Peace Education
Civic Pluralism and Peace Education
The Civic Pluralism and Peace Education Hub examines how educational institutions shape the knowledge, dispositions, and public practices necessary for peaceful coexistence in religiously and culturally diverse societies. Grounded in empirical research and informed by interdisciplinary scholarship, the hub investigates how students and educators learn to navigate deep difference. Our work addresses questions such as: How is religion represented in curriculum and state standards? How do teachers structure classroom dialogue across disagreement? What forms of listening and inquiry foster democratic coexistence rather than polarization or exclusion? Through research partnerships, practitioner collaboration, and public engagement, the hub seeks to advance forms of education that strengthen pluralism, reduce prejudice, and contribute to more just and peaceful public life.
Engelhardt, M., & Allen, A. (2026). In-service teacher’s understanding and use of sacrificial listening in morning meeting. The International Journal of Listening, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/10904018.2025.2458823
Allen, A., & Fortune, D. (2025). Interrogating belief: Linking religious instruction and children’s historical fiction in elementary social studies. The Social Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377996.2025.2506574
Allen, A., & Engelhardt, M. (2025). Integrating sacrificial listening and children's literature. Social Studies Journal, 44(2), 15-31.
Allen, A. (2025). Included, but how? A critical investigation into elementary social studies standards about religion. Theory & Research in Social Education, 52(4), 575-613. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2024.2320632
Allen, A., & Hicks, D. (2025) There's an elephant in the history classroom: Rethinking GenAI through technocuriosity. Contemporary Issues in Technology And Teacher Education, 25(4). https://citejournal.org/volume-25/issue-3-25/social-studies/editorial-theres-an-elephant-in-the-history-classroom-rethinking-genai-through-technocuriosity/
Allen, A., Stewart, C., & Engelhardt, M. (2024). “Nothing compares to actually listening… ”: Experiences with sacrificial listening and place-based education. Social Studies Research and Practice, 19(2), 224-238. https://doi.org/10.1108/SSRP-01-2024-0007
Allen, A., Engelhardt, M., & Stewart, C. (2024). Listening as a virtue? Building a bridge to understanding through sacrificial listening. Curriculum Teaching and Dialogue, 26(1), 187-200. https://www.infoagepub.com/products/Curriculum-and-Teaching-Dialogue-Vol-26
Allen, A., Engelhardt, M., & Sucharski, Z. (2024). Humanizing the untouchables: Teaching about the dignity of labor. Iowa Journal for the Social Studies, 32(2), 65-86.
Allen, A., Engelhardt, M., & Stewart, C. (2023). Pre-service teachers’ understanding of sacrificial listening as a pedagogical framework. Journal of Curriculum Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2023.2271545
Allen, A. (2023). “We don’t know enough about it”: Student perceptions of Judaism as a race, religion, or ethnicity. The Social Studies, 114(6), 297-311. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377996.2023.2204063
Allen, A. (2023). More than Hanukkah and the Holocaust: Teaching About Judaism in elementary school. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 36(2), 12–17. https://www.socialstudies.org/social-studies-and-young-learner/36/2/more-hanukkah-and-holocaust-teaching-about-judaism-elementary
Current and recent projects examine how teachers engage in instruction about religion, student reasoning about Judaism and other religious traditions, and the development of sacrificial listening as a pedagogical framework for civic dialogue. Drawing on classroom-based research, qualitative inquiry, and content analysis, the hub bridges theory and practice through both scholarly publication and practitioner-facing work. Emerging lines of research also explore how generative artificial intelligence is reshaping students’ encounters with religious knowledge, historical narratives, and public disagreement. By studying how AI systems represent belief and position authority, the hub extends its concern with curriculum into new technological contexts, asking what peaceful, pluralistic education requires in increasingly AI-mediated public spaces.
Religious Representation in Children’s Literature and Curriculum
This multi-year line of research investigates how religion is represented in children’s trade books recommended for social studies instruction and how those representations shape civic learning. Through critical content analysis of nationally recognized book lists, the project examines which religious traditions are included, how belief and practice are framed, and whether texts invite superficial multiculturalism or deeper engagement with pluralism. Ongoing work extends this analysis into classroom contexts, exploring how teachers and students interpret and use these texts in practice. Together, these studies ask whether current curricular resources prepare students for meaningful coexistence in religiously diverse democratic societies.
Sacrificial Listening and Curriculum-in-Use
Building on a developing theory of sacrificial listening, this empirical project examines how listening operates as a civic and moral practice within elementary social studies classrooms. Rather than treating dialogue as a neutral skill, the study investigates how teachers structure moments of vulnerability, disagreement, and interpretive tension. Using qualitative classroom research, the project analyzes how curriculum-in-use shapes students’ capacity for empathy and moral reasoning. This work contributes to broader conversations about how peace education may be enacted in everyday instructional practice.
Generative Artificial Intelligence and Public Knowledge
This collaborative research initiative advances a technocurious framework for working with generative artificial intelligence in education. Rather than approaching AI as a tool to be adopted or resisted, the project investigates how teachers and students can engage AI as a site of inquiry. Drawing on concepts such as liveness, configuration, and figuration, the research explores how generative systems reshape historical interpretation, narrative construction, and the production of knowledge. Current work examines classroom experimentation with AI and the ethical implications of machine-generated pasts for democratic education.
Religion in K–12 Education: A National Survey of Teachers
In collaboration with colleagues, this book-length project surveys K–12 teachers across the United States to examine how religion is addressed in contemporary classrooms. The study explores teachers’ preparation, confidence, perceived constraints, and instructional practices related to religious content. By combining large-scale survey data with qualitative insight, the project seeks to provide a comprehensive portrait of religion’s place in public education and to identify the supports educators need to teach about religion in academically rigorous, constitutionally sound, and peace-oriented ways.
Religion and Education Collaborative htttps://www.religionanded.com/