2: Re‑Imagining Teacher Education: Andragogy of Hope and Nonviolence

Humans live in an increasingly violent world, often interwoven with oppressive structures, injustices, and inequities, and educators can play vital roles in helping the next generations hope for and enact a less violent, more humane world. A key aspect is to engage students and teachers in civil dialogue around nonviolence, intertwining them with hope for the future.

This chapter sets the stage to re‑imagine teacher education for K‑12 teachers, barriers to re‑imagining e.g. defining nonviolence and curricular resources that integrate nonviolence education into existing curricula, rather than as side dishes and time fillers.

Re-imagining teacher education begins within curricula taught to student teachers, how they continue to educate themselves once in the profession, and how they are supported in their education, to more easily bring and integrate nonviolence education into their classrooms. An activity called A Culture of Peace encourages dialogue around what nonviolence means to each student, as an example of integrating key nonviolence concepts into standard curricula. Each voice brings a different sensibility to the conversations. In today’s world, nonviolence education represents resistance and subversive activities to challenge existing violent and oppressive structures, acts, and rhetoric.