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Building Peaceable Schools using Conflict Resolution Skills
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Develop problem solving skills with your students A Framework for building Peaceable Schools A Conflict Resolution Thematic Unit. Tips to help you establish a Peer Mediation Program at your school. Preventing Violence in schools What should parents and teachers know about bullying? |
Check out a Conflict Resolution Protocol for Elementary Schools Why teach Conflict resolution in schools? Teach Negotiation and Mediation Skills A Practical solution to Bullying in schools. Teaching Gentleness in a Violent World. |
Help students resolve conflict with 'Talk it Out'. The Importance of Cooperative Learning 8 Steps to Resolving Conflict The Center for Peace Education What is Bullying? The Safe Culture Project - promoting Safe classrooms. Taking the Bully by the Horns The Bully Busters Program for Schools. |
Conflict Resolution
Conflict resolution education is a beneficial component of a comprehensive violence prevention and intervention program in schools and communities.
Conflict resolution education encompasses problem solving in which the parties in dispute express their points of view, voice their interests, and find mutually acceptable solutions.
Conflict resolution education programs help the parties recognize that while conflict happens all the time, people can learn new skills to deal with conflict in nonviolent ways. The programs that appear to be most effective are comprehensive and involve multiple components such as the problem-solving processes and principles of conflict resolution,
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the basics of effective communication and listening, critical and creative thinking,
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and an emphasis on personal responsibility and self-discipline.
Effective conflict resolution education programs can:
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Enable children to respond nonviolently to conflict by using the conflict resolution problem-solving processes of negotiation, mediation, and consensus decisionmaking.
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Enable educators' ability to manage students' behavior without coercion by emphasizing personal responsibility and self-discipline.
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Mobilize community involvement in violence prevention through education programs and services, such as expanding the role of youth as effective citizens beyond the school into the community.
Four Common Strategies for Approaching Conflict Resolution
Experts identify four school-based conflict resolution strategies that can be replicated in other settings. These are commonly
referred to as: (1) Peer Mediation, (2) Process Curriculum, (3) Peaceable Classrooms, and (4) Peaceable Schools. The Peaceable Schools model incorporates the elements of the other three approaches. In all four approaches, conflict resolution education is viewed as giving youth nonviolent tools to deal with daily conflicts that can lead to self-destructive and violent behaviors. It is up to each local school district to decide how conflict resolution education will be integrated into its overall educational environment. The expectation is that when youth learn to recognize and constructively address what takes place before conflict or differences lead to violence, the incidence and intensity of that situation will diminish.
Peer Mediation Approach
Recognizing the importance of directly involving youth in conflict resolution, many schools and communities are using the Peer Mediation approach. Under this approach, specially trained student mediators work with their peers to resolve conflicts.