Playing peace: School performance as an aesthetic mode of knowing

This article attempts to shift the focus of peace education from being mainly sociological towards a discussion focusing on theatre education. Case study methodology is used to investigate the daily experience of drama classes. The study describes and analyzes a theatre/drama project in two Israeli junior high schools, one in an Arab village and the other in a Jewish town. The purposes of the study were: to provide opportunity to explore the meaning of living in an era of peace, using personal interpretation through aesthetic problem solving and developing skills of recognizing, tolerating, and valuing attitudes of others through the process of preparing for a school performance celebrating peace. It shows how schools as the cradle for authentic feeling, deepen the intuitive support of diversity felt by the young.