In an ever-increasingly diverse workforce, cross-cultural communication skills are essential for success regardless of job title or task. We present an engaging and customizable 30-minute activity designed to develop participants' cross-cultural communication skills by increasing awareness and sensitivity to interpersonal differences in…

Fostering cohesion and acceptance amidst a plurality of cultures and values is a clear context for quality education and also for PVE. This article proposes that deliberative democratic decision making (DDD) can result in agreements on (quasi-universal) values that accommodate both the claims of universal values--including human rights--and…

This chapter describes the potlatch as a methodology to engage culturally diverse classrooms in liberation curriculum. The Potlach is a high-context, community-based, participatory method offering three intra/interpersonal reflexive waypoints teachers can use when designing and delivering transformative learning.

In recent years, the topic of multiculturalism has often been a divisive issue. Although some argue that highlighting particularities allows for richer and more productive dialogue across differences, others choose to emphasize humankind's similarities with the belief that this focus on commonalities will create a greater sense of unity. This…

The Innsbruck School of Peace Studies is known for its innovative academic teaching methods under the title Transrational Peace Philosophy. This essay introduces the epistemological fundament of this approach to peace education. It presents the didactic principles for its "Strategic Capacity and Relationship Building," combined with…

Sometimes, things don't go to plan. Current events come into the classroom, especially the history classroom. How should students' responses to current affairs be dealt with there? How should students' desire to voice their opinions be handled if their opinion is unpopular. What if the student is simply wrong? How far can moral relativism be…

From a modest beginning in 1994 with a single school and a little more than 500 pupils, the system of Catholic schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina developed to its 7 currently functioning Catholic School Centres, with 14 schools and 4683 enrolled pupils. From the beginning these Catholic schools were open equally to Catholic and non-Catholic…

Since 2000, I have been coordinating a web-based Virtual Exchange (VE) project, "Project Ibunka." "Ibunka" means different cultures in Japanese. It aims to provide opportunities for authentic interaction among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) learners all over the world. By the end of…

Schools reflect culture at large. This paper will discuss how conflict in schools and ways in which we handle disagreements reflect community standards, including ethnicity and socio economic influences. Also analyzed are changing gender roles with increased female aggression in schools to include the role of technology.

This article features The HALI Project and shares experiences that led to the first part of the project--Empowered Parents. This program taught parents how to first come to grips with the reality of their situation, then dream new, appropriate dreams for their children. From there it addressed understanding the ongoing emotional journey and how it…

An essential student competency for living and engaging with people's deepest differences is civility. Several recent articles in "About Campus" have suggested both the urgency and educational value of student dialogue and understanding--especially when it comes to religious and ideological differences on campus. More specifically, the way to…

To many people, "Israel" is perceived as a "high-tech" nation, but in the same breath, as a "nation in conflict." So why not apply Israel's technological advantage to battle the multicultural conflict within? In this article, we will review the multicultural segregation in Israel, the traditional attempts to bring…

Everyone involved in writing centers must recognize that the educational community of the 1990s will continue to grow more diverse culturally, linguistically, scholastically. Given this diversity, students, teachers, and tutors will become more, not less, interdependent. The ready, predictable answers and assumptions that existed once in a…

This article describes the Virtual Intercultural Team Tool (VITT) and discusses its processes and benefits. VIIT is a virtual platform designed with the aim of assisting European project teams to improve intercultural communication and build on their cultural diversity for effective implementation of their projects. It is a process-focused tool,…

In this paper we describe a project that emanates from a conception of environmental education as peace education and utilizes ICT as a tool for bringing communities together and enriching ways of communication. We present the theoretical framework of the project, the dilemmas of peace education in light of the conflict in Cyprus, and then reflect…