Enquiring into Violence and Non-Violence. There are many nuanced definitions of non-violence but most seem to agree that non-violent action is not just about doing anything without using violence. Non-violent action has the aim of undermining violence whether it is physical, structural or institutional. The main part of this lesson is a discussion activity which encourages learners to decide where they would put an action on a spectrum from violent to non-violent. The main part of this lesson is a discussion activity which encourages learners to decide where they would put an action on a spectrum from violent to non-violent. Many of the examples are contentious and the learners need to listen to each other and will potentially change their minds when they hear good reasons. Through this activity the learners will hopefully start to understand some of the complexities around the concepts of violence and non-violence. “Looking at principles of non-violent protest and deciding which ones we like and which we would question (orange for challenge, yellow for agree and annotations) gave the children a chance to critically analyse some complex ideas and to start to think about how their own values affect their reaction.”

This lesson uses relatable, fictional scenarios to enable the learners to think about their own understanding of violent and non-violent actions before engaging with actual historical case studies. Pictures of objects which could be used in non-violent or violent actions are introduced for the learners to think of their own creative uses and consider whether their ideas are violent or non-violent. These objects can be spotted in the subsequent case studies and will be used again in the final lesson to evaluate learning. The activity is designed to be open-ended and creative rather than to directly teach how the objects could be used. “Pupils were highly enthusiastic and engaged in the content.”

This series of lessons takes learners through a participatory step by step process of thinking about issues they care about in their school or local community; choosing an issue; researching it; deciding on the change they would like to see; deciding on an action; planning, doing and evaluating the action. These lessons are designed to take place after learners have experienced some historical case studies and the contemporary case study lesson but could also stand alone as an active citizenship activity as a day event or for a school council. The ideas are based with permission on the resource Get Global! Oxfam, 2007, as well as on real life planning of actions for change. It is important that learners are given the freedom to decide for themselves whether they wish to take action or not and the kind of change they would like to see but also that they are supported by adults to ensure that they have a positive experience of change being possible or at least understand what more they need to do to achieve this.