What can be learned from looking for gender differences in peace education data? Lessons from a Bahá’í-inspired undergraduate course

ABSTRACT

Despite attention to the importance of the role of women in peacemaking, there is a curious gap in the peace education literature in gender differences research and study of the specific impact of peace education on girls and women. In this article, we explore some of the reasons for this trend and propose that looking for differences is important to maintain awareness of gendered experiences, the settings in which they exist, and those in which they are absent. Further, we suggest that the principles underpinning the approach to peace and peace pedagogies, in this case Bahá’í concepts of human nobility, the equality of women and men, and the oneness of humanity, and related discursive values, help to foster ‘equal benefit’ environments. We describe our exercise of disaggregating pre- and post-course responses from a Bahá’í-inspired university peace education classroom of twenty students, findings of overall similarity, and particular themes in some women’s responses. Finally, we discuss the lessons learned from an exploratory stance: developing an approach to discourse analysis that focuses on pedagogical insight, the creation of an ‘equal benefit’ learning experience, drawing out strengths and building new capacity in the classroom, and using student perceptions to improve research and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Peace education
• gender differences
• equality
• women and peace
• Bahá’í
• higher education
• pedagogy
• undergraduate

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For the purpose of this article, ‘gender’ refers to differences between the sexes, ‘a common usage term that distinguishes men from women’ (Reardon 2001, 36–37). Usage of this term is not intended as a comment on non-binary gender or sexuality. Rather, in the context of a research history in peace and peace education, our research questions focus particularly on women and the experiences that relate to being female identified.

2. The works of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, son of Bahá’u’lláh (prophet founder of the Bahá’í Faith), are authoritative Bahá’í texts.

3. The Universal House of Justice is the world governing body of the Bahá’í Faith.

4. Translated from the Persian, in which the noun and pronouns are ungendered.

5. There were no trans-identified or non-binary people in this class. In the presentation and discussion of findings female and male identified people are referred to using the terms ‘women’ and ‘female’ and ‘men’ and ‘male’ respectively.

6. Required reading (Ross 2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tiffani Betts Razavi

Dr. Tiffani Betts Razavi is a Visiting Research Professor at the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace, University of Maryland, College Park, and a senior staff writer for The International Educator. Her research and writing explore human values in work and education, the equality of women and men, and integrative approaches to peace, social change, and sustainability.

Hoda Mahmoudi

Dr. Hoda Mahmoudi is Research Professor and Chair at The Bahá’í Chair for World Peace, University of Maryland, College Park. She studies an integrative approach to peace with particular focus on systemic racism and the root causes of prejudice, equality of women as a prerequisite to peace, global governance, and climate change.