Review of Educational Research 84卷4期

1. Interrupting Extremism by Creating Educative Turbulence

Author: LynnDavies

Source: Curriculum Inquiry 44.4 (Sep 2014): 450-468.

Abstract: This article begins from the premise that it is important to explore how people unlearn, as well as learn, specifically in terms of extremist or violent attitudes. It shows the implications of two aspects of complexity theory--turbulence and self-organisation--for educational practice and the fostering of a complex adaptive school, which can aid peacebuilding. Positive turbulence for adaptation requires interruptive democracy, the habits of dialogue and dissent, and learning resilience to offence. Self-organisation relates to the current phenomenon of horizontal networking, in particular the use of social media by young people, and the new democracy of messaging. Three different country examples are given of intergroup encounters that interrupt rigidities in attitudes: working across ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, tackling religious divides in Northern Ireland through shared classes, and initiatives to prevent violent extremism in the United Kingdom. Pedagogical implications of unlearning involve working with the four Ds of deradicalisation, debiasing, disengagement and desistence. This involves disturbing essentialising categories of "others" and of good and evil, as well as capitalising on horizontal participation in social action--that is, learning skills and competences around movements for change that do not involve violence.

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2. The Possibilities for Reconciliation Through Difficult Dialogues: Treaty Education as Peacebuilding

Author: Jennifer Anne Tupper

Source: Curriculum Inquiry 44.4 (Sep 2014): 469-488.

Abstract: This article discusses the ongoing effects of colonialism on Aboriginal peoples in Canada and how these might be revealed and disrupted through particular curricular initiatives, informed by understandings of critical peacebuilding education. One such initiative, treaty education, has the potential to disturb dominant national narratives in classrooms, and to invite students to think differently about the history of Canada as it seeks to acknowledge and challenge epistemologies of ignorance that often shape relationships with Aboriginal peoples. Throughout the discussion, it is argued that ignorance is produced and maintained through dominant narratives of the nation which reinforce colonial dispositions that are inherently anti-democratic and that (re)produce structural and symbolic forms of violence, undermining the possibilities for (just) peacebuilding education. Treaty education may bring to the surface conflict for students in terms of their prior knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal-Canadian relations: such conflict creates productive sites of possibility for disrupting ignorance. Specifically, the article describes a high school-university student inquiry into residential schools undertaken in fall 2012 as one example of how treaty education might be used to foster the difficult dialogues necessary for critical peacebuilding education.

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3. Reflections of a Peace Educator: The Power and Challenges of Peace Education With Pre-Service Teachers

Author: Sharon Anne Cook

Source: Curriculum Inquiry 44.4 (Sep 2014): 489-507.

Abstract:This retrospective essay examines one long-standing peace and global education initiative for pre-service teacher candidates. The article probes the meanings of peace education and of global education embedded in the program, as well as the program's apparent consequences: What understandings of peace education did the pre-service candidates in this program demonstrate, through their own words and the teaching plans they produced? What skills did the pre-service candidates seem to acquire in curriculum design? My reflections are based on my own experience as a faculty member and coordinator of the program, as well as retrospective understandings derived from ongoing examination of questionnaires, focus group discussions, interviews, and especially, almost 200 curriculum products (lesson and unit plans) created by pre-service candidates in a special "global cohort" and in the general pre-service population at the same university. The article provides a literature review of the main definitions of peace education, as well as the characteristics of peace pedagogy, and discusses two main challenges faced by the core faculty in this peace education program. In particular, teacher candidates' understandings of peace education often seemed limited, especially in relation to their competence in developing curricula for other strands of global education. Second, teacher candidates often had difficulty acquiring the relevant knowledge base and teaching materials necessary for facilitating the complex pedagogies associated with peace education. I conclude with some observations about how our program's pre-service teacher candidates seemed to understand and respond to the challenges of peace education.

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4. Relational Restorative Justice Pedagogy in Educator Professional Development

Author: Dorothy Vaandering

Source: Curriculum Inquiry 44.4 (Sep 2014): 508-530.

Abstract: What would a professional development experience rooted in the philosophy, principles, and practices of restorative justice look and feel like? This article describes how such a professional development project was designed to implement restorative justice principles and practices into schools in a proactive, relational and sustainable manner by using a comprehensive dialogic, democratic peacebuilding pedagogy. The initiative embodied a broad, transformative approach to restorative justice, grounded in participating educators' identifying, articulating and applying personal core values. This professional development focused on diverse educators, their relationships, and conceptual understandings, rather than on narrow techniques for enhancing student understanding or changing student behaviour. Its core practice involved facilitated critical reflexive dialogue in a circle, organized around recognizing the impact of participants' interactions on others, using three central, recurring questions: Am I honouring? Am I measuring? What message am I sending? Situated in the context of relational theory (Llewellyn, 2012), this restorative professional development approach addresses some of the challenges in implementing and sustaining transformative citizenship and peacebuilding pedagogies in schools. A pedagogical portrait of the rationale, design, and facilitation experience illustrates the theories, practices, and insights of the initiative, called Relationships First: Implementing Restorative Justice From the Ground Up.

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5. The School's Democratic Mission and Conflict Resolution: Voices of Swedish Educators

Author: Ilse Hakvoort and Elizabeth Olsson

Source: Curriculum Inquiry 44.4 (Sep 2014): 531-552.

Abstract:Swedish educational policy mandates have given schools a double mission: the development of content-based knowledge as well as the promotion of democratic values and competencies. While detailed learning outcomes are specified for content domains, the democratic mission is imprecisely described and unsupported by practical measures. This leaves interpretation and effective implementation up to schools and individual educators. One way in which this mission can be clarified is by examining how conflict resolution practices intersect with, and may contribute to, democratic citizenship education. This article presents findings from interviews with 10 Swedish educators regarding their interpretations of the democratic mission. Although every participant affirmed in general terms that there was an important relationship between the school's democratic mission and their practices of conflict management, no participant believed that he or she possessed the specific knowledge, skills, contextual support, or clarity of purpose to address conflicts democratically. The educators participating in our study focused on controlling disruptive and violent conflict incidents, rather than on democratic discussion of conflicting perspectives as learning opportunities. Informed by participating educators' understandings and experiences, this article examines how conscious and constructive conflict resolution practices might inform and, ultimately, improve educational practices for promoting democratic values and competencies.

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6. Peacebuilding Dialogue Pedagogies in Canadian Classrooms

Author:Kathy Bickmore

Source: Curriculum Inquiry 44.4 (Sep 2014): 553-582.

Abstract: Constructively critical and inclusive dialogue about conflictual issues is one necessary ingredient of both democratic citizenship and peacebuilding learning. However, in North American classrooms populated by heterogeneous and non-affluent students, pedagogies involving discussion of conflicts are rarely fully implemented, sustained, or inclusive of all students' voices. This article reports the results of a study describing contrasting ways in which teachers actually did implement (or attempt) dialogic pedagogies on difficult issues in Canadian public school classrooms. Based on a series of observations and interviews in 11 public elementary, intermediate, and secondary classrooms (linked to three different professional development initiatives), the article examines key elements--in the content of the conflicts discussed; in the processes and task structures for classroom discussion; in the norms, skills, and relationships established; and in the school contexts--that make such dialogic classroom activities more (or less) feasible to implement and sustain, more (or less) inclusive of previously marginalized voices, and more (or less) constructive for democratic and peacebuilding education.