CONF 399 Project Proposal

As a teacher, I have observed several types of conflict involving students, teachers, parents, and staff. In many situations, the result have not been positive and relationships damaged due to the inability to handle conflicts in a more positive and restorative way, which is something that DTR and Restorative Justice greatly offer. By working on the issue with the goal to make things as right as possible, relationship, trust, order, integrity, dignity, accountability, and hope are restored, and the parts involved grow and learn with the experience.

The three concepts that appeared throughout the literature reviewed was the impact conflict has not only students but the administration, counselors and teachers. The literature had many articles supporting the use of school based peer mediation, as a very successful and widely accepted program. Another positive program that reoccurred in much of literature was the facilitation of restorative justice, the importance of facilitating community building through the use of circles.

Conflict is something that people come across in a daily base, conflict is when two or more people do not agree on a specific subject. Conflict can get out of hand when someone comes to a disagreement that leads to an argument and can bring tension. Conflict is seen in different forms by many people depending on its situation. Conflict is seen at work with co-workers, students or customers in different places that we visit every day. However, each person can handle these situations differently in order to resolve the problem. I work in a community college and I take responsibility by helping as many students to continue their education and making it a positive environment for them. I will explain a problem-solving sensitive situation that happened at my place of employment. There was a parent trying to find out her daughter confidential information and was released without her consent. Throughout this paper I will discuss how policy and procedures are very

The conflict role that my partner and I are interested in exploring is mediation. The type of mediation we will be focusing on is community mediation. The reason we are interested in this field of study is because conflict is inevitable. We face conflict in everyday life with family and friends, within relationships, at work and the list goes on. However, conflict brings about change. We have a choice of how to deal with conflict, either positively or negatively. Failure to deal with conflict could lead to damaging an individual’s relationship and business. Conflict that is unresolved tends to lead to avoidance, confrontation and violence. Providing mediation helps to look for new approaches and solutions.

The Western Justice Center (WJC) function is to promote conflict resolution education and peer mediation in schools. Evident, the conflict arises every day and everywhere, such as in school setting, where one student has an issue with another. Specifically, WJC objective is to train teachers at school to conflict resolution, mediation skills, then train the peer students to mediate as well, so when in conflict the peer student is able to operate a mediation conference with a trained support. As illustration, disputes between students usually end up with a physical fight, bullying and frequently ends with lost friendship. There are many incidents where disputes become bullying case and escalate to serious casualties. In the event there is a disagreement the students have an opportunity to go to peer mediator in order to participate in alternative dispute resolution process. To point out, Pasadena middle school went through WJC program, and results have shown positive effect. As a result, the violence at school decreased, the tone of the school transformed to helpful. The feedback from the students was forward-looking, they not only saw a positive way to resolve problems, but also learn more valuable skills like active listening, changing perspective and understanding each other better. The mediation sessions not only help individuals to hash out issues, but they provide beneficial leadership skills for the future. Based on the author’s

To win or not to win, that is the question…or is it? Stephen R. Covey suggests that it does not have to be a win-lose scenario. Covey subscribes to a win-win philosophy, “Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions” (Covey, n.d.). When it comes to parent-teacher conflicts, Covey’s “Win-win” approach is the best solution to deescalate frustrations and maintain positive relationships between the teacher, students, and parents. This paper will examine two conflict scenarios and determine which actions achieved a mutual beneficial outcome.

This project targeted elementary school aged children. The program worked to develop a “caring school environment” to increase children’s success in school behaviorally. This program also helped prevent drug use, violence, and delinquency. Emphasized aspects of this program are “buddies” programs, “home side” activities, classroom lessons, and creating a school wide community for children. This has been concluded to be an evidence-based program proven to positively affect children’s behavior (Miles et al.,

One community resource to share with parents and to use as an early childhood professional to support children’s development is the local school districts, Youth Development Support Services: Youth Engagement Services. The goal of Youth Engagement Services (YES) is to empower their schools and district to meet the academic and social-emotional wellbeing of all students by providing support to plan, implement, monitor, and integrate the delivery of high quality and high impact educational and social-emotional programs (youth.scusd.edu). Youth Engagement Services’ provide; after school, summer and out of school time programs, mentoring and character education services, youth voice and action opportunities, student, family, and community engagement, school culture and climate initiatives, intervention and prevention of tobacco, alcohol, other drug use, bullying and violence prevention, service learning; social

An explicit goal of most mentoring programs for at-risk youth is to instill an orientation to individual achievement, and to provide the support to make individual achievement possible. This strategy is designed to empower the children, while placing the responsibility to grow within their control. Our program offers a structured, strength-based service to youth for the purpose of supporting, coaching and training youth in age-appropriate pro-social behaviors. Features of the service include coaching on interpersonal communication, problem-solving and conflict resolution, and relating appropriately to family, peers, teachers and others, pursuant to a behavioral health treatment plan. The design of this evidence-based model will provide the

Richman, J. M., Lawrence R.B. & Bowen G. L. (1998) Social Support for Adolescents at Risk of School Failure. Social Work, Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 309-323. Oxford University Press. Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org.memex.lehman.cuny.edu:2048/stable/23718683

Creating a positive, proactive and peaceful learning environment is one of the primary goals in the contemporary classroom. Over the past few decades, however, violence has unfortunately

These newly adopted programs are teaching children at a young age how to be mediators and to find their own solutions to pressure. Studies show conflict resolution is the most effective when taught at a young age. Studies also show that students should be taught healthy coping techniques before they enter middle school.

Social-emotional awareness is an important skill to be able to learn for children in general, but more importantly for children at risk. This paper will address the effectiveness of social-emotional learning for students at risk and the importance of learning social-emotional skills in conjunction with the students’ academic education. Although the main focus of this paper is for students who are at risk, this paper also addresses if social-emotional learning is effective for students in general. For this paper, students who are acknowledged as at risk are students with disabilities and health concerns. However, the term risk is defined as “exposure to the chance of injury or loss, or a hazard or dangerous change” (Dictionary.com). Within British Columbia, during the 2011 to 2012 school year, the enrolment of students with special needs was a total of 50,497 (BCTF Information Service and Research Development, 2012). Although this statistic is from three years ago, the difference from 2002 to 2012 is an increase of 1,560 students (BCTF Information Services and Research Department, 2012). This paper identifies key concepts, such as, what is social-emotional learning, the benefits and long term effects of social-emotional learning, ways it should be implemented, and potential issues arising within social-emotional learning. Identifying these key concepts will help determine if social-emotional learning, within a school community, is effective for students who are

But if the parent were to listen to each child’s concerns and the reason the conflict started in the first place, and then allowed the children to express themselves and come to the resolution organically, the children learn the habits and behaviors associated with conflict resolution. As a result, these skills can be used later down the track. This is an example of peacekeeping, deemed as short-term pain for a long-term gain.

Many writers make an important distinction between positive and negative peace. Negative peace is defined as the absence of large-scale physical violence - the absence of the condition of war. Positive peace involves the development of a society in which, except for the absence of direct violence, there is no structural violence or social injustice. Accordingly, peace education could be defined as an interdisciplinary area of education whose goal is institutionalized and non-institutionalized teaching about peace and for peace. Peace education aims to help students acquire skills for non-violent conflict resolution and to reinforce these skills for active and responsible action in the society for the promotion of the values of peace. Therefore, unlike the concept of conflict resolution, which can be considered to be retroactive - trying to solve a conflict after it has already occurred - peace education has a more proactive approach. Its aim is to prevent a conflict in advance or rather to educate individuals and a society for a peaceful existence on the basis of non-violence, tolerance, equality, respect for differences, and social justice.