ABSTRACT
Peace Studies is a burgeoning academic discipline with hundreds of uniquely crafted programs at institutions of higher education around the world. The Circle of Praxis pedagogy is the foundation for our program and it continues to inform how, what, and why we teach and learn. Throughout the 1980s, Jack witnessed how impoverished but well-organized peasant and urban communities in Nicaragua and El Salvador employed the Circle of Praxis in a liberating process of educational and societal transformation. The liberation thrust of the Circle of Praxis pedagogy has transformative possibilities that include, but extend well beyond, theological, church, or social justice struggles in Latin America. Insertion/immersion into the experience and stories of people facing marginalization, oppression, or violence decenters our worldview to help us see from the perspective of those most in need of justice and peace. Normative analysis builds on the critical, interdisciplinary descriptive analysis of our initial insertion/immersion experience.
