Building Supportive Learning Communities as a Basis to Build Peace in Education

• In Event: Poster Session 5
  In Poster Session: Building Supportive Learning Communities as a Basis to Build Peace in Education

Proposal

This poster demonstrates how applying the Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools (CRS) helps build a supportive K-12 community, where mutual understanding and a positive learning environment are facilitated to meet students' intrinsic needs. When students' needs are validated and acknowledged, it encourages a deeper understanding of themselves, initiating the process of inner healing and allowing for internal peace to emerge. This poster argues that when students are provided with conducive environments that nurture their ways of being, the process of inner healing begins, enabling the formation of caring human relationships —the foundation of a learning community that supports the restoration of peace in education.
Shuja (1998) argues that proper education occurs when learners become empowered to use their voices and advocate for themselves. Proper education can only be achieved when educators honor the distinct ethnicities and vast knowledge that scholars bring from their upbringing. CRS is a set of principles that uses assertive dialogue to explore differences and similarities in the classroom, providing space for distinctive ethnicities and languages to be seen and valued.It also invites educators to shift their positions and act as learners to model the principle of reciprocity, which is a key premise to foster an understanding that connects and not divides.
At this point, power is given back to students to utilize their voices to build caring human relationships based on their lived experiences. Also, the educators identify physical places that align with students' local cultural knowledge, treating their ethnicities and family backgrounds as a source of strength rather than shame (Yosso, 2005). When students' ways of being are acknowledged and treated as sources of pride and not shame, internal healing starts to occur because educators stop acting on behalf of the Oppressor, which provides the premise of internal peace (Freire et al, 2008; Enns & Myers, 2021). This presentation is significant because as students form strong human relationships in the classrooms, they practice the premise for peace building, which is profound understanding and empathy for our brethren.
The analysis presented in this poster is grounded in the cited literature of Indigenous scholars, such as the Alaska Native Knowledge Network, as well as academic works by Freire, Shuja, Yosso, and Enns & Myers to support my argument. For this work, I am using peer-reviewed articles and scholarly texts that provide a different perspective on education. The authors argue that education should prioritize honoring the intrinsic needs of learners to build a learning community grounded in inner healing, thereby fostering peace in education.
CRS validates the humanity of both learners and educators, providing a framework that empowers individuals from diverse cultural and social backgrounds to act from a place of empowerment rather than shame. As this occurs, our interconnectedness begins to heal, enabling teacher and student to act as reciprocal learners to build a strong learning community grounded in a culture of care and self-awareness that seeks to honor and respect our individual needs and our shared humanity.

Author

• Ana Diaz, U of M Twin Cities Graduate student (current)