Methodist Universities Collaborate on Peace Education

In hard times, Methodist Colleges pool resources to address global needs

LAGRANGE, Ga.—The challenging economy is not deterring Methodist institutions from focusing on global issues. They are sharing resources, reducing the need for travel, and turning to technology and collaboration to remain focused on convictions deeply rooted in their historic missions.

Faculty and administrators from Methodist colleges and universities in Brazil, Japan and the United States recently partnered together online during a 21-Day Peace Education Collaborative for the purpose of furthering peace studies at their institutions.

The three-week virtual course grew out of the Methodist Global Ethics Initiative, an effort to create a network of Methodist colleges and universities through a dialogue that will lead to a more just, sustainable and peaceful future.

Participants from six Methodist schools in these countries engaged in daily assignments, joined in discussions and posted their findings based on studies in population, conflict, resource management, technology, information, economic integration and governance, global concerns known as the 7 Revolutions.

The 7 Revolutions project grew out of the research and analyses executed by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a bipartisan, nonprofit policy institution that helps organizations think strategically about the future and anticipate change. Oikos Inc., an entity dedicated to educating current and future leaders about peace, human need and ecological sustainability, used the 7 Revolutions project as a foundation for the 21-day online seminar.

David Rowe, Oikos cofounder and vice president for advancement at LaGrange College, created and facilitated the curriculum.

“This first collaborative focused on peace,” he said. “Given the trends outlined by CSIS, we asked the participants to think about ways to educate students to become tomorrow's leaders with the capacity to prevent, reduce and transform violent conflict.”

The Methodist Global Ethics Initiative is the vision of Eugene M. Decker III, trustee emeritus of the United Methodist Higher Education Foundation and a former university professor.

“We need to educate a whole generation of moral leaders who will be actively involved in creating a compassionate society,” he said. In addition to competence in their majors, Decker believes college graduates need “an ethical and compassionate view of the world and an understanding of their responsibility for it.”

Oikos Inc. used a gift from Decker to award mini-grants to collaborative participants. The awards are to be used to advance peace education on their campuses and to promote collaboration among Methodist institutions on global ethics.

Sarah Beth Mallory, chair and associate professor of biology at LaGrange College, will use her award to develop a collaborative-learning project with a school in Central America.

“I'm intrigued by what we can learn from each other about basic natural resources such as water. Here in Georgia, where water availability is becoming increasingly unreliable, there is continuing discord among three states over a river and its water,” she said.

“I plan to create a Web-based course that involves students from our Oikos Scholars program with those from another part of the world. Imagine students in the two regions collaborating to tackle sustainability issues and their relationship to bringing peace and harmony to our communities.”

Course participant Paul Tsuchido Shew, associate professor in the College of Literature and Chaplain at Ayoma Gakiun University in Tokyo, Japan, said of the 21-day course, “It was very stimulating to work with colleagues from other countries to identify the ethical challenges facing our world.

“One of the exciting outcomes from the initiative is that Jon Powers, Chaplain at Ohio Wesleyan University, and I are moving to develop a joint international service-learning work camp that will involve students from both of our institutions,” he said.

“They will work collaboratively to learn about and address the significant social concerns in both Japan and the United States. We plan to build a team of students on each campus that will work together, using an e-learning system,” he continued.

“After adequate preparation and research, the two teams will each have the opportunity to travel to the other's local community to immerse themselves in a service project, followed by time to reflect and determine key outcomes.

“We hope that this new initiative will help our student develop the qualities of ethical leaders who can meet the challenges we face in the twenty-first century.”

Rowe said the creative proposals for future collaborations have “gone in directions I could not have originally anticipated.”

“The initial outcomes are a real testimony to the participants' creativity and their own commitment for making this world a more peaceful place.”

In addition to LaGrange College in LaGrange, Ga., Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina, Kan.; Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio; Oklahoma City University in Oklahoma City, Okla.; Ayoma Gakiun University in Tokyo, Japan; and Izabella Hendrix University in Belo Horizonte, Brazil; participated in the project. They are part of more than 700 Methodist higher education institutions around the world.

Course materials for the 21-day program were provided by The New York Times Knowledge Network, the partnership between the newspaper and CSIS.

Rowe and his colleagues plan to present their agenda for collaboration at the June 17-19 meeting of the United Methodist Higher Education Institute in Arlington, Texas, where the theme will be “Pedagogy for Peace: Educating Moral Leaders in a Violent World.”

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