CIPE Organizer's Manual

Excerpts from the Introduction:

This “Organizer’s Manual” is designed to assist formal, non-formal and grass-roots educators and educational planners by providing ideas and tools for the development of community-based peace education learning projects that might contribute to the reduction of violence at all levels of the global social order. More specifically, it has been developed to aid in the planning of “Community-Based Institutes on Peace Education (CIPE),” a special community-centered initiative of the International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE).

This manual does not offer a “one-size-fits-all” approach to peace education. As you explore the contents you will see that this manual is arranged like a workbook. It is organized around inquiries into practical considerations for designing peace education initiatives in multiple and varying contexts. These inquiries are designed to engage you – the educator/planner – in reflections upon your own unique situation and possibilities for affecting change through education. We believe that the process of planning a peace education course, workshop, program, conference, or community-based learning project is a task best approached in a “learning mode.” In our experience, we often find that we learn as much in the process of planning as we do in conducting the actual initiative.

Educational planning done in a “learning mode” is a process that requires comprehensive and holistic thinking and approaches for dealing with complex and often systemic problems that can often feel overwhelming. Goals such as the transformation of the “war system” and nurturing and sustaining a culture of peace are integral considerations to most peace education practice and content, yet such goals can be challenging to translate into present and local contexts where peace education initiatives are actually taking place. The inquiry in this manual is designed to help educators simultaneously consider the socially transformative “big picture” goals of peace education while addressing local concerns, realities and practical possibilities for affecting change.

Peace education is often described as education for social transformation. Social transformation is a process, we believe, best pursued and sustained cooperatively and communally. Community-based learning, or learning in community, is strengthened and made more effective when diversity and difference are encouraged and embraced. It is a process that encourages the participation of diverse constituents to work toward commonly identified goals and objectives. It can also facilitate the development of community where no apparent community existed before. The educational approaches and ideas described in this manual embrace community as a central organizing principle for facilitating social change and transformation. The manual also reflects values and approaches rooted in positive notions of community, such as cooperative learning, empathy, and mutual understanding. Coming to understand what makes a community and how a community can work, learn and grow together to affect change is the central learning objective of this manual.