Integrating Peace Education With Sustainability and Diversity: Utilizing Case Studies to Deepen Learning

• In Event: Roundtable Session 39
  In Roundtable Session: Critical Conceptions of Peace Education in Higher Education: Perspectives and Practices

Abstract

Because the study of peace is inherently complex (Boulding, 2000), case study analysis has many advantages (Timpson & Doe, 2008). This complexity increases when sustainability and diversity—similarly interdisciplinary, even trans-disciplinary, concepts—are also involved. Beginning in Fall 2009, case studies have been used to explore deeper student learning of course content in both undergraduate and graduate classes at a research university. Written evaluations, observations, videotapes and transcriptions of classroom interactions have been collected and analyzed across a fifteen week semester. Participating students in one class reported that their understanding of course content deepened—i.e., that “knowing was not enough”—as they engaged in meaningful cases, explored different positions through role playing, and then analyzed the results.

Authors

• William M. Timpson, Colorado State University

• Debra Kaye Holman, Colorado State University

• Jehan Alandejani, Colorado State University