Being the Change: Teachers Teaching Nonviolence

• In Event: Teachers as Peace Educators

Abstract

This paper documents how K-12 teachers from all over the United States, trained at a university’s nonviolence center, embody nonviolence in their professional lives. Data was culled from questionnaires, surveys, and focus groups in three cities, with a total of 65 participants across the K-12 sector. The analysis reveals that teachers feel a sense of personal transformation that empowers them to be agents of nonviolent social change, in their curricular and pedagogical practices, their interpersonal relationships with students and colleagues, and their own teacher leadership domestically and abroad. The research suggests that teachers need intensive opportunities to learn about nonviolence so that they create a culture of peace and nonviolence in their own communities.

Author

• Christian Alejandro Bracho, University of La Verne