Peace Literacy Skill DevelopmentA Proposal for Increasing the Amount and Quality of Faculty-Student Interaction in Liberal Arts, Science, and Engineering at OSU

Elisar Barbar, Dept. of Biochemistry and BiophysicsShari Clough, School of History, Philosophy, and ReligionDevlin Montfort, School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering

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What we did, why it worked, and how to scale it up:

What we did:

Last December, on the weekend before final exams (!)

We got 6 faculty and 20 undergraduate students and alumni (over half from COE), to participate in a 2-day workshop on Peace Literacy,

A new trauma-informed, conflict-resolution, community-building, skills curriculum.

What we did:Day 1 of the workshop focused on Peace Literacy skills training, designed to support ABET Learning Outcomes (Peace Literacy can support multiple disciplinary outcomes).

On Day 2, faculty consulted with students on ways to incorporate the peace skills they had learned on Day 1 into the redesign of a required undergrad COE course that many of the students had already taken.

The Peace Literacy workshop was co-facilitated by Shari Clough and her research partner,

internationally-recognized peace educator, speaker, and author, Paul K. Chappell.

Chappell studied engineering at West Point and after graduating, served in the military for 7 years including a deployment to Iraq, and an assignment at DARPA.

Chappell’s idea of Peace Literacy brings a practical perspective to peace as a skill-set,

that helps students and faculty navigate challenges around team-building, trust, trauma, technology, and professional responsibility.

You can visit his website here: http://peacefulrevolution.com.

Chappell wants all of us to be as well-trained in waging peace as soldiers are in waging war.

Chappell and Clough head a team of educators who have designed Peace Literacy curriculum now in use across the US and Canada.

We have been gathering positive feedback both formal and informal about the benefits for students, teachers, parents, colleagues, and co-workers.

The December 2019 Workshop at OSU: Engineering Peace in Practice

Alex Garcia, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science:“I wholeheartedly endorse the work of Peace Literacy groups attempting to improve the conflict resolution skills of students and professionals in order to help create a more ethical population capable of tackling the moral challenges of the 21st century.”

Jude Pelpola, School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering:“The idea that we have to learn these skills and that these skills are not pre-programmed in humans is a point that people should understand more – that people have the capacity to be better if given the opportunity.”

Zachary Lee, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science:“Peace Literacy’s approach to conflict analysis and resolution, reversing systematic dehumanization, and understanding of the ways humans work as individuals and in groups could not be more vital or more useful at this time in our society.”

For a pdf summary of student, alumni, and faculty feedback from the 2019 workshop, scan here:

Why it worked:The topic was new to both students and faculty so they learned together.

Why it worked:Students appreciated seeing faculty learning alongside them and embracing this important topic.

“I'm really thrilled to know of professors within my own program that understand the need for change and are actively pushing to make the program more conducive to [producing more] thoughtful and responsible engineers.” Aditya Rajashnarayanan, School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering

Why it worked:Students were invited to the workshop as consultants.

They were invited to take what they learned about Peace Literacy on Day 1 and apply it on Day 2 to the design of an engineering course many of them had already taken.

Why it worked:

Participants shared meals together.

How to scale it up:Year 1-2:

1 workshop per term dedicated to one of the three colleges, for 10 faculty and 40 students each= 30 faculty and 120 students/yr. ($5,000/yr/college)

Co-facilitators for the first two years:• Chappell/Clough (CLA)• Chappell/Clough/Barbar (COS)• Chappell/Clough/Montfort (COE)

How to scale it up:Year 2-4+ 3 workshops per term = 90 faculty and 360 students/yr. ($12,000/yr/college)

Co-facilitators:• Chappell/Clough (CLA)• Clough/Barbar (COS)• Clough/Montfort (COE) • plus faculty and student partners from previous years

Faculty Recognition:

• Faculty receive modest professional development funds ($150) for attending (similar to WIC and DPD model)

Faculty Benefits:• Practical tools that can be implemented immediately to increase the quality

of faculty/student interactions, as well as the quality of interactions with research teams, colleagues, families, and the broader community;

• Opportunity to update course materials to include Peace Literacy content relevant to disciplinary learning outcomes with student input;

• Opportunity to co-facilitate workshops in following years to add to skill-building.

Student Recognition:

• Students receive modest stipend for attending ($100);• Plus they receive a Peace Literacy certificate and consultant title for

resume-building.

Student Benefits:• Opportunity to learn Peace Literacy content relevant to their disciplinary

learning outcomes;• Free lunches;• Practical tools that can be implemented immediately to increase the quality

of interactions with faculty, as well as the quality of interactions with research teams, colleagues, families, and the broader community.

Peace Literacy is Survival Literacy

We have a unique opportunity to be a leader in Peace Literacy, a burgeoning curricular movement that couldn’t be more timely.

Let’s do this!

For more info contact sharyn.clough@oregonstate.edu

And here again is the code for a pdf of this presentation: