ONLINE FIRST
published on May 3, 2025
Devlin Montfort, Sophia Betts, Sharyn Clough
https://doi.org/10.5840/p420255128
Peace Literacy as Conceptual Change
A Pilot Study
We conducted a pilot study of a new approach to social/emotional learning (SEL) called Peace Literacy that incorporates philosophical themes across a variety of curricular settings at the precollege level. SEL interventions are notoriously difficult to measure. We take a novel approach to SEL assessment by deploying conceptual change analysis borrowed from STEM education research. We chose a unit of the Peace Literacy curriculum for high school that focused on understanding aggression and developing empathy. Examining student responses to questionnaires both before and after a Peace Literacy curricular intervention, we used conceptual change analysis to sketch a ¡°pretheoretic¡± student model of causal attribution around aggression and empathy that we compared with the Peace Literacy theory-based model. After the intervention, we found an aggregate increase in the number of students meeting the threshold for competency in the Peace Literacy model. Many students began to generate more empathetic and complex explanations about aggression¡ªtheir own, but especially others. Our analysis also identifies the pedagogical scaffolding within the Peace Literacy curriculum that would enable this conceptual shift. One of the strengths of the curriculum is that by positioning aggression as a response to distress, students learn why aggression arises and how to address it.