Institutionalizing critical peace education in public schools: A case for comprehensive implementation

Abstract

Drawing from critical theories in education, this article empirically examines the role that public schools can play as conduits for critical peace education, particularly for young people who have been historically marginalized from school. Based on two years of ethnographic data collection at a public high school in New York City, I explore how students make meaning of their educational experiences at a school that emphasizes democratic principles and a commitment to peace and social justice. The data suggest that students value the intentional participatory spaces and the thematic, inquiry-based curriculum in the school. Not only do these unique structures re-socialize them academically, but they also encourage democratic participation, reflection, critical consciousness, and a commitment to broader social change. This comprehensive approach, in turn, presumably gives students a platform from which to think about the world differently and imagine new alternatives for the future. As a result, the article concludes that there is potential in enacting critical peace education in public schools, and urges that in order to be most successful, several school structures must collectively support its dissemination.

Keywords:

• peace education
• democratic education
• critical pedagogy
• public school reform
• school ethnography

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge the invaluable feedback of the editors of this special issue, Monisha Bajaj and Edward Brantmeier, as well as the following people for their insight and review: Colette Cann, Amanda Cheung, Johnny Farraj, Erin McCloskey, Eréndira Rueda, Roozbeh Shirazi, and Zeena Zakharia.

Notes

1. In this article, ‘public schools’ refers to government-run schools.

2. The administration of HPA does not believe that this is an accurate measure because high school students do not often return the requisite forms, opting instead to skip lunch or eat off campus.

3. The city rate is often contested because it does not always take into account when students leave school to enroll in a GED program (Gootman, 2006c). Thus, city dropout rates are considered much higher than 19.9%. In fact, because the city statistics of measurement obfuscate the actual number of dropouts (see the Public Advocate of the City of New York and Advocates for Children (2002).

4. Math is the exception to this, as HPA often used a more traditional and hierarchically structured math curriculum that required students to master a particular skill prior to enrolling in the next course.

5. There has been an ongoing political battle to maintain this form of assessment, which predates the mandate of high-stakes testing.

6. In 2000, the school replaced weekly whole school town meetings with weekly meetings known as Quads. As the school grew in size, it was no longer feasible to meet as a whole school community every week. Instead, in Quads, four rotating advisories meet for the same purpose as previous Town Meetings. After each rotation, the school would meet for one week in a Town Meeting, and then would go back to the Quad schedule.

7. Restorative justice models focus more on the relationships between ‘victims’ and ‘violators’, as opposed to retributive justice, which emphasizes the interpretation of strict legal code. Moreover, restorative justice emphasizes restoring harmony in the community.