“Students can change a school”: Understanding the role of youth leadership in building a school culture of peace

Published date01 March 2019
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21245
Date01 March 2019
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Students can change a school: Understanding the
role of youth leadership in building a school culture
of peace
Cheryl Duckworth
1
| Tom Albano
2
| Darby Munroe
3
| Mike Garver
3
1
Conflict Resolution and Peace Education, Nova
Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
2
Diversity and Cultural Outreach, Equity and
Diversity Department, Broward County Public
Schools, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
3
Department of Conflict Resolution Studies, Nova
Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Correspondence
Cheryl Duckworth, Conflict Resolution and Peace
Education, Nova Southeastern University, Fort
Lauderdale, FL.
Email: cheryl.duckworth@nova.edu
What is the impact of youth interfaith dialogues on stu-
dents and school communities? What role does the inclu-
sion of opportunities for youth leadership in the program
design play? We implemented a series of such dialogues,
which then led to youth-designed and implemented peace
projects at their school sites. Using qualitative and quanti-
tative assessments, this article adds to the literature on
critical peace education, offering useful insights for both
practitioners and researchers.
KEYWORDS
dialogue, interfaith, peacebuilding, youth
1|INTRODUCTION
Contrary to the views many politicians hold, judging by the education policies they support, the pur-
pose of education is not merely to produce workers. Education is an inherent good and is essential
for a free society. Education must challenge, inspire, build community, and expose us to worlds oth-
erwise beyond our reach. Education should prepare young people for much more than employment
or even active citizenship, though both are key. It must prepare us for the problems and conflicts that
life will never fail to bring, fostering skills such as conflict resolution, creative problem solving, and
critical thinking. While these observations are obvious to most of us as educators and conflict resolu-
tion professionals, it remains controversial in terms of public policy. When one observes the severe
budget cutting, continued lack of equitable access to technology, attacks on science, and shirking of
history, arts, recess, and literature in so many schools, clearly we do not have consensus on the role
of education in society.
With this in mind, a team of educators and researchers from Broward County Public Schools
(BCPS) and Nova Southeastern University's conflict resolution program undertook to implement a
series of interfaith dialogues in one of America's largest school systems, aiming to learn more about
Received: 24 August 2018 Revised and accepted: 14 December 2018
DOI: 10.1002/crq.21245
© 2019 Association for Conflict Resolution and Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Conflict Resolution Quarterly. 2019;36:235249. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/crq 235

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