TEACHING AND LEARNING PEACE
What would the world be like if we each personally experienced peaceful alternatives to violence and conflict? How can we take practical steps to set a foundation of lasting, active peace beneath a society riddled with violence?
Such a foundation is the first goal in the ambitious structure Timpson builds to provide models, tools, and techniques for pursuing a new culture of peace through classroom teaching. In Teaching and Learning Peace, Timpson connects the pursuit of peace to the individual, the classroom, the home, the workplace, and the world.
The Introduction describes the burden of the book and the questions it strives to answer:
How do we teach about peace? ... How does an educator or anyone in a leadership role who is committed to the ideals of a sustainable peace open a meaningful dialogue about alternatives to violence?
Timpson addresses these questions in two parts. Part I lays the groundwork by pointing out where violent behavior originates and offering alternatives on a level familiar to both teachers and students. The chapters in Part I offer practical approaches to understanding how things like the desire for revenge manifest themselves on both the world stage and in the classroom. Part II connects the values and models of Part I with specific classroom teaching strategies, methods, and approaches.
Timpson asks, How do we judge an optimism that is grounded in possibility, articulating an achievable, though distant, goal and energizing others through difficult times?
Teaching and Learning Peace judges such optimism to be a cornerstone for creating a new culture of peace.
William M. Timpson, Ph.D, is a professor in the School of Education at Colorado State University (CSU). After receiving his Bachelor s degree in American History from Harvard University, Bill went on to teach junior and senior high school in the inner city of Cleveland, Ohio before completing a doctoral degree in educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Along with numerous articles, chapters, and grants, he has written or co-authored various books focusing on teaching improvement, sustainability, and peace and reconciliation. Bill has also had direct experience working for peace in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Eastern Europe, Guatemala, India, Nepal, and Australia, and in 2006 he served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist on peace and reconciliation studies at the UNESCO Centre in Northern Ireland.
