Abstract

This study aims to identify methods of administering peace education through community organizations. Structural violence is the exclusion of individuals from participation in their society. This exclusion is present in institutionalized education and is part of perpetuating the culture of violence. Institutionalized education teaches young citizens how to take submissive roles in society through excluding learners from the content. Changing educational practices to include learners in their education prepares citizens to take active roles in shaping the structures that govern them. Community organizations have the potential to make these changes through administering peace education in a setting where peaceful interactions can also be practiced. The two organizations compared in this study are the Thomas Merton Center and its project, the New Economy Campaign, whose mission is to facilitate worker-owned co-ops in the Pittsburgh area, and Westminster Presbyterian Church, a socially active church in Wooster, Ohio. Both use peace education methods to improve structural and interpersonal peace. Both challenge structural violence through various methods of integrating the community into the organization’s mission, allowing citizens to take control of their governance.

Advisor

Nurse, Anne

Department

Sociology and Anthropology

Disciplines

Social and Cultural Anthropology

Publication Date

2015

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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© Copyright 2015 Sophia E. Hoover Grant