Abstract

This study describes an online curricular model, the IMAGINE model, which targets grade 6-12 learners in the United States (US), the goal of which is to encourage a culture of peace. The current decade, 2000-2010, has been declared the decade of the Culture of Peace by the United Nations, and education is recognized by that body to have a crucial role in nurturing it. However, pre-university education in the US at this time has few models available to guide such a curriculum, nor avenues to deliver peace curriculum at a scale sufficient to effectively reach large numbers of young learners. The IMAGINE model is a response to this deficiency, offering a unique pedagogical framework and a scalable delivery vehicle for encouraging capacities that support a culture of peace.

Recognizing that the change towards a culture of peace represents a profound shift that requires the full engagement of all human faculties, the model overtly privileges capacities that have been historically marginalized in modern Western thought. Specifically, imaginal and extra-cognitive faculties are invited into curricular practice to join with the cognitive and rational capacities emphasized in dominant Western pedagogies.

The transdisciplinary paradigm is used as the primary ontological and epistemological anchor for the model. The study is "doubly" transdisciplinary in that the inquiry itself uses the methodology of transdisciplinarity, which involves the weaving of relevant theories, epistemologic models, and pedagogic frameworks from diverse fields of study and discourses to inform the model. Four discrete strands of thought and practice ground the model: the transdisciplinary paradigm, the Web 2.0 media delivery system, whole person and cognitive epistemologic and pedagogic frameworks, and peace education thought and content. Of these four strands, the tenets of transdisciplinarity and capacities of Web 2.0 media most powerfully contribute to the added capacity of the model.

The study describes the strands of the model, deriving principles, practices and learner capacities from them which together provide a roadmap for curricular design. Synergistic themes that cross cut the strands are also identified. Finally, curricular samples created using the model are presented and discussed.

Citation

Fazio-Fox, M. The IMAGINE model: A web-based transdisciplinary curricular model to build learner capacities that encourage a culture of peace. Ph.D. thesis, California Institute of Integral Studies. Retrieved August 12, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/127815/.

This record was imported from ProQuest on October 23, 2013. [Original Record]

Citation reproduced with permission of ProQuest LLC.

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Keywords

• Curriculum and Instruction Education
• Peace Studies
• Pedagogy Education
• secondary education
• Technology of Education