An autoethnography of becoming a kindergarden teacher: from self-awareness to nonviolent social change

Abstract

This study seek to represent my educational journey from childhood to the present. It aspires at answering two main research questions that I faced over my time working as a kindergarten teacher in a local school in Verona, Italy. They are: what have been the principal factors (life events and knowledge gained) to lead my educative journey? What has been the impact nonviolent communication had on my educative practice?

Embracing the view of transmissional theorists which see education as tool to change socio-cultural values, I reflect on the perspective nonviolent thinkers have on the western modern culture. I take on different disciplines, such as anthropology, linguistic and neurosciences, to address the importance of transmitting nonviolent values through education, in order to possibly overcome the violent paradigm spread within the contemporary society. I approach nonviolent communication as a strategy to bring such a change.

The main research questions are considered under the autoethnographic approach which makes the study a highly personal account. The results of this work demonstrate that the factors determining my choice of being an educator have been influenced by both my personality, my schooling experience and the knowledge I matured throughout my life and my working experience. Finally, I state that to enact a social change through an educational practice, good will is not enough. Personal, cultural, anthropological and neuroscientific awareness on the role education, have been crucial in order to shape my profession, as well as myself as a person. At present, I acknowledge that through my educative performance, I can contribute to change a predominant violent cultural paradigm into a nonviolent one.