11/8/11 3:02 PM Global Campaign for Peace Education Newsletter: November 2011 (Intro by Dale Snauwaert) Page 1 of 19 http://www.peace-ed-campaign.org/newsletter/archives/88.html News & Highlights Peace Education in the Field Action Alerts Events & Conferences Educational Programs Publications & Research Jobs & Funding Opportunities Quick Links GCPE Website Subscribe Archives Contribute to the Newsletter Make a tax-deductible contribution to the Global Campaign (coming soon) Issue #88 November 2011 DEMOCRACY, PUBLIC REASON AND PEACE EDUCATION DALE T. SNAUWAERT Associate Professor of Educational Theory and Social Foundations of Education at The University of Toledo Director and founder of the Center for Nonviolence and Democratic Education at The University of Toledo Editor, In Factis Pax: Online Journal of Peace Education and Social Justice www.infactispax.org Peace education, as Betty Reardon suggests, should be fundamentally concerned with the development of the political efficacy of future citizens. Political efficacy is dependent upon “sound political thinking,” “for inquiry into obstacles and possibilities for transformation should form the core of peace pedagogy, so as to provide learning in how to think and to act for political efficacy in peace politics . . .” (1) Learning how to think concerns conceptual clarity, thinking within conceptual frameworks, posing questions, rationality, and most importantly reflective inquiry. Peace education is thus closely aligned with democratic education grounded in the ideas of public reason and deliberation. A current, emergent example of democratic public reason and deliberation is the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Although in its infancy, it exhibits characteristics of democratic public reason; in particular, the process dimension of the content of public reason is exemplified in its commitment to and enactment of the process of consensus, its egalitarian openness, and its decentralized, non-hierarchical, “leaderless” orientation. In a significant way it also exhibits the public values of economic and political equality and distributive Send 56 people Search Select Language Powered by Translate