Education for nonkilling creativity: a reconstructive–empowering approach

ABSTRACT

Paige (2002) affirmed that a ‘nonkilling society implies a disciplinary shift to nonkilling creativity’. Creativity is indispensable in the search for peaceful alternatives for the positive transformation of conflicts, inherent in human relationships. Creativity can help individuals to think and act peacefully, to find different alternatives to obstacles and problems, to face daily life challenges, and to be happier people. This article presents the Reconstructive–Empowering (REM) approach of peace education as a concrete proposal for implementing a nonkilling paradigm shift in education that facilitates the formation of a critical, active, creative, and peaceful nonkilling citizenship, capable of promoting social transformations toward a killing-free world.

KEYWORDS:

• Nonkilling
• Peace Education
• conflict transformation
• global citizenship
• imagination
• creativity

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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Notes on contributors

Sofía Herrero Rico

Sofía Herrero Rico is a pedagogue, holds an International Master’s Degree in Peace, Conflict and Development Studies and a Ph.D. from the Universitat Jaume I of Castellón, Spain (UJI). Her Doctoral Dissertation Peace Education from the Philosophy of making peace(s): The REM (Reconstructive-Empowering) approach obtained the extraordinary PhD Award by UJI. She is currently the Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair of Philosophy for Peace, researcher of the Interuniversity Institute of Social Development and Peace, and Professor of the Department of Pedagogy at UJI. She has been a visiting researcher at Teachers College, Columbia University (USA), the University of Coimbra (Portugal), at the University of Pisa (Italy) and at the UAEM (Mexico), and has lectured in Spain, Peru, Algeria, Italy, Mexico and the USA.