Reimagining nonviolence education through a multidimensional lens: what should peace in the curriculum look like?

Existing violence, both at schools and the wider society, increasingly demands educational responses that can offer sustainable approaches and interventions to tackle it. This conceptual paper proposes a curriculum framework centered on nonviolence as a proactive, developmental, and relational approach to peace education. Drawing on Galtung’s taxonomy of direct, structural, and cultural violence, Butler’s account of interdependence as a moral foundation, and Wikström and Treiber’s Situational Action Theory, the paper argues for a deeper understanding of the multidimensional roots of violence and for a systematical pedagogical design anchored in nonviolence philosophy. Two illustrative examples — the transformations of R. Derek Black and Luis J. Rodriguez — are analysed through three interrelated mechanisms: dialogic encounter, the disruption of inherited moral frameworks, and empathy grounded in structural awareness. These analyses inform a three-strand curriculum model integrating intrapersonal nonviolence (silence, mindfulness, and emotional regulation), interpersonal nonviolence (empathy, nonviolent communication, and appreciation of difference), and intergroup nonviolence (equal status, common goals, cooperation, and institutional support). The framework positions nonviolence as both educational means and ethical end, offering curriculum theorists, peace educators, and practitioners a coherent foundation for fostering personal transformation alongside structural and cultural change.