Slideshows about nonviolence and nonviolent resolution of conflicts, economic alternatives, ecology, social change, spirituality : www.irnc.org , Slideshows in english The duty to educate to nonviolence; law and rule; authority; transgression; education for a constructive resolution of conflicts; mediation.

1. Nonviolence
in education
Étienne Godinot
Translation : Claudia McKenny Engström
17.04.2015

2. Precision
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The author was largely inspired by Jean-Marie Muller’s brochure on Nonviolence in
Education (Ed. UNESCO and IRNC, 2002)
as well as Elisabeth Mathieu’s article “Sanction, contrainte et non-violence”,
published in the Review Aletrnatives Non-violentes, Nr. 125, Winter 2003.

3. Nonviolence in education
Contents
- The duty to educate to nonviolence
- The Law and the Rule
- Authority
- Transgression
- Corporal punishments
- Educational sanction
- Educating to constructive resolution of conflicts, to democracy and citizenship

4. The duty to educate to nonviolence
“ Civilisation essentially consists in reducing
violence ” Karl Popper
Education should aim at a person’s wellbeing,
an ethic of respect and dignity of all Man, to
freedom, justice and peace.

5. Law and rule : their function
A law (or rule) has a political function: it translates politically
the values universally accepted as balancing general interest
and individual freedoms.
Its social function is to organise and formalise distances, links
and statuses to prevent power be taken over savagely.
Its psychological function is to help a person’s structuring and
escape from an omnipotent desire.
Democratic laws, spoken laws, laws that forbid, laws said,
explained, carry a meaning.

6. Authority
Authority is necessary in families,
schools, in a company, in civil society.
A child builds his or her personality in
confrontation with his or her parents’,
educators’ authority.

7. Authority
Authoritarianism is domination of a person on
another.
Authority serves the public good, it seeks
consent.
An educator must always value constantly the
link between:
- law and justice,
- a rule and the “living together”,
- individual constraint and the common good.

8. Guaranteeing laws and rules in constraint
Communication and sanction give laws and
rules their meaning.
Communication explains, reassures, solidifies
values and limits.
Sanction, such as transgression, is the action
that allows acceptance, repair and reinsertion.

9. Transgression
is often a combination of three elements
Fact Meaning Reaction
Damage (to a person) Engages the author’s civil
responsibility
Real or symbolic
compensation
Transgression of a law or
rule
Engages his/her penal
responsibility
Momentary withdrawal of
a right within the group
Message engaging the
author’s responsibility on
his/her own life
Why this act ?
To answer what needs ?
Put words on the
intentions, motives, unrest
that led to this behaviour

10. Mistreatment / Abuse
Child abuse is still widespread in our
societies.
It has heavy consequences on an adult’s
behaviour, a person having suffered from
child abuse being likely to treat others as
it was treated.

11. Smacking ?
A smack (when given in anger or after
warning) is of course less serious than
hitting or wounding, and is better than
ignoring,
but other educative measures must be
sought for as often as possible : short
exclusion from a group and under
surveillance (ex.: from the classroom,
forbidding television, etc.)

12. Educational sanctions
Impunity encourages a child to continue
transgressing rules.
Educational sanctions will help him or her to
become aware of his or her responsibility and to
bring back together him/her with him/herself and
with the group.
To sanction is to make one responsible, give a
person a chance and opportunity to repair.

13. Restorative sanctions
- restore a relationship between the author and
the victim
- restore a relation between the author and the
group
- restore self confidence in the author

14. Learning civil
responsibility
Learning penal
responsibility
Learning
responsibility over
one’s own life
The educator
exercises a
constraint
Reparation
Control
Withdrawal of a
right
Work on rules
Questioning
Allow reflection
The educator
accompanies
Suggest mediation
Understand the
meaning of the rule
Listen
Suggest help
The interested
party explains
him/herself
Mediation
accepted,
withdrawal
Do together
New contract
or new choice
Taking care of the
problem
Ask for help
The group is
implicated
Spaces of
regulation
Reaffirming or
readjusting the rule
Solidarity
Help
Assistance
Transgression : answer in 3 acts and 4 steps

15. Education
Genuine civic education must contribute to children’s :
- autonomy rather than submission,
- critical thinking rather than passive obedience,
- responsibility rather than discipline,
- emulation and cooperation rather than competition,
- creativity rather than reproduction of models,
- solidarity rather than rivalry.

16. Fighting against exclusive ideologies
Education must destroy ideologies based on
exclusion and discriminations against others,
against those who are different :
- nationalism
- racism
- xenophobia
- religious fundamentalism
- economic liberalism grounded on the sole profit-
goal and material well-being, etc.

17. Education for a constructive resolution of conflicts
- Teaching children (young people, adults) to live
through a conflict, to not flee it, but to manage it
constructively
- Implicate the different actors and group (students,
team, etc.) in looking for a solution.

18. Education for a constructive resolution of conflicts
- Re-centre the conflict on the object
that is the cause of it in order to avoid it
degenerating into rivalry between
people
- Break the silence, refuse to be a
victim, being picked on by others

19. Encourage and promote mediation
Mediation consists in asking for a third person’s
intervention in order to help the ones in conflict to :
- talk to each other
- remove misunderstandings
- understand each other
- find a compromise that will open to reconciliation

20. Encourage and promote mediation
The idea is to switch from a binary logic of
confrontation to a three party cooperation,
for everyone to take a step back
- from oneself
- from the other
- from the conflict

21. Encourage and promote mediation
It isn’t enough to establish an
objective truth on the facts.
It is more important to understand
the subjective truth of those
involved with regard to their
feelings, desires, resentments and
sufferance.
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