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.

CRE Conference Presentations
Transitioning CRE into a Classroom Management Course
- Presented by: Lynnette Mawhinney, Lincoln University
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
The Illinois Story
- Presented by: Mary Utne O'Brien-CASEL, Chicago, USA
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Legislative Support for Character Education on the State Level
- Presented by: Sharon Burton-US Department of Education, Washington, DC, USA
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Developing Courses in Peace and Conflict Studies
- Presented by: Vincent D’Agostino and Patricia Golesic, Sault College
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Connected and Respected: Lessons from Resolving Conflict Creatively
- Presented by: Larry Dieringer
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click Here
Harmony Island – Multimedia Enhanced CR Curriculum
- Presented by: Richard Goldsworthy
- View Presentation and Abstract: Click 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Report to the Nation on Youth Courts and Teen Courts | This national report (43-pages in MS Word format) documents significant highlights and events over a fifteen (15) year period of unprecedented and historic growth of this groundbreaking American juvenile justice prevention and intervention program that utilizes volunteer youth to help sentence their peers. The report begins in 1993, when fewer than seventy-five (75) local youth and teen courts existed in just about a dozen states. The report concludes fifteen (15) years later in 2008, when more than a record 1,000 local communities in 48 states and the District of Columbia now operate these local juvenile justice programs. Historic numbers of youth and adults are now involved, as more than 111,868 juvenile cases were referred to local youth and teen courts and more than 133,832 volunteers to include both youth and adults who volunteered to help with the disposition and sentencing of these juvenile cases. | |
| All equal in diversity: International campaign mobilizing schools against racism, discrimination... | 13-page PDF booklet which, "is part of the "All Equal in Diversity†International Campaign Kit comprising a poster and stickers promoting the campaign, an Application Form, a Report Form and Evaluation Questionnaire ... Some 100 schools in Africa, the Americas/Caribbean and Europe participate in the TST [Transatlantic Slave Trade] Education project. Their opinions and commitment have formed the basis of the “All Equal in Diversity†International Campaign. By deepening their understanding of the past, these schools work towards a better understanding of the present so as to build a brighter future based on mutual respect and unity in diversity, thus contributing substantially to the quality of education in the twenty-first century." | |
| New national conflict resolution information initiative launched | Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 1, Number 1, (Jan/Feb 2000), introducing the Conflict Resolution Information Project (CRInfo), a cooperative effort to strengthen the conflict field's information infrastructure. | |
| Application of the transactional view, An: A unique role for ombudsmen in campus protest | Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 3, Number 3, (May 2003), which examines the role of the Observer Program at University of Colorado, created by the Ombudsman office, in student protests. | |
| National evaluation of the restorative justice in schools programme | 99-page pdf document which provides the findings of national (England and Wales), "projects [which] spanned a range of different approaches to introducing restorative practices into schools, including restorative justice conferences ... the contract to evaluate these initiatives was awarded to Partners in Evaluation, a specialist agency with a multi-ethnic team of researchers and a national reputation for conducting evaluations in the fields of health, education, social exclusion and regeneration." Includes a literature review, sample pupil and school staff surveys and post-conference interview schedule for perpetrators and aggrieved. | |
| Challenges of sexual harassment mediation on campus | Pdf article reprinted from Aug-Sept 1997 issue (Vol. 79 pp. 19-21) of The Fourth R, the Newsletter of the National Association for Mediation in Education examines the use of mediation in college and university sexual harrassment complaints. | |
| 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." | |
| Inter-agency P.E.P.: Skills for constructive living: Analytical review of selected peace education | 271-page pdf document which "is one of the components of the Inter-Agency Peace Education Programme, the programme is designed for education managers of ministries dealing with both formal and non-formal education and for agencies which implement education activities on behalf of the government ... this document presents a compilation of resource materials in peace education ... the purpose is to give an overview of materials used by practitioners and provide references for those searching materials." | |
| Summary - The Positive impact of social & emotional learning kindergarten to eighth grade students | 12-page PDF report which, "summarizes results from three large-scale reviews of research on the impact of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs on elementary and middle-school students — that is, programs that seek to promote various aocial and emotional skills. Collectively the three reviews included 317 studies and involved 324,303 children. SEL programs yielded multiple benefits in each review and were effective in both school and after-school settings and for students with and without behavioral and emotional problems. They were also effective across the K-8 grade range and for racially and ethnically diverse students from urban, rural, and suburban settings. SEL programs improved students’ social-emotional skills, attitudes about self and others, connection to school, positive social behavior, and academic performance; they also reduced students’ conduct problems and emotional distress. Comparing results from these reviews to findings obtained in reviews of interventions by other research teams suggests that SEL programs are among the most successful youth-development programs offered to school-age youth. Furthermore, school staff (e.g., teachers, student support staff) carried out SEL programs effectively, indicating that they can be incorporated into routine educational practice. In addition, SEL programming improved students’ academic performance by 11 to 17 percentile points across the three reviews, indicating that they offer students a practical educational benefit. Given these positive findings, we recommend that federal, state, and local policies and practices encourage the broad implementation of well-designed, evidence-based SEL programs during and after school." | |
| Place to work things out, A | Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 2, Number 4, (July 2002), which presents the idea of personal narrative model of mediation and the work at Oberlin College using this model. | |
| VOV activities: Understanding the value of dialog, grades 7-12 | 13-page PDF document with a number of activities to aid secondary students in improving communication skills. | |
| Restorative justice in the classroom: Lesson 5 the justice circle part 3 | 8-page pdf lesson which provides "students with an opportunity to learn and practice the facilitation of Justice Circles. After a review of the purpose and process, students role-play scenarios, covering all roles including the role of facilitator. After their role-play experience, students discuss whether the circle would be effective in both healing the victim and helping the offender learn a better way to behave, and explore what could have been done differently to more effectively meet those objectives." | |
| Tolerance Stories Booklet | 55-page collection of stories, "to teach tolerance because stories are the first and most enduring literary form and they have the power to shape people’s understanding of the world and to change their lives ... it is our hope that this resource booklet will facilitate educators in elementary and secondary schools to introduce discussions of tolerance by supplying a wide array of narratives that illustrate principles of tolerance, and by so doing, enable their students to be leaders of tolerance in their homes, neighborhoods, and communities." | |
| NCIP resource guide: "Developing caring citizens and skilled problem solvers" | Pdf document presented as a guide for integrating the principles and practices of conflict resolution into the middle school classroom culture and curriculum. Topics addressed include: Educational Theories; Core Components of an Integrated Program; Integrating Four Related Fields; Comprehensive Conflict Resolution Curriculum Outline; Creating a Caring Classroom Climate; Benchmark Abilities of a Peaceable Classroom; Outline for a Successful Integrated Conflict Resolution Program; Getting Started Questionnaire; Implementation Timeline; and Curriculum Mapping | |
| 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. | |
| SACSC Toward a safe and caring secondary curriculum | Web site developed by the Society for Safe and Caring Schools and Communities in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada whose mission "is to encourage home, school and community practices that teach, model and reinforce socially responsible and respectful behaviors, so that living and learning can take place in a safe, caring and inclusive environment. Achieving this mission requires the involvement not only of parents, teachers, and children, but of all the important adults in children's lives." The "purpose of the Society for Safe and Caring Schools and Communities Toward a Safe and Caring Curriculum Secondary Unit and Lesson Plans web-based resource is to provide units, lesson plans and other resources that integrate safe and caring knowledge, skills and attitudes into all subject areas in the Alberta secondary curriculum... this resource was developed by Alberta reachers in whose classrooms the accompanying lessons have been field tested." The lessons address 6 topics: Living Respectfully; Developing Self-Esteem; Respecting Diversity and Preventing Prejudice; Managing Anger; Dealing with Bullying; and Resolving Conflicts Peacefully for junior and senior high school students. | |
| Learning to live together: Building skills, values and attitudes for the 21st Century | 167-page pdf study which, "represents an attempt to interpret the aim of ‘learning to live together’ as a synthesis of many related goals, such as education for peace, human rights, citizenship and health-preserving behaviours. It focuses specifically on the skills, values, attitudes and concepts needed for learning to live together, rather than on ‘knowledge’ objectives. The aim of the study is to discover ‘what works’ in terms of helping students learn to become politely assertive rather than violent, to understand conflict and its prevention, to become mediators, to respect human rights, to become active and responsible members of their communities—as local, national and global citizens, to have balanced relationships with others and neither to coerce others nor be coerced, especially into risky health behaviours ... The recommendation emerging from the study for national policy-makers and curriculum specialists is that a core national team of educators committed to the goals of peace-building, human rights, active citizenship and preventive health should be created, in order to put together and pilot test materials and methodologies related to these goals." | |
| Civil Discourse in the Classrooom | This 23-page pdf curriculum "will introduce educators to basic tools for teaching civil discourse. It is not subject-specific; on the contrary, the tools of argumentation and discussion lend themselves to any subject in any classroom. Although it is primarily designed for young adolescents, the curriculum can be adapted for students of any age." | |
| Leadership development: Conflict management for college student leaders | Pdf article from Conflict Management in Higher Education Report, Volume 3, Number 1, (Oct 2002), which "examines the effectiveness of conflict management skills intervention training on the conflict management style of college student organizational presidents, key leaders within the larger campus community." Includes bibliography. | |
| Building bridges in conflict areas: Educational report | 23-page PDF report in which, "the reader is invited for an overview of the methods, theories and tools that were offered to the participants. It shows how the process of theoretical presentation becomes "alive" when participants interact with trainers and share their opinions through brainstorming or reflecting on the concepts that were discussed for a better understanding of conflict resolution ... Theoretical inputs, practical exercises, thematic energizers and interactive activities created suitable atmosphere to raise awareness among participants, deepen their knowledge and raise their skills and abilities in pro-active interventions in youth field of conflict zones. Mainly during the two last days of the training course, participants were involved in partnership building activities." |