Educating for Peace in a Time of Permanent War ─ Are Schools Part of the Solution or the Problem

What is the meaning of peace, why should we study it, and how should we achieve it? Although there are an increasing number of manuscripts, curricula and initiatives that grapple with some strand of peace education, there is, nonetheless, a dearth of critical, cross-disciplinary, international projects/books that examine peace education in conjunction with war and conflict. Within this volume, the authors contend that war/military conflict/violence are not a nebulous, far-away, mysterious venture; rather, they argue that we are all, collectively, involved in perpetrating and perpetuating militarization/conflict/violence inside and outside of our own social circles. Therefore, education about and against war can be as liberating as it is necessary. If war equates killing, can our schools avoid engaging in the examination of what war is all about? If education is not about peace, then is it about war? Can a society have education that willfully avoids considering peace as its central objective? Can a democracy exist if pivotal notions of war and peace are not understood, practiced, advocated and ensconced in public debate? These questions, according to Carr and Porfilio and the contributors they have assembled, merit a critical and extensive reflection. This book seeks to provide a range of epistemological, policy, pedagogical, curriculum and institutional analyses aimed at facilitating meaningful engagement toward a more robust and critical examination of the role that schools play (and can play) in framing war, militarization and armed conflict and, significantly, the connection to peace.

Paul R. Carr is Associate Professor in the Departments of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Studies at Lakehead University, Orillia, Canada.
Brad J. Porfilio is Associate Professor of Education at Lewis University, Illinois, USA.

Preface: In Search of Peace in a Culture of War Antonia Darder. Acknowledgments. 1. Introduction: Framing Peace and War Within the Educational Project: Willful (Dis)Engagement and Meaning (and Cost) of Conflict Paul R. Carr and Brad J. Porfilio Section I: Theorizing Peace, War and Peace 2. Militaristic Privilege in Schools and Beyond: Challenges for Peace Educators Laura L. Finley 3. Saying "No!": The Power of Transformative Learning Ilhan Kucukaydin and Patricia Cranton 4. "Why Do Students Call Me ‘The War Teacher?" Problematizing Militarism in Education as a Freireian Codification Mike Klein 5. Re-Examining the Role of Intellectuals in Times of War Through the Lens of Edward Said’s Work: A Call for Action to Social Justice Educators Pierre W. Orelus Section II: Scanning the War in Our Daily (and Educational) Lives 6. A Pedagogy of Ceaseless War: JROTC and the Military Occupation of US Schools Shannon K. McManimon, Brian D. Lozenski and Zachary A. Casey 7. The Way of the Soldier – Jarheads and Hurt Lockers: Perpetual War, Identity and Critical Media Literacy William M. Reynolds Section III: The Curriculum of War and Peace 8. Moving from a Curriculum of Compliance to a Curriculum of Possibility: Militarization of Schools, State Curricular Standards, and Creating Democratic Spaces for Teaching Military Conflict Christopher Leahey 9. The Military-Industrial-University Complex and Social Science: A Brief history and Current Update of a Professional Contribution to War Randle W. Nelsen 10. Art and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy vs. Warring Words in a Race to the Frontline Mary F. Wright, Brenda M. Wright and Matthew P. McMillan Section IV: Internationalizing Peace and the Trauma of War and Conflict 11. Who Owns Education for Peace and for War? Peace/War Industry and Ethnic Stratification: The Case of One Underprivileged School in Israel Dalya Yafa Markovich 12. Open the Doors, Paint the Walls and Ignore the Bells: Refashioning the Post-Movimiento Classroom to Foment "Civic Space" Ties Stephen T. Sadlier and Ignacio Rogelio Morales Sánchez 13. Swimming Against the Current: Educating for Peace in the University Classroom in Turkey Antonia Mandry Section V: Resisting the Militarization of Education 14. Building a Movement: Counter-Recruitment Organizing in US Public Schools Seth Kershner and Scott Harding 15. Creating Peaceful and Nonviolent Schools in the Midst of a Culture of War and Violence Tom Cavanagh 16. War and the Sectarian Mind: Education and the Development of Consciousness in the Age of "Permanent War" John M. Elmore. Afterword: Reflecting on Critical Perspectives of Peace Education Zvi Bekerman