Conference Program

Within contemporary debates on peace education, increasing attention has been devoted to the ways in which educational systems may contribute, often implicitly, to the reproduction of militarized social imaginaries. Beyond the most visible forms of militarization within educational spaces, these dynamics frequently operate through deeper pedagogical and cultural mechanisms: rigid hierarchies of knowledge, transmissive teaching models, competitive assessment regimes, and limited opportunities for students to participate in processes of knowledge production. Such institutional and symbolic configurations contribute to shaping an educational imaginary grounded in obedience, performativity, and the separation between academic knowledge and civic responsibility.
Within international scholarship on peace education, it has been widely emphasized that education for peace cannot be reduced to the mere absence of violence, but must instead be understood as an active process aimed at cultivating democratic relationships, social justice, and the nonviolent transformation of conflicts. From this perspective, the demilitarization of education requires a profound transformation of pedagogical relations, epistemic practices, and institutional cultures that structure learning environments.
This paper explores the potential of transformative pedagogy and university public engagement as strategies capable of “disarming” education from within. The theoretical framework draws on the tradition of critical and nonviolent pedagogies, including the work of Danilo Dolci, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, and Johan Galtung. In particular, Dolci’s method of reciprocal maieutics offers a meaningful perspective for rethinking education as a dialogical and collective process of knowledge production, in which learning emerges through shared inquiry, active participation, and community responsibility rather than through hierarchical transmission.
Building on this framework, the paper presents the educational experience of the university course Strategies and Tools for Empowerment and Active Citizenship, designed around participatory and transformative learning methodologies. The course integrates collaborative learning practices, project-based activities, and public engagement initiatives that connect academic work with social actors and local communities. Through these practices, students are involved in processes of critical reflection and civic action that transform them from passive recipients of knowledge into active participants in the production of knowledge and social practices.
The analysis of this experience suggests that the integration of transformative pedagogy and public engagement can contribute to redefining the role of the university as a democratic public learning space. These practices foster critical awareness, collective agency, and active citizenship competencies while simultaneously challenging traditional epistemic hierarchies through processes of knowledge co-production among students, educators, and community actors.
From this perspective, the demilitarization of educational imaginaries cannot be understood simply as the absence of militarized elements within educational settings. Rather, it entails a deeper transformation of pedagogical relationships and knowledge practices that sustain authoritarian and exclusionary dynamics. Through dialogical learning, collaborative inquiry, and civic engagement, transformative pedagogy can help reposition the university as a site where democratic participation and social responsibility are actively cultivated. Revisiting the tradition of nonviolent education in light of contemporary practices of university public engagement thus opens pathways for imagining pedagogical processes capable of disarming education from within and reinforcing its emancipatory and democratic potential.