Core Certificate Workshops
2 points / workshop
All courses under the academic guidance of Dr. Betty Reardon of the Peace Education Center, Teachers College, Columbia University, NY
This workshop will deal with teaching about conflict processes within four distinct perspectives: conflict resolution, conflict management, active nonviolence and conflict transformation. The Peace Education Center theory of conflict and peacemaking is based on the fundamental assumption that there is a need for profound structural and cultural change in the world. An experiential methodology will be used to encourage participants' development of both practical skills and materials for use in their work.
This workshop offers an introduction to the international standards of human rights and other normative and conceptual attributes of a culture of peace with a particular focus on gender as a key factor in replicating and sustaining cultural norms and practices. It involves participatory demonstrations of curricula and methods for education for social justice, human rights and tolerance in teacher education, elementary, middle and secondary schools, and adult learning communities
Issues of security are a central concern of educating for peace. The question of what constitutes national and human centered security and their connection to global problems and relationships will be inquired into from systemic, normative and functional perspectives in this workshop. Special emphasis will be placed on exploring the consequences of such structural changes as disarmament on the present security system. Participants will be guided and assisted in formulating their own learning units on alternatives to force and violence.
This workshop offers an introduction to the practical approach to pedagogy used by the Peace Education Center that has been developed over the past twenty years. Among the ideas introduced will be conceptual based learning, inquiry process, critical pedagogy, and participatory and cooperative learning. Actual lessons will be demonstrated and materials offered as prototypes to enable participants to develop their own.
1/2 and 1 point / workshops
The themes and topics of the special workshops courses change according to scheduling and faculty availability. Recent offerings have included:
The subject of the shameful and avoidable suffering imposed upon millions by global poverty occupies both information media and international political discourse. However neither media nor discourse reflect problems of poverty as fundamental issues of human rights. The universal right to live in dignity is denied by poverty, a form of violence addressed by peace education in which economic development is viewed through the lens of human rights.
This special workshop will offer educators a human rights framework and media analysis techniques for introducing issues of human rights and development into peace education. It is also intended to provide an understanding of economic equity as a peace issue. Currently many violent conflicts rage over the denial of the human right to economic justice. Many view poverty as one of the main sources of world conflict. Human rights issues and poverty have become crucial factors in contributing to extreme social violence, armed conflict and war. Yet, few education systems provide learners with a human rights perspective, nor do media present the issues in these terms. This workshop will offer teaching approaches to bring a human rights perspective to both the interpretation of media and to the analysis of poverty as an obstacle to a just and peaceful world
Religious conflict is featured daily in all news media. Seldom do the reports provide objective accounts that facilitate understanding the true nature of the conflict or how it affects the human rights of those caught in the conflict. This special workshop will offer educators a human rights framework and media analysis techniques for introducing issues of religious conflict into peace education.
The ever increasing levels of violence throughout the world at all levels of social organization from family through global, call upon concerned educators and activists to consider with more intensity, the possibilities for change inherent in nonviolence. This workshop will present a basic introduction to the philosophy and theory of nonviolence illustrated by practical examples of nonviolent action for change suitable for adaptation to formal education and citizens' struggles for justice and peace.
This workshop will explore the peace values and teachings of major religions, spiritual traditions, and ethical norms that gave rise to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Nuremburg Principles, the Earth Charter, and the philosophy and strategies of nonviolence. These teachings will be developed into a framework for inquiry into building positive interrgroup relations toward a culture of peace, based on human security.
This special workshop course will deal with issues and teaching approaches relevant to current inter-religious and inter-cultural conflict. It will explore some of the fundamental precepts of peace and justice espoused by the major world religions. It will inquire also into the ethical principles and practical possibilities that are to be found in international standards on human rights, environment and development.