Action Research:

Exploring New Terrain in the Field

The TCPEC conducts new and needed research in the various dimensions of peace education to inquire more deeply into the roots causes of the obstacles to peace and to envision and propose educational strategies to transform them. This research has both inquisitive and action oriented dimensions, transforming the formal research into educational experiences to provide service to people already in the field of education, informing their present work with the substance and methodology of peace education.

The Spiritual and Ethical Foundations of Peace Education

The Spiritual and Ethical Foundations of Peace Education project is an inquiry into the religious and ethical precepts of peace and justice and is directed toward introducing these foundations into peace education. It is intended to foster Interreligious understanding and knowledge of the secular ethics that inform principles of peace, social justice and ecological responsibility. The first stage of the project conducted research into materials for teaching the secular, ethical norms encoded into the International Standards on Human Rights, the basic peace and justice teachings of major world religions and philosophies, and the emerging ecological ethics derived by the global environmental movement and the United Nations.

The work of the project is being conducted by directors of academic centers involved in the TCPEC coordinated International Peace Education Centers Network (IPEC-net). Participants include Prof. Kathy Matsui, Seisen University, Japan; Dr. Loreta Castro, Miriam College, the Philippines; Irma Ghosn, Lebanese American University, Lebanon; and Dr. Betty Reardon from the TCPEC. Following a period of consultation and research, the project participants are seeking to advance the project through a series of consultations and workshops for the development of curricular and teaching approaches and their subsequent introduction into teacher education and classrooms. It is developing and refining a teacher-training workshop with a design that has been tested in both Tokyo and Manila. Workshops are scheduled for Seoul and New York in 2005. The secular norms of economic justice articulated in the United Nations Millennial Goals to end poverty will soon be added to the substance of the project.

Feminist Scholar-Activists Network on Demilitarization (FeDem)

FeDem is a TCPEC coordinated network of feminist scholar activists conducting education and action research on the demilitarization of security, and teaching and action on issues of women, peace and security. The group shares a common analysis of the patriarchal roots of the institution of war and the militarization of society in general, and of national security systems in particular.

The Network has developed plans to develop and offer courses in the universities with which the members are associated with a longer view of developing and holding non-formal trainings and action strategy sessions for women activists initiated and conducted by network members. Some courses have already been taught at Sabanci University in Istanbul, Turkey; Utkhal University, Bhubaneshwar, India; and at Teachers College New York and Tokyo campuses. In addition to the above, the network is currently comprised of members from or working with women’s networks in Afghanistan, South Asia, Israel, Jordan, Japan and East Asia, and the Ukraine.

The FeDem network was initiated in plans made in 2002 and meets annually. FeDem gathered for a working session following the IIPE in Istanbul, Turkey in August 2004, in which practical collaborative projects to be conducted among the FedEm members were further developed. These projects include developing a book on Gender and Security (a 2-3 year project); documenting military/political violence towards women; establishing criteria and indicators for militarization of society and education (2004-05); encouraging text book reviews examining sexism, militarism, and human rights violations based on existing projects being conducted in Turkey and Pakistan (see 6.3, Betty Reardon); insisting on application of Security Council Resolution 1325; participation in the World Tribunal on Iraq, to further legal criteria related to gender and international standards relating to war crimes; and a creating a project exploring children and peace through art including children’s perspectives on war.