Can a Peace Class Mirror the Real Causes of Wars? A Critical Look at a Peace Class

Gulistan Gursel BilginFulbright Phd Scholar

C & I ggursel@indiana.edu

Outline

• Background Information• RQs• Theoretical Framework• Methodology• Findings• Future Research

Education and Peace

A good civic education can accomplish the vital goals of cultivating an attitude that respects tradition and culture, loving the nation and homeland that have fostered them, while respecting other countries and contributing to international peace and development (Ito, 2006).

Peace Education• Peace Education (Carr & Porrfilio, 2012; Stone, 1984; Page, 2008; Salomon

& Nevo, 2002; Noddings, 2011; Bajaj, 2008; Harris & Morrison, 2003; Burns & Aspeslaugh, 1996; Haavelsrud, 1975, 1981, 1996; Boulding, 1988; Gordon & Grob, 1987; Smith & Carson, 1998).

• Conflict Resolution as a Component of Peace Education (Barge,1994; King, 1999; DeChurch & Marks, 2001; Rahim, 2002; Al-Ajmi, 2007).

Why then do we so often choose to go enthusiastically to war?

EFL/ESL settings as significant environments

Research Questions

(1) What are the common negotiation strategies that English instructors use to handle conflicts in the EFL classroom?

(2) What insights and skills are vital in order to achieve collaborative conflict resolution in EFL classrooms?

Theoretical Framework

• Empowerment through Conflict Resolution (Domenici & Littlejohn, 2001; Crum,1987, Harris & Morrison, 2003; Johnson & Johnson, 1995; Türnüklü, 2005)

• Peace Education as a Critical Initiative (Salomon, 2002; Harris, 2004; Salomon & Cairns, 2010; Reardon, 2000; Haydon, 2007; Darder, 2012;Page, 2008; Noddings, 2012)

• Figured Worlds, Identities, and Peace Education: A Critical Perspective (Scollon, 2001; Choularaki &Fairclough, 1999; Gee,1990; 2011; Rogers, 2011; Norton,1997; Alake, 2005)

Figure 1. Interpersonal styles of conflict resolution (Source: Schermenhorn, Chapell, 2000: 218)

Negotiation Strategies

Methodology• A peace educator teaching ESL

• 22 years language teaching experience• MA in Second & Foreign Language Education,

TESOL• Mother & several professors as role models

• Semi-structured interview• Class observation• Field notes• Artifacts (materials, texts)

Analysis

• Mediated Discourse Analysis (MDA) (Scollon, 2001)

• Critical Discourse Analysis (Gee, 1990; 1999a)

Mediated Discourse Analysis and Initial FindingsScollon (2001)

Figure 2: The crucial social actors and the main nexuses 

Figure 3. The intersection of several nexuses

The crucial nexuses in this piece of data:

(1) the ESL classroom where a peace educator teaches a group of international students including “a couple of Arabic students,”

(2) the movie about a Christian governess helping a Jewish boy and his mother from the Nazis,

(3) the International Center where the Muslim Turkish researcher and a Christian American peace educator were talking about peace education.

Critical Discourse Analysis(Gee, 1990; 1999a)

• classroom (figured world) • the instructor and the students (identities)• Movie (figured world)• a Christian governor (identity)• Authority (peace eductor)• White, Christian, American, teacher (peace teacher)

(insider)• Muslim, Middle Eastern, Arabic students (attackers)

(outsiders)• “victimized teacher,” in her “own” peace class • Story about 9/11 the terrorist attack

“Meanings are embedded within social, historical, political, and ideological contexts” (Rogers, 2011, p.5).

• What are the histories of Saudi students?• What are the histories of the peace educator?• How can these ways of being interact with each other

without domination and oppression in an increasingly interconnected global society?

Many Thanks!