History

The Teachers College Peace Education Program, since it's beginning as a graduate seminar in 1982 , has been a leader in providing the evidence and articulating the rationale for the development and dissemination of peace education in teacher education for elementary and secondary schools, as well as non-formal education. The program has identified the core concepts of the field and a theoretical basis for the pedagogy of peace education upon which it has built a highly reputable degree concentration. This work has influenced the field nationally and internationally, earning a reputation as one of the most substantive and pedagogically innovative programs in peace education.

The uniquely designed graduate degree concentration in peace education at Teachers College is still the only program of its kind . The four core courses that comprise the concentration are built upon the basic substance of an education for global citizenship. All are conducted within the conceptual frameworks now recognized as central to the field and delivered through the participatory pedagogy and inquiry process of peace education. The program has developed conceptual frameworks for K-12 sequences of curricula for teaching about peace and conflict; human rights; tolerance; issues of gender, and environmental security and sustainable development.

For each of these substantive areas of peace education the Peace Education Program has devised teaching approaches and specific pedagogic processes which have been integrated into Teachers College courses and the trainings offered by the Center. Much of the developmental work has been disseminated through publications that have become basic works in the field. Included amongst these are “Comprehensive Peace Education,” “Educating for Global Responsibility,” “Educating for Human Dignity,” “Sexism and the War System,” “Tolerance the Threshold of Peace,” “Education for a Culture of Peace in a Gender Perspective,” “Learning to Abolish War,” and “Passport to Dignity.”

The Teachers College Peace Education Center, a complement to the degree concentration, serves as the coordinating agent of the various activities beyond the academic courses that have been developed by the Peace Education Program. Among these activities are: the annual International Institutes on Peace Education; consultation for and participation in programs and conferences organized by international organizations and agencies such the United Nations, UNESCO, International Peace Research Association, the World Council for Curriculum and Instruction, International Educators for Peace, and Education International; designing and conducting in-service education for classroom teachers; holding international consultations for teacher educators; and conducting research projects. The most recent of these efforts was the hosting of an international consultation for the UN affiliated University for Peace in Costa Rica, advising their development of a new MA program in peace education.