Conference Program

In 2023, UNESCO called upon educational organisations and professionals to take concrete steps towards fostering a culture of peace. “Learning Peace” embodies a community’s commitment grounded in faith and hope in the collective pursuit of positive peace, serving as a laboratory for training, education and growth in the fields of peace and nonviolence. Using a case study in which the Theatre of the Oppressed – a political and pedagogical practice developed by Augusto Boal to promote critical awareness and empower communities – was introduced as a transformative educational tool within “Imparare la pace. Scuola popolare di nonviolenza” in Bergamo, this study seeks to document, understand and map the transformative processes that emerged.

The Theatre of the Oppressed is presented as a politico-pedagogical practice aimed at fostering critical consciousness and the activation of oppressed subjects through the experiential, rather than ideological, recognition of conflict and oppression. Through the analysis of rituals and mechanisms of domination, thereby revealing their underlying power dynamics. The process generates dialogical maieutic pathways that encourage the collaborative search for shared solutions, which cannot be predefined or externally controlled. It produces multiple levels of impact on participants, ranging from awareness to transformation, and from the personal dimension to the social and community sphere (Boal 1994, 1996).

Grounded in a complex and ecological epistemological framework, the study draws on critical pedagogy (Giroux, 2008), transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 2003), democratic education (Dewey, 2018), and systemic-complex thought (Morin, 2007; Bateson, 1977). It adopts a qualitative-interpretative case study design, integrating elements of educational ethnography, narrative inquiry and maieutic methods to analyse the aims and needs that motivated the introduction of the Theatre of the Oppressed within the programme; the cognitive, emotional, embodied, relational and political transformations that participants recognise as outcomes of the experience; and the emerging or unforeseen dynamics and tensions.

In conclusion, the study seeks to highlight the significance of the Theatre of the Oppressed within a Scuola popolare di nonviolenza as a practice that nurtures adults able to embody democratic and nonviolent values (hooks, 2020; Freire, 2008).