Violence in South African schools seems to be increasing and the consequences affect not only the physical, emotional, and academic lives of learners but also their resistance to delinquent and criminal behaviour. Because the foundations for youth violence are laid in early adolescence, violence prevention in schools is a critical need. Life orientation (LO) as a compulsory school subject could play a key role in helping South African learners deal with the different manifestations of violence, especially understanding the nature of the institutionalised violence of colonialism and apartheid. LO can also nurture learners’ personal development and life skills to increase their sense of agency, a key factor in both violence prevention and learners’ decolonisation processes. However, various South African studies attest to the current low status of LO in the school curriculum as well as the difficulties of teaching LO. Many of these studies also mention the inadequacy of LO teachers’ preparation for meaningful LO teaching. Given that equipping current-day South African learners with the self-empowerment skills necessary for preventing everyday conflicts from escalating into violence also entails this complex decolonisation process to liberate them of past or still present oppressions, this paper contends that LO teachers need to have first participated in such self-development processes themselves. For these reasons, this article proposes a specific development strategy to support LO teachers, namely, that they participate in workshops of the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), which applies a nonviolent pedagogical approach in its focus on self-empowerment and creative conflict management. The article discusses the benefits of such an approach and 1 AVP was designed in 1975 in the USA in response to a request from the inmates of Green Haven Prison, New York State who wanted to reduce the physical violence in their prison as well as the recidivism, especially of young prisoners. The 3-day experiential workshop aimed at showing prison inmates how to deal with conflict without resorting to violence. The workshops were well received and prisoners began facilitating their own workshops, some continuing after they were released. Although initially conducted mostly in prisons, the workshops expanded to schools, universities, non-governmental organisations, government corporations, and communities. Run mostly by volunteers, AVP was implemented widely in the USA and spread to other parts of the world. Today, AVP is active in over 50 countries (see http://avp.international/). In South Africa, AVP began in Johannesburg in 1993 and currently there are active groups in Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu Natal, and the Eastern and Western Cape—as well as in Namibia—all of whom regularly conduct workshops in schools for teachers, learners, and lay counsellors and also in community groups and prisons. The authors are certified AVP facilitators and have been conducting AVP workshops in the Eastern Cape since 2005.

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一种面向生活的教师发展的非暴力教学方法：暴力替代方案

南非学校中的暴力行为似乎正在增加，其后果不仅影响学习者的身体，情感和学术生活，而且还影响他们对犯罪和犯罪行为的抵制。由于青年暴力行为的基础是在青春期早期奠定的，因此在学校中预防暴力行为是至关重要的。以生活为导向（LO）是一门必修课，可以在帮助南非学习者应对暴力的各种表现形式，特别是了解殖民主义和种族隔离制度化暴力的性质方面发挥关键作用。LO还可以培养学习者的个人发展和生活技能，以增强他们的代理意识，这是预防暴力和学习者非殖民化过程中的关键因素。然而，南非的各种研究证明了当前LO在学校课程中的地位很低，以及LO教学的难度。这些研究中有许多还提到了LO教师对于有意义的LO教学的准备不足。鉴于为当今的南非学习者提供防止日常冲突升级为暴力所必需的自我增强技能，还需要进行复杂的非殖民化过程，以使他们摆脱过去或现在的压迫，因此，本文认为，LO教师必须首先掌握自己参与了这样的自我发展过程。出于这些原因，本文提出了一项具体的发展策略来支持LO教师，即他们参加“暴力替代方案”（AVP）的研讨会，在关注自我授权和创造性冲突管理时采用了非暴力的教学方法。这篇文章讨论了这种方法的好处，并在1975年根据美国纽约州格林黑文监狱囚犯的要求设计了1 AVP，该囚犯希望减少监狱中的人身暴力和累犯，尤其是年轻的囚犯。为期三天的体验研讨会旨在向囚犯展示如何在不诉诸暴力的情况下处理冲突。这些讲习班受到了热烈欢迎，囚犯开始为他们自己的讲习班提供便利，有些被释放后仍在继续。尽管最初主要在监狱中进行，但讲习班已扩展到学校，大学，非政府组织，政府公司和社区。主要由志愿者经营，AVP在美国广泛实施，并传播到世界其他地区。如今，AVP在50多个国家/地区活跃（请参阅http://avp.international/）。在南非，AVP始于1993年在约翰内斯堡，目前在豪登省，夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省，东开普省和西开普省以及纳米比亚都有活跃的团体，这些团体定期在学校为教师，学习者，并在社区团体和监狱中安排顾问。作者是经过认证的AVP协调人，自2005年以来一直在东开普省举办AVP研讨会。以及东开普省和西开普省以及纳米比亚，所有这些人都定期在学校为教师，学习者和非专业顾问以及社区团体和监狱举办讲习班。作者是经过认证的AVP协调人，自2005年以来一直在东开普省举办AVP研讨会。以及东开普省和西开普省以及纳米比亚，所有这些人都定期在学校为教师，学习者和非专业顾问以及社区团体和监狱举办讲习班。作者是经过认证的AVP协调人，自2005年以来一直在东开普省举办AVP研讨会。