The Effectiveness and Limitation of Practicing Nonviolence to Resolve Conflicts in a Junior College Community

Abstract

The author conducted a case study for the purpose of examining the role, effectiveness and limitations of nonviolent disobedience in resolving the conflict between an instructor and his superior in a junior college community. The following assertions were examined as a result. (1)Parties to conflicts, as well as other teaching staff members, managed to avoid treating students wrongly without detracting from educational quality. (2)Nonviolent disobedience is a method allowing those in weak positions, and those subjected to coercive power by superiors ignorant of nonviolent problem solving methods, to cope by themselves without taking action induced by the suppression or eruption of their own emotions, and even without the other parties’cooperation. (3)Because practitioners of nonviolent disobedience are also parties to conflict, it is difficult for them, as third parties, to plan training programs for nonviolence and conflict resolution, and to educate all members of the community. (4)In the case of disobedience, it is difficult to obtain the cooperation of other parties to the conflict even in nonviolence, and difficult to build relationships of trust, which makes it hard for mutual character transformation or growth to come about. (5)When one person practices nonviolent disobedience, there is a risk that he or she will be isolated or sacrificed if his or her group structurally practices harassment bullying or the like.