Consultating Services for
International Organizations:

Building Institutional Partnerships

Drawing on recognition of the Center’s experience and expertise in the development of the field of peace education, the TCPEC is annually contacted for involvement in working partnerships with academic institutions, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, and civil society groups. These consultations are an important way in which the TCPEC creates institutional relationships as a means of strengthening a global research perspective and in introducing peace education practices and methodologies to a wider audience.

Training of the Trainers:
The Afghan Institute of Learning

The Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL) joined the Peace Education Center in New York for an intensive training of trainers program in the substance and methodology of peace education. The training, which took place in the Fall of 2005, assisted AIL for the purpose of integrating the subject into its training of teachers and thus into the wide-spread education programs is now offers.

AIL currently conducts a broad range of education and service programs directed toward the preparation of Afghan Women and girls for economic autonomy and active participation in the civil society and government of Afghanistan. The founder and director of the Institute, Sakena Yacoobi, having participated as a plenary speaker and workshop presenter at the International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE) recognized that peace education could meet some of the essential needs in the programs offered to thousands of Afghan citizens living in camps in Pakistan and in rural areas of Afghanistan. In particular, she was interested in the training of AIL trainers in the substance, methodologies and approaches developed by the Teachers College Peace Education Center (TCPEC).

Designing an International MA Degree
in Peace Education for the UN University for Peace

In November 2003, TCPEC Coordinator Tony Jenkins began organizing a substantial effort to design a conceptual and guiding framework for the UN affiliated University for Peace’s new Peace Education Masters Degree Programme that began accepting students in the fall of 2004. This framework serves as the foundation of the programme and guiding instructions for course development. The TCPEC assisted the University for Peace in identifying leading peace educators from around the world to teach and design the newly developed courses, assessed other courses that have been developed, and designed two comprehensive capstone courses for the programme.

“The Comprehensive Programme and Course Framework” was developed to assure the academic programme and courses of the Masters Degree Programme in Peace Education are fully consistent with comprehensive and holistic principals of peace education. The Framework is built around core concepts and organizing ideas based on the values which inform the purposes and goals of peace education. The need for such a framework was determined at the International Consultation for the Masters Degree Programme in Peace Education, held at Teachers College Columbia University, November 6-10, 2002. The substance of the framework is derived from several sources; primarily, the theoretical work of Betty Reardon as it has been applied and developed by the TCPEC; the international field of peace education as it has been practiced for the past three and a half decades in various parts of the world, particularly by the members of the Peace Education Commission of the International Peace Research Association; the International Consultation on the University for Peace Masters Degree Programme in Peace Education; and the preparatory documents of the UPEACE Masters Degree Programme.

The Comprehensive Programme Framework designates the concepts, skills and capacities integral to the programme as a whole. It is based upon general principles underpinning comprehensive peace education, and provides an overview of their multiple dimensions. This provides a rationale for the values, themes, pedagogies, and structures of the various courses. The framework is also holistically developed: each of the basic principles given specific attention is interrelated to form a holistic conceptual foundation for the degree programme.

The Comprehensive Programme Framework is also intended to assist in addressing the more general concerns that may arise in the course delivery, particularly in those offered by interim-visiting instructors and course developers. It recognizes that the richness of peace education is evident in its diversity of practice and cultural perspectives, a diversity that at every opportunity should be embraced in all aspects of the programme. At the same time, the framework allows for the courses to complement each other in a holistic and conceptually coherent fashion. (The “Comprehensive Programme and Course Planning Frameworks for the University for Peace Masters Degree Programme in Peace Education: Guidelines for Course Developers and Instructors (DEP/CPF/1.1)” is available upon request)

United Nations Expert Study on Disarmament & Non-Proliferation Education (UN Department of Disarmament Affairs)

In 2000 the United Nations General Assembly requested the Secretary General to prepare, with the assistance of a qualified group of governmental and non-governmental experts, a study on disarmament and non-proliferation education. This initial study was completed in 2002, and on October 9th of that year Dr. Betty Reardon was featured as a key speaker at the United Nations to inaugurate the launching of the study. Organized by the UN Department for Disarmament Affairs, it contains a series of recommendations for immediate and long-term implementation to be conducted, as appropriate, by Member States, the United Nations and other international organizations, civil society, non-governmental organizations and the media.

The Secretary-General requested the preparation of a report reviewing the results of the implementation of the recommendations to be submitted to the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session. Betty Reardon and Tony Jenkins of the TCPEC have been involved in the follow-up to the study by participating in inter-agency meetings, the first of which took place on June 25, 2003 at the UN Headquarters. UN agencies, international organizations and NGOs representatives participated in the meeting and shared their practices on the subject. The TCPEC has been specifically involved in making recommendations toward the pedagogical application of the recommendations made in the study, and defining the learning objectives and social purposes of such pursuits (The United Nations Study on Disarmament and Non-proliferation Education, and pursuant reports, can be found online at: http://disarmament.un.org/education).

The extensive and complicated logistics of the event were coordinated by the Peace Education Center with generous volunteer assistance provided by many of the students in the peace education program. A copy of the final report is available for download (in adobe .pdf format).