bell hooks, the acclaimed and celebrated feminist author, educator, activist, and scholar passed away Dec. 15 at the age of 69. She made significant contributions to the field of peace and social justice education, penning several books and essays on the power and nature of transformative pedagogies to transgress oppressions.
“If we want to see a more socially just society for all, we must first undo racism. We must start in the classroom, and teachers must indeed teach to change the world.” – Tauheedah Baker (2020)
“We were simply trying to change the way we went about our everyday lives so that our values and habits of being would reflect our commitment to freedom.” -bell hooks
“As education both about and for peace, the substance of peace education (past, present, future) cannot be separated from the reality of the learner.” -Tony Jenkins
“Critical peace education (CPE) seeks to disrupt asymmetrical power relationships and unpack their political, economic, social and historical roots.” -Basma Hajir & Kevin Kester
“Education must cultivate the wisdom to reject and resist violence in all its forms. It must foster people who intuitively understand and know–in their minds, in their hearts, with their entire being–the irreplaceable value of human beings and the natural world. I believe such education embodies the timeless struggle of human civilization to create an unerring path to peace.” – Daisaku Ikeda
“Political agency is generated internally. We take external action upon those things that we hold dear and meaningful. Justice and peace, learned as abstract concepts and goals, will not be acted upon. Peacelearning pedagogy is pursued through inquiry that connects abstract concepts to the learner’s experience of the world.” -Tony Jenkins
“The function of education… is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.
“For the concept of a war-free world to become universally accepted, and consciously adopted by making war illegal, a process of education will be required at all levels: education for peace; education for world citizenship.” – Nobel Peace Prize winner Sir Joseph Rotblat
“A futures perspective is crucial to effective teaching and learning in peace education.” -David Hicks
“We must change ourselves and our immediate realities and relationships if we are to change our social structures and our patterns of thought… We cannot achieve change unless can we think it.” -Betty Reardon
“Most… agree that there is no neutral education. Education is a social enterprise conducted for the realization of social values. The question is what values are to be realized through education, and how.” -Betty Reardon