Peace Education Network (PEN)

In the video, PEN family members collectively answer the question “what changes do you want to make in the post-pandemic world”, by drawing upon their work experience and thinking of peace education during the past COVID year. We believe that what binds us together are the deep concerns about the structural violence that prevails in the pre-pandemic life, the greater resilience that we develop during the pandemic, and a stronger commitment to a peaceful and better future of the post-pandemic. We hope that their responses can lead to the reflection on some of your pandemic stories and spark your aspiration for peace and social justice.

Join the student group dedicated to promoting peace education and peace-promoting practices at TC and beyond! PEN has existed at TC for over two decades and each year organizes events, including workshops, lectures, movie screenings and socials.

PEN has its own listserv and Facebook page, which you can also join. Contact a faculty concentration coordinator to find out who are the current PEN student coordinators and if you would like to be added to the listserv.

Mission of PEN

The intention of the Peace Education Network (PEN) at Teachers College (TC) is to create a space for practitioners, scholars, and activists within and beyond Columbia University to come together and cross-pollinate ideas, build relationships, build community around the broadly defined field of Peace Education. We will focus especially on the challenges facing practice and complement the theoretical learning of our academic setting with practical experience and skill-building opportunities through events such as, but not limited to, workshops, brown-bag discussions and project visits.

We welcome members from different disciplinary backgrounds ( political science, sociology, economics, adult education, organizational psychology, etc.), who seek to further understand and put into practice transformational learning such that we challenge the present dominance of a culture of violence.

We acknowledge the broad nature of peace education, and are interested in investigating its different manifestations (human rights, conflict resolution, social justice, education in emergencies, etc.), and the various forms in practice (curriculum development and adaptation, communication techniques, critical pedagogy, etc., in both formal and non-formal settings). We are devoted to the continuous nurturing of spaces for dialogue, collaboration, and questioning, as ways to learn and build community around socially relevant educational research and practice.

PEN’s Goals:

To facilitate relationships among TC students and faculty, local and international scholars and practitioners, and community members with interests in peace education;
To promote peace pedagogy within and beyond TC.

Peace Education Network (PEN)

Carousel