Chapter 4: Building Intercultural Empathy For Peace: Teacher Involvement in Peace Curricula Development at a U.S. Midwestern High School

Given current polarized debates about immigration in the United States, the need for intercultural peacebuilding initiatives is obvious. One of the primary aims of intercultural education is to generate mutual understanding and an acceptance of fundamental differences among people from divergent backgrounds (Bennett, 1998). Researching the possibilities and constraints of both education for the elimination of violence (I. M. Harris, 2003; Reardon, 1999) and education for strengthening a multicultural agenda (Banks et al, 2001) are imperative to a broader project of education for democracy in an increasingly pluralistic U.S. society (Gutmann, 1995). Studies that map the constraints and possibilities for education for peace, pluralism, and democracy and that involve teachers in positive multicultural change at their schools are essential to inform progressive educational policy and practice in a changing, interdependent world.