Ian Robert Gibson    Department   Kyoto University of Foreign Studies  Department of British and American Studies, Faculty of Foreign Studies    Position   Professor
Date	2024/08/03
Presentation Theme	Developing Critical Thinking Through Peace Education Practices
Conference	Critical Thinking in the Classroom 2024 (CTC 2024) Meiji University, Tokyo
Promoters	The JALT Critical Thinking SIG, in association with the JALT Tokyo Chapter and Ludic Language Pedagogy,
Conference Type	Domestic
Presentation Type	Speech (General)
Contribution Type	Individual
Country	Japan
Venue	Meiji University, Izumi Campus Tokyo
Holding period	2024/08/03～2024/08/03
Publisher and common publisher	Ian Gibson
Details	Peace education is inquiry-led, preferring, like the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, to ask questions rather than stating opinions. Using methodology such as critical inquiry, critical examination, and reflection, peace education is a process that enables us to examine the human condition and ask what can we learn from this? Peace education owes much of its formulations to the ground breaking work of peace educators such as Cora Weiss, Elise Boulding and Betty Reardon. Reardon for one, in her classes at Teachers College, Columbia University promoted Freirian dialogic methodology, that is setting questions of inquiry and promoting ‘Learning from the Learner’ in order to facilitate critical thinking. In this way students can critically explore issues such as investigations into violence and non-violence, UNESCO’s Culture of Peace, security and human security, nationalism, human rights and gender perspectives. Because peace education is very much inclusive in practice and the themes often controversial, a certain amount of advocacy comes into play and the facilitator must be extremely careful, particularly in the early stages of instruction, that certain criteria and methodology are understood in order for critical thinking and discussion to ensure. This presentation will illustrate these peace education practices and how these practices exemplify critical thinking.