Educating For Peace in a Divided World: Religious Visions, Pedagogical Models, and Policy Pathways

Group Submission Type: Special Session

Description of Session

In a world marked by deepening polarization, rising extremism, and unprecedented global challenges, education holds transformative potential in fostering peace, dialogue, and coexistence. This symposium seeks to illuminate how theological concepts of peace across major world religions—Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Druze spirituality—can inform innovative educational practices for cultivating empathy, mutual understanding, and global citizenship.
The panel brings together leading scholars from five continents to explore the intersection of theology, pedagogy, and educational policy, offering comparative perspectives that bridge sacred traditions with the urgent needs of contemporary education systems. By presenting case studies, pedagogical models, and curricular frameworks, this session highlights how interreligious visions of peace can move beyond theoretical discourse to create practical interventions for conflict resolution, civic education, and interfaith dialogue in diverse educational contexts.
This highly interdisciplinary symposium aspires to generate a global research and practice agenda for peace education rooted in religious wisdom traditions, thereby contributing to UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goal 4.7 on education for peace, human rights, and global citizenship.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Zehavit Gross, Bar Ilan University

Presenters

• Jing Lin, University of Maryland, College Park

• Misaa Nassir, Al-Qasemi Academic College of Education

• Ruth Emilie Scott Hayhoe, O.I.S.E. University of Toronto

• Zehavit Gross, Bar Ilan University

• Renu Nanda, University of Jammu

• eman saab safady, Bar Ilan University

Discussant

• Kevin Kester, Seoul National University