TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
My teaching philosophy is student-centered and is expressed in four fundamental principles: passion, expectation, environment and active learning. I help students to maximize their potential and challenge them to excel while ensuring that those struggling in their learning abilities have the support and encouragement that they need to succeed as well. I make the context of the subject interesting and relevant to the students to arouse their curiosity and drive active participation in class discussion. I also set high expectations for my students and use more than one method of teaching to facilitate active learning. I create a positive learning environment that extends beyond the classroom to the external learning spaces during my office hours and a chance meeting in the hallway before or after lectures. The best way to help my students learn effectively is to find creative ways, for example, using personal experiences, stories, videos, and images, to get them to see the world by themselves. I provide my students with the tools to make their unique discoveries, and create an environment in which they could learn to use these tools efficiently and effectively.
At the University of St Thomas I teach courses on Intro to Justice and Peace Studies, Active Nonviolence, Public Policy Analysis and Advocacy, Global Social Policy, and Peace Engineering.
Covers the historical, political, economic and cultural analysis of conflict and violence, typologies of violence, measures of positive peace, and approaches to justice and peace, conflict transformation, restorative justice and reconciliation, and transitional justice processes as well as mediation and negotiation.
Active nonviolence as a means for societal defense and social transformation analyzed through case studies of actual nonviolent movements, examining their political philosophy and how this philosophy is reflected in their methods and strategies. The course emphasizes the theory and active practice of nonviolence as well as oral histories of successful nonviolent movements.
This course integrates basic theory, interaction with public policy analysts and advocates, personal experience in persuasive advocacy, and case studies focused on issues such as housing, homelessness, climate change, education, economic inequality, land, food security, hunger, and health care. I partnered with The Greenlight Fund – Twin Cities as part of community engaged learning.
Covers topics such as global poverty and inequality; transnational organized crime, criminal justice and crime policy; Artificial Intelligence and the changing nature of work; transnational corporations and changing labor conditions; global health policy; international trade and the welfare state; climate change, migration and refugee resettlement; and global education policy.
The course is intended for engineering and non-engineering students interested in developing technological frontiers for advancing peace in the world. Tools from complexity science, systems engineering, and design thinking are applied to issues such as human security in societies currently experiencing violent conflict or rebuilding in its aftermath.
Obasesam Okoi, PhD 