Community Based Institute on Peace Education (CIPE)
CIPE Vermont Postponed
(Pronounced: Seepay)
New Date to be Announced
CIPE - VT Theme
CIPE - VT Supporters
CIPE-Vermont will establish an open and ongoing learning community focused on educating towards a culture of peace and sustainability. CIPE-VT will be designed to reflect the unique resources, opportunities and visions of Vermont. CIPE-VT will occur at least annually and will include new and repeating participants.
There is much we know about educating for peace and sustainability. However, we face challenges in implementing what we know. One of the major challenges is that many educators are operating in isolation. Another challenge is that educators may know what to do, but many do not know how to do it. CIPE-VT will provide learning opportunities embodying the principles and practices of peace and sustainability. CIPE-VT will facilitate transformative and structural change through empowering and equipping educators to be change agents in their classrooms, schools, organizations, and communities.
CIPE-VT seeks to include those interested in educating
for peace, healthy communities, environmental sustainability, conflict
resolution, economic development, democracy, effective citizenry, interfaith
understanding, inner peace, multicultural and international understanding,
restorative justice, non-violence and human rights. Non-formal educators,
preschool-12 educators, administrators, college faculty, students,
policy-makers, community workers, businesses, and media representatives are
encouraged to attend.
Participants will share their work, research and programs and learn what is already happening in Vermont organizations, schools and communities. Community building and cooperative learning will take place through practices that support deep listening and dialogue. Learning activities will include interactive workshops, panels and reflection groups, and the CIPE’s content will be drawn from the contributions of participants.
Community Based Institutes on Peace Education is a local and global initiative. CIPE-VT is working in cooperation with Global Education Associates and the International Institutes on Peace Education (IIPE) www.i-i-p-e.org/. CIPEs have taken place in Columbia, India, Peru, Philippines, Tanzania and Ukraine. Reports from these CIPEs can be found at www.i-i-p-e.org/cipe/reports.html. CIPE-VT will be the first CIPE in the United States. Attendees in March will have the opportunity to be part of the planning group for the next CIPE-VT.
CIPE-Vermont 2009 Theme
Building Bridges of Learning and Cooperation
CIPE-Vermont 2009 will explore the theme “Building Bridges of Learning and Cooperation” focused on educating towards local and global cultures of peace and sustainability. Elise Boulding defined a culture of peace as “a culture that promotes peaceable diversity involving constant shaping and reshaping of understandings, situations, and behaviors to sustain well-being for all.” Educating towards such a culture requires new educational approaches and encompasses the many aspects of education, culture, and society. Boulding stresses that culture is created through the interaction and interrelationship of every level of a society. Also, that our capacity for creating cultures that promote well-being and cooperation result from patterns of behavior and relationship from the individual to the interpersonal to the global.
Within this understanding, education in its broadest sense and how it impacts the individual, culture and society will be considered. Social change involves new thinking and new ways of being in our daily lives and in the areas of business, politics, psychology, religion, media, health care etc. Education must prepare young people to engage with the emerging needs of the time effectively, constructively, and creatively in order to create a positive environmental, economic, and social future. In order to accomplish this, we invite business, government, media, science and others to participate in this inquiry and exploration not just as recipients of the educational system, but also as fellow stakeholders in the process of culture creating. These often overlooked interrelationships and resources play a vital role in educating for new social, economic and political capacities.
Vermont’s official state motto is “Freedom and Unity.” A strong sense of the freedom and autonomy of the individual as well as an equal regard for the care of and responsibility to the community are at the heart of Vermont. This engaging dynamic fuels many positive educational, environmental, social and economic initiatives. CIPE-Vermont will explore the aspects of and capacities needed for creating a culture of peace and sustainability. Further, what are the synergistic relationships between these aspects and capacities that will most effectively create the conditions for cooperation, well-being, and sustainability? Thus, CIPE-Vermont will explore innovative ideas, processes and relationships that support the development of social consciousness and social responsibility while creating the conditions for cultures of peace and sustainability through education.
We encourage applicants to consider how they might contribute to this exploration from their own experience, as formal or informal educators, or as advocates or activists. We look forward to this engaging inquiry and dialogue and to building new bridges for learning and cooperation within Vermont and the global community.
The Center for Cooperative Principles wishes to
thank the following organizations for their financial support of
CIPE-Vermont:
Biosophical Institute ~ Magnolia Breakfast and Lunch Bistro
~ Comfort Inn ~ Silver Maple Editions
