Reading the Violences of School Through a New Lens: A Literacy Teacher’s Changing Perspective in a US High School

Abstract

This analysis explores a literacy teacher’s changing perspective about teaching in a prestigious high school after learning about ahimsa, or holistic nonviolence. Drawing from theories of transformational learning and critical pedagogy in addition to understandings of ahimsa, this article presents some of the participant’s new perceptions about her teaching and about the culture of the elite high school where she worked, including perceptions of structural violence. New understandings suggest that in order for schools to be nonviolent spaces, structural violences need to be considered alongside more overtly visible forms of violence. There are also implications for teacher learning. When professional development supports transformational change, it can be both inspirational and unnerving, and might shift participants’ perspectives and unsettle their ways of relating to established practices and familiar contexts.