The Center for Research on Peace Education (CERPE)
The Center for Research on Peace education (CERPE) was established in the spring of 1998 to serve as an interdisciplinary and international forum for the scholarly study of peace education. The practice of peace education in the form of meetings between adversaries, joint seminars, school curricula and camps, is well developed in many regions around the world. However, despite of the great number and variety of peace education programs, there is also a great paucity of scholarly work to accompany that practice. And although much scholarly attention is devoted to the study of peace, far less attention is devoted to the study of peace education.
CERPE is designed to address this topic by bringing together scholars from different disciplines - education psychology, sociology, political science, economics and history - and from different parts of the world, to develop the scholarly field of peace education.
CERPE Goals
The following are the major goals of CERPE:
Program Evaluation: Not much is known about the outcomes of typical peace education programs and projects: Do they have any lasting effects on participants’ attitudes towards and perceptions of the other side? Would they behave differently towards the other side? What happens when newly cultivated peace-oriented narratives conflict with the more widely held, conservative ones? CERPE is to evaluate prototypical peace education programs on the basis of newly formulated criteria.
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Research: Peace education activities raise numerous new questions. For example, what would one need to incorporate into such programs to make their effects durable, resistant to adverse events, and events, and generalizable to other contexts such as school violence? CERPE is to formulate pertinent research questions; initiate, coordinate and carry out systematic research concerning the educational, psychological, organizational, and ethical aspects of the field, both within and across countries. |
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Theory construction: The local scene of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict serves as a unique “laboratory” for the study of peace education. However, our hope for CERPE is to serve as a focal point for more international research on peace education. Hence, evaluation and research findings would need to be cast in theoretical terms that transcend the local situation. CERPE is to develop theoretical frameworks to bridge between existing research in related fields and the practice of peace education in Israel and elsewhere. |
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International collaboration: In light of the above, CERPE is to become the hub for an international network of scholars and educators to pave the road for international exchange of scholarship and collaboration on joint research projects. |
CERPE Projects
The
following are research project currently underway
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Pathways into reconciliation: A longitudinal evaluation project. |
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Changed minds: The processes whereby individuals' political beliefs undergo radical change. |
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From Individual to collective: How do personal friendships between individual adversaries generalize to positive perceptions of collectives. |
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Does the experience of being a victim affect empathy towards the "other's" suffering? |
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The relationships between intensity of inter-group contact on campus and perception of the "other's" collective narrative. |
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Review of the research literature about the effectiveness of peace education programs around the world. |
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Does the legitimization of the "other's" collective narrative diminish one's adherence to his or her own? |
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How do individuals keep their newly acquired attitudes and beliefs in the face of adverse influences? |
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To what extent are changes brought about by peace education sustained over time and how? |
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The role of induced compliance in letigimizing the "other's" collective narrative? |
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Can peace education affect and be made to affect centrally-held beliefs? |