Peaceable Schools and Communities at Lesley University

Looking Back on Eighteen Years

Catherine Hoffman, Linda Brion-Meisels, and Steven Brion-Meisels

The Peaceable Schools and Communities Group (PSCG) came together in response to the first Gulf War in 1992, when a number activists and educators felt that we needed to create community to support one another, find ways to respond to the violence and despair we encountered, and lift up the possibilities for peace with justice in our communities and in our schools. Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Dr. Diane Levin had established the Lesley-Wheelock Peace Initiative; with their support and the support of Margaret McKenna (President of Lesley College), the College became our home for the next 18 years. 

We stayed together because we needed solidarity, and we needed to act. We crossed lines of race, culture, religion, social class, age, profession, and gender identity.  We shared our own stories and talked about strategies for nourishing schools, communities, and one another that would be equitable, grounded in justice, and peace-building.  We began to apply our collective efforts working with other communities and generating a network of collaborations that has thrived in a challenging political and economic climate, and that has offered alternatives to a culture of violence.  From our conversations, we developed a summer Institute to highlight our different approaches, beginning in the summer of 1993.  Each following year, we chose a theme for the Institute that reflected current local and global concerns. 

Our Framework: An Evolving Structure for Teaching, Learning, and Living in Community
As a group, we evolved what became known as the Peaceable Schools and Communities (PSC) model.  Each Institute was built on the framework of these four parts: (a) starting with self, (b) understanding the roots of peace and justice, (c) “working with rather than doing to”/democratic practice, and (d) transformative leadership.

Some aspects of the framework were developed by individual members of the group. For example, the 10 Cs of Identity and Change had been created by Ulric Johnson and Patti DeRosa as a way to understand and value individual and group identities, as well as to provide a road map for personal and political change.  The roots of peace and justice component evolved out of work done by Catherine Hoffman and colleagues, often in a school context; this component helps us go beyond the symptoms of violence to understand issues of privilege and power.  The “working with’ component of the framework evolved out of our practice with each other, as well as presentations by colleagues like Alfie Kohn. The framework continues to evolve as we learn and grow. The transformative leadership component evolved through the collaboration of PSCG members Ulric Johnson, Joyce Johnson-Shabazz, and Shirley Malone-Fenner; rooted in African heritages, traditions and understandings of leadership, this model has been important both for our group and for Institute participants.

The Summer Institute
Over the years, our annual Summer Institute welcomed presenters like Beverly Tatum, Howard Zinn, Alfie Kohn, Geoffrey Canada, Bill Kreidler, and Eric Jolly--along with participants from New England, the nation and the world--to offer a vision and practice for “another world that is possible”.  The Institute provided a context for global educator activists from Palestine, Peru, Cambodia, Albania, Colombia, and Guyana to share their own models and challenges, and to inspire their US colleagues. 

Hundreds of teachers, child care workers, paraprofessionals, community activists, and students have been touched, not only by the content of the PSC materials but by the experience of being part of the Institute itself, which has included reflection groups, open space participation, and other processes that create transformation. The evolving PSC framework has provided new, holistic ground for walking the talk of justice and peace.  In our society, which is so steeped in violence and competition, the Institute has reminded participants of the radical beliefs that each person has value, that we are interconnected with one another and the planet, and that we have the tools, relationships, and support to live the change we seek.

Next Steps on our Journey
For 10 years, the Institute was part of a staffed Center for Peaceable Schools and Communities at Lesley University, which offered workshops, consultation to school systems, resource materials, and a graduate program in Conflict Resolution and Peaceable Schools.  The PSCG also developed a year-long leadership support program which enlisted a second generation of colleagues into the original working board. As the heart of the PSC project, the board is an ongoing opportunity to share our concerns and celebrations, debrief our work, redefine the world we encounter, explore insights, and sustain one another.

Our collaboration has extended into a number of contexts beyond the annual Summer Institute.  We have written and published articles about the framework and our work.¹   We have applied the framework with schools and community organizations in small towns, nationally and internationally.²  We have worked individually and in small groups with young people, applying and integrating our framework with our individual professional strategies.  Finally, we have continued to learn from each other, as a community, and to model a sustained commitment to peace with justice.

Over time, the Center became absorbed by other centers at Lesley University, and eventually only the Institute continued. The Institute was able to maintain itself during difficult economic times by the continued volunteer commitment of the  group, the interest of educators and activists, the support of Lesley University, and an external gift that has helped provide scholarships for participants.

As financial resources became increasingly stretched, the PSCG and administrative colleagues at Lesley University made the difficult decision to end our formal Institute partnership. The Peaceable Schools and Communities Group itself will continue to work together. For the PSC, the work of peace and justice is life-long in a continuum from the ancestors to the generations that follow.

We are reachable at peaceableschoolsandcommities@gmail.com.

1. See Brion-Meisels, Brion-Meisels and Hoffman, “Creating and Sustaining Peaceable Schools and Communities,” Harvard Educational Review (Fall 2007, Volume 77:3)
2. For more information on our work in Palestine and Colombia, please contact Linda Brion-Meisels (meisels@lesley.edu).