and snowball sampling. thirty-two participants who met the criteria of moving to canada between 1964 and 1973 in opposition to the vietnam war and who were currently living in british columbia participated in the study as war resisters. fifteen vietnam veterans participated in the study. data sources three data sources were utilized in this study: two survey instruments and an indepth interview. in addition to a brief demographic information questionnaire, the two quantitative measures included the defining issues test (dit) 25 and the epistemological beliefs inventory (ebi).26 the dit is a widely used and objectively scored test of moral judgment in which participants are presented with a set of six stories containing a moral dilemma along with a list of statements reflecting possible considerations for deciding how to solve the moral dilemma. the ebi included 28 items designed to measure beliefs about knowledge. forty in-depth interviews were conducted with war resisters and veterans following procedures for phenomenological interviewing.27 all transcribed interviews were entered into a software program for qualitative data analysis (atlas.ti), and were analyzed using grounded theory procedures for open coding, axial coding, and selective coding.28 results 23 r. burke johnson and anthony onwuegbuzie, “mixed methods research: a research paradigm whose time has come,” educational researcher 33 (2004): 14 – 26. 24 john creswell, research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (thousand oaks, ca: sage, 2003). 25 james rest, development in judging moral issues (minneapolis: university of minnesota press, 1979). 26 gregory schraw, lisa bendixen, and michael dunkle, “development and validation of the epistemological belief inventory (ebi).” in personal epistemology: the psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing. edited by barbara hofer and paul pintrich (mahwah, nj: erlbaum, 2002): 261 – 275. 27 irving seidman, interviewing as qualitative research (new york: teachers college press, 2007). 28 juliet corbin and anselm strauss, basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (thousand oaks, ca: sage, 2008). in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 17 quantitative: moral reasoning and epistemic beliefs dit researchers have relied on what is called the “p” score to index moral judgment. the p score resulting from analyses of the dit represents an individual’s moral development and is interpreted as the extent to which a person prefers postconventional moral thinking.29 the p score can range from 0 to 95, and age/education norms for the p score published by the dit developers show that p scores for adults in general are in the 40s. dit results from the current study indicate that resisters’ (male) mean p score is 58, and veterans’ mean p score is 41. on the maintaining norms index, however, the veteran’s group had a mean score of 40 in contrast to the resisters’ mean score of 16. the ebi was selected as a data source for the current study because previous research indicates that epistemological beliefs are related to moral reasoning.30 on the ebi, the veterans had a higher total score indicating a more dualist, realist view of nature. from a dualist perspective, the world is viewed in polarities of right/wrong, black/white, we/they, good/bad.31 war resisters, on the other hand, had lower ebi scores reflective of a more relativist view. from this perspective, individuals believe that truth is relative and that the meaning of an event depends upon its context.32 qualitative results: moral behavior and moral and ethical development first, rest’s four component model of moral behavior was used as a framework to analyze the interviews. a second phase of analysis was conducted using perry’s development scheme of moral and ethical development. moral behavior using the four components of moral behavior (moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral motivation, and moral character) as the major units of analysis allowed me to trace how a particular course of action was produced in the context of a particular situation. the experiences of resisters and veterans are discussed from this framework. moral sensitivity. moral sensitivity refers to the idea that an individual must recognize that a moral dilemma exists. rest et al. (1986) described this as “interpreting the situation.” 33 in the current study, resister-participants described a variety of factors 29 james rest, stephan thoma, darcia narvaez and muriel bebeau, “alchemy and beyond: indexing the defining issues test,” journal of educational psychology 89 (1997): 498 – 507. 30 lisa bendixen, gregory schraw and michael dunkle, “epistemic beliefs and moral reasoning,” the journal of psychology 132 (1998): 187 – 200 31 mary belenky, blythe clinchy, nancy goldberger, and jill tarule, women’s ways of knowing (new york: basic books, 1986). 32 ibid. 33 rest, bebeau, and volker. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 18 that influenced their thinking and beliefs about the situation that led to a realization that the vietnam war was a moral issue. sources of information came from a variety of contexts: personal, social, and cultural. for example, several participants described how the social context of the 1960’s had an impact on their thinking: my activism for the vietnam war came out of another issue that i was exposed to at a way younger age, in fact one of the first memories of my entire life had to do with racial issues and civil rights. (tim) the university context provided several sources of information. at a more formal level, information was provided by professors in specific classes, as recalled by rob, one of the participants: “another influence were a couple of professors that i had at east los angeles college. there was a belgian guy who was very anti-war and he was a psychology prof.” outside of class, but still within the university context, information was provided by various organizations, such as students for a democratic society (sds), the new national left-liberal organization, and the reserve offices’ training corp (rotc) that supplied half of the officers on duty in vietnam and became a direct target of student protests.34 experiences such as these at various universities had an impact on participants’ political beliefs and beliefs about the war. a second aspect of moral sensitivity includes imagining possible courses of action related to the moral dilemma. with respect to the vietnam war, possibilities of action were limited, as noted by the following participant, “well, there was the possibility of going into the army, you know, it was one of the suggestions, go in and work against the war while you’re in the army, another was to go to jail, the other was to go to canada” (ron). additional options described by the participants included going to jail, or taking advantage of a complex and shifting system of various deferments that fell into the broad classes of student, fatherhood, hardship, and occupational.35 all of the resister participants eventually interpreted the situation of the vietnam war as a moral dilemma and considered a variety of options that ranged from joining the army to killing oneself. like the resisters, veterans’ thinking and beliefs were influenced by a number of factors but several of these were due to a differing social context. it was, said mark, a different era. the veterans considered themselves to be products of the 50's generation rather than the 60s. during their college years, for example, they experienced the cold war. paul remembered that the cuban missile crisis was probably the closest that the united states ever came to war with russia during the entire cold war period: "it was a scary time," he noted. 34 marilyn young, the vietnam wars 1945-1990 (new york: harper collins, 1991). 35 leslie s. rothenberg, the draft and you: a handbook on the selective service system (garden city, ny: anchor, 1968). in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 19 relatedly, veteran interviewees spoke of a military background and their familiarity with military history as influences on their thinking about the role of the united states in times of war. but perhaps more than anything, these men were influenced by notions of duty, honor and country the title of general macarthur's farewell speech at west pointe delivered on may 12, 1962: "duty," "honor," "country" those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you want to be, what you can be, what you will be. they are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. (the national center for public policy research's archive of historical documents) paul, for example, noted that his decision to serve was because of his mindset. this mindset, he said, was characterized by general macarthur's farewell speech. the decision to serve in vietnam was not experienced as a moral dilemma by the veterans in the study. consequently, alternate courses of action other than doing one’s duty were not considered by these career military men. there was no question that serving was the only possible course of action, and the only decision was related to deciding in which branch of the armed forces to complete the military obligation. this sentiment was described by paul: "i knew i had that obligation so the question was, okay, ‘how am i going to do it?’" the nature of the obligation itself was not questioned. one participant, however, discussed the possibility of moral dilemmas occurring during combat. but not everyone experienced these moral dilemmas according to stan: "aviators, navy people, air force people, had very few moral dilemmas ‘cause they weren’t on the ground engaged with one another." mark agreed with this sentiment ("we weren't in direct contact with the enemy other than just from the air") as did another participant who characterized his experience in the vietnam war as “fantastic” given that he "was not in any bad, bad, bad war stuff." the veterans that were interviewed did not view the decision to serve as a moral choice, and if they were engaged in combat they rarely considered the morality of their actions. this was especially true for those who were distanced from direct encounters with the enemy. moral judgment. once an individual realizes that there are a number of options related to a specific situation, a best option must be chosen. obviously, the resisters decided that the option of moving to canada was “best.” this decision was not taken lightly, and usually occurred with deliberation, debate with parents and friends, and considered weighing of available options. ron and roberta, a married couple who moved to canada in 1967, talked about the decision-making process: we had talked about it, all the alternatives, we visited the war resisters, a committee in chicago, gathered up some information and we had decided that we were going to go to canada. my parents were firmly against the war, but they in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 20 didn’t like the idea of me leaving the country. they thought it would be better to go to jail. one of the justifications for doing the right thing included the belief that it was morally wrong to kill others in general, and more specifically that it was morally wrong to kill women and children. resisters viewed the vietnam war as illegal, undeclared, and unjust. on the other hand, the veterans formed a very different judgment. veterans did not view the decision to serve as a choice and it did not come about as a result of weighing a variety of options. rather, the decision was motivated by a sense of obligation. serving, then, was considered the “right” thing to do. none of the veteran participants were drafted – if they weren’t already in the armed forces they voluntarily went to the recruiting station prior to being drafted. and for those who were in the armed forces, participating was not questioned. typical of this attitude was mark, who was a pilot in the air force for 32 years prior to retiring in 1975: i volunteered to go; i felt like i owed that to the air force and to the government ‘cause i was a career air force officer. i just felt that i had to, that that was my obligation, it was my duty. i felt very strongly that all career officers in the air force should volunteer for a tour in vietnam because it went on for such a long time. this sense of obligation was present even when participants indicated disagreement about the vietnam war’s objectives, strategies, or tactics. certainly there was lack of agreement regarding the legacy of the vietnam war. one participant noted: “we were terribly wrong in the manner in which the war was conducted. improper conduct of that horrible debacle resulted in 58,000 deaths and 350,000 wounded – all for naught.” the notion of “right” and “wrong” in the context of the vietnam war and from the context of these military men had more to do with the tactics of the war, as expressed by mark: “those of us who’ve served in vietnam for the most part, i won’t say that all felt this way. but many of us felt that the war was not handled properly.” particularly regretted, said mark, was the loss of american lives: what many of us who served in vietnam regret is that there were 58,000 american young men killed in that war. 58,000. it was a very sober, somber affair. and to our way of thinking that was a huge, needless loss of life. it was an awfully sad affair. the rules of engagement were all wrong, the conduct of the war was wrong from the beginning, it wasn’t conducted in the manner which it should have been and everybody who was ever associated with that debacle would agree with that i’m sure. additionally, the morality of the vietnam war was not questioned by the participants. participants rarely mentioned the three commonly accepted reasons for in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 21 objecting to the morality of the vietnam war: the legality of the war, the involvement in what could be called another country’s civil war, and the nature of the fighting itself were not addressed in great detail. 36 even when directly questioned, participants did not seem to question the morality of the war. for example, when i asked brad if he thought the vietnam war was an unjust war he responded by saying, “it was not called a war. there was never war declared, it was a police action.” and when participants spoke of the fighting, killing others was seen as a justifiable act: that was the nature of the mission and as i said there was an awful lot of good feeling associated with it. as bad as it was, knowing that you were taking other people’s lives, we justified it. we felt good about it because we were saving our guys lives. (mark) the loss of millions of vietnamese lives was rarely mentioned by any of the veterans, in what could be described as a classic case of moral disengagement. typically, people do not behave in ways that violate their moral standards (e.g. killing innocent civilians), but at times disengagement of self-sanctions permits conduct that would otherwise be reprehensible and this is known as moral disengagement.37 one type of moral disengagement occurs when people reconstruct the behavior itself. people do not usually engage in harmful conduct, said bandura, until they have justified the morality of their actions: “in this process of moral justification, pernicious conduct is made personally and socially acceptable by portraying it as serving socially worthy or moral purposes.” 38 bandura identifies this type of moral justification as one that is commonly revealed in military pursuits: killing is reframed as morally justified when “people see themselves as fighting ruthless oppressors, protecting their cherished values, preserving world peace, saving humanity from subjugation or honoring their country’s commitments.”39 brad’s comments in the anecdote above provide an example of how he justified taking other people’s lives. the military men in the study viewed themselves as saving the world from communism and, perhaps more importantly, saving american troops. moral motivation. moral motivation, prioritizing moral values over other personal values, in the context of resisting the vietnam war included the realization of the consequences of the decision to leave the united states. the consequences of war resistance included alienation from family, being exiled from one's birthplace, and psychological consequences. most participants recognized the finality of crossing the border: "and i knew that for all intents and purposes, i was never coming back. that was the path that i had to leave with, and to make such a scary decision it was sort of scary" (ross). given the political climate of the time, participants remembered thinking that amnesty would not be a possibility: "what i felt the most torn with when i came to canada, i really thought i would never in my life to able to go back to the u.s." (hardy). 36 levy. 37 albert bandura, “selective moral disengagement in the exercise of moral agency,” journal of moral education 31(2002): 101 – 119. 38 ibid., 103. 39 ibid., 103. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 22 the consequences of leaving the united states were summarized by one participant who stated, “they have no idea of the price we paid for this.” in spite of these consequences, the participants in the current study persisted with their course of action, leaving the united states with the idea they would never be able to return. the veterans in the study, as noted previously, did not view the vietnam war as a moral dilemma and did not engage in making a moral judgment about the best course of action in the face of this dilemma. the values that they prioritized were not of the same kind of individual moral values as those prioritized by resisters (e.g. not killing innocent civilians). rather, their moral motivations, stemming from a duty-based sense of morality, meant that duties and role obligations took precedence over individual rights and freedoms.40 moral character. moral character refers to the ability of the individual to execute and implement a course of action in the face of obstacles. after making a moral choice and choosing a course of action (moving to canada), resisters were faced with the reality of putting their plans into action. for many of the participants, their first concrete actions related to resisting the war occurred when they refused or delayed induction by overt and covert means. another important aspect of executing a course of action related to leaving the united states was the process of immigrating to canada. the majority of participants applied for immigration at the border; only a few men applied from within the united states. participants either gained entry to canada as visitors, or received landed immigrant status at the border if they were able to meet the requirements for immigration. after arriving in canada, participants were faced with starting a new life. some saw it as an opportunity to carve out an alternative lifestyle: i tried to live out my back to the land fantasies by going east and looking for land and all that stuff, and finally it was in ’72 that i thought that i was fed up with working shit jobs and wanted to do something more with my education and i decided to apply for medical school and i was accepted at dalhousie in halifax (rick). for others, moving to a new country meant the interruption of an established career and working as unskilled, or illegal, laborers. hardy, for example was a social worker prior to moving to canada, and his first job in canada was as a gardener. like rick, however, all of the participants embarked on career paths in canada that eventually led to success in the sphere of work. from the veterans’ perspectives, operating primarily from a conventional form of moral reasoning that emphasized duty and obligation, the decision to participate in the 40 elliot turiel, the culture of morality (cambridge, uk: university of cambridge press, 2002). in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 23 vietnam war was not experienced as a moral dilemma with an ensuing weighing of options in order to make a moral judgment. therefore, moral character within the context of the four component model was not applicable to the veterans’ actions. as conventional moral reasoners, their actions with respect to the vietnam war were consistent with their moral reasoning schema. in their view, they were acting morally in the context of the vietnam war. findings from the interviews demonstrated that the decision to leave the united states was a moral choice precipitated by perceptions that the vietnam war was an illegal, undeclared war and that it was morally wrong to kill vietnamese civilians. as one participant stated, “as a young man, with no family, no responsibilities, my feeling was i’d rather die in prison that go through an experience where i was forced to commit what i felt was a crime.” veterans, on the other hand, did not consider the vietnam war a moral dilemma – their actions and decisions were motivated primarily from a sense of duty to country, whether or not it was the right thing to do. ethical and intellectual development william perry recognized that the ways in which people perceived their worlds included both intellectual and moral elements. in discussing attitudes towards war in general, and the vietnam war specifically, it is clear to see intellectual and moral elements at play. analyzing the interviews from the framework provided by the four component model showed that the war resisters and the veterans viewed the vietnam war quite differently. examining the results from the dit and the ebi further suggested two very different worldviews from which war resisters and veterans viewed their social worlds, and especially the ways in which they viewed the vietnam war. because intellectual and ethical beliefs and values are part of an individual’s world view i was prompted to engage in a second phase of analysis. in this phase, i analyzed the interviews based on perry’s developmental scheme in order to examine if participants’ world views were also expressed during the interviews. that is, were the differences between the two groups on the ebi and the dit also reflected by the ways in which they spoke about moral issues and epistemological issues? in this phase of the analysis, the interviews were analyzed using a part to whole approach. this approach involved locating and coding every instance where participants made comments related to ethical and moral development. perry’s developmental scheme consisted of nine positions along a continuum, and he saw his developmental scheme in terms of three parts each consisting of three positions: part 1 consisted of positions 1, 2, 3; part 2 consisted of positions 4, 5, 6; and part 3 consisted of positions 7, 8, 9. the main line of development moves from modifying dualism (positions 1, 2, and 3) to realizing relativism (positions 4, 5, and 6) to evolving commitments (positions 7, 8, and 9). 41 in the next section of the paper, results from using the perry scheme as an analytic framework are described. key differences between war resisters and veterans are highlighted within each of the three parts. part 1: positions 1, 2, and 3 41 perry. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 24 position 1 represents basic dualism: the simplest set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and values. the world is divided right down the middle, and is a “bifurcated structuring of the world between good and bad, right and wrong, we and others.”42 as the individual moves through positions 2 and 3, he “modifies an absolutist right-wrong outlook to make room, in some minimal way, for that simple pluralism we have called multiplicity.”43 perry used the phrase “a world divided down the middle” to describe the basic dualism that is characteristic of positions 1, 2, and 3. implicitly and explicitly, this phrase was commonly used by participants in the current study. one of the resisters, for example, recognized this bifurcated world and its implications for the vietnam generation: you’re on one side or the other and if you’re on the side of justice and equality and rights for the people then you’re likely to be shot at by the police if you stand up for your rights, that was the feel. (rick) the world that was divided down the middle during the vietnam generation had no middle ground or grey areas. a popular bumper sticker at the time, for example, proclaimed “america – love it or leave it.” the dualist view of america during the vietnam years could also be expressed by the phrase my country right or wrong. rob explained what this viewpoint entailed when he described his father’s beliefs, saying, “my father was a my country right or wrong guy. he wasn’t sure the vietnamese war was the right thing, but he was sure that the country was fighting and when it is you have to contribute." in order to accept the notion of my country right or wrong, the individual cannot adopt a critical attitude. for the dualist, authority is not questioned, and authorities themselves, whether they are government, school officials, or parents, convey the notion of absolute truth or knowledge by justifying their pronouncements through references to truths or principles.44 during the vietnam war, for example, this meant believing in one of the justifications for the war, the domino theory, that held that if vietnam became a communist country then all the other neighboring countries in southeast asia would also become communist.45 peter recalled his early belief in the authority of the government: “i was very much brain washed, so i just assumed that everything the government said was true, you know. they were there to save people from the communist conspiracy.” for the veteran participants, the notion of my country right or wrong was experienced as their military obligations. much like rob’s father, their beliefs did not allow them to question whether or not the vietnam war was the right thing to do – the right thing to do 42 ibid., 287. 43 ibid., 64. 44 ibid. 45 young. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 25 was service to the country without questioning their military obligations. as john explained, “we’re trained to go to war and so when we go to war we want to go to war.” questioning whether or not going to war is the right thing to do is not part of this training. indeed, as gary, one of the deserter participants noted, “all the military training is geared toward making you not question, act. if you’re a thinker, you’re dangerous to them.” obedience to authority, for the veterans, meant a willingness to unquestioningly obey the commander in chief. for the dualist who believes in the absolutes of right-wrong, good-bad, we-they, there is only one way to think and act, and other ways are perceived as being dangerous. during the vietnam war, serving the country was right and good from a dualist perspective. those who questioned the goodness and rightness of the vietnam war were, of course, wrong and bad. hardy described the consequence of being both wrong and bad in the southern states where he had been uncooperative with his draft board: my hearing was scheduled in the state where i grew up and registered for the draft, which was alabama, but apparently my draft board made some information public that i had this hearing and i was not cooperating ‘cause my parents got phone calls saying that when i showed up for the hearing they’d be waiting there to shoot me. in a dualistic world, there is only one correct point of view, or one worldview that is privileged. one of the resister participants, carl, described what he called his childhood patriotism: it was difficult in tucson to hear any other point of view. i mean in that part of the united states there is really no difference between business and the military and so everybody you know is in some way connected to killing people. that’s just how you live. as carl noted, there was little awareness of other points of view. by position 3, however, a person modifies an absolutist right-wrong outlook to make room for simple pluralism, the realization of the existence of other points of view. initially, this realization is characterized by perry as simple multiplism everyone has the right to their own opinion but the individual does not go beyond this simple realization in terms of thinking about and evaluating different opinions. the "unexamined opinion is as good as examined opinion."46 for some, this realization occurred early. one of the participants recalled the first sense of simple multiplism: and from kindergarten when you sit at the flag and they tell you how this is the greatest country in the world – and i began to realize that well wait a minute, look, americans are just as good and just as bad as everyone else. 46 perry, 42. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 26 for others, the realization occurred during university years and came as a result of exploring ideas. patrick described some of his explorations while attending university in tucson: i was still stuck to this libertarian, objectivist base, this anarchist group and we even had a newsletter called the match that i think back on. if it was today we’d be arrested, you know? that was something i thought. but you know, we were exploring ideas. and for others, perceiving multiplism didn't occur until the vietnam years when they were forced to confront their ideas about the war as more and more information became available. for the resisters in the study, the perception of multiplism often began with an initial skepticism about authority. in the previous stages, it is assumed that the authority (government, school, parent) has the "right” answers. participants, however, began to question what they were being told. in particular, the domino theory was questioned: “i guess just the basic skepticism about, you know, this whole domino theory that was being put forth by the president and his crew.” also questioned was the official story of the war provided by the government and textbooks in contrast to the news stories that were starting to come out of vietnam: i must have still been in high school, i remember hearing about the napalm and all of the things that were being done to the vietnamese people and also at the same time because i was pretty smart and i used to read a lot outside of school and a lot in history and current events and i began to recognize that all this crap in the textbooks was just propaganda and bullshit. i kind of started not believing any of these things i was told. with respect to the current study, the notion of plurality of points of view is characterized by the recognition that there were differing opinions about the war in vietnam. however, only two of the veterans, kevin and brad, allowed that war resisters may have had a different point of view regarding the war in vietnam. when asked directly about the draft dodgers, brad said, “they had a different point of view.” resisters, on the other hand, were clearly aware of the differing points of view related to the war in vietnam. in organizing some of the teach-ins, michael noted that “the whole notion of the teach-in was to give both sides of the story.” part 2: positions 4, 5, and 6 the primary characteristic of part 2 is a developing awareness of relativism. beginning in part 2, a person “perceives man’s knowledge and values as relative, contingent, and contextual.” 47 in position 4, the individual recognizes that everyone has 47 perry, 64. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 27 a right to their own opinions, but each of these viewpoints is accorded equal status. that is, “anything goes” and all interpretations are seen as equally valid. by position 6, however, the range of alternate possibility and points of view are judged through a process of interpretation. the interpretation of points of view, according to perry, is “a method of assessment or adjudication among alternatives in a plurality of possibilities, all of which are made potentially legitimate by the context of uncertainty.” 48 perry used the phrase recognizing the diversity of human outlook to demonstrate a key characteristic of positions 4, 5, and 6 the idea that multiple interpretations can occur and complexity is assumed as a general state. related to the recognition of a plurality of points of view is the awareness of alternate possibilities. when people perceive the same situation differently, it is likely that they will take different actions. because the veterans for the most part failed to recognize different points of view, they were unable to consider that different actions were available. but in addition to simply noticing different points of view and alternatives for action, one of the key concepts of relativism is what perry called analysis, comparison, and evaluation. in addition to thinking about one's own thoughts and the assumptions made, individuals compare their own thoughts to the thoughts that others might have.49 in position 4, the comparison is not detailed beyond the recognition that everyone has their own opinion. but during this phase of development, recognizing relativism, the opinions of others are examined, and a distinction is made between an opinion and a supported opinion.50 instead of questions having only one right answer, or any number of answers with equal rightness, during this developmental phase it is recognized that a question may have some answers that are more legitimate than others.51 characteristics of relativism evident in participants' interviews included the idea of making informed decisions from among a number of choices, being open-minded, and not passing judgment on the actions of others. ed, for example, noted, “i stick up for my right to choose. and my ability to choose. and i try to extend that to everybody else too.” this example is a direct contrast to a dualist world view where there is only one correct possibility for action. another example of relativism was provided by ross who recalled that being embedded in the context of the vietnam war encouraged people to ask deep questions such as “what should we be pursuing? should we be dropping out? should we be dropping in? what are we dropping in to?” from a dualist perspective, a questioning stance is not needed as authorities provide any information that is needed. not passing judgment on the actions of others is another indication of relativism, as it reflects the notion that opposing points of view are not necessarily “wrong.” opposing points of view from a dualist perspective, however, are typically demonized.52 48 ibid., 90. 49 ibid. 50 ibid. 51 ibid. 52 michael foley, confronting the war machine: draft resistance duringtthe vietnam war (chapel hill, nc: the university of north carolina press, 2003). in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 28 hal, a resister participant, noted that he didn’t condemn the people that went to vietnam. on the other hand, veterans were quick to pass judgment on the war resisters. because they “turned their backs on their country,” war resisters were largely viewed as wrong and bad. one veteran called the war resisters “scumbags” and another noted that the “draft dodgers will die in hell.” part 3: positions 7, 8, and 9 part 3 traces the development of commitments in the person’s actual experience. commitment “refers to an act, or ongoing activity relating a person as agent and chooser to aspects of his life in which he invests his energies, his care, and his identity.” 53 by position nine, the individual sees the world in complex terms and undertakes to affirm his own commitments in a “world of contingent knowledge and relative values.” 54 from this position, the individual realizes the necessity of personal commitment in a relativistic world. one would expect these personal commitments to reflect some level of consistency between a person’s beliefs and subsequent actions. the key characteristic of positions 7, 8, and 9 is commitment upon the recognition of relativism. by the end of the part 2 (position 6) commitment is foreseen that is, the individual begins to recognize the personal and social implications of living in a relativistic world.55 an example of commitment foreseen was provided by hal: i really believed this whole thing about that the world was going to be different and that we can be different you know. there could be a revolution, and it could be peaceful. it would be different, but you have to stand up for what you believe. in this example, hal recognized the possibility of a new world order that was dependent upon people like himself being committed to their principles, and standing up for what they believed. there were very few participant comments, however, that could be considered as reflective of position 7, 8, or 9. this is consistent with previous research.56 more resisters than veterans expressed commitment. specifically, war resisters expressed political and social commitments consistent with their previous actions. politically, many of the resisters became involved in the war resister support campaign in order to provide assistance to deserters from the iraq war who have been moving to canada and claiming refugee status. and many others continued to be active in social justice issues; for example, doing anti-poverty work, addressing violence against women, working with mentally ill, and becoming active with labor unions. on the other hand, very few veterans expressed social and political commitments that had arisen from the recognition of relativism. that is, because most veterans 53 perry, 150. 54 perry, 3. 55 ibid. 56 ibid. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 29 continued to have a world view that did not account for relativism they did not provide accounts of committing to one world view over another. the world view to which they remained committed was a dualistic view that seemed to be unexamined or unevaluated. one exception was mitchell. in the following excerpt he described how his commitment was related to the commitment of his twin brother, a war resister: we’re always, i mean, all his life he has striven to touch people’s lives. i think he touches them much deeper than i do. i really admire him immensely for it, he’s a power. but i opted to try and touch people’s lives through sharing or communication in a group setting, outside of my work environment and touch people’s lives in my work environment. that’s why being a judge has been so enormously rewarding ‘cause i’m interacting with people’s lives. level of moral reasoning (measured by the dit) and sophistication of epistemological beliefs (measured by the ebi) were clearly related in the current study. war resisters scored higher on the dit and lower on the ebi whereas veterans scored lower on the dit and higher on the ebi. when comparing hypothetical moral dilemmas (dit scores) to actual moral dilemmas (interview analysis using the four component model of moral behavior), the results are also consistent. war resisters, postconventional moral reasoners, demonstrated through their interviews that their decision to leave the country was a moral decision based on a conception of morality oriented to self-reliance and resistance to social pressure for obedience to authority.57 on the other hand, war veterans who were more realist on both the dit and the ebi demonstrated realist tendencies when discussing their war experiences. their actions were consistent with a view of morality in which duty, obedience to authority, and interdependence are valued.58 these results are consistent with perry’s developmental scheme, in which ethical and intellectual development are clearly related to one another. that is, war resisters had more relativist views with respect to both knowledge and morality, while veterans demonstrated dualistic views. there were striking differences between the two groups, not only on the two questionnaires, but also along other dimensions as demonstrated by the individual interviews. i was interested in examining if these two very different world views had any connection to the participants’ views on democracy and citizenship and so i returned once again to the interview transcripts. democracy and citizenship an informed and thoughtful citizenry is crucial for maintaining democratic ideals.59 however, there is a spectrum of ideas about what constitutes a good citizen. westheimer and kahne detailed three conceptions of the “good” citizen in their 57 turiel. 58 ibid. 59 howard crowson and terry debacker, “belief, motivational, and ideological correlates of human rights attitudes,” the journal of social psychology 148 (2008): 293 – 310. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 30 discussion of democracy and citizenship.60 these conceptions include the personally responsible citizen, the participatory citizen, and the justice-oriented citizen. although westheimer and kahne do not reference the work of perry or rest, clear relationships can be seen between notions of citizenship and democracy, ethical and intellectual development, and moral reasoning. in particular, the personally responsible citizen and the justice-oriented citizen map neatly onto moral reasoning schema and perry’s positions. these relationships are detailed in the next section of the paper. the personally responsible citizen is someone who acts responsibly in the community: the core assumption of this view of citizenship holds that “to solve social problems and improve society, citizens must have good character; they must be honest, responsible, and law-abiding members of the community.” 61 this vision of obedience and patriotism is closely related to perry’s positions 1, 2, and 3 in which “all problems are solved by adherence: obedience, conformity to the right and what they want.” 62 the focus on obedience to the law is also present in the maintaining norms schema of moral reasoning: individuals within this schema defer to authorities, obey the law and do their duty, “expecting that other people are doing their duties.” 63 the second conception of citizenship is the participatory citizen, and its core assumption is as follows: “to solve social problems and improve society, citizens must actively participate and take leadership positions within established systems and community structures.” 64 in addition to being personally responsible (i.e. obeying laws and paying taxes), participatory citizens recognize the importance of moving beyond personal interests. the participatory citizen has elements of both the maintaining norms schema (maintaining and working within the established social order) and the postconventional schema. participatory citizens might also be seen as beginning perry’s fourth position as they recognize plurality and differing opinions. weistheimer and kahne’s third conception of citizenship is called the justice-oriented citizen, and the central assumption of this conception is that “citizens must question and debate, and change established systems and structures that reproduce patterns of injustice over time.”65 within this conception, there are clear linkages to perry’s relativism as described in positions 4, 5, and 6. for example, westheimer and kahne recognized that justice-oriented citizens must acknowledge, and even learn from, different perspectives. in other words, justice-oriented citizens should adopt a relativistic view of the world, similar to what perry described as a central component of positions 4, 5, and 6 within his 60 joel westheimer and joseph kahne, “what kind of citizen? the politics of educating for democracy,” american educational research journal 41 (2004): 237 – 269. 61 ibid, 240. 62 perry, 288. 63 rest, narvaez, bebeau, and thoma, 37. 64 westheimer and kahne, 240. 65 ibid. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 31 developmental framework: man’s knowledge and values are perceived “as relative, contingent, and contextual.”66 another key characteristic of the justice-oriented citizen is questioning and debating the established social order. this is related to perry’s view of the importance of evaluating points of view in a relativist world – this evaluation consists of “a method of assessment or adjudication among alternatives in a plurality of possibilities, all of which are made potentially legitimate by the context of uncertainty.”67 and, finally, the justiceoriented citizen is conceptualized by westheimer and kahne as one who has developed commitments. these are citizens who have developed “commitments for civic participation and social justice as well as fostering the capacities to fulfill those commitments will support the development of a more democratic society.”68 again, the similarities to the work of perry are striking, as perry noted that ethical and intellectual development at the higher levels involved the development of commitments, necessary for action in a relativist world. commitment, for perry, “refers to an act, or ongoing activity relating a person as agent and chooser to aspects of his life in which he invests his energies, his care, and his identity.”69 such commitments could include, but are not limited to, commitments to social justice and civic participation. the justice-oriented view of citizenship is also related to rest et al.’s notion of postconventional moral thinking, where moral obligations are based on shared ideals, are fully reciprocal, and are open to scrutiny.70 obedience to authority is no longer mandated, from this perspective, as authority is also viewed as being accountable to the shared ideals of the society.71 with these connections between ethical and intellectual development, moral reasoning, and citizenship in mind, i re-examined participants’ interviews for comments related to their views of democracy and citizenship. conceptions of democracy westheimer and kahne note that “conceptions of democracy and citizenship have been and will like always be debated – no single formulation will triumph.” 72 these differing conceptions were apparent in the views of the resisters and veterans as they discussed the vietnam war. for the resister, democracy was about making choices and for the veteran, the defining feature of democracy was obeying a president who had been democratically elected. 66 perry, 64. 67 perry, 90. 68 westheimer and kahne, 245. 69 perry, 150. 70 rest, narvaez, thoma, and bebeau. 71 darcia narvaez, irene getz, james rest, and stephan thoma, “individual moral judgment and cultural ideology,” developmental psychology 35 (1999): 478 – 488. 72 westheimer and kahne, 238. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 32 when faced with the dilemma of the vietnam war, resisters saw that there was a choice to be made, and that making such a choice was part of the democratic process. the choice was clearly in the moral realm as participants spoke of the struggle to do the right thing. as ross noted, "i mean the issue is really what is the right thing to do, i guess. how do you respond to the draft papers? how do you serve your country?” serving your country involved making an informed decision: "again, that’s part of your obligation to yourself and your community. when the government says to do something, you have to think about it and say, this is morally unjust--well then, no, i’m not going to do it" (peter). resisters remembered thinking about democracy during the 60s: the propaganda machinery of the u.s. in terms of things about what democracy meant, what people’s rights meant we were really in a heightened awareness of it and i think by the time i was 15, 16, 17, began to see the contradictions in the system between the values which we said we held and suddenly the reality of the world around us. (walter) from a dualistic perspective, there is of course, only one definition for democracy and there is only one right answer to the question “how do you serve your country?” unquestioningly serving one’s country when called to do so was one of the conditions of citizenship described by mitchell, one of the veteran participants, as a moral obligation. although questions did arise, these were not taken up, as described by pat: the mission was right, our purpose in going was right, and i was all for it, even though we didn’t understand everything that was coming down in terms of do it this way and do this; the guys were always in question but, never to the point of saying okay i won’t do it. the resisters and the veterans, then, viewed the notion of democracy, quite differently. for the resisters, democracy was connected to question and debate, hallmarks of the relativist, postconventional thinker. veterans, on the other hand, viewed democracy from a dualist, conventional position. patriotism patriotic commitments can support a democratic society; however, as kahne and middaugh note, other forms of patriotism can undermine democratic ideals.73 love of country, for example, is a common component of patriotism. but loyalty to country has nothing to do with commitment to democracy, as “both fascist states and democracies desire loyalty.”74 kahne and middaugh describe various dimensions of patriotism. one component is commitment to country, and another is the attitude toward critique. here, kahne and middaugh make a distinction between blind patriotism (“blind patriots adopt 73 joseph kahne and ellen middaugh, “is patriotism good for democracy?” in pledging allegiance: the politics of patriotism in america’s schools. edited by joel westheimer. (new york: teachers college press, 2007), 115 – 125. 74 ibid., 117. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 33 a stance of unquestioning endorsement of their country”)75 and constructive patriotism (“constructive patriots applaud some actions by the state and criticize others in an effort to promote positive change and consistency with the nation’s ideals.”)76 a third component of patriotism is active involvement. active patriots, according to kahne and middaugh, “are those who take it upon themselves to engage in democratic and civic life in an effort to support and sustain what they feel is best about the country and to change features they believe in need of improvement.”77 the difference between blind patriots and constructive patriots was summarized by one of the resister participants, hardy, as he made a distinction between “good” americans and “bad” americans: a good american is someone who is proud of their country and it’s my country right or wrong, you know, i’ll make great sacrifices for my country, it’s the country that’s important and the policies stated by big business and kind of endorsed by the politicians and people who followed that are kind of the loyal and the good americans. on the other hand, the “bad” american as described by hardy is one who will “question and will want to debate and would follow principles as opposed to policies.” differences between veterans and resisters were clear in their discussions of patriotism. the veterans that were interviewed, for example, noted that they were patriotic. mark said, “and we’re all very, very, very patriotic. i just felt that i had to, that that was my obligation, it was my duty.” for mark and the other veterans, patriotism was closely connected to their sense of duty and obligation. patriotism was also manifested by their respect for the office of the president. john noted that although he did not like all the presidents, he always respected, and obeyed, the commander in chief. the veterans seemed to embody a view of blind patriotism. from this perspective, criticizing the president is unpatriotic. on the other hand, peter, a resister, explained the differences between resisters and veterans, the united states and canada, on this issue of respect for the leader of the nation: “you can be called unpatriotic in the u.s. for criticizing the presidents. here, criticizing the prime minister is like a national sport, and nobody says you’re ‘un-canadian.’” in contrast to the “my country right or wrong” brand of patriotism (i.e. blind patriotism), resisters were more apt to express a more constructive brand of patriotism. leaving the country, for example, was certainly an expression of critique. a broader view of patriotism was expressed by one of the resisters. ross said “i was never a patriot in the sense that it was my country above all others, ” and this view was connected to a broader view of service, as he further explained: “serving my country was not a concept that had much meaning to me. maybe serving my community, maybe you know, serving the world.” 75 ibid., 118. 76 ibid., 119. 77 ibid., 120. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 34 what kind of citizen? using comments about democracy and citizenship made by the participants, resisters and veterans were categorized by type of citizen, based on westheimer and kahne’s description of three kinds of citizens. the majority of veterans in the current study could best be described as personally responsible citizens. they worked, paid taxes, and emphasized duty and obligation to their country. implicit in the personally responsible kind of citizen is a conservative view of citizenship, and the veterans in the study could certainly be viewed as conservative: 79% self-reported their political affiliation as conservative on the demographic questionnaire completed for the study. the second conception of citizenship is the participatory citizen. active participation in established structures was evident for one of the veteran participants: paul was the president of the community’s organization for veterans. other veterans may have been involved in community participation but they did not spontaneously discuss these activities. approximately 40% of the resisters were categorized as participatory citizens. in addition to being active community members, they organized community efforts related to education and the environment. joel, for example, described his efforts at applying for government grants for community enhancements: “i’d become active working on the community projects and i just loved it, you know, applying for grants from the government and getting this money to build things, the community hall, the school.” justice-oriented citizens question and debate, seeking to eliminate injustice. none of the veterans in the current study expressed any beliefs that could be considered indicative of the justice-oriented citizen. however, many of the war resisters could be considered justice-oriented citizens, given their commitment to political and social activism that has continued long after their first political act of resisting the vietnam war. relatedly, on the demographic questionnaire, there were clear differences between resisters and veterans regarding their involvement in social activism. close to 50% of the resisters indicated that their current involvement in social activism was much or extensive. no veterans were extensively involved in social activism, and only 7% indicated much involvement. rob’s experience highlights his social justice efforts over the years, and provides an example of a resister’s commitment to extensive social activism: my main political work until was as a trade unionist. i was a teacher’s unionist and very much of a left wing teacher’s unionist and i fought for social justice issues as well as the kind of bread and butter issues like working conditions and salary, all that. i did a lot of grievance work and just basic union work. then i retired and i still have the political convictions and what am i gonna do? so i ended up taking up a number of projects. my wife and i both sing in a choir called solidarity notes which is a in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 35 choir very much of the labor movement. we sing at peace and solidarity events, on picket lines, we’re kind of the left wing choir in town and that’s great and i love that. i consider that a form of political work. i also have gotten involved with peace work so i’m a supporter of the war resister’s support campaign. conclusion there are striking differences between war resisters’ and veterans’ epistemic beliefs, moral reasoning, moral behavior and the kind of citizen they embody. moreover a pattern emerges linking these dimensions (see figure 1). a relativist, postconventional moral thinker is more likely to be a justice-oriented citizen. a dualist, conventional moral thinker is more likely to be a personally responsible citizen. dan, a war resister, explicitly connected these dimensions when he discussed his social justice work in relation to the domain of morality: if you measure moral thinking in terms of how it’s acted out, you know, and what you’re doing, not just what you’re thinking or what your heart is saying or whatever, but what you’re actually doing to me, the evidence of that would be my involvement in the anti-poverty movement after the anti-war movement. figure 1: comparing world views of resisters and veterans resisters “democracy is about making choices” veterans “my country right or wrong” epistemic beliefs relativist dualist moral reasoning postconventional conventional moral behavior moral activation of self sanctions moral disengagement of self sanctions patriotism constructive patriotism blind patriotism kind of citizen participatory; justiceoriented personally responsible; participatory in their study of the vietnam generation, baskir and strauss provided in-depth descriptions of evaders, deserters, and exiles and noted that “reconciling personal freedom with national security will never be easy in america’s democratic society.” 78 thirty years later, the conclusion reached by baskir and strauss continues to ring true. today’s climate, “intolerant of alternative voices or dissenting opinions” is in many ways similar to the vietnam era, and dissent, resistance, and confrontation are demonized. 79 78 baskir and strauss, 246. 79 foley, x. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 36 questioning war, says foley, is a perfectly valid act of citizenship and would be considered consistent with the justice-oriented citizen described by westheimer and khane. the personally responsible citizen, emphasizing obedience and patriotism, however works against “the kind of critical reflection and action that many assume are essential in a democratic society.” 80 the resisters in the current study have shown that resistance to authority involves a more sophisticated implicit and explicit personal epistemology, a developmentally more advanced level of moral reasoning, and view of citizenship that is more reflective of the kind of thoughtful citizenry that can advance democratic ideals. educational implications the results of the current study have important educational implications. the relationship among epistemic beliefs, moral reasoning and behavior, patriotism, and citizenship suggest the need for a curriculum that pays attention to democracy and patriotism. kahne and middaugh describe the goals of this type of curriculum: rather than “teaching” students to love their country, teachers need to help students build an explicit connection between their “love of country” and democratic ideals – ideals that include the role of informed analysis and, at times, critique; the importance of action; and the danger of blind loyalty to the state.81 however, the goals of 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educational researcher 33 (2004): 14 – 26. jones, joseph. contending statistics: the numbers for u.s. vietnam war resisters in canada. vancouver, bc: quarter sheaf, 2005. joseph kahne and ellen middaugh, “is patriotism good for democracy?” in pledging allegiance: the politics of patriotism in america’s schools. edited by joel westheimer. new york: teachers college press, 2007. kalhbaugh, patricia e., and deidre a. kramer. “brief report: relativism and identity crisis in young adulthood.” journal of adult development 2 (1995): 63 – 70. kohlberg, lawrence. the philosophy of moral development. san francisco: harper and row, 1981. levy, david w. the debate over vietnam. baltimore, md: the johns hopkins university press, 1995. narvaez, darcia, irene getz, james rest, and stephan thoma. “individual moral judgment and cultural ideology.” developmental psychology 35 (1999): 478 – 488. perry, william g. forms of ethical and intellectual development in the college years. san francisco: jossey-bass, 1999. rest, james. development in judging moral issues. minneapolis: university of minnesota press, 1979. rest, james, muriel bebeau, and joseph volker. “an overview of the psychology of morality.” in james rest (ed.), moral development: advances in research and theory. new york: praeger, 1986: 1-39. rest, james, darcia, narvaez, stephan thoma, and muriel bebeau. “a neo-kohlbergian approach to morality research.” journal of moral education 29 (2000): 381 – 395. rest, james, darcia narvaez, muriel bebeau, and stephan thoma. postconventional moral thinking: a neo-kohlbergian approach. mahwah, nj: earlbaum, 1999. rest, james, stephan thoma, darcia narvaez, and muriel bebeau, m. “alchemy and beyond: indexing the defining issues test.” journal of educational psychology 89 (1997): 498 – 507. in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 39 rothenberg, leslie s. the draft and you: a handbook on the selective service system. garden city, ny: anchor, 1968. schraw, gregory, lisa bendixen, and michael dunkle. development and validation of the epistemological belief inventory (ebi).” in barbara k. hofer and paul r. pintrich (eds.), personal epistemology: the psychology of beliefs about knowledge and knowing. mahwah, nj: erlbaum, 2002: 261-275. seidman, irving. interviewing as qualitative research. new york: teachers college press, 2007. turiel, elliot. the culture of morality. cambridge, uk: university of cambridge press, 2002. young, marilyn b. the vietnam wars 1945-1990. new york: harper collins, 1991. westheimer, joel and joseph kahne. “what kind of citizen? the politics of educating for democracy.” american educational research journal 41 (2004): 237 – 269. jasminiipe journal revised dec 17   in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  136-­‐139   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     136     volume 3 number 1 (2009): 136-139 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ doing what we teach jasmin nario-galace center for peace education philippines “as an academic, i have no business thinking of solutions to problems. that is not our concern.” “the problem with you is you are in the academe, therefore, in an ivory tower. it is naive of you to call on us to say kinder words to each other and propose that we think of solutions instead.” the first quotation was from a professor-guest in a conference on an arms trade treaty attended by government officials and members of civil society organizations from asia-pacific, and the second was from a co-alumnus in a peace institute who was obviously irate when i suggested to the e-group to take the discussion on the israeli-palestine conflict to a higher level after a barrelful exchange of ugly words. the comments made above left me in disbelief. sadly, this is how academe is perceived by many. it is an institution where theories are the name of the game, alienated from what is happening on the ground.   in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  136-­‐139   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     137   but we are peace educators. we are different. toh swee -hin and virginia cawagas posited that peace education “requires both understanding and practice, both reflection and action. it is insufficient to merely understand why conflicts and violence abound in the world; one must also act to create more peace”1. hence, peace educators are concerned not only with theories, but also on building awareness on the roots and effects of violence and on cultivating values and attitudes compatible to the building of a culture of peace. we are not in an ivory tower. with our students, we envision alternatives to existing structures that harm people and take action to get to our vision of a better world. as peace educators, we try our best to do what we teach. at the center for peace education in miriam college, philippines, where i am based, we call attention to the fact that many “women have suffered indignities and inequalities on the basis of their sex...and have been hampered from the full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms”2. to concretely do something about this situation, we are helping draft a national action plan to implement un security council resolution 1325 which aims to increase women’s participation in conflict prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes; and un security council resolution 1820 which aims to protect women from sexual violence in situations of armed conflict. i go around the country, far-flung areas, included, to remind women and men of women’s rights and to seek their views on how these resolutions can be implemented. we do not simply tell our students that “people who are not taking part in armed hostilities should be protected”3. we are part of sulong carhrihl, a third party network that monitors the agreement between our government and the members of the national democratic front to respect human rights and the international humanitarian law. we go around the country, yes including armed conflict zones, to inform non-combatants of their rights in situations of war. we lobby for legislation to be filed and approved in the parliament on the issues of landmines and small arms that civilians may be protected from the proliferation of these weapons. we do more than telling our students that “the earth’s resources should be justly shared. “ we hold an annual fundraising campaign dubbed “rice porridge for a cause” that helps bring economically-disadvantaged students to schools. we help in the construction of facilities and purchase of equipment for a partner-school in mindanao. when wars break out in southern philippines, we mobilize our students to solicit goods for people trapped in evacuation centers.                                                                                                                           1  toh  swee-­‐hin  and  v.  cawagas,  peace  education:  a  framework  for  the  philippines,  quezon  city,  1987,  p.  2.   2l.  castro  and  j.  galace,  peace  education:  a  pathway  to  a  culture  of  peace,  quezon  city,  2008,  p.  53.   3  international  committee  of  the  red  cross,  summary  of  the  geneva    conventions  of  august  12,  1949  and  their   additional  protocols.         in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  136-­‐139   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     138   social action and service learning, as betty reardon wrote, are very effective approaches that can help develop social responsibility and the capacity of global engagement and agency.4 e tell our students that “all humans are brothers and sisters, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sex and socio-economic status”. beyond words, we organized a twinning project with a school attended by muslims in war-torn mindanao, which theme is “building bridges of understanding and peace.” the 40-year old war in mindanao has created deep animosities between christians and muslims. our twinning project aims to challenge stereotypes and prejudices between these groups. gordon allport explained in his contact theory that opportunities to interact with the different other may help reduce prejudice. 5 miriam college is attended mostly by members of the catholic faithful and is located in metro manila. the twinning project gives opportunities to both groups of students to communicate via snail mail and meet each other in person, thanks to support from groups like the australian embassy in manila. students from both camps have expressed gratefulness for the project, bearing witness to the efficacy of communication and contact in dismantling biases. the project has a publication called “pag-asa” or “hope”. in this newsletter, one student wrote: “although the two schools are far apart and they are believers of different religions, friendships…have blossomed. whatever antagonism between us disappeared. it was replaced by understanding and unity”6. an anti-discrimination bill is currently filed in the philippine parliament. we have sent letters to our senators to express support for the bill that seeks to protect muslims and indigenous peoples from discrimination in employment and education. we remind our students that war is not inevitable. we echo what the seville statement of 1986 proposed that “the species that are capable of waging war are also capable of waging peace”7. but beyond teaching that, we organize our students to join mass demonstrations and prayer rallies to call for the cessation of hostilities and respect for ceasefire agreements , whether in the philippines or in other parts of the world. we teach our students that weapons, being instruments of war and crime, must be controlled. hence, we frequent the firearms and explosives division of our philippine national police to dialogue, research and lobby on the issue of arms control. many of our students know by heart that “a thousand people die every day                                                                                                                           4  b.  reardon,  educating  for  a  culture  of  peace  in  a  gender  perspective,  paris,  2001,  p.  172.   5    g.  allport,  1958,  cited  in  l.  castro  and  j.  galace,  peace  education:  a  pathway  to  a  culture  of  peace,  quezon  city,   2008,  p.  73.   6  l.  castro,  building  bridges  of  understanding  and  peace:  a  twinning  project  between  muslim  and  chrsitian  youth,   quezon  city,  2009,  p.  9.   7  adams,  d.  (ed),  the  1986  seville  statement  on  violence.  paris,  1991.       in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  136-­‐139   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     139   by gunshots”8 hence, they have gone to the parliament to seek our parliamentarians’ support for an arms trade treaty. we visit offices of parliamentarians to request support for legislation controlling the proliferation of arms. we have organized a demonstration in front of the commission on elections to call on the agency to implement a total gun control during election period which is often marred by gun violence. we join our philippine national police in activities of gun destruction. we go to television and radio stations, as well as schools and other venues, to speak about the ill causes of gun proliferation. we tell our students that conflicts can be managed and resolved non-violently. but beyond words, we train them to become peer mediators. our high school classes have elected peacekeepers whose main function is to help keep the peace and create more peaceable classrooms. student leaders in our college go through peer mediation sessions. every year, our first year college students are trained on how to resolve conflicts constructively. we assessed the impact of our conflict resolution program among our first year college students a few years ago and 81.1% reported that their attitudes on conflict resolution were positively changed and/or maintained. 87.5% of our students who went through mediation training reported a positive change in attitudes. 66.1% of those trained had the opportunity to practice their mediation skills and 94.6% of those who practiced it succeeded in their mediation efforts9. we tell our students that education can be a pathway to peace, that raising consciousness about the causes and effects of violence can help cultivate values of concern and compassion and prod people to action. to make sure that peace education is brought to as many people as possible in my country, our center brought together kindred spirits from different educational institutions and civil society organizations and established the peace education network. members of this network helped draft a policy mainstreaming peace education in the curriculum. the result of the drafting and lobbying was an executive order signed by the president of the philippines institutionalizing peace education in basic education and teacher education. and believing that peace education is an effective pathway to peace, we have brought it to other sectors beyond the academe: the religious, police, military, government workers, parents, out-ofschool youth and members of street gangs, among others. the teacher of peace, according to betty reardon, needs to be a responsible global citizen, an intentional agent of a culture of peace, a person of vision, capable of hope, and the imaging of positive change. 10 as peace educators, we at the cpe, dream of a world that is free from war; where justice and equality prevail; where rights of every human being are promoted;                                                                                                                           8  international  action  network  on  small  arms,  gun  violence:  the  global  crisis,  london,  2007.   9  castro,  l.,  galace,  j  and  lesaca,  k.,  peace  education  initiatives  in  metro  manila,  quezon  city,  2005,  pp.  56-­‐59.       10  b.  reardon,  educating  for  a  culture  of  peace  in  a  gender  perspective,  paris,  2001,  p.139.     in  factis  pax  3(1)  (2009):  136-­‐139   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     140   where diversity is respected; where development trickles down to the last, the least and the lost; and where environmental resources are nurtured and sustained. but we do not stop at dreaming. as betty reardon wrote, the teacher of peace is a practitioner of peace11. hence, we do our share in making this vision come true.                                                                                                                           11  b.  reardon,  educating  for  a  culture  of  peace  in  a  gender  perspective,  paris,  2001,  p.  140.     in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 145 volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 toward centering place in peace education: reflections and opportunities for praxis amanda munroe “if we are to educate to share all resources, to limit consumption and practice utmost respect for the biosphere and all who live within it, we educators have to learn ourselves to share and practice those limits and to authentically respect all persons as well as other life forms. can we formulate a next phase in the evolution of peace education that can adequately respond to the planetary crises that arise from a context of the dimensions and urgencies of these days?” betty a. reardon, comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility, 2021 edition these provocative questions from betty reardon echoed audibly throughout iipe 2024: nepal, whose theme, “the pedagogy and peace politics of change: navigating the tensions between tradition and modernity,” indeed encouraged participants to self-reflexively learn and practice our commitments to vibrant and relevant peace education. through research briefings, boalian theater of the oppressed workshops, circle work, storytelling, art-making, play, rituals, and more, iipe participants represented our understandings of tradition and modernity to one another. these terms took on varied meanings at our summit of over 50 peaceminded educators hailing from more than 25 countries, gathering in nepal, which has been operating as a federated constitutional democracy for roughly 10 years (international institute, 2025). in this essay, i wish to honor the rich insights generated at iipe 2024 by reflecting on the frames of tradition and modernity in https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.i-i-p-e.org/iipe-nepal/ https://www.i-i-p-e.org/iipe-nepal/ in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 146 order to foreground a focus on place as a potent pedagogical anchor for the necessity of an ecological paradigm for peace. as participant-observer during our week together, i found it fascinating that so many of us, hailing as we do from diverse and hybrid social and geographical locations, commonly understood the force of modernity as one of separation. by one valence, modernity seemed powered by independence, exemplified in the capacity to revolutionize, to self-identify, to come out, to claim, and to mobilize. by the other side of that very same coin, modernity seemed potentially, even gravely, injurious: a force that ruptures relational bonds and fuels disconnection, erasure, and ecocide. tradition, meanwhile, was often portrayed as powered by cohesion, exemplified as the protector of ancient wisdom and the purveyor of sacred meaning; a force of togetherness and resilience. simultaneously, though, we interpreted tradition to one another as like a quagmire: sticky, cloistered, stifling the growth of the foreign and distinctive, that which forcibly maintains relational bonds, is averse to change and resistant to science. while it initially felt conceptually efficient to imagine modernity and tradition as polar opposites in this way – locked in tension by being that-which-theother-is-not – i found that such a perfect binary failed to function in practice during our week together in nepal. it was as if that portrayal of their relationship was too one-dimensional. since we were conscious, as reardon counsels us, “to learn ourselves to share and practice” (reardon, 2021, p. xxv, emphasis added) our theme, inviting tradition and modernity into dialogue revealed their many imbrications within and between our bodies, lives, and in the lives of the places we traveled from and to which we would return. their overlaps and collisions showed up in plenaries that explored gender, race, and coloniality, in reflection groups where we processed personal reactions to the theme, and in our immersion day in kathmandu. it struck me that viewing tradition and modernity in opposition did not provide an adequate rendering of their more complicated relationships. and so, i experimented with changing my point of view. by situating myself in place, the place where we were: in kathmandu, at iipe, i discovered more conceptual spaciousness for understanding tradition and modernity in relationship – less as forces that cancel each other out, and more as forces that dance in tense dialogue. as a result, i want to explore the idea that intentionally connecting to place may invite new perspectives and opportunities for the field of peace education as it faces the intersecting moral and ecological urgencies of our time. celebrating the role that local context has always played in peace education (for example, in reardon’s (2021) framing, valuing transformation at the global level always means considering the global situation in daily decisions at the local level, and at each iipe gathering, participants from diverse places represent what they are doing in their local contexts in conversation with the iipe host location https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 147 and with each other), i want to advocate here for centering place in peace pedagogy as a way to transcend the pull toward strict binaries, to practically embody the work of sharing resources, and to foster cooperation among humans and across species as we reach toward an ecological paradigm for peace that sufficiently meets the demands of our time. epistemological experiment: loosening colonial logics that marginalize place while stitching place toward center while place has been honored and written about extensively as an anchoring force in indigenous cosmologies, kinship, and governance structures (see e.g. heath justice, d. and o’brien, 2022; van horn et al., 2021; four arrows in knox-steiner, 2022), the intentional erasure of these wisdoms by colonial violence has been significant; so significant that many of us have grown up disconnected from place and its power. cremin, echavarría, and kester (2018) note that this same violence expresses itself in education as epistemic violence, nationalism, and colonialism. they go on to advocate from a decolonial perspective toward a more holistic “transrational peacebuilding education” that comprehends more than westerndominated patterns of thinking. to this end, exploring what it means to be “emplaced,” to “belong within a world of relations” (van horn et. al, 2021), will require an uprooting, for many of us, from logics of colonial violence at work in our bodies and minds (or, to put it more transrationally, our body-minds (hemphill, 2024, p. 55)). as knox-steiner writes in her dissertation, “decolonial, pluriversal, vitality-centered pedagogies: (re)orienting education toward serving life,” to formulate peace pedagogies involves as much disentangling consciousness from the death-trap of coloniality as it does fertilizing the soil of transdisciplinary, relational, and slow knowings (2022). such a formulation is a co-created, deconstructive-plus-constructive pursuit powerfully motivated by the reality of planetary peril. to focus on place in peace education, therefore, i will experiment with pulling at threads of conceptual entanglement in colonial epistemologies (linear time, individualism, and enclosure, each one a “thread”) in order to identify and loosen the net by which place has been held hostage and become de-animated in the settler-colonial imagination. into the space made by loosening those threads, i will weave together decolonial perspectives on time, community, and land in relation to place (each one a “stitch”), before introducing some budding ideas for how to center place in a contemporary ecological paradigm for peace education. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 148 the thread of linear temporality dimensionally, place is often described in terms of linear time. where a linear notion of time is perceived as constant and unidirectional, notions of place must borrow from, respond to, or interrupt time in order to gain meaning. in shorthand, “place is pause,” or static, relative to the dimension of linear time. if time is a onedimensional arrow, then places are like ticks along the arrow’s axis. exploring the conceptualization of place in his 1977 book, space and place, humanist geographer yi-fu tuan wrote, “if we think of space as that which allows movement, then place is pause; each pause in movement makes it possible for location to be transformed into place…” (p. 6). while tuan’s trailblazing contributions to the philosophy of place are rightly celebrated, i find his conclusion that “place…is essentially a static concept” (p. 181) sticky, reflecting the hegemonic prominence of linear temporality in western philosophy. to interpret notions of “tradition” and “modernity” from this lens, tradition neatly precedes modernity on a one-directional timeline. by this logic, moments “take place” in time and stories begin “once upon a time.” unidirectional temporality creates the sense that time in places can be “lost”, which can foster urgency from the fear of ongoing loss (scarcity) and consequently anxious efforts to prevent loss. loosening the hegemonic dominance of forwardmoving time might include inviting place to dimensionally coexist with, rather than emerge secondarily to, time, and/or to broaden the forms of temporality that might simultaneously exist with a place. the temporal stitch: place and time “always in process” what would it mean for place animated and powerful to transcend, rather than intersect, time? for example, in decolonial scholarship for liberation, place can be considered valuable not for pausing the inevitable flow of time but rather for its reliability as a dimension capacious enough to withstand the simultaneous presence of past, now, and future. in her 2015 book, the physics of blackness: beyond the middle passage epistemology, michelle wright points to places where tradition and modernity coexist by demonstrating the limitations that a unidirectional, newtonian understanding of spacetime imposes on the embodied reality of blackness. to prove her point, wright invokes the simultaneity of the diasporic necessity of return and the afrofuturistic necessity of living in the future. she describes the commanding position that newtonian physics, as an exclusive ontological paradigm, holds in western thought, one whose commitment to linear narratives of progress, she contends, is both limited and requires strenuously forced argumentation to uphold. “by imagining time as a natural force that moves development forward,” wright observes, “newton provided enlightenment https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 149 philosophers with a stunningly simple yet compelling understanding of time through which they could interpellate europe as the vanguard of civilization” (p. 40). the linear frameworks provided by the laws of newtonian physics, are, in wright’s perspective, “essential, necessary, and useful” but both physically incomplete and practically unsatisfying, since “physics,” she writes, “shows that our movements ‘forward’ are entropic, not linear” (p.77). wright thus demonstrates a decolonial take on the relationship of place to time, saying that: blacks across the diaspora…cannot travel back through linear time as a collective, because our pasts comprise not one line but innumerable strands…because ‘home’ is also the origin in a linear spacetime epistemology of a collective, it becomes fixed in time, untouched by change, but only theoretically: the continent of africa, like every other continent, is always changing and never static. (pp. 83-84) wright does not stop with deconstruction, but engages in a constructive argument, exploring the scientific concept of “epiphenomenal time,” a tripartite, holistic notion of the present that encompasses past and future in a now “always in process.” she contends that the notion of epiphenomenal time allows for dialogical, rather than dialectical, dynamism between the dimensions of time and place within the mutually constituted dimension of spacetime. it is such relationships – dialogical, rather than dialectical – that i believe peace educators sense we need to foreground in our learning and teaching spaces if we are to cultivate the types of collaborative consciousness and action required for planetary survival. centering place in peace education could encourage decelerating the urgency impressed by linear temporality, bringing into focus reverence for how we remember, for where we return to, for who returns to the places we inhabit, and for how we imagine the future. wright’s perspective on epiphenomenal time and her introduction of the dialogical, rather than dialectical, invitation to coexistence, offer important conceptual inroads for the development of place-focused pedagogies in an ecological paradigm for peace. just as epiphenomenal time gains coherence from the dialogical weaving together of multiple points in time mutually constituting one another, a more multivalent dimension for navigating tradition and modernity in conversation emerges for exploration and play when considered dialogically and through the lens of place. for example, the place in which iipe is hosted is comprehended through the stories of many communities, nations, and living and extinct species that inhabit and have inhabited the hosting place, just as participants in iipe 2024 engaged with current political leaders of nepal at the same time we engaged local cultural and religious https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 150 phenomena that existed long before our arrival there, long before nepal was a nation-state, and will exist long after our departure. peace work involves the simultaneous and non-linear processes of return, retrieval, healing, guessing, and imagining futures. re-conceptualizing our access to pasts and futures through epiphenomenal time invites past, present, and future into active dialogue when considered through place: multidimensional, diversely constituted, in process, and transforming. the thread of individuality and the colonial fallacy of atomic selfhood the ontological baseline of linear temporality leads not only to an overemphasis on dialectical relationships; it also undermines reardon’s call to “share all resources” by providing the conceptual conditions for the notion of a discrete individual or “atomic” self. the atomic self is one whose life moves along the arrow of time from place to place, and who, by not belonging to a place, experiences few limitations to their urge to consume. the atomic individual, unable to control the linear progression of time, exerts agency by floating between places, dis-placing and replacing herself at “pauses” along the arrow of time. in his book, the larger conversation: contemplation and place, poet and philosopher tim lilburn (2017) provides a searching distinction between the notion of the atomic self, the self that “floats,” and an “emplaced self,” one responsible and responsive to place. he issues a warning, that: …placeless, our identity is never fully developed and our anger, thus unnamed, is rampant, diffused. without a relationship to land and the respect and ethical regard that come from relationship, we are dangerous…our incompleteness makes us destructive, ravenously, disproportionately, madly, ungovernably hungry, affiliated with a hunger that may be a sort of uncomprehended mourning…(p.16) indeed, the capacity to rupture oneself from emplacement, moving beyond the bounds of a particular place, might be considered the defining characteristic of the modern self, which in rupturing pronounces its bounded (even if incomplete) identity. in this way, the colonial entanglements of linear time and atomic selfhood act as mutually reinforcing logics resistant to the possibilities of transcendent experience or transrational thought and action. separation, displacement, and replacement are the atomic self’s means of survival and empowerment. let me be quick to say that the colonial fallacy of atomic selfhood is a fallacy not because it solidifies distinctiveness but because a “floating” self is an impossibility. all living beings depend on other beings. distinctiveness (expressed, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 151 for example, in biodiversity) is an ecological survival necessity, whereas atomic individualism, which relies on hierarchy instead of collaboration, is deathly. as lorde (1979) points out, the celebration of difference is the “the raw and powerful connection from which our personal power is forged.” and, that this power begs to be employed collaboratively, since within the interdependence of mutual (nondominant) difference lies that security which enables us to descend into the chaos of knowledge and return with true visions of our future, along with the concomitant power to effect those changes which can bring that future into being (pp. 111-112). none of this is to say that individuals or groups who favor or benefit from highly individualist paradigms never seek out or themselves change through transcendent or collaborative experiences. it is only to observe that the description of such experiences within the confines of linear and individualistic paradigms is conceptually and semantically limited by those very boundaries, a loss for those of us seeking peaceful planetary survival. indeed, a sufficient ecological paradigm for planetary peace must offer us the capacity to retrieve some notion of what existed prior to extinction, to forecast possibilities for what is to come, and to effectively collaborate across time and space. a planetary survival paradigm is necessarily multidimensional, multidirectional, and interdependent. the relational stitch: places as ecosystems how does a place come into being if not as a pause in linear time in which individuals find themselves? one way to imagine this is to perceive places as ecosystems in homeostasis, always present and always changing, their integrity stabilized by the relational compatibility of their constituents to each other. consider silviculturist suzanne simard’s description of the ever-changing ecologies of old growth forests: trees need to be near one another, to establish in receptive soil, to join together to build the ecosystems, mix with other species, relate in patterns that produce a wood-wide web, because the forest becomes resilient from this complexity…[f]orests are complex adaptive systems, comprised of many species that adjust and learn, that include legacies such as old trees and seed banks and logs, and these parts interact in intricate dynamic networks, with information feedbacks and self-organization. systems-level properties emerge from this that add up to more than the sum of the parts. the properties of an ecosystem breathe with health, productivity, beauty, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 152 spirit. clean air, clean water, fertile soil. the forest is wired for healing in this way, and we can help if we follow her lead. (p. 300) reconceptualizing place as like an ecosystem so described – as a web of relationships always in process – helps to destabilize the conceptual purity of a wholly independent self who displaces and replaces themselves in time and space. it helps us to comprehend the global-local connection, how contributing to the social and ecological health of the place where we can support the wellbeing of the planetary system. to put this in more concrete terms, let us consider the question of how to share clean air or water. ethicist cristiana zenner (2018) points out that we cannot manage water individually, as “[e]veryone, individuals, governments, and the contrived, legal “persons” called corporations – bears responsibility for the preservation and wise use of this unique and essential resource.” zenner underlines the impossibility of managing global clean water alone, stating that it “[i]t requires action at collective, regional, and transnational levels. the challenges are practical, of course, but they are also conceptual. thus, we must cultivate a mode of ethical discernment that relies upon careful, steady awareness of context…” (pp. 185-186). to cultivate such an awareness, lilburn posits that individuals come home, into wholeness and into reality, when we locate ourselves in places to which we are pleased to return, consciously taking up our role in the collaborative ecosystem. encouraging the reader to call a place special to them to mind, lilburn writes that being in these places, either actually or imaginatively, can be as reviving as taking a long drink of water. the experience of dwelling in these places is restful, vitalizing…they calm us, inform us concerning essence, allow us to feel undispersed, gathered. it can seem that we belong to them, as coast salish peoples say of certain salmon rivers and certain families, not the other way around…here we are taken in, at home…home, we are more than the atomic self by the measure of the place and its range of connections. we are the self in chthonic and local relationship, the self as an ampler ecology. (p. 6) from lilburn and simard, we understand how places are – or can be – stabilized not by their boundaries or the likeness of the individuals within them to each other, but by the strength and complexity of relationships among distinctive beings who collaborate to form a living system. places-as-ecosystems are systems of relationality that reliably challenge and nourish one another, encouraging resilience and survival (kimmerer, 2022). they require reciprocity. in this view, one might say that places are constituted by trust. it follows that to center place in peace education is to center the cultivation and maintenance of trust. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 153 the thread of borders: enclosure and the objectification of land enclosure is the colonial practice of de-animating places by drawing borders and allotting possession of land. epistemologically, enclosure is expressed in the collapsing of multidimensional constellations of beings-in-relation into twodimensional representations of territories from and to which individuals travel across time as described by lines drawn on maps. by rupturing himself from belonging to land in a relational ecology, the atomic self enters into a hierarchical relationship to land by which land is symbolically “possessed.” in his sweeping historical-theological book, the christian imagination: theology and the origins of race, willie james jennings (2010) traces histories of enclosure through the stories of people who, he describes through accounts from the transatlantic trafficking of persons, became raced out of a societal need to account for their association with a place where they no longer were. “territoriality produces space upon which racial being functions,” jennings writes, asserting that enclosure serves as a precondition for racism. “in short, [by the logic of enclosure,] the land is first a matter of possession and second, if at all, of signification. land becomes the space for races.” (p. 218). enclosure is about defining and separating; about sacrificing the animacy and interconnection of ecosystems for possession by atomic selves. the sympoietic stitch: weaving places into stability to loosen the trap of enclosure is to cultivate awareness of the many forms of connection among human and more-than-human beings that constitute places, which are, because of these multivalent connections, porous in their boundaries. place-based survival in the face of enclosure is brought into powerful perspective by indigenous scholar-artist sarah biscarra dilley in their piece, “tyiptukɨłhɨ wa tyiptutyɨʔnɨ, where are you from and where are you going?: patterns, parcels, and place nitspu tiłhin ktityutityu” (2022). tracing their grandmother’s story of resistance to the state of california and united states federal government’s efforts to violently seize their people’s homeland, biscarra dilley describes indigenous sovereignty through “the integration of material wealth, scientific understanding, and a deep knowledge of place” (2022, p. 13). contrasting this integration with the violence of enclosure, biscarra dilley writes: written into words and maps that remained fixed despite the life in all things, the systemic disordering of our worlds has been suspended across generations, attempting to make such violence a new creation https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 154 story…but…indigenous peoples simultaneously deepen our connections navigating narrative and physical confinement by maintaining longstanding relationships and challenging generational tensions to maintain survival. this includes relationships with other-than-human beings, place(s), and waterways, each of which contributes to a living sense of placemaking, of movement and of alliances. (p. 4) that biscarra dilley portrays placemaking and movement as complementary, rather than oppositional, is a wisdom essential to the constitution of an ecological paradigm for peace. haraway (2016) likewise advocates for teaching and learning “sympoiesis,” an active “making-with” done by multiple species with the aim of building planetary resilience in the context of a changing climate. biscarra dilley’s description of placemaking and haraway’s presentation of “sympoiesis” flow easy into pedagogical conversation with cremin, eschavarría and kester’s (2018) notion of a transrational approach to peace education mentioned earlier, which calls for “attention to the emotional, embodied, and metaphysical aspects of peace learning,” and comprehends “rationality and critical discernment, but is also open to systemic and transpersonal approaches” (pp. 300-301). adding another stitch to the quilt, knox-steiner, in chorus with indigenous scholar four arrows, promotes indigenous worldview manifestations in peace learning, introducing “pluriversal” pedagogical approaches that comprehend our presence in an “entangled world where we intra-act with one another, in which the more-than-human world is acting with us, where we are constantly becoming” (2022, p. 39). as constellations of distinct beings collaborate with each other in interdependent, living systems of belonging, they build the resilience and strength of places. by taming place into functioning within the confines of linearity, individualism, and enclosure, i believe we have anesthetized place, bereaving place of its inherent power to connect, transmute, resource, and contain – the very capacities needed to help the planet survive. the colonial logics of individualism, linearity, and enclosure efficiently render “tradition” and “modernity” as “places,” however superficial, through which individual selves might travel along the oneway arrow of time; “tradition” a place from which the individual ruptures themselves and “modernity” a destination toward which they pioneer. instead of being beholden to these polarizing framworks, peace educators can choose to learn with and from indigenous, sympoietic, placemaking worldviews, to awaken the sensibilities of learners to their emplacement, engage the embodied, emotional, and metaphysical, cultivate relationships of trust, and nurture sympoietic actions within our ecosystems to foster ecological resilience. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 155 stitching place toward center: applications for centering place in peace pedagogy various forms of practice and scholarship exploring place in education have emerged in recent decades, largely in the areas of community engagement in higher education (especially in the united states) (yamamura and koth, 2018, 2019; dostilio, 2017); environmental education (renshaw and tooth, 2018); or in an effort to fuse both of those subjects with critical global citizenship education in local contexts (gruenewald and smith, 2008). the resulting array of literature offers a rich diversity of field research but little consensus in terminology (ex.: place-based, critical place-based, place-responsive, or emplaced education). of these, somerville’s (2010) work on place pedagogy, which draws on contemporary feminist poststructural and postcolonial philosophies to put forward “a place pedagogy for global contemporaneity” is perhaps the most closely aligned with the goals of peace education discussed in in factis pax. to join them, and to conclude these reflections on centering place in peace education, i want to suggest a few conceptual and embodied shifts that peace educators who wish to center place might consider in terms of temporality, relationships, and the reanimation of places. temporality: shifting from “what to do” to “where to be” we might play with how it is to swap temporal notions like “pause” with placebased ones, like “homeostasis.” “what must we do now?” is a question often urgently posed in the aftermath of violence or shocking news. we could try adding to it questions like, “where are we now?” “where do we need to be?” or “what past, future, and present stories are alive here?” we might also play with what it means that something is urgent. poet maggie smith (2025) describes a “beauty emergency” as a singular, never-againto-be-witnessed moment, like the particular colors of the sunrise on a given tuesday, as something so sacred it demands our full, immediate attention and presence. such an emergency is dependent on our perspective, insisting that we honor the capacity for awe awakened in us by a temporary moment of commanding beauty not by moving, but by staying exactly where we are until it changes. we might consider which ritualized celebrations in our educational calendars receive the most focus, perhaps adding in ways of marking time that are cyclical and seasonal, like observing the solstice or equinox (knox-steiner, 2023). we can notice how much attention is given to moments that reinforce linearity: beginnings, endings, accomplishments, and completions (such as convocation, commencement, birthday, and retirement ceremonies) and decide if we want to https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 156 adapt them. we can think creatively about how to memorialize the past and envision the future, bringing experiences of both into learning spaces. relationality: honoring our responsibilities to webs of interspecies kin here too, play and experimentation are in order. we can play with swapping private ownership terms like “resources” (natural, human, or otherwise) with collective ones, like “relations” (amster et al., 2014) to gently shift our thinking about how we relate to one another and where we find ourselves. we can explore how to turn land acknowledgement statements into land-animate partnerships. we can marry efforts to educate for individual human rights (wong and hordequin, 2019) with the work of educating for collective responsibilities (reardon, 2021). we can remind ourselves that difference helps us survive. building trust across differences in pursuit of mutual survival, flourishing, and collaboration does not only mean establishing honesty, reliability, and respect in spaces of learning, but fostering curiosity about novel forms of cooperation. maintaining trust requires attending to and repairing harm through active accountability, which goes beyond taking individual responsibility toward taking steps toward healing in community. restorative, reparative, transitional, and transformative justice processes at classroom, school, community, national, and international levels can aid in building shared understandings of accountability, trust, and meaningful repair. we can consider finding new and renewed ways to mourn and heal together. corporately, humans need to feel connected. we need to be inspired, to mourn, and to celebrate together, especially after we have suffered or have caused one another pain. as loneliness and time spent alone reportedly increase across my home country of the united states, humans here are accessing fewer avenues for expressing collective grief, exploring our spirituality in community, or moving through the motions of healing together. witnessing, truth-telling, grieving, healing, and celebrating is what we can try to do, not only through one-on-one relationships, but in community, in interspecies kinship, together. we need to collaborate more on how we tell stories, share inspiration, take risks, apologize, and heal – together (hemphill, 2024). honoring shared place during such events is a way to transform them into transcendent, connecting, reciprocal endeavors. sympoiesis: new metaphors for cooperation and resilience in the same edition of comprehensive peace education, quoted at the beginning of this essay, betty reardon urges peace educators to identify new metaphors for describing “the meaning of the human experience and human struggle,” in order to interrupt the recreation of the war system (2021, p. 60). i wonder if we have found https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 157 ourselves at a place where some of the most powerful metaphors peace educators can employ in this pursuit are not metaphors so much as observed scientific phenomena that are generalizable to include the human experience. the emergent strategy approach of “fractal” organizing through mimicking murmurations of birds and the physically transformative power of mycelial networks is one take on this idea (brown, 2017). as it is, ecosystems are not a metaphor for places; places are ecosystems. one particular example is suzanne simard’s “mother tree project,” in which scientists are observing the climate resilience of nine experimental forests positioned across a “climate rainbow” in british columbia that spans hot to dry regions. by studying the “structures and function of the forests,” especially the web of interdependent relationships by which different living beings transmit information and resources -how they compete, share, cooperate, and adapt in order to survive -scientists are able to gauge the resilience of varied forest ecosystems experiencing climate stressors. behind these experiments operates the mother tree project’s emerging philosophy, “complexity science” (simard, p. 304). joining with biologist kimmerer’s (2022) cry that “all flourishing is mutual,” simard’s complexity science is “[b]ased on embracing collaboration in addition to competition,” with the potential to “transform forestry practices into what is adaptive and holistic and away from what has been overly authoritarian and simplistic” (p. 304). i cannot think of a more powerful metaphor for how different beings may weave their experiences and needs together toward developing a sufficient ecological paradigm for peace than the “metaphor” of a cooperative, ancient, revered, productive, and adaptive old growth forest. references amster, r.; tidwell, m.; williams, c.; solnit, r.; hass r.; spahr, j. (2014, april 24-25). “what is to be done?: a roundtable on action in the current crisis.” roundtable discussion at georgetown university symposium, in nature’s wake. https://lannan.georgetown.edu/symposia/in-natures-wakethe-art-and-politics-of-environmental-crisis/# biscarra dilley, s. (2022). tyiptukɨłhɨ wa tyiptutyɨʔnɨ, where are you from and where are you going?: patterns, parcels, and place nitspu tiłhin ktityutityu. in daniel heath justice, & jean m. o’brien, eds. allotment stories. university of minnesota press. https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctv2j56zf0.5 brown, a. (2017). emergent strategy. ak press. cremin, h., echavarría, j., & kester, k. (2018). transrational peacebuilding education to reduce epistemic violence. peace review., 30(3), 295–302. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2018.1495808 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://lannan.georgetown.edu/symposia/in-natures-wake-the-art-and-politics-of-environmental-crisis/ https://lannan.georgetown.edu/symposia/in-natures-wake-the-art-and-politics-of-environmental-crisis/ https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctv2j56zf0.5 https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2018.1495808 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 158 dostilio, lina. (2017). neighbourhood-emplaced centers: a trend within american urban community-university engagement. transform:australia the journal of engaged scholarship, 1(engagement: the next thousand years are crucial!), 26–38. gruenewald, david a. & smith, gregory a. (eds.). (2008). place-based education in the global age: local diversity. taylor and francis. haraway, d. j. (2016). staying with the trouble: making kin in the chthulucene. experimental futures: technological lives, scientific arts, anthropological voices. duke university press. ———. when species meet. electronic resource. posthumanities 3. minneapolis: university of minnesota press, 2008. http://www.columbia.edu/cgibin/cul/resolve?clio17260679. harris, m. l. (2016). ecowomanism: black women, religion, and the environment. the black scholar, 46(3), 27–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/00064246.2016.1188354 heath justice, d. and o’brien, j.m., eds. (2022). allotment stories. university of minnesota press. https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctv2j56zf0.5 hemphill, p. (2024). what it takes to heal. penguin random house. hershock, p.d., and ames, r.t., eds. (2019). philosophies of place: an intercultural conversation. honolulu: university of hawaiʻi press : eastwest philosophers’ conference. international institute on peace education. (2025, june 15). iipe 2024: nepal summary report. https://www.i-i-p-e.org/iipe-nepal/ jennings, w. (2010). the christian imagination: theology and the origins of race. new haven: yale university press. https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300163087 keller c. & thatamanil, j. (2020). “is this an apocalypse? we certainly hope so – you should too abc religion & ethics.” accessed may 11, 2023. https://www.abc.net.au/religion/catherine-keller-and-john-thatamanilwhy-we-hope-this-is-an-apo/12151922. kimmerer, robin wall. (2022, october 26). the serviceberry. emergence magazine. https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/the-serviceberry/ knox-steiner, s. (2023, december). making december magic. enchantable. https://enchantable.substack.com/p/making-decembermagic-series knox-steiner, s. m. (2022). decolonial, pluriversal, vitality-centered pedagogies: (re)orienting education toward serving life (order no. 29258452). available from proquest central essentials; proquest dissertations & theses global. (2702495363). retrieved from http://libproxy.vassar.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertatio https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?clio17260679 http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?clio17260679 https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctv2j56zf0.5 https://www.i-i-p-e.org/iipe-nepal/ https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300163087 https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300163087 https://www.abc.net.au/religion/catherine-keller-and-john-thatamanil-why-we-hope-this-is-an-apo/12151922 https://www.abc.net.au/religion/catherine-keller-and-john-thatamanil-why-we-hope-this-is-an-apo/12151922 https://www.abc.net.au/religion/catherine-keller-and-john-thatamanil-why-we-hope-this-is-an-apo/12151922 https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/the-serviceberry/ https://enchantable.substack.com/p/making-december-magic-series https://enchantable.substack.com/p/making-december-magic-series in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 145-159 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 159 ns-theses/decolonial-pluriversal-vitality-centered/docview/2702495363/se2 lorde, a., & clarke, c. (2012). sister outsider: essays and speeches. potter/ten speed/harmony/rodale. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/columbia/detail.action?docid=5337027 lilburn, t. (2017). the larger conversation: contemplation and place. edmonton, alberta: the university of alberta press. place-based justice network. (2024, november 30). “pbjn: about.” https://www.sandiego.edu/mccasa/place-based-justice-network/about.php. ripley, amanda. (2025, june 15). how to prevent political violence. unraveled / substack. simard, s. (suzanne). (2021). finding the mother tree: discovering the wisdom of the forest / suzanne simard (first edition.). alfred a. knopf. smith, m. (2025, march 20). your art is a tool and beauty is an emergency (nordell, jessica, interviewer) [newsletter]. https://jessicanordell.substack.com/p/your-art-is-a-tool-and-beauty-is tuan, y. (1977). space and place: the perspective of experience. university of minnesota press. van horn, g., kimmerer, r.w., & hausdoerffer, eds. (2021). kinship: belonging in a world of relations, vols 1-5. center for humans and nature press. westerman, a. (2019, august 3). “should rivers have same legal rights as humans? a growing number of voices say yes.” npr. sec. world. https://www.npr.org/2019/08/03/740604142/should-rivers-have-samelegal-rights-as-humans-a-growing-number-of-voices-say-yes. wong, david b. and hourdequin, marion. (2019). “hiding the world in the world: a case for cosmopolitanism based in the zhuangzi” in hershock, peter d., and roger t. ames, eds. philosophies of place: an intercultural conversation. university of hawaiʻi press: east-west philosophers’ conference. 28. wright, m. m. (2015). physics of blackness: beyond the middle passage epistemology. university of minnesota press. yamamura, e. and koth, k. (2018). place-based community engagement in higher education. routledge. yamamura, erica k. & koth, kent. (2019). leadership practices for place-based community engagement initiatives. journal of higher education outreach and engagement, 23(1). https://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/jheoe/article/view/1434 zenner, christiana. (2018). just water: theology, ethics, and fresh water crises. revised edition. ecology and justice, an orbis series on integral ecology. orbis books. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/columbia/detail.action?docid=5337027 https://www.sandiego.edu/mccasa/place-based-justice-network/about.php https://jessicanordell.substack.com/p/your-art-is-a-tool-and-beauty-is https://www.npr.org/2019/08/03/740604142/should-rivers-have-same-legal-rights-as-humans-a-growing-number-of-voices-say-ye https://www.npr.org/2019/08/03/740604142/should-rivers-have-same-legal-rights-as-humans-a-growing-number-of-voices-say-ye https://www.npr.org/2019/08/03/740604142/should-rivers-have-same-legal-rights-as-humans-a-growing-number-of-voices-say-yes https://www.npr.org/2019/08/03/740604142/should-rivers-have-same-legal-rights-as-humans-a-growing-number-of-voices-say-yes https://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/jheoe/article/view/1434 harms logan   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     150     volume  5  number  2  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     perceptions of citizenship in preservice elementary social studies education hilary harms logan, ph.d. rockhurst university, kansas city introduction the relationship between democratic citizenship and public schooling has been an enduring theme in u.s. educational and social theory. among the responsibilities and the long-standing rhetorical appeal put before america’s public schools is the preparation of the nation’s students to inherit their roles as citizens in a democracy.1 historically, our american ancestors believed that a complete education was the academic nurturing of young minds as well as the development of personal integrity, character, and democratic citizenship. as the years pass, our nation becomes an increasingly diverse people, drawn from many racial, national, linguistic, and religious origins. the american cultural heritage is as diverse as our people, with multiple sources of vitality and pride. however, our political heritage is one – the vision of a common life in liberty, justice, and equality, articulated over two hundred years ago in the declaration of independence and the                                                                                                                           1  todd dinkleman, “conceptions of democratic citizenship in preservice social studies teacher education: a case study” (paper presented at the american educational research association annual conference, montreal, canada, april 1999).     in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     151   constitution.2 the united states and its democracy are constantly evolving and in continuous need of citizens who can adapt its enduring traditions and values to meet these changes. the mission of social studies is to prepare students to meet that need.3 in the twenty-first century, it has become clear that the dominant, social, economic, cultural, and scientific trends that have defined the western world for the past five centuries are quickly leading in new directions. “new issues, together with old problems, will confront us and tax our intellectual and moral fiber, making it increasingly difficult to implement the goals that define us as a nation.”4 our nation is changing, including the nature of our families, the reconceptualization of work, the distribution of justice and poverty, and the age, class, gender and ethnic makeup of our people.5 “preserving and expanding the american experiment in liberty is a challenge for each succeeding generation. no profession plays a more central role in meeting this challenge than the social studies teachers in our nation’s schools.”6 in no other curricular area has the talk of democratic citizenship been more prevalent than social studies. the role of education in general and social studies education in particular is to “foster a reasoned commitment to the founding principles and values that bind us together as people.”7 however, with the current “high-stakes” educational testing environment in elementary schools where the focus has been on math and reading, education for an active and responsible citizenship has received little attention, and citizenship education has not been fully integrated into many standards-based curriculums in today’s classrooms. a message is being sent that “civic knowledge, skills, and attitudes are not valued.”8 those endeared to social studies as a form of preparation for democratic citizenship have cause for concern, due to a majority of students rarely having the kinds of experiences that might give them practice in developing democratic habits of mind.9 fostering a commitment to fundamental democratic principles, values, and civic                                                                                                                           2  paul gagnon. “history’s role in civic education: the precondition for political intelligence,” in educating the democratic mind, ed. walter c. parker. (new york: state university of new york press, 1996), 249. 3  national council for the social studies (ncss), expectation of excellence: curriculum standards for social studies. (washington, dc: ncss, 1994). http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/preface. 4  ibid. 5  ibid.   6  haynes et al., “fostering civic virtue: character education in the social studies,” social education 61 (1997): 225. 7  ibid.   8  carnegie corporation of new york & the center for information & research on civic learning & engagement (circle), (2003), “the civic mission of schools,” accessed october 29, 2009, http://www.civicmissionofschools.org/site/campaign/documents/civicmissionofschools.pdf.   9  dinkelman, “conceptions of democratic citizenship.”     in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     152   dispositions are an essential component of social studies education.10 if the true mission of education is active citizenship, then it is imperative to help students understand the value of democratic citizenship. if social studies teachers are expected to accomplish these tasks, social studies teacher educators are faced with the challenge of preparing teachers for this role.11 in order to develop an educated citizenry, preservice teachers are in the unique position to develop into future elementary teachers who possess a commitment to educate their students to become effective and responsible citizens. in their 1997 position statement, “fostering civic virtue: character education in the social studies,” the national council for the social studies extends the following challenge to social studies educators: social studies teachers have a responsibility and a duty to refocus their classrooms on the teaching of character and civic virtue. they should not be timid or hesitant about working toward these goals. the fate of the american experiment in selfgovernment depends in no small part on the store of civic virtue that resides in the american people. the social studies profession of this nation has a vital role to play in keeping this wellspring of civic virtue flowing.12 teacher training and methods courses must facilitate preservice teachers’ beliefs about the importance and potential for social studies in the elementary grades. “if the social studies are not part of the elementary curriculum, we cannot expect our children to be prepared to understand or participate effectively in an increasingly complex world.”13 in order for social studies and its goal for an educated citizenry to become more of a priority in our elementary classrooms, preservice educators must instruct teacher candidates in understanding that the social studies content provides the greatest potential for interdisciplinary learning.14 furthermore, “the elementary school years are important in that they are the ones in which children develop a foundation for the entire social                                                                                                                           10  andrew j. milson, “social studies teacher educators’ perceptions of character education,” theory and research in social education 28 (2000): 145.   11  ibid. 12  national council for the social studies, “fostering civic virtue: character education in the social studies. position statement,” national council for the social studies, 1997, http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/character. 13  national council for the social studies. “social studies for early childhood and elementary school children-preparing for the 21st century,” social education, 53 (1989): 14-22. 14  judith m. finkelstein, lynn e. nielsen., and thomas switzer, “primary elementary social studies instruction: a status report,” social education, 57, (1993): 68.     in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     153   studies program and a beginning sense of efficacy as participating citizens of their world.”15 if schools are to educate for democratic citizenship, the manner in which preservice teacher education helps teacher candidates to understand citizenship and how it will be utilized in their future teaching practices, is a true concern. when considering the civic foundations of teacher education, “there has been relatively little specific attention paid to the way the k-12 school curriculum should prepare all students for their rights and obligations of citizenship in a complex world, and the way all teachers and professional educators should be prepared to carry out this goal in the curriculum and in the conduct of schools.”16 in fact, very little is known about how social studies teachers view the aim of democratic citizenship as they leave preservice programs.17 the purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to examine elementary social studies preservice teachers’ and professors’ perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs concerning their role in promoting and teaching citizenship education; and (2) to examine the elementary social studies professors’ role in integrating citizenship education during the methods course of the teacher preparation program. in particular, i examined the alignment between preservice teachers’ and professors’ understandings of citizenship education and considered how the elementary social studies methods course activities enhanced and/or developed preservice teachers’ beliefs and knowledge for teaching citizenship within their future elementary classrooms. theoretical framework the theoretical framework for this study was based on westheimer and kahne’s three conceptions of citizenship, the personally responsible, participatory, and justiceoriented citizen,18 definitions of citizenship education and character education, as well as elementary social studies preservice teacher preparation. literature related to these concepts is discussed and was used to examine preservice teachers’ and professors’ perceptions and understandings about citizenship education.                                                                                                                           15  ncss, “social studies for early childhood.” 16  r. freeman butts and william f. russell, “the time is now: to frame the civic foundations of teacher education,” journal of teacher education 44 (1993): 326. 17  17. susan a. adler, “the education of social studies teachers,” in handbook of research on social studies teaching and learning, ed. james p. shaver (new york: macmillan, 1991), 210-221; beverly armento, “the professional development of social studies educators,” in handbook of research on social studies education, 2nd edition, ed. by john sikula, t.j. buttery, and edith guyton (new york: simon & schuster macmillan, 1996), 485-502. 18  joel westheimer and joseph kahne, “what kind of citizen? the politics of educating for democracy,” american educational research journal 41(2004): 239.     in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     154   conceptions of citizenship. westheimer and kahne’s three conceptions of citizenship (personally responsible, participatory, and justice oriented) were utilized in order to answer the following question that is of central importance for both practitioners and scholars: “what kind of citizen do we need to support an effective democratic society?”19 these three conceptions of citizenship helped define a “good citizen.” to elucidate, the personally responsible citizen attempts to build character and personal responsibility by emphasizing honesty, integrity, self-discipline, and hard work. a personally responsible citizen can be characterized by participating in the following activities: picking up litter, giving blood, recycling, obeying laws, staying out of debt, and volunteering for those less fortunate. proponents of the character education movement frequently advance such perspectives. the participatory citizen is one who engages in collective, community-based efforts and actively participates in the civic affairs and social life of the community at the local, state, or national level. this can include planning and participating in organized efforts to care for people in need. in contrast to the personally responsible citizen who may donate cans of food for the homeless, a participatory citizen might organize the food drive. this perspective adopts a broad notion of the political sphere, one where citizens with competing but overlapping interests can work and live together.20 the final image of a good citizen is the justice oriented citizen. this type of citizen needs opportunities to analyze and understand the interplay of social, economic, and political forces and seeks to improve society by critically analyzing and addressing social issues and injustices. instead of emphasizing the need for charity and volunteerism as ends in itself, a justice-oriented citizen wants to effect systemic change. a justice-oriented citizen’s purpose is to consider collective strategies for change that challenge injustice and address root causes of programs, weighing the varied opinions and arguments of others, and communicates with and learns from those who hold different perspectives.21 citizenship education. what is citizenship education? although diverse views exist among the definition of citizenship, the perceptions and understanding used in this study were based on the following definitions of citizenship education. citizenship education is “any conscious or overt effort to develop students’ knowledge of government, law, and politics as those have evolved through history and presently operate in our society. that knowledge includes knowledge of the core values of our democracy.”22 it should help young people acquire and learn to use the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that will prepare them to be competent and responsible citizens throughout their lives. explicitly, competent and responsible citizens:                                                                                                                           19  ibid.   20  ibid., 241-242.   21  ibid., 242-243.   22  john d. hoge, “character education, citizenship education, and the social studies,” the social studies 93 (2002):105.     in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     155   1. are informed and thoughtful; have a grasp and an appreciation of history and the fundamental processes of american democracy; have an understanding and awareness of public and community issues; and have the ability to obtain information, think critically, and enter into dialogue among others with different perspectives. 2. participate in their communities through membership in or contributions to organizations working to address an array of cultural, social, political, and religious interests and beliefs. 3. act politically by having the skills, knowledge, and commitment needed to accomplish public purposes, such as group problem solving, public speaking, petitioning and protesting, and voting. 4. have moral and civic virtues such as concern for the rights and welfare of others, social responsibility, tolerance and respect, and belief in the capacity to make a difference.23 according to the national council for the social studies, a citizenship education program is considered to be effective if the program includes knowledge, skills, and values that are taught explicitly and systematically at every grade level, and it is integrated throughout and across the curriculum, where all students are provided with opportunities to participate in the civic life of their school and community extending beyond the school day and include parent participation. it should demonstrate core democratic values throughout the management and culture of the school and the classroom. effective citizenship education programs should provide students with opportunities to participate in simulations, service-learning projects, conflict resolution programs, and other activities that encourage the application of civic knowledge, skills, and values (e.g., meaningful opportunities to participate in class and school governance). all students should receive instruction on our nation's founding documents, civic institutions, political process, the people, history, and traditions that have shaped our local communities, our nation, and the world. finally, preparing students to be effective citizens should be explicitly recognized as an important part of the school mission.24 character education vs. citizenship education. based on preservice teachers’ and professors’ responses on what characterizes citizenship education, i thought it was important to note the distinctions between character education and citizenship education in order to clarify my definition of citizenship education. character education is principally centered on character traits, focusing on the development of desirable habits that include a wide range of outcome goals, including moral development. 25 its                                                                                                                           23  circle, “the civic mission of schools.   24  national council for the social studies, “creating effective citizens. position statement,” national council for the social studies, last modified may 2001, http://www.socialstudies/org/positions/effectivecitizens.   25  wolfgang althof and marvin berkowitz, “moral education and character education: their relationship and roles in citizenship education.” journal of moral education 35 (2006): 498.     in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     156   instructional concern is the internalization of prosocial behaviors, as well as moral concepts, manners, and civility.26 the principle difference between character education and citizenship education is the focus of their central concerns, with character education’s focus being the improvement of people as individuals and the main focus of citizenship education being the improvement of government. although both contents include civic dispositions and virtues, their dominant instructional methods differ. character education includes trait-of-the-week instruction, slogans, instructive biography, and rewards programs, while citizenship education strategies include such things as direct instruction on government, law, and politics; issues based discussion; mock trials; field trips; simulations; and participation in student government.27 although citizenship education is also concerned with morality, the key difference between it and character education can be found in the information about and other references to society, social problems, and political contexts.28 preservice teacher preparation in social studies methods. “one goal of teacher preparation programs has been the development of teachers who can prepare the students in their classrooms to become effective citizens in a democratic society.”29 research has shown that preservice teacher educators need to establish a clear agenda for the integration of civic knowledge and pedagogy within their social studies methods courses in order to prepare future teachers to involve their own students in democratic preparation. 30 however, it has been found that there are barriers to developing democratic classroom teachers, including the development of preservice teachers’ attitudes and beliefs that democratic practice is important and that there is no consensus as to the ideal program for preparing democratic teachers.31 although, one study found social studies methods classes with higher levels of democratic practice or instruction integrated in the social studies methods course had higher levels of student knowledge of how to implement democratic practice into their future classrooms.32                                                                                                                           26  hoge, “character education,” 104; althof and berkowitz, “moral education,” 512. 27  hoge, “character education,” 106; althof and berkowitz, “moral education,” 510.   28  ian davies, stephen gorard, and nick mcguinn, “citizenship education and character education: similarities and contrasts,” british journal of educational studies 53 (2005): 341-358.   29  caroline r. pryor and brandt w. pryor, “preservice teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about democratic classroom practice: influences on intentions for pedagogical integration,” current issues in education 8 (2005): accessed october 27, 2010. http://cie.asu.edu/volume8/number6/index.html.   30  ibid.   31  o.l. davis, jr., "does democracy in education still live?" journal of curriculum and supervision 19 (2003): 1-4; joe l. kincheloe, “the knowledges of teacher education: developing a critical complex epistemology,” teacher education quarterly 31 (2004): 49-66; walter c. parker, "curriculum for democracy," in democracy, education, and schooling, ed. roger soder (san francisco: jossey-bass, 1996), 182-210; caroline r. pryor, democratic practice workbook: activities for the field experience (boston: mcgraw-hill, 2000); john i. goodlad, “democracy, education and community,” in democracy, education, and schooling, ed. roger soder (san francisco: jossey-bass, 1996), 87-124. 32  pryor and pryor, “preservice teachers’ attitudes and beliefs.”     in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     157   additional challenges for preservice educators include: the generally negative perceptions of social studies held by many preservice elementary teachers; the persistent belief that other subjects in the curriculum, such as language arts, reading, math, and science, are more desirable to teach than social studies; confusion over the definition of social studies; the ability to persuade elementary teachers to adopt and teach the social studies goal of working to improve society; the continuing expansion of the number of topics deemed pertinent to social studies education at the preservice level; and the difficulty of effectively utilizing a concurrent field experience. 33 despite these challenges, research has also shown that greater effort must be made by elementary social studies professors to guide preservice teachers in developing a repertoire of strategies that include more frequent use of simulation, debate, technology, the use of original documents, and the active involvement of students in activities that stress the development of civic and democratic values.34 according to pryor and pryor, social studies methods courses should be restructured in order to increase two aspects of democratic practice: (a) civic knowledge and (b) pedagogical approach. this includes specific strategies within the methods course, such as: (a) allocation of course time for professors and students to discuss the definitions and implications of democratic principles in school settings; and (b) course grades highly weighting evaluation of students’ skills in analyzing and implementing democratic classroom practice.35 methodology this qualitative research study utilized the basic interpretive approach to examine the relationship between the beliefs of citizenship education and the instructional strategies used to prepare preservice elementary social studies teachers to teach citizenship in their future elementary classrooms. the study focused on a purposeful sample of preservice elementary teachers and their professors from public and private universities and colleges located in a midwestern state. the study described here was part of a larger project involving survey research, document analysis, and interviews with 75 preservice teachers enrolled in elementary social studies education methods courses and 14 elementary social studies methods professors from 15 different colleges and universities during the fall 2008 or spring 2009 semesters. the preservice teachers and professors who participated in the larger portion of this study closely resemble the demographic characteristics of traditionally certified teachers across the nation in that they are mostly white (93% preservice teachers; 85% professors) and female (91% preservice teachers; 86% professors). although the original study involved survey                                                                                                                           33  mary beth henning and diane yendol-hoppey, “context in methods course learning: lessons for partnership work,” teaching education 15 (2004): 401-416; william t. owens, “the challenges of teaching social studies methods to preservice elementary teachers,” the social studies 88 (1997): 113120. 34  joy a. morin, “a research study designed to improve the preparation of social studies teachers,” education 117 (1996): 241-251. 35  pryor and pryor, “preservice teachers’ attitudes and beliefs.”   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     158   research, document analysis, and interviews, this paper draws mainly from interview data with a smaller group of 18 participants. participants. professors from 23 higher educational institutions who taught the elementary social studies methods course during the fall 2008 or spring 2009 semesters were initially contacted via email or phone for participation in this study. in order to recruit preservice teachers and maintain student confidentiality, professors were asked to forward an email to their preservice teachers to solicit their participation in the study. data for the interview portion of this study was collected from 15 of the colleges and universities. one of the major state universities was not included in the final purposeful sampling since my advisor and i were the instructors for the elementary social studies methods courses during these semesters. nine preservice teachers and nine professors were willing to participate in the interview portion of the study, giving 18 total interview participants. of the nine professors who decided to participate in the interview process, all nine were female instructors representing 9 different universities. three of the professors had earned their doctorate (33.3%), while six had earned their master’s degree (66.7%). two of the professors were tenured, while four indicated that they were on the tenure track. the remaining professors indicated that they were on a non tenure-track or were graduate teaching assistants. professor’s elementary teaching and collegiate teaching experience varied, ranging from 6 years to more than 15 years teaching experience in the elementary classroom, while most of the professors (66.7%) had between 6 to 10 years collegiate teaching experience. eight of the professors were white (non hispanic/european american) and one professor was african american. the nine preservice teacher interview participants represented 7 of the participating colleges or universities. seven of the preservice teachers were female, and two were male. six of the preservice teachers were juniors while taking the course, two were seniors, and one was a non-traditional student. eight of the preservice teachers indicated their racial background with seven indicating white (non hispanic/european american) and one hispanic or latino. one student preferred not to indicate his or her racial background. interviews and analysis. eighteen individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with preservice teachers and professors in order to elicit their perceptions about citizenship education and its role during the elementary social studies methods course. questions from the interview overlapped several topic areas from the online survey which allowed participants to elaborate and extend the data. the questions from the interview were open-ended and included hypothetical and ideal position questions in order to elicit information, perceptions, and approximations of their likely actions in   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     159   classroom settings.36 questions from the interview were piloted with my fall 2008 elementary social studies preservice teachers in order to refine the interview protocol. each interview was conducted via telephone and was recorded in its entirety. all interviews were transcribed in full, and efforts were made to transcribe interview responses verbatim. efforts to ensure the descriptive, interpretive, and theoretical validity were also made by soliciting feedback from professor and preservice teacher participants regarding their individual interview transcripts.37 the constant comparative method of analysis was employed to conceptualize and categorize data, including the use of a set of rigorous coding procedures to develop theoretically informed interpretations of the data.38 data analysis was inductive and identified common themes and emerging patterns using content analysis of the eighteen preservice teacher and professor interviews. moreover, i triangulated findings across different respondents, survey and interview methods, and relevant theoretical literature.39 results all of the preservice teachers and professors interviewed in this study discussed the importance of citizenship education within the elementary curriculum. following is a discussion of the interview findings with details that support and explain each finding. three themes emerged from the interviews: professors’ views on citizenship education; preservice teachers’ perceptions of citizenship and citizenship education; and the instructional strategies that were used to teach citizenship during the elementary social studies methods course. quotations from participants are used to expand and illuminate the themes, as well as to give voice to the participants. professors’ views on citizenship education as the professors in this study discussed their views on what preservice teachers’ should know and understand about the meaning of citizenship, an overwhelming majority of professors mentioned that the main value of teaching social studies was its importance for citizenship development. eight of the nine professors (89%) mentioned that students need to learn how to be good citizens. the professors’ responses were most in alignment with westheimer and kahne’s conceptions of citizenship.40 for example, interview                                                                                                                           36  sharan b. merriam, qualitative research and case study applications in education: revised and expanded from case study research in education (san francisco: jossey bass publishers, 1998), 76.   37  joseph a. maxwell, qualitative research design: an interactive approach (california: sage publications, inc., 2005), 115.   38  anselm l. strauss and juliet m. corbin, grounded theory in practice (california: sage publications, inc., 1997), 5.   39  norman k. denzin, the research act: a theoretical introduction to sociological methods (new york: mcgraw-hill, 2009), 301-310.   40  westheimer and kahne, “what kind of citizen?” 239-243.     in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     160   responses mostly resembled the conceptions of the participatory citizen and the personally responsible citizen and included the following citizenship themes: being an active citizen, being an informed citizen, being a responsible citizen, being a good citizen, understanding your rights as a citizen, citizenship values, and the perpetuation of a democracy. the themes overlapped one another in many of the professors’ comments. one professors’ comment on citizenship included: perpetuation of a democracy. i think if children are not taught these things, and if we don’t teach our preservice teachers how to teach these things [citizenship knowledge, skills, and values], we endanger democracy. we endanger our [united states] form of government…there are so many other places kids can pull from to create and inform decisions and their ideas about things, that if they are not guided in the historical thinking and the current thinking, in the process of governing, in the how to participate as an active citizen in the community, if they don’t learn about geography, about sociology, about economics, then their decisions are informed by a very small, very swayed pool of information…it’s necessary for them to have this [content knowledge]. although a majority of professors indicated on their survey responses that it was important for preservice teachers to have more of a justice-oriented conception of citizenship41 and should provide students with the knowledge and skills that are needed to affect change in our society, only one professor discussed these concepts with her preservice teachers. her preservice teacher discussed how the social studies methods course helped reinforce his own justice-oriented conception of citizenship that he held prior to the elementary social studies methods course. he explained: i want to help these kids understand how they can change the world, and it’s not just [about taking] state assessments. it’s…making these kids to be better citizens…i guess [before] coming into the class, i wasn’t sure if i was going to be able to [do] things like that. knowledge. professors also felt that students should know how to provide the knowledge, skills, processes, and values needed for membership in our society, as well as understanding individual rights and obligations to the common good. when discussing the knowledge preservice teachers needed, they felt that they needed to have a foundational knowledge of the other social studies disciplines, like history, civics, and economics. one professor discussed how important it is for elementary students to be presented with this foundational knowledge and that preservice teachers should explain why the social studies disciplines are important to their future students. she felt it was important for students to make a personal connection to social studies, instead of focusing                                                                                                                           41  ibid., 242-243.   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     161   on people, facts, and dates; rather, they should be focused on themes and patterns such as historical time frames, human interactions, and political events. she explained: [these] are other certain elements that one just needs to know…they have to have an over-arching foundation of just the different themes for each one of the disciplines. in addition to discussing knowing the social studies disciplines, one professor mentioned specific citizenship content that should be taught, specifically core citizenship or civics. she felt that it was important for students to understand their first amendment rights, including being able to identify them, knowing what they are, and knowing when to use them. moreover, it was necessary for them to understand the three branches of government, including how the government works, what their vote is worth, and the value of participating in things such as their own student government and their own city council. she also felt that it was important for students to understand right from wrong, specifically the value of adhering to rules and how rules and laws are made. values. a majority of the professors (78%) also discussed the importance of integrating values within citizenship education. one of the most striking aspects about the professors’ views on citizenship was that most of the professors stated that citizenship should be taught through lessons that emphasize morality and good conduct in personal and private affairs, as well as the need to be a good neighbor or friend to those who rely on us. this viewpoint aligns mostly with the personally responsible conception of citizenship,42 which is more consistent with the principles of character education than citizenship education. even though a majority of the professors revealed that they felt it was important for preservice teachers to integrate values within citizenship education, only two professors discussed specific civics values, such as, public and common good, equal opportunity, diversity, and patriotism. rather, many of the professors discussed that character education values like understanding right from wrong should be taught in the elementary curriculum. one professor emphasized teaching the moral characteristics of respect, responsibility, caring, and kindness. she stated: it’s those types of words that we need to teach others…so that they can make good citizens. another professor responded: i think for elementary students…we put a big push on character education being a good citizen in whatever surroundings you’re in. for our little ones it may mean here at school or at home or when you go out into the town.                                                                                                                           42  ibid., 241.     in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     162   the final professor’s comments also highlighted character, but were broader when discussing citizenship education. she emphasized the following: citizenship education is teaching children to be good citizens, to appreciate their freedoms, and not to take anything for granted. citizenship encompasses everything in our world: getting along with others, which is diversity, multiculturalism. citizenship is being proud of your history and knowing others’ histories or being aware…citizenship is the world in motion. it’s our country in motion. but in order to be a good citizen, you have to respect yourself, you have to learn to respect others, and you can differ, but learn to respect, learn how to disagree in an amicable manner. it’s just being a good citizen: being respectful of others, being respectful of self. in contrast to the majority of the professors’ views that centered on character education values, two professors discussed a different set of values that are important for students to understand when learning about citizenship. one professor specifically discussed american values that were highlighted in the textbook that she used in her course. she stated: they talk about…american values…it’s mostly based on the democratic values that our country was founded on: honesty, respect for all, responsibility; those types of things. they call them the virtues, the fundamental values of american democracy: public and common good, equal opportunity, diversity, truth, patriotism, and the rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. the second professor mentioned the importance of understanding diversity, by first understanding the value of human life and the value in being an informed decisionmaker. she commented: with the diversity aspect, we really try to focus on breaking down cultural barriers and making sure that none of their students are ever put in a position where they feel degraded or different or [encounter] a knock to their self-esteem because they are from a different country or they have a different belief system, and so i think that the number one thing that we try to teach when it comes to that is that all human beings matter and that all human life is valuable. and that’s what we hope our preservice teachers are instilling in their students. skills. when professors were asked about the citizenship skills that elementary students need, responses included being an active participant in society and following the rules in the classroom. the main skill that professors felt preservice teachers should emphasize with elementary students was voting. one professor stated:   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     163   voting. i’m big on voting, because, really, you can’t complain if you don’t vote and when you vote that means that you care about your country, you care about your community. another professor mentioned how they discussed voting as an important citizenship skill since the school year included a major political election, while an additional professor felt that students should learn how to vote because it is a responsibility and a right that we have as americans. many of the professors emphasized the importance of preservice teachers’ understanding that citizenship education should include active participation in the government or the democratic process. one professor explained: well, i think the overall goal is to make sure we do our part to produce good citizens for america citizens who understand right from wrong, [who] are able to participate in society, [are] educated voters, but also get involved in their communities to make a difference. one professor mentioned that both the textbook that she uses in her course as well as the state standards really emphasize that citizenship is more about being informed and involved so that you can make good decisions. another professor discussed that citizenship is beginning to participate at whatever level you are capable. this professor discussed the importance of preservice teachers talking about voting with elementary students, especially during an election year. additionally, one professor discussed how their department had switched the department’s definition of “citizenship” to “engaged citizenship,” which is more about teaching students how to participate in caring for the welfare of others and caring for the welfare of their community. she discussed how the entire department really wanted to focus on teaching preservice teachers how to develop elementary students’ personal connections to social studies and being able to explain why active participation is so important. she explained: we don’t necessarily focus on, “oh, you have to vote,” or “you have to pay your taxes on time.”… we incorporate that in our education, but really we focused our definition of citizenship education and what we are teaching them to be more on how do we actively participate in our communities, and then how do we care for the welfare of others? so, i know a lot of our lesson plans, a lot of the things that we teach them is, “how do we teach our students to care for the environment?” “how do we teach our students to be kind to people?”…[it] has a more active overtone to it as opposed to just learning about history and the facts, making this personal connection so that they can see why it’s important.   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     164   one perspective that was only mentioned by one professor concerning active participation was the motivation behind participating. she stated that at the very basic level: it’s partly falling in love with your country. i remember when i taught first grade that was one of my big things. i wanted them to look at the statue of liberty and think, “that’s for me. that’s my statue of liberty, and it’s my flag.” so first of all, just building some emotion towards your country and feeling good about being a citizen of your country. when students entered the “older” elementary grades, she felt that was the time when they should begin to understand the responsibility that comes from being a member of a free society, including the responsibility to vote. she discussed how statistics have shown that many people in the united states are not taking advantage of the privilege of voting. therefore, students need to be taught how to vote in the elementary classroom, including classroom elections. “and i think that’s part of growing up and taking your part in building our country and all it can be.” one professor illustrated how preservice teachers could promote active participation by instructing them in how to build a community in the classroom. it allows students to participate and understand democratic procedures. creating a classroom community becomes a natural part of the classroom environment, facilitating decision-making, problem solving, and democratic citizenship. preservice teachers’ perceptions of citizenship and citizenship education before discussing the meaning and value of citizenship education with preservice teachers, i felt that it was important to explore the preservice teachers’ personal views of what it means to be a citizen. all of the preservice teachers’ views on citizenship corresponded with all three conceptions of the “good citizen”, including the participatory, the personally responsible, and the justice-oriented citizen.43 although citizenship was mentioned as a valuable aspect of social studies by preservice teachers during the interview; only three used the term “citizen” or “citizenship” within their responses. other comments were based on aspects related to citizenship, such as governmental roles and being an active contributor to society. one preservice teacher explained the importance of being a participatory citizen:                                                                                                                           43  ibid., 237-269.       in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     165   i think it means you’re an active participant in society. i think that being a citizen means that you take on the responsibility of making your community, your state, your neighborhood, whatever it is, a better place because you understand the laws, you understand the operations of government, and things like that. another stated: [a citizen is] someone who is active in society, in voting, in the economy, in the workforce. several preservice teachers focused on the importance of being personally responsible citizens. one posited: it means to…follow the rules, follow the laws of the land, show respect for your country and just work hard on being a great representative of the country that you live in. two preservice teachers discussed the concept of being a justice-oriented citizen. one preservice teacher explained: to be a citizen is to understand that you are part of a team and that the greater good sometimes needs to or will outweigh the good of the individual. it is not a simple “majority rules.” it is taking into account those who are in the minority and what their needs may be as well. it is looking out for those who cannot take care of themselves for whatever reason it is. it is also holding accountable those who can take care of themselves but are choosing not to and trying to bring them along where they become a productive part of the team as well…it is not [just] living for yourself and not paying attention to anybody else… another preservice teacher commented: well, one of the things we talked about actually a lot in our methods class is just making a more knowledgeable citizen and creating students that are going to be contributors to their society… as the preservice teachers in this study discussed their perceptions of citizenship education and their intentions of teaching it within their classrooms, many of the preservice teachers felt that elementary students should be taught content related to democratic values and traditions and that intelligent participation in society is the primary characteristic of the good citizen. two preservice teachers mentioned using specific curriculum with elementary students, including historical documents and academic principles. one preservice teacher discussed the importance of:   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     166   …knowing the key documents, like the declaration of independence, the constitution, the bill of rights, and just know[ing] why certain things were established in america, and i think you need to support it – like support your beliefs and state them. because there [are] a lot of people that look badly upon the united states and as a good citizen, i think you need to know just how to defend it and like love your country. the second preservice teacher stated that part of citizenship education is understanding historically why america is the way it is, including the principles on which america was founded, as well as the historical events. the preservice teacher stated: …i think a lot of citizenship goes with knowing about our country. like if you don’t know about it, how can you have pride in it? it would be learning about past presidents, important documents. they’d learn about…the bill of rights…about voting for sure, and how the economy is run. i think there’s a lot of things that can be factored into citizenship. similar to the professors’ responses, seven preservice teachers (78%) discussed how citizenship education should include instruction on the importance of active participation in government both locally and nationally, as well as participation in the democratic process using decision-making skills. one preservice teacher discussed how important it was to teach elementary students about democracy and how it works. he thought it was important for students to be able to practice the democratic process within the classroom so that they would begin to see its value. this would lead to instruction and practice in critical thinking and problem solving skills for students, including student analysis of current problems with democratic governing and a “good way of governing.” he also found that it was necessary for students to have: …a belief in taking time and interest in the political process in the united states [and] that there is value in watching the political processes around the world and seeing how that affects us and how we may be running into issues or problems with other countries [and how to] possibly move towards peaceful resolution of situations. one preservice teacher stated how elementary students would initially be introduced to the democratic process: …talking about them being part of the united states, especially as each election comes up, local, and state, and federal, discussing the elements of democracy, the elements of citizenship, and what being a part of a democracy’s average citizen means, specifically through voting and what that means overall to them as they grow and become working adults.   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     167   two of the preservice teachers indicated that citizenship instruction should incorporate active participation in the democratic process. one stated: i think that citizenship instruction would be basically teaching the students, i think, about being a good citizen, about community service, about serving the community, about being an informed citizen, and being involved in their government and being able to vote, and that if there’s something that they don’t like that they can do something to change it. another preservice teacher felt that being an active citizen and understanding their government can lead to improving the community. a student would need to know about community, about jobs, wants, need, about our government, how it’s run, who’s involved in it, how they as a student, can be involved, how to get involved… citizenship education in the elementary classroom. when preservice teachers were asked specifically what citizenship instruction might look like in an elementary classroom, several themes emerged. they, like many teachers currently in the field, were concerned about nclb and the increasing emphasis on reading and math over social studies. many felt that it was important to include social studies instructional time within their classroom, but were worried about finding time in the school day to incorporate the social studies activities that they would like to do. therefore, many of the preservice teachers discussed incorporating citizenship through character education and classroom management, including the implementation of classroom jobs, rules, or their overall classroom management techniques. many of the preservice teachers (78%) felt that citizenship education would include some aspect of what has been more recently characterized as character education, including social interactions, treating another person with respect, and teaching students how to interact with one another.44 a few also mentioned specific character traits or values that elementary students should learn as a part of citizenship education, including respect, helpfulness, and responsibility. one preservice specifically explained that citizenship education should include: teaching kids how to get along with each other within a classroom. another felt that character education should be a part of citizenship education.                                                                                                                           44  hoge, “character education,” 104.   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     168   ideally, i think if children all learn to value respecting each other and taking care of the place that they live in, that’s all part of being a good citizen. one preservice teacher discussed how teaching elementary students about being a good citizen does not happen by giving them a handout. rather, students learn citizenship through interaction on the playground at recess when they are having disputes. she discussed an incident on the playground where students were playing tetherball, and some of the children voted another child out of the game so that the child was not allowed to play anymore. however, the student did not want to leave the tetherball court. she explained the importance of using this as a teachable moment: so, having a conversation right then and there [discussing why] you were voted out because you did something wrong – that means that you need to leave. it’s your responsibility to leave. i think that’s something that kids need to experience…i just think that they need to know things like cooperation and team work, and good relationships with other people is the most important. five of the nine (56%) preservice teachers felt that they would incorporate citizenship instruction into their elementary classroom through the incorporation of classroom jobs, rules, and their overall management. one preservice teacher addressed citizenship and community. she stated: i think really trying to create a community in your classroom and an environment that is welcoming and that [is] a good community for the students to be a part of. i think that’s a huge part of just social studies education. another preservice teacher talked about how developing a classroom community was important for the inclusion of citizenship concepts. she stated: i think of government…having the students involved in having jobs in the classroom, or allowing them to make choices and coming up with their own ideas would be a way to implement citizenship in the classroom. three other preservice teachers discussed how the classroom environment and classroom rules would incorporate citizenship instruction. one preservice teacher said: i think a lot can happen just by the way a classroom operates – the values that are taught in respecting every member of the class, working together, having some type of system of taking responsibility of different aspects of keeping the classroom clean or keeping this organized. i think those are all early lessons that   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     169   students can learn that can be translated later into life in the community and life in society. another preservice teacher commented: citizenship instruction, except for the most basic of classroom management issues… would probably include letting the students help decide what the classroom rules will be, certainly with the teacher’s guidance on some of those rules, but understanding that most kids understand what’s fair and what’s right…especially after kindergarten year – letting them help with that process, letting them know that the rules are something that they are choosing and that they will be held accountable to them because they are their rules and not just something [that] is being told they have to follow, which, in our country, is pretty much the same way…if we don’t like a particular rule or law, we have the ability to do something about it. it doesn’t mean that it will always change, but we can certainly voice our opinion and take steps to try and get it to change. so that’s a big part of what it [citizenship instruction] would be. as evidenced by their responses, a majority of the preservice teachers thought that citizenship instruction in the elementary grades would be implemented in their future classroom through the classroom environment, including the use of classroom management strategies, including character education development, or classroom rules and jobs. elementary social studies methods course: citizenship education instructional strategies preservice teachers and professors were asked to reflect on any citizenship coursework or activities that were assigned or presented in their elementary social studies methods courses. there was agreement between preservice teachers and professors about course activities that helped develop understanding of citizenship, as well as provide ideas about instructional strategies for teaching citizenship at the elementary level. textbook. both professors and preservice teachers mentioned the textbook as a means to teach citizenship. however, only one preservice teacher discussed being positively impacted by using the textbook. the other preservice teachers only mentioned general characteristics from the textbooks that they felt exemplified citizenship, such as seeing pictures in the textbook of students saying the pledge of allegiance; while, professors indicated that they used the textbook in order to facilitate citizenship discussions or to highlight teaching examples. however, no preservice teachers mentioned any of these types of professor-led activities.   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     170   class discussion. class discussion was a teaching strategy that both preservice teachers and professors highlighted when discussing how citizenship education was taught in the course. a few professors, who stated that they spent time discussing citizenship with their preservice teachers, addressed citizenship mainly from the perspective of classroom management techniques to discipline students, establish classroom rules, and promote certain values and beliefs. several professors also discussed using cooperative groups in order to teach citizenship. most of the preservice teachers felt that the discussion about citizenship education really varied, with most of the discussion centering on character education not specific citizenship education principles and that the class discussion led by the professors produced little learning on citizenship education. one preservice teacher recalled a discussion on citizenship education that focused on character: we did discuss some on the character development. the school that i’m going to is a christian school, so i kind of am a little more careful with saying that specifically…we did discuss character development, character values, the issue of needing to teach values even apart from christianity itself, needing to teach values and that there [are] specific values that are beneficial, that everyone would agree is beneficial to the individual and the group as a whole. although preservice teachers shared that professors used class discussion as a main way of teaching citizenship education, six out of nine (67%) stated that they did not feel that they spent enough time on citizenship or that they really learned a lot about it. one preservice teacher clarified the lack of time spent on discussing citizenship: we actually only had about a week on it, or like 3 days talking about [it]…i don’t think we actually spent enough time on it given how important it is to america as a whole, which was one thing that we talked about – america’s overall consensus is the most important thing we need to do for our students is teach them how to be good citizens – and i don’t think we touch on that enough in our methods class. another preservice teacher echoed the first preservice teacher by saying: i don’t know that we learned a whole lot about citizenship education. finally, one preservice teacher commented on learning more about character education saying: you know that wasn’t something that we covered too heavily. we covered more of character education than citizenship education.   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     171   resources. the third citizenship teaching activity that was mentioned by professors and preservice teachers was the sharing of resources addressing citizenship. even though there is a proliferation of alternative instructional materials to teach citizenship, including children’s literature and websites that are suitable for texts or bases for activities in social studies, few primary teachers have a clear enough understanding of social studies to make good use of these resources.45 results from this study showed that only a few of the preservice teachers mentioned receiving resources on teaching citizenship education, such as links to websites and handouts. one preservice teacher was very complementary of the resources that she received during her social studies methods course. she emphasized: i mean, i thought it [social studies methods course] was just extremely helpful, especially [since] she gave us so many resources and showed us what it takes to be a good social studies teacher and how to integrate it and just different websites to look at… two of the professors who discussed the importance of sharing citizenship resources mentioned that their preservice teachers were actively engaged in finding citizenship resources on the internet; while another professor discussed providing a specific handout that gave the ideas on how to teach citizenship in their elementary classroom. lesson plans, units, and projects. the fourth teaching strategy mentioned by six professors (67%) was using lesson planning, units, and projects for preservice teacher assignments. one professor stated: they have to create a lesson plan for each area of social studies: civics, geography, economics, and history, and within their civics lesson plan they have to integrate citizenship somewhere in that lesson plan. how would they do that in their class? another professor also discussed that preservice teachers were responsible for presenting mini-units within the course, including presentation topics on citizenship, history, geography, etc. contrary to the professors’ views on incorporating lesson planning, units, and projects, preservice teachers did not feel that a majority of their professors used these types of activities. however, a couple of preservice teachers discussed how they were given a choice whether to create a lesson or unit on citizenship. a few professors and preservice teachers mentioned the inclusion and implementation of community service or service-learning projects. three of the professors (33%) required                                                                                                                           45  54. janet alleman and jere brophy, “is curriculum integration a boon or a threat to social studies?” in meeting the standards: social studies readings for k-6 educators, ed. mary e. hess and margaret a. laughlin (washington, d.c.: national council for the social studies, 1997), 305-308.     in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     172   their preservice teachers to participate in some form of service project during their elementary social studies methods course. all three discussed the importance of incorporating it within their course. the professor, who required preservice teachers to participate in a service project that benefited the local community where the school was situated, elaborated on the impact of the project on her preservice teachers. she stated: we do it on fridays…and students have to implement a 50-minute project…we’ve gone to the nursing home…we gave the female residents manicures and then we played skip-bo and uno and cards with the gentlemen there. we have cleaned up the golf course. we have helped get the swimming pool ready for the community…oh, one year when they were doing the habitat house here, one group worked on that for a day…i let the kids decide each year so it’s different every semester. that’s part of the whole citizenship [experience]: owning the project. so, i let them decide, but the only requirement is that it has to be in [name of city where university/college is located]. the students surprisingly really like going to the nursing home. when we talk about it, they’re not happy about it, but once they go they always come back and are pleased…the maintenance department [on campus] is always very complimentary, i usually get a phone call or an e-mail thanking us for helping pick up the campus, and the students that are in my class are amazed at how much trash the students on the campus are leaving around, and they become more aware and are [expressing that] out[side] of the classroom, “hey, don’t throw that down! you know this is our campus!” i think they…become advocates for taking better care of the campus because they’ve had to clean it up. professors who included service projects within their course requirements also talked about some of the benefits of including this within the elementary social studies methods instruction. some of the benefits included making a difference in other people’s lives, making the world a better place, becoming better advocates for their world, and providing them with experiences that they can implement in their future classrooms with their own elementary students. although most of the preservice teachers in this study did not participate in a service-learning project during their social studies methods course, those who did have the opportunity were greatly impacted by the inclusion of it within their coursework. they also indicated that they were more likely to incorporate service projects within their future elementary classrooms. two preservice teachers discussed the impact that community service had on them personally and professionally. one service project was situated in the local community, while the other one was through the organization called pennies for peace, an international service-learning program. the preservice teacher who participated in the local project discussed how it positively impacted her by sharing the following:   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     173   each group — we took a class day and as a class we went and did the community service projects…one day we went and picked up trash on campus around [city name], and then my group is…going to assisted living and we are painting the ladies' nails and playing games with them. so, that's kind of something that maybe we could do in our future classroom. and we all as a class decided to go ahead and do that together as well. it's been very positive. i think that all of us being students here in [city name], it was good to give back to the community that we live in. and i think it gave me some good ideas as far as like when we went to pick up trash, each group, we weighed our trash at the end and there was a prize for each group who…had the heaviest load of trash. things like that. i mean, it was kind of fun because it gave me a different idea of just…going and picking up trash. it gave us… a purpose and there was something fun that you could implement with students. when asked what was the most interesting or most important new insight that was gained from the elementary social studies methods course, the second preservice teacher discussed her service-learning experience: well, i think the one thing that i liked most was involving the community. for instance, my teacher used an organization called pennies for peace in her school and showed us how to use it in the classroom as well. so, just involving the community overall is just the thing that i really gained from…that class. despite the inclusion of service projects within the social studies elementary methods course, only one preservice teacher really emphasized the importance of her future elementary students participating in service-learning. she discussed how a community service project would be the main strategy that she would use in order to teach citizenship in addition to voting or learning about the government. she said: i think it would be important to do community service projects…one of the lessons that i worked on for the class, i planned that…each group of students would pick a community issue, an issue that they think is a problem or how to make that better. so, it gets them involved in their community and trying to change things. those preservice teachers who participated in a service-learning project did express having positive experiences, including increasing their self-knowledge, their selfefficacy, knowledge about serving, personal connections with the children, adults, or community they served, as well as having fun or other good feelings about participating in service. discussion   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     174   based on interview data, it appears that many preservice teachers and professors consider citizenship education instruction to be important in the elementary classroom. the following discusses the key findings found from this study, including participants’ beliefs regarding the relationship between citizenship education and character education, as well as the impact of the instructional strategies that were used to teach citizenship. for many of the preservice teachers and professors, there was a logical and functional relationship that existed among character education, citizenship education, and social studies. professors revealed that they felt it was important for preservice teachers to integrate values within citizenship education. however, only two professors discussed specific civics values, such as, public and common good, equal opportunity, diversity, truth and patriotism. many of the professors discussed the integration of character education values within the elementary curriculum by incorporating character education and classroom management techniques. if the role of social studies teachers is to develop civic virtues and dispositions within students, then taking an approach of only implementing character education and classroom management techniques presents a scenario where the social studies teacher is not fulfilling their role. although elementary learners do need to become responsible, participating citizens, this does not occur automatically or simply through the incorporation of character education or classroom management techniques. still, only implementing character education and classroom management techniques in the elementary classroom, not only diminishes the effectiveness of character education but also the effectiveness of citizenship education. rather, preservice teachers need sufficient content knowledge in the core disciplines and the processes of social studies. they also need skills in using a variety of teaching and assessment strategies. many of the preservice teachers and professors mentioned the importance of providing and utilizing various resources in order to teach citizenship. these skills need to extend in their abilities to locate, evaluate, and use developmentally appropriate resources that would build upon the skills and knowledge needed to fulfill the role of citizen.46 when considering the citizenship content that was discussed in this study, many of the preservice teachers could not provide specific examples of citizenship education or instructional strategies that should be used with their future students. therefore, preservice teachers should be taught how to model the fundamental democratic principles in their classroom, as well as discuss them as they relate to curriculum content and current events. this should include social and civic participation skills that prepare elementary students to work effectively in diverse groups to problem-solve, discuss alternative strategies, make decisions, and take action, including actively participating in                                                                                                                           46  national council for the social studies, “powerful and purposeful teaching and learning in elementary school social studies,” social studies and the young learner22 (2009), 31.     in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     175   civic affairs.47 they should learn how to make the fundamental democratic principles integral to the school’s daily operations which prepare students to connect knowledge with beliefs and action. furthermore, citizenship instructional content must include learning about government, political history, and political literacy.48 finally, citizenship education strategies should include such things as direct instruction on government, law, and politics; issues based discussion; mock trials; and field trips. 49 this learning transcends the simplistic ‘character virtues’ approach to values education in elementary schools.”50 as indicated by the study, preservice teachers who participated in a servicelearning project during their elementary social studies methods course expressed the value of this experience to their own knowledge and understanding of citizenship, as well as emphasized the importance of these types of experiences for their future elementary students. elementary social studies professors should consider implementing service programs during their course to provide preservice teachers the opportunity to design and participate in authentic service-learning experiences. those preservice teachers who were trained in service-learning as part of a teacher education program may be likely to increase the perceived value of service-learning in their future elementary classrooms, which may reinforce the participatory conception of citizenship. these service-learning projects should truly contribute to the community, and professors should give students a role in choosing and designing their projects that promote mutually respectful relationships and provide students with opportunities to reflect on their service work and learning skills.51 service-learning experiences need to be linked to what preservice teachers are learning through their formal classroom instruction, are meaningful to the preservice teachers, and advance the public good. only by becoming familiar with service-learning through authentic participation, will preservice teachers be able to design service-learning experiences that expand their future students’ conceptual understanding of democratic participation. wade stated, “teacher expertise in designing high quality service-learning experiences, including both knowledge of the elements of quality service-learning and the number of years implementing service-learning in the classroom, is a key factor in promoting positive student outcomes. thus training, in service-learning as part of a teacher education program may be likely to increase the effectiveness of service-learning in k-12 classrooms.”52                                                                                                                           47  linda s. levstik and cynthia a. tyson. handbook of research in social studies education. (new york: routledge, 2008), 1. 48  althof and berkowitz, “moral education,” 509. 49  hoge, “character education,” 106. 50  59. ncss, “powerful and purposeful teaching,” 32. 51  r. dale safrit and allen w. auck, “volunteerism, community service, and service-learning by ohio 4-h’er’s in grades 4-12,” journal of extension (2003): http://www.joe.org/joe/2003august/rb6.php.   52  rahima c. wade, “service-learning,” in handbook of research in social studies education, ed. linda s. levstik and cynthia a. tyson (new york: routledge, 2008), 117.     in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     176   conclusion exploring the questions from this study is useful for preservice elementary social studies methods professors and others who help prepare preservice teachers for future practice because this study showed that there were some differences between what the preservice teachers understood about citizenship, its content, its values, and its skills, and what the professors taught during the elementary social studies methods course. based on preservice teachers’ responses, i think that it is important for professors to recognize the ways in which they are incorporating citizenship within their methods course. they need to be aware of the value they place on it, as well as the implications it has for preservice teachers’ decisions about how and why they should teach citizenship within their own classrooms. citizenship education is rooted in the very foundation of american education, with parents and community members realizing the importance of developing “good” citizens for our nation. teacher preparation programs must help preservice teachers understand the democratic and civic mission of schools. with the continued marginalization of social studies within the elementary classroom and the intermittent focus on citizenship education within the elementary social studies methods course, citizenship education deserves continued study. understanding preservice teachers’ and professors’ professional commitment to citizenship education is essential for the continued development of the knowledge, values, and skills needed to teach future students the importance of participating as an active citizen in american society. references adler, susan a. “the education of social studies teachers.” in handbook of research on social studies teaching and learning, edited by james p. shaver, 210 221. new york: macmillan, 1991. alleman, janet and jere brophy. “is curriculum integration a boon or a threat to social studies?” in meeting the standards: social studies readings for k-6 educators, edited by mary e. hess and margaret a. laughlin, 305-308. washington, d.c.: national council for the social studies, 1997. althof, wolfgang and marvin berkowitz. “moral education and character education: their relationship and roles in citizenship education.” journal of moral education 35 (2006): 495-518. armento, beverly. “the professional development of social studies educators.” in handbook of research on social studies education, 2nd edition, edited by john sikula, t.j. buttery, and edith guyton, 485-502. new york: simon & schuster macmillan, 1996.   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     177   butts, r. freeman and william f. russell. “the time is now: to frame the civic foundations of teacher education.” journal of teacher education 44 (1993): 326. carnegie corporation of new york & the center for information & research on civic learning & engagement (circle). (2003). “the civic mission of schools.” accessed october 29, 2009. http://www.civicmissi onofschools.org/site/campaign/documents/civicmission ofschools.pdf. davies, ian, stephen gorard, and nick mcguinn. “citizenship education and character education: similarities and contrasts.” british journal of educational studies 53 (2005): 341-358. davis, jr., o.l. "does democracy in education still live?" journal of curriculum and supervision 19 (2003):1-4. denzin, norman k. the research act: a theoretical introduction to sociological methods. new york: mcgraw-hill, 2009. dinkelman, todd. “conceptions of democratic citizenship in preservice social studies teacher education: a case study.” paper presented at the american educational research association annual conference, montreal, canada, april 1999. finkelstein, judith m., lynn e. nielsen., and thomas switzer. “primary elementary social studies instruction: a status report.” social education 57 (1993): 64-69. gagnon, paul. “history’s role in civic education: the precondition for political intelligence.” in educating the democratic mind, edited by walter c. parker, 241-262. new york: state university of new york press, 1996. goodlad, john i. “democracy, education and community.” in democracy, education, and schooling, edited by roger soder, 87-124. san francisco: jossey-bass, 1996. haynes, charles, james leming, jeannette groth, tarry lindquist, alan lockwood, patricia marshall, and pat nickell. “fostering civic virtue: character education in the social studies.” social education 61 (1997): 225-227. henning, mary beth and diane yendol-hoppey. “context in methods course learning: lessons for partnership work.” teaching education 15 (2004): 401-416. hoge, john d. “character education, citizenship education, and the social studies.” the social studies 93 (2002):103-108. kincheloe, joe l. “the knowledges of teacher education: developing a critical complex epistemology.” teacher education quarterly 31 (2004): 49-66. levstik, linda s. and cynthia a. tyson. handbook of research in social studies education. new york: routledge, 2008. maxwell, joseph a. qualitative research design: an interactive approach. california: sage publications, inc., 2005. merriam, sharan b. qualitative research and case study applications in education: revised and expanded from case study research in education. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers, 1998. milson, andrew j. “social studies teacher educators’ perceptions of character education.” theory and research in social education 28 (2000): 144-169.   in  factis  pax   volume  5  number  1  (2011):  150-­‐178   http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     178   morin, joy a. “a research study designed to improve the preparation of social studies teachers.” education 117 (1996): 241-251. national council for the social studies. social studies for early childhood and elementary school children-preparing for the 21st century. social education 53(1989): 14-22. national council for the social studies. expectation of excellence: curriculum standards for social studies. washington, dc: ncss, 1994. http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/preface (accessed october 22, 2009). national council for the social studies. (1997). “fostering civic virtue: character education in the social studies. position statement.” accessed october 22, 2009. http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/character. national council for the social studies. (2001). “creating effective citizens. position statement.” accessed october 22, 2009. http://www.socialstudies.org/positions/effectivecitizens. national council for the social studies. “powerful and purposeful teaching and learning in elementary school social studies.” social studies and the young learner 22 (2009): 31-33. owens, william t. “the challenges of teaching social studies methods to preservice elementary teachers.” the social studies 88 (1997): 113-120. parker, walter c. "curriculum for democracy." in democracy, education, and schooling, edited by roger soder, 182-210. san francisco: jossey-bass, 1996. pryor, caroline r. democratic practice workbook: activities for the field experience. boston: mcgraw-hill, 2000. pryor, caroline r. and brandt w. pryor. “preservice teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about democratic classroom practice: influences on intentions for pedagogical integration.” current issues in education 8 (2005). accessed october 27, 2010. http://cie.asu.edu/volume8/number6/index.html. safrit, r. dale and allen w. auck. “volunteerism, community service, and service learning by ohio 4-h’er’s in grades 4-12.” journal of extension (2003): accessed october 27, 2010. http://www.joe.org/joe/2003august/rb6.php. strauss, anselm l. and juliet m. corbin. grounded theory in practice. california: sage publications, inc., 1997. wade, rahima c. “service-learning.” in handbook of research in social studies education, edited by linda s. levstik and cynthia a. tyson, 109-123. new york: routledge, 2008. westheimer, joel and joseph kahne. “what kind of citizen? the politics of educating for democracy.” american educational research journal 41 (2004): 237269.   in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 123 volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 exploring psycho-educational horizons in the face of the climate crisis: links between contemplative pedagogy and the eco-relational paradigm of peace dr. leonardo gonzález torres mtr. inés vázquez rico círculo de estudios para la paz, valència, españa, mail: leonardo.gtorres@campus-estudiosparalapaz.org, ines.vrico@campusestudiosparalapaz.org abstract starting from an analysis of the global ecological crisis and drawing on the concepts of interbeing, the practice of compassion, and the framework of ecopedagogy, this article explores psycho-educational perspectives for a contemplative ecological pedagogy that integrates critical, experiential, and transformative practices. through an examination of experiences from the círculo de estudios para la paz in iipe 2024, the epistemological, political, and affective challenges of the emerging eco-relational paradigm of peace are discussed. the article concludes by emphasizing the need to integrate ancestral knowledge, contemplative practices, and an emotional reconnection with the https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax mailto:leonardo.gtorres@campus-estudiosparalapaz.org mailto:ines.vrico@campus-estudiosparalapaz.org mailto:ines.vrico@campus-estudiosparalapaz.org in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 124 earth in order to consolidate an education committed to ecological justice and planetary regeneration. key words: climate crisis, interbeing, contemplative pedagogy, eco-relational paradigm introduction: the current ecological crisis and the dominant civilizing model among the many threats facing humanity and the planet today, the climate crisis—derived from processes of devastation and the commercialization of land and resources—is the most threatening. according to the climate change synthesis report 2023, human activities, especially those related to greenhouse gas emissions, have caused current global warming of 1.1 °c above the 1850– 1900 level in the period 2011–2020, jeopardizing future ecological balance. this temperature increase is due to the use of unsustainable energy, harmful land-use practices, decades of excessive resource consumption, a lifestyle with little respect for ecological needs, and excessive production. the aforementioned has had an enormous impact on multiple areas of human and non-human life, felt in areas such as food production, lack of water, changes in agricultural practices, and risks to meat and fish production. in the human species, well-being and health are also being affected in relation to frequent infections, global warming and malnutrition, mental health, and displacement due to climate or resource crises. the impact on cities and infrastructure has been evident in flooding in urban and suburban areas, river overflows, and damage to coastal zones—thereby affecting key sectors of regional economies, which, in a relatively interconnected economy, has been felt globally. finally, biodiversity has been significantly impacted by changes in the structures, seasonal patterns, and species of terrestrial, freshwater, and oceanic ecosystems. added to this are climatic consequences—attributed to human influence—such as increased fires and severe rainfall. for several decades, scientists have been warning governments about the consequences of the crisis and how to mitigate its effects. at this point, and in https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 125 light of the ecological problem, a second problem arises: the lack of political response to many of the warnings made by scientists to governments (bleazby et al., 2023). this can be explained if we consider that “the spread of neoliberalism and the increase in distrust in governments, the media, and science only seem to have exacerbated the challenge of responding to climate change” (p. 1087). this highlights the current difficulty of research and evidence in shaping public policies related to land protection. one of the greatest obstacles to such an undertaking is that defending the land directly opposes the neoliberal, extractivist logic that underpins the current paradigm of unbridled growth—a capitalist economic system based on the relentless and unregulated exploitation of resources for personal and private gain. however, the above must be understood as a continuation of ecological imperialism (crosby, 1986), a form of colonialism that began in the european colonies and involved the transfer of plants, species, and cultivation and production processes to ecological spaces, substantially modifying agricultural processes and traditional models of relationship with the land. today, such imperialism remains alive through excessive exploitation, the commercialization of resources, and the extractive model. this colonial logic is also anthropocentric, meaning that human beings can make use of other species, subordinating their lives to their own interests. in this sense, the practices of coercion and persecution of land defenders—especially in latin america—cannot go unnoticed. as earthrights international reported in 2020, these have increased and diversified, involving not only coercion, blackmail, and armed violence, but also methods such as criminalization and the misuse of legal and political systems to curb and prevent environmental activism, producing negative effects on the collective and community processes of land defense. along the same lines, and as analyzed in gonzález and lópez (2016), the indigenous peoples of southeastern mexico, among others, have developed proposals for the defense of land and territory and have been critical of contemporary forms of neoliberalism. this has resulted in proposals and practices of nonviolent civil resistance, peace education in the context of indigenous peoples, and the use of alternative communication networks, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 126 among others. it is no coincidence that these peoples represent one of the most important poles of resistance to extractivism. in addition, and in the face of an ethical response to the climate crisis, we believe it is important to raise awareness of the limitations of ethnocentric practices that are decontextualized from the environment and local culture— practices evident in what has been called green colonialism (guha and martínez-alier, 2000). this environmental response, under the pretext of protecting the planet, reproduces colonial domination through actions that homogenize and transform the economy, business practices, and ways of relating to the land around the world based on the ethnocentric vision of the global north, as opposed to the practices of the global south. as a continuation of the expansionist enterprise initiated during the european colonial era, this type of colonialism has involved the expulsion of indigenous peoples from ancestrally significant areas, the lack of participation and popular consultation in such processes, and the reproduction of submission and dependence. so far, we have discussed the role of colonialism and neoliberalism in the climate crisis. we would now like to focus on anthropocentrism as a third element that is an inseparable part of the foundations of civilization and, in our view, has contributed enormously to the devastation of the planet. we understand it, with plumwood (2002), as a worldview that places human beings separate from and above nature, and that, consequently, has been the cultural basis upon which human needs have been prioritized over those of the planet. this is the result of a dominant paradigm that views the earth as a means for subsistence and human activity, rather than as an independent organism. this vision has been criticized by ecofeminism (shiva et al., 2003) and pointed out as one of the pillars upon which the exploitation not only of the earth but also of women is structured. as a consequence of such a vision, the land ceases to be a living space and is understood instead as a resource that can be controlled, exploited, and sold. based on the above, we believe that the response to the climate crisis requires the discussion of new paradigms that allow us to question dominant visions and make structural violence visible. however, to be effective, these paradigms cannot remain embedded in the anthropocentric-capitalist bias of https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 127 current interpretive frameworks. therefore, it is essential that such definitions be developed around the capacity to promote a greater level of peace and, at the same time, move away from anthropocentric notions of peace to place the earth at the center of concern. this implies, of course, both a cultural challenge—in the sense that it entails changing the narratives and practices through which the planet is defined in western culture—and an epistemic reconfiguration that positions the earth as an essential element in the definition and configuration of peace. frameworks for rethinking the climate crisis from a perspective of peace: gaia peace and imperfect peace anthropocentrism has been the axis around which practices and relationships with the earth have been socially structured, and it has also shaped the way in which human beings have considered the possibility and concept of peace. whether understood as the absence of war—in first-generation peace—or as the presence of social justice, equity, and conditions of peace—in the second generation—definitions of peace remain, from this perspective, confined to the human sphere and, as a consequence, reproduce the separation from the planet and the practices of domination toward it. in this context, the concept of gaia peace or earth peace (jiménez , 2017) emerges as a framework for considering new forms of peace that transcend the individual-society relationship and include the society-nature relationship . from this perspective 1, the earth is understood as a living entity, an organic, dynamic whole in constant self -organization . the definition takes ecology as a paradigm and proposes peace as a process between humans and between humans and the earth and the planet 2. in this sense, peacebuilding 1 the concept of gaia peace is based on the gaia hypothesis (lovelock, 2000) which understands the biosphere, the oceans , the earth and everything we find on the planet as part of a living ecosystem that seeks balance. 2 in this sense, gaia peace becomes a bridge toward an eco-relational paradigm of peace that recognizes the interdependence between the human and the non-human. we delve deeper into this topic in point 5 of the text. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 128 must involve a transformation of the links , narratives, and practices in relation to and on the planet, an aspect that must impact education , culture, and spirituality. in this complex climate scenario, the concept of imperfect peace (muñoz, 2001) gains relevance. it assumes that peace is not an absolute, complete, or finished state, but rather a process of constant construction that exists within a framework of tensions, contradictions, and naturally human conflict. in this context, thinking about peace in an imperfect way allows us to recognize small achievements, spaces of resistance, local and global initiatives, cultural proposals, and emerging forms of relationship with nature that are being raised, from various scenarios, as parts of a larger whole. from the above, there is a need to explore ethical frameworks that can engage with the proposed conceptions of peace and connect with the described climate problems. locating ourselves in the present, but reviewing current ethical-religious traditions, we believe that mahayana buddhism can offer a framework of principles, traditions, and practices of individual or collective transformation that can shed light on a new relationship with the planet. in the following section, we explore the contributions of buddhist ethics to climate change in order to shed light on a way in which spiritual traditions may—or may not—engage with the contemporary climate crisis, reshape practices and narratives linked to the earth, and provide a practicalcontemplative context for transforming our relationship with it. a buddhist view of devastation : searching for the seeds of climate ethics attempts to articulate a “buddhist response to current environmental problems” have been called eco-buddhism (harris, 1995). however, a look at buddhist philosophy shows that eco-buddhist readings emerge from disparate backgrounds and that the buddhist canon does not necessarily possess an environmental ethic (keown, 2007; ling, 2019). this is partly because “buddhism does not seem to consider the conservation of nature as anything other than a matter of prudence” (keown, 2007:97) and partly because it has no general or specific responses in relation to the western green agenda. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 129 this does not mean, however, that there are no elements that, based on the previous principles, can be structured as a contemporary buddhist ecology. these exist and attempt to address problems that—although not classical in the founding texts of buddhism—are relevant to the future development of buddhism and humanity. below, we analyze some relevant attempts linked to the establishment of a buddhist ethic. within this virtue ethics, keown identifies a series of qualities that can become vectors of social and ecological transformation. humility, compassion, kindness, and equanimity are dispositions that imply an openness toward all beings, without exception. these virtues allow us to rethink the relationship between human beings and the environment, not from a position of superiority or domination, but from an attitude of respect, care, and recognition of others as legitimate subjects of moral consideration. non-greed, another key principle, invites us to limit personal desires to basic needs, which aligns deeply with an ecological vision that denounces excessive consumption as the primary cause of environmental deterioration. likewise, the principle of ahimsa—non-violence—prohibits harming, killing, or causing suffering to any sentient being, constituting a clear ethical basis for the protection of animals and ecosystems. for loy (2019), an ecology based on buddhist philosophy is possible, since it is based on principles linked to it. one of these is the idea of interconnection, based on the notions of non-separation and no-self. for buddhism, the self—separate, autonomous, individual—is an illusion. recognizing this interconnection is essential to changing the dynamics of land exploitation that are built on the notions of self-environment separation. as a result, the author proposes that the buddhist ideal of the bodhisattva—in the context of the climate crisis—must integrate a commitment to spiritual practice and compassionate action towards all beings and the earth, thus becoming an eco-sattva. from this perspective, the author proposes an open and active contemplative practice, a contemplative activism which, based on the cultivation of wisdom and equanimity, seeks the transformation of problems as a natural extension of spiritual practice for the sake of the happiness of all beings. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 130 one of the most important ideas in the buddhist context is that of dukkha: a notion of universal suffering linked to the constant dissatisfaction inherent in an unenlightened life. for loy, the ecological crisis is a collective manifestation of dukkha and is promoted, at the individual and collective levels, by the three poisons (or poisonous roots) in buddhism: greed, ignorance, and aversion. some of the manifestations of the three poisons at the ecological level would be: excessive and uncontrolled consumption, the indiscriminate exploitation of resources, the denial of evidence regarding climate change, etc. from this ecological perspective, kaza (2014) proposes a buddhist climate ethic that, based on both buddhist ethics and psychology, aims to minimize environmental suffering through individual and social practices. kaza also analyzes the climate crisis from a buddhist perspective and presents the denial of the crisis as its central problem. this arises, to a large extent, due to the privilege of people in positions of power over less fortunate people. likewise, buddhism contains elements within its philosophy that allow for a response to the climate crisis. this must be based on an ethic upon which coherent responses can be established. there are three fundamental elements of such an ethic: the pursuit of general well-being, the cultivation of compassion and non-harm, and awareness and action linked to karma. the pursuit of general well-being would be the work to ensure that all beings achieve satisfaction. from an ecological perspective, this would entail fighting for the well-being of the planet, for a society safe from climate change, and for people’s ability to maintain a sense of internal control in the face of crisis. compassion is a virtue and psychological state that, within the buddhist context, involves an experience composed of three elements: the ability to be sensitive to the pain of others, awareness of pain as a universal element, and the desire to alleviate suffering. it is linked to non-harm, the attitude and commitment to respect life and not cause harm to other beings in our path. finally, as part of this ethic, we must work with a long-term perspective, based on the law of cause and effect or the law of karma. we believe, along with the author, that a karmic understanding of time—measured in kalpas, an immeasurable measure of time that encompasses the time before and after the human species and the planet—allows us to reflect on the role of human https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 131 beings in the history of the universe and is a way to question and make visible the dominant anthropocentrism. we also agree that a long-term perspective is necessary to fight against climate change, since the results will not be seen in the short term and will require patience and equanimity. taken together, the contributions of keown, loy, and kaza show that, although buddhism was not formulated with a modern ecological agenda in mind, it offers a solid foundation for conceiving an integral climate ethic. this ethic is not built simply on prohibition or obligation, but on the cultivation of a deeply interdependent worldview, a commitment to the well-being of all beings, and a practice that unites personal transformation with compassionate action. understood in this way, buddhist ecology is not merely a theoretical proposal, but a path to spiritual and political transformation for a world in crisis. we are particularly interested in the possibility of promoting experiential work that contributes to the promotion of ecological peace in people. for the reasons mentioned above, in the next section we discuss the possibility that two of the main points presented can be structured, together with a third, as a basis for work in education in eco-peace: inter-being, compassion, and eco-pedagogy. towards an ecological contemplative pedagogy: inter being, compassion and ecopedagogy within contemporary buddhism, zen master thich nhat hanh develops and disseminates the idea of interbeing. this idea is linked to what, in primitive buddhism, is understood as conditioned arising, co-arising, or interdependent arising; a term that refers to the buddhist way of understanding being, according to which nothing in the world arises autonomously or sustains itself but rather requires other beings for its subsistence. the author also offers a second interpretation of the term, linked to protest and social commitment: awareness of self-interest implies commitment and, eventually, protest and/or resistance. this new configuration has been dubbed engaged buddhism (ling, 2019), that is, an attitude that seeks to provide help and actively collaborate with others for their safety. aware of the https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 132 climate crisis, the author also reflects on the principle of self-interest and the human connection with the earth: you are not just our environment. you are not something outside of us. you are not just the earth we walk on. you are so much more than that. you are in we, and we are in you. there is no separate you and me. interbeing is clearly there in the way you and i exist. you are exactly us, and we are you. the knowledge of interbeing can free us from the separation complex and can help us fall in love with the earth, to protect and care for it as we do with our own bodies, with our own hearts (nath han, 2013:12). as we can see, working with interbeing has both political and pedagogical implications. first, and in relation to pedagogy, this state implies a new way of thinking and feeling, and therefore, a learning process. this learning process cannot be achieved exclusively through traditional educational methods and therefore requires the integration of appropriate methodologies for such a process. contemplative practice, we believe, is an essential element when it comes to learning to interbe. this process should involve looking more clearly, more deeply, and more fully at the everyday, at what is already here. for us, this also implies the possibility of overcoming the ignorance that—as described—lies behind the current hegemonic vision of the planet. secondly, the approach to interbeing entails profound political implications. being with others and thanks to others necessarily implies assuming an ethical commitment that transcends the individual. it presupposes an active commitment to the well-being, health, and safety of human beings, nonhumans, and the planet. this relational understanding of existence places the student or practitioner before the responsibility of acting in accordance with the assumed interdependence. in this context, compassion is revealed as an emotion that goes beyond empathy and embraces the suffering of others—human and nonhuman— which implies a new form of transcendence of anthropocentrism. from this state, it is possible to be moved by the pain of others and, from this integral experience, take concrete action in the face of suffering. in this way, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 133 compassion becomes a force for potential social change, capable of shaping our decisions in ways that are more respectful of the environment. in addition to the above, we find it important, thirdly, to place ecopedagogy, or earth pedagogy, as an element linked to a contemplative and ecological pedagogy (ruiz-peñalver et al., 2021). emerging around the 1990s and based on the social outcry for a more critical reflection on the earth, it is a movement and pedagogy that seeks, on a critical basis, “to test the experience of a new paradigm: the visualization of the planet as a single unit” (p. 186) and whose values are summarized in: the diversity and interdependence of life; the concern that all human beings can live on the planet in dignified conditions; respect for human rights; the possibility of equitable, balanced, and sustainable development; equity and social justice; and the prevention of what can be harmful. we believe that there are strong commonalities among the three elements proposed, which provide fertile ground for exploring pedagogical proposals that can provide answers to the ecological panorama described. the concept of interbeing allows us to realize that nothing exists separately; a relational vision is found both in the cultivation of compassion and in eco-pedagogy. furthermore, complementing compassionate contemplative practice with ecopedagogy can allow this exercise to be nourished with a critical awareness based on concrete facts on which to reflect and respond. in this sense, the political dimensions pointed out in relation to interbeing and compassion are expanded with reflection on social and ecological justice. in short, we believe that, based on a vision of interbeing, it is possible to cultivate compassion in an engaged and situated way when linked to ecopedagogy. an education that considers these elements can be consistent with the gaia and imperfect peace that has been proposed and serve as the basis for new paradigms for thinking about the climate crisis. exploring an experiential and contemplative model in education for ecopeace: experiences from the circulo de estudios para la paz https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 134 in light of the above, the question arises as to whether the perspective of interbeing, the practice of compassion, and education about the earth can coherently coexist within a peacebuilding program strongly rooted in educational interventions. first, we understand, along with freire (1970), that: the function of education , in this sense, is not to adapt the individual to reality, but to transform it with him . it is not to domesticate him, but to liberate him. education is , therefore, an act of knowledge, a critical approximation to reality. the more critical it is , the closer it comes to true education . (pp. 100) this approach allows us to conceive of education not as a tool at the service of a pre-existing order but as a space for the active reconfiguration of the world. in this sense, the liberation proposed by freire refers not only to social or political emancipation, but also to epistemological and ontological liberation, that is, to the possibility of questioning the frameworks of knowledge, perception, and experience that sustain the dominant paradigm of separation between the subject and the world. therefore, we understand that an education such as the one described should be liberating and promote critical thinking that helps people criticize the ethnocentric, mercantilist positions based on a vision disconnected from the planet that are at the base of current civilization. this critique implies a process of deep awareness about how our ways of seeing, feeling, and acting in relation to our environment are constructed. moving from a hegemonic relationship with the planet to one based on interbeing, compassion, and care would imply, first, freeing oneself from one’s own epistemology — from the colonial, individualistic, and extractivist frameworks that shape our perspective — and then moving on to transformative action. this is a process of “decolonizing being,” in walsh’s (2009) terms, which also includes an affective and spiritual reorientation with respect to the natural world. however, in order to establish such a process, it is essential to keep in mind that transcending the concept of separation, cultivating compassion, and understanding the earth experientially implies practices that are in tune with tradition, context, and the purpose of such objectives. in other words, it is not enough to transmit content or concepts about ecology or spirituality; it is https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 135 necessary to create experiential, sensitive, and relational spaces where such knowledge can be embodied and transformed into living wisdom. therefore, it seems essential to us that education not only be liberating, but also contemplative, which we understand, with zajonc (2013), as a praxis that does not seek to “replace critical thinking, but to root it in a deeper awareness of the being and the world, promoting a sense of interconnection, ethical responsibility, and care for life in all its forms” (p. 83). this grounded view of knowledge implies a pedagogy that does not fragment the subject but rather considers them as a whole—corporeal, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. from this perspective, it is understood that any method based on these assumptions must have a learning context that allows for the inclusion of pedagogical activities to deepen or expand mindfulness, deconstruct selfhood, and cultivate virtuous sentiments. some contemplative practices that have been established (barbezat and bush, 2014), when used in a secular context to promote better balance, compassion, and ethics, include: 1) mindfulness practices, 2) contemplative reading, 3) journaling to develop self-awareness and integrate experiences, 4) deep listening and dialogue to learn to cultivate empathy and compassion in the relational process—verbal and non-verbal, 5) aesthetic practices such as mindful looking or painting, 6) conscious movement practices, walking meditation, mindful yoga, qi gong, 7) loving-kindness compassion practices, which aim to develop a worldview from cultivated emotionality, and 8) conscious silence. we believe that these practices not only can but should be included in the context of ecological teaching if it is to be transformative. their inclusion is not a fad or a pedagogical ornament, but a structural necessity for education to connect individuals with their own interiority and with life as a whole. we believe that, in addition to critical and liberating thinking, contemplation can provide enormous benefits in the deconstruction of our relationship with the earth. we believe that starting from the idea of interbeing implies cultivating contemplation, since the recognition of interdependence is not realized solely at the conceptual level but is experienced through attentive and compassionate practice. we maintain that cultivating an awareness of nonduality—present in the anthropocentric relationship of domination of the earth—is essential if https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 136 change is to be comprehensive and integrative, not merely cognitive. this represents a radical shift toward an education for being, not just for knowing. along the same lines, a third component of the model described is experiential education, which for us represents an ideal framework within which to work with the critical and contemplative perspectives previously described. we agree with kolb (1984) that the learning process must be active and reflective. for the author, this path is structured in four phases: 1) concrete experience, 2) reflective observation, 3) abstract conceptualization, and 4) active experimentation. this cycle allows knowledge to be formed through experience, not just through instruction. for us, this journey is fundamental to ecological education because it enables us to revisit our concern for the planet and redefine it as a concrete reality, from which we begin the subsequent critical or contemplative process. the direct experimentation phase, for its part, is the ideal ground for promoting prior learning in a real social context and fostering an earth activism rooted in the exploration of the internal and external world. in this sense, the concrete experience can include everything from conscious walks through nature to regenerative agriculture practices, community rituals of connection with the earth, or collaborative ecosystem restoration projects, which serve as a basis for critical reflection and transformative action. thus, experiential education becomes a bridge between contemplation and commitment, between feeling and doing, between the internal world and social transformation. in short, i believe that a critical and liberating education can be complemented by contemplative and experiential education, giving rise to learning processes in which people can go beyond intellectual knowledge to connect with spaces where, starting from concrete reality but passing through contemplative practice, they can insert themselves into processes of concrete change in ecological and social reality. contributions to the discussion on the eco-relational paradigm of peace at iipe in 2024, the international institute for peace education (iipe) convened an international meeting for educators, researchers, and policymakers involved in https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 137 peace education. on this occasion, in which we had the opportunity to share some of our psychoeducational research progress, we raised the need—in light of the current climate crisis—to explore the relational ecological paradigm of peace. this is an emerging perspective that is developed, in our view, based on two fundamental needs: 1) the need to rethink peace and peace education in light of the global ecological crisis, and 2) the need to explore and, potentially, consolidate pedagogical models to address it, a need that kyrou (2007) identified years ago and that we believe has not been sufficiently explored. from the perspective of this paper, moving toward an eco-relational paradigm of peace implies a process of decolonizing nature as a human resource and, consequently, questioning anthropocentrism, the foundation upon which current western civilization has largely been built. for us, given the above, it is no coincidence that the concepts of interbeing, compassion, and ecopedagogy can offer alternatives at this point. born within eastern civilizational frameworks (the first two), and in line with the vision and demands of many indigenous peoples of the americas (the third), these visions—placed in the context of current problems—represent critical views of the relationship of domination with the earth and situate the human being as a part of a whole that involves and contains them. in short, the eco-relational paradigm, from the perspective we have explored and discussed in this paper, entails a shift in worldview. it shifts from an ethic of exploitation to an ethic of care and interdependence among all beings. this vision engages with eco-feminist knowledge, the ancestral—and current—perspectives of many indigenous peoples, and contemplative approaches, all of which support an ecological paradigm while simultaneously explaining the human role and behavior within it. despite the above, we believe that the transition toward this paradigm entails profound challenges. the first of these is related to the possibility of including in the current dialogue, within scientific frameworks closely linked to western thought, knowledge from traditions that have historically been excluded as legitimate discourses on reality. we therefore believe that an open attitude to academic debate and the exploration of models and forms of knowledge about the earth can be the basis for new—always imperfect— solutions to the crisis. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 138 the second challenge identified relates to the political implications of the eco-relational paradigm of peace in the face of the global crisis. in a context in which the struggle for and defense of the earth is, in many cases, punished and persecuted by de facto powers anchored in colonialism, relational enterprises in the face of ecology may be jeopardized. we therefore believe it is essential to incorporate the voices of social and political actors who find themselves in risk zones in the reflection on the new paradigm in two essential areas: 1) reflection on its political implications and 2) pedagogical implications. we believe that only on this basis will it be possible for the paradigm to be truly critical, truly relational, ecological, and participatory. finally, we identify a third and final challenge, linked to the possibility of changing the affective and spiritual relationship with the planet in a context of growing disconnection from life in non-urban settings. relationalism presupposes presence and coexistence. in a context that increasingly tends toward urbanization and ignorance of the earth, it is possible that new molds will be confronted by a technological mediation that gives an image of relationality but does not imply being-with-the-earth. we therefore believe that it is essential that the psychoeducation we have proposed in this paper, as well as the paradigm we discuss, be based on full presence with the earth, emphasizing and promoting direct experience in non-urban contexts. conclusion the current ecological crisis challenges our old ways of thinking about and relating to the planet. in the face of devastation, we need to rethink peace outside of anthropocentric molds. this requires changing the way we think about peace and placing the earth at the center of that reflection. it has been proposed, therefore, that peace must open itself to an ecological understanding that is capable of rethinking and responding to colonialism and the commodification of the planet. a pedagogical approach was proposed that articulates three elements: awareness of interbeing as a substratum and ontological vision, the cultivation of compassion as a relational principle, and ecopedagogy as a transformative critical framework. we believe this approach can be an appropriate and fertile https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 123-144 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 139 ground for new explorations of an ecological contemplative pedagogy where practice is linked to direct social action. finally, we have identified some challenges in the consolidation of the eco-relational paradigm: the possibility of consensual inclusion of knowledge historically excluded from the scientific and academic fields, the active participation of social and political actors in contexts of political struggle and persecution, and the need to establish a direct experiential relationship with the land in a context of increasing urbanization and relational mediation by technology. faced with these challenges, we believe that an attitude of constant explanation of new educational paradigms, participatory research, and direct experience of the land are fertile avenues for future work. 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(2013). contemplative pedagogy: a quiet revolution in higher education. in barbezat, d. p., & bush, m. (eds.), contemplative practices in higher education: powerful methods to transform teaching and learning (pp. 81–98). jossey-bass. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://doi.org/10.3126/hjsa.v7i0.17153 https://www.uasb.edu.ec/publicacion/interculturalidad-estado-sociedad-luchas-decoloniales-de-nuestra-epoca/ https://www.uasb.edu.ec/publicacion/interculturalidad-estado-sociedad-luchas-decoloniales-de-nuestra-epoca/ snauwaertdemocracy and personal epistemology volume 4 number 1 (2010): 120-126 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 120 volume 4 number 1 (2010): 120-126 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ democracy as public deliberation and the psychology of epistemological world views and moral reasoning: a philosophical reflection dale t. snauwaert the university of toledo, ohio, usa the four articles in this special issue on democracy and citizenship highlight the fundamental importance of the internal capabilities and sentiments of democratic citizens as necessary conditions for participation in public deliberation. the articles uncover and examine the complex and nuanced interrelationship between moral reasoning schema and capacity, moral behavior, political participation, affect, imagination, and epistemological world views (beliefs, understandings, personal epistemologies), as well as their potential development through transformative, inquiry-based, dialogical pedagogical approaches. in “’good’ americans and ‘bad’ americans: personal epistemology, moral reasoning, and citizenship” lori olafson found that there exist significant differences between war resisters’ and veterans’ epistemological beliefs, moral reasoning, moral behavior, and views of citizenship.1 war resisters general had a relativist epistemological worldview and displayed post-conventional moral reasoning; they also displayed a justice-oriented to citizenship. veterans, on the other hand, displayed a more dualist epistemology and conventional moral reasoning, and they were more likely to be personally responsible orientation to citizenship. in “conflict, affect and the political: on disagreement as democratic capacity” claudia ruitenberg articulates a theoretical framework for deliberative democracy which highlights the centrality of political disagreement, as well as the 1 olafson, lori. “good” americans and “bad” americans: personal epistemology, moral reasoning, and citizenship.” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 120-126 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 121 affective and imaginative dimensions of reason and political identity; the argument is based upon the work of chantal mouffe and jacques rancière, and cornelius castoriadis. she argues that the capacity of social imagination and the mobilization of one’s affective passions connected to identification with alternative imagined social futures are essential for democracy. finally, she argues that informal learning opportunities to experience the solidarity, anger, excitement and other feelings that accompany political identification are needed.2 in “teachers’ epistemological stances and citizenship education” gregory schraw, lori olafson, michelle vander veldt, and jennifer ponder explore the relationship between differences among teachers’ epistemological and ontological world views and change in knowledge and beliefs.3 they found that there was a movement in the change of belief toward relativism. they also found a significant increase in civic knowledge and a justice oriented view of citizenship between the beginning and end of the course. an action research project and classroom discussions were important mechanisms for change. their findings support the conclusion that civic education can promote learning and self-awareness regarding epistemological and ontological beliefs. in “epistemic understanding and sound reasoning skills that underlie effective democratic engagement” michael weinstock thoughtfully reviews research that demonstrates the importance of skills of argument and epistemic understandings for reasoning in the context of democratic public deliberation.4 he highlights studies on juror reasoning that have found significant differences in the quality of arguments as well as the capability to consider alternative points of view in the reasoning of jurors. epistemic worldviews have been found to explain differences in juror reasoning skill, including the capacity to identify argument fallacies. these findings suggest that the capacity for argument and epistemic development are central to effective citizenship education. i believe these articles significantly advance our understanding of these capabilities and sentiments, thereby making a valuable contribution to the theory and practice of democratic public deliberation and democratic and peace education. while i do not have the space to provide a detailed analysis of the articles, i can place the exploration of personal epistemology into the larger philosophical framework of democracy as both a political and ethical theory and practice and comment on the significance of the theoretical and empirical findings of these articles as whole for the theory of democracy and democratic education. there are at least three fundamental elements of democracy: equality, fairness, 2 ruitenberg, claudia “conflict, affect and the political: on disagreement as democratic capacity” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 40-55. 3schraw, gregory, lori olafson, michelle vander veldt, and jennifer ponder. “teachers’ epistemological stances and citizenship education” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 78-107. 4 weinstock, michael “epistemic understanding and sound reasoning skills that underlie effective democratic engagement.” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 56-77. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 120-126 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 122 and deliberation.5 at the core of democracy is a fundamental belief in moral equality, a belief that all human beings possess an equal inherent dignity or worth. its logic runs as follows: if we are morally equal, then we also possess rights, inviolable claims to the actual enjoyment of particular social goods guaranteed by the society. democracy can be understood as a system of rights.6 the two basic rights of a democracy are: the freedom to conceive and pursue one’s own conception of the good life (consistent with the equal rights of others), often referred to as negative liberty, and political self-determination, often referred to as positive liberty. the right to self-determination entails the basic notion of government by consent, which involves the right to political and legal equality and concomitant rights, such as rights to freedom of expression, association, due process, etc. as moral equals, all citizens of a liberal democracy have an inviolable claim to have their interests represented in the political process. a necessary condition for political self-determination is the existence of public spaces of freedom; wherein public deliberation can openly and freely occurs.7 freedom as self-determination (as distinct from personal freedom) can only exist in the context of public spaces of freedom. in turn, an acknowledgement of human diversity entails the recognition of a plurality of points of view within any given human community. the polis is a site of plurality, and thus public spaces of freedom must be structured in terms of the requirements of fairness.8 from the perspective of democracy (as not only a form of government but as a way of life, an ethic that entails identifiable values and principles), fairness entails two basic principles: impartial treatment (respect for persons) and inclusion. impartial treatment requires that each individual possesses a right to equal consideration of their interests and a right to equal participation, mandating that the public space be free of repression and discrimination. inclusion requires that all persons are recognized as moral equals, regardless of difference, and that all persons have equal standing (membership) in the moral community. there is a strong tendency in the human experience to encounter 5 robert dahl, on democracy (new haven: yale university press, 2000); amy gutmann, democratic education, revised edition ed. (princeton: princeton university press, 1999); david held, democracy and the global order (stanford, ca: stanford university press, 1995); david held, models of democracy (stanford, ca: stanford university press, 1987); jacques maritain, man and the state, charles r. walgreen foundation lectures (chicago: university of chicago press, 1951); amartya sen, the idea of justice (cambridge, massachusetts: the belknap press of harvard university press, 2009); henry shue, basic rights: subsistence, affluence, and u.s. foreign policy (princeton: princeton university press, 1980).. 6 dahl, on democracy; c. b. macpherson, democratic theory: essays in retrieval (oxford: oxford university press, 1973). 7 hannah arendt, on revolution (new york: penguin books, 1963). 8 martha c. nussbaum, frontiers of justice: disabliity, nationality, species membership (cambridge, massachusetts: the belknap press of harvard university press, 2006); sen, the idea of justice. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 120-126 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 123 difference in terms of inequality and identity likeness in terms of equality. democracy requires that we respond to difference in terms of equality.9 this response is the foundation of tolerance, which is necessary for fairness. unfairness restricts and collapses the space of freedom, impeding authentic public deliberation. free and fair public deliberation requires that its participants (citizens) possess the capability to transcend their “positional confinement.” for public deliberation to freely and fairly occur there is a need for citizens to able to go beyond the limitations of their own positional perspectives – to transcend their positional confinement.10 one’s observations, beliefs, and values are necessarily positional; they are structured relative to one’s position. objectivity can be defined as invariance of observation when the position of many observers is fixed. objectivity is person invariant but position relative; to say that a view is objective is to say that there exists no variance in observation if the position of the observers is the same. yet there exists the possibility of positional objective illusions: many observers occupying the same position standing on a ocean beach will agree that the moon appears to be larger than the sun, and that the earth is indeed flat! these observers suffer from an objective illusion. there can intersubjective agreement from the same position, however, that agreement can be based upon falsehood. objective illusions are the basis of false consciousness: entrenched beliefs and values based in objective illusions are therefore biased-partial. in order to transcend positional confinement, and thus the threat of false consciousness, one must widen the information base; one must be exposed to different perspectives, multiple perspectives. in addition, and more fundamentally, one must subject one’s own beliefs and opinions, as well as the beliefs and opinions of others to open impartial scrutiny, to public reasoning. this is the essence and importance of democratic public deliberation at the heart of democracy. it is also important to point out that, a democratic ethic, and hence public deliberation, is also fundamental to the achievement of justice and peace between nations and peoples. there is evidence that the cosmopolitan extension of democracy’s logic of equality constitutes the foundation of peace. in his prophetic essay “perpetual peace” (1795) immanuel kant argues that liberal republics will not go to war with each other, and thus the spread of liberal republicanism/liberal democracy will create, in the long run, the conditions for a perpetual peace between liberal nations.11 this peace is based upon both the structural nature of decision-making in liberal republics, in particular the core place of open public deliberation among the citizenry, and the cultural sharing of liberal morality (moral equality, fairness, tolerance, commitment to nonviolent conflict resolution, the rule of law, open impartial scrutiny, etc.). in the last two decades this proposition has received considerable attention and a significant amount of empirical 9 tzvetan todorov, the conquest of america (new york: harperperennial, [1984] 1992). 10 sen, the idea of justice. 11immanuel kant, perpetual peace and other essays, trans. ted humphrey. (cambridge: hackett, [1795]1983). volume 4 number 1 (2010): 120-126 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 124 evidence confirms kant’s insight.12 it seems that liberal democracies have never fought each other, although they are as war prone toward non-liberal states as any other nonliberal state. what kant’s peace proposition suggests is that a shared political morality based upon respect for the inherent dignity of humanity and the existence of public spaces of freedom that allow for public deliberation within and between nations, creates the conditions of peace.13 however, participation in public deliberation requires the possession of particular capabilities and sentiments. in general, the primary capability is practical reason and the primary sentiment is sociability.14 practical reason refers to the complex range of cognitive and analytic abilities that allow one to discern, make, articulate, and defend one’s choices and interests, as well as the capability to discern the veracity and validity of the preferences articulated by others party to the deliberation. in addition, fairness as impartial treatment and inclusion (foundational to public spaces of freedom as noted above) require sociability, the emotional sentiment, based in empathy, that enables one to recognize that one’s own interests and well-being are interdependently related to the interests and well-being of others and to respond with respect and care to them. sociability is the affective capacity necessary for tolerance and hence impartial treatment and inclusion. it is the basis of solidarity. the articles in this special issue elaborate and examine in detail practical reason and sociability. the articles explore the complex relationship between moral reasoning, moral behavior, political participation, affect, imagination, and epistemological world views (beliefs, understandings, personal epistemologies) as necessary conditions for public deliberation. what is most intriguing philosophically is that from the perspective of the psychological literature, including the articles in this issue, practical reason maybe multidimensional, comprised of and constituted by an interdependent array of capabilities and orientations. in addition, it is very plausible that, based upon this multidimensionality, practical reason is developmental. also, it is likely that practical reason and sociability, capability and sentiment, are highly interdependent. it seems that personal epistemological world views as orientations to the process of knowing provide a 12 michael e. brown, lynn-jones, sean m.,and miller, steven e., ed., debating the democratic peace (cambridge: mit press, 1996); michael w. doyle, ways of war and peace (new york: w.w. norton, 1997); james lee ray, democracy and international conflict: an evaluation of the democratic peace proposition (columbia, sc: university of south carolina press, 1995); bruce russett, grasping the democratic peace: principles for a post-cold war world (princeton: princeton university press, 1993). 13 james bohman and matthias lutz-bachmann, ed., perpetual peace: essays on kant’s cosmopolitan ideal (cambridge: mit press, 1997). 14 martha nussbaum, "nature, function, and capability: aristotle on political distribution," in oxford studies in ancient philosophy -supplemental volume 1988, ed. julia annas and robert h. grimm (oxford: oxford university press, 1988); nussbaum, frontiers of justice: disabliity, nationality, species membership; martha c. nussbaum, "human functioning and social justice," political theory 20, no. 2 (1992); sen, the idea of justice. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 120-126 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 125 general psychological framework that orients and structures reason in general and moral reasoning in particular. these reflections lead to the following questions: what is the precise relationship between epistemological worldviews and post-conventional morality, including a justice orientation? what is the precise relationship between ontological and epistemological worldviews? what is the precise relationship between affect, social imagination, worldviews, and morality? what is the precise relationship between political action and worldviews, orientations, and affect? the articles in this special issue point us in this direction and in doing so enrich our understanding of the capabilities and sentiments necessary for democracy as public deliberation. bibliography arendt, hannah. on revolution. new york: penguin books, 1963. brown, michael e., lynn-jones, sean m.,and miller, steven e., ed. debating the democratic peace. cambridge: mit press, 1996. dahl, robert. on democracy. new haven: yale university press, 2000. doyle, michael w. ways of war and peace. new york: w.w. norton, 1997. gutmann, amy. democratic education. revised edition ed. princeton: princeton university press, 1999. held, david. democracy and the global order. stanford, ca: stanford university press, 1995. ———. models of democracy. stanford, ca: stanford university press, 1987. kant, immanuel. groundwork of the metaphysic of morals. new york: harper torchbooks, 1964. ———. perpetual peace and other essays. translated by ted humphrey. cambridge: hackett, [1795]1983. lutz-bachmann, james bohman and matthias, ed. perpetual peace: essays on kant’s cosmopolitan ideal. cambridge: mit press, 1997. macpherson, c. b. democratic theory: essays in retrieval. oxford: oxford university press, 1973. maritain, jacques. man and the state, charles r. walgreen foundation lectures. chicago: university of chicago press, 1951. michael e. brown, sean m lynn-jones, and steven e. miller, ed. debating the democratic peace. cambridge: mit press, 1996. nussbaum, martha. "nature, function, and capability: aristotle on political distribution." in oxford studies in ancient philosophy -supplemental volume 1988, edited by julia annas and robert h. grimm. oxford: oxford university press, 1988. nussbaum, martha c. frontiers of justice: disabliity, nationality, species membership. cambridge, massachusetts: the belknap press of harvard university press, 2006. volume 4 number 1 (2010): 120-126 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ 126 ———. "human functioning and social justice." political theory 20, no. 2 (1992): 20246. olafson, lori. “good” americans and “bad” americans: personal epistemology, moral reasoning, and citizenship.” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 11-39. ray, james lee. democracy and international conflict: an evaluation of the democratic peace proposition. columbia, sc: university of south carolina press, 1995. ruitenberg, claudia “conflict, affect and the political: on disagreement as democratic capacity” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 40-55. russett, bruce. grasping the democratic peace: principles for a post-cold war world. princeton: princeton university press, 1993. schraw, gregory, lori olafson, michelle vander veldt, and jennifer ponder. “teachers’ epistemological stances and citizenship education” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 78-107. sen, amartya. the idea of justice. cambridge, massachusetts: the belknap press of harvard university press, 2009. shue, henry. basic rights: subsistence, affluence, and u.s. foreign policy. princeton: princeton university press, 1980. todorov, tzvetan. the conquest of america. new york: harperperennial, [1984] 1992. weinstock, michael “epistemic understanding and sound reasoning skills that underlie effective democratic engagement.” in factis pax 4(1) (2010): 56-77. microsoft word mische book review ifp 11.2-fectus-revision.docx in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 248-251 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 248 volume 11 number 2 (2017): 248-251 http://www.infactispax.org/journal book review a global security system: an alternative to war. 2016 edition. main authors: kent shifferd, patrick hiller, david swanson, with input from many others. world beyond war, 2016, 88 pp., us $16.97 (paperback), free digital download, isbn 978-0-9980859-1-3 reviewed by patricia m. mische geapatmische@aol.com co-author, toward a human world order: beyond the national security straitjacket, and toward a global civilization, the contribution of religions co-founder, global education associates lloyd professor of peace studies and world law at antioch college (retired) a global security system summarizes some key proposals for ending war and developing alternative approaches to global security that have been advanced over the past half century. it argues that nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction undermine human survival and ecological wellbeing and thus render war untenable. moreover, the increasing role of terrorist and other non-state actors in waging acts of mass violence renders state-centric solutions in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 248-251 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 249 inadequate. the nature of warfare has changed; wars are no longer only or even primarily waged between nation states. thus, nation states alone cannot assure peace and security. new structures are needed that are global in scope and include nongovernmental and intergovernmental actors working in concert for common security. the report also asserts that a sustainable peace is possible and an alternative security system necessary to attain it. moreover, it is not necessary to start from scratch; much of the groundwork for an alternative security system is already in place. the major components of common security outlined in this work include: ▪ focus on common rather than only national security (win-win solutions) ▪ shift to non-provocative defense posture; ▪ create a nonviolent, civilian-based defense force; ▪ phase out military bases; ▪ disarm nuclear and conventional weapons in phased reductions, and end the arms trade; ▪ end use of militarized drones; ▪ ban weapons in outer space; ▪ end invasions and occupations; ▪ convert military spending to civilian needs; ▪ reconfigure the response to terrorism; use nonviolent responses instead, such as arms embargoes, civil society support, meaningful diplomacy, inclusive good governance, conciliation, arbitration, judicial solutions, education and accurate information-sharing, cultural exchanges, refugee repatriation, sustainable and just economic development, etc; ▪ include women in war prevention and peace-building; ▪ reform and strengthen the united nations and other international institutions; ▪ strengthen the international court of justice (world court) and the international criminal court; ▪ strengthen international law; ▪ foster compliance with existing international treaties and create new ones where needed; ▪ establish truth and reconciliation commissions; ▪ create a fair and stable global economy in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 248-251 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 250 ▪ democratize international economic institutions (world trade organization, international monetary fund, world bank); ▪ create a global parliament; ▪ develop a culture of peace; ▪ encourage the work of peaceful religious initiatives; ▪ promote peace journalism (distinct form war/violence journalism); ▪ spread and fund peace education and peace research; ▪ tell a “new story” rooted in a deepened consciousness and understanding of earth as our common home and shared future. the report also includes a section debunking old myths about war (e.g., “it is impossible to eliminate war”, “war is in our genes”, “we have always had war”, “we are a sovereign nation”, “some wars are good”, the “just war doctrine,” “war and war preparation bring peace and stability”, “war makes us safe”, “war is necessary to kill terrorists”, “war is good for the economy”). and it includes a section on ways to accelerate the transition from a war system to an alternative security system, including networking and movement building, nonviolent direct-action campaigns, and educating the public and decision and opinion makers. the report is interspersed with highlighted quotes by authors, thinkers and doers related to these proposals. it also contains facts that highlight the need for alternatives, indicate the progress already made and underscore reasons for hope. all these strategies are commendable and important contributions to a comprehensive security system. but not many are currently employed by those in power. this is because those in power work primarily from a paradigm or worldview not supported by or supportive of these strategies. what seems to me to be missing from this report, and is most needed if these strategies are to be employed, is a shift in consciousness and worldviews–the context in which these different peace and security strategies might be seen and applied. the old and still dominant vision is that peace and security is achieved within an atomistic system of competing nations states where each state must ultimately rely on military force for survival. this worldview leads to one set of policy options. the new (but yet oldest) vision for peace and security, held by a minority but growing number in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 248-251 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 251 of people, arises from a consciousness of the oneness of the earth and interdependence of all life and all human communities and opens to a different set of policy options. our future will be shaped by which of these two clashing worldviews ultimately prevails. a major challenge for those seeking alternative strategies for peace and security is how to expand and deepen this second type of consciousness and move it into policy arenas at local, national and global levels. changing worldviews is not just one among thirty or so strategies to list in a report such as a global security system, it is rather the overarching consciousness and framework [a] within which all strategies need to be assessed and chosen. an appendix refers readers to resources, books, movies, and organizations that can provide additional information. this section should be expanded in future editions. many valuable works that should be here are not, including by the united nations, the world order models project, kenneth boulding’s stable peace, and other works that, while earlier in time, offer important visions and strong analytical foundations for alternative security systems. this section also needs to include more works with perspectives from non-western cultures. missing too, are works from diverse religious and spiritual perspectives. alternative security approaches–a new world order–grows from within (not just in political arenas, but within the hearts, minds, and cultures of many diverse peoples). while space is a consideration, it is important for readers to know that significant thought on these issues has come from a great diversity of sources. another recommendation for future editions is to add a section with questions and recommendations. for example, how can peace builders include dialog with far right and nationalist social and religious movements as part of an inclusive process while upholding a global vision? what is the role of social media in building and maintaining a new global security system? how can human consciousness be developed and expanded related to our role in planetary community? still, this is a valuable summary of ongoing work by thousands of people to forge a more humane and ecologically sustainable future. as such it is also a testament of reasons for hope. in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 124 volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 protecting students? rhetoric vs. reality and recommendations for peace educators in the united states laura finley republican legislators have for years said they are enacting measures to protect kids in schools. but upon reviewing the nature of these efforts, one must wonder what is really meant by protection. laws have been passed around the country to limit the types of books young people have access to in schools, the curricula that they are taught, who can access school-based sporting opportunities, and even where students can use restrooms. although attacks on educators and the public school system are not new, these recent moves are allegedly necessary to counter the supposed “wokeness” of public schools and universities today. in reality, much of the republican party is actively opposing measures that actually protect kids. for example, many republican politicians have opposed universal school lunch, an important measure to help feed poor kids. republican leaders’ support for expanding medicaid expansions to over poor children is weak, at best. most republican politicians actively oppose measures to restrict guns, even those specifically designed to keep guns out of the hands of children. this is despite polls that show a majority of republic voters join democrat voters in supporting sensible gun control. this paper begins with a discussion of several of the supposed “protection” measures republican politicians have pushed in recent years. it then discusses efforts that might actually protect students but that republican politicians have https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 125 opposed. next, the paper provides a brief review of the political and interests and motivations behind the republican moves to “protect kids.” the paper concludes with how these measures violate basic civil and human rights as well as widely accepted principles and values of justice. implications and recommendations for peace educators. don’t say gay and other restrictions related to gender identity and sexual orientation. florida started a wave of legislation aimed at preventing educators from teaching about, and in some cases, even acknowledging, lgbtq+ individuals. colloquially referred to as “don’t say gay,” florida legislation was enacted in 2022 and severely restricts what can be taught about lgbtq+ issues in k-12 schools. seven states have similar laws, and all but one are led by republicans. florida’s law prohibits classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in grades kindergarten through three and requires that instruction in later grades be “developmentally appropriate,” although that term was not defined. further, the law required that educators seek parental permission to refer to a student by a pronoun or nickname that does not correspond with their sex at birth. additionally, the law expanded on other legislation related to banning books, in this case requiring districts to prepare easy to use objection forms to contest a specific book and allowing parents and community members to object to “pornographic” materials, materials that “[d]epict[] or describe[] sexual conduct,” materials that are “not suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented,” or materials that are “inappropriate for the 4 grade level and age group for which the material is used” (national educational association, 2023). a court decision in march 2024 addressed some of the concerns about the law but kept the bulk of it in place (mcmillan, demillo, & mulvihill, 2024). in contrast to republican efforts, seven states, all but one led by a democrat, have responded by passing legislation that mandates the teaching about lgbtq+ history (lavietes, 2024). four states—florida, kentucky, montana, and north dakota—have passed legislation protecting educators who refuse to address students by their selected pronouns (mulvihill, 2024). in april 2024, a federal judge blocked florida’s ban in a case involving a high school math teacher who refused to comply but left the statewide ban intact. u.s. district judge mark walker determined that the law violated transgender plaintiff katie woods’ free speech right to express her personal identity (wiessner, 2024). seven states have laws or policies that require schools to notify parents if their child is transgender. this is untouched by the federal policy passed by the biden administration (mulvihill, 2024). https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 126 florida “effectively banned” ap psychology because of the way that it covers gender identity and sexual orientation, according to the college board. florida officials informed the college board that the curriculum violates the state’s parental rights in education act. the college board criticized the decision, which deprives florida students of valuable information and can earn them college credit. further, the college board noted that the material on sexual orientation and gender identity has been included in the course since it was created more than 30 years ago. state officials contend that the course is still listed as an option for florida students and that it was working with the college board to address its concerns (lavietes, 2023). trans female athlete bans. as of april 16, 2024, 24 states ban transgender females from participating in k-12 extracurricular sports. idaho was the first state to do so in 2020 (savage, 2021). in seventeen states the ban applies to college athletic participation (movement advancement project, 2024). in april 2024, the national association of intercollegiate athletics (naia), which represents 241 mostly small colleges, all but banned trans females from intercollegiate competition. this move made it the first sporting organization to enact such a ban. in march 2024, republicans on the house committee on the judiciary voted in support of a broader ban on transgender athletes. a similar but less expansive bill was passed through the committee the year prior. called the “protection of women in olympic and amateur sports act,” it would require national governing bodies like those that oversee the olympics, paralympics, and pretty much any competitive sport, to ban trans women and girls from competing in sports designated for women and girls. rep. rebecca ballant, a member of the house committee and co-chair of the congressional equality caucus, responded that it was a hate bill. she said, time and time again, republicans hide behind promoting women and girls in sports. but these continued attacks have real consequences. the countless anti lgbtqia+ attacks from republicans only stand to incite violence and ultimately remove trans people from public life. but i want trans girls and women to know: you deserve to participate and thrive in the sports you love (congressional equality caucus, 2024). rep. pramila jayapal, a member of the committee and co-chair of the equality caucus’ transgender equality task force, explained republicans don’t actually care about protecting women’s and girls’ sports – if they did, they would focus on the lack of financial resources and prominent wage gaps. but instead, they’re coopting language from the women’s rights movement to go after gender inclusivity and trans https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 127 americans. countless sport’s governing bodies and organizations have rejected categorical bans on trans athletes, and so should we. i will continue to fight for the right of trans individuals to participate in all aspects of society and live full lives full of dignity, respect, and equality (congressional equality caucus, 2024). the argument is that trans females have an unfair advantage in sports because they are biologically men. this is supposedly because of the higher levels of testosterone that men generally have. experts state, however, that testosterone levels vary in any individual and that the amount of testosterone one has is only a small factor that contributes to athletic success. further, such policies seem quite unnecessary, given that transgender individuals make up an estimated 1.8 percent of the high school population in the united states and the number of transgender athletes is significantly lower than that. human rights campaign surveyed high school youth and found that less than fifteen percent of transgender students played sports (associated press, 2024). trans athletes have not consistently outperformed other female athletes (savage, 2021). sport participation is beneficial to youth, both physically and mentally. the president’s council on sports, fitness, & nutrition science has compiled research to show that effect of participation in athletics on mental, emotional, and social health. sport participation lowers stress, anxiety, and depression; reduces the risk of suicide, substance abuse, and risky behavior; increases self-esteem, cognitive performance, and creativity; and improves life satisfaction. physically, participating in sport can improve bone health, weight status, cardiovascular fitness, and overall quality of life. it can also reduce the risk of cancer and diabetes and for girls, reduce body fat (pcfsn science board, 2020). where can people urinate? in several states, republicans have pushed legislation that would require that students, faculty, and staff only use the school bathrooms of their sex at birth. ostensibly young people will feel uncomfortable if a trans female is using a female restroom or a trans male is using a male restroom. further, some republicans have whipped up the nothing-burger that young men will fake their gender identity so as to prey upon girls. eleven states have some type of legislation related to bathroom use and gender identity. in florida and utah, it is a criminal offense in certain cased for transgender individuals to use a bathroom that matches their gender identity (movement advancement project, n.d.). oklahoma enacted such a bathroom ban with disastrous results. nex benedict, who identified as nonbinary and transgender, had suffered bullying since the start of the 2023 school year. benedict was attacked by a group of girls in the school bathroom on february 7, 2024. another transgender student was also attacked. the school did not call an ambulance or the police, despite benedict’s bruises, wounds to the https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 128 face and eyes, and scratches on the back of the head. to make matters worse, the school told benedict that they would be suspended for two weeks. the next day, they died (houghtaling, 2024). in may 2024 florida governor ron desantis signed into law a requirement that school staff and students from kindergarten to college use only the bathrooms and changing facilities that match their sex at birth. colleges are required to investigate allegations of violations and report them to the florida department of education. the law also applies to campus housing. penalties begin with a verbal warning, followed by a written warning, then suspension without pay. a second violation results in termination. even private schools must follow the law and can face revocation of their teaching certification if they are not compliant (yurcaba, 2023). antiracist education and diversity, equity, and inclusivity (dei) restrictions. across the country, the republican party has pushed for legislation to keep white kids from feeling guilt, responsibility, concern, or really any emotion when it comes to america’s racist past and how racism is embedded in us culture. one such effort involves banning the teaching of critical race theory, an approach to antiracism education that emphasizes the institutionalization of racial bias. despite the fact that it is designed for use in college courses and with no evidence crt was actually being used in k-12 schools, republicans like north carolina state representative dan bishop, who introduced an anti-crt bill, claim, “critical race theory is a divisive ideology that threatens to poison the american psyche. for the sake of our children’s future, we must stop this effort to cancel the truth of our founding and our country” (bouie, 2023). marcotte (2022) explained that “republicans love to go on and on about fictional curricula in imaginary classrooms where dreamed-up white kids are being told that they’re personally responsible for systemic racism.” florida’s stop w.o.k.e act bans critical race theory as well as the new york times 1619 project, which is a collection of literary works that showcase african american’s history and contributions to the united states (pendharkar, 2023). every state except delaware has at least considered some type of anti-crt legislation. reality is, the hysteria is little more than a hoax being used to dismantle public education, an agenda republicans have pursued since the 1980s. finley and esposito (2022, p. 137) explained, yet even if educators are not explicitly teaching from a crt framework, these kinds of laws have a chilling effect on the teaching of racial issues in general. further, many of the anti-crt laws are extremely broad, and thus https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 129 have been interpreted to prohibit an array of issues. these include teaching the story of johnny appleseed and objections to a book about ruby bridges, as the latter does not offer the perspective of redemption for racists who screamed at her for trying to attend school. as of february 2023, at least eighteen states had laws or policies prohibiting antiracism education in some way. while these laws very in their specifics, they all prohibit teaching that the united states is inherently racist, about conscious and unconscious bias, privilege, discrimination, and oppression. further, these state laws apply to teachings about gender as well (alfonseca, 2023). once again, florida has also “lead,” albeit in a negative way. it was the first state to reject the pilot curriculum for advanced placement african american history in 2023. state officials alleged that the course was in violation of state law because it lacked “educational value and historical accuracy.” in response, the college board, which develops ap courses, responded that the course had undergone “a rigorous, multi-year pilot phase, collecting feedback from teachers, students, scholars and policymakers.” education experts as well as the white house immediately denounced florida’s decision. vice president kamala harris explained, “every student in our nation should be able to learn about the culture, contributions, and experiences of all americans—including black americans— who shaped our history. unfortunately, in florida, extremist so-called leaders ban books, block history classes, and prevent teachers from freely discussing who they are and who they love” (pendharkar, 2023). florida, texas, utah, and several other states have or are considering legislation banning dei programs in colleges and universities. in summer 2023 texas governor greg abbott signed a law requiring that all state-funded colleges and universities close their dei offices. florida governor ron desantis similarly banned public colleges from using state of federal funds on any dei initiatives. arizona state senator anthony kern, in supporting a dei ban in his state, pronounced that “there was ‘ample evidence’ of professors intimidating students by using state money for things beyond education or advocacy” (adams & chiwaya, 2024). in january 2024, utah governor spencer cox signed a bill into law that prohibits diversity training as well as hiring and other inclusion programs at universities and in the state government, referring to diversity hiring practices as “bordering on evil” (goldberg, 2024). social-emotional learning. social-emotional learning, or sel, aims to teach young people five general life skills: self-awareness, social awareness, selfhttps://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 130 management, the ability to get along in groups, and ethical and responsible decision making (strozewski, 2022). often referred to as “soft” skills or called character education, sel is intended to help kids to be better people. sel has been found to improve students’ academic skills as well as their mental health, peer relationships, and overall wellbeing (durlak et al., 2011). it has also been found to help reduce the risk of suicide, substance abuse, anxiety, and feelings of hopelessness (posamentier, et al., 2022), with these benefits persisting for many years help to increase the likelihood of graduating high school and attending college as well as reducing the risk of health problems and arrests (taylor, et al., 2017). in at least eight states republicans have proposed or passed bills limiting or even prohibiting it. conservative media outlets fueled the attack on sel, asserting that it “could be a “trojan horse” for teaching children about critical race theory and gender diversity” (abrams, 2023). to them, sel is yet another example of indoctrination. further, conservatives maintain that sel is a distraction from academics. research shows that most sel curricula do not address race or gender at all (ramirez et al., 2021). going even further, in some communities, parents have begun to contend that mental health counselors and suicide prevention initiatives in schools are also “indoctrinating” students (kingkade & hixenbaugh, 2021). creature’s butts, naughty goblins, and other non-issues in children’s books. the conservative republican group moms for liberty complained about several children’s books to the indian river school district in florida. their concern was that these books included sexual content. moms for liberty member jennifer pippin submitted complaints about unicorns are the worst, a children’s book that won florida’s state literature reward because it included an image of a goblin with a naked backside. another book, no! david was challenged because it showed the naked backside of a little boy, as well as maurice sendak’s in the night kitchen because images of the main character naked. eric carle’s draw me a star was also objectionable, pippin claimed, because it showed an image in classic carle style (cartoonish, abstract, bright colors) of a naked couple. pippin agreed that some of the books could remain if the district colored in shorts or other clothing garments to cover the nudity (otten, 2024). lake county, florida school district removed the book and tango makes three because it allegedly violated the “don’t say gay” law. it has no sexual content in any way and actually tells the true story of two male penguins who built a nest together and raise a baby penguin after the zookeeper gave them an egg (chait, 2023). https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 131 failure to protect: real issues adequate food and healthcare. while they are busy so-called protecting kids, republican politicians are equally transfixed on ignoring the needs of young people. some have refused to support universal school lunch. protection from hunger is not an agenda item, it seems. in minnesota, republican state senator steve drazkowksi even pronounced that, “i have yet to meet a person in minnesota that says they don’t have access to enough food to eat” (bouie, 2023). a federal program that took effect in january 2024 allows students who are eligible for free and reduce lunch to receive similar assistance during the summer months. eligible families can receive $40 per month, per child. the program would serve some 21 million students starting around june 2024, providing $2.5 billion in relief across the country. republican governors in fifteen states opted not to participate in the program, thereby denying up to ten million kids food assistance. nebraska governor jim pillen even said, “i don’t believe in welfare” (rampell, 2024). in at last ten states republicans have refused the medicaid expansion that was authorized in the affordable care act, thus leaving millions of people without regular medical care. this includes many children (bouie, 2023). these programs are widely supported by voters, including the majority of republican voters. those republican leaders who oppose expansions or even in some cases continuations of school food programs have cited a cato institute report that alleges fraud. the “fraudulence” the think tank is concerned about is not some shadowy cabals of teachers systematically stealing from the school lunch money pot: it’s students who are being fed, even if their parents technically make too much to benefit from the program. in other words, republicans’ opposition to the program is based on the assumption that people being “wrongly” fed at school is tantamount to abusive waste (thakker, 2024). predatory loans and student debt relief. college students have for some time been stuck with ridiculous debt, in part due to predatory loans. while president biden has made several efforts, with some success, at relieving student loan debt, most republican politicians do not support relief efforts. during the republic presidential debates in january 2024, the five candidates that were still in the race— donald trump, ron desantis, nicki haley, vivek ramaswamy, and asa hutchinson—all opposed student debt relief. as nova (2024) wrote, “the average loan balance at graduation has tripled since the 1990s to $30,000 from $10,000. additionally, about 7% of student loan borrowers are now more than $100,000 in debt.” further, the majority of americans support some type of student loan forgiveness, with less than one-third opposing it. desantis probably had the most despicable comment about it. he said, “why should a truck driver have to pay for https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 132 somebody that got a degree in zombie studies? it doesn’t make sense” (nova, 2024). being safe in school. polls routinely show that republicans are much more likely than democrats to leave decisions about protections like masks and vaccines to parents, rather than focusing on what would be best for the common good (khazan, 2022). florida governor ron desantis supported the state’s department of education in fall 2021, which withheld funds from two districts (alachua and broward county) that imposed mask mandates (mervosh, 2021). governors in texas, arizona, oklahoma, iowa, south carolina, tennessee, and utah also imposed bans on school district mask mandates (durkee, 2022). florida has struggled with an outbreak of measles that was heretofore unheard of for decades, with eleven cases in 2024 as of this writing. the reason relates directly back to republican opposition to vaccines and other health mandate. the state continues to allow parents to send their children to school regardless of if they are fully vaccinated or even have been found to have contracted measles, thereby jeopardizing other people’s kids. florida surgeon general joseph ladapo, an appointee of republican governor ron desantis, has vocally and repeatedly repudiated science related to covid, vaccines in general, and now to containing the spread of measles. ladapo even told parents it was fine to send their unvaccinated kids to school amidst the measles outbreak, in direct contradiction of recommendations by the centers for disease control and prevention (cdc), which calls for a quarantine of 21 days for anyone who has not been vaccinated or had a previous infection. dr. robert speth, a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at nova southeastern university, explained “the surgeon general is ron desantis’s lapdog, and says whatever desantis wants him to say. his statements are more political than medical and that’s a horrible disservice to the citizens of florida. he’s somebody whose job is to protect public health, and he’s doing the exact opposite” (luscombe, 2024). surely republicans at least want to keep kids safe from violence, right? maybe not. most refuse to cooperate on bipartisan gun control efforts that might reduce gun violence, including school shootings. in 2021, the centers for disease control and prevention found that firearms were the leasing cause of death for children and adolescents in the united states. despite passing in 2022, with bipartisan support, the most comprehensive gun control package in decades, polls show republican support for gun control has waned since. republican support for gun control dropped from 49 percent in the summer of 2022 to 32 percent the following summer (long & sanders, 2023). even still, polls show that most republican voters agree with democrats about a few gun control issues. for https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 133 instance, ninety percent of democrats and eighty percent of republican voters support universal background checks for firearm sales (helmstetter, plutzer, & kalale, 2023). it is the politicians that seem to struggle, and their reasoning is clear: they do not want to alienate the nra and its funding nor risk losing elections in more conservative districts. it is the gop base that decides primary contests and is vehement in its opposition to gun control (hulse, 2022). demonstrating the disregard, tennessee representative tim burchett commented, “it’s a horrible, horrible situation. and we’re not gonna fix it. criminals are gonna be criminals.” he actually represents a district in nashville that had a school shooting (bouie, 2023). research is clear that most school shooters are students or former students and are under the age of 18. thus, they are generally ineligible to purchase firearms. as such, they often acquire the guns they use to perpetrate school shootings from their own families or the families of friends. despite knowing this, the united states has weak child access protection (cap) laws for firearms (cox et al., 2022). there is no federal cap law, nor does federal law require that parents safely store their guns. nineteen states have some type of cap law, but many are weak and not enforced. research is clear that cap and safe storage laws prevent injuries and death, including school shootings (child access prevention, nd). yet republican legislators in many states oppose safe storage laws. for instance, in 2021, colorado republicans spent ten hours opposing a bill that would require safe storage of firearms when not in use (niebert, 2021). in december 2023, senate democrats sought to advance a bill banning assault weapons. predictably, republican legislators moved to block it (benen, 2023). assault weapons are the firearm of choice among mass shooters. while banning them will not address all firearm violence, it may well reduce mass shootings, including those that take place in school settings. in summary: the republican political agenda rather than a chaotic and disorganized agenda, these efforts are organized and intentional. jennifer berkshire and jack schneider in their book the education wars explained that today’s disagreement on the nature of schooling and what should be taught is that it is designed to eliminate public schooling as we know it. berkshire and schneider maintain that these efforts are being funded by neoliberals who want the free market, not the government, to control education. they point to moms for liberty, one of the key proponents of “parents’ rights” and “protecting kids” and note that it is a project of the conservate heritage foundation and that it gets most of its funding from very wealthy donors. many of the anti-crt efforts, for example, emerged from “model” legislation that the heritage foundation, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 134 citizens for renewing america, and the american legislative exchange council developed and promoted (finley & esposito, 2022). tim chambers, whose work is focused on monitoring and countering disinformation on the internet, explained "the anti-crt effort is textbook disinformation, manufactured and funded by rightwing think tanks and boosted by programmatically targeted ads to inflame users. it is from well-funded orgs working with suspect local groups on the ground, and with the ever-present background push from fox news on broadcast and cable behind it all” (graham, 2021). as bouie (2023) opined, when you put all of this together, the picture is clear. the republican party will use the law and the state to shield as many children as possible from the knowledge, cultural influences and technologies deemed divisive or controversial or subversive by the voters, activists and apparatchiks that shape and guide its priorities. when tucker carlson, christopher rufo and moms for liberty say jump, their only question is: how high? but when it comes to actual threats to the lives of american children — from poverty, from hunger, from sickness and from guns — then, well, the republican party wants us to slow down and consider the costs and consequences and even possible futility of taking any action to help. marcotte (2022) also summed it up very well: republicans only care about children that are imaginary. real children have needs: food, shelter, safety, emotional support, education, love. imaginary children, however, want for nothing. the fictional threats to imaginary children are useful for political rhetoric and for bashing your opponents, with no real cost. providing for real children cuts into resources republicans would rather see spent on yacht improvements for their donor base. keeping real children safe means embracing policies, like gun control, that offend the easily bruised egos of their voting base of child-men and their wives. the danger of republican “protection”: real harms to civil and human rights banning books has long been considered by many people to be a violation of the first amendment right to freedom of speech. legal challenges to many of the things described herein are indeed seeing them as violations of civil liberties. in https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 135 april 2024, a federal judge ruled that florida’s pronoun law violated a teacher’s freedom of speech. the anti-lgbtq+ laws enacted around the state have and will continue to make lgbtq+ students feel less safe in schools. they are in stark contrast to the basic principle of providing a safe and healthy educational climate— a hallmark, supposedly, of u.s. public education. from a human rights perspective, the united states is the only country that has never ratified the united nations convention on the rights of the child (uncrc), a glaring omission. the rest of the world recognizes that children have human rights just like adults. there are four general principles underpinning the uncrc: 1) the right to life, survival, and development; 2) non-discrimination; 3) the right to be heard; and 4) the best interests of the child. it is difficult to see how enacting bans on what kids can be taught about issues like racism and sexual orientation is consistent with these principles. likewise, it is clear that involvement in sports and other extracurricular activities is beneficial for student development yet is being strictly curtailed in many states. meanwhile providing food to young people would seemingly be a significant part of the right to life, survival, and development. in sum, these measures to “protect” are doing the opposite and jeopardizing the safety and wellbeing of young people. recommendations for policymakers and peace educators federal legislation could be one part of the remedy to these failures to adequately protect kids and to address those laws and policies that are instead doing harm. for example, democrat president joe biden’s administration issued a federal rule in april 2024 that seeks to prohibit bathroom bans. it is based on the administration’s determination that the federal law title ix, enacted in 1972 to prevent gender discrimination in schools and colleges that receive federal funding, also covers sexual orientation and gender identity as well (mulvihill, 2024). peace educators can continue to push for federal legislation that would not only provide uniformity on these issues but would also respect human rights and personal dignity. legal challenges are another route that peace educators can support. as was noted, legal challenges have already been brought about many of these laws and for the most part, they have been successful at blocking or overturning the legislation. more have been filed and will continue to be, as nonprofit organizations and others contest the constitutionality of these laws, most often on first amendment grounds. nonviolent activism is another tool that has and will continue to be useful in promoting real protection for students. in florida, activists have been very vocal https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 136 and organized in their opposition to “don’t say gay.” protests, petitions, creative art exhibits and other strategies have been utilized to raise awareness and garner support for opposition to restrictive legislation that does nothing to protect students. as always, teaching young people about their rights is essential to promoting democracy and resisting oppression. while public school teachers face potentially career-ending consequences if they do too much to contest the damaging policies discussed herein, others have more flexibility. for instance, college educators are somewhat more protected, especially those working at private universities. leveraging the power of media and social media is important as well. in an era of so much misinformation, peace activists and educators can try to share a different perspective. even more, the youth who are affected by these policies do not want to remain silent. they have and can continue to resist peacefully those efforts that do not protect them and advocate for those that will. references abrams, z. (2023, september 1). teaching social-emotional learning is under attack. apa monitor. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/09/socialemotional-learning-under-fire adams, c., & chiwaya, n. (2024, march 2). map: see which states have introduced or passed anti-dei bills. nbc news. https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/anti-dei-bills-states-republicanlawmakers-map-rcna140756 alfonseca, k. (2023, february 2). critical race theory in the classroom: understanding the debate. abc news. https://abcnews.go.com/us/criticalrace-theory-classroom-understanding-debate/story?id=77627465 associated press. (2024, april 8). naia all but bans transgender athletes from women’s sports. npr. https://www.npr.org/2024/04/08/1243548261/naiatransgender-athlete-sports-ban beckett, b. (2023, march). the gop pretends to protect children—while literally promoting child labor. jacobin. https://jacobin.com/2023/03/gop-antitrans-wokeness-child-labor-shootings benen, s. (2023, december 7). despite mass shootings, republicans reject assault weapons ban. msnbc. https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddowhttps://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/09/social-emotional-learning-under-fire https://www.apa.org/monitor/2023/09/social-emotional-learning-under-fire https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/anti-dei-bills-states-republican-lawmakers-map-rcna140756 https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/anti-dei-bills-states-republican-lawmakers-map-rcna140756 https://abcnews.go.com/us/critical-race-theory-classroom-understanding-debate/story?id=77627465 https://abcnews.go.com/us/critical-race-theory-classroom-understanding-debate/story?id=77627465 https://www.npr.org/2024/04/08/1243548261/naia-transgender-athlete-sports-ban https://www.npr.org/2024/04/08/1243548261/naia-transgender-athlete-sports-ban https://jacobin.com/2023/03/gop-anti-trans-wokeness-child-labor-shootings https://jacobin.com/2023/03/gop-anti-trans-wokeness-child-labor-shootings in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 137 show/maddowblog/mass-shootings-republican-reject-assault-weaponsban-rcna128509 berkshire, j., & schneider, j. (2024). the education wars: a citizen’s guide and defense manual. the new press. bouie, jamelle. (2023, march 31). the republican party says it wants to protect children, but not all children. new york times. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/31/opinion/protecting-childrenrepublicans.html chait, j. (2023, may 8). indoctrination nation. new york magazine. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/desantis-florida-trump-educationpolitics.html congressional equality caucus. (2024, march 21). equality caucus condemns republicans’ new federal ban on transgender athletes. https://equality.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/equality-caucuscondemns-republicans-new-federal-ban-transgender durlak, j., et al. (2011). the impact of enhancing student’s social and emotional learning: a meta-analysis of school-based universal interventions. child development, 82(1), 405-432. farrington, b. (2023, may 22). desantis signs bills targeting drag shows, transgender kids and the use of bathrooms and pronouns. ap news. https://apnews.com/article/desantis-florida-lgbtq-education-healthc68a7e5fe5cf22ab8cca324b00644119 goldberg, m. (2024, february 10). republican lawmakers are backing dozens of bills targeting diversity efforts on campus and elsewhere. ap news. https://apnews.com/article/dei-state-legislation-diversity4d80ec7e9d372e74b129efc402ac0b76 :~:text=already this year, republican lawmakers,the bill-tracking software plural graham, e (2021, december 14). who is behind the attacks on educators and public schools? nea today. https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/whobehind-attacks-educators-and-public-schools https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/31/opinion/protecting-children-republicans.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/31/opinion/protecting-children-republicans.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/desantis-florida-trump-education-politics.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/desantis-florida-trump-education-politics.html https://equality.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/equality-caucus-condemns-republicans-new-federal-ban-transgender https://equality.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/equality-caucus-condemns-republicans-new-federal-ban-transgender https://apnews.com/article/desantis-florida-lgbtq-education-health-c68a7e5fe5cf22ab8cca324b00644119 https://apnews.com/article/desantis-florida-lgbtq-education-health-c68a7e5fe5cf22ab8cca324b00644119 https://apnews.com/article/dei-state-legislation-diversity-4d80ec7e9d372e74b129efc402ac0b76#:~:text=already%20this%20year%2c%20republican%20lawmakers,the%20bill%2dtracking%20software%20plural https://apnews.com/article/dei-state-legislation-diversity-4d80ec7e9d372e74b129efc402ac0b76#:~:text=already%20this%20year%2c%20republican%20lawmakers,the%20bill%2dtracking%20software%20plural https://apnews.com/article/dei-state-legislation-diversity-4d80ec7e9d372e74b129efc402ac0b76#:~:text=already%20this%20year%2c%20republican%20lawmakers,the%20bill%2dtracking%20software%20plural https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/who-behind-attacks-educators-and-public-schools https://www.nea.org/advocating-for-change/new-from-nea/who-behind-attacks-educators-and-public-schools in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 138 helmstetter, c., plutzer, e., & kalale, r. (2023, july 25). poll: a majority of americans support universal background checks, gun licensing and an assault weapons ban. mpr news. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/07/25/poll-majority--supportuniversal-background-checks-gun-licensing-assault-weapons-ban houghtaling, i. (2024, february 20). oklahoma republicans passed a bathroom bill. now a trans teen is dead. new republic. https://newrepublic.com/post/179161/oklahoma-nonbinary-teen-nexbenedict-dead hulse, c. (2022, may 27). why republicans won’t budge on guns. new york times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/26/us/republicans-guncontrol.html khazan, o. (2022, february 22). red parent, blue parent. the atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/02/new-partisan-fightover-schools/622846/ lavietes, m., (2023, august 4). florida effectively bans ap psychology course over lgbtq content, college board says. nbc news. https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/florida-effectively-bans-appsychology-course-lgbtq-content-college-bo-rcna98036 lavietes, m. (2024, march 25). amid book bans, dei cuts and “don’t say gay” laws, 7-states will mandate lgbtq-inclusive curriculum. nbc news. https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/washington-lgbtq-historyschools-governor-law-rcna144991 long, c., & sanders, l. (2023, august 25). gop support for gun restrictions slips a year after congress passed firearms law. ap news. https://apnews.com/article/guns-mass-shooting-schools-uvalde-biden83c7ece4a3ffb6ff033a07737303d772 luscombe, r. (2024, march 3). florida is swamped by disease outbreaks as quackery replaces science. the guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/03/florida-measlesoutbreak-preventable https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/07/25/poll-majority--support-universal-background-checks-gun-licensing-assault-weapons-ban https://www.mprnews.org/story/2023/07/25/poll-majority--support-universal-background-checks-gun-licensing-assault-weapons-ban https://newrepublic.com/post/179161/oklahoma-nonbinary-teen-nex-benedict-dead https://newrepublic.com/post/179161/oklahoma-nonbinary-teen-nex-benedict-dead https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/26/us/republicans-gun-control.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/26/us/republicans-gun-control.html https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/02/new-partisan-fight-over-schools/622846/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/02/new-partisan-fight-over-schools/622846/ https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/florida-effectively-bans-ap-psychology-course-lgbtq-content-college-bo-rcna98036 https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/florida-effectively-bans-ap-psychology-course-lgbtq-content-college-bo-rcna98036 https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/washington-lgbtq-history-schools-governor-law-rcna144991 https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/washington-lgbtq-history-schools-governor-law-rcna144991 https://apnews.com/article/guns-mass-shooting-schools-uvalde-biden-83c7ece4a3ffb6ff033a07737303d772 https://apnews.com/article/guns-mass-shooting-schools-uvalde-biden-83c7ece4a3ffb6ff033a07737303d772 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/03/florida-measles-outbreak-preventable https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/03/florida-measles-outbreak-preventable in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 139 marcotte, a. (2022, may 25). republicans don’t care about kids—just imaginary children. salon. https://www.salon.com/2022/05/25/dont-care-about-kids-just-imaginary-children/ mcmillan, j., demillo, a., & mulvihill, g. (2024, march 12). what to know about settlement that clarifies what’s legal under florida’s “don’t say gay” law. ap news. https://apnews.com/article/dont-say-gay-floridasettlement-schools-lgbtq-f7850eedcb8bc6a117690d2b84aff671 movement advancement project. (2024, april 16). lgbtq youth: bans on youth participation in sports. https://www.lgbtmap.org/img/maps/citationssports-participation-bans.pdf movement advancement project. (n.d.). bans on transgender people using public bathrooms and facilities according to their gender identity. https://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps/nondiscrimination/bathroom_bans mulvihill, g. (2024, april 23). new federal law bars transgender school bathroom bans, but it likely isn’t the final word. ap news. https://apnews.com/article/title-ix-transgender-bathroom-bans645b5564ce227a9efe2c05f883609ae8 national educational association. (2023, june 30). what you need to know about florida’s “don’t say gay” and “don’t say they” laws, book bans, and other curricular restrictions. https://www.nea.org/sites/default/files/202306/30424-know-your-rights_web_v4.pdf niebert, p. (2021, march 9). republicans battle for 10 hours against efforts to require coloradans to store guns in safes, with trigger locks. colorado sun. https://coloradosun.com/2021/03/09/debate-stretches-for-hours-ascolorado-lawmakers-mull-trigger-locks-vs-second-amendment-rights/ nova, a. (2024, january 11). gop presidential candidates agree: student loan borrowers shouldn’t get forgiveness. cnbc. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/11/gop-presidential-candidates-alloppose-student-loan-relief.html#:~:text=gop%20presidential%20candidates%20agree%3a%20stu dent%20loan%20borrowers%20shouldn't%20get%20forgiveness,published%20thu%2c%20jan&text=the%20five%20major%20gop%2 0presidential,all%20oppose%20student%20loan%20forgiveness. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.salon.com/2022/05/25/dont-care-about-kids--just-imaginary-children/ https://www.salon.com/2022/05/25/dont-care-about-kids--just-imaginary-children/ https://apnews.com/article/dont-say-gay-florida-settlement-schools-lgbtq-f7850eedcb8bc6a117690d2b84aff671 https://apnews.com/article/dont-say-gay-florida-settlement-schools-lgbtq-f7850eedcb8bc6a117690d2b84aff671 https://www.lgbtmap.org/img/maps/citations-sports-participation-bans.pdf https://www.lgbtmap.org/img/maps/citations-sports-participation-bans.pdf https://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps/nondiscrimination/bathroom_bans https://apnews.com/article/title-ix-transgender-bathroom-bans-645b5564ce227a9efe2c05f883609ae8 https://apnews.com/article/title-ix-transgender-bathroom-bans-645b5564ce227a9efe2c05f883609ae8 https://www.nea.org/sites/default/files/2023-06/30424-know-your-rights_web_v4.pdf https://www.nea.org/sites/default/files/2023-06/30424-know-your-rights_web_v4.pdf https://coloradosun.com/2021/03/09/debate-stretches-for-hours-as-colorado-lawmakers-mull-trigger-locks-vs-second-amendment-rights/ https://coloradosun.com/2021/03/09/debate-stretches-for-hours-as-colorado-lawmakers-mull-trigger-locks-vs-second-amendment-rights/ https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/11/gop-presidential-candidates-all-oppose-student-loan-relief-.html#:~:text=gop%20presidential%20candidates%20agree%3a%20student%20loan%20borrowers%20shouldn't%20get%20forgiveness,-published%20thu%2c%20jan&text=the%20five%20major%20gop%20presidential,all%20oppose%20student%20loan%20forgiveness https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/11/gop-presidential-candidates-all-oppose-student-loan-relief-.html#:~:text=gop%20presidential%20candidates%20agree%3a%20student%20loan%20borrowers%20shouldn't%20get%20forgiveness,-published%20thu%2c%20jan&text=the%20five%20major%20gop%20presidential,all%20oppose%20student%20loan%20forgiveness https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/11/gop-presidential-candidates-all-oppose-student-loan-relief-.html#:~:text=gop%20presidential%20candidates%20agree%3a%20student%20loan%20borrowers%20shouldn't%20get%20forgiveness,-published%20thu%2c%20jan&text=the%20five%20major%20gop%20presidential,all%20oppose%20student%20loan%20forgiveness https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/11/gop-presidential-candidates-all-oppose-student-loan-relief-.html#:~:text=gop%20presidential%20candidates%20agree%3a%20student%20loan%20borrowers%20shouldn't%20get%20forgiveness,-published%20thu%2c%20jan&text=the%20five%20major%20gop%20presidential,all%20oppose%20student%20loan%20forgiveness https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/11/gop-presidential-candidates-all-oppose-student-loan-relief-.html#:~:text=gop%20presidential%20candidates%20agree%3a%20student%20loan%20borrowers%20shouldn't%20get%20forgiveness,-published%20thu%2c%20jan&text=the%20five%20major%20gop%20presidential,all%20oppose%20student%20loan%20forgiveness https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/11/gop-presidential-candidates-all-oppose-student-loan-relief-.html#:~:text=gop%20presidential%20candidates%20agree%3a%20student%20loan%20borrowers%20shouldn't%20get%20forgiveness,-published%20thu%2c%20jan&text=the%20five%20major%20gop%20presidential,all%20oppose%20student%20loan%20forgiveness in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 140 otten, t. (2024, february 1). florida’s war on books enters “goblin butts are sexual” territory. new republic. . https://newrepublic.com/post/178649/moms-liberty-bullies-florida-districtgoblin-butt-childrens-book pcfsn science board. (2020, september 17). benefits of youth sports. https://health.gov/sites/default/files/202009/yss_report_onepager_2020-08-31_web.pdf pendharkar, e. (2023, january 25). florida’s ban on ap african american studies, explained. education week. https://www.edweek.org/teachinglearning/floridas-ban-on-ap-african-american-studies-explained/2023/01 :~:text=florida high schoolers will no,issued a letter on jan posamentier, j., et al. (2022). preventing youth suicide: a review of school-based practices and how social-emotional learning fits into comprehensive efforts. trauma, violence, & abuse, 24(2), 746-759. ramirez, t. et al. (2021). equity in social emotional learning programs: a content analysis of equitable practices in pre-k-5 sel programs. frontiers in education, 6, 1-14. rampell, catherine. (2024, january 11). there’s nothing pro-child about the gop’s resistance to food aid. washington post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/11/republican-childfood-aid/ savage, r. (2021, june 2). why are u.s. states banning transgender women from sports? reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/iduskcn2de1o3/ taylor, r., et al. (2017). promoting positive youth development through schoolbased social and emotional learning interventions: a meta-analysis of follow-up effects. child development, 88(4), 1156-1171. thakker, p. (2024, march 21). house republicans want to ban universal free school lunches. the intercept. https://theintercept.com/2024/03/21/houserepublicans-ban-universal-schoollunches/#:~:text=the%20budget%20%e2%80%94%20co%2dsigned wiessner, d. (2024, april 10). florida ban on teachers using preferred pronouns blocked by judge. reuters. https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/florida-ban-teachers-usingpreferred-pronouns-blocked-by-judge-2024-04-10/ :~:text=the state law, which took,their sex assigned at birth https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://health.gov/sites/default/files/2020-09/yss_report_onepager_2020-08-31_web.pdf https://health.gov/sites/default/files/2020-09/yss_report_onepager_2020-08-31_web.pdf https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/floridas-ban-on-ap-african-american-studies-explained/2023/01#:~:text=florida%20high%20schoolers%20will%20no,issued%20a%20letter%20on%20jan https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/floridas-ban-on-ap-african-american-studies-explained/2023/01#:~:text=florida%20high%20schoolers%20will%20no,issued%20a%20letter%20on%20jan https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/floridas-ban-on-ap-african-american-studies-explained/2023/01#:~:text=florida%20high%20schoolers%20will%20no,issued%20a%20letter%20on%20jan https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/11/republican-child-food-aid/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/11/republican-child-food-aid/ https://www.reuters.com/article/iduskcn2de1o3/ https://theintercept.com/2024/03/21/house-republicans-ban-universal-school-lunches/#:~:text=the%20budget%20%e2%80%94%20co%2dsigned https://theintercept.com/2024/03/21/house-republicans-ban-universal-school-lunches/#:~:text=the%20budget%20%e2%80%94%20co%2dsigned https://theintercept.com/2024/03/21/house-republicans-ban-universal-school-lunches/#:~:text=the%20budget%20%e2%80%94%20co%2dsigned https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/florida-ban-teachers-using-preferred-pronouns-blocked-by-judge-2024-04-10/#:~:text=the%20state%20law%2c%20which%20took,their%20sex%20assigned%20at%20birth https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/florida-ban-teachers-using-preferred-pronouns-blocked-by-judge-2024-04-10/#:~:text=the%20state%20law%2c%20which%20took,their%20sex%20assigned%20at%20birth https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/florida-ban-teachers-using-preferred-pronouns-blocked-by-judge-2024-04-10/#:~:text=the%20state%20law%2c%20which%20took,their%20sex%20assigned%20at%20birth in factis pax volume 18 number 2 (2024): 124-141 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 141 yurcaba, j. (2023, august 24). trans college staffers in florida could be fired for using he restroom under new rule. nbc news. https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/florida-board-educationapproves-rules-expanding-bathroom-law-rcna101685 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/florida-board-education-approves-rules-expanding-bathroom-law-rcna101685 https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/florida-board-education-approves-rules-expanding-bathroom-law-rcna101685 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 282 volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 the ecological challenge of peace education a plea for a new comprehensive peace education werner wintersteiner the ecological challenge does not just mean the challenge of ecological problems and crises. rather, it refers to the epistemic challenge of developing a new way of thinking, a new relationship to “nature” and thus also to the human world, which could be described as eco-relational peace. this text traces the paths that peace education has taken over the last half century in developing such a way of thinking. two paradigms in dealing with the ecological challenge two well-known literary texts from the german-speaking world serve as a starting point for discussing our perception of the ecological challenge. in the poem to those born later (1934-38) by bertolt brecht, a few lines have become famous and are often quoted: “what kind of times are they, when a talk about trees is almost a crime because it implies silence about so many horrors?”1 almost exactly 100 years before him, in 1836, the playwright georg büchner wrote his fragment woyzeck, in which the following strange episode can be found. the children ask their grandmother for a fairy tale and she begins to tell it: 1 bertolt brecht, german, trans. john willett, ralph manheim and erich fried, bertolt brecht: poems 1913-1956, routledge, chapman and hall. https://www.ronnowpoetry.com/contents/brecht/tothoseborn.html https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 283 “once upon a time there was a poor child who had no father and no mother, everything was dead and no one was left in the world. everything dead, and the child went out and cried day and night. and since no one was left on earth, it tried to go up to heaven and the moon was giving it such a friendly look, and when it finally got to the moon, the moon was a piece of rotten wood and so it went to the sun and when it got there, the sun was a wilted sunflower and when it got to the stars they were little golden gnats, stuck there like the shrike sticks them on the blackthorn, and when it tried to go back down to earth, the earth was a knocked-over pot and it was all alone and it sat down and cried and it’s sitting there still and it’s all alone.”2 these two passages express two opposing views on how the relationship between humans and the biosphere is conceived. brecht represents the classical western paradigm of the separation of the human world, here in a marxist variant. a conversation about trees has nothing to do with a conversation about politics. the one – the self-evident, not to be questioned further – is nature, the other – the essential – is human society and the injustices that prevail there and must be overcome through political criticism and political practice. people are well aware of nature and its eternal cycle, but it forms the backdrop and refuge and at the same time serves as a resource for human prosperity. human society, the “real” history, the history of class struggles and other conflicts, is detached from this. a retreat to nature is seen as a betrayal of the tasks of human development towards greater justice. it is classical anthropocentric political thinking that still dominates today. it exists in different variations, and today it also underlies all concepts for containing the climate crisis simply by technological means, without changing our lifestyle. for büchner, on the other hand, the poet and physician, this separation of nature and culture is abolished – by a catastrophe, namely the fact that nature relinquishes its role as a silent accessory and self-evident prerequisite for human life. human “ontic certainty” must be lost when the previous self-evident aspects of nature, which are in fact the basis of human life, cease to exist. only then do we realize how much we depend on these seemingly eternally constant self-evident conditions. from this perspective, the common destiny of humanity comes to the fore and the profound contradictions between groups of people lose their contours. above all, the idea of humans as autonomous beings, independent of their environment, loses all meaning. in büchner's work, a new paradigm shines through, initially ex negativo, which has only been slowly gaining acceptance since the end of the 20th century – planetary thinking as a oneness with all living beings. it is the human-made threats to the conditions of human life that lead to this new insight: 2 https://animus-inviolabilis.tumblr.com/post/150289184957/grandmothers-story-in-georgb%c3%bcchners-wozzeck https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 284 climate change challenges this ontic certainty of the earth that humans have enjoyed through the holocene epoch and perhaps for longer. our everyday thoughts have begun to be oriented—thanks again to the current dissemination of geological terms such as the anthropocene in public culture—by the geological fact that the earth that husserl took for granted as the stable and unshakable ground from which all human thoughts (even copernican ones) arose actually has always been a fitful and restless entity in its long journey through the depths of geological time. (chakrabarty, 2021, p. 180) what we took as the immobile—in human time—background to human action is now changing because of human action and endangering humanity. (chakrabarty, 2021, p. 183) charkrabarty concludes: “the political eventually will have to be refounded on a new philosophical understanding of the human condition” (chakrabarty, 2021, p. 196). this “new understanding” is new from a western perspective, but in reality it ties in with centuries of indigenous approaches ignored by the west, for whom this western human-nature divide never existed and which are now being taken up by postcolonial and decolonial pedagogy. in any case, it is remarkable that the new thinking can be found in the much older text, which makes the text written 100 years later look rather old. this is also an indication that, alongside the mainstream of anthropocentric thinking, there is also a long tradition of alternative thinking in the western world that thinks of nature and the human world as related. these often buried traditions also need to be traced, especially today, when ecology has become a key issue that also has a decisive influence on peace education. the general purpose of peace education and the ecological challenge “. . . the general purpose of peace education […] is to promote the development of an authentic planetary consciousness that will enable us to function as global citizens and to transform the present human condition by changing the social structures and the patterns of thought that have created it. this transformational imperative must […] be at the center of peace education. it is important to emphasize that transformation, in this context, means a profound global cultural change that affects ways of thinking, world views, values, behaviors, relationships, and the structures that make up our public order. it implies a change in the human consciousness and in human society of a dimension far greater than any other that has taken place since the emergence of the nation-state system, and perhaps since the emergence of human settlements” (reardon, 1988, p. x). https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 285 with this already classic definition, the doyenne of us peace education, betty reardon, sets a high standard and opens up a broad horizon. peace education is described as a change in consciousness that has what it takes to qualify for a social transformation towards peace. this striving for transformation is the “imperative” from which further concrete work is derived. this peace transformation is described as a break with existing world views and the existing world order of immense significance. the agents of change are therefore global citizens who are characterized by a planetary consciousness, because “peace education is the enactment of the cosmopolitan ethic” (reardon & snauwaert 2015, 188). the term “authentic planetary consciousness”, on the other hand, already aims beyond this, at least according to today's understanding, and also includes, beyond human society, an awareness of the wider natural world in which we are embedded and of which we should consider ourselves a part. the complexity of peace education tasks is reflected in a variety of pedagogical directions, sub-areas or topics that are integrated into the goal of education for a culture of peace: non-violent education, conflict transformation, civic education, global citizenship education, anti-racism, gender-equitable education, human rights education, decolonial thinking, transculturality, social learning, etc. meanwhile, the issue of “peace and ecology” is increasingly taking on a key role. this is a topic that has long been discussed in the context of the diverse aspects of peace education, but whose elementary and central importance, as well as its contradictory nature, only recently seems to have come to the fore, both in society as a whole and in peace education. cause what is new, is that ecology is no longer just a topic, but has become a category of peace thinking and thus, of peace education as well. in the following, i will argue that the problem of ecological peace is now a core problem of peace in general. betty reardon also took this development into account in the foreword to the new edition of her book comprehensive peace education (2021) when she defined three “imperatives” that are closely linked: the gender imperative, the weapons imperative and finally the earth imperative. in order to explore this earth imperative in particular, the integration of ecological thinking into peace education over the last 50 years will be examined in a historical outline. this will be followed by a reconstruction of some of the cornerstones of the history of ecological thinking towards peace, up to the “postcolonial challenge – postcolonial opportunity”, which not only adds a further dimension of depth to our ecological thinking, but also radically renews it. this brings us back full circle to peace education, which i would like to see as “comprehensive” in the fullest sense. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 286 ecological approaches in peace education since the 1970s peace education, which established itself as a scientific (sub-)discipline in the 1960s and 1970s at the latest, built on the critical concepts of peace research of the time in its understanding of nature and the world. these will therefore be examined here first. in general, the idea prevails that from the 19th century at the latest and well into the second half of the 20th century, the ideology of progress (in the sense of brecht’s poem) dominated not only among the protagonists of capitalism, but also among their left-wing and socialist opponents, while ecological ideas were at most to be found among past-oriented romantic critics – apart from exceptions such as henry david thoreau. the french philosopher serge audier (2017), on the other hand, has shown that there has been a marginalized and often fought tradition of political ecology since the beginning of the industrial age, which was characterized by socialist currents and established a link between emancipatory ideas and concern for nature. a new ethic of responsibility this political ecology received strong new impetus after 1945 – initially as a reaction to the dropping of the two atomic bombs on hiroshima and nagasaki, which catapulted humanity into a new era. from now on, it was realized, a reorientation of human relations was necessary under penalty of the extinction of (not only) the human species. the most consistent, relentless philosopher of this new age is undoubtedly günther anders. no one has insisted as ruthlessly as he has on the novelty of the situation created by the invention of the atomic bomb. and no one has emphasized the irreversibility of this situation as clearly. because the nuclear threat can no longer be reversed, and that changes everything. “however long this age may last, it is ‘the last age’: for there is no possibility that ist ‘differentia specifica,’ the possibility of our self-extinction can ever end – but by the end itself. (...) [thus,] there is but one answer: although at any moment the time of the end could turn into the end of time, we must do everything in our power to make the end time endless” (anders 1962, pp. 493-494). “hiroshima” has become a world condition. the omnipotence that lies in the ability to destroy all human life is changing the paradigms of ethical and political action. from now on, society must be transformed in such a way as to prevent the terrible from ever happening. as hans jonas shows – going beyond anders – this imposes an ethic of global responsibility on us. it is required because we have the opportunity to act differently, because our ability to make https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 287 decisions has increased and because we are forced to make our choice. the imperative of responsibility (jonas 1985) becomes more important as our potential to shape the world increases. hans jonas justifies his “ethics for the technological age” with the enormous increase in power of modern societies after the second world war. this power must be contained and controlled by the people themselves. this is not just about humanity as such. jonas assumes a continuity of all forms of living nature and breaks with the traditional western dualism between humans and non-human living beings. for the congolese philosopher raymond matand makashing, however, jonas' philosophy of nature is still reductionist and limited to an isolated planet earth (makashing 2020). an ethics of global responsibility, as represented by anders and jonas, is also decisive for peace education, which received a strong impetus with the founding of unesco after 1945. thus, overcoming fascist and racist thinking as well as militarism and a sense of ecological responsibility are – in principle – linked from the very beginning. however, historical hindsight also shows that environmental education and peace education – both within and outside the unesco context – have essentially developed alongside and independently of each other, although from the 1970s onwards there were also gradual, more or less consistent attempts to perceive and conceptualize ecological issues as part of the peace problem. the suppression of radical eco-pacifist approaches one of the reasons why an integration of the two directions of attention – to put it boldly: peace with nature, peace in the human world – was not thought of and practiced for a long time, or not consistently, is certainly due to the inadequate understanding of the interconnectedness of humans and nature outlined at the beginning. even ecologically sensitive approaches have often not abandoned the reduction of “nature” as a resource for humans. this prevalence of a capitalist growth ideology (to this day) probably explains why a critical ecopedagogy as a comprehensive socio-critical concept has not been able to establish itself on the international stage. the club of rome's report the limits to growth from 1972 provided the first empirical basis for the need to take the environment seriously as a factor in all human activity. just how intertwined ecological issues are with political rule and economic power was demonstrated at the 1974 un conference in cocoyoc (mexico), which focused on the environment and development. the final document, the cocoyoc declaration, was probably the most radical document critical of capitalism ever adopted by a un organization. it identified the neo-colonial dominance of the north as the cause of permanent poverty in the south and called for a fair global economic order. economic growth is only justified if it serves the needs of the masses of people. the already visible ecological problems could not be solved by the markets, but only through the https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 288 political efforts of all states, under the guidance of a reformed un. the declaration was rejected in its entirety by the usa immediately after its publication. instead, the guiding principle of “sustainable development” became the paradigm of environmental policy. (bernier 2011) this guiding principle quickly became the subject of criticism: wolfgang sachs, for example, calls “sustainable development” an “oxymoron” and comments sarcastically: „in trying to square the circle, the question was: how can we protect nature while keeping on competing and growing economically?“ (sachs 1999: xii). this also had an impact on the education sector. education for sustainable development – in its mainstream version as a reconciliation of capitalist growth and environmental requirements – gradually became synonymous with environmental education in general and displaced critical eco-educational approaches. this also made it rather difficult to connect with peace education. unesco's recommendation concerning education for international understanding, cooperation and peace and education relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms, adopted in 1974 and still authoritative today, does not yet contain any ecological reflections. at least unesco did publish a bibliography, threat of modern warfare to man and his environment, in collaboration with the international peace research association (ipra) in 1979. however, the discourse on sustainability that already existed at the time, starting with the un world conference on the human environment in stockholm in 1972, developed in parallel with or without reference to peace and human rights education. education for sustainable development (esd) was promoted in the brundtland report of 1987, anchored in agenda 21 at the rio summit in 1992 and finally established as the “educational wing” of environmental policy at the world summit on sustainable development in johannesburg in 2002. it was implemented with the un decade of education for sustainable development (2005-2014) and the unesco future strategy esd 2015+ as well as the roadmap.3 the agenda 2030, the global sustainable development goals (sdgs) of 2015, once again upgraded esd, but also established a clear connection to global citizenship education (gced), peace education, human rights education, etc. (target 4.7) unesco also took up its efforts to perceive these “political pedagogies” in their entirety and their contexts in full since the 2010s – as a link between gced and esd, which in principle also included peace education. however, within the peace education community, efforts to integrate environmental and peace education go back much further. this will be outlined here by highlighting a few significant publications. the practice of environmental and peace education (1986) 3 for a comprehensive account of the history of ecological education in the un context see sauvé et al. 2017. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 289 in times of greenpeace (founded in 1971) and the founding of the originally ecological and pacifist party die grünen in germany (1980), peace education in german-speaking countries also endeavored to consider ecology and peace as related. a trend-setting publication was the three-volume anthology praxis der umweltund friedenserziehung [practice of environmental and peace education] (calließ & lob 1986-1987). however, despite the double title “environmental and peace education”, these two areas remain strictly separated in the publication. one volume is dedicated to environmental education and the other to peace education, while the first volume of this comprehensive threevolume reference work deals with the basics. but even in this volume, which is expected to be primarily a synthesis, the two areas are initially developed separately. only just over 100 pages of this 850-page book are devoted to “interrelationships”. in the following two volumes, however, there is no sign of this interweaving. the most interesting contribution in this book is probably that of a natural scientist, klaus müller, who is the only one to clearly state “how much our relationship to these dimensions of life (environment and peace, ww) must change if we want to survive in continuity with previous history”. (1987, 687, emphasis in original) “by reaching or overplaying the limits of nature's regenerative capacity with the forces we mobilize against it today, this feedback is capable of dragging us into the abyss of dying self-regulation. [...] having a living environment and maintaining world peace is increasingly afflicted with the same highly abstract dimensions of a non-visible challenge” (ibid., 688, emphasis in original). as it is precisely this abstractness that is a problem for peace education, müller sees the way out in the concrete, tangible close-up, where the problems may not show themselves in all their magnitude, but where they are quite undeniable. “peace, the environment and the inner world themselves require a fundamentally new integration in people's understanding of the world, because it is the inner world where the environment and peace meet. peace with nature and peace with ourselves are two sides of the same coin” (ibid., 694, emphasis in original). müller's strength lies in his precise differentiation of the problems of perception (and thus the pedagogy) of the issue, although he also refers almost exclusively to ecological questions and omits questions of political power. although he does not lack a reference to the historical development of today's dilemmas, he does not include any critique of imperialism or colonialism. comprehensive peace education and beyond (1988) as mentioned, betty reardon's comprehensive peace education is a landmark publication for entire generations of peace educators worldwide. the sharp criticism of the war system, which is supported by militarism and patriarchy, is https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 290 striking. but there is also a focus on the totality of nature. in response to the war system, reardon identifies three basic values, which she defines as planetary stewardship, global citizenship and humane relationship. she states: “the value of stewardship calls on us to foster in our students a consciousness of their relationship to the whole natural order and their responsibility to assure the health, the survival, and the integrity of the planet. it calls upon us to recognize our physical as well as our ethical relationship to our planet home, so that earth itself and the integrity of earth is the fundamental and central value of all education, but most particular of peace education.” (reardon 1988, 59, emphasis in original) the valuable and pioneering aspect of this approach is precisely the combination of the ecological, political and social dimensions of human coexistence and thus the integration of these dimensions in peace education, even if this approach was not yet very well developed at the time. learning peace: the promise of ecological and cooperative education (1994) this book emerged from the joint project ecological and cooperative education (peace) of american, russian, and norwegian scholars, which began in 1988, shortly before soviet perestroika. the common concern for the future of the environment and thus the living conditions of humankind overcame the ideological barriers between east and west. this cooperation dates back to 1982, when the scandinavian peace movement organized a peace march from stockholm to moscow, where the unity of the world and planet earth was the focus of attention. and so eva nordland, the driving force behind this initiative, states in her introductory contribution: “today humanity has arrived at a turning point in its history” (nordland 1994, 18). in view of the pressing ecological problems (she explicitly mentions global warming even then), great educational efforts are needed for “a transformation of life-style and culture” to “establish a safer basis for life on earth and a future for humankind” (ibid, 19). betty reardon, who drew a parallel between ecological violence and sexist violence in her 1988 book sexism and the war system, sees this project as crucial for the ecological expansion of her concept of peace education. in her article learning our way to a human future, she writes: “the relationship between humanity and planet earth is emerging as the most significant of all global security issues” (reardon 2015, 138). education for a culture of social and ecological peace (2004) anita wenden, a lifelong pioneer of the ecological cause, has founded numerous initiatives together with her husband frans verhagen, such as the platform https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 291 earth and peace education international (www.globalepe.org), and not least the anthology education for a culture of social and ecological peace (2004). she states programmatically: “[…] it may be concluded that since the earth is the primary context and essential foundation of all social activity, a comprehensive social peace can neither be achieved nor sustained if earth rights are not respected. conversely, a society which allows humans to benefit equitably form what their rights allow is essential if ecological sustainability is to be achieved” (wenden 2004, 6). her approach is to propose an integrative values education as the core of an ecologically conscious peace education. “[...] the values that should be the core components of a perspective for analyzing and evaluating social and ecological realities, that is, nonviolence, social justice, ecological sustainability, intergenerational equity, and civic participation.” (wenden 2004, 21, my emphasis) remarkable is not only the compilation of the key topics, but also the choice of words – ecological sustainability, instead of the problematic term sustainable development propagated by the un and unesco. wenden refers to the earth charter, which was developed and supported by a number of recognized personalities, but which was never approved by the un and therefore did not become a un document: “as never before in history, common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning. such renewal is the promise of these earth charter principles. […] this requires a change of mind and heart. it requires a new sense of global interdependence and universal responsibility. we must imaginatively develop and apply the vision of a sustainable way of life locally, nationally, regionally, and globally. our cultural diversity is a precious heritage and different cultures will find their own distinctive ways to realize the vision. we must deepen and expand the global dialogue that generated the earth charter, for we have much to learn from the ongoing collaborative search for truth and wisdom.” (earth charter international o.j., 48) however, it must be asked whether the charter itself does not address the globally effective social contradictions that stand in the way of an actual socio-ecological transformation too little. although it contains references to unavoidable “tensions between important values.” (ibid.), it nevertheless merely calls for cooperation between all forces: “the partnership of government, civil society, and business is essential for effective governance.” (ibid., 49) https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 292 interim conclusion: important insights, but not quite at the point yet the importance of the ecological issue as a social problem has long been recognized in peace education, and direct references to peace issues, such as the devastating effects of armaments and war on the environment, were made early on. a few publications have also identified deeper connections – the link between militarism, patriarchy and capitalism as causes of the destruction of nature and of political violence. apart from the aforementioned flagship publications, however, ecology is not exactly the focus of peace education research. a look at the last five volumes of the journal of peace education (jpe, 2020 to 2024) shows that the topic of peace and nature only takes up a very small amount of space.4 however, issue 1/2025 is entirely dedicated to the topic of climate crisis and peace education, which probably indicates a change in awareness. and only a few approaches recognize nature not only as a topic, but as a category of political thinking that would enable a redefinition of the political and thus an actual integrated ecological peace education. obviously, peace education has long lacked an epistemic critique of the presuppositions of our thinking about nature and culture, and in this context also a critical and decolonial interpretation of the western human-nature relationship in particular. only gradually has the insight gained acceptance: “ultimately what is required of us is the overcoming of the entrenched dichotomies between nature and culture that prevent us from grasping the coevolutive systemic relationships that cut across such conceptual domains.” (bousquet 2015, 198) in my observation, this integration of postcolonialism, ecology and peace education has only developed since the turn of the millennium. new ecological approaches in western philosophy were decisive for this, but even more so the impulses of decolonial ecology and pedagogy. 4 peace and nature is only addressed four times in total, and in none of the four articles is it the main topic: peace education for the anthropocene? the contribution of regenerative ecology and the ecovillages movement (1/2020) by ana margarita esteves mainly deals with the difficulties of transplanting the ecovillage idea from tamera (portugal) to israel/palestine. the articles on yogi peace education (3/2020) and tagore's pedagogy (1/2021) also each contain a short section on peace and nature, while the editorial by editor ed brantmeier in issue 1/2023 (transformative aspirations for peace education research) describes commitment to “equity, decolonization, and to the earth as central foci to peace education pursuits” (brantmeier 2023, 5). a survey done by brantmeier et al. (2024), covering the period from the beginning of the journal to 2023, comes to similar conclusions: “notably, environmental issues (12), cultural diversity (12), and gender inequality (12) do not show up in high frequency in titles, abstracts, and key words. ecological sustainability (10) and indigenous people (7) are also topics that are underrepresented topics in the journal of peace education 2004–2023.” https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 293 a new understanding of nature and the place of humans from the wealth of (western) authors who should be mentioned here (such as rachel carlson, jacques ellul, andré gorz, ivan illich, bruno latour, alain lipietz, maria mies, michel serres and karen j. warren), i will single out edgar morin and philippe descola because, in my opinion, they have contributed in a special way to a paradigm shift in thinking about the “human-nature relationship” (even this term still expresses an attachment to the old paradigm). i consider morin's early critique of the juxtaposition of nature and culture and the consistent embedding of humans in the natural environment, as we also know it from indigenous and pre-modern philosophies, which morin summarizes with the concept of the earthly and planetary community of destiny, to be an important approach. edgar morin and human nature the french philosopher and sociologist edgar morin was perhaps the first to not only reject the analytical separation of nature and culture, but also to systematically attempt to prove the “uniduality of humans”, the inseparability of cultural and biological factors, in the development of homo sapiens on the basis of scientific findings and to draw the necessary conclusions for world view, culture and politics. in his comprehensive anthropological study le paradigme perdu: la nature humaine [the lost paradigm. the human nature] (1973), a synthesis of all the findings of the relevant sciences at the time, he describes the process of independent human development as both a biological and a cultural process. it was only made possible by the interweaving of these two factors. “at a stroke, the old paradigm that opposed nature and culture collapses. biological and cultural evolution are two aspects, two poles of a connected and interfering development of the overall phenomenon of becoming human.” (morin 1973, 100) he consequently describes humans as “biocultural living beings”: “the human being is fully human because it is at the same time fully natural and fully cultural” (morin, 1994, 24). this also has consequences for morin's political understanding of nature, in which he is probably also one of the first to combine cosmopolitan and planetary perspectives. in preparation for his manifesto homeland earth (morin & kern, 1993 [1990]), he combines cosmopolitan and ecological visions into a dramatic appeal: “it is no longer time to merely state the ecological catastrophes. nor is it time to give in to the idea that the development of technologies alone https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 294 could provide a remedy, let alone that it could remedy the major undesirable developments that threaten to disrupt the planet and the biosphere for good. the saving leap in development can only come about through a huge upheaval in our relationships with humans, other living beings and nature. an ecological consciousness of solidarity must replace the culture of competition and aggression that currently dominates global relations.” (morin, 1989, p. 1) he consistently speaks not only of a global (human) community of destiny, but also of an earthly community that connects humans with the entire biosphere: “becoming aware of the earthly community of destiny must become the key event of our century. we are in solidarity on this planet and with this planet. we are anthropo-bio-physical beings, children of this planet. this is our homeland, earth.” (morin, 2015, p. iii, our emphasis) morin's proof of the inseparability of nature and culture, both in the historical development of the human species and in social life, is an essential basis for a new understanding of nature, according to which humans are not masters of nature, but merely part of animate and inanimate nature. this makes his worldview compatible with newer, mostly post-colonially informed holistic concepts of nature that seek to overcome anthropocentrism. his catchy image of homeland earth also points in this direction, whereby it must be emphasized even more strongly than the author himself that the earth is not only the home of all humans, but of all living beings that inhabit it (morin & kern, 1999). philippe descola: beyond nature and culture the french anthropologist philippe descola is also an important pioneer in overcoming the separation of nature and culture. he shows that this separation is by no means shared worldwide, but that it is a typically occidental way of thinking. this leads descola to the cultural relativization of our scientifically based view of the world. this insight that our understanding of nature is not a universally valid one, but is specific to the west, is doubly relevant, and not only, because “the opposition between nature and culture is not as universal as it is claimed to be. not only does it make no sense to anyone except the moderns, but moreover it appeared only at a late date in the course of the development of western thought itself, in which its consequences made a singularly forceful impact on the manner in which anthropology has envisaged both its object and its methods.” (descola, 2013, p. xviii) philippe descola places the time of this thinking at the beginning of the 18th century, “when nature ceased to be a unifying arrangement of things, however disparate, and became a domain of objects that were subject to https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 295 autonomous laws that formed a background against which the arbitrariness of human activities could exert its many-faceted fascination.” (descola 2013, p. xv). and he refers, albeit rather sloppily, to a connection to colonialism: “while the moderns were discovering the lazy propensity of barbaric and savage peoples to judge everything according to their own particular norms, they were masking their own ethnocentricity behind a rational approach to knowledge, the errors of which at that time escaped notice” (descola, 2013, p.xv). according to descola, the epistemes of the modern view of nature developed in the wake of (and we add: in support of) european and later western expansion, and they ultimately made it the dominant worldview worldwide. as an anthropologist, however, descola is also interested in all other worldviews, and the idea that indigenous thinking can help to overcome the strict western separation of culture and nature also resonates with him. “many so-called primitive societies invite us to overstep that demarcation line –societies that have never imagined that the frontiers of humanity extended no farther than the human race and that have no hesitation in inviting into their shared social life even the most humble of plants and the most insignificant of animals. anthropology is thus faced with a daunting challenge: either to disappear as an exhausted form of humanism or else to transform itself by rethinking its domain and its tools in such a way as to include in its object far more than the anthropos: that is to say, the entire collective of beings that is linked to him but is at present relegated to the position of a merely peripheral role; or, to put that in more conventional terms, the anthropology of culture must be accompanied by an anthropology of nature that is open to that part of themselves and the world that human beings actualize and by means of which they objectivize themselves.” (descola, 2013, pp. xixxx) at the same time, descola also emphasizes the advantages that the clear distinction between nature and culture has brought: „we need at least to give dualism credit not only for its wager that nature is subject to laws of its own but also for its formidable stimulation of the development of the natural sciences. we are also indebted to it not only for the belief that humanity becomes gradually civilized by increasing its control over nature and disciplining its instincts more efficiently but also for certain advantages, in particular political ones, engendered by an aspiration toward progress.” (descola, 2013, p. 80) https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 296 and he goes even further by explicitly refusing to make a political and ethical connection between the dualism of nature and culture and the development of colonialism and imperialism. “dualism is not an evil in itself and it is ingenuous to stigmatize it for purely moral reasons in the manner of ecologically friendly philosophies of the environment or to blame it for all the evils of the modern era, ranging from colonial expansion to the destruction of nonrenewable resources and including the reification of sexual identities and class distinctions” (descola 2013, p. 80). descola thus finds himself in clear opposition to representatives of a decolonial ecology, even if the latter can undoubtedly draw on many of the findings of his research. the declared aim of decolonial ecoscience is to shed light on the connection between colonialism and the understanding of nature. the caribbean author malcom ferdinand, for example, postulates a causal relationship between an understanding of nature as a resource for human despotism and colonialism. in this sense, he believes that the ecological question can only be solved if it is linked to the question of decoloniality, and that decolonial thinking is precisely the way to think ecologically adequately today. first of all, this concerns the perspective and contextualization of today's ecological problems: “we should be thinking of climate change as part of a much longer series of ecological catastrophes caused by colonialism and accumulation-based society,” also emphasizes the canadian writer, spokenword artist, and indigenous academic leanne betasamosake simpson (2019). however, this also applies to our basic understanding as humans in relation to the whole of nature, of which we are a part. ecofeminism (d'eaubonne, 1974) and postcolonial ecology have made a significant contribution to illuminating this connection. here is a summary by sharon stein: “the foundational modern colonial separation of human beings from ‘nature’/‘the environment’, and the presumed superiority and authority of the former over the latter is what allowed for the objectification of the latter into property (i.e., land and ‘resources’), and the subsequent extraction and appropriation of that ‘property’ for profit” (stein 2019, p. 201) malcom ferdinand and decolonial ecology malcom ferdinand's basic idea is: “the ecological crisis [...] comes from a certain way of inhabiting the earth, from some believing themselves entitled to appropriate the earth for the benefit of a few.” (ferdinand, 2020, p. 1) https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 297 according to ferdinand, colonialism played and continues to play a decisive role in this: “colonial habitation is a violent way of inhabiting the earth, subjugating lands, humans, and non-humans to the desires of the coloniser” (ferdinand, 2020, p. 2). this view goes beyond a mere critique of capitalism: “while colonization and slavery were also driven by capitalist rationales, these processes were above all based on a colonial world view that invented a hierarchy between races and different lands of the globe” (ferdinand, 2020, p. 2). according to ferdinand, there is a double “rupture”, the ecological and the colonial rupture, the two central lines of division that need to be addressed. the ecological rupture results from the dualistic juxtaposition of nature and culture, environment and society, establishing a vertical scale of values placing humans above nature. it also means a horizontal homogenization. the terms 'planet', 'nature' or 'environment' make real existing hierarchizations between humans and animals, but also between humans, disappear. according to ferdinand, the discourse of the anthropocene in particular has promoted this uncritical view once again. anti-colonial thinkers, on the other hand, fought against this early on, but were hardly noticed in the global north. only since the 1960s have ecofeminism, social ecology and political ecology made this rupture an unmistakable topic and criticized it. “the colonial fracture separates humans and the geographical spaces of the earth between european colonizers and non-european colonized peoples, between whites and non-whites, between the masters and the enslaved, between the metropole and the colonies, between the global north and the global south.” (ferdinand, 2022, online text no pagination) afrofeminism and decolonial thinking are changing the situation, but the real ecological issues of the world remain in the background. this creates a double deficit: “yet, by leaving aside the colonial question, ecologists and green activists overlook the fact that both historical colonization and contemporary structural racism are at the center of destructive ways of inhabiting the earth. leaving aside the environmental and animal questions, antiracist and postcolonial movements miss the forms of violence that exacerbate the domination of the enslaved, the colonized and racialized women.” (ferdinand, 2022, online text no pagination) thus there would be a false alternative – either neglecting the ecological question or adopting the theories of the north, of (colonialist or colonialistblind) ecology. according to ferdinand, the solution is to combine the struggle for an ecologically sustainable way of life with the struggle against the exploitation of oppressed groups, especially indigenous populations: “yet https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 298 understanding that destruction was possible thanks to the exploitation of indigenous peoples means recognizing these peoples' need for justice, as well as demands for slavery reparations.” (ferdinand, 2020) ferdinand refers to postcolonial/decolonial approaches to ecological thinking that have been largely unknown to us since the 1970s, such as the first national people of color environmental leadership summit in washington in 1991. we could thus arrive at an altogether different understanding of ecology, an environmental justice and postcolonial ecocriticism that includes a critique of environmental racism, ecological imperialism and green orientalism. ferdinand describes this vision in expressive poetic images. he contrasts noah's ark, understood as western, and the slave ship with the world-ship as an ideal of the future. it would offer encounters that make it possible “to forge interspecies alliances where the cause of animals and the demand for the emancipation of the negroes are seen as common problems. these encounters are only possible if a bridge of justice is built across the environmental and colonial fracture, making nonhumans count politically and legally as well as seeking justice for the colonized and the enslaved. this bridge of justice opens up the horizon of a world: a worldly-ecology.” (ferdinand, 2022, online text no pagination, emphasis in the original) this worldly-ecology has a philosophical background, but it is also a political and educational concern: “starting from the constitutive plurality of humans and non-humans on earth, of different cultures taking the world as an object of ecology, brings back to the fore the question of the political composition between these pluralities, and therefore the question acting together as well. this political approach to the world, in the greek sense of polis, removes ecology from the single question of the oikos (economic and environmental) because, even if earth is indeed strewed with houses, fertile spaces for life and exchanges with it, the earth, however, is not our home. if these ecumenes are fundamental, then the earth cannot be adequately represented as one single global oikos.” (ferdinand, 2022, online text no pagination) postcolonial ecological (peace) pedagogy as we have seen, peace education has had ecological issues in mind since its modern constitution as “critical peace education” (e.g. wulf 1974, haavelsrud 1974). however, it was still a long step to the realization that the problem of ecological peace today is the problem of peace in general. this does not mean that the focus should now only be on ecological problems (such as the climate https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 299 catastrophe), but much more fundamentally that the basic issues of human society, including peace culture and world peace, must be seen and addressed in a wider context of the natural environment. just as postcolonial thinking provides decisive impulses for this, it is also a postcolonial-inspired pedagogy that provides the foundations for peace education in order to develop an ecorelational paradigm for peace. the focus of this pedagogy is mainly on peace issues such as anti-racism, global citizenship education and a critique of education for sustainable development. the research collective gesturing towards decolonial futures, led by the brazilian educator vanessa andreotti (working in canada), has made a name for itself in this area. “the modern-colonial habit-of-being” the analytical link between a political and an educational approach to this complex of topics is the “imperial mode of living” (brand & wissen, 2017/2021), or, in the terminology of the authors around andreotti, “the modern-colonial habit-of-being” (stein 2019, p. 198). it is the idea that social change towards peaceful, just and ecologically compatible behavior is not simply a question of insight. “we do not just have a knowledge problem – we have a 'habit-of-being problem'.” (ibid.) violent and environmentally damaging behavior is not only anchored in our consciousness (culture of violence), but is also supported by our way of life. “the concept of the imperial way of life connects people's everyday lives with social structures” (brand & wissen 2017, p. 46). the “imperial way of life”, which is also an androcentric and patriarchal way of life, is based on the fact that “everyday life in the capitalist centers is essentially made possible by the shaping of social conditions and natural conditions elsewhere.” (brand & wissen 2017, p. 43) precisely because this way of life is so all-encompassing, it is also so invisibly and seemingly “naturally” anchored in our everyday lives. the everyday nature of this way of life is also one of the subjective obstacles to overcoming it and eliminating the neo-colonial world system on which it is based. in addition, it is also subjectively affirmed by the majority of people in the north, even if they are only partially its beneficiaries: “however, the structural compulsion towards an imperial way of life, which sometimes causes suffering and destruction elsewhere, is not necessarily perceived as such, but in many cases as an expansion of opportunities for action. for many people, the imperial way of life means the possibility of a subjectively fulfilling life.” (brand & wissen 2017, p. 55). for educational work, this means that it cannot primarily focus on imparting knowledge, but must actually work in a transformative way: “we contend that the predicament we face is not primarily rooted in ignorance and thus solvable with more knowledge, nor primarily rooted in immorality and thus solvable with more normative values; rather, it is rooted in denials that stem https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 300 from harmful desires for and investments in the continuity of the securities and satisfactions promised by modernity-coloniality.” (stein et al. 2022, p. 274) “education for the end of the world ... as we know it” a new, postcolonial and ecological (peace) education thus begins with a critique of education. it traces racist, sexist, (neo-)colonial and violent elements of education systems and also of critical emancipatory pedagogies. they take particular aim at education for sustainable development, as prominently expressed in the un's sustainable development goals of 2015. in target 4.7, in numerous unesco documents (as well as in many national education plans), it is regarded as a guiding principle and is often understood as the basic idea of critical political education (which also covers the area of peace education). (see critically sauvé et al., 2017) stein et al. (2022), on the other hand, ask: „what are we seeking to ‘sustain’ with the sustainable development paradigm, and why? broadly speaking, this paradigm both presumes and aspires not only to the conservation but also the expansion of the house modernity built, that is, a global system premised on: an economic system organized by capitalism, a political system organized by nationstates, a knowledge system organized by universal and totalizing reason, and a relational system organized by utility-maximizing and socialmobility aspiring individuals. the sustainable development paradigm does not consider the externalized costs that make the continuity and expansion of this system not only violent and harmful, but likely impossible, given the biophysical limits of the planet.” as an alternative, they propose a transformative education based on the fact that we need a different way of thinking, living and working, in other words, that “the end of the world as we know it” has come: “thus, instead of asking how we can reorient education to support sustainable development, we ask what kind of education could prepare people to face the impossibility of sustaining our contemporary moderncolonial habits of being, which are underwritten by racial, colonial, and ecological violence. in other words, rather than reimagine ‘education for sustainable development’ we consider how we might imagine ‘education for the end of the world as we know it.’” (stein et al., 2022) the research collective gesturing towards decolonial futures, which works a lot with indigenous communities, is also developing appropriate didactics for pedagogy in the global north: https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 301 “[…] we offer two pedagogical frameworks that may support the interruption of harmful recurring patterns and that invite a visceral sense of responsibility ‘before will’ (spivak, 2004). through learning to grow up, we might also learn to ‘show up’ differently to do the collective work that is needed in the face of numerous overlapping global challenges.” (stein et al., 2022) as far as these patterns are concerned, it is specifically a matter of confronting the three central denials that are firmly anchored in western culture as “desires for the continuity (sustainability) of this modern-colonial habit of being“: “(1) systemic colonial violence that underwrites the maintenance of the dominant system, which is premised on racialized and gendered extraction, exploitation, and expropriation. this denial leads to the belief that violence is either external to or exceptional within the system, or otherwise occasionally justified in the service of a larger purpose (e.g. progress, development); (2) ecological unsustainability of the dominant system, which is premised on unending growth and consumption that ignores the planetary limits. this denial leads to either outright refusal that climate change is real, or the search for solutions to climate change that can be found within the existing system (e.g. green consumerism, carbon trading, green jobs, technological innovation, environmental protection legislation); (3) condition of entanglement, which is premised on framing relationality as a willed choice rather than a fact of our collective existence on a shared planet. this denial leads to either outright refusal of entanglement and assertion of individualism and unrestricted autonomy, or else framing relationships either through utilitarian (utility-maximizing), or self-congratulatory (e.g. enactments of moral responsibility) means.” (stein et al., 2022, p.) as these explanations show, postcolonial pedagogy, like peace education, is concerned with the identification and reduction of violence. it opens our eyes to forms of violence as well as to specific historical events and current problem areas that have often been ignored up to now. its particular significance certainly lies in giving the concept of “peace with nature” a comprehensive meaning. according to this new understanding, this choice of words (which implies a fundamental separation of humans and nature) will then also have to be questioned. the term eco-relational peace proves to be much more appropriate. outlook: on the way to an eco-relational comprehensive peace education https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 302 post-colonial, violence-sensitive eco-education also offers good preconditions for the core concerns of peace education, such as non-violent conflict transformation, removing images of the enemy, criticism of the culture of violence and war, peace as a value and as a lived practice, etc. in terms of content, peace education can only rely to a limited extent on the standard-setting international documents of the international community (un, unesco, etc.). by their very nature, these are politically negotiated texts that represent compromises between very different actors. as pleasing as it is that the un sustainable development goals in target 4.7 mention “human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship, and appreciation of cultural diversity”, it is primarily – as with the sdgs as a whole – about (education for) sustainable development, and thus about an impossible reconciliation of capitalist-colonial economic practices and consideration for the preservation of the natural foundations of life, which are usually addressed as “resources” (i.e. again anthropocentric-utilitarian). as far as unesco is concerned, the 2023 revision of the 1974 recommendation mentioned at the beginning and still authoritative today has now also opened up to ecological requirements and reads “that there can be no sustainable development without peace and no peace without sustainable development.” with this in view, the document states (n) as one of the “guiding principles”: “raise awareness of the increasing interdependence of individuals, communities, societies, countries, natural resources and ecosystems, and cultivate an ethic of global citizenship and shared responsibility for peace, human rights and sustainable development for the benefit of all, within planetary boundaries.” (unesco, 2023, p. 8) unesco's most recent peace education document (which is not binding, however), peace education in the 21st century. an essential strategy for building lasting peace (2024), makes a number of links between war and environmental degradation. although it retains the terminology “education for sustainable development” as a field of peace education, it sets its own accents in its choice of words when it speaks of “environmental integrity”, sets the task of “developing awareness of relationship of self to others and all living systems” and lists “structural violence, including poverty, lack of ecological security, inequitable economic development, environmental racism, decolonization, and lack of access to education” as challenges (unesco, 2024, 13) the gene declaration on global education (dublin declaration) of 2022, the follow-up text to the maastricht declaration of 2002, is, so to speak, a bridging document between a purely scientific or civil society statement and a political statement. gene (global education network europe) is the european network of ministries and agencies with national responsibility for policymaking, funding and support in the field of global education. this text will therefore be subject to higher expectations and stricter standards. the core statement reads: https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 303 global education is education that enables people to reflect critically on the world and their place in it; to open their eyes, hearts and minds to the reality of the world at local and global level. it empowers people to understand, imagine, hope and act to bring about a world of social and climate justice, peace, solidarity, equity and equality, planetary sustainability, and international understanding. it involves respect for human rights and diversity, inclusion, and a decent life for all, now and into the future. global education encompasses a broad range of educational provision: formal, non-formal and informal; life-long and life-wide. we consider it essential to the transformative power of, and the transformation of, education.5 even if no direct reference is made here to colonialism or the continued impact of colonial structures and mentalities, this definition offers good opportunities for linkage. in contrast to the sdgs, there is talk of “social and climate justice” and “planetary sustainability”, for example, and reference is also made to the need for the “transformation of education”. the provision that global education “enables people to reflect critically on the world and their place in it” is in turn well suited to the task of becoming aware of one's own “modern-colonial habitof-being” and its denials. in 1988, betty reardon published her work comprehensive peace education, discussed at the beginning of this article. it has long since become one of the most influential books on peace education ever published. something like this cannot be repeated. however, it would be an important task for the peace education community today, almost 40 years later, to once again work on a comprehensive overview of the rationale, goals and methods of peace education that incorporates the post-colonial, ecological and feminist impulses that have emerged in recent decades. references anders, g. (1962). theses for the atomic age. the massachusetts review 3(3) 493–505. audier, s. (2017). la société écologique et ses ennemis. pour une histoire alternative de l'émancipation. la découverte. bernier, a. (2011). a la conférence de cocoyoc, le sud liait écologie et égalité. le monde diplomatique, décembre. bousquet, a. (2015). prolegomena to postanthropocentric international relations. biosphere and technosphere in the age of global 5 https://www.gene.eu/ge2050-congress https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 304 complexity. in e. kavalski (ed.), world politics at the edge of chaos: reflections on complexity and global life. suny press, pp. 189–207. brand u., wissen, m. (2017). imperiale lebensweise. zur ausbeutung von mensch und natur im globalen kapitalismus. oekom. [english version: the imperial mode of living: everyday life and the ecological crisis of capitalism. verso 2021] brantmeier e. j. (2023): transformative aspirations for peace education research. journal of peace education 20(1). brantmeier, e.j., kennedy k., sims, z., grimes j. & xavier grier (2024). a historical content analysis study of the journal of peace education from 2004 to 2023. journal of peace education, 21(3), 263-284, doi: 10.1080/17400201.2024.2422765). calließ, j., lob r. e. (eds.). (1986). praxis der umweltund friedenserziehung. schwann. chakrabarty, d. (2021). the climate of history in a planetary age. the university of chicago press. d'eaubonne, f. (1974). le féminisme ou la mort, p. horay. [english version: feminism or death. verso 2022] descola, ph. (2013). beyond nature and culture. the university of chicago press. ferdinand, m. (2020). why we need a decolonial ecology. green european journal, june, 4. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/wpcontent/uploads/pdf/why-we-need-a-decolonial-ecology.pdf ferdinand, m. (2022). decolonial ecology: thinking from the caribbean world. john wiley & sons. haavelsrud m. (ed.) (1974). education for peace: reflection and action: proceedings of the first world conference of the world council for curriculum and instruction, university of keele, uk, september 1974. ipc science and technology press. jonas, h. (1985). the imperative of responsibility. in search of an ethics for the technological age. university of chicago press. matand makashing, r. (2020). michel serres, hans jonas, edgar morin et l’écologie profonde. l’harmattan. morin, e. (1989). pour une nouvelle conscience planétaire. le monde diplomatique, octobre, 1, 18, 19. https://www.mondediplomatique.fr/1989/10/morin/42105 morin, e. (2015). les deux humanismes. le monde diplomatique, octobre, supplément «réflexions sur le progrès», i, ii et iii. morin, e., kern, a. b. (1999). homeland earth. a manifesto for the new millennium. hampton press. müller, a.m.k. (1987): die gefährdung von umwelt und frieden im atomzeitalter. in: calließ j., lob, r.e. (eds.). praxis der umweltund friedenserziehung, vol. i, schwann, 685-694. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/pdf/why-we-need-a-decolonial-ecology.pdf https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/wp-content/uploads/pdf/why-we-need-a-decolonial-ecology.pdf https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/1989/10/morin/42105 https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/1989/10/morin/42105 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 305 nordland, e. (1994). new world – new thinking – new education. in: b. reardon, e. nordland (eds.) 1994. learning peace: the promise of ecological and cooperative education. state university of new york press, 1-20. reardon, b. (1988). comprehensive peace education. education for global responsibility. teachers college press. (new edition: 2021, peace knowledge press). reardon b., nordland e. (eds.) 1994. learning peace: the promise of ecological and cooperative education. state university of new york press. reardon, b.a., snauwaert, d. t. (2015). betty a. reardon: a pioneer in education for peace and human rights. springer. sachs, w. (1999). planet dialectis: explorations in environment and development. zed books. simpson, l. (2019). indigenous knowledge has been warning us about climate change for centuries. pacific standard, march 4. https://psmag.com/ideas/indigenous-knowledge-has-been-warningusabout-climate-change-for-centuries sauvé, l., berryman, t., brunelle, r. (2017). three decades of international guidelines for environment-related education: a critical hermeneutic of the united nations discourse. canadian journal of environmental education, 12, 33–54. stein, s. (2019). the ethical and ecological limits of sustainability: a decolonial approach to climate change in higher education. australian journal of environmental education 35(3):198–212, doi:10.1017/aee.2019.17 stein, s., andreotti, v., suša, r., ahenakew, c., & cajková, t. (2022). from “education for sustainable development” to “education for the end of the world as we know it”. educational philosophy and theory, 54(3), 274–287. un (2015). transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda; https://docs.un.org/en/a/res/70/1 unesco (1979). threat of modern warfare to man and his environment. an annotated bibliography. prepared under the auspices of the international peace research association (ipra). unesco. unesco (2023). recommendation on education for peace and human rights, international understanding, cooperation, fundamental freedoms, global citizenship and sustainable development (2023). document 42 c/40. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391686_eng/pdf/39168 6eng.pdf.multi.page=3 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://psmag.com/ideas/indigenous-knowledge-has-been-warningus-about-climate-change-for-centuries https://psmag.com/ideas/indigenous-knowledge-has-been-warningus-about-climate-change-for-centuries https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda https://docs.un.org/en/a/res/70/1 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391686_eng/pdf/391686eng.pdf.multi.page=3 https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391686_eng/pdf/391686eng.pdf.multi.page=3 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 282-306 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 306 unesco (2024). peace education in the 21st century. an essential strategy for building lasting peace. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000388385 wenden, a. (2004): education for a culture of social and ecological peace. state university of new york press. wulf, ch. (ed.) (1974). handbook on peace education. international peace research association, education committee. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000388385 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 213 volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 using climate simulators to facilitate peacebuilding: a study of practice ciara r. johnson united world college changshu china https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1530-1433 correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to ciara r. johnson, c/o uwc changshu china, no. 88 kun-cheng-hu-xi road, changshu, suzhou, jiangsu province, 215500, china. email: crjohnson@uwcchina.org abstract as the climate crisis approaches a critical juncture, the pursuit of ecological peace becomes increasingly vital to conflict resolution and peacebuilding efforts. this article explores the pivotal role of climate simulators in fostering peacebuilding through informed, data-driven dialogues. these tools anchor peacebuilding initiatives in scientific reality, enabling the identification and assessment of the cobenefits and co-considerations associated with climate-related actions. furthermore, they promote scenario-based planning within peacebuilding contexts. drawing from the author's personal experiences with the en-roads climate simulator in both secondary education and peacebuilding education settings, this article demonstrates the practical application of these tools. the en-roads climate simulator serves as a powerful example of how climate simulators can be integrated into educational frameworks to enhance understanding and engagement. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1530-1433 mailto:crjohnson@uwcchina.org in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 214 the article provides actionable recommendations for incorporating climate simulators into broader educational environments, community advocacy efforts, and legislative processes. by emphasizing the significance of data visualizations tailored to specific geographic locations, the article highlights how personalized climate simulation tools can inform and support sustainable, long-term peacebuilding strategies. ultimately, this article underscores the transformative potential of climate simulators in bridging the gap between scientific data and peacebuilding practices, advocating for their active adoption to address the multifaceted challenges posed by the climate crisis. keywords: climate simulators, data-driven dialogue, ecological peace, environmental policy, peacebuilding, scenario planning, systems thinking using climate simulators to facilitate peacebuilding: a study of practice the anthropocene, modernity, the information age, call it what you may, the current era is a time marked by significant human impact on the earth and environment, and includes substantial threats to peacebuilding; namely, nuclear war and climate change that is nearing irreversible levels. while the negative risks of nuclear war have been clearly illustrated to all of humanity via the u.s.’s combat bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki in world war ii, the negative effects of climate change are not as immediate as the aftereffects of a nuclear bomb. this delay between the decision being made and the effect can lead to a misunderstanding of how climate inaction will impact all global inhabitants. climate change is expected to motivate large-scale human conflict as weatherrelated natural disasters like hurricane helene in 2024 and the california fires of 2025 become more frequent, more destructive, and more expensive (smith, 2025), and historical existence of essential natural resources, like fresh water, arable land, and the jet stream, shift or disappear altogether. in working toward ecological peace, a condition of dynamic equilibrium between human societies and the biosphere in which the sustained health of both is ensured, there are clear areas of influence where local decision makers hold much power and control. individual neighborhoods, districts, and counties have the power to impact issues of the commons at a direct level. zoning laws and regulations have a clear and direct impact on the daily life of many and shape the day-to-day routines and norms of the citizenry. local legislators also make decisions about water use, sustainable energy infrastructure development, and placement of manufacturing facilities. within this landscape of decisions, ensuring https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 215 local leaders have a clear understanding of the climate impacts of their decisions is a crucial piece to working toward a future where we collectively avoid the most detrimental climate impacts associated with global warming. in the best of times, peacebuilding is difficult. as climate change is a known threat multiplier, peacebuilding within this context of ecological uncertainty depends on an increasing understanding of the impacts of climate change, the levers influencing the rate of climate change, and the interconnected nature, the enmeshment, of this global challenge. peacebuilding in the next decade within the context of decreasing resource access and increasing natural disasters will bring additional complexity to the process of peacebuilding as climate displacement disproportionately impacts vulnerable populations (moe-lobeda, 2016). the gray fire of 2023, which ravaged the area near medical lake, washington, serves as a poignant personal reminder of the toll that climate change can exact on individuals and communities. as someone who lived in the medical lake area from 1986 to 2002, i experienced firsthand the devastating effects of this wildfire. the fire not only destroyed my childhood home but also upended the lives of many of my friends and neighbors. several of my childhood and life-long friends lost their homes, their livelihoods, and faced profound disruptions to their lives in a climate disaster that, at $60 million u.s. dollars of damage, barely made the national news. my personal connection to the gray fire underscores the urgency i feel in addressing climate change in order to build peace. climate change is a significant motivator of conflict and will only become more so as we move forward due to the anticipated negative impacts of the climate crisis. peacebuilding within the context of the climate crisis requires peacebuilders who are able to engage others in the climate change conversation to address the underlying causes of climate change while advocating for the good of every global citizen. climate related disasters are happening more frequently and are more destructive than ever. in 2024, the united states faced 27 individual climate and weather-related disasters resulting in over 1 billion u.s. dollars of damage each, and totaling approximately 182.7 billion u.s. dollars of damage (smith, 2025, january 10). in the 1980s, by contrast, the u.s. faced an average of only 3.3 climate or weather-related events that resulted in over 1 billion u.s. dollars of damage (adjusted for inflation) (noaa, 2025). understanding that it is no longer “if” a community will face a devastating climate event, but “when” it will happen, working to mitigate the worst climate impacts can be supported with tools like climate simulators. as individual communities respond and adapt to this new climate reality with an understanding of how the local response fits into the larger, global, response to climate change, we have the opportunity to work collectively and change our future for the better. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 216 en-roads climate simulator one-way peacebuilders can be better equipped to engage in conversations regarding climate change to seek ecological peace is to have access to accurate climate information that is easy to understand and freely accessible to members of communities. one such tool that is well positioned to assist in this necessity is climate simulators (goodspeed, 2019; petersen, 2000). while most large data model simulators are proprietary and behind paywalls, one that is feely available and well-designed for mass public interaction is the en-roads climate simulator, a tool created by climate interactive and mit sloan. the en-roads climate simulator (en-roads) is described by climate interactive and mit sloan in this way: en-roads is a global climate simulator that allows users to explore the impact that dozens of policies—such as electrifying transport, pricing carbon, and improving agricultural practices— have on hundreds of factors like energy prices, temperature, air quality, and sea level rise. (what is en-roads? (n.d.)). key features of this tool which make it highly useful in peacebuilding contexts include a simple interface with clear and easy to read graphs (figure 1), and educational information regarding the structure of the model in-built to the user interface (figure 2). figure 1 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 217 en-roads main interface note. en-roads main page image was captured january 29, 2025 (en-roads simulator, 2025, january). https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 218 figure 2 example of en-roads expanded navigation controls for individual graphs. note. accessing the three dots feature on the individual en-roads graphs provides related educational information for the user including key definitions and calculation assumptions (en-roads simulator, 2025, january). https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 219 the en-roads tool, free to use for anyone with an internet connection, currently offers navigation in 20 different languages. with a commitment to transparency, climate interactive provides users with access to modeling data, simulation formula and programming code, and detailed descriptions on baseline assumptions which power simulation output (figure 3). https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 220 figure 3 example of en-roads expanded educational information for individual sliders. note. from the en-roads main page, the three dots open an additional interface that allows the user to adjust the assumptions within the simulation. the user is https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 221 also able to access specific educational materials for the individual sliders (enroads simulator, 2025, january). within an individually created scenario, users can modify the baseline assumptions with relation to a policy’s implementation start date and other specific rates of increase or decrease by simply moving the sliders. this ability to customize data modeling can help users engage with data and research supported science to understand long-term impacts of climate related decisions. while climate simulators are helpful in understanding the complexities of climate change and can aid in communicating the urgent need to take action to mitigate the worst impacts of global warming, it is important to note that all climate models involve uncertainty (mearns, 2010). simulations are of any sort are simplifications of complex systems and it is important to understand the limitations of the climate model and the implications those limitations have on decision making (briley et al., 2021). one key point to remember is that climate models are continually growing more detailed and accurate as scientific understanding increases and computer technology advances (fyfe et al., 2021; hourdin et al., 2017), so ensuring the tool you are using is up-to-date is foundational to its usefulness in the peacebuilding process. peacebuilders can also work to understand the individual model assumptions and how those assumptions are arrived at. in general, peacebuilders are encouraged to check the provenance of any tool used to support the peacebuilding process including the use of climate simulators. in the interest of disclosing my personal engagement with this tool, i have been using the en-roads climate simulator since 2021 with groups of students in my school community (united world college changshu china). i have continued my use of this tool due to climate interactive’s commitment to regular updates of new graphs, free training on new feature use, and step-by-step support of how to best engage with these new aspects of the tool. through the use of this tool, i have seen meaningful impact in my students in terms of their understanding of the complexity of climate change mediation and equity considerations of climate policy implementation as it relates to peacebuilding. i have used this tool with teachers to model how climate conversations can be used to facilitate peacebuilding skill development across the curriculum. when working with teachers, the in-built education materials are a feature that garner excitement and help educators see how the tool can be used to engage critical, skill-building conversations and data-driven investigations. a key feature educators appreciate is the ability to access program assumptions and underlying formulae and data sets. this transparency of information has been both supportive to learning outcomes and generative of new learning. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 222 the role of climate simulators in facilitating peacebuilding simulation use in peacebuilding and warcraft is not new (cuhadar & kampf, 2014; finn & miller, 2022; glick, & charters, 1983; rajkovich, schwarz, harris, & zullo, 2022; stapleton, 2020); however, historically most simulations are focused on roleplaying within a specific conflict or building a specific skill. in terms of learning, simulators have known benefits for training and knowledge building (loukissas, 1983; nance & sargent, 2002; rushby, 2016). across industries, simulators are used to build specific skills and develop proficiency in application before individuals “go live” within the field. doctors use simulators to practice surgery; pilots log thousands of hours in flight simulators before going up in the cockpit; the automotive industry relies on simulations to train technicians on diagnosing and repairing complex automotive systems without risk to physical equipment; science educators run virtual experiments to help students explore concepts and solve complex problems without the traditional limitations of the physical laboratory; business simulations help professional practice decision making in a risk-free environment, improving strategic thinking and leading to better business outcomes; emergency responders train in disaster response simulations to sharpen skills in life and death situations where every moment counts. in each context, simulators are crucial to the development of critical thinking, problem solving, and applying theoretical knowledge to real world situations. these simulation uses are also opportunities to engage with materials, ask questions, and probe beyond the theoretical to better understand the outcomes created by choices and actions. in the area of peacebuilding, several game-based skill building tools exist. one such game-based simulation tool is called peacemaker, a computer-based game that mimics the peace-making process between isreal and palestine (impact games, 2006). this game-based simulation tool is highly tailored to individual conflicts and the peace challenges within a single context. while engagement with this type of simulation tool can help to build general peacebuilding skill competencies, application of the tool to a novel context is difficult (cuhadar & kampf, 2014). another example in this realm is the live-action roleplaying game bafa bafa (shirts, 1977). bafa bafa places participants in one of two fictitious cultures, the alphas and the betas, and game facilitators guide participants through the experience and the reflective debrief. this game focuses on cross-cultural communication challenges and brings to light biases which impact intercultural communication (bredemeier, 1978; roaten & schmidt, 2009). this game, as an experiential learning opportunity to build empathy and better understand the causes https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 223 of miscommunication, is well suited for building skills that can be applied to many situations where differences in culture may lead to conflict but is not directly focused on peacebuilding skill development. climate simulators are not a game, but an adaptive tool which can be used to develop an overall human strategy for mitigating the worst climate change impacts rather than a specific (i.e.: limited) context. these tools have immediate relevance to a larger set of peacebuilders due to the way the tool is interacted with. where previous peace-making simulations focused on a specific conflict (i.e.: the palestinian-israeli conflict), using climate simulators to focus on the major causes of conflict in the 21st century (i.e.: increased global warming, climate change, and energy production) changes the framing of peacebuilding conversations. where previous peace-centered simulations focused on the past, climate simulators focus on the future by encouraging individuals to ask questions about how we can get to the desired future from where we are today, rather than examining how past choices led us to this situation. understanding this shift from looking at the past to looking to the future, climate simulators are most useful to the peacebuilding process when the simulations are based on models rooted in a sound scientific understanding of climate change and credible, up-to-date research (conrad, 2009). when a simulator can unite these elements, the result is a powerful tool that can lead to transformation. climate simulators and similar technologies that enable the imagining of possible futures have a significant role to play in facilitating peacebuilding, especially in the context of climate change. these tools offer a unique approach to addressing the complex challenges of environmental degradation, resource scarcity, and social conflict by fostering data-driven conversations, improving access to science-based evidence, highlighting co-benefits, and assisting in the evaluation of multiple options in the policy planning phase. data-driven conversations climate simulators provide a platform for stakeholders from diverse backgrounds to engage in constructive dialogues about the potential impacts of climate change and possible responses to these impacts. by visualizing complex scientific data in an accessible format, these tools facilitate a shared understanding of the challenges at hand (finn & miller, 2022). this is especially useful in contexts where climate change is not yet a widely understood phenomenon (climate disclosure standards board, 2020; rastandeh, 2015). simulators can translate abstract scientific concepts into tangible scenarios, making the information more meaningful and relatable to laypeople, local authorities, and experts alike. this shared https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 224 understanding can foster consensus and reduce conflict by enabling stakeholders to discuss and debate different approaches to climate change mitigation and adaptation. simulators can be used to explore the potential social and economic consequences of climate change, not only the physical impacts (climate disclosure standards board, 2020; rastandeh, 2015; wang, tian, & xiong, 2019). for example, a simulation could show the potential effects of sea-level rise on coastal communities or the impact of droughts on agricultural production. by visualizing these impacts, simulators can bring attention to the human dimensions of climate change and help stakeholders understand the ways in which climate change can exacerbate existing inequalities or create new forms of injustice (cuomo, 2011; gardiner, 2004; kwauk & iyengar, 2021; moe-lobeda, 2016; nanthini & nair, 2021). this awareness can help drive the necessary social and political changes that may be needed to prevent conflicts arising from competition for resources. moreover, simulators can incorporate local knowledge and community perspectives into the modeling process. this inclusion can lead to more relevant and effective solutions that take into account the unique social, cultural, and environmental contexts of a particular region (broto et al., 2015). by creating a common understanding of the issues, these tools help to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and local experience, paving the way for a more inclusive and collaborative approach to addressing climate change. access to science-based evidence of climate change a key function of climate simulators is to provide access to reliable science-based evidence of climate change. rather than relying solely on past events, simulators can use projections to create plausible, scientifically accurate scenarios for the future that create a sense of immediacy and relevance for decision makers. the ability of climate simulators to synthesize complex datasets, such as climate models, makes the underlying science more accessible to non-technical audiences (broto et al., 2015; mearns, 2010; petersen, 2000). the presentation of scientific information in an easily digestible format like graphs or maps, as opposed to highly technical reports, can enhance understanding and engagement with climate change data. further, the ability to visually represent the data can allow stakeholders to grasp the scope and potential implications of different climate scenarios more effectively. this form of access to information can empower local communities and policymakers to make informed decisions, as well as engage in more effective climate change adaptation and mitigation planning. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 225 when scientific data is put into visualizations like graphs and maps, the information is accessible to a wider audience. climate simulations used in the peacebuilding process that capitalize on data visualizations are highly impactful because they aid in telling the human story of climate impact. the "storyline" method of interaction with climate simulators involves modeling extreme weather events under different climate futures to show how an event could unfold (shepherd, 2019). using this method to look at the effects of sea level rise coupled with anticipated storm surges for my local area (shanghai, china), the “now” (figure 4) and “future” (figure 5) pictures created by the data are clear: much of the area will be changed affecting the lives and livelihoods of many. figure 4 “now” sea level rise – flood risk map (default view) note. figure shows the 21st century view of the three map view options provided. map year is 2030. screen capture taken february 7, 2025 (en-roads simulator, 2025, february). https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 226 figure 5 “future” sea level rise – flood risk map (storm surge view) note. figure shows 21st century with storm surge view. the map year is 2100. the storm surge is set at 3.0 meters. screen capture taken february 7, 2025 (en-roads simulator, 2025, february). in looking at the landmass at risk for flooding due to sea level rise in 2030 (figure 4) and comparing the landmass impacted in the possible future of 2100 (figure 5), the increased impact of flooding due to climate change is immediately clear and provides a powerful place to start from to find solutions that will mitigate the harm to individuals and communities represented in these images. the “storyline” method is an effective approach to communicate the impacts of climate change as they relate to peacebuilding because it frames risk in an event-oriented manner, which aligns with how people perceive and respond to risk. this approach taps into how people process information experientially, through personal experience and emotion, as well as analytically, through rational and deliberate analysis. in addition, the use of data-driven simulations can reduce reliance on opinion and conjecture in decision-making by offering a more objective way to analyze the potential consequences of different policies or interventions. this can be particularly important in contexts where there may be conflicting viewpoints https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 227 about the urgency or severity of climate change. prior to 2024, thinking about the likelihood of a storm surge in an inland community, like that of asheville, north carolina, would have been unheard of. the reality is that many inland communities are at increased risk of flooding due to higher intensity storms bringing more rainwater to these locations. presenting data-driven evidence of climate change can shift the dialogue from debates about the reality of climate change to discussions about how to address the challenges it poses. the use of simulations can help overcome the communication gap between climate science and decision-makers. considerations of co-benefits beyond visualizing the direct impacts of climate change, simulators can also be used to demonstrate the potential co-benefits of mitigation and adaptation strategies. co-benefits refer to the positive outcomes that arise from climate actions, in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions or increasing resilience (ceballos, 2020). by using simulators to highlight these co-benefits, stakeholders in the peacebuilding process may be more motivated to adopt sustainable practices. for instance, a simulator could show that investing in renewable energy not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions, but also improves air quality, improves public health, and decreases the likeliness of ocean coastline degradation due to erosion from sea-level rise. similarly, a simulator could demonstrate that urban greening projects can reduce urban heat island effects, enhance native pollinator habitat availability, and increase the aesthetic appeal of a community. highlighting these co-benefits can broaden the appeal of climate action and create a win-win situation for both the environment and society. in addition to highlighting co-benefits, simulators can help peacebuilders reveal potential trade-offs that may exist between different climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies, as well as trade-offs between climate action and development objectives. for instance, policies that promote high-density development to reduce emissions may also increase exposure to heatwaves. by identifying such trade-offs, stakeholders can seek out strategies that are most aligned with the priorities of peacebuilding such as reducing inequality or promoting justice. in a practical sense, the simulators can also help planners to understand when to apply which strategy, and how to leverage key resources. ultimately, the use of simulators to evaluate a wide range of factors can lead to more holistic and sustainable solutions that create multiple benefits for communities. by considering both direct and indirect effects, and by demonstrating potential co-benefits, simulators can foster a more inclusive and collaborative approach to climate action. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 228 the ability to evaluate multiple options in the ideation and planning phase climate simulators allow stakeholders to evaluate and compare a range of options in the ideation and planning phases of peacebuilding. this capability is critical for developing robust and flexible solutions that can adapt to various possible futures (finn & miller, 2022; goodspeed, 2019; rastandeh, 2015; rajkovich et al., 2022; stapleton, 2020). by testing different scenarios, stakeholders can identify policies and actions that are most likely to be effective under conditions of uncertainty. this may help to avoid strategies that are based on the assumptions of a stable climate future. the ability to evaluate multiple options can help planners avoid "lock-in" to maladaptive practices or technologies. for instance, if a simulator shows that a particular infrastructure investment is not resilient to climate change, decision makers can re-evaluate the investment and consider alternative options (harvey et al., 2013; mearns, 2010). this form of robust decision-making is particularly important in the context of climate change, where uncertainties are high and the consequences of decisions can be long lasting. climate simulators can be used to engage stakeholders in participatory planning processes. by allowing stakeholders to experiment with different options and see the potential outcomes, simulators can empower each stakeholder to become an active participant in the decision-making process (broto et al., 2015; goodspeed, 2019; rajkovich et al., 2022; what is en-roads?, n.d.). this participation increases buy-in and enhances the likelihood of successful implementation of climate policies. in particular, the use of scenario planning can help to establish consensus around a preferred course of action. ultimately, the ability to explore a wide range of options in the planning phase can lead to more innovative and creative solutions that are well-suited to the specific challenges faced by a community. by empowering stakeholders to analyze potential consequences of various policies or actions, simulators can promote a more collaborative approach to planning and peacebuilding, where all stakeholders are invested in the development of solutions that are effective and aligned with their values. application in different contexts as we navigate the complexities of peacebuilding in the context of climate change, the integration of innovative tools like climate simulators becomes increasingly vital in our efforts to foster ecological peace and resilience. the earlier sections of this paper highlighted the significant threats posed by climate change https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 229 and the crucial role of local decision-making in mitigating these impacts. we explored the transformative potential of the en-roads climate simulator in facilitating data-driven dialogues and informed decision-making. building on these foundational ideas, this section delves into the practical applications of climate simulators across various contexts, demonstrating their versatility and effectiveness in promoting peacebuilding. climate simulators, such as the en-roads climate simulator, offer a unique approach to addressing the multifaceted challenges of climate change by providing stakeholders with accessible, science-based insights. these tools enable users to visualize the long-term impacts of different climate policies, fostering a deeper understanding of the interconnected nature of climate change and its implications for peacebuilding. by bridging the gap between scientific data and practical action, climate simulators can empower individuals and communities to make informed decisions that promote sustainability and resilience. educational applications fostering peacebuilding skill development climate change simulators are powerful tools for classroom use, enhancing student learning and engagement in several ways. these benefits are broadly categorized into the development of critical thinking, empathy, peacebuilding skills, and actionoriented learning. these important skills are not confined to a single discipline or content area, creating the possibility of interdisciplinary applications and opening additional avenues for teachers who are working to un-silo content area and create more authentic engagement with the world at large. critical thinking skills are widely regarded as necessary in today’s education. as students engage with climate simulators, each is required to analyze complex, interconnected systems and think critically about the potential consequences of various actions and policies. simulators move students beyond passive learning by actively involving them in the learning process to explore complex systems, test hypothesis, and make decisions based on their analysis. the application of systems thinking to plan and evaluate a range of possible futures requires students to consider multiple perspectives and engage with uncertainty (magro, 2015). a simulator like en-roads allows users to test different climate policies and observe the resulting impacts or co-benefits, promoting a hands-on understanding of climate change dynamics. using technology and engaging with data and models in the simulation, students are pushed beyond a simplified understanding of climate change to better grasp the underlying scientific principles and make informed judgements. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 230 simulations encourage students to consider issues from different perspectives, building empathy. by stepping into different roles, whether as policymakers or stakeholders, students can gain a deeper understanding of diverse viewpoints and the challenges others face (truong-white & mcclean, 2015). when students connect with the material on an emotional level, they are often more willing to consider different viewpoints. this is one of the on-ramps i use with this tool in my english classroom with the various texts we read each year. in accessing the power of narratives within scenario planning to ask questions about what conflicts may be raised if a change were to be implemented, there are pathways that link students’ lived experience with that of the texts we study, and from that there are further links to their global peers’ experience. using simulators as a starting place to ask questions about issues can help students look beyond their limited lived experiences and consider the multitude of experiences facing people around the world. the use of simulators as a starting point can also challenge our individual preconceptions and can help us build bridges with those who hold different views than our own. using simulators can help develop peacebuilding and negotiation skills though engagement with global issues with no clear “right” solution. simulations that involve negotiation or mediation, perhaps by assigning a variety of roles or values to students, allow students to practice these skills in a safe and controlled environment. they learn how to strategize, communicate effectively, and consider the needs and interests of multiple parties across a range of areas, which are crucial for conflict resolution. the use of climate simulators can also help train a student’s third party mediation skills by allowing students to experience conflict from multiple points of view and consider various strategies for conflict resolution. enroads helps with this by raising equity concerns for every slider within the interface that can then enrich engagement through exploration of the impacts raised in these areas. using simulators can empower students to act as peacemakers through meaningful climate change engagement. by seeing the direct consequences of their decisions within the simulation, they are more likely to see their agency and the possibilities of influencing the future (green et al., 2020). this speaks to the true heart of education: working to make the world a better place. the process of critical thinking development, fostering empathy, and improving peacebuilding and negotiation skills can combine to inspire students to see themselves as agents capable of creating alternative futures (truong & mclean, 2015). these “ah ha” moments which have come after en-roads sessions in my classroom have inspired concrete action plans from students and increased advocacy. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 231 community advocacy and peacebuilding community advocates and grassroots movements can leverage climate simulators to achieve their initiative goals and further their advocacy for peacebuilding in several ways. while student use of climate simulators is focused on skill building through scenario exploration, community advocates will find targeted scenario use helpful in conjunction with local policy, statutes, or law, to address specific challenges the community faces. simulators can help community advocates and grassroots movements engage with complex issues, build consensus, and develop effective strategies by providing a platform for data driven analysis and scenario planning. climate simulators can be used as a tool to educate both community members and public officials about climate risks and opportunities. while using climate simulators in a classroom setting has noted positive outcomes, using climate simulators in the context of community advocacy changes the dynamic of the individuals using the tool thereby changing how the tool can be used effectively. in community advocacy settings, the power of the climate simulator is how data is visualized and impacts are clarified through the exploration of multiple climate scenarios which can make complex scientific information more accessible and understandable. this can be particularly effective when using a storyline approach, as previously mentioned, where past extreme weather events are modeled under different climate futures, making the information more relatable and immediate. this approach helps in framing risks in an event-oriented manner, which aligns with how people perceive and respond to risk. climate simulators can assist in identifying the forces contributing to climate change, such as land-use polies, transportation investments, and energy consumption. by exploring these factors, community advocates can develop targeted strategies to address specific issues. community advocates in urban areas could use a simulator to analyze the effects of different land-use patterns on local temperatures and develop plans to mitigate urban heat island effects. an environmental advocacy group, citizens climate lobby, has used the en-roads climate simulator to encourage the adoption of carbon pricing as a high leverage tool against climate change (winchester, 2022). by manipulating different variables within the climate simulator, community groups can evaluate the potential outcomes of various actions and make informed decisions while setting strategic direction and planning action. simulators can be a valuable tool for building consensus among diverse stakeholders while promoting agency. by providing a common platform for exploring different scenarios and their impacts, climate simulators can foster https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 232 dialogue and collaboration. by actively manipulating variables and observing outcomes, community members can develop a sense of agency and understand how their actions can make a difference, which can be particularly empowering for marginalized groups who may feel disempowered by larger structural issues. this collaborative approach to building community consensus can align different perspectives and create a sense of shared responsibility for addressing climate change. simulators can be used to engage more of the community in the planning process while encouraging discussions about how to achieve a more equitable, just, inclusive, and resilient future for a community. this participatory approach in decision making is essential for fostering a sense of ownership and ensuring that the community’s needs and priorities are reflected in the final decisions. climate simulators provide community advocates and grassroots organizers with powerful tools for education, strategic planning, decision-making, and community engagement. as climate change is a known threat multiplier that can lead to conflict, these simulators play a crucial role in promoting equitable resource management and sustainable development, addressing the root causes of potential conflicts. by highlighting how climate change disproportionately affects vulnerable populations, climate simulators help to address issues of social justice, ecological peace, and equity. additionally, they facilitate the building of partnerships within and across communities, promoting the idea of a “sweet spot” for climate action at the scale of communities, metacommunities, or cities. this approach supports both local and global impact, fostering a collaborative effort to mitigate climate change and enhance resilience. climate simulators for policy and peace climate simulators can be powerful tools in policy-making and legislative processes to foster a more peaceful and sustainable world by informing decisions, promoting collaboration, and enabling long-term planning. they allow policymakers to explore complex issues, assess the impacts of different policies, and engage stakeholders in meaningful dialogue. by incorporating these tools into policy and legislative processes, governments and communities can work towards creating a more hopeful and peaceful future through responsible policy development and implementation. similar to the use of climate simulators in community advocacy and grassroots movements, climate simulator use within the legislative space can inform policy decisions. simulators, like en-roads, allow policy makers to assess how changes in energy supply, demand, and other variables may impact emissions and climate outcomes. some compelling examples of climate simulator https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 233 use involve instances of en-roads’s use with u.s. congress and the un secretary-general’s office. currently, the environmental and energy study institute (eesi) uses en-roads as part of the many congressional briefings it holds each year focused on supporting climate change mitigation policy in the u.s. (o’brien, 2025). by manipulating variables in en-roads such as global gdp, energy efficiency, carbon pricing, and fuel source mix, policy makers can quickly assess the impacts of various policy scenarios on cumulative emissions. this enables policy makers to make more informed decisions about which policies will be most effective in achieving climate goals. as policy makers engage with scenario analysis via climate simulators, columns of numbers from spreadsheets transform into a human narrative via the visualization of climate change impacts on local communities. this transformation of data into storytelling humanizes and personalizes the policy decisions by helping policy makers see the individual lives that will change, for the better or for the worse, as a result of their actions. this helps to address one of the major hurtles many policy makers face: lack of expertise in the areas that their policy decisions impact. providing assistance in storytelling is where climate simulators can impact decision makers. let’s consider a hypothetical example related to energy efficiency policy in the industrial sector when compared to a baseline (figure 6): https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 234 figure 6 en-roads simulation with building and industry energy efficiency set at baseline note. en-roads baseline scenario showing temperature change graph and detailed view of the buildings and industry efficiency slider. the baseline assumption sets status quo for this slider at 1.2%/year increased energy efficiency. the baseline scenario results in 927.16 exajoules/year total primary energy demand in 2100. screen capture taken february 7, 2025 (en-roads simulator, 2025, february). a policy maker considering the impact of setting energy efficiency policy for new industrial buildings and manufacturing at an improvement rate of 2.4%/year (figure 7) or 3.1%/year (figure 8), may not grasp what the impact of a 0.7%/year improvement will have on climate change outcomes over the time scale of 70 years. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 235 figure 7 en-roads simulation with building and industry energy efficiency set at 2.4%/year note. en-roads scenario with policy change starting in 2025. this scenario results in 736.91 exajoules/year total primary energy demand in 2100. screen capture taken february 7, 2025 (en-roads simulator, 2025, february). https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 236 figure 8 en-roads simulation with building and industry energy efficiency set at 3.1%/year note. en-roads scenario with policy change starting in 2025. this scenario results in 669.54 exajoules/year total primary energy demand in 2100. screen capture taken february 7, 2025 (en-roads simulator, 2025, february). placing the different rates for increased industrial building energy efficiency into a climate simulator can aid the policy maker’s understanding of how the policy rate difference impact total energy use over time. what may look like a small difference to a policy maker, the +0.7%/year increase in industrial building energy efficiency proposed in this hypothetical, can be significant in terms of overall impact on the environment. isolating this one policy change in en-roads, there are clear ecological benefits when comparing status quo (figure 6), to an increase of 2.4%/year (figure 7), or an increase of 3.1%/year (figure 8) related to new buildings and industry energy efficiency. a policy maker using the en-roads climate simulator can see https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 237 the overall decrease in energy demand, starting at 927.16 exajoules/year (1 exajoule = 174 million barrels of oil), and decreasing to 736.91 exajoules/year, and then decreasing further to 669.54 exajoules/year. in terms of what this policy difference means for citizens and community members, this puts global total energy consumption in 2100 on par with the current consumption in 2025. additionally, a policy maker can see that the total temperature increase is also impacted positively in 2100, starting at 3.3°c/6.0°f, and then going down to 3.5°c/5.7°f and then down to 3.1°c/5.5°f. while this last scenario’s predicted total temperature increase (figure 8) is still very high and well above the 3.6°f (2°c) threshold that scientists believe we must stay under to prevent the worst climate change impacts, there is a clear positive which moves us collectively closer to mitigating the worst impacts from climate change. using this hypothetical example, climate simulators like en-roads can play a critical role in bridging the gap between complex data and actionable policy decisions. by transforming numerical data into compelling visuals that help to generate narratives, these tools can help policy makers visualize real world impacts of their decisions on local communities. not only does this enhance the policy makers’ understanding of the potential outcomes of climate actions, it also humanizes the policy-making process. one of the outcomes in this hypothetical is the added clarity of how seemingly small changes in energy efficiency policies can lead to significant ecological benefits over time. by leveraging climate simulators in this way, policy makers can make more informed decisions that contribute to a sustainable future, ultimately moving us closer to a more peaceful future by mitigating the worst impacts of climate change. conclusion climate simulators are uniquely helpful in facilitating peacebuilding conversations as they center climate impacts we will face and invite shared problem solving. as the impacts of climate change are made visible through the data visualizations and interactive maps created by climate simulators, conversations are future focused, rather than past focused. this shift can be powerful because when we are looking forward, there is a heightened feeling of urgency about working to mitigate or avoid future climate disasters. there can be a greater sense of impact through action as decision makers can see the cumulative impact of policy decisions over several decades, highlighting the intergenerational relevancy of our choices today on our children and grandchildren tomorrow. climate simulators are also helpful to peacebuilders in facilitating deeper consideration of the lived impacts of climate change. climate simulators and the https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 238 data visualizations they are capable of providing are well situated to assist with the communication of storyline scenario exploration. engaging stakeholders with an imagining of possible futures related to climate challenges can encourage the consideration of potential co-benefits and highlight dynamic systems relationships that may create unintended consequences. as climate disasters become more frequent and severe, they will soon touch the lives of every person on the planet in a direct and personal way. this reality highlights the critical importance of using tools like climate simulators to prepare for and mitigate the impacts of such disasters. experiencing climate disasters firsthand can deepen one's understanding of the urgent need for peacebuilding efforts that address the root causes of climate change and promote resilience. by incorporating personal narratives into the broader discussion of climate change, we can foster a deeper understanding of the human dimensions of this global challenge and inspire more effective and compassionate responses. the time for action is now, as the window to prevent the most catastrophic outcomes is rapidly closing. resources for further exploration • en-roads climate simulator – https://www.climateinteractive.org/enroads/ and the c-roads climate change policy simulator https://www.climateinteractive.org/c-roads/ these tools allow users to explore the impact of various policies on factors like temperature and sea level rise, fostering data-driven dialogues and informed decision-making for sustainable peacebuilding strategies. • probable futures https://probablefutures.org/ this resource can help peacebuilders visualize and communicate possible impacts of climate change by offering accessible, science-based insights into different climate futures, thereby supporting more informed and collaborative approaches to climate action. • climate central https://www.climatecentral.org/ this resource provides data and visualizations that can be used to educate community members and public officials about climate risks and opportunities, facilitating strategic planning and community engagement in peacebuilding efforts. • nasa sea level change https://sealevel.nasa.gov/ this resource offers data and information about sea-level rise, enabling stakeholders to create plausible, scientifically accurate scenarios and understand the potential social and economic consequences of climate change on coastal communities. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.climateinteractive.org/en-roads/ https://www.climateinteractive.org/en-roads/ https://www.climateinteractive.org/c-roads/ https://probablefutures.org/ https://www.climatecentral.org/ https://sealevel.nasa.gov/ in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 239 • climate adaption knowledge exchange (cake) https://www.cakex.org/ cake provides a platform for sharing knowledge and best practices in climate adaptation, helping peacebuilders identify and implement effective strategies to build resilience and address the root causes of potential conflicts. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.cakex.org/ in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 240 references bredemeier, m. e. 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(2009). using experiential activities with adolescents to promote respect for diversity. professional school counseling, 12(4), 309-314. https://www.jstor.org/stable/42732874 rushby, n. (2016). metrics for learning from simulations (and perhaps games). educational technology, 56(5), 17-26. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44430545 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.jstor.org/stable/26382585 https://doi.org/10.1086/656817 https://www.jstor.org/stable/44504807 https://www.jstor.org/stable/3088467 https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep36218 https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/ https://www.eesi.org/briefings/view/012925camp https://www.jstor.org/stable/26215103 https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep43242 https://www.jstor.org/stable/24906058 https://www.jstor.org/stable/42732874 https://www.jstor.org/stable/44430545 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 213-243 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 243 shepherd, t. g. (2019). storyline approach to the construction of regional climate change information. proceedings: mathematical, physical and engineering sciences, 475(2225), 1-16. jstor. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26743233 shirts, r. g. (1977). bafa bafa: a cross culture simulation. simulation training systems. smith, a. b. (2025, january 10). 2024: an active year of u.s. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters. climate.gov. retrieved february 16, 2025, from https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2024active-year-us-billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters stapleton, j. (2020). exploratory scenario planning: how to navigate an uncertain future. lincoln institute of land policy. https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep29280 truong-white, h., & mclean, l. (2015). digital storytelling for transformative global citizenship education. canadian journal of education / revue canadienne de l'éducation, 38(2), 1-28. https://doi.org/10.2307/canajeducrevucan.38.2.11 wang, f., tian, y., & xiong, l. (2019). climate change scenarios and implications for marine system sustainability. journal of coastal research, 55-59. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26853902 what is en-roads? (n.d.). climate interactive. retrieved november 16, 2024, from https://www.climateinteractive.org/enroads/#:~:text=en%e2%80%91roads%20is%20a%20global,quality%2 c%20and%20sea%20level%20rise winchester, f. (2022, september). en-roads shows the power of carbon pricing. citizens' climate lobby. retrieved march 1, 2025, from https://citizensclimatelobby.org/blog/policy/en-roads-shows-the-power-ofcarbon-pricing/ https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.jstor.org/stable/26743233 https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2024-active-year-us-billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2024-active-year-us-billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep29280 https://doi.org/10.2307/canajeducrevucan.38.2.11 https://www.jstor.org/stable/26853902 https://www.climateinteractive.org/en-roads/#:~:text=en%e2%80%91roads%20is%20a%20global,quality%2c%20and%20sea%20level%20rise https://www.climateinteractive.org/en-roads/#:~:text=en%e2%80%91roads%20is%20a%20global,quality%2c%20and%20sea%20level%20rise https://www.climateinteractive.org/en-roads/#:~:text=en%e2%80%91roads%20is%20a%20global,quality%2c%20and%20sea%20level%20rise https://citizensclimatelobby.org/blog/policy/en-roads-shows-the-power-of-carbon-pricing/ https://citizensclimatelobby.org/blog/policy/en-roads-shows-the-power-of-carbon-pricing/ volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 1 volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal issn 2578-6857 peace education, transformation, and responding to climate chaos leonisa ardizzone, vassar college abstract peace education rooted in an analysis of structural, cultural, and direct violence provides a vehicle for an anti-capitalist, pro-indigenous, and spiritually-grounded methodology to examine climate chaos. through autoethnographic reflection, the author reviews the root causes that led us to planetary disaster, analyzes peace education responses, and shares peace-education-based climate education models to transform our teaching and our relationship to earth. keywords climate chaos, transformation, root causes, earth-centered, peace education introduction the ever-intensifying effects of climate change have already begun to exacerbate the undue suffering and harm inflicted upon and felt by people all around the world. thus, i feel the term ‘climate chaos’ more accurately captures the environmental conditions of humanity’s impact on planetary climate as well as the attendant atrocities that all life on earth, and the planet herself, currently face due to our reliance on fossil fuels and our inability to effectively address human production of greenhouse gases. chaos implies disorder and confusion, moving the http://www.infactispax.org/journal http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 2 climate conversation beyond scientific discourse as it conveys urgency; an urgency we must all attend to in small and large ways, in classrooms and beyond, in local, national, and international policy. climate chaos is calling us to fully reimagine the world and how we function in it, to recognize that we cannot keep doing the same things and teaching the same way if we are to protect the flourishing of all life on the planet. as an educator with thirty-plus years of experience working in classrooms, non-profits, and universities, as well as in informal settings, i am a firm believer in peace education, thanks to its conceptual framework of the interconnected manifestations of violence and its use of critical multi-lensed pedagogy to examine and address root causes. when coupled with a spiritually grounded conception of transformation that reorients our way of being in relation to earth and all forms of life, the methodology of peace education can facilitate the wholesale shift in our global mindset/habitus needed to work against the forces of climate chaos. i contend that peace education is the best teaching methodology to address climate chaos if we deliberately facilitate learning experiences rooted in anti-capitalism, pro-indigeneity, and transformative, earth-centered spirituality, promoting values of community, cooperation, and interdependence. what follows is an autoethnographic exploration about the role peace education can play in disrupting the patterns and outcomes created by traditional schooling and societal practices of cultural violence that have limited both discussion and action around climate change and provides examples of methodologies used to shift the conversation towards a more holistic, embodied, environmentally grounded, imaginative practice of teaching and learning. through vignettes of teaching experiences and the voices of learners, this article utilizes reflective practice and wisdom of practice as a mode of examining, analyzing, and sharing teaching and learning experiences that offer experiential models of embodied peace education manifested through environmental explorations, placebased learning, and science education informed by spiritual grounding with children, undergraduate students, pre-service teachers, and teachers. literature review as i wrote in 2002, “originally a study of the causes of war and its prevention, peace education has evolved into the study of violence in all its http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 3 manifestations and educating to counteract the war system for the creation of a peace system; a peace system on both the structural and individual level. the content and the methodology of peace education are progressive; promoting egalitarian learning environments, open inquiry, and significant learner participation” (ardizzone, 16). connected to seminal ideas put forth by johann galtung (1969), peace education acknowledges structural violence as the violence that is embedded in issues and institutions to create the systems of oppression we see (and have historically supported and/or taken for granted as “the way things are”) every day. institutionalized racism, sexism, misogyny, transphobia, inherited and insurmountable poverty, environmental racism and injustice are all manifestations of structural violence and are inextricably linked to climate chaos. current education systems and religious institutions allow for the perpetuation of structural violence via cultural violence, which authorizes and inculcates the dominating and exploitative mindsets of the ruling class, often using and legitimizing direct violence, which in peace education typically includes physical harm perpetrated on a personal level. all three forms of violence also damage the land and living environment. direct violence manifests as oil drilling and natural gas fracking, clear-cut logging, habitat destruction for profit and property development, massive loss of biodiversity leading towards a sixth extinction, and the historical and ongoing decimation of indigenous populations. cultural and structural violence manifest in our conception and treatment of nature and earth herself, in that we only deem nature valuable when we can commodify and capitalize upon it. education and religion have relegated earth-centered traditions and practices to the margins, deeming them “barbaric,” “pagan,” “hippie,” or “unrealistic,” but the truly barbarous thing is the way humans have abused the earth. during the same decade that galtung put forth his definitions of violence, the rev. dr. martin luther king jr. shared his giant triplets – racism, materialism, and militarism – which similarly represent the carefully constructed conditions in the world that keep many oppressed and allow power to fall freely into the hands of a relative few, who then use that power and the structures of society to continue to oppress and marginalize others and exploit nature and natural resources (rousseau and rousseau, 1999). racism, according to king, measures a person’s worth by physical characteristics rather than character. materialism places http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 4 obtaining objects as the core focus of life and manifests as rampant consumerism with harmful environmental repercussions, such as fast fashion and single-use plastic. and militarism is the commonplace and acceptable use of force and might – via war, policing, and a mindset of siding with oppressors which in turn demonstrates an outward manifestation of valuing objects above people, of making greed and fear the dominant mindset. militarism is especially jarring in the us context, where annually, anywhere from 43% to 51% of the us budget goes to funding the military, and in 2023, congress passed the most bloated military budget in history even while there is evidence that the us military is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. from a peace education perspective, the extremes of exploitative capitalism and individualism, all emblematic of the united states ethos and emboldened by patriarchal christian teachings—which, as explained later in this literature review, promote gender division and dominion over female bodies, the divine feminine, and mother nature herself as norms—have led us to where we are today, environmentally. to undo this damage, peace education must examine the root causes of climate chaos and empower a shift in public consciousness away from apathy and/or faux fixes to systemic long-term change. as a peace educator, i am acutely aware that the united states education system is complicit in perpetuating this state of near-constant violence. top-down educational policies, an overemphasis on testing, disproportionate funding (as compared to, say, the military budget), oppressive teaching practices at all levels of education, and the dehumanization of both teachers and students not only represent structural and cultural violence but also serve to maintain the status quo of violence in society at large. the us education system, with its focus on standardized tests and other outcome-based measures, fully lives into the culturally violent practice of competition perpetuating both the myth of meritocracy and the myth of scarcity. since societal values are generated from the dynamics of capitalism, education – even when it purports to be a public good in the service of democracy – perpetuates these values in the classroom, serving as a mechanism of cultural violence. as bowles and gintis point out in their 1976 landmark work, schooling in capitalist america, public schools perpetuate the values of a capitalist society in order to generate a population that fulfills its needs. capitalist values, when inculcated into learners, renders structural violence as the acceptable norm. http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 5 hence, competition, exploitation, conformity, and obedience become the de facto values/ethos of schooling, all to maintain and perpetuate the “american” form of capitalism, itself deeply rooted in extraction, exploitation, and dehumanization. this includes how we view the planet and natural resources. when structural violence goes unquestioned, so do the practices that exploit, harm, and degrade the natural world making it total normal to limit inquiry-based science and environmental education in classrooms. the us education system still primarily utilizes a banking methodology of teaching, and when any form of critical pedagogy is included, it is often done only for the elites with an aim to inculcate children into the role they will eventually play in the hierarchical system. there is almost no room for the creation or discussion of alternative systems of functioning. the true damage of this is that students will travel through the education system without ever having an opportunity to imagine a different way of living and being, other than that of exploitative capitalism. gratefully, critical pedagogues, peace educators, and proponents of true democratic education have not only questioned this ideology in classrooms but also put forth models that are counter hegemonic. however, since those models are not incorporated in the majority of school settings, the united states education system has actively underprepared students to take planetary health seriously. over the past thirty years, i have witnessed a steady decline in the quality of how science is taught. in miseducation: how climate change is taught in america, katie worth (2021) writes that science education was undermined by political machinations that made it acceptable for teachers to exclude real scientific information about climate change and to allow students to “interpret” climate change rather than see it as fact. after her comprehensive review of curricula across the us, she found many points of friction: “teachers who disagree over whether to teach it. students who want to learn about it but are not taught. others who are taught it but reject what they learn. district officials who struggle with teachers who refuse to teach it, or those who insist on teaching it. parents who rage that their children are taught it, or that they are not” (12). she concludes, “that the classroom is not an ideologically neutral space when it comes to climate science is, in a way, strange, because climate science itself is ideologically neutral. the evidence for human-caused climate change is now as strong as the evidence linking cigarettes and cancer” (12). worth’s research demonstrates that although there is overwhelming evidence of human-caused climate chaos, educational spaces remain mired in ambiguity, at best, and http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 6 resistance, at worst, on the value of teaching children about climate change, human responsibility, and the role that educators and learners can play as agents of truthtelling and change. an educational system that cannot commit to a unified ethos to address the urgency of the planetary situation is harmful. i began teaching science, including global warming, in 1991. instead of expanding education in this area to match the growth of the problem, climate change education has been increasingly limited over the past 30 years. when jimmy carter became president in 1976, his first act was to install solar panels on the white house. the united states had the opportunity right then to become a leader in renewable energy. however, four years later, when ronald reagan took office, his first act was to have those solar panels removed. clearly, our nation had an awareness of global warming and the need for a significant course shift, but power and money stifled it. this awareness dates even further back to 1896 when swedish chemist svante arrhenius shared his research-based findings that there was a clear connection between atmospheric carbon dioxide and planetary temperature indicating that earth’s temperature would increase as we continued to burn coal. by the mid-1900s, other scientists were proving that earth had already begun to warm at a harmful rate. president johnson, upon receiving a report from the scientific community in 1965, informed congress that humans were altering the atmosphere through our use of fossil fuels. in the 1950s and 1960s, the petroleum industry funded research into the role of fossil fuels and they too overwhelmingly found that the burning of fossil fuels could be severely damaging to the planet. this led to the american petroleum institute’s creation of a climate task force. by the 1980s, their findings were grim, but rather than using those findings to invest in alternative energy (renewables, e.g., solar and wind) their reports were buried, and this information was ignored – shameful but not surprising. it parallels the political machinations at work. funding shifted from scientists researching the effects of carbon emissions to lobbyists fighting for the rights of the fossil fuel industry. by 1990, thanks to the united nations, the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc) had been formed and issued its first report which stated, “the natural greenhouse effect keeps earth warmer than it would otherwise be, and human activities are magnifying the effect.” (23) however, the trajectory of the united states’ efforts to limit enacting any carbon emission restrictions – up to and including the kyoto protocols in 1997 – was http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 7 unobstructed. the debate about climate change (or global warming, as it was originally called) was born. today, as we witness small island nations disappearing, rampant drought, flooding, and wildfires, people still question if it is real. in 2022 and 2023, the ipcc reports once again clearly stated that humans are the cause of climate change and that we have less than six years to limit our emissions to regulate planetary temperature. imagine what things would look like had we listened in 1965. this manipulation of information on climate change is echoed in public schools’ science curricula. as a former high school biology teacher, i know that the ecology chapter is often relegated to the end of the textbook meaning that, oftentimes, teachers don’t get to this important and overarching topic at all. capitalism and competition have coopted science education, as students are strongly encouraged to pursue stem (science, technology, engineering, math) fields. while not in and of itself a bad thing, this push often comes at the sad expense of arts and humanities programs. further, many stem programs are so focused on outcome that the learning process is warped, and many qualities children naturally possess, imagination, inherent curiosity, and wonder, are often left behind. science education is not the only problem, of course, since social studies is also often taught from the perspective of the victors. history lessons regularly perpetuate the erasure of indigenous peoples and traditions relegating them to “the past” rather than acknowledging their continued presence and ongoing contributions to society. coupled with abysmal practices in science and history education is the growth of what michael maniates calls the “individualization of responsibility” (2001, 33). he points out that this individualization of effort to address our environmental crises stems from the “historical baggage of mainstream environmentalism, the core tenets of liberalism, the dynamic ability of capitalism to commodify dissent, and the relatively recent rise of global environmental threats to human prosperity” (33). he further claims that accelerating this individualization of responsibility narrowed our imagination on how to address environmental threats truly and effectively. we become entangled in greenwashing and buying ecofriendly products rather than engaging more deeply with the terrible problem of http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 8 consumption (or what dr king called “materialism”).1 individual responsibility is extremely important, especially if it allows us to live more simply, in undermining the efforts of the capitalist over-consumption machine. but a systemic problem requires systemic solutions and education plays a key role in helping students see this big picture. to analyze the big picture, peace education relies on deracination to name and examine root causes, which, in the context of climate chaos, include capitalism and colonialism. colonialism’s focus on the subjugation of peoples and place, to exploit resources, is grounded in a christian ethos of domination. thus, as problematic as it is to name, religion also needs to be part of the root cause conversation. as a unitarian universalist minister, i spent much of my time during seminary examining religious teachings and history from a peace education perspective. the writings of mary daly and vine deloria jr. daly, a feminist former catholic, and deloria, a standing rock sioux theologian, lawyer, and activist, define the root causes of oppression and environmental injustice as patriarchy and exclusivity (meaning lacking wholeness and unity), respectively. daly’s (1973) methodology analyzes the religious roots of patriarchy through history, symbolism, and language. male theologians through the ages— tertullian, augustin, barth and bonhoeffer—are part of creating and perpetuating the “exclusively masculine symbolism for god, for the notion of divine ‘incarnation’ in human nature and for the human relationship to god reinforces sexual hierarchy” (4). this male-oriented sense of god not only creates this hierarchy in the human realm but also manifests in how earth—a divine feminine manifestation—and matrilineal, female-centered, and earth-centered spiritualities and cultural belief systems have historically been mistreated; they were devalued, 1 i am reminded of the push across the us in the 2000s for people to replace all their bulbs with leds which, while important, is almost inconsequential compared to the more pressing needs of addressing refrigeration (shipping food across the country and/or around the world), food waste, deforestation, and fossil fuel overuse in personal transportation. (see project drawdown for a comprehensive list.) buying an led made people feel like they were doing something for the planet and allowed companies who engage in greenwashing to market a false sense of comfort in making consumers feel good about themselves or at the very least to make us feel like we are part of the solution, and not the problem. the led craze felt like an extension of teaching children the 3 r’s – reduce, reuse, recycle – but in most cases, classrooms (and even environmental education programs) focused on recycling, in and of itself a sham, rather than the far more impactful r, reduce. one makes us feel good; the other requires us to change for good. http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 9 demonized, and obliterated. society’s allowance of raping and pillaging earth as life-giver is consistent with the patriarchal mindset. the christian (or more accurately, abrahamic) conception of male deity stands in stark contrast to notions of ‘god’ in native (indigenous north american) spirituality; the creator or great spirit or wakan tanka is genderless. the conception of god among native peoples is not patriarchal – although there are folks who refer to the creator as father, it is not in a human sense. according to deloria (1992), “the overwhelming majority of american indian tribal religions refused to represent deity anthropomorphically” (79). rather, the great spirit is an “undefinable presence” (79). the native american creator is more accurately interpreted as a representation of humanity’s relationship with nature, and an inclusive rather than exclusive notion of a deity encompassing all the life (and things typically deemed non-sentient) it contains. to native americans, all of creation is good and therefore there exists a universality and interconnectedness to the planet. deloria states, “all parts of [earth] functioned together to sustain it” (81). juxtaposed with christian creation, deloria points to the root cause of exclusion, or the lack of an ethic of interconnectivity with all life and the earth. for him, the “aspect of the christian doctrine of creation that concerns us today is the idea that man receives domination over the rest of creation” (82). he continues, “this attitude has been adopted wholeheartedly by western peoples in their economic exploitation of the earth” (83). deloria, whose father and grandfather were episcopal ministers, contends that the most damaging aspect of christianity is this lack of an earth-centered ethos. christianity doesn’t simply ignore humans’ relationship to the earth but rather makes a point that the earth is for human subjugation. this idea that humanity is entitled to domination over the earth (and its peoples) by any means necessary necessitates a separation from that which gives us life. an interaction with land and life forms is an integral part of native spirituality and something that is utterly lacking in christianity. while scripture certainly exists to support the idea of “loving one’s neighbor” it appears tainted with unwritten conditions – unless they have the land you want, can serve as slave labor, impede your efforts to dominate, or try to fight back. in this light, christian values are not as “communal” as they appear, (deloria, 1992, 27) lacking clear guidelines for “responsibility to family and community” (40). for native http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 10 americans, all life is valued equally. non-human living things are not belittled – they are “peoples” in their own right. the hierarchy christianity places on life, from land to animals to women to men at the top of the pyramid, is both patriarchal and divisive. “to exist in a creation means that living is more than tolerance for other life forms – it is recognition that in differences there is the strength of creation, and that this strength is a deliberate desire of the creator” (89). deloria’s root cause of christian oppression is the rejection of the interconnected nature of all living and abiotic things which perpetuates the binary christian mindset grounded in an ethic of domination over earth and its peoples. this lack of holism will continue to disallow a society that upholds christianity from addressing the true needs of the people and the earth. thus, a peace education-lensed climate curriculum must include an understanding of how male-oriented “god” teachings have set us on this course. furthermore, it must include a spiritual component that counters the traditional dominion and duality mindset regarding nature that can thus serve as a source of embodied knowing fostering a culture of reverence. healing this schism—the duality and disconnect—is clearly necessary and in addition to engaging learners in root causes dialogues, we can also increase the natural world experiences of young children. research has demonstrated that young children who participate in environmental education or increased nature experiences have a greater connection to earth and in adulthood demonstrate a greater sense of pro-environmentalism. (rosa & collado, 2019). more research is needed however to better understand why this connection exists which can help guide the development and design of childhood/youth nature-based learning experience (rosa, profice & collado, 2018) but suffice to say that something – outdoor nature excursions is better than nothing and will go a long way in shifting from a culture of disconnection and exploitation to a culture of respect, reciprocity, and reverence. this culture of reverence requires a wholesale shift in mindset and a core problematic in peace education is how to facilitate this shift towards greater consciousness. as freire put forth more than five decades ago, the way to dismantle the interlocking systems of oppression is to raise consciousness via education. freire’s major goal was the development of an emancipatory pedagogical process that is designed to teach students, through critical literacies, how to negotiate the world in a thoughtful way that exposes and engages the relations between the oppressor and the oppressed (macrine, 2009). this happens through an education that is facilitated by a certain type of teacher; “the teacher is of course an artist but http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 11 being an artist does not mean that he or she can make the profile, can shape the students. what the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves” (freire & horton, 1990). through a critical peace education pedagogy, we can: 1) raise awareness via 2) analysis of complex problems, thus empowering 3) a sense of agency among young people. working within the current educational paradigm is a challenge. a giant overhaul of the education system to address climate chaos and all forms of violence that currently plague us is most necessary. however, the fact that a full restructuring is not feasible does not make me hopeless. rather it inspires me to find more ways to resist and create truly revolutionary education spaces that live into the promise of what peace education can bring. a key aspect of this resistance is educating to dismantle systems of power, clearly stated by ian harris and mary lee morrison (2002): “if education is to play a vital role in bringing peace to the world, it must cease as a vehicle that enables the privileged to strengthen their power and must help those without power learn how to become powerful” (91). methodology in order to provide experiences and models of peace education as a means to address climate chaos, this paper utilizes an autoethnographic method. autoethnography is an “autobiographical genre of writing that displays multiple layers of consciousness, connecting the personal to the cultural” (ellis and bochner, 2000, 739) and can include research about personal experiences. further, mcilveen (2008) states that “the core feature [of autoethnography] entails the scientist or practitioner performing narrative analysis pertaining to himself or herself as intimately related to a particular phenomenon” (3). in this case, i use autoethnography as an insider exploring the phenomenon of peace education methodology to address climate change, environmental connection, and transformative practice. my reflections in this paper align with what mendez (2013) calls analytic autoethnography which directs writing and analysis towards a particular audience. she states too that an advantage of this type of autoethnography is that it allows other practitioners to “reflect on and empathize with the narratives presented” (282). furthermore, since this autoethnography includes reflections over the course of my thirty-year teaching career, it represents practice wisdom or practical wisdom which higgs (2009) states is “more than the possession of general http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 12 knowledge because it is the ability to actuate this knowledge with relevance, appropriateness, or sensitivity to context.” hager and halliday (2009) contend that the wisdom of practice is “not to have attained a state of superabundance or skills that in no way can be improved upon. paradoxically, to think that you have attained wisdom, means that you are not wise. rather, wisdom is a disposition to go on developing and learning in a world of contingency and happenstance” (232). higgs (2009) adds that practice wisdom is “an embodied state of being, comprising selfknowledge, action capacity, deep understanding of practice and an appreciation of others, that imbues and guides insightful and quality practice” (9). through reflecting on one’s practices, especially via a lens of continued self-discovery and experiential learning capitalizes on beres’ notion that, “being undogmatic suggests holding knowledge tentatively and being willing to be surprised by new ways of thinking and being” (2019, 285). this is the spirit in which i share my research and experience. these models of self-research and self-reflection feel like ideal companions to the practice of peace education since peace education eschews notions of expertise while embracing lifelong learning, reflective practice, and dialogical learning experiences. it is my hope that by utilizing this methodology this paper opens dialogue and collaboration and an ongoing sharing of ideas so that a community of practice – of educators, and others committed to addressing climate chaos before it is too late – emerges. thus, the findings to follow are reflections from my 30-year career in education and include examples from prek-12 and higher education in both formal and non-formal settings. while i have used peace education pedagogy in various ways, my primary focus, for this article, will be peace education via environmental education. findings my first teaching job was at the american indian heritage school (aihs) in seattle, washington in 1992. i was hired to run a grant-funded environmental education program based on the ecology and natural history of the duwamish river. i am forever grateful to my indigenous colleagues and friends at aihs who expanded my conception of ecology, profoundly adding to what my college professors taught me by inviting me to explore the spiritual side of the interconnected web of life. those lessons from thirty years ago continue to inform both the how and why of my ongoing work in peace and climate education. through the grant, the high school students and i conducted a school-year-long study based http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 13 on the duwamish river, exploring the geography, chemistry, biology and natural history of the river and the role of washington’s original peoples (the duwamish) in the care of the river. an interdisciplinary project, the grant included a partnership with the aihs english/drama teacher, who helped students create a play entitled “sister river and the two-leggeds” which artistically represented the declining health of the duwamish river and how that decline impacted all forms of life that relied upon the river. further, the play made clear the role humans (the ‘twoleggeds’) played in the river’s demise. a core group of students and i traveled to various schools in seattle, sharing teachings about the salmon life cycle and water quality which were followed by a performance of the play. a few impactful outcomes of this experience were 1) that it provided a holistic understanding of nature, ecology, and humans role as both harmful and potentially helpful, 2) it offered a connection-making place-based educational experience, 3) it utilized a peer-teaching model that allowed students to share their own learnings via their choice of pedagogy, 4) it brought science and art together allowing for learning to occur via multiple intelligences, and 5) it had lasting impact as it was codified into memory when the students and i had a brief guest spot on bill nye the science guy’s television episode entitled “garbage!” reminded of nel noddings' writings on place-based education and dewey’s call to make education local, practical, interdisciplinary, and real-world meaningful, coupled with my experiences at aihs, i chose to spend a large part of my teaching career with either teachers who were on the path to certification or children in new york city exploring the outdoors—human-made “nature” as it were—inviting them into a relationship with life forms with which they initially had limited connection. while working with teachers in courses designed to prepare them to teach interdisciplinary science to young children, i found that many of these future elementary educators carried serious math and science phobia due in no small part to inadequate educational experiences during their own k-12 time. thus, my coursework had to combine content learning and pedagogical practices with some form of emotional rehabilitation as well. these classes were therefore deeply grounded in play and exploration, whether we were examining physics principles, human biology or geology, and the courses naturally included time outdoors. each time i taught this course one of our first lessons was a “nature scavenger hunt” (a lesson i originally developed for children because of my time working at the american museum of naturally history and learning that a “field guide” helps http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 14 guide students through observations in the museum setting). we went outside to the local park or greenspace and future teachers were invited to find “evidence” for various forms of life using all their senses. they’d work alone or with classmates interacting with trees, plants, urban wildlife, as well as rocks, the sky and the mahicantuck (hudson river) drawing or writing their observations on a field guide i created. they were invited to collect samples (by doing no harm) and when we’d return to the classroom, we’d share observations and feelings about the experience. our discussions were always rich, and i learned that if we want children to have deeper connections to various phenomena in the natural world, their teachers have to make those connections as well, or at least be willing to step into a space of “not knowing” to open the possibility for these connections to occur. in the mid-2000s, i transitioned out of university teaching, into the nonprofit world and then back to teaching young children when i founded my own science center (storefront science), doing a large amount of work as a “guest” or “push-in” science and environmental educator in schools, informal settings, and with the parks department. for many of the kids i worked with, their understanding of insects stopped with cockroaches, birds meant pigeons, and mammals included rats and aggressive squirrels. they were also disconnected from their food, having almost no idea that french fries came from potatoes or how apples or carrots grew, and when they encountered trees, they were neatly planted in a four-foot square box surrounded by concrete sidewalks. whenever possible, we would go outside and study that four-foot square, draw the tree, touch its bark, and look for human and non-human evidence of life. we’d discuss terms like biotic and abiotic and who got to decide what was deemed living and non-living. the kids began to question, “why are there more buildings than trees? why do rats and raccoons need to scavenge for their food? what role do insects play in our lives and is it okay to kill them? what can we learn about a tree based on its leaves and bark?” and to search for answers in the world around them. i’d also bring boxes of specimens into classrooms, and we’d sort shells, rocks, pinecones, seed pods, resin-encased insects, and even interact with my pets: a tarantula, gerbil, and rescued lab rats. they learned to be gentle. they learned to ask where things came from and why they look the way they do. they wondered why i had all these strange things. they learned to see patterns and create collections based on similarities and differences. the teachers i coached began http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 15 creating classroom collections of their own in conjunction with the students for more hands-on exploration and took their students to the grocery store to have conversations about where the fruits and vegetables came from. with some student groups, we’d spend more time outside in one of new york city’s carefully designed parks—a curated natural environment, to be sure— and we’d go deeper. we’d ask, “why do we need a park?” “what happened to the original trees that grew here?” and even “what happened to the original people that lived here?” we’d go on scavenger hunts looking, listening, and smelling for evidence of non-human life and then we’d share what we noticed and ask more questions. they learned that we owe gratitude to the trees for cleaning our air. they learned that everything in the park was connected. i always actively referred to earth as she, as mother, as life-giver and healer, as living. we’d talk about where humans fit into this great big web of life and wonder why we didn’t take better care of earth. perhaps one of my most profound experiences that brought home the power of nature was when i was teaching science at a special needs pre-school in harlem (nyc). we were sitting around the table sorting leaves—it was autumn and i had brought a great collection to class—while also looking at picture-heavy field guides of trees and a mostly non-verbal student was leafing through the pages of one of the books and carefully looking at the leaves sitting in front of him. a few moments later he started moaning and gesturing wildly. he had found a match! he was holding a maple leaf in one hand and pointing to the book with the other. his excitement was palpable. his teachers and i were stunned. they later told me that just the day before, he was tearing pages out of books, and here he was now, tapping with pride and joy at finding the leaf he held. he then, with such gentleness and affection began to rub the maple leaf on his cheek smiling broadly. in that moment, i witnessed that young boys’ almost-spiritual connection and learned that if we cannot bring children to nature, we can bring nature to them and it’s still a transformative experience. when i relocated out of new york city and began working as an instructional coach with teachers and children in the mid-hudson valley of new york i still found children with limited connection to earth, despite the increased nature that surrounded them. they had the same questions as their urban peers, so http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 16 we did the same explorations. and when i coached their teachers, they’d say, “i don’t know why i don’t take them outside more.” perhaps they would have benefited from the words of naturalist john burroughs (republished in 2015): “to absorb a thing is better than to learn it, and we absorb what we enjoy. we learn things at school, we absorb them in the fields and woods and on the farm. when we look upon nature with fondness and appreciation, she meets us halfway and takes a deeper hold upon us than when studiously conned” (10). today, i continue to live into burroughs’ spirit of absorption with a return to higher education. i also spend a large part of my time as a community ecominister focused on earth-based experiences. i regularly preach on the topic of climate chaos and environmental injustice, and i teach a course for other religious leaders entitled “ecology as scripture” wherein i utilize a peace education framework to examine the science of climate change—because there is clearly a need to increase public understanding of how we got here—and spiritual motivations and responses to how we can address climate chaos and eco-injustice. through textual analysis (ecologically minded exegesis) we examine root texts from various traditions to explore imagery, language, and meaning designed to pull us into a freire-esque problem-posing discussion about division, dominion, and hierarchy. through this practice, participants regularly find terms and images that are counter to the popular interpretation of scripture and text. they share observations around covenantal relationships with all life on earth, and how this type of textual analysis invites us into a closer relationship with creation. every time i offer the workshop, new ideas emerge from the participants, and i find myself co-learning with them and then, digging seemingly continuously for additional texts to dive into. as we do the textual analysis, we also find particular examples of climate chaos that each passage relates to thus inviting connection between science, spirituality, and action steps. i utilize a similar practice in a course i teach each spring at an elite liberal arts college entitled “science, spirituality, and peace education: addressing climate change,” which provides the scientific data of climate chaos and invites students into an exploration of root causes, solutions, and finding their voice as agents of change. we call upon a variety of spiritual (and religious) traditions to find dissenting voices or core tenets that we can use to subvert the dominant dominion paradigm. students find the course to be transformative. it is an http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 17 experience where their fears and grief are honored, where scientific data is only part of the equation, where they find a spiritual calling, and where they are invited to imagine the future they want to see and create an action project that starts them on their path. through a series of short essays spread out over the semester, they share their learnings with me. on the overall concept of peace education, they write: another core value of peace education is listening to local voices. in order to fight violence and achieve peace, those who are most greatly affected and have the most cultural and land knowledge need to be listened to. additionally, peace education values connecting with nature on multiple levels. not solely performing actions that help the earth but understanding the broad benefits of such actions. strategies that speak to me in particular include explicitly introducing topics of peace and violence, challenging capitalistic values in schools, and empowering students to imagine creative solutions to conflict. peace education also provides a framework to imagine alternative solutions to social and environmental violence. the recognition that science and traditional academic knowledge can only go so far in aiding our world’s woes is a critical aspect of peace education. in considering peace education’s pillar of planetary stewardship, conversations can be had in classrooms about what systems we are trying to sustain when we envision “sustainable futures.” turning towards a spiritual and cultural transformation as an avenue to envision how to apply science and technology-based solutions opens up new answers to this question. about peace education practice, they share: i think that it is very important for young people, and older people, to envision an ideal future to make lifestyle changes that will lead to said future. youth-centered, project-based learning is one way that we can disrupt unjust environmental policies and decisions that place marginalized communities at risk and incorporate futures studies into the classroom. http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 18 it is a means of identifying alternative futures that represent what we want the future to look like, even if it is not what we think is actually going to happen. it emphasizes moving from a “power over” model to a “power with” model – power dynamics do not require one person/group/etc. having power over another, but capitalism limits our ability to imagine something different. peace education accomplishes this by uplifting all voices, permitting every individual to feel personally responsible for taking a stance on climate change, while also placing them in a community of others who partake in the conversation. it would also be nice to change how we teach about current global crises and root causes; in my experience i often found my pre-college classes to be very detached from current events, and i believe teaching how current events trace back to historical root causes would be very beneficial. they see the potential for transformation when peace education enters into a dialogue with climate chaos: but it is also incorrect to believe that we as individuals can do nothing; while facing global crises like climate change requires sweeping changes and collective movement, it must all start at an individual level. yet this isn’t the contradiction it may appear to be—really, what matters most is the purpose behind the action. it’s different when an individual acts only in regard to personal consumption, and when individuals act knowing their efforts are part of a global whole. if there’s a central tenet of peace education that most stands out to me, it is cultural transformation. from education classes prior, and my own journey of disillusionment, learning about the intertwined and intimidating systems of power and oppression—capitalism, racism, those seemingly tooentrenched-to-take-on “root causes”—have long felt disheartening. one issue leads to ten others, and addressing one seems impossible without addressing all. this hopelessness of impossible scale led me to our class and http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 19 in the face of perhaps the most dread-inducing intertwined issue, climate change, peace education expands my insight. it reignites my drive. i believe that the emphasis on the interconnectedness of environmental justice with all other justice forms, including racial, gender, and housing, is key. to understand these connections, individuals must identify the root causes of problems, including white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy. while it is important to teach students about systems of violence, it is just as important to give them the tools to replace them with new systems of peace. children carry ample imaginative power, much of which is either suppressed by the prescriptive problem-solving approaches taught in schools or is otherwise channeled mostly towards creations to be profited off of… transformation can begin with simple changes that one makes in their educational settings to encourage peacemaking and change definitions of success. by giving students the tools to imagine creative and peaceful solutions to conflict, we set them up to transform their own present and future communities, and potentially the wider world. there is no easy fix to our current situation. but, i believe that the power of imagination and emotion is an untapped resource that can create a cultural revolution capable of combating our current structures. the first step to a new world is imagining the world we want to live in. imagination itself is a resistance to capitalism. discussion from my educational encounters, witnessing the experiences and voices of learners of all ages, i have come to realize a few things with regards to how education can better invite teachers and students into addressing climate chaos. creating localized and place-based explorations can foster connection and deeper understanding of not only the natural (or natural-built) world but also one’s role in the system. since so much of formal education can be top-down, to teach from the bottom up is an act of resistance. exploration and inquiry grounded in children’s local setting allows them to bring forth local knowledge thus seeing themselves as part of rather than separate from nature, community, or one another. i see this http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 20 situational learning as part of an ‘undoing’—undoing what we think we know, what we’ve been told to accept, and what we’ve come to believe as the only way to exist. teachers also need this undoing of their own educational experiences so that they don’t fall into the trap of perpetuating dominant mindsets around planetary care and humans’ roles as agents of change. through the practice of undoing and living into not-knowing, teachers can facilitate experiences that promote questioning thereby creating a learning community filled with co-learners, where children see their teachers as learners too. through a co-learning model of critical pedagogy, educational spaces can become sites for learners to imagine futures that are actively different than what we’ve been invited to accept. so many of the people i’ve worked with—young and not-so-young—often feel crushed by the weight of the world, by planetary destruction and the prevalence of violence in so many forms. when given the chance to envision the world they want to live in, their countenance, and energy, shifts. education that promotes imagination and creativity empowers learners—and their teachers—to not simply see another route forward, but to also live that world into creation. i believe all these shifts are part of a peace education practice and while certainly important for education in general, they can be particularly impactful to address the myriad issues we face in the wake of climate chaos. to ground peace education in the various sites i teach, i have long relied on the three core values of peace education as put forth by betty reardon (1986): planetary stewardship, humane relationship, and global citizenship as a foundation. i believe that they provide a clear and impactful framework for those needing a starting point for peace education,2 although i did recently reformulate them to reflect a more expansive and inclusive value set.3 the aforementioned ‘undoing’ practice manifests when peace educators engage learners in questioning the dominant paradigm that sees wealth, competition, and environmental domination as the standard. perhaps the first thing we all need to be comfortable with is unpacking the world order that exists, as brantmeier states, “dominant and subordinate power relationships need to be critically explored” (2013, 247). in particular, we must engage learners in understanding how power structures based on capitalism and colonialism have not only shaped our economy and modus 2 see, ardizzone, l. (2022) science, spirituality, and climate change. peace review. 3 see, ardizzone, l (2024). three-legged stool: a peace education framework for weaving together spirituality, science, and technology. zygon: journal of religion and science. http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 21 operandi but also limited whose voices are given credibility and how, whether we have realized it or not, we all have come to accept the destruction of earth as a fait accompli. peace education is ideally suited as the methodology for climate education if we are committed to using a critical, analytical, intersectional, interdisciplinary approach that questions assumptions, poses problems, engages in counterhegemonic thinking, and collaboratively encourages learners to examine root causes and generate solutions that are holistic, responsive, and long-lasting. this last part is of paramount importance. we are bombarded with messages that technology will fix the climate crisis. and while this is certainly true in terms of developing alternative energy uses, inventing electric cars and other non-fossil-fuel conveniences, technology does not address the underlying consumption-based mindset that got us into this situation in the first place. furthermore, technology does not invite us into an earth-centered ethos for addressing root causes. thus, a peace education perspective enables a critical examination of perceived solutions so that when we study the technology of electric car batteries, for example, we will also be looking at the environmental challenges of mining for necessary minerals used in their production and the political, economic, and post-colonial/oppressive power dynamics of these “advancements.” natural resources are needed for technological developments, (i.e. mining for copper in latin america) thus we must examine how they are extracted, who is doing the extracting, and who is profiting from the extraction. most crucially, we must examine the “why” of the technology. why is this necessary, beyond convenience, and could we instead invest in a solution that doesn’t continue harm to earth? could we address the problem by shifting how we live instead of exploiting the earth to continue our current lifestyles? and the biggest question for peace educators: how do we engage learners of all ages in the discussion of living more simply and holistically? how do we engage them in, in gandhi’s words, learning to “live simply so others may simply live”? technology may need to be part of a solution, but it does not invite us into a deeper relationship with nature or call us into community with societies that have lived and continue to live in respectful, restorative, and reciprocal relationships with earth and nature. climate and peace educators need not start from scratch. while i’ve shared some models from my teaching experiences, other peace educators over the last http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 22 twenty-plus years have created various models that, while historically used to address other manifestations of the violence triangle, can easily be used to facilitate learning around the root causes of climate suffering. for example, brantmeier (2013) put forth critical peace education through an iterative process that includes “raising consciousness through dialogue,” which for climate chaos means sharing compelling scientific data about global warming and its current manifestations and engaging learners in a discussion of root causes and prevailing impacts. he emphasizes “imagining non-violent alternatives” and, in this sense, helps learners dissect the violence done to planet and species through an exploration of precolonial epistemologies to reveal ways of interacting with earth that are harmonious and reciprocal rather than violent and exploitative. this practice leads into his third point, “providing specific models of empowerment” wherein learners can conduct case studies of local and/or global environmental actions – especially those led by young people, indigenous people, and/or other marginalized voices, which will inspire them to more deeply examine or develop their own methods of ‘transformative action”. as the process continues, learners are invited into moments of “reflection and re-engagement” where they can share their learnings, their shifts in consciousness, and their personal challenges as they try to live in harmony with the natural world amid a culture of violence and destruction (249-250). i am particularly drawn to another model, that of turay & english (2008). their “transformative model of peace education” is made up of five components, including a nod to spirituality. these five aspects “globalized perspectives, indigenous knowing, diversity, participatory learning, and spiritual underpinning” (293) bring together the best of what peace education has to offer, explicitly adding indigenous voices and acknowledging spiritual connection as a necessary component of peace work. in a classroom setting, examining climate chaos, or even studying just one aspect of the problem through this model allows students to recognize the global implications (not just the local) of climate change, and incorporate indigenous wisdom and examine spiritual motivations to address it. through this model, i can see a classroom digging deeply into the red deal (https://therednation.org/), doing a case study of greenfaith, or developing a protocol of mutual aid for their community. http://www.infactispax.org/journal https://therednation.org/ volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 23 these models, as well as the methods i have developed and utilized in my own learning spaces, speak to the power of peace education as empowerment education. “in the empowerment process, personal change begins to occur when people acknowledge their deep feelings about violence and the perilous nature of the world. accepting feelings of fear and vulnerability as normal human reactions frees people to share those feelings with others and explore common links that provide the basis for joining together to address these problems.” (harris & morrison, 2002, 93) this is especially true and necessary as climate chaos involves profound feelings of grief and despair. in order to address the state of the world, we also need to be open to sharing and processing these heavy emotions. through peace education, we can create brave and caring spaces where our concerns for the future and our despair in the present can be shared, processed, and transformed into action. my learnings over the years have been profound and my peace education orientation has enabled me to continually incorporate, refine, reimagine, and reimplement lessons and experiences that foster connection, cooperation, and reverence. as seen by the responses from students (and students who are becoming teachers), experience with an alternative education paradigm is deeply impactful. many people assume our responsibility as teachers who care about life on planet earth extends only to taking kids outdoors more, and while that is definitely necessary, we need to know why we are taking them outdoors and we need to have a pedagogy of place that is not just about being in nature for the sake of being in nature, but also about listening to nature and to the cultural voices that lived in community with all of creation. this is where critical peace education meets spirituality; creating learning opportunities that invite us into a relationship with the natural world that isn’t focused on outcome or content but rather on presence and connection. what i hope to see peace educators facilitate is a love of nature, a reconnection and spiritual shift toward unity. through peace education, we can push back against the historic duality or division between humans and the natural world that led to the destruction we are witnessing, which means we must relearn and re-engage with the thoughts and practices of first nations people. through this http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 24 we kindle curiosity and the creativity necessary to imagine an anti-capitalist future that puts relationships, healing, land back, reparations, and even the divine feminine at the center, leading us towards a communal and non-disposable way of living. this aspect of a peace-based climate education is not simply a “going into the woods” series of experiences, it’s deeply understanding layers of ecology, fostering reverence for nature and all life forms. through this, we cultivate reciprocity: you cannot take what you can’t replenish. such praxis will hopefully help learners not just gain a newfound or alternative perspective on nature and life on earth, but also deeply question a society built upon extraction and unmitigated progress. ideally, we’ll guide them to develop personal, interpersonal, and communal ways of being that can avert the disasters that climate chaos brings and bring forth a more just and sustainable world. by coupling peace education pedagogy with earth-based practices and a spiritual-minded lens, we can foster critical analysis, support imagination and a futures-oriented way of thinking, nurture a call to justice, and perhaps, most important of all, cultivate hope – a radical, transformative hope that the world so desperately needs. http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 25 references ardizzone, l. (2002). towards global understanding: the transformative role of peace education. current issues in comparative education. teachers college, columbia university. ardizzone, l. (2007). gettin my word out: voices of urban youth activists. albany: sunypress. beres, l. (2019) valuing critical reflection and narratives in professional practice wisdom. in recovering informal learning. lifelong learning book series, vol 7. springer, dordrecht. brantmeier, e. (2013). toward a critical peace education for sustainability. journal of peace education, 10(3), 242-258. bowles, s. & gintis, h. (1976) schooling in capitalist america: educational reform and the contradictions of economic life. new york: basic books. burroughs, j. (2015) the gospel of nature. american roots. daly, m. (1973) beyond god the father: toward a philosophy of women’s liberation. boston: beacon press. deloria, v. (1992) god is red: a native view of religion. golden: north american press. deloria, v. (1977) “a native american perspective on liberation” in mission trends no. 4. freire, p. (1970) pedagogy of the oppressed. new york: seabury press. freire, p & horton, m. (1990) we make the road by walking: conversations on education and social change. temple university press. http://www.infactispax.org/journal volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 26 galtung, j. (1969). violence, peace, and peace research. journal of peace research, 6(3), 167–191. galtung, j. (1975) peace and social structure: essays in peace research, volume six. copenhagen: christian elhers. harris, i & morrison, m.l. (2002). peace education. mcfarland & company. higgs, j. (2009) appreciating practice wisdom. in: recovering informal learning. lifelong learning book series, vol 7. springer, dordrecht. hager, p. & halliday, j. (2009). wisdom. in: recovering informal learning. lifelong learning book series, vol 7. springer, dordrecht. macrine, s. (2009) critical pedagogy in uncertain times: hope and possibilities. springer. maniates, michael (2001): individualization: plant a tree, buy a bike, save the world?’ global environmental politics 1:3. massachusetts institute of technology mcilveen, p. (2018) defining employability for the new era of work: a submission to the senate select committee on the future of work and workers. canberra, australia: the senate. méndez, mariza. (2013). autoethnography as a research method: advantages, limitations and criticisms. colombian applied linguistics journal, 15(2), 279-287. retrieved april 1, 2023, from http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=s012346412013000200010&lng=en&tlng=en. reardon, b. (1988). comprehensive peace education: educating for global responsibility. new york: teachers college press. rosa cd, profice cc & collado s (2018) natural experiences in adults selfreported pro-environmental behaviors: the role of connectedness to nature and childhood nature experiences. frontiers in psychology, 9:1055. http://www.infactispax.org/journal http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=s0123-46412013000200010&lng=en&tlng=en http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=s0123-46412013000200010&lng=en&tlng=en http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=s0123-46412013000200010&lng=en&tlng=en http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=s0123-46412013000200010&lng=en&tlng=en volume 18 number 1 (2024): 127 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 27 rosa cd, profice cc & collado s (2019) experiences in nature and environmental attitudes and behaviors: setting the ground for future research. frontiers in psychology, 10:763. rousseau, n & rousseau, s. (1999) dr king’s giant triplets: racism, materialism, and militarism. in forcey & harris (eds) peacebuilding for adolescents. ny: peter lang. turay, t.m. & english, l.m (2008) toward a global culture of peace: a transformative model of peace education. journal of transformative education vol 6 (40) worth, k. (2021) miseducation: how climate change is taught in america. new york, ny: columbia global reports. http://www.infactispax.org/journal 68 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 68-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 self, eco-relationality and peace pedagogy: lessons and challenges from wisdom traditions ~ a dialogue david tim archer, edward sellman, josefina unger, & rosanna wilson abstract as peace and peace education struggle in a climate of existential threats we worry that current onto-epistemologies are insufficient to truly influence sustainable change. instead, we fear existing pedagogies of peace only become co-opted into reproducing the dominant cultural system, which is based upon problematic notions of individuality, human-centrism, competition and violence. as peace educators and scholars we ask whether alternative onto-epistemological framings of peace could offer ways beyond our current predicaments and genuinely affect how we interact with each other and the other-than-human world. in particular, we wish to explore our own experiences working with what we define as wisdom-informed traditions; approaches that respectfully borrow from worldviews outside of the western modernist mindset. these perspectives encompass transpersonal notions of self as interdependent and interrelational with the world around us. we believe such perspectives align with, and in some cases even predate, decolonial and philosophical critiques of peace education, offering specific methodologies that could transform our ways of being away from current neoliberal framings towards more ecologically-centric and relational sensibilities. to discuss such perspectives, we wish to invite you the reader into dialogue with us to further destabilize the production of knowledge symptomatic with the current onto-epistemologies we seek divergence from. we therefore invite you into a diasporic co-poesis and diffractive dialogue about how wisdom-informed traditions both challenge and https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 69 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax inspire pedagogies of peace whilst reaffirming the central importance of an integrated self and eco-relationality. introduction in response to this special edition’s theme, ‘bridging traditional wisdom and modernity: exploring an eco-relational paradigm for peace’, we wish to share our experiences as four practitioner-scholars (lederach & lopez 2016) working in differing capacities within education, attempting to incorporate pedagogies drawing from outside western modernist traditions. while our backgrounds and approaches carry divergences, we believe synergy exists between the philosophical motivations underpinning our practices: in particular those that aim at shifting our relationships with ourselves, each other, and the other-than-human world towards more eco-relational ways of being. the aspiration of this paper is to share our attempts to integrate such pedagogies in ways we hope push outside of and challenge harmful and fragmenting western neoliberal forms of education (ball 2003; sellman 2020; jones & ball 2023) through incorporating what we call wisdom-informed traditions. these perspectives take inspiration from worldviews who believe intimate relationships between humans and the other-than-human world exist. they draw from worldviews, or onto-epistemologies, outside of western paradigms that we believe offer nuanced perspectives on peace and notions of the self that changes how we interact with the world. examples that have particularly influenced us include ancient east-asian philosophy and spirituality, indigenous ways of being with nature, plant medicines and rites-of-passage. we anticipate such perspectives will align with current decolonial calls within our fields of education and peace education that show violence contained in existing educational systems (harber 2004; cremin & bevington 2017). we will explore why we feel incorporating practices from wisdom traditions are important and how we hope they inspire and challenge contemporary education. we offer self, ecorelationality and peace pedagogy as intertwined concepts, shifting our relationships with ourselves, each other, and the earth. we believe such discussion is paramount given recent reports that consistently attest to a world facing conflict with increasing destructive potential and environmental damage (rust & totton 2012, aspey at al 2023; oecd 2025; wef 2025). we highlight how the educational systems we four inhabit not only hinder the transformation of cultures of violence (galtung 1996), but may actively maintain and reproduce these very systems, including itself, that perpetuate them (harber 2004; cremin & bevington 2017; gatto 2017). we, as educators, have in our own ways sought to directly elucidate and destabilize this link through our work https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 70 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax (berila 2016). it is this work we share here. we four consider ourselves educators and practitioners who work in capacities aimed at changing our current ways of being in/with the world. this could be in relation to notions of holistic health, well– being, or human flourishing, but we believe all could be captured under a broad banner of peace, intraand inter-personal peace (dietrich 2012; cremin & bevington 2017). while definitions of peace can be contested, we believe an anchoring in the notion of peace offers a clear integrative framework by focusing on inner and outer states of being. the resolution of the tension between these states, and an overarching idea of peace, frames our shared beliefs throughout this paper. methodology of the paper as we encourage divergence from modernist forms of education, it is important for us that our approach is congruent rather than reverting to linear and hierarchical forms of knowledge-production and exchange (rogers & freiberg 1994; palmer 1998; connell 2014; berila 2016; manathunga 2020). to do so this paper offers reflexive responses to each other's writing as we engage and learn from each other’s contributions, allowing ideas to emerge between us that may also resonate with you the reader. we hope such an approach showcases the types of knowledge production we advocate; constructed in encounters (wegerif 2025). we also hope it engages you to discover something anew through such elicitation (lederach 1995, seikkula & trimble 2005). perhaps this approach inspires your own reflections while concurrently mirroring peace education scholarship as vulnerable, reflexive, improvised, and affective (kester 2018; zembylas 2018; cremin & kester 2020; archer et al. 2023; kester & misiaszek 2025). we see this approach as embodying gur ze’ev’s (2011) call that peace should never be static or at ‘home’ but constantly constructed through co-poesis in the moments where we meet, and where a ‘contact boundary’ is formed between us, we become changed (hycner 1993, koppensteiner 2020). such an approach has been inspired by previous dialogical formats (cremin & kester 2020; archer et al. 2023; abura et al. 2025) and resonates with our beliefs around knowledge as temporal, contextual, and reflexive. who are we? who are we speaking to? before beginning we wish to lay bare who we are. tim considers himself a practitioner of peace and conflict resolution processes who has worked in postconflict contexts as well as domestically in the uk and canada. a major element of this identity is being a peace educator who tries to integrate diverse ontohttps://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 71 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax epistemologies with scholarly insights from the fields of peace and conflict studies, education, and behavioural sciences. edward brings the identities of being a peace educator, an integrative transpersonal counsellor and psychedelic-assisted therapist to this dialogue. his academic journey has slowly moved from a focus on restorative approaches to conflict in schools to mindfulness and education, ultimately leading him to a transpersonal orientation that extends to see the relationships within therapeutic and wisdom tradition containers as deeply pedagogical. josefina sees herself as a lifelong seeker of meaning, where the personal and the professional merge into a single path. a child psychologist with a gestalt background, her practice in chile profoundly shaped her perspectives on human beings and their deepest emotional needs. her journey took her to india, where she encountered integral education based on sri aurobindo and the mother's integral yoga (the mother, 1999; partho, 2021). this experience now informs her academic career and vision for a more conscious and integrated society. rosanna brings an ecopsychological and intergenerational justice lens to her work and this dialogue. committed to ground-level perspective sharing, she draws from her twelve year career as a languages and social-science teacher. her research focuses on the intersection between wellbeing and sustainability in education through participatory approaches, voice, activism and deliberative democracy practices. in our first entries we will say a little more about our early educational careers, what brought us to peace education and the themes and questions our initial journeys raised before revisiting each other’s reflections. tim i have always felt a disconnection within the worldview i was raised in, particularly in the ways we in the uk saw the natural world as separate to us and simply a resource to use (rust & totton 2012). why this was i could not say, but it inspired me to seek and learn from other traditions that i hoped would provide differing perspectives on how to be in the world that complimented my beliefs. as a young boy i was drawn to traditions of the first nations of the americas and learnt as much as i could about their diverse and varied traditions. in the early 2000’s i moved to canada and was introduced to elder dr doreen paskostikwanewkihew https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 72 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax iskwew onikaniw1 spence o.c., or grandmother, who became my teacher in the traditional ways of the cree nations. the teachings she introduced resonated with my beliefs regarding an interconnection between all things and provided an alternative language that countered the worldview i received from my own uk educational upbringing: where ‘man’ was separate to nature, where nature provided resources that ‘man’ had learnt to tame and utilise (brito et al. 2021b). as practitioner-scholars we can sometimes feel there are multiple aspects to our identity. at times these parts may feel contested, in conflict, or unaccepted by our peers, and need to be negotiated, concealed, or even dissociated (fitzmaurice 2013; sheridan 2013; shams 2019). as a practitioner-scholar of a western higher education institute, the part of myself that felt drawn to worldviews outside of the western modernist tradition often felt unaccepted, even illegitimate, to my academic work and community. for me, however, there was no separation between these positioned disparate parts as i felt they complemented each other and informed my professional practitioner-scholar identity (tsuruhara & archer 2023). i found my way towards peace work (or peace work found me) to complement and fully express how i wished to be in the world: where i try to make a positive difference in the world and ‘walk my talk’ on the earth. a life of service beyond ourselves. peace scholarship, however, quickly highlighted how our motivations and approaches to peace required reflection, explicating how peace programmes may unintentionally do harm (pupavac 2001; gur ze’ev 2001; fontan 2012; kester & cremin 2017). fellow scholars encouraged deep reflection on who, what, and how peace was taught (kester & cremin 2017). as mcgregor (2014) notes, peace is deeply philosophical and thus as educators we need to be cognizant of our own philosophical foundations. scholars began to acknowledge absences or explicitly rejected perspectives in peace. brantmeier et al. (2010), for example, notes how world traditions all have their own interpretations and approaches to peace that need valuing. similarly, dietrich (2012) suggests the need to incorporate what he terms ‘energetic’ traditions to peace that focus on conceptions of harmony and balance. but it was decolonial scholarship, such as de sousa santos (2014, 2018) and escobar (2020) who illustrated what we as peace educators often deny, finally encouraging me to feel able to explore and integrate even celebrate dissociated parts of my-self. they showed how western scholarship had explicitly demeaned other systems of knowledge as inferior, relegating them off the ‘abys’ (de sousa santos 2018) of legitimacy. such scholarship argues that only through incorporating disbanded knowledges can solutions to problems caused by modernity be solved (escobar 2020). 1 bald eagle woman who leads https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 73 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax to be clear, a respectful caveat is needed, as i have said elsewhere (archer 2021; tsuruhara & archer 2023), tuhiwai smith’s (1999) words ring in my ears. i acknowledge i am not from these traditions, and therefore have no expertise, or rights, on representing them. as her influential quote states, i wish not to be another “they came, they saw, they named, they claimed” (tuhiwai smith 1999 p.80) scholar as that would only be a further example of colonial scholarship that i seek divergence from. it is only through the gracious permission of dr doreen spence that i share these thoughts as an outsider, seeking to feel infused by traditions outside of my own. incorporating these worldviews into peace pedagogies allows different ways of being and interacting with the world to be included into peace paradigms. these worldviews allow for the exploration of what i believe fits with barad’s (2007) onto-ethico-epistemologies: where one’s ethics is inseparable to our ways of interpreting the world. our ontological and epistemological framings therefore require critical exploration and how we are in the world matters as much as how we perceive the world to be. it is these perspectives that offer an ecorelational way of being in/with the world that i believe can shift current violent relationships we have in/to the world. i have found such worldviews, or onto-ethico-epistemologies, introduced to me by dr doreen spence reorientates our relationship with the world towards more interconnected relationships, what wall-kimmerer (2013) notes as a reciprocal relationship between self and the world. i believe such perspectives are synonymous with the eco-relational paradigm focus of this special edition. such exploration allows for the environment, and thus the harm being caused to it, to be central in discussions about peace with what kester and misiaszek (2025) note as a ‘deepening and widening’ level of analysis. this should shift our responses, or response-abilities, to the ecological crises and our roles in it, as we are interconnected, not separate. in particular, these worldviews place a pedagogical power on spending secluded silent time in/with nature; where the boundaries of separation between the self and the interconnected whole begin to dissolve, towards the emergence of a new and integrated self. such onto-ethico-epistemologies position nature not as a ‘thing’ to be used, but as an interconnected inseparable part of ourselves, as a mother, and as a teacher. i believe such perspectives carry powerful affective potentials to shift our way of interacting with the world towards environmental sustainability and regeneration; where to heal ourselves means we must heal our relationship with nature (wall-kimmerer 2013). edward, josefina, rossanna, how did different traditions inform your idea of peace and in particular our relationships with nature? how and why did you start the practices you did? https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 74 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax edward thanks tim, i resonated with your points about growing up in a culture where nature is seen as something ‘out there’ (rust & totton 2012, brito et al. 2021b, aspey et al. 2023), something to be ‘accessed’, a place of recreation or escape. several other themes relating to our eco-relational disconnection and separation from each other are stimulated by your opening reflection for me. weller (2015) argues we come into the world expecting a deep connection with nature as a birthright alongside attunement with a village community and we feel this lack as an elusive emptiness and yearning. absence of ritual and rites-of-passage, especially into adulthood for communities in the west (han 2020; watts 1961), compound this sense of alienation and leave young people to internalise the zeitgeist of dominant cultural norms that are largely shaped by commercial and political interest rather than the hard-earned wisdom of elders. although initiatives i’ve witnessed such as peace and positive education, alongside mindfulness-based interventions in schools, offer the veneer of potential, these are so easily co-opted into the neoliberal apparatus that frames educational policy and practice to such an extent that they actually seem to assist the reproduction and perpetuation of the status-quo. rather than disrupt educational spaces they collude with unconscious commitments to unending growth and ever-increasing standards of living that propel violence to one another and to the planet. in recent years, i’ve become fascinated by the pedagogy of spaces where psychedelic substances are consciously taken, ceremonially or therapeutically, often as a rite-of-passage. spaces where participants report being able to seemingly work with the intelligence of various plants, as our ancestors have surely done throughout the world. in fact grof (1998, 2000) highlights that it is only western societies, and only during modern times, that have not worked with non-ordinary states of consciousness accessible in such ways. in such states, participants also report having greater access to their own healing-intelligence with considerable insight about their own personal experience, but also about the nature of reality including our intimate relationship with nature and each other. i’ll share a little bit more about my views about rites-of-passage. my own journey as a peace educator was almost certainly a response to early exposure to domestic violence and witnessing the damaging impact of bullying at school. for a period i internalised the message that the only way to survive school was to fight, until i had a ‘spiritual-opening’ aged 15, bizarrely watching a fight after school. i recall the fake bravado, the masks, the personas, worn by the protagonists as the fight brewed and escalated. in fact, i left just before the fight began. the lyrics of https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 75 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax ‘hey jude’ reverberated in my mind (“for well you know it’s a fool who plays it cool by making his world a little colder”) and as i walked home i felt something was just not ‘cool’ about pretending to be someone other than who you are, and i vowed to be authentic to my true self from that moment on, which included an early commitment to nonviolence and vegetarianism. as someone who now identifies as a ‘transpersonal’ (beyond the person/mask) researcher/practitioner, i hope the reader can sense how pivotal this moment was for me. something about tim’s opening reflection stirred up this memory and as i reflect on it here it brings up several pertinent issues. neufeld and maté (2019) argue, in the west, parents, mentors and communities abdicate their child-rearing to the state leaving young people vulnerable to the osmosis of the dominant cultural values of the time. hence, the self most young people are able to construct is a fiction, it’s the type of person their peers, teachers, politicians and cultural leaders wish to perpetuate (frankel 1998). this, gatto (2017) argues, is far from an oversight but an intentional part of the design and maintenance of western education systems. rather than being sites of liberation, the balance is far more skewed to sites of oppression; educating an individual just enough and into a position where they reproduce the system for the benefit of the wealthy and powerful. in this sense, the insidious purpose of education is state-dependence and limited self-knowledge compared to those engrained in wisdom traditions, rather than any opportunity to genuinely, or fully, individuate. peace education and mindfulness-based interventions offered to schools have in my experience done little to liberate people from these conditions and seem to be overly instrumentalized (brito et al. 2021a; sellman & buttarazzi 2020), who’s byproducts (better behaviour, greater concentration) serve the hidden-curriculum of western education, which is much more about social control. my prior reflection also reminds me of the absence of ritual and rites-ofpassage for adolescents into adulthood (frankel 1998, han 2020), common to wisdom traditions but lacking in the west to such an extent that adolescents turn to unhelpful norms and means to initiate themselves (neufeld & maté 2019). interestingly, frankel (1998) describes a group of students who break into their usbased school to dance and jump over a ring of chairs they set alight only later to discover that this was precisely such a ritual that would have occurred on such land when inhabited by first nations people. such an account testifies to the need of young people for initiation into something bigger than themselves, so much so, it leaks through the collective unconscious. when such passage is assisted, it is usually provided by a non-family member who would guide a young person through an ordeal, sometimes involving psychedelic plants, many of which would be unpalatable if not unacceptable to a western palate, but the fruits of which would https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 76 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax be a deeper connection with place and nature, deeper understanding concerning the unity and connectedness of things alongside radical self-responsibility (grof 2000). a question i often ask myself is what have we lost in trade for greater comfort and safety? one answer to my own question is that education systematically teaches a form of ‘mistaken identity’ (levy 2018), that of being separate from nature and each other whereas rites-of-passage, and psychedelic spaces, commonly teach interconnectedness, consciousness first models of reality and with it an identification with a self we all have in common (sellman 2020). i may come back to these topics but i’ll pause here, i wonder what others make of these themes? josefina many of the ideas already expressed resonate deeply. tim, just as you felt a disconnect from the worldview in which you were raised, i too experienced a profound discomfort regarding my place in the world. despite growing-up in a home filled with love, openness and the freedom to be whoever i wanted to be there was something deeper – something about the way the world functioned – that did not sit right with me. i struggled to understand why everything seemed externally oriented rather than the other way around. something felt fundamentally misaligned for me, a discomfort that evoked resistance to the societal ‘mould’ i felt engulfed me, even though i somehow fulfilled all its expectations. i was an ‘ideal student’, excelling academically and socially; i was seen as well-rounded and complete yet, within that completeness, i knew there was something missing. by the age of 14 i hence developed a fascination for understanding human beings, including myself. i felt compelled to dedicate my life to exploring different ways of being and helping society develop a higher level of consciousness. i realised that the first and most essential step in achieving this was to transform my inner-world (the mother 1999; krishnamurti 2006). a ceaseless journey commenced, a quest to explore the meaning of life, my true identity and my purpose. this search inevitably led me to seek answers within the wisdom traditions, particularly yoga and kabbalah. these traditions first revealed to me the idea that reality is 1% material and 99% spiritual, or, as i would describe it now; 1% dualistic and 99% non-dualistic (loy 2019). intuitively, perhaps i had been feeling this 99%, the vast reality enveloping the material world (kastrup 2019) that no one had ever informed me about. furthermore, both traditions reaffirmed that personal transformation is the first-step toward any meaningful change. external transformation occurs only to the extent that we embody what we stand for https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 77 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax (krishnamurti 2006), and this for me is central to our conversation, as you noted, tim. to address the multiple crises affecting our planet and moving towards more peaceful ways of being in the world, requires a deep engagement with our own processes of integration a process that is fundamentally both internal and interrelational, shaping how we experience and relate to the world. sri aurobindo (2006, p. 4) suggests that ‘all problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony’, arising from the tension between fragmentation and our instinct for unity. thus, integration is about reconciling apparent contradictions between the dual and non-dual: spirit and matter, organism and environment, body and mind, the self and the shadow – not as opposing forces, but as different expressions of a unified reality (aurobindo, 2006; wilber, 2024). this search for integration led me to deeply question the education system of my home country (chile), rooted in market performativity (inostroza & falabella, 2021), shaped by state control, standardisation, competition, and accountability (falabella, 2015). i remember being at school and wondering why no spaces were dedicated to self-knowledge and the development of our innerbeing. i could not comprehend how we spent so many years, cage-like, absorbing vast amounts of information that held little relevance to our lives. then, upon entering the ‘real-world,’ we found ourselves utterly unequipped to navigate our own existence (maturana, 1999). why were we not encouraged to discover who we really are, understand our feelings and learn how to regulate them? in short, education seemed designed to mould us to fit a system dictated by the market (gatto 2017, neufeld & maté 2019), rather than to help us uncover our true essence and purpose (aurobindo & the mother, 2001; the mother, 1999; sellman, 2020; partho, 2021). this lack of space for inner-growth and integration within education led me to seek alternative approaches – ones that prioritized being over doing. yet, it was only during my university years, as i studied psychology, that i encountered what had been absent from my early formal-education: the profound transformative power of genuine human connection, what buber (2000) refers to as the ‘i-thou’ relationship, where through encounters of true presence, we come into authenticity. although i had experienced the power of authentic encounters within my home and through social-service work, it was through my clinical practice that i was able to engage in these encounters more directly. becoming a psychotherapist granted me the opportunity to open profound spaces – spaces that, much like buber (2000), i regard as sacred – where another unveils their vulnerability and their purebeing, inviting me to be part of the vastness of their existence. when these spaces open, i experienced precisely what you describe, edward, in the context of https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 78 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax psychedelic experiences (and perhaps you could say more about these in your second entry): interconnectedness, consciousness, and an identification with a shared self, something levinas (2002, p. 9) refers to as ‘leaving oneself towards being’, a movement beyond the confines of the self, where the encounter with the other calls us into a profound relationship that transcends individual existence and demands ethical responsibility. and yet, we are deprived of these spaces – spaces that are essential for human life – both in formal education and in most social contexts (maturana, 1999, weller 2015). this deprivation is further exacerbated by a world increasingly shaped by technology and virtual-realities, which further alienate us from the embodied and felt experience of opening ourselves to another, and consequently, to ourselves (kastrup 2019). without these encounters, we are denied the opportunity to learn how to love and be loved, deprived of transcending, and remembering the oneness that constitutes us (krishnamurti, 2013). this lack of capacity for love has devastating consequences (noddings 1984, 2012; naranjo 2016; culshaw & kurian 2021), fragmenting, alienating, and disconnecting us from our true essence or common self and our relationship with the world around us (krishnamurti, 1994). i wonder how you all perceive and approach the fragmented self? personally, i have found many answers to this in the integral education of sri aurobindo and the mother, which emphasises the balanced development of all dimensions of the human being: physical, vital, mental, psychic, and spiritual (the mother, 1999). rosanna reading your reflections brings up the sense of conflict i felt as a new teacher, which i now understand as a perplexion with an individualist conception of ‘doing well’ and a mechanistic/extractive view of education which overlooked that all true ‘doing well’ rests upon ‘being well’ and specifically, ‘interbeing well’. yet, attention to the nature of our interbeing is almost totally lacking in schools i have known. in my experience, schools facing behavioural challenges often strengthen whole-school behaviourist approaches, characterised by high expectations, token economies and sending students who are persistently difficult to manage into isolation. this paralleled a time in which the curriculum became more restrictive and competitive in the uk. i wondered, and still wonder, why new teachers are introduced to these behaviourist practices as exemplifying ‘good-practice’ rather than relational practices (kohn 2006). edward, i’m sure you’ll have something to say about this. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 79 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax growing up with a sister with autism, my parents had adopted a radical, home-education approach called son rise (kaufman 1976), which was informed by east-asian wisdom perspectives, some of which we refer to in this article. in childhood i learned to accept my sister, to make her feel safe and not punish her when her behaviour did not match the accepted way. we learned in our house that an accepting and non-judgmental attitude, similar to unconditional positive regard in the humanistic approach (rogers & freiberg 1994), was crucial to us building relationships and the confidence for my sister to socially relate and want to speak to us. we understood this had to come before any emphasis on numeracy and literacy. for me, this worldview challenged any ego-based preoccupation with who may be socially superior – at school or elsewhere as something superficial. underneath lay a yearning to discover and know one another more deeply through connection. it was hence hard to come into the teaching profession with the expectation to accept an overly-simplistic behaviourist ‘reward-and-punish’ approach to classroom management. perhaps subversively, i explored with colleagues and sought to develop the skills of self-awareness, relationship building, boundary affirming, co-regulation, de-escalation and participation as more peaceful alternatives. acknowledging that it is much harder with thirty or more in a classroom than with one, i ask myself why behaviourism is so dominant rather than the practice of care (noddings 2012). surely, more humanistic and care-based approaches afford greater community building, connection and deeper selfknowledge? existing structures seem to be ultimately designed in favour of cognitive advancement and the sustaining of ‘business as usual’ for those with status and power (macy & johnstone 2020). i hence come to this dialogue in solidarity with colleagues and the young people i teach; committed to transformative/participatory approaches, a deliberative democracy and youth-voice advocate. through my research and practice, i have come to see what edward and josefina identify as an ‘educationalentitlement’ to inner-work and having a voice in decision-making, as interconnected. aspiration for education oriented toward both being and doing well means unlocking our deeper instinctual selves, and our capacity for connection through synchronous, embodied attunement with each other, the natural world, the realities of deep-time, and the specificity of places in which we live and cohabit. as haraway (2016) remarks, our work is to learn to ‘stay with the trouble’ and ‘kinmake’. wall-kimmerer (2013) writes of learning as a fundamental rhythm and reciprocity with the natural world; rather than taking individual success regardless of the harm done to others. ‘doing well’ in alignment with ‘being well’ builds on a https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 80 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax rhythm of reciprocity, of respect and care, of eco-relationality, and a subjectivity grown from this worldview. yet this shift requires radical unlearning. say you are lucky enough to fit the model for learning in the dominant schooling system, to find yourself in books, in the subject disciplines, in ‘sittingin-rows’, in relationships with your teachers. this is a gift? not necessarily. you are one of the lucky ones for whom schooling is not something simply to be ‘endured’ (mcpherson et al. 2023 p 20), as recent research with young people found is so common an experience (mcpherson et al. 2023). though at what cost? the world of academia is one in which ‘the student that emerges…is a disembodied one: a student capable of producing rational arguments…yet detached from her own bodily feelings…’ (o’toole & simovska 2022, p25). this is the subjectifying byproduct of an education that drives us towards ‘cognitive advancement’ (o’toole & simovska 2022, p25). without care, it detaches us from our instincts and our intimate relationship with nature rather than enabling us to know them. in describing an educational experience where students were encouraged to engage with pigeons, a bird common to the uk generally condemned as vermin, haraway (2016, pp. 24-25 ) highlights how young participants became ‘astute observers and advocates of beings who they had not known how to see or respect.’ this parallels my own observations in youth social action work. perhaps this learning might go inward as well as out? from an attraction to spiritual and naturebased practices as a teenager, followed by a period of environmental activism in the late 2010s and early 2020s, i came to deliberative democracy and citizens assemblies as a focal-point for my educational and political attention. then,whilst exploring wellbeing and sustainability in schools during the covid-19 pandemic, i came to see intergenerational justice as a necessary redress for the immovability of educational power structures, especially if they are ever to serve ‘being well’. i have written elsewhere (wilson et al. 2023, 2024a/b/c) about the lack of avenues for proper multi-way dialogue and decision-making between adults and young people. this is especially important when considering decisions made about community resources in local areas, planning, nature protection and access. yet our education system does not normalise or give the tools to most young people as students, or to adults in the community, to have these conversations, to speak and listen from the heart, and to think and decide from perspectives other than their own, as underlined by a quote from nottingham’s youth climate manifesto (nottingham youth climate assembly 2022, p. 1): ‘we’re not sure how to talk to you so that you will really listen. we don’t want to have to shout, even though many of us are angry, because that doesn’t seem to have worked. perhaps we should act politely, even though https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 81 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax we are furious, but that doesn’t seem to have worked either. we hope that you are waiting for us to speak, that you need us to speak, that without our voices you understand that there is something fundamentally missing.’ here we see a glimpse of the darkness, the hard edges, the way in which young people can be understandably ‘furious’ – and this energy is much needed vitality, it raises consciousness of events and injustices, of relationships about which we care, and which are threatened. as edward and josefina raise, the integration of these emotions needs support, in order to avoid splitting and unconscious life practices which perpetuate harm (greenspan 2003). how can education make space for these emotions and their role in helping make important decisions about what matters for our futures, without shutting down the other participants in the learning and discussion? tim edward, your reflections on education strikes to my concerns that we are not learning how to be with ourselves or be in the world. that even good intended programmes can become co-opted by the language of assessment and outcomes. it was precisely the desire for rites-of-passage and developing my authentic self that stirred my curiosity to explore alternative philosophies (and a school fight as well). josefina, your quest towards the non-dual succinctly vocalises my aspirations to move beyond what koppenstiener (2020) discusses as this container, the material self, which he places as central to peace educational endeavors. thankyou for mentioning martin buber as i believe when we surrender in solitude and silence in nature we come into authentic i/thou relations with ourselves, each other, and the natural world. sri aurobindo’s educational approach connects with dr spence’s teachings of the medicine wheel, an integrative philosophy shared by many north american first nations. this too conceptualizes a balanced education, and healthy existence, between the mind, heart, body, and spirit. experiences in nature bring such elements to the fore as we sit and be with our mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual parts of ourselves. rosanna, your comments of interbeing, co-regulation, and attunement all resonate and connect to the affective quality i feel being in nature has upon us. thank you for bringing donna haraway’s work on kinship to this dialogue as ways to move beyond the human-centric onto-epistemologies we reside within. it is her and others’ ideas of response-ability that guide my work as a peace educator. all three of you mentioned the domination of behavioral or cognitive ideals of education, and i too feel that this is one of the key issues fracturing us from our fully embodied and eco-relational selves. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 82 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax your comments connect to my beliefs regarding the importance of naturebased education and how it is a form of peace education. however, similar to you edward, i feel such pedagogies must resist becoming co-opted by the neoliberal machine or else lose its essence and affective quality. a corpus of literature exists on the varied benefits of nature-based pedagogies (twohig-bennett & jones 2018; norwood et al. 2019; shuda et al. 2020; jimenez et al. 2021; yao et al. 2021; moll et al. 2022; vella-brodrick & gilowska 2022; nguyen & walters 2024). while these studies are important for our understanding of the educational role nature plays, for me, they can still speak the language of western paradigms of measurable research and ‘effects’. they therefore potentially reinforce the same paradigms they originate from: western modernist fragmented interpretations of being. as kester and cremin (2017) note there is a requirement to reflect deeply on how our impacts as educators may do more harm than good. i have therefore been interested in how (or whether) we can truly reflect outside of our own onto-ethico-epistemologies and learn from a dislocated position. how can we move beyond effects to affects? diffraction has provided a lens that i have explored (archer 2021), where i was invited to participate in a first nations vision quest as a different learning and research paradigm. the purpose was that by bringing together different ontoepistemologies we become affected and our understanding of our-self diffracted, or changed, out of one’s original perspective. spending time in/with nature under the tutelage of a first nations worldview provided this diffractive method where nature becomes the educator and affected my-self interpretation beyond western modernist perspectives towards a more eco-relational way of be-ing: what i call a diffractive autoethnographic methodology (archer 20221). it has allowed me to see and feel things anew, and is something i believe is key to changing our interpretations of our-selves, and our relational ways of being, towards more ecorelationally responsible existences. such perspectives are not new with many indigenous writers commenting on the importance of indigenous onto-epistemological education (sun bear & wind 1980; mcgaa 1990; brokenleg 1998; cajete 2000; absolon 2010; wenger-nabigon 2010; little bear 2012; wall-kimmerer 2013; four arrows 2016; bartmes & shukla 2020; passmore & krause 2023). within such pedagogical approaches, solitude, silence, gratitude, mindful presence, and reflection are central to one’s educational journey beyond any preset curriculum of generalised learning outcomes. listening to one’s self and to the natural world become our greatest teachers that bring us into alignment with our place in the world. such pedagogies aim to affect beyond an overemphasis on the mind or attainment of skills (kester 2018) towards affect across the layers of the head, heart, body and spirit towards an integrated ‘be-ing’ one in harmony with oneself and with the world around us; one where wisdom is honoured. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 83 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax i am interested how such perspectives align with learning a response-ability (barad 2007; haraway 2016; baan hofman 2023), an ‘ability to respond, to respond to the world beyond oneself, as well as a willingness to recognize its existence’ (kuokkanen 2007 p. 39). for me such educational paradigms of being in/with nature implicitly and viscerally affects one's inner states that resonate outward to how one is in/with the world (outer states), towards eco-relational states of being. such affective qualities, for me, are at the heart of notions of peace and align with peace education aspirations. the importance for peace education to be a key site for how we learn to perceive and interact with nature has been acknowledged elsewhere (e.g., reardon 1988; weil 1994; wenden 2004; brantmeier 2018; ardizzone 2024; gittins 2024; abura et al. 2025; ress & brantmeier 2025). two colleagues eloquently discussed how nature in their research was a ‘peace educator’ and called for an ‘eco-peace-based education’ grounded in interconnectedness and interdependence (patel & ehrenzeller 2023; ehrenzeller & patel 2024). this understanding can ground our conception of ecorelationality. i believe such paradigms foster both a deep response-ability for all relationships who are seen as direct relations to ourselves (haraway 2016) and ethics of care (noddings 1984, 2011) through the focus on wisdom over intelligence. i believe such aspects align pedagogical paradigms of nature with that of peace education, and also align to calls for affective educational spaces for peace to overwrite over-reliance on cognitive and critical ones (hyland 2011; zembylas 2018, 2020; kester 2018). incorporating non-western onto-epistemologies diffract our understanding of the purpose of education away from neoliberal overemphasis on accreditation and social placement based upon ‘intelligence’, to those of fostering wisdom, service, stewardship, and eldership to care for all life. such pedagogies dissolve the egoic self into a larger self: one where i am intimately connected to all things, humans, and other-than-humans. here i draw from the oglala-sioux phrase shared by mcgaa (1990) of “mitakuye oyasin”, or “all my relations”, as a way that, to me, epitomises dr doreen’s teachings that we are often “being too human” and forgetting our interconnection. it is being in/with nature within such ontoepistemological framings that takes us out of our-selves and reminds us that we are more than our physical containers. i feel this carries the ‘deepening and widening’ reflexivity of peace pedagogies aforementioned (kester & misiaszek 2025) that are able to disrupt current peace pedagogies reproducing the social conditions they seek to dismantle. integrating pedagogical paradigms from onto-epistemologies such as the first nations’ is, for me, peace education, where i am brought into peace by/with/for the natural world, disrupting illusions of separation or hierarchy over the natural world and instead instilling deep care and responsibility. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.tandfonline.com/author/ehrenzeller%2c+carlotta https://www.tandfonline.com/author/ehrenzeller%2c+carlotta 84 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax edward josefina, i want to pick up on the careful consideration you’ve given to nonduality (loy 2019) and your invitation to say more. i consider myself blessed to have experienced this state in several psychedelic ceremonies using plant medicines that have been used for thousands of years by a variety of wisdom traditions (ball 2009, grof 1998). these profound experiences, also accessible through disciplined yoga, meditation and i/thou moments josefina, and also through vision quests, tim, underline consciousness as an ontological primitive (kastrup 2016, 2019; spira 2017; levy 2018) leading me to conclude that the idea of a separate self is false; as it is the same self experiencing itself through what kastrup (2019) calls ‘localisations of consciousness’. such experiences also indicate that we are also deeply interconnected through love, which is synonymous with the feeling of complete unity. although we need to identify with our body and mind to move through time and space, i see over-identification with the individual self, the aforementioned ‘mistaken identity’, as underpinning our alienation from nature and each other; something that is promulgated by our education system’s focus on attainment and our economy’s incessant obsession with unending growth at all costs. it’s also my sense that many in the teaching profession, me/us included, were attracted to teaching as a vocation because we cared deeply about other people and learning (palmer 1998). tim, i appreciate your challenge to all educators and peace educators in particular to embrace the maxim of do no harm. hence to find ourselves in institutions where undoubtable harm is being conducted, in the form of a very restrictive view of knowledge, then reinforced through the domination of classroom management styles by behaviorism as rosanna highlights is a form of moral-injury (kohn 2011; papadopulos 2020). i have always found western education systems’ unbending adherence to behaviourism truly shocking, partly because its theoretical genesis starts with animal experiments over 100 years ago and also because of its (and more broadly society’s) obsession with reward and punishment as a form of motivation. it's generally considered ‘good practice’ to use token-economies to this effect in classrooms (well critiqued by kohn 2006), which i argue teaches a fundamental lie about life: ‘good things will happen to you if you behave well’. clearly, we need to teach students to behave in ways that are intrinsically motivated, ethical and community oriented because they are the right things to do, as is frequently the case with wisdom traditions’ emphasis on restorative and transformative approaches to justice (sellman et al. 2014). https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 85 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax i often return to the emphasis peace educator david hicks (1988) made between education about peace, and education for peace, which had a profound impact on me whilst training to be a teacher and during my own phd research into teaching young people conflict resolution skills. this point underlines the necessity for me of coherence and synergy between the medium and the message (sellman & amrhein 2022), the need to teach peacefully as well as about topics essential to understanding and behaving peacefully. incidentally, my phd research encountered much resistance to such a stance in schools, teachers were generally unwilling to moderate their pre-existing notions of power and authority sufficiently to allow students the opportunity to resolve conflicts for themselves (sellman 2011). whether it is teaching students to mediate or meditate i’ve become increasingly aware how ideas with their origin in wisdom traditions, restorative approaches to conflict being rooted in tribal culture (e.g. ubuntu, see van ness 2014) and mindfulness in east-asian philosophy/spirituality (see watts 1961), are co-opted, re-packaged and sold back to us by neoliberal educational policy (purser 2019). it seems neoliberalism must have its next thing, its new product, something that could be the answer but inevitably has to make way for something more promising. at the same time, the gaze is diverted from asking deeper and more probing questions about the viability of the premises upon which education is built (principally late-capitalism), including its inherent views of the world and each other as objects for exploitation. like you josefina, i welcome what ergas (2018) calls a ‘contemplative turn’ in education and with it greater intentionality to connect with the self. the recent willingness and openness of some schools to introduce mindfulness, something with colleagues i’ve both encouraged and critiqued (brito et al. 2021a), acts as both a good, and cautionary, case in point. in the literature there has been appropriate discussion of mindfulness as a tool and as a path, which both myself (sellman & buttarazzi 2020) and oren ergas (ergas & hadar 2019, ergas 2019) have described as mindfulness in/as education. i see mindfulness as a sound way to develop deep self-awareness, even awareness of the non-dual self if taken to extremis, which in and of itself is something with educational merit to say the least, if not entitlement (sellman 2020). the development of such self-awareness has ‘side-effects’ (brito et al. 2021a, 2022) and it is actually many of these (e.g. concentration, wellbeing) that are desired by education and others (e.g. awareness of patriarchy and leanings toward social justice) perhaps less so (berila 2016). mindfulness in education, or mindfulness as a tool, as an instrumentalised approach, subtracted from its ethical roots in wisdom traditions, is generally favoured by education; whereas i and others have argued for a more integral and holistic approach (brito et al. 2022), similar to that which josefina advocates and i invite her to elaborate upon. such an approach, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 86 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax more in keeping with its roots in wisdom traditions, reminds us again that the medium and the message need to be coherent, characterised in this case by places of education where mindfulness permeates ways of being rather than being consigned to a single lesson a week for a short period of time. rosanna, given your interest in eco-psychology, i wonder what practical suggestions you may have for fostering deeper connections with nature? and josefina, what suggestions might you have for fostering more integrated selves and inter-relationality within western education? this feels urgent to me, in sellman & buttarazzi (2020) i asked, can we really have an education system like the one we have 10, 30, 50 years from now and survive? i wonder what your thoughts on this might be? rosanna in dialogue with each other here, i become particularly mindful of those who have impoverished eco-relationality with little or no access to nature, as is the case for many in urban parts of the uk (state of nature partnership, 2020, 2023). i also think of philosopher arne naess who said that our ethical and experiential sphere of reference can and must reconnect with our ecology; with the web of life in which, as haraway (2016) would put it, we are both woven and weaving as emergent stories and storytellers. gibson and gibson’s ecological psychology (gibson & gibson, 1955; gibson & pick, 2000) holds that in learning to see and know the world and our potential for action within it, we are shaped with and by our environments. our environment (our world) teaches us to perceive; thus we see; we interact (identifying affordances for (inter)action); we see differently (growing, developing, cycling through again). such understanding coheres with the longstanding indigenous perspective tim shares that nature is a teacher. the lens through which we interact with the world matters, in whether we develop an awareness of our eco-relationality or remain asleep to it. haraway (2016) would call this being ‘of the world’ as opposed to ‘in the world’. in many wisdom traditions this eco-awareness is a given, but it is nonetheless learned and practised; it does not happen by accident, it requires nurturing by teachers and elders. these ideas are here in tim’s explorations of ‘nature as teacher’ in indigenous traditions, and as edward and josefina explore through pointing out the propensity of the false experience of duality. yet we all see the challenge of neoliberal educational norms, their linearity, emphasis on production and consumption, of cognitive advancement and command over nature, the desire for products and experiences over meaning and connection that split us from both ourselves and the living world. at a recent climate change forum i attended , a speaker emphasised a simple message from the natural historian and television presenter david https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 87 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax attenborough, essentially: ‘no one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced’ (attenborough in a life on our planet, 2020; fothergill, hughes & scholey 2020). i was heartened by the number of school and community members at this event and the desire to support each other moving towards ‘net zero’ and tackling biodiversity loss. the event recognised that our current predicament calls for us to hone our ‘response-ability’ and to begin to see beyond organisational silos. yet in spite of some interest and support, on returning to the school where i worked, i met familiar resistance; the perceived necessity of attainment in external performative measures, and in tandem; hesitation and reluctance to take learning outdoors and link curriculum with the spaces and nature around us, and with the community on our doorstep. all this is largely driven by the dominating neoliberal logic of importance of exam outcomes. yet in spite of the dominance of the neoliberal ‘education as usual’ that edward critiques, levers emerge from the necessity of the moment for us teachers to think differently, to see education in and as nature as essential to survival, peace and human flourishing in the 21st century. research from de walshe and colleagues (2024) highlights the absence of nature from young people’s educational experience; whilst connection to nature is undoubtedly linked to essential health and wellbeing, never mind their entitlement to individuation, deep self-knowledge, and care for the eco-relational more-than-human to which we all refer in this article. yet i also worry about the inevitable inequalities and injustices in the way participation in what i want to call ‘nature-as-teacher’ work exists. environmental issues and education are known for an over-representation of those from more affluent middle-class upbringings, those from communities with far lower prevalence of adverse childhood experiences including poverty. and moving the lens wider, to global communities most affected by climate and/ or geopolitical breakdown, these young people’s experiences are crucial to any peace education, and the work to address the healing required still more needed. yet schooling and education’s role in these matters tends to screen out or eliminate such trauma, violence or adversity from the educational space. where nature and peace education becomes a pleasurable bonus, available to the more privileged. there is an urgent need for schools to enable full-participation so all young people can develop connections with nature and their communities and build enduring peaceful futures for all. this brings up issues of resources. josefina, how does this connect with your work in challenging areas of chile? josefina https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 88 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax i strongly relate to the need to connect with nature and our true-essence or self in particular as an antidote to the challenges facing western modernity and its education systems, as discussed by all of us. according to krishnamurti (2006), awareness of unity arises through the integration of the duality between the observer and observed, a division rooted in the ego and in thought itself, which lies at the heart of all human conflict, fear and suffering. it is the ability to transcend this duality – whether, as we have discussed here, through nature, meditation, psychedelics, or other means – that leads us to the experience of oneness. however, i always return to a perplexing question: what happens to those whose lives are filled with pain and violence and those less privileged? how truly accessible are these experiences we are discussing for them? to respond to this point, i want to share an experience that profoundly helped me understand that the path to inner and outer peace – our journey toward interconnection – goes beyond having the experience of oneness. while such experiences are undoubtedly beneficial, even desirable, they are not sufficient (maté 2018; wilber 2024), particularly for those of us raised in western cultures, where we are overidentified with the ego. the integration of experiences of oneness appears to be more complex than it is sometimes portrayed, especially when we carry deep wounds or patterns of dissociation (wilber 2007, 2024). as a clinical psychologist, i worked with one of the most vulnerable and violence-ridden populations in the chilean capital, a neighbourhood dominated by drug-trafficking and crime. abuse, in all its forms, was endemic, compounded by extreme poverty. each day felt like preparing for battle, though it was an emotional and spiritual battle, where i immersed myself in the darkest dimensions of the human soul. i witnessed violence not only as external conflicts between individuals but also as an internal-war raging within each person – against oneself, against unintegrated trauma, and within fractured relationships (van der kolk 2020). the external fragmentation mirrored an internal rupture, revealing how violence is profoundly embedded both in social structures (maturana & verden zöller, 1993) and in the individual psyche (naranjo 1993). i came to understand that these individuals were profoundly dissociated from their essence because of the violence and lack of love – they were complete strangers to themselves, unable to engage in authentic encounters with themselves or the world around them. this experience made me realise that before embarking on a journey of inner and inter-connection, one must first be in an emotionally safe and supportive environment – one where love mediates our encounter with the other (buber 2000; levinas 2002; maturana & verden zöller, 1993) and, as a consequence, with ourselves. it is within such a space that relationships, community, and the presence https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 89 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax of others play a crucial role, for the process of self-awareness, connection, and integration is fundamentally interrelational (maturana 1999; aurobindo & the mother 2001). we can only truly open ourselves to a deeper connection with both our inner and outer-world when we are held in an environment that provides emotional security, only then is it possible to embody our nature as inter-beings and fully integrated selves (maturana 1999; naranjo, 2016; maté & maté 2024). without love, we become fragmented, and this fragmentation inevitably leads to isolation, disconnection, and the objectification of the other, ultimately resulting in the rejection of difference and the drive for domination over them/it. (brito et al. 2021b, krishnamurti 2006). hence, with the realisation that we were already late in providing spaces for love and authentic encounters, i often found myself asking: how do we move towards integration rather than further fragmentation when the psychotherapeutic space is no longer sufficient? when the healthcare system itself seems to offer a ‘cure’ that is worse than the disease? it was then that life led me to encounter integral education (the mother, 1999; partho, 2021), revealing that education is not only capable but also responsible for being the space where this transformation is cultivated. this educational approach differs from conventional models, as i mentioned earlier, by emphasising the balanced development of all dimensions of the human being: physical, vital, mental, psychic, and spiritual (the mother, 1999; aurobindo & the mother, 2001; partho 2021). integral education recognises learning as a process that serves a higher purpose: “to help the soul to come forward, to assert its mastery over its instruments, gain experience and grow, and eventually manifest the powers it has to set forth in life” (saint hilaire 1991, p. 48). in this sense, the goal goes beyond intellectual formation to the unfolding of the individual's deepest potential. a few years ago, i had the blessing of visiting a school in india that follows the principles of integral education, and there, i found living answers to all the questions i have shared with you. for the first time, i entered an educational space designed entirely around connection, love, and deep awareness. it was an environment dedicated to the holistic development of human beings, with the purpose of maximising each individual’s potential and facilitating the unfolding of their true self and their place in the world. for the first time, i witnessed a place where people did not merely preach values but embodied them, where they were the message they conveyed. as you mentioned, edward, in this space, the medium and the message were fully aligned, and mindfulness was seamlessly woven into https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 90 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax the way each individual existed. at that moment, all the pieces of the puzzle fell into place for me. my experience at this school in india showed me how everything changes when daily life is lived with full awareness. it also confirmed that behind such an open, loving, and non-judgemental environment, there lies the profound inner-work of each adult and child integrating their own shadows, engaging in continuous selfinquiry, and taking full responsibility for themselves and the world around them. this intense inner-work, referred to in integral education as vital-work (partho 2021, p. 52), is essential for the integration of the ego – a necessary step before it can be transcended, allowing for the evolution towards more integral and transpersonal states of being (wilber 2011, 2024). and more importantly, it showed me that these processes are truly possibly when they are supported by a collective environment that holds and accompanies you through it. when education is approached in this way, it becomes a space where individual and collective development intertwine in an ongoing process of learning and expansion, where peace emerges as the natural outcome of integration and connection across all dimensions of our being. the self rather than ‘mistaken identity’ yearning for integration nature as teacher integral education ethics love/care space response-ability… weaving a tapestry from our strands reflecting upon our dialogue, what emerges for you? how do these strands affect or conjure you to respond? looking back, how can we look forward to what this might mean for education: an education for peace; an education that embraces ecorelational paradigms to offset the modernist neoliberal machinery we inhabit? as we sit with the words and seek to ‘stay with the trouble’ (haraway 2016) we acknowledge that challenges inevitably remain: challenges in opportunity, challenges to change, and challenges in meaning. we acknowledge that opportunities within the current pervasive and insidious education system leave little room for alternatives and that those who are most disenfranchised by the current system are often the least able to access such. fisher (2022) argues that it is easier for some people to imagine the end of the world than imagine the end of capitalism! so pernicious is the current education system and so connected with sociopolitical apparatus, it also seems easier to imagine the end of the world than a different education system, but imagine it we must and more so bring it into being or we simply may not be here to debate such. so, how can we change such a monolith? maybe it needs to collapse before it can be rebuilt and all we can do is bear witness and help rebuild something more sustainable from its ashes, affected https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 91 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax to such an extent that we finally mean it when we say ‘never again’. surely we’d all rather avoid such an eventuality? so how can we resist our well-intentioned endeavours simply becoming consumed and co-opted, subservient to the selfpreservation of the dominant/dominator culture? it seems futile sometimes but we are in a period of time where we need to hold the hope (aspey et al 2023). should a new-dawn emerge, what should be the meaning or purpose of education and how should it support its patrons to find meaning in themselves? meaning that is defined beyond participation in market economies by competing individuals, who are desensitized to cause harm to the very nature to which we belong, seeing it merely as a resource to be stripped. the future is difficult, nigh impossible, to predict, so how can we prepare readiness for what is to come as well as the moral imagination of what we wish for? but within these challenges we are infused that it is perhaps the sitting with these challenges that weave our strands together. sitting in the discomfort and using it as pedagogy (zembylas 2015) might be the essential missing part for peace pedagogies to move beyond its potential for doing more harm than good (kester & cremin 2017) and only reproducing the conditions it seeks to transform. without the space, the awareness, or the imagination of what we have and what else can be, we are negated to be complicit with, to maintain and reinforce the system we seek to dismantle. and in that, we have taken very seriously that is exactly what the current system might want (gatto 2017) our current way of being in/with the world is tantamount to ecocide, and although nature does not discriminate, inevitably the impact of any collapse will be felt far more acutely by those already without. uniting our strands is a deep yearning: a yearning arising from feelings that something is missing from shared senses of disconnection. yet, inspired and invigorated that there awaits opportunity for looking toward alternative ontoepistemologies, those built from wisdom traditions around the world, traditions that have lived in greater harmony with the natural world than we currently do. also uniting these strands is a desire for transformative, transpersonal learning spaces: where we can encounter our authentic self, one’s place in the world with others, and develop an intrinsic meaning for our ‘be-ing’ in/with/of the world. meaning based upon wisdom, affect, and holistic integration, an approach that transcends and includes the cognitive and affective (wilber 2011, 2024; kester 2018). our vision for a more integral education may seem radical to some, however, we position that this is less a radical endeavor than facing extinction. instead, we hope embracing wisdom-informed traditions is more of a returning: a returning to ourselves and a returning to models of education that have existed in cultures around the world for millennia that (re-)place eco-relational perspectives as central https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 92 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 58-105 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax to the educational endeavor. acknowledging the complexities of this is key to the pedagogical encounters where safe, loving, spaces encourage the encounters with our-selves, others, and the beyond-human world. here the teacher becomes more of a space holder, an elder promoting full participation from those present. and on occasions nature is the teacher directly. it is through these encounters and dialogical spaces with wisdom passed on generation by generation that we are brought into relations with ourselves, each other, our environment, and thus our response-able place with(-in) them. where we are recalibrated towards a life beyond our own self and towards a larger interconnected self, encompassing the natural world and all within its embrace: an inter-being where response-abilities are fostered. only then may the harms of our education system be rectified. but what does this look like? this paper seeks not to offer the last word, let alone provide definitive answers or panaceas, as to do so would not ‘walk its talk’ or offer coherence between the medium and the message. any answers will lie in the fostering and opening of ongoing conducive dialogical spaces; about keeping the conversation going… references absolon, k. 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(2008). expelling hope. the assault on youth and the militarization of schooling. albany, ny: suny press rogers, c. & freiberg, j. (1994) freedom to learn. london, prentice hall. rust, m. j. & totton, n. (eds.) (2012) vital signs: psychological responses to ecological crisis. london: routledge. saint hilaire, p. b. (1991). education and the aim of human life (5th ed). sri aurobindo international centre of education. seikkula, j. & trimble, d. (2005) ‘healing elements of therapeutic conversation: dialogue as an embodiment of love’, family process 44 (4), 461-475. doi: 10.1111/j.1545-5300.2005.00072.x sellman, e. (2011) peer mediation services for conflict resolution in schools: what transformations in activity characterise successful implementation? british educational research journal, 37(1), 45-60 doi: 10.1080/01411920903419992. sellman, e.m. 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(2013). braiding sweetgrass: indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. milkweed editions. walshe, nicola; sheldrake, richard; healy, grace; edwards, rc; wale, william; hargreaves, eleanor; (2024) climate change and sustainability education: a survey of students in england. ioe, ucl's faculty of education and society: london, uk. watts, a. (1961) psychotherapy east & west. novato, ca: new world library. wef (2025). world economic forum: the global risks report 2025 20th edition insight report. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/wef_global_risks_report_2025.pdf wegerif, r. (2025). rethinking educational theory: education as expanding dialogue. edward elgar publishing. weil, p. (1994). the art of living in peace: towards a new peace consciousness. unesco, forres scotland: findhorn press. weller, f. (2015) the wild edge of sorrow. berkeley, ca: north atlantic books. wenden, a. l. (ed.). (2004). educating for a culture of social and ecological peace. albany: state university of new york press. wenger-nabigon, a. (2010). the cree medicine wheel as an organizing paradigm of theories of human development. native social work journal. vol.7, p.139-161. wilber, k. (2007). integral spirituality: a startling new role for religion in the modern and postmodern world. shambhala. wilber, k. (2011). the spectrum of consciousness (5th ed). kairós. wilber, k. 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(2024c). climate policy, youth voice and intergenerational justice: learning from nottingham youth climate assembly. children’s geographies, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2024.2352368 yao, w., zhang, x., & gong, q. (2021). the effect of exposure to the natural environment on stress reduction: a meta-analysis. urban forestry & urban greening, 57, 126932. zembylas, m. (2015). ‘pedagogy of discomfort’ and its ethical implications: the tensions of ethical violence in social justice education. ethics and education. vol.10 issue 2, p.163–174 zembylas, m. (2018) affect and counter-conduct: cultivating action for social change in human rights education. discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education. vol.39, issue 4, p.629-641. zembylas, m. (2020). from the ethic of hospitality to affective hospitality: ethical, political and pedagogical implications of theorizing hospitality through the lens of affect theory. studies in philosophy & education. vol.39, p.37–50. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2024.2325060 microsoft word santos ifp 11.2.docx in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 41 volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal colombia between neoliberal peace and democratic peace1 boaventura de sousa santos as i write this (january 2017) the colombian peace process enters its implementation period after the new version of the agreement between the government and the farc (revolutionary armed forces of colombia) has been ratified by the colombian congress. peace negotiations between the government and the eln (national liberation army) have also begun. this is a time of opportunities and blockades, of aspirations and frustrations, a time of hope though also of fear. in this paper i will offer some brief reflections on the relationship between democracy and peace as well as on the way how post-agreement developments can contribute towards the democratization of colombian society democracy and conditions for democracy up to the 1980s theories of democracy were unanimous in considering that democracy was not possible in the absence of social, economic, and institutional conditions that would make in feasible. such conditions included, among others, the country-city relationship, the agrarian reform, the presence of the middle-classes, and literacy. the absence thereof explained why so few countries in the world could boast a democratic regime. around that time, a true revolution occurred in democratic theory, a revolution which nevertheless seems to have been barely noticed. from then on, the equation was inverted and the new belief in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 42 was that, rather than being dependent on a set of conditions, democracy was the condition for everything else. as a result, the world bank and the international monetary fund began to include the presence of democratic regimes as a precondition for development aid. forty years later, if one considers the situation of the democracies that really exist in the world today, both in more developed countries and in the others, which remain the great majority, it is easy to conclude that the aforementioned revolution was much less benevolent than it appeared at the time. it aimed to promote low-intensity democracies, based on minimal criteria of political pluralism and which tended to be devoid of social content, i.e., of the economic and social rights and the state institutions that used to provide public services in such areas as health, education, and social welfare. democracy was therefore advanced because it was the most legitimate form of weak government, a government which would more meekly agree to accept the neoliberal orthodoxy of market liberalization, privatizations, the end of progressive taxing, the promiscuity between political and economic elites; in other words, a government put at the service of neoliberal globalization. the crisis of neoliberalism has now become apparent. i am not sure whether neoliberalism is dead, as some like to announce, but it is at least producing the perversities that it supposedly undertook to combat: nationalisms, fascist movements, protectionism, the growth of the far-right, etc. neoliberal capitalism has promoted such a low-intensity democracy that it is now too weak to defend itself against the antidemocratic powers that have been sieging it. the problem is knowing whether, in order to guarantee that the accumulation of capital, now completely dominated by financial capital, continues, global capitalism is soon going to have to show its true colors, i.e., its incompatibility with democracy, even low-intensity democracy. the colombian post-conflict process is emerging in a period of neoliberal crisis and can only become a genuine peace process if it is oriented, against the grain, towards consolidating and expanding democracy, that is, adding more intensity to the low-intensity democratic coexistence that now exists. after the farcical neoliberal narrative – and a very tragic farce for the majority of the world’s population it is – according to which democracy requires no pre-conditions, the post-conflict process will only become a peace process if the issue of the social, economic, and cultural conditions of democracy are discussed in a creative and in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 43 participatory manner. our hope is that colombia can be an inaugural affirmation of a new period, based on the idea that there can be no democracy without the conditions that make it feasible. our fear is that it may show exactly that, albeit in the wrong way. democracy and violence even within the liberal frameowrk of democratic theory, democracy is incompatible with political violence because the only legitimate violence is state violence. state violence is legitimate in a double sense because the state has an exclusive constitutional mandate to exercise it and because it can only exercise it by complying with pre-existing procedures, rules, laws. also in this respect, colombia is a dramatic case of a democracy that has been disfigured by having fatally experienced for over a century the political violence exercised by powers parallel to the state as well as by the state itself, which includes a parallel state of which paramilitarism is the most visible, though not unique, expression. it suffices to read alfredo molano’s (2015) piercing account of the armed conflict to be able to conclude that, if the post-conflict process fails to be boldly ambitious, it will run the risk of becoming yet another episode, among many, in a history of violence, a ‘postconflict’ that will become known in the future as a ‘preconflict’, that is, a political event that has caused yet another wave of violent conflicts.2 democracy and peace all democracy is peaceful, but not all peace is democratic. there are two types of peace: neoliberal peace and democratic peace. neoliberal peace is false peace because it consists in the perpetuation of political violence through purportedly non-political violence. from political criminality to common criminality combined with the criminalization of politics (for instance, criminalization of political protest). oriented towards neoliberal peace, the colombian post-conflict process will be quick and relatively undemanding institutionally, but it will bring about a period of violence which, because it seems to be depoliticized, will prove even more chaotic and less controllable that the one it brought to an end. given the frustrations it may generate, neoliberal peace will not only not contribute towards consolidating democracy at a more inclusive level, but it can further weaken the low-intensity democracy that made it possible in the first place. democratic peace aims at pacifying social relations in the broadest in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 44 sense of the word, and it is therefore oriented towards actively eliminating the conditions that have led to political violence. democratic peace is premised on the notion that reconciliation processes will never result in reconciled societies if reconciliation does not include social and cultural justice. without justice, you cannot have social cohesion, the basic feeling of belonging without which the sum of differences in ideas easily becomes a counting of dead bodies. the post-conflict process oriented toward democratic peace will certainly be a lengthy process and its success can be measured not so much by its inspiring outcomes as by the extent to which the resulting conflicts are managed and resolved peacefully and democratically. two additional challenges face democratic peace in colombia. first, the current peace process carries the weight (as well as the ghost) of the many failed peace processes that came before, a failure which often involved the tragic elimination of the rebel fighters and the political forces associated with them. the physical elimination of unión patriótica leaders will go down in history as one of the most sinister and grotesque manifestations of democracy disfigured by violence. secondly, the current peace process must give a clear sign that it signifies a break with the prepost-conflict stage, which included the demobilization of paramilitarism during the álvaro uribe governments. at best, this demobilization aimed at securing neoliberal peace and was explicitly hostile to the idea of democratic peace. offering paramilitarism as a thing of the past is one of the most dangerous cover-ups of the present situation.3 democracy and religion one of the characteristics of the decades-long armed conflict in colombia is the strong involvement of the catholic church. at first only the catholic church was involved, but now evangelical churches militate alongside it. the involvement of the catholic church has been contradictory and has two incompatible sides to it. on the one hand, in line with camilo torres and liberation theology, the grassroots church communities called base ecclesial communities that have emerged after the second vatican council have played an important role within the community organizations that fight against land concentration, social injustice, and violence. many members of the clergy and lay people who have stood beside the oppressed in their fight for land and dignity have paid the ultimate price, their own lives, for their generosity and commitment.4 on the other hand, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 45 the catholic church hierarchy have almost invariably aligned themselves with the conservative forces, with the landed oligarchies condoning and blessing their arbitrary, and even their violent, behavior. at present, they often side with evangelical churches in a sinister and perverse ecumenic pact intended to block the hope of a democratic colombia. conservative catholic church has indeed been able to count on the increasing support of evangelic churches, most of which have had a crucial role in securing the victory of the no vote in the october 2nd, 2016 referendum.5 this proselytism will most probably be an active obstacle to the advancement of democratic peace. it will no doubt act in conjunction with other conservative forces, both at home and abroad, furthering their interests in the boycotting of the colombian peace process. the question of knowing to what extent will conservative agendas converge is still open. the further they converge the greater the risk for democratic peace. democracy and participation the major uncertainty facing democratic peace is knowing which social and political forces will be willing to stand up for it and the level of activism that they are prepared to bring to it. referendums are an important tool in participatory democracy provided they are called for by society, through a group of citizens, rather than launched by political parties or political leaders. in the latter case, as happened recently in britain with the vote for withdrawing from the european union (brexit) and as may have to some extent happened in the colombian referendum, the outcome may be contaminated by a judgement concerning the political leader who promoted the public consultation. the colombian case is somewhat specific insofar as the only campaign being carried out was really the campaign for the no vote. this certainly provides food for thought and a profound reflection is needed because it seems to suggest that there is a dangerous disconnection between, on the one hand, progressive parties, human rights organizations, and social movements, and the real country, including its remotest parts, on the other. this seems to indicate that democratic peace is going to need a great deal of participatory energy and resilience, far beyond mere election processes, which in colombia are traditionally excluding. this may indeed have been one of the reasons that led to the establishment of the most recent guerilla. it seems self-evident that the democratic peace process in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 46 will require an articulation between representative democracy and participatory democracy. such an articulation is currently necessary in all democratic countries in order to redeem representative democracy, which seems to be unable to defend itself from its enemies on its own. in the colombian case, this articulation is a condition for the success of democratic peace. this must become a daily, practical agenda in families, communities, neighborhoods, trade unions, social movements and organizations. rodrigo uprimny was right when, on december 3rd 2016, he wrote the following in his el espectador column: “submitting peace to a referendum and implementing it is not something that can be done in a single moment; it is a complex and progressive process, which can incorporate different mechanisms at specific times.”6 i therefore propose some mechanisms, with different levels of institutionalization and with a number of different strengths and weaknesses: i) open councils, which can be used to endorse the agreement at local and regional level, and to participatorily discuss local implementation measures; ii) popular legislative initiatives for some of the implementation measures … iv) victims’ panels in the regions and transitional justice committees, which would help support and refine the truth and reparation measures locally; v) territorial peace councils, which could be used to support and discuss other local peace measures; vi) social mobilization in the streets; followed by a long etc., etc., etc. since this list does not claim to be exhaustive. these proposals are meant only for the early post-conflict period, i.e., for the short-term. many others mechanisms must be creatively designed and put into practice when the time comes to discuss the structural issues that democratic peace must necessarily pose and which must be included in the political agenda. these include the reform of the political system, peasant reserve zones, the replacement of illicit crops without it meaning that numerous peasant farmers must again face extreme poverty, the place of neoextractivism (the unprecedented exploitation of natural resources) within the new development model, the media reform so as to ensure a more democratized public opinion, the criminalization of political protest, etc. since the principle of non-repetition in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 47 of violence is so central to the peace accord, taking on the victims’ perspective, i would perhaps recommend that part of the financial resources allocated to reparation be channeled to financing and fostering ample debates and national participatory instruments on the different issues that the peace process will be raising in the next few years. such debates and participations would also serve to identify the issues that have been left out of the agreement and eventually include them in the political agenda. in this respect, the fact that the peace negotiations with the farc adopted the irish model, keeping the negotiations secret until some indications were obtained concerning the probability of success, was perhaps not the best solution. it is understandable that a secrecy policy was adopted given the fact that the colombian big mainstream media was being dominated by conservative forces and powerful economic interests for whom either the continuation of the war or a feeble peace that could serve their own exclusive interests would be welcome. anyway, the negotiations lasted for many years and havana was far away. with time, negotiations became a provisional archive of past colombia. while negotiators were busy discussing the future of the country, the public opinion insisted on throwing them back into the past. as i write, negotiations with the eln are beginning. this guerilla group is known to have a different view of the negotiations, insisting that these be permanently monitored by colombian society. let us hope that they may have enough political and argumentative power to be able to bring their indisputable reason to bear on the negotiations. on the other hand, the eln has insisted on the importance and on the autonomy of popular social organizations. the communities and the peoples will be the ones to decide on the forms of popular participation. this is indeed one of the conditions for the autonomy of participatory democracy, and this autonomy will be the basis upon which possible articulations with representative democracy (political parties and leaders) will be established. democracy and imperialism when we analyze the history of the colombian armed conflict it becomes clear that north american imperialism interfered constantly, with a view to defend the economic interests of its corporations (one such case is the sadly famous united fruit company), and, of course, the geostrategic interests of colombian usa-allied oligarchies, some more amenable than others. with the cuban revolution, the geostrategic challenge increased in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 48 exponentially, and the need to isolate cuba became the major imperialistic priority in the continent in the early 1960s. given its specific location within the american continent, colombia was a preferential target and a special ally. had colombia not been the only latin-american country to send their troops to fight alongside the americans in the korean war? as molano writes in the text i have been mentioned, “the course taken by the cuban revolution, which forced the usa to create the alliance for progress as an antidote against communist contagion, gave a new impulse to the agrarian reform. kennedy’s visit to colombia in the same week when the agrarian reform law was signed was not in vain. the national security doctrine and the alliance for progress were therefore two sides of the same coin or, if you prefer, a combination of all the forms of struggle available to the usa to preserve the status quo while simultaneously isolating cuba”. the clearest evidence of this alignment was produced in 1961 when, at the punta del este conference, colombia promoted the expulsion of cuba from the american states organization. the “strongest regional ally” slogan gained a new justification. with plan colombia, signed by bill clinton in july 2000, colombia became the third country in the world to receive more u.s. military assistance (after israel and egypt) as well as the largest recipient of u.s. aid for direct military training. the 9/11 attack on the twin towers provided an opportunity for the fight against the illegal drug trade and the guerilla to be converted into a dimension of the “global fight against terrorism”. this was soon to be followed by the adoption of the colombian version of the new u.s. national security doctrine, president álvaro uribe’s inadequately called “democratic security”. as is known, during the first decade of the third millennium big brother was not conspicuously present in the continent, with the exception of plan colombia. he had drowned in the iraqi and the middle east swamp he himself had created. this might help partly explain the election of popular governments with their anti-imperialistic discourse, from argentina to venezuela, from ecuador to bolivia. the aggressiveness of the imperial presence was again felt in the honduras coup against manuel zelaia, the democratically elected president (2007) and not many doubts remain as to its interference in the institutional coup that led to the impeachment of president dilma rousseff in brazil. how will us imperialism react to the in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 49 colombian peace process? it appears that the north-american political elites are somewhat divided at the moment. a proof of that is the diametrically opposed editorials of the two most influent newspapers, the new york times and the wall street journal. the former welcomed the awarding of the nobel peace prize to president juan manuel santos, while the latter claimed that it should have been given to former president álvaro uribe, who was the major protagonist of the no vote in the referendum. however, we should keep in mind that this division is relative. whatever the position of president santos, from the u.s.a standpoint he is a defender of neoliberal peace, the peace that is going to make a great portion of the colombian territory available for the development of natural resource exploitation, where northamerican companies will not fail to show the flag. neoliberal peace is the highest possible level of conscience of northamerican imperialism. consequently, democratic peace will meet with resistance from northamerican imperialism and the latter’s success depends on its articulation with the colombian economic and political forces that defend neoliberal peace. since this peace is fake and it is certainly very far from contributing to strengthening democracy, colombian democrats are not going to have as easy a job as the end of the conflict might suggest. democracy and human rights for those who do not endorse the idea of a just war, armed conflicts are by nature a violation of human rights. at any rate, armed conflicts are a source of human rights violations whenever they entail the perpetration of violence and cruelty against innocent victims, crimes against humanity, war crimes, etc. the civil wars and the international wars waged in the last 150 years have been particularly violent not to mention the two world wars. as regards civil wars, the most violent of these was the american civil war, which, although it lasted only five years, caused 1.030.000 victims (3% of the population), among which 700.000 deaths. for this reason, bringing war to an end is considered a legal and political good more precious than the good of doing full justice and punishing all the authors of human rights violations as if there had been no war. it is not necessarily a case of not punishing (as was the case in the american civil war), but rather one of finding ways of guaranteeing a public, negative judgement of the acts committed without jeopardizing the higher legal and political good that is peace. one of the most notorious cases in recent decades has been the negotiations for the end of apartheid in south africa, which entailed the in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 50 agreement that the criminal nature of apartheid as a regime should be ignored (although the united nations did consider it to be criminal) and chose not to prosecute and punish the perpetrators of serious violations of human rights, provided they confessed to their crimes publicly. the colombian peace agreement goes even further, but the supporters of the no vote still managed to find a reason for their position in the topic of punishment/impunity and were able to convey their message to public opinion thanks to the connivance of the big mainstream media and by resorting to lies, as they soon acknowledged.7 these conservative forces were able to find a precious ally in the human rights watch organization, and notably in one of their directors, josé miguel vivanco. with ridiculous resourcefulness, vivanco played the role of useful idiot for the forces that perpetrated the highest number of human rights violations in the history of colombia. the service rendered to those forces as well as to the most reactionary wing of north-american imperialism constitutes credibility ground zero in the fight for human rights on the part of this north-american organization. vivanco’s position amounts to a cruel insult to so many human rights activists who have paid with their lives for the courage to defend those rights on the different social struggles fronts, far from the comfort of new york offices. democracy and ethno-cultural difference colombia is one of the latin-american countries where, especially after the 1991 constitution, significant progress has been made as far as the acknowledgment of ethno-cultural diversity and difference is concerned. the organizing power of afro-colombians and indigenous peoples was a determining element in that development. the intercultural jurisprudence produced by the colombian constitutional court in the 1990s did become a model for other countries. unfortunately, however, just like in other countries, the high concentration of land ownership coupled with the neoextractivist model of development was responsible for the continuity, or even the recent increase in aggressions perpetrated against the indigenous and afro-colombian populations. despite the increased political centrality of the indigenous and afro-colombian movement in recent decades, the participation of these movements in the peace negotiation was not as active as might be expected. hence the importance of disseminating their claim to actively participate in the construction of democratic peace, a process that is now beginning. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 51 to that end, the indigenous peoples’ organizations gathered in bose (the ancestral land of the pueblo mhuisqa) on october 14, 2016, have adopted a joint declaration, notable for its scope, from which i must quote some passages: resolutions of 9th national congress of indigenous peoples: we reaffirm our vocation and commitment to peace building. in the exercise of the right to autonomy and self-determination, based on the laws of origin and the principles that govern us. we adopt the final havana peace agreement in our territories, and declare them to be territories of peace. we reaffirm indigenous and social mobilization as a resistance strategy to foster dialogue and the required socialand political transformations, with the aim of returning the country to hope and paving the way for building a society that is inclusive and where social justice exists. we demand the participation of the indigenous movement in the national pact proposed by the government, in order to defend, with the great majorities that have been victims of the armed conflict, the historical struggles for social and political changes and for the pacification of our territories that, as peoples, we have undertaken. the pacts of the elites, in the past, have generated more violence, perpetuating the dominant power structures. we restore the consejo nacional indígena de paz – conip (national indigenous peace council), as a specific indigenous peoples body to exercise their influence on issues relating to peace, notably as regards the specific issues that concern indigenous nations.) we consider the comisión étnica para la paz y la defensa de los derechos territoriales (ethnic commission for peace and the defense of territorial rights) as an autonomous and selfrepresentative body of the ethnic peoples, to manage the issues related to peace and demand the establishment of the special high-level body with ethnic peoples, to monitor the implementation of the final agreement, as enshrined in the ethnic chapter. we celebrate the announcement of the public phase of the talks in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 52 between the national government and the ejército de liberación nacional eln, trusting that they will consolidate the full, stable, and lasting peace that our country calls for. we simultaneously demand the direct participation of the ethnic committee in this process. in this respect, i must add the following caveat: in the subcontinent, and most particularly in colombia, acknowledging ethno-cultural difference is a dimension of territorial justice and this, in turn, is a dimension of historical justice. this is not a purely cultural issue; it is a problem of political economy. in this regard, after the 1991 constitution, legislation was passed to assign territories (resguardos) to the indigenous and afrocolombian peoples. in a country with such a high concentration of land and where the exploitation of natural resources has become so central to the development model (or should we rather speak of growth), it is to be expected that territorial justice issues become highly conflictive. two topics are likely to become particularly acute. the first has to do with the existing land conflicts. contrary to what one might think, such conflicts do not occur only between large multinational owners or companies and peasants, they also occur among poor mestizo peasants, indigenous peoples, and afrocolombian peoples. in the latter case, such “contradictions within the people” will require robust forms of participatory democracy so as to prevent them from generating violent conflicts or from being taken advantage of by the big landowners or the government in order to block legitimate claims for territorial justice. the second topic concerns the fact that peace negotiations also address issues with an impact on territorial justice, such as the agrarian reform and peasant reserve zones. these issues will eventually be combined with those raised by the first topic, and here too participatory democracy will play an important role, especially by reason of its decentralized nature and the resulting flexibility, which will allow it to adapt to the immense territorial, agricultural, and cultural diversity of colombia. democracy and sexual difference women’s movements have also been able to secure important victories in recent decades, but sexual violence continues to exist and women have also been victims of violence for a long time, both within and without conflict zones. their interest in the process of building democratic in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 53 peace must be adequately safeguarded. i will now quote from the extensive manifiesto político mujeres por la paz (women for peace political manifesto), from september 22, 2016, which includes the following statement: “we, diverse women, participants in the ii cumbre de mujeres y paz (second summit of women and peace), declare: ) our commitment to building a country where all people without distinction can enjoy their rights, their autonomy, express their opinions in full freedom, without fear of being violated or living under the anxiety and turbulence of a country under conflict. our willingness to contribute to a present and a future that can be lived in peace, leaving violence behind, joining forces so that children, adolescent women and men, and young people in general may grow up in peace rather than under the distress caused by war. our acknowledgement of the creative knowledges of young women and their contributions towards the implementation of the agreements and the transformation of the peace dynamics, acknowledging their voice and their actions in the building of the country. that this is the time to heal the wounds, to transform hate and vengeance into truth, justice, reparation and the guarantee that things will not be repeated, to substitute commitment to justice and peace for indifference, to overcome the differences between us, not in order to deny them but to enhance democratic coexistence. it is time to close the war page, not in order to forget but to give way to life and freedom. our conscientious objection to the use of force as a means to deny the other, including women, and our support of universal disarmament, banning violence and militarization as a way of handling public and private disputes, with special emphasis on sexual violence, and the eradication of all forms of violence against women. our repudiation of any denial of, discrimination against, or signaling of women for exercising their rights, their economic, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 54 affective, reproductive, sexual, cultural, ethnic and political autonomy. our determined will and political commitment to be active parties instead of objects of agreements, to participate and to enjoy decision making power in the implementation and fulfillment of the final agreement. ensure the rights of women in the different regions and safeguard the environmental and cultural integrity of their territories, promoting a sustainable economic model that respects the rights of nature and the “buen vivir” (good life) of the communities. the importance of the statements issued by social movements, be them indigenous peoples, afro-colombian populations, poor peasants, women, or marginalized urban populations, lies in the fact that they take a clear stance in favor of democratic peace and against neoliberal peace. the social groups that are most excluded and discriminated against know that they will be the ones to bear the hard blows of the aggressions that are bound to result from neoliberal peace.8 democracy and development model in the last two decades, a capitalist model of development based on the exploitation of natural resources once again dominated the continent. i say “once again” because this was the model that was applied during the whole of the colonial period. however, this is not a return to the past. the current model is a new model because of the unprecedented intensity and diversity of the exploitation of resources, which includes mining, oil and wood exploitation, industrial agriculture, hydroelectric mega-projects, and others. given its relative novelty, it has been called neoextractivism. its emergence resulted from the huge impulse generated by the growth of china and by financial speculation on commodities. this model gathered so much consensus among the political elites of the sub-continent in the first decade of the new millennium that it was adopted by virtually all governments, including those that were emerging from popular struggles and taking a nationalist, more or less markedly anti-imperialist stance. at best, this model provided significant relief from poverty, but it had huge social and environmental costs. some of the most negative effects of in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 55 neoextractivism include forcible land seizure, the eviction of peasants, indigenous and afrodescendant populations from their ancestral lands, the physical elimination of resistance leaders, the contamination of water and land, and an alarming increase in cancer rates among rural populations. in addition, this model proved unsustainable and, since the 2008 financial crisis and the slowdown in china’s growth, began to show signs of exhaustion, and the crisis was installed in all the governments of the region that had adopted this model. but the social and environmental consequences will hardly be reversible. intermediate development countries, like brazil, have failed to keep the momentum of their industrial sector, have become deindustrialized, and will hardly be able to resume the path of an ecologically sustainable industrialization. so far, the alternatives that have been proposed by important sectors and social movements have not been implemented. on the contrary, governments are trying to take advantage of the internal differentiation of the model, for example, by prioritizing industrial agriculture should the price of oil remain low. on the other hand, they are abandoning the nationalist and redistributive element of the previous period, yielding the exploitation of resources to multinational companies, and transferring the management of the economy to the former executives of large corporations, notably financial capital firms (especially goldman sachs). this is the framework for neoliberal peace, which seeks to enhance it and provide it with added impetus, for example, by releasing more lands for multinational exploitation. on the contrary, the assumption behind democratic peace is that the high concentration of land has always been one of the central reasons for violence in colombia. therefore in the postconflict period it will be impossible to reconcile society under this development model and if a process of greater territorial justice is not initiated, as a prerequisite for greater social, historical, ethno-cultural, sexual, and ecological justice. this is probably the most dilemmatic juncture facing the colombian peace process and the signs do not seem very encouraging. colombia is now one of the countries with the highest concentration of land in the world. according to the available data, currently “77% of the land is in the hands of 13% of owners, but 3.6% of these own 30% of the land. eighty percent of the small peasant farmers have less than one unidad agrícola familiar (uaf) (family agricultural unit), which means that they are “microfundistas” (micro-landholding owners). despite the lack of access to land, 70% of the food produced in the country comes from small farmers. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 56 according to the 2011 human development report of the united nations development program, “for the year 2009 the gini index for land inequality was 0.86. this indicates that, when compared with that of other countries, colombia has one of the highest inequality rates as concerns rural property both in latin america and in the world”. according to danilo urrea and lyda forero, the peace that president santos’ government points to is neoliberal peace, not democratic peace. in their words, “the legislative initiatives of the santos government, and their respective figures and mechanisms of land dispossession provide a clear evidence of this reality. for example, the zonas de interés de desarrollo rural, económico y social -zidres (zones of interest for rural, economic, and social development) allow the handing over of wasteland, with no limits of extension, to colombian or foreign legal persons, who are granted control over the use of the territory principally in the plateau or in the magdalena medio… an alternative based on big capital, in line with the hacienda model, which exists since colonial times, but incorporating transnational capital into the game, for which the pacification of territories is deemed necessary as a guarantee to attract the foreign investment of the corporate apparatus. a model is implemented whereby the land can be granted to the peasants, although its use, management, and control depend on the chain of production as defined by transnational companies, which ultimately determines the accumulation of capital and implies the loss of rights over the territory with new forms and instruments for intensifying land dispossession. the countryside financialization model plays a leading role in this form of capital territorialization through the so-called bolsas agrícolas (agricultural pockets) and rural re-colonization via credit (urrea and forero, 2016). the die is cast. the political and social forces oriented towards the goal of democratic peace know the roadmap. it remains to be seen whether or not they will have the political strength to follow it. democracy and ethical difference one of the most complex aspects of an armed conflict is the ethical nature of the crimes committed. by this i do not mean the intensity or the quantity of those crimes. all the data published on violence in colombia are unanimous in recognizing that most of the violence (murders and in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 57 massacres) was perpetrated by the paramilitaries and by the army, and that the most cruel and atrocious crimes were committed by the paramilitary. what i wish to discuss is the ethical quality of the motivation behind violence. in the negotiations that led to the end of apartheid in south africa there was a recognition of the ethical superiority of nelson mandela’s anc (which at one point chose to pursue the path of violence) vis-à-vis the apartheid government. in the colombian case, the question may reside principally in the confrontation between the actions of the guerrillas and the actions of the paramilitaries, criminal entrepreneurs, or mercenaries. the path of armed struggle to build a socialist society by means of violence has now been discredited, and there are certainly good reasons for that. as a result, it is now easy to condemn the young men and women who, from the 1960s on, headed to the mountains to join the guerrillas, motivated by the ideal of fighting for a more just society. this facile reaction can be misleading because, in times of individualism and ideological desertification, it may lead to the conclusion that all violence must be equally condemned or acquitted and that there is no ethical difference between different agents of violence. if there is no ethical difference, then there is also no political difference and therefore what we ultimately have is common violence. there has been a strong case in colombia for this idea of the depoliticization of violence, i.e., the general concept voiced by public opinion that, over time, the guerrilla fighters have relinquished their ideology to become common drug traffickers. in an interview with the periodical la silla vacia, on january 4th 2017, alfredo molano says: “public opinion is wrong in thinking that the farc manage the illicit crop business from start to finish, from the land plot to a street in the bronx. the role of the farc as a political movement is focused on taxing local farmers and intermediaries. they do not export, they do not go into the international market. they do not do it much in colombia either. the same havana agreement recognizes this.”9 this is the key issue: is there an ethical difference between the rebel who commits an act of violence with an altruistic motivation in the name of a collective ideal of justice, even if based on a wrong premise, and the mercenary who commits violence for money? the importance of answering this question has less to do with the nature of a settling of accounts with the past than with building a more inclusive society in the future. let me explain. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 58 democracy and political renovation one of the most promising aspects the peace accord is the fact that it paves the way for the conversion of the guerrilla combatants into political actors. in my opinion, this can provide an opportunity to renew the political system, making it more diverse and more inclusive. in order to achieve this, three conditions must be met. the first is a profound reform of the political and electoral system that may give substance and a voice to the achievement of diversity and inclusion. the second condition is that the guerrilla soldiers gain awareness of the fact that the world has changed immensely since the time they left for the mountains. many of the reasons that led them to make this decision are unfortunately still valid, but the strategies, the discourses, the mechanisms, the means, the alliances to fight for their eradication are now very different though equally complex. it will take a lot of unlearning to create room for new learning. the third reason is that the new political actors must be recognized by colombian society as fully-fledged political actors. for this to happen, it is critical that they are not viewed as repentant common criminals. that is why their misperception must be acknowledged as acutely as the fact that they did act for the sake of what they believed was the ideal of the common good of colombians. i have said that colombia may be the only latin american country to become the bearer of good news to the world in the second decade of the new millennium: the news that social and political conflicts can be resolved peacefully, even conflicts that have lasted for a much longer period of time; and that from such a resolution a more just and democratic society can emerge. this is a bet whose outcome is in the hands of colombian men and women. endnotes 1 this text is part of the book democracia e transformação social (democracy and social change) to be published in bogotá in april 2017 by siglo del hombre. 2 see also moreno (2015) 3 a cover-up that is all the more dangerous as it may entail the splitting of paramilitarism into two types: legal paramilitarism, linked to private security in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 59 companies and other armed forces support companies, and illegal paramilitarism, in line with its traditional profile. 4 i will just mention the brilliant analysis by colombian theologian javier giraldo moreno s.j., in his dissertation la teologia frente a otra concepción del conocer (theology versus another conception of knowing), submitted to the school of theology of the univerdidad javeriana in 1977. 5 césar castellanos, the star-pastor of the misión carismática internacional, the fastest-growing mega-church in colombia, recently addressed an enthusiastic crowd in pasadena, california, declaring: we, nosotros, we saved colombia from being handed over to communists! we saved colombia from the destructive power of the spirits of homosexuality. we saved the traditional family. we saved colombia from the ideology of homo-castro-chavismo.” (bartel, 2016). 6 see: http://www.elespectador.com/opinion/refrendacion-progresiva-ii i have eliminated some of the proposals because they had lost their topicality. 7 see: http://www.semana.com/nacion/articulo/plebiscito-por-la-paz-juancarlos-velez-revelaestrategia-y-financiadores-del-no/497938 8 see the unsettling experience compared in moreno (2004). as i write, i receive the disquieting statement issued by the asociación nacional de afro-colombianos despalazados (afrodes) (national association of displaced afro-colombians), which is quite instructive as regards the pitfalls of neoliberal peace: nit: 830074556-1 afro-colombians we continue to be killed! public denunciation: the national association of displaced afrocolombians – afrodes – reports the murder of a father and his son by the “gaitanistas” paramilitary group at riosucio-choco although the implementation of the peace agreement is being carried forward, which gives us back the hope of being able to live in a country without war, where there is justice and respect for all, the paramilitaries continue to perpetrate criminal acts against human rights defenders with the authorities failing to take any concrete measures to protect the civilian population. 54 year-old juan de la cruz mosquera and his 30 year-old son moisés mosquera moreno were murdered by the in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 60 “gaitanistas”paramilitary at riosucio-choco, caño seco community, salaquí river. a crime which we condemn and which we demand is not left unpunished. juan de la cruz mosquera was living as a displaced person in riosucio, where some people he knew came and invited him to visit the caño seco community, by the salaquí river where the paramilitary have a command base, located some few kilometers from the army’s military base. when they arrived there, he was asked to call his son moisés who was in the tamboral community and with whom they had some issues to discuss; when he arrived, on january 7th, a saturday, he was immediately murdered. his father, who had been made a prisoner by the group learned about his death on monday, the 9th, he confronted them on the spot and they murdered him there and then. juan de la cruz was born in the tamboral river area and there he lived with his family. in 1997, under operación génesis, he had fled to panama with his family to save his life. he lived several years in panama but they were eventually repatriated against their will and had to return to their original community. juan de la cruz and his son were relatives of marino córdoba’s, the president of afrodes, whose son was also murdered in the same municipality towards the end of last year, facts that we condemn and on which no investigation is known to have been started. de la cruz was a father of 10, a man of faith, a member and a pastor of the pentecostal church, a member of the community council of the tamboral community, a community leader, a hard-working peasant farmer. a man taken from his family by the armed conflict while cherishing his faith in christ and good examples in his community. armed violence has marked the life of the riosucio community since 1996, when, under operación génesis, over twenty thousand people were displaced, numerous murdered and disappeared, part of the population was despoiled of their land to facilitate the planting of african palm-trees, and many continue to live abroad. the riosucio municipality is one of the poorest in the country, it is situated north of the del choco department, and its chief economic activities are agriculture, forestry and cattle-raising. before the war, people lived communally, sharing without fear and travelling with no restrictions. now the people are prisoners of their fear and must live as hostages in their own territory, a violation of international humanitarian law that we reject. since the year 2015 the populations and human rights in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 61 organizations have observed the increasing presence in the region of armed men who are members of the “gaitanistas” paramilitary group, who have arrived in the area after crossing all the military checkpoints, and who control the civilian population without any military authority preventing them from doing this. today juan de la cruz and his son add their numbers to the dozens of families murdered and disappeared in the region, and the community is unable to denounce these crimes for fear of reprisals, and these acts are not being investigated into, the perpetrators are not identified, and there is no hope of getting a response from the authorities. afrodes demands of the competent authorities that these acts are not left unpunished. we demand that the national prosecutor’s office investigate, identify, and prosecute those responsible for the murder of juan de la cruz and his son moisés mosquera we demand that president juan manuel santos order the armed forces based in the area to sever any criminal links with paramilitary groups and to guarantee peace and security in the region. we demand that the competent authorities guarantee the security of the relatives of the murdered father as well as that of the other residents in the area. we request that the united nations, the diplomatic corps in colombia, and human rights organizations follow up the communities and condemn these systematic violations. bogota, january 10, 2017 9 see: http://lasillavacia.com/historia/si-las-farc-insisten-en-los-viejosesquemas-los-habranemboscado-59215 references bartel, rebecca (2016), “underestimating the force of the new evangelicals in the public sphere: lessons from colombia, south america”, in http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/2016/11/15/underestimating-the-force-of-thenew-evangelicals-in-the-public-sphere-lessons-from-colombiasouth-america/ (consultado em 7 de janeiro de 2017). in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 41-62 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 62 molano, alfredo (2015), “fragmentos de la historia del conflicto armado (1920-2010)”. mesa de conversaciones para el acuerdo de paz, bogotá. moreno, javier giraldo s.j. (2004), búsqueda de verdad y justicia: seis experiencias en posconflico. bogotá: cinep. moreno, javier giraldo s.j (2015), “aportes sobre el origen del conflicto armado en colombia, su persistencia y sus impactos”, in 26 https://www.centrodememoriahistorica.gov.co/descargas/comisionp az2015/giraldojavier.pdf (consultado em 7 de janeiro de 2017). programa de las naciones unidas para el desarrollo (pnud) (2011), informe nacional de desarrollo humano 2011. bogotá, colombia: pnud. revista semana (2012), “así es colombia rural”, in http://www.semana.com/especiales/articulo/asi-colombiarural/255114-3(consultado em 19 janeiro 2017). urrea, danilo e forero, lyda (2016), paz territorial y acaparamiento en colombia, in https://www.tni.org/es/artículo/paz-territorial-yacaparamiento-en-colombia(consultado em 7 janeiro de 2017) in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 37-40 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 37 volume 19 number 1 (2025): 37-40 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 review review snauwaert, dale t. 2023. teaching peace as a matter of justice: toward a pedagogy of moral reasoning. newcastle upon tyne: cambridge scholars publishing. jalen carpenter university of san francisco jccarpenter2@dons.usfca.edu dale t. snauwaert's teaching peace as a matter of justice takes on the lofty goal of tackling the need to clarify the definition and importance of peace for the protection and maintenance of the human condition and impress upon the citizen an articulation of the language essential for moral/ethical argumentation, which snauwaert specifies as "problem analysis and action planning for peace" (p. 13). more importantly, snauwaert's work seeks to help the reader (assumed educator) formulate a cohesive normative philosophical framework for the creation of an educational approach to teaching peace as a matter of justice, nested in the foundation of moral and political philosophy. normative here is defined as "ethical and moral" and placed in contrast to a solely empirical approach. the components of peace studies is the tool of choice to inform the framework construction, the focus of which is noted as "inquiry into the causes of violence and its consequences, methods of conflict resolution and transformation, methods of peace-building, justifications of peace on multiple levels of the human experience" (lopez, 1999, 2008; snauwaert, 2023, p. 15). in essence, the book claims a hope to instill educators with the skillset to help inform student viewpoints with an understanding and desire to form a democratic political philosophical informed by moral https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax mailto:jccarpenter2@dons.usfca.edu in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 37-40 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 38 reasoning for the sake of peace with a human rights framing that qualifies peace as a form of fairness, and fairness as a component of justice. the book is organized into two main parts, three of nine chapters in part i and the remaining six chapters in part ii. part i focuses on defining and clarifying the varying definitions of peace and violence, the formation of normative justification (i.e., justifiable principles of justice), and the development of reasoning and judgment based in the logical structure of peace studies. part ii is organized around five questions, of which chapters four through eight are respectively named: whose security? whose belongs? whose truth? who gets what? who decides? part ii is introduced as the segment that encompasses the framework for useful pedagogy for the formation of moral reasoning and ethical judgment. the book begins by imparting the notion of fairness as the presupposition to moral reasoning for the sake of construction of claims of justice (i.e., the logical foundation from which one can argue for the entitlement/right to peace as a component of the already settled entitlement to fairness) with fairness encompassing equality, recognition, reciprocity, and best efforts for impartiality. the treasure of the book reveals itself in part ii, where the educator is called to create a framework that seeks to help the student comprehend the utility of unfounded opinions and their uncanny resemblance to verified knowledge (add definition from truth section of book) to power-hungry, bad-faith actors when the public's moral and philosophical reasoning are being manipulated and/or overcome with bias-induced tribalism in the face of rapid change and uncertainty. in line with this logic, the book calls for further untangling of the aforementioned chapter questions through the lens of peace studies. the overarching goal is the growth and strengthening of an informed, politically participating population via the "development of the citizens' knowledge and capacities for moral reasoning and judgment" for the sake of peace and the for the sake of the creation of a political and philosophical predisposition for peace. the untangling and clarifying process begins by unpacking and analyzing reasoning behind security and who (e.g., citizen, noncitizen, homeless citizen, immigrant citizen, etc.) is afforded security from national and international perspectives; the basis on which decisions regarding nation-state membership rests on; the conflict around how facts and historical truth are "settled" as objective knowledge and the principles of justice related to the process of fairly settling truth and belief; theories on fairest methods of distribution of social goods (i.e., distributive justice); and political power and the necessity of consent by the people. my critique of the text is three-fold. first, based on the rights arguments and claims asserted in the book, i find it would have been suitable to entertain the concept of a right to the dissemination and transparency of policy, legislation, and https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 37-40 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 39 elected official voting pattern information. in his introduction, snauwaert notes that what is paramount to the success of this teaching is an informed voting populous. it could be argued, then, that there is a right to digestible information dissemination relating to the upkeep of the political institution for the sake of the upkeep of the political institution, as the power of the institution is bestowed by the people, all of which are of equal person and worthy of just treatment under the elements of fairness and thereby justice, if one is to problematize the issue through the lens of peace studies. second and related explicitly to chapter 4, "whose security?", i found there was a missing dialogue on the differing work required to engage a nation-state with an already-set political philosophy of political realism, in a dialogue around adoption and application of human rights from a peace studies and global community perspective. in line with that political realism philosophy, i saw a need to problematize the likelihood of unified decisions for "democratic peace" from the international society of nation-states (e.g., un) when each nation in question follows and calls for the respect of a political realism doctrine and an international duty of non-intervention as it relates to their individual internal and international affairs. there was call to further dissect this perspective in relation to the nations' right to sovereignty. lastly and related explicitly to chapter 6, "whose truth?", there was room to dig deeper into the importance of interrogation of propositions put forth by political powers in the same manner they are supposed to be critiqued in the "epistemic regime" (rauch, 2021, p. 75-76; snauwaert, 2023, p. 132). emphasis on the proposition implies an explanation of the importance of the content of the declarative claim made by the political power or authority figure, as well as the truth value of the content of the claim. this method of interrogation allows for the checking of the validity of the claims being put forth in a way that cuts through ingroup bias noise that can tend to seep through in times of rapid change and uncertainty, clouding otherwise thoughtful interrogation methods. given the strength of the human desire to lean into more intuitive and less critical notions of deliberation when faced with situations that bring about fear and confusion, it seemed prudent to note the utility of adhering to a method of inquiry that seeks relevancy of claims being made, truth value and, from a peace studies perspective, a valid justice claim. regardless, critiques were outweighed by the realistic applications i found in the text. dale t. snauwaert's work is rigorously compiled and makes what i find to be both a realistic and pragmatic argument and justifications to situate peace in the rights of fairness and equality granted to citizens of a democratic nation-state. i https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 37-40 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 40 would consider this work required reading for those creating curriculums for civics education, critical thinking, peace education, and human rights education. references lopez, g.a. (1999). conceptual models for peace studies program. in d.c. thomas & m.t. klare (eds.), peace and world order studies: a curriculum guide. westview press. lopez, g.a. (2008). social, political and cultural influences on peace studies. in t.a. mcelwee, b. w. hall, j. liechty, & j. garber (eds.), peace, justice and security studies: a curriculum guide. lynne rienner publishers. rauch, j. (2021). the constitution of knowledge: a defense of the truth. the brooking institution press. snauwaert, d.t. (2023) teaching peace as a matter of justice: toward a pedagogy of moral reasoning. cambridge scholars publishing. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 41 volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 world-centred peace education: toward a framework for socio-eco peace in times of systemic crisis phill gittens education director, world beyond war phill@worldbeyondwar.org abstract this article develops a novel framework for world-centred peace education in response to today’s interconnected social and ecological crises. it critiques anthropocentric models and the war system, arguing for a paradigm shift that centres relationality and the interdependence of people and planet. the framework is grounded in the concept of socio-eco peace—a vision of mutual flourishing—and integrates a guiding purpose, a relational worldview, theoretical influences, and five interrelated domains: inner, outer, context, pluralism, and process. these domains support peace education that is holistic, inclusive, and responsive to place, time, and community. the article explores how the framework can inform the design, facilitation, and evaluation of peace education across diverse settings, and concludes with implications for theory, policy, practice, and future research. keywords: peace education; world-centred education; socio-eco peace; ecological justice; war system; transformative learning acknowledgement: thanks to rukmini iyer for conversations and suggestions during the formative stages of this work. responsibility for the final content and any errors remains my own. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax mailto:phill@worldbeyondwar.org in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 42 introduction peace education must evolve to address today’s interconnected and compounding social, ecological, and systemic crises. dominant paradigms— particularly anthropocentric or exclusively individual-focused approaches—are increasingly inadequate. this article develops a novel framework for worldcentred peace education—offering a new approach for responding to these crises by centring the interdependent relationship between people and planet. the article unfolds in five interrelated parts: beginning with the author’s positionality and praxis, followed by an examination of global conditions that influence the development of this framework—including socio-ecological breakdowns, emerging responses, the overlooked role of the war system, and a call to shift from human-centred to relational worldviews. it then introduces socio-eco peace as a guiding ethic—an integrative vision of mutual flourishing. the fourth section outlines the core elements of the framework, including its purpose, foundations, and five interrelated domains: inner, outer, context, pluralism, and process. the final sections explore how this framework can be applied across educational, community, and research settings, concluding with implications for theory, practice, and future inquiry. this article is intended to make a contribution to peace education scholarship and practice. an original contribution is the argument that peace education should be oriented toward a world-centred approach—moving beyond dominant people-centred narratives, which emerged in response to topdown or state-centred models, yet often remain narrowly human-focused. the article also develops a coherent framework and set of conceptual tools that educators, researchers, and practitioners can use to guide the design, implementation, and evaluation of peace education processes and outcomes across diverse settings. the framework synthesises literature, theories, and practices drawn from peace education, peace studies, critical pedagogy, environmental education, decolonial theory, and related fields—grounding its approach in relational, ecological, and systemic traditions. author context: positionality and praxis this article is written from the perspective of a white, neurodivergent man from england, raised in a working-class family and the first in his family to attend university. his background spans education, youth and community development, psychotherapy, and anti-war work, shaped by experiences of living, working, and learning in more than 60 countries. his praxis combines global engagement with grounded, place-based practice. influenced by thinkers such as carl rogers, paulo freire, and ivan illich, he has developed a strong interest in person-centred, experiential, and contextspecific approaches that challenge standardised models of education. the https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 43 framework developed in this article emerged both in response to gaps in the existing literature and through direct requests from educators, practitioners, and communities he has worked with across time and space. there remains a lack of coherent and adaptable frameworks that the field can draw on to support the design of peace education grounded in relational, ecological, and systemic perspectives. as a practitioner-scholar committed to “working the hyphen” (fine, 1994), he engages in ongoing cycles of reflection, action, and accountability across personal, institutional, and ecological relationships. he does not claim neutrality. instead, he positions himself within the systems that require transformation, striving to engage with them relationally and responsibly. global context: from crises to responses this section situates the development of the framework within a wider global context—examining four interrelated elements: socio-ecological crises, evolving responses and frameworks, the overlooked role of the war system, and proposing the need to shift from humanto world-centred thinking. multiple crises: social breakdown, ecological collapse, and systemic roots social and ecological breakdowns are often not isolated events—they are interwoven expressions of a deeper systemic crisis. socially, the human toll of war, armed conflict, and violence is staggering. global military spending has reached unprecedented levels—even as peace declines and insecurity grows, and armed conflicts are more widespread than at any time since world war ii. more than two billion people live in conflict-affected areas, and over 120 million have been forcibly displaced—the highest figures in modern history—driven by war, persecution, and systemic collapse. the threat of nuclear war persists, alongside racism, casteism, colonialism, and patriarchy—all of which continue to generate structural and cultural violence. polarization and eroding trust in governance create conditions ripe for authoritarianism and collective alienation. ecological collapse is already underway, marked by accelerating climate disruption, species extinction, and environmental degradation. we are already in the midst of the largest extinction crisis in 60 million years, driven by habitat loss and the release of over 80,000 synthetic chemicals. no era in history has caused greater ecological devastation than the present (rockström et al., 2009). scientists warn that we are undermining the life-support systems on which civilisation depends. un secretary-general antónio guterres warns of a path toward “collective suicide” without urgent, systemic change. these outcomes are not accidental—they are driven by political, economic, and cultural systems that enable both structural violence and ecocide (galtung, 1969, 1990). https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 44 evolving responses: emerging frameworks for integrated peace scholars are advancing frameworks that respond to the complex, interlinked crises confronting our shared world. peace education is increasingly situated at the intersection of social justice, environmental harm, climate security, and planetary stewardship. while space does not allow for a comprehensive review, several influential contributions stand out—emerging from diverse theoretical, geographic, and disciplinary traditions—that collectively support an ecological and relational turn across the fields of peace, security, and education. reardon (1988) lays the foundational groundwork for comprehensive peace education, integrating global citizenship, human rights, disarmament, and planetary stewardship. wenden (2004) and bajaj and chiu (2009) explore the intersections between peace education and environmental education, emphasising ecological consciousness in peace learning. selby and kagawa (2010) explore the role of education in mitigating climate change. brantmeier (2013) calls for critical peace education for sustainability, advocating for transformative pedagogies rooted in ecological and social justice. more recently, krampe (2021) and ide (2023) examine climate-security dynamics, with krampe focusing on environmental peacebuilding and ide analysing how climate change shapes patterns of conflict and cooperation. de coning and maalim (2022) propose an adaptive peacebuilding framework grounded in systems thinking and resilience. lederach et al. (2024) extend relational and place-based peacebuilding into ecological and planetary dimensions. ehrenzeller and patel (2024) call for a reimagining of peace education through eco-peace perspectives that emphasise ethical relationality, mutual care, and regenerative practices. collectively, these works share common themes, pointing to the importance of relational and ethical responsibility and the need to move beyond people-centred approaches and siloed thinking that prioritise human-to-human interaction. peace education and related efforts must move beyond fragmented responses toward holistic, integrated, and grounded ways of living, learning, and being. in doing so, these frameworks help to bridge long-standing divides between the human and ecological sciences, offering integrated responses to crises that are often both social and planetary in scope. these shifts align with global agendas and international policy frameworks that emphasise inclusion, ecological interdependence, and sustainability. sachs (2015) argues that sustainable development depends on social equity, environmental stewardship, and systemic cooperation. the right to peace (unga, 2016) and the rights of nature (e.g., constitution of ecuador, 2008) offers legal and ethical entry points for advancing peace as both an individual and collective ethic of care—for people, communities, and the earth. the earth charter (2000) and unesco’s futures of education report (2021) https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 45 promote education and action rooted in interdependence, justice, and sustainability. however, many of these frameworks stop short of confronting the root systems that perpetuate violence—a main one being the war system. the war system: naming the root cause the war system is a central driver of direct, structural, cultural, and ecological violence worldwide. it shapes institutions and norms, normalising war while obscuring alternatives. arms production, fossil fuel extraction, and environmental harm frequently coincide—especially in regions shaped by colonial legacies. militarism is among the most ecologically destructive of all human activities: forests are razed, and farmlands poisoned. military emissions are routinely excluded from climate agreements, even though armed forces remain among the world’s largest polluters. while much attention is given to individual wars, far less is directed at the system that enables and sustains them. as a result, discourse and policy remain reactive—focused on “the wars of the day” rather than proactively addressing the structural, cultural, and systemic forces that make war possible. many global frameworks, methodologies, scholarly accounts, and peacebuilding organizations give little or no attention to the war system directly. for example, the united nations sustainable development goals— including goal 16, which promotes peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice, and accountable institutions—fail to name, let alone challenge, the war system. the global peace index and similar measures track peace trends and economic benefits, but avoid structural critiques of militarism. even initiatives like the earth charter and unesco’s culture of peace promote coexistence but stop short of confronting the systems that fund and legitimise war. this omission is both paradoxical and predictable. paradoxical because war undermines nearly every global goal—from eradicating poverty and protecting ecosystems to promoting health and education. predictable because dominant frameworks tend to address symptoms rather than root causes. the war system entrenches global inequality and accelerates climate collapse. it concentrates power, erodes ecosystems, and perpetuates narratives that normalize war while rejecting peaceful alternatives. its core pillars—militarised security, armament, war economies, military alliances, armed conflict, and a culture of war—are upheld by the militaryindustrial-media-academic complex (mimac), forming an entrenched infrastructure that obstructs peace, justice, and sustainability. unless this system is named and dismantled, efforts to build a peaceful and sustainable world— while important and necessary—will remain fragmented and insufficient. none of this is to suggest that peace efforts focused on exploring alternatives to war or violence are all that matter, or that those centred on https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 46 psychosocial dimensions lack value. efforts that bridge longstanding divides between cognitive and affective learning, and critically address the structural and cultural conditions that both sustain and threaten peace, remain vital components of the broader peace education landscape (see bajaj & brantmeier, 2011; zembylas & bekerman, 2013; cremin & bevington, 2017). at the same time, balance is needed. just as peace education must seek to find the right balance between inner and outer dimensions—linking the personal with the political, the internal with the systemic—so too must it balance efforts to reduce direct violence (negative peace) with those that build just and sustainable conditions (positive peace) (galtung, 1969). this balance is essential to advancing the field’s goal of moving the world away from all forms of violence—direct, structural, cultural, and ecological—and toward the cultivation of peaceful, just, and inclusive societies for all. one factor contributing to this imbalance is the dominance of narratives that emphasise the often-repeated claim that “peace is more than the absence of war.” while true, this framing can be misleading if it overlooks the reality that war remains one of the greatest threats to peace. in the final analysis, not all peacebuilders must work directly to dismantle the war system. but given its central role in perpetuating global violence and obstructing the possibility of just and sustainable peace, far more should. addressing the war system is necessary but not sufficient. responding more effectively to today’s interlinked social and ecological breakdowns also requires a shift: from human-centred to world-centred ways of thinking, relating, and acting. this idea leads naturally to the next section. reimagining the centre: from human to world-centred many frameworks in peace, security, and education—despite notable progress—still tend to prioritise human concerns above all else. policy, research, and practice often emphasise “putting people first,” focusing on human-to-human interactions while neglecting relationships between people and the planet. even within peace education—where the centrality of relationships is widely recognised—the focus often remains on intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics, such as student well-being or educator–learner interactions. relational spaces that include—yet extend beyond—the human are frequently neglected. this anthropocentric framing sustains a worldview in which nature is treated as a backdrop or resource, rather than as a co-participant in shared life. this exclusion has deep roots. scholars such as merchant (1980) and orr (1992) have shown how dominant knowledge systems have historically portrayed nature as passive, mechanical, and subordinate. in education, biesta (2021) develops the idea of the “learnification” of education—the reduction of education to learning, focused narrowly on the individual learner and https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 47 disconnected from content, context, and the world. across disciplines, the morethan-human world is routinely marginalised, erased, or instrumentalised. at the same time, people-centred approaches have brought important gains. in peacebuilding, they challenge elite-driven processes. in security, they question state primacy through concepts like human security. in education, they shift emphasis from teacher authority to learner agency. these contributions matter. they uphold human dignity, challenge hierarchies, and support relational inquiry. but by centring the human alone, they risk excluding ecosystems and other species from moral and political concern. this calls instead for a more critical and nuanced approach—one that includes but moves beyond human-centred models toward a world-centred orientation. rather than simply replacing one centre with another, it foregrounds the co-centrality of people and planet. it affirms that human and ecological wellbeing are fundamentally interdependent and co-constituted. it challenges people-first hierarchies, promoting circular, relational forms of coexistence grounded in mutual care, reciprocity, and ethical interconnection. figure 2. from dominance to coexistence: reimagining our place in the world. image developed by the author, inspired by collaborative discussions. the image contrasts two paradigms. on the left, the human stands above all else, echoing a tradition of dominance. on the right, the human is embedded within a living world, signalling a shift toward coexistence and interdependence. this captures the essence of a world-centred ethic. language plays a central role in this shift. kemmis’s (2009) framework of sayings, doings, and relatings is helpful in this regard. it reminds us that how we speak, act, and relate fundamentally shapes educational practice. if peace education speaks only of people—using concepts such as human agency, human https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 48 rights, human needs, or people-centred approaches—acts only for people—by focusing on human-to-human dynamics—and relates only to people—through intrapersonal and interpersonal exchanges—it risks reinforcing a narrow, exclusionary frame. this article proposes the need for a world-centred approach to peace education. in doing so, it reorients the purpose, process, and outcomes of peace education—moving beyond personal and social interests to also embrace ecological ones. peace is understood not merely as the absence of violence, but as the presence of just, sustainable, and reciprocal relationships among human and more-than-human communities. the article echoes and expands unesco’s call to “live together in peace” by also exploring what it means to live well with the world, not merely in it. this requires shifts across educational language, practice, and relationships. in sayings, it calls for language rooted in interdependence, kinship, and ecological justice—avoiding narratives that place people above all else. in doings, it embeds learning in place, integrates ecological awareness across disciplines, and encourages attentive interaction with the living world. in relatings, it expands the field of relationship beyond the human—recognising learners as part of a wider web of life, including future generations and planetary systems. these shifts raise generative questions: what kinds of relationships should peace education cultivate? with whom—or with what—are we in relationship? and how do these relationships shape the futures we are building? in sum, a world-centred orientation calls for a reimagined centre—one that holds people and planet in mutual regard. this is not a rejection of personcentred approaches—whether grounded in human agency, rights, needs, or security—which have made vital contributions. rather, it recognises that these must be complemented by systemic and ecological perspectives. to better respond to today’s interconnected social and ecological crises, peace education must move beyond narrowly people-centred models. a worldcentred approach offers both a language and an ethical orientation for this shift. it affirms the co-constitutive relationships between people, planet, and place, and recognises that peace must be practised with the world, not merely within or upon it. in doing so, this approach responds to brantmeier’s (2023) call for “transformative aspirations” in peace education research, including the need to place “the earth as a central foci to peace education pursuits”—a call that affirms and extends the turn toward a relational, world-centred paradigm. this orientation sets the stage for the next section, which introduces socio-eco peace as a guiding vision within a world-centred frame. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 49 socio-eco peace: a vision of interdependence to build the case for a world-centred approach to peace education, this section introduces the concept of socio-eco peace—a guiding vision rooted in mutual flourishing between people and the planet. before defining this concept, three interrelated aspects are addressed: how theory is used in this work, how peace and peace education are relationally framed, and how inner and outer dimensions of peace are integrated. defining theory: tools for rethinking peace education theory is treated here as a practical resource—a way of thinking with and through the world. following foucault’s (1980) ‘toolbox’ metaphor, theory is not used to impose meaning but to open new ways of seeing and doing. rather than presenting universal truths, it functions tactically: to question assumptions, disrupt the taken-for-granted, and spark innovation in how we think, act, and relate. in this article, theory is used to expose limitations in dominant paradigms—including those that prioritise narrowly “people-first” approaches—and to introduce the idea of world-centred peace education, with the aim of bringing it from the margins into broader conversation. it offers a shared language for engaging with core questions in the field. rather than a prescriptive model, the framework is presented as a provocation—an invitation to reimagine what peace education is, could be, and should become. peace and peace education as relational processes peace is understood here as a dynamic, relational, and iterative process— encompassing peace with oneself, others, and the world. it unfolds across interconnected levels—social, cultural, structural, national, regional, global, and ecological—embodying the notion that peace is simultaneously deeply personal, profoundly social, and ecologically grounded. this understanding of peace as layered and relational resonates across the diverse and globally dispersed peace education community. despite differences in approaches, there is broad agreement: the quality of relationships—among learners, educators, and communities—is central to both the process and outcomes of peace education. relationality grounds the field in lived experience, ethical engagement, and mutual accountability. however, peace education must also engage with the wider systems— social, political, economic, and ecological—that shape and constrain these relationships. violence, extractivism, inequality, and ecological collapse demand transformation at every level. the earth must no longer be seen as a https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 50 passive backdrop, but rather as a co-actor, collaborator, and teacher. human and planetary well-being are mutually constitutive. although the field increasingly acknowledges systemic and ecological dimensions, much of the literature remains largely focused on human-to-human interactions—particularly between educators and learners—rather than relationships between people, place, and planet. frequently, practice remains shaped by people-centred discourse, focused on what happens in educational spaces, rather than how learning is situated within the wider living world. this relational view of peace necessarily includes both inner and outer dimensions—a theme explored further in the next section. integrating inner and outer peace: moving beyond binary debates a relational understanding of peace involves both inward and outward dimensions. yet debate persists in the field around whether inner transformation or systemic change should come first. some view inner peace as foundational; others prioritise structural transformation. but framing the two as separate or sequential misses the point. each is necessary, and their integration is essential. peace education requires the integration of inner and outer dimensions as part of a holistic vision. inner peace fosters ethical clarity, emotional grounding, and personal responsibility; outer peace involves transforming harmful systems and cultivating just, sustainable relationships. one without the other is incomplete. this integration requires relational work—between people, communities, and the planet—recognising that peace must be both inwardfacing (peace with self) and outward-facing (peace with others and the world), encompassing the personal, relational, structural, cultural, political, and ecological dimensions. outer peace must include not only human-to-human engagement across divides, but also right relationship with ecosystems and non-human life. any approach that neglects inner well-being, social connection, or climate justice is inherently partial. while debate continues around where peace education should focus its attention, neither the inner nor the outer dimension is sufficient alone. both are essential—and together, they define the full scope of peace education: 100% of the terrain it must navigate to be truly holistic and comprehensive. this does not mean every intervention must address all levels at once. but it does call for attentiveness to the full ecology of peace—relationships with self, others, place, and planet. when integrated, these dimensions deepen the responsiveness and transformative potential of peace education, and lay the groundwork for advancing socio-eco peace as both concept and practice. defining socio-eco peace: working the hyphen socio-eco peace brings these dimensions together as both a vision and a practice. it frames peace as an ongoing process shaped through the reciprocal https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 51 dynamics of human and ecological well-being, and offers a holistic framework that bridges knowledge systems, cultural worldviews, ethical commitments, governance approaches, and ecological concerns. the ‘socio’ refers to the human dimensions of peace—relationships, values, identities, institutions, and systems. it includes cognitive, emotional, ethical, political, and cultural elements, such as emotional literacy, mutual care, justice, dialogue, and co-responsibility. the ‘eco’ encompasses the ecological systems in which all life is embedded—nonhuman species, ecosystems, and the material and symbolic relationships between people and the earth. it invokes interdependence and calls for moral imagination beyond the human. in this framework, the hyphen between ‘socio’ and ‘eco’ is more than grammatical. it becomes a generative space—a space of connection rather than separation, of integration rather than hierarchy. it bridges people and planet, self and other, past and present, global and local, theory and practice, knowing and being, educator and learner, youth and adult, and more. this integrative ethic forms the foundation of the world-centred peace education framework introduced in the following section. it offers both a grounding vision and an orienting principle: peace must be built with, by, and for the full community of life. world-centred peace education: core elements of the framework this section outlines the core elements of the world-centred peace education framework—its purpose, relational worldview, theoretical influences, and five interrelated domains. together, these elements offer a grounded yet adaptable framework that educators, researchers, and practitioners can use to design, implement, and evaluate peace education initiatives that are relational, contextresponsive, and aligned with world-centred principles. purpose: why peace education is needed—and what it is for peace education must be oriented by a guiding—yet exploratory—purpose that aligns intention, content, and impact. before asking what to teach or how, it is essential to first ask why peace education is needed and what it hopes to achieve. beginning with the end in mind helps ensure meaningful alignment between content, form, and intended outcomes. without such orientation, peace education risks becoming disconnected from the complex realities it seeks to address. a world-centred approach, then, begins by asking: what is peace education for, and how might it be reimagined to respond more effectively to today’s overlapping social and ecological crises? there is broad agreement that peace education should support the cultivation of cultures of peace and nonviolence, while challenging the systems, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 52 structures, and narratives that sustain violence—however peace and violence are defined. while there are many paths to peace, the use of violence must be rejected. world-centred peace education aligns with this shared purpose and grounds its approach more specifically in an evolving commitment to socio-eco peace—a vision of mutual flourishing between people and planet. the framework is both principled and exploratory: principled in its commitment to peace by peaceful means and to transforming all forms of violence—direct, structural, cultural, and ecological; exploratory in its invitation to co-create inclusive, evolving, and context-grounded approaches to advancing peace and addressing these interconnected forms of violence. this purpose lays the foundation for the relational worldview and theoretical influences that underpin the framework. foundations: relational worldviews and theoretical influences world-centred peace education is grounded in a relational worldview shaped by interdependence, shared responsibility, and transformation. two foundational ideas inform this approach. first, biesta’s (2021) concept of world-centred education challenges learnerand educator-centred models by framing education as an encounter with the world—one that calls learners into ethical relationship with what lies beyond themselves. second, nos-otros—a concept from latin american decolonial thought, particularly the work of catherine walsh—fuses nosotros (we/us) and otros (others) to describe a relational space where identity is shaped through dialogue, difference, and shared accountability. these foundations support a relational, ethical, and world-responsive orientation. at the same time, this framework is non-prescriptive. rather than relying on a single theoretical tradition, it invites educators and practitioners to engage with the perspectives, knowledge systems, and conceptual tools most relevant to their specific contexts, purposes, and relationships. the following are illustrative examples of such tools. • pluriversality, as articulated by arturo escobar (2018), which emphasises the value of multiple, coexisting worldviews, methods, and ways of being, thinking, and acting. • decolonial thought, including critiques of western modernity by macarena gómez-barris (2017) and sylvia wynter (2003), which challenge dominant ontologies and foreground the need for epistemic justice. • posthumanist pedagogy, influenced by rosi braidotti (2013), which challenges anthropocentrism and calls for education that recognises nonhuman agency, interdependence, and multispecies entanglement. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 53 • planetary boundaries, drawing on the work of johan rockström et al. (2009), which highlight the ecological thresholds necessary to sustain life and the urgent need to operate within them. • indigenous knowledge systems, including contributions from linda tuhiwai smith (1999), which foreground land-based learning, relational responsibility, and sovereignty rooted in ancestral traditions. • transrational peace theory, developed by wolfgang dietrich (2012), which outlines five “families of peace”—modern, moral, postmodern, energetic, and transrational—highlighting diverse cultural, spiritual, and epistemological traditions. • ecopedagogy, inspired by paulo freire (1970) and richard kahn (2010), which links environmental justice with critical pedagogy and cultivates planetary consciousness. • critical comprehensive approaches, which are directed towards personal, relational, political, structural, cultural, and/or ecological change by linking internal with external action (bar-tal, 2002; hajir & kester, 2020; jenkins, 2022). • holistic and transformative learning traditions, which support wholeperson development and integrates cognitive, affective, aesthetic, ethical, spiritual, and somatic dimensions (mezirow, 1991; rogers, 1980; gur-zeev, 2001; zembylas & bekerman, 2013; cremin, 2016). • place-based and contextual pedagogies, which centre education in lived experience and specific environments, emphasising rootedness, responsiveness, and local-global connection (gruenewald, 2003; tuck & mckenzie, 2015; gittins, 2017). together, these influences form a generative toolkit to support peace education that is contextually grounded, ecologically responsive, and relationally attuned. domains: the five elements of practice this section introduces five interrelated domains that form the practical backbone of the world-centred peace education framework. together, these domains offer a flexible and coherent structure for designing, facilitating, and evaluating peace education grounded in relationship, context, and ethical purpose. the framework is organised around two core domains—inner and outer—and three enabling domains—context, pluralism, and process. the core domains define the scope of peace education, encompassing personal, social, structural, cultural, and ecological dimensions. the enabling domains identify and explain the conditions and practices through which this work can be pursued across diverse settings. collectively, the five domains provide a dynamic and adaptable framework, grounded in right relationship and responsive to context. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 54 the term “world-centred” is used here to encompass the full web of life: people, planet, ecosystems, human and more-than-human communities, and the relationships that connect them across space, time, and scale. world-centred peace education, therefore, moves beyond individualistic or anthropocentric paradigms. it begins with the recognition that peace is not solely a human concern, but a relational practice rooted in right relationships—within and across relationships with self, others, systems, and the living world. figure 1 illustrates this framework, with the two core domains at the centre, surrounded by the enabling domains. arrows reflect the connections and interdependence between people and the planet. the placement of 'purpose' outside the rings emphasises the framework’s ethical anchoring in socio-eco peace—a shared, evolving aim that guides all domains. overview: summary of the five domains table 1 provides a summary of the five domains that make up this framework— highlighting their key dimensions, core assumptions, and pedagogical approaches. each domain includes foundational and advanced practices, along with guiding questions to support reflection, design, and evaluation. these domains are further expanded in the sections that follow. used flexibly, this framework invites both structure and imagination—enabling scholars, educators, and practitioners to engage at different levels and in diverse contexts. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 55 table 1. overview of the five domains in the world-centred peace education framework domain dimensions core assumptions pedagogical approaches guiding questions inner cognitive, psychological, emotional, ethical, spiritual, and somatic peace is deeply personal. inner awareness, balance, and resilience shape ethical action and relationships foundational: mindfulness, journaling, emotional literacy. advanced: somatic inquiry, restorative dialogue, moral imagination how can we cultivate inner awareness, ethical clarity, and resilience? what practices support inner growth and agency? outer social, political, cultural, structural, and ecological systems peace is systemic and relational. transforming systems and cultures, and building right relationships across human and ecological communities foundational: classroom inquiry around peace, justice, sustainability, and human rights. advanced: community-based learning, collective action, policy engagement what systems of harm must be challenged or dismantled? how can we foster right relationships across communities and ecologies? context geographic, temporal, cultural, relational, ecological specificity peace education must be grounded in place, history, ecology, and lived realities foundational: use local languages, cultural practices, and histories. advanced: co-design curricula with communities, rooted in land and lived experience how is peace education rooted in local needs, cultures, and ecologies? how can global goals connect with lived, place-based realities? pluralism epistemological, ontological, and methodological diversity peace education must engage diverse traditions of knowing, being, and acting—each offering unique insight foundational: explore diverse peace traditions and regional case studies. advanced: facilitate intercultural exchange, storytelling, and dialogic inquiry whose knowledge and practices are centred—and whose are left out? how can diverse worldviews (e.g. spiritual, feminist, indigenous, posthumanist) be https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 56 brought together in respectful, generative ways? process participatory, relational, and co-creative inquiry peace education must embody its values. inclusive, participatory processes ensure ethical alignment foundational: early consultation, reflection, and feedback loops. advanced: co-design and cofacilitate the full process—from needs assessment to dissemination how are peace education processes designed, facilitated, evaluated, and shared? are they inclusive, participatory, and grounded? https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 57 inner domain – cultivating peace with self the inner domain addresses the personal dimensions of peace—cognitive, emotional, ethical, spiritual, and somatic. it emphasises self-awareness, emotional balance, and inner resilience as foundations for ethical action and meaningful relationships. pedagogically, it emphasises practices such as mindfulness, emotional literacy, and contemplative inquiry. these practices cultivate agency, integrity, and moral imagination. as unesco notes, “wars begin in the minds of people,” underscoring how inner dispositions—shaped by physical, psychological, and emotional experiences—both influence and are influenced by broader social, structural, and ecological forces. foundational approaches may include practices such as journaling, breathwork, mindfulness, or emotional check-ins—tools that develop inner awareness and self-regulation. advanced approaches may involve deeper somatic and ethical engagement, such as restorative dialogue, somatic inquiry, or guided moral reflection. for example, in colombia, a peace education program integrated daily rituals—silence, breathing exercises, and emotional check-ins—contributing to improved emotional regulation, empathy, and peer connection (moya & rodriguez, 2020). outer domain – cultivating peace with others and the world the outer domain addresses the social, political, structural, cultural, and ecological dimensions of peace. it emphasizes the need to transform harmful systems and dominant norms, while building right relationships across human and ecological communities. this domain invites learners and educators to think systemically, act ethically, and engage politically and relationally. it draws on pedagogical traditions such as critical pedagogy and ecopedagogy (freire, 1970; kahn 2010) that link education to justice, sustainability, and planetary well-being. it encourages critical reflection on human–earth relations, highlighting the interdependence of social, political, and ecological justice. foundational approaches may include classroom-based inquiry into themes of peace, justice, sustainability, and human rights—using dialogue, case studies, and storytelling to explore systems of harm and possibility. advanced approaches may involve community-based learning, collective action, and policy engagement—supporting learners to actively challenge injustice and build alternatives. for example, a global initiative that educated, mentored, and mobilised youth, communities, and organisations in 12 countries led to over 20 youth-led projects. these ranged from environmental justice efforts in colombia and community-building in south sudan, to youth-led dialogue and conflict resolution workshops across ukraine and russia (gittins, 2021). https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 58 context domain – grounding the work in place and time the context domain explores the “where,” “when,” and “with whom” of peace education, grounding the work in time, place, history, and ecology. grounding peace education in context requires deep engagement with place-based knowledge, indigenous traditions, socio-ecological dynamics, and the political, historical, and ecological conditions shaping human and ecological systems (gittins, 2017). this includes recognising legacies of violence and resistance, and attending carefully to the lived realities that inform practice. in a world-centred approach, contextualisation involves balancing the needs of people and place with global aspirations. without such grounding, peace education risks becoming detached from the communities it serves and the ecosystems in which it unfolds. foundational approaches may include using local languages, engaging with regional histories and exploring cultural practices rooted in everyday life. advanced approaches may involve co-designing curricula with local communities—working alongside elders, youth, and other local actors—to ensure the work is relevant, grounded, and responsive to place and time. for example, a peace education initiative in aotearoa new zealand integrated māori knowledge through collaborative curriculum development with community leaders and elders (smith, 2012). pluralism domain – embracing diverse ways of knowing the pluralism domain embraces diverse ways of knowing, being, and acting. it addresses the “what” of peace education—what knowledge, principles, and pedagogies should guide the work. instead of universal models, it invites critical, feminist, decolonial, indigenous, spiritual, artistic, and posthumanist traditions into generative dialogue. drawing on cosmopolitan principles, it values respectful exchange, hybrid practices, and mutual learning. posthumanist pedagogy, for example, challenges anthropocentric assumptions by decentring the human subject and recognising the agency of nonhuman beings, systems, and relationships. scholars such as rosi braidotti (2013) argue for educational approaches that embrace complexity, hybridity, and ethical entanglement across species and technologies. in this view, peace is not solely a human concern but a multispecies condition—one that requires humility, curiosity, and shared responsibility. likewise, indigenous knowledge systems deepen pluralism through relational worldviews that resist linear, extractive, and dualistic logics. these traditions emphasise community, intergenerational learning, and reciprocal relationships with the land. incorporating indigenous perspectives into peace education expands the concept beyond multicultural inclusion—pointing toward more embodied, spiritual, and earth-connected pedagogies. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 59 foundational approaches may involve exploring diverse peace traditions and regional case studies to surface multiple perspectives and encourage critical reflection. advanced approaches might support deeper intercultural exchange, dialogic engagement, and collaborative exploration of worldviews, knowledge systems, and peace practices. for example, storytelling, listening, and symbolic practices have been used in cross-cultural peace education to surface tensions, foster empathy, and explore knowledge that emerges through encounter, memory, and lived experience (abu-nimer, 2004; bekerman, 2007). process domain – enabling co-creation and inclusive practices the process domain addresses the ‘how’ of peace education—how it is codesigned, facilitated, and evaluated. it focuses on the integrity of process, not just outcomes. this domain frames peace education as a dynamic, evolving practice shaped through relational inquiry—where ideas and actions emerge from those involved, the places they inhabit, and the needs of the earth. as such, equal attention must be paid to the processes through which the work unfolds—how people relate, make decisions, and learn together—not only to its content or outcomes. the methods of peace education must embody the values they promote, centring reflective practice, dialogue, and compassion. central to this domain is the idea of human agency—the capacity of individuals and communities to shape their realities through inquiry, reflection, and action. in world-centred peace education, agency is understood as relational and situated, exercised in connection with others and the wider world. collaboration is essential. it brings together people, experiences, and ways of knowing across all stages of peace education. it also activates the other enabling domains—context and pluralism—by translating them into lived, cocreated practice. this domain encourages the practice of shared power, reflexivity, and collaborative design. foundational practices include early consultation with participants, integrating feedback throughout the project, and creating space for ongoing reflection. advanced practices involve co-creating the full initiative—from needs assessment and curriculum design to delivery, evaluation, and dissemination. these approaches require time, trust, and a commitment to shared power, guided by the principle of “nothing about us without us.” importantly, this principle extends beyond human communities, inviting relational accountability to the more-than-human world as well. for example, a participatory action research project in bolivia supported young people to co-create a peace education initiative. positioned as research collaborators, participants shaped the curriculum, facilitated workshops, and led their own local projects addressing a range of social and environmental issues. the process culminated in a public event—co-designed and co-led by the young https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 60 participants—where they shared their work with community members, un representatives, ngos, and civil society actors (gittins, 2017). with the five domains outlined, the next section explores how this framework can be practically applied across educational, community, and research contexts. applying the framework: practice, research, and reflection what does all this mean for peace education practice? how can the framework be used to inform new ways of thinking, relating, and acting in the field? this section proposes two possible applications: as a resource for educational and community practice, and as a guide for research and evaluation. using the framework in education and community practice the framework can help to reimagine how peace education might be designed and facilitated—across classroom and community settings. it can serve as a versatile tool to inform transdisciplinary education linking social justice, environmental science, and global citizenship—and to support peace initiatives that bridge social transformation with ecological well-being. it can guide values-based planning, mid-course adaptation, and post-activity reflection, offering a flexible resource for each stage of a peace education initiative. it also provides a shared structure and vocabulary to foster dialogue among those working at the intersections of peace, justice, war, and the environment. curricula grounded in a world-centred approach emphasise relational ethics, contextual sensitivity, and ecological interdependence. it could be structured using the five domains outlined above—which together support learning that is ethical, systemic, place-based, inclusive, and participatory. facilitation strategies guided by this approach prioritise relational engagement over content transmission. educators become co-learners, cultivating dialogue, storytelling, land-based learning, systems thinking, and contemplative practice. these methods are practised not as techniques to deliver, but as responsive engagements with the cultural, social, and ecological realities in which education unfolds. using the framework in research and evaluation processes the framework can serve as a generative resource for study, research, and evaluation. it can guide the formulation of research questions and agendas, support study design, and inform methods for data collection, analysis, and interpretation. adaptable to both qualitative and quantitative approaches, it can support context-sensitive exploration of peace education work. in keeping with its relational ethos, the framework supports research approaches that are participatory, co-created, and grounded in the lived realities of those directly involved. it challenges extractive or decontextualised models https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 61 of inquiry and affirms the value of collaborative, place-based inquiry. concepts such as nos-otros (relational co-becoming) and interbeing (mutual embeddedness in the web of life) further enrich methodologies that recognise the social and ecological entanglements shaping peace and violence. evaluation practices informed by the framework would be similarly relational and reflective. rather than treating evaluation as an external judgment, the framework supports formative and dialogic approaches embedded throughout the learning process. where assessment is used, it should reflect the framework’s values—prioritising reflective practice, ethical responsiveness, and relational engagement over standardised metrics or individual performance. what matters most is not just what learners know, but how they relate—to themselves, others, and the living world. the five-domain structure also offers a useful tool for organising and guiding evaluation. questions for reflection might include: • inner domain: in what ways did the learning experience support inner consideration, ethical imagination, and relational responsibility? • outer domain: how did it engage with or challenge systemic and ecological conditions that shape peace and violence? • context domain: how was the learning grounded in specific histories, cultures, places, and relationships? • pluralism domain: how were diverse voices, knowledges, and ways of being meaningfully included and valued? • process domain: how were peace education processes co-created, facilitated, and adapted with integrity, care, and responsiveness? these questions are not intended as a checklist, but prompts for inquiry, dialogue, and reflection. they are designed to support research and evaluation practices that reflect the ethos of the framework outlined in this article. contributions, implications, and future directions this section summarises the article’s contributions, considers their implications for policy, research, and practice, and identifies avenues for future inquiry. contributions this article contributes to peace education scholarship and practice by advocating for a shift beyond people-centred toward world-centred peace education. in doing so, it situates peace education within an integrated social and ecological framework—not merely focused on individual or social purposes but oriented toward cultivating mutual care and responsibility among people, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 62 planet, and place. peace is reframed as a relational ethic—active, evolving, and grounded in interdependence across communities, ecosystems, and scales. the article also develops a novel world-centred framework, grounded in a clear guiding purpose and relational worldview. it offers a coherent and adaptable five-domain structure—inner, outer, context, pluralism, and process—that guides the design, implementation, and evaluation of peace education initiatives across diverse contexts. by emphasising ecological awareness, relational engagement, and responsiveness to place and context, the framework supports a holistic approach to complex socio-ecological challenges. it also responds to growing calls for models that meaningfully integrate the personal, the social, and the ecological. by offering both conceptual grounding and practical guidance, the framework supports peace education that is as much about learning with the world as about transforming our ways of relating to it. implications for policy, practice, and pedagogy a world-centred approach has profound implications for research, practice, and the wider field of peace education. several are outlined here. at the policy level, peace education frameworks must be reimagined to explicitly integrate social and ecological concerns rather than treat them as separate domains. embedding socio-eco peace principles into national curricula, teacher training, and global education frameworks can bridge longstanding divides—connecting social justice with planetary stewardship and sustainability. while this approach aligns with existing sustainable development models (sachs, 2015) that link social and environmental goals, it goes further by arguing that lasting, just, and sustainable peace requires dismantling the structures and logics of the war system. militarism’s ideological, economic, and institutional foundations must be directly confronted if peace education is to be genuinely inclusive, equitable, and transformative. practically, educators, facilitators, and institutions are called upon to (re)conceptualise their roles as co-creators of learning environments that are ecologically grounded, responsive to time and place, and rooted in relationship. this shift involves cultivating cultures that value dialogue, critical reflection, and relational accountability, and co-creating learning spaces where diverse voices and knowledge systems can flourish. pedagogically, a world-centred approach invites pluralistic, transdisciplinary methods that transcend disciplinary silos and hierarchies. educators are encouraged to engage with specific cultural, historical, and ecological contexts while nurturing awareness of global interdependence. this orientation supports curriculum, assessment, and partnerships that reflect the realities learners inhabit. it also promotes pedagogical humility—recognising that learners, educators, and environments co-shape one another through shared, situated learning encounters. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 63 at the core of these shifts is language—what kemmis (2009) calls the “sayings” of educational practice. reimagining what peace education is and could become involves more than changes in purpose, principles, content, and form—it also involves rethinking the very vocabulary through which peace is conceptualised and pursued. language is not merely symbolic—it constitutes how peace is imagined, communicated, and enacted. this article highlights the need to challenge dominant narratives—particularly those that call for “putting people first”—in order to disrupt anthropocentric assumptions that narrow peace to the human realm. while people-centred approaches offer important contributions, privileging the human alone marginalises the agency of nonhuman life and reinforces hierarchies that separate people from the planet. a world-centred approach affirms the interdependence of all life and calls for a vocabulary rooted in kinship, reciprocity, and relational responsibility. future directions as a new yet evolving framework, world-centred peace education invites ongoing inquiry, critique, and collaboration. this includes surfacing tensions, challenging assumptions, and participating in evolving conversations to refine and strengthen the framework. future research should investigate how the framework can be adapted and used across contexts. the following suggested directions correspond to the framework’s interrelated domains, highlighting opportunities to deepen understanding and advance practice: • inner domain: further research could examine how work on self—through self-awareness, ethical imagination, and spiritual grounding—contribute to individual well-being and broader forms of peace. this includes exploring how inner peace connects with interpersonal relationships, systemic conditions, and reciprocal engagement with the earth, and how these interlinked dynamics influence social and ecological peace. • outer domain: investigations could focus on how the framework resonates within policy arenas, institutions, grassroots initiatives, and civil society. research might trace what emerges, shifts, or endures when its principles are applied, paying close attention to how diverse contexts are bridged without losing connection to local realities and ecological specificities. • context domain: studies may explore how local histories, ecologies, and political dynamics shape peace education practices and pedagogies. emphasising contextual specificity over universal prescriptions can deepen relevance, cultural resonance, and impact. • pluralism domain: further inquiry could examine the integration of indigenous, land-based, and marginalised epistemologies with dominant knowledge systems. this research might illuminate ways diverse https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 64 knowledges coexist, interact, and mutually enrich pluralistic learning environments, fostering more inclusive and holistic peace education. • process domain: research might investigate how peace education can be co-designed and practised with, by, and for both human and more-thanhuman communities. focus could be placed on participatory processes that advance co-creation, shared agency, and relational accountability throughout all stages of design, facilitation, reflection, and renewal. addressing today’s socio-ecological crises requires more than technical fixes or isolated reforms. it calls for a fundamental reorientation of how peace is understood, practiced, and pursued. this includes transcending disciplinary and institutional divides, and cultivating collaborative partnerships across education, climate justice, indigenous leadership, policy, spirituality, and activism. world-centred peace education contributes to this shift by offering both a flexible framework and a generative vocabulary—tools not only for designing research and practice, but for reimagining what peace and peace education are and could become. in this way, it embodies both the language of critique and the language of possibility—naming root causes while opening space for regenerative alternatives. more than a set of pedagogical strategies, it offers a way of speaking, relating, and acting that is relational, regenerative, and responsive to the full web of life. in this sense, it is not only a framework for peace education—it is a framework for transformation grounded in relationship. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 41-67 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 65 references abu-nimer, m. 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(2021). reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education. paris: united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization. walsh, c. (2018). interculturality and decoloniality. durham, nc: duke university press. wenden, a. l. (2004). educating for a culture of social and ecological peace. albany, ny: state university of new york press. wynter, s. (2003). unsettling the coloniality of being/power/truth/freedom. cr: the new centennial review, 3(3), 257–337. zembylas, m., & bekerman, z. (2013). peace education in the present: dismantling and reconstructing some fundamental theoretical premises. journal of peace education, 10(2), 197-214. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax hyde final[1] in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     179   volume 5 number 2 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/ the dialogic classroom as pedagogy: teaching the civic mission of schools andrea m. hyde, phd western illinois university-qc campus am-hyde@wiu.edu it has been recognized since the founding of the nation that education has a civic mission: to prepare informed, rational, humane, and participating citizens committed to the values and principles of american constitutional democracy1. the civic mission of schools from the beginning, the main purpose for establishing public schools in the united states was to prepare future generations for democratic citizenship particular to a new and experimental republic. citizenship under non-democratic rule would not require education beyond what parents and community could instruct children about their place in society and their relationship to the ruling authority. but citizens of a democracy require formal schooling as they are, in 1 ncss, the civic mission of schools. social education, 2005. 69(7): p. 414 (2). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     180 theory, the ruling authorities and must therefore receive the knowledge (reading and writing and some classical history) and attitudes (vigilance against those who would seek political office for corrupt purposes) of leadership. this was thomas jefferson’s dream for the creation of a “natural aristocracy”. these most talented sons [sic] from all social classes, having proved their worth through success in formal schooling, would govern on the basis of virtue and merit rather than birth and wealth2. influenced by plato’s utopian proposal for education, as well as other ideas central to classical liberalism3, jefferson recognized that to prevent the political ascendancy of a hereditary aristocracy, more than just the wealthy had to be educated. at the same time, all citizens should be able to exercise their responsibilities for electing leaders and approving legislation through access to the free marketplace of ideas where men [sic] could discuss and rationally consider the best course of action. he proposed a meritocratic form of promotion into higher education and preparation for political office. however, as joel spring observes, “the details of jefferson’s plan are not as important as the idea, which has become ingrained in american social thought, that [public] schooling is the best means of identifying democratic leadership”4. horace mann, father of the “common school,” had a vision of public education as a unifier of moral differences and a palliative to the social upheaval brought into sharp awareness by the rapid increase of immigration, urbanization and industrialization during the mid to late 19th century in the united states. the religious struggles between the calvinists and more liberal sects, the economic strife between the rich and the poor, and the riots pitting irish immigrants against native workers all were evidence to mann of a dangerous social disharmony which threatened the stability of society. the common school was to become the central institution to ameliorate this situation. it was necessary for all children to develop a commitment to a common core of values5. mann’s ideas were based, in part, on the prussian model of the mid 19th century, a compulsory school system established to develop patriotic citizens and unite the german states for world leadership. although philosophically democratic rather than totalitarian-minded, the common school movement was, according to historians wayne urban and jennings wagoner, “essentially a movement that reflected the values of republicanism, protestantism and capitalism” which created “what many consider to be the indispensable institution for american democracy”6. 2 thomas jefferson and henry a. washington, the writings of thomas jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private: published by the order of the joint committee of congress on the library, from the original manuscripts, deposited in the department of state. 1853, washington, d.c.: taylor & maury. 9 v. 3 steven e. tozer, et al., school and society: historical and contemporary perspectives. 5th ed. ed. 2006, boston: mcgraw-hill. xiii, 545. 4 joel spring, american education. 12th ed. 2005, new york: mcgraw-hill. 5 steven e. tozer, et al., school and society: historical and contemporary perspectives. 5th ed. ed. 2006, boston: mcgraw-hill. xiii, 545. 6 wayne j. urban and jennings l. wagoner, american education: a history. 3rd ed. ed. 2004, boston: mcgraw-hill. xxi, 393, i-15. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     181 perhaps no one expressed the civic mission of schools better than educator, psychologist and philosopher, john dewey. in democracy and education, dewey stated his view of schooling as a microcosm of a democratic community. [t]he realization of a form of social life in which interests are mutually interpenetrating, and where progress, or readjustment, is an important consideration, makes a democratic community more interested than other communities have cause to be in deliberate and systematic education. the devotion of democracy to education is a familiar fact. the superficial explanation is that a government resting upon popular suffrage cannot be successful unless those who elect and who obey their governors are educated. since a democratic society repudiates the principle of external authority, it must find a substitute in voluntary disposition and interest; these can be created only by education7. dewey’s contribution to the “democratic imagination” in education is considerable and varies in importance according to one’s individual philosophical or pedagogical affiliation. though he rejected the dichotomy, those who favor a child-centered curriculum can more easily trace their philosophical lineage to dewey than those who adhere to a traditional, teachercentered (or more accurately today, a standards-driven) curriculum. by democratic imagination, i refer to the capacity to see a connection between school-based educational activity and citizenship participation in a democratic society. images of the “democratic classroom” range from a single elementary level classroom through whole-school structural and curricular arrangements to national movements for school organization and leadership. this imagination can also extend to teacher education courses: content, activities, philosophies and pedagogies8. the democratic nature of the classroom, activity, movement or pedagogy is reflected in the recognized purpose of organized educational activity in reproducing participatory democratic citizenship outside of the classroom. for advocates of democratic education, the collective imagination is set into action through democratic participation which begins with deliberative discourse in the classroom9. 7 john dewey, democracy and education: an introduction to the philosophy of education. 1966/1916, new york: macmillan. 8 andrea hyde, images of "the democratic classroom" in the united states, american educational studies association annual conference. charlottesville, va: unpublished, 2005. 9 michael w. apple and james a. beane, eds, democratic schools. 1995, association for supervision and curriculum development: alexandria, va. landon e. beyer, introduction: the meanings of critical teacher preparation, in creating democratic classrooms: the struggle to integrate theory and practice, l.e. beyer, editor. 1996, teachers college press: new york. mary cunat, vision, vitality and values: advocating the democratic classroom, in creating democratic classrooms: the struggle to integrate theory and practice, l.e. beyer, editor. 1996, teachers college press: new york. p. 127-149. noreen garman, the closed and open contract: two irreconcilable structures in the curriculum. wcci forum: journal of the world council for curriculum and instruction, 1989. 4(2): p. 176-82. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     182 a pedagogical model i am an assistant professor of education, but i am not from, nor do work in, the field of curriculum and instruction; i am part of the highly interdisciplinary and typically ancillary (to teacher certification programs) field of educational foundations or education studies. like many of my field colleagues, i teach a social foundations of education (sfe) course to pre-service, teacher education students. i have taught this course at three different universities in three distinct regions of the united states: the mid-atlantic, midwest and west coast. these courses have had different names but the intersecting content, both the history and sociology of public schooling and some version of multicultural education, remains the same. i often think about how to talk to my students about the history and politics of sfe and how social foundations courses typically differ from the bulk of the teacher education program courses10. though elsewhere i have been specific in my theorizing about my philosophy of education11, for the purposes of representing my personal beliefs to undergraduate teacher education students, i convey a general position that educational experiences are intrinsically valuable for their potential for personal development. that is, while intellectual development and academic achievement are educational “goods”, schools, teachers and instructional programs should not be evaluated by their demonstrated ability to raise test scores but on their ability to educate – to identify and expand individual instances and possibilities for cognitive and emotional growth and amy gutmann, democratic education. 1987, princeton. nj: princeton university press. peter mayo, liberating praxis: paulo freire's legacy for radical education and politics. critical studies in education and culture, ed. h.a. giroux. 2004, westport, ct: praeger. noel f. mcginn, education, democratization and globalization: a challenge for comparative education. comparative education review, 1996. 40(4): p. 341-357. deborah meier, in schools we trust. 2002, boston: beacon press. nel noddings, the challenge to care in schools: an alternative approach to education. 1992, new york: teachers college press. edmund o'sullivan, transformative learning: educational vision for the 21st century. 2001, toronto: university of toronto press. rosemary c. salamone, education for democratic citizenship. education week, 2000. mar 22, 2000: p. 48-52. thomas j. sergiovanni, building community in schools. 1994, san francisco: josey-bass. patrick slattery and dana rapp, ethics and the foundations of education: teaching convictions in a postmodern world. 2003, boston: allyn & bacon. george w. wood, schools that work. 1992, new york: dutton. 10 in fact, at two of the three of the universities, the department which offered the course was not the department which housed the students who took it. often, where this is the relationship, the “foundations department” is seen as supportive of, or ancillary to, the “teacher education department”. this is a significant relationship that i will not explore in this paper, but see, for example, dan butin (2005). 11 andrea hyde, self-constitution as resistance to normalization: agency and resistance in the era of accountability. unpublished dissertation, university of pittsburgh, pittsburgh, pa. 2007. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     183 overall wellbeing12. this is not separate from the historic and non-instrumental purpose of public schooling that is tied to the continuing united states experiment in democracy. besides sfe being positioned as foundational to the teacher education program rather than a methods course, my pedagogical style is different from those of most, if not all, of my students’ other classroom experiences. although i do give a few mini-lectures on terminology and theory, the students have increasingly more responsibility for creating the content of the class as the semester develops. this is consistent with the practices of learner centered teaching13 but more directly informed by what parker palmer calls subject centered teaching14. there are no tests and all assignments require students to create unique products based on their interaction with the texts, discussions and experiences of the course. i say that our goal is awareness not mastery. in the end, there is no particular set of discrete skills to acquire nor any predetermined knowledge to demonstrate. students are encouraged to question current operations of schools and contrast them with historical and contemporary ideals. we actively try to uncover and confront our own prejudices and admit and examine our beliefs about ourselves and “others”. i used the term we, because i participate as one of the class members, though i acknowledge the power and influence that i have over students though my position and degrees and accept the responsibilities of the grade book, and the significant contribution i make to their learning based on my own education and experiences. the deweyan-democratic tradition15 underpins my working term: the dialogic classroom, yet this is also appropriately called critical pedagogy16. this exposure to different ways of being in the classroom is significant for teacher education students since they are learning, one hopes, not just the curriculum and instructional methods associated with teaching in the k-12 arena, but also developing general pedagogies based on their emerging philosophies of education. 12 this must somehow be locally defined by a collective of parents, teachers, education scholars and development professionals. i am inspired by nel noddings’ universal understanding of subjective well-being in happiness and education. 13 maryellen weimer, learner-centered teaching: five key changes to practice. hoboken, nj: jossey-bass, 2002. 14 parker j. palmer, the courage to teach: exploring the inner landscape of a teacher's life. 1st ed. ed. san francisco, calif.: jossey bass,1998. 15 michael w. apple and james a. beane, eds. democratic schools. 1995, association for supervision and curriculum development: alexandria, va; landon e. beyer, introduction: the meanings of critical teacher preparation, in creating democratic classrooms: the struggle to integrate theory and practice, l.e. beyer, editor. 1996, teachers college press: new york; peter mayo, liberating praxis: paulo freire's legacy for radical education and politics. critical studies in education and culture, ed. h.a. giroux. 2004, westport, ct: praeger; noel f. mcginn, education, democratization and globalization: a challenge for comparative education. comparative education review, 1996. 40(4): p. 341-357; deborah meier, in schools we trust. 2002, boston: beacon press; nel noddings, the challenge to care in schools: an alternative approach to education. 1992, new york: teachers college press; edmund o'sullivan, transformative learning: educational vision for the 21st century. 2001, toronto: univesity of toronto press; rosemary c. salamone, education for democratic citizenship. education week, 2000. mar 22, 2000: p. 48-52; patrick slattery and dana rapp, ethics and the foundations of education: teaching convictions in a postmodern world. boston: allyn & bacon, 2003. 16 this all pulls from scholarship on social criticism, critical social theory, critical pedagogy and the philosophy of education (foucault, noddings, freire, and giroux). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     184 considerations reliably, students assume that i mean for them to use this democratic classroom model with their intended students. in fact, i would not attempt a dialogic classroom in most public school settings where teachers have little flexibility in setting timelines and curricular goals. dialogic classrooms also require a level of maturity and self-awareness not usually present until mid-late adolescence, making it largely inappropriate for most k-8 students. yet, other forms of democratic classrooms have been attempted and do succeed in some public, private and charter schools17. i do, however, encourage students to think about how they can use discussions in their classrooms to practice more democratic ways of being. parker notes that “whereas teacher authority has been diminished by centralized planning and student learning is fixed to a fervent testing regime, purposeful discussions offer occasions for something more like education.” 18 parker refers to two types of discourse structure which support purposeful discussion: seminar and deliberation. the purpose of seminar is to “reach an enlarged understanding of a powerful text” (such as the pledge of allegiance), while the purpose of deliberation is “to reach a decision on what ‘we’ should do about a shared problem” (such as whether and under what circumstances the pledge should be required of every public school student). although discussions, as parker defines them, are a rarity in most united states schools, they can play an important role in the formation of citizens, as they allow students to listen and learn about rich content along with considering the perspectives of others. i also fear that colleagues may assume that i am proselytizing when i talk about using this model in my sfe course. but this is certainly not for every class! i find this to be best suited for undergraduate professional preparation programs (with junior/senior level students); intrinsically motivated students with a budding sense of ethical responsibility; an arrangement of no more than 20 students, who meet more than once a week, during the daytime hours. nor can this style of classroom facilitation be recommended for every instructor. there is always a risk to the instructor in attempting this democratic project as it is never guaranteed to “work” and will likely never work the way that an instructor might imagine that it will. hope and patience is essential. trust between students and instructor must accompany any sharing of pedagogical power. most disheartening, perhaps, is that the end result or educational change (learning) in this kind of classroom may seem so small as to be a waste of time. this requires faith in an imperfect process, as instructors cannot claim credit for what are largely internal changes. for other views on the nuances of dialogic classrooms, i recommend reading the work of josé alfonso feito19 and angela minnici20. for connections to critical traditions, see rick bowers21 and joshua 17 aer0. list of early childhood, primary, & secondary democratic schools. 2009 [cited 2009 december 31]; available from: http://www.educationrevolution.org/lisofdemscho.html. 18 walter c. parker, public discourse in schools: purposes, problems, possibilities. educational researcher, 2006. 35(8): p. 11-18. 19 jose a. feito, "allowing not-knowing in a dialogic discussion." review of reviewed item. international journal for the scholarship of teaching and learning, no 1. (2007). 20 angela minnici, reflexive thinking in pedagogy. saarbrücken, germany: vdm verlag, 2008. 21 rick bowers, “freire (with bakhtin) and the dialogic classroom seminar”. alberta journal of educational research 51(8): p. 368-378, 2005. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     185 guilar22. and for a historical review of the place of dialogue in classical liberal education, see ronald arnett23. strategies the dialogic classroom is a particular kind of democratic classroom, where the development of the whole class is a semester-long group project24. a dialogic classroom is one in which participants have the opportunity to engage actively in dialogue, the kind of dialogue that concerned citizens are expected to enact in a cultural democracy25, a form of democratic deliberation which necessarily embraces contested issues. though this type of model requires a great deal of flexibility, spontaneity and responsiveness rather than some kind of deliberate, linear planning, for each group of students i generally proceed by the following steps: present, introduce, explain, model and reflect/revise26. whenever i begin such a course, i present my students with a statement of pedagogy, which serves as one of the first course “texts” that students and i explore together. it begins with this statement: since i seek to provide an educational structure that maximizes learning through dialogue, i support a pedagogy known as the dialogic classroom, a concept directly associated with principles of learning in and for a cultural democracy. i acknowledge the challenges inherent in representing conceptions of democratic ways of being, yet i believe that democracy needs to have a sound educational platform in classroom experience. thus, i adhere to the goals of living where the multiplicity of cultures not only exists and thrives in a global society, but also in the college classroom.27 in order to help students understand my hopes for the dialogic classroom experience, i introduce some excerpts from a think piece written by my mentor, dr. noreen garman at the university of pittsburgh. on becoming a dialogic classroom suggests that members of a democratic classroom might make a covenant-like agreement about how they might “be” 22 joshua guilar, "intersubjectivity and dialogic instruction." in radical pedagogy, 2006. 23 ronald c. arnett, dialogic education: conversation about ideas and between persons. carbondale, il: southern illinois university press, 1992. 24 mary hogg, et al., in using groups in the classroom: a professional development workshop. 2009, sponsored by the center for instructional technology and research: western illinois university-quad cities. 25 this differs from a political democracy, since i acknowledge that no such democracy can exist in such classroom situations where one person (the instructor) enjoys power and prestige, real or perceived, over the others (the students). 26 this last phase of reflection loops continuously until the end of the course, for students, and until the end of my practice. if things are going the way we hoped they would, we proceed. if not, we revise. 27 andrea hyde, the democratic-dialogic classroom as pedagogy. 2009, western illinois university. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     186 together in the course28. this document lists categories of “willingnesses” to develop personal commitments to the class, such as “the willingness to struggle for balanced participation” and “the willingness to value multiple perspectives.” i then explain any part of this idea that is immediately unclear or that i think will provide particular challenges. throughout the daily discussions, but especially during the first two weeks of the course, i model leadership and participation in democratic deliberation. i plan and conduct our discussions for the first two or three weeks. i also provide each student with a printed list and description of discussion techniques and then demonstrate each of them, using the course content. later each class member has an opportunity to try out the role of discussion leader, responsible for opening, guiding and closing our discussion. these discussions are based on assigned daily readings and students choose which day they will lead. topics include the history of united states public schooling, historical and contemporary purposes of schooling, funding schemes and targeted funding for federal programs, the control of curriculum and issues of educational access, experience and outcomes bases on class, race, language, sex, sexual orientation, religion and ability. throughout the semester, we practice being together democratically, hearing each other as we represent positions that are similar and different from our own and continually trying to uncover our own biases. at times, i will adjust the flow of the discussions to mute some dominant voices or positions and amplify others, accordingly29. finally, we reflect (at least twice, at midterm and toward the end of the semester) on our progress toward a democratic classroom, identifying weaknesses in ourselves individually and as a group and attend to them. (perhaps we must revise our plan.) evaluation of the progress of such a class is admittedly subjective but collectively so, as the entire group contributes to a consideration of our growth. i have also used more objective means of assessment during three points of encounter at the beginning, midpoint and end of the semester by asking students to anonymously report on which of the “willingnesses” (from the introductory trope) were the least and most difficult for them/the group. interrogating beliefs through dialogic journals in keeping with the aims of the scholarship of teaching30, i have tried to explore more deeply how teacher education students in my sfe course come to develop their beliefs about the civic responsibilities of schools toward students and communities. as part of the coursework of sfe, i require students to keep dialogic journals of their readings and all classroom discussions. during each class meeting, we take time to write a journal response from at least one student 28 noreen garman, on becoming a dialogic classroom: walking the path of social justice and democracy. 2007, university of pittsburgh. 29 megan boler, all speech is not free: the ethics of "affirmative action pedagogy", in democratic dialogue in education: troubling speech. disturbing silence, m. boler, editor. 2004, peter lang: new york. p. 3-14. 30 aer0. list of early childhood, primary, & secondary democratic schools. 2009 [cited 2009 december 31]; available from: http://www.educationrevolution.org/lisofdemscho.html. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     187 generated journal prompt, in addition to the questions that i pose to students to get them to stretch their thinking and to challenge their assumptions about the content at hand. by dialogic, i mean that each student and i will communicate via this journal. students write entries into one document; and i comment on those entries within the same document. as we exchange this document, we get to know each other better and the students get to know their own thoughts and find how their written words convey less or different meanings than what they intended. also called a two-way journal31, this practice allows students to engage in second and third order reflection, as some writers do in using double entry journals32. i examine their journals on three occasions and provide feedback on the first and second occasions. through a purposeful second reading of the journal entries of more than 100 previous students, across three universities, i searched for significant themes, words and phrases related to the civic (or more broadly, the non-academic) purpose, mission or aims of schools and teachers. throughout continuous engagement with students and informal discussions with my department colleagues, i wrote memos about what i was learning. this method of analysis is based upon the work of emerson, fretz, and shaw33 and coffey and atkinson34, anthropologists and sociologists influenced by grounded theory, but who advocate conducting qualitative analysis without the assumptions from traditional grounded theory about underlying order and causality. journal reading provides varied and sometimes contradictory elements that are interesting to a study of pre-service teachers’ emerging conceptions. for this reason, i portray my analysis and discussion as a series of speculative essays35. i understand essay as both an initial attempt to understand something and the result of that attempt36. and speculative essay “blends qualities of personal essay and theoretical writing to show the process of an author thinking on a subject” and “displays the reflexive and the recursive nature of writing”37. the essay that i share below is meant to illustrate the work that i am doing and to provide specific examples of my analysis of particular struggles through dialogue over contentious issues. this essay also illustrates how a comparative study of student responses can inform and improve practice. 31 toby fulwiler, teaching with writing. portsmouth: boynton/cook, 1987. 32 jennifer a. moon, a handbook of reflective and experiential learning: theory and practice. new york: routledgefalmer, 2004. 33 robert m. emerson, et al., writing ethnographic field notes. 1995, chicago: university of chicago press. 34 amanda j. coffey and paul a. atkinson, making sense of qualitative data. 1996, thousand oaks, ca: sage. 35 william h. schubert, philosophical inquiry: the speculative essay, in forms of curriculum inquiry, e.c. short, editor. 1991, state university of new york press: albany, n.y. p. 61-76. 36 oed. oxford english dictionary. 1989 [cited 1989; 2nd:[available from: http://digital.library.pitt.edu/oed/. 37 marjorie barrett logsdon, a pedagogy of authority: speculative essays by an english teacher, 2000. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     188 i do not intend readers to make generalizations about students from specific regions based on the observations that i make here. this reflective inquiry is for the improvement of my own practice, currently in the midwest. nor am i suggesting a direction that instructors should follow in planning their own courses, even in the same region. i do, however, invite others to engage in such inquiry for the benefit of their own practice. concurrent with this inquiry into my own teaching, my colleagues and i have been working on a list of common goals and outcomes for the sfe course that can be expressed as part of our college’s teacher education framework. we find this task to be complicated, to say the least. many of us believe that we are not likely to see the outcomes that we hope for our students by the end of one course. those who can articulate outcomes do not take the position that these should be or could be the same for all students, every semester, in all sections. we generally believe that students come to our classes with different degrees of preparation and with various levels of receptivity for the material that we present. yet we all agree that one particular belief – that parents/students are uniquely responsible for school success – requires our directed attention, as it tends to prevent students from accessing more complex awareness and understanding of socio-cultural factors and political and ethical dimensions of achievement and failure. part of the value of reflection on practice, as i have attempted, is that by doing so teachers may come to know their civic values, their civic purposes. making use of students’ journal writing requires a commitment to read, reflect and respond to each student individually while standing back periodically to assess where the content knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of groups of students may intersect. there are many other themes to consider. for example, the southern poverty law center’s project, teaching diverse students initiative (tdsi) includes thirteen commonly held beliefs that influence teachers' work with diverse students38. i encourage my colleagues to take on the task of considering how any one of these beliefs (such as “colorblindness” as an approach to diversity) emerge in teacher education courses; to interrogate such beliefs and to get students to trace the sources of such belief from their own experiences and from the messages that we all receive from social institutions, including schools. individual responsibility and academic failure: a speculative essay in studying citizenship education programs, joel westheimer and joseph kahne39 have arrived at three conceptions of the “good citizen”: the personally responsible citizen; the participatory citizen; and the justice oriented citizen. the personally responsible citizen is aware of her responsibility toward others in her community. she is a law-abiding citizen; she is aware of civic rules and follows them. citizenship programs aimed at creating the personally responsible citizen involve didactically teaching the rules and responsibilities of civil society and 38 see http://www.tolerance.org/tdsi/commonly-held-beliefs-influence-teachers/commonly-held-beliefs-influence-teachers. 39 joel westheimer and joseph kahne, what kind of citizen? the politics of educating for democracy. american educational research journal, 2004. 41(2): p. 237-269. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     189 reinforcement of desired behaviors. this kind of program may be called character education in the sense that it aims to instill predetermined personality traits40. from my initial inquiry into this area41, i have found that when teachers accept the charge to prepare citizens, and enact a pedagogy that might prepare personally responsible citizens, they seems to find little conflict with the current federal policy environment. many of my students think that parents should be held accountable for their child’s success in school. they also often say that students are not sufficiently “motivated” or self-disciplined “to do their best”. when asked about which values they will try to pass along to their students, they say that they will teach their students responsibility and honesty. this is consistent with the uncritically internalized belief “that all children can learn”, which is closely associated with a policy standpoint of “no excuses”42, which relieves politicians of the duty to provide reasons for abandoning the reforms of the most deeply entrenched policies of inequality43. this is one of the dispositions that my midwestern students are told that they must have in order to do well in their programs. and i am required to evaluate how well they have demonstrated this disposition in my class. similarly, when teachers interpret this charge as pertaining only to social studies educators or service learning/community service programs, they may enact or espouse a pedagogy that might likely prepare what westheimer and kahne call the participatory citizen. the participatory citizen is aware of the structure and function of civic society and is politically “active” especially at the local level. educating the participatory citizen involves teaching bureaucratic organizational theory and the techniques for engaging in local civic action. but there may be an absence of critical thinking or problem-posing involved in this type of citizenship education. although time, faculty support and school funds may in some cases and to varying degrees be diverted away from such supplementary programs in favor of test preparation efforts and remediation; it is still possible for teachers to facilitate participatory citizenship education programs in the current policy environment. my students are fond of telling stories of service-learning programs that they have experienced or heard about and seem generally supportive of this idea of citizenship as something that can be done to teach citizenship “in the real world”. the justice-oriented citizen, the third prong of westheimer and kahne’s typology, may act in unpredictable ways and say disturbing things or ask prying questions, because this type of citizen is concerned with uncovering the reasons for social problems, injustices and inequalities. 40 tom lickona, eric schaps and catherine lewis, cep's 11 principles for effective character education. 2003, the character education partnership: washington, dc. 41 andrea hyde, self-constitution as resistance to normalization: agency and resistance in the era of accountability. unpublished dissertation, university of pittsburgh, pittsburgh, pa. 2007. 42 samuel casey carter. no excuses: lessons from 21 high-performing, high-poverty schools. washington, dc: the heritage foundation, 2000. 43 richard r. valencia, et al. "let’s treat the cause, not the symptoms: equity and accountability in texas revisited." phi delta kappan 83, no. 4 (2001): 318-26. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     190 education for justice-oriented citizenship involves questioning the structural organization of local and more far-reaching communities. this type of education asks students to investigate relationships of power and may involve student protests. when teachers interpret citizenship education as a responsibility of each teacher to prepare students who will critically examine status quo arrangements or to investigate historical developments of injustices and inequalities, or to pose challenging questions to public policies, there are fewer possibilities of enacting such a (critical or problem-posing) pedagogy in the current “era of accountability”. i am deeply troubled by the evidence that state accountability requirements and a general policy atmosphere of standardization and compliance44 seem to be problematic for justice-oriented citizenship education programs, and, more generally, that such requirements limit teachers’ imagination and capacity for enacting more critical civic pedagogies. each citizen type embodies significantly differing beliefs about the requirements for and definitions of a flourishing democracy. each has implications for pedagogy, curriculum, evaluation and policy. because citizenship education programs may privilege some perspectives on the way that problems are framed over others, these conceptual distinctions underscore the political implications of education for democracy. yet, in actual practice, teachers and to some degree administrators have less “choice” in which programs their schools can use, and subtle and overt relationships of power factor into the official versus the enacted curriculum. further, there are multiple pedagogies and enactments embedded in the practice of each of the three particular program types. nevertheless, the prevailing model of the “good citizen” has been cast in terms of an individual economic relationship with the state, which requires only passive obedience and provides “choice” in buying and selling as the “meaning and substance of individual and social agency”45. the narrow and often ideologically conservative conception of citizenship as an individualized and internalized set of behaviors regards civic participation as a financial obligation (paying taxes and donating to local charities) and reduces civic action to voting. the personally responsible citizen represents well the dominant interpretation, held by my students, of the charge for united states public schools to prepare future citizens. since sfe is the first, or one of the first, courses that students take in their program sequence, i estimate that my students have absorbed this message prior to entering their teacher education programs. when i ask my students about the responsibility that the public school system has for preparing future citizens, the most common response could be represented by the following dictum: public schools should ensure that students are successful after graduation. students overwhelmingly described success as being “self-sufficient” and “productive”. when asked what “success” means to them, some students saw their own definitions of success perfectly aligned 44 kenneth a. sirotnik, holding accountability accountable: what ought to matter in public education. series on school reform. 2004, new york; london: teachers college press. ix, 182. 45 henry giroux. schooling and the struggle for public life: democracy's promise and education's challenge. updated edition ed. 2005, boulder, co: paradigm publishers. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     191 with those of “society” but most add additional components such as happiness or personal development. where the strength of the image of the personally responsible citizen is most evident is in student reflection on academic achievement and failure. they tend to respond first and foremost from the position of individual responsibility before considering the structural facilitators and constraints which may contribute to either achievement or failure. this is not to say that students are not receptive to the argument that out of school factors (osfs)46 play a large role in academic achievement and failure; they seem relieved and affirmed when we have the conversation about the location for change being in society, rather than in school, which is just one institution of society, but many miss the structural arguments against osfs, and look for the next logical agent of individual responsibility, parents. somewhere the divide is between home and school, with teachers or would-be teachers taking a hard line against one and in defense of the other. like some kind of mantra, students write that “some parents just don’t care about their children/their children’s education.” when i ask for evidence of this, when i ask why they believe this, they will tell me that in their brief experiences working in school (many are also parents of school aged children), that some parents will not show up for events, will not make sure that their children complete their homework, will not reinforce the disciplinary plans of the teacher or some other instance of resistance to/refusal of formal involvement. i have come to expect this response from my students and i usually address the whole class, in addition to individual students via journals, on the multiple stakeholders in public education and the complicated notion of blame and responsibility. the tendency to shift responsibility from teachers to parents and students themselves is much more prevalent at the midwestern campus than it was at either the mid-atlantic or the west coast environments, both of which were located in large urban areas. while i do not find them to be significantly more conservative or less open-minded than students elsewhere, the midwest students are far less likely to be exposed to people who are different from themselves. this socio-cultural homogeneity and insulation makes structural critique all the less likely. one thing that changed about my course when i brought it to the midwest is that i removed the bulk of the history and sociology of public schooling to include more multicultural content and greater emphasis on racial/ethnic inequality. i realize, now, that this was a mistake for two reasons. first, these students do not have enough basic knowledge of american history to be able to place significant educational events or policies into any meaningful background. nor do they have a grasp of the principles of sociology, anthropology, philosophy or economics to be able to critically reflect on contemporary educational issues. but also and perhaps just as important is that all of us are at our most authentic in the classroom when “we teach who we 46 david c. berliner, poverty and potential: out-of-school factors and school success. 2009 [cited december, 2009]; available from: http://epicpolicy.org/publication/poverty-and-potential. richard rothstein, equalizing opportunity: dramatic differences in children’s home life and health mean that schools can’t do it alone. american educator, 2009. 33(2): p. 4-7; 45-46. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     192 are”47. i should never minimize or sterilize my identity as a sociologist and postcritical scholar of educational theory, though i am obliged to find an accessible language with which to communicate with my non-scholar (or pre-scholar) students. for these reasons, i have revised the syllabus for the next term so students will encounter enough history of education so that we can make thoughtful commentary on the progression of policy and a refresher in introduction to sociology so that we may apply a sociological lens to schools and their stakeholders. i have been hesitant to discuss the complications of the “culture of poverty” thesis48 with undergraduate students, but this will likely be a part of my course as it returns to a more solidly historical and sociological analysis. only those who have already adopted a sociological lens (one of my goals for sfe students) seem able or willing to hold in tension both culturally expected behavior and individual choice. complicating this are stories of exceptionality, especially of families members or friends who, though poor, found a way to be “successful” in school or elsewhere. ruby payne offers an enticingly simple way for sfe students to understand and teach children of poverty49. some of my students have discovered her work via connections with the local schools. i know that some approaches to multicultural teacher education include training in the “how-to” variety of culturally responsive pedagogy, but this is not what gloria ladson-billings had in mind when she defined the term50. where multicultural education is figured as a methods course, this is certainly the case. but i actively resist presenting multicultural education as a method, as it is too often associated with “best practice” in instruction and a monolithic view of culture. in graduate level classes, i have explored the history and development of the field of multicultural education and this may have to be included in sfe, so that students have a background from which to understand and to criticize culturally responsive pedagogy that assigns concrete expectation to groups and ignores multiple identities and individual variation within groups. conclusion/educational implications what i draw from the above essay is that all of my students express a limited notion of the civic mission of schools that is shaped by a conditioned norm of individual responsibility. what’s more is that this norm sometimes interferes with students’ receptivity to hearing or understanding sociological, political and ethical arguments regarding the influence of out-ofschool factors on student achievement. readers should not infer that i find my midwestern students to be less open-minded than others. actually, i experience these students as curious and 47 parker j. palmer. the courage to teach: exploring the inner landscape of a teacher's life. 1st ed. ed. 1998, san francisco, calif.: jossey-bass. xvii, 199. 48 oscar lewis. "the culture of poverty." society 35, no. 2 (1998): 7-9. 49 ruby .k. payne, a framework for understanding poverty. 2001, aha! process edition: new rev. ed.: highlands, tex. 50 gloria ladson-billings, the dreamkeepers: successful teachers of african american children. 1994: san francisco: jossey-bass publishers, edition: 1st ed. p. xvi, 187. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     193 willing to change their minds to accommodate new information over time. from the above analyses, i now recognize a place where our work together might focus and how i could change my planning for this course, with the help of this added reflection on regional differences, to help students develop more justice-oriented civic pedagogies. so how does my pedagogy, in general, assist in my teaching to pre-service teachers’ common beliefs that, if unquestioned, may negatively influence their work with diverse students? this classroom model allows for the development of democratic dispositions appropriate for reflective practice and intercultural communication; the most important of which is the disposition to uncover and reexamine beliefs and hidden biases. this allows students a means for getting to know themselves, for getting to know their own positions, and for changing the positions that are inconsistent with their ideal teacher selves. the dialogic classroom provides a relatively safe space for the uncovering of hidden biases and unexamined beliefs that are uncomfortable, embarrassing or naive. this is particularly suited for discussions of (intellectually, emotionally and psychologically) challenging course content such as white privilege, economic injustice and heterosexism. the iterative nature of a semester long dialogic project allows for gradual deepening of awareness and meaning. finally, the sharing of pedagogical power in a democratic classroom as students cross boundaries from student to teacher and back again allows for the development of a sense of personal empowerment and responsibility for action and allows a gradual shift from passive receptivity to active engagement. bibliography aer0. 2009. list of early childhood, primary, & secondary democratic schools. [cited 2009 december 31]; available from: http://www.educationrevolution.org/lisofdemscho.html. apple, m.w., and j.a. beane, eds.1995. democratic schools. alexandria, va: association for supervision and curriculum development. arnett, r. 1992. dialogic education: conversation about ideas and between persons. carbondale, il: southern illinois university press. berliner, d.c. 2009. poverty and potential: out-of-school factors and school success. [cited december, 2009]; available from: http://epicpolicy.org/publication/poverty-andpotential. beyer, l.e. 1996. "introduction: the meanings of critical teacher preparation." in creating democratic classrooms: the struggle to integrate theory and practice, edited by landon e. beyer. new york: teachers college press. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     194 boler, m. 2004. all speech is not free: the ethics of "affirmative action pedagogy", in democratic dialogue in education: troubling speech. disturbing silence, m. boler, editor. peter lang: new york. p. 3-14. carter, samuel casey. 2000. no excuses: lessons from 21 high-performing, high-poverty schools. washington, dc: the heritage foundation. coffey, a. and p. atkinson. 1996. making sense of qualitative data. thousand oaks, ca: sage. cunat, m. 1996. vision, vitality and values: advocating the democratic classroom, in creating democratic classrooms: the struggle to integrate theory and practice, l.e. beyer, editor. teachers college press: new york. p. 127-149. dewey, j. 1966/1916. democracy and education: an introduction to the philosophy of education. new york: macmillan. emerson, r.m., r.i. fretz and l.l. shaw. 1995. writing ethnographic field notes. chicago: university of chicago press. feito, j. 2007. "allowing not-knowing in a dialogic discussion." international journal for the scholarship of teaching and learning, 1; no.1. accessed january, 2010 at: http://academics.georgiasouthern.edu/ijsotl/v1n1/feito/ij_feito.htm fulwiler, t. 1987. teaching with writing. portsmouth: boynton/cook. garman, n. 2007. on becoming a dialogic classroom: walking the path of social justice and democracy. university of pittsburgh. garman, n. 1989. the closed and open contract: two irreconcilable structures in the curriculum. wcci forum: journal of the world council for curriculum and instruction, 4(2): p. 176-82. giroux, h. 2005. schooling and the struggle for public life: democracy's promise and education's challenge. updated edition ed. boulder, co: paradigm publishers. guilar, j. 2006. "intersubjectivity and dialogic instruction." in radical pedagogy. gutmann, a. 1987. democratic education. princeton. nj: princeton university press. hogg, m., et al. 2009. in using groups in the classroom: a professional development workshop. sponsored by the center for instructional technology and research: western illinois university-quad cities. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     195 hyde, a. 2007. self-constitution as resistance to normalization: agency and resistance in the era of accountability. unpublished dissertation, university of pittsburgh, pittsburgh, pa. hyde, a. 2009. the democratic-dialogic classroom as pedagogy. western illinois university. hyde, a. 2005. images of "the democratic classroom" in the united states, american educational studies association annual conference. charlottesville, va. jefferson, t. and h.a. washington. 1853. the writings of thomas jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private: published by the order of the joint committee of congress on the library, from the original manuscripts, deposited in the department of state. washington, d.c.: taylor & maury. 9 v. ladson-billings, g. 1994. the dreamkeepers: successful teachers of african american children. san francisco: jossey-bass publishers, edition: 1st ed. p. xvi, 187. lewis, o. 1998. "the culture of poverty." society 35, no. 2: 7-9. lickona, t., schaps, e., lewis, c.2003. cep's 11 principles for effective character education. the character education partnership: washington, dc. logsdon, m. b. 2000. a pedagogy of authority: speculative essays by an english teacher. mayo, p. 2004. liberating praxis: paulo freire's legacy for radical education and politics. edited by henry a. giroux, critical studies in education and culture. westport, ct: praeger. mcginn, n. f. 1996. "education, democratization and globalization: a challenge for comparative education." comparative education review 40, no. 4: 341-57. meier, d. 2002. in schools we trust. boston: beacon press. minnici, a. 2008. reflexive thinking in pedagogy. saarbrücken, germany: vdm verlag. moon, j. a. 2004. a handbook of reflective and experiential learning: theory and practice. new york: routledgefalmer. ncss. 2005. the civic mission of schools. social education, 69(7): p. 414 (2). in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     196 noddings, nel. 1992. the challenge to care in schools: an alternative approach to education. new york: teachers college press. oed. oxford english dictionary. 1989 [cited 1989; 2nd]: available from: http://digital.library.pitt.edu/oed/. o'sullivan, e. 2001. transformative learning: educational vision for the 21st century. toronto: university of toronto press. palmer, p. j. 1998. the courage to teach: exploring the inner landscape of a teacher's life. 1st ed. ed. san francisco, calif.: jossey-bass. parker, w. 2006. public discourse in schools: purposes, problems, possibilities. educational researcher. 35(8): p. 11-18. payne, r.k. 2001. a framework for understanding poverty. aha! process edition: new rev. ed.: highlands, tex. rothstein, r. 2009. equalizing opportunity: dramatic differences in children’s home life and health mean that schools can’t do it alone. american educator. 33(2): p. 4-7; 45-46. salamone, r. c. 2000. "education for democratic citizenship." education week mar 22, 2000: 48-52. schubert, w. 1991. philosophical inquiry: the speculative essay, in forms of curriculum inquiry, e.c. short, editor. state university of new york press: albany, n.y. p. 61-76. sergiovanni, t.j. 1994. building community in schools. san francisco: jossey-bass. sirotnik, k.a. 2004. holding accountability accountable: what ought to matter in public education. series on school reform. new york; london: teachers college press. ix, 182. slattery, p., and d. rapp. 2003. ethics and the foundations of education: teaching convictions in a postmodern world. boston: allyn & bacon. spring, j. 2005. american education. 12th ed. new york: mcgraw-hill. tozer, s.e., g.b. senese, and p.c. violas. 2006. school and society: historical and contemporary perspectives. 5th ed. boston: mcgraw-hill. xiii, 545. urban, w.j. and j.l. wagoner. 2004. american education: a history. 3rd ed. ed. boston: mcgraw-hill. xxi, 393, i-15. in factis pax volume 5 number 1 (2011): 179-197 http://www.infactispax.org/journal/     197 valencia, richard r., angela valenzuela, kris sloan, and douglas e. foley. 2001. "let’s treat the cause, not the symptoms: equity and accountability in texas revisited." phi delta kappan 83, no. 4: 318-26. weimer, m. 2002. learner-centered teaching: five key changes to practice. hoboken, nj: jossey-bass. westheimer, j. and j. kahne. 2004. what kind of citizen? the politics of educating for democracy. american educational research journal, 41(2): p. 237-269. wood, g.w. 1992. schools that work. new york: dutton. thank you to katherine c. nelson for assistance with manuscript preparation. in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 34-36 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 34 volume 19 number 1 (2025): 34-36 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 book review anderson, e. (2023). hijacked: how neoliberalism turned the work ethic against workers and how workers can take it back. cambridge university press. cambridge, uk. doi: 10.1017/9781009275422, us$ $29.95, uk £25.00, can$ $33.95 chitranjan greer-travis john dewey professor of philosophy and women’s studies at the university of michigan, elizabeth anderson, has written a delightful book. she offers a philosophy of work ethic. following up on an earlier book, private government: how employers rule our lives (and why we don’t talk about it) (2017), anderson offers a history and exploration of the erosion of workers' rights and the rise of the protestant work ethic. much of the work was written during the pandemic (2020-2021) when workers were required to place themselves in harm's way if they were designated as “essential” workers. anderson claims that there was a split in the idea of the work ethic in the eighteenth century between what she calls the progressive and conservative forms of the work ethic. the progressive form of the work ethic is more emancipatory, while the conservative form ultimately vilifies people experiencing poverty and praises the gains in wealth made by the more opulent. upon delving into the book, i was struck by the sheer depth and rigor of anderson's research. she meticulously examines how puritan ethics, utilitarianism, and neoliberalism have all contributed to the exploitation of workers in favor of the super wealthy, establishing the book's credibility, timeliness, and authority. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 34-36 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 35 in the preface, anderson notes: …i aim to criticize the work ethic, for what it has become: an ideological rationalization for the stigmatization and deprivation of the poor, the precarity of the working classes, and the dominion of capital interests over all other interests of humanity, including the future habitability of the planet. (anderson, 2023, xvii) in chapter four, "the ideology of the conservative work ethic," anderson discusses how the conservative work ethic was systematically reformed through the workhouses. the workhouse test act of 1723 in england and wales is referenced. the valorization of the rich over the poor was a product of such reforms, as anderson notes: by abolishing outdoor relief and offering relief only to the destitute, the poor law commissioners’ reforms made the working poor materially worse off. but it is claimed to raise them above the destitute by casting disgrace on the latter. in reality, the reforms stigmatized all the poor through their virtual criminalization of poverty. this reinforced the presumption of the conservative work ethic that one’s level of virtue could be inferred from one’s wealth. (anderson, 2023, pp. 104-5) this model of classism and stigmatization of the working poor also reinforces social hierarchies. throughout the book, anderson discusses the role that positional esteem plays in shaping the conservative work ethic. the smoking gun for anderson is neoliberalism, as well as jeremy bentham’s views on the panopticon and other poor relief acts, which erode work more than they fuel the economy. for anderson, neoliberalism is not only degrading work. as i argued in chapter 9, it is also degrading the autonomy and capabilities of people in its design of welfare policies, its reliance on carceral institutions as a means of addressing poverty, indebtedness, addiction, homelessness, mental illness, and other social problems, its dismantling of democratic state capacity through outsourcing, and its support for oppressive, negative value-added business models. (anderson, 2023, p. 288) https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 34-36 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 36 in contrast to the current model of work ethic, anderson advocates for a more global society founded on equality, the development of capabilities through educational opportunities, and meaningful work. anderson’s insightful critique of the conservative work ethic does what she set out to do. she unpacks the damaging effects of the hijacking of the protestant work ethic and the subsequent poor law reforms that followed on the working class. it is essential to understand the historical roots of our current state of democratic backsliding and the erosion of human rights. demonizing poverty and equating virtue with pecuniary wealth, these ideologies not only entrench social hierarchies but also strip people of their dignity and humanity. it is very clear, from my reading, that anderson’s vision for a more just society demands a radical rethinking of our work ethic. perhaps it's time to abandon the hijacked work ethic. we should champion the development of human capabilities and meaningful employment for all who seek it; after all, it is a human right. references anderson, e. (2023). hijacked: how neoliberalism turned the work ethic against workers and how workers can take it back. cambridge university press. cambridge, uk. doi: 10.1017/9781009275422 ______ (2017). private government: how employers rule our lives (and why we don’t talk about it). princeton university press. oxford, uk. isbn: 978-0691176512 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 244-255 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 244 volume 19 number 1 (2025): 244-255 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 interdependence, interconnectedness, and intersectionality: the ecology of positive peace randall amster, georgetown university in the annals of peace studies, the concept of positive peace generally is taken as the presence of justice in a particular community, society, or culture. this focus does not avoid the reality of navigating crises and conflicts, but rather calls upon us to think and engage proactively, spending as much time building a better world as confronting the one we have—and linking those pursuits in a non-superficial manner. an important component of this work resides in the realm of ecological thought and action, oftentimes grounded in values of interconnection and interdependence that hold promise as a means to address gathering crises in a world increasingly marked by patterns of displacement, divisiveness, and degradation. indeed, one of the foundational links between social and environmental engagement is an overarching sense of interconnectedness, from the expansive justice invocations of dr. king’s “garment of destiny” and his observation that “all life is interrelated” to john muir waxing about “a thousand invisible chords” that bind us to everything in the universe. we are intertwined, socially and ecologically. the implications of science, philosophy, spirituality, and lived experience alike are clear on this point: reality is deeply relational, and we are enmeshed in webs of interconnection from the micro to the macro scales in demonstrable ways. yet despite this, there remains a profound reluctance to recognize that there is no “other” in a political sense, no “waste” in an ecological sense, and no “victory” in a military sense. the bifurcation of the world into a zero-sum contest is as much a fiction as is the idea that climate change and environmental destabilization only https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 244-255 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 245 affect people in some faraway place. recognizing and remediating this is a central tenet of intersectionality, which understands inequalities and entrenched hierarchies not as immutable characteristics of existence but as system-wide factors reflected within foundational values and structures. from its earliest invocations (as developed by kimberlé crenshaw and later expanded upon by others), intersectionality has been applied as a tool for recognizing the relational nature of marginalization to structures and norms in a given society; in this formulation, core issues and identities cannot be viewed in the abstract but rather as tangible moments that reveal the limits of mainstream legal conceptions of justice to register and remediate complex claims of unequal treatment. this commentary paper brings this emergent lens to bear on socioecological issues from food to climate change, arguing that a systemic approach is necessary for human survival. in this light, it is important to recognize that systems are made up of people (at least for the time being as the use of algorithmic and ai-infused models continue to proliferate). it is precisely the humanness of sociopolitical systems that render them both problematic and filled with potential for change. in particular, the environmental realm—often viewed as a space of “low politics” beneath the veneer of power dynamics and political campaigns—has the potential to serve as a unifying set of issues across a wide swath of geographies and societal dimensions. with acute interventions of fires, floods, storms, and other climate-related incidents beginning to show an agnosticism about where (and who) they strike, there is a nascent awareness of our mutual reliance upon environmental factors including the air we breathe, the water we drink, the land we inhabit and grow food upon, a stable set of climate and weather conditions, and more. such an emerging consciousness, however, even viewed optimistically, is not a panacea—and more importantly, cannot be used to obscure pivotal aspects of difference, inequality, and injustice. what is intended with this analysis is not to set about demonstrating or proving that interdependence, interconnectedness, and intersectionality are important perspectives nor that they are empirically valid—instead taking these suppositions as a given and going further to unpack their fuller implications as critical factors for peace and our continued existence. as dr. king famously said, “we must learn to live together … or perish as fools.” this sentiment has as much salience when confronting societal issues of conflict and polarization as it does when it comes to how we address common threats of climate change and environmental destabilization; in its fullest sense, we thus can take such notions as pillars of justice and environmentalism alike. this conjoined realm, termed here as the “ecology of peace,” requires us to zoom out for a moment to consider the shared https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 244-255 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 246 sense of space (i.e., our home planet earth) and time (i.e., intergenerational responsibilities) that hold promise as unifying forces. unfortunately, and not subtly most of the time, a rosy notion of shared struggle ushering in peace and sustainability has been dashed by machiavellian politics and short-sighted thinking. but we can no longer wait. so let me wind down this brief introduction by setting forth how i hope to illustrate these themes here, and to ask your indulgence for a moment as you suspend your disbelief just long enough to ask the question: what if we got it right? granted, this feels far removed from current events, but that is always the case and not the point of this exercise. the operative premise here, given the stakes involved and the juncture in which we find ourselves, is that there is no getting it wrong any longer if we are to have a future in and on this world; whatever version of kicking the problems down the road may have existed previously, we are the ones and this is the time in which they land. to be clear about this, i am not suggesting that our era is special or that others in history haven’t confronted grave issues, and i am definitely not looking to add to any looming sense of apocalyptic overtones that are so prevalent in media narratives (pierre-louis, 2020). rather, the point is to assert the gravity of the moment as an inflection point in which we have been gifted with an opportunity to bend the “arc of justice” toward its fulfillment. in this work, we are called upon to be engaged actors and not spectators, to ask not merely when but how. along the way i will share some examples of people and communities doing this work in ways that combine theory and practice, action and vision, reaction and proactivity, and a working synthesis of social and environmental engagement. these examples range from community farms and gardens to deeply rooted commons-based resource systems, spanning urban and rural spaces. the aim is not to be comprehensive here but instead illustrative, inviting readers to add their own examples and, ultimately, to help manifest the conditions of a new emergent paradigm that is rooted in particular places and moments while resonating across spatial and temporal scales. the intent is to center “unity in diversity” and common purpose in our pedagogies and practices, seeking to sow and germinate seeds of possibility while there is still time to do so. * * * as you have no doubt already surmised, this isn’t the usual tract on the virtues of interconnection and how we can heal ourselves through deeper experiences in https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 244-255 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 247 nature. to be sure, these and other such calls are critically important and they will factor into this work. however, as oft-invoked concepts in the annals of environmentalism, they risk becoming platitudes and clichés that drain their power as paradigm-shifting ideas. this work seeks to avoid this trap by peering into the cutting-edges of ecological practices in the 21st century, inquiring as to how we can reconnect ourselves—notwithstanding the myriad digital tethers that we carry forth—in non-consumptive and non-commercial ways with the larger world, of which we are (and always will be) a part. as noted there is an urgency to this work, on the operative premise that our collective detachment from the rhythms of the natural world is inextricably linked to the pervasive rifts and escalating polarization that seem to be defining our societies, both within and among them across an array of grave fault lines around issues of race, class, gender, geography, power, privilege, and more. as bell hooks (2009. p. 26) has opined: “estrangement from our natural environment is the cultural contest wherein violence against the earth is accepted and normalized,” and where the roots of human-upon-human violence (including conflict and injustice) oftentimes emanate. getting past these points of fragmentation, even those that degenerate into flagrant conflict and open forms of violence, is a pillar of the “ecology of positive peace” concept as it arises from subfields such as environmental peacebuilding. indeed, it was my early discovery of precursor works in this area that helped set in motion the course of my own journey from peace studies to environment & sustainability—and likewise that reinforces my belief that these spheres are necessarily conjoined. some of the most powerful tenets of human-human peacemaking and peacebuilding are in fact bound up with human-environment issues over essential resources, health and wellbeing, climate, and more. among the driving forces of this line of theory and practice is that the environment has a unique capacity to link us together in our mutual reliance upon its bounty. reflecting this inherent synergy, my work in the area of peace ecology concluded that: “our demand is not for a return to a pristine past, real or imagined, or for a perfected utopia here and now. we seek the dismantling of unhealthy, oppressive, destructive technologies in favor of new tools that foster autonomy and exist at the appropriate scale. we seek a world premised on the mutuality of ‘human dignity and nature’s wholeness’, recognizing that we cannot attain one without the other” (amster, 2014, p. 189, citation omitted). how we get from here to there is, of course, the pressing question—one that is both historical and forward-looking all at once. if we consider the past, we may run up against a divergent set of conclusions about humankind’s capacity to live in https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 244-255 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 248 peace with one another and the rest of the world. on one hand, it is often surmised that pre-industrial societies lived in a closer relationship to their environments by necessity and propensity alike; on the other hand, whatever transpired then (even if we view it through the lens of romanticism and nostalgia) has brought us to the point where we are confronting the implications of what vandana shiva (2010) described as “a war against the earth [that] begins in the mind” but plays out through the development of “violent tools” that act in and upon the world and each other. subsequent studies of “planetary boundaries” have demonstrated the consequences of these accumulated practices, steadily pushing the planet toward a terra incognita scenario where the world of tomorrow will scarcely resemble the one that has supported human existence for millennia (rockström et al. 2023). it is through this lens that i view rhetorical moves to “declare war on climate change” (e.g., mckibben 2016) with some trepidation. of course, the exigency is clear and the need to mobilize swiftly is paramount, but this isn’t a typical war waged against some perceived ‘other’ who must be defeated (illogical as that zerosum thinking is); rather, it is a war against ourselves and our way of life. waging this war would require us to rethink how we produce energy, the ways we transport ourselves and the goods we consume, how we shelter ourselves, the foods we eat (and often waste), our mediums of exchange and communication, the technologies we use, and much more. these myriad hardware changes are necessary but not sufficient; this ostensible war would also require that we address the software of stratification, endemic hierarchies, structural injustices, differential power relations, inequitably distributed impacts and opportunities, patterns of discrimination and othering, and the ways in which we view ourselves as separate from each other—and nature. if one wants to rely upon a war motif, then we should let people know what they are signing up for and what the implications will be. this isn’t merely another moonshot of technical wizardry or the conversion of factories to a war footing: we are going to have to revise the fabric of our lives all the way through to the roots, including not only the materiality of our existence but the deeper contexts of values and worldviews. * * * undertaking such a “root cause” effort (or perhaps “system reboot,” if that resonates) moves us beyond a reactive politics in which the terms of engagement are set by whomever ostensibly is driving the agenda at any particular moment. granted, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t react to unjust or draconian policies— change often requires contestation and even obstruction, after all—but that we https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 244-255 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 249 shouldn’t have our efforts truncated or exhausted by reactivism. if an ecological positive peace calls us to inquire as to the root causes of human-human and humanenvironment conflict as conjoined problematics, simply asserting a preference to stop or end such behaviors will likely be insufficient without (a) understanding what drives them and from where they arise and (b) positing another way to redirect those underlying drivers toward more beneficial pursuits. this type of strategy was suggested over a century ago by william james in his famous essay on “the moral equivalent of war” (1911), in which it was proffered that the spirit to serve could be channeled away from militaristic venues toward more innocuously prosocial (e.g, good-natured sporting contests) and even nascent environmental or conservationist efforts. even with the same caveats noted above about using “war” motivations, this nod to redirection is important to note, and indeed a similar sentiment appears in peace ecology under the framework of “repurposing” the infrastructure, resources, capital (human and otherwise), and energies that warfare entails. these invocations feel like one potential way to move beyond a politics of despair or disempowerment by meeting the world as we find it but not being limited to that state of being; to redirect or repurpose suggests that we are seeking to alter the trajectory of current events rather than trying to battle them head-on. while the latter may (and perhaps likely will, at some point) be necessary when it comes to gross injustices and existential impingements, it is still incumbent upon change agents to be able to answer the question: if not this, then what? in other words, we need to promulgate and provide another direction and purpose toward which human activities might be encouraged. this penchant for articulating a “constructive program,” as gandhi famously called it, taps into both pragmatic and visionary sensibilities, and is as much about unleashing imaginations as it is about innovation. if some need is being met in unhealthy or unjust ways by unscrupulous actors, then we need to advance scrupulous ways for that need to be either reconsidered (do you really need this?) or met through healthier, more humane means. where can we locate examples of this type of proactive engagement for peace and sustainability? think of a community garden being built and managed by neighbors in a “food desert” or an environmental justice campaign confronting a health hazard by deploying “citizen science” and public advocacy on its own behalf in the absence of official engagement. rather than merely demanding that the problems be fixed by others, such efforts point out the vacuum of inequity and inaction while counterposing another model in its place. these sorts of do-ityourself initiatives serve to provide tangible benefits while uplifting voices and https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 244-255 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 250 perspectives often excluded from the formal decision-making bodies established within a myriad of communities. drawing upon lessons from environmental justice, such examples of deeply rooted socioecological praxis can help transform unjust arrangements of power—while being cognizant of the twin suppositions that those who have suffered the most from disparate environmental burdens should not bear primary responsibility for remediating those crises and that we should engage these issues “without resorting to either victimization or valorization by cultivating pathways toward collaborative ecological engagement, emphasizing policy frameworks and lived experiences equally in seeking tenable and durable solutions” (amster & kato 2018, p. 7). such stances are grounded in tenets of interdependence and an intersectional analysis of power and autonomy. in developing a framework for “critical environmental justice,” david pellow (2017) identifies a set of “pillars” for expanding the field of inquiry that include the need to analyze issues expansively and complexly “as intersecting axes of domination and control” in a world where “inequalities are mutually reinforcing” (p. 19). pellow further reflects on the need to go beyond “state power” as the primary unit of analysis for redressing social and ecological harms, instead seeking ways to ground struggles for environmental justice in communities as establishing mechanisms to “deepen direct democracy” by creating new spaces for autonomous activities (pp. 24-25). finally, building upon the insight that “we are all linked in webs of interdependence,” pellow insists upon an expansive “socioecological indispensability” that balances sovereignty and solidarity by promoting equitable human societies that act in equitable and sustainable ways with their environments. pellow’s thoughtful interventions and analyses call upon academic treatments to contemplate advocacy and engaged activism to galvanize momentum for the task of challenging entrenched systems and cultivating viable alternatives. * * * even in academic spaces noted for their inherent interdisciplinarity there can be a tendency to maintain a dichotomization of theory and practice as well as a methodological divide that renders true synthesis elusive and even sometimes disdained. as someone who has never quite had a disciplinary home in academia, i have had the relative luxury of drawing upon a wide range of inputs and engaging in an array of outputs from community engagement to popular publications. this state of being also has the drawback of falling between the cracks of established units and at times feeling as if one belongs everywhere yet nowhere at all. in recent https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 244-255 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 251 years, however, as the full dimension of complexity around existential issues such as climate change and other “wicked” problems has moved to the fore, a recognition of the need to think and act more intersectionally has taken hold. and when issues of conflict, violence, polarization, and inequality are factored into the understanding of climate and environmental crises, the necessity of broad-spectrum engagement is even more pronounced. still, none of this is to suggest that discipline-based domain knowledge is moot; to the contrary, engaging complex issues requires robust expression of a multitude of disciplines in order to grasp causes and iterate alternatives. it is in this vein that we encounter powerful examples of peacebuilding and sustainability as mutually reinforcing, interdependent frameworks in which work done in one sphere amplifies the other. if we are conscious of these synergies, peace work becomes ecological and environmental work is conflict transforming as well. indeed, i have tried to make the case here that without deliberately cultivating this interconnection, the likelihood of attaining either peace or sustainability drops precipitously, and perhaps becomes altogether unfeasible. simply put, we don’t get peace and justice without ecological balance—and vice-versa. this has been a guiding premise of my work, one that has found resonance in many fine exemplars of the power of this perspective. for instance, the community ecology institute (cei) in columbia, maryland, indicates this nexus in its name, but even more so in its principles and practices. the cei is an umbrella organization for a host of projects and initiatives, including a maker hub and a garden consulting operation plus myriad educational and internship opportunities, as well as its core effort called freetown farm (named for the historically significant neighborhood in which it is located). as the cei website describes, the mission is “to cultivate communities where people and nature thrive together.” working at the intersection of “environment, education, equity and health,” the cei helps to cultivate community to address “the two most pressing environmental issues [of] climate change and the growing divide between people and nature” and to help foster a deep “sense of hope and purpose for the future” by literally (and figuratively) planting seeds. in a different context and geography, but with similar impulses, consider the acequia system, a thriving example of environmentally wise self-governance, merging influences from spain and north africa with native american and mexican systems of water conservation and sharing. acequias are communal ditches located primarily in the arid southwestern united states that carry water (from snowmelt) from streams to fields (see amster 2014). acequia users share responsibility for maintaining the ditches, and a rotating elected mayordomo https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 244-255 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 252 facilitates the process. land parcels run alongside the acequias, providing equitable access to water through cooperative and carefully managed systems of resource allocation and collaborative governance designed to maintain community cohesion and environmental sustainability. indeed, the delicate balance of factors needed to ensure the flow of water (which are increasingly impinged upon by climate change and forces of privatization and commodification) mirror the robust balance of sociopolitical factors that promote power sharing, conflict transformation, and open dialogue among community members. the acequia system, which bears resemblance to water sharing systems worldwide, exemplifies the dual senses of human and environmental interdependence. * * * examples such as these highlight the potential of a positive peace perspective to help address complex, interlocking, and existential crises that are emerging in realtime. the lessons are not subtle and the reality of living in an interconnected world (despite misguided trends toward ultra-nationalism and abject self-interest among some sectors) is indisputable in an era of globalization and with due regard for the fact that writ large the environment knows no borders (amster 2014). from great peace teachers to many faith traditions it is offered that we are enmeshed in networks of reciprocity and mutuality on moral and pragmatic levels alike. these teachings may be widely construed, yet our societal systems generally do not reflect these lessons and oftentimes openly flout baseline principles of connectedness. disparities of power and privilege yield widely differential outcomes notwithstanding the intertwined nature of reality and a common reliance upon natural systems; a dynamic intersectional perspective seeks to address this by focusing on “how various factors of identity formation and attribution work together to yield differential frames of experience in a manner that exceeds the sum of its parts” (amster & kato 2018, p. 14). a positive peace (and justice) lens on intersectional ecologies thus can help illuminate the nexus of widespread social and environmental crises as they manifest in particular locales, as indicated for example by marisa ensor (2023) through the observation that “the worsening climate crisis and pronounced gender inequality are inextricably intertwined” in her recent article on how “intersectional gender equity must inform efforts to enhance climate security.” positive peace provides a robust framework that integrates theories and actions, connects issues and identities, balances structure with agency, unpacks positionality and power dynamics, prioritizes local autonomy in the context of global networks, centers https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 244-255 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 253 histories and memories, advocates for an expansive sense of mutualism and practices of reciprocity, and highlights the essential need for people to have voice in effecting meaningful transformation. this is not an ironclad blueprint but rather a pragmatic working vision that weaves together human societies and natural systems while reintegrating justice as a moral force in cultivating peace and sustainability at all levels. of course, the utopian nature of such notions is clear, yet their salience also is paramount in this era. * * * i want to close this brief excursion with a thought experiment, which befits the tenor of this piece overall. in a course i have developed and taught over the past few years (called ecotopian visions) one exercise asks us to imagine that we could “pull one thread” in society and “rewrite the source code” for it, extrapolating to what might ensue from the ripples just one alternate idea could generate. for instance, if roads (especially in urban centers) had been built for bicycles rather than cars at the outset, the scaling of peoples’ lives might be different beyond just using a variant primary mode of transportation; likewise, if standard housing design specifications were framed around passive and active solar, water catchment and recirculation, and other relatively low-tech interventions, not only energy use (including climate impacts) would change but also power relations and economic arrangements for households. this sort of “fork in the road” exercise indicates the expansive impacts that even one relatively small alteration in basic living might yield, and is about both the hardware (policies and pragmatics) as much as the software (values and new narratives) of our lives, demonstrating a range of synergies and connections. i have utilized this prompt to positive effect in classes at the main university campus, in courses taught inside prison facilities, and in community settings during workshops and organizing events. in each case, we come upon a sense that the gap from where we find ourselves—with intersecting crises mounting and a narrow window of time in which to act—to where we hope to go isn’t as wide as it sometimes can seem. this isn’t wishful thinking, though, instead serving as a “design sprint” exercise as well as a driver of more empowered engagement. when we think complexly and act purposefully, systemic change becomes fathomable if not inevitable. of course, no one expects the journey from here to there to be easy, but starting with even a single step can begin a process and gather momentum toward its eventual attainment. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 244-255 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 254 and this, i believe, is the essence of a positive peace perspective—namely to generate the conditions in which people can work within the flow of their societies and environments to continue the process of improvement and fulfillment, working toward beneficial aims in common purpose rather than mainly reacting to negative influences and experiencing greater isolation and fractiousness along the way. we can build structures and spaces to learn as we go, to manifest prosocial and mutualistic behaviors, to reimagine the world and redesign our place in it. not only can we do this, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that we must do this if we are to turn crises into possibilities for peace, justice, and a sustainable future. with due regard for the tolerance limits of our planet’s systems and the sense of our window of time closing fast, it nevertheless remains the case that we have everything we need for this journey of our lifetimes. all that is left is to remember that we are deeply connected, and that our power comes from that. references amster, randall. 2014. peace ecology. new york: routledge. amster, randall, and yuki kato. 2018. “engaging narratives: environmental essentialism and intersectional justice,” undergraduate journal of global citizenship 2 (3). https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/jogc/vol2/iss3/5. community ecology institute. n.d. “who we are.” https://www.communityecologyinstitute.org. ensor, marisa. 2023. “intersectional gender equity must inform efforts to enhance climate security in africa,” iss african futures (may 16). https://futures.issafrica.org/blog/2023/intersectional-gender-equity-mustinform-efforts-to-enhance-climate-security-in-africa.html. hooks, bell. 2009. belonging: a culture of place. new york: routledge. james, william. 1911. “the moral equivalent of war,” memories and studies (lecture 11). https://brocku.ca/meadproject/james/james_1911_11.html. mckibben, bill. 2016. “a world at war,” the new republic (august 15). https://newrepublic.com/article/135684/declare-war-climate-changemobilize-wwii. pellow, david. 2017. what is critical environmental justice? wiley: hoboken, nj. pierre-louis, kendra. 2020. “wakanda doesn’t have suburbs,” time (september 21). https://time.com/5889324/movies-climate-change. rockström, johan, et al. 2023. “safe and just earth system boundaries,” nature (may 31), https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06083-8. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 244-255 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 255 shiva, vandana. 2010. “time to end the war against the earth,” the age (november 4), https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/time-to-endwar-against-the-earth-20101103-17dxt.html. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 49-58 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 49 volume 18 number 2 (2024): 49-58 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 interview with dr. betty reardon armene modi the following interview with dr. betty reardon was conducted shortly after the conclusion of the international institute of peace education (iipe) held in pune, india, in july 2000. dr. reardon’s message, seems as relevant today as it was when recorded a quarter century ago. the interviewer, armene modi, was so inspired by dr. reardon’s course on peace education at teachers college, columbia university, and by several iipes she attended, that she decided to transform her teaching style to include issues of peace and human rights in her english language courses. with dr. reardon’s encouragement and guidance, armene subsequently set up ashta no kai, a non-profit organization to educate and empower rural women and girls in ten villages near pune in 1998, resulting in the positive transformation of thousands of lives. she would like to dedicate this interview to the memory of dr. reardon, an outstanding peace educator, whom she was fortunate to have as a friend, mentor, and guide through many decades. editor’s note: dr. betty a. reardon (1929-2023) was a pioneering and worldrenowned leader of peace and human rights education. her groundbreaking work has laid the foundation for the cross-disciplinary field that integrates peace https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 49-58 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 50 education and the quest for international human rights within a gender-conscious, global perspective. in recognition of her internationally acclaimed contributions, achievements and awards as a teacher, activist, researcher, author, and consultant spanning over five decades, she was nominated by the international peace bureau (geneva, switzerland) for the nobel peace prize in 2013. betty reardon (far left in blue plaid) and iipe 2000 host/organizer armene modi (in blue sari) visit with village women served by ashta no-kai, the non-profit armene founded founded to promote the education and empowerment of rural women and girls. https://www.peace-ed-campaign.org/9-gifts-peace-education-gives-year-round-and-anote-of-thanks-from-betty-reardon/ https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.peace-ed-campaign.org/9-gifts-peace-education-gives-year-round-and-a-note-of-thanks-from-betty-reardon/ https://www.peace-ed-campaign.org/9-gifts-peace-education-gives-year-round-and-a-note-of-thanks-from-betty-reardon/ in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 49-58 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 51 armene: what is peace education? how would you define it? dr. reardon: i would define peace education as the intentional learning towards a society in which problems are solved without violence, and people can live with the expectation that their dignity will be respected. peace education is an essential area of education because there has to be a learning of what human dignity is and how it can be realized. it is something that must be much more intentional than it has been in the past. armene: what should be the aims of peace education? dr. reardon: the aims of peace education should be to give people a set of values, a given group of capacities, and a vision of possibilities. the values are essentially the values of justice, non-violence, and human dignity; the capacities are the capacities for conflict resolution, for visualizing alternative possibilities to the present and working towards them; towards collaboration with those who are very different; for tolerance of and understanding of other cultures – many things that are now the aims of education. but these are not aims that are well synthesized and integrated into a system that we could call peace education. so, i think that one of the areas to focus on in peace education is pulling together various fields and educational endeavors that would be related to peace but haven’t yet been conceptualized in a general system of peace education. armene: so, do you feel that peace education should be a required course in school curriculums? dr. reardon: i’m not an advocate of separate courses in peace education, except in so far as that there are courses that focus on particular problem areas. i think there should be courses on human rights, alternative security systems, and courses on conflict resolution. but the development of the values and the capacities in a kind of vision that i am referring to as a purpose of peace education cannot be achieved within a course. i think peace education should be the brainwork for all education. all education should be education for peace, which is the kind of social order i was referring to and, also, a kind of development of the person to expect and work for such a social order. armene: do you think this question is now relevant: why should we teach peace education? https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 49-58 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 52 dr. reardon: i think the reason we should teach peace education is that in the act of teaching, in the planning for teaching, in the decision to teach towards a goal, there is a process in which the educator goes through a values analysis and makes an assessment of her or his own capacities in the area to be taught. there are discussions about the curriculum; there are sometimes also interactions between the school and the community. all of these are, it seems to me, processes that are essentials to peace education achieving what i’m talking about when i say i think it should pervade all of education. we have to look again at the purposes of education. to me, the phrase ‘teaching peace education’ means this whole process of becoming conscious about the present state of education, what its inadequacies are to our needs, and how we might overcome those inadequacies to make education a real instrument of peace. armene: so, what kind of authentic education do young people need, given the kind of violence, and the kind of society we have today? dr. reardon: well, i think we need an education which makes them feel valued and able to value, to value others, to value the kinds of conditions that we would say are peace, to hold values strongly enough that they would want to struggle for them. they need an education which would enable them to conduct that struggle. this doesn’t mean that traditional education has not to some degree provided this. i think there are a lot of things in traditional and classic education which must be preserved. but i also think that we need to understand that we are in a rapidly changing society – that, we have gone very quickly through a whole stage of human and social evolution and that we have to begin to take more control of that evolution and guide it to a positive value, not to be pushed along by it. i think our children feel pushed along by the world and what’s happening in it; they feel powerless and unable to control their lives. until we face that sense of impotence, none of the problems are really going to be faced. education must be more focused on these specific problems, as well as the possibilities for overcoming them. i believe it is the only way that we can get what i would call authentic education in the sense of learning that is relevant in the lives of the learners and the society in which they are going to live. armene: can you tell us about some of the activities by various peace educators in different parts of the world? dr. reardon: peace education takes many different forms, and the activities are very different and are directed at learners of all ages and all circumstances. for https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 49-58 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 53 example, in europe, there are many, particularly urban schools in european countries, that have had a great influx of immigrants from cultures other than the dominant culture, and they have had social problems as a consequence, which have resulted in violence. so, they are focusing on how they can educate towards an understanding, not simply of multiculturism, but a kind of inter-culturism that is aware that the cultural differences have, or their interpretation and application, have led to violence. in norway, in the netherlands, and in many schools, they have really added new curriculum so that children could learn about the cultures of people who are coming into their communities and to integrate the immigrants, not by acculturating them, but by introducing them to a new culture while respecting their old, original one. peace education does exist virtually in all parts of the world to some degree, but not really at the level that is necessary. there are a lot of organizations and associations, both national and international, wherein educators are working together to push this form of education along.there are some interesting transnational collaborations in which curriculum is developed for adaptive use, not exactly in the same sense, in a number of different societies, with the notion that if we are going to have a world community there should be some commonalities in our education. armene: can you give us some examples of one of these transnational efforts? dr. reardon: one that i worked on was a ‘project on ecological and cooperative education‘. in short, the abbreviation is peace. it was initiated by americans and russians, while there were some ukrainians, who we called ‘soviets’ when we started. norwegian educators arranged for american and soviet educators to meet and talk about these kinds of issues because they could not have met in the united states or in the soviet union to talk. we looked at the common problems we faced, we explored what we meant by peace education and whether we could say in our societies that we were doing peace education together. then we determined that we had one common problem, that was something that would not cause us political problems and that was the environment. but we were also able to interpret environmental issues to see that there are political dimensions, that there are relationships to the security system and there are human rights issues and so forth. but as long as we didn’t say security education or human rights education, the project went along on its https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 49-58 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 54 own course. it has produced, among other things, what you call twinning schools, common learning units and development of a method of education which we call ecological and cooperative. armene: could you elaborate a bit more on this method of education? dr. reardon: ecological, is what we believe is essential as one of the components of peace education, to learn and help students learn how to think in holistic systems and inter-relations, particularly in living systems, to take our analogies not from constructive systems but from living systems, which have values embedded in them as well, because it is values of life on the earth and so forth. in each of our societies we had been educating more for forms of competition, even if it were that we worked together as a country, we collaborated to compete against the other society. competence at competition was one of the major efforts. we believe that we have to be much more intentional about teaching skills of collaboration and cooperation for the sake of cooperation in the way an ecological system functions together cooperatively to maintain the life of the system. in order to maintain the life of the human species, and the life of the planet, human beings have to be able to function that way, and we have to educate for that. so, these methods, as well as particular kinds of materials have come out of that project. armene: you have been active in the field of peace education for several decades. do you feel that peace education has gone beyond the slogan stage and become a reality at least in a few parts of the world? dr. reardon: i think we need to differentiate between peace education and peace studies. if we look at peace studies as the kind of work that goes on in universities, where there are courses and degree programs, the education that takes place around that substance of peace is a reality. we even have professional associations as well as universities offering these kinds of courses, predominantly in north america as well as in europe and a growing number in other parts of the world. peace education, however, is a reality in various parts of the world but is still not a practiced policy. ministries of education give lip-service to education for peace, but they have yet to prepare their systems to do the kind of education that i was talking about before, because ministries in general don’t want to challenge the fundamental purposes and processes of education. the kind of https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 49-58 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 55 massive effort that is required of training teachers, of reviewing textbooks, of changing the structure of classrooms, and so forth, is far from a reality. armene: why should an educator be concerned with peace education? shouldn’t the field of peace issues and peace work be the responsibility of politicians or citizens or other public figures? dr. reardon: educators should be concerned because citizens, politicians, public figures and people who have great power over the direction of society need to be pushed to change the way they function and to take action for peace. the only way that it is going to happen, is if society demands it. education cannot be separated out from society and blamed for some of these symptomatic problems – neither can politics and citizenship be something that functions after you finish your education. education itself is political. the decisions that happen in the education system come from politicians, so that if people are not educated to what peace is about, what is required for peace, what some of the capacities of peace making are and so forth, they will not be able to demand that of their politicians. once in a while you get an inspired visionary leader who will work for peace because she or he is so committed, but for the most part, politicians are like everybody else. they have a job which they do day by day, and they are going to do that job according to the job description. in a democratic society, citizens are supposed to write the job description. what we have to put into that job description is “work for peace”. without education, politicians cannot do their work, or citizens can’t do their work for peace. armene: now turning to language teaching, what implication does peace education have for language teachers and should peace education be taught only by language teachers? dr. reardon: peace education belongs in every subject, every grade, everywhere people learn. language has a special opportunity because language is the medium through which human beings most inter-relate. a language can help people come together, live together, but also separate. those that teach a language – not only the context of what is taught, but the spirit, the notion of why it is taught, determines, i think, whether that language is going to be for or against peace. language can be learned as a tool to manipulate or understand manipulation, towards dominance, towards control of another country. although all the colonial administrators did not learn the language of the colonized, enough https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 49-58 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 56 of them learned it so that they could give orders, they could understand certain customs and manipulate the colonized people. the colonized learned the language of the colonizer in order to survive in an oppressive situation, but they did not learn to communicate as full human cultures and human beings, one to another. so, when the language teacher takes a stance on why the language is being taught, the language teacher will be able to say – you can get a good job, you will be able to get in this corporation, you could go to the un, but that is not the fundamental reason for learning the language. the fundamental reason for learning the language is to truly understand and appreciate others in as much of their own context as possible. if you fully learn another language, you also learn another way of thinking, and our thinking influences our language. the teaching of whole language, living language, and not just translating sentences is a way in which we can take learners into an experience of a different way of conceptualizing, a different way of seeing the world and the structure of a language tells us a great deal about much in the culture and about the way people who have devised that language think. therein we understand that there are multiple ways to think and that there probably isn’t only one right way. so, people who have various languages, if those languages are learned out of a love of language, a love of learning, it becomes a very empowering tool, but languages still to this day are learned and manipulated as tools for control and oppression. so, it seems to me that the professional stances of language teachers and language associations and so forth, have to begin to look at this and to really confront the issues and the problems. why are schools teaching languages? why do corporations teach languages? to have the teachers particularly be more aware of that, because it seems to me that only by confronting these issues can language, as any other subject, become really a tool of peace. armene: so how can language teachers put the aims of peace education into practice? dr. reardon: i think to begin with the kind of atmosphere that i was just referring to in the classroom – communicating what the purposes of learning a language are, but also the context that is used for teaching language. much of what learners need to know about the world can be presented and learned in language learning, as well as much of the culture of the people who have devised that language. language education has traditionally done this, but gone to the roots of the culture. you learn something ultimately you get to learn the literature of the people which can be very revealing. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 49-58 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 57 in elementary and secondary school, we get lessons on how people from other countries dress and their table manners and things of that kind without looking to the roots of the culture. i think language can be used in that way to promote a deeper understanding. i know there are certain phrases in my own language which are clearly violent and militaristic, and they are part of our everyday speech. when we teach students idioms, for example, we could do so by being much more conscious about the underlying values and assumptions of these idioms as well as other common phrases. i think there are lots of things language teachers can do, and l think many of them have invented approaches to peace education for language. armene: language is basically communication, and communication can be either destructive or constructive. what are some aspects of communication that language teachers need to consider to help students engage in constructive communication? dr. reardon: essentially, what i would emphasize here is the relationship to the other. the language teacher needs to make the climate of the class constructive in ways that i’ve indicated before but also to raise to the level of consciousness about how the way we communicate determines not only individual relationships, but also how it determines an entire system and climate. the interaction between two students in a classroom concerns a lot more than those two students. when language teachers are doing things such as dialogues, they need to be very sensitive to some of the aspects other than the spoken language, as i have talked about before, particularly when they are teaching adolescents to make it possible to confront some of the negative behaviors that exist in those interactions without intimidating the students. even students who are engaged in what the teacher would consider reprehensible behavior sometimes are doing it for reprehensible reasons, but not always. so, the teacher needs a lot of sensitivity to that and needs to sensitize all the students in the classroom to the degree to which they are affected one by the other. bad vibes or whatever between two are going to affect the whole system and then the whole system has some responsibility for the relationship between the two. i think a language class is one of the best possibilities for discussing these types of things, particularly in teaching conversational abilities and not just the diatomic or dialogic, but other dynamics of the classroom. i think in that way, the communication process, when the teacher is conscious of it as a process, can be conditioned by actions and some professional principles to be very, very meaningful to peace. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 49-58 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 58 armene: finally, how can language teachers approach issues of human rights in a language class? dr. reardon: well, i think issues of human rights could be both in the context area and in the climate of the classroom. when you create the climate of your classroom, sometimes it can be done in a totally unspoken way, through the teacher’s behavior and the teacher’s expectations of the behavior of the students, but it also can be made explicit that we conduct this class in this way because it is consistent with human rights. human rights documents exist in all, virtually all languages – principles of those documents can be introduced into the classroom. i think it is very important for students who are learning another language to be exposed to the press of the countries in which those languages are spoken and what some of the issues are. if some of those issues are the issues of human rights, then they could read stories of human rights issues in the original language. there are many opportunities for human rights, community rights and environmental issues, but i want to reemphasize the content of my point about what makes peace education. what makes peace education is it consciously reflects upon the degree to which violence is problematic in the situation under study, and leads students to be capable of imagining, selecting, or acting out alternatives to violence. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 180-191 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 180 volume 19 number 1 (2025): 180-191 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 the relationship between education and the environment: a critical and nonviolent perspective paola rigoni and dino mancarella1 abstract the relationship between education and the environment has undergone various historical phases, as exemplified by practices such as open-air schools and forest schools. these educational approaches emphasize the significance of learning in natural contexts to foster a dialectical relationship between theory and practice, a core characteristic of experiential learning. such practices offer a response to contemporary environmental challenges by proposing a noncompetitive and nonviolent interaction with the environment, integrating the needs of human life with the preservation of ecosystems. however, these perspectives often conflict with current educational systems, which tend to be neutral or subordinate to dominant economic and political dynamics. traditional pedagogy frequently neglects the role of the teacher’s personal experience as an integral component of the educational process, favouring detached and abstract approaches. this paper instead advocates for an engaged pedagogy, wherein the educator’s experience becomes both educational content and a tool for transformation. the nonviolent dimension of educational practice emerges as a process of conscientization, bridging theory and practice, and driven by engagement with what lies outside school buildings and beyond the certainties imposed by an education system often subservient to a neoliberal economy. 1 the text was written in a spirit of collaboration between the authors: paola rigoni wrote and edited sections 1, 2, and 4. dino mancarella wrote and edited section 3. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 180-191 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 181 this economy, by projecting human existence into an artificial and abstract dimension, has contributed to a loss of connection with reality. neoliberalism has promoted consumption as the solution to existential crises, distancing humans from the authentic needs of the natural and animal environment. from this critical perspective, education must reclaim its transformative role, abandoning subordination to the market and reorienting itself toward a practice that fosters critical, nonviolent awareness. such an approach is essential to addressing global challenges through sustainable and reality-based solutions. introduction the relationship between education and nature is often interpreted through a romantic or idealized lens, reducing the experience of the natural world to a mere emotional backdrop or recreational opportunity. while such approaches may stem from sincere affective intentions, they tend to obscure the deep epistemological potential that the relationship with the natural environment offers to educational processes. what is often overlooked is that nature, far from being a neutral background, is the original matrix of knowledge—a dynamic space in which human thought emerged from direct experience. since the dawn of humanity, the observation of natural cycles, the rhythms of the seasons, animal behaviour, and material transformations have constituted the earliest cognitive acts, the first exercises in reflection, hypothesis, and inference. nature, therefore, is not external to the mind, it is its first interlocutor. this direct contact with reality laid the foundation for symbolic thinking, abstraction, logic, and ultimately scientific reasoning. in this light, education in nature should not be viewed as a supplementary or marginal activity, but as a foundational experience for cognitive development. maria montessori clearly recognized the formative power of the natural environment. for her, nature represented a living laboratory in which the child could autonomously engage, observe complex relationships, and develop a method of understanding grounded in sensory experience, order, and repetition. immersed in nature, the child not only explores but constructs their intelligence through a deep relationship with the world around them. a consistent and contemporary perspective is developed in the concept of placebased education (soble, 2004) which emphasizes learning rooted in real and lived places. according to sobel, it is precisely concrete, immersive, and contextualized experience that allows children to develop an authentic https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 180-191 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 182 connection to the world and a sense of ecological responsibility. taken seriously, this statement implies a profound shift in educational paradigms: it calls for reimagining school not as an isolated or abstract space, but as a living extension of the territory, an interface between culture and environment. the contact with the natural world, in this sense, is not merely instrumental (i.e., teaching content through real-life examples), but becomes a form of learning in itself. the child does not simply learn in nature but learns with nature through orientation, care, slow time, the ability to read the signs of the landscape, to interact with living beings, to anticipate consequences, and to reflect on their actions. the environment, therefore, is not a passive backdrop but a co-educator, a living presence that stimulates ecological intelligence, namely, the ability to think in terms of relationships, processes, and interdependencies. this approach also involves a change of scale: learning does not develop from abstract generalizations but from situated, concrete situations in which knowledge is intertwined with daily life, with the real needs of the community, and with the identity of place. through this immersion in reality, children develop a form of complex and reflective thinking, capable of connecting the particular to the universal, a systemic process in which mind and environment are interconnected elements within a larger network of relationships (bateson, 1972). according to this perspective, every act of knowing is situated within an ecological context: to know is to perceive patterns, recognize recurrent structures, and intuit underlying connections. from this standpoint, education becomes a matter of cultivating a systemic awareness, encouraging learners to “think in relationships” rather than in isolated units of knowledge. nature, therefore, is not just a source of content (science, biology, geography), but a model of thought. historical models of open-air education provide powerful empirical evidence for the pedagogical value of nature-based learning. open-air schools, emerging in early 20th-century germany and spreading across europe, were a response to urban health crises and aimed to promote physical and psychological well-being through unstructured interaction with natural environments (maynard & waters, 2007). these schools sought to counteract the effects of industrial urbanism and sedentary classroom routines by integrating fresh air, movement, and sensory engagement into the daily rhythm of learning. similarly, forest schools, inspired by scandinavian traditions, offer entirely outdoor learning environments that emphasize autonomy, creativity, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 180-191 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 183 resilience, and social-emotional development (knight, 2013). these models provide living examples of john dewey’s educational philosophy, particularly his concept of learning by doing, where direct experience becomes the foundation for reflective thinking and intellectual growth (dewey, 1938). dewey’s idea of growth was not confined to the quantitative accumulation of knowledge but understood as the expansion of one’s capacity for meaningful experience. for dewey, growth is not merely an individual advancement in skill or information, but a deepening of the ability to engage with the world in intelligent, responsive, and transformative ways. it is a qualitative process: a growing richness in how one perceives, values, and acts within experience. this conception of growth is rooted in dewey’s pragmatist epistemology, in which knowledge is not a static possession but a mode of action, inseparable from the conditions in which it is generated and applied. growth, therefore, entails an increasing capacity to reconstruct experience, to make sense of it, to reorient oneself within it, and to open up new possibilities for meaning and agency. in this light, education becomes the process through which experience is rendered more articulate, connected, and capable of sustaining inquiry. meaningful experience unifies doing and undergoing, thought and feeling, self and world. it resists fragmentation and contrasts educational models that reduce learning to discrete outcomes or compartmentalized knowledge. in those models, growth is often understood as linear progress along standardized metrics; for dewey, however, growth is recursive, situated, and always contingent upon the quality of the learner’s engagement with their environment, there is the integration of sensory, emotional, and cognitive experiences, which resonates closely with the embodied, multisensory, and relational learning promoted by outdoor pedagogies. these dimensions are not peripheral but central to the cultivation of intelligent behaviour, in deweyan terms intelligence arises not from the abstraction of experience into disconnected facts but from the capacity to make sense of experience as a whole, through a dynamic interplay of perception, emotion, and action. this contrasts sharply with neoliberal models that associate growth with productivity, standardization, and measurable outcomes. outdoor education, in this light, becomes a site where learning regains its integrity, where children do not merely acquire knowledge, but live it, test it, and transform it through concrete engagement with the world. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 180-191 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 184 this embodied engagement is particularly relevant in today’s educational landscape, where many learners experience increasing detachment from both place and process. fragmented curricula, screen-mediated instruction, and assessment-driven routines tend to flatten experience, severing the connections between knowledge, affect, and action. outdoor learning resists this fragmentation by rooting educational practice in sensorial immediacy and lived context. it restores the learner’s body and environment as legitimate and essential sources of meaning-making. moreover, this pedagogical orientation carries ethical and civic implications. by inviting learners to dwell attentively in a specific place observing, caring, responding, outdoor education fosters a form of ecological literacy that is both intellectual and affective. it supports not only knowing about nature but knowing with nature: a relational stance that deepens empathy, responsibility, and a sense of belonging. in this way, dewey’s vision of education as the continuous reconstruction of experience gains new relevance in the context of ecological crisis and educational reform alike. a natural environment, with its complexity and coherence, educates us to perceive the whole, to think relationally, to respect limits and rhythms. in an age of oversimplification, ecological education offers a powerful response: it prepares minds to see the bigger picture and to act with awareness of the interdependence between living beings (louv, 2008). from this perspective, education in nature is not a nostalgic return to the past, but a deeply contemporary act, capable of weaving together knowledge and place, experience and reflection, individual and community. it is, perhaps, one of the most fertile grounds for rethinking the very meaning of education today. pedagogy and democracy the relationship between pedagogy and democracy is foundational, not incidental. as dewey (1916) argued, education is the primary vehicle through which individuals become capable of participating in democratic life: it is through learning. not only academic content, but ways of being, interacting, and thinking that we cultivate the dispositions of citizenship. education, when conceived as experience (dewey, 1938), must place the individual in relation with others, with the environment, and with the community. outdoor education offers a particularly powerful space for this relational learning: by removing rigid classroom hierarchies and reconnecting students with their surroundings, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 180-191 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 185 it enables the kind of embodied, situated, and participatory experience that supports democratic formation (sobel, 2004; biesta, 2017). however, while democracy is often defined as a method of collective decision-making grounded in participation, dialogue, and mutual recognition, the lived reality of many formal educational environments, schools, colleges, and universities, frequently falls short of this ideal. in these spaces, pedagogy often assumes the form of a tense relationship between “major” and “minor” voices: the adult as authority and the student as subordinate. this dynamic can foster what rosenberg (2003) and patfoort (1995) describe as violent education, a mode of instruction in which control, domination, and silencing prevail over dialogue, cooperation, and the recognition of others. biesta (2013) warns against the reduction of education to mere outcomes or instrumental functions, arguing instead for a pedagogical ethic centred on subjectification that is supporting individuals to become autonomous and responsible subjects with others. in this light, the essential question is not what subject matter is being taught, but how it is taught. a mathematics teacher can reinforce authoritarianism as much as a literature teacher can foster freedom or vice versa. when classrooms become spaces where students cannot freely express themselves, where educators model coercion rather than nonviolence, and where structures prevent real participation, we are no longer in the realm of democracy. we may instead be witnessing what hassner (1992) described as democrature: a system that formally adopts the language and rituals of democracy (discussion, choice, representation) but in practice maintains asymmetry, hierarchy, and control. it is therefore legitimate to argue that in many formal educational contexts, we encounter not democracy, but educational democrature, a simulation of democratic learning in which participation is controlled, expression is constrained, and pedagogical authority is rarely questioned. to become transformative, pedagogy must resist this erosion. it must embrace ethics, shared responsibility, and participation. this means not only revising curricula but redefining teacher-student relationships and decentralizing power. dewey envisioned schools as “embryonic communities”, where democratic habits are formed through collaborative learning. this vision remains urgent. moreover, while some argue that education should primarily prepare students for the workforce, here we try to contend that such preparation must go far beyond technical competence. it must include the cultivation of adaptability, ecological consciousness, critical thought, and civic responsibility, capacities https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 180-191 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 186 essential not only for future employment but for collective survival. to reduce education to employability is to risk raising generations that are technically skilled but ethically adrift. this risk is amplified in what can be described as a “vision society”, a world increasingly mediated by screens, curated images, and flattened communication. we are constantly confronted with representations rather than realities, and interaction is often reduced to visual consumption or symbolic approval (an emoji, a like, a swipe). this two-dimensional logic of engagement undermines the three-dimensional complexity of real democratic life: dialogue, conflict, ambiguity, and presence. if we no longer practice speaking with others, truly listening, disagreeing, building shared meaning, but only messaging, reacting, and performing ourselves in digital fragments, then we lose the very ground on which democracy depends. this creates fertile soil not for democratic deliberation, but for oligarchy, a form of governance by the few, where power is not earned through wisdom or ethical leadership, as plato envisioned in the republic, but seized by those who excel in manipulation, surface appeal, and marketable charisma. in this light, democracy becomes not only hard to practice, but hard to imagine. to resist this drift, education must help students to know themselves, to observe the world beyond themselves, to exercise discernment, to ask: what should i take in? what should i reject? how do i act ethically, not just efficiently? neoliberalism, with its emphasis on outcomes, rankings, and productivity, increasingly asks for workers without ethics, individuals who are flexible, silent, and compliant. but democracy asks for citizens, individuals who are capable of judgment, dissent, and solidarity. this contradiction is sharpened by another paradox: we are now educating what may be the materially wealthiest generation in human history (in the global north), yet we lack the pedagogical frameworks and models to genuinely engage with them. many educators find themselves unprepared to relate to this generation, not only because of rapid technological shifts, but because our own models have disappeared. for centuries, pedagogy relied on modelling, teachers as ethical exemplars, guides through complexity. but in today’s disoriented world, what models can we offer? when we lack the structural and emotional training to engage with students as full persons, we risk becoming what dewey warned against: not facilitators of growth, but minor tyrants enacting routines of control without understanding. in this sense, a pedagogy for democracy must begin with the recovery of authentic presence with learning to be with others in real time and space, in conflict and collaboration, in uncertainty and reflection. only in this threehttps://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 180-191 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 187 dimensional ground of experience can democracy be lived, and not merely simulated. pedagogy and the economy since the 1970s, society has been profoundly reshaped by proponents of neoliberal thought. this economic theory maintains that human well-being is achieved through entrepreneurial freedom, secured by a system based on private property, free markets, and open trade. the state’s role is limited to ensuring the conditions necessary for market operation, protecting private property and facilitating the creation of new markets, even in sectors like education and healthcare. over time, neoliberalism has become globally dominant, influencing the economic policies of nations with diverse traditions, from former soviet republics to western social democracies. deregulation, privatization, and the reduction of state intervention in welfare have been widely adopted, often under pressure from institutions such as the imf, the world bank, and the wto. politicians across the spectrum, along with economists and cultural figures, have promoted this ideology under the guise of defending core civilizational values like human dignity and individual liberty. behind these seductive ideals, however, lies an economic shift that has placed money at the centre of society (silo, 2006), transforming the market into a universal ethical principle. neoliberalism is not merely an economic theory but a comprehensive worldview that shapes public policies, institutions, social practices, and even cultural values. it has redefined the roles of the state, citizenship, and the market, becoming the dominant framework within which political and economic decisions are made. its consequences have been profound: it has triggered radical transformations and increased inequality, undermining traditional structures of the state, labour, and social relations. everyday life has been redefined according to market logic, overshadowing other social values (harvey, 2005). for this reason, some scholars have referred to it as a hegemonic ideology (harvey, 2005; bourdieu, 1998). several scholars aligned with critical pedagogy, such as peter mclaren, henry giroux, and gert biesta, have voiced strong critiques of education systems that function as neutral and utilitarian extensions of the market. this perspective insists that education has broader purposes and reclaims its transformative potential. the goal of education is not merely to transmit skills https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 180-191 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 188 for the labour market, but to cultivate conscious citizens, capable of critical thinking, resistance to injustice, and active participation in democratic life. mclaren and giroux (2002) note that “educational theorists have come increasingly to view schooling as a resolutely political and cultural enterprise” (p. 30). educational institutions thus play a significant role in reproducing social, cultural, and economic inequalities through curricula that, like goods and services, are ideologically encoded and subjected to the logic of commodification. biesta (2010) highlights that contemporary educational discourse is dominated by the measurement of outcomes, which plays a disproportionate role in policy-making, at the expense of valuing what truly matters; he argues that the emphasis on quality assurance and individual cost-effectiveness has displaced the civic dimension of education, i.e., what the educational community can do for society. this shift has led to a depoliticization of relationships, between state and schools, and between teachers, parents, and students reducing their interactions to questions of “service quality.” biesta thus calls for a reorientation of education away from a purely instrumental logic (based on measurable outcomes) toward a relational logic, reclaiming the ethical and political dimensions of teaching. in this view, education must abandon its subordination to efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness (hallmarks of a neoliberal mindset) and instead embrace an emancipatory practice that fosters critical awareness and a culture of nonviolence. it must create educational contexts in which individuals study the world they inhabit, understand its contradictions, and imagine ways to transform it in the direction of greater social justice and sustainability. such an educational posture is more urgent than ever, given the trajectory of current global events. the world is increasingly marked by ecological crises, growing inequality, forced migrations, and conflicts. only through an education capable of interpreting the complexity of reality and offering responses grounded in justice, solidarity, and sustainability can we face these challenges ethically and constructively. in this sense, critical pedagogy is not merely a theory of education, but a practice of resistance and hope, a call to envision and transform the world. the choice today, we stand at a crossroads. the direction we choose will have profound implications not only for the education system but for society as a whole. pedagogy can no longer limit itself to adapting to constraints imposed by market https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 180-191 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 189 economics or institutional politics. on the contrary, it must become a force capable of critically interrogating the foundations of the dominant system, exposing its contradictions, and proposing concrete alternatives. the term “sustainability,” often reduced to a reassuring slogan, becomes devoid of meaning when not accompanied by a genuine commitment to social justice. the environmental crisis is only acknowledged when it directly affects household economies, such as in the case of rising energy costs, while its collective and global dimensions remain marginal in public discourse. in this context, pedagogy assumes a critical responsibility: to align itself with educational practices that foster a renewed ethical and ecological sensitivity. this includes the recognition of the intrinsic dignity of all forms of life, the rejection of speciesism assumptions, and resistance to the hyper-individualistic logic that underpins neoliberal ideology. such a task does not require pedagogy to imitate the methodologies of the natural sciences or to subordinate itself to narrowly defined standards of evidence-based assessment. instead, pedagogy must reclaim its specific epistemological identity as a field that interrogates meaning, explores values, and cultivates the conditions for reflective human action. reductionist approaches, which privilege certainty, quantification, and control, risk obscuring the complexity of educational experience. they foster a vision of knowledge that is linear, functional, and instrumental, rather than relational, open-ended, and situated. this orientation runs counter to the essence of pedagogy, which must remain committed to addressing the irreducible dimensions of uncertainty, interpretation, and ethical responsibility. human understanding emerges from complexity, not simplification; education, therefore, must prepare individuals to think in terms of interconnections, contradictions, and systems, rather than isolated facts (morin, 2000). furthermore, pedagogy should not confine itself to academic institutions or private discourse. it must take an active position in public life, contributing to the interpretation of political language, the analysis of dominant narratives, and the cultivation of democratic competencies. this includes equipping learners to question philosophical and ideological assumptions, such as those underlying speciesism, before offering technical definitions. the failure to recognize the ethical implications of species-based hierarchies has had farreaching consequences for human and non-human life alike (singer, 1975). addressing such themes demands a pedagogy capable of engaging with moral complexity, historical depth, and cultural critique. today’s society is marked by a paradoxical condition: a surplus of information coexists with a deficit of meaning. the logic of disposability has https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 180-191 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 190 permeated not only economic and environmental systems but also human relationships and identities (bauman, 2004). in the search for perfection, certainty, and recognition, often through mediated images, curated identities, and ephemeral fame, education risks being co-opted by ideals that are antithetical to peace, justice, and nonviolence. the prevailing imaginary is not shaped by ethical ideals or civic commitment, but by a pursuit of momentary visibility and personal satisfaction, echoing the cultural logic of andy warhol’s “15 minutes of fame.” in such a climate, pedagogy must resist the allure of control, perfection, and technical mastery as primary educational goals. these ideals have contributed to an unrealistic and exclusionary model of the human being, one that denies vulnerability, diversity, and interdependence. a nonviolent and democratic education cannot flourish under such premises. it requires instead an acceptance of limits, a recognition of fragility, and a reorientation toward care, responsibility, and the common good. references bauman, z. (2004). wasted lives: modernity and its outcasts. polity press. biesta (2010). good education in an age of measurement. ethics, politics, democracy. routledge. biesta, g. (2013). the beautiful risk of education. paradigm publishers. biesta, g. (2017). letting art teach: art education 'after' joseph beuys. artez press. bourdieu p. (1998). contre-feux. propos pour servir à la résistance contre l'invasion néo-libérale. raisons d’agir. dewey, j. (1916). democracy and education. macmillan. dewey, j. (1938). experience and education. macmillan. harvey d. (2005). a brief history of neoliberalism. oxford university press. hassner, p. (1992). la violence et la paix: de la bombe atomique au nettoyage ethnique. esprit. knight, s. (2013). forest school and outdoor learning in the early years. sage louv, r. (2008). last child in the woods. algonquin books. maynard, t., & waters, j. (2007). learning in the outdoor environment. early years, 27(3), 235-250. mclaren p., giroux h. a. (2002). critical pedagogy and predatory culture. routledge. montessori, m. (1948). the discovery of the child. random house. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 180-191 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 191 morin, e. (2000). la tête bien faite: repenser la réforme, réformer la pensée. seuil. patfoort, p. (1995). la non-violence au quotidien: pour une gestion nonviolente des conflits. jouvence. rosenberg, m. (2003). nonviolent communication: a language of life. puddle dancer press. silo (1994). letters to my friends. multimage. singer, p. (1975). animal liberation. harpercollins. sobel, d. (2004). place-based education: connecting classrooms and communities. the orion society. warhol, a. (1975). the philosophy of andy warhol (from a to b and back again). harcourt brace jovanovich. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 1 volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 forging global peace: canada and south korea’s global leadership and middle power momentum erika simpson and juneseo hwang erika simpson is associate professor of international relations and president of the canadian peace research association, department of political science, room 7233, social science centre, western university, london, canada. simpson@uwo.ca dr. juneseo hwang is a research associate at the dfg humanities centre for advanced studies “futures of sustainability” established within the university of hamburg, germany. e-mail: juneseo.hwang@uni-hamburg.de. abstract this article offers a fresh and compelling look at how canada and south korea— two influential middle powers—can reshape the global approach to peace and security. it traces south korea’s robust journey from military rule to democratic resilience and its ongoing efforts to engage north korea in peace and denuclearization talks. in parallel, canada’s experience with a nuclear-armed neighbor underscores the shared challenges both nations face. rather than relying on outdated military alliances and cold war mindsets, the article calls for bold new coalitions and innovative security alliances that champion diplomacy, peacebuilding, and multilateral cooperation. it argues that canada and south korea are uniquely positioned to lead a global shift away from militarization—toward dialogue, conflict prevention, and peace education. with the rise of emerging technologies like drones and ai-driven warfare, the need for forward-thinking https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax mailto:simpson@uwo.ca mailto:juneseo.hwang@uni-hamburg.de. in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 2 diplomatic strategies is more urgent than ever. the article ends with a powerful vision: a reimagined global security order led by middle powers that dare to challenge the status quo and light the path toward a more peaceful, nuclear-free world. keywords south korea, democracy, nuclear proliferation, canada, peacebuilding introduction: forging peace in a time of turbulence and distrust in december 2024, the majority of korean lawmakers defied expectations, voting against the declaration of martial law and issuing south korea’s president an ultimatum: resign or face impeachment. amid this constitutional crisis, fears of a descent into military dictatorship gripped the global community, including canada, home to a significant korean diaspora concentrated in cities such as vancouver and toronto. these concerns escalated as a million union members of the korean confederation of trade unions, representing one of the nation’s most formidable labor coalitions, pledged to strike, and ordinary citizens took to the streets, blocking an eight-lane roadway in defiance of authoritarianism. parliamentarians, too, stood firm, refusing to legitimize the martial law declaration. in a dramatic turn of events, democracy triumphed: the embattled president yoon suk-yeol was finally removed from office on 4 april 2025, 111 days after the national assembly vowed to impeach him and deliver justice concerning his unlawful coup, preserving south korea’s status as one of asia’s leading democracies alongside india. canadians, anxiously observing from afar, breathed a collective sigh of relief as south koreans reaffirmed their commitment to democratic governance, offering a powerful testament to the resilience of their institutions and the courage of their people. the korean president stated that the sudden cessation of democratic rule was deemed necessary due to the proliferation of ‘pro-north korean groups’ that were trying to paralyze the state by organizing mass protests against him. his rationale was not even accepted by his own party, causing one-fifth of the national assembly representatives to vote against martial law. unfortunately, however, such ‘red tagging’ of political rivalries and civil social organizations has long been normalized in south korea, even after its democratization in 1987. as a result of its internal dissension over time, the korean peace process with north korea, officially the democratic people’s republic of korea (dprk), has also fluctuated, indicating an imminent breakdown between the two koreas, as https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 3 demonstrated by the diminishing effectiveness of agreements such as the panmunjom declaration and the 9/19 comprehensive military agreement (cma). the trend suggests that south korea is encountering challenges in leading dialoguebased diplomatic initiatives toward north korea’s denuclearization; indeed, it is in danger of excessively suppressing civil social organizations that are campaigning for inter-korean reconciliation in order to ostensibly ‘restore public security’. complicating matters, there is a growing advocacy within south korea itself to in favour of wielding its own nuclear weapons capability, subtly questioning the effectiveness of the united states (u.s.) nuclear umbrella (sukin, 2020; von hippel, 2023). canada and south korea: shared challenges and opportunities. canada and south korea share unique strategic positions, as both are located adjacent to unpredictable and potentially irrational nuclear-armed states. for canada, the united states’ unpredictability poses risks of entanglement in conflicts, while south korea faces direct threats from north korea, which could drag the country into the renewal of war. both nations, despite their nuclear energy capabilities, have remained non-nuclear-armed, adhering strictly to their commitments under the treaty on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons (npt). south korea learned important lessons following the north korea-u.s. summit in 2019 as north korean foreign minister ri yong ho expressed north korea’s frustration over the devaluation of its ‘offers’ by the u.s. government (nishino, 2019). north korea’s offers included the shutdown of its yongbyon nuclear facilities and a moratorium on icbms and nuclear weapons testing in exchange for the lifting of un sanctions imposed against north korea. for washington, however, only ‘complete’ denuclearization was a satisfactory term for future negotiations, which would have meant from north korea’s perspective, a de facto ‘surrender’ for north korea. both canada and south korea maintain a commitment to peaceful international relations. however, their geopolitical circumstances differ. south korea’s proximity to numerous neighbors, including north korea and china, intensifies the complexity of its regional dynamics and the ripple effect of the russia-ukraine war on korean denuclearization has been thus far profound (hwang & hwang, 2024). in contrast, canada’s geography provides greater insulation, but its role as one of the 32 north atlantic treaty organization (nato) allies—indeed, a founding member of the alliance—positions it as a key actor in maintaining transatlantic peace and security (simpson, 2024a). https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 4 despite these differences, both countries share aspirations as middle powers. they actively contribute to united nations (un) peacekeeping operations and advocate for a nuclear weapons-free world. as intermediaries, negotiators and ‘gobetweens’ in the international system, they prioritize the construction of multilateral institutions and collaborative frameworks to address global security challenges. civil society actors in south korea, including humanitarian aid suppliers and reunification movement organizations, are actively engaged in building relationships with north korea to advance the inter-korean peace process, despite ongoing political conflicts and tensions at the state level. some civil society actors within the two korean governments have played crucial roles as facilitators of interkorean dialogues and as public diplomats operating in a neutral capacity. however, it is important to note that civil society in the korean peninsula operates differently from the western liberal model, with all social institutions in north korea tightly controlled by the workers’ party of korea. similarly, south korean organizations involved with north korea face strict regulations and government controls due to security concerns. certain members of korean reunification campaign groups, such as the pan-korean alliance for reunification, have encountered legal repercussions, including prosecution and imprisonment, for actions that violate south korea’s national security act. this law, which has its roots in the anti-communist policies of the japanese empire and the u.s. military administration of korea, has been criticized by international and domestic human rights institutions and campaign groups for its perceived unlawfulness (d. kim, 2010). objectives of study: rethinking security and alliances to avoid the escalation of conflicts into total war, canada and south korea must explore innovative strategies. one proposal involves the formation of new coalitions to intervene in conflicts when ‘bad actors’ invade, bypassing the un general assembly and the un security council when vetoes render it ineffective. these coalitions would consist of ‘like-minded states’ that prioritize peace and reject pre-emptive warfare. this approach could complement traditional alliances like nato, while mitigating their potential to stoke tensions. moreover, the excessive focus of traditional alliances like nato, the north american air defense agreement (norad) and the u.s.-japan-korea trilateral pact against nuclear threats has diverted resources from addressing root causes of conflict, such as ideological, religious, and socio-ecological divides among marginalized groups. efforts should shift toward addressing the grievances of these groups—often led by tribal leaders in remote regions, like afghanistan, indonesia or yemen—without entangling great and middle powers in proxy wars. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 5 toward a shared vision for peace. by leveraging their positions as middle powers, canada and south korea can spearhead efforts to reimagine and forge newer international security frameworks. these efforts should aim to prevent conflict, alleviate root causes of instability, and foster a global order that prioritizes peace over militarization. through renewed partnerships and contemporary alliances, both nations can contribute to a more stable and cooperative international system, advancing the goal of a nuclear weapon-free world. to break the security dilemma, for example, south korea could reduce the role of the u.s. military on its territory in order to induce north korea to lower its threshold for counterdeterrence against the u.s.-south korea military alliance. such peaceful measures might include the suspension of u.s.-south korea joint military exercises; reduced deployment of u.s. strategic assets to the korean peninsula; and an offer of unconditional dialogue between the two koreas. so far, south korean and american militaries have annually expanded their joint military exercise, called eulji freedom shield in the west sea of the korean peninsula, making it one of the largest joint military training exercises in the world. this has led north korea to escalate its security measures in preparation for imminent war. more pro-active peaceful actions, rather than excessive reliance on pre-emptive military measures, by south korea would increase the credibility of ‘reassurance’, placing stepping stones on the road to greater mutual confidence in each other’s long-term and peaceful intentions. canada might also support the de-escalation of geopolitical insecurity and military tensions in east asia through the u.s.-led quadrilateral security dialogue. in turn, north korea could eventually consider analogous risk reduction measures, for example, the cessation of nuclear tests and ballistic missile launches. for all the parties in the indo-pacific, it is worth considering the restoration of the inter-korean hotline to avert accidental clashes from miscalculation and miscommunication. canada, south korea, and the evolving threat of great power competition. canada and south korea share historical legacies deeply influenced by their participation in major 20th-century wars. canada’s involvement in both world wars and the korean war shaped its national identity and international role. similarly, south korea, as the primary theater of the korean war (1950–1953), experienced profound devastation that continues to shape its security policies. these shared histories have influenced their contributions to global security, with canada’s substantial losses in the world wars propelling its emergence during the cold war as a prominent un peacekeeping contributor. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 6 in the post-cold war era, however, canada and south korea’s involvement in un peacekeeping has waned over time. nonetheless, the demilitarized zone (dmz) between north and south korea remains one of the un’s longest-standing peacekeeping missions, highlighting ongoing tensions in the region. the dmz is a paradoxical space, symbolizing both conflict and hope. while it has become a sanctuary for wildlife, its legacy as one of the most heavily contaminated areas, filled with landmines and unexploded ordnance, underscores the enduring scars of war. efforts to remove these hazards focus on the periphery of the dmz to mitigate potential threats from north korea, leaving much of the zone inaccessible and dangerous. in addition to land tensions, the contested sea borders in the indo-pacific, exacerbated by frequent incursions by chinese fishing vessels, further complicate inter-korean relations. middle-power diplomats, potentially convening within the dmz itself, could advocate for transforming the area into a sustainable zone of peace. such a vision could foster sustainable peace for both humans and wildlife, addressing broader regional tensions and promoting environmental and diplomatic cooperation in the indo-pacific. shifting perceptions of strategic threats. while canada historically viewed the threat of war with china as a remote possibility, its focus has increasingly turned toward safeguarding arctic sovereignty amid perceived chinese expansionism. during the cold war, canada’s primary security concerns centered on the potential for a soviet attack across the north pole, with missile trajectories and radioactive fallout threatening canadian territory (simpson, 2001). the collapse of the soviet union in 1989–1991 momentarily diffused these anxieties, yet the resurgence of russian aggression in 2014, marked by the annexation of crimea, reignited concerns about territorial violations and geopolitical instability. the annexation of crimea, although brazen, did not escalate into a broader european land war. western powers, including nato, adopted a cautious posture, eschewing direct military confrontation in favor of economic sanctions and diplomatic condemnation. however, this restrained response may have emboldened moscow, leading to its full-scale invasion of ukraine in 2022. this miscalculation underscores the absence of proactive diplomacy and the failure of middle powers, including canada and south korea, to leverage their intermediary status to preempt escalation through coalition-building and mediation. the role of middle powers in an era of technological warfare. the ukraine conflict illustrates the transformative impact of technological advancements, such as drone warfare, in redefining the nature of combat. coupled with the influence of https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 7 the u.s. military-industrial complex, these technologies have enabled ukraine to reinvent its military strategy against russia. despite this innovation, the conflict reveals the limitations of traditional alliances, such as nato, in averting protracted wars. canada and south korea, alongside other middle powers—australia, austria, egypt, germany, ireland, israel, france, kazakhstan, new zealand, saudi arabia, and the united kingdom—could have exerted greater diplomatic pressure to prevent escalation. by advocating for early negotiations and challenging the reliance on nuclear deterrence, these nations might have played a pivotal role in circumventing the current quagmire. the escalating costs of a new cold war. as the war in ukraine rages, the united states has increasingly shifted its strategic focus toward china, identifying beijing as a potential adversary on a parallel front. this dual-focus strategy has precipitated an alarming expansion of u.s. military expenditures, with an annual budget exceeding $760 billion. this figure dwarfs the combined military spending of russia, china, and nato allies, highlighting the united states’ unparalleled dominance in global defense capabilities. however, this arms race, fueled by bipartisan consensus in the u.s. congress, risks entrenching a new cold war dynamic that diverts resources from pressing global challenges such as climate change, poverty alleviation, and ecocide. the united states and russia together currently possess nearly 90 percent of the world's nuclear warheads (federation of american scientists, 2023) but their examples are teaching other states to channel resources toward arms races instead. toward a new paradigm of security. the ukraine conflict and rising u.s.-china tensions underscore the need for a reimagined global security architecture. rather than perpetuating the militarization of international relations, middle powers like canada and south korea must champion alternative frameworks that prioritize diplomacy, multilateralism, and conflict prevention. by forging innovative coalitions outside traditional alliances and addressing root causes of instability, these nations can lead the charge toward a more peaceful and equitable global order. only by stepping away from the precipice of perpetual militarization can the international community avert the catastrophic consequences of a new era of greatpower rivalry. the escalating conflict in ukraine. the ukraine war has reached a critical juncture, with billions of dollars in military aid from the united states, canada, nato allies, and middle powers fueling the prolonged conflict. russia’s engagement of north korean troops and its reliance on advanced weaponry from china, iran, and north korea have exacerbated the situation, while drone strikes on https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 8 ukrainian infrastructure have left civilians and non-human inhabitants in cold, dark, and freezing environments enduring extreme challenges. casualty estimates among humans suggest 400,000 to 800,000 deaths on each side, though neither russia nor ukraine has disclosed reliable figures. in the current landscape, it is extremely difficult to comprehend, let alone measure, the profound impact of war on nonhuman species and ecosystems. yet, as the destruction of the kakhovka dam in 2023 shows, huge explosions causing extensive flooding and dwindling food supplies along the lower dnieper river in kherson oblast war have destroyed the foundations of life for all species, even for the ‘victors’, whoever they may be. the increasing intensity of the war between russia and ukraine is inciting global fears of an eventual nato intervention, potentially escalating the war into a global conflagration. the role of middle powers in peacebuilding and peace education amid these developments, middle powers such as south korea and canada have a critical role to play in pressing the great powers toward diplomatic solutions. while any negotiated peace will undoubtedly be complex, the moral and practical necessity of halting further bloodshed and the ecocide of all species is clear. middle powers must leverage their unique positions to facilitate dialogue, reduce the risk of escalation and foster peace education. peace education in both canada and south korea has been shaped by their unique histories and societal challenges. while both countries emphasize global citizenship and human rights, their approaches reflect distinct national experiences—canada grapples with its colonial past and the ongoing process of indigenous reconciliation, whereas south korea confronts the enduring division of the korean peninsula and the legacy of japanese colonialism, the korean war, and the 30-year military dictatorship. peace education. in canada, peace education is closely tied to the truth and reconciliation commission (trc) and its calls to action, which urge educational institutions to teach the history and lasting impact of residential schools while promoting understanding of indigenous rights and sovereignty. according to the chief commissioner of the trc, “a reconciliation framework is one in which canada’s political and legal systems, educational and religious institutions, the corporate sector and civil society function in ways that are consistent with the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, which canada has endorsed.” (sinclair, m., sinclair, s., & sinclair, n. j., 2024, p. 463). although many canadian schools and universities now incorporate indigenous perspectives, treaty education, and land-based learning to foster respect for indigenous knowledge systems and environmental stewardship, the trc commissioner https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 9 emphasizes the pressing need for more substantive restorative justice initiatives that promote peaceful conflict resolution, public truth sharing, apology, and commemoration that acknowledges and redresses past harms (sinclair, m., sinclair, s., & sinclair, n. j., 2024, pp. 1–465). environmental peace and sustainability are additional themes within canadian peace education, reflecting growing awareness of climate change, resource conflicts and nuclear accidents. canadian organizations like the canadian pugwash group, the canadian coalition to prevent nuclear war, and project ploughshares provide further educational resources on peace, disarmament, and global justice, connecting local reconciliation efforts to broader international issues such as afghanistan and ukraine (project ploughshares, 2025; simpson, 2023, pp. 347–365). in contrast, south korean peace education is shaped by the country’s experience of colonization, war, and national division. much of the state-led peace education curricula focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of the korean war, the ongoing separation of north and south korea, and the importance of peaceful reunification. school textbooks, demilitarized zone (dmz) peace tours, and unification education programs expose students to the realities of the korean peninsula’s division and encourage empathy toward north koreans (h.j. kim, 2023). programs such as the jeju 4.3 peace education program and the memorialization of the 5.18 gwangju uprising also highlight human rights and historical memory (jeju 4.3 peace foundation, 2023; h.j. kim, 2023). parallel crises in the middle east, the nuclear genie and great power competition the ukraine war is not unfolding in isolation. in the middle east, rising tensions between israel and actors such as iran, hamas, hezbollah, and potentially egypt and saudi arabia threaten to ignite a regional conflict. the threat of nuclear weapon use looms large, particularly considering iran's potential clandestine advancements following the collapse of the joint comprehensive plan of action (jcpoa). this volatile situation highlights the interconnected nature of global security challenges and the urgent need for coordinated peacebuilding efforts. the concept of the "nuclear genie" encapsulates the dangers of unrestrained nuclear modernization by great powers. the competitive strategies of states like the united states, china, and russia as well as those of emerging middle powers, like iran, israel, and saudi arabia risk precipitating unintended conflicts with catastrophic consequences. washington must prioritize engaging beijing to https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 10 discuss the shared dangers of nuclear arms races, which now extend to the militarization of space, as well as the importance of mutual restraint. however, the trump administration's adversarial stance toward china, framing it as the enemy within an us-versus-them paradigm, suggests little hope for meaningful progress on arms control before 2030 or beyond. the challenges of tailored deterrence in modern conflicts. deterrence strategies must evolve to address the multifaceted risks of modern conflicts, from conventional warfare to nuclear proliferation. historical precedents provide valuable lessons for crafting approaches that constrain great power ambitions and prevent wider wars. middle powers must not remain passive observers; instead, they should lead efforts to debate the efficacy of deterrence and advocate instead for durable peace agreements. only through proactive and collective action can the international community prevent further escalation and secure a more stable future. the failure of tailored deterrence was evident in the october 7 terrorist attacks on israel, which provoked a devastating israeli assault on gaza. israel’s deterrence strategies were unable to prevent the escalation of violence into a broader regional conflict involving egypt, iran, lebanon, and syria. despite u.s. president joseph biden’s visit to reaffirm unwavering support for israeli president benjamin netanyahu, the conflict continued to worsen. old-fashioned war tactics, including hostage-taking and the use of conventional weapons such as guns and tanks, have created a cycle of violence reminiscent of earlier middle eastern conflicts in 1947 and 1956. these patterns suggest that conventional approaches to deterrence are insufficient, necessitating a fundamental reassessment of strategic planning. preparing for peace requires shaping deterrence strategies to prioritize dialogue and reconciliation over continuous preparations for war. deterrence and the taiwan strait: avoiding security dilemmas. a critical case study in tailored deterrence lies in the taiwan strait, where escalating tensions between china and the united states risk spiraling into conflict. instead of adopting militarized strategies, such as deploying advanced u.s. aircraft carriers, middle powers should facilitate dialogues exploring alternatives to military confrontation. proposals for enforcing a stable maritime boundary, whether centered around the spratly islands, fishing zones, or environmental protection areas—similar to canada’s arctic waters pollution act—could pave the way for cooperation. while compromises are inevitable, the sacrifices of peace are far preferable to the devastation of war. middle powers could convene forums to develop innovative https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 11 frameworks for regional stability, underscoring that diplomatic engagement offers a viable path to de-escalation. the risks of nuclear escalation in asia. the prospect of a conventional war over taiwan is fraught with additional risks posed by artificial intelligence (ai), cyberwarfare, and space-based capabilities. a conflict post-2025 could see denial capabilities in space immobilizing both sides, preventing a decisive outcome. meanwhile, the nuclear dimension of regional competition remains a looming threat. unlike the cuban missile crisis, where only two nuclear powers were involved, today’s indo-pacific region involves six nuclear-armed states—china, india, north korea, pakistan, russia, the united states (and potentially japan and south korea, which are non-nuclear states under the u.s. nuclear umbrella). the complexity of this nuclear environment heightens the risks of miscommunication and accidental escalation, emphasizing the urgency of nuclear restraint and dialogue. adding to those risks, there are still an alarming 12,500 nuclear weapons operational across the globe (federation of american scientists, 2023), heightening the risks not just in the middle east and asia but among other middle powers in south america and africa. lessons from canada: extended deterrence and nuclear disarmament canada’s decision not to host nuclear weapons during the cold war serves as a powerful example for other nations. by choosing nuclear disarmament over direct nuclear armament, canada avoided the burdens of maintaining a nuclear arsenal, although canada chose to acquire nuclear weapons in the 1950s before the cuban missile crisis (simpson, 2001). canada’s gradual approach of disarming itself of nuclear weapons resonated with canada’s domestic population advocating for nuclear-free policies and demonstrated that security can be achieved without direct reliance on nuclear weapons. the decision also highlights the potential for middle powers to lead by example in advocating for nuclear disarmament and arms control. preparing for emerging threats: technology and autonomous systems. while canada has historically played a key role in conflict management, from counterterrorism to nato operations, it, like other middle powers such as south korea, must now focus on preparing for emerging threats posed by autonomous technologies. the success of ukraine’s use of drones in its defense strategy seems to be teaching nations the growing importance of integrating advanced technologies into national defense systems. as canada and other nations invest in drones and other autonomous systems, the lessons from ukraine will inform their efforts to enhance surveillance, border security, and territorial defense (simpson, 2024b, p. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 12 104–123). however, by prioritizing innovation and collaboration in cooperative security, middle powers could instead promote the principles of peacebuilding and conflict prevention. the evolving nature of global conflict highlights the limitations of traditional deterrence strategies. whether addressing regional wars, nuclear risks, or the integration of advanced technologies, a proactive approach rooted in preparation for peace is essential. middle powers, drawing on historical examples and contemporary innovations, have a unique opportunity to lead in fostering dialogue, developing cooperative frameworks, and averting the catastrophic consequences of war. through concerted efforts, they can shape a more stable and secure international order. the urgency of addressing emerging security challenges. the international community cannot afford inaction amidst trumpism, extremism, and ongoing diplomatic confusion (simpson, 2025, 1–12). new military technologies are advancing at an unprecedented pace, with countries like afghanistan, israel, and iran, as well as others in the middle east, rapidly developing and acquiring sophisticated air and missile defense systems. simultaneously, adversaries are employing unconventional tactics, such as drive-by shootings via motorcycles or drones, and engaging in piracy off somalia’s coasts (simpson, 2024b). the potential for cross-border biological attacks, releasing spores to contaminate large areas, further amplifies the urgency of these threats middle powers must act decisively by directing resources toward fostering dialogue and forging paths to peace. while great powers focus on dominance in sea-to-ground and air-to-ground warfare, the implications of asymmetrical warfare—where smaller powers successfully challenge larger ones—demand attention. ukraine’s destruction of russian ships in the black sea can only remind us of the enduring strategic significance of critical waterways. without cooperative agreements, conflicts over access to and control of water resources will persist. the collaboration between canada and the united states, exemplified by their management of the great lakes, serves as a model for international cooperation. with the world's largest source of freshwater and longest shared shorelines, canada together with the u.s. has demonstrated how joint frameworks can promote sustainable water-sharing and regional stability. the growing security risks to global trade routes, such as the red sea’s closure to commercial shipping due to houthi attacks, highlight the inadequacy of military solutions alone. even the u.s. navy has struggled to ensure safe passage https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 13 in these waters. if armed conflict were to disrupt indo-pacific trade routes, the resulting economic devastation would dwarf the costs of post-9/11 conflicts, threatening ports like vancouver in canada and pusan in south korea, causing widespread hardship. to mitigate these risks, stakeholders, including corporations and civil society, must collaborate to fund research and develop peaceful countermeasures that protect trade and ensure freedom of navigation. technological advancements in warfare, such as precision-guided missiles, will inevitably lead to countermeasures like electronic jamming, perpetuating a cycle of escalation. as peacemakers, the focus should shift to creating zones of peace that expand into larger sanctuaries, fostering buffer zones that are demilitarized and cooperative areas (pearson & simpson 2022; simpson & naimpoor, 2021). initiatives such as the antarctic treaty provide valuable precedents for establishing nuclear weapon free zones (nwfzs) in fragile regions like the arctic. by building on the success of existing nwfzs and ‘freezing out the nukes’ in the arctic (dallaire & simpson, 2014), the international community can promote stability in other critical areas, including oceans and outer space. the role of international agreements in transforming humanitarian conflict through strategic foresight and collaborative action, middle powers can play a pivotal role in shaping a more secure and cooperative global order. investing in dialogue, cooperative frameworks, and innovative conflict prevention measures offers a pathway to sustainable peace and prosperity. the diplomatic efforts of middle powers should focus on strengthening the fraying npt regime, revitalizing the un's conference on disarmament, completing negotiations for a fissile material cut-off treaty (fmct), and supporting a potential nuclear weapons convention (nwc). unfortunately, revitalizing stalled diplomatic negotiations and adequately preparing for the upcoming npt review conference in 2026 and beyond have not been the primary focus of korean officials and canadian governments. under the current republican administration led by u.s. president donald j. trump, it remains highly unlikely that a “no-first use” (nfu) doctrine on nuclear weapons will be adopted, with a pre-emptive “first-use” posture likely to be retained. the united states’ tendencies will likely hinder the adoption of global norms related to nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. the nuclear-weapon possessor states—including china, france, india, north korea, pakistan, russia, the united kingdom, the united states and likely israel—are making so little progress on arms control and disarmament that some argue middle powers should https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 14 take more decisive steps toward “minimum credible deterrence,” where states possess only the nuclear weapons necessary to deter an adversary from attacking (blair et al. 2018). the role of canada in transforming humanitarian conflict and international treaties. canada has a proud history of spearheading international agreements to reduce the humanitarian impact of nuclear and conventional war. it has long been proposed that nato consider a comprehensive review of the alliance's adherence to the principle that, so long as nuclear weapons exist, nato will maintain its status as a nuclear alliance. canada’s minister of foreign affairs dr. lloyd axworthy spearheaded such a review in 1999, an initiative that is welldocumented in canada’s diplomatic history (simpson, 2000, pp. 16–18). another landmark example is the land mines treaty, born out of canada’s invitation to nations to discuss banning anti-personnel landmines. while the great powers refused to sign, the treaty marked significant progress. yet, the current shipment of landmines from the united states to ukraine undermines these efforts, raising concerns about the indiscriminate maiming of future generations of russians and ukrainians and sending negative signals that the commitment to the ban on anti-personnel landmines can be easily broken. despite setbacks, canada’s leadership also contributed to the cluster mine treaty, which banned bombs designed to scatter deadly payloads indiscriminately. these successes demonstrate canada’s capacity to lead on banning further inhumane weaponry. the escalating costs of warfare with small arms in the middle east. the ongoing conflict in gaza underscores the devastating costs of war involving small arms wielded by both state and non-state actors. groups like hamas and hezbollah access advanced military technologies, prompting state responses that perpetuate cycles of violence. the use of improvised devices by israel, such as handheld explosives disguised as pagers and radios, exemplifies the brutal impact of modern warfare on both soldiers and civilians, including children. these tactics highlight the urgent need for a global commitment to new avenues for peaceful engagement. canada and south korea must champion initiatives that prioritize dialogue and cooperative security over violent confrontation. the dangers of mercenaries and forced combatants. the proliferation of mercenaries, such as those from the wagner group, and coerced combatants, including north korean soldiers fighting for russia in ukraine, signals a troubling trend in modern conflicts. these practices degrade the ethical standards of warfare and have far-reaching implications for professional military forces worldwide. canada’s small professional military force has historically upheld principles of https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 15 decency, avoiding the use of forced or mercenary soldiers. in contrast, the use of prisoners and coerced soldiers by authoritarian regimes reflects a dangerous erosion of humanity in warfare. canada, south korea, and their allies must denounce these practices and advocate for international norms that protect the dignity of combatants and civilians alike, while addressing the root causes of violence and conflict that feed the mushrooming of private security companies and mercenaries. learning from failed efforts to support democracy. canada’s investments in training afghan and iraqi militaries highlight the risks of supporting corrupt regimes under the guise of promoting democracy. despite billions spent, these efforts failed to establish stable, democratic governments, offering a cautionary tale about the limits of military intervention. canada and south korea, as middle powers, must redirect resources toward strengthening democratic institutions in the context of sustainable development globally. by teaching peace rather than war, they can lay the foundation for more sustainable and ethical approaches to international relations. toward a peace-oriented strategy in ukraine. the ongoing conflict in ukraine calls for innovative approaches that prioritize long-term stability over military escalation. rather than funneling military donations through the ukraine defense contact group, middle powers should focus on training ukraine’s forces to prepare for a negotiated stalemate. such an approach would acknowledge the enduring hatred and devastation caused by the war while aiming to limit further loss of life. by promoting diplomacy and preparing for peaceful coexistence, canada and south korea can lead the way in fostering a future built on dialogue rather than destruction. for south korea, the restoration of inter-korean dialogues and engagement is a cornerstone for these efforts. canada’s leadership in humanitarian disarmament, its ethical military practices, and its lessons from past interventions position it uniquely to advocate for a global shift toward peace. by partnering with other middle powers, canada can champion international agreements, oppose inhumane practices, and invest in democratic resilience. in doing so, canada and its allies can help shape a world where security is built on cooperation and mutual respect, rather than conflict and coercion. the challenge of fragile states and the need for peace-oriented training global arms races and fragile states will continue to pose a threat to global security but providing military forces, training and armaments only perpetuates cycles of violence on our already fragile planet. to break the cycles, there must be https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 16 a surge in peace-oriented training. peacemakers need to be equipped with the technical and strategic tools necessary to deliver peace, not war. one promising avenue for advancing peace is through the use of emerging technologies, such as ai, which can facilitate communication and understanding between adversaries. ai’s growing ability to translate languages quickly could help foster clearer dialogue, enabling leaders to communicate directly and citizens to exchange views across cultural and linguistic barriers. as migration patterns shift and populations move across borders, focusing on the positive aspects of these changes, rather than the negative, can help break down cultural and ethnic barriers, fostering greater cooperation. harnessing ai for global peacebuilding. ai’s capabilities to translate languages with speed and accuracy are rapidly advancing. currently, ai can translate languages like chinese, english, and korean, and soon, its ability to translate russian will surpass current expectations. this technological leap will render traditional translation methods, once essential for even basic communication, obsolete. with ai’s support, leaders will be able to engage in clear, understandable dialogue, while civilians can also connect with one another, sharing their perspectives and experiences online. this shift could be instrumental in facilitating understanding among adversarial groups, reducing the reliance on physical borders and cultural divides. the possibility of rapid deployment peacemakers. the swift support provided to israel by the west in response to the recent conflict raises a critical question: why cannot similar capabilities be mobilized for peacebuilding? canada’s proposal for a united nations rapid deployment capability was stymied by the united states, yet the potential for rapid deployment peacemakers remains. the readiness and credibility of middle powers might be questioned, but they have an opportunity to initiate political exercises—beyond theoretical debates—that focus on peacebuilding. rather than spending excessive time debating the specifics of when, where, and under what conditions a united nations emergency peace service (uneps) might emerge, middle powers could use their financial influence and diplomatic efforts to foster immediate, constructive actions among war-torn rivals. this approach could help create conditions for peace in the short term while the un reconfigures itself, potentially eliminating the veto power that impedes progress. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 17 the urgency of addressing the stakes of the defense industry in global conflict the stakes for resolving conflict and building peace are at their highest in the post-9/11 era. the world is facing unprecedented challenges that demand immediate action. middle powers, by focusing on peace-oriented initiatives rather than military escalation, could play a pivotal role in shaping the future of global security. through rapid deployment capabilities, financial support for peacebuilding, and the promotion of dialogue facilitated by technologies like ai, the international community can create new pathways for cooperation, understanding, and ultimately, peace. yet despite all that, the role of domestic defense industries in shaping the contours of war is becoming increasingly evident across the globe. in many countries, including canada and south korea, domestic defense sectors are striving to meet the escalating demands of warfare. in canada, defense industry hubs are located in cities like london, ontario, which is also the author’s hometown, while in south korea, medium-sized cities and rural areas play a central role in hosting environmentally-polluting arms industries and defending seoul, the co-author's home city. the influence of defense industries also permeates smaller locales like hamburg, where dr. hwang, the co-author completed his postdoctoral work, and ottawa, simpson’ postdoctoral base. this pervasive influence reflects the deepening integration of defense industry interests in shaping national security agendas. meanwhile, russia’s own defense industrial base is struggling to keep pace with the demands of protracted warfare. as a result, moscow has turned to external sources, purchasing weapons, including lethal drones, from china, iran, and syria. the growing partnership between russia and these nations, with beijing providing critical military technologies and tehran and pyongyang supplying munitions, signals a troubling trend. if unchecked, such defense industry interests and alliances will continue to bolster the military capacities of adversaries indefinitely unless strong countermeasures are taken. the importance of honoring the arms trade treaty. the global community has committed to the arms trade treaty (att), with both canada and south korea being signatories. the landmark att, regulating the international trade in conventional arms—from small arms to battle tanks, combat aircraft and warships—entered into force on 24 december 2014. this treaty must be respected and upheld by defense corporations to prevent the proliferation of arms and the perpetuation of violent conflict across the globe, including in regions such as the indo-pacific. in order to prevent the continuation of state-on-state warfare https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 18 combined with insurgencies, there must be renewed and intensified efforts to strengthen international treaties. the failure to do so will enable further cycles of violence. although some countries may view the arms trade treaty as ineffective, south korea was among its original signatories, and canada’s 2019 accession has gradually shifted its leaders away from the notion of profiting from arms sales, including the controversial $15 billion deal with saudi arabia for light armoured vehicles. this contract, signed by general dynamics in the author’s hometown of london, ontario, continues to be honoured despite the ethical concerns it raises. initially lauded by canadian lawmakers, this deal has since become a point of shame for those who championed it, as they now recognize the dangerous implications of arming a military power like saudi arabia. the legacy of war and the call for peacemakers the true legacy of war is not written by those who profit from it but by those who strive for peace. history honors the efforts of peacemakers, not the architects of war. during the cold war, it was figures like vaclav havel and lech walesa, both known for their commitment to peace, who shaped the historical narrative. likewise, while ronald reagan’s presidency is often remembered in the context of his engagements with mikhail gorbachev, it is their agreement on the intermediate nuclear forces (inf) treaty in 1988 that remains a defining moment. in contrast, the actions of bureaucrats and politicians who contribute to the culture of war are often forgotten, as the true legacy of history is reserved for those who lead with a vision of peace. as such, those in positions of power should recognize that the path to being remembered in the annals of history is through the promotion of peace, not the perpetuation of conflict. the path to peace and the role of small states in global security. the path to peace in the current geopolitical climate may seem daunting, yet it is essential to recognize how small nations like taiwan have outsize relevance for regional security and stability. taiwan, a small island that could comfortably fit into ontario, one of canada’s 10 provinces and 2 large territories, wields significant influence primarily due to its strategic positioning in the asia-pacific region and its relationship with global powers, notably china and the united states. while geographically minor, taiwan's role in the balance of power in east asia remains profound, with china’s assertive policies and the united states’ continued support for taiwan’s democratic values amplifying its importance on the global stage. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 19 similarly, the baltic states of estonia, latvia, and lithuania, despite their small size, exert considerable influence on nato’s defense posture. their geopolitical positioning and security concerns have made them pivotal in shaping nato's approach to regional threats, especially concerning the alliance's stance on nuclear weapons (i.e. nato’s ‘strategic concept’). the inclusion of finland and sweden as nato members further amplifies this influence. though these countries long opted for non-nuclear stances, their integration into nato introduces new dynamics regarding the alliance’s stance on nuclear policy, particularly as these nations align with nato's values on nuclear weapons without having nuclear capabilities themselves (simpson, 2021, 1–28; erika simpson, interviews on nato’s nuclear weapons, deterrence and un arms control and disarmament, western nmreb research project 2020-113754-36016, 2000–2025). nuclear deterrence and the challenges of escalation. for a significant period, european nato allies were reluctant to publicly discuss the alliance's dependence on nuclear weapons for defense. fast-forward to nato summits in 2022 and 2023 in madrid and vilnius, where the military alliance unveiled the newest iteration of its strategic concept (nato, 2022).. this concept's central focus is on addressing the potential threats posed by russia's intention to employ weapons of mass destruction, as well as the pressing need to deter chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and cyber-attacks. once again, nato reiterated its commitment to being a nuclear alliance, emphasizing the necessity of maintaining an appropriate mix of nuclear, conventional, missile defense, space, and cyber capabilities within its deterrence and defense posture (nato, 2022, pp. 6–8, paras. 20–34). however, recent geopolitical developments, especially russian threats to escalate to nuclear conflict, have called into question the traditional doctrine of nuclear deterrence. some analysts refer to russia’s nuclear strategy as a form of “escalate to de-escalate,” wherein the threat of nuclear escalation is seen as a means to achieve strategic objectives without full-scale war. this doctrine has introduced new challenges to the principles of deterrence, compelling a reassessment of the effectiveness of mutual assured destruction (mad) and strategies of flexible response in managing nuclear escalation. the traditional game-theoretical frameworks that have shaped nuclear policy—such as the prisoner’s dilemma and chicken games—are increasingly seen as inadequate in addressing the realities of modern nuclear threats. what once seemed like theoretical exercises in strategy now directly relate to life-and-death scenarios of global conflict, civilian casualties, and the potential for widespread devastation. the theoretical models that once captivated armchair theorists are now https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 20 confronted by the grim reality of total annihilation, as illustrated by the catastrophic consequences of nuclear warfare (simpson, 2018, pp. 38-58). this shift has prompted growing concerns among scientists and global thinkers, with the doomsday clock as of december 2024 reading just 90 seconds to midnight, symbolizing the near-total extinction of humanity, species, and ecosystems (bulletin of atomic scientists, 2024). the irrelevance of traditional deterrence approaches. president vladimir putin's decision to suspend the new start treaty and his ominous statement about resuming nuclear testing are contributing to unease about nuclear build-ups (kimball, 2023). the treaty, the last remaining bilateral nuclear arms control agreement between the united states and russia, represents yet another threatened element of global nuclear security. the current state of global affairs underscores a stark truth: traditional approaches to deterrence, once central to nuclear policy, are now increasingly irrelevant in addressing contemporary security challenges. the rapid advancement of nuclear capabilities, combined with evolving strategies of escalation, highlights the inadequacy of old frameworks that have long dominated strategic thinking. these developments signal a need for rethinking and innovating new methods of conflict resolution and deterrence in the face of an increasingly unpredictable global environment. the path to peace demands not only a reevaluation of existing strategies but a collective effort to adapt to the complexities of modern security threats. deterrence by denial and its limitations. deterrence by denial was designed to make it difficult for an adversary to achieve its intended objectives through aggressive actions. however, recent events in ukraine and the middle east have shown that this strategy often fails to prevent acts of aggression. a prime example is israel’s inability to stop iran’s conventional attack on israeli territory in 2024, despite threats of widespread punishment. instead of deterring the iranian missiles and drones, israel was compelled to rely heavily on its air and missile defense systems. while israel's defensive capabilities were bolstered using relatively inferior iranian bombing technology, future attacks are likely to see a much stronger iranian missile force, potentially backed by technology from north korea, russia, and possibly rogue scientists. this highlights the growing difficulty of relying solely on deterrence by denial, particularly as adversaries adapt and develop more advanced technologies. lessons from canada’s global partnership program. canada’s participation in the global partnership program—now the g7-led global partnership against the spread of weapons and materials of mass destruction—involves significant https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 21 investments in nuclear security and offers valuable lessons for other nations. over the course of two decades, canada donated billions of dollars and worked to secure nuclear materials and facilities, particularly in russia. this initiative was praised as a success by multiple canadian governments, both conservative and progressive. however, the program’s potential was significantly undermined when russia withdrew, citing concerns over espionage and territorial sovereignty related to its cold war-era facilities. despite the setbacks, the core features of the program could be replicated in other nuclear states such as india, north korea, and potentially the united states. the international community can learn from canada’s approach to nuclear security, especially in terms of funding nuclear scientists and converting weapon-grade nuclear materials for peaceful purposes. the costs of air defense systems. air defense systems, while crucial for national security, are inherently more costly than offensive measures. israel’s response to iran’s missile and drone attack in 2024 likely cost significantly more than iran’s initial launch. similarly, the taliban’s use of inexpensive, small-scale tools to attack nato forces resulted in the loss of 168 canadian soldiers and countless injuries, despite canada’s substantial financial investment in the war in afghanistan. the cost of canada’s involvement in afghanistan was staggering, depleting the canadian armed forces without sufficiently diminishing the threat posed by the taliban. the resources spent on military operations could have been better used to address domestic issues, such as improving indigenous access to clean water and providing educational opportunities focused on peacebuilding. these experiences illustrate the inherent imbalance in the costs of defense versus offense, as well as the long-term financial burdens of protracted military engagements. deterrence by punishment and its failures. the strategy of deterrence by punishment—threatening severe consequences if an adversary takes certain actions—has proven to be ineffective in many cases. north korea's provocations under kim jong un did not lead to peace but rather heightened tensions, particularly during u.s. president donald trump's first term. trump famously threatened that his nuclear ‘button’ was bigger than kim’s, signaling a willingness to use nuclear weapons against north korea. however, his subsequent diplomatic overtures, which involved warnings of nuclear retaliation alongside friendly gestures, confused international observers. south koreans remember this period as one of unpredictable diplomatic moves, with trump and kim meeting at the border, despite the sabre-rattling rhetoric. this combination of threats and diplomacy created confusion and undermined the credibility of nuclear deterrence strategies. china and india publicly condemned the role of nuclear weapons on the korean peninsula, further complicating the situation. in this context, engaging with a new https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 22 u.s. president requires a baseline understanding of how threats are perceived, and signals are sent, across the u.s. government. active feedback loops among middle powers are essential to ensuring that diplomatic engagement prevails, rather than escalating to total war. the limitations of deterrence strategies, both by denial and punishment, underscore the need for a rethinking of how the international community addresses military aggression and security threats. while deterrence remains a core component of defense policy, recent experiences suggest that more comprehensive and innovative approaches are needed to address the evolving challenges of modern warfare. the lessons from past conflicts, coupled with the need for more sustainable and peaceful solutions, will be critical in shaping future strategies for conflict resolution and international security. signalling peaceful intentions to prevent escalation the ability to signal peaceful intentions is essential for preventing the escalation of conflicts. in moments of heightened tension, a combination of threats, military deployments, and the rapid spread of unclear or contradictory messages— often amplified by social media—can inadvertently contribute to large-scale regional conflicts. one illustrative example is the ongoing conflict between hamas and israel since october 7, which has seen escalating violence and a complex web of political, military, and social forces at play. the case of hamas and israel. the situation in gaza is shaped by israel’s actions, which hamas perceives as ethnic cleansing and acts of aggression. the assassination of hamas leader ismail haniyeh in tehran and israel's threats to destroy iran—hamas's primary military backer—have further intensified the conflict. on the ground in gaza and lebanon, many people wish for hamas to leave their territory and hope for a ceasefire, yet the conflicting messages from israel’s leadership complicate the situation. internal divisions within israel’s government, as well as vengeful rhetoric, further fuel the confusion. the atmosphere of hatred, exacerbated by iran’s involvement and the inflammatory presence of ayatollah ali khamenei, increases the potential for wider conflict. the role of u.s. military engagement. in response to these tensions, u.s. military leaders, such as secretary of defense lloyd austin, deployed two aircraft carriers and additional aircraft to the middle east in an attempt to deter iran from escalating the conflict further. however, the effectiveness of these military deployments remains uncertain. despite this show of strength, efforts to deter iran diplomatically have failed, as evidenced by u.s. secretary of state antony https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 23 blinken’s inability to prevent iran’s response, including through diplomatic channels involving leaders in qatar and jordan. iran's large-scale attack on israel in april 2024 demonstrated the limitations of deterrence, both in conventional warfare and, more ominously, in the potential nuclear theater. the limitations of military force in deterrence necessitates a shift in mindset towards peacebuilding the recent failures of deterrence underscore the urgency of rethinking conflict management strategies. partnerships with nations across the middle east and europe are essential, particularly in addressing the limitations of u.s. military capabilities and their effectiveness in curbing escalation. while military force may provide temporary security, an overreliance on it carries significant drawbacks. a more enduring and effective approach lies in fostering cooperation and actively engaging in peacebuilding efforts. as the proverb goes, "a gentle hand can lead where force cannot," emphasizing that collaboration rather than coercion is key to achieving lasting peace. to prevent further escalation, it is crucial to foster a mindset focused on peace rather than war. engaging in dialogue about peace should not be seen as futile or a sign of weakness. there are no sunk costs in pursuing peace; instead, it offers an opportunity to build a future of stability and cooperation. the failure to engage in peace talks often results in continued conflict, which has far-reaching consequences for all involved. moving forward, the focus must shift from a fear of war to the constructive pursuit of peace through dialogue and cooperation. the role of middle powers in global peace and security. as the united states, china, and russia contend with multiple global threats, including their long-term competition, middle powers must redirect their focus toward fostering genuine peace and security. while great powers confront each other on the battlefields of europe and the middle east, with the potential emergence of a third front in the indo-pacific, middle powers are positioned to reframe the u.s.-china-russia rivalry. instead of merely reacting to the dynamics of these global powers, they have the opportunity to introduce an alternative form of peace: "peace by resilience." this concept emphasizes the ability to endure, recover, and adapt to disruptions, marking a shift from traditional military postures to a broader, more sustainable approach to conflict management. reimagining u.s.-china-russia rivalry: peace by resilience. the "peace by resilience" framework would fundamentally challenge the approach outlined in the 2022 u.s. national defense strategy. rather than disperse military assets across https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 24 various regions, this strategy would propose a peace-building approach grounded in the understanding that the costs of war far exceed the benefits of peace. the certainty provided by peace planning—characterized by clarity and simplicity— contrasts sharply with the complexities and uncertainties inherent in military conflict. in this view, peace becomes the more effective and desirable option, offering stability and predictability that military engagement cannot guarantee. middle powers such as south korea and canada are uniquely situated to foster connections among countries within the indo-pacific region. these efforts could lead to historic, middle-power-brokered progress, akin to the positive examples of relationships such as japan and south korea; canada and cuba; and australia and the united kingdom. by focusing on less formal but meaningful collaborations, middle powers can create a new framework for peace. one such initiative could be the formation of a group known as “pacific team peace,” consisting of australia, canada, japan, the philippines, south korea, and taiwan. the peace ministers of these countries could meet periodically to discuss strategies, while initiating joint actions such as peace convoys in the south china sea. world peace 2030: a collaborative, middle-power-led peace exercise. in the long-term, the concept of a world peace 2030 exercise, led by middle powers, could involve over 30 countries across asia, the middle east, europe, and the western hemisphere. this initiative would serve as a platform for fostering cooperation among diverse nations, promoting the idea that peacebuilding can be a collaborative and expansive effort. the exercise could be held in the indo-pacific and would represent a collective effort to foster understanding, build trust, and prevent the escalation of tensions. as we collectively march towards crucial milestones, notably embodied in the united nations 2030 agenda encapsulated within the 17 sustainable development goals, it is imperative that we undertake a multifaceted approach. within the un and nato and newer collaborative frameworks proposed in this article, we must work to delegitimize and stigmatize not only nuclear weapons, but any threats to use any weapons of mass destruction (wmd) including atomic, biological and chemical weapons. key facets of the un’s approach include strengthening the biological weapons convention (bwc) and the chemical weapons convention (cwc), and subsequently minimizing the role of wmd within military doctrines. violence within societies, including gun violence, militarized policing, femicide, and ecocide, should be addressed through peaceful means, as they contribute to the internalization of us-versus-the enemy logic. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 25 the value of expanded partnerships. these campaigns, though requiring substantial effort and decades of collaboration, would demonstrate the power of a cooperative, middle-power-led approach to global security. expanded partnerships would create political and military buffer zones and act as proactive measures, offering ‘insurance policies’ against the cost of conflict. by cultivating tighter relationships built on trust and conciliation, middle powers can create a more resilient security environment. such collaborations make it significantly harder for those who seek to disrupt global stability, creating a more secure world for all nations and species. a key responsibility is for middle powers to draw greater attention to the specter of a war fought with atomic weapons, whether in the hands of the great powers, like the united states and russia, or between middle powers like iran or israel, as atomic warfare carries dire consequences, potentially triggering catastrophic scenarios akin to nuclear winter (united nations office for disarmament affairs 2023; tannenwald, 2022, pp. 74–81). well-researched scientific forecasts cast a stark light on the repercussions of even a limited nuclear exchange among two middle powers, like india and pakistan. an exchange involving approximately 100 tactical-sized nuclear weapons between india and pakistan would result in colossal fires, ejecting millions of tons of soot into the atmosphere. this soot would precipitate a worldwide temperature drop of at least 1.25 celsius degrees. the human toll would be staggering, with an estimated 20 million lives lost within a week and approximately two billion individuals at risk of perishing due to famine over the ensuing decade, largely attributed to a severe reduction in grain production (robock & toon, 2009, pp. 1–8). the urgency of peace education in the face of global conflict the pursuit of peace demands a sense of urgency to prevent the escalation of war into a global conflagration. as the great powers invest in advanced and specialized military capabilities, such as robotic drones, super-sonic underwater missiles, and space-based forces like the u.s. space force, the importance of older and newer peacemaking strategies remains ever relevant. while conflict zones continue to expand, the need for collaboration among peace proponents and peace educators grows more critical. the emphasis on military deterrence and winning conflicts by the great powers contrasts sharply with the necessity for middle powers to bolster cooperative security efforts and peace education, which will be pivotal for achieving long-term peace. in recent years, canada and south korea have expanded peace education to include global citizenship and environmental sustainability, aligning with the https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 26 united nations sustainable development goals (sdgs) (united nations, 2015; simpson, 2016). institutions like the asia-pacific centre of education for international understanding (apceiu), based in seoul, as well as civil society organizations play a key role in promoting peace, human rights, and cultural understanding across the region (apceiu, 2024; d. kim, 2017). grassroots pacifist movements in south korea have manifested in various forms alongside traditional advocacy groups for reunification, expanding and nurturing the notion of peace. these movements promise to interlink their causes with political activism to address broader societal challenges, including systematic environmental destruction (such as 'ecocide'), the arms race, and global injustices (hwang, 2025). while canada and south korea differ in historical contexts, both nations use peace education to address past injustices and envision more inclusive futures. in canada, this means it is imperative to acknowledge and repair relationships with indigenous peoples while in korea, this involves fostering dialogue and empathy across a divided peninsula. both models share a commitment to empowering young people as active participants in building peaceful societies. ultimately, peace education in both countries highlights the importance of confronting historical wrongs, promoting human rights, and cultivating global citizenship. these efforts reflect broader societal commitments to justice, reconciliation, and sustainable peace—lessons that resonate well beyond their borders. middle powers and the shift towards cooperative security. in regions like taiwan, the united states prioritizes military assistance and training to prepare for potential conflict with china, thereby paradoxically increasing the possibility of military confrontation and accelerating regional arms races. in return, china blames the u.s. to justify its weapon programs and expansionism. however, a more ’realistic’ approach would involve preparing for scenarios that focus on avoiding violence altogether, instead fostering alliances, partnerships and peace education based on serious and sustained attention to peaceful outcomes. india’s diplomatic approach to china provides yet another model, suggesting that cooperation rather than heightened competition may be the key to managing tensions effectively in the current global security environment. learning from peaceful efforts: the better path. in conclusion, learning from the peace efforts waged by others is often difficult, but it is ultimately more beneficial than experiencing the devastating consequences of war firsthand. the ongoing devastation and loss of life across all species in ukraine and the middle east highlight the urgent need for more proactive peacebuilding efforts. to avoid the same fate, it is essential to foster peace and prepare for scenarios that prevent https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 27 the kinds of wars that have devastated these regions. the adage that "the best way to prepare for peace is to prepare for war" is fundamentally flawed. in truth, lasting peace is not built through threats or arms races but through diplomacy, mutual understanding, and proactive conflict resolution. to prevent war, prepare for peace—build trust, mend rifts, and calm the storm before it brews. notes on contributors erika simpson is a prominent scholar in the field of international relations and peace research, serving as an associate professor at western university, canada. she is also the president of the canadian peace research association (cpra). erika is the author of nato and the bomb and has contributed to several prestigious publications, including the brown journal of world affairs, international journal, in victus pax, peace magazine, peace research, peace review, and policy options. a well-regarded voice in canadian media, she regularly contributes to canada’s hill times and provides expert analysis for outlets such as the postmedia network, ctv television, and cbc radio. her involvement in peace initiatives extends to her leadership roles in the canadian pugwash group, and she also serves as a reviewer for the cimvh and sshrc. dr. simpson’s outstanding contributions to peace research have earned her a number of fellowships, including the alton jones fellowship, barton fellowship, liu institute fellowship, and nato fellowship. in 2015, she received the lifetime achievement award from the voice of women in canada in recognition of her extensive work in peace writing. juneseo hwang is a research associate at the dfg humanities centre for advanced studies, futures of sustainability, at the university of hamburg in germany. he is also a policy consultant specializing in peace and security issues in east asia. his current research emphasizes fostering sustainable peace through the criminalization of ecocide, moving beyond the traditional framework of victors' justice. dr. hwang's notable expertise encompasses peacebuilding, environmental justice, human rights, green criminology, and disarmament. his work has already been published in the journal of contemporary asia and peace review, with contributions forthcoming in the handbook of research on sustainability and governance and may books. his doctoral dissertation, the road not taken: ‘triple transformation’ towards sustainable peace in northern ireland, received the united kingdom political science association's 2022-2023 elizabeth wiskemann prize for the best thesis on inequality and social justice. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 28 references asia-pacific centre of education for international understanding (apceiu). (2024). innovative approaches to global citizenship education in the asia-pacific: dialogue between theory and practice. https://www.unescoapceiu.org/post/5193 blair, b. g., sleight, s., & foley, e. c. (2018). the end of nuclear warfighting: moving to a deterrence-only posture. program on science and global security, princeton university, and global zero. https://sgs.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/2021-02/blair-et-al-2018.pdf bulletin of atomic scientists. (2024, january 23). a moment of historic danger: it is still 90 seconds to midnight. https://thebulletin.org/doomsdayclock/current-time/ dallaire, r., & simpson, e. (2014, may 3). freezing out the nukes: with the arctic expected to become an area of increasing friction, experts see an opportunity to bar nuclear weapons from the region around the pole. sun media. https://lfpress.com/2014/05/01/simpson-with-the-arctic-expectedto-become-an-area-of-increasing-friction-experts-see-an-opportunity-tobar-nuclear-weapons-from-the-region-around-the-pole federation of american scientists. (2023). status of world nuclear forces. https://fas.org/initiative/status-world-nuclear-forces/. government of canada. (2015). truth and reconciliation commission reports. https://nctr.ca/records/reports/ hwang, j. (2025). justice now! a story of the ecocide resistance moments that change the world. (in korean, published by may books). https://product.kyobobook.co.kr/detail/s000215691428 and https://www.zukuenfte-nachhaltigkeit.unihamburg.de/kolleg/newsroom/2025-02-25-book-presentation-juneseohwang.html hwang, y., & hwang, j. (2024). out of fire into the frying pan? the ripple effect of the russia–ukraine war on korean denuclearization. peace review, https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2024.2414031 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.unescoapceiu.org/post/5193 https://sgs.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/2021-02/blair-et-al-2018.pdf https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/ https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/current-time/ https://lfpress.com/2014/05/01/simpson-with-the-arctic-expected-to-become-an-area-of-increasing-friction-experts-see-an-opportunity-to-bar-nuclear-weapons-from-the-region-around-the-pole https://lfpress.com/2014/05/01/simpson-with-the-arctic-expected-to-become-an-area-of-increasing-friction-experts-see-an-opportunity-to-bar-nuclear-weapons-from-the-region-around-the-pole https://lfpress.com/2014/05/01/simpson-with-the-arctic-expected-to-become-an-area-of-increasing-friction-experts-see-an-opportunity-to-bar-nuclear-weapons-from-the-region-around-the-pole https://fas.org/initiative/status-world-nuclear-forces/ https://nctr.ca/records/reports/ https://product.kyobobook.co.kr/detail/s000215691428 https://www.zukuenfte-nachhaltigkeit.uni-hamburg.de/kolleg/newsroom/2025-02-25-book-presentation-juneseo-hwang.html https://www.zukuenfte-nachhaltigkeit.uni-hamburg.de/kolleg/newsroom/2025-02-25-book-presentation-juneseo-hwang.html https://www.zukuenfte-nachhaltigkeit.uni-hamburg.de/kolleg/newsroom/2025-02-25-book-presentation-juneseo-hwang.html https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2024.2414031 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 29 jeju 4.3 peace foundation. (2023). jeju 4.3 peace education program. https://jeju43peace.or.kr kim, d. (2017) building relationships across the boundaries: the peacebuilding role of civil society in the korean peninsula. international peacekeeping, 24(4), 515537. https://doi.org/10.1080/13533312.2017.1314762 kim, d. (2010). the long road toward truth and reconciliation. critical asian studies, 42(4), 525–552. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2010.515387 kim, h. j. (2023). tracing the development of peace and conflict studies in south korea. asian journal of peacebuilding, 11(1), 33-57. https://doi.org/10.18588/202305.00a337 kimball, d. g. (2023). why we must reject calls for a u.s. nuclear buildup. arms control association. https://www.armscontrol.org/act/202311/focus/why-we-must-reject-calls-us-nuclear-buildup nishino, j. 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(2025). unmasking cults: examining the parallels between trumpism and chinmoyism to understand extremism and offer peacemakers’ support. peace review, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2025.2473410 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://jeju43peace.or.kr/ https://doi.org/10.1080/13533312.2017.1314762 https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2010.515387 https://doi.org/10.18588/202305.00a337 https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2023-11/focus/why-we-must-reject-calls-us-nuclear-buildup https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2023-11/focus/why-we-must-reject-calls-us-nuclear-buildup https://doi.org/10.1080/13439006.2019.1652433 https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_217320.htm?selectedlocale=en https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_217320.htm?selectedlocale=en https://doi.org10.1177/00207020221100712 https://www.ploughshares.ca/pages/ploughshares-monitor https://climate.envsci.rutgers.edu/pdf/robocktoonsciamjan2010.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2025.2473410 in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 1-33 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 30 simpson, e. (2024a). nato’s nuclear strategy post russia’s ukraine attack: shaping global nonproliferation talks. peace review, https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2024.2414941 simpson e. (2024b). cutting-edge dynamics of drone technologies: military strategies and peaceful innovations. in factis pax, 18(1), 104–123. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax simpson, e. (2023). addressing challenges facing nato and the united states using lessons learned from afghanistan and ukraine. peace review, 35(2), 347–365. https://doi.org/10.1080/10402659.2023.2204850 simpson, e. (2021). addressing challenges facing nato using lessons learned from canada. brown journal of world affairs, 27(1), 1–28. https://bjwa.brown.edu/27-1/addressing-challenges-facing-nato-usinglessons-learned-from-canada/ simpson, e., & naimpoor, s. (2021, august 12). why buffer zones could combat the ongoing war in afghanistan. hill times. https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2021/08/12/why-buffer-zones-couldcombat-the-ongoing-war-in-afghanistan/269388/ simpson, e. (2018). game theory and peace research: professor anatol rapoport’s contributions. in victus pax: journal of peace education and social justice. 12(1): 38–58. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax/article/view/1015/6 19 simpson, e. (2016). sustainable development goals worth sharing. oida international journal of sustainable development, 9(3), 1. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/politicalsciencepub/130/ simpson, e. (2001). nato and the bomb: canadian defenders confront critics. mcgill-queen’s university press. sinclair, m., sinclair, s., & sinclair, n. j. (2024). who we are: four questions for a life and a nation. mcclelland & stewart. sukin, l. 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(2022, march 10). ‘limited’ tactical nuclear weapons would be catastrophic. scientific american newsletter, 74–81. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/limited-tactical-nuclearweapons-would-be-catastrophic/ toon, o. b., robock, a., turco, r. p., bardeen, c., oman, l., & stenchikov, g. l. (2007). consequences of regional-scale nuclear conflicts. science, 315, 1224–1225. https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1137747 von hippel, d. (2023). implications of the 2022–2023 situation in ukraine for possible nuclear weapons use in northeast asia. journal for peace and nuclear disarmament, 6(1), 87–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/25751654.2023.2201367 united nations. (2015). the 17 goals. https://sdgs.un.org/goals united nations office for disarmament affairs. (2023, november 30). report of the scientific advisory group on the status and developments regarding nuclear weapons, nuclear weapon risks, the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, nuclear disarmament and related issues. tpnw/msp/2023/8. https://disarmament.unoda.org/report-of-thescientific-advisory-group-on-the-status-and-developments-regardingnuclear-weapons-nuclear-weapon-risks-the-humanitarian-consequencesof-nuclear-weapons-nuclear-disarmament-and-relate/ https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/limited-tactical-nuclear-weapons-would-be-catastrophic/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/limited-tactical-nuclear-weapons-would-be-catastrophic/ https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1137747 https://doi.org/10.1080/25751654.2023.2201367 https://sdgs.un.org/goals https://disarmament.unoda.org/report-of-the-scientific-advisory-group-on-the-status-and-developments-regarding-nuclear-weapons-nuclear-weapon-risks-the-humanitarian-consequences-of-nuclear-weapons-nuclear-disarmament-and-relate/ https://disarmament.unoda.org/report-of-the-scientific-advisory-group-on-the-status-and-developments-regarding-nuclear-weapons-nuclear-weapon-risks-the-humanitarian-consequences-of-nuclear-weapons-nuclear-disarmament-and-relate/ https://disarmament.unoda.org/report-of-the-scientific-advisory-group-on-the-status-and-developments-regarding-nuclear-weapons-nuclear-weapon-risks-the-humanitarian-consequences-of-nuclear-weapons-nuclear-disarmament-and-relate/ https://disarmament.unoda.org/report-of-the-scientific-advisory-group-on-the-status-and-developments-regarding-nuclear-weapons-nuclear-weapon-risks-the-humanitarian-consequences-of-nuclear-weapons-nuclear-disarmament-and-relate/ in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 59 volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 it peaces! on the linguistic significance of peacing as activity wolfgang dietrich https://www.esfriedet.at the air here is so heavy with cries for peace. the peace, the peace, where does the peace come from? it doesn't come from mere demanding. it only comes when we do it. 1 abstract 1 heller 1982: vom schrei nach dem frieden ist die luft hier ganz schwer. der friede, der friede, wo kommt nur der frieden her? der kommt nicht vom bloßen fordern, der kommt nur, wenn wir ihn tun. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax http://www.esfriedet.at/ in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 60 this essay asks for the impact of grammar as enframing for the perception, interpretation and praxis of peace. it reflects the urge for a subject in all grammars of european origin since antiquity and discusses the colonizing consequences of the metaphysical peace as a singular in its transcendental context. this noun contrasts with actionand proceeding-oriented understandings of peace in many non-european languages. such post-modern insight called the academic discipline of peace studies decades ago for the understanding of peaces as plural. this essay goes one step further and proposes to peace as a verb also for european grammars. it asks for the possibly de-colonizing and enlightening consequences of such an immanent notion in the still transcendental modern context. keywords to peace as a verb; many peaces; peace grammars; immanence and transcendence; singular and plural. peace and peaces in 2015, i finished the third volume of my many peaces trilogy in its original german version (dietrich, 2008, 2012, 2015). i thought then that with the third volume my opus magnum was written. though the trilogy deviated in content, method and style from the idealistic mainstream of central-european peace research, even its german original has been well received. initially still quiet doubts about whether this trilogy could really be my final contribution to peace research as a transdisciplinary endeavor afflicted me more loudly when the three books started to get translated into further languages. the first translation was into english (dietrich, 2012). the publishing house palgrave macmillan in london was impressed by the text, but the sales & marketing department opposed the publication as a literal translation of the german original title. the plural peaces is not correct in english and a publisher of this standing could not accept grammatically incorrect titles. my argumentation that the unconventional plural would express the book’s main thrust in a single word was not convincing. the debate resulted in a compromise. the experience as such, however, demonstrated that the assumed implicitness in spite of all the explanations between the bookcases is not that implicit at all. namely, that peace is a sensible term only as a sensual perception. the plurality of social relations causes the plurality of peace interpretations. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 61 this experience has been repeated with each further translation up to arabic salamat (dietrich, 2019). i observe students and even colleagues, who follow the lectures on many peaces enthusiastically falling back on peace as a singulartantum in their own texts. this did not make me doubt principally in the applicability of the approach, but it made me search for lacunas in the derivation of my arguments. within the transdiscipline of peace studies such inquiry opens several options. re-reading what i had written almost two decades before, i got fascinated again by the etymology of the term peace in various language games, which was the emphasis of the first volume of the many peaces trilogy, in english titled interpretations of peace in history and culture (dietrich, 2012). the impulse came from my work experience in various cultural contexts, but the inspiration was the reading of jean-françois lyotard (1984). in the light of untranslatable discourses of different language games that are still doomed to coexistence, he asserted, plurality would be the only available theoretical frame for postmodern cognition. he took the term language game from ludwig von wittgenstein (lyotard, 1984, p. 118) in order to describe the formations of discourse that he understood as incommensurable modes of reason. if peace research goes along with lyotard’s argumentation, it follows that the peace as a singulartantum is but an unreachable ideal, a metaphysical imaginary – posed in front of human experience so that the peaces in real social encounters will not be perceived. the peaces are located in the relations between the individual and the common, whereupon the common must not be confused with the universal. the idea of peace, however the essence is defined, cannot persist without a frame-giving narration of the concrete situational, relational and communicative contexts of experience. according to lyotard, totalizing frame narrations do not have integrative legitimacy under postmodern conditions. without the possible reference to such totalizing narration, there is never the peace, true and real, but only a peace. the term peace demands the liberation from the metaphysical stays of the singulartantum, in which european grammars constricted it centuries ago. in this vein, i inquired into the linguistic praxis, and with it, the way of life of different contexts regarding their use of the symbol peace. since language games make only sense within the respective praxis, this must also be true for the interpretations of peace, i assumed. therefore, i expected that the seemingly selfexplaining singulartantum within modern european languages would finally turn out to be a situational and relational plural. this was already sketched in my call for many peaces, first published in 1997 (dietrich/sützl, 1997). it appeared so clear to me that i used and argued the plural for the trilogy. finally, i used it as a vehicle for the tour de force through historical epochs, cultures and language https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 62 games, but i did not dive deeper into the implications of such doing in my own mother tongue. the debates with translators of various languages over and again throw me back onto this topic, which finally demonstrated a lacuna in volume 1. time paves the boulevard of regret with missed opportunities. therefore, i wanted to close this gap before i withdraw from public academic life. i did this in 2021 with the book der die das frieden (dietrich, 2021), only published in german so far. this essay is partly a translation, partly a paraphrasing report or resume of the key message of this book. peace is not the case peace is not the case. it does not manifest itself as an objective quality of world conditions but through perception and interpretation of interpersonal relations and convironmental circumstances. neuroscience explained long ago that human beings are not cartesian subjects who make their experiences, but the total of all their previous experiences make them those who they are in the respective now (damásio, 2006; singer, 2002, p.12; singer, 2003, pp.73–75). existence drafting itself in permanent communication with others principally precedes the essence of being, which can never close in on it. a primordial and therefore formative experience of becoming human is being born into a so-called mother tongue. the question for the ego is the epistemic raster for the cartesian terminology of peace. however, the ego is a linguistic figure who comes notoriously late in its own history. before it can even say i, its language belongs to others. it acquires language by mimesis. the ability to speak a language derives from a specific convironment that addresses the ego before it can express itself. the principal individuation through others catches it without invitation before it could individuate freely. the baby is not born into the world as an essentially given self, as an individual free soul. much more, with all its vital needs it is born from a mix of pre-given relations – the world. it is not born into the world, but from the world and therefore into a language, whose patterns, forms and norms condition its thinking. only from the primary experience of being exposed to such extent grows an ego who claims language as an integrative requirement. language invades the ego and engrafts into it. therefore, the ego as a mental being always expresses itself in a language, not by or through a language. everybody becomes aware of him/herself and the surrounding things in a language. language is the medium of awareness (benjamin, 1977, p.142). the categories in which we are addressed first and then express ourselves define the perception and interpretation of the world – consequently also of terms and values https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 63 such as peace. we understand peace as speakers in the language that is pre-given, and we express ourselves towards others in it. peace cannot be devised abstractly because the grammar of the language, in which it is conceived, preconditions the thought and its content semantically. thus, there is no surprise that after academic exercises of thinking peaces as a plural even enthusiastic audiences return affectively to the use of the singular, which is predominant in all modern languages of european origin. the designator obstructs the perception of the designated. installing the designated within a new, eventually more useful designator requires cumbersome excavation, even if it might at first only mean the shift from the singulartantum to the plural form of the word. despite the emphasis on the interpretations of peace in history and culture in my many peaces trilogy, i obviously did not do enough of what postmodernism calls archeology of peaces. the volume (dietrich, 2012) that drove me as an author, and consequently my audience through thousands of years and around the globe depicted the perambulated peace-sceneries and the respective experiences. but, paraphrasing heidegger, the abundance of the depicted may have concealed the linkage of the semantic enframing, the mode of human existence that allowed me to confront myself with the excavated and assemble it to experience, insight and reality of permanency. peace does not unveil by simple exhibition of the excavated. for being accomplished it requires decoding its enframing. today i presume that precisely this enquiry might be the deeper raison d'etre of peace research as an academic transdiscipline because experience, findings and exhibitions are also subject of traditional disciplines. the particularity of peace research lies in its own enframing. the peace doesn't come from demanding, it only comes when we do it… (heller 1982), because peace is no essence, no object, peace is not the case and not even a noun but only an activity! peacing as the research interest i want to elaborate on now transgresses the concreteness of modern and postmodern interpretations of the peace and the peaces. it opens the perspective on human action within the relational wholeness, that i have called transrational (dietrich, 2012, 2013). transcendence: structuralism and peace the cries for peace probably have made the air heavy ever since human beings existed on earth, but peace research as academic discipline gained its own rights only with the global consternation about the horror of auschwitz and hiroshima, that is, after world war ii. in europe, johan galtung (1930–2024) is usually https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 64 denominated `father of peace studies´, because in 1959 he founded the peace research institute of oslo (prio), which was the first academic institution for systematic research on peace, and in 1964 he created the journal of peace research, the first academic periodical of this discipline (ramsbotham, woodhouse, and miall, 2005, pp. 43–45). the term structural violence that galtung (1969, p. 169) once coined has been discussed so extensively that it is possible to presume that the debate is well known. however, as a starting point his famous definition be quoted once more: structural violence is present when human beings are being influenced so that their actual somatic and mental realizations are below their potential realizations. peace is not only the absence of war, but the absence of structural violence. one of galtung’s repeatedly proven talents was to mold complex topics or theories into simple forms. his definition of structural violence provided orientation and direction for european peace research. on the one hand, the concept of structural violence met powerfully the nerve of its time. on the other hand, it has been criticized for decades because it lifts the metaphysic notion of justice, that no human being can ever define exhaustively, to the core of its research interest, therefore making it transcendental. this implies the temptation to replace the love for god by the love for social justice and thus to worship it like a deity. thereby transcendental dogmatism and methodology may return through the quasi backdoor into the principally immanent thought of enlightenment. in the course of its foundation, european peace research inherited a problem of interpretation by this regress to its christian deep culture. who, if not god, finally decides, and based on what criteria, whether structural violence is the case or not, whether justice is present or absent? the idea that the science could serve as contact point to a higher power beyond the human sphere is, in this context, as tempting as it is dangerous. sciencing as an activity may reflect such questions. the science understood as such an absolute, singularetantic instance contradicts the enlightened self-concept of the permanently unfinished struggle for cognizance, and even worse, it inflates such science to a transcendental deity. prominent authors such as william james, karl popper or richard rorty (1994, p. 185) to name a few, warned of such idealization. the critique, consequently, came from those idealistically enlightened voices who asked for a binding definition of justice, neither rooted in the will of god, nor in the sense of a metaphysical truth, but based on a common resolution of human rationality. galtung had to live with this critique until his postmodern https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 65 repositioning with the concept of cultural violence in the early 1990s, but it was raised even later (for example, riekenberg, 2008, pp. 172–177). the peace is a singulartantum in all modern european grammars and does not denote an essence in any of them. galtung tried to deal with that by defining positive and negative peace, which gained global fame. accordingly, negative peace is the absence of physical violence, and positive peace is the absence of structural violence, that is, injustice. as much as these categories were helpful for the analysis of peace imaginations they roamed within the traditional, transcendental enframing. this becomes obvious if one regards the accordance between galtungs’s definition of the peace and the one offered by the popes john xxiii and paul vi: for peace is not simply the absence of warfare, based on a precarious balance of power; it is fashioned by efforts directed day after day toward the establishment of the ordered universe willed by god, with a more perfect form of justice among men (paul vi, 2009, § 76). positive peace, not being an essence but only the absence of structural violence, transforms the interest of the transdiscipline peace research into a variable of its presumed opposite: violence. calling positive peace an essence, not only an absence, considering and expressing it as a value per se without reference to its presumed opposite hence proves utmost impossible. what appeals simply to the one and only existing god in transcendence turns into a veritable definition problem in immanence. one could argue that physical violence is such a distinct notion that negative peace, defined as its absence, can be unambiguously the case. there might be fair consensus on this if it comes to direct warfare, torture, murder or mutilation. however, the perception and definition of physical violence have changed remarkably since the 1960s regarding, for example, abortion, domestic violence, punishment in educational institutions and residential schools, physical, eventually sexual (#metoo) or racist (#blacklivesmatter) assault, climate issues (#fridaysforfuture), military drills, official acts of police and justice; public lockdowns like the ones in the context of covid and so much more. a peace that has to negotiate how much of that has to be absent in order to be the case remains a delicately vague terminus. this is not doubting galtung’s achievements. it is about the linguistic enframing, from which he could not escape in spite of his impressive multilingualism, because the semantic pattern is a common precondition of all modern languages of european origin. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 66 immanence: systems theories and peace while structuralism served as the epistemic entrance into peace research as a transdiscipline in europe, general systems theory did the same in the usa. the term and the mode of thought came with ludwig von bertalanffy (1901–1972) during his two year stay at stanford university in 1954/55. the first topic of the then-founded center for advanced study in the behavioral sciences was the analysis and resolution of conflicts, which gave the direction for its further development. with the aim of overcoming the isolation and specialization of academic disciplines they founded the trans-disciplinary society for general systems research. the founding generation of peace studies in the usa varied from their european counterparts by rather relational-communitarian than individualisticliberal concepts, which is partly explained by the approximation via general systems theory. from that natural rather than social scientific origin follows an immanent rather than transcendental view, though many of founding generation came from christian peace churches such as the quakers, the mennonites or the doukhobor. conflicts, according to them, reside in communication (ruesch & bateson, 1951). this sounds simple today, but it was revolutionary in its time, when they presumed that all elements of social systems, such as families, neighborhoods, companies, states, federations, unions, and the like, are permanently interconnected via processes of communication, wherein feedback loops would determine the condition and behavior of each individual element. consequently, a system is a wholeness of interacting elements, where the random change of just one element causes the change of all the others. they presumed that human behavior and condition to the extent of mental and somatic illness can only be understood by regarding the societal frame of reference. for peace studies this provided a crucial fundation for understanding human beings, relations, communication and conflict. individual and collective wellbeing, peace, would result when the system communicated towards a balance of body, mind and society. if this balance gets permanently lost in one way or the other, physical and mental illness and interpersonal conflicts are the consequence. the embedding of general systems theory into various scientific and ideological contexts resulted in a differentiation that recommends the use of the plural also in this case. better do not speak of the systems theory but rather say a systems theory and explain in detail what you mean. in social sciences, systems are not empirically evident truths but models based on a series of presumptions on the systems’ boundaries and their permeability. since those can be rather deliberately https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 67 set, a priori presentation of the motivation, the perspective of modelling and the characteristics of presumptions are methodologically compulsory in this form of analysis. in peace research, systems are usually imagined as open and holistic. analyzing and operating in and with systems perceives being immanent to existence (heidegger, 2010, p. 12). the beginnings of peace research coincide with the boom of broad scientific doubt in the transcendental world view of plato and descartes. even more, those postmodern doubts only raised the call for a separate discipline researching peace as a basic human value, which should achieve new insights based on new paradigms. the immanent interpretation of general systems theory played a prominent role here. in other words, since life is holistically designed as an open system of synergetic organizational units in material exchange with their convironment, there is no transcendental beyond, no kingdom of god, no paradise and no doomsday at the end of history. therefore, there is no creator god hierarchically superior to the world. there is no creator behind creation. all individual beings are emanations, expressions of existence. each synorganized organizational unit, each individual, in exchange of material with its convironment is an expression of universal existence. gilles deleuze made this central topic of his postmodern philosophy and resumed the principle briefly in his very last writing (deleuze, 2001, p. 27): immanence is not related to some thing as a unity superior to all things or to a subject as an act that brings about a synthesis of things: it is only when immanence is no longer immanence to anything other than itself that we can speak of a plane of immanence. no more than the transcendental field is defined by consciousness can the plane of immanence be defined by a subject or an object that is able to contain it. we will say of pure immanence that it is a life, and nothing else. this liberates peace as a research topic from the stays of the transcendent singulartantum and opens the immanent space for individual and common, but not for universal and totalizing perceptions, truths and realities of peaces. the postmodern critique pointed out the fundamental difference between transcendent and immanent interpretations and applications of system theories, which was highly relevant for the further orientation of peace research. the european and the american peace research did not develop independently despite the different starting points. the pioneer generation was also mobile, communicative, and eager to discuss, as exemplified by kenneth https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 68 boulding‘s twelve friendly quarrels with johan galtung (boulding, 1977, p. 75– 86). among the important ambassadors between continents and approaches was adam curle, who had studied in oxford and served in the british army, before he directed humanitarian projects, founded the harvard center for studies in education and development and finally, in 1973, was appointed the first full professor for peace research in europe, more concretely at the university of bradford (woodhouse and lederach, 2016). with his appointment peace research was fully established and recognized as an academic discipline of its own rights in europe. curle instantly started to work on the profile of this new subject. he confined it from the only somewhat older international relations, which has been founded after world war i, and more general, from political science. of course, curle also regarded their methodologies and state of the arts, but he stated that their canon has to be related and completed with those of at least ethnology and psychology. from curle’s minimum prerequisites for self-aware peace research grew very fast the demand for a transdisciplinary endeavor that would know, master and apply as well as the methods and findings of law, literature and linguistics, philosophy, history, pedagogy, sociology, biology, economy, neuroscience, theatre, music, dance, sports and more (mitchels, 2006, p. 22–38). along with this the question of the academic profile was raised. for curle, a multidisciplinary patchwork of peace-relevant expertise was not enough. neither the interdisciplinary cooperation of experts of neighboring subjects in common studies and projects. he defined peace research, and therefore, academic peace studies as perceiving and practically acting in a context that holistically combines methods, insights and potentials from as many disciplines as possible. the theme related with that assigned in curle’s work to psychology, more concretely to humanistic psychology, a prominent but not a sole importance (curle 1990). like freud in psychanalysis, the founding generation left a rich legacy of innovative methods and new ways of thinking, of handy formulations and suitable neologism for peace research, but they neglected the development of a special language of peace research. therefore, the discipline finds itself linguistically in the subject-oriented tradition of idealistic political sciencing, and hence in an enframing that contradicts its very reason of being. i propose, thus, that sciencing of peaces becomes aware of the colonizing purpose of subject-oriented grammar in all modern languages of european origin and turn therefore to activityand proceeding-oriented speech. if one defines peacing like sciencing as an activity, it becomes obvious that its very nature is the deed as such. the noun and the subject as carriers of notion, whether in singular or https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 69 plural, consequently will be identified as an erroneous symbol of peace. it is neither about study nor about studies, but about studying, that is, neither about peace nor about peaces, but about peacing. however, the grammars of modern european languages are not made for such activityand proceeding-oriented speech. their interpretative options are not systematically investigated. we do not know yet, what difference their consequent application would finally make in the development of theories and in practical conflict work. but is the investigation of yet unknown and testing the uncertain not the noble aim of all sciencing? can peacing be the central theme and epistemic cornerstone of the sociolect of a sciencing that has to help itself more than half a century after its origins, maybe reluctantly but still, with the foreign language of its neighboring discipline? little archeology of the european peace no one less than the author of the first grammar of a modern language in europe, elio antonio de nebrija, gave evidence of the colonial purpose of those rules of grammar. in the prologue to his text, addressed to the catholic queen isabel of castile in 1492, he praised his grammar. its application could not result in anything different but the flourishment of the art of peace under the rule of castile.2 explicitly he expressed his wish to make castilian an instrument of empire: after your highness has subjected barbarous peoples and nations of outlandish tongues with conquest will come the need for them to accept the laws that the conqueror imposes on the conquered, and among them our language; with this work of mine, they will be able to learn it.3 since 1513, the spanish conquerors called out the so-called requerimiento in the castilian language, when they had first contact with indigenous groups. this was the demand for acceptance of the art of the one peace of their transcendental god 2 después de la justicia y essecución de las leies: que nos aiuntan y hazen bivir igual mente en esta gran compañía que llamamos reino y república de castilla: no queda ia otra cosa sino que florezcan las artes de la paz. entre las primeras es aquella que nos enseña la lengua. (acan, 2024) 3 que después que vuestra alteza metiesse debaxo de su iugo muchos pueblos bárbaros y naciones de peregrinas lenguas: y con el vencimiento aquellos ternían necessidad de recebir las leies: quel vencedor pone al vencido y con ellas nuestra lengua: entonces por esta mi arte podrían venir en el conocimiento della como agora nos otros deprendemos el arte de la gramática latina para deprender el latín. (acan, 2024) https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 70 in the form of the christian religion and the recognition of the sovereignty of the castilian queens and kings: if you do so, you will do well, and that which you are obliged to do to their highnesses, and we in their name shall receive you in all love and charity, and shall leave you, your wives, and your children, and your lands, free without servitude […]. but, if you do not do this, and maliciously make delay in it, i certify to you that, with the help of god, we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the church and of their highnesses; we shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey, and refuse to receive their lord, and resist and contradict him; and we protest that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their highnesses, or ours, nor of these cavaliers who come with us.4 since nebrija considered grammar a powerful weapon and history confirmed his view, one has to ask for the mode of construction and the efficacy of such a weapon, because nebrija did not invent something new. he just reinvented something already existing, the manner of speaking of the castilian court, and he elevated it for compulsory and hence imperial deployment. the ingredients for that endeavor were available since antiquity. ever since aristotle’s organon, european languages ascribe the quality of essence exclusively to the noun. philosophizing, according to aristotle, only begins with the possibility of evaluating a statement as correct or incorrect. a noun alone 4 si así lo hicieseis, haréis bien, y aquello que sois tenidos y obligados, y sus altezas y nos en su nombre, os recibiremos con todo amor y caridad, y os dejaremos vuestras mujeres e hijos y haciendas libres y sin servidumbre. […]. y si así no lo hicieseis o en ello maliciosamente pusieseis dilación, os certifico que con la ayuda de dios nosotros entraremos poderosamente contra vosotros, y os haremos guerra por todas las partes y maneras que pudiéramos, y os sujetaremos al yugo y obediencia de la iglesia y de sus majestades, y tomaremos vuestras personas y de vuestras mujeres e hijos y los haremos esclavos, y como tales los venderemos y dispondremos de ellos como sus majestades mandaren, y os tomaremos vuestros bienes, y os haremos todos los males y daños que pudiéramos, como a vasallos que no obedecen ni quieren recibir a su señor y le resisten y contradicen; y protestamos que las muertes y daños que de ello se siguiesen sea a vuestra culpa y no de sus majestades, ni nuestra, ni de estos caballeros que con nosotros vienen. (bdcs, 2024) https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 71 does not provide that, but at least it denotes a meaning as such. therefore, a sentence necessarily has to contain a noun in order to create a statement. from this follows the `urge´ of the ontological subject for the noun in the indo-european linguistic usage. that is, saying something meaningful about peace requires the enframing of its essence in the form of a noun (elberfeld, 2012, p. 200; jaspers, 1955). this is much more than the individual opinion of a substantial philosopher of antiquity. the specific parlance, in which they unfold, precondition the fundament of aristotle’s formal logics without alternative. not only are the philosophical statements as such deep cultural property and self-conception of europe, but also the enframing on which they are installed. all grammars that followed nebrija build on this precondition. while the noun is but a part of speech, the grammatical subject executes a function in a sentence. not every noun is a subject. however, in modern european languages the subject appears as a noun, so much that the connection of grammatical and ontological subject has become almost a fundamental assumption of meaningful speech. that is, in all these languages the subject is almost always assumed as a person, a thing or a relation of both (elberfeld, 2012, pp. 190-191). a science of peace embedded into such speech necessarily has to make the peace an object that consequently has to be claimed, promoted, achieved, defended or made. the ego is perceived as the responsible maker of the peace. the making legitimates itself by the absence of the singular-only constructed object of desire. even this object made by a subject is linguistically constructed as a noun in order to designate its desired permanence – the perpetual peace! (kant, 1986). this connects with the ancient greek legacy of personal pronouns and definite articles to figures of thought and expression of permanent identity as perpetrator-subjects in history. ancient greek was the only language in its orbit that used the definite but not the indefinite article. only with the help of the definite article can one transfer sensual perception or abstract ideas into a metaphysical essence (elberfeld, 2012, pp. 143–145). for example, only with the help of the definite article one can derive the metaphysical essence of the beauty, the good and the true from the aesthetic sensation that something is beautiful, from the ethical assessment that something is good or the rational conviction that something is true. the definite article fixes the ambiguity, sets it as an essence and transforms a variety of taken-for-true into the metaphysical truth. in this vein, the grammatical availability of the definite article as an assembly tool is the precondition of the semantic conceivability of the peace, which is by far not given in all languages. by the same token, plato could only install the anthropological dualism of the individual free soul as the organ of reason on this enframing. for the prehttps://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 72 socratic thinkers, psychē was spirit conditioned by the existence of a body, a vital soul that lives as long as the body breathes but without being identified with it (galimberti, 2005, p.16). however, plato installed the soul individually, metaphysically and immortally. for him, it existed before and after the body and in nature while destiny was separated from it. because of its individual immortality the soul is entitled to control the ephemeral body. according to plato, the rational soul functions the best when not beclouded by hearing or seeing, neither by pain nor by lust, but when it is totally for itself and not connected with the surroundings. dia-bállein, diabolically separated from the body, this soul perceives itself as mere awareness of itself. plato connects its destiny with its ethical decisions because this soul is able to grasp the metaphysical essences like the beauty, the good and the true (plato, pp. 79–80, pp. 106–107). this diabolic imagination of an empire of spirit and love on the one hand and the empire of flesh and sin on the other finally defined history since the theology of the apostle paul. in 1513, the fifth lateran council codified the immortality of the individual soul as a tenet of faith (galimberti 2005, pp. 26–53). this individuality of the soul unfolds as a principle of occidental anthropology, of the occident as époque and ideology. in this ideology notions determined by reason delimit the boundary of the soul and exclude the potential of any other sense. the soul not only contrasts the body, but the human being is identified with it and the body is reduced to a vehicle of temporary use. the free soul constitutes the occidental ego and thus demands grammars well into modernity in which the syntactic-formal subject is also ontological bearer of the statement. the subject becomes in the course of this development, also and precisely in the syntax of modern speech since enlightenment, connected with the human as a self-ident person, an ego or self, which advances to the absolute subject of the expressed or thought and is able to act freely and self-empowered. transcendence subordinates this absolute subject to the question of correspondence between the mundane life and the laws the beyond, making the good and the evil nameable. here, the good and the evil will not be negotiated relationally, and the world is not good or bad. the good and the bad make the egoness of the subject essential before the metaphysical law of the beyond, before the will of the transcendental god. the subjectand ego-centered structure of speech and thought requires the need for accentuated personal and reflexive pronouns to facilitate everyday communication (kordić, 1999, pp. 125–154; elberfeld, 2012, pp. 78-79). as grammatical instruments they are not indispensable preconditions for a meaningful conversation but being charged by shortened and concealed imaginations of soul, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 73 self and subject they solidify the subject-orientation of european speech. nebrija encountered all of this already existing on the court. his achievement lay in elevating the found linguistic instruments to tools of imperial domination. all of that culminated in descartes (elberfeld, 2012, pp. 190-191). the renowned self-reflection of the ego make the subject the focal point of european speech and thought. the subject, imagined as a person identical with itself, a self, can act free and self-determined. this conscious, individual, perpetual and perceiving subject embraces everything existing (elberfeld, 2012, pp.191). already in 1887, friedrich nietzsche argued enthusiastically against this temptation of language, which understands, and understands wrongly, all working as conditioned by a worker, by a "subject." […] but there is no such substratum, there is no "being" behind doing, working, becoming; "the doer" is a mere appanage to the action. the action is everything (nietzsche, 2006, pp. 2728). disregarding such a call, there is a fair compulsion to the subject (soul) in european languages. sentences without an explicit subject are almost always grammatically wrong. the nominative of the subject noun can at least be found by asking who or what, even if the subject is morphologically implicit in the verb form of the predicate. the peace that is not made by a maker or a group of makers can hardly be described in such speech. it can hardly be expressed. proceeding-oriented language games language not only determines thought, as stated above, but it also advices ideas, or it even evokes them. human speech is based on various and fairly incompatible deep structures. languages that do not dispose of the described above grammatically standardizing body might deal with the perceived situationally, relationally and ambiguously (snell, 1948, p. 208). as early as 1906, bertha von suttner stated in her nobel prize speech that one cannot simply desire or long for peace but that it must be done in order to be real (von suttner, 1906). for peace research, therefore, it might be refreshing to get, at least temporary, some distance from the almightiness of subject-oriented grammar and to engage in interpretations of proceeding-oriented speech. what is the consequence of asking for peace not as a noun but as a verb? the peace evoked by declarative sentences comes from another source than the one built in languages https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 74 that focus on proceedings, situations and relations and do not give that much prominence to the noun. elberfeld (2012, pp. 190–228) analyses in an exemplary, impressive and enlightening manner the respective sentence structures in chinese and japanese, and he warns against the reinterpretation of the different enframing in one’s own categories. when reflecting and translating foreign languages this is an omnipresent temptation. buddhism, for example, detached itself during the axial age (jaspers, 1955) spectacularly from the indo-european tradition of hinduism through the teachings of anātman. meditative praxis analyzed and unveiled systematically the illusionary character of being to the extent of the insight that it is even and precisely the subject that is not of permanent substance. it is only an imagination that emanates from the dynamic interaction of various factors. in anātman, the ontological subject is realized as a proceeding, neither as an ego nor as a soul or a self. the subject cannot be decoded as something tangible or permanent if and because it unfolds only from the proceedings (elberfeld, 2012, pp. 221–223). thus, i am not, i happen! many non-european languages do not know the urge for the subject. if they use the verb as pivot point of expression, they tend to less declarative sentences and more focus on form of events, qualities of performance and relational constellations. they even know meaningful and correct sentences that consist only of verbs. they describe events and situations without the need for an operating subject. this subject is often a linguistic option. its application is not mandatory for each expression. however, even in modern european languages, one can find commonly used and correct sentence constructions with no clear denomination of the ontological subject. some examples: it became dark and cold. there was lightning and thunder. it is allowed to laugh. there was much discussion. in all these examples, the grammatical subject is it or there. the doer behind the deed is not immediately visible. in the first two examples, it or there stands for the vital energy of nature. in transcendental worldviews this is mostly ascribed to deities. when it, in this sense, flashes and thunders, he actually does it: zeus, jupiter, yahweh, thor, or another god thunders. it or there is but an acceptable substitute for the ontological subject. this grammatical observation unveils that the https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 75 psychology of the current debate on climate change might also be mixed with theological aspects, which cause some of the involved fervor and excitement. modern speech actually wants to get by without ultimate reference to god. therefore, naming the doer behind the proceeding is not that easy in this example. scientifically, thunder is a compression wave of condensed molecules that expand under the condition of high air humidity and can be perceived as a loud bang when breaking the sonic barrier. causal but not responsible for this happening is the sudden temperature rise when a flash passes, which results for its part from the electrostatic charging of clouding water droplets. thus, saying that it thunders and flashes is a colloquial simplification of a highly complex system process that does not indicate an individual originator of the phenomenon. not a sane person would claim that the clouds, the water droplets, or the electrostatics purposely do flash and thunder. the it of the third and fourth examples refer to an open group of people. the permission to laugh addresses a present group of natural persons. the passionate discussion characterizes a group of people in a specific temporal and spatial context. however, as networks of relationships these groups are open, neither identified nor limited. the it as a grammatical subject expresses a context that allows us to refrain from the exact definition of the ontological subject. all these examples have in common that these sentences express what happens but not who does it. to emphasize the event as an event, no subject is necessary (elberfeld, 2012, pp. 197-198). this becomes even clearer when a verb in substantivized form functions as the subject of a sentence: mediating of conflicts requires experience. in this case, the proceeding as such is the grammatical subject, while the ontological subject remains unnamed and exchangeable. the mediator behind the mediating is as irrelevant to the accuracy of the statement as the flash-maker behind the lightening flash. this observation inevitably brings to mind the system theories’ insight that each element of a system constantly influences the direction of the overall dynamics without ever being able to predict or even command them, while it finds itself permanently exposed to the effective power of the whole system. homeostasis does not circumscribe stagnation but the floating equilibrium around a pivot point, in which a system must never rest in order to sustain itself. in the flow of this system there are moments, relations and situations that expose some elements to pressure and stress. individually they will perceive that as more or less comfortable, but the essential ideal condition beyond this happening would be nothing but the death of the system. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 76 modern european languages are characterized to a considerable extent by transcendentally designed individual subject nouns, but they do not exclude statements about immanent interdependencies completely. this allows for the conception and investigation of the dynamics of natural and social systems. from this follows the conscious perception of the floating dynamics of social realities that denominate, in their language games, situationally and relationally, more or less bearable contexts as sort of peacing. precisely because the situations and relations in living systems have to change constantly the respective language games have to enframe the peaces as a plural if they are brought into the form of a noun at all. this may appear unbearable for the transcendental dogma, but i tried to demonstrate that it is not completely alien even to this enframing. from all of that follows the possibility to talk in subject-less but still meaningful sentences of peacing alike snowing, raining, storming or laughing or discussing. naming the grammatical subject is not necessary in natural and social systems because from the technical point of view it cannot be defined at all. natural phenomena like raining, snowing, lightening, thundering, dawning, cooling are of an event character and do not allow the identification of an active or passive subject. these are processes that explain and satisfy themselves. peace research is usually about relations of social character. in social relations, it is possible that it peaces in subject-less or subject-open clauses because the focus of the research interest is rather on the quality of proceedings than on perpetual truths, causers or perpetrators. for the sake of clarity, subject-oriented grammars urge for the distinct denomination of the actively and passively involved in a happening, while proceeding-oriented speech rather expresses the phenomenon in subject-less clauses. the proceeding-oriented research question for positive peace hence does not ask for an essence, and even less for an absence, but for a proceeding, a context that peaces. there are myriad situations and encounters in the world every day that would say, in a meaningful manner, that it peaces if the enframing only allowed it. however, since the subject-oriented syntax does not foresee such statement, the very perception has to be circumscribed as it is peaceful, it prevails peace or even peace prevails. the translation from proceeding-oriented grammar into subjectoriented demonstrates how this statement, so central to peace research, loses meaningful expression to the extent that the noun gains prominence until, in the end, one says that a singularetantic absence, promoted to the subject, prevails. this is but a martial empty formula, which raises the question of what people who talk this way know about peacing. subject-oriented grammar creates a world of perpetrators and victims who have to justify their very existence through the activity of a metaphysic creator god. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 77 the obvious presence and absence of their subjects who are linguistically constructed as everlasting entities require the imagination of an ephemeral world and an eternal beyond. the individual free souls of perpetrators and victims transcend the boundaries of perishability and eternity, according to this idea, without losing their subject character. this imagination on its part necessitates an explanatory narrative that constructs those souls and even the creator god himself as acting subjects of eternity, because this enframing does not know subject-less and still correct statements. the epistemological question within this enframing is: who is responsible, merited or guilty? proceeding-oriented grammar can build subject-less statements correctly and therefore does not need transcendence, indeed it does not even permit it, because for this enframing everything that is happening, all contexts and relations of subjects are necessarily immanent to one undividable world. the obvious presence and absence of subjects in proceedings are not conceived as essential because everything and everybody emanates from this undivided world and consequently transforms, but nothing and nobody transcends into whatsoever beyond. the epistemological question within this enframing is: what has happened? conclusion: it peaces! peacing, which does not come from mere demanding, is no object that could be held, aspired, achieved, defended or lost. neither the peace nor the peaces. this suggests that a speech based on demanding is inappropriate in the context of peacing. because nobody is able to satisfy such demand, the call for peace as such reinforces the condition that it seeks to overcome. it confirms the linguistic enframing, from which those forms arose. even if peace is not an essence but `only´ an activity, the preconditions and contexts, the attitudes and styles, the techniques and methods, the results and interpretations of this activity can be explored scientifically. one can research the logics and characteristics of this activity systematically, communicate the results intersubjectively and test them based on the methodology of various disciplines. if peace research understands itself in this manner, it naturally does not deal with a big absence, not with a singularetantic essence, not with ethical universalism, nor with a transcendental ideal. it does not stop with wittgenstein’s or lyotard’s https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 78 multitude of language games, but it turns towards the dynamics, relations and encounters of all beings, the proceedings in existence. references asociación cultural antonio de nebrija (acan): la gramática de la lengua castellana de 1492, redactado por juan lópez de palacios. https://web.archive.org/web/20100510193155/http://www.antoniodenebrij a.org/indice.html (1.3.2024) benjamin, w. 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(2008): deutungen (= variationen über die vielen frieden/1); wiesbaden: springer. dietrich, w.(2011): elicitive konflikttransformation und die transrationale wende der friedenspolitik (= variationen über die vielen frieden/2); wiesbaden: springer. dietrich, w. (2012): interpretations of peace in history and culture (= many peaces/1); london: palgrave.macmillan. dietrich, w. (2013): elicitive conflict transformation and the transrational shift in peace politics (=many peaces/2); london: palgrave macmillan. dietrich, w. (2015): elicitive conflict mapping (= variationen über die vielen frieden/3); wiesbaden: springer. dietrich, w. (2019): تالیوأت مالسلا يف خیراتلا ةفاقثلاو [tawilat alsalam fi altarykh wa althaqafa] (= salamat 1); baghdad: al amal. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://web.archive.org/web/20100510193155/http://www.antoniodenebrija.org/indice.html https://web.archive.org/web/20100510193155/http://www.antoniodenebrija.org/indice.html https://web.archive.org/web/20070501102909/http://www.ciudadseva.com/textos/otros/requeri.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20070501102909/http://www.ciudadseva.com/textos/otros/requeri.htm in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 79 dietrich, w. (2021): der die das frieden. nachbemerkung zur trilogie über die vielen frieden; wiesbaden: springer. elberfeld, r. (2012): sprache und sprachen. eine philosophische grundorientierung. freiburg: verlag karl alber. galimberti, u. (2005): die seele. eine kulturgeschichte der innerlichkeit. vienna: turia & kant. galtung, j. (1975): strukturelle gewalt, beiträge zur friedensund konfliktforschung. reinbek: rowohlt. galtung, j. (1969): violence, peace and peace research. in: journal of peace research. vol. 69/1969. pp. 167–191. heidegger, m. (1968): what is called thinking? new york, lomdon: harper & row. heidegger, m. (2010): being and time; new york: state university of ny [first published in german 1927]. jaspers, k. (1955): vom ursprung und ziel der geschichte. frankfurt: fischer. [first published 1949]. kant, i. (1986): zum ewigen frieden. ein philosophischer entwurf. stuttgart; reclam [first published 1795]. kordić, s. (1999): personalund reflexivpronomina als träger von personalität. in: jachnow, h. /mečkovskaja. n. / norman, b. / plotnikov, b. eds.: personalität und person; wiesbaden: springer. lyotard, j. (1984): the postmodern condition: a report on knowledge. (=theory and history of literature, volume 10); minneapolis: university of minnesota press. [first published in french 1979]. mitchels, b. (2006): love in danger. trauma therapy and conflict explored through the life and work of adam curle. charlbury: jon carpenter. nietzsche, f. (2006): on the genealogy of morality: a polemic; new york et al: cambridge university press [first published 1887] paul vi.: populorum progressio – encyclical of pope paul vi on the development of peoples. https://www.vatican.va/content/paulvi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_26031967_populorum.html (5.3.2024) plato (1998): the republic. translated by benjamin jowett. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1497/pg1497-images.html (5.3.2024) plato (1966): phaidon (de animo) https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=plat.+phaedo+57a&redirec t=true (5.3.2024) https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_26031967_populorum.html https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_26031967_populorum.html https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1497/pg1497-images.html https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=plat.+phaedo+57a&redirect=true https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=plat.+phaedo+57a&redirect=true in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 59-80 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 80 ramsbotham, o. / woodhouse, t. / miall, h. (2005): contemporary conflict resolution. cambridge: polity press. riekenberg, m. (2008): auf dem holzweg? über johan galtungs begriff der „strukturellen gewalt“. in: zeithistorische forschungen/studies in contemporary history 5, pp. 172–177. rorty, r. (1979): philosophy and the mirror of nature; princeton: princeton university press. ruesch, j. & bateson, g. (1951): communication – the social matrix of psychiatry. new york: w.w. norton & company. singer, w. (2002): der beobachter im gehirn. essays zur hirnforschung. frankfurt: suhrkamp. singer, w. (2003): ein neues menschenbild? gespräche über hirnforschung. frankfurt: suhrkamp. snell, b. (1948): die entdeckung des geistes. studien zur entstehung des europäischen denkens. ann arbor. von suttner, b. (!906): the evolution of the peace movement. nobel lecture, delivered in the hals brothers concert hall, april 18th 1906. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1905/suttner/lecture/ (march 5th 2024) wittgenstein, l. (2001): philosophische untersuchungen. kritisch-genetische edition. frankfurt: suhrkamp. [first published in german 1953] woodhouse, t. / lederach, j. p. (2016): adam curle. radical peacemaker. stroud: hawthorn press. record heller, andre: nachbemerkung. in: stimmenhören [emi electrola gmbh, wien, lp 7-92246-1/ cd 7 92246 2] 1982. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1905/suttner/lecture/ in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 160 volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 wars, trees and the struggle for peace syed sikander mehdi sikandermehdi2025@yahoo.com & sikander.mehdi@gmail.com people who will not sustain trees will soon live in a world that will not sustain people bryce nelson abstract the historical, spiritual, environmental and humanistic properties of trees are recognized worldwide. as a matter of fact, the recognition of their value as an asset to the entire humanity has increased with the passage of time. their importance has been highlighted not only by the holy books and spiritual leaders of different religions but also by the story tellers, poets, novelists, painters, film makers, medicine manufacturers, and environmental activists. with the growing awareness of the causes and consequences of climate change, proliferating scientific studies https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax mailto:sikandermehdi2025@yahoo.com mailto:sikander.mehdi@gmail.com in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 161 have been projecting tree plantation and forestation as an existential need. however, the ruination of trees due to wars and violence doesn’t seem to have received as much global attention as it should have. perhaps it won’t be an exaggeration to say that a comprehensive peace perspective on the trees hasn’t been fully developed yet. the destruction of hundreds of thousands of trees in wars and violence are rarely noticed, and voices affirming that the trees also have a right to life and protection in wars and warlike situations as humans are supposed to have are still very mute. this paper discusses the sufferings of the trees as wars victims. it emphasizes the need for a worldwide campaign in favor of the basic rights of the trees and asks as to how can the campaign for the rights of the trees be converted into a powerful agency and how can the worldwide struggle for peace benefit from such an agency. key words: violence against trees; peace trees and their stories; climate change; bodhi peace trees; hiroshima peace trees; new international peace movement and trees introduction the commonality between humans and trees is striking. both are living beings; both have a strong sense of community living and community – building; and both enjoy giving and sharing and promoting common good. likewise, both have a long history of suffering neglect, vulnerability, genocide and ruination in wars and war-like situations. what differentiates one from another is the fact that while concerned people all over the world talk about the fundamental rights, including the right to life and peace, for the humans, not many talk about the fundamental right of the trees for life and peace. again, voices of the humans are often heard, recorded, documented and channeled into organized mass movements against war, violence, militarism and extremism, voices of the grieving trees have generally remained unheard and least attended to. not many listen to the painful and angry voices of the trees caught in the midst of war and violence, and fewer raise their voice in support of the fundamental rights of the trees. true enough that the chipko movement was launched in 1973 in india to resist commercial logging and deforestation (pathak, 2020). as a grassroots activism where the villagers embraced trees to prevent their felling, it did draw global attention toward the insecurity of trees. likewise, the green belt movement, started in 1977 in kenya under the leadership nobel peace laureate wangari maathai, to boost environmental conservation and empower women through tree planting drew the attention of the people toward the power and powerlessness of https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 162 trees. again, a number of studies have also highlighted the importance of largescale tree plantation for climate protection (bonan, 2023). these and several other initiatives have considerably aroused interest in the past, present and future of trees in international discourses. however, it is generally in the context of environmental debates and scientific investigations that some space has been provided to the trees on the margins of climate change debates. similarly, the studies on destructions caused by war and violence usually focus on destructions caused to the humans and infrastructure of affected countries. even the studies and research reports on damages inflicted on trees and forests usually discuss the impact in the context of regional and global ecosystems (smith, 2017; martin, 2023). interestingly enough, a crucial issue an issue central to the fundamental rights of the trees and asking for urgent attention and solid response is usually evaded, bypassed or lightly dealt with by such studies and campaigns. the issue, in brief, is this: why should the trees be destroyed and massacred in war and violence when they do nothing to instigate, ignite or escalate war and violence between and within the states; and why aren’t the grievances of the trees expressed much more loudly and emphatically in the un and other international forums, where the issues of war and violence are discussed regularly. to be fair, one may perhaps add that well – researched, fully focused, and path breaking studies on the right of the trees to life, protection and growth and on the peace teaching, peace promoting, and peacebuilding capacity, potential, and role of the trees are still awaited. this paper is a modest attempt in this direction. it focuses on the issues mentioned above. while it appreciates the recent campaigns to grow more trees everywhere to counter the threats to local, national and international ecosystems, it aims to move beyond the usual discussion on trees in the context of environmental degradation and insecurity. it concentrates on the wider and somewhat neglected or unhighlighted issues like the militarization of trees and their annihilation in war and violence and their right to life and peace. divided into three parts, the first discusses the age old practice of using trees for military purposes and destroying the trees in wars and violence; the second offers glimpses from the peace history of trees; and the concluding part emphasizes the need to highlight the peace history and memory of trees and explore the likelihood of a more robust and impactful role of trees in the struggle for peace in these exceptionally challenging, tormenting and dangerous times. militarizing and weaponizing trees https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 163 most wars, like most ecological upheavals and deadly diseases, usually do not occur all of a sudden. they take time to explode. what is more unfortunate is the fact that the ruination of the humans and trees are often preventable. furthermore, the decision to go to war is usually taken by a handful of people at the helm of affairs not more than a few dozens. such a list may include the leader at the top, his close associates involved in policy making and implementation, some officials enjoying higher positions in the government and in the military, some businessmen, and some warrior religious leaders, intellectuals and journalists. after taking the decision for going to war and plunging into the war, the war is sold to the common people in the name of national honor, national unity, national interest and national security. the common people with no role in the decision-making process are then prepared to suffer the short term and long term consequences of wars. similarly, a large number of lower ranking combatants on both the sides having nothing to do with the decision to go to war are lured into the war, and brutally used as canon fodders. in the same way, the trees are used as canon fodders and disposable commodities in wars though no apology is ever offered for killing and amputating the trees in the wars. at the end of the day and irrespective of who wins or who loses, both the combatants and civilians and the trees and forests and deserts and agricultural lands and industries and roads – on both the sides pay the price for the decision of a few dozen war mongers and war igniters, and the humans and the ecosystems go on paying the price for a long time. the use of trees for military purposes and their annihilation in wars and violence are generally little noticed or discussed and rarely regretted or collectively resented and openly condemned. violence done to the trees are, at best, viewed as a sort of normal practice and the argument put forward is usually very simplistic. it may be summarized thus:’ however unfortunate all this may be, these things had happened in the past and these will continue to happen in the future’. there is clearly a need to hotly contest such a fossilized viewpoint on all forums and launch a campaign for the right of the trees to life, protection and peace as part and parcel of the ongoing struggle against war, militarism and arms trade. that the trees and forests have always been used for military purposes is a historical fact. it cannot be denied or contested. at the beginning of human settlement on the planet earth, sticks made out of the branches of strong and durable trees, along with stones, were the weapons to be used to repel group assaults and stave off the deadly animals. with the passage of time, new wooden weapons were designed, improvised and fashioned into clubs, spears, slings, bows and arrows and such weapons and their improved versions dominated warfare for a long time. it is estimated that the bows and arrows, which were first used in asia as a military weapon for more than 2500 years, changed the character of armed conflict https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 164 worldwide and it is considered to be the most devastating killer of men in history (hurley, june 1, 2011). wood constituted a vital part of this weapon, and it was acquired by cutting the branches of strong and durable trees on a large scale. with the advent of the metal weaponary a few thousand years ago and that of bronze weapons about 5,000 years ago and iron perhaps 3,400 years ago, the use of wood for making new weapons somewhat decreased in stages but not totally abandoned as wood was still needed for new weapons like the shafts of bronze-pointed spears. furthermore, besides weapons, warfare always required logistic and transport support and for all these wood was required. as a matter of fact, throughout history, warfare impacted on treescapes in different and often catastrophic ways and trees and forests were used as military resources and as terrain (rotherham,march 2024). the demand for wood increased manifold when the chariot warfare began. covering a span of 1,000 years and the vast landmass between egypt and britain in the west and china in east – in the areas wherever skills, horses and wood could be arranged together the chariot warfare required the cutting of strong and durable trees in very large numbers. likewise, and until the beginning of the use of concrete in the 20th century, wood was abundantly used for about 9,000 years for building forts and shoring up defense preparedness on the borders of the empires and states and around conquered territories in particular (mcneill, july 2024). while the modernization of weapon systems and induction of highly sophisticated and lethal weapons especially since early twentieth century may seem to have reduced dependency on the military use of trees to some extent, it also unleashed new vulnerabilities and insecurities for the trees. here one may refer to the use of camouflage trees. the french painter lucien victor guirand de scevola and leader of the french army’s section de camouflage is considered to be one of the inventors of military camouflage along with eugene corbin and painter louis guingot. at the start of the war in september 1914, de scevola, who was then serving as a second class gunner, experimentally camouflaged a gun emplacement around a painted canvas screen. soon after, the idea was taken up by the french army quite seriously. its military use was expanded and it was operatioanalized on a wider scale. de scevola was made the commander of the french camouflage corps and a number of cubist artists were employed. by 1917, his team had grown into 3,000 and camouflage trees were in full action in different war theatres. meanwhile, other warring states involved in the war also introduced the camouflage trees in their military planning and operations. commonly described as a replica of battledamaged tree, a camouflage tree served as a military observation post. to build such a tree, a military artist would first of all select a tree to sketch in no man’s land. subsequently the sketch was ‘used to build an exact hollow replica with a https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 165 steel core’ and under ‘the cover of darkness, the original tree would be cut down and the new metal tree put in its place’ (nelson, april 20, 2024). in other words, for each camouflage tree erected, a living tree was put to death. massacring and ruining the trees along with the weaponization of trees, the massacre of trees has also continued for a long time. however, since the introduction of air war from the first world war on and the intensification and spread of guerrilla warfare soon after the second world war, the massacre of the humans and trees has reached new heights. there is no denying the fact that no war is nonkilling. all wars – land wars, naval wars and air wars and religious wars, tribal wars, civil wars, guerrilla wars, and wars of terror and wars on terror kill and overkill the humans and convert the habitats including natural ecosystems and also towns and cities into killing fields and wastelands. among them, air war is perhaps the deadliest for the humans and trees and forests. in the form of death and destruction, the bomb was dropped for the first time in the history of warfare from an italian airplane on an oasis outside tripoli in libya on november 1, 1911 (lindqvist 2001). a year later in 1912, first woman nobel peace laureate bertha von suttner wrote prophetically about the barbarization of sky and warned against the potential for aerial warfare and its devastating consequences (van den dungen, 2024: 150), but the military airplanes carrying death and destruction were put to savage action during the first world war. in short, the invention of new weapons and enhanced lethality of these and other weapons and application of newer and more lethal war strategies and tactics resulted in mass killing of the humans and large – scale destruction of infrastructures. in addition, the lands hosting, nurturing and nourishing the trees and forests were converted into vast landmasses of charred and amputated trees and forests. take, for example, the trench warfare that destroyed the french farmland and countryside. according to philip swintek of fordham university, the ‘damage in some areas was so severe that the affects can still be seen today’. he adds: ‘specifically, in the battle of the somme, over 250,000 acres of farmland were so severally destroyed that they were deemed unfit for agriculture. additionally, 494,000 acres of french forest were destroyed as a result of direct conflict during the war’ (2006: 4). however, no lessons were to be learnt in france or elsewhere in europe and beyond, and subsequently the lust for war, resources and power drove the world into second world war in 1939. this war was more deadly and savage than the previous world war for the humans and the trees. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 166 during the second world war, the german and italian bombings as well as bombings by the allied powers caused the death of hundreds of thousands of combatants and civilians, huge destruction of the cities, towns and villages and ruination of trees, forests and soils on a massive scale. for quite a while, attempts were made to conceal the details of destructions caused by the atomic bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki and minimize the extent of destruction caused by the allied forces. thus the aerial bombings by the germans on madrid in the autumn of 1936, of guernica, of warsaw and of rotterdam, the london blitz, and burning of coventry were usually spotlighted and the subsequent more devastating attacks unleashed from the sky by the allied forces on the germans, italians and later on the japanese were defended as legitimate military actions (maier ,september 2005: 429-430). however, well – researched studies on the second world war have begun appearing slowly and the number of serious works has increased manifold during the last seventy years or so. as a matter of fact, studies, research reports, conference proceedings, theses authored to obtain higher research degrees, memorial lectures and biographies revolving around the second world war are available in abundance today. these discuss the causes of the outbreak of the war, highlight the distinguishing features of the weapon systems and variety of weapons employed, war strategies and tactics used by different warring parties, and offer critical assessment of the vision, caliber and courage of the leading political and military leadership actively involved in war planning and war campaigns. likewise, a number of studies focus on wartime diplomacy to keep the coalitions intact and strong, explore ways and means to help the partners in different war theatres, negotiate the knitty gritty of settlement for sharing the war booties and designing a road map to build a new world order. in addition, there are studies focusing on the territories gained or lost by the warring parties and power and prestige gained or lost by them. however, studies focusing on the effects of the war on environment and on global and regional ecosystems are not many and those focusing on the ruination of trees and forests in the war are fewer. the situation seems to be somewhat changing. in the recent years, a few good works on warfare and environment have appeared. among these, one may mention the long shadows: a global environmental history of the second world war. published in april 2017. it is considered to be the first book devoted exclusively to the profound and lasting impact of the second world war on global environments and discusses issues relating to polar, temperate and tropical ecological zones. it is an edited book and it carries several good papers on related issues. one of the chapters is on the costs of the second world war for the soviet union. at one place, the author says (josephson, 2017): https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 167 the german armies attacked the soviet union on june 22, 1941. they rapidly overwhelmed soviet forces, destroyed much of the existing soviet air force on the ground, and captured millions of soldiers as the blitzkrieg moved toward leningrad, moscow, the don river and the caucasus. ultimately, they overran approximately 850,000 square kilometers of territory. as the soviet armies retreated early in the war, they adopted a scorched earth policy, leaving behind fields of stubble and smoldering forests, and they dynamited buildings and factories. the german soldiers continued the war by stripping what was left, surrounding and starving leningrad, approaching the outskirts of moscow and reaching stalingrad, where a horrific battle of block-to-block fighting left only rubble. virtually no trees remained. toward the end of the war, their supply lines destroyed, those nazi armies that managed to flee the pursuing red army stripped bare what was left in the war zone. world war ii had long – term, wide ranging impacts across a vast swath of the european soviet union. among the countries directly and actively involved in warfighting during the second world war, the soviet union was doubtless the most critically affected. it suffered the greatest number of casualties in the war. it lost more than 20 million humans also identified as citizens. this figure is about one third of all casualties suffered in the war. the soviet union also suffered widespread destruction of infrastructure, economic collapse, devastation of ecosystems and annihilation of trees and forests. however, several other countries including france, germany, uk, poland, and japan also suffered large – scale humankilling and huge infrastructural and environmental devastations. for example, during a few hours in the early hours of march 10, 1945, approximately 300 b -29 bombers dropped incendiary bombs on the city of tokyo, causing a massive firestorm, killing 90,000 to 100,000 human beings and converting thousands of trees into scorched ghosts. worse still, the atom bombs, dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki on august 6 and 9, 1945, killed humans in hundreds of thousands and destroyed infrastructures, and a large number of trees and parks of the two cities. while post-1945 north american and european states haven’t gone to another big war between and among themselves, a number of third world countries have suffered deadly wars. these include the korean war, the wars fought in vietnam, cambodia, and laos, between india and pakistan, israel and the arab countries, iran and iraq, iraq and kuwait and so on. in addition, the us military invasion of afghanistan and iraq, russian military invasion of ukraine, and israeli military invasion of gaza and the west bank and genocide in gaza and many other https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 168 wars fought in africa and latin america have caused wholesale destructions. the costs of these wars in terms of casualties and economic loss, destruction of infrastructure and ruination of trees, forests, farmlands, and water resources are enormous. for example, the vietnam war, which had continued in stages from 1946 to 1975, was disastrous for the vietnamese people and their country in particular. for eight years – from 1946 to 1954 – the french indochina war was unleashed on vietnam by france. this war was diplomatically, financially and materially supported by the us. after the withdrawal of the french forces in 1954, the us moved in. the war between the most powerful military power on earth and a war devastated and militarily far, far weaker country ensued. this war that devastated, impoverished and divided a southeast asian country continued from 1954 till the withdrawal of american forces from vietnam in 1975. during this period and especially from 1960s to mid-70s, the us unleashed ferocious military power to terrorize the vietnamese people and force the defiant government of ho chi minh to agree to a peace settlement on american term. this wasn’t acceptable to the hanoi government. as such, the deadlier phase of war ensued between a super power and the vietnamese guerrilla forces fighting a guerilla war mainly in the jungles and countryside areas, which caused massive ruination of the country and its resources. since the forests of vietnam had emerged as major battlefields, these became the major targets of us military power. according to a study on the environmental consequences of war, the trees and jungles of vietnam were trampled and destroyed by the us in different ways. the study says that in order to advance, the infantry was provided ‘rome plows’, powerful bulldozers that could grub up forests and crops. it adds that a ‘ special six ton bomb, the daisy cutter, was also developed, with a shock wave that could instantly create zones for helicopter landing in the middle of the jungle’. referring to the use of geography and environment sciences to make war, it pointed out that an ‘estimated 85 per cent of the ammunitions used by the us army were targeted not at the enemy but at the environment sheltering them: forests, fields, cattle, water resources, roads and dykes’. it further said: ‘ noting the inability of incendiary bombs and napalm to destroy the humid vietnamese forests, the us army finally sprayed defoliants developed from agricultural herbicides (monsanto’s ’agent orange’), the mutagenic effects of which on the human population still persist nearly half a century after the end of the war’. this report estimated that 70 million litres of herbicide were sprayed between 1961 and 1971, contaminating 40 per cent of vietnam’s arable land, while the country also lost 23 per cent of its forest cover (bonneuil & fressoz, february 18, 2016). despite the large-scale human killing, destruction of infrastructure, ruination of the ecosystem and increasing https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 169 deglorification of war by the peace scholars in particular, wars haven’t ceased to occur after the first world war, second world war, korean war, vietnam war and other wars that followed. it has kept on returning and causing havoc and horror. to firmly resist the initiation of war by any state or armed groups on any pretext and denouncing the idea of militarily solving any conflict within the state or across the borders and beyond, the consequences of war for the humans, infrastructures and natural habitats need to be highlighted all the time and the painful stories of victims of wars the humans, infrastructures, natural habitats including trees and forests told and retold in the class rooms, on television channels and through social media. in addition, the peaceful role of the trees in humans’ life and its relevance and importance in the global struggle for peace need to be projected. trees and peace throughout history, trees have been treated as humans have been treated. on the one hand, all religions, cultures and societies regard human life inherently valuable, and on the other, the humans are massacred in large numbers in wars and violence. similarly, the trees are revered but brutally ruined and destroyed in wars and violence. in some religions and cultures, the reverence is so deep and so profound that the trees are worshipped. for instance, in the indianorigin religions like hunduism, buddhism and jainsim, the groves of five trees banyan, peepal, amla , ashoka and bell – are treated as especially significant, and in animist beliefs, trees are seen as living beings with a life force. by and large, the trees are looked at with gratitude in all societies for the benefits they provide selflessly. an idea of the silent but peaceful and impactful role the trees play in our life and thinking and daily life can be gauged by referring to tree – related proverbs and inspirational quotes in circulation in different societies. a number of them carry profound meaning and wisdom and inspiration, and hint at the peace role of the trees. some proverbs and quotes taken randomly from different online sites include: ‘ the creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn’(ralph waldo emerson) ; ‘ he who plants a tree, plants a hope’ (lucy larcom); ‘ like a tree, be grounded, yet reach for the sky’(wangari maathai); ‘a society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit’(greek proverb); the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. the second best is now (chinese proverb); ‘trees are like the veins of our planet, carrying the life blood of the air, water and wildlife around ‘ ( julia hill); ‘ until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven’t done a thing. you are just talking’ (wangari maathai); ‘ it will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 170 more trees’ (george eliot); ‘ you can’t have the fruits without the roots’ (stephen covey); ‘ a fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees’ (william blake); ‘ autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower’ (albert camus); ‘ hope is the tree that holds the world’ (pliny); ‘ a tree never hits an automobile except in self – defense’ (woody allen); and khalil jibran’s immortal quote – ‘ trees are poems that the earth writes upon sky’. one may go on quoting hundreds of proverbs and quotes to show the closeness of relations between the humans and trees. likewise one may refer to a number of poems, stories, paintings and movies revolving around trees. however, what is intriguing is the fact that the peacefulness and peaceful role of trees are not highlighted as powerfully as they deserve. nor is a sort of collective anger unleashed against the annihilation and ruination of trees in wars and violence. it is really intriguing because the peaceful character and peace role of trees is significant enough. for instance, a tree provides shelter to all. it is not bothered about the nationality, religion, profession, social, economic and political status, and the gender of those who rest under its shades. neither is it racist nor a follower of a particular political thought. it embraces people of all races, languages, cultures and political thought. again, a tree is never revengeful. it provides fruits to all, even to those who throw stones at it. the remarkable peacefulness of the trees can be further highlighted by referring to the twin but totally opposed concepts of ‘net’ and ‘nest’. there is a world of difference in the meaning and function of net and nest. net is a trap laid by power. it is the weapon of the schemer, targeter, chaser, hunter, cager, and destroyer of ideas, dreams and freedoms. nest, on the other hand, is a cradle, a sanctuary, a kingdom of peace, security and happiness, where especially the mother bird takes care of the little ones, feeds them, sings the songs of love and joy into their ears, tells them the stories of life and its struggles, and cautions them against the lurking dangers and about those hiding in the dark and moving their colorful nets to attract the potential victims, invite them, catch hold of them and imprison them. in due course, the little ones learn how to fly and then they fly one day into the vastness of the blue sky and finally they look for a nest where they could produce little birds and feed them and play with them without any fear (mehdi, 2000: 83-84). it is the trees who provide heaven to the birds without any discrimination, and they don’t charge any fee for their marvelous services. they try to hide the birds and especially the little ones from snakes snaking in from different directions, from the wild animals and from the hunters with their nets. the trees ensure that the nests within their bosom serve as safe heavens to the birds and their children and shield them from the scorching sun, heavy rain, strong winds and floods and other dangers. as a matter of fact, a kingdom of peace is established in every nest hosted by the trees. these life – giving and life – saving trees are charred https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 171 into ashes when war arrives and spreads its wings. then no loud voices are raised, no protest marches organized, and no movement is launched to protect the trees from war and violence and punish the warriors who destroy these trees. while all the trees are inherently peace trees, some possess significant historical importance. among these, the peepal (ficus religiosa or banyan) tree, popularly known as the bodhi tree or wisdom tree stands out as a highly revered peace tree in the world. it is said that lord buddha sat mediating under the tree for seven weeks without food or water, and after attaining enlightenment he ‘ spent seven days standing in front of the tree gazing at it with gratitude’ (hussain, september, 2019). originating from here and spreading out in different parts of india, nepal, sri lanka, china and beyond, buddhism influenced the politics, cultures and religious thoughts as a theology of liberation and peace. that’s why this tree is also known as mahabodhi tree or the tree of great awakening. the mahabodhi tree, one may add here, refers to an existing tree growing at the mhabodhi temple complex in bodh gaya in the indian state of bihar, and it is believed to be a direct descendent of the original tree. this site is said to be the most important of the four main buddhist pilgrim sites in the world. through buddhist teachings, buddhist temples and also through the buddhist and other pilgrims visiting the mahabodhi tree and mahabodhi temple complex, buddha’s message of tolerance and peace were passed on to the succeeding generations for centuries and the messages continue to be passed on. how has the mahabodhi tree survived for such a long time when, according to legend, the original tree was slaughtered three times : first time around 230 bc, when tissarakkhah, the second wife of king ashoka – the greatest peace king of india and the world – destroyed the tree with poisonous medu or mandu thorns out of jealousy; the second time in the second century bc when king pushyamitra sunga, a violent anti-buddhism ruler, ordered for the annihilation of the tree; and the third time in 600 ce when king shashanka ordered for its destruction. by this time buddhism was already in decline. it mainly survived outside india – in tibet, china, nepal, myanmar, sri lanka, the far east and japan(ibid). according to another historical account, the original tree was not preserved in bodh gaya only, but the devotees of buddhism carried the branches of the original tree to far of places and planted them on various locations. it is said that sanghmitra, the daughter of king ashoka, travelled with a branch from the original bodhi tree to anuradhapura in sri lanka, where it is still flourishing as an imposing tree and passing on the buddhist message of peace and tolerance to the succeeding generations (mir, december 8, 2021). one may add here that along with the bodhi tree in bodh gaya and the bodhi tree in sri lanka, the bodhi trees in different parts https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 172 of the world are spreading the message of peace and paving the way for peace promotion and peacebuilding. peace trees and peace initiatives though rarely noted and expressed, the trees have always been with the humans in their quest for freedom and passion to resist control of any kind by anyone and to ensure that free will and free spirit will always be very important for the humans. the trees have always been around to encourage the humans to exercise their free will, whatever the cost be and how threatening the circumstances be. the story of such an amazing nature of relationship has a long history. as religious narratives suggest, when adam and eve were created and sent to the garden of eden, trees were also created to let them enjoy the fruits of the trees, rest under their shades and dance around them. however, adam and eve were instructed never to go near the tree of knowledge and evil and eat its fruits, but the curiosity held better of them. they went near the forbidden tree, ate the forbidden fruits and both were expelled from the garden of eden. it was a sort of forced migration and they migrated to the planet earth. soon after, the trees also migrated and the humans and the trees have been living together since then. let it be added here that the trees and forests have been serving for a very long time as sanctuaries for the visionaries, activists, rebels, writers, political leaders and workers, in short for anyone who managed to escape the reach of the hunters, the loyal servants of tyrannical regimes and terrorizing political systems. again, the trees and forests often converted themselves into battlegrounds during the colonizing times, and in post-colonial vietnam, cambodia and laos, in different latin american countries and in many other places against the usurpers and fully sided with the victims of colonialism, apartheid and .foreign military interventions. here one may refer to the big, strong and expansive trees of dhaka university in bangladesh. during the pakistan days from 1947 to 1971, the political meetings of the young students used to be held under these trees. fiery political speeches were delivered under their shades and political movements were launched from there. when the pakistan’s military regime took military action against th bengali masses from march to december 1971, who were demanding their political and economic rights, the trees of the university were reportedly destroyed. however, the trees had their strong roots and they grew up once in due course, and new movements for political and social change flourished under the motherly shades of these trees (ahmed, 2021). therefore, it would be unfair to say that the trees are not doing anything for peace and change. however, it won’t be unfair to say that neither the potentials and https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 173 competence of the trees for peace promotion and peacebuilding nor the peace initiatives of the recent times woven around peace trees have been highlighted adequately. take, for example, the hiroshima peace trees initiative. when the us dropped the atom bomb on hiroshima on august 6, 1945, it destroyed a large part of the city and turned a large number of trees into charred bodies. however, about 160 trees within a 2 – kilometer radius of the hypocenter survived. these trees have continued to grow, some even regenerating after being scorched about eighty years ago. they stand tall and proud as a symbol of hiroshima’s resilience. true that the peace memorial park of hiroshima features many a bomb survivor trees and keeps the visitors informed about the violence done to them, but most of the people living outside japan are not resourceful enough and privileged enough to visit the hiroshima peace memorial museum and the memorial park. to some of them, hiroshima is reaching out through its trees that survived the atomic bombing. hiroshima has been sending seeds of survivor trees to different parts of the world for the plantation of hiroshima trees. stories about the destroyed city of hiroshima in 1945 and its reemergence as a resilient and hustling and bustling city are therefore reaching far flung locations. the mayors for peace organization, which works closely with the cities of hiroshima and nagasaki, is actively involved in the campaign to send the seeds and seedlings to other countries. according to a report, the seeds and seedlings have been distributed to 88 cities (oxford botanic garden & arboretum , september 1, 2023). in other words, hiroshima is already growing in 88 cities of the world. here one may refer to another initiative to build peace through tree plantation in troubled areas. to what extent and how decisively this initiative has been successful in containing and controlling protracted tribal war and tribal culture of warriorism through tree plantation in the affected areas of kalinga in the philippines is not easy to ascertain. a number of factors and forces have been active in transforming the blood – thirsty and revenge – thirsty tribal region of kalinga, and the changing times are also impacting the traditional tribal thinking and ways of dealing with the conflicts. the people of kalinga – the kalingas – are one of the major ethno – linguistic groups in the philippines and they are composed of 48 indigenous tribes. kalinga has a history of headhunting and tribal war. the name kalinga means headhunter, fighter or enemy in the ibanag and itawes dialects. a report of a leading resource institution of the philippines published online in 2009 says: ‘tribal warfare is a fact of life for the indigenous peoples. and it takes just a perceived wrongdoing to spark one. the bond among tribesmen is as strong as blood relations that attacking one member incurs the ire of the whole tribe. a tribe would also rather go to war than surrender a suspected criminal among their ranks. and when https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 174 the tribes are on war footing, movement becomes restricted, lives and livelihoods are disrupted and lost, and everyone suffers’ (galing pook). in order to ensure that ‘ the enemies’ do not hide or disappear in the wilderness of weeds, bushes and trees at the top and their movements could be seen even from a distance, the mountain tops were deliberately kept clear and open by cutting the trees and keeping the mountain tops bald. such an arrangement remained in place for fifty years or so. however, with the growing awareness of changing times, growing realization that the economic, political, social, and cultural costs of violent tribal and traditional practices of settling disputes, and active involvement of the christian missionaries in the region and beyond to promote trust and peace among the warring tribes opened doors for new and innovative thinking and solutions. one of the initiatives was to persuade the tribes to agree for massive tree plantation through joint participation. in other words, trees have been summoned to play an important role in diminishing an age old culture of violence and tribal warfare. to be fair, tree plantation can be viewed as a peacebuilding activity in a variety of ways. to begin with, it may be seen to be capable of diminishing environmental hazards and reducing the chances of eruption of environment ignited conflicts between and within the states. again, the trees can promote a winwin situation for all the stake holders and lead to blossoming of peace and co – operation among the neighboring countries in particular. in this context, the forest peacebuilding model presented by claire williams deserves attention. in a paper published in 2024, the author puts forward strong arguments in favor of local peacebuilding mechanism – shared forest cooperatives(sfc) – and claims that such a peace action plan may play an important role in the resource poor and conflict prone fragile states in global south (williams, july 2024). it is, indeed, heartening to note that a number of initiatives and plans for action presented by concerned peace and climate change educators and scholars have begun to influence the debate on war, violence and trees. conclusion while the importance of growing more trees to tackle with environmental hazards and bigger climate change challenges is being accepted worldwide and a variety of roadmaps are being offered for the journey ahead, important studies and focused discourses on the devastating consequences of wars and violence for the trees are very slow to emerge. most of the studies, some of them excellent studies on the effects of war, focus on casualties, destruction of infrastructures and to a lesser https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 175 extent on the affected ecosystems. however, not many offer comprehensive accounts of what war does to the trees. recently a number of remarkable studies were produced under the supervision and guidance of professor liu cheng, holder of unesco chair at nanjing university and director of the institute of peace studies there. these well researched works on the destruction of nanjing in china, dresdon in germany, coventry in uk, warsaw in poland, and hiroshima in japan due to war offer comprehensive accounts of destruction suffered by these cities these studies also present a comprehensive account of the rise of these cities out of the ashes to blossom as peace cities (damek,2022; harrowell, 2022; spiegel, 2022;shuang, 2022; and deting, 2022). among these works, the one on hiroshima refers to the ruination of trees and their rise, once again, demonstrating that life is more powerful than death ( deting, 2024: 107-108). however, even well-researched and well – documented studies on the destruction of hiroshima and on the pangs of pains of atomic survivors rarely refer to the ruination of hiroshima trees. like the fate of the earth (schell, 1982: 37), several other works focus on the life stories of hibakushas and not on hibako trees or atomic survivor trees of hiroshima and nagasaki. likewise, the naked picture of the young girl, kim phuc running on the road in pain, taken on june 8, 1972, is doubtless among the most indelible images from the vietnam war. however, the pictures of the charred trees in wars and especially the trees choked and burnt to death soon after the dropping of the atom bomb on hiroshima and nagasaki were never provided the opportunity to exercise the impact of an indelible image of atomic bombing (chong, 2001). furthermore and by and large, the numerous peace movements at local(national), regional and global levels usually focus on war, violence, nuclear weapon proliferation, injustice, dictatorship, poverty, inequality and slaveries of all kinds, but they usually focus on the humans as victims of wars and violence and not on trees. there is therefore a need to launch a robust international movement for the life and security of the trees in war times and integrate this movement with the movement for peace everywhere. finally, it’s time to strongly protest against the display of weapons and the march of soldiers with their shining weapons while celebrating national days. such a kind of celebration militarizes the minds, sows the seeds of violence and justifies wars and violence in the name of national honor, national interest and national security. perhaps the time has arrived when the marches during such celebrations should be joined by the students and teachers, artists, painters, writers and poets, medical doctors and paramedical staff, justices, lawyers and journalists, women and children, farmers and laborers, police officials (especially the low ranking https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 176 police officials), representatives of small businesses and people carrying the replicas of trees and also branches of the trees. if the state insists on celebrating the national days by projecting its military power only, then a parallel procession of the citizens should be organized with the participation of those belonging to the neglected sections of the society, including the victims of wars and violence, and the peace potentials and peace role of the trees should be highlighted. perhaps such a movement can be spearheaded by an international organization like the centre for global nonkilling based in honolulu, hawaii. it was established under the leadership of glenn d paige, a professor of political science at the university of hawaii in manoa and author of a ground – breaking study nonkilling global political science(2002).the mission of the centre is to promote the idea of a killingfree world by globally advancing nonkilling knowledge and skills. if a prominent space is accorded to the non – killing of the trees in their campaigns for a non – killing world, this organization can powerfully involve in the campaign for the right of the trees to life, security and growth. at the end of the day, such an initiative can help peace grow. let it be noted that peace grows like a tree and it would grow faster if the struggle for peace carries the peace trees with itself. references ahmed, raquibuddin. (ed.). (2021). centenary of dhaka university : glory, pride and expectation, vol – 1, dhaka: dhaka university. bonan, gordon. (2023).seeing the forest for the trees: climate change and our future. cambridge: cambridge university press. bonneuil, christophe & jean baptiste fressoz.(february 18, 2016). ‘ a natural history of destruction: the environmental consequences of war’, verso, blog, https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/blogs/news/2507-a-natural-history-ofdestruction-the-environmental-consequences-ofwar?srsltid=afmbooptbdyask6q1b5nsbdbp_syjxei5aer, last accessed on april 24, 2025. chong, denise. 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(2006). the environmental effects of war, environmental studies, fordham university, https://research.library.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1070&co ntext=environ_theses, last accessed on april 22, 2025. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.obga.ox.ac.uk/article/seeds-from-hiroshima-atomic-bomb-survivor-trees-planted-at-oxford-botanic-garden https://www.obga.ox.ac.uk/article/seeds-from-hiroshima-atomic-bomb-survivor-trees-planted-at-oxford-botanic-garden https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s2666719324000037 https://research.library.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1070&context=environ_theses https://research.library.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1070&context=environ_theses in factis pax volume 19 number 1 (2025): 160-179 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 179 van den dungen, peter.(2024).peace museums: selected essay with a foreword by syed sikander mehdi. cham, switzerland: springer nature williams, claire g. (july 2024). ‘a forest peacebuilding mechanism for the world’s most fragile states’ in environmental science & policy,volume 157, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s146290112400083 2, last accessed on may 9, 2025. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s1462901124000832 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s1462901124000832 microsoft word morán ifp 11.2.docx in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 63 volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal educar en la paz conflictual desde pedagogías críticas /creativas y proyectos de posibilidad en escenarios postconflicto anaida pascual morán, phd departamento de estudios graduados, facultad de educación & cátedra unesco de educación para la paz universidad de puerto rico, recinto de río piedras palabras preliminares / dedicatoria al pueblo colombiano toda experiencia formativa exige prácticas en contexto y políticas educativas capaces de abordar los conflictos emergentes. este postulado cobra mayor urgencia en aquellos escenarios de postconflicto, violencia y vulnerabilidad que cotidianamente vivimos en américa latina y el caribe. por lo que, al igual que este volumen especial de in factis pax sobre construcción de paz en contextos postconflicto, este trabajo se inspira en los procesos de paz y reconciliación que en tiempos recientes se vienen dando en colombia, luego de cinco décadas de vivir la trágica experiencia de una guerra fratricida. de hecho, en octubre de 2016, tuve el privilegio de presentar una versión preliminar de este trabajo en la universidad simón bolívar en barranquilla. tengo pues una deuda de gratitud con la comunidad in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 64 universitaria de este “pórtico dorado” de la región caribe de colombia, ya que me honraron con una invitación para participar como una de las conferencistas centrales en el iii simposio internacional educación, formación docente y práctica pedagógica en contexto: políticas educativas en américa latina y el caribe: emergencias y tensiones frente a conflictos, postconflictos, derechos humanos y paz. en tiempos recientes, colombia le ha impartido al mundo grandes lecciones durante este proceso vivo y definitorio, que esperamos conduzca a una paz integral y duradera. indudablemente, los colombianos nos han dado cátedra desde la coyuntura que viven, a partir de una enorme variedad de valiosas iniciativas encaminadas a la “educación en situación de postconflicto”. por lo que en este momento histórico clave y en solidaridad, esta boricua-caribeña desea dedicarle este ensayo al querido pueblo colombiano. mi aproximación en este trabajo se da en el marco de la educación para la paz conflictual; constructo que asume el conflicto como inherente a la paz y reconoce la paz como derecho humano de síntesis, orientado a construir culturas más equitativas y justas. me acerco además al tema, desde principios y prácticas provenientes de la educación en y para los derechos humanos, al igual que del campo histórico de la noviolencia. asimismo, desde pedagogías críticas / creativas y otras vertientes emancipadoras pertinentes a la diferenciación, inclusión y democratización de los procesos educativos. en este contexto, privilegio la construcción de proyectos de posibilidad conducentes a propiciar una paz integral y sostenible desde procesos transformadores de investigación, creación y acción social solidaria. a mi juicio, estos acercamientos en conjunto podrían aportar de manera significativa a la construcción de un andamiaje formativo amplio y flexible, capaz de contribuir a erradicar las diversas manifestaciones de desigualdad, inequidad y exclusión en aquellos escenarios más vulnerables a la violencia y al conflicto. i. paz conflictual, noviolencia activa y derechos humanos: principios y prácticas pedagógicas las nociones de violencia, paz y conflicto siempre han estado in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 65 íntimamente entrelazadas. de esta realidad histórica se deriva la visión de la paz plena y en positivo. la organización de las naciones unidas para la educación, la ciencia y la cultura (unesco) ha descrito estos vínculos con diáfana claridad: la paz significa algo más que la ausencia de guerra y de conflicto; es un concepto dinámico que debe considerarse en términos positivos: la presencia de la justicia social y la armonía, la posibilidad de que los seres humanos realicen plenamente sus posibilidades y gocen del derecho a una supervivencia digna y sostenible (unesco, 1994, p. 4). esta noción de paz integral nos exige a su vez una visión holística capaz de democratizar la paz como derecho fundamental, de manera que podamos: vivir la paz como un concepto, una meta y un proceso activo, dinámico, creativo, con repercusiones directas en nuestra vida cotidiana (jares, 1991, p.7). así también, nos requiere asumir todo pacto, acuerdo y proceso de paz desde el conflicto, la noviolencia activa y principios y prácticas de derechos humanos. el conflicto es inherente a la paz… el conflicto es inherente a la paz. más aún, forma parte integral de toda situación humana y es motor del cambio y la transformación. por ende, la educación para la paz conflictual es una alternativa real, pertinente y válida en todo tiempo y lugar. desde las teorías críticas y la investigación para la paz, jares (1991) propone la noción de paz conflictual y el modelo pedagógico crítico-conflictual-noviolento. su visión de la paz integral supera el constructo de la paz negativa como ausencia de guerra o conflicto armado, para dar paso a una paz positiva, que exige la ausencia de todo tipo de violencia, ya sea violencia directa, indirecta, cultural o estructural (herrero rico, 2003). los colegas de la escola de cultura de pau, adscrita a la universidad autónoma de barcelona, proponen la educación para la paz conflictual, como herramienta de educación sociocrítica para lograr avances en la construcción de culturas de paz. de manera coherente, plantean la noción cultura de paz como toda aquella situación destinada a in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 66 garantizar nuestros derechos y seguridad humana. se trata, afirman, de un ejercicio de justicia que responde a un concepto dinámico de paz y exige “un largo proceso en permanente construcción” (ecp, 2010). la educación para la paz conflictual se forja a raíz de la segunda guerra mundial, en el contexto de iniciativas de renovación pedagógica y noviolencia activa. otros referentes para su surgimiento son la educación en derechos humanos, la educación para el desarme y los movimientos de objeción de conciencia y desobediencia crítica. así también, se nutre de la investigación para la paz, desde donde adoptamos la noción de paz positiva (ecp, 2010). las entidades internacionales hacen claras las distinciones entre prevenir el conflicto violento y establecer, mantener y consolidar la paz. abordan la diplomacia preventiva, en anticipo al conflicto, antes de que irrumpa la violencia. procuran acuerdos y pactos para frenar la violencia desde el establecimiento de la paz. luego orientan sus esfuerzos al mantenimiento de la paz. y mediante la consolidación de la paz, procuran afianzarla, para evitar que se reanude el conflicto (unesco, 1994). desde su teoría/método de trascendencia del conflicto, galtung (2006 & 2008) asemeja el conflicto a un “lazo”, que une los destinos de los “adversarios” desde su “incompatibilidad en común”. compara galtung el conflicto a un proceso de tensión “entre verdades”, por lo que las partes vienen llamadas a mantenerse dialogando para evitar el conflicto destructivo, reconocer su responsabilidad compartida, suprimir sus imágenes conflictivas del alegado “enemigo” y ofrecer respuestas noviolentas para trascender el conflicto y trabajar hacia la reconciliación. la idea clave consiste en superar la espiral de violencias y contraviolencias y romper el círculo vicioso de la violencia para trascenderla. a esos fines, galtung (2006, 2008) nos convoca a examinar los “daños visibles” e “invisibles” resultantes del triángulo de violencias: la violencia directa, la violencia cultural y la violencia estructural. nos exhorta además a “trazar mapas” en torno a las raíces del conflicto, así como a evitar su “metástasis” desde el “metaconflicto que se eterniza”, prestando atención a las tres fases de su ciclo de vida. la fase antes de la violencia, exige encauzar toda energía hostil a frenar la violencia y alcanzar la resolución del conflicto. durante la fase de violencia, urge encontrar vías para el cese de la violencia y la solución del conflicto. en la fase después del conflicto, es preciso restaurar la paz, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 67 poniendo el acento en “3 r’s” necesarias para trascender el conflicto: reconstrucción, reconciliación y resolución. el proceso de reconstrucción tiene como objetivo curar las heridas abiertas entre las partes, reparar los daños y el trauma resultante. en la etapa de reconciliación es crucial deshacer el metaconflicto y asegurar la reparación y restitución. y en la fase de resolución, se busca crear las condiciones para solucionar el conflicto original que escaló en un metaconflicto, provocando que la violencia estallara y evitar el retorno a etapas violentas del conflicto (galtung, 2006, 2008). en países como colombia, que apuestan a una situación de postconflicto que trascienda la confrontación armada, es esencial trabajar con la reconstrucción de la memoria, como parte del proceso de reconciliación. así también, desde una visión intergeneracional, ya que es imperativo que las nuevas generaciones desaprendan la violencia y puedan darle un nuevo significado a la paz desde su cotidianidad (mejía, 2001; restrepo yusti, 2014, 2015; ugarriza, 2013; pérez, 2014). la acción sin violencia es la única vía… en su escrito mi fe en la noviolencia (1930), gandhi afirma la noviolencia activa como la única vía. es decir, como el único camino posible hacia acciones liberadoras y conciliatorias. la define como “el arma de los fuertes”, en contraposición a la violencia, “el arma de los débiles”. la noviolencia activa asume la violencia como una manera inaceptable de lidiar con los conflictos y se orienta a su resolución creativa y constructiva (lederach, 2000). de aquí, la urgencia de una tarea pedagógica fundamental: generar un “ethos noviolento” en educadores y educandos. según gandhi, este espíritu ético debe caracterizarse por la “liberación del temor”; un espíritu de resistencia, un tono moral alto y un testimonio valiente de coherencia entre medios y fines, prédica y práctica, palabra y acción (pascual morán, 2002, 2003). en el contexto de su lucha por los derechos civiles, martin luther king (1958) nos dejó como legado su filosofía de la noviolencia en seis principios claves para educar en la paz conflictual, que resumo a continuación: 1. la noviolencia no es pasiva y requiere valentía. 2. la noviolencia busca la reconciliación, no la derrota del adversario. 3. la acción noviolenta procura eliminar el mal y no a quien lo inflige. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 68 4. la noviolencia nos exige disposición para aceptar el sufrimiento por una causa, pero nunca para infligirlo. 5. la noviolencia rechaza la violencia directa, así como el odio, la animosidad y la “violencia de espíritu”. 6. es esencial perseverar y tener fe en que la justicia siempre prevalecerá. la verdadera paz se encarna en los derechos humanos y los derechos humanos solo se viven en escenarios de paz… ciertamente, la verdadera paz se encarna en los derechos humanos y los derechos humanos solo se viven en escenarios de paz. por ello, los derechos humanos constituyen un marco esencial para educar en la paz conflictual. jares (2002, 2005), destaca la transversalidad de los derechos sociales, económicos, culturales y políticos al educar para una paz integral. reardon (2010) afirma que “los derechos humanos dan cuerpo a los huesos de la abstracción de la paz, infundiéndole así vida” y que configuran la “medula ética” de una educación por la paz. argumenta reardon (1997, 2010) que nuestros derechos proveen una ética social, espiritual y moral, ya que constituyen herramientas para detectar manifestaciones de injusticia e impunidad, violaciones a la dignidad humana y relaciones de inequidad. es decir, cuando los derechos codificados en pactos, convenios y políticas públicas nacionales e internacionales son denegados, ofrecen indicadores de violencia y vulnerabilidad. en cambio, cuando son respetados, constituyen indicadores de progreso y civilidad. es por ello, afirma reardon (2010), que desde las violaciones de derechos, podemos evidenciar injusticias y ejemplificar conceptos que de otra manera serían abstractos, tales como: (a) la violencia estructural que ocasiona las desigualdades y las relaciones de inequidad; (b) la violencia política proveniente de los sistemas opresivos; y, (c) la violencia cultural que menosprecia y destruye identidades al igual que estilos alternos de vida. violencias que suelen manifestarse desde el racismo, la xenofobia, el sexismo, la homofobia, la transfobia, el patriarcado, el etnocentrismo, el colonialismo y otras formas de exclusión, discriminación, dominación y opresión. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 69 jares (2002) afirma la educación para la paz conflictual como un proceso permanente destinado a promover una cultura de derechos humanos, de manera que los educandos puedan reconocerse como titulares de derechos y deberes. coincide jares con la postura de magendzo (2006), en el sentido de que la educación en derechos humanos y para la paz es una de las expresiones más tangibles de la pedagogía crítica. así también, con su propuesta de una estrategia pedagógica centrada en controversias, en el marco de los derechos humanos y de los propios derechos en conflicto entre sí (magendzokolstrein & toledo-jofré, 2015). en sintonía con las posturas de jares (2002) y magendzo (2006), la colega educadora ana maría rodino pierri (2016) propone fomentar la plenitud humana y una cultura plural de equidad, inclusión, valoración de las diferencias, convivencia democrática y solidaridad, desde tres vertientes: (a) la educación como derecho humano, “llave” para alcanzar otros derechos y “puente” a nuestras realidades sociales; (b) la educación en derechos humanos, como vía mediadora para el ejercicio de los derechos humanos y la puesta en marcha de políticas de acción; y (c) la afirmación de los derechos humanos en la educación, como “lente” en toda gestión y ámbito formativo. las propuestas antes mencionadas coinciden a su vez con la tendencia en las instituciones de educación superior en colombia de transformarse para aportar a la consolidación de escenarios de paz. y con el fin de atender los retos de una educación inclusiva que garantice una amplia participación de las diversas comunidades colombianas (baquero rodríguez & ariza landinez, 2014). según la unesco (2000), el constructo cultura de paz implica visualizar la paz como eje hilvanador y fuerza motriz a través de la cultura y la educación, con el fin de propiciar una ética solidaria. conlleva, además, superar la fragmentación cultura-educación, así como la definición negativa y reduccionista de la paz, para darle paso a un contenido positivo de justicia social y bienestar colectivo. al construir una paz en positivo, debemos trabajar desde cuatro piedras angulares que se conocen como las “cuatro d’s”: derechos humanos, desarme, democracia y desarrollo sustentable. en última instancia, se trata de asumir un giro paradigmático ante toda acción de dominación y violencia, desde las relaciones interpersonales, hasta las in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 70 relaciones entre naciones y pueblos (mayor zaragoza & mateos garcía, 2004). lamentablemente, los estudios acerca de la paz suelen centrarse en la paz negativa, particularmente en cómo reducir la violencia y evitar los conflictos armados (boulding, 2003). para contrarrestar este abordaje negativo, reardon (2010) propone la integración del aprendizaje en derechos humanos como perspectiva transversal en todo currículo en defensa de la dignidad del ser humano. ii. pedagogías críticas / creativas: andamiaje para construir espacios de paz la educación para la paz conflictual constituye un valioso instrumento para trabajar desde una ética de inclusión y equidad. así también, las “pedagogías criticas-creativas” constituyen referentes claves para construir espacios de paz, democratizar los procesos formativos y educar desde la diferencia y la diversidad. criticidad y creatividad… vínculos y entramados los constructos criticidad y creatividad constituyen aspectos medulares de todo proceso que pretenda aportar a la formación integral del educando y al bienestar colectivo. son claros los vínculos indisolubles entre ambas nociones. al igual que el entramado íntimo entre el pensar crítico y la capacidad creativa para innovar y transformar. es evidente, además, la interacción recíproca entre el quehacer docente críticocreativo y el nivel de pensamiento en los educandos. de manera que educar para la criticidad y la creatividad constituye una tarea pedagógica fundamental. según sebastiani elías (2004), el pensar crítico posibilita que los educandos asuman posturas fundamentadas a partir del análisis de posiciones encontradas. el pensar creativo se construye desde su conciencia crítica, pero va mucho más allá, ya que exige activar su energía creadora para intuir, imaginar, descubrir, construir, diseñar, producir e innovar. el pensamiento crítico-creativo posibilita a su vez que asuman “acciones críticas-creativas” en sus entornos cercanos. desafortunadamente, tendemos a priorizar el pensamiento empírico-lineal de los educandos. como resultado, según sebastiani elías (2004), no solo se inhibe su potencial crítico-creativo, sino que se mutila su inventiva y se coarta su sentido de solidaridad. es por ende esencial fortalecer aquellas capacidades que perfilan un pensamiento crítico complejo: la apertura de mente, la reflexión, la humildad intelectual, la alta in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 71 motivación y la libertad de pensamiento y expresión. así también, es necesario propiciar aptitudes que orienten su energía creadora: la intuición, la curiosidad, la imaginación, la originalidad, la flexibilidad, la tenacidad y la autonomía en el aprendizaje. es imprescindible además apoyarles, para que puedan superar aquellas circunstancias que suelen bloquear su poder creador, como la falta de autoconfianza, el racionalismo extremo y el respeto excesivo y dócil a “la autoridad” (moracchini, 2013). vertientes emancipadoras, dialógicas y transformadoras… las vertientes pedagógicas inspiradas en la obra de paulo freire, privilegian una praxis emancipadora, problematizadora y dialógica. priorizan, además, la búsqueda de opciones creativas desde la criticidad y un alto sentido de responsabilidad social. desde sus pioneras pedagogías de la pregunta, la indignación, la autonomía y la esperanza, freire (1993 & 2006) destaca nuestro deber histórico con la denuncia de una realidad deshumanizante, así como con el anuncio esperanzado de una realidad en que como seres inacabados, podamos siempre “ser más”. por lo que desde su postura crítica y creativa, nuestro quehacer docente siempre debe estar al servicio de la concientización, la humanización y la “liberación auténtica”. las pedagogías liberadoras afirman la dialogicidad desde la teoría y coherentemente, se hacen dialógicas en la práctica. de aquí, que tres vertientes las definan: una pedagogía, un ambiente y un método dialógicos (shor & freire, 1987). la pedagogía dialógica privilegia la intersubjetividad y el universo existencial de los educandos. se opone a toda forma autoritaria de enseñar, reconoce su derecho democrático a la participación y apela a su motivación intrínseca. contextualiza además el aprendizaje en sus experiencias desde su “lectura del mundo” y parte de la premisa de que a mayor problematización, mayor compromiso y “conciencia de mundo” tendrán los educandos para responder a los desafíos de su entorno (shor & freire, 1987). para crear un ambiente dialógico, es esencial una ruptura con la “cultura de silencio” y toda relación de autoritarismo y poder. así también, es imprescindible crear un clima de invención y búsqueda impaciente, permanente y esperanzada. ello requiere eliminar la educación pasiva para dar paso a una comunicación democrática y reconocer que todo acto in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 72 educativo debe superar la aparente contradicción educador-educando, ya que los seres humanos nos educamos entre sí “mediatizados por el mundo” (shor & freire, 1987). el método dialógico constituye un proceso problematizador y participativo capaz de iluminar toda realidad social, cultural, histórica y política. rechaza la acción de depositar conocimientos, de aquí, que adopte el diálogo como proceso deliberativo y privilegie la elaboración de proyectos, la escucha de diversas perspectivas y el poder transformador de los procesos de investigación, creación y acción (shor & freire, 1987). inclusión y equidad desde la diferenciación… las vertientes pedagógicas promotoras de una cultura educativa de inclusión y equidad pueden también aportar una amplia gama de constructos y acercamientos para la construcción de pedagogías críticas / creativas. así también, para educar en la paz conflictual, particularmente desde la diferenciación. se trata de pedagogías centradas en la dignidad humana y la riqueza de lo diferente y lo diverso. de pedagogías capaces de “crear convivencia simétrica en y desde una cultura de paz" (arnau ripollés, 2009). de pedagogías que reconocen la singularidad de cada aprendiz y su derecho a cultivar su “universo de inteligencias” (clark, 2012). de pedagogías que rechazan las prácticas que suelen “tolerar” al “diferente”, pero que en el fondo ocultan políticas excluyentes y discriminatorias (pascual morán, 2014a). diferencia-diversidad / desigualdad-violencia: entrecruces y tensiones tanto el discurso de la diferencia como el de la diversidad emergen en tensión y contraste con la desigualdad y la violencia. por lo que es preciso trabajar desde las diversidades y diferencias, evitando así que se transformen en desigualdades en el aprendizaje (fernández, 2008; maturana, 1994; skliar, 2013). según perrenoud (2007), las pedagogías de las diferencias emergen a partir de una “rebelión” contra las desigualdades en el aprendizaje. estas desigualdades, provenientes de las desigualdades socioeconómicas y culturales son excluyentes y contrarias a los principios más básicos de derechos humanos. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 73 las desigualdades en el aprendizaje se agravan como consecuencia de la cultura de violencia que con frecuencia impera en nuestras entidades formativas. esta “violencia sistémica en la educación” se encuentra entretejida en aquellas políticas y prácticas que impactan adversamente al educando “psicológica, mental, cultural, espiritual, económica o físicamente” (ross epp & watkinson, 1997). se trata de políticas y prácticas que aparentan ser neutrales pero que tienen efectos discriminatorios, tales como: los sesgos y prejuicios en el currículo; las pedagogías autoritarias y los métodos de enseñanza y evaluación que al no reconocer los intereses, las capacidades diversas y las diferencias en los educandos, ocasionan la pérdida de sus potencialidades (pascual morán, 2007). para contrarrestar estas desigualdades, del valle de rendo y vega (2006, p.16) proponen una “escuela integradora de las diferencias”. se trata de una aproximación “verdaderamente inclusiva, que no expulse ni excluya” desde dos principios fundamentales: (a) la valoración de los educandos “por lo que pueden ser y son” y (b) el reconocimiento de que todas y todos son capaces de aprender. aportes desde pedagogías de las diferencias y diversidades contemplan las pedagogías de las diferencias y diversidades una amplia gama de vertientes que responden a principios de derechos sociales, económicos, políticos, culturales y educativos. como corrientes dinámicas en constante evolución, estas vertientes ofrecen cabida para atender, de manera incluyente a poblaciones, sectores y problemáticas emergentes desde la diferenciación (lópez lópez, tourón & gonzález galán, 1991; sánchez carreño & ortega de pérez, 2008; skliar, 2013). la lista de poblaciones, sectores y problemáticas emergentes es interminable, por ejemplo: adolescentes embarazadas, "desertores escolares", alumnos acosados, estudiantes hospitalizados, jóvenes “sin techo” o institucionalizados, refugiados, migrantes y sectores en ambientes empobrecidos y escenarios de armas y drogas. en el caso de países como colombia, que aspiran solidificar la paz en un periodo de postconflicto, será necesario priorizar la formación de aquellos sectores que ameritan una educación diferencial de urgencia, tales como: poblaciones desplazadas por la violencia armada; niños y jóvenes reclutados de manera forzada a tomar las armas; excombatientes desmovilizados y sectores en zonas vulnerables a la violencia (pérez, 2014; ugarriza, 2013). in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 74 desde estas pedagogías, contamos con valiosas aportaciones y constructos que encierran giros paradigmáticos conducentes al respeto de la alteridad y la equidad. veamos a vuelo de pájaro, algunos de estos “términos diversos” emergentes (fvid, 2015). la noción diversidad en el aprendizaje nos convoca a asumir “la multiplicidad de identidades” en cada educando como una “clara riqueza pedagógica” (sánchez carreño & ortega de pérez, 2008). nos exige, además, articular su perfil distintivo desde sus alteridades, experiencias, capacidades, intereses, ritmos evolutivos y aspiraciones, en el contexto de un paradigma de fortalezas (pascual morán, 2007). el constructo diversidad funcional, propuesto desde españa por el foro virtual de vida independiente y divertad, representa un “nuevo término para la lucha por la dignidad en la diversidad del ser humano”. como filosofía educativa y social combate la exclusión, reconoce la diversidad como condición inherente al ser humano e intenta erradicar términos discriminatorios y peyorativos como minusvalía, invalidez, discapacidad e incapacidad. denuncia además la verdadera discapacidad, aquella que proviene de las estructuras sociales, políticas, económicas, culturales y educativas (romañach & lobato, 2005; arnau ripollés, 2014a). el constructo de la neurodiversidad resalta la riqueza de la naturaleza humana y provee una concepción novedosa para pensar las diferencias en positivo y no desde el impedimento, la disfunción, el trastorno, el disturbio, la inhabilidad y el desorden (armstrong, 2010). surge a finales de los 90’s en la comunidad con autismo en australia y su premisa central es que las conexiones neurológicas “atípicas” forman parte de un continuo en el espectro “normal” o “típico” de las diferencias. el concepto atención a la diversidad abarca una pluralidad de acciones de diferenciación pedagógica y diversificación curricular, orientadas a responder a la singularidad de cada aprendiz, tanto en términos de sus capacidades y retos, como de las particularidades en su contexto familiar, étnico, cultural y socio-económico. los constructos intercambiables capacidades diversas, diversidad de capacidades y habilidades diversas representan la diversidad como diferencia y otredad. estas nociones toman en cuenta las alteridades e intersubjetividades desde un marco respetuoso de dignidad y derechos (del jacobo cupich, 2012). in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 75 diversidad sexual, sexualidad diversificada y diferenciación sexual, son solo algunos de los constructos que nos convocan a desaprender los “valores generizados” desde políticas y relaciones de sujeción patriarcal. proponen una “pedagogía de género” no excluyente que visibilice las alteridades e incorporan la perspectiva de equidad (arnau ripollés, 2014b; bimbi, 2006; pascual morán, 2014a). más allá del modelo de diversidad multicultural de mera coexistencia y tolerancia, constantemente emergen propuestas novedosas centradas en la noción de diversidad intercultural (muñoz sedano, 2007; sánchez carreño & ortega de pérez, 2008). desde este constructo, se trabaja por la superación de las asimetrías sociales, económicas y políticas. y se aprende desde un proceso dinámico de “identidades compartidas” y “espacios compartidos” (martínez ten & tuts, 2013). como resultado de la coyuntura histórica que vive, colombia aporta el constructo de diversidad territorial. vinculado a otras nociones como paz territorial, territorios de paz y cultura de paz territorial, desde este constructo se plantea la urgencia de un enfoque de diferenciación territorial que responda a las necesidades y retos particulares de las diversas comunidades (pérez, 2014; restrepo yusti, 2014, 2015). cónsono con el espíritu de los constructos anteriores, el colectivo foro virtual de vida independiente en españa, ha acuñado el término divertad. se trata de un constructo emblemático que pretende dignificar la libertad plena desde una ética de diversidad que otorga el mismo valor a la vida de todo ser humano (dignidad intrínseca), al igual que los mismos derechos y oportunidades (dignidad extrínseca) (fvid, 2015; romanach, 2010; romañach & lobato, 2005; palacios rizzo & romañach cabrero, 2007). iii. “proyectos de posibilidad”: investigación / creación para la acción y transformación desde su pensar crítico, los educandos son capaces de redirigir su potencial creador a la construcción de saberes y al diseño de proyectos y productos en sus campos de especialidad (sebastiani elías, 2004). por lo que en la medida en que “socializan” su creatividad y la orientan a la innovación y el cambio, ésta se convierte en “un bien social, en una riqueza colectiva” (vizcaya carrillo, 2016). in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 76 proyectos de investigación/creación: acciones creadoras desde la investigación durante varias décadas, por ejemplo, mis estudiantes de nivel graduado en la facultad de educación de la universidad de puerto rico, han estado realizando proyectos de investigación/creación, tales como los siguientes. • carmen guzmán lópez (1998) construyó un currículo de enriquecimiento para que los niños y niñas con capacidades diversas y retos de aprendizaje pudieran transformar los conflictos en energía creativa en el aula. • carlos a. muñiz osorio (2000) conceptuó y diseñó una serie de materiales didácticos y talleres de capacitación docente, en el marco valorativo de una praxis educativa ecopacifista de enriquecimiento curricular. • judith conde pacheco (2004) articuló las historias de vida de tres generaciones de mujeres en el contexto de las prácticas bélicas que la marina estadounidense llevó a cabo durante seis décadas en nuestra isla-municipio de vieques. • madya aponte dávila (2012) elaboró una guía auto-formativa y de enriquecimiento con herramientas facilitadoras para atender retos sensoriales, realizar el perfil sensorial del aprendiz y hacer del aula una inclusiva y “sensorialmente amigable”. • iris b. arcay rivera (2012) diseñó un programado interactivo y otros materiales didácticos complementarios para fortalecer la inteligencia emocional y las competencias tecnológicas de aprendices con retos visuales significativos. • yolanda gonzález román (2012) construyó la página web “creciendo verde” desde un enfoque de enriquecimiento holístico de “paz en la naturaleza”, para estimular el desarrollo óptimo de aprendices con autismo y otras diferencias en el desarrollo. • rosaline gotay zeno (2012) diseñó un aula hospitalaria, a manera de espacio de paz, libertad, esperanza y creatividad para procurar el desarrollo integral y diferenciado de la niñez hospitalizada con cáncer y enfermedades prolongadas. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 77 • maría de los ángeles quintero gonzález (2012) diseñó un “guión” de actividades dramáticas y herramientas didácticas para trabajar de manera diferenciada, lúdica, dialógica y solidaria con jóvenes en escenarios de violencia y vulnerabilidad. • lourdes torres santos (2015) diseñó una propuesta formativa para alcanzar la paz activa y comprometida con el desarrollo óptimo de las juventudes, mediante una praxis cooperativista centrada en una cultura de paz y de derechos humanos. • stephany ruiz chacón (2017) elaboró una guía curricular de enriquecimiento para trabajar con jóvenes de escuela superior mediante la vertiente de teatro-foro del teatro del oprimido asuntos de equidad y perspectiva de género. • viviana rivera rondón (2017) realizó la pre-producción de un documental acerca de pedagogías diferenciadas y dialógicas en espacios alternativos desde las artes escénicas, con el fin de propiciar una cultura de paz y derechos humanos. • delia candelario garcía (2017) diseñó una página web que incluye una exposición cibernética de “foto-voces” de juventudes universitarias para la afirmación y defensa de los derechos humanos, desde su trayectoria y accionar. • zorimar siaca burgos (2017) elaboró un “tapiz personalizado” que teje e incorpora experiencias de enriquecimiento diferenciadas para personalizar el currículo y perfilar la creatividad/productividad literaria del aprendiz preescolar. esta pequeña muestra de “proyectos de investigación/creación” que he tenido el privilegio de acompañar como mentora, asumen la investigación y la creación como principios inherentes a los estudios graduados. por ello, propician la acción creadora desde la investigación, acción que a su vez fundamenta su producción e innovación. guardan estos proyectos varios elementos en común: (a) son de naturaleza constructivista; (b) su visión es inter y transdisciplinaria; (c) su metodología es cualitativa y emergente; y sobre todo, (d) son emblemáticos de un proceso investigativo complejo que culmina en diseños, creaciones y productos orientados a mejorar la calidad de vida y a la construcción de escenarios de justicia y paz. experiencias como éstas me han llevado a apostar a una pedagogía de proyectos como eje in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 78 central en mi práctica docente universitaria. más aún, a asumir el aprendizaje basado en proyectos como una de las maneras más auténticas, inclusivas y democráticas de educarnos y educar. concibo la construcción de proyectos como una modalidad destinada a fundamentar a partir de la investigación y a encauzar de forma creativa-productiva, los intereses e inquietudes del educando. en sintonía con ulla y giomi (2006), también la percibo como una aplicación de la creatividad, desde una lectura contextual del escenario del proyecto. idear un proyecto posibilita imaginar una manera alterna de construir un pedazo de futuro y de darle coherencia mediante la acción (ander-egg & aguilar-idáñez, 2000; ulla & giomi, 2006). se trata pues, de proyectos innovadores de justicia, servicio y reinserción social destinados a poblaciones vulnerables, marginadas y excluidas. de proyectos que procuran una paz integral y sostenible desde procesos transformadores de investigación, creación y acción social solidaria. este tipo de proyecto se encuentra en coincidencia plena con la propuesta de la colega educadora alicia cabezudo (2013) acerca del imperativo ético de articular “sólidos puentes de trabajo y cooperación” en la educación para la paz y los derechos humanos. y de comprometernos con revalorar nuestros constructos teóricos y prácticas y sobre todo, de elaborar una gama de proyectos complementarios, capaces de contribuir a la construcción de sociedades más justas, equitativas y solidarias. de igual manera, se encuentra en sintonía con la propuesta de la colega educadora colombiana amada benavides (2016), gestora de la fundación escuelas de paz, de construir una agenda nacional de educación para la paz. agenda que, más allá de los acuerdos que se puedan o no alcanzar, articule los diversos escenarios de construcción de cultura de paz, con el fin de incidir en políticas públicas para combatir las diversas formas de violencia directa, estructural y cultural que aquejan a colombia. desde el legado de la noviolencia, gandhi y luther king también apuntan a la urgencia de establecer vínculos entre las acciones noviolentas y proyectos de transformación cultural, ética, política y social. en similar sintonía, la unesco afirma la cultura de paz y derechos humanos como construcción; como proyecto colectivo transdisciplinario que nos exige articular una agenda de proyectos de investigación, educación y acción que trascienda disciplinas y muros institucionales in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 79 (pascual morán, 2014b; unesco, 2000; yudkin suliveres & pascual morán, 2008, 2009). la suma y sinergia de proyectos de esta naturaleza tendría como propósito primordial maximizar la seguridad humana, el respeto por los derechos humanos y la transformación del tejido social. asimismo, el minimizar toda injusticia que se genera ante las desigualdades, exclusiones e inequidades. es por ello que afirmo los proyectos de investigación/creación como proyectos de posibilidad. lo inédito viable… de proyectos de posibilidad a proyectos de humanidad freire nos ha legado la noción de “lo inédito viable” para designar aquello que, aunque no existe, tenemos la certeza de que no solo es deseable, sino posible. parte freire de la convicción de que el destino no es algo inexorable ni de antemano predeterminado. para labrar este futuro incierto, insiste en la forja de “propuestas de posibilidad”, desde “el sueño posible que ha de canalizarse mediante la acción”, no obstante conlleva luchar para superar obstáculos y “contrasueños” (freire, 1993, 2006). afortunadamente, existen una multiplicidad de senderos recorridos en nuestras comunidades, poblados y ciudades sobre los cuales podemos edificar. me refiero a proyectos de posibilidad que, como sueños y semillas en terreno fértil, podrían germinar en aquel “inédito viable” que freire ha llamado “proyectos de humanidad”. inserción en movimientos internacionales al educar en la paz conflictual desde pedagogías críticas / creativas y gestar proyectos de posibilidad, debemos contemplar aquellos movimientos e iniciativas de naturaleza internacional que puedan sustentar y validar nuestro quehacer formativo. puntualizo en tres de estos movimientos por su pertinencia para nuestros pueblos latinoamericanos y caribeños. la paz integral como derecho humano de síntesis la idea de la paz como derecho humano de síntesis constituye una dimensión clave para construir una nueva educación y cultura (pascual morán, 2007; tuvilla rayo, 2004). desde esta perspectiva, se afirma la paz como valor ético, en atención a la vulnerabilidad humana. se reclama, además, la ausencia de todo tipo de violencia armada, in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 80 estructural o cultural por ser incompatible con la paz integral. existen diversas iniciativas para reconocer mediante normativa internacional la paz como derecho humano de síntesis. tal es el caso de la declaración de santiago sobre el derecho humano a la paz, en la que se reafirman los derechos a la educación para la paz y los derechos humanos, la seguridad humana, el equilibrio ecológico y el desarrollo socio-económico. así también, se reconocen los derechos de sectores excluidos, marginados y en situaciones adversas de conflicto armado, postconflicto, violencia y vulnerabilidad (cidhp, 2010; ipadevi, 2010). en las redes internacionales y los contextos académicos, también se cuestiona la noción reduccionista de la paz, así como el concepto de seguridad nacional vigente. por lo que se propone la reconversión de las capacidades bélicas y el astronómico gasto que el militarismo conlleva, en pro de la seguridad humana, definida desde la justicia social, la sustentabilidad ecológica y la paz integral (restrepo yusti, 2014, 2015; oswald spring & gunter brauch, 2009). principios del manifiesto 2000 por una cultura de paz y noviolencia desde el movimiento/visión para una cultura de paz y noviolencia de la unesco, se nos convoca a afirmar aquellos valores que constituyen “la levadura de la paz” (mayor zaragoza & mateos garcía, 2004). a esos fines, los principios del manifiesto 2000 cobran mayor significado y vigencia (aranguren, 1997; gadotti & antunes, 2006; onu, 1999; pascual morán, 2013; tuvilla rayo, 2004; unesco, 1996ª, 1996b, 2000). a continuación, una apretada síntesis de estos seis principios… 1. respetar todas las vidas… desde una valoración de la alteridad y fomentar aquellas pedagogías que afirmen la equidad y denuncien sesgos de racismo, sexismo, militarismo, xenofobia y homofobia. 2. rechazar la violencia… y combatir el modelo de relaciones en que hemos sido socializados, basado en antivalores, tales como la intolerancia ante las diferencias, la exclusión y el menosprecio a poblaciones diversas. 3. liberar la generosidad… fortaleciendo así los valores solidarios de justicia social, equidad e inclusión, desde una concepción emancipadora que aborde las desigualdades económicas, sociales y de aprendizaje. in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 81 4. escuchar para comprenderse… superando así tensiones y conflictos desde una escucha activa y un diálogo auténtico, centrados en el respeto a la dignidad humana y a las diferencias de opiniones, creencias y estilos de vida. 5. preservar el planeta… desde una perspectiva de derechos humanos y paz con la naturaleza, vinculando la educación con la conservación, un crecimiento sustentable y un acceso equitativo a los recursos. 6. redescubrir la solidaridad para reinventarla… desde los derechos de sectores marginados y vulnerables, asignándoles así un nuevo significado ético a la inclusión, la reciprocidad y la convivencia. agenda 2030 para el desarrollo sostenible la agenda 2030 para el desarrollo sostenible, adoptada en septiembre del 2015 por la asamblea general de las naciones unidas, en alianza con sectores de la sociedad civil, complementa y actualiza los principios del manifiesto 2000. se trata de un compromiso histórico con un plan de acción orientado a procurar una vida digna y sociedades más justas e incluyentes, desde 17 objetivos interdependientes y 169 metas indivisibles que abordan las esferas económica, social y ambiental (onu, 2015). in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 82 a esos fines, nos convocan a contrarrestar las desigualdades, erradicar la pobreza, lograr la seguridad alimentaria, proteger nuestros recursos naturales y adoptar medidas urgentes contra el cambio climático. así también, a salvaguardar los derechos humanos, promover la equidad de género, garantizar una educación de calidad y fomentar el crecimiento económico sostenido destinado a construir una paz con justicia, una paz sin violencia, una paz duradera e integral. atisbos de armonía y esperanza en última instancia, desde las vertientes pedagógicas y movimientos reseñados, se nos convoca a un cambio de paradigma que requiere superar la concepción de la paz que se define desde la ausencia de guerra y violencia directa y asumir una paz positiva multidimensional. dicha paz integral deberá contemplar la paz directa, a partir del manejo noviolento de conflictos; la paz cultural, desde unos valores mínimos in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 83 compartidos; y la paz estructural, mediante políticas que posibiliten la justicia social (fisas, 2002; tuvilla rayo, 2004). este giro paradigmático nos requiere a su vez transitar de la visión utópica de la paz perpetua como meta, finalidad o estado, a una paz imperfecta dinámica e inacabada. ello implica reconocer que, aunque todo pacto de paz es imperfecto e inacabado, nos brinda senderos inéditos para avanzar. de aquí la urgencia de construir andamiajes pedagógicos de naturaleza crítica/creativa y liberadora que posibiliten construir proyectos de posibilidad, de aquí también, la urgencia de contar con espacios en los que nuestros estudiantes puedan fundamentar conceptualmente y encauzar metodológicamente su construcción. por lo que me hago eco de las palabras de los colegas de la escuela de cultura de paz de la universidad autónoma de barcelona. palabras que nos brindan atisbos de armonía y esperanza; atisbos de que la paz anhelada, aunque siempre imperfecta e inacabada, ciertamente, es la única hoja de ruta a transitar… la educación para la paz conflictual es una herramienta para avanzar en la construcción de una cultura de paz. […] planteamos la cultura de paz como aquella situación social de justicia generalizada, en la que todas las personas tendrían las necesidades básicas cubiertas y los derechos humanos garantizados; situación en la que las relaciones entre las personas, y entre éstas y su medio se desarrollarían con respeto y armonía; donde las decisiones que nos afectan colectivamente se tomarían de forma democrática; y en la que se velaría de forma permanente para mantener las condiciones de seguridad humana y global. todo ello requiere un cambio profundo de valores socioculturales muy enraizados y a menudo no explícitos. por consiguiente, hablamos de un largo proceso en permanente construcción (ecp, 2010, p.1). me hago eco, además, de las expresiones del colega docente abraham magendzo acerca del rol transformador que la educación debe jugar en este largo y siempre inacabado proceso de construir paz integral… la educación tiene como misión esclarecer las situaciones conflictivas y contradictorias que los contextos sociales, culturales, económicos y políticos confrontan permanentemente en nuestras in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 84 sociedades. esperar que la sociedad resuelva sus múltiples conflictos, para recién entonces educar para la paz y los derechos humanos es no entender el rol transformador que a la educación le toca jugar (magendzo, 2015, p.3). referencias ander-egg, e. & aguilar-idáñez, m. j. 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(2016). concepción pedagógica creativa fundamentada en la teoría crítica educativa de paulo freire. european journal of education studies 1 (2), 30-50. recuperado de: http://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/29 yudkin suliveres, a. & pascual morán, a. (eds.) (2008). educando para la paz en y desde la universidad: antología conmemorativa de una década. cátedra unesco de educación para la paz, recinto de río piedras de la universidad de puerto rico. recuperado de: http://unescopaz.uprrp.edu/antologia.pdf yudkin suliveres, a. & pascual morán, a. (2009). pensando el quehacer de la educación en derechos humanos y para una cultura de paz en puerto rico. en a. magendzo (ed.), ideas fuerza de la educación en derechos humanos en iberoamérica (pp. 278-310). in factis pax volume 11 number 2 (2017): 63-96 http://www.infactispax.org/journal 96 chile: organización de estados iberoamericanos (oei), oficina regional de américa latina de la unesco & ediciones sm chile. in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 104 volume 18 number 2 (2024): 104-123 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 cutting-edge dynamics of drone technologies: military strategies and peaceful innovations erika simpson western university london, ontario, canada simpson@uwo.ca abstract: this article examines recent evidence and expert opinions on the pros and cons of unmanned aerial vehicles (uavs), commonly known as drones. it analyzes the nuanced advantages and disadvantages of utilizing drones for both peaceful and military purposes. rather than advocating for a blanket ban on drones due to their potential use in targeting individuals, such as al-qaeda operatives in pakistan or russian soldiers in the ukraine-russia conflict, the article adopts a comprehensive approach by engaging with contemporary literature that assesses the complex implications of drone technology. the analysis highlights the potential benefits of drones in peaceful applications, including enhanced surveillance capabilities and their role in humanitarian efforts https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax mailto:simpson@uwo.ca in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 105 like disaster response and environmental monitoring. it also addresses significant ethical, legal, and operational concerns related to military use, such as accountability, the risk of civilian casualties, and the implications for international military power dynamics. based on this assessment, the article presents specific recommendations for the international community and regional groups, emphasizing the establishment of regulatory frameworks that promote responsible drone use, prioritize transparency and accountability, and ensure compliance with international humanitarian law, thereby fostering international dialogue and cooperation. keywords: defense policy, disaster management, drone delivery, drones, engineering, health care, innovation, lethal air strikes, regulation, search and rescue, transportation, unmanned aerial vehicle, unmanned aerial system, technology, warfare this paper examines recent advancements in drone technology, emphasizing their dual roles in military operations and peaceful applications. it explores how drones are transforming both conflict and peace efforts, analyzing their benefits and risks. by evaluating their use in warfare and humanitarian contexts, the study offers a cutting-edge perspective on the opportunities and challenges posed by drones. understanding these developments is essential for navigating the complexities of modern drone technologies and their impact on global security and peacebuilding efforts. introduction, objectives and scope this study aims to explore the objectives and key sections surrounding drone technologies, beginning with a brief history and evolution of these innovations. it will delve into humanitarian uses, focusing on the impact of drones in civilian contexts and their peaceful applications. the study will also examine military developments, highlighting key innovations and emerging combat applications. additionally, it will address ethical considerations associated with drone use and provide policy recommendations to navigate the complexities of https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 106 these technologies. by outlining these aspects, the research seeks to offer a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted roles drones play in both military and humanitarian spheres. in the evolving realm of warfare, unmanned aerial vehicles (uavs) or drones, are aircraft operated without a human pilot onboard. they can be remotely controlled or fly autonomously using pre-programmed plans and sensors. uavs serve various applications, including military operations, disaster response, environmental monitoring, agriculture, and transportation, offering efficiency and safety in challenging environments. as instruments poised to redefine military conflict and humanitarian peacebuilding, drones embody both promise and peril. objectives of study. this article briefly reviews expert claims about the merits and demerits of using drones for peaceful (e.g. recreational) and military (e.g. nonrecreational) purposes. for example, they can serve as valuable tools for police, legal forces, and disaster relief, excelling in surveillance and reconnaissance. however, the demerits of this technological marvel are being made manifest as states and actors employ them for remote strikes in inaccessible locations, and against civilians. the expanding role of drones necessitates strengthening international and national law; increasing surveillance: and conducting more rigorous oversight with more stringent regulations. this article puts forward precise and solid recommendations for the international community and regional groups of nations to consider. in future, striking a balance between the positive potential and inherent risks of uavs will be important in terms of military strategies and peaceful innovations. autonomous weapons systems (aws) are systems that, once activated by human operators, utilize sensor data processing to select and engage targets with lethal force without further human intervention. these systems operate independently, making real-time decisions based on their programming and the data they collect, raising significant ethical and operational considerations in warfare and security contexts. given the rapid advances in the research and development of new technologies in the field of artificial intelligence (ai), which could facilitate the development of novel and sophisticated autonomous weapons, this article examines drones as humanitarian and potential weapon systems that, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 107 once activated, can identify, select, and engage targets either with or without lethal force and either with or without further intervention by human operators. scope: the rapid evolution of drones. nearly 15 years ago, university of southampton engineers used a laser 3d printer to assemble by hand, in minutes, a nearly silent drone (graham, 2011). drones became inexpensive and widely available, therefore anyone that could use a 3d printer or google maps could make and fly a drone. anyone with a smartphone could own and operate a small drone that carried a camera. for less than $350 (us dollars), drone operators flew over institutional complexes, like government buildings, shopping centers and empty fields. the cost savings promised efficiency since modern drones had vastly more capabilities than the drones of the 1940s and 1950s, which were used to give gunners on bombers target shooting practice. in this century, drones increasingly came to provide valuable military air support. for example, in 2016 the u.s. marine corps and the department of defense began researching ways for drones to act like teammates with robots on the battlefield. a ground robot with an attached air robot on the battlefield promised to take soldiers and marines out of dangerous situations. experts predicted robots that plugged into injured troops on the battlefield, monitored their care, and kept them alive with medication and blood transfusions would play a major role in future battlefields (gallagher, 2016). soon engineering advances in drone technology and ai actually enabled drones to evade radar defenses, attack manned airplanes, and carry conventional bombs. the evolution of drone tactics was mainly due to low intensity conflicts including in mexico and the middle east, particularly as drug cartels began repurposing commercial agricultural and inspection drones for reconnaissance purposes. in 2010, iran’s then president mahmoud ahmadinejad unveiled the “ambassador of death” drone. the aeryon scout drone manufactured in waterloo, ontario made international headlines when libyan rebels purchased one for $100,000 and used it to collect video intelligence of moammar gadhafi’s compounds (simpson, 2015, p. 2). by september 30, 2024, russia was able to launch several waves of drones targeting kyiv, with ukrainian air defense units successfully defending the city during the attack which lasted over five hours. russia and ukraine continue to launch air attacks, targeting each other’s energy, military and transport infrastructure, including each other’s nuclear power plants. the drone attacks on nuclear stations in the russia-ukraine war provide warnings https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 108 for other countries – indeed, the legacy of drone strikes on nuclear sites has already made evident that nuclear power plants and waste disposal sites in other countries, like the united states and canada, could become targets in conflict zones (simpson, 2024). the next two sections analyse the nuanced advantages and disadvantages of utilizing drones for both peaceful and military purposes. rather than advocating for a blanket ban on drones due to their potential use in targeting individuals, such as al-qaeda operatives in pakistan or russian soldiers in the ukraine-russia conflict, the article adopts a comprehensive approach by engaging with contemporary literature that assesses the complex implications of drone technology. humanitarian uses: civilian impact and peaceful roles agricultural, environmental and infrastructure monitoring and inspection. drones have already revolutionized forest operations due to their role in mapping, monitoring, and inventory procedures. drones enable real-time tracking of changes in forested landscapes, facilitating effective monitoring of threats such as fire outbreaks and pest infestations. they swiftly survey large areas and contribute to tree harvesting and planting. for example, drones equipped with thermal cameras can enable early detection of wildfires, enabling timely response and contributing to sustainable land management (buchelt, 2024). in another example of their revolutionary role of monitoring, drones can also monitor wildlife species providing accurate and effective monitoring of one the world’s rarest primates, the hainan gibbon, providing hope for recovering of the last surviving population in a tropical rainforest national park in china (song, 2023, p. 1). low-cost drones are increasingly used for data collection, transportation, and infrastructure surveillance, offering more efficient and sustainable solutions compared to traditional methods. they can cover large, hard-to-reach areas quickly, reducing the need for human intervention and labor. drones are effective during and after natural disasters, precisely positioning themselves to aid in building smarter cities globally. a recent international survey shows drones can significantly assist with disaster evacuation planning, road safety, and highway infrastructure management. they are also widely employed for affordable air quality and particulate monitoring (gohari, 2022). commercial package delivery. autonomous drone delivery (add) modes are expected to become an important pillar of the future logistics industry for small parcel delivery in ‘the last mile’, as well as meal delivery service for fast https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 109 food (e.g., pizza, etc.) and restaurants. the pizza and food giant domino’s pizza has already started, collaboratively with new zealand startup flirtey, testing delivery services employing drones. in future, consumers worried about staying at home – perhaps due to more covid19 related lockdowns – combined with the danger of exposing delivery people to illness and pandemics will mean delivery companies start to develop creative ideas such as the use of delivery robots in many cities around the world (benarbia, 2021). how will these new delivery services prevent commercial drone collisions and traffic accidents? the newer developing drones are increasingly able to avoid other aircraft and obstacles. right now, most drones do not have the capability to sense and avoid other aircraft and obstacles and it is easy to understand why that poses problems. those systems require visual observers along the route of every flight to help the drones avoid hazards. while it is still relatively easy to use existing technology to fly a light payload a short distance that is within the operator’s line of sight, according to researchers jung and kim (2017) it is a very different challenge to build a network that can deliver to customers across large communities outside the operator’s line of sight. yet as jung and kim highlight, one corporation, amazon is already working with the united states’ federal aviation administration (faa) and local officials to obtain permission to conduct deliveries of commercial packages and soon they predict drones could promise small parcel delivery, including meal delivery. we can also expect more news reports about disputes about customer injuries related to handling drones. we can reliably foresee that when multiple trucks work with multiple drones in a ‘drone assisted pickup and delivery problem’ (dapdp) through a mixed integer linear program (milp), there are bound to be safety concerns. we can either limit the use of drones to deliveries only or accept that the adoption of any new technology is safety sensitive, and thus, more customer injuries related to drones will foment public controversy. as during the pandemic, when police used drones equipped with cameras and loudspeakers to monitor and enforce public compliance with social distancing rules, there were concerns that privacy rights were being breached in a ‘police state’ atmosphere. medical supplies and disaster relief delivery. drones may be able to bring powerful lifesaving capabilities to medical situations in which time is critical; moreover, they may also bring efficiency and cost savings to non-urgent medical situations. in some places, such as rwanda and ghana, uavs are already saving https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 110 lives by transporting blood products and other medical supplies (graboyes, 2020). critically time-dependent delivery and faster intervention by drones carrying medical supplies is already leading to improved patient outcomes (roberts, 2023). in future, interventions for many medical emergencies could include the delivery of equipment that aids in cardiac arrests, strokes, drug overdoses, seizures, and trauma. drones promise efficiency and cost savings. unmanned drones can carry high-resolution still cameras, video cameras, and thermal cameras so they are useful for aerial surveillance during disasters, as well as less expensive for use in search and rescue operations. larger drones are being used to deliver essential supplies to people stranded in isolated areas (papyan 2024, 169–186). drones can operate in challenging environments, without people on board to control them. for example, unmanned vehicles that operate in the air can track wide, isolated expanses such as the arctic much less expensively than manned aircraft. drones can also stay in dangerous airspaces longer than manned aircraft, so they were used at japan’s crippled fukushima nuclear power plant to survey the damage. drones are capable of hovering over disaster-stricken areas that may be challenging for rescue teams to access directly, enabling them to pinpoint locations where people might be trapped. drones can cover larger areas in shorter timeframes compared to groundbased rescue efforts or specially trained search dogs. they also employ thermal imaging technology to detect body heat and human signals like shouting. during emergencies, swarms of uavs could be deployed for search and rescue operations. although still under development, autonomous flocking behavior of uavs in demanding outdoor conditions could be motivated by search and rescue applications. researchers are proposing novel approaches for decentralized swarm navigation in the direction of a candidate object of interest (ooi) based on real-time detections from onboard cameras (horyna 2023). this means that advances in drone design and control including operational resiliency of swarms of uavs could positively affect disaster management, crowd control, emergency communications, and searches for victims. the concept of uav swarms may seem far-fetched but advances in engineering and experimental results could herald transformations in innovative emergency responses. this section explained that drones are being used in peaceful ways including for crime, law enforcement and search and rescue. but they can also be used during conventional battlefield warfare to gain strategic and psychological advantages over adversaries. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 111 military developments: key innovations and emerging combat applications military operated drones are exerting sanctioned and nonsanctioned functions within societies. in one widely reported incident (simpson, 2015, 1), an off duty, drunken u.s. intelligence agency employee flew a drone that crashed inside the white house complex. he admitted to the secret service that he had been drinking at an apartment nearby, and it was not until the next morning when he awoke, that he learned his drone had evaded white house radar, which is supposed to warn of larger threats, like manned airplanes and incoming missiles. fast forward a decade, and it is widely understood that drones are being increasingly used by ukrainian and russian defense forces to target moving vehicles and fleeing soldiers (kramer, 2023, 1). all these sorts of incidents indicate that inexpensive drones, readily available on legal and black markets can be used to target military strikes against combatants and civilians. targeted military strikes against combatants and civilians. as the u.s. army war college warned nearly a decade ago, drones could be used to take down aircraft and might move as semiautonomous swarms of uavs (bunker, 2015). to cite one example, the united states conducted at least 378 air and drone strikes in yemen from 2002 to 2023. primarily targeting members of al qaeda, these strikes killed over 1,000 people including more than 125 civilians. the american military and cia has also used drones outside the battlefields of iraq, afghanistan, and libya. of these, most occurred in pakistan, with the rest in yemen and somalia. there were 420 us drone strikes in pakistan between 2006 and 2016 with more than 3,000 deaths in pakistan. cumulatively more than 2,000 suspected militants and an unknown number of civilians have been killed (weiss, 2024, 1). to emphasize, drone strikes in battlefields can kill soldiers as well as civilians. within the target states, drone strikes provoke polarized reactions, with some expressing negative emotions and anger, while others show positive responses. these strikes have also led to a rise in anti-u.s. protests and increased online searches for radical islamist content (mahmood, 2023). notably, there is widespread agreement that around two dozen senior followers of osama bin laden have been killed in recent years. in response, al-qaida has used drone footage to celebrate their martyrdom and recruit additional followers (smith, 2010). as the wars in gaza, lebanon and ukraine continue, desperate soldiers are learning very quickly to use chinese, korean, russian and western technology to kill their adversaries with drones. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 112 moreover, civilian drones are being repurposed to target soldiers. for example, fleets of inexpensive, mostly off-the-shelf drones are helping ukrainian forces evade and target sophisticated russian defense systems. ukraine buys them from commercial supplies, who also sell to aerial photographers or hobbyists around the world, along with parts such as radios, cameras, antennas, and motors (kramer, 2023). the doctrine of war is changing as drones that cost hundreds of dollars are destroying russian machines costing millions of dollars. leadership decapitation and targeted killings of militants. states often publicize targeted killings of militants by drones as significant, but civilians may fail to perceive such military strength as a win. in afghanistan, for example, drone strikes were primarily conducted by nato, the us air force, or other us government drone operators (jadoon, 2024). whether leadership decapitation through killing or capturing of top leaders of militant groups contributes to winning the hearts and minds of civilian populations depends on perceptions. notably, at creech air force base in nevada and at cia headquarters, civilian protestors regularly carried placards that were opposed to pilots who kill people in afghanistan and iraq as if they were playing video games in airconditioned offices (simpson, 2016b). initially in the afghanistan war, the u.s. government intended to use military drones against highly valued targets, like key leaders of al-qaida. but according to experts, approximately 2 percent of the deaths caused by drones since 2004 were high valued, while the remainder were actually lower ranking operatives. u.s. president barack obama admitted “a lot of these strikes” were in pakistan’s tribal areas, but who was targeted and under whose authority could only be guessed at. according to the pew global attitudes project, only 17 percent of pakistani respondents to a 2012 poll approved of american drone strikes against the leaders of extremist groups, even if they were jointly conducted with the government of pakistan. most pakistanis disapproved, and most people polled internationally in 2012 indicated strong opposition to the u.s. drone campaign. according to cronin writing in 2013, the opposition was strongest in muslim majority countries, including traditional u.s. allies, such as turkey (81 percent against), jordan (85 percent against), and egypt (89 percent against). in the context of leadership decapitation and targeted killings of militants, we should next examine the use of drones for military surveillance, including convoy protection. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 113 military surveillance including convoy protection. autonomous weapons systems (aws) equipped with drones can provide assistance with the delivery of military surveillance. in future, swarms of drones could provide convoy protection. providing the swarm is large enough and the formation radius can be achieved without risking collisions, researchers are using evolutionary algorithms to obtain stable formations in all types of scenarios (stolfi, 2024). drones can protect governmental and military convoys, yet with the protection of convoys, organized repression is also possible. drones used in warfare significantly reduce the risk to the operators' lives. one clear and perceived advantage is the ability to eliminate al-qaida, taliban, or isis-inspired militants from the air without putting north american lives in immediate danger. military applications of drone technology may either precede or follow peaceful technological developments. for instance, somali pirates could soon use portable drones to track vulnerable ships; south american drug cartels could deploy drones to monitor political convoys susceptible to kidnapping; and north korean operatives might breach south korean or japanese airspace carrying biological weapons, like anthrax. although these scenarios may seem improbable, the rapid pace of drone technology development makes them increasingly plausible. drug trafficking and illegal drug cartels. to reiterate, these sorts of scenarios may seem farfetched, but a recent u.s. army war college report warns there is also the possibility that human controlled drones could be used for drone up shootings (like walk up shootings). drug trafficking in heavily used airspace is also certain to cause catastrophic incidents. drones are emerging as a tool for law enforcement agencies as well as drug cartels in the mexican drug war. cartels are using drones to transport extra heavy load cargo and weapons into the u.s. then using drones, drug smugglers can conduct surveillance, evade detection, and transport contraband across borders (schmersahl, 2018). for example, a drone laden carrying crystal meth crashed into a supermarket in tijuana, mexico, because three kilograms (6 pounds) of illegal narcotics was too much for it to carry (simpson, 2015, p. 1). today, mexican drug cartels have introduced a new rank within their hierarchy known as ‘droneros’ or drone operators. in mexico, drone parts are readily available for purchase on platforms like ebay and amazon, allowing for modifications. consequently, tracking the number of drones sold on grey or black markets is extremely challenging. recent projections for the legal drone market forecast a volume increase of 11.5% in mexico by 2024 (kramer, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 114 2023). however, obtaining accurate data on the number of illegal drones remains elusive, much like measuring how drones are contributing to uncertainties in military balances of power, which will be our next focus. drones foster uncertainties about military balances of power. although drones are unlikely to completely transform the global order, they could lead to more frequent use of low-intensity force, as demonstrated in russia’s war in ukraine. both russia and ukraine have employed drones in various capacities to support their military operations. these uavs are extensively used for intelligence gathering, surveillance, and reconnaissance, providing real-time data on enemy positions, troop movements, and battlefield conditions, which aids in monitoring defenses and planning attacks. drones also play a crucial role in guiding artillery fire by identifying and designating targets, resulting in more precise strikes. kamikaze drones are designed to crash into targets and explode on impact, with iranian-made shahed drones being notably prominent in russian operations. meanwhile, ukraine is utilizing drones equipped with electronic warfare systems to jam russian communications and gps signals. additionally, drone footage is leveraged for propaganda, showcasing strikes to enhance their image and demoralize opponents as part of psychological warfare efforts. in short, while drones may not yet be decisive in interand intrastate conflicts, they have the potential to enable remote-control repression, long-range offensive strikes, and psychological warfare, making them vital components of military strategy in future conflicts. ethical considerations and policy recommendations to enhance peace and prevent armed conflict this final section examines the ethical considerations surrounding drones and offers policy recommendations. one notable example is the use of trained animals, such as birds of prey, to capture rogue drones, a practice successfully implemented in the netherlands and france. dutch national police have trained eagles to intercept drones, which initially garnered attention as an amusing news story. however, this practice raises significant ethical concerns regarding the treatment of animals and their protection from potential harm during such operations (gazek, 2018). https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 115 to address these issues, it is crucial to strengthen international law and norms surrounding drone usage, including refining the vocabulary and nomenclature related to drones. establishing clear definitions and guidelines can help promote accountability and ensure that ethical considerations are integrated into drone operations globally. this includes developing comprehensive frameworks that govern the deployment of drones, protecting both human and animal rights, and fostering responsible practices in both military and civilian contexts. strengthen international law and norms, including the terminology related to drones. in my view, the international community and individual states will need to substantively strengthen international law and norms governing the use of drones in armed conflicts. the first obstacle is that there is no consensus definition of lethal autonomous weapons systems (laws) in existing international law. there is a grassroots effort to insist that the autonomous functions in weapons systems must not be designed to be used to conduct attacks that would not be the responsibility of the human command under which the weapon system would be used. but this is easier said than done. any future legal norms governing the use of drones in armed conflicts and the use of force may look clear on paper, but the changing nature of modern conflict could render them almost incoherent in practice. it seems obvious that weapons systems should be developed such that their effects in attacks can be anticipated and controlled, as may be required, in the circumstances of their use, by the principles of distinction and proportionality, and that attacks conducted with reliance upon their autonomous functions should be the responsibility of the human command under which the system was used. but this means shared agreement upon ‘meaningful human control’ will need to be reached. we will need new definitions, and thresholds, referring to the thresholds of application of human judgment and intervention necessary to ensure the maintenance of human agency, responsibility, proportionality, and accountability in undertaking decisions regarding the use of any such weapons, and the ability of human operators to effectively supervise any such weapons. problematically, there is as yet no consensus definition of laws in existing international law. nevertheless – according to report of the 2021 session of the group of governmental experts on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons – there can be some kind of shared agreement that: https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 116 states should commit not to use, or to develop, produce, acquire, possess, deploy or transfer with a view towards use, any weapons system based on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems that can perform the critical functions of selecting and engaging to apply force against targets without further intervention by a human operator, if: (a) it is of a nature to cause superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering, or it is inherently indiscriminate; or (b) its autonomous functions are designed to be used to conduct attacks outside a responsible chain of human command and control; (c) the incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, and damage to civilian objects expected to result from the use of the weapon to conduct attacks cannot be reasonably foreseen or are not fully understood by a human operator; or (d) it is otherwise incapable of being used (report of the group of governmental experts on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons, 2023, executive summary). back in 2016, the u.s. stimson task force on drones warned that when basic concepts, like ‘battlefield’, ‘combatant’ and ‘hostilities’ no longer had any clear or stable meaning, ‘the rule of law’ was threatened (simpson, 2016a). in less than a decade, the situation has become vastly more complicated. many more rules and regulations will be needed to govern what are now called unmanned combat aerial vehicles (ucavs). new terms are being coined, like ‘loitering munitions’ which are expendable missiles capable of staying airborne for some time until they identify a target and attack. all sorts of battlefield glossaries and domestic dictionaries will be needed to train operators and observers with shared meanings that will be necessary in the age of drone warfare. new glossaries shared across borders and languages could also assist in obtaining more transparency at municipal, state-level, national, regional, and international levels. regional groups of states should outlaw fully autonomous lethal weapons systems. in the short term, regional security organizations that promote peace, stability, and democracy in north america, europe, and beyond should also be able to agree on diplomatic efforts to stabilize situations and advance peace processes. groups of states, such as the united nations (un), european union (eu), north atlantic treaty organization (nato), or the organization for security and cooperation in europe (osce), could establish new regulations. similarly, regional organizations like the african union (au), association of southeast asian https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 117 nations. (asean), and specialized agencies of the un, like the international civil aviation organization (icao) could commit to the following: • outlaw fully autonomous lethal weapon systems that operate entirely outside human control and lack a responsible chain of command. • regulate other lethal weapon systems featuring autonomy to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law by maintaining human responsibility and accountability, ensuring appropriate human control, and implementing risk mitigation measures. at this time in all major or well-established drone programs, the technology remains under the firm control of individuals and no modern drone program is fully automated. however, the physical and moral distance between drone operators and their targets may gradually desensitize operators from the act of killing and make targeted killings easier. moreover, the distinctions between combatants and civilians may further erode due to the technology itself. therefore, international agencies, regional groups of states and agencies must act quickly to outlaw fully autonomous lethal weapons systems. replicate newer north american laws and regulations. such recommendations suggest that the international community and regional associations develop appropriate ethical norms that include robust oversight and accountability mechanisms. in this context, examples from north america are particularly insightful. the federal aviation administration is a united states government agency responsible for regulating regulating and overseeing all aspects of civil aviation. notably, the faa offered new guidance on july 14, 2023, regarding the boundaries of federal, state, and local authority to regulate what they call ‘uncrewed aircraft systems’ (uas). there will be robust federal pre-emption in aviation safety and airspace efficiency. although debates emerged in the united states as to whether the compact, nimble nature of drones and the low altitudes at which they would conduct operations merited new or revised laws at the state and local level, the faa’s new fact sheet clearly articulates the scope of federal authority and demonstrates the federal government’s intent to “clip the wings of state and local regulators when it comes to uas regulation and laws that impact the airspace generally” (jdspua, 2023). canada’s minister of transport, omar alghabra also announced on june 23, 2023, new and proposed beyond visual line of sight (bvlos) drone rules, which are https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 118 among the first in the world ((transport canada, 2023). the proposed rules require drones to be capable of detecting and avoiding other air traffic to ensure safety. they introduce a new class of pilot certification including exams for operators who conduct lower-risk bvlos operations, yet still permit drone operations such as package delivery to remote communities, first responder operations, and natural resources and wildlife surveys to take place, among many other potential uses. canada’s new regulations will affect recreational as well as commercial operators, subjecting them to costs relating to obtaining advanced certificates, level 1 complex certificates, and drone registration services. the canadian government will include fees for issuing certificates, taking certification exams, and collect fees to rebalance costs from canadian taxpayers of providing the new governmental services. it seems from these north american examples that more citizen and drone registration, combined with operational authorization provisions, like stringent exams, advanced certificates, and more licenses would be advantageous as well as prescient. develop comprehensive background checks, manufacturer restrictions and cross-border transparency. it is recommended that more comprehensive background checks for prospective drone buyers could be even more advantageous. restricting sales of certain types of drones to authorized users would add more layers of security. moreover, drone manufacturers themselves could implement limits on uavs by restricting their capabilities, range, and geographical operating areas to prevent misuse. in the future, global navigation satellite systems (gnss) equipped with restrictions and enforced geofences could be implemented based on strict risk assessments and specific threat landscapes in high-risk countries, states, provinces, and municipalities. the development of emerging technologies related to drones should involve significant input from local, provincial, state, federal, and international levels. the growing controversies surrounding recent isolated drone incidents highlight the need for stronger drone regulations worldwide, which require immediate and comprehensive contributions from all levels of government. increased transparency and disclosure among specialized international institutions (such as the un’s icao and north america’s faa and transport canada) will be essential. enhanced information sharing among nations and collaboration on joint cross-border initiatives will become increasingly important. international cooperation is necessary to conduct background checks on potential https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 119 drone purchasers, work with manufacturers to implement restrictions, and develop both passive and active countermeasures. legal and ethical issues surrounding transparency will also require improved disclosure practices. international and regional groupings of countries, including organizations like the international criminal police organization (interpol) must exchange intelligence, technology, and best practices. institutions such as the icao and nato should learn from other nations and industries by studying geofencing technology, no-fly zones, and methods to disable drone swarms. conclusion this article explored recent evidence and expert opinions on the pros and cons of unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones (and now less commonly referred to as uncrewed aircraft systems). it examined the nuanced advantages and disadvantages of using drones for both peaceful and military purposes. instead of advocating for an unattainable ban on drones due to their use in targeting individuals – such as hamas-soldiers in the gaza strip or hezbollahrelated operatives in lebanon – this article took a more comprehensive approach. it engaged with a wide range of cutting-edge contemporary literature that evaluates the complex implications of drone technology. the analysis emphasized the potential benefits of drones in their peaceful applications, such as improved surveillance capabilities and their role in humanitarian efforts like disaster response and environmental monitoring. conversely, it also brought attention to significant ethical, legal, and operational concerns related to their military use, including issues of accountability; the risk of civilian casualties; and the implications for international military power dynamics. based on this assessment, the article presents specific recommendations for the international community and regional groups of states. these recommendations emphasize the establishment of regulatory frameworks that promote the responsible use of drone technology. such frameworks should prioritize transparency, accountability, and compliance with international humanitarian law, fostering dialogue among nations to ensure that drone deployment aligns with broader ethical standards, and aligns with evolving international legal norms. ultimately, collaborative approaches will be essential in navigating the complexities of drone technologies, enabling the harnessing of their potential benefits for peaceful https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 104-123 120 innovations while effectively addressing the challenges posed by their misuse in military operations. biographical note erika simpson is an influential figure in international relations and peace research, serving as an associate professor at western university and president of the canadian peace research association. she authored nato and the bomb and has published in reputable journals, including the brown journal of world affairs, international journal, peace review, and policy options. dr. simpson frequently contributes to canada’s hill times and shares her insights with outlets like the postmedia network, ctv television, and cbc radio. she has held significant roles in the canadian pugwash group and serves as a reviewer for the canadian institute for military and veteran health research and the social sciences and humanities research council of canada. her contributions have earned her numerous fellowships, including the alton jones, barton, liu institute, and nato fellowships. in 2015, she received a lifetime achievement award from the voice of women in canada for her impactful work in peace writing. references benarbia, t., & kyamakya, k. 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(2023). new faa fact sheet clears the air on local drone regulation. (july 25). https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/newfaafactsheetclearstheairon873954 6/ jung, s., & kim, h. (2017). analysis of amazon prime air uav delivery service. journal of knowledge information technology and systems, 12(2), 253266. https://journal.kci.go.kr/kkits/archive/articleview?artiid=art002219047 krame, g., vivoda, v., & davies, a. (2023). narco drones: tracing the evolution of cartel aerial tactics in mexico’s low intensity conflicts. small wars & insurgencies, 135. https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2023.2226382 kramer, a. (2023). budget drones prove their value in a billion dollar war. new york times. (september 22). https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/22/world/europe/ukrainebudgetdronesr ussia.html mahmood, r., & jetter, m. (2023). gone with the wind: the consequences of us drone strikes in pakistan. the economic journal. 133(650), 787811. https://academic.oup.com/ej/article/133/650/787/6751902?login=true papyan, n., kulhandjian, m., kulhandjian, h., & others. (2024). ai-based droneassisted human rescue in disaster environments: challenges and opportunities. pattern recognition and image analysis. 34, 169–186. https://doi.org/10.1134/s1054661824010152 report of the 2021 session of the group of governmental experts on emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems. (2023). ccw/gge.1/2023/crp.1 https://docslibrary.unoda.org/convention_on_certain_conventional_wea pons_group_of_governmental_experts_on_lethal_autonomous_weapo ns_systems_(2023)/ccw_gge1_2023_crp.1_0.pdf roberts, n. b., ager, e., leith, t., lott, i., mason maready, m., nix, t., & brent, c. 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(2024). nuclear stations in russia-ukraine war provide warnings for canada. hill times. (september 2). https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2024/09/02/nuclear-stations-in-russianukrainian-war-provide-warnings-for-canada/432507/ simpson, e. (2016a). it’s time for canadian decisions on lethal drones. journal of defense studies and resource management, 4(1) https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/politicalsciencepub/140/ simpson, e. (2016b). proliferation of drones raises new concerns. peace magazine, 32(3), 14. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/politicalsciencepub/136/ simpson, e. (2015). nothing monotonous about drones now. london free press. (feb. 6) https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1096&context=politicalsc iencepub smith, g. (2010). pakistan’s deadly robots in the sky. the globe and mail. (october 1). https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/pakistansdeadlyrobotsinthe sky/article4392476/ song, z., & wang, n. (2023) commercial drones can provide accurate and effective monitoring of the world's rarest primate. zoological society of london. (june 7). https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/rse2.341 stolfi, d. h., & danoy, g. (2024). evolutionary swarm formation: from simulations to real world robots. engineering applications of artificial intelligence. 128, 107501. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s0952197623016858 transport canada press release. (2023). minister of transport announces canada's first proposed drone safety regulations for beyond visual line of sight operations. (june 23). https://www.newswire.ca/newsreleases/ministeroftransportannouncescana dasfirstproposeddronesafetyregulationsforbeyondvisuallineofsightoperatio ns860092971.html weiss, e., ross, v., & lyford, a. (2024). investigating responses to us drone strikes in yemen using twitter data. media, war & conflict, 0(0). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17506352231219694 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2024/09/02/nuclear-stations-in-russian-ukrainian-war-provide-warnings-for-canada/432507/ https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2024/09/02/nuclear-stations-in-russian-ukrainian-war-provide-warnings-for-canada/432507/ https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/politicalsciencepub/140/ https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/politicalsciencepub/136/ https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1096&context=politicalsciencepub https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1096&context=politicalsciencepub https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/pakistans-deadly-robots-in-the-sky/article4392476/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/pakistans-deadly-robots-in-the-sky/article4392476/ https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/rse2.341 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s0952197623016858 https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/minister-of-transport-announces-canada-s-first-proposed-drone-safety-regulations-for-beyond-visual-line-of-sight-operations-860092971.html https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/minister-of-transport-announces-canada-s-first-proposed-drone-safety-regulations-for-beyond-visual-line-of-sight-operations-860092971.html https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/minister-of-transport-announces-canada-s-first-proposed-drone-safety-regulations-for-beyond-visual-line-of-sight-operations-860092971.html https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17506352231219694 in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 81 volume 18 number 2 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax issn 2578-6857 affirmative action in the educational sector: a discriminative practice or for promoting peaceful living? dr. colins imoh university of bradford c.imoh@bradford.ac.uk abstract the article discusses the admission process for unity schools in nigeria, which uses affirmative action to ensure the representation of students from all regions of the country. the policy promotes fairness, equity, and justice in education by compensating disadvantaged groups without equal access to opportunities, rights, and ‘social bases of self-respect’. affirmative action removes obstacles that prevent individuals from pursuing their goals and ensures that all parts of the country are represented. they might not be the most intelligent students, but they are the best in their region. the evidence shows that affirmative action is not discriminatory but relatively justifiable as a temporary measure to reduce the educational imbalance between the northern and southern parts of the country. with limited school spaces and numerous applicants, the admission policy prioritizes diversity, equity, and unity. without this policy, the schools would be dominated by students from the south of nigeria, which could lead to conflict and a lack of positive peace. educational achievement discrepancies, such as disparities in access to quality education, resources, and opportunities, have the potential to breed distrust and conflict within communities. keywords: affirmative action, social justice, fairness, non-discrimination, education, nigeria https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax mailto:c.imoh@bradford.ac.uk in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 82 introduction nigeria achieved independence from britain in 1960. before the british intervention, all the ethnic groups existed independently, with their different cultures and styles of leadership. nigeria was the hope of africa at independence, according to (suberu, 2001), as it was a country rich in human and material resources. however, the tragedy of the civil war between 1967 and 1970 dashed the hopes and aspirations of the people. the prolonged military dictatorship curtailed most achievable progress in the country, and the potential for development was diminished. at the root of the current problems of nigeria, as in most planetary centres, is the issue of economic and social inequality. the sole motivations of the british in the amalgamation of the southern and northern parts of nigeria in 1914 were financial benefit and ease of governance. there was no attempt to build a country of one people united in a common destiny. this has dramatically affected the development of a country where issues are analysed through the lens of ethnicity (bello, 2012). this mistrust and lack of solidarity led to a series of policies intended to create a shared sense of belonging among the people. one such policy is affirmative action in the educational system. this paper discusses the affirmative action practised in the nigerian educational sector with positive peace and justice as fairness as the paper's theoretical framework. the paper delves into three fundamental inquiries concerning nigeria's admission policy and affirmative action. the first query involves determining whether the admission policy is prejudiced against individuals based on their birthplace. secondly, it is on whether affirmative action in nigeria is a matter of justice. finally, it will determine if implementing affirmative action will ultimately aid in the efforts towards peacebuilding. methods document analysis was the method used to gather data; this involved collecting data already gathered by educational ministries, agencies responsible for admissions, government reports, academic journals, and commercial databases. all the necessary data were compiled, and statistical techniques were used to analyse and interpret the information. this approach successfully addressed the research questions and provided valuable insights into affirmative action practice in nigeria. structure of paper the paper starts with an examination of the history, constitutional provision, and educational landscape in nigeria. it then follows with a discourse with https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 83 statistics, showing that there is inadequate space for all qualified candidates. data was presented to exemplify the dichotomy in educational development in nigeria's northern and southern regions. analysis of the data was done and used to answer the research questions. the paper concludes by linking the theoretical framework to affirmative action. this paper divides nigeria into two zones: northern nigeria, with 19 states and southern nigeria, with 17 states. the federal capital territory (fct) in the analysis was included in both regions. theoretical framework the theoretical framework for this paper is based on johan galtung's positive peace and justice as fairness, as postulated by john rawls. positive peace is linked to social justice. standish & joyce (2017) explain that positive peace works to eliminate “social structures that deny individuals and groups the ability to satisfy human needs such as survival, well-being, recognition and freedom” (p.30). at the heart of a peaceful society is the attainment of social justice. social justice is based on the belief that everyone should have equal access to economic, political, and social opportunities and rights. this means that regardless of someone's social or economic status, they should be treated fairly and given the same chances to succeed. social justice aims to create a more equitable and fair society by tackling issues of discrimination and inequality. building a more just, compassionate, and inclusive world for everyone is important. united nations division for social policy (2006) defines social justice as the “fair and compassionate distribution of the fruits of economic growth.” (p.7). the fair distribution and inclusion of all will lead to an environment of opportunities and transformation. this environment is characterised as positive peace, different from negative peace. negative peace “is the absence of violence, absence of war”, while positive peace is considered the “integration of human society” (galtung 1964, p.2). the essence of the conceptualisation was the need for human integration. this will happen when invisible structural issues that could cause violence are addressed and removed. these issues include inequality, discrimination, and exclusion. addressing the issues will lead to sustainable development in all ramifications, including the economy, education, and society. as vesilind (2005:43) claims, peace should include “the presence of justice, of law, of order”. in contracts to negative peace, positive peace is characterised by the provision made by society to address the underlying issues that can lead to direct violence. it creates an attitude that enhances peace. this ensures friendly relations, reconciliation, serenity, amity, harmony, and calmness (prachoomsuk, 1983). devere, suazo, and rafferty (2022) claim that attaining positive peace is a multifaceted and comprehensive process that will help achieve a harmonious and well-functioning society. this process involves four key practices that are vital in promoting peace. these practices include nonviolence, social justice, https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 84 environmental sustainability, and positive relationships. by combining these practices, a peaceful environment can be created that promotes the well-being and happiness of all individuals. understanding that positive peace goes beyond the mere absence of violence is crucial. it also entails addressing structural, cultural, and indirect forms of violence while promoting social justice for all. therefore, positive peace is a fundamental concept necessary for the betterment of society and for promoting peaceful coexistence. (bharadwaj,1998). the notion of positive peace is optimistic as it does not work to create an absence of violence but rather to create a system capable of withstanding, preventing, and resisting violent conflict (galtung, 1985). therefore, positive peace can be viewed through the prism of conflict prevention as the absence of structural violence (galtung, 1969). this is based on galtung's conviction that society will be more peaceful when structural and cultural violence is transformed. therefore, in cases of inequality, inequity, injustice, and lack of inclusion, positive peace can be used to analyse and remedy the situation. john rawls, however, argues that humans, in their own self-interest, will choose a system that will ensure justice and equality. this he referred to in his work as justice as fairness. justice as fairness extends from the social contract theory. it guarantees liberties and basic rights to all citizens regardless of background. according to rawls (1971, p.12), "principles of justice are those that could be the object of mutual agreement by persons under fair conditions". justice means equal access to rights, liberties, and opportunities for all while caring for the least advantaged members of society. rawls initiated six ideas: society as a fair system of cooperation, a wellordered society, basic structure of society, original position, citizens as free and equal and public justification (rawls and kelly 2001). the primary subject is the basic structure; it influences those who live in its institutions and pays special attention to inequalities and injustices. the original position extends rawls's views of the social contract theory and helps to appreciate reflective equilibrium. the original position is a device of representation, a heuristic model that demonstrates the presuppositions of fairness and equality and provides a mechanism for justifying the two principles of justice. this hypothetical scenario allows individuals to make decisions about the principles of justice without bias, as they are unaware of their own position in society. the feature helps to achieve fair conditions by removing social and historical advantages (rawls, 1971). the veil of ignorance helps establish a level playing ground for the participants, as they are unaware of certain information that will bias their decisions. this allows representatives to negotiate using logic and reason to evaluate the best principles of social justice that will be binding on society. rawls utilises the concept of the original position as a thought experiment to illustrate the rational choice behind adopting principles of justice. within this framework, rawls argues that the conditions under the veil of ignorance are https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 85 established to ensure fairness. he suggests that individuals in the original position possess the capacity for rational decision-making and pursuit of self-interest, and an inherent sense of justice despite their disinterestedness towards one another. this innate sense of justice is intricately linked to the priority of rights and individuals' capacity for reasonableness. this situation creates a basis for a decision that can be favourable to all. allen (2000) argues that from the original position, rawls' principle of fair distributive justice assumes that a rational agent ignorant of the groups they belong to would not choose principles that disadvantage some members of society. this is because doing so would put the agent at risk of being unable to achieve their goals. from behind the veil of ignorance, one cannot know whether they are a member of a disadvantaged group, and therefore, self-interest would dictate that one not form such a group. instead, a rational agent would choose a just distributive principle that secures enough primary goods (opportunities) for each member of society to realise their life plans. rawls (1971, p.302) stated two principles of justice for the basic structure of society: first principle: each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all. second principle: social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both: (a) to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged, consistent with the just savings principle, and (b) attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity. the principles are ordered: liberty comes first, which he calls the primary goods, followed by an equal opportunity for all, and if there is any inequality, the least advantaged should benefit the most (rawls, 1971). in appreciating rawls’s principles, there is a clear distinction between ideal and non-ideal theory. this discussion revolves around whether principles capable of guiding the development of social institutions can be formulated solely in ideal theory. according to simmons (2010), these principles can only be formulated as society interacts with institutions. in his work, thompson (2020) presents a compelling argument regarding rawls's ideal theory, asserting that it offers a blueprint for the kind of society we should aspire to create. this vision is constructed based on specific considerations related to human nature and the potential design of social institutions. the ideal theory makes two assumptions: citizens and societies are willing to comply with rules, and a good social, natural, and historical condition facilitates political cooperation (rawls 1999). additionally, rawls emphasises that nonideal theory plays an essential role in addressing the practical and acceptable steps necessary to progress towards realising the ideal society envisioned in his theory. the ideal theory can be used to https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 86 complete the political subdomain, and the non-ideal can be used to reference the ideal. in essence, ‘the only basis for the systematic grasp of the more pressing problems of non-ideal theory’ is how to respond to injustice (rawls 1999: 8). the research questions will be explored within these frameworks of galtung’s positive peace and rawls’s justice as fairness. why affirmative action? society grows and develops with different baggage, whether historical, social, political, economic, or even geographical. this baggage helps determine and shape the people's destiny in that enclave. the people in the enclave have to fulfil their destiny sometimes; they need assistance concerning policy either to right historic disadvantage or forward-looking to bridge the gap. this is important to create unity, solidarity, and peace among the people. the policy of affirmative action is even more divisive and unsettled today. the policy of affirmative action, which is intended to promote opportunities for groups that have been historically excluded or underrepresented, continues to be a source of significant division and controversy in society today. the unsettled nature of this policy reflects ongoing debates and conflicting perspectives on how best to address issues of inequality (lippert-rasmussen, 2020; schuck, 2002) against this background, fullinwider(2014) sees affirmative action as a positive step to increase the representation of women and minorities in areas of employment, education, and culture from which they have been historically excluded. tierney, (1997) explains that affirmative action should not focus on rectifying historical injustices. instead, the objective should be to create policies that promote diversity and encourage public engagement for the greater good. in their definition of affirmative action, brest & oshige (1995) stated that affirmative action “seeks to remedy the significant underrepresentation of members of certain racial, ethnic, or other groups through measures that take group membership or identity into account" (p. 856). discussions on affirmative action focus on multiple models. one of the considerations is choosing between a backwards-looking affirmative action or a forward-looking affirmative action framework. in backwards looking, the idea is to redress past injustice. however, in the forward-looking affirmative action, the idea is to promote an inclusive and diverse society where everybody has a sense of belonging. the forward-looking approach emphasises adopting proactive measures and planning for the future to achieve social justice and fairness for all members of society. this involves considering the needs of individuals and communities and working towards creating equitable opportunities and outcomes (lippert-rasmussen, 2020; schuck, 2002). there have been various cases where applications were decided upon. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 87 the us courts frown at backwards-looking affirmative action, especially in educational institutions concerning representations. in the bakke versus university of california1, justice powell’s prohibited racial quotas because an “[invidious] perception of racial and ethnic distinctions is rooted in our nation’s constitutional and demographic history”. on june 29, 2023, the u.s. supreme court issued a judgment in two cases students for fair admissions, inc. (sffa) v. president & fellows of harvard college (harvard) and sffa v. university of north carolina (unc), nos. 20-1199 & 21-707. the court ruled that the admissions programs of harvard and unc, which consider an applicant's race at various stages, violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment to the u.s. constitution, specifically addressing the legality of race-conscious affirmative action in college admissions programs. this decision significantly affects how colleges and universities approach diversity and affirmative action in their admissions processes. kanooni (2005) argues that affirmative action's goal is: ‘preferential treatment to create a level playing field for the members of under-represented groups, which have suffered discrimination in the past’. he explained that affirmative action is founded on the principles of justice for past racist and sexist actions, social utility, and a desire for everyone to be represented fairly in society. however, some people oppose affirmative action because they believe it may lead to reverse discrimination. affirmative action is a concept that aims to promote fairness and equity by addressing the concerns of disadvantaged groups. this often involves giving preferential treatment to such groups. the implementation of affirmative action policies can vary depending on the specific circumstances. socio-political situation in nigeria nigeria is a country that has been divided along religious, ethnic, and linguistic lines, because of the british colonial masters' amalgamation of different entities to ease the colony's administration, in what sowell (2004, p.98) called ‘low budget imperialism’. this british colonial policy in nigeria is called indirect rule. this allowed the different ethnic groups in nigeria to develop at their own pace under the leadership of local rulers. this system had a significant impact on education in nigeria. for instance, the northern part of nigeria, which was heavily influenced by the islamic tradition, was hesitant to embrace western-style education introduced by christian missionaries. conversely, the southern part of nigeria was more open to western education and implemented policies to improve education in the region. this british approach, policy, and governance process has significant implications for education in nigeria. in 1912, there were less than 1000 students in primary schools in northern nigeria, while southern nigeria had over 35,000 1 regents of univ. of cal. v. bakke, 438 u.s. 265, 306–11 (1978) https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 88 students, according to sowell (2004, p.99). by 1957, the number in the north had increased to 185,000 students, while the south had 2.3 million. on the eve of independence, the university of ibadan had only 9% of northern students, while the rest were from the south. in 1966, he concluded that only 2% of northerners pursued higher degrees. this disparity led to the postponement of independence in nigeria because the north was unprepared for it. after independence, the imbalance in education led to ethnic tension and suspicion, finally leading to the nigeria civil war (1967-1970), which claimed millions of lives. the nigerian civil war profoundly impacted its people, leaving scars that necessitate protecting and promoting national unity, loyalty and a sense of belonging for every citizen. mustapha (2007) argues that all divided societies have some form of affirmative action to cushion the effect of historical inequalities, and nigeria is no exception. sowell (2004) asserts that the vast disparity between the north and south of nigeria makes affirmative action inevitable. quotas aim to foster a sense of well-being, unity, and solidarity among the populace, alleviating citizens' fears. the constitution aims to promote this concept. constitutional position the second chapter of the 1999 constitution, section 14(3),called ‘fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy’, explains that: “the composition of the government of the federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs, shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that government or any of its agencies.” this provision is the basis for affirmative action in nigeria. the motivation and aspiration for unity to foster development is a constant in all developmental initiatives in nigeria. r4d (2006) states that the various constitutions and development plans are based on building a country where everybody is free and can aspire to the best of their ability. the 1999 constitution frowns at discrimination. section 42 states: “a citizen of nigeria of a particular community, ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion or political opinion shall not, because of such designation: (a) be subjected either expressly, or in the practical application of, any law in force in nigeria or any executive or administrative action of the government to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, places of origin, gender, religion or political opinion are not made subject; or https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 89 (b) be accorded either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in nigeria or any such executive or administrative action, any privilege or advantage that is not accorded to citizens of nigeria of other communities, ethnic groups, and places of origin, sex, religious or political opinions. no citizen of nigeria shall be subjected to any disability, or deprivation, merely by reason of the circumstances of his birth.” section 15 (3) of the 1999 constitution states that: “for the purpose of promoting national integration, it shall be the duty of the state to (a) provide adequate facilities for and encourage free mobility of people, goods, and services throughout the federation; (b) secure full residence rights for every citizen in all parts of the federation.” as reflected in section 14 (4) of the 1999 constitution, the federal character principle calls on states and local governments to execute the law. the purpose is to protect citizens' rights. this policy affects all facets of life in the country, which, according to r4d (2006), include economy, employment, government appointment, educational and social policies. regarding the lack of well-articulated means of implementation, (bello, 2012) argues that the federal character is an instrument of the powerful to perpetuate themselves in power. what has federal character got to do with the poor and the traumatised? he stated: “the federal character as it is; is a doctrine of the emancipated, educated elite in the civil services, armed forces, and the business circles. it has little relevance to the integration problems of nigeria.” it can rightly be claimed that the privileged benefits, but a trickle-down effect is possible. it can be argued that the majority have not seen the benefits. however, orji (2008) claims that an essential part of the growing tension in nigeria is the fear of domination of the predominantly muslim north by the christian south, which is more educated; this has led to mutual suspicion between the groups. affirmative action is a catalyst to assuage anxiety. the broad picture of federal character in political appointments (bello, 2012) might find some support, but educational policy has little coherence. this is because people are used to affirmative action in politics but not in education. in the education sector, affirmative action is most evident in the admission policies of unity schools and federal universities. this paper specifically focuses on affirmative action in the admission processes of federal government-owned unity schools. in understanding affirmative action, we need to appreciate the classification in nigeria concerning identity. there is a considerable difference https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 90 between the state of origin and the state of residence. where you reside is not your state of origin. state of origin versus the state of residence the development of citizenship in nigeria, as in most african states, has been at the mercy of ethnic and tribal rivalries. mentan (2004) claims that most african countries are a product of the amalgamation of different nationalities; it is “based on kingship or community of origin rather than by virtue of birth in a country”. this always leads to people falling back on their ethnic group for support during conflict, confusion, or turmoil. therefore, the creation of nations seems to be an artificial creation that citizens do not believe in. this is more evidence in the educational sector for nigeria's affirmative action. it is the state of origin that is used. this news story from the daily sun newspaper of july 12, 2013, captures the dilemma in implementing affirmative action in the education sector. “divine is a 10 years old basic six pupil in one of the many private schools that dot the landscape of new karu, a sprawling suburb in the federal capital city of abuja. she sat for the national common entrance examination (ncee), where she scored 108 out of a total score of 200, which was not sufficient for admission to the federal technical college she had applied for. her ‘crime’ was that she hails from edo state, whose minimum score has been pegged at 128, while fatima, her classmate. scored 28 out of 200 and was offered admission to the same school simply because taraba state, where she hails from, has a cut-off mark of just nine marks. divine cannot fathom why she was refused admission while her friend, whose work was not nearly comparable to her own, will be a student in one of the best unity schools in the country.” in this respect, you will appreciate divine’s father's nightmare of explaining to his daughter why she was denied admittance to unity school despite scoring 108. yet, her classmate fatima, who scored 28, will be admitted. they are in the same class and live in the same city, but their parents are from different states of origin they have probably never even visited. this is the vexed issue of the state of origin against the state of residence in the approbation of benefits. the university of oxford (iig2012), in a briefing paper by the improving institutions for pro-poor growth network, highlighted the plight of nigerians who live in states other than their states of ancestral origin. these individuals, referred to as non-indigenes, are often prevented from exercising full citizenship rights. the two-tier citizenship system has significant implications, including exclusion from accessing services provided by state and local governments. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 91 global practice is an illusion in nigeria, and the dominant factor in politics is the “daughter or son of the soil2” factors. it is, therefore, not as simple as packing your bag and heading to a part of the country that might offer you growth opportunities. there is a strong possibility that you might not be accepted3, and even if you are, restrictions can be imposed. the complex but straightforward concept of citizenship is that as a nigerian passport holder, you have the freedom to live in any part of the country and be accorded the rights and benefits of a nigerian. however, the reality in nigeria is that where your great-grandfather is from has a more profound effect than where you live. it can affect your ability to excel if you are interested in government positions. educational development in nigeria there was no organised, formal education in the classic sense prior to nigeria's advent of british colonial rule. instead, the various nationalities operated independently of each other, organising their daily activities according to customs and traditions handed down from generation to generation. northern nigeria was predominately muslim and practised islamic education. in the south, education was more informal, where children learned their people's traditional culture and practices in age-grade settings with elders. agboola& ofoegbu (2010); imam (2012) stated that organised formal education came to various parts of the country at different times, meaning that educational development is disparate. this has led to inequality in educational and other development indices, creating a situation that needs to balance development. this has created additional challenges. historically, the 1969 national curriculum conference, according to afemikhe, omo-egbekuse, &imobekhai (2010), led to the formulation of the national policy on education (npe) where the focus was: “the development of the individual into a sound and effective citizen, the full integration of individuals into the community and the provision of equal access to educational opportunities for all citizens of the country and at all levels of education. equally spelt out are educational objectives for each level of education and the educational structure needed for implementing these policies.” the policy means that all citizens should be educated. the framers of the constitution of nigeria specified the government's role in education as articulated in the federal republic of nigeria (1999:18) that the government shall; • direct its policy toward ensuring that there are equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels 2the reality is that mostly indigenes succeed in elections. there are situations where contestants might never live in the area but her father and grandfather are from there, when she is ready for election she will come down from where ever she is lives and she will be accepted because in local parley: ‘she is a daughter of the soil’ 3acceptance in this case means to be accepted as a native and be allowed to partake in the affairs of the community including contesting elections. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 92 • strive to eradicate illiteracy by providing, when practicable, free, compulsory, and universal primary education, free university education and free adult literacy programs. education in nigeria is a shared responsibility among the federal, state, and local governments. the federal ministry of education formulates policies and ensures quality control. the federal government solely owns and funds unity schools. ube program is a framework education program consisting of 9 years of basic education. it aims to eradicate illiteracy, ignorance, and poverty and accelerate national development. however, its implementation in states has not led to equality. etuk, ering, &ajake (2012), imam (2012), adeyemi, oribabor& adeyemi (2012) state that the educational system in nigeria is organised through the 6-3-34 system as modified to the 9-3-4 system. this translates to: • the first 6 years of primary school starts typically at the age of 5 or 6. • the following 3 years of junior secondary school • the following 3 years of senior secondary school • the next 4 years of higher education the first 2 stages are compulsory for all children in nigeria. that’s the implication of the 9-3-4 system as against the 6-3-3-4 system. this paper discusses the six years of secondary school as it relates to unity schools. what are unity schools in nigeria? unity schools are elite schools with the motto ‘pro unitate’, which means ‘for unity’. education is vital, but the quality of public schools in nigeria is inadequate, with low motivation and facilities. parents who can afford it choose private schools for better quality but high fees. however, unity schools are the only hope for quality education for most citizens at a low cost. these flagship institutions offer excellent facilities and motivated teachers to bring students from diverse backgrounds to promote unity and inclusivity. the competition for spots in unity schools is fierce and often controversial. although these schools can admit around 26,000 students yearly, they get an average of over 75,000 applications. this has led to frustration and desperation among parents who want their children to attend these schools. many parents from the south claim that students from the north are given preferential treatment, even when they don't meet the qualifications. however, unity schools' main goal is to provide everyone with equal learning opportunities. the unity schools are a leveller where wards from poor and wealthy families attend. however, the cost of maintaining these schools is quite high. according to the 2015 irin report, about 75% of the federal government’s $300 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 93 million allocation for secondary education was used for the unity schools. the population of these schools are about 122,000 students. the former education minister and one-time world bank vice president for africa, prof. oby ezekwesili, feels that “such heavy expenditures on the elite schools seem unjustifiable,”4 education plays a huge role in political, economic, social, and national development in a country; (afemikhe, omo-egbekuse & imobekhai (2009) says that this justifies the massive amount of funds government spends on the sector. the policy has been criticised, but most is based on the frustration or inability of highly qualified students to be admitted. why is the admission process controversial? admission criteria for unity school education is crucial for development, equal opportunity, and fair governance. to achieve equal representation, the entry level for candidates from disadvantaged regions has to be reduced. schools promote social and cultural integration, building tolerance, peace, and unity. admission is based on relative academic excellence. the government publishes cut-off grades for unity schools based on neco exam results to ensure equal representation. admission is based on merit, state quotas, and environmental considerations. however, the admission formula is constantly changing and subject to political influence. the table below from joshua, loromeke, & olanrewaju (2014) shows the distribution formula in 1977 and 2000. the 2022 criteria were taken from the statement5 of the ministry of education. table 1.1: quota breakdown in 1977, 2000 and 2022 criteria 1977 admission formula 1977 criteria 2000 admission formula 2000 criteria 2022 admission formula 2022 merit 40% merit 40% merit 60% state quota 30% locality 35% equality of state 30% catchment zone 20% educationally less developed (eld) 25% discretion 10% exigency 10% admission requirements for federal government colleges in nigeria have changed. merit now carries 60% weight from 40% but has not had much impact on students 4http://www.irinnews.org/report/73242/nigeria-privatising-schools-and-national-unity 5https://tribuneonlineng.com/fg-releases-results-of-2022-common-entrance-exams-to-unity-schools/ https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 94 from the south who need to score high marks to be admitted. the guardian6 pointed out, “the cut-off mark for a male pupil from yobe state in the 2018/2019 session is 2. it is 4 points for the male candidate from zamfara, while the male candidate from taraba state only needs 3 points out of 300 to be a proud student of any of the federal government colleges he so chooses. but the minimum score is 139 for any male or female pupil from anambra state, hoping to geta place in a unity college.” the increase has not changed the status quo as pupils from the south will have to score 140 to be admitted, while candidates like for example, the 28 candidates who sat for the examination from zamfara in 2018 will be admitted. there is also the issue of the new category called educationally less developed (eld) that was added and the equality of states. these are mainly in favour of the north. the implication is that state and catchment areas, originally 50%, have been reduced to 35%. the state and catchment area considerations are meant to compensate for places where the schools are located. every state in the federation has unity schools. however, if you look at the location of the unity school, there are 12 unity schools in the south-east. the south-west has 18, while the south-south has 16. however, the north-east has 15 unity schools, north central has 24 schools, and the north-west has 18 unity schools. it is estimated that most prospective unity school candidates, between 62% to 65%, are from the southern part of the country, while the rest are from the north. the implications are that there are possibilities of more opportunities for the candidates from the north. the table below shows the data from the examination in 2018. the source is national examination council (neco), as reported. table 1.2: 2018 cut off mark for unity schools for southern and northern states southern states boys 2018 girls2018 northern states boys 2018 girls2018 abia 130 130 adamawa 62 62 akwa ibom 123 123 bauchi 35 35 anambra 139 139 benue 111 111 bayelsa 72 72 borno 45 45 cross rivers 97 97 gombe 58 58 delta 131 131 jigawa 44 44 ebonyi 112 112 kaduna 91 91 edo 127 127 kano 67 67 ekiti 119 119 katsina 60 60 enugu 134 134 kebbi 9 20 ogun 65 65 kogi 119 119 6 https://guardian.ng/features/how-discriminatory-admission-criteria-poor-performance-haunt-unity-schools/ https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 95 imo 138 138 kwara 123 123 lagos 133 133 niger 93 93 ondo 126 126 plateau 97 97 osun 127 127 sokoto 9 13 oyo 127 127 taraba 3 11 rivers 118 118 yobe 2 27 fctabuja 90 90 gombe 58 58 nassarawa 58 58 zamfara 4 2 fct-abuja 90 90 the data for 2018 shows that the average cut-off point for the southern states is 117.1 if fct is included; however, if fct is excluded, it will be 118.7. according to the data for northern nigeria, the cut-off for boys is 61.1 and for girls 58.9 if fct is included. however, if fct is excluded, the figure will be 57.4 for boys and 59.7 for girls. the table below summarises the average cut-off score in 2018 for the 19 northern and 17 southern states for both boys and girls. table 1.3: summary of findings states boys -2018 girls -2018 1 southern states 118.7 118.7 2 southern states with fct 117.1 117.1 3 northern states 57.4 59.7 4 northern states with fct 61.1 58.9 the data above show the widening gap in education between the north and south. for example, a comparative analysis of the high and low cut off marks shows that states like anambra, imo, lagos, enugu, and delta in the south were placed on cutoff scores of 139, 138, 134, 134 and 131. at the same time, kebbi, sokoto, zamfara, taraba and yobe, in the north, were given cut-off scores of 9, 9, 4, 3 and 2, respectively. can this be the justification for affirmative action? the table below shows the finding. table 1.4: summary of findings: high & low north and south states high southern states high northern states low northern states low southern states https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 96 1 anambra 139 kwara -123 kebbi – 9 ekiti – 119 2 imo 138 kogi 119 sokoto – 9 rivers – 118 3 enugu 134 benue 111 zamfara 4 ebonyi – 112 4 lagos -133 plateau 97 taraba – 3 cross river – 97 5 delta 131 niger -93 yobe – 2 bayelsa – 77 the admission process in the unity schools shows the value of these schools as centres of integration and unity where all can come together to learn, irrespective of their educational endowments. however, it also demonstrates a decline in unity schools as centres of excellence if students with low scores can be admitted. it is a ‘celebration of mediocrity’ with vast implications for national development. the situation where the most inadequate cut-off scores for the southern states are almost as good as the highest score for the northern states is worth noting. however, the essence of the schools is not only about educational excellence but about promoting national integration. analysis the data above indicate that if the admission requirement is based solely on merit, the schools will no longer be “unity” schools. the purpose of their existence will not be attainable. the overwhelming majority of pupils will be from southern states. for the schools to continue to exist, a fair means of representation needs to be articulated. the principal of kings college, lagos, one of the unity schools, otunba dele olapeju, justified this in an interview with daily independent newspaper7; stated: “if tomorrow, the policy is thrown out of the window, we may have, a few decades down the line, to realise that indigenes of just a few states populate the federal ministries. the federal universities will have about 70 per cent of their enrolment from the south. the army will largely consist of northern troops, the police from delta and edo, and the navy from rivers, bayelsa, and a few southwestern states. we have a choice in nigeria: the current choice is the quota arrangement. “the essence of unity schools is to celebrate diversity and build unity, not necessarily a centre for excellence. therefore, we have a collection of intelligent kids from different parts of the country. that is the essence of unity schools. section 14(3) of the constitution provides the basis for affirmative action in nigeria. the educational institutions owned by the federal government follow 7http://dailyindependentnig.com/2014/07/intrigues-unity-schools-admission-policy/ https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax http://dailyindependentnig.com/2014/07/intrigues-unity-schools-admission-policy/ in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 97 the same pattern. the implications of ensuring a balance in the federation lead to issues where justice as fairness is constantly questioned by those who feel aggrieved. however, another session of the 1999 constitution frowns at discrimination, especially section 42. the question, therefore, is to determine if admission into state-run schools does not discriminate against persons based on circumstances of birth. this paper has examined the admission into federal government-owned institutions at the post-primary level to explore the pattern and implication of the policies. the findings are insufficient space for all qualified persons seeking admission. therefore, creative means had to be adapted to ensure equity and balance in the admission process. but does the process constitute discrimination? does it lead to fairness? the data for the country's disparity between the north and south show the need for a quota system. the average cut-off score for the 17 southern states for boys and girls was 117.1; including fct, the average cut-off mark is 117.1 for both boys and girls. the average cut-off score for the 19 northern states, including fct, for boys was 61.1, and for girls was 58.90 see table 1.3. the data showed an alarming widening gap in education between the north and south. for example, a comparative analysis of the high and low cut-off marks shows that states like anambra, imo, lagos, enugu, and delta in the south were placed on cut-off scores of 139, 138, 134, 134 and 131, respectively. at the same time, kebbi, sokoto, zamfara, taraba and yobe, in the north, were given cut-off scores of 9, 9, 4, 3 and 2, respectively. without affirmative action, more than 80% of the population of the unity schools will come from the south. this will seriously affect the capability of the people from the north to meet their needs. therefore, it is not discriminatory but ensures justice and fairness. conclusion affirmative action is a policy that can be justified by its alignment with rawls's second principle of justice, which emphasises fair equality of opportunity and the difference principle. this means that affirmative action seeks to extend the application of these principles to address instances of injustice and to implement compensatory justice by providing opportunities to those who have been disadvantaged. affirmative action is a policy to compensate disadvantaged groups who have not received their fair share of opportunities. it is forward-looking to enable a fairer society. in nigeria, it's a stopgap to bridge the imbalance in the educational sector. every society has elements of inequality; however, everyone deserves to benefit from a good education to the best of their abilities, irrespective of their status. society is responsible for making educational opportunities universally available, even if people cannot or do not want to take advantage of such opportunities (allen, 2000). not having such an opportunity can lead to conflict. https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 98 conflict is the perception of incompatible goals (fisher, 2000; lederach, 1995 & 1997). the impact of cultural and structural violence is heavy in the societies (galtung, 1969). nigeria has a peculiar history; its policies are dictated and influenced by historical circumstances. the overarching desire is for the country to remain as one indivisible entity. the bloody civil war was fought to keep the country one with more than 1 million dead. the civil war's impact is evident in the country and affects the national policy to priorities a sense of belonging, even if it risks alienating a significant population. the growing unrest in nigeria's north, caused by boko haram sects, is linked to cultural and structural factors, leading to direct violence. therefore, the physical violence witnessed can be attributed to the social injustices in the region. galtung (1969) proposed that eliminating structural violence is a better option because it is not seen, but it is the root of the manifestation of the physical violence that is seen. education can be a tool to eliminate the structural violence. however, educational imbalance can exacerbate the situation. nigeria faces a challenging situation, with the educational gap between the northern and southern regions widening yearly. it is imperative to address this issue to ensure all nigerians have equal education opportunities and benefits. historical factors have made it difficult for people in the north to perform well in exams for unity schools. however, rather than let this divide continue, which can lead to more conflict like boko haram, affirmative action supports historically disadvantaged groups to attend unity schools. affirmative action as a policy is not discriminatory but necessary to promote positive peace and support historically disadvantaged groups. a level playing field can be achieved by implementing educational policies that ensure equal access to education for everyone. merit alone cannot be the sole factor for admission, as limited spaces are available for candidates. therefore, affirmative action is the best way to ensure equal education opportunities. implementing a strict merit-based policy can lead to conflict and destabilisation of the system in a pluralistic society with a long history of mistrust. therefore, affirmative action is a constructive policy that supports equal opportunities for all nigerians. with this policy in place, the educational divide between northern and southern nigeria can be bridged to promote positive peace for all. the people living in the southern part of the country would want to avoid experiencing the situation that people in the north face. therefore, they will support affirmative action provisions if they negotiate without knowing their group membership. rawls argues that a rational person, unaware of their group membership, would not choose principles that disadvantage some members of society. this is because such principles would put the person at risk of being unable to achieve their goals. instead, a just distributive principle would ensure each https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 99 member has enough primary goods (opportunities, liberties, freedom) to fulfil their life plans. affirmative action is a non-ideal theory in that it is a set of policies and practices intended to redress injustice. from a rawlsian perspective, nonideal theory must be situated with an ideal theory of distributive justice, for injustice can only be determined from within the parameters of an ideal theory of justice. as thomas nagel states: ideal theory enables you to say when a society is unjust, because it falls short of the ideal. but it does not tell you what to do if, as is almost always the case, you find yourself in an unjust society, and want to correct that injustice. that is the province of what [rawls] called "nonideal theory." affirmative action is clearly a policy intended to deal with the unjust consequences of an unjust history. whether affirmative action is itself just or unjust is therefore a central question of nonideal theory for a society like ours. (nagel 2003, 82) education is the right of every citizen. equality versus liberty is a significant point in rawls's argument. rawls argues on the intrinsic value of individuals and their inviolable nature. he maintains that recognising a person means acknowledging their status as both "free and equal." contrary to being at odds, rawls posits that liberty and equality are fundamental justice components. his viewpoint emphasises the significance of treating individuals as morally equal. in cases of historic injustice, rawls proposes that fairness necessitates a standard of equity in addressing nonideal compensatory justice rather than simply striving for equal distribution. rawls provides a rational foundation for acknowledging this moral equality and presents an ideal framework for identifying injustice within certain social systems. consequently, he perceives affirmative action as a means of rectifying injustices and fostering social cooperation and stability for morally justified reasons. finally, access to education is essential to empower young children to overcome inequalities in distributing benefits and opportunities. education is critical to creating a positive change in the northern region. affirmative action can help enrol students from the northern part of the country into unity schools, eliminating ignorance, exploitation, and exclusion while opening new opportunities for people. education is necessary to respect human rights and dignity and establish a fair and peaceful society. affirmative action policies must consider the intricate relationship between pursuing justice and establishing societal peace. when the government fails to rectify deep-seated structural inequities and bring about tangible advancements for marginalised communities, it can potentially exacerbate grievances and fuel social unrest and conflict. therefore, it is imperative for policymakers to carefully consider these complexities when developing and https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax in factis pax volume 18 number 1 (2024): 81-103 https://openjournals.utoledo.edu/index.php/infactispax 100 implementing affirmative action measures. although some people in the southern part of the country may complain, affirmative action can be accepted as fair and just for all people. references aarnevesilind, p.(2005). peace engineering: when personal values and engineering careers converge, (usa: lakeshore press, 2005), adamu, f. 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