Policymakers and Administrators

Welcome to the Conflict Resolution Education Connection’s resources for policymakers and administrators. Our goal is to provide information that will support administrators interested in promoting or extending conflict resolution work within education. The sidebar menu to your right provides a listing of the content areas we focus on at this site.

A very young administrator working at desk

CRE Conference Presentations

Restorative Approaches in Luton Schools

  • Presented by: Dr. Belinda Hopkins
  • View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here

International and National Conflict Resolution Education (CRE)

  • Presented by: Jennifer Batton and Brandi Suttles
  • View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here

National Policies on Education for Democratic Citizenship in the Americas

  • Presented by: Adriana Cepeda-Organization of American States, Washington, DC, USA
  • View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here

Tri-C Sustained Dialogue Campus Network Overview

  • Presented by: Ty Olson, Cuyahoga Community College
  • View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here

Using Extracurricular Activities to Broaden Perspectives of a Diverse College Community

  • Presented by: Megan Erclauz, Susan Lohwater, Shirien Muntaser, Sarah Smith, Amana Zahriyeh, Cuyahoga Community College
  • View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here

State-wide Initiatives in New York and Ohio: Creating Positive Learning Environments

  • Presented by: Mark Barth, Mary Lou Rush and Cheryl Kish
  • View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here

View More Presentations Here


Sample Catalog Resources

Below you'll find a randomized listing of up to 20 related items (we may have more...) drawn from our Resource Catalog.

Resource Title Description Links
Promoting better resolution of conflict with "learn for free!" Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 5, Number 1, (Sept 2004), which presents a project at Dalhousie University College of Continuing Education in Halifax, Nova Scotia called "Learn for Free! ... a day of one-hour sessions -- each of which provides a glimpse into the content of our workshops, the expertise of our instructors, and the skills we seek to develop, the objectives of Learn for Free! are to expand our reach with an alternative approach to handling conflict, to boost our profile within the community, to provide a service to the community in which we live, and to attract new workshop registrants."
VOV activities: Preventing feelings of isolation through trust and cooperation, grades 7-12 6-page PDF with activities for 7-12 graders to improve communication skills and build trust.
Social and emotional learning (SEL) and student benefits 12-page pdf document brief which "shares the latest research on the effects of social and emotional learning SEL) on students and includes strategies for implementing SEL, it explains how SEL works, elaborates on how SEL can be an integrative prevention framework that addresses the Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) core elements, and spells out implications of the research for SS/HS grantees."
Institutional and Program/Practitioner Guidelines For Conflict Management in Higher Education Document (30-page pdf) provides a set of guidelines designed to support the development of comprehensive, educational, integrated and conflict-friendly approaches to managing conflict and disputes in institutions of higher education. The target audience includes key decision makers such as senior administrators, deans and department heads, ombudspersons, anti-harassment officers, housing and security administrators, faculty, student affairs professionals, and various frontline conflict services staff. The consensus document was developed by a national working group including the full spectrum of campus conflict resolvers. Presents a set of nine core principles that are elaborated on reflecting best practices in the higher education ADR field. Includes appendix with resource links.
Celebrating African American/Black leaders in history: Their religions and their legacy 16-page PDF lesson plan in which students, (grades 6-12) are "introduced to several Black and African American leaders and learn about the influence of their religious beliefs on their activism and contributions to society. Students will learn biographical, historical and religious information associated with these leaders, peer-teach their findings, and gain a greater understanding of the overall historical context of their work through creating a class timeline."
Bullying prevention and intervention: TeamMates Mentoring Program Lincoln Public Schools 9-page PDF case study which, "looks at one program in Nebraska, Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) TeamMates, that has decided to address bullying at several schools through mentoring, using volunteers from the community to reach out to bullies and victims alike."
Schools conflict resolution and mediation competition: Manual 27-page pdf manual for SCRAM a, "Year 9 & 10 interactive role play program which encourages the development of mediation skills in secondary school students. The mediation is based on fictitious community based scenario. A team of 6-8 students is given background information on an issue which is causing conflict among 4 participants. The team uses this information to practice their mediation skills." Objectives for the students include: Learning to manage conflict in a productive way, to encourage the development of self esteem through self awareness, to encourage the development of self esteem through self responsibility, to encourage the parties to identify the issues that are in dispute, considering options, working towards an agreement that will meet the needs of all parties and encouraging the development of self esteem. For practice training scenarios go to: http://www.scram.business.ecu.edu.au/scenario.htm To find out more information about SCRAM see their website at: http://www.scram.business.ecu.edu.au/
25 years: Looking back and looking ahead 20-page Powerpoint keynote address given at the Sustaining Conflict Resolution Education: Building Bridges to the Future conference in Fairfax, VA, which reviewed "the CRE field from the vantage point of Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR)."
Youth & conflict: A toolkit for intervention 35-page PDF toolkit which is, "part of a series that explores how development assistance can address key risk factors associated with conflict. One area that is receiving increasing attention is the relationship between young people and violence ... This document: 1) examines key issues related to youth participation in violence; 2) discusses lessons learned in developing programs for at-risk youth; 3) presents a range of program options; 4) includes illustrative monitoring and evaluation tools; and 5) identifies relevant USAID mechanisms and partners. Together, the elements of this toolkit are designed to help raise awareness about the linkages between young people, development aid, and conflict; and to help officers integrate a conflict perspective into their development programming."
Recommended Guidelines for Effective Conflict Resolution Education Programs These Recommended Guidelines for Effective Conflict Resolution Education Programs, released in 2002, are the product of work begun by a committee of the Conflict Resolution Education Network (CREnet) and completed by the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR). The Guidelines outline how elementary and secondary school teachers, administrators, conflict resolution education practitioners, and policy makers can measure progress toward effective conflict resolution education programs. By addressing core goals, components, content and qualities of effective school-based conflict resolution education programs, these Guidelines are intended to also help leaders to make decisions about the resources and strategies needed to support such educational programs in their schools.
Peace education curriculum: Programa pendidiken damai (pdf) 84-page pdf translation of the Indonesian "Kurikulum Pendidikan Damai" which "was the first of its kind to be developed in Indonesia, representing peace education from an Islamic and Acehnese perspective. It promotes a positive, comprehensive peace encompassing peaceful relations with God the Creator, with oneself, with one's fellow humans, and with the environment. The curriculum teaches communal peace in accordance with the positive Islamic approach, namely the absence of war and discrimination and the necessity of justice in society. This manual emphasizes that peace is neither a subjugation to situations nor a passive acceptance of injustice, discrimination, and war, but rather a recognition of these problems and addressing them in a peaceful manner. The curriculum also stresses the importance of process and ends, since peace is both process and results, as reflected in active involvement of students in a system of learning by doing ... The materials and learning activities were authored in such a manner to allow the students dominant roles in the learning process. The students are guided to observe, analyze, and seek for solutions to existing conflicts. We feel that this strategy can better improve the students' knowledge on conflict and peace, build their skills in managing conflicts without violence, and actualize them all in their real life."
Mediation for Young Homeless People: A Good Practice Guide UK government guidelines recommend that mediation should be explored by local authorities as a homelessness-prevention strategy. This 2004 guide aims to be a simple, practical, and easy-to-use tool for those working with young people who are, or may become, homeless.
10 challenges facing campus mediation programs Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 2, Number 2, (Feb 2002), which discusses the role and challenges among college mediation programs based on interviews with university campus mediation programs, and then "extrapolating examples to look at the larger issues facing these programs."
Promoting mediation center quality awareness using guided self-assessment Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 4, Number 1, (Oct. 2003), which introduces "NAFCM's [National Association for Community Mediation] manual ... [which focuses] ... not on the direct provision of services themselves, but rather on the quality of the system through which cases are managed, mediators are trained and evaluated, and mediation centers determine what "quality" means in their communities, by encouraging community mediation centers to examine their goals and values in light of their communities' needs and values and to develop their own approaches to serving these needs effectively, NAFCM's self-assessment approach aims to increase quality without imposing restrictive and inappropriate standards."
Conflict transformation: A standards-based conflict resolution unit for middle school students Web-based "twelve-unit, thirty-six-hour course designed to teach middle school students basic conflict transformation skills for personal, community, national, and international situations. The short stories, current events, class discussions, guided reading activities, and guided writing assignments make this course ideal both for social studies and language arts classes."
Conflict Resolution Day school toolkit 14-page pdf toolkit to aid in the planning of programs to celebrate Conflict Resolution Day on the third Thursday in October. It includes strategy tips, an activities list, publicizing advice and sample proclamations.
Teaching about conflict through citizenship education 18-page pdf article which examined "Through interviews and observations in case study primary and secondary schools in the West Midlands, we therefore explored what was understood by this notion of global citizenship, and under this umbrella, what it was that students and teachers thought should be learned, we found that the most outstanding concern for students was war and conflict – and in the current context, not just historically, after giving some detail of these concerns, this paper attempts to develop a typology of different ways that schools teach about conflict before making more general arguments about the importance of peace education within a citizenship education framework and the role of teachers in tackling both difference and indifference."
Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management Powerpoint presentation about the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution, its mission, goals and programs.
Preventing and countering school-based harassment: A resource guide for k-12 educators, rev. ed. 76-page PDF guide which "is the result of two conferences on racial harassment and numerous training-of-trainer administrator workshops conducted during the past eight years by the Equity Center (formerly the Center for National Origin, Race, and Sex Equity—CNORSE) where the intersection of the issues of racial and sexual harassment have been made clear by educators in the field. Although much national attention has been focused separately on the issues of racial harassment and sexual harassment, the reality is that when one form of harassment occurs, the opportunity exists for all types of harassment. Focusing only on one type of harassment can allow another type of harassment to go unchallenged. This guide addresses the more comprehensive issue of school-based harassment by capturing similarities in cause of, type of, and remedy for all forms of harassment while also addressing the unique and legal aspects of racial and sexual harassment, as appropriate. The hope is that the material will help school staff, families, students, and communities to create a safe and bias-free learning environment."
Researching campus conflict management culture(s): A role for ombuds? Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 3, Number 1, (Oct 2002), whose "purpose in this article is to briefly explore a somewhat expanded role set for the ombuds, one that includes the ombuds as researcher ... I suggest here that the ombuds is in a unique position to serve as a guide or "primary informant" ... to researchers interested in campus organizational culture and subculture, especially as it relates to conflict-related behaviors and beliefs." Includes bibliography.