Please note: All times listed below are EST
I Practicing Dialogue: Starting with Self and “Other” (July 20-23)
Guiding questions: What is my identity? What are my loyalties? Who is the other? How does my identity intersect with other identities? What divides us? What unites us? What is the practice of dialogue and how might it be useful? How might American educators integrate conversations on identity and dialogue skills into their work—in person and online?
Dialogue has the potential to encourage self-awareness, generosity, understanding of “the other,” wisdom, and courage. It’s based on deep active listening, cultivating a connection to one’s feelings and needs, a practiced ability to hear and articulate such needs, the balancing of a rooted sense of self with the active curiosity about and inclusion of others who are, at least in some ways, so different.
Monday 12-2 p.m. Forum. Selfies: It Starts with You.
Tuesday 12-2 p.m. Workshop. A Toolbox for Difficult Conversations: It Starts with You.
Wednesday 12-2 p.m. Workshop. A Toolbox for Difficult Conversations: Active Listening Is Active.
Thursday 12-2 p.m. Community Meeting. This will be a chance to check-in, share reflections on the week, and break out into regional, thematic, and/or project based groups.
8-9:30 p.m. Evening Salon. Acknowledgement: Reflecting On Where We Are Now.
II Inviting Imagination: Art and Education (July 27-30)
In what ways do the arts enlarge the scope of empathy, expression, communication, and the horizon of what is possible? How do the arts spark the imagination? How can the arts be integrated into education?
Because they continually exercise the imagination, artists are able to enlarge their perspectives, deepen the range of self-expression and strengthen their capacity to communicate. Over the years, across the Middle East, South Asia, Cyprus, and the United States, those in the Seeds of Peace orbit who continue when others in difficult situations give up are often at the intersection of the arts and education. Initiatives inspired by the arts keep the flame of humane education, of empathy, of intellectual curiosity—of the moral imagination—alive. In this spirit, we invite artists and educators to exercise the imagination.
Monday 12-2 p.m. Forum. Embracing Turmoil: What Art Can Teach Us About Exploring the Unknown and Building Resilience.
Tuesday 12-2 p.m. Workshop. Art for Social Change: Expressing Our Future:
Wednesday 12-2 p.m. Art for Social Change: Expressing Our Future II:
Thursday 12-2 p.m. Community Meeting.
8:-9:30 p.m. Evening Salon. Art for Social Change: Expressing Our Future.
III Engaging and Embodying the Moral Imagination (August 3-6)
How might we embody that bundle of virtues and values known in shorthand as “the moral Imagination?” How might we encourage this kind of learning? How might we become the change that we want to see in the world? How can educators encourage the expansion and deepening of empathy?
Whether exploring the past, looking to the future, or engaging with the present—“the moral imagination” is what enables people to dig deeply into themselves, to reach across gaps of understanding, to enlarge the scope of empathy, to integrate tensions, differences, and complexities, to reach our fullest human potential while nurturing that same potential in others. It’s through the moral imagination that people are able to contain multiples, transcend conflicts, and grow. The moral imagination is at the heart of a democratic society’s capacity to endure.
Monday 12-2 p.m. Forum. Narratives of Conflict, Complexity, and Transformation.
Tuesday 12-2 p.m. The Educators’ Role in the Public Sphere.
Wednesday Applied Peace Education/Global Education.
Thursday 12-2 p.m. Community Meeting.
8-9:30 p.m. Evening Salon. Uses of The Past When the Future Is in Question.
IV Action Planning for Educators (August 10-13)
What actions are we dreaming up? What does movement look like for me? For my community? What actions can I take? How might we move forward?
This week—which brings us to the present—will focus on the implementation of meaningful educational work. Priority for the mini-course will go to those who have participated in previous ones. Over the course of this week, we’ll talk about the challenges of getting an educational initiative off the ground. We’ll share rules of thumb, discuss how to set goals, and take steps toward achieving them.
Monday 12-2 p.m. Forum. Orienting Ourselves.
Tuesday 12-2 p.m. Workshop. Cultivating Educational Ecosystems.
Wednesday 12-2 p.m. Workshop. Implementing Educational Initiatives and Supporting One Another.
Thursday 12-2 p.m. Community Meeting. Breaking into regional and/or thematic and/or break-out groups, participants will focus on supporting one another with their educational initiatives.
8-9:30 p.m. Evening Salon. We Make the Road by Walking.