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The Promise of Hope: Creating a Classroom Peace Summit
Author(s) -
Franklin Catherine
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
peace and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1468-0130
pISSN - 0149-0508
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0130.2009.00599.x
Subject(s) - summit , curriculum , context (archaeology) , drama , sociology , construct (python library) , power (physics) , pedagogy , class (philosophy) , bridge (graph theory) , task (project management) , biography , psychology , political science , epistemology , management , law , visual arts , computer science , art , philosophy , biology , paleontology , quantum mechanics , medicine , programming language , physics , physical geography , economics , geography
This article examines an innovative way to engage young adolescents in developing deep understandings of peace. Using an approach called curriculum drama , the class works together to construct a “World Peace Summit” within the classroom. This extended project creates a pedagogical bridge that links student interests and energies to curricular content and academic skills. It emboldens students to use the power of imagination and inquiry in their learning and creates situations for student leadership and peer collaboration. Challenged by the task of portraying a notable figure of peace and interacting with others within this context, students take ownership in researching a particular biography of an individual who participated in a social reform movement. Through this process, students get involved in conversations within the topic of peace and, through their character portrayal, they begin to walk in the shoes of another.