A university of Hawai’i at Manoa professor and researcher will present a case study on peace building in the curriculum of Mindanao that hopes to build bridges of cross-cultural understanding and amity among students of Muslim, Christian and Lumad backgrounds.
The presentation will be on November 4, 2014 at 1:30 pm at the Carlos Dominguez Hall of Ateneo de Zamboanga University. The event is organized by the School of Arts and Sciences of ADZU.
The case study is entitled “Youth Power and Peacebuilding in Mindanao: An Experiment in Pedagogy to Build Bridges of Cross-Cultural Understanding”.
Dr. Federico Magdalena is Associate Director of the Center for Philippine Studies and Faculty Affiliate of Asian Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
The research aims to determine whether the teaching of History of Muslims and Lumads in Mindanao ingested with peace education concepts and principles does in fact increase the knowledge of local history and create the conditions toward a “culture of peace”.
Magdalena believes that the classroom is a suitable environment where cultural knowledge and peace values – including attitudes – are propagated, nurtured and transmitted.
Furthermore, the history curriculum is deemed strategic to introduce concepts of peace and nonviolence and engage the youth in peacemaking through people-to-people contact, planting the seeds of peace culture early in life. To translate this into action, teacher participants are capacitated with training and pedagogical tools.
The speaker will present initial findings of the study and draw some implications for wider application in Mindanao in terms of conflict management initiatives and curricular innovation.
The study, supported by the United States Institute of Peace, is a collaboration between the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and Mindanao State University.
